1/2 Marathon Training - Day 99

Wound up running pretty late tonight... finished the run about 9:20pm (yuck!) It was a weird run. It felt good for a change (that's enough to consider it weird!). However, I finished the whole run, well... running ;-) Lately, that's unusual for me. Especially at the pace I was running. Another weird thing was I started getting tunnel vision during the last mile. This continued and got worse through the remainder of the run... but I didn't feel like stopping. I wasn't struggling, and wasn't overly winded, so I trucked on. I think I realized with about 1/3 mile left to go I was getting another blood sugar crash. This one was much less severe than the one I had a while back. I was able to keep running, but as soon as I got back to the house that was about my limit! I gotta stay away from those simple carbs at work!!! End result was 3 miles in 32min 39sec (10:53mi).

Thanksgiving, Sick, and 1/2 Marathon Training - Day 95

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Ok... so it's a couple days late, but hey... we're still just as thankful for everything we've been blessed with! Thank you!

So it's been a while since we've posted. We haven't run too much either. Both of us have "sorta" been sick a bit over the last week or so. We hate being sick! It hasn't really been that bad, but bad enough. Anyway, Angela forced herself to get out and run Monday earlier this week. I didn't join her on her 5 mile journey. She did well though but didn't time it.

A cold front came through early Thankgiving morning and we got our first freeze Thanksgiving night... a far cry from the 84 degrees it was the day before! (sorry... I'm gonna whine here for a sec...) So, Friday, my first run in a week, was with a little congestion and runny nose, in colder temps, and with a bum knee (done whining...) We chose to do 5 miles, and I was trying out a new knee strap for my suspected osgood-schlatters issue. It helps, but the biggest difference comes once the knee is warmed up... I can tell I definitely need to be careful on it the first mile or so. After that its just annoying and makes me run funny :-) I'm thinking about possibly trying out tape instead of the strap since the strap seems to slip down just a bit while running. Taping for osgood schlatters.

Angela looked good during the run. I told her to go ahead and run her own pace and not worry about me. Even though she took a good break at the halfway point for some water she still managed a 55min 45sec time (11:09mi) for the 5 miles... she surprised herself. I came in over a minute later... 57min 13sec (11:27mi).

We're hoping to stick with the remainder of the schedule from here on out. Not too much longer to go now :-|

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 86 & 88

During last Sunday's long run I noticed some pain below my right knee... nothing major, more annoying but definitely noticeable. Monday it was more pronounced, and Tuesday was worse, so I started wondering about it... Internet checks initially pointed to "runners knee" but their descriptions of it didn't seem to fit exactly... a little more digging and I think its a case of "osgood schlatters disease". Basically a fancy name for irritation and little micro-tears in the tendon that connects the bottom of the knee-cap to the top of your tibia (lower leg bone). Treatments for a mild case are to take it easy. I have no problem with taking it easy :-) So, no run on Tuesday. Besides, the way I was walking at work I was a little worried I might do some damage if I did try to do a run.

Since Angela didn't do the long run Sunday she was really wanting to get some form of cardio activity... Wednesday was pretty cold and the wind was blowing like crazy. I asked that we not go run in it, so Angela suggested we do the P90X Plyometrics workout. Sounded like a good idea so we did. That one definitely gets your heart rate up! I took it pretty easy though... the knee was still tender.

We skipped the Thursday run, and decided tonight that we'd go out for a short 3-miles, taking it really easy! (we both joked how referring to 3 miles as "short" was absolutely UNHEARD of before we started this) My knee is still slightly tender, and Angela is way more sore than she expected from the Plyometrics workout :-) We took it slow and easy tonight... 3 miles in 35min 46 seconds (11:55mi). I want to do the long run this weekend so I REALLY didn't want to hurt my knee anymore.

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 83

Some good news & bad news today. First the bad... Angela complained of being sick to her stomach last night. Things didn't get any better over night, and she's all into being sick today. We're not sure what it is or how she got it, but its safe to say she didn't run today :-| I'll be keeping a pretty close eye on her... Get well soon baby!

