King of the Hill?

I ran five miles at lunch yesterday. Since I am still not acclimated to the heat and humidity, I didn't break any land speed records. When I got home last night, young son's baseball game had been cancelled and Lee was heading off on a run before dinner. I was left with an unexpected 45 minute hole in my schedule. What to do with that time?

I could have cut the grass, but it was too wet. I could have taken a nap, but my father in law was at the house waiting on dinner and watching the news and don't want to look lazy in front of him... :) I could have sat down and written a blog entry, but I didn't have much to blog about. So that left me with no choice but to run a hill workout. I have never done that, but I have made some noise about adding speed work and this seemed to be as good of a day to that as any other.

Next I needed to find a hill. Well, I looked out my front window and saw a steep hill that is about 1/10 of a mile long. That should work. As I walked to the bottom of the hill while setting my Garmin for the interval workout, I tried to decide how many intervals I should run. I didn't want to overdo my first hill workout, but I didn't want to look too much like a wimp either. I settled on 10 intervals of 1/10 mile up and 1/10 recovery down. That would be two miles added to my daily total and be a good introduction to hill workouts.

As I stood at the bottom of the hill, I began to realize that 1/10 of a mile looked a lot longer that I had imagined. Before I suffered a bout of paralysis by analysis, I pressed the start button and started sprinting (well, it seemed like a sprint to me anyway) up the hill. I started hearing some beeping as I approached the top and slowed down to look at my Garmin to make sure it wasn't about to self destruct. It was only the warning that I was approaching the end. Finally, I heard the 'end beep'. I look down and see the screen on my wrist telling me to recover for 1/10 of a mile. Buddy let me tell you, I took advantage of every step of recovery. At the bottom of the hill the beeping started again, warning me it was almost time to turn around and repeat the process.

Beeps are a funny thing. When you don't expect them, they can be alarming... Is it a fire? Is a truck about to back into me? Is someone making popcorn in the microwave? When you expect them, the reaction may be positive... I'm almost at the top of the hill... I hear the beeping. Or, the reaction can be negative.... What? I'm almost at the bottom of the hill and it is time to turn around and run back up the hill like an idiot?

10 times I went up the hill and 10 times I went down the hill. In the end, my legs were shaking as I approached the crest. My neighbors were amused and confused. Or maybe they were just amused and thinking that I was confused. Either way, when I was done I was happy. Happy to be done and happy to have finally done some sort of speed work. As bad as it was, it wasn't as bad as I had imagined. As much as it hurt at times, it also felt good. Most, ok ALL, of my running experience to date has been distance running on the road. This felt different. I don't want to say it was fun, but it was different. So different, that I think I will try it again next week.

Time to get back to blogging....

Glad I ran earlier today, looks like the thunderstorms are about to kick up!

I am amazed at how fast stuff grows around here. Kudzu, I'm used to. When I was a kid, we would measure it daily and see it grow 10-12 inches each day. Lately though, I am noticing how fast weeds, trees and other vines grow as well. Today I counted 8 limbs that I either had to duck or dodge on East North Street that were not in my way last fall before the leaves fell. I kind of enjoy the distraction on those hills, but when I am not paying attention and take a limb to the face it isn't much fun.

The bugs have come out recently too. It is amazing the variety of insect life you see while looking down as you run. We've got some nice bugs around here... Some that I change my stride to avoid stepping on because they are so big. I've also seen a couple snakes (2 alive, 1 dead) so far this spring. Add in the normal loose dogs, field rats, chipmunks and squirrels and I feel like I am running out in the country.

I have been running, but not as much as I would like. I should still hit my 100 miles for the month though. I am going to take it fairly easy in June so that I get acclimated to the heat without risking injury or fatigue before I start marathon training in July. The sound of that 'marathon training in July' just really doesn't get me too enthusiastic right now.

Yes, I am still here....

Baseball, field trips, work, homework, opening the neighborhood pool..... All this has kept me from blogging lately. I have gotten a few runs in, but not as many as I would have liked.

A few things I have noticed lately....

The humidity is back. What a wonderful feeling to be completely soaked before I finish my first mile....

Trash is starting to smell... A sure sign summer heat is on the way.

My appetite is gone after a run. Another sure sign summer is close.

I want to get acclimated to the heat this month and then start building up the mileage base for the marathon. So far I still enjoy it, but I am sure the heat will start to wear me down in July.

Too much time on my hands....

