Knee pain

My right knee is hurting. The pain has progressed to the point it woke me up several times last night. I'm taking the day off, no running or walking.

Usually my knee starts to hurts when I don't drink a lot of water. For the last several days that has not been the issue.

Time to rest a day or two.

Rain

As stated in yesterdays post, I'm making minor adjustments to my schedule in an attempt to get my legs back under me. I walked 3-miles with Lulu through the greenbelts. We started 30-minutes after a light rainstorm, not realizing it was a preamble to a bigger rainstorm. We walked nearly 2.5 miles in the rain, but it was refreshing.

I maintained a respectable pace.

Walk: 3.03 miles, 49:03, (16:11 pace)

38 push-ups.

I Hear You Loud and Clear

My body is not recovering properly. For the last week, my running has been progressively harder each day. I can feel heaviness in my legs. It's time to make some adjustments to my schedule.

I cut today's run short by half a mile. I just couldn't push myself any further. Beautiful run along the bayou with a decent pace, but I felt like I had 50-pound wieghts tied to my legs.

Earlier in the day I biked with my old roommate, Heather. First time I've cycled in a month, or longer. The easy pace didn't seem so "easy". Again, I think it's a recovery issue.

Bike: 7.30 miles, 43:20, (9.74 mph)
Run: 1.5 mile, 17:26, (11:38 pace)
Walk: 0.57 mile, 9:54, (17:26 pace)

Kept my calories under 2,000.

Challenge to Run

At work.

Challenge to run today. Left station 2 at 5pm to go run. Started running around the station with very tight calves. Stopped once to stretch, which helped. For some reason, I didn't mentally want to run. At 0.60 miles I stopped and jumped on the treadmill. I was about 0.30 mile into the treadmill run when I got an emergency call, so I had to leave. Once we got back from the call an hour later we had a training session. Re-started the run 2-hours later. Ran 0.40 mile. Walked one mile, then ran the last mile.

Complicated, huh? At least I did something that resembled fitness.

Run: 0.60 mile, 7:07, (11:50 pace)
Not counting the treadmill run
Run: 0.40 mile, 4:50, (12:14 pace)
Walk: 1 mile, 16:48, (16:48 pace)
Run: 1 mile, 12:03, (12:03 pace)

32 push-ups

Mile

Ran one mile late this evening. Beautiful night, but nothing else worthy of reporting...

Run: 1-mile, 11:57, (11:57 pace)

Went to my buddy's wedding last night. It was a stunning ceremony on Lake Conroe. Everyone had a great time. I've been looking for the that "one thing" that was going to motivate me to start dieting. Well, last night I found it. As I was looking through the wedding photos, I found one of me. I knew I was getting big, but wow... I had no idea. I was sick by the sight of me in that photo. I'm so upset about my appearence that I'm too embarrassed to post it here.

Consumed less that 2000 calories today. It's a start....

Long Run

Andrea and I ran our long run this afternoon. We ran my favorite 5-mile loop through the greenbelts. This was the first time I've taken this route since the Hurricane. It's a shame how many trees we lost. Even worse, it would appear that the utility company used the greenbelts to get to the remote power lines, which broke miles and miles of beautiful greenbelt trails. It's easy to understand why they did what they had to do. Everyone would much rather have electricity over greenbelts... including me.

Andrea stated our 5-miler is the furthest she has ever run. Congrats!!!

I'm not sure why I ran so well. Our average pace was 11:35!!! I've not slept much at all this week. Wednesday was an all night drinking binge. I didn't drink ANY water yesterday at work. In an attempt to save this morning's run I downed a large glass of water and took two S-caps. I really wonder if that was the saving grace? Either way, I had a good run even with my newly chaffed nipples and blister on the arch of my foot.

Run: 5.18 miles, 1:00:35, (11:35 pace)

27 push-ups

Station Tour

At work

Another busy day finishing the "paint project" at work. We're done and it looks really good.

Fellow Houston Strider, Lou, was passing through Humble so I had the opportunity to give her kids a short station tour of our quarters and fire truck.

Uneventful run around the station.

Run: 1.5 mile, 17:16, (11:31 pace)

PARTY!

Yesterday was an unscheduled day off. First of all, I was the lead person planning a bachelor party for my good buddy, Josh. Everything took place with less than 5-days notice; so needless to say, I had a lot to do. My plan was to squeeze in a 4-miler when I had time.

Those plans existed before the all-day rainstorm arrived. The rain caused 2 power outages that lasted about an hour each and there was a fair amount of street flooding.

The final factor that kept me from running was water dripping from the ceiling of my hallway closet, which was only detected when it completely saturated the carpet in the hallway. It ended up being a clog in the air conditioner overfill drain pan. Not a big deal, but it made one hell of a mess. And it happened on a day I didn't have time to spare.

So, as you can see... it was not meant for me to run. I repeated to myself over and over, "flexibility". Friday is my off day, so I simply moved it two days early and proceeded forward with the schedule. No biggie.

The party was an absolute BLAST. One of the best times I've had in a long time. As you might guess, I'm hurting pretty bad today. I can't party (by party, I mean drink) like I use too. That's what I get for trying to hang out with men 12-years younger than me.

