Week 2: 12/20/10 - 12/26/10 (16 weeks remain)
I went back home for winter break this week, and so between running around to various appointments that I've been putting off (doctor, dentist, etc.) and trying to get back in touch with friends in nearby cities who I only see once or twice a year (when we're all back in town), I actually did not get quite as many miles in this week as I would have ideally liked.
Monday: Off day. Escaped Cambridge on an 11:00 IN THE AM! Frontier Airlines flight just before we got the first snow of the season (over a foot!). Unbeknownst to me at the time, Frontier had decided to route me through Milwaukee, of all places, followed by another transfer in Denver. Finally made it back to sunny Los Angeles around 8:30, only to discover that I had arrived in the middle of the second-worst rainstorm in the previous decade. Awesome.
Tuesday: Didn't run today (rained out) - spent all day running around town to various appointments.
Wednesday: Still didn't run today (also rained out). Went to Long Beach with Matt for Marissa's Cedar House holiday party; that was pretty slick.
Thursday: Also didn't run (rained out - seriously, AGAIN!?).
Friday: 8 miles, general aerobic. Finally got out and ran today. Decided to go for a run up into the hills above PV, since we don't really have many hills in Cambridge. Run up Calle Mayor to PV Blvd, turned left to run up the bridle trail, and took Via Valmonte down from the hills to Hawthorne, and then Newton back to Calle Mayor.
Friday: 5 miles. Ran the Sepulveda to Ocean loop. Nice day today, not much to report.
Saturday: 16 miles (long run). Ran down Calle Mayor to PV Blvd to Malaga Cove, and then hopped on the fire trail to head up to the cliffs. Apparently the rain has been good to the local vegetation; the fire trail is completely covered in green grass, which I've never actually seen before, but which was really nice. Continued on PV Blvd until Marguerite Drive (where the PV running trail dead-ends). Took a 3 mile detour on the way back to run the PV high school cross country course. Had prime rib for Christmas dinner; pretty good day all around.
Sunday: Didn't run - at Bill and Justina's wedding(!).
Total weekly mileage: 29
So it looks like this week I went more for quality than quantity. I should be able to get a lot more mileage in next week.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Out of Retirement
Week 1: 12/13/10 - 12/19/10 (17 weeks remain)
So this week was my first week back to formal marathon training. After finishing the Austin Marathon last February, I took some time off to frantically finish up writing and submitting my master's report so I could actually graduate on time, and then moved all my shit back to CA and left the country for three weeks. Needless to say, not much running happened over that period of time. But after getting back to CA and then moving my shit ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE GODDAMN COUNTRY AGAIN, I've been running pretty regularly since then in anticipation of starting up training for Boston this week.
Monday: Off day.
Tuesday: 8 miles w/ appx. 4 mile tempo
Nominally, the schedule called for a 9-mile day today with a 4 mile tempo run. Unfortunately, I was unprepared for how cold it was going to be today.
Let me preface this by saying that I've actually gotten used to running in the cold down to 30 degrees or so; a couple of weeks ago, I went out and bought myself some of those black running tights and one of those day-glo green jackets to wear as a shell over my other stuff for warmth, and it's been working pretty well. Unfortunately, we were hit with a cold snap earlier this week, and by the time I got around to going out for my run tonight (after getting out of lab at 5:30, about an hour after it's been getting dark around here) the temperature had dropped to around 18 degrees with a flesh-ripping, bone chilling wind.
The nominal plan was to run down Mass Ave to the Charles, head east along the north bank, cross over the Longfellow Bridge to Cambridge Street, loop around Boston Common, take Commonwealth Ave back to Mass Ave, get back on the Charles River trail by the Mass Ave bridge on the South Bank, (about 4 miles total), and then do the 4 mile tempo run as a loop around the Charles starting at the Mass Ave Bridge, crossing over the second bridge to the west, and then returning on the opposite bank, and then tacking on an extra mile for a cooldown (ha!). Unfortunately, by the time I reached the Mass Ave bridge on the south bank, I had discovered that my face had gone completely numb, my woolen gloves were completely worthless against the wind, and my hands were in excruciating pain to the point that I thought I might seriously be in danger of frostbite. So I decided to cut the run short by cutting out the cooldown at the end and letting my 4 mile (appx.) tempo run consist of getting my ass back to SidPac before my fucking hands fell off. The tempo run itself actually went pretty well given how long it's been since I've done one (pain and fear being powerful motivators); the rather painful process of thawing out my frozen, useless, claw-like fingers after getting back home, not so much.
Wednesday: 5 miles (recovery day). Pussed out and tried my hand (ha! get it :-D ?) at the treadmill today. I swore I would never use one of these things, but to be honest, I didn't think I had the psychological resources necessary to force myself outside in the pitch-black 20-degree temperatures a second time, recalling the horror that had been yesterday's workout. The treadmill turned out to be everything I had always thought it could be: monotonous and boring. 'Nuff said.
Thursday: 10 miles, general aerobic. Today turned out to be a lovely day (bright, sunny, yeah!), and I decided to take advantage of today's heatwave (ZOMG 34 degrees!!!11one!!) by putting in a 10 mile general aerobic run around Fresh Pond. It was actually really nice; parts of the Charles and Fresh Pond are starting to ice over - it's really quite scenic (also, having upgraded my gloves since Tuesday probably didn't hurt either).
Friday: Another 5 on the treadmill. Again, nothing too exciting here.
Saturday: Medium-long run, 14 miles. This was the first semi-long run for this training cycle. I think it went pretty well; I maintained a decent pace throughout, and didn't go into ZOMFG-I'M-30-SECONDS-FROM-DEATH glycogen depletion like I did for the first few longer runs I did when training for Austin, so I think things are looking up. Also, running around Boston Common and along the Charles at this time of year is like running through a Christmas card :-D.
Sunday: Off day (prepping for travel back to T-town).
Total weekly mileage: 42 (not especially high, but it's only the first week back).
So this week was my first week back to formal marathon training. After finishing the Austin Marathon last February, I took some time off to frantically finish up writing and submitting my master's report so I could actually graduate on time, and then moved all my shit back to CA and left the country for three weeks. Needless to say, not much running happened over that period of time. But after getting back to CA and then moving my shit ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE GODDAMN COUNTRY AGAIN, I've been running pretty regularly since then in anticipation of starting up training for Boston this week.
Monday: Off day.
Tuesday: 8 miles w/ appx. 4 mile tempo
Nominally, the schedule called for a 9-mile day today with a 4 mile tempo run. Unfortunately, I was unprepared for how cold it was going to be today.
