Feeling sick

Ugh, the allergies have turned into a cold or flu thing that seems like it is moving into my chest. Two days until my first race and I am having some serious doubts about whether or not I can or should do it. I actually think I still may be able to run it, just run through it and do an easy pace; 70% of max HR maybe as a target? I have done two runs since coming back from Seattle and I am now thinking I won't do another until the race (if I do it).

I have been drinking a lot (airborne and tea) and trying to eat warm foods on the advice of my future acupuncturist. She recommends nothing raw though I still think I'll drink my green drink (actually this batch is all fruit and no veggies, I really need to go to the store.)

I have also been doing some stretching to hopefully help keep limber. I was really sore this morning, sort of achy. Our run last night was really slow so I am pretty sure that had little effect on my muscles. I rubbed in some arnica gel and that seemed to help.

Unexpected break

Yesterday was the first time I had run in six days, not the best time for a break considering that I have my first race of the season coming up. I was in Seattle this weekend so I knew I wouldn't be running Fri-Sun, then for some reason I didn't run the two days before. To make things worse I drank way too much beer in Seattle (as well as milk in lattes, animals, perfume on the train and seasonal allergies) which all contributed to a major allergy break out. I have been sneezing and blowing my nose since Sunday. Ugh.

So yesterday I ran eight miles relatively slowly. My lungs were a bit congested from all the allergy crud, but it went well. Getting out and running seems to help with the allergies a bit. I think getting away from the animals and their dander helps too. Even though I feel somewhat worse today, I think I will try to get out and do another one today.

My plan for the week is to not overdo it before the 15K Shamrock Run on Sunday. I want to get my head clear before Sunday, but I am pretty worried about being able to do so. I am hoping to get at least three runs in before the race, but I don't want any of them to be longer than six miles with maybe some speed work included. It really sucks to have worked so hard to get into racing shape and then just let it go a week before my first race. Oh well, I am not all that concerned about this one and plan to "run through it" and treat it like just another run.

Enjoyable long run

Sunday was time for another long slow run. I usually enjoy these runs quite a bit, slow relaxed pace, good conversation, the joy of covering lots of miles.
This was an especially enjoyable one. It was relatively warm, the sun was mostly out, there were a lot of runners out, my running partner brought her new dog who is adjusting well to me and others. All the makings for a nice run and a great day.

We headed up to Lief Erickson trail in Forest Park, a mile and a half of uphill neighborhood running before we got to the trail head. We like this trail with the Declan as it is a wide hard packed dirt road that allows him room to avoid others if he gets spooked. It also has quarter mile markers all along the way which is nice and needed when you forget your watch (I felt naked without my constant stream of numbers to look at, but that also added to the relaxation of the run.)

Our run was punctuation with frequent stops to see other dogs and people. Declan did great and had a really good time, tail out for most of the time. We joked about my running partner telling the tale of Declan's rescue over and over again, she has it down to an elevator pitch. I could have heard it a hundred more times that day. At three miles up the trail we turned around and headed back. It was a little muddy that day but not as bad as it has been in the past. It is sort of fun getting mud all over yourself, makes you feel like a warrior. Speaking of, a run that would be fun, but I doubt I will do it: Warrior Dash.

Down the trail and back to the car we headed to the running store to see if we could get them to honor a coupon that we no longer had, but we got the wrong sales person, grrr. So new shoes for her and new socks for me are going to wait. Next came sushi again, I love the train of food that passes you constantly. After dropping Declan off we headed to Best Buy to get her a replacement laptop for the one that just died. The almost half off deal was a nice capper for the day (for me anyway, she still had manure to buy which wouldn't fit int he car with me so I got away with not helping, I tried!)

Anyway, great run.

Exercise and ms

I just read an interesting article called Exercise Helps Protect Brain Of Multiple Sclerosis Patients. Apparently tests were done on people who were physically fit as opposed to those who weren't and several differences were noted. Fit msers performed significantly better on tests of cognitive function and showed less damage in parts of the brain that show deterioration as a result of MS, as well as a greater volume of vital gray matter. Whoo hoo! I knew that all this running was doing something positive as far as the ms was concerned.

"We found that aerobic fitness has a protective effect on parts of the brain that are most affected by multiple sclerosis," said Ruchika Shaurya Prakash, lead author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

"As a result, these fitter patients actually show better performance on tasks that measure processing speed."

"Physically fit MS patients had fewer lesions compared to those who weren't as fit and the lesions they did have tended to be smaller," Prakash said. "This is significant and can help explain why the higher-fit patients did better on tests of brain functioning."

Aerobic fitness was also associated with less-damaged brain tissue in MS patients, both the gray matter and white matter.

"For a long time, MS patients were told not to exercise because there was a fear it could exacerbate their symptoms," she said.

"But we're finding that if MS patients exercise in a controlled setting, it can actually help them with their cognitive function."

To me this old school of thinking just illustrates how little we know about the brain and ms, good to hear we are learning more all the time. I have to wonder how on track (or how far off) the scientific community is in their current thinking especially when it comes to drug therapy. I do know that since I have been on rebif I haven't had another set of symptoms pop up so that is a positive. But I wonder is that the drug or just the disease? I have heard of several people who have gone off of their drugs (different ones that they were on, not just rebif) and their symptoms flared up, so maybe it is the drugs.

I feel very positive that we will see a cure in the coming years, it seems like a lot of ms research (seen in my admittedly peripheral view) has been making great progress towards therapy and understanding of this disease. I also think that we have seen an increase in the disease whether that has been diagnosis or an actual increase I don't now. But basically ms has become the disease to have! This popularity can only mean more funding for research which will obviously lead to advancement in treatments like the new ms pill that is on the market (though I have heard plenty of bad things about it, though it sure would be nice to not have to give injections to myself...)

Six miles of recovery and new shoes

This morning I got a nice leisurely recovery run in which was needed after the long Sunday run and yesterday's speed work. The weather has been dry for the last couple weeks so I have been able to run on the dirt trails in the canyon which has been nice these last couple of days. The geese welcomed me back with a loud How Do You Do.

Last night I checked the miles on my shoes that I have been wearing. They have been giving me a bit of foot pain especially in the front of my feet. This in itself isn't a definite sign of needing new shoes especially with my ms-y feet, but I haven't looked at my total mileage in awhile. Sure enough I was over 600 miles on this pair which is pretty much way over when the shoe stores tell you its time for new shoes. I have had really good look with the Asics Kayanos, looking over my past shoes I have taken several over 600 miles total. Spend a little more, get a little more out of them.

This is the first time I have worn the new models (well new to me - kayano 15, they might even be on 16 now). The first day is hard to tell much from them but they feel good so far. Snug and solid in construction. This model has a new lacing method that I had read good things about, we'll see how it works for me. I am curious to see if they deal with the wet weather better than the 14s. I would get a little slippage with them on wet roads. So another test for another day, soon as the rain started again a little after I got home this morning. I stuck in a pair of Hapad inserts that I got as a sample, their new sport cloud inserts (so new they aren't even on their site yet.) www.hapad.com

Longish Sunday run and Monday speed work

Sunday was a really nice run up Lief Erickson trail with my running partner and my newest partner, her new dog Declan. Declan is 2 year old Irish Setter who was rescued from a show breeder who couldn't show him due to some teeth issues. Well his teeth didn't keep him from running with us and he did a great job. He has been having some nervousness issues with the new home especially when it comes to new people. He did really well, only getting spooked a couple of times by bikes. It was great having him with us!

Our run was nine miles, the first half was all up hill. It always a great relief to hit the halfway point in this run when you can turn around and go back down the same way. We didn't really target any sort of heart rate mostly just wanting to get Declan out to see how he would do. So it was a nice leisurely pace and run than ended with a bunch of sushi for your recovery meal which I found to be surprisingly agreeable in those terms. I felt really good after and didn't eat again until later that evening.

Today I headed out to the track for a little speed work. I ran a couple miles of straights and curves, I suspect I did more than eight sets as I think I lost count of the laps. I haven't dived into my report yet. One frustrating thing with the Garmin is I am having a hard time getting the laps to reset. Sometimes it is not a problem and all I need to do is press the button, other times it doesn't seem to work. Not sure what is going on, but it is quite frustrating. The laps I did get all found me running under six minute miles on the straights which makes me pretty happy.

Track work

Wow, what a beautiful warm day. I decided to head over to the track and run some 440 intervals which I have never done before. My plan was to do 440 at a just below all out, slower than I do my straights and curves. The I would cool down for 220 and start over again. I had it in my plan to do six of them and see where I was. So after 2 and a quart mile fast warm up I jumped in. I of course started too fast which is typical for me if there are people at the track. Slower runners don't phase me, but the damn long legged sprinters really bring it out in me. Especially when they are cute and compliment me on my pace!

So my third and fourth 440s turned out to be slower and the fifth was downright plodding. So when I cam around for the start of the sixth I said "aw forget it" and just did a lap to cool down a bit before I headed back for the 2.5 mi return. With a wave from my sprinter friend I head off the track and on my way home.

The last 2.5 I kept a reasonable pace up, the HR was pretty steady and high until the last mile or so when I slowed to a crawl to really cool down. Great run all in all.

Tempo followed by recovery

Yesterday I ran an eight mile tempo run, well the second through sixth miles were anyway, I started out with a half mile warm up and then picked it up for a sub 8:30 pace for the next 5.5. It went well was I felt strong throughout, My pace dropped a bit for mile four which is up hill for half of it, but I only lost 15 seconds averaged through the mile split, then back under goal for two more miles. The HR was obviously pretty high though this in the 160s for the first three miles and then over 175 for the next three on avg. I had to push it through this fast 5.5 and then spent the next mile and first of two in a cooldown going up hill and still keeping a relatively high heart rate. The last mile and a half was really slow (12 min miles) and I kept my HR around 150 or less.

