Posts Tagged ‘weather’

At least he likes this heat …

But I prefer this …

I took off all week — with the holiday mixed in it’s the first time I’ve been off work for more than a week since I got married seven years ago. (Minus that part of being unemployed a few years ago.) So instead of doing anything normal with running this week, I ran on a Tuesday in Ohio for one more flat run and shifted my long run from the weekend to today.

The sun was trying to burn through the clouds this morning.

That’s right, a Friday. I did mid-week long runs in winter 2010 and loved it, but for marathon training it’s tough to do long runs on a week day.

I got in 12 miles today and head into the weekend having 25.4 miles for the week. I actually have more than 35 miles in a 7-day span by moving my long run.

Today’s run, though, was not really about the miles or how fast or slow I was. It was dreadfully humid today — 96 percent humidity and 70 degrees at the start, 92 percent humidity and 72 degrees at the finish.

After running my dog for a few miles, I grabbed a frozen water bottle to help keep me cool. It was some much-needed relief that I think saved me from quitting on this run. I drank 32 ounces of water on the run, which doesn’t include a little bit before I headed out and some on a pit stop when I dropped Duke off.

To beat the weather today is yet another victory in my early part of training for the Baltimore Marathon. With another short run later this weekend, I will have three solid weeks of training under by belt with some awesome runs. Next week will be a recovery week with fewer miles, but a race mixed in with the Percival’s Island 5 Miler. I definitely couldn’t have asked for a better start to my training.

Here’s a look at today’s very up and down run around Bedford:

Today is my 33rd birthday and I’ve had a variety of blog posts in my mind this week on marking this occasion. My birthday, though, is not something I tout too much. I’ve even taken my birth date off Facebook because I HATE to see Walls filled up with generic “Happy Birthday” posts.

So to mark today, which is just another day closer to a new age bracket in races, I thought I’d share 33 random thoughts about running – from lessons learned, to favorite moments, to pieces of advice, to some very random things, I feel like this is a good way to mark the beginning of a new year in my life.

1. If I ever stop calling running fun, I’m quitting. From sights and sounds, to pushing myself, to a new level, to running with my dog, there’s an element of fun in even bad runs.

2. I want to break 1:40 in the half marathon. Part of me doesn’t want to train for another marathon and instead focus on that distance.

3. With No. 2 being said, I want to run a marathon and not be injured afterward. Thus the reason for my drive and desire to run the Baltimore Marathon in October.

4. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I once ran 5:45 in the mile in high school, good enough for next to last place – the only track meet in which I wasn’t last in the mile.

5. For no real reason, Guns ‘n’ Roses “November Rain” is my favorite song to run to, on the rare occasion I listen to music.

6. When hydrating for a race, you shouldn’t really do anything different than you did while training.

7. When doing a long-distance race, see what type of gels they’ll hand out. Don’t be surprised. Try it out on a couple of long runs to see if it settles well with you; otherwise bring your own. And don’t complain if you don’t like them.

8. If you need to stop to walk in a race or slow down, MOVE OUT OF THE WAY. Or you may get a slight elbow from me.

9. A year and a half later, I still look at an adventure I took in the mountains as a game-changer.

10. Don’t wear the event shirt until you earn it.

11. Injinji socks are the best. And if anyone gives me birthday money, I’m buying more to wear every day.

12. Wear sunscreen if you’re going to be running in the sun for a while.

13. While I’ve been blogging for four years about running, there’s about 3½ years worth of stories before the blog that I’ve only mentioned a few times. I’ve thought about doing retroactive race reports, but I don’t know how much I remember about those early races.

14. This photo from last summer is my most favorite picture that I’ve taken on a run:

15. And this photo is my most favorite from after a run:

16. And, quite sadly, I don’t have a favorite race photo.

17. Fitz at Strength Running has a great post this week about seven things that changed his running forever. I suggest checking it out HERE.

18. My 5k next weekend in Ohio is just my third out-of-Virginia race. The other two were also in Ohio and were two-mile Turkey Trots.

19. I’ll have a separate blog post on this, but I did buy the Brooks Ghost 3 that I wrote about a month ago. I’ve had four good runs in them so far.

20. I think there are a lot people out there who get caught up in thinking/saying “my favorite weather is now,” but I will forever say “bring on the cold.” Perfect conditions for me would be in the low 40s and cloudy. Still warm enough for shorts. I can certainly handle colder. BRING IT.

21. I’ve never publicly questioned the 10 percent rule – in fact I have embraced it many times – but this old article confirms what I’ve said many times: different things work for different people. Here’s an even newer article on the topic. It’s another subject for another blog post.

March 2003

22. Whenever someone asks me why I run, I talk about how I needed to lose weight. I do have a “before” photo of me on my About Me page, but the inset photo tells an even better story.

23. The next #runchat is this Sunday on Twitter. Head over to iRunnerBlog to read about this week’s great giveaway.

24. My post after my first marathon is still my favorite post ever. I am a marathoner and no one can ever take that title away from me.

