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Last night my daughter Amy and I got back from visiting family in San Diego. We had a short visit. We drove out on Tuesday and left Friday morning. It was great to see my family again, but I was ready to come home. I love visiting San Diego and usually dread leaving, but this trip my wife wasn't able to come down with us, so it just wasn't the same. That's a big problem with her working retail. During the holiday season, she's really tied to her job. On the other hand, her extra hours really help make Christmas jollier from a gift giving standpoint. We're planning another trip down in February for the whole family.

I didn't run much in San Diego. I ran an easy five miles on Wednesday and raced a 5K on Thursday morning. I was planning on running a few easy miles Thursday afternoon, but I ended up hanging out with my family.

The race was the Bumble Seafoods 5K. It was an interesting race because it starts at the beginning of the Holiday Bowl parade, so there are thousands of people cheering at the start. Plus the parade and start of the race are televised nationally, which is really a bad thing because every kid wants to be on television, so they line up right in the front and force everyone to dodge around them.

Anyway, my goals for the race were to at least run a PR (19:13 is my current PR) and best case scenario was to run under 19:00. However, I didn't run well. I ran like this was my first race. I started out too fast and faded at the end. I am really disappointed in my performance. I registered the day of the race, so I got there early. I warmed up okay and while waiting for the start, I kept telling myself to start out easy and build the pace over the first half mile. I wore my Garmin to help me manage the pace. The reality is that I got impatient behind all the kids and dodged and weaved my way past them in the first half mile. After the first half mile I looked down and saw that I was about 20 seconds ahead of my goal pace. I eased up a bit and hit the first mile at 6:01. However, the hard running early took a bit out of me, and all my Garmin was good for after that was to constantly show me how much I was fading. The bottom line is that I finished in 19:26 (a 6:16 pace). The good news is that I won the Military division, although that wasn't really much of a challenge considering the person who came in second was over six minutes behind me. Overall I finished 44th out of over 600 runners. A couple of other possible reasons I didn't run well was the fact that I was sick last week, and I gave blood the week before that. There may have been some carry over. However that doesn't change the fact that I executed a poor race strategy.

Today I'm going to try to ignore the past two weeks of horrible running and get back on schedule for my March marathon. I'll run five easy miles today and then go 17 tomorrow.

The Pain is Gone

This was not a good week for running, but there is some good news because the pain in my right knee is gone. After taking Monday off, I woke up Tuesday with a cold. I was stuffed up, had body aches and had absolutely no energy. Wednesday was more of the same. I was a bit better, but not to the point where I felt I could run. Thursday I felt better and could have run; but after doing absolutely nothing on Tuesday and Wednesday, I really needed to help my wife get ready for visiting family. That made it four days without any running.

I did run some at the end of the week. I ran ten miles on Friday, nine on Saturday and 18 today. As far as the knee pain goes, My knee was pretty sore on Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday I felt like crap, but my knee felt great. I haven't had any knee pain since, including on the three runs I've done since Friday. This week, I'm traveling down to San Diego to visit my family, plus I didn't run on Christmas, so my running totals will be down this week. However, I am planning on running a 5K on Thursday. It will be my first race since May. I'm pretty excited about it.

One other note - I got home from work at a little after noon on Friday to find my in-laws sitting in their vehicle and my daughter upstairs asleep in her bed. The good news is that apparently they had pulled up fairly recently, so they weren't upset about not being let in.

Am I Injured

Earlier today, I noticed that I was getting a strange pain in my right knee. It was sort of a dull, throbbing pain that would come and go. It didn't hurt much and didn't reduce my range of motion. Plus it only seemed to bother me when I was sitting. I had no problem moving around the house or going up and down the stairs, so I headed out on my scheduled 22-mile run without much concern. However, during the run, the pain got worse, and I felt it more frequently. I timed the duration between the pain a couple of times. The pain came back within as little as ten seconds and another time there was close to a three minute space between when I felt it.

For the most part I was fine, but at points during the run, I would get a pain in the knee plus a sort of numbness down my leg. It's hard to explain but basically whenever this happened, I felt like I couldn't use the leg other than to prevent myself from falling. It felt wooden for a couple of steps. It was like a crutch that prevented me from falling, but couldn't provide any thrust to move me forward. I ended up stopping my run at ten miles. The pain is worse after my run, then it was this morning, and it is more frequent. However, it still comes and goes rather than a constant pain.

I'm going to spend tonight and tomorrow treating it with the RICE method and hoping for the best. I'll try not to run on it until the pain goes away -- if I can be that patient.

Giving Blood Has Left Me Feeling Drained

What a stupid joke, huh? Anyway, I didn't run Thursday evening after giving blood. I've donated blood in the past and ran later in the day, but the combination of getting up early, running 15 miles before work, and giving blood left me without much energy. I was only scheduled to run a short recovery run, and I figured I could recover more by resting.

On Friday my schedule called for a twelve mile run, with seven miles at tempo pace (6:40 m/m for me). The good news is that I got the twelve miles in, but there was no way I could do the tempo miles. I ran a mile to warm-up and then tried to hit the tempo pace. I pushed the pace for a third of a mile or so but never did reach the pace I needed. I could tell I was working way too hard, so I slowed down to an easy pace and just worked on getting in the twelve miles. It was still a hard run. I really wanted to stop after eight miles or so.

Today I ran an easy five miles. It had been raining most of the day, so the pavement was wet with a lot of standing water, but it was barely sprinkling by the time I got out.

Tomorrow is my longest scheduled training run ever, 22 miles. After struggling on Friday, I've decided to let my body restore some of the blood I gave away. For the next week, I'm only going to worry about getting in the miles and not stress the pace.

The Dedicated Runner

I wasn't able to run last night. My wife works retail and has to work late on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during the holiday season. Our landlord was coming over in the evening, and I had a 15 miler on my schedule. My choices were to run from 9-11 last night or get up at 4:00 and run this morning. I knew running late was a bad option. After I run, I can't sleep until my body settles down. It usually takes at least an hour or two. I didn't want to be awake until well after midnight if I could avoid it. That left running in the morning.

I set the alarm for 4:00 a.m.; I was out of bed by 4:10; and was running by 4:30. I realize this isn't a big deal to many runners. However, if you knew how many times I've set the alarm with the goal of a morning run only to re-set it and go back to sleep in the morning, you'd realize how amazing it is that I actually ran this time. I was planning on still running my six mile recovery run this afternoon. However, I gave blood at work this morning, so I'll play an evening run by ear.

The funny thing was for the ten minutes between when the alarm went off and when I got out of bed, I was thinking that when I go back to sleep and don't run, I'll have to write another blog entry about my lack of dedication.

I averaged close to ten seconds slower per mile this morning than I usually run, but I'll take it. 15 miles in 2:00:14.

Good Medium-Long Run

Today I ran a 15-mile medium-long run. I don't really know why, but I decided to push the pace a little bit just to see how it would go. I ran the first ten miles at an average pace of 7:42 minutes/mile, and the last five miles at 7:30 minutes/mile or faster, including a final mile at 6:51. For the rest of this afternoon my legs have been tired, but there isn't any soreness or anything like that.

I did get a bit of a scare getting out of the shower. Our bathtub is huge, and I really have to step high to get out of it. Every month or so, my back foot (foot in the tub) slips as I'm getting out. That's what happened today. I've hurt my groin this way in the past, but today it feels okay. We have a shower mat. Maybe I should use it.

Last week was a cutback week for me. I ran 53 miles. This week, I should be back somewhere in the 60s.

Bart

A Good Lesson

After Sunday’s run, one thing that I noticed is that I didn’t really feel too tired. I expected that my legs would feel beat up for a couple of days. However, I felt pleasantly fresh. I enjoyed my usual Monday rest day and was prepared to run 10 miles on Tuesday. When it was time for Tuesday’s run, I bailed on it. I was cold (even though it was probably close to 50 degrees at the time) and just didn’t feel like running. In the past when I’ve skipped runs, I’ve felt weak. This time I didn’t feel that way at all. I don’t know why. I thought about it a bit and started thinking I was just getting lazy and had convinced myself that it was okay.

