Time To Run

So my nine year old's baseball manager went on vacation and asked me to run practice while he is gone. Friday we are finishing up with batting practice and since none of the other assistants jumped at the opportunity I started pitching. We had 11 kids and they were getting 15-20 pitches each and after about 4 batters I noticed that my left quadricep (lead leg since I throw right handed) was getting very fatigued. I toughed it out but the leg was pretty sore. You would thought my arm would be hurting but I guess the motion of stepping out with my front leg and landing on it was putting pressure on muscles that aren't getting tested by running.... And I thought I was getting in shape......

Next practice is Wednesday.

Saturday I cut my run 1 lap around the reservoir short so only did 3.4 miles instead of 5.1 as the leg was sore and I thought why test it? I did get good news as our SUV was ready for pickup. Thank goodness for the extended warranty as I paid $0 on a $2400 bill! I guess it was a broken front gear that resulted in metal getting in to the transmission system (I know nothing about cars so if I am translating wrong....) and it was deemed cost effective for the dealer to just put in a whole new transmission.

With that uplifting news I got ready to meet the 6:42's on Sunday. A small group was there but it included 4 of the frontrunners (including my Dad). They were a little more ready to run than last week so set off on a pace that was faster than I had gone the week before. I pretty much stayed with them the first half before they picked it up a little. I was very excited as one of them noted that my running had improved! I managed to not fall too far behind as the hill that got me last week came up and as I went up this week felt much stronger and though I was breathing very hard at the top felt strong and sturdy in the legs so that after about 30 seconds of recovery I was able to pick up the pace and keep the leaders in my sights. I kept it up through the finish and when I looked at my watch I had cut off over 1:20 from the week before and though I was tired my legs still felt like they had a little something left.

Overall, I was very excited to be a runner at that point. This whole thing of logging my workouts and writing in my blog has worked very well for me. I have to admit that thoughts of "Keep the pace" Juls and the "Stay smooth and strong" that Running Chick signed off on a comment with were going through my head as I focused on the last half mile or so...

Stepped on the scale this morning and I had dropped another pound (making it 6 for the month and 10 since I started in July). This week I want to end up in the 25-30 mile range and continue to get a little faster. I have 12.75 planned for the week and will see how the weekend goes. We are going to the Palm Springs area for the weekend so I will have to deal with the heat. Running early it will only be about 95.... LOL

Posted by Jeff at 12:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Today was a day where it is good to run in the morning. My judgment day mile repeats went well so I will up everything .1mph on the treadmill for next week. The last one at 7.6mph(7:53 pace) was tough but didn't wipe me out and my breath remained in control so I continue to get faster!

Last night, my wife mentioned our SUV was making a funny noise when she stepped on the gas. I checked it out and agreed so decided to take it in this morning. Well, I didn't make it in as on the way to the dealer it wouldn't get into gear anymore and would just rev up when I hit the gas. I had to call AAA to pick me up and tow me to the dealer. It's a 2002 with about 41k miles on it so just over the standard factory warranty but luckily I had purchased an extended warranty to 6 years/60k when I purchased the vehicle. So that took most of my morning by the time my wife picked me up from the dealer so my work day was shot. I called the dealer at the end of the day and he said it was the front clutch and they would be tearing it down tomorrow and thought they would have it ready on Friday. We will see.....

At least the run was good :)

Posted by Jeff at 05:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I decided to cut the mileage down a little this week. I've increased mileage 3 weeks in a row and did an 8 mile long run followed by what ended up being a fast (for me) 6+mile run the next day last weekend. I've read about step back weeks and figured this was a good time to try one out and see how my body responds. Overall, I am feeling pretty good. A little tightness in the calves after runs but it goes away after I get warmed up.

Monday was a non running day so I did 30 minutes on the stairmaster (the one sometimes referred to as a stairmill where the steps keep coming). I like the feel of doing that when my legs are tired because it is low impact and works different parts of my legs. The burn in my quads makes the calves feel better. I like using the preprogrammed plans and did the "speed training" program at level 11.