25. My Stung in the eye post still picks up a lot of page views. People enjoy it when other people suffer.

26. I never knew how the Yasso 800s worked until recently. Now I just need easier access to a track to do them.

27. If someone tells you their product is “scientifically proven,” that doesn’t mean it will actually work for you.

28. If you’re looking for an alternative to ice, use a bag of frozen peas.

29. I really want to have a 40-mile week this summer. That’s a distance that still eludes me.

30. The best thing I’ve ever done to help my running: buying all non-cotton gear.

31. My son wore his race medal for nearly an hour after his race the other day. That makes me proud in many ways:

32. I want to run an ultramarathon one day. In particular, one of these.

33. Did I mention to make sure you have fun? No matter how far you go, or how fast your are … HAVE FUN!

The beginning of this week had some of the greatest running weather I’ve seen in a long time. Mid-60s in the morning with highs near 80 in the afternoon; it was a bit cool for a Thursday morning run, but still not too bad. Then this morning it was 30 degrees and snowing. I think my body was shocked by it.

Instead of complaining about it being cold, I headed out and just enjoyed being able to run. After a week of many emotions, lots of tears and laughter celebrating my grandfather’s life, this was actually a great way to close out the week. It certainly wasn’t easy to get out and run, but it’s helped me sort out a lot of thoughts.

It’s amazing how Mother Nature gets so easily confused with a couple of warm days. A few years ago, I wrote about seeing dandelions in February. Today it’s the Forsythias that are already starting to bloom after a record high yesterday of 75. I’m not complaining too much though — it’s been a cold, but very dry winter around here. I’m looking forward to the spring and running without layers. But still, it’s a little too early for this:

As far as running goes, I ran a little more than a mile last night in shorts and short sleeves — probably the first time I’ve been in short sleeves since the marathon. Then I got up and ran 3.4 miles this morning, my first decent distance run since before the stomach virus hit. My lungs and legs felt pretty bad, but I’m glad I could get back out there.

On nights like this I need a recorder. In the course of 4 miles tonight, I thought about a lot of things more than usual. I’m not sure why — I think after a bad night’s sleep from my son being sick, my mind was oddly clear from being tired. Weird, huh?

Anyway, climb aboard and get inside my mind. Here are some of the things I thought about tonight:

• I’m really craving spring. I do love the cold, but if it’s not going to snow, just let it be warm. My cold tolerance though is pretty awesome now. At a comfortable 40 degrees at 7 p.m., I wore shorts with no gloves and nothing over my ears.
• The old me wouldn’t be running 4 miles for no reason. Maybe 2 or 3. Not 4. While Shamrock is mostly out of the question, I’m running now for the sake of having better runs later this year. I’m not starting over at point zero no matter how hard my body pushes back.
• Speaking of later this year, I thought about whether or not my body could handle a marathon again this fall. My approach to running now may answer this question in a few months.
• I want to run a 5k … but boy do I hate the thoughts of paying to run that distance. But paying makes me run faster.
• Hills are never easy.
• The moon is very nice tonight — it’s like a smiley face.
• People really should figure out how to shut their dogs up instead of putting them in the front yard to bark their heads off.
• The most overwhelming thought tonight was how good I felt … slow, but good. I’ve come a long way in the past couple of months and I have a long way to go, but I feel really good about where things stand.

Fresh off another great #runchat (by fresh, I mean I’m typing this 5 minutes after the chat ended), I wanted to take some time to answer the questions that others answered tonight on Twitter. Scott and I had a great time tonight and are so happy to have so many people join us to talk about running. We’re laying low on answering the questions during the chat — that’s your job — and instead answering the questions later. Just like on Twitter, I’m keeping my responses to 140 characters or less.

Q1: Thanks to @RoadID for sponsoring tonight. What’s your No. 1 way to assure your safety while running?
I usually wear light-colored clothes, take a flashlight and take my phone and/or ID with me.

Q2: How do you manage to run in harsh conditions when training for a spring race/marathon?
I just do it. Layer up. Protect the face.

Q3: During winter if you are injured what do you do to stay sane and occupied?
Like right now … trying to do P90X, walk my dog, read a book.

Q4: How do you log your run? Distance/time? Do you log route, elevation, weather, calories etc.?
I love Daily Mile to keep track of all that. Usually distance, sometimes time, sometimes all of the above.

Q5: Why do you run? How does it make you feel?
These days I sometimes question “why.” I’ll have to avoid an answer for now.

Q6: Play a game: If you were an animal what type would you be and why?
A dog: seeing my dog, Duke, running so carefree and happy is motivating. He makes it look easy, and it should be.

This is my final pre-marathon post. It’s almost hard to believe that it’s been a year since I made this commitment and now it all comes down to a surviving a bum knee. Whether I finish in less than 4 hours or more than 5 hours, I’m determined to do this. I’ve come close to backing out a few times in the past couple of weeks, but there’s no stopping me now.

