A Lending Hand ...

I wasn't sure how to title this week's (actually last week) run. I was going to call it The Power of Wind, but I decided against it.  Here's the reason. My Monday run was my 2nd 5 miler and I was feeling good. I carved out a whole minute from the week before's 5 mile run. Wednesday I migh have got out to run too soon after eating, but I pushed through some parts of the pain to run it in 45 minutes (approximately). Then Friday ... it was windy and cool. I had a rough first 2 miles. I was trying to get settled into my pace, but with the wind it was hard to get in a rhythm. I try to keep a certain pace, but with the wind in my face I tried to push harder to keep up my pace. However, then I get tired out more quickly and I have to slow down once I turn a corner. Well, around mile 2.5, I am running on the sidewalk along a busy road. Up ahead is an intersection and biking to the corner coming from a perpenticular direction, was a boy on a bike, maybe 4-5 years old. It seemed odd to see him out all  by himself. I look around to see if there is an adult around, but I was it and I was pretty sure this wasn't my child. I stopped to see what he was doing and he said he was going to the bank to see his Daddy. I knew I had past a bank about 3 minutes prior, but this kid was biking in the other direction. He crossed the street on his bike while a younger girl maybe 3-4 years old was running after this boy calling after him in that child language of a 3-4 year old that was a mystery to me. The wind was blowing and she was trying to tell me something, but what I assumed was her brother kept biking farther away I decided I would take this girl to her brother and find out where their parents were. So I took her little hand and we quickly trotted off after the boy trying to get him to stop.

We caught up with him and convinced him to turn around. I acertained from the girl that they lived in  the house on the corner of the street we crossed. So on the way back the boy biked off faster than the little girl and I did and he got to the intersection way before us. I tried to yell at him to wait for us to cross the street and he peddled right out into the street and crossed the street. After my heart calmed down I took the little girl across the street and back to what they said was their house. The little girl went in the back door while the boy stayed outside a little longer than she did, but I wanted to make sure he was inside the house before I left. Finally, he did go inside and out of a weird fear of having some strange person thinking I'm the weirdo holding hands with their kids I decided they were fine inside and I jogged off. In what was probably only 4-5 minutes, it put me in quite a hole.

The next mile I pushed it quite a bit to try to make up the time, but not thinking I could. A little mile 3.5 I turned to have the wind at my back. It really did feel like I was being pushed forward. My strides felt like that of a guy who was 6'6". It was pretty trippy. The last mile I felt good and it turns out I ran it in 45 minutes. The same time it took 2 days before. I was pretty amazed.

At any rate I felt good about offering a helping hand to the kids on the street. With that I gotta run.

Three's a Breeze ... not really

Not sure why I choose that title for this post. The phrase, "the third time's the charm" was what I wanted to say, but it didn't make sense as I was trying to say that this week I was able to run 3 times this week. Then I threw a rhyme in there just for good measure. ANYWAY, as the weather is slowly and surely (well maybe not that surely) warming up and with my first running event less than a month away I had to start running 3 times a week. Monday was the first run of the week and it was a dreary and very blustery day. The first 2 miles of my 4 mile run the wind was blowing right in my face. To make it worse, much of it was uphill. After recovering from the strenuous first 2 miles, it was a welcomed change to have some tail wind for the next mile and no real wind the last mile. However, I'm blaming the wind as to why I only averaged a 9:30 pace. All in all it took me 38 minutes.

Day 2 or Wednesday, I went out again. A nicer day with little to no wind. I was feeling pretty good. I could tell I was running better and had better all around feeling in the mechanics of my running. My feelings were correct as I got home and saw that I ran 4 miles (4.02) in around 34 minutes, which is an 8:27 minute mile pace. The best pace time thus far.

Day 3 (Friday) I had to bump up my miles to 5 so that I could get ready for my first 10K of the year. I had mapped out a good course that brought me home real close to 5 miles (5.05) However, I guess I didn't realize that at the beginning of mile 4 brought me running in front of a graveyard. Which isn't a big deal, but I didn't get out until much later than I had anticipated (around 9pm when I passed by). So it was dark. I'm not sure why, but the town didn't seem to think that this little stretch of road needed to have street lights. I suppose they thought, we can't have the dead disturbed all night with annoying street lights. I mean how could they sleep with a constant beam of light shining on their graves? To keep it light as I ran past, in my mind I started singing Michael Jackson's Thriller. "Cause this is THRILLER! THRILLER night, and no one's gonna save ya, from the beast about to strike ..."

After surviving the darkness and the graveyard, I finished my run with a time around 45 minutes, an 8:54 pace. not too shabby for my first 5 miler. I'm hoping this will go down the next week and my body gets more familiar with a 5 mile run. So this week will be only 5 milers and then I'll bump it up to 6 miles for the next 2 weeks. The week after that I'll run one 6 miler and then a 3 miler and then I'll run the 10K. I should be ready by then and my goal is to beat my time of 56:39 set last year. Gotta Run.

