not exactly the Boston Marathon...

Total Distance So Far: 189.3 miles



Still in Boston, still running around the pretty reservoir. I've been dragging my dad out to help me go running (i.e. be my aid station and make sure I have water at the ready) at 7am both days I've attempted longer runs. Today was a little more overcast than Sunday, and a little more humid... but a pleasant running temperature all in all, maybe mid 70's?

I've spent the greater part of the week on trains and in Philadelphia actually, much of that wearing my foot splint to keep my bad foot stretched appropriated, but my feet have been more sore than usual all week long. I wasn't entirely sure what that would do for my next run. One thing was for sure: I stayed off my feet as much as I could manage this week, even deciding not to play Dance Dance Revolution on my brother's amazing hard pad controller. What can I say? Marathon training is sacrifice.

So Friday finally is here. Since I (once again) am on a plane tomorrow morning to head back to P-town, Friday was the chosen day to attempt the longer run. The TNT group run on Saturday is going 16 miles... so that's what I was shooting for today. Yeah, I didn't make it.

Here is how I did:
(lap 1) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:29 minutes
(lap 2) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:38 minutes
(lap 3) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:48 minutes
(lap 4) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:01 minutes
(lap 5) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:11 minutes
(lap 6) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:54 minutes
(lap 7) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:37 minutes
(lap 8) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 11:57 minutes
(lap 9) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 13:09 minutes
total: DISTANCE: 9 miles TIME: 01:42:44 minutes AVG PACE: 11:25 minute mile

Around lap 6 I was starting to ache quite a bit in both my knees. Every step was an effort following this. During lap 9 though, I decided to take a walking break... and noticed as I did so an overwhelming sensation of fatigue, and blackness creeping into my peripheral vision. That seemed VERY wrong, so I decided to cut my run short right there. Sure enough back at the house I weighed myself, and found I had lost approx 3.5 lbs during this run (even though I was drinking water).

That's a dangerous amount of dehydration, and it was a good thing I stopped when I did.
I blame the humidity out here. I should do better once back in Portland. I'm as exhausted and sore right now as I suspect I would be if I had made it all 16 miles in Portland.

It's amazing how hard the humidity hit me. Both of my runs out here ended up being approximately 1/2 of my goal distance. Go figure.

Hello, Boston!

Total Distance So Far: 180.3 miles

I had long-standing plans to visit family on the East Coast this week, so surprise! I'm in Boston this week.

Since it seems to be taking me about 2 weeks to recover from the longer runs... I've decided to attempt running 10 miles on Sunday instead of the 12 miles the TNT Oregon team did on Saturday morning. I missed that group run because I had a flight to catch.

My dad (Massachussets resident) had found a location near his house that seemed pretty good to do my runs at. It's a reservoir with a flat running trail around it, banked with pretty boston-esque benches and lots of trees. He sat down on a bench and happily read a book with a pile of water bottles next to him... I began running around the reservoir in laps. Turned out, one lap was 1 mile!

Here is a picture of the reservoir:

I did have my Garmin with me, but unfortunately it never really did get a good satellite link and was constantly losing it's GPS positioning, so the pace and the distance recorded on my unit was all screwy for this run... but I counted laps and had the timer going....

... so here is how I did:
(lap 1) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:03 minutes
(lap 2) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 9:47 minutes
(lap 3) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:40 minutes
(lap 4) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 10:37 minutes
(lap 5) DISTANCE: 1 mile TIME: 14:27 minutes
total: DISTANCE: 5 miles TIME: 55:34 minutes AVG PACE: 11:07 minute miles

During lap 5, my knee (surprise) locked up. That was it for me for the day. After that happened, I walked back to my dad's bench and we went home.

Not my best run, by any means. I do believe it was the humidity or something that messed with my knee. That's just no good. I did just get here the night before at midnight, so it's also possible I was really worn out from sitting on an airplane and in airports for 14 hours. I'll get as much rest as possible this week and try for a long run again on Friday...

35 elliptical minutes

Total Distance So Far: 175.3 miles

I seem to have managed to work up to a "10 minute mile" on the elliptical. I decided to just ride the elliptical today until the Distance meter got up to 3.5 miles.... and somehow today that only took 35 minutes... so... weird. I must be getting better at using the thing.

60 minutes on an elliptical

Total Distance So Far: 171.8 miles

Perhaps I overdid it today... doing 60 minutes (+3-4 minutes cool-down) where probably 45 minutes would have sufficed. But, I did 60 minutes. That + the cool-down took me 6.02 miles, and supposedly I also burned a little over 600 calories in the process.

