23 Days

it has been 23 days since my last run, the mississippi blues marathon. i was taking off 3 weeks to rest my knee. i guess i still have not really blogged about the marathon either. the marathon started off pretty good. we were ablr to walk to the start/finish line from the hotel room. i was feeling pretty good, a little worried about the knee. we started and it seemed like a decent downhill and then a lonh uphill, it seemed like the entire race was up and down. lee, todd, and i started out and they were pacing me. they were supposed to help me get under 5 hours. however, i think they messed up their paces and were trying to get me under 4 hours. i know around mile 9 we were around a 4:20 pace and i was feeling pretty good but could tell at that pace the hills kept getting harder and taking a toll. around mile 16 i was spent. i spent lots of time walking after that, especially after mile 19. my knee started hurting around mile 19, not long after that the bottoms of my feet started hurting very bad, it was killing me to even walk. lee and todd kept trying to get me to speed up and run a little, i just couldn't do it. then we saw the finish line and i knew we were still too far away to run, even with all of the insults lee and todd were throwing at me. finally, we got to the spot where i thought i could finish strong and maybe even pass a runner or two ahead of me. i started running and it actually felt good, my legs felt better running and stretching than walking. i actually begain running at a pretty good pace, for maybe 75 yards, and then all of the pain and aches came back and the last 20-30 yards was a rapid decline in pace to the finish line. after the marathon i was checked by a dr. at the aid station and he said i likely had bursitis in the left knee, rest, ibuprofen, and ice were the recommended treatment.

so, 23 days later, i headed out for my next run. i was going to do 3 miles to take it slow for a week or two and make sure my knee was up to it. so i did 3 miles in 29.04. i still haven't quite figured my new gps out so i don't have the splits. i felt pretty good, not as easy as i had hoped, but i guess 3 weeks of inactivity (except laying laminate floors in the house) made it a little harder.

thought of the day: duck season closed yesterday and i had only gone duck hunting a total of 3 days. i went deer hunting a little more than that but i think i can truly say i ran more than i hunted this year. and there really isn't any season open until april. for the last several years i have taken about 2 trips each fall to hunt. the only extended trip i took this fall was to run a marathon. we'll see how that keeps up.

Long Time No Post...or anything else

when i looked at my blog a few seconds ago i realized i had not blogged my last couple of runs before the marathon, i am pretty sure i have an 8 mile run that i didn't blog and i never blogged about the marathon. i have been supre busy since the marathon, trying to finish my house and decided to take a little break since my need had been bothering me. i will get back to those blogs in a few days i hope but i just looked up the info from the marathon and wanted to post it so i would have it for future reference. so here are my results.

606/742 overall, 58/59 in my age group, 421 out of all males (not sure how many total males) and here are some splits but i don't remember where and don't have time to figure it out right now. 49:19 1:39:31 2:34:37 3:45:42 5:31:15 total time for a 12:39 pace. to say the least i think we (Lee, Todd and myself) started out too fast for me and i couldn't keep the pace up and i bunked. but, honey badger don't care, there will be more marathons for me to win (God willing). i will blog about all this in more detail one day.

End of Layoff

i had not ran in over a week due to knee problems, calf soreness, and lack of time due to the holiday schedule. i really wanted to get one longer run in before my next marathon, and knew if i was going to get it in it had to be today. i had been feeling sick over the weekend, but was feeling much better today. i woke up a little later than i wanted to, but i really needed the rest anyway. and it took me so long to get everything together, i haven't ran a long run in some time so all of my stuff was scattered. i did get a new gps watch for Christmas so i was excited to try it out. i wanted to be running by 11 or 11:30am. unfortunately, it was just before 1pm before i got on the road. the only thing i had eaten all day was a butterfinger santa clause. i was hoping not having much on my stomach woeld help with the upset stomach i get from eating the energy chews i use. however, just before mile 10 (i ate some chews at mile 5 and was going to eat some more at mile 10) my stomach was telling me it was hungry. i wish i had eaten a little more. on the positive side, i took 5 chews at mile 5 and 5 more at mile 10 and never got an upset stomach, that is a huge plus. i took 20oz of gatorade and 10oz of water with me. i never got thirsty enough to drink the gatorade, and i only drank the water with the chews.i think not having the sugar from the gatorade on my stomach also helped me to not have any stomach aches after the chews. my left knee hurt for most of the run after mile 5, it was just a dull pain i was able to run through. my right calf really started hurting around mile 8 for the remainder of the run, i was able to run through that as well. overall, i felt pretty good for the run until 13.5 miles when i fizzled a little. my time for the run was 2:33.44, a pace of 10.59min/mile overall. that is pretty good, i was trying to run at an 11min/mile pace. when i stopped running, my left knee felt like it locked up. it is still sore about 5 hours after the run, my right calf is still a little tight as well. luckily, i am starting my taper for the next marathon so hopefully that will help with the knee and calf.

i really have no thoughts for today.

