First Post-Marathon "Long" Run

It's kind of funny to be calling a 6 miler a "long" run now :-)

However, now that I'm not training for a marathon - or really anything right now - a 6-10 mile run is what I'll likely be doing on the weekend as a "long" run to compliment my 3-5 mile weekly morning runs.

The weather yesterday was beautiful - sunny and 70 degrees. Definitely not what you normally expect from early November in the DC area.

I had to drop my older son off at an afternoon birthday party which was conveniently located at the North end of the Rock Creek Trail. I said to hell with watching football (the Redskins are horrible this year anyhow...) and decided to go for my run on the trail. I parked the car near the trail, headed south on the trail for 3 miles and then headed back up to my car.

I brought my iPod shuffle along loaded with a playlist that I used during my speedwork runs - Lose Yourself, Pump It, Kashmir, Fire and some other tunes that get me going. This was good and bad - I found myself moving a bit too fast for a nice, easy run. My splits were 10:10, 10:11, 9:57, 10:11 and 10:08 before I slowed myself down for a final 10:40 mile.

The good news - I was able to run the six miles pain free! The bad news - later that evening and today, I have some soreness in my hip-flexor muscle. I'm already stretching it out as part of some of the stretches my chiro gave to me, so perhaps the focus on this area is also contributing to the pain.

I was a bit bummed out that I was sore today since the weather is beautiful again. I would have loved to jump out for a run before it gets cold again tomorrow, but I know my body would not appreciate it. I'd rather run healthy in the cold than with pain on a beautiful day. I guess I'll just have to find something else to do outside today!

Getting Back On Track

The post-marathon soreness in my legs was virtually gone by Thursday morning - I'm sure the massage helped tremendously!!! So Friday morning I headed out for a morning run. I wanted to get a few miles in before my chiro appointment to see if my hamstring issue flared up again.

It was still dark outside at 6am when I left the house Friday morning. Hey...wasn't changing the clocks supposed to help with this morning darkness thing??? Also, it seemed really cold. I found out later it was only 37 degrees - so my choice of a long-sleeve NikePro crew (which retains heat) may have been a bit too much...but it sure made the first mile a bit more bearable.

I headed out on a route that I could make 2 miles or more - depending when I re-entered the community. It's a bit hillier than my normal route, but I didn't want to go 4.5 miles - just in case the pain came back. Luckily, the hamstring didn't bother me.

I ran 2.5 miles - at a 10:42/mile pace. Nice and easy.

I did not run this morning - I think another day of rest is probably a good thing right now. However, resting didn't mean that I sat on my behind all day. This afternoon, I took my 7 year old to Seneca Creek Park for a little hiking. We hiked all the way around Clopper Lake. It was about 4 miles of walking for the two of us. My son did start to complain about 3/4 of the way around the lake, but otherwise he was a real trooper.

At the very end of the hike, we started to hear a sound that was like a hyena or monkey, however, we realized it was coming from the sky. We stopped and looked up and saw a bird stop at a nearby tree. When we got a better look at it, we saw it was a woodpecker! The bird stopped "laughing", pecked the tree once and then entered a hole in the tree. It was really cool. A little bit after that we started to see lots of deer. Seeing all of the wildlife definitely took my son's mind off of the fact that we had just walked 4 miles.

I'm planning to go for another run tomorrow morning - hopefully in the 5-6 mile range. We'll see how that goes and then decide on next week's plans for running...

Massage Therapy!

I don't have time to do the full race report blog post yet, it will come soon...

I have been spending a good amount of time getting back to "normal". I went to the chiro on Monday evening to get adjustments (i.e. back cracking) and to have electro-stim and massage on my right calf / lower hamstring. Yesterday, I had to lead Israeli Dancing in the evening...it was good to move around, but I did not over do it. I also iced my quads a bit as they were still feeling very sore.

By this morning I felt almost 100% - no more wincing while going up and down the stairs, although there was still some soreness in my quads. I had an appointment for a massage which I was totally looking forward to. Except, I forgot that my massage therapist really gets into those tight muscles - which can be more painful in the moment than the soreness I have been experiencing for the past few days.

