Monday, December 28, 2009

half full :-))

so, got a few days away from the tiling thing. painted and did carpet for about 4 days. we went running on saturday - we wanted to try a faster run, so we did a 10 mile one.

we both had a great day - ran our fastest ever 10. felt great. only one water bottle stolen too! :-)

the new watch, a garmin 405cx went on it's first run. i need to make a lot of setup changes. it ran great for about 6 miles then for no FOCKING reason decided to chirp every time i moved my arm. two beeps for each step. once at the end of my arm swing and once at the beginning. beep beep beep beep beep beep beep. i ALMOST took it off and put it under a rock to pick up later. after about 3000 or so beeps i sorta got used to it. but GAWD it was annoying. did track my running though. i deleted the data, maybe i should have saved it from such a good run. but - i would probably only remember the beeping in the end.

what a good day.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

long weekend

well, last long weekend is over for a while. was a pretty tough one for me.

we ran 13 on saturday... my legs are just dead. about 2 miles in and i am pretty much done. its just hard to move my legs. too many days doing tile work i guess. i tough out the first 5 miles and then it gets easier. didnt have any sore spots or any thing that hurt. just dead legs. so all in all getting better at prepping for these runs. we left water every 3 miles and only one was missing when we got to it - so not bad at all. finished off tired but not gassed. so all in all a good run. just no jump.

on sunday we ran 22... my legs are just dead. about 2 miles in and i am pretty much done. lol. but today i get a bonus 20 extra miles. we found a 5.5 mile loop about 15 miles from the house and ran around that 4 times. we put water at two places. actually gatorade. i think in the end i drank too much of that - as i usually do when doing a really long run. i switched to water on the last loop.

resa had a strong run - so that was good to see. sadly i was trying to stay up with her for the entire run. the first loop went right away into bad as about halfway around i was pretty much feeling that i would have a really tough time from how i felt.

i also again drank a half bottle of the 5 hour energy drink. from about 5 tries with this stuff i feel it kinda gives me some jitteries - even though the advertising says it wont. just being able to drink it without dieing is pretty good though. i feel it takes about an hour to really get cooking though. i usually drink it minutes before i start - with the thought that if it makes me feel icky - at least i am running at the time. but the first lap and i am gassed. so it certainly didnt seem to be helping during that time.

i fight out the first half lap and we get our drinks. i dump my hat, gloves and sweater as i am sweating a ton. its about 60 degrees out and no wind - so as you can guess i was pretty warm. the second half of the lap is pretty nice. always good to be into the run. the start is not normally bad - but has been the last few months. again i might be starting out too fast. -- or not stretching out enough maybe. the night before we did a lot of massaging and stretching and drinking and i felt as recovered as i ever have.

the end of the first lap and the car has drinks and some candies. so i eat and drink up. the next lap was by far the best, although about 3 minutes slower. it was very relaxing. i think about this time i get a jump from the 5hour energy stuff. not much happened at during this lap. other than the wind went from 1 mph to about 20 mph in about 3 minutes time. the sun went behind some clouds and the temp seemed to drop about 10 degrees plus the wind. so when we got to the halfway point i put the hat and gloves back on. glad they were there still. the second and fourth lap we ran clockwise and the first and third was run counterclockwise. well the first half of the first lap seemed all up hill. like we gained about 300 ft in altitude. seemed that way heading the other direction too. very weird. and it wasnt just me, but resa thought it very odd too. and it felt this way all four times past this area. just weird.

