On Thursday I did indeed run. I ran my 4 miles over at the barracks to little fan fare (Yes, usually there is cheering). I took off way too fast, but on purpose and then just ground out the rest of the miles. I wanted nothing more than to just run. And that’s what I did.
1 Mile Splits: 8:33, 9:12, 10:31, 10:41
As you can see I got slower and slower. Sokay was a blast.
Some Stats:
Distance: 4.01 mi
Time: 38:59
Average Heart Rate: 170 bmp
Calories Burned: 621
I have been listening to this video for a few days and I thought it would be nice to strip the audio out and just have it as an mp3.
Scott clued me on vixy.net. You can convert any flv to another video file. He did mention that it only works about 50% of the time for him though. It worked fine for me.
After I got the mp3, I wanted to strip the lady talking at the beginning, so I fired up Audacity and cropped the beginning of the track. Then, because I was doing this on a Mac that I hardly ever use, I realized I couldn’t export directly to mp3 from there, because I didn’t have lame installed. I transfered it to my Linux box, but then figured out, I don’t know anything about Lame. Rather than learn, I installed LibLame on the mac and reexported the file to mp3. Not a terribly difficult thing to do.
I thought it was cool…but I wouldn’t want to do it for many files.
I have been resting my shins for the last two days. Monday of course was a bike ride and last night I took the night off with the exception of doing some shin exercises. I am also taking today off.
My shins do feel better. The ice, ibuprofen and rest are working. I’d rather be running, but I needed this.
I need to find something to keep this ice pack in place…hmmm.
I went down to Shippensburg tonight to ride my bike on the Rails To Trails there. It was great, and man am I glad I went.
Over the last couple of weeks I think I may have gotten a little overzealous with the running. I was so focused on how good running makes me feel that I overdid it (I will post about this later).
I iced my shin off and on at work all day, and took Aleve (thanks Jenna). Over all it feels pretty good. I know if I had run on it though I might be regretting it now. I can still feel just a twinge of pain. I need to take a shower and ice it some more. I am hoping by Thursday I may be able to run on it again. However even if I can’t run on it for a little bit, the bike riding helps me stay sane, and for that I am grateful. All day I had some mild trepidation about being injured and not being able to run and riding the bike showed me an activity that I can do for the interim that will let me heal and keep me sane if the need arises. This is good, and has taken away the stress I was feeling about it all. It’s no substitute for running, but it will make sure I don’t get fat and crazy while I heal ;)
Also, Bill mentioned in the comments of another post, that perhaps I should consider PT. I think it’s an excellent idea and I plan to call my doc tomorrow to see about that.
Some Stats:
Distance: 12.63
Time: 1:09:29 (Avg speed 10.9 MPH)
Average Heart Rate: 117 bpm
Calories Burned: 694
As I have mentioned before I have been having some shin pain. It’s bad enough tonight that I don’t think I can really ignore it any longer, I have to take some proactive steps to make sure I don’t get injured.
Many many years ago, over 10 now, I had really bad shin pain and ignored it, ran through it. Eventually I had to stop running altogether because the pain was so bad. It took months for it to feel better. I can’t imagine my life without running for months, and so I am scared enough of that to take a small break and reassess.
Tomorrow I am going to ride the bike instead of the 4 miles I had planned. And I may even wait till Thursday to run again. Following all that up with more stretching and shin exercises.
Today was the last day of week 5 for the Half Marathon plan. I decided to drive out to the Conewago Rail Trail to do my 6 miles. While out there, I happen to run into Bill Hathaway doing his run on the trail. It’s amusing since he was the one that suggested the trail to me on this blog.
What a great place to run though. Lots of shade, smooth cinder trail and mile markers (though they were long according to my Garmin). I’ll definitely be going back. Also of note, there were a lot of people there, mostly bikers, but a fair number of runners.
Also decided to try out the auto split feature on the Forerunner, that seems to have worked well.
