Freethinker ~ Freerunner

New Years Day!  I rested today because I'm still recovering from two injuries.  My right calf muscle seems to be torn or strained.  My left foot still has slight pain in the ball of the foot.  The pain lasted about two days after my last run on Christmas day.

I rested today.  Still recovering.  I did some research on metatarsal, or "ball of foot" pain, and discovered that I need a different kind of insole than the one I bought at the running shoe store.  I need one with padding in the fore foot area.  I went back to the running shoe store today and talked to the nice sales associate who sold the my last pair of Brooks Ravena shoes with the insoles.  He gave me an exchange on the insoles, which I found to be a very nice gesture as I expected to have to buy the new ones.  

I spent the day walking around my house "breaking in my new insoles" in my old running shoes during a Dallas Cowboys game.   I am often on my feet during a game because I get excited about the goings on.  I figured it was a good way to get my feet comfortable wearing the insoles before actually running in them.  

I rested today.  

I ran today for the first time since Christmas morning.  I also ran for the first time in my new Super Feet Orange Insoles.  I replaced the green insoles with the orange ones because it seems that I need extra padding under the ball of my left foot. 

To recap, I have struggled for about two months or more with "ball of foot" pain there.  I almost never feel the pain when I am running.  Usually I feel the pain walking around barefoot the day of the run or the next day.  I also feel the stiffness or soreness when I get out of bed in the morning.  As a result I have taken it really easy for the past two weeks.  I only ran once each week.  Last week I ran ten miles, and I felt a little pain in the ball of my left foot after the run.  I also felt my right calf muscles tinge up somewhere around mile 8 last week.  I iced both areas for the rest of the day and waited until today to run again.  

So today I am pleased to report that I ran in the new insoles (Superfeet Orange) with forefoot padding.  I kept my pace nice and easy (8:12 miles) as not to over do it.  I want my right calf muscle to heal up from whatever injury it has, and I want to see if I am capable of running a moderate distance without feeling the "ball of foot" pain in my left foot in the hours and days after the run while walking.  So far I am pleased that neither injury seems to have shown itself.  As I type it has been two hours since I finished my run today and I have not felt a thing after the run.  I did feel something in the ball of my foot and something in my right calf on the run itself, but it was very faint.  I may be overly analyzing my body at this point, but for a good reason.  I want to be cautious during this part of the year.  I probably still have a few weeks before I need to get back on a training schedule for the Oklahoma City Marathon.  

I ran the for the second time with my new Super Feet Orange in-soles with special forefoot padding.  My left foot felt pretty good all the way up until around mile 6 when it started to feel a bit sensitive.  It was not the ball of my foot so much as it was the heel and middle area that just felt a little unsupported and vulnerable to the jolt of each impact.  I noticed that I could make each landing feel better by quickening my pace a little.  I also noticed a slight tinge in my right calf around mile 10 that worsened a little around mile 13 at which time I slowed my pace from 8:30 to 8:55.  It looks like maybe that right calf is still healing up.  The only other physical issue I noticed was my right knee.  There was a little pain going up the hills beyond mile 8 or 9.  

It felt really good to get back out and run a nice distance again.  Really good.  It reminded me why I run.  Now I just need to be careful not to over do it as I ease back in to multiple runs per week.  I fear I might have run just a few miles farther than I probably should have today.  The good news is that I'm not really feeling any post run pain in either my left foot or right calf.  I'm taking that as a good sign.  

I ran for the second time with my Superfeet Orange insoles.  I felt some sensitivity in my ball of my left foot for the first few miles.  I'm not aware of feeling it much past that point. 

It was a cool 24 degrees this morning and I had a nice view of what I believe to be Jupiter. 

I ran at  nice and easy 7:54 pace.  

I really enjoyed my run this morning.  I was feeling really good almost all the way through.  I think the ball of my left foot seems to be almost completely back to normal.  I did feel my right calf muscle tinge up on me a bit right at the end with only half a mile left to my finish.  Hopefully it was just a cramp, but I will ice it just to be safe.  

 A funny thing happened when I got back.  The sweat on the back of my head mask was stiff and crunchy!  Frozen!

I ran this morning in 24 degrees.  My right calf and the ball of my left foot both felt fine.  When I got home I transferred my insoles to my work shoes and wore them all day to work in.  I am beginning an experiment to wear my insoles at work to see if the ball of my left foot feels normal at the end of the day.  Today I am happy to report that it felt fine all day.  Usually what happens is that by the end of the day it feels like something is in my shoe under the ball of my foot.  It feels like I am stepping on something.  If wearing my insoles at work makes my foot feel better I will get an extra set for my work shoes.

I'll try to remember to report in this blog tomorrow how my feet feel at the end of the day.  

I ran this morning with my Superfeet Orange insoles inside my New Balance 1226's for the first time.  I had used nothing but my Brooks Ravena up to this point with the insoles.  I felt fatigued a little early today.  My body and legs felt heavy and my breath seemed to shorten a little earlier in the run than I would have liked.  At first I thought maybe it was the shoes.  My Ravena's are a little lighter than my 1226's, and I have worn them exclusively for the past four weeks.  But Kevin noticed the same feeling of fatigue, so I'm not sure what to attribute it to.  Maybe I was dressed too warm for the 40 degree weather.  The last time I ran (Wednesday morning) I believe it was about 30 degrees. 

As for my feet, they felt mostly good on the run and have felt good since (the time is now 11:55 AM).  I had worn my Orange insoles in my work shoes Wednesday and Thursday this week to see if wearing them during the work day helped.  I think it did, because by the end of the day both days I did not notice any soreness or that feeling like something is in my shoe under the ball of my left foot.  The only negative to doing this was that at the end of the day Thursday I noticed the left insole making a popping noise.  When I got home and removed it from my shoe it turned out that the plastic near the inner side of my left heel had cracked.  I was a little disappointed as I had only worn them on two runs and then two days at work.  I wore them this morning as I said, and the cracked area did not seem to be a problem in my running shoes as they fit a little tighter than in my dress shoes.  In any case, the support I need from them is under the ball of my foot rather than the heel area so I believe I will be alright.  I do need to figure out a solution for my feet during the day at work though.  I think they really helped, I just don't want to invest in another set for work that ends up cracking again after a couple of days wear.   

If anyone else has had similar ball of foot pain issues I would love to hear how it was resolved.  

Good run today.  I ran in my Brooks shoes.  I almost did not run today as I felt some soreness in my ball of my left foot last night while walking to my car when leaving work.  I went ahead and decided to run today after I got back from the gym. 

As a short digression I will talk about what I did at the gym.  I swam 20 laps (500 meters) in the pool.  This was my third visit to the pool as I have decided to train for a triathlon.  I have no prior training in swimming aside from one week in seventh grade gym class.  So far I have learned a little about swimming from talking to my running and now cycling buddy Kevin who is an accomplished triathlete.  Kevin has loaned me a swimming book called 'Call the Suit' by Sheila Taormina.  I'm working my way through it to understand the basics and drills in and out of the pool.  

Now back to my run today.  I set out to do six miles, but ended up running 8 at a 7:38 pace.  I did not take any Gatorade with me as I thought I would just go easy, like 8:30 miles, since my foot was sore last night.  I felt pretty good and ended up running a little harder than I originally planned.  My left foot felt a little sore on the last mile, but not too bad since I've been back.  I been icing it just to be safe.  

I felt good this morning.  I noticed very little, if any soreness in the ball of my left foot.  I really think my Brooks Ravena shoes with the Super Feet Orange insoles were the solution, but I'm still proceeding cautiously.  I have not yet signed up for the Post Oak Lodge trail run in February.  I may decide to skip it this year even though I really wanted to finish after my experience not finishing last year.  It is a need I have to conquer the only race I did not finish.  The need may just have to wait until next year.  I have however decided to register for a Triathlon, my first, in April, and a half marathon in May.  The half marathon is actually my wife's goal, but I'm definitely going to be there running it with her for her first half.  

I'm going to rest tomorrow, and then ride a 1.5 to 2 hour bike ride with Kevin on Saturday before our long run Sunday.  Since I have swum twice in the pool this week I'm feeling really good about my training right now.  I need to work a strength training in somewhere though, maybe tomorrow.  

This run occurred the day after my first ever 26.5 mile bike ride.  My legs felt fine.  The only thing I can detect as sore from the ride is my neck, and that is from riding in occasionally in the 'aero' position.

This run was part of Kevin's Iron Man training.  We ran 105 minutes at a target pace of 8:30 minutes per mile.  Our actual pace was 8:08.  The temperature was about 38, but with north winds up to 16 miles per hour.  Overall it was a nice morning. 

Injury report: 

The lower left outer side of my left leg just above my ankle felt a little tingly as it sometimes does when I got back.  I iced it 15 on and 15 off for about an hour and fifteen minutes.  The ball of my left foot feels a little agitated, but not bad. 

The blizzard that passed through Oklahoma on Tuesday has really put a damper on my training.  In fact it has pretty much shut down all of Tulsa.  Most businesses, including ours have not been open for three days now.  I turned on my TV this morning to see rescuers pulling 8 people out of a half sunk Chevy Avalanche that had careened off a bridge and fallen perhaps over 50 feet into a river.  The official report was that five of the eight survived.  Let's just say that road conditions in my area have been treacherous.  

After being cooped up in my house since Monday night I finally decided I had to get out and at least stretch my legs.  I ran mostly the neighborhoods, but I did get out onto 111th street.  All the roads are pretty much ice and snow covered.  I almost slipped and fell and couple of times in the neighborhood.  I finished my six miles in 55:31 and I must say it felt great.  I am looking forward to this melting off so I can not only get my life back to normal, but so I can also get my training back under way.  

I ran this morning for the second time on snow and ice packed streets since Tuesdays blizzard.  This time I was prepared however, as I learned a great trick to achieving traction on ice.  The trick is to drill 1/2 inch hex head screws into the tread on the bottom of your running shoes.  I used ten screws in each shoe mostly around the outside area of the soles.  It really worked wonders.  I did not have any close calls slipping on the ice or snow packed streets.  I highly recommend this shoe alteration for those who can't stand indoor running when the streets are in icy condition.  I used my old New Balance 1225's.  That is why I did not record shoe mileage today.  My 1225's are from before I started using the shoe manager.  

