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!

No Morning Run - Football Run Instead?

I got to bed late last night and was woken up twice in the middle of the night by the kids - so I was in no mood to head outside in a cold, pissing rain when 6am rolled around. Even if it was just for three miles. No. Way.

However, tonight there is a football game on. And since it is only a three mile run, I may hit the treadmill at the gym during gametime. Now that sounds like a plan!

I did however do my push-ups (OK...I was supposed to do them yesterday). Sets of 14, 16, 12, 12 and 16 - 70 in all! WOW!!!

Treadmill Run During MNF

I executed my plan for last night and hit the gym after the kids were in bed. I got to the treadmills, changed one of the televisions in that area to the Monday Night Football game (can I reiterate just how happy I am to be back at Fitness First instead of Bally's!), hopped on a treadmill and started to stretch a bit.

Just as I was starting the treadmill, a neighbor of mine showed up and took the treadmill next to me. We started to chat, so I began my run at a slower pace - about an 11:00/mile pace - for the first mile and a half. At that point, the conversation between us died down, so I brought my speed up a notch to a 10:00/mile and started to concentrate more on the game.

I would like to run the race this weekend as close to a 10:00/mile pace as possible. My Personal Record in the Half Marathon is 2:15:54 (although I did clock a 2:13 and change during the first half of the Frederick Marathon...) and I would love to set a new PR. That would be two PRs in two weeks as I just beat my previous 5K PR by more than 1 minute!

I'm won't blog too much about the game (the biggest news was that Aaron Rogers looked very good - this helped save face for the entire Green Bay Packers organization for dissing Brett Favre this offseason). I ended up running 5.75 miles in 58:40 - about a 10:13/mile pace. The good thing is that I held the 10:00/mile pace for a good 4.25 miles, and my heart rate stayed in the 140s and 150s the entire time (average HR was 144).

As long as the weather cooperates on Sunday, I'll be shooting for a 2:11 which is equivalent to a 10:00/mile pace. I'll need to remember to rest up towards the end of the week, hydrate on Friday and Saturday and carb load a bit. It sounds like a great plan...now it's time to Just Do It!

Yen For Nachos

Since I'll be running on the treadmill tonight for a while during the football game, I was thinking to myself, "hmmm....after my workout, perhaps I'll go by Baja Fresh and pick up a heaping plate of Nachos to eat for dinner while I finish watching the game!"

It sounded like a great plan.

Until I decided to check out the Nutritional Information on those nachos.

A plate full of those fresh, warm tortilla chips, smothered with Jack and Cheddar cheese, black beans, sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo (yummm) has 1,890 Calories and 108 grams of fat!!!!

WOW!!!

I would need to run 15 miles to burn off the calories in that plate of Nachos. And although I could run 15 miles during the time it takes me to watch a football game - I will not be running that much tonight.

So - I will need to think of something else to chow down for dinner after my evening run. Oh well...

Taper Week!

It's a taper week! The Parks Half Marathon is coming up this Sunday, so I don't want to overdo it with mileage this week.

Up until this year the taper before a Half Marathon was a big deal. I believe none of my runs during the taper week were over 4 miles. However, my perspective has changed a bit. While in my marathon training I had weekend long runs that were longer than the 13.1 mile distance that I'm going to cover during Sunday's race, and still was able to put in "normal" mileage during the week.

So...although I will treat this as a taper week, I'm not going to cut down too much.

I did not get a chance to run this morning, however, I think I'm going to try an run tonight at the gym - while watching Monday Night Football! Woo hoo! My big problem with running in the evening is that I have such an adrenaline rush that it is hard for me to fall asleep. Luckily there is a late MNF game on tonight as well ;-)