Dan - Congratulations on the 35th anniversary.  DW and I celebrated our 39th this past weekend.

AZ - Thanks for the tips. I looked at the Galloway plan quite a while ago.  Perhaps I'll give it another look.

Plan to do either some hills or speed work today after work.  Forecast says it should be sunny with tempsin the mid to upper 70s.  Not too bad, but as the summer rolls in, I'm thinking I should plan to do my weekday runs in the morning before work.  Just got to get my butt out of bed early enough to do so. 

Rich- you are right!  Turning 60 won't do us a lot of good.  Good runners get older and keep on running!

 

Debra- I've always tried a little warm up before 5 or 10 K runs before, but nothing like 2-3 miles.  I do notice when I'm on a longer run that I feel better after about mile 3.

 

DW & I had a fantastic day celebrating our 35th anniversary today.  I ran 6.5 while she biked 10, then after breakfast and some chores we hopped on the cycle and rode to Wildcat Mountain State Park, near Ontario WI.  It's in the Kickapoo river valley area, but it's about 400 ft above the valley.  Incredible views.  We at a picnic lunch and relaxed on a blanket, doing some light reading (the Run  Faster book was there!)  After the ride home (100 miles round trip, about her limit on the motorcycle) we rested a bit and then I grilled chicken and corn on the cob while she made a salad and sweet potato.  Will we ever sleep well tonight!

 

Great week to all.

Dan:  HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!    What a beautiful and lovely way to celebrate it!!  The area sounds like a charming place and the ride offered marvelous sights along the way.  That is my kind of day for 'anything.'  I love riding my harley, picnics in the park, and just relaxing with a book .  DH and I need to schedule a day/weekend ride on our bikes, we shouldn't be 'too busy' to find time to ride, right?

You know, Dan, the longer the distance that I become conditioned to, the longer it takes me to 'warm up' .......... so it doesn't surprise me that you 'had' to run a couple of miles prior to a sprint especially.  It's one of the reasons why I need to NOT neglect intervals in my training runs; the longer (intervals), the better especially now as I am starting my FM training for Oct.  I tend to be lazy about them.  And, I have noticed that more 'mature' runners tend to run 5ks and 10ks more.  They tell me it's just 'easier' on their bodies after 'years' of running, and you can tell those who have been running for years ........... they have learned HOW to race, I'm amazed by them!!

mkayc:  Excited about your HM in Chicago!!  The 'longest' training run should be a week prior to your race (from what I understand).  The rest should be short (4-8 miles, for HM) and easy.  Trying to run long days before a race is like cramming for a big exam, usually resulting in small benefits with higher risk of injury.  The best advice I got from a seasoned runner was to take walk breaks at a specified distance (not when you get tired), it does allow for 'faster' pace each time you resume, and a stronger finish.  I agree with Rich, trust your training, you are becoming a much more 'experienced' runner, and remember you just ran a FM, run smart and safe.

BTW - AZ, I appreciate your advice on the walk breaks and race approach. I've given up on the long run after yesterday's fiasco and am just moving into a modified taper. I'm acing the eating part and will ease up on my runs. I was trying to adjust to running 6 days a week and this is only the third week. Am not happy to mess with that plan because it's important for my fall training so I'll just treat this HM as race pace and training and enjoy the trip. I'll be the medal will be worth it, given that it'll be designed just for women. Ahhhhh. I'm betting the hardest part is going to be returning to 6 days a week after the race! Eh, so who says I have to enjoy every moment?

Dan - Rest days are nice. Especially when you're a bit worn down.

MK -  There are SO many different methods.  We're all an experiment of 1 and need to find what works for us.  Embrace the journey.

AZ -  I think it is easy to get down when things aren't going well.  Occasionally you gotta say yesterday was bad, but today will better and just believe it is.  Sometimes it even works!   Rest works for the psyche too.

Rich - Nice 10 miler in there!  Personally, I try to embrace the heat and usually run between 12-2pm.  You don't need to go as fast to get the same work in 

Gito - Your kid asks you to go on run?  How lucky!  I have to ask wife and son.  Nice double.

Did a walk yesterday about 3 miles with wife to food trucks for dinner.  Her foot is very sore, so didn't have to walk so fast, yes!

5 mile in between run today (43:30).  It felt really nice to be out today and probably overdid it a bit.  Canada geese were everywhere with lots of goslings (not to mention lots of turds to avoid ).  A couple of crows chasing a redtail hawk as well.

Hi all:

I feel it’s the heat/humidity combo that is getting me beat here and I have been reading a lot on how to make adjustments.  I am going to focus more on my effort level so to condition/acclimate my body to become more efficient at cooling itself.  I think it will be better than focusing on pace.  My hope is that it will continue to maintain my fitness level without feeling burnout (rather ‘burnt- out), haha!!

Pretty cloudy today, breezy, about 62 degrees, threat of rain sometime today/tomorrow so I was out the door by 8 am, yippee!!  Ran my usual trail, taking a walk break after every mile, slow and easy.  Didn’t push myself, avoided looking at pace/mile on garmin, hydrated during walk break.  A few rain sprinkles, NICE!!  Can’t believe I finished 9 miles, 1:41.  Jogged another ¼ mile with dog, stretches/foam roller.   Feeling great!!  Taking it one day at a time!!

Stay cool and run safe!!

Game 7:  Spurs in MIami.  Hope it's a nailbiter to the end!!  GO SPURS GO!!

