Sometimes you're the windshield, Sometimes you're the bug....

Sunday was my day for an 8 mile long run. I have been slowly moving the mileage of my long runs up and beginning to move into marathon training mode. MCM is now less than 27 weeks away. Time to be building my base. Shirley is helping me plan a good training program to aim me toward a 5 hour marathon.

Saturday was a fun day. My daughter had a great time with her friends celebrating her birthday with a bowling party. A few of us adults joined in the fun and rented a lane to bowl a few games. Unlike Susan, I am not (nor have I ever been) an accomplished bowler. I rent my shoes and hope to find a ball that is light enough for my weak arms to roll but with finger holes bigger than a 10 year olds....I ended up with a decent fitting 10 pounder. I bowled three games - the first I scored a 99. The second was something like 82. By the third frame of the third game I had bowled 4 gutters. The guys offered to put the rails up for me but I declined. I managed to pick up the pace a bit with a couple of strikes and a spare to bring my final score to 100. At least I got to 100 (you must realize I bowl about 3 times a year and my career high bowling game is around 135).

The real significance of the bowling was not my dismal scores. It was the muscles in my legs (and arm) that were exercised that normally are not stressed. So when I got up on Sunday morning for my run, my left shin muscles were sore. I am guessing this is from having the left leg support my entire body weight as I bend my left knee and lean down to bowl while my right leg flails awkwardly behind and to the left of me.

Add to the bowling factor that I had not gotten a decent night's sleep for most of last week. Even after sleeping 8 hours on Sat night, I felt pretty tired when I rolled out of bed around 9 am (yep, to bed late again and sleeping in). But, it was time to run and I figured I would wake up after I got going.

Well.....I didn't really "wake" up during the run. I felt tired the entire time. My heart rate rose early in the run and by the end of the first mile I was running anaerobically (for me that is over 162 bpm), in spite of trying to take it easy. By the time I got out on the road (around 9:40am) the sun was well up and it was pretty warm.

So Sunday, I was the bug...feeling kind of smushed as I ran. I thought about cutting the run short, but I was determined to finish the 8 or so miles if I had to walk it (and I had to walk more than I wanted to). The results:

Mile 1: 11:12
Mile 2: 11:44
Mile 3: 12:13
Mile 4: 12:42
Mile 5: 12:58
Mile 6: 12:32
Mile 7: 13:07
Last .88: 12:01

7.88 miles in 1:38:34, average pace 12:30, avg heart rate 166 bpm

I was tired and sun baked (thank goodness for Bull Frog). As soon as I got home, I showered and it was off to go fishing. Needless to say by the time I got home again, I had my fill of sun. Now don't get me wrong. I live in the "sunshine state" and I love the sun - but 4-5 hours in a stretch is a bit much for me to be in it. And I still felt kind of tired. However, this was nothing a nap couldn't cure. So I took a Sunday afternoon snoozer.

Today was my running rest day. Tomorrow a 4 miler before work. So off to bed I go :-)

Running Adventures Episode 3 - The Winter Park Road Race

"We can live lifetimes in a single day
No matter what you do, I love you anyway
You say if you're lost inside; well, I get lonely, too
Even in the worst of times, I give my best to you"
Sheryl Crow in "Lifetimes"

This episode focuses on the Winter Park Road Race, 2 miler and 10K, run on March 24th. My daughter ran the 2 mile race then I ran the 10K. Later we did a training run where my daughter shares her facts about insects including the Bombardier Beetle and certain special types of ants.

Animal research requests can be made to marathonchris@gmail.com

Featured music this week from the Podshow Podsafe Music Network includes:
"Friend" by Robert Costlow
"Whita" by David Gunn
"Run" by Mieka Pauley

The opening music is "Super soul" by 4saisonz and the closing theme is "Adventures of the Deaf Dreamer" by Josh Woodward.

Other mentions this week:

Nigel from Running From the Reaper
Adam from Burning 20

And some of my blogging friends: Susan, Maddy, Shirley, Kevin, Kyle and Petra

Enjoy!

Corporate 5K and Meeting Maddy (again)!

What a super night!! The race results have already been posted and Maddy's team and my team took first place in our respective divisions!!

The weather was perfect for the event. Perhaps a tad warm but not humid and with a breeze. The race start seemed to go much more smoothly this year, but even though I was within reasonable distance of the starting line, it still took me 2 and a half minutes to get to get there.