I saw a barefoot runner go by and chatted at him for a bit. he told me he had heard that Vibram runners have been cutting the heels out of them. He didn't own a pair and was doing it full on barefoot. Said he might get some for the really hot weather.

After my hard run in the afternoon, I got up pretty early and went out again for a recovery run of six miles. It was slow going and a really good recovery run with very little time spent over my recover ceiling and a lot of it under by 5 beats or more. Boring run, slow run but a totally successful one. Recovery done, time for another quality run tomorrow! Maybe an AeT run with an HR around 160?

Long Saturday run

After getting some hours in for a client I headed out towards Mount Tabor. I needed to get a quality run in of some sort, be it a tempo, long run or hills. I ended up combining all three. My plan was to head to the volcano first, originally I set out to just do the eight mile loop to the top which includes 4.5 miles of low grade elevation change and 3 miles of hills and half mile loop at the summit. I brought a Clif Shot gel along and a bag of Sharkies but I made the mistake of not bringing enough water with me, something I paid for later.

Mount Tabor was a bit muddy but not too bad. There were a couple of spots that really need to dry out.I hit the climbs pretty hard and made it to the top without stopping. HR was pretty high but I kept it under 170 for the most part as I was going pretty slow.

On the first steep part to the caldera I decided I'd like to try out the first long run I did when I was marathon training. My Ipod Sport then told me it was 13.1+ total but I always thought it exaggerated. So this has been a run I wanted to measure with the Garmin and see what I came up with. I tried to stay with the same route, but I did have to go checkout the off leash area and see if it was fully fenced in (it isn't). At the top I gobbled and mocha gel and chewed a few sharkies. Even at this point I knew I was not going to have enough water. For some reason I passed up a water fountain, I think I had a good pace going and just cruised by.

There are some good downhills on this run too, but they wood chip several of the trails and I find those better to run down on than hard packed dirt (or mud for that matter). Once I was off the volcano I headed west and north for 25 blocks each direction and did a loop around Laurelhurst Park, one of my favorite parks in Portland (Mount Tabor is my fav). Time to head back. I had a couple more sharkies at the park as well as the last of my water, again I foolishly passed fountains. When I realized I still had four more miles to go to go along with my lack of water I should have gone back through the park but I was sick of hills and it would add another.

Reed college is directly south of Laurelhurst. I headed off through the Belmont business area as well as Hawthorne's where. Across Division and I was in the Clinton neighborhood where a buddy of mine used to live (great parties). I veered west again for a bit so I could cross Powell by Lincoln track. I almost did a few laps there so I could fill up my water bottle. Anymore running though was out of the question. So I popped some more sharkies and continued to plod on.

Past the Wimbledon is fun apartments I came up on Reed. There was a lacrosse practice going on. I passed them and headed for the east bridge. I powered across it pretty fast though in reality I was going pretty slow. I kept my HR at 160 which was high, but I didn't really want to go over than. It had been pretty high all run. Campus was sort of quiet and as I passed a few walkers I came upon two water fountains, but they were turned off. So I hit the final uphill climb, at least I didn't have any extra water weight to deal with. I really slowed down as I was truly feeling done at this point. I made it up the first hill only going over 160 at the very last steep part but I had to go really slowly. After the last hill the light didn't give any reprieve either. I had to pick up the pace to make it before it changed. The last mile was a killer, I was really feeling the lack of water as well as the hills in my legs. I passes the same old houses I always run by but I the lack of water was making my head sort of swim, and a lot of the houses looked like I had never run past them. Spring slowly popping out all over didn't help my dementia either!

I turned into Woodstock park and decided to check the fountains there. The bathroom were all still "Closed for Season" so I was skeptical. It had been really warm this winter, so I had some hope. I spied a brand new fountain over near the play area and thought I'll check it out. As I twisted the knob on the dry bowl I was all ready to be disapointed, but water came out! Even though I was only about a half mile from home I felt like I was saved. I decided not to turn the timer back on and guzzled some water, I was done.

I did a little stretching when I got home but mostly I wanted to eat. We had pizza and I had my eye on it. But first a shower.

Speed workout that should have been a recovery

This week I have gotten off schedule mostly do to a high workload in the ole non-running life. How dare it interfere! Tuesday I did a tempo run that really should have been a recovery run, but I felt it was ok as I took Monday off. Same thing happened today. I did a speed workout that should of been a recovery day but I took Wednesday off so it wasn't too crazy of a run. Tomorrow I definitely plan on a recovery run and I mean it!

I ran to the track which gave me a good 2.25 mile warm up. I pushed it towards the end of that, but not too hard. At the track I took off my jacket and water bottle and made the mistake of not turning my watch timer back on. I did six laps of straights and curves before I realized it. I was so mad as I really wanted to look at the numbers. The heart rate monitor was going during it so I got to at least watch the numbers, but I have pretty much forgotten most of it. I was getting up to 180 on the straights and then back down to 150 before I set off again. I felt pretty good about that, but I think I pushed it a bit too hard at the start. I was sprinting more than just running fast. Felt good to sprint, would have liked to ogle the pace number if I had them, grrrr.

I added another mile before I headed home. I was pretty beat by the time I got halfway home but kept plodding along although slowly. Good workout!

Time left 'til spring races

I have five weeks before the Shamrock Run 15k and nine weeks until the Race for the Roses Half Marathon. What to do with those weeks? I want to keep between 30 and 40 miles a week, but more toward the 30 end. I think this week may well be my high mileage week this spring at 39.5 miles. So If I drop off my miles I would still want to do five weekly runs. If I keep my long Sunday run to around 10 miles, that leaves me with 25 or so to split up for the other four runs.

Possible workouts:
AeT/Speed
Monday - 5 rc
Tuesday - 7 AeT
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 7 speed
Friday - 5 rc
Saturday - rest
Sunday - 10 lsd

OR
tempo/hill week
Monday - 5 rc
Tuesday - 7 tempo
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - 6 rc
Friday - 6 hills
Saturday - rest
Sunday - 10+ lsd

OR
Long tempo week
Monday - 5 rc
Tuesday - rest
Wednesday - 9 tempo
Thursday - 5 rc
Friday - 6 aet
Saturday - rest
Sunday - 10 lsd

I think I will start out with an AeT/speed week (since last week was hills). This way I can do a long tempo the following week and get it lined up for Shamrock Run 15K three weeks after that to be the second long tempo run.

Then four weeks after Shamrock I have the Race for the Roses Half. I could spend those weeks building up mt LSD runs to get to 13 or so and a taper.

Four weeks of possible workouts pre-half:
March 15-21 Hills & 11 lsd
March 22-28 Speed/AeT & 12 lsd
March 29 - April 4 Tempo & 13 lsd
April 5-10 Taper
April 11 Race for the Roses Half

After the half I have two weeks before the Sean's Run 10K which is going to be tricky to plan ahead for. I think I'll a speed/AeT workout for teh first week, then a tempo/AeT workout the week of the race. I do think the race week should be light on effort/mile overall.

I say all this and it will probably change as the races come up. I am getting excited for it. It is like an actual season for me. I am seriously thinking about a July full marathon in San Francisco. What a great cap for a racing year.

13+miles, hers and mine

Today was a long run day both for me and my running partner. The only difference is we were in different states, she running the San Francisco Half Marathon, me running the Cemetery 13 run as I like to call it.

First off the main event, my running partner finished the half in 2:03:49. Amazing! I am so proud of her. She worked really hard to make it happen and she did it. An average pace under 9:30, way to go! I don't know too many details of her race, I am sure I will though as we are planning a celebration dinner this week. Man, I am so psyched for her!

So the half of today's running that I can account for was my run up Mt Scott along and through the Lincoln Cemetery. The run starts out with my typical path through East Moreland neighborhood to the Springwater Corridor. I took a little detour to check out this weird little spot where two creeks come together. It is a circular area with old stone walls that is tucked into a dead-end area at the end of the street. One of the creeks drops about 10 feet to meet the other in a little waterfall. Recently the city restored the creek bed before the waterfall and widened it. It isn't as dramatic anymore, but still neat. The last time I was there the area was completely overgrown making it a really secret spot, but it looks like someone has done some work on the area. Not so secret anymore I guess.

On the Springwater Corridor usually take this path toward downtown for some of my standard longer runs, but for this one I head east. The trail is pretty flat and offers a nice path with few street crossings. I stay on it for roughly three miles before I turn off taking a road that crosses under the freeway and up, up, up the hill. The next three miles are all uphill and a great hill workout. I was trying to do an aerobic threshold (AeT) workout and keep my heart rate in lower zone two, or somewhere around 147-151 bpm. Going up the hill was really slow going in order to keep my HR down, but I did a pretty decent job of it with one steep exception where it climbed over 160. The hill runs through a neighborhood and eventually through the Lincoln Memorial Cemetery. If there is no fog you get a really nice view of the city, however all I got was a nice view of a thick gray blanket, I could barely see a few blocks behind me. The downside of this run is that the road up doesn't have any sidewalks for most of the way and the road shoulder is very slight. I kept finding myself moving to the wet grass to avoid traffic, it wasn't that bad but not a traffic situation I would normally want to run in. Near the top of the hill there is a huge newer development and legally they have to put in sidewalks, so I had them for a quarter mile or so. The hill starts to make the turn down into Happy Valley when I turned around.

For my downhill journey I decided to run through the cemetery. I wasn't going to as I don't know how visitors would feel about that. But the prospect of the crappy sidewalk-less road made me reconsider. Fortunately nobody was around, I guess it was too early and church time as well. I circled the outer rim of the cemetery. It struck me as somewhat odd that I was paying so much attention to my beating heart among all these hearts that were no longer beating. I passed by their Oregon Korean War Veterans memorial and thought of my dad's contributions to that war. He wasn't happy about it but drove his trucks as he was asked to do. He told me many stories about timing his supply runs ahead of mortar fire, scary.

