Double Digits!

Lets take a trip down memory lane. Two months ago I ran 10 miles in one week for the first time in ages. I was absolutely pumped about it, actually being able to run again! Since then, the post-injury firsts have been coming left and right. Bam, bam, BAM!

Today another one: my first 10 mile run post-injury. The amazing part about it all, is that it wasn't a challenge. No struggle. No praying afterwards that my hip will somehow hold itself together. No worrying that I overdid it and would have to take time off. It was just another run.

The realization that it felt like 'just another run' was almost as rewarding as the run itself! This hip thing is in the past. Completely. 100%. It is out of my mind.

This morning I ran to the Arboretum to meet up with Team in Training, ran four miles with the Tri team, and ran back. With TNT, I ran with Anna who was able to keep up with me better than I thought! I honestly had anticipated running alone once I got out there.

It was a fairly relaxed run, and Gimpy held up so here's the stats:

Distance: 10.27 miles
Pace: 7:44/mile
Avg HR: 155 bpm

I was glad Gimpy held up and didn't turn off during the run, although he did a few times before I started. I have an RMA to send it in soon, but I want to see if I can at least get this evenings bike ride done before I send it in!

Afterwards there was a nutrition and hydration clinic with Team in Training. I expected most of it to be old news to me, but maybe pick up a tip or two. It ended up being a waste of time, but I'll get over it. The lady talking gave the presentation as a "do as I say, not as I do" since she constantly told us habits about the bad things she does. If I was a beginning athlete, I don't think I would have listened to her advice.

Everything has been going absolutely perfect for me lately, although I'm hoping not to jinx it. I got my first project wrapped up and aced my Compilers exam. Then the other day my cousin and I finally patched things up (we hadn't spoken for nearly a year, something small had snowballed). Running is going great. Constant breakthroughs in swimming. Making progress on the bike. Some other stuff too. Basically anything that could go my way, is going my way. I'm not sure what I did to deserve it, but I'll take it!

Finally, I almost forgot to mention, Bill has the Myrtle Beach Marathon today! It looks like he has absolutely PERFECT weather: high of 61 degrees, party cloudy and a light breeze. He's finished by now, but they haven't posted the results yet. I'm sure you rocked it Bill!

Progress Across the Board!

Yeah, thats right! I used an exclamation point in the subject line, you know you're in for it today!

These past few days have spelled progress in all three sports. All of them! Remember the Driven post I had a few days ago? Yeah, the engine is going full steam! Here's the breakdown:

Swimming

Thursday night we did a bike-swim session with TNT. I rode my ass off on the trainer for about an hour, then headed straight for the pool (don't worry, I rinsed off!). I got in. It was just another day. Then my coach said five extremely obvious words that completely made things click: "relax your arms on recovery." Duh. Perfectly obvious, right?

Relax when you recover, so you can recover. As soon as I started doing this, it knocked my stroke count down to 14-15 per lap, even when I was swimming hard! The real kicker? Swimming got a lot easier. Its amazing how 5 words can change your life!


Running

This morning I headed out to Todd's Road to run with everybody. Once again, a new post-injury milestone: 8 miles, 100% pain free. I finished feeling completely fresh. I could have kept going, easily! However, I'm increasing nice and steady just to make sure I don't have a relapse, or cause some new injury. This was also my first run that lasted more than an hour (barely). Here's the numbers for today's run:

8:22
8:02
7:57
7:24
7:27
7:12
6:57
6:57

Avg HR: 163
Garmin data


Biking

I also had a new high average speed for biking! The kicker? I did it just a few hours after an 8 mile run. I set out with the intention of just riding really easy. The result? I paced myself better because I was focusing on high cadence rather than high speed! The wind was killer on the way back in, too, but I managed! Here's the stats:

Time: 1:12:24
Distance: 21.23 miles
Speed: 17.6 mph
Cadence: 93 rpm
HR: 160 bpm

Garmin Data


Needless to say. I'm revved up. Progress feeds the engine, right?

Bunch of Arrogant Exercisers!

Yup. Thats exactly what we are.

Last week a group I run with, Todd's Road Stumblers, was brought up in a complaint letter to the sheriff of the county we run in. Someone brought in a copy of the letter today, both to inform people and to poke a little fun at. Why poke fun at such a serious situation?

