And Now For Something Completely Different

I'm going a little off topic here, but need to document 2008, the year of the Roller Coaster. Sunday we made our late season visit to Cedar Point, (America's Roller Coast)! That made for my 4th amusement park and 5th location for roller coaster riding this year. When Mrs. P and I rode The Roller Coaster at New York, New York in Las Vegas back in April, I didn't think I would be on a quest to ride as many as possible this year. And I suppose it was only just an unofficial quest at that. I left as many as 6 on the table due to crowds or lack of time. And if it was an official quest, I would have paid visits to additional parks to ride even more coasters.

What I was able to accomplish wasn't bad though: Four amusement parks, Busch Gardens Europe, HersheyPark, King's Island, and Cedar Point, plus the New York, New York Casino in Vegas. I rode a grand total of 33 different coasters, some more than once. I now present, for your reading pleasure, my Top 10 Coasters of 2008.

10. The Beast - King's Island, Cincinnati, OH

The Beast is still the world's longest wooden coaster. And that thing gets going at a pretty good clip too! They don't call it the "Beast" for nothing.

9. Fahrenheit - HersheyPark, Hershey, PA

Fahrenheit was new at HersheyPark this year. It wasn't huge, but the lift hill climbs straight up, crests and goes straight down. Pretty cool! Lots of turns and rolls to keep you on your toes.

8. Raptor - Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH

Raptor is always good, but until this year, I hadn't ridden up in the front row. A totally different experience when you can see where you're going. The six inversions are some of the smoothest anywhere. Great Bear and Alpengeist are nearly identical, but I prefer Raptor.

7. Son of Beast - King's Island, Cincinnati, OH

Son of Beast is the world's tallest and fastest wooden coaster, and an amazing ride totally worth waiting to ride in the front seat. A 214 foot hill is something else on a wooden coaster, as is hitting nearly 80 mph.

6. Magnum XL200 - Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH

What can I say about Magnum XL200? It was the world's tallest and fastest coaster back in 1989 and still kicks the snot out of you. Jr. P agreed to ride it this year. He didn't mind the 205 foot drop or the 72 mph, but he didn't like all the airtime at the end. I did!

5. Apollo's Chariot - Busch Gardens Europe, Williamsburg, VA

Apollo's Chariot is taller and faster than Magnum. Plus you sit more on a moving platform than in a car. Lots of speed, good airtime, and very smooth.

4. Griffon - Busch Gardens Europe, Williamsburg, VA

Griffon is just different than anything else on the list. You wait at the top of the 205 foot hill, looking straight down, just waiting to take the plunge.

3. Top Thrill Dragster - Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH

Top Thrill Dragster is more different still at 420 feet tall and hitting 120 mph. You need to ride it to fully appreciate it. Mrs. P was coerced into riding it and nearly had to be sedated. There's only one taller than Top Thrill, but it's not by much. I rode this one twice.

2. Maverick - Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH

Maverick was new at Cedar Point last year and is amazing. There is so much going on! A fast lift hill followed by a 95 degree drop. That's right, it inverts while dropping! There are so many twists, turns, and hills, plus a linear launch halfway through that shoots you to 70 mph. This was almost my number 1!

1. Millennium Force - Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH

Millennium Force is my number 1. At 310 feet tall and hitting speeds of 93 mph, it's so FAST from start to finish. It never lets up. Cedar Point says that it broke 10 world records when it opened in 2000, and I believe them. Millennium Force snatched the title of Mr. Pythagoras' favorite roller coaster from Magnum on Sunday, and it's going to take something utterly astonishing to rest that title from it's grip.

I'm always on the lookout for new coasters to conquer, so feel free to leave me recommendations.

Mr. P

2008 Road Runner Akron Half Marathon

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds... but 10,000 runners will!

There was a record turnout for this year's Akron Marathon. Over 10,000 runners. Of course with the relay events, they weren't all on the course at the start, but that's a great showing none the less. The paragraph above came to mind when I saw a USPS truck stopped at an intersection as we ran by. He wasn't going anywhere for a while!

As for the run, I chose to run the half this year, and to save myself for the full in Columbus in 20 days. Next year I'm planning on doing the full at Akron and perhaps just the half at Columbus. Maybe the full, you know, just for fun.