My triathlon training is completely screwed this week since I've barely been able to get out of the house in my vehicle much less my bike.  I only got to the gym to go swimming for the first time last week yesterday afternoon.  Our main streets are finally mostly cleared, but the bad news is that we have another big storm moving in Tuesday evening that could deliver 5 to 10 inches.  Tulsa is just not used to this kind of weather, so it has really been difficult getting out and around.  Many businesses and government offices had to close for most of last week.

I ran the treadmill today (blah!) because I also had to swim today.  Since I also had to work today, I had to go to the gym and get my workout in as quickly as possible.  So while I would have preferred to run outside, even though we still have snow and ice everywhere and the temperature was about 18 this morning, I had to move it inside to conserve time.   

Brick run and first run after about ten days of no exercise do to pneumonia.  I am still recovering and coughing a little, but it felt really good to get back out there.  

I probably should have rested today, but I've been down so long that I had to go run again.  I did seven this morning and my legs were just a little bit sore from my bike ride and brick run yesterday.  

Easy 10.  It feels good to finish out 20 this week after having taken off all last week due to being sick.  

This was my first Sunday long run with in two weeks after being sick.  I also have not run with Kevin in about four weeks.  It was good to catch up.  I really enjoyed my self this morning.  Our goal was to run 90 minutes at an 8:30 pace, but we ended up finishing in an 8:00 minute pace.  

First of three hill repeat workouts in my Hal Higdon's half marathon advanced training program.  Since I missed my three miles yesterday due to soreness, I decided to run to the hill rather than drive.  This added two miles as a nice warm up and two miles as a cool down.  An overall good workout for me.  I am looking forward to cycling later today.  

In other thoughts, I just learned that Atlas Shrugged the movie is being released on April 15th.  I hope it hits Tulsa, otherwise I told Alisha that we will be making a trip to the nearest city.  I have waited ten years for this movie to be made.  

Brick run after 6.5 mile bike ride today.  This time my legs did not feel like I was plodding for the first mile and a half.  I did ride about 1.5 miles less on distance as compared to my previous brick, so that could have had something to do with it.  

I am feeling really good after seeing my time today.  I finished the run at 21:53, which is only 32 seconds slower than my 5K PR.  I probably could have beaten my PR had I not just hopped off my bike fresh off a 6 mile ride.  

Today I ran a 45 minute Hal Higdon style tempo run.  This style of run consists of starting out slowly and then building to your fastest pace during the middle two thirds of the run.  It ends by gradually slowing back down for the final two thirds.  

I ran 3 on the treadmill at the Gym this morning because I also needed to get in a 25 minute swim.  I ended up swimming for about 21 minutes.  I swam four sets of 10 laps (25 meter laps) with one minute breaks in between.  I have been averaging roughly 30 second laps.  I'm finally starting to feel as though I can 'feel' the water.   

Good two hour run at 8:00 pace.  Left ball of foot felt mostly good throughout the run.  I picked up the pace over the last three and half miles as suggested by my Hal Higdon training plan.  I also ran more than the suggested time since I've been letting Kevin set the distance/time and pace since his Iron Man is coming up.  

I ran 7 400's at my 5K pace which is 6:53 from my last 5K, which was August 28, 2010.  I think I could probably best that time pretty easily right now at my current level of fitness.  

I also did strength training at the gym for about 40 minutes prior to my interval training on the treadmill.  

After I finished my interval training I swam 4 sets of 250 meters in the pool with one minute of rest between each set. 

It was pretty active and diverse two hour workout. 

Brick run at 7:01 mile pace.  I am really starting to get the hang of the transition from bike to run.  I feel as though I am more efficient at it and my legs don't feel so heavy and weird for the first mile of the run as they did that first couple of times.   I'm happy.  I feel great!   

I ran a 45 minute tempo run today after finishing a 30 minute swim at the gym.  I felt good and was able to keep up my target pace peaking at a 7:06 mile pace on mile 4.  

My goal for this morning was to run 3 miles at my 5 k pace, which in my last 5 k was 6:53.  I beat it by a little.  I average 6:40.  Whoo Hoo. 

I ran 90 minutes today with my running buddy as usual.  We intended on starting at the usual time of 6:00 am, but somehow the time change caused his alarm not to go off this morning.  I on the other hand woke up 15 minutes before my radio alarm, iPhone alert, and iPhone stop watch sounded.  I was so worried about electronic problems of my own that I set multiple backups which I turned out not to have needed.  I sent Kevin a text at 6:10 asking him is he was on his way because he is usually quite punctual.  When he did not show I feared he might still be asleep.  He called me right back to tell me in fact his alarm did not sound, but that he would be over in about 15 minutes. 

Kevin rode 85 miles on the bike yesterday and was quite fatigued, and as a result did not have a very good run this morning.  I on the other had was bursting with energy this morning in spite of the lost hour of sleep.  I felt like I could have run another 4 or 5 miles and at a faster pace.  I think it was just one of those mornings that you wake up and feel really energetic.  I did however take note of the 52 degree temperature, the use of my running sleeves, and my choice of fuel this morning which was something new for me.  At my usual power gel stop about 25 minutes in I ate a pack of honey instead called honey stinger.  I may have to try that again to see how it affects me during one of my longer runs.  

I ran almost 3 miles at a 7:35 pace.  It was windy morning.  I think I was so ready to get back inside my house that I did not check my Garmin to make sure it hit the full three miles.  That is how I ended up running 2.91.  

I ran 2 miles to warm up followed by 7 400 meter hill repeats then a 2 mile cool down.  After I got home the carpet crew arrived to lay down our new carpet.  The finished at about 2:45.  That's when I began moving much of my furniture and electronics back inside my house.  I also did yard work for about 3 hours while the crew was working inside my house.  I was supremely worn out by the end of the day.  I missed my swim workout, but I feel like I made up the exercise elsewhere.  

I ran 3 on the treadmill this morning at an 8 minute pace.  I followed the run with a 30 minute 1,500 meter swim.  I feel a little fatigued, but good for having gotten through it.  I am still recovering from my active day yesterday, which consisted of an early morning hill repeat workout, yard work, and moving furniture after the carpet layers left my house. 

This was a brick run after a 12.76 mile ride.  I was planning on completing this workout in the wee hours of the morning as usual, but a crying slightly feverish baby son of mine kept that from happening this morning.  So I left work about 2 hours early today and got my workout in before the sun went down.  I am glad I did two because I now have two full rest days if I choose to take them right in a row.  I may end up doing an easy run on Saturday if I feel like it, but science knows I have plenty of things around my house to take care of instead.  I'm not sure that is actually rest, but life must go on.    

It was warm (60 degrees) and a little windy this morning on the first day of Spring.  The moon last night and this morning was the closest it had been to the Earth in 18 years.  It was beautiful!  

We ran for 80 minutes at a 7:36 pace.  It felt really good to run that pace again.  I had not really run a long run at that pace since marathon training back in September or October.  

Treadmill running today at the gym.  I ran 1 mile as a warm up and then 4 800's at a 6 mile pace or at 3:00 splits.  After I finished running I walked for about 2 or 3 minutes to cool down.  After that I swam for 25 minutes for a distance of 1,250 meters.  I am supposed to go riding later today for 45 minutes.  Tri all three sports in one day, Yipee!

Tempo run this morning.  It felt good.  

Splits: 

7:33

7:21

6:59

6:40

7:11

7:24

7:25

Today I went to the gym to run 3 on the treadmill.  I went to the gym because I was also supposed to swim for 35 minutes.  When I got done running I got changed and went down to the pool.  This morning the pool had all four lanes full and there were people waiting.  I decided I did not want to wait around so I left to try again.  Maybe I'll go back tomorrow, which is supposed to be a rest day.  

I ran 3 miles today after I rode for 15 miles on the bike.  Us Triathletes call that a brick run.  I'm calling myself a triathlete even though I haven't actually competed in a triathlon yet.  I am registered for a sprint distance tri event in April that I have been training for.  I figure I can go ahead and start calling my self a triathlete.      

Kevin and I had a good workout this morning.  His Iron Man training schedule called for a two hour run between an 8:30 and 9:00 mile pace.  We ended up finishing with an average pace of 7:51.  I don't mind the extra speed since I'm training for a half marathon.  In fact the speed is better for me.  

I ran 8 hill repeats today at a distance of .15 miles or approximately 250 meters with an elevation of 40 feet.  I warmed up by running about 2.5 miles and cooled down by running about 3 miles.  I feel good.  

I ran 3 in 21:25 after my one hour ride.  It was cold (38 degrees) and windy this morning.

I have got to remember to stop running my tempo runs on the hills.  I was not able to get up to my top end pace of 6:30 because of them.  I get in such a habit of running out of my neighborhood and down the street to the nearby hilly trail.  I need to remember to keep it in the neighborhood where it is flat for this run so I can see what I am capable of.  I planned on running splits that looked like this.

8:00

7:30

7:00

6:30

6:45

7:00

7:30

8:00

But the most vicious elevation on my route came at mile 4, the 6:30 planned split.  I ended up finishing that mile in 6:53, but it killed me and I just didn't have much left to make my goal splits.  My actual splits looked like this:

7:41

7:24

7:02

6:53

7:11

7:23

7:49

7:30

I ran 3 miles at what felt like a pretty easy pace of 7:20 per mile.  This was a brick run after a 13 mile bike ride.  I'm feeling strong and ready for my 2 and half hour run tomorrow bright and early.  

It was a warm and windy run this morning.  Even at 5:30 AM it was 73 degrees with strong southern head winds of up to 20 miles per hour.  We took it nice and easy and ran at an 8:24 pace.  It was well deserved since Kevin had done over 100 miles on the bike the day before, and I had increased my running mileage by over 37% last week from the week before including two pretty strenuous speed sessions.  I'm going to rest up today and probably tomorrow too.  Fortunately I don't have too much yard work to do today so I can take advantage of the rest. 

On a physical observation I have been taking 20 grams of whey protein powder mixed in water within fifteen minutes of my longer or more strenuous speed workouts for the past two weeks.  I think it is really helping to reduce my recovery time.  My ball of my left foot felt a little bit tender after the run this morning, and indeed still feels a little tender.  I've been wearing my Adidas soccer sandals around the house and it really seems to feel better walking on it.  

I ran 4 400's on the treadmill today with about one and half minutes rest in between.  I ran most of them at about 1:30 pace or 6:00 minute miles.  After running I immediately got in the pool for a 20 minute swim workout.  My legs felt a little tired in the pool.  

