Switching to Daily Mile

Ok, so I just got a daily mile account. I am very impressed with it, and it basically serves the purpose of my daily logging here. I don't really think I am going to barrage anyone with boring updates about my daily run twice, so from now on I will simply write relevant things to my training, like upcoming races, thoughts on my progress, or training updates here. The main goal will be to not "cross post" information so we will see how that works out.

my profile can be visited here:
http://www.dailymile.com/people/runandsketch

I will probably post here once a week or so, maybe like a weekly wrap up or something. Of course all my training is also logged automatically at buckeye so you can still look at my widgets and such for that information. I think this will help streamline things a bit and not have a simple training log for a blog. Run Far and Fast!

bf 1941

49miles in Nov.
bf 1990

10.15.09

And so the rain begins. It's that time of year when the winds pick up, the sun goes down at 4pm and the heavens open up with tons of rain. I took the day off yesterday. My hams were so sore from the squats I did Tuesday I had a hard time walking. Today it's better, but still sore. I did some core work yesterday but nothing major. I think it's time to get back on the treadmill. Yesterday it was rainy and today it looks like it might flood due to the downpour we are getting, with no signs of stopping anytime soon. So I think I will at least hop on the treadmill after lunch. I'm also thinking some kind of cross training with a circuit of exercises might be good to have for days like this. I'm working on it. Tomorrow I'm going to Cleveland again to do caricatures. I'll be there the whole weekend, so running will have take a backseat to making money again.

bf 1922

10.13.09

Ran about 6 miles today. My hams were extremely sore from yesterdays 100 or so squats. I also worked in some calf raises but I didn't really feel that. Cardio wise I definitely was huffing a bit more than I would have liked, but I'm sure that will go away when I get back into consistent training yet again. The half marathon is nov 16, so I have just over a month left and that ain't much. I know I can do well as long as no injuries happen. I plan on working harder, but resting harder too. So a hill workout and "speed" workout (between mile and 5k pace 5:40-6:00) once a week. I'm planning long runs as close to 20 miles as I can get. The other days will be rest/relaxed running.

bf 1916

10.12.09

Did crunches, leglifts, and squats. Going to crack down on core work and supplemental lifting (body-weight only) I really feel this will help me during the half. I'm also focusing more on running fast due to the short time i have left to train, there is really no chance of "peaking" so I might as well push hard.

10.7.09

Back on the roads tonight after a very long interlude. I've really had a hard time keeping myself motivated. In case some of you don't know my wife is pregnant!! She is a few months along now and so things are getting crazy. I'm just trying to make things as good as possible and hold it together. Tomorrow I have a job interview so we'll see how that goes. It deals with computers so that's like my middle name and I am really hoping it will work out. That will definitely help with the bills, erm doctor bills that is. The last one, wait, three that we got were 400, 400, 1200 and that was from a single week. Yeah, we have insurance but they won't cover the costs because April switched it over from her old job and guess what - there is a 10 month "waiting" period for maternity bills. So yeah we're screwed if she has the baby early.

So you can see why I've taken over a week off, trying to prioritize and find a way to keep my life going. Tonight I made it back outside. I've had constant headaches and have just been feeling so lame without running it was the best to just get out and run. Even better is that it's cool outside now. Couldn't have been more than 60 degrees and it's been that way all this week, sheer torture. I have a festival this Friday and Saturday and I'm hoping to get early runs on those days. Fortunately it's not 2 hours away so I think I can pull it off.

So if you don't hear from me again I apologize. I will try to keep training and posting, and I still plan on racing in November regardless of my fitness. Tonight was great despite [8] days off! I was doing some serious fartlek sprints at the end and you'll notice my max hr below. This next few months is going to be tough, but I'm hoping and praying that things will work. Happy Running!

60º 50%H
1:14:01 10.70m bf 1910
HR - ahr165 mhr197

9.28.09

Right now is the best time to be running. The cool weather has finally moved in and I can tell a HUGE difference. My breathing is relaxed and controlled and I feel like I could run forever. Tonight I had no problems running the hour and half I'd been trying to reach for the past three weeks. At one point in the run I found myself just coasting, that hasn't happened for a while. I was just running without thinking about it or even trying, I love that feeling.

So yeah I missed three days. Friday I had a festival, Saturday were insane thunderstorms, and Sunday I guess I just kept the streak going. But as always I'm getting back up on the horse, and after today's run being the longest since I can remember, I find that pretty ironic after three days of absolute zero. Honestly though, now that the temperature is cooler I'm not sweating as much and definitely can breathe easier. It felt like had an oxygen mask on or something, and my shorts barely had any sweat on them, where normally they are completely soaked through, I mean literally just dripping and so wet they stick to my legs, gross.

It was fun because normally set my ipod to 1hr 10minutes. Well I somehow set it to 1:15, so when I hit 1:15 I realized that I was 5 minutes ahead of where I thought I was. It really helped my confidence because i'm usually just begging to hit that mark. The last five minutes I picked it up pretty good and nearly made it under 1:30, which was kind of what I thought I could hit if I ran well. I hope you all are having great runs as well.

7:09 pm 66° F 45%H 10mph
1:30:28 13.04 bf 1900

9.24.09

April work's at the Bride's Lounge until 7 and I wanted to eat dinner with her so I got out late tonight. I could have ran before, but that usually ends up in disaster due to the heat and getting things ready since I wanted to cook for her. It worked out well although there was a point where I was going to just say forget it. I sent out a tweet and made a deal with myself that if anyone supported me to run, that I would run without question. Well it turns out that someone else was going for a night run, so that pretty much dismantled that excuse and I headed out the door. I said easy run at the beginning, but it was a bit hard to stay on pace tonight, so I put it into the moderate zone. My breathing wasn't great and the muscles were a bit tired.

8:56pm 80º 88%H
1:12:20 10.61 bf 1897

9.23.09

Double today. I tried to run in the morning but that didn't go so well. The humidity was near 100% and I had to take a breather after the first loop around the neighborhood. I was huffing and puffing like I had just ran a race. So I couldn't even find it to go back out, but it didn't turn out so bad. So 3 miles this morning, then later on I got back out the door. The heat was up there today - very near 90, but humidity was much lower and there was a nice little breeze blowing that helped too. By the time I got outside it was only around 80 and I think it got even cooler as the run progressed because I felt pretty good. I just took it easy and tried to run nice and smooth, even pace.

I like doing doubles, I just have to get up earlier if I want to avoid the morning heat. Really it's just a matter of setting the alarm a bit earlier and having some sort of snack prepared for the morning. I always get up but am so hungry that I eat breakfast, and then by the time I get out it's close to 8:30-9 and the sun is already doing it's thing. Sunrise is 7:30, so I have to at least be out the door by 7 to avoid it for a normal 45-60 minute run. Hopefully having some sort of plan/schedule will get things into gear. Happy running, keep it real.

9am 22:12 3.31

7pm. 80º 80%H
pm 56:37 8.36

total - 1:18:49 11.66 bf 1887

9.22.09

Nice run tonight. I waited until the sun was nearly set to run and that helped a lot because it got just a little bit cooler and of course no sun to make matters worse. I had originally wanted to a little bit of speedwork near the end of the run but as I made it to 1:10 I realized that although I was feeling good I just didn't feel like I could do any sprints. I did however pick up the pace gradually and was moving along at a pretty good clip for the next 10 minutes, and since I had went that far I just decided to run until I hit 12 miles, now getting well below 5k race pace. So I really did well tonight and stayed out there longer than I have been, which is a great sign. Hopefully that means I'll actually be able to have a chance at my half marathon coming up, and if things go really well a 5k a few weeks before.

So I'll label tonight as a hard effort, since the last 20 or so minutes was pretty close to 5k pace. That's really good because I don't feel like I'm very conditioned right now for speed...at all. At this point I just want to stay consistent. Everyday seems to be a struggle to get out the door, mostly due to the humidity. I may be able to curve this with doing two shorter runs, but I can never get myself out the door in the morning. I've never been much of a morning runner, but daylight takings is coming up, and that means no more "late" runs so i guess now is a good time to try to transition. We'll see how that goes, I've failed miserably at it in the past. Looking forward to this next month of training, October should feel great compared to September, fitness and weather wise. Alright, happy running.

7:25pm. 76º 80%H
1:22:54 12.11m bf 1876

9.21.09

Wow September is almost gone people. At least I've gotten my butt in gear this month and really put up decent numbers, especially considering the whole mr. shin being weird deal. Today it rained, yet again. This time I took no chances and freakin got on doppler radar and scoped it out for myself - I'm forecasting my own weather from here on out. It worked! I was able to wait until the storm passed, then start running, otherwise I probably would have ended up running in the middle of the storm like yesterday.

