Date Workout Miles Avg Pace Monday, 9/22 Regular Run 5 9:15 Tuesday, 9/23 Regular Run 8 10:28 Wednesday, 9/24 Rest 0 -- Thursday, 9/25 Regular Run 7 9:57 Friday, 9/26 Rest 0 -- Saturday, 9/27 Long Run 18 10:01 Sunday, 9/28 Rest 0 -- Total Weekly Mileage: 38 Last week's theme was simply to "get it done." My runs have been slower lately, but I'm getting through them and my foot seems to me handling the mileage, so I'm OK with the decreased speed. I also ran most of my runs, except for the long one, in the evenings, which my body wasn't adapted to. Monday's run was one of the last runs of my mini vacation (at home), and perhaps that had something to do with the better pace. I was also coming off of a pretty short long run a couple days back. I guess conditions were just good for that run, which I did once more at Upper Tampa Bay Trail, after visiting with my nieces. On the Tuesday run, b ecause I was on my last day of mini vacay, I was...

Date Workout Miles Avg Pace Monday, 9/15 Regular Run 4 9:23 Tuesday, 9/16 Regular Run 7 9:37 Wednesday, 9/17 Yoga 0 -- Thursday, 9/18 Regular Run 6 9:31 Friday, 9/19 Rest 0 -- Saturday, 9/20 Long Run 12.45 9:56 Sunday, 9/21 Rest 0 -- Total Weekly Mileage: 29.45 Last week was my cautious comeback to training. I cut back my weekly runs by a few miles overall, and I only had a twelve-mile long run on the schedule, which was very timely. Because this was my week off in between old job and new job, I was tempted, each morning, to sleep in and gave in to that temptation, each morning. So I ran in the evenings, which is doable at this time of year with the ever so slight shift toward cooler temperatures.  I ran at the Upper Tampa Bay Trail on Monday, which I haven't run in probably a year. I enjoy this trail for shorter runs; it has several trailheads and is a little more than seven miles overall. Depending on where you start, it can feel like you're bouncing a...

Date Workout Miles Avg Pace Monday, 8/25 Regular Run 3 9:30 Tuesday, 8/26 Regular Run 9 10:45 Wednesday, 8/27 Yoga 0 -- Thursday, 8/28 Regular Run 7 9:47 Friday, 8/29 Rest 0 -- Saturday, 8/30 Long Run 18 9:54 Sunday, 8/31 Rest 0 -- Total Weekly Mileage: 37 Last week started out a bit rough: I overslept for my Monday morning run and ended up doing three instead of four miles (not a huge deal, and not enough of a shortage for me to want to make up), and I decided I also didn't want to get up early on Tuesday morning, so I decided to do my nine miles that evening. And that was one of the worst runs I've had in recent memory. I haven't run in the evening in some time, so I wasn't used to the lingering heat and humidity from the day, and my stomach wasn't accustomed to running during that part of the day, so I had all kinds of cramps--side stitches, water cramps from drinking too much, and, er, BM cramps. But on top of that, my body had no energy...

Date Workout Miles Avg Pace Monday, 8/18 Yoga 0 -- Tuesday, 8/19 Rest 0 -- Wednesday, 8/20 Yoga 0 -- Thursday, 8/21 Regular Run 5 9:38 Friday, 8/22 Rest 4 9:26 Saturday, 8/23 Long Run/Yoga 12 9:43 Sunday, 8/24 Yoga in the Park 0 -- Total Weekly Mileage: 21.5 So, this was my break week. But it doesn't look exactly like a break week. I made it through four days in a row (including the Sunday you don't see) without running (and check out all the yoga!). And then I tried a lower-mileage run on Thursday morning to assess where I was, pain-wise. It wasn't too bad, but my foot still hurt afterward as I was walking around. I'd made an appointment to see a sports massage therapist after work on Thursday, not having very high hopes for treatment--not because I didn't think the guy was good, but because I didn't think massage was an effective treatment for my particular problem (bursitis, or metatarsalgia). So I spent a half hour with Pete Pfannerst...

Flatwoods 18 Over two weeks ago, I had decided I wanted to do my 18-miler at  Flatwoods . Perhaps it was the previous weekend's tough (and steep) bridge run that had set my mind on the flattest possible terrain. Tim and I had gone to Crossboot the night before, which could have meant heavy legs and sore muscles for the morning's run, so I didn't have high expectations for a stellar run. The main running trail consists of a paved seven-mile loop plus a few extra miles to get from the two park entrances to the loop. The park also has dirt trails that cut through the wooded areas surrounding the paved trail, but I mainly run on the pavement. The park is actually called "Flatwoods Wilderness Park," and I've heard stories about some such wild things that exist in the woods. I've seen lots of deer--I actually saw three beauties cross in front of me Saturday--otherwise I've only seen snakes, rabbits, squirrels, and birds. But I've been told that eight...

