Second Wind

Rest

Easy 3 miler today.  Legs felt good considering the 16 mile long run on Saturday, but my lower back was killing me.  It really started hurting early Sunday and has continued to ache today as well.  Decided today to take 800mg Ibuprofen 3 times daily to see if that will knock out the pain over the next couple of days.  The only things I can attribute this flare up to would be our stake pioneer day celebration where I helped prepare corn for the whole stake and much of the work involved lifting boxes of corn, etc.  Not much of a relaxing day after an early monrning long run ehhh.  Hopefully it is not a result of the long run but I guess the possibility exists since running can be hard on the lower back especially one like mine that has already gone through one surgery back in 1993 to repair a herniated disk.  I will continue to stretch my back and take Ibuprofen over the next few days and see where we are.  Maybe a new matress is in order too.  Ours is really old!  Run today was very slow and the weather was hot and wet with the monsoon seaon upon us.

Time:  8:48/mile

Ran a 6 mile tempo run today with a mile warm up and cool down.  Wasn't exactly sure what to expect to be able to do today based on my last marathon pace run being a complete disaster.  Started the run with medium expectations of running a fairly fast temp pace.  Ended up runnning the 6 tempo miles at a 7:13/mile pace which isn't bad but is slower than my expected capability.  Overall I am happy with the run and felt pretty good for most of the way except for the lower back which has continued to ache but seems to be doing better with the Ibuprofen regemin.  Not much rain in the valley but man it is humid for Vegas.  I was drenched when I got done today.

Time:  7:30/mile

I decided to run my 8 mile run today in the familiar negative split format.  Since I wanted to finish with a 7:30 or better pace on the last mile I started mile 1 at about an 8:40 pace and cut 10 seconds per mile for each mile.  Meg stayed with me until about mile 4 and then we went our seperate ways.  Short story long, I exceeded my goal and ran the last mile at 7:19.  Weather was very humid again today and the sweat was flowing freely although the temps were only in the high 70s.  I will take the dry heat and high temps over the wet heat and lower temps any day, this humidity is a killer.

Time: 8:01/mile

Ran 8 easy miles today.  My back is still bothering me but we bought a new matress topper to go on our bed and it seems to be helping.  I stopped taking the ibuprofen yesterday as well so I can get a better read on how the back was feeling.  We'll see how the next couple of days go and go from there.  Today was supposed to be a 4 mile run but Meg doesn't like going 8 on Friday and then long on Saturday so we decided to switch 8 to today and move 4 to Friday.  I will probably go 5 or 6 tomorrow just for the extra conditioning.  Todays run felt pretty good and the pace was a little faster than my normal easy runs but still felt pretty easy.  There have been lots of threatening clouds in the skies the last few days but not much rain to show for it.  Hopefully the rains will be coming soon because the valley really could use it.  Temps were in the high 70s today but it was still very humid.

Time: 8:22/mile

Today I decided not to look at my Garmin for the entire run and just run at a pace that felt comfortable regardless of the time.  I do have the alarm set to go off each mile so I knew what mile I was on and so I took of just running at a pace that felt good.  I figured I was running about 8:45-8:55 pace but when I completed the run I was pleased to find that my pace was 8:29 per mile.  My back actually felt a little better today.  The last couple of days I have been running on the opposite side of the road than usual and that may be helping a little bit as well due to the slightly cambered roads in my neighborhood.  The new matress topper seems to be working pretty well so far too.  I seem to be sleeping better at night and tossing and turning less, or at least it seems that way.  Temps are still slightly cooler than normal but the humidity more than makes up for the cooler temps.

Time:  8:29/mile

Long run today that I decided to run as a 3/1 run.  In other words I ran the first 13 miles at an easy long run pace and the final 4 miles at marathon pace.  Had some stomach issues for the first several miles and had to make a couple of stops at the house for the bathroom.  Once the system was cleared out is was smooth sailing.  Started feeling better as the run continued and decided to pick up the pace the last four miles to near marathon pace.  I think my average for these last 4 miles was around 7:30/mile.  It was good to try and get to marathon pace on tired legs so that I could know what it felt like.  It wasn't easy but as the last miles clicked by it didn't get any harder either, which I think is a good sign.  Felt pretty good for the rest of the day with no real soreness or aches on Sunday either.  I know I am much more fit this year than last year based on my shorter recovery from these long runs.  The long runs would wipe me out for the weekend last year.  This year I feel like I could go for a run on Sunday if it weren't my day of rest.  Needless to say, I am pleased with the overall results of this run even though I need to figure out the bathroom thing.  I think I really ate too much food on Friday due to a lunch at work which was different than my typical small portions.  That won't happen again.  Temps were warm as usual and the humidity was relatively high, making for another wet run.  This concludes my highest mileage week ever at 49 miles enroute to my highest mileage month ever which ends tomorrow.

Time:  8:28/mile