Sunday, September 30, 2007

Marathon is only 1 week away now. Went to the YMCA and did a fast 8:28 mile on the treadmill and then walked for 15 minutes at a 14:40 pace. Did about 40 minutes of light weights and then rested in the whirlpool and sauna.

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Last ‘long run’ before the marathon. I was up and out the door by 6:30 and put 3 miles in prior to meeting up with the Saturday Morning Running Group then I put 5 more on. My wife is becoming quite a strong runner…we were doing between an 8:30 and 9:00 pace in the first two miles with the group and I just couldn’t hack it so I backed off to a respectable 9:30-9:45 pace.

Finished 8 miles at a sub 10 min/mile pace!!

Friday, September 28, 2007

We got up early this morning and ran. I’m feeling really good but that might just be the anticipation of the marathon approaching. 1 mile 8:45 pace.

Thursday, September 27, 2007

This morning brought a rather cool day but not too cool not to go running. Started pretty easy and finished our run with a 9:00 mile.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

A very busy day starting with a lazy morning so I didn’t run until late. I got home from a village meeting and waited for my wife. Once I heard that she had already run I told her that I’d just go…she said no she was feeling good so she would run with me.

With the moon full and bright in the sky we pounded out an 8:57 mile.

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

It was not the best conditions to sleep in last night…the house was all humid and stuffy. The breeze that blew through the window was beautiful but very, very infrequent!

My wife was up and moving before I was and once I got up she told me that it was okay…I could go back to bed. That was tempting but I know that if I’m up I should actually do something, so I told her to go ahead without me. I finished getting ready and even though I considered running 2 miles I decided to stick to 1 mile and finished it in 8:15. If things had been a bit better (less humid) I could have done even better!!

Monday, September 24, 2007

My wife had to leave early this morning so we didn’t get up to run. Once we both got home from work neither of us felt like doing anything so we decided to eat dinner first and run later. Now that sounds all fine and dandy but I don’t think it was such a wise idea for me to run after eating cereal. We took it slow and did our 1 mile in 9:45.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

Since neither of us really wanted to get out of bed this morning there was no rush to head to the YMCA today.

About 5:30 pm my wife came out into the living room all ready to run, so I got dressed and we ran at 6:00. I said we would take it easy and I tried to slow her down a bit but she wanted to push it so I just kept up the pace. We ran 1 mile in 8:50, so I guess that we didn’t keep it easy.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

I just love taper weeks…I only had to get up at 5 am this morning! It was still dark now that fall is descending upon us but it was 55 degrees so I was very comfortable. The route was easy enough and I got to the Saturday Morning Running Group meeting place a bit early so I was able to get in another mile before meeting the group. 7 miles and feeling pretty good.

Now that everyone was there we set off and I was determined to finish my 5 remaining miles strong. I was able to do just that. Once I was finished with the main run I ran up the hill at Colonial just as I was told I had to when we run this route.

Total mileage was 12.35 miles!!

Friday, September 21, 2007

Beautiful morning for a run…if you don’t count the humidity in the air. Feeling pretty good with 3 weeks until the marathon. Started out slow and built to a brisk pace. Completed our 1 mile loop in 8:45.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

A very foggy night for a run and of course I wear all black again. Good thing I was running with my wife and she had the foresight to wear clothing that could be seen. Ran our standard 1 mile route in 9:40.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

We were up and out the door by 6:50 today and ran a somewhat subdued pace but with how lovely it was, 70 with a light wind, it was great just to be out side. 1 mile, 9:30 pace.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

My wife was going to work out with her trainer tonight so I was left to decide if I wanted to run by myself or to wait and see if she ran while at the club. She called and informed me that she was not running at the club and if I had not run to wait for her.

It was so beautiful out that neither of us was in that big of a hurry to finish the run. We took our time and still did 1 mile in under 10 min.

