Down the ladder

I got up this morning at 0430 again to run a track workout. Being this close to the PPR I decided to not do anything too hard but I also wanted to do some longer repeats. I decided to do a ladder workout starting with a 1000 at 3:48, a 600 at 2:08, a 400 at 85 and 2x200 at 42.

I left the house and had some nice temps in the mid sixties with low humidity and a barely noticeable breeze. I ran a mile warm-up and then did 800 worth of strides on the track before starting my workout.

I hit my 1000 in 3:46.09, jogged 600 in 3:30, hit my 600 a little slow in 2:09.20, jogged a 400 in 2:30, hit my 400 spot on in 1:25.36, jogged 200 in 1:19, hit my first 200 in 41.21, jogged another 200 in 1:18 and ran my last 200 in 41.15.

I'M PRETTY HAPPY WITH MY WORKOUT, and I have no idea why I'm yelling but I don't feel like re-typing it. I'm getting excited for the PPR and I can't wait to crank one out as I am feeling VERY strong right now.

Tomorrow's run is going to be an easy four miles. A week ago I was running my four mile loop and took a spiderweb full on the face. I freaked out and was running down the bike trail in the dark whipping myself with my t-shirt just in case there was a spider on me.

Eclipsed

I got up this morning after having a semi-rough night with my son, he was up-and-down from about zero-dark-thirty until 0400. I was afraid I was going to wake him up as I got ready for my run at 0430. I stepped outside with my dog and since my house faces west I was able to watch the eclipse enter the totality phase as my dog relieved himself. After he had done his business I started a five miler and kept my eye on the moon until I had to put it at my back to finish my run.

I'm glad we got a clear morning so I could see the eclipse because the last time one was visible, back in 2003 when we lived in St. Louis, Kim and I were out watching it in our apartment complex parking lot with two of our neighbors. We had beer, snacks and binoculars and just as the earth's shadow started creeping across the moon a fricking cloud blew across and obscured the show. It stayed cloudy the rest of the night and we took our beer, snacks and binoculars inside and watched tv instead.

I like astronomy and I know most of the constellations and I can usually locate Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Unfortunately, my telescope was damaged in our exodus to the Springfield area four years ago and I have never replaced it and it puts a damper on the viewing of Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

I like the late fall and winter constellations most of all and I purposely go on runs later in the evening in October and November so that I can look at Orion, Canis Major, Taurus and the Pleiades. Orion is one of the first constellations I knew when I was a kid. It was hard to miss the three stars that made up his belt. From left to right they are named Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka. The names of the stars that make up the hourglass shape of Orion's body, starting from the upper left and going clockwise, are Betelgeuse, Bellatrix, Rigel and Saiph. If you follow the sword down from his belt you can make out the Orion Nebula as a hazy patch.

If you follow the line of Orion's belt to your left until you see a very bright star that star is Sirius, the Dogstar, and the brightest star in the sky. It is often mistaken for a UFO. Probably by drunk rednecks. . . or people who never look up.

Taurus is slightly north and west of Orion and is distinct because of the V-shape it takes. Aldebaran is the alpha star in Taurus and is the eye of the bull. I love to look at Aldebaran through binocs because it is a very pretty orange color. If you go slightly west of Aldebaran until you see a star formation that looks like the Little Dipper you have actually discovered the Pleiades. The Pleiades are called the Seven Sisters or sometimes the jewelbox. They are an open cluster and look magnificent in binoculars.

Next time you are out in the dark at 0430 look up and see if you can't find these constellations. They won't be in the early night sky until October.

IronTim Final

Tim finished his Ironman and he did a darn good job. He just wanted to finish and thought that he could do it in about 13:00. I think he over-achieved.

SWIM: 1:11:15
BIKE: 6:14:14
RUN: 4:14:16
OVERALL: 11:58:24!!!
POSITION: 335

Good job Tim.

IronTim Update #3

Tim is still going strong but it looks like he was having trouble around the half marathon mark. He should be done here pretty soon.