I ran a 30 minute tempo run today.  I need to get better at holding my pace as I begin to descend back down to the slower end of the run.  As of the last couple of weeks I tend to slow down too much too fast after my peak pace.  

Splits:

7:23

6:52

6:36

7:30

I need to be able to do my fourth split at 7:00, only 30 seconds slower than the third split rather than a full minute slower. 

I ran 3 this morning after riding 16 miles on my bike.  My pace was 6:51.  I'm feeling so good about my running pace on these shorter distance brick runs.  I can't wait to enter another 5K race to see how much I can improve my PR.  That will have to wait until after the triathlon this month and the half marathon in June.  Or I suppose I should run a 5K in May before the half marathon.  We will see.  

The goal was to run for 3 hours today at no faster than an 8:30 pace.  We actually averaged 8:18 and negative split.  I was wishing we would have started at 5:30 instead of 6:00 because it was 73 degrees when we left and close to 79 when we finished.  It started to get pretty warm when the sun came up.  Fortunately the wind was blowing at 15 to 20 miles per hour and gave us a nice breeze to cool us off.  

I considered not training this morning so I could rest the day after my 21 mile run, but when I got out of bed I felt good so I decided I better take the opportunity.  I only had scheduled a short bike ride followed by a three mile run so it ended up being a nice and easy recovery workout.  

I only have a few days left until the Spring Fever Triathlon this weekend.  

Today I ran 4 x 800 repeats at roughly 6:00 minute mile pace with about 1:30 minute rest in between each repeat.  It was hot and sunny at 79 degrees.  I ran one mile to warm up and one mile to cool down at the end.   

Splits: 

3:04

2:57

2:57

3:00

I ran a 45 minute tempo run today in about 50 minutes.  I need to focus on getting my peak pace down to 6:30.  The closest I got today was 6:54.  In fairness to myself, I am trying to hold back a little this week since I have a Sprint Triathlon this Sunday.  Today was my last day of training so that I will have two days of rest before the race.  I will probably go swimming tonight one last time.  

Race Details
Swim 400 meters

Bike 12 miles

Run 2 miles

This was my first Tri and I had blast.  I learned that swimming 400 meters during a race is much harder than swimming 400 in training.  I have much work to do in the pool if I am to get competitive in Tri. 

The biking was a lot of fun, but the 6 miles back was into the wind and on the hills.  'Brutal' was the word most people have been using to describe it. 

I felt a serious stomach cramp develop about two miles into the bike portion of the race.  It stayed with me throughout the rest of the race.  I think it took about 1 to 2 minutes off of my run time.  

I'm looking forward to my next Tri.  I'm probably going to join a training group so I can get better.  

Finish time:  1:10:06

Swim:  8:24

T1: 2:40

Bike:  43:34

T2: 1:46

Run:  13:44

I ran 3 x 1600 repeats at 6:30 pace with about 1:30 rest in between.  I opened with 1 warm up mile and one cool down mile at 8:26 and 8:19 respectively.  

Splits: 

6:26

6:30

6:28

I feel like I'm getting a handle on my tempo runs.  Hal Higdon says to run easy for 10 to 15 minutes followed by gradual increases in pace.  The hardest running should come about two thirds into the workout.  He suggest holding the peak speed for only about a minute or two.  The suggested speed near the middle is 10k pace.  During this workout I peaked at 6:49, which is probably slightly slower than my projected 10k pace.  I held the 6:49 pace for a full mile rather than only a few minutes. 

I going to run an easy 6 tomorrow just to keep the blood pumping.  On Saturday I'm going to run 5 miles at my race pace of 6:52.  

7:53

7:41

7:11

7:04

7:02

6:49

7:51

Since I missed my easy run on Monday and Wednesday for a total of six miles lost, I decided to use my rest day today to make up the six.  I ran at an easy pace of 8 minute miles.  It was a warm and humid 68 degrees.  I'm starting more and more to question the judgement of holding a half marathon so close to June when the average temperatures and humidity might be higher.  

I'm am looking forward to my 5 mile pace run tomorrow.  

Yes!  I needed to run 5 miles today at my goal race pace of 6:52 per mile.  I finished with an average pace of 6:38.  I ready for my 2 hour run tomorrow with an accelerated finish.  I'm going to see if I can get my pace down close to 7:00 for the last half hour.  I think that my fast run today will help me tomorrow.  That's the theory I'm going with in my own head anyway.  

Today's Splits:

6:28

6:45

6:37

6:48

6:38

We got lucky today that it did not rain on us for the first 35 minutes of our two hour run.  Sometime after that point it began to lightly sprinkle and continued to get harder until about and hour and half in.  At that point it turned to a heavy down poor with big lightning strikes all around.  I qualify this as a rave run.  The only problem with the timing of the down poor was that it was during the final quarter of my run which I had scheduled to run hard at near race pace.  By about one mile in to my final four fast miles my shoes were soaking wet and I was running into the wind.  I also had three hills to overcome during this part of my run.  Considering the challenges of the course and the elements I feel pretty good that I average 7:00 minute miles.  I was going for my race pace goal of 6:52.  

Average moving pace: 7:47

Final four splits at fast pace:

6:59

6:48

7:11

7:10

Easy recovery run this morning at a 7:49 pace.  I really felt the soreness in my calves this morning from the previous two days of fast miles.  I could still feel the soreness a little at work today as well.  I'm hoping that I get a good recovery during sleep tonight so I can run some fast 800's tomorrow.  

I'm stoked.  My goal was to run 5 800 repeats at 6:52 pace or 3:26 for each repeat.  I ended up with an average pace at 3:07.  I also felt so good after I ran my fifth that I decided to run a sixth before jogging my last cool down mile.  

Splits: 

3:15

3:05

3:15

3:06

3:01

3:05

I took the past two days off because my calves were really sore.  My right calf was too sore.  I was afraid that I may have pulled something again because I did have problems with my right calf back in January.  So I rested Wednesday and Thursday instead of running my easy three mile run and my tempo run.  I opted to run my tempo run today.  I felt my right calf only a little during the first mile.  On my last mile I noticed my thighs were pretty sore/fatigued feeling which I thought was weird.  My chest was also feeling sore, which is leftover from my strength workout on Tuesday.  I guess I went a little too heavy on the weight. 

I think I will do pilates tonight and rest again tomorrow.  Hopefully I feel good on Sunday to run my mock half marathon so I will know where I'm at.  

Splits:

7:52

7:00

6:45

6:56

My original goal when I set this training run last week was to attempt to run 13.1 at my goal race pace.  That goal had to be put off when on Wednesday of this week I realized my right calf was possibly injured or strained and needed a few days rest.  On resuming my training I wanted to approach my runs somewhat cautiously as to run at a pace that won't re-injure my calf. 

So I ran this morning at an average moving pace of 7:24 instead of 6:52.  I got rained on the last 40 minutes of my run, but it was nothing like the gully washer style down poor that soaked my bones last week.   

I felt my right calf a little but I never felt any pain.  I am going to proceed cautiously.  I may decide to rest tomorrow instead of running my easy three.  

I'm proud of my run today.  I ran four 1600's at an average pace of 6:15 with 1:30 rest between each repeat.  My goal was to run them in 6:23 or less since that is my goal pace for the 5K race coming up in under two weeks.  I believe I am on target to snap my 20 minute 5K which has been my goal since last August.  My workout today included one warm up mile and one cool down mile run in 7:52 and 8:42 respectively.   

Splits: 

6:10

6:14

6:16

6:23

This morning I ran an easy 3 miles at an 8:27 pace.  When I woke up my calves felt sore, but not too sore to run.  I'm going to ice them both tonight and hopefully run a good tempo run tomorrow.  

I'm stoked about my tempo run this morning.  My goal was to begin at 8:30 pace and drop in 30 second increments each mile until peaking at 6:30.  At 6:30 the goal was then to move back up in 30 second increments until the 55 minute mark.  I pretty much nailed my pace goals coming within five seconds on the two fastest pace miles.  

Splits: 

8:11

7:52

7:28

7:05

6:35

6:59

7:24

My schedule called for a 5 mile pace run today, but I conked out at 3.26 miles.  I made the mistake of thinking too far ahead to runs and races that are up coming.  First I started thinking about the vicious speed runs I had already done this week.  Then I started thinking about my long run tomorrow morning with 30 minutes of a grueling fast finish.  Then I started thinking about upcoming races and it just all hit me at once.  I had to stop at 3.26 miles and walk home.  Some days you just can't bust out your workouts as fast and efficiently as you would like, but I've never just felt the need to stop before a workout was finished.  I'll make it up to my self tomorrow morning by having a great long run with a fast finish.   

I ran what was supposed to be a 2 hour run that ended up taking me 2:08:28.  The reason it took longer is because I intended on negative splitting, but because I went out too fast that did not happen.  My average pace was 7:47, which I'm not completely unhappy with, but I do need to work on getting that pace closer to 7:15 to 7:25 for this distance on a semi vigorous training run as I did today.  It felt a little warm today at 62 at 6:05 this morning when I started.  It was sunny and had warmed about 70 by the time I finished.  I got into an ice bath after I finished, but I was only able to stay in for about 3 minutes.  My feet were going numb, but hopefully that three minutes helped my muscles out enough so that I can hit it hard this week before tapering slightly next week.   

Good speed work today.  I ran 6 800's in an average of about 3:14.  I ran one warmup mile and one cool down mile.  My legs are feeling pretty good, although my calves are still feeling just a bit sore.  

Splits:

3:08

3:04

3:04

3:09

3:04

3:07

Easy run today at average pace of 7:49.  I think my actual pace was somewhat faster than this because my Garmin was acting funny for the first quarter mile.  It took it a long time to find my pace.  It slowly came down from 42 minutes per mile.  By the time I think it was reading my position accurately I think it had not actually tracked my first few tenths of a mile.   

My calves feel a little sore from yesterday 800's, but otherwise I feel good.  It was really hot this morning too.  Over 70 degrees when I started.  I should have gotten up before sun up, but I was watching the final episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine last night and did not get to be early.  

I clocked a new PR at one of my favorite races.  The Full Moon 5K is a Saturday night race that is very popular.  Probably because there is always a good band and unlimited beer after the race.  The band this year was Rock Show, which is a Journey Tribute band.  They were freaking awesome.  I joked that they might even be better than Journey.  I was singing along to the lyrics 'I'll be alright without you,' and having my self a great time. 

