Demoted To The Treadmill

With the 20" of snow that hit our area this past weekend, I have not been able to run outside. I guess I could run in the street - most of the sidewalks are still a mess - but since I normally run early in the morning (which is still dark nowadays) I don't want to be running in the street.

I have made it to the gym though. Monday morning I ran 4.5 easy miles and this morning I did some speedwork on the treadmill - 5 x 1/2 mile intervals with 1/4 mile recoveries.

I'm glad I got the running in this morning, since I decided to give blood during my lunch break. It had been a while since I donated, so I'm glad I had a chance to go today.

With some freezing rain coming on Christmas Eve, it looks like I'll be running on the treadmill for at least another few days. UGH!!!

Morning Run Drenched With Sweat

It's starting to feel like July! When I left the house this morning around 6:15am, it was already in the mid 70s - both in temperatures and humidity. Ick. By the end of my run, my light gray shirt was a deep, dark gray due to the sweat. And this was just from an easy 4 and a half miles???

If it continues like this, Riley's Rumble will be really uncomfortable :-(

My heart rate also responded like I just gave blood earlier this week. I guess Wednesday was a fluke.

Stats on this morning's run - 4.47 miles in 47:55; a 10:44/mile pace with an average HR of 162 and a max of 179.
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I received an email from the NY Marathon folks with a link to the course map and elevation profile of the course. Although the course is not very hilly, it starts out over the Verrazano Bridge - which has a 150 ft rise over the first mile. I'm starting to already get a bit anxious that I'll tire myself out in the first mile and be wasted for the other 25.2.... Anyone who has run NY before have any tips? I mean, first you wait for hours at the starting area, and then finally you're off and you're crossing the Verrazano Bridge! How do you reign it all in when you're so excited to get going and embark on one of the biggest road races in the world???

I'll likely try to add some hill workouts into my training - which is probably a good idea, since it's looking like I'm getting spent on the hills during my easy workouts as well. As for trying to relax during the first mile of the marathon - I have no idea how I'm going to "train" for that one...

Bright Sun, Heavy Legs

I got out for a noontime run today (OK..more like 12:30pm).

I went to the eye doctor this morning and my eyes were still a bit dilated. I was wearing sunglasses in front of my computer screen, so being outside in the bright sun was a little annoying - but I didn't want to go to the gym an run on the treadmill with sunglasses on (what a sight that would be!!!!)

This was my first official run since giving blood on Monday (I did a run/walk with my son yesterday morning...I'm not sure if that "counts" or not). The first half mile was rough. My legs were stiff and heavy; I was contemplating whether I should stop, turn around and try to run tomorrow morning instead. I somehow convinced myself that it would get better - and luckily it did.

As expected my HR was higher - but not by 15-20 bpm like I thought it may be. Average HR was 156 with an average pace of 10:55/mile. Last week I ran the same lake loop in a slightly faster time - 10:45/mile pace - and an average HR of just a tad lower - 154. Perhaps it won't take me a full three weeks to recover from the blood donation this time???

Sneaky Run This Morning

I was not planning to run this morning - mainly due to me donating blood yesterday.

However, my 7-year old son woke up a bit earlier than normal, came into my room at 5:45am and asked if I wanted to go for a run. My first response was, "Get back in your room...it's not 6:30 yet."

After his question registered, though, I found myself out of bed and getting into my running clothes. We drank some water, downed some Sport Beans and hit the sidewalks!

I hadn't taken my son running in about three weeks. At that point, we were running for 4 minutes and then walking for 1 minute. I wasn't sure whether to keep this constant or add more - I decided to bump it up to 5 minutes of running and then if it was too much I would bring it back down to 4 minutes.

He did fine with the 5 minutes of running. We did five sets - running (and walking) a total of 2.25 miles.

I'm hoping to get him ready for the Home Run 5K in October. By that time, I may even be able to run with him on some of my "normal" easy run days :-)

5 Mile Run, Donating Blood and New Motivation!

I would have loved to have said that the day started for me when I got out of bed for my morning run, but my 3 year old had a different plan :-(

He was up a bunch during the night - so my wife and I were also up at different times trying to get him to go back to sleep.

Somehow, I woke up a little before 6am and got my behind out the door. I was mixing up the week's runs and doing my mid-week longer run today, since I was giving blood on my lunch break (which means the rest of my runs this week will be slow, lethargic and with an average HR of about 10-20 bpm higher than normal...joy, joy! - but it's all for a good cause, so I continue to do it).

