Home after 7 days at the beach.  I did not run everyday that I had planned to.  About mid-week, the day of the 4 mile run, my calves became super tight.  They really hurt bad when running.  I think it is from all the jumping in the waves.  It is like doing calf raises all day long having to jump or at least get up on your tip toes for every wave that came by.  My kids love to stand in the surf about chest deep for them.  And I would have to lift them up over every wave.  So a couple of days off in the middle, then some slower and shorter run days.  My calves hurt in the short runs as well.  When I got home I ran today.  Calves were in pain from about mile 2 to 4.  Then better / manageable.

Legs were tired from yesterday's run this morning.  But calves were good.  PLanned on 3 more in the afternoon, but cut a lot of grass today and legs are so tired.  Got court in the morning and it is supposed to get hot again tomorrow.  Might be a treadmill day.

Got back from court and ate lunch.  After the food settled some I went for my run.  It was in the mid-90's.  So I ran 2 miles to the gym.  Treadmilled for 6.  Then ran 2 more back to the house.  Very hot and fatigued on the last mile home.

This is what The Weather Channel's website showed for my area when I was done with my run.  Needless to say I was wore out when I was done.  My shoes are soaked beyond belief in sweat.  Hopefully they will dry out before tomorrow's run.  But many times I have run and they are still wet from the sweat of the day before.  I think I should look into getting a shoe dryer or something. 

Same workout as yesterday.  But today I was just a little more tired and hotter.

Quads were sore this morning, but not tight.  Legs were not tired either.  But it would have been nice not to have had the soreness.  Just trying to pile on too many miles for all the missed ones recently.  Not a good idea ...I know.  Morning humidity was high as usual.  And my shoes still had some wet spots from yesterday's run.  I have them sitting in front of the refrigerator now hoping they will be dry before my evening run.

Legs still sore on tonight's run.  And started to tire on the last few miles.  Tomorrow will be an easier day for sure.

The longest toe, or the one next to my big toe, on my right foot has been sensitive the last few days.  But no sign of blood building under the nail.  But finally after tonight's run there was a hint of purple.  Hopefully it will get a little darker so I will know exactly where to plunge the needle and reduce the pressure.  Why this makes me happy I do not know.

Quads very sore.  Hurting on the downhills.  Woke up with toe hurting last night.  The pressure from the blankets is all it took.  Even dreamed about it hurting before I woke up.  But could not muster the nerve to shove a needle through the nail to draw blood and release the pressure. Last time I barely had to prick it just at the tip of the nail, with no pain.  But this time the pressure is much lower and beneath the bottom part of the nail.  Did not hurt at all on the run though.  I think tomorrow will be a complete rest day.  It has been 8 days in a row so far.

Ran with John tonight.  Stopped and started watch 3 times.  1st when on my on to meet him, second time with him, and third time on my own again and headed home.

Total - 6.08 miles - 8:43 avg.

Legs sore and a little tired.  Took the day off.

My legs were sore and a little tired on Thursday, so I took Friday off.  I am glad I did because there was not a hint of either when I ran a short warm-up.

Today was the 4th Annual Alumni versus Current Team from my old high school.  The current coach, and someone I ran with back in the 80's is trying to make this bigger and better each year.  Unfortunately there were about 4 guys from the late 70's, then me from the 80's, and a decent size group of alumni for the past 5 years or so.  This year they counted every alumnus as a scorer and the same number of runners for the current team.  It ended up being very close.  But the current team won with a 232.  Alumni were 235.

The course was two loops of 90% grass, 5% dirt / rocks, and 5% track / road.  I have been training on the streets or treadmill for so many years it was weird running on the grass.  I kept thinking I was going to turn an ankle.  Once the race started it was no different than any other 5K with high school runners.  They all took off in a big sprint.  The course was marked every 400 yards.  At the first 400 I did take a look at the Garmin and it showed 6:30 pace.  I never checked it again.  At the first mile I heard 6:30 called out.  I was very pleased by this.  In my training since March I do not think I have gone under 7:00 but a handful of times.  And nothing under 6:45 that I can remember.  I wondered how long I could hold on to this pace.  At two miles I heard 13:10, so I figured I was slowing.  Turns out my Garmin had it differently, 6:31.  My legs were really burning that last mile of the race.  I could feel myself starting to slow with a half mile to go.  Somehow I was able to push some to get back on pace.  Last 100 yards I really tried to use my pathetic kick.  It only lasted for 80 yards though.  20 yards later I was finally done.  I was very tired but happy with my time.  Slower by 50 seconds from my 5K in March.  But that was completely flat and on asphalt.

