Biking: 31 Miles @ 17.7 mph

After a couple of days of rest, after my Half Marathon on Saturday, I decided I should do something so I went on a bike ride with one of the guys from work. We rode from the High School to Geronimo and back. Total miles were 31 @ 17.7 mph. This is slower than usual but my friend is a little slower. We also had a strong headwind going out but as the sun went down it became calm for the ride back. My legs are still a little tired so it's probably good I didn't go all out. This whole week is going to be an easy week before I start my real training next week.

1 Peter 1:13-16
Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

Up early to go to the gym. I haven't been to the gym in a month or two.. I decided to run/ride on the Elipitical for 3 miles, then worked upper body weights for another half hour.

I'm trying to work on my schedule and I'm thinking this:

Mon - Track Repeats / Tues - Bike / Wed - Gym (elipitical & weights) / Thurs - Tempo Run / Fri - Off / Sat - Long Run / Sun - Bike (and sometimes off)

The only problem with this schedule is I'll only be biking about 60 miles but I guess the elipitical is a lot like biking.

Today I Just Ran... Tomorrow is a 65 mile bike ride and then Monday starts my 16 week marathon training. I ran two miles at an easy pace then one "fast" mile. After the fast mile mile my calves got a little tight (expecially my left one) so I slowed it down again, then picked it back up at mile 6 for another "not so fast, faster mile", then another easy mile.I though my legs were fully recovered from the race on Saturday but apparently not because my calves got tight and sore, especially my left one. Overall this run was...well, just a run :-)

Hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll let you know what a bike tour with 2,000 other riders is like on Monday.

11/4/2011
Mile	Time	Heart Rate	HR %
1	9:14:00	126	61%	Ran Small Loop +
2	9:23:00	136	68%
3	6:09:00	162	86%
4	9:36:00	145	74%
5	8:32:00	150	78%
6	7:02:00	159	84%
7	8:37:00	155	81%
Total	58:33:00	148	76%
Pace	8:21:51	30Âş - Cold!

Hebrews 10:24-25

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

65 miles biking @ 18 mph  =  13.1 running @ 7:19 Pace ...  !!!

That's the way I figure it after today's bike ride.  My friends at work talked me into riding in this "Tour" call "Tour DeGruene. It just happened to be in the little town of Gruene (it's a tourist town near the Guadalupe River) and the same place I ran the Half Marathon last week. There were about 2,000 riders. There was a variety of distances you could ride with 65 being the longest. Although this was not a race, a few of the people riding (including me) decided to make it something like that. As we started out, I could see there were some more serious riders who jumped out in the front, I stuck with the group of about 25 and rode with them as one by one they dropped off. At about 20 miles, we were averaging 21-22 miles per hour with about a dozen riders and it was about this point that I had my first mishap. As I was going up a really quick hill, I double shifted and my chain came off. This is where lost the first pack. While I was putting, my chain back on I decided to take my light jacket off and tie it around my waist (bad mistake!). (Side note: It was really cold this morning so I had leg and arm sleeves on, toe covers, a windbreaker and full gloves on. Even with all this on me was freezing to death! It was about 38 degrees and really cold when riding at 20 miles per hour.) We after losing the first pack I rode for several miles by myself until a second pack came up behind me. I drifted in with them and started another good run for several miles. We had a quick stop at the halfway point and got back on track averaging, with this pack about 19 miles per hour. At about mile 40 is where I had the real problem...The windbreaker I had tied around my waist hung down and got caught in my rear break causing my back wheel to lock up! At 20 miles per hour, when your back tire locks up, I can tell you what happens. You either crash or skid for about 30 feet! Well, I did the better of the two; I skidded about 30 feet with smoke boiling off my back tire. There were about 6 bikes directly behind me and some how none of them hit me or crashed! I can tell you, it's a pretty scary feeling going that fast and then, all of a sudden, skidding to a complete stop. I got off my bike and after a few minutes got my jacket untangled. My back tire now has a nice long flat spot on it :-( So, obviously this is where I lost the second pack. Again, I was on my own for quite a few miles but finally at about mile 55 I got hooked back up with a third pack of riders.

