4 weeks of ouch!

Achilles....
9/16/12 - Last long run I've done, 8.11 miles.  The course I took was VERY hilly.  Add this to my normal runs outside were always going over the overpass for the most part.  I ended up aggravating my Achilles on my left foot.

9/26/12 - First try at running and I got onto the treadmill-o-doom.  It seemed to go well after my run.  Then, the next morning I was right back where I was before.

After that I found a bunch of hints online on what I had done and best ways to go about "curing" it.  It of course means to not be running for a while.  With exercises, stretching and some massaging of the area, I now seem to be much better.

10/9/12 - I did some work on the treadmill-o-doom.  Just a mile to see how things would go.  3/4 mile walking and 1/4 mile at a very light jog.  It went well.  1/4 Mile of the walk was done barefoot.



Tonight, tonight, tonight 
Monumental 1/2 Marathon is quickly approaching! (20 Days and counting!) So tonight I buckled down and hit the treadmill-o-doom again.  This time going for 2 miles total, but at at least some kind of "race pace".  I had one of my favorite Podrunner podcasts (Speedbump #1) going and I took off.  Warm up walk for a few minutes and then into an 8 minute segment at 160 BPM.  That felt very good and I really felt that I could keep the 160 BPM pace up for a very long time.  Breathing was good and everything just seemed to be working together.  Couple minute slowdown to 150 BPM walking and then up to 165 BPM.  At about 6 minutes into that 8 minute segment, I began to get very winded and my pulse went up.  I ended up dialing it back for a minute and taking a few sips of water.  I then finished out the segment and began a cool down routine, as I was getting near the 1-3/4 mile mark.  For the last 1/4 mile, I once again did it walking barefoot.



Weight
Dad is pretty much beating the socks off of me right now in the weight loss area.  This past week he remained steady, but for the 3 previous weeks he was steadily loosing.  Since I've not been running, I foolishly didn't cut back my calorie intake.  I paid for it in weight.  I'm back up, but at least last week I managed to loose 1.  Currently back at 246.  I feel like I'm NEVER going to get into the 230's!!  I'm also nowhere near the 220 I was hoping for by the Monumental 1/2... :(  With the setback from the Achilles, I'm just looking to finish the Monumental 1/2 and then work at getting better for the Disney World 5K and 1/2 Marathon in January!



Thanks for Reading!  Regards,
~Kipp

Lighter, Stronger & Faster for 2013! Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon January 7, 2012-  FINISHED 3:48:49 Registered for the 2013 5K & 1/2!

Here we gooooooooo!

The Week Ahead

S-12	9/2	9/3	9/4	9/5	9/6	9/7	9/8
4	Cross	Rest	3 M Run	4 M PACE	3 M Run	Rest	7 M Run

This upcoming week is another pace week.  If it's as warm and humid as it was tonight, I'll have trouble with that 4 mile pace run tomorrow!  Then I've got a whopping 7 mile run slated for my long slow run Saturday.  The bonus is, if the weatherman is correct, the highs will be in the lows 70's this weekend.

The PodRunner podcasts/interval routines have been helping a lot lately.  Right now I'm working out with one called Staircase of the Gods.  The following is the BPM (beats per minute) chart for this mix:

BPM CHART 
3 minutes @ 150 BPM
8 minutes @ 160 BPM
3 minutes @ 150 BPM
8 minutes @ 165 BPM
3 minutes @ 150 BPM
8 minutes @ 170 BPM

3 minutes @ 150 BPM

It's really helping me focus on staying running instead of slowing down whenever I feel like it.  I keep telling myself that the slowdown segment will be any minute now.  The weather tonight really didn't help, but I was still able to keep a better walking pace than I normally would without the pace music.  With my 3 mile runs lasting about an hour, I cycle through this mix once and into the next couple of segments on the 2nd listen.

A look back at Last Year

S-11	9/2	9/3	9/4	9/5	9/6	9/7	9/8
		3.03 MI			2.46 MI

I've been reviewing where I was with running a year ago.  Last year, I had not begun my 1/2  Marathon Training yet, and I was still winding down with the Bridge to 10K program.  The 3rd and the 6th were runs I did while at Disney World last year!  In fact, I'd say that the run I had tonight was comparable to the humidity I experienced down there that week.  It was rough, but a very scenic run (in more ways than one, I'm telling you!)

This week we have a KO!

Week	Date	Kipp		Weekly%	Overall%	Dad		Weekly%	Overall%
0	6/5/2012	249				230
11	8/21/2012	246	-2	-0.82%	1.20%	228	0	0.00%	0.87%
12	8/28/2012	245	1	0.41%	1.61%	227	1	0.44%	1.30%
13	9/4/2012	246	-1	-0.41%	1.20%	222	5	2.20%	3.48%

Dad is taking me to the shed now!  Wow!  He's begun his modified Atkins diet in earnest again!  It appears to be working very well for him so far.  He's warned me that he's aiming for another 5 pounds for next week too!  So far, I've noticed a trend in the past few weeks that if I have pizza over the weekend, I gain.  The weekends I don't, I loose.  So it's obviously a carb issue with me too.  I need to start really focusing on what I'm eating again.  I've been able to hold steady around the same weight for a year now, now I really need to kick it and start loosing again.

