It's over, man. Let her go.

I had a about 1.5hrs before my 1:30pm meeting, so I decided to get my run in.  I knew the heat (89^o F) and the humidity (87%) would be an issue, but I wasn't going to miss a run and I knew I wouldn't be able to make it happen later in the day.  I chose a route along the river so it would be cooler.  It was still hot and very muggy, but I think it was probably better than a concrete jungle run.

Today felt much better than Saturday.  I love this route because it's flat and once I'm across the bridge, there's no traffic to deal with.  Average pace was 8:08 with my HR in the mid 160s.  My slowest 1/4 mile was the very last.  I was getting a little tired and the heat was getting to me.  Kept the paces between 7:50 and 8:10, so not too shabby.  I need to get my mileage up, but I'll need to work up to it again.  Too much time off and I'm not in shape enough to take that kind of time off and not have it impact me.  Running is good for my stress management, I just need to do it in the morning when it's cooler, and more consistently.  Or super late at night...in the cemeteries!  That would be thrilling!!

What a day makes!  Temps were a little lower and humidity only about 65%.  Same run as yesterday.  I thought it would be a better run, but I was burning out after about 3mi.  :-(  Quite sad indeed.

It was great to get out with everything on the mind today, but I wish I could have at least matched yesterday's performance.  I was running against my ghost on the Garmin, but after he got out in front of me about 300' at the 2mi mark, I decided to just cheer him on and let him go.  He's such a great runner!  :-)

Great run today.  The weather was a lot cooler and the humidity was down some.  Felt great through most of the run.  My foot pain (neuromas) are completely gone with those series of injections.  At my last appointment this week, the doc said that the pain I'm having in my right big toe joint is a sesamoid problem and that a slight tweaking of my orthotics will fix it.  I need to take the pressure off that joint and give the bones some relief.  But, that means being without my orthotics for a week or two and I don't know what it costs either.  :-(  The pain was worse today than the last few days, but today I wore some more compression type socks that may have contributed to it.  I'll keep an eye on it and see how it goes tomorrow and my long run on Saturday.

Splits:  7:54, 8:30, 8:43, 8:16, 8:54 (.82)

As I was reading the news, I ran across this article  It claims to smooth out some of the bulges and make you look hot.  So, with me being slightly "overweight" I figured I may have to try them out.  :-)

I only had a short time today between meetings so I just ran on the treadmill.  Did the 5k program, started out nice and easy and had planned on running the full program at 9:13 pace.  It was easy so the last 1k (the first .33k was flat, the first .33k was uphill @ 4%, the last .33k was flat), I took it to a HNL and kicked it up to a 8:00 for the first 1/3, a 7:30 for the "hill", then to 6:53 for the final 1/3.  It was a good workout before tomorrow's longish run.

Commentary:  So, I'm wondering what you guys/gals think about fashion as it pertains to running.  For instance, my wife was "horrified" by my running outfit yesterday.  Basically, I choose my outfit based on what's on the top of the stack of clothes in my dresser drawer.  Yesterday, I grabbed shorts (the giveaway shorts from the Just a Short Run Half Marathon that are royal blue with florescent yellow writing on them for the sponsors), a mostly white running shirt with gray under the arms, and a part black and orange lightning design doorag.  My socks were white and then I had my red and gray shoes.  I figured the doorag is really just an accessory and I don't choose my watch based on color so why should I worry about my doorag?  Anything goes with white and gray, right?

This is why I only wear dark navy or black slacks for work.  I have 3 pairs of each color.  The navy is actually so dark that I had to write BLK and BLU in the waist band (yes, I'm a fashion loser) so I could tell which they were because unless they were side by side, you couldn't tell the difference - unless you were my wife.  I figure as long as I don't wear a black polo with my navy slacks I'm fine.  Trying to put a tie to a dress shirt can sometimes be a real challenge.  It usually takes me 3-4 tries on Sunday morning to get a tie that goes with my shirt.  If it takes me 5 times, my wife sends my daughter in to "dress her dad."  The only time I don't have the problem is when I dress in all black.  I then just wear my black and yellow Pirates tie and I'm good.

Why does fashion have to be so hard??  It's not like I'm trying to pick up chicks when I'm running and all sweaty anyways.  I wait until later for that...(just kidding).

