Running for a Ride - a great motivator.

Only 25 days to go! At this point, I should be starting my taper - having done my longest run of 20 miles this last weekend.

Except, that didn't happen. :( Though now you need to turn that frown upside down - because I am actually in a pretty good spot. The 13.2 I did over the weekend wasn't to bad - and I think I will be able to do somewhere between 15 and 20 this weekend. I have obviously left the "Hal Higdon" training plan, but (For those whom have just started reading my blog - Joining the other three of you) with the Calf problems I have had that lead to my time-off of running - I am doing fantastic. I am on track to be able to complete the Marathon (with no real time goal.)

A Swim and a Run... Preparations continue! (though it does hurt more than I recall..)

I know that today is supposed to be a "Freaky Friday: Bizarre things found around the Interwebs"  - but I haven't had a chance to surf the interwebs lately - and nor have I posted on my exercising for the last two days.  So today is an update post instead!

Weds. was my "day off" of running (also known as a rest day) - I decided to take my kids to the local YMCA for the open swim.  They had a ball playing - and I did laps.  The one thing I quickly realized, is that laps are much more difficult to do as a 36 year old man, then they were when I was 12.  I remember going to my swim team practice (the Ramapo Raccoons!  and later the Rockland Dolphins) and doing lap after lap after lap - with no problems. Heck, I recall doing the 400 meter individual medley (100m each of Back stroke, Breast stroke, Butterfly, and Free-style)  - and being tired, but not thinking my arms were going to fall off...

So at the "Y" I headed out and did 50yds of Freestyle, did my flip-turn.....and switched to breaststroke.  Man, my shoulders felt it FAST (meaning that they got tired fast.. Not that I was fast.)  I ended up doing a total of 900 yards - with 2/3 of it being breast stroke.  Its kind of nice being able to pause during laps - and go play with the kids.  It doesn't give away the fact that I HAD to rest. This is the key reason I go to the open swim, and not to lap swim.   I have been reading up on line on how "public lap swim" works. And it seems that a lot of places do a "Circle swim" - where one side of the lane (or double lane) goes one way, and one goes the other. OR they might have shared lanes where each lane is like multiple mini-lanes.. you touch the person's feet when you want to pass.  I may have to go during "lap swim" time - to see how the folks at the YMCA do it. Who knew that swimming was so much more complicated than running? <side note: anyone have any advice on the subject of lap swimming?> 

Thursday I went out for a run in the evening, after Horace Mann's (my kid's elementary school) "Family Fun Night" - where the school serves hamburgers/hotdogs and has various bounce house type things for the kids..     By the time we got home - it was getting dark.

I strapped on my big 'ol "foot-coffins" (that name for shoes cracks me up) and headed out. I had no idea what distance I was going to do, just that it was going to be between 3 and 7.  I knew I wasn't going to run one of "Seton's" course's - strangely I have had no desire to do those after writing about them. I did a nice loop that worked out as almost perfectly 5 miles (I had to run past my house for 6 houses to actually hit 5 miles).  My legs were still tired - and it definitely showed in the last 2 miles - my splits slowed down noticeably.


Mile 1: 9:15
Mile 2: 8:45
Mile 3: 8:41
Mile 4: 9:02
Mile 5:  9:07

Still, not to shabby for my fourth run in 6 weeks. It brings my weekly total up to around 18 miles.  Hopefully I will get a run in today and tomorrow and push that up to 30 miles. 

I also have to say - jumping back in to running like this - my legs are sore today!  Though it does go well with the soreness of my upperbody from swimming.

Advil is my friend.

3 miles with some small hills.

As my last post discussed, I have been looking at how to run hills.  Going up them hasn't been a problem, as that doesn't change too much between minimalist shoes and traditional running shoes.  But downhill... Well, that's been a whole new can of worms.  I went for a nice run last evening.   Due to my recent injury rate, I am no longer worrying about how fast I run.  My new focus is on trying to run injury-free, instead of trying to run faster/further.  I think that this may help me to be running MORE, and enjoy it more at the same time.

So last night I headed out with the plan of doing 3-4 miles, depending on how my hip felt (I had inguinal hernia repair in January, and