My running seems to have improved over the last two months and especially into February. I have seen my pace drop by at least one minute on my long runs which is huge. I have also run over 165 miles in the last two months.
I continue to train with Steve Mackel, SoCalRunning.com. Under his coaching, my pace has continue to improve as well as my overall endurance. I am now able to run 5 miles without stopping. This is a change in the way I have run in the past. In the past, I was doing a 9 minute run/1 minute walk. In ChiRunning, it is about sensing your body, knowing when your form is getting sloppy and to walk when you need to and then to start running again just prior to when you start to feel guilty.
Another change in my running is I now run all the time with a metronome and no tunes. It allows me to be more consistent with my pace. I must say, I get some strange looks as I beep down the street and keep count…1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 or when I can say, “Yes, I can, yes, I can, yes, I can” as I climb some steep hill.
I’m still in training for the Big Sur Marathon Relay. My goal is to conquer this hill near our house as part of my training. It is about 1 1/2 miles from our home before it starts to go straight up. I want to be able to walk up it without huffing and puffing halfway up. And though it is only about 1/2 mile climb, it has an elevation of 500 feet. Good training for my leg of this relay run.
I must admit some days are better than others as are some weeks. My body tends to get tired and achy, probably from not recovering well, so just the thought of getting up and running on some mornings can be hard to overcome. Though I try to overcome most of this, sometimes I just allow my body to recover by going to bed very early, sleeping in and having a very lazy day.
Besides running, one of the things I have been doing each week for the last 6 weeks is walking with a group of people who have Parkinson’s. I started this for two reasons but mainly in support of my girlfriend, Donna Canterna. Her oldest brother has just found out he has Parkinson and I wanted to do something to support her and her family even if it is from afar.
This Team Parkinson’s meets each week for about 8 weeks leading up to the LA Marathon and 5K. I am totally in awe of these men and women who walk and are mostly training to walk/run the 5K on March 5th with a few running the full marathon. Their spirits and will to overcome this disease along with their family members and caregivers are something to be upheld. I will be running this 5K and will be at the finish line cheering them all in. Or if one of these inspiring people needs assistance, I will be more than happy to walk with them in this 5K to give them what little inspiration I can to get them to the finish line.
I did get sidelined for a week from running with a slight health issue. I woke up with a severe case of indigestion this past Sunday night. Having a case of indigestion isn’t something new to my body except that this was downright painful and lasted longer than normal, about 4+ hours, and the pain was in my back and up my neck. So after being up most of the night, I went to the ER.
My main concern was “heart attack?” You would have laughed at the thoughts and conversation I was having with myself in the middle of the night. “I’m to healthy to have a heart attack”, “I just ran 10 miles the day before so there is no way I can be”, “This is nothing. It’s all in your head.”, and “Breathe, relax, it will go away.” All great self-talking points in the middle of the night.
Thankfully, I wasn’t having a heart attack. Instead after several tests, I have been blessed with a couple of gall stones. Unfortunately, I had another attack a couple of days later which had me up several hours during the night until the pain pill kicked in. There is a doctor’s appointment in my future so I can figure out how to avoid these midnight adventures.
Though these attacks made me lose a week of training, I wanted time to allow the morphine and pain medication to get out of my body and to be sure my body was fine. But even with that time off, I feel that I am still on track to achieve the 1000 miles this year.