Freedom

A couple of months ago I bought a Layer 8 shirt that was tighter on me at home than it was at the store. Not very flattering in certain places. Living in Tennessee I pack my running bag with a long sleeve shirt and a short sleeve shirt every day because it can be 70 in the morning and 25 after work or vice versa.. no joke. Today I packed the "way too tight" shirt and prayed it would be cold.. it was not. So off I went and other than probably causing some people to throw up inside their mouth, it's a very good running shirt!

A couple miles in I did pass John who was able to get away from work earlier than me. I've run most of today's route before, but not in a while and some of it was completely new. As I started I thought about how that's one of my favorite things about running. It's a great feeling of freedom to be able to take off with no specific plan in mind and just go wherever your feet feel like taking you. Normally I'm an OCD, structured, nerdy kind of guy, but running gives me an escape from that and I actually enjoy it!

I pulled the last several runs off the Garmin and noticed that most of my runs since the post-Thanksgiving break have had at least 1 if not multiple negative splits! Sweet! Today's run puts me at 208 miles for the year.. with possibly 1 more short run tomorrow.

Total: 4 miles, 36:30 (9:07)

Easy 3.5 + hills

Yesterday after sleeping until noon I was headed out to West End for a run until my Uncle called me with tickets for the Radio City Rockettes at the Opry House. I didn't have enough time to drive all the way across town so I went to the greenway by my house (and barely had enough time for that). Somehow I found the strength (stupidity) to not turn around at the 1.5 mile mark and instead head for the hills (literally). After going over the huge hill I turned around at the 2 mile mark and did it all again. A quarter mile of walking at the beginning and end of the run (which I'm trying to get in the habit of doing a lot more) left me with a 3.5 mile run overall. I almost went without the knee brace yesterday, which would have kept me from going over the hill, but changed my mind at the last minute.

Total: 3.5 miles, Time unknown cause I haven't plugged up the Garmin yet

Bad Boy of the Day

Apparently the Bad Girls of Running on Twitter thought I was the Bad Boy of the Day yesterday for my 26 degree run :) I have another twitter buddy who run 10 miles in 24 degree temps so I'd say he's more deserving, but I'm honored just the same.

200 Miles!

When I stepped out into the cold at Centennial Park my car said it was 26 degrees (my coldest run yet). My legs immediately thanked me for rocking the New Balance tights. Since L and N were too scared for a cold run, and I had a specific goal for tonight's run, I wore the knee brace. It was a good run from the beginning, but at the 3 mile mark something clicked and I got that "I could run forever" feeling which I haven't felt in a while.

It also could have been because I knew that after another 0.5 miles I would pass 200 miles for the year (200.5 to be exact)! I realize that's nothing for most runners, but given how long I've been running and stupid injuries I'm very excited. If you had told me 6 months ago that I would run 200 miles this year I would have called you crazy. Oh, I did the math too.. that comes out to 7.5 full marathons.. just split into lots of little pieces in my case :)

Another good feeling was that I only saw 2 other runners the entire time. I braved temps that only 2 other people would run in :)

Total: 4 miles, 37:22

The sun exists!

I haven't seen the sun in several months so this weird, bright object in the sky confused me this morning. Despite that confusion (or maybe because of it) I was able to motivate myself to head out to the greenway before noon, in 32 degree temps for a run. The worst part was not the cold, although I did run with a light jacket for the first time today. The worst part was running against the wind for the first 1.5 miles. The run back to the car was with the wind at my back and that strange, bright object in the sky shining down on me.

This is my 2nd run since taking a nearly 3 week break so I'm still getting sore while getting used to it again. So far it's the good kind of sore. Tomorrow start's L (and maybe N's) training which will probably be the C25K program. I'm thinking about taking the knee brace off for that since it will be a lot shorter than what my knee is already used to.

Total: 3 miles, 28:50

I'm a runner... again

After 2 weeks and 6 days of rest (laziness) I finally started running again. Actually it was my plan all along to take a significant amount of time off after my race on Thanksgiving. There were things (the entire right side of my body) that needed to heal and stopping for a few days or even 1 week had not really helped so I needed longer. I was going to start back a little sooner, but the possibility of breaking my neck on a patch of ice kept me from doing that.

So tonight after work I FINALLY got back out there. I started in Centennial Park and ran part of the loop before cutting over to West End, passing a guy being pulled from his car, frisked and arrested in the middle of the road, down 21st, up the "bitch hill", past the children's hospital, back up West End and finished in front of Cumberland Transit. I kept it slow (or tried to) and stopped myself well short of the 5-7 miles I would have loved to have run. Tonight was an easy 5k in 28:50 (fairly consistent with 9:14, 9:19, 9:25) which was about as slow as I could make myself go. So far all my previous injuries are not bothering me which is a good sign. Even if they do pop back up on future runs (please please no) at least I had 1 good run pain free! And for some reason I seem to always end right in front of Cumberland Transit everytime I run 3.1 miles even though it's always a different route.. maybe that's a sign.

Speaking of 5k, there are 2 people (we'll call them L and N) who better be ready for the training that starts Monday and the 5k they will run FAR sooner than they think they will (yes, you can do it before 2012). N definitely has no excuses since she has run a half marathon before, something I haven't done yet. L has no excuses because I refuse to let her have any :)

Getting anxious

After my 5 mile race on Thanksgiving I decided to take some time off to let me ailing muscle or whatever it is in my right leg heal (hopefully). It probably wasn't very smart to throw a snowboarding trip in their, but Snowshoe had some epic conditions and we were itching for the first trip of the year :)

It's been 2.5 weeks now and I'm really anxious to get back out there, but yesterday we had freezing rain and I'm not about to have my comeback run end up with me busting my ass on an ice patch! Hopefully sometime this week I'll be able to get back into it and maybe without pain?

Boulevard Bolt Results

The official results are in and it looks like I'm still good at math. My predicted time was exactly right: 42:54 which is a new PR by 3 seconds! Not much, but still more than I thought I was going to be capable of that day. Out of 1370 runners with chips I was 60th in the 30-34 age group, 404th in my gender and 549th overall. My friend beat me by 44 seconds which I was expecting, but after I got to the finish and realized I had done better than I thought I would, I kinda hoped I had beat him. Oh well, I'll get you next time!