November 19th: I Don't Have a Photo

It was 43 degrees out this morning, which normally would be warm enough for an outdoor run, but the wind was really whipping. Wind chill was like 35, and as you know, a lot of my runs happen right by the water. So as I predicted yesterday, I had to hit the treadmill at WOW this morning.

I guess I was simply going for a "get some miles in" kind of run. Set the treadmill to 1 percent incline and 6.5 mph -- basically a pace run up a slight hill. A couple of tenths in, I thought I felt the belt slip a little bit. Naw, just my imagination, right? Then at .65 miles, it really slipped -- enough to throw off my cadence. Fortunately, the machine right next to mine was available, so I jumped over to continue my run. Same speed and incline, though about halfway through, I bumped up 1 tenth of an mph to get under race pace. Did another 4.1 miles for 4.75 total.

I've had a teensy little sniffle of late -- not sure what it is, and it hasn't really slowed me down, but I have felt a little short of wind during yesterday's and today's workouts. Not enough to make any major difference, but I doubt I could have done a long at that pace. I'm hoping it moves along soon, because I need to get some more miles in.

Well, I don't have a photo for today. I can't Pin this without one, so here you go. Dan and I will be brewing this again this weekend, and surely discussing fitness while we do.

Total miles since starting the blog: 130.2.

November 18th: Welcome Back

Where’ve I been for the last week. Resting the MTSNBN -- again. Was jogging up a flight of stairs at Penn Station after my run last week and POW! I didn’t want to kvetch about it, so I figured I’d check back in when I got back on my grind. That’s today.

Headed down to WOW today for some strength training, and I hit it hard. Lots of drop-weight sets. Seated bench press, butterflies, lat pulldowns… Kettlebell squats, kettlebell jugglers and lunges. Worked up a big sweat, and my muscles were tired when I was done. Woo!

So I’ve crossed over to the dark side and purchased some whey protein. 26 grams of protein, 140 calories. Tried it for the first time today when I got home from the gym. Doesn’t taste too bad; I’m thinking about mixing it into my yogurt. I still like the chia fresca before a run -- especially a long run -- but I think this is going to work better for me post-workout.

Tomorrow is looking cold. I guess I’ll have to go down to WOW to get on the treadmill. I’m going to join that stupid Planet Fitness for a few months, though, so I can keep up my running through the winter without burning too much time and gas going to Middletown. I’ll stick with WOW for actual workouts -- I was grunting a-plenty today. They would have set off the lunk alarm a dozen times at PF. But for just running days, yeah, it doesn’t make much sense to spend 25-30 minutes in the car round trip.

November 11th: Just Keep Going

Sorry I missed everyone on Friday. I went to the gym that day, and this morning I did a tempo 5K. The weekend was largely exercise-free, except for raking leaves, bringing them to the street and sort of mowing the lawn. Let’s get caught up.

I think the theme of today’s entry -- especially on Veterans Day -- is perspective and perseverance.

On Friday, I had a fairly unremarkable strength-training session at WOW. Nothing wrong, just not worth recounting in detail. But I ran into my friend’s wife Allison, who I see occasionally at WOW. Usually I try not to bother her, because she always looks like she’s in the zone. But I did get to say hello, and modest person that she is, she of course downplayed her efforts. “I’m never here this early… I couldn’t run as far as you do…”

The thing is, Allison is often there that early, and she’s always working hard. I have no doubt she could do a half-marathon with not a lot of training. But Allison inspires me to work a bit harder because she’s a cancer survivor. She’s had to deal with chemo and all the other bad stuff that comes with it, all while keeping her household going, her kids happy and healthy, and her marriage strong. It would be very easy for her not to worry about the stair-climber or the treadmill or the weight machines. It would be totally understandable. And as I mentioned, to hear her tell it, she really doesn’t work out that hard -- except she really does. That reminds me that I can keep going, too. I can get up and get to the gym. I can do that extra set. I can run that extra mile. If Allison can do it -- and she’s in great shape -- I certainly can.

Today, I decided to go for a run. It was pretty cold -- 40 degrees -- and I was kind of tired. It was definitely the kind of morning that makes it easy to make excuses and not get going. And I’ll be honest: I love running, but today, I hated every minute of it. I never did really get warm. The dog was constantly pulling at the leash. (It didn’t help that the squirrels are going nuts today, which I take as a strong indicator of snow on the way.) From the first tenth of a mile or so, all I wanted was for this run to be over. The main reason I went for a tempo run is because I just wanted it to be done.

But these are the kinds of runs that are actually true successes. As I said, today is Veterans Day. As everyone does, I know many people who’ve served our great nation. Even those vets who never saw actual combat have sacrificed more an endured more than the rest of us can understand. You know what? If those people can do all that, I can run 3.1 damn miles. Vets put it all on the line for us, and you never hear them make a big fuss about it. So yeah, I can go run in 40 degrees and not bellyache about it. Seriously. First world problems.

It wasn’t a 5K PR, but it was a very respectable pace, around 26 minutes. I am going to have to figure out a way to get my armband over my sweatshirt, because I’m spending a lot of time futzing with MapMyRun and getting the phone back into the armband. (More first world problems, I know.) I definitely need to do more speed work, because I was pretty winded at the end. But the bottom line: It’s good to get it done when everything inside you is saying, “I don’t wanna.”

So that’s my feeling for today. Running, working out, lifting weights, etc. -- it’s not easy. But there are a lot of people who’ve persevered through a lot, lot, lot more. And those people inspire me to do my best. So thank you, Allison, and thank you, vets.