The title may make you think I am sitting around doing nothing all the time. That couldn't be further from the truth. In my running life, I am in a lull. We a have a couple of races coming up, most notably the Sunrise 8K in June, but nothing major is on the horizon. I still haven't picked a training plan for the marathon. I am just kind of spinning my wheels with no real direction. The only real goal I want to accomplish is to lose 10 pounds and I am not overly concerned with that since I am still at/below my weight watchers goal weight.

I have read where having some down time is good for your body and mind when it comes to running. I know that August, September and October are going to be grueling months of marathon training in some pretty good heat, so maybe taking it easy right now isn't all bad. Friday night went about like I expected.... We bailed on the GHS 5K because young son had a ball game rescheduled for Friday night. Of course, we got an email about 3:00 on Friday that the games were officially cancelled because of the rain earlier in the day. Instead of trying to get things worked out to make the race, we just ran 5 miles at home. It was nice running together and we had not done that in while. Saturday was busy with chores, baseball and a Girl Scout dinner for teenage daughter. Sunday was spent in church, lunch with my folks and an afternoon of hole digging for Lee's new plants. In other words, no running. Other than the fact I ate too much this weekend, I didn't mind the time off from running. I hope to get back on it today or tomorrow.

So much for the Friday Night 5K.....

Young son's baseball game got washed out tonight and rescheduled for Friday. So if by some chance it doesn't rain on Friday, I'll be out at Corey Burns fields watching America's Pastime. The only good thing about that is that I will run tomorrow if I get time. I missed my run today because of work and then some untimely afternoon showers.

Well, I am officially registered for the Marine Corps Marathon in October. I guess that means I need to officially lay out a training plan. I guess that means I need to officially pick out a training plan..... I'm already nervous......

A Friday Night 5K?

This Friday is the GHS 5K. Last year it was at Eastside High School and I had vowed not to run it again after that experience. I don't mind cross country courses, but that one was a real stretch to get 5K in and was pretty narrow in a lot of sections. You also had to snake back and forth across a field. It is almost the same course that is used for the Taylors Turkey Trot. I like the Turkey Trot for a lot other reasons, so it doesn't bother me as much...

Anyway, this year GHS moved the 5K to TR and put it on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. I am a little concerned since it is an out and back course and there will likely be a lot of walkers, but for $5 you get a t-shirt and refreshments so what is to complain about?

I ran again yesterday and felt much better than I did Saturday, but I am no where near race-ready as I was still 30 seconds a mile off my normal training pace. What does this mean for me on Friday? Well, I assume it means no PR and likely not even a sub 25 minute time. It is a Corporate Shield event, so there will be a pretty good crowd of fast runners, so maybe I will get lucky and pace off someone. After this race, I think I am going to spend May doing speed work and then see if it pays off in the Sunrise Run on June 13. I like that course and I think that five miles might be a good distance for me.

Sweating blood... Not quite.

Friday evening was the annual Lake Forest Elementary Spring Carnival. Since young son attends the school and dear wife works there, we were 'all in' for the evening. It was fun. Being a neighborhood school there are lots of friends out and about to visit with. The kids go nuts busing confetti eggs on everyone and firing off untold cans of silly string.

While Lee went off to work her shift at one of the attractions, I did something that I don't do often enough..... Donate blood. To show you I am serious about saying I don't do it enough, this was the first time I had given blood since I started running. Sot it had been at least 18 months. The first thing I noticed was that the lady doing the paperwork gave me quite a compliment. She looked at me as she took my blood pressure and said, "You must work out a lot." Naturally I thought my athletic build was the giveaway, but my ego was quickly shot when she said "I hope you do anyway, otherwise you are in trouble. Your pulse is 50." Alas, it was my pulse and not my pecs that gave me way... :)

The rest of the bloodletting was routine and I didn't think anything about it. Then about 12 hours later I went for a run.... Hmm, I might as well have been running for the first time. At least that is how it felt for the first 3 miles. I felt a little better during mile 4 and 5, but no where near how I should have felt. My pace was so bad, I expected to get passed by a snail at any time. I didn't get out today, but I hope that by Monday I am back to close to normal. I know it takes 6-8 weeks to get all your red blood cells back, but from what I read online I should be back to normal running fairly quickly. Otherwise, it looks like a SLOW run in the GHS 5K is coming up this Friday....

All that said, I won't let it deter me from giving blood. I will definitely look at WHEN I give blood though!