The Long Run

Since yesterday was faster than planned and was not a recovery day for the fast running on Wednesday I just did 3.5 today on the treadmill.  I also warmed up with 10 minutes on the rowing machine for something slightly different.  30 minutes of lower body weights after the run.

Tomorrow I'll do a good long run since I really enjoy those a lot. 

10 miles of mostly "easy" running this morning.  I arrived at the Y just after 6:30.  It had been raining pretty steadily all night but let up a little bit when it was time to wake up.  I was debating what to do if it was raining too hard.  Maybe an hour on the treadmill or maybe run tomorrow.  When I arrived, Karen and Regina had already started to run, there was a light sprinkle.  Dixie, David, Randall and Bob showed up.  The rain had stopped so we started out.  We made it out about 2.5 miles with no rain, then the rain started, pretty light at first.   At the horse farm Eric had caught up to us after starting at least 5 minutes after us.  The rain got steadily worse.  Instead of heading straight back, Dixie, Eric and I went a slightly longer route back to get in 10 miles.  The last 2 miles were pretty intense with a strong wind (maybe 25-30 mph) and a soaking rain.

I let the time keep running for all of the breaks today.  I did stop at at one point when we stopped and knocked on someone's door because a tree in front of their house was rubbing against a power line, causing a visible ball of electricity, some smoke and blackening the end of the tree limb.  The guy who answered the door thanked us and said "Do you guys do a long run each Saturday?"   So we invited him to join us next week.

 Overall pace was 8:02
 

I had a little bit more time this morning, so I came closer to what I should be doing on a daily basis which is 6 miles.  5.1 miles on the treadmill, just under 40 minutes with the first 3 miles easy, 2 miles at about 7:30 per mile, then a brief cool down at the end.  

Followed with 30 minutes of upper body weights. 

5:30 morning run at the Y.  David, Randy and I showed up.  It was already a warm and very humid 76° at the start of the run.  Had a nice easy start (about 8:30 for the first mile), then Randy picked things up a bit after about almost 2 miles which we kept up until a short water break.   David picked things up after the break and I kept up with him.  The air was very thick and it was noticeably harder than usual.  The pace progressive got faster with the last two miles at 7:07 and 6:43, then cooled down a little bit for the last .3

Overall pace was 7:22 

Ran by myself this morning.  Picked another run from my upcoming marathon training program.  Today's run was one of the temp runs, much more attainable than the last track workout I tried.  I did two miles easy, which ended up being a about 8:10 each, then the goal was two miles at 6:54 - this turned into 6:49 and 6:51.  I wanted to hit each mile at 6:54 but I was afraid of coming in too slow so I did each one slightly faster than goal.   Last two miles were supposed to be easy.  The fifth mile was 7:35 - a little too fast for easy but it felt much easier compared to the previous two miles, then the final mile was just over 8:00.

 Average pace was 7:34.  This run was challenging but not all out, felt pretty good when finished, then did about 20 minutes worth of lower body weights.

The weather was about the same as yesterday, about 76° and humid but it didn't seem as bad for running so maybe the humidity was down slightly today.

I didn't get much sleep last night because my older dog kept on waking me up to go out, she does this from time to time.  She's very persistent when she does this.  Then I kept on waking up also.  My wife woke up a few times.  No one was in a great mood this morning.
 

Ran at David's house again this morning.  Raj and Randy were also there.  Some of the others who might normally have been there were on vacation or had other commitments.  Met up about 5:40 (10 extra minutes of sleep!).  Did a nice easy pace on the way up, stopped and grabbed a water then headed back.   Back was a little bit faster at about 7:50.  Average for the round trip including the break was 8:16.  Temp was about 70° and humidity was not bad, pretty much perfect out.  Had some bagels and coffee after the run on David's porch.

A little bit over 5 miles on the treadmill this morning.  Easy pace for most of it with a slight pick up at the end, then a gradual slow down for the last 0.1.  Total time was 41:30 or about 8:09 if my math is right.  

6:45 run this morning with Joe and David.  Looped through some slightly different routes for a partial change of pace.  Weather was not too bad with some cloud cover blocking out most of the direct sun.   Last few miles were starting to feel hot with a temp about 84° and humidity there but not terrible.   First 10.5 were with Joe and David then I headed back out for a few more.   Pace was pretty good with the second half faster than the first half.

We were thinking about maybe starting these Saturday runs a little bit earlier to avoid the heat. 

