Three miles and rest

Here's the last run before Saturday's mini-marathon.  I tried to practice keeping it at my race pace and was pretty successful.

So, today starts the carbing up.  Yay!  I get to eat! I'm still counting calories, but I'm going to relax the limit.  I'm thinking 2500, but I might go higher.  I just have to remember to get back on the wagon on Sunday.

For those of you who are playing the home version of "The Nutjob  Loses", I have lost 8.6 lbs in three weeks.  Weighed in at 195 this morning.

Windy 5 Miler

23 mph wind from the NNW.  Sure, it was 49 degrees, but I'm glad I wore my underarmor shirt, ear warmers and gloves.  I reckon it something called "wind chill."  It's the outskirts of hurricane Sandy.  Yay!  Do I get a participant ribbon?

Almost Forgot

to post this.  That's like doing your homework and not turning it in (something both of my boys were guilty of growing up.)

It was rainy, windy, and chilly.  In short, perfect weather!

Easing back into it

It's 77 degrees out and sunny; couple that with the grueling 12 on Monday, and you get an easy three miles.

Well, mix in the cutest little puppy in the world, some dump trucks, a good deal of sweat running down my face, and a wave to the Army helicopter guy as he drove down the road (in his truck, not his Blackhawk that he regularly buzz-bombs the neighborhood with), then you get an easy three miles, or at least my version of it.

Now that THAT's done...

Twelve miles with stops at 2, 4, and 9 for stretching.  Finally, I got it in.  Then as a reward, my ungrateful calf muscle decided to make me scream like a little girl when it cramped up while I was sitting on the floor recuperating.  You know, you take these muscles on a nice run, drink G2 Perform 02 on the run to replace electrolytes, and this is how they repay you.

I ought to bench it for the half marathon; that's what I ought to do.  Don't think that option is off the table...I can grab a pot roast off the shelf at Target to replace you, Mr. Triceps Surae.  Think on that while you're causing me pain!

5 in southern Indiana

Two years ago, I ran five miles at this same location.  Well, I ran and walked five miles last time (here's the post); this time was a bit faster, and I ran the whole thing.  Yay on me.

I didn't have any cramping in my left leg, so that's good.  I also think I'll be running 12 miles on Monday after work so that I get it in before my mini-marathon on Nov 3rd.  I'm confident that I can make the distance running, I'm not so crazy about how much time I gave myself to prepare for it.  I should have started earlier and built more time into the schedule.  Note for next time, I suppose.

I'm thinking of doing another mini before the end of the year; it's the Santa Hustle 5K and Half Marathon.It looks like it would be fun (free beard!!) (ok, not free, 'cause the race costs) (but...BEARD!!!)  Of course, I'd try to ruin the fun by racing, so there's that...

Ouch

I think I strained my left quad last night.  I tried stretching throughout the day and stopped after two miles to give it a good stretch, but I still felt I should stop after three miles.  I soaked for a bit in the tub and will apply heat on it this evening.

I'm supposed to run 6 tomorrow or Thursday or Saturday and 12 on Friday.  I'll see if it feels better tomorrow, but if it doesn't I don't have any problem doing the 12 on Friday and skipping the 6 altogether.

Sigh, suppose I shouldn't have tried dancing gangnam style...

Sunset into Night run

So, since I'm counting calories, I figured I'd run this after dinner; any food that I left on the road due to regurgitation I get to add back to the total for the day!  So not only do I get calorie credits for the mileage, but also I get them for any technicolor yawns that may come with the run.  Score!

Unfortunately, I only got to count the 1200 or so calorie credits; I didn't have to talk to Ralph on the big white telephone.  Not that I carry a commode around with me for such purposes.  I'm just sayin'.

Anyways, I'm off to eat some Crisco.  Just because I can!

FORE!

Part of this run was through a golf course.  About a half a mile in, I realized why people don't run through golf courses; thankfully, I didn't have any close calls with flying objects, but I did get plenty of strange looks from the golfers.

Yesterday, I committed $70 to run the Monumental Half Marathon, and since I'm a cheap skate, you know this will provide that extra bit of motivation to stick to the schedule and make sure I'm trained up.

On another note, I have successfully stuck to my 2000 calorie diet for the last three days; I get calorie credits for running, so Wed and Thu were fairly easy to stay within the budget.  Friday, however, was a different animal as I didn't do any running; that was a bit more difficult and took some real planning to meet the goal.