The massage therapist started with my neck and shoulders for about 5 minutes, and then spent the rest of the hour on my legs. Quads, shins, feet, calves and hamstrings. There was so much going on in the major muscle groups there, that she almost forgot about the little muscle in the back of my right knee - in between the calf and hamstring - which was one of the main reasons I was there in the first place!

I reminded her about it, and she started to dig in...OWWWWW! Perhaps I should have just kept my mouth shut...

The massage therapist has a theory about what happened on Sunday - and during last year's marathon. She noticed that my psoas muscles are really tight and that my right leg is twisted/tilted inward just a tad. She's thinking that the muscles in my right leg that were in pain are probably working extra hard normally to make up for this deficiency - and when I decide to go out and run 26 miles, the muscles are in overload which causes the pain that I'm experiencing. This theory seems to jive with the pelvic instability issue that I was told at the Stride Clinic earlier in the year.

I'll review this assessment with the chiro later this week and see if he agrees. If so, I think I may have a new set of objectives and goals forming right before my eyes...

The Hours Leading Up To The NY Marathon...

I'm still collecting my thoughts from the marathon, so I'm not going to post my race report yet. However, since I did not have a computer with me in New York, I never got a chance to post about what happened leading up to the marathon.

The Cranky Knee

The main event in the 36 hours leading up to the big race was....a cranky knee.

Yes - a few hours after my last run on Friday afternoon, my left knee started to hurt. UGH! The more I walked, the worse it felt. Unfortunately, I wasn't getting much rest since I was going up and down stairs trying to pack and get ready to go up to New York. I iced my knee for a bit on Friday night before going to bed, but it was still cranky on Saturday.

Saturday started out with not too much moving around - I was driving up to Wayne, NJ for four hours, and then taking the bus in from Wayne to NYC. However, after that there was lots of walking - from the bus to the subway, from the subway to my friend's apartment, then back to the subway and to the expo, to and from the pre-race feast at Carmines, etc. All through the walking around the city on Saturday afternoon, my knee had this cranky pain. I iced it again on Saturday evening, hoping that it would feel better by Sunday morning. I knew that I would just have to run through it on Sunday if it was still there - but I didn't know how long it would be before the pain would get really bad.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, the first thing I checked when getting out of bed was my left knee. It felt fine. The ice had done its job. Thank goodness!

Expo Anxiety

Every email that I had received in the past week mentioned that we needed to have a printed copy of our Runner's Registration Form to get into the expo. I printed mine immediately and ensured it was in my duffel when I packed for New York. I decided to take the subway from my friend's apartment to the Javits Center - which meant walking about 4 blocks over and 3 blocks up (with that cranky knee...). As I stood directly across the street from the Javits Center, it hit me...I had left the darn Registration Form in my duffel bag at my friend's apartment. Oh NO!!!! I called up my friend to see if he could find an internet cafe or Kinko's near the Javits Center so I could go in, pull up the email and print it out. All the Kinko's in the area were closed on Saturdays and no luck on Internet Cafes. He suggested some of the hotels near Penn Station, so off I went, walking back towards 34th Street and 7th Ave. After a block of walking, I decided to call Coach Brian - did I really need the Registration Form? He informed me that there was a special services desk at the expo that would look up my information and print the form for me. No need to go back and get the form. Saved! Thanks Coach Brian!!!

The expo was definitely a lot more impressive than the expo at the Frederick Marathon :-) However, I didn't get all jazzed up about it. Perhaps it was because I was there so late in the game (I arrived about 3:30pm on Saturday - it has already been open on Thursday and Friday and was closing in less than 2 more hours) so there were no speakers or "events" happening at the time I was there. I was interested in purchasing a Mizuno Breath Thermo top, but by that time there were no more in my size (I'll have to pay full price at Fleet Feet sometime soon...). I did purchase a hat for Sherry and a pair of running gloves that had the names of all five boroughs on each of the five fingers - I know I'm going to love running in those this winter!

