Kerry's Running Blog

It was fairly warm this morning for this early in the year, so I was probably a little overdressed for the occasion. Ran a shortened version of the Highland Glen loop. The trail is still icy in places on the east side of the pond. I didn't feel that great this morning which I thought was probably due to having donated blood last night, but as the day has progressed my throat has gotten more sore and I've been coughing a lot. I just barely got over a cold!

I spent a lot of time working on my daughter's bathroom today. I need to have it finished by next weekend so I can go down to the Spectrum 10K with Paul. If I can work on it during the week a bit, I should be able to wrap things up next Saturday. I've got to do whatever it takes.

Still recovering from weekend illness. Saturday's sore throat and cough was largely gone by Sunday morning only to be replaced by a fever, lethargy, nausea and sore joints. Just slept much of the day. Felt quite a bit better this morning, but generally weak as I haven't been able to eat much of anything since Saturday. Saw the doctor this morning for a general checkup. My pulse was way up (67), but my blood pressure looked good (102/70). Did blood work and will decide where to go from there. I should be back to running tomorrow. 

Finally feeling well enough for a run this morning. Left the house just after 6:00 am  under clear skies (temperature 22F, RH 70). My legs felt good and my lungs seemed to handle the cold air OK. Started feeling a big sickly after a mile, but kept going and even picked it up a bit towards the end. Average pace 9:15. Coughing after the run was fairly minimal. Felt some muscle spasms in my lower as I was taking clothes out of the dryer, but able to walk fairly normally. They called with my blood work yesterday and said that everything was normal  (cholesterol was 159) and to just keep doing whatever I was doing.

Highland Glen loop this morning. My back was still a bit tender this morning and my lungs were a bit congested, but was glad to get out. I'm huffing and puffing a bit even at a fairly slow pace, but every day is a little better.

Still huffing and puffing at a painfully slow pace, but it doesn't hurt and I'm only coughing a bit at the end (this cold has seemed to drag on long after I thought I was done with it). With the change to daylight savings time, I'm back to running in the dark. I found I only needed my headlamp when I ran along the east side of the pond and later along the creek path (there are patches of unmelted snow and ice along both sections). Average pace was 9:15. Temperature 29 with 70 RH. No wind under mostly clear skies.

As I was getting dressed this morning to head out, I stopped to reconsider as my head and lungs were quite congested. I can't seem to quite get rid of this bug. I decided that I'd probably be better off skipping a day than trying to push through it again.

After a couple of days off due to resurgence of my cough, to sinus headaches and a general lack of sleep, it was nice to get out this morning. I mark my mileage as easy miles due to my slow pace, but they really didn't feel that easy this morning. I've had ongoing bowel issues and this morning my nose was running faster than I was, but I it still felt great to be running. I think my pace will pick up quite a bit when my lungs clear and my red cell count is back up, just because I've been trying to push it. I'm going to try to recruit some of my neighbors to start running with me at least one of two days a week.

At the start: temperature 35.7, RH 57, heavy overcast, no wind.

Paul predicted that this race would help me get moving in the right direction again. I had pretty low expectations going into this race as I've been battling one cold after another for the last six weeks or so. That coupled with very little training over the winter (I averaged well under 20 miles a week from November on and hadn't run more than six miles at a time since then), didn't give me much hope for a good time. 

We met Carrie and Kiya on the bus ride up and had a nice visit with them and met Nathan, Wayne and Larry as we were standing around trying to stay warm at the start. My strategy was to hang back at the start and see how I was feeling and then push it harder at the end if I was feeling OK. I wasn't expecting much as it was a struggle to run a 9:15 pace earlier in the week.

With the nice downhill start I started out at a comfortable pace and then picked it  up a bit as I still felt good after a half mile or so. I was surprised to find that I'd run the first mile in 6:42 and wasn't even breathing hard. At a mile and a half there was about a 100 feet of elevation  gain to the two mile marker and my pace slowed to 7:44. With the rolling net downhill of the next mile I dropped to 7:32 before my lack of training started to really catch up to me. I slogged through the next miles with splits of 8:01, 8:34 and 8:33. I still had enough juice at the end however to drop below seven minute pace for the last quarter mile.

The weather, course and people at the race were just fantastic. We just had a great weekend. For the first race since the marathon I was happy to find that my legs could still move at 6:30 pace at times and that I still had a little strength and endurance left over. I was really happy that I wasn't bothered with the PF in my right foot either during the race or afterwards. I'm now looking forward to starting to build up mileage again.

Congratulations to Paul, Nathan, Kiya and the others on their trophies and to Carrie on a new PR!

