January 5-11 Training

Monday - 5 miles (9:36). Brixx run.
Tuesday - 5 miles (9:38).
Wednesday - No running.
Thursday - 5 miles (9:53).
Friday - No running.  Had dry needling done on the left leg at 10:45 AM.  It was pretty sore when I went to run in the afternoon, so cancelled the run.

This works ....



Saturday - 2 miles (11:25).  Yes, that pace is correct at 11:25.  I was still pretty sore from the dry needling, but wanted to get some mileage to help the leg.
Sunday - 10 miles (9:14).  Saturday night I could feel the left leg starting to get better and it was remarkably better when I woke up on Sunday morning.  I probably ran this too fast since I hadn't run 10 miles since November, but I was too excited about the medical miracle from Dr. Jason Hulme's dry needling on Friday.

Total miles: 27 miles.  I was pretty excited about how the dry needling on Friday improved my leg by so much in 48 hours.  As I write this on Monday morning, the leg feels really good, which is great considering I had a good 10 mile run in yesterday.  I am optimistic that I have now turned the corner and hopefully the left leg issue is now in the past. I am now looking forward to running the half marathon in Houston this coming Sunday.  I can feel my conditioning improving now that I am getting in some runs.   

Stay tuned for next week's Houston Half Marathon recap.

December 29 - January 4 Training

Monday - 4.38 miles (9:27).  Brixx run.
Tuesday - No running.
Wednesday - 5 miles (9:17).
Thursday - No running
Friday - 4.13 miles (9:05).
Saturday - 3 miles (9:29).
Sunday- 8 miles (9:40).

Total miles: 24.5 miles.  The left leg continues to improve, but Thursday it felt a little worse when I started running, so I stopped and went back home.  Leg felt pretty good on Sunday's 8 mile run.  Cardio wise, this was a tough long run for me, longest run since November 23rd.  But I was happy to be able to get 24.5 miles in this week and hope that I can continue to increase the volume.

I put on the heart rate monitor on Sunday and was surprised the Garmin only reduced my VO2 max from 49 to 46.  Maybe it just lowers it a little at a time, I was expecting it to be down to 42-44.

2014 Running Recap

Although I ended 2014 on the sidelines for most of December, 2014 was a great year for me and this was my first full year of running after getting started in March of 2013.

Statistics for 2014:

Total miles run: 2704.5
Longest Run Streak: 121 days (Feb. 21 to June 21, 1021.8 miles, 8.4 miles per day)
Most miles in 1 week: 85 (August 11-17)
PR's: 9.
Marathons: 3
Half Marathons: 7

When I started 2014, I had the following PR's:

5K: 25:06
10K: 50:18
Half Marathon: 1:52:49
Marathon: 3:51:10

By the end of June, I blew all of those PR's away with the following new times:

5K: 21:17 (Middle Tennessee Shootout)
10K: 45:04 (Purity Moosic City)
Half Marathon: 1:38:46 (Derby - Louisville)
Marathon: 3:26:21 (Grandma's Marathon, BQ)

The year started with the Goofy challenge at Disney World.  My goal was to get under 2 hours for the half and come back the next day and get under 4 hours for the full.  I has happy with my times of 1:56:01 and 3:58:01.  This was a lot of fun staying with the HRC runners in a house near the park and I look forward to doing this again, maybe in 2016.

February through May is when I got to work on speed.  I wasn't even thinking about the possibility of qualifying for the 2015 Boston Marathon until I took over 10 minutes off my half marathon PR at the Tom King half (1:42:05) in March and 5 weeks later lowered the half PR to 1:38:46 and Derby in Louisville. 

We went to Seattle for a vacation the last week of May where I made a 15K debut in the Emerald City 15K and took my first official age group and Grandmaster's win with a time of 1:09:05 (7:25 pace).  A few hours later we boarded the Grand Princess for a 7-day cruise where I spent a 22 mile day on the treadmill in a cruise week of 72 miles.

A few weeks later, I crossed the finish line at Grandma's Marathon with a time of  3:26:21 and was making plans for Boston in 2015.

