5K

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Excited about our 5K today

I’m all rested and ready for today’s 5K.  I didn’t run or walk yesterday, just to give my body a break.

I woke up excited about the race today.  I don’t know why.  Maybe because it doesn’t really matter how I do since I just ran a 5K two weeks ago.  I’m not trying for a PR, however…  I would like to do well and will try.  TJ, as I said, will pace me and RS will run also, but had to work really late, so I don’t know how well he will be able to run on 4 hours sleep.

I am excited about my marathon training and trying coconut water for hydration.  It is going to be a long summer, but also a fun summer of training.

One thing about running, every day is a new adventure!

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Gatorade folly and tomorrow’s 5K

I had a fairly good run yesterday and I think I know why this week had been so hard.

Other than getting adjusted to the heat, I have been drinking Gatorade before running.  I just started this on Tuesday, thinking that it would help with the heat.  To be honest, I have been putting a scoop of Gatorade into a half cup of water since I didn’t want to drink too much before running.  So I gave myself a 30 minute high on all that sugar, but when that wore off around the 3-4 mile mark, I would crash hard.

As a test to see if that was it, I had nothing to drink before running yesterday (I had 96 oz during the day though).  It wasn’t easy, but I did get 5 miles in at an 8:40 pace and never felt like I couldn’t go on.  I stopped on purpose at 5 miles since I ran and walked 16 miles the past 2 days and I want to be fresh for my 5K on Saturday.  Anyway, no more Gatorade before a run for me.

I haven’t mentioned much about the 5K tomorrow since I wasn’t going to push it too hard, but now I am changing my thoughts.  It is an inaugural 5K and I have run the course and am familiar with it.  I really think I can PR it if I run it correctly.  Right now I plan on running the first 2 miles at a 7:00 pace and try to run the 3rd at 6:30.  That would give me a PR and be a good end to my 5K days as I start my marathon training.  I’m looking forward to seeing Neill (@bigbigggeek) and David (@David_Topping) at the race.  RS is going to run with us and TJ isn’t running the race, but wants to help pace me.  I’ve never had anyone pace me in a race before, so that will be really great.

Tonight it is Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese and chicken caesars (thanks big brother @fooddude4life) for the inspiration; then we will watch “The Race” Seinfeld episode.  Finally a good night rest so we can run hard tomorrow (and not get hurt – thanks Lovely Wife).

I love 5Ks.  I hope this one is memorable.

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Now we start training for the September marathon

Well I have somewhat recuperated from the 5K I ran on Saturday. It still amazes me how I can run a 5K at close to the same speed in my neighborhood and not feel badly the next day.  After a race however, I’m sore, tired and wonder if ill ever run again.

Maybe that’s a little over dramatic, but I have had pains where I never felt them before. My right shin woke me up in pain Sunday morning and my right heel hurt when I got out of bed. Both are already better, but it is crazy how a race can batter your body.  Glad I’m doing another one in under 2 weeks. 🙂
Yesterday was a purposely slow run. I had taken off Friday and Sunday, so I wanted to get going again soon. I got 4.8 miles complete when I accidentally stopped my app and then just walked home.  It wasn’t very hot according to the thermometer, but it was sunny and humid and I was tired.
Today is another easy run, maybe a little faster, then a workout on Wednesday.
The goal of our training (TJ, RS and myself)  now moves onto our first marathon in September.  We will run 5Ks during the summer, just for fun, but the marathon is the goal of all our running and workouts this summer. My goal for the marathon is 3:30, but I hope to do it in 3:20.
Time will tell.

 

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Spring Scramble 2013 5K race results – What a difference a year makes!

Wow, it was a fun race.  Although none of us (TJ, RS or myself) met our goals, we all did well.

Just a quick recap.  The Spring Scramble was the first race of any type we ran last year after we began running.  In fact, I had only run 3 miles a couple times before the race.  So this race has memories attached to it.  I figured I would first post how we did last year and then post this year’s results.

Last year’s race results were:

Me: Finished 83rd overall, last in my age group at 31:28 (10:07 pace).
TJ: Finished 11th overall, first in his age group at 22:27 (7:13 pace).
RS: Finished 90th overall, last in his age group at 32:35 (10:29 pace)

Really not bad considering I had only been running a month and TJ and RS had been running just a couple of weeks.  In fact, TJ ran in old sneakers that had to be glued the night before!

