Oh. Yeah.

See? All it takes is a little complaining to get some things done. One poopy-weather post and BAM! A beautiful day. You’re welcome, Northeast Ohio!

I wasn’t going to get caught resting on my laurels with the sun blazing yesterday, so I met Landon at John Carroll again for an afternoon run. While several other training-bloggers have had opportunities to wear shorts in recent weeks, I had my own day in the sun: I went gloveless. That’s right. No gloves on a run. Pretty impressive for mid-March, eh?

Maybe not.

But I was wearing sunglasses and having a swell time. We took off from John Carroll and headed northish on Fairmount Boulevard, running past my favorite CH houses, to Coventry to Mayfield Road. Lovely, lovely, lost-free route.

Hills on this trek weren't visually apparent, but their cardiovascular impact was. At least I imagine it was to Landon because he had to hear me huff-and-puff the whole way (he was just fine).

We ran 7.6 miles in under 1:12:00, which amounts to 9:30/mile pace. I admittedly took us off a little faster than I should during our 20-minute warm-up, but I get so excited when I’m talking about good-job stories, running with friends or getting out on a nice day.

But I paid for it too: not only did I catch a stitch 30 minutes into the run, I had to take a walk break ten minutes from the end of our run for some quick recovery. Have I gone lame-o?

As I mentioned the other day, I've officially begun my Akron Marathon (and Cleveland Half Marathon) training and I'm following the plan outlined in Jeff Galloway's book Marathon: You Can Do It!, which my mom gave me for Christmas. It contains all the nutrition and cross-training information I should have known last year, as well as an interesting recommendation: short walk breaks.

Briefly speaking, walk breaks "vary the use of the muscle and reduce intensity of the work. Because you're not using the muscle in the same way continuously, you significantly increase the distance you can cover before fatigue sets in." Which makes sense. What surprised me is that these breaks, especially when you're building or rebuilding your miles, won't hurt my endurance. We'll see.

If you visit the book's Google Book preview and flip to pages 9-11, you can read Galloway's take on walk breaks.

My need for breaks made me realize, however, that I have plenty of rebuilding to do. This run was my longest (and hilliest) since my October-through-January hiatus. My legs felt strong, but my endurance could use some Vitamin Water or something.

Speaking of Vitamin Water, Landon mentioned that his friend will appear in a forthcoming Vitamin Water commercial, and I’m eager to learn whether it’s LeBron James’ latest.

News says LBJ plays a lawyer; I don’t know how Vitamin Water helps his case. But in a recent CNN story, LBJ says that if his career had taken a different path, he might have made a good attorney: “I can be real intimidating when I put my game face on,” he says. “And I never lose.”

Who else can make intimidating look so damn good too? Some people were just meant for stardom.

And if plans hold up, Landon and I will be all-stars this weekend: we’re planning a cross-Cleveland run on Saturday morning.

It just got interesting…

Two-a-Day To-a-day

After several weeks’s worth of listless mornings in which I awoke at 6:30 a.m. but didn’t get my butt out of bed until 7 a.m., I got up when my eyes opened on Thursday morning and took to my latest thing: Namaste Yoga.

It was the “yoga for distance runners” program, and while it involved plenty of stretching and hammy work, I didn’t quite seeing the direct benefits to runners. And while it is a great yoga program, it’s a little too esoteric to explain why this particular episode is gear toward runners.

Nevertheless, it was a great way to kick off a morning. I must admit, however, that between my early-morning stiffness and extended absence from yoga, I have lost much of my flexibility. I’ll have to increase my stretching during the day and pre-yoga to see if I’ve just gone eternally stiff or if there is still hope for these achey bones.

Yet they weren’t too achey for an afternoon swim. I’ve been getting nervous these past several swims—because of the distance between each of my workouts—that I’ll suddenly forget how to swim or not be able to swim more than a lap at a time. But that’s the thing I’ve always like about swimming: I never seem to lose too much in the way of shape. Sure, my endurance wanes, but I never lose my technique or feel like a fish out of water… in the water.

And thus, on what I hope will be a longer stay in a swimming regiment, I swam an 1,800-yard ladder:
200 yards free
250 yards free
300 yards free
350 yards free
400 yards free
Warmdown: 200 yards s-l-o-w IM and 100 yards butterfly kick

During that first 200 yards, I actually thought my arms were going to detach themselves from my body in protest to what I was doing to them (it was less about the swimming pain threshold and more the more-intense weight training I did for two days before). But as pain thresholds have it, I loosened up about 150 yards into the second set and cruised for the rest of the way. Granted, I was a little more tired than I was swimming these distances a couple weeks ago, but I’ll be back to un-tired soon!