At mile ten or so I was off the hill and no longer pounding my knees. Both of them felt a little tender when I stopped at a traffic light awaiting my walk signal. I had a run in with a litterbug that got my HR up (funny, I could see the exact moment on the report when it happened) where I got to use my favorite litterbug line "Excuse me, I think you dropped something (thank you Cindy for the life lesson! I have never forgotten it.) Unfortunately (for the world) I don't think I made much of an impact on this clown.

I made my way back again targeting my lower zone 2 until the last 3/4 miles where I decided to pick it up and but out nine minute miles. I was able to keep it going pretty steadily for that last bit despite my bodies exhaustion. I think I was more happy about that part than any. Maybe it was because it was the first time on the run I wasn't holding back. Hopefully I didn't undo the good I had been struggling through for the last couple hours+ for.

My final numbers: 13.47 mi 2:22:43.

Recovery day

After my hill training yesterday I decided to keep with my heart rate plan of following heavy days with a recovery day where I target my recovery ceiling of 70% of max. These runs can be agonizingly boring and they take what seems like forever. But the goal of being able to do more hard runs in a week with the rest I am getting form these recovery runs is worth it. Tomorrow I am taking a full day off. Part of me wants to do another recovery run, but I have plans for a 13 miler for Sunday before the super bowl, this way I'll feel like I earned my chips! So today I did just over six miles in 1:04. Pretty slow, but I am actually pretty happy with the speed I am able to attain and still keep the hr under 143 (my 70%). The one thing I notice is that these runs tend to strain my Achilles tendon a bit and they are usually a bit sore after.

Two lonely runs

My running partner is in her taper week before the San Francisco Half Marathon this weekend so I have been on my own. It is amazing how dependent you become on a running partner when you run regularly with them. The runs seem so boring if I am not yacking away with her. I used to run with music all the time, or with the radio, but I have been spoiled! They are no substitute!

So my first lonely run was a recovery run where I did my best to keep my heart rate at or near 70% of max (recovery ceiling) which for me is 143 bpm. On the run I was really happy with how well I did keeping it relatively steady. The reports I got when i got home showed more variation than I would have liked, but that is ok. I was also really happy with how fast I could go without going over that, at least for the first half. At one point I was able to keep up a sub 9 minute mile pace for several blocks before it started creeping up. The hills were torturous, I really had to slow down for them, but I was successful at keeping the hr down. Toward the end as I ran through the Reed campus class was just getting out. I was crawling along, but I decided to check the ego at the door and just do what I was supposed to. I was really tempted to jet past several smokers, can't believe how many people still smoke. The run took forever, 1:26 for 8 miles but it felt pretty good. Despite the slow pace my legs were pretty sore.

So this morning after my slow run yesterday, I figured today was time for some pain! My plan was to do my hill run in Eastmoreland. I started out with a mile of warmup then hit the hills. Three blocks down, one block over and three blocks up. For the most part the pattern goes three blocks of hills, then five recovery blocks (one over, three down, one over to the next hill) so essentially I just criss-cross blocks along this ridge. On the hill portions I really step on the gas and try to do them as hard as I can. I maxed out my hr at 180 today, spending a lot of time in the upper 170s. The thing I am most happy with is is my hr drops considerably on the recovery portions, at times all the way into the 120s, mostly mid 130s.

This being the second time I have done this workout, I was especially excited to compare the two runs. Unfortunately I realized that they were really not identical as the first time I had run down to Reed to use the bathroom. Also they are doing sewer construction and on different blocks, so that sort of messed me up a little bit as well. But I was able to compare pace and hr. This time I did the run a bit faster and got my hr up higher. I still want o comb over the numbers and see how the recoveries compared. I just love the data you get out of the Garmin.

Speaking of the Garmin Forerunner 405, I just figured out how to customize all of my displays as well as my heart rate zones. Pretty slick. I am not going to go into how to do it, suffice it to say it is all in the manual and is surprisingly simple to do. I love this watch.

ms Monday

I have written so much about running in this blog that I often forget about the ms part. Not a bad thing I am sure! So today I did my rebif injection in my right thigh ending a string of my four favorite injection sites (LR stomach, LR thigh). Seems sort of funny to have favorite injection sites, but that's how it goes. For the first year and a half or so that I was taking rebif (going on year two now) I followed Serono's advice of taking it before bed to mitigate the side effects - flu-like symptoms. Those have seemed to tapered off (though I still take a single acetaminophen and a single ibuprofen). I also started to notice that I was having some trouble sleeping at nights I took it. So with occasionally running in the evenings, I often wouldn't take it until around 9AM which was getting too late for me. So I started experimenting with taking it in the afternoon. This has worked out fine even on nights where I was running afterward or even going out for a beer or two. The only change I have made to my routine with these afternoon shots has been to also take an additional Ibuprofen at night. I probably should be very consistent with the times I shoot the rebif, but life gets in the way and sometimes I think my schedule will only allow me to get the three shots in with 44-52 hours between injections. As long as I get my three shots in a week then I feel like I am doing myself good and taking care of this stupid ole ms. But this is not medical advice, just reality advice. Just another ms Monday, wish it were Sunday.

Fast run from out of nowhere

My plan today was to do a recovery run after yesterday's slow 12 miles. I was on my own as my running partner had the dual recovery going on, 12 miles and a open bar gala last night. Since the both of us plan to do a recovery run tomorrow, I decided to just wing it and see what I was comfortable running. During my first mile I was lugging a pile of library books along with me for the first half and managed to do 9:30. I thought that sounds about what I expected. During the second mile I was paying more attention to my heart rate which was around 150-155 so I wasn't real sure of my pace. When the mile two beep sounded I had ran that last mile at 8:17! And I felt pretty strong, so I decided to do another mile at that pace which I did. As I started into the fourth mil I knew there were going to be hills so I decided I would try to recover for a mile. The first half was all up hill and I relinquished the pace but not the HR which was hovering around 170+. For mile five I cranked out another 8:15 before hitting another set of hills. Again I relinquished the pace but kept the HR up topping 181 at one point and keeping a pretty steady HR of 175-180 for the next six tenths before I decided to back off and recover up the last hill. My last mile I ran pretty steady but relaxed around a 9:30 pace with a stop off at the library. All in all a much faster run than I expected and very enjoyable after the luxurious slowness of yesterday. Speed rules...sometimes.

Last Long Run before the SF half

But not for me! Today's long weekly run was my running partner's last long one before a taper week and then the San Francisco February 7th. She is a bit nervous about what pace she should do, a knowledgeable running store worker recommended pushing for 9:20 but she thinks that is too fast. I think she is going to try for that at points in the race but accept a slower pace at times, probably averaging 9:30 - 9:45. She is going to fuel up well beforehand both with sleep, food and water so I am sure she'll do a really good job. She is also going to sport a waterbelt with two 8 ounces bottles of H20 and two of Orange Gatorade G2 which is the replacement drink they are serving. We both know its crap, but it will be flavored and have some good stuff to counter its ton of sugar. She is also going to take 3-4 gel packs. I am encouraging her to take one before she starts and she wants to take them every 45 minutes after that. They are serving the G2 later in the race (I forget exactly where) so she plans to space out her own bottles around that drink station. I'm really proud of her hard work, she is all set!

In other racing news, I have a third race to do this spring. Sean's Run from Autism. I have done this race twice before, it's a really nice 10K along the water front from Oaks Park down the Springwater Corridor.

So now I am looking at the following:
Shamrock run 15k - March 14th
Race for the Roses half marathon - April 11th
Sean's Run 10k - April 24th
And then I think my spring racing season is over and done. Not sure if I will doing anything this summer unless I can find one at the coast where it is cooler.

So today's run of 12 miles up Terwilliger Ave was one I have wanted to do for a long time but never have, mostly cause the hills make me nervous. They weren't nearly as steep as I had them pictured in my mind, but they weren't easy either. So maybe 3.5 up hill then 2.5 rolling, but relatively flat then we turned around and back tracked. Here is the Garmin report. We did a really good job of keeping our heart rate down and going slowly but steadily. The route has pretty good paths along it in the form of sidewalks and paved nature paths. There is really only one area without sidewalks where you have to cut across an off ramp. The nature areas near Tryon State Park were really nice. One of these days I want to go all the way down to Lake Oswego, really only another 4 miles total. We ended our run with a really good healthy meal at vegetarian/vegan restaurant, very yummy and good for us, good recovery meal.

Overtraining and exhaustion

After a really hard week of running last week I am feeling like I have overdone it. We have done two runs after our long run on Sunday and both of them have been slow and really rough. Both myself and my running partner were noticing this and having trouble figuring out what happened. One thought is that we have been doing so several really slow runs in an effort to keep our heart rates lower that we have forgotten what it is like to run fast. I am pretty sure it has been a symptom of over-training. One week we are kicking butt through some hard runs and feeling great, the next week we are pooped and slow as turtles. I hope she is able to recover sufficiently for the half she is doing in two weeks, I am sure she will. She has a nice easy taper week coming up.

My mistake last week was not so much a slight increase in miles (though it certainly didn't help I am sure) but doing so many hard runs in a row. I think of the five runs I did last week, I rated four of them as "hard" runs or red runs. One LSD run up the hill for 5.5 mi. one tempo run, one speed workout and a hill repeat. Way too much despite what my enthusiasm was saying. That is what I get for reading running books, I get all pumped!

For my part I am now in the midst of taking a second day off from running which seems to be helping my overall energy level quite a bit. We are ding a 12 mile run tomorrow, so hopefully I will be rested enough for it. I think I will have no problems as the plan is to go really slow.

Recovery run that felt like a marathon

Last night my running partner and I hit the roads to run a needed recovery run. Neither of us wanted to do it, but realized we really needed to get out there and stretch our sore legs. We decided to do out run very slowly so as not to kill either of us. Off we went.