Today was an easy run day and I cut the time from 40 minutes to 30 for this week so I ended up doing 3.5 in 32:02. I finished the 3.25 lap in just under 30 so I go to the first lap finished after. After warming up I ran the last half faster than the first setting the treadmill at 6.6 and 6.7 mph and threw in a sprint lap starting at 7.7 and then increasing to 8.2 and 8.7. The good news is that I didn't feel strained except for the sprint lap and was able to resume 6.7 pace afterwards pretty easily and recovered there to the finish. I figured afterwards that I did the last 2.5 miles which discounts the warmup in just over 22 which takes me down to about an 8:50 pace. Overall my pace has improved about 20 seconds per mile in my runs since I started a couple months ago.

Tomorrow is judgement Wednesday. I will see how I do with mile repeats of 6.6(9:05), 7.1(8:27) and 7.6 (7:53) separated by quarter mile recoveries...

Posted by Jeff at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sunday was 6:42 day. There is a group in Villa Park that has been around for a long time and I guess they got their name by having their base course be a 6.42 mile loop that they run starting at 6:42 am every Sunday. Rumor has it that someone with a GPS (I can't call it a Garmin or other name until I have one of my own......LOL) recently measured it at 6.47 but with tangents and everything who is counting. The five minutes extra sleep would be nice though!

It was tough getting up but I got there just in time and off we went. The faster runners in the group had run a 10 mile race the day before so they started off slow. I started easy and was running with one lady, Michele and as we went off noticed after a couple miles that no one was going with us. Kind of like a breakway from the peloton and the peloton wasn't bothering with us because we weren't contenders....

Anyways we ran together not pushing really hard just trying to stay steady. It seemed like she was feeling it a little more than me as I would end up a couple steps ahead on occasion and she would have to catch up but basically we were crusing along. The course has about a 1/4 mile incline towards the end of the 4th mile. Michele opened up about 10 yards on me by the top of the hill and then she picked it up afterwards and opened it up to about a 30 second lead which I couldn't close. One of the fast guys in the group, Jesse decided to make a run at us, caught both of us and paced her to the finish. The good news is that I ended up running the 6.42 miles in 56:27 which was about a minute and half faster than the previous Sunday. Once again the extra weight couldn't be helping me. Maybe its kind of like carrying a 20 lb weight belt on my waist. I can only imagine how it's going to feel and how I will run when it's gone.

So overall it was a great running week for me:

27.47 miles
Passed the 6.5mph milestone on the treadmill trial. Will go for 6.6mph next week.

Next week will be a step back week cutting the mileage down to about 21. Thanks again to all who have sent comments and welcomed me to the blogging family. I'm finding this very therapuetic and think it will be very helpful in keeping me going. The bloghost, Jeff has been more than helpful and I almost hate asking him more questions. Eventually I want to get a picture up or entertwined in my posts and maybe add some links...

Posted by Jeff at 03:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Whomever said the above is exactly right.....

Saturday, I woke up for the planned long run (about 8 miles) and basically it went off real well. The course I took is from my house running through a residential neighborhood to a reservoir that has a 1.7 mile path around it. The neigborhood part has some ups and down and the reservoir trail has one section that has a 50-75 yard downhill followed by a short flat area and a 50-75 yard uphill. I did 3 laps around the reservoir. It was nice out, still overcast, and there were some walkers and joggers out that I could greet as I went around. There is also a water fountain that I stopped at each lap. Then I ran home. Coming home leaving the reservoir you have to leave and go up a steep ramp like stretch. Only about 30 yards but at an incline where you really have to lean forward and push. Following the ramp is a more gentle but still substantial slope that last about 150 yards. That took a lot of work and reminded me that the extra 20-30 pounds I carry right now is killing me... I recovered after that and jogged home feeling pretty good. My hip flexors were telling me they were tired but I just kept telling myself to relax and keep my form. Overall a good run. I ended up at 1:16:36 for 8.3 miles.

