Albert And Me

RECOVERY DAY. I think I did the smart thing yesterday, power hiking and jogging the six mile mountain passes of Grandview. (I like to call them mountain passes. A real mountain man would snicker at this but I have never been worried about being snickered at.) I can feel the effort in my legs from the climbs and I did actually run a good bit in very heavy basketball shoes. It was quite a workout. I keep thinking that if I had just run the 8 miler easy as I was supposed to that it wouldn't have been much different. But I'm only a little sore this morning, I have a day to rest and stay on schedule and tomorrow I will try  my run on the treadmill to test my ankle.

Besides. I was scheduled for a very short, easy week this week and since I kind of (not really) took it easy last week, I intend to make up my long 8 mile run this coming Sunday. Everybody improvises. You have to to remain on schedule. I wish the course hadn't been so dead of the winter ugly but spring is coming. It's 60* this morning. I can't wait for the days of going out the door on a cool morning wearing a T and shorts. Come on SUMMER!

Into Thin Air

I wanted to rest my injured leg so I decide to hike a very mountainous loop up 250 hill to the turnoff to Grandview Park and then down the very steep slope to home. It is a treacherous distance of what turned out to be 6 miles of nearly 3000 feet of climbing and decent. It was cold (about 35* and colder on the hill) and very tough. I ran in basketball shoes. Basketball shoes you say? Yes indeed. I thought they would give my sore ankle more support, and maybe more importantly, make me resist the urge to run. Instead, I ended up running about half the course on sore legs and a bad ankle, wearing the basketball shoes (very heavy) and carrying my running belt with the big water bottle. Absolutely no doubt...it would have been easier to have just run my scheduled 8 miler out the creek. Live and learn.

Two things to mention about this run:
* My running belt is great. I didn't need the GU but the water was great. It was very dry up there.
** There is not really a good picture to take along this route, at least in the winter. The trees are rickety branches  that look like cadaver bones. The sky was a very ugly gray and the scenery was a cinder covered snow pile littered with trash and empty beer cans. Sorry about the visual. Better to hear about it than to have to run past it. I feel great that I went though. My ankle is sore but not terribly and I feel like I accomplished something. A nice start to the day.

I've Been Hobbled By Kathie Bates!

RECOVERY DAY. I feel like I have been hobbled. Yesterday, if you remember, after going to work with no pain (just tired & lethargy) my ankle suddenly puffed up. It got so sore that I had to hobble around my office. I was just sitting at my desk when it happened. I didn't misstep, or turn my ankle or trip over anything. I was working at my desk, simply stood up and my lower leg felt like Kathy Bates had whacked at it with her sledge. It was terribly sore....and scary too. One of my co-workers mention the dreaded "Stress Fracture!!!" and I got a sick feeling in my stomach.

This AM I'm not quite as sore but I can feel it there. That slight soreness that tells you, " You may THINK I forgot about you....but I'm waiting." I've already contemplated the idea of hiking Grandview as apposed to my scheduled 8 mile run. I'm not sure I can run without pain and further injury and hiking Grandview is a tremendous cardio event without all the pounding. I may just hike long and hard to save the pounding and see if that helps. In the back of my mind....and this could be simply fear talking.....I worry that this could effect my goals of marathons and trail races if I don't get real smart right now. Tomorrow is an important experiment. I'll let you know how it turns out.

My Achy Breaky Shin?

I kinda knew it was coming. I had felt burning pain in my right shin for a week now and did nothing about it. I'm not sure there is anything to do actually. And I ran hard and well yesterday and could feel the effort all day. It was a good "hurt" after a good run......but not in my shin. That was troublesome.

 I wasn't looking forward to today. I woke up at 5:00 am as usual, drug myself out of bed and remembered what I had always heard about bad days. You get up and run for ten minutes and if you still hurt, it's time to call in the dawgs and piss on the fire. I jogged on the treadmill....I power walked and then tried just stretching while I strolled a bit but my shin was barking. So I called it in. I felt like shit. This is the first workout I have missed in my Hal Higdon half marathon training in five weeks. But I don't want to miss more. I'm going to take my scheduled day off tomorrow and then do my 8 miler on Sunday and test it. I think I will be fine.

I've been loving this lately. I go to bed thinking about the trails and the long road runs and I sleep easy. I go over my gear and things I want to buy (Garmin, Flipcam) and am excited to be a runner. And I WILL run the Ogden half marathon in May. And I WILL run the 25k trail run (my first) in Youngstown OH in September. And I GODDAM WILL run the Columbus marathon in October after I have turned sixty. If I am still alive. Time to head for the barn for a day.

***I must now add an addendum. I'm at work and have fallen to pieces. Small pieces but pieces all the same. My right ankle is now swollen, my shins hurt still (of course) and I ate two boiled eggs for breakfast to help my protein intake and I feel like I'm gonna go Linda Blair all over my office. A day off must have been waaaaay overdue.

Happy Feet!

I ran my scheduled 3 mile run on the treadmill in about 38 mins. Probably the best short run I've had all year. I really don't understand the pace though. I averaged  in the 12 minute mile range but somehow I ended up with a time two minutes slower than it should have been. I'm not so worried about the time actually...it was a very nice fun but edgy run, but either my Nike+ app or the treadmill pace counter was off. You can't run 3 miles at 12 minute mile pace and finish in 38 minutes. I'm not mathematician but....Jesus!

