A Tune Up Race

This weekend was supposed to be my 30k tune up race, but due to being on the crew (not sure yet if I'm lining or refereeing) for the state class AA championship game held at the historic Cambria County War Memorial Arena I have 'settled' for a local 5k run. Ironically enough it was a race I had a direct hand in starting at my former job. The Pennsylvania Highlands Community College Spring to Success 5k will be held this Saturday morning and is the former Fall Frolic that was missed this past fall. They have changed the location of the course and instead of a 5k/10k choice format limited it to a 5k walk or run. So I'm not sure if you can call it formally the 3rd Annual Penn Highlands race or not, but I will. And to date it will be the only race I have run since its' inception.

With an officiating assignment during the afternoon it will be another day to remember for me since I have never run a race and then worked a game (especially of this magnitude) before. But the marathon training has suffered enough. I will run the race to see where I am. I'm feeling good about the recovery I've made in the past two weeks, and hope to continue onward strong toward Frederick.

Nemesis Wind

Easter Sunday. Sunshine soaks the sky and all of my surroundings. I venture out for my longest run of the 2008 season; a 15 miler that I must get in if I want to stay on track to go to Frederick.

As great as it looks outside, there is a nemesis that I will struggle with in battle all afternoon; the wind. I've run in harsher wind before, but this wind is biting; knifing through my layers with each subtle gust. It is a deceiving sunsoaked afternoon. But I get through it, and feel as though I'll be alright.

The hot shower never felt better.

A New Record

Well, went out on a speed work training run today that consisted of a 1.5 mile warmup, followed by an 800, 1200, mile, mile, 1200 and 800 in that order.

On my first 800 run, I did a 2:55, which was 0:02 seconds faster than my previous fast 800 run. Today was an important day for me, since I've been questioning my readiness for the marathon. This weekend was the first weekend since December that I did not have hockey games and could focus on my training exclusively.

Step 1 is in the books. If I can get through a long slow 15 miler this Sunday fairly unscathed I feel I'll be back on track for the most part and should be able to remove any self-doubt of my ability to get to and through Frederick. I should know better. My training leading up to Philadelphia was awful, and yet it is my PR and 0:04 miss on Boston.

I'll steal a phrase from Oral Roberts University, who lost horribly to Pitt (yes!) on Thursday in the NCAA tournament. "Expect a Miracle". If I qualify, it won't quite be a miracle but it will definitely be a little amazing. But I'm in the business of amazement.

Oh, Where...Oh, Where....

Have I been?

Let's see. Skating. A lot. And all over. Yes, this is a running blog. And yes, I'm preparing for a marathon that I will run in 6 1/2 weeks. But March has come in like a lion and continued to roar for me.

Officiating has taken the forefront for the past three weeks. March is usually a bit crazy but this has been really crazy. After not working on March 1 (the date of my last post and you can read what fun I had the night before), I began a string of five consecutive nights on the ice. I got the 7th of March off and then worked four more in a row. After a two day break I spent this past weekend in Indianapolis working six games in three days for the Mid-Am Districts. I finally completed my string of nightmare by going to Pittsburgh last night and worked the AA Penguin Cup Championship game between Latrobe and Franklin Regional (a 3-2 OT win for Latrobe).

Needless to say I've been extremely stretched to the limits of my abilities and fatigue has been a major factor. I have questioned my health, but write it off as simply insanity times ten and I just need time off. Time off is what I have taken. Because of multiple game tournaments I have not had either speedwork or long runs the past couple of weekends in preparing for my marathon. I remember now why I said I wouldn't do a spring marathon again. I have thought about backing out, but with 6 1/2 weeks to go I will not make that decision until I see how training rebounds over the next two weeks. I am scheduled for the state championship on 3/29, but do not lace up skates until then. Now I should be able to focus for the next ten days and gauge where I am physically. If I am not up to par, I will make a tough decision on April 1. But until then, I press on.

Since I like to have fun with numbers. A quick summary of the first 18 days of March, 2008:

• worked 13 of 17 nights (March 2 through March 18)
• 20 games in those 13 nights
• 9 different rinks

No wonder I'm tired. Also posting a pic or two from Indianapolis. Overall, a fun trip and would do it again.

Coffee Anyone?

After yesterday I am glad that Leap Year comes only once every four years. Asked to work Game 1 of the College Hockey East Championship Series at Airport Ice Arena in Coraopolis, PA (out by Pittsburgh International Airport...duh) I reluctantly agreed to go. I have issues saying no when asked to do hockey games, but that's another topic for another day. So why the pic of the Dunkin Donuts? I left work at 3:30 p.m. yesterday to leave plenty of time to make it to the Airport for the 7:30 p.m. game. With college games you have to be ready to go on the ice 45 minutes prior to the start time so I needed to be there by 6:30 p.m. at the latest. With an oncoming snowstorm (which will forever be known to me as the 2008 Leap Day Snowstorm), I figured three hours was plenty of time.

