Behind Again

Jan 29-Feb 8 Short Version
I ran and biked a bunch. I found out my preferred half marathon's registration is closed without me included. Long version follows below, but don't feel obligated to read. I know I need to start posting more frequently, these long ones are killers.

Jan 29
I couldn't take advantage of the weather yesterday so there was no way I was going to let today escape without a run outside. It was raining lightly, but that is a demon I conquered a long time ago. Rain doesn't even feel like a hurdle compared to a foot of snow. It was warm enough that I wore a long sleeve tech shirt over my long sleeve compression instead of my running jacket. It always feels good to run outside, but after being trapped inside for a few consecutive runs it feels even better. I ended up surprising myself by running 3 miles today faster than ever before, clocking in at 36:01. I'm thinking that I've run enough 2.5 milers so now the standard runs will all be 3 milers.

Jan 30
I took an unplanned rest day today because of car troubles. Luckily my wife's cousin who welded my treadmill was available to fix my car. So I traded my bike time for a working automobile.

Jan 31
Today was my first try at 3 miles on the treadmill. I wanted to stick with my previous plan of running as much as possible at 5.0 mph. I started out with 10 minutes at 4.5 mph before I bumped it up to 5.0 mph. Luckily I was able to keep going without the need for a break in speed. I finished 3 miles in 37:01 which is darn close to what I ran outside a couple days ago.
This run wraps up the month of January. I ended up with 54.8 miles, which isn't a whole lot, but is a little more than I've ever run in a month's time. One interesting point to note in the graph above, back in October I ran almost the same distance, but it took me almost 2 hours longer to do it.

Feb 1
I rode the indoor bike tonight on Program 1. I ended up riding 8.807 miles in 30 minutes.

Feb 2
Similar to Thursday I was back on the treadmill with almost the same plan of attack. The only difference was I only ran 5 minutes at 4.5 mph, then I went 5 minutes 4.6 mph, before running the rest at 5.0 mph. I finished all 3 miles in 36:56. I noticed as I entered this run into my log at runningahead.com that I am now over 200 miles on this pair of running shoes.

Feb 3
After last weekend's epic treadmill journey I was in no hurry to repeat myself. I've basically come to the realization that if I'm going to run long I'm going to do it outside. Luckily the weather backed me up by not adding a foot of new snow last night and just overcast skies today. I hadn't mapped out an 8 mile route ahead of time, but I figured I could easily add on an extra mile out and back to the 6 I ran three weeks ago. So when the time came I headed into town. Once I measured out the additional mile I dropped a water bottle in a snowbank around mile 2.7. I wore my sweat wicking hat, glasses, long sleeve compression shirt, running jacket, shorts, and yaktrax on my shoes. The run started out smooth for about 100 feet, that's when the sidewalk stopped being clear of snow. The first 1/2 mile or so is ideally run on the sidewalk because there is no shoulder on that side of the street. After about .3 miles on the sidewalk in the ankle deep snow I had enough and elected to go play in traffic. Luckily the traffic was quite light and I made it to the shouldered section of road without incident. I did my best not to push or be overly concerned with time. I only have very vague estimates of my mile markers so I didn't bother hitting my watch for splits. I made it to my water without incident and dropped it in a spot where I could pick it up on the way back.
The area on the map above marked 'Mitchell State Park' is all businesses, snowmobiles & traffic, so that was a different environment for a run. Lakes Cadillac and Mitchell are connected via a canal that runs between them. It's difficult to see on the map due to the scale, but it runs along the edge of the road that I ran on when I turned right off of M-115. The lakes are frozen this time of year which attracts a lot of snowmobilers and ice fishermen. The canal however doesn't freeze, and for some reason this fact attracts the craziest of snowmobilers. I saw a couple snowmobilers make it across the mouth of the canal on the Lake Cadillac side as I was nearing my turn around. It's actually a pretty common occurrence this time of year. In case you are wondering there are people that don't make it, but I've never witnessed that. Even though my mile markers were a loose idea, I could tell I was slowing down. The time was 52:43 at the turn around. Somewhere in here I started to notice that I couldn't wiggle my toes because the yaktrax were pressing down on them. My head told me that meant that my toes hurt, so for the rest of the run my toes hurt. Everything was uneventful until somewhere after 6 miles. That 6 to 7 mile just seemed to take forever. By the time I hit mile 7 I was starting to get a little paranoid that I wasn't going to make it. I did my best to remind myself that the fastest way home was just to keep pace. I could feel that my legs were really starting to chafe. The pain I was feeling there, the perceived pain in my toes, and the fact that I had been running for over an hour and a half were really starting to wear on me. In the end I was able to quiet my mind and finish in 1:48:21. The walk back to my mom's house, where I had parked wasn't much fun, but I'm glad it was mandatory I would have laid right down otherwise. The chafing hurt the most, other than that I felt fine right afterwards. I changed clothes and drank some water as soon as I got in. Then I did my stretches and I started to get hungry. My mom had made polish sausage earlier in the day and there was a little left so I tried to eat some. After one bite I felt like I was going vomit myself inside out. I got some more water and sat down. The vomitous feeling passed after a minute or two, but I was still really hungry. I ate a cookie instead, thinking that maybe my sugar was way out of balance. I still wasn't feeling right, but I was getting better so I ate a couple more (they were little sugar cookies). Finally after about 10 or 15 minutes of sitting there I felt ok enough to drive. The rest of the day went fine, by the time I got home I was feeling about 95%. I ate a sandwich and was back to 100% a half hour later or so. The chafed thighs seem to be the only lasting pain, but tomorrow will tell.

