Sweat

Today was weird. It had rained most of the day, but when I arrived home it had all but stopped. Rather than running inside, needlessly, I suited up and ran outside. I don't know if I'm still fighting off something, if it was humid from the precipitation, or both, but I finished up with a clammy kind of sweat. That's not normal. And it's not like my pace was super-fast. I finished the 3-mile run at a blistering average pace of 10:15. Guess I'm just getting back into it. Sweat or not, I'm still glad to be back to running.

Starting Over

This has been a weird couple of weeks. Early last week I was having abdominal pains, like really bad ones, and I went to the doctor. The Wife knew it was serious when I made an appointment. The long and short of it is that my appendix was swollen but I did not have appendicitis. The thought of the medical people was that I had contracted some sort of virus that affected my lymph system and therefore caused problems with my appendix. I was just glad I didn't have to go through surgery, although at the time having it out would have been a relief.

My doctor told me to take it easy for a while and to eat bland foods. I've done both of those with varying degrees of success. Two weeks without exercise was way too long. Especially with the gorgeous mild winter we've been having. I suffer incredible envy every day I drive home from work and people are out on the sidewalks enjoying the weather. Today I figured it had been long enough so I got out for a 3.5 miler. That was a half mile longer than planned since I ran ahead of The Wife and then doubled back to get her. She had slipped up a side street and didn't realize I was coming back for her. Oh, well. It was great to get out in the sun even though it was a little cold and breezy. I'm keeping an "eye" on the appendix area. I can feel a little something and I'm hoping there's not a muscle tear or something else in the area. Today felt like the first day I've ever been out for a run since it's been so long. I've had enough of this starting and stopping and am hoping I can keep going without interruption for a change.

Hemming and Hawing

I spent a lot of the day going back and forth in my mind about whether or not I wanted to run. As is my custom on Saturday when there's not something else going on, I slept in. Then I had breakfast and knew I'd have to wait an hour or so before running. But I delayed, got busy working on a computer program, went to lunch with The Wife, ate too much, took a nap, did some more programming and some writing, and then it came down to decision time. I got out my shoes and put them back. Then I got them out again and finally decided to do it.

Not sure what the problem was other than I was just lazy. It was cold and breezy outside and I knew I wouldn't be running in that. I guess the thing that finally tipped me onto the treadmill was the fact that I took a nap and decided I would have trouble getting to sleep if I didn't do something physical. This was definitely not my normal way of doing things. But as always, I'm glad I got my act together and ran. This was a 6-miler and it felt fine the whole way. Still no signs of knee problems. And also still no sign of my new issue of Runner's World. Where is it? I renewed my subscription last month so it should be here by now. Maybe that's the inspiration I've been missing.

Today

It was another not-so-nice day outside. I suppose I could have toughed it out but I chose to run on the treadmill and avoid the drama. This involved watching more of WS Game 3 and a bunch of runs for the Cardinals. A LOT. Which was good. I ran 5 miles, but my next decision is whether or not to watch the next two games where the Rangers win or skip to Game 6, which was one of the best World Series games ever. Tough decision.

Where's the Snow?

A little bit of snow was in today's forecast but never materialized. And I'm okay with that. It was still cold and just wet enough to keep me indoors for today's run. I did 4 miles on the treadmill and watched some more WS Game 3. I was just getting into the fun part where the Cardinals started scoring a bunch of runs. I knew it was coming but I had to get through the first three innings, but yeah, it was worth the wait. The Knee is still feeling good, and that's a positive sign.

Time Just Flies

It's amazing how quickly time goes by depending on the activity in which you're involved. Since that sentence is just screaming for an example, I will oblige. Running for an hour sometimes seems like sixty minutes of Chinese water torture. Other times you blink and realize an hour has rocketed past. Today's run was somewhere in between, but more toward the fast hour. Even more amazing, this occurred while I was running on the treadmill.

