Hospital Hill week

This is taper week for the Hospital Hill half marathon, so my plan is to do three low-mileage runs today, Tuesday and Wednesday, then rest Thursday and Friday. The race is Saturday morning.
So at 6:15 this morning, with the temperature already at 75, I was out for my longest run of the week: 6.1 miles. Once I got loosened up I decided to elevate the workout to a tempo run, which I haven't done in at least a couple of weeks.
After a 10:11 first mile and a 9:32 second, I went 9:01, 8:31, 8:05 and 7:48 for an average pace of 8:50. This was a good preparatory run for the race because it was a hilly course on a warm day. We all know HH usually lands on a hot day. The bonus this year might be the weather, though. Right now the forecast is for early morning temperatures in the middle 50s on Saturday. If that holds it would be great. -- Rob

Well, it's Something!

Got real tired of sitting around for a week waiting for my back, knee, and legs to feel better after my fall off a ladder last Thursday.  Although I didn't seem to incur any serious injuries, I non-the-less, was very shaken up and in quite a bit of pain for the first two days.  Thanks to some good drugs (legal), I didn't feel the full brunt of the pain.

To date, the back is still sore, the knee seems to have another meniscus tear, or feels like it, and I have numbness in my legs.

I just got tired of feeling so down yesterday and decided to just walk.  I walked 3.41 miles at a 20:00 pace and actually felt like I accomplished something, or at least burned off a few calories.  Today I upt the mileage to a little over 5 miles at the same pace.  Just walking on my familiar running routes felt pretty damn good!

Tomorrow I'll hit the bike and get in a short ride.  Since it's pretty obvious I have a very slim chance of running again, I have resigned myself to just alternating walking and riding.  So be it! ....Mike

Going long

With the Hospital Hill half marathon coming up in a couple of weeks, I wanted to challenge my stamina a little bit, so I decided to do up to 15 miles. I chose a flat course on Highway 9 in Parkville. The idea was to run the levee trail and then head down to English Landing Park. Turned out the levee trail was closed - no idea why - so I could only do .3 mile there. I did that loop twice because a train cut off my exit, then headed north to Horizons Parkway, which is a nice out and back that adds up to about 3 miles. When I got there a sign announced the road would be closed by 7 a.m., but it was just 6:25, so I had plenty of time.
By the time I got back to my car at the levee trail head, I had gone a little over 8 miles and was feeling very good and knew I could do 15. It was starting to warm up though, and I kind of knew I wouldn't feel so good in 4 or 5 miles if I didn't keep the pace down and hydrate.
After a short break for a drink and to load up my fuel belt, I headed down to English Landing. The sun was still low in the sky and behind trees, so there were good stretches where I was in the shade. That was helpful.
As it turned out, I felt good enough to complete the whole 15, doing it at a 9:27 pace. That includes walking for 40 seconds between miles. The run gave me just short of 36 miles for the week. I will ease off a bit next week and then taper one week for Hospital Hill. Despite the difficulty of the course, HH is where I set my half marathon PR. That was in 2009 when I posted a 1:49:05. My training has gone real well this year, so there's a chance I could come close to that this year. I'll probably shoot shoot for it, but it really all depends on what kind of weather we have. HH is notorious for heat and humidity, and if that's what we get that day, there will be no PR for me. -- Rob

Running with the Cows

Got up early for the long drive to Bucyrus, Ks., and the Running with the Cows half marathon. Just for the record, I did not see a single cow all morning long, although I did see two real horses and someone in a cow costume. Several female runners applied cow spots to their skin and/or wore cow-spotted attire, but they, personally, did not resemble cows at all. No.

The race was delayed 15 minutes because of traffic along the route. That meant we all stood around in the chute for a good 25 or 30 minutes, which is not a particularly good warm-up for a race.

After that it felt real good to get going. I positioned myself right behind the 2:00 pace group leaders, figuring I would stick with them for 5 or 6 miles, then, hopefully, move on. I dumped them at mile 2, mostly because they walked at the first aid station, and I didn't want to do that. I took 10 seconds to get a drink and then was on my way. I never saw them again until after the turnaround. They did help me start out slowly: my first two splits were 9:27 and 9:20, which I thought was just about perfect.

