Hope To Run Again Before End Of The Year

am - Not bad out.  Low 70's, and some wind.  Felt good.

pm -  Warmer, but only 84f.  Wanted to stay above 8:00 pace.  But got off track.

Ran in the evening.  Just did not feel up for a run in this morning.  So I did all my miles at once.  Wanted to get it done so I could get back to the house just before the kids went to sleep.  I set a faster pace right from the get go.  Maintained it on mile 2.  Then got the silly idea to see if I could do the run with an average of 7:30 per mile.  That would tie my post high school PR for a 10 mile run.  When I run I only look at my watch for my mile splits.  So I generally run by feel.  I knew I had to run faster to hit a 7:30 average.  Only twice did a mile split end up slower than the mile before it.  I guess this could be considered a progression run...but not real sure.  Someone let me know.

Anyway I ended up with a 1:13:55 (7:23 avg.).  This broke my previous best of 1:15:05 (7:30 avg.).  That was a different course.  It has a few more hills, but I think this was still a better effort overall.

Here are some random numbers from today's run.  Not sure what they mean but I liked looking at them anyway.

Miles 1 & 2	15:25:21
Miles 3 & 4	15:00:47
Miles 5 & 6	14:51:00
Miles 7 & 8	14:27:25
Miles 9 & 10	14:11:42

 1st 5 miles - 37:50:12 (7:34 avg)

2nd 5 miles - 36:05:23 (7:13 avg)

Negative Split of 1:44:89

Goose Egg

76F and extremely humid on the morning run.

95F and more extremely humid on the afternoon run.

Happy 232nd Birthday America !

 am -

Ran to the pool and back.  Played with the kids in between.  Never checked before until today, but these were record times for each run.

To the pool -

Back home -

am -

Helped a 13 yr old boy who is trying to earn a merit badge in swimming for Boy Scouts.  Worked for 2 hours showing him better swim techniques and taught him a few things he did not know how to do.  Then jumped on the treadmill.  6 miles - 45:36 (7:36 avg.)

pm -

am -

pm -

 Legs started to get sore throughout the day.  Sitting and riding in the car so much last two days.  Training a new officer and they never want to stop and take a break.  Oh well.  Decided not to run again tonight.  Went to the pool with the kids right after work.  Then it was home for dinner.  After baths we watched a movie together.  They were all asleep just before 10pm.  I did not feel up to another late night run.  I am not going to run in the morning either.  Let some of this soreness go away a little.  Run tomorrow afternoon after work or just after dinner before sunset.

After work went to the pool with the kids.  Hot day today.  Thermometer only showed 94f, but felt like much more with the humidity.  Ate dinner over my brother-in-law's house.   Exactly 1 hour after finishing my 3rd hamburger and 2nd large serving of baked beans I went out for my run.  Temps had dropped into mid 80's, but the humidity was still way up there. On my morning run yesterday I developed a raw spot just to the side of achilles and near my ankle.  I put a band-aid on just before the run.  At 1.3 miles I could feel the spot burning.  I looked down ans saw the band-aid had come loose.  I guess it could not stick well in the humid air.  At 1.7 miles I got to my parent's house.  I remembered they were out of town as I walked up their drive.  Found the hidden key and searched for more band-aids.  The first two did not stick because I was sweating so much.  Dried my foot off the best I could and then put on another.  It looked to be holding, but I added another to make an "X" pattern.  So it took 6 minutes total to get it all done before running again. 

Run felt pretty good.  Started to fade out over the last 1.5 miles.  And my legs were sore when I was done.  Sore now as I type this too.  During the run it turned out I lost one band-aid all together and the other was all crinkled up.  But no pain over the raw spot.  A cold shower and gatoade felt very nice at the end of it all.

Oh boy, my legs are sore after tonight's run.  It is not as much as just tonight as it is an accumulation of the three or four runs. The quads is where all the soreness is.  That little raw spot on my heel area really bugged me for most of the run.  I stuck a band-aid on it before the run.  Started to feel like it fell off at 3 miles.  When I got home it was just barely hanging on.  I will have to protect it differently on future runs until it heals.

For no reason other than to just do it, I wanted to see if I could average under 7:30 for the last 4 miles.  And I did.  1st 4 - 7:44 avg.  2nd 4 - 7:14 avg

Got home from work late.  Only enough time for a 4 mile run on the treadmill.  32:00 (8:00 avg.)