It was a surreal workout as I had the ENTIRE fitness center to myself for the entire hour. I've never had that before!

I was really hungry when I finished exercising... and then as I waited for my late lunch of tunafish sandwich to absorb into my body, I was pretty sleepy. I'm normal again now tho.

happiness runs in a circular motion...

Total Distance So Far: 165.8 miles

Another Monday track session... I'm still on the beginner option thanks to my bad foot.
A little cooler and overcast, but a good day to be running. Lincoln High School's track is more enjoyable when the sun isn't beating down. I think it's fortunate that Lincoln High School is in Portland. heheheh...

Ok, the stats:
Warm-up...
DISTANCE: 1.18 miles TIME: 10:31 minutes PACE: 8:55 minute/miles

Laps..
(1) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:44 minutes PACE: 6:40 minute/miles
(2) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:47 minutes PACE: 6:41 minute/miles
(3) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:49 minutes PACE: 7:03 minute/miles
(4) DISTANCE: 0.26 miles TIME: 1:54 minutes PACE: 7:23 minute/miles

Cool-down...
DISTANCE: 0.90 miles TIME: 11:05 minutes PACE: 12:20 minute/miles

half marathon anyone?

Total Distance So Far: 162.7 miles

Saturday's group run this week was 14 miles long. We were meeting at Pier Park in St. Johns, a new route for the TNT team. Val and I carpooled there. The route, as it was explained to us, entailed 2 laps around a hilly trail-running trail in Pier Park, then out onto Lombard heading west, a left turn onto Columbia, and out to Kelly Point Park... all the way to the back parking lot there. Once in Kelly Point park we again run 2 laps around their pretty paved waterfront trails, and then head back the way we came to Pier Park. TNT had set up aid stations in the parking lots of each park.

It was roughly a 4 mile run between the parks, on roads which frankly lacked... a sidewalk, a shoulder, or any protection from the semi trucks barreling to and from the industrial area that the parks share the space out there with. It was a little uncomfortable, and coach joe admitted he didn't think the traffic was going to be as bad as it was, but he patrolled that stretch in his subaru outback constantly to make sure everyone was ok. It was reassuring to see him every once in a while drive by and wave at us.

Ever worried about my knee, I opted to try something new out. I loosely wrapped my left knee in an ace bandage to keep it warm. I figured it was having trouble when it cooled off too much. Sure enough, the wrap helped keep my knee toasty warm, and I had no problem with my knee freezing up on this run!! That was a relief! The weather was also not humid, and rather sunny on occasion. I was glad that alot of our run (the laps in the park at least) were under some beautiful old growth evergreens, nicely shaded. Oh, I should also mention we saw a decent number of people walking their dogs out at Kelly Point park. It seemed like a wonderful place to let Fido romp in the water.

Val and I made sure to take all the steep downhills walking (I learned my lesson on that 12 mile run), and eventually took some walk breaks on the way back to the first park. Val's toe was killing her, she suspects she might have broken it in one of our soccer games last week. Still we made it all 14 miles in approximately 3 hours.

I say approximately because I forgot to put on my Garmin initially, and snagged it out of Val's truck once we had finished the 2 laps in the first park, before we headed to the other park. The first 3.26 miles of data was effectively lost, and I have no clue how fast we ran it.

The stats I did capture say that we ran the last 10.74 miles in 2:21:41, giving us an average pace of 13:09 minute miles.

Assuming 3 hours for 14 miles though, that would give Val and I an average pace of 12:51 minute miles. That sounds about right actually. We were intentionally taking it slow (for the last 6 miles or so I don't think I could go any faster than I was actually)... but it worked! we made it!!

And, it occurs to me, that we had just ran our first 1/2 marathon distance too! Amazing!!

After the run, Val and I had to prepare for our BBQ fundraiser. We went to Farpost and picked up some donated items for her raffle. After that we went our seperate ways to shower and nap, and then met back up again at Val's house around 2:30pm to setup for the BBQ.

The fundraising BBQ (dubbed "BBQ to Save Lives"), went really well. It was a good time, we had a keg of Coors Light donated by Coors Brewing Company and a load of steak and chicken donated from Albertsons to grill. I even won some soccer gear in the raffle! We drew on the sidewalk with sidewalk chalk, hung around, and had a great time. The weather was perfect too.

Altogether a successful day!

40 more minutes on the elliptical

Total Distance So Far: 148.7 miles

Just a quick addition to my "running total" to include my 40 minute workout on the elliptical today... 40 minutes came out to 3.72 miles today, so I was pedaling at a slightly higher rate today.

Cheers!