Because of the style of writing. It was perfectly obvious the author had a lot of bottled up rage and was trying his hardest to keep it there, but couldn't quite do it! About halfway through he slipped by calling us "a bunch of arrogant exercisers going around like the own the road!" (not an exact quote, but the 'bunch of arrogant exercisers' comes straight out of his letter)

From what I hear, we get about two of these every year and nothing ever happens. It is usually someone who wants to drive 70 MPH around a blind turn and could probably use a couple miles out there with us.

For example, last year there was a report that "hundreds of people were out running well before dawn with flashlights, trying to blind the drivers!" What were they talking about? Yeah, Judy and Mark (count 'em: one, two) were out on a long run to beat the summer heat and brought flashlights for their own safety.

When we get a complaint the sheriff always comes out to make sure we're following the rules of the road, which we do. In fact, we have them posted on a rather large poster inside the clubhouse, and always remind new members to look at them; we know who wins in a car-runner collision!

This morning the sheriff drove past me four separate times during my 7 miler; each time I hugged the shoulder as tight as possible, smiled, and waved (with all five fingers). It is a good thing, really, to make sure everybody does get through their runs safely. Maybe a few people trying to fly through the blind turns will take heed too!

Thats all I got about that. Here's this arrogant exercises numbers for the day:

Run:
7:53
7:45
7:28
7:13
7:20
7:24
7:15
(and change)

Pace: 7:28
HR: 163 bpm

Then I came back, ate some food, cleaned up, took an hour nap, and then jumped on the stationary bike:

Time: 1:00:00
Distance: 25.42
Speed: Oh come on, I biked exactly an hour. I don't have to tell you this do I?
HR: 152 bpm

All in all a great day. I felt really strong through everything. It was great to talk to everybody from TRS again; I caught a few people I missed last week! Its good to be back!

What up Doc?

This post is just a bunch of random bits of information. Even though most my posts turn out that way, this time its on purpose!

• I made the decision to switch to the PhD program. Although I still have to apply, I see no reason they would reject me. But that does mean I have to jump through the hoops of getting recommendations again; oh the joys!
• My healthy diet is turning into habit. Yesterday, my Aunt sent me cookies. This huge tin of wonderful chocolate chip cookies! I ate 3 of them when they got here, and they're absolutely amazing. But, I have no urge to eat them. At all. I see bananas or cookies and consistently choose a banana. I look at my workouts the next few days and feel as though I can't afford to put crap in the tank. A good shift, but even I'm taken aback by it a little!
• Today is a rest day, which means I'm bored out of my mind; I don't feel like I need it, but I scheduled it so I'm taking it! I've had 10 workouts (13 if you count ab workouts) in the past six days, and I'm not feeling it at all. Adapting? Maybe!
• I'm scheduling a massage for next Friday to work any kinks out of my legs that are starting to show their heads; I figure its good for me physically and mentally, so why not? I'll call it a "treat" for working so hard lately.
• Tomorrow has seven miles on the schedule; the farthest I've run post injury! I'm optimistic about it, as always! My hip is feeling stronger than ever, and I'm ready to push it a little bit farther. 9 on the 9th, here I come!
• Finally, an endorsement for Vanilla over at Half-Fast. He's organizing a "Shave Your 5K" challenge. The idea is to see who can cut the most time, or percentage, off their 5K this year. See his post for the official rules. Go participate, even if its just because of his swawesome logo!

Okay, thats a lot more random than I thought I had; but its too late now; I hope everybody has a great weekend!

Productive Saturday

Unlike most Saturdays, this one turned out being crazy productive. I'll save you the BAM!'s, but I got a ton of stuff done both with working out and school.

My alarm went off at 6am. I swore at it, but managed to crawl out of bed without hitting snooze. After the morning routine, and scraping ice off my car, I was en route to Todd's Road to meet up for a run; my first group run in four months!

Surprisingly, at 7am on a Saturday morning on a day with below freezing temps and really thick fog, around 40 people showed up to run at Todd's Road! I got to catch up with some old friends and put in six miles or so at a pretty good clip. Since nobody at my pace was running the six mile loop, I just ran 3 out with Jim, and 3 back on my own. Here's the splits:

8:13
7:41
7:33
6:56 (Later Jim!)
6:58
7:00
0:26 (0.07 miles)

Average pace: 7:23
Average heart rate: 167
Garmin data

This run had me worried about my hip. Last night after stretching, there was a little pain in my hip on occasion, but it didn't hurt to run or walk 99% of the time, so I toughed it out. After the run it felt fine, so I'm not too worried. I did a few stretches I don't normally do, so I'm attributing it to those, and they aren't happening again! Also, this was my longest run in over 3 months!


