I didn’t want to run today. The muscles along my shins were still sore from Tuesday’s run. I had completely convinced myself that I need to take it easy on my running and let my shins recover. I wasn’t going to run. I thought about riding my bike, but I had already declined the opportunity to ride with Charmaine this morning, so it would be pretty lame to go out and ride after that… and the pool is closed on Thursdays, so I wasn’t sure what I would end up doing.

I knew I was going to do something, because it’s the warmest day we’ve had yet this year. We may hit 85 degrees today. I absolutely had to go outside… and that pretty much meant I had to run. So I suited up and headed out.

Right off the first step my shins and ankles were hurting, so I headed straight for the dirt path along the 56. Despite the pain, I wasn’t upset about my jog down the hill to the 56 trail, but once I got there I fell apart. I was walking. My legs were buckling underneath me. It wasn’t pretty.

Eventually I regained my legs and decided to punish myself for the extremely poor performance on the 56 trail. I think that’s about as poorly as I’ve done on that trail since I started running it. It was really bad. So I decided to head on up to Old Carmel Valley, which has this massive hill at 25% grade or more. It’s insane. I let myself walk part of that and I didn’t feel bad about it in the least. Old Carmel Valley eventually connects to Del Mar Heights Road, which has been my main route the last month or so. I felt right at home along there and finished steady.

RunKeeper: https://runkeeper.com/user/jtalbot/activity/175085405

Strava:

Once again my POS Zephyr Heart Rate Monitor recorded nothing. I really hate that thing. On the other hand, my Pebble watch continued to perform very well. I’m really starting to like having it for these runs.

I have several guesses about why I failed so hard today. The obvious first choice is that I haven’t been able to sleep very well for several days. I have been anxious about the post office misplacing 2 of the 4 checks I mailed at tax time. One was tracked until it left the sorting facility, and the other was never tracked at all. I think the anxiety over those missing checks didn’t help my sleep situation any. Luckily, one of the checks cleared my checking account this morning, so I’m hopeful the post office just forgot to track my checks and didn’t actually lose them.

It’s another one of those amazingly beautiful San Diego days today, so I was looking forward to getting outside all morning. Right before lunch time I got a little anxious about the run, but I was feeling good. I stepped out the door to start my run and immediately rolled my ankle. I hadn’t even started yet and I knew I was in for some trouble.

I thought I might be fine, so I headed out on my normal 10k route. I hadn’t gotten too far when it was obvious to me that it wasn’t going to be business as usual, so I headed down to the trail along the 56 freeway where the running trail is in the nice sand that’s easier on my joints. I spent a lot of time switching between jogging and walking, but I eventually made my way back home. I’m not impressed at all with my performance, but hopefully I’ll be back ready for some serious biking by this weekend.

My heart rate monitor was fully charged when I started, but it stopped tracking just a few minutes in to the run. If this was the first or even the second time that had happened I might forgive it, but I’m really upset about it. It’s not critical that I record my heart rate, but I paid good money for this piece of equipment and I expect it to work. It doesn’t work at all when I ride my bike and it only seems to work about half the time when I run. My advice to you: Do not buy a Zephyr heart rate monitor. They suck.

RunKeeper: https://runkeeper.com/user/jtalbot/activity/172031547

Strava:

I supported the Pebble smart watch project through Kickstarter a long long time ago (more than a year). My watch finally arrived yesterday afternoon, right when I was contemplating switching from Strava to RunKeeper. That is significant because the beta version of the RunKeeper app for Android has native support for Pebble baked in and Strava does not.

So today I ran with my Pebble watch. I don’t know if it helped or hurt. It was sort of nice to know my pace at anytime, but I wonder how much of a distraction it was at the same time. The technology is very cool, but I’m not convinced that RunKeeper is the answer for me. For one thing, it doesn’t support the heart rate monitor that I already have. Of course, I’m not very happy with my heart rate monitor, but I’m determined to get my $70 of use out of it. Of course, I’m even more determined to get my (whatever I paid, I don’t remember anymore) of use out of my Pebble… so maybe I’ll be using both Strava and RunKeeper for a while. It may prove to be more work than it’s worth to use both. We’ll have to see how it goes.

I gave myself all sorts of excuses this morning. I woke up early this morning despite going to bed late last night. I rarely perform well without a good night’s sleep. I couldn’t find any of my running socks (dual-layered), so I was stuck using some old biking socks. I didn’t have any caffeine to prep with (they say a little caffeine before a workout helps you perform better and last longer). It was sunny and hot outside, despite the forecast of being nice and cool. I was wearing a dark shirt, which had no trouble converting all that sun into heat. Etc.

Despite everything, I had a decent run. I hit a few lights red on the way out, which probably stopped me from setting a PR on my 5k, but I managed to bring it home for a PR on my 10k. I cut almost a full minute from my previous PR. That means I’ve cut 5 minutes off my 10k time in the last week. I’ll take that!

RunKeeper: https://runkeeper.com/user/jtalbot/activity/171177078

Strava: