Trying out the knee

I took the knee brace off around 0.75 miles tonight and continued to run another 3.75 miles without it. A slight whisper at the very end, but overall MUCH better than a few months ago. I iced it when I got home just to be safe and I will continue to wear the brace, but it's nice to know it's at least better than it was when the pain started. My hand hurt more from carrying the brace for the rest of the run than my knee did from not wearing it :) Overall it was a great run and my longest since starting back after my little break.

Total: 4.5 miles

1st run of 2009

Well I FINALLY logged my first run of 2009 last night. I would have logged it sooner, but Comcast allegedly had "a server down" which caused all of Middle Tennessee and Central Kentucky to lose internet service for several hours. It's ok though, they gave me a credit of $1.06!

So anyways, after work in what I consider to be perfect running temps (42ish) and not so perfect weather (super windy) I went for my first run of 2009. A drastically different route at the beginning with a lot more elevation for the first .75 mile which helped me not pay attention to the Garmin as much. It also gave me my first slight knee pain in a long time which I'm hoping was just the elevation.

Now I just need to see if L & N finally owned up to their resolution to start running :)

Total: 3 Miles, 28:02 (9:20)

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!

Boulevard Bolt 2008 - Nashville, TN

This morning was my first race with more than a couple hundred people in it (7900 roughly) so I thought I'd give a race report.

5:15 - 1st alarm went off and I groaned.

5:30 - 2nd alarm went off and surprisingly I got up (a typical work morning takes about 5 alarms and 2 hours). This could be because I was done icing (my leg, not a cake) and in bed by 9:15 last night.

5:40 - With contacts put in and eye buggers removed I start to get ready. I fired up the toaster and got my pre-race bagel with peanut butter. I proceed with my soon-to-be-patented method of intermittently getting dressed, stretching and eating the pb bagel. If you're thinking that's a sight that you don't want to see.. you are correct!

6:00 - Flip on the morning news, not for any purpose really, just because I've always wondered what they talk about at 6:00 am. Turn on the laptop and check the current temp (37) and race time temp (41). Double check that I have my new Nike gloves and hat. Update MySpace and Twitter with my current status because I'm sure everyone I know got up early to verify that my statuses matched what they already knew I was going to be doing.

6:20 - Jeffery shows up right on time. We pin on our numbers and get ready to head out.

6:30 - Walk out into what is most certainly NOT 37 degree weather! We head towards the race and in my zombie mode (it's because I was talking instead of paying attention) I head towards downtown like I'm going to work.

7:05 - After a slight detour we arrive at the race and park probably a half mile or so away. We walk over to the registration tents where I pick up my timing chip. Potty break (in the one that wobbled so I had to keep a foot planted in a certain corner to keep it from tipping) before the huge crowd gets in line. Jo Dee Mesina was on stage as part of the pre-race festivities, but not singing. I think the mayor was up there too, with a race number on.

7:26 - We are in line (and by line I mean huge crowd of people) near the start figuring out where to go. 2 women ask me what time it is since they see my Garmin and I explain that we were just discussing how I didn't know how to find the time on it. I eventually figured it out.

7:45 - Still no sign of John or Amber or anyone else that we know there. They have corrals for different pace groups so we get in the Under 45 Minutes thinking that would probably be about right. A rabbi from 1 of the sponsoring churches offers the longest prayer I've ever heard.

7:55 - The start of the wheelchair division which only included 1 person. I guess it's awesome to know that no matter what you get 1st place in your division, but that's still gotta suck to start all by yourself.

8:00 - Someone forgot the number 3 and announced "1....2....." and so we begin... to walk. A couple of minutes later we get to a huge banner stretched over the road that says "START" which for some reason I thought signified the start line so I started my Garmin. 10 seconds later we crossed the real start line which was the chip mat.

And we're off!

0 mi - Immediately I regret the corral we got in because there is no way anyone was on a 9:00mpm pace. I weaved around people and ran on the grass median to try to get up to the group I should be with, all the while my Garmin beeping at me telling me to speed up.

0.9 mi - I see the "1 Mile" sign ahead and really thought I had already gone farther than that. True I should have known, but I was only paying attention to pace on my Garmin.

1.66 mi - We see the 1st group of runners coming up the other side of the street which would put them around the 3.5 mark.. Discouraging.

2 mi - Water station and wisely this time I decide to come to a complete stop for 3 seconds so I can drink the water instead of wearing it. Success!

2.4 mi - The turn-around; which means more uphills than the first leg and the sun in my face instead of on my back.

3 mi - After running downtown so much my body is used to brief stops for traffic, lights, unobservant pedestrians, etc. So at 3 miles with only a 3 second stop for water so far I decided to do what I've been used to doing in my normal runs. Well I didn't "stop", but I did walk for 5 seconds once I got to a flat section. I've found that sometimes it does me better in the long run to take a few seconds to walk and re-energize.