Later this evening, I jumped out on the bike for a little bit. I decided beforehand I was only doing 10 miles since I already ran today. The result? I was completely fresh at the end; I should have gone 20! Next week, I'll know better! Here's the (growing) list of stats:

Distance: 9.89 miles
Time: 32:31
Speed: 18.2 mph
Heart rate: 162 bpm
Cadence: 89 rpm
Garmin Data

This was my first ride with my cadence sensor, and I'm a whole lot better with cadence than I thought I was; unless I'm just behaving myself now that I have a number to keep me in line! One thing I'm disappointed in is that MotionBased doesn't show the cadence data. It appears in the Garmin software, but not online. Bummer!

Ryan - The spill actually came closer to mile 11; the HR spike you're talking about was a hill, I think.

Marcy - Oh, its not that bad. You see, its my job to convince you to get a bike and clipless pedals. You know why? Because your average post is pretty entertaining, but the world will be an even funnier place once you get clipless pedals and tip over! I mean.... *cough* when you get clipless pedals and are able to brag about never falling!

The Ups and Downs of 1400 Miles

To drive from Tampa, FL to Boston, MA its 1354 miles, according to Google. However, I have run further than that this year! Right now my yearly mileage is at 1,401 miles, and what a trip it has been. Here are some of the ups and downs:

January: I had just gotten my Nike+ kit and was loving it. I started meeting tons of great people. I was enjoying running a ton with my new found gadget and loved the community of all the encouraging runners! This was the start of my mileage build up. Life was good. I built from 30 to 35 mile per week this month.

February: Who else here was in the mid west this winter? In February was when the ice storm hit that closed the University of Illinois for the first time in 30+ years. There was a tree outside my dorm which normally had branches about 8-10 feet above the side walk. They were touching the side walk because of being weighed down with so much ice. The wind chill was -10 to -20 for a week or two straight. Whatever is a runner to do?

This runner runs. I layered up. I got thick gloves, wore several pairs of socks, and lathered up my face with Vaseline to break the wind on my only exposed skin. The day of the aforementioned snow storm, I ran. I had 10 miles planned, but I only made it 5. I finished up at the indoor track. This is part of what makes me "relentless," I guess. But to me there is something about taking on a storm that shut down the midwest. I remember another run from this brutally cold February where I ran 12 miles in the -20 wind chill. I devised a strategy where I would run into the wind for so long, then run with the wind to warm back up.

During February I built from 35 to 40 miles per week.

March: The mileage build up continues. March was great for running. I got sick at the end, but took a few days off and recovered. I had a lot of big stuff with school this month, including presenting my research to several department chairs, the dean of my department, and the president of the university. Big month! I built from 40 to 46 miles per week this month.

April: I had a craaazy fun relay race this month. 8 runners, 80 miles in a the hilliest part of Illinois! Met some great people who I'm still in touch with. I was wrapping things up and getting ready to graduate college. I built up from 46 to 50 miles per week this month.

May: Graduation, wooo hooooo! Right after graduation I went out for a 15 mile run. After that I celebrated in the only way college students know how! When I got back to my friends place after running, a few (unsober) people there were like "Dude! You're the running guy! I see you EVERYWHERE!"

Later this month, things started to fall apart a little bit. My right knee started feeling funky, and I had a sore spot in one of my Achilles, which felt like my shoe was rubbing strangely. These stuck around for a little bit, but cross training solved the knee problem, and some pads to protect my Achilles solved that problem. I also got my fancy Garmin in May (graduation money rocks)!

June & July: These months went pretty well. I had a problem in my right ankle which forced me to take a week off. It was an over training injury after a weekend walking around Chicago and running 16 miles. I also biked 15 miles to a 5k, then got 2nd place. That day was awesome!

August: Great month for running, except at the end. I moved to Kentucky and met TONS of runners down here! I twisted my ankle at the end of the month, but it healed up real quick. Hey, I'll take it!

September: Here we are! This was a good month, until last weekend. I had my best week of training ever. I was feeling invincible! I made too many mistakes in one week and my body said "settle down!" That week I made the following mistakes: ran on an off day because I felt like it, ran too fast on a rest day, then ran a hard track workout Thursday and a 24 mile run Sunday. All in all, it was too much for my body to handle. Any one of the factors probably wouldn't have pushed me over the edge, but together it resulted in me getting hip checked into the side line.

Now, here am with ice on my hip. Drugged up on Aleve. Am I discouraged? Not at all. Look at this crazy ride I've been on! My hip will heal and I'll be back on the road again. Right now its feeling about as good as it did Saturday morning before my run, so by the time I'm actually running again this weekend, it should be good as new!