I had a great race this year. All the speed work on the track really came through for me in this race. Although my mile splits did slow a bit from mile 1 to mile 13, they were all fairly even and fast (for me). I set yet another PR for the half marathon this year (3rd time) at 1:33:59. The results page is down right now, but if I remember correctly, I placed 9th in my age group and 50th overall. Not too shabby! Here are my mile splits:

6:44 / 6:59 / 7:01 / 6:53 / 7:12 / 7:08 / 7:19 / 7:28 / 7:10 / 7:21 / 7:18 / 7:18 / 8:02 (1.1 mile). I also had a 10K split of 43:37 and a 15K split of 1:06:20. The 15K is faster than my previous PR for that distance, and I'll need to check the 10K time. It's going to be close.

I felt really good Saturday. I had to park way down on the south end of downtown and jog in to the starting area. I had a little caffeine that morning which may have helped a little. The porta-potty lines were too long for me to get one last visit in, so I just lined up toward the front, about 25 feet back or so. I had a great start and felt really good going out a decent clip. I spotted Connie from the training group, and a world class ultra-marathoner I might add, caught her and ran with her for about a mile. I had to slow my pace a bit so I wished her luck and let her go. It was mid 60's for temps and a bit humid, so I couldn't maintain her pace for very long. Another thing about Akron is that the course is certainly NOT flat. Your pace will change as you run along the course. But for every hill, there's a descent, so it averages out nicely.

Having run the full last year, I wasn't familiar with the half course. They're identical until they split apart around mile 10 or 11. But as the full heads DOWN into the valley, the half begins to climb UP on Rt. 59. I wasn't expecting the elevation increase that late in the race and that close to the finish. I began experiencing some minor calf cramping, but was able to run through it.

It was an all around exceptional event. Count me in for next year. Especially with the way the economy is heading down the crapper, I'm going to be focusing on events closer to home in 2009. And this is one event I'm glad is so close to home.

Mr. P

How to Get Boxer Slobber Off Your Leg, and Other Handy Tips While Running Long Distances

Well, you are probably now asking, "Mr. Pythagoras, how DO you get Boxer dog slobber off your leg during a long run?" I pondered this very dilemma this morning for about a half mile before the answer struck me, and I just scraped it off onto the side of a bench. I was initially tempted to wipe it off with my hand, and then wipe my hand on the dew kissed grass. But then I thought to myself, "EWWWW!" That dog could have just been licking it's nads or a-hole (medical terminology), I don't want to touch it with the same hands that are going to be wiping sweat off my face or handling my water bottles. You can never underestimate the flexibility of a dog, and their ability to reach less than desirable locations!

But now, back to my long run. The plan was to go out for 3:20 to 3:30 and hope to cover up to 23 miles. I ended up running for 3:16, and covering 23 miles. Good enough! I was very tired this morning. I just didn't feel any energy for some reason. My pace was better than I felt, however, and I ended up with my intended mileage in a shorter period of time.

Once again, I took advantage of the school tracks in Medina to get some mile splits. The first one was at A.I. Root Middle School at 13.1 miles into my run. So at the half marathon distance I ran an 8:04 mile. I'll take that, considering my marathon pace is a bit slower than that, around an 8:30 to 8:45 pace.

My second mile split was at Medina High School at 18.8 miles into the run. I turned that one out in 8:33, right at my marathon pace. By this point I was getting extremely tired. The legs just weren't feeling fresh and I was laboring in my breathing just to maintain a steady pace. I took my first gel at Root, and my second at the high school. I had packed four bottles of Gatorade Endurance and had gone through three of them. Maybe I should have planned to consume more gels, intake more calories out on the road. Maybe I should have eaten a bigger breakfast, more calories before starting. Whichever, I was hitting the wall.

My third and final mile split was at Claggett Middle School at 20.5 miles into the run. By this point, my form was deteriorating to the point that my knee began bothering me. I had to walk a 150 meter portion to avoid making my knee worse. My split here was 9:32. Definitely too slow. I took another gel and downed a good bit of water before leaving on the home stretch.

I had to walk another portion on the way home due to my knee. I was able to pop it a couple times, and eventually didn't have any more problems. One of these days, I'm going to have it looked at. Something in there gets in the wrong place sometimes, and it hurts. Bad.

The rest of the way home was somewhat uneventful. But that leads me to another running tip. Don't cross intersections in front of old ladies in cars. Even if you have the right of way. They've forgotten how to drive by this point, so just stop, wait, and when they finally do see you, make an "after you" motion with your hands and give them a big condescending smile. The "what the hell?" look on their faces is priceless.