Pre-Race Dinner

Team Run To Remember held their pre-race dinner at Carmine's. It was a great chance for the team to celebrate our accomplishments - over $325K raised and 75% of the team running their first marathon - and to give our appreciation to our wonderful coaches. There were some speeches at the beginning from board members of the NY City Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association and also a special appearance from David Hyde Pierce who is a big supporter of the Alzheimer's Association. David Hyde Pierce started off his speech with a comment like, "you all are the only skinny people at Carmine's..."

I soon would understand what he meant. There was a three-course meal - first course was garlic bread and three types of salads, second course was four types of pasta dishes and the last course was dessert. All of the family-style portions were ENORMOUS! At a normal dinner I likely could have stopped after the salads. But of course I loaded up on pasta too. And had a little bit of the desserts. I was stuffed.

Since I was so uncomfortably full, I wanted to walk a bit to help digest. I started walking with teammate LG and a few of her running friends who were all going to the Upper West Side. We were going to walk to the subway station on 50th and then all go uptown. However, when we got to the station, we found out it was closed. Back to the 42nd Street station we went (and yes, my knee was still cranky at the time). Except at that point it started to rain.

Party Pooper

I finally got back to my friend's apartment and was quite wet from the rain outside. They were having a little Halloween party with friends that night - their apartment is a few blocks from Central Park and you can see the pre-Marathon fireworks from their window, so they invited some friends over to celebrate. It was nice to meet their friends and schmooze. I would have loved to join them in their wine, beer and other drinks, but I stuck to water. At around 10:15pm I reminded my friend that I needed to get some sleep and would appreciate if they would continue the party elsewhere around 11pm. It wasn't a problem with him - or with the guests - but it just felt odd to be kicking my friend out of his own place so I could get some sleep.

I was really tired by then and crashed pretty quickly. I had set my watch to go off at 4:35am so I could get to the subway by 5:15am. The team bus was meeting at Union Square at 6am. As usual with my anxious anticipation, I woke up before my alarm went off.

To be continued soon with the marathon day experience....

New York City - Here I Come!!!

I'm on the Tripper Bus right now - we're crossing over the Delaware Memorial Bridge on the way to New York City! There is wifi on the bus, so I've already finished one conference call and listened in on an internal webcast on the Nortel-Ericsson transition. Ain't technology grand!

My back is still sore, but feeling better this morning. We'll see how it goes this evening when I run in Central Park with the folks on Team Run 2 Remember. I can't wait!!!

Back Pain :-(

I went out for a 5 mile run this morning - 5:30am and all is dark. It was a cool and comfortable morning, but I felt a bit tight trying to start up.

At around mile 3 or so, I felt a twinge in my mid-back on the left side. Sometimes this will happen and then go away, but this one stayed...and it continued to get worse.

I made a chiro appointment at lunch today - ends up the muscles between the last two ribs had "locked up". After some cracking, massaging and electro stim, it's still hurting me - especially when I do any type of twisting action. The chiro told me to ice it this evening and by tomorrow it should feel better.

I hope so, since tomorrow I'll be on a bus for 4-5 hours on my way to New York! And tomorrow evening is a group run in Central Park with Team Run To Remember!!!

Long Run To The Old 'Hood

On the schedule today was a 14 miler.  I decided to run to the neighborhood that I grew up in - about 7 miles away - and back.  It's a hilly loop at times - the map shows about a 300 ft differential between the lowest point and highest point - but the hills are good for you, right?

I started out in the darkness of 6am...man, I hate having Daylight Savings Time early!  It was also chillier than I had thought.  It ends up that it was 25 degrees when I left the house - I thought it was f-ing Spring already!!!  What's up with that?  Luckily I did wear gloves, but they were not my warmest pair, so for the first 20 minutes of my run I thought my fingers were going to freeze off.

Talking about freezing - since I didn't think it would be that cold this morning, I didn't add Gatorade or Nuun to my water bottles.  Of course those froze at the top, so I could barely suck any water out of them by the time I needed a drink.  I ended up slowing down to a walk a few times to unscrew the top of the bottles and taking drinks of slushy water...it's great to have icy-slush in the summer, but not so refreshing when it's 27 degrees outside.