TOTAL SWIM
2.4 mi. (1:11:15)
1:52/100m
500

FIRST BIKE SEGMENT
22 mi (1:16:51)
17.18 mph

SECOND BIKE SEGMENT
23 mi (1:16:35)
18.02 mph

THIRD BIKE SEGMENT
30 mi (1:42:28)
17.57 mph

FINAL BIKE SEGMENT
37 mi (1:58:20)
18.76 mph
TOTAL BIKE
112 mi. (6:14:14)
17.96 mph
644

FIRST RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (33:37)
8:24/mile

SECOND RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (38:34)
9:38/mile

THIRD RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (42:15)
10:33/mile

FOURTH RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (33:32)
8:23/mile

FIFTH RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (--:--)
--/mile

SIXTH RUN SEGMENT
4 mi. (--:--)
--/mile

FINAL RUN SEGMENT
0.6 mi. (--:--)
--/mile
TOTAL RUN
26.2 mi. (--:--)
--/mile
443


TRANSITION
TIME
T1: SWIM-TO-BIKE
9:47
T2: BIKE-TO-RUN
8:52


PENALTY
TIME
TOTAL PENALTIES
--:--

IronTim Update

Tim is going strong at Louisville completing the 112 mile bike portion in 6:14:14. Due to an "unexpected problem" the website is unable to display any results now and I'm lucky I got to see that he finished the bike. I imagine that everyone and their brother is trying to access the site to track people they know and have shut it down.

IronTim

My pal Tim is competing in the Louisville Ironman Triathlon today. At 0904, my time, he has completed his 2.4 mile swim in 1:11:15 which is 1:52/100m. He was in 500th place coming out of the water and took 9:47 for his transition to the bike. The race started at 0700 so he is only about an hour into his 112 mile bike and I expect that it will be well after noon when he transitions to his run. I will try to update this when I get more information. We are going to a hot air balloon festival in Lincoln and I probably wouldn't be too far off in thinking that he may be just starting the run portion by the time we return later this afternoon.

Good luck Tim! I can't wait to hear about it.

Lectures and coffee

I made it to my inservice this morning and actually learned or re-learned quite a bit about our computed radiography system. It only took my regular two cups of coffee at home PLUS a nice 12 oz. cup of Panama coffee from the Bean Counter at the hospital to make it through. Did you ever have a guy in college or high school who would fall asleep almost daily in class and still do reasonably well in the course? I'm that guy. I got so good at falling asleep when I was in the service that I could fall asleep standing at Parade Rest. I knew a girl who could sleep as we marched to class and I didn't believe it until I witnessed it myself. I never attained that level of proficiency.

I got up yesterday morning and ran an easy 5.25 miles in 43:36. Why 5.25 miles you ask? I ran my five mile course backward and the 5 mile mark is a quarter mile, or more, from my house so I just counted it all. I hit my splits in 2:23, 8:29, 8:22, 8:19, 7:57, and 8:06. The last few miles were faster because there was lightning moving in from the Northwest that was getting alarmingly close and I didn't want to become part of the small percentage of the population that gets hit by lightning.

This morning I got up at 0430 and ran an 8 miler. It was 72 with WSW 6 mph winds and 93% humidity. It actually felt pretty nice outside in spite of the humidity but I could have done without the cloudburst from the 3.5 to 4.5 mile marks. I started off easily and stiffly in 8:48, 8:23, 8:14, 8:15, 7:56, and since I have no idea where the 6 and 7 mile marks are at, 24:56 over the last three miles for a total time of 1:06:33.

I have 27.25 miles for the week which gives me 899.25 for the year. I am tempted to go and run another .75 just so I can have an even 900. Maybe tomorrow morning I'll do that as a warm-up for some yoga. I'll only need 500 miles in 18 weeks to hit 1400 for the year. I'll have to average about 27 miles a week the rest of the year though. 1400 is possible but I'll have to be careful.

