Windy...and Windy

It was just a little windy today. Combine that with dead-feeling legs and I only went 4 miles. I hate cutting a run short and coming up with excuses, but I could tell today wasn't going anywhere. And my knees aren't feeling good. Yeah, I know, more excuses. Just not one of my better runs, but one where I think I cut my losses. I'd like to think I'm a smarter runner than I used to be in stopping and avoiding grinding out the last two miles just to add the miles to my weekly total, but sometimes I wonder. Clearly I can finish a half-marathon, but the question is how well will I finish? And how will today's run figure into how it works out?

Mile Intervals

Ran 6 miles with 3x1 mile intervals. It was another beautiful day, with a great temperature and minimal wind. I felt good and it was a great day for a run.

For the first time in 18 years I'm wearing contact lenses again. I got the pair yesterday and wore them for too long today. I felt like a free man without glasses. Guess I just couldn't help wearing them on my run. They're a new type of lens for people with astigmatism, with a hard lens in the middle with what they call a 'skirt' around it made up of a soft lens. I don't remember the last time my eyesight was this good. However, the side effect is that the hard lenses reshape my eyeballs, so when I took the lenses out after the run I couldn't see a thing when I put on my glasses. Even now, over three hours later, my right eye is totally fuzzy and I'm basically working off the left eye, which is strangely clear for not having glasses on right now. Guess I'll be wearing them until bedtime on a regular basis.

Today I branched out with another podcast called How Stuff Works. The one I listened to was regarding lotteries, and even though I knew most of what they talked about and why I don't play the lottery, it was still entertaining. Also, don't remember if I've mentioned this or not, but I'm no fan of rap, hip-hop, or any combo of the two. However, I've been starting my runs with the Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage,' which makes for a great kick-off to my runs. Guess sometimes something different catches you at a moment where you actually end up liking something you would normally pass by. At least that's the explanation I'm going with on this one.

More Rain

When I left the house this morning I thought I'd be able to get a good run in before the rain came. I was wrong. At least today the temperature wasn't horrible. I ran two loops of the neighborhood, and about a mile into the first lap a light sprinkle was coming down. By the time I got to 96th Street and headed west the wind was at my back and didn't seem too bad. As I neared the end of that first lap I thought about heading up the hill and back to the house to finish on the treadmill, but inertia is a powerful force and I kept going. The rain picked up a little bit on the second lap, although it never really got heavy, and even though the east wind was brisk it never seemed like I was struggling. For the last bit of my run I did a mile out and back to complete the 9-miler. In fact, I felt so good that for the last .8 mile I ran faster at an 8-minute/mile pace.

I'm glad I stayed outside for the whole run. I like running in the rain, and even though this was a little cooler than a summer shower, it still felt good. Strangely enough I didn't see any other runners out today. Are they afraid they're going to melt or something?

I'm also trying to figure out this half-marathon thing in May. The race I'd like to do is on a Sunday, and if Alan comes for the race we'll clearly be enjoying our triumph that evening and staying up late. However, the following two days at work are a disaster recovery exercise where authority for the agency devolves to us and I suppose I have to be there. I was looking for something else in late May that we could run, but the only possibility so far is a race in Oklahoma City on Memorial Day weekend, and I'd really rather not travel then if I can avoid it. Guess I'll need to figure this out and get registered for something pretty quick. Ah, the joys of a busy life.

Too Cold in the Rain

The temperature was right on that border of being nice, but with a cool drizzle it was a little too cold for an outdoor run. And I like running in the rain, but today was too much. So I ran 6 miles on the treadmill with a 30-minute tempo run while listening to another podcast. They had a parody of 'Friends in Low Places' concerning parts of your body that tend to be rubbed raw on a run if you neglect something to ease the friction. That's the second time I've listened to one of these parodies on a run where I actually laughed out loud. This time it was the verse about the guy whose nipples were bleeding and then got in the shower. Yes, there was screaming. And it was probably funnier since I've experienced something similar, although not quite as serious as that. Funny stuff.

