Start time: 07/04/06, 9:30am
Location: Arlington Boulevard Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:51min/mile
Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh. I had to take an extra minute walk break in the last mile, even with some serious hydration yesterday and a hat on to try and shield myself from the sun. Bleah. I need to get up earlier in the morning to run. I’m seriously not used to running in this weather. (9:01, 9:33, and the horrific 10:58. Splat.)
Start time: 07/02/06, 11:15am
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:30min/mile
Two weeks later, it was time to get running again… right? I’d been stretching every day, all the pain had been gone for well over a week, and my achilles tendons were extremely flexible now. So, that meant a six-miler at the new run site this morning. As I went to bed, though, I started having some doubts. It’d been two weeks since I ran, and that wasn’t the same as just missing a weekend run. Plus… it sounds a little silly to me now, but I was feeling more than a little hesitant about going without really knowing anyone there. It would be one thing to be “guy who pooped out on his run and had to come back slowly” but something else to do so without at least someone else I knew there for moral support.
Ultimately, though, my decision was made for me when my alarm went off this morning and I felt… well, horrible. Once I was lucid enough to do more than slap the snooze alarm, it didn’t surprise me. I’d been out late Thursday night, out late Friday night, gotten very little sleep before site assisting on Saturday morning, and then not getting much of a nap on Saturday because plans for the day were changed on me giving less time to try and recharge. So even though I’d been in bed by 10pm and asleep within half an hour, it just wasn’t enough. My entire body was completely and utterly run down.
So, I turned the alarm off and went back to sleep with the intention of running on my own once I got up. This was both smart and not-so-smart. It was smart because I desperately needed the extra rest and would function a lot better with it. It was not-so-smart… in that I didn’t set the alarm to a new wake-up time. I ended up sleeping in far later than planned, which my body clearly needed but it’s also a pretty hot day and the temperature was rising quickly. So by the time I actually got out there to run, it was pretty toasty and humid. Add in having not run for two weeks… and, well, it became pretty clear that a 6-miler just wasn’t going to happen.
In the end I just ran a 3-miler, following my (annoying) pattern as of late of going out too fast when by myself and slowly grinding to a halt. (8:58, 9:32, 9:57 for the splits.) I think it was the right call, though. This week is going to be reminding my lazy innards that they need to get used to running again. If I end up with good runs on Tuesday and Thursday then I’ll feel really good about this upcoming Sunday’s run at the site again. But the important thing was to not bite off more than I could chew, but to just get moving again. Best of all? No pain or even tightness in my calf muscles. Hurrah! So really, a huge huge victory. Fingers crossed, that’s something that won’t come back. (I’ll continue to do my stretches, worry not!)
Here’s to a much better July than June in terms of running. (My June total? 8.25 miles. A new low in terms of mileage, but utterly understandable since the rest of the month was me sitting out an injury.)
Start time: 06/18/06, 7:00am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:30min/mile
At long last, my training season has started up again. I’m training for the Florence Marathon, and raising money for Whitman-Walker Clinic. This year I’ve agreed to raise a record high of $3700, so every little penny will help!
Anyway, after Tuesday’s run I decided I was doing good and ready to start up training this weekend. I wasn’t sure if I was going to run with the 9:30 or 10:00 group but decided I’d give 9:30 a go; if it was too fast I could always slow down, but I had a feeling that if I didn’t try it out I’d never attempt to move up. When I got there (along with jabulous) I saw there were two names on the 9:30 sign-in sheet from last week, and one person who had just put her name down this week. I added mine to the list, and introduced myself to Stephanie. Little did we know… we were it for the 9:30 group. Meanwhile, the 10:00 group appears to be Boyztown or something. Hmmmmm.
We headed out onto the course, and it was about a mile and a quarter in when I felt a sudden twinge in my left calf. Oh hell, I thought (or perhaps it was something a little ruder), not again.
