by

Those stupid steps!

It was a good run.

I got 5 miles in.  The first 5 mile since I got sick 2 weeks ago.  It was cold, raining, and I felt great!

Then it happened.  No not on the run.  I was home.  I made my Lovely Wife some eggs and was taking them to her.

I walked ran up the stairs and my foot slipped.  I fell on my knee and… yes… jammed my bad hip.  Seriously?  I was so angry with myself and in so much pain!

My run was almost perfect.  Even though it was close to freezing and raining, I ran great.  I ran steady.  Outside of my first mile, I kept the same pace the whole time.  That is a big deal to me.  I tend to vary my pace quite a bit, but this was just steady.  It felt good.  I felt good.  My hip felt good.

Now I’m hurt.

I woke up this morning and didn’t feel as bad as I thought I would.  But as the morning has gone on, my hip is getting stiff and sore.  I am walking and icing and doing anything I can to keep it mobile which helps.

To be honest, I don’t think I could run today, even if I tried.

Doctors orders will be a week off.  I’ll be walking and keeping it moving.  I’ll be resting.  I’ll be taking anti-inflammatories.

Just to kick my mood up, I purchased a new pair of my running shoes.  I love my Brooks Pure Flow 2 shoes and got them for $50 with free 2 day shipping at RunningWarehouse.  They will be waiting for me next week as I start my umpteenth comeback from injury.  This one was stupid, but an injury is an injury.

Have an awesome weekend.  Run, walk, have fun.  Life is short.

Tom

by

My dream, my hope, my life – Thoughts from yesterday’s run

As I ran yesterday, I thought about dreams.

Not dreams as in sleep, but dreams as in aspirations, desires, goals that seem beyond reach, but something you want to attain with a desire that is beyond normal desire or hope.

Dreams are an important part of life.  Some dreams never come to pass.  They sit in front of us an become a frustration, depression or just make us angry.

I realized yesterday that I have had many dreams I wanted to attain in life and many of them I have actually achieved.  Most were within my ability to achieve if I persevered beyond normal effort.  As I ran, realized that each major phase of my life has had a dream just outside my reach that I had to really work for in order to see it come to fruition.  Many times those dreams took perseverance beyond my own ability to achieve.

I am being purposefully vague here as I don’t need to go into all those dreams.  But my thoughts went on to the fact that so many people deal with anger and depression because they don’t get to fulfill their dreams, at least in the timing that they have chosen to see them fulfilled.  Without a dream, or as the Bible says, a vision, we will perish.  Hope is essential in life.  The American Dream has kept people pursuing their lives vocation for generations.  A hope for a good life and an even better life for their children.  I think a lot of Americans have given up on achieving their Dream.

My current dream or hope or goal is to qualify and maybe one day run in the Boston Marathon.  Back before last year’s race (and tragedy) TJ would talk to me about us qualifying together.  Then, last March I made that my goal.  I hadn’t even run my first marathon yet, but my new goal would be to qualify for Boston… Then I ran my first marathon in September and that dream seemed to be pushed beyond achievement.  I ended up hurting myself after the marathon and it took months to get back to a semi normal running routine.

I still have that as my goal, my dream.  It keeps me going home each day and heading out to run in good or bad weather.  It helps me get past heel spurs and hip pain.  It makes me run up mountains in order to build my endurance and run down mountains to build my strength.  

It is my dream.  

I could give up on my dream.  It is going on 2 years since I began running and a year since I made that decision to qualify for Boston.  That is a long time.  I am getting close to 2,500 miles run, mostly in my neighborhood.  It seems like a dream that is out of reach.  But that is exactly what makes it a dream.  That is what gives me hope.  The thought of the day I achieve another dream and overcome almost impossible odds to do just that…  That is what makes life fun.

So my run ended yesterday much quicker than most.  Not because I ended it early, but because I had so distracted myself from running by dreaming about dreaming.

Keep dreaming.  If it were easy, it wouldn’t be a dream.

Tom

by

Running in the cold and feeling my hip again

I felt my hip yesterday.

I ran 4.5 miles and it was cold.  In fact just one day before TJ and I were talking about how hot it was as we ran.  But yesterday, windchill was below freezing and I had all my winter garb on.

My hip hurts when I am not running relaxed.  I can feel pain, tell myself to relax, and within seconds the pain has subsided.  I also think it is worse in the cold.  Holding my body stiff as I run into wind and cold that I thought had passed for another year.

All in all it was a good run.  By the time it was over, I felt as if I had settled into it and could run more, but decided I didn’t want to take a chance of hurting myself so I stopped.  This was the second run after my sickness.  I can still feel it in my chest some, but I am definitely on the mend.

