Ran/walked the 1.5 miles along the Jordan River

In late afternoon, I ran and walked the new north-segment of the Jordan River Parkway. I ran about half of the distance, alternating running and walking segments. The temperature was in the mid 70s (F), and the sky was sunny with a few clouds. A beautiful day. My legs felt stronger today than they have in the past.

I have but one regret about not running in New England

In my previous post I said that I was visiting in New England (Massachusetts and Connecticut) but that I wasn't doing any running due to schedule conflicts. I do have one regret about not running: the low elevation. The altitude at the places I was staying was sea level to a few hundred feet, compared to 4400 feet here. That difference in altitude makes a big difference in how I feel as I run. During my 17 years in New England, I made a few trips west to visit family, and I could tell the difference in how I felt as I ran. After I moved to Utah in December 1993, it took me about a year to feel comfortable with the higher altitude. In fact, during the first few months in Utah, I would have bouts of being dizzy -- I wouldn't be able to feel the sidewalk as I walked, any I thus lost my sense of balance and felt like I would fall down. I've always had low blood pressure, and I would feel dizzy as a child if I stood up quickly. Because of this, I assumed the bouts of dizziness were due to my low blood pressure, and I didn't worry about them. After a few months, the dizziness went away.

Visiting New England

I've been in New England since May 15. Last weekend my son graduated with a Masters of Science in Computer Science from Boston University (I got my MS in Computer Information Systems from BU in 1985). Yesterday and today my daughter received her Ph.D in Music History from Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. I fly back to Utah tomorrow.

During the week between the BU and Yale graduations, we visited old friends from our 17-year stay in Massachusetts from 1976 to 1993. We also did some sightseeing on the Cape of things my daughter and her family hadn't seen. My daughter was one-year old when we moved from Phoenix to Massachusetts, and she grew up in New England and attended Yale for her BA and the course work for her Ph.D. I had hoped to do some running while here, but our schedule didn't allow time for me to run. I did do a lot of walking, lots of walking.

Walked/ran 1.5 miles along the Jordan River

This was my first run since returning to Utah from Oregon. I did the 1.5 miles again but was tired the whole way. Last week I averaged about 4 hours sleep. Sunday night I got a good 7 hours, but last night was back to 4 hours. Insufficient sleep really drains my energy. I have a hectic schedule right now, but I hope it will improve during the coming month. I'm off to take a nap before my 7 pm meeting tonight.

Another great run -- 3 miles

I did my last run in Oregon this morning. I ran/walked 3 miles along the same route I've used while here in Redmond. When going downhill, I ran about 0.1 miles before walking 200 - 300 feet. I walked when going up hill, because I'm not ready for hills. Compared to running along the Jordan River Parkway in Utah, I'm going twice as far and running about twice as far before walking. That, coupled with the fact that the Parkway is flat while Redmond is hilly (25-50 foot elevation change in the hills) means I've made good improvement while here. The elevation in Redmond is about 3100 feet while the elevation on the Parkway is about 4400 feet, and the lower elevation has helped, too.

The weather during my workout was cloudy, cold, and a slight mist falling. The temperature was probably in the mid to high 40s (F). I felt warm while running, but slightly cold while walking, and my bare arms got pretty cold while walking.

Aborted a hike up a 1000 foot high hill

While I was running/walking along the road, I decided to change plans and hike up a really big hill to get a great panoramic view of the Cascade Mountains to the west. However, after walking about a quarter mile on a dirt road and going 60 feet higher in elevation, I aborted the hike. I could tell my legs weren't ready for a 1000 foot peak. In addition, if anything happened to me, people wouldn't think of me being on that dirt road, since my wife expected me to be running the paved road. It would have been a nice view, though....

Later: It has been cloudy all day with rain showers here and there. I'm not sure the Cascades would have been visible from the peak.

My legs are still swelling

I measured my legs yesterday and this morning, and they did swell after Saturday's workout. In dressing for my run/walk this morning, I put on an extra layer of compression socks to give more control of the swelling. As long as the swelling doesn't cause my circumference measurements to increase more than 1 cm, I'm not worried about it.

My legs are swelling after my runs

After both my Thursday and Saturday runs, I discovered that my legs were swelling, about 1 cm in the circumference around my legs and ankles. I first noticed this the evening after my run when I discovered my compression socks were fitting tighter than normal. I confirmed the swelling the next morning when I measured my legs at three points per leg. I reduced my run on Saturday to see if it would reduce the swelling, and it did. My socks were still tight last night, but not as much as Thursday evening.

I don't know if this swelling is normal after a heavy run, or if it is due to my blood clots. 1 cm increase in the circumference isn't a big amount of swelling.

A nice 3.4 mile run

I ran 3.4 miles and followed the path I used on Thursday, but  because I didn't get lost, I was able to go further before I turned around. On the way out (1.7 miles) I did a lot of jogging and probably ran about half the distance. On the way back, however, I did less running, because I had to go up some bigger hills, and I walked up.

The sun was shinning, and the temperature was in the high 50s (F). A great day to enjoy the beautiful Oregon country.