84s

I got up this morning at 0430 and jogged over to the high school track to run 6x400. My new VDOT intensity calls for 400s to be run in 85 seconds. It was in the low 70s with a nice breeze coming out of the south-southwest but was still a little on the humid side.

I got in a mile warm-up and did 800 worth of strides. I stretched a bit and took off into my first rep with Orion and his dog watching from the southeast corner of the track. My rep times follow:

1. 1:24.59 (200m. recovery in 1:30.36)
2. 1:24.35 (1:30.64)
3. 1:24.74 (1:30.29)
4. 1:24.71 (1:30.51)
5. 1:24.49 (1:30.38)
6. 1:24.11

After rep six I sat on the track for a minute and then ran about a mile and a quarter to cool down.

I feel pretty good about the practice. I felt pretty good and didn't start feeling uncomfortable until the last two reps and the discomfort was minimal. Tomorrow morning I am going to run another easy five miles and Saturday I will run eight before I have to go to work for an inservice over our computed radiology system. I'm going to get four hours of Continuing Education but I would rather be chilling out with the newspaper and a cup of coffee at 0800 hours instead of sitting in a lecture.

Fiver

I got up this morning and ran an easy five before work. It was 73 or so with very little wind and 90% humidity so I ran easy and didn't push the pace. My legs felt pretty good and I hit my splits in 8:50, 8:40, 8:23, 8:18 and 8:04. I ran 42:16 which is actually ten seconds slower than I ran my 10k on Sunday morning.

Tomorrow morning I am going to go to the track and run 6x400 in 85 seconds each. I am moving up my VDOT intensity based on my mile and two mile races from the last few weeks. My two mile time gives me a VDOT of 52, which is one level above my present level, and my mile time gives me a VDOT of 54. I've decided that jumping three levels is probably a bad idea so I am going to see how level 52 feels and gradually work my way up from there. Even if I run the PPR in 18:50 that will only give me a VDOT of 53. I want to avoid injury at all costs so I'm going to play it safe.

Recovery

I ran four miles after I got home today and I could really feel the pounding my lower legs took on the downhills at yesterday's race.

The Weather Channel said it was 77 with winds NNE3 and 83% humidity but the Weather Channel was lying. My thermometer said 83 and the school's said 85. It was certainly humid and there wasn't a whole lot of wind and it made for a heavy, wet and sluggish run.

I covered my four in 33:25 with splits of 8:23, 8:21, 8:24 and 8:17. I loosened up and felt pretty good which means that tomorrow's five miler is going to suck because of the two day lag.

I think that Wednesday, if I feel good after a two mile warm-up, that I will run some 400 meter repeats. I want to hit some fast and short reps to tune up for the PPR in about three weeks. I'll probably do a seven or eight mile long run this weekend but I'm not going to continue to do two hard workouts and a long run every week. I may up the intensity again in October to close out the year on a good note at the Jingle Bell Run and the Frostbite Festival.

Abe's Amble

Today dawned for me at about 0500 when my son woke up and needed a diaper change and a bottle. This was fine with me as I had set my alarm for 0530. I ate a breakfast of water and Fig Newtons. Nathan decided he was awake so I sat on the living room floor with him and his mommy and stretched. At about 0600 I ran a mile warm-up around my neighborhood, kissed my wife and son goodbye, picked up my neighbor and drove to the Illinois State Fairgrounds.

The weather, before I left, was 75 with winds 3 mph out of the NNE and 69% humidity. Not bad, but a far cry from the beautiful 66, ESE11 and 61% we had yesterday morning. It drizzled a bit on the way there and continued to do so the rest of the morning.

I picked up my timing chip and jogged a half mile and did a few strides. I felt pretty loose and ready to go. After the National Anthem was sung the gun went off and the race was underway.

I was standing next to David at the line and he took off like a bat out of hell. I wondered in the back of my head if this was the race where he broke out of his slump. I had him in sight at the mile and watched him go through in about 6:08. He looked pretty strong but I decided not too worry unless he was still ahead of me at 5k.

