Other possible titles for this post:

• Stretching is your friend
• Pace yourself
• Hydration and you: a primer
• Sleep matters

In order to provide MORE proof of my total idiocy, I decided to go out for a 5-miler a mere 16 hours after finishing my 10k.

Ordinarily, I don't really think this would've been a huge issue, but as it happens, I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. Not for any particular reason, I hit the sack around 12:30, and proceeded to lie in bed until 3:30am or so. And even when I did sleep, I had some wacky dreams that kept waking me up.

Anyhow, I was on the fence about even doing a run today, but with the day off I couldn't really pass it up, so when my wife and daughter headed out to enjoy some Labor Day festivities, I opted to head out for a post-race 5-miler.

As soon as I stepped out the door and started up the gradual hill on my street, I could tell my legs were going to fight me every step of the way. So, instead of listening to my body I went out at 8:58 for the first mile and 8:44 for the second. Genius.

At about 3 miles I began the old walk/run routine, albeit not as badly as usual. As a ran by the high school on my way back I noticed the temp was 90, much too hot for a sleep-deprived post-race run I think! I actually ended up cutting things short at about 4.5 miles and cursed myself the entire way home. Tomorrow I will surely rest, and try for better runs on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Yesterday's 9-miler was postponed to today for really no good reason except I was being lazy. I'll admit I was a little worried about this run since I haven't really tried to run for more than an hour at a time in pretty much forever. And as a diabetic, I really have to be concerned about my blood sugar levels during exercise, especially on long(er) runs. I carry my glucose tablets on every run and thankfully have not had to use them yet.

It's also a little concerning since I usually run at night, and even though I run on moderately trafficked roads, there's always that fear that my blood sugar is going to drop and I'm going to pass out in a ditch or something.

All that being said, I went for my run anyway! I wasn't really shooting for any specific pace, I just wanted to finish, so I tried to keep things slow. Things felt pretty good until about mile 2 when my left Achilles/calf started bothering me. This has happened before and I know that if I keep running, it usually loosens up and the pain goes away.

Then at around mile 3 I started feeling weird, almost light-headed. I considered stopping, or cutting my run short, but instead decided to pop in to Rite-Aid for a Gatorade G2 and a Soy Joy bar. I downed the Soy Joy and about half the Gatorade and continued on my route. That seemed to do the trick, as I felt much better over the last 2/3 of the run.

Once I finished, I was pretty happy to see my time (1:24:06) which works out to a 9:38 on the Nike+ (9:12 when adjusted for the incorrect distance reported by the Nike+). It's funny that 9:12 is exactly what I would need to run a half-marathon in 2 hours. Not that I'm planning on running a half-marathon anytime soon, but still.

Even more impressive were my splits.

Pretty sweet, especially considering I wasn't really paying much attention to my time or pace during the run. Oh, and that 10+ mile in Mile 4 was the part where I walked for a little bit while I had my Gatorade.

Right towards the end my legs started feeling really dead, and my knees were starting to get a little sore. Nothing major, and I probably could've continued for a couple more miles, but I didn't want to get too crazy and injure something, so I stopped.

It felt good to get this run under my belt! Maybe I'll do a half-marathon after all!

After yesterday's beat-down of my elders at the Ivyland 5k, I celebrated with way too much of the cheapest beer I could find. Well, not quite the cheapest, but close enough to make me feel vaguely like death this morning.

To punish myself for my overindulgence, I decided to go for a 7-miler at the hottest time of the day to try and sweat out the booze.

Things felt pretty good for the first mile or so, but once I reached the Cherry Tree 1.5 mile hill, I knew my legs were toast. I started walking at around 2.5 miles and from there on out it was walk/run/walk/run. I even cut the run short, coming in at 6.02 miles at a 9:47 pace on the Nike+ (add on my Nike+ 10% differential and it was more like 6.6 miles at an 8:55 pace). Considering how much I walked, I guess that's not too bad, but I really need to start getting better at these longer distances for the 8.31.08 10k! And I need to cut back on the Genny Light!

As I lamented in yesterday's post, I'm not all that pleased with the pace of my training runs. So what do I do today? That's right, a long run! So much for adding more speed to my workouts.

My run was great though. Probably one of the best runs I've had recently. And at 7.15 miles it was my longest run yet. I'm not really sure the reason though. It could've been the weather. It's August here in the Northeast but when I started out at around 8:30pm, it was a cool 69 degrees with low humidity. Absolutely perfect running weather. Or it could've been all the beer I drank yesterday!

Regardless, tonight was one of those nights where I felt I could've kept going another couple miles. Everything felt really comfortable and I managed the whole thing in a 9:17/mile pace. Not exactly setting the world on fire, but not too slow either. If I can keep that pace up for the Nike+ Human Race, I'll be pretty happy.

Tomorrow it's back to a 4 or 5 miler with some race pace repeats to gear up for Saturday.

Long Slow Distance. It's been a long time since I've done one of these. I was thinking while running (since I messed up my iPod) that one of the nice things about being a beginning or born again runner is that almost every training run, and every race, is a new milestone. As time goes on however, these milestones become harder and harder to achieve. I suppose that's what keeps us going.

Today was a perfect day for a nice long run and I certainly reaped the benefits of the good weather. I completed the 7 miles in just over an hour, with an 8:40 / mile pace. My legs were pretty tired by the end but my lungs felt good throughout.

I also discovered that my watch/GPS has an auto-split function, which is pretty nice. It only took me 11 months to figure that out!

I think I'm going to take tomorrow off. I need to read my new issue of Runner's World to come up with some sort of training plan!

Stats

Distance: 7.095 miles
Time: 1:01:35
Pace: 8:40 / mile
Avg. Speed: 6.9 mph