Missed running yesterday due to work and family demands, so I was determined to run today.  Last week was pretty good and I needed to build on that.  So, I decided to run about 6mi and I headed out the river trail.  Nice day today, not too humid or hot.  I had brought clothes in yesterday to run, but since I didn't, I left them at work.  The only problem was that I was only planning on doing 3mi max yesterday and so the heavy cotton t-shirt and cotton socks weren't ideal for today's run.

Splits:  8:22, 8:18, 8:35, 8:45, 8:51, 9:13, 10:50, 8:51 (.16mi)

I wanted to average about 8:50-9:00 and just keep it easy.  I headed out the river trail to the 40th street bridge, which is the 3mi turn around.  I knew the trail ended about there (based on looking at Google Maps), but as I got to the bridge, I noticed a biker coming out of a woody area about 200m further up.  I decided to investigate since a longer trail would be cool.  I ran for another .5mi or so before the trail ended at the access road that runs beside the train tracks.  I decided that 7mi was more than enough today and so I left the access road to be explored another day.

There was construction on the trail where they had some temporary fencing to keep us runners/bikers from coming into their construction zone.  They're so possessive!  The crane and the heavy equipment was really cool, but I had to keep going.  I guess my doorag didn't pass for a hard hat.  After I got past the construction area around the 31st St bridge, I run past the Crew storage/arena/offices/whatever as they were pulling a dragon boat out.  That was pretty cool, but the little high school kids there were little _____ and as I was running past they pushed another kid into me.  Obviously not from MY kid's school district.  I think I held my tongue, but I may have let something slip.  Anyways, I kept going.

On the way back, the jerks were gone and as I got to the construction area, I continued to press on.  After about 150m, I looked up and started wondering why the crane was in the trail.  That's when it dawned on me that I was supposed to go between the orange jersey barriers, not into the area marked "construction zone - keep out."  I'm slow like that.  So I had to stop the watch, jog back around the jersey barriers, and down the trail starting the watch where I had my awakening.  I ran until 6.2mi then I took a little walking break (blister had set in) and chatted with a fellow Highmark employee.  He was a bit older and was kinda walk/running.  After a little bit, I said adios and jogged it back in.

It was a good run, aside from the blisters.  Those will heal though and I'll live to run another day.  :-)  I think I've got my daughter on board for running the 5k on Friday night.  I've been kind of wishy-washy about it since it's a tough(er) course and although it will be a PR, I had hoped to set a respectable PR on my first 5k.  If I finish under 28:00 I'll be happy.  lol

Since I had an awakening today, I don't know if anyone has ever been to "The Awakening" statue in Washington DC.  It's killer!  They've actually moved it from where it was in DC to Maryland, but it's still cool.  More cool in DC...  Here's a few pictures of it from our last trip in 2009 to the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC.

Yep, that's me sitting on the dude's head.

The family chillin' on the hand.  It's hard to get a full picture of the whole sculpture, so you'll have to piece it together in your mind.  :-)

This one is a good one of the upper body.

Me sitting on the knee.  It's actually quite a little challenge to get up there.  You gotta run and climb up the side of the lower leg, then claw your way to the top.

And finally, my big dude sitting on top of the big toe.

That gives you pictures of all the pieces of the sculpture.  Have fun piecing them together.  :-)  If you ever get to DC or the Maryland suburbs, you've got to go see this thing.  It's awesome!

Not a long run today since I only had about 45 minutes to get my workout in.  I hopped on a treadmill, warmed up for a couple minutes, then set the treadmill to a 9% incline and ran 1.2 miles at 9:40 pace.  That was a killer on the quads & lungs, but a good workout.  I then ran another mile or so at an 8:50 pace and had to call it a workout.  Stretched and got back to my desk just in time for my meeting.  Whew!

Argh, awful sleep last night!  I couldn't fall asleep until after 3am and then had to be up before 6am.  Work was crazy busy and didn't get much eating done today either...no time. 

