Kevin's musings

Did a relatively easy run down to the Seine and back up thru the park, past the church totaling a little over 10ks. No aches or pains anywhere so that’s always a good place to be. Didn’t even notice any pain in my left big toe, but I know one false step where it gets bent back a little too much will give me a problem.

The weather has turned a few degrees colder, but still not freezing.

Tomorrow I plan on a 25+ k run. Still haven’t decided on a route yet.

A good run this morning thru the local communities. I’ve been over these roads a thousand times but never in this sequence with this combination of hills. Of course I was sucking in serious air on those uphill climbs. I managed a pace of 5:10 over the 12.79 km. Average HR was at 80% max. Overall a good performance. Then again, it’s a good performance just to be motivated enough to get out of bed and go out for a jog on a January morning.

After a day off yesterday I went out for a nice 8k run this morning. No lingering after effects from long run on Sunday which is encouraging. I took it easy over the first few km to see how all everything was working fine, and it was so I then picked up the pace on the way in. Ran in the old Saucony shoes which are probably vintage 2003. They felt good and I think I will use them more often. Concentrated on forefoot running.

In the book I read recently, “Born to Run”, the guy talks about how modern running shoes are bad for your feet and encourage poor running technique. Running shoes provide too much cushion and encourage a heel-to-toe running style that leads to injuries.

Did a good run thru the park and Marly forest that totaled 27k. HR averaged 140 and pace was 5:34/km which is not fast but being fast wasn’t the objective. All moving parts felt fine. Tired at the end and the ups and downs over the last 5km were kind of tough. The weather was cool, about 9°C, but comfortable for running. For the week, the total was 54.6km, which falls short of my 60k objective. I missed a day when I rolled over in bed and said to myself, “naw, I’m going to get another hour of sleep.”

It was like a spring day here so I went for a relatively short 6k run at a 4:34 min/km pace. I didn’t want to burn myself out before my long slow distance run planned for tomorrow. My heart rate average was 83% so there is still room there for a faster pace.

Arch of my left foot started to hurt. Plus woke up some during the night so was already tired starting out. Cut the run short and only did 4kms. Will do better in the light of day this weekend.

It was cold, about -4°C, and clear for this morning’s run. I did an easy 10k averaging just over 5min/km. My legs were not fully recovered from Sunday’s long run.

I’m in among the other 35000 runners for the Paris marathon on April 15th. My good friend John, is in as well and gave me the necessary motivation. It’ll be great to run/suffer together.

I’m going to document my preparation here. Today is 15 Jan so that gives me exactly 3 months to get ready.

In December I had a few good running weeks where I did around 50ks. Then, during the holidays I was at the chalet with snow everywhere so I took a week off.

In January I plan on logging 60ks each week, with about 4 or 5 runs per week. In Feb. I’ll bump that up to 65ks, In March, 70ks with 2 weeks at 80ks before tapering off over the last 10 days before the race.

This week I hit my 60k objective, doing a good 23ks today, not fast, but just that’s ok for now. I’m just building up a mileage base. 

The race last evening went well. I finished without any injuries or falls. I did have one misstep where I aggravated my left big toe injury that has been present over the last 18 months. It was a dry course with the exceptions of 2 or 3 mud holes that surprised a few people in the dark. I almost fell twice, hitting a root once and landing on some uneven ground another time. While running at night, you have to stay concentrated on feet placement at all times. I started out well, getting past most of the slow runners early. That’s important because on a narrow track you can lose a lot of time behind traffic. There were a couple of sharp hills about 300m long where walking was the only option. My overall time was 1:38:50, which was 3 minutes better than last year, but the course was shorter also. My average pace was 5:60 per km, while the last 2 years it was 5:57 and 5:44 respectively. That means I’m getting slower each year. At the finish I felt like I ran a good race and still had ample energy left. Thinking back I believe I could have upped the pace over the last 7 kms where I settled into a pace that was probably a bit conservative. Here are the numbers :

They claimed the course was 17.4 km. I don’t know where they got that distance. I don’t think my garmin needs calibration. I compared times of several competitors and each had a faster time this year than last so that lends credence to it being a shorter course this year.

In the standings, I finished 61st this year,  as opposed to 46th and 52nd in preceding years. In my category, v2, I was 6th out of 21 runners, letting a crazy guy sprint past me in the last 5 meters. Did he think he would medal? So I’ve been 5th, 5th, and 6th over the last 3 years.

I’m running the Noctutrail at Rosny-sur-Seine this evening. It’s 17kms. Last year I came in 5th in my category, V2 with a time of 1:41:50. The guy who finished in 3rd place was 3:25 ahead of me so potentially I have a shot at a podium. I count 15 runners in my category that have signed up. Last year there were 19. I’ve had a couple days of rest and my last run was encouraging. The weather is hot for this time of year with an expected temperature of 77°F (25°C) at game time which is 20:30.

Good run this morning. As I started out I quickly found that I had some spring back in my legs. I did my route out through Etang-la-Ville. At the 10k turnaround point I was feeling good so I decided to keep going up to the train station. When I got there I was feeling good so I decided to keep going to where the street lights end. It is still dark at 06:30, and there may be some wild boar lurking further on in the darkness…

I looked down at my garmin at the turnaround and noticed that it had gone haywire again. I knew it was still recording so I didn’t try to fix it and risk losing or erasing the data for this run. When I got back I tried to stop it and the buttons wouldn’t work so I just had to let it go. This evening I saw that it had run out of battery. I charged it and uploaded data and sure enough, the time continued on for more than five hours until the battery gave out, recording the fact that it was just sitting on my night stand. Curiously it added a few more kilometers somehow. I know the run I did was only 11.7km but it had recorded more than 15. Maybe a ghost took it for a spin in the neighborhood.

I decided to take a day off from running and let my legs recover a bit more. I actually made that decision at 0555 this morning while still in bed. Sometimes the most difficult part of a run is that first step, just getting out of bed.

I got up early and was motivated. The weather was warm for a September. I thought that the rest day gove my legs enough time to sufficiently recover from the 17k run on Saturday. I intended on going 10ks but once I got going I rapidly noticed that my legs were still tired and had no spring. I had to cut the run short and take the shortcut through Etang-la-Ville on the way home. I ended up doing 6.52 at a 5:17 pace. I see how if things go better tomorrow. We will have good weather all this week.

This morning was a nice sunny autumn day. A good day for a run through the local forest. After a rest day yesterday, my objective was to do 15 km. Objective achieved and then some. The loop through Marly forest came out to be 17.41 km according to my Garmin. So now I know I’ll be ready for the 17 km race next weekend. Now I just have to work on my speed. Most of the time it seemed like I was plodding along. There were a few hills to climb so for that part I have a good excuse. Then on the flat part I quickened the pace and did kilometer 12 in 4:44. Overall an encouraging outing.

I’m happy about how my 10k run went this morning. As I started out I was thinking about how now, past age 50, all the joints, feet, and muscles are stiff and need to be loosed up a bit in the first km; compared with 20 or 30 years ago when I could just lace up the running shoes and immediately start off at a brisk pace without worrying in the least about injuring something.

Legs felt fine with no lingering soreness.  This weekend I’ll be ready for a 15k outing.

I went out for a morning run at 6AM. I only did 6.48 km. The weather was overcast and not too cold so I was still in shorts and t-shirt. It’s amazing how quickly I get out of shape. After going just 12 days without running, the legs are sore following my runs this weekend.