Train consistently and smart. Run some local races and hope to lower PR's every once in awhile.
Long-Term Running Goals:
I would love to see a 5:XX for a mile just one more time. Go under 20 in a 5K. And a sub 40 for a 10K.
Personal:
Born in 1970. Grew up in Richmond, Virginia. Ran high school track and cross country. Also lived in the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a few years. Now living in South Hill, Virginia. Married since 1995 and have two children. Have been a police officer since 1994.
Last night my right hamstring and calf were tight. As soon as I woke up today I put heat on both of them. Then I stretched them as best I could. My flexibility is so poor that stretching my hamstrings is a funny site, and not easy to do.
Ran to the pool, mostly into the wind. Leg felt ok. Then swam. Could feel the hamstring pulling tight when I was doing breaststroke. Then I ran home. 1st mile on the the way home I had the wind on my back. 2nd mile was downhill. 3rd had some uphill. 4th mile a big side stitch came in my right side. This threw off my rhythm, stride, breathing, arm swing, concentration, ......everything. By the end of mile 5 I felt wiped out. But I got in the miles and that is always good.
Run 1 - 2.11 miles - 8:03, 7:48, :49 - 16:40 - 7:54 avg.
Swim - 1000 yards free/breast mix - 18:30
Run 2 - 5 miles - 7:42, 7:36, 7:48, 7:50, 7:40 - 38:36 - 7:43 avg.
For the first time this week my alarm had to wake me up. I was so tired last night I guess I needed the rest.
Running was poor again today. My energy was so low. I think the warmer temps are a slight factor, but mostly the change in my sleep schedule has the most to do with it. We will see next week when I change shifts.
On the last 2 miles I had to force myself to pick up the pace. If not, I might have succumbed to my very strong urge to stop and walk.
Woke up, ate some apple muffins, then headed out for my run. The muffins tasted good. First mile felt normal. 2nd mile I had picked it up some without trying. I was starting to get hot (because of the temp., not my good looks) so I took off my shirt. Now while all my friends say how skinny I look since I started running, the truth is my stomach still hangs over the brim of my pants pretty good. So in order for no one to notice that I picked up the pace as a distraction technique. Felt good after mile 3 and decided to maintain the pace for another mile. Of course I had no idea I would keep it within .04 seconds of my previous mile. Still feeling good and kept the pace for 1 more mile. Went ahead and backed off on the last mile.
I still think my energy level for this effort was not 100%, but better than the last few days.
I also got 1- "Run Forrest" comment from some kid, and 1- cheerful honk from 3 girls in a red Firebird.
Today was pretty full. Had a little trouble getting used to sleeping at night. So after the kids left for school I took a 2.5 hour nap. Immediately after waking up I headed outside to cut my grass/weeds/dirt combo. My legs were a little tight, but mowing the yard helped loosen them up. I use a push mower, and not one with a drive system. After all that I cleaned myself up and then ran to the pool.
My pace to and from the pool felt so easy yet, it was faster than normal. I would have guessed 7:45 to 8:00 on both runs. At the pool I swam 800 free. Next was 100 breast. Then did them both again. I never quite felt in sync while swimming today. Form felt off and it seemed like I could never take in a deep enough breath. But times were good.
Voted today in our local election. I only had to vote in the Mayor's race and he was unopposed. So he should have won easily. He's also my father-in-law so I wanted to make sure I voted anyway.
Next was soccer practice for Justin and dance class for Emily. I took Emily and Ashleigh took Justin. Its a 20 minute drive for me, then an hour and a half class. It never occurred to me to run while she was dancing. Well, I have always wished I could, but the town there has no leash ordinance. I have always seen dogs running around and just never wanted to compete with them for road space. But for some dumb reason I never considered driving to the community college which is less than five minutes away and running there. I looked on Google Earth and found a grass loop I could run. Each loop was just under a mile. I have run on the roads so much lately it was weird being on the grass at first. But it reminded me so much of high school XC. Without any thought to it, my pace steadily increased as I went along. I was feeling really good on the last 2 miles. I had time to run one more, which I would have used as a cool down, but a strong urge to find a restroom hit. So I stopped and went back to the dance studio. That was the best I had felt during and after a run in about a month. It was good !
Oh, and today is my BIRTHDAY ! I turned a very young 38.
I really hated abusing myself like I did today. I have not slept well the last two nights. Then I had training to go to before work. I should have run before the training, but just did not feel like it. Afterwards I had just enough time to get in a run. And it was just barely enough...so I had to push the pace. Today was supposed to be a slow and easy 8. But instead I had to do a faster 6. It was 85 degrees when I ran. My legs felt good, but I got hot. I had not taken in enough fluids today.
Today's runs and swim felt good. I took them both easy. I ran 2.11 miles to the pool, then swam 1000 yards. Ran home the long way for another 6 miles. I did fail to meet one of my goals however...I did not want to go under 8:00 pace for any of my running miles. Oh well.
