While I was stretching by the truck after my run, I noticed alot more steam in the air than could be coming from my breathing. I looked in the window reflection and saw that my whole body was steaming. It looked like I was on fire!

I did my long run this AM at the park. I got up late so I had to cut it short. 6.14 miles, 53:54 (according to Ghostrunner), instead of my planned 7. It was faster than I had meant to run (8:47 overall). Maybe I subconsciously wanted to hurry up because I was late. I’m very certain I could have finished the distance, but I had already stretched the time too far and needed to get home.

Mile time
1 9:09
2 9:06
3 8:21
4 8:22
5 8:52
6 8:48
7 8:19

I started out pretty good with my pace. Then I got too pumped up or something and didn’t come back down again. Mile six had the big hill so that’s why I was able to slow a little. Mile 7 was really just that last tenth hanging on at the end. A little sprint with the truck in sight :)

I was surprised to see so many people out there early on a Sunday morning. Some were running, some walking. Some dog people too.

I ate a banana about 1/2 hour before I left and drank a little dilute Gatorade during the run. It was damn cold too outside too! The thermometer on my back porch said it was 40F! I put on my long sleeve CoolMax shirt that I bought on clearance in the spring. Even outside in the sun, it wasn’t much warmer. I wore my gloves too, but by mile 4 my hands were pretty warm. After the run, I had a banana in the truck, the rest of the dilute gatorade, and my big glass of chololate milk with a little cinnamon.

Shins were well behaved. Left ITB felt a little tight at one point, I stopped for 15 seconds and stretched and then went on. No pain at any point, and I had left the strap in the truck. Getting really sick of that thing, but I’ll try to use it when I can until my abductors hit their weight lifting goal. It keeps slipping down when I run and hits my knee cap. My leg is too cone shaped and so it slides down to the lowest point. Need duct tape.

I’m a little behind my goal with this run getting cut short. Higdon always says “don’t cheat on the long runs”. Feel like I did that today. I’m also running them faster than I should. I just feel like if I run them slower, it will irritate my ITB. At the same time, it felt really good to run faster. I liked the pace and I felt like I was moving instead of trudging. I don’t want to trudge in the race. I’m not speedy but I don’t want to trudge.

Tomorrow is “stretch and strength” but its a rest day really. Extra stretching to loosen all the stuff you hurt during the long run. Strength for the weak muscles. I may do lower body weights. Maybe upper too. My son has gymnastics on Monday evenings so I don’t have alot of time to workout.

I’m so very sorry for the incredibly rude delay in posting. I had to go out of town and the internet access wasn’t available. Well, actually it was but it cost so damn much I didn’t want to pay. Again, sorry for not updating.

I was in Toronto for a week of super special training. Super special because 1) only 1 other person is as qualified as me and 2) nobody else wanted to go because it would mark them as the loser who had to go to this training. Loser = me.

Toronto is far too much city for me. There’s about 150 million people living there and I know because every single one of them was walking on the street at 5:00 pm. I swear I was going to have sensory overload if I didn’t get off the street. And the shopping mall is underneath the city.

I got a chance to go up in the CN Tower which was very cool. All those people looked like little ants. There’s a glass floor in one section and it gave my stomach a real jump to walk over it.

I hate traveling because I always am so exhausted after spending a week eating fattening food and getting no sleep in hotel beds. I feel like I need a serious vacation.

Running. Good news. Monday I ran 6.5 miles, 9:14 pace, and no pain at all! I stopped because it was so tired I wanted to die. The gym at the hotel was in this tiny room and there was no fan. With 10 of us in there, the place was hotter than blue blazes and I just couldn’t take it longer than an hour. And the treadmill shut off after 1 hour too. But no pain. None.

Then Wednesday I ventured outside and ran IN THE CITY! That was a wild experience. Dodging in and out of the people and cars. It was tough doing the stop and go thing for the lights. The funny thing was that nobody seemed to notice me. Idiot guy running on the sidewalk. Everyone was oblivious. Eventually, I got down to the waterfront along the lake and it was real nice down there. Lots of joggers.

I ran about 4.5 miles but it was hard to tell because my Ghostrunner locked up for a while. I’m guessing I lost 1/2 a mile. The cool thing was that I had forgotten my cho-pat strap, and there was NO PAIN AT ALL!.

I’m thinking I am over the hump for knee pain. I need to get back to the weight training this week but I may try running without the strap for a while. I wanted to wait until I had reached my abductor weight goal first, but maybe I will start now because I hate wearing it.

Today is the CRIM but I’m not running. I didn’t get in until 11 pm last night after a 7 hour car ride. Add 2 hours for leaving Toronto at 5 pm. Stop and go all the way to Hamilton. Just shoot me. Even so, I’m not ready for 10 miles yet. Can’t tell you how very bummed I am about it. Its supposed to be a great event. Maybe next year.

Good luck at the CRIM, Christian!

And if Lily and Dean are running, good luck you two!

