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I got in almost 33 years of practice doing “off-days” before I became a “runner” in 2007, so this “off-day” was a piece of cake.

Ooooo…I like cake! Especially with chocolate icing.

Wait….where was I….Oh yeah, today was an “off-day” from running, and it was good to get a break after 6-straight-days of scheduled runs, and a tough workout last night. My legs actually feel really good today. I remember last Friday that I was extremely sore after a hard track workout the night before. Today I’ve got a little soreness in my right hip-flexors, but otherwise am feeling better than I expected. Hope this holds true on my scheduled 6-miler tomorrow.

Today was a scheduled off-day from running and, as usual for my off-days, I ROCKED IT!

Just Kidding

It was nice to have the day to recover from the hard track workout last night. My legs are fairly sore, and it will be interesting to see how they feel on my run tomorrow

Today’s Run

As usual for Thursday, tonights run was a track workout with the JSRC. I have been feeling crummy the past two days, so I almost didn’t go. However I knew I would regret it if I bailed.

Since almost everyone from our running group ran Boston on Monday, there were only 3 who showed up at the track. I ended up running all of the repeats with Andy, who is WAAAAAAAAAYYYYY faster than me (even if I were in peak fitness). He ran a LOT slower than normal so we could do them together, and in turn I ended up pushing quite a bit harder than I had planned. However, Andy kept giving me lots of encouragement (and even some coaching), and it turned out to be a great workout. I forgot my watch, so I can’t remember what all of my splits were, but here is a rundown of the intervals:

• Warmup (1.3-miles)
• 6 x 100m Stride Outs
• 800m fresh (200m recovery)
• 600m fresh (200m recovery)
• 400m fresh (200m recovery)
• 3 x 200m fresh / good / fresh (100m / 400m recovery)
• 600m fresh (200m recovery)
• 400m fresh (200m recovery)
• 800m Straights & Curves
• Cool down (.25 miles)

I felt fairly louse through the 200s, but started to find a groove during the last 3 intervals. All-in-all I’m definitely glad I didn’t bail on track tonight.

Cross-Training

After getting home I did a half-set of P90X Arms and Shoulders. Of all the P90X workouts, this one is where the after-effects of the brachial neuritis in my left shoulder rear their ugly head. I can be lifting a 30-lb dumbbell in my left arm with no issue, and then with the slightest turn it’s like I’ve got nothing at all. There was one particular shoulder workout where I could easily use a 30-lbs dumbbell with my right-arm, but could barely lift 5-lbs with my left. Anyway, I got through the workout, and should be better prepared for how to approach it again next week.

P90X was starting to go really well but then I got slammed by an upper respiratory illness. Spent all day Saturday and Sunday in bed trying to recover. Sometime during the day on Sunday I woke up with some of the worst pain that I’ve ever felt running up and down my left shoulder and arm. I’m guessing that I have a pinched nerve somewhere in my neck or shoulder.

The soonest that my doctor can see me is Thursday and I haven’t been able to find any over-the-counter medications that do much for the pain. Hoping that continual rotation of heat and ice, along with some gentle stretching, will have me back at it in a couple days.

Until then, this is really frustrating.

That’s More Like It!

Week 2 of P90X is in the books, and it was so much better than week 1. I’ve still got a long way to go, but this was very encouraging. In week 1, Plyometrics nearly killed me, but this time I had enough energy to attack it and got a great workout. I also made steady gains in all of the resistance workouts, and even in the group yoga (a.k.a. Bodyflow) at the Y. Looking forward to starting week 3 tonight. Last normal week before the first recovery week!

In addition to P90X, I also hiked the 4.5-mile red trail in Percy Warner park on Thursday and Saturday. Not quite the workout of running the trails, but it was still good work. I plan on trying to do this at least 2 to 3 times per week while I am recovering from my hip injury.

I mentioned in my last post that I was over 20 lbs heavier than I was for my first marathon back in 2009. Well, after 1-week of going back on my training diet I dropped exactly 2 lbs. Small steps!

Bring It!!

P90X Ate My Lunch!

