PLANET3RRY

Today’s run was a practice run of the last 6.5 miles of the Knoxville Marathon in which I am going to be (WAIT, let me go check… 7 Days Out and STILL 4:45 pacer) the pacer for the 4:45 finish group. It has been 3 years since I ran the race and while I usually run on many parts of the Marathon course, I still wanted the practice. Kinda like a Dress-Rehearsal… except, no pace group, no course monitors, no water stations, no crowd support, no course support and bringing DARKNESS and ChAOs… no volunteers.

It felt great, I ran the entire way, non-stop and with ease. I need to see what my pace was, but it was in the 9-10min range. I’ll have 2-3 more runs in this quasi-Taper before the marathon. I did decide on a few things…

1. I am going to record the entire marathon: I’ll use it for an episode of Gravity@1053 and I will use it as my first episode for my, yet untitled, ASD Athletes podcast.
2. I will twitter during the marathon, maybe 3 or 4 times depending on how I can manage it. I am incredibly new at Twitter even though it’s been around forever (in techonology years)… We have a twitter set up for ASD Athletes, so I will use that one. @ASDAthletes
3. I am going to call the phoneline for The Extra Mile podcast and send in a recording while running of my Knoxville Marathon experience. If you are a podcaster and you would like me to call in and leave a comment for you use on your podcast. Please let me know what the number is and I will “put it on the list”. Use the Contact Me in the Top Menu Bar.

Also in the upcoming week, look for the GUESS MY TIME, WIN CRAP contest for the Knoxville Marathon. I will have to change the rules a little (and I can, because I am the supreme universe ruler of the GUESS MY TIME, WIN CRAP contests) since my time SHOULD be 4:45:00 as a result of my Volunteer Position of being a Pacer. I am thinking that we are going to have some sort of “target” or “percent” type contest. I have to think about. I also have to find some crap to give away too… more on that in a day or two.

From my last workout post, I left saying that I was going to Fork of the River to do some trail running. And that’s exactly what I did. I brought along the fledgling map of the area that I have and a Sharpie and went to town. I started on the path that terminates at the parking lot. Had I not gotten lost, I would have finished in this route. FotR is still pretty wild. The single track is very single and alot of the tree hang low, so there’s a lot of dodging.

I first ran up the hill that I named (in honor of Calvin and Hobbes) Pallbearer Peak. It’s a doosy and I am not sure that running down it would be any less stressful. There’s a number of small tracks at the top of the hill and it took me a couple of times to figure out that most of them do connect to each other some how. So of the trails were made around fallen trees…very confusing.

I headed East on the trail until I came to a big junction, I thought that I would take the trail, again up a hill, and map that out. I ended up coming to a road, with a mobile home, and an RV/Camper. I named this hill Red Neck Ascent. Coming down from Red Neck Ascent, I found another trail… and yes, I went on this trail.

This trail had one wild flower and some weird looking Fungi (see above) and there were quite a bit of curves too, so I named it Fungi Curves. I had to double back on a few of these trails to try to get the mapping part right. I am not exactly sure how they are all connected yet, but I think I found part of the trail that I ran on when I got lost.

I was out there for about an hour or so, but really on clocked 30 minutes of running. I’ll go back in a couple of weeks for more mapping and stuff.

Wednesday, I went out to go swim at lunchtime, but all the lanes were taken up. So, I sat down on one of the pool chairs. Man did I feel tired, this breeze feels good, the sun’s just barely coming out-ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ- oh, I must of fallen asleep, wonder what time it is? 12:50! AAAAA

So, I went to go swim at the pool and this is all I got to show for it:

Luckily, I have my own Beauty Consultant in the house, so she had the perfect After-Sun product to make the redness feel better.

Friday, I made my way up to the pool for a Brickin’ Friday Workout… this time a Swim/Run combo. I wasn’t too motivated to workout, I think because I needed more sleep. Plus is was damn hot outside. I only made it 400m in the pool and only 1.1 miles out on the road. I could have ran longer, but I didn’t feel hydrated enough and I didn’t want to over heat.

Sunday, we went to the pool with the kids. I was in the water about 98% of the time. I tried to do laps, but the goggles that I had were giving me problems. So I just swam along with The Elder on my back.

