I am beaten

I can't keep up anymore, I have lost a battle I was not mentally prepared to lose.   I need to find a way to escape and start over.

Struggling

So I've been debating on what I should do in terms of getting my runs in.  I don't know what is more time efficient and it might just take some testing to find out what I like better.  Anyway my issue today was as I woke up I was pretty hungry so I had half of an english muffin hoping it would tide me over till after my run.  I thought I had enough time since it was about an hour and a half till my run.  Sadly I was mistaken.

My run started off alright and I made it through the first mile fine, then I had this constant feeling that I was going to puke in the middle of the streets of Boston.  It was pretty miserable and I cut the run short ending up with just 2 miles  

So now do I try to eat a small meal  before bed and hope it tides me over enough that I can get up at 5 and wait for breakfast till 8 or what?

Wrapping up the month

Well it has been a while. I haven't run all that much this month, the adjustment to the new job and new schedule gave me room to make excuses and slack.

Basically, between my training schedule for work and lack of time to eat, I was starving by the time I actually got home, and I did not yet have my gym membership.  I do now have my membership and I am off and running in terms of work so it is easier to keep a somewhat regular schedule.  I just need to catch the early buses every day and get runs in before work. If I try to run at home then take a later bus in it would likely translate to me just hitting snooze too many times to get a run in before work.

Signs of improvement though.  So far I've been getting runs in the morning a little easier. I am not going everyday since I am unable to make myself go slow so I'd rather try to keep injuries away.  It doesn't help that there are lots of other runners around and I don't want to look like some fat slob that is out of shape even if that is what I am so another reason not to run a comfortable pace.

The more of a routine I get into the easier this will get I assume.  I am enjoying the gym membership even though I don't use the actual gym part it's nice that it is a method of forcing myself to exercise.  The downside is all the naked old men that walk around the locker room.

I will try to get into more of a routine blogging.  I think this site is blocked at my work, I've been updating my training log from my blackberry and maybe I will start even making blog posts from it as well.  If that turns out to be the case I wouldn't expect anything that is too long.  I might type it out and thing man this must be 2 pages of text but when I look at it on an actual computer and it's not even 2 paragraphs it's a little depressing.

Oh well, until next time.

Slacking

On blogging and kind of on running.  I've still been more consistent than I was in June but not as much as I should be.  One good thing that has come about recently was I decided to finally time a run, I forget which day exactly it was but I did a 2.86 run at night on the clock.  Not that it is very far but I figured I was around 8-8:30 pace.  Upon finishing the run I entered it into my log to find out that I managed to run it at 7:30 pace.  I felt good on the run and kept trying to slow myself down because I didn't want it to turn into a time trial.

I'm really boring lately, so I am not gonna write much more but I needed another entry.  My last two runs I've felt like crap but what can ya do.  I start my new job tomorrow so we will see what the new schedule is like.  I will have to check out the gym this week and see if I can get a locker etc...

What have you missed?

Alright I've wanted to blog the past few days really I have I just couldn't actually do it.  I'd be sitting on the couch after showering and eating thinking I should blog about that run but no blogs.  Anyway the last two days were pretty awesome runs.

Wednesday I went out planning on doing my longest run of the summer a whopping 4 miles.  I managed to make it through alright, struggling pretty bad towards the end though, had I not been on a main road I probably would have started walking but I was much too embarrassed to do that.  I might still have the scraps of a reputation as a runner in Burlington I wouldn't want to ruin that by walking on the main street.  Either way though I was happy to get an increase in mileage in.

Thursday I almost ended up skipping pretending it was justifiable since I went for a new long the day before.  I went to the movies with my friend Mike and saw Predators.  It was pretty good, can't compare to the original but better than the others in my opinion.  I was home by 10:15 or so and still had the run on my mind.  I decided I'd hydrate stretch and head out for a quick 2 miles or so with maybe a decent hill in the mix to make it worth it.  As I hit the hill I was planning on running I felt good considering the pace I was going.  I thought I'd go get some water at a fountain at the top of the hill do a loop around the common and head back.  I got the water and as I went up to make a left to head around the common I ended up taking off across the street to take a right.  I knew that if it turned out to be a bad decision I could easily cut through back home and cut off some mileage I'd just have to deal with a hill one way or another in order to do so.  I went on the extended loop not even considering cutting through.  I kept my quickened pace on the hills and off, I felt great.  I finally was coming down to the last quarter mile or so and I could really start to feel my legs shutting down.  You know that feeling when you think you're picking your legs up for normal strides then you hear your feet dragging against the ground?   Yea it's not good. The run overall however was great.  Still haven't found my watch or started trying to time my runs so who knows I put in my log that it was like 8:30 pace but who knows, it felt faster but what do I know.

Today I went out to do a quick 2 miles, turned around early because I felt like absolute garbage, it was probably 1.5 miles so I didn't cut off much but I just wasn't loosening up at all.  I'm happy I got it in though even if it was short and semi pointless it was important to actually get out.

I have not been blogging but I HAVE been running.

I've been lacking motivation to blog lately,  not sure exactly why but I had plenty of lame short posts in a row and I suppose I wouldn't subject my thousands of loyal readers to that.  I was tempted to skip a few runs over the past week but forced myself out. I've kinda been doing 2 runs 1 day off kinda thing with a few exceptions.  I am still trying to decide on today but I think I'm going to end up taking today off.