With speeds going down as low as 35 mph on the PA Turnpike it was slow going. Driving right into the heart of the storm I figured traffic wouldn't be an issue once I got to the Parkway, but I knew I'd have to battle outgoing traffic through the Fort Pitt Tunnels and down 279 South. Still, I slowly made my way to the Parkway where traffic was backed up as if there were a Steelers or Penguins home game (notice I didn't mention the Pirates). Crawling through the first set of tunnels, I thought I would have plenty of time to get to the Motel 6 by the rink to check in (got a cheap rate on Orbitz for 39 bucks) and get to the rink. Luckily as I got to within about 200 yards of the turnoff to go over the Fort Pitt Bridge and through the tunnels into snarled Friday afternoon traffic my cell phone rang. It ws the CHE Commissioner notifying me that he reluctantly was canceling the game.

Angry? Sure. But I suppose a couple of years ago I would have been livid. I understood having just traveled through hell. And I actually felt fortunate that I got the call "just in time". Had I made the left, I would have had to battle the traffic and then find a way to get turned around. As it was I was able to head over to the North Shore and formulate a plan. Having spoken with Becky about an hour earlier her report to me was that from Blairsville home was a nightmare. I had taken 2 hours and 25 minutes to travel what normally would have taken me 1 hour 15 minutes so I knew I had a tough call. But first, call Motel 6. They understood and canceled my reservation.

I figured I'd drive out of the city and head to an outlying area (Murrysville, Delmont) to a Holiday Inn Express or Days Inn to shore up for the night. But the snow continued to fall and the traffic I saw on the way in made me less than ecstatic to head back out of town. So I reluctantly went over to the Springhill Suites next door to PNC Park where I have stayed before and am a Marriott Rewards member. Between that and my AAA I got a decent rate and spent the night in downtown Pittsburgh to avoid any further nightmare.

Waking this morning I headed out in much better weather and 1000% better road conditions. Loving Dunkin Donuts (my new favorite with Sheetz a close second), I stopped in Murrysville and picked up another needed pound of coffee. Over Christmas I saw the mugs as well and have been wanting to get one. Bottom line, I went to Pittsburgh in a snowstorm for coffee and a mug. That and I suppose a few tax breaks on next year's taxes. Perhaps I'll get reimbursed for some of my expenses and possibly even some hazard pay for the game. Time will tell.

Oh, and the adventure was not over when I arrived back home at 10:30 this morning. With most of the 6 inches that fell in the Pittsburgh area nearly gone by this morning, I drove home to the following 1 foot plus of snow that fell back here. The pics are AFTER I shoveled out the sidewalks. Becky did a great job of setting me up and handled it last night so a big thanks to her. Still, several additional inches fell overnight and made my arrival home a treat.

Hot Toddy!!

No, I'm not suddenly gay. I found a home remedy online today that I'm going to give a shot. A hot toddy is comprised of 1/4 cup of honey and two squeezed lemons boiled slowly. Toss in a double shot of Captain Morgan's or some of your other favorite rum or whiskey and supposedly the relief is to be amazing.

So I hit the liquor store today, then the grocery store and came home with a new plan. The over the counter experiments are over and this is my final ditch effort before bringing in the big guns (my doctor).

Armed with this new remedy in mind and a somewhat improved sense of well being, I hit the treadmill after work for a quick 4-miler. Finally, back to running. I almost waited until Sunday and hope that I don't regret this run tomorrow morning. Then again, if I do regret it how will I know it will be from the run? It could also be the rum. Guess I'll have to wait and see. Now I can say, as the commercial claims, "got a little Captain in me".

Havin' Some Fun With the Numbers

I get caught up in the numbers. For someone who doesn't like, nor has ever liked math it is amazing how often I track things numerically. Sometimes to a fault. For instance; having not run a mile since a week ago today it bothers me that my yearly mileage is down and that I've not been able to log a mile for that length of time. Obviously it is the wise thing to do as I seem to be feeling just a bit better today and I probably need a few more days to fully recover. There have been times I've come back from an injury or an illness too quickly just to "get the number up" or "log" the miles. Wrong thing to do.