So even though we went so slowly, the perceived exertion level was really high. Both of us felt wiped out by it. Though oddly we attacked the Reed campus hill and ran it as fast as we ever had. Perhaps it was our slow 5-mile warm up that gave us the energy. That and I think there is a "show-off" aspect sometimes to our running that we both feed off of (at least there is with me, and I think with her a bit as well.)

I was originally intending to go for a run today, but I had no choice but to take it off. I was wiped. I woke up feeling very dehydrated despite drinking a huge glass of powerade last night (essentially just sugar and water, and possibly some other good stuff.)

Tomorrow we are heading to the waterfront for seven miles at a consistent 9:30 pace. Our goal is to get my partner's half-marathon pace cemented in her brain.

Long SLOW run in the rain

Sunday my running partner and I set out to do our weekly long run. In order to keep our heart rate down at our recovery pace we had to do it really slowly. The goal was to keep our bodies in the fat burning zone as much as possible in order to concerve our glycogen stores. This is supposed to make our hard runs later in teh week easier. It was really tough to go so slowly, especially seeing as the first 5.5 miles was pretty much all up hill until we turned around and did 5.5 back down.

Originally we were to leave at 9, but it was pouring and my partner wanted and eztra hour to finish her book. So at 10 when we did leave the rain had luckily tapered a bit. So our first hour was rainy, but not as bad as it ended up getting. The road we took was a hard packed dirt and gravel road up into Forest Park. The surface is rally rocky and somewhat hard on the feet (but not that bad once you can get used to it). It had rained so much earlier that night that there were tons of puddles. The runners coming down were covered in mud, looking like road warriors. We were soon to join them, however we were going so slowly we didn't get too muddy.Some of the dogs on the road were a total mess, just caked with mud. It was pretty funny.

We managed really well with keeping the HR down. Our pace was really slow and even though we were going up for 5.5 and then down, it got consitently around 15 seconds slower each mile the entire run. The consitency of eth slowdown was really interesting to me.

Here is the online report the Garmin provided. When we got back to our starting spot, the run was showing up a quarter mile short. Looking at the report, you can see how off thebacktrack was. I have no idea why that would be. Makes you wonder how reliable GPS is.

Today, we are both really sore and mutually posponed our recovery run until this evening. I think we should still do it as our bodies will be craving some loosening by then.

Um, make it three?

For all my talk about the value of resting and recovery days (maybe I have just been thinking that and not writing it, but I am pretty sure I have said on several occasions rest, rest, rest!) recently I haven't been living up to it. I have been listening to my body though and have felt strong enough to do these multiple hard days in a row.

So my running partner and I chatted on our Wednesday tempo run and IM'd all day Thursday about doing a hill repeat run on Friday. At first I was a tad concerned because of the two hard runs (one solo) I had done already this week. But our long run the previous Sunday was on a reduced mileage week for my partner's program and we would both have a day off on Thursday to recover. So I felt pretty good about the whole thing.

So Friday morning came around and I got the dreaded text "Too tired, can't make it". My first instinct was to go back to bed happy (especially since I hadn't slept that well the night before) but I had already had a cup of coffee and I was pretty peppy. So I decided to go out and do it on my own. We had discussed several routes and I decided to do the one I wanted to try. I know the area pretty well, but wasn't too sure how good of a hill repeat route it would be. It runs along a ridge that has streets running perpendicular to it, the blocks are about three blocks long. So it seemed perfect for going down one street then up the next alternating as far as the ridge went (the ridge drops down so eventually the hills got less and less before ending at Johnson Creek.

So after a quick bathroom break at the college I started my hills. The first ones were really steep and tough but I was just getting going so I wasn't too concerned. However coming back to them and ending here would be a different story, but I wasn't going to worry about that yet. So on I went, the hills were pretty tough, but I was able to push the pace pretty well. I found myself getting my heart rate up over 170 (into my 85-90% range) and then dropping down to 130 on my recovery blocks (one block over to the down hill, 3 down and then another over to the up hill, so sufficient for a recovery). Sure enough as I continued down the ridge, my hills flattened out a bit, but they were still effective as I would push even harder.

After five up hills, I decided to reverse course (I would actually hit six on the way back.) I crested my first hill on the return and realized that I would have the additional elevation gain of going back up the ridge, ugh. But I kept at it. I felt a bit tired, but still strong. HRs were still climbing high, but never higher that 175 and my recoveries were still dropping underneath 140. Sure enough as I neared the finish the hills got tougher and tougher. The last two almost broke me (actually it was the second to last that almost did it), but I made it. My final mile was run underneath my recover HR of 143 and was very enjoyable boosted by the successful completion of the run. I only wish my running partner had been there to enjoy the feeling (I knew she was going to be mad at herself for bagging all day (and she was!))

Overall my pace was really slow (over 10) but I felt great about the HRs I kept throughout. I look forward to improvement. Today we are scheduled for 11 miles at our recovery pace (actually we are going with out 70% HR counts- 143 for me and 151 for her.) It is totally raining, so I expect we will be very wet on this run. Maybe more on that later toady or tomorrow.

Two hard runs in a row

Not something I would recommend for every week, but as hard as that second run was I felt great afterward. My thighs are a bit sore and I feel a bit out of it mentally, but my body feels really awesome. Full of sore energy. I feel like I have worked hard, and I have.

Yesterday I ran down to the Cleveland Track to run on their newly surfaced track. Very nice. I did a comfortable 2.25 to the track to warm up. Once I got there I started in on 2 miles of straights and curves. My pace on the straights was as high as 5:30 and my heart rate got up as high as 178 (not far from what I estimate my max of 184). For the most part my straights got the HR over 170 before I brought it down to below 150 on the curves. It felt so good to go all out especially after our super slow Sunday ten miler. I even got to show off a bit as the girls track team came out to the track to workout, they had to wait for me to run a straight. I heard one of them say "I wish I could..." as I passed by them. I am sure she finished with something like "date Johnny" but I imagined she finished by saying "run as fast as that!" Ha ha. I only had one more lap after they got to the track before I relinquished it to them. I ended the run with another 3.75 back to home.

Overall I felt really good like I usually do after a speed workout. The other benefit is that the next runs always seem really fast as well. Speed workouts really do help improve in the fast arena. I think you are just getting used to the speed especially after months and months of base runs.

So today, my running partner wanted to do a seven miler at her potential half pace of 10 minute miles (though I know she is going to be faster). I thought I could handle that. Then she decides she wants to push it a bit. Of course I have to step up and say "Yay, let's do it." So now we decide to do 1 miles slow, followed by 5 miles at 9:30, then end with another slow one. By the time we got to the waterfront, our 9:30 goal became a 9:15 goal. Phew, now I was gonna be hurting.

The first mile went well. My legs were sore and we were passed by several runners, but it felt good. I wished out loud that this would be a super long mile so I could enjoy the pace, and it actually did go on for a long time. Then our fast miles hit and boom we were off. I think my running partner and I feed well off of each other and though I was lagging a bit I kept up with her fast pace. We usually talk the entire time we run together, never seeming to run out of topics. Well this mile there wasn't anything said. Second mile done and I looked at our pace and was greeted with an 8:33! Holy moly that's fast. So we agreed to slow it down a bit, but not a lot.

Third mile was grueling, but I was determined to keep going and so was my partner. Our conversation was sparse, I think we realized how quiet we were for the last mile and both felt that was odd. So we got a few words in. Mostly though we ran. I concentrated on my breathing, deep from the belly. I was really glad we were slowing down, but it really didn't feel like it was that much slower. Third mile done and our pace for the mile was 8:40. Yeah we slowed down but not nearly enough for me!

Mile four was another grueling one. I concentrated on breathing and was even able to blurt out a couple of things. I wonder, did they even make sense? As the mile wound down, my partner gave me some words of inspiration, only a mile to go! Well not quite yet, but yeah only another fast mile to go. At this point we decided to only do four fast ones, we were extremely happy with that. Especially since our pace was so much faster than we had started out with. Mile four done and our pace slowed to an 8:50 crawl (yeah right). One more mile to go.

As our final fast mile came to a close we realized we would finish it before the next hill which was a great feeling. Both of us had worked up a great sweat. Felt really good to be flying along with each other. We rocked this run. Phew, mile 5 done with an 8:42 pace. Time to cool down for the final two miles. Max heart rate for the fast part 170.

Those last two miles were heavenly and a great reward for us both. What a fantastic run, we both were really happy with it. We are getting good.

Long Slow Run with HRM

Yesterday my running partner and I braved the oncoming rain and headed out for a 10+ mile run. When I woke it was warm out with no sprinkles, so warm I passed on the tights. But the rain didn't hold out for long and greeted us at the start of our run on the West side of the esplanade.

We have been talking about keeping our long runs slow so as to keep our heart rate under our recovery ceiling thus keeping us in the fat burning zone. The idea is to burn fat instead of reaching into our glucose stores. So like I said we have been talking about it and trying to do it. Today we both strapped on our Heart Rate Monitors and did it for real. We knew we were going to be going slow and that the full run would take around 2 hours. Our target heart rate was 147 and we were really successful in keeping it there. It was sort of fun to watch our heart rates so closely, we even managed to stay under on our small hills. My heart rate was a bit lower than my partner's, but not much. Overall my average was 141 for the run with an avg pace of 10:45.

As we were finishing I really felt like I could run a full marathon at that pace. My feet were hurting a little bit but my legs and body felt great. I even considered adding and extra 5 miles to run home from downtown, but not seriously. My mile were high this week (36) and I didn't want to push 40 yet. Later in the day I felt really good as well, not very tired and not very sore. I did quite a bit of stretching throughout the day and the next morning I felt a bit sore and tired, but not bad.

We are scheduled for a recovery run this morning of five miles. I just got a text hoping to put it off until tonight. Sounds good to me, I'm pretty pooped this morn.

