"Running"

I've been keeping the volume around 20 miles for the last several weeks. 3 runs, usually 7 on Tues, 7 on Thurs, and 6 on Sat. I've been running pretty hard on Tues and Thurs and then slowing things down for Sat. I bike on Sunday for 3 hours. Spin class on Wednesdays. Sometimes I get out on the tandem with Christina on Friday morning, but Monday and Friday are typically days off from exercising. I'm in a decent groove. I don't feel the urge to run much more than I am right now, although part of me wants to run better, and I know that this requires more mileage. Maybe one of these Tuesdays or Thursdays I'll do a 10 miler, to see how it feels. But I prefer shorter, faster to longer, slower. Hem, haw.

I'm planning to run a 5K on 3/20, so last Thursday I actually did a real workout with repeats and everything--- ran to Zilker and did 5x1000m. I was afraid that doing them by myself would be boring, but the weather was a crisp 65 degrees and sunny, which felt fantastic--- the 5 repeats went by fast. I really tried hard on the 5th repeat, coming within 4 seconds of my old pre-scope time. The hip has been a little sore since then. I probably pushed it too hard, but it was fun.

My 40th birthday was last week, and my inner-marathoner started sizing up a 3:20 marathon--- what's now required for me to qualify for Boston. I've wanted to run Boston for many years. I even qualified in '07, but the dang hip got in the way. I have this image of me finishing Boston with Christina and the boys watching, cheering. Logistically, making this image a reality is cumbersome to ridiculous--- it entails flying the whole family to Boston for 3 days and 2 nights, then during the race, navigating to the correct location on the course, finding a parking spot, then hiking possibly 10 blocks with 2 kids and then waiting for 30 minutes to cheer 15 seconds for daddy. People do this, but I can't imagine Christina doing it, nor can I really blame her. Now Wellesley--- that sounds nice. Heh, listen to me bandy about the facets of running Boston.....

Part of me thinks I should just be happy with where I am and not push it, because marathon training is really tough on the bod, esp if you've got a gimpy hip. But of course another part of me doesn't care and is willing to see where this can go. Again with the hem and haw.

But honestly, I'm happy right now. And I find it immensely satisfying that I'm "running" the way I like to define running. So I might hang out here for a bit......

...... or not. I can be happy either way, and that feels nice.

It's cyclical, I think

It's been a good week. I think I put in 19 miles over 3 runs. Each run I pushed pretty hard, which isn't what you're supposed to do..... but it was fun. Yesterday I ran 7 with Jorge and Fletcher on the trail in the snow--- it was actually snowing in Austin yesterday. The temp was in the mid 30s.... sorta unpleasant. My legs and hip felt good and I finished fast, dropping below 6:00 for the last 800m. It was the hardest I've run in years.

For a couple weeks my legs were dead, hip was sore, I didn't have any get-up-and-go on the bike. But things are good now. Maybe I just needed some time after increasing the weekly volume.....

I still have an occasional pain in the hip, usually after a run. But lately I've gone for days without feeling anything bad from the hip. And it's not uncommon for it to feel better after a run. My new hip theory--- it's cyclical. Right now I'm in a good cycle. I'm not sure how long it will last, but it will end, as will the bad cycle that follows....

I signed up for the Cap10K in April. I have about 7 weeks to get ready. Really looking forward to racing again.... last night I dreamed that I ran a marathon. It took me all night. I woke up tired. Still, it was sweet.....

Mixed

Some dead air on the old blog lately, which usually means things aren't going very well. But things aren't too bad either, thankfully. Two weeks ago I ran 7 miles on the trail with a friend--- a route that gave me no trouble the week before, but this time it was a slog... legs felt like wood and the hip was sore the next morning. So I decided to take it easy for the next week or so. A couple days later I did a somewhat brisk 5 miler on the treadmill and was decently sore a few hours later. And so I started to fear that things were starting to unravel, which has happened a few (many?) times before. So I decided to take advil around the clock, and after a couple days, the hip felt significantly better. That's something new--- haven't been able to pull things back with advil before. And several runs later--- some of them mediocre, some of them downright sucky, I feel like things are headed back in the right direction. I just had a good solid treadmill workout. Weather here has been sorta crappy, hence the treadmill.

Anyway, still running!

10K anyone?

This past Saturday I broke out my 6 mile neighborhood run. The last time I tried to run it in June I had to walk the last mile because of soreness. This time I ran the whole thing fast and finished strong. There was one hill toward the end where I felt like throwing my fists in the air and yelling--- it suddenly hit me that I was doing it-- running--- really running--- something I've been wanting to do for a long long time. It felt great. I was on a busy street, too self conscious to actually do it.... but I should have...

Yesterday I ran 7 miles on the trail with friends. This too, was a special route for me, something I used to run all the time. It's been about 2.5 years since I've been healthy enough to tackle it. We kept an honest pace, finished fast-- 53 minutes of running-- again, it's been years....

I woke up this morning a little sore--- shins, quads, a blister or 2 on the feet--- hip soreness may be there a little, but it's light.

There's a 10K in April, the "Cap10K". I ran it in '07-- in fact, it was the last time I wore a chip, officially raced. That's me racing it in picture to the left. I'd love to race it again. OK, I'm officially putting it out there-- I intend to run the Cap10K in April. I may be jinxing it, but here it is--- blogged.

Postscript: I canceled my appointment with the hip resurfacing doc because I think my hip is trying to tell me that it doesn't want to be replaced...

Treadmill implosion workout

Lotsa posts lately.... hope nothing bad is gonna happen.... happy thoughts, think happy thoughts.....

Anyway, just wanted to share a good treadmill workout that I've concocted. I start out at an easy pace (say 6.6 mph, 9 minute pace) and after each quarter mile, I bump up the speed by 0.2 mph. I like this workout because I don't know how it's going to end. Will I make it to X speed today? Today I imploded at 9.6. Toward the end I made faces, wimpered, etc. The total distance covered was 4 miles. I left the gym completely spent. Good stuff.

F-ing satisfying

It's been a month now since my, uh, I'm calling it my "breakthrough" run. A couple weeks ago I ran 16 miles over 3 runs. Last week we were vacationing in Mexico and I scaled back to 12 miles. I'm slowly bumping up the volume each week because I'm curious where it's going. I'm not being cautious though--- I'm being pretty "stupid" actually--- I'm pushing hard--- going all out, finishing as hard as I can, which is surprisingly fast, faster than I've run in years, and significantly faster than I've ever run since my first hip scope 2 years ago. Why am I pushing so hard? Good question--- I guess because I'm sick of being slow, and I'm sick of negotiating--- if I'm going to run, I want to really run. So what gives? I'm trying not to think about it too much. I could wake up tomorrow and not be able to run because I'm being careless, but right now, I'm able to crank out some really fucking satisfying miles with little or no pain. Fuck yeah.