This ride was supposed to be a "Tour" but I treated it more like a hard training ride and really didn't enjoy the scenery as you're supposed to do on a tour. I don't think my legs are fully recovered from the race on Saturday, as they were tired and a little sore even before I started the ride. I want to go back and look at my Garmin download to see just what the elevation changes were on this ride. It was very hilly! Compared to how the Races (foot races) are run, this was pretty poor. With 2,000 riders, you would think they would provide some drinks and snacks at the end but there was nothing. Just ride across the finish line and go home...pretty boring. I think the entry was $60 or $70. Way too expensive for just a crummy T-shirt. I like running better!

Overall, I would say the experience was okay but I wouldn't plan my vacation around another one. My biggest concern now is that I've trashed my legs for my first marathon training run on Monday. I'll just have to see how they feel on Monday morning. I may be running a lot slower than the plan calls for :-(

Psalm 50:9-11

⁹ I have no need of a bull from your stall
   or of goats from your pens,
¹⁰ for every animal of the forest is mine,
   and the cattle on a thousand hills.
¹¹ I know every bird in the mountains,
   and the insects in the fields are mine.

Today was my first day of the RLRF program. The training will last 16 weeks. My goal is to run a 3:16 marathon at Ft Worth Cowtown on 2/26/12.

I was a little concerned, and rightfully so, about this first run since I biked 65 mile in the Tour DeGruene on Saturday. I didn't really treat the ride as an easy ride so it was somwhat taxing on me. My legs were pretty tired all day Sunday and still somewhat tired this morning.

Key Run  -  Workout #1

10-20 min warmup

3 x 1600m @ 6:12 91min RI)

10 min cooldown

11/7/2011 (First Day of Marathon Training)
Mile	Time	HR	HR %	Max HR
1.5	Warm-Up
1	6:10:00	160	85%	171
	1-1/2 Min. Recovery
2	6:22:00	165	88%	174
	2 Min. Recovery
3	6:26:00	166	89%	175
1.5	Cool-Down
Total	18:58:00	164	87%
Pace	6:19:20		67Âş - High Humidity
Track Workout at High School: Warm-up 1.5 mile, Stretched, Recovery between Fast Miles, 1.5 Cool-down For 6 Miles Total. My goal was (3) repeats @ 6:15 with 1 min. recovery between.

As you can see I fell short on the speeds and also had longer recoveries than specifed. My HR consistantly rose but I didn't max out my HR (I believe it's 183) so I should have a little more power if I can muster it up mentally. I do want to note, for future reference, that the first mile felt pretty good. It wasn't until about halfway through the second mile that uncertanty crept into my mind. I'm pretty certain I can hit the paces for the other two workout this week pretty easy (Well maybe easy isn't exactly the right word :-)

 John 3:16

Oh how I wanted to exaggerate my bike speed on this report :-( but actually that would be a flat out lie. I decided to take my bike to work today and then ride to Martindale to feed my horses and then home. This ride measures 27.5 miles with the route I took. Martindale is about 9 miles then the rest is to my house. I actually felt good today after my run on Monday. I was a little concerned yesterday evening since my hip was hurting a little. Just to clarify, this is not the same hip problem I had a few months ago, this is the ongoing strained feeling I have always had where my hamstring and glute muscles meet on the back of my leg. I have always had a little discomfort in this place, sometimes worse than others. I've been hoping the stretching would help this area but haven't seen any relief until last nights stretch when it seemed to make it feel better. Anyway, that's not what this report is about; it's about the ride today. I have been trying to get to that infamous goal of 20 mph over a longer ride of 25-30 miles. Today I though I had it, but right at the 20 mile mark I hit the huge hill, going the back way to my house, and lost my 20+ mph avg. Ahhhh so close!