Since I was going back to the old neighborhood, I decided to pick some music that I grew up with.  I originally was going to throw a bunch of '80s music onto my iPod Shuffle, but I decided to put a bunch of Billy Joel albums instead.  It definitely brought back a lot of fond memories of listening to these songs - or playing them on the piano, oh so many years ago...and it helped keep the pace nice and easy.

My splits show that I kept the pace nice and easy - a 10:57/mile pace overall with an average HR of 155.  It ends up that my HR starts to elevate pretty significantly after 10 miles.  I'm not sure if I just need some more long runs under my belt or if I'm pushing the pace too much in the middle to end of my long runs.  I'll see how it goes in two weeks when I have a 15 mile long run.

Towards the end of the run, my legs were starting to get really sore.  I had contemplated stopping at 14 miles exactly, but somehow pushed myself to keep on going.  I ended up stopping at 14.25 miles - just up the street from my house.  I'm not sure why I couldn't push myself to "bring it home" and finish it up - but come on...I had just finished running 14.25 miles - can I really be that hard on myself?

Final stats:  14.25 miles, 2:35:53 - 10:57/mile, avg HR 155, max HR 172.

I just checked my running log to see when the last time I ran this long and found this little tidbit:  the last time I ran longer than 13.1 miles was on May 4, 2008 - the day of the Frederick Marathon when I ran 26.2 miles.  Leg soreness is definitely excused! 

Another Chiro Visit

Weirdest thing - I was playing around with my kids last night and all of a sudden my foot started to hurt whenever I put pressure on it.  I tried massaging and stretching the foot, but to no avail.  I popped a Vitamin I before going to bed hoping that it would do the trick.

This morning my foot felt a little better - but not well enough to lace up my running shoes.  (Actually, I also have that feeling that I'm on the verge of catching a cold - so I'm not about to go and run in 18 degree weather).

I went in to the chiro's office.  He did put the electro-stim thingy on the top of my foot (some tendon there?) and after that he went to do his adjustments.  He was trying to release (I think that's chiro speak for "crack") my talus bone.  It took him about 5 attempts but he finally got it.  And I believe that by tomorrow, this foot pain will be gone.  Gotta love the chiro...

And since the weather is supposed to warm up a bit, I may be able to go out for a run :-)

Chiro Visit and Busy Work Week

After yesterday morning's back pain, I was in desperate need of my chiro. His posted hours started at 11am, and I was supposed to be in Columbia, MD for work. I called his office, he answered (he was in the office doing paperwork) and he took me early. He did a bunch of trigger point work, "adjustments" (can you say back cracking!), pulling, prodding, icing and electro-stim work. I felt 1,000 times better! HOORAY!

He gave me some stretching exercises to "open up the joint" (apparently the joint was pinching a nerve or something like that). I'll need to hit the Chiro's office one more time this week - no biggie. I was able to sleep last night and run this morning!

Which brings me to this morning. I need to be in Sterling, VA for work today. The weather forecast called for freezing rain (which really did not happen) - so I planned to wake up early, drive to the Fitness First in Reston, VA before the traffic got too bad, and run before getting to the customer site. I was on a tredmill by 7am and did my Pyramid Intervals workout - and threw in an additional 1/4 mile interval at the end. All intervals were done at 7.5 mph (8 min mile pace). 5.5 miles, 52:52 - 9:37/mile pace.

Off to the customer site I go!!!!

Back Pain = Up At 3am

Last night I started doing some push-ups in front of the MNF football game. I had decided to stop the Hundred Push-Up Challenge for a few weeks - but continue to do five sets of 25 push-ups three days a week. After a few weeks, I'd hop back into the challenge - hopefully ready to attack Week 5 (I've done Weeks 3 and 4 three times now!).

At the end of my first set of 25 I was starting to tire out and I pushed myself to get those 24th and 25th push-ups in. However, I think I may have pulled a muscle in my back - just below my left shoulder blade. I started to feel some pain, but didn't think much of it. I tried doing another set of push ups and got to 20, but had to stop.

There was still a bit of pain when I got into bed, but I was able to fall asleep. However, I woke up at 3am and the left side of my back was killing me! I got up to pop some Ibuprofen and tried to get in a comfortable spot in bed. Nothing was comfortable.

