overtaking haynes

2hr 4 min trail run. yesterday my chin got frost bite a little b/c i didn't wear a mask while today i wore a mask but a different hat and the bottom of my left ear is peeling off a bit. really really cold today...but not horrible i guess. it can always get worse than a -5 degree wind chill. 

3hr 22 min run. I ran from my house for about 4 miles (1.1 on my favorite dirt road in town). I was thankful it was probably 25-30 today with only moderate wind. My hip belt was really annoying because the straps fell off at 1.4 miles and i struggled to fix the straps appropriately for about 5 minutes in part because of my ridiculously poor circulation in my hands but also in part because i was retarded. I got to huntington park and enjoyed the 1-2 inches of snow still on the ground with most of the ice underneath now gone or unnoticed. I proceeded to my favorite local trail, the 6 mile out and back that begins from the backside of the park. Saw only 1 person on the trail (which is why it is so awesome). I was glad he didn't wield a dog. At 11.5 miles I got to the turnaround point. I took 2 shot blocks which i realized become much too hard to eat when it's below freezing and a cliff bar which i hate eating but know are important to eat in order to have energy. I had 2 bottles of kona cola nuun which i like but no one else seems to. It is extremely gross i will admit when not consumed while running and when not cold, probably to dampen the unpleasant taste. My legs never hurt and I finished pretty strong. 3.2 miles on the road at the end.
Could have definitely gone farther but was glad to be done. I recommend books on tape for long runs. Songs get old too quickly.

1hr 30 min trail run. will hopefully be able to wake up early enough to run my 11.5 mile loop before work. it's interesting how i used to not be able to run in the morning and now i can't seem to run at night. at least i can run sometime still :) 

1hr 45 minutes or so, lost track of time on my iphone. left the house at 5:51am, the earliest of the year. was only 15 min late to work. kind of inevitable i think. no matter how early i wake up i just linger around the house longer. there had been freezing rain during the night and i didn't realize that that would mean almost falling the first step i took out the door on the stone steps. i also slid down the driveway and almost hurt myself. i'm glad i've been stretching or i would have definitely pulled something. i'm definitely probably more flexible than about 1% of the population that's my age. even though i stretch 30 min a night now. i should probably be warmed up when i stretch but every since i've devoted every night to it, my ankle has completely stopped hurting and nothing really ails me while running so it's doing enough. the roads weren't too bad because of all the sand on them from previous weather. i feel like i may be getting a little sick. can't put my finger on it yet. i hope not. 

11.5 mile loop. left at 5:51 am. got back at 7:36 and was only 10 min late to work instead of the 18 min i was late the day before :)

there is currently an ice storm overhead so running outside in the morning may be impossible. may try to do exercise bike in the morning, who knows...

when i was putting on my work boots this morning i happened to touch the top of my foot between where the bones intersect of the big toe and the next one over on my left foot. i would be more worried that it was a stress fracture but this has happened before about 6 months ago or so. A day off from running is probably a good thing though.

 just signed up for the north face endurance challenge 50 mile race in Bear Mtn, New York in May!

before work on the treadmill. 1hr 27 mins and 40 sec. not as horrible as i thought.

1hr 13min 30 sec on the treadmill after work. it was so hot running inside that i had to stop at 7.5 miles and take in some water. the treadmill is so much more efficient than running outside in regards to getting as many miles in as little time as possible. the roads are all icy in the morning, especially the dirt roads so i think i'm going to be running much more on the treadmill the next few weeks before it starts to be light in the morning. 

 i can't believe i took a full 4 days off from running. i went up to smuggler's notch in VT to ski with some friends on sat and sunday and i was too exhausted to run yesterday after the 6hr drive home sunday night. hopefully i can get back into it. I have so much less motivation to run when i can't achieve at least 70 miles a week on the running calendar. Without a number to work towards i just don't feel as motivated.
 

am, 7.5 miles on the treadmill, 61 minutes. 

pm, 3 miles on the treadmill, 24 minutes 

5 miles am on treadmill in just under 41 mins. quads were REALLY sore. I hope it's not b/c i'm out of shape from not running for 4 days. I'm guessing i'm just not used to the flatness and constant rhythm of the treadmill and perhaps even the speed which seems pathetic of going 7:30 miles :) 

5 miles pm in just under 40 mins. quads not as sore but ate dinner before the run which was no good. also the heat was turned up to 70 in the basement which was no good. had a little episode of spots in my head and dizziness like i used to have but i ran through it and 5 mins later was fine.

i'm going to a funeral tomorrow. someone's dad at work fell on some ice and hit his head and died from brain swelling. the son was there when it happened. terrible!  

1hr 5 mins on treadmill. decided to go until the machine said 1000 calories burned which was about 8 miles. 

about 8:05 pace on the treadmill. started really slow but sped up to about 7:30 by the end. felt ok. i have a goal to run 80 miles next week. we shall see if that pans out. tomorrow will be a key day and it needs to be above 10F when i start or i will wuss out. 

