@BigBigGeek

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My next 5K

Plane crashes, iPhones, running, oh my!

Life seems back to normal.  I took Wednesday off from running as I had already run 6 times in 6 days, so I figured it would be wise to let my body heal.

Yesterday I went out to run 4 miles and achieved my goal.

I must admit I am itching to get higher mileage in, but my head tells me to hold off.  I get twinges of pain in my hip about every 100 meters or so.  Once I can run 4 miles pain free, I’ll begin to up my mileage.  My plan is to concentrate on running well, pay attention to my form and run slowly.  Oh yeah, and DON’T GET HURT.

I must say one of my biggest motivations to stay healthy is not wanting to walk 3 miles a day anymore.  However every time I read everyone’s race recaps and think… I could do that… Then I think… 4 miles a day.

I love racing.  It makes running worth the pain and aggravation.  But I know I’ll never get back to racing until I get better.

Oh, did I mention I have a 5K with TJ a week from Saturday?  No, I’m not kidding.  It is the Red Shoe Run, a race TJ and I raced in last year and I really enjoyed.  My plan is to run to feel and not to place.  I know I can run 8:30 for 3 miles and be fine.  I also know that if I run 7:00 for 3 miles, I’ll be walking for another month.  I just hope my competitiveness stays away.  I think I have a good grasp on being wise and not overdoing it right now, so I think I’ll be fine.

Maybe @bigbiggeek could run it and I could pace him.  That would help.  TJ will be out in front as usual.  I can’t wait to see how he does.

Have an awesome weekend and stay healthy!!!

Tom

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2 days of runs

I think I’m finally coming back from my injury. I ran 3 mikes yesterday and 4.25 today with @bigbiggeek.

Today’s run was fun. I really enjoy my runs with @bigbiggeek and due to my stupid injuries, I haven’t been able to run much. We ran in the state park, in the cold and rain. Still it was great to catch up. My hip did great until toward the end when it started getting sore. Normally in the rain my bursitis acts up, but I had very little pain today.

I’m excited that I stumbled upon the “New Serola Sacroiliac Belt” on Amazon yesterday. (Link). It seems to help a lot of people. I can’t wait to give it a try.

All in all a great (but rainy) day!

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A great day – and a slow run!!!

Yesterday was a good day.

By the way, I  forgot to mention that my last post was #300 for me.  Pretty cool.  Next month will be one year of blogging.  I never thought I’d do that – and never thought I’d run a marathon.  Pretty big year.

Back to yesterday.

To begin with, I ran… a little.  I went out for my walk and decided to mix in some slow running to see how my hip was doing.  It did pretty well.  I didn’t time myself, but that old man with the walker passed me on my run so I know I wasn’t setting a PR. 🙂  Anyway, I walked a little and ran a little and then repeated that about 5 times.  3 miles.  So, I am beginning to feel confident that my time off of running after my 5K injury has helped and now I can begin to slowly get back into a routine.  (@BigBigGeek, I think we can do a slow run tomorrow at the park.  I’m not sure I can run the whole time though, so you may have to go on and meet me on your way back).

So running will begin again.  TJ still wants me to run the Shamrock marathon in Va. Beach in March.   Hmmm.  I’ve been thinking that might not happen, but I’m open.  I’ll see how December goes and how our half goes in February and decide from there.  Frankly that was not an option to me until he brought it up.  Although I never thought of running Boston until he brought it up.  What would I do without him!

Finally two great things happened at work yesterday.  First, my work has agreed to purchase my Google Glass option for the company.  I love that I am in IT and at a company who lets me be on the cutting edge.  Thanks Work!  Second, I was notified that our organization and the program I’ve created will be featured in major media markets in an advertising type of campaign.  The software company is impressed with our organization’s story and how I’ve programmed their software.

All in all it was a good day.

Today will be even better!

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The Injured Runner Award

The Injured Runner Award

I was thinking last night, boy I know several runners who are down and out at the moment.  Some can’t run at all (like me) and some can run, but it is painful.

The roughest part of running is not running.  When you get injured, your daily routine gets disturbed.  Your daily endorphin fix is no longer available.  Your stress had no outlet.

It is tough.

For me, I am putting up my running shoes.  I made an appointment with a orthopedic sports medicine doctor and will see what he thinks.  I know time will probably fix my problems, but better safe than sorry.

