Hope To Run Again Before End Of The Year

Legs were a little tired today.  Run felt fine besides that though.

 I am entering this a few days after I ran it so I am a bit fuzzy on all the details.

I started with a 4 mile warm-up.  Then ran 2 miles on a loop around my house.  It has a few small hills.  I jogged the odd numbered miles (downhill & flat parts) and did fast strides on the even numbered miles (uphill).  I hit the lap button at the beginning and end of each stride that is why the results look so crazy.  Next time I will just let the watch run.  Followed it by a 2 mile cool down.

This is a run where I should have paid better attention to my surroundings both before and during the run.  I knew the wind had been blowing pretty good all day from looking at the trees outside my window.  But apparently for the first 3 miles of my run it was at my back and I did not realize how hard it was blowing.  On miles 4, 5, 6, & 7 I was head on into it. I kept trying to maintain my pace, and it killed me. At mile 7 I started walking for a 1/2 mile or so.  Then got to running again and ended up with 9 total.  I was so tired when this one was done.

Today was my first day off from work in 8 days.  And I still had to attend a 4 hour training class.  To add to my lack of enthusiasm I had to drive 82 miles to and from the class.  Some day off !!

I got off work at Midnight.  Went to bed at 12:40am.  Woke up at 5:30am and left at 6:10am.  I was beat. During the first hour of the class I started to feel very sleepy.  Eyes were closing and I could not stop them.  Ended up checking my pulse.  Counted for 1 minute and had a 44 bpm !  I could not believe this, so I kept counting for another minute. 45 bpm on this one.  This is much lower than normal.  I have been under 50 a couple of times (48 & 49) after sitting on the couch for awhile just before bedtime.  After our break I checked it again and it had gone up to a 54.  Kind of exciting to see lower numbers.  Just another way to measure how good running is to us.

After getting home I took a nap instead of running.  I needed the sleep more today than I needed the miles.

 In the evening I took Justin to his soccer practice.  Then we met up at his favorite restaurant, Burger King, with my wife, daughter, and other relatives for a birthday dinner.  Justin turned 6 today !! 

His "big present"  was a Green Machine.  Like a Big Wheel, but better !  Turns out his legs can just barely reach the pedals so he cannot make full use of it yet.  But I meet the weight requirements and have had a blast on it rolling down the driveway and doing big spinouts.  And I only turned it over once.

This must be the longest entry I have ever made on a day with no run !

A big Nor'easter is off the coast of North Carolina.  Lots of wind today.

3 miles on a cool 57ºf morning.  Right shin was tender.  Favorable cross winds and tail winds the whole way.

Ran 8 more later on.  Very windy, but I must have been running the right directions because it was only head on a couple of times. But I did have sideways drizzle and mist to contend with.  Still cool at 60ºf.  Towards the end I started to feel great, so I went with it and went sub 7 on the last mile.  It felt easy to do it.

Though the National Weather Service refuses to give it a name, the low pressure system off the East Coast is every bit of a Tropical Storm.  It has high enough to winds qualify on the Saffir-Simpson scale, has good counter clockwise circulation, heavy bands of rain, a low barometric pressure, and is producing high surf with a storm surge.  The local weather man out of Raleigh, NC said he had contacted the NWS several times throughout the day to find out why it is not being considered a tropical system and he was never given a good reason why it is not.  It has also been gaining strength as it moved along.

So today I took a run in Tropical Storm No-Name and got soaked.  I was protected from the wind most of my run, thankfully.  Did get chased by a dog.  I had never seen it before and hope it was just a fluke since it is on a common running route. I was just feeling ok, until the dog chase.  He must have given me a boost because my mile splits picked up after our meeting.

Shoes got wet and heavy very quickly.

Lately my legs below the knees have been starting to hurt some.  My right shin has been tender for almost 3 weeks.  Both calves are feeling sore in a wierd way.  Not tight, but some pain.  And my the 2 toes to the right of my pinkie toe on my left foot are having some pain where the connect to the rest of the foot.  I wonder what is going on with all that.  It may all stemming from the shin pain.  I think I am compensating for it and causing other parts to hurt.