The Rowe Family Blog

I’m trying to use this blog to keep a record of my runs (not the best place, I know) and I forgot to post one of my runs from last week.  Last Friday I ran 3.5 miles on the treadmill at a 1.0 grade in 30:25.  I did that run immediately following a leg workout.

Donna’s in town so we decided to run.  We set out at about 8:30 this morning from our house with our final destination being my parent’s house.  It was in the high 60s when we left and sunny.  For a while I was leading the pack (by a small amount) but after about 2 miles in Donna took the lead and kept it until the end.

The run was very difficult for me.  I’m not used to the sun, heat, and humidity.  I also started out too quickly and couldn’t maintain my pace through the run.  I slowed significantly before the end.  I was extremely surprised that I finished at a pace under 10 minutes per mile.  I ran a little more than 6.5 miles because I doubled back at one point to make sure Donna and Mary were OK.  My time for the morning was 1:04:41.

Mary’s run was difficult for her too because her knee was bothering her.  I doubt the heat helped either.  She ran through the pain and finished the 6.5 mile run in about 1:15:00 (+/- 2 minutes).  Unlike myself she ran much faster during the second half of the run.

Donna, being a Floridian, ran much better than us.  It wasn’t not to her.  In fact it’s usually warmer when she runs so she had really good running conditions.  She said she finished about 5 minutes ahead of me but I wouldn’t be surprised if she was even fast than that.

Mary and I set out shortly after 6pm.  I didn’t arrive back home until just about 9pm.  I ran for 17.5 miles in 2:54:00 last night.  Miles 14, 15, and 16 were extremely difficult as my foot was killing me.  My time for the last 4.5 miles was 49 minutes.  Considering my pace for the first 13 miles that was not very good.  I was slowed because I was stopping a lot to stretch out my feet.

There was a fair amount of wind yesterday which made the first 6.5 miles much more difficult than usual.  I completed the first 6.5 miles in 1:03:30.  I was very happy with that because it’s a sub 10-minute pace.  My parent’s were waiting for me with water and chocolate.  I figured that the sugar would help fuel the next leg of the run.

The next 6.5 miles went very well, probably because the wind was at my back.  I finished up the first 13 miles in 2:05:30 which means that the second leg of the run took 1:02:00!  Before we left I stashed a water bottle and some chocolate in the mailbox.

Mary had a tough night because she wasn’t feeling well.  She ran about 10 miles (or a little more) but was slowed significantly because she was feeling a little ill.  She had to stop running at that point because the ill feeling only got worse.

Fox gourmet continues to spam me even after I dared to use their unsubscribe feature.  What a sleazy corporation.

A short while back we got a call from Metlife Bank inviting us to dinner at Casa Larga vineyards in Fairport NY.  Since it was free we accepted.  I assumed that there was going to be some sort of investment sales pitch but figured a free meal would be OK, especially since I’m not easily swayed by sales pitches.

We’re very glad that we accepted.  They basically had a wedding reception type of party.  There was an open bar and tons of fantastic food.  They had a DJ too.  Everything was great.  We even won a gift basket of gourment food in a raffle!

…And much to our surprise there was no sales pitch to be had.  It was just a thank-you dinner.

Mary did it!  She ran the Rowe Half, and then some.  On Tuesday night Mary and I started out from my parent’s house with the intent of running at least 13 miles.  From the start of the run my left foot hurt on every step.  It wasn’t a terrible pain but it was uncomfortable.  I dropped out at 6.5 miles for fear of causing serious injury.  Mary however continued on.  She got to the 13 miles mark…and kept going!  She ran for a total of 14 miles in 2:45:52 (+/- 2 minutes).  It was Mary’s first half marathon (and then some).

Mary and I ran “the loop” twice tonight. When you add in the distance between our house and the start of the loop (which we ran and timed) we ran just about 4.4 miles in 42:10. Mary was leading for most of the run, I couldn’t keep up with her.

Mary ran 13.7 miles for the week.  Tonight’s run brings my mileage to 26.4 miles for the week. Now if only I could do that in one run!

Tonight Mary and I ran another long run.  Mary’s goal was to run the 6.5 miles between our house and my parent’s house.  My goal was to run 13 miles from our house to my parent’s house and then back.  The truth is that I was hoping to beat my previous distance record of 15 miles from last week.

Mary and I ran the first 6.5 miles together.  My parent’s were waiting with water for us, which was a wonderful thing.  Our time for the first leg was about 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Mary decided to run a little bit longer and ran for an additional .6 miles finishing her run tonight with 7.1 miles in about 1 hour and 20 minutes.

I continued back to our house.  I felt pretty good.  My left foot was bothering me again just like last week but it wasn’t enough to stop me from running.  It took me approximately an additional 1 hour and 5 minutes to finish my initial goal of 13 miles.  I decided to run the loop.  In fact I was hoping to run the loop twice to get a total of 17 miles.  17 miles was not to be tonight.  I was extremely thirsty, my legs were on fire, and I was starting to get light headed.  In addition it was starting to get a little too dark so I called it a night finishing up 15 miles in 2:40:29.  This might be slower than last week but I’m really not sure because I didn’t use my stopwatch last week.

Tonight Mary and I ran after the the gym.  We rode our bikes to the gym.  I did a shoulder workout and Mary did a pilates class.  We decided to run the 2.0 mile loop.  Mary ran the loop once in about 21 minutes.  I ran the loop twice in a bit less than 42 minutes.  Mary wasn’t pleased with her running tonight.  I was considering running 6 miles instead of 4 but I decided not to risk making my legs sore for tomorrows planned run of 13+ miles.  Mary is planning on running 6.5 and I’m planning on running at least 13.  We’ll start out together and run to my parent’s house.  It’s a hilly run so it’s good prep for the boilermaker.

I recently made a purchase through Amazon because I had gift certificate.  Amazon has deals with many retailers that allows them to sell their merchandise on Amazon’s site.  The product that I purchased happened to be sold through Amazon by Target.  Today I recieved an email stating “THANK YOU FOR PROVIDING YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS AND WELCOME TO TARGET.COM”  I blame both Amazon and Target for this unwanted advertisement.  I will unsubscribe and I hope that Target is more respectible than Fox Gourmet (spammers) and will honor the unsubscribe request.  This is simply a test.  Most likely I will make the email address invalid that I used with Amazon and Target.