December-thon, Day 4

How: Elliptical Machine (dull)
Injury: Improved, but unchanged from this morning.
Miles (day): 3.40 miles
December-thon total: 13.27 miles
Song of the Day: Rihanna -- Don't Stop the Music

I was a little tired so I slowed down a bit on this one. I hope to be able to actually hit the road again by the end of next week. I am not sure how long this calf injury will take but based on previous injuries, I think this one is going to stick around a bit. The good news is that it is not a pain killer type of thing, so that is nice.

December-thon, Day 3

How: Elliptical Machine (dull)
Injury: Improved. It doesn't really hurt when I go down stairs any more. Not bad.
Miles (day): 3.25 miles
December-thon total: 9.92 miles
Song of the Day: The Strokes - Last Night

Nothing exciting to report. It was a late night at the gym after everyone in the house was asleep.

December-thon, Day 2

How: Elliptical Machine (dull)
Injury: Improved. It stills hurts a bit up and down stairs but less than yesterday. So a step in the right direction
Miles (day): 3.42 miles
December-thon total: 6.67 miles
Song of the Day: Pretender -- Foo Fighters

The good news and good news. The good news is that I found that my gym is open until 11:00 pm during the week. I think this is a change, I remember a 10:00 time frame last time I checked sometime in the spring of this year. So this means that when my daughter is in bed I can sneak off for my elliptical time, well at least until my calf recovers.

The other good news is that my good friend, Aaron made it through his heart surgery fine. My thoughts are with him today.

December-thon 2008, Days 2 - 4, and 1 again

The December-thon was going well until day 3 rolled up on me. I went out for a run at night and I landed ... well wrong. I am not sure what the actual cause of the injury was but I hurt my left calf pretty badly. It is tight beyond belief and it is slowly, very slowly getting better. I get a nice pain to wince at every time I walk up and down stairs so that is nice. But I can walk fine. I can tell this will be with me for a couple of weeks at least. I can still use the elliptical machine at the gym so that is what I have been doing. But I did take Sunday off to see if some rest would speed things along, not so much.

This is a manageable injury, I just have to conform to the limitations that it presents. So I had to re-start the December-thon on December 1 with some elliptical time. I am willing to drop the December-thon if the injury proves to be more serious but for now it looks more like a serious pull than a tear. As I said, it does not hurt to walk only when I over extend the calf muscle when walking stairs. I will just try to gently stretch and loosen it up with some heat. It will take time - the funny thing about being 40 is that you get injured more.

So 1 day down and 3.25 miles in the book. As one of my Kenpo instructors, Bud Barrett, would say, "If you look for an excuse long enough you will find one you like." So I won't be calling off the December-thon unless it is absolutely necessary.

December-thon 2008, Day 1

Even though it is still technically November, today I kicked off December-thon 2008. I have decided to run every day until the end of the year. Given the toll this might put on me I have also decided that the occasional indoor run on a elliptical machine is ok. That said, I won't be making that the core but rather the exception. I am doing this to fight injury.

Today, as I am only two days removed from a half marathon, I decided that the great indoors sounded reasonable. I worry about joints immediately after long runs and this seemed a prudent course of action. It was an exciting run with lots of forest animals running around and a nice cool breeze; moreover, it was a time to commune with nature and to feel at one with the universe. NOT REALLY!!! I was inside on an elliptical machine, so it was boring, mindless and annoying. I did 3 miles and called it a day. (I am making 3 miles the minimum run distance for this December-thon).

After my machine time, I thought some chest and arm weight exercises might be nice to do. 30 minutes later I was out the door with day one finished. Huzzah!

As you can tell I won't be looking forward to the elliptical portions of this event.

November/ December-athon

I have a half marathon coming up for this coming Sunday. I have a tendency to look ahead a bit and I am thinking what is next. So I looked at my goal of 1000 miles for the year and that looks like it is not going to happen. Admitting defeat is tough for me, especially on personal goals. Failure gets me down. So to do my absolute best to get there, I am planning the November - December-athon. After I have recovered from my half marathon this weekend, I will engage in a run a day everyday for the rest of the year.

I have read other blogs where folks have done a run a day for 30 days. I am just adding an extra week. I am not sure if I will get to my 1000 miles but I am going to fight for it and at least try and make it close. My plan is 3 miles a day. I will take my recovery days at a very slow pace instead of an actual day off. I know that this will be very trying on my body but nothing like the early winter to set a challenge to keep yourself off the couch.

Wish me luck on this one.