I haven’t been able to run for several days due to a bum knee.  I’m right now (as I type) icing it. 

I did get on the elliptical this evening for 40 minutes.  It bothered me some but not enough to make me want to stop. 

I worked out pretty good (on the upper body).  That was good.  As I kicked it on the elliptical I watched “el espinazo del diablo”, That’s “the devil’s backbone” for those that do not know spanish and crap.  It seems to be a pretty good movie.  I watched it on my iphone on netflix.  I tell ya, this is what I’ve been waiting for - to be able to stream movies from netflix as I exercise at the gym on cardio machines…Finally!  Now, what I have to figure out is how to run outdoors while streaming movies on netflix on my iphone. Now, that will be a challenge.

my weight training tonight:

Crunch: 3 sets
Alt crunch: 3 sets
Leg lifts: 3 sets
Scissors: 2 sets
Curls: 2x 65lb; 2x 75lb - 2 sets each
Military: 90lb x 3 sets
Rowing: 90lb x 3 sets
Bench press: 175lb x 2; 185 x 2 - 2 sets each

So, what’s next in my running regiment?  At this time I have to take it day by day.  My knee is swollen and achy.  I’m able to bend it more today than I was yesterday but its very painful.  I had to be very careful while using the elliptical.  If I shifted my weight too much to my right knee I would feel an acute ache just below my patella (on the inside of the right knee). 

I’m not quite sure how I injured my knee but I have a suspicion that it was the leg press sled machine I used last week.  Last week was the first time I’ve used that sled contraption in perhaps a year.  And then, running afterward aggravated it more, I think.  Who knows.  It hurts and that’s how it goes.

I hope I recuperate in time for the Savannah River Bridge Run 10k on Decembwer 4th or 5th (I forget which date it is).  And, I’m too lazy to look up the date.  Yeah, I’m a bum and so is my knee.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my whatever running blog.

Btw, I have become a really big fan of the show “the walking dead”.  What does that have to do with exercising?  I don’t know.  I just felt the strongest urge to state that.  So, there you have it.

Peace,

dh

11/16/2010

The places i run and the things I see where I run.

peace,

dh

11/06/2010

<the pic above is of my mapped run>

My run today was 13.33 miles through Thunderbolt.  I started my run from the alley behind my house and ran around the little park that my dog, Mr. Gypsy, calls his ‘personal toilet’ and then, up Bonaventure Road to Victory & beyond.

I ran over the Thunderbolt bridge into Isle of Armstrong where I ran to the shore of the Wilmington River.  I ran back over the Thunderbolt bridge and made my way to Bonaventure and Greenwich cemeteries where I ran the perimeter of each.  I got out of the cemeteries and back onto Bonaventure Road where I connected with one of the state streets that led me to the Dairy Farm. 

<the pic above is of a statue in Bonaventure cemetery>

I ran a mile through the Dairy Farm but I had to make an abrupt stop before exiting the dairy farm because a gargantuan boxer ran up to me, taking his time sniffing me.  I lost about 30 seconds in this tense moment not to mention that I almost crapped my shorts.  The owner of the dog had a tardy realization of what was happening between his dog and me but he then quickly called his dog and apologized repeatedly.  I couldn’t get mad -crap happens.  Any way, it was simply too beautiful of a day and up until that moment (except for those 30 seconds) I had enjoyed this longish, slow run immensely.  As I was leaving the Dairy Farm to finish up the last third of a mile to my house I saw an orange-winged butterfly wafting through the air on this chilly windy day.  It was strange but nice to see that butterfly.  Maybe, that was a sign.  A sign about what you ask?  I don’t know.  I guess I’m just trying to make something mystical about seeing this butterfly on a chilly day at the dairy farm after a ravenous gigantic boxer almost tore me to smithereens.  There you go.

<the pic above is my iphone wristband with mapped run>

I’ve called this run the “Thunderbolt Sampler” because I kind of covered the highlights of Thunderbolt: Bonaventure & Greenwich Cemeteries, the Dairy Farm, the picturesque winding Bonaventure Road, Thunderbolt Bridge, Isle of Armstrong, Wilmington Bridge, a heavily congested Victory Drive.  Oh, and my house which was built in 1913 and, I have hard-wood cypress floors.  There you have it.

