Tuesday, September 1, 2009

I Heart You, Running

Linear Trail: Temperature 70 degrees; Splits 9:05; 9:02; 8:59; 8:51; 8:44; 8:36; :47; 54:04 total for 6.1 miles; 8:51 per mile pace. (Planned pace was 9:00 or better).
WARNING: Written at 4:30 a.m. after not consuming enough coffee!
After a 4 day hiatus, I ran. My 27 year old daughter has moved out of our house, and into her own condo 15 miles away. My weekend was spent at the casino with my wife losing money,(of course), and helping my daughter move her belongings. Needless to say, my scheduled 23 mile run-walk-run for this past Sunday didn't happen. I should be able to do it this Saturday. What makes it challenging is that I've registered to run the New Haven Road Race, which is 12.4 miles, on Labor Day. So I'm debating whether or not a 23 mile run-walk-run on Saturday followed by a 12.4 mile run two days later is a good idea. Especially since my left knee still is having sharp pain issues a couple times a day. Fortunately, the pain doesn't occur while I'm running. I have an appointment with my doctor for a physical today. I'm going to ask him to send me for x-rays. Better safe than sorry. I'm afraid that the x-rays will show something that will cause my doctor to tell me not to run and take it easy while whatever is wrong has time to heal. So I guess I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best. Two months from today is the New York City Marathon. I feel my training is going well despite having missed my 23 mile run, and the "feels like a sharp knife is being jabbed into my left knee" occasional pain. The temperatures have dropped from the 90's with lots of humidity to the upper 70's, low 80's the past few days, and are supposed to continue that way. I ran yesterday without my hydration belt, and felt 20 lbs. lighter. If you look above, you can see how I ran negative split times, starting at a first mile of 9:05, and ending with an 8:36 mile. I felt fantastic during the run, and even experienced a pleasant "Twilight Zone" feeling. OK, gotta run now...not run as in run outside, but run as in go eat breakfast, drink more coffee, get my son up, showered and dressed, get myself ready for work, and go to work and see the smiling (not) faces of our ten high school students on their first day of school. I'll try to get to everyone's blog posts later. Bye!

6 comments:

Anais said...

Rick, I really hope there is nothing too wrong with your knee! I'll be crossing my fingers for you (not that it'll do any good, but oh well :)

Let us know how it goes!

Kelly said...

I hope you had a great first day back. Keep us posted on the knee. My knee is still driving me crazy after 4 months of pain, and 2+ months of PT. Knee injuries are the worst!

Unknown said...

Wow, NYC Marathon is really sneaking up quickly! Hope your doc is able to help you with the knee business! Glad it isn't causing you too much pain. You'll make up that 23 miler this weekend and it's be great!

Go drink your coffee!

Tara said...

Ooooo, good luck with your knee, I hope nothing is seriously wrong with it. At least it doesn't bother you when you run.

Great run! I love it when I can accomplish negative splits!

Lindsay said...

nice run! great splits :) the cooler temps are AWESOME, i hope they stick around (but don't get too cold just yet).

hope all is well with your knee and that some pampering for the next two months will be just the ticket! i don't know if i want to start speculating about the 23 run/walk and the 12.4 run until i hear more about your knee.

Irish Cream said...

I seriously hate those mystery sharp stabbing pains! I hope they can figure out what's wrong, and it's not too serious! Also, I agree with Lindsay that it's important to figure what's wrong with the knee before making any kind of a call on the 23-miler followed by the race. Hope you're doing okay!