Although I didn't feel any tightness or soreness on Saturday, by Sunday my quads were a bit sore going down the stairs and my right calf was also a bit tight. Really eased into things this morning just to get everything loosened up. My right knee and left foot were also bothering me a bit, but all the aches and pains were pretty much gone after about a mile and a half.

Left ankle was sore this morning starting out so I took it kind of easy. It was feeling OK by the end.

My legs were a bit heavy this morning, but the soreness was pretty much gone. I was expecting clouds and a little breeze, but the skies were clear with no wind to speak of (temp 35, RH 60). A gibbous moon was a finger's breadth above the western horizon.

While I was running in the dark behind the high school and as I was thinking of how my legs felt like thick wooden blocks, I was reminded of a show that I recently watched about neutrinos. It said that trillions of them pass through your body every second and most pass right through the earth without hitting anything. Not only because they're so small, but also because there is so much empty space between the atoms and subatomic particles that make up our bodies and the earth we walk (or run) on. Somehow, my legs felt lighter as I thought that. Mostly empty space that appears dense just because the information carrying photons are too big to pass through. Now I just need to figure out why I was so slow this morning :)

Looped around behind the high school this morning. I would have gone a bit longer today, but I overslept a bit. Our dog came up during the night and wanted to climb under the covers to get warm, but felt like he needed to lick everything in close proximity until I finally went down on the couch so I could get back to sleep. I haven't been using an alarm clock lately, I just rely on my daughter to wake me up (she makes a lot of noise getting ready for school).

My legs had a little bit of a spring to them this morning and no soreness to speak of in my calves or ankles. It was a beautiful morning with a full moon in the west with a few scattered clouds (temp 34 RH 69, no wind).

Everything felt pretty good this morning. No lingering soreness from last week and no PF in my right foot. Left the house about 6:00 a.m. It was a little hard waking up this morning as we went to bed a little bit late and just talked for a while. It was probably close to midnight before I got to sleep, but then I had a nice nap during the afternoon. The temperature this morning was 37 degrees, RH 40 and no wind.There was a gibbous moon in the southwest that provided just enough illumination to avoid falling through an open manhole (not enough to avoid small rocks though). My average pace for the run was 9:11 (a little improvement over last week). My weight is currently at 156.7 (ugh).

Overcast this morning and slightly warmer (43 degrees). I woke up a little earlier and just got dressed and headed out (with one less layer).  My hands were a little chilly for a few minutes, but I didn't notice them much after that. Ran the full Highland Glen loop which gave me a little more mileage for the day. I'm hoping that I can get back to doing at least five a day and build up from there. My legs are getting their spring back and I don't have any aches or pains to speak of. Average pace this morning: 9:10.

With the spring weather I'm hoping that I can get the whole family out for some bike rides in the evenings. It won't be this week though as my youngest daughter is in the school play and they have performances every night. They've been rehearsing up to four hours a week for about the last six weeks, so it's going to be a relief for all of us to get back to a more normal schedule.

Woke up a little earlier again this morning and just decided to get up and go. It was a bit warmer than yesterday (48) and mostly cloudy. No wind to speak of. I felt just a little more tired than yesterday and just a slight bit of PF from time to time, but for the most part felt pretty good. The moon poked through the clouds from time to time to let me know that I hadn't wandered off on a forbidden pathway. I sure haven't seen many walkers or joggers out in the morning. Several weeks ago I saw half a dozen before I'd even gone a half mile. I'm going to have to start inviting the neighbors out at least for one day a week.

I slept in this morning because I was awake most of the night. Instead of running in the morning I ran from the American Fork Fitness Center after dropping my daughter off for her Jiujitsu class. There was a pretty stiff breeze coming out of the north which made the wind chill vary from about 28 to 20 degrees. I started off heading uphill into the wind and maybe pushed it a little too hard as I seemed to be a bit winded. After about a mile I started to settle into a good pace. At the Highland City Park I turned around and headed back to fitness center now with the wind at my back. I was flying along at a pretty good pace but was slowed by some bowel discomfort that got progressively worse (that seems to happen quite frequently when I run in the evening). All in all it was a good workout and I enjoyed a nice warm shower when I got home. A side benefit of running at that time of day is that I am less likely to overeat at dinner time.

A good run this morning even with a stiff breeze out of the north. My eyes were watering for the first mile or so, but then I was able to turn to the west and get a little relief. After looping around the pond and coming up by the flag pole that's on the east side of Highland Glen Park, I caught up with four bicyclists just coming up the hill. They were a bit winded which allowed me to run with them for a few minutes. I always like the challenge of keeping up with or passing bicyclists, but they gradually pulled away. It got me running a bit harder anyway and I finished at a little faster pace than usual. I looped around our neighborhood at the end to make sure I got in more than six miles.