Christian Renaud's Blog

Hobble, hobble

Well, it's not that bad.

I finished up December strong with a 25% increase in overall distance (roughly 40 miles in November vs 50 miles in December) and shaved 36 seconds off my average mile pace.  The Christmas holiday was beautiful in Central Iowa, mid-50s temperature, and so I took advantage of my time off to clock  25 outdoor miles between December 23 and December 30th.

I also learned some personal lessons about myself and how to run, how to upshift and downshift my pace instead of sustaining one constant one (remember, I am a treadmill-trained-hamster), what hill-battles to pick, how to fuel for runs, what to wear, and how to run outdoors without ending up as a mountain lion's breakfast.

Unfortunately, I did learn on December 30th to not change back to my old New Balance shoes from my Nikes and then embark on a long run.  The NBs lean out (is that pronate or supinate?) whereas the Nikes lean in, so that by the 2.5 mile marker, I had bruised the outsides of my feet and was in some pretty heavy knee pain that required me to gimp back to the car and rest for two days.

This morning, I took it easy with 2.3 miles at a fast pace and then purposely laid off to give my knee more time to heal. 

My goal for January, despite it being 20 degrees and icy and snowy outside, is to run 60 miles including a large portion outside, and get down to an 11 minute average pace if not lower.  My wife has started running again, which is great motivation for us to do a couples-race this year (5k or 10k).  Also, some advice was awaiting me this AM in my inbox from the Madman with some excellent tips on outdoor training.  Thanks Madman!

Meanwhile, my team-in-training compadres have been eerily silent as to their holiday activities. What gives?!? :-)

Lost in the wilderness

Literally.  Lost in the wilderness.

I ran the first leg of the Dam to Dam race course this afternoon and have a few observations:

1) Running in the afternoon is entirely different than running in the morning.  My bloodsugar, endurance, performance walls, etc. were all over the place.

2) Outdoors is much better than treadmill running, even with the mud, roadkill and headwind.

3) Looking at a map of the course ahead of time was a good thing.

4) Not looking at a map of the trails that I planned to take back was a bad thing.  I blew my per-mile-pace from 11 min the first three miles to closer to 14 for most of the return route as I was literally picking my way through woods and game-trails trying to refind the path for 1.5 miles. 

5) At mile 5, I started to get the buzz that I could have run for another 5 miles without any pain.  I was within eyeshot of my car for the last two miles (it being on top of a dam, and me being in the valley on the other side of it assailing it from many sides until I could find a point to ascend), but wanted the run to go on longer.

6) Having a book or music that  you are engrossed in for the first few miles, until you get past your walls, really helps.  I didnt get the music/book combo right until mile 2.5 and the fumbling around the first while was distracting.

It was a good run overall, despite the nasty detour.  Longest run yet, and a good week total (20 miles). I'm going to run at least 9 more miles in the next week, which will put me over my prior month total of 40 miles.  Easily within reach provided I dont break my leg.  :-)

Training

Ok, to Del and the others who are going to join me in my knee-grinding quest to run a 5k/10k/20k/Marathon in 2007, here's where I am starting.  Post your own stats so we can normalize!

This one shows the month over month progress.  November was the good month, about 40 miles (10 mile weeks), and this month has been on target to get there as well.  I will need to pull out some stops to get to a 40 mile month, as I am currently lingering around 25 miles, but tomorrow is a weekend and should be a good day for some easy outdoor miles. 

 
This next graph is the week over week miles.  The dead spot in the last week is when I got the flu in San Jose and went down hard.  That's going to be tricky to make up and still hit my 40-mile-month goal for the month.

Ok Del, Bobby, and others, your turn!