Long run, 2/16, what's the haps lately?

I laid down an eight miler this past Saturday afternoon through downtown LV, to include Freemont Street. It was a lot of fun and seemed to go by very quickly. My knees have been acting iffy lately, not to mention the soreness in my hamstrings and back from pulling weeds in my yard Sunday, so I chilled out last night. The YMCA at which I do a lot of my training was closed, anyway.

I'm going to go ahead a swear by the gels - they frickin' work. I had one during my ten miler a couple of weeks ago at about mile six and boy oh boy did I ever feel a surge of energy. I have learned the value of backing off the throttle on the long runs, given the fit my knees gave me, which I attribute to taking the last four miles of the ten a little too quickly (I think I was in the 9:20 range which is hauling ass for me).

I'm only running three times this week - two sixes and an eleven for the long run on Saturday morning, afternoon, whichever is more comfortable weather wise. I'm feeling good about being ready to go April 26, but I'm keeping a close watch on my knees.

I forgot to mention how perfect the weather has been lately. I'm off to go get my bones cracked. :-)

Long run.

I put in a ten miler Saturday and averaged about a 10:20 mile overall. It was slow going the first half, mainly due to the steady incline of the road. I was pulling sub-10's between miles six and nine. Nice, until the last mile. That was the time at which my knees started acting up. I even had to stop at one point and massage my kneecaps a little. I think that maybe I should slow it down a little on the long runs, although inside I'm proud that I could haul as much ass as I did after mile six. I'm still pretty sore, in fact, but they say that's a good thing. I have done more work to prepare my muscles for the long haul on race day. :-) In other news I had a pretty solid tempo run last Thursday. In that hour I managed to make it 6.5 miles.

This week:
Monday: Recovery run (I told you I was still sore:-/) - 5 - 6 miles
Wednesday: Intervals - one hour (probably 10K, tentative depending on how my knees are doing)
Thursday: Moderate run - 6 miles
Saturday: "long" run - 8 miles.

That'll be 25-26 miles. I ran 28 last week. I'm pretty happy with the way things are going so far. I'm looking at the idea of possibly doing more than one 13-miler in preparation for the race. It all depends on what my body can handle. :-)

I'm glad I don't live in Mississippi.

Apparently that state has legislation on the table that would prevent folks with a BMI over 30 (this means me, too) from getting into any restaurant. Says the post at Shapely Prose:

Unless you were living under a rock or had something better to do than read fat blogs yesterday, you already know about the absurd piece of stunt legislation being proposed in Mississippi, which would require (not allow; require) restaurants to deny service to fat people. (Here’s JoGeek, The Rotund, Big Fat Blog, Lindsay, Rachel, Thoughtracer… did I miss anyone?) Of course this is a farcical suggestion, especially as they propose sending restaurants written material on determining whether someone is too fat to eat in public. Presumably this means “advanced eyeballing notes,” since diagnosing “obesity” requires at very least a scale and a ruler, neither of which qualifies as written material. And we all know how effective eyeballing is at determining where someone falls on the BMI scale.

I'm one of the many people on this planet that are living proof that BMI is bullshit. I'm certain the diet industry is every piece of bullshit legislation behind this. They already work hand-in-hand with the food industry to induce the primal indulgence-guilt cycle in all of us. What the Mississippi State Legislature ought to be doing is passing legislation to promote physical fitness. They can start by sponsoring road races and opening user-friendly (this means all users) gyms. As for the over-30 BMI crowd: forget about dieting. Just stay away from junk food (most of the time at least) and get running. That's what I do and my doctor agrees that it's the right thing. And I'm 5'9 and *gasp* 230 pounds. Those flat-bellied delusional bastards can register for my next half-marathon and watch my fat ass jiggle as I gain distance on them, preferably between miles 11 and 13 - a classic tortoise-versus-hare scenario.

Take your BS legislation and shove it.

This week's plan...

Mon: 6 miles
Wed: 6 miles
Fri: 6 miles
Sat: 9 miles

Total: 27 miles.

I started the glucosamine supplements again Monday of last week. A little pain in my right hip and knee should be alleviated with a trip to the chiropractor and thorough stretching before each workout. Will try to maintain 10:00-mile pace for each run, and about a 10:30-10:45 for the long run.

I've also discovered that I get winded a lot faster if I eat too much on the days I plan my runs. I will more than likely back off on the portions on run days, especially starchy stuff like brown rice and bread. The GI doc says that the decrease in blood flow to my guts is to blame for the phenomena. Enough said there.

Calico Racing Mardi Gras Masquerade 10K

Pre-race photo op with an inflatable jester.

Time: 1:02:23. w00t! Great times this race. It was definitely a family-oriented event as there were pinatas for the kids (and the adults) after the race. Participation appeared to be about 50-75 folks, including children as young as seven. There was a kid that looked only a little older than my oldest son who passed me like I was standing still (not saying much, seriously. I kid. I kid.). Those youngsters have inspired me to get my kids running shoes and get them signed up for some 5K's. They had plastic Mardi Gras beads for participants to purchase, plenty of chow, and plenty of water along with Hammer HEED sports drink. The goody bag included a t-shirt and (yet another) sample of Udder Cream.

All-in-all, the event was well organized and the staff, friendly. I'm looking forward to Calico's Labor Of Love event on April 26, as mentioned in my inaugural post, where I'll be running the half-marathon again.

Great times, great scenery, great run. Now onto training for the Labor Of Love half. The plan is to maintain running six milers two or three times during the week, then running my long runs on Saturday mornings leading up to race day, toggling between long and shorter runs each Saturday. I think I'll go with 9-6-11-6-11-6-12-6-13-6-8 or 10-race day (distance in miles on each Saturday), or something like that.

calicoracing.com