Every Race is an Adventure!

My wife Karen claims that after I had awakened after my shoulder surgery last Tuesday that I asked Dr. Kimball how long before I could run again and he said three weeks. I honestly have no memory of that conversation. (She also claims I said "pineapple" multiple times, but that's another story.) Today I decided that six days was long enough.

I should point out that I am not acting totally irresponsibly. Before the surgery, I asked about recovery. Dr. Kimball said that, similar to my son's surgery earlier this year, the surgery was relatively minor, just cleaning up some rough edges, so there was no harm I could do by overdoing it during recovery. Pain would be the only limiting factor.

Three days after surgery I got tired of being constipated by the pain medication so I went off it to see just how much pain was there. There wasn't all that much, and I had good mobility in the shoulder, so I've been off it for three days now.

I ran with Tom, Nathan, Darin, Bill, and Steve (King) at noon today. While my shoulder felt fine before, during, and after the run, shortly into the run I realized that my lungs didn't feel quit as fine. I had a hard time breathing the entire run, especially up the big hill. It wasn't long before Tom, Nathan, Darin, and Steve began to pull ever farther away. I felt good just to be able to hang with Bill until the end, although he did slow down a couple of times to allow me to hang with him.

We ran the 5 miles in around 38:39 (after subtracting streetlight stops). That's roughly 7:44/mi, which really isn't that bad for me for this run. I feel pretty good about this first post-surgery run, but I can tell I'm going to need to recover quickly and step it up if I want to run with the leaders on Mondays. Tom is running especially strong.

I ran 5 easy miles through the hills of Orem and Lindon this morning with Larry and his wife Jolene. Kevin Jessop made it out a few times last week with Larry, and Larry and I were both expecting him this moning, but he didn't appear.

I learned my lesson from yesterday and took it very easy. I'm too embarrassed to record our very slow pace, but it was just what I needed.

It was just Darin and me for the Lake View run today. That's always scary, but fortunately for me he was in no hurry today. I had our time as 40:26 (7:47/mi) for the 5.2 miles.

I was thinking, after Monday I think I may be more afraid to run with Tom now than with Darin. Darin even commented on how fast Tom and Steve finished out Monday's run and finished about a minute ahead of him (although knowing Darin he was just hanging back to stay with Nathan).

Tom, Darin, and Steve are all from Spanish Fork and are all really fast, as are many other SF runners. My dad was born and raised in Spanish Fork and claimed there was something special in the water. I don't know about that, but I may have to join Tom for a run one of these Saturdays and see if I can get some of that SF speed to rub off on me.

Larry and I wandered the hills again this morning. No Kevin and no Wayne again, although it sounds like Wayne plans to run with us on Saturday. I really enjoyed the run this morning. Larry always seems to have something interesting to talk about. It will be cool when we finally get Larry, Kevin, Wayne and I together for a run at the same time.

Larry, Wayne, and I went for an 8 mile run up Provo Canyon this morning. It was great to run with Wayne again. He's been trying to recover from a stress fracture. This was his first time back running. We also hadn't run up the canyon since before St. George, and that was nice, too. We even got to say hello to Sasha as he sped past us on his way down as we headed up.

We took it real easy going up the first 4 miles (9:43, 9:29, 9:34, 9:44). On the way down Wayne told us to go ahead and Larry and I went a little faster the next 3.5 miles (8:32, 8:14, 8:02, 4:01). I was thinking about Tom running 8x800 repeats @ 2:56 to 3:06 this week and decided to push the last half mile and see what I could do for one half mile repeat. I was encouraged to see I finished in 2:55 (5:51/mi). Now I just need to string 8 of those together. :)

I only ran about 30 miles this week, but that's 30 more than the doctor wanted me to run. I figure backing off 20 miles from my goal mileage was a pretty good sacrifice. My shoulder is feeling pretty good after the surgery, and I don't feel that running has negatively affected it at all. (I can't say the same for moving computers and monitors around in my office this week.) I go to the doctor for my post-operative exam on Monday morning. I guess I'll find out how he thinks I'm doing. I plan to pick up my mileage next week, and maybe slip in a medium pace tempo run or two, unless he convinces me otherwise.

I ran my close-to-home serpentine route solo this morning. One of the reasons I like this route is that it is well lit. For some unknown reason, I have a tendency to step on rocks and roll my ankles while running, especially in the dark. Despite my precautions, about 1.3 miles into this morning's run I stepped on a golfball-sized rock and rolled my right ankle. Fortunately, it was not serious and I was able to continue my run and "walk it off".

I averaged about 8:47/mi for six easy miles run this morning. I threw in a half dozen 2/3 effort striders in the second half of the run. I intend these to be 100 meter striders. I've been meaning to get to the track and see how far 100 meters is in terms of number of steps. I think I've been running a little short. So instead of going home at the end of the run I added a little distance and headed to the track at THS.