My daughter (who was celebrating her 12th birthday) and I ran the 5K together. She had some tough moments but she hung in there. Then in the last stretch, totally outran me to the finish. Our time last year was around 47 min. Our goal was to do 45 min or better. Our final clock (not net) time was 43:50 min :-).

Maddy had an awesome finish time as well, but I will let her report her race on her blog. It was great seeing her again - and this time I got a picture.

My job as captain and team coordinator went well. 75 people registered and at least 60+ arrived and participated. Everyone had a great time eating, drinking and enjoying spending time together before and after the race. I am looking forward to recruiting a bigger team for next year. In my spare time of course!!!

Purges, Running and a Corporate 5K

Time for a quick post. Last weekend I missed out on my long run, doing a gallbladder / liver purge. This was one of those homeopathic approaches to cleaning up your digestive system. Without getting into details, lets just say that I spent Sunday in bed (as well as part of Mon morning). The good news is I am feeling just fine today. I am not sure if the purge did it's thing, but so far I am doing great.

Feeling better, I got up early this morning for a 4 mile run. I took it easy since I was still not sure how I was after the purge. I did just fine with the following splits:

Mile 1: 11:01
Mile 2: 11:24
Mile 3: 11:32
Mile 4: 11:02

Total: 4.03 miles / 45:19 min / 11:14 min pace
Avg HR: 160 bpm

It felt really good - and the weather was perfect. Sunny skies and 58 degrees.

Corporate 5K: As captain of my Corp 5K team, I was busy today getting race packets together for pickup in time for the Thursday evening event. I had the help from a few fellow runner / team mates stuffing envelopes with 2 t-shirts (the race shirt and our team shirt) race information and race numbers. We had 73 people register for the event! I finally got the food ordered today and have started to review last minute details. It can be hectic, but we have a lot of fun. I am hoping to run into Maddy again - this time with camera in hand!

Still working on Episode 3 - hoping to get it out by the end of the weekend. Older daughter's birthday coming up so that will keep things busy!

Run strong!

Another Good Run Today

Although my cold is not completely cleared, it has not progressed beyond a head cold, so I decided to get up early for my run. Early, because the forecast called for 85 degrees today (yes, it is very warm and sunny here - I wish I could send 10 or 15 degrees up north for those of you dealing with the cold weather). I wanted to run while it was still cool and I had a busy day ahead.

So I rolled out of bed around 6:20 am. This was significant since yesterday I could hardly get myself out of bed at 7:30 am. But today, I felt "normal" about getting up (normal means that given the choice I would like to sleep in, but it wasn't too hard to get up...if you know what I mean). Anyway, the temperature was about 52 degrees and the sun was just making its way up.

I set off for a 3 to 4 mile run. I felt great and the temperature made the run easy. I felt so good I almost went for 5 miles, but made my turn for a 4.5 mile run to save a little time. I ran the entire distance without walking breaks and mostly in my aerobic zone:

Mile 1: 11:24
Mile 2: 11:29
Mile 3: 11:33
Mile 4: 11:06
Mile 4.5: 5:41

Total: 4.54 miles, 51:14 min
Avg pace 11:17 min/mile
Avg heart rate: 158 bpm

This is a good sign! One of my goals this year is to get my marathon time under 5 hours. That would be an 11:27 min/mile pace. I am on my way to that goal. Practicing my running at an aerobic pace seems to be paying off by extending the time I can keep my heart rate in the aerobic zone. As I shed the cold and my foot continues to improve, I am hoping to do more tempo runs and some speed work. The other goal this year is a sub-30 min 5K.

What a great way to start the day!! After that things went downhill, or so it seemed. I had to turn around half a mile down the road on my way to work because I forgot something, then arriving at work realizing I left my computer home.

I don't know about you, but I can practically do nothing without my computer. After such a great run, it seemed odd that I could be so forgetful. I attended a few meetings and just decided to head home and work from there for the rest of the afternoon (perhaps this was not such a bad deal afterall).

It's off to see the younger daughter's soccer game this evening, followed by some more time with visiting family from NY.

Best wishes to Irish Blue for a great race tomorrow!!!! She is going to rock that 13.1 mile course. A little cool weather can't stop her!! Maddy and I will send up some warmer weather :-)