Since Caroline was born, I haven't run to race, but before then I was training very deliberately to be competitive. I was able to get my chosen distance, 5k, down to 17:30ish. In my best shape I had hoped and attempted to run sub 17, but it never happened. I started to overtrain after that and developed posterior tibialis tendonitis (PTT). Thankfully that's gone now. I think my feelings with respect to running and racing have changed. I like to reference the quote that my racing and training shoulding get in the way of my running. Lately I have been running to work everyday and running on Wednesdays with the club, the Second Sole Striders of Lyndhurst. This feels like a good amount for me right now.
There are a few forces at play with my running volume in addition to my internal motivation: Courtney, Caroline, and Climbing. I have been rock climbing (on plastic rocks) at the Cleveland Rock Gym and outdoors locally to a small extent. I first started a little over 8 months ago, at the end of April. This began on the suggestion of my friend Scott. Unfortunately he dislocated his shoulder one day while running of all things, not climbing. So I enlisted the company of my friend Joe to my weekly climbs shortly after. I have really started to enjoy this new, for me, sport. It's so much different than any I've done. I am starting to get past the stage of rookie and into novice. I am climbing once sometimes twice and week, and have even had the success of getting Courtney to climb with me. Climbing has taken the deep interest slot of my sports attention span, and running second.
Maybe soon this will change? I got some invisble shoes running sandals and even in the melting, wet snow I had a blast. My PTT has been dormant for a while, and Caroline is getting old enough to soon join me on training runs in the stroller. . .
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Monday, January 2, 2012
Thursday, November 10, 2011
11-6-11 Week update:
This week so far has been the most running filled for me so far since sometime earlier this past summer. I have mentally committed to running the Turkey Trot here in Cleveland, and to avoid complete embarrassment I thought I could try to start training these three Weeks beforehand.
Monday, 4.2 miles: run to work and back, still feeling a bit weak from not running very much, and maybe it's the backpack that is causing some of this. Really noticing the the small hills on the way to work. Also rolled my ankle as I mentioned in the previous post. Rock climbing with Joe and Scott at the Cleveland Rock Gym.
Tuesday, 4.2 miles: Same, starting to feel slightly stronger, but maybe it's the smaller backpack load this morning
Wednesday, 5 miles: no running to work and back, but rode my xtracycle. Wednesday night, run with the second sole striders, 4.5 to 5 miles. Ended up in the first group with Mike Z, and a newcomer Joel. We probably ran 7ish or under pace - kinda fartlek too with an extra .5 with mike at the end. Rode my bike both ways to the club for 11 miles of bike riding total for the day.
Thursday 4.2 miles: run to work and back. Starting to feel some tenderness in my arch/lower ankle? NOT AGAIN! stupid posterior tibialis tendinitis! Hoping this isn't really the case . . . otherwise felt good mentally to run, but a little tired from yesterday's running and biking.
This week so far has been the most running filled for me so far since sometime earlier this past summer. I have mentally committed to running the Turkey Trot here in Cleveland, and to avoid complete embarrassment I thought I could try to start training these three Weeks beforehand.
Monday, 4.2 miles: run to work and back, still feeling a bit weak from not running very much, and maybe it's the backpack that is causing some of this. Really noticing the the small hills on the way to work. Also rolled my ankle as I mentioned in the previous post. Rock climbing with Joe and Scott at the Cleveland Rock Gym.
Tuesday, 4.2 miles: Same, starting to feel slightly stronger, but maybe it's the smaller backpack load this morning
Wednesday, 5 miles: no running to work and back, but rode my xtracycle. Wednesday night, run with the second sole striders, 4.5 to 5 miles. Ended up in the first group with Mike Z, and a newcomer Joel. We probably ran 7ish or under pace - kinda fartlek too with an extra .5 with mike at the end. Rode my bike both ways to the club for 11 miles of bike riding total for the day.