I took back my Fast Running book to the library (2 days overdue - shame on me!) and then just ran from there.  I'm about 95% sure I'll be running the 5k tomorrow evening so I decided to take it nice and easy tonight.  I think I did OK with that.  HR remained nice and low most of the run, then I ran about 1/2 of a long hill and jogged/walked the rest of it.  <Spoiler Alert for my quads> I've got a nice long hill at the end of the race tomorrow.  Shhhh!  Don't ruin the surprise for my quads! They're going to be sooo excited!  LOL

Anyways, just wanted to get a few miles in.  If my daughter decides to run it tomorrow as well, I'll probably keep her company for the first 1/2 to maybe 3/4 of a mile since it will be fairly flat, but after that (or 7:00, whichever comes first), I'll need to leave her and start cruising.  The course isn't a fast one with a 1.25 mile long hill at the end (370' elevation gain) to the finish, so I'm not really worrying about setting some fast PR.  It will be my first official 5k, so any time is a PR for me.  I've run the course in 27:11 on a training run, so I hope to finish under 28:00 with daddy-daughter time, or closer to 26:00 if I don't wait for my daughter.  25:00 would be awesome, but I don't know if the course will allow me that time this time around.  Definitely next year...

I told my daughter I'd pay 1/2 the fee if she paid the other half since she hasn't trained for it.  She just wants to do it...I think she wants the t-shirt.  :-)  I haven't told her yet, but based on the last 3 years of results, she could place in her AG...if she just finishes.  Last year was the only year where there were more than 3 in her AG.  If that happens again this year, she probably wouldn't place.  But, pretty cool to AG place in your first ever 5k!

I knew I'd be able to run tonight so I didn't stress about it during the day, but I did get a chance to be King Road ID!  The Bike-Pgh.com folks came and put on a bike safety course for people that do or want to commute to work.  My only spare hour just happened to align with their presentation so I dropped in.  Lots of good information, nice maps of the best roads to ride on with indicators to show the steepness of the hills, etc.  Great stuff.  They talked about safety and having ID on you, but didn't say anything about RoadID, so I did.  Of course, I had mine on since I wear it everywhere.  Never know at my age when you're just going to keel over!  That was the first they had heard of RoadID, so it was good to educate them and my co-workers.

   +

=

Yummmm!

This race was a great one.  Not only did I PR (first 5k so far), but my daughter also ran her first road race ever (she PR'd as well :-)!  She did great for her first race finishing in 47:31.  I am very proud of her.  She hasn't trained at all so her goal was to finish and enjoy doing it.  She did both!  Pre-race photo:

We hadn't pre-registered, so we got there plenty early.  Since Annalee hadn't trained for it, I told her she had to pay 1/2 the fee as her punishment.  It was a pretty cheap race, so she was happy to pony it up, especially when she saw the very cool shirts they were giving out.  :-)  She has 3 race shirts now (one she volunteered at, one she got because they had extras and she had come to that 10k with me, and this one she earned).  She wanted to have 4 race shirts to take to EFY in July, but I don't think there's another 5 or 10k in the next couple weeks near us.

We talked about our strategy before we began the race and I decided to run with her until about the .5mi mark when I would then start cruising.  Once I finished, I'd jog back to find her and would help bring her in.  We talked about the course and how the strategy would be to take the first mile easy, then stay in control on the down hill and not try and go too fast, then tackle the hill the best we could.  I thought it would be cool to get a picture of her at the finish line, so I agreed to carry her cell phone on the condition that it was on complete silence so I didn't get distracted by the buzzing or sound from texts from one of her friends every 3 mins during the run. haha

We started about 3/4 of the way back.  There were 350 runners this year (their 15th year) so it's a pretty small race, but it's nice and well organized.  Weather was great and it's through a park setting so it's beautiful as well.  The race started and it took us a little while to get to the starting line and down the one side of the street since it's quite narrow.  The groups of runners in front of us were slow and there was really no way around them without being rude.  Once we hit the .4mi we began up the first hill to the observatory.  Annalee slowed down to a walk so we bumped fists and I told her I'd see her at the end.  At this point, I had lost some fairly significant time, but knowing that I'd PR no matter what, I really didn't care.  I passed her on my way back down from the observatory and she looked like she was doing OK.

