Gil Can Run!A blog on Running and all the crap that runs through my head while doing it

Oct 9th Sick weekend

No, literally for me. I managed to get 5 arduous miles in today. Got most of my housework done too, have to get back to work tomorrow. But my friends this weekend all ran marathons it seems (ok some did half marathons). And they killed it. My feed is full of PR’s. It seems to be a PR weekend. Maybe that’s why I’m sick, all my friends borrowed power from me to speed them up this weekend. So proud of all of them for working hard.

Keeping it short today, being sick sucks

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 6th Still feeling damned good

I really am, and I killed it again today! I’m worried though, I’m beginning to believe I can be faster, that I can produce another -30 minute PR in a marathon. If you put my pace over the last three days, over about 20 miles, into a marathon it comes to about a 3:25, which would be just shy of a -30 minute PR. I am aware it doesn’t work that way, but I’ve shown I can do low eight minute miles over significant distance, with varying degrees of fatigue. It’s a matter of putting that together. Here’s what is amazing about that, still not a Boston Qualifying time. Still have no desire to qualify for Boston, still do not care.
I see lots of people worry so much over it. We build these things up in our heads, we allow marketers to build them up for us. We’re not full, we’re not complete unless we’ve done this thing. You’re not official until you’ve done that thing. You have to prove your dedication. No, stop, you don’t, it’s all bullshit. Great, it’s the oldest marathon in the US, fabulous. Want a cookie? If you want to do it, do it. But for crying out loud, you don’t have to, you have nothing to prove. My iconoclast-ism is often at odds with society. I apologize for that. I think it’s a good idea to really examine why we “want” to do things, and make sure they’re all for the right reasons, I see so many people who just break themselves trying to reach for things. Not just about Boston, in life generally.
Take your time, relax, look at the world, and decide what you want, not what other people tell you you want, or tell you you need to be whole, to be complete. Figure out what you want, then go for it. Take it a step at a time. If you need help, ask for help. We are not islands unto ourselves, we are a collective, we area  society, we are all connected and there is no shame in leaning on someone else’s expertise or experience. There is nothing that lessens you, or what you accomplish by seeking aide and/or counsel from those who are in a position to help. Help is not a dirty word. If you’re struggling with things, I don’t care what they are, and you can’t see a way out; If you can’t see how to achieve your goal, then ask someone for help! There is always someone there willing to help. If you had a broken arm you’d go to a doctor. Why is it when anything else isn’t working right, we insist on doing it ourselves? So if you’re stuck on something, you’re stumbling in life, no matter what it is, find someone who can help. Ask around, ask friends, ask coworkers, ask family, someone can help, or they know someone who can. There is no shame in it!

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 5th Leeward and windward, but got it done

