High-Octane

One week out from the surgery and I'm still pretty sore and not able to do much. I am trying to keep my arm active and stretching it as much as possible. My arm and shoulder have atrophied and look quite a bit smaller than my other arm and shoulder. I'm anxious to exercise it but am being very careful. 

I was thinking of something to blog about and decided to set up a "Race" schedule for the fall of this year and next year up to Boston. It seems to lay out pretty well but I think I'll be a little slow jumping into the Rock-N-Roll marathon training because of this injury and the summer/fall heat here in Texas. Anyway, it gave me something to think about for the next few weeks.

John 14:27

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 

I entered the Rock-N-Roll San Antonio Marathon today. It is on November 17, 2013.

Monday report.....Uh, nothing to say. :-( 

Well I do think I'm going to get up and walk a little in the morning and do a little stretching. I'm really not supposed to do "anything" per the doctor's orders. I'm going to take it real easy!

Hebrews 13:17 

Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Walked today!!!! 3 miles with a few little spurts of jogging. I'm really not supposed to be doing anything but I can't take it any longer, I'm going crazy! The walking seems fine. My shoulder and collarbone are just stiff and tight. The jogging jarred and irritated it a little but not too bad. I'm planning to continue this routine for a while if it doesn't irritate the collarbone.

 2 Corinthians 5:7 

For we walk by faith, not by sight.

Ouch....Not my shoulder but my legs. I can't believe my legs were so sore this morning after just walking 3 miles yesterday (I did jog just a little). I woke up this morning and felt like I had run 20 miles yesterday. :-(

I went ahead and went out for another walk/jog this morning. I did the 3.25 miles in 36:25 which I think is about 11 minute pace overall. I'm hoping in a couple more days I'll get my legs back and they won't be so sore. It amazing how quickly you loose your conditioning.

The walking doesn't hurt the shoulder but the jogging is a little uncomfortable.

 Luke 14:13-14

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.�

Okay, I actually ran today. I made a big mistake though as I told my wife the weather was not too bad outside for "running" this morning. She immediately picked up on it and said "DID YOU RUN?" I'm in trouble!

I'm out of shape but it felt good!

Proverbs 8:1-36 

Does not wisdom call? Does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud: “To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the children of man. O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense. ... 

A little faster today but the same run as yesterday. My legs are already feeling better.

Still running slow miles trying to just build up some. The collarbone and shoulder is still sore so I'm taking it easy. 

We went to visit our daughter this weekend so I got to run 3 miles with her in Ft Worth.

4 miles @ 8:32. Entry by phone so no details. 

5 miles in the morning @ 8:28.

3 miles on the beach barefooted...bad idea blisters.

6 slow on the beach with shoes but I wouldn't call it easy.

2 more miles on the beach in the afternoon with the last one at 7:13.

5 more on the beach.  Slow is about all I can do right now.

3 more on the beach. Headed home tomorrow so I may not run.  34 for the week but pretty slow.

I don't know why I'm calling these miles easy, because there's nothing easy about them!

Back home. 6.8 D-ASS MILES. :-) (That's Joe's term)

 Evening Run - Decided to go out for 2 fast(er) miles. My target was 2 miles @ 7:00 Pace. I did it but it was hard. It's going to take a while to get back! It was very hot too.

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Back home and running my normal route again. I took yesterday off and then tried to run a little harder today. My legs are feeling pretty good but my cardio is really struggling. I'm trying to keep hydrated but it's just really hot and humid. Today it was 80 degrees and 96% humidity.

Today I finally kept a pace that can be called a "run" at a 8:10 avg. pace. Now to just add 20 more and a little more speed and all will be good!

Slow Run this morning. 79 degrees and 80% humidity at the start...it was hot. I kept it really slow (9:30 pace) which seems harder than a 8:30 pace. There's something about that really slow pace that just makes my legs feel like lead weights. Anyway, this was the longest run in quit a while.

I thought today was going to be a better day of running Through the first 4 miles I though I was feeling good but at mile 5 I started to fade and went down hill from there. I hope I'm not wasting my time with these workouts. I don't feel like I'm making any progress.