I had considered trying to go for a run since I knew I wasn't going to fall back to sleep. Either I would go out then, or leave the house at 4:45am to be at the gym when it opens at 5am. I got out of bed and started to pump my arms back and forth like I do when I'm running, just to see if I could do it. No go. Too painful.

Finally around 4am I went downstairs and got a bag of frozen carrots out of the freezer and laid on that for about 15 min. That seemed to help a bit. However, I knew I wasn't going to be able to just fall back asleep - I grabbed my iPod and dialed up some mellow music (James Taylor, Cat Stevens and Dido) and laid back in bed. I dozed in and out of sleep until 6:30am when the "morning madness" of the Fox household begins.

So no run for me this morning. I actually was supposed to head out to Columbia, MD early this morning - instead I'm going to wait to see the chiro and then head out to the customer site.

Another Crisp Late Summer Morning!

Last night before I went to bed, I checked outside.  It was warm and muggy - I checked the internet and it was showing 79 degrees at 11pm.  However, there was to be an overnight low of 59 degrees and the high temperature for today was going to be in the mid-70s.  Hooray for the cooler temperatures!

I left my house this morning at 6am.  The sun was just about to rise (it's a lot harder to get out of bed at 5:30am when it is still dark outside...) and the weather was cool, cloudy and had a bit of a breeze.  The internet later showed 66 degrees, but I thought it was even cooler than that.  It was such an awesome morning for a run!

The training plan called for a long, easy run of 60+ min.  I went on my loop route around the perimeter of my neighborhood and adjacent neighborhoods.  Based on how I was feeling I could choose a 4.4 mile, 5.5 mile, 6.2 mile or 7.5 mile route...all dependent on where I re-enter the neighborhood.

I wasn't exactly sure how I would do as I was still quite sore from yesterday's run.  I must say, that intervals workout really beat me up!  However, it was a "good" sore that I felt yesterday - one of those feelings where you feel a bit of discomfort in your muscles when you move a certain way, but you know that in the end you'll be stronger for it.  I was feeling that "pain" most of the afternoon and evening, and still a little soreness this morning.

The run ended up being very enjoyable.  I had a nice, easy pace - my HR was under 150 for most of the run and ended with an average HR of 147.  I ran the 6.2 mile route in 1:06:05 - a 10:40/mile pace.

I have only one more scheduled run before the Kentlands/Lakelands 5K this Saturday morning - a Long Strides workout on Thursday.  And then it's a rest day and the race.  Wow!

I'm looking forward to having this 5K stuff behind me so I can re-focus on longer distances.  I'll have only two weeks until the Parks Half Marathon...not much time to train, however, I believe I still have the aerobic capacity to last 13.1 miles.  And now that I've been doing more speedwork, perhaps my Half Marathon time will improve as well.

So...I'm Stubborn

As I wrote both yesterday and today, I went out for morning runs both days and they were cut short due to some cramping-type pains in my left arch.

I decided to take action today.  At every opportunity I stretched my calf muscle and foot.  I drank a lot less soda and coffee and a lot more water.  Most importantly, I went to Fleet Feet and bought a new pair of shoes.

This time I went with the new Brooks Defyance.  It's a neutral shoe, just like the Brooks Glycerin that I was wearing for the past year - however, it's $30 less expensive.

I decided that after work I was going to get a workout in.  I would try to do the 2 x 1600 interval workout (the one that I could not start during the past two days...) on the treadmill.  If my foot started to hurt or cramp up, I would go to the eliptical or rower or stationary bike instead.

I started out with more stretching.  Then I got on the treadmill and did a fast walk for 1/4 mile, and then a slow jog for 1/2 mile.  So far, so good.  I turned the speed on the treadmill up to 7.5mph (8:00/mile pace) and crossed my fingers that I could go the full mile without pain.

Good news.  I was able to finish both mile intervals at the 8:00/mile pace.  I felt like I had some steam left afterwards as well - which was good as my 2 mile run on Saturday morning really drained me by the end.