Within about ten seconds, though, the severity of it went from a 5 to about a 3 (versus the initial incident which was probably an 8) so I decided to keep moving. If I had to I could always stop when we hit the two-mile point and hitch a ride back with Soyini. It never got any worse, though, more uncomfortable than anything else. Still, not something I’m willing to have happen every week. We finished up in exactly 40 minutes (which once you add in the required walk to kick off the run is pretty good) and I talked a bit with Coach Karen and Coach Julie Ann. They reiterated my need for more stretching with the achilles tendon and calf; I think tomorrow at work I’m going to set up my Outlook to auto-remind me twice a day to do the stretches. After jabulous‘s group finished up (not far behind me at all) we headed back home, and from there it was some stretching, ice, and a bit of ibuprofen. It’s still sore at this point, bah.
So, right now I’m leaning towards not running for the next week or two, coupled with really making sure I continue to stretch every day and take proper care of myself. Which, let’s be honest, totally stinks to be sidelined again and so very early in the training process… but better for it to be early than later on, right? Ah well. I’ll catch up quickly. And who knows, maybe I should take it easy and hang out with Boyztown when I do get back. (Don’t get me wrong, Stephanie is super-nice, I like her a great deal. But at the same time…)
Start time: 06/13/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 10:17min/mile
So. Been a while, huh? Since my last update here, I figured out last Thursday night what was probably causing the strange cramp in my calf muscle (short version: wearing my running shoes for every day walking around) and hoped that removing the problem would mean I would be back up for running again today. The last time I tried to run, within well under half a mile I was in a lot of pain, so my plan for this evening was to jog slowly up to Pacers (4/10ths of a mile) and see how everything felt. I got up there with no problems (and the GPS said it was a 9:27min/mile pace… so much for slowly) so I decided I was ready to run again.
Chris showed up before too long, and miss_ev made an appearance as well (and with an adorable short haircut!) and we headed out and onto the Billy Goat running route. It’d been a little over two weeks since I’d gone running, and this is a tough course, so I had a feeling that I would bomb out before too long. The first mile was at a nice clip (9:25min/mile) but I knew that wasn’t going to last for long. Sure enough, there was a gradual slowdown over the next three miles (10:20, 10:36, and 10:51 for that fourth mile that goes straight uphill, with the final quarter mile being at a 10:04min/mile pace) as I could feel my reserves running out. My body was wondering why I wasn’t sitting on the couch! What was nice, though, was that I got to run it with three other people; Chris took off ahead for the last mile (and I must say I’d have picked up the pace if I could’ve) but the other two I was with were with me for a bit, then the one woman (Chin?) dropped back a bit and the other fellow (whose name I’ve forgotten already) slowed down to stay with her.
The leg held up pretty well. The last half mile it was feeling a little tight, but it didn’t hurt. More of a feeling along the lines of, “I haven’t run in a while and you’re sending me up and down all these horrendous hills.” Still, I stretched it out when I got back to Pacers, and used the Stick on it post-shower. (Man oh man did those frozen cubes of Freeze shower gel from LUSH feel good tonight.) I might try and knock out a few slow miles on Friday when I get back from a trip to Pennsylvania but a lot will depend on what I’m really feeling up to at that point. If I don’t, no biggie.
Things I did learn today include that a pre-run food of applesauce is a no-no (NO BOOTING), that I need to take a second dose of allergy medicine in the evening if I’m to run (stuffed up, ugh), that both this and the Alexandria store will be adding on additional days for running (both will have Tuesday and Thursday options in a few weeks), and now that it’s warm out I should start putting on the Bodyglide for even these shorter distances. Ouchie.
(Oh, and the GPS was dead-on accurate with the Google Maps route I’d plotted out for this before. Yay!)
After taking a week off from last Sunday’s calf problems, I figured I was ok to start running again. I’d gone for a long (2.33 mile) walk on Tuesday night which helped a lot, and on Wednesday gotten a massage from Kris that seemed to really knock the problem out of the park; Thursday afternoon it seemed to be entirely gone. So, about half an hour ago I suited up, headed down to the Arlington Boulevard Trail… and in less than a third of a mile it was starting to hurt again. By the half-mile point it was starting to increase rather than decrease, and that’s when I stopped.
It killed me to stop. It’s still killing me to have stopped. Part of me keeps thinking that if I’d kept going it would’ve gotten “worked out” and started to decrease. The rest of me thinks that it’s better to be safe than sorry, that it was the right decision to not keep running and risk further injury.
