I Love Technology. But Not as Much as You, You See.

This morning I read a fellow bloggers post about running a half-marathon without her Garmin. She PRed. My Garmin strap broke and I was not that lucky.

I kept my Garmin in my pocket, to at least be able to view my pace later. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. My legs were sore from yesterdays weight training, I was on my feet all day at work, I didn't drink enough water and it was 60 degrees out. So, it was a beautiful day and I got five miles in with my boy. Hooray!

In other news, iPod the Sequel is up and running...literally! It was so nice to have my music back again. Unfortunate that Sequel did not help with my pace today. He'll have to make it up to me.

My replacement strap should be here on Thursday. It's supposed to rain. Of course it is.

Sunday Runday : Ready for Another Week

It has been over a week since our last run due to rain. We were very much overdue and today is 50 degrees and sunny. Yeah, I think we'll do that.

I really wanted to run another ten this week (last week?), really work on getting comfortable in the ten, but with no running at all this week, I wasn't really feeling that. A simple four sounded good. While we still might have to contend with some people and dogs out on walks or runs of their own, we would not have to deal with the stress (for Henri, and in turn myself) of running by dogs out in their yards. Simple, easy, whatever.

First of all, I asked Henri if he wanted to go and he jumped up on me and ran upstairs with me as I changed. I knew Henri needed some exercise, but right out the door he was ready to go full speed. My body said, "Ho! No. These legs and glutes have been working hard every day throughout the week and they have not had a chance to shake out. You're going to want to slow down...now." I don't think that Henri heard that, but he got distracted by some scents brought out by the rain and started to slow down some. By mile three, I think he was pretty spent and he collapsed with his ice cubes when we got home. I mean, it was 50 degrees. Despite the chilly wind (blowing directly at us), it was still a little warm compared to other runs lately. 

So, all in all it wasn't a bad run. It served it's purpose as far as expending some Henri energy and shaking out my legs to prepare for the next week. If the weather cooperates, we'll get ten miles in this coming weekend.

If and When

Eight miles, maybe nine, if i felt good. That's what I said when we headed out for our run yesterday. Technically, per training, I should have been on nine, but we didn't get out last weekend, which should have been eight. I don't really know how much it matters when I got up to ten a month and a half ago. I would like them to be more comfortable miles, so I figure following the training plan is still the best way to do that.

Except we ran ten miles. And not because I felt good. Somewhere I just decided that if I was going to run eight, I should run nine. And as I thought about where I was finding nine miles running around me neighborhood, I thought, 'If this ends up being even nine and a quarter miles, I might as well find ten.'

Remember how I said I would run nine "if I felt good"? I did not feel good. I love running with Henri, but he was Mr. Professional Poop Finder. Dog, goose, probably other animals, if it was there, he found it, needed to stop and sniff it an pee on it. Apparently, people decided they didn't need to pick up after their dogs while there was the little bit of snow on the ground, which is annoying in and of itself, but to have to stop every time he caught the scent of some...again, I love running with him, but the stop and go was killing me. 

We got into a good groove by mile three. Knowing we were coming up on halfway (to eight or nine) I started to anticipate and map out the rest of the run. The idea of a figure eight helped keep Henri from thinking I had lost our way as we passed through the same place, but running through the park a second time was maybe a mistake as far as momentum goes. I knew I was going to struggle, but the decision was made. We were running nine, probably ten, because I probably could.

Probably.

I mean, of course I could, right? It just might not be pretty. While Henri might make it difficult with his stop and go and poop sniffing, he helps to keep me going when I need him. Again, I love running with him.

So, we ended up running ten miles for the second time. We also shaved four minutes off our time! I mean, we weren't running into the wind for the last five miles, so that might have something to do with that. 

The last three miles were not the strongest, except in the fact that I pushed through and I ran them. Why didn't I stop at eight or nine? Because I knew I could do more.

And I was right.

Shaking Out and Slowing Down

Winter really needs to decide what it's doing. Is it cold and icy or is it 50 degrees? I am fine with the cold, but we need to be able to run safely. We have missed more days than I would like to, but it is better than either one of us being injured and missing so many more. 

We had a good run. I started a new workout yesterday and so many muscles hurt, which I'm okay with because it means they are working, but it slowed me down a little. Combine that with the remaining ice patches, it was a steady run. I had to watch where we were going so that I could remind Henri to "slow". It has been several days since we've been able to run and I'm sure slow was the last thing Henri was wanting to do. I pushed as much as I could for 5 miles. Hopefully, that will help shake out the soreness and we can get a few more runs in this week as it continues to warm.

Snow Much Fun

An evening of snowfall meant another run on snow covered sidewalks! It also means a lot of Henri the canine snow scoop. Mmmm...snow!

A 3.75 miles run in the snow counts as cross training, right? Stabilization work from the abs down, I could feel it. My ankle hurt before we ran, but it didn't bother me at all during the run. The run went well. It was the coldest run we've had since last winter, but we kinda love these temps. Okay, by kinda I mean really. Really.

7 Miles

"Long" run is done for the week! Well, yeah, it is Friday. I'm not that ahead of the game, but tomorrow is going to be windy and then apparently snow is coming. I thought it best to get it out of the way today. I wasn't sure how it was going to go. I had a minor procedure done yesterday which was causing some sensitivity and some occasional sharp pain, but it really wasn't enough to stop me. The pain in my calf, well, it was going to slow me down...but again, wind and snow. It was time to move!

It was actually a really good run. I kept it at a slower pace because of the pain in my calf, but if I just pushed through and limped along, the pain subsided and we were back to normal. I probably would have kept going (That seems to happen every time I'm decide I'm running 7 miles), but I lost my music with a mile and a half left. I was able to push through to the 7, but I was starting to struggle without a beat of some kind to distract me.

So, a decent, steady, slow run, despite pain and discomfort. Still a long ways to go before I can run any kind of marathon distance, with or without pain, but it's a small sign of what can be done with a little (lot) more training. 

Unfortunately, this will have to be done without Henri, but I will just have to remember the way he looks at me while we run the miles and the joy he has after we are done.