Author: J T. Ramsay

MARATHON TRAINING UPDATE: VACATION EDITION

The last time I was in Corol­la, NC, I’d just been laid off. It sounds bad, but the tim­ing was per­fect. The imme­di­ate after­math was so grat­i­fy­ing. It was the start to the best vaca­tion I’ve ever had. Seriously.

This time things are a lit­tle dif­fer­ent. After a fran­tic week spent cov­er­ing the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion from the com­fort of my couch, I’m try­ing to unwind a bit and soak up some sun and surf. I think it’s working.

Unlike our last trip down here, I’m keep­ing up with my train­ing. It’s been a test. My first run in the swel­ter­ing North Car­oli­na heat was a bru­tal sev­en miles along the side of the road. It was a lit­tle scary, but I man­aged to fin­ish in a lit­tle more than an hour. It’s got­ten bet­ter over the week.

The biggest prob­lem I’ve been fac­ing is the ongo­ing bat­tle with my calves and shin splints. I had the same issue dur­ing the fit club train­ing. I keep tying my shoes too tight and it restricts my range of motion, lead­ing to a great deal of stiff­ness and pain. Worse, it pre­vents me from run­ning nat­u­ral­ly and my gait is real­ly messed up. Now that I’ve sort­ed it out, I hope I’ll be able to start run­ning more com­fort­ably before the Philadel­phia Dis­tance Run on Sep­tem­ber 21!

Posted on by J T. Ramsay

A QUICK PROGRAMMING NOTE

I’m writ­ing about pol­i­tics again for the first time in for­ev­er here. I’m cov­er­ing the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion and so far it’s been a lot of fun. When you’re not teth­ered to any par­tic­u­lar pol­i­tics, events like this can only be viewed as a laugh riot. In short, my view of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty remains unchanged.

Where are peo­ple fol­low­ing con­ven­tion cov­er­age? I’ve been out of the loop on good polit­i­cal blogs for quite some time, but I’m cau­tious­ly dip­ping my toe in the pool. Hit me with your rec­om­men­da­tions in the comments!

Posted on by J T. Ramsay

MARATHON TRAINING UPDATE

Rob and I fin­ished our fifth week of train­ing strong last night, run­ning for more than 40 miles and record­ing per­son­al best dis­tances just six days apart (13 miles last Sun­day, 14 miles Sat­ur­day morn­ing.) The 14 mil­er was a great run that took just over two hours to com­plete. We start­ed on Poplar behind East­ern State Pen­i­ten­tiary, ran Kel­ly Dri­ve past the Falls Bridge, final­ly mak­ing a right into Wis­sahick­on Creek Park. We turned around just as we reached the first mile­mark­er on the For­bid­den Dri­ve trail and then ran back to Fairmount.

How am I doing? My right ankle’s tak­ing it bad­ly and I’m treat­ing the sore­ness, bruis­ing and swelling with a reg­u­lar icing reg­i­men. Stretch­ing has become a reg­u­lar part of my rou­tine as well, both before and after run­ning. I think that I still need to find a way to lose anoth­er 20 pounds if my legs are going to hold up to this abuse. I’ve been stuck at 190 for what feels like for­ev­er now, even as I’m going on longer runs. That 14 mile run burned over 2000 calo­ries! I want to see results!

I’m look­ing for­ward to Week 6 of train­ing. It’s a step-back week, which means short­er runs and a chance for my body to recov­er a bit. It’s a fun­ny thing to say, but I breathe a sigh of relief when the longest run of the week is 10 miles.

Posted on by J T. Ramsay