Although the roads were wet it wasn't too bad of a run. My shoes were still a little soggy from yesterday, but I didn't want to get another pair wet too, so I just wore them anyway. The funny thing about running in the wet roads is all the dirt that flies up on the back of your legs. When I take a shower it feels like I just came back from a day at the beach. I ended the run with some pretty good accelerations, but nothing too much because I'm still very weary that if I go too fast or too far my shin will suddenly just shatter into a million pieces. Well I tried to make this post a little more exciting, but yet again I revert to weather, injury, and the ever present edging towards complaint.

7:07 72º 97%H
1:12:33 10.5 bf 1854

9.20.09

I wanted to get a long-ish run in today in between the thunderstorms and it worked for the most part. I was about halfway where I wanted to be, head right for an hour and half when it started raining. I figured it would let up because it sprinkled for a bit at the beginning of the run and stopped, but it didn't let up. It just kept right on coming, and I kept right on running through it. After a good 20-25 minutes of running in this I was completely soaked and my shoes were squishy. I really felt like I was either going to slip and fall due to running 180º cul-de-sacs, or get some sort of nasty blister from my shoes being waterlogged so I just ran until I hit 1:15 and called it.

My plan was to get to an hour and half and see how I felt, possibly running a bit longer if need be, but as we all know plans have to change sometimes. The shin was doing it's weird thing, maybe I'm just thinking about it too much? Still no pain though, just that old tension feeling. I'm happy with today's run. Despite being 10 pounds heavier I managed to hold the pace and picked it up just a little at the end and I felt good, I could have at least got to 13 miles. I was thinking if I just held the pace for the next two miles I would've ended right at 1 hr 30 for a half, that ain't bad! I might not be as far behind as I thought. Some hill training will definitely get the times going in the right direction methinks.

6pm. rainy 74º 86%H calm
1:16:05 11.16m bf 1844

9.19.09

The humidity was ridiculous. My shorts and shirt were so soaked that when I came in April asked if it was raining outside. It was not. But I digress, the run was actually pretty good. Started off slow because the last two days I didn't run due to procrastinating on a caricature gig day, then there were thunderstorms yesterday. Today was the same with storms, but luckily it held off long enough for me to get a run in. Toward the end I felt good, I guess i got the lead out and managed to get a really good quality easy run in.

I haven't done a long run in ages, so tomorrow I'm thinking 13 with some faster miles or a normal 15 where you just try to stay alive. I'll have to see what the weather looks like and go from there.

On a side note the Berlin Marathon is tomorrow. This is the one Haile set his world record at a few years ago if I recall correct, and he'll be running again tomorrow. He missed the olympics and really hasn't caused much fuss in the record scenario lately, so I hope he has a break out race even though it's supposed to be on the warm side. The sad part is the marathon is live @ universalsports.com, but since it's Germany that means 2:30 a.m. yikes! Anyway I think they have it set up so you can play it later on, but it's always really difficult to figure out and the link is never in an intuitive area you would think it would be at. I don't think I'm staying up for this one, so I'll just have to try and catch it in the morning. Ok later peeps, happy running.

76º 95%H
1:15:00 11.0 bf 1833

9.16.09

Even though it was raining it was still kind of hot and I looked forward to running into the wind because that cooled me down just a bit. I keep hoping for cool weather, although I know that it'll only be that way for a week or so, then it'll just turn cold. There's no inbetween down here. There was a good sprinkling the entire time, but never really picked up but for a few minutes and even that wasn't too bad and I welcomed the cooling, even if it mean't wiping water off my forehead constantly. I took it easy for the most part, but pushed the pace toward the end of the run so I'm going to put this one in the moderate category. Surprisingly it's been easy to go over the 70 minutes I try to run, so I may have to try and add a couple more minutes. The only reason I don't is because of the shin, which again today kinda had that old feeling, so that's the only reason why I'm not running more at this point. It's just a risk I don't want to take.

5:30pm Showers 76°F 76%H From ENE 5 mph
1:15:01 11.00 bf 1823

9.15.09

Moderate effort run today. Not exactly a tempo run, maybe a little slower but I was still pushing a bit more than usual. Yesterday I forgot to post but the jist of the day was the shin was causing a bit of unhappiness. I wouldn't call it pain, because it certainly didn't hurt, but it just felt weird. I don't know what is happening because today during the run there was absolutely nothing, no weird feeling, no niggles, nada. I'll take it as a good thing. So in honor of the leg cooperating I decided to push just a tad bit more than usual and see what I could run in about an hour. I was pretty unimpressed with my 8.82 nike+ miles, but as we all know that's pretty unreliable due to the change in pace. Still I was happy with the effort and that is what counts, the run felt really really good as well. Also today is five days in a row of 10 miles, so that feels good too.

8pm.
1:08:41 10.11 1812

yesterday
1:15:41 11.01 1802

9.13.09

Easy run tonight. Stopped for a quick gato-break at 20, and the rest of the run was real smooth. I don't prefer to run in the dark, but it's totally worth it to avoid the heat. I also ran yesterday, but didn't get around to posting. Shin appears to be just fine, but always a little niggle at the beginning of the run...
today

76°F Partly Cloudy 79°F 64% From NNE3 mph

1:15:45 11.10 bf 1791

yesterday
10.51 1:12:36 1780

9.11.09

Well I was back on the road again today after a few days off. The shin has kinda been bothering me again, but not as bad as before. I just don't like anything feeling "weird" and it was feeling pretty, well, weird. So that was kinda of a bummer. I ran on it today and it felt wierd again, but only for a few minutes when I started off. After that it loosened up. There is still some damaged tissue in there I think, because I've tried massaging the area by the shin bone and it's still just a tad bit tender, but leaps and bounds better than it was a week or two ago when it was really hurting. The run today went pretty good until the end of two loops, it was hot and I needed a quick breather/water break to finish.

So I think I'm on the right track. I'll keep trying to get runs in, but at this point I'm really considering some alternate form of exercise to get the HR up. I dont' mind not running really, it's missing the conditioning that really stresses me out. So I'm not sure what to do, I don't have a bike and don't really want one because no where to store it, and the pool just closed, so swimming is out unless I get a membership to a gym that I can't really afford right now. I'll think of something, even if it means walking.

The second part of that is to start doing my core work again. I picked it up when I was training for the mile race, but kind of let it go. Well I think it's time to bring that back again, and it will also help with my conditioning just a bit.

Work at this point involves literally every weekend from here to November (and I'm already lining up more) But at least I have the week to fit in my runs, although it makes me feel guilty. I suppose I should take my wonderful benefits and just enjoy them right? I'm training for a half in November, and there's not much time left. I'm honestly not confident that I will do as well as I would like. I know I will PR, because I PR'd during my marathon by four minutes, on a cold, windy day on a hilly course, so I'm confident in that. It's coming close to the goals I set that I am worried about. I just dont' feel like I've done enough over the summer or even in the past month or two compared to how I normally like to train. Appropriate (over?) training gives me a good mindset going into a race. Anyway I'll just do the best I can and no big deal right?, just have fun :)

5:30 pm. 80ºF
1:12:35 10.66 bf 1770

9.6.09

Long weekend, and it's not really over yet because tomorrow is labor day so i have one more day of drawing left. Today was a washout with a huge rainstorm lasting about 6-7 hours in the morning so there were no people at the festival. Later on it cleared up, but only a few people showed. I drove back home again, and I'm glad tomorrow will be last two nearly 2 hour trips I'll have to make for this festival. I would have got a hotel nearby, but it was 20 minutes to the hotel and another 40 bucks, so I just figured I might as well drive another hour and sleep in my own bed. It's just a lot of driving, you do what you have to do. So hopefully tomorrow things look up and there are a ton of people that show up.

Running was on hold yesterday, I was exhuasted when I got home and couldn't muster the will to get out the door. Today I got more rest and knew what to expect so that kind of helped and when I got home from the long day and driving trips, I was ready to get a run in pretty quickly before the tiredness hit me. Decent run. The shin was bothering me a bit at first, and my stomach was kind of upset as well, but eventually both wore off and I felt pretty good running in the dark. It's amazing how cool it felt outside, until I came in after the run and went back out. 70 degrees is pretty darn warm for a "cool" run :)

1:12:02 10.31 bf 1760

9.4.09

Easy effort run tonight. Legs are still pretty sore. I'm not sure if that's from tuesday still or from the hills yesterday. Either way it made for a slow start to tonights run. I just felt like I had no power, barely able to get the knees into the air, it felt like I was shuffling. But after a quick water break on the first loop I felt a lot better. It was hotter since I got out earlier and now the sun was hiding behind houses and trees, so that made for a much better running environment and I didn't need another water break for the next two and a quarter loops. The shin didn't really cause any fuss tonight, and the pain I felt when I physically pushed on the area seems to have dissipated, so that is good but I'm still kind of wary.