Afterwards I came home and showered and got the kids ready. My oldest two, Wyatt (9) and Travis (7) needed to go to the optometrist. Wyatt to pick up his new glasses and Travis to get his adjusted. It seems like we are in their every week getting this done for him. Needless to say we are well known in the office. They take good care of us and are always willing to help with a smile (and no charge unless we need extra parts LOL). Travis was spending the day at a friends house and Wyatt has a friend coming over that night to swim and barbecue so I headed to the grocery store to pick up some things. Now I had a quick bowl of cereal in the morning but when I run I get hungry so as I was going to the store I was ready to buy about anything. Everything looked so good. I got what I needed and got out of their with buying a Propel Fitness Water and.......a bag of Sea Salt and Pepper Kettle Chips. I know it was bad but I figured I deserved it after the run that morning.

Posted by Jeff at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ok, I am giving myself a complete day of rest today. I have had a real good 2 1/2 weeks of training logging in 23 and 25 miles the last two weeks and getting my average pace up about 20 seconds per mile. I normally wouldn't run but I would be tempted to cross train. Since yesterdays easy run ended up feeling like a moderate run I decided to take this day off.

For the weekend I am planning to a "long run" on Saturday increasing my 6.6 miles to a little over 8. I won't push for time on that except for the last mile or so if I am feeling up to it. Sunday I will run with a local group that does 6.42 miles. Usually the group starts off together then gradually people go there different paces. That will give me a 28 mile week which is probably the most I have ever run.

Next week I have already decided to step it back and will reduce my Tuesday and Thursday runs down to 30 minutes from 40 and keep Saturday at around 5 miles.

I started this running commitment at the beginning of July with my initial goal being to establish a running base and routine. Overall it has gone well so my plan is at the end of August to find a race (probably around 10k) to train for and establish a baseline race pace for me that I can use for future training.

Long term I want to run my first marathon and the dream that I am keeping stashed away at this point is to run Boston. The pace that I would need to run to qualify seems very daunting at this point but who knows?

Posted by Jeff at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Today was a little tougher than expected but I guess since I had a good day on Wednesday it wasn't a total surprise.

I do my midweek runs in the morning on the gym treadmill. Yesterday I did my weekly Wednesday trial run. The goal was to do 3 one mile intervals progressively faster starting at 6.5 mph for the first, 7.0 mph for the second, and 7.5 mph for the third. Warmup/recoverly quarters are done before the first and between the miles at 5.5mph. I was excited that I completed this very easily considering 4 weeks ago I couldn't even complete this series dong 6.4/6.9/7.4 for my miles. I felt strong on the last mile and even kicked up the tmill to 8.4 for the last 200. The result was 3.75 miles in 33:38 which gets me just under 9min/pace overall! Next Wednesday I will try to complete it at 6.6/7.1/7.6 with 5.6 warmup/recoveries.

I might have paid for that last 200 today as I started out with a warmup that progressed from 5.6 to 6.5 by increasing .1 every minute, held 6.5 until the 20 minute mark, 6.6 until 30 minutes, then 6.7 through the finish. Somewhere I had read that to run faster you body needs to learn to run fast so I like to throw in a sprint or pickup towards the end. I did my second to last lap at 7.7 for the first 200,8.2 for the next, then 8.7 to the finish. This pretty much wiped me out as I struggled to keep my form through the last 6.7mph lap. The result was 4.5 miles in 41:06

I did have a good milestone today as my weight dropped below the 250 mark on the scale so I got to move the big weight on the old fashioned scale to the 200 mark and then the little one all the way over to the 49.... LOL

Thanks to all that commented on the last post!

Posted by Jeff at 03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I have just faced turning 40, being in the worst shape of my life, and hitting my highest weight ever. I was an athlete through college playing basketball and volleyball and stayed pretty active through various activities but the last 10 or so years being married with 3 kids has brought a serious decline in my activity. I've never run seriously before having run some races up to a half marathon mostly on youth. Now it is time to get serious about getting in shape and I think running is the best way for me to do it. I've been inspired by the blogs I've read and decided to start my own to go along with my running program so please be sympathetic with me on both accounts. I've actually been at it for about 6 weeks and have some improvement in my running and weight already. I look forward to putting my thoughts down in writing and if anyone wants to read and share better yet.

Posted by Jeff at 01:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)