Let me preface this by saying that I've actually gotten used to running in the cold down to 30 degrees or so; a couple of weeks ago, I went out and bought myself some of those black running tights and one of those day-glo green jackets to wear as a shell over my other stuff for warmth, and it's been working pretty well. Unfortunately, we were hit with a cold snap earlier this week, and by the time I got around to going out for my run tonight (after getting out of lab at 5:30, about an hour after it's been getting dark around here) the temperature had dropped to around 18 degrees with a flesh-ripping, bone chilling wind.
The nominal plan was to run down Mass Ave to the Charles, head east along the north bank, cross over the Longfellow Bridge to Cambridge Street, loop around Boston Common, take Commonwealth Ave back to Mass Ave, get back on the Charles River trail by the Mass Ave bridge on the South Bank, (about 4 miles total), and then do the 4 mile tempo run as a loop around the Charles starting at the Mass Ave Bridge, crossing over the second bridge to the west, and then returning on the opposite bank, and then tacking on an extra mile for a cooldown (ha!). Unfortunately, by the time I reached the Mass Ave bridge on the south bank, I had discovered that my face had gone completely numb, my woolen gloves were completely worthless against the wind, and my hands were in excruciating pain to the point that I thought I might seriously be in danger of frostbite. So I decided to cut the run short by cutting out the cooldown at the end and letting my 4 mile (appx.) tempo run consist of getting my ass back to SidPac before my fucking hands fell off. The tempo run itself actually went pretty well given how long it's been since I've done one (pain and fear being powerful motivators); the rather painful process of thawing out my frozen, useless, claw-like fingers after getting back home, not so much.
Wednesday: 5 miles (recovery day). Pussed out and tried my hand (ha! get it :-D ?) at the treadmill today. I swore I would never use one of these things, but to be honest, I didn't think I had the psychological resources necessary to force myself outside in the pitch-black 20-degree temperatures a second time, recalling the horror that had been yesterday's workout. The treadmill turned out to be everything I had always thought it could be: monotonous and boring. 'Nuff said.
Thursday: 10 miles, general aerobic. Today turned out to be a lovely day (bright, sunny, yeah!), and I decided to take advantage of today's heatwave (ZOMG 34 degrees!!!11one!!) by putting in a 10 mile general aerobic run around Fresh Pond. It was actually really nice; parts of the Charles and Fresh Pond are starting to ice over - it's really quite scenic (also, having upgraded my gloves since Tuesday probably didn't hurt either).
Friday: Another 5 on the treadmill. Again, nothing too exciting here.
Saturday: Medium-long run, 14 miles. This was the first semi-long run for this training cycle. I think it went pretty well; I maintained a decent pace throughout, and didn't go into ZOMFG-I'M-30-SECONDS-FROM-DEATH glycogen depletion like I did for the first few longer runs I did when training for Austin, so I think things are looking up. Also, running around Boston Common and along the Charles at this time of year is like running through a Christmas card :-D.
Sunday: Off day (prepping for travel back to T-town).
Total weekly mileage: 42 (not especially high, but it's only the first week back).
ROUND 3
Hey all,
So after having succeeded in qualifying for the Boston Marathon last year at the Austin Marathon (hey! that rhymes!), several important things happened:
So after having succeeded in qualifying for the Boston Marathon last year at the Austin Marathon (hey! that rhymes!), several important things happened:
- I graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in May with a master's in mathematics (with a focus in differential geometry, functional analysis, and dynamical systems, particularly geometric mechanics).
- I spent three weeks abroad in China (AWESOME :-D!)
- I moved to Cambridge, MA to start a Ph.D. in CS at MIT (<-- acronyms much?)
- I succeeded in registering for the 2011 Boston Marathon!
- And finally, as of 12/13/10, we passed the 18-week countdown mark to the Boston Marathon (4/18/11), which can only mean one thing: BACK TO WORK, SON!
Sunday, February 14, 2010
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
I need the Abraham Lincoln and an S-3B Viking, stat!
Actually, today's race went about as well as I could have hoped. Let me break this down:
Pre-race: The race went off at 7:00 IN THE AM(!), and between the 5k, half-marathon, and full marathon, there were 14,000+ runners congregating downtown. This, together with all of the downtown street closures (the start and finish lines were on Congress Street, right in front of the state capital) meant that finding a parking spot was going to be a real bitch, so much so, in fact, that the race organizers recommended that runners get to the downtown area not later than 5:30 (IN THE AM(!)). So my day started at 4:50 IN THE AM(!). Breakfast consisted of two slices of toast with honey and a cup of tea. (One of my high school teammates who was really damn good swore by this stuff, taken a few hours before the race, and it's always worked well for me in the past).
I was able to make it downtown by 5:30, and actually found free street parking (the city doesn't enforce the meters on Sunday) a few blocks from the start line, so that was pretty solid. But my success in finding parking now meant that I had about an hour to kill before I had to start warming up for the race, and it was still fairly cold out (38 degrees). I had noticed that the marathon had a clothing drop right by the start line, so I had come dressed in some thick warmup pants, a thick sweatshirt, and some gloves and a beanie, and the plan was to keep these on for as long as possible, and they seemed to do a pretty good job of keeping me warm. So I basically curled up in the corner of some storefront like a bum for an hour or so. Started warming up at around 6:25, took some Gu around 6:45, and had dumped off the clothes (minus the gloves and beanie) and made it to the start line by 6:50 to try to meet up with the 3:00 pace group.
Gettin' started (race start to around mile 5): Started off the race pretty easy with the 3:00 pace group. My overall plan for the race was to make sure not to go out too quickly (I have a history of going out too fast and blowing up in the later stages of the race), run relaxed through the hills in the middle third of the course, and reach mile 18 with most of my physical and emotional reserves intact. The 3:00 group was doing a good job of hitting their splits, but by mile 4, I was starting to get antsy; 6:52 just didn't seem that fast, and I was feeling pretty good. On the other hand, the 3:00 pace group was the fastest pace group out on the course, and we were out at the front of the race; aside from the 3:00 group, the runners were actually somewhat sparse (say 5 to 10 meter gaps or so between single runners or pairs of runners). Leaving the pace group would mean that I'd be on my own in terms of pacing, and running at an even/reasonable pace is decidedly not my forte.
My original plan had called for between 6:30 and 6:52 splits (2:50 to 3:00 pace), and I had made a game-time decision at the start line to start off the race conservatively by locking in with the pace group, since my ultimate goal was just to hit a Boston qualifying time. However, after thinking it over for a bit, I decided to go ahead and break away, reasoning that I wasn't going to be going all that much faster, and if things really went south, I could always lock in again with the 3:00 pace group if/when they caught up to me, and let the group drag my carcass all the way to the line.
