Frantically Fresh Friday

I went to bed last night feeling a little curious as to how my legs would feel today. During my rest day, my legs get a breather and are able to tell me how much of a jerk I am to them, and feel a few extra aches.  My hammies were a bit tight yesterday, due to the hill work, and I thought that might linger into my run today and would have to just do an easy run.

Wake up at 4am today. No tightness in the hammies, yay! Drank my coffee. 4:20, I feel kinda ready to leave. But after that fiasco with running trots a couple weeks ago, I waited. There was that light feeling that if I wasn't going to run, would be nothing. But knowing that 30 minutes is the safe zone for coffee, I walked around for 10 minutes and history taught me well.

When I woke up my wife also warned me that she thinks it was raining. Check weather, storm just passed, another one on the way around 5-5:30. After the last time I got caught running in a downpour and fried my phone, Jennifer recommended to have a ziplock baggy on hand to throw your phone into. So this I did, and my new armband is supposed to be waterproof. (Spoiler, the bag and the phone were both dry at the end of the run).

4:40am, step outside, start stopwatch, and go. GPS was searching for signal, so I would give it until I reach the start of the Lakefront path before I decide to give up on it. It picked up at that point thankfully. Today's plan called for 7 miles at marathon pace.

Last Friday my first pace mile was all wonky, be it need for a longer warm up or GPS signal error. After a recommending from Lindsay that a longer warm up has helped her, I decided to try it out today. I'm glad I did as my calves were a bit tight, so the long warm up helped them. I did a 2.4 mile warm up and then went at it. Right when my phone told me the distance marker, I pulled in for a dorky line from 300 to try to spark some adrenaline. And then the rain started, and the thunder, and lightening.

The initial deluge felt something like this:

I thought about turning around, but remembering what the radar looked like, the storm cells were small and moving fast. The storm would end by the time I got home. The next common sense option would be to get to some better cover. Yea, I was hitting my pace, and common sense didn't make it into my thoughts. The rain gave me a surge of energy to feel more like this:

I obviously have the common sense of a anime character.

Now for the run pace stuff:

The first .4 miles weren't recorded, but it was done at warm up pace. Marathon pace started at mile 3. My times were about 10 seconds or so too fast on average. Mile 6 was were I turned around. Miles 8-9, I couldn't hear my phone over the sound of cars driving on a wet Lake Shore Drive. I was just running by feel. I wasn't raining for a bit now, so I took out my phone for a moment to check to see if it was even working, I was about to hit 9 and move into cool down. I heard my pace and said woops. I'm not sure if I'm just pushing too hard or what. This is close to a strength run. I'll try to slow down more next week.

The benefit of running in the rain, the gnats were washed out. But I swear they are related to the Phoenix, since once the rain ended, they were back and hungry for suicide. Their grave, my neck.

And since there weren't any photo worthy skies while it was dry, here is a complimentary pic of my tot from the other evening:

Happy Friday Everyone!


Edit: I forgot to reference my title in my post. Storms were like a free shower. You get fresh in a frantic pace. Get it?

Rain out? Run it out

(Writers Note: Special thanks to my wife for proof reading what I write! <3)

Yesterday evening I restarted my hip and core stretches at night using my band, roller and so on. Of course, this was the ideal timing for my daughter to pick for reading time. She was sitting on my chest or stomach half the time while I read her books and did bridges, leg lifts and rolled around. She insisted I go "night night" when I was on the ground and proceeded to sit one inch for my face waiting for me to open my eyes and go boo. Pretty fun times, adding that to the memory bank for sure! She also likes taking my big band that I put around my ankles and do sideways walking for hip work and try it out herself (she'll do this funky walk without it throughout the day...).

This morning was a planned 10 miles. After finding out that the Ruminator and I run at roughly the same time and area, we set up to run part of our run together today. I haven't run with another person on purpose in about 10 years, so I was excited for the opportunity.

The storms that hit Chicago today apparently had different ideas. At our initial start time  (You were still sleeping), there was a wave of storms passing. There was a break in the bright yellows and reds in the radar. So we set out.  As we had to start a little later, we cut the miles down a little. About half the run was under just a light sprinkle, then Zeus must have thought Chicago was a strip club and his wallet was too heavy because he made it RAIN.