What a Day

Days like this are rare - mild temperature, no wind, enough cloud cover to keep the sun from shining too bright - wow, this kind of weather is rare in KC. Today's 6-miler include 3x1-mile intervals, and it felt great all the way. Even if today hadn't been a running day I would have made it one.

The allergies are still killing me. Last night was the best night of sleep I've had in three weeks, but I still woke up a few minutes early with a runny nose. It's funny, because when I went to bed last night I felt like it was going to be a bad night. Shows how much I know. I also know that going out for a run when my allergies are like this isn't good for them, but at this point I don't care. Who knows what will set them off? Yesterday at work I was totally fine until I opened my former secretary's office to go through some old notebooks and as soon as I did the sneezing started and lasted until I fell asleep. If I curtailed all activities and didn't do anything until allergy season was over the only thing I'd do would be to lie in bed with the covers pulled over my head. And really that's no fun. At least it's no fun alone. So I suffer through the season and wait for the pollen counts to descend again. And wait. And wait.

Snot Factory

I'm sure I was such a lovely sight on this morning's long run, what with snot rockets and hawking up loogies the whole time. But I decided a long while back that I wasn't going to let allergies ruin my life, and if I have to suffer a little bit for the activities I like to do, then so be it. I didn't see as many other runners out today as I expected, which I suppose is a good thing given all the snot flying every where.

I ran 10 miles, a couple miles shorter than planned. I suppose I'm still in that half-marathon training mode where I can do a little less mileage and still be okay come race day. At least I think that's what it is, because surely it can't be laziness. I suppose I should register for the darn thing, seeing as it's only a month away now.

I listened to two more podcasts from RunRunLive and enjoyed them both. The first was an interview with Hal Higdon. He was the keynote speaker at the Heart of America Marathon last year, a fact he mentions in his interview. He was promoting a novel he'd written about the weekend of a large-city marathon, and it sound intriguing enough for me to want to check it out. The second podcast was an interview with the race director of the Boston Marathon, and that was also interesting to listen to. I've enjoyed the podcasts, enough so that when they were done and I still had a couple of miles to go I think that contributed to my finishing earlier than planned. I find it interesting to hear someone else's take on running, especially someone who puts in so many miles, as the host of the podcast does. I also really enjoyed the parody of George Thorogood's "I Drink Alone," which came out as "I Run Alone" on the podcast. The bit about a lady who smiles at him and gets the finger in return made me laugh out loud - yes, a real lol! This seems like a podcast I'll keep listening to and probably going back in time so I can catch up on the previous two years' worth of material.

Spring in the Midwest

Spring in the Midwest is much like spring in the greater part of the country - lots of allergens and wind. There's a nice layer of yellow pollen on all the vehicles now, and a number of people at work I talked with today are hoping for some rain in the next couple of days to clear the air. I suppose maybe I'm getting too used to the wind since today I didn't really notice it.

I ran 6 miles total, which included 3 mile repeats with 1/4 mile slowdowns. Overall it felt pretty good until I was chicked with about one mile to go. But hey, I was in my cooldown phase, so I don't feel too bad. And it's not like it doesn't happen a lot in the races I've been in.

I tried something new today on my run. Rather than listening to music, I downloaded a couple of podcasts and tried one of them out. This one was called RunRunLive and I enjoyed it. The host was taking an ice bath after running an 18-miler in freezing rain on New Year's Eve. Heh, what a maroon! Sounds like something stupid I would do. The guest (not in the bath room with the host, fortunately) was the co-writer of a book about how exercise affects your body and actually keeps you younger as you age. His claim is that 30% of our aging is determined for us by genetics, but the other 70% is what we can influence by our habits, with the main contributor being the amount of exercise we get. I don't know, I kind of liked being distracted by something different for a change, so I'm thinking I'll try another podcast or two on my long run this Saturday. It's always good to shake things up once in a while.

