10/16/12 5 miles

my achilles tendon had been hurting since the marathon so i decided to take a full week off to give it a break, even though, i have the nashville ultra coming up. so the last 2 days it had not been hurting, but it was still a little swollen. i hopped on the treadmill, figuring it would be less stress on the tendon to run 6. i could tell it was hurting from the start but it wasn't really painful so i kept on. at mile 2 i had this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, i felt like i hadn't eaten in weeks and was starving, even though i had 20 chicken nuggets on my way home (yes, that was not a typo). finally, at mile 3.5 i had to jump off the treadmill and run to the kitchen and get a snack and a small drink, weirdest thing ever. don't know if my blood sugar was getting low or what. other than that, from mile 2-3 i felt the best i ever have while running, my legs felt strong, my movement felt fluid-like, it was so easy, my tendon even stopped hurting a little. then mile 3-3.5 the hunger was hitting hard and the legs were getting a little tired (i had bumped up the pace from 6.2mph to 6.6 or 6.8, i don't really remember). then about mile 4 i got an emergency call and only got to finish mile 5 of the planned 6. good thing, i got off the treadmill, hopped in the shower real fast and my tendon was swollen as much as it had been right after the marathon, and it was hurting pretty good now. so, i think the ultra is out of the question. i worry i have some micro-tears in the tendon and i am going to give it a long break before running again. the end for tonight, on a sad note.

10/6/12 Southern TN Plunge Marathon

i wasn't sure i was ready for this, i felt good but i also knew i hadn't got a lot of my shorter runs in lately. i got to the race much later than i wanted to. i knew i needed to use the porta potty for #2 before the race, but we got stopped by a train on the way there. it was also raining, windy and pretty cool. i had bought some wet wipes to use in the porta potty. since i did not get to use the porta potty before the race i stuffed my wet wipes between my fuel belt and shirt along with my trash bag poncho. i did not start out too fast to begin with because my fuel belt came undone about 50 feet into the race. i had to run back and get it in traffic, tighten it up while carrying my poncho and wet wipes and put it back on. once again i stuffed my poncho and wet wipes into it. about another 100 yards, my wet wipes fell out and i had to run back against traffic to get them. not starting off good. about mile 2.5 i felt for the wet wipes and they were gone, who knows where. that concerned me about the future pit stop i knew i was going to have to make. i was going to try and make it to mile 8. the marathon/ 1/2 marathon field split around mile 7.5 and there were only porta potties every 2 miles. when i got to mile 8 the porta potty was full, i think all the marathoners had been waiting for that one. i thought i could make it to mile 10. at mile 10 the porta potty was open and i sat my belt and poncho down on the ground and headed in. to save time i took my shot blocks in the porta potty. one note here. i had used shot blocks for my last 3 long runs (the ones with and without caffeine) and they had been pretty easy to get down. however, as i metioned today was cold and the cold had the same effect on these shot blocks as it does syrrup, they were much harder, so the extra time chewing while on the toilet did help a little. the toilet paper was horrible, oh i missed my wet wipes. i got everything taken care of and got some water to finish swallowing the blocks. it still kind of disturbs me that i was eating in a porta potty. anyway, i was back on my way. from miles 9 to 10 my pace went from 10:05 to 10:28 due to the potty break. i felt pretty good, and up until mile 19 i was still running a 10:24 pace. after that it really slowed, except for mile 23 that was a 10:14 mile, i felt good at that point and felt like i had broken through the wall. i was walking on air, i never thought i could feel so free-ee-e, flying away, into the next hill (sorry, i've been watching greatest american hero on the treadmill) where it all got back to feeling like i was actually running a marathon. the other oddity of this race was that my watch was showing i was actually running less mileage than the posted mile markers, by about .15 of a mile, at every mile. when i got to mile 25 i thought i had it whooped. then, my watched beeped for 26 miles and i still hadn't reached the 26 mile marker. then i got to it and it seemed like forever until i got to the end. but i did. in 4:40.28 officially, a pace of 10:42, a PR by 22 minutes. after the race i needed to sit down and found a seat and got some gatorade. then i got really cold and found a little cafe to get some hot chocolate. my legs and feet were sore sore and my achilles tendon was swollen, never had that happen before. oh, by the way, around 1/2 way through it started raining, the wind picked up and i got cold, so from that point on i wore the trash bag poncho, which covered my bib number, which means there are no photos of me officially for the 2nd half of the race. good thing, in the photos they did get, my form looks horrible, both feet on the ground plodding along. they actually sent me a picture of cousin todd because they thought it was me (the official race photographers). thats all i can think of right now.

