Like A Caged Animal

This post was going to be about how I’ve been sick with a chest cold lately and can’t go for a run.  Not that it kept me from running, but to top it all off I also got an infected bug bite and have been on antibiotics.  In the last three weeks, I’ve only run 3 times for a total of six miles.  I scheduled myself to run 15 times and 47 miles in that stretch.  Unfortunately in those three runs I did do, I think I went too hard after being sick and made myself sick again.  With all that now explained, I originally was going to write how I’ve felt like a caged animal being sick and not being able to do what I wanted to do most, run. 

 

But then I said the hell with it and ran.

I learned my lesson from my last runs and didn’t push it, just enjoyed being out running.  It was just nice to move my body, to test it a bit (again not too much) and to be outside.  I love the beauty of nature in the fall, but I couldn’t help being a bit disappointed thinking about all the colors I missed during my missed runs.  On one of those three runs I did do these past few weeks, I did my favorite run.  It’s a short 2 miler that goes through a neighborhood park and around the park’s lake.  On that day the sun was just beginning to set, glimmering on the lake and shining through the autumn colors of trees like a stained-glass window.  I ran through warm streaks of yellow, gold, orange, and red.

I did that same run today and much of those colors are now on the ground.  It was a bit depressing having to trample over the colorful leaves and crunch them as I ran.  The lake just didn’t seem to have that same glint either.  However, I then realized it’s still better to be out experiencing nature than being stuck inside.  Who cares if the sun doesn’t shine off the lake as well today?  It’s still one more lake sunset I wouldn’t have seen from the couch.   Sure the colorful leaves may now be browning and on the ground, but there’s something to be said for that satisfying crunching sound as you run.  I mean what other time of year is running so percussive?  

In retrospect, I taught (or re-taught) myself a few lessons today.  First, it’s ok to not push myself as hard as possible every run.  Sometimes I just need to simply run and have an easy day.  Second, it’s better to be outside than in.  I may be regretting those words in January and February, but even then there will be much truth.  There’s a reason I despise treadmills and love running outside.  On a treadmill you can’t experience the wonders of an ever-changing nature, but instead just have the experience of the same repeating strip of belt tread and maybe a TV in front of you.  Lastly, the third lesson from today?  The best fall run recovery drink is a steaming mug of hot chocolate… or two.

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…          

Retro Music Themed Post

Often when I’m running my mind is so clear that I’ll just take a thought and run with it (no pun intended).  Sometimes though, because my mind is so clear, that thought just keeps going out of control because there isn’t anything to get in its way.  With that in mind, I bring you this musical hodgepodge of a post.

I wrote a post on Friday about last week’s running but never got it up on the blog.  With other things from this weekend worth sharing, I figured I would do a themed mega post.  Why a theme?  Well, “Why the hell not?” I ask you.

There Was Something in the Air This Week (written Friday)
 

(This video creeps me out and cracks me up all at the same time.)

To the tune of ABBA’s Fernando –

                There was something in the air this week

                My nose couldn’t breathe

                Damn pollen

That quick spoof came to me during my run yesterday.  It was yet another day where I could barely breathe on my run because of allergies.  The pollen has been so high that not only can you see it floating around in the air in the sunlight, but you can even see the golden pollen underneath trees on the blacktop of the street.  I suffered through my run which ended up being at a decent pace, but besides just being stuffy, my eyes were also stinging at the end from the allergens.  

Earlier in the week I could barely get out of bed and get going I was so stuffed up.  For me it’s all watery itchy eyes and upper nasal congestion.  Basically draw a triangle from eye to eye and to the bridge of my nose and you have my allergy problem area.  I’ve been doing a regimen of Halls cough drops, tea, and generic 24-hour Clariton.  The tea and Halls sooth my itchy throat and clear up my airways.  The meds basically don’t make me feel as worn down.  

My allergies are a newer thing for me too, one I don’t understand.  Growing up on a farm, I never had a problem.  Sure, you get a huge billow of hay dust in your face from unloading small hay bales, then I might sneeze but then anyone would.  Now that I’m older though, I’m apparently developing allergies.  

Tomorrow I have a 6 miler to run, so I’m a bit concerned about well, not being able to breathe.  To make matters potentially worse, tomorrow is also going to be a hot one with high temperatures in the mid to high 80s.  I think I’ll try to get going early, before it gets too hot but also before the pollen really gets swirling around. 

Until then, could you please pass the bag of cough drops? 

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot (Saturday)

(I think everyone knows (or knows of) that song…)

Yep, the 6 mile run today sucked.  Allergies weren’t a problem.  It was just plain hot.  When I left for my run around 11, it was 82.  When I got back, it was 88.  Not that I needed to check the temperature when I got back to know that I had cooked outside. 

I started out well , at a pretty decent pace but by mile 3 however I knew the heat was taking its toll.  I would either need to cut my loop short or find water somewhere.  Luckily, I knew I was running past my old favorite water stop from my 2009 Madison Marathon training, a popular west side park pavilion.  So just shy of mile 4, I jogged into the park and got some water.  Not remembering where the drinking fountain was, I just ran into the bathroom and got water from that sink.  I just used the “hands cup” method and drank a good 5 or so “hand cups” of water.  I also doused my head and back with water as well to cool off.  

