Starting over

balbert excercise It has again been a while since my last post but this week I’ve essentially started over on my running. After hurting my right achilles, several weeks of Dr. mandated rest, I was finally okayed to start back this week very slowly. Today marked my third, as I like to call it, rehab run. The Dr. said start off slow with 2 miles and do more walk then run and then a day off and no hills. So Sunday I started with 1.5 mile walk with a 1/2 mile light run on the flat parts only. Then ice and rest. Tuesday was my next run and I was able to up the running a little did about 1.25 mile walk with the rest run, but again I walked the hills and only ran flats or down hill. Today I did about a mile running, again all flat and walked the hills. Things are feeling okay and I will slowly up the running each time out. I think if things go well all next week, I’ll start to ease back into a more regular training schedule, but probably will start my training program all over again. Starting with week one and 3 miles.

1/2 Marathon Training Set back

balbert excercise Today half way into my 3 mile run, things were not going well with my right leg. I was getting pain in my calf more then usual and the back of the ankle was really hurting. I actually had to stop and walk the next half back to the house. I iced it when I got home and will do more but it is still uncomfortable to walk some. I”ll have to see how things are tomorrow but I might need to take a short break to hopefully mend. Yesterday’s 4.5 mile run was fine and I had the usual tightness in the calves, but it actually felt much better then it has over the past couple of weeks. I just hope I’m not going to be laid up for many days and get off the schedule.

Been a while…

balbert excercise It has been quite a while since my last post, so I thought I’d get back into it. What has happened since my last post… well I guess a lot. On the 1/2 marathon front, I continue to run but it turns out I was too late to register for the Rock’n Roll 1/2 in seattle the end of the month. I had a couple of weeks were I got off schedule but have been back to in now. Last week ended week 6 of the training program but I think i’m actually 1 or two behind. Not a big deal, as I continue to keep the running going. So last week ended with a 5k race. I was going to do the Seattle Fury 5k, but didn’t register soon enough and got up too late the day of the race to make it for registration. So I did my own dog race. Robin, Shiloh and I all went to Greenlake and while they did the inside loop, I did the outside loop. The goal or race was to make it around the outside before the dog made it around the inside. I guess I won cuz I ran about 3/4 of a mile on the inside before running into them. The week before I did both the outside and inside loops for my big run… 6 miles. It was not too bad as Greenlake course is pretty flat. So today was day two of I guess week 7. This week is a step up in distance 4.5 miles Tues/Thurs, 3 miles on Wed and the big run is 7 miles on Sunday. The easy Wed. run moves to 3 miles from 2 for the rest of the schedule and I must say it felt a lot like the 2 miles of days gone by. Hard to believe 3 miles was the long run. Overall the health has been good. The old issues with the sore knees are gone, but now I have this issue with my calfs. After my 6 mile run around Greenlake, they’ve been very sore, almost feeling like in a permanent cramp. It comes and goes and of course is usually most after my runs. I’ve been stretching them and rubbing Arnica gel on them, but it comes and goes. I guess they are just growing and maybe I worked them too hard on that run. Hopefully this issue will go the way of my sore knees a while back. that’s it for now…

1/2 Marathon Training – Week 3 day 4

balbert excercise Today marks the 4th day of the week or the 3rd run – 3.5 miles. this week has gone well so far. 3.5 miles on tuesday, 2 on wed and 3.5 again today. this run today was a little easier then Tuesday’s and I think I just might be able to do the 5 miles on Sunday. 3 miles is starting to feel like 2 miles now and so it will be interesting to see how Sunday goes. Right now one of the hardest things to do is find a route to take. I’ve been using favoriterun.com to map out routes in my neighborhood and it’s amazing how small the neighborhood is. I tihnk to myself, picking a route from here to there has to be serveral miles and actually it’s only 1 or 2. The distances around the hood are actually smaller then I think. I’ve been trying to work in some runs that incorporate greenlake, but i’m not quite there yet… need a little more distance. So i’m either considering doing a loop or I have to just go into area’s I didn’t think I’d have to to get distance. Right now i’m just extending a block down here and there and a block farther but I might have to really expand my routes.

1/2 Marathon Training – Week 2 End

balbert excercise I’m a little behind on posts, but it’s not like anyone reads this thing. Today is actually the first run of week 3 and now we up the miles a little for the next two weeks. Sunday was the big run of week 2, 4 miles again, and after a terrible start to the week, it actually ended well. Tuesday’s 3 mile run was just bad, but things got better as Wed 2 mile run was much better and Thurs. 3 mile run was even better. The final run for the week went even better. Again the big 4 miles and with the new Silversun Pickups record on the sansa and excellent weather, I finished actually 1 minute faster (39 minutes) then target with a few walks at the top of some tough hills. Overall better then the end of week 1 as i was able to run the entire course, for the most part, and felt much better at the end then the week before. Week 3 starts the first distance increase with 3.5 miles today, 2 miles on Wed, then 3.5 again Thurs and a big 5 miles for Sunday. Week 4 will be a repeat and hopefully these two weeks will build things up for the next increase in week 5. Only 10 weeks left till the big race. Seems like so far away but I know it will be here quicker then I think.