The final countdown 

60 Days till the Indy Monumental Half, about 80 days till I'm down in Disney World for some vacation time with Dad and 128 Days until Marathon Weekend 2013!  It's going to be here before I know it!

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,
~Kipp

Lighter, Stronger & Faster for 2013! Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon January 7, 2012-  FINISHED 3:48:49 Registered for the 2013 5K & 1/2!

BPM Music Run

So, I've been hearing from some friends about training to certain cadence with  Beats Per Minute, or BPM.


It seems that efficient runners tend to run with about a Cadence of 90, or 180 BPM.  Now this can be done throughout your walk/run cycle.  All you have to do adjust your stride to go faster.
  
I downloaded some interval podcasts from Podrunner.com.  I chose one from their interval sessions for 10K training.  The music I listened to had a range of 137 to 154 BPM.  Now my coaching session in Runkeeper was the one I used from a few days ago, so in no way, shape or form did it match up to the intervals that the music was set to.


So, whatever BPM music was playing at my intervals from Runkeeper, is what I did.  I actually ended up doing some walking at 154 BPM and some Jogging at 137 BPM.

Surprisingly, my pace times ended up a lot more even than what I usually turn in.  In my later segments, I still slowed down some, but not as wildly as I normally do.

Intervals	Pace (min/mi)
5:00 (warmup)	17:30
1.00 mi (steady)	14:53
0.25 mi (slow)	17:52
1.00 mi (steady)	15:43
0.25 mi (slow)	17:56
1.00 mi (steady)	15:43
0.25 mi (slow)	16:34
1.00 mi (steady)	14:43
0.25 mi (slow)	15:29
5:00 (cooldown)	15:55
1:42 (extra)	18:21

I did my Overpass route for some hill action.  I went over the overpass a couple of times and then ran around the neighborhood twice also.  No rooster and no little doggie tonight.



Yes, I did a 5.69 run tonight!  I actually forgot to re-set the repeats on this coaching section in Runkeeper and I was concentrating so hard on keeping to the beats that I didn't even realize I was over 5 miles!

My Polar Heart Rate Monitor shows that I averaged a 152 BPM Heart Rate.  This is part of my disappointment with the Polar HRM that I have, it only reports an Average, so I cannot load it into Runkeeper to see the actual segments where I go High or Low HR.  

There were a few sections where I was really starting to huff and puff, luckily the Podcast music had slowdown breaks about every 4 minutes or so.  It usually worked out that once I was starting to get overworked, a slowdown segment would come up and I could cool back down and regain my breath.

Now, even though I had some heavy beats beating in my ear (I run with only one earbud in), I had this annoying song stuck in my head.

I would really like to kick whomever it was that sent me this song.  I shall now punish all of you with it now... yes, Baby Monkey!  You thought Small World got stuck in your head and drove you nuts, just listen to this once!

On the gadget front, I did end up getting my iPOD/iPHONE wireless transmitter and its working out great!  I'm catching up on some of my Disney Podcasts that I've not been listening to regularly (Sorry Paul, Tracey and Scott, Dudes and Cats!  :(  )

Both of my vehicle car radios have the ability to go a little below the US Standard 88 on the FM.  So this transmitter I have has a "hidden" feature to let it go into Japanese or European mode.  In Japanese mode I can set it to 87.9 and be fairly clean signal anywhere I go.  Overall I'm very happy with my purchase.

So I called in to Sirius/XM to cancel my subscription and they gave me a free 3 month extension.  They must be desperate to keep their subscriber numbers up, because this is the 2nd time they've given me a free extension.  I find that I really don't listen to it all that much anymore.  My favorite station (Fist Wave) has really gone down in quality since I first started listening to it.  The merger between Sirius and XM really turned good stations into mediocre ones.  The stations now heavily repeat the sames songs, in fact when I was on vacation and listening to it for many hours at a time while driving to Florida, I could ALMOST figure out the rotation order, as I'd hear the same songs just about 2-3 times A DAY!  Every once in a while, they'd throw a curve ball in there, but mostly the same stuff over and over again.  

Now, if anyone were to think they'd like to get me a nice Birthday present next month, I wouldn't be upset if a Garmin Forerunner 405CX or the Forerunner 405 showed up at my doorstep.  Nope, not upset one bit at all. (/end subliminal message)


I'm going to beat my head against the desk to see if I can get that song outta my head before I call it a night.  Speaking of which, I think I'll end this post now.

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,
~Kipp

Lighter, Stronger & Faster for 2013! Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon January 7, 2012-  FINISHED 3:48:49