Tomorrow is caricaturing. I'm debating driving the hour back home or just getting a motel somewhere close by since I am also drawing Sunday. I guess I will decide depending on how tomorrow goes. I'm kind of wanting to stay at least one night so I can run somewhere new, but an hour drive isn't really too bad I suppose. Like I said I will just figure it out tomorrow. So if you don't hear from me for the next few days, it's because I'll be in Cleveland, TN. Okay I already am posting this late enough, and I'm worn out, have a good weekend.
6:30 pm80°F Partly Cloudy 81°F 52% From NNE 1 mph
1:12:34 10.69 bf 1750

9.3.09

A harder run tonight at the soccer complex because of the hills. Legs are still sore from Tuesday's speedplay. I was really struggling toward the end of the run, but stuck it out and got it done. This weekend I will be drawing caricatures at an art festival. I'm not sure what the running schedule will be like, but I'm bringing my running gear and hope to find a nice area to get a few miles in while I'm there.

6:30 pm78°F Partly Cloudy 80°F 59% From NNE 3 mph
1:11:00 10.50 bf 1740

9.2.09

Great run tonight. Good weather and the shin is feeling better. Legs were sore from yesterdays speed stuff, which is nice, I like knowing I pushed hard enough to do something. Tonight was just a standard run held back a lot to keep it more of a recovery, time flew.

8:15pm.
1:15:36 11.02 bf 1730

9.1.09

This past weekend I visited my family in Ohio, that's why I didn't get a chance to log anything, but running has been sparse lately. I did make it to the track for about four miles or so, I'm not real sure because I forgot my ipod and just ran, I will miss that nice cool air. The shin is still hurting but it's it's just in one small area, the same spot that was hurting a while back and that scared me a bit when I started thinking about it. At first I thought I would just ignore it, but then I kind of flip-flopped on that idea and went for rest instead because I was afraid it might be something more serious than I first thought. I think it helped, but I had to take like a week off and it's still painful if I push on it just right. I'm sure it's not fully healed yet but at least it feels better, kind of sucks I had to lose fitness but I guess it's better than a full on injury.

So last night was just supposed to be an easy 6 or 7 miles, testing out the shin and not really doing anything too stressful. That planned worked for a few minutes, but after I got going i felt really good. The air cooled down a lot once the sun set and I was doing pickups without really thinking about it. I probably did at least 6, maybe more and still felt pretty good after each one. On my final loop I even did a pretty fast acceleration, probably the fastest I've ran in a long time. It felt good though and the shin didn't seem to be bothering me or hurting really, although I was still kind of wary. I really pushed this run, but it felt good to go faster and I want to run like that more often.

7:59pm

Cloudy 75°F

71%H calm

1:08:10 10.25m bf 1729

8.24.09

Doubled today, morning run was hot but not too bad and later on was cool. There was a nice breeze all day and that made the runs enjoyable other than the shin pain. Last 15 minutes of the later run it was pretty painful, probably the worst that it's been. Icing it as I type and we'll see how it feels in the morning. I still don't plan on cutting back because it feels like a muscle pain rather than something serious. I don't know if that makes any sense, but as before if something is hurt it's hurt and there's no changing it at this point so I might as well push through it. I'd rather find out now than take a few weeks off and the pain is still there. It's a fickle issue with me at this point. I'm on the line between anger, and am nearly crossing over to frustration, but can't really see the losing hope line.

10:00 am71°F Sunny 71°F 70% From NNE 6 mph
48:24 7.22 bf 1713

8:00 pm77°F Mostly Clear 77°F 61% From NNE 5 mph

47:00 6.82 bf 1719

8.23.09

Had a rough past few days. Most of it was work related. I also have been having that shin pain reoccur, now even when walking so that was kind of bumming me out too. I got started back a little too fast I think. So lets see, on Friday it rained most of the day and lightninged, but I still managed to get on the treadmill for a few miles. The shin pain was noticeable, but once I started going fast I just kept going and eventually turned it into a tempo run. Unfortunately when i run on the treadmill I don't use headphones because they get caught up in my armswing, so I had no idea the run wasn't being recorded. It may have been the fastest run yet, but who knows now.

Saturday I spent calling about jobs and it was a very lackluster day. I was excited about the jobs, but it literally took ALL day and I didn't get out the door because of a badly timed nap later on. By the time I got up and had some food and still felt pain in my shin I lost my motivation.

Today was a good day, spent most of it shopping for caricature this and that's. I have three or four jobs coming up and need to have signs, lighting, seating, banners, da da-da da-da created so that took up most of the day. We left this morning and were having dinner with our friends later. April is now in the Bride's lounge and we have to move her gigantic large format printer over there, and our friends who own the lounge offered us help with thier truck after dinner. So by the time that was said and done and we made it home it was dark and 9:30. Still I wasn't going to let another day slip by. I got out the door and just ran my butt off. It was soooo cool today I just couldn't let this day go without hitting the pavement and feeling the nice cool breeze. The minor shin pain is still there but I just want to run through it and see what happens, I really have nothing to lose at this point and I've had the pain before, so either that's a good thing or bad. We'll see.

Friday - 1 mile recorded (~4 actual miles total) tempo (hard effort) 1695
Saturday - rested (shin pain/unmotivated)
Sunday

9:30pm68° F Mostly Clear 70° F 70% From NNE 5 mph
1:16:17 11.24m bf 1706

8.19.09

Didn't quite make my quota today, but I've been doing really well. About 10 days straight with double digits so that's actually way farther along than I thought I could be. I could have done 10 today, but there was lightning so I decided to cut it short a bit and make up for it tomorrow. The shin was bothering me today, so that pretty much set the short run in stone for me. It was extremely humid and once again I was probably carrying a few pounds of sweat around with me in my clothes.
7:3079° F Cloudy 82°F 82% From SSW
45:26 6.51m bf 1691

8.18.09

Ran one hill tonight and that was enough for me. I got out a little earlier than normal, so it was sunny and hot for the first half of the run. I did okay, but still had to take the water stops every 20 minutes. Nothing special on this run other than the pugs chasing me, actually I decided to turn the tables and chased them until they got tired and quit yapping. The shin felt okay tonight, but still tender in there.

6:45 pm82°F Cloudy 86°F 70% From SSW 6 mph

1:10:36 10.41 bf 1685

8.17.09

Normal run today three revolutions around the neighborhood. Kind of hot but not too bad. Yesterday my left shin was acting up and occasionally today I had a severe burst of pain shoot through it, but only lasted a second. I'll keep my eye on it, but it did feel better than yesterday's run.

8:45 pm81° F Mostly Cloudy 84° F 70% From ESE 3 mph

1:10:33 10.12m bf 1675

8.16.09

Tables are turning. Runs are becoming easier, however I am losing the battle agains the bugs. One to the left eye, then another to the right eye - the same old tear duct attack move. I tried and tried to get the first bug out, and I thought I had it, but I guess not. When I got home and asked april to look into my eyelids, whatya know BOTH the little buggers were still in there. I'm convinced the stinging sensation that results is them either biting or scratching for their lives, either way that crap hurts. I was doing really well on this run, had made it about 40+ minutes without a water break and I was feeling absolutely great, even with taking a hillier route than I usually do! Then BAM, bug into the tearduct. I doubled over for literally 5 minutes, sweat dripping from my fingers and elbows, and putting my funnily large scraping utensil fingers repeatedly onto my eye trying to flush the frigging bugs out.

The first bug was the worst, the second was a nuisance and I actually thought I had got it out right away, but I must have just drown him in tear juice because there wasn't really stinging with that one. Still the run kept going, it kept getting darker, and before I knew it I had made back from middlebrook to the ragged paved path at the park and had already made two loops, heck I had even surpassed last weeks long run and gone over 1:16 (at which point I dunked some water on my head) AND done a 5 minute acceleration in there. I was feeling great. So what did I do differently today? Well I had nachos for lunch with a giant sweet tea.. could have been the sugar? Then I had a little bit of marathon bar before the run, but I do that all the time without much results. Must have been the sweet tea. Oh yeah, and it rained just before I ran, actually it did that the other day and I had a great run that day too, so actually I think it was that instead. Also I just had that attitude today, that no matter what, heat humidity or whatever, I was going to run, that helps.

