Hoping for Fall redemption

Nice solid tempo run! Those kind of runs provide confidence you can sustain the race pace over the whole race.

Hope your 18 with Kenny went as well as the 18 I just finished did!

Julie, John, Jim, thanks!

As Jim alluded to, Kenny drove up from NJ for a long run at the Rockefeller State Park preserve. We had a great LSD run together. I had a very comfortable, very hilly, 18 miler, and finished with plenty of gas in the tank. I was tempted to make it a 20 miler, but there was no good reason to stretch the run out at this point in the cycle, so I kept it at 18 and finished feeling strong. This was the first long run of the cycle in which I didn't finish with any faster miles.
Kenny had a great 21 miler and did a great job on the hills. After the run, we went out for a nice post long run Mexican lunch. Kenny celebrated his good run with a margarita, and I had a nice pale ale.
Here's what my run looked like:

Tempo run and then a solid 18 - first one since Boston? That is a great achievement - your tempo run looked good too. You are really doing great with training - how are your legs afterwards (and the knee). Cool thing that you had good company for your run too!

Great 18 miler! Glad you had a good time with Kenny, too. I'm glad this training cycle is going so well for you.

Thanks John and Julie.
John, knock on wood, the legs are holding up and seem to tolerating the gradual weekly increase in mileage and intensity.

I was up at 2:45 a.m. this morning, and down at Ground Zero at 4:00 a.m. to cover the 10th anniversary Sept. 11th commemoration. I covered the attacks of Sept. 11th and every important ceremony down there since then. I'm thinking (and hoping) that this will be the last major commemoration. I was surprised at how it emotional it still is to hear the names read by family members, for whom the wounds still seem as raw as they were ten years ago. President Obama, as well as former Pres. Bush made appearances. They've both been to Ground Zero before, but it was the first time either of them came for one of the anniversary commemorations.
I was home by about 3:00 p.m. and as tired as I was, got in 6 recovery miles. I'm not sure if I was recovering from yesterday's long run or today's run on very little sleep. The run was refreshing though, and I actually feel more awake now than before the run.
I'm sure that won't last.

Take a nap, you deserve one!

Yeah, rest a bit.

I hope, too, that this is the last big ceremony. Let everything be quiet and good and let us move forward. We Americans have short memories, which can be a good thing in that we don't hold grudges very well.

Bet the ceremony was both heart wrenching and pretty cool all together. I'm hoping to catch a bit of time to get down there when I'm in the city, but I'm not sure it will fit in the schedule as we don't land in Newark until 11am then need to go the Expo and show and dinner and then the race and hockey game on Sunday. But we will see. My daughter was 8 on 9/11, so she has no recollection of NYC with the WTC buildings.

I'll bet these type of things really stick with you. What an honor to cover it! Please feel free to share when you get caught up with things such as rest etc.



Glad your run with Kenny went well and I hope that you continue to run injury free overall.

Didn't you say there was some article you were contributing to a while back? Love to see a link to it if I'm remembering right.

Pretty amazing to cover those activites, Seth, very sobering. I can understand how a recovery 6 miles would be good after something like that.

Thanks for the thoughts everyone. If you're interested, here's a gallery of photos from my paper's website of the ceremony at Ground Zero yesterday. The first 30 photos on the gallery are ones that I shot.

http://www.lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=BH&Dato=20110911&Kategori=SEPT02&Lopenr=109110805&Ref=PH&odyssey=mod|galleriespic|umbrella

Amazing how these motionless pictures can be so moving. Nice Job!

I was asked to travel upstate to Binghamton to help out a sister Gannett newspaper after that part of the state got absolutely inundated with flooding. I got up here yesterday and I'll stay until Friday. It really is the worst storm damage I've ever covered. The amount of widespread damage is unbelievable. You drive for miles and can't go two blocks without seeing homes with what looks like the majority of their possessions out on the curb, waiting to be picked up, after having been destroyed by flooding. The amount of people deeply affected by the flooding here is heartbreaking.
After a full day's work, I found time for a workout before it got dark. The park I had been directed to was closed due to flooding so I ended up running around the local community college. It was another really good tempo run. 8 miles total with 5 at a progressively faster tempo pace. It was progressive because it took me a little while to get going, but I finished the run with a very fast mile. The other really nice thing about today's run was that I didn't feel any discomfort at all, not in the knee, and not in the periformis. I don't think I've had a totally discomfort free run this whole training cycle until this evening.
Today's splits:

good run, running helps, I would sure run after a 9/11 ceremony. I remember coming back from my great uncle's funeral (more of a grandpa figure though) a few yrs ago and running 7 miles on the trails, it felt so good.

Oh, and unrelated, but I got Hal's new marathon guide and saw you quoted in it. You probably knew that, though. It's cool though getting a book full of quotes from people you interact with.

Thanks for sharing the pictures and NICE RUN! Great when everything clicks like that.

Very nice run yesterday, Seth!

Glad to see you recovered so well after your great run with kenny. Keep up the good work, Seth.

On another note, I saw some pictures of the flooding south of Syracuse - wow! I thought it was bad in the Gowanda, Ny area and down here in GA last year, but wow, much worse.

Seth Harrison wrote: ... I don't think I've had a totally discomfort free run this whole training cycle until this evening.

Yeeeeee haaa!!!!!!!!



That's awesome Seth!

Seth GREAT run! Really fast splits. Seem to not have lost much speed. Dam!

Thanks everyone!
I'm still upstate. I spent the morning in a small town called Owego, about 15 miles west of Binghamton. It was one of the most unbelievable scenes I've ever scene. The entire town, and I mean virtually every single street in the town, was underwater a few days ago. The water receded and left almost every single home with horrible flood damage. Imagine looking down a street and seeing piles and piles of destroyed possessions on the curb in front of every home. That's what you see on each and every street in the town. Here's the thing that really struck me though...the people are incredibly good natured, welcoming, and generous, especially when it comes to helping each other out. There were a fair share of tears, but from what I could tell, they've also retained their senses of humor. I think these aspects of their collective character will more than anything else, help them to rebound from this catastrophe.
Below are two photos from today. The first one is the owner of a book store who lost thousands of books. The second one is a mother and daughter comforting each other. If you're interested in seeing more, here's a link to a gallery containing a few more photos from today.
http://www.pressconnects.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Avis=CB&Dato=20110915&Kategori=NEWS01&Lopenr=109150801&Ref=PH
Oh yeah, I did get in a run after work. Six easy, if hilly miles in and around the campus of SUNY Binghamton. The pace was 8:43/mile, and like yesterday, the legs felt really good.

So much for going an entire training cycle without breaking down.
3 miles into a planned 18 miler my right calf seized up on me. I stopped immediately, but had to walk 1 1/2 miles back to my car. I'm pretty sure it had something to do with running in the colder temps and my muscles not being sufficiently warmed up. It doesn't feel like a major thing, but there's no question it will set me back. The question is for how long. Best case scenario, I take it easy this coming week, which was a planned step back week, and do the 18 miler next weekend. If it's not better by then, than I miss one long run, and hopefully not more than that.

Hope it's just a slight niggle and doesn't set you back.

We took the kids to Cooperstown and Howe caverns two weeks ago after Irene. Then they got more rains. The place was a mess from all of the flooding -- truly heart breaking in some areas. Homes separated from their foundations (I can't even imagine how that happens); peoples belongs ruined and piled up in the front yard. Sad.

Well Seth I hope that calf starts to feel better for you real soon and that you can get back to a normal training schedule.