I really love this race for the course if self.  It is fast and flat.  It has been one of my goals for about 9 months to break the 20 minute mark.  Since I don't participate in very many races I probably could have hit this goal a little sooner, but I did it tonight and I am happy.

Official time: 19:34

Division Place: 9 of 111

Gender Place: 54 of 929

Running with a Garmin helps tremendously when going for a time goal.  I stuck to my plan of running slightly faster than the pace I knew it would take to beat 20 minutes.  My splits at 6:11, 6:19, and 6:21 were spaced no more than 10 seconds apart.  Being able to run at my goal pace early on and not go out too fast was key.  

It was a bit of a tough one this morning.  I ran the Full Moon 5K last night and clocked a new PR, which I'm still very stoked about.  We got home late after picking up Ty from Granny's and did not get to bed until sometime around 11.  Ty was of-course not sleeping well last night and my turn to take care of him came at 3:30 when Alisha woke me up because she was exhausted.  I ended up sleeping in his room on a pallet on his floor from 4 to 5, when it was about time for me to start getting ready to run again. 

I left the house at 5:50 so I could meet up with Kevin at 3 miles in on my run course.  We ran for an hour together.  He and I have both been a little sick this week, and so we talked about that and about our races coming up.  His Iron Man is this weekend in Huston and my half marathon is this weekend as well.  

I ran 8 or 9 miles at close to a 7:40 pace, and then I dropped down to around a 8 pace for the remainder.  My legs were really feeling fatigue.  Probably a combination of last nights race and sleep deprivation.  I chugged out my full 2 hours still so as not to slack on my training.  This is m last long run before the half next weekend and I don't want to have any excuses not to be prepared. 

I was a nice cool 45 degree slightly breezy morning.  I would love to get a weather/temperature repeat of this morning on race day.  The current weather report shows a temperature of 64 with a 30% chance of thunderstorms.  It looks like I won't be so lucky, but this is Oklahoma and the weather can change drastically in a day. 

My goal for this week: I need to focus on my workouts and go into the race feeling strong and confident in my self. 

I went running after work today because it did not happen as usual in the morning.  I woke up feeling my sore throat was back with a vengeance.  I think I aggravated my immune system that was working on kicking my cold after the weekends race and Sunday morning 2 hour run on only 5 hours sleep.

So I decided not to run this morning.  I went running when I got home instead.  It felt good after the first quarter mile when my muscles finally loosened up.  Now I just need to kick this cold before the half marathon on Saturday.  

I ran six 400's today at a 5k pace wit a mile warm up and a mile cool down.  I'm still recovering from my cold.  It is interesting that when I finish my workout my throat feels more clear and less sore.  Running cures my cold symptoms if at least only temporarily.  

Splits: 

1:35

1:28

1:29

1:30

1:32

1:33

It really feels weird to only run two miles.  It almost feels more like a short stroll through the neighborhood than an actual workout.   Mere child's play.  My half marathon training is tapering this week and the workouts are slightly less intense. 

I'm looking forward to the race this Saturday.  I'm looking to run it in something close to under 90 minutes.  My previous half time is 1:42:22, so a sub 1:30 should be a nice improvement for me.  I've been training pretty hard for it, but I honestly can't say I've trained as hard as I would like to have trained.

I am also hoping that the world does not end on Saturday as one Christian group has proclaimed will happen as reported on in this Runners World Face Book Update. 

I actually already new about this group and its bizarre prediction from the video below.  This guy actually made this same prediction back in the 1990's that of-course failed to come to fruition.  Needless to say I'm not too worried about it this time. 

I'm finished!  This was the last run of my half marathon training.  It was a Hal Higdon tempo run.  My peak speed which came at 20 minutes in was about a 6:30 pace.  I held that pace for about 3 minutes, and then dropped to about 6:50 for the remainder of the run.   

 I finished tonight feeling really refreshed and strong, which is exactly how I hoped to feel at this point.  I'm not sure if I have achieved sub 90 minute fitness, but I believe I am close.  The adrenaline on race day just might buy me that time, but we will see.  I'm going to enjoy a full nights sleep tonight, pending the little one does not wake us up, and relax tomorrow morning.  I'll go into the race on Saturday feeling strong and fresh.  I think I'll follow Catra Corbett's example and call my race this weekend my rapture run.  

Damn those hills!  Wicked, wicked hills.  I train on the hills weekly, but I did not train on the right hills.  This course had about 120 foot elevation change beginning at mile 6.  I am willing to admit that I also went out a little too fast for my level of training.  I had hoped to finished in under 90 minutes, so I ran my first 3 miles under a 6:50 pace.  I should have played it more conservative and gone out closer to 7:15's.  Had I done that, I probably could have finished in about 1:34:58 instead of 1:39:19.

My actual average pace ended up at 7:34, which is a little discouraging because I had a 13.1 training run 3 weeks ago that I finished at a 7:27 pace.  I should be able to run a race faster than a training run right?  So to recap my errors.  I went out too fast.  I did not account for the hills.  And I'm not sure, but I think I may not have hydrated properly in the morning before the race.  I was feeling pretty parched and was getting liquid at every opportunity.  At the turn around point a volunteer was actually handing out bottles of water.  Most people were not taking them, but I did.  I drank about a third of it and poured another third over my head to cool off.  I took two packs of gel during the race.  The first at about 32 minutes, and the second at 1 hour 5 minutes. 

Considering my aforementioned errors, I actually feel pretty good about this race for the following reasons.  I placed 6 of 24 in my age division.  Only two in my age division achieved my goal time of sub 90 minutes.  I placed 24 overall.  Focus on the positives right.  

Splits:

6:49

6:42

6:53

7:08

7:16

7:26

7:59

7:24

7:18

7:34

8:01

8:19

8:00

Today begins my first week of Olympic distance triathlon training.  It is going to appear that my mileage has dropped significantly going forward because in fact my running mileage will have dropped.  That will only be because I will now only be running three times a week instead of five, and for slightly shorter distances.  This will be to make room for biking and swimming three times a week each. 

Being mostly a runner at heart I really wanted to select a program that has an emphasis on running so I could keep my mileage up.  Not only because I enjoy the running more than the other two sports, but at the end of my tri training I will have ten weeks until the Route 66 Marathon.  A marathon in which I wish to BQ.   Given that I am still a tri nubie, I've only trained for an completed one sprint distance tri, I'm not sure how this training will affect my running conditioning since it will overlap the marathon training by six weeks.  I ended up choosing a tri training plan that has an emphasis on all three sports.  I did not want to sacrifice the running for two reasons.  I enjoy and I need the mileage going into marathon training.  I needed emphasis on the other two sports as well simply because I need the practice and to develop better skills especially in swimming.  

It will be interesting to see how this plan plays out in juggling it with my personal and professional life.  I just ordered a book from Borders called The Time Crunched Triathlete.  The authors Chris Carmichael and Jim Rutberg claims that using their plans you can train for up to a half Iron Man distance and still have time left over for work and family.  I may be drawing heavily on their recommendations as I get into the book and into my training. 

Short easy run.  This triathlon training is pretty intense on total hours per week but very light on the actual running portion.  As I become more conditioned to the bike and the pool over the next few weeks I'm going to have to figure out how to pump up my running miles to keep from going insane.  

I am currently training for an Olympic distance triathlon in September.  The runs in this program are way to light for my current level of running fitness and liking.  I was only supposed to run 40 minutes this morning.  That just sounded way to boring and worthless of a workout to me.  I went out the door thinking I would probably run at least an hour.  When I got about 30 minutes in I realized that only running an hour felt too short.  I told my self that I would run for an hour and half.  By the time I got to the 45 minute mark I was almost to the University so I decided to not turn around until I got at least to that point. 

I ended up running a time of 1:39:23 and 12 miles.  That was more like it I thought.  I want to feel like I accomplished something after a Sunday long run.  Maybe this is why some have compared the running addiction to a drug addiction.  The more miles you run the more you have to run in order to feel fulfilled.  Yeah I said it.  Just like drugs.  

What a nice morning it was to experience the joy of running it was.  The metaphysical benefits are enormous.  I am out all alone early in the morning before sunrise with nothing by my thoughts to keep me company.  I feel the wind on my skin and I hear the occasional babbling brook as I run along.  That was the perfect way to start my Memorial day weekend. 

I'm still trying to figure out how to modify my Olympic Triathlon training program to balance higher mileage running workouts with the rest of the biking and swimming workouts.  Taking today as an example my run workout was only supposed to be 24 minutes, but that just feels way to short of a work out for me considering my current level of fitness and marathon training to begin in 9 weeks.   

The run portion of my Triathlon is only six miles.  When I consider the run portion of the race I think that I don't need to be running 30 plus miles per week, but when I consider that by the time I'm finished with my race I will be ten weeks out from my marathon I know I need to begin bumping up the miles now.  I've looked a little bit online for good training plans that accommodate a triathlon followed by a marathon ten weeks later, but I can't seem to find anything.  Is my best bet just to run more during triathlon training so that by the time I'm finished with the tri I will have a suitable running base?  If anyone has any suggestions or has experience running triathlon and marathon I'd appreciate any suggestions.  

My legs felt totally fatigued this morning.  All the extra biking and swimming is starting to take a toll on my body.  I figured I might go through some kind of adjustment period like this as my body begins to acclimate to the rigors of triathlon.  I may need to build in an extra rest day sometime in the next week though in order to heal up and become stronger.  

I ran and sweat today.  It was hot and humid this morning.  I'm not sure how I had any fluid left in me by the time I finished.  I felt like I got a good workout and my legs were only feeling a little fatigued after yesterdays 23 mile bike ride. 

I have spoken with my training buddy Kevin about planning the Oplympic Triathlon in September without compromising my upcoming marathon in November.  He suggested cutting out one bike workout a week in order to get more run time in.  I think that will work perfectly.  I will trade one bike workout for a run, and then make one of my other bike workouts a brick.  That way will be able to run 5 times a week, which should be sufficient to prepare me for the marathon.  

I ran intervals today.  I ran for 7 miles alternating between 8 and 7 minute miles.  I wore myself out pretty good.  

