Well...I won't say "I'm back," because look what happened last time I did. However, I will say that I'm starting to test the waters of running again, and the signs are looking good...
I got out this morning for a short run. It was a bit chilly so I wore long pants and a long shirt, which made it bearable. I'd intended to only run a mile, but I felt pretty good and had a decent pace so I stretched it into two miles. I finished with a time of 17:50, which is an 8:55 pace. Considering that I did the first mile at about a 9:20ish pace, I must have been really flying the 2nd mile.
Anyway, it felt good to get out again. My mood was much better today, and I'm betting I will sleep better tonight because of the exercise and fresh air.
I want to say a special "thank you!" to those who gave me encouragement while I was down and out. It felt like forever, but really was only about 3 weeks. Thank you Rick, thank you Barb, and everyone else! A special "shout out" to Sara from Running From The Law...she had a great post about the STL marathon, and gave me a nice note of encouragement in the comments on my post from Saturday.
Seriously--all y'all rock. (C: (Special note to non-Southerners..."all y'all" is the plural of "y'all.")
Run long and strong, my friends...
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Testing the waters
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Health update
Finally, some positive news on the health front...
I saw my regular doctor yesterday. He said I look and sound good, except for some chest congestion. He cautioned me to take it easy still, and he wants me to stay off of exercise the rest of this week.
The good news...I can start very light workouts (probably just walking) sometime next week and see how it feels. If that goes OK, maybe a short run 1 or 2 times the week after that. Dare I hope???
It's getting warmer here, so maybe I can even do those outside. We'll see. But I want to make sure I'm fully recovered, and I'm not training for anything right now, so slower is better.Hope y'all are running long and strong!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Training - Week 10, which is actually week 11...
Well, that was a good week, but apparently I can't count too well... P.S.--I plumb forgot to record my mileage for the week...here it is. My ORN, if you will (what's an ORN? See my blog pal Joe's explanation here):
As I was doing my long run today I started trying to figure out the rest of the training schedule in my head, and I couldn't make it fit. I thought I had a week left over. Now that I'm writing I checked my schedule, sure enough it's week 11 rather than 10. I'll have to go back and see where I lost a week. However, this week coming up is a drop back week which I'm grateful for.
I'll be out of town next week and have to leave this coming Saturday, meaning I'll have to do the long run in a different place and do it outside. I'll be at an airport hotel just south of San Francisco International. There's a nice running path along the water (about a 4 mile loop), it's quiet, and just a little on the cool side in the mornings. I'm looking forward to it.
Yesterday I mentioned I was postponing my long run until today. I finally got it in, and my mantra today was "Who cares?" Not as in 'who cares whether I run this or not?', but as in 'who cares about time, about how many walk breaks I take, what my pace is...'
I decided to give myself the grace of just finishing and not worrying about any other metric that I usually go by. Oddly enough even with more breaks for water, walking, etc., my per-mile pace was only about 5% above what I expect race pace to be. So, pretty darned good.
Oh, and one other thing--I tried my first ice bath today. It's pretty simple--fill the tub with cold water, add ice, jump in, and shiver until your legs are numb. Sounds bad but it helps reduce the swelling, micro-tears, and pain in your muscles after a run. I sat in the tub with a jacket over my shoulders holding a cup of hot coffee, and it OK. It got painfully cold after about 5-10 minutes, but it was just enough to do the trick.
Tomorrow is a rest day, then back at the schedule. And of course, this will be week 12... (C;
Wednesday - 6 miles (scheduled for 4)
Thursday - 8 miles
Friday - 6 miles (scheduled for 4)
Monday - 16 miles
For a total of 36 miles this week. I also caught up 4 miles on my defecit, so now I'm only 5.5 miles behind schedule.