Rest day

No run for me today, I'll be surprised if I get up for one tomorrow as well. Rest days are really important and I don't mind taking several! Gives the body and mind a chance to normalize and heal. I can't even imagine the damage that running must cause the body, obviously plenty of good things too, but running has its far share of the bad.

This week at some point I hyper-extended my left knee somehow. Not bad, but I can feel it if I lock my knees and pull my feet back. It didn't bother my running at all, in fact I never even thought about it much less felt it. Still a rest day or two will be good for this minor injury.

The green drinks keep flowing. I just made one with a zucchini from the garden, the first of the year. I hope it is good as you always have way more of them than you know what to do with. My last batch was hands down the best I have made. I think because I added more yogurt than I have been to use up the container. I also whipped the hell out of it. It was so light and airy. Yum.

Smelling good

I finally broke down and purchased some special sports detergent, I couldn't take the stink any longer. I am not sure what happens when you exercise as far as sweating goes, but apparently I excrete death. So, Sports Suds to the rescue. I am so far pretty impressed with the job this stuff does, my duds smell pretty much like new after one wash. I say pretty much as there was still a bit of a lingering odor, but for the most part the mildewyness is gone. Next up, my shoes.

I don't wash my running shoes ever. I prefer the look of the grubby dirty shoe to the clean new shoe any day. It says I am a runner, not someone who just jumped into a pair of new shoes out for a doctor recommended run for the first time. New shoes look especially bad at the first of the year as now you take on the persona of the new year's resolution runner destined to do it for a week and then retire the shoes to the back of the closet. So, give me the dirty shoes any day of the week. However, mine have reached the point where I want to do something. Its as if I am strapping on big smelly blocks of mud to my feet. Plus I want to try the Sports Suds on them and see how it works, especially when it comes to the odor elimination part. While I don't keep my shoes inside the house, I do keep them in my office so smelling nice would be, well, nice.

Today I took my clean clothes out for the second 8+ mile run this week. If I can manage a couple more moderate runs I will be well over 30 miles for the week which is pretty much my goal mileage at the moment. I don't want to go too far over that right now, but five runs a week of 6+ miles would be great, or three 6+ runs and a long run. Today felt pretty good, I was getting a bit tired near the end, but I finished strong with a faster than usual pace.

I just found a couple pieces of the wooden spoon I chipped up in the blender making my green drink. Gotta be more careful of that. Today's recipe is not that good: apple, strawberries, two carrots, two kiwis and the requisite head of lettuce. It's not sweet enough, and I think having a banana would have helped it a lot. I am also not sure if I really like the carrot, makes it a little too crunchy. The one I made before it wasn't very good either, the mango I put in didn't work very well and gave it sort of a yucky aftertaste. I want to try pineapple, I think that would be good. Another piece of advice that I took from Montel Williams is try different things in your drinks. He says the variety of ingredients not only provides interesting flavors but gives the body a bevy of vitamins and goodness. Maes sense, but then again a friend just told me a story about studies of people who don't move from area to area and have consistent diets of only local fruits, veggies and meats all showed to have improved longevity and better health. Hmm.

Hot and fast run

And not only that, but a hot fast run without water. I started out at 6:30 and the temperature was already in the mid 60's. Maybe that doesn't sound too hot, but it is for me and Portland! Plus running in any sun makes it seem hotter. Ok, enough justification for my designation of "hot".

I wore my Asics Gel Kayanos this morn which are a lighter shoe than my Mizunos with the inserts. Despite being a bit more uncomfortable in the fore foot, they do seem to allow me to run faster (or maybe it is all psychological?). I didn't intend to run fast especially since I didn't have water with me but I found myself comfortably keeping up a fast pace. About 2/3s of the way through my six miles I seemed to have forgotten all about the fast pace and I slowed down to a plod for a mile or so, but I kicked it into gear at the end. In the end I broke a 9 minute mile pace for the 6.3 miles. not too bad.

I am thinking I want to start doing some speed work, more out of enjoying the workouts than a need to increase my speed (but a good side benefit). I'll probably head to the track and do some straight and curves here soon (sprint the straights and rest job the curves for a couple miles).

Today I tried a new recipe for my newly found green drink. I call this one Green Chocolate. Two oranges, one banana, one peach, 2 scoops of chocolate whey protein powder and a head of lettuce. It was really good. I bought some yogurt to try mixing into my drinks in the future. I am really like these.

Green drink

I think I mentioned that I was reading one of Montel Williams' books. The book was a little too much for me, a bit too rah-rah for my taste and need. But the fellow mser had some good things to say in it. The one thing in particular that I took from it was his goal of incorporating more fruits and veggies into my diet, something I have been trying to do myself. He makes these fruit and veggie smoothies every day which he claims actually give him an energy boost after he drinks one. And he is right! I totally notice the difference after downing one. Here is his basic recipe: an apple, an orange, a banana and a head of lettuce all blended together. It is thick, green and gooey, but totally good. I added a peach and strawberries to mine. A full blender makes 2-3 drinks that you can keep refrigerated for a couple of days. This morning I had my first second round after mt run and it was awesome.

Today's run went well, 6.5 miles. Nothing too exciting.