Sore Today, In Pain Tomorrow?

With my current running schedule, Monday’s and Friday’s are rest days.  On these two days, it always leaves me feeling pent up with energy, because my body isn’t going out for a run as it does the majority of days of the week.  Yesterday I had enough and although I still gave my legs a rest, I gave my core and arms a good onceover.

First I did my usual ab workout (that is when I actually do one), that I picked up from Runner’s World a few years ago.  The routine is apparently based off one done by Iowa-raised Lola Jones, but I’m not so sure that she wasn’t just used for eye candy.  Well in any case, that worked on someone and if I have a stronger core because of it than no harm no foul really.  

You can see the different exercises from the link.  They’re alone enough to make you tired, but I also usually add side crunches as well as half jackknife crunches.  I couldn’t find a good link for half jackknifes but it’s similar to these full jackknife crunches but I bring my knees into my chest when I do the upward crunch.  

That’s usually where I end things, but yesterday I decided to add some arm work in the mix too.  I found this upper body strength workout online on Runner’s World and, as I don’t have a stretchy resistance band, just did the push-ups and chair dips.  I was already in a weakened state by this point, but still managed to do 15 push-ups – not that I could have probably done many more in a fresh state.  The triceps chair dips finished me off though.  I guess I mistakenly did the straight leg version that Runner’s World shows second in the video, which apparently makes it harder.  Well luckily I have that going for me, as I was only able to do 5 reps.  I pushed to get to 5 as well, making my triceps have a deep muscle burn for minutes afterward.  

After doing all the aforementioned workout, my whole body was weak and I could tell I was going to be sore.  It wasn’t bad last night (it never is that soon after a workout) but this morning I was sore.  To get up out of bed I couldn’t just sit up.  My abs just were too tired and sore.  I had to do bend one of my legs to my chest, then grabbing it to bring my upper body up, and then sort of rocking forward into a sitting position.  Even sitting here in the desk chair typing, if I turn the wrong way my side abs (or obliques?) twinge.  

I could be worse off though.  Like I said it’s just my stomach that’s sore and if anything my arms are just a bit stiff.  Both are noticeable enough though that my 3 mile run today was a tad bit slower.  Tomorrow though could be a different story.  They always say that two days after a workout is the worst.  You’ll be sore the day after, but in pain (the good kind though, right?) two days after.  Well, I’ll see tomorrow I guess, especially for my run which is again 3 miles.  One thing is for sure though.  Friday is going to be a full on – no running, no ab workout, no arm workout, no anything – rest day.

Running Away From O'Hare

(Note: I wrote this while waiting for a plane at the terminal in Chicago O'Hare.)

I hate Chicago O’Hare.  I’m sure everyone has disdain for this airport at least a bit but I really hate it.  In July upon returning from Ireland, my wife and I had a 7 hour layover at O’Hare before a 10:30 pm United flight to Minneapolis.  That layover became much longer as the flight was delayed until 12:30… and then eventually cancelled because “the pilots were too tired.”  We were given a room for the night and meal vouchers (for next morning of course because everything was closed by then), but we were quite frustrated and exhausted after being up for 27 hours.  It took almost an hour and a half before we got from the gate’s desk to our hotel room and lied down for the night, getting only 3 hours of sleep before arising at 5:30 am to catch our new 8:45 flight.

With all that said, it was with much hesitation that I again booked a flight itinerary that stopped through O’Hare.  This past week I helped my brother-in-law and his girlfriend move from the Twin Cities to Ann Arbor, MI.  Since we drove a U-Haul truck there, I needed a one-way flight back home.  Sure, there were direct flights from Detroit (the nearest real airport to Ann Arbor) to Minneapolis, but United flights connecting through O’Hare were a third of the price.  Although I was shaking my fist in the air the whole time, I booked the cheaper option through O’Hare. 

Today, stepping off my flight from Detroit and into the C concourse just brought back every bad memory of the bad experience in June.  Mean coincidence had my arrival gate be just steps away from the gate we wasted our lives away waiting for a flight that wouldn’t happen.  In another twist of fate, my United flight today is co-numbered as an Aer Lingus flight – the airline that we took to and from Ireland back in June.  (On writing this, I’m also realizing that the random quiet-ish spot I found to write today may be the departure gate for the flight that did finally take us to Minneapolis back in June.)  

