Category: Daily Training

Good morning for an early run. Venus is up in the east just above a crescent Moon and Mars is bright in the western sky. The route I ran is a figure-8 type route, run in both directions, to take advantage of what hills are nearby. There’s a guy who is doing some bike work on part of the route as well, so we pass each other occasionally. Another crazy out at 5AM.

I’ve been nursing a bit of a “runner’s knee” for about a week or so. Annoying. Some ice, rolling, and a massage after a run seems to be sufficient. Interesting that there’s a dark bruise behind my knee on the inside-leg side. It feels superficial but something to keep an eye on.

Distance: 6.85 miles. Target pace: 9:50; actual: 9:51. Target weight: 145.7; actual: 149.4

Had to improvise a course due to telephone poles and trees being down on roads and those road then being closed. The power was out so it was a real challenge to see it all in the dark.

My Samsung Gear 3 watch for some reason didn’t really time the run. I started the timer but it didn’t apparently actually start. Not a crisis obviously, but it is something to pay more attention to when it’s really needed, e.g., a race.

Distance: 4.35 miles on a generally flat course. Target pace: 9:10; actual: guess around 9:30. Maybe less–doesn’t really matter too much. Target weight: 146.6; actual: 148.2.

Nice, cool morning for a run.

One of the things I’ve noticed about distance running is that the mental part is just as, if not more important than, the physical part. We need to train our brains to be patient — we’re going to be out here for a while. Relax.

Distance: 8.05 miles on a rolling hills course. Target pace: 9:10; actual: 9:12. Weight: target 146.5; actual: 148.0

After running for about a month with rest days worked in between running days (usually), I think everything is in good enough shape to start running daily. I haven’t felt anything from the stress fracture I had and my left knee feels a bit sore after a run but by the next morning it’s OK. I ran 8 miles this morning — no problem. I’ll pick up virtual racing with the Ocean View Half on November 8th.

Distance: 8.05 miles on a good rolling hills course (about 400 feet of climb). Target pace: 9:10; actual: 9:12. Target weight: 146.7; actual: 149.4.

Very nice early morning for a run. Clear skies, 56 degrees, no wind, and a near-full moon low in the west. No skunks.

I’ve noticed, now that I’ve been tracking my weight each day, that it varies by several pounds day to day. I always weigh myself first thing in the morning, so that I can get as consistent a daily tracking as possible. Yesterday my weight was about five pounds heavier than today. I’m focused (correctly) on the trend but the daily variation is surprising.

Distance: 7.15 miles on a fairly flat route. Target pace: 9:10; actual: 9:15. Target weight: 147.1; actual: 146.4.

Warm day today, so it was a better training run to get out in the sun instead of running at 5AM. Early morning is great (gets the started right) but mid-day sun and humidity are more of a workout.

Distance: 5.3 miles. Target pace: 9:10; actual: 9:22. Target weight: 147.3; actual: 148.6.

Getting back into the daily habit of early morning (4AM) runs is, let’s say, “a bit of a challenge.” It does get easier though. I think we’ve all become a bit soft with the pandemic stay-at-home we’ve been forced into. There isn’t such a rush to “get up and go” since we don’t really “go.”

Distance today: 4.32 miles on a relatively flat course. Target weight: 148.0, actual: 149.2. Target pace: 9:10, actual: 9:08.

First “official” day back to training after taking a break to let a stress fracture heal. I’ve run some to test it all out. No issues. It’s so much more enjoyable to run (relatively 😉 pain free.

Since I couldn’t run for about nine weeks, I decided to put in miles on my racing bike. I read several articles about what to do while healing and all recommended hitting the bike. Apparently bike training doesn’t negatively impact a healing stress fracture. Riding up to 15 miles on a rolling hills course is a good workout. Now that I’m back to running I plan to mix in some cross-training bike miles.

Distance: 6.85 miles on a rolling hills course. Weight: target: 148.2, actual: 148.8. Pace: target: 9:50, actual: 9:46.

Finishing week eight of a nine week layoff. The right leg feels fine. No signs of the stress fracture. One week to go until I start running. It’s going to start super-short (1K) and gradually ramp up.

For the past eight weeks it’s been cross-training on the racing bike. I’m thinking about keeping some riding mixed into the running training after I can start running again.

It’s been very strange: in eight weeks of riding I have yet to ride once in the rain. I’m out at around 5AM. You watch — tomorrow there will be a deluge.

Last week the Erie Marathon was cancelled. Now it’s the Boston Marathon. I fully expect that the two races I have (Triple Threat 1M/5k/Half in Rockport and the Funky Monkey Half in Seekonk) in August that aren’t cancelled already will be soon. It’s turning into the year that wasn’t.

OK, so what do we do? Whine? No, thanks. Now’s the time to focus. Forget feeling sorry for ourselves. Time to get to work.

Weight: target: 150.86, actual: 150.0. Pace: target: 9:50, actual: 9:43.