This morning before my run I was reading an article from active.com that was put out by Marathon nation on marathon training.  The writers advice was to pick a marathon 6 months out and then to split the training up into two three month sections.  For the first three months he suggests focusing on speed.  He then suggest taking a two week break in between the two three month sections to heal up before starting the second three month section in which you will add distance.  This got me to thinking that I did not take any break between my half marathon and my triathlon training.  My triathlon training is going to overlap my marathon training by 10 weeks.  I will have had no time to recover and heal before my marathon in November.  I will have been training without a break since January.  I did take one week off in mid February, but that was because I got sick, so I'm not sure that is really the kind of quality rest an endurance athlete needs to repair his body. 

My conclusion is that I'm thinking I will take next week off.  No biking and no running all week.  I will instead focus on calisthenics and I might still go get a few swim workout in.  

This was a 3 mile brick after a 22 mile ride.  I finished out this week pretty hard even though I missed a ride on Monday and a swim at the end of the week, but I'm ready to rest for at least three days.  I've been waking up each morning this week with my leg muscles telling me to get back in bed.  I'm going to listen to my body and rest up to recover for a few days.  

I took all of last week off to rest my over trained fatigued body.  I now feel refreshed and rejuvenated after this mornings 9.75 mile run. 

Now I just need to figure out where my running priorities are.  I have two races upcoming that I want compete in.  One is an Olympic distance triathlon in September.  The other is a marathon in November.  I think I'm going to have to change my goal from 'compete in' to 'participate in' with regard to the triathlon in September so that I can still 'compete in' the marathon.  My goal for the marathon is to run it in under three hours.  The only way I can do that is to back off on my cycling and swimming.  I think I will continue to build volume on the cycling and swimming while gradually increasing my running mileage.  I will then get to a point where I will eventually begin decreasing my cycling and swimming mileage so that my runs do not suffer.  

I am running a 5k race in about two weeks.  To get ready I'm going to run the last two week of Hal Higdon's 5k advanced program.

Today I ran 8 400's at 1:30 each.  I'm sure my calves will be sore since I haven't done any real speed training in several weeks and I took all of last week off.  

Bike: 14.39 miles

Run: 3 miles

Swim: 1,400 meters

Brick workout this morning with a swim this evening.  I felt good and strong throughout all of my workouts today.  It is really amazing what taking a week off to rest and recover can do for the body.  I'm not regretting that decision even though it was a hard one to make. 

I ran a 45 minute tempo run this morning.  It felt good.  

Bike this morning: 14.26 miles

Swim at Heyburn Lake:  1800 meters

Run at Heyburn Lake: 2.74

I ran an easy 12 miles this morning at a relaxed 8:26 mile pace.  The tendon that runs along the arch of my right foot started feeling a little funny at the start of my last mile.  I stopped for just a few seconds and stretched it before continuing on.  I thought about walking the rest of the way home, but it was not a painful feeling just a funny feeling.  I guess the fact that I could feel it at all is what is funny.  I usually don't feel a thing down there.  It felt like it may have just tightened up a little bit and was pulling down towards the bottom of my foot with each toe off.  As soon as I finished the run and walked and stretched I felt it not at all.  I will stretch it and massage it today and then take my planned rest day tomorrow.  Hopefully it was just a fluke.  

Bike: 15.19 miles.  Time: 57:26

Run: 6 (pushing Ty in stroller) Time: 48:43

I'm calling my workout today a baby brick since I took Ty along for the final 6 miles.  He enjoyed himself up until around mile three when he fell asleep.  I enjoyed the extra challenge of pushing him in the stroller for the first time.

I ran a tempo run this morning pushing Ty in the jogging stroller.  My peak pace, which came about 2/3 into the run was about 7:00 minute miles which I sustained for about one minute ten seconds.  My average pace was 8:03.  

Brick Ride: 15.84 miles in 1:01:27

Brick Run: 3.01 miles in 22:09 at a 7:22 pace.

I felt pretty good today on my ride.  The run felt a little bit tough, but I kept up a pretty good pace for having just come off the bike. 

I ran an easy six this morning in 48:33 at an 8:03 pace.  I was mostly looking to build volume with the workout today.  I usually take Saturday to rest, but I'm going to work towards building up to 10 miles a day six days a week.  

I ran an easy 13 this morning.  I felt really strong and refreshed throughout the whole run.  It is amazing what going out at a pace just 15 to 30 seconds slower than what you are used to running does over the course of the whole run.  I pushed the last mile down to 7:44.  I averaged 8:29. 

My goal for today was to run easy and build a little bit of mileage.  I added 1 mile to last weeks long run.  I ran it a little bit easy because I'm running in the Firecracker 5K tomorrow morning, and although I'm mostly running this race for fun I'm still going to be 'racing'. 

Had I known I was going to podium today I would have taken this race more seriously.  I ran my usual 12 plus long run yesterday, and thus was a little less than race ready today.  I usually rest on Monday, but since we had a holiday weekend and a fun race to attend I decided to throw my hat in. 

I ended up placing third in my age division with a slower time than my last 5K of 19:39 where I placed 9th.  Today at 20:28 I placed third.  The winner of my division clocked a time of 19:36, which is just 3 seconds faster than my PR about 8 weeks ago.  Had I known I would have a shot at the top spot I might have played this out a little bit differently.  Such as not running 13 miles the day before and having a few beers the night before.   

All things considered I was really excited to see my third place age division finish.  Alisha took Ty in the jogging stroller so that he could participate in his first race.  She ran it with her friend Amy who also had her son Gavin in the stroller.  My brother Dalton and his fiance Melina showed up and ran their first 5k.  Somehow Alisha and Amy finished a few seconds before Dalton and Melina even thought the stroller 5k started a full ten minutes after the general 5k.  I wanted to give Dalton a hard time, but it was his first race and he did not train at all.  Still I wonder how they were passed by Alisha and Amy.  

I also saw our friends Scott and Amber.  Scott ran with this boys in the fun run.  I saw my high school friend Maribeth during the race but I did not get to talk to her after. 

During the final three fourths of a mile I came up behind a young kid.  He was probably about 11 years old.  I told myself that I could not be beaten by such a young person so I dug a little deeper and passed him.  Then about a quarter mile later a woman spectator shouted from the sideline, "keep it up, your the first little guy!"  When I realized she wasn't talking to me, I knew the kid must have still been right on my heels.  At about this time a guy a few tenths of a mile ahead of me stopped to lean over and hurl chunks all over the road.  He promptly straightened back out and took off for the finish line staying ahead of me all the while.  It was just a few seconds after this that the 11 year old boy passed me.  And when I say passed me he was really moving fast.  He took me a little off guard.  I had to dig real deep to keep up with him.  I was determined not to let him beat me.  We both struggled to be the first to the finish line, and in doing so passed two other racers.  He ended up beating me to the finish by milliseconds, but had he not been there to make a break for it I would not have passed the two other racers near the end.  

I had a really good time.  

My Garmin time says 21:03 because I always forget to stop my watch at the finish line of a race. 

Brick Ride: 27.75 miles in 1:38:59.

Brick Run: 3 miles in 22:14 at a 7:23 pace.  

I'll give my legs a rest tomorrow.  I'm planning a 45 minute swim at the gym. 

Today was a tempo run workout.  I ended up running it with Ty in the jogging stroller so Alisha could get some extra sleep.  He woke up a little extra early this morning and thus she needed the sleep.  

I felt as though I ran this same run a little faster the last time I ran it on June 30th.  When I checked the previous workout I realized I was right.  I ran the last one in 48:47 to this time of 49:14 for the exact same distance of 6.01 miles.  I'm not sure what happened.  I think it might be related to having increased my mileage these past couple of weeks by 10% per week.  

Brick workout.  

Ride: 15.34 miles in 59:15 

Run: 3 miles in 22:34 at a 7:30 pace 

 I've been building my mileage this week and last.  My workout today completes a 36 mile week, which is up 10 percent over last weeks 33 miles.  

I ran today at a pace of 8:11.  It is actually slightly faster than that, but my Garmin was taking its sweet time acquiring and locking on to the satellites.  I think it omitted about .20 miles from the beginning of the run.

Tomorrow I run 13 just like last Sunday.  I can't wait. 

Hot! Hot! Hot!  It was 83 degrees when I left the house this morning at 6:00 AM.  The 10 day forecast has 102 degree highs every day for the next ten days.  Our summer heat in the Mid-West came early this year.

My time today was 1:48:03 at a pace of 8:18 miles.  I feel as though I am losing a little of my speed from where I was at during April and May at the end of my half marathon program.  I'm not totally worried about it though for two reasons.  I am in the process of increasing my mileage by ten percent per week and I don't want and I don't want to go too hard while also increasing mileage.  I want to get stronger as I go longer.  I also know that the heat has a little to do with my performance.  Running when it's 83 to 86 is a lot harder than running at 52 degrees.  In fact 52 is my PR temperature.  According to my training logs I have more PR runs at or near that temperature than at any other.

I think for this week I'll focus speed work more on my tempo run and at least one of my brick runs.  That should make my weekend long run easier to run faster even in this ridiculous heat.  

I just looked back over my logs and found that although my average pace for my long run is slower than where it was the few weeks preceding my April half marathon, it has steadily been increasing since that same time.  That is to say, since the week after the race where I started clocking slower times, I've been gradually increasing speed since then.  

My Garmin died last night.  The screen was blank when I found it on the charger.  When I unplugged it and plugged it back in the screen lit up and began charging.  Then I checked on it later and the screen was blank again.  I eventually had to do a hard reset to get it to come back on.  I then was able to let it charge.  I thought everything was fine this morning went it seemed to be operating normally.  I got exactly half way through my ride, when I noticed the screen was not on the stop watch screen, but had reverted back to the normal screen that displays the time.  I switched it back to the stopwatch display and my time was still there and mileage only the time had stopped.  I hit the start button and all seemed normal again.  

I rode for about 23.5 miles today.  When I got home I changed into my shoes and went for a run.  I saved the bike activity on the Garmin and started the watch again for the run.  Everything seemed fine.  I recorded a 3 mile run in about 23 minutes.  

When I went to upload the activity Garmin connect said no activities were found.  I then disconnected the watch and tried to view the activities directly from the watch.  Nothing.  I have no idea what happened but I'm a little frustrated.  I've had to reset my watch before when it froze, but I only lost activities already saved on the watch.  Why did the watch not record and save this mornings activities?

