Training for 9/26/14

Yesterday, I wound up not really doing anything other than some yoga. Today, all the rain had cleared up and we had a pretty nice day, so I took Pepper to Trap Pond State Park to run the 4.5-mile trail loop. It was an uneventful but enjoyable run.

Did you know the Marshall University Marathon is only five weeks from Sunday? I need to get on things, particularly these long runs. Tomorrow, I’m doing the 12.2-mile loop. I’d like to get in 14 next weekend, 16 the weekend after that and then 17 or 18. That’ll leave two weeks to taper. That’s the plan at the moment anyway. I’ll see how it actually goes.

This Sunday is one of my favorite days of the year — the second NASCAR race in Dover. Looks like we’ll have another great day for it.

Training for 9/24/14

Last night, after I got home from work, I ran three miles. The weather was pretty much perfect and it was a nice little run. I didn’t time it, but it felt fastish, compared to most of my solo runs lately.

Today, I just did some strength training upstairs, including ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and lifting with the adjustable dumbbells.

Yesterday, we got in the mail a slightly belated anniversary card from my Aunt Helen. Before I opened it, I asked Clark if he thought there’d be a weimaraner, a beer or both on it. She loves to hunt for greeting cards, and just about every holiday, birthday or anniversary card she sends to either of us has at least one of those two things on it.

The answer was:

Both! It’s the second custom made greeting card I’ve gotten from her this year.

I thought the joke was either the married people started looking like each other, or dog owners look like their dogs, but maybe I’m wrong.

Training for 9/23/14

I suppose I should update this thing.

Friday, I did some strength training upstairs, including ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights, and then I took out the bike for a lap around the 4.5-mile loop. It was pretty windy, so it sucked when I had to pedal into it, but of course it all evened out when it was at my back and pushing me along.

Friday was also Clark’s and my fifth wedding anniversary.

Just after the ceremony Sept. 19, 2009.

As has become our tradition, we went to The Brick Hotel on the Circle in Georgetown, where we had our reception, for dinner. We had a good dinner, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately?) no one at any nearby tables ripped a massive fart as they were standing up, like last year haha. That’s still hilarious.

And then we took part in the other half of our annual tradition — we returned to the scene of the crime, the spot on the circle, right across from the hotel, where we held the ceremony, to take a bunch of terrible selfies until we finally gave up and said “Eh, that’s good enough.”

At the same spot after splitting a bottle of wine, Sept. 19, 2014.

Then we went to Mispillion River Brewing in Milford for a couple beers. We came home to find Pepper had not left us an anniversary “gift” in the form of turds to clean up, for once! That’s almost become a tradition too.

Saturday, my foot was feeling so close to normal that I didn’t want to risk setting it back again by running too long on it. So around 12:30 p.m., Clark and I (and Pepper, of course) ran about three miles together. It was surprisingly warm that afternoon.

Later, we went to the beach house. Clark’s parents were there, but they left right after we got there, and took Pepper with them, so we could go out that night and then go surfing the next day.

We went to dinner at this little seafood place called Just Hooked, about a mile from the house in Fenwick. The place was packed, especially for it being the off season. I think we had to wait about 45 minutes to be seated. But the salmon and garlicky spinach I got was really good.

Sunday morning, I went for another easy 3-mile run around Fenwick. It was overcast and not especially hot, but boy was it humid again. It took me about 25 minutes to run, but another hour to stop sweating profusely.

We loaded up two surfboards on the Jeep and drove to Assateague. When we got there, the conditions were not that great. It was really choppy. We saw a few other surfers catching waves, but they looked like they had a much better handle on what they were doing than we did.

We’d driven all the way there though, so we took out our boards. Bad news, I never was able to paddle out all the way past the breakers, which was a loooong way out that day — waves kept crashing and pushing me back, erasing my progress. But! On the bright side, those same conditions a year ago would have kept knocking me off my board, rolling me through the surf and shoving gallons of water up my nose. I’m finally getting better at staying in control and on the board even in the whitewater created when a wave breaks before I can over it. I hardly got any water up my nose Sunday!

It wore me out pretty quickly though. It felt like I’d been paddling as hard as I could for hours when I decided to head back for the beach. I looked at my watch; I’d been out there all of 10 minutes haha. That is hard work!

We hung out on the beach for maybe an hour. It turned into a decent beach day at least.

We left Assateague and stopped at the Ocean City Brewing Company to drink a few beers and watch the Ravens squeak out a win over the Browns. We were going to just head back to the beach house, but I suggested driving up to Indian River instead to check out the surf conditions there.

