10 miles along the Rhine river at a slow pace. Went across the swiss and german border and then back. what awesome running scenery, and a great way to experience a different country. I didn't have the GPS going, but i imagine it was about 8:00/mile. was keeping my stride very small and small steps and moving legs faster. knees were fine this way. i just hope i can maintain an efficient pace to qualify for boston this way. I'm wondering if it's the shoes. could also be that im hitting my heels too much by accident. could also be that i'm putting too many days a week in too quickly. whatever the case, im glad it didn't bother me after 10 miles, though i know if i started taking big strides and really pushing the pace, it would have caused a problem.
probably wasn't a good idea to run 10 miles before the half marathon on sunday, but i was enjoying the run so much i didn't want to stop. i would have gone another 10 miles easily if i had the time and no half marathon.
I was the lone runner from the Uniited States in this whole event!
had a great race and killed my previous half marathon record ran in march by ~14 minutes. Huge improvement!!! Got to run through an Italian city and through streets and alleyways that were over 1000 years old. Got a great finisher's package including a medal, duffelbag, 2 asics running shirts (1 long sleave, one tank top) headbands, and sweat towl! plus there was free gelato and lots of sports drinks.
I started way back. Not know any language. I realized about 1 minute before the start that i was well behind the 2:00 pace group. doh!!! i was passing a lot of people in the first 5 miles or so. I was running at a good clip, and keeping my stride very small and controlled, while moving my legs faster. This, i have found out is a highly efficient way to run. Not only did i keep my heart rate and effort to a minimum, but my knees felt great. No problems at all, and I ran 10 miles only 2 days before.
Caught up to the 1:35 pace group at around kilometer 13 and was totally stoked! I couldn't believe i had been running a faster pace than 1:35 throughout the whole race with such easy effort. Passed them up and pushed on. finally settled in with a group of runners that were keeping a strong pace and stayed with them until the last kilometer or so where they pulled away. I decided not to push myself and dig deep the last couple of miles, though I knew I had it in me. I was more than happy with my pace to finish below 1:35. Finished the race feeling great at 1:32:46!! well within boston qualifying pace. I'm going to be looking for the 3:10 pace group at the california international marathon in december and stick with that. I'm totally stoked on this.
Great race, and great time in this city. Saw some unfortunate scenes on the race though. The first being one of the elite women had to end the race early, and was limping back to the start after only 1 kilometer or so. the other being that one of the elite african runners had collapsed about half way through the race. an ambulance was there and people were attending to him. he looked pretty out of it. it got me a little worried about pushing myself for too long of a distance. I may have slowed my pace a little cause of that.
2nd day back from Europe, ran a 10:00/mile average pace with my friend along the West Oakland shoreline. Had to keep it slow for my friend as he is not a regular runner, he also has a lingering foot injury that was making it hard for him to run. Was still nice to get a run in though.
Mega hill run near my mom's house. A good 2 - 3 miles of uphill running with some killer hills. GPS says an overall 7:27 pace. Totally stoked on that considering how much uphill there was. Have done this 3 times now and each time It gets easier. Temperature was cloudy and cool, that probably helped since the other 2 times were 90+ and full sun. Heart was not pumping as hard to get up the steepest hill. Pretty strong overall uphill pace, and downhill and flat I was jammin. Really happy with this run. Feelin good. Gettin ready for the Wine Country Marathon on Oct. 11th.
Fast 5 miles. 36:18 Through the park. Left knee not liking it. Not sure why it was acting up. Was running this the same way I had been with the short stride. Going to switch to my old nikes and see if the shoes are the problem. I'll be damned if the $30 nike's perform better than the Pegasus (like they did against the Nimbus 10)
Strapped on my old $30 nikes that never gave me problems with my knees. No problems this time either, and my stride was bigger than normal too. I don't get it!!! cheap running shoes are better for me, this is ridiculous! Oh well, saves me money.
Tried to go for a sub 6:00 mile. ran a 6:05 , blah! Could have made it a sub 6:00 if I had been paying attention to the stop watch, but it was dark. I definitely had it in me to shave off 10 - 15 more seconds at least. I thought I had it though. Oh well. Ran another 5 miles after that. Long run on Sunday.
6 miles 8:00/mi pace. Wearing the old nikes and my knees were fine. I'm pretty sure that the problem with these more expensive shoes has been that they are more cushioned and more flexible. And for some reason or another my knees like a rigid and firm shoe.
Only other thing I can think of is that switching shoes every 2 or 3 weeks will keep my knees in good shape. I dunno what else could be the problem other than running too much. But that doesn't seem like it's the case, considering it goes away after putting on different shoes.
5 miles through the park, quick pace, using the old nikes. Left knee was doing better. Need to figure out what is up. Going to start icing them after runs.
1 hour at the gym doing chest and then 8 miles around the rack. 32 laps, how boring. After talking to Sasha and Dustin and John on the discussion forum, I have decided to sharply cut my pace and slow down. I thought I was going pretty slow, but I guess I was going at an 8:00/mile pace. Probably should get it to more like 8:30/mile. My knee was fantastic running in the Pegasus, no pain, nothin. Sasha was totally right. I have been training too intensely. I am still unsure if the $30 nikes are a better fit and that was contributing to less knee pain, or if it was just coincidental. Either way, I am glad to being closer to figuring out what is going on with it.
Felt great, really happy about the run. Coulda ran all night at 8:00/mile Looking forward to my long run this weekend. Icing the knee now. Going to make this regular routine. Need to get a girlfriend to get massages from.... will work on that.
12 Miles to upper park, beautiful views at sunset of Bidwell Park ridge. Workin it slow in the Pegasus, knee wasn't having any problems at an 8:30 pace. I did speed up to a marathon pace of about 7:10/mile pace for 2 miles and it started complaining a little. There is no way I could have ran the whole thing at that pace like I did in Bologna. I'm going to do my next run in the cheap Nikes, see if there is a difference. Was feelin pretty spent by the end of the run, definitely should have fueled up a little more and taken some ginseng. But not a bad run.
I am so freaking stoked after this run! I was wearing the $30 Nikes, and had no problems with my knees. This means, While I still have some concerns about over training, I am 100% positive that the shoes are what's causing most most or all of my knee pain. On Sunday, I ran 12 miles with only 2 of them being at BQ pace. At the end of those two miles I was getting the knee pain when lifting my knees. Tonight, I ran 14 miles, and 10 of them were at a BQ pace. And no problems, at all. I was even running up hill and downhill. Temp was about 74 degrees, and I was flying. Had about 1 and a half miles of solid uphill running and I rocked it. Overall pace was 7:23/mile And that's including starting off at 8:00/mile.
I basically had intended on running this at an 8:00/mile pace and then running a couple miles at BQ pace, then I just decided to keep going to see when the knee pain would come like it did with the pegasus, and it didn't. So I decided to see when my energy would give out... and it didn't. Coming off a 12 mile run on Sunday, I'm pretty happy with that level of endurance.
Ate a banana, apple, and took 2 ginseng capsules before the run. Had been drinking water all day. Had a LOT of energy, and was maintaining a solid pace the whole way, even sprinted the last quarter mile. Felt absolutely fantastic.... still feeling fantastic as I write this!
