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The best run

Wow, what a Friday run. All week my runs have been horrid. They were slow and painful. What I mean by painful is that my legs felt tight and heavy. Not yesterday.

It was awesome. I ran faster yesterday for my 7 mile run than I have ever run in my neighborhood. The only faster time I had was during my half marathon. I ended up with an 8:02 pace and a 49:45 10K which is a personal best for me (outside of the half marathon). I felt like I was a runner during the run. I know that sounds crazy, but my legs were relaxed and my stride felt perfect. My cadence for each mile was between 89 – 90; perfect!

I think the difference yesterday had a lot to do with the weather. It was a perfect day. It was 70 degrees, sunny, low humidity and a nice cool breeze. We had storms the night before and got rid of a lot of the pollen that was in the air.

To be honest, I was getting a bit worried about my running. I know I over did it this week, but things were so bad that I was beginning to not look forward to going out. One good run wiped that feeling away!!!

I am taking today off to get an off day since I didn’t get one on Monday as I planned. Tomorrow is my long run (12 miles). I am now looking forward to it!!!

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Sometimes the hard runs are the most important – Never give up!

Wow, yesterday’s post was the most popular ever on this blog!  It is so funny, as I had originally written about my horrible run and then decided to delete the post and write something positive.  There is a lot of good in running and it doesn’t depend on how you feel.  In fact, I would say that most of the time I don’t feel great while running.  Weeks like this week make me wonder why I run.  But I must say, even though this week has been a rough run week, I still went out and ran.  Even though I felt like my legs are full of concrete, I still did my 7 miles a day.  That is why running is so important to me.  It builds endurance, perseverance, patience and determination.  These are qualities I didn’t have a year ago when I started.  But now I look at my world through these qualities.

Yesterday was another “ugh” run.  I decided early on that I would mute my iSmoothRun app and just run at whatever pace I wanted to run.  In fact, in the beginning I told myself that I would run the slowest run I have ever run, just to take the pressure out of it.  It didn’t help much.  By mile 3 I was ready to head home and cut my losses.  Then I thought that I could just run one more mile.  Then I ran another.  By that time I was far enough away from home that I ran home and hit my goal of 7 miles at my driveway.

Here are my thoughts on why this has been a difficult week for me.  Yes it has been hot.  Yes it has been humid.  Those things will make a huge difference, but I don’t think that is why my running has been off.  The reason I think it has been a rough week running is because I am not 30 anymore.  What I mean by that is, a 30 year old can run 14 days in a row and not feel it as much.  A 50 year old, not so much.  As you may recall, on my Monday off day, TJ and I went for a 4 mile run.  Not only that, but we ran 2 miles in a hilly neighborhood.  Not only that, but I went for a 2 mile walk that afternoon.  That was my off day.  Now I am paying for it.

Going back to the beginning of this post.  Even though my legs hurt, my knees hurt, my hips hurt and each step is difficult, I still go out each afternoon and run.  I have to.  It is engrained into me now.  Tomorrow is only a 4 mile day, so I have decided ahead of time to take it off so that I will feel better by my long run day on Sunday.  Looking back, 2 years ago I couldn’t even get out of a chair to take a walk.  A year ago, I was running 2 miles in 24 minutes.  Yesterday I was disappointed at running 7 miles in 1:03.

Yes, I am thankful for all I’ve learned over the past year.  I am thankful for each of the 1,300 miles I’ve run since a year ago last March.  Everything has changed and most of it is good.  Not many people can say that they feel the best, are in the best shape and are the healthiest when they turn 50.

I just hope it continues.

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Keeping a positive attitude after a negative run

Yesterday was another rough run!

It was hot, humid and I was tired.  But rather than going on and on about how difficult my run was, I decided to look to the positive and think of why I am thankful.  I learned from my mom over the years that being positive is always better than being negative.

So here I go…

  • I am thankful that I am able to run.
  • I am thankful that even on hot days, I can come home from work, put on my running shoes and head out the door.
  • I am thankful that my lovely wife and kids encourage me on this journey, even though it takes up more and more time.
  • I am thankful for my mother and brothers and friends who are excited to see my progress with my running and weight loss.
  • I am thankful that I have kids who also run and are excited about it with me.
  • I am thankful for TJ running who runs with me at times.  Without him today, I would have given up much earlier.
  • I am thankful that I have been running for over a year and never gotten hurt.
  • I am thankful that I have gotten a lot of people from work (with family and friends) to run the 5K with me in May.
  • I am thankful that I have lost 100 lbs since the height of my weight gain (and kept it off).
  • I am thankful that I am alive and healthier than I’ve been for most of my life.
  • I am thankful that I have gone from obese to (soon) running marathons in just a couple of years.

