No Running Today

My leg was really bothering me yesterday so I iced it off and on all last night. I didn't get up this morning and am hoping some days off will make the pain go away. It makes me crazy that I can't run, but it is better to heal now with 20 weeks until race day than let it nag and be hosed later on. Hopefully it is nothing more than a sprained ankle or tendinitis which go away in a week or two.

I did some ab work this morning as well as some pushups. Hopefully I the hotel in South Padre has a good workout room so I can get on a bike while I am down there.

Easy 7 on the Trail

Today I met a pretty good size group on the trail for a recovery run. My left leg is still hurting and it is getting old. The leg seems to be really stiff when I get up and then loosens after I get going and then stiffens up again after the run. There is a tender point on my ankle just above the ball on the outside of my foot, but no swelling or bruising. I did some online research and it says stress fractures tend to increase in pain as you run so I am thinking that it is just a sprained ankle from the CAM. I am now kicking myself for running that race.

As for the run, we averaged about 9:30 pace for the 7 miles. I skipped the strides so I coul d get to the gym and get to work at a decent time. I tend to screw around too much at RunTex and get to work later and later...a trend I need to reverse. I did some arm exercises, leg press, pull ups, but skipped the calf raises since it made my leg hurt.

I will probably skip the tempo race tomorrow and run easy on Thursday on the trail. I am on vacation Friday - Tuesday and will probably throw in some extra rest days to see if I can get it to heal on its own.

Stats - 7 miles//
AHR -
MHR -

Run in the Hood

After a day of resting and watching auto racing, I decided to sleep late and run at home. The Indy 500 yesterday was totally amazing. I was really rooting for Michael Andretti to get the win, but was happy that three American drivers finished in the top 3. I slept until 8:15 and got 3 more hours than if I would have got up at 5 for the circuit workout which was nice. I headed out into the overcast, humid morning and ran a couple of different loops to get my mileage in. The sweat was just pouring out of me. I lost 4 pounds in water. It must have been all of the margaritas coming out of me that I drank on Saturday night.

It was a good run and I really enjoyed the peacefulness. There wasn't a lot of traffic and there were a lot of people out walking and running. I picked it up as I went and ended up with a nice average for a run at home.

Stats - 6.5 miles/52:52/8:08 pace
AHR - 146
MHR - 163

Tomorrow I will start the Tuesday/Thursday recovery runs, hit the Gazelles on Wednesday, and then I have to figure out what to do over the next 4 days. We are heading to South Padre for 4 nights. I am sure I will be able to run there, but need to figure it out when I arrive.

Back to the LSRs

Today I met the group for a long run. I haven't run anything higher than 7 miles since the half marathon and was eager to get out there for a long run. My left leg is still bothering me, but it seems to go away once I get warm and it hurts less each day. There was a pretty good sized group heading out today. I think G wanted folks to do Bonnell, but my legs weren't up for it yet so we did the scenic loop. I headed off with Anne and we kind of left everyone behind. Gretchen went ahead of us and Jay and the group were behind us. It was really warm and muggy again and I wasn't really enjoy it all that much. There wasn't water at the rock, but we took a sip at the fountain and headed off. There was no water along the way so we had to suck it up until we got to the cleaners. I ate a carboom there and we headed onward. On the way back there was water/Powerade at O'Henry. We ended up averaging 8:29 for the run which was a nice pace.

We made a quick stop there and then headed back to the zero mile marker where we did some strides. I stuck around for the full stretching session.

Stats - 11.4 miles/1:36:41/8:29 pace
AHR - 147
MHR - 156

Hot Recovery Run

Today was the kid's last day of school...hooray for them and for me. It means I can run at the lake 5 days a week and get in two 7 mile recover runs a week down there too. I did my usual Thursday 7 mile run and it was really warm. I started about 7:30 and ran for almost an hour. I headed south first and then headed back up Escarpment, across Slaughter to Davis and then back home. Heading south was bearable due to the slight breeze, but heading north was really warm with the wind at my back. My left leg was still hurting, but not as bad as yesterday and the pain seemed to go away as I warmed up. It must be some muscle strain and it is lessening every day.