Monday, September 17, 2007

My wife asked when I would rather run…and given that choice I said tonight so she rolled over and we didn’t run this morning. After work she was starving so we decided to head to dinner first and run later. By 8 PM she was ready to go and I didn’t. But I knew I had to so we went for our usual 1 mile loop and I really pushed it the last half and came in with an 8:30 mile. The cool breeze made it a lovely evening and a great run.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

After such a long day of running and drinking beer it was nice to take it rather easy today.

My wife and I headed to the YMCA and I put in 1 mile of running on the treadmill and then walked an additional half mile. I put in about 20 minutes of weight training and then decided to hit the pool.

My elbow seems to have a small pinch in the nerve that caused me some discomfort so I stopped after about 20 minutes in the pool.

Saturday, September 15, 2007

I fell asleep early last night and was able to easily get up at 3:20 AM. I remembered to lay all of my gear out so that I would be able to be as quite as possible so as to not wake up my wife. I ate my banana and granola bars, drank my water and got out of the house at 4 AM.

The sky was beautiful! There were so many stars and no moon (that will be an issue later.) It was cold…40 degrees and an 8 mph WNW wind. I started out running down N Green Bay Rd. and turned onto Rapids Dr. I am always surprised at the amount of traffic on Green Bay so early in the morning.

The run down Rapids and Mt Pleasant were very non-eventful and I picked up the Root River Bike Trail here. It is much nicer to run on the trails than the side of the roads. It was very peaceful and allowed me quite a bit of time to think.

By the time I came near Colonial Park it was around 4:30 and sunrise was still 2 hours away. I had originally thought that this part of the trail would be hard due to the tree cover but didn’t realize that there would be no moonlight. I got to the bridge to enter Colonial and realized I could not see the trail at all…all I could see was blackness. This meant that I had to change course and run back up the hill and get into Lincoln Park via the roads and connect back up with the trail there.

Once I was back on the tail there were no problems. I got a little spooked when at about 6th Street and the trail (near the Rotary Overlook) a coyote came out of the underbrush and ran across the trail…I nearly wet myself at this point!!!

I hit Main St. right on schedule and started heading south, by now you could see the sky lightening in the East.

Once I hit 14th Street I knew that I was going to end up a bit short on my mileage but things were still pretty good other that I was now running straight into the wind! I followed Washington out to Ohio and then Ohio to 21st Street. Since I was going to be a little short and I still had some time left I decided to venture toward the mall before I hit Durand. This allowed me to put an additional 1.5 miles on just to be sure I had the mileage. Durand was a straight shot to West Blvd. where I was meeting the rest of the group.

My wife stopped to check on me about 5 blocks from the group, I told her things were going well and that I’d met her at the start. I got to the start and found about 8 of our loyalist waiting for our morning run. The majority decided they were going to head south on the bike trail and I decided to run north (I didn’t feel like dealing with the gravel) so off we went. I was quite a bit slower now…I really have to learn not to hang around and chat at this point but to just move out and catch up with everyone at coffee, but I’m sure I’ll never learn.

I finished my 20 miles (actually 19.8 miles) in under 4 hours so I was overall very happy. Only 3 weeks to Chicago!!!

Friday, September 14,, 2007

This morning I was up and ready to go even though the pillow kept calling me back. It was cool out but I still flet comfortable in my short sleeved tee. Easy pace was possible this morning...9:30 mile.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

This morning I decided that I didn't want to run since we were going to go to the YMCA. Well one thing led to another and we ended up not going to the Y we did however pick up our much needed lawn mower and go out to dinner.

Once we got home I decided that 4 weeks of growing was enough and it was time to cut the grass...I did this until I could not see anymore.

I cooled down from dragging all of the lawn clippings to the back of our yard and decided it was time to go for a run. I thought that I'd take it easy but ended up putting in a 8:30 mile!