Balls deep (mile 5 to around mile 8): So after having made the decision to break off from the pace group, I started letting myself get a little faster, judging my speed primarily on the basis of how I was feeling. However, I kept hearing a little voice saying "Respica te, hominem te memento" in the back of my mind, remembering what had happened at the last marathon: 18 miles of 6:30 splits, followed by 8.2 miles of extremely painful and successively slower splits. The reason that glycogen depletion is such a bitch is that there's literally no warning; you're fine one minute, and then the next thing you know, you've completely exhausted your glycogen stores, hit the wall, and have the privilege of looking forward to a long, slow, agonizing death march to the finish.
So although I had allowed myself to speed up a bit, I was very aware of the need to keep close check on my splits until I had locked in to a new (reasonable) pace. This turned out to be a good idea, as I came through mile 6 with a 6:10 split. By mile 7 or 8, I had locked in to a good pace (around 6:30) and my primary concern turned to just staying relaxed through the upcoming hill section.
It's a long way to the top (mile 8 to mile 18): I knew this was going to be the crucial section in the race: if I didn't stay in control through the hills and come out at mile 18 still feeling good, there was a good chance I was going to have a repeat of San Diego. Fortunately, I had two things going for me: I had intentionally done a lot of hill workouts up in the Palos Verdes hills when I was back home over the break, and Matt and I had run a parts of this section of the course two weeks previously, so I had some idea of what to expect. The goal for this section of the race was basically just to lock in, space out, and stay relaxed over the next 10 miles or so. By now, the pack had started to thin out somewhat; most of the runners were going solo, and it seemed like the average gap now was somewhere between 10 and 20 meters. So not having anyone to really run with, I just sort of focused on settling in to what I thought was a comfortable pace that was a little bit slower than what I thought that I could run. I was actually quite concerned about burning through an excessive amount of glycogen on this section, and I reasoned that in the event I felt good later on in the race, I could push the downhill sections after mile 18 as we started to get closer to the finish.
However, even though I was being very careful to keep the pace slightly below what I thought was optimal, I still found myself gradually moving up the column. Beginning around mile 13, a lot of guys started coming back to me who were breathing pretty heavily, which sucks; if you're working that hard at mile 13 and have 5 more miles of rolling hills, you're in a lot of trouble.
I was starting to feel the first creeping effects of fatigue myself around mile 13, so I took another packet of Gu. That stuff seems to be surprisingly effective at reviving you rather quickly. I don't mean by providing additional carbohydrate/electrolyte (it does, but it requires some time to be absorbed into your bloodstream); rather, I'm referring to the effectiveness it seems to have at reviving your will almost immediately. Julia mentioned to me recently that she thought that it was due to just having something very sweet in your mouth, and that the effect would likely be the same if you had simply used a piece of candy. In any case, this shit is pretty awesome, so I'm not going to ask too many questions :-).
In terms of race highlights, that was pretty much it for this section of the race - I kept pace, kept it together on the hills, and kept moving up the column.
He could go all the way! (mile 18 - mile 22): I came out of the hill section at mile 18 feeling somewhat fatigued, but was still running relaxed, and went into the start of the downhill section with the goal of using it to muster my remaining energy to get through the last 8 miles. Psychologically, this is where the race really begins - you've been out on the course for about two hours, you're going to start to feel tired in the near future, and all you really want to do is get to the damn finish line. The plan was to stay relaxed, be patient (something that I'm not ordinarily very good at), and let some of the upcoming long downhill sections pull me along.
One thing I had going for me was that I knew that my pacing had stayed pretty consistently around 6:30 since mile 7, which meant that I had some spare time in the bank as far as qualification time went, so all I really had to do from here on out was just keep it together over the last 8 miles and make it to the finish.
On the other hand, this part of the course contained some long, straight sections through residential neighborhoods with which I was unfamiliar - not really the most exciting/interesting terrain. Also, the pack had thinned out quite a bit by now (maybe one or two runners every 50 to 100 meters), and I realized that this was likely going to be a completely solo effort from here to the finish. It seemed like the psychological and physical stress was starting to take its toll on some of the other runners as well; I saw a couple of people sitting on the side of the course who had dropped out of the race on this section of the course.
I think some of the psychological strain was getting to me, too, because I had felt pretty good around mile 18, but by the time I got to mile 21, I was not feeling very happy; I would say that this was actually the psychological low point of my race. I had kept one packet of Gu in reserve in the expectation that I might be feeling pretty beat up around this point in the race. Just after mile 21, I decided that now was the time to use the Gu to jolt me back to my senses before I lost control of my pacing.
So that was it as far as tricks up my sleeve; I'd be basically on my own over the last four miles.
Final approach (mile 22 - mile 24): At mile 22, we turned onto 48th Street and started running through an area of Austin known as Hyde Park. A lot of the math grad students live in this area; in particular, Karin lives there, and I'd been doing a fair amount of running with her around there over the last few weeks leading up to race day, so I was pretty familiar with the layout.
The advantages of this were twofold: I was on familiar terrain, which was a real boost for morale, and I knew basically all of the areas between there and the finish line, so I could better gauge my distance from the finish and the appropriate level of effort. So right around the time we hit the 22-mile mark, I took stock of how I was feeling, given the terrain I knew to be between myself and finish. And I came to a conclusion: I got this.
Right around the time I had passed the 22-mile mark, someone had shouted at me from the side of the course that I was in 25th place (note: I have no idea if this is an accurate count or not - I report, you decide), and I decided to go for broke. I knew that most of the other runners were getting pretty tired out; there was one guy about 100 meters in front of me who'd been keeping pace with me for about 1/2 mile or so, who I actually saw just completely crack right in front of the water station just before mile 23; the dude literally just stopped running and wandered over to the table. By now, I was feeling pretty beat up myself, but I knew that we were due for a long, straight downhill almost all the way to the finish, and I knew that I was close enough that there was no way I was not going to finish, and finish under 3:00, so I readied myself to hit the downhill, hard.
Finish (mile 24 - finish): The 24 mile marked coincided with a left-hand turn that took us out of the Hyde Park area and onto Duval Street; from here, it was a long, straight downhill down Duvall, onto San Jacinto, through the middle of the UT Campus, and straight to the capital grounds. By now, I was getting pretty excited - I started picking up the pace and picking off the dead meat. All the way down Duval, San Jacinto, and through the University campus, I was eating up distance and passing guys.