3.5 mi - At this point I am absolutely roasting. My warm hat becomes a sweat towel and my long sleeves get pushed up. Thank goodness I didn't wear tights or a jacket or anything else that would have made it worse. Although I would like to thank LOTS of women who did rock the tights this morning. You have no idea how much you motivated me! You can call me a pig or sexist or whatever you want.. I'm a guy and they were motivating.

4.25 mi - I look up and realize the woman running 5 feet in front of me is the same woman who I battled with in my last 5 mile race, the Halloween Hunt. I immediately told myself there is no way she was beating me this time and HTFU from my 9:00 pace to around 8:00. I will now have to change my argument that I've posted on RA a few times about how you should always be running your best and someone else shouldn't affect how you run. I guess the correct explanation is you should always be running your best, but sometimes another person can bring out something that you didn't realize you had in you. If it hadn't been for her I would not have sped up which you will see would have made a huge difference, pending official results.

4.9 mi - I round the corner of cheering people (none of which know me) and UP A HILL to the finish line. There's something strangely exciting about that final moment, with everyone cheering and encouraging you that I think is part of why I enjoy running. My pace jumps to around 6:00 mpm for the finale.

5.0 mi - I did it! I stop the Garmin as I cross the finish line and once I'm walking I look down at it. It says 43:04. No way. Take away the 10 seconds before I crossed the chip mat and that gives me a time of 42:54 which would beat my only other 5 mile race by 3 seconds. I will wait to get really excited until the official results come in, but regardless it's better than I was expecting to do. I guess the brief walking break didn't hurt me after all!

Now it's Turkey Time! Happy Thanksgiving! :D

4 Mile Monday

This post is a day late. Last night after work I went to Belle Meade to pick up my race packet for Thanksgiving and then headed over to Centennial Park for my last run before the race. I originally had planned on 5, but the way my yet-to-be-named leg muscle-tendon-bone-thingy was feeling I stopped at 4. I have no idea what it is, but for the past couple of weeks it's been hurting pretty bad after my runs. I think after the race I might actually break down and go see a doctor. Ice and rest (at least my version of rest) has not seemed to help other than making it feel 99% better until the next run :(

So no running today or tomorrow then early bedtime since this will be my first early race.

P.S. To the redneck in the jacked up FJ Cruiser who thought it was hilarious to rev his engine as he passed me: I can understand how you're upset that you had to buy a jacked up truck to compensate for... ya know.. but seriously anyone who is old enough to drive and gets their laughs startling runners REALLY needs to get a life.

8:05 mile

I'm so burned out on the greenway here, but I still head out there when I'm planning on a short run. So today I was planning on running 3 miles and after the first mile I couldn't believe my watch when I looked down.. 8:05. I don't think I've ever run a mile that fast before.

The rest of the run was a different story, probably in part because I ran the first mile too fast. My knee brace kept coming undone; at least 5 times in 3 miles. My left earbud fell out every minute or 2. Any little tiny thing that could annoy me happened, but I survived and have at least 1 mile I can be happy about. I plan on running 5 miles on Tuesday and then taking a day off before the Boulevard Bolt on Thursday.

Belle Meade Cops Are Assholes

To anyone who has ever been to Belle Meade it would not be a shock to find out that anyone in that city is an asshole. So tonight me and John went to run the course for our race coming up on Thanksgiving morning. It's a 5 mile route along Belle Meade Blvd, a major road with a narrow bike/running path on both sides. I kept an easy pace and the hills aren't bad so I'm looking forward to the race in less than a week.

Somewhere around the 3rd mile we pass a cop who was stopped at a turn-around harassing another runner. She proceeds to tell us that it's a city law (that we're supposed to somehow know?!) to wear reflective clothing at night that is visible from 300 feet away when headlights are shining on you. Fine. I'm wearing A SOLID WHITE LONG SLEEVE SHIRT which she tells me is not good enough. Anyone who shined their headlights on me and could not see the bright white shirt does NOT need to be driving!

Then she said she'd give us a reflective vest for the rest of our run tonight, but next time she'd write us an $80 ticket. For some reason she freaked out when she went to her trunk to get the vest and I started to follow her. I'm not sure what she keeps in her trunk, but she sure as hell didn't want me to see it. She only had 1 vest so John wore it and when he got 100 feet in front of me I couldn't see it.. but you could see my white shirt from there.

She assured us that they do this for our safety.. yeah, if those pompous asses were concerned about runner's safety they would use part of that huge landscaped median to put in sidewalks. But then that wouldn't look appealing with the million dollar homes on that road now would it? Don't worry stuck up, lazy ass cop.. I won't be running in Belle Meade again after the race on Thanksgiving.