Clearly I've gone through a decent range of physical/emotional feelings the past few weeks. Oct. 30 : I went to Crossboot, as I usually do on a Wednesday night, and, like usual, I pushed myself through a tough workout. When I woke up the next morning, I could barely bend my arms because it was too painful. Washing my hair, brushing my teeth--everyday things I never think about caused tear-inducing pain. (I didn't notice any particular moment of pain during the previous night's workout, but I did push hard to get through some plyo-push-ups and did about a ton of dips.) I went to work but then scheduled an "emergency" massage to have the upper backs of my arms worked on--my triceps, but also down to my elbow. That helped a little bit, but when I woke up the next morning still in significant pain, I began to get a little worried. This was beyond sore-muscle pain. When Saturday came and I woke up for my first long run since my marathon, I got about a mile in and could...

For weeks and weeks I had been looking forward to doing my last long run of training before the Steamtown Marathon , just six days away now. It was only 12 miles, and compared to all the other runs I'd been through, it was sure to be a breeze. I was looking so much forward to it, in fact, that I slept right through it Saturday morning. Heard the alarms, but just didn't feel compelled to get up. So I didn't. By the time I actually arose, it was close to 9:00 a.m. Whoops. So I was left with the dilemma of whether to run the next morning, or to try for a long evening run (isn't that how everyone wants to spend their Saturday night?) I opted for the evening run, because I was afraid I'd have the same problem getting up the next morning, and I also just wanted to get the dang thing over with. It would mark a very significant point in training, or rather, the end of training. Plus, there was one more thing I wanted to do for this round of training that I hadn't do...

Yesterday I ran my final 20-miler of training for the Steamtown Marathon . I knew that if I could make it through that run without injury, I'd be good to go for the race. And I'm happy to report that I did! But the run wasn't without some folly.  Because my youngest niece was having a birthday party on the same day I was scheduled to do this training run, I'd planned ahead for Tim and I to spend the night at my dad's house in Longwood (which is close to where my niece lives). I knew my dad lived very close to the Seminole Wekiva Trail , so I planned the 20-miler on this route. Or so I thought. We knew my dad lived 2.5 miles from the trail, so we would just need 15 miles on the trail, or 7.5 out and back. I used someone's Map My Run route to get an idea of how many miles we'd be able to get at the entrance point from my dad's house. I even "enhanced" the map with my own notations, for Tim's benefit. The map I studied and enhance...

This past weekend's long run was supposed to be my "recovery" long run from the previous weekend's 20-miler. I wasn't expecting any magic, but my performance still fell below my already low expectations. Part of the reason for my shoddy run, I'm certain, is because my quads were still terribly sore from the previous Wednesday night's Crossboot class. It's been a long time since I've finished a CB workout that left me in crippling pain for days afterward, so I wasn't expecting it this time. And I have a feeling most others who took the class weren't in as much pain. The problem is that my legs--particularly my thighs--are not very strong, so when I did a wall-sit for about six minutes straight, just to start out the class (which was followed by weighted squat jumps and other quad-burning exercises), I should have known I was in trouble. In fact, I should have backed off. I should have chosen to do my reps with a weight lighter than 20 poun...

This past weekend I ran my first 20-miler of Steamtown training. It was planned (unlike last year's ), nothing went awry, and I finished it, actually faster than I'd hoped. I ran four early miles on Bayshore prior to meeting with running buddy Nicole--who was running 16--and about 50 others who were running with the Blue Sharks group on Davis Island. Those first four miles were the worst. The air was humid and heavy, and I felt as though I was just dragging myself through the miles. I got back to DI just before 5:30 a.m., when the group run was scheduled to start. People socialized for a bit, and then Nicole and I decided to start. Shortly thereafter, many of the other runners passed us by, which was a sort of frustrating feeling, like at a race, but we kept steady at just under a 10-minute pace. We had a lot of distance yet to go. The mileage through the residential section of DI--about four or five miles--still felt difficult, but once we got out of it and the sun began ...

I'm learning a lot about Florida, after living here for most of my life--and not just from the seemingly recent onslaught of bizarre national news headlines --but also from running in new places. This past weekend I finally went out to the city of  San Antonio , where runners and cyclists gather in hordes for hill training. I've known about this place for a couple of years, but I haven't really wanted to make the 45-minute drive out there so I could endure more difficult terrain on my already-challenging long runs. But because I chose a hilly marathon this year, it was essential that I get in more hill training than the one Ohio run I did the weekend prior. So Tim and I headed out there early Saturday morning to meet a bunch of others at 6:00am. I would be running with my run-buddy Nicole, and neither of us had been there before, nor did we know what route we were running. But luckily some veterans of the course gave us basic directions, and then then guys took off with ...

This past weekend I made my annual "pilgrimage" to Ohio, where I was born and lived until age seven. My dad has been organizing family trips back to Ohio for the past four consecutive years, and for the past three years I've taken advantage of the cooler weather and more varied terrain that Ohio has to offer for logging some training miles. The particular town (technically a village) of Yellow Springs is where we tend to spend the most time, and to my good fortune there is a bike/pedestrian trail that goes right through the area and its surrounding towns. Last year we stayed in Beavercreek in a neighborhood that was located right up against the trail, so it was no trouble for me to access it and get my mileage in. This year, however, we stayed in a bed and breakfast , which was about 3.5 miles from the trail--on the route I chose to take, anyway. When visiting with some old family friends on Friday night, I mentioned that I had 18 miles to run the next morning. I fi...