Week 1 of P90X is in the books, and what a humbling week it was. Not sure how this played into my string of injuries, but my lack of dedication to cross-training became painfully evident last week. This was especially true during the lower-body workouts like Legs & Back, Yoga, and Plyometrics. I couldn’t even do all the leg reps during the Legs & Back workout, which was quite surprising to me. I knew I would struggle with the upper-body stuff, but never dreamed I was in this bad of fitness in my legs.

This is my third time to do P90X, but even my very first time doing Plyometrics was not as difficult as it was last week. I wasn’t wearing a heart rate monitor, but I know it was through the roof. I’ve got LONG way to go.

Taking my initial weight was also quite eye-opening. I’m over 20 lbs heavier than I was for the 2009 Chicago Marathon, which was my first Marathon. This has to change, and I’m getting serious about my diet along with doing the P90X workout.

So….I’ve got my work cut out for me, but I’m determined to get myself back into shape, and ultimately back on the road doing marathons again!

This post’s title is one of my favorite Tony Horton quotes from P90X, and has very little to do with our run this morning except that we did see a Tin Man hanging from a tree (more on this in a bit), and we did talk about Tony Horton quotes (though not this one).

Today’s schedule called for 60 minutes at easy pace, so Nathan and I decided to run the reverse of a route we used for a 60 minute run a couple of weeks ago. We started off very, very conservative with an opening mile of 9:29. From this point forward every mile got progressively faster. This wasn’t planned, but just happened that way. You can see our splits below…

I was actually surprised at how good I felt, especially after the first 3 miles. At no time did the pace feel fast or forced. It just felt comfortable throughout. My shin continues to improve, and only felt like a slight twinge this morning. We completed the route in 60:57, which is almost 6-minutes faster than two weeks ago (though that was a Hattori run, and this was not). Our final total was 7.44-miles completed at 8:12 average pace per mile.

As for the “Tin Man,” during our second mile I looked over and noticed about a 3-foot tall tin man hanging from someone’s tree that was made entirely out of old cans. I’m guessing that it was a bird feeder, but looked kinda strange.

Anyway, it was another good run with Nathan in the books!

Beast Mode…ON!

The weather for today’s run was very nice. Finally a spring morning that actually felt like Spring! Temps were in the mid 50s, and the humidity was not too bad at all. The schedule today was for 60 minutes at easy pace followed by 6 x 100m stride outs.

After two really easy miles over 9:00min pace, the average pace for the remaining miles was around 8:40 pace. I tried to keep everything very chill and focus on a short stride with good form. Overall the run felt great except for the lingering soreness from P90X Legs and Back on Monday. I increased my weight slightly for P90X, and today I’m pretty sore. This didn’t really affect my stride, but it was slightly uncomfortable until I got good and loose about halfway through.

I really noticed the soreness again on the stride outs at the end. For the these my pace was around 6:30, which is slightly slower than usual. This had to do with the soreness and also being on a slight incline for all six. My final total with strides was just over 7 miles completed at 8:46 average pace.

Beast Mode…ON!

Nathan and I had been talking recently about shaking up our normal running routes, so today we just kind of made it up as we went along through the streets of Belle Meade. My schedule called for 65 to 75 minutes at easy pace, and we started off with a first mile in the 9:30s. My legs felt a little tired at the start after doing P90X Legs and Back last night with Olivia, but they felt better with every mile, and felt really good at the end.

Our pace steadily increased throughout the run and landed in the 8:20s and 8:30s for the final 4.5-miles of our 8.5-mile total. It was fun to just make random turns down unfamiliar roads to see where they would lead. This strategy brought us to one stretch where it felt like we were going uphill for a LONG way, but overall was very enjoyable. The only downside to this ad-lib route was that we reached the 75-minute mark with about a half a mile to go back to our cars.

Not wanting to break my schedule from John, I decided to walk the rest of the way back to my car, and encouraged Nathan to keep running if he wanted. However, he also decided to walk and we both enjoyed a nice cool down stroll on Belle Mead Boulevard that felt pretty nice. Great way to start off a day.

Beast Mode…ON!

Even though this is a lighter week leading up to the Country Music Marathon, today’s schedule called for a 6-mile tempo run which included a 1-mile warmup, 4-miles at half marathon pace, and 1-mile cool down. Coming into this morning my legs were fairly tired because of a 2.5-mile run with Kate late yesterday afternoon for the ING Kids Rock Marathon followed by P90X Legs & Back with Olivia last night.

