Weekend Update 2-26-12

Miles this past week: 9 (big step down from the goal mileage)

Beer drinking goals: fail, I missed my tiny window for Hofbrau Doppelbock, it’s only available during the month of February and it runs out by the third week

Oh, yeah, that knee thing. In last Sunday’s post I mentioned that my knee was a little pissy, so I had skipped last week’s Long Run. I also, to be safe, skipped out on Monday’s run. Which kept me home for almost the entirety of the 3 day weekend (I dropped my wife off at work Sunday night simply so we could go out to breakfast the next morning) which was great. Saw my daughter Cassandra “almost” roll over (5mos) and watched Star Wars Clone Wars with my son (3yo) before he and I spent a few hours protect Cassandra from imaginary dinosaurs with our Thundercat Sword and Lightsaber.

Ultimately, playing it safe left me with an Easy run on Thursday for 3ish, and a short short Long run on Saturday for 6. The knee felt okay. There was a little tenderness and soreness, but my right knee ended up hurting even more (compensation). This next week I plan on doing my regular plan mileage wise, but replacing the Pace and Speed runs with Easy runs.

Fun stuff aside. I’ve noticed a strange correlation in my health/training. When I pull back the numbers on my running I see my unhealthy habits go up. See Diagram (A: Weekly Miles, B: Crap Food)

It’s as if I replace my runs with binge eating. Then all my work and efforts towards my training goals takes not just 1 step back due to lack of training, but a 2nd step back due to the crap food. Not to get too psychoanalytical, but I’m certain that since I’ve been more serious about my running, it has become my main stress reliever (in place of Scotch). And when I can’t run I stress eat.

Anybody out there (in the vast sea of my followers) have any advice on how to deal with a situation like this.

Since January

Since I posted in January about my goals, I’ve done some running.

-No races (which I thought I’d have done one by now, but there’s one on the sched for Mar).
-Despite being crazy busy at work I’ve made it a point to get in at least 2 runs a week (albeit sometimes they’re only 3-5miles), though most weeks I’ve been sticking to my 4 run schedule.

-Also, as part of trying to be committed, I've taken to spending less time on Dailymile (which I know sounds backwards, but...). The way I see it, if I have time to dick around on the internet, then I have time to go out for another run, and I've been trying to use all my down time more wisely.-I’ve latched onto a small running group which is formed out of a locally owned running store, Tri State Running. I really like running with them, I’m not much of a talker while running, but I do like the “being around others” and I really like the water stops (I hate planting water, and hate carrying it even more). Though on longer runs I’m usually by myself, either no one likes me, or no one is my pace (not that I’m fast or anything, it’s usually 9:30-10:00 min/mile).
-Got me some sweet tights.
-Got me some Merrell Trail Gloves, love them, but when running the other morning in the rain I was being incredibly cautious down hill and it affected my stride. I was landing hard on my heel with my knee locked out?! and now my left knee feels a little...not right. So I’ve taken the past few days off of working out. I’m going to go at it tomorrow for a light run, then some bike work.

Preparing for this half marathon is confirming my concerns that there is no way I can train for a full marathon during the school year. I’m glad I decided to go with the half this Spring, and can then use the summer to prep for my Fall marathon, and the first few weeks of school will be taper anyway.

End of Year Review

So 2011 has just ended and it’s time to review the year. Overall, my year has been a good one (running wise).

• I’ve drastically improved my form.
• I’ve improved my 5k race time.
• I’ve ran in a race longer than 10k (Hudy 14k).
• I’ve made several double digit runs (pre-PF my longest run was 3.6mi).
• I’m more efficient in my trackwork.
• I remained (kinda) diligent in my runs, with the exception of when hurt myself, and then when I fell off the wagon after my daughter was born (good reason).
• I’ve amassed a decent amount of running gear.
• I’ve put in good ground work to reach my goal of racing a total of 50 kilometers by the time I’m 30 (six months from today).
• I’ve picked up on some of the nuances of running:
• --Know when to show up for a race
• --Know where to line up in the chute
• --Know to stash water on long runs
• --Know what to wear in what weather
• --Know to stretch and warm up
• --And so on
• I’ve run a total of 356 miles.
• And on top of it, I’ve had a lot of fun.

Outside of running my year has been good as well.

• I’ve graduated a class of excellent students.
• I’ve helped direct the school’s musical.
• I’ve had a great time with my wife and son (he and I had a blast this summer).
• I’ve potty-trained my son (for those parents out there, you know how big a deal that can be).
• I’ve made some new friends.
• And most importantly, I got to welcome my daughter into the world.

As big of a year that 2011 was for my running growth, I suspect 2012 will be even bigger. Despite the leaps and bounds of the past year, I still see it as ground work for a much larger plan. I have many goals for this year, some are carryovers from years past (as denoted by an *), and some are completely new.

• I will run the Flying Pig Half Marathon on May 6th.
• I will run the U.S. Air Force Marathon on Sept 15th.
• I will finish my goal of 50k of races run (I’m at 49k) before my 30th birthday.
• I will get my weight down to 215.*
• But an important part of the weight-loss is to do so while maintaining my muscle mass (I really don’t want to shrink).
• I will do more of my running in the morning (which means waking up when the alarm goes off).
• I will eat more healthily.
• I will help my wife get into running.
• I will improve my swimming technique.

I have a lot of big goals, but none of them are too lofty (except the waking up when my alarm goes off). But that’s common; I’ve always had high expectations, of myself and those around me. To help me track all of this work, I wrote an extensive training log on an excel-like Google doc (it's got a 5 star rating from 74 users...just saying). Any of you are welcome to use it, and if you have trouble with it, or need it modified, just contact me.

Those of you who take the time to follow this blog, thank you. And those of you who have sent comments and suggestions via e-mail thank you very much. And to you who has allowed me the time and money to focus on running (particularly those multi-hour long runs on Saturdays when you’d rather I stay home and do housework), thank you, and I love you.