27.52 miles @ 19.9 mph

Today was my 2^nd day of my RLRF Program. I believe I had a little more success on this run than on Monday’s run although it was tough. The program called for 2 mile easy warm-up, 2 miles 6:45 tempo and 2 miles easy cool-down. You can see my results below in the chart. My times varied somewhat but most of this is due to the hilly terrain I run around my house. Luckily miles 3 and 4 are on the flatter part of this route with 3 being slightly downhill (about 50’ drop) and mile 4 is slightly uphill (about 50’ rise) so if you even out the two times I believe the paces make sense. I did fade about a quarter mile from the finish of the second mile. I’ll be excited to try this same run in a couple of months to see (hopefully) improvement. I can tell you, after this run, I have doubts that I can break the 20:00 mark on a 5-K.

I am still having a little soreness in the glute-ham tie-in on my left leg (like that word…I looked it up). It’s the same place I’ve always had some issues but not related to the major hip problem I had before.

11/10/2011
Mile	Time	HR	HR %	Max HR
1	8:33:00	141	72%
2	8:00:00	142	72%
3	6:29:00	163	87%	167
4	6:50:00	172	93%	175
5	9:00:00	153	80%
6	7:57:00	155	81%
7	8:23:00	157	82%
7.25	Cool-Down
Warm Up	41:53:00	150	77%
Pace	8:22:36
Tempo Miles	13:19:00	167.5	90%	175
Pace	6:39:30
Ran Small Loop +
43Âş
1.5 Miles warm-up, Stretch for 10 minutes, .5 Mile warm-up, 2 miles Tempo, 3.25 Miles cool-down

James 1:6

6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

Cross-Training Today - Gym Workout:

11/11/2011

Gym workout: 1 mile Elliptical Stretch 1 mile Elliptical Weights 1 mile Elliptical Weights 1 mile Elliptical Weights 1 mile Elliptical Total Elliptical: 5

I just decided to mix it up a little and do rotate from the ellipitical to the weight work. It was kinda nice to do something different. I felt really good after the workout :-)

Tomorrow's RLRF program has me running 13 miles @ 7:56 pace. This should be a piece of cake. I may go ahead and bike about 30 miles afterwards since I missed a day of biking this week.

Psalm 73:1

No doubt about it! God is good— good to good people, good to the good-hearted. But I nearly missed it, missed seeing his goodness. I was looking the other way, looking up to the people At the top, envying the wicked who have it made, Who have nothing to worry about, not a care in the whole wide world.

Today was my first long run on my RLRF Marathon Training program. It called for 13 miles @ 7:56 pace. I knew this wouldn’t be that tough since I just ran a half marathon two weeks ago at 7:19 pace. Going into the run I though I would run a little further but stick with the 7:56 pace so that’s what I did. Overall, the run was a good workout but not a killer. I did notice, but not until I reviewed my Garmin results, that my HR did increase quite a bit in the last few miles of the run.

My new routine is to warm-up then stretch then run. Since this was a long slower run I thought it would be okay to just stop after 1.5, stretch, then complete my run so that’s what I did. I also stopped after one loop (6.75 miles) and filled my water bottles, other than that it was continuous running. One thing was interesting, I was getting normally tired up to about mile 8-9 but for some reason I got a burst of energy right after that and it lasted for about 3 miles…kind of a weird feeling…? 

There is a slight chance I will bike some this afternoon...just need to see how things fall out J

Judges 16

²⁰ â€¦..  He awoke from his sleep (his hair had been cut off) and thought, “I’ll go out as before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him. ….²⁸ Then Samson prayed to the LORD, “Sovereign LORD, remember me. Please, God, strengthen me just once more, and let me with one blow get revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹ Then Samson reached toward the two central pillars on which the temple stood. Bracing himself against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other, ³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” Then he pushed with all his might, and down came the temple on the rulers and all the people in it. Thus he killed many more when he died than while he lived.

I don't know what I was thinking this morning when I went for my cross-training bike ride. I was supposed to make it a fairly easy ride (following my long run on Saturday) but I ended up ramping it up to a fairly intense ride. Although my speed doesn't reflect a really hard workout I actually rode the second half at about 20 mph.