5 milers and knee pain

i was not able to run on monday, however, i was blessed to be able to leave work a little early on tuesday so that i could run before i had to be on call. about the last half mile of that run my left knee started having a little pain. i was able to run with it to finish the 5 miles but it did hurt for most of the night following. wednesday i never had a problem out of the knee. i was planning on doing 8 miles wednesday and 5 on thursday. because i had the knee pain, i decided to rest on wednesday (and besides i had a Christmas party with a bunch of wild people from my family). so no running on wednesday. thursday i was going to try another 5. i thought about doing 8 since i had missed my 8 miler. during the run i was feeling great at mile 3 i had decided to go ahead and run 8 since i was feeling so good. however, just after mile 3.5 i had a severe, sharp pain on the outside of my left knee, it was so bad i could not run through it and i had to walk nearly all of the remainding 1.5 miles. so i planned to rest on friday and maybe try some work on the elliptical saturday (today).

here are the times for the 2 runs:
12/13/11: 5 miles 47.30
12/15/11: 5 miles 52.21


thought of the day: pain pain go away, let me run another day.

First 5 miler After Race

i was not able to do any runs last week. i wanted to get a few in towards the end of the week to see how my legs would respond after the race. i made myself do it on saturday. i was planning on 5 real easy miles at a very comfortable pace. i texted jeff to see if he wanted to run and he decided to go with me. i figured i would be running around 10 min. miles. however, as usual, having jeff there pushed me a little, even though i tried my hardest not to let it. we did 5 miles in a 9.32 pace. i felt really good at the end, legs were a little sore at times, but not bad.

thought of the day: technology is supposed to make us faster and more efficient. it makes me mad pretty fast.

Marathon #2

it has been nearly a week since i ran my second marathon and i am just getting time to blog about it. it went a little better than i expected but not as well as i had hoped. i was hoping to finish it in 4:30 but would be extremely happy to finish in 4:43, 1 hour faster than last year. if i just beat my time from last year i would be happy but i was worried it might not happen.

i started out with the 4:40 pace group thinking if i finished a little behind them i would still finish an hour ahead of last year. i was really trying to stay with the pace team and keep it slow. i really enjoyed the first part of the race. by going slow i could look at the sites and really see what was going on around me. this was the first time i really enjoyed a run. at mile 13 i was feeling strong, my legs felt powerful, i want to start running harder, however i knew i had to stay at my pace or i would be worn out before the end. mile 14 and 15 were good, i was still right on pace to finish at 4:40. at mile 16 i started getting a pain in my side. i slowed down and ran with it as long as i could, but i eventually had to stop and walk a little. after a while the i was able to run again but not for long. this went on until mile 18. at that point i had to stop and walk and it was the first time my legs really felt tired. my entire body felt tired my legs were too heavy. i hit the wall. from mile 18 to the end it was a mixture of walking and running. towards the end i figured i could still keep my time under 5 hours. when i hit mile 25 i started running and felt pretty good. that didn't last long but i pushed until i just couldn't lift my legs anymore. about 1/2 mile to the end i could see the final uphill turn so i started running again. the uphill turn is at 25.9 miles. at that point i started walking to the top of the hill which was about 60 yards. from the point the rest of the race was downhill so i started running again. i finished in 5:02.24. it would have been great to finish under 5 hours but i really feel like i pushed myself every chance i could.

i finished 183 in my age group, 1018th male, and 1686 overall. overall, i beat 678 people.

thought of marathon day: you only regret the runs you don't do and you regret the runs not done most during the marathon, and mostly at the end of the marathon and the days following.

Windy and Rainy

5 miles in wind and a little rain in 48:50. Legs a little tired at first and then felt much better. I was trying to run at my desired marathon pace (11 min/mile). It seemed no matter how slow i was trying to go, i couldn't keep at a slow enough pace. Got the run done though.