I did some ab work and push ups when I got home. I have dropped 3 pounds in the last two weeks so that is good. My morning weight loss is even more, but in setting up my software program I weighed in at 5PM so that is what I am guaging my progress on. I know once get going with longer runs it will really help with the calorie burning. Each of the last two weeks I have skipped day of running.

Stats - 7.01 miles/about 8:20 pace
AHR - 142
MHR - 160

400s at AHS

Today we met for 400s at AHS. I got up and had some Gatorade. I am really watching what I am eating and don't want to over do it with Accelerade and Endurox anymore. I am only using Endurox after speed and long runs since it has so many calories. My food tracking for the past 8 days has been really interesting. I got a SW package through Carla's trainer that lets me to enter my exercise and everything I eat. I am trying to stay between 1500 and 2000 calories per day and know this will increase once we get into full blown marathon training. Since this is a down training "period" for me, I really need to keep the calories low. I am making better eating choices and avoiding things like candy that blow me out of the water. Beer and wine are really wasted calories as well and add up quickly. I am hoping to get to 185 by 9/1 which means I have 20 pounds to go. This summer I need to eat healthy instead of rationalizing Whataburger or Mangia after a long run.

My leg was feeling better yesterday so I decided to come out. As soon as we started running I could feel it, but kept going. It feels like a strain that doesn't hurt so much with just general running, but more when I exert a lot. The weather was nasty and humid, and actually drizzling. We jogged over, did our drills and then headed off. We added Amy S, and Carrie to our little pod...very welcome additions to our little posse. Gilbert said to run in the 92-95 second range for 12 repeats with a minute in between. We really sandbagged the first one, but then got into a good rhythm. I was finishing last the whole time, but kept my times really consistent...even with the leg pain.

G pulled me aside to tell me that we really need to work on my form. I am going to hit the gym again with him soon to figure it out. He said my glutes, core and upper body need work.

Splits - 1:40.6, 1:35.6, 1:32.8, 1:33.4, 1:33.3, 1:33.7, 1:33.9, 1:33.7, 1:32.2, 1:31.9, 1:33.5, 1:30.9
Average - 1:33.8

I hit the gym on the way to work and did some chest presses, shoulder presses, leg extensions, squats, and lat pull downs. I also did 120 crunches/leg extensions and the full stretching routine.

Stats - 7.5 miles
AHR - 136
MHR - 158

Rest Day

My 400th Blog Entry...will I get to 756 before Barry Bonds?

I set my alarm this morning to get up and run in the neighborhood, but my lower left leg and feet are still bothering me. The leg is really stiff below the calf and above the ankle. I have no idea what it is, but I am assuming I did something during the mile. It felt OK yesterday after I warmed up and I was able to complete the workout, but it hurts now. Hopefully it's nothing major. I want to get healed up so I can start my fall training in a couple of weeks.

I did 120 crunches/leg extensions as well as 40 of the tricep focused pushups this morning. Hopefully my leg and feet will feel better in the morning so I can run.

Mile Repeats at Zilker

Today I met the group for mile repeats. I wasn't too fired up about it since I just ran the mile race from hell and my lower legs are really sore. It's weird, but I have pain in my feet, ankles, shins and calves. The weather has turned for the humid and warm which is what we will have until the fall. It was really muggy this AM. We jogged over from RunTex, did our drills and then headed off. G set up some new groups so "Frank's" group picked up some folks from "Jay's" group. I guess after two years we have become elder statesman...LOL! So my group is now Me, Marcy, Brian, and Shannon. Shannon raced yesterday so it was the 3 of us today.

We did 3 repeats with two minutes in between and although I didn't feel so hot today, I was able to run close to my fastest set ever. We did 6:48 for the first repeat, 6:43 for the second, and I could really feel it for the third where we ran 6:45. The average was 6:45.6 which was a good effort.