I have been trying to figure my resting heart rate in the morning right after I wake up. The first time I tried it it was 46. The next day 47 and today 49. The cats kept jumping up on me while I was laying there and not helping. I want to measure how low I can get it while doing chi gong breathing exercises. I am sure it would go even lower.

Mileage, mileage!

Last week marked the second week in a row I managed to get in over 30 miles. I feel pretty good, no exhaustion, no overwork, no lingering aches (other than my usual feet things.) I also found myself running for six days in a row without a break. Usually I will go three days max before I take a rest day, but it just worked out to do the six days. My only issues seem to my my feet aching and a slight case of boredom.

To counteract that boredom I just got a Garmin Forerunner 405. So far I really like it, the reports it gives are amazing. Way more info than I could ever want on my run. A few quick complaints: its a little large and gets caught in my sleeve, the maps that the computer based reporting system uses are really crappy (compared to MapMyRun which uses Google Maps it totally pales) and the bezzle interface can be a little sensitive. I have gotten spoiled with Google maps and the almost blank maps the software displays are completely unacceptable. I hope I can figure out how to change that, there must be a way.

I have never used a heart rate monitor before, and it is pretty fascinating to watch. Apparently there are a number of ways to sue the data to maximize training that I am looking forward to utilizing. Hurray, more ways to get scientific.

Winter running

I keep kicking myself for not writing more this year, I guess I have just fallen out of the habit. Need to roll back into it. Especially now as I have been running quite a bit this winter, more than usual. Most of this has been due to my running partner who makes the runs fun and gives me reason to get up early and face the weather. She has been a fantastic influence. Her pace is slower than mine as well which has given me some sorely needed variety in my running, actually right now we have been doing so much running together that runs by myself be the ones giving me variety!

This week I put in 35 miles, the most I have put in in awhile. I would say my body feels great which it mostly does, but a 10.5 miler yesterday is forcing me to say differently! I am a little sore this morning and looking forward to a nice leisurely 5 miles today. But overall I am feeling great and getting over this cough thing which has been haunting me for several weeks now. It is still around a little, but nothing like before. Odd that I was able to run through it. I was a bit winded, but mostly felt pretty good. Both of us felt strong after our long run yesterday, it was pretty amazing. I think a lot of it had to do with proper hydration before and during, snacks during and good conversation.

I have taken on some pretty rugged runs this winter so far. Cold and wind has affected me less than in past years. I want to look back in my running journal for past winters to see how they compare. I should have four years of records to peek at. I did purchase a warmer shirt that has helped quite a bit, too warm a lot of the time, but perfect for those really cold days. Good thing to have in the closet.

Recovery day and how

Today was definitely time for a recovery run. We planned out a five mile run that was relatively easy. Even though we both said, "lets go slow, its a recovery run" we started out at a pretty fast pace. It was my route and I was really bad at giving out directions, my poor running partner kept having to double back (so she probably ended up with more miles!) I was really sort of out of it this morning though I feel much better now all showered and surrounded by various morning drinks: coffee, metamucil and crystal lite (Um, what? It was the only sweet thing I had to mix with it in an effort to firm up...) and green drink + protein. Not very happy about the metamucil thing, we'll have to see how it goes. Aren't we all excited to find out?

So the run was really nice but we both were feeling the effects of the epic run yesterday especially on the hill out of Reed. But we did manage to do our "one step per square" on the last block after doing the San Francisco tiny hill step out of campus. When we finished both of us looked at our time of 53:10 and were disappointed. We couldn't possibly have been running slower than 10 minute miles. My watch said 5.93 miles, but it is a notoriously exaggerator. What had happened is we decided not to stop at the cafe in interest of time, so we cut out the loop that we added to allow us to do the cafe stop. I thought that it was even, but it turns out not so and we actually did 5.63 (according to mapmyrun.com).

Epic early run

A Sunday nine mile run didn't happen yesterday, so we made up for it by getting up really early facing the rain and going for it this morning. At 6:30 my running partner and I found ourselves under the freeway bridges on the Portland waterfront, The rain wasn't too bad, but it wasn't great either other than supplying us with a relatively warm morning. Off we went into the AM dark on the darkest night of the year, nothing but bright runs from here on out. I wasn't sure how much light we would have, but we picked up enough from the city and the low clouds to see our way for the first hour or so until the day decided to welcome us.

We had to add on some miles to our loop to make nine which we did up a hill before we crossed the Willamette. I powered across the bridge mostly I think to get off it as quickly as possible but also to push my partner. We successfully traversed the thin pedestrian path as quickly as we could and then headed off to the final half of our run along the west bank of the river. This portion of the run is sort of unfair as the new waterfront development gives you the illusion of approaching downtown which really doesn't come for another mile and a half or so, sort of frustrating.

We brought peanut-butter filled pretzels to eat on the move which turned out to be relatively hard. We have taken them on long runs before and they have made for a good protein boost mid run. However in the past we stopped to eat, this time we powered through the run and ate on the move which proved to be difficult without choking on pretzelly goodness. We also brought sharkies, electrolyte gummy sharks which I love. I managed to pocket my partner's pack of sharkies, which may have been subconsciously on purpose.

I rode the bus home from the waterfront and ate a protein bar which was awesome (but I realized it is not vegetarian as it has oyster shells in it). I may need to let that one go.

Back

I had a number of clever (well that is debatable) titles for this entry, but I decided to just stick with Back as their really isn't much funny about it. Every once in awhile my back does a weird thing were I get these spasms in the lower back area. It usually begins with improper lifting, this time bucketing water out of the bird's pool. Oddly I didn't think I was doing anything out of the ordinary, maybe I moved too fast - lift with the legs (and arms) and go slow. Once the initial spasm happens my back seems to tighten up considerably and I get more periodic spasms. In the past it has gotten better over time, just a matter of waiting it out and taking aspirin. Yesterday I thought I was getting better and was moving around pretty well and pain free. Last night I got up to go to the bathroom and wham, another spasm and here I am back to pain. Needless to say this has kept me from running. My last run I did too early in my recovery and I blame the 10 miles on keeping me in pain. I have to remember to get over this fully before I jump back on the roads. Frustrating!

Make-up run

It is Friday and I find myself with only 6 miles for the week. Tomorrow we are expecting a day of freezing rain, so I don't see getting many miles in then. Sunday I have an eight mile run planned, 4 loops of a nature park in Portland. We'll see if weather permits.

So today I decided to do a long run to make up for my short week and a possible short remainder of the week. I made my way around my base run with added loops and additional sections. I ended up with 9.5 miles and felt really good doing it, I could have easily gone further. But it was cold and I was hungry, so I ended it.

One weird thing happened on this run. About 2.5 miles into it I got a funny feeling on my right heel which quickly felt like I had a blister hot spot coming or like I had something in my shoe (or both). I stopped and adjusted my shoe and the feeling remained, but it felt better. I thought about walking, but realized that a 2.5 mile walk wouldn't do much better than a 2.5 mile run. My shoes weren't wet and I have never had any problem like this before with my feet and shoes. So I started up and decided to run with a pronounced mid-strike rather than on my heel or ball of my feet. It felt a bit better, but still a concern. The my running thoughts drifted away and the next time I thought of it was five miles later, this time with no odd feeling at all. Strange and ms-y.

Running in the cold

Last night in a brave attempt to beat the cold and our dwindling weekly runs my running partner and I hit the roads for a six mile evening run. We even unbeknown to either of us, celebrated the holiday season by bedecking ourselves in red and green blinking lights. Off we went to stave away the 22 degree night, me with five upper layers, she with three.

We tried for a slow pace and were successful, ending up doing a 10:10 pace. At about four miles into it as we started to cross the west bridge over the Reed canyon and onto campus. The run started getting tough for me. I have been battling a chest thing that is annoying but hasn't affected my lower lungs and has allowed me to keep running (except for the last two days). But I kept with it and pushed through. We slowed down a little for our climb past the art dept and through the east field up to Woodstock. Both of us are doing this part stronger now, we have yet to walk any part of it.

So my five layers tonight. I started out with a tight breathable shirt made out of "rubber band" material (as my friend calls it). Good for the cold, bad for public... Then I added a cool max running shirt, then a thin fleece shirt, next my warm weather running shirt. Lastly I wrapped all of this in my running wind jacket, bright orange reflective fabric to aid out holiday display.

Tops weren't the only layers I had. I considered wearing two sets of tights, but settled for one for which I was really glad as halfway though the run I felt like I had too much on as it was. I only wore one pair of running socks, but my running partner donned two including a wool pair which she really likes for keeping her feet warm. I did layer when it came to my gloves wearing a breathable pair of Manzellas under a wind shell pair. My hands were fine the entire run. For headgear I wore my balaclava and a hat (to which I attached my green blinking light. She wore an ear-warming band and a fashionable buff. We were sufficiently bundled, but I think I had a few too many top layers on. Halfway through I could have easily stripped off the fleece (or left it home) but it was too cold to stop and remove layers to get to it. Next time I need to think more about removal strategy!

We ended our run at a great local restaurant for a drink and dinner partly negating the caloric benefit of our run (the cake I had after I got home really did the damage). Our trip home from Toast was super cold, damp clothes and full bellies adding to the 19 degrees it was by that time. It was a great run, (and I am giggling to myself as I actually type this) a courageous run (maybe outrageous is a better word.) Feels good to brave the extreme cold every once in awhile, but I couldn't do it everyday.

Did I get up this morning for another? Um, no.

Fast four miles

My running partner is gearing up for a half-marathon this winter in San Fransisco and she is following this plan. I have been joining her on several of her shorter runs as well as her longer weekend runs. One of the deficiencies in my running is I often run just for miles. Joining her on her runs gives me a lot of needed variation at shorter distances. I have been able to fit more runs in per week than I normally do and now can comfortably run five days a week (in fact last week I almost found myself running six, but took Sunday off as a rest day.) The only draw back is having to deal with running extras (prep, cool down, shower and cleaning my gear), not to mention getting up earlier to do it. But the early rise is not a huge deal, I like getting up early anyway.

