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.
Monday, August 20, 2007
Sunday, August 19, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, August 13, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
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.
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.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
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.
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.
Friday, August 3, 2007
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.
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.
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