Who is Fast?

Well not me, but I am getting better. Tonight after work I hit the road for a little recovery run. This was a nice and cool run. Unlike the mess that was Sunday, this was a good run. I got into a groove early and really could have kept going for a long time after I was finished. That is a nice feeling.

I even got my time down a bit. This is a nice change. My daughter will have her first run this weekend. Even though I will not be running the Philadelphia Distance Run this weekend, Emily will be doing the fun run. It will be nice to see my little 5 year old get her first finishers medal. I think she will have a great time.

Ahh, the week that almost was

The week started out so well. I managed early in the week to get in three really good runs a couple of 3's and a 5 sandwiched in between. I had such high hopes for the weekend. Well being an outdoor sport the weather can be a factor. I went out for my Sunday run expecting to put in 8.5 miles. Well long story short, not so much. The humidity was insane. I should have expected trouble as I was sweating while folding clothes at 7 am. But being long on determination and short on sense I went out for a run at about 8:3o. I don't know how hot it was but that was not the issue the humidity really took it out of me. Within a mile my clothes were soaked. My pace was fine but I was laboring under it and was forced to back off a bit just to get to the 5 mile mark. It was not a good performance. Sometimes these things happen. The good news, there is always next weekend.

The really good news is that I was able to get up to 17.1 miles for the week even with a bad long run day. So I am quite pleased with that aspect. I will shoot for 20 for this week. I don't think it will be a problem. Also, as I only did 5 miles on Sunday, I don't really need my Monday recovery, so I can get out tonight and put in some miles. I am now looking forward to the half marathon at the end of November. I think the timing is right on.

Remembering what works

When I had trained for my marathon and then again when I was training for half marathons. I found that my mid week longer run was very important. It seemed to me that this run balanced my weekly runs and really did quite a bit in adding to my overall fitness. My summer funk seems to be mostly behind me and today I added my first midling run on the season. It was a 5.2 mile jaunt. I had worked from home today as my car needed some work.

When the repair center called to let me know it was ready (it was a weird thing where the driver side lock just wouldn't unlock). Well I ran to the repair center but I got there just as I got into a grove ... too bad. I had run about 3.2 miles when I arrived. So I drove home and then added another two from there. It was only about a 10 to 15 minute drive. So I had a small break and then hit the roads again. So I don't know if it counts as two small runs or one 5.2 mile run either way I am fine with it.

Short Comings

I have to admit that I haven't been very good at keeping up with the blogs on my lists over the summer. I am sorry about that and I hope to be better for the fall. It has been a crazy work summer having 50 to 70 hours a week dedicated to work can leave precious little time. It seems that things might be simmering down in terms of work. Which means an upswing in the running.

This morning I was out in the morning for a 3 mile run. It was a good time and I had nothing of issue to say at all. Just three miles. It was a good run, nuf' said.

A Tough Week

I started off the week battling a throat cold. I am happy to say it is now gone but it made my running a bit ... well abbreviated. I ran about 2.5 miles for my first three runs of the week and then broke out with a 7.2 mile performance today. This salvaged the week.

Sometimes I have to admit, I forget some of the lessons I have learned only to have to relearn them again. I have such an experience happening now. I learned from my previous training that for me I have to run a distance twice in order to have a handle on it. The first time I struggle with the extra distance and then when I do it again it is not a problem. I am not sure if this is particular to me or not. So I have been struggling with the lower miles because I have not been pushing forward on the mileage. Additionally, my faster 5k made me think that every run should be faster. I think I have learned to back off a bit. Longer runs will be slower, of course. I will just have to be a bit more patient.

The good in this is that I can take this going forward to the half marathon in November. Today was seven and next week I will try for 8.5 miles and just build on that. Well here is to finding your way.

Bloody Shoe

So I was out running last week and I guess that one of my toe nails was a bit long and was cutting into its neighbor toe. I didn't notice at the time ... I can obtuse. So I got home and my sock looks a mess. It was a good run. You can see the shoe and the stain from the blood.



I think the normal thing to do would be to wash the shoe. But I think it adds some character ... so the blood stays. I don't think it will mess up any PRs. I could be wrong on that, but I don't think so on this one. So if you see a big guy running with a a bloody shoe ... it could be me.

As for the week, it was an ok result. I ran three days ... work has been demanding in terms of hours. I ended up with a bit over 11 miles for the week and 55 miles for the month. This is moving in the right direction. I hope to get up to 75 miles for next month. Not too bad really.