Today, though, I can eat pretty much as much as I want!  That little run there gave me a 1500 calorie credit, YEE HAW!!!  I've already had second breakfast and am looking forward to eating Thai tonight.  Thai iced tea, Mee-ga-tee, fried spring rolls, chicken satay.  Mmmm, Mmmm, good!

I might just go downstairs and eat a stick of butter just because I can!

5K practice

I set out to keep the pace at 10 min/mile or lower with the goal of finishing 3 miles under 30 minutes.  As you can see, I was successful in meeting this goal.  I added on the tenth at the end just to see where I'd end up at for a 5K.  Not even close to my fastest race 5K, but this is also after running 6 yesterday and 5 w/intervals on Monday.  I think I could do much better than this with 5 days rest as I would have before a race.

On another note, I have to sincerely thank Dave over at BigManRunning.  I kinda thanked him yesterday for the link to the calorie counter, but I didn't realize how much this tool can help me get control over my eating.  As you all can tell, I'm a numbers guy, so being able to put in the food I eat and get numbers back with a budget type balance sheet really appeals to me.  I'm already trying to figure out how to keep within my allotted 2K calorie limit when we go out for Thai tomorrow night.

Windy 6 Miles

Those first 5 miles were pretty consistent, eh?  I was trying to get below 1:03:00, but just missed it as you can see.  All in all, another good run with nice mid 50's temp and sunny.  The wind was a bit brisk coming from the WNW (just looked and it's about 20 mph), but thankfully, most of my route is North/South.

On another note, thanks to Dave over at Bigmanrunning, I counted my caloric intake for the very first time in my life.  I used everydayhealth.com's calorie counter and was somewhat surprised at what is a typical meal plan for me.  It added up to around 2770 calories.  That's fine for the days I run, but on those other days, I think I might have to cut back a bit.

More intervals

About 5 minutes faster than last week due to only walking 1/10th of a mile after my quarter race pace.  All in all, this was another good workout on another beautiful, sunny day.  I think I'm getting close to committing to that half marathon on Nov 3rd...

BOOYA!!!

Eight miles and I had enough in the tank for that sub 10 min mile at the end.  Yes!!  I love having runs like this one, where I feel like I have plenty of energy, I manage my pace to achieve a negative split from the first half to the second, and it's sunny and cool outside.

I set my pace alarms at 12 and 11 min/mile, and as you can see, I kept in that range the first 5 miles.  It was my goal to run the last three miles faster than 11 minute miles and the last one under 10 minutes.

The temp outside was a cool 45 degrees, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky, so it felt warmer than that.  I still wore long sleeves and an ear warmer.

I've been waffling on the Nov 3rd half marathon, but after this run, I think I'm on track to do better than my previous two halfs.  I shouldn't have to worry about the heat sapping my will to run...hopefully...

1000th published post and 10-4 good buddy

So, this is my 1000th post that the world has seen (I have three half baked posts that I should just delete.)  Anyways, it was a beautiful day here in Indy, so I took Denali out on that first mile.  Notice how I slid that in there - the explanation of why mile 1 was slow; yeah, I'm pretty slick that way.

Now for a day rest before hitting that eight miler that I should have done last week.  I need to check the weather forecast to see what's in store for that day.  I've got places to be at 7 am and 10 am, so I think the earliest I can get it in is around noon.  Of course, I don't want to run on a full stomach, so lunch would push the run back to two or so.  Or, I could snack on something around 10, run around noon, and push lunch to 2 or 3.  Or maybe make it another snack at 2 or 3.  I got options.

Intervals on a whim

The last time I did quarter mile intervals was April 18th; these times are a bit off from that run.  But, it was a good run, and I feel better for it!

Rain...CLEAR! RUN!...Rain

When I got home, it was sprinkling, so I thought I'd just wait a bit and go out after it quit.  My calculations (and accuweather, for that matter) were slightly off as the rain lasted for about two hours.  Erm...ok.

But, it stopped around 5:30, and I knew I had a short run, so I headed out.  Let me tell you, this run felt really good after slogging it out on the treadmill last Saturday.

I wore my new mid-thigh length stretchy undies for this run.  My favorite running shorts have them built in, but I have two pair of shorts that don't have them, so I bought a pair of pairs while we were in TN.  I'm hoping that it helps prevent the chafing that I tend to get on longer runs.

I also wore my new shoes; breakin' them in, breakin' them in (sung to the tune of "Breakin' the Law" by Judas Priest.)