1/2 Marathon Training – Week 2, Day 2

balbert excercise Week two starts off repeating Week 1 and that means a 3 mile run today. Because I had the heater guys coming this morning and appointment downtown for lunch, i did not get a chance to do my run in the morning and instead had to go about 3:30pm today. I don’t know if it was late in the day or the fact i’d already walked the dog about a mile and quarter or that I forgot to wash my workout cloths and had to figure out something else or all the people driving home from work or all the other runners, but this run sucked. I had no energy and struggled most of the way having to stop several times to walk. The one good thing was the clearing skys and bright sunshine… looks like spring might be back in Seattle. Also my time was not that far off only a minute slower then usual. Tomorrow is day three and an easy 2 mile. I’ll have time in the morning to run and the weather should also be nice so hopefully it will be better then today.

1/2 Marathon Training – Week 1 End

balbert excercise Today marks the end of the first week of training. Only 11 more to go before the run. Being the end of the week and a Sunday, that means the long run for the week… 4 fraking miles. That is the farthest I’ve run in probably 3 or 4 years, and of course, it was nice and rainy today as well… happy Easter Seattle. I don’t mind running in the rain so much and it’s not the cold or the wet, but it is the problem of not being able to see. My glasses get all wet and then they start to fog up if there is too much rain. I was a little lucky today, as when I started my run, it seemd to be tappering off some and the rain was actually light. I only had to stop a couple of times to clear the water and fog off of them. I think since I was expecting the worse and also knew I had a hot shower and hot crossed buns waiting on my return, the run actually went quite well. 4 miles in 40 minutes and my first mile I think I actually did in under 9 minutes. I also was able to essentially run the entire course including several long hills, with only a couple of stops for the glasses. So with the end of the first week things are going okay. I need to remember to do more stretching after, especially on the off days. With today’s run I’m feeling confident I can do the next couple of weeks of training which makes me feel that will build my endurance so i’ll be able to do the next weeks and so on. Tomorrow starts week 2 off with a day of rest before basically repeating week one – 3 miles, 2 miles, 3 miles and then 4 miles. Then we start to up the distances.

1/2 Marathon Training – Week 1, Day 3

balbert excercise Today is a relatively easy day on the schedule, a 2 mile run. I must say, running in winter is a lot different then summer ;-). After 3 days of what felt like summer, the much cooler and gray run today felt much different. May be it was the weather or maybe it was just the second run, but 2 miles was kind of hard. I got through it and I’m still holding my 10 minute mile pace and did the 2 miles it 20 minutes. It definately felt like the end of summer out there after the last three days felt like summer. Monday I thought it was July and I felt like I was skipping work and was on my first day of vacation… Oh to be so lucky. Tomorrow, back to the 3 mile rule and if I feel up to it, I think I’ll start back with some strength training and do 1/2 the P90X “Chest and Back” workout – some push-ups and pull-ups.

Training Begins – Week 1

balbert excercise Today is day one of week one of the 12 week training for the Rock ‘N’ Roll 1/2 marathon. Last week I had a buffer, to try and get up to the 3 mile run requirement for the start of the program. So followed the basic pattern for week one of the program, I ran about 3 miles, 3 times last week with my big run on Sunday being a full 3 miles. I went in the morning before it got really nice in Seattle and it was hard, but I got through it more easily then I thought. I think the trick for me is to run in the mornings. Yesterday was really the start of week one, but it is a day of rest. So what did I do… put in a planter box in front of the new fence in back and dug out another section in front of the fence to extend the back patio. What a day of rest?! This morning was the first official training day of week 1, a 3 mile run (Training Program). It was a little colder this morning then compared to Sunday, but I ran the course I laid out for Sunday. It went much better then I thought. I was able to do the 3 miles in 30 minutes which is the pace I’d like to minimally do for the 1/2 marathon. I’d like to hold a 10 minute mile pace and do the 1/2 in like 2 hours 20 minutes or faster. Tomorrow is a 2 mile run so we’ll see how things go. The first run of the week seems to always be the easiest for me with later runs much harder. Things have been going well so far I think partly cuz I’m running in the mornings and I’ve also cracked out my Sansa with Rhapsody-to-go and have been listening to music as I run. That seems to take my mind off the pain or how much longer I have to go.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon

balbert excercise Recently my brother and sister-in-law talked to me about running the Seattle Rock’n Roll 1/2 marathon with them. At first I was not interested but some recent events have made me change my mind. So unofficially, I THINK I’m going to give it a shot. We’ll see if I can keep up the training and 13.1 miles is a long way. That’s 2 hours of running! To start I went online looking for a training program and right off found Hal Higdon’s site. I’ve used his programs before so I thought I’d follow it this time. In searching for others on google they all seem to be about the same, only most others are shorter and require you to start by being able to do 5 miles. Hal’s is the right length, 12 weeks, and starts with the 3 miles. The race is June 27th which is just over 13 weeks so this will give me a little time to ramp up to the 3 mile start. Today I actually did 2.5 miles and it was a little hard since I’ve been off for a couple of weeks. A few weeks back I was running about 2.75 a couple of times a week and running that course again today was a little more difficult then usually. I chock it up to my day of rest were I was up at 6am, on a plane at 9:00am, across the state by 10:00am, then a big breakfast, then a funeral, then lots of food and several beers, then back on a plane at 8:30pm, back across the state by 9:30pm and home by 10:15pm. I probably should have drank a bit more water this morning, but live and learn. According to Hal’s sched, tomorrow will be a 2 mile run. Hopefully it won’t be raining and i can do my run and finish up the fence project i’m working on and probably walk the dog in there somewere.