It was a warm 20F at the start of the run today with no wind. I waited for it to stop snowing. At first i thought wearing a three layers was a mistake but i didn't end up overheating. I ran 4.6 miles to Huntington park and then ran the ~9 miles through the park including the 6 mile out and back section which is my favorite. I stopped at 10.6 miles for 5 minutes-it took me that long to eat the hardened cliff bar which was just gross. I also hadn't drank anything yet and i drank almost 1 of the two water bottles i had brought with me. The snow was pretty crunchy with a hard annoying layer underneath the new inch or so of snow we got overnight. At 13.5 miles i came to the end of the trail and decided to retrace my path for 1.5 miles to take a more scenic road back. I saw a woman raking the snow off of a pond who i see almost every other time on the trail walking or skiing. I was always curious where she was coming from. 

I knew at mile 12 that i was going to be in a little bit of chaffing pain from the sub par lube i was using now that my body glide has been used up. this other stuff is deceptively good but completely wears out after 1.5-2hrs so you think it is fine until a long run. my left groin got a little tight at the end of the run but overall i was in fairly good shape after 3hrs and 46 minutes.
 

the goal was to get in 7.9 so i only have to avg 10 per day to reach 80mpw. my left knee didn't bother me at all outside yesterday but for some reason the treadmill aggravates it a bit. left quad was a little sore to start and running 8:57 on the treadmill felt bad. b/c my mom decided to start exercising at 5:15 when i got home i snacked on carrots and humus which is still making me sick to my stomach 2hrs later.

the chaffing from yesterday was quite horrible today. I had to stop 3 times to apply more of the crappy stuff that doesn't work well. Luckily i had good tv to watch. i saw roger federer win at the australian open and then #1 uconn playing #2 unc in women's basketball. It's annoying how some channels on the tv aren't as loud as others and i can't hear them at maximum volume over the treadmill. 

 night classes start tomorrow night. hopefully they won't make running on a treadmill even more unbearable!

69 minutes and 1000 calories exactly according to the treadmill.
 

5 before work on treadmill. right knee was really acting up to the point where it made me not want to run very fast. Took advil after and felt fine walking around until right after lunch when what i thought was my hip but most likely my left IT band made me start limping around. The treadmill is officially my enemy. Perhaps i have hit my limit and can't handle more than 75 miles per week. i did 79 in the last 7 days before today and apparently i can't handle it. The leg feels a bit better now after a 30 min ice. will definitely take at least 2 days off and use the time to STRETCH because the tightness was ridiculous. i've never felt anything like this and it was weird how it just crept up on me without warning. i guess i know what was causing the inner knee discomfort now. It's so annoying how just as i felt like my legs were handling the increased volume that something else has to go. i'm still hopeful i'll be ok in a few days. i'm kind of looking forward to the excuse to not run on the treadmill. 

I wouldn't say that all of the 23 easy miles were easy. The last 2 or 3 certainly hurt, especially because they were on the road after 10 miles of nice snow. 

 I was getting a bit nervous because of an IT band injury that sprung on me from what i blame as treadmill running. My left inner knee would act up and then hours later my IT band would kill me. So I took 3 days off and was a bit frustrated and contemplating how i could keep up training when running simply was no fun during the winter when you had to run in the dark or on a beastly and disgustingly lame human contraption.

i realized today that i actually like running when it's outside and on the trails and while listening to a book on tape which right now is dan brown's angels and demons. I have a 40 mile race in a month and i need to continue to get long runs in since i start to struggle as i approach 20. Simply running 70 miles or even 80 miles a week doesn't seem to help run 25 at once if the long runs are only 11 or 12 miles. When i was at my best long distance shape in 2005 i ran 3 times a week 3-5 hours a day.

 So my knee acted up rather early around mile 6, right when i got into the trails which was annoying but didn't get worse. i noticed the knee hurt much less going uphill. At mile 13.1 2hrs 18 minutes i took a 6 minute break to eat and drink since i had failed to do so earlier.

I saw my second coyote ever while running. it looked like a german shepherd in terms of size. Both times they just turn and bolt which gives me a feeling of power :)

 The knee didn't get worse, at mile 18.5 I had to ascend church hill which is not fun at all. it is a two stage climb of 325 feet total in 0.5 miles. All sorts of twingy pains started occuring after that but i got through the run and realize i'm not in good shape right now for the 40. perhaps if i was eating more frequently, but it appears that the legs and stuff just aren't game yet. i'll keep my fingers crossed that my IT band doesn't act up in a few hours. I preemptively took some advil and will now go apply some ice.

total running time 3hrs 59 minutes.

1hr 39 min trail run on packed hard snow. inner knee felt uncomfortable pre stretch but didn't get too bad. i took an advil and by the end of the run, there was virtually no pain. 

am run partly in the dark with falling snow. i prefer road running in snow before the plows and cars come out even to trail running. left knee wasn't too bad, just a little annoying. hopefully i can get my body back into things and adjust to running on at least mon or tues with the night classes. i may simply try to overdo it on sat and sun and take 2 days off b/c it's easier not to run those days. 

5:45 am start. roads were a bit icy. the dirt roads were REALLY icy. i don't know where my gps is right now so i wanted to know how many miles i did and chose to run on two different dirt roads for a bit. i only fell once. felt ok, knee pain seems to not be increasing which is good and no other problems to report.

am run, it's nice how it's getting lighter earlier out. snoozed a bit too much and then got engrossed in the nadal/verdasco tennis match. had to cut the loop short. 

around 8, will have to gps this route.