Bouncing back from an injury is always a tough process. On the one hand you want to get back as soon as possible. On the other hand you don’t want to start too soon and set yourself back. And in some freakish odd cases, on the third hand you don’t want to get back to it at all because you like sleeping in. Fortunately I only have two hands, so that alien third option didn’t apply to me this time.
running
Son of a…
Ok, I’ve been trying to get this post out the door for almost a week, so bear with me if it gets a little concise towards the end…
As I alluded to in my Week 7 Recap, things haven’t been going according to plan. If you’ll remember, I shifted my schedule by a day to accommodate life getting in the way. Because I had to work Saturday morning (fail), my long run found itself set for Sunday. Well, Saturday morning I woke up early, slid out of bed, and nearly fell over. Son of a fish… My left foot sent a piercing stab of pain screaming from the floor up to my brain as if I stepped on a bolt of lightning.
Pain – Week 7 Review
Last week, the seventh to be exact, was a bit of a roller coaster, eventually ending in a derailment and horrible crash. Through six weeks I was pleased with my progress. Holding a streak of 28 straight scheduled runs had my spirits up and I was making solid progress. Week 7 offered my first real “long” run of 18 miles. Overall the week was shaping up nicely and set to be my first 50 miler in awhile.
Cutback – Week 6 Review
In the world of marathon training, there are a few common practices: run progressively ridiculous-er distances, eat exceedingly cornucopia-er amounts of food, and (ideally) dreamier hours of sleep. But with all this excess there is some moderation to be found. Week 6 is what I call a cutback week: after weeks of incremental increments, weekly mileage is decremented to offer some refuge from the battery of fatigue-inducing pavement pounding.
When Life Gets in the Way
I’m pretty good about striking a balance between running and the more important rest of my life. On occasion,though, something has to give, and I think the picture below gives a pretty good idea of how it generally shakes out. That’s just fine though, as far as running goes on my priority list, I’m not sure it even cracks the top 5. It’s all about hitting that balance that allows me to run as often as I do (which provides you the good fortune to read this blog!).
The Boulder is a Metaphor for Life; the Road is a Metaphor for Running
Bring on the Heat!
Sunday I ran the Hottest Half Marathon in Dallas, as determined by you the people in my poll. To get it out of the way, I was promised hot, and it was hot. Ohhh it was hot.
Start: ~84 feels like 90 | Finish: ~90 feels like 99
Meh – Week 5 Review
Ah, Week 5, what can I say about you? Not much. Monday was tough, Tuesday was fine, Wednesday was typical, Friday was extended, and Saturday, well Saturday is noteworthy.
In fact, it was noteworthy because I didn’t run at all on Saturday. Instead of 16 scheduled miles, I ran zero. How can that be?
Continue reading
Shoe Don’t Know Me!
I’ll be honest, sometimes my post titles are totally focused on making a pun and completely off topic. I guess I worked the word “shoe” in there. I’m not sure if I mentioned it in a previous post and I’m too lazy to check, so I’ll repeat myself or tell you for the first time. Not long before leaving DC for the great nation of Texas, I made the transition from the super clunky, kill-an-ant-with-a-Sherman-tank motion control shoe (the Beast) to a slightly less gigantic shoe (the Adrenaline). I like the Adrenalines, so last week I ordered my second pair.
I didn’t realize exactly how much wear and tear they were taking until I put the new next to the old. Granted, they are different colors, but the old ones were originally white, whereas the new ones are originally gray. Can you tell which is which?
And if you’re wondering, those red laces are from Nike to fight AIDS in Africa, something we can all get behind. Boo AIDS!
If you’re having a particularly “wondering” kind of day, this is what the old ones looked like before the abuse, you know, in case you were wondering.
Time to start wearing down the new pair ASAP!
Flawless – Week 4 Recap
Ah, perfection. It comes pretty naturally to me. Through 4 weeks, I haven’t missed a single training run! I owe most of that to you, my dear reader, for holding me accountable. On more than one occasion I found myself on the “skip today’s run” side of the fence, but knowing you would heckle me to no end, I hopped the fence (with only a few minor injuries, mind you) and got myself out there.
Week 3 Recap
Now we’re really getting into this training thing. It’s week 3 and I’ve upgraded to 5 days per week. The 40 39.93-miles-per-week boat has also set sail.
I see a theme developing with the Monday runs: uneventful, middle-distance, snooze-fest. I have a feeling the updates for these are going to be brief and uninspiring. Or nonexistent.
Tuesday: more boring, lack-of-update update. It’s early in this Weekly Recap thing, but I definitely think it’ll evolve into brief, heart-warming snippets, rather than forced, lackluster summaries. Like this one. Sigh.
We ran to work again on Wednesday. This time I held my own a little better. I felt like I was running with the group instead of just trying to keep up. It turned out to be Tim’s last run to work before he relocates to Malaysia. The skeptic in me thinks I was brought in as a replacement, but I’m ok with that.
Friday showed me exactly how close I can get to skipping a run but still pull myself out of bed. So close, in fact, that while I was taking the dog on her pre-run walk, I was scheming how I could go back to bed and run later in the day. To be honest, this very post is what gave me the final kick out from under the covers. I didn’t want to have to explain why I didn’t run to you all …you.
And finally Saturday. Oh Saturday, you hurt me good. Tempo run? Hill workout? Long run? Check. Check. Check. Running with this group of guys is proving intense! We headed out for 14 miles (per my request) and, as most of the routes done with the group, I was unfamiliar with where we were going. I should have known Mount Bonnell wasn’t going to be a party, unless your idea of a party is running up a steep hill, followed by a steeper hill, followed by stairs to the moon… all after having already run 8 miles. Woo. Needless to say, I was spent after that. Good stuff.
Actual Stairs
As you know, a founding principle of this blog is to innovate. That actually doesn’t sound right, but let’s go with it. I’ve linked each day of the week in the table to provide an onslaught of data at your disposal. It will even show a map of where I went, though none will be as amazing as this one. Just click the day of the week and hold on with all you got. Week 4 here I come!
| Distance | Time | Pace | Heart Rate | |
| Monday | 8.17 Miles | 1:07:55 | 8:17 min/mi | 155 bpm |
| Tuesday | 4.00 Miles | 38:51 | 9:42 min/mi | 137 bpm |
| Wednesday | 9.70 Miles | 1:17:01 | 7:56 min/mi | 158 bpm |
| Friday | 4.03 Miles | 38:31 | 9:34 min/mi | 141 bpm |
| Saturday | 14.03 Miles | 1:48:20 | 7:43 min/mi | 164 bpm |
| Total | 39.93 Miles | 5:30:38 | 8:16 min/mi | 155 bpm |