<the picture above is a dead oak at the dairy farm that I circled before heading back out>

Wildlife Inventory:

• 37 seagulls
• 4 mocking birds
• 2 sparrows
• 3 great egrets
• 1 huge flock of grackles
• 13 crows
• 7 city pigeons
• 1 dove
• 1 orange winged butterfly
• 1 grey squirrel
• 1 ferocious boxer
• 1 vulture

So, my distance was 13.33 miles in 1:45:58.  My nipples were slightly chaffed.  That is not a pleasant experience and, not to mention, probably more information than you wanted to know.

• my mapped run

So, where to from here?  How about a shower cuz I smell like butt.

Thanks for taking the time to read my running blog.

All the best to you and yours.

peace,

dh

11/06/2010

I have also listed marathons and half-marathons that are within 2 to 4 hour drives from Savannah.

Please let me know if I’ve missed any races.

Thanks.

peace,

dh

The rails to trails this evening…

Cemetery Running

I ran 9.66 miles yesterday from my house to Bonaventure and Greenwich cemeteries.  The cemeteries are approximately 3/4’s of a mile from my home. 

I felt a bit stiff through-out the run but it wasn’t enough of a problem to make the run anything less than pleasant.  The sky was deep blue without a cloud any where in sight, the temperature was 74 and the humidity was a very agreeable 29%.  Maybe, 29% is a bit too dry for some people but down here in the South (Savannah, Ga) where I live that low of humidity is like a special gift.  It is so rare to have such low humidity here. 

The pictures above are of my mapped run through the cemeteries and of my iphone armband (which I prefer on my wrist) with my faithful buddy, Mr. Gypsy.  Notice the bricked pathway that Gypsy and I are standing on?  I laid out that brick pathway along the side of my house this past week.  The bricks that line the outsides of the pathway are Savannah Greys that date back to the 1800s.  The inner bricks are a mish-mash of old, new and used bricks.  Its really cool that some of these bricks originated in England and were brought across the Atlantic in ships where they were used as ballast weight in the boats.  Once the ships docked in Savannah they were discarded.  Cool history.

Any way, although, I felt stiff & clunky during my run I still enjoyed it because of the beautiful day we had yesterday and the beautiful and peaceful cemeteries I was running in.

If you’re a runner in the Savannah area you really should experience a run through Bonaventure and Greenwich cemeteries (if you haven’t already).  Its quite gorgeous.

Wildlife Inventory:

• 2 dragon flies
• 3 mocking birds
• 11 squirrels
• 13 butterflies: yellows, orange & brown winged butterflies
• 4 doves
• 1 very pretty blue bird (I don’t know what its called)
• millions of sparrows
• 5 crows
• 1 vulture
• about a dozen yellowish/green finch-like birds

As for the iphone armband that I use, as I stated above, I prefer to have it strapped around my wrist rather than my upper arm.  It feels uncomfortable on my upper arm.  During long runs the plastic edges of the armband will begin rubbing my skin raw which can be a bit unpleasant.  Also, with the armband on the upper arm, the headphone cable tends to get wrapped around the actual armband and then pulls the headphones out of my ears which is something that really irks me and has me cussing up a storm as I re-insert the headphones on my ears and untangle the cable from around the armband.

Having the armband around my wrist eliminates that irksome problem.  And, I can also keep a tab on what my distance covered is at any time by just looking down at the run as its getting mapped.

When I strap the armband to my wrist, I run the headphone cables through my shirt (from neck to left arm sleeve) and down my left arm. 

There you have it.

Ok, gotta run.  Not really but I have to go and do stuff.

Thanks for taking the time to read my running blog.

All the best to you and yours.

peace,

dh

Pleasant Sunday Run

I had a warm and pleasant 7.31 mile run this afternoon at the rails to trails.  The temperature was 83 with humidity at 47%.

I ran the eastern section of the rtt including the new section of the trail which is approximately 0.7 mile distance.

My run was a bit clunky for the first mile.  Soon after I began to feel my groove and picked up the pace some.  At the end of the new section of the trail I decided to jump to highway 80 and run back to my car that way rather than to go back the rtt way.  I don’t know why I did that but it seemed like a good idea at the time.  There was way too much traffic on highway 80.  So, it was a bad idea to run on the highway.  I should of known about the traffic since this was the pirate’s parade weekend at Tybee Island.  Nevertheless, I enjoyed the run and finished it at :56:50:13.

