A Balance, Redefined

Family run before pancakes and church. Very humid for UT this morning.

Up late helping my student prepare for his first presentation. A little tired running in this morning. Commute run. No really I did do the commute run, I know that this comes as a shock but I got out of bad and decided "hey why not, let's run into work" so guess what I did I ran the whole way into work. I know that this is a crazy concept for me and that I should be careful about getting so wild with my training but I figured a commute run would be ok as long as I took it easy. Ok just a little sarcasm...

I definitely put too much on my plate to start out this month. Another late night in lab and two in a row seems to take more out of me than it used to... To continue moving in the right direction I did do another Fartlek in this morning. I am not focusing on anything but harder and easy right now. I do 3-4 shorter stretches and then two long stretches. They are more like accelerations and I have been almost getting to marathon pace by the end of them. As usual Commute run via Red Butte.

I really have too many matches burning right now. Meaning I am burning the candle at all three ends... The little bit of running I am able to do does help though. The commute run in this morning was not as nice as yesterday but still not too bad.

Still tired. But feeling better. Since my boss is out of town, I had a phone meeting with him last night. At least work is moving ahead full steam even if the running is not. That being said I am thankful for the incremental steps that I am making in the running. This morning felt much better than yesterday. I did not wear the Garmin but was focused on running at a "quicker" pace. That probably means 9 min vs. 10 min but like I said, "incremental". 

Rest day.

"Race" I guess the term is relative. Today is my first time toeing a starting line since Nov 26th of last year. Continuing with my wife's half training she found a free 5K at Sugarhouse. This was through a neighbor who used to work at the IMHC hospital. For being free it was very well organized and nicely stocked. The goal was for my wife to use it as a speed workout and for me to test my legs. To make sure I kept it under control I was going to be pushing both girls in the stroller.

We ran to the start, about two miles from our house. As we entered the park we ran into my PT. Very fitting. I hadn't seen him since May. I gave him the quick racap. No I'm not 100% yes I'm running but only about 1/4 of my normal mileage. I'm about to do something stupid and try to race. He just smiled at that... I'm sure he's heard it all before dealing with crazy runners all the time. At the registration it was very well organized and started exactly on time. At the start we noticed one of the tires was a little flat to boot... The course was 2+ clockwise loops of the park starting near the greenhouse. I started about 10 rows back but was in about 15th place by the duck pond. There was actually another guy ahead of me with a double stroller as well. From the gun it was pretty obvious who was going to win (a younger guy in an orange top) but the next few places were up for grabs. When I hit the hill in the NW corner of the park the extra ~75lbs I was pushing sure took its toll but I continued to tick off the marks. By the NE corner I was gaining on the other stroller guy. I ended up catching him on the hill in that corner. He looked strong and only had one kid in his double. I thought it was going to be a dual but he just let me go when I mentioned to my daughter that our goal was to catch the guy in orange. My younger daughter just enjoyed the ride. My oldest gave me a constant play-by-play about the people ahead of us and the people going the "wrong way". During the second loop we were already catching up with the walkers and my daughter kept asking why I was going so slow and how we could pass all these people to "win". I explained to her that there were only 6 people ahead of us (my last count before we started lapping people). I next explained that the next person to pass was a guy in blue about 100m up. I was hurting though. It had been way to long since I had attempted to exert myself. We did start making up some ground but then the next uphill started. To my surprise he came back and we passed him just when we were starting down the final downhill. It was a blitz down and around the duck pond to the finish. When I crossed the line I heard someone mention something about second? but I wasn't sure. There were no official results and they just gave you a card with your time written on it. The winner was only 46 sec up on me so maybe some of the other people that I thought were ahead of me were really just runners in the park. Not sure but I am counting it as a fifth place finish. The highlight of the race was the fact that my wife was the first woman overall. This is only her second 5K in about 5 yrs. We cooled down a little walking and then ran home.