Pollen and Me

Today was the first time I'd run in ten days. I went to Atlanta last week and took along my running gear. However, a thick layer of pollen blanketed the city and threw me for a loop. I had enough clothing to run at least three days during my stay there, and I never unpacked the stuff. I kept thinking I should, but then determined that might actually kill me as bad as I felt. I even told my brother I would probably regret it, but now that I'm back home I don't, really. One night I went to a game at beautiful Turner Field (hate the team, love the stadium), and when my group got to our section we could see the nice yellow pollen covering all the seats.

Today I was itching to run. After an afternoon meeting at work that really ticked me off I needed to burn off some energy. I was supposed to run a marathon pace session but decided I should probably just make it an easy run since it's been so long since my last run. That was a good choice since it was quite windy with gusts above 30 mph and the temperature was near 80 degrees. I went 6 miles and was more tense than usual due to thinking about the aforementioned work issue. At one point I felt a tightening in my mid-back on the right side and wondered if I should walk a little, but then a song came on my iPod that has a good running rhythm and I realized I was tensed up and that was affecting my posture. I breathed deep and tried to stay looser the rest of the run, with varying degrees of success. The allergies for me here are bad, but not nearly as bad as they were in Georgia. I guess the old familiar has its advantages.

The Hero Takes a Fall

Today's long run was later in the day than normal on the weekend, but mission accomplished. The weather was gorgeous today, and if we hadn't had a birthday party in the morning I would have been out earlier. Even with all that motivation there were a few times where I contemplated cutting the run short, but I stuck with it. I was wearing a shirt from the '07 KC Marathon that has the word 'FINISHER' in big block letters on the back. I kept thinking of that during the last half of my 11-mile run and it helped me get 'er done. Too many thoughts of hey, it's only a half-marathon you're training for, so go ahead and cut it short. You only need to do long runs of 8 or 9 miles, so no big deal. Too bad, I want to keep my training level fairly high for a marathon later in the year, and I'm a finisher.

The gratuitous Bangles reference in the title for this post has to do with, you guessed it, a fall. I can't remember the last time, if ever, that I've fallen while running. It happened before I'd even run a full mile. I passed a lady getting into her SUV in the back part of the neighborhood, and I knew she'd be coming up behind me. She did, and as I turned the corner onto another street I was concentrating on staying close to the curb. Just as she passed me my right foot caught in the one of the shoelace loops of my left foot and I went down. Not too hard, and I hit with my right knee and did a roll and hopped right up, continuing almost without missing a stride. Not sure if she saw me go down, but she certainly didn't even tap the brakes so I have my doubts. I wasn't hurt and clearly kept running to finish out the day.

I just plugged in the Garmin to see if the fall registered on the graph it produces, and sure enough there's a little spike in the pace line at that spot in the run. The wife thinks it's kind of funny, and I have to agree.

Speaking of the Garmin, it's still working great. My thought is that its memory was full. I'm not sure how much memory is in these things, but thinking of all the runs where I've used it in the past year brings to mind how much data must have been stored on it. All the waypoints for every run where the GPS was tracking, my custom workouts, the pace, the elevation, etc., were stored, and I can only imagine how much space that takes up. Thank God for the Internet since otherwise I would have most likely considered it completely dead. Seems appropriate that my Garmin was resurrected during Easter week!

The Garmin Rises

I thought my GPS had gone to Garmin heaven. It wouldn't turn on and even when I put it on the cradle it wouldn't charge or connect to the computer. Fortunately this is the 21st century and we have the Internet. I binged 'Garmin Forerunner 305 dead' and came up with a link that told me how to reboot the thing. I tried the soft reboot first and nothing happened. Then I tried a hard reboot by pressing the power and mode buttons at the same time and it beeped and sprung to life! The device asked me if I wanted to erase all the data on it and I said no, which turned out to be the wrong answer. It shut down again and I couldn't turn it on again.

At that point I thought maybe I'd killed it. I tried the hard reboot again and it didn't work. I set it down for a few minutes and then tried once more, and it worked. This time I answered 'Yes' to delete the data and from then on it's been good. I transferred today's workout as well as Saturday's to it, and it asked me if I wanted to copy the profile from my computer to replace the one on the Garmin. I said yes, because the one on the Garmin was a default. Today's run seemed to go without a hitch, at least as far as my GPS goes.

