Since I ran yesterday, and am committed to not over-training in the early days of the Second Age of Morning Running, I did not run this morning. But to make up for that, I want to run both Saturday and Sunday.
The forecast for this weekend hasn’t changed all that much. All three days are supposed to see triple digit highs with high humidity. As a result, my running this weekend will take place early in the mornings, which is not conducive for sleeping in, but very conducive for avoiding heat stroke.
I plan on getting three miles in tomorrow morning around 7AM, followed by a “long” run of 3.5 to 4 miles Sunday morning around the same time. I put long in quotation marks because obviously that’s not long in the “My long run this weekend will be my final 20 miler before the marathon,” sense of long. But hey, I’m recently back to running and don’t wish to try to crank out 6 miles and shatter my knee.
And I need to get up and out the door early because my 3.5 mile run last Sunday morning devolved into a death march right around mile three. I waited until after 9AM to head out, which may sound early chronologically speaking, but climatologically speaking it really wasn’t. It was already well above 80 and humid by the time I got going and by the time I staggered home, it was nearly 90.
And with that, I’m off for lunch out in the fetid oven that is downtown Baltimore in July.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Running in Geologic Time
Nobody reading this blog, whether on purpose, after losing a bet, or through the black-box algorithms of a misguided Google search, will be surprised to learn that running in the early morning or late at night during the summer is the way to go. Baltimore and Washington in the summer tend to become roiling concrete kilns with oppressive humidity mixed in for good measure. Of course, folks living in Florida or Arizona or elsewhere in the Deep South or Southwest will say, "You think you're hot? Just try living in Orlando/New Orleans/Jackson/Flagstaff in July!" To which I say, you're probably right that it's worse there than here on any given day from June through mid-September. But that's the point, right? Many of us have to deal with the heat and running in some fashion. Really, when the temperature goes above 85 (arbitrary number), you're dying on your run whether it's in Boston or Birmingham.
To that end, I present this screenshot of the Weather Channel's forecast for Baltimore for the next five days:
To that end, I present this screenshot of the Weather Channel's forecast for Baltimore for the next five days:
For Baltimore, that's absurd. The 108 high on Saturday is particularly crazy, because the tropical humidity has arrived, which could make the heat index go somewhere around 115.
All this is by way of saying that running early in the morning is a must for me these days. There was a time, a brief time, an Age of Lunch Running (in the geological meaning...as in shorter than an epoch, period, era or eon), when I thought running during my lunch hour would work great for my schedule. Wrong! Turns out it takes more than an hour to change into running clothes, get outside of a skyscraper, run, cool down, come back to the gym in the office, change, shower, put work clothes back on and get back to my desk. Which didn't work.
Moreover, while lunch running is fine for winter months, once you hit May, it's terrible until late September around here. Much of Baltimore, you'll be shocked to learn, lacks decent tree cover, especially downtown. So you're in the direct sun at the hottest part of the day. At first, it was a bit of a badge of honor to run in such hot conditions. Nobody else was out running and it felt like the summer corrollary to running in a snow storm in January or a downpour in April: you're a hard ass! Right?!
Wrong. Stupid. And wrong.
The hottest day I ever ran in reached 97 degrees (gross of the heat index); it took me a day to rehydrate and my body was sluggish for two days. Terrible idea and it was the beginning of the end of the Age of Lunch Running.
Now, I prefer to run before work for both climatological and scheduling reasons. I prefer to be done with my exercise early so I don't have to motivate myself at 5:30 PM after working all day to do it. The Age of Evening Running was even shorter than the Age of Lunch Running and never really got off the ground. I much prefer the quiet, largely car- and pedestrian-free streets of Baltimore at 6AM, in addition to the cooler temperatures.
Currently, I am in the early years of the Second Age of Morning Running. If I can maintain consistent running, I think I have a real chance to get it to an epoch eventually. 108 degree days will certainly help me keep motivated to wake up at 6AM when it's a cool 80 degrees, as it was this morning.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Reset Button
So the whole idea of being better about posting? Apparently that was just talk, because as you can tell, I haven't posted a SINGLE THING since last June. Not even a pitiful, "I'm super busy so can't post!" post. Just awful. While I haven't been sitting around watching paint dry these past twelve months, I did take a complete hiatus from running for the last six (or so).