Trying to get into a Groove

I haven't done a good job keeping up on my progress over the past few weeks. I haven't quite kept up on my goal to run 3 times a week yet. By that I mean I haven't done it at all yet. I have run twice a week (up until this past week, but that was a special circumstance), and I'm starting to feel a little better about my running. Unfortunately with the colder weather I have been stuck running on the treadmill the past few weeks. It seems however, that the few times I have run outside I have been unable to run faster than a 9:15 minute mile pace. Here has been the breakdown since the last time I posted:

Distance   Pace    Time (min)
4 mi         9:15     37
4 mi         9:30     38
4 mi         10:00   40
3 mi         8:55     26:47
4 mi         8:56     35:44

The first 2 times are outside times and the last 3 are inside times. That 40 minute time for the 4 miler is not accurate. I had some issues with the treadmill becomig unplugged during the run and thereby erasing my time. So I guesstimated about how long it took. It'll be nice to be running outside again as long as the weather cooperates so I can settle into a groove. I think its finally started warming up, but now that its April I have the rain to contend with. The forecast for the week is rain just about every day. Anyone got a pancho? Gotta Run.

Things Remembered

So it has begun again. I have begun running outside as the weather has improved somewhat. Last year at this time I could only run inside as I did not have the proper attire for running outside in Wisconsin in early March. My first run in the great outdoors has caused me to remember things I have forgotten. There are 3 such things I have remembered. First, running outside and running inside on a treadmill are two separate things. Second, running outside in early March in Wisconsin and running inside on a treadmill are two separate things. Third, running outside in early March in Wisconsin with a stomach full of fast food and running inside on a treadmill are two separate things. So my first run outside was not a smooth as I would have hoped.

I was able to run 3 miles (3.13 actually), but it took me 29 minutes to do it. A 9:17 minute mile. Faster than last year at this time, but not what I was hoping. My lungs burned and my muscles ached as if I hadn't run at all last year. The one things that I can say is better is my mental toughness. Running 26 miles is hard to forget, so knowing that I only will be running 3 is a breeze ... mentally speaking of course. That was Monday. After an extended gap between my first and second run, thanks to a freak snow storm on Wednesday, I got back out there on Friday. It was another 3 miles (again, 3.13) and I was able to run it this time in 28 minutes, which puts me at a 8:56 minute per mile pace. At this point anything under 9 minute miles is a good thing. For this run my breathing was better and my aching muscles were not much of an issue. I hope that it will not take me too long to get back into the shape I was in last fall.

Next week I look forward to increasing my miles to 4 and to run 3 times instead of the 2 that I ran this week. Let's hope that in the future I'll remember the lessons I learned last year BEFORE I'm forced to re-learn them. Gotta Run.

The Start of Year #2

Recovering from the marathon took a few days for me to finally walk straight again. The feeling of accomplishment hasn't diminished though it has been months since the marathon. Along with that feeling is the feeling of wanting to do better. However, I have gotten off to a slow start this year. After the marathon I took a few weeks off. After about 4-6 weeks I heard that it only takes 6 weeks for your body to forget everything it learned in training for a marathon in 6 weeks. WHAT?! So, in December I ran once or twice to make sure my body didn't totally forget everything it had done over the past year. Then in January I resolved to be better with my running. So for 2 weeks I did a good job of sticking to my plans. I ran Jan 6th, 8th, 11th, 13th, and the 22nd. Each for 3 miles and all were either 9 minute miles or below, with my best pace being 8:15 minute miles. Then a wrench got thrown into the cogs of my routine.

My wife and I were expecting our 4th child. Her due date was Jan 31st, but Deb started contracting weeks before that. So with our child possibly coming at any moment I stopped running. Our 4th daughter decided she wanted to hold out all the way until her actual due date (a first for our babies). So all that time I spent waiting, expecting her to come came and went and my wife was still uncomfortably pregnant. Eventually our now youngest came with much fanfare, but my training suffered because of it. Now that she's here I should have a better opportunity to train, well at least that was what I thought until she stopped sleeping at night. I have found it is difficult to drum up motivation to do anything much less run when you are dead tired. Even so, February came and went without me running once (well running while playing tag with my girls inside the house doesn't really count).

Well, I was able to run once this past week. I was pretty gassed by mile 2 and I figured it wasn't a good idea to try and push it too hard, so I ended up running 2.5 miles for 20 minutes and 45 seconds at a pace of 8:18 minute miles. I'm still able to keep my speed, but I'm going to have to slow it down for a few weeks to get my distance back up.

Since this is my first post of the new year my goals for this running year is to train yet again for a marathon (preferably the same one I ran last year) and run it in under 4 hours. In leading up to that race I will also run a 10K in May (the same 10K I ran last year) and run it a little faster as well as run one or 2 other races this year. Those distances are yet to be determined, but preferably they will be another 10K and a half marathon to prepare me for my 2nd marathon in the fall. To accomplish this I plan to be more faithful to my training that I was last year, slowly increase my distance as to not injure myself again and add a better diet to maximize my training routine. I feel with the success I had last year these goals are very achievable and I look forward to a great year. That is it for now. Gotta Run!