And We're Back!!!

Since it was Spring Break around here we decided to take the family to St. Louis for vacation. I won't bore you with the details on here. If you want to know, check out my other blog. Anyway, I took about 4 days off of running during that time. I think that was a good thing since my knee has been bothering me some. I think that the stretches that I have been doing have helped.

Anyway, the weather here today is pretty crappy. So I decided to head to the Y this morning and check out there new Matix treadmills. Not bad, but they all have 30 minute time limits. That sucks for trying to put in long runs. I ended up doing 5 miles in 44:05. I did have to stop and reset the damn treadmill after the first 30 minutes. By the end of the 5 miles I felt pretty good. I had a little irritation in my knee, but nothing that would have stopped me had I been 5 miles from home on an outdoor run. With being only about 27 days from the mini I need to make sure that things don't get any worse with the knee. I will just have to take it easy and stop if any real pain appears.

Later

Sunday's 9 miler

As I woke around 5:30 am on Sunday morning, which kinda sucks since I'm on vacation for Spring Break, I turned on the local news. All they could talk about was how nice of a day it was going to be. They kept telling me that it was going to be in the mid to upper 60's by midday. The current temp was hovering near 40. Knowing that I had a lot to do, and needing to run I decided it was now or never.

So I drug myself from my warm bed and "suited up". With no real plan of where or how far I wanted to run I headed out the door. I started out by heading toward Chris's house. Things were feeling pretty good, so I decided to tackle the route that he had run about a week ago, which would bring me back toward his neighborhood. As I neared the turning point where I could either cut my run short, meaning 7ish miles instead of 9ish, I opted for the longer route. This may have been a bit of a mistake. For whatever reason, be it not enough stretching, upping the miles too fast, or some other reason, I seem to be having some ITB issues on longer runs. At probably the 8 mile mark I began to have some slight discomfort in my right knee. Not bad enough to stop me, but discomfort. By the time I reached my house and stopped I was hit by some pain. I then headed inside and stretched my ITB followed by a round of icing. Things are feeling better this morning, but I think I will probably lay off of the running for a couple of days. Espcially since I am planning on heading to St. Louis with the family tomorrow morning for a couple of days.

Anyway, here are the numbers and route from yesterday's run.

9.09 miles in 1:17:50
Average pace was 8:33/mile


Later

2 miles, 14:52, Green Beer, and Good Friends!

What more could you ask for? Today was the 1st Annual Jeffersonville Shamrock 2-Miler. With this thing being in our home town, how could we not run it?

Unfortunately I forgot my camera. So you will have to check out Chris's blog to see the pics. With that being said, on to the recap.

We arrived to the sign it about 5:45. Then we waited around for the rest of the people we knew who were running. At approximately 6:30 things were underway. It was a very fast start. Scotty Z took off like a bat out of hell. Not sure what he was thinking. After about the 1st block, Chris and I settled into a good pace. We ended up running the 1st mile in 7:30. Not bad. About 1/2 mile from the finish we caught and passed Scotty Z. I think I need to tell him the story of the turtle and the hare. With about 50-75 feet left Chris and I ended up racing to the finish. I am pretty sure that he got me this time. DAMN LONG STRIDE!!! We ended up finishing in 14:52. I was very happy with the time and the lack of knee pain.

After the run they had green beer, snack, door prizes, and Irish Dancing. We participated in the beer and snacks. Not the dancing.

I had a great time and hope that it happens again soon.

Later

Took some time off, now back to running

Last week I only ran two days. Then for whatever reason I did not run another day until today. I was either too tired or too busy to either make it outside or to the gym. With a little over 40 days til the mini, I need to get my ass in gear. 

So from this point forward I am planning on running everyday if I like it or not. Today I only ran 3.1 miles in a little over 25 minutes. At about the 2 mile mark my right knee began to bother me, so I decided to stop at the 5k point. I am planning on running tonight at work. Should be a relatively easy 2-2 1/2 mile run. 