The temps this morning remained cool and quite comfortable with a little bit of cloud cover. Nathan and I met at the Edwin Warner Nature Center and ran our 1-mile warmup on the Harpeth River Greenway. We continued down the greenway for the tempo portion and on into Bellevue. As I’ve said before, my target pace for the 500 Festival Mini Marathon (a week from Saturday) is 6:42. With this in mind I wanted to average around this pace and since my legs were already tired I tried to think about this like the last 4-miles of the race. Nathan took a little bit of a head start since he wanted to run at a slightly slower pace, however he ran really strong and there was no way I could catch him.

Most of the first two miles were relatively flat and the splits were 6:37 and 6:38. Even though my pace was good I didn’t feel that great. Not bad, just not as comfortable as I would like. Miles three and four were mostly in Bellevue and contained a few hills. This caused me to slow a bit for mile three with a 6:40, but I was able to finish out with a 6:35. Still felt ok, but not fantastic.

On the bright side I was able to hold pace even though I had tired legs and was never fully comfortable during the tempo portion. Nathan and I joined back up for the 1-mile cool down which felt great after the hard effort.

Today was also the first time in a while I’ve run with a heart rate monitor. My coach John had asked me to train with one for a while so he could monitor my heart rate during different types of runs. Not sure what he will think about this one, but my heart rate was actually lower than I was expecting during the tempo sections.

Tomorrow is a day off, which is gonna feel strange, but I know my body needs it to get ready for Saturday.

Beast Mode….ON!

Today was one of the more frustrating work days in recent history, and I’m ready to take out some agression on P90X Legs and Back tonight. Kinda wish I could also go out for a hard run, but already did an 8-mile tempo workout with @inthewright this morning. My body’s not in the habit of doing 2 runs in a day, so don’t want to jeopardize my recovery run in the morning.

Thursday (Oct 27)

Running: (7.5-Mile Track Workout) Tonight I finally felt some jump come back into my legs, and felt good throughout the workout. After a 1.5-mile warmup and 6 x 100m stride-outs, we did:

• 3 x 200m f (100) [400]
• 600m f+ (300)
• 3 x 200m f (100) [400]
• 800m Straights & Curves (300)
• 600m f+ (300)
• 800m Straights & Curves (300)
• 1000m f (400)

With an additional .75 mile warmdown, the total mileage came out to 7.5-miles. Paxton looked especially strong tonight, and even though I felt good he clearly had an extra gear. I’m really pleased with the workout, and am getting my confidence back.

Cross-Training: Tonight Olivia and I did P90X: Ab-Ripper X, and I followed that with a couple of sets of chest exercises.

Friday (Oct 28)

Running: (4-Mile “Barefoot” Recovery Run) Paxton, Nathan and I did an easy recovery run through Bellevue this AM in the pouring rain. Even though it was cold and rainy, the run was still a lot of fun, and it was good to have the Bellevue Trio together on a Friday morning. While the Hattoris offer no protection from water, they do drain extremely well which was good today.

Monday (Oct 17)

Running: Today was supposed to be the kickoff of my training for Rocket City with a 6 to 7-mile trail run on the schedule. However, I woke up this morning with a weird catch in my upper back, and overall just felt really tired. I guess that doing 3 races in 3 consecutive weekends has finally caught up with me.

Since I didn’t feel great, I decided to skip the morning trail run, and instead did a 2-mile “barefoot” run with my daughter Kate after work in Edwin Warner Park. Even though she is only 6, she really wants to train to be able to run a 5K. So far we have worked up to 1.5 continuous miles. Today we did the first mile continuous, and then for the second mile I would let her run way out in front of me, and then I would run to catch up. We did this over and over again until we had returned back to our starting place. Very fun run with my daughter.

Cross-Training: Tonight my wife and I did P90X: Ab-Ripper X, and then I did a set of P90X: Shoulders and Arms.

Tuesday (Oct 18)

Running: I met Nathan this morning at the entrance to Percy Warner Park for a planned 8-mile run through Belle Mead + the 5.8 loop in Percy Warner. Tuesdays are normally a tempo day for me, but with 3 races on the last 3 weekends, I’m fresh out of tempo right now.

