5 miles

This summer, rather than work on speed, I've worked on distance and I'm currently running 5 miles 4 days a week, 3 miles one day and lifting weights 2 days a week. Now that the weather has cooled a bit I find that my pace is increasing quickly. I'm still not near what I was running a 5K last year, but much better than earlier this summer.

The weightlifting has been awesome. I found a guy to train me how to do it correctly and to browbeat me into doing it well and I'm seeing and feeling changes already. I haven't been doing much work on my legs--letting the running take care of that--but my arms, chest and back are already bigger. He ends every session with something painfully aerobic and that has also helped my running.

He also has me eating protein and more calories in general. Kinda strange to be packing calories rather than cutting them. Strangely my weight hasn't changed. My belly has gotten smaller and I'm picking up a bit of mass in places I want it.

I haven't put any of my times this summer up on my Garman site--don't want to obsess on times. But I'd really like to put today's up there. I finished strong and actually felt like I could have gone farther. And the endorphins were awesome :D

Care4 Breast Cancer 5k

Last year I did this in an asthma ridden, holy-crap-I-am-out-of-shape 39:45. I'm still embarrassed at that but I'd only bee running around 3 months at the time so whatever. I can only admit to that pathetic time because yesterday I dropped roughly 7 minutes off of it with a 32:47. I am hoping to do even better in the future but that was a huge win for me. I felt really good.

The worst part was that I lined up in the section for people who were going to do between 10 and 11 minute miles and there were shitloads of people who were just walking the race in front of me.  Not only that there were often large groups that insisted on walking side by side down the middle of the race.  They should have gone back further in the crowd. I was full of hatred.

So I spent the first half mile negotiating the heavy crowding to get past all those people. Lots of side to side, slow downs and speed ups until I got out into the open where I could establish my pace. That first half mile took a lot out of me and I hadn't counted on it in my plans. Next year I'll start up nearer the front and just stay to the side and let the REAL runners go past me.

Probably I would only have shaved 15 seconds or so off my time, if anything, but it's nice to know that even setting my personal best time I could have done better in a more ideal running situation. It's hard to run a race with 2400 participants, many of whom aren't really running it but showing support for the cause. For that alone I forgive all the walkers.

Four miles the slow way

I've been running my 3.1 miles the last month or so and brought my average pace down to around 10:40 or so per mile. That's got me pretty happy. Today I thought I'd try to run 4 for the first time since my leg injury and started out slow and finished strong. I probably averaged around 11:00 minutes per mile but ended with around 10:30 for my last one. I feel strong still--tired and endorphinated but strong.

I've got a 5K on Sunday--breast cancer run here in Woodstock. I'm really excited because I did it last year and as long as I take care not to over do it during the week in preparation I expect to shave around 6 or 7 minutes off my time last year.

I'm also doing this kind of strange barbell class where we do craploads of reps with low weight and hit all the muscle groups hard. I come out of it pretty beat but I'm already seeing differences in my strength (and appearance! yay!). But I sure do get a lot of funny looks from the guys who use the regular weights. Aside from the teacher and his brother (that he forces to attend) I'm the only guy in the class.

Rehab update

I've gotten myself up to 2.5 miles at about 11:05 average mile time. That's not great distance but the time is reassuring because I lost so much momentum with this downtime. I believe next week I am going to move to 3 miles. I'm running in a 5K (for Breast Cancer. Well not FOR it. Against it) in late October and I really want to be doing at least 3.5 or 4 miles in under 11 minutes by then.

Yesterday I did a little bit of interval training. I call it that but I have no idea if that is what it really is. Basically I run a mile fast, rest for a minute to 90 seconds, run another mile slightly slower but still over my usual pace, rest again and finish up with a slow mile. This time I ran the first mile faster than I usually do. Ended up with 9:42 for that mile and then dropped back off on the subsequent ones. It really felt good to push that first mile.

I definitely have gotten past the inertia issue of restarting--I really want to run everyday but I've been good and I'm only running every other day.  I

'm doing some weight training on the off days. Emily talked me into trying this barbell weight class thingy and I was surprised at how hard it is, and also how much I really like it. I've always wanted to do weights but getting started on my own is always an exercise in futility. Going to a class forces me to stick with it :) Plus the guy teaching the class knows what he's about.

Back in business

It's been a while but I'm finally running again. I read (and was told by my doctor) that I should only increase my pace and distance by 10% a week so I'm still working on getting back to where I was. I had hoped to run a 10k before the end of the summer but that's so not going to happen at this point. I'm aiming at the breast cancer run here in Woodstock in mid october though.

I'm pain free at this point, got new shoes and am making progress. it's wonderful to be running again but I was surprised how much endurance I'd lost during the two months or so I was off...

Week 3 of The Boot

The good news is that I have no pain where the stress fracture is and I've so far been fairly good about wearing the damned boot. The downside is that I'm in serious endorphin withdrawals. I snap at people more frequently and moan and sob in my sleep. I've got the shakes and actually found myself on a street corner trying to purchase endorphins but a really kind drug dealer told me that its hard to get such a thing out here in the boonies.

But all seriousness aside I definitely look forward to getting back to running. I guess the silver lining is that last week everyday it was in the 90s and humid and that might have killed me so it was nice to have a convenient excuse to avoid running in the heat.

I hope everyone's running, biking, swimming, and whatever else is going great.

Day three of The Boot

So far wearing the boot on my injured leg has caused more emotional reaction than I'd expected. Having it on reminds me of the almost 4 months I wore it a couple years ago. And it feels silly. I walk around normally (well, almost normally) with it--no crutches, walker, cane or anything.

And I'm getting more insaner with every day that I don't run. Who would have thought I COULD get insaner :D.  More seriously I hadn't realized how much I was really relying on running to improve my mood and such.

At any rate I'm looking forward to getting back to the running, of course. I wanted to do 5 to 10 races this year and have only one under my belt so far.