I should probably get something to eat or at least get up and walk around, but I want to avoid experiencing this crap airport as much as I can.  The quality of food is poor at best.  For example its Applebees or McDonald’s isn’t just worse than their respective non-airport locations, but they’re even far worse than other airport locations.  That isn’t to mention that O’Hare charges exorbitant prices for food, even much more than at other airports.  Oh and good luck not waiting in line.  O’Hare is so crowded with people because the number of flights, and the number of passengers, has far surpassed the load that the airport can actually handle.  Just a few minutes ago when I was walking around, one could barely get through the terminal because of the amount of people in line for McDonald’s.  It stretched from one side of the terminal to the other, being eight lines (or eight people) thick.

So why do I write this rant on O’Hare?  And why do I write it while at the terminal?  Because I’m ready to get home and run.  Even with lending a hand in moving, I was able to get a run in during the five days I was away from home.  While in Ann Arbor, my brother-in-law and I did a 2 mile run to the Big House, Michigan’s football stadium, and back to his apartment.  Still as nice as the run was, it wasn’t like running on familiar turf back home.  It wasn’t normality and – as nice as it was to run with someone else – it wasn’t my self-exploring (and contrasted with O’Hare) quiet run like at home.

Although I haven’t stepped upon home soil again, I’m already feeling like I need to embrace my “home” running as thoroughly as I can.  Of course having just moved to the Twin Cities area just in July, I’m not yet fully used to all of my running routes or the local running scene.  I was thinking of doing it before my trip to Ann Arbor, but now I’ve decided I must register myself for at least one fall race in the area.  It’ll give that extra spark of feeling even more comfortable with running in my new home.

Until then though (and even after that), I’ll just be hating (or still hating) O’Hare.

(It should be noted that because of O’Hare’s plane traffic being over capacity, my flight to Minneapolis was late on arrival.  Why?  Because we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes waiting our turn to take off.) 

Dang. I Haven't Posted in a Long Time...

It didn’t really hit me until I looked at the date of my last post.  May 21^st – that was two and a half months ago!  To be fair, I haven’t simply just been neglecting to do any blog writing (as I normally do with such a long interval between posts).  Life has been in a bit of transition lately, with some fun thrown in there as well.

Life’s pieces began to move in June when my wife defended her doctoral thesis and was awarded her PhD.  A week later I left my job, and a week after that we went on a two and a half week vacation to Ireland.  Upon returning home to Madison in the second week of July, my wife and I then had to start packing to move to the Twin Cities (the twin cities of Minneapolis / St. Paul to be specific) as she had found a job that would be starting in August.  So after being in Madison for just a few days, we found ourselves on a Friday morning helping the packing/moving company load all of our belongings into the back half of a semi-trailer.  Then again bright and early Monday morning we found ourselves, again with our friends from the moving company, unloading our possessions into our new place.  Although we only moved a few hours up Interstate 94 and only a state away, it’s taken a few weeks to get adjusted to the new place.

Most pertinent to this blog though is that I have started running again.  My running shape took quite a hit with moving and the trip to Ireland.  I was off of running for exactly a month as my last run before Ireland and moving was June 19^th and my first run at the new place was July 19^th.  Although we did do a great bit of walking/hiking in Ireland, I wasn’t running and my pace now is considerably slower.  As an example, in my last 2-mile run in June I was able to do at a mile pace of 7 minutes flat.  Here at our new place, my first 2-miler (well my first one where I didn’t get lost on the local park’s trails) was at a mile pace of 8 ½ minutes.  Now more or less back into the swing of running though, my pace has come down.  The mile splits for today’s 2-miler were at 7:41.

 

One thing that isn’t helping my times is the fact that there are big hills everywhere here.  Madison by no means was flat, but where we are in the Twin Cities there is literally no flat ground anywhere.  Don’t get me wrong, I love that I’m next to a park with a picturesque lake with lots of running trails.  However, because we’re right by a lake, we live in a valley and every running route starts with a huge hill.  Oh well.  I maybe won’t have to do as many hill repeats as I did in Madison.

Besides the hills, I purposely implemented another change.  This past spring I was running 4 days a week.  As I have more time due to the fact that have not yet found a new job (and am just playing “house husby” as my wife calls it), I have changed my schedule to run 5 days a week.  I have the time to do it so I thought why not.  It should also bring my running times down a bit faster and more importantly get me back into my previous running shape a bit faster too.  I have to be careful not to add on too many miles too quickly though.  The twinges I felt in my shins earlier this week definitely reminded me of that.  Still if I can restore my speed before the end of summer, then I can maybe do a few fall 5Ks before the snow starts to fly… which unfortunately will now be earlier in the year being further north.  Let’s not think about that now though.  Let’s enjoy the 90 degree temps and 80% humidity while we have it.  Wait…