I continued to run off and on without much in the way of consistency throughout last summer and into the winter. But it really wasn't substantial and I never got my endurance (and thus distance) back up much beyond 5K range. A (the wife) actually got more in to running than I did (probably write a separate post about that later). We ran the Cincinnati Thanksgiving Day Race in November since we were visiting the in-laws for that holiday, but that was my last race, really. I ran intermittently throughout the holidays and into early January.
But then I started studying for Level II of the Chartered Financial Analyst exam and quickly became consumed by that effort. Not having ANY business or financial background when I came in to the industry a few years back, the CFA curriculum has been a whole new world for me. As a result, it's required a lot more time than many other candidates. Level II, as any candidate or charterholder will tell you, is probably the most difficult level of the three. Why that is, is not actually very interesting. Suffice to say that I was studying every night after work and eventually all day every day every weekend.
That, combined with the dark, coldness of early winter mornings helped ease me out of running into sedentariness (is that a word?). Once I stopped running in early February, I never started back up. But I did tell myself I would start up again after the exam, which was back in early June. And, within a week of being done with that test, I was back huffing and puffing on the roads.
So, after about 3.5 weeks of pretty good consistency, I think I should start posting again on a somewhat regular basis. When I posted regularly, it was a good motivator. And since A and I have signed up for a 6 miler at the end of August and a half marathon in mid-October (aggressive!), I'm going to need all the motivation I can get!
To that end, consider this a reset of the blog. A fresh start, with a few changes. Of course, the main topics of the blog will be running and all that. But I'm going to try to stick with consistency here as well when it comes to posting. So I'll likely integrate additional topics into my posts that are not running related. Why? Because it's my blog, that's why! I'm envisioning something like 75% running/exercise and 25% other stuff. We'll see how that goes.
Finally, in terms of frequency of posting, don't expect me to suddenly go from zero posts to 20 per week. Frankly, I don't think I have enough to talk about to make that happen. But some days will have one post, some none, some might have several shorter posts. Again, I'll play it by ear.
I continued to run off and on without much in the way of consistency throughout last summer and into the winter. But it really wasn't substantial and I never got my endurance (and thus distance) back up much beyond 5K range. A (the wife) actually got more in to running than I did (probably write a separate post about that later). We ran the Cincinnati Thanksgiving Day Race in November since we were visiting the in-laws for that holiday, but that was my last race, really. I ran intermittently throughout the holidays and into early January.
But then I started studying for Level II of the Chartered Financial Analyst exam and quickly became consumed by that effort. Not having ANY business or financial background when I came in to the industry a few years back, the CFA curriculum has been a whole new world for me. As a result, it's required a lot more time than many other candidates. Level II, as any candidate or charterholder will tell you, is probably the most difficult level of the three. Why that is, is not actually very interesting. Suffice to say that I was studying every night after work and eventually all day every day every weekend.
That, combined with the dark, coldness of early winter mornings helped ease me out of running into sedentariness (is that a word?). Once I stopped running in early February, I never started back up. But I did tell myself I would start up again after the exam, which was back in early June. And, within a week of being done with that test, I was back huffing and puffing on the roads.
So, after about 3.5 weeks of pretty good consistency, I think I should start posting again on a somewhat regular basis. When I posted regularly, it was a good motivator. And since A and I have signed up for a 6 miler at the end of August and a half marathon in mid-October (aggressive!), I'm going to need all the motivation I can get!
To that end, consider this a reset of the blog. A fresh start, with a few changes. Of course, the main topics of the blog will be running and all that. But I'm going to try to stick with consistency here as well when it comes to posting. So I'll likely integrate additional topics into my posts that are not running related. Why? Because it's my blog, that's why! I'm envisioning something like 75% running/exercise and 25% other stuff. We'll see how that goes.