At around the 25 3/4 mark, we came out of the south side of UT campus at San Jacinto and MLK, did a sharp dog-leg over to Congress, and turned south onto Congress Street - and got our first look at the Capital since the start of our race. I can't tell you how happy I was to see the statehouse.
By now we had half a mile to the finish line, and a few other guys from farther back in the column were also trying to pick off one or two more guys before they hit the finish. One dude in a red shirt pulled up on me as we were running around the east side of the capital complex. By the time we hit the south side, he'd put about a 20 meter gap on me, and we had about a quater mile of downhill to the finish at Congress and 10.
About 200 meters out we hit the finish chute; he was still within about 20 meters of me, and looked to be running about the same pace I was, so I thought to myself: I was a sprinter before I was a long distance runner - I bet this guy doesn't have my speed. So I waited until we were about 75-100 meters from the line, and put in a massive burst of speed. I came over the guy's left shoulder about 20 meters off the line, and was probably across the line before he even had time to figure out what had happened (or at least, that's what I'd been going for). In any case, I blew right by him about 20 meters out and held the sprint across the line - I actually think that was one of best finishes :-).
Race time: 2:52:?? (unofficial) <-- This was total elapsed time from when the gun went off to when I cross the line. Official (chip times) will probably be out in the next couple of days. See y'all in Boston next year :-). UPDATE: I actually found a video of the two of us finishing online.
Lessons learned (Protips):
Actually, today's race went about as well as I could have hoped. Let me break this down:
Pre-race: The race went off at 7:00 IN THE AM(!), and between the 5k, half-marathon, and full marathon, there were 14,000+ runners congregating downtown. This, together with all of the downtown street closures (the start and finish lines were on Congress Street, right in front of the state capital) meant that finding a parking spot was going to be a real bitch, so much so, in fact, that the race organizers recommended that runners get to the downtown area not later than 5:30 (IN THE AM(!)). So my day started at 4:50 IN THE AM(!). Breakfast consisted of two slices of toast with honey and a cup of tea. (One of my high school teammates who was really damn good swore by this stuff, taken a few hours before the race, and it's always worked well for me in the past).
I was able to make it downtown by 5:30, and actually found free street parking (the city doesn't enforce the meters on Sunday) a few blocks from the start line, so that was pretty solid. But my success in finding parking now meant that I had about an hour to kill before I had to start warming up for the race, and it was still fairly cold out (38 degrees). I had noticed that the marathon had a clothing drop right by the start line, so I had come dressed in some thick warmup pants, a thick sweatshirt, and some gloves and a beanie, and the plan was to keep these on for as long as possible, and they seemed to do a pretty good job of keeping me warm. So I basically curled up in the corner of some storefront like a bum for an hour or so. Started warming up at around 6:25, took some Gu around 6:45, and had dumped off the clothes (minus the gloves and beanie) and made it to the start line by 6:50 to try to meet up with the 3:00 pace group.
Gettin' started (race start to around mile 5): Started off the race pretty easy with the 3:00 pace group. My overall plan for the race was to make sure not to go out too quickly (I have a history of going out too fast and blowing up in the later stages of the race), run relaxed through the hills in the middle third of the course, and reach mile 18 with most of my physical and emotional reserves intact. The 3:00 group was doing a good job of hitting their splits, but by mile 4, I was starting to get antsy; 6:52 just didn't seem that fast, and I was feeling pretty good. On the other hand, the 3:00 pace group was the fastest pace group out on the course, and we were out at the front of the race; aside from the 3:00 group, the runners were actually somewhat sparse (say 5 to 10 meter gaps or so between single runners or pairs of runners). Leaving the pace group would mean that I'd be on my own in terms of pacing, and running at an even/reasonable pace is decidedly not my forte.
My original plan had called for between 6:30 and 6:52 splits (2:50 to 3:00 pace), and I had made a game-time decision at the start line to start off the race conservatively by locking in with the pace group, since my ultimate goal was just to hit a Boston qualifying time. However, after thinking it over for a bit, I decided to go ahead and break away, reasoning that I wasn't going to be going all that much faster, and if things really went south, I could always lock in again with the 3:00 pace group if/when they caught up to me, and let the group drag my carcass all the way to the line.
Balls deep (mile 5 to around mile 8): So after having made the decision to break off from the pace group, I started letting myself get a little faster, judging my speed primarily on the basis of how I was feeling. However, I kept hearing a little voice saying "Respica te, hominem te memento" in the back of my mind, remembering what had happened at the last marathon: 18 miles of 6:30 splits, followed by 8.2 miles of extremely painful and successively slower splits. The reason that glycogen depletion is such a bitch is that there's literally no warning; you're fine one minute, and then the next thing you know, you've completely exhausted your glycogen stores, hit the wall, and have the privilege of looking forward to a long, slow, agonizing death march to the finish.
So although I had allowed myself to speed up a bit, I was very aware of the need to keep close check on my splits until I had locked in to a new (reasonable) pace. This turned out to be a good idea, as I came through mile 6 with a 6:10 split. By mile 7 or 8, I had locked in to a good pace (around 6:30) and my primary concern turned to just staying relaxed through the upcoming hill section.
It's a long way to the top (mile 8 to mile 18): I knew this was going to be the crucial section in the race: if I didn't stay in control through the hills and come out at mile 18 still feeling good, there was a good chance I was going to have a repeat of San Diego. Fortunately, I had two things going for me: I had intentionally done a lot of hill workouts up in the Palos Verdes hills when I was back home over the break, and Matt and I had run a parts of this section of the course two weeks previously, so I had some idea of what to expect. The goal for this section of the race was basically just to lock in, space out, and stay relaxed over the next 10 miles or so. By now, the pack had started to thin out somewhat; most of the runners were going solo, and it seemed like the average gap now was somewhere between 10 and 20 meters. So not having anyone to really run with, I just sort of focused on settling in to what I thought was a comfortable pace that was a little bit slower than what I thought that I could run. I was actually quite concerned about burning through an excessive amount of glycogen on this section, and I reasoned that in the event I felt good later on in the race, I could push the downhill sections after mile 18 as we started to get closer to the finish.
However, even though I was being very careful to keep the pace slightly below what I thought was optimal, I still found myself gradually moving up the column. Beginning around mile 13, a lot of guys started coming back to me who were breathing pretty heavily, which sucks; if you're working that hard at mile 13 and have 5 more miles of rolling hills, you're in a lot of trouble.
