Unlike Monday, I got up and had a good breakfast this morning. Maybe it was a little too good, because I lost track of time and worked right on through the lunch hour. In fact around 1:45 Charmaine came in and asked why I decided not to run today. Doh. I thought it was still morning. I jumped up, pounded some orange juice, smashed a slice of pumpkin bread in my face, and got ready.

I tried to take it a little easier on the first mile today, but I’m not sure how much of a difference it made. I still let myself walk at the end of the first mile and again near the end of the second mile. After that the course goes down hill, and I was able to keep going (and avoid most lights) until I hit the beginning of mile 6.

I usually walk the beginning of mile 6. Sometimes I walk the whole thing. It’s a pretty good hill and I’m usually pretty beat up by the time I get there. Today was different. I didn’t walk even once the whole way from the beginning of mile 6 all the way home. I did hit a red light that took forever, but I’m very sure I wouldn’t have walked if I had made the light. As I started up the hill, I really wanted to walk, but I kept reminding myself that I had a bunch of extra energy left over when I got home on Monday, so I knew I still had enough juice to jog up that last hill. And so I did.

Finishing strong always makes you feel good, and I really felt great finishing strong today.

I didn’t mean for it to happen this way, but I wound up having 2 oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for breakfast. And a glass of 2% milk. That wasn’t supposed to be breakfast, but I got too caught up in work email to notice how quickly time was passing. By the time I came up for air, it was after noon and I hadn’t had anything to eat.

I poured myself a small glass of orange juice (not so much that it will keep popping up to remind me it’s there) and chugged it down. I filled up my two tiny water bottles and grabbed a vanilla Gu and stuffed it in my utility belt. All the cool runners have utility belts with water bottles, food, etc. on hand at all times. I must be cool, because I have one too.

I have this crazy idea that if I start my run with a quick cadence that the rest of the run will be faster. I’m not sure it’s true or false yet, but I am happier with my overall performance today than with most of my previous runs (even those where my final time was very similar to today’s time). So I may play around with that some more.

I pushed pretty hard through that first mile that has nothing but uphill. It’s not super steep or anything, but it always seems to kill me. Maybe it’s because I hit the hill right as I start out the gate? I don’t know, but it kills me. Today was no exception. After pushing through that first mile, I found myself walking a bit on that second mile.

I did pull it together again, though I felt slow through the end of mile 3. Then I sucked down my vanilla Gu and felt energized. At first I just told myself I had to run now that I had used the Gu, but then I genuinely felt like I had more energy. But not only that, I felt like my form was pretty good. I was looking pretty far down the road, breathing well, and none of my joints or limbs were hurting at all. It was really great. I kept that up all the way to the end of mile 5 and the bottom of the hill.

I didn’t walk up the hill though. I managed to jog up most of it. I did walk one of the steeper sections, but the rest of it was all jogging and/or running. I still had a lot of juice left when I hit the home stretch, and I was feeling great. My time wasn’t amazing or anything, but the feeling I had those last 3 or 4 miles was really great. I wish I felt that way every time I ran.

Let me tell you a story. I slept about 4 hours last night. I had to get up early for a phone call with the UK team. I have a sore throat and a cough. I keep thinking it might go away, but then it doesn’t. My ankles are tight. My shins hurt. My right knee feels a little sloppy. I sucked down a quart of orange juice before heading out and it’s not sitting well. My nose is constantly running everywhere… over my lips, down my chin and onto my shirt, except when I mistakenly breathe in through my nose and send a shot of the hot salty mucus down the back of my throat. I keep feeling like I could lose the orange juice at any moment. I almost throw up into my mouth a couple times, but manage to keep it down.

Of course, almost none of that is true. I really don’t have much of an excuse for my poor performance today. Sure, I may not have slept as well as I wanted, and I may be a little sore, but it could be a whole lot worse. So I still need to figure out how to get it together again. Last May I was running pretty well before I stopped running and only rode the bike. How did I lose so much (mentally)?

The only good thing about today’s “run” was the consistency, but I think it’s easier to be consistent when you’re barely jogging. I keep feeling like I’m close to being able to really run this route, but it never materializes. I hope it does soon or I may be out of luck.

I wasn’t feeling well. I didn’t sleep much last night. My legs are sore in the wrong places; I may be starting to develop shin splints. I had very little energy, but I went out to run anyway. My run was turning out how you would expect… poorly. I was walking a lot. I was even considering turning around at mile 2 and heading back for just a 4 miler.

But then I saw George Oscar Bluth, Sr. from Arrested Development asking me what was keeping me from performing… and then I finally found a rhythm.