I've watched multiple episodes of a half-hour sitcom while on the 'mill, and it's pretty easy to mark the passage of time with commercial breaks. Today I was watching Game 2 of the World Series, and yes, there are breaks between each half-inning or pitching change, but those aren't scheduled at regular intervals due to the nature of the game. The pitchers were flat-out dealing and the batters were not having a good day. In the bottom of the seventh the Cardinals scored a run and almost got some more except for an exceptional play by the Rangers' shortstop. The innings flew by and before I knew it my time was up. I thought about extending it by a few minutes so I could watch the ninth, but decided I knew how it went and avoided the pain of a blown game for today.

The weather today was cold and drizzly. I saw a few people out running before noon but knew I wouldn't be one of them. I ran 5 miles with no pain. This is a trend I hope continues. The same with time flying by while running, whether it's inside or out.

Helpless

It was another gorgeous day and I was helpless to resist the pull. Once again I skipped the allure of running an errand on the way home so I could get out while the sun was shining. I made it. I thought briefly about how I ran yesterday and that was my first day back in a few weeks, so maybe it wasn't a good idea to run again the next day. But there's rain in the forecast. And it's February 2nd. You don't get this opportunity every year. Even though I was excited to get out I still practiced some restraint and went only 4 miles. Lots of other people were out to enjoy the weather (and by lots I mean less than a dozen). Some city guys were working on the hill by a sidewalk on Shoal Creek, making the drainage work better so the mudslides don't cover the concrete.

It looks like the fun is over for a few days and the treadmill might be back in operation soon. It was fun while it lasted.

Back to It

When I got home I told The Wife I was going out for a run. Note: I don't usually run on Wednesdays. She was surprised, of course. Another note: Today was absolutely gorgeous, February 1st or not, since it was in the mid-60's. I told her if I didn't run on a day like today then I deserved to never run again.

This was my first foray into running in about 2 1/2 weeks. I kept it slow and only went 3 miles. It was clear that laying off of The Knee for an extended period paid off. I felt absolutely no pain whatsoever, which was quite refreshing. I'm hoping to springboard off this run and get back into training without interruption for a while. I feel like the past year+ has been nothing but stop and start with the training. It's time to stay healthy and run a race this spring.

Baseball Walk

Yesterday I hit the treadmill again for an hour walk. It looked nice enough to talk a walk outdoors, but it was very windy. I stayed in and watched a few more innings of World Series Game 1 from October. Very enjoyable since the good guys won the game.

I'm hoping to start running again this week. As I did a few months ago I'll take it slow and easy starting up and slowly increase the mileage. What a pain. Or I hope it's not a pain, if you get my drift.

Suffering

It now appears that my football outing produced lingering effects, effects I was hoping would not come to pass. The Knee has been tender with that swollen feeling ever since the game. I've walked on the treadmill about three more times, including a 50-minute "outing" today. It almost feels like I could run on it, but I can tap on the side near the kneecap with a finger and can tell where it's irritated. For the time being I'm going to keep up with the walking and maybe next week I can get back to running.

This stinks pretty bad since we're having such a mild winter. Today was windy but the temperature got up into the fifties. I can run in that. I'd like to be able to get outside while the weather is good. It's also frustrating because I had climbed back up to a good distance for my long runs. At this point the race in NM in March is out of reach. If I can get it together I think a May date for a race is more realistic.

I did show an inkling of smarts this past weekend. We were invited to play football again, but I passed on the opportunity and let The Boy play with his friends without me. He had fun and I gave my irritated knee more opportunity to heal. I can still learn a lesson from bad experience.

Football

Well, I'm still an idiot. I went out yesterday (a 60 degree day in January!) and played a couple of hours of football with the boy and some dads and their sons. Let's review, shall we? I haven't played a pick-up game of football since I've lived in KC, and that's been over eight years. And I don't recall the last time I did so before moving. Conservatively I'd say it's been over ten years since I played in a game.