But I’m pissed at myself, and mad, and just really torn up by all this (no pun intended). I don’t take injury well as you can tell, and any and all doubts that had gone away about starting back up with official training a week from today are now back in full force.
And just think, this is what I do for fun.
Start time: 05/28/06, 7:50am
Location: Clarendon neighborhood
Distance: 2.66 miles
Average pace: 9:56min/mile
Well, the plan was to knock out a 5 miler this morning. It went well at first, running through Clarendon and all the way down to the far end of Rosslyn before starting to come back up on the huge hill that is Wilson Boulevard leading away from the Potomac River.
It all got cut short, though, when my left calf started to feel sore. I slowed down to stretch it, and that just made matters worse; it completely tightened up and running no longer became an option. So, that was the end of this morning’s run. I don’t know if it was the extra-hillwork (that is one steep hill), a potential lack of potassium, or perhaps that I’d done extra stretching this morning before running. Ah well, win some lose some. Fortunately it was the left leg, since I’m now off to drive up to Pennsylvania. Wheeee!
Start time: 05/26/06, 8:45am
Location: Clarendon neighborhood
Distance: 3 miles
Average pace: 8:57min/mile
The plan was a pretty simple one; head out around 8am, run 4 miles and give the Garmin 301 Forerunner a whirl. It’s supposed to be raining/storming after work today, so running before work was paramount. I was running a little late, but that was ok–an 8:15 start time would still work. So, suited up and ready to get moving, I stepped out the door, turned on the Garmin… and it said that it was at a “low battery” level of power and had “0 hours” of battery life left. What??? I’d charged it fully up on Wednesday, surely it was all right? The only thing I could think is that when I played with the software on the computer and hooked it up through the USB port, it somehow drained the battery rather than charging it. It’s either that, or it can’t hold a charge. Hmph.
So, back inside I went, and hooked it up to the charger for about half an hour until it said it had “1 hour” of power. Then it was back outside for a now-shortened 3-mile run. It went pretty well; I didn’t mess with intervals, just wanting to get used to the basic functions of the watch itself. I was thinking for some reason that it was going to beep at me each mile, although for all I know it did and I just didn’t hear it over the headphones. But it did auto-lap each mile, which was more important, and afterwards I was able to download the data off to provide me with a cheezy map, and more importantly my splits. The first one supposedly was a 7:59 (?!), the second and third more reasonable at 9:24 and 9:29. Considering that a good portion of mile 3 is uphill, such a small slip is a great thing in my book. Afterwards I used the Gmaps Pedometer and it said the route was 2.9 miles. So it could have been a hiccup in the first mile (a distinct possibility with that split), or just an overall slight slide in distance. With some more usages I’ll have a better idea. Regardless, even if it was only 2.9 miles, it was still a good run… despite the last third of a mile involving getting rained on. Hmph.
Start time: 05/23/06, 7:00pm
Location: Clarendon and the Custis Trail
Distance: 4.25 miles
Average pace: 9:57min/mile
About a month ago, lostchaos e-mailed me a picture from her cameraphone telling me about a local running store (Pacers) and how they had a weekly “fun run” open for anyone. I saved the e-mail and kept telling myself that I’d actually do it. But (and I know people find this hard to believe!) when it comes to new things I can be a bit shy; if there isn’t someone that I know there, I just as often will not go. Then, last Tuesday, I was standing outside the Clarendon metro station to meet jblum and kateorman for dinner and saw the Pacers group across the street assembling and heading out on their run. They all zipped by me, and suddenly I realized… I knew someone there. It was Chris, a fellow site assistant for AIDS Marathon (he’s working with the Half Marathon runners). So I dropped him an e-mail, asked him a couple of questions, and then decided that this upcoming week would be a perfect time to start.
One quick stroll down Clarendon Boulevard and I was at Pacers. There were about… oh, fifteen or so people there, including Chris. We were sorted into time groups (the first one was “6-7 minute miles” and I had to keep from snickering in response as I quickly scooted out of that rance) and we headed out for what was promised to be a “5 mile” course… and oh yes, we were going to head down the hill that is Highland Street, and go from there onto Hill City, aka the Custis Trail. Ack.