the second lap end and we get more drinks and yummies. more gatorade and cliff bars actually. probably too much junk and not enough water as the third lap goes from ok to really bad at the end. i stagger around the last mile and back to the car. 28 miles in the last 24 hours and i started out totally dead. at this point i am almost ready to say its a good weekend. but after about 10 minutes sitting next to the car in the sun i get my energy back. well enough to stand anyway. i am about a 3 on the 10 scale. we run off and we do about 2 miles before we decide to walk. resa isnt gassed at all but really sore. i am both. we walk a quarter mile and then run to the drinkies. about totally dead... but only 1/8th of the run left - about 3 miles. so we plod on. we run to the hard section and walk up a long hill. i am now about a 2 on the scale. still able to walk but not very fast. hard to see well. the world swooshes back and forth but i can fight it not be taken along with it. resa seems in pretty good shape so i let her talk about stuff while we walk the hill. really just made it to the top. 1.5 miles to the car. i remember thinking about some of the more difficult runs i have been in. this is probably the 4th worst. 2 times on the mtn bike trail and once in columbus were worse. both those times i got to where i couldnt move at all. and at miles 15ish and 12ish. this time i am at mile 20 for the day and 33 for the last 24 hours and i am just teetering on the edge of sitting down. but... somehow i think i have found a bit more physical endurance. i remember greg lemond with his ' it doesnt get easier, but i do get faster. ' maybe i dont get faster, but i do get stronger. i fight back some serious frustration and decide to run the last mile and a half regardless of how i feel. and we do. it wasnt all that hard even. just ran along to the car.

wish i had been ready to start the weekend, but i am totally worn out doing physical stuff down here and the heavy miles lately. but... in weight lifting - which i find very enjoyable - the times you gain the most is when you are willing to push your muscles to the fail point and then reverse fail your sets out to pretty much unable to move. but you cant do that the first year or so you lift weights - or you will be too sore to be any good for weeks. which i have also done. but once you have a good base you can push and push and push. and its mostly going to help you. maybe maybe i have reached that point after a year of running. the point where i go to *almost* failure and i gain from it. i am hoping its this way. funner to run faster each month and set personal records each run. but i did set a personal half marathon record and it was very easy about a week ago. since then i have had 3 very hard runs. i am hoping after some time off and recovery it will make me stronger than if i just pounded out some brainless miles.

so all in all a mixed set of emotions.

still - i guess i cant look on the negative side - i have never done that in sports, and it couldnt help. so i will say rather, that the glass is half full and i have just pushed myself into an even better place - at a pretty steep price.

find out at Goofy. which is our next stop.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

low five

just ran 5 and it was bad. well, the run was nice - the ken was bad. i just couldnt run very far before getting gassed.

my thoughts are either: 1 - it was the best ever 13 the other day, 2 - it was the first bike ride in months the other day ( hopefully not this as it will be all the time soon ) or... 3 - i am just gassed from doing 20 days of tiling. climbing stairs all day with materials and then spending hours on kneepads. wohooo boooo hooo hooo woe is me!

well, this weekend should be our peak weekend of running other than the goofy event itself for at least another year. planning on 13 and 25 miles. or about that. should be great fun. i am just going to recover til then.

Monday, December 14, 2009

biker

finally went for a bike ride... about 20 miles. i averaged about 18-19 miles per hour. was nice to sit down and exercise again! :-)

easy week

well, every 4th week we had planned on making an easy week and this one is it. thursday i ran 6 and sunday was 13.

the time off really helped my speed. last weekend i didnt have much speed going on, but a ton of miles. the opposite was true this weekend. the 6 was pretty uneventful, i got dropped off 6 miles from home and ran back. yeah!

the thirteen had three interesting things. all three i should remember for a long time. i got all prepped for the run as usual. advil, bandages, body glide, knee brace, clothes. i didnt go with the 5 hour energy drink this time. i am going to save it for runs over 13 or when i am totally feeling dragged out.

so the run started later in the day - i knew i was going to finish in the dark. set out my 3 water breaks on a course that was out and back for 13 miles. the run started well, but i had just drank a full bottle of gatorade and at the first water stop at mile 2 i had to pee... so there are some nice bushes there and that solved that. but! there were also mosquitoes there. it was about 70 degrees and overcast and the little buggers where all over in the bushes. so i did the running hopping pee thing. glad nobody was around for that. but i got out alive, maybe 3 bites and i drank some water and off running again.