Thursday 4.2 miles: run to work and back. Starting to feel some tenderness in my arch/lower ankle? NOT AGAIN! stupid posterior tibialis tendinitis! Hoping this isn't really the case . . . otherwise felt good mentally to run, but a little tired from yesterday's running and biking.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Running again.
A friend of mine made a facebook post about Anton Krupica's blog. And how inspiring it is. I feel the same way. Lately I have needed some motivation to get me to start running more than once a week and this may be just what I needed.
Anton is fortunate to have many beautiful mountains to run in his back yard. While I do not have that same luxury, I may one day. I should be prepared. I need to start running more, and so I have started. The past four days I have run to and from work.
To keep me honest I will try to start keeping a log of my runs here just like Anton. So here goes:
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
This morning I ran the 2 ish miles to work with my clothes and lunch on my back - I rolled my ankle hard right before the turn onto the sidewalk out of neighborhood. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful, slow feeling run to work. The temperature was perfect at 52 deg F.
Anton is fortunate to have many beautiful mountains to run in his back yard. While I do not have that same luxury, I may one day. I should be prepared. I need to start running more, and so I have started. The past four days I have run to and from work.
To keep me honest I will try to start keeping a log of my runs here just like Anton. So here goes:
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
This morning I ran the 2 ish miles to work with my clothes and lunch on my back - I rolled my ankle hard right before the turn onto the sidewalk out of neighborhood. Other than that it was a pretty uneventful, slow feeling run to work. The temperature was perfect at 52 deg F.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
I'm Back
Wow, I am quite embarrassed to have neglected writing anything in this blog after such a brief start. The simple truth is that two things have kept me from running at all for these past months. First, an amazing thing: Courtney and I both welcomed the addition of a new family member, our daughter Caroline Leigh. Needless to say, it has been more enjoyable to stay home and be with my family than out running. Second, I have had a very annoying case of posterior tibialis tendonitis. This injury involves the tendon on the inside foot/ankle and is very slow to heal. I have barely had any improvement on it, even after taking more than a month off from running.
Fortunately in these past couple weeks, Courtney and I purchased jogging stroller and my ankle is doing a little better. I have been cranking out some killer mileage running with Courtney and Caroline: about 10 or so miles . . . per week. It’s not the 60 mpw I was hitting before my injury and daughter came here, but it is way better than zero. Actually yesterday I managed to run 3 miles with a group at work over lunch, and 5 miles with my second sole friends in Lyndhurst.
I was really worried about losing all of my conditioning while I was out of running commission for the month or so, and the lack of running and this fear got me a little bummed (luckily having a beautiful newborn daughter took care of most if not all of that). But to my surprise I have managed to retain a pretty decent amount of aerobic capacity and strength. One night this week I went out for a 2.5 mile run by myself in my neighborhood wearing water shoes (more on that later). I was not trying to push the pace during the run so I was surprised to find that I had run at 6:30/mile avg when I finished.
Concerning my mention of water shoes: I have been loosely following the minimalist shoe movement and didn’t want to spend a great deal of money to the concept. Online (I can’t remember the original source) I found someone who advocated running in water shoes since they are as minimal as footwear comes. After a few short 1-2.5 mile runs in them I am a bit sore, but it’s a lot of fun and I think I will continue to mix them into my training.
Since I have been out of running commission, and subsequently not been able to run to and from work, I have made more use of my Hercules 3 speed, and now I have approximately 375 miles racked up on it! I credit this bit of cycling, some elliptical (yuk, but necessary) and most importantly my new efforts in swimming (thank you so much for teaching me Scott) to maintaining my conditioning in my stint off of running. I have always been a bit of a terrible swimmer, and I am by no means good, not even close, but my friend Scott and his main squeeze Melissa have been really helping me to learn to swim correctly. This has made my form a lot better and created some enthusiasm for the sport for me!
So, let’s cross our fingers and hope I can remain injury free minimal for the foreseeable future! Tonight Courtney and I will be joggin’ around the block with the little one! So glad to be able to say that!