It was fun running around my old high school again.  I felt like I was racing my younger self.  I cannot believe I used to look that young and run that fast back in the day.  Saw my old coach, who reminded me I had not contacted him in 21 years.  I was probably the 5th oldest runner.  Got beat by one person older than me, but only by 4 seconds.  I beat a small handful of the JV team runners and all the girl runners.  There was a cookout in the evening.  I did not know anyone but the coach.  I was picked to be on an alumni committee.  I am supposed to track down the 1980's alumni's.  I might need some luck with that one.

 Now that I am home I was able to check out my Garmin.  In training I almost always negative split.  Not really on purpose, I just like taking it easy at first and picking up as I go along.  But today I just took off at what felt like the fastest I could run.  Apparently I was able to hold that pace for the full race.  Not sure what to think of it...good?  bad?  neither?

 Ran this race in 2006 in 21:33 (6:49 avg.)  So I did manage a PR for this course.

Warm-up

 Race

I knew all day I wanted to do a 10 mile run this evening.  But shortly after dinner I decided I wanted to see if I could average 7:30 for the run.  Not sure why I wanted to though.  I did it, barely, and it was tough.  Legs were hurting over the last 3 miles.  For a run this early in the week I should not have pushed it so much.  I am going to be sore the next few days I believe from this one.  I hope not though.

Right at 10, I had to stop and walk.  After about 30 seconds, I jogged the little bit I had left to go until I was home.

Only a few minutes before my alarm clock went off this morning I had already awoke.  I did a quick stretch of my arms and legs and then suddenly my left calf cramped up.  It only lasted 3 - 5 seconds but it hurt some kind of awful.  I could still feel it for about 3 hours.  When I ran today my legs felt ok considering yesterday's run.  Cardio felt good the whole way.  But quad soreness started to occur over the last 4 miles.  And they are pretty sore now a few hours later.  Tomorrow another easy day.

Two days in a row legs only a teeny bit sore at the beginning of the run.  But it progressively gets worse as I go along.  I hope it just goes away all together in a day or two.  Had to work 2 hours late.  I ran only an hour and 20 minutes after eating 5 tacos.  Had a side stitch from mile 2 to mile 4.  Felt tired all day as well.  Staying up too late watching the Olympics.

Long and frustrating day at work.  Nothing too exciting or very hard, just time consuming.  Got off late.  Came home and ran.  Felt awful.  Quads sore.  Mentally not into it.  Cut it short and came home to find a message from work.  Had to go back in for another hour.

Georgians say they have proof of Bigfoot

Only in the South could this happen !!!!

And now back to running.

 Right after work I had time to go for a short run.   My wife had a meeting tonight so I wanted to get a short one in before she brought the kids home.  Then I ran again after she came home from her meeting.  The first run was at a faster pace and felt good.  The second run was easy, but had some soreness still left over from Saturday and Sunday.

 Ran 13.1 today.  Set a new PR by 1:30.  This was only a training run of course, but my last PR in this was a training run as well.  Did not set out to do this, but I am just able to run a little faster now with the same effort as I did the last time I did this.  Still have my first official half-marathon race coming up next month.  Hopefully it will be even faster !

For a morning run my legs felt particularly good.  I was surprised.  But the very top of my right foot hurt the entire run.  Also afterwards.  I really think this is just a bruise of some kind from my long run yesterday.

Treadmill - 5 - 37:23 - 7:29 avg.

I had court after work today.  Finally got to bed around 11am and was up at 4pm.  Very shortly after dinner, and on a full tummy, I went for my run.  I could just tell I was off a bit.  Like running with my mind in a fog.  I am sure it is just from the drastic change in my sleep schedule.  I decided to run 2.5 slow.  Then I wanted to try some faster miles.  This something I know I should do from time to time, but rarely do.  I wanted to see how long I could hold a 7:00 pace.  I made it 3 miles before I started to really tire.  It was weird.  Everything was going ok, then everything seemed to shut down at once...legs, cardio, and mental state.  I stopped and reset my watch.  Then I saw someone turn off of another road in front of me running.  It is so rare around here to see another runner I just had to find out who it was.  I caught up to him fairly quick.  It was Chris Spain, an investigator with the Social services Department in our area.  I had only seen him run twice before in the last year.  Ran a very relaxed pace with him for awhile.  It was nice to run and talk to someone.  After we separated it was back home for me.

