Christian Renaud's Blog

Kick(ed) out the Jams!

What a great training month. Rapid training progress is good for a constant buzz and a really gratifying endorphin/serotonin glow.

I went from 48.75 miles in December at an 11:41 pace to 60.21 miles at a 10:06 pace in January, which means that I hit my stretch goal of 60 miles as well as dropping my pace below 11:00 which is what I was aiming for at the beginning of the month (not to mention hitting my resolution and keeping my hair, which is fortunate as it has got rather arctic around Iowa this week).  I also incorporated some extra stretching, yoga, and upper-body work within the last few days which has really helped recovery times.

As a test, today I decided to 'kick out the jams' and see if I could sprint for the three remaining miles between yesterday's 57 and today's 60 mile milestone, and was able to set a new personal best for the 5k (27:50).  I may need to recalibrate the Nike+iPod sensor again, methinks, as my treadmill told me I was running <8 Min miles, not 8:56 on average as the sensor reported.

On a whim, I decided to look in on the finishing times for the annual Des Moines Dam to Dam race to see where my 5k time would place me in the pack of 750 or so finishers.......248th.  Thus, my longer term goal is to break the top 100 finishing times, which means I will need to work up from 8:56 to 7:30 or thereabouts.  I think the kid who led the pack with a 5:03 pace is a bit out of my reach, realistically.

As far as short term goals, since February is a short month, how about these?  55 Miles minimum, 65 Miles stretch goal, and less than a 10:00/mile pace minimum, with a sub 9:30/mile pace stretch goal (for the month). Also, as I wrote before, I will be part of a broader Nike+ challenge to run 50 miles in February, which should be attainable barring me over-training and bringing on yet-another-injury.  I will also be traveling non-stop from February 19th until March 3rd, so I'll need to improvise a fair bit to stick with it.  Setting a public goal (this blog) is good motivation to get out of bed in a strange town and hit the pavement, as it was in January when it provided the impetus to run in California as well as North Carolina.

And so the clock starts again.  Man vs. Himself is so much harder than Man vs. Man sometimes.

Stay of Execution

Ok, I made 50 miles in January despite the down-week due to injury.  No shaved head for me, which is fortunate as it was -3 degrees Fahrenheit when we went out for breakfast this morning.  I cannot begin to imagine how much colder that would be with a bald head.

As I said at the beginning of the month, my personal 'stretch' goal for January was to get to 60 miles.  Tomorrow is not a running day (just weights), so that leaves me Tuesday and Wednesday to close up 7 miles to hit my stretch goal.  It's harder to get motivated given that these are all indoor miles on a treadmill vs. outdoor miles in the woods, but better than the alternative, 7 miles in -3 degree weather.

I signed up for a challenge to run 50 miles in February, for which I am going to focus on form and speed rather than distance.  That, more weights, and hopefully integrate some yoga.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5.......

I am entering the home stretch on my way to 50 miles in January.  The next 4-5 days are going to be busy and well-traveled in the air and the ground, with some strange hours that should make training time hard to come by.  This is going to be a close one, so those of you betting against me should probably start sharpening those shears for the shaving.

For the rest of you not rooting for an even-more-hideous-bald-Christian, wish me luck.

The Butterfly Effect

Perhaps I am just jaded, but I don't get that many 'truly unique' experiences anymore.

Today was an exception.

Somewhere on the other side of the planet, the social secretary for the Prime Minister of Egypt was deliberating if the PM could meet with the CEO of my company tomorrow morning at 8am in Switzerland.  They were undecided.

If it fell through, my CEO was scheduled to hold an interview with a prominent news organization, with a subject-matter-expert or two in virtual attendance, including myself.  It would be at 8am Zurich time, which is 2am EST, my timezone du jour.

I had to explain to my daughter on a videoconference from North Carolina to Iowa this evening how the Prime Minister of Egypt was going to ultimately decide if her daddy got to sleep the night before he flew home to see her.  She was understandably perplexed.  How could a social-secretary flapping his wings in Egypt cause a stiff wind in North Carolina that would keep her daddy awake??

BRIC this!

There has been a trend in recent years, in economic conversations, to refer to 'BRIC' opportunities.  BRIC, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China, is another way of saying 'look at all the markets that will open up for us to exploit', as well as the potential threats to US global economic hegemony.  Goldman Sachs has a  great paper on the ramifications of the rise of the BRICs here.

About a year ago, I read a very interesting book on the history of tea (being an avowed Teaist), Tea: Addiction, Exploitation, and Empire by Roy Moxham, which spend a considerable amount of time on how the English and Dutch exploited their territories in India, Sri Lanka, and China for the Opium and Tea trade.  My wife recently read me  excerpts from Empress Orchid by Anchee Min, which spent some time on how the British diplomatic efforts within China to make sure that they would continue to buy their opiates.  Not only that, but when the Chinese tried to resist the opiate trade from the British, the Brits pummeled their opposition brutally, then made the Chinese pay them reparations for their resistance.

I stumbled upon this item in my inbox this morning showing the historic percent of GDP of China and India versus the United States.  We tend to think of China and India as just now being rising powers, but history shows us otherwise.

