Run #76 I (Barely) get by with a little help from my friends

Date/Time: August 16 at around 6am
Place: Lakefront, 31st Street Beach up to Oak Street Beach and back, and then another 1/2 mile south and back, upper 60's
Mileage: 10 miles
Time It Took: Here's where it gets ugly....2:16:43
Pace: Um....13:40
Miles this week: 13
Miles this month: Does it matter? If so, 26
2008 Goal: 449.09/1000

Thoughts/Comments: Where do I begin? I can't even figure out where. ABout a mile in I noticed my knee, well, just under my knee, it was slightly hurting. Uh-oh. But it wasn't horrible, so I just kept going. I did the whole "walk one minute" after each mile, but then that turned into about 3 minutes twice, and only in the first half of my run. At around 7am or so, near Navy Pier, I SWEAR I saw Lou's boyfriend..but I've only seen picture of him on her blog, so I wasn't too sure.

I got to the water fountain at Oak Street Beach (4.5 miles), and I stopped. I stopped Ye Olde Garmin and just stopped and stretched. Drank. Watched about 5 CARA pace groups go by hoping against hope to see Lou...didn't happen. I thought "Maybe I could trail a long with her for awhile, it'd be like old times." This spot was a happenin spot, not only were all the running groups stopping there, but people were donning wetsuits to go swim in the water, there were people on bikes, etc....So after an eternity of just taking in the sights, I decided to be on my way. I ran another half mile before walking some more. PATHETIC. Then I ran another half mile.

But then up ahead and the mile marker...WOW! There's my old pace group that I ran with just a few times before my knee injury. I really only two of them, and of course they remembered me. They were at their turnaround for a 14-miler. So I ran with them and they were nowhere near running a 12:00, and I didn't even care. We ran a half mile and then we stopped at the bathroom...oh yeah, I forgot that one chic has to go to the bathroom like TWICE in a run. Anyhoo, I was not trying to ditch company, so I waited with them. Watch off. Then we're off again, shuffling along at 13:00 , and this time I didn't stop til back at 31st St, nine miles. Then I went another half mile south with them, and then the last half mile I was along again, but headed in the right direction...towards MY CAR.

It was a horrible run, and I'm not sure why, and I'm not trying to overanalyze it. I do think I might join the group next week and run the first half of my run with them. We'll see.
Sigh.

Run #65 400 miles and still running

Date/Time: June 14th at 6:45am
Place: lakefront, 60’s, low humidity
Mileage: 9 miles
Time It Took: 2:02:02
Pace: 13:33
Miles this week: 15.80
Miles this month: 26.90
2008 Goal: 404.47/1000 miles

Thoughts/Comments: So my run started out ok, a little stiff. I was already having a bit of sore knee issues during the week, but everything seemed fine. But around 3.5 miles in, it really started bothering me. So I took a few walking breaks here and there. At our turnaround point, this old man on a bike, one of the “helpers” (I say helper b/c I don’t think he’s a coach) said “you need to strengthen your knee, do some deep knee bends.” I’m like yeah, what-the-fuck-ever dude. I mean, maybe the strengthen part is true, but the way my knee felt at that point, deep knee bends weren’t gonna help. After he rode off, my pace leader said to get it checked out before doing anything.

After the turnaround, I ran another solid mile before taking a walking break. This one a little longer. At one point, I walked an entire half mile. UGH! So my time TOTALLY sucked, but that’s why.

Even after icing my knee on Saturday, it still hurt just getting around, and especially getting in and out of the car. I also noticed that holding Zoe made things worse, too…and she must know this because she has been begging me to pick her up a lot of the past few days.

Anyway, I have an appointment tomorrow at Athletico, so stay tuned. Until then, no running.

Run #62 I needed a cold shower

Date/Time: June 7th at 6:45am
Place: lakefront; 76˚ and 85% humidity
Mileage: 8
Time It Took: 1:44:45 (includes several water stops)
Pace: 13:05
Miles this week: 11.1
Miles this month: 11.1
2008 Goal: 388.67/1000 miles

Thoughts/Comments: Well this run wasn’t so bad, considering my lazy-funk I’ve been in and haven’t run since Monday! Also, it was hottttttt. 70+ degrees is already pretty warm for running, but that humidity was AWFUL! Anyway, enough about that…

Today was the first time I ran with my new group, even though they've been running for about a month now. Despite searching for any excuse in the world that would keep me away, I couldn’t find one. Jada and Zoe slept all night and didn’t wake up before I left. It wasn’t pouring down rain. My legs felt fresh…so off I went to meet a new set of running friends.

They were pretty cool. Just about everyone lives on the south side like me…everyone but a few people are black, which in the running world, well sometimes you feel like you’re one of “the few, the proud” when you’re out there running on the north side. We chatted about lots of things, including Obama, what if Chicago gets the Olympics, which races we’re running this year in addition to the marathon, etc…

And the best thing about it is when I got home and took a nice cold shower I thought to myself…”maybe I’ll go out for a quick run tomorrow morning.” I think after two weeks of lackadaisical running, I’m feeling up to it again.