Yesterday’s run was hard.  In fact this week has been one hard run after another.  But looking beyond a difficult week,  I am thankful that I can run.  It has been a dream since I was 18 and now 32 years later it is a reality.  I am also thankful for this blog and the people who read it each day.  It has been so rewarding and has helped inspire me to run harder and work to excel in this sport.  I may or may not ever be known to the running community as anyone, but for now, I am thankful that I am a part of this community and for the support of my family, friends, and fellow bloggers and Tweeters.

What are you thankful for?

Think about it the next time you have a rough day at the very thing to which you look forward.  Running has taught me that every up hill I face, there is a down hill coming soon.  Don’t give up.  Just be thankful.

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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.

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Running hills on my running off day…

How do you run hills on your running off day?  Well I did it.  Okay, not the wisest choice I know, but it started off with an easy run with TJ.

We both had the day off from work, so we thought we would go explore a nearby neighborhood.  We are always looking for new areas to run in since running the same places day after day can get a little boring.

So off we went.  I knew getting to the neighborhood was going to be a little uphill since I have been in that area before.  Unfortunately it was uphill for a lot of the way once we got out of our neighborhood.  We finally got there and decided to run around a bit.  Now these hills aren’t as steep or as long as the hill we run on our hill day, but there were nonstop hills from the moment we entered the neighborhood until the moment we left, 2 miles later.  The hills weren’t small by any means either.  In fact, one of them we decided to walk up since it was so big and it was our day of after all!

It was a lot of fun running with TJ.  We don’t run together much, so when we do it is always a fun.  Also we did run slowly, even compared to my normal pace.  We ended up with a 9:11 pace, which is down from 8:30 for me and down much more for TJ, so it was a good run on our off day.

Ultimately this will help me get to my goal of 48 miles this week.  I believe that will be record mileage for me if I stick to my plan.  Then next week I’ll back off my mileage a bit in order to not overdue it.

All in all it was a great day.  Run early, doctor appointments in the afternoon and then I walked a couple of miles in the evening.  I love the Spring!!!

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Victory over my long run day – Finally

It seems that all the pondering yesterday of my long run day did in fact help.  As I wrote, my long run days have been quite difficult.  Not just the mileage, because even at mile 3 I can feel awful.  Also I cannot seem to run them even close to my average time.  Somewhat I understand that, because it is a longer day and I don’t want to push too much, but considering I ran my half marathon under 8:00 pace and I cannot even run 10 miles under 9:00, it is frustrating to say the least.

What did I do differently yesterday?  Quite a lot.  Unfortunately, when you change multiple things at one time, you don’t really know what helped and what didn’t. I admit I was desperate to figure this out, so here is what I did differently.

  • I got up and drank 32oz of water as soon as my feet hit the floor.
  • I drank a cup of coffee (as I do most of other mornings)
  • I took a shower (I normally don’t take a shower until after my runs if I run early in the morning)
  • Right before my run I walked a quarter mile and ran very slowly another quarter mile.

So something in this mix helped me tremendously.  I felt great when I started my run and, in fact, felt good for most of it.  My hip began to hurt around mile 7, which was annoying, but I did well overall until mile 11.  Now you need to know that I haven’t run over 10 miles since February when we did our half marathon, and I wanted to run 12 miles yesterday.  Mile 11 was just hard.  I felt like I had nothing left.  However, when I got to mile 12, I thought, if this was a race, I would find something inside to pick up the pace, so that is what I did.  In fact the only mile I ran over a 9:00 pace yesterday was mile 11.

I finished my run, drank my chocolate milk and looked at my time.  I ran the 12 miles at a 8:38 pace!!!  Other than the half marathon, I have never run a long run in our neighborhood under 8:55 and it has been a long time since I have been under 9:00.

So, now I look at the 4 things I did differently and wonder…  which one helped, or was it just TJ’s advice to not over think the run.  Either way, I know myself, now each Sunday I will have to do those 4 things to make sure I am covered.  I know I’ll have good runs and bad, but yesterday made running fun again.