I hit my mile split, well ahead of where I wanted to be, in 6:36.01. I didn't feel like I was breathing hard or was in any danger of going into oxygen debt so I made myself shrug it off and keep going.

David was still quite a way ahead of me heading to the two mile mark but I could still see him. I don't recall what his two mile split was but I could tell that he was feeling his 6:08 first mile. I ran a more conservative second mile in 6:45.92 and had a total time of 13:21.93. I was still feeling pretty good but knew the race didn't really start until the 5k mark when we started hitting the hills.

Mile three, once we entered Oak Ridge Cemetery, has a few rollers that I didn't remember from last year but I lowered my arms and shortened my stride and let myself go on the downhills to try to make up for lost time. On one of those rolls I caught and passed David as he pulled up and went into survival mode. I hit the three mile mark in 20:12.96 with a 6:51.03 split and went through 5k, 41.7 seconds later, in 20:54.66.

There is a pretty nice hill going up out of Oak Ridge and even though I didn't charge it too hard I still passed two or three people as I went up. I was also passed by the woman who earned runner-up. Ironically, the only people I remember passing me the whole race were women. The winner, runner-up and fourth place finishers all passed me at some point on the course. The winner passed me entering Oak Ridge, the runner-up passed me exiting Oak Ridge and the fourth place finisher passed me just after the mile mark. After the first or second mile I don't remember being passed by any males.

After exiting Oak Ridge I starting surging so that I could stay in contact with the lady who had just passed me because she was really moving. I ran a 6:53.67 mile and hit four in 27:06.63. I was still acceptably in my time range although I was in the upper limits of what I wanted and I knew at the four mile mark I was probably going to have difficulty running in the 41:00s like I wanted.

There was one last big hill at about the 4.25 mark that you had to run up to get to Lincoln Park. It isn't that it was a steep hill it was that it was 200-300 meters long and at a bad point in the race. This is actually the hill that broke me in my half marathon back in March so I respected it and eased up it cautiously. As I hit the top I could feel my shoulders tighten and my breathing increase so I had a bit of a weak moment as I made myself latch onto a group and hold on when I should have been pushing the pace a bit. I was nervous because I knew there was one more hill before the five mile mark and I wanted to regroup before I hit it.

Once I hit the "hill" I felt like an ass because I hardly noticed it. I had wasted just enough time being cautious that I ran my slowest mile of the day, and the only one over 7:00, and probably cost myself a shot of going under 42:00. I hit the five mile mark in 34:08.39 with a mile time of 7:01.76. Damn.

After seeing my string of sub-sevens go "ker-sploosh" I got a little angry and decided to take it out on the three or four guys ahead of me. I started throwing down surges as I left the park and when I got close enough to pass anyone I passed them so fast they couldn't respond. I saw that the lady who eventually finished fourth wasn't too far ahead of me and I made it my goal to see if I could catch her. I could tell I was making up ground on her and the fifth place female and I ran myself into oxygen debt by the time I passed the fifth placer at the six mile mark. I hit six in 40:50, a nine second improvement from the Passavant/Powerade 10k in June, with a mile time of 6:42.46. I knew at that point that I was going to have to vomit to break 42:00 but I went for it anyway. I sprinted the last 0.2 of the race in 1:14.19 and crossed the finish line in 42:05.04, by my watch.

I didn't catch fourth place lady but I probably would have it I'd had another 0.2 or so. I also didn't vomit although I did almost fall on the girl cutting the chip off of my shoe.

My official time was 42:06 and I placed 36th overall, which is exactly what I placed ten days ago at the Parade Run. The guy who won the race did so by over three minutes and went under 32:00 in doing so. My friend Jordan P. placed fifth in 37:02 and my neighbor placed second in her age group and got a cool little plate thing.

I also ended up placing second in my age group and just about sewed up the Points Series title in doing so. I still need to race well at the PPR and the Shoreline Classic to lock it up for sure but I went a long way toward doing it this morning.

