Parkersburg Half, Hope or Delusion?

I remarked a couple weeks ago that I signed up to run the Parkersburg Half Marathon on August 18, 2012. Back then, I probably figured there was enough time to run a few 10ks and maybe a longer 8-10 miler. Alas, sickness laid me on the couch for the entirety of last week. Not a single mile was logged. When training for the Charleston Distance Run in previous years I went to great efforts to prepare. I ran the Corridor G hill numerous times, slowed my pace, adjusted to the late summer heat. This race will enjoy no such preparation. My only hope is that rest has refreshed my legs and they will be able to endure the physical strain. It is likely that this hope is unjustified. I trotted out a comfortable 5 miler yesterday and felt well enough. Then, I remembered just how daunting it would be to trek an extra 8 miles, with uphill sections. Apparently the toughest hill at the Parkersburg Half is at mile 11. Why anyone would subject runners to such misery late in a race is beyond reason. This may very well turn into a dual event for me: a 10k run and a 10k walk. At least then I'll be able to enjoy lovely Parkersburg, WV on a mild summer morning.
Race week preparation always stumps me. It's difficult to know how much I should push for a little more training and what is merely opening me up to injury. For this race though more preparation seems little better than folly. I've already gotten this deep without doing the necessary work. I'll likely take the pain come Saturday and then rest up for the remainder of August.

Running in the Morning

The Stats 7/29/12 - 8/4/12
7/31/12: 2.12 mi; 15'50"; 7'27" avg. pace
8/2/12: 2.55 mi; 19'24"; 7'35" avg. pace
8/4/12: 3.17 mi; 27'47"; 8'45" avg. pace

I think I spent this entire week planning on running in the morning. Going to sleep with that on my mind did not prove helpful. It took until Tuesday evening to hit the pavement when I managed a short 2 miler. The heat probably played a role in stopping me before I could complete a 5k circuit, but also my conditioning is noticeably off. The second mile was nearly a full minute slower than the first on this run.
Thursday, my resolve to wake up and run finally won out. Although this run was also shy of 3 miles I improved my pace as the run progressed. That may be due to the nature of a morning run; you tend to wake up as you break a sweat. Feeling good about making it out Thursday morning had me wanting to repeat the effort Friday. Unfortunately, the snooze button proved irresistible and I left the training to the weekend.
The morning run on Saturday was atop lovely Snowshoe Mountain. Challenging inclines slowed me down as I just tried to make sure to dodge injury. I switched from the Newton's earlier in the week to my Nike Structure shoes on Saturday. I fear that they have all but lost their tread and cushioning though. Running in my Newton's has put stress on my left foot, mainly in the arch. I suspect that I'm actively stretching the foot with each strike instead of keeping the foot more or less straight during impact. The game plan going forward is to strike the ground evenly and not push off with the toes. We'll see how that goes.

Chillin' among the wild animals of the mountain

In event news, I've signed up for the Parkersburg Half Marathon on August 18th. Why? I'm not really sure other than because a friend asked me to do it and I had nothing on the calendar. I'm certainly not in shape for it, but if I wreck my body I'll have a month to prepare rest up for the Capital City Challenge. Oh boy.

Project Rebuild Mike (Mike)

After 6 weeks of inactivity, I mowed grass today.  This is what followed:

Not really any pain, but regular icing will likely become part of my lifelong preventative maintenance.

Assuming I work my way out of the flu bug that's plagued me all week, I hope to get back in action next week.  I'll probably focus on cycling and swimming to regain some strength before easing my way back into pounding any pavement.