my knee brace itched. which it never does. figured i had a bit of dirt or something in there. i ignored it and ran on to the next water stop at mile 4. ( i put the waters at 2,4,6 miles and then run out to about 7 miles and come back giving me drinks every 2 miles ) at mile for everything was going well. i was really fresh still and picked up the pace. ran a bit faster. sooner or later i end up paying for that, but i felt pretty good so i kept going. the knee still itched so i adjusted the brace and didnt find anything in it. trot trot trot into the sun set. for once there was no wind too, how nice. :-) until mile 5. there was a storm through in the last few days and the roads flooded. they were still flooded and you had to run do the middle line of a two lane road with speed limits at 55 mph. so you are pretty paranoid about getting whacked by a car. but, the really bad part was the water. it had sat there for a few days... and spawned about 1.7 trillion mosquitoes! well, i think there might have been more, but only 1.7 trillion could get up enough energy to attack me. it was INSANE. more extreme than the canada adventure races or the michigan swamp tour races. i had water at mile 6 but i didnt stop, they were so thick. they could land on your legs and at this time i was freakin moving. did 3 of my fastest ever miles. and they followed me out and back to the 5 mile mark again. then poof gone. i didnt drink on the way back either obviously. just left the full bottle sitting there for the pickup later that night. so that was number one event. the mosquito clouds.

the run from 5 back to 0 was a some of the most relaxing running in a long time. was going fast but not very hard to do. breathing was very moderate but i was moving pretty quick. the sun set behind me and the wind and mosquitoes stayed away. my knee went from itchy to burning, but at that point i didnt care any more. number two event happened when i got home. i checked the time and it was the fastest ever half marathon for my by over 5 minutes. so i have a new personal best - but since i didnt time it exactly i would have to say it was between 2:14 and 2:18 which is at least 5 minutes faster than ever before. and not very hard either. nice to know i have taken over 30 minutes off our spring 1/2 marathon. resa also seemed faster than me the last time - 2 weeks ago we ran together. ( she is in ohio another 4 days then comes down here for a month ) so big time improvement. just took a week of low activity for it to show up. really happy about this.

the third memorable event was the knee brace. wtf? it was rubbing my whole upper leg area the whole time. and all the skin is torn off. its a freaking mess. i couldnt sleep last night i have bloody sticky goo all over my leg - about the size of my hand is totally messed up. it hurts just sitting here. bending my legs hurts... every thing about it stings. now i have to get on my knees and do tile work. :-/

i threw the thing in the wash as always, i will have to get it out and figure out what happened. my first guess right now is that the elastic is dead and it gained an inch in size and rather than being tight and unmoving on my knee it is now loose and rubbing. if so - out it goes. i have two, and probably wont be able to run with one again for a few weeks.

kinda weird all around. but... whatever! :-)

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

you internet goofballs can keep your damn poop fairy!

well, still tired from the longish weekend. heck. long. i think there was a time about... oh, 12 months ago when 30 miles in a month would have been pretty good miles. now its a weekend.

we certainly are getting our distance up if not much on speed. but speed comes with the next phase of training which starts after the january run.

today i spent about 10 hours laying tile in our house here on the gulf. and it was pretty hard on my sore legs. spent the whole time kneeling over tiles and hardybacker. at the end of the day i was faced with the option of running. most of the day i was planning on doing the run, but as the hours wore on and it got harder to stand let alone walk i was leaning on putting it off. wasnt sure i could run at all.

so i went up stairs to the "reading room" and sat there for a bit. OH MY GOD! the poop fairy came out of the internet and pulverized me. i am betting very few people out there have lost about 40% of their body weight in one 2 minute period and lived. i nearly didnt.

after this i decided to go running. as the house was now a biological disaster area.

so i ran 3. and it was pretty tough as i was still gassed from tiles and miles. but done. after all, if you think you can, or you think you can't, either way you are probably right.

and. i shall utter not the P*** F**** words again, lest she be summoned and i be destroyed.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

and part 2

ouch. tricky one. i think i didnt eat enough last night and i pretty much had a very hard run.

did run 18 but felt like a lot more. the difference is i think that i can now go into the negative areas longer before i fail completely. so i spent most of the second half of the run ( into a very strong headwind ) running and walking and running.

well, done, and off to bed!

another long weekend - part 1

well the easy part is done, the ten on saturday.

ran the old shoes and they felt great. so i now know that i have two sets i can count on. ( somehow this makes me think of resa... hmm... ) well. anyway nice to know i can swap back and forth.