Today is our traditional off day, but TJ and I are going to run very slowly for a few miles.  Just for fun 🙂

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Pondering my long run day

My run yesterday was an easy run. 4 miles and then home. I am trying to run less on Saturday since on Sunday I have my long run. For some reason, I do not run well in the morning, so my long runs have been quite difficult. They have been so difficult that by 3 or 4 miles, I just want to quit. I have two thoughts as to why. First is that I usually run around 3:00 in the afternoon, so when I start my Sunday run it hasn’t been 24 hours since I last ran. The second is that I am used to running after a day in which I have drunk 96 ounces or more of water and my morning runs happen before I drink any.

Well to figure this out, I ran a quick 4 miles yesterday. I ran it early and I drank 32 ounces of water this morning already. That last one may backfire, but I really want to enjoy my long runs more since I will be doing longer runs as the summer progresses.

Not much else to report. Our weather here has been fantastic and today is going to be another great day.

No more delay. Off to the hills.

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Hill run redux

Yesterday’s run obviously had leftover fatigue from my hill run the day before. I ran well in the beginning, but then hit the new part of our workout where hills become larger and longer. Ouch.

My pace started in the mid 8:00 area and then did a nose dive to low 9:00. I could feel it hit my body just as if I was doing hill workouts.

One reason could be I ran a bit earlier in the day since I took the day off from work. TJ wondered if I am upping my mileage too quickly. One day isn’t a huge deal, but I do wonder if I need to not run as many hills on my easy runs.

Going on a short run today and then take my lovely wife to Starbucks. Tomorrow is a 12 mile long run. Should be fun.

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Hill run and weight loss. Great day!!!

My hill run days are not days I look forward to. However I must say that I like them more than my tempo runs.

Yesterday went well. It was still cool and overcast but not raining. I got my 2 warmup miles in and then headed for the hills!

I did better this time. As I’ve mentioned this hill is very steep on the first half and then less steep but longer for the last part. This time I decided to time my assent on each half with the stopwatch in my phone.

So… I ran the hill 4 times up and down. This was the first time I ran down as it is so steep I was concerned running down it, but I figured eventually I’d have to start, so I went for it. The first time up I ran the steep part in 1 minute and the long part in 1 minute. Not bad. After going up and down 3 times, I went for my forth. It was tough. I did it in 1:11 for the steep part and 1:04 for the long part.

All in all it was my best hill run so far. My splits were in the 8:00 range until after my fourth run up the hill, and I finished the last two miles in the 9:00 range. The whole run was at 8:49 for 7 miles and 6:00 faster than last week.

One last note: This morning I got on the scale and weighed 176.9. That is lower than I have weighed since college. Wow, it has been a strange week. I started weighing 184 and ended lower than after my diet. Must be because I added some carbs to my diet.

7 miles today and then the weekend. I decided to take today off from work, so it is going to be a nice 3 long weekend for me. More time to run 🙂

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Yesterday

Yesterday

  • Steady rain
  • Windy
  • Cold
  • Tired
  • Sore
  • Worked late

I got home and… ran.

Totally worth it!!!

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Tempo hill run

Yesterday’s tempo run went well.  It was tough as usual.  I have written about my tempo runs here before, but it is not something to which I look forward.  After my 2 mile warmup I took a deep breath and went for it.

This time I decided to run a different route.  Partly because I wanted to run in a different area and partly because there were more hills on the new route.  I figured that running a 5K as fast as I could and having to deal with hills would be a good thing to do to prepare me for the 5K we are going to run in May.  So my times weren’t as good as last week, but as TJ said, they were more in line with what the running calculator says I should run.

Here are my tempo splits:

Mile 1 – 7:02
Mile 2 – 7:23
Mile 3 – 7:13

Also I was able to run another 2 miles after my tempo run and the first of those miles I ran at 8:31 which was good for me since I am usually wiped out by then.

I am looking forward to todays easy run.  I realize that running tempo and hill workouts during the week make the easy runs much more enjoyable.  It becomes less boring running 7 or 8 miles at an easy pace after running 3 out of 7 miles at a tempo pace.  In fact overall, for all 7 miles yesterday I averaged an 8:07 pace, which is really good for me especially considering my last mile was a recovery mile at 9:25.

Only 10 hours until my run today.  I can’t wait.