I reconnected to Garmin Connect and looked on the support section.  The website suggested that I run a software update and that updating my software would fix most problems.  I ran the update.  I will use my Garmin again tomorrow to find out if it worked.  I think I will also download a running app for iPhone to take along with me as a backup just in case.    

In sum I'm trying to remember my distances. 

Bike: about 23.5 miles

Run: 3.01 miles in about 23 minutes. 

I took Ty in the jogging stroller this morning on the Creek turnpike trail for the first time.  It was a little windy, which made the hills even more challenging pushing the stroller.  I enjoyed it though.  The passersby and other runners and cyclists seem to smile and wave at me a lot more when I'm pushing a baby in a jogger as opposed to running solo.

My time today: 58:52

Pace: 8:23

My ball of my left foot was just a little bit touchy for a short time a little over half way through.  The tendon that runs along the arch of my right foot felt a little tight during mile 6. 

Tempo Run

Time: 47:12

Pace: 7:51

Brick ride this morning.  Time: 1:05:23  Distance: 17.09 miles

Brick Run: 3.03 miles in 23:05 for pace of 7:37. 

HOT!  84 temp with heat index of 94 by the time I finished my run.  The meteorologist with the national weather service on the radio this morning said that we will have heat indexes up around 103 for the foreseeable future.  It sure makes training fun! 

I completed 40 miles this week.  Woo Hoo!  I've been building my base up towards that magical 60 miles per week, so talked about among the Fast Running Blog community, in order to attain the coveted BQ.  

I've been trying to remind myself that I don't need to maintain super high speeds on the days that I'm just building mileage.  I don't want to burn out as I begin my official 16 week marathon training plan in two weeks.  I'm curious if I need to taper just a bit before starting the plan since I've been building for several weeks in addition to logging about two hours per week on the bike and two hours per week in the pool.  

Time: 1:07:57

Pace: 8:29

Today began the first day of following Gordon Bakoulis' pre-marathon/marathon schedule.  Her schedule is composed of 'minutes of aerobic activity' rather than 'miles,' so it is a little different for me since I've always followed a miles schedule.  

The ligament that runs along the arch of my right foot, which after searching on the web I have discovered is my plantar fascia ligament, felt slightly stretched and uncomfortable beginning at about mile 7 this morning.  I stopped for about 30 seconds to remove my shoe and massage my arch.  I then put my shoe back on but I tightened the laces a little tighter.  That seemed to help.  I also noticed that if I ran at a slightly faster pace the tight sensation seemed to lessen.  I noticed this same tight feeling in my arch a couple of week ago, but it did not occur until mile 9 or 10 if memory serves.  From what little I have read on arch pain I believe I may have the beginning of plantar fasciitis. 

I got this bit of helpful information from drshoe.wordpress.com 

"Many patient’s I see have arch or heel pain, otherwise known as plantar fasciitis. The plantar fascia is a structure on the bottom of the foot which extends from the heel to the ball of the foot. When it is tight (bow-strung) it can cause inflammation and pain."

"Not surprisingly, shoes can cause plantar fasciitis, especially shoes that are excessively worn, too short in the arch or too flexible. If you have plantar fasciitis you will definitely want to evaluate your shoes. You should also try not going barefoot in the house."

"If the pain persists, you will want to visit your podiatrist who may recommend calf stretches, anti-inflammatory medications (Motrin, Aleve) or give you a cortisone injection. Custom orthotics may also help."

I would not actually say that I have had what I consider to be pain at this point, but I'm cautious by nature and as a distance runner I know that I must listen to my body.  I think I will massage my arches every day, stretch my calves, and go a little easier on my runs this week.  I probably need to get some new work shoes too.  Mine are getting a little worn out.  

Brick workout. 

Ride:16.31 mile ride in 59:55. 

Run: 3.04 miles in 23:58 @ a 7:54 pace. 

I used my new Brooks Ravena 2 shoes for the first time today.  I love new shoes.  I did not feel any tension in my right foot's arch.  I took yesterday off to rest, aside from my 45 minute swim, and I only ran three miles today, albeit after 15 miles on the bike.  Hopefully the new shoes along with a little rest and icing will "fix" whatever is causing the tightness of what I believe to be my plantar fascia. 

 I ran in my new Brooks Ravena 2's for the second time today.  I paid close attention to my arches the whole time.  Interestingly my left arch started to feel a little tight first.  I started to feel a little tightness in my left arch at 6.5 miles and did not feel anything in my right arch until about 7 miles.  Once I felt my right arch it sort of became the dominant feeling between the two.  It was not painful at any point, it just felt a little tight.  I kept the pace real easy at 8:28 minute miles. 

I wore my old NB 1225's this morning and pushed Ty in the jogging stroller.  My arches felt fine the whole time, although I did not surpass the seven mile mark that is usually the point where they begin to tighten up.  I'm anxious to the 1225's out for a 9 mile run to see what happens.  The only have about 275 miles on them, although they have sat in my closet for about 2 years since I last ran in them.  I was told by the staff at my local running shoe store that the rubber goes bad sitting even if the shoes have not been used. 

I ran with Ty in the jogging stroller today on the hills of the Creek trail.  I massaged my arch of my right foot for about 10 minutes before I left the house.  On the run I started to feel the tightening at about 6.5 miles like usual.  I'm taking tomorrow off as part of my scheduled rest day.  I plan on icing and massaging more.  I'm not sure if I will run my usual long run Sunday or not since the tightness tends to hit at the 6 to 7 mile mark.  

I ran long and slow today at a 9:49 average pace.  This was very different for me to say the least, but necessary for me to heal.   I believe I have overstressed my plantar fascia and thus have been dealing with minor arch pain in most of my runs over 7 miles for the past two weeks.  I did not know until two nights ago that I technically have a high arch.  I always thought I had an average to high arch. 

The test I used was to dip my foot in a shallow pan of water and then immediately place my foot on a flat paper bag.  The foot print will determine your arch type depending on how much of your arch is visible in the print.  There is a website, which I can't remember the name of now, that can be used to compare to see what type you have.  Apparently high arches are more vulnerable to plantar fascia problems which is associated with arch pain.  Every time your foot lands your arch flattens out a little bit stretching the plantar fascia tissue that runs from your heal to the ball of your foot. 

I have never managed to develop this problem before in seven years of running, but I think I now know what happened.  This year I just took on a little too much.  I began incorporating triathlon training into my life.  I started out early in the year just biking once or twice, and never more than 10 to 12 miles on the bike.  I did a couple of brick workouts, but never consistently from week to week until the first couple of weeks in April before my sprint distance race.  After that race I quit the bike and the swims and focused solely on my running for five weeks to continue training for my half marathon.  I got in really great running shape for the half.  After the half I should have lightened up my training, but I did not.  I immediately started biking three times a week, swimming three times a week, and I continued running an average 30 miles a week.  After three weeks of this the workouts got very tough and I was sensing my body was asking me to back off.  So I decided to take a full week off.  All I did that week was a couple of strength training sessions and mostly took it easy.  No running, biking, or swimming.  I resumed the following week, but I gradually took my bike sessions down to two per week.  The difference this time was that in order to begin increasing my running mileage I began to make every bike workout a brick.  I ran at least three miles after having biked for 15 miles and sometime longer.  These twice weekly bricks were scheduled on my easy run days so that I could fit them in to my life.  The problem with this was that I ran the bricks hard coming off the bike instead of easy.  I completely disregarded the rule to go easy on the easy days.  I really did not have any "easy" days due to the rigorous multi-sport schedule I had made for myself. 

On top of all that I was occasionally taking Ty in the jogging stroller.  I took him once or twice a week, sometimes on the bricks and sometimes on the tempo runs.  The good thing here is that running with the jogging stroller was fun and challenging.  I felt I was getting an enhanced workout and I enjoyed the father son bonding time I got with my child.  The bad thing here is that pushing a jogging stroller changes your running form.  There is no possible way that it won't.  You are not able to run with both arms freely moving in their natural patterns to balance the body.

So while I was steadily increasing my mileage at the recommended rule of no more than ten percent per week, I also had added two bricks per week at a hard run pace, and about one to two stroller runs per week sometimes as hard runs.  This was just too much for my body to take.  I have learned my limits.  

I'm now going to follow Sasha's injury prevention and treatment principles along with icing and stretching treatment to rehab.  My workouts for the foreseeable future will not be looked upon as training for fitness, but as training for physical therapy.  I will do slow easy runs so as not to aggravate my plantar fascia as it heels and strengthens with each day.  When I can run the volume without having pain for soreness I will gradually add speed being careful not to add too much too soon.  With a little caution I am hopeful I will not be too far behind on my marathon training that is supposed to start this Monday. 

This was day two of my running for physical therapy rather than fitness.  I jogged for 45 minutes at a 9:50 pace.  I could only slightly feel the plantar fascia in my arches.  I think I felt it slightly more so in my right than in my left.  I massaged both arches for about 10 minutes before I left and I stretched them after I finished.  I also did three sets of calf raises for strength after the stretching.  I've following the stretching advice on injuredrunner.com, which was a website recommended by Dean Karnazes in his book 50/50.  

Easy jog.  Still waiting on my plantar fascia to heal up.  I felt it only slightly in my right foot this morning.

Average pace 9:31

I'm continuing to rest and take it easy.  I really wanted to run this morning, but I'm trying to listen to my body rather than my mind.  I'm still feeling a slight amount of tightness in my left foot's arch.  I have felt it momentarily throughout that day a few days this week. 

I ended up opting for cross training this morning by riding the bike for an hour instead of my usual long run.  My right arch felt fine, but my left felt just slightly tight off and on throughout most of the ride.  I can't wait to get my new shoes with arch supports.  I curious to see if wearing them feels more comfortable.  

I ran today with my new New Balance 1260's with New Balance arch supports.  I also wore the arch supports half a day at work yesterday.  I plan on wearing them today at work too.  If my arches feel as good by the end of today as they did yesterday then I will probably get a second pair just to leave in my work shoes.  I am optimistic that the arch supports along with easier running for a few weeks will heal my strained plantar fascia.  

Today I ran for the second time in my new 1260's with New Balance arch supports.  I also wore the arch supports all day at work yesterday.  There is no question that the supports are helping.  I had not the slightest twinge of tension in my arches at work.  This morning on the run I had just a slight sensation of tightness in my left arch, but none in my right.  This is interesting because when I first noticed arch pain it was only in my right. 

