tired, late

it is really late and i went to bed late last night, got up early this morning and have been running around tired all day (other than being a little wired right now 7-8 hours after drinking a full throttle).

i did the strength and core work-out again today. a little better than the other night, i also stretched afterwards. hope i am not as sore tomorrow as i have been the last 2 days.

good night.

New Shoes

i woke up this morning a tad sore from the work-out yesterday. it didn't seem that hard but all the lunges got to my legs. i think it is good that i am finally doing something in the work-out other than running, i'll just have to be sore for a little while. so i stretched this morning before we left the room and this afternoon before i went to run and after the run. i did buy some new shoes today. they are last years version and were on sale, saucony pro-grid omni 8s. so i tried them out on the treadmill this afternoon to make sure they were going to fit right. they do seem wider than my under armour shoes. however, for the last little bit i felt like i was running on the inside right sole. i think i might be able to wear the right under armour shoe and left saucony and be fine.

anyway, i did 6 miles on the treadmill. i was running a little late so i didn't bother with the heart rate monitor again. i got on a different treadmill today to be more in front of the tv so i could look straight ahead. it was better, but the treadmill wasn't as good. it didn't show the route (when a hill was coming up etc) and it put in more hills at greater inclines for longer periods of time, i quickly went down a few levels, but still did the hill work-out. i really don't like running on a treadmill but it will have to do this week. around mile 4 i was feeling really good, i think finally figuring out how to run on a treadmill and i sped up for a little while. the treadmill would only do a 60 minute work-out so i had to stop and get on another machine (i couldn't get it out of the slow down mode) and finish. i did finish the last 6 and 1.2 minutes at a 6mph pace, a faster pace than any of the first 60 minutes.

when i was done, i came back to the room, stretched, took a shower and we went to eat. sitting for 20 minutes in the car got me a little tight, then we walked a little to the restaurant and sat for another 45 minutes. then i was really tight, walked back to the car and sat for another 20 minutes back to the hotel. i could barely walk back to the room. i feel better now, but i am not sure what is going to happen when i get in bed. could be really sore in the morning. oh well. tomorrow is another weight/core day on the new schedule.

thought of the day: when you are on vacation and plan on running, take your own, soft toilet paper. the mixture of running/sweating and the g.i. issues with all the different, new foods; plus cheap toilet paper makes one dread walking and using the bathroom.

Vacation, new program, and treadmills

being on vacation, i wasn't sure if i would get any runs in. i made it a point to get in a 4 mile run on saturday before we left. it was in the high 80s and the sun was killing me. much hotter than any runs i have done in a long time. at the half way point i was glad i had my cell phone because i thought i was going to have to call emily. i made it, however, and was burning up and sweating. i drank 2 gatorades as soon as i got in the house. here are my splits and heart rates:

.5= 5.09 141
1.0= 10.16 5.07 159
1.5= 15.19 5.03 164
2.0= 20.40 5.21 167 (here is where it starts getting hot and slow)
2.5= 26.05 5.24 164
3.0= 31.40 5.34 166
3.5= 37.30 5.49 166
4.0= 43.24 5.54 169

considering i wasn't sure i was gonna make it, i am happy to just have finished.

sunday i was taking as a rest day. luckily our hotel has a treadmill since i am not familiar with the area and we have spent most of our driving time lost. on our way here we stopped in knoxville and i went to gander mountain and they had a marathon training book on clearance. i thought it would be good to have to read. i am glad i bought it. the author makes a lot of sense and i think i am gonna try one of the schedules he has in his book. it is pretty similar for the most part to the schedule i was on so i can pick up in the middle.

anyway, after the beach on monday i was able to come back to the hotel and do 4 miles on the treadmill. i picked the hill work-out since treadmill running is not as hard as road running. it starts out level for a minute then incline for a minute then level for a minute and so on. the inclines gradually increase until you get to a 5% incline then they start back over at the smaller inclines. i did that workout for 4 miles (roughly) and it took me roughly 43 minutes to complete. i am not sure exactly because once i was wiping my sweat with a towel and hit the emergency stop switch and i am not sure where i was. i know i was over 10 minutes into it and over a mile distance, but that is all i am sure of. i didn't take splits or heart rates.

my new schedule had some basic weight training and core work-outs instead of no work-outs at all on days i haven't been running. so today i did the weights and core work-outs. together they do not take all that long, maybe 45 minutes. and you don't really use weights, just your body weight.

