Ya either Love 'em or Hate 'em

Mondays that is!  I try my best love love them.  I mean come on, it's Chest day in the gym.  Who don't like going back into the gym after a two day hiatus and try to destroy every fiber in their chest!?

Any how...... Today was a good day.  My lower legs & feet still hurt, but I'm hoping that is just from the increase in mileage and will at least ease off soon.  I have to keep adding to the mileage though, with two ultras coming up QUICK it is almost a must!!

Today's Training Schedule
Lunch Gym

Flat Dumbbells: 55# WarmUp, 75# (8), 80# (8), 85# (6)
incline Dumbbells: 55# (10), 65# (10), 65# (10)
Dumbbell Fly: 45# (10), 55# (10), 60# (10)
and of course we had to end will pull ups.
3 sets 5 Reps - Full Dead Hang Pull ups

After work decide to get my run on.
5 Miles in the cold & dark through some hills......However the nice thing about running at night during this time of year is ya get to look at all the Christmas lights.  Nice surprise tonight!

Ok friends, Keep on Running, Keep Healthy & SAFE !!

...and again

Had a good 10 miler today with a friend.  We decided to go down the A.T.T. since his 1st ultra is going to be on a very similar surface.  I honestly was a little worried about what pace I would be able to keep since I am still having some leg pain issues.  All in all the day turned out well and I'm glad we went.

We started off a little slow, again worried about my legs, but then after the 1st mile we settled into a mid 8 pace.  Then about mile 4.5 I absolutely crashed & told my buddy we would have to stop at mile 5 and I will have to shed some clothes.  When we left I was cold and was therefor wearing too many clothes.  So after a short break and me removing 2 outer garments we were on our way again.  I hit a Gu Energy Gel & slugged some H20 and was good to go.  The rest of our run was without incident and finished feeling strong.  After the run I stretched & caught up with another tribe member.

A little later on and my legs are feeling ok  I did however wrap them for about an hour today.  It's really a roll of the dice to see what they are going to feel like in the morning.  Tomorrow is an off day then we will be back on it.  Hope everyone has a great weekend, stay safe & healthy!!

Monday AM .... Again

Hi All,
Woke up this morning and went a swim'n.  Nothing spectacular, lots of 100's on 2 Min & several 50's on :45,  just trying to get some sort of stamina back.  With this stress fracture healing & the weather being absolutely FREAK'N awesome the urge to run has been almost insatiable!  So to NOT help that feeling any, I think I am going to sign up for 5K five days out from when I am going to start training again (Links below).

Now I know some of you are thinking, Your an idiot, or maybe , you just stupid T.M.T.S. AGAIN!  But I'm hoping that you are wrong.  The 5 days of running before this race will set the tone for how I run it.

The race is very unique and probably a One-Time only race.  It is being held on a new Toll Road that is getting ready to open up.  Check out the links & let me know if you are going!





Event Website: http://www.TriangleExpresswayTrot.org
Active Registration: http://www.Active.com/running/research-triangle-park-nc/triangle-expressway-trot-2011

TYPE-A

In typical Type-A class and style I have a case of TMTS!

Too Much Too Soon, so I guess starting my 1/2 marathon training with a 13 mile run and about killing myself then following it up with a 14.6 mile run at 5K training pace is not the way to do it (See Catch-Up Post Here). All this without stopping or decreasing any of my normal millage.

So after after about 2 weeks of pain in my left Tibia and hoping it was just shin splints I broke down and went to my Ortho.  Some discussion and x-rays we agree that I probably have stress fractures and need a bone scan.  That has been ordered for Friday so will know more then.  However I am prepping myself for 4-6 wks of no running and cancelling my Pamlico Jack Challenge (8K+ Half Marathon) and 3 other races I had on-tap.

Well now I have been talking to my trainer and we are going to start on a stress fracture friendly training program that will keep my running cardio up and keep me in shape so hopefully the recovery to running again will not be so bad. Triathlon X-Training Here I come !!

Ortho Appt

Well I broke down and called my Ortho.....Never thought I could get an appointment with the guy I wanted to see and the conversation went something like this.

Me: Hello, what is the possibility of getting an appointment with Dr.B
Rec: hahahahaha, your name?
Me: TimP
Rec: Oh we know you; Hold on please.
Rec: Be here at 3:30 and we will work you in.

Is that a bad thing?
Updates will come later.

Peace Ya'll!

Late Weekend Post

Well no running this weekend, No new running shoes, No New Calf Compression Sleeves, No New Vibrams....Ugh..  

The REI Garrage Sale was kinda a bust.  I did come out of it with a used Petzl Head Lamp and an almost new pair of Merrell Radland Shoes.

