Category: Run

Howdy y’all –

Been trying to keep busy with work and real life, and haven’t had much time to keep up with everyone. Will likely be touch and go for the rest of the month – good things are afoot at the Circle K. Huge congrats to Deene and the rest of the RBF Marathoners in Vegas, though.

Decided to give in to the flu shot last week and was a slug Wed-Sunday. But, lots of sleep later I feel great. Plus, I managed to get the garage cleaned and organized, and the wife’s car now has a warm home for the winter.

This week has been great so far regarding sticking to fitness. Weigh-in Monday was 170, weigh in today was 169, which means that 171 may have been a post-Thanksgiving, post-marathon plateau, and I might be getting my weight headed in the right direction. Jack’s eating my lunch, weight-wise. Well, I wish he were eating my lunch – maybe then I’d be 7 down instead of 2 up. But, I can’t really complain – I’m headed back in the right direction, and managed ot check the slide I usually take after a big fitness milestone. It’s all about making it a lifestyle instead of an accomplishment.

Today was 30 minutes on the stationary bike at the base gym over lunch, and a set of 30 sit-ups and 20 push-ups. Did the heart rate program, 30 minutes at 150. Nothing fancy, ‘cept the sauna that I was hoping to try turned out not to be a sauna.

Monday was probably the most enjoyable run I’ve had in a long while. Lunchtime again, from the base gym, out for the 3.4 mile loop. HRM, trying to stay under 150 again, and doing a much better job of it this time.

The weather was insanely beautiful. Blue skies, unlimited visibility, gentle breeze, temps pushing 40. Great day to be out for a run. Came to the steep part of the course at the same time as a woman running in shorts and a t-shirt, and sprinted up the hill. Pegged my heart rate somewhere around 180 for 45 seconds, and completely loved the burning in my throat, the pounding in my chest, and the feeling of my lungs being pulled into my bloodstream as the red blood cells tried to unload CO2 and suck in O2 as they flew by the alveoli.

The woman caught me again coming up to the bridge to cross back over to the gym, and it was all I could do to bite my pride and let her pass so I could keep my heart rate near zone. Every fibre of my body wanted to kick it up and finish strong back to the gym. But, I would have looked like a complete jerk for passing her twice. So, I kept plodding along, heart rate in zone, and ended up at the corner at exactly 30 minutes. 30 seconds slower since the last time I ran this route (Kind of can’t believe that that was over 2 weeks ago…). But overall, I felt better.

Pushups and situps before and after the run.

So, it finally happened. Running and I are officially “on” again.

Drill Weekend again, and most of the guys in the unit were amazed at the whole marathon thing. I’ve got to note again that I’m a Navy reservist, where there’s still a decent component who believe that 3 miles a year is a completely sufficient amount to run. Not many, but a few.

Kind of a chilly day – sunny, mid 30’s and windy most of the day. But, somehow I was itching to run. Probably left over endorphins from Friday. Whatever. I was itchin’ to run, and couldn’t wait till the end of the day and the hour of mandatory PT. The other marathon guy wasn’t drilling, so I asked around to see if there were any other takers for a quick trip around the perimeter. No dice. Ah, well, their loss.

What can I say? The run was amazing. The birds sang, the breeze blew (breeze, not wind), and the sun beat down on my ears. Or, would have beat down on my ears if I’d forgotten my cheapo fleece headband from Old Navy, which purposely isn’t the same color as my cheapo fleece gloves from Old Navy. ‘Cause that’d be gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that..

“Shuffle” on the Nano worked wonders again. The Charlie Brown Christmas Album got a couple of songs played while I was on the perimeter path. Nothing quite like the Vince Guiraldi Trio playing while running through the woods on a brisk day. I half expected to see Snoopy and Woodstock playing hockey in a frozen puddle. Light heart, light feet.

Finished the perimeter loop (which, depressingly, Gmaps tells me is only about 3.5 miles) with a little bit too much time left in the PT period to head straight to the showers (for which I likely would have gotten a pass, since the assumption would have been I was heading off somewhere to watch Army/Navy), so I decided to challenge “Hospital Hill” again.

Hospital Hill won. Or, to keep the positive spin, I decided to continue in my “easy” vibe, and walk/ran up the hill about 50/50. On the way down, though, light feet struck again – Felt good, finished strong. Yippie.

Great time at work. Interesting possibilities opening up there at my part-time job. Good times with the family after work, and quality time with the wife after the boys were in bed. Light hearts.

Oh, and I got the flu shot this morning. I’m sure I’m going to feel like crap on Sunday morning. But, I’ve got peace that there’s at least one disease that my beautiful little vectors can’t pass on to me now.