I've also been considering getting back in the gym to lift maybe a day a week; nothing major or too heavy.  Then I learned that Corey now has a bench press in excess of 365lbs.  (sigh)  This is the 3rd time I've taken a 2 year break from heavy weightlifting and I don't know if I have any desire to put that stress back on my body again.  But....I'm not sure how I'll react if my 390lbs bench press record and title of Triana's Strongest Man goes down. .... "huh? Oh, Corey benched 385 today....hey Henry, I think I can absorb his work responsibilities...what do you say we eliminate that position?"  Ha ha ha, joking ...  probably

Third Time Lucky

The Stats 7/22/12 - 7/28/12
7/24/12: 4.79 mi; 38'01"; 7'56" avg. pace
7/26/12: 3.00 mi; 27'40"; 9'12" avg. pace
7/28/12: 2.87 mi; 20'40"; 7'11" avg. pace

Well it felt extremely good to get out three times in a week again. I feel like that has been my baseline activity for running since 2009. That trend was interrupted for basically the entire month of June and most of July. Furthermore, all the runs were all pain free, though not free from the scorching heat. Tuesday's run was an attempt at hitting up a 10k. That distance proved elusive and I settled for a bit short of five miles. Energized by a lack of pain, I started at a pace in the low 7 minutes per mile. That turned into 8 minute miles on the third and fourth mile. I became sluggish, even on my flat neighborhood course, and figured walking out a cool down would leave open the rest of the week to training.
The recovery from Tuesday's run went well and left me ready to head out again Thursday evening. I met up with a friend, and her boyfriend's dog, for a run along the Kanawha. It was in the mid-to-upper 90s, temperature wise, so this run could was only going to last so long. I got in a little stair work, running up the steps between the two levels on the boulevard. Sometimes you have to make sure you can still climb. 10k organizers love to through hill sections into their routes. The dog needed periodic breaks in the river (and multiple pee stops), but easily outpaced us when running. Even at a more comfortable 9 minute mile pace, I was ready to shut it down after hitting 3 miles.
Coming back out Saturday morning was what capped this off as a good week in running. I needed some energy to get ready for a good friend's wedding later that evening. Although a touch shy of 3 miles, I kept a good pace around the 'hood in my new Newton's. The first mile clocked in at 6'55". I fell off slightly to 7'10" in the second mile, and the third would have been in the low to mid 7 minute range had I finished it. I attribute this boost in pace to significantly cooler weather. Still, it makes me feel like I can handle the Capital City Challenge and Pittsburgh Great Race, which are lurking around the corner in September. One month of training, a few more 10ks, a handful of rides, and perhaps a kayak outing in August will set the stage. Bring it!

Returning to Form

The Stats 7/16/12 - 7/21/12
7/17/12: 5.0 mi.; 45'00"; 9'00" avg. pace
7/21/12: 3.17 mi; 22'55"; 7'13" avg. pace

I made it out the door twice last week as the healing period continues. A reversion to the padded Nike Triax Structure shoes made it easier to trust my form. I kept my strides short and avoided pounding the pavement to keep the stress off of the knee joints. It paid off in the form of little to no pain following each run. Tuesday I managed to wake up early and run the boulevard with help from a friend who agreed to brave the early morning hour. Some talking and striding can help the miles go by without constant contemplation on form, breathing, etc. It's a reminder that if you're not having fun running, you're doing something wrong. Also, if you're willing to sacrifice an hour or so of sleep, the morning temperatures will reward you during the summer. Were it not for a bum knee, my summer might have been filled with morning runs. Beating the sun kept me relatively cool and it's always a great way to wake up. You get the feeling that if you can drag yourself out of bed and sweat out some miles, there is no challenge that can get you down the rest of the day. So that's my endorsement for morning running.
Saturday, which is usually a longer running day, I took it easy with a 5k around the neighborhood. I hadn't ran my full "go-to" route in a while without stopping due to pain. Thus, this standard run felt empowering. Wounds do heal if you stick around, have patience, and use good sense.

