A new year

Christmas and New Years have come and gone, the tree is down and I have to go back to work tomorrow. I was able to run a few times during my break from work. I've developed quite a pain in my right ankle which I need to monitor because I don't want to be seriously injured. I look forward to a year of running.

It has been hard to keep up with the blogging, but I have been quite regular with my running. My big boned friend Chris has set his sights on the Long Island 1/2 Marathon. The 1/2 is May 6th so it is far enough away to follow the training plan laid out by Hal Higdon etc. This is a 12 week plan with scheduled days for cross training and strength training.

I am wondering how I'm going to be able to fit the strength training in, but I am going to follow the training.

In the 2007 Runners world, there was a blurb on doubling the amount that you can run, so because my last long run was 60 minutes, I used that as my base. The next run in the plan is 72 minutes. I am a bit nervous about the time because I've never run continuously for 72 minutes.

I found an excel based training log that I had down loaded quite some time ago while cleaning up some files. I decided that I was trying to reinvent the wheel with the log I was keeping in excel so I decided to start using the one I found. This log was created by a member of the Dead Runners Society, a list serv group that started, I don't remember when, but now there are 1700+ people (plus one more--of course I joined). This log is great, I can put in my goals and plans and measure actual to planned...it's great.

And then while listening to fdip, I heard about a web based route mapper so I "googled" it and what do you know, at the US Track and Field website, there is a searchable data base of running routes which one is able to contribute to. All one has to do is click through a google map of the route and the distance is computed along with the elevation etc.

Fast forward to today, it is the long run day. 72 minutes, can I do it? Well I did. 72 minutes - 6.62 miles according to the route mapper. ( http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=98061 ) I felt great most of the way. My right ankle started bothering me at about mile 4.

Next week I'm shooting for 86 minutes...can I do it? Next week I'll update my stats from opening. I have lost weight, the clothes have become looser, the mood elevated and the resting HR has gone down.

Until the next time.