Okay, on to Spring Scramble 2013.

We arrived a little later than planned, but still had time to run our warmups and strides before the gun went off.  It was great seeing collegues from work and a couple of other new friends I’ve made on twitter lately.  I’m not sure they want their names listed so I am being a bit vague on purpose.

It was supposed to rain all day, but didn’t rain a drop.  It was very humid though which made things a little hard, but the temps were in the 70s and being overcast made it a good Spring race.

I did well.  I used my iSmoothRun app and wireless headsets to keep my pace.  I set the app for a pace of 6:30.  I was only 3 seconds behind after the first mile, but I knew by then I wasn’t going to keep that pace up.  The app did help a lot in keeping me running as fast as I could for the whole race.  Of course TJ was way off in front of me and RS dropped back behind me early.  I expected both, as TJ is a much faster runner than I and RS has just started getting over a virus that had him in bed for a week.  He did amazingly well as did TJ in this race.

I also decided not to wear my racing flats because I’ve only warn them twice and they killed my feet during my workout.  So I went with my Saucony Fastwitch shoes.  I love those shoes, but I wonder if I would have done better if I still had my A5’s.

Enough said… Here are our result for this year (the full results aren’t out yet, but this is what we know):

Me: Finished 5th overall, first in my age group at 21:42 (6:59 pace).
TJ: Finished 3rd overall – Wow!
RS: Finished ??? overall, second in his age group!

I don’t have TJ or RS’s times with me, but I will update this post after I ask them.  I know TJ was around 19 minutes and RS around 28 minutes.

So we all got metals, the first time that has happened.

For me personally it was a great race, even though I didn’t hit near the 20:00 mark.  I did PR my 5K by about 25 seconds.  Also, finishing 5th overall was just amazing for me.  Just guessing, there were probably 120 people who came.  I know over 170 signed up.  I think the weather kept some away.  So not a big race, but it was sweet to see the improvement we all had in just 1 year.  I am so proud of my boys!

That’s it for now.  I signed up for another 5K in two weeks.  I’m not going to push it for this one.  I’m just going to go out and have fun.  I don’t yet know if TJ or RS can get off of work to go with me, but I hope so.

Thanks for reading and for all the encouragement during my achilles injury!!!

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Pre-race hangin with the dog

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Hanging with the dog, waiting to head out the door. It was storming earlier, but is just overcast now. Race starts in 2 hours and 5 minutes

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Spring Scramble 5K pre-race update

I had a great run yesterday.  5 miles with no pain and a lot of fun.  It was the perfect run to have right before my big 5K race on Saturday,.

I must admit that I am still a little nervous about Saturday’s race.  I really want to PR it and I would love to get below 21:00.  My race PR is 22:10 and my neighborhood PR is 21:29.  Time will tell.

Today is my off day before the race.  I usually run much better after an off day and I hope that will help.  The unknown is my running shoe.  My Saucony A5’s had to be returned with a hole in the sole, so I am going to be running in Asics Piranha’s for the race.  I’ve run in them twice so far.  Once was last week as we ran the course to get the lay of the land.  The other time was 2 days ago when I did a hard workout.  The shoes seemed to be sloppy on my feet and started causing a lot of pain on the bottom of my foot.  I think I had them tied too loosely and when I tightened them, they seemed better.  It is a little concerning though since I don’t want to be in the middle of the race and be in pain from and unknown shoe.

Tonight we do our pre-race routine.  Chicken caesar salads with macaroni and cheese.  I can thank by big brother for that since at a 5K we ran last year in Pennsylvania he and his wife made that for dinner the night before and we have eaten it before each race ever since.  We’ve since added watching Seinfeld, “The Race” during dinner – just to get motivated :).

TJ and I are healthy but RS and HM are getting over a bug as is my Lovely Wife, so I don’t know who exactly will be showing up tomorrow.  Either way, it will be fun and hopefully I’ll be prepared.  There will be several people running from my work and @bigbiggeek is coming so that will be fun.

I’ll try to post a short update after the race.

Tom

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Final running workout before our 5K

One day left to workout before the Spring Scramble 5K.  It’s funny, TJ likes to run the day before a race and I don’t.  My best runs are usually the day after a rest day, so I’ll be running today and taking tomorrow off.