I was starting to feel the first creeping effects of fatigue myself around mile 13, so I took another packet of Gu. That stuff seems to be surprisingly effective at reviving you rather quickly. I don't mean by providing additional carbohydrate/electrolyte (it does, but it requires some time to be absorbed into your bloodstream); rather, I'm referring to the effectiveness it seems to have at reviving your will almost immediately. Julia mentioned to me recently that she thought that it was due to just having something very sweet in your mouth, and that the effect would likely be the same if you had simply used a piece of candy. In any case, this shit is pretty awesome, so I'm not going to ask too many questions :-).
In terms of race highlights, that was pretty much it for this section of the race - I kept pace, kept it together on the hills, and kept moving up the column.
He could go all the way! (mile 18 - mile 22): I came out of the hill section at mile 18 feeling somewhat fatigued, but was still running relaxed, and went into the start of the downhill section with the goal of using it to muster my remaining energy to get through the last 8 miles. Psychologically, this is where the race really begins - you've been out on the course for about two hours, you're going to start to feel tired in the near future, and all you really want to do is get to the damn finish line. The plan was to stay relaxed, be patient (something that I'm not ordinarily very good at), and let some of the upcoming long downhill sections pull me along.
One thing I had going for me was that I knew that my pacing had stayed pretty consistently around 6:30 since mile 7, which meant that I had some spare time in the bank as far as qualification time went, so all I really had to do from here on out was just keep it together over the last 8 miles and make it to the finish.
On the other hand, this part of the course contained some long, straight sections through residential neighborhoods with which I was unfamiliar - not really the most exciting/interesting terrain. Also, the pack had thinned out quite a bit by now (maybe one or two runners every 50 to 100 meters), and I realized that this was likely going to be a completely solo effort from here to the finish. It seemed like the psychological and physical stress was starting to take its toll on some of the other runners as well; I saw a couple of people sitting on the side of the course who had dropped out of the race on this section of the course.
I think some of the psychological strain was getting to me, too, because I had felt pretty good around mile 18, but by the time I got to mile 21, I was not feeling very happy; I would say that this was actually the psychological low point of my race. I had kept one packet of Gu in reserve in the expectation that I might be feeling pretty beat up around this point in the race. Just after mile 21, I decided that now was the time to use the Gu to jolt me back to my senses before I lost control of my pacing.
So that was it as far as tricks up my sleeve; I'd be basically on my own over the last four miles.
Final approach (mile 22 - mile 24): At mile 22, we turned onto 48th Street and started running through an area of Austin known as Hyde Park. A lot of the math grad students live in this area; in particular, Karin lives there, and I'd been doing a fair amount of running with her around there over the last few weeks leading up to race day, so I was pretty familiar with the layout.
The advantages of this were twofold: I was on familiar terrain, which was a real boost for morale, and I knew basically all of the areas between there and the finish line, so I could better gauge my distance from the finish and the appropriate level of effort. So right around the time we hit the 22-mile mark, I took stock of how I was feeling, given the terrain I knew to be between myself and finish. And I came to a conclusion: I got this.
Right around the time I had passed the 22-mile mark, someone had shouted at me from the side of the course that I was in 25th place (note: I have no idea if this is an accurate count or not - I report, you decide), and I decided to go for broke. I knew that most of the other runners were getting pretty tired out; there was one guy about 100 meters in front of me who'd been keeping pace with me for about 1/2 mile or so, who I actually saw just completely crack right in front of the water station just before mile 23; the dude literally just stopped running and wandered over to the table. By now, I was feeling pretty beat up myself, but I knew that we were due for a long, straight downhill almost all the way to the finish, and I knew that I was close enough that there was no way I was not going to finish, and finish under 3:00, so I readied myself to hit the downhill, hard.
Finish (mile 24 - finish): The 24 mile marked coincided with a left-hand turn that took us out of the Hyde Park area and onto Duval Street; from here, it was a long, straight downhill down Duvall, onto San Jacinto, through the middle of the UT Campus, and straight to the capital grounds. By now, I was getting pretty excited - I started picking up the pace and picking off the dead meat. All the way down Duval, San Jacinto, and through the University campus, I was eating up distance and passing guys.
At around the 25 3/4 mark, we came out of the south side of UT campus at San Jacinto and MLK, did a sharp dog-leg over to Congress, and turned south onto Congress Street - and got our first look at the Capital since the start of our race. I can't tell you how happy I was to see the statehouse.
By now we had half a mile to the finish line, and a few other guys from farther back in the column were also trying to pick off one or two more guys before they hit the finish. One dude in a red shirt pulled up on me as we were running around the east side of the capital complex. By the time we hit the south side, he'd put about a 20 meter gap on me, and we had about a quater mile of downhill to the finish at Congress and 10.
About 200 meters out we hit the finish chute; he was still within about 20 meters of me, and looked to be running about the same pace I was, so I thought to myself: I was a sprinter before I was a long distance runner - I bet this guy doesn't have my speed. So I waited until we were about 75-100 meters from the line, and put in a massive burst of speed. I came over the guy's left shoulder about 20 meters off the line, and was probably across the line before he even had time to figure out what had happened (or at least, that's what I'd been going for). In any case, I blew right by him about 20 meters out and held the sprint across the line - I actually think that was one of best finishes :-).
Race time: 2:52:?? (unofficial) <-- This was total elapsed time from when the gun went off to when I cross the line. Official (chip times) will probably be out in the next couple of days. See y'all in Boston next year :-). UPDATE: I actually found a video of the two of us finishing online.
Lessons learned (Protips):
- It may sound like a pain in the ass (and to some extent, it is), but consider carrying your own fluids. The benefit here is threefold.
Obviously, you'll get to have whatever it is you want to drink. (For example, looking through my race packet yesterday, I had noticed that Powerade would not be available out on the course until after mile 10, although water would be available every two miles along the entire route. This meant thatm unless I brought my own, I'd have no way to replenish carbohydrate/electrolytes along the first 10 miles of the race - not an attractive prospect.)
Secondly, stopping at the water tables takes time, and a certain degree of skill; you have to sort of slow down and receive the cup - trying to grab it going at your customary pace just results in the contents getting splattered all over everyone within a 10 foot radius. I passed a hell of a lot of people in the early stages of the race who were losing a great deal of time stopping at the water stations. Assuming that you lose 10 - 15 seconds per stop (which seems to me to be a reasonable estimate), just taking on water will cost you two to four minutes off your total time.
I will say that, with practice, some people have learned to pinch the top of the cup closed at the same time they grab it, so that they can pick it up going almost full speed and sip out of it while running. This seems to work pretty well for them, but I think it requires a bit too much dexterity for me, especially after the 20 mile mark.