Legs felt good on the run to the pool. Winds were in my face most of the way there. I felt a little sluggish in the pool compared to yesterday. But still kept it easy. Ran the longer way home. It was a bit warm and humid. Overall legs were good on the 2nd run. But they are tired and a little tight now that I am done.
Two cars and one bicyclist cut in front of me today. With all three I had made eye contact with the drivers. Still they made turns right into my path forcing me to alter my pace so I wold not hit them. I was able to touch each of the cars with my fingertips. I did not reach out on the cyclist because I was afraid I might knock her down. Needless to say I was a bit irritated with each of them. But I'll get over it.
I was walking to my bedroom to change into my running clothes when the telephone rang. The caller i.d. showed it was work...and I answered it anyway. Got called in early. The town has it's "Springfest" today. Large crowds, live bands, and alcohol were to be on hand. So they called in a few more people than they originally thought they would need.
No run today. But honestly my legs are tired from yesterday. I would have ran about 6 and rested Sunday. Now I will rest today and run tomorrow.
I tinkered with the idea of running an easy 10 today. But that would have taken longer than I would have wanted it to. Being Mother's Day and having to work later tonight, I did not want to spend more than an hour on my run. I thought about 6 to 7 at easy pace would fit into my schedule, but I really wanted to run 8 today. So I decided to try and do it at 7:30 pace and get it done right at an hour.
I felt good, and the legs were fresh from yesterday's rest. It drizzled some and only started to rain with .2 to go.
I also went ahead and began to show more of the data from my Garmin. I had been embarrassed to show how little the hills were in my area compared to some of the hills other bloggers run. To some my hills are merely minor bumps in the road. But its what you are used to I guess that determines what is easier or harder for you to do.
I am tired. Easy run this morning. Legs were tight and a little sore from last night's run. The connecty things where my hamstring goes to the back of my knee was hurting on the right side. But after about a 1/10 of a mile it the pain stopped.
No swim today but I did push mow the lawn for 2.5 hours today. Justin was home with me and helped out. Trimmed some branches and bushes too. Both Emily and Justin helped on the clean up.
Ran again this evening. Easy pace, but felt harder than it should. Legs were very heavy.
I did not feel like going on my run today. I kept telling myself, "Well I ran on Sunday, so this could be my rest day this week." But I wanted to rest on this Sunday, so two rest days so close together did not sit well with me. So I ran.
Felt fine running, no problems. May have ran harder than I should have.
Also I have dug out some old stuff from my high school days. I want to add some of the times I had logged to this blog. Lots of memories. And I could not believe it, I found my autographed race number number from the Shamrock Marathon 8K in 1987. I was able to get Grete Waitz to sign it. She set a world record road course 8K that day. Well they said it would be if the course got certified. I never heard if it was or not.
You can make just about any run as hard or as easy as you want. But whenever I run in the mornings even my easy runs are hard. But I survived 4 this morning, and will get some more in later.
am -
Was drizzly when I left the house. Saw one flash of lightning and heard two claps of thunder during the run. At mile 6 the rain really started to come down and lasted until I was done. I think that is why the 6th mile was too fast...got excited about the rain. Have some soreness in my left leg where my leg connects to my butt. Tried stretching but could not find a stretch that hit the right spot. I hope it goes away soon.
Let's get right to the important stuff. Just before typing this my 5 year old son was sitting on my lap and we were doing a "find the hidden picture" game in a book. All of a sudden I got this insane cramp in my left calf. It hurt about as bad as any muscle cramp I have ever had. I started screaming OW !!over and over again. I could not bend my foot back towards me to relieve the pressure. So I told him to get up...Quick. I am glad he did because I am sure I would have thrown him to the floor. After standing I was able to flex my foot and the pain dimininished, but only slightly. Then to make things worse I guess I stood up too fast because I became very light headed and nauseous. I thought I might pass out. That lasted for about a minute. But the pain in my calf is still very much there. I tried to stretch, but that hurt too. I also applied heat. Now I am walking with a limp. I am just so thankful this cramp did not happen in the middle of the night while I was asleep. I hope this does not hamper my running tomorrow.
As for today's run. Everything was just ok. At 4 miles I was wishing I was done. Same thing at 6. From 6 to 8 was ok. 8 to 10 my legs got tired. My quads were getting sore, could feel them on downhills. I think yesterday's run is what hurt me today. Easy going the next couple of days and all should be good again.
Quads still sore. Even though I checked my splits as I ran, I let my legs dictate the pace on how they felt. But I was careful not to let them get too crazy. It had just finished raining before my run. Lots of steam rising from the road and the humidity was high. I would like to apologize to the little bug I swallowed whole. But if you had not gone all the way down my windpipe before I could stop you, I would have surely spit you out. And a big thanks goes out to the wind and trees for sprinkling me with cool droplets of water as I ran beneath your branches.