I was un-tired enough last night to take an evening run around 8:15 p.m.—it was meant to be my pre-Cavs-superstition run (they needed a warm-up game anyway!), but tip-off was at 9 p.m., and I didn’t want to run too late—for 3.54 miles, which puts me at 70 miles on my 100-miles goal with 11 days to go. I’m fairly confident that I can complete 30 miles in 11 days. I’ll just have my fingers crossed that neither my body, uneven sidewalks or inconsiderate vehicles stand in my way!

It was, thankfully, a wholly uneventful run—even with the late-evening mugginess and waning heat. And it’s uneventful hot-runs like this that make me wonder whether I’m breathing better when running because I a) am in better shape; b) have improved the way I breathe during exercise; or c) haven’t seen nothing yet! Then, of course, there is hidden option d that suggests my breathing wasn’t the problem, it was my brain. But I’m willing to argue it’s a little of each option. Although I hope the building summer won’t get so bad I regret ever thinking there was some semblance of improvement!

You know what’s not getting better? My stitch. Almost every time I have run over the past several weeks (except the track run a couple days ago) I have ended up with one of those irritating, run-stopping stitches that crops up out of nowhere and just won’t quit. I’ve tried to get rid of it every way I know (i.e., stretching my sides, deep inhaling and exhaling on my left-foot stride, hopping on one foot while sacrificing small animals), but even if it fades, it comes back with a vengeance. What’s up with that?

When I first started running, I had the most difficult time reaching my first mile because I would get crippling side-stitches that not only bad it impossible to run, but made me uber paranoid about the mysterious things. So, I looked it up.

Most resources say that stitches are: “caused by stretching the ligaments that extend from the diaphragm to the internal organs, particularly the liver. The jarring motion of running while breathing in and out stretches these ligaments. Runners tend to exhale every two or four steps. Most people exhale as the left foot hits the ground, but some people exhale when the right foot hits the ground. It is the later group who seem more prone to get side stitches.” And they suggest breathing deeply, stretching and exhaling when your left foot hits the ground.

Today I tried massaging the stitch as I ran (so, really, it was just me poking at it from stride to stride), and it went away! It was a great accomplishment until I felt a more painful cramp immediately below where the original stitch had been stabbing. Grrr.

I guarantee a Nobel Prize for anyone who can find a cure for stitches.

And, finally, the KNEE REPORT:

Both of my knees (knock on wood) are back in working order this week. I still have some external discomfort on my left knee, which is sporting some pretty youthful-looking scabs from last Saturday’s wipeout. I was really afraid that the fall would put me back a few weeks with my knee health, but I’m beginning to think that despite the initial soreness, that big bang might have just knocked something into place.

I am, however, having a difficult time trying to justify my nice trip to my shoulder, which is still dark with a bruise and some scrapes. Boy, do I feel like a clumsy-but-spunky-and-scraped kid again!

The Longest Run Ever. Again.

It must have been around mile four that I left my Negative Nilly behind. She was really holding me down. All I wanted was to run at least five miles, but when I reached five, I wanted to do six and a half; I reached six and a half and I wanted to run eight.

So, I settled the conflict by running 9.06 miles.

I kid you not, over nine miles: it's the longest I've ever run in my entire life (I know I keep saying that, but it's true every time)! It had crossed my mind to run a full 10 miles and count the run as a double on the February goal, but I realized that I might start working toward goals for all the wrong reasons.

But nine miles! It solidified my choice to run the five-mile rach at St. Malachi on March 10.

I had originally set out this icy morning to just get five minimal miles under my belt and out of the way. But I started thinking about the race in less than two weeks. I thought that if I continued to stop at five miles, my body would be ready to stop way too early in a 5-mile race. I hope to prepare my body to race double that distance in the next couple of weeks, to be doubly ready.

When I was a swimmer, my dad always said to me that if I wanted to be an excellent 100-yard butterflyer, I should practice swimming 500-yard butterfly. And when I would swim 100, I would be more than prepared for the feat.

(I never actually followed my dad's advice, but I understood the logic. I may have been too interested back then in rushing home to hang out with Landon and gawk at the evolution of late-90s music videos, like "I Want You" by Savage Garden and the Take That video with Robbie Williams dancing in the rain.)

P.S. Thanks to whomever nominated my blog for a Blog of the Day Award: that's awesome!