So, although this isn’t a real award or nomination, I thought I’d list a few of the recent blogs entries of people who are dealing with injuries or recovering from injuries.  Take a moment and go to their blogs and write a comment.  It is something we all have to deal with.  Also, if you know of other injured runners, feel free to post a link to their blog in the comments.

Life is tough without running and encouragement from other runners is like a life line.

Here is my list:

BigBigGeek

Running to Her Dreams

Jane Likes to Run

The Quinquagenarian Runner

Thanks again for the help and advice with my injuries.  I will probably take the next 4 weeks off which is tough as I’ve already taken about 5 weeks off (not consecutive) since my marathon. I’ve been thinking of changing my blog name to WalkingToBoston.  Maybe not!

Have an awesome weekend.

Tom

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Weekend running and 10K goal

I haven’t yet written about my weekend runs because of life getting in the way and my pondering the 11 year old me yesterday.  By the way, if you haven’t done so, ask yourself what you would say to the younger you with what you know now.  It really is helpful!

Yesterday was my off day and I took it with eagerness.  I ran 9 days in a row and was quite sore.  In fact my hip was really bad, but I walked 3.1 miles yesterday and that seemed to help quite a bit.

So Saturday I ran with my running geek friend (@BigBigGeek) and had a great time.  Realize I didn’t say I had a great run, but that I had a great time.  I think my running streak really was getting to me even though my mileage wasn’t very high.  After the week was over I realized that I ran almost 50% of the mileage I ran in September last week alone, so I might have over done it. 🙂

Anyway, we had a fun run talking the whole time.  I was glad to be the one listening more since by the time we hit the 3 mile mark I was about ready to walk.  Neill is really improving a lot.  It was just a few months ago that our runs would have messed up my pace for the week and now I am pushing to keep up with him!

We finished the 6 miles and I had to head out for weekend errands.  It was really a beautiful day and seriously a lot of fun.

Sunday was another run in the park.  TJ, RS and I ran in the park for about 5 miles.  TJ asked Saturday if I wanted to go there on Sunday morning, so I said sure.  We got there and knowing that he enjoyed the trail run we did right after our marathon (that I had to cut short), I chose to run the trails with my boys.  We got half way through and RS wasn’t feeling well so he walked back to the car on the road and TJ and I ran back on the trails.  I was a bit apprehensive since my achilles hasn’t been doing too great, but it really felt good.  At the end of the trail we still had a half mile to go to make it a total of 5 miles, so we ran up the road and turned back after a quarter mile.  I was exhausted, but in order to learn to push through, I ran as hard as I could back to the car.  TJ measured us running under 6:00 pace at the fastest, which was exciting to me.

Now this week.  TJ and I drove the Vulcan 10K course last weekend and it is going to be fun.  It is pretty flat other than a mile hill that goes up a mountain.  So I am going to try to get my speed up over the next few weeks preparing for the race.  I have 3 weeks to get back into racing form, so it isn’t long.  Between hill runs and tempo runs, I hope to be able to run the 10K under an 8:00 pace.  Actually I hope to hit 7:30/mile.  Time will tell.

Say hi to your 11 year old self for me. 🙂

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…but I wanted to eat pizza!

Yesterday I decided would be an off day… but I wanted to eat pizza last night.

So it wasn’t an off day.

My weight is creeping up on me again.  For some reason even running 4 miles a day it is moving in the wrong direction.  I don’t know why.

Yesterday was pizza night at my house.  Normally the Friday that I get paid we get pizza  for dinner and relax and enjoy.

I got home from work and decided to go run.  It probably wasn’t smart as my body is sore from running all week and yesterday makes 8 days in a row.  But even with not taking a day off this week, I’ll only be at 30 miles, so that isn’t too bad.

I’m off in a few to meet @BigBigGeek for some miles at the state park.  That is always fun.  We are going to run 6 miles which will be my long run for the week.

Question… Does anyone know or have experience on how long it takes to recover from a marathon?  I mean fully recover.  I feel like even almost 4 weeks later I am still a bit stiff in my running.  It could be the heat that has popped back up or the fact I took a few weeks off.

Yesterdays run averaged about 10:00 pace with walking.  At the end I pushed the last quarter mile down to a 6:40 pace just to get myself used to pushing through at the end (something TJ taught me).

Have an awesome weekend!!!

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Quick and to the point

Finally a day off.

Today I’m going to take a rest day today from running in preparation for running my long(ish) run with @BigBigGeek tomorrow.

I’m really tired this morning as I haven’t slept well this week and still need to get up early tomorrow to take JR to work.

