Sunday, 6/22/2014: 6.2 miles, 51:07: 8:15 pace, 75F, 36% RH, 6 mph wind, sunny.
I had to sleep on my back during the night since my left rib bruise (I hope) prevented me from laying on my left side like I usually do. I got up around 8AM and let my darling wife, Christine, sleep. I puttered around, had a mug of coffee, read the Sunday Democrat and Chronicle and caught up on email and Facebook. I woke Christine up at 12:20AM. Good thing I did since she had a Massage Envy appointment at 1PM. She out the door by 12:43AM and took a quick bath before she did. Wow!
Garmin Connect Activity for A nice and healing 10K
So ... I went out for a run. I had to get out to see if my bruises and aches would allow me to run. The first mile was slow ... my left ribs didn't like the bouncing too much. But I kept going and endured the run. My splits were: 8:52, 8:23, 8:13, 8:26 (I had to wait for traffic), 7:49, 7:54 and 7:31 over the last 0.2 mile. All in all, not a bad run.
Later I watched the World Cup match between the US and Portugal. The US fought back from a 0-1 deficit to lead 2-1 going into the final minute of stoppage time. Just like that ... it was a 2-2 draw due to a cross by Ronaldo and a header by a sub named Varela with about 15 seconds to go, link here. Our Time Warner feed for both the TV and internet went down in the second half so I had to watch the rest of the game via my watchESPN app. Time Warner stayed down so I went to bed early ... like 9:15PM early.
Monday, 6/23/2014: Rest day ... moving on.
Tuesday, 6/24/2014: 6.3 miles, 51:12, 8:07 pace, 72F, must have been 100% RH, overcast, calm, sprinkles then heavy rain.
Garmin Connect Activity for A nice and wet run in the dark
I got home and wanted to run but 5 minutes later a huge thunderstorm moved through and it absolutely poured. So I ate supper and just thought about running. Well ... my darling wife, Christine, was yanking around with the DVR watching her shows that I didn't like so I just up and said "I need to get out of here and run". It was 8:45PM around dusk so I put on my reflectivity belt and headlamp. I was a bit slow at first but I sped up as my joints loosened up. Then ... it started to sprinkle. I turned the cracked face of my Garmin Forerunner 310XT upside down on my wrist so it hopefully wouldn't get wet. Then ... it started to pour around mile 4 or so. I think the lightning flashes sped my pace up a bit too. I started to splash through the puddles on the shoulder along side of Cooper Rd, Titus Ave and Seneca Ave as I headed home. I was soaked, my shoes were soaked ... but it was a really good run. My splits were: 8:49, 8:20, 8:08, 7:51, 7:39, 7:56 and 8:08 over the last 0.3 mile.
It's really something. I can hurt myself running but I still run. My left knee still hurts when I kneel on it and I can't lie on my left side yet because my left rib is still bruised ... but I still run. I grimace when I get out of bed in the morning. I have run in the rain and have ran a few races in the rain. Runners understand this ... non runners maybe not.
Wednesday, 6/25/2014: Rest day ... moving on.
Thursday, 6/26/2014: 7.7 miles, 1:02:29, 8:07 pace, 79F, 48% RH, 6 mph N wind, sunny.
I didn't really want to run but I did. I try not to run on the Friday night before a race on Saturday morning but I didn't want to not run for 4 days either ... so I ran.
Garmin Connect Activity for A nice and sluggish run
The result was what I thought was a crappy run. I mean I took 5 walking breaks for water for heaven's sake! These were all in the middle of the run after I had run 3.5 miles and before I ran 2.5 miles at the end. So they were all in a 1.7 mile stretch. I have been tired lately so I think it had all caught up with me. But my split were: 7:58, 7:56, 7:43, 8:44, 8:39, 8:04, 7:53 and 7:54 so when I did run I ran kind of fast ... which is why I had a 8:07 pace for the entire run. Unbelievable.
Friday, 6/27/2014: Rest day ... the usual before a Saturday morning race.
My right palm has new skin and my left shoulder no longer needs a bandage. My left rib still hurts when I flex it wrong.
Saturday, 6/28/2014: 2 runs of 1.6 miles and Charlie's Old Goat Train Run of 6.54 miles, 75F, 68% RH, 4 mph SSW wind, sunny.
I was up early due to my darling wife, Christine, coming to bed late at 4:30AM and promptly snoring. So ... I got out of bed at 4:40AM for an early start to the day. Once it got to be 6:45AM I quietly got ready. I bid Christine "Good Bye" and left at 7:22AM for the 26 minute trip down to Victor and the Ganondagan State Historic Site. This would be my fourth running of the Charlie Old Goat Trail Run. I like this race ... it's challenging, not too long and has a good spread of food afterward. I said "Hi" to Tom Butler, Andy Ciaio, Prem Kumar, Bob Dyjak (running his first trail race), Mark Monachino, Bill Beyerbach, Bob Hamilton (up from Lyons) and Wilt Alston. This is a Rochester Runner of the Year (RROY) race so there was a lot of people I knew.
Garmin Connect Activity for Warmup before Charlie's Old Goat Trail Run
The weather was warm so I took a nice, easy and slow warmup run for 1.6 miles, 9:40 pace. I was dripping wet with sweat when I got back about 20 minutes before the race started. I tried to wrap my head around the fact that it would be a hot race.
Soon enough it was 9AM and we were off! I ran well for the first two miles and then the wheels just fell off. I said "Hi" to the people I knew as they passed me. The route of this race led us through open meadows where the sun beat down on us ... it was hot! I walked a lot of the hills. I tried to get back my mojo and ran when I could. I tried to run the downs and flats.
The race was only 6.5 miles so it was over soon enough. I tried to hold a run as I ran the last of the open meadows until I crossed the finish in 1:09:52. I was beyond drenched with sweat and quite thirsty. I was a bit dazed and downed two bottles of water as soon as I could. A few people that I met asked me "Are you OK?" and told me to eat something so I did. Donuts and cookies tasted good. Soon I felt better and talked a bit with Bill Beyerbach. I didn't win anything at the raffle. My number 41 was bracketed by 40, 42, 43 and 44 ... oh, well!
Soon I was home. So I woke my darling wife, Christine, did the dishes, got the coffee brewing, the bagels toasting and sat down. Whew! Another race done, my 267th. I did kind of OK, 1:09:52, 114th out of 230, 8th out of 14 in my M55-59 age group, link here. The heat just took my body and mind out of the run today. Stuff like that happens.
Here is an interesting blog post by the 2nd place finisher, Joshua Perks, link here. He looks at being 39 and looking forward to not racing against 24 year old runners in the open division when he ages up to 40 and the masters division. Another blog post by Eric Eagan is here. He said "Hi" as he passed me too.