We got there around 5 p.m. The waves were a lot cleaner. We had more luck. Clark caught a couple, and I was finally able to drop in on a few, but I never quite hauled myself up to a standing position.

I think I might finally get the hang of this surfing thing sometime soon. The water was still warm enough this weekend I didn’t need anything more than a bathing suit and a rash guard, but that’s probably going to change quickly. Luckily, we have the wetsuits, boots, gloves and hoods to keep going well into the fall as the water and the air get colder.

I told Clark next summer we should quit our real jobs, get seasonal jobs at the beach and live in his parents’ beach house so we can go surfing every day. Maybe then I’d finally figure it out!

We went back to the beach house, cleaned up, had dinner at Harpoon Hanna’s, picked up Pepper from Clark’s parents and went home.

Yesterday, I just did the usual strength training, ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights. I thought about getting up early this morning in time to run before my usual Tuesday morning meeting, but naturally I slept in instead. There’s always this evening.

Right now, I’m still planning on getting through the full marathon at Marshall, now less than six weeks away. I did look up the procedure on dropping to the half, should it come to that, and I have until Oct. 26 to make that decision.

Training for 9/18/14

Dogs are the best.

This morning, I got up when Clark got up to feed Pepper. I decided I was going to run something before an interview I’d scheduled for later in the morning. I hadn’t felt like it yesterday, and I still didn’t really feel like it today, but I was going to make myself go.

Then Clark reminded me he was about to leave to go to the beach, as the surf report looked promising. (I’d have gone with him, had I not had that interview.) So I put off my run for about a half-hour, until he’d left, so I could take Pepper with me.

It was an absolutely perfect morning for a run, clear, calm and chilly enough for a light long-sleeved top with my shorts — the total opposite of the sucky weather I’d tried to run through Saturday.

Pepper seemed to be a fan of the weather too. He took off down the road with no complaint (of course, that was probably only because he knew Clark was gone so the alternative was to be in the utility room by himself.)

My foot was bothering me a little bit at first, but it had relaxed by about a half-mile in. The rest of the run was really smooth, and Pepper made sure I held a decent pace for once. The only hiccup was when we passed a roads crew trimming tree branches, and the equipment scared Pepper across a ditch and into someone’s yard haha.

It turned out to be a pretty great run, and the first one in a long time that I was wishing I hadn’t made the turn for home when I did, and had run a longer loop instead.

Sure, some of that was because of the perfect weather and a lot of it was because my foot wasn’t killing me, but a lot of it was also thanks to my favorite four-legged running buddy. He’s a very good dog.

Boof.

Training for 9/16/14

Saturday’s run was kind of miserable. Actually, it was a big ol’ pile of crap.

For starters, based on Friday’s low humidity and coolish temperatures, I expected Saturday to be more of the same. I put on a shirt! OK, a thin tank top, but still. I can’t remember the last time I wore a shirt to run in the middle of the day.

Yes, I waited until almost noon to leave, again. But like I said, nice weather, right? No rush to get started.

Well, something happened between Friday and Saturday. It was not cool and it was not low humidity. As I found out when I looked at the weather when I got home, it was actually nearly 100 percent humidity. The air was thick. Very unpleasant. It’s something I can usually suck up and deal with between about mid-May through August, but when we’re a week out from the calendar start of fall, I’m over it.

Anyway, I’d told Clark I was doing 10.5 miles, so I set off down the road. The first couple of miles didn’t feel too great. Turns out it was my third consecutive day of running. There was a time when I used to run seven days a week, but this ain’t that time. Three days in a row is a lot for me right now, unfortunately.

My legs seemed to loosen up about two miles in, and for a brief time, running didn’t feel too bad.

About three miles in, I passed the ferry, as usual, which was holding its annual festival. Somehow, in the seven Septembers we’ve lived in our house, I’ve never actually seen the festival. We were always either out of town, or I was injured or the ferry wasn’t in operation so they didn’t hold it.

There was a pretty big turnout down there. It looked like a bunch of craft and food vendors and some live music, from what I saw while I was weaving through wandering old people and oblivious little kids.

Once I cleared all that, I was in the swamp. I ran well through this area, but then everything just kind of fell apart, especially my breathing. I felt like I just couldn’t catch my breath in all that humidity.

I took my first of who-knows-how-many walk breaks right around the 4-mile point. They were never long walk breaks, just long enough to get my breathing under control again, but there were plenty of them.

