Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 18:55
Pace: 9:26 min/mi

Comments: After a few days of soreness I decided to try again and went out WAY too fast. I was toast by the end of this effort. No coughing up blood, so that's nice.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 20:23
Pace: 10:11 min/mi

Comments: After months off the pavement, I decided to see if my legs had anything left. Answer: Very little. This was slow and unpleasant. Highlighted by coughing blood. Not good times.

New Gear: Garmin Forerunner 35

My aged and well-used Garmin running watches have all passed into the great beyond. A couple of them with my exasperated assistance. I've had a few of these that have been durable workhorses and I've had a couple that... weren't.

While I can track my running OK with my trusty Ironman digital watch, there is a lot of information the new fitness trackers can provide. My brief experiment with a Fitbit showed me that. So, if I can get my running routine back, I would like to explore more of that.  So I went looking at what was available.

Basically, I wanted a watch that was 1) cheap and 2) had GPS capability. Anything beyond that I would entertain but those were the deal killers. And a lot of the low-end fitness watches now fit that profile (although "cheap" is a relative term here). In the end, I decided to go with the Garmin Forerunner 35 for the simple reason a lot of my past running information is on their online system.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 42:28
Pace: 10:37 min/mi

Comments: Harvey got me. The temperature this morning was fine, the humidity was not. I knew walking out to start this run that it was going to suck. And so it came to pass.

I was miserable from the very first step but kept myself resigned to do it. At about 2.5 miles the urge to walk it in was almost overpowering. Somehow I was able to get through that and struggle the rest of the four miles. Forget pace, finishing was the victory today.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 43:22
Pace: 10:50 min/mi

Comments: It's been quite some time since I last took a run and I felt it pretty much every step of the way this morning. I knew it would be a long unpleasant slog with the requisite heat and humidity to make it truely miserable. As a result, I figured I might as well go for the full four miles.

To be honest, it went about as well as I could have expected. I kept a reasonably constant pace and I didn't have that overwhelming urge to stop and walk it in. The pace was pretty much right what I predicted and probably could have been a bit faster if I pushed it. But pushing it was not the best idea on the first run back.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 19:04
Pace: 9:16 min/mi

Comments: Good intentions weren't enough to get my runs in over the weekend. Work had a hand in it as well. But I wanted to get this week started off right. The conditions are pretty much the same sweltering mess every day so there's really no excuse once I get the routine started.

This one felt pretty good, actually. I felt pretty good heading out and got into a nice groove pretty quickly. Over the last half mile I tried picking up the pace a little bit. Not enough to strain or anything. Just want to get the feel of it.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 19:06
Pace: 9:32 min/mi

Comments: Slept well. Woke early. Actually felt sort of motivated. Got out the door and got the run in with no problems. I even took my new camera along to try out "on the run" so to speak.

This probably would have been faster without taking a few photos on the way but the main thing was the lack of soreness and, surprisingly, sluggishness. It was slightly cooler today, which helped, but no respite from the humidity.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 19:08
Pace: 9:34 min/mi

Comments: I probably should have done this yesterday when it was a mite cooler but there's no getting around the humidity right now. I was motivated to do four miles until I stepped foot out the door. Let's just say the air is "close" today. Overall, not a bad run though. It was slow an unpleasant but never unbearable. I can even live with the pace.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 18:47
Pace: 9:23 min/mi

Comments: I didn't get a run in this morning and I know I have to start applying myself and getting out the damned door. So, since it's noticeably cooler today  I decided to get it done over lunch break. It was still very warm, very humid and the sun was out. I was pretty sluggish and drentched in sweat by the end. Still, got it done.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 42.44
Pace:  10:41 min/mi

Comments: It was very warm and very humid this morning. I haven't run four miles in three weeks and wasn't all that consistent prior to that. So, yeah, this one was not particularly pleasant. I did what I could to make it bearable by getting out the door before the sun got going. The clouds helped a little with that.

But I started with a plodding gait that smoothed out some but never approached elegant. I just slogged through it and tried to keep my mind off of how I felt and how far I had left to go. The victory today was not giving in to the urge to stop and walk it back in.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 19:09
Pace: 9:35 min/mi

Comments: First back-to-back effort in quite awhile. I was as slow at the start as I expected but less soreness than I was afraid of. The heat and humidity were in full force so this never got particularly elegant. Short steps and slog it through to the end. I was honestly surprised to come in close to the 19 minute mark.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 18:52
Pace: 9:26 min/mi

Comments: I really should have taken advantage of the weekend mornings to run since it was cool and pleasant. Today was overwarm and brutally humid. And it's very likely that's going to be the case for the foreseeable future. Still, I got out the door and got the run in.

With the adverse conditions, I didn't even try for the four miles. The two proved quite enough. There was nothing fancy about this effort but it wasn't the completely godawful experience I thought it might be. As usual, I hope to stick to the routine this week.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 18:29
Pace: 9:15 min/mi

Comments: Not much to speak of regarding this effort other than I got it done. Every effort at building a routine over the past six months has failed miserably so just getting another run in is a victory of sorts, right? Anyhow. I stuck with the two miles and felt pretty good the whole way.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 19:42
Pace: 9:51 min/mi

Comments: The four miles on Monday took a hell of a lot more out of me than I expected. I was tired the next two days and my legs felt drained. Less soreness than I expected, though. I felt pretty good this morning and started out with the intention of doing another four miles but pretty quickly decided that wasn't the best idea. With the heat and humidity, two miles would be enough. The routine is the important thing here.