There’s one thing about living and running on the shore, when the weather changes, runs can be a bit more challenging. Today was like that, but I was very happy with this run. It was tough, but I kept my pace and only broke form once to crouch a little during a particularly strong breeze coming off the cathedral.
As I was running at one point, a lady on a bike was gesturing that I should run in the other direction, leeward. For those who don’t know leeward is moving in the direction the wind is blowing, and windward is obviously going into the wind. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you think things need to get better, but you always take the path of least resistance, things will not change. If I want to be better, stronger, more durable, faster, I need to run in all conditions. You don’t know what you’ll get on race day. But if you’re ready for it, it doesn’t matter what you get. Keep in mind, I’m not stupid, I won’t run in lightning.
But just like running, in life it’s all well and good to take it easy and go with the flow. People will always encourage you to do it. But if you see something you need to improve, if you see some place where you can make a difference, make life better for yourself, for others, then do it. Sometimes that means running into the wind. Sometimes it means people will say mean things about you, call you names, try to hurt you, emotionally, physically, it doesn’t matter though. Doing what’s right is always important. Even if you fail on any given day, you’re stronger for the next time. And that’s the key.
Today, I did great, I even had negative splits every single mile (and all but one kilometer). So even running into the wind, I was getting faster as I was getting more tired. I have to be very happy about that. I feel like I’m improving every day, which was not the case earlier in the year, where I felt tired, I felt like I was falling apart physically. I still feel slow some days, even though I’m running faster, but I feel good.
So this is good, it’s coming together. Now I have to decide if I want to jump through hoops to run the marathon in Puglia in December. Because they are firm on this stupid medical certificate. There are so many things to love about Italy, but the truly stupid bureaucracy is absolutely not one of them. They damage the country so much with it, and I know it keeps foreign investment out, it makes tourists stay away from certain things. I know tons of people I’d love to suggest races to, and would love to come and run here. Rome, and a few other marathons get exceptions to the stupid medical certificate rule, but others don’t it seems. I know people who run one marathon a week, sometimes more. How many of them are asking their doctors for permission? None! They know their bodies at this point, they know what they’re capable of. They go and do it. They are responsible for themselves.
I’m sure this all came about because one time, some high-ranking politician was a doctor, or ran hospitals or something, and realized it was a good way to make a few extra lire. Seriously, this is how things happen here. Everyone has to go to driving school if you want an Italian license, when if you’ve been driving in a country, licensed, for decades. Countries with higher standards for driving exams, doesn’t matter! Because a high-ranking politician owned driving schools, so he got the law passed that way. Basically, it’s a scam. It’s annoying. Part of me says I should just save my money, focus on saving up to run Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the big one Antarctica! And just forget about running races in Italy, because they absolutely are crazy here when it comes to their bureaucracy. But part of me says I should start working to change it, because it is silly, and I want my friends to come visit and run!

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 4th A feel good Tuesday run

So I have some miles to make up for my lazy Sunday performance, and I decided to take a couple of them today. I had a spectacular run! I woke up stiff and sore, and I have been for the last couple days, but once I got myself warmed up I really felt great. You can see in the times where I suddenly picked up the pace. The best part is, that’s a 7.5 mile (12.2 km) run. If I can hold that pace for a good while, I definitely can PR in my next marathon.
Speaking of which, I caught a new article from Runner’s World, yes I pay attention, about a new study and a new way to calculate your marathon time based on previous race performance, plus amount of training in a week. I’m a little leery of this method, I need to read the paper fully, because I think if you train too much, you open yourself up to injury. As I was using the calculator Runner’s World set up from this paper, as I got up over 40 miles per week training, my projected finish time dropped significantly. All well and good that they would predict I would run a 4:09 (which isn’t even a PR for me) based on my last 10k time, and 55 miles a week training for my next marathon (average). But 55 miles per week, would probably find me with a pulled muscle or worse. So, I’ll continue to do things the way I have been doing them. Keep pushing to improve my speed over distance and keep within a mileage I feel is comfortable and appropriate.
See, the thing I think gives me the advantage in giving advice on these things, of really sharing my experience is I don’t have a lifetime of coaching, I don’t have anything on the line here, and I’m not set in my ways, or going to push a method of training based on my advertisers (I have none) or anything like that. I’m never going to win a race and I’ve only been running for 5 years. You’re literally reading the words of a man who was so sick and out of shape, he should be pretty much dead. So I just get to fumble along and figure out what works best. Anyone who has been following along must admit, with the exception of a couple aches and pains that eventually healed, for 5 years I have shown myself to be pretty durable. While I have only finished one marathon under 4 hours, over the past year (it’s been a year as of this weekend) I have shown a marked improvement in finishing times in marathons. From my 30+ min PR in Hartford last October, I have managed to improve my Philadelphia time a month later, even though I developed a cold in the middle of the race, and I finished Rome in a European Personal Best of 4:12. That was even while I had a nagging injury (which is still a dull ache on some days).
So that’s where I’m at today, in a very good place as far as running goes. I can’t complain. My first day at the new job was a long day, but it was good. New students seem to be good, things seem to be moving along. Day two starts soon. Need to run and catch the train. I found where the bike racks are on the train, so if I can find a good deal, I may be making a transportation purchase soon!