9/30/12 12 miles

i did not run much in september, but i did get in some long runs and did surprisingly well, for me. this was a 12 mile run on the treadmill, the balls of my feet hurt, that made me worry since i had planned on wearing either this pair of shoes or the shoes that hurt my foot on the 20 mile run, for the marathon. after this run i decided to wear the asics i wore in my last 2 marathons and just hope they had enough juice. this run took me 1:56.51, a 9:44 pace, wow.

Back: 20 on 9/24/2012

i haven't blogged in a while, since before i went to montana, over a month ago. i haven't ran much in that time either, but i have had some memorable runs. i got back from montana on a saturday and the following monday i ran 20 miles, on the road. this was the longest training run i have ever ran, and it wasn't that bad. i had been dreading it, but kept reminding myself of the marathons that i went into unprepared and i knew i had to do this, more mental than physical i think. of course i started out too fast and i ran the course where miles 2.5 to 6 are nearly all uphill with a big hill to reach mile 6. at mile 6, because i was going too fast, i started getting a side pain. i had also decided to skip my usual mile 5 refuel and to do it at mile 6 at the top of the hill. i needed that walk break. from mile 6 to mile 8 was gently rolling hills, side hurt a little, not too bad. mles 8-9.5 was pretty much all downhill, nice and refreshing. the rest of the run had some small ups and downs. at mile 13 my right foot really started hurting just behind the ball of my foot on the outside. it kept getting worse until i finished. one time i even untied my shoe to let it loosen up as much as possible, that helped very little. my final time was 3:25.07 a pace of 10:15, extremely surprising. i tried using some caffeine shot blocks on this run and did not like the taste but i was able to get them down. everything else was pretty unventful.

An Unbelievable 18 miles

this 18 miles was unbelievable for sure. but not because it was so fast or anything like that. it was unbelievable to me because i did it on a treadmill. yes, this is more than double in distance than any previous run on a treadmill for me. it is also my longest completed training run ever. i know running on a treadmill isn't nearly as tough as running on the road, especially with the hills around here. however, i did the entire run at no less than a 2% incline. my walk breaks were scheduled at 5, 10, and 15 miles. the half mile before all of those breaks i raised the incline to 3% along with the 1/2 mile before the finish. so i basically ran 2 miles at a 3% incline and 16 miles at a 2% incline. i kept the pace at 5.9 mph except for the walk breaks and the last mile and a half. the first 2 walk breaks were at 4mph and the last one was at 3mph. however, i was feeling so good, the last mile and a half i ran at 6.5mph. i did have some trouble with the timing since after 1 hour my treadmill only keeps record of the minutes. also, at an hour and a half my treadmill stops and i had to restart it, which i did rather quickly, especially since i wasn't expecting it to quit. i had started the chrono on my watch to time me after the hour mark but i stopped it around mile 10 when i had to switch dvds and i forgot to restart it when i began running again. so, i finished the run somewhere around 3 hours and 9 minutes, maybe a little faster. that is a 10:30 pace. i was pretty excited about that, even though i was on a treadmill. 2 weeks ago i ran 14 at a 10:15 pace and think i could have done a little better, a week before that i ran 15 miles at a 10:31 pace and was pretty surprised. so not too bad. i think i could have ran this one a little faster since i was able to speed up considerably for the last mile and a half, even with a 1% increase in elevation for the last 1/2 mile. oh, the reason i ran this on a treadmill is because we had an 80 chance of rain/thunderstorms all afternoon. it did clear up around 4pm, giving me plenty of time to run during daylight, but i already had in my mind i was running it on a treadmill and i couldn't change my mind. i watched a dvd of some bowhunting shows for the first 10 miles and then a movie called "Unstopable" for the rest. they kept me occupied enough. thought of the day: most of the time things don't go the way i think they should. good thing...i am not that smart.

