AZ Running

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2010-11-24T10:09:00.002-06:00

Don't know why really but I haven't been so bloggy recently. Still working out, everything going well, just not into writing about it.

Hope all is well with you and that you have a great thanksgiving and a lot to be thankful for.

Do I really have to title all of these things?

2010-10-10T21:30:00.000-05:00

Don't really have much to blog about here except to keep my last post from getting too stale. I know, I know, too late. Maybe I'll blog on a few little items. Like do I add the miles biked to and from the gym for swimming into my totals? 1.75 miles each way but it is in no way a workout even though I try to do them moderately hard. Could be I'm just inflating my biking numbers with it though; that works out to be 10 miles per week. 40 miles per month. Does it even matter if I count them or not? Am I obsessing about nothing?

How about those bumps on the sides of the road that make your car go r-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-t (or is is r-r-r-r-r-r-t or r-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-t or r-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-l-t? I'm pretty sure it starts with an "r" and ends with a "t" whatever it is.) that alert you when you are driving on the shoulder of the road? What about them you say? Well, just make sure you are standing up on the pedals if you happen to drift over on them if you know what I mean. Men, you'll probably know as it provides a severely uncomfortable experience for your johnson and his neighbors. Don't know what it does for women though.

Don't like seeing so much roadkill either. Sure you get the occasional dead bird when running but out on the highways on a bike bring in much bigger varmints. I'm always sure to hold my breath when going by them. I mean, c'mon, they are dead. They must be giving off some type of bad vapors aren't they?

I did have kind of a big week last week. I hit 9.2 hours after only hitting 6.15 and 7.44 the weeks before. I think I kind of felt it on Saturday as my run was slow and I fell asleep at a get together with family friends in the evening. Such is the life of a triathlete. Just need to pull off one more week of this before we head to Florida on vacation next week. Sure I'll get in a little swimming and running then but I'll be on vacation and will take full advantage of having a down week. Just not quite there yet.

10/4 1800m with 10x100 at 1:54-2:00; 42.3 miles at 17.8
10/5 5.67 miles at 7:49
10/6 2200m at 2:14; 3.5 miles on bike to and from pool
10/7 43.3 miles at 18.1
10/8 1800m at 2:05 (fast for me), 6.8 miles to pool and lunch
10/9 6 miles at 7:58

Swim To The Music

2010-10-03T21:46:00.000-05:00

In case you were wondering, yes, I did get my waterproof Ipod holder in time for my swim last Wednesday. I got it in the early afternoon and less than an hour later I was in the pool doing my little dog paddle. It definitely helped the time pass more quickly. In fact a few times I got so lost in just going through the motions and listening to music that I lost count of my laps. That is another dilemma I face. Must be my limited mental capacity. Maybe now I'll have to buy one of these. I'm already spending all my birthday money and I still have over a month to go.

Last week after one of my swims an older guy in the pool asked me if I was serious about triathlons. He could probably tell I wasn't a swimmer by my form and so the obvious assumption is triathlons. Of course he was correct. Anyway he gave me some pointers, like keeping my feet closer to the surface, having a shorter stroke and breathing more often because more breathing = more oxygen = more ability to do work. I tried this stuff out on Friday and you know what? It worked mostly. See workout summaries below. Still getting used to some of the changes but I think they are all for the better. I'll have to keep going to the pool at that time to get some more tips.

9/29 2100m at 2:17, 3.5 miles on the bike to and from the pool
9/30 35.1 miles at 18.4 mph
10/1 1700m at 2:11
10/2 4.71 miles at 7:48 pace

The Waiting Game

2010-09-29T12:14:00.001-05:00

Today I'm playing the waiting game. I've ordered this. I'd like to use it for my swim that I have scheduled today. Should be swimming for about 45 minutes and it would help the time fly (if not me). Usually I'll workout late morning but today it might have to be in the afternoon.

I've already done my laundry, gone grocery shopping, ran an errand to the school...now I'm eating lunch. Fedex says it is on the truck for delivery. Will it get here in time? Should I just suck it up and go? Will I ever find the perfect fan to put next to my bike trainer? Nobody knows.

9/24 1400m at 2:13
9/25 4.05 miles at 7:54
9/27 1600m with 10x100 in 1:55-2:00; 36.1 bike at 18.0 mph
9/28 4.69 at 7:44

Rain + Bike Workout = Bleh!

2010-09-23T15:02:00.001-05:00

Today I had a bike workout on the schedule. Of course I should be more flexible with these things and could have done a swim workout instead but I stubbornly held to my well-intentioned plans. So that meant I had to hook up this

to this

Hooking them up is no problem. Riding them together is. I mean OMG! (I know, I know, too old and too male to use the abbreviated things. But seriously, OMG!) The bike trainer is way worse than I ever remember. It is hard, it is slow, it is boring and it causes chafing.

Recently I've gotten the speed up to 18-19 mph on average outside. Not bad. This thing wouldn't let me do that though. I had to work hard just to get to 15 mph! WTF! Really hard too not just sort of hard. And there was no coasting. Ever. At least outside if I have to struggle to get up a hill I get a rest on the downside. Oh no, not on the trainer. If'n I work hard and get the speed up and then try to coast it pretty much just stops within seconds. I didn't want to cry so I could only LOL.

AND it was hot. No nice breeze cooling me off as I cruise through the countryside. I was stationary. In my basement. Sweating like a pig. I guess this isn't the time of year to buy a fan either because I went right out to Target to get one and they didn't have ANY.

AND for some reason I was irritated down there in the nether regions more than normal. Seems like that wouldn't change for any reason but it did. Maybe because more hotter = more sweating = more chafing.

Even though I had a computer, TV, music and cell phone all at my disposal this was waaaaaaay more boring that a treadmill. Way. Unfortunately I'm afraid that this is a small glimpse of my future from November (I can only hope) to March (again with the hoping). Dread.

9/20 1400m (10x100, in 2:00-2:03 with 10 sec rest)

9/21 29.3 miles at 18.3 mph

9/22 4.05 miles at 7:46, 1800m at 2:20 and 3.5 miles on the bike to and from the pool

9/23 27 miles on the Bore-a-lator 2000 (What I'm calling the bike trainer. Bike is named Kuro-san which is Japanese for Mr. Black but even after 2 years I'm still not sold on that name. Let me know if you have a better one. Oh yeah, I actually rode for 90 minutes at about 15 mph but I was definitely working hard enough to be going 18 mph outside so that's how it's going into my log and blog.)

PS: As for all those initial thingies. I really never use those. In fact I insist on proper grammar and spelling in all my texts. Don't want to get too lazy.

Blogging While The Blogging Is Good

2010-09-19T11:44:00.005-05:00

Why is the blogging good you ask? Well, just because I had a couple good workouts this week is all. My swimming, close to 2:30 per 100m a couple months ago and about 2:22 per 100m a couple weeks ago is now around 2:15. I'm happy with the progress. Still not fast, still short distances (1,200m-1,600m) but progressing and that's all I'm looking for at this stage.

The bike is getting better too. Usually I've been around the 17 mph range (although the 50 I rode last weekend was 16 mph but that is because I'm not trained to ride that far yet (oh, and the wind)) but last Thursday I rode 23 miles at 19.2ish. I say ish because my bike computer fell off when I went over some bumps at the 19 mile mark so I had to keep time on my watch from there. Not a long ride but if I just stay at that speed I'll be happy. If I ride at 18.67 mph for the Ironman I'll hit my goal of 6 hours on the bike.

Now you want a good laugh? Check out my running totals for the week. All of 6.6 miles at an average pace of 7:46 per mile. Cutting back on the miles to increase the speed and to allow me to do my swim/bike workouts. I'll be building those miles up too.

9/13 1200m swim at 2:18; 24 mile ride at 17.8 mph
9/14 3.3 run at 7:46 pace
9/15 1600m swim at 2:16
9/16 23 mile ride at 19.2 mph
9/17 1200m swim at 2:15
9/18 3.3 run at 7:47 pace

First Week

2010-09-12T08:01:00.003-05:00

I guess I jumped back into it pretty well; I worked out the last seven days in a row but today I'll be resting. This week I swam three times, ran twice and biked twice. Just hoping I didn't do too much for getting back into it. Some triathlete guy that I can't remember who it is but I read his quote once said something or other like this "Do as much as your body can absorb, not as much as you can. There is a difference." Biggest danger of doing more than I can absorb was yesterday's 50 mile bike ride. I haven't ridden that far since June of 2009. Fifteen months ago. I haven't ridden more than 23 miles at a time since. Yeah, likely it was too much.

I rode with my ironman training buddy, Jason as part of the Jesse James Bike Tour. A well run event with lots of little candy bars at the pit stops. Riding in the wind wasn't so much fun, I just wanted to turn around and get more candy bars.

9/8 16 mile ride, 18 mph
9/9 1000m swim, 2:17
9/10 3 mile run 7:51, felt better than Monday's run at least and not so sore later
9/11 50 mile ride, 16 mph
Weekly hours: 6.32 (Triathletes often track their training by hours per week since you can encompass all phases of your training with that. Did you know that? I didn't before I started doing triathlons.)

Working Out Again

2010-09-08T10:05:00.004-05:00

Two and a half weeks since my last run and I headed out on Monday. Tired of running slow, I sprinted (ha!) off at a 7:30 or better pace. Yes, I'm tired of running slow. I let a close to 9:00 per mile pace creep into my long runs a couple years ago and somehow it stealthily made it's way into all of my runs. I believe large part of my problem is that I not longer to speed work. Something that was left in Tokyo along with a great group of running friends. Speed workouts are hard to do by yourself. I know I need to but...but...but nothing, I know I need to do them.

Luckily I couldn't find my HR monitor so I didn't have to see how hard I was working to keep a moderate pace. It didn't feel so bad but I was working way too hard. I didn't care if I only ran 3 miles or even 2. Actually the less the better was how I was feeling. I finished 3 miles at a 7:55 pace and 24 hours later I was feeling it a lot more than I should have been. I guess that's what so much time off will do to you. I guess that's what only 51.21 miles a month (exactly; for both July and August. Strange isn't it, I didn't even try to do that.) will do to you. Oh well, I'm going to do it again and again and again until I get it right.

Two swims already this week and I'm heading out for a short ride later today. On Saturday I'll be doing an organized 45 mile ride with 1,300 of my closest friends. Really only one friend that I know of and the rest will be going anywhere from 10-100 miles. I'll be doing the 45 though and having a hard enough time with that.

Okay, that's my blog. Off to make up some reading on all of your blogs.

9/5/10 1200m OWS; much straighter and slower because I sighted more than usual, 2:31 per 100m
9/6/10 3 miles at 7:55
9/7/10 1000m pool, 2:22 (kept it short, I'm just getting started afterall)

Checking In

2010-09-03T14:04:00.001-05:00

No not dead. Yet. Summer schedule just isn't as easy for me. Getting back into it (working out and blogging) next week. Promise.

Medals

2010-08-20T11:10:00.002-05:00

After my little sprint triathlon last Sunday I was presented with a medal. Of course I took it, but it doesn't really mean anything to me. I guess I'm asking for your perspective. In my opinion I really don't think a race needs (should?) give out a medal unless it's at least a marathon and at least a half iron triathlon. Maybe a half marathon? Maybe. Or not. I made this statement to my wife and she said that is an elitist point of view and that even people who can only do shorter races deserve medals. Really? I say, inspire them to go further.

Does this go all the way down to the participation award trophies that every little boy or girl in America gets when they play any kind of organized sport regardless of their win/loss record? I don't know. I know I didn't receive any thing unless we won the championship game.

Anyway, I made the statement and I stand by it. Most people can do more than they think they can, maybe a medal out there will motivate them to do it. Am I way off base?

By the way, this cold I have is really putting a buzzkill on my running jones.

8/18 3.33 @ 9:00
8/20 4.33 @ 8:46

Again I Tri'd

2010-08-15T14:05:00.004-05:00

You know, I really need to start training if I'm going to keep doing all these triathlons. The problem is, even if I only swim or bike once every 2 weeks, I can still finish comfortably. Sure I'm slower than I would be if I trained but I guess I'm too lazy to do that. Actually that's not entirely true. I would definitely train more if the kids were in school. A few more weeks I guess.

The tri I did a couple weeks ago was weighted toward the bike and the next had a longer run. Well this one had a longer swim, 800m versus 400m. Nothing that would trouble me but not good since that is probably my weakest event (could be the bike too, cuz I'm not so swift on that either).

Besides the training I was ~~sufficiently prepared~~ behind the 8 ball in other respects. I spent last weekend at a cub scout camp with my son complete with ~~nutritious~~ plenty of food and old canvas tents. Think of a mosquito breeding ground in a greenhouse. Ever since I've been feeling under the weather. Then yesterday the family went to the county fair which means lots of walking around and lots of fried foods. Meh, if'n I was serious about these I'd be better prepared so it's all just for fun.

It's pretty normal for me to question why I do endurance sports when I stand in the early morning chill waiting for the race to begin and today was no different. Well, maybe a little different; I was freezing ~~my ass off~~. The wind was pretty cold and was mucking up the lake too. The start of the race brought relief from the cold since the water temperature was actually higher than the air temperature but also caused breathing problems. Seems like every few times I tried to breath I caught a mouthful of a wave. Not just a little, a MOUTHFUL. It's hard to swim/cough/burp/breath all at the same time and underwater. Try it once. Also the wind and waves conspired to blow me off course by several thousand meters (at least). Relieved I was to finish the swim in 22 minutes. Yes already, I know I'm slow.

The bike portion solved my breathing problems but not the wind. But what are you going to do? (Bike more readily comes to mind.) I took one gel on the bike. Usually I take two but I just couldn't force myself to do it this time. Just couldn't handle the nasty wad of sweet stuff in my mouth again. My bike was just a bit slower than the ride I did two years ago on this same course on a 20 year old 10 speed. Yes, I was riding my state-of-the-art, carbon fiber triathlon bike this year. So what was the difference? Try the engine.

I took off on the run forgetting my race number and having to retreat for it, obviously that cost me several ~~hours~~ seconds. I fell into my 7:45 pace that I've been hitting lately and that lasted for two miles. I finally figured out that, for some reason, I've been afraid to push things. Afraid I'd blow up on the run. So I just decided to push it and see what happened; it was only a mile or so anyway. I finished that last 1.1 at 7:16 pace so I was happy with that. It's either be happy or cry and since I'm such a manly man crying is not an option. What I wasn't happy with was coughing up a gallon of phlegm every few hundred yards. What was that I said about a nasty wad?

At the end of the day I once again realize why I do endurance sports and why I'll continue to do them in the future. Already looking forward to the next one.

