Zombies, Run! Etymology, 9.5 miles

2:36:29 hours - 9.52 miles - 16:26 min/mile

Did my 9.5 mile run today at the park in near-perfect running weather—mostly cloudy, light breeze, temperatures between 55 F - 60 F. I brought my running watch and ran 1:1 minute run/walk intervals, which is feeling like a pretty ideal run/walk ratio. Anything shorter than one minute starts to feel choppy, hard to hit my stride before the interval's over. I felt good the whole run, and never felt like my running intervals were lasting too long or coming too soon.

I used the New Canton 10K race mission, which lasted for the first six miles, and then just ran to music (and silence for the last mile—my playlist ended and I didn't feel like messing with it to start anything else). Interesting mission, Runner 20 (Archie) from New Canton and Runner 5 investigating a lab at Steve Reeves Hospital. It wasn't until the mission was at least three quarters through that I finally realized that I must be New Canton's Runner 5 today, not my usual Runner 5 from Abel. These New Canton missions are really confusing to me! Next mileage-increasing run is 11 miles—too short for the 20K missions, but after that I have 12.5 mile and 14 mile runs before the half marathon, so I'll do the 20K missions for those. For the 11-mile run I guess I'll just do a regular Season 2 mission and listen to Radio Abel the rest of the time.

Even though I felt good and didn't get tired, I ran a lot slower than I thought I was running. Splits were:

Mile 1  15:29

Mile 2  16:15

Mile 3  15:07

Mile 4  16:10

Mile 5  16:47

Mile 6  15:52

Mile 7  17:51

Mile 8  17:06

Mile 9  17:04

Mile 10 15:40

Slowed down a lot after Mile 6 especially. Mile 7 was "slow" because that's the mile where I stopped at the bathroom—probably added about 1:15 min to my mile, so my real pace would have been around 16:30, which isn't that bad. Miles 8 and 9 were uphill and downhill—I'm surprised Mile 9 was no faster than Mile 8. I didn't stop for anything, so why was it so slow? Maybe because the sun was out more during the last few miles, which always slows me down. I was making sure to drink water every mile, and I ate GU after miles 4 and 7.5. (I think the GU at mile 4 was the reason I had to stop at the bathroom after mile 6. I should probably just dump the rest of the GU and buy Shot Bloks instead, the GU always seems to upset my stomach these days. I had decided to go ahead and use the rest of the box of GU I bought for training runs anyway, but maybe that's not such a great idea.)

Anyway, one more long run down!

Zombies, Run! Season 2 Mission 19

35:18 minutes - 2.27 miles - 15:33 min/mile

Pretty good run today. I got a late start because it was COLD when I got up this morning—only 32 F, so I waited until it warmed up a little. When I went out, it was around 44 F. The sun was out, but the wind was bitey. I wore my jacket the whole time.

Today, I ran full laps, and walked a lap whenever I started to feel tired. I think I was running 2–3 laps when I started out, down to one near the end. Felt good, but I still seem to run out of steam quickly. I was thinking today that one reason I seem to do better when I run at the park is that my driveway is so uneven and full of loose rocks—I can't just relax and run, I have to keep my eye on the road in front of me constantly and compensate for landing on rough ground. Plus, there's the fact that the GPS isn't accurate at such short distances. I keep forgetting about that. I think it's pretty close, but I'm probably actually running farther than the GPS measures, so my pace is better than the app calculates. Heh. Excuses, excuses. It doesn't really matter, I'm getting my runs in. It's encouraging, though, to think I'm probably doing better than I realize.

I'll have to do the 9.5 mile run on Sunday this week instead of Saturday, since I'm having some work done on my solar equipment Saturday. Will be nice to have electricity all day long again.

Today I figured out how the runner who supposedly got killed last mission might have actually survived. Makes more sense this way, too. Hope I'm right!