Aug 29, 7; Aug 31, 5

i am not sure if i blogged about the run 2 nights ago or not. it was pretty uneventful. it was 7 miles on a treadmill, my second longest run on a treadmill that i can remember, i have some new movies borrowed and i bought a few too, so those keep me somewhat entertained. it was my fastest 7 miles i can ever remember, as a matter of fact, it matches my pace to my fastest 5k. 7 miles in 61:47, an 8:50 pace. i do realize it was on a treadmill, but i did have it at a 2% incline. the run really felt good. tonight i could tell my legs were a little tired. i think from not getting enough rest lately and a pretty strenuous run 2 days ago. so i took it pretty easy. i did the 5 miles in 46:35, a 9:20 pace. towards the end of the run it did feel a little hard to keep the pace so i slowed down just a bit. this has been a good month. this month i ran 112 miles, the most miles ever since i have been keeping up with my runs on log your run (since around july 2010). in oct 2010 i did run 109 miles, i did run 97 in june this year, the third most ever. also, i weighed this afternoon. i was at 168.8, the lowest i can remember in a long time as well. but that was before my small dinner and before the run. at that weight, i have lost just over 21 pounds since june. if i can lose 9 more pounds i will have reached my ultimate goal, if i can lose 5 more i will reach my satisfied goal. once again it's late and i am headed to bed.

Aug 28, 6 miles

ok i haven't blogged in a while, but i haven't ran in a while either. i have ran since i blogged last though. running low on sleep, so this is gonna be short. last tuesday 8/21/2012 i ran 6 miles on the treadmill. i was planning on running wednesday, thursday and saturday. however, i left for kansas city, 2 hours late without running. so i skipped that day. the rest of the week i was too busy, too tired, or too full of food to make it happen. so i have pushed my schedule back a week, i don't think it will hurt anything. should still have time to get in an 18 and 20 miler before i leave for montana. we got home yesterday evening and i couldn't get everything done to run. tonight i ran 6 miles in 54:57, a 9:09 pace. peace.

Aug 18, 2012 14 miles

today's run was with Todd and Lee. Lee couldn't get here until 11am so by the time we caught up and got out to run it was around 12:30pm. it was a little hot, not close to what it has been (high was around 83) but most of the run seemed pretty well shaded and we had good cloud cover. the run went pretty well, i was hoping it wouldn't turn out like the last time we all ran together, the mississippi blues marathon. during that run, the other two were supposed to pace me. they did, right into exhaustion. today was a little different, Todd and Lee have not been running like they had in january and i was able to keep up with Todd for the most part (he did walk several times to let me catch him) and unfortunately Lee only did about 7 miles. however, the longer the run went the more i thought i was going to tire out at the end. we ran this run 15 seconds per mile faster (on average) faster than my 15 mile run last week. i knew the pace was a little fast but it didn't feel all that bad until the last mile or two when i was ready to be done. the overall time was 2:23.25, a pace of 10:15, for 14 miles. i was very happy with that and felt really good afterwards. not like my usual fall-out. the odd thing is we ran this run at that fast of a pace for me and it seemed like we talked a good bit during most of the run. once again it is late and i am tired, my thoughts for the day have all escaped me at the present time.

Aug 16, 4 miles

i ran 4 miles with Thom and Todd this morning. i was a little nervous since i ran 8 last night. however, i was not nearly as sore as i thought i would be. we finished the 4 miles (maybe) in 37:13, a pace of 9:18. however, we went by the mile markers on the greenway instead of by my gps. my gps read 3.93 miles, so we were pretty close. overall it was a good run. thought of the day: i am at 299.63 miles for the year and 109 miles ahead of where i was last year. for this month i have 74 miles at about halfway through the month. this should be my highest mile month ever if i can keep it up. if i get all my runs in i should have 173 miles this month. stay tuned.

