Day 96, 269 To Go

April 6, 2013

I actually ran in the morning today.  That hasn't happened in a while, other than on Sunday.  Normally, that is because I am working.  On Saturdays, it is because I am lazy.  I was feeling a bit lazy today, but an old college friend, Nikki, and her son, Skyler, were coming over for a visit.

First, Honey and I had to clean.  I mentioned to Honey that it is probably a good idea to invite someone over every weekend as motivation for her to clean the house.  She attacked me with the Swiffer after that comment.  I was clean then too!  Those things really get in all those hard to reach places...ouch!

Derek had fun playing with Skyler and the adults complained about their own kids in between disciplining their kids for not sharing or hitting or complaining or crying, etc., etc.  Kids are so annoying when you are trying to relax.  Have you ever noticed that?  They just don't care.

Now, it is evening, and I don't have to run.  It's great.  I can be lazy and not feel guilty.  I may just lie on the bed and watch TV until my brain begs me to stop.  I won't listen though.  At my age, I've already done enough damage from watching endless hours of TV that I figure, why stop now.  Mindless entertainment is now a staple in my life.

I do remember when I lived in Hawaii, that I didn't have cable for most of the time I was there.  I watched almost no TV.  I also didn't have a phone with Internet (iPhone wasn't out yet).  I think I was pretty out of the loop, but it was fine with me.  I went to bed early and woke up early.  It was great.  The key was that I didn't have the temptation.  I did have a computer and a Netflix account, so I did watch movies every once in a while, but for the most part, my digital entertainment was nil.  I recommend to everyone to do that at some point.  I remember I used to read a lot and I got outside all the time.  I exercised all the time and spent time with friends.  If I could find it within myself to do that again....

Here are my numbers:

Time: 20:00

Distance: 2.19 miles

Pace: 9:08/m

Max Pace: 7:49/m

Calories: 282

Avg HR: 137

Max HR: 151

Where was I...ok...time for TV.  Hope you all have a great weekend!  Peace out!

Run for Life!!

Day 95, 270 To Go

April 5, 2013

Another long week is over.  I was glad to get out and run.  As usual these days, I didn't make plans on what I should do on my run.  Yeah, I am supposed to pick something to work on every run, and I kinda, sorta do, but it isn't written in stone by any means.

Today, I felt good and I was warmed up since I did some push ups before I left the house.  I had a little bit of a sweat going already, so I started off quicker than normal.  I didn't really look at my pace, but when I hit 5 minutes in I decided to just go with the flow, and the flow told me to just go!  So I did.

I know some runners who run fast like this all the time, even on their long slow distance runs.  I hate them.  I envy them too.  Sure, some of it is hard work.  I don't envy that part.  I do envy their youth and I envy their genetics.  It feels so good when you are moving fast and everything is working together and you just GO!  At one point, I felt as if momentum was keeping me going.  I don't think I could have stopped if I wanted to.  I felt as if something was pushing/pulling me forward.  My legs were turning over and over of their own volition.  I was a captive on a ride up and down my street.  I was a willing captive though, and I didn't want it to stop, but my 20 minutes came to an end.

I started my first mile with a pace of 8:11.  My 2nd mile clocked in at 7:17 and my third mile was even better at 7:04.  I'm pretty sure I could have gone for a while longer.  My heart rate was high, but my breathing was steady and strong and I had plenty of energy.  If every day could be like that...

Here are my numbers:

Time: 20:00

Distance: 2.64 miles

Pace: 7:34/m

Max Pace: 6:29/m

Calories: 342

Avg HR: 151

Max HR: 170

My heart rate average had me in Zone 4, and I topped out into Zone 5!  I probably didn't have much more time at that pace, but it felt like I did.  Now, if I can duplicate that in a race or even do better, I'll be happy.  I have a sprint triathlon coming up next weekend.  I know I am prepared for the run...its the swim and bike that are a bit shaky!  Its a sprint, so I have no worries about finishing, but I don't have a ton of confidence that I'll do really well.  Who knows, if I can kick ass on the run, I have a chance at placing.  It all depends on the field.  It is early in the triathlon season, so that is in my favor.

Run for Life!!

Day 94, 271 To Go

April 4, 2013

I'm getting forgetful in my old age.  I suppose that goes well with my upcoming hearing loss and my already bad eyesight.  I forgot to do my month of March review!!  Better late than never.
March was my highest mileage so far this year and I had some of my fastest times.  My mileage still isn't super high, but baby steps is what this experiment is all about.  The goal is to finish, period.  If I have some milestones along the way, great.  I've already felt that upping my daily running time from 15 to 20 minutes is going to be considerably harder on me physically and even mentally.  Sure, it is only 5 minutes, but I have found that I sometimes dread that 5 minutes.  Lame, I know, but its true.