Very happy with today's long run, and it was actually long and all at once, no real breaks! The bad parts were the bugs obviously, and I was completely drenched in sweat. My shorts were so soaked, they stuck to my legs, gross, but at the same time kinda cool in some weird way. The worst part about it was that the rain filled the pool, so it was like 90 degrees in their. It felt like I jumped into warm bath water and that just isn't the same the nice cool dip I look forward to. So a great run in the books, I'm putting it under hard effort, although the majority of it was moderate because of the hills (the hard part was the 5 minute accel, but even that was more just fun)

7:30 pm85° F Partly Cloudy 75% From S 3 mph

1:27:03 12.75m bf 1665

8.15.09

It was nice to take this morning off. I think it helped my run later on, because I just seemed to have a little more energy, and there was also no water stops on this run, so that was great! I waited until sunset to run, and that helped a great deal. The humidity was low, temps were still a little high around 82-83, but it felt good. My left shin was kind of hurting otherwise I would have done a little bit of faster stuff. In the end I decided not to push it, saving it for tomorrow's long run.

9 pm83° F Clear 62%H calm
1:14:06 10.56m bf 1653

8.14.09

Once again, the ipod quit my run halfway through when i resumed after the pause to get a drink. It's kind of annoying that you can't combine the runs or edit them (I understand people would cheat- they Already do) but I mean if your run is paused right at the end and then you resumed the run within one minute, which happened to be 9:22, then it's pretty obvious you did the run "all at once" instead of two separate runs, separated by a minute.... Anyway that's just a minor grievance that I have with the nike+ software, no big deal. The run was difficult yet again. The nice thing was at least I had some tree cover from time to time. Had I waited just a half hour there would have been none and I probably would have had to take that second water break like I did yesterday morning. I don't particularly like doing morning and night runs, but I know I would be struggling even more if I tried to get it in all at once, so this seems the best option for now. I don't want to wake up expecting a bad run everday, that would hurt my morale after a while.

8:56 am75° F Sunny 97%H calm

22:54+22:30 = 45:24 6.62m bf 1638

The later run started off pretty bad actually. I went to the soccer complex, which has some construction on it right now, and so the path has a little detour around it. That was no problem other than hoping I wouldn't crack my ankle on some unseen pothole or rock that was unearthed from all the loose dirt around. The real problem I just had a hard time getting the engine started so to speak. After a quick water stop at 20 minutes, I immediately felt better and the rest of the run was pretty much cake.

9:03 pm76° F Mostly Clear
35:10 5.02m bf 1643

8.13.09

This morning's run didn't quite go as I planned. I waited a bit for the humidity to drop, but at the same time the heat was going up. I thought this would be a good idea, since the humidity seems to be a bad thing, but after this morning's run, it's definitely just the sun. I planned on going for two loops, a water break, then a third to finish. So the first part of the run was pretty tough, as usual and I was breathing hard and dying. I took a water break then headed back out to finish another loop, pretty much nixing any idea of a third. This time I made halfway around (back to the house) and stopped again for just a few seconds to get water because I was sweating a ton. I got right back out the door and finished the second loop and called it a day, or morning I guess.

Tonight I'm drawing caricatures from 5-7, so I'm not sure what will happen afterward, but I plan on getting in at least another loop tonight.

11:19 am81° F Sunny 63%H From ENE 4 mph
45:45 6.70m bf 1628

After caricatures, which went great by the way, I had dinner at chic-fil-a which is always delicious. And no that is not a plug, it really is a good place to eat, I love their milkshakes too. Anywayz I let my food digest a few hours, then hit the roads in the dark. I put a few strips of reflective tape on the backs of my shoes, but I would like to have more. I may even have to buy some sort of running vest, but it's hot enough already without it. So that's something to work on. It'll be nice too for winter because you really don't have a choice but to run in the dark unless its on the sweatmill. Good litte run.

9:30 pm73° F Clear 93%H From NNE 3 mph
32:31 4.74m bf 1632

8.12.09

Not exactly an easy run this morning. The first loop was pretty bad and I barely made it around, humidity was really high and I think that hurt a little. Second was better, after a good rest to get my HR back down and keep my pulse from thumping my neck around. I think I was ready to get that one over with so I could jump in the pool. Did a few laps, but was pretty worn out so nothing really special.
9:30am75° F Mostly Cloudy 75° F 84%H From ENE 3 mph
44:08 6.43m bf 1611

Awesome run tonight. It rained really hard with some lightning, then cleared up just before sunset. By the time I hit the road it was already dark. The humidity was high but the air was as cool as it's been in weeks. A light fog was rising up from the pavement and was pretty neat to run through. After the first 20 minutes I felt great and didn't take a water break. The second loop was much the same, still no need for water. Then I started increasing pace and doing some accels and turned the run into a fartlek. This felt even better and for once I could go fast without worrying about my heart blowing up. I never did need that water break. So this run was definitely a good sign that fitness is lying there beneath all the hot and humid conditions. Great run, wish I could do 10 more just like it right now.

8:40 pm74° F Night 85%H From NNW 2 mph
1:09:20 10.34m bf 1621

8.11.09

Only took one water stop tonight which was good. I waited until the sun was pretty much down to start the run and that helped tremendously, although I hate doing that because the later it gets, the higher the chances of making the excuse of it being too late. The only bad part about the run was the humidity, I was completely dripping when I got back, I think it was even worse than during the heat of the day on Sunday morning. Other than that I added a couple accelerations. I had originally thought I might work in some speed work, but I think I need to wait a week or two just to get my legs back under me first, just finishing the run at this point is an accomplishment.

8:30 pm77° F Mostly Cloudy 84%H From NNW 1 mph

1:10:02 10.03m bf 1605

8.10.09

I would like to call today an easy run, but just making one loop around the hood was enough to call it a day. My legs were just really tired from yesterday's run. Middlebrook isn't exactly the easiest course to run, lots of rolling and moderate hills but it is the longest stretch around here and that's why I run it. In a few weeks I should have some of my conditioning back, and if I start running at the right times in the morning and afternoon that will help as well. I got out at 9 this morning, but it really didn't matter. Once the sun is up you might as well just consider the run a jog.

So I ended the run early and only got about three miles, a good recovery run after yesterday. Then I jumped rope for about 1,000 total, alternating feet for half of it. After that I went to the pool because I was completely soaked and dripping and needed to cool off. I swam 3 x 2 laps at the pool, but it's not standard size I don't think, so I'm not sure what would that be in real swimming terms. Either way it was enough to wear out my shoulders so i suppose that is good enough. All in all a pretty good day.

9am79° F Sunny 86° F 80%H From WSW 2 mph

22:11 3.25 miles bf 1589

also did a run later, although i paused halfway so it was split into two when my ipod decided to stop the workout during the pause :<
23:28 3.37+ 25:54 3.75= 49:22 7.12miles bf 1595

8.9.09

I really wish I could have gotten out the door earlier this morning. This run may have turned out a lot better. It was just too hot to run for very long. I did 40 minutes (barely) and made it to walmart for a quick water stop, but I was thirsty well before I got there and the legs were pretty sluggish. I did an out and back to walmart, so on the back I knew I would have to stop and take some walk breaks.

I might have been able to keep running if I had some water, but I didn't so I just did what I had to do. I took about three walk breaks, probably a total of maybe 8-10 minutes altogether and at different points on the way back, mostly after large hills. It took 40 minutes out, and 36 back, so really I only lost 4 minutes of running and considering how I felt it was worth it. I had a hard time getting started up after each break though and my legs were really spent. My third stop was the best because I got to into a air conditioned store and get some nice cold water. That was awesome. Although I didn't quite go as far as I wanted to, it was still a good high effort run and if running in the heat with sun bearing down doesn't make you more fit, I'm not sure what will.
11am86° F Sunny 90°59%H From SSW 4 mph. bf 1586
1:16:07 11.01 miles

8.8.09

I didn't sleep all that well last night and found myself awake at 5 am. After some twittering and checking of emails and such I figured it was time to get out there on the roads. Nothing incredible but it was nice to have some cool air in my lungs, not that fresh mind you with the smokers out in full force in the morning for some reason. Despite that it was a great run and it felt pretty easy.