And finally, unless you're up towards the front of the race, there are going to be A LOT of runners trying to get water at the same time you are, which means you're going to end up sort of jockeying for position with them, costing you even more time. - Both of the marathons that I've done have featured music prominently (the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon and the Austin Marathon). I find that this leads to a much more enjoyable experience. For example, one of the things about Austin in particular is that, while you can find basically any kind of music you're into, a large portion of it is devoted to blues and rock-influenced blues (think Led Zeppelin); turning a corner at around mile 20 to find somebody shredding blues guitar is pretty fucking epic :-).
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Final Approach
Week 18: 2/8/10 - 2/13/10 (Race week!)
Even mellower this week.
Monday: Off day.
Tuesday: 8 miles, around Town Lake, easy.
Wednesday/Thursday: Rained out.
Friday: 5 miles, easy. Switching over to running at 7:00 IN THE AM so as to prepare myself for the conditions on race day - likely ass cold.
Saturday: 4 miles, easy.
Total weekly mileage: 17
So now it just comes down to actually doing this. I've checked out the race course, and it looks to be a good one. The race starts downtown on Congress Street, just south of the state capital, crosses south of the river to do a 6-mile out-and-back, then follows the river northwest along the north bank for about 4 miles. Around mile 10, it turns north off the river and then enters a series of rolling hills and gradual uphills over the next 8 miles or so past Camp Mabry and through some residential neighborhoods.
It looks like the key to the race is going to be at mile 17. Generally, at that point in the race you're at about 1:50-2:00, starting to feel a little fatigued, and the realization dawns on you that you've still got 9+ miles to go. Fortunately, this course is designed such that the 17 mile marker coincides with the a sharp right-hand turn that redirects you back in the direction of the finish line, and the 18-mile mark corresponds with the peak elevation in the course. In fact, once you hit the 18 mile mark, it's pretty much all downhill to the finish, modulo a few minor hiccups. So it looks like the race is pretty much going to boil down to being patient and not doing anything stupid for the first 17 miles, and then staying mentally tough through the last 9 miles (with the aid of some fortuitous downhills).
The forecast for tomorrow at race time calls for 42 - 50 degree weather, partially cloudy, and high winds (only 20% chance of precipitation). So aside from the wind, it looks like pretty good weather.
So here's to spending this Valentine's Day like I spend all the other ones: alone and in excruciating pain. It's go time!
Even mellower this week.
Monday: Off day.
Tuesday: 8 miles, around Town Lake, easy.
Wednesday/Thursday: Rained out.
Friday: 5 miles, easy. Switching over to running at 7:00 IN THE AM so as to prepare myself for the conditions on race day - likely ass cold.
Saturday: 4 miles, easy.
Total weekly mileage: 17
So now it just comes down to actually doing this. I've checked out the race course, and it looks to be a good one. The race starts downtown on Congress Street, just south of the state capital, crosses south of the river to do a 6-mile out-and-back, then follows the river northwest along the north bank for about 4 miles. Around mile 10, it turns north off the river and then enters a series of rolling hills and gradual uphills over the next 8 miles or so past Camp Mabry and through some residential neighborhoods.
It looks like the key to the race is going to be at mile 17. Generally, at that point in the race you're at about 1:50-2:00, starting to feel a little fatigued, and the realization dawns on you that you've still got 9+ miles to go. Fortunately, this course is designed such that the 17 mile marker coincides with the a sharp right-hand turn that redirects you back in the direction of the finish line, and the 18-mile mark corresponds with the peak elevation in the course. In fact, once you hit the 18 mile mark, it's pretty much all downhill to the finish, modulo a few minor hiccups. So it looks like the race is pretty much going to boil down to being patient and not doing anything stupid for the first 17 miles, and then staying mentally tough through the last 9 miles (with the aid of some fortuitous downhills).
The forecast for tomorrow at race time calls for 42 - 50 degree weather, partially cloudy, and high winds (only 20% chance of precipitation). So aside from the wind, it looks like pretty good weather.
So here's to spending this Valentine's Day like I spend all the other ones: alone and in excruciating pain. It's go time!
Monday, February 8, 2010
Commence Taper
Week 17: 2/1/10 - 2/7/10 (1 week remains)
This week was pretty mellow, as I'm starting my taper for the race.
Monday: Off day.
Tuesday: 8 miles, general aerobic. Spent all morning/afternoon frantically running around to set up a reading course in geometric control theory with Professor de la Llave, and then had to rush home for a phone interview with Willow Garage (made it with a whole 15 minutes to spare!) Went on a celebratory 8 mile run around Town Lake.
Wednesday: Rained out.
Thursday: Another 8 miles around Town Lake.
Friday: Rained out AGAIN :-/.
Saturday: Easy 5. Spent all day studying Ehresmann/affine/linear/principal connections.
Sunday: 13, medium-long. More connections at the office this morning. Moderate 13 around Town Lake and the Capital, followed by a math department Superbowl party at Karin's house.
Weekly total: 36 (significantly down from 66 :-).
Almost to the main event!
This week was pretty mellow, as I'm starting my taper for the race.
Monday: Off day.
Tuesday: 8 miles, general aerobic. Spent all morning/afternoon frantically running around to set up a reading course in geometric control theory with Professor de la Llave, and then had to rush home for a phone interview with Willow Garage (made it with a whole 15 minutes to spare!) Went on a celebratory 8 mile run around Town Lake.
Wednesday: Rained out.
Thursday: Another 8 miles around Town Lake.
Friday: Rained out AGAIN :-/.
Saturday: Easy 5. Spent all day studying Ehresmann/affine/linear/principal connections.
Sunday: 13, medium-long. More connections at the office this morning. Moderate 13 around Town Lake and the Capital, followed by a math department Superbowl party at Karin's house.
Weekly total: 36 (significantly down from 66 :-).
Almost to the main event!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Ludicrous Speed!
Week 16: 1/24/10 - 1/31/10 (2 weeks remain)
So I was somewhat lazy/irresponsible/partially done in by a recent snap of inclement weather this week, but overall, I'm actually feeling pretty good about my race preparedness.
Monday: Off day
Tuesday: 8 miles, recovery.
Wednesday: Didn't run. No (good) excuse :-/. (Although it was only supposed to be 5 today).
Thursday: 12 miles, medium-long. Did a 10 mile loop with Karin from her house (Hyde Park) up to the peak of Mt. Bonnell - the hill workouts I've been doing have been paying off. Tacked on an additional 2 miles with an out-and-back from Karin's house along Red River to the intersection of Dean Keeton. Medium-distance, medium effort day.