I am continuing to run at an easier than my normal easy pace while I heal.  This morning I ran at 9:17 pace.  I'm taking this day by day and beginning to feel better as I go.   

I intended to run for 45 minutes at an easy pace this morning.  Since my arches felt pretty good I decided to run a little faster which came out to an 8:37 second mile.  At about this point I just happened along the Broken Arrow Highschool cross country team.  The started their run at the exact point that I passed their group on the trail.  And to further the weird coincidence their turn around point was at my turn around point.  They were only running a short loop in the trail.  I was running over five miles.  Weird.  

I did start to feel my right arch a little at about 3 and half to four miles in.  

I got really good sleep last night.  I'm going to rest today.  I've spoken to a few people who once had plantar fascia problems who were not able to run for about a year.  I still think I've taken precautions early enough that my plantar fascia is not injured that bad yet, but to play it safe I'm going to take some more time off.  I have my arch supports I will wear during the day while I heal.  I am going to have dental surgery done next week that will require that I take one week off from strenuous physical activity anyway.  I will begin my rest period today, which is one week prior to surgery, and will then rest for one more week giving me almost two full weeks off.

I'm going to focus on sleep and nutrition while I rest.  

PM - Pilates 20 minute workout. 

Day of rest.  Still letting my plantar fascia heal.  I did the twenty minute pilates workout tonight with Alisha.  

I have not run in over three weeks as I continue on injury rest and recovery.  I rode this bike this morning with Kevin for the first time in four weeks.  We rode for and hour and went almost 16 miles.  It was good to do something outside again.  My dental surgery was a little over two weeks ago, so even had I not been injured I would have been required to not for at least a week anyway. 

I have schedule an appointment with my sports doc for the 15th of September to get my foot checked out.  I thought that I had plantar fasciaitis, but one of my customers who is also a doctor told me I might have metatarsalgia.  I thought that I had this last fall while training for the Route 66 marathon, because I was having ball of foot pain in my left foot.  This time I am only have arch pain, and primarily in my right foot.  Since I have to wear arch supports during the day just to feel comfortable, I need to have it checked out.  Three weeks off does not seem to have healed it any as I can still sense its presence just walking around.  

I got the results of my bone scan yesterday from Dr. Stanley and I do not have a stress fracture in my right foot!  I had been having arch pain.  His best diagnosis at this point is that I have micro tears in the tissues and ligaments that run from my heal to the ball of my foot through my arch.  I was cleared to begin jogging and ease back into to running with my arch supports.  

The temperature was perfect this morning at 50 degrees.  I took Ty in the jogging stroller and did 3 miles at an easy 10 minute pace.  It is good to be back running again.  I will cautiously resume my mileage.  I'm still not sure if I'm going to try to sell my marathon slot or switch to the half and run it with Alisha.  

This was my first brick since July 19th.  It was my second run in over 8 weeks.  It was so much fun to workout with Kevin again and indeed to just get out there again.  I am looking forward to gradually and cautiously resuming my mileage.  

One week ago was my first run back in over 8 weeks.  My average pace in that 3 mile run was 9:41.  I ran the same 3 mile distance today at an average pace of 8:51.  My right foot felt good.  I think I'm still getting used to running in arch supports.  

My goal is going to be to add one mile per week until I get back over ten miles.  If I am feeling good I will consider running the Route 66 Half with my wife, which will be at a very easy and relaxed pace for me.

Run on!

I ran my longest run in 10 weeks since I've been in injury recovery mode.  Indeed my longest run ever with Alisha and Ty.  I have to be honest and say that I was aware of a feeling in the arch of my right foot for most of the run.  It was never what I would describe as painful or even tight.  But I was aware of something there none the less.

We ran at a 12:30 mile pace which is Alisha's comfortable running pace, and definitely a smart pace for me since I'm still recovering from injury.  

If I'm not feeling sore tonight I may consider riding in the morning. 

Brrr! It was 30 degrees when I went running this morning. Our crazy Oklahoma weather is showing its face again. We went running in shorts and short sleeves Sunday morning in a very comfortable 54 degrees. This morning I was in full blown cold weather gear. I felt good and ran an average pace of 8:40 per mile. My arch of my right foot felt mostly fine. I could feel it a little during the last half mile.

Brick ride with Kevin this morning at 6:00 AM.  18.74 miles on the bike followed by 1.4 miles running.  

I told Alisha I would go on her long run with her tomorrow.  I hope she is able to get up at 6 again and go like we did last Sunday.  She is not a morning runner, although I am trying my best to turn her into one.  

Alisha and I set out to run long today, but ended up running short.  We are learning that our individual preferred time of day to run is not likely going to work out. 

I drove out to the church parking lot at Elm and the Creek Turnpike this morning about 45 minutes before sunrise.  I ran towards the moon that was low in the sky.  There was so little visible light on the moon that all you could really see was it's circular outline in the night sky.  It was really a sight to behold.

I'm still closely paying attention to the arch of my right foot.  I still feel something there, just not the tightening that caused me to take time off.  I'm planning on running with Kevin tomorrow morning.  This will be my first opportunity in quite a few weeks to see how two days in a row feels.  

I was a nice 54 degrees this morning at 6:30.  Kevin and I ran from my house to the Creek Turnpike trail and headed towards NSU.  On the way back it started raining pretty good on us.

I felt the arch of my right foot a little less than yesterday, which I am happy about.  We ran a nice 8:42 pace today.  Yesterday I ran an 8:52 pace.  I had noticed in the past that running harder would actually make the pain go away or go down.  Since my pace today was very close to that of yesterday I think I can safely say that pace had nothing to do with the way that my foot felt.

This is the morning of the Tulsa Run.  I have run the last three in a row, but I'm going to miss this one.  The race starts in about 30 minutes.  I'm telling myself that it is alright to miss this year since my injury prevented the necessary training to improve on last years finish time.  I have never finished slower than the year or the time before and I intend on continuing that trend as long as possible.  And since I'm only thirty I should have quite a few good years left of improvement.  

So I ran six this morning and felt really good.  I ran an average 8:28 mile pace and felt very little if anything in the arch of my right foot.  I plan on running a long slow ten tomorrow morning, resting on Monday, then doing some speed intervals on Tuesday.  If I feel good after all of that I'm going to kick it up a notch for the Route 66 Half on November 20th.  

I intended on running long and slow today, but due to my late start I ended up modifying that to long and fast.  I tried to get out of the house by 6 so I could take my time and be gone up to two hours if necessary and still be back by 8.  I like to make a general habit of being back in time to watch This Week with Christiane Amanpour.  But since Ty woke up just before I got out bed at 5:45 and my wife is not exactly a morning person I took first kid duty.  She was good enough to get up at 6:30 to relieve me.

I did not want to run east again, although that has been the only good option since they closed the section of the trail by my house that allows access to the western end.  I decided to chance it early on a Sunday morning when there generally is little traffic and run the streets to get to the next westerly trail entry point.  I ran the streets for about 2 miles.  I ended up running all the way past Grace Church before I turned around.  Where I live you can just about mark your miles by Churches.  I counted once about 7 churches all within about 3 miles of my house.  Seven!  Marking way points with churches is quite a droll experience for an atheist runner.  

In injury notes I have to say the arch of my left foot felt pretty great considering I averaged an 8:35 pace.  I plan on resting for the next two days and then trying some speed work on Wednesday. 

I'm thinking I might finally be back to the point where I can actually write out a schedule for my self again.  Lately I've just been getting up early and running as far as I feel the need.

Alisha and I ran together this morning at her very relaxed 11.36 pace.  I did not run this week at all.  Work was very demanding.  I had an trip to Oklahoma City on Monday, and a big sale all week long that required more than the usual amount of OT.  I was also still feeling the arch in my right foot a little, so I decided to take a few days off.  

I felt the arch a little this morning, but never any pain.  

I'm still unsure of what to do about the Marathon/Half Marathon situation coming up in two weeks.  I've decided to run the half, but I've yet to decide how fast and subsequently who with.

I felt pretty good for this run.  I'm still in recovery mode with my right foot.  I averaged an 8:43 mile pace.  

I ran 3 miles at an average pace of 8:15.  I did not feel anything in my right foot!  It may be because it was only a short run, but I'm optimistic that I'm healing up.  

Brick run with Kevin.  Rode the bike 10.97 miles followed by a 1.49 mile run.  The run portion took 11:38 to complete.  

This was my first run through beautiful Bella Vista Arkansas.  This is not a place I would like to live full time, but the mountains and scenic areas are pretty nice.  The reason I would not like to live full time is due to the massive hills.  Every time we drove up towards our lodging area I kept wondering how scary it must be to navigate on ice and snow.  

My last run in Bella Vista, Arkansas before we left to come home.  

I originally signed up to run the full marathon back in May.  In July I injured my right foot somehow.  After a doctor visit and bone scan I'm still not quite sure how.  I know it wasn't a stress fracture, but other than that all I know is that it might be micro tears in the tendon that runs along the bottom of of my arch.  Due to the injury I ended up not being able to train for about 8 weeks.  As a result of that time off I lightly re-integrated training just enough to run the half marathon instead of the full marathon.  This is the slowest half I've ever run because I decided to run it with my wife.  She was training for her first half and I decided that this might be the only opportunity we will get to run one together.  So we ran it together in 2 hours 35 minutes and 36 seconds.  Other than the 31 degree wind chill we had a great time.  It was a cold one this year at the Route 66 Marathon.

I'm now looking forward to my next race which will probably be The Grasslands Run in Texas.  I'm still not sure based on my recovery if I'm ready for the full marathon, or if I should just run the half.  Since the race is 18 weeks from yesterday and the entry fee price increases at the end of the month I probably need to figure it out soon. 

Happy Thanksgiving fellow running bloggers!

I literally woke up this morning and decided on a whim to go running.  I usually make a habit of running on holiday mornings, but last night I decided to take this one off.  When I woke up and saw one persons post on Facebook about having run yesterday I just could not resist the thought of going for a run myself.  Especially since I will be stuffing my self all day and watching football.  I might as well burn some calories this morning before I commence all the eating and lounging about.  

I decided on the run to turn on some speed that I had not done in quite a while due to injury. 

