Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Give me strength!

Today I did the first of my 'strength' workouts.  It is the second scheduled - but I missed last week with the weird ankle thing.  So I left, very tired, this morning with two concerns: the ankle and the toe nail.  I finished, but it does seem, moving forward, that the toe nail is going to be a bigger issue moving forward.  Anyway - the strength workout: 8 miles total - 6 at pace.  Going up the fast ones were: 7:21, 7:38 and 7:32 (about 7:30).  Coming down I did 7:29, 7:09 and 7:23 - about 7:20s.  So pretty good.  These don't get harder - and should get easier with the weather hopefully cooling down.  Tomorrow is off.  Friday is the MP for 9 miles.

Monday, August 29, 2016

17 MIle Long Run

I ran up to Bedford today on the minuteman.  Was out the door at 5:30 - needed to be back by 8 and ready to go at 9 - so off I went in the dark.  Was pretty pokey heading up - an average of about 8:40 on the way up.  Faster coming down - about 8:25s on average - but pacing kinda follows the elevation.

I had some extensor tendon soreness/feeling out of the gate - but seemed to go away - and feels fine now.  I had my normal, but severe pain in the back - kinda to the left of the spine - upper back.  I'll need to look into what to do with this.  The other problem - I somehow jammed my toe-nails after I crested the last hill - last half-mile of the run.  The right foot one is still sore.  I wonder if it's related to the KT taping of the big toes.  I'll need to monitor that also.

Good news - only two more really long runs.  I'll definetely take the half-days and run these from home.

Sunday, August 28, 2016

All signed up.

Coughed up my $90 for baystate yesterday - was feeling good after my run.  I was hovering just over 8s for the easy run.  7.3 miles.  Today I did a nice swim out at walden, for some nice xt.  Then I did a 4.9 mile easy run today.  Yesterday was hot and dry, felt good.  Today was a bit muggier.  Tomorrow may be a little rough.  Could be thunderstorms and humid in the morning.  I'll try to do it early.

Friday, August 26, 2016

First Run of 45

45 years old.  I had a very nice birthday week: a party with friends and neighbors Sunday and a small celebration with my family last night that included presents, pizza and my favorite desert.  The week wasn't without problems.  I had a phone SIM card issue, which precluded me from tracking my runs, and I have mice in my house.  I've got 3 of the suckers, but they are pretty adept at avoiding the traps, but taking the bait.  The other big problem was the extensor tendinitis.  So today, I headed out for 9 - 8 at MP.  It was hot and humid, but I managed: 7:49, 7:36, 7:50, 7:53, 7:55, 7:47, 7:46 and 7:47 - overall pace was about 7:48 I think.  That gives me 19 miles so far - so a down week.  I'm trying to look on the bright side - maybe a little break before a tough 6 week stretch will be good - and it really shouldn't effect my time come marathon day.  I KT taped my leg, and am glad that the tendinitis felt ok - didn't really notice it.  So I'll play with lacing and try the easy 6 tomorrow.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Some Time Off

So it was exactly 1 year plus 1 week that I backed off my plan and took a 5 day break from running do to plantar fasciitis.  This year - i'm doing it again - apparently for extensor tendinitis.  I found a nice article here which pretty much hits the nail on the head.  The plan is to ice the area, take another 2 days off and rest - then try running again Friday.  Kinda sucks, but at least seems solvable.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Week 7 10 miler

i headed out from work and did what I thought was about 10 miles - up to the arsenal bridge and back.  Great day weather wise.  Very breezy - but mid 70s and low humidity.  Big toe was kinda sore, and I have a new pain at the bottom front of my right leg, just before it meets the foot.  It's a new one!    Hopefully, just bad lacing, or a day off can help.  It felt fine when I put on other shoes to walk to dinner, but hurt when I put the adrenalines back on to walk to central.  No idea on exact mileage and pacing, as my phones SIM card is messed up.

Did 7.4 yesterday up and down the bike path.  5 the day before.  Felt really tired all day.  Should go to bed early.

Friday, August 19, 2016

SOS Runs for Week 6

I finished my something of substance runs for the week with a 8.8 mile MP run.  Well, only the first 8 were MP - the last 0.8 was up hill and slow.  Pacing was: 7:40, 7:39, 7:53, 7:51, 7:29, 7:34, 7:24 and 7:33.  Overall for the 8 was 7:38.  I'm pretty happy with that!  The weather was as cool as it's been for this training cycle.  Certainly a huge improvement over last week.  The legs felt good.  My left big toe still kinda feels not right - but the Adrenlines certainly are better than the Hokus at this point.  I may try the Hokus tomorrow for the 5 mile easy run.

