dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I woke up this morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  Super sore.  The good thing is that the soreness feels like it won't last for too long, unlike after past marathons where I felt like I had been hit by a truck.

 I am actually encouraged by how I feel.  I feel like I will be able to get back to normal training sooner rather than later.  The Lord always has his ways of teaching me, and this marathon may be one of those times just as the last one in November was.

Still fairly sore, but not too bad.  I didn't do a formal run because I think that it is good to take an extra day off after a marathon, but I did run to one of my classes, and I ran from my lab to my car at the end of the day.  I will call it 1 mile of running.  I didn't feel too bad.  My quads were tight, but did not really hurt, so that was a positive.

I ran most of the way home from school before meeting Kimia at the library.  6 miles total.  I didn't feel too bad, but once I started running I felt more soreness than I thought I would.  6 miles may have been a little too much, so I will probably run less tomorrow.

4 miles this morning in just over 29 minutes.  My quads felt sore yesterday, and my hamstrings felt sore today, however overall I felt much better today than yesterday.  The soreness I felt today seemed to relax away for the most part by the time I had been running about a mile and I felt pretty good over the last 3 miles.

I ran most of the way home from school today before meeting Kimia on her way to the park with Anita.  I ended up walking with them for a while, but no extra running.  I will call it 8 miles for the run which I finished in 56:xx (I was running a little quicker than normal).  My legs don't really feel sore (just a little soreness in the quads when I squat) but they still feel somewhat dead.  I can run quick, but I just don't feel like I have that spring in my legs that I normally have.  I guess that is what happens after you run a marathon.

I woke up yesterday morning feeling fried.  I realized that in my excitement to get back into training mode again I was coming back too fast after just having run a marathon last Saturday.  Even though I was not really sore it was more than my body could handle.  So, I didn't run yesterday, and today I went hiking with Kimia instead of running (probably hiked about 3 miles at about 8000 ft altitude up on Mt. Charleston).

No running today (again).  I was planning on running, but I spent all morning studying for a final, and I spent all afternoon working on a final project for another class.  I didn't necessarily think that not running was a bad thing, so I just didn't run at all.

I am finally going to start getting more back into the swing of things now that I am feeling a little better.  My left hamstrings have actually started to hurt a little and feel pretty tight just in the last day or two, but otherwise I am feeling good.  The hamstring issues seemed to go away as I was running today, so no worries there.  My right calf did start to feel kind of tight towards the end of the run, so I am glad that I only ran 6 miles.  The run was much faster than I was planning, and I finished 6 miles in 41:41.

I ran on the treadmill today so that I could bail if anything started to hurt at all.  It ended up that I felt fine, so I ran for as long as the treadmill will let me run before it stops automatically (1:05).  I set the treadmill to a "cross country" setting, so the grade changed between 0% and 7% during the run.  I spent most of the run at 8mph (7:30 pace), but sped up to 10.6mph (5:39 pace) for a while (I will estimate that it was about 1 mile, but I am not sure) near the end just to see what running faster felt like.  Total distance was 8.8 miles.

Easy run today, but I really cruised in comparison to what is normal for me.  1:08:56 for 10 miles.  Finally starting to feel more normal again, although my left hamstring is still bothering me a little.

I tried out the new tempo loop that I mapped out on the course tool recently.  Course loops around the Galleria Mall here in Henderson, and based on the map was right at 1.25 miles.  I figured it was worth a shot trying it out as it would be easy to run long tempos here with decent feedback on the pace.  I figured out approximate locations for quarter markers and then timed them as I was running.  The markers were not too far off, but they were definitely not accurate.  However, I am pretty sure that the overall distance is very close to what the course tool says.  Another bonus is that since the course runs around the mall there are bathrooms just inside that I can use (no more bushes for me!).  The course itself rolls a fair amount, with downhill during the first quarter, uphill during the last quarter, and rolling in the middle.  I don't think it will be a particularly fast loop, but I don't think it will be particularly slow either.

For my run today I ran to the mall, ran 5 miles on the tempo loop (last loop in 6:27, 5:09 pace, HR max 183), after which I ran to the high school just to make sure that when the effort was equal I was running the same speed on the track that I was running around the mall.  After that I ran home.  I was originally going to run 10 miles, but after I got to the track I realized that I was a little shorter than I had originally planned (I thought that the mall was farther away from my house than it ended up being) and I just decided to call it good at 9 miles.  I am not going to worry too much about daily mileage totals for another week or so and it was only a mile short, so I figured it was good enough (plus it was close to 90 degrees outside... that was a big part of the decision to be honest).  Total time was rather quick, 1:00:45 for 9 miles as I was really cruising early on (subconsciously I think I was trying to impress all the people driving by, so I sped up), plus I ran the last mall loop pretty fast.

