Not too bad

As you recall, I was a little bit banged up on Tuesday after my long run. Took yesterday off because I was worried I would have another brutal day. But, it was actually really good. I want to take the opportunity during the week to work on speed and lasting longer without slower down. Good stretching is going to be important, as well as really focusing on proper technique. I thought I accomplished that with today's run. I know I had said I wasn't going to worry about time, but when it comes to runs where I am trying to increase my speed, it's about the only way to gauge where I am at. So, today's 3 mile run was 25:05, which would be the fastest I've run that distance. I was very surprised because I spent a good portion of the beginning run worried about how my knee would hold up, which was never really an issue. I did a good job resting it Tuesday night and through Wednesday, but I'll have to examine how I'm going to about my long run on Sunday to see what caused the knee issue in only my left knee. But I'm pretty pleased with my progress, even though I did not get a chance to run 4 times this week. I am going to sign up for the MHK 10-K after I run on Sunday just to make sure that my knee will hold up. Then, the prep for the KC Half Marathon will really be in effect. I've got Sparks way ahead of me in my training, so I need to step it up. Until next time....later

Bad idea

I was debating whether or not to go out and run this morning because I have a very sore left knee after the 6 mile run on Sunday. It was ok through most of the day Monday, but really flared up around 9 PM and only got worse. I iced it when I got home, but it did not seem to fix it, as it was sore when I woke up today. "No big deal" I thought. I would just plan on going out and if it got too bad, I would just stop. It never did get so bad that I had to stop, but I'm almost thinking I should have because the knee has been sore as hell ever since I finished. The main thing I was worried about was that I would do something to compensate for the sore knee, and I think that's what happened. It seems I've tweaked my lower back on the left side, which can only be attributed to having to run with a shorter stride. Unfortunate, that's for sure, but nothing that can't be fixed with a little rest. Problem is, I don't know if that rest will arrive in time. Friday is the next scheduled day I have off. It isn't any sort of serious injury, but more of an annoyance. But should I be worried that it will get worse? I'm currently icing both my knee and back, and getting some sleep will do me wonders, that's for sure. Typically, healing isn't a big deal for me, so I don't sweat little pains here and there. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow. If I can make it to Friday, I'll have two full days to ice and take it easy. Until next time...I'll just suck it up and talk about it later.

The 6(th) Sense

Today was a milestone. 6 mile run. Longest run since my sophomore year of high school, when I (for some reason) ran long distance for Northwest High School and Coach Darr. I sucked at it back then, but eventually I rounded into form and it wasn't so terrible. The run we had to make took us out the Northwest parking lot, down to 13th and Ridge, down Ridge to Central, down Central to Maize, down Maize to 13th, and back to NW. Seemed like a long run back then, and now it seems crazy long. I'm sure it took forever to complete. Now, it's nice to be able to break up the run if I choose. I took advantage of that today by breaking the run down into three 2-mile sections, starting at the end of the dam, and making Lake Shawnee Jr. the two and four-mile marks. Great spot to stop, catch a drink, and walk for about a minute.

So, even though I didn't sleep worth a damn last night, I was up at 7 AM to go run (gross.) I guess that's one nice thing about not knowing anybody in Topeka...no chance to go out and get too drunk to run. But I was out the door at 8 feeling really good, surprisingly, and knowing that a 6 mile run is no different than a 4 mile run, except in your head. That really seems to be the mantra that works best for me. I still think a lot of the running turns into a mental game, and if you can just convince yourself that 6 miles isn't really that terrible, it won't be terrible. I was able to cover the 6 miles today in 57 minutes flat, which means that I will be entering the Brew-2-Shoe 10-K in a couple of weeks in Manhattan, mostly just hoping to finish in under and hour, and partly to try out a longer distance before Sparks and I take down the KC Half-Marathon in October. But tomorrow is a much needed recovery day with some light lifting, and then 3 straight 3 mile runs. Until next time...later.

Will it ever cool down?

Damn, it's hot. I know that you know that. I won't waste time talking about it. But seriously, it would be nice if it were to cool down just a touch. Anyways, I switched my off day to yesterday so that I could not run on my day off, and I really felt great out there today. I decided at the last minute to stretch out the run to 4 miles to make this upcoming run of 6 miles not seem so drastic. Doubling a run like that, I would imagine, would be quite the shock to the system. So anyways, 4 miles today went extremely well. Having that extra day off between runs really does make a difference. I'm going to have to work on recovery, though, because starting next week I'll be running 4 times a week, including 3 days in a row on Tuesday-Thursday. Sunday's 6 mile run will be the indicator to me if I am prepared to attempt this 10-K on August 7th. I have yet to sign up, but I still think that I will, regardless of how this next run goes. All I know is that I should be able to run in under an hour at this point. Running 4 miles today was 36:28, and that included a nearly 1 minute walk session at the 3 mile mark to rest, grab a drink, and cool off. Hal recommends short breaks at water stations during longer runs as a good method to rest, and he's very right. The last mile was great, and I attribute that to the short rest. So rest is good, especially if you are going through 2-a-days. Come Sunday, we'll see how things go, and there will be a much anticipated weigh in on Tuesday morning, where I'm hoping to hit 180 lbs. Until next time...later.