Treadmill

Since July I've been stuck in the Central Time Zone where it gets dark shortly after lunch, and unfortunately there is no good place to go running after dark near my apartment. So for the first time in a while I headed to the treadmill. After running in sub-40 temps yesterday and fairly cool temps for the past month, running inside seemed very hot tonight.

Anyways, it was going fine until the 2 mile point when the treadmill just stopped.. and I mean STOPPED. I had zoned out so it sorta scared the crap out of me. I started it up again and within 10 seconds it did it again. Well I didn't want to quit after just 2 miles so I ran another mile around my apartment complex.

Just 1 week left until my next race! 5 miles on a road course which is by far my favorite type of place to run.. especially since the road doesn't usually come to an abrupt stop like a treadmill :)

Garmin-less Run

It certainly wasn't on purpose, but tonight was my first run without my Garmin since I bought it. It was also the first run on a non-marked trail without some kind of watch to keep at least a rough idea of my distance and speed.

I started at Centennial Park and tried to purposely not take too many turns, although a group of 3 women running somewhere around mile #3 may have altered my course slightly :) At any rate after mapping my route on RunningAhead.com it came out to approximately 5.45 miles at a 9:11 pace which I was pretty happy with. It was a little farther than I was planning on going, but that just made it even better!

Tonight was also my first time running in sub-40 degree temps (not counting my first 5k 7 years ago) and I realized one thing; gloves are awesome! I would rather forget my Garmin again than forget gloves! Ok enough writing, time to ice!

Easy 3ish

I've been planning on a longer run (hopefully around 8ish) this weekend so I planned an easy 3 miler for today. The funny thing about running is that it's introduced me to muscles, bones, bodily functions/reactions, etc. that I never knew existed. Tonight my knee and my previously punctured shin felt great the whole time, but a previously undiscovered muscle (or something) between my ankle and calf on the inside of my right leg started hurting. I'm not even entirely sure how to stretch that particular area, but I guess I better figure it out!

On another note I ran past that metal pole that Nashville Public Works was so kind to leave sticking up in the middle of a sidewalk. I ran into that 1 week ago today and last Friday, after getting a lunchtime tetanus shot, I emailed the city through the Nashville.gov website. I knew it wasn't the right department, but there's no "get that f-ing pole out of the ground" contact listed. To my surprise someone actually replied to me 17 minutes later (how's that for a State employee?!) and copied in the correct person who then asked me for the specific location. I sent that and she said she'd have someone from the sign shop investigate. Well tonight, exactly 1 week later, they had reattached the sign that was supposed to be attached to the pole in the first place.. ya know, the one that would have prevented me from running into a shin high metal pole? Yeah, that one.

I still question the level of retardation it takes to:

• Decide to put a sign in the middle of a sidewalk
• Remove the sign while leaving a 12 inch metal pole sticking out of the ground
• Decide that there's even a need for a sign saying "No Parking" when it's a 2 lane road with nowhere for even the biggest idiot to mistake for roadside parking

Regardless, I was impressed that it was taken care of at all let alone in a week or less.

New 5k PR

Ok so it's not official because it wasn't a race, but I set a new PR for 5k tonight. The best part was I didn't even realize it until just before the 3 mile mark. My previous PR was 26:51 in the Soles4Souls 5k, but tonight I ran 3.13 miles in 25:55.

Cool Runnings

Tonight was my 2nd run in sub-50 degree temps and my 1st since the metal pole incident. My leg is still tender to touch, but walking/running on it doesn't hurt at all and it didn't give me any problems during the run. We went 5 miles with some decent hills at a pretty slow pace. I will soon be purchasing gloves and a new running hat :)

Nashville Public Works employees are lazy

Tonight was my first real night run where the majority of the run was in the dark. It was the first time in a while that I've run 2 days in a row, but after 2 miles I settled in and felt good. Unlike last week my legs felt fine and unlike yesterday my lunch didn't try to come up. Everything was fine until somewhere around 3.5 miles when I almost fell down after running into something that didn't make my leg feel very good.

What was it? A metal post sticking up about 1 foot out of the SIDEWALK that looked like it used to be the bottom of a stop sign. A little odd since it wasn't at a corner, but in the middle of a damn sidewalk with no roads around it. Thanks Vanderbilt, you suck ass! It's more of a slight puncture wound than a cut, but it was 20-30 minutes before I could finish my 5.1 mile run (yes I'm an idiot) and get home to ice it so it's bruising and swelling nicely now. Just when I thought I was getting my groove back (and thinking of changing my name to Stella) I find a new and creative way to injure myself. The moral of the story is if you run at night LOOK AT THE GROUND.. oh and also look out for cars :)

Any advice on whether or not to run with a small puncture wound anyone? I was already planning on resting tomorrow, but wanted to have a decent 5-7 mile run this weekend.

Here it is before the bruising/swelling started...