3 more runs before I take another week off.  Just some personal stuff I need to do.  Then on with training for my April half marathon.

Life is good.

Tom

by

Finally… a run

I survived the weekend and came out the other side feeling much better.  My recent bout of sickness culminated Friday with me leaving work early and crashing at home.  I thought some fresh air and a slow walk would help, but… Nope… I started out and then headed home and got rest.

The weekend was not restful however.  Saturday I went with RS to get a new TV for his room, JR got a new bed and HM got tires for his car.  That was just the major parts of the day.  I must say, through I wasn’t feeling great, I was better.

Sunday found me running again.  I don’t think I went too soon.  I felt good, it was a beautiful day and so TJ and I went to the park to run a few miles.  I had hoped to get in about 6 or so, but could only manage 4.  I still have some congestion in my chest which the run helped, but it also impacted my ability to run further.

So I am 90% better.  I don’t want to have a relapse, but I think I am past that.  I must say, this was the first time in my memory of the past few years that a cold knocked me down for a week. It was pretty rough overall.  I looked so bad on Friday that my boss made me go home early from work.  That was a first also.

Today finds me tired, but doing much better.  I really want to get back to my running schedule as I have a half marathon in 7 weeks.

By the way,, the weather today is going to be strange here in the deep South.  It was in the mid 50’s when I got up.  By lunch we will be in the 30’s and by the time I run this afternoon we will be back in the 40’s.  All we need is snow to make this a perfect day. 🙂

by

In with a whimper, out with a whimper

I actually had a good month running.  I ran a total of 80.7 miles and that was with a truncated beginning and ending of my month.

My first run of the month wasn’t until the 4th of February.  Reason?  Snow.  I was stuck at work for 3 days and 2 nights and then had to take a day to catch up on sleep.  Also I slightly injured my back in the snow, so I needed to make sure that was healed before I tried running.

I started running on the 4th and my last day running was last Sunday the 23rd of February.  Reason?  I got sick.  So I can’t run until this thing passes.  How frustrating to have one of the best runs of my life last Sunday and then be down and out for a week.  With the way I’m feeling now, I don’t even know if I’ll run this weekend or not… probably not.

Oh well, at least I’m not injured.

Have a great running/racing weekend.

Tom

by

The best mountain run ever

I’ve been missing for a few days.  Don’t know if you noticed…

It started Saturday morning when I woke up with a slight feeling in my sinuses.  I decided to walk the dog and jog a few miles with her so as to not over do my workout.  My goal was to get to the mountain Sunday morning.

Sunday morning I awoke with a little more “sick” feeling in my sinuses, but it went away and I went out to run the mountain.  I started out this time with RS.  He doesn’t like running much with other people, but we went about a mile together and he stopped to stretch and I went on.

This run was the best of my 4 mountain runs so far.  It was tough as usual.  800 feet of elevation in 2 miles with only one down hill section on the way up and that is near the beginning.  The wild thing was that I got to the top and was actually surprised that it came so soon.  I had run this 3 times prior, but this time it seemed much easier.  I credit some of that to it being 55 degrees and low humidity, but also the fact that these runs are really beginning to kick in some strength.

At the top and there is about a half mile of a slight gradient, but it is mostly flat.  As I ran, I looked at my watch and I was running between a 7:30 – 8:00 pace.  Shock.  I had just run up a mountain and I was able to run at a pace between my half marathon and 5k pace. Just a few weeks ago I was running about a 10:00 pace in this same place.  I took a moment to take a picture for my “I’m on top of the world” post and went back down the mountain and to the car.  I must say, this was possibly my most fun training run of my short two years.  I am not one to like workouts or to like hill runs, but this is a literal mountain and it is so cool to run it and see such progress.

Later that afternoon I started feeling lousy.  Just achy and tired.  I attributed it to not eating or drinking enough earlier in the day, but Monday I would find out when I woke up that it was not due to that, I was sick.

I spent two days in bed and went to the doctor and finally started feeling a bit better yesterday.

No running since Sunday, but at least I have a fun last run to remember.  I won’t run again until I feel better.  I am still congested and achy a bit. Hopefully I’ll be back in full swing this weekend.

Tom

by

Out sick

Back tomorrow (Lord willing)!!!

Tom

by

I’m on top of the world

Not really, but on top of the mountain anyway. Great view from up here…

20140223-101519.jpg

by

All is well in 278toBoston land

This has been a crazy week.