 Average pace for entire run was 7:47
 

Did 5.3 easy miles on the treadmill.  The first mile was pretty slow with a buildup to an 8:35 pace which I held until the last mile, with a slight increase to 8:20.  Enjoyed the slower and steady pace.  I'm not sure I broke much of a sweat.  But it felt good just the same.

The air felt very thick this morning. Temp was about 79°, humidity about 82%

Not terrible I suppose in that it will get worse. Also I looked up heat index chart and it said that any heat below 80° does not have a significant heat index.

Dixie, Randall, Randy, Keith, David and myself - a pretty good attendance for a Tuesday.

6.2 mile loop, first mile at 8:28 , second mile at 8:10 but it felt much harder. Started to pick up the pace. When I looked at my Garmin the pace was usually about 20 seconds slower than it felt. Had a nice strong finish at the end.

7:49 pace overall.

Today was a much nicer day for running.  Even though I started later this morning than yesterday it was much cooler, about 73°.  I think it rained a bit just before I woke up this morning.  Did one easy mile, then did 4 miles at a faster pace, backed down slightly for the 5th mile then took it easy for the last half mile.   Maintained a good pace but didn't feel like I was pushing too hard.

Average pace was 7:27 

Another very pleasant morning for running.  Actually, another few degrees cooler and it would have almost been chilly.  Met up at David's house again this morning.  Also there were Raj, Randy, and Keith.  Up Starkey Blvd bike trail for 3.25 miles and then back, up and a little bit of the back were at an easy pace, then we started to pick up on the way back for a strong finish.

Average pace: 7:37 

My left foot was bothering me a little bit yesterday.  It's not really hurt just bothering me, so I took it a little bit easy today without totally skipping a run.

4.5 easy miles on the treadmill, about an 8:35 pace.

I'm hoping to be nice and fresh for tomorrow's 5K.   I'm interested to see what if any improvements I've made in the last two months since the last 5K.  I certainly feel a lot stronger now. 

I wanted one more 5K before I start my "official" Chicago marathon training next week.  It was a very small race sponsored by the local Habitat for Humanity so it was also for a good cause.  There were about 30 runners including myself and Randall (who has often run with me the last 2 months).  The race took place in Starkey park which has a nice paved bike trail.  The course was pretty much straight out and back except for the first .1 miles and last .1 miles.  I warmed up with 2.5 mile at 9:00 pace.  It was already starting to get warmer, about 85° by the time the race started.  There was some shade on the way out but full sun on the way back in.  I did better on the first two miles but slowed down a little on the last mile.   I had a new problem today, I didn't have anyone to chase down so it was just me against myself.  Maybe I could have gone faster if there was someone else out in front but not having anyone in front was also nice.  I'm not too far off from one of my goals of breaking 20:00 5k.

I won a $50 gift certificate to Dick's Sporting Goods and a nice engraved hammer as the "trophy" 

Now I can concentrate more on endurance because due to many different charts my 5K time reasonably predicts that I have the capability with the proper training of getting a 3:20.  This 5K was 38 seconds faster after two pretty solid months of steady running. 

5 easy miles this morning on the treadmill and some on the Arc trainer. I still felt a little bit low on energy this morning. On Friday afternoon I felt like I was coming down with something but was relieved to find out Saturday morning that I wasn't sick. After doing the 5k I felt great but felt somewhat tired early that evening. Repeat pattern on Sunday. Tired again this morning but that was ok because I didn't have very much planned as far as a difficult workout. Tomorrow's is supposed to be more mileage and more intense so hopefully I'll be up for it.  If I'm not up for it I'll just do my best to get the miles in.

I pretty much felt back to 100% this morning.  Maybe not when I first got out of bed but by 5:30 when it was time to run I was ready.  Dixie and Randy were there this morning.  Dixie wasn't feeling great so he turned around after going out two miles.   I did some 1 mile repeats which were better than last time I tried this.  I set my goals a little bit lower, aiming for 6:30 each.  The times were 6:30, 6:25, and 6:20.   With the warm up and cool down it came out to 6.5 miles.

Average pace: 8:03 

Did some cross training today.  Just over 20 minutes on a stationary bike which was very boring although it was not very easy and I worked up a good sweat.  Decided to do a little bit of running also so I did 5k on the treadmill.    The top of my left foot is bothering me a bit.  I had this happen once before from lacing up my shoes too tightly and it got better by itself.  I'm keeping an eye on it, hopefully it's not a stress fracture.

