I did it! I did it! I ran 1.5 miles

I've been waiting 14 months for this day. I ran my 1.5 mile route without stopping. Well, I did stop once on the way our for 15 seconds to look at the river to see if it was higher (I didn't need the rest and could have kept on running), and a second time at the turn around point; the path is too narrow to conveniently turn around without stopping. I stopped and walked 180 degrees (about 5 seconds) and then started running again, not stopping until I was finished.

Fourteen months ago, January 2009, I finished a 20 mile week with a 7-mile run on Saturday. On Monday I could only walk 100 feet. After 5 days in the hospital (blood clots) I was up to 400 feet in my walking. After I left the hospital, my wife and I walked every other day or so, and I got up to a mile and a half. At that point I started mixing in some running. I could tell during the late spring and summer that my body seemed stronger, but I couldn't run more that two or three hundred feet before I had to walk. I increased my mixture of walking and running to a distance of 4 miles. The amount of running compared to walking continued to increase, but I still had to stop and walk after running a bit.

When I left home this morning, I never dreamed I would make it the whole distance without walking. I am a firm believer in walking breaks in my longer runs but not in my shorter runs. In the past I wouldn't take walking breaks in runs up to five miles, but I would take them for runs longer than 5 miles. I expect that as I get older, I will take walking breaks in shorter runs.

My wakeup heart rate was 61, higher than I had expected (I have only been getting about 6-6 1/2 hours sleep each night during the past week). The temperature was 36 (F) when I left and 35 when I returned. Snow flurries were falling during my run. During the late morning we had heavy snow for half an hour, and I left for my run after the snow returned to just flurries.

The Jordan River looks to be two or three inches higher (5-7 cm) than it has been. It must have close to 10 times the water than it had during the winter. We haven't had our spring thaw yet, and when that happens a lot of water from the snow-melt in the mountains will come down into Utah Lake and the river. I won't be surprised if we have flooding in low places.

Ran 1 mile just before dark

Today was my first run since my surgery last week for a Basal Cell skin cancer. I went 1 mile, and almost all of it was running. I did several short walking breaks, but I was pleased that I ran most of the mile. My wakeup heart rate the past couple of days has been 57. We had rain this afternoon, and there was a cold 10 - 15 mph wind blowing from the north. The temperature was in the mid 40s (F) during my run. I felt pretty good during the run. I'm using this week to ease back into my running.

I'm finding out that as I get older, I have less tolerance for cold weather. I used to wear running shorts anytime the temperature was above freezing. Now, I wear long pants until the temperature gets into 40s and during the late fall, winter, and early spring into the 50s. I'm also running slower than I used to, and my body doesn't generate as much heat at that slow speed.

My surgery for skin cancer is over

My surgery for a skin cancer took two hours this morning. During most of that time I was waiting for the lab to inspect the layers that were removed (I read an entire issue of a Farm and Country magazine). Only two layers were removed. After the first layer was removed, they could see the roots of the cancer entwined around a nerve. The second layer removed the roots of the cancer and the nerve. The stitches used to close the incision will be absorbed by my body, and I don't have to do any maintenance to keep the incision clean. So far, I haven't felt any pain because of the local used during the surgery, but I may feel some pain in a few hours. The bad news is that I can't run for a week, but I can walk. No heavy lifting for a week, no running, nothing that would increase my blood pressure and thus the chances for bleeding.

A great 4-mile run/walk

My wake up heart rate was 57, and I felt great. I didn't go running, though, until late afternoon as the sun was setting. The temperature was about 47 (F) when I left home, and I finished the run before it was dark. I wore two layers, a regular technical T-shirt and my wind breaker, and my running shorts. I was actually sweating on my face when I finished the run.

During my first mile, I ran about 2/3 of the mile and walked 1/3. The great thing was that instead of doing less running during the second mile and even less during the third and even less during the fourth miles, I continued to run about 2/3 of each mile. That means I ran about 2 2/3 miles of the 4 miles. That is the most running I've done in one run during the past year. For breakfast I had two glasses of a fruit drink that my wife made. She had one glass. All together, the drink had an apple, a banana, fresh grapes, frozen blueberries, and orange juice. It tasted great. For lunch, about 2:30 pm, I had a slice of a Costco Pepperoni pizza and an ice cream bar with nuts. I knew I couldn't run on that much food, so I waited three hours and then went running. My stomach was fine during the run, and I felt good. The pizza had a lot of calories, but that was my main meal for the day. For supper I had a few nuts.

Surgery for a skin cancer tomorrow

Tomorrow at 11 am I will have surgery for a Basel Cell skin cancer on my forhead. The surgery is the Mhos surgery, in which the skin cancer is removed in layers and each layer is inspected under a microscope. Layers are taken until the inspection shows no trace of the cancer. Depending on how many layers are needed tomorrow, the surgery could last from 1-4 or more hours. Most of the time is waiting while the inspection is performed, and the surgery isn't very stressful. About four years ago, I had 10 skin cancers removed this way, over a six-month period.

I may not run for a few days, depending on how my energy level holds up.

Take a look at your running form

By way of information, I've added a page on running form to my training site. Improper form is one of the major causes of injury.

http://runninginjuryfree.org/2009/09/running-form.html