As for the good news, I finished 10miles today! That's almost 4 miles farther than I've ever gone before! I ran a 10k (6.2miles) something like 20 years ago, and that was a huge acomplishment for me at that time. I've never run anything close to that until the training here recently. Knowing that, I went into today with the single goal of finishing... I didn't care what my time was or how much I walked... I just wanted to finish. I was concerned at first because the first 4 miles were tough! I walked a bunch of times. I had a power bar at 4 miles, and the next 4 were much better ;-) I don't think I ever ran more than a mile at a time, but my walks were short. The end result was, I FINISHED... mission accomplished! As a side note, the neato watch said I burned almost 1200 calories (yikes!) Total time today 1 hour 55 minutes 17 seconds! (11:32mile) Never did I ever think I'd be running/walking fast for that long... just wasn't an option a couple months ago! Weird!!!

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 81

This was our first actual experience with interval training. We chose the 2.5 mile route, and the idea was to run a fast pace for 1/4mile, slow jog/walk for 1/4, fast pace again for 1/4, etc. As soon as we started Angela shot off like a rocket. I tried to keep up but was humbled pretty quick. I tried to remind her that we had to do this a few more times... didn't help... she pretty much humbled me every single time... that is until the last segment. I had a little bit left, but she somehow knew how to push herself right to the limit... she'd pushed herself to the point she was basically done on the last fast segment. End result was we walked or did a really slow jog for 1/2 of the total distance, and ran a pretty quick pace for the other half. The one time I looked at my heart rate it was up over 180bpm. Total time to finish the 2.5mi was 26min 33sec for the 2.5mi, which comes out to a 10:37mile.

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 80

Angela ran 4.0mi Wed night knowing she'd probably miss Thursday's run due to other commitments. So yesterday I set out to run 5 miles solo. Two laps around our 2.5mi course. It's been a while since I've felt that good running, and I was keeping a decent pace. Then about halfway through I could tell I was having a blood sugar crash. I can honestly say I've never had one of those while running... of course, I've only really been running on a regular basis four about two and a half months... but anyway... I'm pretty sure it was due to the donuts and cake I had at work today (coworker's birthday + Veterans Day)... maybe I should rethink those the next time (duh!) I decided to push on committed to getting my 5 miles. Only problem was I started getting tunnel vision, light headed and stumbling a bit... it was time to turn around! I alternated a lot of walking and jogging on the way back to the house. Once back at the house the watch told me I had gone a total of 3.75mi in 42min 47 sec (11:25mi)... shame, because I was doing so much better than that initially. Oh well.

NASCAR & 1/2 Marathon Training - Day 77

Tons of stuff going on this weekend... Angela & I were in Krum TX (~50mi North of Fort Worth) Saturday mid-day for a pot-luck style get together at the farm where we get our raw milk. Lots of people, and lots of food... and WODERFUL milk! From there we headed home for a very short time before heading to Granbury TX (~40mi Southwest of Fort Worth) to visit my Grandmother for her birthday. It was a good time and we had a good visit with the grand parents :-)

Sunday was NASCAR day... Yeah Baby! The 2nd 2010 race in Texas, the 34th race of the 2010 season and the 8th race in the 2010 Chase for the Championship! My friend Jeff & I attend both races each year here in Texas. This time though we were joined by my dad... it was his first NASCAR experience. I definitely enjoyed having him there, and was honored to share the experience. Plus, it was a really cool and interesting race!


So, with everything going on this weekend we didn't exactly focus on running. Today though it was time to get back to some sort of responsibility :-| Angela had a soccer game so she was covered... me... I had to act responsible (sigh...) So, with all great intentions, I set out to run... I wound up doing "only" 3 miles. I have no idea what my time was because my running watch died about 1 mile into the run... I expected it though since I got a low battery warning when I turned it on. But I wasn't going to wait for it to charge up before hand... I was already running pretty late. I managed to do the 3 miles with only 2 short walks so it wasn't too bad.

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 73

5 miles Thursday... wasn't looking forward to it... but it got done. Halfway through we decided to make a detour into the house to blow our noses... it was cold, so we had a little longer "break" than normal during this run. Total time: 59min 43sec (11:57mi... maybe we shouldn't take such a long break during the half marathon :-)

1/2 Marathon Training - Day 72

Raining last night when we shoulda been running. Angela & I decided to do it tonight instead. She felt good, I was struggling... ugh! We managed a 32min 9sec time for the 3 miles which wasn't too bad (10:43mi).