Term Limits?

nkrichards wrote:

ounce wrote:I didn't get out this morning.  I awakened around 2 and couldn't get back to sleep until about 3:30 with the alarm set at 4.  I didn't think that it would be worth the effort.  I'll try tomorrow morning.

Sometimes our body just tells us what we can/can't or should/shouldn't do.  Your body obviously needed a rest and the sleepless night didn't help!  Good choice.

Don't get discouraged with your run last Friday.  I know how you feel.  It's really tough when you have goals and want to ramp back up and your body just doesn't cooperate.  Maybe a shorter than planned easier recovery run was what you needed that day.  Don't try to ramp up your mileage to quickly.  Do more miles one week and then step back and allow your body time to adjust the next week.  Work into two weeks of increasing mileage with one week of lower mileage.  It will come.  Growing old isn't for sissy's and it's not always fun but we aren't going to change it so I guess we better embrace it and do what we can with a smile on our face.

Keep moving...

Thanks, Nancy.  This is the first summer where I haven't acclimated to the environs, but it's also the first summer where I'm not achy at all.  With the limited mileage that I'm putting up, that shouldn't be a real surprise.  At least I'm not damaged.

I'm thinking that my marathon running days are close to being over.  But I still have half marathons and 50K's.  I'm hoping the heat will reduce after Labor Day and that I'll be able to do long runs of 16-18 miles by Thanksgiving at a pace that makes a 6 hour finish very achievable.

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I tried to do 6.66 today, but the 80 degree morning did not make that possible.  I walked 3 miles and ran 1, as a consolation prize.  I'll see what I can do tomorrow as a weak wind shift line should be arriving this evening with the result of a slight reduction of humidity in the morning.

The weak dry line front had not passed through, but what passed through reduced the humidity from 98% to 88%.  Barely noticeable, but did not provide relief.

Seems like I'm back in the rut of wanting 6.66 but getting 1.36.  Further mind boggling for the Houstonian.  Might have to reduce to 2 days a week.  Won't THAT be an interesting experiment in marathon training!

I hear you on the body not wanting to come along for the ride. Maybe it just wants some downtime before getting frisky again?

Keep doing what you can and listen to your body. There's life -- and wisdom -- in it yet.

Mark B wrote:I hear you on the body not wanting to come along for the ride. Maybe it just wants some downtime before getting frisky again?

Keep doing what you can and listen to your body. There's life -- and wisdom -- in it yet.

I'm not liking what it's telling me, but it does get me around day and night.

I can say that running against traffic creates that breeze in my face and I do immediately go faster.

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This morning, it was 76 degrees.  I wanted to try to run 4 miles, just to see if I could.

I could.

I did have something show up that has been absent for quite a few months.  A niggle.  It was a shin splint on the left, lateral part of the shin.  At my turnaround point at 2 miles, I stopped for a few moments.  Typically, stopping for a short period resolves the pain and today was no different.  I dropped the cadence from 156 spm to 155 spm.  Maybe it would help.  What the hell?

4 miles, 57:44, 14:26 pace, 154 spm avg cadence, 0.73 m avg stride length, 1st half pace 14:22, 2nd half pace 14:30
1.  14:29, 155 spm, 72 sl
2.  14:15, 156 spm, 72 sl
3.  14:34, 153 spm, 72 sl
4.  14:25, 151 spm, 72 sl

So, yeah, the cadence was slipping for the second half of the run.  It actually felt like it was slipping during mile 2, as well.  But I soldiered on because I wanted to see if I could do it.  It's pretty stinky that I can't go 3 miles before I start puttering.  However, a 14 minute pace is not 'plodding' for me.  That's 15+.

And the beat-ing goes on.  Y'all have a good weekend.

4 miles is 4 miles.  Fast, slow, moderate...who cares.  You accomplished your goal for the day. 

Hope the niggle doesn't hang around and cause problems...

Have a good weekend.

nkrichards wrote:4 miles is 4 miles.  Fast, slow, moderate...who cares.  You accomplished your goal for the day. 

Hope the niggle doesn't hang around and cause problems...

Have a good weekend.

Well, that's true.  thanks.

Separately, what were you doing a year ago, today?

And 3 hours later.

Today, a year ago, is when the rain started.  In my neighborhood, it started about 6 pm, but had been pounding west of me a lot of the day.  Rain rates up to 5-6"/hour.  Around 9 p.m., I was watching a 3 hour radar loop on TV.  I had never seen a heavy rain ban that was 15 miles wide in town.  It was moving west to east at 7-1/2 mph.  Being the math whiz that I am, I calculated a two hour rain event.  We got about 14" that night, half of it in two hours.

