Running / Softball and its Getting Late

I know I wanted to write some about my upcoming races, but it's already 11:30 pm and I'm pretty tired as I type this.  So the telling of the race plans is going to have to be put on hold for a day or two.

Today I got in another 2.2 mile run with the same old .3 mile cool down.  I ran fairly well and felt pretty good.  In fact, over the final mile I really slowed down on purpose because I didn't want to have two tempo (sub 10 min miles) on back to back days.  Granted the sub 10 min mile is pretty slow, but I feel pretty good overall, and I want to get in 4 miles tomorrow night.

This weekend looks like a 4 miler on Friday, a 16 mile bike ride on Saturday, and hopefully either a 20 mile bike ride or 5-6 mile run on Sunday - just depends on what the family has planned though.  If all goes to plan I'll have a eight day running streak going and I'll be feeling pretty good about my gearing-up for a 4th of July race I have planned.

I played softball tonight with my long standing Thursday night team - we're playing much better recently.   Actually we've won 4 straight and 5 out of the last 6.  I might have mentioned before, but I play second base for the team, and lately I've found my fielding range.  Somehow I'm getting really good 'reads' off the bad and I'm getting to balls that I couldn't have even dreamed of getting to last year.  Shoot tonight I almost made a play on a grounder that went to the left of our pitcher and left of second base.  If I hadn't hesistated as the ball passed the pitcher I could have dove for it and most likely made a play on the ball.  Still I made 6 of the first 9 putouts in a low scoring game.  Season ending game is next week - if we win we get second place, not bad for starting out loosing the first 4 games.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

It Was a Good Day.

 

After a week of just being in the dumps - today was a good day.  It's 11:20 pm as I type this and I just got done adding up my time doing something active today:

Walking 1 hour
Running 40 mins
P90x 1 hour 15 mins
Softball 1 hour 10 mins
Totals: 4 hours and 5 mins <-- simply amazing!  I can't believe I actually put in a day like today.  Ice Cube just seemed to fit today.

My run tonight was supposed to be a very easy 2.3 miles - I stretched that out to 3.5 miles (with my cool down.) and I made the decision to scrap my plan - I'll finish my 10k training by feel and see if I can break the 60 min barrier in 30 days.  Pace for my run was a very slow 10:37 per mile, but my first mile was an 11:23 so I did lay down a good final two miles......



Softball was good even though we lost in the final inning.  I was 3-4 with a HR, 2 RBI's and 2 runs scored.  I'm sure the P90x is improving my power.  Normally I don't hit the ball that far, and in fact my only out was a deep flyout of left field.

P90x was tough today, plyometrics and abs today.  Slowly I'm getting better and I'm completing more and more of each move.  Weight is down about 5-8 lbs since we started and we're only on week 3 day 2.  I sweat like crazy during these workouts and I can feel me working muscle groups that I normally don't use, I can't wait until we reach day 30.

Alex called me tonight walking home from track practice - he was clocked running a 5:02 mile today by the Varisty Coach.  Dammit that's my PR.  He does three weeks of formal training and he hits my personal PR?  The kid is a natural -he's got another week to break the 5 min barrier and the coach will take him to the varisty open meet here in Orange County.  I'm not sure how I feel about that - he's never run in a pack before let alone a mile track pack.  Still as a sophmore, it would be a good expirence fr him......  We'll see what the kid can pull out next week at practice.  Either way I'm very proud of him.

Keep Steppin'
Bob

Beautiful Morning!

This mornings run was beautiful. The sun came out to a cloudless sky and the air was crisp (well as crisp as Southern California can be.) and what started out as a 3 miler quickly turned into a 4.5 mile run when I decided to take a right turn instead of a left on the upper end of my planned course. Cade as usual was catting away and I tried to keep up the conversation but it was hard. Pace overall was 11:08 not too bad for a stroller training run and I'm pleased with my results even if I had to walk a short uphill section for about :30 sec.

Saturday is going to be my last official attempt at a mile PB this year. I don't run this distance anymore on it's own, but with my increased mileage this year I think I might be able to break 8:44. The plan is to run a warm up 1.18 miles then do the TT and finish with an easy cool down of 1.18 miles. I'll still get in over 5k for the day and that should also get me over my weekly goal of 28 miles and get me very close to my monthly mileage goal of 79 miles. Physically I feel pretty good. My legs are a little tired but my recovery between runs seem to be OK. My left knee (my bad knee) is a little sore and yesterday I found out is hurts when I kneel on the tile to clean it. I know Beth I won't use this as an excuse to get out of cleaning the tile. :)

Tonight I'm filling in for softball (it's amazing they've asked me to play every game as a backup since I told them I wasn't going to play this season) The scabs on my knees just healed up this morning from the last double header we had - hopefully I won't have to dive too much tonight.

Keep Steppin'
Bob