8/11 9 miles at 8:50ish
8/12 1,200m at 2:27
8/14 3.33 miles at 9:00ish (full affects of the cold)
8/15 Lake Marion Triathlon

Kicking It

2010-08-04T10:54:00.003-05:00

I got to do another triathlon on Sunday. Sort of a whole kick off to my year of training for next year's Ironman. Of course it was a sprint since that is pretty much all my swimming training could handle. Bike and run wise I could handle an Olympic distance. That's about it though.

Again the swim was painfully slow. Even slower than last week, somewhere around 11:30. Jeesh. I know I'm definitely not that slow. Long course maybe? I'm desperately starting to need some excuses. Bike was good the first half but then I started to slow and get passed. Run was mediocre even though it should be a strength. Well, it's not. All in all it was fun to do though. I really have to say my transitions are improving. Averaging a minute or less for all of them. Maybe that's how I'll make my name, focusing on the transitions.

Anyway, the good news is that I got 2nd in the 40-44 age group. Bad news is that they went by decades for the age groups and I got like 7th in the 40-49 age group. No prize for me. I did hit the random goal of 1:30 though. That's one thing about sprints, all the distances are so variable that you really can't compare them. Like this one had a 400m swim (same as last week), 14 mile ride, about normal but much shorter than last week, and a 4.4 mile run which is a fair bit farther than the normal 5k. I don't care about all that though, right? I'm concentrating on my transitions.

8/1 sprint tri 1:30:28
8/3 8 miles at 8:50

Taking The Plunge

2010-07-30T16:31:00.000-05:00

Registration Confirmation for:
2011 Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene
Dear Anthony,
Congratulations! You are now registered for 2011 Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene. Please check the event's official website for updates: http://ironmancda.com

Race Report(s)

2010-07-25T20:01:00.003-05:00

Time to get writing on a few race reports. Not exactly what you think though because most of them aren't for me. Yes, once again I turn proud parent to tell you about the exploits of my children.

A couple weeks ago I gave my son a choice between a nearby kids triathlon, a little farther away 5k or a much further away 10k (with a 12 and under age group). He chose the 10k, hoping to bring home the gold. It was another warm morning on a very hilly course but he was able to finish just 90 seconds slower than his last time at 63:30. Unfortunately he there was another boy in his age group that ran the 10k too and beat him (I must say he looked older). So, he took home the silver.

Then, last Saturday both my kids took part in a triathlon. The swim was not so much of a swim since the water was only about waist deep for all the kids. Most ended up running/diving/half swimming there way through the water. The swim could be a strength for my son if it were done in a fashion that really resembles a triathlon. My daughter not so much. In fact she was quite near the end of the 7 year old group exiting the water but she did have a smile on her face; made me happy. My son seemed to do okay on the bike but my girl just looked like she was out for a ride in the neighborhood. She just cruised around the course, pedalling away but not exerting too much. On the run though (that's their specialty) they were both working real hard. I was cheering them on, urging them to pass the people just in front of them. The smile was gone from my daughter's face, but only until she finished. My son finished 5th in the 10 year old boy category and my daughter finished...First! We were so surprised and never would have expected it (see swimming and biking portions). In fact we didn't even wait around for the awards but just saw the results when we returned to pick up my race packet. I think the key is fast transitions, doesn't take any time at all to put crocs on. So I'm still beaming today, for both of them.

I do have a race report of my own to write. I did the sprint triathlon associated with the kids event. It was just a short 400 yard swim followed by a longish (by sprint standards) 22 mile bike and then a 5k. I was hoping to get through the swim in about 9 minutes but it was closer to 10:30. I don't know, I'm just a slow swimmer? Not enough sighting? Too wide a route around the turn? Probably all of the above. Luckily it was a pretty short swim. My transitions were way slow because I had terrible bike placement in the transition area. I guess that's what I get for signing up the Thursday before the event.

The bike went pretty well. The one nice thing about going off in the last wave is that I was able to pass more people than passed me. So there were a lot of people already out on the course, I was able to pass a lot of them but because it was so crowded sometimes I couldn't help drafting. I kind of fell into a group of four, one guy from my wave, one guy from the wave 2 minutes in front of us and a very fit, very fast woman. We cruised along, passing a lot of people and taking turns in the lead. I know, kind of illegal but it was pretty crowded and hard not to be around other people. First the other guy from my wave dropped, then the other two got away from me. There was a short grass section to get back to the parking lot and coming out of there another cyclist bumped my shoulder. This was right at the end of the bike so even if he passed me he could only get a few second lead before we transitioned. Stupid move. Averaged about 20 mph on the bike, not bad, not great.

On the run I was passed by the guy who bumped me but then caught him again when he started walking. He passed me again but I caught him and told him I was going to beat him if he walked anymore. Turns out he was a young guy in his first triathlon and the run was his worst event. I decided to talk him through it as much as I could talking about fueling up, stuff on the course, whatever was a distraction. I was able to pull him through about 2.5 miles until he couldn't take it any more and had to walk. I kept on going but saw him at the end. I finished the run in 23:58, 7:44 average pace. Overall, the race was pretty middling which is where my training has been lately so I can't complain. I really wasn't enthusiastic to do it before the race but I drew inspiration from my kids and how hard they worked the day before. I did have a lot of fun with the tri so I'll be back for more.

OWS

2010-07-14T21:29:00.002-05:00

Ways an open water swim is better than swimming in the pool:

No chlorine smell
Out in the great wide open (kind of like running outdoors versus on a treadmill)
Better simulates race conditions
Not swimming in kiddie pee

Ways swimming in a pool is better than an open water swim:

Don't need a boat escort for safety
Nice little blue line to follow, no need for sighting
Much more convenient to get to the pool than to a lake
Not swimming in fish pee

I'm sure triathletes will give you more. These are just a few I was thinking about a couple weekends ago when I got in a couple good swims in both conditions. Also ran and biked that weekend but haven't done anything since. But I'm kind of sort of feeling my motivation coming back around.

7/2 1,000 meters in the pool at 2:23 or so per 100
7/3 10k at about 7:47 per mile
7/4 18.7 miles at about 18.7 mph (actually pretty good)
7/5 1,100-1,200 meters in Lake Wissota. 2:25-2:30?

The Alternative

2010-06-30T21:21:00.002-05:00

Well, giving up on my marathon last weekend did give me one thing, I got to run my son's first 10k with him. In the end, I see that as a far bigger event than my marathons. I mean, I have the rest of my life to do those things. He only has one "first" 10k. Also I got to share my daughter's first 5k, seeing her run out as we were running in from our race and then cheering her on at the finish.

My son wanted to beat me and I told him I'd let him sprint ahead of me at the end if he didn't walk at all. We went out slow, around 9:40's per mile but I had to keep telling him to slow down even more. Good thing I did too. All the volunteers and spectators were great and really cheering him on. It made the day really special for him. Around miles 3-4 he really wanted to walk. I slowed it down a bit for him but kept him going. In the end I let him sprint ahead and beat me by 10 seconds. He finished in 1:02:02. Probably my slowest but most rewarding 10k ever. Did I mention that he is 10 years old? If there was an under 14 category he would have won but as it was he had to compete against boys in the under 19 category so he didn't really have a chance.

My daughter was suppose to run with my wife in the 5k but right away she decided that was too slow and went off on her own. I was able to see them about a half mile into their race when we were on our way back. She looked so good and was smiling ear to ear. I was really nervous/interested in how it would go for her. With her personality it could have been really bad or really good. Fortunately it was really good. She, like her brother, ended up running the entire way. She beat my wife by about a minute. She is only 7 years old. Did I mention how proud I am????

As for me, a little running here and there. Throwing in some swimming when I can but still need to get on the bike. Wanted to see if I had absolutely anything so I did a fast little 3 miles the other day. One warm up and a couple at 7:00-7:10. Not bad but the HR was too high. Oh well, still working my way back.

6/26 6.2 miles at 10:01
6/29 3.31 at 7:41

And the verdict is...

2010-06-25T10:11:00.002-05:00

I decided to run a 10k and 5k last weekend as a sort of test of my fitness. Also it was put on by my brother-in-law as a charity fundraiser so it was a good cause. My wife did the 5k and the kids did the half mile so it was a fun family event, but I digress. I expected just to run it real slow, since my training runs didn't seem to indicate that I'd be able to run much faster than 8:30 miles or so. I ran into a friend though and we decided to run the 10k together and he went out a bit faster than that. The pace was very comfortable and I chatted with him the whole way, sensing that he was pushing it a bit and I wanted to try to bring him along. We finished a bit under 50 minutes at about a 7:57 pace. The 5k was about 20 minutes later and I did that one at 8:06, just over 25 minutes. After I finished I backtracked to find my wife and did another mile at over 11 minutes but it was a good warm down.

So I was glad that I was able to hold that pace for a good distance but really disappointed that I had to be happy with a 10k and 5k that were really several minutes slower than they should have been. Still thought it was a positive indicator that I could finish another marathon comfortably.

Going through the week though I just decided it wasn't there. I want to do it, I hate giving up on a goal I've set especially since I know I could continue it but I'm skeptical if I'd be able to keep the streak alive for the rest of the year so I might as well cut it off here. Streak is dead.

So this frees me up to do some triathlons this summer (if I can get myself to the pool) and to do a race this weekend. My son, 10, is going to do his first 10k and I get to run it with him. My daughter, 7, is going for her first 5k and she'll run with my wife. I think my son will be fine but my daughter will be the interesting one. I'm kind of glad that I'm not the one running with her.

8/19 6.2 at 7:57, 3.1 at 8:06 and 1.06 at 11:21

Status Update

2010-06-16T09:29:00.004-05:00

Thanks to everybody for your support and sticking with me even though I haven't been blogging/commenting AT ALL. Sort of reflects my running. Anyway, just an update here to let you know what's been going on and what I'm planning.

Last week I had a stress test, lung test and more blood work. Got all of the results back and they were negative. Negative in terms of medical issues but I think the stress test results were positive as far as how well I performed. Make sense? As clear as mud? I had to lay down and pedal, not unlike a recumbent bike. My target HR for my age was 150. My starting HR was 47. Most people are done in 6-10 minutes. After about 6 minutes in she said I was in the 90's. I might be here awhile. The nurse and technician said one a week or so somebody might go for 15 minutes before their HR gets high enough. I was at about 135 at that point. They also said they remember somebody going for 21 minutes once. Well, I didn't quite have to go that long, by 18 minutes the pedalling had become quite difficult and my legs were burning much more that the effort my heart was putting forward. Finally at 19 minute I reached my goal. THAT was a workout.

The next day I put in a solid 5 miles that felt good and I was optimistic and thinking that I turned a corner. Of course my next 4 miler was incredibly difficult and slow and I was back at square one again. Ugh.

So now I might abandon my streak of marathons. My wife thinks I might regret it if I do and thinks I should struggle through another one in a week and a half. By struggle through I'm thinking 4:30 or more. I'd love to hear all your thoughts. Do I keep it up, try to get through a couple marathons in hopes that things turn around or do I just rest up and get back on track when I feel ready for it?

5/8 5 miles at 8:21
5/9 4 miles at 8:59

Medical Attention

2010-06-03T21:49:00.002-05:00

Dypsnea, COPD and hyperextended lung; all terms thrown about by my doctor. More tests next week including a stress test and ekcocardiogram (sp) and something else. Hmm, wonder if they'll find anything.

I've done a little running, a little biking and played some basketball. Not sure if I'll get the 12 marathons in. Not sure if I'll get the 6th one in.

5/23 10 at 9:30 (or so)
5/31 3.29 at 8:45 (I think)

Doctor Visit

2010-05-22T11:01:00.004-05:00

At your urging I decided to go visit the doctor. I called the clinic to make an appointment and as soon as I said "chest pains" the nurse wanted me to immediately go to the emergency room. I assured her that, as I had just recently completed a marathon and had no shortness of breath, it wasn't my heart. So she let me go to urgent care instead.

So it was pretty much listen to my lungs, listen to my heart, take some sort of blood oxygen level test and then tell me I had an inflammation. She stopped short of calling it pleurisy. Blah, blah, blah...it'll take care of itself in a few weeks...yada, yada, yada...take some advil or aleve and see you later. Basically just what I was expecting. I think the more clever of you would be able to insert a humorous comment here but I'm choosing to be more cynical.

Anyway, chest still hurts, running still sucks.

5/18 3 at 9:00
5/21 7 at 8:44

Green Bay Marathon

2010-05-17T13:03:00.002-05:00

I came into this race in the middle of my biggest running slump ever, with a mysterious chest pain, having to try something new on race morning and needing a haircut. I came out of it with another marathon in the books, albeit slow for how the year has been going. I'm completely satisfied though, check off May, check off Wisconsin and move on.

I have seasonal allergies but they haven't been too bad this spring. I never had to take my medication before running but when I woke up on Sunday morning and my eyes were quite irritated I decided to do it. I mean, it's just another marathon right? As for the pain in my chest, still don't know what that is. Dull ache most of the time except when I cough, sneeze or breathe deeply, then it is a crushing hammer blow. It's over on my right side, like in the pectoral muscle or lung or something. Started last Thursday and still hurts.

So I went into the race just wanting to get out of it actually. Not get out of running it but get out of the back end of it less than 4 hours later. With the current slump I didn't have a clue as to how I'd feel. No idea. Started out way back in the pack, that way I'd have to start slowly and maybe could pass somebody. My first mile felt okay but when I looked at the Garmin and it said 9 min/mile I was really disheartened. It didn't feel that slow. Ugh, if this was what I had to look forward to the rest of the day I was going to be out there a loooooong time.

Fortunately the race opened up and I fell in with another runner and chatted with him. The miles started to tick by in the 8:20's and that was comfortable enough. Still faster than I wanted though, just because I knew my training has been so bad lately. I wanted to make a pit stop but ALL the port-o-potties were full, at every aid station. Finally at mile 7 I just had to say screw it and wait in line. It was only a few seconds anyway and then I was off again.

There were a lot of twists and turns through the city for the first half of the race so I really didn't know where I was. After the half runners turned off at mile 11 we started along the river and I liked that better because I knew it was just a long stretch on a path. Miles 15-21 really seemed to fly by for some reason. I remember looking forward to mile 16 because after that there would be less than 10 miles left and then suddenly we were past mile 20 and there was less than 10k left. Probably because that was the most scenic part of the course and because my family was able to see me several times in that stretch.

I was able to keep the walking to a minimum, just through the aid stations, although the running was slow. Just wanted to be around or under 9 min/mile because I knew that would keep me under 4 hours. Miles 22-26 seemed to take a long time, I was just counting them down, 4, 3, 2, 1...and finally Lambeau field came into view. I'm a lifelong Packer fan and this was the whole reason for doing this marathon. I perked up and headed into the tunnel, the same on the players use on gameday. Just like my son who ran his race the day before, Lambeau field pumped me up. At one point I stopped and reached down to touch the Frozen Tundra. Oh my, don't try to kneel down at mile 25.5 of a marathon. I continued through, saw my family in the stands, gave high fives and ran out through the tunnel.