I ran the 5 miles at a 10:37/mile pace - but with an average HR of 156, which again is on the high side. I really need to slow it down, but I had two things going against me this morning. First of all, I was tired - so this probably contributed to my HR being higher. Second of all, I was listening to Green Day's new album, so I know I was responding to some of the loud, fast music at times and then I realized it and had to slow myself down.

I worked at Chloe's Coffee this morning since Sherry was tutoring in our shared office space. I poured myself a travel mug of what I thought was decaf...but for some reason I started to get a bit hyped up. Either I'm getting ultra sensitive to caffeine, or the coffee I took was caffeinated (or half caf or something like that).

By the time lunchtime came around and I went to give blood, I felt really antsy. However, it didn't impact my pulse or blood pressure as they were fine (pulse of 60 bpm, blood pressure of 118 over 78). Perhaps it made me bleed a little faster, as I filled up that pint in less than 9 minutes...probably a record for me!

When I got home from work, I had a package waiting for me...my long awaited binder from Team Run To Remember! There's tons of information in the binder - some about marathon running in general, some maps of running routes in New York City and some great information about fundraising and public relations (which can lead to more fundraising...).

I started to look at some of the fundraising ideas, and I definitely have some new motivation. One of the ideas that I really want to start looking into is to see if some of the local establishments that I frequent will agree to donate a % of their proceeds on a particular date to the Alzheimer's Association (or if not all proceeds then at least the proceeds for the people that I bring to the establishment through my own promoting the event).

There are many either single proprietor or non-chain restaurants/cafe's that I go to in the area - such as Dogfish Head Alehouse, Star Diner, The Wine Harvest, Crepes-a-Go-Go, CaliYOgurt and Chloe's Coffee which I had mentioned earlier - which I may be able to convince to do something like this. I'll likely start asking some of the owners about this in the next week or so...hopefully I can line some of these up.

One other fundraising note - I have surpassed the $500 mark now! Woo hoo! I have set a goal of $5,000, so I'm only 10% there, but I'm still 17 weeks away...

You can help by leaving a donation here...

Pilates Class

Today is a rest/cross-training day from my schedule, so no running.

It is also a day when Sherry is tutoring and I'm responsible for the kids. As a Project Manager, I'm used to doing quite a bit of delegating to "the experts", so of course when I saw this coming up my first thought was, "hmmm, I can go to the gym, put the kids in the babysitting room for an hour or so while I work out or take a class." It's a win/win situation. My kids love the babysitting room (video games, television, other kids to play with, etc.), and I get a workout in.

Since I wasn't going to run on the treadmill, I wasn't sure what I would do at the gym. I checked the class schedule and saw that there was a Pilates class at 10am. I decided to give it a try.

I was able to do most of the exercises - which was nice (compared to my Yoga experiences). And it is definitely needed since it works a lot of core and hip muscles - which my stride analysis showed I need help with. However, I can see me being very sore tomorrow...and no "Vitamin I" today or tomorrow morning since I'm giving blood tomorrow at lunchtime.

Saturday Morning Long Runs Again!

This morning I went out for a 9 mile run. It's back to training mode - and just like last year, I'll be doing my long runs on Saturday mornings - before going to synagogue.

This means a few things - since I need to wake up early, I can't stay up as late on Friday night. The past few months we have used Friday nights as our Netflix night after the kids are asleep, but I knew I'd be dragging all day today if I went to bed at midnight last night. I also can't drink as much wine during our Shabbat dinner. Last night, we still had about half a bottle left over when we (OK...I) usually come close to finishing the bottle.

I decided to do my usual 9-mile loop through Old Towne Gaithersburg. Nothing new here. My HR started to raise during the hills in mile 3, and never really came down much after that.

I decided to look at my stats on this between this year and last year:

• I first ran this route last year on January 26 - week 4 of my training. I kept my HR down to an average of 153, max of 170. My pace was 11:59/mile. The temperature was 26 degrees.
• This is now week 2 of my current training. My pace on today's run was over a minute per mile faster - 10:51/mile - and the temperature was 40 degrees higher at 67 degrees. My average HR on today's run was 163 with a max of 180.
• I also looked at my long run on week 2 of last year's training - a 7 miler. I ran an 11:09 pace with an average HR of 159 at 40 degree temperatures.

