This week was the craziest running week I have had in a long time. My running weeks are Monday Through Sunday. I have done it this way for a long time, so Sundays are my last and longrun day, since most marathons are on Sundays. I also use a three week schedule that has an easier week every third week to help with injury prevention and serves as a recovery week.
Last Saturday was the North Shore trail run that I wrote about and punished my quads severely. Sunday was a 17 miler, done mostly on Asphalt and some concrete. I was slightly sore, but this being my step back week, not concerned.
On Monday, I showed up for my weekly Rec-league basketball game hoping to sit on the bench some and to play a little easier. When I arrived, we only had 5 guys and were missing our big guy, which meant I had to battle the monsters in the paint. Luckily, our big guy showed up about mid-point of the first half. So I switched to power forward on defense and some type of rebounding guard hybrid on offense. Now we only had one sub, but I couldn’t seem to find a chance to get myself out for a rest. So I tried to let some of our fast breaks go without me trailing, which I usually do to hunt offensive rebounds. Skipping out of a half dozen sprints didn’t really give me the rest I was hoping and I was very tired and super sore after that game.
Tuesday, I decided it would be wisest to take as my rest day. Normally Friday is my rest day, but this week, I felt I should listen to my body and rest now, cross train if I had to later. I needed to rest my quads, hips, and was having a soreness in the knees for the first time in years.
Wednesday, at work, a couple of guys wanted one guy to challenge me to a race. I agreed to do it, even though a fifty yard dash has nothing to do with anything I train for. I got completely blown away. I admitted defeat and was actually happy, because for the first time, the other guys at work seemed interested in running. We discussed different distances and where conditioning overtook any natural speed. With a defeat in my pocket, I went home and did an easy 4 miler on mostly grass. It was rainy and cool, perfect running conditions. Other than being terrified of a moron losing control of a car, I love the rain.
On Thursday, my fellow runacrosskansas participant danrdanny, signed up for the Patriots run. It started at noon and people run till 9:11 PM in rememberance of the 911 attacks. He had to drop out with a sore foot that has been nagging for a few weeks, but it inspired me to do something special. I did a 9.11 mile run, but I took plastic bags with me and would pick up litter as I went. Some areas I had to walk there was so much, but I wanted to do something that was both good for me and helped the neighborhood in some small way. So I did 9.11 miles in the rain, picking up trash, and I actually enjoyed it very much.
On a side note: I want to tip my hat to both presidential nominees for pulling negative ads against each other and even appearing together on this day. We all need to remember that both idealogies want whats best for the country, but have different ideas of what to do. Thanks guys, for showing strong charecter. Any of us who can’t put one day of country first and leave the attacking behind probably don’t deserve to vote.
Today is Friday and have 9 on the schedule, and 12 for Saturday. But because of the nagging knee issue, I am going to ride my excercise bike in the house for an hour and a half at a quick clip instead. I have been toying with the idea of making every third week alot more cross training and less running. I will see how I like it. I would prefer to be out on the mountainbike trails, but we have had so much rain I would only be tearing up trails. So indoors it is.