Finally, in terms of frequency of posting, don't expect me to suddenly go from zero posts to 20 per week. Frankly, I don't think I have enough to talk about to make that happen. But some days will have one post, some none, some might have several shorter posts. Again, I'll play it by ear.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Playing (Slightly) Hurt
One of the most common early running momentum crushers is injury. I should know, as several of my past efforts to get back to running consistently have been cut short by an overuse injury that turned into another several month long layoff from running. The worst was in 2009 when I strung together a few good weeks of running 2 miles at a time, with a day of rest in between to allow my body to start to re-adapt. Then I got stupid and went out and tried to run 5 miles on the NCR Trail. Unsurprisingly, I woke up the next morning with a sharp pain just below my kneecap that lingered for a week. I went to a sports medicine doctor and she quickly diagnosed runner’s knee. That kept me off the roads for several weeks. I’ve also had this happen with shin splints.
So, this time, I’ve been determined not to repeat the past, all the while accepting the fact that until my body really gets used to running consistently again, there will be aches and pains here and there. Earlier in the week, I felt my ever-tight right hamstring was slightly overtaxed. But it felt fine after a day. However, yesterday, after I walked to work (it’s about 1.5 miles each way), my right adductor muscle (along the inside of the thigh) tightened up and has been slightly achy ever since. Nothing horrible, but enough that I know it’s not 100%. My hamstrings and adductor muscles have been constant aches for some time now, despite stretching regimens. But suffice to say I will be increasing the intensity of those stretches from now on.
I was tender again last night after walking home (more uphill than the trip to work) thanks to the hills of Baltimore, but foolishly did not ice it down. I let it be and went to sleep, hoping it would resolve itself like my hamstring seemed to earlier this week. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, although thankfully it did not get worse. But it was pretty tight when I got out of bed this morning to go run (I took yesterday off). But it didn’t hurt badly enough that I thought I wouldn’t be able to get in my very short 1.5 mile run. I spent some extra time this morning stretching to try to warm it up enough to prevent a catastrophic injury and that seemed to work.
The combination of the short distance and short warm-up helped. I didn’t feel any discomfort during the run and hasn’t felt worse since then. I spent about 20 minutes icing the area and that also seemed to help. I wish I could have iced it while at work, but I think that would have been awkward. I’ll ice it again for 20 minutes when I get home tonight. I’m doing strength training tomorrow morning, so I won’t run on it until Sunday morning. I’m hopeful that will be enough time to help it feel better (with icing throughout that time).
But this morning’s run was most interesting to me because my minor injury didn’t get worse despite running on it, albeit very carefully. I was always aware of how it was feeling and whether there was any discomfort there that would tell me I was risking a more serious injury if I kept going. Increasing my stretching and icing routines will also help long term, as adductor injuries can take weeks to heal properly, longer if you keep running/playing with it and re-aggravate it every few days. The strain is a very minor one, to be sure, and I would likely not have run on it if, for example, it had hurt to walk or go up stairs. As it stands, the muscle just feels tight when I walk (mostly after having been sitting at my desk for some time) or climb stairs and loosens up considerably when I walk any distance. So, the situation is not serious to begin with. But I’m heartened that I made it through the run today without any problems. As I increase my mileage in the coming few weeks up to 5K distance, I can hopefully get these “re-acclimation” injuries out of the way and strengthen my body for when I move into the next stage of building my mileage.
So, this time, I’ve been determined not to repeat the past, all the while accepting the fact that until my body really gets used to running consistently again, there will be aches and pains here and there. Earlier in the week, I felt my ever-tight right hamstring was slightly overtaxed. But it felt fine after a day. However, yesterday, after I walked to work (it’s about 1.5 miles each way), my right adductor muscle (along the inside of the thigh) tightened up and has been slightly achy ever since. Nothing horrible, but enough that I know it’s not 100%. My hamstrings and adductor muscles have been constant aches for some time now, despite stretching regimens. But suffice to say I will be increasing the intensity of those stretches from now on.
I was tender again last night after walking home (more uphill than the trip to work) thanks to the hills of Baltimore, but foolishly did not ice it down. I let it be and went to sleep, hoping it would resolve itself like my hamstring seemed to earlier this week. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, although thankfully it did not get worse. But it was pretty tight when I got out of bed this morning to go run (I took yesterday off). But it didn’t hurt badly enough that I thought I wouldn’t be able to get in my very short 1.5 mile run. I spent some extra time this morning stretching to try to warm it up enough to prevent a catastrophic injury and that seemed to work.