Yesterday I completed a hard workout (finally).  I feel it has been forever since I was able to do a workout.

I started out slowly and got in my 2 mile warmup with no problems.  I remembered my KT Tape this time and was able to use my new headset which was nice so that I could see how it did before the race.  I also wore my Asics Piranha shoes for the first time in a workout.  I did my sprints to get warmed up and then started my 1/4 mile repeats.

There were a lot of distractions and obstacles yesterday as I ran my repeats.  School was letting out and buses were all over the place.  Kids were riding bikes and playing.  In fact at one point, I was running up to a 4 way stop and a little girl was in front of me riding her bike.  She started to turn around and noticed me and got distracted.  Right then a car turned onto the street and she did not see it.  I yelled, “watch out” and the car honked its horn and she got quickly out of the way.  It was scary for me, but gave me some adrenaline to run on for a bit.

I completed all 8 repeats and averaged about a 6:30 pace which is what I wanted to do.  It was tough near the end.  Also, I didn’t tie my shoes tight enough and half way through the repeats the balls of my feet started killing me as they moved around in the shoe.  I could tell I was getting blisters.  Good to find this out before the race.  So I paused my workout and tightened my shoes and started up again.

Finally after I completed the workout I ran a mile cool down and headed home.  My achilles did great until the cool down.  For some reason (probably the workout) I could feel some pain, so I stopped after one mile cool down and just walked home.  I immediately put my foot into a bucket of ice water and let it soak for 15 minutes.

So all in all it was a good day.  I’ll be glad when this 5K is behind me.  There is another one in 2 weeks I am interested in.  I may run it – just for fun. 🙂

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Last post… about my achilles.

I guess that ice bath for my foot really helped.  I had no pain all day. I didn’t have to ice my foot (mainly because I didn’t even think of doing it) and when I ran, I had no pain in my achilles.  It was really quite amazing.

Also my run went great.  After the 9:00 first mile, I averaged 8:17 for the last 4 miles.  I wasn’t trying to run that fast, but it was so nice to be able to run and not feel that twinge.  Also I felt great.  I wasn’t tired and my legs felt great.  I could have gone on for more miles, but I am really wanting to continue to cut back a bit before our 5K next week.  I  want to run it well and don’t want to take any chances with getting hurt again.

Today TJ, RS and I are going to run the 5K course to see what it is like.  We ran it last year but it has been a while and it is always nice to know the course before the race so you know how to run.

I hope this is my last post on my achilles.  I am still getting KT Tape today and going to use it as a preventative.  I’ll probably not have time to ice my foot after the run today since we will be far from home, but it should be fine since we are only running 3 miles.

Thanks to all who have been so helpful over the past week of my injury with suggestions and prayers.  It has made a difficult experience much easier.

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Finally, a good run! And a new pair of shoes

Well I wouldn’t say I am back to normal (in the sense of running), but I had a good run yesterday with little pain. I did my planned 5 mile run with my iSmoothRun app muted. I kept my app silent so I wouldn’t be tempted to push myself faster than I felt I could go. I had 2 moments of pain, but one was more in my heel than my achilles, so I am not sure that is related. Anyway, for most of the run I didn’t even think of my achilles, so I feel I am getting back on track.

Just for the record, I was able to run at an 8:25 pace which is pretty much my normal pace at the moment / pre injury. I think that I have weathered this injury well and I hope that I don’t have any long-term effects from it. My knees do hurt more than normal, but I also think I have altered my running style to accommodate my injury and that hasn’t been good either. Yesterday I worked on just keeping my run normal and relaxed. I am going to try to get some KT Tape and see if that helps, but I haven’t had time to get it yet.

I did get to try new shoes. TJ and I both ordered a pair of Asics Piranha SP 3 running shoes from Running Warehouse (link).

Asics Piranha SP 3

Asics Piranha SP 3

I was a little apprehensive about running in them since they are racing flats and I didn’t know if it would aggravate my achilles, but I took them for a spin for the first mile of my run. Wow, they are nice. It is amazing how light they are and they didn’t bother my feet at all, but I did take them off after the first mile just to be safe. For $40 (use code FB15D for 15% off) they are worth the money and these are my first non Saucony running shoes to own. It’s funny, after waring the Piranha’s for a mile, my Saucony Mirage felt like bricks on my feet. It took a mile just to get used to their weight.