Wednesday I did off track intervals along the Charles.  I think they were about 6:30-6:40 pace - but I'm not exactly sure - since the Strava mileage only goes to one decimal, and I had trouble keeping it from going into map mode - which messed up my last one.  The first two were certainly close to 6:30 though.  I suppose that's ok.  It was nice to sleep in, and run at lunch - not much of that going on lately.

Monday, August 15, 2016

15 Miler. Done.

Had the choice of going out early today - or running home in the heat.  It looked like the humidity would be down this afternoon - and maybe not so bad - but I decided to go out at 6 and get it over with.  Heat actually felt pretty good the whole run - so maybe a good decision.  Had a decent pace - 8:32s, and 2:09 overall.  The last mile was slow - all uphill.  It felt hard.  I was sluggish at the beginning - and maybe felt the best during the brief downhill after Lexington - to the 128 bridge.  Legs are sore now - but felt ok until the last mile.  Had pretty acute upper back pain - kinda pinch between the shoulder blades.  I remember it from last year - pretty annoying.

Friday, August 12, 2016

Super Hot Tempo Mess

Went out today for a really hot and brutal tempo run.  Temps are soaring back into the 90s today - and it was probably already in the low 80s when I headed out.  The killer is the humidity.  Because of the heat, I decided to cheat and run into work - the first mile is all downhill - so it is a little unfair pacing, but I'll go back to running home from work when the weather moderates.  The pacing is as follows: 8:01 (?), 7:33, 7:44, 7:51, 7:40, 8:11, 8:09 and 7:54.  The 7:40 and 8:09  miles are estimated because the Strava kept running - Kun mentioned I need a gps watch that'll upload to Strava - sounds like a good upgrade.  Overall pace was about 7:50 - maybe 1:03.

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Week 5 Ints

Finally!  A track I can run on!  To be fair, I probably could have ran here last week.  This morning I went down to the AHS track for my 10x400s.  Weather was still pretty nice - can't complain for early August.  I did 15:42 which I think divides into 1:34 intervals on average - and about a 6:17 pace overall.  Pretty good - that's about 20-30 seconds under my 5k pace.  Not the 1:30 bombs I had hopped for - but I was a decent pool of sweat after - so effort was there.  Swam last night - only 24 minutes - maybe 1/2-mile for some easy cross-training.

Monday, August 08, 2016

10 miles kicks off week 5

Ran home today from work.  10 miles in the hot sun, but low humidity.  Pace was about 8:20s through the first 8 or so.  Legs felt good.  My left big toe kinda hurt for a few miles, bit feels ok now. I'll have to monitor that with the Hokus.  Home now drinking and watching the olympics.  Love the olympics.  The world comes together to compete and see who is best, but it really is the world coming together that makes it amazing.

Saturday, August 06, 2016

Easy 5

did my arlington hills today for some easy running.  Legs feel good.  I think I'm starting to get hungry.  Like, all the time.  Am sitting on ass watching the olympics.  Men's road cycling.  Really cool up and down.  Very entertaining.

Friday, August 05, 2016

Tempo #4.

Tempo number 4 is in the books.  Up and down the minuteman.  7:36, 7:43, 7:46, 7:41, 7:39, 7:21, and 7:31 - overall for the first seven miles was 7:37.  The last uphill .9 miles was 9:17.  Good to have it done.

Wednesday, August 03, 2016

Week 4 intervals

Tried the mit track today.  Closed.  Switched my 10x400s to 6x800s, and did them off-track, along the esplanade.  They were a bit slow.  Not sure why, maybe the heat, or off-track slows me down more - but they came in at just under 6:50s.  If I miss my BQ time, I'm blaming it on all these closed tracks.

Monday, August 01, 2016

13 Today.

I ran home today from work.  I ran 5 miles up the Charles, then turned north through Watertown, Belmont and into fresh pond.  That was about 2.5 miles, then did 3.5 miles around the pond.  The final 2 miles was the tough 2 miles up into arlington.  Pacing was awful, but I don't care: 8:08, 7:46, 7:47, 7:59, 8:11, 8:18, 8:26, 8:34, 8:37, 9:31, 8:56, 8:59, 9:40.  Overall was about 8:30.  Legs felt pretty good, but they are nice and sore.  It's funny, 13 felt hard, but I only have 4 runs that are longer in length.