Brief Update

I ran on Thursday, April 22. Today is Sunday, April 25.

My total mileage on Thursday was 5.23 and my time was 64:00. It was a little rough and I walked at times. My total time per mile was right around 12:15, which ultimately isn't that slow for me. Not a terrible run, overall, but I'm still getting nervous about how I'll hold up at the race in five weeks.

Brilliance

I was chewing on three topics for today's blog in my head during my run. Now, though, I can't remember a single one. Seriously. It seems like going for a run is mentally a bit like those few moments right before you fall asleep, when you have ideas that could change your life, but can't remember a single one the next morning.

So I guess I just get to summarize the run. Drivers in my town still do not move over for runners very frequently, but at least today there wasn't a pickup truck with a wide-load piece of steel rebar waiting to take off my head at 45 MPH like last time. I also discovered that living in a small town can make for difficult runs. In the cardinal directions, I hit the outskirts of town in about 100 yards to the west, half a mile to the north, a mile to the east, and a mile and a half to the south. Combining routes in straight lines, I can get in about two miles before I'm either out of town or skirting the edge. I do like running in the country, but sometimes I do long for the simplicity of poorly traveled city streets or well-traveled city trails.

I'm a day late on my long run, but it was worth the wait. I planned a route that was around 5.91 miles, but I was feeling pretty good towards the end of my run and decided to take a different route home, so I ended up with a grand total of 6.88 miles under my belt today. For the first four and a half to five miles, I felt lighter than air. Seriously. It was as if I didn't even have legs, nor (and this is significant) did I have a toe on the mend. The last bit of the run felt similar in one way: I felt like I didn't have an upper body. Unfortunately, though, it wasn't as if my upper body had disappeared, but more like 180 of my 185 pounds split itself between each of my legs, and the final five pounds took up residence in my broken toe. Needless to say, the last mile was tough. I do know, however, that miles like the last one today will come in handy both mentally and physically on race day, which is right around six weeks away (maybe seven; I lost count with my broken toe).

Crunching the numbers, I ended up with a per mile time right around 12:15. My first three miles were closer to 11:40, so I know I was slowing down in the second half pretty significantly. I'm hoping to figure out a way to get back on some sort of plan by the end of the week. Options are (1) to pick up my old plan and start where I should be and see how it goes, (2) to pick up my old plan and start where I left off and just lose the final three weeks, (3) start a new plan from scratch at six weeks of training.

Not one of those sounds like a good, healthy idea. Super.

Highway Runs

Although I've never experienced it firsthand, I understand that some animosity exists at times between runners and motorists, particularly in big cities. When I read about such conflict, I always think, "Why does this happen? How hard can it be to share the road?" I don't want to sound too much like a stuck-up runner at this point, but apparently, it can be very hard indeed. I know that when I take to the road to do my runs, especially when I'm on the highway with a small shoulder and then a ditch, I do not have the right-of-way. I get that. But really...is it that hard to maybe drift over the center line just a little bit when you see a runner and there's obviously no traffic in the on-coming lane for miles? Or perhaps when you're driving a Hummer, and you notice that a runner is moving farther and farther to the side of the road to the point of almost standing in the ditch, maybe you could allow the runner just an extra foot?

Okay, . Otherwise, the highway run was great yesterday. I love the smells of spring in the air. My allergy medicine must be working because the smell of flowers caused joy and not agony. I ran past fields with freshly tilled dirt, and I can't count the number of people grilling. That might have something to do with the incredible craving I had for a big, juicy homemade cheeseburger with homemade fries and chocolate milk that I had on my run. I realized, though, that I've had that craving before while running. Does anybody else get mid-run food cravings on a regular basis?

The run itself was fine. The weather was perfect. It had just rained, so it wasn't too humid, and the temperature was in the mid to lower 70s. I did 5.23 miles, and although I had a positive split and ultimately went slower than I would have liked had I not been injured three weeks ago, under the circumstances I can be pretty happy. I started having some IT band issues around mile two. I ran through it, though, and my leg must have loosened up because the pain went away. My left leg (opposite my broken toe) was very tight for most of the run, remnants I'm sure of limping around for the past three weeks. Hopefully that will work itself out through training and cross-training. My toe continues to hurt but once again I don't think it affected my run that much.

My per mile time was right around 12:24. Again, this is slower than I would have liked but actually faster than my training plan would have called for at this point. Sunday hopefully I'll be trying around 6-7 miles.

Broken Toes and Training Woes

Okay, so there's only one broken toe -- but "toe" doesn't rhyme with "woes," hence the title.

I realized today that I have seven and a half weeks until the half-marathon. That does seem like it should be enough time to get back up to snuff, but I'm a little worried now about the three weeks of training I missed from being sick (one week) and having a broken toe and a play to produce (two weeks). If I'm being honest, the broken toe was a nice excuse to not train so I could focus on the play (if I ever get around to posting pictures on here, I'll post some of the set, too), but now I've got to get back at it.