So, all in all it was a good day for running. I still feel a little sore in my heel area and I will still take my running slow for the rest of the week just to make sure I’m healthy for our 5K next week. I really want to have a great day at the Spring Scramble and am excited about all the people I know who will be running the race.

Life is good!!!

Tom

P.S. I was back under 180 this morning!!! I don’t know why, but I’ll take it!

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The saga continues – achilles pain vs a 5 mile run

I made the decision yesterday that I would try to run.  I felt well and my achilles felt fine, but I didn’t know what would happen as I got out on the road.  The day before I had to cut my run 3 miles short, not because of pain, but just a nagging tinge in my achilles.

Yesterday as I began to run, I decided that if I couldn’t make my run because of pain, I would just stop the rest of the week and give my injury time to heal.  Of course as I ran I was super conscious of any discomfort from my achilles.  A few times I wondered if I felt something, but then decided it was just “normal” pain.  What I mean by normal pain is that I always have some type of pain while I run.  Either my hip or my thigh or, yes my achilles.  I used to think that the achilles pain was heel pain, but now I know differently. Also normal pain goes away and real pain does not.  So while I ran, if I thought I was having any type of pain, I would relax and make sure I wasn’t running too fast and eventually I felt fine again.

So to finish this story… I finished my 5 mile run.  It wasn’t a PR by any stretch of the imagination.  I ended up running a 9:00 pace, which is just about where I wanted to be.  Slow enough to not get hurt, but just fast enough to feel like I ran.

I got to the last tenth of a mile and I had a tinge of pain in, yes, my achilles.  It was more than just phantom pain, it was real, but it went away and I slowed way down and finished the run.  I got home and elevated my legs and played with the dog.  No I didn’t use ice. Sadly I forgot, but I will today just to make sure all is well.

My goal the rest of the week is to keep at the 5 mile mark until I run several days with no issues.  Sadly our 5K is coming up next weekend and I really wanted a PR.  This may impact that, but it might help by giving me some much needed rest.

All in all, yesterday went well and I can run again today.

I just need to take it one day at a time.

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Rough interval run yesterday.

Some runs are like hills, you have up runs and you have down runs.  Yesterday was a bit of both.  During my run, I thought, “what have I done”, “this is the worst run ever”, “what was I thinking running on my day off yesterday?”.  You know… the thoughts that go through your head as you are just trying to get your next breath.

Drama aside, it was a difficult run.  Since I like to analyze my runs, I would say it was from several factors:

  1. I ran on my day off.  Not only ran, but ran a hilly neighborhood.
  2. I eat more than usual at lunch.  I got to catch up with a good friend, but also eat more than I should have.
  3. It was 82 degrees outside (27.7 celsius).  The hottest day in 6 months.
  4. I ran a new type of run.  I ran half mile repeats with 1 minute recovery in between.

Okay, it wasn’t fun.  I’ve established that.  I learn from my mistakes.  The good news is that I ran 5 miles in 7:57, but the bad news is I wanted to run 7 miles.  I figured I should cut it short when I started noticing tingling in my hands and fingers.  I figured that was a pretty strong clue that I needed to stop my run early.

I was encouraged by the pace of my half mile intervals though.

  1.  6:30
  2. 7:02
  3. 6:58
  4. 7:48
  5. 8:14

So, I did run pretty well.  It was tough though.  I mean REALLY tough.  So tough that I wondered why I do this to myself.  In the end, it will pay dividends.  To be honest, if I run my 5K in May at a 20 minute pace I’ll be grateful.  If I qualify for Boston in September, I’ll be beyond grateful.  We aren’t guaranteed anything in this life and I am honestly grateful to just be able to run.  Many people would like to and can’t for some reason or another.  I am a 50 year old man who 2 years ago weighed 278 lbs and couldn’t run 1/4 mile and now I hope to run a 5K in 20 minutes.  I love that about running.  It is what you make it.  It is up to you and the grace of God as to where you go and how far you take it.

Okay.  That is enough for today.  As I stated in the beginning, running is like a hill day.  Ups and downs.  The nice thing is that even when you are going up the biggest hill, you know that there is a down hill on the other side.