So yes, my average HR was higher than where I was training last year. However, the week 2 comparison - on HR, pace and air temperature - gives me a little hope.

One more tidbit on HR. It's going to be going up next week. I have an appointment to donate blood on Monday, so my runs next week will be slower. I'll rearrange the schedule next week to do my 5 miler on Monday, and the two 3 milers on Wednesday and Thursday. On the weekend I have a shorter run scheduled (my first "kick-back" week) and instead of the 6 miler, I'll be running an 8K with Sherry! This will be the first race that we run together! I promised to run with her and not to bolt ahead - it should be fun!

Finally A Run! And Another Failed Platelets Donation :-(

This week has been a doozy at work. The system that we're deploying had an outage this week and I've been on lots of recovery, troubleshooting and root cause analysis calls. Last night's call went until 11:30pm - YUCK!

Anyhow, I'm pretty confident that I'll have more 14 hour days ahead of me in the next 6 weeks. With a bunch more layoffs occurring at my company this week, I can't really complain too much...

My wonderful wife let me "sleep in" until about 6:45am this morning (OK, my younger son ran into the room at 6am to declare that he waited "until there was a 6 on the clock" before coming into our room. I decided that I would get to the office a bit later than normal since I worked so late last night, and I went out for a 4 mile run before work.

It was such a wonderful day to run. Sun shining, 60 degrees, slight breeze - truly scrumptious! My first mile seemed effortless - even after not running for a full 4 days - 10:14 with an average HR of 142.

However, the effortless feeling would not last long. My heart rate started to elevate a bit on mile 2, to the point that by the time I got to the big hill on Argosy Street, I either needed to walk or see my heart rate in the 160s early in the run. I elected to walk. I think it was a good move as by the time I got to the top of the hill and was ready to run again, my heart rate was back down in the 130s.

Final Stats - 4.46 miles, 47:11; a 10:35/mile pace. Avg HR 154, Max HR 183

At lunchtime, I attempted a platelets donation once again. I won't go into the gory details, but it ended just like the last time - with a stinging bulge in my right (receiving) arm. I guess I'm going to have to stick to whole blood donations - which of course brings my average heart rate up on my runs for a few days, and doesn't get back to normal for about 3 weeks. I don't know if I can afford for my HR to get any higher (and my running any slower) than it is now...

Yesterday Was Such A Fluke :-(

Yesterday's easy 3 miler was a dream come true. My heart rate wasn't elevated at the training pace I had been running at, I felt comfortable and not fatigued; it was like I didn't donate blood on Saturday.

So I was looking forward to a nice mid-week long run this morning. 5 to 6 miles. Since I need to be in Sterling, VA for work today, I left the house at 5:30am and drove to the Fitness First in Reston. In my haste to get out of the house early, I forgot my Polar HRM watch (I remembered the strap, no it was no biggie since the treadmills all have HRM sensors, right?).

They have the Life Fitness 95T treadmills like in Olney, along with some Precor treadmills. I got on one of the Life Fitness machines and my heart rate did not register. The same thing had happened with this same type of machine at the Olney Fitness First, so perhaps this model doesn't do Polar HRM? Or perhaps I happened to find the only two machines that had the HRM feature broken???

Anyhow, I jumped onto a Precor machine and it got my heart rate. So...I was off and running. And according to the treadmill, so was my heart rate. Grrrrrrrr. I thought I was in the clear after yesterday's run, but it wasn't the case. Here I was warming up at a 12:00/mile and my heart rate was already in the low 150s.

So, I had a very un-inspiring run this morning. I convinced myself at about 1.5 miles that I would only do 3 today and do the 5-6 miler on Thursday morning. The weather is supposed to be nicer, so I could run outside instead of on the 'mill - always a plus.

Sh!tty run stats: 3.0 miles in 35:09, 11:43/mile, 152 avg heart rate, 162 max. Compared to yesterday's 3 miles in 32:44 with an average heart rate of 142 - can you see why I'm so perturbed about my run this morning???

Easy 3 On The 'Mill

This was my first run after donating blood at the neighborhood Blood Drive on Saturday. Normally my post-blood donation runs suck. I feel fatigued, my heart rate is elevated and I just can't seem to get going.