If you actually read this whole thing, thanks for reading!

Happy running,

-Doug

Recovery, group runs, ice cream, and a new training partner!

Hoooeyyyy, my legs do not feel pleasant today! Nothing feels like injury, just the usual aches and pains of the day after a long run. Quads are killing me, hamstrings are tight, that usual game. I did a lot of stretching today to at least loosen my legs up a little bit, and even made it out to my group run tonight, which ended up being an ice cream social afterwards!

The run hurt pretty good, but ultimately it helped loosen my legs up a little bit. Because of the ice cream social, a ton of people showed up tonight. One of whom will probably be a training partner for Boston. Its pretty rare to find other runners at my pace, but I knew there had to be some out here! But here's the catch: its a girl that can keep up with me. She's never really trained properly for a marathon, but has run around 3 hours. Talking to her I found out one of her goals is to run a 2:47 to qualify for the Olympic Trials! This reminds me a lot of high school, honestly, because back then my usual training partner was a girl who was the #2 cross country runner in the state. Needless to say, I'm pumped about having someone to train with!

Right now, my legs aren't feeling perfect, but they feel better than before my run. This recovery run is very much needed after this extremely intense week of training (see weekly recap, I'll be posting that right after this). I don't think I'll be running very many hard miles this week, and if I do I need you guys to start yelling at me!

I hope everybody else's training is going well!

-Doug

24 Miles: Focus on Strength and Efficiency

"Focus on Strength and Efficiency," that was my mantra at the end of my run today. Sure, it doesn't have a ring to it. I'm not a poet, I'm a runner and a computer scientist, deal with it! It was exactly what I needed, though. Staying focused kept me from accidentally falling into a mental slump, strength as a reminder to focus on a good push off each step, and efficiency is another way of saying "good posture." Posture is what gets a lot of people near the end of races. They get tired, stop holding their body in an efficient position, use more energy, and its a downward spiral from there. Very important stuff!

I started my run with Kristin and Jill at a pretty easy pace. I think I accidentally pushed them a little too hard, but I was only running with them for the first 3 miles since we were running with separate groups once everybody else showed up. Then I ran 2 more on my own because I didn't want to stand around for 20 minutes. After this I took off with Ken, John, and a guy who's name escapes me; I'm bad with names. We ran about 7:45 to 8:00 per mile for most the run, I have a tendency to push the pace of whoever I'm running with, Kristin called it "The Doug Effect." I'm not sure if its a good thing or not!

The miles rolled on. Five dogs, three gu's, a lot of Gatorade, and 23 1/2 miles later, I arrived back at the club house. Wait! Crap! 23.5?! The hardest part of the run had to be running past the club house for a quarter mile and back to get my full distance in, but I made it! Afterwards my legs felt pretty heavy, but I doubt anybody is very surprised by that. I have no pain that feels like injury, just the usual muscle soreness after a long run.

I stuck around and socialized for a while, talking to the various runners who were still around. One guy asked me "Does UK's track coach know you're here in Lexington?", which I thought was quite the compliment, but I definitely don't have time to be on the team! Traveling to meets takes up way too much time, and I'm not sure if graduate students can join the team anyways.

During my run today, I was talking to Ken about various races we were planning to do. I mentioned that I was considering doing a 50k in January. When he was leaving, he said five words that hit home, "good luck with your ultra!" Woah. I've never heard anybody say that to me before! This very well made it official that I'm going to be running that 50k. Five words is all it took.

Eventually I left, and on the way back listened to some of my favorite songs lately, by Switchfoot: This is your life, Meant to live, and (appropriately) Twenty Four.


On the way back, though, I saw a car accident which easily could have been me. It was near an interstate off ramp intersecting the road I was on. The light was green, so I was going through. The van waiting at the light from the off ramp was making a right turn, and was edging forward to go after me. However, the truck behind the van thought they were going. When the van stopped, the truck slammed into it. Not like a fender bender, either. The van's back window completely shattered and the truck's air bag went off.

Nobody looked injured, although the person in the van looked shaken up. I can't help but think if the van wasn't there, the truck would have ran straight into me since he clearly wasn't paying attention. People aren't joking when they say accidents happen fast, either. All of it happened really, really fast.

And now I'm recovering from my run with my post-run lunch of champions: Hamburger Helper. Carbs to restore some fuel, lots of protein to rebuild muscles, and plenty of tastiness to go around! All with a big glass of OJ to get some sugars.

