Monday, April 28, 2008

 
Still fighting injuries

Left leg continues to bother me but I am slowly getting over it. Hammie is much better and the knot I have been feeling in my left side of the tush is almost all gone. Just down to a very tender left knee and the spot in my leg where I have been fighting tendinitis. I am trying to find the balance to run and heal and pretty much have stopped the bike for a few weeks. I also am running maintenance miles and not heavy mileage.

One good thing I found out is that I am a good swimmer. I ran my swim times by Tammy and Sara and they both said I was having good times.

Next week is the half marathon. Goal was a modest 1:30:00 but due to mileage (lack of) and ongoing knee I am thinking realistic might be 1:32:00. I will run a 6:45 pace and see what I can hold onto.

YTD Stats:


YTD Act Goal % Accomplished
Swim 14,200 35,000 40.6%
Bike 529.35 2,500 21.2%
Run 439.35 1,600 27.5%




Swim 8.82 21.74 Miles


This week I put in a lot of pool time and swam 4,650 meters. Biking was 0 and running was 32.55 miles.

After this I am looking at doing a running camp in July. It is in state and I have never done one and I think it would be fun for myself to do one. I am also going to get a coach and finally get serious about dealing with injuries and work on running faster and being able to compete again the way I want to. I need to in order to also keep up with Danielle who is also being coached and is a much better runner than she gives herself credit for. She will be pacing me at the Twin City Marathon this October.

Enjoy the week everyone

P.S. TriShannon kicked butt on her recent Tri!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

 
Last Saturday I ran the St. Charles Rehab 4 miler race today. It was to be part of
a 12 mile run with me running the race in the middle of it. Perfect
weather, challenging course and some twists that I had not seen before.

I knew where the race began and finished and also knew the course
would be a 4 mile loop with the 1st two miles headed downhill and the
2nd two miles coming up hill.

There were roughly 250 runners in the race as there are 5 races this
weekend in the Long Island area.

I did my first 4 miles at a very easy comfortable 8 min pace and felt
good.

Mile splits were:
1) 6:09 nice down hill
2) 6:33 gentle down hill and then flatten out. I also felt my
hamstring tighten up in my left part of my tush.
3) 6:57 gentle uphill
4.1) 8:03 (all uphill)

Official time was 27:34 or a 6:44 pace for 4.1 miles

The finish had moved after we started the race. Apparently the police
decided it was a hazard where it was located so they made the race
director move it into a parking lot. This added a .1 mile onto the
race. That was a first for me.

I finished 10/250 and 2nd in Age Group (M45-49). However no hardware
as they only gave the age group winners a medal. How cheap is that?
I will let the race director know next year I will run one of the
other races and try for hardware where I can possibly win something.
I can be a materialistic guy at times but do like to win the medals!
Due to the sore tush (it felt like a huge knot in my left cheek and
Gina/Nora any ideas what to do for it?) I cut my cool down to 2 miles.
I also canceled my bike ride following it and went to the pool and
swam an easy 500 meters instead.

This was the last race for me before the half marathon in two weeks.
Now one more long week and then I can taper and get hopefully some of
the niggles I am having out of the way.

As of Today I still am not able to run but have continued to swim. I have swam 2,250 meters in the past 3 days and will be swimming more and more as I continue to recover.

Enjoy the day everyone.

P.S. TriShannon did very well on her recent half marathon. Check out her race report.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

 
Today I ran the inaugural 10K at Stony Brook University today. Much like last week I did hill work the day before and was planning on running with tired legs. All this in preparation for the half marathon in a few weeks. I had less road mileage this week overall due to work and taking care of my daughter but more bike mileage. I also was out last night at a Bar Mitzvah party and drank more beer than I probably should have (3) and was running on about 5.5 hours of sleep last night.

Race was very well organized, accurate and mile splits were right on course. I knew this would also be a hilly course.

Small race with 90 runners and only a half a dozen of older runners with the rest being primarily college students.

Mile splits were as follow:

Mile 1: 6:27 gradual down hill
Mile 2: 6:51 gradual up hill
Mile 4: 14:09 (missed mile 3 marker) and rolling up and down hills but going mainly up
Mile 5: 7:03 more hills
Mile 6 6:33 down hill
.2: :42 seconds

Overall time was 42:28 (6:50 pace) which is what I would have hoped for. Ran my planned half marathon pace (which will be basically flat) and felt pretty good. I was 7/90 Overall and 1/3 in M45-49 age group. Great medals and nice goody bag also.

So go figure I ran a minute faster than last week and enjoyed this race much more. I attribute it to mentally being more into this week thanks to TriShannon and her kind words to me.

YTD Stats:


YTD Act Goal % Accomplished
Swim 9,550 35,000 27.3%
Bike 508.75 2,500 20.4%
Run 381.85 1,600 23.9%


For a graphic representation of my by month mileage. Yes I track all of my own mileage and make by month charts since 2004. January of this year is down due to the injury.
Enjoy the day everyone.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

 
Yesterday I ran another 10K and lets just say it took me a day to post my results as I didn't even want to look up my final placing. As you can tell I ran very poorly on what should
have been a very good race. I did the 10K race as part of 13 mile
run and expected to run easily under 43 minutes during the race and
keep the 7 miles at an easier pace. I ran 3 mile before the race and
did finish the 3.8 mile after the race to do the run. I should do a 10K closer to 40:30 when I really get motivated.

The day was perfect for racing. It was mid 50's, sunny and only a
gentle breeze. Course was pretty flat and basically a big rectangle.
Lot of water stops and all the intersections were blocked. It was
the first real nice day we have had on the frozen north.

Race went off and I could tell almost from the beginning it was not
going to be a good race for me. I just didn't feel like there was
much in the tank and I am thinking the hill run on Thursday along with
double run on Wednesday took a little more out of me than I
anticipated. Mainly though I just wasn't in the race mentally. For
whatever reason I just didn't have the drive to do it today.

First 5K I did in 21:12 (6:50 pace) and 2nd 5K I did in 22:17 (7:11
pace). Final time was 43:29 or a 7 min pace. Finished 10/37 in
M45-49 age group and 77/538 overall. Afterwards did a 15 mile bike
ride to get some cross training in.

Next week I have one more 10K that will be hilly and may try to find a
5K in 2 weeks to get one more fast tempo run in. All of this is in
preparation for the half marathon in early May that I am targeting.

YTD Numbers:


YTD Act Goal % Accomplished
Swim 9,550 35,000 27.3%
Bike 470.15 2,500 18.8%
Run 350.95 1,600 21.9%




Swim 5.93 21.74 Miles

I do convert the swim to miles based on a metric conversion formula.

Enjoy the day everyone.

Kurt

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