Nothing like lowered expectations to get you going on a Monday morning.

Ironically, this run went very well. I started off really slow - a 12:30/mile pace - and my heart rate stayed really low. So I just started bumping up the pace every quarter of a mile, until I was running at 5.6 mph - a bit faster than an 11 minute mile.

I kept it nice and easy and my heart rate never went over 151 bpm. Actually, my average heart rate for the entire run was 142 - I rarely keep it down that low, so it was especially surprising to see this after donating blood on Saturday.

Anyhow, I'm still going to take it easy this week and do an easy run tomorrow instead of speedwork.

Morning Lake Run

On the schedule for today was a 3 mile easy run. The plan is always to wake up early and get out of the house before the children are stirring. That's tough to do when one of your kids wakes up at 3:15am....

My wife - the saint that she is - tended to the little one from 3:15 to somewhere around 5am. At that point I could sense she was bubbling over, so then it was my turn. Somewhere around that time, the little one woke up my older son as well, so the entire house was awake. Joy, joy, joy! I keep reminding myself that in a few years these kids will sleep in until noon and we'll need to pry their lazy butts out of bed with a crowbar...but I only half believe it on mornings like this.

Given that Sherry was up for a few hours already and wanted to rest, I wasn't about to leave for a relaxing run at 5:30am. So I took the breakfast shift and got my older one ready for school.

Finally, I was out of the house for my run at 7am. The sun was starting to rise, so I felt comfortable running around the neighborhood lake instead of the other neighborhood 3 mile route that I take when it is dark. The morning sky featured layers of clouds tinted in shades of orange, gold and pink by the sunrise - what a great time to run!

I ended up not really getting into a rhythm during the run...I'm not sure why. My heart rate was a bit higher than I wanted it to be - it elevated as I crested a few hills early and then I didn't get it back into the 140s which is where it should be for an easy run. However, my average HR ended up being 152, so I guess I didn't do too bad.

Final stats: 3.21 miles in 34:07, 10:38/mile pace, avg HR 152, max HR 166.

Three weeks ago, I ran this as one of my first runs after my chest cold. In three weeks my pace has improved 35 sec per mile with a lower average HR. It's nice to see the improvements that consistent training brings.

I am bracing myself for slower times next week, as my neighborhood is holding a blood drive this Saturday. I never got back to the Red Cross office to try another Platelets donation, so I'm going to donate whole blood this weekend instead. After my long run on Saturday morning, of course!

Mid-Week Report

It's been about 48 hours since I've blogged, but it seems much longer.  I've had a very busy two days with lots going on - and little time to blog and read other's blogs (sorry to my on-line friends - or dot-comrades as Rick would call them...).  Here's what's been going on:

• My right arm is still a bit bruised from the failed apheresis donation.  Yesterday, the marks in the two places where the "saline bubbles" were had a nice shade of crimsony-purple.  Today, they have faded to a dark shade of lavender.  I'll probably be ready to try another donation again next week...if I can find time in my schedule.
• I was able to get the first two sets of Week 3 push ups in yesterday and today (so my arm wasn't feeling too bad).  Yesterday was 80 total (14, 18, 14, 14, 20) and today I did 102 (20, 25, 15, 15, 27)!  The third set this week looks brutal - 120 total if I can do them all.
• I got a run in this morning.  Again, I decided against braving the cold (it was 20 degrees outside...not too cold, but I just didn't want to deal with it this morning).  I hit the gym and tried one of the "programs" on the treadmill which change the incline every minute or so.  I chose the "Sports Fitness 5K" program - which I assumed would be 3.1 miles, right?  WRONG!  I'm not sure how long the program actually is since I stopped it at 3.1 miles.  Maybe I'll find out next time.  I listened to Jack Johnson which kept me movin' along.
• I'm looking ahead to my Saturday morning long run.  This week I have a 9 miler scheduled.  However, the overnight low on Friday night is forecasted to be 4 degrees.  I'm definitely not running in that.  So Saturday morning may be a long dreadmill slog.  I'm trying to prepare myself for it now...
• In the continuing saga of the broken Polar Heart Rate monitor, I was contacted by the Polar Customer Service team (as a result of my blog posting!) that they would give me a nice discount to upgrade my watch.  It's a nice offer, however, I wasn't really in the market to purchase a new HRM at this point (no raises or bonuses at work this year...see next bullet on that one).  I then contacted the service center that serviced my watch in November.  The representative there looked at my file and said that my repair is still under warranty and that I should send it back in and they'll fix it for free (they are going to email me a UPS label as well so I don't need to pay for shipping - Sweet!).  However, I'm still without my primary HRM for a while and back to the backup - and more basic model - that I have.
• The last big news story of the day - my company announced today that they are filing for bankruptcy protection.  Not good news.  There is already low morale amongst employees due to our struggles over the past few years (since 1999, we have lost over 2/3 of our workforce...we were about 95,000 employees in the late 90s and around 30,000 employees now).  I'm on a very big project right now with a customer who is growing - so I don't think I have much to worry about in terms of being laid off.  However, there is a lot of uncertainty of how this restructuring will progress and where all the pieces will fall.  There's not much I can do about it right now, so there's no use stressing about it - but of course everyone in the company is stressed out about it...

