dedication, perseverance, self-discipline

Today is my little boy's birthday.  Happy birthday Shayon!

I ran 9 miles this morning in 1:09:53.  It would have been a little slower, but I sped up for a bit to catch up to another runner.  The first two miles were barefoot and the rest was with shoes on.

Here is a picture of my birthday boy that I took before his birthday party.

I ran 9 miles today in 1:08:58.  First I ran over to the track, and after finishing up 2 miles barefoot (1 mile to the track plus 1 mile on the track), with one stride of about 50 meters thrown in to get the legs moving, I ran a small workout.  After my 2 mile tempo last Saturday exposed some weaknesses of mine I decided to take a beginning step towards fixing things.  The two main weaknesses that I could think of were a weakness when running uphill (lack of strength/power), and an inability to get my legs moving at a reasonable pace once the terrain flattened out (potentially for the same reason).

I have come up with a few ways that I can remedy those problems.  My main idea is that I simply need to run more, and that the strength will come from putting more miles in my legs as I get in better shape (this should fix at least 90% of the problem).  The next idea is to run hill repeats and instead of backing off at the top of the hill I will attempt to pick up the pace (at least maintain the effort) once the terrain flattens out for a minute or so.  Another idea I have considered is to do some box jumps, etc every other day or so (I am not so keen on this idea) in order to increase strength/power without needing to go to a gym to lift weights.  Another idea is to run a hard but submaximal effort for a set distance, followed by running some short sprints immediately after finishing in order to get myself used to changing gears even when fatigued.

The final idea listed above is what I decided to start with today because it seemed to be the easiest logistically for me to pull off (other than simply running more, which I am doing already), while it was also easy for me to keep the workout small enough that it should not put me over the top from a fatigue perspective (this has been a problem lately as I have been building mileage which has forced me to basically eliminate hard workouts).  I decided to run a fast 1600 with a sprint over the last 50-80 meters, followed by more short sprints every 200 meters thereafter (approximately).  I thought that 5:20 for 1600 should be fast enough, but I decided to not look at my watch and just focus on how things felt rather than the time.

I started the 1600 fairly quickly, however I slowed down after maybe 200 meters and settled into a nice pace.  It had rained earlier in the morning and I could tell it was much more humid than it has been lately.  I could see the steam rising off of the track when the sun came out from behind the clouds.  I ended up starting my final sprint with maybe 60 meters left and I finished the 1600 in 5:16, so pretty much right where I was hoping to be.  After 200 meters I ran the next sprint, and I repeated this every 200 meters thereafter (so about 150 meter recovery) until I had completed 4 additional sprints.

After finishing the workout I feel like this did not target my problem areas in the way that I had hoped.  I really do need to add the hills into the initial hard portion of the workout for it to work.  The hard 1600 just did not feel like it was taxing enough to do what I wanted, while running at speeds that are fast enough to stress me sufficiently may get me hurt.  If I run this same workout with the hard mile run uphill I will not need to run as fast, but I should be able to stress the system sufficiently to produce some sort of effect.

I ran 2 miles barefoot, followed by 7 miles with shoes.  Total time was 1:10:55.  I actually passed the 2 mile marker on accident without realizing it so I ran a little over two miles barefoot (about 1:00-1:30 extra).

My assumption is that accidentally passing up the two mile mark is a good thing as rather than anticipating when I get to put shoes on, because it hurts to run without them, I am starting to just relax and run without worrying what it is that I am about to step on.  However, to be honest I still feel like the skin on the bottom of my feet is fairly soft.  I would have thought that with the amount of time I spend unshod either running or walking around outside that my feet would have developed tougher callouses by now.

9 miles in 1:13:59.  Things just felt off today, so I ended up running pretty slowly.

PM: We took the kids to the mall, and I ended up running most of the way home.  About 1 mile extra. 

I still felt off, similar to yesterday so I mainly just trudged through my run again.  9 miles in 1:14:20.  I did speed up to about 7:00 pace for one quarter, and oddly enough that felt more comfortable than the slower speeds I had been running.  Hopefully this is a good sign for my chances at the race I am running tomorrow evening.

Bad race.  Not much to report on the race itself as I was sick, and I have been feeling really tired lately.  I have also been getting bad rashes that cover most of my body and had another flare up a few hours after the race which, along with some other symptoms, prompted a trip to the emergency room at 1 AM.  About an hour after the race I also started getting bad chills, and I was shivering so bad that I was biting my tongue, my back and other muscles were locking up, and I could barely walk.  Before the race I was also having some issues as I felt like I was not getting much air in.  It felt like my airways were slightly constricted and dry.

After the race started I made efforts to not start off too fast, but still started off faster than I should have.  My goal for the first mile was 5:20, but I ended up with about a 5:10-11 (estimated as I missed the mark by a few seconds and did not look at my watch until it read 5:13).  I was in 13th place and already moving backwards.  I was passed by two people about 100 meters later pushing me into 15th place.  I stayed there until just before the 2 mile mark when I passed one of them back hitting 2 miles in 10:39.  Within a quarter mile however two more people passed me, with a third passing me shortly thereafter.  Two more people passed me during the final straightaway pushing me back into 19th place.

I started having a side stitch during the second mile.  I felt like I was still not getting enough air in.  I drank a little water at an aid station which made things worse.  I struggled fighting cramps, nausea, and side stitches for the rest of the race.  It didn't help that the last ~1.25 miles was almost all into a headwind (lots of tailwind during parts of miles 1 and 2, but we had to run back into it at the end).

So, the race was not one I want to remember, but Anita was able to run her first ever "race".  She doesn't quite get the concept of running as fast as you can.  She just trotted along and enjoyed the 45 seconds it took her to run down the street and back (when she is excited and is playing she can run rather fast, but minus the motivation she will not run fast at all).  They gave super hero capes to all of the kids, which Anita liked.  I also gave her my age group medal as a prize for running.  Shayon slept through the entire thing or he would have run as well.

Some pictures:

Anita showing off her cape

Anita and I before the race

Anita and the other kids running in the kids dash

Anita and the superhero runner lady after the race

I guess we forgot to take pictures of Shayon because he was sleeping in the stroller... Oh well.