Author: Ben Hauck

When I got around to Tavern on the Green for today’s sunny run, the thermometer shocked me with a reading of 77 degrees. Hot! But I only thought it was 72.

My body felt as if it was in 77-degree weather, though. The most notable part of today’s run was last night and this morning when I got out of bed: My knees. My knees, just above the kneecaps, hurt! I’m pretty sure it was from the 16 miles I put on them in the last two days. Fortunately, though, they were just yelling, and when it came to running today, my knees were never an issue. It just felt as if my body didn’t want to perform well today.

I decided to do 5.4 miles and take the 102nd St. Transverse in the prospects of doing a long run tomorrow and maybe around 8.15 on Sunday. The overarching thought was that this might be my first week or legitimate mileage so I best not get too zealous.

One runner passed me, but I eventually overtook him and he never caught back up. That felt good, though I’m not really that competitive yet.

I took my combination of ArginMax, quercetin, and PowerGel just before the run. After, I hit the gym for abs, arms, and added pecs and shoulders. Felt good afterwards to add the pecs. Chocolate milk capped my training when I got home.

It was 63 degrees, sunny, and actually a little warm for today’s morning run after about 7 hours of sleep. I decided to do 8.15 miles again, my first time doing that distance two days in a row. Garmin disagreed that I did 8.15 miles, saying I did 8.13. Whatever. I was only a few seconds faster than yesterday’s run, which was a little strange to me because I was pushing myself to go a bit faster today. I guess it just wasn’t happening!

While my muscles felt a little stiff from yesterday’s run, they weren’t bad. I had ArginMax and quercetin, plus a PowerGel, just before the run. During it, I felt overall pretty strong, but I knew that my pace just wasn’t climbing much yet as I was running at basically the same pace as yesterday according to Garmin during my run. What is surprising me is how I’m not faster than what I think I can do. I know time and training will pay off; I guess I just thought I’d be more than what I am right now.

I do feel as if I’m carrying a bit more weight, especially in my thighs. This might have something to do with the residual effects of being sedentary and sick last week. Yesterday was spent in holding seated almost the entire time, and flirting with eating poorly as I experimented with some new eating habits.

Today’s run featured a couple of superrunners who passed me. When the first passed, I knew I couldn’t keep up, but when the second passed, I thought I could eventually. I couldn’t. He looked to me about a pace I could eventually accomplish. I need a few more weeks. I’m curious when my pace will move out of this 7:30s range, which is what I did today. While somedays it feels somewhat fast, today wasn’t that kind of day. I sound maybe a little glum, but I’m happy I busted out this run and got in two consecutive days of running on workdays. That makes me happy.

Today I got back into Central Park for a run which turned out to be a rather comfortable 8.15 miles. I was glad to be back because last week was a wash from one of my most hellish weeks of work. Each day I was up before 5am for work, with one day being up at 3am. I was physically drained from playing a costume character on Monday (then running), and never really got to get adequate rest because of exceptionally early calltimes. I ended up with a cold by week’s end, stayed in bed all day on Saturday (skipping the Healthy Kidney 10K race in Central Park that I’d signed up for), and had my energy back by Sunday, which was dedicated toward catching up on chores and errands rather than running. The same with this past Monday, when I had little productivity time after getting up for work at 2:30am(!!!). Despite working a little late last night, I got up early today before my calltime to do a run.

The weather was cloudy, though not quite dreary–post-rain weather that didn’t feel that humid. The cool temperature of 52 degrees was quite pleasant to run in, and it may have allowed me to sustain the 7:29 pace that I pulled off. This was only 3 seconds slower of a pace than May 8th (11 days ago), when I last did 8.15 miles. By comparing the two days, today’s run was stabler, meaning my pace was more consistent from mile to mile.

The only twinge I felt was briefly after shifting my stride to “short” (when I focus on rapid turnover of my feet). The twinge was in my left knee, in the center of it just below the kneecap. It was a twinge like a pin maybe pushing into the center, but nothing too painful. It developed maybe a minute after starting to short-stride.

This week seems a little less hellish but it’s really to be seen what I can pull off. I did also get in a quick set of abs, back, and arms at the gym before nearly burning down my apartment with letting my eggs go too long on the stove. Doh!

I’d love to be faster than I am right now. Time, Ben, time! Oh, and on recommendation, I’m reading Ed Burke’s Precision Heart Rate Training when I can. I’m trying to get to a place to use my Garmin’s heart rate monitor. I’m interested to see how heart rate training will affect my training, speed, and endurance.