The run itself was not good, though. I started out running into the wind, which was a good choice, but I'm still not 100%. Too many nights of interrupted sleep and a case of allergies is wearing me down. I did two and a half mile repeats, finishing at 4.5 miles. Work is wearing me out as well, and I can't seem to get ahead. Plus I'll be out of town next week, so there's a lot to do in the next several days. I felt relaxed on the repeats, particularly into the wind, but it just sapped what little strength I had too quickly. This wind reminds me of the Big D marathon last year in Dallas, and it makes me glad I'm not running it this year. Ugh, that was a killer.

Garminless

This fool forgot to plug in his Garmin after yesterday's run, so it was dead today. The bad thing is that it's still dead, even though I've plugged it in and left it for a couple of hours. This could be a problem.

Today's run was 6 miles, and I know the distance markers for that. I ran 1 mile as a warmup, then 4 miles at 'marathon pace,' and then another mile for a cooldown. That 4 miles is in quotes because it was darn windy today. How is it that the wind that's blowing against you so strong when you're heading into it seems to be nothing but a slight breeze when it's at your back? Honestly, that wind should have been pushing me along like a leaf. About 4.5 miles into the run I was absolutely worn out from heading into the wind for so long that I had to walk about 200 yards. The crappy night of sleep I had certainly didn't help either. It was a tough run but I made it through, and that counts for something in the long run.

And Just Like That.

...the grass is turning green, the sun is shining, people are mowing their lawns, and it's spring! It's amazing the difference a day makes. As I started my run this afternoon a couple of guys were mowing their lawns, and they were green under all the winter scrum (I don't know if that's an accurate term, but it sure seems like the right way to describe it). I was surprised at how warm the temperature was, almost 70 degrees. Going from cool weather to that was almost like running in summer. Well, not really, but close. I think it slowed me down some, and since I this was an easy running day I tried to keep it slow anyway. I ran 5 miles and saw a lot of people out doing the same. The wind was from the southwest and a little stiff, but nothing like it's supposed to be the next few days, from what I hear. I'm just glad it's spring. Now all that's missing is baseball.

Back to the Midwest

Spring is definitely not here yet in the good ol' Midwest. The temperature today is in the low 40's and rain has made it a better day to run inside than out. At least I enjoyed a few runs outdoors this week in Austin. Watched two more first season episodes of BSG while running 9 miles on the treadmill today. I guess this is the way I'll work my way through the series again unless the weather improves. Fortunately the forecast shows temps closer to 70 degrees this coming week.

At this point I'm definitely shooting for a half-marathon on May 16th in Leavenworth. Since I didn't get any speedwork in this past week I need to concentrate on that in the coming weeks. I won't say I've been lazy as far as other exercises go lately, but the truth is I've averaged about once a week with my dumbbells routine. I need to improve that, too. As I've learned over the years just those simple routines I do make quite a difference come race day.

Austin Runs

Spent the week in Austin for business, and was fortunate enough to stay at a hotel right by the river. All I had to do was walk across the street and I was on the system of paths along Town Lake. The first run was Monday afternoon after flying in that day. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and a lot of people were out to enjoy it. A multitude of folks was exercising themselves and their dogs. I ran 5 miles on the south side of the river from Congress Avenue west. I really enjoy the system they have in Austin, although there are a few places where you can make a wrong turn and end up on a dead-end. I just played follow the people and seemed to do okay.

My second run this week was on Wednesday afternoon, and the weather was much different. It was cloudy, rainy, and a little cooler. I still ran in shorts and a t-shirt, though, just as I had on Monday, and since I actually enjoy running in the rain it turned out just fine. That day I ran 6 miles, following the same path as Monday until I crossed over to the north side of the river and ran that path past Congress (where the bats dwell on the underside of the bridge) and then doubling back to Congress in order to get in the distance. That run was tougher than I expected, and I think the reason was that I had stood for the whole afternoon. Thursday was nice also, and I intended to run, but I ended up meeting some guys for dinner and decided to forego the run. Then I was going to get up and run before flying out today, but my right knee was sore and I did what you should never do - make the decision on whether or not to go for a run while I was still lying in bed. Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow, as well as some strong wind, so my plans will have to be flexible. All in all it was a good trip and I totally enjoy running in Austin. This particular traveler is grateful for such great trails and wonderful scenery, and if I lived there I would certainly be a regular.