Aug 11, 13, and 15

got a little behind on blogging this week. i am here to make it up, but it is nearly 10pm and i have to be up at 5:30am to run so this will hopefully be short but somewhat detailed. Aug 11: i ran 15 miles in 2:37.44. this was nearly 3 minutes faster than my 13 miles last weekend. i think the temp made all the difference in the world. last week it was 85 when i started and 91 when i finished. this week it was 80 when i started and 60 when i finished. a couple of other things i did differently to help with the heat were: 1. i did not wear a hat, it seems to make me a lot hotter so i ditched it this run. 2. i wore a little bit looser compression shirt, that seemed to let a little air in but still kept the sweat off but just wasn't really tight and didn't have any neck on it. 3. instead of 48oz of gatorade i had 24oz of water and 24oz of tang (i thought i was mixing gatorade then realized it was tang when it was too late). i don't think the tang necessarily helped more than gatorade, just noting the facts. i also ran in my compression socks, not sure if they helped or not but since this was a pretty good run, i will probably continue to run my long runs in them. i walked twice. once at 5 miles to get a drink and eat a few chews. at mile 10 i had to walk to get a drink and eat some chews but i also had to restart my ipod and that took a little while. i think i could have done it in 10:30 if this had not happened. i felt really good until mile 14 then i got pretty tired and struggled a little, but i still finished respectably, for me. Aug 13: 4 treadmill miles in 39:02, a 9:45 pace. Aug 15: i ran 8 miles tonight. i started at 7:25pm, so most of the run was in the dark, which i do not prefer. i started out too fast, with some miles right around 9 minutes. at first my legs were really tired, then they felt great. during the second half of the run they got tired again, especially when going uphill. i finished in 1:16.49, a pace of 9:45. i have found over the last week or so that the outside of my right knee hurts a little, this is what really hurt me last year. however, after reading the chi running book, that says most pain can be avoided or stopped by correcting form, i have tried correcting my form when i feel the pain by taking straight steps and not pronating. odd, the pain goes away until i forget about maintaining correct form and start over pronating again. i have been able to stop this pain numerous times by doing this. sometimes my knee is a little sore after the run but i think only because i don't stretch and it tightens up. overall i have been very happy with my runs this week. seems like running on the treadmill at a 2% incline does help with my road runs. my right hip still gets a little stiff after some of the runs but goes away before long. i think, again, i could avoid this if i would stretch after runs, but who has time?:) going to bed.

Aug 9, 5 miles

i was going to run outside when i got home from work, but emily said supper was almost ready, so i decided i better eat first and just run on the treadmill. after eating i watched some of the olympics, relaxed a little, and finally hopped on the treadmill about 9:15pm. i did 5 uneventful miles and felt pretty good. my time was 48:11, a pace of 9:38 at a 2% incline. i am about 86 miles ahead of this day last year. hopefully i can keep up the running. thought of the day: sometimes there are so many thoughts it is hard to pick just one.

Aug 8, 7 miles

tonight emily and her friend adrienne wanted to run. they have a 1/2 marathon towards the end of september and i have been giving them a hard time about not running enough. so emily asked if i was going to run with them and i said sure. i was running 7 and they were trying 3 (after i wouldn't let them quit at 2). so i ran with them to give them encouragement as much as i could. the run actually felt pretty good. when emily and adrienne stopped i was right around 3.3 miles (they finished 3). at that point my pace was a little over 11 minute miles. the rest of the run i was under 10 minute miles. overall a pretty good run. i actually finished in about the time i thought i might have finished even if i had not ran with emily and adrienne. i think running when it was a bit cooler really helped me finish stronger than i would have expected. so the final time was 1:16.24, a pace of 10:55. thought of the day: amazing how much better it feels running in cooler temperatures. i actually ran a large part of this run after dark. this 7 mile run felt easier than the first 4 miles of my last 13 mile run. hope the temperatures stay cool at least at night, i might have to become a night runner again.

Aug 6, 6 miles

very late treadmill run. 6 miles,, 59:10, 9:52. goodnight.