It was a pretty good two miles. Started slow on purpose and just concentrated on regular, short footfalls. Not using too much energy, just getting it done. The time was better than I expected but not overfast like my other short runs have been. I'd like to do this again tomorrow but we'll see.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 41:28
Pace: 10:22 min/mi

Comments: Memorial Day. No work. No excuse not to get the run in. And no excuse not to get a full four miles in either. It was not too hot but the humidity was formidable. I kept things slow at the start and just focused on getting the distance. Not particularly pleasant but nothing was so awful I felt like walking it in. We'll see if I can get a couple more in this week.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 17:33
Pace: 8:46 min/mi

Comments: Finally back out the door. Just two miles and definitely ran them overfast. Still just trying to get a routine going again. Hopefully things have normalized in my life a little and I can devote myself to the runs like I need to. Of course that's just in time for the hotter weather.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time:17:59
Pace: 9:00 min/mi

Comments: Haven't had the consistency I hoped for this week but a second run is a step in the right direction. Had a lot on my mind so I was distracted the whole way and cranked the run out a bit faster than I expected. We'll see if I can add one more on this weekend.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 18:19
Pace: 9:10 min/mi

Comments: Last month was kind of a disaster on the health front. Following the previous run my right foot was in excruciating pain. I figured it was revenge of the bunion but the emergency care lady thought it was gout. Either way, I got a prescription-dose of anti-inflammatory meds that seemed to help.

So between that and the high-blood-pressure diagnosis, I'm gonna ease back into this effort. Just two miles was the plan. I expected to do these in 10+ min miles but it looks like I went out a bit on the quick side. All the more reason to be glad I didn't go the regular four miles. The second half of the workout would have suuuuucked.

Fitness Run

Distance: 2 miles
Time: 20:09
Pace: 10:04

Comments: I knew full well, running in the middle of a warm day would suck. I did it anyway. It sucked.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 40:48
Pace: 10:12 min/mi

Comments: And with the recent health scare I'm seriously trying to just get a regular run routine going again. The long-overdue visit to the doctor indicated all the wonderfully awful things I've been concerned about aren't completely off-base. And now I have to become twice as boring to take care of myself.

As one might expect, this wasn't a world beating effort. I just got out and slogged through it. The dismissive approach isn't the best strategy for consistent effort but I really just had to get this first run done and show some kind of progress. Improvement will wait until I get a few more under my belt.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 42:05
Pace: 10:31 min/mi

Comments: One day off and back at it. And no one is more surprised than me. My quads have been as sore as one might expect and starting out this morning I was extremely creaky. Things were absurdly slow at first but I warmed up and got going decently well. But, make no mistake, this was slow and unpleasant from start to finish. I've lost pretty much every bit of the progress I had gained by early January and am starting completely from scratch.

Fitness Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 39:21
Pace: 9:50 min/mi

Comments: Finally forced myself out the door. The resulting run was about what I expected. The first mile was fine. The second one started fine but was a good bit less so at the turnaround. Mile three was not fine at all and I held on to finish the thing despite myself.

No real goal now except trying to get three of these in each week for awhile. Afternoon temps are already crazy but daylight savings time means it's dark and not unreasonably warm in the mornings... yet, anyway.

Training Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 35:29
Pace: 8:52 min/mi

Comments: Another unintended week-long layoff. Most of it due to work demands but I deliberately skipped the weekend long run to get some long overdue writing done. I've found post-run exhaustion makes me worthless for creative activity. So I was productive, just not in terms of running.

Today's effort was very smooth and uneventful. Good time. Good effort. I've still got the strength, but conditioning is the bigger question. With a half-marathon set for this weekend, not knowing that is something of a concern.

Training Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 35:48
Pace: 8:57 min/mi

Comments: After a short night of sleep due to a game I kind of wish I didn't watch at all, I had serious reservations about this run. But, I figured, I might as well get it done since I was already exhausted and miserable.

It went much better than I thought.

I felt strong the whole way and even shaved a few seconds off the pace from yesterday. Still had to contend with the damned wind (see photo) but it seemed to come from a direction that was less of a factor than the last run.

Training Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 35:54
Pace: 8:58 min/mi

Comments: Another unplanned and unwanted break in training. Keeping up with the routine is going to be a real challenge with my new work responsibilities. And the weekly arctic blast isn't helping any either.

This run went very well except for the blasted wind. Obviously, my legs are pretty damn fresh and I did try to eat better over the past several days. Sleep has been uneven but I felt rested for once this morning.

So while I felt good strength-wise, there was a bit of a raggedness to my conditioning. No remedy for that except for getting out and getting the runs in. We'll see how the rest of this week goes.

Training Run

Distance: 6 miles
Time: 55:16
Pace: 9:12 min/mi

Comments: Cold front coming in later this week. And while I'm prepared to endure it for my miles, I'm planning on having my rest days during the worst of it. So six miles for me this morning.

I started a little stiff and my legs felt a little rubbery. Thankfully that eased up after the first mile and I dropped back into a comfortable pace. I didn't really have any issues at all after that, just cruising to the finish.

Haven't decided if I'll run tomorrow morning or afternoon but definitely one of the two.

Training Run

Distance: 4 miles
Time: 37:22
Pace: 9:20 min/mi

Comments: After the 20 miler this weekend, I was willing to take whatever I could get this morning. And my expectations were not particularly high. I was completely wrecked after that long run.

So I was very cautious at the start and nervous about the achy spots that showed up to say "Hi" as I got going. But then, to my delighted surprise, they all faded away as I got warmed up. After the one mile mark I pretty much cruised the whole way.

In short, nothing less than a fantastic run to start the new year.