32 miles @ 18.2 mph (HR 130)

I think I'm going to postpone my Monday Repeat Run and do it on Tuesday.

Proverbs 12:25 

Anxiety in a man's heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad.

Today was a good day running. Day 4 on the RLRF program running Track Repeats. I was more comfortable today than last Monday on the mile Repeats. My legs don't have any problem running fast it's just that the Aerobic suffers as the distances get longer. As a note, I set my Garmin on "Pace" and "Avg. Pace" so I could monitor my speed throughout each run. I also set the light to stay on for two minutes (as DerHammer suggested). I was trying really hard to stay on the exact pace through each Repeat...not slow down or speed up. As you can see I did go a few seconds over on a couple of the Repeats. I must have slowed down slightly at the end and didn't realize it :-(

I believe that my other two workouts this week will be achievable without undue stress. I'm now wondering why the first workout was set so hard. Maybe it was one of those tests where the instructor is trying to weed out the ones not dedicated to succeed :-)

11/14/2011
Mile	Time	HR	HR %	Max HR
1	Warm-Up
0.5	2:57:00	151	78%	167
	2 Min. Recovery
0.5	3:04:00	153	80%	167
	2 Min. Recovery
0.5	2:59:00	158	83%	170
	2 Min. Recovery
0.5	2:58:00	159	84%	172
	2 Min. Recovery
1.5	Cool-Down
Total	11:58:00	155	81%
Pace	2:59:30
Track Workout at High School
70Âş - High Humidity
Warm-up .5 mile, Stretched, Warm-up .5 mile, 4 x 800's @ 2:58, 2 Min. Recovery between 800's, 1.5 Mile Cool-down For 4.5 Miles Total. Warm-up & Cool-Down 8:30-9:00 Pace.

Psalm 26: 1-3

 ¹ Vindicate me, LORD,
   for I have led a blameless life;
I have trusted in the LORD
   and have not faltered.
² Test me, LORD, and try me,
   examine my heart and my mind;
³ for I have always been mindful of your unfailing love
   and have lived in reliance on your faithfulness.

Today was a recovery day on my RLRF program so I went to the gym and ran on the Elliptical and lifted some weights. I don't really like biking in the dark of the morning and I've been having a hard time finding the time in the evenings so I guess the Elliptical will be the major cross-training thing for a while.

11/11/2011
Gym workout: 1 mile Elliptical Stretch 1 mile Elliptical Weights 1 mile Elliptical Weights 1 mile Elliptical Weights 2 mile Elliptical Total Elliptical: 6

 Ha Ha..... got to add 6 miles to my biking today. My wife and I went out for a short ride before it got dark.

________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Since today is rest day for me I thought it would be good to use this a a mental preperation day. Here is a great inspirational writing by Ryan Hall...Hope you take the time to read it!

Dwell On What You Want To Become

by ryanhall | Sep 23, 2010 |

Dealing with disappointment is a life skill we all have to learn, and I hope that these words can encourage you through your trials as they have for me. After having a poor performance in this past Sunday’s ING Rock �n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon I had a lot to think about, perhaps too much to think about. From my own experiences, I have found that it doesn’t help me to go overly introspective. While I do believe it is not only good, but imperative, to get fresh perspective on a daily and even moment-by-moment basis, I see gaining perspective as much different than questioning oneself. We all experience nagging questions of whether we have what it takes, but I choose to believe the answer to these is “Yes, I do”.

As long as my focus is on what I am going after–and not on my own failures–I can rest assured that I am moving in this direction. What are you focused on in your life? Because whatever you focus on will increase. There is a really good verse that says, “as a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” Are you focused on things you don’t like about yourself and things you want to change? If you are, chances are those things will continue to be issues. Or are you focused on what you want to become? Little by little, this will result in a transformation into the vision.

