Feeling Crappy

Have felt sort of bad in the second half of my last few runs. Not sure what is up. Monday on the six-miler, I had to walk most of the last two miles. Tuesday i was out late in the day and i really struggled to make it through the four-miler in the park. Of course, my encounter with the creep who said I shouldn't be running did not help. Wait, maybe that was Wednesday? No, Wednesday was five miles on the treadmill, and okay, that was the fairly typical five miles on the treadmill.

Yesterday was four miles through the park, trying to get back on that horse.Had that kind of weird vision aura, dizzy thing that happens sometimes in the heat and glare. And then today, I just got back from five miles on the Madison route, which went a little better than the rest of the week but was still very slow.

And I'm fat. Fatter than I've let myself get in a couple of years. Doesn't help.

Anyway, I'm sitting out on the porch right now with my frozen peas and chocolate milk, feeling that good relaxed post-run feeling but also feeling a little bad about myself because I am so slow and fat and I have that race on Sunday where I am going to suck.

Just Another Manic Monday

Not really. If it was a manic Monday I'd probably be trying to write a novel again. As it is, I did post in my journal and now I am actually showing up here again.

Today, after the dog walk around the park, I headed out for the scheduled 5 miler. I wore the Vomeros, and they were okay once again. I would not want to race in them or do a really long run, but they are okay for this. I did the Madison route, except I started out down the path to avoid the guys working on the construction project down the street, and then when I came back I had to do a loop around the block to get it over five. It was 5.23, not bad. Actually the fastest pace I've managed on a training run in many months, also.

I iced the knee when I got home. Don't know about the knee. Feel it catching some when i get up from sitting, in the morning when I am just doing things around the house. Wonder if it is going to hold up to the rigors of the coming training and all those marathons. Wonder how it is going to make it through the CPE trial and 18 runs over 3 days if I run Eddy in all of them. Actually, it would be 22 runs if you count the run throughs on Thursday. But I am really not expecting to do all the runs with Eddy. I will be lucky if we make it through any of them.

Thinking some more about the charity fundraiser thing. Have not heard yet from Cheryl. Trying to decide how many weeks I will give them before I pick something else or do nothing at all. Maybe a month to be fair.

I'm kinda starting to lose interest in the whole idea.

Now would be a good time to groom the dogs but I want to wait until tomorrow so I can groom them and Frontline them at the same time. I think I should frontline them before we go up to Springfield because who knows what we will find up there

Week 11, Days 3 & 4

Been busy so skipped posting the last few days. So this is for the runs I did on Wednesday and Thursday. After the Yassos on Monday, I did not feel bad about taking Tuesday off.

Wednesday I just did an easy three around the park. Time was 33:38 or 11:08 pace, once again a pretty good pace for that difficult route. Can't remember now what time of day I did this. Oh, that's right. It was in mid-morning after walking the dogs and before I went out to get my hair and nails done.

Thursday I did an easy five miler on my "Madison" route. This one was in the early evening, after 5 pm, after I got back from setting my crates up for the agility trial on Friday. The roads felt kind of slippery after the rain. My knee didn't feel great, and I don't know if that was because of the rain/humidity, or because I had run the dogs in agility class in the middle of the day (and maybe the knee brace I wear for agility was bothering me?), or because I had been schlepping the wire crates around and setting them up. And of course, I think I probably alter my stride when I am worried about slipping.

Come to think of it, the left foot is feeling a little weird also. That might be because now that it is fall, I've been changing my regular dog-walking shoes. Had been walking in the Keens all summer with no problem, but the last few days I've worn my old Merrills a bunch and maybe they are causing a problem. Note to self, get some Keens for the fall/winter.

Anyway, felt a little knee twinge early in the second mile, and maybe I should have cut the run short. But I kept going. the knee became bothersome again near the end of the run, when I had just about a half-mile to go. I even stopped and walked a little bit at that point, then jogged slowly the rest of the way. Time was 54:07 for 4.9 miles or 11:02 pace, which is not bad considering the walking.

Anyway, I took yesterday off because of the agility trial, and then I'm also taking today off because of the race tomorrow, and also because, damn it, I feel like I am getting a cold. Just in time for State-to-State tomorrow morning.

Now the dilemma. Do I skip the race and then it turns out it's not really a cold anyway? And then I have broken my streak of doing this race every time since the first year. Or do I run anyway, and turn the cold into pneumonia/bronchitis, just in time for the wedding next weekend and when I am really not going to have time to get to the doctor this week and have a gazillion things to do?

In the meantime, I am sucking down the vitamin C. I really have to get back on the vitamin kick. I actually did take them this morning before I went off to stand around in the cold outside at the agility trial. Was colder than I expected when I got there and I was wearing shorts. Stupid.

It looks like it is going to be in the upper 40s in Oxford tomorrow morning for the start of the race, and only climb to about 55 degrees by the time I finish. Gonna be one of those years where I have to layer and debate ditching my old garments, I guess.

Last year the weather was pretty perfect, and I made my goal of breaking 2:00 and even placed second in the age group. This year I wanted to go even a little faster, and the workouts of the last few weeks were telling me that I was in shape to do that, but now I don't know. If I really feel sick even taking it easy is going to be stupid. Well, at least it won't be raining tomorrow. Last year I think I also felt like I was getting a cold before the race but it was a false alarm. I was a little thinner this time last year. Let's not dwell on that.