We kept our pace very easy this morning with an overall average between 9:15 & 9:20. It had been a while since I’d run on hills, so it was good to get back in the park. However, during this run I could really tell that my energy levels were down and my legs are shot. I’m starting to really think about just shutting it down completely for our family vacation Thursday to Monday and give my body a rest. I’ve also got the Ragnar Relay coming up 2-weeks from Friday and I want to make sure I’m fresh for that race.

In spite of this, the run this morning was still very enjoyable. This was the first time since Chicago that Nathan and I had run together, so it was fun to talk through our race experiences after having a week to reflect. 

Cross-Training: My wife and I did P90X: Legs & Back tonight. I’m trying to get back into a strengthening phase for my legs which will include resistance training, trail runs, barefoot runs, etc.

Log for October 4, 5, & 6 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.

Tuesday

• 3-Mile Moderate Run – Nathan, Paxton, and I did a moderately paced 3-mile run using Paxton’s “figure 8” loop on the streets of Bellevue. The temps were cool, but felt good, and my legs felt fresh and strong. I picked up to goal marathon pace for the final 1/2 mile just to keep myself sharp, and to continue to ingrain that pace into my mind.
• Cross-Training – Tonight I did P90X: X-Stretch to work out any last minute kinks before Sunday. Even though stretching is not strenuous, it can cause muscle fatigue, so I wanted to make sure I gave my legs plenty of time to recover.

Wednesday

• Rest – With taper in full force, I took today off from running and cross-training and even slept in bit. I’ve been trying really hard this week to get extra rest, knowing this will help a lot come race day on Sunday.

Thursday

• 5.25-Mile Track Workout – Even though this was technically at track, the “workout” consisted of a 3-mile tempo run at goal race pace. Marc, Paxton, and I did most of the laps together, and finished with an average pace of 7:25 per mile. This is 1 second faster than my goal pace, but it felt very comfortable (even slow at times). I’m pleased with how good I felt, and feel ready to give 3:15 a shot on Sunday. My biggest concern at this point is the weather forecast. Ideally I would like to see race temps in the 40s or 50s, but it looks like it will be in the mid 60s at the start and rising into the 70s.
• Cross-Training – After track, I did P90X: Shoulders and Arms. I had not been able to do this workout recently due to my hand injury, but those wounds are getting much better.

Log for October 2 & 3 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.

Sunday

• Rest – Sunday is almost always a running rest day for me, and I took today especially easy. After morning worship and brunch, I stayed off my feet while watching the Titans game and even iced my knee for a bit (chronic tendonitis for the past 1.5 years). Taper weeks always feel strange for me. I know that the “Hay is in the barn” as they say, but I can’t help but feel like I should be doing more. This final week of taper will only include 12 to 15 miles before the marathon on Sunday.
• Cross-Training – Olivia and I normally do an ab-workout on Saturday night, but we were not able to get it in yesterday. We ended up doing P90X: Ab-Ripper X tonight, which I followed with a half set of P90X: Chest and Back. The swelling in my hand has finally gone down enough for me to do push ups again.

Monday

• 5-Mile Recovery Run – Today Nathan and I did a VERY easy 5-mile run on our normal nature center loop in Edwin Warner Park and the Harpeth River Greenway. My legs feel good after the 15K on Saturday, with no lingering soreness, aches, or pains. The goals for this week are pretty simple (1) Don’t get injured (2) Get plenty of sleep (3) Hydrate and fuel properly. Part of not getting injured is to keep running, even though the distance is greatly reduced.

Log for September 21 to 23 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time. 

Wednesday

• 4.5-Mile Recovery Run – After several days of running at odd times due to business travel, I finally got back on schedule this morning. Paxton and I did a very easy recovery run on the Harpeth River Greenway and in Edwin Warner Park.  We normally run 6 to 7 miles on Wednesday, but cut back a bit today to 4 1/2 since we are in our taper for Chicago. My legs could definitely feel the effects of my hard 10-mile tempo run last night, but they slowly loosened up as we progressed through the run.