Aug 4, 13 miles

i started today with jeff around 7:50am. (we were supposed to start at 7:30 but i was fighting with my hydration bladder and i couldn't get the top all the way on and i spilled gatorade everywhere) we ran together for a little over 6 miles. we ran about a 2.5 mile loop twice (1/2 a mile run from the driveway) and then back to the driveway. since that loop seemed to have a lot of sun and only a little shade i decided to run my 3 mile out and back twice more and then another side road that was about 1/2 a mile one way. luckily, as i was around mile 7 jeff brought me some ice water and i filled my hydration bladder back up and drank some. then i carried that bottle with ice under my left arm (it wouldn't stay strapped to the pack) until i got back to the mailbox then i stashed the bottle and my hat in the mailbox and continued. at mile 11.7 i stopped for one of numerous walk breaks and called emily to pick me up at the end of the driveway with some ice water and a towel. when i got there i had about .3 of a mile left and was trying to finish it, but when i got to 12.85 i felt like i was way too hot and had to completely stop for a minute or so and thought i was about to vomit. i then walked the rest. the ice water emily had was great. i think i drank it too fast and i thought it was coiming back up. when we got to the house emily made me a smoothie that was cold. after about 15 minutes i cooled off and had to get my snuggie on, in which, i fell asleep for a while. overall, i felt pretty good for this run, other than heat. i think it was about 84 when we started and 91 when i finished. i have no idea what the heat index was but it was hot. this 13 miles was 4 minutes slower than my last 13.1 mile run. thought of the day: run earlier and find a spot that is nearly all shaded next time.

Aug 2, 6 miles

i'm really tired. i did 6 miles on the treadmill in 59:29, at a 2% incline for the entire run, a pace of 9:55. i felt pretty good for the whole run. tired now.

Aug 1, 6 miles

last month was a weak month, due to some hip pain, weather, and personal weakness, i only did 53 miles for the month. since this is my elk hunting fitness blog, i figured i should blog about my exercise over the weekend. we had planned on hiking about 30 miles over 3 days. then the trip got shortened to 2 days and due to snakes the first days hike was shortened from 13 miles to 8.5 miles. since day 1 was shortened the hike out on day 2 was shortened from 9.5 miles to 4.5 miles. but this was not an easy hike. much of the trail was walking from rock to rock or boulder to boulder and several steep uphills and many downhills. not to mention my pack weighed around 45 pounds, which i carried the entire distance (except for the food and drink that i ate or drank along the way). it was definitely a great leg workout. monday a friend came into town and instead of running i went out to eat and ate pizza. yesterday i didn't run because of family stuff and i didn't eat well either. today i finally got back on track with eating, taking supplements and running. i ran 6 miles on the treadmill tonight. i finished in 60:12 and the first 4 miles i ran at a 2% incline. mile 5 i ran at a 1% incline and mile 6 i ran at no incline. running at the 2% incline sure made the running a bit tougher, hopefully more like running on the road. thought of the day: every slump has to end at one point.

July 26, 2012; 4

i ran 4 miles tonight, once again on the treadmill. work has been wearing me out this week. the last 2 days i thought i was going to fall asleep before i left work. when i get home i don't feel like running, then i sit around until i make myself get on the treadmill. the heat is also making me happy i got the treadmill for emily (even though she hasn't used it). i know i need to be running on the road, but it is hard to get out there. my maarathon is about 9 weeks away, but 2 of those weeks i will be in montana. the 4 tonight felt pretty good. there was a little pain under the heel of my right foot, which felt like it was due to the new shoes, it started around 2.5 miles and went away around mile 3. otherwise, the shoes feel good, but i haven't worn them on the road yet. i now have 225 miles for the year. that is 70 miles more than the same day last year and 20 miles more than the year before. i haven't calculated how many miles i've done on the treadmill this year, but at least my heart is getting in better shape and i know my legs are getting a little stronger too. right now i am about 8-10 pounds lighter than i was at this time last year. i just hope i can start getting more road miles in and can keep losing weight. thought of the day: i hope it doesn't bother any of my many blog readers that i don't capitalize and sometimes i don't proofread, i am usually just blogging late and in a rush, i have been trying to proofread more lately. but i am not very educated because i can't remember if proofread is one word or two. i think it is 2 because it sure looks funny as one. i always thought capital letters were a waste of time for the most part. i mean, if there is a period, that means one sentence has ended. and if one sentence just ended doesn't that mean another one is now starting? i guess i get capitalization for proper nouns because some of those words are the same as some unproper nouns. and blogger did have spellcheck but i can't find it any more.

