Long Run Sunday

I've been totally slacking on the stretching lately. To my surprise, I don't feel it in my quads and hams so much as in my calves. They've been cramping up a little, on occasion. It could maybe also be due to the altered stride. But I need to get back to stretching anyway.

Since I'm not planning on a half marathon any time soon, I've let my long run mileage drop off. I haven't done more than seven miles since the race. So I shouldn't just go out and do, say, 12 miles on the weekend. But silly me did just that. I set out to do 9 miles, actually, but I was running along the Mississippi River and there are several bridges and you can do loops of 3, 6, 9, or 12 miles, depending on which bridges you take. Bad idea. 12 miles is my longest distance yet. I did it in 2 hours and 15 minutes. To my surprise I was still on the fast end of my "long easy" pace. So my legs are a little sore today and I skipped bike riding. I'm hoping my short recovery run tomorrow will help with the soreness, like it did after the TC10. That part doesn't worry me so much as the crampiness in my left calf. That was the main reason I skipped biking today. To give that a rest.

Update on runcasts in general: I really like Run Cast Weekly. Interesting topics. Pheddipidations is not doing it for me. The recording while running drives me nuts. Seriously. Plus the guy's narrative style is like so many science nerds I know (he's a meteorologist): excessive overusage of adjectives. And his theme song is I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow which I also cannot stand. Sometimes he addresses some good topics, but I can't be bothered to wade through all the filler. I want to like iRun, too, but it's another recording while running thing and while there's less of the heavy bass of wind blowing and feet hitting the ground, there's plenty of heavy breathing. Note to self: do not ever record anything while running.

In another episode, RCW talked about the Jeff Galloway method of incorporating regular walking breaks into all your distance runs. He said he was surprised by his faster time. By regular I mean walking 15 seconds for every 5 minutes you run. Or a little more, or a little less depending on how advanced you are. I'm not on a mileage schedule at the moment, just on a time/maintenance schedule. I think maybe when I get back on a set mileage program I'll try it and see. I can tell my times have been improving, so I'll see if the walking can bump me up a little more, strange as that may sound.

I've lost interest in the Frozen Half in February. Seriously, it just sounds torturous. That's the coldest week of the year here. So I have nothing concrete on my schedule, but I might be interested in a spring marathon.

Now that it's getting cooler and I have some cool weather gear to wear, I'll be consulting Dress the Runner to give me an idea of just how cold it needs to be before I start to bundle up. It was between 45 and 55 and sunny most days this week. It took me about a mile to warm up each time, but after that I was fine in a short-sleeved shirt and shorts. Except my hands were still cold, so some gloves might be in my future. So far it seems like I don't really need sleeves until it gets down below 45, unless it's overcast or damp. It was 40 and overcast on Saturday and I wore my tights for the first time (!) with a long-sleeved shirt and that was just right.