By the numbers

Not on pace this year to hit 2,000 miles.Only ran 1,845 miles last year. I've increased my daily run to 6 miles this week. By the time I get to 8 miles a day that should be enough to get me to 2,000 by the end of the year. That is if I can stay injury free. About 8 weeks into the latest comeback. Of course the only way to jump start the training is a streak. Today was day number 15 of the current streak. But of course running streaks are stupid. Goal this week is 40 miles. Only missed it this past week by a half mile or so.

Would really like to be in marathon shape by this fall. No interest in getting a qualifier to make the show at Boston in 2014. I'll probably enter the lottery for the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon. The goal for that race would be a BQ qualifying time. (on a non-BQ course) Could have my arm twisted to make another fast marathon attempt at Rocket City, if any of the guys are training or have similar goals.

Probably skip the 10 miler at Bell Buckle. Never really have been in shape for that race. Hope to have enough of a base in the next couple of months to start some speed work. Maybe a fast mile or 5k at Smyrna in August.

First casualty of the running streak is the weight workouts. May try to do some kind of crossfit type of weight workouts to mix things up. Only downside to that is finding time.

Getting closer

Two more weeks of the boot. Though I did get a pass for the bike trainer or elliptical. The doctor showed me the xray from today and from the day of the break for comparison. The broken ends are still in place with about a millimeter of overlap. They appear to be laying almost side by side. The bone is starting to fill in, but still has a ways to go. Also, looked at the healed stress reaction to the 3rd metatarsal, plus other prior injuries to this foot. Damn and I thought my left foot was the abused one.

Still haven't weighed myself, but I can tell in the last week or two that the belt has to be let out at least a notch. Plan to address the lack of physical activity over the last four weeks, this morning. Weights and the bike trainer.  A little bit of something has to be better than nothing at all. Plus, that should really help loosen up the ankle.

Surprised when the doctor said the ankle would take almost a year to heal. What the hell? Ligaments take longer to heal than bone breaks? I'm dumbfounded. Granted this has been the worst high ankle sprain I've ever experienced. It hurt worse than the break.

Looking at the picture above its easy to see how the bone broke. That must have been the point of impact. Still haven't figured out how I managed to land my foot so awkwardly on the sidewalk. Need to stay away from sidewalks when running or at least not follow so closely behind the fellas.

falling back

One of my favorite times of year. The leaves are falling, the mornings are cool, sunrises are awesome and the colors just seem brighter. But, the whole spring forward, fall back with the clocks is a pain in the ass. First 2 days at work going home when its dark are difficult. The mornings aren't that big of deal, just seems like forever for the sun to come up.

Took Monday as a scheduled off day from running. Did my regular weight workout instead. Tuesday it was time for another speed workout. Planned to do 8 of the Yasso repeats. Ran down to the greenway, which gives me a 2.5 mile warmup and 2.5 mile cooldown. First repeat was to conservative, but did dial in the rest, at or under target. Number 5 was a little hot, thought I was letting up, and then number 6 came in at 3:06. Sheeeit. Little to quick, took way to long to recover and then started number 7, but caved after a 100 meters. Slogged it back home for about 9 miles worth of work for the morning. Don't know if its the recovery is to short, 1:30 versus equal recovery per Yasso, or I'm just chicken shit. Felt a twinge in my plantar on the warmup and the achilles felt a little tight. Everything felt good during the speed work and on the way home.

Glad the election if finally over. Flipped the channels for awhile last night and the same crap on every channel. Watched the Green Mile instead. Going to be a very interesting next four years. Hate to even bring it up, but big pet peeve. Double Standard. Notice any of the tip toeing around issues or comments from the different broadcasters or news channels? Seriously doubt any of the mud slinging that has been directed at Bush over the last year, will be any kind of news fodder for our new president elect. Take the typical shot of the radicals shooting their weapons into the air in other countries. We had that right here in Nashville last night, would have made a great news clip. Didn't see it anywhere.