However, overall I felt tired.  I'm not sure I could have kept up the pace without the treadmill keeping it for me.  It's been a tiring few days.  My younger son has been sick.  I have been going to sleep later than I have wanted to on a nightly basis.  My project at work has ramped up and I have a lot less downtime during the day.  I didn't realize that my running would suffer much, but I guess it has.  Hopefully I can get some more rest during the weekend.

More Foot Pain - UGH!

I went out this morning to try and do the same run that I missed yesterday. I didn't get far...about 1/4 mile into my jog, the arch of my left foot started hurting again.

I know the issue is that my arch is very tight. There are a few contributors:

• Lack of stretching. I'm not really good about stretching out after my runs and my body is now taking a bit of revenge. I'm going to have to stretch more....and A LOT more in the near future.
• Footwear. My running shoes have 350 miles in them, so I know it is time for a new pair. Also, I spent a lot of time wearing sandals this past weekend which does not give my foot as much support as sneakers and other shoes. Additionally, the soles of one of the pairs of shoes I wear for work a few times a week are starting to wear down. There is a great shoe repair guy in my neighborhood - I'm going to see if it is cost effective for him to fix them up vs. buying a new pair.
• Water. I believe my muscles may be a bit dehydrated. I've been drinking lost of coffee, soda, wine, beer, etc over the past few days; and not enough water.

There may be other contributors as well, but these are the main ones. I'm going to try and purchase new running shoes today. Tonight I will need to stretch (and perhaps hit the gym for cross training, as getting no exercise is really starting to get to me...). And I'll try to lay off the soda a bit and drink more water.

Keep your fingers crossed... I hope to be back running in a few days.

Foot Pain - Run Cut Short

Early this morning I was awoken by my 2 year old playing with my face in my bed...at 4:15am!  He hasn't been feeling well over the past few days.  He woke up in the middle of the night last night and climbed into our bed - and then started to play.  Grrrrrrrrr.  Anyhow, he announced to us at 4:55am that he needed to go to the bathroom - my wife took him and I decided to get out of bed and into my running gear.  My alarm was going off in 5 more minutes anyway.

I was out the door at 5:15am.  I guess I hadn't been out this early in a while since I was not expecting it to still be dark.  Note to self - any runs before 5:45am now require my reflector vest.

I made it up to the High School track, however, as I was entering the parking lot of the High School, I felt a little "twinge" on the arch of my left foot.  When I got to the track I stopped and started to stretch a bit.  I also sat down and massaged my foot.  However, when I started to run on the track, the discomfort in my foot was still there.

There was no way I was running my 2 X 1600 at race pace today :-(

I didn't want to aggravate my foot any further, so I walked the full 1.65 miles back home.  Luckily I had my iPod with me - I had a Fantasy Football podcast to listen to...ooooh, I can't wait for football season to start!

I'm going to try to do the same run tomorrow morning and push tomorrow's scheduled long run to Wednesday.  I'll try stretching my foot out a bit tonight and hopefully I won't run into the same issue during tomorrow's run.  Keep your fingers crossed!

One Pound Down...

Monday is weigh-in day.  I started watching what I ate last week when the scale tipped at 166 pounds.  This morning I'm one pound down - 165 pounds.  A tad discouraging the day after running a half marathon, however, I can't be too upset as somewhere around Wednesday I stopped logging what I was eating.  And I did eat those brownies that my wife made during her Pampered Chef show.  And I did have some other sweets along the way.  So....I'll take the one pound and grow on it for next week.

Last night the kids both woke up in the middle of the night.  My oldest around 2:30am ran into our room and said he had a bad dream.  I put him back in his bed and he fell back asleep quickly.  My youngest woke up around 2:55am and I rubbed his back until about 3:15am when he finally dozed off.  Luckily they slept in until close to 7am (that's sleeping in for them).

While I was rubbing the little one's back around 3am, I felt a dull ache in my right hamstring.  I'm not out of the woods yet :-(   I'll try to ice it a bit today and self-massage it.  I'll see how it feels before I try to go to the gym this afternoon and run on the treadmill...

