Saturday, October 31, 2009
Kiddy colds and hangovers...
After 10 weeks of running in minimalist shoes or barefoot I took a spin in an old pair of running shoes. It felt like I was running in high heels; on every stride that damn shoe heel would hit the ground before I could have a good forefoot placement. Don't know how this whole barefoot experiment will end up but I've purchased my last pair of high heel trainers. This last week was a rest week where I backed down to 20 miles total for the week with a 7 mile long run. The timing turn out to be perfect since we all caught the kiddy cold which Jack and Baker picked up at morning daycare. Shame on me for being a little caviler about using my saline nose spray. Thankfully it's a fairly mild cold with a night time sore throat being the only discomfort.
Speaking of being sick, I woke up Friday morning with the swine flu. Well, it felt like the swine flu sounds. After a few minutes of laying there in misery I remember all that sake I drank the night before at the local sushi joint. I was so excited about not having the swine flu I forgot all about that hangover. I ended up having a great little 3 mile run and making it around to all the hotels, giving out cards for Bike Taxi. Everyone at the hotels loved my hangover cure.
Next week I'm going to try a run like I feel week. No preconceived notions of what I'm going to do on any day other than an off day on Friday. Just get up in the morning, when the spirit moves me, put on my running uniform and walk out the house and see what happens. I'll keep my Garmin GPS on but not look at it until I get back home. Just let Mother Nature make the calls.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Water...
Hydration: I'm one of those guys who always knows if he is having problems with hydration...okay, there are people who admit they aren't totally sure about their hydration level and those who lie about it and now you know which group I hang with. On my long run yesterday--Saturday-- it felt reasonably cool but very humid. I drank water at the house along with my coffee and took along one water bottle for my 11 mile run. At the 5.5 mile turn around it hit me out of the blue..no way was I making it back to the house without a ride or more water. I start walking through one of the apartment complexes near the Greenway looking for a water tap but all were inside the fenced back yards--along with some mean ass dogs. Finely ran it to a nice guy at a church who gave me two bottles of cold water and I gave him the only dollar I had on me for the collection plate. I needed both those bottles to get me home. Moral of the story; you need to have twice the water you think you need or away to pick up more on the run and one buck ain't going to buy much without divine intervention.I signed up for the Myrtle Beach Marathon in mid-February. My original goal was to do a marathon or longer in January so this gives me another month of training and a couple weeks to tapper. I'm going to need this time and hope it is enough. I was on a schedule to do a 20 mile run on January 2nd but seem to be stuck trying to get over an 11 mile long run. Looking back I should have had taken an easy week to get refocused and rested. That's the problem, once you get going on a running program the hardest thing--and the most important thing--is to schedule some easy weeks. Maybe I can do it this week by getting my over all mileage below 20 and do about a 7 mile long run? Then next week jump up to 12 or 13 miles for the long run. We'll see.
I hit 219 pounds this week which is about 12-15 pounds less than a few months ago. Yes, I had to take off all my clothes to do it. My goal is still 210. Been eating a lots of fresh fruit and vegetables and staying away from cheese and deserts.
On another subject we had a family visit this week from New Orleans and Montgomery. If you leave out conversations about politics and religion then your discussions tend to revolve around what's been going on in your life. After awhile, I noticed a lot of the stories being recycled. And recycled. And recycled. Then it came to me..when nothing or maybe the same things keep happening in your life ALL you have is the same old recycled stories. Bye the way, have I told you the one about Jack and the backhoe? Well...blah, blah, blah and then we laughed.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Better days.......
What a difference a week makes. Couldn't get going a couple weeks ago on my long run and then this weekend nothing could stop me. I had planned on 8-9 miles but ran into an old guy on the Greenway who was walking 10 miles; I figured if a 73 year old can walk 10 I should be able to run the same amount. It didn't hurt that the weather was perfect for running. Also, my Chi Running form has started to kick in and has improved my speed. My average pace for the week is down by almost two minutes per mile since reading the Chi Running book. Total miles last week were 24 which is about the same as the week before but this week I only ran 4 days instead 5 or 6 days. This week it was 2 each six mile days, 1 two mile day and the 10 mile long run. In the past I almost never took off more than one day? On all the off days and some of the running days I crossed trained by riding my pedicab to work downtown and probably did close to 100 miles for the week. Maybe I need longer recovery time after turning 50 or the cross training is helping?
For several months now I've been mixing up a morning drink with Joint Juice a liquid glucosamine supplement, Majestic Earth liquid plant derived minerals and in the last few weeks a liquid vitamin D supplement. I also take some fish oil for Omega 3's. Then after long runs I add a sports recovery drink call Endurox R4. Also been eating lots of raw fruit and vegetables and stretching after long runs. I've lost about 10 pounds and feel GREAT...a study of one means nothing but I ain't changing anything. Back 5-6 years ago when I was training for marathons I'd take hand fulls of Motrin to keep going. So far this time around I've take about four Motrin in 8 weeks.
Bye the way, did you see the 101 year old guy from England who is training for the London Marathon? He said he ran 1/2 marathon in New York in 5 hours and stopped along the way for a fag.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Running the pits..
It was a week of running that started out good and just went down hill and by the time my long run came around I ended up having a bad day and cut the run a mile short. In my defense the conditions for the long run were the pits. Muggy, muggy muggy. The first drop of sweat and every other drop of sweat stayed with me the entire run...Lake Wallace does the Greenway. No siht, it was 78F at 5:30 AM and 120% humidity in the fog banked Greenway. By the time I crawled back to the house all I wanted to do was get in the shower with kilt, five finger shoes and everything else. Turns out everything else included my cell phone. Twenty four hours latter I feeling a little better but the cell phone drown and I still don't have a working phone in spite of spending $200 bucks on a new one. Lack of phone commiseration is killing me.On a positive note, I've been listening to podcasts about running. Virtual running partners. You can run along listening to other folks running and talking about their running--AND not worry about running someones else's pace and you can flick a switch to turn em off. The really great thing about this is if your in a low point it nice to hear other people who are going through the same thing or even better being motivative by someone who's on a high.
Of course, I had to run out and get a recorder so I can do my own podcasts which I wanted to post on this blog but haven't been able to figure out how to do it. It takes a few hours to get use to hearing that strange voice when you do a play back. If elephants talked they would sound just like me. If you want to hear my podcast let me know and I'll email you a copy.
Friday, October 02, 2009
Seventh week of training...
Between marathon training, helping with grandsons, trying to loose a few pounds and bike taxi it's a busy time. I'll finish my 7th week of marathon training tomorrow with a 7 mile run which will be the long run for the week. My body has been screaming at me for about a week.... the message is that a 50K in early January is loonies tunes. Looks like my best bet will be Myrtle Beach Marathon in February. Riding the pedicab back and forth downtown has taken a lot of my energy reserves along with loosing 9-10 pounds. On the bright side I'm really fired up, the weather is cooler and when I do feel good I'm faster than than the fat guy down the street.
Been doing hot yoga on my off day--Wednesday-- for the last few weeks. My bum hip says this siht has to stop. So it's back to my old routine of 20-30 minutes of light yoga when I get up in the morning. This way if I'm doing Sun Salutations and feel the urge I can just go back to sleep when I get to the prone part of the practice.
I can't imagine going back to traditional running shoes but going 100% barefoot ain't going to happen anytime soon. To many acorns on the street not to mention blisters on the feet. The minimalist shoe option-- Vibram Five Fingers and running shoes with the heel cut off with a hacksaw-- seems best for the time being.
