Four years of nonsense

Well, well, well, what do we have here??

Another blogiversary. Turns out I've been boring the Interwebs for four years now; how time flies! This link right here sums up my journey thus far.

Anyways, you may have noticed that I haven't blogged for two weeks, which means I haven't been running. I have decided to take 4-5 weeks off to finally let this groin strain heal.

Of course, decisions have consequences, and one of the casualties of my time off is my goal of running a marathon this year. I'm just fine with that; I would rather run a 5K in Oct/Nov without pain than run a marathon with pain.

I'm kinda funny that way...

THAT'S 8 miles!

One quick break at 4 miles to reset the machine, grab some more water, and change towels. I'm very happy with this run as I was able to manage the heat a little better than I have been lately on the treadmill. I think starting out at 12 min miles really helped.

That's not 8 miles...

This run doesn't fit any of my schedule. The summer heat is really playing havoc with my average laid plans; I might have to step up my planning to better than average. Not best, let's not get crazy here.

Day 2 & 4: Not

I strained my groin again on Wed with that sub-9 minute mile; I think. Anyways, it was really sore Fri and Sat, so I decided to skip the rest of the running last week and pick it up again today.

I think my problem last Wed was that I was really tired at the start of my last mile and didn't keep my feet pointed straight. With my toes pointed slightly outward, I use more inside leg muscles than the proper ones, aaaaand, groin strain.

I may have to decide here soon between speed and distance. I'd like to do both, but I'm afraid that this latest setback will force the choice. I'm leaning toward distance as I'd really like to run a marathon in Oct or Nov, and I'm not concerned with how fast I am for it. Sub 8 hour marathon is fine with me...8~P

I think my coach is out on some island camping, so I'll talk with him when he gets back. In the mean time, I'm planning on 8-10 tonight.

Day 3: Out of order

I stopped at mile 3 for about 20 minutes to cool off inside and chug some Gatorade. Supposedly, it's 91 outside right now and "feels like" 101. Yes, Fahrenheit. Although, I thought it "felt like" Celsius.

The average laid plans...

Hey, we're always talking about the "best laid plans," I just figured the average ones needed some lovin'. So, my average laid plans didn't work out. I didn't get up at 5 AM and run. Big surprise after Legs!

I did have the day off so while my youngest son was getting his braces taken off (Yay T!!), I went to the gym and attempted to put in 8 miles. As you can see I only made six, and that with stops at 1 mile, 4 miles, and 5.5 miles.

I knew that I was going to run with Nick this evening, so that was another mile (the slow one), and as soon as we got back to his house, I turned around and ran one more.

Whew. Day 1 is done...finally. Tomorrow may be Day 3 as I'm not sure if the heat and my tired legs will allow me to do the fartleks.

Switcharoo!

We switched things up this week; I will run Day 1 tomorrow morning. Tonight, we did our workout: Legs! and abs. But we always do abs, so, Legs!

Tomorrow's run should be really fun with two concrete Legs! Thud, thud, thud. I'll do eight or nine depending on my...Legs!

In other news, I am lining up my next couple of races:
Aug 6th: 15K trail run
Sep 3rd: 1/2 Marathon
Oct 1st: Greenwood 5K
Oct 15th: Either the 1/2 Marathon or the full Marathon
Nov 5th: If I did the half on Oct 15th, then the full Marathon

As always, things are subject to change, and the reason for the ambiguity on the last two races is that my coach will be in town for the Oct 15th race. He is not sure if his calf muscle will allow him to train for the full marathon, so if he doesn't run the full that day, he will run the half. And I'll run it with him.

Well, I'll run the race and be with him in spirit. He'll be long gone before I even cross the Start line. BUT, he'll be waiting for me at the end!

That's all for now. I'll hopefully get my run in early tomorrow morning, 5 AM or so, and beat the heat. It's supposed to get up into the 90's...again. Ick.