She just ran a 10K this weekend and did pretty well, so I felt like I had to push the pace. Overall we ran faster than 9 minute miles on our 4.25 mile run. To start I think we were probably running 8.5 and then faded to 9.5/10 towards the end (especially on that darn hill coming out of Reed. I think adding the chit-chat on ourr runs gives us an extra physical push as well, certainly pushes the breathing.

Longish run and good start to the miliage week

I started out this morning not really knowing how far I would go. It ended up being a pretty long run of 8.5 miles. I kind of dragged through the whole thing, my speed was definitely no there. More than likely this was due to my diet yesterday and not getting sufficient water in me. At least that is my theory.

Today my new gloves arrived, going with white this round. Should help with visibility a bit. They are Defeet DuraGloves. They actually look better for biking than running, but I do want to have some sort of grippy surface on them and these do have that.

Thirty mile week

This week I did just over 30 miles, with a couple of good quality runs. I got a lot of the miles over in the early part of the week and even had Sunday as a rest day! I wanted to run today, which would have been my sixth running day this week, but I decided to take it as a rest day and get some chores over with. It feels good to have worked myself back almost to where I was a week before I went to Europe. In some ways I don't mind taking some time off from running and losing fitness as it gives me something to build up to.

I think I will try to plateau for a few weeks and not really add any miles, just build up a solid base. Perhaps in a month I'll make a decision on a marathon - full or half. I would really like to do another full marathon, but I don't know if it is worth the punishment and training I would want to go through. If I do it though, I for sure want to beat 4 hours, so I would want to be ready to do that. A half would be a lot better but I still would want to bust out the training. I think and under 2 hr. time would be awesome, so a solid nine minute pace throughout. I can that now for six plus miles, but it is tough. I do think I could work up to it.

Rolling ankles

I have a tendency to roll my ankles occasionally. Last week I did just that on my long run with 6 miles to go. I also have an ability to heal pretty quickly from them, maybe they are just so elastic that they expect to roll over. I do think I need to find some ankle strengthening exercises. So tonight on another night run in the rain I ran over something in the dark, and away the other ankle went. I walked it off for a block or so and was able to get back into the run. As I type it is a bit sore, but I plan to elevate and ice it tonight and see where I am. I think it will be ok. As I was thinking back to previous ankle injuries, I believe they came in pairs as well. I imagine it is because I tend to push my return to running and my gait is off.

After rolling my ankle I though that my still as undecided choice of base vrs. long run had been decided. I was wrong, I did a long run after all...

Last night I watched a basketball player roll both of his ankles in a single game. Andre Miller has played in 500 or so straight games and apparently rolls his ankles all the time. Tonight he played again, started no problem. But then he rolled one of his ankles again. He sat down, but managed to get back in and play. Pretty impressive if not stupid.

Night run

Yesterday morning I was dissapointed in myself for not dragging my but out of bed to go out for a run. All day I thought about it and wished I had gone out. So when evening hit, I thought well I should just brave the dark and go out. I am a bit apprehensive about running in the dark because of visibility issues (both me and the surface). This time of year I get even more concerned about the surface because of all the wet leaves. Not only are they slippery but cover up lots of things I will certainly trip over. But I decided I wouldn't let it bother me and headed out.

If I got into an area where I was a little worried about the surface I did sort of a high step gate until I got through it. Made it through the entire run without tripping on anything. Also didn't manage to slip on any wet leaves either, so a great run overall, at least as far as my concerns went. It was also really warm out last night as well, I was down to just a running shirt and I really didn't need my tights (but I had them on so what are you going to do.)

I did my devils run route (clocks in at 6.66 miles!) which I have to do to avoid running in the canyon when it is wet (or dark for that matter). It adds a bit of miles onto my run (which is good) and is still close to my base run. Good run.

Long run in the rain

Friday (yeah I have been procrastinating writing) I went out for what I was alternately thinking would either be a short run or a base run. Once I passed through the park (left for short, right for base) I knew it was going to be a base run. As I was heading down through the falling leaves of 37th I started to think about a long run. I have done two base runs since I was back from Europe and in the preceding three weeks I had run four times of less than five miles apiece. Was I ready for a long run? Well I was pretty rested (in general, though I had done 13 miles in the last three days but I hadn't run yesterday.) But was I ready for a long run? I doubt it, but that didn't stop me. Left for the long run and right for the base run. Left it was.

I was glad to find out that the sewer work that closed Springwater was occurring in the other direction which served as a traffic block that gave me the trail all to myself (not that there would be a lot of people in the rain.) At the end of the trail I had another choice, Left for the neighborhood of mystery (I have never been able to figure out what it is called) for a really long run or right for just a plain ole ordinary long run. Left to mystery I say! The neighborhood of mystery is anything but mysterious, but I enjoy running there none the less. Out of NoM and into Sellwood. After several blocks I turn east so I can run through the park along the golf course and wham, I roll my ankle. Crap, five miles from home and no cell phone (not that I wouldn't have run through it anyway as it didn't seem that bad. Though I had no doubt that I wasn't going to be doing it any good either...) I walked for a bit and decided it was ok enough to keep running and on I went.

Across the bridge, through W. Moreland, around Reed and up across the two bridges that span the canyon, through campus, over to Woodstock, then home. 10.72 miles in all, here is my run. Other than the ankle it was a really nice run in a gentle rain. I am really not sure what happened with rolling my ankle. I didn't hit anything in the path or slip on wet leaves. It just happened. I suppose the barefoot runners would say it was due to my shoes and perhaps they are right. Certainly came out of nowhere.

Today I am still nursing the ankle though I am sure I could go ahead and run on it as long as it was an easy run. Yesterday I woke up out of bad with a kink in my back that is really causing me grief. I suspect it had a little to do with hobbling around as again no event preceded it. Perhaps I am just falling apart. nah.

I injected my rebif on Friday and thought I haven't written about taking the medication in a long time. It has been 18 months or so that I have been on it, 234 injections. Does that qualify me for expert status? Probably not. I haven't seen a relapse of any ms symptoms, at least in a major way. I have noticed what they call pseudo symptoms where I get slight reoccurances of the seizure symptoms. It usually only happens when I am really hot and or tired, for example after I run on a warm day. It happens ever so often, say maybe once or twice a month. I can't remember the last time it happened so it has probably been at least a couple months. I had nothing during my trip the Europe, where I was a little worried the stress of the trip might cause things to act up. But nothing. Side effects for me have been minimal, I have the red spots on the injection sites on my stomach and back, but not my arms or legs. I still take a single Ibuprofen and a single Acetaminophen before I inject, for the most part I no longer get the flu like symptoms. I have noticed a bit of insomnia when I inject, but it doesn't always happen or seem that bad. No depression at all from what I can tell. Lately I have been experimenting with injecting earlier in the day to see if that helps with the insomnia and it appears to do so. I have even injected and then gone out with no ill effects or grogginess. It seems I am nearing some sort of expert status after all!

One side note, plane travel was surprisingly easy. I had a note from my doctor saying that I would need to carry it with me. I also had the box that it comes in so I could show any prescription info. I had the needles in a zip lock bag that I could easily grab and hand to security. On the way back I had filled up my little travel sharps container, so I stuck the used needles (with needle bent over and the cap reinserted over it) in a bag as well. I was nervous as I approached security and both coming and going told them about the needles. Neither of them wanted to see them and asked that I just send my back through x-ray without pulling them out. Very easy! Of course they still think I am carrying explosives in my sneakers!

Third base run in a row

This morning I set out to do a third base run of 6.5 miles in a row since coming back from Europe. It felt like it too. I was dragging for most of the run, but I kept it going although at a slow pace. I did exactly the same run as yesterday and did it four seconds faster, I couldn't believe how close they were!

One of the most irritating running things happened to me on this run. My radio died. It did yesterday as well, but it started working again. I am not sure what the deal is, maybe battery. I have been expecting it for a while. Running without music or commentary gives you a lot of time to think about stuff. I find myself doing it anyway and tuning out the sounds coming through my headphones, but running without audio input is a totally different beast for me. I really miss it!

This morning I strapped on my neutral shoes with my orthotics for the first time in awhile. It is amazing how heavy they seem after running with my Asiacs for so long. I think I will keep wearing them for a bit, mostly because they offer better traction, all so important now that the rain is bringing down the leaves.

Back from Europe

I haven't written anything for a couple weeks not for any of my usual litany of excuses, but because I went to Europe with my mom (and seven other ladies from my hometown). It was a lot of fun, but not from a running perspective. We were on a tour that took us on a mad dash through seven countries. My initial goal was to run in every country we went too, I ended up running in three. Not bad when I look back on it, I got four runs in. All of them were pretty short as we were always late in getting off of the bus and slow getting our rooms in order. My running partner didn't get much running in either while I was gone and she was in Baja for a week. So our long slow run on Sunday was mostly slow. But that is fine, we'll get back into it. It is amazing how three weeks of combined vacations sapped the conditioning out of us. We did six miles yesterday and it felt like a lot more. If it wasn't for the French bakery at the end of our run we may not have made it.

I followed that run up this morning with another six miler. I felt really good through the first half, but then started to bonk a little bit. Not bad, but I was wishing I had brought water with me. The cool air helped me quite a bit, made the run completely bearable!

