Today I decided to push it a little longer again. I went on a nice 5 mile run on Thursday around the farms inPlainfield. It was a beautiful late afternoon run. I 'm pretty sure I timed it in around 39:50. So today I decided to run in Oakbrook during Vanessa's appointment with Debra.
I found a forest preserve with a long river trail, I started out at 4pm and headed towards the Double Tree Hotel, that was across the street, and found my path and tried to find my breathe. I had on 2 shirts which at first I thought would help me out with the high winds, but instead it heated me up real fast, I had to shed my underneath layer and leave on the bright yellow UA Charged Cotton Tee. I felt so much better and was able to get into a nice rhythm. There were lots of people along the trail. Businessmen walked and talked about economics, dog walkers said hello while their puppies smell the new grass. It warmed up considerably from the early chill that was in the air in the morning.
The run was hard, alot harder then any recenlty, which tells me I need to run more often. I finished in at 49:03 for 6.0 miles. Not bad for me but could be a lot better. I'm still planning out my next few days which will dictate when I get to run next.
I'm eyeballing the Rambling Run in Joliet in 3 weeks if I can't get registered for the Blackberry Run in Aurora on the 31st.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
St. Patrick's Day Wknd.
After a long and rough week at work I finally had some days off, and what did I do. I had a race paid for on St. Patrick's Day morning. I managed to get a pasta dinner with tuna the night before, so I feel that the carbs gave me a boost. I woke up about an hour and change before the start of the race. I hit start on the coffee and made some toast with PB. I took my Zyrtec, Advil, and 5 Hour Energy and headed on my way. In my race bag I had my headphones, watch, Gatorade G Series 1, 2 &3, Ironman gel, and warm ups.
Since it was St. Patty's Day I made sure my run gear matched the theme of the day. I wore my lime green UA shoes, black shorts, a green "I Need A Drink" tee with Snoopy on it, and a green felt top hat with bow. I thought it was photo worthy.
I left a little later then I wanted to but, I still manage to leave at a decent time. I knew 59 would be pretty clear and it was. I arrived at the Jefferson Ave secret entrance to the Riverwalk, at 7:45, which was perfect. I had my warm ups on and ran to the registration tent to grab my bib number(#49), free t-shirt and bag of advertisements for other races and causes. and ran back to the car. I managed to get back to the car at 7:53, which gave me plenty of time to take the G2 Prime, and take off warm ups and slowly jog back to the start line. I made it with a few minutes to spare. I got a nice spot up front and bounce around til the mayor got on the loudspeaker.
When the gun sounded, I took off. managed to goof on my watch and couldn't get it to start. While looking at my watch I got pushed by a couple of guys, no biggie. The start of the race was really fast, somehow i managed to stay with the front pack. I ran the first mile so aggressively that I missed the first mile marker. My Achilles felt fine and I kept pushing, it wasn't until about the middle of the second mile that I felt my body finally realized what I had done to it. I started to get passed by people rather then me passing others. I still felt like I was going at a solid pace my 2 Mile time was 12:13, so I know I was flying. I hadn't broken a 7 minute mile yet in any of my runs, so running 2 6:07 miles was unreal. The last mile was rough but a clear head got me through the downtown portion of the run. I got a few good deep breaths in and felt my legs come back which really helped me accelerate to the finish, I remember seeing the 3 mile time and thinking I have a chance to break 20 minutes. I hadn't felt that push in my legs in a long time. I ended up running a PR of 19:58.
I grabbed 2 glasses of water and 2 bananas and wandered back to the car. Once I caught my breathe I took a walk along the Riverwalk back to the race tent where there was a big party. A couple paramedics were taking care of the dehydrated and fatigued runners. There were about 3-4 ambulances and 2 fire trucks. I then took some pictures and headed to McDonald's for my post race reward of a Shamrock Shake.
The rest of the day, I went on a walk with Vanessa, had some Panera, and watched a lot of college basketball. My body started to shut down around 7pm. I was so tired from the week from working 56 hours, which was nuts. I didn't wake up til 11:00am. The shut eye felt great. I woke up a little stiff, after I walked around a bit i had to sit down. I watched some of the tourney and then decided to go for a nice slow run to loosen up my body. It helped some. My right calf is still somewhat tight but since I went to Road Runner Sports on 75th, I bought myself The Stick with Bobby's Christmas gift card. I've wanted one for so long, and it will help the stiffness go away.
Overall a good weekend, I'm looking at the Blackberry Farms 5K in 2 weeks on March 31st, as my next run. Happy Running everyone!
Since it was St. Patty's Day I made sure my run gear matched the theme of the day. I wore my lime green UA shoes, black shorts, a green "I Need A Drink" tee with Snoopy on it, and a green felt top hat with bow. I thought it was photo worthy.I left a little later then I wanted to but, I still manage to leave at a decent time. I knew 59 would be pretty clear and it was. I arrived at the Jefferson Ave secret entrance to the Riverwalk, at 7:45, which was perfect. I had my warm ups on and ran to the registration tent to grab my bib number(#49), free t-shirt and bag of advertisements for other races and causes. and ran back to the car. I managed to get back to the car at 7:53, which gave me plenty of time to take the G2 Prime, and take off warm ups and slowly jog back to the start line. I made it with a few minutes to spare. I got a nice spot up front and bounce around til the mayor got on the loudspeaker.
When the gun sounded, I took off. managed to goof on my watch and couldn't get it to start. While looking at my watch I got pushed by a couple of guys, no biggie. The start of the race was really fast, somehow i managed to stay with the front pack. I ran the first mile so aggressively that I missed the first mile marker. My Achilles felt fine and I kept pushing, it wasn't until about the middle of the second mile that I felt my body finally realized what I had done to it. I started to get passed by people rather then me passing others. I still felt like I was going at a solid pace my 2 Mile time was 12:13, so I know I was flying. I hadn't broken a 7 minute mile yet in any of my runs, so running 2 6:07 miles was unreal. The last mile was rough but a clear head got me through the downtown portion of the run. I got a few good deep breaths in and felt my legs come back which really helped me accelerate to the finish, I remember seeing the 3 mile time and thinking I have a chance to break 20 minutes. I hadn't felt that push in my legs in a long time. I ended up running a PR of 19:58.
I grabbed 2 glasses of water and 2 bananas and wandered back to the car. Once I caught my breathe I took a walk along the Riverwalk back to the race tent where there was a big party. A couple paramedics were taking care of the dehydrated and fatigued runners. There were about 3-4 ambulances and 2 fire trucks. I then took some pictures and headed to McDonald's for my post race reward of a Shamrock Shake.
The rest of the day, I went on a walk with Vanessa, had some Panera, and watched a lot of college basketball. My body started to shut down around 7pm. I was so tired from the week from working 56 hours, which was nuts. I didn't wake up til 11:00am. The shut eye felt great. I woke up a little stiff, after I walked around a bit i had to sit down. I watched some of the tourney and then decided to go for a nice slow run to loosen up my body. It helped some. My right calf is still somewhat tight but since I went to Road Runner Sports on 75th, I bought myself The Stick with Bobby's Christmas gift card. I've wanted one for so long, and it will help the stiffness go away.
Overall a good weekend, I'm looking at the Blackberry Farms 5K in 2 weeks on March 31st, as my next run. Happy Running everyone!
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