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Post-Run Report: March 30, 2017

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Today’s run was actually really quite nice. I wasn’t really in the mood to run or exercise, but I decided to just go out and do it anyway. What’s 30 minutes out of my day to stay fit anyway, right? The temperature outside was perfect; not too hot, not too cold, and not too humid. I did my 70 push ups and then hit the pavement. My pace average was pretty decent. Not sub-9’s yet, but I figure I’ll be back there again soon enough. I did push it, but not too hard. I pushed just hard enough to get sub 9:30’s.

My next run will likely be sometime Saturday. Not sure exactly when, but most likely in the afternoon. Hopefully, it’ll be nice out as well.

Running again today

It’s going to be another hot afternoon, but I’m going to get out there and run. I’m having to get back into the swing of things again as I took four days off from running last week (which I talked about in-depth in my last post), but I am still looking forward to getting out there and getting it done.

With the weather getting hotter, however, I will soon be forced to have to run in the mornings again. That means going to bed earlier and waking up earlier and doing no more than three mile runs. That’s the one thing I hate about mornings: being so limited in the distances I can run. I wake up at 5 a.m. on run days, and that gives me roughly an hour to get dressed, do push ups, (soon) sit ups, run, shower, and get dressed to make and eat breakfast, make coffee, and then hit the road for work.

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As for the Garmin Fenix 3 HR, I’m enjoying it more and more. On my last run, I really liked the display and what it showed me during the run. The font is large enough for me to read without my glasses as I run without them, and its not distracting. It ticks off miles instead of half miles, so I have to get used to that for my three mile runs since I do a turn-around at the 1.5 mile mark, but otherwise, it’s really nice. I also found that using the default watch faces really speeds it up a lot. I was using a custom watch face that slowed it down considerably. As much as I liked that custom watch face, I prefer the faster performance. Besides, the stock digital watch face is pretty decent on its own.

Post-Run Report: March 15, 2017

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Today was a surprisingly decent run with a pace I’m once again happy with. This is the second run in a row that I’ve completed without looking at my pace during the rune on my fitness watch, and once again, it turned out to be a nice run. The pace is better this time than the last three runs, which also makes me happy.

The best part: I felt good throughout the entire run, had no pain in any joints or muscles, and after my shower, my legs felt normal. Just this morning, I was wondering how long it will be before I can run and still have my legs feel normal afterward. It looks like that point is now.

Today also marks the last time I will use my Fitbit Surge unless something bad happens to my new watch: the Garmin Fenix 3 HR. I decided to move on to a new fitness/smart watch after the battery on the Fitbit started to die after just two days. The Garmin promises to have a more robust battery as well as having more smartwatch features, apps, watch faces, etc. I will do a review of this watch after I’ve had some time to use it more.

As for me, the run felt great, and on the push ups front, I was able to do a comfortable 65. It’s nice to have those numbers start to creep up again. All in all, great running day, and I now look forward to Friday’s run.

 

If the weather is nice enough, I’ll run today

So far, the knee is holding up. Ironically, it’s the left knee that is giving me some pain today due to some of the limping I was doing Sunday, but I think it’ll go away after a few steps of running. If the weather isn’t stormy after work today, I will run. I’m going to push myself to go easy. I know that’s sort of an oxymoron, but it’s going to be hard to hold myself back. I want to take it easy and have a gentle 3-mile run. Sherry says it should be 2 miles, but 3 is my minimum. I’ll try to stick to a 10 minute (or slower) mile.

Well, unless there is no pain at all. If that’s the case, I’m going for it. I have made too much progress to give any of that back.

It was bound to happen: I hurt my right knee

It’s happened. I hurt a ligament in my right knee. The crazy part is that I didn’t hurt myself during my run on Saturday. I hurt it after the run when I took our dog, Buddy, for his walk. He decided he wanted to run while leashed, and I figured, “Why not?” I should have just held him to walking or let him run around a little without a leash, because afterward, the ligament on the left side of my right knee felt a lot of pain. Not at all the good post-run pain.

If I walk gingerly on it, or with a slight limp, I can eliminate the pain, but in the moment that I forget that it’s injured and I step normally with it, a jolt of pain shoots from the ligament up my leg. This is not good.

Today, a day later, it still hurts. It’s a little better, but still not back to normal. I think that I may skip tomorrow’s planned run and wait to see if the pain dissipates enough by Tuesday. I’ll have a light 3 mile run at a slower pace on Tuesday to see how it goes. Fortunately, I have a circuit that is very close to my home that I run for this distance that allows me to stop and get home within 1/4 mile at its farthest point. I’m unhappy about having to skip a run on Monday and that I’ll have to run light on Tuesday, but I have to let my body heal. I can’t let myself get more injured or prolong the amount of time it would take to heal by aggravating it.

I’ve had a good stretch without injury: over five months. It was bound to happen, and every runner I know deals with this from time to time. I guess it’s my turn. We’ll see how it goes over the next two days. I hope to be back to running my normal distances and pace soon. In the meantime, I am sitting on the back patio writing blog entries and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Post-Run Report: February 8, 2017

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Well, I went and did it. I joined Strava today. Apparently, that’s a runner thing, too. I have my own profile page there as well that has all my run information there. I went and uploaded every run since I started back on September 10th, so everyone can see my progression so far. 

As for today’s run, it went very well far better, even, than I expected. As you may know from reading the previous blog entry, I was not looking forward to this run. I just wasn’t feeling it. But, I went ahead and set out for it anyway. I got my 80 push ups in, and then I did my run. Overall, I felt great and my pace was comfortably hard without pushing too much. I finished with a good time and a pace I am proud of: 9:27/mile. The best part is that I don’t have excessive muscle pain. Just a good post-workout buzz in my legs. I’ll take it. 

Post-Run Report: February 3, 2017

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Another good run. I had a great start but then had some strange quasi-pain in both shins, but I think it had to do with the fact that it was 57 degrees and dropping, and my legs were protesting the cold. After a half mile or so, the pain went away and my legs felt fine. (Even now afterward, they feel fine which, if it were shin splints, they would still be hurting.) I was able to keep my average pace in the sweet spot of 9:30 which is my goal for my runs. I finished with 3.23 miles at 30:51.

It was pretty windy outside which I am never a fan of, but all in all, I can’t complain. At least it wasn’t hot out. As for push ups, I got in a comfortable 75. I decided not to push it going into the weekend.

The next two days are my off days from running. Unless I really feel anxious to run, I won’t do it again until Monday. As for weight, I’m consistently below 175 now which makes me happy. I’m ready for the next block of weight to fall. I’m hoping it comes within the month.