My water break lasted about 4 minutes and I was back on the road.  To keep cool, I took a wet balled up paper towel and placed it at the top of my back underneath my shirt.  That only stayed put for about a quarter mile, but it was of no help anyway as the towel had already basically dried out in that little time.  Did I mention it was hot?  With my parched bunched up paper towel in hand (there wasn’t a garbage and I didn’t want to litter), I trotted home and finished off the remaining 2 miles.

My finishing time wasn’t great.  With the 4 minute water break included, my time was 52:15, a per-mile pace of 8:43.  With the 4 minutes taken out, the run was a more respectable 48:15, a pace of 8:03 per mile.  Although on a different route, I was able to run my last 6 miler at a 7:55 per mile pace.  Maybe my expectations were a bit high for such a hot day, but that’s the time I was shooting for.  

I did my normal post-run stretching routine outside, but with a non-normal bottle of ice water at hand.  I really just kept putting as much water in me as I could, continuing throughout the rest of the day.  One thing I didn’t do as well is replenish with electrolytes.  I ate regular food after my run but not enough to replenish the salts and other stuff I had sweated out.  Because of this, my lower legs were killing me, enough that I had to get out my old trusty compression socks.  Without these I had issues just walking around the apartment without my lower leg muscles twinging.  

Hot Running (Sunday)
 

(I saw this video and had to post it as Foreigner’s lead vocalist looks like a bad 1980s version of a grudge hipster.)

To the Tune of Foreigner’s Hot Blooded –

Well I’m hot running. Check it and see.

I’m pushing a pace of 7:33…

Come on lazy, go faster than that!

Hot running, I’m hot running…

After my rough Saturday run, I slept in a bit too much on Sunday.  That meant my run had a late start and also meant that I was running in the heat again.  The temperature was just as high but luckily there was a strong south breeze from 15-20 mph that was cooling things down enough to make it tolerable.  Again possibly not making the best decision, I decided to go out and put all I could into my planned 3 mile run to make up for Saturday’s let down.

With the south wind blowing on my left and eventually pushing me along with a tailwind, I got off to a very good start on my run.  I’m not sure how fast I was going, but it felt like I was flying.  After the first mile though I wondered if I was going too fast and thus started to slow down and conserve.  There would be some hills mid-run and then a long finish into a strong headwind.  Luckily I did hold back a bit because as I rounded a corner to go up the long steep hill in the loop (right at the 2 mile mark), the heat found me.  I chugged up the hill as fast as I felt I could within reason and then hung in there for the rest of the run.  With about a half mile to go, the point where I would start a bit of a kick, I had nothing.  I really had no more coal to add to the fire.  This steam engine was holding steady and coasting into the station.  

My time wasn’t so bad I guess.  The 3 miler took me 22:25 to finish, with a pace of 7:28 per mile.  A few weeks back my fastest 3 mile run was done on the same route, but with a 7:16 pace.  I always go out on a run hoping to better a previous personal best, but I knew it wasn’t going to be today.  It was too hot, the wind wasn’t going to help, and my body was still recuperating from Saturday’s long hot run.  Still I was hoping I would get that high note to end my weekend running on – but didn’t get it.  

Monday, Monday (well…yeah, Monday)

(Classic 60s / 70s music videos like this are just too cheery not to share)

Real lyrics from the Mamas & the Papas Monday, Monday –

                But whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes

                You can find me cryin’ all of the time

Not that Monday’s are ever the best day of the week, but today was a particularly a bad one.  Life, work, and of that stuff was perfectly good.  With my current running schedule, today was also a rest day.  So what was wrong?  My lower back.  

I don’t know if I slept weird or if it was something I pulled while running over the weekend, but I was in pain.  I wasn’t crying like in the lyrics above, but I was scrunching up my face if I moved the wrong way.  Besides taking some Ibuprofen right away in the morning, I also had to make a lunch time run to Target for some Icy Hot.  I felt bad that I was engulfing my office cubicle-land with minty muscle ointment smell, but whatever, I was hurting.  

My wife so lovingly gave me a massage once I got home, which then I followed up with another round of Icy Hot.  Hopefully my wife will find pity on me and try massaging some deep knots out of my back before bed.  I’ll lay off the Icy Hot before bed though.  I don’t think I could stand the noxious fumes while trying to sleep.

20 Before 30: Update 3 - One Minute Down, One More Minute to Go

I’ve been exhausted lately, due to the fact that I never go to bed early enough but more so that I’ve been overworking my body with running and bike commuting. On Saturday, I did my scheduled 6 mile run but instead of running the scheduled 4 miles on Sunday, I reduced it to 3. Sure I only subtracted a mile, but taking it down to 3 mi allowed me to do a 3 mi “speed test.” 

With my overall goal of running a 5K under 20 minutes, running a 3 miler (just .1 mi short of a 5K) is a thermometer of my progress. Back in February I ran the same 3 mile loop, in the same direction as I did on Sunday. My overall time then was 25:10, a pace of 8:23 per mile. On Saturday my time was… (drum roll please)… 21:48, a per mile pace of 7:16. I’ll admit that the notes in my running log show that the 3 mile run back in February wasn’t run as hard as I did my run on Saturday, but still. That’s a one minute per mile progression. I’m pretty pumped. I’m also excited that I’m now within a minute of the per-mile pace to break the 20 minute, 5K barrier. That time is 6:26 per mile. I don’t want get too cocky with so far yet to go to reach that fast pace, but with my 27 ½ “birthday” having just past at the end of April, I feel like I will easily run a sub-20 minute 5K before I turn 30.