It was fun. I realized my knees aren't 100% so I took it pretty easy. I play to win, which we didn't, but I still play pretty hard. I made a few good plays, if I do say so myself, as well as the catch of the day on a long pass that I somehow snagged. Wish I had the instant replay of that. My big worry was that I wouldn't have the timing to throw a pass to a running target, but it was amazing how quickly the old instincts come back. I'm not the greatest player, by any means, but I spent a lot of time on playground football through junior high. That continued with lots of youth group Sunday afternoon games through high school and into intramural games in college, where I was our wing's quarterback. So I'm pretty decent still, especially for an older guy. I never played organized ball in school because I was just too darn small and didn't want to get grounded into the field to become a grass stain on some linebacker's white pants.

The upshot of all this is that running around, cutting back and forth across the field, and generally doing a lot of movements my body is not used to actually affected me more than I thought it would. Being fit with running doesn't necessarily mean you're fit for other sports. It helps, and I've heard other people talk about the differences, but let me say....ouch. I am so sore today that I just wanted to curl into a ball and sleep away the day. But I didn't. After all, I have to work.

By the time I arrived home I realized I needed some stretching and working out to keep the muscles limber. It was cold and breezy out, although not too bad, but I determined the treadmill would be easier on my aching body. I got everything ready, walked five minutes at a slower setting, and then cranked it up for about an hour of running.

I made it two minutes.

The Knee, which as I reported previously had been feeling better, did not feel better. It wasn't a sharp, stinging pain or anything like that. It was more a feeling of something swollen. Every step was painful. I thought about continuing to see if it would work itself out, but two minutes was all I could take. I cut my losses this time.

It's still not horribly bad. I went ahead and walked through an episode of NewsRadio and called it quits. Hopefully a couple of days off will repair the stress I put it under when playing football. I guess at this point I'll have to decide if I want to (figuratively) hang up the cleats the next time we're invited to play or not. Getting old stinks. As I posted elsewhere, it's good that I had fun and played well enough to where I feel like I still have it. The problem is that "it" is more achy and painful afterward and takes longer to recover from than it used to.

Not Too Bad

The cold settled in for the past couple of days, making today kind of iffy as far as being able to run outside. It worked out okay, though, as the sun came out and the remnants of Thursday's snow have almost faded away. The temperature actually climbed into the low 40's today. A slight breeze seemed stronger than it actually was at times, but it wasn't too bad.

The Wife wanted to run today, too, but she had an errand to run and ate lunch later than I did. So we did a run in reverse. I went out and ran for an hour and then came back by the house to pick her up for a three-miler. In total I went 9.25 miles, which I think is the longest run I've had in quite awhile.

The Knee is still feeling pretty good but I still don't think it's ever come back to 100%. I'd give it a good 85-90% of normal right now, which is pretty good compared to how it was in the fall. I still haven't decided on a venue for my next race. I'd like to go to NM in March, but I'm also seeing that gas prices are going to keep skyrocketing. If that's the case then my options for a race will likely be closer to home.

Winter Strikes

The delay in winter is over. Last night the temperature slunk down to the teens and some snow fell. Fortunately it wasn't too much, probably less than an inch, but the wind has just been brutal. So much for running outside, at least for a few days. Today I ran 6 miles on the treadmill, and like I did last week (but didn't write about), I did some fartleks to break up the routine. Last week I did 1-2-3-2-1 fartleks while today I did 1-2-3-4-3-2-1. Along with three episodes of NewsRadio from the third season I made it just fine to head into the weekend.

Talking Too Much

Warning: This post contains sexist stereotypes and comments that will be offensive to some. Especially women. Women who like to talk. But I repeat myself.

Today was another absolutely gorgeous day and I could hardly wait to get home and run. I had to make a detour on the way home to pick up some kids, who happened to be mine, so I was a few minutes later than normal. Mindful of the rapidly setting sun I hurriedly changed into running clothes. The Wife wanted to run, too, so I told her to hustle. We made it out in good time and hit stride at the bottom of the hill.

