My dog, Duke. Getting older, but very young at heart.
Tag Archives: Duke
No. 1,013
I didn’t fall off a cliff. I didn’t stop running. My computer didn’t get stolen.
I’ve just been following one simple blogging rule I have — if I don’t have anything to say, I don’t write. Not that I really have much to say right now, but I have enough thoughts for a bullet-point post combining life and running thoughts.
- Having “Nothing to train for” remains liberating. I’m looking to see what will fit in my schedule this summer and I know a few things will pop up, but I’m continuing to enjoy not having a major race to think about for a few months.
- I’ve had 4 consistent months of running miles in the low 80s and two months of biking with miles in the low 20s. It’s a nice base to set heading into summer and should make training for the Richmond Half in the fall completely different. I’m not ruling something else popping up, but that’s where my mind is right now.
- I have a new full-time job. I actually had planned to start today, but my allergies have been so bad this week that I decided to hold off until tomorrow. I ended up taking a 2-hour nap this morning.
- Speaking of jobs, I appreciate all the support in these past two months. I didn’t freak out about it, which led to me enjoying more family time and soaking in the small moments with my son. I think my new position will allow me the opportunity to continue to put family first.
Hanging out with my son by the flooded James River earlier this month.
- I’m moving. Again. Just a mile down the road, but to a house that has much more room and will make it much easier with our new addition in September.
- I realized after my last post that I failed to mentioned that we’re having another boy. This whole thing with just boys started nearly 8 years ago when we first got Duke.
Preparing for “different”
Late winter/early spring half marathon. Marathon training. Fall marathon.
Repeat.
With the exception of early 2011, I’ve been in a pattern that I’m ready to break.
I haven’t talked much about it because I wasn’t sure I was sure, but I’m starting to feel really good about my decision to not run a marathon this calendar year.
Duke and I on a trail by the James River on Saturday. More trail runs are definitely in store for us this year.
I don’t have that itch anymore. It’s gone.
I thought running the Shamrock Half Marathon might strike up some desire to do 26.2 again later this spring or early fall.
But nope. It’s just not there.
I’m pretty excited about the next few weeks of running — the Monument Avenue 10k is going to be a pure fun event with my sister. I can’t even begin to hint at what is going to happen that day because it may cause me to break out the word “epic.”
A week after that I’ll be tackling Mill Mountain in the Blue Ridge Half Marathon. Many of my runs in the next two weeks will be focused on hills.
Hills, hills and more hills. Except for the complete flatness in Ohio this weekend.
It may be some of that “too little too late” type of training — similar to the speedwork I did for Shamrock — but I’m excited about this challenging event. I’m approaching it with more focus than a year ago, but not enough that I’m taking it too seriously.
After that I have a nice huge gap on my race calendar. Nothing is even on my radar from mid-April to mid-November. That will change, but I like not having this self pressure to turn my focus on “what’s next” with training.
This past weekend I realized how much I’ll enjoy doing some different things this spring and summer. I did a short trail run on Saturday with Duke and a 40-minute bike ride on Sunday. It was such a nice change from a 5:30 a.m. wake-up call to go run for 90-120 minutes.
A year from now I could very well be focused on a marathon again, but I’m not peeking into my crystal ball to worry about that. For now I’m happy with what’s ahead and it’s been a while since I have felt that way.
Doggy wake-up call
Let's run already.
The best runs are the unplanned ones, which for me has sort of been my frame of mind lately.
While I have mileage and time-on-my-feet goals each week, I’ve been doing more running lately that falls in the category of doing what feels right.
That was really working well for me about a year ago and it’s about time I’ve gotten back to it.
Today was one of those days in which I wanted to sleep in a bit. Mondays have been good for that this winter.
Duke, however, had other plans. While he’ll occasionally whine right next to my face, he doesn’t do much nudging at me. Today was a full force nudge, coupled with whining and pacing back and forth in my room.
If he could talk, I think it would have been along the lines of “GET THE EFF OUT OF BED ALREADY DUDE!”
And I fully believe it was because he wanted to run. His sense of urgency to use the restroom was nothing unusual when he hit the grass.
So we ran. And after a mile, I decided we should do some quarter-mile intervals.
After feeling a bit sluggish for the first couple of intervals I stepped it up in the final two, hitting 1:52 and 1:50. It’s been way too long since I’ve hit that speed, but it felt good. I did 6 intervals total and felt like I had much more to give.
I don’t like having to say “it’s been a while” with these runs I’ve had lately, but it’s all starting to feel new to me.
And I really like that. I’ve gone on and on long enough about why my running has been lacking, and I think that it’s time that I focus on days like this where everything feels almost right again.
Hello pavement
Earlier this week, my dog Duke and I had yet another bit of confusion at an intersection — he went one way, I went another, and when he realized what was going on and before I could adjust my stride, we collided.
Elbow and hands, meet the pavement in Midlothian. I got up, dusted myself off, and tried to keep running. I was a bit shaken, though, and had to walk for a few minutes. I felt like I was in a bit of shock.
This is the same elbow I banged up during a trail race in January.
That evening, Thursday, I was in a decent amount of pain. My right hip was also a bit bruised. I skipped Friday’s run as a way to heal up and then turned around and had a nice long run yesterday.
Tonight my elbow still hurts. It’s a nice bruise, plus road burn. I can’t do a plank, which was what I was hoping would be key in my core streak.
I tried last night, but couldn’t last more than 30+ seconds on it. I’ve tried push-ups as well, but that feeling of stretching the skin a bit also hurts.
I waited a few days to write about this because I wanted to make sure I was OK. After getting warmed up yesterday, I knew I was fine enough to run. It’ll be another few days before I can really do everything I want to though.
All this cost me about 4 miles this week, keeping me from what feels like a good milestone with marathon training of 30 weekly miles. I still had a good week though, both mentally and physically.
A 30-mile week will come soon enough, along with many, many more miles. For now, I’m just grateful to not be broken (literally) from this fall.
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net