Running is therapy

I woke up today, Sunday, Long Run Day, and I asked the schedule “What say you schedule? How far? How fast?”. The schedule said nothing. Silence. I went about my morning business, the schedule remained silent.

That’s when the thoughts start creeping in. “Go for a recovery jog. Only go as far as feels good”. And that’s when I know I am going to go running, even if it’s not the best idea in the world.

So I did. I headed over to the barracks for a victory lap around the golf course. I wanted to go because I wanted to run for the fun of it. I wanted to go slow, think, and go over yesterday in the way I do all my serious thinking these days.

The victory lap turned into 4 slow miles. What a great day for a run.

Motionbased Link

Some stats:
Distance: 4.03 mi
Time: 47:22 (pace: 11:44)
Average Heart Rate: 132 bpm
Calories Burned: 570

Today was the running of the Hands-on House Half Marathon and 5K. And as constant readers know, I have been training to get there.

This was actually a really bad running week for me. I was supposed to run 6 miles Sunday, 4 Monday and 2 Wednesday. I ended up doing 3ish on Sunday, 6 on Monday and then I never ran again until the race this morning. We are moving offices at work, and Wednesday just kind of blew up in my face, so I bagged the run (when I got home at 10 pm). However, my body was getting banged up with all the mileage increases I have taken on over the last 2 months so a 4 day lay off before the race was probably a good thing.

I slept fitfully last night, though not too horrible. And to be honest not that much worse than I usually sleep. I woke up at 7 ready to get my race on.

We drove down to the race and picked up our numbers and chips around 8:30. The race was running a little behind so I had time to chat up Eric and his wife, as well as Marcus before the start.

Sometime around 9ish we made our way up to the starting line and were milling around when we heard the bell to go…so we went. I dropped back fast, I did NOT want the race day high to make me go out too fast. Even with constant admonitions to myself to slow down I ended up running a 9:34.

I was feeling great, so I decided to run by my breathing. I know about how hard I am breathing when I am under a sustainable load for running, so I decided to let the adrenalin work it’s magic and open up those lungs. It seemed to work well as an indicator. I ended up running much faster than I imagined and felt fine the whole time. The only mile I ran that was slower than 10 minutes a mile was mile 7…mile 7 is the mile that contains the The Hill. And even with that hill I still managed a 10:11 mile (though to be honest that kind of irritates me now that I am looking at all my other sub 10 splits).

The atmosphere there was pretty cool, and there were plenty of people scattered along the course to cheer you on. The turns were all clearly marked, and the aide stations were at the ready with water and Gatorade. I did drink at miles 4 and 8. I skipped the other stops, as I felt fine.

The weather was fantastic! It was in the mid 50’s when we arrived, and stayed fairly cool the whole 2 hours I was out there.

The finish was undramatic, but it was nice that I had people waiting for me at the end cheering me on. I gave a solid kick for about the last 100 yards. My Garmin put the course distance a little short at 12.91 Miles (a little less than 2 tenths of a mile). 2:02:33 was my final official time (since this was my first half, it’s also a PR :).

1 mile Splits: 9:34, 9:10, 9:13, 9:14, 9:49, 9:14, 10:11, 9:34, 9:18, 9:32, 9:18, 9:53 and the final .91 in 8:09.

Some stats From the 305:
Distance: 12.91
Time: 2:02:15 (pace: 9:27 m/m)
Average Heart Rate: 162 bpm
Calories Burned: 1887

I shaved off my goatee this weekend for the first time in like 10 years. Dear lord I look like a wee little boy

Yesterday I was working feverishly on my laptop when all of a sudden the hinge on the left side snapped off. Not to mention my ‘a’ and Meta keys have begun to only work at certain angles and pressures. I took the plunge and asked the employer for a new machine. I got the ok today, and will be ordering a…Macbook Pro tomorrow (waiting on the rep to get back to me).

I am sure there is a special place in hell for an OSS zealot like myself that uses Apple hardware.

Diluting Propel with half water is a good combo.

Here is a handy little utility to recover it. That assumes the box you want the key from is still running of course and can execute the app.

I wanted to get in some cross today, but after 8.5 miles on the bike, I had enough of that. I figured what the heck, might as well get a walk in too.

Motionbased Link for the bike
Motionbased Link for the walk

Some stats (bike):
Distance: 8.56 mi
Time: 43:52 (pace: 11.7 mph average)
Average Heart Rate: 130 bpm
Calories Burned: 463

Some stats (walk):
Distance:3.17 mi
Time: 51:37 (pace: 16:17 m/m)
Average Heart Rate: 101 bpm
Calories Burned: 311

I went out today to do a very specific run. 3 miles at 10:00/9:45/10:00. I wanted to get a feel for my pacing in the half. Let me tell you, I am terrible at it. My pace was all over the place, I was constantly slowing down, then speeding up, etc.

I did the best I could.

1 mile splits: 9:43, 9:25, 9:55

When it’s all said and done, I feel good about shooting for 9:45’s in the race and won’t feel bad if I score a few 10’s.

This is also the second day this week I am splitting my workout in half. On Tuesday I ran over lunch and then again after work, and I will do the same thing today. I am running with someone as they get ready for the 5K at Hands-On House.

Motionbased Link.

Some stats:
Distance: 3 mi
Time: 29:05 (pace: 9:41)
Average Heart Rate: 142 bpm
Calories Burned: 462

Here it is, 80 days since I had a cigarette.

Normally I would have been getting ready to go off the Chantix sometime in the next 10 days. However I basically only took that for a month. I started taking it for a few days into the second month, and then decided I wanted to go it on my own. I hasn’t been that horrible going off the pills early. I think I have had more urges than I would have if I had taken the pills. Even yesterday, I was stressed WAY out by work, and I could feel the urge to smoke boiling below the surface. I wouldn’t do it, there is no way, but it’s still there, still ready to spring back to life if I give it the energy to do so.

I have a few insights I have gained over these last few months, but I think I will save them for a 90 day post. For now, I will just post this as a reminder of where I was.

Happy breathing.

Over lunch today Eric G and I drove out to the big hill on the Hands on House course. We started at the bottom and ran right up it’s .83 mile length, we turned right and added some more distance to make it a 3 mile roundtrip.

On the way back down the hill we ran like morons. We were pulling ahead of each other and vying for position. At one point we got up to a 5:43 pace. By the end I was starting to worry I might slip on a rock and break my neck…but man was that fun.

Motionbased Link

Some stats:
Distance: 3.19 mi
Time: 27:43 (pace: 8:42)
Average Heart Rate: 154
Calories Burned: 484