Down the finishing chute I raised my hands to the crowd and they responded with a big cheer and lots of high fives. That's always a good feeling. My son asked me why I always raise my hands at the end and I told him that I wanted the people to cheer for me. It always works.

I finished in 3:56:03. Maybe not a great marathon but any finished one is a good one.

It was a great weekend; they people really do a good job there. My wife and son did the 2.62 mile event the day before and then my son and daughter did the 1k kids event. A lot of stuff going on for the whole family and the venue for all the events was great. Of course, it was Lambeau field.

5/16 26.2 (26.6 by Garmin) at 9:00

Car Wreck

2010-05-13T13:10:00.002-05:00

It's gotten bad enough that I've started playing basketball at the health club just to get out and get some exercise. Interestingly enough playing basketball was how I got in shape enough to start running 5 and 10k's in the beginning. So now I'll play for an hour or 90 minutes and then sometimes hit the treadmill for 5 or so miles afterwards. Sometimes not.

I'm wondering where this slump is coming from. It could be mental but it sure feels physical. Just doesn't seem like I have it in me to run much of any distance at all. Overtrained? I don't know; doesn't seem like I would be given the mileage I was doing. It'll definitely make for an interesting marathon this weekend in Green Bay.

(Oooh, bunny outside the window right now. I'm vacillating between letting him sit there and be cute or scaring him to keep him from eating my wife's plants...)

Back to the marathon. I'll be taking it out slow and keeping it there that's for sure. Just trying to keep it under 4 hours so maybe in the 8:40's. Maybe 8:50's if need be. Walk the water stations to get enough fluid. Still kind of looking forward to it in a driving-by-a-car-wreck sort of way. How much can I make it hurt?

5/10/10 10 miles @ 8:38
5/11/10 5 miles @ 8:41

St. George Marathon

2010-05-07T19:55:00.002-05:00

Motivation for today's run was provided by the fact that I was chosen in the lottery to run the St. George marathon. Favorable course...maybe that will provide a PB attempt.

5/7/10 8 at 8:12

Reset

2010-05-06T12:29:00.003-05:00

Lately I just haven't had "it". Honestly, it feels like someone hit the "reset" button on me. Like the "couch-to-5k" reset button. Also, no running = little desire to show myself in the blogosphere. So today, inspired by this video recommended by a friend and this video, I got myself out for a little run. Only the second in the last 12 days since the marathon.

5/2/10 - 10.02 at 8:31
5/6/10 - 8.31 at 8:26

Earth Day Challenge Marathon

2010-04-25T19:22:00.003-05:00

The Earth Day Challenge Marathon is as small as the town of Gambier, OH in which it is held. The first four miles goes around and through the town, and is quite hilly. Maybe that is why I couldn't find any comfortable pace or rhythm. The first hill is about a half mile into the race and is MASSIVE. As big a hill as I've done in any marathon (or even any race) that I've run. All the way through the start of this marathon I was getting passed and passed and passed some more. Even two first-timer coeds left me in the dust. I knew they'd all come back though. Well, of course not all of them, but a lot. Anyway, all these people going too fast made me go a little faster than I wanted too. D'oh. The first 5 miles went by at a 8:06 pace. I didn't even know I was running that fast, just couldn't find the pacing.

After that we started on the Kokosing Gap Trail; a converted railroad bed that is now a paved bike trail. Utter bliss to run on. Really, it was fantastic, at least for this small marathon. Oh, did I mention there were only 200 marathoners and 500 half runners? It did get a little crowded on the first out and back when there were people coming and going and passing and running together. I fell in with a few other runners and we started talking marathons. They had done 86, 75, 50+ and 3. The guy who had done 3 was hoping to break 4 hours but was up running with us at a 3:35-3:40 pace. His big idea was to bank minutes so when he tired at the end, he'd have some extra time for walking. Riiiiiiiiight, that always works. Not. So we told him that but he didn't listen and stuck with us anyway. Second 5 miles were still a bit too fast but not bad. Second 5 miles in 8:17.

I'd been having to pee a little bit and thought that it was a good idea to stop just before half so as to increase my chances of running negative splits. Unofficially my half time was 1:47:58; 3:36 for negative splits. Doable, but I'd have to just see how I was feeling. The second half of the race is another out and back along the trail but in the other direction after we dropped the half marathoners. Unfortunately that direction did not have nearly as much tree canopy to run under and the sun came out in full force. It was pretty warm and humid. I'm kind of using that as my excuse anyway because I started to slow down. Third 5 miles was at 8:20 pace. Somewhere in there I passed the coeds who started out so much faster than me. They said their goal was 3:39. First timers, aren't they just great?

Around about 15 miles I went into the mental doldrums. I hadn't experienced these in the last few races but know they are always there. I just kept running; what else could I do? They always pass anyway. Even though I was not into it at all I decided to count the number of people in front of me that were now on the back portion of this out and back. I think I got to around 25 but can't remember for sure. Even though I was slowing down, I was passing some people. In fact, I only remember 1 guy passing me the whole second half of the race (doesn't mean more didn't though). Fourth 5 miles were at 8:31.

Pacing started to get in the 9:00 range and I took a couple walking breaks. I kept telling myself (and still am) that it was because of the heat and humidity because I refuse to believe that going out at 8:15 pace for the first half is that much too fast. Maybe it is though and my ego just won't let me admit it. At one point I had to stop and turn to go back to my daughter for a high five because we missed our first one. I'm sure that added several many minutes (or just a few seconds). I told myself to just keep plugging along at whatever pace and as long as I did that I'd still have a finish right in line with my other marathons this year. The miles rolled on by interrupted by a few short chats with other runners. Fifth 5 miles was at 9:21 pace (ugh, I'm cringing just to write that).

Suddenly the finish was there, right where it started, on the track of Kenyon College. I was given a choice of a medal or a mug; of course I chose the medal. All about the bling right? My unofficial finish time was 3:44:37.

Turns out we had a nice day to run. No rain (at least until about an hour after I was done. I suppose some people got wet). Wind was there but minimal. Actually running into it in the latter stages of the race was quite cooling. I'd definitely recommend this race if you don't need large crowds and constant cheering to keep yourself going. After four miles the trail was a pancake flat affair lined with trees (well, at least the first half). Quite casual but with enthusiastic volunteers and fans (my family). No expo to speak of but a nice spread after with food and massages. I didn't partake though, I'm never in a mood to after running. The ice bath that my kids love to make was torturous but did help.

Right now I'm sitting in a Columbus, OH hotel room writing this because we were shut out of the flights we were trying to catch. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. I never did meet up with Psyche even though she ran it too. Be sure to check out her account of the race though because undoubtedly it will be more entertaining than mine.

April 22 15.84 at 7:57
April 25 26.2 at 8:33

April Marathon Coming Up

2010-04-21T21:53:00.002-05:00

Congrats to all you Boston finishers. It is such a fun marathon to partake in.

It seems like it's been such a long time since my last marathon (5 weeks!). I'm kind of looking forward to another one this weekend. Only problem? Supposed to be windy with thunderstorms. That = not so good. Well, I've done sub-freezing and moderately nice, I suppose this is just another bout of weather to deal with. Hmmm (<--indicates thought bubble), I expect I'll have hot and humid to look forward to sometime. At least I can be thankful that it isn't a triathlon, swimming in those conditions can be bad.

Running has been moderately better lately. Still haven't gotten a long run in but I am doing kind of middling distance runs of about 14-16 miles at about 8 minutes per mile. I might not be able to run the speed I'd like to yet but I can pick it up a bit from what I was doing. I think I slowed my long runs down to 8:30-9:00 minute pace and somehow that creeped into my other runs too. I'll have to be wary about that in the future.

After getting my bike out and all ready to go on Sunday, I took it out for the first ride of the season on Monday. Nothing real big or real fast, just about 20 miles in a little over an hour. Didn't want to push it or anything. Don't want to take too much away from my running legs, not just yet anyway. Felt good to ride though. Kind of funny, my long run route is a short, easy ride route on the bike. It's such a slog when I'm running but goes by so quickly on the bike.

Also got another swim in today. 800 meters in just under 20 minutes. Nothing to brag about but a start. I did 1x400 meters and then 4x100 meters. The second I swam faster but took about a 15 second rest between reps so the total time for each 400 was about the same. I think I like the shorter reps better because that lets me swim a little faster but a real quick rest lets me keep the speed up. Hmmm (thinking again), maybe I should apply that to my running a little more (read interval training). Somehow it seems easier in swimming.

April 16 14 at 8:02
April 18 15.73 at 8:05
April 19 19.6 miles biking at 16.9 mph
April 20 15.82 at 8:01
April 21 800 meters at 2:27 per 100 (I know, I know. I'm not much of a swimmer)

We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us. -Joseph Campbell

2010-04-12T20:28:00.005-05:00

March was supposed to be lower mileage/faster pace than February. Fail. It turns out that I was not only slower but ran more. Not really much more though, only 13 miles but I had 5 more workouts so my average run was way lower. So now, since I've been unable to hit the pace that I'd like, I thought I'd go back to the higher mileage. I should be able to do that right? Well, maybe not. After getting in a good week last week, 66 miles on 4 runs including 20 on Monday and 16 on Tuesday (got to be my two day PB) I set out for my 20 miler today. Uh, not happening. Legs felt terrible after a mile. Stopped at 4 to reassess. Turned around at 5. Don't know what that was all about. Better luck next time.

FEBRUARY
Total Miles: 203.26
Total Runs: 13
Average: 15.64
Pace: 8:25

MARCH
Total Miles: 213.09
Total Runs: 18
Average: 11.84
Pace: 8:26

Hmm, can't run faster, can't run further, maybe I'll be able to run less. Since January I've been pointing to the Green Bay marathon for a PB attempt. I'm abandoning that. Actually not that bad a thing, it'll take the pressure off and there are still 7 more marathons left in the year. Now I just need to maintain what I do have. Maybe I'll cut back on a run or so and pick up on the bike riding and swimming every week. I'm thinking one 18-20 miler and two 10-12 milers (plus the cross training) would allow me to complete a marathon every month.

Well, that's the plan anyway. Things tend to not go as planned so I'll tell you about my new plans in a few weeks.

April 8 16 at 8:27
April 10 14.07 at 7:58
April 12 9.03 at 8:29

Run With The Wolves 5k

2010-04-06T09:23:00.002-05:00

I took my son to a Minnesota Timberwolves basketball game (they are a professional team, honest) a few weeks ago. Well, when they advertised a "Run With The Wolves 5k" with a free game ticket on the big screen, he latched on to that right away. So last Saturday we ran another 5k together and he was going for his PB of 28:26.

I paced him to a 9:07 first mile, right on target. The second mile started with a couple hills that took a little out of him. A little later he asked to slow down, so we did. I gradually worked our pace back up but then he asked to slow down a bit again. We went through the second mile in 9:18. We'd have to pick up the pace to make the PB. Then he told me he wanted to walk. I wouldn't let him. I just encouraged him to keep running as much as he could. Towards the end there was a slight uphill and then a couple tenths of a mile downhill to the finish. Mile 3 was 9:07 and he was sprinting hard towards the finish. I thought we were going to make it but we finished in 28:31. He was so funny; he immediately laid down on the ground. He stayed there awhile and got up only to drink some water but then plopped back down again. He worked really hard, I really enjoyed running with him.

Nice, small race. No official timing but lots of food, t-shirt, Timberwolves hats for the kids, massages, lots of coupons for $$'s off massages and spa treatments. Even full size deoderant in the goody bags. And I can't forget the game tickets.

All in:
March 28, 2010 7.37 @ 8:19 (4x1/2 mile hill repeats)
March 30, 2010 10 @ 8:18
March 31, 2010 5.68 @ 7:46
April 1, 2010 12.7 @ 8:25
April 3, 2010 6.48 @ 8:30
April 5, 2010 20.15 @ 8:42
April 6, 2010 16.01 @ 8:50

No Go For Mojo

2010-03-27T21:40:00.002-05:00

The running mojo hasn't returned yet and it doesn't seem like it will anytime soon. Just feel like I'm not able to keep my fast paced runs fast paced and if I try, I can't keep the pace very long. Last Monday I had a decent run, the workout part of it was 9 miles at 7:07 but I was working waaaaaay to hard for that. Had a very slow run the next day and then on Thursday I couldn't only get 4 mile at that pace.

My slower runs have been okay, just can't seem to increase the pace. Like today I ran with friends for 18 at about 8:18 pace and then went home for a bit more with Hiroo (the dog). I guess my plan will be to slow my fast pace down, maybe 7:25-7:30, in order to get the distance I want. After all I am marathon training and miles are at a premium.

This week seems like it will be lower miles. Heading to Florida on a Spring break vacation with the family. Should be a great time, just not conducive to running maybe. I'll have to see how much I can get in.

All in: Monday 11 at 7:22
Tuesday 6.54 at 9:01
Thursday 10 at 8:00
Saturday 19.68 at 8:22

Shout outs

2010-03-22T09:29:00.004-05:00

Thanks for all your responses to my last "scaredy cat" post. You've inspired me. I'm all ready (maybe not?) to sign up for an Ironman triathlon. I liked your comments so much I'm going to respond to each one of them in this post.

Julie: Thanks for having faith in me. You are right, it's all in the training.

Bill: The Florida course is real flat but can be windy. Most concerned about the swim in the ocean. I've done two open water swims in the ocean and puked after both, one in a triathlon in Japan. Too many waves.

Karen and Jean: Thanks for all the confidence in me!

Jill: Thanks for the vote of confidence. The mojo might be coming around, have to see what today's run brings. Hope yours comes around too.

SDRunner: Baby steps, good idea. I think I'm ready for the big step now. You'll get there, I just have more...life experience (read as older) than you.

San: IM Florida is in November so I'll have the Minnesota summer to train in. Usually not too bad. Hey, you'll get that marathon, keep moving forward!

Beth: Mike did a great job and had a great race report. I'm sure he put a lot of time into it. I've heard good things about IM Florida.

Meg: Tough love! Perfect. Inspiring.

Lindsay: I think I've wrote in in your comments before, we're runners cut from the same mold. If I haven't I've thought it.

Glenn: The swim is the hardest part! If I get through that I'll be doing the rest on my own.

All in: Thursday 14.06 at 7:51
Saturday 20.02 at 8:27

Somebody can title this one for me.

2010-03-16T15:14:00.002-05:00

My last few runs have so pathetic that I'm not even going to blog about them. That'll teach'em. Give me a bad run will you; I won't even tell everybody about you then.