This mornings workout is 5 miles of easy on the MTSU gravel loop from the house. Loaded up Dylan's Ipod, mine keeps crashing, probably just about dead. It's the first generation shuffle. I'd like one of the bigger Ipods, but that wouldn't work for running. The new shuffle, like Dylan has is perfect. It holds twice as much music as the old shuffle and is about half the size.

Weak link

Dawned on me this morning, while doing my weights. One of the contributing factors to the calf strain on Saturday, kettle ball swings. I started doing a modified version of one of the crossfit workouts, a kettle ball swing, with a single dumbbell, one handed. That combined with my weak calves, rain not allowing the calf to stay warm (thursdays interval session), combined to make the calf fail.

Granted this calf strain was mild compared with the other two. Minimal inflammation, mostly gone by the third day. No visible bruising or discoloration. Tender to the touch, but released yesterday around noon. Able to do a wall stretch this morning. Sat in the hot tub last night and able to massage with very little discomfort. Need to get my pro stretch step back from speedy. Couple days of stretching and I should be back.



Joked with PJ, that I was going to pork up from not running. Actually, hit the snack machine really hard on Monday and Tuesday. Love the Honey Buns, Reeses cup, and powdered donuts. Mostly just a pity party, 'cause I hate to be hurt. Not warm enough to ride the bike, hate the trainer. Time to get back on track.

Plumbing

One job I despise around the house is anything related to plumbing. Seems like every job I attempt involves 2 trips to Home Depot for the right part and several hours. Noticed a towel behind the toilet yesterday and it was thoroughly soaked. (PJ, "I forgot, I was going to tell you") Steady drip of water from the valve to the supply line. I put a small tupperware container under it and told Darrell to check it every hour to see how quickly it filled and I went on in to work. Called Darell later in the morning and the container was overflowing. Decided to leave work at 2 pm, so I could start my plumbing job.



Shut off the water and pulled the valve and took it with me to Home Depot. Bought a replacement and a new supply line. Might as well replace both. (Thinking ahead) Replaced everything and still had a leak from the other end of the supply line on the tank end of the toilet. Luckily, I had 2 different flush valves from previous wrong choices on other plumbing jobs. Replaced just the worn out gasket. Still leaked. Tightened it up to tight and broke the flush valve. *&^%$,Oops. This is why my plumbing jobs take several hours. Replaced the entire valve, with the one on hand. Leak fixed! Total repair cost $9.69 and less than a hour total work time plus a hour back and forth to Home Depot.

No run today. Rain was a good excuse for a day off. Weights, instead.

Rainy days

Good thing I was able to get my run in yesterday afternoon at work. Headed out between showers, but it started raining a half mile into the run. Never realized how hilly it is around the office. No monster hills, just continually rolling. Rain wasn't hard enough to be a bother. Picked up the pace for about 3/4 of a mile before I finished and felt really strong.



Radar shows severe thunderstorms today and more lightning. I'll do weights and take a day off from running. I'd like to do 13 miles on Sunday, so Saturday will be an easy 8-10 miles.

Three weeks until race day. Need to do a couple more tempo runs. Instead of the twice a week speed stuff, maybe just one each week. I'll do the 10 day Jack Daniels taper before the race, so that only leaves 2 tempo runs and 2 long runs. Long runs will only be 13 miles. Not really much of a long run, but I'll run them at half marathon pace.

Weights

Did some weights today. Trying to get back into a routine, fast and easy. Low reps and light weights for tone only and no mass. The weekends funk is finally gone. I don't get sick very often, so when I do, I'm a pain in the ass.

Going with the boys this morning to drop off Darrell's car to get new brake pads on the front. He's worn them all the way down to the rotor's. Sure hope we can get by with only replacing the pads and maybe resurfacing the rotors. New rotors would add a big chunk of change to the repair bill.

Ankle is coming around. Limp is almost completely gone. Still a little swelling. Perhaps tomorrow I'll go for a walk and test it out.