I am supposed to do some speedwork today, but I think I will wait on that. I am trying out the nike+ coach because they have a new beta site with more options. I thought it would be helpful to have a guide to compare to, but honestly they have a ton of days off, even on the advanced coaching that I signed up for, and that's just not my style. Today was supposed to be some 800's, but I don't really see that happening because I want to run long tomorrow. I suppose I could do both, but I'm not exactly at the top of my game right now, so I err to the side of conservative rather than aggressive and just do another easy run tonight after caricatures.
7am65° F Mostly Sunny 65° 74%H calm. bf 1575

Well the second run didn't happen. I ended up doing caricatures until 9 instead of 8, so by the time I got home it was really too dark to run. No problem really because I'll be able to do my long run in the morning tomorrow. I'm thinking 12, but we'll see how it goes I might be able to tack on a few miles.

8.7.09

I once thought heat was the worst part of the summer, but I was wrong. It is bugs. This is three runs in a row where I've had a bug fly directly into my eye. This one crawled around in my tearduct and I could not get it out. Eventually after stopping, hunched over in the middle of the road, I was able to excavate a head of the flying larva, but I'm not sure If I got the rest out or not. I took a short detour to the house and rinsed my eye out, but it was still stinging. Did I mention I had to surgically remove a bug about the size of a dime from April's eye the other day when we went running? Well I did, I now I feel very strongly that I am a qualified eye doctor when it comes to getting bugs out of your eye. The culprits are these little ant-like creatures, bigger than ants and of course have wings and fly in menacing packs. It's probably comical to see me running by, using both my hands in a windshield-wiper motion, while keeping my mouth sealed and eyes half open to avoid ingestion or otherwise catching them in my liquid fly-trap eyeballs.

So add bugs to the list of reasons to enjoy the cold of winter. Other than that stop I also stopped a few more times to get water. The world was against me today it seemed with two weather warnings: one for heat and humidity (90º today with high pressure) and another for an orange level air quality (yay) I wasn't sure if I'd even be able to breath. But I got out there, and even after the bug attack at 5.6 miles and my ipod thinking the run was over and ending the workout, I continued on for the remaining 28 minutes, so things seem to be rolling along. Fact: This week I've ran higher mileage than previous weeks in the past two months.

bf 1567

8.6.09

Didn't post yesterday, but that doesn't mean I wasn't on the roads. It was a busy night and I kinda forgot to post the day. Nothing incredible happened, just a normal run at the soccer complex. April went with me and ran for at least half an hour. I was pretty impressed. She's been doing better.

Today was a normal run through the neighborhood. As many times as I've run it, it never feels any easier, although i guess thats the curse of running, it's always going to be hard if you push yourself.

7:15pm. 1:00:43, 8.88m. 83º 50%H. bf 1558

8.5.09

8pm. 48:23, 7.20m. 80º 60%H bf 1550

8.3.09

I'm really going to miss swimming after my runs come winter time. Feels great. I'm not that great of a swimmer, only swam about a lap and half before my arms got tired, so no triathlons on the horizon for me. Quads were a bit sore today.

1:00:16, 8.75. 80º 61%H bf 1543

8.2.09

Back on the roads again. It's been a trying last month or two, but I've hung in there by the soles of my running shoes getting a few runs in here and there. I really lacked the drive that I usually have for running. I'm not sure exactly why but I suppose the changes and life situations I've been dealing with are the brunt of it. I tend to devote all my time and energy toward one or maybe two things, and pretty much anything else gets pushed to the wayside. And when that happens running running can get the boot, no pun intended. The funny thing is I really don't feel bad about my time off, or laziness as most runners might say, although my body would tend to disagree with that feeling. In the end I've realized that it's okay to take time for yourself sometimes and not always give in to the running gods whenever things get tough.

So I'm not going to say I'm back, but I am planning for a half marathon in November (and therefore a 5 or 10k before that). Hopefully putting my name on a sign-up sheet and paying the registration fee early will awake some internal mechanism that aligns my brain into training mode. If not I'm not to worried about it. My goal is to just train as well as I can and not expect any miracles. I still want to do well, that is always a given, but I'm not going to push myself into oblivion to get results this time around. Of course I say that now, but those of you who read this humble blog know that once I'm in the midst of miles and gatorade and race prediction calculators oblivion becomes a very relative term. So as usual I will try to stay consistent, and hopefully the results will follow. If you are reading this, then thank you friend, for sticking around to see what's my happening in my tiny little cross section of humanity.

3x hills
3x accels
1:15:08, 10.85. 80º 60%H. bf 1535

7.27.09

6 miles

bf 1525

7.21.09

much cooler after sunset, ran later on after dinner. Hard to go fast with a full stomach. Had to take it really easy at first, but very slowly was able to increase speed the end was able to sprint. Lungs were clear and perfect, no heavy breathing at all, would have went longer if it weren't for the right foot. Legs were sore today, mostly quads.

2loops w/HH+1loop
home. 1:15:07 10.72m bf 1519
78º calm (cool)
note: top of arch on right foot still hurt when running, not when walking

7.20.09

home 6 miles - tough

jumped rope about 5 minutes will record more accurate data from now on.

note: top of arch on right foot hurt toward end.

bf 1509

7.6.09

I kind of thought I made a good move going out to run when I did, because it was pretty cloudy and blocking a lot of the sun. We had storms yesterday and they were on their way out. But about as soon as I started running everything cleared out pretty quick and I was left to run with the bare sun shining down on me. It made for a pretty hot time, but at least it was windy in one direction and that kept my eyes just dry enough not to get a ton of sweat in them. Either way I held on as long as I could and actually felt pretty good for the most part. We went to a networking meeting tonight, so ending a few minutes short wasn't a bad thing because it gave me some more time to get ready.

It's supposed to be in the 90's over the next week, so I'm really going to try to run in the morning and at night. Hopefully I'll miss the hottest hours of the day that way and possibly be able to get more miles in than I normally would. We'll see what happens.

4pm. home. 85º 58%H From NNE 6 mph
54:02(7.92) bf 1503

7.4.09

Happy Fourth. Spent yesterday with the family and didn't run. So much for the streak. It's okay though, i'm making up for it with a double later in the week :)

Easy run today and did it later on. Much better to run when the sun is almost set, could have went a lot longer.

7:30pm. home. 81º 49%H calm
45:06(6.60) bf 1495

7.02.09

Two days down. Run was progressively difficult. I didn't think I was gonna make it toward the end and bout did myself in with a final sprint. Another day in the books though.

4:30pm. 83º W 9mph
46:16(6.88) bf 1489

7.01.09

I had an interview for a cross country position this morning. It went really well up until the point where recruiting was considered. I mean the guy really liked me and said I would be a great asset to any program, but that he wanted someone in the school. I respect that, and believe me I wish they'd give the art position there as well, just show me where to sign. You see our county is cutting positions, especially in art and music, and basically all the teachers who have been working 30+ years aren't planning on retiring any time soon. It's a waiting game for teachers like me, and I ain't getting any younger. Doubly bad it's now seemingly keeping me from this coaching position, which I would LOVE to get.

But things aren't hopeless, there is a chance I can still get the job. I live really close to the school, and honestly if they really need recruiting I could run around the school all day long for a week just to see how many kids I could get to join to the team. The main reason they need kids is because a new school is nearby, so they lost a large portion of their students, about 700 of them. So I'm praying and hoping that it works out.

In running news I've had a nice long break. I seem to be ready for training again, which is the good news. Today is the first of the month, and I think that got me back into gear. I've decided to set a goal to run everyday this month. Just get back to basics, doesn't matter how far or long or when, just get out there and run sometime every single day for this entire month.

Today was actually pretty nice, with the temps in the lower 80's and dropping, with a little shade from the trees made a pretty good run. I didn't go quite as far as I wanted to because I had a stitch in my lung and behind my left knee was kind of tight - which is normal after a few days off. So as I said my goal for this month is to simply run everyday. i think it'll get me back on track.

Also thanks for the comments, I appreciate them probably more than you know!

6:00pm. home. 83° 41% From WNW 9 mph
54:40(8.01) bf 1483

6.26.09

I feel like I'm hanging by the skin of my teeth lately when it comes to running. Each day is a battle to get out the door, and the runs aren't exactly easy like they were when it was cooler outside. For instance today during my run I had to stop twice for water and a little recovery, and about halfway through the last loop I really had to stay positive and think about the old "one foot in front of the other" 4-feet running theme song just to make it. Still each time I go out there and do that I feel better about it, but apparently not enough to do it everyday.