tomorrow i have a 6 mile run scheduled. i guess i will do the same hill work-out on the treadmill. i find it hard to run on a treadmill because i like to look at scenery and what is going on around me. in the training room there is only 1 tv to focus my attention on, and it is to the right, so i have to be careful to stay on the treadmill. the positive aspect was that i was running beside a man who was going 8.4 miles per hour and i kept up with him the entire time, he just couldn't pull ahead.

thought of the day: whenever you go to a new place, get a good map and know how to use it. do not depend on new technology to be able to guide you around. our gps seems to be off a little. emily is getting really good at turning around in tight spots.

Does Anybody Out There Even Care

finally, i got another run in this week. i went ahead and did the 6 miles i was supposed to do on wednesday. i wore some reflective slap bracelets/anklets that emily had bought for me since i was starting the run after 8pm. they wore horrible blisters across the back of my achilles tendons. ouch. but when i was running i couldn't make myself stop to take them off. my calves were pretty sore, the hills really got me, not that there are any big hills, just long ones. by the time i get to the top of one of the hills i feel like i am barely moving, then speed up a little until the next hill. around mile 3.5 the wind started blowing and it felt good. but it didn't stop, luckily it was at my back until i turned around at mile 4, then it was in my face, the gusts had to be at least 25 miles an hour. there was also a very dark cloud just over me, i was pretty worried. i thought i was going to have to stop at a house and call emily to come get me. however, there was no lightning, and all the houses where i was were Amish. wondered if they had phones at all. i kept running and knew there were houses that weren't Amish that probably had phones where i would hit 4.5-5 miles. i kept running and the wind kept getting stronger, i was hoping emily would just come pick me up. finally, as i got to the 6 mile mark it started sprinkling a little and i saw emily coming in my truck. i took the slap anklets off and could tell i had some bad blisters. anyway, here are my .5 mile split times and heart rates:

.5= 4.52 145
1.0= 9.56 5.03 162
1.5= 15.17 5.21 163
2.0= 20.35 5.17 165
2.5= 26.00 5.24 164
3.0= 31.24 5.24 167
3.5= 36.49 5.24 165
4.0= 42.18 5.28 170
4.5= 47.43 5.24 168
5.0= 53.18 5.35 164
5.5= 58.54 5.35 164
6.0= 64.15 5.21 166

that gives me a 10:42 min/mile pace. not too bad, i thought i might be a little faster since i had so much rest. i think i need to start stretching again before my runs to get my calves and legs warmed up.

hopefully i can get a 4 mile run in tomorrow before we leave on vacation and be able to run a little while we are gone and then pick up when we get back.

thought of the day: this is a quote from one of the songs on the ipod i use. it is a song by Lenny Kravitz "does anybody know how many lives we've lost, does anybody ever count the cost, what will it take for us to join in peace my fiends, does anybody out there even care." and you probably thought the title of this post was directed at my blog :). i often feel like people don't care about the things that seem important to me. i guess i may not care that much about things that are important to others. i guess what is important is that we care about something . just make sure it is truly important. but as the song says, we should all be working towards peace with others, if we all focused on caring about love we could accomplish lots.

Uh Oh, 4 miles, all week?

well, i have not done very well this week. i got my run in on monday, but that has been it. yesterday when i got home i just felt really tired, not that i did much physically during the day, i just felt tired. i think i went to bed too late the night before. feeling so tired and the temperature so hot, it was pretty easy to just put off the run. the bad thing is i was going to have to squeeze some runs in to stay on track since we are leaving on vacation saturday afternoon. i thought about running this morning but i had a 7am meeting across town and new i would have to get up really early to get 6 miles in. then i knew i was going to run this afternoon. however, i got home and it looked like thunderstorms and the sky turned a very odd color, i thought it best not to chance it. so i am not sure what i am going to do. i am going to try to go to bed early and run in the morning, 6 miles. maybe i can get up and run 4 on Saturday and get somewhat back on track. no thought of the day today, other than i have to get my butt up in the morning and run!