I have been getting bursts of motivation though.  Talking with friends and different people about running has been motivating me to get back in shape.  My friend Michelle is currently in the process of moving out to Colorado and before moving we chatted a bit about doing some races together down the road not local road races but marathon's or ultras something worth travelling for.  I've also been chatting with an ultra runner that has given me some hope in getting in shape in a reasonable amount of time, of course that is if I stick with running this time around.  Lastly last night I went and started looking back to my runs back in Jan/Feb before I stopped to see what the pace was for those.  I was surprised to see a few of the runs 7-10 miles that were run at sub 8 minute pace.  It was very reassuring that only 3.5 months ago I was running a reasonable pace and real mileage.  I hope that I can be back to that by the end of august but that may be a long shot.

I just need to work on eating better and sleeping better and maybe I won't be so tired all the time.  Other good news is though I've apparently lost 6 lbs.  I don't think I ever dipped under 172 or 173 when I was running in the fall and winter but maybe with all this humidity I can sweat out a few more lbs before the end of the summer.

6 runs in 8 days. How about that.

So since I didn't blog yesterday I will recap yesterday and today.

Yesterday after work I went to my friend Jenn's house to meet up for a hill workout.  The original plan was to do it with 2 more of her fitness friends, one bailed early the other got stuck at work.  One of them lives on a pretty nasty hill I guess so we were going to do it there.  After that got nixed we just did it at a hill that Jenn lived on.  It wasn't nearly as difficult as I was expecting but it was still a good workout.

Today I got home from work kinda early, ran a few errands then headed out for my run.  I decided to do a loop for the first time from my house since starting up again.  I wasn't sure how long it was going to end up but I figured I could handle it.  It went much better than expected.  Turned out to be only 3.25 miles but I felt great finishing up.  A slight uphill to finish and I was still running strong unlike most runs I've done lately.

Today also is 6 runs in 8 days which is a good sign.  Just gotta keep this up so I can do a real run hopefully by the end of September.  I think I will set a goal for the end of Sept to be able to run 5 miles in 35 minutes.  Nothing fancy but we will see.

Just two miles

So after a good run later in the day yesterday I decided to get my run in earlier today since I was heading down to Hull to spend a day on the beach with some friends.  I got up at 8 to run, finally made it out a half hour later or so.  I was tired, sore from the run yesterday and not well hydrated.  I knew I would only do 2 miles I thought when I was turning around I could probably go further but it's a good thing I didn't.  I felt like total garbage finishing up but it's done.  Gotta go though time to head to the beach.

Feeling better

So despite going to bed at 5am after a long night of drinking then getting up for work int he morning I still got out for a run.  I didn't feel too bad this morning just really tired my morning was fueled by 2 iced coffees, I finally had lunch around 2 or 3 a couple of stripes of bacon and a chicken pie.  Finally motivated enough to go for a run around 7:20.

The heat has finally passed a brief storm helped cool down the temp but did not help the humidity.  I went out planning on a 3 mile run and I felt pretty good about it as I got going.  No hint of any tightness or pain in my calf which is always reassuring.  I was probably sweating as much as any of the actually hot days due to the humidity which kinda felt good since I wasn't also dying of heat.  I felt a bit of a stomach cramp about a mile to go but that passed after a minute or two and I finished pretty strong.  I still didn't time it, I think I might have been around 8:30 pace or so but who knows.

Where did I go?

Alright so I hadn't blogged in a couple of days but thats ok and I will tell you why.  I ran both Wednesday and Thursday 3 miles each, Wednesday was much tougher due to heat/humidity and I was on my own so I cannot control my pace and run too fast.  Thursday I had a running partner that kept me going more relaxed so that was good.  I took Friday off from running because I was feeling pretty sore and I've been getting a hint of tightness in my right calf which has me a little nervous because my past issues with calf problems.  I need to be more disciplined with hydration, diet and stretching to curb this problem before it gets worse.

I have not yet run today but I plan on going later tonight after it starts to cool off and I've got some good food in me.  I had a very late night last night for my friend Tony's birthday, it was a great time but going into work for a bit this morning wasn't my top choice of things to do.  So far though it's been a very good day in terms of productiveness I just need to actually run too. I will try to do another 3 miles but if my running log updates anything less feel free to make fun of me via the comments section.

Kinda going backwards here I think my love of running is sparking up a bit again which I am excited about.  After my run Thursday I got home and showered and headed to Barnes and Noble to get a book a friend recommended to me(The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan that my friend referred to as the anti twilight meaning it's actually good)  It was around 9 at night and driving across Burlington with the windows down was beautiful.  It really reminded me of when I used to be in shape and doing night runs after work, flying through a run on a summer night at 6 or 7 minute pace for 10 or 12 miles was such an awesome feeling.  Still warm but you could feel the cool breeze and when you're running fast but you feel like you'd never get tired despite the sweat pouring out of your body.  I miss that, I really do and I need to get back to that as soon as I can.  It has been frustrating being so far from a run like that and I hope it comes back quickly so maybe some time in the fall I could hit a 10 mile run at 7 minute pace and feel like a real runner again.