I was starting the down-hill portion of my run, so it didn’t require a lot of strength or endurance to keep going, but I knew the big hill at the end would come calling eventually. I managed to mostly jog up that last hill, which made my overall time just slightly less than it was on Monday. If I had not walked those first two miles I might have put together a pretty good run. Maybe next time.

We walked around the San Diego Library and then several miles through Seaport Village and then out along the San Diego Bay past the convention center and a few of the big hotels with Charmaine’s parents, who are visiting from out of town. I didn’t plan well and brought a “change of clothes” but not a change of shoes. My change of clothes included shorts, but not flip-flops. I was stuck wearing my loafers. I went without my dress socks, so I wouldn’t completely embarrass everyone, though I’m not sure how successful I was. Anyway, that’s not the right set of equipment for walking miles and miles. I wound up with several good blisters on my feet. Ouch.

But that didn’t stop me from getting out there today. I haven’t had anything close to a blister in my running shoes in what seems like forever. Even when I’ve gone 10+ miles, my feet have been perfectly fine afterwards. So I figured I would be fine running on my blisters. I was right. I don’t think they bothered me too much. I may have compensated and changed my form a bit, but mostly I didn’t think about them at all.

It was a nice temperature for running today. It was foggy last night and most of the morning, so it was still fairly cool when I headed out. I still found myself struggling though. I want to blame my lack of energy on the walking we did yesterday, but I’m not really sure what my problem was. My left ankle was really tight and at one point I came to a complete stop at a lamp post and stretched it out. I felt so much better after that, and I was able to actually get a few miles of running done.

Of course, I still died at the end and walked up the big hill. It’s really disappointing that I can’t stay running for my whole run anymore. I seem to remember that I could keep it together back in the day. Maybe I never did. I don’t think I’ll be looking it up to check… I’d rather just figure it out right now and run all the way back home. At some point I need to stop being happy with just finishing the distance and actually start to improve. Maybe Wednesday?

It was another hot day out there today. It wasn’t as extreme as Wednesday, but it was still plenty warm. I ran out of water somewhere between mile 4 and mile 5, but didn’t notice until right when I needed it most… and then I walked the rest of the way home.

I had a bit of a rough start. I ran about half a mile, then walked about half a mile. Then I got into a decent rhythm and ran almost all the way to the end of mile 5, which was great. It wasn’t fast, but it felt pretty good. Then I realized I was completely out of water and I really needed some. I was even starting to see mirages of drinking fountains as I pushed through to the end of mile 5. It was heart breaking to find out I had nothing left.

I probably wouldn’t have been able to run up that hill at the end anyway, my pace had been falling apart through miles 4 and 5, but we’ll never know. I did try to jog a few times during that last mile, but it never stuck. I wasn’t too disappointed with the outcome, and I wasn’t feeling sore anymore. Maybe on Monday I’ll actually be able to run again?

It was 85 degrees outside at noon. Too hot to run. But I really wanted to get back out there and see what I could do. I finally dragged myself out there by about 1:00, and it was scorching. It was 88 here on the coast and about 93 just a few miles inland from here (and right where I was heading on my run). I drank a bunch of water before starting, but I still ran both my water bottles empty by the time I hit the 3 mile mark. It wasn’t just hot, it was dry.

There are two schools of thought when running in extreme heat. One says try to walk when you can’t be in the shade, so you don’t over do it. The other says walk when you’re in the shade to achieve maximum cooling. I think I subscribed to both schools of thought today, because I was always walking and almost never running. Did I mention it was hot? Oh yeah, and I was really sore from that run two days ago. I didn’t feel like I pushed hard or anything, but I was really sore out there today.

It seems like I’m always out of town. I’ve been to San Jose, CA almost every Friday-Sunday lately, and we just got back from a 10-day diving trip to La Paz, BCS. You can’t really run (or exert yourself other ways) when you’re diving multiple times each day because it increases the risks of DCI. I’m not complaining, of course. The diving was incredible and I highly recommend it to everyone, but it does force you to take time off of running and biking.

So today was my first day back and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I just sort of took it easy and tried to maintain my pace. I hit a few red lights, but I didn’t let them phase me. I wound up running almost the first 5 miles, which was pretty good for me. I noticed my cadence started falling apart at the end of mile 4 and my quick little steps turned into big tired clomps as I went through mile 5. I gave myself permission to walk home after that, but did manage to jog a little at the very end.

I wondered if there was still some residual nitrogen left in my muscles, but I think that was just me trying to come up with a good “reason” why I was so tired. I just need to get out there more often. Hopefully I will.