A break from the long run

For some strange reason, I woke up yesterday with lower back pain. Not excrutiating but enough to sideline me from my 8 mile run today. It's probably just as well, today is going to be super busy. I have a feeling the back pain was from sleeping too long because this morning I woke up after 6.5 hours of sleep and the pain wasn't as bad as before. I'm a little bummed this morning that Missouri couldn't beat OU last night to make it to the BCS championship game in football. I don't see them getting another chance like this for a long time. With the big SEC schools competing for a national championship every year, Mizzou will probably not be in this position ever again. Oh well, it's just sports.

Turket Trot

From 2007 Turkey Trot

Well, it's very cold in this neck of the woods. For two years now we have gone out as a family to the Springfield Park Board Turkey Trot to benefit the Developmental Center of the Ozarks and the Ozarks food harvest. This is the first year and first race for Emily, so I just ran along side of her as a father-daughter run. The starting temperature was about 28 degrees F, definitely below what I am comfortable with. Emily did really well for her first race. Her official time has yet to be posted but it was around 29:45 or 30 minutes.

Wicked cramp

Today was Veteran's Day so I was off work. I hung out with my buddy Rob this morning a little as we discussed life over a cup of coffee at McDonalds (he actually had a bagel and Coke). After returning home, I did some laundry and straightened up the house, while I awaited the repairman to come and replace the lamp in my DLP HDTV. He came about 11 and was done in about 45 minutes. I decided that I was going to go for about a 4-5 mile run. The weather was about 65 and kind of humid as it had rained all morning. About 2 miles into the run, I developed a side stitch/cramp. I tried slowing down and walking for a minute or so, but when I resumed running the cramp came back strong. I walked about the next two miles because every time I tried to start running again it came back. I usually don't get side-stitches, so this was very frustrating. Later this evening Emily and I went for about a 2.5 mile jog to help her get ready for the Turkey Trot next week, I wasn't planning on running but ran about 1.5 miles in my jeans that I was wearing. Emily kept saying "Dad, you are going to chafe". Hard to believe she is 9. She is the one on the far left of the picture below.

Some running statistics from my half-marathon. Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1280 ft Location: Springfield, MO Elev. Gain: -13 ft Date: 11/04/07 Up/Downhill: [+426/-439] Time: 06:03 AM Difficulty: 3.3 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 13.16 miles Time: 1:58:07 Speed: 6.7 mph Pace: 8' 59 /mi Heart Rate: 171 bpm (Avg) Calories: 2382 184 bpm (Peak) Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Heart Rate (bpm)   Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 176 - 195 0h 25m 21%  2.78 mi Zone 4 156 - 176 1h 41m 85%  11.30 mi Zone 3 137 - 156 0h 01m 1%  0.15 mi Zone 2 117 - 137 0h 00m 0%  0.02 mi Zone 1 98 - 117 0h 00m 0%  0.01 mi (none) out of range 0h 00m 0%  0.00 mi Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 36 -0' 23 7.0 +0.3 160 0 ft 2 8' 39 -0' 20 6.9 +0.3 170 +13 ft 3 8' 49 -0' 10 6.8 +0.1 169 -13 ft 4 8' 55 -0' 04 6.7 +0.0 166 -60 ft 5 8' 53 -0' 06 6.8 +0.1 174 +56 ft 6 9' 06 +0' 07 6.6 -0.1 170 -23 ft 7 8' 44 -0' 15 6.9 +0.2 174 -23 ft 8 9' 00 +0' 01 6.7 -0.0 172 -16 ft 9 8' 46 -0' 13 6.8 +0.2 174 -13 ft 10 9' 30 +0' 31 6.3 -0.4 172 +3 ft 11 9' 25 +0' 26 6.4 -0.3 173 +13 ft 12 9' 23 +0' 24 6.4 -0.3 174 +42 ft 13 9' 05 +0' 06 6.6 -0.1 176 +16 ft end 8' 13 -0' 46 7.3 +0.6 183 -10 ft Versus average of 8' 59 min/mile

Posted from runtracker.runnersworld.com

The hardest thing I've ever done.

I woke up early this morning and headed off for the Bass Pro Shops Inaugral Half-Marathon. The race time temperature at 7 a.m. was 43 degrees and was nice for the entire race. My goal for the race was to finish of course and to finish in under 2 hours was my second goal. I was pretty sure that I wouldn't meet my goal because when I did my training run it took me 2:13 to run 13.1 miles. However, I was setting my sights high. Patrick agreed to run with me the entire race because he had just run the Columbus Half-Marathon two weeks ago.


Mile1-6: Felt good, average pace was between 8:33 and 8:45 . Took water and gel at 6 miles.

Mile7-10 Starting to fatigue a little, average pace 8:45 to 9:00. Took water and another gel pack at 9 miles. At Mile 10 I started to get a little tired.

Mile 10-11-Had to cross over Kansas Expressway for the second time and that hill was hard. By the time I got to the 11 mile mark I was getting ready to quit.

Mile 12-More of the same, fatigue pain in my ankle, ready to be done with this.

Mile 12-13.1 Hardest mile I've ever run. The last 0.2 I ran at 7:48 through the finish line. Official time was 1 hour 58 minutes and 19 secs. I had done it. As I crossed the line I almost started crying. I don't know if it was emotions or just exhaustion.

After the race, I thought "I don't know if I could do a marathon". Maybe I was just feeling tired.

The Kitchen 5k

This past Saturday, I ran my PR (personal record) in the Kitchen Run 5k. My time was 24:57 which was 45 secs faster than my last 5k in November. I was really surprised because I haven't been putting in near the amount of days running as I was in November. My goal is to run the Bass Pro Shops Springfield Marathon in November. At minimum I am planning on running the half marathon.