Virginia 4/10 Miler Recap

I cannot believe that is has been almost a week since I did the 4 Miler.  I should have done this sooner but needed to let it all set in.  First, this was by far the biggest race I have ever done and the most fun.  Just the number of people helping out and those there for support was amazing.  All those that help put this event on, I applaud you.  Everything ran like a well oiled machine.  Fed and the rest of you guys…. YOU ARE AMAZING!!!!!

Onto the running.  This was my first race since my injury last August.  Overall my foot has felt pretty good the last few months.  And, my first run since coming down with pneumonia two weeks ago. Going in I knew I wanted to start slow, stay steady, have fun and beat 50 minutes (45 if possible).  Brenda and I arrived early (so I thought).  By the time we found a place to park there was little time left to mingle and get ready.  Since it was really cloudy my Garmin was having trouble locking onto satellites.  I arrived at the back of the pack as they were getting ready to start the race.  Still no satellites.  Two minutes after the gun fired I crossed the start line.  Still no satellites – panic creeps in.  Just after I crossed the line, it locked on.  R E L I E F!!!!  (I had no idea I was so dependent on my Forerunner 205)   I had wanted to find a really slow pack and pin myself in behind them to force myself to take it slow.  I found them.  Then I passed them.  All the excitement had me going a lot faster than I wanted but I was able to slow myself down.  I felt pretty good all they way up to the 3.5 mile portion.  I knew I would have to walk some off the hills since I had done virtually no training for this puppy.  Apparently having pneumonia and no training caught up to me.  Every breath was forced as was every step.  My plan was to get to Rivermont then keep a steady jog to the finish line since it was downhill.  I fell short on that one too.  As I crossed the finish line my Garmin said 47:43.  I beat 50 but was just a tad over 45.  I was really happy with that considering the circumstances.  My clock time was 49:06 and chip time was 47:49 (we will say the Garmin is the official winner).  A really cool thing was Lyn finished right behind me.  Since I started running races we have finished back to back at most every one.  I would love to meet her at some point, since we seem to have the same times and finish together.  After a long wait to be shuttled back to the start line, I finally met up with Brenda.  We mingled a bit and saw several members of our church and some of my co-workers.

***My daughters best friend also ran the 4 Miler.  She is only 7.  At church on Sunday she came into the Youth room where my and my wife were (full of youth) wearing her medal letting everyone see  it.  Then proceeded to let everyone know she beat me by 33 seconds.  She was very proud.  I spoke to her father before the service and he said she was dancing around the house saying “I beat my best friends dad”.  Just another reason why this was such a fun race.***

When I got home I was beat and sore.  I figured this race would do one of two things.  1.  Make me realize I need to take a long break from running.  2.  Ignite a fire that I had last year about running.  And the winner is…….  NUMBER 2.  But this will be a slow flame to start with.  I did get a few runs in this week.  My most impressive run was I got to take a co-workers 2.5 year old lab for a run at work.  It took us a while to get into a grove but we had fun.  She even gave me permission to get her for every run while at work.  S W E E T!!!! Below is a graph from my Garmin of the first mile.  You can see it took us a while to even out.  Plus, I started out way way way faster than I can run now.  I was at that pace last August.  It will just take me some time to get back there.

Where to go from here?  I am planning on running a race for my daughters school in November this year.  Next year my focus is on the Shamrock and Rock N Roll Half at Virgina Beach.  If things work out, the 10 Miler is a possibility too.    I would like to get back to some 5k’s too.  Those are really fun.

Till the next time…. Keep moving.

In Jeopardy?

Can this really be happening?

Last year I had to miss the 10 Miler with plantar fascia issues.  This year was looking great until Monday.  I had experienced some back pain and shortness of breath but thought it was just a pulled muscle.  But, with the 10 Miler two weeks away, I figured I would have it checked out.  Survey say….. PNEUMONIA – in my right lung!!!!!!!!  WHAT!!?!?!?!!?  How can this be happening now?!?!?!!?!?  Please tell me this is a dream!!!!