Riley's Rumble - Long Run / Race

This weekend's run on the training plan called for "Endurance Run - 70+ min".  I did a bit of exaggeration with the 70+ min part :-)

Today was the Riley's Rumble Half Marathon.  I did my first half marathon on this course two years ago and ran it again last year.  It is a "low key" race of the Montgomery County Road Runners Club - and since I'm a member of MCRRC it's a free race for me (MCRRC dues are $25 a year).  With most Half Marathons being in the $45-$70 range, a free race is a great relief to the wallet.

However, this is not an easy course.  There are a lot of steep hills.  And the two times that I have run this race, I have had to walk a lot during the second half of the race since my legs (mainly my quads) were in lots of pain.

Since I hadn't really trained up for a Half Marathon - and I'm only a few weeks from getting over the hamstring/calf injury and did not want to re-aggravate the injury - I decided that I would run this race, but as a training long run instead of as a race.  I thought of it as running a 13 mile long run with a bunch of other runners and water stops along the way.

My plan for running this race today was as follows: 1) keep the pace like a training run and 2) walk up the steep hills.

I stuck to the plan....but it was difficult.  There's a big hill in the first mile and a second one right before the second mile marker.  I don't think anyone likes to stop to walk during the first mile of a run - but I had a plan and wanted to stick with it.  I also know from experience that these two hills really takes a lot out of you which makes the rest of the course more difficult.

The end result - 2:26:30 - an 11:11/mile pace.  My splits were nearly identical - 1:13:23 on the first half and 1:13:07 on the second half (it's actually a slight negative split - which I have never done in a race this long!)  This is about 10 minutes slower than my best Half Marathon time and about 6 minutes slower than my time last year.  However, I felt a lot better after this run.  I was not in pain - which has happened to me the last two times I ran this race.  Also, I was walking when I decided to and not because my legs were on fire and I couldn't get them to run for me.  Most importantly, I did not re-aggravate my injury.  I think I may be out of the woods on this one!

I did have a dilemma this evening - how do I represent this run in my training log?  It was a race - but I ran it like a training long run.  I decided to make it a race and add notes in my log that I ran it like a training run.  I've decided that if I have to pin a number on to run, it's a race no matter how slow I take it...

Sherry is out of town for the next two days, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get a run in.  I think the only way I'll be able to is if I go to the gym and put the kids in babysitting.  Given timing of activities, it would have to be tomorrow afternoon when my older son gets home from camp.  I'll see how I've recovered from this morning's run and make a "game-time decision".

Weight Creeping Up and Tempo Run

Earlier in the year, I had designated Mondays as my "weigh-in" days.  I had tipped the scales on Jan 1 at 172 pounds and I knew I needed to get it back down towards 160...so I was back to counting calories and weekly weigh-ins.

I brought my weight down to 161.5 at it's lowest point in March.  At that point, I have a few weeks where I was running out of energy and I decided that with the marathon training plan ramping up my mileage, I could just eat when my body was telling me to eat.

The problem was, that I didn't get "back on the wagon" after the marathon!  For the past two months, I have been eating more than I should and not burning it off like I was doing at the beginning of the year.  So...my weight is back up to 166 pounds.  With my birthday and anniversary around the corner, I'm in serious jeopardy of returning to last year's cycle.

So, I'm back to counting calories as of today.  I'm meeting a friend for lunch today at Cosi and I checked out a few options at CalorieKing.com - it looks like I'll be getting either the Hummus and Fresh Veggie Sandwich (432 Calories) or the Tomato Basil and Mozzarella Melt (666 Calories) and not my usual Tuna Melt (1,012 Calories).

Also, I'm going to try and limit the desserts (to zero?) until my birthday in two weeks.  I'm not sure how that will go as my wife has two Pampered Chef shows in that span where she will be making these awesome chocolate caramel nut brownies as part of the demonstration - and there are usually leftovers that she brings home.  UGH!!!!

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After stepping on the scale this morning, I went out for my tempo run.  The plan was like last week - first mile with HR less than 150bpm, then bring it up to tempo pace of 165bpm for 30 minutes, then slow it back down for the remainder of the run.

I ended up with a total time of 45:48 - a 10:24/mile pace.  The first slow mile was at 11:04 and 138 average heart rate.  The next 30 minutes I covered a little over 3 miles - 9:57/mile pace at 168 average heart rate.  It was a bit faster than last week - even with the warmer temperature - and I felt good.  I'm starting to "see the light" and I have confidence that I'll get back to the pace that I was running a few months ago.