The Bionic Woman was the third overall female and ran a time in the low 41s. I should have run with her. Oh well.

I didn't hit my time goal but I improved my 10k time by ten seconds on a more difficult course that the Powerade 10k. My fifth mile needs improvement and I think more tempo runs and hill running will work that out by next year.

My fastest mile was 6:37, slowest was 7:01. I ran a fairly even effort as I hit my first 5k in 20:54.66 and 21:10.38 for the harder second half of the race.

I think I can break into sub-41:00 territory next year.

Three more days. . .

Until Abe's Amble. I took today off from work and running as I am working Saturday morning. I got up a little after 0600 when my son awoke and we ate breakfast and played all day.

Yesterday morning, before work, I ran a fiver with 4x2 min. surges in the middle miles. I ran the first two easy to warm-up in 8:37 and 8:27 and then ran 7:52, 8:23 and 8:28 to close it out. I felt pretty good but I didn't push it too hard on my surges because I just wanted to get the legs loosened up and ready to run fast and didn't think that pounding the hell out of myself four days before my race was going to help me at all.

I feel pretty good about my chances of running a good time on Sunday morning. The forecast is calling for scattered thunderstorms and a high for the day of 84. That should mean that we can expect the upper-60s or low 70s for race time. As long as the humidity stays somewhat low and we get a bit of a breeze there could be a lot of good times posted.

My hill training has been virtually non-existent just like last year. There really aren't any monster hills around Chatham and I don't really like running south of town in the hills there because of the enormously peaked roads and the crazy drivers. Even if there weren't crazy drivers out that way the peaked roads kill my knees and I wouldn't run there anyway. I could drive to Washington or Lincoln Parks in Springfield but I don't like to drive someplace to run. If I skunk it up at Abe's like I did last year I may have to make a point of going someplace with hills and running there every few weeks to get used to them. I think part of my problem last year is that I had never run the course and didn't know what to expect. I think that if I had known what I was getting myself into I would have been a bit more conservative in the early miles.

The tentative plan for Sunday is to go out no faster than 6:50 pace for at least the first two miles and then see if I can't maintain 6:35-6:40 pace through miles three, four and five and then crank the last 1.2 as hard as I can. I'll be happy to keep every mile under 7:00 but I would like to hit my splits in 6:50-6:59, 13:40-50, 20:20-40, 26:50-27:10, 33:30-34:00, low 40:00 and then 41:00-41:30. I think I'm being conservative here but I've done three mile tempo runs at 6:44 pace on my own and felt pretty comfortable and I think I can handle it for a 10k or even run faster.

I'll find out on Sunday morning.

Results are going to be posted during the race as it is chip timed and will be found here.

Review

I haven't done my weekly reviews for two weeks now so I figured I ought to do that for today's post.

I haven't really done anything.

I kid, I kid.

I took a few days off the week before the Parade Run to rehab my left knee and get that healthy as I am heading into the three races I circled on my calendar: the Parade Run, Abe's Amble and the Polka Pace Race. I had/have goals of 12:00, 41:30 and 18:50 for these respective races. I accomplished goal #1 of 12:00. Even if they didn't get the times right at the Parade Run my watch read 12:00.10 after I clicked it late going across the finish line. My finger slipped and I missed the button.

The 41:30 goal for Abe's came about because I think that saying sub-41:00 was a little ambitious because I would have to take well over a minute off of my current best of 42:16 on a difficult course. I think that sub-41:00 is possible but the forecast doesn't look great.

18:50 is the goal for the PPR because I think I'm wussing out only going for 41:30 at Abe's and if I tell myself that 19:00 is the goal at the PPR I'll only run 19:00 instead of 18:59. Last year at the PPR I told myself 19:40 was the goal even though I just wanted to break 20:00 and I ended up running 19:35. Maybe I was selling myself short.

Anyway, after doing the rehab on my knee July 29th through July 31st I ran an easy four in 33:38 on August 1st along with my exercises, more rehab on the 2nd, another easy four in 32:14 (I couldn't slow down) on the 3rd and eight miles in 1:06:03 on the 4th with a side of knee rehab.