Well it is not a dream.  I consider my self semi-healthy but just going up and down steps would wipe me out and I would be struggling for breath as if I had just finished a three mile run.  It must have been bad for the doc to say upfront no work for three days (and for me to agree and not go in).  So for three days I laid around, slept, watched and answered numerous questions about Star Wars (from Jack – he is OBSESSED!!!!).  I had feeling I would be going into the 4 Miler with not as much training as I would have liked.  Looks like I will now be going in cold turkey.  I was hoping for a sub 45 minute time before.  Now, I will take anything under 50.

Will I get in any sort of run before the race?  I am not sure.  After working for a bit today I am zonked.  There is no way I am going to miss this one.  I will follow the doctors (and Brenda) orders and rest and not do too much to soon.  For those that know me, I tend to not have a take it easy mode so this is hard.

It’s Official

As of10 minutes ago, I am now registered for the 4 Miler.  Next year WILL be the 10 Miler!  I am starting to second guess myself but it is time to get back into it all the way.

This week has been a good week of running.  This marks my first week of running in double digits for the week since July of this year.  The week started off looking like I was not going to get in enough miles to beat last weeks totals but I was determined.  Although, this did require me to run two days back to back for a total of 6.2 miles, 3. 1 on Friday afternoon and 3.1 Saturday morning.  My legs are not quite ready for that just yet.  My legs felt like lead which required me to walk a lot more than I had planned.  When I started out this morning, I was planning on a nice easy pace just to get it done.  After the first quarter mile the Garmin was saying I was at a 9:20 pace.  WAY TO FAST FOR ME (yet).  I attempted to drop back at the half mile mark, it was at 9:40 pace.  This is whack.  I have not done these times in a year.  The entire run was like this.  Garmin was saying something different than what my body was saying (for the record I liked what Garmin was saying).  As for the 4 miler, I am feeling better as I write this and look at the Garmin results for the week:
9/9/09 – 3.76 miles 11:26/mile pace
9/11/09 – 3.13 miles 11:15/mile pace
9/12/00 – 3.13 miles 11:11/mile pace

Overall my whole body feels great now.  There is some soreness but overall I feel great.  I love the positive feeling that running gives you. Now to find my speed and lose the gut!

Weekly Totals:
Week of 8/30 – 8.7 miles
Week of 9/6 – 10.02 miles

Another week with better results

Work is still going crazy.  Right now we are trying to fill in the wifi gaps in the residence halls which is keeping running from basements to ceilings.  All while lugging boxes of cables, push pole, bucket of pull string, fish tape, and a 20lb tool bag.  Geez!!  That is a workout in itself.  Since my body has not wanted to cooperate and wake up early to run, I have just made some adjustement to get them in during the day.

This week i was able to get in three good runs (2 on the Dairy Loop at SBC and one at home).   The two at SBC were decent runs.  Nothing really to write home about.  But the run from my h0use was AWESOME!!!!  It was the first time in a long time that running has felt fun.  It helps a lot when songs on my playlist keep things interesting.   Zombie Nation is a great song to run to.  Espically for doing intervals.  That song came on after the first mile.  All I could do was smile big and say this is going to be fun.  That run had more hills than I would have liked but the challenge was a nice challenge and I felt great afterwards.

I am seriously considering running the 4 miler but I have yet to fully commit.  I would like to have had more longer runs and more time to get this side stitch issue under control.  If anyone is running or considering the Virginia 10 or 4 Miler I would like to hear from you.

Good luck to David and those running the Rock N Roll 1/2 at Virginia Beach this weekend!!!!

On a non running note…. Tonight my son went to his first college football game.  Jack went with his aunt Janet to the UVA vs W&M game.  He had a great time from watching the Golden Knights, the entrance video, and who knows what else he was getting into (I was working so I could not be with them).  He was even jumping up and down to Zombie Nation like the students were at the start of the game and at the start of the second half.