So a running blog without running. Could be pretty boring but then a lot of people would think a running blog with running would be boring. Those people aren't going to be checking out this place though so I could call them names without them even knowing. I could.

Maybe I'll write about something diametrically opposed to running, like triathloning. Okay, so they aren't diametrically opposed. In fact, they are a somewhat complementary but they are opposed in that if you want to do well (maybe we should say "your best" here as "well" is somewhat relative) in either you really have to sacrifice the other.

I have a friend who really wants me to do Ironman Florida in 2011 so we can go visit her and her future husband (who will likely do the race also). Interesting story, (at least to me, you might find it less so) she was one of my best girl friends in high school. So good in fact that she stood up for me in my wedding (my wife has 3 brothers and wanted them in our wedding so we each had 3 couples that stood up with us). We kept in touch some but then sort of lost touch (when I say sort of I mean didn't communicate for several years in a row) which I firmly take the blame for. I've never been good at keeping in touch and unless you live with me (or read this blog) you might not know I've died for several years.

So anyway, she got back in touch with me a few months ago to tell me that she is engaged and getting married. Yay for her. Not only that but it turns out she ran the Myrtle Beach marathon that I did last year. I was blown away! Too bad we didn't see each other that weekend. She is a runner now and does half marathons and marathons and I'm so jazzed about that. Of course I think it is great. I wouldn't have expected it from her.

So back to the triathlon. Her soon-to-be husband is big into Ironmans (Ironmen?) and since it is my goal to do one in 2011 it all fits perfectly. I'm right there with her until it comes down to actually signing up for this thing. I don't mind saying I'm as scared as hell and intimidated beyond belief by this thing. I've done several marathons and two half iron tris but this scares me. And you know, the worst part about it isn't really that I'm scared of failure or of not finishing but that I'm scared of not doing as well as I want to. It's an Ironman for heaven's sake, why can't I be happy with just finishing it? No, I must have some deep-seated insecurities that causes me to compare myself to other competitors with a need to be faster. What's up with that? I mean, just do your races and be happy with it. The only comparisons I should be making is against myself.

Okay, I'm done publicly psycho-analyzing myself now. Sorry you had to witness this.

All in: Saturday 11 at 8:44
Monday 14 at 7:42
Tues 5 at 7:47

Recovery

2010-03-11T21:07:00.002-06:00

Recovery seems to be going pretty well. In fact, really well. On Tuesday, two days after the marathon, I ran a slow 10 miles. I have to admit it was pretty slow and I was feeling pretty sluggish but I still got it done. Today I got in 11 miles but at a decidedly faster pace. In fact I did a MP run with 9 of the 11 miles at 7:06 per mile. My HR was really pretty low but towards the end my legs were feeling tired so I stopped. I guess my legs haven't recovered quite as quickly. I also did a little weight lifting and a little swimming on Monday. Just enough to get loose.

My more astute readers will notice that I have changed my April marathon. On the right you'll notice it says that I'm now training for the Earth Day Challenge marathon. I was originally planning on the Oklahoma City Memorial marathon but I read too many horror stories about the hot and windy Spring weather that Oklahoma is known for. I got scared. So now I'm all signed up for this small one in Ohio. It has a limit of 200 for the full, 300 for the half. Should be interesting. The only hill is in the first mile and then it is flat the rest of the way. Negative split potential? I think so.

Finally I have to say that the photo from my last post was taken by my wife. Trust me, none of the "official" ones were worth keeping, much less buying. Why is that always the case? Maybe because I knew where my wife was and was able to smile at her but I didn't notice any of the other photographers so I was just running. I'd much rather bring my own personal photographer and fan club anyway.

All in: Tuesday 10 at 8:45
Thursday 11 at 7:24

Little Rock Marathon

2010-03-08T09:26:00.004-06:00

First a little note to Beth. I've tried to comment on your last two posts but for some reason it won't take my comment. Maybe others have had that problem.

Okay, on to the race report.

A little bit of travel excitement getting down to Little Rock on Saturday. Our (my family was able to go with me) flight out of Minneapolis was delayed 2+ hours so we missed our connection in Memphis. As we ran to the gate, the plane was just pulling out. Missed it by that much. Oh well, we just rented a car and drove to Little Rock arriving at the expo at 5:30, it closed at 6. A slightly close call. Also forgot to pack gels so I had to load up at the expo. At least I was able to make it to the starting line okay.

At the starting line it dawned on me that my balky left ankle wasn't bothering me at all (and still isn't); a good sign. Mr. Garmin had trouble picking up a satellite so when I looked for my pace, I got nothin'. I didn't really have a pace until about mile 2. Early on I saw a few signs, the obligatory "Run like you stole something" and my favorite "1. You are running. 2. There is no 2.". My pace seemed to be okay, in the 8:20's. 8:30's would have been better but you know how that goes. At around mile 4 I passed the 3:40 pacer but I was in the 8:30's at that point so he was a little slow there. A couple bridges early but not too hilly.

First time I was able to see my family was around the 7 mile mark. I saw them 4-5 times; always get a boost out of them. Before the race I put a couple notes in my pocket from my kids. One was "I love you so much" and the other was "Go Daddy Go. I'll run with you.".

Around mile 8 I was passed by the 3:40 pacer and I heard him saying he "might" be a little behind. He was definitely a little behind. I ran with the 3:45 group a little bit but then let them go. I saw a woman aiming with her camera but she had her lens cap on. I yelled that out to her and she and her friend had a good laugh. I went on to see them 3-4 more times on the course. At first they said "Go Az" because you could customize your bib. I told her it was A Z and she got it right after that.

Stopped for a potty break at mile 10, only one this race so I didn't mind even though I lost 30 seconds. Coming up to the halfway point I slowed down quite a bit (12th mile was 8:40) thinking that the slower my first half the better chance I had for negative splits. I went through half way at 1:52:24 so I'd have to go sub 3:45 for negative splits and I thought I'd take the second half easier than that so I let that thought go.

Miles 13-17 are very hilly. Long steep uphills and one big downhill that was so steep it didn't really help. Everybody was braking on the way down. Somewhere in there I was passed by the 3:40 and 3:45 pacers without their signs. Maybe they had a potty break and somebody carried on for them? Also saw a boy throwing the football around with his family. I stretched out my hands and he threw it to me. I had to reach back and catch it one-handed. As I backpedalled and returned it to him my throw was way wobbly and way off target. Oh well, I was running a marathon.

Those middle miles seemed to go by pretty quickly and mile 19 came and went. Just after that I checked my watch when I thought there was about 7 miles (one hour) left. My watch said 2:44. So one more hour at about 8:30 and I could go negative. If you remember my 2010 Goals include 1 negative split marathon. It looked like I could make this one so I tried to push the pace a little bit. Miles 21 and 22 were good in 8:07 and 8:16 but then I got a little tired. The next two were 8:34 and 8:37. Still, I was on pace to just eke out negative splits. Then mile 25 hit.

Mile 25 featured two and a half big hills and went by in 9 minutes. I'd lost what I had gained. By mile 26 I was working hard and I could feel it. I kept thinking to myself that I should just slow down and enjoy it but then I would think "when will I ever have a chance at negative splits again?", so I kept pushing it. I ran it in 8:14. After the last mile marker I was pushing pretty hard but my stomach threatened to explosively expel it's contents. Pretty sure that that would slow me down so I let up on the pace. The thought of doing that in front of several hundred people wasn't so appealing either. I still ran as hard as I could. I was so focused that I didn't even wave at my family even though I heard them cheer. I forgot to raise my hands to the crowd to hear them erupt. I sprinted across the line, but missed negative splits by 9 seconds.

All in all it was a good day, upper 40's at the start and low 60's at the finish. This is definitely a hilly course and has a long out and back from 18-24 that the breeze was in our face both ways (or so it seemed). Nice if you have friends in the race that you could see. Free hot dogs and bananas and oranges at the end but I went straight for the ice cold chocolate milk. Especially good. I have to say the goodie bag was sorely lacking. Really doesn't matter to me because I usually don't keep much from it anyway but they really didn't give anything but the race bib and chip. Shirt is kind of bland.

The medal though; the medal is a thing to behold. Ridiculously big. Obnoxiously big. But I earned it.

The final numbers: 204 of 1,544 marathoners; 26 of 147 in my age group and 166 of 970 men. First half 1:52:24; second half 1:52:35; total 3:44:59.

All in: 26.2 at 8:36

Go Slow Down

2010-03-05T15:53:00.003-06:00

FIrst of all, let me thank Glenn and San for sending me the Sunshine Award. Never thought of myself as sunny. Now, on to the post.

How does that title sound juxtaposed with the "Need For Speed" title from last week? I'm planning on slowing it down this weekend in Little Rock. Of course I've said that before. This time I really mean it. Really I do. I'd like to go closer to 3:50 for this marathon, thinking that my recovery will be much better. So if I go faster than 3:45 please feel free to chastise me.

I know what the problem is, it's my oversized sense of pride, is what it is. I'm mean there's all these people in the half and full and I'm looking around thinking I should be way ahead of these guys. How sad is that? I should be bigger than that.

It isn't going to help that the race director put me in the A corral (sub 3:20) because I ran that last year even though I only requested the B corral (sub 3:45). I think I'll just slip back one corral and to the way back of that one too. Think they'll mind?

Today was a good run, seven miles with 5 at 7:08. A little more than I probably should have with a marathon in a couple days but it's just a long training run, right? I guess I'll find out Sunday if I overdid it.

Supposed to be great weather and there are still a few slots open. Anybody care to join me?

All in: Friday 7 at 7:35

Nice Weather

2010-03-03T13:43:00.004-06:00

It's been beautiful here lately so I've been able to get outside on a few runs. Of course for Minnesota beautiful = sunny +35 degrees + snow/ice/slush/water covering only 30% of the trail or so. Took the long run outside on Monday. My never fail plan (it's failed before, in fact I can't remember it ever working) was to get 15-16 on my own and then swing by the house and pick up the dog for a little company as I get the last few hard miles in. Problem is once I get home, I don't want to go out again. Poor dog. Yeah, I knew that was going to happen again since I was feeling pretty tired at mile 15. Maybe I should have taken that gel that I carried around the whole time. I was too lazy for that though and didn't have any water anyway. Maybe it was this type of run that teaches my body to burn fat. Anyway, at 15 I took my own little detour and finished the thing by myself.

Yesterday I got in a weight session and some swimming which was good. I wrote about the things that I don't like about swimming but there is stuff that I like too. I like the feeling of gliding through the water (although that doesn't happen often). I think I like being able to swim more than I like the actual act of swimming. Less than 3 years ago I couldn't swim for the life of me and never thought I'd do a triathlon. Maybe I should be grateful for that Achilles injury that put me into the pool.

Today I did another MP run and since I didn't want to be slowed by bad footing I did it on the treadmill. Thirteen miles in with 11 at 7:08 pace. I should have just done that last .1 to get a half marathon in under 1:37. Not bad at all for a training run. I'm pretty jazzed at how these are going so far. Next week I'll do another one and then the following week I'll start doing two per week. After these hard efforts I like to walk/drive/move real slow. I don't know why. Maybe it lets me relish the good feeling more. Unfortunately the guy driving behind me isn't relishing as much as I am.

Little something about a marathon this weekend?

All in: Monday 18 at 8:38 pace
Tuesday 700 meters swimming
Wednesday 13 at 7:23 pace

Need For Speed

2010-02-27T12:01:00.004-06:00

Seems like that would be an overused running blog title. I'm going to use it anyway. Why the need for speed? Because I always say that if you want to run fast you have to run fast. Seems to make sense. Of course everything isn't for everybody but I find that this is for me. Not interval speedwork per se although I'm sure that helps me too. No, I'm talking about running long at a pace faster than normal. For me, those are MP (marathon pace, although I've never really run a full marathon at this pace) runs.

I usually run these around 7:10-7:15 per mile. All my best marathons have been after a month or two of getting in two of these runs in a week. So I'm now embarking on that portion of my marathon build up (have I mentioned Green Bay in May is my "A" race? At least for this Spring it is). Building up for Myrtle Beach last year I only got to 50 miles per week 1 time. I qualified for Boston at Myrtle Beach. So now I'll cut back on the mileage and pick up on the intensity.

I did one of these runs this week, on Thursday. Of course that was after I totally bagged on another run but was able to get a weight session and some swimming done on Wednesday. Anyway, it was 12 miles with 10 at 7:13 pace. My HR compared favorably to my Myrtle Beach build up and I'm still 2+ months out. Right now, things are good although my legs are feeling a little sore. Maybe I'll rest up a little this week (ie low mileage) before the marathon and next week after the marathon and then hit these hard.

February ended up with 203 miles on 13 runs for a whopping 15.6 miles per run. That's my highest average ever, ever, ever. Of course I would have liked to have had more miles and more runs but it seems those numbers are never enough for me. I'm feeling that same way for this week as I only ran 3 times and got in 44 miles. After Monday's workout though I decided to take an extra day of rest.

Happy running to everybody!

All in: Thursday 12 at 7:28
Saturday 14.04 at 8:20.

Ugh, what was that?

2010-02-22T13:37:00.002-06:00

I was inspired by Jill to run a treadmill PB of my own but sorry to say, I failed woefully. I set out to do a little over 20 but never made it there. I was feeling okay, a little tired but my HR was way higher than it should have been over the course of the entire run. Took a gel and potty break at about 11.5 miles when the treadmill automatically resets at 99 minutes. Took another little water break 5 miles later. I was definitely getting tired but thought I could gut it out. Then at a little over 17.5 everything went downhill. Energy was gone, HR jumped, effort went way up. I pushed to get to 18 but was almost out of it at that point.

So what was up with that? Could be that I wasn't fueled up very well. Thinking back I didn't eat so much yesterday. My weight was down to 150 this morning which is about 2 pounds lower than it has been in the morning recently. Could be that I'm still not recovered from the marathon last week and 64 miles for the whole week. It was the first time I ever used a vanilla gingerbread Gu but I can't imagine that was the problem. Could be just one of those days. I'm still counting it as a long run though. We'll see what the rest of the week brings.

"Make the most of yourself, because that's all the you there is." Ralph Waldo Emerson I believe.

All in: 18 at 8:42

Recovery

2010-02-20T13:48:00.002-06:00

Usually race pictures don't turn out so well. This one seems acceptable.

It's hard to have a bad week of running when you start it off with a 3:40 marathon, So I guess mine has gone pretty well. The weather has been much nicer but that hasn't made running outside any easier. I went outside Tuesday and today but the snow/ice/slush/water almost made it unenjoyable. Maybe I just need to use the smaller back roads and run down the middle of them. At least it makes me run slower for my recovery. Well, maybe I'm just running slower because it is my recovery. I definitely have had dead legs all week. Still I've been able to get in some decent mileage, 64 miles overall with 10 on Tuesday, 13.82 on Thursday and then 14.06 today. Thursday seemed to be particularly hard. Seemed like I just wanted to be done and around miles 9-10 I almost stopped. Somewhere after that though it just became running and the effort seemed to mostly go away. Although tired, my body was moving on it's own so I was able to get about 14 in.