I was so tired when I got home that it hurt. I didn't cramp at all. I wasn't building up lactic acid the way you do while sprinting. My legs were just drained to the point they hurt. And wouldn't stop hurting. For those non-runners out there, when your legs hurt, you stop running and walk, and the pain goes away. This pain didn't really begin until I was done. I'm sure some of it was mental, but it was agonizing. It cleared after 30 minutes or so, but man, I'd love to get to the point where that doesn't happen. It sucked. Massage please?

Well that's it. That was my last long run before Columbus. It's all shorter than that from now on. Hopefully I can have a good taper, rest up, and be ready to rock in October.

Mr. P

Speed Work Updates (a little late)

Better late than never, though. I need to update the last two track workouts. First, from Sept. 9, I had a great speed session. The best yet. Since the number of runners has dwindled with the onset of cross country season, those of us still hitting the track each week have agreed to concentrate on running 800s. We all seem to be training for a fall marathon, and these 800 repetitions sure seem to be effective. This day we did 8 X 800 meters. Since my speed has gotten better, I was shooting for 3:15 as a target time. I'm happy to say all my times were under that. The first one being a 2:57 and the last one a 3:04, my two fastest times. I also had 4 at 3:09 and 2 at 3:11. I guess I get an A for consistency.

As for this week, it was my best speed session yet! We had cool temps in the mid 60s with a little breeze that was just strong enough to make things chilly by the time we were done. We did 9 X 800 meters, with the plan being to increase to 10 for next week. My splits were as follows: 3:10 / 3:12 / 3:10 / 3:12 / 3:10 / 3:09 / 3:09 / 3:09 / 3:05. Yes, that is the fastest split on the last 800. The amazing thing is this was two days after a VERY hard race. I was still sore and my legs felt tired. I kept getting more sore later that night too. I felt about back to normal yesterday, but today I'm good to go. Which is good, because I'm planning a few miles for tomorrow morning. My last long training run for Columbus, and the longest so far. I'm planning to run for 3:20 to 3:30 (hours) and hoping to cover upwards of 22 to 23 miles. We'll just have to wait and see how that works out in the AM.

Mr. P

2008 Mizuno Columbus 15 Miler

It's Tuesday and I had better write about this now, or run the risk of putting it off to the point that I don't at all. Things have been so busy at work and at home that I'm still missing a training report from last week's speed workout as well. I'm going to try to tie that one in with this week's a little later.

The race was Sunday morning, before the remnants of Ike decided to "blow" through the Great State of Ohio. I drove down from Medina that morning instead of staying in Columbus overnight because we had to make some last minute changes to the weekend due to the poor health of our dog Penny. The temperature when I began driving at 5:00 AM was 76 degrees. It only dropped a couple degrees by the time I got to Alum Creek State Park. Did I mention that it was also about 75% humidity? It was. It was wet. Our one saving grace that day was a stiff breeze. A breeze out of the south bringing with it the sweet smell of hops and barley from the Anheiser-Busch brewery miles away.

After an easy warm-up of about a mile, I decided that I felt good enough to try to run this race at my half-marathon pace rather than just maintaining my slower, more comfortable marathon pace. That meant I was going to hurt a little. But I didn't hurt that much. All the hard repetitions on the track had me pushing, but without the effort I was expecting. Even the heat didn't get to me the way it was getting to others. I was hot and sweating a ton, but I was aware of it and took extra care at the water stops to replace as much fluids as I could. I only suffered from some minor cramping in the last 2 to 3 miles. But I was able to work through it and finished strong. My finish time was 1:58:22. I finished first in my age group. I passed a kid (or so I thought) with about 150 yards to go, who ended up placing second in our age group. Glad I put the hammer down going into the finish line. I would have hated to have been caught by him after all the effort during the 14.95 miles before that!

For anyone interested, here are my mile splits:
Mile 1 - 7:12
Mile 2 - 7:41
Mile 3 - 7:39
Mile 4 - 7:44
Mile 5 - 7:37
Mile 6 - 7:43
Mile 7 - 7:57
Mile 8 - 8:02 (began walking through the water stops)
Mile 9 - 7:52
Mile 10 - 8:26
Mile 11 - 8:12
Mile 12 - 7:51
Mile 13 - 8:20
Mile 14 - 8:18
Mile 15 - 7:41

Overall, not a bad course. We started at the beach area, wound around the parking lot, and headed out the south end towards the dam. There is a great gravel path back there that winds up and down and around through a dense stand of trees. I never new that was back there. Some of the other races that are held at Alum Creek should take advantage of that trail and incorporate it into their courses. The run over the dam and levee was the windiest section, but that felt magnificent. Running on the road was just alright. The roads were still open to traffic, but there wasn't too much that early on a Sunday. My biggest gripe was the non-removal of road kill from the course. Those things STANK! Especially the deer with missing hind quarter. YOU try running past something like that, breathing very hard, and not gagging, and see if you enjoy it. Otherwise a well run event, though on the small side, that I might consider doing again in the future.

