Coolness in the Air Means It's Time to Get Running

The cool air has finally arrived in Florida and it is time to slow down on the swimming and transition into more running.  On Monday, I ran 5.1 miles and immediately followed that up with 1000 yards of swimming in the pool.  The pool is heated, so it felt great.  Both the run and the swim were great actually.

I had a little tightness in my left hammy and my calves toward the end of the run, but switched a little more of the work to my right leg.  I was sore a little on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Just in time to have another run on Thursday (tonight).  I got out to one of my old haunts, Lake Eola in downtown Orlando, and put exactly 6 miles on my shoes.  I used MapMyRun on my phone to track my mileage and pace.  I love that app.

My average pace was 9:15 per mile.  My splits were:  10:04, 9:40, 9:11, 9:16, 9:07, and closed it out with an 8:08.  This time my right hammy was a little tight towards the end of the run.  Nothing major, so I just pushed through it.

I don't want to promise myself anything, but maybe I can get up to a 10 mile run by Thanksgiving weekend.

Long Run?

Considering my recent track record, my 5.5 miles was a long run this evening.  The weather is just becoming perfect for running and starting to become a little cool for swimming.

Someone I work with has been training for the Savannah Half which is in a couple weeks.  Since I am the experienced runner of our department, I have been giving her pointers and encouragement.  She was very excited to tell me that she ran 9 miles this weekend.

That was part of my push.  The other reason for me to run long tonight came out of a game of guess a number.  I asked my girlfriend to give me 2 numbers between 1 and 10.  I was going to combine the numbers and then add the digits and that would be my lucky number of miles.  She said 7 and 4.  That made 11, which added the digits to make 2.  That didn't seem like enough miles in my mind with the weather we're having.  I just went out and hit the road.  I had the middle mileage of 5.5 in my mind, but had no idea how close I was going to be when I finished.  My actual mileage was 5.57 according to gmap-pedometer.com.

I feel great now!  I feet are little sore, but not too bad.  Now, it's time to watch the presidential debates!

Hello, World!

If you are a programmer, you know what that means. I guess it's time to come back to the outside world.

I haven't posted in over a year. Since then, I have had dental surgery that put me out of commission for a couple weeks. I don't even remember if I mentioned in my blog about my parathyroidism, but I had surgery this past January which put me out of order for a few weeks. I had difficulty doing any running leading up to it as well.

Instead of running this summer, I decided to try swimming. I joined a city pool at the beginning of June. It was hard at first just putting a couple lengths together. I can now swim a mile regularly with my longest being 45 laps, so 2250 yards. I can only do 9 laps (450 yards) at a time without taking a break for rest and water.

Getting back into running has been on my mind for a long time. I ran 3 times during a one week period at the beginning of September and my knees and ankles have hurt since that time. It is making me reconsider whether I am a runner or not. The swimming doesn't leave your joints in pain, but I like how I feel during a run and immediately after.

Yoga Stretch for your Hips

I found a webpage from someone on Google+ that gives some yoga stretches as ways to release tight hips.  The article tries to explain what the movements are, but unless you are already familiar with yoga... it's another language.

Luckily, there is a video a short ways down the page.  Here is a link to the page and here is the video for people like me that have only been to a couple yoga classes that find it helpful, but still somehow foreign.

Namaste.

Wow, it was humid today!

So someone on Twitter posted what the humidity was and I asked him how he found it.  He said that he used an Accuweather app for his iPhone.  I don't have that (app or phone) and I forgot what he said at the time.  I remembered weather, so I went to Weather Underground.  That worked, too, since they had humidity information.  When I got home after my run this afternoon (and after stretching, resting, and a shower, too), it said the temperature was 81 and felt like 86.  It had already cooled off a few degrees by that time and the humidity was 78%.  Well, I am not sure if I will start recording this information for all of my runs, but it is interesting to know when it is obviously high.  It would have been so much nicer if it just started raining.

I planned on running 2 laps around Lake Ivanhoe at an easy pace and I did just that.  I didn't do a stretching routine or a warmup jog.  I just started running, albeit slowly, but running just the same.  I ran 22:46 for the first 2.5 mile loop (9:06 average pace).

I ran into Marc from my Five and Dime running group and we ran and talked for about half a mile before our paths led us in different directions.  It was nice that we were running the same speeds, because he normally runs much faster than I and therefore I would be out of breath trying to talk.

When I finished the first loop, I ran inside my apartment and guzzled down a glass of warm water.  And off I went for a second loop.  This time I ran an average speed of 8:20 something.  I have it logged on DailyMile.com, but that is apparently down right now.

I just have to say that I love air conditioning.  I don't know if I could live in Florida without it.

Either way, it was a nice easy run.  5 miles in the bank.

