This lastweek was difficult for me. It was the first week in 3 that I didn’t break 20 miles training. It started with a non-running related foot injury when I cut my foot open at the beach. That forced me to take Sun-Wed off to allow my foot to heal.

Thursday night, I ran 6.7 miles. It didn’t make up for all the lost time, but it was a nice night running near the ocean with a full moon.

I was planning my long run for Saturday. Family obligations prevented it, so I ran about 2 PM on Sunday. I really am becoming acclimated to the heat. I only had 11 miles planned, but ended up running 12 on a new route. I’m still a little sore, so I may try to find some trails that are more forgiving than the pavement. My pace was atrocious (2 hours and 40 minutes, but it was about 90 degrees out), but I felt good. I took 3 walking breaks for .1 miles each.

One thing that has me disappointed lately is my energy level. I always was the consummate morning person, getting up between 4:30 and 5:30 no matter what. Lately, I haven’t been able to. I even skipped my easy run today because of it. I’ve been going back to sleep and feeling dead in the mornings. I know I don’t sleep very well with the baby, but I’m going to try take 1 agonizing step to help. I think I am finally going to give up Coke. I love my Coke and I have one every day around 8 am (I don’t drink coffee.). I know how terrible it is for you, but I just never seem to be able to break the habit. I want to make a habit not to drink any at least until after I complete the Atlantic City Marathon, preferably without dyeing.

I love running barefoot. I haven’t been running barefoot as much lately because I feel like I’m faster (I am, by about 1-2 minutes per mile depending on the terrain) and can push harder in my Saucony Hattori. It’s a little bit of a Catch-22 because I know that the more I practice running barefoot, the faster I will get and the harder I’ll be able to go out.

So, last night, my wife and I were both exhausted from a teething baby. I wanted to go for a run; she wanted to grab some pizza. So, we stopped for pizza on our way to my mother-in-law’s house and I ran home from there. It was only 3.7 miles, but it was near the record for my longest barefoot run. My pace was 12:39, which is probably a minute slower than with the Hattori.

What impressed me the most, though, is that my feet felt perfectly fine afterwards. There were a few rocks that hurt, but for the most part I was able to run normally. I was jumping out of the way of obstacles. I’m building strength in my feet so that I can run over most terrain. It was a cracked, rocky road that would have had me walking a few months ago. I had no torn skin and my feet didn’t look or feel beat up.It was also the first time in a week and a half that I didn’t have much ankle pain. I usually feel the most injury free when I’m running barefoot, but part of that may be because of the slower pace or shorter distance. I’ll have to run one of my long runs barefoot in the near future to see how I hold up.

I came across this tweet from Jason Fitzgerald of Strength Running yesterday and it really resonated with me. I skipped my run yesterday morning because I was flat out exhausted. I had a 5 mile run scheduled on my training plan, so I set my alarm for 4. The one thing I hadn’t counted on was being up all night with a teething baby. So, morning came and I felt like I couldn’t move. I was in a haze all day, trying to stay awake at work.

At some point yesterday, I saw the tweet above from Jason Fitzgerald. It kind of guilt-tripped me in a good way; the way that makes me want to run. I finally got the kids all to sleep and got ready to run by 9:45. By this point, I wanted nothing more than to go to sleep, but I went out and ran a very slow 5 miles. My knees wouldn’t go higher when I wanted them to, my legs weren’t turning over as fast as I wanted, but I still got it done. Thanks, Jason, for the kick in the tail yesterday.

As I wrote in my post last week, I had an amazing week last week. It was probably my best week ever as a runner. I feel like I’m paying for it now, though. It’s almost like the pendulum swings one way, then goes all the way back to the other side.

Last week, I ran twice in one day for the first time, raced, and had my longest run so far since I hurt myself in the March half-marathon – 10 miles when I only planned 6 or 7. This week, I’ve been struggling just to get out the door. On Tuesday, my legs were really sore from the weekend and I ran an incredibly slow 5K in 44 minutes. Wednesday, because of an odd combination of ankle pain and zero energy, I only ran .2 miles before calling it off when I optimistically planned 6 miles. I made up a mile or so of hills at lunch, but still had some ankle problems. This morning, I managed to run through my ankle pain and upset stomach and finished a 5K in a not-as-terrible 37 minutes.