Monday was the start of another workout week. However, some turned up the heat. Typically, here in East Tennessee we don’t start hitting mid 90s until late July or August. But Monday was an inferno… on Speed Day none the less *sigh*. I tried to pace myself better given the heat, but it still got to me. I ran 1/2 mile repeats… the only thing was that I was semi conscious at the end. I feel like I have phlegm that is in my throat but nothing comes up when I hack and cough. Seems like I can’t quite get a full clean breath, but I survived. It could be the last pollen session, which should be over soon.

Today (Tuesday), I’ll be in Chattanooga in the evening for a Trading meeting, so lunchtime was going to be my only workout for the day. Seeing that it was only 80 degrees outside at noon, I thought that I would run 5 miles. I brought my MP3 player to keep my mind off the heat and water to keep me hydrated. I did stop a few times along the run to drink some water, but I was very pleased at my overall time. I even had enough in the tank at the end for a fast finish.

Now it’s off to Chattanooga to talk about what I learned in Utah last month and hopefully get some good stock picks… not that this week hasn’t been pretty good as is.

This is one of those “boring, running posts”, so if boring and running posts bore you, you can move along. If somehow, they do interest you… sad, so let’s get going!

After my trail run from Last Tuesday, I took Wednesday off from running. Could have been that I had a doctor’s appointment at lunch. I really wasn’t sore from the run either, but really, most of the trail was flat and I didn’t go that far (7 miles).

Thursday, I think are going to be my ‘Tempo to Easy’ days. I said it this way, because they should really be Easy days with everything that I have planned out, but let’s face it. I can’t run easy unless I am running with someone else who wants to run easy. If I am the lead, then I will creep into Tempo pace. So, I should really call them Tempo with a chance for Easy pace.

So on Thursday, when my first mile was a 9:24, I was pretty pleased that I was more on the Easy pace. I was off to do 4 miles on my Market Square Fab 4 course. Mile 2 in 9:18 and I was at mile 2.5 when I started to get a call from Nature. Then, it got Urgent (Urgent, Urgent, Urgent, Emergency…) and I went from an Easy run to a walk. Once again, I was stuck with no where to go and and 1.5 miles from the Aquatic Center. It took me 24 minutes to walk waddle back. I think the main catalyst for this was that I started back on my morning smoothie and there is a ridiculous amount of Fiber in the mix I use… and Fiber + Running = speedier process.

Moving along…

Fridays, I have dubbed Brick Days. I thought a funny ‘Frickin’ Brickin” workout name, but thought it was too Frickin’ stoopid. But I think through the summer, I will make Fridays Brick Days. I chose a swim/bike brick for Friday’s workout. I originally wanted to do 800m swim / X mi bike. Meaning that I would just bike as long as time allowed to see where I was. I wasn’t sure how fast I could ride anyway, so this was a feeler sort of ride.

I ended up only swimming 400 meters (9:13) then took a 9:33 min transition. But really this was getting out of the pool and figuring out how to get my goggles and cap into the bottle holder so that it wouldn’t fall out during the ride. Plus a little bit of the time was getting from the aquatic center to the 3rd Creek Greenway. I averaged at 15 mph ride for 6 miles once on the greenwat. I did have to stop a couple of times for traffic, plus some of the hills and just getting tired. So, I was very pleased with the Brick workout.

Saturday and Sunday, I didn’t do anything workout related. There was a window of opportunity to take the kids in the stroller, but I was a little lackluster about going out with the kids in that. I just wasn’t motivated.

Mondays are Speed Days… I had decided that I would again do 800meter repeats, but that didn’t last long. Mentally, I was ready for the day. Physically, the forces of nature were “testing” me. Monday was near 80F and so that warrants running shirtless during the high heat months of summer. It was also the hottest conditions that I have run in since Fall of last year, by 10 degrees. I did wear my heart rate monitor and the output wasn’t helping either. I maxed at 89% of (my overall) Max Heart Rate and it felt very very difficult. My Average heart rate was 146 (78%) but my Speed Intervals weren’t even 5k race pace. They were more like 10k race pace. My performance had dropped off enough at the end of mile 1 that I had to switch to a 400m interval to survive getting back to the Aquatic Center. Oddly enough, mentally I was still into the run. I could tell there was something wrong. I thought back to what Chelle had commented on my Expo post about the allergens and how that might be affecting my horsepower. Plus, the heat… 800s may have been to long in the heat. I’ll probably have to switch to a shorter interval for the summer.

