Day 264

A short one before baseball. A started the counter before I was ready, so it reads some short ones.

Day 263

After sitting on the tractor for over an hour, I decided to take a break and get a run done. My body is tired, I was a little worn out from the sun, and it's been a hard week. Even at 5.5, I struggled to get this run going.

Day 262

Kendall wanted to ride her bike, so I had her come with me for a run outside. It was tough because when we get halfway up the driveway all of a sudden you have about 1/3 of a mile of uphill and I had to push her along to help. Hence the somewhat crazy run curve today. She stopped a few hundred yards down our street and I kept going for another 1/4 mile before picking her up on the way home.

We raced back. Downhill. Guess who won? Or should I say how badly I lost.

Day 261

A nice day outside, couldn't resist (and feeling guilty). Didn't go as far as I normally go in the neighborhood, but I had a nice run, felt strong, easy to get through my 2.5 mi (almost).

Day 260

Hit the treadmill again, despite a nice day and no mud outside. Just wanted to watch a DVD.

Day 259

Pushed a touch with 10 minutes of intervals between 6.4mph and 7.2mph. Felt tired by the last one. It was close to a BFL run, though I slowed down near the end.

Day 258

A short run around a bunch of outdoor chores.

Why I Run

Today was a good reminder of why I run. I spent all day running errands, doing stuff for kids, for the house, missing work, and getting stressed. I finally got home at 8pm, still work to do, horses to feed, kids to get clean, and, of course, run.

I was tired, my lower back was sore, my left elbow sore, and the last thing I wanted to do was feed horses, or even run. If there was a day to miss running, today was it.

However I got kids clean, then fed horses, started work, and about 8:45, I told my daughter I'd get her to bed soon, but I wanted to do a quick run.

So I went downstairs, expecting to just get 12 minutes done. I walked my 1:30, and then got going. My back was sore, and still is an hour later, but I pushed through it. I got to 10:00min and slowed to 4mph, thinking I'd walk the last 2 minutes and then I'd be over a mile. Twenty seconds later I realized I'd walked .1 mi, so I needed to run more. I cranked it back to 6.2 and ran out to 12 minutes, walking to 14. 1.4mi in total.

I got done and felt much better. The tiredness from my eyes was gone, my back sore, but less so. Overall I was invigorated. In other words, I felt great. And I'm looking forward to running tomorrow.

That's why I run.

Day 257

Today was a great running day. It started out hard, me struggling for 5-7 minutes, but then things got easy, and I ran longer than I expected. A nice steady, enjoyable run.

Day 256

A nice steady run in the afternoon.

Day 255

Easy run today.

Day 254

I was thinking a short run, with the legs being sore last night at karate, but I felt good. I did 4 intervals at 7.2 for a minute, dropping back to 6.4 for a minute in between, and then ran at a steady 6.4 for awhile. I was enjoying an episode of The Next Generation, so I kept going.

Day 253

One of those days where everything felt good. I felt strong, ran well, even did some intervals of 7mph for a minute followed by a minute of 6.4mph. 4 of those and I felt great, still strong. Had to remember not to get too crazy with karate tonight and a potential test.

Day 252

Working towards the next milestone. I felt great, a nice short run, easy to do, didn't want to get too crazy with a longer one outside yesterday, limited time, and karate tonight.

The Whole Crew

Well, not everyone, but I went outside for a run today, the first really hot day above 80F with no wind of the year. Tia said she'd go with me on a bike (her knee is sore), so we went out at lunch and I started jogging while she rode along. We had a pace crew of the three dogs as well cruising down our rode.

This was one of the few times I've been running with someone. Usually I have the TV going in the basement or headphones on. So it was neat that I was able to keep running, at a decent pace, up the hill, and keep a conversation going. Even on the big hill coming back!

We went across the street to avoid traffic with the dogs, cruised down the hill to the corner where Tia thought the street continued. But as we went up a rise, we saw it was a driveway for someone's house. So we turned around and headed back, and hit the big hill coming up to the road by our house. I kept a good pace and felt good.

The Nike + seemed to be registering too much distance, partly because I think I was going uphill and covering less ground on the same pace. Maybe that was made up by the going back downhill since it seemed that it wasn't too far off when I stopped.

I did stop early since Kahli was with us and she was tired. Tia wanted to keep going, so I had to grab her and walk down down most of our road and the driveway.

Day 251

An outside run, cut slightly short because of the need to walk a dog home, but still a good one. I felt really strong moving up hills.

Day 250

Almost another milestone. I decided to try a run before baseball today, a nice steady run. I started out with 5 minutes at a slower pace, with some tired legs and ankles in the am, but then ran smoothly. If I didn't have a noon game, I'd have run another 5-10 minutes it felt so good.

Nike + Issues

The other day my iPod froze after a workout. I'm not sure why, it's been mostly on a treadmill, not on my waist during runs, so it shouldn't be getting jarred too much, too wet, etc. In any case, it froze, and wouldn't sync with the computer.

