[Scratch]

11.5 mile run this morning, nice and cool and it felt great to run without sweat pouring off of me.

It's amazing how much stronger my legs are beginning to feel now. I haven't ever really struggled too much with being able to breathe, my bigger limiting factor has been how my legs fatigue. But if you get to where you're taking runs over 10 miles and 2 hours in length, it's like every bit of fiber in the muscle gets worked and the rebuilding of the muscle comes back with it improving.

I'm also now well within reach of half-marathon distance, I could probably go out and run one if there were one on my schedule in the next 2 weeks. But I've got plans for Philly and I can go out next weekend, run 12.5 miles, take a week of less running and more recovery, then go for long run that'll take me to half-marathon distance all by myself on the 3rd of November.

It's been a journey of 312.7 miles of training since April 21st. A whole lot more too and it's been so far one of the coolest things I've done. At some level in me, it's my way of saying "F- you!" to diabetes. Over 22.5 years of being diabetic, it feels good to say that.

[Scratch]

Just a short run this morning, ran out for 15 minutes then turned around and came back a little bit faster. A run to get the legs some circulation and finish out the week.

I like this cool fall weather. But I do miss the long daylight hours of summer.

[JediSurfer]

You really are covering some miles. well done and keep up the good work. Hope to be back ontop of fitness soon myself.

[Scratch]

Originally Posted by JediSurfer

You really are covering some miles. well done and keep up the good work. Hope to be back ontop of fitness soon myself.

The miles are kind of piling up some.

Went out for 6.25 miles yesterday afternoon after work. I liked it better in the summer when I could run in the morning light hours before work, but daylight is too short now and there is a small park that is convenient to me after work and not from home.

Sometimes November 18th seems super far away and others times it feels like it's coming too fast. But overall it's cool. I've been having a good time doing my runs to get ready and that's the big thing. I like running. I especially like the way it starts feeling on the longer runs going up over an hour. When I get to running that long, often I end up getting to a mental state that's more alive than most anything I know from daily life. My body comes to life and I can feel the parts moving and synching up, the world is brighter and more intense.

Guess that's the old runners' high that gets referred to and the experience of it is great to get.

[Scratch]

6.25 mile run this afternoon at an easy pace.

It's remarkable how with just slowly building things up, after a while things really start adding up.

With today's run, these past 2 weeks I've had 5 runs lasting an hour or more. In contrast, my first run lasting more than one hour was on June 30th and it wouldn't be until August 18th that I ran my 5th run going over one hour.

When I complete this week of training, I will have about 55 miles over these last two weeks. In all of July I ran 50 miles total.

To think that it was just about 6 months ago that I took that first lap around a track, weird.

[Ronin]

Hi Scratch!

It is amazing how our bodies respond to regular exercise, regular being the key-word in the sentence. You have learned what a lot of people have failed to learn in our society -- regualr exercise has benefits.

In an article I read recently one person dismissed running because he found that "jogging a mile only consumes [an additional] 100 calories." Yeah-Right! A one mile jog probably takes less than 10 minutes so the benefit doesn't extend far beyond that 10 minute period, a one mile jog is just the beginning of adding muscle tissue with more glucose receptors, using the stored fat on the body, et cetera.

I think you have finally reached the state of self-motivation.

Yesterday Linda and I took off on our longest "front door route" (the routes we ride from home) that is 35 hilly miles. It was a windy day and we still finished with a respectable 15.3 mph average speed and we actually passed a single cyclist going uphill no less -- not bad for a pair of 60+ folks who have been tandeming for 13 years. Today (Sunday 21 October) is a rest-day as we have symphony tickets for the PM and our legs are really worked from all the climbs yesterday

[Scratch]

It's an interesting question about how and when motivation sticks. I don't know if I've got a good definitive answer about why it's happened this time.

Anyhow, I did get one of those Lesson Learned runs yesterday. I was planning to do 12.5 miles and after 3 miles my legs were feeling super tired after starting out tired. I began mixing in some walk breaks but after 5 miles were done I knew it wasn't do me any good to try to grind out another 7.5 miles on legs that weren't going to like it at all.

It was pretty easy to figure out why it happened yesterday. Friday I had taken a vacation day from work and went out for a walk, a long walk. 10.5 miles in about 3 hours. While walking predominately uses different muscles than running, my legs were tired and they weren't recovered from that walk. So that was kind of silly of me doing such a long walk on Friday, although I enjoyed it.

Went out for another run this morning and did 3.8 miles. Legs were still a bit tired, but much better than yesterday.

It's 4 weeks away now. This next week I'm using a recovery week to keep the mileage down and rest the legs some more, although I will do a 5K race on Saturday.

The next weekend after that I'll go for that long run again, maybe try to extend it all the way to half-marathon distance so I can experience the feel of the length. After that I'll use the two weeks between the 3rd of Novemeber and the 18th to get my legs fully rested as possible while still getting some running in so I don't lose any fitness.

[Scratch]

Just a short progression run after work today. 3.3 miles, started off easy and increased the pace as the run went on.

I'll probably do around 4 easy miles on Thursday and run a 5k race on Saturday.

[Scratch]

5 miles run after work today, felt good. It's easy to stay cool when the temp hangs around 50 degrees and that's also cool enough to motivate one not to lollygag too much.

I'm not sure what it is now, but my legs on the good runs get a feeling of strength and power that they've never had before. I feel more like a runner, I guess, versus someone who just jogs to get some exercise.

Hopefully everything goes well on Saturday and I can run a good race to measure my fitness level.