2 Runs Sunday Evening

I completely missed a long run this weekend, but I made up for it by having two short workout sessions this afternoon and then this evening.

I ran the 2.5 miles very easy this afternoon around 5pm.  I looped around Lake Ivanhoe and I planned on running 2 laps which would have been 5 miles.  There was a thunderstorm coming into the area, so I had to cut it short.  I ran it very easy and instead of my normal length stride and turnover rate, I made my strides very short... almost choppy.  Very little knee lift and very little toe off / push off.  I concentrated on a quick turnover rate, which I think puts more of the work on the buttocks rather than the calves and thighs.  No particular reason.  Just wanted to work on a different set of muscles.

The evening run was obviously after the thunder and rain stopped well after sunset.  I guess I headed out around 10pm.  I took the first 1 mile as a warmup.  Steady comfortable speed the next half mile and then got up to a good speed for the next half mile.  I was probably running around 5k goal pace.  I stopped for about 20-30 seconds and then ran the last half mile just a little faster, but not quite mile goal pace.  It was a great run.

I love running during the summer after it rains.  I would have run around now (midnight) if I didn't have work in the morning.  I used to love running late in the evening during the summer when I was in high school.  You don't have to go to school in the summer.  I wish work was like that as an adult.  That whole summer off thing doesn't quite seem to be setting you up mentally for the rest of your life.  It's a big, fat tease really.  I used to like sleeping in till 10am.

Watermelon 5K at Mead Garden in Winter Park

I have now come to grips that the Fourth of July Watermelon 5K is jinxed for me.  Last year, I had a bad experience.  This morning didn't turn out too well, either.

I got up early enough, but I don't know if I got enough sleep.  I made sure that I didn't make the same mistakes as last year.  Only one mug of coffee.  Evacuate all waste.

I warmed up by running 2 miles.  I ran a mile out and back.  I was very thirsty already and hadn't stretched yet, so I made my way through the crowd back to the registration area to get some water.  I did make one little mistake thus far and that was forgetting my watch.  I had no idea what time it was.  I went through my regular stretching routine and when I finished, I could hear people talking over the PA system at the starting line.  I asked someone what time it was and he had 7:30 on the nose.  I had to make my way back to the start and quickly.  There were too many people to get there in time, so I ran down a side street and around the block.  That put me in front of the line, but it also put me a little out of breath.  I was able to rest for a couple minutes while a young lady sang the national anthem.

I can at this point with my experience tell if I am going to have a good race or not within the first quarter mile.  I was not going to have a good race.  I could not keep up with my usual friends and when I say keep up, I mean keep them within eyesight by the time I hit the first mile.  I hit the mile marker at 7:26, which is a full minute slower than my last race.

It was around this point when I started feeling pressure in my chest and my heartbeats felt really strong.  I am used to being out of breath, feeling like my head is going to explode from heat, or not have enough energy in my legs.  None of these were the case and any of those things may slow me down, but they don't scare me.  I slowed down a little to see if that would help.  It did.  I tried speeding back up to around that 7:30 pace and felt the same thing again.  I could have been imagining things as well, but I swear my heart literally skipped a beat.  Oddly, there was no pain.  I slowed down again and even tried walking for a few seconds.  I went back to normal again.  I ran to the next water stop, grabbed a drink and that was just before 2 miles.  I have no idea what my time was at this point.  I tried getting back into a pace and my chest felt weird again.  I had enough of this.  I was about 50 meters from the 2 mile clock, which I didn't realize at the time, because it was just around the next corner.

I decided that was it for me.  I went straight ahead.  It was a point in the course when people were going in both directions on either side of the street.  I stayed to the right side and alternated jogging and walking until I got back to the mile marker when I found my girlfriend.  She was walking the 5k.  I was so glad she came out.  Her mom did, too.  At this point, I just planned on walking the course with her and just wanted to have a "fun run."

By doing this, I ended up covering over 7 miles for the day.

I wish I knew the cause of my heart beating so furiously.  I have been on antibiotics for the past week and a half and pain medication for a broken molar.  I wonder if the antibiotics did anything, because I have run on pain medications plenty of times with no issues.  Also, I took the past week off from any training other than a leisurely jog a couple days prior.  Did that have something to do with it?  Did my lack of speed training during the past week make my heart have to work overtime to compensate for my brain telling the body to run at a speed that was apparently too fast?  I don't know.

I'm glad nothing serious happened and I had a great day the remainder of it.  I went to the Morse Museum in Winter Park, which has more Tiffany glass than anywhere outside of New York.  Grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and more in the afternoon and then watched the downtown Orlando fireworks from my place on Lake Ivanhoe late that night.  I hope everyone had a great Independence Day.