1 Mile splits: 10:30, 10:28, 10:17, 10:21, 10:25, 10:03
The last mile was fast on purpose, I was getting bored so I decided to run faster for a little bit as a change of…pace :) My pace has been picking up lately and those splits indicate the same. I am guessing my new slow pace is 10:30. Let’s hope I can hang onto that. I finally got around to adjusting my weight in the Forerunner, since I picked it up I have lost 10 lbs and so it was still using 205 for all it’s internal calculations. Recent weigh-ins put me 192-196, so I put 195 in there.
I completed one of my running goals: “Run 6 miles without walking”. Check. And lastly, for the first time, I ran for over an hour.
Some Stats:
Distance: 6.07
Time: 1:02:07 (pace: 10:13)
Average Heart Rate: 146 bpm
Calories Burned: 942
Day 6 was cross training…due to some unforseen stress recently I wanted to go for a run. I decided that since I have a long run tomorrow, I would do 2 easy miles wrapped in some walking. Felt good over all.
I didn’t use the auto lap feature like I thought I might, but I will tomorrow.
I am having some shin pain. Having had trouble with shin splints in the past, I am taking it pretty seriously. Going to ice it today and tomorrow after my long run.
Some stats (running):
Distance: 2.00 mi
Time: 22:08 (pace: 11:04)
Average Heart Rate: 147
Calories Burned (Total with 2 miles walking included): 557
Tonight will be 40 complete days without smoking a cigarette. At this point, I am feeling pretty good. My allergies are worse than they were when I smoked, but even they aren’t *that* bad. Additionally my running times are getting faster, and I can breathe harder for longer when I am racing.
I haven’t had a Chantix in about 5 days. I don’t know why I stopped, but I did. I forgot to take it a few times, and then I wanted to see how it went without it. I still have all the pills, so if it gets to be a problem I will just start taking them again.
Do I still want a cigarette? You bet. A couple times over these last 40 days I have had situations where I would have smoked a lot in reaction to some external stress. During those times, I have wanted to sit down, light a cigarette and worry (it’s what I do best). Not smoking during these times has made me feel stronger, but the urges still come. In fact as I am writing this, I could go for a smoke. There is no chance in hell I will, but it still sounds like a “great idea”.
The funny part is, if I actually did have a smoke right now? It would taste terrible and make me sick to my stomach. I know, I have smoked after periods of not smoking before. It’s the worst…but you know a half pack later or so and they start to taste like they used to. How bad is it that you have to work that hard to make it not taste like complete garbage.
Fellow quitters, stay strong. Non-smokers, stay right where you are.
Here is to another 40.
Day 4 of week 5. Whew, what a run. Got out of work late, drove home in a ton of traffic and rain. I went over to the barracks and didn’t even get there till 7pm. It was of course raining the entire time I was out tonight, but I didn’t care it felt great. I hit the trail and was planning 10:30 miles for 4 miles tonight. Almost as soon as my foot hit the trail I knew I was going to go faster, I just wasn’t sure how much faster. I took off and tried to keep a lid on speed, 4 miles is still significant to me. But before long I was in a groove and just decided to ride it. I averaged 9:14/mi over the 4 miles. There were instances where I would not have been able to talk without sucking air (mostly the up hill parts), but honestly overall I felt fine, and wasn’t breathing hard. My legs had some pains by the time I was done, but nothing crazy.
Having said that my legs hurt…Let me pass some info on to other people who may be just starting out. It’s supposed to hurt. Now, it’s not supposed to injure you. Learning the difference between workout pain and “headed for injury” pain is tough. I learned about all this many years ago when I was running and racing in the past, it took a while, but after I understood how to read my body, I got faster and hurt less. Since restarting my running, I haven’t (/me knocks on wood) been injured. But I am on a tangent here
Anyway…I was also quite happy with myself since I was the only runner out there tonight. While everyone else was heading for safer dryer confines I was training. I think most people would take satisfaction in that.
The only bummer was that on Thursdays I have been including a bunch of walking in an effort to really grind out the calories, I was too wet and uncomfortable for that. I went home and showered.
Some Stats:
Distance: 4.01 mi
Time: 37:03 (pace: 9:14)
Average Heart Rate: 159 bpm
Calories Burned: 646