I had questioned the length of the course since when I had run the course a month ago as a test, it measured a little over 3.2 mi.  They had two water stations - one at 1mi and another at 2mi that gave out splits.  My Garmin had registered 1.1 mi at the first water stop, so I kinda figured my assumption was right.  At the 2.0 mi mark, it was right on. Weird!  It was about 3.15 mi at the finish, so who knows.  After the first mile, the course is completely tree lined with heavy coverage - especially the last mile, so my Garmin would show some erratic paces and that could account for the distance discrepancy as well, I suppose.

Garmin Splits:  9:44, 7:44, 8:43, 0:46 (0.1mi)

After leaving Annalee, the hill up to the Observatory was narrow and they had cones down the middle to allow for 2-way traffic.  Not until I got up and down from there did it open up to where I wasn't having to weave in and out, etc.  This was about the 0.9 mile point.  I bypassed the water stations since I wasn't going to waste time on a short run like that.  Once I got past the first mile, it's downhill for the next mile.  I tried to hold back some and just kinda cruised down.  Everyone knew what was coming the last 1.1 miles, so I think everyone was kind of holding back.  I had maybe a handful of people pass me after that first mile, but I caught every one of them in the first half of the final climb.  The last 1.1 miles is just a long hill.  Not particularly steep, just a long incline.

The hill is where people started to drop off.  I started far enough back that I knew I'd be passing more than being passed, but I also knew that the hill would slow a lot of runners down.  It slowed me too, but I was quite happy with my ability to keep pushing and keeping a good steady pace all the way up.  The 8:14 pace is quite good for me on a hill like that.  I actually thought I was more around the 9:00 pace and the Garmin wasn't much help at this point pace wise.  I encouraged a lot of runners as I passed them on the way up and I think they appreciated of that.

I thought I had another corner, but then I saw the parking area and was surprised to be so close!  Crap!  I kicked it to the finish and wished I had pushed a little harder on the hill to get closer to 27:00, but I finished strong and that was important to me.  After finishing and as I was walking down to meet Annalee, I had someone tell me how I kicked butt on the hill.  She had tried to hang on to me from the bottom, I guess, but after 0.5mi she said she had to slow down.  She was impressed I could keep a steady pace all the way up.  That felt good to hear that.  :-)

I finished (actually 27.29 but the timer dude marked me as 27:31) and then started walking back to find Annalee.  I kept telling everyone how much further they had to go since I had my Garmin running.  They seemed to appreciate that since after the 2mi aid station, there weren't any more markers.  I found Annalee with about .5mi left.  We walked and talked as we finished the hill together.  I told her I wanted to take her picture as she crossed the finish line with the timer in the background.  I had planned to cruise back up at about the 2.9mi point so I had time to get in position.  Again, I was shocked that there wasn't another curve.  Deja vu!  So I took off running and she had planned to sprint the last .1 mi so just as I got to the finish line and turned around, she crossed the line!  Dang!  After they took her strip off her numbers, I had her rush over to the timer and I snapped a couple of pictures.  Bummer, but I got her at 47:59, so that was pretty good.

Annalee was suffering (not in silence) after the race and so we hung out on the lawn, ate oranges & chips and drank water & Gatorade.  We hung around for the awards ceremony.  I got beat by the winners of both the girls and boys Under 10 groups.  That was humbling and Annalee made sure I heard their times.  Those were speedy little buggers!  There were 8 in Annalee's AG and she came in 8th.  I came in 12th, but I don't know how many were in mine.  I would have had to run a sub-22:00 to have even placed in the top 5 for my AG!  (They gave out awards for the top 5 in each AG)  Maybe next year...

Overall, it was a great race.  I had almost skipped it and if Annalee wasn't planning to run it, I might have.  I was tired and had worked long hours this whole week.  I'm glad Annalee got me out and that we had a great time!  Such a fun adventure with my daughter!  We'll definitely have to do that again!

Here's the elevation map from throwing the route into the Route tool:

6:20 am (yes, A.M.) 68 F, 88% Humidity

Didn't sleep well last night, but since it's my first day of "freedom" of not having to get the kids off to school, I had to get up and take advantage of the run before work.  I've got a long and busy day ahead of me so I'm glad to get the run out of the way so I don't have to run when its hotter later today.  Plus, we've got thunderstorms rolling in later today so higher humidity would just make it worse.  I've decided my goal this week is to run 6 days and 30 miles.  I need to establish some consistency and increase the miles or I'm not going to do well at the Half in September.

