Training for 6/30/09

This morning, I did the 4.5-mile loop starting and ending at my house, but instead of doing one set of intervals for about two miles and then running 2.5 miles at a steady pace home, I did both sets of intervals, covering about 3.5 miles and then running the last mile home at a steady pace.

I decided to do this to increase the challenge of my Tuesday run. I’m not running any farther, just harder. This week, I’m ditching weight training on Wednesday for a trail run, in light of how much I enjoyed it last week, and then Thursday will be a tempo run. Right before I got injured, I did intervals on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a tempo run on Wednesday, and I think that might have been too much. I think the trail run in the middle will be a nice, easy run.

Friday and Monday will still be weight training, Saturday will still be the long run and Sunday will still be the rest day.

Anyway, this morning’s run was pretty tough, and I had to take a couple of walk breaks in between the last few intervals. It was also warm and muggy outside, and I think I may need to start taking water with me on my runs. All I could think about the last mile or so was how thirsty I was.

Since today’s the last day of the month, I’ll take a look back at how it went overall.

Mileage:

• Week 1 (June 1-6): 21 miles
• Week 2 (June 7-13): 22 miles
• Week 3 (June 14-20): 0 miles
• Week 4 (June 21-27): 8 miles
• June 28-30: 8 miles

Total: 59 miles

In spite of the injury, which took me completely off running in the third week and severely decreased my running in the fourth as I was recovering, I only ran three fewer miles than in May. I would call this a pretty good increase in average weekly mileage.

Less than 10 weeks until the half marathon! I’m feeling pretty good about it right now.

Training for 6/29/09 and a race report

This morning was weight training, which I had to cut short thanks to an early assignment that turned out to be a complete waste of time. I think I’ll try to finish up tonight after work if it’s not too hot upstairs.

So yesterday was a 5K in Ocean City, and it was not much fun. Several factors conspired against me, and I turned in my worst 5K time ever, 24:58, almost 90 seconds off my best. Blah.

As I’ve extensively chronicled, I’m just coming off a bout of tendinitis in my left foot, and, apart from the trail run I got in last Thursday, the 5K was my first real run in a couple of weeks. And since my new shoes were the cause of the tendinits, I ran in my old, worn out shoes, which reminded me I really need to buy another new pair. Like, today.

The night before was less than restful. We went to Old Mill for dinner, where I didn’t eat crabs (too much work for me, I had salmon instead), but I did help Clark finish off two pitchers of Bud. We then went to a 9:50 p.m. showing of Transformers at the Salisbury theater, where I drank a 32-oz bottle of water in hopes of cancelling out the beer. It was 1:30 a.m. before I got to bed. I had to be up at 6 a.m. to make it to the race.

The morning of the race, I didn’t have any trouble getting out of bed, and I didn’t feel hungover or anything. I thought I’d be fine.

But then there was the actual race. From the first step, I could feel my body just begging me to stop, and for no real reason. My foot didn’t hurt at all (other than the general ache of running in old shoes), but my body was yelling “Are you kidding me? Holy crap, just stop it!”

I tried to concentrate really hard on my form, which I think I managed to hold well in spite of everything, and the thought of laying on the beach and doing NOTHING for the rest of the day.

It worked, and I managed to run the whole thing and not collapse or throw up when it was over. The race was sponsored by the Greene Turtle West, and started and ended there, so there was free beer and chicken wings at the after party. I skipped the wings and had a banana instead, but I did drink some beer, after drinking some more sensible water and sports drinks.

So I had a bad race. Boo hoo. There’s a million 5Ks out there on any given weekend, so there’s always next time.

The rest of the day made up for it. It was perfect beach weather and the water wasn’t too cold. We had lunch at the Greene Turtle on 116th Street while watching the first half of the NASCAR race.

Plus, there was one funny part of the whole race. After it was over, Clark went to toss an empty water cup in a trash can, and this little kid ran over to puke in the can at the same moment. Clark came within inches of getting his hand covered in vomit, and he didn’t even run.

Training for 6/26/09

This morning was weight training. It was already a bit steamy in the upstairs room at 8 a.m., since it was already 85 degrees outside. Plus I had to do traveling lunges today (way too much effort required in that much heat). Put that together and you get a sluggish workout.

Tomorrow will be my rest day, since I’ve registered for a 5K in Ocean City on Sunday morning. I was hoping to beat my PR, 23:42, which I set May 17, but I think I’m going to take it easy on my foot. I think it deserves it after I unknowingly tortured it for a month in evil shoes.

Speaking of those evil shoes, someone responded to my ad in the WBOC classifieds, so I might be able to get rid of them this weekend. Good riddance!

Training for 6/25/09

I think I can say, without a doubt, those Nikes were the source of my tendinitis.

