Project 365 – Day 172

Wednesday June 22, 2011.

Run 167.

It was back to the running room for a Wed. nite group run.

It was after I finished the run that I figured out it was a milestone day.  Not quite half a year of running, and I passed the 600 Mile mark for the year.  Wooo hooo Party on.

As a group we decided to head down to discovery woods and do 8 – 10 K.  This would give us about 3- 4 k of woods running.

The run was great, the pace was really good for the bulk of the run and then backed off towards the end as one runner dropped and I went back to pick her up. It was probably due to the heat, this was the hottest day I have been out running this year.

My legs were a little tight at the start of the run but other than momentary twinges worked well for the rest of the day.

6.3 Miles for 601 miles in 2011.

Plod On.

Project 365 – Day 171

Tuesday June 21, 2011

Run 166.

I woke up early and hit the treadmill. Today’s goal was to run three miles in under 24 minutes. I started the treadmill at 8 min miles and headed out.

Funny thing was that when I reached 8 minutes I was just under a mile so I cranked it up a little bit, about 15 seconds / mile.  Then at 16 minutes I was a little ahead of the pace so I cranked it up again to about a 7:30 pace.  When I finished the 3.05 miles I was at 24 minutes.  I met the goal but though I was running faster than that.  Something is funny with the treadmill

Plod on.

Project 365 – Day 170

Monday June 20, 2011

Run 165

Hey, Hey, Hey. Day 170. I put off running as long as I could and ended up going down to the treadmill after tucking the youngest into bed. I had planned to do a more serious work out but still not press to hard.

I ended up doing a quick warm up then set the treadmill to 8:00 min miles. I held that for a while and then slowly started to ramp it up by 15 sec / mile.  I think I finished at 7:00 min miles.

Overall it was a good run and everything felt good. I did a 20 minute workout and ran close to 2.6 miles. Not a bad pace, 24 more miles like that and I will have a decent marathon time.

Plod On.

Project 365 – Day 169

Sunday June 19, 2011.

Run 164.

K – I dug myself into a deeper hole and am now 5 runs off pace for the year.  Going to have to run some short doubles to make it up. I found that the interaction of pain and pain killers and antibiotics zapped me for a few days. I probably could have run but seriously was feeling really bad for the week.

Sunday, fathers day, a day to desert the family and get a run in.  I headed to the running room to do a group run.  People were doing different things and I wanted to get a good run in but not push the pace, and run in a scenic place.  So back to Griffith Woods.

When you find something you like stick with it. The run was pretty good we saw some wildlife.  See if you can spot it.

We moved off the pavement to the gravel and encountered the same river redirection that I ran into a couple of weeks ago, It was not so bad this time so we pressed on.

When I got to the corner that headed back to the river the trail ahead was pretty much flooded so the turn was welcome.

The picture does not do justice to the impassability of the trail. It was a little frightening at this point as I was committing to fording the river at the wash out and it was not looking great. As it turned out the crossing was no problem and we headed home.

A great run although a little slow. 8 Miles in 1:29.

Plod On

Project 365 – Day 164

Tuesday June 14, 2011.

Run 163.

This was the run that just about did not happen. On Monday night I was making a salad and whilst cutting lettuce I managed to lop off a large slice of skin from the end of my thumb. There was excitement when I lost consciousness (sounds better than fainted) a couple of times and EMTs and Firemen showed up at the house. Bottom line I got a cute little toque for my thumb.

I was in a little pain all day and did not run as I was concerned about how much more pain I would be in when my heartbeat picked up and the blood flowed faster. 

Finally, after everyone went to bed I decided to do a very controlled run on the treadmill and work my way up to a maximum of 10 min miles.  It just about worked. I started out at a walk and then picked up to 10 min miles, then 9 min miles, then 8:30 then 8:00 then stopped. There was no pain from the thumb during the run.

The run was great but the stopping not so good. The thumb started to throb during the cool off and continued until I had fully recovered and the Tylenol  3 had kicked in.

I finished it, and “that is all I have to say about that”. 2.2 miles in 20 minutes.

Plod On

Project 365 – Day 163

Monday June 13, 2011

Run 162.

After yesterdays 10 miler I had to talk myself into the run this morning.  It would have been very easy to just lay in bed and think about an afternoon run instead of actually doing my morning run. My legs were pretty tired so I thought an easy recovery run on the treadmill might be in order.

So I kitted up, the nice thing about the treadmill is that I only wear shorts, socks and shoes, and headed downstairs.  I started the run at an easy pace 9:00 min miles and then progressed to 8:30, then 8:00 and finally 7:30. It turns out that  the run was not as easy as I intended.

I felt pretty good through out the run, I was aware of some pain in my right shin. But for the most part my hamstring was pretty solid.

Good run, just over 3 miles in 25 minutes.

Plod On.

Project 365 – Day 162

Sunday June 12, 2011.

Run 161.

This was the Sunday group run from the Running Room Store – Westhills.  It was a small group today for a 16 K run along the reservoir. Started out being just Ed and myself, then about 1.5 K into the run Joe caught us.

This is a favourite run, a fairly easy 10 miler that is flat or downhill on the way out and uphill usually with a headwind on the way back.  After about 5 K the run follows the reservoir path system and it is very scenic. This is the third or fourth time I have run this route this year. I ran it on April 3  and April 10 and it looked very different.

The views of the Weaselhead  (the wetlands at the start of the reservoir) seem to change every time I run this.  Today the water levels were high.

As we ran the path it became apparent that there was something going on in the park today.  There were more pedestrians than usual and we saw strange things like hot air balloons and heard music.

And when we rounded the corner and turned north we found the finish line.

Unfortunately it was the start / finish line for the Betty’s run for ALS and we still had 6 km of hard uphills to run. As we turned onto 37th street to start the hard uphill the pace picked up and we ran the long hill quite hard.  It felt very good.

I felt some twinges in the legs after the run yesterday, there was a definite tenderness at the origin point of the hamstring. It was pretty good for the bulk of the run.  I felt my glute after crashing the long uphill. And post run I could feel some tension in both hamstrings.  A little foam roller seemed to help work that out.

All in all a really fun run with great guys.  10.2 Miles in 1:28. Not a bad run.

Plod On.