I was worried about the break not healing correctly and also about running, so I went to the doctor yesterday, about two and a half weeks after kicking the table leg....I mean, breaking my toe whilst simultaneously saving a puppy from a tree and a cat from a well. The doctor confirmed that it was indeed broken, that it seemed to be healing alright, and that, although it still hurts, I'm okay to run as long as I can handle the pain. That's a fun diagnosis. Oh, and it will take six months to fully heal -- just in time for the full marathon!!

So I took the go-ahead to run to heart today and got back out on the road. It felt GREAT, but I know I've got to make up for some lost ground. Surprisingly, my toe didn't hurt too bad on the run. I've just gotten back, so I'll have to mention on my next post how it does tomorrow. I started with the intention of doing my two mile route, but it felt so good after half a mile that I turned and did my three mile route instead. I made excellent time, actually, and the only pain that was close to making me stop was in my left knee on the opposite leg of my broken toe. Of course, my left knee is also what has given me IT band problems in the past.

So, as I've already said, I went my three mile route (3.18 to be exact). My total time was 36:00, and I had a perfectly even split, resulting in mile times of 11:20. All things considered, it was a pretty successful run. I'm going to try somewhere between 4.5 and 5 miles on Thursday, and see where I can get for my long run on Sunday. I'm not sure exactly where I'm supposed to be in my training, but I am assuming that I'm pretty substantially behind, especially for someone who didn't run regularly to begin with and was expecting to use the full sixteen weeks of the training plan to build endurance.

But at least the toe feels good.

Still Injured (But Dreaming Big)

My toe has been on a roller coaster the last few days. I injured it on Friday night (a week ago tomorrow) and it hurt terribly and was swollen all weekend. On Monday, when I was walking around at school, it actually felt like it might be getting better. When I looked at it on Monday night, it looked far more bruised than it had before...although oddly the swelling was down. It hurt like the devil the next two days, and today (Thursday) the pain seems like it's starting to ebb and the bruising even appears to be going down. It still hurts to put a lot of weight on it, and running is still out of the question.

But that didn't keep me from taking the plunge. Two days ago I signed up for the Twin Cities Marathon on October 3. My sincere hope and belief is that my toe will heal enough for me to do fine finishing the Minneapolis Half-Marathon in June and then to train all summer for the full marathon four months later. I'm a little nervous, but mostly excited.

Since I haven't had a run in nearly two weeks, that's all the news that's fit to print. I'll be having some catch up to do when I get back out in a week or so.

Setbacks

After having a relatively successful race over the weekend, I hit not one but two significant speedbumps during the previous week. First, on the next day that I was supposed to run (Tuesday), I got sick and stayed home from work. It was simply a cold, but since I'm in the middle of a production at school right now, I was hesitant to try running until I felt 100% better -- rested, without a sore throat, with minimal congestion.

The weekend was looking good for this. I felt pretty well rested on Friday and was planning to probably have a nice long run on Saturday to make up for missing an entire week. That's when my clutziness struck. While talking on the phone with my wife and walking around the house, I kicked a table leg very, very hard. I'm quite certain that I broke the toe next to my big toe on my right foot. I guess this means I'll have to hit cross-training extra hard on my run days and lay off of running for the immediate future. At the moment, it hurts even to put weight on that foot, so I'm not sure even an elliptical machine would work for me at the moment.

In the end, it MIGHT be a blessing in disguise of sorts. While it throws a serious monkeywrench into my plans for the half-marathon, it does allow me to focus without feeling guilty on the high school play I'm directing that opens in less than two weeks. As for the half-marathon, I figure even if I can't train for two weeks due to my toe, I will still have enough time to get into reasonable shape to finish the race. In order to finish before the route closes, I need to do something like an 18 minute mile throughout. Even without training for two weeks, I'd hope that I'd be able to at least accomplish that.

Still, it really stinks being held up like this.

Race Day

This has to be a purpose-driven entry as I am visiting family and would like to see them as much as possible.

Today was race day for me, specifically the Run for the Orphans 5k on the University of St. Thomas campus in Minneapolis. It was a pretty cool day, particularly given the balmy weather we've had lately. I don't think it got above freezing for the entire race, and during my warm-up I found myself missing my new, warmer pair of gloves.

I ran about one warm-up mile (judged off of running for twelve and a half minutes rather than actually knowing the distance). The race itself was great. There were maybe a hundred runners or so, and as the race director said, the race was very informal...so informal, in fact, that there seemed to be some confusion as to the turn-around point. My brother-in-law, who ran the race with....er.....far ahead of me, consulted his Garmin and determined that the race was actually a little longer than 3.1. My official time for the entire course was 32:18, but if we assume that the GPS was accurate, my time was closer to 30:51 for the 5k, which puts me at a sub-10:00 mile, which was the goal at the beginning.

And that's about all there is to say about the race. It was cold, it went well, I felt strong throughout, I actually found a kick for the last tenth of a mile, and....well, really, that's all. A photo will be coming soon.

I think I'm going to give myself a break on the last two miles of the day (although I really appreciate the input on the comment on my previous post!) and try to wrap them up in the next few runs I do to get my total mileage back up to par.