My other workouts, weights on Wed and Fri, were a little lighter too. Hopefully it will come back better this week. I did manage to swim a bit last week on Wednesday, 500 meters. Okay so that is pretty short and only took about 12 minutes but since I haven't swum since last June that was okay. It did remind me that I don't like 1) jumping into a cold pool, 2) the chlorine smell all over me, 3) water in my ears and 4) the headache that I get from swimming. I think it has to do with my uneven breathing. It usually gets better as I do it more though. I'll probably start swimming once a week, I mean triathlon season is coming in the summer (whenever that is).

I enjoy reading all your blogs and seeing your progress. Thanks for the diversion.

All in: Tuesday 10 at 8:54
Thursday 13.82 at 8:47
Saturday 14.06 at 8:43

Mercedes Marathon - Birmingham, AL

2010-02-15T11:04:00.007-06:00

Unfortunately all the snow in the South did a number on flights getting in and out of Atlanta so I had to make the trip by myself. Luckily my wonderful wife secured a ticket for me to get there on Saturday afternoon.

To get the abbreviated version, click the movie below, otherwise, keep reading:

First of all, by the numbers:

3:40:22, 8:25 per mile. I finished 19th of 92 in my age group, 159 of 850-900 overall and 129 of ??? for men only. Interestingly enough I was 31st in my age group at 10k, 28th at 15k, 27th at 25k, 21st at 30k and ultimately 19th. Seems some people out there slowed down more than I did.

It was cold to start, just below 30 degrees I think. Luckily there was no rain or snow though. Mostly cloudy for the whole thing but the sun did manage to peek out occasionally.

Yet again, I started out faster than I wanted too. It wasn't my fault, really! I mean it was soooo easy. The first time I looked at my watch it was in the 7:50's and I thought something must be wrong with my Garmin. I had to force myself to slow down and then slow down some more and then some more. The first few miles weren't hilly but they weren't flat either. First 5 miles 8:18 pace.

I thought I'd like the double loop course but I found myself just wanting to get the first half over with so we could get rid of the half marathoners and I could just get down to finishing the race. A half marathon is a long time to go "just wanting to get it over with." We hit the biggest hills on the course from miles 7-10. Crowds were good, especially at the relay exchange zones where they crowded the streets and only 2-3 runners could pass at a time. It was kind of fun actually. Second 5 miles 8:21 pace.

The course flattened out quite a bit and they separated the half people from the full people just after 10 miles although they were just on the other side of the street. Since they separated us it seemed like the halfway point should just be around the corner but it was still 3 miles away! Seemed like forever. Finally, they finished and we kept going; no official halfway timing mat but I think I came in around 1:49:07, 8:19 pace. Too fast because this was just a training run after all and I want to be able to keep training this week. Third five miles 8:23 pace.

I felt pretty strong the whole race, runners came and went but I seemed to be passing more than passed me. The second loop wasn't nearly as supported by fans. I guess they were all there for the half marathoners. Does anybody else out there hate taking gels as much as I do? I don't mind the flavor but I just don't like having to take them. I don't like drinking either. Just something I gotta do. Fourth 5 miles 8:31 pace.

Finally we were over the hills and things started flattening out again. Some lady took a horrible fall up ahead of me. I don't know if it was because she tripped on a pothole or another reason but she went down hard. Luckily there were spectators and officers immediately on hand to take care of her. Around mile 23 I felt the exhaustion set in. I always repeat my mantra "Just keep running, just keep running." I also tell myself that the miles are long but the marathons are short and it will be over with before I know it. And it always is. Fifth 5 miles at 8:40 pace.

Down the homestretch I passed the man with the Ironman hat that I thought was long gone when he passed me in mile 11-12. Somebody passed me and I said "good start" and he said "thank you, thank you" but I wonder if he knew what I meant. Entering the final chute I like to raise my hands to the crowd because they always respond with a big cheer and I know it is for me. It worked again for this marathon, twice. They announced my name and home town as I crossed the line. Last 1.2 miles 7:47 pace. Second half about 1:51:15, pretty even pacing.

Officially I had 26.07 on the Garmin. But the course is certified and that is 99.5% accuracy so I guess it is acceptable. All the mile markers seemed about a quarter mile off though. Whatever. One thing I would have liked to see would have been the water on one side of the street and the powerade on the other. It was kind of hard to get exactly what you wanted. Also they could have draped the medal over your head at the end instead of just handing it to you. Just the little things I guess.

I seems if you run a marathon on Valentine's Day, as I have the last two years, you get a bright red technical shirt for your trouble. Also got a hat. The medal is okay but I would have liked to see the little triangle areas be hollow so it would look more like a Mercedes hood ornament.

After an ice bath and shower I was back at the airport by noon. It was kind of a planes, trains and automobiles adventure getting home. I caught the first flight out of Birmingham, sat in Atlanta missing some full fights before changing concourses, flying to Chicago and getting into Minneapolis at about 9:30. Wait for the train to the other terminal, walk through two parking garages and finally get home at 10:30 PM. Yes, at that time I shovelled the driveway.

All in: 26.2 miles at 8:25.

More Tapering

2010-02-11T12:07:00.002-06:00

This week has turned into more of a taper than I thought or wanted it to be. I bagged my weight session on Tuesday but my 15 miles on Wednesday was still a little sluggish. It was kind of odd because my legs were sluggish but the pace seemed real easy so it kind of turned into a modest progression run. I kept getting fast from 8:34 to 8:06 by the end. I was planning on doing another 15 miles today; and I'd really like to do it, but I'm feeling a little bit of pain in my Achilles tendons. This is an area that has plagued me before so I'm being very cautious with it. I'd say right now the pain is 1.5 on a scale of 1 to 10, so no big deal. But I don't want it to become a big deal so I'm not running today or the next two days before the marathon.

For the marathon I'll do it just like the MS blues marathon, go out at 8:30 or so per mile and just see how it goes. I'll walk when I take water to get a good drink. I'm definitely hoping to cut the potty breaks though. I mean really, two is one too many and two more than I'd like to do. I'm thinking 3:45-3:50 range but would only get upset if it is over 4:00. Also, I really don't want to be doing the marathon shuffle at the end.

So, today is my weight workout that I blew off on Tuesday. I'll give myself a sad face for only getting in 35 miles this week. That's disappointing especially when mentally and physically I really want to run. :(

See you next week with a race report.

All in: 15 at 8:18

Marathon Week

2010-02-05T09:52:00.003-06:00

We are getting socked in by a bunch of snow once again but I'm not going to let it get me down. No, even though I'll be heading out to shovel the driveway for the third time in about 18 hours I'm excited that it's marathon week. What is there to be excited about? Well, that I get to taper this week. For this marathon, tapering means only 3 runs and about 50 miles this week and I'll probably skip my Friday weight session. Also, I'm excited that my family will accompany me to Birmingham this weekend to cheer me on. Hmm, what activities will Birmingham have to offer? I'm also excited that my long run for next week will be filled with gels, water stops and fans instead of the treadmill, staring at a bank of TV's and trying to find something to listen to.

All of those things I had to do today on my 20 mile run. I did my 15 miler last Saturday on the treadmill too but since my son had a basketball tournament I had to start at shortly after 5 AM. Also, since I haven't used the arm warmers that I got for Christmas I had to use them in case I need them in Birmingham. So, in summary I was on a treadmill at 5 AM with arm warmers for 15 miles. Bleah!

Okay, just when I thought it was safe to stretch I read this article. Now what do I think?

Finally I have a friend who I have done 3 marathons with who, after a couple year layoff, is getting back into our sport. Hopefully we'll be able to do a Fall marathon together. Please give him some love here.

All in: Saturday 15 at 8:21
Monday (today) 20 at 8:27

Marathon Line Up

2010-02-04T13:38:00.002-06:00

These are the marathons that I have currently decided upon:

Mercedes Marathon, Birmingham, AL; February 14th
Little Rock Marathon, Little Rock, AR; March 7th
Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon, Oklahoma City, OK; April 25
Cellcom Green Bay Marathon, Green Bay, WI; May 15

Then in the summer I'll head west a little and maybe do something in Wyoming, Montana or Idaho. I'd really like to do one of the marathons in Alaska over the summer too. In the fall the only things I have on the radar screens are St. George Marathon on October 2nd and Las Vegas Marathon on December 6th (7th?).

Been a good week so far, I had a really nice run yesterday. Usually I'd do my 10 miles with 6x1 mile intervals but I decided to do a MP run instead. This is a good test as to my fitness compared to my other marathon. I started out at 7:13 and couldn't believe how smooth and easy the pace felt. I kicked it down to 7:08 and still felt good. I ended up with 8 miles at 7:10. Based on my HR I could have easily done a few more miles at that pace but I have a couple of 15 milers still this week and didn't want to mess with those. So, as far as MP runs go, I seem to be way ahead of schedule. I'll start those for real in March.

Today was an easy 15 miles. Nice and easy, nothing special.

All in: Wednesday 10 at 7:28
Thursday 15 at 8:34

January

2010-02-02T09:34:00.004-06:00

January was kind of a good and bad month. I was surprised to see that I ran less than half the days, only 14. Clearly the cold I had through the holidays and getting sick after the marathon held me back. I promise I'll try to do better in February. On the good side was I did get in 194 miles and while that isn't a lot it is an average of almost 14 miles per run. I haven't had an average that high since June of 2005 but then I only ran 3 times that month and one of them was a marathon. (Okay, so I didn't really "run" that marathon. It was pretty slow and walking/jogging by the end.) Here's to a more consistent February!

Yesterday's 20 miler was way better than last week. Could be because I used a gel instead of sport beans. I also tried endurolytes for the first time. Jury is still out on those. I only tried them because I had a pack that was stuck in a goody bag from some event that I did. I really can't say if they helped. I'll probably try them again but likely only if I get them in a goody bag again. After I was done I felt good enough to take the dog out for rollerblading (cold but the road was (mostly) dry) and shovel the driveway. Anyway, another 20 miler on the treadmill and we're getting more snow this week so I'll probably be there for the rest of my runs too. At least today I'll just be doing some weightlifting and core/stretching work. Shorter than my run workouts.

All in: 20 miles at 8:34

The Standard

2010-01-28T21:23:00.004-06:00

This week set the standard of how I want my training to go for the next month or so. Sixty miles on four runs. I did a 20, a 15, a 10 of speedwork and another 15. Hopefully I can do that for the next month or so to build a base and then I'll begin a couple months where I cut back on the mileage but speed up the pace and build back up to that mileage again at the faster pace. That's the plan anyway.

So the nitty gritty for the week went like this: I already blogged about the 20 miler on Monday and then I did 15 on Wednesday. I tell you what, that one really beat me up and I don't know why. I'm suspecting it was my shoes which have about 450 miles on them. I ran in the evening and then all night long my legs were sore and it even woke me up during the night a few times. The next day I was wiped out and had to nap even. Then on Thursday evening I planned to do 10 with 6 one mile repeats. I honestly didn't know how I'd do them and didn't really think I would but I guess I just kept plugging away. My active recovery (walking/jogging) between miles was closer to 3:30-3:40 than the usual 3:00 but I don't mind that. So 6x1 mile at around 6:18 (going to try to speed that up some). Finally today, Saturday, I did 15 easy miles at 8:27 and was feeling much better.

Weight update: Okay, since you've been along for the ride this far I'll give you the full update. Marathon morning, Jan. 9th I can only assume I weighed 157. I was at a hotel so didn't actually weigh myself but that is about where I was for the week. So, marathon that day, nothing the next day, 12.4 the next and sick the 4th day. Next morning I was 150.8. That was about 2.5 weeks ago and now I'm still only back up to 153 as of this morning. Maybe that's the new baseline.

All in: Wednesday 15 at 8:14
Thursday 10 at 8:36 with 6x1 at 6:17
Saturday 15 at 8:27

Marathon Medal

2010-01-25T14:54:00.002-06:00

The Little Rock marathon unveiled their medal today. See here. I'll save you some reading though. This medal is 7.75 inches by 6 inches and weighs 1.67 pounds. Compare that to normal medals which average 2.5 inches and 3 ounces. Little Rock prides itself on having a large medal, could you tell. Also, the medal reflects its focus on going green for the marathon. Not sure what steps they'll take to do so but I for one wholeheartedly support that.

I have to say that a few days ago I realized I have another marathon in just about 3 weeks and kind of got excited about that. No burnout yet anyway.

My weight seems to be creeping back up but slowly. I'm back up 2 of the 6 or so that I lost. Not that it matters, just interesting.

Today I was on the treadmill for my 20 miler. I used a pack of sport beans for energy which is nutritionally the same as a pack of gu. I like the flavors and spread the beans out from mile 10 to mile 19 but for some reason they didn't seem to give me the boost that a gel pack (what I usually use) does. The last three miles were kind of a grind. Maybe that was because I kicked it down to 8:30 miles instead of 8:40's. I'll go back to the gels in the future.

All in: 20 miles at 8:41

How My Week Went

2010-01-22T12:21:00.003-06:00

It turns out that I was able to salvage a pretty good week of running after my slow start and disjointed schedule. The slow start was due to my illness last week and just recovering from that. The schedule was moved around because the kids had Monday off from school and tomorrow (Saturday) I have an all day winter camp event with the cub scouts. That should be fun though. I just hope it isn't too cold and wet.

So I ended up the week with 56.1 miles on 4 runs. Tuesday I started out for 15 but ended up with 16.2 miles. Wednesday was 10 miles but that also included speedwork. I did six mile repeats in the 6:15-6:20 range. Finally today I again set out for 15 miles but kind of figured I get in a little more than that. At the end I had done 17.5. All my running was done on the treadmill this week. Next week I'll be shooting for 60 miles on four runs.

Something interesting about the last week: from the morning of the MS Blues marathon to the day after the day I was really sick, 4 days, I lost about 6 pounds. That's a caloric deficit of close to 5,250 calories per day. Of course conventional wisdom says most of that would be water weight especially given how sick I was but now that I'm fully recovered I've only gained about 1/2 a pound back. That surprises me especially because I think I'm fully hydrated. The potty test shows that my color is good, pretty pale.

All in: Tuesday 16.2 at 8:47
Wednesday 10 at 8:24 (mile repeats)
Friday 17.5 at 8:35

Coming Around

2010-01-17T17:16:00.002-06:00

I've been well enough the last three days to start running again but just barely. I've been wiped out by all my runs and usually need to take a nap during the day to make up for them. This cold/illness is lingering I'm sure, because I am running but I guess I just can't bear not to run even if it is sloooooooow and tiring. Just muddling through it I guess.