Thursday

• 6.6-Mile Track Workout – I missed the last 2 track workouts with the JSRC due to business travel, so it was good to be back tonight. The weather was awesome at 6pm with temps in the low 70s, overcast skies, and a slight breeze. After a 1.25-mile warmup + 6 x 100m strides, we did a workout that was a variation of one of my favorites. It was three sets consisting of 3 x 400m, 5 x 250m, and 3 x 400m. While I felt absolutely fantastic during the workout, I did a really poor job of running consistently between intervals. I’m not very happy about being inconsistent, but am pleased with how good my legs felt, especially in the last set.

Friday

• 3-Mile “Barefoot” Run – Today was the first day of fall, and the weather made a big change in response. At 6:30am, the temps were around 50 degrees with a slight drizzle after very early morning rains. Paxton and I ran a modified version of our normal Friday loop through Bellevue, and it felt fantastic. I wish that I could bottle up the weather this morning and take it with me to Chicago. We kept the pace very easy, and it was an extremely enjoyable (but short) run. Just as we finished, the rain started coming down hard again. Crossed the 50-mile mark in my Saucony Hattoris, and I’m very glad that I added these “barefoot” type runs to my training for Chicago this year.

• Cross Training – Tonight I did P90X: Ab Ripper-X with Olivia, followed by P90X: Chest and Back.

Log for September 19 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time. 

Monday

• 4-Mile “Barefoot” Run – I decided not to run early this AM since I got up at 4am yesterday morning to run 22-miles. My schedule called for 4 easy miles so I decided to go out for a “barefoot” run in my Saucony Hattoris after the kids were in bed. Funny thing is….my legs do not feel sore at all after my 22-miler yesterday. This feels kind of surreal. Even my chronic aches and pains were not bothering me tonight.

  Since my legs felt so good, I ran a bit faster than my normal “barefoot” run with miles of 8:45, 8:14, 8:02 & 8:37. One thing about tonight was that even with temps below 70, the humidity was crazy. I was dripping wet after only 4 miles.

• Cross Training – Tonight Olivia and I did P90X: Ab-Ripper X immediately after my run.

Log for September 14-17 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time. 

I’m behind on posting my training logs due to a business trip to Scottsdale, AZ. This will be the first of two posts to catch up.

Wednesday

• 6.4-Mile Easy Run – After a moderately difficult 10-mile tempo run on Tuesday, Paxton and I took it very easy today on our normal “Nature Center” loop. The temps and humidity were a bit higher than Tuesday, but overall it was still very pleasant. My legs didn’t feel too bad after the tempo run run, but we kept the pace around 9 minute miles throughout.

Thursday

• 6-Mile Easy Run – Today I am in Scottsdale, AZ for training. My first session didn’t start until 9:00am, so I got out on the road for an easy run around 6am. Even this early, the temps were already in the mid 80s, and I could really tell it during the run as I felt pretty crummy. It is amazing to me how fast my heat tolerance is evaporating with the cooler temps in Tennessee. My original intention was to do 7-miles, but decided to cut it short since I felt so poor. I tried a couple of times to pick up the pace slightly, but just didn’t have it.

• Cross Training – Tonight I did P90X: Chest and Back after having a WONDERFUL dinner at Oregano’s in Scottsdale. Best pizza outside of New York or Chicago.

Friday

• 4.4-Mile Moderate Run – After feeling so crummy on Thursday, my run this morning in Scottsdale felt a lot better, even though the temps were still pretty high at 6am. Since my legs felt stronger I ended up turning this into a progression run with miles of 9:12, 8:34, 8:06, & 7:46. Really glad to feel better today.

Saturday

• Travel – My flight home was originally scheduled for Saturday morning, but I was hoping to switch to a Friday evening flight if training let out early. It did let out a bit early, but all of the flights going home were booked. Hate that I missed running with some friends from our running group today.  Guess this means I get to do my last long run of 22-miles by myself on Sunday morning before worship…Bummer.
• Cross Training – Tonight Olivia and I did P90X: Ab-Ripper X

Log for September 12-13 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time. 