About a 1/4 mile into the run I made the decision to run an easy 6. My legs are so darn sore. But I would not say they are tired nor tight, just sore. For the 1st 2 or 3 miles my form was really off because of the soreness. And in turn it threw everything else out of whack. At 5 miles I decided instead of heading home for 1 more mile to go ahead and turn so I could run 3 more. The soreness had subsided some. We will just have to take the next few runs by how my legs feel versus what I think I should be doing.
Throughout the day I hardly felt any soreness in my quads. I was excited to run without pain today. But very soon after getting out the door I found the pain. They are not tired and they are not tight...just sore. I am really hating some downhill right now. So I ran to a pond with a dirt path around it to help cushion the impact. Pace was comfortable.
Then later on in the evening (4hrs. later) I ran again with John. Pace was easy and the quad pain only hurt on downhills and was manageable on everything else.
Cut grass today. Hoping it would loosen up my legs, and it did. I felt real good running today. Well I did up to the 7 to 8 mile mark. Then my legs for the first time this week felt tired. They also hurt. I could feel the pounding with every step. I lost track of my shoe mileage over the last month and a half because I started to mix in some older shoes into my runs. But I figure they should be between 475 and 525 miles. I am getting new ones tomorrow. I am going to a running store I went to once before. I will have to trust their experience to help me select the best ones for me. So back to today's run. As I said felt good for most of the run. Was planning on 10 to hit 60 for the week. But at 8 I was hurting and headed home. Knew it would be a 9.xx run and I already had 50.xx on the books. Turns out in the end I got 60 by just a hair.
In my last entry I mentioned taking today off. But I got some new shoes yesterday and wanted to give them a short break in run before a full week's workout. I ran to the pool and met the family. After playing there I ran home.
Last night was my first night of Midnight for this week, only 6 more to go. Of course this sudden change in schedule wreaks havoc with my sleep and today I found out how much it will effect my training. Knowing I have my 1st marathon coming in only 5 months I am trying to plan my workouts more carefully.
Today's plan was to wake up and go for 8 - 10 miles. Then after work in the morning run 4. Then tomorrow afternoon I could run 6, and then follow this schedule for the remainder of Midnight Shift. This would get me my 10 a day without killing me. But it was 86 when started my run and quite humid. The weather really got to me. I was struggling. At 3 I decided to only run 6, then get in another run just before work. But it has been stormy. Also the closer it got to 10pm the less I wanted to go out and run. The storms had stopped, and it was only a light rain. But I nixed the evening run. So as long as I get home on time tomorrow I will run 4. Then go to sleep immediately. Wake up and run 6 more. We shall see how long I can keep this kind of schedule up.
Last year, the year I started to take fitness and running more seriously, when Summer came I had the stress fracture. So it was only swimming and biking. The heat was not a problem with those workouts. But running is going to be a different story. It is going to be interesting getting workouts in around the afternoon Sun. I think my sleep is going to be very much affected for the next 3 to 4 months.
Well I do not stick to plans very well. yesterday I said I would run after work this morning, then again when I woke up. But I saw where the temps. today would be cooler, so I went right to bed. Woke up and it was 62 when I headed out. I felt very good. Legs were fresh, but mind was still a little sleepy. I set out to run 8, but wish I had had the time for 10. But I needed to get to the babysitter to pick up Justin.
My Mom gave me a Superman t-shirt for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. Wore that when I ran. Only had 1 comment, someone said "can I have your autograph Superman?"
Well, today there just was not enough time to do anymore. I only slept 6hr and 15 min just so I could get in a run today. I am going to pay for it tonight though. Sleepy, Sleepy.
It did not feel as easy today as yesterday. Wished I could have slowed down a little, but had other places to be.
I think the only thing I got out of this workout was misery. It was 84ºf. I know have run in hotter temps. but it is affecting me much more than ever. Also I only managed 5 hrs. and 50 min. of sleep. At 5.94 I did something I have never done in a run before. I stopped by the hospital and had some wonderful cold water from the water fountain. It took about 4 - 5 minutes to walk in, drink, and walk out. Never thought about this option before. But I might take this pitstop again in future runs. With 2 miles to go I was thinking about flagging down a car a begging for a ride home.
At 10 I stopped. My achilles area on my right leg was burning. Thought I had a blister, but it was a raw spot. Not sure if something got stuck in my shoe or sock and rubbed it. Hopefully it is not something the shoe itself caused. I took off both shoes and walk home barefoot for .4.
Very hectic schedule tomorrow afternoon and evening. I will have to make sleep a priority over running. It is catching up to me more than I am comfortable with. Tonight at work I am going to really pay for getting up early for my runs. May have to skip all together tomorrow or try to squeeze in about 4.
