The Rowe Family Blog

This morning I set out for what I hoped was to be my first 20 mile run.  I was pretty confident that I could do 20 miles since it was below 70 and overcast when I set out shortly after 8am.  After about 5 minutes the sun came out.

The sun beat down on me and drained me of energy.  I still felt pretty good because it wasn’t too hot and I hadn’t been out for too long.  I knew I could at least make 13 miles.  I didn’t see much new debris by the roadside but I have finally come up with an explanation for the pink towel, the diaper, the numerous cheap beer containers, and endless cigarette butts and packs.  The explanation is Lil’ Smokey.  Lil’ Smokey is a baby.  At night, when his parents think that he is sleeping (he’s a very heavy sleeper, his parents love him for that) he sneaks out.  He wears a pink towel for a cape and prowls the streets of Chili and Churchville drinking cheap beer and smoking cigarettes.  Lil’ Smokey is either a super hero or a mutant.  The beer and cigarettes actually make him stronger which of course doesn’t make sense.   Read the rest of this entry »

This past Wednesday I set out at about 6pm to run the Rowe Half.  It was nearly 80 and sunny.  I hadn’t had a long run in quite some time because I hadn’t been feeling well.  I thought I was OK to go even though I hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before.  I was wrong.  It was a very difficult run.  I knew pretty early on that I wasn’t going to be able to make the full 13 mile distance.  I was happy to finally be out running again but my stomach was upset and I had a headache.  I stopped after 6.5 miles where my fan club was waiting for me.  My fans (my Mom and Dad) had water and candy ready for me.  We walked together for 0.6 miles after I finished the 6.5 and then they drove me home.  I ran the Rowe Quarter in 1:03:27.  I was really happy with my time but disappointed that I wasn’t 100% healthy yet.

I set out this morning with the goal of finishing the Rowe Half and I didn’t care about the time.  That was a very good thing too.  Wait until you hear how pitiful it turned out.

I left the house at about 10:06am.  The first 5.5 miles were actually pretty good.  I started to overheat a little here and there but then just slowed my pace down.  I saw a dead snake, a dead frog, an empty 2-liter of Diet Coke, and a dead fox.  There were also a lot of pretty flowers along the way.  It was pretty difficult today because the sun was directly overhead and that provided me with minimal amounts of shade for the entire run.

At almost exactly mile 5.5, my left knee started to bother me.  I had to stop and stretch and walk for a little bit.  The final mile in the first Rowe 1/4  was very difficult.  My knee really didn’t want me to run…but it didn’t really have a say either.  As I got onto my in-laws street, a friend of mine from school who had seen me about 4 miles before handed me a freezing cold bottle of water and cheered me on.  That got me to my in-laws house pretty well.  When I got to their house, my knee was not very good, but I decided that I was going to finish the Rowe Half today.  I walked for a little bit with my mother-in-law and ate a piece of chocolate and then attempted to take off for the 2nd half of the half.  I got more water at the 10 mile mark and turned down the drive of shame (a ride home).  Almost 45 minutes later I arrived home.

I had a VERY pitiful run on the way back.  My knee was not cooperating and I could only run about one to two tenths of a mile and then had to stretch and walk again.  I did this all the way home.  I knew that the pain in my knee was only tired muscles and knew that they needed strengthening anyway.  I did an awful lot of walking today due to the lack of shade and my knee issues.  The temperature today was not an issue.  I am ashamed of my time (2:52:19) but am pleased that I was able to finish the Rowe Half without the drive of shame.  I guess if nothing else, I know I will be able to finish the Boilermaker on July 9th with or without a good race time.  I am not going to do a long run again until the Boilermaker and that should provide my legs with an ample amount of recovery time.  I plan to run 2-3 times per week with each time being less than 5 miles.

I read that practicing sprinting can help improve speed performance in longer runs.  So Thursday night I went out to the Churchville-Chili High School track to practice sprints.  I didn’t really enjoy it but I’m glad I did it.

This morning Mary set out for a mid-length run.  She planned on running the 3.0 loop once or twice and maybe running the 2.0 mile loop once or twice.  The heat and sunshine proved to be difficult for her.  She set out at about 8:15 this morning.  At that time it was already 76 degrees in the shade and very sunny.  After less than 1 mile she had to walk as the sun and heat had already taken a toll.  She said that, oddly, her legs were tired today even though she hasn’t run in a couple of days.  After running the 3.0 mile loop and the 2.0 mile loop she returned home 58 minutes and 20 seconds after she began.  She ran about 5.2 miles overall because of the distance from our house to the beginning of the loop coures.

I didn’t post much this week because I had a lot of disappoinments.  On Monday night I tried to run at the gym but my knees hurt.  My knees have bothered me a little bit ever since the Corporate Challenge.  I decided to lay off them to make sure I didn’t seriously injure myself.