We jogged back and I had to run to the school for an awards ceremony. At home I did 100 crunches and 30 of the new style pushups. I also did the full stretching routine which really felt awesome.

Stats - ~6 miles

2006 Congress Avenue Mile

It sounded like a good idea when I registered for it, but I really didn't feel like doing this run today. I decided to be a trooper and go for it just to see if I could improve over my 6:08 from the fall of 2004. I met Amy, Brian, and Rich at mile zero for a planned 3-4 mile warmup. We ran to the Rock and then across to Congress and to the start. It ended up being about 4.8 mile warmup to the start line. We hung out at bit and then did some drills, and then a few sets of strides to get our heart rates up prior to the start. I was in the back of the pack of my 5 minute heat. The gun went off and I just tried to focus on my form with good arm swing. I crossed the quarter in 1:18, the half in 2:44, and did my last half in 3:06. I think I relaxed when I saw the clock near the finish and knew I was going to achieve a new PR and get sub 6:00. I finished in 5:50 which was 18 seconds faster than in 2004.

I watched the rest of the heats and then headed back to RunTex with Amy. We ran into G who told us to head out a 15-20 minute jog to help our recovery. We did a mile out and back and called it a day. I think this will be my last mile race for a very long time. I am a distance runner and my results showed it. I was barely in the top 50% of the overall results and just don't feel comfortable.

Stats - 7.78 miles with warm up, race, and cool down.

Treadmill Run

Today I was in Santa Clara for business and didn't get up early enough to go run outside. I had a really long day yesterday and had to get to an 8AM meeting this morning. My hotel has a nice workout facility so I headed down there for a run on the treadmill.

I ran about 46 minutes and covered 5.3 miles. I have traveled every week this month covering 4 different trips to the airport. I am sick of it! I am in town for at least the next few weeks which is nice!

Stats - 46:00/5.3 miles

Cool Morning, Easy Run

Today I ran at the lake to get back into my Tuesday recovery run routine. I was hoping some of my peeps would join me and was happy to see Jan there. Hopefully we can get more folks out there as we get into the fall training season. My legs were totally stiff today from the circuit workout yesterday. G said he was going to ride me hard and he did. I guess my pain says I did the exercises correct. I guess we are in for circuit training the next few weeks which is a nice way to workout without a bunch of running.

Jan and I headed out counterclockwise on the trail. The weather was really awesome again today and the run was really nice. We stopped for water at the Pfluger bridge and again at the rock. We did 4 strides at Auditorium shores and I had to head to work for an early meeting.

I have to hit the road again tomorrow for two days so I will have a forced day off Wednesday and will run at the Baylands preserve in Santa Clara before my Thursday meetings. I will probably pick up a few miles on Friday and am still going back and forth on if I am going to run the Congress Avenue Mile. My legs are really tight and I don't want to blow something out on a worthless race.

Stats - 7.1 miles//

Circuit Training

Today I met the Gazelles for Circuit Training. Most of the group was out running Wilke so there were a lot of the beginner group there. Jan and Brad showed up along with Marcy so some of my posse was there. When we got to AHS, Anne and Carrie showed up so we had a lot of the old fall gang there. It was kind of weird because Brad and I were the only males in the group today.

We did our drills and then G added the "higher, open" to the routine. We synced pretty well and sounded like a marching band. G told us to do 3 sets of the circuits and then we were in for some fun. We ran the 400s at 75% which was a little faster than normal. I did almost 3 full sets and then we had to do some planks, pair up for some ab work, and then did fast feet. I was totally beat by then. I did learn, after two years, that I am doing my lunges wrong and my push ups wrong. I don't know if it is G or me, but the new way worked my muscles a lot harder.

Stats - Approximately 4.6 miles

Week of the Slug! - 5/7-5/13/06

This week was a total rest week for me. Part of it was planned, but not all of it. I figured 3 days off would be nice and I planned on returning to the Gazelles on Wednesday of this week. When I got home from Indy on Sunday, I had a few hours to rest before the Kiker Elementary Silent Auction/Dinner/Dance. We all had a great time and I must say I was very proud of the 10 beers I had. It is a new high for the past 12 months. After all the beer I had on Saturday after the race, I really needed the day off from work on Monday.