I was sorely tempted to take the next road home, which would have shaved 3.2 miles off the total loop. For some reason, I kept going.

About five miles in, I decided I’d had enough of the shirt. I stopped long enough to tear it off, ball it up and shove it in the waistband of my shorts. I felt a million times better without it clinging to me.

That lasted about another half-mile haha. It was time for the GU and salt cap I’d brought anyway. Fun fact: I’ve been so inconsistent about long runs in the year since I bought a 24-pack of GUs, they’ve expired before I’m even halfway through the box.

I passed up a second shortcut home here, the last possible one. I may have been slow and clunky, but I was at least going to cover the whole 10.5-mile loop.

Eventually, I got home. I was soaked head to toe in nothing but my own sweat (it didn’t start raining finally until AFTER I’d finished, of course) and I was pissed. The whole run just flat-out sucked. Overall, I’d only managed about a 9:30/mile pace.

Runners like to say “You never regret going for that run!” Well, cheerful theory debunked. I seriously regretted that one. It did absolutely nothing to pump up my dismal motivation. If anything, it made it worse. If running is just going to feel like that all the damn time, what’s the point in torturing myself?

I guess I also have to admit my foot is bothering me off and on again. Some days are better than others. Saturday was somewhere in the middle. That’s also not helping anything — who wants to go out for a training run when there’s a chance it’s just going to hurt? And why the hell is the stupid thing hurting again, anyway?

I feel like I’ve been nearly consistently sorta-injured for a year now. Right foot, left calf and now left foot. They’re always just little niggling pains that fade in and out until they explode into “welp, I can’t even walk right now.” That’s yet another factor in my motivation going down the crapper. What’s the point of trying to get into a good training cycle when it’s just going to get derailed by yet another injury?

And why the hell am I so damn fragile now? It’s incredibly frustrating. It’s only been a few years since I was busting out 200-mile months and running seven days a week. I’ve done up to 75 miles in a week with no problem. Now I can barely string together 20.

Well, I don’t have any answers for any of that right now. I spent the rest of Saturday on the couch with Clark and Pepper, drinking seasonal beers.

Sunday was more of that. I’d been planning on it being a rest day, and I stuck to that. NASCAR and more beer.

Yesterday, I didn’t run, but I did do strength training. With Clark. He made me lift more weight and do more reps than I normally do on my own. I fully expect my arms and back in particular to be pretty sore this evening. It usually takes about 24 hours for that to set in.

I’d set my alarm to run before my usual Tuesday morning meeting today, but I woke up two minutes before it was supposed to go off, heard it was pouring outside and turned off the alarm. It’s nice and sunny now, so I’d like to get in a run after work. I’ll see if my foot’s in the mood for it today.

Training for 9/12/14

Yesterday, I again waited until just before sunset to finally go do an easy 3-miler. Simple enough, right?

Had that been my first run ever, I seriously doubt I would ever try it again. Instead, I’d have probably thrown my running shoes in the back of my closet and forgotten the whole business. It was that bad.

I don’t know what the hell I ate yesterday, or the day before, but it was messing with me pretty bad nearly the whole way. I made it to the turnaround at 1.5 miles, and about another mile, with the gut cramps. But then it went beyond gut cramps and escalated into full-scale FIND A BATHROOM NOW mode in about 30 seconds.

Unfortunately for me, it’s harvest time! All my corn fields got mowed down yesterday. So first I had to hack my way into some overgrowth where they cut down a bunch of trees a few years ago. I don’t know how long I was in there, but it felt like a while. I finally emerged and started to make my way home again. By this time, it was nearly dark.

Well wouldn’t you know it, I wasn’t done yet. So, about another quarter-mile down the road (and thus only a quarter-mile from my house, which would have been in plain sight had it not been so close to dark) I had to, for the first time in my life, try to take cover in a soybean field. A freaking soybean field! Luckily, this field had been planted early and is relatively tall for soybean plants, but still. When I was standing up, they only came up to my waist.

The descending darkness helped me here. I was able to crouch down low enough that I was mostly covered, and the fact it was so dark made it hard to see me anyway. I took care of business and started on my way to cover the final quarter-mile home.

I had to walk it though. If I tried to run, I felt like I had to go again immediately. And as soon as I did finally make it home, I had to run for the bathroom.

It was miserable. That last half-mile probably took as long as the first 2.5 miles. I really wish I knew what I ate to cause that, because I’m sure as hell never touching it again.

Today, I had a much more pleasant run, thankfully. It cooled off here quite a bit overnight, so I was able to take Pepper with me for the first time in forever.