The gym was packed today. Every blue haired old woman in the county was on the 'mills walking two miles an hour. Good for them but I got stuck on one of the "bad" treadmills. But I ended up liking it. The pacing is better I think. The displays don't rotate like on the other machines so you have to watch either the pace or the distance or the time but not all three unless you poke at the machine constantly to change the setting. So I set it on distance and just ran hard and my time was nice. I may do my pace work on the "bad" treadmills from now on.

View From The Treadmill

This was one of those days. We all have them. The alarm goes off, you say "Nah, I'll take today off. I'm whipped." And then you get up anyway and go to the gym. Interval day. It took a long time to warm up today. I ran 7 fast intervals at 5k pace or better and covered about 3 miles total. I ran 2 x 3 mins. @ 5 mph, 2 x 2 mins. @ 6 mph and 2 x 2 mins. @ 6.5 mph. My legs were heavy and tight but my breathing was good. I don't think I accomplished exactly what I wanted to do but a half assed interval workout always beats staying in bed. There is always victory is doing your workout....even when you don't want to.

I had the gym to myself again today. There were only three people there and they were all regulars. I guess the New years resolution people are over it now. No new faces at Wood's Fitness anymore. And the pretty young high school girls are long gone! Must have broke a nail or something on a weight machine.

Old Man Winter

I drove through an ungodly ice storm to get to the gym and run my 4 miles. I had to warm up my car for 15 minutes just to get my wipers unthawed. I drove all the way peeking through a small keyhole ice window on my windshield. I know I know, not supposed to do that but I would have turned sixty before it cleared by itself. I had to bounce off the little woman's car door a half a dozen times to finally break the ice seal around her little coupe so she could get to work.

Two things. I forgot how boring the treadmill is. Really. I've been running outside before Armageddon hit last night and that always goes fast. There is nothing to look at but the TV which is ALWAYS set on the weather channel, or watch the tenths of miles go slowly by on the mileage counter. I had the place to myself as you might imagine. I, at least, was able to work out without people wanting to chat. I don't know how the little woman who opens the place gets to work at 5:30 am. I'm driving an all-wheel drive Subaru and I went fine. She must be on a snowmobile.

Second, it's surprising how short 4 miles feels now. After getting outside for my long runs, a 4 miler seems pedestrian. That's a good thing. Now, I just have to decide if I want to just run for the glory of running, or if I want to actually compete. Do I want to just finish a half marathon or do I want to set a firm time goal and train like hell to get there. Just the fact that at this stage I have to ask myself this question is scary. I should know this answer by now. By march 1st, I'm gonna figure this out and make a decision.

Under The Covers

RECOVERY DAY. I took this as a recovery day. I used to use Monday as a rest day after Sunday's long run but then get up at 5:00 am and lift weights for 30 minutes. I really never saw the value of the weight and strength training for my running. Starting my day at 5am, going to the early Monday meeting at work and then spending a 10 hour day at work was no rest for me. I decided to spend the morning sleeping and actually use it as a recovery. I want to see if I feel better after this. I used to just feel sick all day from too much "day."

I hope the additional sleep is a better recovery. Yesterday I ran 7 hard miles in record time. Then I drove to South Hills in Pittsburgh and spent hours on my feet shopping. I was completely spent by the time I got home. I think my time would have been better spent recovering at home. I was so cramped up last night that I couldn't hardly get off the couch to go to the bathroom. I decided to remedy that with a little more sack time. More rest can't hurt if I stay to the running schedule. We will see how I feel today.

Long Cold Trek

It was a damn cold 7 mile run today. This was my scheduled long run for Sunday as usual but it was freezing. I haven't had Internet access for a couple of days so I couldn't check the temperature online as I usually do. I just bundled up with my Under Armour and headed out into the calm, cold morning.

The run went very well. My Nike Plus sidekick told me that I had run the fastest 10K along the way and I'm almost sure that this 7 miler was the fastest I've run all year. I felt full of energy but I still fade badly toward the end of my long runs. I wore my newer Acsics shoes today and they seemed a lot cushier than my old ones. As much as I hate to, it may be past the time to retire my old shoes.

I covered about twenty miles again this week. And I weighed in at 172 lbs. I hope to get to 160 for the half marathon but I'm doing all right so far.I'm following the Hal Higdon plan for a half marathon and I'm doing well I think, but I long for warm weather and longer runs. I won't feel right with myself until I'm averaging 30 miles a week at least. In my mind, THAT is when I will be ready for the Half.

Ape Shit Crazy

Rest day today. It didn't sneak up on me. It hit me like a hammer. I fell asleep on the floor last night at 8:00 pm and slept on and off until it was time to go to bed. I struggled to get to my feet to go to bed because I was so sore and tired. My lovely wife, of course taunted me while she finished her Pall Mall. " And YOU are gonna run a marathon," she said. "Not TONIGHT" I may have said (shouted?) back.

I fell into bed and slept the sleep of the dead. The alarm going off at 6:30 am sounded like two monkeys sitting beside my bed banging pans together.

I don't feel sore anymore but I need this rest day for sure. I hope I recover. Tomorrow I go for a PR in the 7 mile run out the creek.