So, I am heading back out to Forks of the River today for a trail run… and I am little better prepared this week! (but that won’t preclude me from doing something stoopid).

This is going to be a week in review for my running. It’ll be short and sweet and riddled with injury and other pain-like experience that I had… some good, some not-so-good.

So join me…

Last Tuesday, in the morning, I had one of my Nature’s Do Not Call Episodes and in the house of all places. However, I was in the kitchen and wasn’t sure that I would make to the bathroom without calling out “Pilot to Bombardier, Pilot to Bombardier, BOMBS AWAY!” So, I am moving quickly, but not too quickly (if you know what I mean). Well, I swing around our sofa in the living room and the Piano bench is out away from the piano and my left pinky toe WHACKS the bench. I wanted to scream but if I had screamed, I would have lost bowel control… that would not be good (but at least I would be in the house and not running somewhere).

So, I am in excruciating pain, but nothing appears to be broken. It’s red and scraped, but I can walk on it. In fact, I get finished sending the kids to the pool that I sorta “forget” about my foot. In fact, I kinda forget enough not even tell My Lovely and Talented Wife about… after all nothing is broken and if it was, what could anyone do?

I skipped running at work that day because it was Terry Day and I figured that I would let whatever damage heal a little before I ran on it. During the day, it wasn’t all that bad. It was sore, but not making me limp. So, I decided to run on it that evening at Lakeshore. I could do a 2.1 mile loop and bail if I needed.

When I took my shoe off in the car at Lakeshore, my toe was swollen. It wasn’t tender and I could more my toe around okay, but I ended up taping the pinky toe with some packaging tape that was in the car. I did run one loop in 20:32 with little to no discomfort. I ended up only running one loop because I was running late and I felt lazy.

and my make shift first aid job

So after the Tuesday run I tried to run over the weekend, but I couldn’t get out of the house. I was trying to aim for a run with the dog at the trail park near my house, but our Au Pair wasn’t working this past weekend, so no such luck and it did give the more time for my foot to heal.

Monday
My foot had healed enough over the weekend, that i felt comfortable attempting some speed work. After all, I have officially dubbed Monday Speedwork day and I wanted to keep that going. It was kind of cold, so I decided to run at the track just in case something did go wrong, I wouldn’t have far to limp.

I chose to do 400 meter repeats with a 200 meter recovery in between. I was about to run a total of 4 intervals with the final being at 1:31 or a 6 minute pace. I can tell you that I was hurting at the end and just trying to will myself to the finish line.

However, last night and today, I was starting to feel the pain from the speed workout. I’m not talking about sore muscles. I am talking about my left ankle being sore, enough to remind me it’s there but not enough to debilitate me. In fact, I ran today at lunch. Today’s run was with a Heart Rate Monitor and it was about the most perfect easy run I have done in a long time. The HRM was really useful to keep me from slipping into my Tempo pace, and thus in essence doing 2 speed days in a row and wearing my myself down and leaving me prone to injury more than what I am I capable of just by breathing.

Today’s 4 miler was done in 38:09 and where I to guess my 10k and 5k time, I would have to say that my 10k time would be near a 54:15 (8:45 pace) and my 5k time would be near 25 minutes. I still have 20 days until the Spring Racing Season’s first 5k Race, the Spring Sprint (you can get information on my left sidebar <—- )

I will make today a 2-fer and run again after work. I would like to do another 4 at a super easy pace. Depending on how it works out I might go on 3rd Creek. If I wasn’t such a slacker and a horrible friend, I would have thought before NOW to ask Soon-To-Be-Dr. David to run with me.

It’s like we both are falling in love again,
It’ll be just like starting over – starting over

JOHN LENNON – (Just Like) Starting Over

Today marked the 3rd day in a row that I was able to run. Wednesday was a 2.98 mile “Welcome Back” run which consisted of a new route going down to James White Parkway. It felt pretty good, but I was really trying not to run fast.