Botched Apheresis Attempt

Today I planned to give a platelets donation via apheresis. At a high level, they take blood out of your system through a needle in one arm, it goes through a centrifuge where the different blood components (plasma, platelets, red blood cells, white blood cells) are separated, and then put the components that they are not using as part of the donation (in this case the plasma and red blood cells) back into your system via a needle in the other arm.

Yes, that's right - a needle in each arm.

The full process - in the door to out of the door - normally takes about 2 hours. They say it should take about an hour sitting in the chair while the machine draws blood, separates it and puts it back. The American Red Cross supplies DVD players to patients who are doing apheresis donations - so I was prepared and picked up Run Fatboy Run from the Redbox at the local grocery store. I was psyched to take a long lunch break, watch a movie and do a good deed.

Except, I neglected to listen to one very important instruction...."keep your arm still". Come on, it can't be THAT important, right?

I sat in the chair, started the movie and put the headphones on. They first stuck the needle into my right arm which was going to be the "receiving" arm. Everything went well here - needle was in, and they started to run saline into my veins. No problems. Then they went to my left arm, put the needle in and started to collect the first small amount of blood for test tubes for testing purposes - just like in a normal whole blood donation. I was pumping the little squish ball once every 5-10 seconds and things were going fine.

I think it was around this time that I must have moved my right arm as all of a sudden it started to sting. I mentioned this to the person taking my blood and she moved over to my right arm and lifted the gauze that was on the needle. Whoa! There was a huge lump in my arm just above the needle (of course after I saw what was happening the sting hurt 10X more!). I was told that this was just saline - I probably moved my arm so the needle was no longer where it originally was (when the saline was flowing without any problems).

She stoped the saline line (the bump went down in a matter of seconds) and took the needle out. She then stopped the blood flow on my left arm and started running saline there. Then she was back to my right arm to see if she could find another vein. There was another candidate so she prepped my right arm to go in again. Once again, she got the needle in and we were good to go.

However, I was all mixed up. I thought that now the left arm was going to be the receiving arm and the right one was going to be where the blood would be drawn. I was trying so hard to keep my left arm still - and not worrying about the right one as much. Guess what? I must have moved the right arm again, as it started to sting. Again a little bubble in my arm and botched attempt number two.

That was the end of my first apheresis donation attempt. Very little blood was drawn, so I can do it again as soon as my arms heal up (probably later this week or early next week). They told me not to worry - that many first time platelets donors are unsuccessful on their initial attempt.

I'm not sure whether I'll do this again. Perhaps I should just stick to regular whole blood donations. However, I still want to see if the platelets donations will have less of an impact on my running than the whole blood donations have had. So of course I'll likely give it another try soon.

In the meantime, I'll have some battle wounds for the next few days. Luckily it's winter and I'm not wearing short sleeved shirts!

Scheduling the Week and Back To Push Ups!

It's Sunday evening, and I'm exhausted from another Sunday of chores, shuttling the kiddos around and trying to cram everything in.  And now, I'm looking at how the week ahead of me is unfolding.  YIKES!

Lots of things going on - I have some work folks coming into town for meetings Tuesday through Thursday, so if I want to run on those days it will need to be early.  And I'll likely want to run on a few of those days, as I'll probably be going out for lunch - which usually means a higher caloric intake (perhaps I can eat a big salad for at least one of those meals...that's a good goal!).

