My Track Record

My wife and I are VERY eager to see Phil smile. It's not that he's developmentally delayed in this respect; according to our handy "Baby Milestones" chart, most kids don't smile until they're close to two months old. It's just that we think we deserve some positive feedback to compensate for all the crying -- some indication that he doesn't hate us.

For now, though, Phil is resolutely maintaining a front of antagonism and indifference. I occasionally tell him how annoying this is; I figure that as long as my demeanor is gentle, I can say whatever I want. When he interferes with my attempts to search and apply for jobs, for example, I say, "Look, if you don't stop crying, Daddy will be unemployed next year, and then we'll be out on the street, and we'll starve, and we'll die. Is that really what you want?"

Yes, it's a pretty silly way to vent my frustration. I hope to come up with a better one soon.

Posted by crowther at 10:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In brief, my 2006 racing results can be summarized as a strong showing at the Houston Ultra Event Weekend 100K in February followed by a series of disappointments at shorter distances. To try to close out the year on a high note, I'm going back to the Houston area, this time for the Sunmart 50-Mile Trail Race on December 9th.

From my perspective, Sunmart has several advantages. It's long, so my lack of speed isn't a big liability, and the terrain isn't technically challenging, so my lack of trail-running nimbleness isn't a big liability either. Also, the race covers travel expenses for runners like me... So, my lack of money? Not a big liability!

With the continuing indulgence of my wife, I've done a decent amount of training lately: weekly mileages in the 70s and 80s, and biweekly long runs of 25-37 miles at 6:15-6:30 pace. Those long runs have been a challenge to schedule, not just because of the baby and work but because November has been the wettest Seattle month in over 50 years, and running 20-plus miles in a downpour is more than I can handle. The weather has been so bad that, when I was able to sneak in the first 13 miles of yesterday's 26-miler before the rain returned, I considered it a real coup.

Maybe it will be sunnier at Sunmart.

Posted by crowther at 6:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Scott is someone I met several years ago through our mutual friend Holly. At the time, he was a pastor and I had lots of questions about what Christians believe and why. In an act of generosity that is still hard for me to fathom, he spent many hours (spread over many mornings) discussing his faith with me, even though I was not a member of his congregration (or any congregation, for that matter). He and his wife also had me over for Thanksgiving dinner one year when I otherwise would have dined alone.

Now Scott has liver cancer, and his prognosis looks grim. I wouldn't bring this up except that he's discussing it publicly in his blog, "Aufhebung." That's the Scott I know -- someone who shares his insights, struggles, strength, and humor with everyone, regardless of affiliation. For an inspiring example of facing tragedy with poise, read his blog.

Posted by crowther at 10:28 PM | Permalink

Q. What's Phil's running shoe size and preference? (submitted by Dave from Seattle, WA)

A. It's hard to say for certain, but he seems to take his footwear cues from Abebe Bikila. (And as my dad pointed out, "Abebe," if pronounced correctly, is a good nickname for a boy of Phil's age.)

Q. What are Phil's likely career options? (submitted by Jack from Rutland, VT)

A. He swings his arms back and forth a lot, and he also grunts a lot, so he'll probably become a longshoreman or a pro tennis player.

Q. Whom does Phil look like? (submitted by Wanda from Olympia, WA)

A. We weren't sure, so we consulted the face recognition experts at MyHeritage.com. Below are the results we received. Maybe a career in tennis is indeed on the horizon.

Posted by crowther at 10:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I'm not a running coach, but I occasionally play one in real life when my wife and a couple of her friends want my advice. And I do enjoy a good pontification opportunity every so often, which one of these friends recently provided when she emailed me to say that she was feeling less fit and less motivated than she'd prefer. I responded with the list of suggestions below. I think it's a decent list -- perhaps one that might be mistaken for a magazine article written by an actual coach.

* * * * *

1. Venue Nirvana. What locations are most enjoyable for workouts? The wooded trails in the arboretum? The climate-controlled indoor track? Go there and run there, even if it takes a bit of extra effort to get there.

2. Cross-training. This only works if you enjoy at least one aerobic sport other than running. But if so, treat yourself to a little variety. Hop onto a bike or into the pool or whatever and do a sustained effort (40-60 minutes?) with a few two-minute "pickups" thrown in.

3. Incentive Program. Useful for getting yourself to complete a tough workout that you're dreading but think you really should do. Promise yourself a prize for completing the workout -- an extra-large cookie at the bakery? 30 minutes on the couch with a new novel? -- even if your times aren't great.

4. The Tough But Ungraded Tempo Workout. Something like 3 x 8 minutes hard or 2 x 12 minutes hard, but without keeping track of the distance covered. You'll be getting in a lot of quality but won't be worrying about your pace. Give yourself a passing grade as long as you run hard for the full time.

