Seaside Eleven

Sunday, we visited PR and his family and I stepped out for a run of 11.25 miles. I covered the distance in 1:40. I stopped at the turn-around for about 5 minutes to stretch and eat a Cliff Bar. My legs were sore from the previous day's, hilly trek. Yesterday's run was fairly tame, mostly flat, but the scenery was beautiful -- through sea side woods with some spectacular views of the ocean as well as some amazing real estate. It was a new run for me in a new place

I'm approaching this training a little differently. My body and my mind are different than they were nearly four years ago when I last trained for a 'thon. I'll walk a bit if I feel like it -- though not much, 30-40 second intervals to swig some Gatorade -- I'll stop for a bit at the turn around to charge up, stretch, whatever. I'm eating more when I run too -- I went out light yesterday, but I carried a pair of Cliff's, 24 ozs of Gatorade, and my cell phone.

I read Ultra Marathon Man by Dean Karnazes last fall, and while he's running ultras, that book really hammered home that you need to put in calories as you take them out. My ankle was killing me afterwards, and I jammed it up a bit while stepping off the road to let a car pass -- it sank in some soft pine needles. The injury is another thing I'm watching, and something that makes this training different. My ankle hurts, and my calf above the ankle hurts -- almost like there's a compensation injury brewing . . . I really focus on my stride and try to keep it the same on both legs, but a bio-mechanics expert I'm not. I'm going to do some stretching today of my legs and my ankle and hope to work it out.

A thing that was hammered home on yesterday's run was how important the in-between runs are. I noticed that in previous weeks I'm not as sore post-long-run when I do the weekday runs as I am today having missed the two short ones this past week. I missed them largely because of weather, so it's not like I was lazing, but it's important to run them. It's all about the process, embrace the process.

Finally, towards that end, I'm also going to try and write more about the process, and the details. We get a lot of visitors to this site, not just us, and I think that it will be interesting to see if they stick longer and comment more if we include more nitty-gritty and info-share. It might be cool to see the conversation expanded in the comments and help to make this thing even more useful than just a motivator -- it is web 2.0 after all.

South Shore Six, Sort Of

We went out and visited family this afternoon and I ducked out just after arrival for a quick trot through the scenic South Shore. The goal was to do 6, I got in about 5.5 in about 45. It was actually pretty hilly with some good climbs -- one in particular was quite long. My turnaround was a bridge over the North River -- it was beautiful. The sun was setting and the river was glass calm with just the tiniest eddies as the slack tide turned and the water was starting to flow back into the river.

I've got to do a half tomorrow . . . so, I'm going to map that route and kick it to bed. Sleep is one thing I've not been getting enough of in this training regimen, I'm eating well, not drinking very much booze, the running is working itself out but I'm not sleeping enough. I need to change that.

Rarities

So this post contains a bevy of rarities.

I actually went out and ran two days after a prior run -- I went on Sunday as well.
I went running on my lunch break.
I went running in Newburyport, towards Plum Island -- I've never done that.
I saw huge hawk in a tree right near the Plum Island Airport.

I went out on Sunday for a 32 minute run. I told myself I'm not going to publish a post unless I go again on Tuesday -- the once/week running post is silly. I set my alarm for 6 AM and turned it off at 5:52 AM -- Child Two called out and woke me.
I tried to get up at 6:20 but it was dark . . . I wimped out. However, the weather is outrageously balmy today, pushing 60 F, so I threw my gear in my bag and went for it.

Sunday's run (3.7 in 32:16) was better than today's (3.5-4.0 in 30:25, I'm not sure where I turned around) which was hard. Maybe it was the warmth. Maybe I was bonking a bit because I was hungry. Maybe I'm just not in great shape right now. One thing running has taught me is humility -- there is no replacement for miles not run and you've got to work your way back. The ankle hurt pretty good at the beginning but feels OK right now. It's really something I need to monitor.

The view on this run was lovely -- I ran along the Joppa Flats at the mouth of the Merrimack River and the water was glass flat and a beautiful winter blue. The flats teemed with sea birds and geese and it was really great.