I’m going to take tomorrow off to recover and hope that I can redeem myself a little this week on Saturday’s long run.

One thing that I’m considering is starting a run streak. If you look at the Twitter hashtag #runstreak, there are people who have run everyday for 200 days, 1200 days, ever 35 years in one recent article I read. My friend Mike just hit 50 days in a row, which is an inspiration to me. An article I read from one of the contributors to the Twitter hashtag posited that actually getting into an everyday habit is easier than running the normal 3-5 days per week that a typical marathon training plan calls for.

On one hand, that makes sense. What do I do when I get up? I run. No thought, no option, no choice of quitting or sleeping. On the other hand, I worry about overtraining and sabotaging the marathon training. My current training plan has me running 4 days, and I occasionally push it to 5. What do you think? Is it a good idea to start a run streak whilst training for an October marathon?

In my last post, I wrote about my first run in Vibram Five Fingers (a minimalist running shoe). One thing I did not realize while writing that, is that I completely overdid it. It was my first run in Vibrams. I felt great during the run, and since I have run a half-marathon before, 3.8 miles shouldn’t have been much. However, I was a heel striker at the time and it was a month ago. I’ve taken the better part of a month off dealing with injuries and illness. Running with better form is much harder on the calves. For days, I was walking like an old man. I was starting to return to normal today, although they are still sore. I thought I might be able to attempt a short run.

I was getting antsy in my office and thought lunch would be a good time. I only get 30 minutes for lunch, so I knew it would be quick. I didn’t bring much gear, so I decided to try going barefoot. I have been taking regular, long walks barefoot to try to strengthen my feet the last few weeks. I’ve been feeling pretty good and wanted to try running. I still had to take it pretty easy because of my calves. I feel like an old man again because I inflamed them, but barefoot running was a lot of fun. I had no pain and very little discomfort. It was over a fairly rocky parking lot, sidewalks, and grass. Once my calves heal, I’m looking forward to taking longer barefoot runs.

By the way, my Nike+ Sportswatch GPS just came in. It works great and even looks decent as a watch. You can look at the workout on Nike Running or on DailyMile.

Lastly, I was able to go running on my break because it was raining and unusually cool, which negated perspiration. I’m curious. Those of you who run at work, how do you avoid those unpleasant side effects?

Permalink

| Leave a comment

Today, I went for a decent run for the first time in 3 weeks.You can see information about the run here:

I’m actually starting to like the gym; I’m going about five days a week before work. I’m doing a lot of cross-training, but not a lot of running. I really hate the treadmill… and the stationary bike… and the elliptical. I am not getting either the cardio or leg workout that I get outside and feel like I’m moving backwards in my training. Odd that going to the gym religiously can actually inhibit training, but that is what’s happening.

I need to get back outside. I run better and I enjoy it more. I don’t need to make sure my Bluetooth headset is charged so as to distract me from the monotony. I may still go to the gym afterwards for cross-training, but I find that the best training for running is running. Since I run best outside, I need to get back to that.

I arose at 4:30 am this morning and drove to new trail. Unfortunately, it was closed. Apparently, people aren’t supposed to run in the woods in the dark. So, I drove over to the Barnegat Branch Trail, which, as a man made trail, is completely flat. It was good for a comeback run, though. I have not run in a week to try to rest up my knees.

I went for a short 3 mile test run this morning. I felt fantastic on the way out and pretty good on the way in. The first thing I noticed was that I was naturally landing on my midfoot and springing without having to think of it. Also, I had some other things I wanted to try after reading the incredibly helpful comments on this post by @oblinkin. I really started trying to push off of the big toe as opposed to the little toe/outside of the foot as is natural for me. I also tried to keep my arms pumping straight as opposed to my normal, which probably causes unnecessary torsional rotation. I only felt the slightest twinge of pain in my right knee on the way back in, towards the end of the run.