Monday

• 7-Mile Trail Run – It had been a couple of weeks since my last trail run, so it was good to get back out there today with Paxton on the White + Red trails at Percy Warner Park. The temps are much cooler, and this made for a very enjoyable run. We kept the pace pretty relaxed throughout, but I could tell a huge difference in my ability to breathe while going up some of the steeper inclines. On a normal trail run during the summer it was common for us to take a quick break at the top of some of the more extreme slopes, but today we just kept going with only one bathroom break and one stop when my shoe came untied. Not bad after a 20-mile marathon workout on Saturday, and not bad on a 7-mile course with over 1,400 ft of elevation gain. Great run.
• Cross Training – Tonight was P90X: Ab-Ripper X with Olivia and then P90X: Shoulders and Arms.

Tuesday

• 10-Mile Tempo Run – My training schedule originally called for a 9-mile tempo run today at goal marathon pace (7:26). However, with the hard marathon workout on Saturday (which included almost 15 miles at or below goal marathon pace), I knew that doing another marathon pace workout so soon would likely do more harm than good. With that in mind, I decided to dial it back just a bit today and bump the mileage up to 10.

  Nathan, Paxton and I ended up running out and back on Old Natchez and Del Rio. We started off fairly easy through the hilly section with a 9:05 first mile. After this, we picked up considerably for the next three miles with times of 8:07, 8:02, and 7:43. Just before the end of mile 4, we stopped for a hydration break and Paxton decided to head back early due to some discomfort in his calf muscle.

  Nathan and I continued on down Old Natchez and then onto Del Rio for the next two miles with times of 7:56 and 7:58. After another quick hydration break, we finished out the run strong with miles of 7:25, 7:37, 7:42 (back in the hilly section), and 6:53 for a total of 10-miles with an average pace of 7:50.

  My legs felt really good today, and at no point (except the very, very end) did the pace feel fast or out of control. My average heart rate was 151 for the run, and it only got as high as 171 even at the end. I’m starting to feel more and more confident about Chicago, though the butterflies are also starting creep in as the race gets closer.
  

• Injury Update – Quick update on my “freak” back injury from tripping while turning off my alarm in the dark on Saturday morning. I’m lucky that it doesn’t really affect my running motion, but it is a constant aggravation that seems to get worse after a run and throughout the day. Sometimes it is just really sore. Other times it goes into spasm. There is now a visible bruise where I hit the chair when I fell. I’m not sure how well it is going to heal as I continue to run, but have no plans to cut back on training unless it gets to the point where it affects the mechanics of my run. 

Log for August 31 & September 1 – Training for Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 9th.  Goal for the fall and winter marathon season is to break 3:15 for the first time.

Wednesday

• Rest – After the debacle that was Tuesday’s run I took today completely off. Did some lower body stretches in the evening, but no running or cross training.

Thursday

• 4-Mile Track Workout – (Warning – Contains a lot of venting) After taking Wednesday off, I was very hopeful for a good track workout tonight. Unfortunately there were a number of things leading up to the workout which were not ideal:

  (1) The heat and humidity was back with a vengeance. Temps at 6pm were still 95 degrees with high humidity.

  (2) I did not hydrate enough during the day. And to exacerbate this I had too many drinks with caffeine.

  (3) I got to track late, and was only able to do a rushed 1/2 mile warmup before it started.

  (4) I’ve been trying to fight off a cold since Monday night.

  So what did all of this add up to….I felt AWFUL!! With the Tupelo 14.2 coming up on Sunday, my plan was to run the entire workout at a relaxed pace. However, after the first two sets, even the relaxed pace felt ridiculously bad. On the third set I ran with the leaders just to try and shake things up a bit (and felt better), but then ended up feeling even worse for the last two sets than I did at the beginning. 

  It is very discouraging to feel this bad after putting in so much hard work. I know that the factors above contributed to my feeling fatigued tonight, but I still can’t let go of being ANGRY at how bad I’ve felt during the last two runs. If I feel this bad on Sunday, I’ll be lucky to break 2 hours, much less try to maintain goal marathon pace. 

  On top of this, I’ve been dealing with a weird tingling sensation between my first and second toes and on top of my foot. It doesn’t really hurt in a structural sort of way, but is worrisome and annoying. I don’t know if this is (a) a shoe issue (b) an issue with my new forefoot stride (c) lingering issues from my “playground” accident last week with my daughter.

  Well, enough of the pity party. Time to get my mind right and get some rest.

• Cross Training – Tonight I did a modified version of P90X: Legs and Back, just doing the chest exercises.