Positive Running

Worked out at the hotel fitness center, burned 500 calories.  Took the 1 mile walking tour of the Acoma Pueblo, then hiked the 1.5 miles from the Acoma Pueblo to the visitor center. 

Hiked around and took the walking tour of Old Town Albuquerque.

Did yard work and took the day off.

Ran 8 easy miles at 8:00 per mile with Wesley and Kevin, burned 914 calories.  Dew point was between 66 and 69, and temperature was around 74 degrees.  I really felt the dew point after spending the previous week in the New Mexico mountains where the temperatures were primarily in the 70s with less than 10% humidity.  I was dehydrated after the 8-mile run. 

Also worked out in the evening on the elliptical machine for 60 minutes -- burned 725 calories for 3.5 miles. 

Worked out in gym.  Burned 360 calories on elliptical machine, 400 calories on bike, and 225 calories on treadmill.

Very easy run of 8-miles with Kevin and Abtin north of the river.  The weather was very nice, with a dew point under 60 degrees. 

Worked out in the gym. Burned 330 calories on the elliptical, 420 calories on the treadmill, and 200 calories on the recumbent bike.  Made arrangements to run the Lake Ouachital Vista Trail with friends on Saturday morning.

Worked out at the gym.  Burned 700 calories on the elliptical machine.  Prepared a draft speedwork monitoring form based on the ladder approach I used in high school and college.  Keeping good records of your speed training times is a valuable tool.

Ran 18-miles of the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail with George P.  George is in incredible shape and was great to run with.  The morning was beautiful and so was the trail.  The trail runs along the southwest end of the lake on a penninsula near Mountain Harbor, AR. 

We ran the first 9-miles at about 9 min 30 sec per mile, which was probably a bit fast for me on trails because I had intermittent leg and foot cramps starting at the 14th mile.  We slowed down to about an 11 min. per mile pace for the late 4 miles.

We started at 6:20 a.m., and by 8:30 the temperature was warm.  I consumed 40 oz. of Powerade and about 15 ounces of water and could have had 20 oz of more fluids.  I am going to use my Camelbak hydration pack for our next trail run.

One reason for the cramps may be that I need to build more endurance by running a little farther in weekly runs.  Other reasons may have been the heat and sweating out the fluids so that I was a bit dehydrated.  My next trail run will probably be during the last weekend of June. 

I spent a half-hour doing standing yoga poses following a Rodney Yee DVD called Ultimate Power Yoga.  These are excellent stretching exercises.  I can't do the poses perfectly, but I can do some form of each of the poses and it felt great. 

Ran 12 easy miles with Kevin on his 34th birthday, the day after my 54th birthday.  We started running with Abtin, but he told us to go ahead rather than slow us down.  However, from our perspective, we ran very slow (possibly as slow as 9 min/mi) because I ran in my Glycerin 8s, which don't seem to absorb a lot of energy and are very slow for me.  I usually run light-footed, and with the Glycerins my feet hit the ground like Clydesdales and require a lot of work for me.  But I'm travelling out of state for business today, so my Triumph 8s are packed away.  It was a warm morning with a high dew point, so I consumed a lot of Powerade.  Overall though, a good way to start the week.

Took the day off from running. Worked out at the hotel fitness center tonight. Burned 900 calories: 500 on the elliptical machine and 400 on the treadmill.  Read more of the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed while working out, which made the time go by pretty fast.

Travel day from Houston to Little Rock.  Took day off to recover for runs on Thursday and Saturday.

Started at 5:30 a.m. and ran 12-miles with Wesley and Kevin at about 8 min per mile on a beautiful Summer morning at around 65 degrees along the Arkansas River. We ran 6-miles out and back.  It was a fun run with interesting conversation.

Wesley and Kevin could easily run under 7 min per mile, in fact, Wesley ran a mile segment of the course in well under 7 min.  I appreciate their patience running at my slower pace, and believe that running with them is making me faster.

Kevin and I each believe that weekday 12-mile runs are really helping to increase our weekly milage and improve our endurance.  Wesley runs almost every day (18 consecutive days as of today), so his weekly milage is already very good. 

Abtin ran with us for the first two miles.  He's is a hard working law clerk with Kevin's firm, and a fast runner who is working on increasing his running milage but isn't quite up to running 12-miles on a weekday morning.  I think Abtin will do very well when we start doing some speed work in the week or so.

I received my hardcopy of Scott Jurek's book Eat and Run while I was in Houston.  Looks like a great read.

Took the day off from running and did some stretching and stand-up yoga poses.

Met Josh, Stacy and Jenny at 4:30 a.m., drove to Lake Syliva (35 miles west of Little Rock, AR) and at 5:30 a.m. started running forest service dirt roads between Lake Sylvia and Lake Winona.  It was a beautiful morning, about 65 degrees when we started, as the sun was rising.  At 5:30, we could see about 60 feet in front of us and by 5:45 the sun had risen  completely.  In that 15 minutes, we saw and heard several deer and saw a small animal crossing the trail when it was too dark to clearly see, but that was the size of a skunk.

We ran 16 miles in about 2 hours and 45 minutes;  8-miles out and back.  Then the others ran another 2 miles out the in the other direction and back so they ran 20-miles.  But I had to get ready to go kayaking the 7-miles of the Little Red River from the JFK dam to the Swinging Bridge.   I returned to Little Rock around 9:00 and by 10:00 was on my way to Heber Springs to kayak the Little Red.  Overall, it was a fun and great way to spend a Saturday.