August and September were tough as I was having soreness in the right leg.  Not every day, but quite a bit, so I ran the Twin Cities marathon in early October as an easy paced training run.  I never would have thought a 3:50 marathon would be an easy paced marathon, considering it was my second fastest of 5 marathons.

The left calf sprain came two days after the Twin Cities marathon and I surprisingly came back after 5 days off and a few days after that my right leg issues were gone and have not returned.  However, after two hill races in November, a left abductor strain sidelined me for most of December. 

It's slowly getting better and I have been able to resume running.

Looking ahead to this year, January and February will be spent getting some conditioning back that was lost over the last month or so and getting the body back to 100% so I am ready for Boston in April.

In July, my wife and I get to run in the Napa to Sonoma half marathon, which should be a lot of fun.

The summer will be spent training for the Berlin Marathon, which is on September 27th.  I'm hoping this is my key race of 2015 and that I will have had several healthy months going into this race.  It's flat and fast.

I hope everyone out there has a safe and healthy 2015!

December 15-28 Training

Monday, Dec. 15 - No running.  60 minutes elliptical, 2.5 miles walking.
Tuesday, Dec. 16 - No running.  60 minutes elliptical.
Wednesday, Dec. 17 - No running.  45 minutes elliptical, 4 miles walking.
Thursday, Dec. 18 - No running.  45 minutes elliptical.
Friday, Dec. 19 - No running.  Travel day to Ft. Lauderdale.
Saturday, Dec. 20 - No running.  First day that I felt I was walking normal without a slight limp.
Sunday, Dec. 21 - 3 miles (9:17).  First run in 20 days.
Monday, Dec. 22 - No running.
Tuesday, Dec. 23 - 2 miles (10:00). 
Wednesday, Dec. 24 - 1/2 mile running.  I felt the left leg was too sore to keep going.
Thursday, Dec. 25 - 4 miles (9:57).
Friday, Dec. 26 - 5 miles (9:59).
Saturday, Dec. 27 - 3 miles (9:59).
Sunday, Dec. 28 - No running.  Long travel day back home.

2 week total:  17.5 miles running.  I was on a Caribbean Cruise from December 21 to 28 and did manage to finally get back to some easy running.  The left leg continues to be sore.  If the pain level is 3 or less on a scale of 1 to 10, then I will try running.  Usually it will get better after a mile or two.  I feel a bit more sore than I did a week ago from the week of running, but also the travel day on airplanes and handling luggage takes a toll on the sore leg as well.

December 8-14 Training

Monday - No running. 30 minutes elliptical, 2.75 miles walking.
Tuesday - No running, 30 minutes elliptical, 2 miles walking.
Wednesday - No running, 90 minutes elliptical.
Thursday - No running, 60 minutes elliptical.
Friday - No running, 3.5 miles walking.
Saturday- No running, 1 mile walking.
Sunday - No running, 10 miles walking.

Total miles - 0 miles running, 19.25 miles walking, 3 hours, 30 minutes elliptical. The left leg continues to improve, but it's a slow process.  I can still feel soreness just in walking, but it did feel good to get in 10 miles on Sunday while watching the Vikings.  I'm hopeful that I'm about a week away from running.

December 1 - 7 Training

Monday - 4 miles (9:58). Brixx run, but left leg was feeling quite sore.
Tuesday - No running. Diagnosed with left abductor strain. 
Wednesday - 30 minutes elliptical.
Thursday - 75 minutes elliptical.
Friday - 1 mile walking + 30 minutes elliptical.
Saturday - 2.5 mile walking.
Sunday - 1 mile walking.

Total miles - 4 miles running, 4.5 miles walking, 135 minutes elliptical.  Taking a pause from running to allow the left abductor strain to heal.  A bit frustrating to be on the sidelines, but I don't want to rush back too soon and have it continue to be a problem. The focus has now shifted to the Boston Marathon where I want a healthy training cycle.  I most likely will switch to the half marathon at Houston next month and only run that if I'm fully recovered.  I am going to have to show some patience.  The left leg feels a little better each day, but just slightly.  I can still feel it just walking, so I will continue to walk and use the elliptical.  Once it doesn't hurt walking I can ramp up the walking miles.