Now onto the bad news.  I think a trip to the orthopedic surgeon is in order for the upcoming week.  MY LOWER LEFT LEG IS KILLING ME!  I am hoping it is just shin splints but I doubt it.
Additionally I have all sorts of pains going on and don't know what to do about them.  I have laied off the run now for a few days and it seems to only get worse.  My foot (the broke one) is having some real problems and I think my neck is making my fingers numb and hurt again.

More on all that in another post.  Now time for bed and when we wake tomorrow a call to the Doc.

Oh well......have a great week everyone.

Short Run

Tonight's run was a short run do to some requests for me to shoot photos in the local Co. Fair.

2 mile warm up
3x hill sprints
50 sec sprint up the hill
Recovery as I walked back to the start.
Run back to the house at race pace.
Walk cool down
Stretch

Total miles. 2.43 miles
Oh well will shoot for a long run this weekend

Tribe Tuesday

Today, like every Tuesday, is TRIBE Tuesday.  However this is a special meeting as it is the 1st ever Brick City Running Tribe Monthly Awards Tuesday.  Awards you say?  Yup, after earning 10 running credits, which are earned by Tuesday runs, Friday AM runs, or any other race with your BCRT shirt on, you earn a "Super Fly" BCRT Medal ! There were 14, I think, members that have earned their 10 or more credits and received one of these.

Now on to the running.  Nothing spectacular to mention.  I did the short run, my lower left leg still hurts but I stopped at mile 2 and stretched my calf's and that seemed to help a little bit.  After the stretch one of my buddies cruzed on by me so I tagged up with him and finished the last 1/4 with him somewhere around a 6:35 pace.


After the run the club went to a local Italian restaurant and handed out the medals and did a raffle drawing.

Race Day Recap-9/11/2011 Cara 5k

FAIL - Well 90 % FAIL......
Unofficial GPS RunKeeper Results: Time: 21:51

Ok so by now we all know that I was amped up for the CARA 5K race.  It got cancelled, I was not going to get rescheduled but then I did get rescheduled but with no chip timing and was presented as a "Just for Run Run".  On top of all that It was rescheduled for September 11th.....UGH, could it had be a worse day?  Maybe, but that would have been tough to beat.

Race Day

Sooooo I'm not sure what happened to me but somewhere along the way I think I lost interest in this race.  I only say that because I think it was the worse race I had ever run.  there was EVERY opportunity for me to have an ultra fast race.  #1) I had  two great people to chase.  One of them is in the Running Tribe that I am a member of and the other was a guy wearing a TAF singlet.  My friend runs just a little slower than me but I like to let him lead for most of the course then at about mile 2 I turn it on and its all he can do to keep up with me.  However the TAF guy was running at about my 5K race pace.  The problem that I had was I had no Chase, and yes I like to chase, I had no Kick.  Nope, did not even kick it into high gear at the end when everyone was watching....and I had no desire to do either one of those.

Now I can come up with all the excuses that I need.  Foot pain, neck pain, shoulder pain & the leg pain I am dealing with right now.  Yup they were all present that morning but I would be lying to you If I told you that is what held me back.  The real reason is I just did not "Want It".  BTW I could have easily passed my buddy from the run club and I'm almost sure I could have at least caught the TAF guy, however that will wait until another day.  Maybe next year.

Now for the 10% Good.
Yes, I did PR the course.  A full 43 sec faster than my quickest run on this route
Yes, I did make it to church on-time.  (Race started at 8:15, I was in my truck leaving at 8:40, at church at 9:30 :-)  The Lord was pleased!)
AND......I WON THE GRAND DOOR PRIZE !!!!!!  Check out the cool swag below.

Well another race, another bib and another shirt.  Next time WILL be better.

Peace out Peeps!

Basket Contents !!!!
3 Running magazines
Frog Toggs Chilly Pad Cooling Towel
Feetures Elite Running / Cycling Sox
Sneaker Balls Shoe Freshener
Stick of Body Glide
1 Pair Yankz Sure Lace System
Brooks - DNA Playing Cards
Omega Sports t-Shirt
Brooks Sillicone Bracelet
Nathan L.E.D. Safty Strobe
Animal Rescue Magnet
Sneaker Keychain
Bag of Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips
Larry's Beans Organic House Blend Coffee
4 - GU Energy Gels
Clif Shot Bloks
Clif Bar
Extreme Sports Beans

Grand Prize Basket

Detailed View of Basket Contents

Bad Runs

So I will be honest, I can not stand a bad run.  I mean it ruins the rest of whatever day I have left.  If I have a bad run at lunch time the rest of the day is shot.  If I have a bad run in the evening I go to be mad.  I just ruins everything.

Last night was one of those runs.  I started out with a sore shoulder / Neck & a sore left foot & Shin.  I figured I would do a walking warm-up then stretch then ease into a jog.  All that went well, some mild pain but overall it was ok.  After that I started my run.  It seemed like every step I had someone hitting my left shin with a crowbar, I don't know what have done, so I decided to do some interval stuff. 3 Min Run W/ 90 Sec walk.  I did this for about 2.5 miles then finished up with a light run to my turn around point.

