I survived my 4.5 mile tempo run yesterday without any major mishap. I really didn't feel like running just before the run, so I was still thinking about skipping it, but I went anyway. It wasn't too bad: in fact I felt quite a bit stronger than yesterday, and I did complete my time goals.

I got a ride from my wife today so I didn't have to ride my bike to work. I decided, for a change, that I would rest on rest day.

I had a terrible run yesterday. Wednesday will supposedly be my sort-a-long run, but as of now, it is just 3.5 miles. But yesterday... I was tired by the time I finished warming up. Perhaps I should have just skipped this run, but when the image of my running log appeared to me, showing a decrease in mileage from last week, I just had to go. I had wandering pains here and there, I was sluggish and slow (I couldn't even do 9 minute miles on average), but I decided not to speed up, because the situation resembled too much of a background story of a terrible injury. Besides, the effort level of this run was about the same as my 8:30-or-so long run a few days ago.

Today I'm supposed to do a tempo run with 1 mile at 9:00mm, 2.5 at 7:30 and 1 mile at 9:00. I am terrified in advance, as it seems so much harder than yesterday, and I'm not sure why I should feel better. After all, I only have 24 hours to recover. I am looking forward my rest day tomorrow. (And let me not think about the 6 miles on Saturday.)

I had been very curious to find out what had been the longest run of my life. So I to mapmyrun.com, and put in my longest training routes that I used to do back in Hungary in high school. I had to realize that the longest run, which I used to think was 8 kilometers (5 miles) was actually only about 7.3 kilometers. Therefore now I can officially claim that I broke my record of longest run last Saturday by running 5 miles. It was comfortable pace and it took me 43:52. I also had my most weekly miles last week with 18.1 miles. I feel great, no pains, injury free. I think I'm on the right track.

I missed the early registration deadline for the 5K in Columbia (March for Meals). (Whoever decided that it would be on February 15?) This helped me to decide not to run that race. I also should have mixed up my training schedule quite a bit, because I have long runs on Saturdays. I can't do a race instead of a long run, so probably I should have put my long run to the middle of that week, and do the race in place of my tempo run. Anyway, it's done now, I'm not running the race. However, I will run the Greenway Challenge 10K on April 4, in Black Mountain, North Carolina. I will just have to remember to register by March 18. I haven't run 10 kilometers ever in my life before, so I will wait with the (early) registration until the last moment. Who knows what might happen.

I swear, I ran easily, slowly; I followed a 9-minute-par-mile pace last night, and still, at about 2 miles into the 3.5 mile run, I was attacked by the evil side stitches. I used to make theories about why they appear. I run too fast. My breathing pattern is irregular. I eat/drink too much before I run. Nothing seems to matter. These nasty side stitches come to me completely unpredictably. Then, if they are not too bad, I can run through the pain, and they go away after a half of a mile, or so. Last night I tried to run faster to get rid of them (after all, I had been slow, so I though I would just change something), but it didn't affect the pain at all. It didn't help, but it didn't make it worse either. But sure enough, after another 1/2 mile, I was OK.

The weather has been really nice lately, so now it's more fun to run outside. Especially last night; I ran between two light showers, and I love the smell of the air between periods of rain.

I feel like I'm not improving at all. My VO2 max is like an untrained person's, according to some calculators on the web, and the lower end of the spectrum. I've run for two months now, and this is quite disappointing. Maybe I should be more patient...

Also, I can't wait to break 5 miles. I will just set this record on this weekend, and I have to wait another week to really break it. Then I will have run the longest distance ever in my life.

I'm back to regular training now. Yesterday I ran 4x400 intervals with 1:40-1:45 goal time, because I read that of you want to increase your VO2 max, it is not a good idea to run above your max. In fact Hal Higdon says to run your sprints at your 5K pace when you prepare for a 10K. I decided I won't take it THAT easy. Anyway, it was much less unpleasant this way. I almost sort of enjoyed it.

What I really enjoy are my long runs. I can't wait to run 5 miles (the weekend after the next): that is the longest distance I've ever run in my life, and I did it (somewhat regularly) about 17 years ago. Then, the week after that, I will run 6 miles, which will be a record for me, and hardly shorter than 10K. By the end of March, I'll be running 8 miles. Then a short recovery after my 10K race, and I can start to prepare for the marathon.

BTW, I almost surely will skip the Cooper River Bridge run. I found a race just a bit farther in North Carolina, which supposed to be small and beautiful. And it starts in the afternoon, so I wouldn't have to get up at the crack of the dawn or sleep in hotel.

Let me start with the summary of Saturday: I ran a new personal record: 22:03. It was a very nice, satisfactory race, and if there is one thing that I regret is that I probably could have done better, if I pace myself better. Even though I perfectly understand the theory of negative splits and the dangers of going out too fast, the excitement of the race on Saturday carried me away, and I ran too fast at the beginning.

I felt strong, my warm-up was close to perfect, and I tried to set my effort level to "moderately hard" at the beginning: this is what I had figured would work during my training. Then I looked at my watch at the first mile marker, and I was terrified to realize that I ran the first mile at 6:45. That point I knew I was too fast, but it just didn't feel right to slow down, and I still felt quite great. At around 1.5 mile the all-too-familiar side stitches started to hit me. I'm quite sure they were signaling that my tempo was too fast. Then I did slow down a bit before they would become debilitating, and I tried to run through the pain. I missed the second mile marker, so I'm not sure what my speed was then, but there was a water station supposedly at mile 2, which I passed at about 14 minutes into the race. I saw several people passing me. I was still content, and I knew I couldn't run faster, or otherwise I would burst by the end. I may have been a little too conservative, not quite realizing how close the finish was.

Then I turned onto the final straight, and I looked up to the finish line clock that showed 21:20 or something at that point. It gave me some new energy and I tried to get in before it hit 22 minutes, but it was still quite far. I just saw the clock turning 22:00 before I got in; I thought my time was 22:01 or 22:02, but the official timing returned with 22:03.

If I didn't go out too fast, I could have done less then 22:00. One day, I may be able to run a sub-20 5K. For now, it isn't my goal: I did run the 5K withing 24 minutes, which projects to a sub-4-hour marathon, and this is all I care about. Next goal is 10K in 50 minutes in 8 weeks. My current time projects to about 46 minutes on 10K, so the 50 minutes should definitely be doable.

I'm not sure if I want to do the Cooper River Bridge race in Charleston in 8 weeks. It's a huge race with too many people, and it isn't ideal to travel more than 100 miles (one direction) for a race. I may just opt for measuring the time and distance for myself this time in Columbia.

One of the taboo question you are not allowed to ask a PhD student is "How is your research going?". I guess something similar may be true for runners too. How is my running? Absolutely terrible. I have a 5K race on Saturday and yesterday was my last day of training. Maybe it was the 28 F temperature or the fact that I flew across America twice on Monday and Tuesday, but it was very disappointing. I had to skip some important runs because of travel just before the race, so I decided to do a last race pace on two miles yesterday. In fact, I decided I would run 2 miles as fast as I could. I am ashamed to write it down that my time was 15:36. I probably started out too fast, thinking it was only two miles, and I had the most terrible side stitches after about 3/4 mile, which debilitated my run for about a half of a mile. I just couldn't run through the pain, I did have to slow down. In the last 3/4 mile I felt I was running at my VO2 max, but it just wasn't enough. If I project this time to 5K, I would not make it in 24:00.

I hope this was just a bad day. Rest for today, and tomorrow afternoon we are off to the beautiful Charleston/Folly Beach. Wish me luck!