Another tidbit that I've noticed is that our treadmill is way off from the ones at the club, which I believe are correct. When I run at home my pace is 20-40 seconds slower. Also I have to convert from metric since we brought the treadmill home with us from Japan. That is why I sometimes run 12.4 miles which = 20k. Maybe our treadmill has a slight slope to it which makes it harder. I'll have to check that out.

Okay, end of boring post but just wanted to let you know that I'm slowly coming around.

All in: Friday 5 at 10:03
Saturday 10 at 9:18
Sunday 12.4 at 9:41

More Marathon Thoughts

2010-01-11T13:18:00.005-06:00

This picture must have been towards the end because that is the only time I took my hat off.

My final placing was 93 out of 559 runners, top 17%; 19 out of 58 in my age group, top 33% and 80 out of 361 men, 22%. I passed 29 people after the halfway point and was passed by 5.

I forgot to mention on my original post that I was on a plane at the airport less than 2 hours after finishing the marathon. That includes time to walk back to the hotel, take an ice bath and shower. Quick trip!

This is a picture of the medal they gave. They also gave a harmonica emblazened with "MS Blues Marathon". Kind of cool. The kids like playing with it anyway.

Recovery seemed to go pretty well, for a few days anyway. On Monday I ran 12.4 miles albeit at a slow pace, 9:14, and it wasn't easy. Then Tuesday I was stricken by a nasty stomach virus that had me coming and going if you know what I mean. So I didn't run on Wednesday although I really, really, really, really, really wanted to and was sorely tempted. Today seems to be worse than yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow and Saturday? If so I still might be able to salvage something for January.

All in Monday 12.4 miles at 9:14

MS Blues Marathon

2010-01-09T20:22:00.003-06:00

First of all I must say that the MS Blues marathon is a nice little marathon. The fan support was a little lacking but I think there would have been more if it wasn't 20 degrees out. The volunteers were great though, very enthusiastic. I was warm enough but I was running. I imagine they had to be freezing just standing there. A couple nice touches at the start was the national anthem being played in a bluesy way on an electric guitar and a simultaneous start with a race by military personnel in Iraq that was played on a big screen.

I stayed at one of the recommended hotels and that made the logistics of the weekend very easy. They provided a shuttle to and from the airport, were just a few blocks from the expo and start/finish line and provided runners 20% off their pasta bar the night before the race. I met other runners that stayed there too and everybody was very friendly.

The cold created a few problems during the race. The aid stations became slippery as people spilled water around the tables and it froze. Almost all the cups of water that were handed to me had a thin layer of ice on top. A few spots on the road that normally had standing water were also frozen over. None of this was a big issue, just had to be a little more aware than normal sometimes.

I decided to wear running tights, stocking hat instead of headband and three layers on top. One tight non sleeve shirt, a long sleeve shirt and a tight-fitting pullover. The pullover has a small pocket in the back that I realized was stretchy enough to hold 6 gels. It was a bit floppy but didn't matter too much. I left my hotel room about 15 minutes before the start of the race and in spite of my cold I felt pretty good. I was there in plenty of time to let my Garmin acquire its satellites and stood by the portable heaters. As the race started I easily settled into an 8:30 pace but as I was feeling good that kept creeping faster. I did my best to try to hold back the pace though as I kept thinking that I wanted to be able to continue training next week. Five miles came in at 41:41, 8:20 pace.

During mile six I stopped to take a potty break. Probably a result of the belated attempt to sufficiently hydrate the night before. I think I ended up drinking too much too fast. Anyway, after relieving myself and walking through water stops I was still keeping up a satisfactory pace. The first 8-9 miles were fairly rolling but after that there was a long flat section. Around mile 9 for some reason I hit a mental low point. Not sure exactly why but the thought of running for almost 4 hours seemed to get to me. This has happened before during marathons but I just run through it because, what else am I going to do? Second five miles were 42:34, 8:30 pace.

From the elevation map on the website I expected the hills to hit at about the halfway point. I later found out that although they changed the course this year, they didn't update the elevation map. So I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't overly hilly. I hit the halfway point at about 1:50 and after another potty break and a gel, I had a nice positive mental surge. I realized I was halfway done and all I had to do was a two hour half marathon to meet my goal. Even if I totally fell apart and did a 2:10 half I would be in my goal range. Feeling good. Third five miles was 42:35, 8:31 pace.

During the second half of the race I generally passed more people than passed me although there were a few people that I played cat and mouse with. The miles through the teens seemed to fly by and soon there were only single digits to go and it was easy to start counting them down. For quite a few miles we ran through a nice wooded neighborhood. Occasionally people would be out to cheer on the runners and quite often they'd have a firepit in the front yard to keep warm. Mostly I kept thinking that I was glad I didn't have to rake their leaves in the fall. Fourth five miles was 43:03, 8:36 pace.

The last part of the race was where the hills hit, and they hit pretty hard. Although I knew my overall pace would slow because of the hills I still felt pretty strong and was happy to be able to push the pace a bit in a few places so as not to totally fall apart. Miles 21-24 were tough and I really had to mentally stay focused to keep running and keep pace. I was never really hit with the time-sucking walking/jogging that can plague me towards the end of some marathons though. I kept calculating my time and kept coming up with 3:48-3:50 which I would have been very happy with. For the last 4-5 miles I didn't even walk through any of the aid stations as I wasn't sweating very much and wasn't thirsty. At mile 24 somebody said there was only one big hill left. He missed it by 3 though. Fifth 5 miles was 43:54, 8:47 pace.

The only sign I remember was from a guy playing a cowbell that I saw three times on the course. It said "Doubters can suck it." Oh yeah, for some reason I remember one for somebody named Melissa.

Somebody passed me towards the end and I praised their finishing strength. Then it occurred to me that instead I should have praised their conservative start. I think I'll do that in future marathons, when somebody passes me towards the end, instead of saying "way to finish strong" I'll say "way to start smart."

Just before mile 26 I came upon a young guy running slowly. Here's our dialogue:

"Who puts a @#$%^ hill like this at the end of a marathon?"
"Dude, don't let it get to you."
"C'mon..."
"No, you c'mon, lets beat this hill."

But it was too late; the hill had already beaten him mentally and I never saw him again.

Shortly after that I passed the 26 mile mark at 3:43 and realized I could beat 3:45 if I picked it up a bit. So I did and finished in 3:44:50.

I'm quite happy with my time since I was was shooting for 3:50 but expecting closer to 4:00. My cold didn't seem to hinder me too much although there were a few times when I had to cough quite a bit. Just happy that I felt strong throughout and I think it was at a pace that will allow me to continue training next week.

All in 26.2 at 8:35.

2010

2010-01-07T13:26:00.001-06:00

As my first marathon of the year approaches I think it is time to blog about my goals for 2010 and my plan for this marathon. I'll list them in order of importance.

1) Run a marathon in every month of the year. Pretty self explanatory and well known since it has been on my blog for several months now. It is a stretch and I think my odds of doing it are less than 50% depending on my abilities/travel/family or other commitments. Something to shoot for though.

2) Get a marathon PB sometime during the year. When I got my current marathon PB I was running really well; in fact I got my 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon PB's within 2.5 weeks. Honestly I don't know if I'll be able to run that well again but if I can then it should be this year while I'm putting on all of these miles. My marathon time was really hindered by the half marathon that I ran two weeks prior and didn't fully recover from otherwise it would have been much faster. That is the only reason that I think I can improve on my current marathon PB.

3) Race well in several smaller, shorter races/triathlons throughout the year. If I don't have other things to look at I'm afraid the marathoning will get stale and I would get burnt out. I'd like to do 2-3 sprint triathlons.

4) Finish all the marathons in under 4 hours. This is not really a big deal, just something I'd like to do. Currently I have 3 marathons within a minute or so of 3:20, three from 3:50 to 4:00 and two slower than that (one I was running with a friend and one I ran about 70 miles in the previous 3 months). Not that I have to make excuses for running 4:00+ marathons but I guess I do.

5) Run a negative split marathon. Honestly, I don't think they make these. I'm supposed to run 20 miles and then get faster? I don't see it.

Finally I also really want to support my wife and son (9)and get them to do some more races/triathlons. My son has done 5k's and triathlons and I'd like him to do more. My wife has done 5k's, has her eyes on 10k's and just maybe, even further. If we all have enough fun even my daughter (6) could get into the picture. She has done one kid's triathlon.

So those are my goals and now my plan for this weekend. I originally thought I'd go out at 8:30-8:40, a comfortable pace, walk through the water stops to keep hydrated and then finish around 3:50, 8:46 per mile. But now the weather forecast is for 20 degrees and a breeze at the start and warming up to mid 20's by the time I finish. Even coming from MN that is not optimal. So now I'll have to wear gloves (and get gel over them), tights, long sleeves and jacket and a hat/headband. I usually carry all my gels in the pockets of my Soark shorts. But with tights I won't be able to do that. I do have pockets in my jacket but they would flop around a lot more right in my stomach area. I could wear my shorts over my tights but I have always thought that looks goofy. Add to all of that the fact that I still have my cold and it seems to have moved from my head down to my lungs. We all know that isn't good. Today it took me about half an hour to clear out all of the nasty green stuff. So I guess things don't look promising and I'll definitely not get goal #5 and could very seriously lose #4 for the entire year. Good thing those aren't the important ones.

I'll have a race report next week.

All in: Wednesday 10 at 8:32 (and it felt good, kept wanting to go faster)

Off and running...

2010-01-04T13:50:00.002-06:00

Finally I felt good enough today to get out and run. Not actually out since it is 0 degrees but I did put 15 miles on the treadmill. Legs felt great as you would expect with three days off. They kept wanting to go faster but my lungs and head said no. I still need to take it easy and get 100% over this cold after all.

I don't really feel like I can taper going into this marathon or have a rest week coming out of it. I'm hoping I can train right through it actually. It will just be like a well supported long run. Usually I take 1 or no gels during my long runs but I'll take several during the marathon so hopefully my recovery won't take too long. If I need to have a taper and recovery week surrounding each marathon I do then I'll only be able to train for 2 weeks out of each month. So this first marathon will be an interesting test of how well I'll be able to train in the days before and after it.

All in 15 miles at 8:42

2009

2010-01-03T10:20:00.002-06:00

2009 was a pretty good year of running for me. I finished off December with 204 miles which is my highest monthly total since December of 2007. For the year I had 1,500 miles which is pretty good considering I was doing a lot of biking and swimming from March through June as I was training for a half iron triathlon. I did two marathons, qualified for Boston, one half marathon and 3 5k's although only one was run seriously. For 2010 I have new goals but I'll address them in a later post.

I am getting off to a rather slow start to this year though. I haven't run yet! Unfortunately I still have a wicked head cold that I am trying to get over but I am feeling a little better now. I'm hoping to run 15 tomorrow on my way to 50 for the week which shouldn't be too hard to get to since I'll be running over half of that on Saturday.

Happy new year everybody!

Weekend Update

2009-12-29T14:12:00.003-06:00

I'm getting behind in my blogging and blog reading. I'll just chalk that up to the holiday season and busy-ness that goes along with it. Trying to get caught up now.

Last week ended up being a decent week of running, better than I had expected. Fifty-two total miles after I added a 15 miler on Wednesday, 9 miles of speedwork on Thursday and 8 miles on Saturday. Since we travelled towards the end of the week I thought my mileage would taper off a bit more but my wife and I were able to get out in warm Las Vegas for some running. We went to Sunset Park. For those unfamiliar it is a big park with a pond, ball fields, playground, swimming pool, frisbee golf course and a 1 mile packed dirt running path. Very nice. We got out there Saturday and Sunday morning with my wife doing 5 on Saturday, the furthest she's run in decades.

This week won't be quite as high mileage-wise for several reasons. First, the kids are home from school and I can't just leave them home and head out. Second, after 3 50 mile weeks in a row I should have a low mileage week. Finally I've got a nasty cold since last night. Sinus headache, sneezing, runny nose and sore throat. I think it'll just last a few days.

Looks like I'll top 200 miles this month for the first time in a couple years which coincides with me taking up triathloning. So I don't mind if the mileage is low when I'm swimming and biking too. I'll update final month and year totals after the new year.

Be safe!

All in: Wednesday 15.01 at 8:30
Thursday 9 at 7:58 with 5 mile repeats from 6:26 to 6:06
Saturday 8 at 7:27
Sunday 6 at 7:38

More Bells

2009-12-21T14:15:00.003-06:00

Okay, I promise this won't become a woodworking blog but just wanted to show off a few more bells that I've made. These are for my sisters and are about 3 inches in height versus the 6-7 inch one I made for my wife. I'll put a little hangar thing on these so they can be used as ornaments. I only have four sisters so likely my wife will be getting one of these too. The white bells are Corian, the counter top material while the handles are various woods.

Okay, back to running. Had a decent week last week, getting in about 53 miles in 4 runs. Fortunately not all of it was on treadmills as Saturday morning was about 20 degrees. Since my son had a basketball game I couldn't run with my normal group and got out alone at 6:30 AM. A lot earlier than I'm used to! This week I'm hoping to get close to 50 miles but since we'll be traveling for Christmas and the kids will be out of school starting Wednesday, it might be difficult. Started out right though as I got off the treadmill less than an hour ago after 20 miles and almost 3 hours. My entry in my training log was "Ugh". Unfortunately I foresee a lot more of that in the future.

All in: Wednesday 13.19 at 8:50
Thursday 8 at 7:58 (speedwork with 4 mile repeats in the 6:20's)
Saturday 13.67 at 8:52 (honestly each mile felt about 20 seconds faster per mile)
Monday (today) 20.06 at 8:49

Another Hobby

2009-12-14T14:15:00.004-06:00

My other hobby (is running a hobby? Maybe more of an obsession or passion?) is woodworking. I haven't done too much of it in the last year but I enjoy it when I do. I always make my wife two things for Christmas. One is a nativity scene and the other is something from the stump of our Christmas tree from the previous year. This year I decided to make her a bell. What do you think? I'm no artisan but I'm happy with how it turned out. The nativity scene might be a last minute thing though...

Running and woodworking have something in common and that is patience. You just can't be in a hurry to run 10, 12 or more miles and you have to slowly shape the wood and fit it together. Any big mistakes on measuring or cutting and you have to start all over again. Unfortunately in both arenas I am in all too much of a hurry to get things done. I think one day I'll learn the lesson I'm trying to teach myself.

I found some treadmills a the club that don't have to be reset after 60 minutes. So my big motivation today was to put up a big number on the display, at least 18 miles. Unfortunately I found out that they do reset at 100 minutes. D'oh. So the only big number I put up was just over 11 miles and then I had to start over again.

