Lots of work ahead

It's become pretty obvious during my last few runs how much my endurance has suffered in the time I've been off. My heart rate and breathing has labored a bit more than I'm used to, even after just a three mile run. I find it kind of interesting how the body can change over time. When it's not taken to its limit on an almost daily basis, it starts to deteriorate. Well, deteriorate is kind of a harsh word, but you get my drift.

It's to be expected I guess. I haven't had any big runs since January, and a crazy schedule has my usual training days scattered all to heck. I've been down this road before, and my body will remember what to do. I just have to get back on track.

The really good news is, my injury has not shown itself in quite some time now, which is a big relief. It will help me to concentrate on the road ahead, literally. I've said it a bunch of times before, I can't wait to start hitting those big miles.

For now, it's small runs all the way through. By this weekend, I hope to be back to five miles, and then in the double digits come the middle of May.

I can't wait.

Life gets in the way

Wow. What a busy, busy month so far.

I've been working on a rather large project at work, restructuring my company's entire IT infrastructure at all of our locations. The thirteen to sixteen hour days were getting old- two in a row, at times. My eating schedule was all out of whack- if I ate at all! It's not over yet, lots of work still to do.

The workouts, of course, have suffered. I suppose it's good I haven't been running to completely heal up my injury. I haven't felt any pain in there for quite a while now. I guess a good, solid run of plus five miles will settle it. I haven't run anything longer than that since January, I think. I can't wait to hit miles over ten, that's when I'm the happiest out on the roads.

Goodness, what else is going on...

Well, I gave up on my Project365 towards the middle of March, I think. I had hit a couple of days where I was just working, working, working, and the last thing I wanted to do was shoot pictures and upload them. Kinda funny since I have access to a camera 24 hours a day. Oh well, there's always next year. I'm still enjoying everyone's Project365, and I'll still be uploading pictures, of course!

I'm currently writing blog posts for the Lake County Convention & Visitors Bureau website, and will be writing software & hardware reviews for a couple of mobile tech websites, which I'll reveal at a later time. I just love to do that kind of stuff.

Well, that's it for now. I suppose with all that writing going on, I can't forget about this blog, either!

iPad Goodness

iPad Goodness
Originally uploaded by automatic_man2

Checking out some iPad goodness.  It's pretty much exactly like a giant iPod Touch (a rather heavy one at that), which I already have.

Still, I don't feel like I need or want one.

Yet.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!
Originally uploaded by automatic_man2

The result of a 60+ count easter egg hunt.

-- Sent from my Palm Pre

Road to recovery

It's been a long road to recovery.

Here I am, almost seven weeks after experiencing pain in the hip flexor muscle on my left leg, and am feeling much better. I had had enough, and ended up taking a two week break from doing anything to aggravate it. I did quite a bit of upper body work, which was good and all, but you can only do so much until you get the urge to run, run, run.

Patience.

I gave myself until this past Monday to give in and get medical attention, or go for a run to gauge how much pain I'd be in and go from there. Three miles later, I was all smiles with zero pain, and just a little bit of stiffness. Rest on Tuesday, still no pain.

Four miles on Wednesday, and another two miles this Friday, and still no pain.

Granted, I've been doing sets of a 3x2 minute run/walk combo. Friday, I brought it up to 4x1 run/walk. I'll be doing this for another week after this weekend.

Getting injured during winter training seems to be the norm the past three years. What else am I going to do? I have to run on treadmills. I suppose I just have to take it easy, or work on a different cross-training routine.

So, things are looking up. Sadly, I will be missing the Rockford Marathon yet again, and instead turning my focus to the Madison to Chicago 200 Mile Relay in June.

The weather is turning awesome, and I'm ready to hit up some races.