I really need to slow that pace down!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Once again my wife was up and ready to go before I even realized that it was morning. I jumped out of bed and quickly got ready. I was dressed in shorts and a long sleeve tee as I was putting on my shoes when I noticed that my wife was wearing workout pants!?! I asked why and she said that the temperature outside was in the mid 40’s…yikes!

Well I decided not to change, I mean it is only a mile it can’t be that bad. I struggled a bit but managed a respectable 9:00 minute mile.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Wife heard that the wind was going to pick up during the day so she got up to run. I jumped out of bed and got ready. It was still cool and reminded me just of what the rest of fall is going to be like. Ran the 1 mile loop in 8:40…boy did we pick up the pace on the second half of that mile. After the marathon in a few weeks we are going to increase our daily run to 2 miles since we are starting to treat this as nearly a sprint!

Monday, September 10, 2007

We decided that it would be best if we ran before dinner since I didn’t think the burger and fries would sit real well. It was raining so there was a little whining involved but we got out anyway. It was the best time that my wife had run a mile in around 8:40! I ran the mile in 8:36.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

This evening we went for a nice run. My wife was still recovering from her 5.5 miler yesterday so she said I should run ahead. 1 mile at a 8:35 pace!

Saturday, September 08, 2007

After the mess last week with me shin and the blisters I was a little leery as to how well this week would be. I got up at 5 AM and was out the door by 5:30. Got 7.3 miles in before meeting the running group. Completed another 4.7 miles for a total of 12 miles. it was simply perfect weather to be out running.

Friday, September 07, 2007

My wife realized that it was raining this morning so we didn’t run in the AM. We decided to go to dinner right after work and let our dinner settle. Ran a little later and completed the mile at a good pace.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

Didn’t get up so I decided to wait and run with my wife after her hair appointment. Easy miler around the neighborhood.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

With my wife going to the gym this evening we had decided not to run in the morning…I’m not so sure that was such a great idea since by 6 pm when I went running it was hot and humid!

I decided that I’d run a bit longer tonight since I wasn’t able to get the miles in that I’d hoped to on Saturday and chose what I thought was an 7.5 – 8 mile loop. I’m glad I brought my water bottle because it was needed to cool me off a number of times during this run. I continued with my 2 mile run with a ¼ recovery and it seemed to work pretty well. By the time I hit 4 miles though my heel, which I blistered on Sunday, had torn open again and my sock and shoe were bloodied again.

I got into the neighborhood to notice that the run was not 7.5 miles but only 6.5!! Well 6.5 miles is better than no miles!

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

This morning was like most weekday mornings…my wife rolls out of bed and I wake up as she comes back in with her running clothes. That would be my queue to get up and get ready for our run. I got up, none to happy to be awake, but I got up and went running.

It was still rather cool outside but you could feel the dampness in the air. My wife tells me that today is supposed to be “hot and humid today.” “Great!” is my only reply.

The run goes well 1 mile at a 9:04 pace but I will have to put my new shoes back on this week and see if my blister has healed.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Got up this morning after sleeping in and we went out running. It was humid and we decided to cut back on the mileage. My wife turned around sooner than I was expecting…when I turned around with her she told me to continue. So I did another about face and ran 2 miles in just under 20 min. Heel wasn’t much of a problem today.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Today, as most Sundays, we decided to head to the YMCA. I managed to put 2.3 miles on the feet before I realized that a blister on my heel had burst and I was bleeding.

So with my heel out of commission I decided to spend the next 30-40 minutes lifting weights.

Later in the day we played tennis…my wife beat me of course but it was fun and sweaty!

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Since I just ran a marathon last weekend I was not ready to do another 20 miler just yet so I decided that I would only run 12-13. After donning my running gear and setting out before the sun had risen I would easily get in 7 miles before meeting the running group.

What I had not planned on however is that my left shin would start to hurt again. It seemed to hurt running down hill. I decided that I was fine with the 7 miles and only walked the next 3 miles for a total of 10 miles on the day.