Today was my first "long" run since the marathon.  It wasn't my standard 20 miles, but it was good to get out for a longer run.  It was hot out this morning (in the 80's) and I decided not to push the pace at all during the run.  I kept the pace just a little under 8:00 pace for the first half (59:15 for 7.5 miles), but on the downhill second half I sped up quite a bit, holding HR around 160 for a while to see how fast I would go at that HR.  HR of 160 gave me mile splits of 6:14, 6:32, 6:35.  My body was not reacting well to the heat and the subsequent dehydration, which explains the slowdown.  I will need to do something like this again when it is not as hot out to see how fast I go with a HR of 160.  Total time for 15 miles was 1:51:25.

I ran on the Pittman wash today.  I ran 1 mile at 160 HR over the same section where I did it on Saturday.  Differences: only 5.5 miles into the run vs 10, about 15 degrees cooler (about 70 degrees vs about 85), and a slightly more favorable wind.  The result was a 5:49 mile in comparison to the 6:14 I ran on the same section on Saturday.  I think it goes to show the difference that heat can make, as the additional aid from wind and from running this mile earlier in the run (less fatigue) can honestly only account for maybe 5-10 seconds, and the difference was 25.  Total time for 10.5 miles was 1:20:29.

I ran on the Pittman wash this morning.  I was running uphill into a headwind on the way out, and downhill with a tailwind on the way back.  I tried to keep my HR in the low 130's on the way out, and I hit my turnaround in 42:00.  On the way back I ran 4 x 800 with about 400m rest after the first two, and about 800m rest after the third.  During the 800's I tried to keep my HR right around 170 and I ended up with splits of 2:36, 2:36, 2:42, 2:35.  The third repeat was slower because it was during a half mile that has 7 sharp turns, a steep downhill (with a sharp turn at the bottom so you can't use the downhill effectively) and a steep uphill.  The fourth repeat had more downhill than the others and utilized the wind better, so it should have been faster, but I accidentally let the HR drop into the mid 160's during this repeat (probably daydreaming) and I finished close to where I was at during the first two repeats.  Total time for 10 miles was 1:15:05 (33:05 second half).

Today was mostly easy, with 1 mile at a faster pace in the middle.  I didn't wear the heart rate monitor today so no feedback there.  I had a headwind for most of the first half of the run on the Pittman Wash, but after about 4 miles the wind started to shift and by 4.5 miles I had a nice solid tailwind.  The only problem was that I turned around at 5 miles and once again had a headwind, which lasted for the remainder of my run.  I ran my faster mile just after turning around.  I ran a little faster than I normally would have because there was a guy running in the same direction up in front of me and I got exited.  It was also kind of fun to push against the wind for a little while (the wind had some nasty gusts that hit me, but it was not consistent so I don't know how much it slowed me down).  I finished that mile in 5:44, after which I finished running home with a total time of 1:16:07 for 10 miles.

I ran out on the Pittman Wash, and on the way back I ran 2 miles at a HR of approximately 170, finishing in 11:05 (5:20, 5:45).  Splits for the 2 miles are so different because the second mile rolls up and down constantly with 4 sharp turns, while the first mile is a steady gradual downhill.  I also averaged 171-172 HR for the first mile, so I backed off a bit, averaging 169 HR or so for the second mile.  The terrain differences and the decreased effort really made a big difference.  There was also a mild headwind during the 2 mile tempo that slowed me a little, but not a lot.  After about a mile and a quarter easy I ran another half mile at 170 HR in 2:35.  This half mile had a lot of downhill (with one short but significant uphill) which is why it was so much faster.  Total time for the run was in the 1:17:xx range for 10.5 miles (not entirely sure on the time because I cleared my watch part way into the run.

I woke up not feeling so well this morning.  I figured it was just congestion, but later realized that I was coming down with something.  I decided to do my entire run, but to not look at the time on my watch for the first five miles.  Instead I just monitored my HR to make sure that it didn't get too high.  I made it through 5 miles with an average HR of 137, and a time of 44:00 (8:48 average... ouch that is slow).  Based on effort I should have been going about 8:00 pace, but I could tell that I was going a lot slower.  On the way back I sped up to a HR of 160 for 1 mile to test how sick I really am.  6:10 for the mile (21 seconds slower than a few days ago, but 4 seconds faster than last Saturday).  The mile left me feeling reasonably optimistic that I am not too sick.  Finished running 12 miles in 1:37:38 after making it through 6 miles in 52:38.

