Nanticoke River Swim

Yesterday I finally registered for the Nanticoke River Swim. 3 mile swim, May 2.

Race Course Brick, Stadium Run, Ultramarthons

This weekend was great and afterwards I am feeling very motivated and invigorated.

Saturday I drove out to the race course to join TnT for a team ride. It started in the mid-30s and was EXTREMELY cold. And unfortunately I had decided against bringing my windbreaker, leaving me in just my coldgear baselayer. Out of maybe 20-25 people, most rode the Celebration Sprint Tri course, with about 7 or 8 of us riding the full Columbia Olympic Course. Afterwards, about five of us had a relaxed transition and ran an extended loop around the Centennial Lake. The bike ride was slightly shorter than I may have wanted, but it was my first bike-to-run brick workout for the season. Furthemore, I don't often get to do group rides and so being out with some fellow triathletes can really lift one's spirit. My legs were burning on the run, but the whole experience was exciting and enjoyable.

When I leave Baltimore to head home to Raleigh, the main road merging to I95 runs right by Camden Yards and M&T Stadium, the respective playing fields for the Baltimore Orioles and the Baltimore Ravens. For my run on Sunday, I extended a previous route with a tour around these stadiums. For the moment, running in the shadow of these monumental structures does something for my mindset. I wouldn't call it calming or uplifting, but it was fun. My legs seemed to fatigue earlier, but for reasons given below, I made it at a pretty decent click (~ 7:15 miles).

Certainly adding to my motivation were two ultramarathoners (an ultramarathon is any event over 26.2 miles, typically distances 50mi, 100mi, and up); one professional and peripheral, the other personal. Daren, a friend on many levels (he's the father/father-in-law of two awesome friends who got married, and last fall he coached me for my inaugural marathon) ran the Umstead 100mi. If the website was more helpful, I'd give a more rousing report, but unofficial, I'll say he finished in a phenomenal time of 23:01 (that's HOURS:minutes). Even though, he's "retired" from coaching, Daren is always a crazy-athlete's hero.

Another was a very intriguing article in Runner's World (April '10 issue) about ultramarathoner Scott Jurek. A monster of an runner, Scott has dominated the world of ultramarathon. He's won the 100mi, 41,000 ft up and down, Western States Endurance Run seven years (1999-2005) in a row, been the only American to when the 153 mile Spartathlon, and the only person ever to - in the SAME YEAR (2005) - win Western States and two weeks later win the 135 mile Badwater Ultramarathon through Death Valley. But this article really focuses on his recent slump and personal tribulations. It's hardly an uplifting tale. However, it's great at deviling into his soul and throughout I saw a reflection of the same things I go through every day. It wasn't inspiring or motivating... but comforting to know that someone, ANYone - who cares if he's a renowned ultrarunner - has same problems as I do. You can read the article here The King of Pain.

Short Update

At yesterday's workout (a spin class) we were visited by our Honored Teammate. This is the cancer survivor who we are training in honor of, for those of us who may not have a personal connection/story. Very nice woman. And very coincidental. She's essential from here in Baltimore. However, her parents live in Cary! And since she was diagnosed, she's been living with them in Cary in order to receive treatment at UNC. So for those back home who wonder where the money actually goes, you don't have to look very far. By donating, you support treatment centers like UNC that help people who could even be your neighbor!

Just finished watching "Chariots of Fire." Basically a running movie that tells the story of Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, a Jewish man studying at Cambridge, and a Scottish missionary, who compete against each other, but are teammates for Great Britain at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Has a very cheesy intro. If you ever watch contemporary comedies with that take a jab at dramatic running, it came from this... You should probably YouTube it to know what I mean.

Happy Birthday to my mom.

Back to the Grindstone

Last week was the university's official spring break. As a graduate student this means almost next to nothing. It really means a break from going to classes and the "opportunity" to get quality labwork done. During this week I worked mainly on a protein expression experiment. So what does that involve? Well, all (or almost all) proteins created these days come from using bacterial cells to create a whole lot of your protein. I had previously grown some E. coli cells containing a plasmid (stretch of DNA) that could be "tricked" into creating a whole lot of my protein. While growing the cells, and causing the protein production is relatively quick, separating this one protein from all the cellular material takes a few days.

