The Next Step

It was a chilly morning (32) but luckily just a light wind. Today I went to the track to run some 800's.  I am trying to work on my speed some so I can run a couple of shorter races (5k or 10k) this fall.  I did a 2 mile warmup and felt pretty good.  It was still very dark out when I started the 800's so it was hard to see the watch and judge my pace.  It didn't get light until about the sixth one.  The goal today was 8 x 800 at 3:00 with a 400 jog recovery.  Here are my splits:

1st - 2:59

2nd - 2:58

3rd - 2:57

4th - 2:58

5th - 2:59

6th - 2:59

7th - 3:00

8th - 2:58

These went pretty good.  I started feeling my legs going around the 6th one.  On the 7th I started to feel like I had to push it harder just to maintain pace and really focus on relaxing.  Glad to get in some speedwork to start the week and happy with the splits.

1:10:01 (7:47 avg) 

I ran in the afternoon today and it was much warmer (52) but windy.  I felt good but just ran easy today.  The pace seemed to come easy for me and felt better as I have been fighting off a cold the last couple of days.  

54:10 (7:45 avg) 

I felt good today when I got started but just planned an easy day so didn't push it.  It was windy and ran back into it so I had to run a little harder on the way back.  The achilles felt pretty today and didn't cause me any problems while running.  It just seems to come and go.  I am planning a tempo run tomorrow so that is the reason I wanted to keep it easy today. 

1:17:53 (7:48 avg) 

It was a little warmer today (40) but pretty windy.  Today I planned on doing a 4 mile tempo between 6:35 and 6:40.  I felt good the last couple of days so I was looking forward running the tempo today.  I did a 3 mile warm up and then jumped into the tempo.  The first mile in the tempo was downwind and I felt very flat getting going.  I thought things might get better as I went along so I continued to push.  The second mile was ok but I was having to run harder to maintain the pace.  This mile was back  into the wind so was feeling it a lot more.  On the third mile I was struggling and having to push pretty hard.  My effort was definitely harder than tempo should be so decided to cut it short and try another day.  Here are my splits:

1 - 6:35, 2 - 6:37, 3 - 6:42

Pretty disappointed today especially after feeling good the last couple of days.  Maybe I should have tried the tempo yesterday when I felt good but I have been trying to stick to my schedule.  I still need to realize that I am just getting back to consistent training so probably will be some ups and downs along the way.

1:07:53 (7:33 avg) 

It wasn't that cold today (37) but it sure felt that way because of a strong North wind.  It reminded me why I don't like to run in Indiana in the winter.  After yesterday rough day I thought I would start off today super easy.  After taking it real easy for about a mile I felt pretty good and picked it back up to normal easy pace.  I felt pretty good the rest of the way but did have more pain then usual with the achilles.  It bothered me for about the first 2 miles.  I really need to get this taken care of and need to do more to try to get it healed.

63:45 (7:58 avg) 

This morning I had to go work at my daughter's school so I didn't get out until the afternoon.  That was just as well because it was a cold morning and still only around 40 when I ran plus a pretty good wind that made it feel colder.  I ran easy getting going and had the normal achilles issues.  That got better as I went along but had some hip issues as well.  I am just feeling kind of beat up right now and need to get all these minor issues taken care of.  I did feel good running wise and picked up the pace the last four miles to around 7:30.  Turned out to be a good run.

1:49:01 (7:48 avg) 

I took the last two days off to try to recover from the aches and pains I have been having lately.  It was a great morning today and I decided I should also spend more time warming up and getting the muscles loose.  I started off real slow (around 9:30 pace) for the first half mile and then started gradually picking it up to normal pace.  I'm not sure if this helped or the rest but my achilles didn't bother me at all.  However, after about 4 miles my hip started to bother me and did for the rest of the run.  I will keep up the stretching, ice, etc and see if I can get these behind me.  I also think it might be good to cut down on the speedwork until I get over these.  Overall, today was a positive step just hope it keeps going in the same direction.

63:58 (8:00 avg) 

It was cool this morning (37) but no wind.  I started the same as yesterday just going real slow for the first 1/2 mile.  I didn't have any issues with the achilles for the second day in a row so that is a good sign.  After about 4 miles my hip started bothering me again.  It was off and on for the rest of the run.  I will keep working on the stretches and strengthing to see if I can get it straightened out and keep the achilles ok.  Trying to get it back together without having to take a lot of time off.  We will see how it works.

 65:02 (8:07 avg) 

My daughter had an early morning Veterans Day program that I went to so missed my normal morning run then the day got away from me.  Busy day at work then a lot to do around the house.

Nice morning (39).  I felt sluggish this morning getting out of bed and getting going.  Started off easy again today but had some issues with the achilles starting out.  It wasn't too bad and got better after a mile.  The hip was better today and didn't really bother me until about 5 miles and it was off an on.  Trying to be patient and work through these issues.  Hopefully, I am making some progress.

70:53 (7:53 avg) 

I worked at my daughter's school this morning so got out later in the afternoon.  It was a beautiful day for running with temps in the mid 60's.  That was the highlight for today.  The run part didn't go very good.  The achilles was bad again today and my hip started hurting around 4 miles.  I just came back to the house after that and shut it down. I am going to have to take a step back and really figure out what to do about these injuries.  They are not getting any better and my training is not very good.  I am wondering if I should just take some time off and get better then go back after it.  I really want to have a good year next year and have some big goals but I know that I will not accomplish them if I can't get better and train right.  I need to do some thinking and decide my next steps.  Any thoughts?

40:29 (8:06 avg) 

Well I have taken a week off from running and the injuries seem to be getting better.  I could probably start running again and be ok but want to make sure I am over these and get back strong.  I have been trying to do some strength training but not doing as good on that as I should.  Also, the diet is not where it need to be so need to work on that as well.  I plan on starting back after Thanksgiving and seeing how it goes.  I will try an easy buildup and try to get back to normal mileage by the end of Dec.  Hopefully, this will lead to a positive 2011.

Honolulu, HI: Well after two weeks off to get over a couple of injuries, I started back today to see how I have recovered.  It was warm this morning (75) and felt good to get out.  I wanted to take it real easy today and keep it short to see how my achilles is doing and to try to slowly build back up to normal.  I started off by walking about a 1/4 mile then started running real easy.  I felt pretty good running and didn't have any pain.  I was very aware of my achilles as I was running.  It did feel tight and it felt funny a couple of times.  I am not sure if it is still a problem or if I was just being over sensitive to it.  It was hard to keep it slow and easy.  I wanted to pick it up but kept it slow and wanted to see how I feel after a day.  I just plan on running every other day this week to ease back into.  I don't want to have any more down time if at all possible.

28:23 (9:28 avg)