I wasn't sure how far I would run this morning as I am sick, but I woke up feeling decent this morning so I decided to run a minimum of 15 miles today, and hopefully more, with a 5 mile tempo thrown in on my new tempo loop around the mall (1.25 mile loop).

I started by running to the mall, and running laps around it until it was time for the tempo to start (6 laps total).  I was thinking about picking it up just a little bit on the 6th lap as a segway into the tempo, but I started to feel a little sick and achy during the 5th lap, and I ran the 6th lap easy instead.  My plan at the beginning of the run was to hit a heart rate of 165 for the first two laps, and then to pick it up to 170 and 175 for the third and fourth laps.  However, when I started to not feel achy my heart rate started to spike, and by the time I started the tempo it was in the mid 150's.

At the start of the tempo my HR was in the high 160's, but I felt like I was jogging.  I went through the first quarter (downhill) in 1:20, followed by two consecutive 1:30's (rolling).  I then decided to not worry about my preset HR goals, and I picked up the effort to what felt reasonable.  800 splits were 2:50, 2:58, 2:55, 2:56, 2:58, 2:52, 2:54, 2:50, 2:49, 2:40.  Total time for the tempo was 28:42.  My heart rate averaged about 170 during the first couple miles, and then slowly climbed until it was around 180 at the beginning of the final mile.  During that mile it climbed as high as 186 during the final quarter when I was running uphill back to the starting line.

The tempo was interesting.  Yes, my heart rate was high because I was sick, and yes the tempo was kind of slow.  What interested me was the fact that my heart itself did not seem to be affected.  The HR was high I believe to compensate for other issues that were not the way they were supposed to be.  It was also interesting, because I had no problem pushing the HR higher than I normally see it get, and I could tell early on in the tempo that I was not working hard, despite the high HR.  I am going to have to experiment with things a little more.

After finishing the tempo I ran home to get some water (by this point I was pretty dehydrated) and then ran a couple miles extra to finish up with 17 miles on the day in a time of 1:55:40 

I woke up feeling much worse today than I have felt the last couple of days.  As a result I ended up only running 6 miles.  I just ran out until I started to feel achy, and then turned around at the next mile marker and came home.  The positives I take out of today are that my pace was quicker than on Friday when I first started to feel sick (8:24 pace for first 3 miles vs 8:48 pace for the first 5 miles on Friday), despite keeping the HR at a similar effort (134 average for the first 3 miles vs 136 on Friday at three miles).  Total time for 6 miles was 49:11.

I started to slowly feel worse and worse yesterday evening, and by this morning I was feeling pretty crummy.  My entire body felt super achy, and I was hacking up all kinds of mucus of various colors.  No run today because I am sick, and I honestly think I would have made things worse by running.  I had a temperature of 100.9 degrees and I slept on and off until about 1:30 this afternoon.  I am feeling a little better now, but my body is still having trouble regulating temperature (its 82 degrees in my apartment, and at times I feel cold)

 Just to add an update to things, I took my temperature again before I went to bed, and it was 101.8 degrees... not so good. 

The fever broke last night, but I still feel like garbage.  I jogged an easy mile to assess the situation, and my legs felt fine, but the rest of me didn't.

Mostly the same as yesterday, except I actually felt slightly worse.  I jogged another mile just to get my legs moving, but no real running.

I felt like garbage in the evening.  The pressure in my sinuses was so bad that I could hear very little, and my ears and head hurt quite a bit.  Not fun.

The ear pain went away during the night, but I still feel like there is fluid or something in my ears, and I can barely hear anything.  Being sick is really kicking my behind.  This is way worse than when I had the swine flu.

I ran 4 miles today.  I kept the pace easy, but my HR was skyrocketing despite not running hard.  My chest hurt during the entire run, as did much of the rest of my body.  I was coughing a fair amount during the run as well.

So, I have been coughing so much, and so violently that I strained my back from coughing.  It really hurts.  Walking hurts, and I didn't even want to try running with it hurting like this.

So, I finally made it in to see a doctor today.  It ends up that I have a sinus infection that I picked up when the fever went away.  Also found out that being sick somehow made my asthma come back.  I had noticed the wheezing, but never thought of the asthma as I have not had issues with that in over 5 years.  Hopefully that goes away as I get better from the sinus infection.

Ran about a mile just to test things out.  My back hurt quite a bit.  It definitely made running uncomfortable.  I am going to try and run a little more later to see if the pain will ease if I run slightly farther distances.

Attempted to run a little more, but it hurts too much, so I only got in a half mile extra.