Fortunately in these past couple weeks, Courtney and I purchased jogging stroller and my ankle is doing a little better. I have been cranking out some killer mileage running with Courtney and Caroline: about 10 or so miles . . . per week. It’s not the 60 mpw I was hitting before my injury and daughter came here, but it is way better than zero. Actually yesterday I managed to run 3 miles with a group at work over lunch, and 5 miles with my second sole friends in Lyndhurst.
I was really worried about losing all of my conditioning while I was out of running commission for the month or so, and the lack of running and this fear got me a little bummed (luckily having a beautiful newborn daughter took care of most if not all of that). But to my surprise I have managed to retain a pretty decent amount of aerobic capacity and strength. One night this week I went out for a 2.5 mile run by myself in my neighborhood wearing water shoes (more on that later). I was not trying to push the pace during the run so I was surprised to find that I had run at 6:30/mile avg when I finished.
Concerning my mention of water shoes: I have been loosely following the minimalist shoe movement and didn’t want to spend a great deal of money to the concept. Online (I can’t remember the original source) I found someone who advocated running in water shoes since they are as minimal as footwear comes. After a few short 1-2.5 mile runs in them I am a bit sore, but it’s a lot of fun and I think I will continue to mix them into my training.
Since I have been out of running commission, and subsequently not been able to run to and from work, I have made more use of my Hercules 3 speed, and now I have approximately 375 miles racked up on it! I credit this bit of cycling, some elliptical (yuk, but necessary) and most importantly my new efforts in swimming (thank you so much for teaching me Scott) to maintaining my conditioning in my stint off of running. I have always been a bit of a terrible swimmer, and I am by no means good, not even close, but my friend Scott and his main squeeze Melissa have been really helping me to learn to swim correctly. This has made my form a lot better and created some enthusiasm for the sport for me!
So, let’s cross our fingers and hope I can remain injury free minimal for the foreseeable future! Tonight Courtney and I will be joggin’ around the block with the little one! So glad to be able to say that!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Starting a New Website
After running and riding to work for a bit now, I have grown to really enjoy the commute! Online, there are numerous websites devoted to cycling to work, and I have personally taken a lot of good information from these sites and put them to work in my own bike commute. On the other hand, running to work is not nearly as popular (yet), and as a result I haven't been able to find any sites devoted to the topic.
So I have decided to start my own. A quick search showed that www.runtowork.org was an available domain. I snatched it up (my first very own domain), and have put together the very early beginnings of a website together. Please stay tuned for updates and content :) Also, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please mark this link in your favorites for future use :)
So I have decided to start my own. A quick search showed that www.runtowork.org was an available domain. I snatched it up (my first very own domain), and have put together the very early beginnings of a website together. Please stay tuned for updates and content :) Also, any advice would be greatly appreciated. Please mark this link in your favorites for future use :)
Friday, June 18, 2010
Rollin'
ahhhhh . . .
This week has been pretty good!
Courtney is getting close, and I mean really close to her due date. So we are both in overdrive to get the house in order. That includes cleaning, and wrapping up projects big and small.
I took the past two days off from work to make some headway on our master bath. I had ripped out the old two piece tub/shower enclosure and was going to replace it with a one piece tub unit and a tile surround, only to later decide that a shower would be more prudent . . . unfortunately that meant more work - plumbing needed redone and the walls were waaay out of true. Well, after procrastinating for about two months (while the old tub was ripped out mind you) I got some help with the plumbing, and I finally took a couple days off and got most of the tough stuff out of the way - trued the walls as close as one could get and set the tileable shower base with the help of my Uncle Dominic.
Three days this week, including two of the days I was off from work, I accomplished some very nice running. Tuesday is our Second Sole Strider Racing Team track workout night. Coach Peter Quigg had us on 400's - I logged 10 in 77-79 pace with 200 meter recovery - about 5 seconds faster each than I had done earlier this month for the same workout (with two more repeats too).