Break time is over

I didn't really take a break from running, but I sort of slacked on the blogging. I'll try not to let it happen again. When I left off, I was preparing for a big time Sunday run of 5.5 miles. That went very well...in my dreams. In reality, it sucked as much as a run could suck. A couple of points to make: First, if you think you are dehydrated, you are dehydrated. Hence, it makes running impossible. You will ache, and you will want to stop. This happened. Second, if you go all out on a run, and then try to run less than 36 hours later, as well as attempting to do it when you are dehydrated, it will not go well. So if you couldn't tell, my Sunday run ended about 1.25 miles short of the anticipated 5.5 miles. I'm still convinced that the biggest obstacle to a long distance run is the mental approach. I knew it was going to be a brutal run, and it was, but if I had gone in with a better mindset, I probably would have been able to finish, even though it hurt like hell.

To demonstrate how much proper rest aids in a run, I got my usual 2 full days of rest for my Tuesday run, and felt great the whole time. No dehydration. No soreness. Just a nice, solid run. Since I'm getting to the point that a 3 mile run is no longer that big of a deal (since I'm taking a break from training for 5-k distance races) I probably won't be giving out times, unless it is a particularly good run. Tuesday's run was 26:15, and, in this humidity, I'm happy with it. The previous best run for a 3 mile was 25:15, so if I'm in that neighborhood, I'll discuss it, but the main focus for a while is going to be on the long distance runs, which are on Sundays. This coming Sunday will bring a 6 mile run, and I'm going to finish it. It'll all in your head. Until next time...later.

Heat Wave

So that was hot. Running in the Sunflower State Games last night was fun. Nice neighborhood course, that was basically up a long hill one way, and then down that same hill coming back towards the start/finish line. There were a lot of really good runners participating in this event. The girls that won the 5 and 10-K's are both going to be running in college at K-State, so that's pretty awesome. Met a guy that was on a traveling team that was running 4 races in 4 days. Thursday night they were running at Notre Dame, then Topeka on Friday, Iowa today, and St. Louis on Sunday (half-marathon). That's insane. So this was a real field. I learned that when you get races that do not support a type of cause, you weed out the people doing it for the cause and just get down to the athletes. That was a new one.

But I would have to say that I thought I did pretty well. Lots of the better runners got off to good starts, of course, and they were pretty far ahead, but I never felt like I was losing ground to a lot of the regular runners. But it was hot, and I did not stop for water. I took a couple of cups just to get my mouth a little bit of moisture, but I wasn't interested in stopping for a cup. By the end of the run, my stomach was feeling a little rough because I was running pretty hard. I did have to slow up during the last quarter mile or so because I was not going to throw up on this course. I crossed the finish line in the area of 26:40, and this race did not use the time chip technology, so I won't get that line to line time like I did last month, but I did use my Nike Plus and my actual time was probably closer to 26:25, but whatever the official time is is what the official time is. I'm taking today off because that heat has messed with me just a little, as I slammed a bottle of water right after the race and I haven't felt right since. But anyways, I've got a 5.5 mile run scheduled for tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes. Later.

Final prep

So the race is on Friday night, and it is going to be a big time challenge because I just learned that I will not be able to use my iPod while running. This is going to be interesting. On one hand, I am of the belief that I run with the beat of whatever song I happen to be on, and that can be a good thing or a bad thing. On the other hand, I sort of need that beat, or at least I think I do. I guess we'll find out when I hit the road. I have stated that my goal is to run this race under 26:00, and while I certainly think it is capable, what I'm concerned about boils down to two things. First, the pace (obviously). I have a pretty good idea of how my run is going based on the number of songs I've heard, or how much ground I can cover during certain songs. I won't have that luxury this time. Second, I have a feeling I'll be bored without music to listen to, and I'll lose focus pretty easily. Hopefully neither of these are the case, and I can get off to a strong start and stay focus as I run with the pack. I will say this...if I don't hit my time, I won't be disappointed because this will sort of a new experience. Now, some things might work in my favor so that I do have a really good time. It appears that the course is going to be flat road, so I shouldn't have to worry about too many hills, like I currently experience at Lake Shawnee. This should keep me at a fast pace without exerting too much energy just going up hills. Either way, I'm looking to have a good time and keep learning about how I run.