At the turn around I stopped and stretched my neck, calfs & Quads.  Reset my RunKeeper and off I went determined to finish out the last 2 miles at a decent pace.  I ran back to the neighborhood holding about a 7:15 min/mile pace.  It hurt but I was able to push through it.  I hate days that that.

Well, later on friends.

RunKeeper #1

RunKeeper #2

Huge Catch-Up Post as promised

ok, so here we are again. Playing the old Blog catch-up game. So much has happened since my last entry that I don't know if it is even worth going through or should I just start fresh AGAIN! Ugh, well I think I will at least try and catch-up on some notable items.  Sorry for the extremely long post but here we go.....

Notable Item #

 1) I registered for the C.A.R.A. 5K

2) Trained on the actual route for the 5k. Hills, yuck, I don't do hills very well but non-the-less I trained on them.

3) Hurricane IRENE showed her tail

4) C.A.R.A. 5k Cancelled at the last min. & could not find another replacement race. I did try though. Anything within reasonable driving distance was cancelled as well.

5) After church on the 28th came home and thought I was 19 and super-fit-man and wanted to see if I could actually run 1/2 marathon distance. So on a whim out the door I went. No fluids, nope none the day before nor any that day. No Breakfast and nothing out of the ordinary the night before. The temp when I decided to do this was about 88 deg however quickly shot up into the 90's that day.

NEEDLESS TO SAY; I think I about killed myself that day. I ran about 10k and was tired but ok and decided to push on. Stopped for a stretch & quick drink from the fountain and off I went. So to get in the millage that I was hoping for I ran the above mentioned CARA 5k course twice back to back. Did I mention that I do not do hills very well? I have a really bad habit of pushing up the hills in fear of loosing time that I end up sprinting by the end of the hill and this course has a MAJOR incline at mile 2. 56ft in 1/4 mile. So now after that I hit the fountain again and on the home stretch. The temps were up and my body was hurting, never in my life had I run / limped that far in my life.....this was all new to me. Guess I should not have started out the run at my normal 5k training pace. Well I made it home and rad directly to the shower where I stayed for the next 15 min trying to get my core to cool down. Oh my gosh, worst possible physical experience of my life! You can look at the route here if you want a good laugh.......I vowed to NEVER do it again! The whole adventure took me 2:24:48 and my "Semi-Moving" time was 2:06:29. I was a complete failure!

6) Two days later was the regular meeting of the running Tribe and out we went on yes more hills. I ran ok but hooked up with one of the other guys who was struggling and paced him for the last 1/2 of the run. (RunKeeper Here). First half was somewhere in the 7's and the last half was at about a 9:30 pace. The last 1/2/ was a welcome pace after the brutal run on previous Sunday. Interestingly enough, the run was good and I was not as sore as I thought I would be.

7) Sept 2, ran the Cara 5k rout again this time with much better results. The hills are still difficult but are getting better all the time. Still have that nasty habit of trying to sprint up them, oh well keep on working.

8) NOW HERE IS THE BIG NEWS! You remember in item #5 when I said I would never do that again?! Well that was last week, hahahaha. I decided to give the 1/2 marathon distance a try again. This time I would do some proper prep work.

The night before I went to a local Italian place with the wife and had a HUGE plate of pasta carbana, completely hydrated the previous day & went to bed at a decent time. Got up that morning & ate a piece of toast & 1 egg packed up my phone, spice drops, and filled my Camelbak with water and out the door I went to meet one of my friends from the Tribe. We drove to the American Tobacco Trail where we put in 14.68 miles! That's right folks, 14+ miles and what was great about that is I never got winded and my body did not start shutting down until about mile 11, not bad though. Somewhere about mile 12 my hams, quads & calfs wanted to give out. They hurt so bad but it was one of those pains that we as runners expect and just have to push through, which I was able to do. I was very impressed with myself at the two mile markers that I wanted to give up I was able to really focus and push through and ended up putting in sub 8Min miles (Miles 11 & 13).