He actually seemed to enjoy himself too. He picked up a big stick he’d left near the side steps and carried it the whole way, and he got a treat when we got home. And I didn’t have to use the bathroom once in 4.5 miles.

Tomorrow, I want to do 10 to 12 miles. The surf report is looking OK for late tomorrow afternoon and Sunday morning, so we’re thinking about going down to the beach for that. Other than that, my only plans are to watch the NASCAR race Sunday. The Ravens already crushed the Steelers last night, so I don’t have any particular football games to watch this weekend.

Training for 9/10/14

Today, I did strength training upstairs first, including ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights, and then I went out and rode my bike around the 4.5-mile loop. Nothing else of note!

Training for 9/9/14

I wonder how many people are celebrating their fifth wedding anniversaries today? I just have a feeling 9/9/09 was a popular wedding day. And since our own anniversary is coming up in 10 days, it made me think of it.

Anyway, yesterday kinda got away from me. I’m sure thousands of readers were crushed when I failed to post. Sorry!

Last Friday night, Clark and I went to the beach house. We met his dad and brother there. The plan was to go surfing in the morning, so I didn’t even bring running clothes. Of course, when we got up Saturday and looked at the surf report, there was absolutely nothing happening out there. So we got out the paddleboards and kayak instead. Chad and I were on the paddleboards, while Clark, his dad and Pepper got in the kayak. We all paddled out to the bay, way down past Harpoon Hanna’s and back.

Pepper looked like he didn’t hate it, but Clark said he’d had his claws all the way out the whole time, trying to grip the plastic kayak, and his nub in a cup holder, trying to grip that too haha.

Clark and I went home that afternoon. No, I didn’t run. It was still super hot and humid. Instead, I laid around on the floor until it was time to go to Mike’s house to watch the NASCAR race.

The race was oddly undramatic. Brad Keselowski led most of it and won from the pole. Ryan Newman and Greg Biffle got the final two Chase spots on points.

Sunday morning, I woke up with a bit of a hangover (I had not just one, but two of my favorite pumpkin beers with me the night before, Dogfish Head Punkin Ale and Schlafly Pumpkin Ale.) So I sat around all morning, watching a 1983 movie called “Eddie and the Cruisers.” Then football came on, so I sat around some more.

When the early games were over, Clark told me to go for a run. Well, it was 4:30 p.m. and I hadn’t even cracked a beer yet, so I really didn’t have an excuse. I got dressed and went outside, thinking it was still as hot and humid as it’d been the day before.

I was wrong! Seems the severe storms the night before had washed away all the humidity! It was an absolutely gorgeous, perfect afternoon for a run. I did 4.5 miles. It was the best run I’ve had in a long time! I was really glad Clark made me go out and do that haha. 

Yesterday, I did strength training in the morning — ab exercises, push-ups, invisible chair-sitting and weights. I was thinking about taking Pepper for a short run after, but then it started pouring. And kept pouring, all afternoon. I never went out myself because that dog’s guilt trips over leaving him alone seem to be working better on me lately (or maybe I just like the excuse better lately.) So I just stayed in and did my work. By the time Clark got home, I didn’t have time left to run and take a shower before I had to meet a group of people for an interview at 8 p.m.

This morning, I got up at 6:15 a.m., fed Pepper a little early and then went out for a run before the county meeting, which has resumed its usual every-Tuesday schedule now that the summer’s over. It turned out to be another decent run. The humidity was back, but not the heat, and it was overcast. I did an easy, untimed 5.5 miles.

Ta-da! That’s all I’ve done since last week.

Training for 9/5/14

Today’s run wasn’t completely awful! Probably because I actually left the house to do it before it got too hot for once.

Immediately after I fed Pepper his breakfast, I got dressed and went out for my run. It was clearly on its way to being another hot, sunny day, and the humidity was cranked up, as usual, but it still felt much better than yesterday’s run.

I did an easy, untimed lap around the 4.5-mile loop, and was completely drenched in sweat by the end, but overall much happier. 

I’m not sure what my plan is for this weekend, as far as running goes. According to my training plan, I should be running a 19-miler tomorrow and the first of three 20-milers next weekend, but obviously that’s not happening. Maybe I’ll try to get in the 10.5-mile loop so I can at least say I’m in the double digits again. I’d like to get in at least one 20-miler next month before the marathon.

Other than running, I’m not sure what the plan is either. There’s a very important NASCAR race in Richmond tomorrow night, so I’ll definitely be watching that. There was a rumor that Bobby would have a ride for this race, but that does not appear to be the case. Womp, womp.