I think its time for a well earned post-run nap!

Happy running,

-Doug

Enjoying every step of it!

We've all heard the old saying "you don't know what you've got until its gone." For me, when training is going good I generally take for granted what I'm capable of. This last week though, I got that horrible taste of injury. Running was gone and I missed it!

Maybe I'll shut up about enjoying running again sometime in the next week or so, but I'm still loving every step of it!

This morning was 7 miles, two miles of which was on a pretty hilly stretch. All in all I averaged a little under 7 minute miles, but tended to speed up throughout the run. My ankle felt as good as before I twisted it, so I'm definitely back now. Jim kept telling me where the bad stretches of road were (read: pot holes), and a few people kept asking me about my ankle during the run, so every time I would start paying attention and ask:

Brain: "So, ankle, how ya doin'?!"
Ankle: "STRONG LIKE BULL!"
Brain: "Yessssss!" *fist pump* (think: Napoleon Dynamite)

Afterwards it felt completely normal, too, which is great since this was my first hard run since spraining it. Mentally I feel a lot better this week too, because without my endorphins I just get to feeling blah! I am an endorphiend, after all!

Current game plan: Recovery run tomorrow (AFTER my morning class, you know, when I can see the pot holes), Yasso 800's Thursday, 24 miles Saturday. Sunday is still up in the air, I want to run 10 miles, but due to my unscheduled run yesterday it would put me at a whooping 62 miles this week, and that could be begging for injury.

Happy running!

-Doug

Hilly Tempo Run

Today was the usual hilly tempo run, with one change. I finally started using "courses" on my Garmin, which means if I run a course once, my watch tells me how to do it again! This is good news since I just can't seem to remember the 7 mile course with twenty-one turns that we do in the dark at 5:30 in the morning.

So now that I actually know where I'm going, I can run my own workout. I really don't mean to sound like "ha! I'm faster than you!" Everybody in my group goes hard on Tuesdays for one reason: we want a good workout, but hard is relative.

Needless to say, today's workout went great. I felt like a dog that managed to get off his leash, and I was ready to roll. So after the warmup, we hit the hilly section where everyone takes off, and I ran my legs off. Another way to say it, is I started running way too fast to sustain it. I managed to run the 1.8 mile quick section at 6:06/mile and coasted in going a little under seven minute pace. This was a great start to a hard week of training.

In other news, my new Mizuno Wave Riders are really working magic on my right foot. Originally I was planning to switch between my new and old shoes, but I'm really hesitant to switch back now that my foot feels good as new.

I'm also thinking about running a 30K on September 23rd, which is two weeks before the Chicago Marathon. A friend of mine is running both the 30K and Chicago, and I think it would be a great way to decide if I'm able to sustain my pace for a 2:50 marathon, or if I should shoot for 3:00. I haven't signed up yet, but its really being considered. Also, its a smaller race so I might have a shot at winning. With all my running and racing, I've still never won a race. I've gotten so close I could taste it, but never pulled it off.

Thursday I'm running Yasso 800's, which should be a good gauge to tell me what kind of shape I'm in. With today, Thursday, and 21 or 24 miles on Saturday, this is going to be one crazy week!

Happy running,

-Doug

New Home, New Runs, New People

Ah, the joys of moving to a new state. Two weeks ago I moved to Kentucky for graduate school at University of Kentucky, and everything associated with it has been going great; especially the running!

The amount of group runs down here is simply amazing, and with just a few switches they all fit my schedule. So far I've done group runs on Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. I'm planning to start doing long runs with a group on Saturdays, and just heard about a run on Wednesday morning. If nothing else, all these are definitely turning me into a morning person; most of them finish as the sun comes up!

It isn't only the amount of the group runs, but the quantity of the runners too. Even at 5:30am there will be 15-20 runners out and ready to roll. Some fast, some slow, but all of them are friendly.

It has been great getting out on new routes lately too. Most of the places I ran in Peoria the average person would consider suicide attempts, but I made due with what I had. There aren't as many monster hills here as in Peoria, but all the terrain is rolling, its very rarely flat. Also, nearly every road has either a sidewalk, a large shoulder, or both. All in all running has been much more pleasant here, the only downside has been this nasty heat wave; but the morning runs are mostly alleviating that.

Injury wise, training has been going great. My right ankle was giving me some nagging problems a few weeks ago but has been fine recently. If my long run this Saturday goes well, I'm 95% sure I'll be in the clear for Chicago since this is the first of my 20 milers.

52 days until Chicago!

Happy running,


-Doug