Good Month, New Injury?

I am having a really good month of running this June so what better way to ruin it that worry about a possible new issue with my body. I ran 8 miles today before my volleyball match. I did it at a good pace of an average of 8:25. But now I am experiencing some new pain. Well, actually I have felt it for about a month but today it was its worse. It is my right ankle. Over the last month, it sort of felt like I has twisted or sprained it and it is now recovering type feeling. I feel it when I start running and it goes away and then I feel it after I am done. At first I contributed this to my old running shoes. I thought that after a new pair of non worn out shoes would do the trick and at first I thought it worked, but after this weekends 17 miler it felt sore again. Then today it was sore the entire 8 miles. It didn't help playing sand volleyball afterwards but I had to play for the team. I am hoping this is temporary and will go away real soon as I want to still increase my mileage to close to 50 miles per week but I am beginning to worry about this. I am due for a physical so maybe I will make an appointment and have this checked out as well. I have an ice pack on it now so maybe that will help. I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV so I think I will leave this one up to the experts.

Cooler by the Lake

It has been hot here in Wisconsin this week so for my weekend log run, I wanted to go somewhere where it was a little cooler. Well, when you live by a lake as large as Lake Michigan, you learn that during the summertime, it can be cooler near the lake. Sometimes by as much as 10 to 15 degrees if the wind is right. So Paul I met Paul early this morning for our run right along the lake.

Paul was only going 10 miles and I wanted to go 15 to 17 so we parked his car where mile 10 would be and I drove us to where we would start. While is was cooler, about 65 to 70F at the start, it was still humid. We started out a little slower and by mile 5 we were averaging 8:46 but i was starting to feel good so we picked it up to close to 8:15 to 8:20 pace. At about 7.5 miles, we turned around and headed back and Paul picked it up more and I tried to hang on. He only had less than 3 miles to go and I had 9 or so but I kept with him anyways as we clipped off 2 miles at 7:38 & 7:49.

After Paul stopped and I continued on after a brief walk break, my goal was to finish the final 6.5 miles to average the entire run at 8:30. I felt sluggish for 2 or so miles and I was thinking maybe those 2 miles fast were a bad idea. I did recover though and dropped it back to 8:30's. By mile 13, I noticed a problem with my sweat soaked shirt. I had not put on band aid and now I had a red mark on my shirt from a bloody nipple. I know that may sound gross to a non runner, but most of you runner understand this if not having experienced it once in your lives. I really wanted to take my shirt off and run to stop further chaffing but I was wearing my fuel belt and without a shirt, that would have caused more problems on my back and sides. Just gut it out until mile 15!

At mile 14, a passed another runner who stopped me to ask if there was any water on the trail as he hasn't ever run here before. I said I hadn't seen any fountains (bubblers here in WI) but offered him some of mine since I had some extra. He took some and off we both continued in different directions.

I arrived back at my car at 15.3 miles but wanted to continue for a full 17 miles. I dropped the fuel belt at the car which allowed me to take my shirt off. That helped a lot plus suddenly I felt a little lighter. I finished to run still feeling like I could have kept up that pace for a least a few more miles. So all in all, it was a good run this morning. I wouldn't give it an A+, but maybe an A- or B+. I got in an ever 40 miles now for the week and maybe I will get a few more in at the Family Fun Run tomorrow evening.

H-H-H-H-H-HOT ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I am not a hot and humid type of runner. Usually when it gets very hot, my times suffer, especially when it is humid. Well, yesterday’s run was hot and humid. By far the hottest day we have had this year in Wisconsin. I waited to run until 6:45PM but it was still 93F out and very humid. Good practice weather!

I don’t usually take water with me on a short 5 miler but I decided to based on the heat. I took my fuel belt 16 oz water with me and filled it with 8 or 9 large ice cubes and the cold water. I figured I would drink every mile and that is what I did. My hand was actually quite cold the first half mile and I needed to switch hands because of that. By about 2 ¼ miles into the run though, all the ice was gone and only water left. By the end of the run, the water was warm but thankfully still wet. Surprise, surprise, my time was not nearly as slow as I thought it would be. I averaged 8:36 pace but my shirt was completely soaked and I could have ringed it out when I was done. It took me a good 45 minutes in the air conditioned house with a fan blowing on me to cool myself enough to stop sweating. My man stink must have been at epic proportions. It was a good run though. I plan on doing another 5 this evening as well and it is in the 90’s again today. I will bring the water again!

I did run 7 on Monday but that was in the morning before I went to the charity golf outing I play in every year. It is a best ball format so my team did not too bad. We shot -9 for 18 holes. I had a lot of crappy shots and a few I pulled out of no where to save the hole. I even put in $5 to play “Beat the Pro” on a 170 yard par 3. He shot first and put it 15 feet from the cup. Oh great, not shot for me now. But somehow I had the shot of the day for me and put my ball 4 or 5 feet from the hole to beat him. I won a $15 gift card for a local grocery store so all is good!

I know there is heat all over the country recently. Keep running everyone but keep it safe and know the signs as to when to slow down. Take these days to slow down and enjoy the scenery.