Still working hard. I've got lots of caricatures to work on, and April has a new printer so she can print all kinds of things. It's not just a photo printer, it's a deluxe printer that can print large format things, print on vellum, etc. and it has 4 drawers that can hold about 350 sheets of paper. So yeah, it's not simply a new printer you can just by from the store, it cost a pretty penny, but she needs it to get her business going.

Tomorrow we are going to Splash Country near Pigeon Forge. We are going with April's sister and her boyfriend and I think it will be a lot of fun. Not sure how it will affect running, but at this point I guess any reason is acceptable to put a zero in the calendar.

92° F 51% From W4 mph
1:05:05 (9.60) bf 1475

6.23.09

Great run today. Not a cloud in the sky and it was sunny and beautiful. Took a water break after each loop because it was really hot because of the direct. I ended up having to take a water break about every three miles, or every loop around the block. It worked well, but was still a pretty good effort at the end to stay on pace and finish the run.

Actually had some words of encouragement from a woman in the neighborhood. She said I have inspired a lot of people around here with my running, and it's true I've seen a couple more people walking and running than I normally do. She has been doing water aerobics because she cannot run quite yet. I encouraged her to keep at it, but it was really cool to hear that from a relative stranger. I've waved at her a few times, but never really talked. It really felt good.

6:15pm. home. 89º
1:04:00 (9.51) bf 1466

6.22.09

So today was a great run through the neighborhood. After the major storms today, which blew over have the plants on our front porch, it was clear and beautiful. It also wasn't too hot because the rain had cooled things down slighty, so just above 80 degrees wasn't too bad. I felt really good the first two loops and the last one struggled just a bit, but still felt really good.

I like that my legs feel great. When I was running a lot of miles they always felt tight and honestly I was probably running too much, but that's the sort of thing I risk I guess. Running is a sort of all or nothing for me. If I'm going to do something, I do it all the way and taking days off or whatever is to risky with my mindset. I'm kind of in that place now, where I've taken so many days off I'm kind of that brink of not running, but I'm hanging in there and I think things will turn around soon.

Well it's been a rough couple weeks. Not bad rough, just different rough because so many things are happening right now. Lots of life changes with jobs and just getting used to new schedules. April is getting her business going. We have an office now and so we are getting things together for that. It's just hard getting used to her being home now, because she did work most of the day before and now she gets to hang with me. There is also talk of maybe getting a teaching position, but it's still up in the air. There are just so many things going on right now it's been difficult to feel motivated to run with so much else on the plate. Soon I should have a new normal and get back on my usual running track.

5:30pm. home. 82º 71% 4mph
1:04:00 (9.41) bf 1457

6.16.09

Not too bad today, a little cloudy but got sunnier and hotter. Probably going to switch to morning and afternoon runs soon.

11:30am. home. 81° 70%H 2 mph
42:15(6.34) bf 1448

6.14.08

Tough run, it was hot. Not sure what's going to happen in July when it hits 90 at 9 am.

5:05pm. home. 85º 51H 4 mph
42:36(6.41) bf 1442

6.12.09

It wasn't too bad out today. The first loop I caught clouds and the second the sun really came down, but I felt good. The third loop was tough and about halfway through that one I knew I was almost spent for the day. I really feel inconsistent lately so I'm thinking I need to write some stuff down. Other than this blog, which is basically just a log/journal I normally keep a barebones schedule laying around. I haven't gotten around to filling one out yet, but I was thinking before I know it fall races will be here, training has to start now (at least in the base sense). There's something about having a schedule, no matter how rough, that keeps you extra accountable. I hate filling in zeros.

4:45pm. home. 83º 60%H 6mph
1:02:41(9.35) bf 1436

6.11.09

Thunderstorms were still going on through the day, but luckily it cleared up and was very nice around five. I got out the door while I could. A good run. It was a little hot today, but not too bad since the rain had just come through and I caught a couple clouds too :) We were supposed to go camping tomorrow, but now it looks like the plans aren't going through. It's not a bad thing it'll give me more time to finish some things and run.

5:30pm. home. 77º 76%H 5mph
1:07:10(10.02) bf 1427

6.10.09

thunderstorms and lightning, stayed inside.

6.9.09

Extremely hot today, just tried to make it 40 minutes.


4:45pm. home. 88º 50h 5mph
42:37(6.37) bf 1418

6.8.09

Was busy all day visiting and working, didn't get a run in.

6.7.09

Easy run turned into a kind of tempo around the neighborhood. Clouds made it a little easier to run and since I've had plenty of time off the legs were really fresh and I just wanted to go fast so I did.

7:33pm. home. 84º 41h 5mph
41:30 (6.38) bf 1412

6.6.09

Okay so sorry about this past week no real updates coming from my end. I've been feeling very unmotivated lately, but I actually enjoyed having some time off from running for a while. It just seemed like I had been grinding it out for a long time and I need a nice long break from running. Well I'm feeling better than ever and am ready to get back to training.

Today started off a new base where the focus will be one quality run a week, one long run, and striders/coordination once or twice as I see fit during the week. I've had a lot of time to think and reflect about my goals for this year and I'll be focusing on a half marathon in the fall. I have no goal time right now and probably never will. My only goal will be to put forth my best effort on race day.

It was a very beautiful day today, I like when the humidity is low like this. The wind was just strong enough to cool me down one way, although running with it I did get pretty hot. Still other than a stitch I got under my rib (common area for me) where it's closest to the bellybutton for the first 20 minutes the rest of the run went fine. My legs are feeling really great right now. The biggest thing I hope to get from my time off other than motivation is injury prevention. Sometimes I take things a little too hard, so hopefully this week off will help with anything that may have been going astray. I haven't had any niggles lately, but I'm sure most of this week off can't hurt.

home. 3:53pm. 82º 39%H 4mph wind from ENE
1:11:31(10.50) bf 1406

6.5.09

Fully rested? I hope so.

6.4.09

Resting a ton

6.3.09

Resting more

6.2.09

Rest

6.1.09

Taking a few days rest

5.31.09

Not a bad run at all today. It was pretty hot outside getting up near 85, but I didn't mind. The shaded parts of the loop were welcome. Today I felt back to regular form and the legs felt pretty fresh, probably from getting a good night's rest. Not a lot to say about this run other than made a water stop at the second loop. I probably could have stopped a few more times because my mouth was really dry for a good portion of the run, but I don't like to stop so I usually just run through it. So that's pretty much it. I'm feeling really good right now and still haven't decided whether or not to do the one mile run Thursday night. It would be fun, but if something else comes up I wouldn't be that upset. We'll see what happens and I'll make a decision on that soon.

Haven't been wearing HR monitor lately. Not only does it feel more natural running without it, but I've just felt more "free" to run at whatever pace I feel like. It's worked fine so far because I feel really good on my last few runs with a moderate effort. I might just start using them on speed and tempo days, just days where the goal will be a higher HR.

5:15pm. home. 83° 37%H 7 mph from NW
1:01:30(9.43) bf 1397

5.30.09

I never got around to another tweet5k attempt. It wasn't that I didn't get to, I just didn't feel like I needed to do another hard run this week. The legs weren't tired, but they were achy and that usually isn't a good sign. Oh well, I got a pretty good time in all things considered. The other cool thing was I got a tshirt somehow. I guess it was part of a giveaway the day I ran, not real sure. There were some pretty crazy times posted, 13's and 15's is just crazy talk to me. I guess though most of those people ran in college and probably ran all through high school before that. I ran track in high school, but only in season, and of course I only ran cross country my senior year, because we didn't have it before that. It would have been a good night to run hard. It was cooling down and not as windy as it was the other day. There will always be more races to run though, so no big loss.

So I'm not so sure I'm going to do the one mile race. Honestly I like training much more than racing. I mean racing is fun, but it is stressful not only physically, but mentally it wears me down. I've really been wanting to get back to base training, so I don't know, maybe one more fast one, then call it quits for the hard speedwork. I won't quit working on speed entirely, but will just focus more on speed endurance. Thinking about it, this training cycle seems to be perpetually going on. I started back in September, and it just feels like it's time to regroup and start fresh. Just trying to keep an open mind at this point and do what will work best for me.

7:24pm. home. 79°48%H 4 mph from WSW
1:12:14(10.53) gf 740

5.29.09

I felt really worn down today. Hard tempo run yesterday took a lot out of my legs and bad night of sleep made the whole day a kind of blur. Still I got outside and ran a little, not wanting to put a zero in the schedule. Tomorrow I was wanting to do another attempt at the tweet5k, but I'm not too sure it's going to happen. It would be nice to go under 18, and I think I could probably do it with better pacing, but I'm not sure how tomorrow is going to go so we will see. If the legs feel good and fresh tomorrow I'll probably take a stab, if not I'll just run. I'm missing my higher mileage stuff a lot lately (never thought I would even consider that notion) and am wanting to get back up to snuff.