As for today, it's hot...again. Just stupid hot, and I ran at 7:45 AM today. You know how hard it is for me to wake up that early? It's terrible. After struggling through my run on Monday, today was much better. I think I got all the junk out of my system, and I had a nice run today. 3 miles today clocking in at 26:24, with one water break. I mean, it was 84 degrees today when I stepped out of the house at 7:15 AM. I was pleased to have a solid run, and I'll hopefully have a solid weigh-in tomorrow. Until next time...keep commenting, Anonymous. :) Later...

Humidity Kills

This is no joke. It is absolutely brutal to run with humidity in the neighborhood of 80% or higher. It is also particular tough to run after another weekend of boozing and eating my brains out. Now, again, I knew full well what to expect, so I have nobody to blame but myself, but it doesn't change the fact that it makes the running horrible. I'm going to have to either pick up some more discipline or quit trying to make improvements, because I am not doing myself any favors by loading up on weekends. I haven't weighed myself in a while, but I don't think I'm making any progress in that department either. I don't really want to have to limit myself, especially with beer, but if I'm ever going to be well enough to run this Half Marathon in October, I really need to stop hindering my progress. Basically, I just need to be smart and have a little will power, even though I know I'm going to hear it from my friends when I'm not partying my ass off during KSU tailgates this year.

Anyways, like I said, today's run sucked. I did not stop like last week's, but I certainly wasn't about to set any personal records today, which wasn't really my goal anyways. I knew it was going to be tough, but I didn't know it was going to be as tough as it turned out to be. I still felt dehydrated all over, and it really showed up early as the humidity forced me to sweat like crazy. This electrolyte imbalance led to my legs aching for nearly the entire run, which also made it tough to try to run with any increased pace, so I plodded along at around my normal 9 minutes a mile, even though I think I should be running my 3 mile runs slightly faster, probably in the 8:40 per mile time. All things considered, my time of 27:08 could have been much worse, I suppose. Until next time...later.

High Five

A little tribute to David Puddy. In the ongoing task of running, I'm starting to ramp up my distance. As you know, I've been using Hal Higdon's 10-K Training Guide, and right now I'm just about to wrap up the 6th week. I also completed his 5-K guide right before I started the 10-K, guide, so we are in the neighborhood of 14 weeks (with a week long break) of total running, and I'm starting to get to the point where I'm excited to go run, mostly because every run seems to be a new challenging distance, or a chance to improve my time on a shorter run. Also, with the Nike Plus tracker (not to sound like a sales person), it is nice to be able to see my runs put together in one plus to get the cumulative effect. Like today, I just passed the 26.2 mile total, which means in the past two weeks since I've been using Nike Plus, I've run a marathon worth of distance. I still don't think that I'll ever be able to complete a full marathon, but that's something to debate for another time.

Today's run was a new distance of 5 miles. I've come to the conclusion that these extended distances (past 3 miles) generally become a mental game, because 4 miles and 5 miles really did not feel all that different to me. That's what I'm hoping to take with me into upcoming 10-K races (possibly two coming) and the KC Half Marathon, which I have decided to do as well, even though there was some wavering early in my running. I had set a time goal of 47 minutes for today's run, which would be just over 9 minutes a mile. I clocked in with a time of 46:28, which I think is pretty good for having never hit this distance before. I'm hoping to be in the neighborhood of 55-58 minutes for my first 10-K, and I feel I'm on pace for that. Also, less than one week until the next 5-K race, with a goal of under 26 minutes, which will be tough, but we'll see how it goes. Until next time...later.

Bring back the ice

Shin pain is back. Ice packs are back. I would guess that a lot of that is from Tuesday's failed run, where I both tried to set a personal record in 3 miles and was under-hydrated and over-beered from the weekend. I didn't feel right after that run, and I still don't feel quite 100%.

Since I came up short on Tuesday of 3 miles, I felt I needed an extended run today to sort of break out of my mini-funk. I hit the gym yesterday, so I felt that I would have worked all the junk out of my system. I ran 4 miles today, and as I've written in the past, my 4 mile times seemed to be a little bit lacking. Using my new Nike Plus training system, I set out for a goal of 37 minutes, which would be a good time for me (especially compared to previous 4 mile runs, both over 39 minutes). Mostly I'm starting to look for increased consistency on longer runs. There tend to be lulls in the middle of my longer runs where my split times sag, so I'm trying to make sure that I can avoid that by maintaining a solid pace. The Nike Plus is great in that regard, in that by setting a time of 37 minutes, I get updates about how much time has gone by, therefore I am able to really pace myself throughout the run. I was able to hit the halfway mark (2 miles) right before I was told through the headphones that I was at the 18:30 mark (halfway) on my countdown clock. It's pretty neat. Today's run time was 36:27 (including two water stops), and the mile splits were nearly all at an even 9 minutes. So, I dropped some time in the 4 mile, and had nearly identical mile times. I like it. Next time I'll have to lower the time and see if we can't get it under 9 minutes a mile. Also, with the race next Friday, the schedule I'm on will be altered, so Saturday will be a 5 mile run, followed by 3 miles on Monday and Wednesday. Until next time....later.