Zombies, Run! Season 2 Mission 18

39:46 minutes - 2.50 miles - 15:54 min/mile

Another slow one today, mostly because I got started late and it was already hot outside. Did the usual 3/4 lap running, 1/4 lap walking. Splits were 15:21, 15:52, and 16:26 —slowed down quite a bit as the run went on. I should probably be doing longer walk breaks. Should start taking my running watch with me and doing timed intervals. Also I think I could start doing zombie chases again, at least during the midweek runs.

I meant to run Monday and Wednesday this week, but I've been having trouble with my electricity this week—the batteries for my solar system are dying and I only have electricity while the sun's out, from around 9 AM until 4 PM. When I got up my phone battery was almost dead and I didn't know if it would last through the mission, so I started doing other stuff and pretty soon it was too late to run. No matter, Tuesday and Thursday works just as well.

Today's mission was sad. I hope it's another one of those "you think they're dead but they're really not" situations that Zombies, Run! seems to be fond of.

Zombies, Run! Season 2 Mission 17, 3 miles

44:48 minutes - 3.01 miles - 14:52 min/mile

Well, I guess I can say I've got my speed back. Good run today! I ran at home because my truck's in the shop and I couldn't drive to the park, but it was only three miles today so that was no problem. Ran with chases off and did intervals, about 3/4 lap running and 1/4 lap walking. I timed it out of curiosity, and found that I was doing about 60:30 seconds run/walk ratio. Kind of short on walk times, but okay for a short run.

My splits were 14:28, 14:35, and 15:13, so I was slowing down in the last mile, but still keeping up a good pace. I really need to start remembering to bring my watch on weekend runs, so I can time intervals properly. But anyway, it was good to see my pace back down around 15 minute miles again. Guess I can say I'm fully recovered from my knee injury.

Another multi-part mission today! Next time, we go on a rescue mission.

Zombies, Run! Season 2 Mission 16

39:55 minutes - 2.57 miles - 15:31 minutes/mile

Getting better. Got my Thursday run done and now I'm back on schedule to do my 3-mile run this Saturday. Felt like my pace was finally getting back to what it was before the knee injury. I ran short intervals today, no chases, running about 3/4 of a lap and then walking the last 1/4. Splits were 15:09, 15:06, and then 16:16 for the last half mile. I think that last bit was slower because I did a bit more walking at the end and backtracked a bit.

At some point, I tripped on a loose rock and fell, landing on my left hip and scraping up my palms a bit. Not sure how far along I was, but that might also have been why I slowed down for the last half mile. Wasn't badly hurt, but my hip was sore for a while. I will probably have a big bruise there.

Zombies, Run! Season 2 Mission 15

37:02 minutes - 2.29 miles - 16:09 min/mile

Got my Tuesday run done. Still slow, but steady. Weather was around 60 F with the sun out. I'm always slower with the sun beating down on me, even though it was coolish.

I'm still running with chases turned off. I did intervals, more or less, of two laps running, one lap walking, which should amount to around a 3:2 minute run/walk. I may not have run two laps each time for the first half of the run or so, because I wasn't keeping track and just trying to remember, which never works for me! So I started marking the first running lap by holding out my pinkie finger, and that made sure I knew whether to run another lap when I got around to the start, or to start walking.

Splits were 15:57 and 16:04, pretty close. I hope I start getting my speed back soon.

There was a cute puppy in today's mission! Awww!

Zombies, Run! Visiting Van Ark, 8 miles

2:16:43 hours - 8.05 miles - 16:59 min/mile

 

Finally got the chance to go back and do one of the Season 1 10K race missions, since I had an 8-mile run to do for my half marathon training. It went pretty well—not a fast run, but a good, solid one with no particular aches or pains. My stomach was a bit wonky, but that's a thing that happens, and not related to my injury, so I'm going to call myself recovered from the knee injury and back to normal. Now to just get my speed back up.