so... about the 10 yesterday. again i ran on the sidewalk between the golf course and town. its 5 miles long so a ten round trip. i put water at about 1.25 miles from each end. so about 2.5 between water breaks. running out i went into the sun and the wind. the wind you know about, it was a bit breezy and comes in small gusts so you are always guessing when you have to lean a bit. kinda annoying. :-) but the sun for me is worse. it was getting later in the day and the sun was right in front of me. the trees are what make it tricky. the path is between a lot of trees and the sun comes in and out of them the whole way so its like those horror house places with the flash strobe bulb and people seem to jump around weird. so i spent most of the time looking down as i ran. didn't see any glass or dog poop on the trail either.

i get my drinks and run along. the first 2 miles again are the hardest. this is getting kinda weird - and i am going to try to pay special attention to starting a bit slow from now on - its not fun to be out of breath about 300 yards from the start. and then 2 hours later running faster and not be breathing hard. really strange. so that's today's plan. but today... 18 or so should be lots of fun. and gads who knows what i will get.

so anyway i run all the way to the end and its in a bit of an open spot and now the sun is my friend as it is just sitting there and i am taking a break and eating a chocolate cliff bar.

ah. was all in all a good if not great first half. i am really looking forward to running back with the wind and the sun pushing me along. so i start back. the first water is gone! and after my big chocolate goopy sticky bar i was really hoping to wash it down. 3 kids are playing with the bottle splashing gatorade all over the trail. great. thought about asking them where my drink went but they would have just stared or lied to me. so i ran on. what point i guess. never see them again anyway, just kids of renters. ah, well, so now i am in not such a good mood. next an old lady is walking her dog towards me at about mile 7. i work up some happy and smile and wave to her. but she ignores me, probably i am one of those jogging molesters that you hear about. so i shrug and plod on thinking for sure my other bottle is going to be gone now too. probably the kids will steal a car and race ahead and empty that on the trail too. and i almost step in the ladies dog's shit. big pile of dog shit and pee right in the middle of the sidewalk. wtf? the area runs through woods. and she has the dog dump right in the middle. big pile of steaming crap. and i was the one annoying her by waving about 3 minutes earlier. sometimes i hate people. so i almost walk from there. just kinda lost my happy run thing. but i get mad and run because she couldnt. so ha. run to the first water stop - and its there. finally i get to swallow the big chunk of chocolate goop in my throat! :-)

after this i have only a bit more than a mile to go and i run on, usually the last mile is hard, regardless of the distance, sorta like the first. i hate 3 mile runs its all first and last miles! but i am running, coming into town and pretty happy and two teenagers run past me all laughing. ah, well, things are better. but they are all happy because they found a bunch of glass and smashed it all over the sidewalk for about half a mile. glass in piles all over. i smile anyway. whatever.

just got back from staging my water for an 18 mile run... should be a lot more boring, which today is just fine!

Thursday, December 3, 2009

ten the hard way

still tired from the monster week last week. but there i was sitting there... looking at my new shoes. and they are looking back at me. WOOF! lets gooooo woof woof!

so i strap em on and run 10. gads i was dead for the first 3 miles. resa's mother dropped me off in town so i was stuck - i had to do the run. or i might not have. i was really sore for the first half hour, but it didnt so much as go away as just faded into that long run pain thats normal. so after about 3 miles i felt normal if not good and then i hit the gas a bit and ran a pretty fast next 6 miles. the last mile was as always a brain thing. is it done? is it?? isit isit?? isitiististiitisis??!?!? done??? but finally it was. :-)

the thing that really picked me up during the run was the blue angels. they are here in the gulf doing a show and they take VIPs up for a ride about 30 times a day. two planes just do circles over the town and the house. and i was running between them. so every 20 minutes or so i here the thunder noise and then the WHOOOSH as they go by right over head. they fly pretty low and make a ton of noise doing it too. so that was a good adrenaline boost.

and speaking of boosts - i didnt try the 5 hour energy this time. i think i will save it for half marathons and longer. also i was lax about taping my foot and of course paid for that with a blister. right foot is a disaster right now. the ankle is sore - as it has been for the last 3 months. the blister on my toe on that foot is still there, the nail is still black and now the ball of my foot is really sore there too. the left foot is at 100%. weird.