:D

I've been sweating my tweaked right leg. It feels like shin splints, and I have a couple suspects. Regardless, the season's final Fleet Feet Sunset Run got rid of some of my worries, and I'm feeling more confident for next sunday's halfie in San Jose.

It's gonna be tough. Finishing at a reasonable pace is gonna be a struggle. But at least I feel confident that I'll be doing it sans-injury. The plan for this week is to chill out some, baby my leg a bit and make sure I go into the race feeling 100%. I think that's the best I can hope for, and then tough it out where I'm missing cardio.

Again, I hope to god it's a cool morning. If it's warm and sunny, it's gonna be a long, long race.

Having said all that, it's time to start thinking about the Las Vegas Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in December. The original plan was to build up a base working towards San Jose, then build off that and work on speed for Vegas. I hope to start with ~15 mile weeks and keep going from there. Hopefully by Vegas I'll have quite a few long runs under my belt, and everything will be trucking along smoothly.

I do believe my little barefooting thing exacerbated my leg issue, so I'm gonna hold off on any more of that for the time being. If I feel amazing in November, maybe I'll sneak a few more barefoot runs in. There are a few other culprits, but I believe the barefooting didn't help. I have to have more miles under my belt to be able to do that regularly.

If all goes well, I also plan on incorporating some strength training and other conditioning into the mix. Ski season is coming up, and I wanna have my quads, core and hammies ready to hit the slopes.

Good times.

Photo courtesy joysaphine on Flickr.

Getting Mentally Ready

Well kids, the San Jose Rock N Roll Half Marathon is in 12 days.

Am I ready?

I'm not entirely sure. Running was going great, but I have hit a few snags along the way. This last week has been an utter trip. Running and I have not gotten along the last several days. I have some theories as to why, and I can right them, but I can't take many more bad runs like the one on Monday. A day like that in San Jose will lock out any chance I have of finishing the half marathon with my head held high.

So, I'm a bit nervous.

I have had life interfere with some of my runs, and haven't lost an ounce of weight (like I planned), but hopefully I can pull it all together in these last days and get my #$@% together.

One other thing: if it's hot again in San Jose like it was last year, I'm done. I'm toast. I can rehydrate and drink as I go, but ultimately I don't think I can hang in warm, sunny, windless weather.

It's Time to Play: Sick? Or Sore?

Sunday's 9 miler was awesome and I was a raving ball of happy endorphins all day, but when Monday rolled around I felt a little beat up. I hadn't run 9 miles in quite some time, and the various aches were subtle enough—and in odd enough places—that I actually felt a little flu-like.

Soreness in the quads or calves would be no surprise. But I had trouble the whole run keeping my chest and shoulders relaxed, which meant some stiffness the next day. Really, I kinda felt just a touch beat-up all over. I went to sleep (incredibly) early last night, ready to shake it off.

This morning I still felt a tiny bit achey, but was ready to hit Crissy Field for another 5 miles.

Kids, I pretty much went all-out on this monkey. Like a 4-out-of-5. I ran to What Are You Made Of?!? and part of How To Turn Around A Bad Day—both at 175BPM—and absolutely kicked ass. That's the fastest I've ever done 5 miles. Ever. I really didn't think I'd be able to bring it in under 50 minutes, but I done did it.

Again, I'm awash in endorphins and feelin' fine.

Thinking...

First off, I *have* been running; just because there's been no posts doesn't mean there's been no runs. (My high school English teachers are all cringing at that last sentence.)

I've been faithfully logging the miles at dailymile.com—even the ones that I didn't use my Nike+ for, like the Milan trip.

The question has become: what is the purpose of this blog?
From a workout perspective, I have tracking, social interaction & challenges with Nike+. I also have some of the same functionality with dailymile.com, which is somewhat redundant, but also complimentary. Twitter is the absolute BOMB for moment-to-moment, real-time interaction—its ephemeral nature simultaneously one of its best qualities as well as its biggest downfalls. I usually save my more researched posts for the Hella Sound blog, which leaves Slow Mofo for more informal, stream-of-conscious banter/fodder.

If I were a really good writer and had interesting things to share (like her or him or her or him or her or her or her or him) there wouldn't be a question about the purpose of this blog. But frankly, I don't think I deliver the goods as consistently—or with the authority—that those folks do.

I'm not sure what y'all get out of reading this blog, or what I may offer that's different; I can only speak from my side. What I get our of this blog is a sense of connection with you guys. Every blog has a sort of community, and while this one is more like a few folks sitting around a campfire (and less like a 1,000-person conference), it's still something that I feel is incredibly valuable. I don't feel like I get that same thing at the various social sites (dailymile.com, Nike+, or even Facebook).

I love doing post-race wrap-ups. I get a big kick out of that. But I think I'm going to abstain from doing the day-to-day run logging here and keep them in the sites I mentioned above. Hopefully I'll discover a wonderful, exciting purpose for Slow Mofo and rededicate my efforts. But until I do, don't think I've abandoned this monkey; I'm just rethinking.