Tonight I ran four miles through the subdivision. Beautiful weather. Only needed one short walk break during the run. I didn't stop due to physical fatigue, rather a compilation of stresses resulting in mental exhaustion.

I really need to find the motivation to get this weight off. It's literally weighing me down and it unbearable!

Run: 4 miles, 50:59, (12:45 pace)

22 push-ups

Jack of All Trades

At work today.

It has been an interesting day at work. It's not unusual to see big fires, weird people, car wrecks, mangled bodies, or (my favotire) weird people doing stupid stuff. Today was interesting because it was different than the typical shift. By order of the Captain, we were tradesmen of a different profession. We did sheet rock repair, lots of painting, and general maintenance to our dorm room. We spent the entire day working on stuff that had nothing to do with emergency services. The only reason I mention this is because I found it "interesting". When was the last time you asked your painter to also extinguish a kitchen fire or cut you out of a car? ;-)

After all the "excitement" of painting I still managed to run. My feet hurt from standing all day in my duty boots, but other than that the run was nice.

Run: 1.5 miles, 18:09 (12:06 pace)

Company

I ran two-miles through Trailwood Village with Andrea. Legs feel strong, but for the duration of the run I had a sensation of "over-heating". Weather.com says the temp is 76 degrees and 82% humidity. Developed a side stitch near the end of the run. Probably has something to do with eating dinner less than an hour before the run.

The mileage was continuous. It felt like we were running a lot faster than the watch read.

Run: 2-miles, 24:43, (12:22 pace)

Starting over with the push-up challenge. Also making some amendments to the schedule. Instead of a 6-week program, I'm adjusting it to 12-weeks. Essentially, I'll do the first level, then the second level before moving on to the next week. Tonight I did 18 push-ups.

Recovery mile

Andrea and I ran together for the first time in weeks. Schedule called for a 12:15 mile. She's faster than me, so naturally the pace was quicker than I would have ran on my own. It was a good run.

Legs felt like crap before the run. They feel a lot better now that I'm done.

Run: 1 mile, 11:26, (11:26 pace)

2 easy, 2 hard

At work.

Not sure what to think about today's run. First 2 miles felt great. Stopped for a drink of water and never recovered after that. The last two miles included four walk-breaks. My legs feel like I ran 10 miles.

I suppose this is what I get for posting that I didn't lose as much fitness as expected. Damn karma! I didn't get much sleep last night, so hopefully the "fix" is as simple as a good night sleep.

Run: 4-miles, 50:29, (12:37 pace)

Don't want to...

Didn't feel like running. Preston was quite ill today. Between his fuzziness, fever, and doctors appointment I was totally exhausted.

I convinced myself it was silly to skip an easy one-mile run. The run went good, but I still did not want to be out there. Surprisingly, I finished a little bit under my scheduled pace.

Run: 1-mile, 12:03, (12:03 pace)

A few days ago I bought a pedometer. I've heard over and over you should walk at least 10,000 steps per day. I'm not even close. What does that mean? Am I sedentary and not aware of it? For the last three days I have been between 3800 and 5100 steps. That's almost half of what I am supposed to walk. I don't wear it while running.... Wonder if I should count my running toward my 10000 steps? Interesting....

2 miles

At work.

Seven boring loops around the fire station. I didn't lose as much fitness as I expected. Run was relatively easy. I feel good. Suture site is tender from the friction of running.

Run: 2 miles, 22:49, (11:26 pace)

Also completed an upper body workout.

New Job

First day at Jersey Village FD, which is my new part-time job. Sucks to have 2 jobs, but I gotta do, what I gotta do....

Only worked 10-hours today. After work I had enough time to run at home. I could feel soreness in my legs late this afternoon. Soreness is always a welcome sign to me. It lets me know I did something.

My training schedule called for an 'easy day' mile. The pace felt slower than what I actually ran. The weather was really nice, so I suppose it's a weather thing.

Run: 1 miles, 12:01, (12:01)

Andrea and I did a few simple exercises at home, which included:
Lunges
Core planks x 3
Resistance band curls x 3
Squats
Wall toe raises

2 continuous miles

Two miles through the neighborhood was a success. No walk breaks and I feel good, considering I had a 22-day lay off.

Run: 2 miles, 25:02, (12:31 pace)

Non-run related comment:
The Houston Texans sure make it hard to be a fan.

Test Run

It has been a long time since I've exercised. Ten days of hell at work due to Hurricane Ike. Lots of mandatory overtime, which was good since I had no electricity for 8-days. At the end of most days, the last thing on my mine was exercise.

The aftermath of the storm postponed my surgery till September 24th. No problems during the first 2 days of recovery. On the third day I had an allergic reaction to the chromic sutures. The exernal sutures are gone, yet the internal sutures have left me with a lot of swelling. Needless to say, these complications have delayed my running even more.

Today is my second day back at work. Figured if I can work, I can at least go for a walk. Elected to use the treadmill, hoping the surface would not have as hard an impact as the road. Ten minutes into the walk I decided to run, which was a lot more comfortable.

Walk/Run: 1.05 mile, 18:40

The plan is to see how I feel tomorrow morning and if all is well, run one-mile in the evening.