My favorite run in Europe was in a valley in the Alps in a small town called Giswil. The town had just brought all the cows down from the mountains for the winter and their was a huge celebration getting ready to happen. I had managed to get back to our hotel early and before most of the others who were going to top of one of the alps. I left our hotel (which was a renovated barn) and headed out through the small town. I passed several small shops catering to locals and a resort crowd and found myself in front of a large hill with a church on the top. I figured since this was going to be my marker for the hotel, I might as well go to the top and then down. Next I found a long dirt road in between cow pastures, the sound of chiming cowbells was heavy in the air. I followed the road and moved to the side to let a slow tractor pass. The road ended at an old and small hydro electric plant that barely looked to be running. Close by a waterfall cascaded off the wall of the mountain making our valley. I found a cow trail up the side of it and got a short hill run in. After marveling at the view, I headed down and found another road that appeared to head to the main road through town. On the way, I saw a cow look up and upon seeing me let out a huge MOOOOOO followed by turning and moving my way. In moments the cow couldn't contain his excitement and he broke out into a sprint towards me which inspired the rest of the herd to do the same. Soon I had a whole contingent of running partners as they reached the edge of the pasture and the electric fence. A corner in the fence ended our fun and I stopped to say hello before continuing. About a half mile later I came across two locals running, but they were not interested at all in tourists (as was later evident in our group pointedly NOT being invited to their celebrations.) I followed them down another road and decided it was getting dark and I should head back. I decided not to backtrack completely and that I would find the hotel by following the main road, plus I always had our church on the hill to lead me home. The church turned out to be ineffective once dark quickly set it. But I continued on the main road figuring I would get back eventually. Well, on and on it went. Nothing looked familiar. Just as I was about to backtrack, there was the hotel. My great run was over.

Four in a row!

So I finally managed to do my four runs in a row so I am officially back into the swing of running. Funny thing is I a going to Europe for 2 weeks and I know I will fall off my routine. So I have established my running just in time to slack off. But that is fine, I'll consider it a rest period and then ramp back up again.

Last week was the second week in a row that I ran five days on with two days off. Both weeks I ran over 35 miles. I am feeling really good, I think this is a good amount for me to be doing if not a bit more than I should be doing. I have been feeling so good about the running that I am considering another marathon. With a proper ramp up I can do it no problem. I have been concerned about my feet and several issues I have been having, but those have seemed to work themselves out for the most part. I'll see how they do with some long runs (15+ miles). This weekend my running partner and I did a nine mile run, the first 4.5 of which was uphill. We went from a running store in the 23rd St. shopping district up to Leif Erickson trail for another 3 miles before turning around and heading back. My running partner has gotten me into eating while running as an energy boost, the snack of choice has become peanut butter pretzels. What a great reward after 4-5 miles of running! 6-8 of them and I am ready to keep going. Now when I snack on them without running I feel guilty!

Today I headed into the rain. Our fall/winter weather is here. Rainy, windy. It wasn't that bad. I have been fighting a slight cold and I was questioning whether or not I should even do it, but I decided I really should. I was bundled up and had my rain jacket on. In teh 6.5 miles I did, I never felt like I got too wet, so I think I was fine. Plus I think it is good to run when you feel under the weather. Certainly not a super long hard run, but a base run is just what the doctor ordered!

True tempo run

I was planning to do a speed run tomorrow to add some variety to my runs which I am feeling I really need to do in order to improve. Then my running partner sent me this article on tempo runs and announced she would be doing one at the gym tonight. Inspiring as always she got me thinking I should do one as well and with the added benefit of adding even more variety to my running workouts since I did speed work last week (not ready to do both workouts in one week!)

So since the last 10K I did I ran at an 8 minute mile, following this article's directions I added 15 seconds to that to establish my tempo pace of 8:15 miles. I wasn't totally firm on nailing that exact pace, but I decided I would just run fast for the prescribed 20+ minutes sandwiched in between 15 minute warm up and cool down runs. Last night I planned out my route in my mind and this morning I hit the somewhat chilly (but not enough so that I wore tights) day.

I warmed up for about 15 minutes or so, actually covered a shorter distance than I had planned. I think I was going so slowly on the warm up and I was excited (excited?) about the fast pace that I just couldn't hold back. So I was off! I checked the watch and figured my time (8:00) that I needed to start my cool down. As I was nearing my first turn back toward the college I realized how quickly I was going through my normal route. The blocks were flying by!

Like I said earlier, I wasn't totally sure what my pace was exactly, but as fast as I was going I was able to keep my three steps in and two steps out breathing going for the first 2/3 of the fast portion. For the final 1/3 I switched to a 2-2 breathing pattern. As I was nearing the college I realized that my first guess of how far I needed to go was off and that I would need to go further to my second estimate point. When I hit the that second guess I was perfectly on schedule at 8:00, 23 minutes of fast pace running. Phew, the temp portion was over! Time to cool down. My cool down was longer than it probably needed to be, but that was ok with me.

As I type this I feel the run in my thighs, gotta love that soreness you get from knowing you worked hard. I am looking forward to the next tempo run I do!

No run today,

or yesterday for that matter. It has gotten hot again here. Which has been ok since my feet have been hurting and this little bit of a rest is probably good for me. Tomorrow I have plans for a run in the morning before it gets too warm. I'm going to run Mt. Tabor, but I will probably bike to the mountain to meet my friend before we go up it. The plan is to put in six miles, if I don't ride I'd be adding four miles to that and ten miles isn't what my feet want to do right now.

Ankle woes

I rolled my ankle the other day on my run. It happened at probably the worst place possible, halfway through the run, which means even if I walk back I still need to put pressure on it. Not much of an improvement than just continuing if the sprain isn't that bad which mine wasn't. It has gotten quite a bit better over the last couple of days. It is still a little bit sore and the best thing for it would be to rest it further. However, if it feels better tomorrow, I plan to go for a short run anyway.

One of the toughest things about coming back from a short layoff from running is getting your focus back. This lack of focus on form increases the likelihood of injury. I think we also have a tendency to push it on these comeback runs, again not a great thing when it comes to running injury free.

Sluggish run this morning

Some days everything can be right: well rested, cool temperature, good things to listen to, no injuries, etc. Despite the fact that all of these running stars line up properly, the run still is harder, more grueling than normal. Today (obviously since I brought it up) was one of those days. Every step seemed like I had to push extra hard just to achieve a normal pace. Distances that usually fly by during my run seemed stagnant. I kept going forward, but nothing else did.

Was this a bad run? No, not really. More of just something to get past, which I did. I kept looking forward to my green drink when I got home. That was my inspiration to continue.

One odd thing was a couple of young homeless folks sleeping on the trail in the canyon this morning. They looked comfortable and didn't stir as I passed by despite my grumble about having to climb down the side of the canyon to get by them. Actually I didn't grumble too much, they looked pretty comfortable.

Another speech recognition test

So I am attempting to write the blog, or I should say speak the blog in Internet explorer and the speech recognition seems to work here. So I guess that is what I need to do if I don't want to type. I think this will be more useful for my class. They think years that IE would work since it is a vista product. So there we go.

Late morning run

My run this morn was about and hour and half later than yesterday. On my way back home I had lost all my newly found shade. I guess I need to get up early for that. I think I could focus on running earlier. It is enjoyable enough: cool, quiet, less traffic. Still the bed is awfully hard to get out of before I am ready.

I am repeating my pattern of running three days in a row to catch up with my miles after missing Monday. I think tomorrow I will only do a short one, but this weekend I plan to do at least one run. I am liking having my weekly totals get close to 30. If I can get used to it, I'll get closer to getting rid of my paunch!

Base run

Today I headed out for a run after dealing with a hangover all day yesterday. Blame my college buddy for dropping in! I started out a bit slow but I brought music as opposed to the radio and I soon found myself picking up the pace. When I was done my pace wasn't a lot faster, but it was a bit (I think I cam in a minute faster than I did the other day when I did the same run. It is pretty amazing the affect that music has on your running. I think a lot of it has to do with matching your pace with the beat. Today I listened to one of my favs, the New Pornographers.

I did something to my shoulder, I have no idea what. But it is really weak and painful to lift. Paul and I camped out in the backyard when he was here for the heck of it. Maybe it had something to do with that? Though the day before my other shoulder felt weird. I had some meds left over from when I got hit by a car. My doctor said for me to hold on to them as they were "gold". He was right, no more shoulder pain.

Springwater Corridor

Today I decided to deviate from my normal route a bit and take the longer Springwater Corridor option. Springwater Corridor is part of the 40 mile loop in Portland and is 21 miles long going from Boring to Eastside Portland across the Willamette river from downtown. The segment I ran today went from 39th over what is known as the Three Bridges, can you guess why? This portion was completed several years ago and connected the bulk of the corridor with the Moreland segment of the loop. The bridges cross railroad tracks, McLoughland Blvd and and Johnson Creek. It is a nice flat run and completely free of road traffic other than speeding bikes who refuse to courteously warn you they are coming "On your Left". Do you sense a pet peeve?

After my journey across the Three Bridges I make my way through W. Moreland neighborhood including a really nice part through a large park complete with a lake and tons of geese and ducks. I like to talk to them as I run, I'm not so sure they enjoy it as much as I.

The next portion of the run winds through the up scale East Moreland neighborhood. Not only is it "up scale" it is also "up", so my pace slowed down considerably as I made my way back to Woodstock. I didn't bring water with me today as it was really cool out so a water fountain in a park on the border was my inspiration to keep going.

Hydrated I continued on with the final two miles through Woodstock and back to the house. All toll the run was just under nine miles. A really nice long run that brings my weekly total to 27 miles, the longest I have done in awhile. Four running days and the opportunity for one more tomorrow though I doubt I will.

I have been working on a project to build a social media widget for a client. Once it is deployed it is easy for someone to get there own and install it on a variety of different platforms from facebook, to blogs, web pages to your desktop. SO I have been trying to come up with an idea for the technology and today it dawned on me that I could make one to track my rebif injections and warn me of the days that I need to do it and where I should inject. Hurray! So look for that here!