Once again, no more pain behind my knee.  I may have finally shook this thing!!

Morning Long Run

I did my scheduled "long run" this morning.  Ironically, a few months ago, a seven-mile run was part of my during-the-week workouts - and now it's a long run once again :-)

I didn't get out of the house until 6:30am.  I was really tired last night and didn't want to set an alarm to get up and run...that's what my kids are for, right?  Anyhow, my older son woke up a little before 6am to go pee - he hasn't learned the art of being discrete yet, so the entire house was semi-awoken from hearing him run to the bathroom, slam the toilet seat up, turn on the faucet at full blast to wash his hands, etc.  I took this as my cue to roll out of bed and run.

I decided to wear my Amphipod water belt this morning.  I have been really thirsty the past few times I have run - most likely due to the heat and humidity.  I ended up taking my first drink about 3 miles into my run, and then at about 5 1/2 miles I started to drink regularly.

I lucked out on the weather this morning.  It was still in the high-60s when I got out the door, and the humidity wasn't too bad.  On my walk to synagogue later this morning (around 10am) I saw a few runners and felt sorry for them as it was already approaching 80 degrees.

The run itself was not too eventful - I took it nice and easy, running an 11:26/mile pace, completing the 7.3 miles in 1:23:47.  I didn't bring music with me as I wanted to keep it slow and I know that I normally speed up to music when I run.

There were two big positives to today's run - 1) I was able to keep my heart rate down for the most part - my average HR was 151 - and 2) I did not have the pain in the tendons behind my knee!  My hamstring and calf muscles are still a tad sore (no longer tender...thank goodness!), but the discomfort that I was feeling for weeks on end did not appear at all during the close to 84 minutes that I was running.

Tomorrow I'll rest/cross-train again and then on Monday I'll get back to the training plan.

Semi-Scheduled Rest Day

I did not run today.  I'm scheduled to run either today or tomorrow, so I decided on tomorrow.  Two big factors contributed - I stayed up waaaaaay too late last night watching the MLB All-Star Game (I watched through the 11th inning - I can't believe it went to 15 innings!  and hooray for Michael Young for hitting the game winning RBI for the second time in three years!), and I'm still hurting from yesterday's massage.

Good news on the massage front, though.  I had a chiro appointment today and although I'm really sore, the chiro mentioned that the muscles in back of my leg are much looser than before.  So the massage therapist definitely did her job well!

I had hit a lull at work this morning around 10am, and I was considering going for the run that I could have done earlier in the morning.  However, then I stepped outside and realized it was already really hot and humid...no way I'm running in that if I don't have to.  I'd rather wake up at 5:00am tomorrow.

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I finally posted some marathon pictures on my family website.  I actually have finally updated the family website - the last pictures that were on there were from January...now I'm "current" through May.  I still have my son's sixth birthday party and our trip to Michigan for June pages and then I'll really be caught up.  I don't think I'm going to do those tonight, though.  I have to wake up at 5:00am tomorrow to run, remember???

Weekend Run

My schedule this weekend was Saturday rest day and Sunday "long run" of 60 minutes.  I definitely needed the rest day as I had re-aggravated the tendon injury in the back of my right knee with last week's training.

Today almost turned into another rest day.  My oldest son - who is the early bird of the house - was sleeping at my mother-in-law's house last night.  Since "the rooster" wasn't in the house to wake everyone up, we all slept in.  I woke up at 7:10am and got out the door for my run at 7:30.  Luckily, the weather was not too hot yet - and the humidity wasn't too bad.  I ran 5.5 miles at a slower than 11:00/mile pace - however, I was starting to get pains in the back of my legs again, so I did not want to push it.

I may try to get in with a massage therapist this week and see if that will help the tendon thing.

This week's runs include a 25 minute Tempo Run, a 50 minute easy run followed by six Hill Sprints and another 4 x 50m Short Strides.  Next weekend's "long run" is 70 minutes - not a long run compared to a few months ago, but it should be fine for a 5K program.