Feb 4
I weighed 282.2 lbs this morning. That is a loss of 1.6 lbs this week, bringing my total weight loss to 84.8 lbs. I'm surprised that I ended up with a loss this morning, as all this past week I was hovering a little higher than last Monday's weigh-in. I have finally broken a record set by myself the last time I lost a bunch of weight, back in 1999. September of 1998 I weighed 300 lbs, so to lose some weight I tried a basic no-carb plan. It wasn't Atkins or anything, I just avoided carbs as much as possible. By spring of 1999 I was down to 216 lbs, 84 lbs lost. I started dating my wife, got happy, got fat, had kids, got more fat, and last August started all of this. Now I've lost more weight than ever before.

I rode the indoor bike tonight on Program 1. I ended up riding 8.850 miles in 30 minutes.

Feb 5
Today was a tough day on the old treadmill. I ran for 10 minutes at 4.6 mph before finishing out my run at 5.0 mph in 36:49. I'm not certain whether it was tough because I was starting at 4.6 or if I'm just feeling the after effects of Sunday's long run.

Feb 6
I had a crap day. I thought it was going to be good. The plan was to go to the local running store to see about getting a fuel belt and some GU's. First none of the 2 bottle (10 oz) belts were fitting around me. Then we found a one bottle (22 oz) belt that fit, but I was concerned about the concentrated weight of having all the water in one place. Then while I'm talking to the guy about GU's and stuff I mention that I'm interested in running the local Bayshore Half Marathon at the end of May. First thing he says, 'Did you sign-up already?' I start to answer, 'No, I'm waiting to make sure...' He cuts me off, 'You're too late. I'm sorry but it filled up on February 2nd.' Crushed would accurately describe my feelings. I ended up getting a couple GU's and a couple Hammerhead Gel's, on the guy's advice. Though he did caution me that if I start using them my body will start wanting them. His explanation was that my body is trained to burn fat now, but if I use these it's like training my body to burn sugar. Still it's better to use one than to bonk, so I will carry one in my fuel belt pocket. I was so distracted with the bad news about the half being full that I didn't even remember to get bodyglide. (Went back the next day and got some, $8, hefty.) When I got back to work I checked the race website and sure enough registration for the half is closed. So now I'm looking for other races. I've found 4 so far, but none are perfect. I'll write about them later.

I rode the indoor bike tonight on Program 1. I ended up riding 8.919 miles in 30 minutes.

Feb 7
I did the exact same thing as Tuesday and it was still pretty tough. I'm not sure what to do about that. I tried drinking some Gatorade during my run just to see if my stomach could handle it. That seemed to go fine so my next long run I will use some of that.

Feb 8
I rode the indoor bike tonight on Program 1. I ended up riding 8.939 miles in 30 minutes.