Tired legs

I think today I hit a wall.  I had planned to run 5 or 6 miles with my friend Jamie today.  However, strong weather changed our plan, and I ended up doing a neighborhood run by myself this afternoon.

I figured a nice 4 miles would be an easy run for today.  2.5 miles in, however, I hit my first wall of this training.  My legs felt like they had 10 pound weights on them and I was running in mud.  I finished 3.7 miles in 39 minutes.  A disheartening run, to say the least.

I remember days like this from my previous training.  I equate it to a major league pitcher going through a "dead arm" period.  Young pitchers aren't used to pitching as many innings as they do in the majors, and near the end of the season their arm is just too fatigued to be effective.

Hopefully this is just an isolated event, but I fear I may need to shut it down for a few days.  My 3 mile run tomorrow hopefully will be a better one. 

-Doc

Catch up!

Wow, two blog posts in and I'm already slacking big time... 2 weeks since last post, for shame!  A lot has happened since last post, so allow me to catch you up to speed.

At the end of my last post I was trying to decide whether or not to run an impromptu 5k, and ultimately I decided there was no reason not to.  I highly recommend that anyone who wants to run or walk a 5k, to check out Karen for a Kause in St. Charles.  It was very well put together, and had a great turn out.  I met up with my old vintage base ball buddy Flash (http://www.runningteamflash/) and his wife.  They are both avid runners, running this 5k after running a marathon the weekend before (Kathy did the half).  Performance wise was less than ideal - I finished just under 30 minutes.  I think I started too quickly and was tired even before the 1 mile mark (never a good sign when you see the one mile mark and say out loud, "Its only been one mile?!?")  Ultimately I found my stride, and it turned out a decent run.

Kathy, Flash, and I

Since then, my running has continued in a somewhat maintainance phase.  Typically between 3 and 4 miles 4 times per week.  I've started encorporating long runs on the weekend, and my first 5 mile run went great.

Last week Susan and I took the train up to Chicago and had a mini-vacation (2 days) before we helped our friends Brian and Melanie move back to St. Louis.  We walked/ran around a good portion of Chicago and had a great time.  Then I had to carry boxes down 3 flights of stairs about 100 times.  That was not so fun.  Note to self: when your legs are so tired and sore that you can barely move them, don't try to run 5 miles.  Ouch.

Other than that, same old, same old.  I had gotten my hopes up to run the Chicago half-marathon in September as a training run for my full, but it is already full.  Susan and I were invited to join a group running the bourbon chase, an overnight 100 mile run split between 12 team members. (http://kybourbontrail.com/index.php/events/2011_bourbon_chase/) Sounds fun, so we may set some time aside for that.  Mistake?  Probably.

-Doc

Running Helpers

First, a quick mind blowing fact.  The current world record time for a marathon (men's division) is 2:03:59 (Berlin Marathon 2008).  That is 25 minutes better than my PR for a HALF marathon.  That is averaging about 4:44 per mile for 26.2 miles.  (Expletive deleted)!

And now, to further blow your mind with cuteness.

Now, the brainwashing can begin...

When you think of running, the list of things you need seems simple.  Shoes (recommended), clothes (optional?), ground (otherwise, you'd be flying).  However, there are a few additional items you can bring along to enhance your training.  I've only used a few (I'm a newb, remember), thus my ability to comment is limited.  So sue me.

Previously I've used (and Susan still uses) a product called Nike+iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/nike/).  At first, this fairly inexpensive device seems eloquently simple and useful.  In all nike running shoes there is a hidden compartment where you can place a sensor.  This sensor recognizes when either a running stride or a walking step is taken.  You calibrate it for your stride, and it transmit data to your iPod to track distance, time, etc.  Brilliant, right?  Maybe for some people it is.  I call those people freaks.  And I judge them.  I'm judging them right now.

The problem with this product for me is a simple one: not all strides are equal.  They should be, sure.  The perfect runner stays at an even pace with every stride of equal distance with an ever constant pace.  My stride starts great, but as my out-of-shape lumbering body tires I pathetically try to get my legs to continue on and my stride changes.  Long story short - the distance was never accurate.  Susan and I would calibrate each of ours, then run and by the end I would be about a mile ahead of her for the long runs.

After ditching that device, I went even more high-tech: my smart phone.  Got to love android apps.  Running?  There's an app for that!  I currently use RunKeeper (www.runkeeper.com) (much to the chagrin many of my facebook friends), and I love it.  This application uses your phone's GPS to track your distance, time, pace - and then uploads it to your facebook and twitter status as well as the runkeeper website itself to keep track of your personal records.  Pretty darned good.

Ultimately, I think I may break down and by a Garmin running watch (https://buy.garmin.com/shop/shop.do?cID=142).  This is because I don't think my phone's battery will last during my long runs.  We will just have to see as my distance increases.  If anyone knows of any other items they use when running, let me know.  I love gadgets.

As far as training, I'm itching to get into my training program.  Still have a few more weeks, though, so I've just been running 3-4 miles 4-5 times per week.  Likely to increase it to 3-5 miles.  My pace has noticeably increased from when I started back running.  I used to average 11 minutes per mile on only 2 miles, now I can average under 10 minutes a mile on my 3 mile runs.  I may enter a 5k this weekend, still have about an hour to decide for sure... we'll see.

-Doc