OK, so now I have no races coming up and no goal. I’ve been toying with the idea of the Detroit 1/2 marathon. October 24th I think. I have about 8 weeks. So I would be in week 8. Its not a bad place and I think I can jump right into the schedule where it is. I would need to make sure I am not pushing it too hard. The individual distances are not a problem, but the weekly mileage ramping up may have a cumulative effect on my ITB. Well, we’ll just go easy and see what happens.

Ok, that’s it for this AM. I’d like to go run today but there’s a huge lightning storm (welcome back to MI). Maybe the gym. I’ve got visitors coming this week so I need to clean my messy house and I also may not be able to post too much. Apologies in advance.

Now I need to catch up on all the blogs!

Saturday I did an hour of crosstraining instead of my long run, due to scheduling issues.  I ran my 12 mile long run yesterday.  Only the second time I’ve run that far.  Coming off a week of little running, and having missed the previous week’s long run due to the race, this was a very big jump for me.  I probably should have cut it back to 10, but then after you do 10, you think “what’s 2 more miles?”.

I really killed myself out there.  I even took it very slow.  I tried to hold a 10:00 pace and I took a short walking break every 3 miles.  Actually, the walking break was a walk to the restroom.  I do not have this hydration thing under control, which is funny because I didn’t need the restroom during the 1/2 marathon.  During this run, I definately needed 3.  I think I was planning for hotter weather and it turned out to be 60 with light drizzle and cloudy skies.

My legs were pretty darn tired at the end.  My hips were starting to get sore (and that’s what’s sore today).  My shins were a little sore, but no different from any of the other long runs.  That is, the pain didn’t get any worse with the longer distance.  I thought about Chris running through some trail somewhere and tried his “Shut up!” inner voice to keep the cranky legs quiet.  If I don’t have his stamina, at least I can borrow some of the mental tricks. 

I tried to make sure I ran more upright.  I tend to get bent over the more tired I get.  Looking down at the pavement.  No wonder my lower back ends up hurting.  I think about that shot of Alberto Salazar at the 1983 Boston Marathon.  Head up.  Shoulders back.  That’s me.  Ok, that’s not me, but it keeps me thinking about better form.

Total time, 2:07, which included the bathroom breaks.  Ghostrunner says it was 12.3 miles, which might have been due to the bathroom.  A rough estimate puts it close to there.  I’m actually not that far off from the 1/2 marathon time.  Considering this time I was running alone and didn’t have my coach telling me to get moving after the water stops, I think I did OK.

Yes, the Ghostrunner is back from Garmin.  I still get errors when I try to download the data to my PC.  I reloaded the new software 3 times, resetting the Ghostrunner each time, reloaded the Logbook software 2 times, loaded Logbook on a different computer, reformatted my entire hardrive and reloaded all the software (yes, I did), and swore alot.  Now it gives me a different error, but if I unplug it from the computer just before I download, I can download it once without errors.  Sigh.  I guess I’ll take what I can get.  For those of you considering buying one of these, make sure you register it right away so that the warranty is good.

Today is rest day.  We are going to the water park, but I’ll be spending most of the time sitting in an inner tube.  Unless it rains.

I spent some time on Saturday and today working on teaching my son to ride his bike.  Looks like he’s got it down.  The stops are a little rough sometimes, but most of them are smooth.  He needs to lighten his grip on the handle bars a bit.  He got a blister from holding them so tightly.  Relax!  I suppose it won’t be long before he’ll be riding no handed with his feet on the seat.  Then I’ll wish for days like this again :)

I ran my three miles at the gym today. It looked like rain was coming and I wanted to take my son to a magic show at the library. Did I mention I have vacation this week? I do. Not just blowing off work.

My legs were a little tired, and the right shin was still sore, but no sharp pains. In fact, it didn’t really hurt much in the evening yesterday or this morning. I also did my lower body weight training, so the shin is sore now.

I was hoping to go to the runnner’s clinic to night but their trainer/ortho/running dudes are busy with the Olympic teams this week and next week. The nerve.

No beeping all last night from the GhostRunner, and I even wore it while I drove to the gym to try and put more info into the memory to make sure the problem isn’t creeping back up. All’s ok so far.

The 10K is Saturday and I’m pretty sure I’m not the least bit prepared. I feel so tired and the legs aren’t really doing stellar interms of stamina. No doubts about finishing but the time isn’t going to be as good as I did in the 5K. Oh well. Onward!

In case anyone can reach this post, here is the problem with the blogger pages here and elsewhere. They’re working on it.

Ran 3 miles at the park. I was scheduled for 2.0 but I wanted to try out my latest fix for the GhostRunner. The techs sent me an email asking me to try resetting it (did ya try rebooting?). Basically, it wipes the memory clean and it reloads the program from scratch (off the chip?). So I did that, then recharged the batteries, then did it again.

The park run went well, although the GPS kept losing the signal. We had heavy clouds and I wonder if that was the issue. I’ve left it off all day within earshot to see if it tries turning on again. Last time it took a longer use time before the issue came up. I’m hoping that it was a software glitch and not the physical device. Although, it seems odd that a software glitch could make it turn on by itself. Who knows.

Hope everyone’s week is going well.