I am feeling better in my running. My times are coming down and I feel a lot more comfortable in the running.

A Good Week

I have been struggling a bit as of late between work and my general malaise to get some decent miles in. Well even with my 50+ hour work week I was able to put 16 miles in. This was not as focused in terms of the two days off one day off I like to but I did manage to run Monday and Tuesday and then Saturday and Sunday. I topped this off on Sunday with a 6.05 mile performance. Now I won't win an Olympic record for this little run but it was the longest since May. This is good progress for me. I am happy. I should take some recovery time I know. But I think that I need to front load my week to have any chance of getting 4 days a week running in. So that means that tonight I will be out there again doing a little 3 mile recovery jaunt.

I mentioned that I did not think I would be able to do the Baltimore Half Marathon in October. I have to revise my opinion. I think I could but that I would only be trained to finish not to improve on times I put in before. For this reason, it is best to cancel this race from my schedule. It would be best to just register for the half marathon portion of the Philadelphia Marathon. This is in fact what I will be doing, thank you very much.

The exciting news was that I bought a new Mp3 player. This may not be that exciting but with my last one shorting out and sometimes playing in my left and ear and sometimes not. This was great. I had to break it in with some new music. This made my Sunday run even more enjoyable as I had a new toy to come along with me. Ahhh, the little things.

As to Olympics, I am pleased overall but I would have liked to see Ryan Hall come in a little higher than he did. That is all I will say.Personally, I ran 4.5 miles at the start of the marathon coverage on NBC. I was especially pleased with the decathlon. I was especially displeased at the lengths I had to go to in order to actually find the footage. How NBC comes up with their programming is anyone's guess. One last Olympic thought, I have trained in martial arts for many years and I was especially disappointed in the Cuban Tae Kwon Do fighter who kicked at the referee of his match. I have never seen a more disgraceful display in all my years. It shows poorly on him, his nation and the sport. Which by inference includes me a martial artist. I am deeply saddened by this display and feel that a life time ban is not too long but appropriate for such a blatant unsportsmanlike conduct.

Finding a way

The last week was a bust. My well laid plans ... well they went astray. I wanted to get in some early running but we had such long meetings that I did not get out of the office until really late. To top it off I was mentally exhausted and just didn't feel up to running. I managed to get a 3.75 mile run in on Sunday but that was it. This week I have done better. I have couple of short runs in already this week and it seems that my schedule should be more forgiving, but we will see.

I would say that overall my body is feeling better. I have been going longer and longer without water/ walk breaks. I should be my old self in a month or so. Sadly, I don't think I will be making the Baltimore Half Marathon. I am out of condition and I doubt I would have the stamina for a half marathon my the first week of October. It will have to go off the books. I will try to the the half marathon at the Philly Marathon in November. I am still at the 5 mile range for long runs so trying to push a 13.1 out in 6 weeks seems like a poor idea. I could probably do it, but it just feels like the wrong choice right now.

November seems like a better time frame, that will give me an extra 5 weeks to train. I think that might work out.

Fifty Something

This the the amount of work I will be putting in for each week for the remainder of the summer. We are having some deadlines at work and that usually requires time and lots of it. Last week was a mid fifty week and the next couple look like high fifty to low sixty hour wise. That said I am still going to do everything in my power to get in my 4 runs. I know I can do a run tonight and another tomorrow morning before the madness starts. Then all bets are off until the weekend. So even if the worst thing happens I can imagine I can still get in 4 runs.

Supplements

I was feeling a bit sluggish this summer. I am sure there are lots of reason and I won't get all worked up over it. That said I have recently started to take whey protein 30 to 45 minutes before my runs over the past week. I will have to say that it has helped quite a bit. I had been getting sluggish in the later miles and I couldn't find anything to tie my cart to as to why. That his beyond calling myself a lazy boy. I seemed to have found something that has corrected that problem. Today, I started a bit off my normal pace, I had slowed down a couple of weeks ago just to get the miles in. However, after the first two miles I was able to find a true grove for the first time since May and pulled negative splits 30 seconds faster than my first two miles. The first two miles were about 10:45 and the last three were all consistently 10:15. I don't know how much the protein helped but it seems to have done so. I am pretty pleased at how things have been righted.

I am pretty happy with the week being able to turn in a +15 mile week for the second week in a row. My miles turned out well with about 3.4 miles, 3.5 miles, 4.2 miles and 5.1 miles for the week. 4 runs seems the right mix for me.