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 2nd Not a fun Sunday

It would have been, if the race registration process in Italy wasn’t so grab-ass-tic. Yep, making up words, well stealing them from Stanley Kubrick movies, that’s how bad it is. I’m not mentioning the race, I’m not going to link to the website. But it’s just silly they way they do things here. Libertarianism run amok! But, after the rain, and threat of lightning had mostly passed, I got a few miles in.
Literally, the course went right past my apartment! My friends ran marathons all over today, even some in Portugal, tons of people ran half-marathons from my home club, congrats to all of you. I could not signup for a half marathon, because they literally made you go all the way to Rome, to hand in papers personally, to sign up for a website, so you could register for the event online. That makes no sense!
To top it all off, there are sponges and water bottles all over the city streets. Obviously the stations were peopled, why didn’t anyone clean up? Figure the municipal workers will overnight? It’s raining, windy, and it’s right next to the damned sea you idiots! Pick up after your race! This is absolutely unacceptable. There are so may great things about living in Italy, beautiful sights, tons of history, museums, art, wonderful people (some of the best people you’ll ever meet), some of the greatest beaches in the world. But then there’s shit like this. Everyone who runs shit in this country is generally corrupt as hell. The South is treated like complete crap all the time, and there seems to be such a regard for rules and regulations to make things so nobody is liable that everything is a giant hassle. The idea is, I guess, so that everyone is insured if there’s a medical emergency or whatever, the races I suppose carry no insurance, and are not required to, if all people participating can prove coverage. This means the races are mildly cheaper, and the business, race organizers, has less overhead. Great for business, horrible for some guy from the US who just wants to run a race. Meh, I’ll write them and complain.
I just have to remember how much good is here, and everywhere, regardless of people’s general incompetence. At least right now I am sitting here, writing this post, while a lovely pasta sauce cooks on my stove, with my meatless meatballs (polpette di pane) in them. I’ll have a lovely dinner, and relax, and tomorrow work will start. And I need work to start, I need to have a little distraction, a little action in my day. I think when I get too much energy built up it just makes me lazy, believe it or not. Did not help that I didn’t get to run a half marathon today, simply due to red tape. There was probably a way to get a login without showing up in person, but I’ll be damned if I could find it.
The silver lining today, at least City lost!

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!

Oct 1st Off to a good start

Took it easy today, but I took it. Tomorrow I will have a nice easy run too. Since I won’t be racing, Thanks Tranincorsa people for helping me out with registration for your race, I really appreciate it, idiots. Seriously, if things are going to be a pain, I’m not going to bother. Inexcusable to not even bother to respond to my email.
Meanwhile, it looks like my friend, the bad hairpiece from Queens is not doing well. Dropped significantly this week after his disastrous debate. Good, couldn’t happen to a more deserving individual. I know there will be other debates, but I hope he can’t recover from this, I hope enough people saw how horrible he is that there isn’t even a choice.
Work starts Monday! Sweet. I kind of can’t wait to get back to it. It’s been kind of hell without much money to do things, pretty much just sitting in my apartment all day. Have to remember to ask the landlord if he’s willing to make a deal to get some real internet in here. Now mind you Italy has the WORST internet in all of Europe! I’m not joking about that. It’s rated the worst, but any ADSL will be better than what I pay for this 4g mifi device with only 20gb bandwidth a month, it’s obscene!
Italy is such a lovely place, and the people are so kind and generous, but it’s run like a libertarian paradise, which means it’s pure hell. The idiocy, the bureaucracy, the plain poor infrastructure at times is maddening. Look people, there’s a reason to pay taxes, when we want services, we need to pay for them. Just today, or yesterday, our friend Drumpf said that we would make everyone’s dreams come true. In the meantime he’s been talking about the usual republican nonsense about people not having to pay so much in taxes and stuff. Folks, this is pure bullshit. If you want things, there is a price to pay. Either hard work, or taxes, and sometimes both. In this system, it’s usually both, so anyone that tells you to trust them, they have it covered, you don’t have to pay, and all your dreams will come true, is 100% full of shit. Without anything else needing to be said.

Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!