Next on Wednesday, I ran to the Second Sole for our weekly club run - about 3 miles to the shop, and then 5.8 miles on our club run - I went out conservative, but then Adam Gent caught up with me and we cranked it: last three or four under 7 and last two miles in the low six's! The three mile run back home was kinda tough (hurting at 7:30 pace) but I managed to make it back for a total of 13 miles that day - the farthest I've run since back in high school?
Finally, yesterday I was gonna take it easy on a six miler due to the distance I ran the previous day, but my legs felt good, and I just started rollin'. My first mile was 6:24, felt easy, second mile 6:04 - no sweat, third 6:10 (19:14 5k split), Fourth 6:24 flagged a little since I was pushing for that sub 20 5K split, Fifth - 6:10 or so, sixth 6:02, 10k split at 38 and change - less than a minute withing my 2nd fastests 10K and my average heartrate was only 163 about 80% of max I think. (link to workout data)
I'm suprised with my times and progress this week--these really felt good. I do think the Tuesday track sessions are helping! I wonder if my taking off work, i.e. not sitting in a chair for 8 hours those past two days helped in any way?
I am just thankful to God for having the ability to do these things - Courtney and baby Caroline Leigh are doing good, I've made progress on my daunting house project, and my running is picking up again. Top that off with a wonderful family extended and immediate (thanks for throwing a great baby shower Mom!) and things are looking real good. Now if I could only kick the bicycle shopping habit . . .
This week has been pretty good!
Courtney is getting close, and I mean really close to her due date. So we are both in overdrive to get the house in order. That includes cleaning, and wrapping up projects big and small.
I took the past two days off from work to make some headway on our master bath. I had ripped out the old two piece tub/shower enclosure and was going to replace it with a one piece tub unit and a tile surround, only to later decide that a shower would be more prudent . . . unfortunately that meant more work - plumbing needed redone and the walls were waaay out of true. Well, after procrastinating for about two months (while the old tub was ripped out mind you) I got some help with the plumbing, and I finally took a couple days off and got most of the tough stuff out of the way - trued the walls as close as one could get and set the tileable shower base with the help of my Uncle Dominic.
Three days this week, including two of the days I was off from work, I accomplished some very nice running. Tuesday is our Second Sole Strider Racing Team track workout night. Coach Peter Quigg had us on 400's - I logged 10 in 77-79 pace with 200 meter recovery - about 5 seconds faster each than I had done earlier this month for the same workout (with two more repeats too).
Next on Wednesday, I ran to the Second Sole for our weekly club run - about 3 miles to the shop, and then 5.8 miles on our club run - I went out conservative, but then Adam Gent caught up with me and we cranked it: last three or four under 7 and last two miles in the low six's! The three mile run back home was kinda tough (hurting at 7:30 pace) but I managed to make it back for a total of 13 miles that day - the farthest I've run since back in high school?
Finally, yesterday I was gonna take it easy on a six miler due to the distance I ran the previous day, but my legs felt good, and I just started rollin'. My first mile was 6:24, felt easy, second mile 6:04 - no sweat, third 6:10 (19:14 5k split), Fourth 6:24 flagged a little since I was pushing for that sub 20 5K split, Fifth - 6:10 or so, sixth 6:02, 10k split at 38 and change - less than a minute withing my 2nd fastests 10K and my average heartrate was only 163 about 80% of max I think. (link to workout data)
I'm suprised with my times and progress this week--these really felt good. I do think the Tuesday track sessions are helping! I wonder if my taking off work, i.e. not sitting in a chair for 8 hours those past two days helped in any way?
I am just thankful to God for having the ability to do these things - Courtney and baby Caroline Leigh are doing good, I've made progress on my daunting house project, and my running is picking up again. Top that off with a wonderful family extended and immediate (thanks for throwing a great baby shower Mom!) and things are looking real good. Now if I could only kick the bicycle shopping habit . . .
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