Month: March 2017

Whining & a Good 5.0 – RunLog 3-31-17

Harold L. Shaw Aging, runlog, Running

After yesterday’s surprise day-off, mmmm I got lazy and decided that I didn’t want to run…so I didn’t. I think we all have days like that and sometimes, you just need a day off to re-charge the batteries. Although I did the same thing on Tuesday, so it might be a little more than that.

It is just a bad case of the winter blahs, I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired of…you guessed it – WINTER.

I am ready for it to fade away to a memory and not having to worry about battling ice, snow and frigid temps, just to get a run in. Whether it is actually running outside or going outside, so I can go run inside on the treadmill.

weather mapYeah, a bit of a whine, but I think what got me down the most was Saturday’s original forecast yesterday that announced another 6-12″ of heavy, wet, nasty stuff that is known locally as heart-attack snow. Continue reading →

Back to It – RunLog 3-29-17

Harold L. Shaw runlog, Running

After a couple of mornings where I wouldn’t run outside due to the road conditions – damned ice…

KIMG0370

and then deciding that yesterday afternoon that it was going to be a day off (just because I wanted to and I badly needed a haircut), I got back to running this morning.

With the crappy weather and stuff lately, Bennie hasn’t had too many runs either, so he was ready to run this morning. Well let’s put it this way he was ready to run when he was running and stopped when he stopped suddenly six times.

We ran down to the end of Pepin Road and back home plus an extra lap on top. Continue reading →

Feeling Better and a Good 8.0 – RunLog 8-26-17

Harold L. Shaw runlog, Running

Well the run yesterday didn’t kill and it seems like it helped to cure me. I woke up feeling a LOT better than yesterday morning. Just a slight headache that went away when I ate breakfast.

So I decided that I would do a long run this morning after I walked a couple of miles with Bennie.

KIMG0369
Walking up back with Bennie, a lot more visually appealing than the run into Augusta.

The temps were still pretty chilly in the 20’s and with the breeze out of the east/southeast – pretty much the direction I would be heading once I got off the Middle/Bog Road.

Oh well, it wasn’t all that bad. Continue reading →

Fighting A Bug – So I Ran – RunLog 3-25-17

Harold L. Shaw runlog, Running

Yeah, I know I am not the brightest bulb or sharpest tool in the shed on many days and yes, I also know the prevailing wisdom is that when you are feeling like shit, is that you rest and don’t go out and do something like running.

I know I ain’t normal and never want to be.

Let’s back up.

This morning I woke up with a pounding headache and really wasn’t into doing Bennie’s morning walk, but he has to walk, so we did our usual .8 and came back to eat breakfast. I felt tired and weak, even though I had slept pretty well, but it didn’t affect my appetite and I ate a good breakfast.

KIMG0359

Then it was time to either take Bennie for his second walk or take him for a run. The roads were still pretty nasty from last night’s snow/rain mixed precip mess, so even though I wasn’t feeling great we headed down-back. It was safer than walking on the iced up roads. Continue reading →

Wait A Minute-It’s Snowing – RunLog 3-24-17

Harold L. Shaw runlog

Okay it is spring in Maine, which means the weather will get “interesting” and if you wait a minute, the chances are that it will be doing something pretty different from it was the minute before. Well…that might be a small exaggeration, but on a daily basis you really can get some serious yo-yo weather, but you get the idea.

KIMG0356

The weather today started out overcast and made for that nice sunrise. By the time I got to work it was snowing, yeah snowing and was still snowing when I got home. No real accumulation, but it just kept coming down. Continue reading →

A Perfect January Day In March

Harold L. Shaw runlog

Yeah, if this was January it is/was a perfect day, bright sunshine, bitterly cold, with negative numbers for the wind chill and LOTS of snow still hanging around.

KIMG0354

Unfortunately, this is March 23rd, not January 23rd and the forecast for the next week really doesn’t look that awe inspiring by any stretch of the imagination. In the 20’s at night and 30’s during the day until late next week, when we might get into the 40’s again.

While Bennie and I were out walking this morning, we met one of the neighbors who was saying that the local weather guy said that if this weather forecasts hold true, this could be a top 5 coldest March on record. So I guess that I am not just whining about the weather this year for no reason.

Oh well, it is what it is, but damn I am tired of running in the cold, you know that single digits or below zero wind chill stuff or having to run on the treadmill to avoid it.

I ran twice yesterday, so today was a planned single run. Now, on Thursdays I prefer to run outside in the morning and then take the afternoon off, that way I get a long time off between my Thursday and Friday runs. However, with the chill winds this morning, I decided to skip the morning run, do a mile walk in the cold with Bennie and run on the treadmill at lunch today.

It was all in my head about not running this morning, that mental toughness thing that I don’t always have. Could I have run, sure…but I made the conscious choice not to. I just didn’t want to deal with single-digit wind chill today.

Treadmill Time

I needed this run, I had some work frustrations to get out of my system, but I was a good boy and set the treadmill at 7.0 mph and didn’t touch it again until I hit 4.0 miles. Although I could have easily have done a real screecher of a workout – I didn’t.

It was a nice easy run where I didn’t feel bad at any point. The hardest thing was not touching the damn increase the speed button ;-).

  • Distance: 4.0
  • Time: 34:01
  • Pace: 8:30
  • Average Heart rate: 137
  • Average Pace: 170

A nice run today and I did what I wanted – kept it easy, even though it would have been easy to hammer the treadmill today. I will be honest though, I will be glad when the weather gets to being able to run in shorts and t-shirt outside. 🙂

It will happen, but I have to be patient for a while longer – it seems.

Outside and then Inside – RunLog 3-22-17

Harold L. Shaw runlog, Running

I wasn’t too sure about running outside this morning. When Bennie and I went on our morning walk, there was a significant amount of black ice on the road, but at least we could see where it was. Then about 5 minutes into the walk, the winds came up and shortly after that a white squall roared through.

KIMG0348
Lots of black ice and then a white squall came through this morning. The winds came and made it single digit wind chills.

Normally, this ain’t a big deal, but combined with the black ice, which was now covered, well I waited a bit before we ran after breakfast. By the time we got out there things were melting a bit, plus the town crew had come through and put some sand down.

It just meant that I had to pay attention to where I was putting my feet and not push the pace too much while I was figuring out where the ice patches were on the first lap. Once I did that we did pick it up a little the rest of the way. Continue reading →

Shorts Day Outside – RunLog 3-21-17

Harold L. Shaw runlog, Running

After yesterday’s double (which I didn’t write about – just logged them in the spreadsheet), I knew that today would be a single-run day. I am really trying to not over do the running, especially when I am feeling “froggy”, err good. 😉

KIMG0347
Looking away from the back of the Augusta Civic Center towards UMA. Still a bit of snow. The white on the road are salt marks.

Tuesdays are my 8-4 day at work, so I wanted to do a quick 3.0 miles at lunch and see how I felt. When I walked outside, it was pretty overcast and very little wind, but the temps were in the mid 40’s, which equals shorts weather in my book. So I went over to the UMA gym to change-up and run outside. Continue reading →