Splits:  9:01, 8:49, 11:34 (blah), 9:50, 6:56 (.78 - 8:54 pace)

Run was OK.  The thing with running from home is that no matter which direction I go, I start off with a hill.  Was feeling a little sluggish so I had decided to go about 5-6 and just take it relatively easy.  I ran to about the 2.1mi mark and stopped for a quick rest.  It was right at a cemetery so I decided to take a little run through part of it.  It was nice but the thought went through my head.  What if I were to keel over right here running through the cemetery.  How weird would that be?  I think had we not watched Beavis and Butthead Do America (as a family) last night I wouldn't have thought that.  My wife and I would watch B&B occasionally when we were early married.  It's so stupid it's funny.  I knew it was a bad decision to make that a family affair about 1/2 way through when my daughter and son started talking like Cornhulio.  Oh, what have I done?  Good thing school is out so that my son won't be sent home early.

Anyways, finished the run OK.  Walked a couple of times, but these hills are killers.  I think I do OK on the hills but I'm not real fast yet.  I always make it my goal to run up the hills without stopping then if I need to, walk a little on the downhill. I figure I'm going to die when I run in UT. My goal will be to maintain a 15:00 mile.  :-)

Happy Monday, everyone!

I had to be near my phone today but still needed to get my miles in, so I ran the 10k program on the treadmills at work at 5:30pm.  The last time I ran it was in March 2010, I think, and my PR for the program was 57:43 from July 2009.  Today, I ran it in 51:34 which is a huge PR...and I even walked twice for about 15 secs.  :-)

I don't enjoy running on the treadmill since it always feels like I'm running faster/harder than the speed/pace shows.  I tried to maintain about a 8:00 pace throughout, including the hills, but was averaging more around an 8:20 or so. The final 1k I decided to push it and finish strong.  The profile for the last 1k is 1% (.2k), 2% (.4k), 4% (.2k), 0% (.2k).  I went into this 1k at 8:00, increased to 7:30 for the 4%, then finished the last .2k at 6:53.  I was pretty tired after this run (mentally and physically) but recovered pretty quickly.

I couldn't understand why I could run a 50:00 10k in a race but couldn't come closer than 57:00 on the TM.  Most people say the TM is (physically) easier since you're just moving your legs not really pushing the ground since it's moving anyways, but mentally harder since you don't have the visual stimulation like when running outside.  Most of the time, the fans are on the TMs, but today I guess I picked a bad spot since I felt no breeze!  I was sweating like crazy.

Good run and I'm glad I got the miles in.  We hit the drive-in to see Marmaduke and Iron Man 2.  I figured I'd sleep through Marmaduke and watch Iron Man, but I ended up watching Marmaduke.  It's actually quite entertaining (with the exception of the animated dance at the end).  I'd seen Iron Man 2 before, but that's a great show and I enjoyed it just as much the second time around.  Then came home and crashed.  :-)

I went to the track to run during my daughter's mutual.  Scouts is out so that means I'm done for the summer too!  We still have camps, but at least the weekly responsibilities are over.  I love scouts, but the weekly preparation can be tough sometimes.

I started to get a twinge of pain in front of my right hip yesterday...maybe a little to the outside, but close to the front.  I'm not sure if this is the IT Band issue I've heard about from others, but it was bothering me some more today, so I took it pretty easy.  Averaged 8:30, so it wasn't too easy, but I hope easy enough.  I got a little pain in my right butt toward the top, but that's not much of a problem.  I gotta get some more core and back strengthening work in for sure.  Tomorrow may be a cross train day.  I'll still run a few miles since I've got my goal of 6 this week.  :-)

Anyways, I did something at work that made me feel like an idiot, which reminded me of this video.  Not the boyfriend part, just the idiot part.  :-)  Enjoy!

Yeah, that's right, I got a mile in.  I'm not missing a day, so I jogged from work to my car.  A family issue got in the way so I had to head home early and didn't get my planned workout in.  Tomorrow is car-free friday, so I'll be riding my bike to work.  Weather looks clear, so it should be fun.