I'm also scheduled for my first-ever platelets donation tomorrow.  I have been a pretty regular blood donor, however, I have noticed that my HR on my runs after a whole blood donation elevates (by 20 bpm or so during the first week?) and I'm not back to my "normal" HR for about 3 weeks.  With the platelets donation, the red blood cells are put back into your bloodstream, so I'm hoping that my running will not be impacted as much as a normal whole-blood donation.  However, I'm a bit freaked out about sitting in the donation chair for 2 hours with a needle in each arm (one to take blood out, and the other to put it back in after they get the platelets).  Luckily, they provide a personal DVD player during the donation - so I'll likely hit a Redbox or Blockbuster in the morning.  This will surely be blog fodder for tomorrow.

So...my training plan calls for three weekly runs - a 3, 5 and 3 miler and then a 9 miler on the weekend.  Since I'm not sure how my body is going to react to the platelets donations, and I may be pressed for time later in the week, I'm going to shoot to do the 5 miler tomorrow morning and then a 3 miler on both Wednesday and Thursday (perhaps I'll up Thursday's to a 4 miler...we'll see how I'm doing).

Lastly, I will try to get back into the push up groove again.  I did a push up exhaustion test today and did 33 consecutive push ups!  That would normally put my into column 3 of Week 4, but I know my limitations (OK...I'm wimping out a bit here) and I'm going to scale back and do column 3 of Week 3 first.  Hey...at least I'm starting up again - right???

One More Pound Down

The scale said 168.5 this morning. That's one pound down from last week. The weight is coming off - but slowly. However, I shouldn't complain as I ate like a hog on Saturday (I burned about 1,600 calories on my 2 hour and 15 minute long run that morning, so I didn't really worry about how much I ate the rest of the day) and yesterday I was not as careful as I should have been.

Looking at how my weight starts to creep up starting in August and crescendos into November/December, I'm thinking that perhaps putting a fall marathon on my 2009 - and every year - schedule is not such a bad thing. If nothing else, it will keep me burning all of those calories I consume during my birthday, anniversary, Rosh Hashannah, Sukkot, son's birthday, Halloween and Thanksgiving celebrations.

I did hit the gym this morning for 4 easy miles on the treadmill. Even though it was warmer this morning than on Saturday (24 degrees vs 18), I just couldn't convince myself to run outside today. The good news - my aerobic fitness is definitely improving again. I averaged a 10:37/mile pace over the 4 treadmill miles, with an average HR of 146. The last time I ran an easy 4 close to this pace/avg HR was in early October (pre-bronchitis). I'm baaaack!

Of course, I know that it won't last too long. I haven't donated blood in close to five months so I'd like to do that before the end of the year. I've been thinking about doing a platelets donation and see if that impacts my fitness level/HR as much as a whole blood donation does, however, the donation center that does this is a bit further away (25 minute away instead of 10) and the process takes close to 2 hours. For a whole blood donation, if I get there when they open at 12 noon, I'm usually out by 1:15pm...I can do this on my "lunch hour" on a day when I don't have too much going on. However, I'll actually need to take a morning or afternoon off to do a platelets donation. I'm not sure I can fit that in right now. Since I know that it usually takes me about 3 weeks to get back to my original pace/HR after a blood donation, and I'm trying to run 25 mile weeks to hit the 1,000 mile goal, I'm not sure when I'm going to do this. December 31st?

Easy Run With No Hill Sprints

I'm still feeling on the verge of getting a cold. My throat is still scratchy. I didn't sleep that well (my younger son ran into our room a few times in the middle of the night...luckily my wife got him back in bed since I dealt with this on Sunday and Monday night).

So, when my alarm went off at 5:45am, I was seriously considering scrapping the run.

That would be three days in a row without a run. Which I did not want to do. However, the idea of pushing myself to do Hill Sprints when I feel so yucky did not sit well for me. So...I reached a compromise (yes - I was negotiating with myself...two separate voices inside arguing their case - "Run!" vs "Don't Run!"). I went for the run and did the first part of the workout (45 min easy run) and not the second part (8 x 100m Hill Sprints).

I'm glad I ran this morning. It was good to get the blood pumping again. Good to have some endorphins released to counterbalance the icky feeling of "about to come down with a cold". On the other hand, I'm also glad that I did not push myself too much. This is probably why I ended up on the verge of a cold anyhow - Half Marathon on Sunday, Interval workout on Monday, not much sleep either night since at least one of my boys woke up in the middle of the night on Sunday and Monday and they were my responsibility as I was flying solo.