Saw lots of common wildlife during my run.

Wildlife inventory:

• 1 million or so fiddler crabs.  It was a hot day -so, all of the crabs were out.
• 5 great egrets
• 2 mocking birds
• 1 wasp
• 1 grasshopper
• 1 dragon fly
• 1 moth
• 49 butterflies
• 1 cargo ship
• a bunch of swallow-looking birds.  I need to look up these birds so that I know what they actually are. 
• I saw one dead sandpiper on highway 80.
• I saw several possums dead on the highway
• 1 dead raccoon on the highway. 

Why am I reporting roadkill on my running blog?  Well, I guess you could say that they are wildlife, - dead wildlife.  It sucks that they are dead.  Dead, though, they were.  Too friggin sad.

• my mapped run
• my running log

Ok, I stink.  So, I’m going to take a shower, finish my glass of wine and watch the Wolverine movie until I fall asleep.

All the best to you and yours.

Thanks for reading my blog.

peace,

dh

10/10/2010

Yesterday I ran the Palmetto Pacers inaugural Pumpkin Chaser’s 5k.  I normally do not run 5k’s but I wanted to run this one because of my support for Palmetto Pacers which was created and is managed by Tim & Holly Waz. 

Palmetto Pacers put together a great event.  It was so well organized.  There are big races that I’ve participated in that have not come close to the well planning and organization of Palmetto Pacers first race.  Tim and Holly put together a great event.

The race was in Bluffton, SC in a beautiful subdivision called Hampton Hall.  Wow, this place is gorgeous. 

I saw lots of snowy and great egrets as well as many ibis’.  The fog was heavy.  Visibility was perhaps 50 feet or a little more. 

I met several runners and enjoyed company with them. There were 60-something participants in this race, I believe. 

If 5k’s are normally this much fun then I’m going to have to start participating in more. 

I had a fairly decent time, too.  My clocked time was :20:15:89.  My official race time was :20:17:00.  Now, if I could keep that pace for a 1/2 and full marathon Boston marathon would definitely be in my cross hairs. 

• pumkin chasers 2010 race results

Ok, today is my dad’s birthday.  I gotta run and have lunch with him.

Thanks for reading my running blog.

All the best to you and yours.

peace,

dh

10/10/2010

A Beautiful Evening Run

I had a very enjoyable run this evening at the rails to trails.  The temperature was a pleasant 72 and humidity was at 56%.  A light breeze coming off of the ocean made the run that much more pleasant but what stole the show and touched my heart was the spectacular sunset at the rails.  It was a truly fleeting magical moment.

I almost talked myself out of running this evening.  Thank God that I did not.

My pace is still not what it should be and there is no one to blame for that but me for being so slack in my running this summer.  Well, I am back now and plan to incorporate a lot of speed training this season without neglecting the all important long runs. 

Another cool aspect of this evening’s run was the abundance of dragon flies and some swallow looking birds that engulfed several pockets of the rtt.  As I ran through these pockets the birds and dragon flies made like a parting of a curtain as I ran through.  It was cool.  I counted 156 dragon flies before I said, ‘forget about counting them’.  There were just too many.  It was awesome, though.

Wildlife inventory:

• 156 dragon flies
• A million or so swallow-looking birds.
• 1 billion gnats.  I ate about a 100,000 and I wiped off about a million that had gotten stuck on my sweaty skin.
• 2 mocking birds
• 1 grasshopper
• 3 butterflies - one was a monarch.
• 14 fiddler crabs.  You know the season is definitely changing when you can actually count only a little over a dozen fiddlers.  During the summer, the rtt is filled with fiddler crabs.  Some times, they carpet the ground and when you run through their midst they part the path like Moses did the Red Sea.  And then, as you run through the trail you can hear them scampering on the sides of the trails.  They sound like Rice Krispies with milk.  No lie.
• 1 croaker (a fish) in a fisher woman’s cooler
• 1 eel in the fisher woman’s cooler
• 3 huge!! blue crabs in the same lady’s cooler.  I was amazed.

There you have it.  This evening’s running experience.

• my running log
• my mapped run

Thanks for taking the time to read my running blog.

All the best to you and yours.

peace,

dh

10/07/2010