4 On The Slow Side

i got to volunteer for about 5 hours at a youth hunting camp in buchanan, tn today. it was pretty good. the kids shot 22s, did some of the ropes course, shot bows, and played a few games in the pond (picking up duck decoys from a canoe, decoy long toss, etc.). then i came home and relaxed for a little and ate while i got pumped up for my run.

i did the scheduled 4 miles. once again i waited until it was near sundown to run. it did seem a little cooler, probably because it wasn't as humid, i guess. my breathing was a little easier this evening too. however, my calves were a little sore so my running wasn't very fast. here are my .5 mile splits and heart rates:

.5= 4.54 149
1.0= 10.05 5.10 164
1.5= 15.15 5.10 167
2.0= 20.44 5.28 169
2.5= 26.12 5.28 169
3.0= 31.40 5.28 167
3.5= 36.51 5.10 168
4.0= 42.04 5.13 171

i thought it was pretty amazing how all of my .5 mile splits were either 5.10 or 5.28 except my first and last and the last was only 3 seconds off 5.10. that gives me a pace of right at 10:31min/mile. that's not too bad i don't guess. i just wish it would cool down a little so i could breath better and run faster. however, for now i am just happy to be finishing.

thought of the day: "The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it."– John Ruskin i think this is the reason i am trying to run a marathon, not for the simple fact to be able to say that i have run a marathon, but so i can become a stronger, healthier person and be a much better elk/turkey hunter. i think everyone should choose something in life that will challenge them to be a better person in some way. i think running makes me a better person in many ways. it makes me stronger physically and spiritually, knowing that i have to rely on something stronger than myself to get me through my runs (i really wasn't born a runner).

First Races in 20 Years (or close to it)

today i ran my first 2 races in about 20 years, and my first race over a 5k ever. for the first mile my stomach was in knots. i am not sure why, but i was so nervous. maybe it was not knowing the course or the competition of the race. i knew i could do the 6.2 miles, i think i was just worried that there might be too many hills, or i would get too hot or something else would go wrong. this was the longest i had run during daylight in a long time. the weather was kind of cool to start, it was cloudy and actually thundering a little with just a sprinkle here and there. i did one big no no. i put different insoles in my shoes before the race. insoles that i use in my work boots and are very comfortable and supportive. however, the heel cushion was a little too much. i wasn't looking at this as a race but more of a training run, so i thought it would be fine to switch something around, wish i hadn't. i have a hot spot on my left heel that is still hurting me a little to walk nearly 12 hours after the race. my heel did finally quit hurting during the race at about the 5 mile mark. i finished in pretty good time, i was hoping to keep it under 11 miles per minute and really gonna try for 10:30 minute miles. i finished right at 10 minute miles. luckily i found a woman who's pace was where i could keep up and followed her to the 1/2 way point where she slowed to get a drink. i knew she was a client but didn't think she recognized me. as she slowed down i was going around her and she said "aren't you dr. sykes?" so for about the next 1/4 mile she wanted to talk. i am not good at talking and running. she didn't have a watch and asked me for the race time. at mile 5, after keeping back for a little, i ran back up to her, gave her an update on the race time and then went ahead and finished a little ahead of her.

for the 5k i dried off, got a little water and switched shirts, socks and shoes. i knew i was going to keep this at a little slower pace. i finished it right at a 10:24 min/mile pace. i was happy with that. the rough part of the race was at the end, i had heard some footsteps coming behind me for a while and i was content at finishing at my pace. however, as the footsteps got a few feet away my competitive spirit took over and i could hear people cheering (i think they were wanting to see the other runner pass me for a race at the end, or that is what my mind told me) so i broke out into a full-out sprint to the finish. the 5k was much hotter than the 10k. the sun was out and there didn't seem to be any shade. i got really hot at the end but cooled off pretty quick. i knew i needed to eat since i hadn't eaten much all day. i went into the registration area and got a few orange slices and some fruit chews. i had a cooler with some dr. peppers and drank one of them.

then i went into work and did a c-section. i think i should have drank more before the c-section because during it (it took about 1.5 hours) i started getting a bad headache. that headache has just gone away. i tried to take a nap, since i only got about 5 hours of sleep last night, but it was like i couldn't cool off. i did nap for about 30 min though. i got up and ate some food, started drinking as much as i could then took a cool shower. i feel much better now.

thoughts of the day: after a hot run, cool off fast and get plenty of fluids, don't try new insoles for a race, even if you don't plan on running that hard. even if you think you are not trying to do beat people in a race, you will try with everything you have at the finish, after all, it is the end of the race and it will all be over soon.