As for my run - my normal 4.4 mile neighborhood loop at a 11:01/mile pace with average HR at 151 bpm. My pace is getting back to normal. Two weeks ago, I ran this at a 11:59/mile pace and last week at a 11:20/mile pace. I think I observed in my marathon training that it took me three weeks to fully recover from a blood donation - that is that it took three weeks for the running pace at my training heart rate to get back to normal. Well...Monday was three weeks after my last blood donation and voila! I'm back to the pace that I was at beforehand.

No More Olympic Trials...

Yesterday was the last day of the US Olympic Track and Field Trials.  I really enjoyed watching these - especially the middle- and long-distance races - and I am so psyched for the Olympics!

I watched in awe last night as Shannon Rowbury surged ahead for the last lap in the Women's 1500.  She is such an efficient runner - it almost looks like only her legs and arms are moving and everything else is still and focused.  Watching Bernard Lagat win the Men's 1500 I wondered if he was just toying with the competition in both the 1500 and 5k - holding back with the leaders until the very end when he turns on the burners.  Does this guy ever tire out?

Three notables who will NOT be going to Beijing are Alan Webb (American Record holder in the mile - and University of Michigan alumn), Gabe Jennings (featured in July's Runner's World and also ran the 1500m) and Adam Goucher (Kara Goucher's husband who was trying to make either the 5k or 10k team).  Although these athletes did not make it, the US teams look strong and I'm hoping they'll medal in August.

Now that I won't be focusing on other people's running, I'll have to start focusing on my own :-)  Since I gave blood during my lunch break today, I'll take two days off and then start running again.

Since I knew I was going to give blood today, I went out for a morning run.  I left the house at 6am and I was still soaking wet about 3 miles into the run.  I don't know how I ever trained for half marathons in the Maryland summer humidity!  I better get used to it...

I am really thinking about doing the training program from July's Runner's World to improve my 5K time.  I had my best 5K in Sept 2006 (26:21) and since then I have not been able to get near it.  I know that this PR was partially due to a beautiful fall morning, a flat course and successful training for a half marathon that I had completed a few weeks prior.  However, I should be able to equal that time now.  I'm not ready to admit that "father time" is making me slower as I get older...

No Run Today

Cold, rainy morning. Still recovering. No run.

If the morning was nicer, I probably would have run since I'm planning to give blood later today. Which means I won't be running tomorrow either. Perhaps an easy run on Wednesday morning? Or at least I'll hit the elliptical that morning...

Also, since today is Monday, it's an official weigh-in day. 163.5 lbs. Not bad after a week of no running and after Mother's Day (larger brunch and dinner than normal). I'd like to get down to 155 lbs for the summertime, but I know I'll have to count calories closely to get there. Will I find the motivation to do it???

Cross-Training This Morning

Still no running.  After Thursday's attempt, I'm going to give my body a bit more rest.  So I hit my community workout room and hopped on the elliptical for 35 min this morning.  It was nice to get the blood pumping again!

I'm not sure when I'll start running again - I'll probably take a few more days off.  Also, I'm going to be giving blood again on Monday...it's been 8 weeks since my last blood donation, so I'm thinking this will be a good week to do it as I'm still recovering from the marathon and I'm not planning to run much.

Post-Intervals Easy Runs ROCK!!!

I have noticed a trend. The easy run that follows my speedwork - most notably interval work - is always an awesome run.

This morning was no exception. Never mind that the weather was great - high-40s and a bit foggy...and no wind! My pace was a bit faster than Monday's easy run and my average heart rate was a bit lower - at 149 which is exactly where it should be. So....as much as I don't like going to the track - I definitely see the results from those workouts.

Another trend I'm seeing - it takes a good 3-4 weeks after I give blood to get back to my previous level of aerobic fitness. Within a few days I can run without problems...but my pace and HR don't stabilize back to where they were until 3-4 weeks later.

I decided to bring my iPod on this morning's run - I'm starting to run without it a bit more as I will not be running with it on race day. I listened to two albums from the late 70s / early 80s: Joe Jackson's Look Sharp! and Elvis Costello's My Aim Is True.

Good tunes, good run - what a way to start the day!