The foot felt ok,  It hurt most of the night at work last night.  I am still thinking it is just a bruise from tight shoes or something.  But after seeing Deena Kastor's interview on FloTrack, she thought the same thing.

Warm-Up

Run

My home thermometer showed 86f, in the shade.  It was mildly humid as well.  Felt fine on run until last half mile.  Just started to lose energy.  I know its due to erratic sleep.  Foot pain minimal, but there appears to be a little swelling when I compare it to the other foot.

YIKES !!!

I just added up my shoe mileage...I really should pay closer attention to it...it is 554.84 !

Over the years I have only run in one pair at a time until they are dead.  This time I will try 2 pair and rotating them.  Looks like a trip to the big city on Tuesday.  I have no idea what type of shoes I should get when I go shopping for them.  But for the last two purchases I have depended on the guy at the running store I go too.  He is highly recommended in the Richmond, VA area.  I am going to look into finding some type of shoe dryer as well.  Almost everyday this Summer my shoes are still damp with sweat from the run before. This, by far, has made these the stinkiest, rottenest, funkiest pair of running shoes I have ever owned. 

Perhaps I should come up with some sort of running plan.  Because I never know what to do on most of my runs.  I usually just end up "running."  Tonight I decided to try a tempo run.  I randomly selected my pace and distance while warming up.  After an easy mile I decided to try 6 miles at a 7:20 pace.

Just recently I set my Garmin up to show my average pace as I run.  This is something I am still getting used to looking at.  But I never know what pace I am at except for looking at my splits every mile.  So after the 1st mile it was a 7:10.  I backed off so it would get closer to that 7:20 I was looking for.  I was watching the average pace and it was coming back.  2nd mile 7:19.  Did not pay attention on the 3rd mile - 7:14.  Now I decided to just run, not looking at average pace.  4th mile 7:10.  Still feeling good.  Next mile another 7:10.  And ended with 7:02.

So this run was faster than what I had planned, but it felt good.  Apparently I have a hard time trying to stick to pace.  When I try to look at the watch for help it is no better.  I guess if I wanted to make sure I did not go too fast on a run it would help to see my pace.

I just wanted to keep it at an easy pace today.  For the most part it was.  Every so often I would notice I was pushing it, so I would back off.  But once I was done I realized I was pretty tired and would have really had to have slowed down if I had continued to run longer.  This was a "hilly-er" route than I usually run.  Still nothing someone from a mountainous area would even think twice about.  Just speed bumps to them I bet.

Semi - planned day off.

Set for my run and there was only a little drizzle.  Became a light rain by the end of mile 1.  Kept on raining through the duration of the run.  It helped keep me cool and felt good.  But the new shoes I had bought 3 hours earlier got soaked..and a little dirty.

Hit "the wall" just as the Garmin flipped mile #10.  But everything was good before that.  Anyone got any statistics on the effect of rain soaked shoes during a run?  I'd like to use it as an excuse anyway for struggling that last mile.

Today I felt real good, that's why I feel so bad about my run.

Because of the rain I went to the gym for an 8 mile run on the treadmill.  I was feeling good...for the treadmill.  I had run 3.8 miles.  Then a fuse blew and it lost power.  The manager had just stepped out and a new employee was the only one working.  By the time she found the fuse box and reset it I had lost time.   I managed another 2.5 miles before I had to leave.  Now I got to get ready for work.

84f out and the humidity was higher than The Empire State Building.  So I ran 2 to the gym.  6 on the treadmill.  Then 2 back home.  Lots of sweat....everywhere !!!

To the Gym -

Treadmill - 6 miles - 43:25 (7:14 avg.)

Back Home -

Same workout as yesterday.  Humidity is still outrageous.  It is amazing how much sweat the human body can produce.

Run To Gym - 

End Of Week Shoe Mileage:

Asics - 21.22

Saucony - 16.52