The path to my fixed purpose is laid with iron rails, whereon my soul is grooved to run.
Who knew?
Apparently Lauren Fleshman, a Nike sponsored runner, has been posting to a weblog since sometime earlier this year. The posts are a little long for my short attention span, but some of them are pretty interesting. The one called Willy Wonka and the Running Factory is definitely worth reading.
For more of Lauren, check out the videos at Flotrack.
One of the “perks” of my job is that I get an annual physical to meet the OSHA respirator requirements (§1910.143), including a basic spirometry test:
Spirometry (meaning the measuring of breath) is the most common of the Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs), measuring lung function, specifically the measurement of the amount (volume) and/or speed (flow) of air that can be inhaled and exhaled.
I scored 102% of the predicted value for someone of my height, weight, age. That’s up a little bit from 98% last November, which was before I started running. Certainly, not enough data to show causation, but I like to think running has helped. :)
I think I can safely say that the bronchitis is gone, and has been for a while now. The plan is to go back to a full five day schedule starting this week.
Fortunately I was able to hit at least three days last week:
Tonight I took a break from running and did a decent lifting routine. I’m still using 2×20 pound dumbbells, but I’m up to 3×10 reps on each exercise. I also tried to add some squats to the mix. Combined with the usual lunges, my legs are officially spent.
It’s been two weeks since I last ran. I can assure you that dealing with bronchitis is not fun.
I couldn’t take it anymore, so even though I still have some cough/chest issues I decided to go for a run today. My goal was to keep the run short and keep it easy.
Ran 2.26 miles in 20:44 (9:10/mi pace) with an average speed of 6.5 mph and a max of 7.7 mph. My 1-mile splits were 9:32 and 8:46 with the last quarter at a 9:18/mi pace. Burned about 330 calories.
Felt good. I think I still have a ways to go before I can call myself “recovered” but it was nice to know I haven’t lost as much ground as I thought.
I’ve been fighting a cold for the better part of a week. It started as a throat thing last Wednesday, but then became a throat/chest thing by Thursday. By late Thursday into Friday it became a nasty chest thing with some of the symptoms of acute bronchitis.
So, as much as it killed me to do it, I had to skip the York White Rose 5-Miler on Saturday. It would have been my 10th race since I started running back in January, and it would have been my longest race to date. Instead, I sat around the house and felt sorry for myself.
The good news is that I feel considerably better today, and I hope back in action this coming week.
To paraphrase the Tao of Programming, “After three days without running, life becomes meaningless.” I need to get back out on the road… badly.
There’s a short video of ultramarathoner Missy Foy talking about running and diabetes at Brightcove. Worth watching.
I’m still in between plans at this point, so I didn’t have a specific distance in mind when I headed out for tonight’s run. I just hit start on the Garmin and kept it at a comfortable pace.
Ran 5.01 miles in 48:25 (9:39/mi pace) with an average speed of 6.2 mph and a max of 9.6 mph. My 1-mile splits were 9:33, 10:01, 10:02, 9:46, and 8:54 with the last 0.01 at an 8:35/mi pace. Burned about 750 calories.
If you take out the last little bit, I ran 5.00 miles in 48:16. That’s a new (unofficial) PR for me, beating my previous record of 48:47 from last month by a few seconds.
Today was the 1st Annual Zachary Clouser & Jeremy Wildasin Memorial 5k Race in Dover. It was run by the Dover Cross Country team in honor of two local students. It started at 2 PM under blue skies and cool fall weather with a nice breeze, right around 57 degrees at race time. Perfect race weather.
Originally it was supposed to be a road course through town, but a notice posted on the race website said otherwise:
Due to a last minute snafu with the Dover borough we had to change the course of the 5k race. The new course is the Dover Cross Country course. The link to the course map is below. This will provide a unique opportunity to experience one of the many cross country courses that the kids are running every week throughout the fall.
That’s the best snafu ever, because the race course absolutely rocked.
It was a classic cross country course including jumping on rocks to cross a stream, rickety wooden bridges, looping around trees, and avoiding roots and groundhog holes. Certainly made for a scenic and yet difficult course, especially considering I’ve never so much as run a dirt trail let alone one with hazards.
With my Pumpkin Chase 5K results clearly in mind, I made a concerted effort to not take the first mile too fast. A couple checks of my Garmin showed that I was in the 6:xx/mi range, so I tried to slow it down to the high sevens or low eights. About 0.8 mi into it I found my groove and seemed to be handling the hills well. I think it was not too far past the 1.0 mark that we entered the woods and I had to work to keep my pace. Lots of sharp turns and quite a few things to make everyone watch their step. A couple more loops and turns and we were heading back toward the track. The last tenth or so was on the track and finished into the chute.
Official time was 24:41 (PDF), crushing my previous PR of 26:05 from the SGACC 5K. That put me at 22 out of 57 runners. Definitely in the top half and fourth in my age group, missing a third place award by only about 16 seconds. They are supposed to post official results on the website in the next week or so.
Garmin GPS had me covering 2.97 miles in 24:41 (8:18/mi pace) with an average speed of 7.2 mph and a max of 9.9 mph. My 1-mile splits were 7:53, 8:49, and 8:13. So according to that the course was a little short, but considering it’s an official PIAA course, I’m going to blame some of that on tree cover and GPS accuracy.
There was a FOX43 film crew there, so I’m assuming the race will be on tonight’s news. I’ll have to check that out. :)
Awesome race today. I’m pumped.
After dealing with a near-cold for the better part of a week, I think I’m finally back to 100%. Headed out to do a 30-minute tempo run today to see how much backsliding I did.
Ran 3.22 miles in 30:00 (9:19/mi pace) with an average speed of 6.4 mph and a max of 8.3 mph. First ten was 1.06 miles at a 9:27/mi pace. Next ten was 1.18 miles at a 8:26/mi pace. Final ten was 0.98 miles at a 10:13/mi pace. Burned about 485 calories.
I’m happy with that.