[JediSurfer]

Good luck on Saturday.

I might try jogging now the temperature has dropped.

[Scratch]

I didn't do the 5K race scheduled today. Heavy rain with some embedded thunderstorms made me decide to not do this one and instead I plan on going to another local 5K being held tomorrow morning.

As a consequence, I did the run I had been planning for tomorrow just a little bit ago and ran 4.8 miles at an easy pace.

[JediSurfer]

Keep it up fella.

[Scratch]

The 5K race went very well this morning, I'm very happy with my effort and result. But right now I have to head off elsewhere and will come back later to write about today's run.

[Scratch]

I posted a RR thread at another forum for people who run, so I'm going to copy and paste what I wrote in that thread over to here with a bit of editing to correct some errors in its original posting.

Okay, my last 5K was 3 weeks ago down on the Wilmington riverfront, which I will say is an excellent place to run if you want a flat course. Not always that pretty when you’re out running around the parking lots, although the section along the river itself is fairly nice.

The last one I worked on pacing myself to finish strongly and that combined with humid conditions saw me for the first time ever not improve upon my 5K PR. I had been considering again running today’s 5K as a microcosm of how I want the half-marathon in Philly to go, start off easy and pick up pace as the race progresses. Still, with almost perfect weather except for some strong wind, by the time I was as the start line I had made up my mind to give this 5K an all-out effort with hopefully nearly even splits.

My legs were feeling decent during my warm up jog of about 2 miles. Not tired although not super springy or light, maybe an effect of having run 4.8 miles early yesterday afternoon. I was okay with that, I had wanted to get those miles in, and I figure it’s a good sign anyhow that I could run almost 5 miles the day before and my legs feel fairly fresh. My conditioning has improved a lot over the last 6 months.

I had my watch on, but was also doing this without the heart rate strap. I’ve been experimenting on running a bit more by feel alone. My latest training had been given me some good feedback there in another way, as I’ve been running in a park that has a path with .1 mile incremental markers.

The start went smoothly, a bit jumbled with the large turnout but not too much difficulty with dodging slow people starting off too far up front. I went a bit easy in the first 5 minutes just to keep me from blowing out too hard in the first mile. The wind wasn’t too bad in the first section, although coming into the face much of the first mile.

I was pleased as punch when I hit the first mile marker sign and the split was 8:52. I wasn’t feeling too stressed unlike prior times where I’ve hit around 9:00 minute miles. At some point during that first mile I had heard a couple of guys conversing behind me with one saying the old guy in the hat up ahead usually ran his 5Ks about 28 minutes. Perfect! If I could just stay on that guy’s tail, I had a perfect pacer, assuming everything was going well. It sure looked it after that first mile split.

The second mile runs along the river itself. I was going to lose the guy who I thought was my pacer though. Old guy in hat seemed to be slowing up to me, and I was working on maintaining pace. I elected to pass by him and run it on my own. Eventually the last bit of river running showed itself and I looked at my watch with the right turn coming and knowing the 2 mile marker would be around that corner. 17:48, an 8:56 second mile and I’m really really happy. I’m feeling some stress, but not feeling tanked. Just going to have to keep it moving.

Keep it moving right on out into a turn into a headwind again. This was going to be the tough part for the next half mile or so. The wind was much harder in this more exposed section. I tried to remember that my feet felt light and I just wanted them to dance along the surface softly. At one point, a woman passed me quite easily, she must have been hanging back for a while.

Finally a couple more turns and wind behind me. Running past Frawley Stadium. I see the 3 mile marker. Can I hit it before 27 minutes? Nope, lost a bit too much pace and ran a 9:14 third mile, and cumulative split of 27:02. But I’m cranking up again. I’m determined to pass a guy and a gal who has also passed me a bit ago. I get by both of them and I hear the guy try to pick it up. I just keep cranking harder.

Interestingly, I now see another old guy in a hat that perhaps I can catch. I go for it, hard. So hard. He hit the line just in front of me although my momentum carries me by him and then the guy in the stall instructing me to move behind old guy in hat.

I finally punch my watch about 2 seconds after hitting the line. The watch shows 27:51, so it was probably more like 27:49 with a 47 second sprint in the last tenth of a mile.

Sweet. A PR by amount 1:23 from my last PR on the 15th of September. I think maybe I got a bit lazy during that third mile until the woman passed me.

I had thought I should be able to get a 28:xx 5K along with some optimism that if I ran well I could tuck in under 28 minutes. Done.

Best thing about it maybe was how my legs felt at the end. The last few 5Ks my legs felt very pounded on by the ends of them. Today, my legs still feel very strong.

That’s the quickie detailed version and impression. When I get a chance to think more and sit down at the computer, I will add more thoughts to this.

Summary of miles:

1st mile — 8:52
2nd mile — 8:56, 17:48
3rd mile — 9:14, 27:02
.1 tail — :47, 27:48

-----

This week will be my last big week of training for Philly. I hope to do about 30 miles with a 13 mile long run on Saturday.

[Scratch]

The big week got started with a tempo run this evening after work. My legs were feeling decent today, although I was a bit worried there might be some residual fatigue from Sunday's 5K plus 2 mile warmup run plus the 5.5 miles I hiked in the afternoon.

Did my first portion of the tempo run at a good clip, but my legs were a bit tired and I ended up slowing down as the run went along.

Ended up with a 7.5 mile run, 4.1 at tempo pace, the rest at easy or recovery pace. I was a bit disappointed at the slowdown, but I got that good feeling I often get when a run lasts over an hour and I broke out in a big smile on the last loop around the park.