Tapering

I ran 6.2 miles today on the roads; Spring is definitely in the air. I took yesterday off and I am dropping out of my second class. I was tired all the time; my work, home life and running were all suffering. My heart was not into learning the SQL; I have been looking for a job on and off for over 2 years and SQL with no experience was not going to get me a job. Life is too short not to live everyday and all the reading and studying was frustrating because I still needed to do more to succeed. I just did not have enough time in the day. The 2:30 alarm did not help.

So today 6.2 miles in 52:31, an 8:28 avg pace with an avg HR of 129 bpm with a max of 149. I kept it easy and I had a lot more rest in the past 2 days since I didn't have to be out until 9:30 and I wasn't stressed trying to do the SQL homework.

What a Week!

Today was the first time I've run since my 14 miler. I had planned to take Wednesday off and then my brother called to tell me my Aunt Joyce died and the funeral was Thursday at 11. So I was out of town all day Thursday after dropping the grandkids off at school.

Friday my right leg hurt; The whole outside from the calf to the IT band. It was worse on Saturday. I was doing stretches, foam roller work, cold bath, tennis ball under the feet and my legs up the wall. Nothing seemed to take all the pain away. I was worried on Saturday. But today the pain was much less; I drank a lot of water yesterday and got a lot of sleep. I think I lacked both all week last week. I'm just tired trying to do everything from classes, work, family and running. Today the board holding the desktop keyboard and the keyboard came down on my right foot. The toe next to the little toe was bleeding and the nail turned black. It has hurt since it happened. But I ran 5.4 miles on the treadmill at the gym and I felt good after. The leg doesn't hurt and the toe doesn't hurt any more than it did. I hope to run at least another 3 days this week before the race.

Last Long Run before Marathon

I'm just back from a 14.1 mile run; my last long run before the Yuengling Shamrock Marathon. I felt great; only my right arch gave me any problems. 7.2 mph an 8:18 avg pace in 1:57:08. My 1/2 split was 1:49:16 and I had negative splits again today. I hope the weather is good for the race. I'm really looking forward to running.

Negative Splits

Negative splits because I started fairly slow today. My legs really hadn't recovered from yesterday afternoon. I was also over 100% max HR (104%) but not by much and I felt fine. This is what I thought would happen yesterday. It started to drop back down at 0.9 miles and the avg HR was 131 bpm. I did run a little faster, 8:37/mi. for 1:29:42 0.2 miles further in 20 seconds more. I was surprised both considering I ran my second 10 miler in 22 hours I happy with the results.

Another beautiful warm end of Winter day in CT.

Felt like I was Running on Empty Again

After working until 10:30 I raced home to grab my SQL book and went for extra help til 12 o'clock. I had a couple of bowls of a granola mix and went to bed until 3:10. I went out for a run at about 3:25. I felt tired and slow but I wanted to get another 10 today to go over 40 for the week. All week my max heart rate has been high 80 - 90 % of max which I don't think is good for your heart.

Today I was worried that it might be the highest but the results were 154 bpm max which is below 80% and the average 131 pbm which is in the range (125 - 135) I try to hit every time out. So I ran 10.2 miles in 1:29:22 for a 8:45/mi. avg pace. And I felt good at the end. I hope I can run for another 11/2 hours tomorrow but I am going to take it easy if my legs don't recover by the morning. I do drink a few beers on Saturday night and the beer doesn't always help my recovery. Hey it's Saturday!

I read more of Marathon and Beyond before napping today; it's a great issue!

An Interesting Day *

I was all set to run late morning today but my granddaughter had other plans for me. She didn't feel well this morning and was pale so she stayed home with me. I had bills to write checks for, homework, job applications and seeds to order so I waited until my wife got home before heading out. I don't like running after 3 because I'm more of a morning person and the traffic is heavier in the PM. I took a different route to mix things up a bit and ran 8.5 miles in 1:13:07, a 8:34/mi. pace. I have been running every other day for a week mostly because of homework. I have caught up and if I put in the time this weekend I should be good between now and the Shamrock Marathon.

Marathon and Beyond has a special section on Boston: The Marathoner's rite of passage. It's an excellent publication that I highly recommend. I received the April Runner's World in the mail today and I bought a used copy of Lore of Running from Amazon so I have a lot to read outside of school work too.