This morning, I wore my old New Balances for the first time in a month and ran a little more than a half hour on a cross country trail, probably about 3.5 miles. Guess what? No pain at all in that foot. It probably helped some that I was running on dirt instead of asphalt, but it couldn’t have made that big a difference.

When I got back to my car and took off the shoes, there was a little twinge still when I walked barefoot, so I took an Aleve and iced the ankle when I got home, and now it feels fine.

This is good news and bad news. The good news is that I know why I got tendinitis, and it’s a pretty easy fix — just stop wearing those Nikes. The bad news is I’m out the $87 I paid for those things. And I should probably buy another new pair of shoes (New Balances, of course) since the old pair is, in fact, pretty old.

The moral of the story? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I should have just bought another pair of New Balances last month and avoided the whole thing.

Besides the thrill of running for the first time in a few weeks without grimacing in pain every time my left foot hit the ground, this morning’s run was also nice because it was a good change of scenery and I haven’t run on a trail in a couple of years. I was planning on doing one loop around the course, which would have been 3.1 miles, but it was poorly marked and there seemed to be unrelated trails that shot out in wrong directions. At one point I was running up someone’s lane. Later I passed by a substation.

I consider this morning’s run an all-around success, and I’m now feeling better about my chances of finishing the 5K on Sunday morning. A week ago, I was worried my foot wouldn’t hold up.

Training for 6/24/09

Today’s training was basically a flop. I lift weights on Wednesdays, but I had an early assignment this morning, so I was only able to do half of it. A month ago, I would have just done it after work, but it’s getting hot upstairs during the day due to the lack of insulation and it doesn’t cool down until kind of late. I have no motivation to work out when I’d rather be lounging in front of the TV or in bed. So I figured half a workout was better than no workout.

Clark suggested I cut back a bit on all the weight training anyway since I’m running more for the half in September. He thinks I’m not resting enough, and that contributed to the tendinitis in my left foot that is still kind of bothering me. I think my new shoes did it. I’ve been running in New Balances, injury-free, for several years now, but bought a pair of Nikes a month ago. Then this pain gradually appears in my left foot over the past three weeks and eventually becomes tendinitis.

It could be pure coincidence that I bought those shoes as I was drastically increasing my mileage, but I’ve decided to try a short trail run in my old New Balances tomorrow morning to see if they feel any better. Either way, those Nikes are for sale on craigslist (they’re an 8.5 and only have 65 miles on them if anyone’s interested) and I’d like to get a new pair of New Balances. Running shoes are just so ridiculously expensive, and most are only good for 300-350 miles.

I also bought a bottle of Aleve today for the swelling in the tendon. A week ago, a doctor gave me a prescription for Naproxen, but Aleve is over-the-counter naproxen sodium and, at $7 for 50 tablets, probably much cheaper than the prescription.

I still haven’t cancelled that appointment with the orthopedic doctor for next Thursday, just in case, but I don’t think it will be necessary.

Training for 6/23/09

This morning was my first run in 10 days, since the whole tendinitis thing cropped up in my left foot, and I might have made a mistake.

I made it through 4.5 miles, including speed intervals for the first two miles, but I don’t think my foot was as completely healed as I thought it was yesterday. I wound up walking the last half mile or so, and the ankle support on my left foot seemed to do more harm than good — it put a lot of pressure on other parts of the foot and made them hurt too.

When I made it back home, I iced and heated the tendon, and I can walk on it fine, but I can still definitely feel some soreness there.

It’s just frustrating. I’m not really sure what to do now. I’m registered for a 5K in Ocean City on Sunday morning, so maybe I should stay off my foot until then. But it felt so nice to actually run again this morning, I don’t know if I can be that smart.

Training for 6/22/09 plus general whining

This morning, I managed to do my normal Monday morning weight training, which put me in an extremely good mood, and I’ll tell you why.

Last week SUCKED. After I ran seven miles on June 13, a Saturday, there was a definite twinge in my left ankle area, on the outside of the foot. Since I don’t normally run on Sundays or Mondays, I figured the ankle would get to rest for two days and be back to normal by Tuesday morning. I got up early Tuesday morning and left for a five miler, but made it about a tenth of a mile before hobbling back to the house. When the same thing happened the next morning, I went to the doctor.

Turned out it was tendinitis, or an inflamed tendon running from my left leg bone down to a foot bone. I was worried I had a stress fracture, but several X-rays showed no cracks or chips on any of the bones.

The doctor gave me this boot that went up to my knee to keep the entire foot stabilized (he wanted to give me crutches too, but I thought that was a little overkill) and a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, which I didn’t bother to fill.

For the rest of the week, I puttered around in my boot and periodically put ice and a heating pad on the tendon.