I only did a couple of 100 meter repeats and determined that I was about 20% short on my previous guesstimates of steps per 100 meters. I pushed the second 100 meters pretty hard (for a cold morning in long pants and long sleeves) and ran it in 19 seconds. I'm not sure what that means, but I thought I'd log it anyway for future reference.

At noon, I ran Eagles View with Tom, Nathan, Will, and Bill. We started together but it wasn't long before Tom, Nathan, and Will were pulling away. We caught them when they had to stop at the State Street light, but quickly pulled away again. Bill pulled away from me up the big hill leaving me dead last...or last, dead.

I guess I wasn't totally dead, because on the way back I managed to catch and pull away from Bill and close the gap on the others until the red light at State Street once again allowed me to catch them. It didn't last long. Tom and Nathan pulled away yet again. I managed to pull ahead of Will briefly, but he caught me later and we ended up finishing together.

My splits out and up were 8:06, 7:52, and 9:29/mi for the roughly half mile up the big hill. On the way down and back my splits were 5:53 (downhill), 6:53 (two overpasses), and 7:06/mi for the last 1/2 mile (flat). My Garmin showed an overall time of 37:00 flat for 4.99 miles (7:06/mi). I feel good about the run. I would have felt thrilled if Tom and Nathan hadn't been so much faster. It helps that they are younger than me and will never be in my age division. :-)

I was looking forward to running with Larry, Wayne, and Kevin this morning but not a single one of them showed up. I'm pretty sure I was at the right place at the right time, since it hasn't changed in years, but I still ended up running solo.

I ran the serpentine route again. My legs were feeling some effects from pushing it hard yesterday so I took it pretty easy. I ran the first mile in 9:20, gradually speeding up to 8:01 for last mile. I averaged 8:47/mi for the six miles.

I pushed too hard on Monday and was still feeling the effects so I decided to skip the two-a-day today and only run at noon. I ended up going to the clerk's office and doing some church work from 5:15-7:00 am.

At noon I ran Lake View with Tom and Will. After Monday's hard run I think Will was a little skeptical when Tom and I said we were going to take it easy, but we did. We finished the 5.2 miles in 43:36 (8:23/mi).

Larry and I ran a modified serpentine route this morning for 5.5 miles. The temperature was in the mid-20's, quite a bit colder than recent runs. This was an easy run and I think we averaged around 9:20/mi. The pain I've been feeling in my left achilles/heel since Monday's (too) hard run was feeling a bit better and didn't bother me.

I did an easy solo run this morning. I kind of picked my route as I went and ended up running a sort of amoeba-shaped loop. I even braved the darker streets of Lindon for part of the run. I ran six miles, some of it kind of hilly, at about a 9:18/mi average pace. I don't seem to be having any trouble not running too fast on these easy cold morning runs.

Kerry and I went to Spanish Fork to run with Tom and the SF group. Tom's wife Kim planned a surprise breakfast for after the run. Tom picked up on a few clues and was a little suspicious that something was up, but I think a good time (and good food) were still had by all. I know I sure enjoyed it.

Kerry and I made a VPB (Virtual Private Bathroom) stop and I ended up not restarting my watch for a bit. My Garmin ended up showing that we'd run for 12.99 miles, so I'll call 13 miles close enough. I don't have my watch with me, but I think the overall average for me was around 8:45/mi, but I could be off a bit.

Me left heel that's been bothering me a bit for the past week or so didn't bother me at all during the run. I think the temperature was in the mid-40's when we started and was very comfortable for this late in November. I enjoyed the run, the breakfast, and the camaraderie.

Shortly after I got home I saw Larry, Kevin, and Jolene going past at the end of their run. I caught up with them and walked over to their cul-de-sac with them. I still haven't run with Kevin since he's started running after taking many months off because of a severely broken leg, but at least I've now seen him in running clothes. Maybe Tuesday morning we'll finally run together, but I'm not holding my breath.

I went 6.2 easy miles solo this morning wandering through the streets near home. I can tell I still need to take it easy on my left heel, but it didn't bother me during the run. The temperature was in the 40's again this morning, but it sounds like it's going to be cold again in the next day or two.

I got stuck in a meeting and missed getting out with the rest of the guys at noon. I ran Eagle View anyway and passed Nate, Will, Darin, and Steve on their way back. Although they were clearly not pressing as hard as when Tom was pulling them the last two weeks, I think they were still going faster than I wanted to go. I ran it in 37:00 (7:24/mi) last week, when I pushed too hard and hurt my foot, and in 41:50 today (8:22/mi), a much saner and safer pace for me.
 

I wandered the foothills of Orem with Larry again this morning. I don't think either of us could retrace our route, but we enjoyed the conversation as we meandered about. The weather was a little cooler, but only cold when the wind kicked up.