All in: 18.35 at 8:43

Another Title Deficient Post

2009-12-12T13:34:00.003-06:00

Two things struck me as I sat down at the computer at 6:30 this morning. The first was that there is only 28 days until my next marathon. How did this happen? Can I really do 12 of those things next year? With the holidays in there I think the time will go fast before I toe the line again. I better get ready.

The second thing was that I was happy to see that it was 7 degrees out. 7 degrees = happy. I guess it's all relative and when you are expecting 0 degrees 7 turns out to be a blessing. I mean, I had done 12 degrees last week so how much worse could 7 be? Didn't really matter that the wind chill was below zero because, heck, I'd be going with the wind at least half the time. Zero just seems a lot worse somehow. I know it's coming, and I'll probably get out and run in it, but it just seems a lot worse.

I was planning on 12-13 but the group I was running with did 8. Since I ran to and from the running store where we met up that put me closer to 14 for the day and that put me at 50.01 for the whole week. Not a huge achievement, I've been there before and will be there again but not bad for 4 runs either. The pace was a little slow today as it is hard to run when you are slipping on packed snow, trudging through an unshoveled path or dodging large lumps thrown up onto the sidewalk by the snowplow.

I was supposed to do speedwork on Thursday. Wasn't really up for that. I could tell my legs were tired from the day before so I decided to do a tempo run instead. Aaaaactually it was too slow to really be termed a tempo run so it was kind of a marathon paced run. A short marathon paced run. After a two mile warm up I finished with 5 miles at 7:13. Not bad, especially considering that my HR was lower than the first five miles of MP runs that I was doing for the Marine Corps and Myrtle Beach marathons. My legs were tired though so I didn't run anymore than that.

All in: Thursday 7 at 7:40
Saturday 13.87 at 8:28

(Don't) Let It Snow

2009-12-09T14:42:00.004-06:00

Ugh, the snow is here and I think it's going to stay. It came down all night and I awoke to a nice drift on the driveway to shovel. I must admit that ever since I lived in the warm-weather city of Tokyo that I am a weather-wimp. Minnesota is not a good place for me to live. But here I am and now I have to make the best of it which, more times than not, means the treadmill. Especially on days like today when it is snowing, blowing 30 mph gusts and has temperatures in the single digits.

So after relocating the snow from my driveway to our lawn and unstucking my wife's car from the driveway, a process that took 90 minutes by the way, I headed to the health club to run. I got to come up with a way to count the shoveling as a workout. Like say, each shovel throw equals a step and they all add up to miles somehow. Too bad Mr. Garmin won't count shovel loads for me. Anyway, I started out on the treadmill at a nice and easy 8:57 pace and didn't expect it to feel as good as it did. I sped up and still felt good. And then I did it again. I was feeling so good that I decided to turn it into somewhat of a progression run with each mile faster than the last. I ended up with the last one at 7:35 and the whole run at an 8:11 average. Not incredibly fast overall but at least the last few were at a decent pace and with a good amount of miles too.

Monday, which might have been one of the last outside runs of the year, was 17.14 miles. Usually my long runs are a little slower than I ran but I wanted to get out of the cold and wind so the pace was a little faster.

Okay, I'll try to stop complaining about the weather so much but don't count on it.

All in: Today 12 at 8:11
Monday: 17.14 at 8:32

Week In Review

2009-12-05T10:37:00.002-06:00

What a good week of running it has been. I did have one bad day but overall it has been good so I'm focusing on that. It all started off with me officially signing up for the Mississippi Blues marathon on Monday. Glad to get that on the schedule so I can firm up my training plan. After that I did about 16.5 miles at a casual pace.

Tuesday was some weightlifting and stretching; which, by the way, I'm crediting with getting rid of my lingering upper hamstring/lower buttocks pain. It never really slowed my running (I don't think anyway) but it was a pain. I rarely feel it at all these days.

Tuesday I got in an odd run because it was 12 nonstop miles. I ran outside but traffic, shoelaces, stoplights, nothing stopped me. I can't remember when or if I've ever been able to do that before. Usually I'll try to stop to catch my breath or just because I'm lazy or pain averse but after going a few miles with good breaks on the traffic lights I set a goal in my head and met it. On top of that was that I originally set out for only 10 miles.

Thursday's run was the bad day. Since it has suddenly turned cold and I didn't want to run outside I went to the health club to hit the treadmills for some speedwork. Unfortunately my left knee decided to give me some excuses not to run. Earlier in the week it was a little sore but loosened up nicely after a little running. After I warmed up for two miles it really didn't like the change of pace to a 6:27 mile. I was a bit disappointed in that but still wanted to get some work in so I switched to half mile repeats in 3:11, 3:11 and 3:06. In total I got in 6 miles but was a bit concerned. One minor positive is that I felt like I wimped out after "only" getting 6 miles in.

Friday was more lifting and stretching.

Then today I ran with my running group and...no knee pain! I don't know where it went but I didn't even have to warm up into the run, it was gone from the beginning. Maybe the icing and pain killers are just what the doctors ordered. So we did 10 miles at just over 8 minutes per mile and it felt very easy. Nice run all the way around. Of course then I came home and got Hiroo out for a few miles too. Oh, did I mention it was 12 degrees out?

All in: Monday 16.54 at 8:40 (quite windy)
Wednesday 12.02 at 8:47
Thursday 6.02 at 7:51
Saturday 12.28 at 8:07

It's Official!

2009-11-30T20:58:00.000-06:00

I'm signed up for the Mississippi Blues Marathon.

Turkey Trot Race Report

2009-11-28T12:28:00.002-06:00

Again I'm conflicted, should you really have a race report about a turkey trot? I'm going to I guess, for my own record keeping. First I must say stay away from Taco John's for any late night snacking; gave my son and me a gurgly stomach all week. Your experiences may vary.

We flew to the Black Hills of South Dakota to spend the holiday with my family. Had beautiful weather there all week, upper 50's to 60's. Very nice. Race morning was chilly but beautiful nonetheless. As we waited around at the end I was in shorts, no hat or gloves and not even the slightest bit chilled, even after 45 minutes. The event was very casual. Verrrrrry casual. There was a clock but no official timing. Didn't really seem to be an official finish line either as there was a sign with a turkey on it (like the starting line), the clock at the finish and a third spot with FINISH written on the walkway. By all accounts the course was .08-.1 miles long too.

Still, I enjoyed the race as it was the first 5k I've done in quite some time. I never really respected the distance before until I moved to Tokyo. There my running club did a 5k time trial every month. I definitely grew to respect and enjoy the distance. Well, three paragraphs in and I haven't really started the race report. Here goes:

The course was mostly flat and I started out a little quick. At one point Mr. Garmin read 6:16 per mile so I slowed a little from that. I was passed by a very tall guy in yellow, like 6'5" or so. I was surprised because shorter is usually better. Kept running and settled in behind a younger person, maybe a high school cross country runner, with a funny way of kicking his heels out when he ran. The one mile point (no mile markers, just Mr. Garmin) was at a turn around, 6:34. I counted maybe 20 people in front of me. Most looked like young runners in high school or college but I didn't really pay attention. On the way back we ran into the bulk of everybody else which made the sidewalk very crowded. Heavy breather came up behind me but had a hard time passing because of the oncoming people. Eventually she did though and I was surprised to see it was a young woman. Didn't fit with the heavy breathing.

Mile two came and went at 6:34 again, quite consistent anyway. I knew my pace was 7 seconds off of 20 minute pace but I didn't want to push harder and then really blow up. In mile 3 I was passed by a couple young guys running easy and chatting. At first I was impressed that the pace was so easy for them but then I was less impressed with their effort. I mean really, run hard why don't you? But then it hit me that this was a turkey trot after all so I cut them some slack (all this occurred in my mind though). My pace for the last mile slowed to 6:49 but part of that was climbing a 12-15 foot bank by a stream and then running about half a mile on the grass. Took me back to my own high school cross country days. I felt I was keeping a decent pace and passed heavy breather. I finished strong but was confused at the finish line fiasco. Oh well, it was just a turkey trot. Official time by Mr. Garmin was 21:08 but I'm reducing that to 20:36 for an actual 5k distance. With passing some people and getting passed I figured I was in the 20-25 range of finishers.

After a minute or two of rest I headed back out on the course in reverse to find my wife. We met up about a half mile from the finish and I paced her in to a PB of just over 35 minutes. She never thinks she can do those things by I always know she can. Funny how you can have so much more confidence for other people's running. Now she's all intimidated about the 10k I'm pushing her towards.

Other good news is that I won a cherry pie that they held a drawing to give away. They had 350 pies for 800-900 runners. After that, like many of you I'm sure, was much food and a nap. Nice.

Today was a nice sunny morning but cooler, maybe 30 degrees. Got in a good distance and paced run with a group. Oh, thanks for all the well wishes about the knee. A little bit of lingering pain but it is getting to be less and less every day. Not holding me back at all.

All in: Thursday 5.3 at 7:45
Saturday 11.21 at 8:14.

Easy Come, Easy Go

2009-11-24T15:21:00.002-06:00

Seems how well I was running last week was reserved for last week. I started this week off with a little bit of brand-spanking-new knee pain. Not worried because it isn't running related; it started after playing basketball with my son and some neighborhood kids Sunday afternoon. I guess running could aggravate it though but it already seems to be going away. I'm sure it is nothing to worry about.

Anyway, because of the knee pain I took yesterday off and ran a little today. I was planning on having a low mileage/rest week so at least my training schedule isn't out of whack. I did a couple mile repeats to tune up for my 5k turkey trot this Thursday. (Are turkey trots supposed to be taken so seriously?) After working way too hard to get around in 6:16 and 6:30, I called it quits. Wasn't doing much good and thought I'd be more rested if I didn't push for any more. After last week's running I was pretty confidant I could go sub 20. Now not so much. Looking forward to it anyway, haven't done a hard 5k in quite some time now.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

All in: 5.5 at 7:47 (with Hiroo)

Running With The Dog

2009-11-21T20:47:00.002-06:00

Well after Monday's 16 miler I've had some real good runs this week. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the weightlifting and stretching taking affect. The recent speedwork? Could be just a good few days. And, of course, there's always the bacon.

Anyway, I already mentioned my 10 mile run on Wednesday and how that went. Thursday I ran with the family pet, Hiroo, to the local track and tied him up while I did a few mile repeats. The first one went by in 6:30; not bad, about what I figured. But the second one was feeling pretty good and I got around in 6:10. !!!??? That was a surprise. Especially since my half repeats last week were at about that pace. The last one I decided to take Hiroo and see how he'd do. Actually pretty well as he about dragged me around the track and wouldn't stop frolicking and playing with his leash. 6:12. Maybe next time I'll have him run with me the whole way.

This morning I got out with the running group again, like most recent Saturdays. We started out for 8 at about 8:00 but never really hit that pace. No, me and another guy just got going and wouldn't slow down. Don't know why. We were both wearing Garmins. We both knew we were going too fast and didn't really want/need to go that fast. Just kept going though, guess we were in a rhythm. We finished at just over 8 miles at a 7:39 pace. Kind of quick! I went home after that and added on a couple more miles with Hiroo but since they were a little slower they didn't do much for him. I need to get him back out and let him pull me on the rollerblades again.

One last note on the mile repeats. I'm planning on doing a 5k turkey trot on turkey day and was hoping to go under 20 minutes. There was a time about 18 months ago that would be a no brainer. Well, now it is somewhat of a brainer. Not sure if I can do it but I'm feeling better about it now since it requires keeping a 6:27 pace. We'll see how this week goes.

All in: Thursday 6.6 @ 7:47 (4.6 for Hiroo)
Saturday 10.6 @ 7:50.

What a difference a day makes (or two)

2009-11-18T13:31:00.003-06:00

On Monday I got out for a 16 miler (okay, Mr. Garmin said 15.81 but since my goal was 15 I'm happy) which is what my long runs consist of these days and I don't mind saying it kicked my @$$. Don't know why. The first half was about 8:10's but the second half was closer to 8:40's; putting me at 8:23 for the whole thing which is okay. The real bad part was how tired and sore I felt later in the day and yesterday. I'm only a few weeks out from marathon training and already 16 miles puts me on my butt? How sad.

I did get in my lifting yesterday with some success but I was worried about running today. I just didn't want to get out and have it be a chore and not enjoyable. Maybe that's why I procrastinated an extra hour or so. Anyway, my run today turned out to be pretty good. It was only 10 so I didn't have to push those extra 6 (5.81) miles but I did it at an 8:09 pace and ran negative splits by over 30 seconds. That is especially noteworthy since the first half is significantly downhill and then uphill coming home. Not sure why I ran well but I think it has something to do with nutrition as I did eat a Baconator last night. I think bacon is the new spinach.

All in: Monday 16 (15.81) at 8:23
Wednesday 10 at 8:09

Return to Stretching

2009-11-14T11:09:00.007-06:00

I'm kind of liking my new workout routine. The running is pretty much the same although I'm adding a weekly speed workout. Hopefully I can find some others to join me in that. Also I'm adding some weightlifting and...wait for it...stretching. Never really been much of a stretcher, mostly because I've always been pretty flexible anyway. Also I used the studies that say stretching lengthens ligaments, tendons and muscles and decreases their ability to spring back, therefore decreasing running speed as justification for not stretching. Now of course I'm reading about the injury prevention benefits and that the decrease in range of motion caused by inflexibility also causes a decrease in running speed. So a little bit of stretching for me. How little? Well I've read that as little as 30 seconds a day can increase your flexibility for up to six weeks. After that maybe I'll go wild and bump it up to 45 seconds a day.

The weightlifting is nice because it is such a short workout. I can get it all done in about 45 minutes which is easy compared to running for twice that long. I do have to watch myself a bit though because last Monday I pushed a little too hard and had to bag my run on Tuesday. Way too sore. Oh well, I'm gradually building it up.

Running? Oh yeah, I did a little bit of that this week too.

All in: Wednesday: 12.8 miles @ 8:20
Thursday: 6.55 @ 7:47; 4x800 in 3:12, 3:08, 3:04 and 2:58
Saturday: 10.71 @ 8:16

Stretching? Nah...

2009-11-07T14:55:00.002-06:00

Well, I was going to blog a little about stretching, but like stretching itself I'll put that off to another day. Since I've had some comments on my stated goal of a marathon a month for 2010, I'll talk about that instead.