Of course, the challenge becomes how do we deal with times (like this past Sunday for me) when we aren’t anywhere near where we want to be? First, do not doubt yourself. I really, really believe there is greatness in us all. Focus on that greatness and let it draw you out toward it. Secondly, realize that there are natural physical factors at play. I am still learning how to be in the best physical condition I can be in heading to the starting line. The temptation when I am physically off is to blame the performance on my mental processes, and there is undoubtedly a correlation between the physical and the mental. The two compliment each other well but there is only so much the mind can do to increase performance when the body is off and vice versa.

Dwell on what you want to become. Daydream about it, focus on it, and acknowledge with thankfulness every step you take toward that vision. Most importantly, when you are in those times (like I currently find myself in) where it takes the most amount of faith to believe that you can become the vision you have for yourself, realize that these times are the most powerful opportunities to focus on what we want to become. Continue to move in that direction because it requires the most faith. In times like these, we can drive a stake deep into our soul declaring this vision that we have for ourselves is where we are going regardless of how far we may feel from it. For I firmly believe that we were created so that which we dwell on will surely increase.

Wow..Today was windy (and cold for me)! Week 2 - Workout 2 on the RLRF program. The schedule said to run 1 mile warm-up, 5 miles @ 7:26 then 1 mile cool-down.

Since I've started committed to stretching I now stop after my warm-up and do it. It takes about 10 minutes. The best spot to stop and stretch on the road near my house is about 1.5-1.75 miles out (depending where I start running). This makes my warm-up a little longer than the perscribed but I'm figuring more warm-up won't hurt anything. Like I mentioned above it was very windy with a steady 18 mph wind. The wind was a cross wind for the warm-up and the first mile but then I turned directly into it and ran 3 miles freezing and fighting the wind. The fourth mile got to me and I was really struggling. Mile 2, 3, and 4, on this route are all up hill with the 4th one being the steepest. Finally at mile 5 I turned with the wind and as you can see from my time I flew :-) The cool-down miles were mostly with the wind too, that's why I ran them at a 8:00 pace (wouldn't it be nice if 8:00 was my normal "easy recovery" pace!). I forgot to put on my HR monitor so I just ran by "pfeel" (wait...that's SlowJoe's term :-). Even though I had a 7:55 mile, when they were all supposed to be 7:26, I believe it was a sucessful workout. I really wanted and planned on making the avg. pace 7:10 but with the wind I just couldn't.

15 miles on Saturday...looking forward to that!

11/17/2011
Mile	Time	HR	HR %	Max HR
1.75	8:55:00	Warm-up
1	7:13:00	No HR Monitor
2	7:21:00
3	7:26:00
4	7:55:00
5	6:41:00
1.5	8:01:00	Cool-down
Total	53:32:00
Tempo Miles	36:36:00
Pace	7:19:12
Ran Small Loop & Smallville
49Âş  -  18 mph Wind
1.75 Miles warm-up, Stretch for 10 minutes, .5 Mile Tempo (Target 7:26), 1.43 Miles cool-down

Today was Cross-Training so I decided to take a couple of hours off from work this morning and ride. It was 43 degrees when I started and 55 when I finished. I've bought leg and arm sleeves, a dry fit hood, cold weather riding gloves and shoe covers for riding in conditions like this. I put everything on and went out but even with all of this on I still got cold. My body, head and hands weren't too bad but when I finished my ride my feet were completely white. It felt like I was walking on stubs and my wife said my feet felt like an ice pack when she touched them. This is going to be a problem if the weather is below 40 at any of my upcoming races. At my last race it was 42 degrees and almost unbearable, my feet were numb at the end of that race too.

 

11/118/2011 (Morning Ride)
Miles	Time	Speed	HR	HR %
10		18.8	135	68%
10		18.8	137	69%
10.5		19.9	137	69%
30.5	Total	19.2
Miles		Speed	136	69%
43Âş at the Start, 55Âş at the end
Road to Redwood, Martindale, River Road, Hwy 80, Martindale, Staples, Home

Revelation 3:16
But because you are warm, and not hot or cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.