I may be running a half marathon the weekend after the mini with Chris. We shall see.

Later

Back to the 2:30 AM Runs

I am very glad that the weather has warmed up. It has given me and my friends at work the opportunity to resume our 2:30 am runs. I have really missed these runs over the winter months and hope that the weather holds out so we can continue. There is a chance of rain tonight.

We have ran the last two days. Here are the distances and times.

Sunday Night: 2.5 miles 20:31.82
Monday Night: 2.6 miles 20:35.29

I am not sure what got into us, but we were hauling ass last night. We were averaging a 7:56 mile.

So here is hoping for warm weather and future runs.

Later

Nothing Beats Running With Friends

When I got up this morning around 9:00 am I checked my email to see if Chris had responded to my email about running today. He had not, but he had sent me and email letting me know that one of the local radio station morning shows was going to be at a McDonald's in our town. He was planning on biking over and wanted to know if I would like to join him. Unfortunately I had slept too late to join him. That sucked, since I would have definitely gone. Oh well.

So around 9:30 am I got a call from Chris. He was home and wanted to give me the run down of how his McDonald's trip was and set a time to run. He said how does 2 sound for running. I thought he said 10. When I questioned him on this he said sure, why not. I'm awake. So I headed over to his house for a run.

I ended up putting in 4 miles in 35:34.20. Since he had already biked a couple of miles he only did around 2.5.

Since the weather is going to be in the 70's here this weekend I can definitely see some outdoor running in my future. We will see if I can possibly find an opportunity to run with Chris again this weekend. Not sure what his plans are. We shall see.

Later

Didn't Run, But Got a New Toy

Last friday I ordered a new iPhone from At&t. Today it was delivered. So instead of heading out for a run I spent most of my afternoon setting it up. So far I am loving the 3G and the GPS. I downloaded the MapMyRun app for it and am anxious to try it out. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be nice, so maybe I can try it out then.

My wife inhereted my old iPhone and is very happy so far. 

Later

Another Monday, Another Run

Today I woke up around 12:30 pm. Not too bad, but I would have liked to have slept longer. So after checking the weather and having a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios I decided to head to the Y. The temps outside were hovering in the upper 20's with the windchill making it feel around 16. Yuck.

As I arrived at the Y, I was happy to see that one of the treadmills that does not have the 30 minute time limit was open. So I jumped on only to be disappointed (TWSS). The thing was not working. So I had to settle for one of the ones with a time limit.

I ended up covering 3.41 miles in 30 minutes. Not a very fast pace, but a nice easy run. I checked the weather for the rest of the week and it looks like it will be gradually getting warmer. Hopefully it is right. I would much rather run outside. We shall see.

Later 

Running Update

The weather last week was pretty damn nice for running. With that being said, I did not run as much as I wanted/should have. After Tuesday's 9 miler I ran another 4 miles with Chris. Unfortunatley when I thought I had started my watch, I had not. So when we reached the 2 mile split point I was not very happy to find that out. I ended up starting the timer at that point. We just doubled the time, which put us right around 35 minutes. 

As far as the rest of the week, I ended up working 2nd shift on Thursday in order to end my week and not be tired all day on Friday. It is very nice to be able to do this, since my wife is off on Friday and it makes for a long weekend. Friday was spent doing the weekly errands, which included the grocery and some shopping. Saturday night we had Gibby and his family over for a little Wii gaming. Turned out to be pretty fun. We will definately have to do that again. It beats the hell out of just sitting home doing nothing. Gibby mentioned that we needed to get all of our group of friends together some time. That would be awesome. We will see if we can get it worked out.

I did manage to make it to the Y today and put in a 5k with a time of 25:07. Unfortunately all of the treadmills without the 30 minute timer were taken. I did not feel like having to restart or move to a different treadmill, so a 5k is all I did.

I did get signed up for the Shamrock 2-miler on the 17th. I know Chris is running this one, not sure who else. Should be fun.

The weather for the upcoming week looks pretty good. So we will see how the outdoor running goes.

Later