The picture below shows how fast the bayou about 5 miles west of me filled up.  Back in 1965, I was playing there.  I never lost electricity.

That was an amazingly powerful hurricane, Once. Glad it didn't wreck your house.

Good job on the four miles. Better than I've been doing lately!

Yup, it was.  Now, it looks like North Carolina gets one, this week.  Don't be surprised if Florence hits NC, then bounces out and hits SC.  

Thanks on the 4, too.

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I've been too busy to post any runs over the past 2 weeks.  Here is a quick rundown.
Two weeks ago, I ran 8 miles as a 5 and a 3.
Last week, I ran 6.66 on Wednesday and 5 on Friday.  The 5 was tougher, but I was determined to do it.  

An added, but not welcomed, bonus was an unknown brush against poison ivy by the top of my right arm.  Didn't show up until Saturday and by that time I had re-distributed some of the poison part to my chest, upper thighs evidently while showering.  The upper arm generated all of the blisters and the subsequent weeping and oozing and dripping.  I purchased some Calamine lotion last night and again this morning.  It's dried up.  Everywhere else itches, still.  I've gone through a tube of hydrocortisone cream, but I've turned the corner.

A humorous (to me) result today was the right arm on top where the arm bends had lots of small red spots.  Today was my visit to donate some platelets and they only had the left arm to stick me.  Lucky for them, they love my left arm.  Up to 52-1/2 gallons, now.

The point of that story is that I haven't ran this week because of the vastness of the coverage and the unknown of how itchy or what friction would do to the red spots and the ground zero on the upper right arm.  No doubt next week, I'll be less spotty, rested, and able to run.  I'll be busier than normal through Sunday, but might be able to run Sunday morning before church.

My hiatus is over.

Sorry about the poison ivy - nasty stuff.

Looks like I'm going to get some major rain from hurricane Florence - at least that is what they are saying right now.  Many are worried about the conditions for the IM70.3 next weekend in Augusta as the river might take the brunt of the rain.  I'll think of you.

Michele \"1L" Keane wrote:Sorry about the poison ivy - nasty stuff.

Looks like I'm going to get some major rain from hurricane Florence - at least that is what they are saying right now.  Many are worried about the conditions for the IM70.3 next weekend in Augusta as the river might take the brunt of the rain.  I'll think of you.

Rain potential from the 12th to the 19th for Augusta area is 6 inches (give or take 5" based on Harvey).  You can thank a disturbance off Yucatan in the Gulf for drawing Florence SW before making landfall.

I wonder if they would cancel it, if there are Biblical proportion rains and TS force winds in SC and NC.  Open highways will be a factor, as will availability of cops to man the intersections.  Y'all will have immense power outages, something we didn't have, last year.  It'll take a while to get the power poles to needed areas.  Drivers will cheerfully move out of the way when a truck with a power pole has a police escort.

10 years ago, we were hit by Hurricane Ike.  I was out of power for 2 weeks.

I hope you get to execute the race.

Hope the poison ivy has healed up OK and you're able to get back out there.

Fingers crossed for Michele that 70.3 Augusta is able to happen safely after Florence moves through.  We can always count on you to provide weather updates.

Waiting for an update on both the hurricane and the running...

nkrichards wrote:Hope the poison ivy has healed up OK and you're able to get back out there.

Fingers crossed for Michele that 70.3 Augusta is able to happen safely after Florence moves through.  We can always count on you to provide weather updates.

Waiting for an update on both the hurricane and the running...

Thanks, Nancy, it's requiring half as much scratching, today.

Regarding hurricanes, one calculation that a local weather meteorologist uses for estimating how much rain potential from a tropical cyclone is (100 / forward motion of the tropical cyclone).  So for Harvey it was 100 / 2 mph or 50" and that's about what we got in Houston...51.88".  Florence is going at 5 mph, so 100/5 mph = 20".  He says this formula has never failed him.  Mountain rain will eclipse the 20".  Y'all know this because of how much snow falls when a storm's activity flies up the mountain side.

With mountains in the picture, all that water from the mountains will be rushing down to the rivers, so that will exacerbate the flooding issue.  The track has changed to where it will go inland sooner, but the NHC says there are not much in the way of 'steering currents' to move it somewhere.  Harvey had zero steering currents for the first 50 hours, then it started moving at 2 mph.

The Rainfall Forecast above is a living document and is updated when the Weather Prediction Center updates it.  The deep purple value is +20 inches.  It's better than being in Puerto Rico or Hawaii, especially Puerto Rico.

