Back to Basics

With the summer heat kicking in, I'm going to take a little break from racing and try to pump up the volume so to speak and get ready to rumble in the fall. The plan over the next 3 weeks is build up to 65 a week and to then try to maintain 65-70 for about a month after that, before adjusting the schedule for fall racing. I'm looking forward to a period of increasing my mileage without worrying about race performances for awhile. The past 2 months have been good and I have run more my mileage than I have had since high school/college, but this Spring I've been a little up and down with my races as I've adjusted to the workload. Saturday I was really flat in the Bay Days 5 miler, running 28:59 when I felt like I was in shape to run 5:40 pace (28:20) or a bit faster. I'm chalking it down to running a hard race the weekend before (17:00 5K at Run For The Young) and not recovering as much as I thought I had. Can't remember the last time I raced on back to back weekends. I'm looking forward to getting to a place where I can be consistent in the 70-75 a week range. I don't think I really need to go beyond that unless my racing goals change from my current 5K-8K-10K and cross country focus, but it will be nice to test my limits this summer and fall. I know I can be a pretty solid runner on 40-50 a week, but as I approach 45 in November, I really want to know that I've done all that I could to run my best as a masters competitor.

Black Nite Crash - Array

Named after the best track on Ride’s last album Tarantula, Seattle’s Black Nite Crash dazzle with their heavy melodic sound, which blends together an ‘array’ of influences ranging from 1960s psych rock to classic UK post-punk and shoegaze. The seven-minute opener “Revelator” instantly draws you in with its soulful Stooges vibe, building up to an extended Ron Asheton-like guitar wigout at the end. “Falling Down” follows with its menacing Black Rebel Motorcycle Club-like groove (think “Whatever Happened To My Rock ‘n’ Roll?”) . “Soft Focus” is the most shoegaze influenced track on the album bringing to mind Ride’s infectious Going Blank Again gem “Twisteralla.” Also great is “I Want You,” which sounds a lot like The Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey” before building to a wild Spacemen 3-like finale. Perhaps the best song of all though is the lush closer “Perfect Blue,” which recalls the majesty of The Church with its trance-inducing layered guitar sounds and Jim Biggs’ seductive vocals. Array is actually only available on vinyl, but if you do not have a turntable, don’t fret (each copy also includes a free CD!).

The Rifles - The Great Escape

London’s The Rifles are probably the best mod band since The Jam and the three-year wait since their terrific debut No Love Lost was well worth it. While nothing here is quite as spectacular as the last album’s twin standouts “Local Boy” and “When I’m Alone,” overall, The Great Escape is a stronger record. Songs like the motivational title track, the unbelievably catchy “Fall To Sorrow,” and the absolutely crushing “Science In Violence,” are up there with anything in the Paul Weller songbook. Weller, in fact, is a huge fan of The Rifles. Like Weller and other legendary mod tunesmiths such as Pete Townshend and Ray Davies, Rifles frontman Joel Stoker does an exceptional job of capturing the emotions of the British ‘everyman’ as on the brilliant “Toerag.” Stoker also pens some pretty great personal narratives too, a prime example being the nostalgic “Out In The Past.” Throughout The Great Escape, the band is on fire. The Rifles create potent guitar pop of the highest order, each song containing amazing melodies and choruses that are impossible to get out of your head. It’s amazing that these guys still don’t have a US record deal. Hopefully that will change soon.

Running Update

Haven't done one of these updates in a while, but the training has been going pretty well and I did my first race in nearly two months on Saturday, June 13, running a 17:12 (5:32 pace) at the Brian Diemer 5K in Grand Rapids, MI. Last year I ran 16:58 in that race, so initially I was a little disappointed but then I realized that this was only my fourth road race of the year, while last year this was my 10th! I feel like I'm ready to get back under 17:00 again and hopefully a decent amount under, so we'll see. Hopefully this was a good rustbuster and will lead to better things. Next up is another 5K on June 27th in Cleveland. There is good prize money for the top 3 open runners so I'm certain it will be a fast field, which will help.

Comet Gain - Broken Record Prayers

Despite having released five albums and countless singles on influential labels such as Kill Rock Stars and Wiija, London’s Comet Gain has tended to remain relegated to ‘best-kept-secret’ status for those lucky enough to be in the know. That’s a shame because the group, centered around the amazingly talented David Feck (sometimes he also goes by David Christian) has put out a goldmine of amazing records, combining all of the best parts of mod, punk, lo-fi pop, and soul with lyrical themes that touch on everything from romantic heartbreak, to fallen film stars to international socialism and much more! While Broken Record Prayers is a collection of non-LP 45’s and odds and ends, including three Peel Session tracks, it flows like a perfect album. “Beautiful Despair” is a potent blast of punk energy reminiscent of Buzzcocks’ “Something’s Gone Wrong Again” – you can almost feel the tension pour out of your speakers. Nearly as lethal is a killer cover of Curtis Mayfield’s Seventies classic “Hard Times” and “Brothers Off The Block,” which appears to be a shout out to Black Panther era revolutionaries. On the more mellow side, “Books of California” has a touching nostalgic vibe, while “You Can Hide Your Love Forever” is an Anorak pop gem that would be perfect on a Sarah Records mix tape. For those who have never listened to Comet Gain, Broken Record Prayers is a perfect place to start. Before long you’ll want their whole back catalog.

Riding The Waves

An old friend of mine once said that you need to ride the ups and downs of life like the Silver Surfer and that can definitely be applied to running. Hit a little bit of a rough patch early on this week after a pretty smooth last 5 or 6 weeks. Legs were just dead tired for Monday's 3K time trial (last few laps plain sucked) and Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty so so easy runs and my motivation was definitely lower than usual, but the last two days have been great. Thursday was a nice easy 98 minute trail run and I've got to say that this is my favorite workout. Mastick Woods is a beautiful place to run and worth the drive to get there. I feel weird when I have to drive to run but getting out there in nature and not having to deal with traffic is awesome. Today I did some hill repeats and was really on, even a day after the long run. Wore my Lunar Racers in this workout and I think I'll wear those in the Diemer 5K instead of the Kantana Racers. This week I'm off work and looking forward to decompressing a bit before heading to Michigan for the Diemer race and Founders and Bells Brewery visits. Yeah, beer and running definitely go together!

Back to School

No, I'm not planning on furthering my education, but as I approach the 45-49 age group I'm approaching my running like the transition from high school training to college training. In some ways my 40-44 masters 'career' was like high school. I trained solidy, raced well, but 'could' have done more. My main concern when I started running again at age 40 was to try to make this a lifetime sport and not crash and burn like I did after high school. In retrospect, I think I played it a little too safe. Now, I'm starting to feel motivated to really push my limits and see how many seconds faster I can push this body before I inevitably start to slow down a little. My training with my new coach Pete Magill is all about higher volume and higher intensity than I had been used to and I seem to be handling it really well. In college I was a dumb ass and thought I could party hard and run hard like Prefontaine or something, but truth be told most of us can't handle that kind of lifestyle. Hard training is serious work and that combined with a full-time job means that I need to rest a lot or else I'll get sick and/or injured. This past week I did 63 miles with a couple of really tough workouts that I didn't taper for at all. Today I did two sets of a 3-5-8 fartlek (3's and 5's at 5K effort, 8's at tempo w/ 3:00 between each rep) on the back of a 13 mile long run Saturday and two runs totalling 12.5 miles Sunday. Legs were sore but the effort was strong and I recovered quickly from each surge. This is exactly what I need to keep on doing to lower my 5K-8K-10K times and also to improve at cross country. Cross country is all about strength and hanging on even as your legs turn to garbage near the end of the race.