When I ran on Wednesday, I had two days off and expected to feel great. I didn’t. I felt sluggish and my legs felt 20 pounds heavier than normal. I think that it was a residual effect from running long and hard on Sunday. I started thinking that instead of being weak on Tuesday, I was probably just listening to my body. Even though I had been conditioned to follow a schedule, my body knew that it was tired, and I was finally smart enough to listen to it.

Now comes the hard part. This is a cutback week, so the missed run is not a big deal. What I need to do is not give in to the temptation to make up the mileage. I need to ensure I feel refreshed when I start next week. The other challenge will be to convince myself that I’m not listening to my body every time it's tough to get out the door.

I ran ten miles on Wednesday and am scheduled for nine today, including six, 600-meter repeats. It’s hard to run hard in the dark, but I shall do my best.

Marathon Pace Run

Last week I completed my first ever 70-mile training week, and I started this week with a 15-miler, which included 12 miles at marathon goal pace (7:00 min/miles for me). I was both concerned about being able to complete the 12 miles at my goal pace and excited about the challenge of this tough workout. I'm happy to say that I was able to run the entire 12 miles below my desired pace. This is a tremendous confidence boost for the remainder of my training and for meeting my race goal on March 5. After the run I still felt pretty fresh. I was worried that my legs would be trashed the next day, but I'm feeling pretty good today. This is a cutback week for me, so I'll run what's scheduled and try to stay fresh for what's next.

Medium-Long Run...

Nothing special. Just a quick update. I ran a recovery run Thursday after work. I started my run as soon as I got home, so even though it was getting dark by the time I was finishing my run, it was just light enough so that I could see the ground, which makes a huge difference.

Today (Friday), I ran 13 miles, and I didn't start until just after 6:00 p.m., so the entire run was in the dark. To make things worse, I didn't feel like wearing my headlamp, so it was not a real comfortable run. On the plus side, I ran 90% of my run where there was some lighting, so even though I couldn't really see the ground, I was on a paved walkway, and the lights allowed me to see enough to stay on the asphalt.

After tomorrow's recovery run, I'll have my first ever 70-mile week. I've been in the 60+ mile range for a while, so the jump to 70 is not a huge accomplishment. The best part of it is that this week is equal to my highest training week of this cycle, so if I get through it and can still complete a tough run on Sunday, I'll be feeling good (psychologically if not physically).

Tough to Get Out of the House Sometimes

Last night I did a 15-mile medium-long run. I really didn’t want to do this run. I was cold, and it was dark outside by the time I started. However, I dragged myself out, and I ran the scheduled distance. It wasn’t really that cold (low 50s-upper 40s, I’d guess); but because I was cold before the run, I overdressed. I ended up wearing a long sleeve shirt and gloves. I considered wearing wind pants, but talked myself out of it. It’s hard to put on a short sleeve shirt and shorts when you’re cold in long pants and a long sleeve shirt and you’re inside the house. I need to remind myself that I’ll be moving and building body heat when I’m running.

Anyway, I was prepared for a horrible run, but after warming up for a couple of miles, I actually felt pretty good. I ran the entire run at an easy pace, but I was consistent. I ran between 8:00 and 8:10 pace the entire run, averaging approximately 8:07 minutes/mile. The last three miles were brutal. My legs were tired, and I really wanted to quit. I guess it’s a good thing that I was three miles from home with no way to get there other than by running.

I took it easy on both of Tuesday’s runs, but my legs are still pretty tired. I think it’s a carryover from running 21 miles on Sunday. I ran the entire distance at an 8:00 m/m or faster, including the last five at 7:30 m/m or faster. Today is an easy six miles, followed by 13 on Friday. I’ll take it easy on these runs and hope to be ready to run hard this weekend. On Sunday I’m running 15 miles, with 12 miles at marathon goal pace. This should be my toughest run of this training schedule.

Here are my November totals: 272 miles. 23 days running, including 3 doubles. Two of the doubles were on the schedule and one was to make up a missed run. This is my highest monthly total ever.