Today's RLRF workout was my long run day. The schedule called for 15 miles at 8:11 pace. It's interesting that this run was 2 minutes faster than the first 17.5 miles on my one marathon race and about the same pace as my best 20+ mile run several months ago when I thought I was in the best condition. I don't think I could have gone over 20 miles at this pace but what the heck....I've got 14 more weeks to go on my training :-) I was pretty tire all day from this run. 

11/19/2011
Mile	Time	HR	HR %	Max HR
1	8:03:00	137	69%
2	8:06:00	149	77%
3	8:07:00	150	78%
4	8:06:00	149	77%
5	8:06:00	149	77%
6	8:05:00	151	78%
7	8:04:00	157	82%
8	8:06:00	151	78%
9	7:54:00	154	80%
10	8:05:00	151	78%
11	8:05:00	157	82%
12	8:04:00	158	83%
13	8:03:00	158	83%
14	8:05:00	158	83%
15	8:02:00	161	85%
16	8:10:00	167	89%
17	8:05:00	165	88%
17.5	3:41:00	172	93%
Total	140:57:00	160	83%
Pace	8:03:15
Small Loop + Smallville 2x
Target - Long Run: 15 @ 8:11 Pace 65 Degrees at the start 70 Degrees at the finish, 97% Humidity

Psalms 69: 30

"I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving." 

I keep looking an calculating the paces on the RLRF program (for running a 3:15 marathon) and thinking..."I can't run those paces"...then I go out and try and actually accomplish it. I've also been running either a couple extra miles or running some of the paces just a little faster just to prove to myself that I actually can! Sorry to sound so happy but it's really kind of cool to me :-) I'm sure not saying that it has been easy. On Saturday's long run, I really wanted to quit after mile 15 and today I was thinking after only a couple of laps that I was going to fall apart but some way the energy was there as I needed it (painful but there). Ha ha... I may not be saying this ten weeks into the training...we'll see :-)

11/21/2011
Mile	Time	HR	HR %	Max HR
2	Warm-Up
1200m	4:27:00	165	88%	174
200m	Recovery
1000m	3:44:00	162	86%	173
200m	Recovery
800m	2:58:00	160	85%	174
200m	Recovery
600m	2:06:00	160	85%	173
200m	Recovery
400m	1:19:00	155	81%	171
1.5	Cool-Down
Total	12:28:00	160	85%
Total Miles	6
High School Track
72Âş - High Humidity
Target: Repeats - 10-20 Min. Warm-up, Stretch, 1 x 1200 @ 4:33 (6:04 pace), 1 x 1000 @ 3:44 (5:58 pace) 1 x 800 @ 2:58 (5:56 pace), 1 x 600 @ 2:13 (5:54), 1 x 400 @ 1:27 (5:48 pace), 200m Recovery between each, 10 Min. Cool-down

Cross-Training today:  

This evening we are leaving to go to Joplin, MO to work and serve Thanksgiving to some of the victims and workers we have been involved with over the past few months who were effected by the massive tornados. It will be a bitter sweat trip since the operation will be shut down after Thanksgiving weekend. We have grown to know and love many of the people there. I know that many lives were changed by the tornados and devastation. It’s funny how it sometimes takes a tornado to change some peoples lives and simply an encouraging word to change others.

 Matthew 11:28

 ²⁸ Come to me, all of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.   

11/22/11
Gym workout: 2 mile Elliptical Weights 2 mile Elliptical Weights 2 mile Elliptical Stretch 2 mile Elliptical Total Elliptical: 8

We're on our way to Joplin. We spent the night in Ft Worth so we could pick up Callie so I got to get up this morning and run on the Trinity Trails. That is really a nice place to run. The Schedule said to run 1 warm-up, 5 @ 7:11 pace, and 1 cool-down. I neded up running the following:  1 mile Warm-up, 6 miles at 7:10 and 1.25 miles cool down. The splits for the Tempo miles were: 7:05, 7:04, 7:10, 7:17, 7:11, 7:13. The 7:17 was the turn around mile so I guess I slowed down a little and didn't make up the time. Avg HR for the entire run was 161 and the warm-up and cool-down were between 8:30-9:00 paces.