Anyway, it occurred to me earlier I never mentioned the hipsters we saw on vacation in Portland! I need to write this down if not just for own my own record-keeping.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of any of these people, but trust me, they were all real.

Sunday, Aug. 24, was the only full day we spent in Portland. We’d just gotten in our rental car and were waiting for Clark’s phone to pull up directions to a brewery we wanted to visit, when we saw three younger guys walk by the car. All hipsters, for sure, especially the one in the middle, who was wearing a T-shirt, cargo shorts and suspenders… that weren’t attached to his shorts in the front OR the back. They were just draped over his shoulders haha.

Then we went to the brewery where, from our seats at the bar, we could see two employees in the back chopping up pounds of bell peppers. One of them had a side mullet. It looked like he’d grown out his hair long, parted it down the middle and then buzzed off one side. Whenever I saw him head-on, it looked like he had his head cocked permanently to one side. One of the top five dumbest hairstyles I’ve ever seen.

When we left the brewery, we were sitting in our car, again waiting for the phone to pull up directions to our next stop. We were parked near a highway off-ramp. We saw an old white Jeep Cherokee, flashers on, go the wrong way up the ramp toward the highway. Clark said it was a hipster, on his way to create an ironic head-on collision, and I imagined him yelling out his window, “WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!! DON’T GO THE DIRECTION ‘THE MAN’ IS TELLING YOU!” as all the people driving the right way swerved to miss him haha. I’m not sure what happened there. The Jeep never came back.

And finally, when we left Voodoo Doughnut that night, a girl asked me if I could spare a dollar or a doughnut. A dollar… or a doughnut. You’re not getting anything from me, hipster hobo! Go stand in line for 30 minutes for the same thing you can get from Dunkin Donuts only priced double yourself.

Here’s a bonus — I found buried in my email yesterday the free picture they took of us at the Space Needle. It’s so fantastically cheesy, I had to post it here.

Guess which one of us didn’t want to pose for this?

I’ll add this one too, since I’m a huge dork in it. This is another one I found long after it’d been taken. It’s from when I visited the Jelly Belly factory in January:

The little paper hat we all had to wear on the tour really makes it!

 

Training for 9/4/14

First of all, I completely forgot about August’s summary at the end of my last post, probably because it was pretty dismal. Anyway, here it is.

Mileage:

• Week 1 (Aug. 1-2): 0 miles
• Week 2 (Aug. 3-9): 0
• Week 3 (Aug. 10-16): 17.7
• Week 4 (Aug. 17-23): 28.6
• Week 5 (Aug. 24-31): 10

Total: 56.3 miles

LAME. Sure, my foot was bothering me those first couple of weeks, but what was my excuse at the end of the month?

As far as racing went, I did that little 1-mile walk with Pepper in Dewey and the prediction 5K in Rehoboth, as well as, of course, Hood to Coast.

Looking ahead to September (well, the rest of it, since it’s already Sept. 4), I have zero races planned. In fact, I’m not signed up for another one until the Baltimore marathon relay Oct. 18. This month, I just need to worry about getting my mileage back up to where I’ll be able to pull off the full marathon in Marshall in a couple of months.

It hasn’t gotten off to a very good start haha. I didn’t run or do anything Tuesday. Yesterday, I waited until dusk to finally go out and run. I did two miles as the sun was setting depressingly early. When I got home, I did ab exercises, push-ups and invisible chair-sitting, but didn’t bother with the weights.

Today, I rode my bike out to the Sharptown Bridge, fully intending to do at least four repeats. I was sucking wind on the first one. I’d waited until pretty late in the morning, so it was really hot and humid, and I was not at all into it. Since I was on the wrong side of the bridge after the first one, I had to at least go back up and over it a second time just to get back to my bike, which I then rode home. One mile ran, 10 biked. Way to go.

I don’t know what’s going on. I feel fine, no aches or pains, and I can’t really complain about jet lag anymore. Maybe it’s coming back to this weather? Every time we’ve gone away during the summer to a place with no humidity, even if it’s just for a few days, when we come back, I feel like I’ve never run in this crap before. Or like I just don’t want to do it again. It didn’t help that we had such a relatively mild summer, and it cranked up to as hot and humid as it’s ever been in the past few years as soon as we got home. It just feels like trying to breathe through a wet sheet over your face.

I think it’s supposed to rain this weekend, and then cool down back into the upper 70s next week. Fingers crossed I get a little motivation back!