Went to the gym this morning, mainly cause all the people in the hall all night made it impossible to sleep. My barefoot running on the beach yesterday gave me a pretty big blister on my toe so I opted for the elliptical today. 6 elliptical miles in 46 minutes, then I did some weights and stretching. Came back to my room and grabbed my wallet and ran along the boardwalk to Walgreens to get some Muscle Milk and a fruit cup for breakfast. On the way back there were a bunch of swimsuit models on the beach doing a photo shoot, They were modeling the new ever so popular one piece bikinis, I think I know what I'm getting my wife for Christmas this year. Needless to say, this was a huge distraction on my run to the grocery store. Miami is still in America isn't it? I thought public nudity was against the law, I guess if you look like that no one is going to walk up and give you a ticket.
Horrible day at work yesterday, Horrible sleep last night. Pretty great run this morning.
Did 3 miles on the treadmill in about 22 minutes and then when it started getting light I went out to the Boardwalk, realized the Boardwalk is lit the entire way so running on the treadmill waiting for the sun is pointless. Seems like I have recovered really well, no hip pain at all, Here is the plan, in 2 weeks from today I start a 12 week program for St. George, for the next 2 weeks the plan is to just get some slow base miles in and try not to worry about my painfully slow pace (Yet). I will try to get between 45 and 50 miles this week and maybe 50 - 55 next. Turns out my cross training worked, I still remember how to run, but my legs are really muscle sore. I'm amazed I can go out and run 9.5 miles pretty easily though.
In the park there were a few rowdy hooligans thinking it was pretty fun to harass the runners and jog along side them makes snide comments, I noticed them running with another runner up ahead, when I got to them one of them put out his thumb like a hitch hiker, I told him "come on, lets go" and took off at a good sub 6:00 pace, dropped him in about 25 meters :) I'm glad I still have some kick, now I just need to hold that pace.
The bikinis models were out again today, hey, it's not my fault if they are right along my running route. Jeez, don't judge me.
Wow! My legs are really sore. They act like they haven't ever ran before. Finally got a good night sleep last night, I was really surprised when the first time I woke up it was already time to get up. Went straight to the lit boardwalk and ran out 3.5 miles, I saw lots of people running on the beach so I went to the beach, turns out that far down there is a hard packed section of sand where the work trucks drive so it makes for good sand running. Started running back and then the sand started getting soft again making it hard to run so I went back to the boardwalk to finish. Really slow running, but like I said I'm just trying to remember how to run for now. Pace doesn't matter, 7 miles in exactly 60 minutes. No hooligans, no bikini models just a "normal" day at the beach.
Off to work, I've been here 4 days and haven't once been in the sun yet. Lame, I could use a tan.
Last night I went to the hotel gym for about 30 minutes just to stretch out, I could feel my hip. It didn't hurt, but the fact that I could feel it made me think I needed to switch things up today. Went to the gym and did 4 elliptical miles and then decided to try out barefoot beach running again. Dropped my shirt and shoes off at a pool side table and hit the beach, started out just barely light, probably one of the coolest running experiences ever, running along the shoreline all alone on a beach that goes as far as the eye can see. Don't under estimate the workout you get from running barefoot in sand with waves knocking your legs every few seconds, it's like hill climbs X 10. It started to rain really hard but that just added to the ambiance, I was already soaking wet from the waves splashing on me so a nice cool rain felt really nice. Ran 2 miles out and then turned around.
I don't understand why I only get a blister on one of my toes doing this. My right middle toe had a huge blister on top of the huge blister I got last Saturday from beach running. I wasn't going to pop it but at closer examination I noticed it was completely full of sand, pretty weird. So I popped it put a bandaid on and now off to another busy day of work. Can't say I'm ready for this conference to be over, as much as I like running in Central park I doubt it can beat this place. I'm coming back here in November again for a different conference so I have that to look forward to.
2 miles, to and from Dolphin stadium for the U2 concert.
Yesterday morning on the elliptical trainer I was watching the local Miami news and noticed that they were talking about the upcoming U2 concert, I thought that would be pretty cool if it was this weekend and I could somehow figure out how to stay and go to it. Later in the day while I was working I remembered I wanted to look it up and found out that the concert was actually last night. I thought I had to work late last night so didn't really think much more about it. At 6:00 pm the people I'm working for told me to go ahead and leave, they didn't think they would need me anymore, I looked it up and found out the stadium was only 11 miles away and I have a rental car so I decided to jump in and go check it out. Well it took me 1.5 hours to drive 11 miles, finally I ditched the car in a grocery store parking lot and ran the remaining 2 miles to the stadium. Went to the ticket window and they had nose bleed tickets for $34. What a deal. I had a lot of fun, going to a rock concert alone is kind of boring, especially the 1 1/2 hour wait in between the opening act and U2 but it was a lot of fun none the less. I had felt really bad that I missed the SLC concert so I got that out of my system. I ended up leaving early since 11:00pm is way past my bed time.
Slept in till 6:00, ran down to the hotel gym, started out on the elliptical and decided I would feel bad if I didn't log actual miles so I got on the treadmill. Progressive run pushed the pace a bit, nothing crazy but definately running instead of the jogging I have been doing this week.
Last day in Paradise. I fly out to New York this afternoon so I wanted to get one last long run along the beach in. No more barefoot running though, that gave me bad blisters. I wanted it to be cool this morning from the rain storms yesterday, no such luck, all the rain storm did was make it very very humid. The humidity really took it out of me today, but that was OK I just wanted a slow longer run anyway.
Ran all the way to the end of the trail, which is just over 4.5 miles so I had to run up along the boat docks for another 1/2 mile to get to an even 5, turned around and decided maybe running on the beach was at least a little cooler from the breeze, which it was but the sand makes it much slower running. So I ran in the sand for about 1 mile and then went back to the trail and took a drink at the park. All my beach and drink detours added .15 miles to the run.
10.15 miles in 1:19:45 7:52 pace. I was keeping it pretty steady at 8:00 the entire way but then ran the last mile in 6:30 just cause its fun to run fast past people :).
I'll be the first to admit, I have a crazy life. How do I wake up one morning running on the beach getting a tan by the ocean, and then be eating a thin crust pizza slice in Time Square for dinner? The only thing that keeps my life normalized is running. No matter where I am I can always wake up and do one thing that's consistant.
What a difference 20 degrees and 30% humidity makes, started from my hotel (Marriott Marquis) in Times Square, ran up Broadway to the park (about 1 mile) and then ran the "long" inner loop about 5 miles. When I got back to the corner of Central Park and Broadway I decided 7 miles wasn't enough so I did one more "short loop" and then back. For just over 9 miles.
In Miami I sometimes struggled to keep an 8 min/mile pace, this morning I kept looking down and seeing sub 7:00's for the same perceived effort. I kept telling myself to slowdown, I guess being on the same road that some of the fastest marathoners in the world have raced on makes me want to run fast. I decided 7:15 is where I wanted to be for this mornings run, slower on the uphills faster on the downs. On one of the longer downhill sections I decided to push the pace and bit and see how it felt, my hip felt a little bit twingy at 6:15 pace so I backed off, I'm not quite ready to push it that hard yet.
Ended up with ~9 miles, (GPS doesn't work until I get to the park) in ~ 1:06. 7:20 avg pace after dealing with traffic coming back down Broadway. Oh! that was the other huge difference, it gets very light here at 5:00 am.
Who'd of thought I could do a 50 mile week after not really running for almost 12 weeks. Crazy! Biking and swimming paid off.