So, here is my summary for the month of March:

              Total Miles | Total Time
January          52.24    |    9:25
February         52.01    |    8:40
March            74.57    |   11:30

Here is a week by week breakdown:

Steve's Total Miles Logged: 74.57
Partial Week 1: 11.48
Week 2: 16.42
Week 3: 16.81
Week 4: 15.97
Week 5: 13.89

Total Running Time: 11:30:00

Honey's Total Miles Logged: 0

Yes, Honey was absent the entire month.  I'll cut her some slack (just a teeny, weeny, bit) since she was sick a good part of March and so were the kids.  At least since she has run one day in April already, she is doing better this month.  I need to get on her ass a bit, I think.

Here are my numbers for today:

Time: 20:00

Distance: 2.25 miles

Pace: 8:53/m

Max Pace: 7:43/m

Calories: 287

Avg HR: 134

Max HR: 150

I felt good today.  It was a hard day at work and Honey had a migraine all day, so I did double duty at work and with the kiddies.  I'm beat.  The run today was a nice release from the day.  Sometimes, there ain't nothing better than getting your feet out there and moving.  Now, time for sleep.  Goodnight!

Run for Life!

Day 93, 272 To Go

April 3, 2013

I guess I am feeling better.  I can tell by my pace when I run.  I have been going out most days and just running without paying attention to my pace.  I just run.  When I am sick, I can see that I am slower...and when I am getting better, I get faster.

I may still have had a bit of a stuffy head, but I think now it is more allergies than cold, and I'll take it.  I can hear again too.  That is both a blessing and a curse.  Its is a blessing because I can hear the TV again, but a curse because I can hear Honey again.

My hearing sucks normally.  I went to college for music at Manhattanville College and I played in a couple of bands during my time there.  We practiced in a basement surrounded by concrete walls.  We played loud!  And after every guitar solo, the rest of us had to play louder because the guitarist would turn up for the solo and conveniently forget to turn down.  Our amps didn't go to 11...they went to 20!

So, I have permanent hearing damage for sure.  I fully expect to need hearing aids when I am old.  It will allow me to ignore Honey and my kids frequently.  I'll just either "forget" to put them in or the batteries will be dead at opportune times.  I got it all planned out!

For now, I can hear her, and I can hear her turning me down to go out for a run.  I'm on my own again!

Here are my numbers:

Time: 20:00

Distance: 2.34 miles

Pace: 8:33/m

Max Pace: 6:17/m

Calories: 302

Avg HR: 142

Max HR: 161

I feel good!  Of course, I am going to take it easy the rest of the week because I want to stay healthy.  We'll see how that goes...

Run for Life!!

Day 92, 273 To Go

April 2, 2013

Honey was sore.  Everyone all together now...Awwwwww! 

I'm only kidding, really.  If you haven't run in a long time, and you get off your lazy butt and just do it, you can expect to be sore for the next two days.  This is a good thing. Soreness, although it hurts, is just your body breaking down.  That might sound bad, but when your body breaks down, it builds itself up again and when it does that, it gets stronger.  This is a good thing!

Sometimes, the best thing for sore legs is to get out there and do a nice easy run.  Honey wasn't buying it though.  Maybe tomorrow. 

Today, I ran pretty easy from the outset, but picked it up a bit to get a respectable time.  I am feeling better today.  No Dayquil all day.  I'm not 100% by any means, but at least I seem to be improving...once again.  I hope I do not regress once again.  My lungs felt better too so I guess I can let go of that fear of bronchitis or pneumonia!!  It is probably just allergies.  Apparently, they are going to be really bad this year.

This is important to know, because if you are susceptible to allergies or you have asthma, this could be a very difficult year for you.  I know, because I had bad allergies a long time ago....

I was about 28, and I smoked like a pack a day of cigarettes.  I was having trouble breathing, and I was told that I had allergy induced asthma, whatever that is.  Asthma is asthma as far as I was concerned, and I was concerned.  A friend of mine had lost her love to asthma.  He had a bad attack and stopped breathing and was in a coma for a year before he finally passed.  It is a horrible disease.

I can remember waking up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe.  I had to forcibly take in air and push it out.  I felt like I was going to stop breathing.  I was scared.  So, I had to take matters into my own hands and quit smoking.  I thought that was the key.

I took a drug called Wellbutrin which is an anti-depressant that has the side effect of making you lose your desire to smoke.  Strange, but it actually worked.  I took it for a month (the prescription cost $100!) and then I just relied on will power.  Sure, I cheated here and there, but I have never started smoking again.