Isaiah 40: 29

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING (Sorry a little late)

Ok....Finally got finished for the day. I ran 4 miles with Callie this morning even though it was supposed to be my cross-training day. Cross-training is impossible while here in Joplin. The work went well today, we served a lot of food and also spend some time salvaging materials for construction of storage units. We delivered one unit to a needy family and plan to deliver several more tomorrow. 

I'm not able to cross-train whie here in Joplin so I ran 4 miles with Callie this morning at an avg. pace of 8:17.

We played a game here and though of things that began with each letter of THANKSGIVING, that we are thankful for.... I'm hoping you might do the same...  :-) 

Okay...I finally had time to download this run to my computer. Here's the unusual thing, my HR actually dropped throughout most of the run. It was higher on mile 2 than mile 17 even though the pace was about the same. There was definitly something wrong with me this day! My HR typically goes from about 145 beginning to about 170 ending on a run like this. It actually went from 163 down to 153...strange...?

____________________________________________________________________

Today was one of the worst runs of my life. I was supposed to run my long run either Sat. or Sun. but based on the weather prediction and my travel I decided to move it up to Frid. evening. Maybe the run was bad because I was tired or not fueled up very well but after only about 5 miles I knew it wasn't going to be good. On top of all this, it was supposed to be my long run for the week. I have been working to skip a week in my long runs since I'm throwing in a half marathon in two weeks so I've been running a couple extra miles on every long run. This run was planned to be 20 @ 8:26. Last week it was supposed to be 15 @ 8:11 and I run 17.5 @ 8:03. I only made it 18.50 on this run @ 8:23 but it felt so much worse than last week. I have never felt as bad after a run or race as I did after this one. I was cold, sore/stiff, light headed and was pretty much sick at my stomach. I drank some water, milk, orange juice, pickle juice and soda to try and see if it would help but it didn't. It took about an hour and a half before I felt good enough to eat something. I think it was the pickle juice that make me feel better :-) I'm hoping I forget about this run before my next long run or race :-(

18.5 Miles @ 8:23 pace

Jeremiah 31:30 "No, each person will pay for his own sin. You eat green apples and you're the one who gets sick.

Contrary to common belief, I did complete my run today. Since it was 28 degrees this morning I decided to postpone (not procrastinate) and run in the evening. I did have a meeting at 7:00 pm so I had to rush to the HS track and get going immediately. Today was Repeats and as usual I was wondering if I could actually complete the workout at the prescribed paces. Some way I managed and actually felt better this time since my recoveries in between were almost all jogging. On the first one I got a little carried away, I really wasn’t looking at my watch. On the second one I throttled back a little too much but on the others I felt pretty consistent.

I do think I’m coming down with something as my head is somewhat stopped up, I seem to have some congestion in my chest and last night, after I finished running, I felt really achy like I mght have the flu. It may be cedar fever that’s bothering me L

Matthew 8:14-16

14 Jesus went to Peter's home, and there he saw Peter's mother-in-law sick in bed with a fever.15 He touched her hand; the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.

 16 When evening came, people brought to Jesus many who had demons in them. Jesus drove out the evil spirits with a word and healed all who were sick.

Cross-Training Day today. I wore an orange shirt to do my workout :-) Went to the Gym and did the same routine I did last week which equaled 8 miles on the elliptical and weights and stretching in between sets of 2 miles. I don't really like the elliptical so I break the run up to keep from getting too board.

11/30/11
Gym workout: 2 mile Elliptical Weights 2 mile Elliptical Weights 2 mile Elliptical Stretch 2 mile Elliptical Total Elliptical: 8

Orange according to Blurtit.com

 â€śOrange is a colour which is formed by mixing red and yellow. It is a colour which symbolizes energy, zest, enthusiasm and creativity. One who wears orange is known to be someone who loves to experiment.”