I’ve been avoiding running because I didn’t have new shoes, while at the same time avoiding buying new shoes because I didn’t seem to run anymore. Obviously, I set that situation up so that I could continue doing nothing, but I finally got up the nerve to break the cycle and ordered some new shoes. Brooks doesn’t make the Ravenna 3 anymore, so I ordered the same size in a Ravenna 5. They arrived on Friday and I spent some time trying to figure out the best way to lace them up in a fashion similar to how my old shoes are laced.

They don’t tell you this when you start into running, but you don’t lace up your running shoes the way you have been taught to lace up shoes all your life. Oh no. You have to do some fancy maneuvers so that when you pull your laces to tie your shoes it doesn’t mess everything up down the line. I don’t fully understand it, but I think it has to do with buying shoes that are bigger than your feet when you’re not running… then tightening up the top so your feet don’t slide around too much while you’re getting going. Eventually enough blood goes down to your feet that they expand and fill your shoes. So I had to work out how to lace them up. I had hoped to just copy what I had setup on my old shoes, but the new pair has an extra set of holes… my whole system was off. The first few times I didn’t even have enough lace left to tie anything.

I did eventually figure something out and then I got to try them out this morning. Yes, I said morning. It’s nice and cool in the mornings here, so it’s the perfect time to run. I headed out a little before 8. I guess that’s later than most people start running around here. I didn’t see any bikes or runners the whole time. I doubt I’ll ever get up much earlier than that, but you never know.

I’m not used to running in the morning. I don’t know if I should eat anything or drink anything before I go out there. I decided pretty quickly that I should have had something to drink. Just a few hundred yards into the “run” and I was completely dried out. My legs were also wasted by then. Needless to say, I’m totally out of shape already. So I walked a bit and jogged a bit as I worked my way in and out of residential streets in my neighborhood. I have no idea where most of them go, but they were nice and quiet.

I eventually made it back home. My legs are jello. I think I need a day or two to recover. But at least I got out there and the best part… my achilles isn’t in pain. It’s a little tight, but I think that’s to be expected. But no pain. W00t.

(no link to activity details, because runkeeper.com no longer shows anything to non-members… very dickish)

I haven’t been running since I hurt my achilles way back in November of 2013. I haven’t really even been walking. I have been on my bike once or twice, but I’ve mostly been sitting around making up excuses to stay sitting around.

That all changed this week when I finally stopped giving in to the excuses and walked the whole 2 miles from work back home. I had Charmaine drop me off in the morning so I wouldn’t have any way home other than walking. It was still about 85 degrees outside when I started walking, but there was a nice breeze and a lot of shade. If I hadn’t had to wait for two lights right at the end, I would have averaged under 15:00/mile… and that was carrying my computer, noise canceling headphones, and a few books in my backpack.

Charmaine says we may ride our bikes to Santa Cruz tomorrow. That would be about 60 miles round trip. I’m not sure I’m up for that, but we’ll see what happens.

This is where I would normally link to my activity on Runkeeper, but they are being dicks these days and don’t show activities to non-members, so I no longer link to them. In fact, maybe it’s time to switch back to Strava for tracking my runs. Actually, I’m a little pissed at Strava right now too. The latest update to their Android app requires you allow the app to read your phone number and all the calls you make. I refuse to allow that. I’m not sure what the solution is yet. I’ll probably end up with a GPS watch or something and just upload the raw data to something.

I started off fast. I was headed down a little hill to start things off and then across some flat before going into the first hill that I always climb when I run around here. I was already feeling a little off before I even made it out of the parking lot at Pell Place.

At first I told myself that fast run on Monday must have taken more out of my feet than I had thought. I tried to stay fast, but I dropped off as I rounded the corner and headed across the flat section in front of the elementary school.

My left foot started to ache in a place I haven’t ever felt pain before. I started slowing down, but the pain continued to grow. I dropped out of my rhythm and started walking. I was only 1/3 of a mile into the run and I was walking. And my left foot continued to bother me. The pain was very low and very far back. I’ve had my Achilles Tendon be sore once or twice. When it’s been sore, I’ve always felt it directly behind my ankle, never so low. I wasn’t sure if it was even my Achilles or not, because it was so low. It almost felt like there was a problem with my shoe… right at the bottom at the very back of my left shoe.

I tried to think about what could be wrong as I walked up the hill past the library to the light at Carmel Country Road. When the light turned green I tried to jog, but it wasn’t going to happen. As soon as I was across the street I was back to walking. When I turned the corner at the church I wondered if it was one of those things that might hurt more walking than running. I was wrong. It hurt more running, so I dropped back to a walk.

I didn’t make it to the top of the hill before it hurt so bad that I came to a complete stop. I put my hand on the back of my leg to see if there was a problem with my Achilles, but it seemed ok. It didn’t hurt to put pressure on it from the back; It didn’t hurt to pinch it. Those have always been my tell-tale signs that something bad is happening, but they were absent this time. I tried to stretch my leg by leaning against a tree. It seemed to make me feel a little better, but I knew I wasn’t going on. I was going back. I started walking back down the hill and it wasn’t hurting that much. It was definitely feeling better than it had when I was going up hill.

Stupidly, I decided the diminished amount of pain meant I could start jogging again. It hurt more to jog, but I pushed through the pain. I got back past the school and started climbing towards Pell Place again when I had to walk. The pain was excruciating. I couldn’t even walk up that last hill. I was hobbling and really hurting.

I still don’t know what’s wrong. It’s been several hours and I’m still in fairly serious pain. I can’t stand straight up. I can’t even sit down for very long without needing to move to make it feel a little better. It seems to be mostly OK when my foot is pointed, but if I try to flex my foot it really hurts. Even if I just relax my leg muscles and try to position my foot that way with my hands (to stretch the tendon) it’s maddeningly painful.

I really hope I feel better in the morning, otherwise I may have danced my last dance on these particular streets.

I have never had someone stop me while running (or biking) to ask for directions until today… and it happened twice! The first time I was actually stopped, waiting to cross Del Mar Heights Road where it joins Carmel Valley Road, so I didn’t really think much about it. I did wind up missing the light and waiting through another cycle, but I wasn’t sad about getting a bit of extra rest at that juncture. I managed to keep my rhythm and run all the way through Palacio Del Mar and start heading up the big hill home when a guy in a truck cut across three empty lanes to pull up right in front of me and ask how to get to Escondido. He didn’t have a lot of other options, so I was nice and told him how easy it was to get there.

I was a little upset that I had come to a complete stop to talk to this guy. I was convinced it had messed me up for running that last hill, so I pushed even harder. Now, as I look back on it, I wonder if I ended up going faster up that last hill precisely because I stopped and gave that guy directions. We’ll never know, but I’m always going to help someone out if at all possible.

I changed my route up a bit after looking back through my logs of my faster runs last spring. When I was running faster I was starting off running downhill. It added more uphill to my runs, but I had a theory that starting off going fast without having to push hard would get me into a good rhythm. I wasn’t wrong. I cruised through almost the whole first mile (which has 150 feet of climbing). I did run out of air right at the end and walk a bit to catch my breath, but I didn’t walk long. I pushed hard through mile 2 and hit 6:00/mi going down the steep hill through Lansdale, but that really killed me mentally and I walked a little bit more to catch my breath again. I got right back to it and ran almost the whole way home (minus the stoplight and the guy trying to find Escondido). I did walk a couple times on that last big hill, but never for very long.

I finished pretty strong and really felt great.

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?