Spring Marathon locked in!

Well, the new year is here, and that means it's time to pick races! Have been out of commission because of the knee for a few weeks now, but the rest seems to have done it good, and am now able to climb down stairs without any pain or limp. Looking forward to running again starting tomorrow.

Have picked out a spring marathon - Seattle Rock N Roll, on June 24th. Am going to try Pfitzinger's 12/55 plan this time, instead of the RW plans I used for Portland and Eugene. Depending on how training goes the next few weeks, I might switch to the 18/55 instead, but only if I can get at least 3 consistent 30 mile weeks in before 2/20 (18 weeks out from June 24th). Both the RW plans I used were 12 week plans, and I have a feeling 18 weeks might be too long for me, but it also gives me some flexibility to switch things around.

knee no good

hmm, so i went out for a run yesterday evening, and less than a mile in, the knee started complaining. this is such a bummer :(. i'm still hoping it's a temporary flare-up that'll go away with some RICE. planning to try out the cross-trainer this evening so at least i don't lose what fitness i have. am also adding in these knee exercises. fingers crossed, and really really hoping that i can get over this quickly.

ouchie in the knee

hmm, my right knee has gone for a toss :(. it actually started a few months ago, when, on two successive days, i hurt the knee in exactly the same spot. the first time, i was helping ani clean up some of his toys, and mashed my knee against one of his knobbly puzzle pieces. it hurt like crazy for a little bit, but then eased up, so i brushed it off. the next day, at trader joe's, ani rammed his little shopping cart straight into the knee :(. the double whammy put me out of commission for a couple of weeks, during which i consulted with my terrific marathon-running PCP. he suggested that i RICE it, and things should get better. as indeed, they did, for a while. ever since those injuries, though, i've had trouble climbing down stairs, but after the couple weeks of rest, have been mostly ok otherwise.

this last weekend, suddenly the injury flared up again, and i can't really think of a reason why. it started hurting real bad to even walk, and i was getting quite bummed out about the whole thing. i tried jogging a little yesterday, and funnily, that didn't hurt at all! so am going out for a run today - let's see how it goes.

sleepless in seattle

Crummy title, I know, but it really is appropriate. Had a really bad night's sleep last night, and it makes such a big difference to the quality of your run. I was scheduled to run 7, but decided to shorten it to 6 because of the lack of sleep. Usually, an easy run (between 8:30 and 8 minute pace) doesn't leave me breathing hard at all, but today, by mile 4, I was huffing! With a 2 year old, days like this are bound to crop up now and again, so I guess I'd best just get used to dealing with a little huffing!

here we go again...

hi there running blog...been a while since we met, hasn't it :)...good to see you, and you're welcome for the face lift.

well, obviously a lot has happened since we last chatted...Ani's now 2, and I've run as many marathons! Portland '09 (3:34) and Eugene '10 (3:33). The rest of 2010 was mostly a wash, what with our move to Seattle, Mago Babago's visit, etc. I did finally run the Helvetia Half, in 1:39:42. That was a lot of fun. A half is over quickly even for slowpokes like me, and you aren't nearly as wiped out as after a marathon. Definitely see more of them in my running future.

Slowly getting back into the groove - the 3-month free membership to 24hr fitness was a windfall! The roads here are really really hilly, plus it's Seattle, so it's good to have a place to run indoors in the winter.

Have a running plan for the rest of the year set up, although the first week did not get off to a great start. Missed a couple days due to the really bad weather we had this past week - amazing how a couple inches of snow can bring a city this size to a standstill! Nice 8 mile run today on the TM. The hunger to run is coming back, which is wonderful!

i could almost cry with relief...

our darling arrived a month ago :)...what a joy to be a father...to look into your child's eyes leaves all other emotions so far back in the dust it's almost scary...

running has naturally taken quite the back seat the last month or so, and have definitely been stressing periodically about this...am losing fitness, and there's not much i can do about it at this point. as the days go by, had been getting more and more antsy about this. workload is pretty heavy right now too, so with the lack of sleep, all of the other baby duties, etc., i just don't have the time to run.