That said, it was a nice run. I chatted with Chris as we ran about this and that, and while we were towards the back of the pack we weren’t last (phew!) it was a pleasant run. I figure some hill work could do me good, and the change of scenery was huge. Running with different people and a different place just felt really… really good, really refreshing. It could be just what I needed, having something different. (And no walk breaks either.)
The only downside (well, aside from hill mania) was that when I looked at my time, I felt really surprised because it seemed a bit… low… to really be a 5-mile course. (42:17? Really? Although having the two splits being 20:42 and 21:35 was a relief to know it wasn’t that different.) I didn’t have the GPS unit with me so I mapped it out afterwards… sure enough! It’s actually just a 4.25-mile course. Still, not bad at all!
Race: The Capitol Hill Classic 10K
Start time: 05/21/06, 8:30am
Location: Downtown Washington DC
Distance: 10K (6.2 miles)
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Finishing time: 57:30
Average pace: 9:16min/mile
With my last race I was mentally composing a journal entry five seconds into the race about how I knew I wasn’t going to get a PR. Around mile 3 today, I was wondering why I hadn’t already done the same thing.
But let’s rewind a bit. Readers of my other journal will know that I’d been feeling like I was dragging and just generally not up to par all weekend, and this morning was unfortunately no exception. Cal told me that ten seconds into the race today he was thinking, “Why am I here?” and that’s actually what was going through my head before I’d even left my home. Ugh. I got to the start of the race, though, and found a pack of AIDS Marathoners to start with. We were all going to be runnign different speeds, though, so it was with a bit of regret that I realized I’d be running this one on my own again. I was hoping to have someone to pace off of; this year I’ve felt like several times I’ve headed out of the gate too fast (races or otherwise) and was afraid that we’d get a repeat performance of this bad running behavior. Sure enough the first two miles were just that (8:13, 8:30) and I just knew that I wasn’t going to be able to maintain this pace. (It was also around this time I was wishing that it was a 5K because I like to think I could’ve kicked it out on the final 1.1 miles.)
Sweltering in the sun (it was 52 degrees when I left, but the heat and sun seem to have shown up five minutes later), I hit the third mile marker at 9:50 and I could just feel my heart sink. My previous PR was a 9:22min/mile pace and I spent a lot of the rest of the race diong math in my head, trying to figure out how many extra seconds I had “banked” from the first two miles to see if I could beat that. Mile 4’s time looked the same (9:48) but it was also a two-walk-break mile so I felt like I was starting to rally a bit. Sure enough, mile 5 was at a 9:29 and I began to think that yeah, I could do this so long as I didn’t bomb out. “All right, Greg,” I told myself. “You just finished mile 5 and your time is a 45:53. To beat last year’s 58:06 you just need to finish the last 1.2 miles in 12 minutes. That’s a 10-minute pace. No problem.”
What I really need to be thinking at this point of a race is really “don’t forget that you still have to climb Capitol Hill before you hit mile marker 6.” Ugh, ugh, ugh. I hate that stupid hill with a passion, to put it mildly. Struggling back up the hill, even though I’d taken my walk break just two minutes earlier I just couldn’t do it. I was out of gas. I finally told myself I could walk for an additional minute and that I’d make up the time once it leveled out a bit. Walking up even part of the hill felt like… well, defeat. At the same time, I kept scanning the side of the course for the mile marker. Where was it? Where was it?
And there it was. 9:53 for the mile. I could still do this, I’d get a PR, and it wouldn’t be the one I wanted as of yesterday but it would still be an improvement and a real victory. I pushed through the last .2 miles as best as I could, and while my old adrenaline burst never did hit (ah well) it was all over in just 1:44, for a new PR of 57:30.
Phew. Not my most glamorous race, and I didn’t feel strong the way I did after the race last year… but I did it, and it’s done. Now I just need to really start getting out there regularly again (and drop off these extra five pounds that have once more come back to haunt me) and all will be well. I hope!
2005: 315/386 (81st percentile) (30-39 group)
2006: 166/233 (71st percentile) (30-34 group)
Start time: 05/17/06, 6:30pm
Location: W&OD Trail
Distance: 3 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 10:03min/mile
Rain and stop and rain and stop and rain and stop and rain and stop. Yay, weather.