I covered 16 miles that week.

Last week I ran five miles in 41:50 on Monday, four in 33:26 on Tuesday, nothing at all on Wednesday, raced in the Parade Run on Thursday, and an easy four in 34:05 with knee rehab on Thursday that gave me a nice case of two-day lag on Saturday morning's seven miler.

Saturday morning's seven miler was run in 59:00 after getting off to an extremely stiff 8:50 first mile and then easing into 8:31, 8:24, 8:28, 16:46 (forgot to hit my split, I did that a lot last week), and 8:01. I also did knee rehab afterward and twice on Sunday.

In case you're wondering, the knee feels much better.

Tomorrow I am going to get up and do an easy four or five but I won't time it because every single Timex Ironman watch I own, three of them to be exact, have dead batteries. I even replaced one of the batteries and it worked for a few weeks until last night when it let out a few feeble beeps and went blank. I went to the Running Warehouse and bought a new watch because they have good prices and free two day delivery to the CONUS. My new 30-lap Ironman should be here on Wednesday and in time for Abe's Amble.

Wednesday I'm going to run another four or five with a few 2-3 minutes pick-ups. Thursday will be an off day, Friday an easy three or four and Saturday will be a VERY easy three with a few strides afterwards to keep me loose for the main event on Sunday morning.

Parade Run

I ran the Parade Run two mile this evening. It didn't get as hot as they predicted but when I left the house at 1630 it was 88 with 58% humidity and a nice 10-12 mph wind ouf of the NNW and a heat index of 93 or 96, I don't really remember.

I warmes up with only a mile or so because I didn't want to get too hot and overheat with a half mile to go. The gun went off and I settled in behind David D. and Carl as I knew that one of them was going to crank out a good race. I had a bad case of nerves all day and just felt very ill at ease about today's race. Once I got about two minutes into it I felt it all go away.

The Bionic Woman parked herself off my right shoulder for about the first 3/4 of a mile and fell off the pace a bit. I let David get a lead on me as he was running crazy fast. At the mile he had about a 20 second lead on me. I can't remember if I actually said "shit" out loud or just thought it very forcefully. I hit the mile in about 5:57 or so and dumped a small Dixie cup of water on my head. I would have preferred a 30 gallon garbage can but every little bit helped today.

I used a downhill to my advantage to build up some momentum and started picking people off. I would look at my watch every few minutes and tell myself, "4 minutes to go, 2 minutes to go" until my goal of going under 12:00. I did that little trick most of the last 1200 meters and knew it was going to be close when I hit the gates to the State Fair. I sprinted up the cruel little uphill to the chute and clicked my watch, a tick late I think, with a time of 12:00.10 on the read-out.

I jogged to my car and back for an approxiamately mile and a half cool down and got back in time to see that they gave me an official time of 11:56.75 and 36th place. I think something went a little hinky in the scoring but I'm not going to complain. I'll take the 11:56.

I did end up catching David with a little over half a mile to go and when I did he must have crashed because he finished up in about 12:40. The Bionic Woman won the women's division with an official time of 12:20 but a watch time of 12:10. I got 5th in my age group but every single guy who beat me was at least two years younger than me. I bet they weren't up with their kid at 0400 and chasing him around all day too after taking him to the doctor's office to get the rash on his butt checked out.

A much smarter run

I staggered out of bed a little before 0700 and set out for my eight mile run. The temperature and heat index were a little cooler this morning than they were last night at 71, E4 and 75% humidity. I started off easy and got faster as I went along but ran much smarter than I did last night. I ran my eight in 1:06:03 and hit my splits in 8:46, 8:15, 8:16, 8:16, 8:08, 8:20, 7:54(oops, I was trying to catch someone ahead of me), and 8:08. I felt pretty good afterward and the knee only gave me a brief bit of stiffness the last two miles.

