A So Called Rest Day

So yesterday was a rest day for me.  No I didn't break my streak (12 days now), I just took it really easy.  A couple walks and an easy 2.3 mile run.  Because I have put so many miles in for 2010 so far I wanted to take it really easy today but I didn't want to just sit on my butt.  Once again we had beautiful weather so I got out the door for the 2 miler around 7:30 pm.  With just a smattering of cloud cover, I did a VERY easy 9:50 pace.  This is pretty much what I want for my easy paced runs right now.  Just a tad under 10 min miles and I'll recover nicely.



This morning I woke with an upset stomach coupled with a pretty bad headache.  I know I haven't written about my headaches before, but I suffer from them daily.  I manage the pain pretty well and usually within 5 mins of waking I can tell how bad its going to be.  I've done everything possible to have this condition checked out but about 10 years ago I decided that I'll always have them and I'll just deal with it.  Most of the time I can just pop a few excedrine and I'm fine but every once in a while they just lay me out.  I try not to complain to my wife because I'm sure she doesn't want to hear it, and there's nothing I can do about them so complaining won't help.

Anyway this morning I could tell right away that it was going to be a struggle, hopefully when I get my run in today, it will clear my head a little, but with the stomach ache on top of it I'm a little worried I'm comming down with a little bug.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

Today the plan is to get in a 4 miler with Bogey at about the same pace as yesterday's run (9:50).  That with the cool down and my walks to Abby's school should give me about 7 miles for the day which is exactly what I want.  On Wednesday (tomorrow) I already know I won't have any kids in the morning so I'm planning a duplicate of my cycling distance from last week (27 miles).  That ride took a lot out of my legs last week and I want to see a few things:

• Thursday and Friday last week were pretty tough - can I recover a little faster this time?
• The ride itself was pretty rough on my quads, can I do this ride on back-to-back without my body crashing during the ride?

I should have answers to these two questions by the end of the week.

On my last post I mentioned that I was concerned about getting in a 'long' run and a trial 10k before my 10k training schedule kicks into play - well another blogger Casey who writes Running After Violet is doing a virtual 10k run on the 23rd of this month so I signed up for it.  It fits my schedule pretty well and I'll still be able to get my attempt at 9-10 miles in this weekend.  So I get the best of both worlds....... :)  (BTW I don't think it's too late to sign up, come join us.)  So the plan is to do a 27 mile bike ride tomorrow and a 9-10 miler this Saturday, then the following Satuday I'll be attempting a PB at the 10k distance.....  Hmmmmm all the runs in-between are going to be VERY slow.  On top of this, I'm looking at my PB's yesteday thinking it would be nice to attempt a new PB at the 2 mile distance....... Maybe I can work this in next month.

I almost forgot to welcome my new followers!  Thank you for stopping by, leave comments, thoughts, questions - I'll most likely incorporate them into a post (or two).

Keep Steppin'
bob

Distance PB Made!

Yesterday I set out to conquer some of the 'ridge' hills I have around my house. I've mentioned them in other posts before; looming 200-300 feet high they are pretty much straight up/down. Really there wasn't a reason to hit these hills, and in fact I didn't know I was going to run them until I made a turn toward them in the first half mile once I stepped out the front door.

After scaling the first two miles at an 11:55 pace, I decided that since my time sucked I might as well go for a distance PB. I talked about trying for a distance PB in my last post and I knew that this was the day I was going to get my chance. Beth was watching the kids and the weather was beautiful for a mid December. So I stared plotting a new route in my head. Something to get me to 8 miles. Continue straight here, turn right, straight, right, left, add that loop and another hill. Before I knew it I was home. 1:40:35 - the last two miles were painfully slow with a ton of walking mixed in, but I did finish the course I had set in my head. The only question was did I map out the distance correctly in my head? I've always prided myself in being able to gauge distances - even back in HS riding my bike to my girlfriends house - I knew I was going 13 miles. Running to soccer practice 6 miles, riding to my friends house 10 miles. It really didn't matter where or how, I just knew how far it was. Now I couldn't wait to map it out. (see below)




I was .03 off! Wow! What a great run. Slow, but a good run. We'll see how I feel tomorrow morning and how I recover over the next few days.

Keep Steppin'
Bob