Take care and look for a track training update sometime.

Mr. P

2008 Portage Lakes Sprint Duathlon

And so upon finishing today's race, I close another multi-sport season. 2008 was my second season in a row, but my eighth overall. I've had a good season, competing in six sprint distance duathlons. I've come to realize a couple things this year. One is that I am more competitive in the shorter races than the Olympic distance events. Another is that, try as I might, I'm not going to be as fast as the top guys overall, or even in my age group. I am going to take that knowledge into consideration when I choose the direction my racing will go next year.

I finished 4th in my age group today in the series finale for HFP Racing. We were at Portage Lakes State Park in Akron, OH, which kicked my ass last year. Of course last year the elements conspired against me, namely 30 degree temps at the start, competing in the Olympic distance, and a wicked hangover from my brother's 30th birthday party the night before. This year I was well rested, competing in the shorter race, and most decidedly NOT hungover. (I got that out of my system Monday at Oktoberfest.) While 4th in my AG, I was 18 out of 75 overall. That should tell you how competitive these older age groups are. My bike was slow with an average speed of just 17.6 mph. My lack of training on the bike really shows up on hilly courses. I did have some high points, however. My runs kicked ASS today! Seriously! All this track work is really paying off in these shorter distances. I had the second fastest Run 1 in my AG at 21:23. That's a 6:54 per mile pace. It was also the 12th fastest Run 1 split overall. My Run 2 time was just as good at 22:44, a 7:20 per mile pace. That was also the 2nd fastest Run 2 split in my AG and the 11th fastest overall. I knew I felt good on the runs and my splits prove it. Also, my transitions were the fastest in the AG at 50 seconds and 45 seconds respectively. If my bike would have been better than the 42 minute slog that it was, 37th position, I would have had a lovely outing today.

All in all, I can't complain. I know where I can make the most improvement for next year. I know where I'm strong right now, and I need to maintain that. I have some plans for change next year, but I'm not going to reveal the specifics just yet.

For right now, I'm going to rest. Rest, and prepare for my 15 miler this Sunday.

Mr. P

Is it September Already?

I mean, we just got done with Christmas and New Year's and all. The year went by too fast. So did my duathlon season. My last race is this Sunday at Portage Lakes State Park. At least I can spend the night before in my own bed. Sleeping at home always makes for a more pleasant night's sleep than staying in a hotel or with relatives.

Just a couple training bits of note for the week. I did two track workouts this week, Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday was the real speed workout and last night only a few miles with the family. Mrs. P is trying to figure out how to reduce her 5K time and increase her endurance. Jr. P also needs to work on his endurance for soccer. He wasn't as interested in running last night as the Mrs. was.

On Tuesday, there were just three of us at the high school, myself and two really fast masters runners. We agreed to just stick with 800 repeats. More Yasso 800s for marathon preparation. I don't have a specific marathon goal time to associate to the 800s but I want to run them as hard as I can. My target time was around a 3:15 to 3:30 pace.

Warm-up - 1 mile
800m - 3:03
400m rest
800m - 3:19
400m rest
800m - 3:08
400m rest
800m - 3:15
400m rest
800m - 3:14
400m rest
800m - 3:14
400m rest
800m - 3:20
400m rest
800m - 3:12
Cool-down - 1 mile

As you can see, my times were around 3:15 for the most part and trended toward 3:00 flat a couple times. Overall, a total mileage of 7.75 miles including the 400m recovery jogs. A workout I'm very pleased with. We were running in mid 80s to 90 degrees with a bit of humidity thrown in for good measure.

Last night however, was a bit on the slow side. We did a mile at around a 12 minute pace. Then we did another mile and a half with interspersed pick-ups, bounding, striders, butt-kickers, and sprints. That was about all she wrote for Mrs. P. While they were walking a half mile cool-down, I went and ran a 7:13 mile. It was supposed to be a cool-down mile, but ended up being a fast tempo pace instead. The geese on the infield were giving me the eye whenever I came around the back corner. They were literally about 10 feet from the track. I could have veered right into them and they wouldn't have been able to move quick enough. But that whole flock suddenly took off a few minutes after I finished because a pug was running around on the track. A PUG! It was having a good old time just running here and there, but those geese were gone!

That's it for now. I'll be back after Sunday's race.

Mr. P