Looks like we are not going to experience much if any rain from Florence and we could actually use some.  It has been hotter than hot here in the ATL (95F) today which I guess is supposed to be expected on the south side of the hurricane.

Hope the poison ivy is better.

One is either under High pressure or Low pressure all the time. After Katrina, we were hot. After Ike left us 10 years ago, it was very hot.
It's still summer.

Poison ivy is better, but some places love to be scratched, especially in the shower. It's the Lay's potato chip slogan for poison ivy. Thanks, Miche1e.

How's life...and running...treating you Doug?

Well, the poison ivy had cleared enough last Wednesday to run 5 miles.  I figured the affected areas had healed enough that the rubbing of my shirt wasn't going to cause me to scratch while running.  Last Saturday was really the first day in two weeks where I could take a shower and not start scratching the patches because the new skin had finally covered it up.

There are areas that are still a bit sensitive, but I'm 95% fixed.

Yesterday morning (Monday), I ran 4 miles with a temperature of 71 degrees.  It was actually 68 degrees as a cool front accidentally came through with its north breeze and slightly lower dew points.  My splits were oddly similar:  14:19, 13:59, 14:19, and 13:59.

I'm going to try to run in the morning.  I probably should wait until Thursday, but I can whine about that tomorrow.

Thanks, Nancy, for asking.

Didn't make it outside to run because I was just too tired to get up.  The only reason I can think of is because of the dreams that I've been having lately.  Ever had one of those sleeps when you have this active dreaming, then wake up to being really tired as if you've done a long run the prior day?  That's what I had this morning.

I've been having a LOT of dreaming going on the past couple of months.  One story ends and another story stops.  Last night, I dreamed so realistically that I thought my dog (in the dream) was really waking me up.  I have no dog.  Seems my dreams are in black and white, nowadays.  But I've had lots of different themes.

Hm. I wonder if they're poison ivy dreams? 

Man, that sounded horrible. I've never had to deal with poison ivy or poison oak rashes (though I have eczema, so weepy itchy rashes are my thing), but could not have been fun. I'm glad it's finally resolving itself. 

Nice splits on your last run. Nice and even.

How long do you expect work demands to wreak havoc on your running? Not much longer, I hope.

Mark B wrote:Hm. I wonder if they're poison ivy dreams? 

Man, that sounded horrible. I've never had to deal with poison ivy or poison oak rashes (though I have eczema, so weepy itchy rashes are my thing), but could not have been fun. I'm glad it's finally resolving itself. 

Nice splits on your last run. Nice and even.

How long do you expect work demands to wreak havoc on your running? Not much longer, I hope.

I read a few years back that poison ivy doesn't grow in altitudes greater than 5,000 feet.  It's also mosquito blood letting now, too.  So, I get more opportunities to itch.

As far as work, it wasn't work, rather moving myself from one apt to a larger apt within the complex.  I had to pack, throw away, etc. my stuff from 10 years at that location.  It was a real pain and I have resolved myself to throw away stuff if I haven't used it in a year and if I purchase something that's not clothes or similar, that 2 things get thrown or given away.  For all the stuff I was able to stuff into the other apt, this one just doesn't seem as accommodating to stuffing.  I'm in it, now, so I'll continue throwing stuff away.

As a result, I run about a third of a mile (an upside down 'L') to my original starting spot.  So a 6.66 mile run becomes a 7.36 run.

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Speaking of such things, I ran 6 miles, this morning.  It was 69 degrees with a true NW breeze around 6 mph.  It was a cool breeze that felt good for a change.  I set a 155 cadence with maybe going 7 miles and hopefully more than 4.  I wanted to see if I could go farther.

6 miles, 1:23:59, 14:00 pace, 154 avg cadence, 0.75 m avg stride length, 1st half pace 13:56, 2nd half pace 14:04.
1.  14:07, 156 spm, 73 sl
2.  13:43, 156 spm, 75 sl
3.  13:56, 156 spm, 74 sl
4.  14:05, 155 spm, 74 sl
5.  14:05, 150 spm, 76 sl
6.  14:01, 152 spm, 75 sl

After hitting mile 3, I had the idea to go for 7.  Some little nerve action or tweak in my hip told me, "not today.  Soon, but not today."  So, I turned around.  It was a good decision as I was drooping the last 2 miles, as evidenced by the lower cadence which is not outside my running history.  The 5 and 6 split would have been slower, had it not been for the NW breeze in my face most of the time.

This gives me 10 miles for the week.  I might run Saturday for a short distance to see how the legs react.

With about 12 weeks to go, it's too late for me to ramp up enough to be able to complete a January marathon.  I will pay the $20 to flip from the full to the half.