Ran with Keith this morning.  He had emailed me yesterday and was interested in doing a tempo run.  Met up at 5:30 and waited a few minutes to see if Dixie would show up - he did not.   We did two easy miles, then did two miles planned at 6:54 which ended up being 6:54 and 6:46, then slowed down for the remainder.  Last mile sped up a little bit to about 7:40 but it still felt a lot slower and easier.   Temp was close to 80°, it was high humidity but a few light sprinkles of rain made it feel much cooler.

No running today. Foot was bothering me a little bit even with slow running.  Not too bad, but thought I would try and extra day of running rest.

I did however swim for 30 minutes which was extremely hard for me since I don't swim very much and don't know how to correctly do the strokes.   I did keep at it and it was a pretty intense cardio workout especially due to my bad form.

Followed up with 30 minutes of upper body weights, mostly lower weight and higher reps.

Foot was ok when starting out. A little bit of discomfort after 2.5 miles but it never got any worse after that. Started out relatively slow but never picked it up too much. Goal was to do 13 miles at 8:09 pace which I accidentally overcompensated for the slower start and ended up with a 7:54 pace. It was pretty hot when I finished, about 85º of non-dry Florida heat. Fortunately there was some shade along the route.

It was just me by myself running today.  Since that was the case I didn't have to worry about taking breaks when everyone else wanted to and then waiting to get started again.  In those cases I either don't stop the clock making it look like I ran much slower or do stop the clock and wonder about what my real pace was.  So, today I stopped three times for water - there were some drinking fountains along the way so I did not have to carry any with me.  I made the stops as brief as possible and just let the clock run the whole time. 

I ran breifly with a woman who was going for a 40 mile run and was training for the Badwater ultramarathon race in Death Valley, 135 miles. Hard to imagine.

No running today.  But I did do 30 minutes on the rowing machine then 30 minutes of light weight/high reps.

I was supposed to run this morning.  But something ominous happened.  My wife suggested that I take the day off.   She never tells me to do that.  We pretty much have an agreement between us that it is our job to tell the other person to go exercise when they don't feel like it.  Oftentimes when you don't feel like going that is when you need to exercise the most. 

It was very hard not to run today. 

One more day of no running.  I did stationary bike for just over 30 minutes, then another 30 minutes of weights.    At least the bike was easier this time compared to last time.  Hoping for a completely pain free run tomorrow.

Well, after taking off a few days from running to see if my foot gets better I tried running today.  I resisted the urge to do a tempo run that someone else was doing and stuck with the "slow" group.  Ended up with overall 8:14 pace.  Aerobically, it felt very good and easy.  I was a little worried that it would feel hard because I missed more days in a row than I have for a long time.  About 2.5 miles into the run foot started to ache a little bit.  As usual, it wasn't bad and never got worse but it was still there.   One of the guys I run with is a physical therapist and he seems to think it sounds like tendonitis but I think I'll see the doctor just in case it is worse than that.

Did some swimming this morning.  Just over 20 minutes.  At least it was something.  I'm not a very good swimmer but today I got a little bit better at breathing while attempting free style.   Did some ab work and light leg work (leg extensions and leg curls, nothing weight bearing) after the swim.

 Had my doctor appointment which went pretty good.  Diagnosis is tendonitis.  I'm still a little bit afraid of there being a stress fracture that the x-ray won't see.  However based on the low level of pain and the lack of pain keeping me up at night the doctor did not think there was enough there to justify a bone scan.   The bump on top of my foot is probably some irritation to the bone covering, possibly going back to when I dropped a bucket of sand on my foot six years ago and does not neessarily indicate a stress fracture.   And, at least she didn't say anything like "I can't believe you ran on this yesterday!"    So, overall that was good news.

I'll try a not very far and slow run tomorrow after a good warmup.

 

Good long run today.  Absolutely no pain for the first 5 miles then a little bit after that which showed up after five miles, wasn't very much and never got worse.  This was an improvement over the last couple of runs.  Kept the pace pretty reasonable.  A few miles were faster but most were around 8:00 with some longer.  Overall pace was 8:14.  Ran the first 10 miles with David.  Joe and Bob were with us for the first 7.  I headed back out after the 10 with David.  It was warming up and was a bit humid today.  Temperature at the end was 83º.