Gettin my groove back

I was able to get two runs in last week. That is a start. I wanted to get three but time and weather have not been playing nice lately. There is not a whole lot I can say about the runs other than they were completely opposite.

The first run was in the morning before work (my favorite time to run). Logged a bit over two and a half miles in 30 minutes.  Looking down at the Garmin it never dipped below an 11 minute mile and even getting close to that was giving it all I had. On Friday I was able to get off early and went for a run in he late afternoon. WOW!! It felt like I had a rocket strapped to my butt. On the first mile out I kept the average at a 10 minute mile. Quite a bit different than the run earlier in the week. I ran 3 miles in 34:26.  While not spectacular it did give me some encourgement for the next one.  This run was more fun and felt like I did better than what Gar  I do not remember ever having to deal with so much side stitch before.  Mile one seems to be good but mile two is murder.

I think I am starting to get this hang of this stuff again.

Weekly Totals:
Distance – 5.57 miles

Not as I had planned….

Today was suppose to be different.  Work hours return to normal, weather was going to be cool, and running would resume.  I even got some stretching in last night that made things feel really good and had me stoked about running.  When the alarm went off this morning, something told me I should take advantage of getting some more rest.  Boy was that premonition right.  We were hoping we could put the brakes on the network roll out this week.  NADA!  I all day installing new wifi units, climbing into ceilings, up and down ladders, up and down steps with my 20lb tool bag and a ladder.  WOW!  My thighs are on fire.  I was so exhausted the first time I sat down tonight (9:00pm) I fell straight asleep.

Lets hope I tomorrow morning brings about different results.

There is an end in sight…

It is almost 6am.  I have been up for 24 hours straight (enter Jack Bauer reference here).  Tonight I knocked out the network/wifi upgrade in the last academic building on campus.  I really had planned on being home by 2 but things went funky.  What does this have to do with the price of tea in china, you might ask.  This means the long days of installing network equipment are coming to an end (sad though because I really LOVE it!) and we go back to regular work hours on Monday.  That opens up my early mornings again for running.  I am a morning runner.  There are no two ways about it.  I have tried evening/night running.  It is not for me.  I feel blah when running after dinner, tired from long days at work, etc….  Plus I feel like I am taking time (what little I do get to see them) from my wife and kids.  That is why I am a morning runner.  It gives me a chance to sort out the previous day and gives me a head start on mapping out my day without taking time from my family. Running helps me sort out the issues of the day and a better ability to tackle what is about to come my way.

This cannot be running blog without some references to running.  Well, I finished up work at 5 AM and thought it would be a good way to cap things off.  Get in a nice three mile run in and have enough energy to make it through the day.  I stepped outside and it sucked.  It felt like it never cooled off from the afternoon.  It just felt like a swamp.  It only got worse through the day.  So, no running.  Last year this was my favorite climate to run in.

I promise.  Soon I will have something running related to write about.

One Year Anniversary

I have been talking about throwing out the old and adding the new for some time now.  Anniversary dates are always good places to start, right?  It was one year ago today I suffered my worst injury, plantar fascia (damage as the physical therapist says).  For almost 10 months every step was excruciating pain and one spend on crutches.  My two injuries the required surgery were a walk in the park compared to this puppy.  Oddly enough, I did set a PR on the same day I got hurt.  Not all bad, heh?

I am virtually pain free these days (a good physical therapist is worth the co-pays) and back to some running.  Not as much running as I would like since work and life have seemed to be nonstop.  I get the occasional run in here and there but it is not enough.  I miss the routines and planning everything else around running.  Once this project is done at work, I VOW to get back in the saddle!!!!  At this point, there will be no races this year since due to everything else getting in the way.

I am back and am looking forward to this next chapter.  Since this is a new new beginning, all my old posts will stay back at Blogger.  Nothing but new stuff.  Thanks for following and hope you enjoy (comments are always welcome).