Long Rainy Run

8 miles this morning in the rain. It was pretty much just drizzling the whole time, but I had to avoid mud and puddles the whole way. I felt great when I finished, which is probably the difference between running in the rain and running in 90+ degrees heat. Now it's off to Oklahoma for a party for my friend Brad, who is getting married next Saturday.

Fun Run

Today was another 5-miler, this time with about 2 miles of 1-2-3-2-1 fartleks thrown in. It was kind of fun, especially when running the faster parts uphill. Normally I don't go for that too much, but today I found it challenging and thought hey, go for it. It's been rainy here, so there was plenty of cloud cover, a light breeze, and best of all, cooler temperatures. I think tomorrow will be an off day since Saturday morning will be a long run before I head to Tulsa.

Running in Baseball Heaven

Yes, I actually got up early and ran both mornings I was in St. Louis. 5 miles on Tuesday morning with 4x100 strides afterward on the path near the Gateway Arch. Then 3.5 miles this morning. Both days I ran around the park around the Arch. Tuesday morning a barge was heading upstream and I was actually running faster than it was moving. Maybe I'm not the slowest person in the world after all!

Ha!

Got up at 5:30, ran 3.5 miles, and all before heading off to St. Louis for business. The nice thing about early morning runs is that it's not hot, but it was certainly humid. And now I'm off to the home of the World Championi St. Louis Cardinals!

Humid Saturday

Started off the day by having fun at the girls' Softball Olympics at Happy Rock Park. It's been a couple of years since I've been there. I used to ride my bike around the park before the family joined me in Kansas City, and since the path is about a mile around the park and fairly level, plus a good portion of it is in the shade of the big trees, I figured I would go back this afternoon for a run. And I did.

Six miles to complete the first week of my slacker training. For those of you without a calculator, that's 22.5 miles this week. That's quite a jump from basically nothing the week before, but I feel good. The new shoes seem to be working fine, and I don't have any knee or other pain. That's a good sign for things to come, I hope.

This next week I'm out of town five out of seven days, so I'm thinking about doing some morning running. Which is probably a good idea so I can avoid some of the mid-summer heat and humidity

Friday Run

A nice easy run? Yeah, right. Heat, hills, and humidity made those 3.5 miles a real chore. The funny thing is that I felt worse after 2.5 than I did at the end. That last mile was the whipped cream on top, I guess, to make the run feel good. Although the effort expended on this run would have been worth about 8 miles on the treadmill. Good thing I didn't run inside since I need to save that long run for tomorrow.

Fartleks

It's a funny word, but I did it (knowingly) for the first time tonight. The Slacker plan calls for 1-2-3-2-1 fartleks on the schedule for today, so I did what the schedule commands. That's running fast for 1 minute, then slowing down to a normal pace for 1 minute, then fast for 2 minutes, slow for 2 minutes, and so on. Altogether the distance I covered was about 4.5 miles. I kind of enjoyed speeding up a little during the run, and the intervals followed by a slow period works to my strengths (laziness). I started off wth 15 minutes of slow running, then the fartleks, then ending with another 15 minutes of normal pace, and as you know for me normal means slow.

Tomorrow is an easy running day, and then it's 6-7 miles on Saturday!

Another Easy 3 Miles

Or so they say. "They" also said the temperature topped out at 87 degrees, and they lie. It had to be over 90, but I wasn't trained as a meteorologist, so even though I know when a storm is coming better than the guys on TV I must not know anything.

Since I'm coming off a week of non-running and now I've run three days in a row, I think I'll take tomorrow off for some dumbbell lifting and some leg exercises.

3-4 Easy Miles

That's what the schedule for today says, but 3 miles when it's humid and the storms are rolling in isn't really that easy. But it was successful, and even though the first part was like running through the deep South after a week's worth of rain the latter part was easier. Maybe I just got used to it.

I suggested to the wife last night that maybe I need an iPod Nano for running. She laughed. And it wasn't a good laugh. I'll have to work on that.

Father's Day Run

This was a get-back-into-it run since I've been a bad boy this past week while company was in town. Surprisingly, though, I could have run more than 2.5 miles, but decided to take it easy given the time since last my jaunt as well as this being the first run in my Father's Day gift.

Okay, so I picked it out and purchased it, but I'm now trying out a pair of Asics Gel Cumulus. Since I'm gearing up for my marathon training, I thought I'd start with a new pair of shoes rather than possibly switching partway through. My initial reaction is that I liked them a lot. They're lighter than the all-terrain New Balance I've been wearing, and the cushioning of the gel did seem to make a difference. As with the Mizuno I tried out last year, though, I'll reserve judgment until I've used them a few weeks.

I was going to put off the start of the marathon training until next Monday, but since today went so well I might reconsider. Because today was deceptively easy we'll see how tomorrow's run goes before making that decision. If I start this week that gives me a two-week cushion until the October 20th event. If I wait another week the margin of error grows smaller. Stay tuned.

40 Years Old and Still Stupid

Ran a little over 3 miles today, which if you look at the last post really wasn't the plan. I did run on Thursday, but not in the way I'd planned. You would think after all these years that I would know better than to sprint without warming up, but noooooo.

We had our employee picnic at a local park Thursday afternoon, and my boss wanted to race us "boys." So after much trash-talking we agreed, giving her a head start. She won by a couple of steps, but afterward I could tell my right hamstring was sore and I should have stretched first.

It's taken me 40 years to figure this out, so maybe by the time the next 40 are past I'll actually put into practice what I've learned. At least it felt okay today when I jogged.

What a Day!

What a gorgeous day! Temps in the mid-80s, just a slight breeze, sun shining, and very few clouds. Last night I was bringing the boy home from baseball practice and it was absolutely beautiful out, and I thought about running in the evening just to enjoy the weather. I decided against it since I had a few things to do, hoping that today would be as nice. Fortunately I won that gamble.

I was planning on running 5 today, but my body was yelling at me, "Don't do it!" So I ran 4.25 instead, and I think my body was right. You don't win any points for overextending yourself, and besides, it's only Tuesday. The plan is to run 4-5 on Thursday and 5-6 on Saturday. Think the weather will be this nice by then?

Humid, Windy, but Okay

WIth all the rain this past week it was a little humid today, but the stiff wind was what made this 3 miles a tough outing. That's okay, though, I'm just glad to have the time to get out and pound the pavement for a bit. No musical accompaniment this time, just the breeze and my gasping for air. Okay, it wasn't that bad. That's just called poetic license; look it up, it's a proven literary technique.