So you keep asking what is the BIG NEWS........well...........an 8:22 average pace! That's right folks, 14.68 miles in 2 hrs 2 min and 48 sec!!!!! AND I DID NOT DIE, it was a great run.....It is amazing what a little planning will do for your runs. I did have one problem though, my right shoulder developed this sharp shooting pain in the front-dead center and my neck started to really hurt. I'm sure this has to do with the stupid plate in my neck but I am also wondering if I have a gate / pronation problem....more on that some other time. PLEASE I encourage you to take a look at the RunKeeper map & stats and provide any feed back that you would like!!!  
Note: about mile 13 there is a drop in pace.  This is where is briefly stopped to help a guy out with his horse trailer on hwy 64......strange, but ok :-)

mi	Pace (min/mi)	Elevation (ft)
1	8:40	21
2	8:16	22
3	7:45	-14
4	8:00	10
5	8:33	74
6	8:23	18
7	8:14	-39
8	8:44	2
9	8:10	44
10	8:07	-41
11	7:52	-74
12	8:47	29
13	7:51	-12
14	9:29	-24
15	8:49	-13

9) Lastly after spending 30 min in the basement with the wife & kids riding out tornado warnings on Tues I met up for our weekly Running Tribe meeting at 6:PM. Run was terrible my neck and shoulder hurt very bad so I only ran 1/2 the course. It was very stormy & raining so no "Official" gps reading from RunKeeper but I did manually enter in my time.

Things of NEED
NEW SHOES, Winter Running attire &
A GPS Watch. I would really like to find something that I could wear as my everyday watch, but that is not a deal breaker

Looking at the new Nike watch, but wow $300.00 for a newbie in the GPS Watch game? Not so sure about that.



 Looking at the Garmin 405cx, but not sure about the whole touch bezel








Looking at the Garmin 310Xt, has ALL the features that I want. BUT HOLLY SMOKES, $350.00 NEW!!!!





 
Finally considering trying to find a used Garmin 305. Seems to be the tried-and-true watch that everyone sets as the standard. As always Keep on running friends and give me a shout-out !! Later

ohhhh

ohhhhh, my legs ache today.  Not good, they are all tight and sore.

Well tonight I have the 1st of 4 Pace group runs that I am leading in prep for the race on the 27th.  We will run the actual route from start to finish.  Not sure how I am going to run today, probably all out if I know me, the course is very hilly and there is a killer hill at about mile 2.5.  More on this later on tonight along with course details.

Getting Ready for the Count Down

Had a good run tonight, not as fast as some people I follow but was good for me.
The time of the day was a little bit of an issue.  When I left out from the church it got dark faster than I had anticipated.  I did bring along my little friend the Guardian Safety Light but still had several close calls on the way.

The route was good.  First 2 miles are an up and down, mostly down stretch followed by the next 2+ miles of Up, Up, Up hill to my finish.  Splits were good and steady.

Race on the 27th so I will keep on pushing.  I'm a little worried about my hamstrings though, tonight they are cramping up and yesterday they tightened up in between my two runs.......Oh well, only time can tell what will happen.

Actual Mile Splits
Mile 1: 7:01
Mile 2: 7:01
Mile 3: 8:00
Mile 4: 7:41

Check out the route.

Afternoon Run

My runs are getting a little better.  I ran today and was less wore-out that normal. I mixed a new route with an old route and kept the mileage under four miles.   No automated RunKeeper tracking today, however I manually plotted my rout and entered a rounded up time.

Route Here

Weather

Time         Temp Dew   Humd

11:51 AM 87.1 °F 63.0 °F 44%

12:51 PM         90.0 °F    64.0 °F 42%

Hot Run

It has been soooo hot here lately, in the 100’s, it has been really hard to run and post up any decent times.  Since it has not been getting dark until about 8:30pm  I decided to do a late evening run tonight at 7:45 PM and would try some different techniquies J

Tonight’s workout I would start out with a 1mile warm-up then stop and stretch.  I held about an 8min mile for a little over a mile then stopped and stretched out my Hams, Quads, Calfs & Hipflexors.

Part II of the workout was a 1Mile sprint which I ended up holding a 7Min pace.

RunKeeper

Part III of the workout was a 1Mile Recovery run at an 8Min Pace.

Part IV of the workout was a 2Mile tempo run at 7:30 Pace.

RunKeeper

Overall I was very pleased with my run, even though my times are slow, but only time and training will fix that.

Run-Run-Run

Ran the same rout as I did the other day, out and back.  Better time today & got to wear my new shoes again
1m 07:30 D:02s
2m 14:46 (7:14) D:18s
3m 22:17 (7:31) U:11
5K 22:59 D:12
Pace: 7:23.85

12 sec faster then the last time running this route
RunKeeper

Check-In

ok, as for last week diet wise FAIL ! LOL, anyhow it was my 11 year anniversary and we went to the Cheesecake factory, need I say more !

This week will be better.  185.5 good bye

On a side note: ran today and had my fastest 5k time I've had in a LONG time.
M1: 07:34
M2: 15:09 (7:32)
M3: 22:29 (7:20)
5k:  23:11

Total Time: 23:11
Per Mile Avg: 7:27 / Mile
RunKeeper

Shoe Mileage

Today's Run was the 1st on my New Shoes.  They felt good but need to be broken.
Ran pretty good but must do better.

Distance: 4:05
Time: 30:59
Per Mile Avg: 7:39

RunKeeper