Friday: Also didn't run - got back from lab late, and it was 35 degrees and pissing rain when I got home :-/. (Fortunately, today was also only supposed to be 5).
Saturday: 10 miles, general aerobic. 10 miles around Town Lake with Karin. Apparently there's a super nice trail running along the south bank of the river beginning at the Congress Street Bridge that I just now found out about? Put in a 1 mile uptempo just because.
A preamble: It just so happened that as I was stretching out last week at the east end of Town Lake before starting my long run (as is my custom), a pretty fit-looking guy comes running past going the same direction I am. Figuring that 20 miles is a fair distance to cover by oneself (especially after having been running long and solo for 15 weeks previously), I suggested that we run together for a while. It turns out that this guy, Matt, had just started training for the Capital 10k (to be held April 11). So we end up running for a good while around Town Lake, and agreed to meet up the following week, as we seemed to be about the same speed and both of us had gotten pretty tired of doing our long runs alone.
Sunday: 16 miles, long run, with Matt. So today was the last serious long run before race day (the "long run" next week is only 13, and hardly merits the title). Apparently Matt has a sister who's also running the Austin Marathon with the goal of qualifying for Boston, and she had mentioned to him that the first 17 miles or so have quite a few rolling hills, but that the last 9 miles is essentially all flat or downhill. Matt suggested that we do 5 miles out along the river leaving from the parking lot at the east end of Town Lake, do a 7-mile loop of hills along the race route, and then back along the same way we went out.
Ideally, I'd like to run the actual race somewhere in the 2:50 to 3:00 range, which comes out to a per-mile pace of 6:40 to 6:52. As it so happens, we were both feeling pretty good, so we started out a little on the fast side, around 6:15-ish. Around mile 2 or so (after having passed the traffic light at the intersection of I-35 and Riverside) we dropped it down to around 6:00...
and then held that pace within +/- :05 for the next 13 miles, including 5 miles of rolling hills (we managed to get turned around up in the hills and somehow cut off 2 miles of the hill workout, although Matt assures me that there was only actually one hill of any real significance in that particular section). Here is a picture of us taken somewhere on the north side of the river:
After getting back to the parking lot, I threw in an additional mile cooldown to try to stretch my legs out (they were feeling pretty stiff, as it was 35 degrees again).
Total weekly mileage: 46
So in light of Sunday's run, I'm feeling pretty good about my overall race preparedness - I won't have to run nearly so fast, and the fact that I can hold that pace for extended periods of time leads me to believe that I ought to be able to qualify come race day - especially when the downhills kick in at mile 18.
Additionally, although I was certainly winded when we got back to the cars, after returning home, I didn't feel the 1 1/2-hour-nap-inducing death-fatigue that I recall feeling when I began doing my long runs way back in November, and even up to a few weeks ago before I really started ramping up the mileage on the long runs. Certainly, this is at least partially due to having been training at higher mileages for 16 weeks now. However, I also tried experimenting with some Gu today, not having tried this stuff before, and I wonder whether or to what extent my lack of post-running fatigue may have been due to that? (For the record, as per directions, I took one of them about 15 minutes before starting the run, and another about 45 minutes to an hour into it.) However, given a time goal of 2:50 to 3:00, this would require taking three of these things into the race with me. Taking one of them doesn't actually consume that much time (I think I timed the operation at approximately :30 from start to finish), but that seems like a lot of gel/fluid to be ingesting while also trying to run fast. Does anyone else out there have any experience with this stuff in the marathon, or any other words of wisdom on this issue they'd like to share?
So, since I'm not dead tired, it's off to some combination of Ehresmann connections and Mass Effect... probably heavy on the Mass Effect :-).
So I was somewhat lazy/irresponsible/partially done in by a recent snap of inclement weather this week, but overall, I'm actually feeling pretty good about my race preparedness.
Monday: Off day
Tuesday: 8 miles, recovery.
Wednesday: Didn't run. No (good) excuse :-/. (Although it was only supposed to be 5 today).
Thursday: 12 miles, medium-long. Did a 10 mile loop with Karin from her house (Hyde Park) up to the peak of Mt. Bonnell - the hill workouts I've been doing have been paying off. Tacked on an additional 2 miles with an out-and-back from Karin's house along Red River to the intersection of Dean Keeton. Medium-distance, medium effort day.
Friday: Also didn't run - got back from lab late, and it was 35 degrees and pissing rain when I got home :-/. (Fortunately, today was also only supposed to be 5).
Saturday: 10 miles, general aerobic. 10 miles around Town Lake with Karin. Apparently there's a super nice trail running along the south bank of the river beginning at the Congress Street Bridge that I just now found out about? Put in a 1 mile uptempo just because.
A preamble: It just so happened that as I was stretching out last week at the east end of Town Lake before starting my long run (as is my custom), a pretty fit-looking guy comes running past going the same direction I am. Figuring that 20 miles is a fair distance to cover by oneself (especially after having been running long and solo for 15 weeks previously), I suggested that we run together for a while. It turns out that this guy, Matt, had just started training for the Capital 10k (to be held April 11). So we end up running for a good while around Town Lake, and agreed to meet up the following week, as we seemed to be about the same speed and both of us had gotten pretty tired of doing our long runs alone.
Sunday: 16 miles, long run, with Matt. So today was the last serious long run before race day (the "long run" next week is only 13, and hardly merits the title). Apparently Matt has a sister who's also running the Austin Marathon with the goal of qualifying for Boston, and she had mentioned to him that the first 17 miles or so have quite a few rolling hills, but that the last 9 miles is essentially all flat or downhill. Matt suggested that we do 5 miles out along the river leaving from the parking lot at the east end of Town Lake, do a 7-mile loop of hills along the race route, and then back along the same way we went out.
Ideally, I'd like to run the actual race somewhere in the 2:50 to 3:00 range, which comes out to a per-mile pace of 6:40 to 6:52. As it so happens, we were both feeling pretty good, so we started out a little on the fast side, around 6:15-ish. Around mile 2 or so (after having passed the traffic light at the intersection of I-35 and Riverside) we dropped it down to around 6:00...
and then held that pace within +/- :05 for the next 13 miles, including 5 miles of rolling hills (we managed to get turned around up in the hills and somehow cut off 2 miles of the hill workout, although Matt assures me that there was only actually one hill of any real significance in that particular section). Here is a picture of us taken somewhere on the north side of the river:
After getting back to the parking lot, I threw in an additional mile cooldown to try to stretch my legs out (they were feeling pretty stiff, as it was 35 degrees again).