Tour des Chaussures

The Stats 7/8/12 - 7/15/12
7/10/12 (Cycle): 15.25 mi; 57'35"; avg. pace -15.9 mph
7/11/12: 1.5 mi; 11'17"; 7'07" avg. pace

To mix up the cardio, and because it's Tour de France month, I took the road bike for a spin on Tuesday. I kept to the flats and left the hills for a day when I'm feeling a bit more like Tommy Voeckler. The change up was a welcome relief to my knee. I can foresee sticking with cycling years after my joints cry out for mercy from all the road running. But while I still have the motivation and ability to run, I"m going to try to lessen the impact on those joints. That is part of the reasoning behind experimenting with a variety of shoe styles. In my desire to get the  most minimal feel, without looking weird, I picked up a pair of Merrell Barefoot Shoes (pictured below):

Calf killers

These are the puppies I took for a test drive on Wednesday. They have a soft mesh upper and some rubber tread. There is no padding in the back or the heel, which is meant to encourage that more even foot fall that everyone is raving about. I intentionally tried to keep from heel striking for the first mile of the run. Unlike on most runs, I could feel my calves getting sore as I progressed. Near the end of the run, I resorted to heel striking to take the pressure off those muscles. Yes, it was pain free peace for the joints, but these shoes will tear your calf muscles to shreds if you run full force in them the first time out. Six days later I could still feel the residual soreness. Lesson learned: ease into minimalist running shoes. Not taking that advice basically had me couch bound for the rest of the week. That's not a bad place to be during Tour month though. The tv coverage has plenty of chateaux, countryside, and cows. Oh yeah, and cycling.

This Year Sucks (Mike)

Assuming you read the title to this post, you're aware it's not going to be full of a lot of ra-ra aint training grand and all my goals are in sight kind of talk.  It's not and all my year-long goals are now well out of reach.  Ah, but you knew that.  So, maybe, you're here to read about my misfortunes and revel in my demise.  For shame.

This year has been one of the most challenging of my thirty-three (yeah, I'm old - what of it?).  Working part of every week out of town has made me mix up and maintain a flexible training schedule....flexibility, something I lack physically and don't enjoy in my training.  I'm very routine.  I know...how boring.  But, I like to compare training data and find a good routine gives me more comparable results to test.  Yes, I get too involved in my numbers for a fat kid that sucks.  Now comes the cerise sur le gateau - I got the gout!  Yeah, gout.  For those who don't know what gout is:  it's a kind of arthritis that occurs when uric acid builds up in blood and causes joint inflammation.  It's a very painful condition that doctors equivalate on the pain scale to child birth.  Not fun.  I was down all last week and spent Thursday - Sunday on the couch essentially immobile.  I'm on medication now and improving, but likely out of action for several more weeks.  And it's the worst time of year to be down...July...Tour de France time.  So I sit and watch each stage of the Tour in agony wishing I could be out on my bike getting in some good exercise.  It makes me mad.  Side story:  when I was in my early teens playing baseball my mother was being an absolute annoyance one day at the ball field and I finally asked "what's your deal?"  Her response:  "you play better when you're mad."  Thanks mom...I think I hit two homeruns that day.  Well, I'm mad.  So when I come back from this bout of misfortune, expect a strong effort.  Like I said last week, I'm ready to come out of this thing like Lance Armstrong with one testicle...but with two.  I devised the training schedule posted below.  Most certainly, I will not keep to it as I always overshoot, but let's see how it goes.  I struggle to perform any cardio functions in the mornings, but hope I can mix in some short runs to get active and get my days going.  A good month for me is usally 20 miles running and 100 miles on the bike and now I'm trying to get all that running and 60% of the cycling done each week, plus a couple swim sessions!  Too ambitious.  Not realistic.  I at least need a rest day built in here somewhere....most likely I'll combine Saturday and Sunday and alternate with either a Long Ride or 10k Run and take either Saturday or Sunday off each week.  But, as I sit on the couch and dream of healthier days...any fraction of this schedule would be better than where I sit now.

To the healthy I say, get out and enjoy your good health.  It is a blessing and fortune.