Also, on Thursday of that week, we (members of our research group) attended an annual "Baltimore Area Repair Symposium." In Baltimore, there are several research facilities that study how organisms repair damaged DNA; Johns Hopkins (our group as well as several at the med school and school of public health), NIH-NIA (National Institute of Health-National Institute of Aging), Univ. of Maryland - Baltimore County, and a few just outside of Baltimore. The day consisted of about 20 researchers giving short, 15 minute summaries of the current research/results they are undertaking. During breaks, peripheral rooms contained posters made by graduate students that further highlighted areas of research. There was a longer, keynote address, by a research from my neck of the woods, Dr. Tom Kunkel, who is based in Research Triangle Park, but has professorships at Duke and UNC. The first part of the day was very interesting, probably because it was much more chemistry-based relavent to my own research. The second half seemed to focus so much on specific, esoteric proteins, that I was bored to death.

My training last week was tapered somewhat. The accidental 16 miler from the previous weekend had taken it out of me, and it was time to recover. Of course, the only real tapering I did was not swim, and not lift. My running mileage was pretty much where it's been. Only thing was that my early morning Saturday running (before heading to Annapolis for Coast Guard training) was extremely difficult, probably ghosts from the previous week.

But this week I'm back in the pool and back in the weight room. I'm planning to play around with my weekend long workouts to help keep things interesting and to help pick up the intensity.

PLEASE CONSIDER DONATING.

Long Run Lamentations, Visitaion Weekend, Warm Weather

Overall, this was a decent overall training week. Most of the week, I was keeping up fairly well. I struggled to get starting with my weight-lifting sessions; while I got through them, I decided I'll probably take next week off from that.

This has also been visitation weekend for prospective graduate students for the Chemistry department. Many of you are probably unfamiliar with the process, so I'll give you the basics. Once you are except into a graduate program, the situation changes from you trying to get in, to the school trying to get you to come. To this end, departments will bring you to their schools and spend the weekend familiarizing you with their program in order to recruit you. Note, in order to "recruit," you are primarily given overviews of the research the faculty is undertaking. On Friday, there is a poster session, where current graduates illustrate and explain the areas of research of their professor. Then on Saturday (today), the prospectives meet with specific faculty members where they get a more in depth summary of their projects. Right now, they are likely at the Aquarium at the Inner Harbor for a nice meal, followed by some time on the town. Most will be traveling tomorrow.

My past two days of running have been quite interesting. The good news is, the temperature has been perfect for my runs. In the upper 40s, I did not need to wear any "coldgear" (slang for the warmer, moisture-wicking technical fabric for cold temperatures); temperature-wise, I was comfortable in shorts, shirt, and gloves which I found I need sooner than I need layering on my arms.

The bad news was the wind and the rain. Yesterday I stayed somewhat dry (ok, so I got wet, but my shoes did not get soaked, which some how means I decide it's dry). But this morning I probably only got half a mile before I was soaked and my shoes were heavy. The wind was brutal as well; I swear at one point I was running in place.

The weather probably did not help my other frustrations this morning. Originally, today was to be a bike ride with the Team in Training (TnT) group, which got canceled because of the weather, so I decided to do my long run I had planned for yesterday. Planning on approximately 13 miles, and some what unmotivated to do an older route, I briefly planned out a new route - and not just running the same roads in a new way; I would be heading down the eastern side of the city near the med school campus.

Well, so after getting started, I realized I was a little bit more worn out that I had thought, and at about two miles decided I would cut off a little extension I had planned, meaning my run would only be about 10 miles top. However, things did not go as planned. Having run "far enough" I turned back after having just past the hospital (only reaching the edge of the school itself). Instead of exactly retracing my route, I took some roads that I "knew" would cross more familiar roads that I could use to zigzag my way back home.

Bad idea.

Explaining the details here would probably only be confusing, and would do justice to the situation. Needless to say I had multiple cutbacks, did a loop which probably added about a mile, was going south when I wanted to go north, etc. All this while soaked and wind-blown. Oh, yeah, and I needed to get to the lab.

Distance-wise, it did not turn out as an easy day. In summary, I originally planned on 13. Then decided to cutback to about 10. My actual mileage? 16.5.

I should admit, I seeing a new side to Baltimore. My main road to the med campus was Eastern Ave, which runs through/along some neighborhoods (Fells Point, Greektown, Highlandtown to name a few) that looked to have some great places to eat.

Some closing comments:
It was a productive day in the lab where I used E. coli cells to express a DNA polymerase protein. I read two very interesting research articles, and also took an NMR spectrum of one of my nucleotides. My advisor complimented me on both my diligence in reading the literature and on the quality of my spectrum.

Despite 50+ weather, there is still some snow. Mainly from mammoth-sized piles.

For meals next week, I plan on eating Irish-style for St. Patty's Day.