Signed up for the Watermelon 5k and a Doctor

Just over a week left till race day and I am signed up for the 20th Anniversary Watermelon 5K Run on July 4th.  It's a fun race, because many people get dressed up for it.  This will be my second time running this race.  I started OK last year, but it didn't end well.

I feel like I have lost a step of speed and I'm hoping it's only due to the afternoon heat.  I hope it's there for me next Monday.  That'll be weird, too.  Running on a race on Monday morning.

Even though I try to keep everything related to my running, I have to go into an endocrinologist on Tuesday morning.  This is a consult first, but I am sure that I will be going back.  I went in for a routine physical exam at the beginning of May and I found out that I have too much calcium in my blood.  That led to another blood test and they checked for parathyroid hormone and that was high.  That means I have hyperparathyroidism.  Yeah, you have to clap that one out... Hy-per-par-a-thy-roid-is-m.  I've done my research on the internet and there are a few things it could be, but more times than not, it means that I will need to have surgery to remove the pesky little thing that is throwing off some chemicals in my body mostly related to muscle and bone function.  Short term isn't that bad, but long term effects are very serious.

OK.  Good that off my chest.

So yesterday was 5 days in a row and this morning, I went out for an easy 3 mile run before work.  I was a little stiff in the hips and my left ankle was in a little pain today.  That made 6 days in a row and I'm debating running sometime tomorrow.  I feel like my body wants more rest, but an easy run shouldn't hurt if it is either midday or afternoon.  It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, though, and I don't like running in the rain.  Well, the summer rainstorms in Florida are usually filled with lightning.  Orlando is the lightning capital of the United States BTW and we all know it.

5 Days in a Row

I figured my legs would hurt more after running 5 days with no rest.  I don't remember the last time I ran 5 days in row, but it has been awhile.  Maybe years.  Maybe even dating back to high school when that's just what we did.  We usually ran 6 or 7 days a week.

Today's workout started out as a sauna again, but it clouded up and that made it a little easier.  We ran a 4.25 mile fartlek alternating between 2 minutes hard and 1 minute jogging.  Coach said to run 30 minutes.  It took me 35:17 to cover the course.  I actually walked on a few of the jogging sections just because of the heat.  I didn't feel like I was pushing myself too hard as far as speed was concerned.  It just felt like my head was going to boil over and pop.  There was only a small portion of the course that was covered by trees and by the time I got there, the clouds had already started forming above us and it didn't make a difference.

Once I finished up, the entire group got to drink free Mix1 drinks.  There were a couple girls passing them out to our group, guys playing rugby, and people on the basketball courts.  I've only tried them once and did not like it at all.  I don't remember what flavor it was.  This time I tried a Acai-Pomegranate and it was decent.  It's a small drink that has 10 grams of protein, 10 grams of carbohydrates and a smidge over 1 gram of fat.  They do leave a little powdery residue in your mouth, so I chased it with water.  It definitely helped pick me up a little.

I laid down on the bleachers and rested for about 5 minutes and then decided that I wanted to do a little more work.  I did a few form striders.  I ran 100 meters each and jogged back to the start for a recovery and each run concentrated on different types of strides.  The first one was high knees, the second was butt kicks and the last one was skipping.  Now, my legs were tired.  By this time, you could tell that I only had about 20-25 minutes before the rain was coming, so I jogged 1 kilometer to get the tightness out of my thighs.

Great workout and I am really glad that I have made it 5 days in a row!  Looks like rain is scheduled all day tomorrow.  We really need it.  It is time to turn this sauna into a steam room.

How Bad Do You Want It?

I just ran 4 days in a row for the first time in a while.  I plan on running tomorrow afternoon with my Five and Dime group, so that should be 5 days in a row.

I ran an easy 5 miles today.  Obviously, it was hot again.  Mid 90's which is on par this week.  I started around 10 minute pace on the first mile, which was my warmup.  I didn't stretch.  I just kept going.  Nice and easy.  I didn't want to push myself, because I wanted to make sure I would finish the 5 miles as I intended.  I stopped twice.  Once for a quick water break (about 20 seconds) at the 2.5 mile mark which is one lap around Lake Ivanhoe.  I then stopped at 4 miles to bring my core temperature down just a little.  I was overheating.  I think I stopped for about 40 seconds.

I finished up in 45:12, which is about 9:02 average pace.  I didn't stop my watch for my breaks, so including those, I ran the last 4 miles in 35:12 or 8:48 average pace.  Not the greatest speed, but it was smooth.

Another day of putting miles in the tank.  This is going to really pay off come fall.  I can feel it.

And how bad do you want it?  Today, while I was running, I saw a squirrel rolling an apple in the gutter.  He tried and tried to lift the apple over the curb.  I was ready to help the little fella, but what would be the point if it couldn't carry it up the tree anyway?  That was really funny, though.  That squirrel really wanted it bad.  That would probably be like a person trying to carry a moose.