The Week in Review

It has been one heck of a week. Busy, Busty, Busy. Sorry for the lack of posts but other things have taken priority, I hope yu understand. OK, here is the week in review.

Tuesday was so busy, I was unable to get a run in.

Wednesday I bought a new car. OK, technically it is not new, but it is new to me. A 2005 Chrysler Sebring with 36,000 miles. The color is called Jade but it really is mostly silver with a touch of green color to it. It has replaced the Sentra that had over 167K miles. Now I have a CD player that works, heat, A/C, a driver window that does go back up, and a fan that doesn't only go on full. These were a few of the problems in the Sentra. I also got in a 7 mile run that evening along the New Berlin Trail at 8:38 pace. It is finally starting to get warmer here in Wisconsin.

Thursday was Hills. I went to the big Mountain Rd hill in Waterford for 5 reps up. It was very muggy and hot out. Maybe not as hot as in the Mid south but hot compared to what we have had recently. The hills went good but not great. It was a good workout.

Friday was swim class for Melissa. She has passed to level 4 and can almost swim all by herself. After class was a quick 5 miler. I decided to run at the track while the Relay for Life was going on. It was fun seeing all the walkers supporting a good cause. There fervor didn't last long though and in my last mile, it began to rain and then pour when I finished. I was soaked and so were they. It rained for the next few hours and we even had storms last night so there was not much walking going on I assume. I ended up going 5 miles at 8:20 pace. I felt good but had to wake up early for a long on Saturday.

Saturday (today) had a long run planned. I wanted to go 15 or 16. I left home at 5:30 and it was very humid out from last nights rain. The roads were wet then entire run even with the sun shining and no clouds. Almost all the walkers were gone as I passed the track and no music playing. I started out OK but after 4 miles, the humidity got to me and my pace slowed to the low to mid 9:00's for the next 7 miles. I didn't feel too motivated today and even changed the run to a 13.2 miler halfway through. At mile 11, my average pace was 9:11 and I was at the highest point of the run. I had a nice hill down and after a Gu 2 miles earlier, I finally felt OK. I cruised that mile in 8:11 and was now determined to get the average pace under 9:00. I do not know off hand what mile 13 was, but it must have been good as I finished at an average of 8:58.

Now I am at work for a few hours catching up and getting ahead as I am off on Monday at a Charity Golf Outing. It is one of two times I play all year anymore. I really like to play golf but running has taken the time priority. This outing is up to $135 but it is for a good cause and I have played in it for over 10 years now.

I am sending a "Good Luck" out to Melanie as she leaves for the UK and will be running a race in London on July 4th. How cool is that!!! Have a great vacation.

Volleyball has Started

Yesterday was my first Volleyball match of the year. The first match was 2 weeks ago but I completely forgot about it and missed it. Last week was rained out as the courts were soggy piles of sand. But I made it yesterday and we played against some young kids (18 to 22ish) that have talent but don’t play well as a team. We won 2 out of 3.

After V-Ball, I went on my run like I have after or before V-Ball for years now. I went to a 7 mile run and kept a good 8:27 pace. It is a nice place to run as about 1 mile away is a river with a river walk that goes for about 1.5 miles. So I run to there and past there and then back. A nice sized steep hill with 1 mile to go tests the run as well. I felt good even though V-Ball showed me that I am old to move like that diving in the sand all over. We still have fun.

Tonight is the first big final event planning meeting for the Kid’s Marathon. We will be finalizing the color of the shirt, what will be on it, and where the sponsors will be located. We will go over the budget and start planning everything we need for the final day. We will also start a list as to where we need volunteers and how many. I still have a few late registrations coming in so hopefully that finishes or they just won’t get a shirt. Latest count on entrants is just under 150 kids! I can’t wait for the final day as it is going to be very exciting for the kids and for all of us volunteering to see them finish! The date of the final mile is September 12 in the morning so I am praying for good weather. I am not exactly sure what we will do if the weather turns ugly. I suppose we will discuss that tonight. I also have a website started for information about the event. I will share that link with you soon and you can comment to me about what is good and not so good.

Sunday Morning 10

I decided to sleep in on Saturday morning. This is something I don’t do very often. Saturday mornings are usually reserved for a long run while Sundays are up by 8:00 for Church. Weekdays work. So I slept in and the rest of the day, I felt tired. I guess I got too much sleep.

I did get up early on Sunday at about 5:30 for my longer run. I went to the track and ran 10 miles in an average of 8:28. It felt good. I know you must be wondering why I ran 10 miles on the track, am I crazy or something? Well, I woke up and wanted to run right away. Usually I wake up and have about 1 hour before I run to let the body do its thing before I go. Then I feel safe to go with out any incidents while out there. Well, there are portolets at the track so no worries if problems arise. 4 miles in and a quick stop and back to running I was. My apologies if that grosses you out at all, but if you run a lot, most likely you can relate.

So I ended up with 37 or 38 miles for the week right where I wanted to be. I could have easily run more but I am looking to increase miles not dramatically. Next week should be around 40 or a bit higher.