Biked in to work this morning.  It was nice cool weather.  Ran this evening.  Forgot the Garmin, but mapped out it's a little over 3 miles. Biked home right after. My booty is officially sore.  It's been since late last year that I was on my bike and the saddle is fairly narrow.  The route I took was OK.  A hill right at first (of course), then a downhill and the ride on the flat trail to work.  It is about 6 miles each way, so no big deal.  When I got to work I thought my groin muscles were going to die.  Going home wasn't as bad that way, but it was hotter and I had just finished running.  I don't know how my bro ever did the Half Tri.  I couldn't imagine swimming, then riding, then running a Half.  He's a stud...

So I get home and we decide to go to the Chinese restaurant with the Mongolian BBQ.  SOOOO good.  I totally over ate, thought I was going to lose my eyesight in one eye and then had it all go through me before we left the restaurant.  It was a great meal!  :-)

Today was a struggle.  I had planned on a 6 mile "long run" and that just wasn't happening.  I got up later than I had wanted to (tough night), then was delayed actually getting out.  It was 10:30am before I left and it was warming up fast.  It was 83* when I left and only getting warmer.  I've got a pretty good "nerd tan" going on except for my legs which have a little bit of color on them from my running, so I need to round things out some.  I ran for the second time this season half naked.  I'll let you guess which half. 

The legs were lead and I had to walk a few times on a fairly flat course (after the 1/2 mi hill).  I got in my 6 runs this week, so I'm stoked!  I got a little sun but not enough in the 30 mins or so I was out.  How am I supposed to look good in my FRB singlet if I don't get a good tan going on?  I can't run in t-shirts all summer then do the singlet thing in Sept and look like an idiot!  I'm sure I looked impressive, a middle aged bald dude with a pudgy stomach, flabby pecs and fat bouncing up and down on his back.  The only thing that saved my ego was that 90% of the people on the street were overweight, many were smokers, and a lot looked like they should lay off the beer too.  One day I'll have a six-pack if I can just lose this fat!

After the run it was a day of moving stuff and getting the garden boxes ready to go.  Now, I'm ready to collapse into bed so I can get up early enough to get to church on time.  Nite all!

Happy Father's Day, everyone!  I hope it was great!

OH, and my daughter got her YW medallion today!  Yea, Annalee!

No run today, first day of Cub Scout camp.  I'm the coordinator until the cub master gets back on Thursday, so I get to deal with any issues.  I dropped my son off that morning and got the two women that were volunteering that day all oriented and then I went to work.  About half way through the day, just 45 mins before I had my run planned, I get a call from the camp telling me that one of our boys fell during the sports activity and may have dislocated his shoulder.  They couldn't get in touch with either of his parents so I needed to help with that.  He got a cool ride in the ambulance to Children's and it turns out his collar bone is broken.  Poor kiddo, he's out for the week probably.  His mom is due this week with their 4th and so I'm sure that's all they needed.  The rest of the day was hectic with a move and by 10pm I was just too dead to go out.

I got up extra early today to get my run in before spending the day at day camp with my son.  Today was my scheduled day, as is Friday.  I got up, threw on my clothes (not matching, I'm sure) and headed out.  I had about 45 mins so I had planned on about 4-5 mi but I got about 1 mile out and looked up.  The white puffy clouds were turning black.  Hmm, that's weird.  About 5 minutes after that, I heard the first clap of thunder.  Another 2 minutes and I'm being DUMPED on with a ton of thunder & lightning.  I turned around and headed back.  The shorter run turned out OK since I had to get rain gear and other stuff now for camp that I hadn't planned on.

The run itself was OK.  It was somewhat fast, but I tired quickly.  It's runs like this that make me wonder how in the world I've run 2 Halfs and how I'm supposed to run my next one in Sept.  This week is probably going to be a low mileage week, but I've got to try and just get the miles in, I guess.  I think Saturday's long run will be key this week.

This is the kind of run that keeps me coming back for more!  After yesterday, I needed a run like this.  Decent mileage, low 150s HR, and despite the humidity, it was very enjoyable and comfortable run!  I waited until AFTER the thunderstorms had passed (brilliant) before heading out.  It was about 9:20pm before I left, but it had cooled off some from the 90F+ weather today.  Kids were hot and tired after camp, but they did the creek walk today which kept them a little cool in addition to the daily swim session.

