JBlog

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3125743

Felt pretty good until about half way down Windsor Road, then it was a struggle the rest of the way home.  I did jog the whole way with the exception of a 5 minute walk to warm up and about a 100 yard cooldown walk.  Total distance was 5.9 and 5.5 miles of that was jogging.  Tried a couple of Fartlek intervals and found that I was able to recover just fine while still jogging.

I’d like to apologize to the dude on the bike path this morning that had to go on to the road briefly while he passed me.  Runners on the bike path are a huge pain in the neck, but running on asphalt is so much easier on the legs and the sidewalk in that section was concrete.  I tried to get out of his way and point to where I thought he had room to ride, but that only had the effect of making him go further out into the road.  I was wearing my headphones, but I couldn’t tell if he said “Good Morning” or if he reminded me that the word BIKE was written in large block letters on several locations on the path.  Sorry, dude.  My bad.

I think I’m going to do some more brick training tomorrow morning at ARC.  Will try to spend a little more time on the bike, though.

Tags: 10K, brick, gmap

The goal was to run to my office building then across the campus quad and back home – about 5.7 miles.

The first 4 miles went relatively smoothly. Wasn’t trying to break any speed records or anything. Right at around 4 miles, though, the two slices of pan pizza and accompanying two beers began to try to free themselves my my digestive tract. The feeling is what I imagine Finch felt after eating the Exlax-laced brownies in American Pie. Afraid that I was going to dislodge my supper from its soon to be very temporary home, I slowed to a walk until it seemed like things had settled down a bit then started off on a jog again, but this only had the effect of getting the shit stirred up and ready for action again, so again I walked. I spent the last 1.7 miles jogging as much as I could, but mostly walking with butt cheeks clenched at maximum tightness trying to stave off the inevitable.

I did make it home and to the toilet with the remnants of dinner still safely tucked away, but it was close. The commode was utterly ruined.

Lesson: do not eat pan pizza and then engage in an activity that encourages the pizza to works its way through the digestive tract any faster than it needs to.

Saturday one of my cycling friends (also a triathlete) suggested that I combine my running with modal transportation for work (ie – run to work.) Seemed like a good idea. So this morning I packed my clothes for tomorrow in addition to my running shoes and clothes and set off for work. The plan was for me to ride to work today and run home, then run in tomorrow morning with my cycling friend.

I still had the problem of transporting stuff that I had to have at home – like my wallet, cell phone and keys – without having them hinder my run. A … umm … a lumbar pack (fanny pack, if you must, but I can’t bring myself to admit to wearing one of these things) seemed the most reasonable way of transporting a small assortment of easily portable items like wallets, phones and keys, but I’ve never been in possession of anything like that. So today I purchased one that also came with a flat bottle for hydration.

The storage compartment on the pack was barely big enough to hold my sets of keys and cell phone. The wallet had to be stored in a front pocket of the running shorts. Not a huge deal at all.

I watched the weather radar all afternoon and by 4:00 it looked like the rain that was headed our way would hold off long enough for me to get my run in and get home dry. Cool. So at 4:50 or so, I began to get ready to leave work and headed downstairs with the mp3 player on my arm and lumbar hydration pack loaded and ready to rock.

Four flights of stairs later, I arrive at the ground floor landing and … it’s raining like the skies opened under a lake. Pouring down rain. So I waited 3 or 4 minutes, the skies cleared a bit and off I went. A half mile into my run, however, the rain came again … and hard. I waited under one of the campus dorms for 3 or 4 minutes and when it seemed apparent that the rain wasn’t going to let up, I decided to go ahead an run in the rain. It really wasn’t that bad, I suppose, although I was wearing my sunglasses and with as humid as it was out, plus the water droplets on the lenses and the fact that they’re SUNGLASSES and it was raining really hard – it was kind of hard to see. And my shoes were pretty heavy.

At some point along the way I lost the fancy little hydration bottle. Just popped right out of the pack belt. I’m taking the belt back. Hopefully they’ll take it back even without the bottle.