July 25, 5 miles

pretty uneventful run tonight. i had a dinner meeting after work tonight and got home around 8:30pm so i was on the treadmill again. i set the pace to 6mph and stayed there the entire time. the run felt pretty easy except towards the end i could tell my legs want to slow down a little, but overall a nice enjoyable run, watching an elk hunting dvd. thought of the day: i think i really need to start stretching and doing some core work outside of running. i usually run and then come inside to the cool house and sit down and tighten up. i think i would run better and keep from getting hurt if i stretched more and i think the core work would help my running as well. this weekend i am going to miss my long run to do some backpacking to try out some new gear and try to get some big hills in with a heavy pack to get ready for montana. we should cover about 27 miles over 3 days with a 40-50 pound pack on my back. i am cutting back on mileage for my long runs since my 15 mile run was a slight failure. so next saturday i plan to do 13 (i was gonna do 12 this weekend). that should still give me two 18 mile runs and a 20 mile run before the marathon and then another 20 mile run before the ultra.

July 23, 5

i have a lot to blog about tonight and it is late and i am very tired. first off, 2 weeks ago i had been doing pretty good getting my scheduled runs in but had missed 1 run each of the previous 3 weeks. this was the week i had to settle for a very slow 12 miles instead of my planned 15 miles on saturday. monday i had too much stuff going and didn't get my run in. tuesday at work my right hip started hurting whenever i put weight on my right leg. tuesday night i thought i would not try to make up monday's run since my legs had been so tired the week before. wednesday the hip was worse. thursday it hurt more. so i did not run wednesday or thursday and by thursday i had decided to just skip the week and give my legs and hip a rest. so no running the entire week. oh, and i had a very bad sunburn on my back all week too. today i got up and weighed myself. i have lost about 11 pounds in the last month or so. then i started work around the house and sweated completely through my shirt and pants. i came back to the house and did a little easier work in the shade, got plenty to drink, and cooled off a little. then went back to work. i decided to go cut some trees down that were over the road. doing that i once again sweated completely through my shirt and pants. i got overheated and on the 4-wheeler ride back to the house i could tell i was way too hot. i came in and drank about 12 oz of water and then a coke and then got into a cool shower. before the shower i weighed myself and despite trying to drink constantly and the food i ate during the day, i had lost 5 pounds, and when i figured that i had drank around 5 pounds of fluid for the day and had eaten one meal. finally, when i cooled off i went outside and did a few more small chores,came back inside and jumped on the treadmill at 9:30 for a 5 mile run. i did this run a little slower than usual just to see how my legs were going to respond and because i had nearly overheated earlier. i did this run in 51:14, a 10:15 pace, in my new brooks trance 10s, the shoes and my legs felt pretty good. ok, im finishing up and going to bed.

July 14, a little late

it had been raining all day but no thunder or lightning. i was trynig to look for a break in the rain, but of course when that happened it got hot. i had planned a route for my 15 mile run that i thought wouldn't be too bad. on the map it looked pretty level. as i began running i realized it looked level because it was a very gradual incline from mile 1.5 to mile 6. in that time i gained nearly 1000 feet in elevation running uphill just about the entire time. when i got to mile 6 i decided to turn around and hit mile 12 at my driveway and then run my usual, flat, 3 mile out and back from the driveway to finish on some flat ground. at mile 8 i had to start walking a lot. this run was either in sunshine and humidity or rainfall. at mile 10.5 i decided i would have to pretty much walk to 12 and quit. i finished the first 5 miles in 52:41. the last 7 miles (which was 1 mile uphill, then 3.5 miles downhill and 1.5 miles pretty level) took me 1:39.07. i think it was a combination of heavy, wet shoes and running so constantly uphill. my legs just felt so tired. i also lost a waterbottle off my belt. i went back to look for it but couldn't find it (of course i went back in the truck). final pace was 12:36. tired tonight and still have to blog one more run.