Short Post

Yeah, another post. I'm sure to burn out...

Just did a quick run, and it was really hard. Had to walk after 1.5 miles (and was thinking about it at 1)! Was a little disappointed, but when I got home I could see that I was running faster than I thought. 9:32 per mile. Sadly, this used to be ridiculously slow for me. But now it's faster than I've been running, so at least I can tell why I struggled.

Anyway, I hope to get a "long" run in on Sunday before heading home for Passover.

Tech Shirts

I signed up for the race on 4/11 even though I'm on call 4/10. Not a guarantee I can make it, but I signed up for instead of the 4/18 race for one reason. In previous years, this race has given out technical shirts. Curiously, although last year's site mentioned the technical shirt, this year's site didn't. I thought it had to do with the economy, and maybe the tech shirt was a thing of the past. But thankfully, in today's email the Road Runners did mention that all registrants will get a technical shirt.

I do happen to have a ton of these shirts. But they start to smell after a while and need to be thrown out. (Not to mention I could use some more in my, uh, new size.)

Anyway, since I rant about the rising costs of races, I'll just say that a tech shirt can make it more worthwhile. The cotton shirts are just a total waste. They should either give tech shirts, or cancel the cotton ones and lower the price. In the meantime, I'll be happy for the few races that give the tech shirts out.

(By the way, the Healthy Kidney run is good about this too. But for the last few years it's been on Saturday. And long time readers will know "I don't roll on Shabbos.")

Hard to Start from Scratch

I'm kind of back in the game...

The weather got a little better, and I have tried to start running again. I'm way out of shape, both in terms of my weight and my fitness. And it shows.

Let's review:
August - 85.44 miles
September - 37.02 miles
October - 29.85 miles
November - 11.44 miles
December - 6.10 miles
January - 0 miles
February - 2 miles

Well, no mystery why I'm having such a hard time. (I hadn't really seen it in such black and white before. It's pretty pathetic...)

So far in March, I've run at least once in the last 3 weeks.
Week 1 - 2.07 miles
Week 2 - 3.41 miles
Week 3 - 10.30 miles

Hmm... I can see why my knees might be a little sore. The longest I've run continuously is only up to 3 miles, but the mileage buildup might be a problem. Always an issue when you're starting from zero or close to it - as I've posted in the past. Maybe if I broke it down by run, the progression looks better: 2.07, 3.41, 4.13, 6.17. (And the last two were 5 days apart!) The overall numbers are a little deceiving anyway, since there's a fair amount of walk breaks in there.

I'm sure I should add some cross-training in there, but I'm not really set up for that at this time. I'll probably just play it by how I feel.

Anyway, I've signed up for my first race in half a year. Might be some scheduling issues, but I hope to make it. It's a 4 miler on April 11th. So wish me luck.

(Oh. And I signed up for the marathon too. But that's a long time away.)