So… not much to say today.  I know… you thought that day would never come.  🙂

Have a great weekend – and awesome races!

Tom

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Better kick makes a better run

It was a cool morning yesterday.  Yes, 59 degrees cool.  I ran well.

I only had 3 miles on my plan for yesterday, so with some encouragement from TJ, I decided to pick up the pace a bit.

I have noticed that at a faster pace my achilles/foot issues don’t seem to be as aggravated, so with the cool morning and only three miles I picked it up.

  • Mile 1 – 8:51
  • Mile 2 – 7:53
  • Mile 3 – 7:44

It felt great.  I concentrated on my form.  However this time I thought more on what my legs were doing behind me rather than in front of me.  I read something a few weeks back on the ShutDownRunner’s blog.  He mentioned about working on kicking back and getting power from his legs that way.  Also I had read in an ebook recently about the fact that it isn’t as important on what part of your foot you land on as long as it is under you and not in front of you.  

So I chose yesterday to not worry as much about where my foot landed and think more of what was happening with my legs as I pushed off.  

Does that make sense?  

Anyway, it was a good run.  That along with some breathing hints given to me by @BigBigGeek on Saturday’s run made my run much better.

My goal for this week is to run 4+ miles each day.  My weight is up a bit so I need to lose several pounds.  I’ve noticed in the past when I run at least 4 miles in a day, I lose weight if I don’t eat poorly.  

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A run, a hurt achilles and hangin’ with the dog!

I had a great run yesterday with @BigBigGeek at our local State Park.  Well, the company was great, the run was a tad difficult.

We ran just over 6 miles which is good for me.  In fact it is the longest basic run I’ve had since a week before my marathon (so about a month ago) and I felt the burn.  By the end of the run my body felt as if I had just finished a 18 mile run.

One issue that has come back to life is my achilles.  I thought I had gotten past it with all the time off I’ve had to take, but it is obvious that I haven’t.  After our run on my way home I went to the supermarket.  I got out of my car and I could barely walk.  My right achilles was in so much pain.  The good news was that after I got some Blueberries for my LW and paid for them, the pain went away and didn’t come back.

Later in the day I went to a local running store and checked into getting a shoe with a higher heel/toe drop.  Their advice was to make sure I am really stretching my calf during the day.  So I gave that a shot and I’ll see how my run goes today.

I can’t finish this post without the obligatory “Hangin’ with the dog” picture.  I took this a couple of minutes ago as she was enjoying her morning snack.

The Dog enjoying her morning snack

The Dog enjoying her morning snack

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My 3 mile run + Bonus

3 miles!!!

I ran 3 miles yesterday.  It went well (of course it was just 3 miles).  I was pretty tight in the beginning and then I loosened up and ran better.

Heading out to run with @BigBigBeek in our beautiful State Park.  I haven’t run there since before my marathon.  I’m looking forward to the run and getting to catch up with Neill.

Short post today.  Just trying to get back into the swing of running.

As an added bonus ( 🙂 ), below is a picture I’m going to purchase from my marathon 3 weeks ago.  This was taken at the end of mile 24.  I’m on the left and running with me was a neat guy I met around mile 22 and ran together until just after this picture was taken.  It really helped me get through those last few miles.

Mile 25

Mile 25

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My Run Plan

Today is the first day of my marathon training…

Just kidding.

In a way I feel like that is the case though.  I haven’t run much since my marathon on September 8th.  In fact I have only logged about 50 miles this month (and 26.2 was in one day).  Today I can finally hit the pavement again.  I hope to run 3 miles today and 6 with @BigBigGeek tomorrow.

My plan for this next month is to build back up to about 50 miles a week.  I’ll start at about 30 – 35 miles next week and add 10% each week until I get back to 50.  I hope that eventually I can make 50 miles a week my benchmark.  Personally, I would like to be up in the high 50’s on average, but I want to take my time building back up my mileage.

With Fall approaching and cool weather less than a month away, I hope my training will pick back up.  Another goal for this Fall is to get my pace down to 8:00 per mile.  Last winter I was comfortably at 8:30 pace, but during the summer and marathon training my average pace has dropped a bit.

On a final note, many congratulations to those who have gotten into Boston.  I got a nice comment from  RunningBostonAndBeyond yesterday and read her blog post about getting that email.  It is a great post.  If you have time, read it HERE. Very exciting.

Gotta go.  Have a great weekend and enjoy your run!