After work it was very hot out.  I went to the gym to use the treadmill.  Figured I would either do 8 or run 6 and then go for 3 or 4 more later this evening.  Ashleigh brought the kids to swim, so I stopped at 4.  After swimming and playing we went home.  I am beginning to really dislike going out on late night runs.  The weather is fine and no one around to bother you. But there is just something about leaving the house at 9:30 or 10:00 to go for a run while the rest of the family is home asleep.  So when we got home from the pool I asked Ashleigh if I could go for a short run before dinner, even though it was 89f and very humid.  She mentioned everyone was hungry and would go ahead and eat when it was ready... whether I was here or not.  So out the door I went for a 4 mile run and was genuinely shocked at my first mile split.  I figured  on trying for 7:30's and be done in 30 minutes.  Well I just had too see how long I could keep that pace going.  The pace got faster each mile.  Mile 3, the time was slower, but there was more uphill and less downhill so it was at least as fast as the others.

Legs got rubbery, no more saliva in my mouth, and just could not inhale as much O2 as my body craved by the time I was finished.  But this was very fast for me and I was glad I kept on pushing it.

Treadmill - 4 miles - 32:00 (8:00 avg.)

John called and said he wanted to run together.  He is coming off some injuries and just getting back into it.  We went to the local golf course, which neither of us had ever run on before.  We stuck to the cart paths that circled the outer perimeter.  It is only a 9 hole course and we did 3.5 laps.  Then a quick dip in the pool afterwards.

Rest day and cut grass.

The humidity came down on me like mighty Thor's hammer.  At 5 miles I stopped and walked for about 5 minutes.  I was running shirtless, so I sneaked into the E.R. at the hospital to use their water fountain.  No exaggeration, the water was so cold it numbed my lips and gave me a brain freeze.  It felt so good.  Sneaked back out and ran 2 miles back home.  Had hoped for 8, but felt like it would have killed me to do it.  When walking I could fell the heat pulsing around my body.

Another hot and humid morning.

The 1st Midnight Shift of the week was last night.  Woke up this afternoon and the Weather Channel showed it to be 101f outside.  My thermometer had 97.7f in the shade.  So it was off to the gym for a treadmill run.

 8 miles - 1:04:00 - 8:00 avg.

If the tornado scene in the Wizard Of Oz had been filmed in color, the skies would have looked as ominous as it did in South Hill today.  Before I left the house I checked the radar, but only in static form.  No animation.  There were a line of thunderstorms basically due South and a little East of town.  Almost all of our storm systems move from West to East and a little bit from South to North.  So I figured I was safe.  About 1.5 into the run I was in a spot where a had a good view of the horizon.  The skies were black, but I was not worried because it was to the East.  At 2 miles I could tell I had a strong tailwind. At 3 I changed directions and was head on into a vicious wind.  Everything was the same through 5.  At 5.2 it started to lightly rain.  5.8 I began to feel my socks soaking up the water.  At 6 I could not have been any wetter if I had jumped into a swimming pool.  The rain stayed heavy for the remainder of the run.

Those last 3 miles were actually fun.  It was a hard stinging rain and people driving along the roads probably thought I was nuts.  The only bad thing was the heavy shoes.  Which took all night in front of a space heater to dry out.

 Got off at 8am.  We had a meeting at 9am.  I was getting the oil changed in my car so I ran to the meeting.  .9 - 7:13 - 8:00 avg.  It may not have been a long run, but I blogged it anyway.

Did not get a chance to run until late tonight.  It was almost dark when I started.  Ran fast..for me.  Wanted to get back home and get my daily mileage in at the same time.  My legs will be sore from this one tomorrow.

Got off work at 8am.  In bed at 9am and up at 1pm.  4 hours is not a lot of sleep.  But I am attempting a crash attempt at readjusting to a normal person's life schedule.  Ashleigh and the kids were home when I woke up.  We are headed on our family Summer vacation tomorrow and there was plenty to do today.  And yes honey, if you read this, I realize you did most of the work to get us all ready.  I ran by feel tonight, and I felt like taking it easy.  My legs feel a little trashed from the last two runs.  I hope I can get a run in sometime tomorrow night to make it 50 for this week.

It should be a fun week at the beach.  We are going to Nags Head, NC.  This is the same area as the marathon I will attempt this Fall.  I hope to get good look at the course and run some of it as well.

First day of vacation on the Outer Banks in Nags Head, North Carolina.