My legs felt pretty energetic, since I hadn't run for two days. After abandoning the 2-hour group, I immediately increased my pace by at least a minute a mile. Here they are: 8:20, 8:46, 8:36, 8:22, 8:21, 8:13, 8:18, 8:20, 8:29, 8:37 and 8:14. I walked twice, once in the first half of the race for 20 seconds, and once in the second half for about 30 seconds. While my last split was pretty good, I was worn out at the end. My watch recorded a time of 1:52: 46, which is an 8:34 pace.

I have to admit I thought of Amy's 1:47 several times during the run, and toyed with the idea of trying to beat it. But who was I kidding? I'm no 25-year-old super athlete like SOME people. I'm almost 62. I bow to the Queen of the MRC.

As of now I have no idea where I might have placed, or if I did. Last year's winner in my age group just managed to break 2 hours, and there were only 5 men in my age group. If the same ones came back again this year, I might have a chance at my first age group award ever. They were posting results, but there were so many heads in the way I couldn't get a good look at them. After trying to find myself from a distance for a few minutes, I just gave up and left. I can look it up later.

This is a very nice event with a super feed afterward. It's a fund raiser for Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic school, and it looked like all the school kids and parents, and the church membership, were out there volunteering and cheering. Besides food from such places as Jack Stack Barbecue, there was a ton of home baked goodies. It all looked delicious, but I'm usually not very hungry immediately after a long race, so I didn't eat much. -- Rob

What Does This Mean?

After Monday's half mile walk and J-word and then adding another half mile walk with Dan G. that evening, I decided to go for a longer walk today.  I walked .35 miles and just for the hell of it, decided to J-word for as long as I could stand the pain.

As it turned out, the pain lasted only for about ten seconds, so I just decided to just pick up the pace to what I would consider a slow run.  The pain never came back so I just kept going. 

I completed three miles with the first .35 walking.  Total time was 40.55 which is slow by any standards, but for me it was a huge hurdle and I sure didn't want to push my luck. 

Knee does not hurt at all and I'm fairly encouraged by what might be possible from here on out.  It's been pretty frustrating for me over the last five plus months, but hopefully, this may be another new beginning.

BTW, my splits were 16:05, 13:46 and 11:04.  Felt almost like a runner that last mile!   Mike

Long Ride?

Once upon a time on a Saturday, Bill and I rode our bikes!

This message was longer than our ride!..........Mike

Long run

I had some extra time off this morning due to a dental appointment, so I used it to get in my long run for the week before going to work. It was overcast and dark, and looked like it was going to rain any minute, but I figured I'd get out there and go as far as I could before the skies opened up.
I chose English Landing because it is flat, and because I figured if I did loops and it rained I'd never be more than a mile from the car.
The overcast was a real blessing because it held the temperature down through most of the run. The only precipitation came as the clouds blew out - about 15 minutes of a light mist. After that the clouds thinned considerably and the temperature climbed quickly. I was glad I didn't have to do more than about 4 miles in those warm, humid conditions.
I was shooting for 10 or 11 miles as the last long run before next weekend's half marathon. I wound up with 11 miles in 1:36:42, a pace of 8:58. -- Rob

Total Dissapointment!

Well, the doc told me I could begin my running again in three weeks.  Today was the day!  NOT!!!

I went down to English Landing so I could run on the soft trail.  I walked the first half mile then began a very slow jog, if there is such a thing.  I had only taken about ten short strides when I had to stop due to the pain.  I walked another 30-40 feet and tried again, even slower.  No go!

Rather than throw in the towel and give up, I've decided to rest the knee another two weeks and try again.  I'll stick to some short bike rides every other day just to keep the heart rate up and the weight down.  Really dissapointed right now.  I was looking forward to slowly building my mileage.

Soon I might have to resign to the fact that I can no longer run.  I hope not!....Mike

Longest Ride Since Hilly Hundred!

Had a super biking experience with Brandon Saturday during the Spring Classice tour with KCMBC.  293 participants enjoyed the perfect weather, but not sure about enjoyng all the hills.

The options were 24 miles, 46 miles or 70 miles.  Since I was a little aprehensive about the knee, I was all for the 24 miler.  However, Brandon wanted to do the 46 miler, which we did.  Sure was glad to see that last mile which turned out to be 47.12 miles, not 46!  Remember, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. 

I really was surprised at all the tough hills!  There was a series of three really long, semi-steep, grinders somewhere around the 35 mile mark that forced me to get off my bike and walk the last 1/8th of a mile to the top.  My theighs were just screaming and I was beginning to be overly concerned with the knee, but we made it to the finish and headed home with me driving and Brandon sleeping.  No surprise there! 

Mike