we seem to take great comfort in realizing that there are others out there like us. mostly, i think it gives us hope that if someone else was able to go through this successfully, there's a chance i can too. this blog entry did just that for me today :)...oh man, what a relief!!

the last couple weeks...

the last couple of weeks have been a study in contrast!

monday 2/18 - sunday 2/24

after i felt the lingering pain on monday, i decided to take a break from running for a couple of days. on tuesday i went to the gym and rode the stationary bike for 45 minutes. took wednesday off, except for doing the quad routines i picked up here. also, sweetie got me the polar rs400 :)!!! another post shall be dedicated to raving about it. on thursday, went out for a "shakeout" run (term i've stolen from nate jenkins :)). essentially, an easy run meant to get the blood circulating more than anything else. did the usual 7-miler from work @8:13. amazingly, felt nearly no pain in the knee, so it seems to have been a random flare-up more than a real problem (am keeping my fingers crossed - on both hands :)). took friday off, and switched my long run to saturday, as we were going to the portland film festival on sunday. the long run was probably one of my worst ever! i felt awful at around 11 miles, and actually stopped and walked most of the rest of the way home! don't know what it was, maybe just the fact that i hadn't done a long run in a while, or maybe the lingering cold i still had...whatever it was, it had me feeling pretty crappy and frustrated :)...

i'd been reading nate's blog, and noticed his emphasis on the easy-hard philosophy - have easy days and hard days, and go easy on your easy days, hard on your hard days. greg mcmillan also advocates the same approach, and i'd heard this advice in other places too, but had never taken it very seriously. consequently, i'd been doing my easy runs a bit too fast, i think. the other thing i hadn't been taking very seriously was warming up before hard workouts. i've decided to incorporate both these elements more strictly into my training, and so far, am liking the results :)!

monday 2/25 - sunday 3/2

this week, i set out to do two hard workouts, plus a long run, and easy runs the other two days. monday and friday were going to be easy, tuesday and thursday were workout days, wed and saturday were off, and sunday was the long run. miraculously, after a long long time, the week actually went to plan! monday i set out for the 5-mile route from work, but at jackson school road, was feeling great (it was fabulous weather), so went north towards evergreen instead of south back to sunrise ln. took evergreen to 15th, onto sunrise, for a total of just under 6 miles @8:22.

on tuesday, i did a progressive tempo run on the treadmill (the first time i used the treadmill's at the gym at work). warmed up for 10 minutes @ 8:27, then 10 minutes @ 7:48, 10 mins @ 7:42, 5 mins @ 7:36 and 5 mins @ 7:30, then cooled down for 10 mins @ 8:27. it felt way too easy, though...i should've gone a bit harder. next time, i'll try 10 @ 7:42, 10 @ 7:30 and 10 @ 7:18. the whole thing was at 0.5% incline.

on thursday, i tried a workout that mcmillan calls tempo intervals. the idea is to do 2 or 3 x 2 miles @ 10K pace. i did my usual 7-mile route from work, warming up for about 10 minutes @8:20, then 2 miles @ 7:15, 4 minute recovery (had planned on 3, but needed to get to my marker :)), 2 miles @ 7:17, and then cooled down for about 1.75 miles @ 8:15. was happy to be able to hold the pace well without struggling.

friday i went out for an easy 4-mile jog @ 8:40. was a lovely sunny day, felt great to be outside.

sunday was much chillier, temps down to about 30, and pretty foggy when i set out for my long run at about 9. i made a conscious effort to take the first 8-mile loop easy, and managed to do exactly that, running at 8:22 pace. came back to the car, switched my bottles out, and set out for the 5-mile loop to make 13. i was feeling great, so decided to try out running at mp the last 4 miles, and boy :)!!! i ran the last 5 miles @ 7:50, and the last 4 probably even faster, since i only picked up the pace after a mile or so into the 5-mile loop. it was hard work, but left me absolutely thrilled!!! am usually very cautious during my long runs, for fear i'll run out of gas, so i end up going pretty slow. this time, i decided to risk it a little, and am very happy with the results! even had two gulab jamuns for dessert to celebrate :)!