First training run with Emily

Emily and I are aiming for a half-marathon together next spring, with a shorter-term goal of doing the Camp Letts turkey trot Thanksgiving Day. (I did this run last year with Tim and MJ. By “with” I mean I ran behind them at an ever-increasing interval.)

This is our first training run together and my first real run since hurting my foot in March. Here’s hoping for continued absence of pain. We’re starting very slow and plan to eventually work up to slow.

Team Williams knocks down Charlottesville Marathon!

Charlottesville Marathon

Charlottesville Marathon

Tim and Mackenzie both finished Charlottesville strong and feeling good. Mackenzie was the youngest participant and, reportedly, dropped her dad around the 23 mile mark (no mercy) and finished at 4:12. Tim very shortly after at 4:15. Fantastic! I’m happy they made it and had a great time in the process!

Official results here.

36 mile ride

It was nice to be out of the basement again and off the trainer. I sure do miss the nice warm weather of my last ride, though. I’m so easily tempted into believing I can ride in shorts and T-shirt already!

Even with full gloves, jacket, tights, and skullcap it was a great ride. That clear and calm that makes riding anywhere, anytime a joy. I saw about a half-dozen other cyclists and it was a nice reminder that other people enjoy this too.

I really like this route, the roads are smooth and low-volume. I’m adding this one to my short-list.

Come on summer!

34 mile evening ride

With the time change I’m finally able to ride in the evenings after work. And with the warm temperatures today it was too much to pass up.

I planned to go out for about an hour and ended up riding twice that. I finally got a chance to go south on Sands Rd and see what’s down there. It’s a great ride and I want to explore more.

On top of that I felt really good and hammered, or as close as I get to hammering, the last 20 minutes of the ride to keep the average above 17mph. I think the running is really helping my overall fitness and endurance, which is nice. I’ll never be fast but I love seeing improvement!

As Fat Cyclist commented recently, it was oddly distracting seeing my lily-white knees flashing into my peripheral vision the whole ride. Come on summer!

Easy 20 mile spin

As much as I am stuck being a mediocre endurance athlete (not that I’m complaining…just stating I’m neither fast nor strong) I often find it hard to just go out easy and enjoy the scenery. If my mind wanders, I tend to speed up, push harder, and usually not notice until I’m in the redzone.

So today my minor victory was just making the whole ride easy. I stayed in zone 2 except for a few brief forays in z3 and never pushed into zone 4, geared way down on hills, and generally took in the sights. It was really great to be outside on the bike again. The trainer is a great way to maintain winter fitness but it doesn’t do much for the soul. (In fact, due to recent improvements to the “distraction center”, I’m sure it actively rots my brain.) It was a wholly satisfying ride, especially after my wholly unsatisfying ride two days ago.

Yay me for going slow. My life is so hard.

Foot update

The foot is still painful and I haven’t run on it since the 16 miler. From friends’ descriptions it doesn’t sound like textbook plantar fasciitis and I’ve never had a stress fracture so I don’t know what it feels like. For the time being I’m not running on it and planning to see someone about it this week.

The pain is sharp but only when I roll forward on the ball of my foot. It does affect my walking gait and it would be too painful to run on. So far biking and swimming don’t bother it, so I can keep occupied.

I’m really bummed. Since this is such a critical period for my marathon on April 9th, it’s looking very unlikely right now.

Ugly, ugly 12 mile test ride

What could be more pleasant to look forward to on a fine spring’s Friday evening at the end of the workweek than a chance to get out on the bike? Especially the first outside ride in two months. Not much! Well, maybe a Friday evening’s ride before a two-week vacation? Anyway, suffice it to say I was looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, it was not a great ride and left me in a surprisingly sour mood. It’s not often being active outside, especially on the bike, leaves me anything but refreshed and bright.

It wasn’t anything I can point to; I didn’t even get honked at or flipped off. It just felt bad. Awkward. Alien. As real cyclists refer to bad rides or tired legs as “pedaling squares”, I was pedaling triangles or pentagons…whichever is worse. I felt so un-powerful that any effort at all was uncomfortable. Add that to a general feeling of wanting to get off the bike and I was at a loss to understand my problem, let alone fix it.

So I soft-pedaled home and had dinner and a glass of red wine with my wife. Problem solved!

16 mile run with Tim&Mackenzie

Out and back on the trusty Baltimore & Annapolis Trail. We seriously shoe-horned this run into everyone’s busy schedules.

We finally started about 6pm Sunday night, knowing it would be close to three hours to finish. Another reason the B&A is an easy choice: easy to run in the dark. I don’t really know how risky the neighborhoods are as you get closer to the mall and airport but we figured three able bodies made for an inopportune target. We definitely had the trail to ourselves!

This was my second 16 mile run and worlds, galaxies even, better than the first. The first was solo and easily the worst, hardest, and possibly most satisfying run I’ve ever done.

I was spent at the end but not feeling bad. The bad news is a pain in my left foot, which I now know was there after last week’s 13 miles, got slowly worse over the course of the run. The day after last week’s run I felt it but it wasn’t painful, didn’t last long, and was then barely noticeable so I didn’t think anything of it. Now I know it’s something more. It was bordering on pain by the end of the run and the next morning it was a sharp stab when I rolled over the ball of my foot. It’s less painful today but definitely affects even my walking gait so I’m probably going to skip the mid-week runs and see what happens.

Worst. Post-run. Pic. Ever.