I spent the rest of the day hanging out with my wife and kid and relaxing. Nathan and I ran the vacuum cleaner while Kim ran a few errands and then we had lunch and shared some strawberry yogurt for dessert.

Exciting stuff.

What the hell was that?

I came home and ran this evening around 1745 hrs. It was 88 with 56% humidity and a 4 mph breeze out of the NNE. The heat index was a little intimidating at 93 but I told myself to start off slow and taper off since this run was supposed to be a test drive for the knee.

I started off at what felt like a relaxed pace but turned out to be an 8:10.23 first mile. I eased up and scolded myself a bit and throughout the next mile made myself slow down when I felt like I was accelerating too much. I had my head up my rear end and didn't hit my mile two split and by the time mile three came up I had covered the previous two miles in 15:53.13 for a three mile time of 24:03.36. I was starting to feel a little warm at this point but since I only had two miles to go, and even if I ditched the run at that point I was going to have to walk two miles home any way I cut it, I figured I'd keep going.

I made myself slow down and thought I might be able to slog my way through the rest of my run without stroking out and I hit mile four in 8:11.44 and a total time of 32:14.80. At that point my wedding ring was feeling tight on my finger and my hands were turning red. I stopped my watch, wiped the sweat from my forehead and started walking home. I couldn't even do that slowly.

I feel pretty good now, the fingers have gone down and I can slip my wedding ring off without grunting and tearing the skin off my knuckle.

One positive from this run is that my knee feels pretty good. There was no pain or soreness and very little stiffness. I don't think I'm going to do any hard running this week leading into the Parade Run and I'm going to keep up with the knee rehab until a few days before Abe's Amble.

Tonight can be chalked up to having my legs rested up and feeling good and not having any common sense to run when it is cooler.

Back on the road

I rolled myself out of bed this morning, after being up-and-down with my teething son, and ran four easy miles. I've been doing my rehab exercises for my knee that I was prescribed six years go when I had a bad case of runner's knee. I also did the Core Secrets workout with Gunnar Peterson except I did it by myself because I can't stand Gunnar on the DVD. Lots of core work along with squats and lunges which is good for my back and my knees.

The knee hasn't had as much crepitus while squatting or extending it but I was a little nervous as I set out on my run. My knee only hurts for a few blocks once I start but will start getting sore after running for much over an hour. I think my knee thought about being sore but decided not to and I completed my run in 33:38 with splits of 8:38, 8:24, 8:16 and 8:21.

After returning home I took a shower and then had probably the best ever cup of hazelnut creme coffee as I got my son's bottles ready for daycare.

Funny story about Nathan, he is a little troublemaker and likes to change the channels on the TV and dig in the potted plants. When he does those things he gets scolded and moved away from the censured activities. His scolding is usually a variation on "NATHAN! No, no!" My lovely thirteen month old son, upon hearing his name in a higher-than-usual register, will turn, point his index finger at me and say, "Doh!" He doesn't say "doh" like Homer Simpson does when he screws up, he says it like a little boy does when he's learning to say "no". I think the finger being thrust at me as he says "doh!" is a nice touch. I can't decide if he's finishing my sentence or telling me not to scold him. Either way, I think he's being insolent.

I haven't decided yet if I am going to run tomorrow morning or if I am going to skip it like I usually do on Thursdays. I'm leaning toward skipping it just to give my knee another day to chill. Friday I'll do an easy five and Saturday, if the knee still feels good, I'll run for an hour or so and get seven or eight miles in. I'll continue the easy running through the next few weeks except for the Parade Run next Thursday and Abe's Amble ten days after that. I'll probably do a fartlek and a short tempo run somewhere in there too if I feel good. About three weeks after Abe's Amble is what is probably my new favorite race, the Polka Pace Race. I think I like the PPR because it goes by my grandparents' house in Havana and I think it is cool to run a race in the town my dad grew up in. I'll also get to see Nate's parents and Coach Caton, which is always cool. Maybe this year I'll be able to beat that Hermann girl who smoked me by 13 seconds last year.