Day 91

Switching to a morning schedule. Did 15:00 on the treadmill for 1.3 miles lifted weights, for about 30 seconds...

Day 90

Ran at cottonwood park. Ran around the WHOLE park. 21:17 mins, approx. 1.75 miles. It was cool and windy. Went slow but it was nice to be outside.

Day 89

Another maintenance run similar to yesterday, ran 13:58 figure maybe 1.2 miles. Achilles in both feet are painful, knee is "messed up" a little, a technical term. Rough one today.

Day 88

Maintenance run of one mile or so in 12:43. Ran and walked the 1.6 mile loop on the dirt.

Day 87

Ran one mile in 10:30, two laps around the block, in the cold dark night. A hard run, weight lifting for running.

Week 12 totals

Total mileage: 8.6 miles
Total time: 99:28

Average mileage: 1.23 miles
Average time: 14:12

Lowest total since week one. Not great, but I did complete the week. Gonna up the mileage this week and see how it goes. Want to improve.

Day 86

OK so today I pretended that I was a real runner. Shhhhh don't tell anyone. There is huge 10k coming up called the Bolder Boulder (has like 50,000 people running it.) "the company " usually does a marketing thing where people get "the company"  shirts for the race and related things. My wife was going to run it, but I think it is going to be too expensive. Anyway, they are having Wednesday lunch hour training sessions for those who are going to run the race. I decided I would join them. When I got there, only a few people were there and it looked like they were going to mostly walk. I did a warmup walk down the trail, having started a bit behind them and then started running. The "the company"  walking trail is not too long so I decided to branch out to one of the roads because I didn't really want to run the loop over and over, (hilly and I would have to keep running by the walkers, or they might pass me...) As I went out I was passed by another "the company" dude I know, who is a marathoner and in shape and fairly fast. So I decided to follow him as I figured he probably knew the best places to run. He jumped off the road onto a trail then went through a tunnel with shallow running water on to the magical Santa Fe trail which goes through the Academy. Whoosh, talk about being a pretender. There were all these dudes cruising up and down the trail (ok only a couple groups.) Anyway I did my thirty minutes in the 50mph winds, and the fairly warm sun (felt hot to me.) Didn't exactly do a negative split and did my cooldown walk the little bit left back to the office. So it was nice to do it in the middle of the day other than being overheated for the afternoon office sessions which always happens. And I almost felt like a runner, other than the extreme plodding, gasping for air on the massive hills, and running style. 30 mins, approx 2.5 miles.

Day 85

Waited til late to run. That means outside in the dark. Outside in the dark is really ok with me, or at least would be if it wasn't so cold. Ran one mile in approx. 12 mins. Get' er done.

Random thoughts from me

I just looked at the main page of this and realized I ran for 84 days! Is that crazy or what? I really can't believe I've made it this far. Who knows if we will hit 365, but just to come this far, it is very unlike me in some ways. Usually I fall off the wagon after a week or two. Still a long ways to go, but if nothing else there were 84 days of running. I might have to start a few other streaks....if I can do one, why not others. Whoah, better stop, almost stopped being a cynical pessimist for a second there....
Waddle on!

Day 84

Actually felt pretty good today. Ran 1.5 miles in about 16:20? First mile at 5.3, last .5 at 6.0 mph. Sometimes I think running faster actually is easier on the wheels than my normal plodding style, but I'm not really all that sure.

Week 11 totals

Mileage: 10.64
Time: 118:20
Avg miles: 1.52
Avg time: 16:54

Second highest mileage totals thanks to the 5-k.
It would be nice to be stepping this up some again...


Projections are for 521 miles for the year.

Day 83

Happy Easter! Went to the gym, but failed to recall the gym's holiday hours for today. (8am-12pm seems an odd time for Easter hours, isn't that when people would go to church and celebrate Easter?) Anyway, drove over to Cottonwood park and ran around the outside on grass and the dirt path. Wanted some soft stuf to run on since the knee and shins are hurting somewhat. Ran about 15:30, approx. 1.25 miles. It was cold, but nice to have a new place to run.

Day 82

Ran one mile at 5.3/5.0 pace. 12 minutes? Having some pain issues, trying to take it easy again. This is getting old. Really didn't feel like running, just wanted to be done, but it did get done today.

Day 81

Ran one mile at 5.5 and 5.3 mph pace. 11:20. Knees are just sore a bit at this point. Probably just need to take it easy for a while.

Day 80

Ran 1.25 miles in 13:39 at 5.3 mph pace. Still a litttle bit of pain in my left knee. Hasn't been bad except for the last couple of days. Will get back to icing and see how it goes.

Day 79

Ran for twenty minutes outside. For about thirty seconds I actually just enjoyed running and exploring the neighborhood. Then my knee started hurting. Oh well got it done. Approx. 1.6 miles.

Day 78

Ran one mile in 10:39. One min at 5.5, one at 5.3, one at 5.7, one at 5.3, one at 5.9, one at 5.3, one at 6.1, one at 5.3, one at 6.3, one at 5.3, last 39 secs t 6.5. Knee was hurting somewhat. Need to ice.

Day 77

Ran 20 minutes, 1.8 miles at 5.4 pace? Movin on down the road.

Day 76

Ran 1 mile at 5.3 mph pace in 11:20. Didn't feel too badly.