I was already pissed that my crappy job had placed me on furlough for the week and somehow unemployment benefits managed to pay me significantly less than I earn in a week, and not being able to run only pissed me off more.

Plus it rained. Every. Single. Day.

That’s why I was so thrilled this morning when I was able to work out without pain. I bought an ankle support over the weekend, and it seemed to help. I even did a little “jog” around the room, just to test out the tendon, and there was no pain in that foot!

So I’m back at work, the sun is shining (of course) and I’m confident I can get in a run tomorrow morning.

Training for 6/12/09

This morning was strength training on the weight bench upstairs. Summer is fast approaching, and the uninsulated, unfinished upstairs room is getting warmer earlier every day. At the height of the summer last year, it was unbearable up there by 9 a.m.

Anyway, the workout was pretty run-of-the-mill, but I had to skip the traveling lunges because I ripped off a callous on the bottom of my left foot last night, exposing some very raw, sore skin that hurt when it rubbed against my shoe when walking. I’m getting some Band-Aids tonight (I can’t believe we’ve lived in this house for more than a year and this is the first time I’ve needed a Band-Aid!) A stupid callous will not stop my 7-mile run tomorrow morning.

Next week will be light on new posts. Everyone in this company has been forced to take off a week without pay so the company can pay down some stupid debt before the start of the new fiscal year July 1. So I won’t be stuck at my desk all week, and I won’t have internet access either.

See you June 22.

Training for 6/11/09

This morning was breezy and a bit warm, but overall a good day for a run.

I started with a short walk and then a 2-minute jog to warm up. The next two miles consisted of speed intervals, or, as they’re technically referred to by “real” runners, fartleks, which is a Swedish word meaning “speed play.” Fartleks are based on the same premise as high intensity interval training, or HIIT, which is the idea of combining periods of hard running or flat-out sprinting with recovery periods of jogging. The point is to train your heart and breathing to regain control after being elevated, for instance, by a steep incline.

I generally prefer to call them intervals, because my juvenile sense of humor won’t let me say the word “fartlek” without giggling.

Anyway, the intervals I run are from a book Clark bought a few years ago, “The Abs Diet,” which is now a huge joke in our family because of the extremes to which Clark has taken what’s written in this book in the past. Not so much the exercise, but the brief nutrition part at the beginning.

This particular set of intervals starts with a 2-minute hard run, then a 2-minute jog, and repeat. Then you run five 30-second intervals of hard running with 30 seconds of recovery jogging in between.

For me, that covered about two miles. Then I walked for two minutes before running the rest of the way home at a steady, comfortable pace. That was about 3.3 miles. Overall, I did 5.3 miles this morning.

I’m looking forward to my day off from running tomorrow before my 7-miler Saturday morning. Tomorrow is strength training.

Training for 6/10/09

This morning I learned I am terrible at pacing.

A tempo run is designed to help you find your race pace and train your body to keep up a challenging speed over a long distance. Tempo runs are integral to training for any distance race.

A classic tempo run would be 15 minutes at a slow, comfortable pace; 20 minutes at a fast, challenging pace — or your race pace; and then 15 minutes at the original pace.

My goal is to run a half marathon, or 13.1 miles, in 1:50:00 on Sept. 6. That’s about an 8:23/mile pace. Since I’m pretty new to these tempo runs, I made up a shorter version: One mile at 9:00/mile pace, two miles at 8:23/mile pace, and a final mile at the 9:00/mile pace.

The first time I did this was on a treadmill last Friday. I exclusively run outside, because I’m too cheap to join a gym, but my friend had invited me to her gym since we both had a half-day at work. It’s really easy to pace yourself on a treadmill. Just punch in some numbers and it sets the pace for you.

This morning, I was on my own. At the end of the first mile, I was literally shuffling along the last 25 seconds, trying to stretch it out to nine minutes. Then it was time for my “comfortably hard” miles. Remember how they were supposed to be 8:23 each? Ha. The first one flew by in 7:11. I tried to slow it down for the second, but only got it down to 7:30 or so. The fourth mile was supposed to be nine minutes, but even it clocked in at about 8:30.

Don’t be terribly impressed. There’s no way I could keep up that 7:11/mile pace for 13.1 miles. That’s why I’m trying to find the pace that will get me to the finish line in 1:50:00.

So that’s something to work on.

After the run, I did a set of weight-training exercises. My Wednesday routine is the least challenging of the three days of weight-training I do weekly, and I only did half the sets I normally would as I was tight on time, so that was pretty easy.

Overall, I was happy with the workout. There is some slight pain in my left foot, sort of on the side of the heel. It’s not my Achilles’ tendon; it feels almost like the bone is bruised or something. I can only pinpoint the ache if I squeeze the back of the heel.

Otherwise, I feel great, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s 5.3-mile combo run of fartleks and an easy, steady pace.