With just a day or so to go, here are some other thoughts:

* To Tweet or not to Tweet — I’ve taken my phone with me on most of my long runs since July and captured some cool photos along the way and documented some thoughts on Twitter. It’s been fun doing that. I’m undecided whether or not to take my phone with me on the marathon. I’ve thought about taking my phone with me too to listen to music on the stretches of the race that get a little quiet. As friendly as the Richmond Marathon says it is (or Runner’s World says it is), there are a few parts of the course after the halfway point that might need something. I’m not one to get motivated by music, but who knows how a Dave Matthews Band song might pick me up if I’m feeling down.

* The weather continues to look awesome: high 30s/low 40s at the start; temperature around 60 mid-day. You can’t beat that.

* I’ve been very impressed with the marathon folks and how they’ve communicated on Facebook in the past couple of weeks. I hope other big races out there are taking note. Answering other people’s questions, posting contests, providing links to important marathon information … they’ve been doing it all. Now comes the challenge of not being so quiet the 11 other months of the year.

* I have no idea which shoes to wear. I have two Brooks Ravenna that I’m wearing with totally different mileage: one pair is just under 250 miles and still have a good 100 miles left in them. The other pair has less than 50 miles. The newer pair was going to be the marathon pair, but cutting back on mileage has drastically reduced how many miles I hoped to have in them, and the type of running has been totally different. It’s been the slower, injured miles in those shoes, complete with no run longer than 8 miles. I think I’d be fine with either choice, but I’ll probably pack both pairs tonight. Maybe I’ll just flip a coin Saturday morning to make that decision.

* There’s a Daily Mile meet-up planned tomorrow. I hope I can make it; it’ll be nice to put real faces to people I know only virtually. The support on Daily Mile has helped get me through this year and even more so in the past few weeks.

* This is non-marathon related, but #runchat returns to Twitter this Sunday at 8 p.m. ET with me and @iRunnerBlog (aka Scott). The chat includes another giveaway this week from Zensah. Scott has all the details on how you can become eligible to win this great prize on his site here.

(Speaking of giveaways, check out my post from yesterday about winning an entry to the Blue Ridge Marathon in Roanoke, Va., in April.)

I should be excited that the Richmond Marathon is just 3 day and 12 hours away, but I’m having trouble getting jazzed up about it.

After getting over a fever pretty quickly last week, a major headache and another fever came back Sunday, lasting much of the day. That was after a run that went horribly wrong when I ran without any KT Tape and had some knee problems. I finally went to the doctor yesterday only to perplex him when I gave him the full story. In the end, it sounded like I had signs of a sinus infection and he gave me a Z Pak.

Then last night, a fever came back — the highest so far at 101.4 — and was still lingering slightly this morning. However, I’ve gotten a lot better as the day as gone along, so I think my body has finally fought off whatever it was fighting off.

So that leads me to feeling very blah about the marathon. Being sick doesn’t make me want to do anything, but I think with a couple of more days of getting better, I’m going to be pretty set for Saturday. I haven’t ran nearly as much as I had planned to in the past few weeks, but I really think that doesn’t matter too much considering how much I’ve ran all year.

The biggest issue should still be how my knee does. There’s been part of me that has thought of dropping out — I didn’t train to just get through the marathon this time. I trained harder and longer this time around. But the more I think about it, the less I care about a time goal. That doesn’t mean a sub 4-hour marathon won’t happen, and it doesn’t mean I’m going to approach it any differently, but I know going into it that some things are just out of my control.

So as I try to focus on the marathon, it’s nice to know that the weather looks perfect — upper 30s/low 40s at the start with a high in the low 60s Saturday. The sun should be out in full force. It’s a nice happy-medium from the drastic heat I ran in this summer and the recent cold conditions the past few weekends.

* I often forget to blog about #runchat that now officially happens the second and fourth Sunday of the month. It’s an awesome event that me and Scott from iRunnerblog started earlier this summer to have conversations about anything and everything related to running. We’re happy to announce that this weekend’s #runchat will have an event giveaway thanks to the kind people at Brooks. Visit Scott’s site to find out more about the contest, and be sure to log onto to Twitter at 8 p.m. ET Sunday to join in on the conversation. Be there … or be out running.

* It’s fall … but don’t tell the 90 degree temperatures that. I have a feeling that sometime in the next few weeks we’re going to snap our fingers and have that feeling of going straight from summer to early winter. I just hope it’s nice and cool for the marathon. The weather for this weekend’s Virginia 10 Miler isn’t looking too bad with temperatures probably close to 70 at the start.

* My legs are really tired this week. Thankfully it was a built-in recovery week anyway. Not sure how this will impact what I do Saturday; I’m just glad that I’m cutting the miles back this week. Last week I did fine pushing through it, but there’s no way I have that willpower this week, except come race day.

* The summer heat and extra sweat seems to be taking a toll on my shoes much more than I’d like. They still have some decent mileage left in them, and alternating between two pairs helps, but I am going to need to buy a pair for the Richmond Marathon. Not that I’m complaining. Who doesn’t love new shoes? It’s just rough on the wallet.

* I reached the final hole in one of my belts this week. It was on the third hole at the beginning of the year. I have to make sure that I don’t use that as an excuse to go eat like mad for the next week.