Running With Pepper

Last day of not running to help east the IT Band strain. Went to the gym for more core training and also worked the back. Did core for about 35 minutes and then did my Push-up/Pull-up pyramids. If you ever want to get up to 20+ pull-ups, this is the routine for you! Once again took Pepper to the EFC dog park where he obviously had fun with his continually new-found friends. Went home, had a salad, cooked corn on the cob and steak on the grill. What a great end to a pretty darn good 3-day weekend.

Took time in the afternoon at work and decided to give it a go and run my 5 mile out and back course with all the hills. I wanted to push it a little for this run so I could test the limitations of my IT Band in my right leg. I've been stretching it various ways, and it felt good for all but the last mile of the run. Finished the run in 37:00. It was a nice pace where I felt really good with my breathing but the IT really kicked my butt in the end. I suppose I'll have to look up more stretching techniques for that darn thing.

(Brooks Infinitis 203.5 miles)

Ran with the boss at lunch and hit the same 5 mile course filled with gentle hills along the Custis Trail. The boss ran 4 miles and I ran the total 5 in 41 minutes but I actually caught up to him with about a mile to go. First 2 miles were at a slow plodding pace of about 10min/mile and when the boss turned around I busted it up to about a 6:30 pace for 9 or so minutes (I didn't have a piece of chocolate cake in my gut like I did yesterday!), slowed down for about 3 minutes, then hit back at about a 7:00 pace until I caught up with the boss. The final .6 miles or so were at about the 10 minute/mile pace. Overall, this run was a good test as to how my ITB would handle some tougher pace running. After my run was done, I used my newfound stretching techniques to work on my ITB. It was really throbbing, but after I stretched it and did some strengthening exercises, it felt much better. I now plan to do those exercises at least 2 times a day to get ahead of this. Decent run and it seems like my fitness is improving and I'm able to hold the faster pace longer.

(Brooks Infinitis 208.5 miles)

Well...I was going to run some intervals on the track at the high school across the street from my house tonight but they are apparently renovating the football field and other facilities there. I decided to do a nice warm-up by running two miles in 14 minutes then got down to the business of running up stairs. I ended up tackling 1,000 stairs in 19 minutes, then headed out for a nice 1.5ish mile cooldown run. Although I didn't get to run my intervals tonight, the stairs were great and my pulse was really ratched up a notch. Overall, I finished my running in 43:28 for about 5ish miles. On the ITB note, the new stretching/strengthening I'm doing is really helping and it's starting to feel better after only 2 days. I'm probably overly optimistic, but I think I may have this totally fixed in about 1 week. I did however notice that when I was wandering around my complex tonight, it started to hurt again. The only reason I can think of that it was hurting was because I was wearing my old/beat-up flip-flops. When I took Pepper for a walk tonight, I wore running shoes and it was totally fine. I believe that I may have found the root of my evil pain. :) 

Went for a run down to the C&O Canal Trail and met up with fellow blogger Lucia for a nice run down to the boathouse and back. The weather today was really hot (91 degrees), so we took it nice and easy and had a great pace throughout the entire run. The pace was just right, especially with the hot weather. Overall, it was a great run (especially since I left work to do it). The total run distance/time for me was 7 miles in 59:21. Till next time bloggers...have a Happy 4th of July and please remember why we celebrate this holiday. We are all privileged to live in this great nation. It's not all about fireworks...yet they are nice too! :)

(Brooks Infinitis 215.5 miles)