As good runners think, rain was fun and just made for soggy shoes.  Once we heard some loud claps of thunder that weren't over the lake and lightening, she recommended (smartly) we head off the path and to Marine Drive/inner lake shore drive. Fun run! (not fun enough for other runners, we saw maybe 3 other runners) Last couple miles the rain got horrible, I could barely see through my contacts. Puddles meant nothing. I had newspaper ready for my sneakers and took Ruminator's suggestion to  put them at an angle. I tried to not drop water all over my apartment, hopefully I succeeded.  My phone got some water in it even with the cover over it (filed insurance claim for a replacement), which is a bummer. It's still mostly working.

End thoughts: Glad I did the run and got to meet the Ruminator. Next time there is any chance of rain, I won't trust my phone cover to protect it. I made sure to hydrate plenty as I couldn't take a - how sweaty do I look test. Mixed a Nuun in with some water and was good to go.

Anyone else try to run in the monsoon this morning?
Any phones coming out later this year (preferably for T-Mobile) that you would suggest to keep an eye out for?

Side note: Based on +Adam Conolly  book recommendation yesterday, I went to the library and picked up the Quantum Thief. Looks neat!

Enjoy your day!

Wet and Wild Wednesday

4:30am beep beep. Get up and run.  Flight leaves from Midway a little after 9am, busy morning ahead.

Weather app says rain, nothing on radar. Doesn't matter. 66 degrees and 7 mile easy/recovery run. First mile, puddle running. 2nd mile the skies cry on me. Give me all your pain rain, I ain't stopping. 

Big props to the regulars out there today.  Around 5:30am I saw a group of 10 people in their 20s stumbling home drunk in nice cloths...not for long with the rain passing through.

I focused on staying slow to help recharge my legs. Got home drenched.

Go time now.  Traffic stinks to airport, let's hope we make it!

Do you like running in the rain?

Respecting the Run

After a rest day yesterday, I was itching to get out again. Saw there might be scattered showers at 5am, bring it!

Wake up and see this on me phone:

Rain... and dry conditions will continue?

So its dry and raining? Go home weather.com, you're drunk! I check the radar and it showed the rain moved out of the area. Score!

I just bought a new battery for my phone since my previous one was losing its charge waaaay too fast.  Decided to give the new battery a test and run Endomondo and a GPS booster for my run.  I wanted to also focus on respecting the full length of my warm up and cool down distances (1.5 miles both).

As someone who has a time deadline to get back home from my runs, slowing down isn't my favorite thing to do.  It took me awhile to respect the need for easy/recovery runs, and make sure I wake up earlier to do them.  Now as I am prepping myself for my training program for Chicago marathon, the plan requires a 1.5 to 3 mile warm up and cool down for your harder run days (strength/interval/tempo days).  Initially, I responded like, aint nobody got time for that!

As I settle into my current weekly mileage, and running first thing in the morning, I initially accepted a warm up period, but not much of a cool down. I didn't want to see my average pace time go down that much.  Today, I broke that mental barrier, when I heard my phone yell out 7.5 miles, I dropped my speed down and just glided home the last 1.5 miles.  I checked my splits and funny enough, my body didn't really warm up until mile 3. Although, I still put a note in my running log so my Runkeeper friends know that wasn't my constant pace, hah... 

The run itself was okay. My stomach let me run about 90% of the speed I wanted, whenever I went up to the pace I wanted, it pushed back, oh well!  The weather was damp, foggy, and maybe a very light drizzle.  The trees were shaking what their momma gave them and would give you a quick shower if you weren't careful.  I guess it was misting enough to soak my socks though... yummy.

The crowd I saw earlier in the week was not seen, even south of Belmont. I guess 40s and puddles kept some people in bed.  I saw most of my normies, for my daily nods/waves/thumbs up.  Oddly enough, the traffic starting picking up north of Montrose.  I saw a few groups come out to run that I hadn't seen since last fall. It was like fire sale on waves and hellos! Great way to cheer up the last couple miles. 