Thanks.

Glad you enjoyed the breeze during your run.  It's amazing how much difference small things like that make.  Nice to hear that you made it out for a run.  So you're moved and the weather will be improving.  Sounds like a recipe for more running to me.

Probably a good decision on the full vs half.

Happy running...

Nancy, thanks.  Well, one can only try to push the envelope some.

-30-

I ran 3 miles on Saturday morning.  It was 74 degrees with a moist, SE breeze.  I was curious how the body would feel running 3 after running 6 on Thursday.  In prior years, this would not even be a curiosity.  In fact, it would be quite normal to run farther than 6 miles on a Saturday.  However, this is not my new normal.

The legs were not acting as if it was a recovery run (tightness or 'a-hitch-in-the-get-along'), but they were tired enough that 4 miles would've been slower.

3 miles, 42:38, 14:12 pace, 156 avg cadence, 73 m avg stride length
1.  14:16, 156 spm, 73 sl
2.  14:17, 156 spm, 72 sl
3.  14:04, 155 spm, 74 sl

No stiffness afterwards, nor this morning.  I guess I'll do this many miles again, this week, and see what happens.  I already know it'll be around 72-74 degrees in the mornings.

Thanks for stopping by.

Not too shabby on those runs, Ounce. I agree with Nancy - dropping to the half was the wise choice.

Mark B wrote:Not too shabby on those runs, Ounce. I agree with Nancy - dropping to the half was the wise choice.

Much obliged, Mark.  Yeah, it's certainly nothing to write home about, but it's done.  Maybe it could be overly abundantly described as setting the foundation for better recovery runs.  Kinda smelly sentence.

-30-

So, yesterday I drove over to Memorial Park for a 4 mile run in the daylight.  It's been a while since I've ran in daylight.  I forgot my watch, accidentally, but managed to run 3 and plod 1.  It was about 74 degrees with a heavy cloud cover so the sun didn't march the temperature up but a couple of degrees.  It wasn't much different than running in the August darkness.  

But I was glad to finish the four, no matter the time.  Tomorrow is 5 or 6 miles.  We're not expected to get any cooler weather for two weeks, but it's not bad in the mid 80's for highs.

On a separate matter, I went and donated some platelets this morning.  Nothing new about that, except it was for the local cancer hospital as a screening for a possible white blood cell donation to two people.  They have to analyze my whatevers to see if it matches up with some people at the hospital whose immune systems are compromised by the treatment and/or the cancer.  The specific white blood cell (WBC) is called Granulocyte.

There is a short shelf life for the WBC to the degree that once donated, the cancer patient receives the WBCs within 24 hours, sometimes that afternoon.  In fact, the patient has to be ready to take them before the donor has arrived at the donation place.  

Once a patient and myself are matched, I get a call to arrange a time for me to get an injection (the afternoon before donating) that will cause my WBC count to mushroom tremendously.  Then I take 2 pills at 8 p.m., the night before.  At 8 a.m. the next morning, I am at the donor facility for 2.5-3 hours donating with a needle in each arm.  One to supply blood and one to return, sans WBC.  I've sat for 2 hours before, so this will be a challenge.  Butt death is my usual symptom.  What if I need to scratch my nose?  Oh, nurse!  I usually review some notes from a Bible class, but doing this, I won't be able to turn the page, even.  I believe they have some movies for me to watch.

I asked the doctor how soon after a donation could I run.  He said 2 or 3 days because the influx of WBCs prior to donation will make me feel like I have the flu and my WBC level has to retreat.  Donating WBC from someone who is not specifically donating for a patient is something only done 2-3 times in a year.  Whereas, if you're donating for a specific patient, you can donate every 3 days.

The donation facility was practically giddy with the amount of platelets I have.

This link might explain the process a bit better.  https://aardvarchaeology.wordpress.com/2015/08/11/im-donating-white-blood-cells/

And here is WBC general information pdf from the cancer hospital.  https://www.mdanderson.org/content/dam/mdanderson/documents/Other%20Ways%20to%20Help/Give%20Blood/White%20Blood%20Cells%20General%20Information.pdf

Do I have any concerns?  Yeah, mainly regarding my comfort like:  I hope I don't need to pee and I hope I don't get too much butt death.  They are depending on me to be able to sit for the sake of the patient.  I will do the best I can.  I may not even be a match.  I'll find out this week or next.  Until then, I can't get stuck for platelets or plasma as it messes with their process because it is based on my platelet count of 296.

I'll need to pick a good movie.  And when I can get back to running, but since I'm not training for a marathon, I can see how it dovetails into training or not.