The combination of the short distance and short warm-up helped. I didn’t feel any discomfort during the run and hasn’t felt worse since then. I spent about 20 minutes icing the area and that also seemed to help. I wish I could have iced it while at work, but I think that would have been awkward. I’ll ice it again for 20 minutes when I get home tonight. I’m doing strength training tomorrow morning, so I won’t run on it until Sunday morning. I’m hopeful that will be enough time to help it feel better (with icing throughout that time).
But this morning’s run was most interesting to me because my minor injury didn’t get worse despite running on it, albeit very carefully. I was always aware of how it was feeling and whether there was any discomfort there that would tell me I was risking a more serious injury if I kept going. Increasing my stretching and icing routines will also help long term, as adductor injuries can take weeks to heal properly, longer if you keep running/playing with it and re-aggravate it every few days. The strain is a very minor one, to be sure, and I would likely not have run on it if, for example, it had hurt to walk or go up stairs. As it stands, the muscle just feels tight when I walk (mostly after having been sitting at my desk for some time) or climb stairs and loosens up considerably when I walk any distance. So, the situation is not serious to begin with. But I’m heartened that I made it through the run today without any problems. As I increase my mileage in the coming few weeks up to 5K distance, I can hopefully get these “re-acclimation” injuries out of the way and strengthen my body for when I move into the next stage of building my mileage.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Lazarus Moment
After more than a year since my last post and even longer since a quality post, I've decided to try to get this blog back on its feet. I'm back to running mostly consistently and found a new committment to running in general. I feel better about it now than I have in over a year, so I think it's time to get back to blogging and to become a more active member of the running online community.
So, over the next few days (ideally), I'll update the blog, get rid of the outdated stuff like the former countdown and now count-up on the right. 418 days and counting...yikes! I'm also going to expand the posting topics, as I think one of the reasons for the lack of posting was that I was only writing about my runs and training, which gets boring. And if I'm bored by it, anyone who would read the post would certainly be bored by it too. So, look for posts about all sorts of things running-related (and some topics not so running related).
So, over the next few days (ideally), I'll update the blog, get rid of the outdated stuff like the former countdown and now count-up on the right. 418 days and counting...yikes! I'm also going to expand the posting topics, as I think one of the reasons for the lack of posting was that I was only writing about my runs and training, which gets boring. And if I'm bored by it, anyone who would read the post would certainly be bored by it too. So, look for posts about all sorts of things running-related (and some topics not so running related).
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Stymied Workouts and Fall 2010 Race Calendar
It's now been a full week since I last ran, but not for lack of trying. We spent a long weekend in Rochester, NY this past week, where it was 30 degrees and windy...not ideal for running. And on top of that, we really didn't have any time for running anyway, so there went Friday through Sunday. I did some strength training on Monday and then got swamped at work Tuesday and yesterday. Thankfully, today will be better and I should be able to get out and run a few miles this afternoon. And, on top of that, my overall work schedule will change next week going forward and while I will need to be at the office an hour earlier (around 7 AM), I'll get to go home earlier and have more open time in the early afternoons to go running or to the gym. So, with the weather turning up finally (80 degrees here in Charm City today), more running shouldn't be too big of a problem. Which is good because I have less than a month before my first 5K and I have yet to run farther than 2 miles. Today starts a phase of 2.5 mile runs, though. Progress, slowly but surely.
I also added another race to my fall race schedule this morning: the Army Ten Miler. The race is on October 24, 2010, but registration opened this morning at 8 AM and last year it sold out in six days, so I went ahead and spent the $60 on the fee. It's much steeper than I normally like to pay, but I'll run it and see how it goes and it's possible I won't want to run it afterward given how many people run that race and my general frustration with huge crowds at races. But it's an experience and one of the DC-Baltimore area's premier races (probably top five along with Marine Corps Marathon, Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, National Marathon and Baltimore Running Festival) so I wanted to do this.
So, that makes my October very crowded. I've got the Warrior Dash on the 9th, the Baltimore Running Festival (likely the 5K) on the 16th, and the Army Ten Miler on the 24th. And I'm toying with the idea of running the Freedom's Run 10K up in Harper's Ferry, WV on October 2, but that would have me running a race four weeks in a row, ending with a tough ten miler, so I remain undecided on that one. Of course, between now and October I'm going to work on getting back in shape, extending my distance to that 10 mile mark, increasing my fitness with weight and core training twice a week, and getting ready for the Warrior Dash, which will probably beat me up. It'll be important that I be in good enough shape that I can recover in the seven days between the Warrior Dash and the Army Ten Miler and avoid injury.
For today: 2.5 miles in beautiful early April weather!
I also added another race to my fall race schedule this morning: the Army Ten Miler. The race is on October 24, 2010, but registration opened this morning at 8 AM and last year it sold out in six days, so I went ahead and spent the $60 on the fee. It's much steeper than I normally like to pay, but I'll run it and see how it goes and it's possible I won't want to run it afterward given how many people run that race and my general frustration with huge crowds at races. But it's an experience and one of the DC-Baltimore area's premier races (probably top five along with Marine Corps Marathon, Cherry Blossom 10 Miler, National Marathon and Baltimore Running Festival) so I wanted to do this.
So, that makes my October very crowded. I've got the Warrior Dash on the 9th, the Baltimore Running Festival (likely the 5K) on the 16th, and the Army Ten Miler on the 24th. And I'm toying with the idea of running the Freedom's Run 10K up in Harper's Ferry, WV on October 2, but that would have me running a race four weeks in a row, ending with a tough ten miler, so I remain undecided on that one. Of course, between now and October I'm going to work on getting back in shape, extending my distance to that 10 mile mark, increasing my fitness with weight and core training twice a week, and getting ready for the Warrior Dash, which will probably beat me up. It'll be important that I be in good enough shape that I can recover in the seven days between the Warrior Dash and the Army Ten Miler and avoid injury.
For today: 2.5 miles in beautiful early April weather!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Bad Weather, Worse Treadmills
I got back on the road this week after a few months of dillying and dallying about it. I went out for a very brief 2 miler on Tuesday afternoon and it went well. Weather was OK; cloudy and breezy, around 38 or so. Not bad but not great or inspiring. But 2 miles was more than enough for my out of shape body and my legs were SORE the next day.
Thursday I was hoping to get back outside again for another 2 miler to continue my body's transition back to exercise but the weather turned awful on Thursday: highs in the upper 30s but with winds in the 25-30 mph range. It could have been worse: they had forecast that the blizzard that hammered New England and New York was going to dump 5 inches or more here. But thankfully it barely rained here, much less snow, so if my alternative is windy snow or wind, I'll take just wind. But I stayed indoors and ran on the treadmill instead and man did it suck.
Many people have no problems with a treadmill, but I am not one of them. In fact, I hate treadmills. Not only because of the monotony of running in place for potentially an hour or more either. No, I hate the treadmill because my lower legs always hurt when I run on a treadmill. I think it's a function of my body trying to stay on the belt and making weird adjustments to my gait, posture, etc to do it. But every time I get on a treadmill, the muscles along the outside of my calves start to burn within a few minutes and it just gets worse for about a mile or so until the pain just ebbs away from numbness. It really sucks and it makes me absolutely despise running indoors. As a result, I only got through 1.5 miles of my run on Thursday before I got outdone with the whole thing and bagged it.
So, from now on, I'm going to just suck it up and run outside in just about any weather. If it's too bad to run outside, well I'll just do some cross training that day instead. It's a waste of a perfectly good workout to run on a treadmill and then have your lower calves ache the day afterward.
Anyway, I didn't do anything today to give my body time to recover from this limited amount of running. I don't want to repeat what I did in the summer and try to run too far too soon and get injured and then not be able to run for 3 or 4 weeks. I'm just taking it slow and maybe next week I'll start doing more cross training on my non-running days to get that program started.
And with next week's forecast calling for sunny skies and temperatures at least a little closer to normal (average for this time of year is 50...today's high was below 40), I'm hopeful I won't ave to layer up for any of my runs next week and can just stay in shorts with layers on top.
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