dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

I ran 8 miles today, running a half mile in 2:29 just past the halfway mark, and running another section hard at the end that I will call 0.8 (didn't get a time on that one).  Total time was 59:xx

8 miles in 1:01:40.  I ran the last bit to my house pretty fast, in 3:43 (it is downhill and I had a tailwind).  I am not sure on the exact distance for the stretch I ran hard, but it is around 0.8

8 miles

I got the flu so I haven't been feeling very good.  I tried to run for a minute or two (literally) and felt horrible.

I tried running out to the car after school today, and I felt better than Tuesday, but still did not feel very good.

The flu pretty much went away by Sunday, but I have still felt horrible.  It feels like I got some sort of sinus infection at the same time I got the flu (maybe because of the flu?).  I came down with a fever again today, and it peaked above 101 degrees this evening.  I fly to Boise tomorrow for a conference, so hopefully I feel a little better by morning.

I flew to Boise today, and I ran from the airport to the hotel (~3 miles) with my backpack (I traveled light) while wearing jeans.  I then ran from the hotel to the conference I am attending (~1 mile), and after dinner I ran back to the hotel (~1.5 miles).  Total of about 5.5 miles, all run wearing jeans, a backpack, and leather loafers.

Same sort of deal as yesterday, but in reverse.  I ran to the conference in the morning, and then ran back to the hotel after it was done.  When I was ready to leave I ran to the airport.  Total was about 5 miles, again wearing pants, a backpack, and leather loafers for all of it.

I ran 5 miles, running the last 5 laps plus a little extra with no shoes.  The last 3.5 miles were on the track.  After running a mile without shoes, I decided to see how my feet would handle running faster.  I ran a 78 second quarter, and my feet were not happy.  I could feel hot spots pop up on the bottoms of my feet almost immediately, and I think that when I run on the track I subconsciously extend my outside leg a little more, which led to my heel contacting the track more directly on the turns, and some mild pain.

I ran 5 miles today, running most of it on the track again (I alternate miles in different directions on the track).  I wanted to see how out of shape I am as I lost a fair amount of weight while sick and it seemed like it was mostly muscle mass.  Lately I have weighed anywhere from 116-119 depending on the time of day whereas before I would range from about 122-126.  My first indicator of shape was not good, as my HR was around 150 at 7:40 pace.  I also ran a hard mile at the end of the run to get a better idea of where I am at, and I finished in 5:14 (full mile, not a 1600) with splits of 78, 78, 79, 77 (+2 seconds to the finish).  The mile was not encouraging.  I felt almost immediately like the effort was hard, and to be honest the 5:14 was not that taxing, but it was pretty much all I could do.  I guess I can't get much slower, so hopefully it just gets better from here.

I ran 5 miles, running most of it on the track again.  This distance seems pretty good for me until I start feeling like I am getting more back to normal.  I decided to run a few strides as I was running, while also throwing in a couple hard 200's with the wind mostly at my back (the wind was really strong today).  The wind was in my face for about 50m on the first 200, and then at my back for the last 150, and I ran a 29.  On the second 200 the wind was in my face for about 75m, and at my back for about 125 (the tailwind was partially blocked by the man made hill which comprises the seating, so it was not as strong as before) and I finished in 30s.  I then started to run barefoot again.  Some other guys at the track started running 800's while I was running barefoot.  I wanted to see if my feet would get ripped up again, so I joined them on one of their repeats, running splits of 80s and 77s (2:37 total).  Even with the wind being as bad as it was I felt very relaxed, and I was much happier than I was yesterday.  Today I felt like I had another gear which is a positive.

Today my run was kind of broken up as I ran from school to the car, and after driving home Kimia and I ran with the kids to the track so that she could run a mile time trial.  As the track was closed due to lacrosse games on the field I ran back to the house, got the car, and we drove out to a different track so that Kimia could run her time trial.  My plan was to run while Kimia was running, but she wanted me to time her while she ran alone.

Kimia had already run 2 miles in the morning, plus her warm up, so she may have been a little more tired than normal (2 miles for Kimia is still a lot).  We wanted her to run the time trial because she has never broken a 10:00 mile (her pr was 10:16 I think) and she has really been trying to run more recently so we thought she could best that mark by a fair amount.  It was dark by the time she started, so I could not really see her, but it seemed like she started off fairly quick.  The first lap was a 2:09, followed by a 2:18.  After the second lap I told her that she had slowed down, and she immediately sped up some.  The third lap was a 2:14, followed by another 2:09 plus 3 seconds to finish off the mile in 8:53.  I think that if Kimia just gets some more practice she will be able to cut 10 seconds off of her mile time without improving her fitness.  We are both in the process of thinking up significant bribes to motivate Kimia to break 8:00 and 7:00 for the mile as she has told me she wants to shoot for that.

After Kimia finished, I finished up my run, running the last 1.5 miles barefoot.  I finished the last 4000m in 16:31, the last 800m in 2:37, and the last 400m in 1:14.  I was happy with how I felt, as I never felt like I was running all out.  I just progressively got faster over the last 2 miles as I was trying to finish quick so that Kimia would not have to wait for me any longer than needful.  Even the 1:14 felt very relaxed, which is a plus, especially since I was running barefoot.  I did get some more hot spots on my feet.  I guess that my feet are not yet ready to run barefoot 2 days in a row.

I ran 5 miles today.  The first 2 miles I ran with Kimia in about 19:00.  It was actually harder than the time would indicate, because I was pushing both kids in the stroller (and its not a running stroller, as our running stroller only holds one kid) and the whole thing with both kids weighs somewhere in the vicinity of 80 lbs.  Toss in the curbs and bumps where I had to slow down or stop, and the uphill first mile, and I think it makes the effort worth about 1:30 faster per mile than it really was.  After we finished, I ran 3 miles alone in 23:24.

I ran most of my workout on the track again, switching directions every once in a while to even things up.  I ran the first 4.5 miles with shoes on, followed by 1.75 miles barefoot.  I ran my second to last quarter in 68.  There was some wind so the last 200 was pretty hard, but I managed to run even splits (34, 34) because I upped the effort that last 200.  The track kind of rips up my feet, but to be honest I don't think that it feels too bad to run at those speeds without shoes on.  Total time for 6.25 miles was 46:51.