I was interested in warming up a little since it was colder than I thought. I was glad there was very little breeze, maybe 5 mph at the most, but it was enough to cool me off. I should have worn a cotton shirt over my long-sleeved technical t. The Wife was telling me about the happenings of the day and then moved on to other related stories. As we got close to a mile into our run I realized I wasn't warming up and the sun was headed below the horizon within a short time. Then it hit me: she's talking too much!

I looked at my Garmin and sure enough, our pace was close to 14 minutes/mile. I took the opportunity to give her a bark that would make the Biggest Loser trainers proud (without the cussing). "Pick it up! You're slowing down too much!"

She increased her speed and continued talking. Now, I know women like to talk. It's who they are. But it was clear this was causing her to slow down. After another half mile I prompted her again in the same fashion, "Move it! We're at a 14 minute pace! If we're going to go at that pace we might as well walk!" To her credit she did speed up and we split at just over 2 miles into the run.

By this time the sun was sinking below the horizon and I could feel more frequent pockets of cold air. Passing vehicles didn't help by creating their own temporary breeze. I quickened my pace to get in a tempo run. It was probably a good two miles before I felt warmer. My overall run was 6 miles, as normal, and in spite of the slow beginning I came in at just under 60 minutes for the total time. I decided that wasn't too bad as I kept my tempo pace between 8:30-9 minutes/mile.

I enjoyed running with The Wife, but this is one of those days I could have headed out and been a lot further down the road before the sun went down. But that's okay. It was a worthwhile sacrifice to make in order to spend some time with her. And I would never discourage anyone from running, but I would encourage them to run faster.

Global Warming

Global warming, er...climate change, er...whatever scam is in vogue to funnel money to corrupt politicians these days...well, let's just say that whatever you want to call the warmer winter weather - it rocks! It was another day of running outside in January. In shorts. Amazing. Reminds me of my youth in New Mexico, it does.

It was so nice (how nice was it?) that I set out to run 8 miles and tacked on an extra half-mile and could have gone for more. I saw a lot of people out running today, much more than on most weekends. Looks like the resolutions for the new year are still in force for people, which is good. The warm weather will definitely make it easier for people to enjoy a walk or a run. I'm still waiting for real winter to get here, and it will at some point.

I ran by myself today due to The Wife having hurt her ankle on Thursday evening. Like I said, it felt so good outside that not only did I go a little farther but I also went at a decent clip, finishing the run with about a 9:19/mile overall pace. I didn't set out for a particular goal as far as that goes, but just went with whatever was feeling good. A slight breeze from the north seemed to be pushing against me when running any direction except due south, but it didn't bother me enough to slow my pace. All in all a very good run. I'm thankful for the great weather and wish it would stay this way all winter. It won't, but I'll take what I can get.

Spring in January

I couldn't wait to run today. The temperature was about 60 degrees and just about perfect. It was maybe a little too perfect since on my way home I saw a guy running in shorts and no shirt. Definitely not the norm here in the winter Midwest.

The Wife ran almost three miles with me and there were several other runners out. Once we split routes I took off for a tempo run and did so for three miles. It's funny because yesterday I was reading a bit in that runner's magazine we all read about coming up on somebody to pass them and they speed up. As I crossed the road at one point another guy was running the same way on that sidewalk and I let him go by first. I was running a pretty good clip at that point but he'd doubtless seen me before the turn and I had no idea he was there. We seemed to be running about the same speed but as I got closer he sped up and kept up a faster pace for the next mile and a half. He crossed the road at my turnaround point and ran back up the street on the other side while I stayed on the same sidewalk. I kept up a pretty steady pace, particularly up the hills, and there were a few places where I would expect to have moved in front of him because I was on the inside of the curve. Apparently he sped up because I never got in front of him and by the time we returned to the point we'd first joined up he beat me there. I wasn't racing but I thought it was amusing in light of the article about people who won't let others pass them. He's probably the same when driving, too.