Glad I got my running fix, that it is Friday, and hoping tomorrow morning will mimic last weekend and start like this (Excuse the PJs and front facing camera resolution!)

Saturday Morning Snuggles!

Did you brave the Misty Mountains paths today?

Happy Friday!

Runtality

Ask me a month ago my opinion on recovery runs, and I would tell you they are hard. Forcing yourself to go slow and having other runners wiz by you like you are in the breakdown lane.

Fast forward to the present (while making the T.A.R.D.I.S sound) and you'll get a very different response. After some good literature (Hanson Marathon Method) on the topic and getting into some more challenging training, my body demands the easy runs. Anything more would definitely cause an injury. Although I still don't like getting passed like the stale egg rolls at a buffet.

Today my legs were exhausted. 20 degrees colder (30 if you count windchill) than yesterday at the same time. Wasn't too focused this morning, missed that it was going to rain for almost my entire run. Not nearly as enjoyable as the rain yesterday.

What the rain felt like this morning

The run itself was slow and steady, with a chilly rain and breeze from the north.  The first couple miles felt like a fatality to my legs (see Mortal Kombat). I found an internal extra life and pressed run to continue.

Funny side note, coworker asks me if I run every day, I reply - no, not Thursday. He replies, damn, that's nuts.  I know he is a gym rat so I ask him, how often do you lift? He laughs, says okay, 5 - 6 days a week. Made my point.

I need to rethink my nutritional plan soon. I have the mindset where if I didn't exhaust myself and do 7+ miles, I shouldn't eat much.  I do want to get to a lighter running weight for my training, but I also want to make sure I'm eating enough. Time to start up My Fitness Pal again.

Tomorrow, no run, just gym. Better call my muse for a good blog entry.

New miles, New Fun

I started prepping for my run after I finished yesterday's jog. Need to increase my distance today and it would be raining. Wake up 5 minutes earlier today ,4:40, I sense a trend.

The cat decided to get up with me and scratch at closed doors, thanks bro.

Check weather app, map looks like a green salad is over the city. At least it is 57 out. Throw on some jacket for the rain. My brain is getting pumped up for the rain and if you were to picture it, this is what you would see:

RUN NOW!

Life pro tip (LPT) time! Know your feet are going to get wet? Put produce bags from the grocery store over your socks and tuck the rest in your sneakers so you don't look silly. Find more LPTs here!

I step out, feels nice and just sprinkling. Legs are tight, good thing I planned out about a 1.5 mile warm up.
17 minutes in , rain and wind gets official. Smile perks up on my face, feel like a kid *let it rain over me , aye aye yai* (guess what song came on Pandora as I typed this)

Spend the next few miles picking up  my pace and trying to decide where to turn around today.. decide on the bridge between Fullerton and Belmont. I think it was 2 miles extra in total, so 9 miles.

Turn around, wind at my back. Still surprised at the other runners out in the rain. I got a new bro out there, he looks late 50s and putting it on the table. He gets a verbal yeaaa buddy ( or good morning)

Mind drifts, start thinking my legs are feeling a little tight again, when I see two runners maybe a couple seconds off my pace. This is always weird  do you back off and hang in their shadows, or try to speed  up for a few and get in front of them. I stall my pace and see what happens, looks like they are in a short battle, but is it sustainable.  I'm catching up, sigh.  Catching people is the fun part, you have markers to reach, adrenaline, but staying in front of them is always harder.  First guy done, seems like he's falling back. Second guy going a fair bit faster, I try to mimic his pace about 15 feet back for a minute, see how comfortable I am with it. Goes easy and he's losing a step every few moments.  I make the pass and am a little nervous he thinks I'm doing this to just be rude.  I keep going and don't look back for about two miles.  I finally take a peak and nobody is within two blocks of me. Good thing, its about time to hit my cool down.

Get home, decide to get a refreshing shower, which means, some Soap and Glory product and a lush face scrub! I planned on taking a certain bus that gives me time for a drink and snack.  I check the CTA bus tracker and it's not on the tracker, so the one in 4 minutes it is, and I'm a hot mess! Make the bus and write this blog post.

Cheers!