I don’t think I would have minded running in the rain, but it was really raining pretty hard. I prefer to run in the street and there were several points along the way where there was standing water in the road and there was traffic that was very impatient. Could have been smooshed a couple of times I think. The car drivers apparently didn’t understand that I didn’t want to run through three feet of water at in intersection and thought that sitting there honking at me would accomplish something.

I did make it home in one piece.

I’ll run to work tomorrow morning. I’m not 100% sure yet which route I’ll take. I’m either going to do a loop around Centennial Park and then jog to work or jog toward campus and then run around campus for awhile. The latter sounds slightly more palatable. Campus is a very nice area to run.

Not sure how I did overall, but I placed 4th out of 16 in my age group. Time was 41 minutes and change, which isn’t horrible. Winning time last year was 32 minutes. Learned several ways to decrease the amount of time in transition and I’m sure I can shave off several minutes from both the biking and running portions. All in all pleased with the results.

Tags: Cycling, Running, Triathlon

That’s what I ran this morning after about a half mile warm up walk.  It wasn’t as easy a run as I was hoping for but the net result is no pain to the legs, so I’d say overall it was a success.  I think I’ll do this route two or three more times and then try to tack on another mile.

I said “ran”, by the way, which isn’t entirely accurate.  It was definitely a jog.  Maybe I should start saying that instead of running, because what I’m doing out there looks more like an injured camel limping backwards than a conditioned runner.  Maybe some day.

Cindy got back home late last night.  So glad to have her back.

Very, very, very hot and humid.

Let’s see … I swam 1500 yards today.  The pool was refreshing for the first 7 seconds and then it felt hot, too.  I may swim inside tomorrow.  We’ll see.

Ryan and I rode with Ben to swim practice and then we went to Strawberry Fields to pick up some raisins and nuts for trail mix.  I’ve been eating that stuff in the morning for breakfast and I think it’s working out pretty well.  It consists of organic raisins, raw cashew pieces, raw pumpkin seeds and sliced almonds.  I don’t keep track of how much I eat, but I probably should.  I think some days I probably graze on it for longer than I need to.  Also bought some natural peanut butter and wildflower honey to mix up for pre-ride snacks.

After hitting the hippie store, Ryan and I rode back to the “Y” to get Ben and we went to Za’s for some grub.  Ben thought sitting on the couches there would be cool, so we did that.  We visited Cozy’s afterwards and then biked home.

Poor Wrigley is going nuts without Cindy here.  He was so excited when we got back home and he kept looking at the door expecting her to walk in.  We all can’t wait for her to get back tomorrow.

Didn’t run today and will wait until tomorrow night when Cindy’s back to run again.

Pretty uneventful day, really.

Oh … I picked up the Lemond from Champaign Cycle today.  The bike mechanic said he couldn’t find anything wrong with the bottom bracket and a quick spin around the parking lot didn’t reveal any odd noises or vibrations, so hopefully everything is OK.  I received the Garmin Edge 305 cycling computer from UPS and will install that soon.  I may take it on its maiden voyage Saturday morning.  Haven’t decided whether I’m going to St. Louis with Cindy and the boys yet.  I just found out I have to play drums at church Sunday morning, so I’m leaning toward staying in town so I can ride Saturday morning and drum Sunday morning.  We’ll see.

I think I’m getting a little more steady, but I still have a way to go before I will be able to run any more than a mile at a time.  Soaked through my shirt.  I may go shirtless from now on.  2.65 miles and I’m on the second phase of the couch to 5k program

By some stroke of luck (namely the power being out at the play my wife was going to) I was able to sneak in a run. Started with a brisk five minute walk, 90 second jog, two minute walk and then alternated jogging for three minutes and walking for two minutes for 2.7 miles. The new shoes and stretches seem to be helping as I’ve experienced no soreness. Riding with the Wild Card group tomorrow morning.

Well … I was gonna run today after work, but I think the severe thunderstorm warning has changed my mind. It will have to wait until tomorrow or Sunday, I suppose. I’m actually beginning to enjoy it, I think. Only 6 weeks left until the first triathlon. It’s only a two mile run and I think I’ll be in good enough running shape by then to be competitive with the middle half of my age group. That’s what I’m shooting for anyway.