What I want to hunt down is, during the same period, what the British and Dutch percent of GDP was.  Since the majority of profits from the legal opium trade at the time went to the East India Company, it should be reflected in the data, right?

Addition: Here is another interesting graphic on GDP stats, with countries represented as US States.  I dont know exactly how this maps to size/contribution, but it's a cute graphic nonetheless.

Pins down people......

....Enough with the voodoo-doll treatment already!

I had some good runs up to 1/11, then took my standard day-off to recuperate.  About mid-day through the recuperation day, my left side started aching, and by the end of the day, was in sharp pain with every deep breath.

So, after some doctor consultation, chest x-rays, blood work, and overall lack of diagnosis, I consulted the Madman once again.  He pointed me towards some great articles on running 'stitches', which led me to my old Gray's anatomy text.  It looks like I have damaged a ligament, cartilage or tendon around my splenic flexure (under the left ribcage), which hurts like hell with every big bounce on the treadmill and precludes any semblance of deep breathing.

This bodes poorly for miles this week, which is unfortunate as I spent some of the weekend re-doing the home gym area with my wife (it looks GOOOOOD).  Luckily, I had clocked 27+ miles before the injury, so if I can take a week or so off to let this heal, I can still hit my goal of 50 for the month.  I may still end up bald-as-a-cueball at the end of this month if the alternative is damaging something important, as I can always grow hair back but this thing cannot be rushed.  Its going to be 'hello dumbells' for me and some other big muscle work while this thing heals.

On target

Despite the widget at right that presents outdated training statistics from Nike, I am actually doing pretty good towards achieving my resolution of 50 miles in January.  Today was 5 miles on the treadmill at a 10:02 per mile pace, which was tough from 2.5 miles to 4 miles when the sins of last night's dinner (Petite Filet , Lobster tail with drawn butter, and two glasses of Smith and Hook Cabernet) began to haunt me.  After 4 miles, it was all smooth sailing again.

Needless to say, my wife is happy to hear of my progress towards my 50 mile resolution. I haven't told her about my personal goal to actually hit 60 miles in January.  :-)

Brushes with greatness

I started reading 'The Ghost Map' by Steven Johnson about the cholera outbreak in London in the late 1840s. Steven has written some excellent prior books including Mind Wide Open, Emergence and Everything Bad is Good for you, all of which I recommend.  In this book, there is a map showing the disease concentrations and how the bacteria spread from two specific well-heads, the first off of Broad street and the second off of Carnaby street.  In looking closely at the map, I noticed that the Carnaby well was located right outside what is now the Shakepeare's Head tavern, and EXACTLY where this photo was taken.

So, of all the places to stop and get a pint in London, Greg and I stopped at exactly one of the two primary points infamous for the Cholera outbreak of 1849 that killed 50,000 people. 

I mentioned this to him yesterday, and his response was "2 out of 2". Evidently the popular location during our last outing to London, the Millennium Hotel bar, was the location where Alexander Litvinenko ingested his radioactive cocktail.

Ok, it was strange enough to be in Windows on the World in the World Trade Center the week prior to 9/11 (and out of the country during 9/11 in Mexico), as well as out of the country during the most recent shenanigans at Heathrow (the terrorists, not the weather debacle), but now it's getting strange.  :-)

On a lighter note, the previous book that I finished was atypically a work of fiction, The Long Ships by Frans Gunnar Bengtsson.  I highly recommend this romp of a book. It was a breath of fresh air.

Yes, more running....

My father called the other night to inform me that my blog had  degenerated into a running-log of my training habits, in sharp contrast to earlier, weightier posts. 

Guilty as charged.

It was a good day running today, and received lots of friendly encouragement over email and IM,as well as a cheerful prayer that I suffer from some non-serious illness that prevents me from running 50 miles in January.

Halfway there

I ran 10k yesterday, up and around the local running trails, and managed to do so without walking for more than about 2 minutes of the hour total, mostly on the steep uphill grade to the dam.  My time was nearly a 10 min mile pace, which is nothing to brag about, but a new record for me for that distance.  It matches my 5k pace of the other day, so I am happy overall as well as how I am tracking in running faster AND running farther sustained distance.  A beautiful day with a really gratifying run.

I think a lot of the benefit came from the shorter faster runs I clocked in the last week, fueling, and training my body to run at 10 min miles vs. 11 min miles for 5k.  Since my 12/23 run, I have gone from running a 10k at a 12:36 pace to running a 10k at a 10:06 pace.

The next goal I have, other than trying to exceed my monthly milage total again, is to reduce my per-mile pace to 9 minutes, as well as do the same lap I did yesterday without stopping, which should be a worthy goal given the distance and angle of the uphill leg.  Having said that, I see in the weather forecast that snow is finally headed towards Iowa, so it may make the outdoor running logistics harder.  If I can do that, I may enter a 5k or 10k when I am on the road in February, like the President's day run in San Mateo.

On a lighter note, to remind myself to train while I am traveling in January, I made a public resolution (right) to run 50 miles this month or I will shave my head.  That should keep me on the trails around San Jose and Raleigh (or at least the treadmills around San Jose and Raleigh) in January.