I received a card in the mail for The Cape Relay May 1 & 2. I would love to do this and I wish I had a team of 12 friends who would also love to run this relay. I'm not sure if I even get 11 people reading this blog :) The relay web site is: www.13relay.com and you can email them at: cape@13relay.com

Like a Spring Day

Wow! What a beautiful day today. I took my grandkids to school and got gas for the car and went to school to do homework for 2 hours. I had debated with myself if I wanted to run early but decided to eat a good breakfast so I had to wait. I went out at 11:30, I had the day off from Target, and felt great for the entire run. I wish I could have gone 15-16 miles but I knew I would regret it tomorrow morning at work. So I ran 12.4 miles in 1:42:51 for a 8:17/mi. pace. I felt like I could have kept it up for many more miles.

Chicken Soup

yesterday after work I spent about 4 hours doing homework and getting help with SQL. I then took my CCD class to confession and I went back an hour later to go myself. I was making it on coffee since I didn't get to nap but my wife, Annemarie, made chicken soup for supper along with sourdough toast and I had a few beers. This morning I got to run since my class is going to 10 O'Clock Mass. It was the BEST run I have had in awhile. 10.1 mile in 1:20:42 for a 7:59/mi. pace. I feel great. I f I could only run that for the Yuengling Shamrock, but I just want to have a good time and enjoy the race.

Snow, snow, snow

I ran this afternoon after a nap. My congestion went away after a couple of days and I have felt good most of the week. I started out today with no snow and by the time I was a mile down the road it was snowing. At 2 miles I couldn't see the cars coming it was snowing so hard. By mile 4 it had stopped completely. I usually love running in the snow but the traffic was really heavy so it wasn't as much fun as usual. I ran 5.3 miles in 44:08 for an 8:20/mi. pace. It was the first time I ran outside since Sunday. My legs have been tired lately and I have been banging them up at work. This will be a low mileage week unfortunately, I just haven't had the time to run. This will also be a low mileage month because of tapering for the marathon and then not running it. The rest probably did me some good since I feel like I ran too many high mileage days in January.

Thursday Continued

I did run 7.2 miles today at the gym. Total time: 1:05:54. I was watching the health care debate and thinking of all the people in the U.S. who are obese. If people would just get some exercise most days our country's health care costs would probably considerably less.

Busy! *

Between work, classes, running and life in general I have been going non-stop for days. I haven't gotten enough sleep to run well and my homework is taking a lot longer than it should. Am I stupid or do I not have the background to do the work? I need at least another 2-2.5 hours of sleep after work to function and I get on a roll and then I need to make supper for the family. Than off to class!

I ran Tuesday, 5.2 miles, in 46:38 on the treadmill. This was actually fast for me on the treadmill, 46:38, 8:58/mi. I did withdraw from my ASP.NET class, so I can get a little more sleep and try to learn SQL and advanced web design both of which, if given the time, I can learn.

Here is what a lot of people are thinking and doing after the Myrtle Beach cancellation,http://www.news-record.com/content/2010/02/24/article/running_shorts_no_is_the_middle_word_of

the telling words are "...McDonald figures he spent $400 but has no race to show for it. For that reason, McDonald put Myrtle Beach clearly in his rear-view mirror.

"I don't want to go there at all," he says. "Why should I reward them for making me spend 400 bucks for nothing?"

It may be tough for me to get back since this economic downturn has hit my wife and I hard. Plus I had hoped to get another star for the Marathon Maniacs and now I'll be one race short.

I will run today and I may add to this post or write something new later.

Tired

After running 20 last Thursday I took 2 days off. A lot of people are sick at work and I guess that I was susceptible to something because I am congested now. I'm a little tired so after running 6.1 miles yesterday in 52:38, 8:37/mi. I took today off. My HR was really high yesterday for almost 2.5 miles and then it came down to my normal average. I didn't feel like I was struggling but I did feel slow at first. Hopefully, having the day off tomorrow will help and I will be running well again by Thursday. Reading SuperFreakonomics to give myself a little break from running books. I have my SQL class tonight so I have to go study.

Tough 20

I decided to run my 20 miler today although I didn't feel like running early. So after going to WholeFoods, I came home and left about 11:10. I didn't feel good for 8 miles; I never run as well after eating breakfast. Usually I have a PowerBar and a banana and feel good starting out. I was hungry this morning and had to eat.