But after going through the previous week with what I'm calling a case of bronchitis (there I go self-diagnosing again) I walked off the ice last night and felt a sense of relief at what I had just accomplished. When my illness began and I looked at my calendar I knew I would be entering a tough stretch of hockey season. Just getting through it felt like an accomplishment. But in the condition I was in and fighting and battling to get over it while maintaining myself at work and on the ice was very tough. Looking back, here are some numbers I walked away with that make it all the more amazing:

• 6 - days of officiating in a row (last time I did this was in January, 2006 and only did 8 games during that stretch. I did a 9-out-of-10-day stretch back in December, 2002)
• 13 - games (most in that short a span ever)
• 6 - rinks (Kirk Nevin Arena, War Memorial Arena, North Central Recreation Center, Center Ice Arena, Valley Sports Complex, Harmarville Bladerunners)
• 10 - different officiating partners
• 567 - miles put on my car going to all of these games
• 100 - did my hundredth game of the season on Monday night, which is the seventh consecutive season with 100+ games worked in a season.
• 3 - different types of cold and sinus medication in an attempt to get myself through it all.

Much like last year's AA Penguin Cup Championship day when I ran 18 miles and then worked a double overtime game, this late February stretch of 2008 will be a week to remember to say the least.

I Must Be Stupid

How else to explain what I just did over the past five days. Ironically enough, I did not run. Not even a half mile. Last Wednesday I ran a 4 miler despite the feeling that my "cold" had moved into my chest. Following the rule of thumb that I've read over and over again that if your illness is from the neck up - run. Below the neck? Don't run. Well, a sore throat would not keep me from running.

I had planned another 4-miler on the morning of Feb. 14 but woke up to a hoarse voice and chest congestion. Follow the simple rule. I would not run until the chest thing had passed. Unfortunately for me I had to referee two games Thursday night and then agreed to work two games in a U18 Tier I tournament on Friday night. With an afternoon Bantam game scheduled for Saturday afternoon and an evening high school game for Saturday night, my weekend would not provide me with the proper rest I felt I was going to need. Despite this fact, I agreed to go back for three Tier I games on Sunday morning in New Kensington (little over an hour away) knowing I had to work a charity game back home Sunday night.

With my "chest cold" looking like it was heading in the right direction on Saturday night, despite my stupidity, I had a re-occurence on Sunday. Even though my better judgment cried out to not take a game on Monday I agreed to go to Harmarville Monday morning for a 7:00 a.m. Tier I game (1 hour, 15 minute drive). That meant getting up at 4:30 a.m. Monday morning. Getting through it I came home, changed clothes and took the wife to Altoona for some shopping and a "make up" lunch for basically missing Valentine's Day and not being at home all weekend.

Arriving back home yesterday afternoon, I snuck in an hour nap and then headed back down to the War Memorial for a varsity game. My six-day episode ends with a late game tonight and hopefully some needed rest. Although I am not hacking that badly, I still have chest congestion. My patience is thin, but I can't help but think that I've done this to myself and I simply must wait until I am feeling well enough to run again.

I take solace in the fact that I had an 11-day break during training for Philadelphia with plantar fasciitis. In a weird way I think that helped me. And with all of the skating I'm doing, I'm not losing much in terms of my anaerobic level.

Although this stupid idiot needs some rest and recovery. Big time!

My Once A Week

I don't plan on making it a habit to post only once a week. Too many other circumstances (hockey, illness, work) have gotten in the way of late. I have been battling illness for the better part of two weeks and yesterday it kind of got the best of me. I didn't do my morning run, although I lifted weights, but had to leave work early and today am on a very rare sick day.

With 5 nights of refereeing in the next 6 nights, I plan on taking it easy today, maybe have some soup and try to get beyond this as quickly as possible. I suppose so goes winter. With over 11 weeks to go until Frederick, I'm not what I would consider "on schedule", but I'm not far off despite my low mileage. I'm not panicking. At least it's not injury. (I hope I don't eat those words).

Slackin' But Still Here

I think I might have gone the longest stretch ever without a post. Guess I haven't had much to say. Things are kind of muddling along. This is always a very tough time of year. Overcoming the cold is even tougher when the hockey games mean more and tensions run high. Toss in the fact that work has been really busy and very difficult and I suppose I can begin to understand why I feel as if I'm in a funk.

Without running the risk of jinxing myself, I can say that at least my running has been consistent with very few hitches (I hope that doesn't come back to haunt me). My mileage has been low, but consistent. I haven't had many difficulties in terms of injuries. Minor aches and pains associated with refereeing and the normal wear and tear that running does. Otherwise, I've been lucky.

Things are about to change. They will be intensifying. Yes, I've done some speedwork the past couple of weeks. And my Sunday long runs will increase over the next few weeks (did 9 this past Sunday). With just over 12 1/2 weeks until the big day, I will also be refereeing consistently over the next 4-5 of those weeks, with the season potentially going on over the next 7 weeks (depending on playoff assignments). I normally live for this time of year. I guess I just need to get to the end of this month. That is what I'm waiting for.