Solo Wednesday Run

Wednesdays I usually add a few miles the plan to have a fun run with Erin. Today some things got switched around so I went out solo.

I decided to make best and do the actual plan which just called for a 6 mile recovery run.  Over the last 24 hours I've had a bit of tightness/ache flare up in problem leg.  Nothing earth shaking, just enough to take note of and report to my physical therapist today.  I imagine it is just fatigue on a leg on the mend.

Got an extra 40 minutes of sleep due to the shorter mileage, although it didn't feel that much more restful.
74 at 4:50am, better than yesterday. Allergies have been killing me lately and I wonder if any of the breathing and dry mouth is due to it.

I had no pace goal, just get miles in without making anything worse.

Accomplished. Quiet run and only thing interesting was a dragonfly flew into my face and hit my nose.

Also forgot to mention yesterday, I saw 3 raccoon on the fence north of the tennis courts trying to flee my monstrous presence.

And now a few photos for you:

Where are you sending me dad?

Photo at the end of my run today

And as we all take time to reflect today the tragedy of 9/11, please also take a moment to hold those feelings, the sadness, anger, and hope and reflect on our humanity.  A humanity that is felt too sharply and heavily by many nations too often.  By a people with much less to lose, and yet lose more too often and  tragically, be it by war, terrorism, or the conflict trap. Take this moment and share your heart and try to relate to your fellow humans across the globe, not just the US.   It is a world media shields us from until we see humanity at its brink for survival and it can get scary.

Share your love today, we all need it.

Happy Pre Friday Eve!

Feliz Friday!

No run yesterday, as I didn't want to end up running 7 days in a row once I jumped back in schedule (Don't worry, I wasn't a sloth, I still went to the gym to work on my monster upper body strength).  I was hoping someone would ask what I was doing in the 4 month day injury break I took just so I could use this .gif

My wife surprised me and picked up a Bulls outfit for my daughter yesterday! (Repost if you saw this posted on another feed yesterday) Hard time getting her to stand still for the photo.

This morning was easy run #2. Decided to do 6 and give myself enough time to do them at 9 minute miles. I wasn't sure what type of legs to expect after having mac truck type mobility on Wednesday.

Woke up at 4:30, out at 4:50. Gut wasn't a big concern as I wasn't going to a speed or distance that would get me to the danger zone.

A fair amount of runners were out which was nice. After a couple blocks I felt a good deal stronger than the last run, my lungs felt pretty normal too. Checked my watch at two miles and I was going waaay to fast, so I slowed down and kept my focus on recovering and not my time.

I was better disciplined the rest of the run. Legs were still creaky and I need to put more confidence in the leg and my ability. I still have the mental block that I lost like 50% of my endurance in 4 days...  lol

Tomorrow will be easy run 3, hopefully a slower pace, and 8 miles. Then I can see if I can get back in stride for Sunday at 10 miles at 7:40 pace. Thankfully this is a cutback weekend in my plan, so I don't have to worry about getting in the long run. I need to start respecting the long run pace, as I always do it about 30-45 seconds per mile too fast.

I wish I had a PT appointment before my strength run on Tuesday, but at least I have two before next weekend.  I'll try using the foam roller until then to work on the knot.

Now for a couple things more...interesting than my limping around and tears. Children and prudes please leave this post now.

Do you like Breaking Bad and Aaron Paul? Did you see his AMA on reddit the other day?  He loved doing it so much, that he made a youtube response giving out The Bitchies award to the best parts of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEK5_S740E4

Second link, it was a top forum post on reddit.com/r/running. First off let me say - I DO NOT WANT TO SEE YOU RESPOND TO THIS QUESTION HERE - can we say AWKWARD.

LINK: This is a little weird, but does anyone else..

Now that you are suddenly either feeling a lot more comfortable that you aren't alone with your "issue" or randomly uncomfortable....

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

Recovery Run and Recovery Post

After I went hard at my run yesterday and an extra long blog post, I'll make this one easy. 6 mile recovery run today. Felt nice, 60 degrees, went slow. Took a picture of the sunrise once it broke through the clouds:

Last night was uneventful. My daughter was in a MOOD after a late nap, threw a fit if you even looked at her. Eventually she was in a better mood and relaxed to a nice pop up book:

She also left some of her toys next to my bed stand..

Planning how to kill me in my sleep

At the end of my run I saw something horrifying! A MURDER!

of crows.

There was a circle of crows up by Hollywood talking about which condo they should hang out at and gawk at all day to annoy the poor humans.

And that's all I got! Enjoy your day!

And in case you want to comment and don't know about what.. Here is a question for you -

Do you feel the running blogging community needs more guys posting? Am I missing some wealth of active guy bloggers (at least in Chicago area)? Or are we just generally pretty boring and give up?

You know nothing Legs Snow

(Game of Thrones reference title)
Woke up 2 minutes before my alarm and snuck to the bathroom to change without waking my wife, good start...but the cat was awake and almost ruined my stealth. (Scratch scratch under the door)
Recovery run day, typically this day's post is a vent of how hard the run was and I pout. Today though, my legs felt strangely decent. I'm not talking 100% and ready to fly, but they felt stronger.  I didn't push the pace hard, but the training plan does say the run should top out at 2 minutes slower than marathon pace.  I've been doing mote like 2:30-2:45 on Mondays. So there is hope!
Training paying off? Or was that Gatorade recovery drink magic?
As usual, I tried to capture the sky before sunrise, it looked pretty awesome but I waited a few minutes too long and it lightened up a bit. Here is what I got. Note sure if I stopped my timer while taking photos, oh well.
Cheers everyone!

5am at the Lake

May I Run One More Time?

Before I start my daily blog on my run, I've been thinking that I haven't added much about the dad part of my blog.  I don't really want this to turn into a baby blog, since what parent can't talk all day about their kid? But I will do some honors to my daughter.  Here is one of her favorite meals, pasta with marinara last night. She gave a bit of a face for the photo.  (We have to strip her down to minimize stains and thankfully it was bath night).

Just Finished Dinner Dad!

Now to the run. 5am, 68 degrees, 6 mile recovery run, last day in my cycle before a running rest day. I expected my legs to be sore and fatigued. I get outside, I feel a lot better than I normally do going into this. Maybe training is paying off?  I keep it slow, why risk it. I see a bunch of new faces today, maybe running before it gets hot.

The run itself was smooth. Park district was doing lawn work which gave me slightly itchy eyes. And I didn't notice until I looped back, trees were getting foliage. FINALLY. And I decided to jump off path to take in the sunrise for a minute, and saw another runner doing the same thing down at the water. I think the photo captures the feels (runner in the photo was taking a photo a moment prior)

Wish I could have sat there and meditated

Final thought, the other day I saw a young lady jogging with a Coach wristlet in hand. Is she just being green and reusing and old product, this going to be a new trend, or still hanging on to too much while running? Wish I could run again today, so nice.

La Brea Running Pits

Ah Monday, who has a case of it? My legs. An especially slow recovery day. My legs were so dead, you would think I found them in some tar pits.  I couldn't pass an open book test with my pace today. At least I didn't hurt myself.
Today was no Friday either, didn't have as many happy faces today.  My theory: morning runner jealousy.  We know the weather will get a lot nicer today, but we still don't get to work on our running tan.
On the positive side, I noticed the trees starting to bud and  the first moths fluttering around. Signs that maybe spring is here?
And in case you missed the sunrise for some reason, here it is:

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.