It was windy but sunny. 20.1 miles in 2:56:58, a 8:48/mi. pace. The Bert Yasso book I just finished seemed to say that I run my long runs too fast and since I didn't feel all that great I did try to pace myself and run a little slower. It was about the same as usual except for the beginning and mile 15-17. Overall I felt good and now have my 20 done for the month. Hopefully, all goes well at VA Beach.

Indoors on Treadmill

The last 2 days I ran on the treadmill at the gym. I'm signed up through March although I can no longer afford to pay the monthly family rate. As a family we did not use the gym enough. I only used it from December to April and I really don't like running on a treadmill. However, the soft surface does really help my legs.

Yesterday I ran 9.7 miles and today 4.1 miles. I did want to get in a 20 miler soon, in the next 10 days, to be ready for the Shamrock Marathon.

Running in Wake Forest NC

Just back from a 9.5 mile run with my son. He lives in Wake Forest NC just outside of Raleigh. It was bright and sunny and we had a great time. This certainly made up for missing the marathon. I took some pictures after and may post some since it was a beautiful, although busy, route.

Myrtle Beach Marathon Cancelled!!!

Yes we went down to Myrtle Beach just to see the snow on palm trees.
At the expo they said that the start time was moved to 7 AM; then at about 11 PM they cancelled due to the weather. Since I'm from CT the weather did not seem to be a factor. If they had postponed the start until 9 AM everything would have been OK; no ice or snow on the road and they could have ended the race for all participants @ 3 PM. I guess that wasn't an option.
There were a lot of angry people at my motel. Since I am scheduled to run a marathon in March, April, and May it doesn't seem so bad. But now I have to find the time to run my 20 in the next 2 weeks. Also I missed getting SC checked off my list of states I have run a marathon. My wife and I will just have to come back another February to visit my son and I'll run it then. Hopefully, next time there won't be any snow.
So I ran 6.8 miles on a treadmill at the Marriott instead of in the race.

UpDate

Well I ran 6.2 miles on the treadmill on Tuesday because my ankles were still tight.

I decided yesterday to take 3 days off for this race; I usually take 2 but I have had success with 3 so I felt OK doing it, not real happy , but OK.

Since I live in CT and we were scheduled to fly into Baltimore there is a problem with the flight.

I am on hold right now with Southwest; wait time 47-60 minutes.

I just got off the phone with Kris from Southwest, who was very nice, and our flight is now direct to Raleigh but we have to go early since we can not print our boarding passes from our computer.

I was afraid that this might be my third cancelled marathon; I got hurt for Chicago 2006, and my wife was sick for Vegas 2006. This will be my thirteenth state.

Sunny Monday

I just got back from a 7 mile run. I didn't run at all Saturday or Sunday; I needed to rest my left ankle. It felt better today but I was a little tired from working even though I only worked 4.5 hours. This seems to happen to my ankle in the winter. I probably should go inside on the treadmill but I just don't like running on treadmills any more. 8:44/mi. with a HR range of 130-156 is OK. I'll roll my ankle using the foam roller and I should be ready to go for tomorrow.

Feeling Stressed

My ankles have been bothering me so I haven't run as much I would have liked this week. Thursday I ran 10.5 and Friday 4.1. I took off yesterday work and visiting relatives did not allow me enough time to get out. I ran 31.7 for the week and 21 miles so far for the month. I wish my ankles felt better.

I am trying to learn SQL Server, ASP.NET, VB 2008, Dreamweaver and other programs in my classes and it is overwhelming me at the moment. Plus we have not had as much work at Target as I would like to have. I'm sure the marathon will perk me up; I can't wait to go to Myrtle Beach!

Time Flys...

I can't believe I haven't written an entry since last Thursday. I take classes now Monday - Wednesday so I'm really busy at the beginning of the week, besides family, work, running, etc. Some days I'm tired like last Friday and I didn't run.

Saturday I was able to go 7 miles right after work at 8:43/mi. and Sunday I went 10.7 miles at an 8:38/mi. pace. BUT I paid the price; my legs were shot. I used the foam roller 3 times but my legs were tired Monday so I took the day off. I ran 208 miles for January; a good foundation for the Myrtle Beach Marathon. Today I was able to go for 6.4 miles at 8:17/mi. and I felt good.

Besides my text books, I'm reading "The Runner's Guide to the Meaning of Life" by Amby Burfoot, "Brain Training for Runners" by Matt Fitzgerald and "Running Through the Wall" by Neal Jamison.