I left for my run and my Garmin gave me the low battery warning.  Darn, I think I forgot to turn it off yesterday after my short run.  Oh well, I'll track it for as long as it lasts.  It hung in there for about the first 0.85 miles.  By that time, I had gone up the biggest hill and had gotten into a grove with a 150-155 HR which was slow and comfortable (~8:50-9:00 pace).  I tried to just keep that effort after the Garmin died.  I had only planned on using it for the distance and the HR, so that was fine.  I just switched to the iPod stopwatch.

I realized the Garmin was dead at the 1.2mi mark where I had to stop for traffic at a light.  I started the iPod timer but I'm not exactly sure what my time was to that point because my watch clock and my iPod clock were likely off by minutes.  Anyways, here are my times at the odd distance markers for this out & back:

0 - .85 mi - 7:59 (9:19)
.85 - 1.20 mi - ??
1.20 - 3.00 mi - 15:19 (8:30)
3.00 - 4.20 mi - 16:54 (9:23)
4.20 - 5.99 mi - 9:49 (8:11)

I felt really strong throughout and just focused on my form and keeping the effort in a reasonable range.  My main goal was to go the distance and do it at a speed that was comfortable and that I could sustain the entire run.  My confidence has been renewed that I can finish a Half again.

I hope to be able to get up early enough tomorrow to do it all over again.  :-)

No run today.  I got up super early, mainly because I had insomnia.  It was 4:30 and I figured I'd go for a run after I checked my work email.  There were a couple of important emails waiting for me, so I returned those and got involved in a project that I wanted to finish up today since I was leaving at 2:30pm from work to head out to the scout camp with my son.  Long story short (yeah, I know, when am I ever short), I kept working and didn't run.  I had planned to run during lunch since I had put in my time this morning, but work was busy and so that didn't happen.  I left work late due to some late "urgent" needs of my director and then I was out the door.  I was in charge of 2 other boys until their dads could get out to camp.  They're both lawyers so they didn't get there until after 6pm.  

Camp was great, had a lot of fun at the overnighter.

This run was a little painful...literally.  I haven't had a problem with the muscle on the outside of my right lower leg for a long time.  I used to have to stretch that after every run because it would get sore.  For some reason, it came back with a vengence during this run.  I had to stop several times to stretch it and that would help for about another 1/2mi then I'd have to do it again.  By the time I got to the last 1mi or so, I was able to run it in.  I'm not sure what's up with that, but I wasn't a happy runner.  I'll keep stretching it some over the next couple of days and see if that clears it up.

On a happy note, I had made my turn around and was heading back when out of the corner of my eye, I saw some movement.  I looked over and there was a lady and her dog coming out of the woods.  I had never noticed a trail being there so I stopped the Garmin and went to investigate.  I ran it a little ways and there were two separate trails.  I took the lower one and it went for quite a ways.  I stopped and turned around.  Looking on Google Earth, it appears that that trail area is quite large.  With all the foliage, I wasn't able to see the trails or where they went, so I'll just have to run out there then run around the trails and see where they go.  It was nice and cool under the very thick foliage!  I'm excited that I found some trails that are challenging so close to my house.  I figured I'd have to drive about 10 miles away to find anything good.

Feeling a little run down today, too.  I hope I'm not coming down with what my wife had a couple of weeks ago.  :-(

I'm officially sick.  My wife had some slow to recover from virus a few weeks ago.  I get home from scout camp Friday night not feeling that great.  Sore throat was the biggest complaint.  Yesterday, it continued to get worse.  I'll blame my lack of energy and lackluster run yesterday on that.  Last night was bad.  Today, even worse.  I think I'm going to die.  lol

I know most of you out on the west coast didn't hear about this, but I know the rumor has been going around the blog, so let me just come clean.  My running has been so sporadic and inconsistent because I was caught.  I'm only allowed so many minutes a day in "the yard" and so I have to really push to get the miles in.

I hope to get some solid miles this week even with the added weight of the ankle bracelet.  Hope it doesn't throw off my form too much.