Lesson Learned, Pt. 2

Today was a failed run. No way around it. But, I pretty much had this one coming. With the 4th of July and my birthday (the 5th) back to back, I'm pretty much worthless for a couple of days. Food, beer, cake, beer, pop, food, beer, etc. You get the point. Well, that scenario played out like it has every year for the past decade or so. Too much partying on the 4th and 5th means that the 6 is usually a recovery day. Not this year. This year, I had a 3 mile run scheduled today. I don't know if it was the lack of water, or the salty BBQ, or the beer, or a combination of everything, but running today sucked. In fact, for the first time since I started, I did not finish my allotted distance. I stopped with just over a quarter of a mile left. My back was tight, my legs were sore, I was very thirsty, it was very humid, and I was out of gas. It was a volatile situation, and it exploded, which was not much of a surprise. I have been much better about taking it easy, hence the weight loss, but I pretty much took my punishment, and I'll be moving on. Thursday I'll be trying for another run under 26:00. Until then...

Happy 4(.5)th of July!

Sort of a play on numbers, if you will, but it represents the next step of running that I have taken. The 4.5 mile run. Officially the longest distance I have run at any one time since I was in high school track, nearly 13 years ago (I think). So we are basically moving into uncharted territory at this point. One thing that I've had to deal with on these longer runs, and I would imagine it is fairly common, is trying to "take it easy" so as not to burn out, or get too tired before the end of the run. This has led to much plodding and very long runs, somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-5 minutes longer than what I should be doing. I mean, if you think about a 9 minute/mile pace, that 4 mile run should be around 36:00. I've been over 39 minutes both times, so I figured it was about time to step it up.

One great thing I've been using over the past week is this Nike Plus run tracking system. I thought it might have sounded a little dumb at first, but I think it will end up being a great helping tool. If you consider running, I would suggest trying this thing out, because it is great for helping you achieve any running goal you could think of, at least so far it has with me. For example, you have the ability to set a timed run goal, so if you are aiming for a particular time, it is easy to run your distance while being updated throughout your run of where your time is. I tried this out on Sunday, setting a 4.5 mile goal of 42:00, trying to buck the trend of the slow plodding runs. It was not going well through the first 2 miles, as I was running right into the wind. I was behind the pace by quite a bit at the halfway mark, but it certainly helped running the last half of the run with the wind at my back. By the time I had a half mile left, I was being told by the Nike trainer through my headphones that I had 7 minutes left, so it wasn't an issue making 42:00. I ended up running 4.5 miles in 40:44. So that was nice. I have a 5 mile run scheduled for Saturday, and then next Friday is the Governor's Cup race, where I'm aiming for a 26:00 5-K. Until next time...

July

Boy, this year is absolutely flying by. I can't believe it is already July. I missed writing about my Tuesday run, so I'll catch you up quick. It was good. I set a goal to run my 3 mile runs under 27 minutes, and I was able to do that, with a time of 26:24. The weather has been much better lately. The humidity has died down, and the temperatures are becoming a little more reasonable, and I think that has a lot to do with it.

Today's run was also 3 miles, as they will be during the week for a while. I did not feel great waking up today, but I've decided to treat my Thursday runs like I am in a race. Basically, I figure that if I can bust my ass during practice by myself, running with people will only be easier to help keep a good time. This altered track has become easier to navigate over time. The hills are still not easy, but they do not seem as bad as they had been. Also, the week off did wonders for my shins. I haven't noticed any shin splints or pain in my shins, which is great.

Now, to discuss today's run. 3 miles in 25:15. I'm pumped. A new personal record. I really like where this is heading. I felt great, until the last quarter of a mile, where I had to slow down a bit to prevent throwing up. It was a close call. I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't slowed down, I would have broken the 25 minute mark, which to me would have been unfathomable when I started. This is good, because the next race is only 15 days away, on July 16th here in Topeka for the Sunflower State Games Governor's Cup. My goal for that race is to be under 26:00 minutes. I'm feeling really good about things right now. Hopefully the longer runs start to feel better so that I can run the 10-K without too many problems. Thanks for reading, and until next time...later.