Week Six - Day Four, Saturday, August 24th

A scheduled 11-mile run, and a decent evening to run it. Reasonably low temperatures, and fairly low humidity. Because of the length, I decided to largely follow the first part of last weeks run, and eliminated the second half, due to construction and a lack of illumination along Whitty Road and North Bay Avenue.

This route took me up OFR to Todd Road, and I traveled the entire length of Todd, instead of turning onto Church. (The upper part of Todd Road is littered with some really spectacular properties, including, presumably, the one I couldn't see, because it was hidden behind stone walls and an imposing iron gate, complete with one of those remote call boxes so the dark-suited, sunglassed security could scrutinize you via CCTV before they permitted you entry.) Then I hung a left onto Silverton over to New Hampshire to White Oak Bottom (where do they get these names?), left onto OFR, and back down past the Parkway. Once past Whitty Road, made a left onto Vincenzo, where I gawked at even more impressive homes (think Italian Villa on 1/100th the land) - one of whom was reportedly owned at one time by Michael Ritacco, the recently (ahem) retired superintendent of the Toms River Regional Schools. Then I looped around on Vincenzo, and continued onto OFR back home.

Once again, I went out with water and nourishment handy, which helped in the later stages. I am finding that being hydrated prior to running is important, but it's a bit of a delicate balance, since options to use a bathroom are somewhat limited. At the same time, one can't depend on just the water brought for the run itself, because that's not enough on these longer runs. Runners World suggests a solution in breaking up the route into, say, five mile loops, starting and ending in a familiar place, like your house, thereby providing a handy place to get water and take advantage of the facilities. Sounds nice, but gets boring after awhile.

Speaking of boring, the playlist really needs updating. I'm just skipping the Nickleback songs entirely - way too angry - and the rest of the selections get played completely almost twice. On these long runs, I can probably add a couple of mellower songs, since I'm just trying to maintain a decent pace, without going all-out. It is a marathon, after all.

I managed to keep most of my breaks to less than two minutes, but now that I'm drinking and eating, which takes a few extra seconds to accomplish, two minutes seems to be the new normal. Until the last mile, I had virtually no complaints, and actually felt pretty strong around mile 7. This is encouraging.

The next two weeks look a bit more problematic. I'm working the overnight on Sunday, which eliminates an early Monday run, since I will not run when I'm tired. A scheduled obligation on Monday evening rules out a run then that day, altogether. Early Tuesday, I'm giving a lift to a friend from the firehouse to work, so I have to leave earlier, then it's straight to Newark on Wednesday. At this point, running looks like it will be confined to Thursday and Friday, since Saturday is a firehouse day. Sunday next week will be this week's long run, to allow for the days off before and after and another missed run.

I'm not terribly worried, though, as long as I continue to get in these longer ones. I just want to finish the marathon, I'm not looking to break any records. At least, not this time.

Ellie Goulding was back as the Nike Pep-talker, recycling the you-did-more-miles-than-last-week bit.

The run.

Week Six - Day Three, Thursday, August 22nd

Much better today than Tuesday. Instead of doing the scheduled short run, I did the medium 5-mile run I was supposed to complete on Tuesday, which didn't work out so well. If total mileage is an important consideration, by swapping the two runs, I figure my total deficit is a manageable two miles.

Today's run was straight up OFR to just below Whitty Road, made a U-turn, and then went down Lilac back up to Mapletree. Nice and simple. Had two forced breaks, less than a minute each, at OFR and Bey Lea, which was a better idea than playing Frogger. Just about made the whole way, a first at that distance, and pushed it a little bit to get up the hill on Lilac to Mapletree.

Some observations on the non-running public:

• Folks making right turns onto major roads invariably do not look to their right, either for pedestrians on sidewalks or people like me running against traffic on the shoulder. My second interesting action with a motorist in two weeks.
• People making left turns turn into the far lane of traffic of the road they are entering, then have to over correct to stay in the lane that they're going into.
• Saw more than one person on a bicycle reading their email or something on their cell phone.

I'm also finding that I shouldn't train for a marathon and work a bunch of night shifts at the same time. My days are all screwed up when I sleep the next day normally, and really affects my running if I have to do that in the same 24-hour period.

Tonight's run. And again, no Pep-talker.

Week Six - Day Two, Tuesday, August 20th

I've come to the inescapable conclusion that if the sun is more than 10 degrees above the horizon and the humidity is more than 80%…I shouldn't be running.

Got out from the firehouse and headed to Gregg Park for my scheduled five-mile medium run. Right from the start, it was apparent that this was going to take an extraordinary effort just to make one loop of about a mile and a half. This was clearly my worst run, and my breathing was getting worse, not better, as I have been finding is usually the case in the middle of a workout. (Why that is, I don't know. It seems that it takes a mile or so for my lungs to realize they're going to be doing some work, after which the breathing is usually far ahead the legs.)

So I shut it down. Instead if doing four miles Thursday, perhaps I'll do the five then, and my overall deficit for the week will be just a couple miles. 

Very disappointed, considering that yesterday's four-mile was comparatively a great run, considering my lack of sleep.

The debacle by the Bay.

Week Six - Day One, Monday, August 19th

First four-mile short run, again in the neighborhood, but to liven it up a little bit (if you could say such a thing at 0430 in the morning), I went all the way down Walnut to the last left on Vauxhall, then made my way back, before heading up to Chestnut. On the final leg, I cut through the Walnut School yard on a sprint. A little humid, but temperatures were nice and cool, so I have no complaints.

Lately, I've been purposely taking it easy in the early stages of a run, and increasing the effort towards the end, which seems to allow me to finish runs a little easier.

No Pep-talker, as usual. Today's run.

Playing Catch-up

If you notice, the last four posts all have the same published date. That's because I've been playing catch-up, trying to get these out. They were all in draft form for awhile, but trying to tweak them here and there made them all delayed. I'll try to get back to getting them out in a timely fashion again.