Hot run + water = hot hydrated run

Today I got a late start but it still felt reasonably cool out. Still I remembered my promise last post to bring water and I knew it was going to be hot soon. I kept to my regimen of slow hydration by sipping through the whole run. Well not quite continuously but I made sure I didn't go too far before I took some more drinks. It went well enough to inspire me to extend it out to seven and a half miles with some good hills thrown in. I thought about heading to Mount Tabor, but I think I will save that for next week, maybe Monday.

I met my friend Jennifer yesterday, a fellow mser, for the first. She contacted me through the blog months ago about my fun with finding a way to afford rebif. It was good to give her the update and chat about our lives with and away from ms.

World MS Day

If you are just hearing about this, you are not alone.I just found out yesterday when I was asked by the MS Society if I wanted to publicize my World MS Day event on their site. We msers make be quick on our feet, but we're not that quick.

I decided to go out on a limb for WMSD and I went for a run. It was a really good run too, felt very smooth throughout. A good workout but I didn't kill myself. I also had a beautiful morning to enjoy on my run as well.

I just had a rebif blunder and wasted a shot. Being that I had to pay for this month (actually not, more on that later) the cost of each injection (nearly $200) was really apparent. I had popped off the cap on my self-injector. This is supposed to pull of the cap on the needle, but it didn't. So after my dull poke I tried to pull the cap off and squirted it all over the bathroom. I jammed it in, but I don't think I got any in. So I had to grab a cold one (and not a good "cold one") and inject that which sucks as it is a bit painful (compared to when it is room temp). But I am all juiced up and ready to watch basketball.

So, apparently the pharmacy was unable to bill my debit card for the full $2300 for the month I had to do outside of my coverage. OMIP was going to reimburse me, but I wasn't looking forward to the hassle. Anyway, since they couldn't charge me they had to bill me. And now that my OMIP has started up, they were able to just send it through. Hurray!

Strong run this morning

I missed writing for my last run. It was a good moderately paced longish run, I took most of my extender routes. The weather was a tad cool, but great for a run. Today (took a rest day yesterday) was gorgeous as well. Just cool enough to make running in the sun the perfect warm up, but not cold enough in the shade to be uncomfortable at all.

Today I felt a tad sluggish when I woke up but once I got going I felt really strong on my run for like 95% of it. I didn't push it too quickly and maybe that is why it felt good throughout. I ended up with a 9:30 pace for the 6.3 miles I put in. Not great but not bad and about what I have been doing my base runs at lately. My base run distance seems to be increasing. I don't know if I am just encouraging myself to go a bit further or what, but the 5.5 base runs I was doing previously are all getting extended. I am still feeling fine throughout them.

On an ms note, I have cut back with my dilantin to three a day (from alternating 4/5). My hope is to eventually stop taking these anti-seizure meds as this sort of symptom I was having with the periodic seizures is one that has gone away over time for people. So I am going to try weening myself again and see what happens. I have been doing this for a week or so and I am noticing that when I am over heated from runs that they seem to come back a bit. But only one small one as I am cooling down, almost as if it were a quick head rush. I do my kitty-kitty-kitty speaking test and I am having trouble though, so I think it is the seizure thing. I am going to see how it goes for a couple of weeks before giving up though. I think I will try to stabilize at three a day.

Solid morning run

Yesterday I never did any running, even after I blogged before I ran. Oh well. I didn't feel so hot. I forgot to take my anti-seizure meds the night before. I felt a little sluggish too, but not seizury (word?) plus I have lost my gloves and it was cold. So I figured it was not a bad day to take off.

This morning I hit the roads after a good nights sleep and had a nice run. Nothing great happened, nothing bad. I got passed by one runner and passed another. The run through the canyon is getting nicer and nicer, there are a whole bunch of flowers getting ready to bloom and the greenery down there is just amazing. The geese honked at me when they saw me go by. Solid run, nothing more, nothing less.

I am thinking I need to go back to listening to music and giving up my sports radio. Now that the Blazers are out of the playoffs, it has been really boring. Plus the music gives me a boost too.

Possibly an end to my morning runs?

I was just thinking that the evenings are getting long enough that I could run after Ruthann gets home from work during weeks where she doesn't have night meetings. It has been a really long time since I have done an evening run, the last evening run I did that I can remember was last winter during basketball's regular season. I remember listening to Blazer games while running, but I also remember it being dark, so it must have been more winter than spring. Actually that may have been two years ago. Anyway, I think I will give it a try this week as once it gets too warm I'll need to go back to my mornings.

Today I did a longer run, about 7.5 miles. The big excitement was finding another bathroom at the Art Dept. at Reed. Well, sort of found one anyway. I ended up using the women's as the men's was gross (that's all I'll say about it). But it is a better fit with my route than going down to west campus. Whooo hoo! Soon the park's bathrooms will be open again and I won't have to worry about it. Plus I expect that once summer hits the locks will go up again.

I ran the canyon this morning and it was beautiful. The skunk cabbage are getting ready to bloom and the grasses are about 3-4 feet high which creates a canyon within the canyon for the path. Very cool to run in. So far I haven't noticed the humidity change down there, but soon it will get oppressive. One loop in the canyon and I can shed 10 pounds!

Piglet flu?

Today I ran for the first time, well, since the last time I wrote. Its been about eight days that I have been dealing with this allergy-esque lung infection. Even with all the swine flu talk in the news, I have been a reluctant to call it by that name. The only symptom I really had was heavily congested lungs and an ugly cough. So I don't think I managed to get media flu (err, swine flu), but I did manage to get really sick. I got a lot of rest and no running which seemed to help quite a bit. I can even imagine running with this crud, my breathing was really bad.

It was a nice run, though I went pretty slowly (which was fine by me) and took a couple of short walking breaks. Today was the first run this spring where I actually felt hot. Not just running hot, but outside temperature hot. The sun was really bright today. I should spend the day in the yard, but I am going to see Star Trek instead. Apparently I like to do my yard work in the rain...

So before I got sick I had just stopped taking another round of creatine. I like taking it, makes the muscles feel good, but I really seem to put on the pounds. I could feel the extra weight everywhere (maybe it also has to do with the pasta). I am at 193 right now and feel too heavy, time to lose some of this weight and definitely lay off the creatine (but not the pasta!)

Early reverse base run

I got up extra early this morning, seems like recently on nights I take rebif I wake up and have trouble going back to sleep. This also seems to coincide with having to go to the bathroom. Having to pee at night is apparently a common ms thing. Yes another joy associated with our friend ms. One thing I can do is not drink at night, well that sort of sucks. But if it means sleeping in, I guess.

So anyway, I woke up early and resisted the urge to just close my eyes and go back to sleep if I could, Well actually I tried for a bit and kept thinking about our cat Franklin who we had to have euthanized yesterday and on a positive note the bari saxophone I just bought yesterday that is coming via the post from Florida. So, my mind racing with sorrow and jazz licks I decided to look at the clock which usually spells doom for my sleeping. The sun was coming up and the clock only said 5:30 so what the heck, might as well get my run in and then an early start to the rest of my day.

For some reason I saw a lot of ducks out today. I must have run into ducks like four or five times. Quack. I don't know what that means but it must be some sort of sign.

I did my base run in reverse mostly because I wanted to hit the bathroom at Reed. This is a really good thing to do in order to allow the side of your body and therefor leg that always hits the lower part of a sloped path (or especially roads) a chance to revers and hit the higher part. The down side of this is that in order to do that you have to run with traffic instead of against it. I am not sure it is worth it. So my reverse runs never take advantage of this as I don't like to run with traffic (especially with headphones). So for me it is just about the bathroom, gads I sound old!

Nice wet run

I just found out I almost won my age division for Sean's Run, though for some reason they didn't have me in the final results. I was 1:45 off, close!

Today I went out for my first run since the race. I did a pretty long one, 7.5 mi. It was wet out so I decided not to wear my Asics Gel Kayanos as they are really crappy in the rain, no grip. Instead I went back to my Mizuno Wave Rider 10 even though when I first tried them on wet surfaces I was disappointed with their traction as well (though not nearly as bad as the Asics). Well to my surprise, they apparently just needed a little scuffing as they did pretty well as far as road grip goas. I was happy with them.

A student of mine sent me this link to a pair of running shoes he is getting the Vibram Fivefingers Shoe. They look really interesting, I would love to try a pair. Not so sure I would want to OWN a pair, but they would be fun to test.

Sean's Run from Autism

This morning I ran a 10K, while I didn't set a PR, I did beat my goal of 54 mins coming in at 53:54. And I beat Sean! We were neck and neck the whole race. For me the race became "Marco's Run from Sean!" He and his running partner would pass me and then I would pass them back. It was a lot of fun and I beat the pack I was running with about 10 runners. I seem to have this penitent for running off course and I missed the turn around with two tenths to go (there were other runners on the course who weren't racing and I followed them, doh!) But I got back in the race, slapped Sean five and headed for the finish line. I wanted to cross side by side, but for some reason he didn't want to, so I turned on the jets and won out, my own little race!

I started out to0 fast, at mile one I was running a eight minute mile. I progressively slowed, but not by much with a time of just under 26 minutes for the halfway point. So not a bad split as I only added two minutes to the last half of the race. I really pushed it for this race, I don't know why. I guess with having run my 10K PR here, I wanted to do better. Plus having the pack on my back the whole time kept me going. It was also really windy so I think they were using me to cut through the wind - smart move on there part. The last 1.2 miles seemed to go by so slowly, I think it is because you get back to the park, but you have to run past it and then double back for the final .2.

It was funny, they had a calypso band playing before the race. As we all headed to the starting line, the song they were playing slowed down, slower and slower until the beat barely plodded along. Not the best choice of song for the start of a race!

I decided to ride my bike to the race, it's about five miles to the starting line. I felt like I needed to go for a swim too, so I could complete my imaginary triathlon. I have to say, once I got home (its all uphill on the way home too) there would be no swimming for me. Great race, fun run and I feel like I gave it all I had.