On Monday, I met my friend Dan from Phoenix for Mangia and more beer. We've been friends since 4th grade and it was great to see him. Unfortunately he picked a weekend that I was out of town to head out here. He had a good time anyway with his lady friend and her family

On Tuesday, I wrecked my left foot into the doorway...yeah I do that a lot, but this time was worse. It hurt really bad all night so I didn't get up to run on Wednesday. On Thursday, I finally did run and did 7 miles at about an 8:30 pace in the neighborhood. All my poor eating and beer really made me hurt. I felt like garbage afterward, but not a big deal.

On Friday, I headed to Chicago with a couple of co-workers to attend a Cubs Rooftop game with one of our customers. I was excited to go, but the weather was really cold and rainy. They still played the game and the rooftop experience was really cool. Again, I had some beers and ate way too much Chicago Italian Beef and Sausage. We topped off the night with a steak from Gene and Georgetti's a famous Chicago steakhouse. Our plane was over two hours late, so I hit the garage at 2:30AM, which meant no running for me on Saturday. AMD had a special screening of Over the Hedge on Saturday at 10AM, so I got about 4 hours of sleep and we headed to the flick. I expected to sleep the whole time, but it was a really good movie and I stayed awake for the whole thing. Sunday was Mom's day so I decided to make Carla breakfast and not run again. So that makes 1 run in 8 days...Slug!

I have to get back to group tomorrow for some Circuit training that Gilbert is tailoring for us Fall marathoners. It should be grueling, but I am totally looking forward to it.

Stats - 7.1 Miles for the week!

Indy Mini Marathon 2006

After a long day of travel, packet pick up and some good food it is race day. I come into this race with so-so training and no real expectations. It would be nice to PR at the half marathon distance and at least get a course PR since my half PR is at 3M on a downhill course.

My roommates (Alex and Richard) headed out around 6:30 to head over to the start. We were supposed to meet Jay at 6:15, but couldn't get it together by then so we headed to the bag check area where we ran into Jay. We did some jogging and headed over near the start. The weather was absolutely perfect. Temps in the 40s, clear and cool. We got lucky and found a place to do our drills that pretty much had its own port-a-potty. We did our drills hit the potty many times and then headed over to the start. I was in the second corral again this year with Alex in front of me and Jay and Richard in the corral behind me.

After Back Home in Indiana and The Star Spangled Banner the gun went off and the huge crowd surged forward. It seemed a lot more crowded up front this year. I don't remember a lot (I should have posted sooner) so my details are kind of sketchy. I felt good the first five miles and then started to drop off a bit. There were a lot of bands as usual and it was nice to go music to music to music along the course. I drank a half of an Enervitene at mile 4 and got Gatorade at all the available tables.

Mile 1 -5 splits - 7:22, 7:16, 7:21, 7:11, 7:14

Entering the track it seems like everyone slows down and spreads out. I had to do a lot of maneuvering for this 2.5 miles. It is always amazing to run on the Speedway with the history. I guess it would be like running around Yankee Stadium or Lambeau Field. We headed out of the track and I tried to pick it up a bit for the last 4.5 miles.

Mile 6 - 10 splits - 7:25, 7:30, 7:19, 7:32, 7:28

Heading back toward the city I felt better and started shaving some time off my slow miles in the middle of the race. I started picking off a few folks and getting into cruise mode. Each of my last few miles was faster and I ended up with a 7:04 last mile as I kicked down the long straight on New York Street. I crossed the line and was really happy to be done. I set a new course PR by 1:45 and was about a minute over my 3M PR which isn't bad since I think I was in much better shape in January.