Thursday rolled around and my hamstrings were sore. Apparently it had been to long since I had ran and so my body wasn’t used to all the work. I didn’t run at lunchtime thinking that I would get to run in the afternoon. A change of plans made it so that instead of running when and where I wanted to, I ran a little later and near my house at Concord Park. This was actually a nice change in plans because although Concord Park is a single track root infest rock grabbing rollercoaster of a run, it makes me run slower than my street speed. I decided that I would run for about 1/2 hour or about 3 miles (estimated). I rolled in around 28 minutes and change and was pleased with my efforts. I ran slow and the hills were difficult but I didn’t have to walk up them.

Friday, I had grandiose plans of running somewhere between 4 or 5 miles at lunch. But as soon as started out, I could feel that my hamstrings were not back to normal. I ended up running only 2 miles at around a 9:30 pace. My Hamstrings are still sore and I imagine that they will be slightly sore for a while. I’m having to start over in my conditioning now… I don’t want to even think of what my 5k time would be right now.

I need to sit down and figure out what day is going to be what for my lunchtime and Terry day running schedule. Soon the days will be long enough that I can get some distance in them and perhaps even ride my bike some. I dunno.

I wasn’t all that motivated to workout today. What seemed the best idea was to just stay under the hot water in the shower for an hour and knowing that it was someone else’s hot water. Somewhere in my brain something said that it would be better for me to run today and to shrivel up like a prune in the locker room.

My race week is a little off because my race is on Sunday afternoon, which means that no speed work on Friday instead of Thursday. It also means that I need to do a tune up run on Saturday instead of Friday, but since I don’t have the opportunity to run on Saturday, I have to run on Friday, but it’s not a speed day!

Well, I’ll work that out when Friday and Saturday comes around. What I needed to think about was what to run Today. I thought that an Easy Run would be in order since 1) I wasn’t all that motivate to run and 2)I had an excellent Speed session yesterday. I thought with those two factors that I could resist from my Tempo Tendencies where I turn every planned run into a Tempo Workout.

Not only was I not really motivated to run, I wasn’t all that motivated to run on any of the courses that I run on a normal basis. So that meant, branch out and try something new. I thought that I would run the first mile on a course that I was familiar with so that I could check my pace and make sure that I wasn’t creeping into that Tempo groove.

The first mile was 9:11 and although it was about the same as my marathon pace, it felt pretty easy. I was able to look around while running and see all the great sights. Eh, not that many great ones today. So, after the 1 mile mark, I decided to explore down in World’s Fair Park where I could map out another simple route that would be easy to remember the mile markers for future runnings.

Not to bore you will all the intricate details of my ever so exciting easy run. I ended up running 3.12 miles at an 9:07 average pace. I still finished with enough time to get in a 10 minute nice hot shower. So, the day wasn’t lost. Actually, my legs were a little sore from yesterday’s speed workout, so it was a good thing that I ran easy today. I’m thinking that I’ll just run tomorrow with Soon-To-Be-Dr. David after work as not to tire myself out too much before the race.

I was not motivated to run today, which is surprising since I hadn’t run since Thursday. I figured the 3 full days of not running would be enough to get me running at lunchtime. But it wasn’t there. I seriously thought that I could just sit at my desk and do just about anything other than run.

But I didn’t, I figured that if I could just lace up the shoes and head out I would feel better. And so I did. Well, at least the lacing up the shoes part.

I ran my Fave route with the optional TVA Tower extension to make it 4.32 miles and I just wasn’t feeling it. I did not have the twinkle in my eye or the skip in my step. It was nice to see what my training has gotten me, because even though I wasn’t in the groove today, I still cranked out a 8:55 average pace for the course.

So, now I am contemplating if I should race this weekend. Technically, I am not signed up for it, but if I am not it the groove this week, it might be a waste to drive down to Georgia. Then again, this might just be a temporary lull in my workout and I could have a great day tomorrow. I had planned to run, Mon & Tues, then I would find out if I was good for the weekend and then just run Friday, a pre-race day warmup.

In other not-so-Not-There news, I have been in a lull in responding to comments, both on my blog and on your blog as well. I see a post and there’s nothing that comes to mind when I want to respond. Not my normal funny, off the wall comment, I just sit there struggle to say something then move along, not even leaving a footprint that I was there.

And when I do leave a comment, I feel like it may be inappropriate or lacking substance. Hopefully, this is just temporary, because as I am becoming stuck for writing comments, it’s starting to move over into writing posts as well.