My splits:

8:00

7:32

7:14

8:30

I think I felt the injured tendon only slightly in my right foot only during the last mile and only for about twenty seconds.  I ended up running about .32 miles after the fourth mile at a 7:32 pace as a closer.  I finished feeling really good. 

Kevin and I ran an easy freezing ten this morning. I think this was my first sub freezing temperature run of the season.  My Gu was just about frozen by they time I took it at about 55 minutes in.  UPDATE: I just looked back over my previous months entries and found one on Oct. 20th that I recorded running at 30 degrees.   

I'm pretty sure I went the whole run without feeling much but the squeaking of my arch supports in my New Balance 1260's. 

Kevin and I discussed the upcoming Grasslands trail run, in which he informed me he has registered for the half marathon.  We also discussed running the half in the Post Oak Lodge run in February about one month prior to Grasslands.  I will probably run the half with him, and I need to decide which distance I want to run in the Grasslands.  I will decide by the end of this week (Saturday). 

Cold fast run.  34 degrees and windy.  I averaged 7:50 for six miles.  I felt nothing in either arch.  Happy run!

Easy 4 mile run today at a 7:52 pace.  

I wore the Brooks Ravenna 2's and my arches felt perfect.  

Brick workout with Kevin.  

Riding distance: 14.54 miles

Running distance: 2.18

I took the advice from a Runners World article on training for trail running and stood up plenty of times on the hills while on the bike.  I also looked at some weight and exercise ball exercises to target muscles specifically used on the trails.  To cap it off I'm going to try to get more actual trail runs in on my training.  Kevin and I are going to run Turkey Mountain this Sunday instead of our usual long run on the Creek Trail. 

On the injury front I'm still feeling good.  I think I'm 100% back, but I keep writing about it in my blog to remind me how easy it was get injured so that I won't do it again. 

Today Kevin and I ran the Turkey Mountain trails.  These are some tough trails, but we had an great work out.  It was really nice to change up the scenery and to get closer to nature.  It is good for mind and body to enhance your surrounding from time to time.  Especially when you are so used to running city traffic and highway noise.  I think I'm going to try to make it out there at least once a week, if not every other week leading up to the Grasslands and the Post Oak races.  

I ran for the second time this year with music.  I ran at a pace that felt challenging, but still easy.  It turned out to be at an 8:11 pace.  

This morning when I awoke the temperature was 16 degrees.  The weather man said it is our coldest morning of the season.  I decided to stay inside and run the tread mill for the first time since I got one.  It has sat in my house for about 3 months only having been used once by my wife.  This morning I gave it a go rather than go outside and face 16 degrees of old man winter.  

I rand one mile warm up followed by 8 400's at approximately 6:20 mile pace or about 1:34 each.  I then jogged about a quarter mile to cool down.  

I was about to leave the house for my run this morning when I noticed my Garmin was dead.  Luckily I have the Map My Run app for iPhone that I used as a backup.  

This morning I set out to run an easy 4.  It was a good day for my Garmin to be dead since I was not at all concerned about time.  But the few times I've had to rely on the apps make me realize how much I take the Garmin for granted.  There's simply nothing better than being able to look down at your wrist for distance, pace, and time.  

Pace: 8:34 per mile

It was nice and cool this morning at about 26 degrees.  The wind was almost non-existent so it was not too bad.  I probably could have had another layer though, as my forearms got a little cold on the last 5 miles.  

I felt good physically and no sense of injury in either foot, although my left foot seems to have a few lagging pains as I walk around my house this morning.  I feel a little soreness where my toes flex back as I walk, but I think it is just the normal after long run soreness that sometimes occurs.  

I was going to run an easy 6 today.  I probably should not have taken my head phones since my trance playlist gave me the mental boost to turn an easy six into a fast 8.  I really enjoyed my run today!  Really.  

I was running down a trail I'm very familiar with and feeling so at one with the universe.  I actually closed my eyes for several seconds several times to see how confident I was in my awareness of my body moving along in space and time.  I remember looking up at the barely visible sun behind the passing thick cloud cover feeling as if my experience, and indeed my whole life could be seen as having lived out in the blink of an eye.  I was pondering how I might look to some ancient alien race from the other side of the galaxy which had some way to witness the evolution of life on Earth.  My run today, indeed my entire life would appear to span but a brief moment in time.  It would be comparable to a human studying a mayfly, which depending on species lives a length of time anywhere from 30 minutes to one day.  For us humans who live an average of 76 years, thinking about coming into existence and then dieing off in as little as one day seems unfathomable.  Perhaps if there is life beyond Earth that has evolved longer life spans by orders of magnitude than that of a human life, it would see us live out our entire lives as we see the mayfly live out its entire life.  Even human societies and empires would rise and fall in the blink of an eye.  

Yeah, I did a lot of deep thinking today as I ran.  It was such an amazing feeling that I had to take some time to describe it here.  

It rained on me this morning.   The temperature was real nice at 58 degrees.  We must have had a warm front come through, since yesterday at 11:00 AM it was about 45 degrees.  So I left the house in warm weather running gear, shorts and short sleeves, no hat.  About 2 minutes into the run it began to poor on me.  I said to myself I should have taken my hat.  I did have a nice and easy run though. 

I am now 3 miles closer to my one thousand miles for the year.  Since I'm not directly training for anything in particular right now I decided to plan out my runs to make sure I would hit the thousand mark before the end of 2011.  It worked out pretty well by pure chance given the 8 weeks I took off this summer for injury.  

I got up at 5:30 this morning to go running at 6:00.  That would have been totally fine had I been able to fall asleep at 10:00 as planned instead of sometime after 11:00.  I've been reading Dave Ramsey's 'Total Money Makeover,' and I've been a little excited about the concepts to say the least.  

I'm looking forward to a rest day tomorrow.  

Kevin and I ran an easy 10 at an 8:17 miles pace today in 32 degree calm conditions before sun rise.  It was a good Sunday morning run as usual.  The blue sky and beautiful pink cirrus clouds that emerged in the east just as we were finishing was a sight to behold.  

I ran 8 miles today at a 7:46 pace.  I'm glad I got the run out of the way early.  This is going to be one of those days where the high is at 6 AM and it's only going to get colder from here.  It was a nice 48 degrees this morning.  

I ran an easy 4 this morning at an 8:35 mile pace.  

Just outside my neighborhood entrance I found an empty bag of deer feed.  When I first passed it I thought maybe it was a full bag.  When I went to pick it up I realized it was just trash.  So I ran home with it to throw it away.  Luckily I was only about 3 blocks from my house.  

I am now well on my way to hitting 1,000 miles for the year.  I only have 32 miles to go.  I'm a little short of last year since last year I ran 1,387 miles.  Damn that injury that wiped out my only planned marathon of the year.  I can always look forward to setting a new bench mark in 2012. 

I ran a nice 6.43 miles today at an easy 8:13 mile pace.  I had only intended to run 5 today, but I was feeling pretty good.  It's funny how that tends to happen on days that I don't have to work.  Today is one of my last vacation days of the year, and I'm really excited to be at the start of my 3 day holiday weekend.

My next run will be my usual Sunday morning easy 10, which just happens to fall on Christmas this year.  I have made a tradition with my self of running long runs on the big holidays such as Christmas, the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Labor day, and Memorial Day.  Even though I'm not one to go out and get sloshed on New Years Eve, in fact I'm pretty sure I've spent the last few totally sober, I've yet to do a long run on New Years Day for some reason.  I know that on New Years Eve 2009 Alisha and I ran the Race Into The New Year run, which is a 5k that begins at 11:45 PM so that you literally are running from one year into the next.  That would explain my lack of running on New Years Day 2010, but I'm not sure why I skipped out on New Years Day 2011.  I may have to add that holiday to my list of traditional holiday runs for 2012.   

My tradition of running solo runs on holidays continues.  This is now the second year in a row I have run 10 miles on Christmas day.  Last year on Christmas day I ran 10 miles at an 8:07 pace.  Today I rand 10 miles at an 8:00 minute pace.  Last year the temperature was 32 degrees.  This year the temperature was 28 degrees.  Last year I started my run at 6:34 AM.  This morning I started my run at 4:36 AM.  If I was into numerology and other such pseudoscience junk I might try to ascribe some meaning those two start times.  But since I am a rationalist I will leave it to the random noise that it is.   

Why such and early start time this year?  Although Ty was here last year, he was only three months old and still sleeping quite a bit.  Now that he is older he is an early riser like his daddy, and he is walking.  So although this was not his first Christmas, it was the first one in which he could really enjoy the experience.  I wanted to make sure to get my morning run in without missing his moment walking into the room and seeing the presents under the tree for the first time.  

Alisha and I calculated that based on his normal sleep patterns there was 90% chance he would not wake at least until 6:00.  I decided that in order to get my 10 miles in and still be back by then I would need to leave by 4:40 at the latest.  This most likely would have been successful but he went to bed not feeling well.  He has had a reaction to his latest round of vaccinations just having been administered a few days ago, and thus ended up waking at 5:30.  We thought that the busy day would counter act any early waking, but it did not.  Fortunately he did not make too much of a fuss until right about the time I walked in the door.  

I think this makes my record earliest time ever starting a run.  As I type this it is 9:00 PM.  I am sipping a glass of wine looking forward to bed after a long day at the in-laws.

Merry Christmas!

This morning the temperature was 31, but the wind chill was 24.  Fortunately most of my run was shielded from the wind.  I averaged a 7:47 mile pace.  I am now only 7.59 miles away from hitting the 1,000 mile mark on the year.  Since I'm going to run 5 tomorrow and 5 on Friday I will hit it during the my last run of the year.  

I ran an easy 5 this morning.  It was pretty cold at 26 degrees.  This Friday will be my last run this year.  I think I might take a week off after that. 

I signed up for the Post Oak Lodge Troad run in February.  I missed it last year, so I'm looking forward to running it again.  

This morning I woke up and put my cold weather clothes on that I had laid out the night before as usual.  Then I checked the temperature.  It was 48 degrees with no wind.  The forecast at 10 PM last night said it would be 42 degrees this morning.  I had planned an easy run and it has been in the 20's all week, so when I woke up and it was 48 I realized I was going to cook unless I switched to something lighter.  It never ceases to amaze me how dramatically unpredictable our weather is around here.

This was my last run of 2011.  I'm now closing out the year with 1002.44 miles.  This is below my benchmark year in 2010 of 1,387.72.  Perhaps I will top 2010 in 2012.