Total weekly mileage: 46
So in light of Sunday's run, I'm feeling pretty good about my overall race preparedness - I won't have to run nearly so fast, and the fact that I can hold that pace for extended periods of time leads me to believe that I ought to be able to qualify come race day - especially when the downhills kick in at mile 18.
Additionally, although I was certainly winded when we got back to the cars, after returning home, I didn't feel the 1 1/2-hour-nap-inducing death-fatigue that I recall feeling when I began doing my long runs way back in November, and even up to a few weeks ago before I really started ramping up the mileage on the long runs. Certainly, this is at least partially due to having been training at higher mileages for 16 weeks now. However, I also tried experimenting with some Gu today, not having tried this stuff before, and I wonder whether or to what extent my lack of post-running fatigue may have been due to that? (For the record, as per directions, I took one of them about 15 minutes before starting the run, and another about 45 minutes to an hour into it.) However, given a time goal of 2:50 to 3:00, this would require taking three of these things into the race with me. Taking one of them doesn't actually consume that much time (I think I timed the operation at approximately :30 from start to finish), but that seems like a lot of gel/fluid to be ingesting while also trying to run fast. Does anyone else out there have any experience with this stuff in the marathon, or any other words of wisdom on this issue they'd like to share?
So, since I'm not dead tired, it's off to some combination of Ehresmann connections and Mass Effect... probably heavy on the Mass Effect :-).
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
It's a long way to the top
Week 15: 1/18/10 - 1/24/10 (3 weeks remain)
Monday: Off day
Tuesday: 8 miles, easy.
Wednesday: 10 miles, general aerobic
Thursday : 15 miles, medium-long. Ran around the Shoal Creek Trail for 12 miles, then finished up with a 3 mile out-and-back to the UT math department.
Friday: 8 miles, general aerobic.
Saturday: 5 miles, recovery.
Sunday: 20 miles, long run. Started out the first two miles at a moderate jog, then settled into comfortable 6:15 - 6:30 miles for the next 15 or so. Pretty tired for the last 3-4 miles, but kept fairly consistent pace. Overall, I was pretty pleased with this run, as it suggests that I'm finally getting into some kind of shape for the actual race itself, especially considering the fact I started the workout with what I felt were pretty dead legs.
Total weekly mileage: 66.
This week was the peak training week for my schedule, so it's all downhill from here - next week I start to ease off a bit as I enter the taper leading up to race day. I'm feeling pretty beat up this week from the higher mileage and longer running I've been doing over the past few weeks, but I'm feeling pretty good about my overall race preparation as a result of Sunday's long run. I'll be interested to see what I can do on the 14th with a pair of fresh legs.
Monday: Off day
Tuesday: 8 miles, easy.
Wednesday: 10 miles, general aerobic
Thursday : 15 miles, medium-long. Ran around the Shoal Creek Trail for 12 miles, then finished up with a 3 mile out-and-back to the UT math department.
Friday: 8 miles, general aerobic.
Saturday: 5 miles, recovery.
Sunday: 20 miles, long run. Started out the first two miles at a moderate jog, then settled into comfortable 6:15 - 6:30 miles for the next 15 or so. Pretty tired for the last 3-4 miles, but kept fairly consistent pace. Overall, I was pretty pleased with this run, as it suggests that I'm finally getting into some kind of shape for the actual race itself, especially considering the fact I started the workout with what I felt were pretty dead legs.
Total weekly mileage: 66.
This week was the peak training week for my schedule, so it's all downhill from here - next week I start to ease off a bit as I enter the taper leading up to race day. I'm feeling pretty beat up this week from the higher mileage and longer running I've been doing over the past few weeks, but I'm feeling pretty good about my overall race preparation as a result of Sunday's long run. I'll be interested to see what I can do on the 14th with a pair of fresh legs.
Monday, January 18, 2010
My Irresponsibility Knows No Bounds
Protip: If you're going to start writing a blog, it's helpful not to be such a lazy piece of shit that you never actually update it. Just sayin'.
So although I haven't quite kept up with updating the training log as I had originally planned, I've still been (mostly) keeping up with the running -- the postings just fell by the wayside as I got progressively busier towards the end of last term (along with proper hygiene, nutrition, sleep, and -- at various times -- my sanity). To summarize, the crazy shenanigans I've gotten into over the previous two months when I was busy not updating the blog include:
So although I haven't quite kept up with updating the training log as I had originally planned, I've still been (mostly) keeping up with the running -- the postings just fell by the wayside as I got progressively busier towards the end of last term (along with proper hygiene, nutrition, sleep, and -- at various times -- my sanity). To summarize, the crazy shenanigans I've gotten into over the previous two months when I was busy not updating the blog include:
- Attended the First National Forum of Young Topologists: Spent a few days hanging out in New Orleans with some other grad student topologists. Met some new guys from other schools, heard some interesting talks, including one by this guy which was a survey of applications of topology to robotics, sensing, and estimation. Given that I am a huge fan of both robotics and topology, this pleased me greatly. Moreover, in addition to being f@$*ing awesome, this also means that the term "applied topology" is no longer oxymoronic.
Also hit up the French Quarter for Cajun cuisine, excellent live music, gorgeous architecture, and general debauchery. It was pretty epic; witness the following picture:
So all in all it was pretty awesome, the only exception being that it's now two months past the end of the conference and no one in the department has been reimbursed yet for travel expenses. This lends some additional weight to the hypothesis that the conference organizers may be crypto-Communists. - Wrote a bunch of applications: This sucked. 'Nuff said.
- Then my 1 1/2-year old laptop died while I was at home on the break: It is rather difficult to post running log updates when your only means of communication is a $1500 paperweight. So now the only working computer that I have at my apartment is an aged desktop that I bought when I was a sophomore in high school - this thing has trouble running Firefox in XP. Fortunately, I scavenged one of the mapping computers out of the RoboCup lab after the project shut down; it's pretty slick, but it needs a new video card and a DVD reader/writer before it can be used. Speaking of which, you know what would come in pretty handy for getting these parts? The $450 that Tulane owes me. Again, just sayin'.
- Went on Lloyd Ski Trip: Good God I'm old. On the plus side though, the fact that I knew less than half the kids who are still in the house meant that it was much easier for Tapes and I to antisocially drink by ourselves while watching Army of Darkness.
- Went on the occasional run: I actually have been putting in runs whenever possible, in between traveling and nearly losing my sanity at the ridiculousness that was the end of the last academic term. Given that I'm now twice-weekly doing 15 to 20 mile runs, I figure that I'm in much better shape now than I was at this point in my "training" the last time I attempted this.
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