Watt's Running

At class this week coach Karen asked if I was running Motive this weekend. Motive is a half-marathon this Sunday at 7:30 AM that’s part of the Austin Distance Challenge. I responded by saying no, that I had planned to do my long run on Saturday. She said good, because she was recommending that. Well on Thursday I receive an e-mail at work from Motive stating that my race number was #810 and packet pick up was Friday and Saturday. Puzzled, it finally dawned on me that a while back Matthew had considered running this race with me and at that time he declined but I indeed signed up for it. Sheesh, if that isn’t symptomatic of my CRS* I don’t know what is. Naturally I sent a note to coach Karen saying I goofed. If Motive hadn’t send me that e-mail I would have totally skipped it. And I had been thinking that I wouldn’t get another T-shirt and a neat pair of sox.

After the marathon I’ve taken it easy and have been doing 3 mile recovery runs about 2-3 times a week in the mornings.

OK, here I go. I’ll be leaving on Friday morning. The Chicago Marathon is on Sunday, October 22 at 8 AM. My bib number is 4936. I plan on starting and completing it, but not much more. No finishing time is planned, but I think I’ll complete between 4:15 to 4:45 which is quite slow for me. I plan on running with Kevin and enjoying the day. Hopefully the weather will be OK. Remember that Chicago is known as the windy city. In any case, I’ll return on Monday.

I just spent $27.75 and signed up for the IBM Uptown Classic 10K race next weekend. It’s the first race of the Austin Distance Challenge, but I’m not going to be competing in the Challenge this year because Chicago Marathon conflicts with the next race. This will be the first time in two years that I’ve not done it.

I had to run 6 miles today, but could only make about 1.5. My left ankle has flaired up again. There is tightness and a burning sensation on the muscle on the right. This is just great. I’m a few days in front of the longest run (22-24 miles) on Saturday and I’m out of commission. This whole summer has been so tough on me.

I don’t plan on doing another summer training program. It’s just too tough on me. Summers should be a break from formal running, and should be recuperation from the fall running season. I’ve learned my lesson.

My shoulder is slowly getting better, but I’m still having some pain and weakness when I lift my right arm up especially above my shoulder. I stopped taking pain killer and at least it’s not throbbing anymore. Moving it makes me tense up. Simple things like turning on a light switch which isn’t even above shoulder height is bad. Driving the car and turning the steering wheel sharply, for example, when parking is tough. I’m still using my left arm to help me move my right one. For example, I tried to draw a picture on a whiteboard at work today and I had to use my left to lift my right so it could draw in some details. You never know how much you use something until every movement causes it to scream in your brain – ouch!

I slipped and fell while running today. This was no little slide. In the middle of an easy 6 mile run while listening to my iPod I crashed. I was running up a set of wooden ramps. It had been raining so the wood was damp. As I turned right at a corner to go up the next ramp my feet went out from under me. I reached my out to break my fail with my right arm and slammed it down. Yup, directly against my old arthritic right shoulder joint. The pain was instantaneous and severe. Ouch! The agony, the pain, oh my gosh, it was bad. I got to my feet but couldn’t run. The pain was so bad I had to walk. Double Ouch! I held my right arm in place with my left arm like a sling. I could barely breathe. My shoulder was just throbbing and throbbing. Triple Ouch! I walked for several minutes then very slowly ran home. It ached all the way home. Now it continues to ache. I’ve taken Advil twice today to help. I’m using my left arm to move my right. Typing had been difficult. I’m not looking forward to trying to sleep. I hope this doesn’t have any long term repercussions.

Matthew stopped by this weekend and proposed that we run the San Antonio Half-Marathon on November 12. Sounds very good, so he’s starting his practice. It’ll be two weeks after the Chicago Marathon for me. This is a big deal for him, and quite a long run for him. I gave him some Internet links to training programs and things that he could do to prepare and learn more. Now he needs to get started and keep healthly. So I told him that I’ll check back on October 20th to see if we should sign up online. Oh, and that we might need to ask Beth’s parents if we should stay with them on Saturday the day before or a motel room otherwise.

I put a table of Personal Records (PRs) on the website. It was fun looking through all the old racing bibs to find the best ones for each distance. I currently have 39 of them in my bedside table. IMHO That’s an impressive group. I don’t know that’s all of them, but it’s the major ones from the last four years of racing. Right now I’m not pushing as hard as last year, so these might be the best I’ll ever achieve.