Day 75

The big day is here. Photos and commentary to follow.
3.1 miles in 32:39.

Day 74

Ran one mile at 5.0 mph for the first half, 5.3 for the second half. 11:40 ish? Tomorrow is the big day!

Day 73

OK so I ran at the gym. Trying to remember how far. I think I ran about 20 minutes and went 1.74 miles. Time flies.

Day 72

Ran one mile at 5.3 mph pace in 11:20. Still just taking it easy a bit after Monday. Lifted weights. Saturday is looking to be about 48 degrees, so not too bad.

Still wanna run a marthon?

My wife pointed out this video about how people sometimes feel after running a marathon. Unfortunately I can personally vouch for seeing people like this, including the very last guy (uunnnnnhhhhh.)

Day 71

Ran one mile, 5.3 mph pace, 11:20. Recovery day from yesterday. Ha, recovery that makes it sound like I'm an actual runner. A few twinges in the left shin and some dull pain in the left knee. Three days 'til the sweet run when I will get smoked by my speedy sis. Oh well, should be fun anyway. Hopefully no one gets arrested at the parade like last year....

Week Ten Totals

Total Mileage: 10.36
Total Time: 119:22
Averages: 1.48 miles in 17:03.


Totals for all ten weeks.

Total Mileage: 99.35
Total Time: 1135:45 (19 hrs, 39 mins)

Almost 100 miles. That is kind of neat. Slow, but neat.

Day 70

Ran 3.1 miles in 34:30. First half was at 5.3 mph and second half was at 5.5 mph. Felt pretty good, during and after. I just wanted to make sure in my own mind that I could still run that far. So I can. 34:30 isn't great, especially on the flat, fast treadmill, but it could be worse. Perhaps the adrenaline of being in the race will make it go faster. Ten weeks down, 42 to go.

Week Nine Totals

Forgot to get this in here, and it since its almost time for week ten totals I thought I'd better hurry up, here goes.

Total Mileage: 8.85
Total Time: 100:20
Averages: 1.26 miles in 14:17

Day 69

69 dooood. Ran one mile at 5.3 mph pace in 11:19. Lifted weights. Today to continue my theme, I had my shorts on backwards. I'm cool.

Day 68

Ran 1.5 miles in 17:33 (5.3 mph pace.) Some shin stuff and tight heel/achilles again. Running short and slow is getting really old fast. Still wondering if my shoes are contributing to this or not? Dunno.

Day 67

Once again hard to remember. Ran one mile at 5.3 mph pace. 11:59. Walked for a total of 20 minutes moving and then lifted weights. So this is more than you want to know, but my really cheap gym doesn't actually have a locker room. They have a tiny one person changing room. Thus instead of taking all my stuff inside and having to use that room, I change in my car. Thankfully I have tinted windows, that are REALLY (read as illegally) tinted windows. Even with that sometimes I put on a show. Anyway, sometimes I don't always pay the greatest attention when doing this and today when I stepped on to the treadmill, I noticed my shirt was on backwards. Thus the conundrum. Do I strip down in the gym or just run with my tag in front? Today, I just ran....

If this guy can keep running....

Waddle on friend!

Interesting post-race activities.

Day 66

OK so we're getting back to it after a six day layoff of "jogging" a mile a day to try and rest and recover. Going to try and ease back into it instead of going crazy, we shall see. Ran 1.75 miles in 20 mins at 5.2 mph pace. Felt pretty good, a couple of painful twinges. Left heel/calf is very tight. Nine days until the "race."

Day 65

Decided to do at least one more day of "recovery" workout, this will make the 6th day in a row. 1 mile at 5mph pace, 12 mins. Lifted weights, quickly. I need/want to get going again on this. I suppose I should follow the maxim of no more than a 10% increase / week. We shall see.

Day 64

Long day at work, so I ran at night outside, in the fun snowstorm and 20 degree weather. One mile, slow pace (unknown time because my watch is jacked.) Legs didn't feel too bad. Going to do a few more slow days and see how things go.

Day 63

98 Ran one mile at 5.3 mph in 11:20. Pain wasn't too bad. I wanted to run faster, I hate the idea of losing the progress I've already made. But I guess I will try to be sensible and take it easy for maybe a week and see if that helps. Lifted weights.

Day 62

Ran one mile at 5 mph pace (12 minutes.) Pain was there, not unbearable, obviously.

Day 61

Ran one mile at 5.0 mph pace (12 minutes) sound familiar? Lifted weights. Feelin the pain.

Day 60

Day 60

OK so I did some research, and it seems pretty clear that shin splints are developing. It is sort of nerve wracking because I have had major problems with this before and it caused me on more occassion to barely be able to walk for months in one case. Thus I am going to try every treatment known to man, cut down the mileage and effort and see if we can get through this.

Thus I have been doing some new and old stretches, icing after workouts, doing some exercises, and I will try some wraps/massage/epsom salts if I have to.

Ran one mile at 5.0 mph (12 minutes.)

As is typical apparently with shin splints it felt fine after getting thins warmed up, but before and after, like all day after, you can feel it...

Also trying to do more weight lifting, the plan is to do some circuit training type stuff to not lose too much cardio capacity. We shall see.

Don't want to be stupid about this, but I also don't want to give up!

Waddle on, one more day down.