Total miles since starting the blog: 125.4.

November 6th: A Wednesday Long for a Long Wednesday

I'm a little achy today -- I went more than 12 miles this morning.

Today was my best chance this week to get a long run in. Tonight, I have to work past midnight covering the CMA Awards, and the weather is supposed to get colder Friday and over the weekend. But even so, it wasn't particularly warm when I started out. I improvised some gear -- an old sweatshirt over my long-sleeve running shirt, an old pair of gloves and an ear-warmer headband (which had the added benefit of holding my earbuds in). Oh, and the leash for Lily.

I've got a couple of minor injury annoyances going on. My inner thigh started to get sore around mile four again, though this time I ran through it. And I think I'm about to lose my first toenail -- middle toe on my left foot. Neither is a big deal.

I did about 8 miles with the dog before stopping home to drop her off and get a quick drink. I lost a minute in the transfer, but over the course of 2 hours, that really doesn't matter.

The thing I've realized about doing longs in your neighborhood, as opposed to a race, is that it's easier to keep going. I know that runs counter to conventional wisdom, but for me, it's easier to keep going when I know that I can quit if I need to. I just have keep telling myself, "OK, one more mile and you can stop." Or even, "OK, just get around that corner and you can stop." Because, inevitably, I get to that goal and realize that I still have more in the tank. I'd guess I give myself a half-dozen of those pep talks whenever I do a long run. Even at the end today, I was a block from home and decided to throw in another .3 miles, just because I knew I didn't have to and it would be no big deal to walk back home.

In the end, I did 12.35 in 1:57. Allowing for GPS inaccuracy, I'd say that'd put me at about a 2:08 half -- 7 minutes slower than Seaside Heights.

As I mentioned, I'm not feeling great about the weather prospects the rest of the week, so we'll see what happens. Maybe a trip to the gym on Friday, and I can sleep a bit on Saturday and wait till the temperature clears 40 before running.

Miles since starting the blog: 122.3.

November 4th: What an Awesome Runners' Weekend!

Lots of stuff to discuss today, most of it good, a lot of it fun and a little bit of it just funny.

Saturday morning, I got out on my long run (well, it was six miles, but that’s OK). My friends were meeting at the park-and-ride to head up to the Rutgers game, which I couldn’t attend because I had a wedding to go to. So I ran out there to meet them, then did some figure-eights in the parking lot while I was waiting for them to get there. By the time they arrived, I’d logged three miles. And since I wouldn’t be able to tailgate with them, I insisted on my own mini-tailgate before heading for home. Ha! I did another three miles back, but I had a little soreness in my inner thigh on the left leg. I could’ve kept going, but I was actually close to my house right then and figured that if it got worse, I’d be running away from home, so I decided to cut it short. 6.25 miles on MapMyRun.

Sunday was incredibly exciting, because we went into Manhattan to watch my brother-in-law Ken run the NYC Marathon. He did awesome. He ran 9:00 miles for most of it, though he did slow down a bit toward the end and finished at about 4:30. And…he was even on TV as he rounded a corner! Rock star! The other cool thing: We were walking up to his apartment (right on First Avenue) just as the men’s leaders were passing by. Wow! Those guys are simply amazing athletes.

Monday was a gym day. Yes, I did core stuff (bosu crunches with a dumbbell and planks), and then mostly arms. I also decided after three rotations to do a fast mile on the treadmill. Started out by cranking it to 8.2 mph, and I lasted about a third of a mile doing that. I dialed back to 6.3 for another third, then 7.2 for the last bit. I did the mile in under 8:00, but I probably could’ve done better had I not started out quite as fast as I did.

Haven’t had a chance to get to a sporting goods store to pick up some cold-weather gear yet, and that’s limiting me a little. But tomorrow morning should be above 40, so I’ll see if I can get a run in.

Total miles since starting the blog: 110.0.

November 1st: Hitting the Century on the Belt

I toldja yesterday that it was about to happen -- I’ve hit triple-digit miles since starting the blog.

Given the high winds and uncertainty about the rain, I decided that the treadmill would be my best bet today, so I headed down to WoW. I really wanted to get some miles in, so I broke one of my cardinal rules -- I didn’t do any core exercises. A couple minutes’ warm-up, and then it was time to run.

I generally put the treadmill at a 1 percent incline -- not because I believe that malarkey about it being the equivalent of wind resistance outdoors, but because it’s simply good training. As you’ll recall, yesterday wound up being a tempo run, and I’m looking to do a long, slow run tomorrow. So that left me with a pace run today. As you may also know, my big hope is to do the marathon in 4:00, so pace is 9:09 miles.

I had decided to do 5 miles, and I kept the pace around 6.5 mph, with a few intervals at 6.6 or 6.7, just to even out my pace at race pace. But I have to say I was really surprised at just how good my estimating skills were: 5 miles, 45:45. (Took a couple seconds to get the photo snapped -- cut me some slack.) That’s exactly 9:09 per, or exactly a 4:00 marathon pace.

Downside to today’s workout: WoW didn’t really adjust the climate control for the muggy conditions. It was extremely humid in there. I lost a ton of water weight (translation: I sweated my ass off). I guess I need to prepare for that, since there’s no guarantees that April 27th won’t be a hot, muggy day, too. But blech! Had to sit up in my seat driving home just because it was so gross.

As I mentioned, tomorrow I’m looking for the long run, maybe 8 miles or so. I’ll see how I feel.

Total miles since starting the blog: 102.8!!!!!