First, I had a great run on Monday.  I felt on top of the world.  I had strength, power and felt like I could run forever.

Tuesday… Not so good. I couldn’t sleep the night before, I felt tired and I ran poorly.

Wednesday… Worst – tired.  Couldn’t sleep. I ran, but ran slowly and walked a bit.  It was 40 degrees hotter than the same time last week.  Not that it was hot, but 40 degrees is a lot of change in a week.

Thursday… The day started slowly in general.  At work I dragged around.  I felt blah.  Then 11:00 happened.  I don’t know what that means, but sometime around 11:00 I felt better.  I wasn’t dragging . I felt so much better.  It was like the past two days just went away and I was back to normal.

I got home from work and decided to walk.. or maybe run… just play it by feel.  I didn’t want to overdue it, but also I was feeling so much better.  So I left the house and walked about a quarter mile.  I got to an intersection where a car was wanting to turn and I was in the way, so I jogged over to the other side… and kept going.

I ended up mostly running about 5 miles.  I walked a couple of times for a few minutes.  The run felt great.  I actually had a good pace, even though I wasn’t trying to.  I got home and I felt good, my hip didn’t hurt and it was a good time.

Last night I slept well for the first time in 3 days and I woke up before my alarm feeling fine.

So what did happen this week.  It is interesting as I wasn’t the only one feeling down and out.  I know several people who felt the same way.  Maybe something in the air?

Either way, I am going to run my mountain tomorrow with TJ.  Since I’ll be running with him, I’ll run harder then I would by myself.  One day, my goal is to run it twice… Maybe next week.

Sunday will be my day of rest (as it should be).

So all is well in 278toBoston land.

Thank you all who showed concern and helped with your comments and posts.

I am sooooo thankful it is Friday.

Till next time…

Tom

by

Running as a habit… The good and the bad

Well… taking a break yesterday didn’t go as well as I had hoped.

I got home and decided to just run/walk slowly.  You need to understand that my success in running is based on habit.  I have developed a habit of running 5 – 6 days a week over the past two years.  The good thing about habits is that they become automatic as long as you do the same thing at the same time each day (not time  like a clock, but time as at the same point in your day – i.e.: after work).   Everyday I get home from work and immediately get on my running clothes and head out to run… EVERYDAY during the week.  From the time I get home to the time I am out running it is usually about 10 minutes.  I have trained myself to do this.  It is an ingrained habit that has worked well for me…

Except…

When I need rest, it is almost impossible to stop.  I do rest by taking a day off a day a week, but usually walk on those days.  A true rest day only occurs if I am sick or the day is so busy that I cannot get my run in (usually a Saturday).

So yesterday I planned on resting, but I ran.  To be fair, I ran at a pace 1 to 2 minutes slower than normal and I walked from time to time (about a half mile of the five mile run).  So it was a resting run. 🙂

I didn’t sleep well again last night.  I’m not sure what is happening.  No stress, no pressure, no caffeine or sugar.  I fell asleep late (late for me anyway) and then kept waking up.  I woke up at 3:00AM and just waited for the alarm to go off at 4:00 (and then didn’t want to get up).  Although I feel fine, I wonder if I am not fighting some sickness or something.  It has been a strange couple of days, but at least it hasn’t been more than that.

Finally, I had a hit on my blog yesterday where someone typed into Google, “278 to Boston Boston marathon 2014”.  Ha.  That was pretty neat to see.  I assume someone wondering if I qualified yet or not.  Well this runner will have to wait until at least 2015 and I probably won’t have a real chance a qualifying till 2016.

Goals.  Habits.  Life. All is good (now if I can just get some sleep).

by

Running tired and the “Other Dog”

I’m tired.

I’m not complaining though.

I just haven’t slept well the past couple of nights.  Actually I did sleep well last night, but 3:45 came way too early for me this morning.

I noticed yesterday that my attitude before and during my run was not good due to being tired.  I know that makes sense, but I run so much better when I get a good night sleep.  During the week, that is almost impossible unless I go to bed at 7:00 (which I did yesterday).

I am still doing my 5 mile runs.  I haven’t increased the amount this week.  I think this is partly due to being tired and partly wanting to be careful with my hip.  It does great early on in my run, but I have a long down hill about 3 miles in and it always hurts after that.  Yesterday I slowed way down at that hill and it did seem to help some, but of course hurt my momentum some.

That is about it for today.  Being that this wasn’t a very exciting post, I want to post a picture of TJ’s dog.  He is so happy, cute and content (most of the time).

Happy running.

Tom

The "Other Dog"

The “Other Dog”