5. Progress Is Good. This one is based on the assumption that you aren't in great shape right now but are at least moving in the right direction. Look through your running log and find a workout that you did three or more weeks ago and think you can now do a bit faster. Do it, taking pride in any modest improvement you achieve even if the times aren't great. Do it again three weeks later, aiming again to be just a bit faster than in the previous effort.

6. Cutdown Intervals. These can be relatively easy but confidence-boosting because you're running fast by the end. Aim to cut down to a final interval that's somewhat faster than you would normally do if you were doing a bunch of repeats of that interval. For example, if you'd do 6 x 800m in 2:50, instead try to run 3:04, 3:00, 2:56, 2:52, 2:48, 2:44. A variation of this is a "kicking workout" in which you run a 400 or 800 at 5K-10K race pace and then kick hard for 400 meters. The times for the overall intervals (800s or 1200s) won't be all that fast, but you'll get the nice sensation of running fast at the end of each one.

* * * * *

Do others have additional tips for combating a short-term training funk?

Posted by crowther at 5:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

The Science Creative Quarterly has just published a short piece I wrote earlier in the fall. It's called, What's the scoop? A quantitative analysis of Kellogg's Raisin Bran. It's supposed to be funny, although the data presented in the article are real.

Posted by crowther at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

One of my main goals as a new father, aside from teaching my son how to pipet accurately and all that, is to avoid withdrawing into my little world of lab experiments, diaper changes, and road races, with minimal connection to people and issues outside of this sphere.

That's the goal, yet the withdrawal is already underway. This week, I was so preoccupied with work stuff and home stuff that I forgot to vote.

I can forgive myself for this; in fact, I already have. But I need to do better in the future.

Posted by crowther at 3:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Phil is only 17 days old, but he's already opened up new horizons for me. Just yesterday, for example, I was running a cross-country race and heard the cheer "GO, DADDY!" for the first time. Even though the encouragement did not come from my son, I rather enjoyed it.

As someone who has run approximately 300 races in my life, I've been called lots of things over the years. My college nickname was "Doogie" because of my supposed resemblence to the TV character Doogie Howser, M.D. To this day, Williams alums will shout out their support for "Doogie," "Doog," or "Doogster" when seeing me in action. More recently, Uli Steidl has (on the rare occasions when he's spectating rather than cleaning my clock) called me "Professor," as in, "Let's go, Professor -- you're catching up to that guy!" I think it sounds cool even though I don't quite deserve this moniker. My official title at the University of Washington is Visiting Lecturer; fortunately, Uli has the good sense not to yell, "Let's go, Visiting Lecturer!"

Of course, some folks simply call me by my real name. Even there, though, there are multiple options. I respond better to "Crowther" than to "Greg," since "Crowther" can be hollered with an intensity that "Greg" usually lacks. "Gregory" is fine for humor value during the first mile but is pretty useless thereafter.

Having benefited from others' exhortations, I try to return the favor when possible. I probably put more thought into my cheers than a person should, and sometimes that backfires, as when I bark out complex instructions that are only half-finished by the time my acquaintance zooms past me.* At other times, though, I just know I've helped someone find that extra gear. Before the Love 'Em Or Leave 'Em 5K this past February, my Seattle Running Company teammate Henry Wigglesworth lamented his disappointing showing at a recent stair-climbing race. When he reached the final straightaway, I knew exactly what to say: "Come on, Henry, redemption is nigh!" And it was, sort of.

Footnote:

*Apparently I've been emitting ponderous cheers for quite some time. In a 1981 column titled, "Be of good cheer, ye fans," my dad described my attempts to inspire the local American Legion baseball team:

My son at first tended to drawn-out cheers. If a Rutland batter were up, he'd say, "You made a good catch last inning; now let's see you get a base hit!" I kept expecting the batter to step out of the box, come over to the stands and say, "Run that by me again?"

Posted by crowther at 11:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Congratulations to Max O'Donoghue-McDonald of Seattle Preparatory School, who won his second consecutive Washington state 3A high school cross country title today with a 5K time of 15:32, the fastest of anyone in any division. This comes two weeks after he broke the 16-year-old Lower Woodland Park course record at the Metro league championships with his 15:22.

Some might attribute Max's success to genetics, hard training, etc. Personally, I think my wife deserves most of the credit, since she coached Max back when he was a gawky middle schooler. As I recall, one of her main motivational strategies was to buy Slurpees for athletes whenever they improved their times. In Max's case, the calories-for-seconds deal may have worked a bit too well; he's now 6'3" and still getting faster. If he's continuing to receive free Slurpees, perhaps it's time to cut him off.

Max won his state race by 31 seconds even though, according to the coverage in the Seattle P-I, his lead was only 20 seconds as he was "nearing the three-mile mark." I doubt that he really picked up an additional 11 seconds over the final 200-plus meters, but if he did, he's one heck of a closer.

Posted by crowther at 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)