The next step was to get in shape.  I started running on a treadmill three times a week.  I would run only about a mile, but I did this for six months straight without missing a week.  Then, I had my first running injury.  I hurt my knee.  I was on the treadmill at the gym when I felt something pulling then stabbing in my knew (I can't remember which one).  I think it was in response to some squats I had been doing (wrong, obviously). 

I eventually got better and I kept at it and learned more and more about running and I am here today because of my brush with death (I told you I was a hypochondriac!)

Here are my numbers for today:

Time: 20:00

Distance: 2.16 miles

Pace: 9:19/m

Max Pace: 8:07/m

Calories: 272

Avg HR: 122

Max HR: 141

I felt better today than I did yesterday, so that is good.  I am still not ready to push it, but at least I didn't feel like dying.  That's good!

Run for Life!!

Day 91, 274 To Go

April 1, 2013

This is not an April fools joke...Honey ran with me today!

I thought she might be joking when she offered to go with me, but no, she actually ran.  I guess I don't need to change the name of my blog just yet.  Not that I expect her to run with me every day like in the beginning, but once in a while is nice.  It gives me company, breaks up the monotony, and gives me an excuse to run easy and get some rest.

And I need some rest...

I felt like hell all day.  My ears are clogged, my nose is completely stopped up, and my chest feels a bit tight.  Since I'm a bit of a hypochondriac, I immediately assume it is bronchitis or pneumonia.  So of course, I opted not to run.

Uh, no.

So, we ran nice and easy and unfortunately, my GPS watch was not working, so I had to rely on MapMyRun.  It is serviceable, but I don't completely trust its numbers and I get no heart rate data.  Oh well, it will have to do.

Here are OUR numbers:

Time: 20:00

Distance: 1.77 miles

Pace: 11:19/m

Max Pace: x:xx/m

Calories: xxx

Avg HR: xxx

Max HR: xxx

Not a bad pace for Honey and she ran 20 minutes too.  Perhaps she just needed some time off.  Well, she got like a month, so that should be enough!!

Its time for bed and I have a bit of a fever.  This never ends.  I hope I don't wake in a pool of sweat again!

Run for Life!

Day 90, 275 To Go

March 31, 2013

Today's training was a disaster.  It was a disaster before I even woke up, really.  It was a disaster when my alarm went off at 5:25am and when I was done and tried to take a nap.

So, my big idea was to do a Bike/Run Brick repeat workout.  A brick workout is where you stack two types of training (this is usually used in triathlon training) in one workout.  A brick repeat workout is where you do this multiple times.  My idea was to do a bike/run brick and repeat it four times.  No big deal.

We would ride 5 miles, and run 1 mile...then repeat that four times for a total of 20 miles biked and 4 miles run.  It was not that ambitious because neither me, nor my training buddy Mike, had a lot of time, even though we were starting at 6:00am.  We both had kids who would be foaming at the mouth if they had to wait more than a minute to open their Easter baskets.

So, we got started...late, because both of us had trouble moving in the morning. For me, it was my ears, nose and the rest of my head that was the problem.  I couldn't breathe and I felt like crap.  For Mike, it was the fact that he had a drink or two too many the day before.  Neither of us were very gung-ho about getting started, but we did.

It was fucking cold, by the way at 6 in the morning.

That cold air blowing by my sick ears at over 20mph felt great in the way that an ice pick stabbing into your ear would feel great.  We started a bit fast because we were cold and we wanted to be warm, but it made it a bit hard.  The run felt ok...it wasn't too cold to run.  On our 2nd loop, we started to fade.  On our 2nd run, we decided to call it quits.  We just weren't into it.

I had run about 17:30 so far, so I went back out to run another 12:30 so I could do 30 minutes for the day.  It felt ok, but for the rest of the day, I felt like death.  The good thing is that I can't hear a damn thing, so the babies crying doesn't bother me at all!

Anyway, onto the holiday!

Happy Easter!  Or, Happy Spring Equinox!!  Or, Happy Bunny Day!!  Or, Happy Eatchocolateuntilyoupuke Day!!

You can pick your favorite one.  Me?  I'm going with 2 and 4.  I'm a big fan of spring, but not such a big fan of carpentry.

Here are my overall numbers on the bike:

Time: 0:32:16

Distance: 9.52 miles

Pace: 17.69mph

Max Pace: 22.39mph

Calories: 567

Avg HR: 126

Max HR: 147

Here are my overall numbers on the run:

Time: 30:00

Distance: 3.39 miles

Pace: 8:51/m

Max Pace: 6:48/m

Calories: 430

Avg HR: 137

Max HR: 154

I have the breakdown of the entire brike workout, but why bother.  It was a pathetic attempt, and I've already given it enough ink.  I would like to spend the rest of the day in bed, but that will not happen.  Monday is going to suck.  Until then...

Run for Life...