So what does this mean? Am I back? Not really. It was nice to get out and push hard, effort wise at least. I think the loaded double stroller definitely slowed the time today but it was the same pace as my last marathon so I have a long way to go. I think the most important part of today's effort was the fact that I enjoyed it with my family. My girls like the tour of the park and I enjoy seeing my wife getting back into running. My knee is no worse for the effort today (Sunday) and that also makes me very happy. It is still sore but that may be something I will have to learn to live with. Can I imagine running ~1 min/mi faster?, not at this point... But you never know. I hope this experience helps remove some of the doubt in the back of my head and gets me moving again.

Family recovery run before my homemade chocolate chip/blueberry pancakes and church.

A little achy from Saturday, but not too bad. Commute run in.

Well I have passed the two day test and my knee is no worse now than before the "race".

My left foot is a little sore but that has more to do with being klutzy and accidentally kicking a wall.

Commute run in.

Things continue to improve. Turns out the foot pain yesterday was just the "stubbed toe" and not residual pain from the effort Saturday. This morning felt really good and I continue to feel stronger. Commute run.

I guess I spoke too soon. My left foot was bugging me a lot this morning?... Just the commute run in. Knee has been the same the last week so it is good that it has behaved itself in as much as not getting worse. Looking toward tomorrow...

Recovery day

First double digit run since Jan.

With the family, pushing the girls. Nice and easy. Nothing too not worthy. Which I guess is a good thing. 

Recovery run with family to test the legs after yesterday. Nothing to note. Again a good thing. Too busy at work this week. Had a bunch do last week and about twice as much this week so... I'll try and start playing around with my running a little more. Since I am not making things worse I may as well see if I can start "really" training again.

Commute run.

Commute run with a few "surges".

Too much work. Switched Friday "off" with today...

Blah... Two hours of sleep is not conducive to ... anything.

Family run after a full 8hr of sleep. I am in a much better mood than the rest of the week. I also managed to get most things done. The run went well and it was the first time going past Suicide Rock in months. 

In Canada for a meeting.

Travel day.

Would have liked to have gone for an early AM run but the trails are closed due to bear sightings.

Still not ready to fend off a bear and after the sighting in CO at my last meeting I didn't want to press my luck with an early morning run. Instead I did a four mile hike with a friend later in the day. We didn't see any bears but we did see a number of signs of them so I probably wasn't being overly cautious.

Knee a little sore from either the hike or the general sloth that sometimes accompanies going to a meeting. The meeting was good though.

Easing back into it with all the time off this week.

Just did a mile on the treadmill to warm up for PT and stretches.

Commute run in. Back to basics. Knee still tight but foot pain went away as mysteriously as it had appeared. Happy Friday everyone.

Family run. At least I still made it into the double digits for the week.

Easy family 3.

It is a amazing the way my memory works. I did the SugarHouse commute run in this morning. Though I've run this route dozens if not a 100x, I remembered it being 5 mi. It was a cool run both temperature wise and in mood. I have a potential knee follow-up visit with the doctor this Thursday and since nothing has changed pro or con with my knee I wanted to really test it before I went in. I started toward SugarHouse at an even clip and then surged for one mile (6:12). By no means my fastest mile but it did feel nice to test the legs. From that point on the next 4 mi are more or less up hill. The "cool" part of the run came in that the sky was clear overhead at the start of my run. There was an electrical storm on the other side of the valley. During the run it kept getting closer. It felt like I was trying to out run the storm. The clouds made it overhead by the time I got to campus but the rain didn't start until I made it in the building. Overall the run felt good and I am happy that I finally pushed myself a little. The overall pace was nothing spectacular but for the few of you that are still checking in on me and remember what my usual pace for this run used to be this mornings 8:05/mi is not that bad. Have a great week.

Nothing special today except that the week is moving along nicely (I know it is only Tuesday). It is amazing how much better I felt yesterday by starting it with a nice run. I think of the TV campaign for that granola bar that one good choice leads to another and the even older saying about getting up on the right vs. wrong side of the bed. Today didn't have as nice of a start but it was still in the good range. Just a little tired. The best news is that my muscle soreness is out competing my knee pain. Must mean I am finally getting back into shape.