Week 9, Day 3

Today the schedule calls for an easy run of 50-60 minutes. Slept in this morning, then walked to dogs around the park, the long way because the weather is so nice for a change. Got out for the run around 11 am. Felt a little tired and it was getting warmer by then and quite sunny. But still not bad.

Did the Madison route. Tried to keep the pace easy and mostly, felt pretty good. Was thinking about the upcoming trail race this weekend during the first mile. Thinking about my goals---breaking 30 minutes (was just a few seconds over last year), trying to get into the top 10 women and possibly the top ten age-graded runners, beat Cyndi K. by more than three placements (this is what I need to do in order to place ahead of her in the Dirty Dozen standings). I can't control some of these things so I am trying to focus on the breaking 30 minutes. Last year I think I was recovering from a cold so I really should be able to run a bunch faster this year. And then, when it comes down to the end of the race, I just have to try to pass all the women that I can.

Anyway, I was thinking about all this when all of a sudden I think I actually see Cyndi K. running towards me. I am pretty sure it was her. She was running with some guy, and they were coming down Erie as I was going up it. She was wearing the pink technical top from the Lady Distance Classic and she has the longish, wavy blond hair like Cyndi K., and she gave me a big hello. Had to be her. So that was kind of random. Huh.

Rest of the run went along pretty well but another odd thing was that I noticed the GPS seemed to be saying that I was running farther for this route than it did when I last ran it a couple of weeks ago. That's weird. I would have thought that the GPS would be at least as consistent as the shoe pod was.

Had a bit of knee twingey stuff going on in the last mile and a half or so, coming up Observatory. Also had noticed that my left and right feet are landing differently, and I'm not sure what to think about that. And my right shoulder/neck area is a little sore, like I pinched or pulled something or slept on it funny, and that was bothering me yesterday also.

When crossing Observatory at Delta, had a near miss with an inattentive car driver. I hate crossing that intersection. The woman driver (I am sad to say that it is always a woman who almost hits me) was coming down Observatory and turning right on to Delta. She looked to her left but not straight ahead where I was. I had the signal, the all-too-brief signal that you get at that intersection. I could tell she didn't see me so I hung back a bit and she cut me off. As she cut me off, she finally noticed me and gave me a little friendly wave.

Right. So I gave her the finger in response. Idiot. If I were a guy I probably would have pounded on the hood of her car as well. So she is lucky she just got the finger. Probably didn't understand what I was upset about. The fact that you could have run me over, moron, that is why I gave you the finger. Pay attention, and when you screw up, please recognize it and appear sorry for your mistake.

I noticed that she had a bike rack on back of her car, and I thought that she was probably one of those idiots who drives their car to the trails in the park and then rides their mountain bikes in there on the narrow little trails that are supposed to be pedestrian only. I hate those people.

Speaking of bikes, I forgot to mention on Monday that when I was out at Lunken I ran by the "ghost bike" that somebody put up in memory of Andrew Gast. I hadn't been sure before exactly where the accident occured. I thought it was closer to the intersection and that was why the driver didn't see the bike. But it was pretty much in the middle of Wilmer Ave., so based on that I assume the driver just wasn't paying attention when he hit Andrew Gast from behind.



If I'd had my phone with me I would have taken a picture of it myself.

Anyway, back to today's run. I was going to extend it a bit by doing a loop around the block to get it up over five miles, but the knee twinge scared me and I was going to be over 50 minutes anyway so I decided to play it safe and just stop when I normally would for this route.

Final time was 51:08 for what the GPS says was 4.92 miles. And here's the weird thing. When I ran this same route on Aug. 27, the GPS said it was just 4.74 miles. On that day, I actually ran a little bit faster that I did today, but the pace is getting recorded differently because of this mileage discrepancy. Whatever. Maybe I should just go back to the shoe pod, because at least it was consistent for the same course from one day to the next.

Anyway, according to the GPS, today my pace was 10:23. The good news is that this is right in the target range for an easy run. And whatever we want to say the distance was, 51:08 is a decent time for this route, assuming I was taking it easy. Which I mostly was. So this means I really am getting a little faster after all.

Week 7, Day 1

I need to write about the race I did Saturday but first here's just today's report. The schedule called for a 45-60 minute easy run---instead of the speed workout I usually have to do on Mondays.

Easy pace is now supposed to be 9:30 - 10:26. I did not get out for this run until after 11 am. I spent the morning running Eddy back and forth to the vet to get a lump removed from his face. The dogs did not get a proper walk, but I did get out for my run! Unfortunately, it was warm and quite muggy by the time I started.

I did my Madison route, which I used to consider over 5 miles (5.21 or so, in fact) but which, per the damn new GPS, is just 4.76. Really? Is it possible that the GPS is wrong?

I know I said I was going to stop paying so much attention to it but I found myself looking at it anyway. And stressing out because I knew I was not hitting the pace. After the first mile, I found myself consciously picking it up to try to get myself down below 10:30 average pace.

Did not quite work. Final time was 50:36 or 10:40 average pace. And I was breathing hard. It was really more like a tempo run than an easy run.

I am trying to console myself with the fact that 50:36 is a lot quicker than I usually cover that route.

I don't know what the right answer is. Or really, I do. I should take it easy. Easy should feel easy. I should not worry that my pace is too slow on an easy day.

My back/shoulder is still really hurting, presumably from the fall. Not sure if I need to do something about it like go to the chiropractor.