Celebrating Spring!

Today was the first day of spring, and here in Kansas City we celebrated with about four inches of snow and strong winds. Yes, lots of snide comments all over the place both here and in the region. I was surprised at how quickly the roads and sidewalks became covered since it had been in the mid-60's yesterday. All this to say it was back to the treadmill, where I ran 8 miles. That's not much of a long run, but I didn't think I could stand much more since I was suffering from a bad case of cabin fever. It's off to Austin this week, where I should be able to run outside as much as I want.

A Jump in Temperature

It was in the low-60's today and I could tell the difference. My plan was to run 1 mile, then 4 at marathon pace, and then cool down for a mile. I stopped the marathon pace after 3 miles and then cooled down for 2, still maintaining a total of 6 miles. I'm not really sure if it was the temperature being that much warmer or if several nights of not sleeping well that did me in. Whatever the case my legs felt a little tired and I tend to blame it on the accumulation of a busy week.

The plan I made for the half-marathon training pretty much took my marathon plan and decreased the mileage on the long run. Today's would have called for an 8-mile run, so I've already decided I need to decrease some of the mileage during the week, too. That's supposed to be part of the appeal of running a half instead of a full, right? Even though half of the run turned out to be at a 'slower' speed, I noticed most of the time I was running 9 minutes/mile or so on the 'slow' speed. Overall the run took 52 minutes, which Garmin tells me averages out to 8:38/minute. All in all, even with a higher temperature, that's not too bad.

Hills at (Relatively) High Speed

I definitely ran the hills tonight. 7 miles total at a pace of 9 minutes/mile. Felt good the whole way. It was colder than I thought it would be, and once again I almost didn't take a vital piece of clothing - my ear warmers. But I stuffed it in my pocket and before I made it off the front step I put it on. The wind was very chilling out of the northwest, but once I started it wasn't too bad.

This marks the start of my training plan for a mid-May half-marathon. I think my previous best was 1:49 or 1:48 or something like that, so if I could lower that to 1:40 I'd be pretty darn happy. I'm not sure what pace that is. Guess I'll figure that out later. I have time.

Fun Inside Again

Just didn't feel like heading out the door today, especially after working on the evening shift last night. I slept until 10 this morning, which might seem lazy, but I went to bed at about 1:30 a.m. With half the family sick I wanted to get some good sleep. And then I didn't want to go out in the cool, breezy and semi-rainy weather and get myself sick. I ran 9 miles on the treadmill and watched not one, but two episodes of BSG. What a great show. And what a good run.

Cool but Still Runnable

The temperature was in the mid-40's with a breeze from the southwest, but I went for it anyway since it wasn't raining. For the first time this year I did a planned tempo run, warming up for 2 miles and then running faster for 15 minutes. I definitely ran too fast, with my tempo coming in around and under 8 minutes/mile. Lots of sick people in my house and I don't want to fall prey to whatever they have. During part of the tempo I felt queasy in my stomach, but of course I'm not smart enough to slow down. I did cut the run a whole quarter-mile short, though, and finished with 5.75 miles under my belt. I felt a little better after slowing down on the run and the hot shower afterward felt really good. I think I also overdressed some and overheated a little bit, too, I think, since the outdoors looked colder than it actually was. Oh well, no matter how it turns out, running outside is better than running inside!

Rain

Rain kept me inside for today's run, which doesn't seem so bad since I fixed the treadmill. I can actually run at a pretty fast pace and hear the television. So I ran 6 miles and watched a first-season episode of Battlestar Galactica. This worked for me in two ways, by satisfying both my need for exercise as well as my need to be a total geek. I love it when a plan comes together.