The one mile is next week. I'm not going all out on it as far as I know, but maybe I'll be in the zone. I guess I'm not going to go out gung-ho for a sub 5 or anything. A healthy PR of a few seconds would be just fine by me, but I'm mostly doing it for fun. The course is on inner state I-40 which has been under reconstruction for about 3 years now. They are opening it back up Friday, so theoretically it will be the only time anyone ever gets to run on it so that's pretty cool.

home. 74º 55%H 6 mph from NNW
21:16(3.06) gf 731
AHR 150 MHR 166

5.28.09

Today was a good tune up run. Split it up into three sections (in my head) with each loop being a section, starting off in a steady zone and working up. This was actually a really solid run and I felt good the whole way through for the most part. The first loop was just normal, even though I felt really strong and was getting a good pushoff, second loop much the same, this time HR was around 165 average, then the last loop my legs were tired and I was breathing a bit, but it was still controlled, average HR around 172 and hit 180 on the hilly part. It was sprinkling at the beginning of the run. The sky was split between blue on one side and heavy dark clouds on the other, with my area basically right between, so i think we dodged the heavy rain.

I really liked this tempo run and definitely felt like I was "doing something". Most runs I just go easy, but this was faster and actually a little more fun. I would like to make one more attempt at the tweet5k, but as it is I'm stretched pretty thin and am not sure if I'll be able to do much better. I suppose I could if I had someone else timing me because that was kind of stressful running with a stopwatch in hand and trying to take splits and use energy to look at the clock all at the same time. So hopefully it is nice Saturday and April might indulge me on that. Either way I'll probably attempt it and just see if I can pull something out.

4:20pm. home.80° 66%H 5 mph from SSW
1:03:22(9.25) gm 1051
AHR 163 MHR 180

5.27.09

So yeah this day was a big fat zero. Still not a total loss with a core workout. Good rest day after the tweet5k attempt. This will likely be a low week unless the storms move out.

5.26.09

Today I signed up for the tweet5k just for fun. I saw it a few days ago on twitter but wasn't sure if I was going to do or not, but for ten bucks and a good cause there's really no downside. There were some crazy times posted by the elites around the country, it's hard to comprehend just how fit these people really are, a lot of hard work I suppose. Anyway I decided to do a time trial sort of deal today at the track, because you get a few chances to post a time, and I wanted to take a little stab at it now so I can do another at the end of the week. My goal was 17:45, but that soon fell apart.

When I got to the track it was windy, and there were storm clouds around, and it was warm. Not really the greatest combo, but it wasn't raining or thundering so I just went ahead with the "time trial". I guess that's the best word for it. I'm also considering it speedwork, but in this workout I get zero rest, so I suppose that qualifies as a time trial. I had to run with my stopwatch which wasn't too big of deal, it just makes it harder to pump the arms. I tried to keep split times as well for better feedback on the run. Normally I'll just keep miles, but since I knew I had to run like 84's I thought it would be nice to compare later on. So I warm up for a good 15-20 minutes.

I wasn't expecting a lot today, my legs just started feeling better yesterday and I just had a race Saturday so I definitely wasn't going all out on this. It's weird sometimes running by yourself, or against yourself. There is definitely something odd about it that I can't quite put my finger on, something a little unnatural, lol. Whatever the case I clicked the buttons and was off. I had my stopwatch in my right hand, along with heart rate monitor watch, and my working ipod going as well. The first lap I missed, I was too busy trying to look at the split, I think it was 1:24, but I could be wrong. I got the rest of the splits except for the final 400 because I was just running.

I started off well, but slightly too fast for the first mile. It was slow and painful from there. I made it halfway and was already breathing hard, and pushing to stay on pace. Looking through the splits they were on pace through 2000 meters, then slowly degraded. I was hoping for a relaxing run, "just hit the splits" kind of deal, but got no such luck. Each lap was harder than the previous and I was breathing heavy and the legs were definitely still a little tired from Saturday's hard effort. I wanted to quit at 2 miles, 3200 meters, but I just kept pushing on. I needed to at least post a time, even if it slow, I thought. That kept me going, but the wind was going pretty good too and that really made the homestretch harder each time around.

Definitely much tougher than I would have liked on this. Breathing was erratic at times and it was hard to relax. I kept having to push to keep the pace up, even though my body wanted to rest. Somehow I maintained relatively close to goal pace, but definitely not in good enough shape to run it easily. I kicked the last 200 meters after reaching 4800 meters, but it wasn't quite enough to break 18. I hate to say it but now I'm almost dreading doing it again, that was much more difficult than I had anticipated, but I guess thats what running is sometimes, or a lot of times.

Splits
1:22?
2:47.66 1:26?
4:13.76 1:26.10
1600- 5:39.97 1:26.21
7:07.12 1:27.15
8:34.72 1:27.60
10:02.88 1:28.16
3200- 11:31.12 1:28.24
13:00 1:28.88
14:28.53 1:28.53
15:57.97 1:29.44
4800- 17:28?? -1:30?
18:05 - :37?

Just after the run, not even walking a full lap, it started raining. The rain felt great! It was like I was being rewarded after a hard run. The only bad thing was that it was really coming down and I didn't want to ruin any of my stuff or get my shoes waterlogged, so I had to leave. I didn't get to run any cooldown miles. I reached a new HR max today of 195, I've hit 191 before, but topped it today - not completely sure if that is a good thing. The nice part about today was having splits. I've never ran (raced) a 5k on a track before so it was interesting to see the technical details of how I fell apart :P

4:45pm. track. 84° 56%H 8 mph from SSW

18:05(3.21) fasttwitch 88
AHR 175 MHR 195

5.25.09

Very warm today, especially toward the end of the run when it got sunny. The beginning of the run was cloudy and felt really good, but by the third loop I was feeling the heat. I pushed the pace too and was pretty determined not to relax. The HR got up pretty high, but I'm not going to worry about that much anymore, the higher the better. The sun definitely helped in that aspect. It was a really nice today to run. I passed the Mormon's a few times and gave them a nice wave, thinking to myself about who people thought was crazier, me or them.

Quad is still a little sore, but legs were definitely back under me today.

4:15pm. home. 82° 60%H 3 mph from SSE
1:03:30(9.25) gf 728
AHR 160 MHR 180

5.24.09

Yesterday I forgot to mention that a muscle in my right quad was really iffy after the race. I almost felt it cramp up a few times, and going up stairs I was really leery that it would just tighten and stay that way. So today it is really sore. I think it was just from the hard race, but there may have been some additional damage from the cramping. The muscle runs along the inside of the top of the quad, if that makes any sense. The big reason to mention this is that I ended up taking it easier today because of that. I only got one loop around the neighborhood. Probably my shortest run in a long long time. I just didn't see the need in running around with a sore muscle. Obviously it needed rest.

So that was less than exciting. But it gave me time to go walk with April and we walked for a good 40 minutes with a trip up the HH so at least I was out there the amount of time I wanted to be. The swimming pool in the neighborhood is open now. I'm thinking it will be a great way to get some extra cardio in without beating up my legs. Looking forward to see if that works out.

I have decided to continue on with my speed training for another month. For one I have a mile race coming up that I'd like to beat my PR in, and if I keep training for a few weeks after that I should be ready to tackle a 5k at the beginning of July. That would pretty much sum up my summer racing because I really want to start a new base. I've enjoyed speedwork, but I feel like I haven't been running many miles. I'd like to stay up in the 100's ideally leading into some nice Fall races. So that's the basic skeleton for now.

On the ipod front - my ipod yesterday did not log the run as I said. It had been freezing on me and I'd have to restart it to get it back to the main screen. Even that didn't work at the start of the race, which is why I had to run blind. Now remember I've logged over 520 runs with this thing - rain, heat, and bouncing around, so 2 years is actually a pretty good lifespan (plus I bought it used to begin with). Well April used her combined b-day money to get a touch, so I have now adopted her "old" nano, which is newer than mine (but also was used before she got it). I'd like to sell the other ipod back to mac, because it still worked. The only problem is when it goes into standby mode it would come out of it, but show a blank white screen so they may be able to refurbish it somehow. So anyway I have a "new" ipod to use now :P.

