Like Dean friggin Karnazes

Well, not quite a marathon a day, but 4 or more miles a day, several days in a row makes me feel pretty good-- certainly not lame. Seems like lots of things can be happening at home, crying babies, 2-year-old tantrums, mother-in-law friction, work related stress, etc, etc, but as long as I get to run on a regular basis, I come back feeling good, like someone hit my reset button. 27.8 miles for last week. On Sat I ran on the trail with Banjo and my turnover felt good, better than I can remember. Saw lots of Gazelles, which was fun. I'm feeling some soreness lately, so I'm going to take it easy this week, throw in 2 or 3 days off, maybe get a bike ride in there...haven't biked in quite a while.

Leo Manzano just ran by my house. I'm drinking coffee and he cruised by.... I wanted to chase him to congratulate him for his 2nd place in the 1500 at the trials but his recovery pace looks a tad too brisk for me.

Not that lame anymore?

Of course, Bubba has made it challenging to get out the door for a workout, and the added stress has made me want to exercise more. Bubba spent 6 days in the NICU for a possible infection-- the whole thing was frustrating and stressful, so my first run since he was born was a fast 5 miler through the neighborhood at a pace my hip couldn't handle, so the next couple days my hip was pretty sore. I hadn't run that far since surgery. Then a few days later (last Monday) I ran 6 miles on a favorite route that I hadn't tried for almost a year-- south through UT, capitol, Lamar, and return on 34th. It felt OK, even though my hip probably wasn't ready for it. Afterwards, the hip felt sore in a new way, less achy, more burn? difficult to describe. So Wed, what did I do? I went out and did the same route again. I took it slower, and surprisingly, it felt good. I found my cruise gear. Thurs, Fri and Sat I ran easy 4 milers, putting my mileage for the week at 24 miles-- a huge jump from 16. The soreness has been almost gone. I'm sure it's closeby, ready to show itself. My old friends the shin splints are back, a sure sign of increasing mileage, and I'm happy to feel them again after such a long time-- they tell me that the hip is better. Actually, the shins are bothering me more. I've got a different bag of tricks to deal with them-- massage, calf raises, etc-- no complaints.

So my plan is to try to run 6 days a week for the next couple weeks, and then add a 7th day. For now, the evenings are working well-- no one minds that Daddy is gone then, and it's a heckuva lot cooler. It all has me thinking that I'm not that lame anymore. Can it be true? Granted, I only have 1 week under my belt, but 6 days of running in a week ain't that lame. Compared to a limp-inducing 15 minutes on the exercise bike, I've come a long way.

Introducing Bubba

Christina and I had our 2nd son last Thurs, July 3. We're calling him Bubba. He was born 30 minutes shy of the 4th-- how very unpatriotic of the little fella. Things are pretty hectic, of course. Lack of sleep, etc, etc. This is a running blog, so I won't go into detail, but suffice it to say that the quality of my workouts has suffered. Ha. I haven't done anything remotely like exercising since Thursday or self-absorbed like writing in this blog. I should be doing work related stuff right now, but I feel compelled to blab here a bit.

The last few weeks I've had a few highlights-- did the Shoal Creek loop in 8:56, 23.5 mph average and 20.1 mph average for the entire ride. I've *never* averaged over 20 mph for any bike ride. I did a 400m on a whim while returning a DVD and clocked 1:27, and it felt OK. Did a 55 mile bike ride the Sunday before last, and that previous week I logged 16 miles running-- 4 workouts, 4 miles each. I feel like I could throw a 5 miler in there and be totally OK. It's just hard to run more than 4 times a week and bike 3 times a week. And of course now, it's hard to do anything at all. I expect that I'll be exercising more after dark now that Bubba is here-- and I guess that means running more, biking less.