Good will towards man, y’all.

Jeff nailed it a couple of days ago – running at lunch somehow feels like playing hooky. Doubly so when it’s about 40 degrees, breezy, getting colder, and with big, puffy, dark grey snow clouds hovering somewhere over Connecticut.

Headed out for a straight up lunch run on Friday with another guy at work. He’d stuck his head in my office earlier in the morning to see if I’d brought my stuff. (His usual running partner was offsite at a meeting.) I had. The plan was to hit the base gym on the way home, but the offer of company was just too tempting. So, lunchtime, I strap up the shoes and hit the road.

Luckily, he was in the mood for an easy run (this guy is one of the real runners at the office), so we did an easy 15 minutes out, 15 minutes back. Splits out/back were the same, even though we were running into the wind and uphill on the way in. Good to be running with someone else for a change, good to be out of doors.

I’d like to end with a postscript about how I drove home in the snow, but I didn’t. Might snow this afternoon, but right now it’s sunny and mid-30’s.

Usless Stats: 3.4 miles, 30 min, 5 seconds.

50’s, beautiful, and sunny this afternoon.

Yes, indeed, I did sleep in this morning, beginning to be convinced that I was coming down with something. Did some stretching, etc, before work, but completely avoided going to the gym. Since, of course, it’s not M/W/F. Cloudy for the drive in.

But, after a morning meeting, I headed over to get a hair cut (drill weekend, dontcha know), and couldn’t resist busting out a quick 30 minutes during an early lunch break.

The run wasn’t anything spectacular distance or speed-wise. But, I couldn’t help but grin like an idiot most most of the way. Warmed up with a set of pushups and situps, started the stopwatch, and headed out the door, loving the mild weather and wondering if the wind was going to give me issues.

One of the things I’m going to try to get back to is using a HRM, especially during non-speedy runs. Since I don’t have any set mileage targets, and my target “races” for next year are a 1.5 mile PRT and a series of sprint triathlons, I think it’s more important to focus on quality during my runs than on quantity. So, I figure I’m going to be doing a lot of “out-n-back” runs, listening to my body and trying not to drive my heel.

For some reason, I wasn’t able to get my HR into the 135-155 range I ought to be in for “fat burning”. For most of the run it stayed between 155 and 165, though the average at the end was at 155. Not way, way up there, but right at the 85% aerobic threshold. Didn’t feel short of breath at all. Stretched when I got done. Can’t emphasize how nice the run was. Can’t emphasize how nice it is to have marathon monkey off my back.

Speaking of the marathon monkey – darn, have my tendons, etc, been tight since NYC. No, I haven’t been stretching enough. But it’s been kind of building up since the race, to the point where it finally made me start doing a bunch of lower body stretching each morning. Think it’s turning the corner, and I think that starting to bike and run again will help keep my muscles loose; but ouch.

Usless Stats: 29:30, 3.2 miles, 451 calories, 30 sit-ups, 20 push-ups.

Actually watched Monday Night Football last night. Great game. Is it just me, or is Madden beginning to go kind of senile? Regardless, I loved the commentary, and the game was pretty good. Made even better by the fact it was Dallas v. Philly, and I could play the opening monalogue off of the VU’s 1969 Live album with Lou Reed’s immortal “You ought to give people a chance. In football, anyway.”

The diet hasn’t kicked off too well, though – wings, cheese, and summer sausage. Melissa made the wings off of a recipie out of a magizine – I need to look it up since they were great. They were boiled and then baked, so some of the fat had melted off. Added a bit of Tabasco, but that’s just ’cause everything needs more ‘basco. Haven’t weighed myself since Friday – Jack is already at least two pounds down on me. Good on him.

Managed to run before work today. Nothing special, just 20 minutes or so on the exercise path at NUWC. 2.5 miles according to Gmaps Pedometer. But it felt good to be running again. Felt good to get it out of the way early.

Weather was on the warm edge of chilly, driven home by the low, grey clouds rolling by overhead, and the silent V’s of geese heading south. Might could have used gloves, but it wasn’t so cold that I needed to pull my hands inside my shirt. Legs were kind of confused – not quite sure if they wanted to run, or if they wanted to complain. I told them to shut up and go.

Tried to take it easy, but the Nano kicked out “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” off of Wilco’s “A Ghost is Born” album. Quickly dialed up the whole thing, and spent most of the run just completely lost in the music. Perfect album for running on a grey day in late fall. Perfect album for navel gazing, which I’ve been doing a bunch of lately.

Think I’ll try to get to the pool tonight for another slow swim, and then take tomorrow off. Either that, or wake up and try out the wife’s Kathy Smith Pilates tape. Need to work the core.