Johns Hopkins has buildings all over the place. JHU's website list four "campuses" in Baltimore, but I have also past my two buildings/campuses not otherwise mentioned.

Motivating Bike Ride

This weekend was my first long ride after being stuck on the trainer most of the winter. Last week (or so), I was up early for a session on the trainer. But after about 10 minutes, I had finally had enough. I hopped off, donned some layers and gloves, and took my bike to the streets. Since then I had done mainly short rides; both because of time restrictions and to give myself a chance to get back into it.

On Sunday I finally went out for a good trek, about 35 miles, which took me just over 2 hrs. It was on a route I did a couple of times when I was getting use to cycling around the region and by myself. With mild to decent weather, the ride felt great and really helped my self-esteem. I can't be sure, but I might have even been faster than I was in the fall.

Nevertheless, as my first long(-ish) ride, my legs were pooped for swimming last night. Luckily that was primarily drills. Ditto for my short ride this morning - I passed on an interval set at Druid Hills Lake for a easy, standard hour ride up Falls Rd to Joppa Rd.

I mentioned time restrictions, and as sidebar, it seems to be my biggest limiter for the bike. If you don't know, I am all about morning workouts. Having a goal of being at the lab/school by 8:45, it necessitates getting up early for my run/bike/swim. Well, I don't get too anxious about running in the dark; 95% of my routes have a sidewalk, and if they don't, I'm sure to be wearing a reflective vest. While I do so as well for the bike, I a little more of size hazard on the bike, and going faster makes the reactionary zone a bit smaller. So for now, my rides are limited by when I feel safest heading out, and when I need to be back in in time to get ready for school.

This week should be pretty typical. Wednesday night instead of spinning, TnT is having a tire changing clinic; may or may not go. I've unfortunately had plenty experience with changing flats. But this weekend, we're having our first on-the-road ride, and I am debating whether to add-on with a ride out to the meeting place (it's about 20 miles away).

Please keep the donations coming! I'm still a little short of my recommitment minimum, and FAR from my final goal!

Long Weekend

My Tuesday workouts consist two main workouts. In the morning I go for a run, followed by a quick pool workout. I've been consistent with an eight miler run, followed by about 2500 yds in the pool. That's all I have time for, and it usually consist of 4x500 alternating pulling and kicking, followed by a 500 swim.

I always come into to these workouts feeling some what worn out from the weekend. Considering I hit 40 miles last week - the upper uppper end of my typical mileage - I would've expect to be tired even more so. Nevertheless, I always feel invigorated after getting about half a mile into my run. I'm not sure how things will play out in the long run; it's hard to tell if I'm within my boundaries and not overtraining.

First Blog

This is my first attempt at a serious blog. I am going to try to provide updates on my life and training as I prepare for various events. My upcoming event, and main motivator for setting up this blog is the Columbia Triathlon, here in Maryland. I joined the charity group Team in Training for this event, mainly because I wanted to include some type of purpose to my racing. Team in Training uses events like these (triathlons, marathons, century bike rides, etc.) as the platform to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society while providing structure training for aspiring athletes.

Those who are know me best, know that I am not new to training/athletics. I rowed for three years for the NC State Rowing Club, three of the best years of my life. I have to credit it for fostering my desire to get fit and healthy. During my time at State and since, my race resume includes a half marathon in November '08, a metric century ride July '09, the Triangle [sprint] Triathlon July '08 and '09, the Marine Corps Marathon October '09, and three completions of the Krispy Kreme Challenge ('06, '07, '09). I've only complete two triathlons, but since graduating from NC State in the spring of 2009, my weekly workouts consistently incorporate swimming, biking, and running. My "plan" is to complete and Ironman Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run) in the year 2012. To this end, I have complete one year of sprint triathlons. This year will consist of Olympic Triathlons (Columbia, and I have registered for the Nations Triathlon in Washington, D.C. in September). Next year, I plan to advance to the half-Ironman, and the following year complete the Ironman.

Of course, I don't expect those to be my sole races. To complement/supplement those goals, I plan to continue to compete in marathons (and halfs), cycling events, and open water swims. I still haven't found a half marathon that fits my schedule, but I have found a three miles swim in April, and I am looking ahead to the City of Oaks Marathon in my hometown of Raleigh, NC.

I will aspire to update this blog weekly, if not more frequently. Hopefully it will encourage readers to support me in my Team in Training endevour (notice I can't spell). I HAVE UNTIL MARCH 19TH TO RAISE $675! And then I have until a week before the Columbia Triathlon (May 17th) to raise $2700. Please consider supporting me, and good luck in all your own challenges.