Running For My Life

Smart move doing my 12-miler yesterday morning as the t-storms rolled in around 4 this morning, forcing me to the treadmill for my run.  It was the first time I have been on the treadmill since before the Boston Marathon, and was a nice change of pace (literally, as I did 9:00 miles for most of the run).  I ended up going 9 miles, which was encouraging since now I have run 21 miles in two days and feel great.  Coming off an injury, that is more miles than I thought I’d being doing at this point.

Tomorrow we are leaving at 4:30 a.m. for Washington DC/Maryland for five days.  I have been scouting out some good running routes near our hotel using Google Pedometer (highly recommended).  I love to run when I travel; you see a lot of things you normally wouldn’t see otherwise.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/30/2008
• Time: 05:00:00
• Total Time: 1:19:57.00
• Distance: 9 miles
• Average Pace: 8:53.33/mile

My schedule has been goofy this week.  I did a race on Monday (Memorial Day), then normal workouts Tuesday and Wednesday.  But this morning I opted for a longer run (12 miles) because we are leaving for Washington DC early on Saturday morning, meaning no long run that day.  I thought about doing it tomorrow since I would have Saturday off to recuperate, but it’s supposed to storm tonight and tomorrow morning.  So I will do my regularly-scheduled 9-miler tomorrow, and will move it to the treadmill if the weather is bad.

I was experiencing  some pain (and still am) below my left knee on the inside of my leg.  I am not sure which part of the leg that is; it’s slightly below where the shin bone meets the knee.  It’s seems to be muscular pain rather than anything structural, so hopefully it goes away with some massage and stretching.

I also wanted to mention that they are starting a 10K race in my hometown of Wind Lake this September and I have been helping them with the planning.  I ran the course this morning and it is awesome.  It’s one lap around the lake, which coincidentally is almost exactly a 10K.  My GPS showed 6.15 miles, so just a hare under a 10K.  I usually don’t run that way (I stick to the gravel running paths), but I am going to make a point to run around the lake at least once a week until the race.  Maybe I’ll do my tempo runs on that course.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/29/2008
• Time: 04:30:00
• Total Time: 1:40:42.00
• Distance: 12 miles
• Average Pace: 8:23.5/mile

70 minutes on exercise bike

Workout:

• Type: General Cardio
• Date: 05/28/2008
• Time: 05:00:00
• Total Time: 1:10:00.00

Yesterday afternoon it was a glimmering 83 degrees; this morning it was a grey, windy 38 degrees.  Things change fast around here.  I think in the span of an hour last night it went from the mid 70s to the mid 40s.  And while the cooler weather makes for great running conditions, the 35 mph winds don’t.  At least we knew that it’s going to get warm and stay that way soon.

I went an easy 9 miles this morning and felt great.  I thought after racing (if that’s what you call it) yesterday morning that I would be a little sore today, but I felt fresh.  I could have pushed it a lot harder had I wanted to.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/27/2008
• Time: 05:00:00
• Total Time: 1:17:42.00
• Distance: 9 miles
• Average Pace: 8:37.99/mile

After a stormy night of sleep, I ran a race this morning, came home and worked most of the day, helped my kids with their homework, played basketball, cooked dinner, cleaned the kitchen and helped put the kids to bed.  So what do I do after all of that?  Go to bed, right?  Nope, I go for a walk with my wife.  It was a beautiful evening and she had a lot on her mind, so it was a perfect time for a walk, despite my hectic day. 

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 05/26/2008
• Time: 20:00:00
• Total Time: 00:34:00.00
• Distance: 2 miles
• Average Pace: 16:59.83/mile

Playing the role of the Tortoise……..me.  Probably one of my worst races ever….I finished the 5-mile Hare & Tortoise Race in 33:13, which is a 6:39 pace.? Compare that to the 6:23 pace I did a 15K race in last October, or the 31:15 I did a 5-mile race in last September and you can see why I was disappointed.

I think there were a combination of reasons for my slow performance: 1) I am still not in peak condition due to my injury time off; 2) I have been nursing a nasty cold since last Wednesday, which has kept me from running for the past three days, 3) there were 20-30 mph winds, which made the fourth mile very slow (7:30), and 4) there were no runners within 45 seconds of me in either direction, so I had nobody pushing me.?? I finished 7th overall (out of 110 runners) and 3rd in my age group.

The best thing to come out of today’s race was that it will give me some extra motivation to work hard and get back to where I was at the end of last year.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/26/2008
• Time: 09:00:00
• Total Time: 00:33:13.00
• Distance: 5 miles
• Average Pace: 6:38.67/mile

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/26/2008
• Time: 08:00:00
• Total Time: 00:18:00.00
• Distance: 2 miles
• Average Pace: 8:59.73/mile

Workout:

• Type: Walk
• Date: 05/22/2008
• Time: 06:00:00
• Total Time: 00:32:08.00
• Distance: 2 miles
• Average Pace: 16:05.15/mile

After the worst winter of my lifetime, we are getting paid back with some beautiful spring running weather.  For the last three weeks, the early-morning temps have been in the upper 30s or low 40s with clear skies and little wind.  In other words, ideal running conditions.  It would be nice if it stayed this way for a few more months, but it will eventually got hot.  Still, anything’s better than what we had this winter……100 inches of snow and bitter cold.

After a rare mid-week day off yesterday (I was not feeling well), I did a hard 8-miler this morning, then came home and went right back out on a 2-mile walk with my wife.  Not a bad way to start the day.

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/22/2008
• Time: 05:00:00
• Total Time: 1:01:44.00
• Distance: 8 miles
• Average Pace: 7:42.72/mile

This running thing makes no sense at all.  After taking Sunday off, I ran 8 miles yesterday and struggled my way through the entire run.  My left hamstring hurt, my right calf hurt, my left foot hurt, my lower back hurt.  It was all I could do to break a 9-minute pace.  I continued to ache the rest of the day and night.  My legs were screaming mad at me (and you’d think they’d be happy after a day off!).

So when I woke up this morning (after a bad night of sleep, I might add), I was prepared to skip my run and do a cross-training workout on my exercise bike.  But I felt okay, so I decided to do my regularly-scheduled 8-mile run.  And this time, nothing hurt - not my calf, back, foot nor hamstring.  Everything was clicking, so an easy-paced run went much faster today.

Compare this to last week when the opposite happened: I felt great on Monday and lousy on Tuesday.  How does this make any sense?  Why do we ache all over on some days and not on others?

Workout:

• Type: Run
• Date: 05/20/2008
• Time: 05:00:00
• Total Time: 1:06:16.00
• Distance: 8 miles
• Average Pace: 8:17.24/mile