Mary measuerd a new loop course, which is similar to the 2.0 mile loop, to be 3.0 miles.  The 3 mile loop shares 1 mile of the 2.0 mile loop.  It’s extremely convenient that we have these two loops and that they are both whole mile distances.  The 3.0 mile loop circles our house and goes into town past Wendy’s and Kmart.  It’s got a few mild hills.  The Rowe Half has more hills that are steeper than the loops.
On Wednesday evening I ran from the gym, around our new loop course, and home.  That’s about 4 miles, though it might be just slightly longer than that.  My knee bothered me into the first mile and I almost gave up.  Instead I kept going (perhaps a stupid move).  I stopped after a short while to stretch and massage my knee.  This made the pain disappear for a while but it came back between the second and third mile.  When the pain came back I stopped, stretched, and massaged again.  This helped again but not for as long.  Eventually I just ran with the pain.  I tried to minimize the impact my feet were making with the ground.  I ran for fun and tried not to think about time.  I finished the 4+ miles in 38:04.

Shortly after arriving home from the run I noticed the onset of a migraine.  I looked at my watch to see how long I had run and couldn’t see the ’3′ in 38:04.  My plan was to run 20 miles on Saturday morning.  We even planned pasta for dinner on Thursday and Friday night in preparation for the very long run.  I knew it would be very difficult as 90 degree weather was predicted for the weekend.  On Thursday night my plan for a long run was destroyed.

At dinner on Thursday I got another migraine, this time in the other half of my head.  I spent the night at home.

On Friday night I had planned to rest for the very long run on Saturday.  I was starting to doubt that I could do it because I didn’t feel well.  The migraine’s really hit me hard this week.  I had very little energy even though I had lots of good sleep all week.  I just generally didn’t feel normal.  On Friday night I pretty much called off a long run on Saturday.

Saturday morning came and when I woke up my head hurt.  I decided not to even do a short run.  The migraines won.  Maybe it’s for the best.  Maybe I would have hurt my knees by pushing too hard.  Maybe I would have had other troubles because of the heat and sun.  Maybe on Tuesday night I’ll get in some very long miles.  Maybe not.  That’s OK though.

This weekend I sort-of planned on a short run but worried that I wouldn’t work up the motivation to go out and run it.  This afternoon I felt a bit tired and I really didn’t want to go out and run but I wondered what would be ahead of me if I did?  Would it be easy?  Would it be really hard?  How would my legs feel?  …And most importantly what sort of things would I see by the side of the road?

Well, I did work up the motivation to get out there.   At first the run wasn’t much fun.  After a while longer it still wasn’t much fun.  After a little more than 2 miles I considered taking a short-cut to back track and go home.  I figured that I’d be disappointed in myself if I took it so I ran by the shortcut and continued on my planned 4.4 mile run.

Since I ran our 2 mile loop course there wasn’t anything to see as it is in a very residential area.  No dead animals.  In fact it appeared as though a street sweeper went through the area.  The only notable thing that happened on the run tonight was that I saw another runner.  Of course I’ve seen other runners when I’ve been out but this is the first time they were going in the same direction as me.  I passed him and I said hello.  He said something like “show off.”    It was pretty funny but it doesn’t seem funny when you write it down.

My time tonight was 38:02 for about 4.4 miles.

Tonight I ran the St. Christopher’s 5K with Emily. It was windy and cool- about 60 degrees. The race began at 6:45. Emily and I decided to start running together and if we needed to we would split up so that we could get our best times. Once the race began, we had to weave around people for the first 1/4 mile or so. As we neared the mile marker, Emily took off ahead of me since I am not as quick. I was pushing hard to run fast and finished the first mile in 8:14…my fastest mile that I can remember. Emily was ahead of me and not long after the first mile, I lost sight of her. Read the rest of this entry »

The run started shortly after 6 PM. It was 80 in the shade without a cloud in site. I was sweating after the first half-mile. I was evening noticing my legs being tired after only a mile or so. My legs probably hadn’t recovered from Sunday nights run yet.

Though it was hot and my legs were tired it felt great to be running. I started at a nice slow pace which helped me keep my breathing very comfortable even through the heat and the sun. What surprised me was how quickly my legs were tiring.

There’s remarkably little shade along the Rowe Half. I was craving each tiny little patch of shade that I saw approaching. Half the time they didn’t offer much comfort because the shade never hit my face (due to the angle of the sun). Read the rest of this entry »

I had wanted to run all weekend but the weather and my lack of motivation kept me from doing so…until Sunday night.  The weather wasn’t bad and I finally got enough motivation to head outside for a short run.  I ran the loop twice for a distance of about 4.4 miles.  My time for the evening was 38:12 which is really quite fast for me.  I can’t say that I wasn’t trying for a good time but I wasn’t killing myself for speed either.  It felt good to get out there and run on the weekend.  I don’t often formally excercise on the weekend.