Category: Runs

With my mind set on attempting a 10K this morning in Alpharetta, GA, I was stretching in my blowup bed when suddenly, SNAP SNAP SNAP!, I pinched a nerve in my neck!

I had flashbacks to the night I was petsitting at an apartment when SNAP! happened in the middle of the night, almost completely incapacitating me in bed next to a pit bull. Fortunately, today’s pinched nerve was not nearly as bad because I could move. I believe this nerve was the late result of carrying a heavy bag on my shoulder in the airport (awkwardly, at that), coupled with the strange support an air mattress provides. Oh yeah, and that stretch I did.

I popped a couple ibuprofen and put a cold pack on my neck and rested on it for about 20 minutes. Then, I resolved to head out. Tricked that it was cool out, I got outside and it most definitely was not. It was a silent heat comparable to yesterday. After I finished what turned out to be 6.35 miles, I found out the heat index was 91. Boy did it feel like that. The actual temperature was 84 degrees with about 74% humidity. Plus little shade and loooooong hills. Here are the details from this morning’s run:

The most notable feature of today’s run was that I stopped around the mile 4 marker to retie my shoes. I was getting really uncomfortable tingling sensations in my feet, presumably from having tied them too tightly. (As my brother explained, the Wave Precision 11 design features fewer overlays, meaning fewer things stitched to the outside to block in your foot. With a freer foot, I may have overcompensated in my tying. Of note, my brother seemed to have tingling in his feet in the same shoe yesterday, so maybe there’s something to tying too tightly.)

Also of note was that my lower legs were sore. This soreness was more prominent in the first 1-2 miles. It was more in my left ankle area than my lower right leg. To deal with it, instead of thinking of it as a possible injury to be easy on, I used marathon logic and tried to distract myself from the pain. It seemed to work. It’s tough to say if ibuprofen also had something to do with the maintenance because of its anti-inflammatory properties.

As for time, I did 6.35 miles in 54:19. Doing 8:33s is not fast, but one must consider the heat, the intense sun, as well as the extended hills. If you look on the elevation graphs after clicking View Details above, I climbed (I think) about 150 feet over the course of a mile on the way back, not to mention some of the other climbs I had. It would be a great place to train for hills. Up that big hill, my pace dropped to more than 10:00s which surprised me a bit. Once I mounted the hill, I was doing sub-10:00s but I thought I was doing faster than the 9:30s or so I was seeing on my Garmin.

On my way back, I added a little intersection (rather than backtracking over the parking lot shortcut we used yesterday) in order to do at least a 10K. It worked. When I finished, I was relieved to have gotten in this run in this heat. I hope today’s training in difficult conditions shows up in my training this week in NYC.

Today’s run was in the morning heat of Alpharetta, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. I ran with my younger brother and my dad. It was great to get them out to go on a run, especially since my dad had a toe problem come up a couple days ago that was trying to stop him. We all got out in what was around 80-degree heat with close to 80% humidity. Pace was not the interest here since I resolved to run with them.

Before the run, my dad and brother responded to my question of at what pace should we run, with “a 10-minute mile.” So I set Garmin’s Virtual Partner to that but I couldn’t really imagine going that slowly.

We started off with a very steep hill, and since I ate cookies for breakfast, well, I thought I was going to “toss my cookies.” My stomach survived the initial assault. We stayed together for a while with my dad lingering a bit. With the aid of Garmin, I called out the 1st mile, then the 1.5-mile mark. At the 1.5-mile mark, my dad decided to jog back. My brother and I jogged out to the 2-mile mark and jogged back. Coming back, I had not realized how long of a hill we had descended! We hovered close to a 10-minute pace climbing back up that hill. For me, I was just trying to stay with my brother but I wanted to go faster. I had the energy for it!

Once we hit my brother’s subdivision, I decided I’d lose him and go my own pace home. I picked it up a bit. Of course, I hit that steep initial hill again, but this time going down. WHOA! What added to the “WHOA!” was that there was an open manhole cover in the middle of the downhill. Um……

I ran today in new shoes. Because my Mizuno Wave Precision 10 pair was feeling small on my feet at size 10, I asked my brother to see if he could get me a pair of Precisions in size 10.5 to compare. Immediately they felt better. But he didn’t give me the Wave Precision 10; instead he gave me the Wave Precision 11, which isn’t even out yet!! They come out in maybe a month. This feels cool! I have a race next weekend and I’ll hopefully get to wear these shoes as I’m in the first corral. I wonder if anyone will wonder …

As for pain, my thematic medial lower right leg issue is still there a little bit. I didn’t stretch much before or after this run (my brother and dad were eager to just start), and I could tell that despite feeling really normal the rest of yesterday after my 12.31-miler, I lacked strength today when I woke. Weird how things change around like that!

Wow. What a difference temperature (and humidity) makes. This morning I busted out a long run after a hiatus this week. I did 12.31 miles in 1:32:20, which means I averaged 7:29s. The weather started out a cool 64 and heated to a 66 with slight humidity.

Compare this morning’s performance to a couple other performances. Last Saturday in 87-degree weather I did 8:26s. A couple weeks earlier I did this distance in 7:51s in comparable weather to today. Between the two weeks I did 14.02 miles in 8:07s in humid 72ish-degree weather.

I also wonder what the introduction of fish oil into my supplementation means. I heard that it was good for endurance athletes. I wonder if it made my heart pump better in this run. I doubt that fish oil is the main reason I did so well today, but I wonder how much of a reason it may have been.

Whatever contributed to today, there’s little doubt that the cooler weather played a factor. After last week’s heat, it was nice to find out that I wasn’t going down in performance but instead going down in the weather, which meant I was conditioning for better conditions. What’s even better about today’s results is that I was pretty steady throughout the run. Don’t look at the laps for miles because I inadvertently hit a button on my Garmin and triggered an early lap. My first mile was fast (7:05) yet comfortable, and while my speed decreased a bit from there, I didn’t lose too much speed. For most of the run I was running sub-7:30s. Of course, that’s not all that impressive, but for now, I think that’s making me feel a little better about myself.

For this run, I had just a PowerGel before the run. I carbo-loaded with Oglio & Aglio with Chicken last night. And a Ben & Jerry’s. Damn the Cinnamon Buns flavor!

As for injuries, my right lower leg medially again felt sensitive, but consistent with other runs, it was fine after I got into my run. For about the first couple miles, though, it felt a little unstable, the kind of unstable that made me wonder if my leg was going to “fail” on me. But it didn’t. While there weren’t a lot of people in the park this morning, no one passed me. That’s great.

I feel a bit better about my fitness right now. 🙂

P.S. After the run, I hit the gym for abs, arms, shoulders, pecs, quads, and calves. Also of note: New photos from my Japan Day race are on the Photos page.