Month: July 2010

Argh. Well, the good is that I did what I hoped I’d do today to make up for some loss: I did 10.56 miles. The bad is the heat. It is slowing me down and wearing me down a bit. I ran in weather between 83-84 degrees, and with a humidity somewhere around 50%. For some reason, it is feeling more humid today than it’s reading. I had a little bit of relief in the form of cloudcover, which obscured the sun for about half of my run, and with the shade of trees I only had direct sun for maybe 1/4 of my run. Not bad. I pulled off 8:02s with water breaks and the occasional time Garmin wouldn’t stop. Here are my stats:

As for injuries, my legs felt good after yesterday’s run, and I only had that stabbing feeling in my left ankle once. It happened about a mile and a half in, and it lingered for a few footfalls but was gone. STILL it is behaving like this, over a year later! Such a strange injury!

Other than that, I was just so tired during this run. I couldn’t motivate myself to go much faster, I couldn’t lift my head, I just plodded along. I stopped for water pretty often, and had a PowerGel (x1 caffeine) about 8 miles in. It doesn’t feel as if it does much, but maybe it gives me just that little bit. I lost about 5 lbs. again today, getting me back down to 169 lbs. after I finished (from about 174 lbs. this morning). I feel a bit thinner after today’s run, or maybe the word is “wasted.” I need to get some muscle back on me, but I’m so drained from this heat running! 🙂

Egad. The heat got me today. It was between 82 and about 85 degrees for today’s long run, with about 60% humidity. The long run was on Sunday rather than yesterday because a) yesterday was supposed to be a race day, and b) neither the race nor my substitute run happened because I did a night shoot that wrapped Saturday morning around 8:15am and was too zapped to run.

I set out to do about 15 miles today. I contemplated busting out about 17 miles, but upon my third attempt of Cat Hill, I suddenly had to stop. Done. No more energy. The heat got to me. I stepped on the scale when I got back from my run, and despite water numerous times along the way, I dropped 6 lbs. I was 175 lbs before this run, but after I was 169 lbs. Whoa. And cool.

No injuries to report–both my right ankle and my left calf seemed fine. I set out very slowly today because of the heat and the time of day (late morning, with sun blazing). It took me a while to get out because for some reason it took Garmin about 10 minutes to find a satellite.

As you can see from the map, I did a little surprise course. I was thinking I’d do three “sans loops” (loops without Great Hill) for my 15+ miles, but I decided to take on Great Hill in my first loop, then in my second loop. When I hit the 72nd St. Transverse coming back down, I decided to turn left onto it! I’ve never done that except in races. But I was losing steam fast. Once I mounted Cat Hill, I was only half up before nothing more. While I had had my eyes on doing about 17 miles, I ended up with only 11.88 miles. Given this heat, that’s not that bad. But given that I hadn’t run in 3 days, it’s a bit disappointing.

I’m thinking about getting in maybe a 10-miler tomorrow to make up some. It’s to be seen. I may have a challenging week of work with a couple night shoots. That may mess with my motivation. I’ve found it’s really hard to get me out of napping when I also have the option to run. I keep needing my rest.

Um, it hit 100 today. I ran at a time when it had cooled off … to 84 and humid. The humidity was 67%. However, despite the humidity, my breathing was really good. I ran with Elizabeth for about 5 miles before she suggested I break off. As a result, I finished faster than I started, and I did 8.16 miles in 1:02:41, or 7:40s. Had I not run with Elizabeth, I probably would have been faster. But not that she didn’t give me a workout: She did damn well herself! She was keeping a solid pace, and her improvement from more than a month ago was measurable and significant.

In that last bit before concluding my run, though, I had a bit of a “blowout.” Something happened in my left calf. It felt maybe like a rip or an overstretch. It was something I could still run on, but it felt like an injury. I think I had pushed myself too much or something. After the run, the discomfort was there, feeling as if I was doing a calf stretch but while walking. I’m writing this now from home on 2 ibuprofen and with my left up, a cold pack on the calf. I hope it’s okay and doesn’t feel more serious, but we’ll have to see because “things go bump in the night.”

Other than that, my right ankle still did its thing of feeling sensitive in the beginning but fine during the run. This run, I had one stabbing feeling but it was in the left ankle instead of the right, and the next stride it was gone. Elizabeth and I stopped twice for water and Garmin didn’t quickly register the stoppage, to the tune of about 10 seconds of missed non-running.

Aside from the injuries, I actually felt really good in this heat. My breathing was fine, my legs didn’t feel tired, and I loved the saunalike feeling the weather provided. We ran starting around 7:30pm so the day was cooling off a bit and there was a light wind. All in all, a good run, one I’m glad I got in.