It has been a busy week of running for me. I was able to run 4 out of the 5 lunch day runs, which usually is just 3, so that was pretty nice.

Monday
I only had one rest day from my 20 miler and took Monday as an easy run day. However, my 9:07 average pace was not something I would consider easy. It felt easy enough but I was really thinking that 9:45 would be a lot easier.

Tuesday
Rest Day.

Wednesday
I could tell from the start that this was going to be a speedy day. My legs weren’t sore anymore from the 20 miler and I went out with a fury. Although the fury didn’t last very long my 8:01 average pace over the 4 mile course was enough to please the inner speed demon

Thursday
I was hoping to get around 13 miles in for the day. Soon-To-Be-Doctor David had to cancel on me and other things came up so I didn’t run after work. I was able to get in a 5 mile Tempo session (8:17 average pace). I wasn’t happy with the speed. Let me clarify, I was happy with the numbers, but I was not happy that I ran that fast. I came off a long run the Saturday before and now my body thinks that it can runs these excessive speeds everyday. That only leads to one thing my friends, injury.

Friday
Not too sure if I was going to get any longer distances for the week and so I was eyeing my 5 mile course. However, I didn’t give myself enough time and had to settle for my 4.32 mile course. I did try to slow down this run. After my sub-9 (8:52) first mile, I tried to slow down and that worked, kind of. I had an 9:03 average pace for the run, still not slow enough.

I do need to decide on whether to commit to November or December marathon or just not run one this fall. I have a feeling that I am more of a Fall Marathon kind of guy. Actually I am an Anytime Marathon kind of guy. I would run any and all marathons I could get to the starting line regardless of time. Now that I know how to survive a marathon with little to no training (but with an okay running base, ref: 2002 Mardi Gras Marathon), I would run them if could be there. However, I think that the weather/sickness variables are more in my favor in the fall and that if I try to train for a marathon in early spring (such as March/April) that I set myself up (but not guarantee) getting sick.

So now… I have to sit down and give a little think about what to run.

I have been running celibate for 2 weeks now, until today's indulgence into a 5 mile scamper with Beer Boy. It is amazing how not running for two weeks and then going out at a modest 9:48 pace for the first mile can really affect you. My shoulders were tight and my knees ached, but I knew it was more of my body being lazy than anything else.

Marty was kind enough to help me through the run and we paced off each other, although there were plenty of times that I was struggling to keep his pace. We did run at a pace that we could have a pleasant conversation and were able to catch up on a couple of week's activities of our family.

The weather was cold but not bone chilling. I still wore a LS coolmax shirt, Cotton shirt, hat and gloves. I didn't wear tights, but I did have compression shorts on under my Umbros. Marty got some comments on his tights encased lower section. There were 3 women and a man and at least two of the women made comments to each other at a level that I could hear. I told Marty that they liked he had some fans, he said they were commenting on my legs. I dunno, there is something about those black running tights that make all the right curves the right size.

I didn't have any problem with congestion or anything sickness related. It sucked that I was out of shape to some degree. I had been near optimum running shape just 2 weeks ago, but now I am fighting not to pork out on the delicious candies that are hear at work. The number of calories that I am consuming pale in comparison to those that I expend during the day. This will make Terry a “chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf”.

So, I am not sure when I will run again. I am hoping that it will be Saturday or perhaps Friday, I can get a couple of miles in after work, if we get off work early, although with our company, I will have to make sure that all the cleaning is done, all through the house. I don't want to be on the naughty list quite yet.

Here are the splits for today's run

Well, not quite, but I am a little run down. With the race this past Sunday, giving blood on monday, and being tired. I think I am a little worn down. I have had a small case of the sniffles here and there, but nothing worth writing about.

My side is better. I talked with Gray (like the color) about what might have happened. He thinks that it may be more like a ligament or tendon (whatever are there) strain and not my diaphragm. So basically ice and NSAIDs to keep the pain down and for it to heal. Also, take it easy.

I'll have to go back but I think I had the pain while swimming one day last month. It was very sharp pain near where it hurts now. I did run at lunch today, but it was a very relaxed 2 mile run on the track while listening to some Endurance Radio podcasts.

I don't have an appetite and I am sleepy… oh sickness demons… BE GONE!