Back in the Saddle

A lot has been going on since November of 2006. I've run a few additional half marathons, recently took a disastrous few months off and am in serious pain after getting out for a few short 5Ks the past few days. It is amazing how quickly you can lose it, your average pace, your distance, everything. Let's be sure not to let that happen again!

Nike+ has pretty much changed my life. I used to run and track my stats in the privacy of my own laptop. Now, with Nike+ and the excellent team challenges available on the net, it makes everything so much more immediate. I almost feel like if I don't have my nano to track my run, I don't even feel like heading out. Luckily, that doesn't happen very often!

The latest challenge is about logging the most miles in the next 30 days. I'm on the geezer team (those of us over 40) and we're against the youngsters, who we soundly trounced not too terribly long ago. We'll again see who can prevail, youth or experience :)

See you out there on the road!

A Lesson Learned...

After running 9.6 on the 12th of November, I unconsciously decided to take off the following 7 days from running. I'm guessing part of it was caused by laziness, and the remainder due to...? (Probably laziness) So I decided to get back on the horse this morning around 8:00am.

My entire body felt great when I started out on the 4 mile journey from my home to the A-B facilities and back. I could tell that I was running very well as the first two miles went by quickly, without a hint of fatigue. As I started the incline back up to Lafayette Square I realized that I couldn't keep the pace, so I started to slow a bit...then a lot. I realized that since I hadn't ran for over a week, I no longer had a good idea of how long I could maintain a pace. I ended up finishing the 4 miles at around an 8:30 minute pace, but felt very tired at the finish.

The lesson learned is that even though my body felt absolutely fabulous the morning of the run, I was out of touch with all of the other important things in running especially pace. So I have vowed to myself to kick training into high gear, and to get familiarized with my body once again. Even though now is the eve of my favorite time to relax and be lazy (Thanksgiving).

Happy Training!

(The sun is like sugar, it can make a cold winter day enjoyable) What?

A Cold Ten

The morning was cold when Mark and I started out for our ten miler around the lake. You could see our breath in the air with every step and I had put on two pairs of gloves to keep my hands warm. Today, we were going around the lake, then out towards St. Charles to get the required mileage.

I wasn't sure how the run was going to go. Last night Holly and I went to a trivia night fund raiser. There was food everywhere! I almost went all the way up to my BMR max for the day, the first time that had happened in over a month! But, all was well. I felt remarkably strong and we finished the 10 in 1:33, which was just a few seconds per mile over the pace Mark and I are trying for in the upcoming 1/2 marathon...to finish in under 2 hours.

We started at 7am and by the time we were finished, the sun was well on it's way across the horizon and we were peeling off hats, sweaty headbands and multiple layers of gloves. With four weeks till race day, things seem to be right on track :)

Oyster Point, San Francisco

On Wednesday morning, the fog was thick in St. Louis and as I boarded the plane I thought I would be greeted with the same famous fog the next morning in San Francisco. As you can tell from the picture I took this morning during my run, it was a beautiful, fog free sunny and cool morning...perfect for my scheduled five miler around the water at Oyster Point.

We have been staying at the Residence Inn at Oyster Point and I would heartily recommend this hotel to anyone who is traveling to San Francisco and looking for a wonderful place to run in the mornings or evenings. The staff is friendly, the accommodations very nice and free breakfast buffet and evening happy hours round out the offering.

Through the lobby, out the back door of the breakfast room and past the pool you'll find a running path that wraps all the way around the Point. If you head out to the right, a 5K path takes you past office parks and boat docks and loops around to take you back home again. To the left, you'll have another mile and a half that terminates at another boat doc nestled right at the end of the point.

Premonition

It was a remarkable morning, weather wise. Just about the entire city was blanketed in a misty fog, and my running path through Creve Coeur park was no different as I headed out for my quick five miler. I snapped this shot on the pedestrian trail on the run. By the time I got to the path, a good bit of the fog had burned off, but I think you can get a sense of the mood from this image I snapped with the Razr.

I'm heading out to San Francisco for meetings tomorrow afternoon and I thought it was interesting that here I was, running through the fog, which I really expected to see on my Thursday and Friday morning runs. Premonition? Perhaps :)

The Comeback Kid

As per the mighty schedule, Mark, Dan and I headed out on this blustery Sunday morning for a nine mile run. The last time I ran nine with Dan was back in August of 2005; we were in Oahu working a project together. Dave and I were training for a marathon (Dave for the Baltimore and me for the St. Louis 1/2) and we had been running together over several iterative deliveries out in Hawaii. Dan was in town on this particular day and decided to run the nine with us.

It was a relatively hot day, and Dan decided not to bring anything along to drink. As the run progressed, Dan was getting hotter and his knee started to act up. We did finish the run, but that was the last time I did a long run with Dan...until today.

Today, Holly fixed Dan up with a running belt complete with 12 oz of water and 12 oz of gatorade. We all had an easy run, with plenty of hydration along the way. I'm thinking Dan will be primed and ready for our ten miler next weekend :)

8 Mile

Ok, so Eminem did it first, but Mark and I did the 8 mile this weekend too! As per the mightly schedule, we were supposed to to a 10K race last weekend, but ended up just coasting through a 7.5 miler around the lake. This weekend, six weeks out from the Las Vegas 1/2 Marathon, we were on board for the 8 mile loop. The course we ran was similiar to the seven miler, but we had to add a 1/4 mile leg around the small lake when we came off the pedestrian trail to make it a perfect 8. It was a nice morning, and the leaf covered paths were beautiful to run down.