I did a circuitous solo run around nearby neighborhoods this morning. It was similar to the serpentine route I've been doing recently but with a couple of modifications. Instead of skipping dead end streets I went into every one, and there are quite a few. Then instead of doubling back like I've been doing, I went straight up 1600 N from 400 W to 400 E, a mile of steady uphill that seems to get steeper as it goes. I think I ended passing by 1/2 to 2/3 of the homes in our stake boundaries. As a new stake clerk I'm still trying to learn the ward boundaries. Maybe if I study the stake map and do more runs like this it will help.

It was much colder this morning. It was a little hard getting going but it helped to know that I had to keep moving to keep warm. I really enjoyed this cold meandering run this morning. My foot didn't really bother me and I felt pretty strong. I even included a couple of steep uphill dead end streets I could have skipped near the end. I averaged 8:45/mi for the 6.9 miles, starting at around 9:00/mi, slowing a little on the mile long uphill, then running the last couple of miles at 8:30/mi and 8:15/mi.

In addition to the traditional overeating today, I also overdid with the traditional turkey bowl football in the morning and the traditional extended family basketball in the late afternoon. I did show some restraint by not also throwing in a long run, or even a short easy run, but I'm afraid my body is still going to take some time to recover.

I did well to just be able to get up and walk around today. I was reminded that there are a lot of muscles that running doesn't use very much, but that football and basketball do, and all of them hurt today. An easy run would probably have done me some good today, but I decided to take the rest of the extended weekend off to rest my left foot that has been bothering me. I plan to return to easy running on Monday.

By the way, we went and saw "Enchanted" today, and I was...enchanted that is. My wife, three of my daughters, and I all quite enjoyed it. I guess it's not a very manly movie, but I liked it anyway.

Darin and I ran the Eagles View loop at noon today. We kept it conversational and I wasn't trying to push very hard, just keep things moving to not make the run too slow for Darin. He had to be back for a 1:00pm meeting so we were just going to go out 20:00 minutes and then turn back. It turns out we made it to the top in 20:00 and finished in 38:51. I would have been satisfied with an 8:30 pace today, and felt like we were running around 8:00, but it must have been faster than that on the way back. It was encouraging to discover that the average pace was closer to 7:45.

My bothersome foot (PF, achilles) felt good during the run. Even on the uphill I didn't feel like I was stressing it much. However, I can tell that I still need to not press hard for a while yet.

I ran 6 easy miles with Larry this morning. I wasn't aware, but apparently both Kevin and Wayne had told Larry yesterday that they were planning to run this morning. Oh well, maybe Thursday. It would be great to them both back out with us on a regular basis. Wayne has been recovering from a stress fracture for several weeks, and Kevin was recovering for many months from breaking his leg in nine places, but has been running some the past few weeks...just not with me yet.

I think the temperature was around 30' this morning, with a bit of wind, but I was dressed well for it and it was quite a comfortable run. Rather than meandering through the big hills east of home, we meandered through the flatter streets west of home this morning. We averaged 9:11/mi for the six miles. We ran pretty steady with the first two miles at exactly 9:11 and two of the other miles at 9:10. One mile in the middle was a little slower because we stopped to wait for Larry's dog to stop wandering and catch up, but we apparently unconsciously made up for it by running the last mile a little quicker. It was by no means a fast run, but a little more focused and steady than many of our easy runs since St. George. I sense an increased determination from Larry to get back to his old form and seriously focus on a BQ this year. I hope it lasts and the injury bug that bit him this year leaves him alone.

Yes, I've told Larry (countless times) that he needs to start blogging. When he finally does, then I'll know he's truly committed to getting that BQ time...and I'm confident he'd get it.


 

I ran Lake View with Will, Russ, and Tom (part of the way). Will seemed to be pushing the pace the whole way. Tom and I were content to trail behind, but when he turned back after a couple of miles I was faced with running alone or catching up and running with Will and Russ. I didn't want to run alone, so I chose the latter. I ended up running out in 20:00 (7:42/mi) and back in 19:37 (7:33), for an overall average pace of 7:37/mi for the 5.2 miles.

Sasha recommended I not run faster than 8:00/mi for a couple of weeks until my foot heals up, but that doesn't seem to be possible for me when I run with the Novell guys. I do fine on the other days when I run alone or with the neighborhood guys. I have no trouble running slower than even 9:00/mi. Does averaging slower than 8:00/mi for the week count? Probably not. Oh well, at least I'm staying conversational, and my foot still seems to be getting better. I think it was going sub-7:00 (even sub-6:00 for one mile) at the same time I was boosting my mileage that triggered this episode. I think reducing my mileage and running conversational pace only is helping.

Wandered through the hilly streets of NE Orem with Larry. The Christmas lights were pretty and the conversation was enjoyable.