6:15pm. home. 80° 63%H 4mph from ESE
22:35 (3.23) gf 719
AHR 153 MHR 172

5.23.09 Expo 10K

Okay I'm going to try and get this report done now, take that procrastination, bam! The morning started off well enough. It was gorgeous outside, but unfortunately I didn't sleep all that well last night. Well I slept well until about 4:30 am, at which point i tossed and turned. Either way I felt somewhat alive when I finally did get up. I had everything ready to go and decided to leave my HR monitor behind. I didn't want to be checking it constantly and just wanted to run.

78 must be my lucky number

So after some cereal and getting things in order, April and I were off downtown to get parked for the race. Pretty standard race morning, well for the most part. I had plenty of time to warm up and do all my pre-race things, which I normally don't, so it was nice just to be relaxed. Okay firstly this year the Expo chose a new course. Normally it starts down Gay Street in downtown Knoxville, heads out and then comes back finishing at Market Square, which is pretty much the hot spot nowadays. That course has a few rolling hills, but no major drops or inclines. This year it started at the Coliseum and headed out, then ended at the same spot, so definitely different and I hadn't really the "back" part of the course.

some pre-race happiness

The first thing I noticed was that the start looked to be right at the Coliseum. So I did all my warming up there, but after a while it got closer and closer to start time, and they weren't putting the banner out and nobody was lining up. I saw a migration up the hill, which is pretty steep, and just started following people. It turns out the start was clear at the top of it! By the time I chugged up that thing, everyone else was lined up and ready, yikes. Either way they still had to do the anthem and things like that so I wasn't too late or anything. I decided to get my ipod ready, which turned out to be a mistake. The screen went blank on me, and never came back. It has been doing that lately and was a huge oversight on my part not to take care of it earlier. So I ran this race blind.

trucking down the hill

That was probably a big factor in this run. Now normally in races you set out the mile markers like this 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Well my friends today was opposite day....I'll get to that later. So I'm actually feeling good at the start, even though I knew I would have no idea of splits, I figured if I ran close to someone with a watch I might hear a few. Okay so the first part of this race is down the huge hill we had to walk up, then it goes right back up another hill, pretty much eliminating any momentum you had off the first. I decided to just run down this thing hard, well at least fast and not just coast down. I ended up being pretty close to the leaders at the top of the hill, but there were plenty of people ahead. So that was an interesting start.

trucking back up the hill

I stayed calm and focused on breathing easy and relaxing. It worked and I could tell the people around me were not feeling the same way. In fact even at mile 1 people were breathing hard like crazy. I tried to maintain a good pace. A runner yelled out 5:45 for the first mile, but I had already passed it, so I was probably closer to 5:42. I felt pretty good though and thought I might be able to hold that pace, I was relaxed. We come up on mile 4 and I think, I am feeling great, maybe I should pick it up. I had been running a guy for most of this time, step for step. We were feeding off each other and going at a pretty good rate. Then we come up on mile 3 and ....oh crap. There are STILL three more miles to go.

My legs at this point were already burning a bit, but breathing was good so I thought maybe I could hold the pace. The guy stayed with me, but I was pulling ahead. There were plenty of others right behind me though. At 2 miles I was running with our top woman in the area, Kathy Wolski. She was chugging right along. I actually stayed with her for the next mile or so, but she had paced the first half better and had plenty of gas in the tank and started to get away. I was just trying to maintain. She dropped me around 1 mile, but she wasn't too far ahead. At this point I was breathing pretty hard and the legs didn't have much strength. We had a short hill to climb, then cross the river on the bridge and not too far after that was the finish. At this point a guy was breathing incredibly hard tried to pass me. He got a few steps, but it was pretty clear by his breathing that he was hurting much more than I was.

My only goal at that point was holding him off. Remember, I have no idea how fast we are going, I'm just racing people, not time. So I try to get a gap on him, if anything just not to hear his crazy breathing anymore. That thing took a lot out of me and I slowed a ton, but at the top I recovered and took off. I got a good gap by the end of the bridge, and could sort of make out the turn to the finish. I could hear breathing guy getting closer, he was making a final push. I was determined not to let him get me. At that point I was going to do whatever it took. I thought to myself, I am in nowhere near as bad of shape as him, there is no way I'm letting him outkick me. And I just gunned it when I saw the finish line. The only fortunate thing here was it was a little downhill (we climbed it at the start) and I finished as strong as I could. I actually saw my time this go around, and it wasn't what I hoped for, but it was good enough.

no, I will not let you pass heavy breather guy!

So I ran a 37:50 today. I am making no excuses. The course may have been different and possibly a little tougher, but I was simply not fit enough to run faster. Maybe I could have gone out more conservative, but honestly I think I run better if I stick with people as I don't tend to catch to many. Of course that may be because I go out too fast, but 5:40's weren't really much faster than my goal pace and I had no clue how fast I was going to begin with. But considering my last 5k was 18:35 I can't really complain. I mean I basically ran that twice in a row today. Progress is progress, I just would have liked to see something a little closer to 37. So the training continues. It was a good day, great day in fact. I got a 2nd place age group finish, Last year I wasn't even close to the top. Probably the only bummer on the day was smoothie king wasn't there :(


first year
74th overall
12th age
43:50

last year
48th overall
10th age
39:22

this year
20th overall
2nd age
37:50*different course

8am. expo 10k. 64° 90%H 1mph from NE
37:50(6.2) fasttwitch 84

5.22.09

Nice litte run in the heat today. Legs are still a bit tight which I'm not too thrilled about, but I think once I get out on the course they will respond. Did form drills afterward, was going to them before the run, but since it's only in my routine for the track I just went about my daily routine and took off out the door. Should be good to go for tomorrow after this real easy day.

Any guesses as to finish time? I'm pretty solid with sub 38 for now. Sorry no contest this time, still finishing the last one :P New course, so hopefully nobody gets lost and everything goes smoothly. I really like the post-race for this one, normally smoothie king has delicious cool treats, woohoo!

4:15pm. home. 82° 46%H 5mph from E (sunny, warm)
36:25(5.14) gm 1043
AHR 150 MHR 168

5.21.09

Few loops around the hood. Was warmer today and a little harder to run, did three accelerations in the last mile. Not really feeling motivated from that run, but Monday's was really good so I'm not too worried. I think it was just harder because of the heat. I'm not sure what the weather will be like race day. It's usually warm in the mornings, but shouldn't be too bad. I'm as ready as I'm going to be at this point, all that's left to do is go out there and see who I can run with. It's a pretty decent size race and normally there are 4-5 people within striking distance no matter what your pace is. I think it will be good. Looking forward to getting out there controlled and fast.

81º 44%H 6 mph from ESE
55:14(8.10), gf 716 x3 accels
AHR 158 MHR 185

5.20.09

No run today, just took a full day of rest, tomorrow an easy day, then a really light day Friday with some striders. Just the normal core work.

After Boston, Kara Goucher had planned to take time off. That mentality changed rather quickly when she finished within seconds of winning the marathon. She wanted a bit of redemption, or maybe just another crack at the marathon the next week at London. That may seem a little crazy, but not really due to the first three-fourths of the race being extremely slow. Thankfully she decided against it, heeding the advice from her coach Salazar. The marathon is an extremely grueling race, and London always being fast, would be difficult even if perfectly prepared and rested.

I wrote my own little opinion about it, basically stating that if I were in that position, family would have to wait until I got one more crack at the marathon. The fact is Kara was simply in excellent marathon shape, and I hated the idea of that level of fitness be reverted back to a sort of ground zero before taking another stab at a high finish. But alas, wise minds worked together and came up with the solution, the World Championships in August. That gives Kara another attempt at running her best marathon and enough time afterward to start a family before returning to training for the 2012 Olympics. I am glad she, her husband, and her coach made the decision. Assuming her training continues well, she will do amazing at World's. Paula Radcliffe will be there and what better marathon experience is there to gain from racing against the world record holder?

Goucher on World Championships in August

5.19.09

Well who knew bowling worked muscles? That hit in the butt with a baseball bat feeling I had yesterday was from bowling, lol. Good to know it wasn't some kind of injury or flare up. We played like 5 games so I guess it really worked the old glute and hip flexors, all in good fun.

Today I took it easy through the neighborhood, relaxed and slow and just enjoyed the beautiful cloudless sunny day.

since I had a great run and nothing better to talk about, how about watching my favorite comedy actress, Kristen Wiig :)

original Lawrence Welk skit:


and last week when Will Ferrell hosted:


6:10pm. home. 73° 27%H 6 mph from ENE
1:05:21(9.49) gf 709
AHR 154 MHR 164