Thursday, July 31, 2008

Catching up

I have not been feeling very bloggy the past few days so my runs have gone undocumented. Time to fix that.

On Monday, the day after my half-century bike ride, I had a short two-miler scheduled. I was a little wary of this run because of above-mentioned ride and previously mentioned ankle sprain. I am happy to report that neither was a factor. My ankle, although still a bit tender, was fine as long as I ran on a flat or right-sloping surface. Running on a right-sloping surface meant I had to run with traffic, which is a no-no. Oh well, I gotta do what I gotta do.

Yesterday, I had seven miles on my schedule. I'd rate that run as a solid meh. The first four miles were okay, I was maintaining my 10:15 or less pace per minute, but then I quickly started to realize that I did not eat enough carbs before my run to sustain my pace and soon I was feeling very doggy. I did bring some supplements with me, but since I was already running on empty (ha ha, that's so retarded), it only gave me about a 10 minute burst. I struggled through the last few miles. My pace per minute doesn't reflect how crappy I felt, but I really had to dig deep in order to maintain it. I felt really crappy the rest of the night and slept right through my alarm this morning. I still feel like I need another two hours of sleep, which I'm hoping to catch up on tonight.

Since my weekday runs are starting to rival weekend long runs in length, it's time to start experimenting with food during the day. I think I'll head to the Co-op after work to restock on Pemmican bars.

Next up, an eight miler on Saturday. I'll probably run in Copper Harbor while waiting for the Copperman Triathlon to start. James has entered again this year and we're heading up to cheer him on. Since I'm an early bird (...unlike some people I know who are coming up later in the morning so they can sleep in ... ahem), I'll ride up with James at seriously-early-o'clock and get my run in before the event starts at 9:00. I've just got to figure out a decent route. I'm thinking I'll have James drop me off at the Burma Road and run that to Lake Manganese Road then head toward the end of 41. About five miles of that is running through the woods, good thing I picked up some pepper spray to ward off the bears.

And finally, Sunday marks the Otter River Pneumatic Yachting Club's Fifth Annual Gala and Regatta. Beer, burgers, tubing and lighting James's lawn on fire. Summer is officially here!


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Saturday, July 19, 2008

Running at the crack of dawn. Seriously.

I actually got up at 5:00 this morning in order to go running. Turns out, the sun doesn't rise until after 6:20 so I ended up sitting around for an hour waiting for daylight. Finally I said the heck with it and went out anyway. What's that time between dark and light - twilight? If so, that's what it was outside. It was a little eerie running that early. Usually when I head out at 7:00, I can hear the cars on the highway. This morning I heard nothing. The sun was rising just as I was running past Manninen's Junkyard.

I had a great run this morning. I don't know if it was the early factor, or the weather, right around 51 degrees, but I felt great the entire time. I didn't push things and I still averaged 10:35 miles. Awesome!

Weekly summary:
Run - 16.04 miles @ 10:38
Bike - 7.30 miles @ 10.4 mph


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Saturday, July 12, 2008

Seven

I had a nice seven-miler this morning.

I got up at 5:45AM (!) and was out the door by 6:40. I originally planned on running a route which would end near the Houghton park, making for a short walk home, but it was so windy outside that I changed my route after two miles and took the Denton Road loop instead.

M post-run strength training routine consisted of the following:

100 sit-ups on the stability ball (50 regular, 50 oblique twists)
50 push-ups with the ball
3 x 12 back extensions on the ball
3 x 12 squats with the ball
3 x 20 bicep curls with 7 lb weights
3 x 20 tricep curls with 7 lb weights
3 x 20 inner thigh squeezes with the ball

Weekly summary:
Run - 15.06 miles @ 10:33
Bike - 6.95 miles @ 8.9 mph

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