 On the bright side, I went to the doctor today and he said my collarbone was healing very well. He was very impressed with the range of motion I have in my arm and shoulder. He also said the bone was knitting together nicely. He went on to say that it was okay for me to start running but I need to be careful. He also said I could ride my bike but I told him that I only had a road bike and had to lean over and put quite a bit of pressure on my arms and shoulders to ride. He then said maybe I should wait a while to ride and that I should just run. That was fine with me!  He wants to see me again in a month before he releases me completely. He said for the next month I shouldn't lift anything with my arm but continue to move and stretch it. After he said this I promptly reached over and picked up my backpack with my left (hurt) arm/shoulder and he said "that's what I don't want you doing"....oops!

Here is my run today and below that is the latest x-ray for your enjoyment. :-)

 Romans 5:3-5

Added 3 miles in the evening.

I decided to run a little shorter today but also faster so I ran 3 miles (1.5 miles out & back). This is the time in running when I wonder why I'm doing this. I'm a little discouraged with what seems to be ridiculous effort for poor results. I'm hoping to get over this feeling soon. I'm sure I will. 

I spent a few minutes researching the effect of temperature, humidity and dew point yesterday. I've been curious about the effects of these three thing but never really realized how they worked together to make it so unpleasant to run sometimes. I found this article that describes the effects fairly simply and accurately. 

http://througharunninglens.blogspot.com/2012/07/dew-point-and-runners-what-is-it-and.html 

I feel like I now understand why our central Texas weather is so uncomfortable to run in at times. I am going to start tracking Dew Point so I might hopefully understand why some training runs seem so much harder than others. I might be able to adjust my training based on the findings.

A good example of the Dew Point effects was today's run. The Dew Point just happened to be 72. I suspect this is going to be a common reading for most of my morning runs. As you can see from the chart below (taken from the above article) you can "expect pace to suffer greatly".  Not that this information changes anything but at least it can give me a little peace of mind that I've just not lost everything and should throw in the towel! 

 Update:

I went and looked at the Temperature, Humidity and Dew point of several locations across the country to compare to this mornings run. Here they are:

Billing 56 degrees, 66% Humidity, Dew Point 45

Ammon 57 degrees, 77% Humidity, Dew Point 50

Lakewood 51 degrees, 94% Humidity, Dew Point 50

Cypress 82 degrees, 88% humidity, Dew Point 78 (Sorry Flat!)

Tacoma 55 degrees, 89% Humidity, Dew Point 52

Preston 60 degrees, 64% Humidity, Dew Point 48

Ohio 68 degrees, 64% humidity, Dew Point 55

OK City 72 degrees 88% humidity, Dew Point 68 (but raining and flash flood conditions) 

Proverbs 18:15 

An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

Oh, I forgot to talk about my run. I ran my small loop + a little to complete 7 miles. Each mile I would speed up to a 5:30 pace (about .10 mile) twice during the mile then slow back down and catch my breath and cool down. Overall average Pace was 8:23.

We went to McKinney Falls State Park this weekend. I didn't get to run on Saturday but we did do some hiking around the park. I got up early on Sunday morning before we left the park and ran along the paved hiking trails. The park was nice. Here is a picture of the trails.

I also ran in the evening at my house, after we got home that evening. I'm monitoring the Dew Point to see if I can relate it to discomfort/sweat, etc. The Dew Point was actually lower on both of these runs than it has been (68 instead of 72). I'm not sure if it really makes that much difference but I felt much better on both of these runs than I have in a while. It was pretty darn hot (93) too when I ran in the evening. 

8.75 grueling miles this morning at a snail's pace. I don't know if it was the weather or the fact that I ran yesterday evening. I was sweating before I even left the house.

Temp - 79

Humidity - 78

Dew Point - 72

Wind - 8

9:22 Pace that felt like hell.

 Luke 16:24 

And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’

So I think I'm figuring a few things out. This morning I go out and run 3 miles at a pretty good clip (7:30 pace). It is really hot, humid and the dew point is 72. By the end of the 3 miles I am sweating up a storm. Sweat is flinging off of me like crazy. I can tell my body temperature has risen. At this point I decide to slow down but the heat has already done it's damage. 

I ran almost the same run the other day with a dew point of 68 and didn't really sweat for the first mile and then was able to keep up a good pace for the entire 6+ miles. Today I had to really slow down after 3 and by the end of the 6.8 I was walk/jogging.

My theory is:

The dew point, when that high, doesn't allow the sweat to evaporate off of my body (obvious). In turn my body temperature rises, then at some point my heart says "that's enough" and my HR lowers causing the lactate buildup. My hands start to swell up (side effect) because of the low blood flow and I'm done with productive running.  

That's my theory and I'm sticking to it. I need some lower dew point days!