Mile 11 - Finish splits - 7:22, 7:18, 7:04, :43

I got my food bag and headed over to the clothing trucks. This year, they gathered clothes by corral which was really dumb. The lines were outrageous. Lucky for me, Alex was at the front of the line so I slid in and got my stuff too. We headed to the Indy Runners tent to meet the rest of the posse. After that, Alex and I wandered off to the beer garden. They had an awesome band so we sat in the grass and watched them for a couple of hours. I had a few beers and was feeling no pain when we left there around noon. Alex and I hit the awesome pizza place, Bazbeaus, where we split a Colossus and another large beer. We went back to the hotel for a nap and then met the guys for dinner. I was pretty much spent after dinner so I stayed in and watched some TV and fell asleep early. I had an early flight to catch on Sunday AM. It was another good trip to Indy.

Short Fartleks

Today I met Jay, Alex and Richard for fartleks on the trail. The weather was warm and humid...nothing like Washington. G told us to only go 5 miles so we decided on about a 15 minute warmup and then did 10 x 1 minute off/1 minute on. I felt OK and we had a pretty good run. We did 6 strides at the end and called it a day.

I am resting tomorrow and Friday and the next time I run will be at the half marathon. I don't know what to expect for this race at all. My training has been good, but I have felt kind of sluggish since the marathon. My short races have been OK, but no PRs except for the 10-miler. I am going to enjoy the race and see how I feel once we come out of the track. It is going to be a fun weekend with the boys.

Stats - 5 miles with Strides

Running in Washington DC

This morning I woke up at 6AM EST and almost rolled over and went back to sleep. I am in Washington DC to support a partner launch event. I worked out yesterday morning and then walked too much yesterday afternoon. I decided to get up and run since I probably won't have the chance to run around the Capitol mall anytime soon. The weather was in the low 50s so I wore a long sleeve shirt and shorts. I headed from my hotel south to Pennsylvania Avenue...yes the street that "Dubya" lives on. I headed SE to the Capitol since I missed it on my foot tour yesterday. For some reason I thought the Capitol building in Austin is similar in size, but this one is huge and very impressive. I thought about all the laws that created in that building and all the famous people that are have worked there. It was really cool. I headed west toward the Washington Monument and passed the Smithsonian museums, the National Archive, and a bunch of other museums. I wish I had a couple of days to go exploring in them. I looped around the monument and then headed back. The trail on the mall was OK, but the thing that sucked was having to stop at all the lights to get across. We are truly spoiled in Austin to have many places to run where we don't have to stop for traffic. I made my way up 11th street where I passed Ford's Theatre and the Old Post Office. The theatre is where President Lincoln was assassinated and the Post Office is now a retail center. We visited there when I was 19 and I have some funny memories of my Dad at the Post Office from that trip.

I ended up running about 5 miles in 45-50 minutes. My Garmin only worked for part of the run, but today wasn't about mileage...it was about enjoying our nation's capitol and enjoying the run.

3K at HMGP - DC

Today I met my Indy cohorts for the pre race 3k around Zilker. The weather was about 60 degrees and kind of humid. My stomach has been bugging me since Saturday night and it was really sour last night and this morning. I didn't know what to expect this AM. I felt really bloated. We jogged over to Zilker did our drills and then headed off. Alex was in the front I was in the middle and Jay and Richard were about 20 seconds behind me. I did my first 2k in about 7:03 pace. I picked it up a bit for the last 1k and ended up with a 6:56 pace for the 3k run. I probably could have gone faster, but feeling the way I did, I was happy with the run. We jogged back and then I headed off so I could grab a shower at home and finish packing for my overnight trip to DC.

Stats - 5.56 miles

Washington, DC
I got to DC, checked in and headed out on foot. I walked for almost 3 hours and covered most of the mall with the exception of the Capital. I saw both sides of the White House, the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial. I haven't been to DC since I was 19 and it has changed a lot. It is still a very pretty city and all of the history here is amazing. I can't wait to bring the girls back when they are a little older. Tomorrow I am going to run a few miles around the mall in the morning before I go to the event that I came here for. It should be in the 50s in the morning and cool and clear.