I was planning to run 1:1 minute intervals, but I forgot to bring my watch with the countdown timers, so I just decided to wing it. I took walk breaks for a minute or two every quarter to half mile, or whenever I felt like it. Turned out to be mostly quarter miles on the uphill side and half miles on the downhill side. I had to take one bathroom break at the beginning of mile 4, which added three or four minutes to my time, so without that my pace would probably have been closer to 16:30. My splits were 15:56, 16:27, 15:28, 19:35 (that's the one with the bathroom break in it), 17:10, 16:45, 17:14, and 16:37. I slowed down some after four miles, by about 30 seconds per mile, but I still felt strong.

Weather was cool, around 45 F when I started out, but sunny. I brought my jacket with me but only wore it for the first mile while I warmed up. I would have been fine without it.

Now I can finally start getting back on schedule, with my midweek runs on Tuesday and Thursday and my next week run on Saturday. Then I can start doing Monday - Wednesday midweek runs again. I can do the other 10K race mission in two weeks for my 9.5 mile run, then the 20K race missions during the 12 and 14 mile runs.

Today's mission we found out a bit more about Van Ark. Having already started doing the Season 2 missions, I know a bit about how he ended up, but now I know more about how he got there.

Zombies, Run! Season 2 Mission 14

38:24 minutes - 2.34 miles - 16:27 min/mile

Well, good for me! I actually did an afternoon run today. Usually, when I can't run in the morning and tell myself I'll do it in the afternoon, I end up skipping it. But today when I got home, I told myself I really needed to get this run in today, and I did.

It wasn't a great run, but not a horrible one. It was a slow one, taking short walk breaks at the end of each lap, and with chases turned off, but that's probably for the best while I'm still recovering from my knee injury. The important thing was to do it. It was also warm today, nearly 70 F and sunny, which always slows me down. (I actually, for some reason, thought it was cold outside—there was a cool breeze, and in the shade it was somewhat cool, but not in the sun! I'd put on a long-sleeved tee-shirt and jacket but as soon as I saw the temperature, I hung up my jacket and put on a short-sleeved tee instead.)

I will probably do the 1:1 minute run/walk ratio for my eight-mile run on Sunday, too. I hope I can get back to where I was before my injury soon. I worry about not being able to maintain a fast enough pace to finish the Star Wars Half Marathon. I need to be able to run a 3:30 half to finish, and right now I'm not managing that pace even on my short midweek runs. But I also need to not push myself too hard and get injured again. So I think it's better if I just run slower for now.

Zombies, Run! Season 2 Mission 13

32:11 minutes - 1.94 miles - 16:34 min/mile

Today's run was horrible. The only good thing to be said about it is that I did it. My back was sore and I felt really tired and icky. Couldn't even run a full lap, so I ended up running about three quarters of a lap and then walking the rest of the way. Even then, it was hard.

It was cold today, too. Around 42 F when I went out. I wore my long underwear under long leggings and short-sleeved tee-shirt. I started out wearing my jacket, but took it off after a bit. It was okay in the sun but the shade behind the house was still pretty chilly.

There was one zombie chase, but when I tried to speed up, it sent shooting pains up my back, so I only increased my speed a little bit, and ended up having to drop supplies. It was kind of close, though. I think I was just about to evade when they caught up with me. There would have been another chase, right after the mission ended, but I shut the app off. I would have walked a bit more to get a full two miles in, but I wasn't going to run from zombies! I should have turned the chases off, but I didn't think of it until I'd already started the mission and it was too late. I think I will turn chases off until I've fully recovered from my injury. I keep getting new aches and pains all over from it. My knee is fine now, but my muscles are all weak and easily strained. I need to take it easier, and I also need to get back to running three times a week—I've missed my second midweek run for the last two weeks. I know from back when I was marathon training that when I skipped midweek runs, I was more prone to soreness and strains.

Anyway, I got it done. It was an interesting mission, trying to save some people trapped on a cruise ship that had run aground. And another runner we thought we'd lost shows up! Yay! And another cliffhanger, sort of. Well, I'll find out what happens on Friday.