I'm getting over this stupid virus or whatever it is!  I'm still really congested and "stuff" but I'm getting better.  I didn't run yesterday and just worked from home which was fine, but I missed getting in a run.  Today, my wife dropped me off at work.  She was concerned about me parking and walking the 1.5mi to work when I was sick, and told me she'd come and pick me up when I was done.  I'm not one to stay down when I'm sick or recovering from injury or surgery, and my wife knows it.  I think she was a little suspicious of the gym bag but she didn't say anything.  The day was going to be perfect (mid-70s & 40% humidity) so I took my running clothes with the intent to run during lunch, but work was killer busy and I didn't get a chance to even run out and get a sandwich to bring back to the desk until 2:20pm, just in time for my 2:30 meeting.  My choices were to either go to the gym, run, then have the wife pick me up.  Or leave the laptop, backpack, etc. and just run home. :-) 

Since I had put in 13 hours and really needed a break from work, I ran home.  I took the flatter route which is about 3/4 mi longer, but I had my phone in case I needed to call in the cavalry.  The first 1/2mi I could feel the fatigue from being sick, so I decided to just take it easy and keep the HR under 160.  The first 3.5 mi or so is flat along the river, then up a hill, some flat, then down the hill to the house.  I did great keeping it under 160 and had a pace of about 8:30-8:45.  I walked part of the uphill just to keep it reasonable since I really didn't want to stress the system and trying to keep it under 160 on a hill is really just a fast walk.  I finished fine and felt good.  No issues with the muscle like Saturday, so I think the stretching fixed whatever brought that back on.

Commentary:  There was a kid (20-something) that passed me about 1.5mi into my run.  He looked over at me as he passed, not to smile and say hi, though.  He just looked me up and down and continued on.  I didn't care and just kept at my same pace.  On a normal day, I would have matched his pace and tried to see how long I could hold on.  It wasn't much faster than my easy pace, so I would have hung on fine.  Today, I was about keeping it real.  About 10m in front of me, he slowed to just faster than my pace.  At first, I thought maybe it was my imagination and pride that he was sizing me up, but about 2 mins after passing me and being maybe 20m in front of me, he turned around to check and see where I was at.

About a minute after that, he turned around and headed back.  Looking at my garmin, I was 2.0mi into my run and knowing I wasn't even half way, I just kind of laughed to myself.  You're the champion, buddy.  I find this funny because on my runs, especially my training runs, I always try and say "hi" or "mornin'" or "hello," along with a nod or quick wave.  I even try to muster a smile!  This is whether I'm passing them in the same direction or not.  I never really try and size up my competition even during races.  Maybe it's my mentality that where I'm at in the pack we're all just fighting to do our best and I'm not thinking about being in competition for an AG place.  I just want a nice PR!  That's why I don't mind being polite as I pass or am passed.  Now, once someone has passed me or if I see someone up ahead that I think I can catch, I try and go after them.  Not because they passed me, but to try and challenge myself and see if I can maintain their pace.  So, it's kinda humorous to me that a 20-something was sizing up a 39 1/2 year old balding dude running a 8:30 pace.  He probably thought it was humorous and probably somewhat pathetic that I didn't chase him...or maybe that I couldn't chase him.

The run was almost boring after the runner left me.  Good thing I had my trusty 1GB iPod Nano to keep me company.  I'm glad to be back in the swing of things and am looking for a nice consistent week!  Now I have to go because my son is begging me to get off my blog and come watch a movie with him.  I'm hoping he will be up for a Disney Princess movie since those are my favorites!!  haha

I biked to and from work today (12 mi total), but felt bad I didn't run, so before leaving for my bike ride home, I ran a couple of miles.  It was such a nice day I couldn't pass it up.  Plus, I didn't want to put a 0 in the miles for today.  :-)

My quads were feeling it tonight, a little soreness in the knees (probably from the different muscle/tendon usage in them from biking, I would assume), and some pain that comes and goes in my right hip.  No problems with the outside of my shin, which is muy bueno.  The pain in my hip is right in front.  If you're sitting and poke your finger into your "hip" right where the bend is, that's where it is.  I need to figure out what that is so I can stretch it.  I think it might be the IT Band that people talk about.  I'll feel like a real runner if I can say I have an ITB issue.  lol

Still kinda sick, but I'm getting better.  I'll be biking it the rest of this week and hope to be mostly over this illness by Saturday when I am planning a 8+ miler.