Today is a non-running day, so I burned 620 calories on the elliptical machine and did 30 minutes of standing yoga exercises.

Another non-running day.  Burned 850 calories in the gym:  250 calories on the stationary bike and 600 calories on the treadmill at an 8% incline for 1500 vertical feet and over 3.5 miles.

Ran 11 miles with Wesley and Kevin along the north side of the Arkansas River.  Ran the first 5.5 miles at about a 7:45 per mile pace on a 75 - 77 degree morning with the dew point at 68 (muggy!).  Ran the second 5.5 miles at a slower pace of about 8:20 per mile, for an average of 8:05 per mile for the 11 miles.

Felt good considering the heat, but it will get hotter and muggier in July.  Looking forward to doing some speed work later this week.  Haven't done speed work since 1994, so this should be interesting.  I'll take it slow the first few times to avoid pulling or straining anything.

Worked out in the gym.  Burned 660 calories on the elliptical machine.  Left knee is a little sore and tight.  Probably need to do some stretching tonight.

Burned 250 calories on the elliptical machine at the gym.   Then ran 10-miles with Kevin at a slow pace (8:25 per mile) along the North shore of the Arkansas River.  My left knee was tight so we started slow and I ended the last two miles slow.  Otherwise, most of the run was at around an 8 min. per mile pace.  We started at 6:10 a.m. and the temperature was 75 degrees with a dew point of 66. 

Kevin and talked about different legal cases, including some trademark cases and related jury reactions to various arguments and types of evidence.  We are planning to do some speed work tomorrow, and my left knee feel much better after the run.

Ran with Kevin for 7-miles on the trail north of the Arkansas River.  It was a good start to a muggy 74-degree morning. 

Ran the first 1.5 miles at 8 min per mile to warm-up. 

For 3 miles, alterated running quarter-mile intervals followed each time by a quarter-mile of recovery (walking/jogging).  I took it slowly because my left knee and hamstring are a bit tight.  My quarter-mile times ranged from 95 secs to 105 secs --  a little faster than a 10K pace.  My intent was to pace my body close to it’s lactate threshold -- the point in which your body starts producing lactic acid.

Kevin's quarter-mile times ranged from 78 secs to 82 secs -- much faster!

Ran the last 2.5 miles without intervals at 8:20 per mile.  I need to run speed intervals at least once per week to build up my speed in short distances.

Recovery day.  No running or working out in the gym.  My left knee needs a break.  I may need to change running shoes.  Will try a new pair on Monday.

Ran 6 easy miles in about 52 minutes, up a major hill (Rawlings to Chenal) by my house.  Nice morning with several people running the same running/bike path.  Could have run a lot further, but I need to go easy on my left knee so I can run several more miles tomorrow morning.

Ran 12 miles with Wesley on a 79 degree morning with the dew point at 70.  I tried a brand new pair of Triumph 8 running shoes, and my left knee felt fine afterwards.  So it's time to retire another pair of running shoes.  It was a great way to start the week.

Wesley told me about a brand of instant oatmeal I plan to try, since I eat oatmeal at least once nearly everyday.  I'm reading Scott Jurek's book Eat and Run.  Very interesting.  I've experienced a number of the same things running and training for short ultras (50 K runs).  I'm working on overcoming leg muscle cramps so I can run farther, and adding distance to my weekly running seems to be helping.

No running or working out today.  Time to recover.

Ran 11 miles on the North side of the Arkansas Rivery on a beautiful morning with temps around 62 degrees and a low dew point.  Met Wesley at the 7.5 mile marker.  I really felt good running in my new pair of Triumph 8's.  Didn't wear my Garmin, but figure we ran at about a 7:50 per mile pace. 

Put ice on my knee throughout the day, and it felt great for Family Night tonight.  We say the movie Brave, which was a good kid's animated story, at the Chenal Theater.

Ran 10-miles with Wesley north of the Arkansas River on a warm morning about 76 degrees with a dew point of 63.  Averaged 8:02 per mile, but ran the 7th mile in 7:48 and the 8th mile in 7:51.  I didn't know I was running at quite that fast of a pace.  Wesley ran 11 miles, including 6 miles with me and 5 miles at about 6:25 per mile (What a Gazelle!).

I feel great but will recover more tomorrow so I can run 20-miles of dirt forest service roads with some ultra friends on Saturday.

Today is a recovery day.  No running and no working out at the gym.

Met some running buddies at a local restaurant on Friday evening for some great conversations.  Stayed until nearly 10:00 p.m., which was late for me since I plan to wake up at 3:45 a.m. to go running on Saturday.

Woke up at 3:45 a.m. to meet Jenny, Deb, Stacey, Reid and Josh at Lake Sylvia at 5:00 a.m.  Lake Sylvia is in the Ouachita Mountains about 35 miles west of Little Rock, and the location of several forest service roads used extensively by ultra runners to train for the Arkansas Traveler 100 (AT 100). 

Ran 17 miles.  The frist 5 miles were an out and back run, then our group met up with another group including Po Dog, Tom, Rich, and PT, and we ran for 6 miles, at which point I turned back since I needed to be home by 9:30 a.m.  During the last 6 miles, I ran past several people I haven't seen since the AT 100 last year.

It was a warm, dry morning even in the mountains.  My car thermometer said 71 degrees at 5:00 a.m. and 82 degrees at 8:15 a.m.  I was very tired driving back to Little Rock so I'm glad I only ran 17 miles.