I did take Melissa out for a run at the Family Fun Run Sunday evening. We ran a whole mile and didn’t stop running the entire way. Now, she didn’t stop complaining, but she did run the whole time. This was the first time she ran an entire mile and she did it in 11:42 so I guess she can now call that her PR. She is only 7 after all.

Yasso 800s with a Twist

Art was in town this week so we were trying to find some time to go on a run and last night was going to be the night but he had meetings so he couldn’t go. So I decided to go to the “Green Oval” to do some Yasso 800’s.

If you have never done Yasso 800s, here is how they work. They were made up by Bart Yasso who is a Runner’s World writer. The idea is if you can do 10 Yasso 800s in a certain time, that predicts your marathon time. The 800 indicates 800 meters on a track (about 4.5 meters shy of a ½ mile). If you want to run a marathon in 4 hours 10 Minutes, you should run your 800s in 4 minutes and 10 seconds with 4:10 rest. And then over 10 weeks, work yourself up to doing this for 10 reps. In theory it sounds good and it actually is a good workout, it just doesn’t predict my time well because I am better and long sprints than long distance. Since this is the case, I try to do my reps faster with less rest for a harder workout. Since my initial goal this fall is to run a 3:45 marathon, I should be doing my Yasso’s in 3:45 but instead, I do them in the 3:15 range.

So I get to the track in the town where I work and I see the infield is all torn up and it looks like they are putting in an irrigation system. No worries, I can still use the track, right? Well, one problem and here is the twist. They have heavy equipment on the infield and to not break the track, the put some foam down and then about 1.5 to 2 feet of crushed gravel to drive over. It is about 10 to 15 feet wide as well. Does this stop me? Naw! I decide to run anyways and run over the mound of gravel every lap. It is a challenge, right? It ends up being a good workout for me and I did 5 Yasso’s all in 3:16 to 3:20 even with the gravel hurdle. I was happy with this though the next time I do Yasso’s, I may try to find a different track.

Feeling Motivated

I finally got the wireless Internet stuff figured out. Turns out it was the power cord was the issue and you just can't purchase the right kind of connector anywhere, at least where I tried to find them. I ended up having a friend Jerry-rigged my old power cord connector with the correct voltage power supply and now I am back in business. I had gone to Best Buy to try to find the correct power cord, but they said they don't sell just the cord but rather I would have to purchase the entire modem/router system as a whole and it was for $99. I am glad I did it this way.

To update you all on my runs, I had a few really good ones. Saturday I ran with Paul from his house. We did 15.5 miles in and out and back. After the turn around, I picked up the pace and ran the last 5 miles no slower than 8:10 per mile. I averaged 8:23 for the entire run and felt really good.

I then ran 7 miles this evening at dusk. It was about 60 to 65F out and I again did an out and back on a straight bike trail. Again I felt good and finished at an average of 8:08. The bugs were out so I had quite a few hitting me in the face and with all the seat, they seem to stick. Only one made it into my eye and I was able to get it out somewhat quickly. The nice thing on this run as well as the run on Saturday morning was that I saw 2 deer on each run. I wonder what they are thinking when us runners go by. They just seem to stop and watch as we go by.

I will have an update on the Kid's Marathon soon. Things are looking really good as far as number of participants. I have even done a few shot runs with my princess to start her out. She keeps begging me to take her out and do a lap around the block. It is 0.6 miles around and if I keep her slow enough at the start, she will go the whole way without stopping. In fact, I put on the garmin for one lap and she ran at a 9:00/mile pace for the 0.6 miles. So far she is motivated like me and she had logged 2 miles so far and 1 book.

Wireless Went Out

It has been a pretty rough day today and a very busy week. I am not going to get into it but it is days like this I wish would not happen.

I have been keeping up on my running and have had a couple good workout and I am staying motivated. After work Monday, I went on a 7 mile run. I am trying to increase my mileage and I want to have a midweek longer run so 7 seemed good to me. It was windy but I maintained an 8:25 pace so all was good.

I took Tuesday off and went to see a movie and dinner. The Theater has tables so you can eat while watching the movie so that was fun. I saw "Night at the Museum 2". I liked it, maybe a bit more than #1. Not worth the $10 to get it, but a funny movie none-the-less.

Yesterday was a good 5 mile Tempo run. I was able to squeak it to 7:30 pace and it felt good. I have yet another day off today though.

I took Melissa on her first run for the Kid's Marathon. We ran 0.6 miles non stop so I was proud of her for not stopping. We are going to work on pacing over the next few weeks as kids her age don't understand that you can't go all out to start and still run later. I have been very busy with the Kid's Marathon recently as well. The sign up deadline is coming up and I am trying to create a website for information to be given. I may just create a blog site like this one for the info. I want to have on their map, updates, sponsors, upcoming events, etc. Then after the final race, I plan on posting a lot of pictures. I will let you all know when I have it done so you can check it out and give me feedback if you so choose.

I was going to start this yesterday at home but my wireless box went out. I don't know what the issue is but I think it has to do with the power cord or power connection to the box. I am going to bring it into work tomorrow and have some of our Electronic Tech look at it. I use AT&T DSL at home which has been good so far, but is no good without a good box. I hope to have it fixed soon so I can keep up with my posts and blog reading.