Training Widget

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Perfect morning to end the month

Day 181 - June 30, 2009

The first 6 months of my running streak have gone by and I am happy to report that I have completed runs on 181 consecutive days, totaling 716 miles taking 92 hours, 35 minutes and 4 seconds. June was a good month for me despite a nagging abdominal muscle. I finished the month with 107 miles. If I can get this muscle to stop hurting, I'd like to think about another race, but it has really slowed my average pace. It is definitely getting better so I'll be patient and let it heal.

This morning was one of the prettiest mornings of the streak - 59F, clear blue skies, and no traffic. I didn't see a single car on the road.

Here's to the next 6 months!

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Pomeranian Punting

Day 176 - June 25, 2009

What is it about small dogs? Why is it they feel the need to bark the loudest? And why do they always have to try to bite me?

Twice in the last mile of my run tonight, I had dogs come out into the road barking at me. The first was a minature collie and she really was more curious than anything. But like all small dogs, she completely ignored her owner and followed me out into the road, all the time barking. I get the whole defending their territory argument, but if I cross over to the other side of the road, that should be enough. Fortunately, she was happy with just "running" me out of her territory.

The second dog was a tiny pomeranian, whose leash was attached to a lawn chair. As I crested the hill, I saw the dog, start running towards me, completely ignoring the two owners who were out with it. That nasty dog dragged that chair 100 feet across their yard and right into the road. I gave my customary two warnings for the dog to stop, but of course it didn't. Nope, it came right out across the road, causing two cars to slam on the brakes, as it went for the kill on my legs.

Now I generally like dogs and respect their right to defend their owners property. But, if I'm in the road, I'm not letting a dog bite me if I can help it. I have a simple rule - if the dog comes into the road and tries to bite me, I will kick it in the nose. If the dog tries to bite me again, I kick it harder. Tonight, when the dog lept at my knee, I gave it a swift kick and that was the end of it. No second kick was needed.

In general, I find most dogs stop when I yell at them to stop, and 90% of the rest give up after the first kick. But there is always that one dog. About a year and half ago, I Jack Russell Terrier came across his electric fence with Satan in his eye. There is not a doubt in my mind, that if that dog had been bigger, it would have tried to kill me. It came straight at me, ignored my shouts, and took the first kick like I had hit it with a balloon. Completely unphased, he kept coming and I rolled him into the ditch as he latched onto my calf. Even that didn't phase him and he was quickly coming back for more. At this point, I had enough and when I stopped to defend myself, the dog finally realized I was about to get serious and he wisely retreated.

I really wish I could just run without having to deal with dogs, who doesn't. But as runners it is something we will all be faced with. What do you all do when confronted by "man's best friend"? Fortunately, I've never been bit hard, but I'm sure it happens. If you have a strategy that works, I'd love to hear it. Drop a comment and let everyone know.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Day 175 - A great night for a run

The weather was perfect tonight for a summer evening - 85, no humidity, light breeze. Quite different from Saturday's run. I originally was planning to run 5 miles, but with it being such a perfect night, I extended the run out to 6.4. That brings me to 693 miles for the year - probably two days shy of 700. Not a bad start for the first half of the year.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Day 171 - Today was hot

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I last posted. I've been working a lot of hours lately, but I'm still finding time to run everyday. It has been a tough two weeks. I pulled an abdominal muscle a while back and it isn't healing very fast. It usually is fine after I warm up for a mile or two, but the shooting pain down my inner thigh is not fun for that first half mile. I'm stretching and icing everyday, and I do think it is getting better, but it is probably going to be a few weeks before I don't notice it.

Today I ran a 6+ mile run. A light rain shower started around 11:00 and I thought that might be a great way to beat the heat. I quickly got ready to run and just as I was heading out the door, the thunder started. With all the recent lightning related deaths, I decided I'd better wait it out. I'm glad it did, because it poured for about 10 minutes.

When the rain stopped, I checked the radar and saw it was all clear to the west and I headed out. I was hoping it wouldn't be too bad out there, but the sun came out and it got hot fast. Add in the humidity and it was down right oppressive. When I got back, I looked like I had fallen in the creek. I was sweating buckets. I drank a Gatorade and then decided to see how much fluid I had lost. I stepped on the scale and was 5 pounds less than this morning - and that was after putting 20 ozs back in. I'll be drinking a lot of water today to catch up.

I'll try and post a little more regularly the next couple of weeks. Don't hold your breath for every day, but I hopefully won't wait two weeks again.

Have a great Father's Day tomorrow.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Day 157 - June 6, 2009

30 miles - I finally got my mileage back up to 30 miles for the week. My legs have been really sore the last few weeks and I'm trying to do more stretching. I have a tendency to get lazy with my stretching when the running is going well and eventually the tightness catches up with me. Stretching is also the first thing I skip on a busy day when I barely have time to get in a run to keep the streak going. You may remember from some previous posts that I've been doing a lot of really short runs lately.

It really isn't worth it to skip stretching - it takes less than 10 minutes to get in enough preventative stretching to keep the legs fresh - because running sore is not fun. I also run a lot slower when I'm sore.

For the next couple of weeks, I'll set aside more time for stretching and actually stop to stretch while I'm out running. Today I stopped twice on a 5 mile run, just to stretch, and I felt better towards the end of the run. Hopefully, I'll follow my own advice and be back to 100% soon.