Hi everybody! After my fall and wrist sprain back on April 14th I took a break from running. Thanks for all your supporting advice! I had to wear wrist braces for several weeks and had to get a special accommodations to  return to work since I had limited lifting abilities. I did have a weeks vacation in the first week of May and used it to rebuild the raised beds in my garden, the wood sides had rotted away after 10 years. I thought I would finish this in 2 days, but it took me 5. I did make improvements on the design. I wore my braces while doing all the work. While I was seeing the orthopedic doctor I had him x-ray my left big toe which has been sore and slightly swollen and he found severe arthritis, like bone on bone. He gave me a cortisone injection to help it and said it should not affect my running as long as I was not a sprinter. I also suffered a sore throat and some congestion at this time - note that I have thought that working up a sweat in my runs helps to kill off viruses and maybe I would not have been sick if I was still running. Meanwhile, I still had to finish up planting my garden and decided to do that before resuming running. So it was not until June 4th that I started running again. Now in April there was still icy conditions so it was a switch to now have 70 plus temp. and see leaves on all the trees! Fortunately, I had now set up the pool so I can cool off with a dip after my run.  Too bad I missed some of my favorite running in the early spring runs when the weather just starts to get warm and you start to see some color. I was not sure how much I had lost, it being a lull of 50 days without a run, but after a few short runs I did a 7.37 mile run on the 7th without any problems. I had my birthday on the 18th and am now 62! I was too busy for my long run last week, but yesterday, the 20th, I did my 8.8 mile run. I was not very fast, taking about 2 hours to finish, a 13:40 pace (back in April I ran the same course in 1:33:31, a 10:37 pace). However, I am glad I was able to do the course and expect to regain my speed as I do more longer runs. I plan to try a 10 mile course perhaps next week and will try to catch up to where I was back in late March and early April when I had some 40 mile weeks and did a 13.14 mile run.

Altair- welcome back.  Glad your feeling better and back to running.  Enjoy the summer runs & races.

MaryKay- safe travels!  Enjoy Chicago and enjoy the race.  Soak it all in!

AZ- although I'm not a big NBA fan, I've always appreciated the Spurs and how they go about their work, and have admired them from the days of David Robinson.  So tough!!  I'm in the ABL club. Anyone But Lebron.

Debra- you have such a nice area to run for being in the city.  Enjoy.

I'm being extra lazy about picking a plan and getting at it for the September HM.  Maybe this weekend. DS&DIL here this weekend, he and I may do hospital sponsored 5K tomorrow if the thunderstorms stay away.  DS & her fiancee coming Sunday, having early celebration of 4 birthdays and late Father's day celebration.

Have a great weekend running friends.

Debra - Nice 6 mi tempo and Great soundscape!! 10 mi sunrise run? Sweet!! Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, I got a small taste of your humidity and soooo sorry you have to run in it!

Altair - Welcome back and Happy Birthday!! 50 days away and already you are running 7+ and 8+. That is amazing!! You'll get that speed back!

Dan - "anyone but Labron" seems to be a common sentiment! Sounds like party central was your house this weekend. Hope it was fun!

The race was mid-sized, an out and back along the lake front. Everyone was decked in such great bright colors! Nice, easy start. Fleet Feet Chicago is owned by Dave Zimmer and sponsors the race; this was the second year. His wife opened the race explaining how she started running after having a heart attack three years ago. I have never heard a race crowd get so still.

They repeatedly announced that conditions were Red before the start. New system following Boston? Red is the last step before stopping the race. I was thinking it was overkill because it wasn't even 80 degrees; it was only humid. Crossed the mats in 1:53 which is amazing since I start at the back. For example it took 16 min. at the pig.

Lots of groups and pairs of ladies were running together. Although it was not such a big race, it often felt crowded bc the ladies wanted to run beside each other so they'd take up the width of the pavement making passing them a trail trip and then they'd pass really closely (frequent passing is the hazzard of walk/run). I am not a fan of that, although if I were part of the group, I'd probably feel differently. Idk.

Race was otherwise great except for the humidity. It wasn't even 80 degrees but before the first mile was over I had a coating of sweat on both arms.

Forgot my inhaler. Not good bc of the humidity. So, I was feeling strong m1-3. Have had a lot of personal stress at work and it flooded in m4 so I'm thinkng I was tired, stressed, hungry or something. It was a slow mile. Course veered away from the lake after m5 and the humidity or the stress took it's toll. I was on my feet about 4 hrs. the night before shopping. :P (Great high viz yellow tie-dye Nike capris).  So, I struggled keeping up with the intervals through m7. Up to then had only passed about 2 ladies getting first aide but then saw three more in a short period. The combination of that and the oppressive heat and fatigue made me take the switch back early and cut the race short. Thought I was only trimming off a few tenths bc we'd passed 7 and the crowd had caused a lot of weaving but it turned out to be a mile. So it goes.

Right in front of me a lady was running funny but it looked like she might have been playing around trying to stretch out some kinks because she otherwise seemed in control. I passed her, she passed me. About the third time I saw her out of the corner of my eye creeping up on my right but she was weaving sideways so I tried talking to her. She wasn't alright so I took hold or her arm and said, we need to stop for a minute and walked her off the course over to a tree that she grabbed. About five others came to help and took the initiative to call for help so I got back on the course. Not too far up was another woman down and that aide person was on his way toward our lady so I was 1) relieved but 2) scared because the folks down were starting to outnumber the aide workers. And, btw, I saw at least ten ambulances so they were prepared. There were two more ladies being treated after that so I gave up trying to push and walked the last three miles. Before that I was blaming myself for feeling so worn but at that point I was giving in to the humidity. There was a voice though saying I have a lot of work to do to get in better shape.  At this point, many women were walking but at least a third were still jogging and that means I could have done it too with better preparation. My programs say I covered 12 mi. in 2:37:14, 13:05. My PR was 2:59 last year so I woulda had a PR even with the three miles of walking.  Eh, so it goes. I need to build the core and get leaner if I'm going to deal with these temps.

Run happy, easy and light, all!