So I reset it, tried again, and my run was gone from the day. Not a huge deal since I'd paid attention to my stats, and so I could enter them in MapMyRun.com. But it was annoying that I couldn't add this to my Nike+ account.

There's a fundamental issue with Nike +. Technical issues, loss of power, any number of things might cause your run to not be recorded and you might still want to capture that data. Right now, Nike + ends up showing incomplete data.

And for anyone that wants to track their runs, the idea behind Nike +, this is incredibly annoying. When you start to lose data, you stop wanting to store data in the system.

Day 249

After a long day standing at a fundraiser, and then an hour hike with Tia, I really struggled through this one. But I got it done.

Renumbering Posts

Apparently I can't count. I thought ahead after day 240 to day 250, thinking that I'd get there by this weekend. However when I was looking to log today I had it as 246.

That was wrong.

It's 247, and I found I had to "day 241s". So renumbered things. I should hit day 250 by Monday, unless I find more mistakes.

Day 248

A nice run today. I wanted to watch the rest of my exciting Star Trek episode, so I hit the treadmill for a nice run. I went a little faster, 6.4mph to get going, which was where I used to start running 15 years ago. Finally back to that point.

After 5 minutes I moved to 7.2mph for 4 minutes before slowing down. I was a little ragged, and managed a couple more minutes at 7.2, but I was struggling. After 16 minutes, I had to slow down to 5.5, feeling winded. Surprisingly I don't feel that winded outside, so perhaps the biofeedback goes both ways.

Day 247

A nice, steady run, with a burst to 6.7 for 5 minutes.

Day 246

I felt much better today, and so I ran a bit faster. I got up to 6.7mph for 4 minutes, but I could feel my back tiring, so I slowed down again. Good to be back on a decent pace.

Day 245

A light run, even thought I felt better. I didn't want to push things, so I just took it easy, a slow steady pace. I did go a bit further than previous days.

Day 244

Another short run, thought I did feel better. I started to speed up to 6.2 after my warm up walk, but decided not to stress things. I went back down to 5.7 and just cruised along, my back loosening a bit after about 6 or 7 minutes.

Day 243

The back is better, but still sore. I struggled a bit to get started, but things loosened up once I got going.

Winding Down Season 1

I wondered how long my 7 disc set of Star Trek: The Next Generation would last and now I know. I got this set for Christmas and the other day I finished disc 7, completing season one. I enjoyed it, and a few of those episodes helped me to get time on the treadmill.

I was talking with a friend the other day who runs marathons. Actually he's in his 50s and made it a goal to run a marathon in every state. He's completed 24 and I'm wishing him luck. As we were talking he said he hates the treadmill, and tries to run outside as much as possible. He lives in Cleveland, so some of the year is a challenge.

I, on the other hand, love the treadmill. The majority of my runs are on the treadmill because it's quick, easy, and fun. With a TV, and lots of DVDs around, my wife and I find that it fits our lives well, and allows us to enjoy runs while fitting them into a busy life.

I may change more as summer comes around, but for now I am looking forward to getting Season 2 on DVD!

Day 242

A sore back , but I didn't want the streak to end today. It's tight, but not painful when I'm upright. So I slow jogged (5.4mph) through just over a mile.

Day 241

Another treadmill run, finishing off disc 1 of Season Two of Star Trek. Now time to shower and head to a massage.

Day 240

A nice afternoon run, again on the treadmill. I could have gone outside, but I felt time pressure and Star Trek was calling. Need to get outside this weekend.

Day 239

A quick one, just before karate, taking advantage of the beautiful weather to get a short run outside.

MapMyRun

I've blogged about this before, but I set up an integration between this site and Nike + awhile back when I had a few runs that didn't make it on my iPod. I'd like to have a good tracking system, and was annoyed I couldn't edit, or manually add, runs on Nike Plus.

The integration is pretty smooth. You put in your Nike Plus credentials and MapMayRun.com will download the data into your account. Since I can then add runs (and I'd like to add my old ones in), this means I have a good place to track all my running, and get an idea of how hard I've been going on this streak.

As an example, I've put in a few runs that were incorrect on Nike Plus, or missing. Nike Plus shows me with 136mi to date (as I write this) and MapMyRun has 141mi. Only a few of my runs have gotten into MapMyRuns, and I have to manually sync them up, but it works well, and quickly.

Now if I can just find time to put in the beginning runs of this streak, I'll know what my data totals are.

Day 238

It was a good day to run outside, but I wanted to watch Star Trek, so I pushed on the treadmill. A couple of good stretches at 6.7 that had me breathing hard.

Day 237

Not sure, missed blogging this run. Posting later based on Nike +

Day 236

Another post baseball run. Not too hard, since I didn't do a lot of sprinting in cleats, but still I was tired. Ran at a steady pace.

Day 235

Kendall wouldn't let me sleep, so I did a late morning run. I was struggling to just run. I wasn't winded, but I just struggled to concentrate and run.

Day 234

A nice lunchtime run today, felt good, a nice pace, easy run.