Anyway, it was a great day to enjoy the outdoors. I wore shorts a technical t and it was perfect. I wish this weather would stay all winter but I know that at some point we'll get a big old dose of winter. For now I'm reveling in the warmth.

Breaking Trail in 2012

Three days in and I'm breaking trail in the new year. Sadly, the trail is on the treadmill. I probably could have run outside today but I just didn't feel like battling the wind. It's still unseasonably warm, around 50 degrees for today's high, but it's been awful windy. Thursday is supposed to be warmer and less windy.

I'm considering where and when my next race will be. I'm thinking I'll run a full marathon in both halves of the year, hopefully by April or so in the first half. I'd still like to run the Bataan at WSMR, but that seems soon. I think I can make it, though, as far as being prepared to run. The bigger question will be finances and how much it will cost to get to New Mexico with gas prices still high. And I could certainly go for some chicken enchiladas with sour cream sauce at Margo's. That's motivation enough for just about anybody to run 26.2 miles. Or more.

Final Run of the Year

It's nice to end the year on an up note. Today was great temperature-wise, with a foray into the low 60s. The wind was a brutal sustained 20 mph with gusts much higher than that. The Wife ran the first couple with me and then I carried on for another six to end up with 8 miles total. Fortunately I was running against the wind mostly downhill. Other than that it wasn't really that bothersome.

The Year in Quick Review
I started running marathons in 2007, and this was the first year since then that I did not get to run one. Starting with the heel problems early in the year to the knee problems in the second half, it was not a great running year. I had my best half-marathon in April, but that was the high point. I'm just glad to still be running and enjoying it. Even though it was frustrating at times, especially since I registered for Memphis and ended up having to halt my training, I think about people who have career-ending injuries or who can't run in the first place. So even with a few setbacks I'm thankful that I have the opportunity to continue lacing up my shoes and getting in my runs three times a week. Let's hope I can return to marathoning in 2012. If not I'll still be content with what I can do.

Fartleks=Speed Play

That's what the word is supposed to mean, anyway. In the spirit of speeding up the workouts a little bit, I ran two miles with The Wife and then did some fartleks over the next three before finishing with a normal-paced final mile. It actually was fun to run faster. I picked arbitrary landmarks, like street lights or fire hydrants, as my target for the speedier parts. My pace during the quicker stretches was right at 8 minutes/mile, which wasn't blazing fast but good enough to make me sweat a little.

The temperature was unseasonably warm in the 50's this afternoon. It was really nice outside at lunch but had clouded over by late afternoon. It was still nice enough to go out in longer pants and a long-sleeved technical shirt with no other layers or head covering. I also went without my iPod since I just wanted to enjoy an untethered run, both musically and my running plan. It worked and I feel nice and relaxed. Definitely a successful run.

Speeding It Up

I thought today was going to be an inside running day, and even said so when The Wife called this morning to ask me about it. She was curious because she was going to run with me. However, when I left work it was sunny and the temperature was in the mid-40's. That fact quickly changed my mindset to the possibility of an outside run.

At home I discovered The Wife laid out on the couch, tired from her day. Now that I was running solo I hurried out the door for a brisk warmup walk and then a run a little quicker than normal. The Wife runs at a more relaxed pace, but I've been thinking I needed to kick it up a notch and vary my running a little bit. I've been "stuck" in the easy run mode for the past few months, but then again I've also been stuck in the recovering-from-an-injury mode during that time.

Tonight I set out at a quicker pace. Surprisingly I saw a number of other people out exercising, which was weird due to the stiff breeze and the cool weather. I finished the 6-mile run with an overall pace of 9:12/minute. Not blistering, but definitely faster than I've been running. It felt relaxed, even against the wind. I wasn't sure how today's run would go since I spent most of the day at work moving around carts and sleeving mail trays due to several people being out on one of our busiest production days. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't affect my run, or at least it didn't affect it to where I noticed.