So that's my goal, to do one marathon each month. I'm not optimistic about it getting done, in fact I put the odds at maybe 50%. There are two main areas that will cause problems: a) my abilities to avoid injury and burn out and b) logistics/expense. To avoid injuries I'm just going to try to build a large aerobic base and back off when I have to. To avoid burn out: ??? As for the logistics/expense, well, I'm lucky enough to be married to a woman who worked for Northwest Airlines long enough for us to have flight benefits. Free flights! But (there's always a but) they are standby only so if I'm signed up for a marathon and there are no open flights for me to get there, I'm SOL. That definitely can help with the expense but hotels, cars and race fees will add up. As far as logistics, well, the flights are a potential problem but being gone one weekend a month could be an issue too. Won't know about that until it happens.

Right now I have the first part of the year planned out although I haven't signed up for any races yet. Here is the plan:

January: Mississippi Blues Marathon, Jackson, MS or First Light Marathon, Mobile, AL
February: Mercedes Marathon, Birmingham, AL or Last Chance For Boston, Columbus, OH
(also possiblish: Sedona Marathon, Sedona, AZ and New Orleans Mardi Gras Marathon, a Rock n Roll event)
March: Little Rock Marathon, Little Rock AR (all about the bling)
April: Oklahoma City Marathon, Oklahoma City, OK
May: Green Bay Marathon, Green Bay, WI
Summer: a marathon in Alaska
Fall and Winter: ???

Any input/insight/recommendation is welcome and appreciated.

This week I seem to be recovering pretty well. In addition to my 10 mile run on Tuesday I ran the same route on Thursday only a couple minutes faster thanks to pushing the hills the last 3 miles. Remind me not to do that again. This morning I ran with a new group of people that a friend recommended to me. We met at a local running store, a group of about 10-12 with various distances and abilities. One had qualified for Boston, a few more were trying, one was training for an iron distance triathlon and a couple were just getting back into it. I did 10 as I was planning but then the woman training for the IM wanted to do 10 more minutes so another guy and I jumped in. Ended up going 11.76 and yes, we went longer than 10 minutes. Ever notice when you run with a group the pace only gets faster? People always want to keep up but nobody ever wants to be the one to fall behind so the ebbs and flows of a run end up just getting faster and faster. Good training if that's what you are looking for.

All in: Thurs 10 @ 8:04 and Sat 11.76 @ 8:04.

Okay, now what?

2009-11-03T13:51:00.003-06:00

I was all set to run yesterday but when the time came, well, it wasn't there. But no problem, I just decided to do a weightlifting workout instead. That is one thing I'm going to add to my workout regimen, weights. Didn't want to overdo it yesterday, just tried out some of the machines, did some light leg work and some for the core too. That's what is getting me today, the core.

So, in addition to the weights, what am I going to do? I was all set continue the long runs, MP runs and add in some speed work but now I'm second guessing that. My goal is to do a marathon a month next year and if I'm going to accomplish that I think I'll need a bigger aerobic base. That means miles and lots of them. So I think that's what I'll do; slow it down and pound them out. I'm going to pick up a couple workouts per week too, up to five or so. Perhaps I'll even get back to my all time high weekly mileage of 70-80 miles. Well, maybe not. But I do have lots of time to build up and peak for a couple key marathons next year so I'll start back at the beginning, laying the foundation.

I started that today with a nice 10 mile run. Felt good, laboring towards the end because of the hills and wind. I guess I didn't overdo it with the weights because my legs felt good. Still not 100% recovered but it's coming. And you know what? I don't need to be recovered yet, just need to get in the miles.

All in: 10 miles at 8:14 pace.

Ever have trouble thinking of titles?

2009-10-30T14:33:00.003-05:00

Another thing I remember about the marathon but forgot to write: on our ride home on the subway we sat across from a man who had run and his wife/girlfriend/partner. She was talking on the phone to someone about his time and kept calling it his "score". "It was his best score ever." "They haven't posted the official scores yet but when they do we'll let you know." That was funny enough but then he wasn't even correcting her. Isn't that odd?

A little bit of recovery running today. Isn't it odd that when I'm resting/recovering like today that I'm looking forward to running and another marathon but when I'm in training I'd rather rest? Is everyone like that? It felt good to get out though except for the fact that I ran on the windiest day of the year if not ever. My HR was way up so I guess that was telling me I'm not fully recovered yet. I'll just have to work back into it.

Don't forget the NYC marathon this Sunday. 9 AM Eastern time but the actual races don't start until 9:10 women and 9:40 men. Watch live at www.universalsports.com. I know of at least one blogger that is running. You go girl!

All in: 6.31 @ 8:13 pace.

2009 Marine Corps Marathon

2009-10-27T07:20:00.005-05:00

Right to the heart of the matter, I ran 3:52:11 for the marathon. That is about what I had expected but a touch slower than I really wanted. Training went down hill the last 2-3 weeks. I'm content with my time and don't want to feel like I have to apologize for it just because I've run faster.

Now for the whole race. This is a bit long and probably not overly well written so enter at your own risk.

I was running the race with a friend (his first) and we arrived at the start just in time to use the port-a-potty, check our bags and head to the line. He hung out towards the back as I jogged up to the 3:20-3:40 corral. I was able to climb over the barrier with just a couple minutes to spare so I didn't have to spend too much time waiting around. There was a cool fly-over by a couple of these bad boys. Suddenly the cannon went off and we were moving. Well not really, it took me about 3 minutes to actually cross the starting line. Since I had decided not to really "race" the event I just tried to get into a comfortable pace. I didn't even look at my Garmin because I was afraid it would affect my pace. Then maybe a half mile in my shoe came untied. Really? Already? So off to the side it was to fix that. I had a couple early observations: 1) Why are all these slow runners and even a few walkers up here at the start of the race? It's not really a pet peeve or something that even bugs me a lot but just out of courtesy they should start within their correct corral. I may not have finished within the time of my corral but at least I was at the correct pace in the beginning. And 2) I noticed more women going potty by the roadside then I ever have before. In fact I don't ever remember seeing that before. They just pulled the part of their shorts between their legs aside and squatted a bit. Good for them but it seemed awkward. (I guess if Paula Radcliffe can do it...)

I seemed to settle in at around 8:00 minutes per mile. I knew the course had hills but they were a bit more than I had expected so I just took it real easy going up and let myself go coming down. I decided to use the latest "drink when you are thirsty" research so I bypassed a couple early waterpoints. Mistake? I don't know but I was definitely well hydrated from the previous couple days. Somewhere in the early miles we passed under a large American flag hung over the course and a few military personnel next to me pointed and said that's the only motivation they needed.

5k in 24:51. I decided I was happy that I wasn't trying to do a real fast marathon. It would have led me to do too much weaving through the crowd and work too hard on the hills. I had forgotten how crowded it was in such a big race. But I was enjoying it, lots and lots of runners around. Going up and down all the hills we caught up to and were passed by a fair number of the wheelchair racers. Usually the people with the ipods had to be tapped on the shoulder to get out of the way. I was feeling okay but had to go to the bathroom again. I always play the game of can I wait this one out? Will it go away? Should I just stop? Well, this time the question was answered for me as my shoe came untied AGAIN. So I pulled off to the side and doubleknotted it this time and got some relief.

10k in 49:57. I kept looking for the 7 mile marker expecting a large hill when I heard someone next to me ask "Have we passed 7 miles yet?" and someone said we had. I looked at my Garmin and it showed 7.5. Nice. At 8 miles I took a gel, expecting a water station soon since that was where it was supposed to be. Turns out it was closer to 9 miles. Oh well, no harm done. It started flattening out at that point and we neared our first pass of the Lincoln Memorial. I knew my family would be there so I started looking for them. They were yelling and yelling for me but I only saw them as I passed by, too late for high fives for my kids. The crowds were great through this point and offered a lot of energy and support. Saw the first of many signs saying "Your feet hurt because you are kicking butt!" Then we started to head out on an island and suddenly the crowds were gone. No shouting, cheering or cow bells. Only the constant rhythm of hundreds of footfalls to keep pace with. It was also around here that I noticed the fatigue setting in. Somewhere around mile 11-12 is definitely way too early for that. I knew I'd walk at some point but just wanted to keep running while I had the chance.

Half in 1:45:35. At the halfway point is a turn around on the island. Little did I know that we were running with a slight tailwind for the last 5-6 miles. Now a headwind, ugh. Now I was just trying to duck in behind runners as they were passing me. I decided to keep running until I saw my family again at mile 16. I was able to do that but unfortunately my family wasn't there. Evidently my son had a sudden case of needing to go to the bathroom right about that time. That was at the Lincoln Memorial again and we started our trek along the mall. We passed the Vietnam Memorial, Washington Monument, WWII, Korean war and of course some others that I'm missing. I distinctly remember thinking somewhere in there that I really thought I'd be more inspired when running through that portion. Someone held a sign saying "Run if you think I'm sexy." A lot of people were running so I guess she was. I stopped to walk for the first time around mile 18. Mostly my hamstrings/upper buttocks were feeling sore. Cardiovascular didn't seem like too much of a problem. Someone yelled at a couple Navy guys to get going because an Air Force guy was just ahead. "We're all on the same team" answered the man from Navy. At the end of the mall we did a turn around by the Capitol and as I passed a high school band was playing the theme to Rocky. Sounds corny but at that point in a marathon any sort of motivation is good and I got a little from that.

35k in 3:05:28. The "Your feet are hurting..." signs were getting tiresome because it felt like my butt was getting kicked. Saw several signs warning me "Don't poop your pants, self, shorts etc" What's up with that? Someone have a bad experience once? Somewhere in the last 10k the miles started flying by. Not time-wise of course by I was always further along than I though I was. I thought I was coming up to mile 20 and I was already at 21.5. Saw Death holding up a sign saying "The end is near." Mile 23 came quickly and it seemed just after mile 24 that mile 25was already there. Sign: "Toenails are over-rated."

All along the last bit I was just telling myself to keep up the effort and enjoy what I could because it would be over before I knew it. And suddenly there it was, the last uphill .2 miles to the finish. I had visions of charging up the hill like all the runners around me were doing but as soon as I started up the incline all along the back of my legs clenched. I was just trying to keep moving to avoid a full cramping breakdown. And finally I was done. It wasn't until then that I realized how thirsty I was. Maybe I should have started drinking from the very first water stops.

After we got back to the hotel my kids took enjoyment in running an ice bath for me. I could barely spend more than several seconds at a time in there and wasn't in for more than a few minutes total but it definitely helped. Not a miracle cure but more than I thought it would. The backs of my legs felt a lot better.

There it is, not much more to say. The marines run a good race but the mass of people is overwhelming at times. The finish area is long and difficult to get through. Text updates were very slow (didn't get the 30k update until after I finished) and only good for relatives following your progress from afar. The subway was incredibly packed at the end and I was in front of the big bulge. Truly though, it is a good race and I'm glad I did it.

Thanks for all the well wishes. No pity consoling comments saying I'll get it next time. I fully embrace my effort, the race and the time that it resulted in.

All in: 26.2 in 8:52 (26.56 by Mr. Garmin)

Ready or not...

2009-10-22T12:10:00.002-05:00

My last run is out of the way, another dismal comparison to my Myrtle Beach fitness but I'll leave it at that and save you the details and ugly chart. The cold has neither worsened or slackened (a word?). So my plans have gone from initially starting out at about 7:25 per mile in hopes of a 3:15-3:20 marathon to hoping I can find a rhythm in the 7:45-8:00 range and try to keep this think under 3:30. Quite honestly though it might be as much as 3:45-4 hours and I'm fine with that. I just want to have a positive experience and I think I will. As long as I'm not reduced to a shuffling, crawling, incoherent mass I'll be happy.

Final preparations are now being done since we fly out early tomorrow morning. Got my new bright orange technical shirt because my wife wants to be able to spot me better. I've done a few runs in it to make sure it is comfy. Garmin and camera batteries are charged. All necessary papers and maps printed out. Last blog entry is done (well, mostly).

Best of luck to all runners and spectators this weekend. I'll be in touch with a race report next week.

All in: 3 miles at 7:56.

Looking Back

2009-10-19T14:08:00.007-05:00

First off, congrats to all racers over the weekend. Marathonguide.com said it was the weekend in 2009 with the most marathons scheduled.

With every marathon I do I like to look back at my training for other marathons to assess my fitness. This one is no different and if you are reading this, you get to come along for the ride. I'm comparing my training with the Myrtle Beach marathon because that one is the closest (did it in February) and has the most similar training schedule (3-4 runs per week with one long and 2 MP runs). The key difference in training was that for MB I spent a month building up my MP runs from 5-8 miles before hitting a month of long ones. For MCM I spent that month doing speedwork and then started the long MP runs. As you can see from the chart below, I ran more miles the two months prior to taper for MCM but at a slower pace. I think that was mostly due to the slow miles (warm up, recovery, warm down) associated with the speedwork. When you look at just one month prior to taper MB is definitely better with more miles and a faster pace. In looking at long runs though MCM has the advantage with 7 runs of 17 miles or better to only 4 for MB. Finally I did a workout today that was the same that I did for the MB taper. It was 5 miles with one warm up, one a little faster, two fast and then one a little slower. This data is also on the chart. All things are quite equal except the most telling stat, avg HR. I was working quite a bit harder this time around.

What does it all mean? It means that I think my training and preparation was pretty similar to what I did for MB where I ran 3:19:54 but the cold that I have now is holding me back and causing my HR to rise. It's like I've gone back 2-3 months in training. Anyway, that's what it looks like from my point of view. Later this week, I'll share my marathon plan and prediction.

Sorry about the format of the chart. Haven't figured out how to put a decent chart into this thing yet.

All in: 5 miles at 7:46.

Countdown Begins

2009-10-16T16:17:00.002-05:00

Ten days from today...Marine Corps Marathon. Early weather reports are good, low of 50, high of 67, partly cloudy. Touch on the warm side but certainly can't complain. Hopefully a tailwind all the way around. ;)

Like I said before, the Garmin is back. Big relief. They certainly were fast on the turn around. Actually, this is a reconditioned unit, not the one that I sent in. I don't mind though, it works well and holds a charge. Speaking of the Garmin, have any of you ever turned it on for the first 10 minutes of a flight? Kind of fun to watch the speed and elevation indicator go so fast. Try it sometime.

I certainly have some sort of something or other going on with me. As I go about my normal day I really don't feel any different but when I try to run (is that not normal?) my HR goes wacko at speeds it has no business going wacko over. This week I got in no run longer than 8 miles. I know I'm tapering but I still don't have a good feeling going into this marathon. Hopefully I come back around in 10 days...

Woo hoo!

2009-10-14T12:24:00.000-05:00

Garmin's back. :)

Is it just me?

2009-10-12T20:40:00.002-05:00

When the marathon is two months away I invariably wish it was just two weeks away. But now that it is only two weeks away I always wish it was back to two months away. Is it just me or is everybody like that?

I've been feeling a very mild cold in my throat and chest the past three or four days. Not really anything to affect me but I can tell it is there when I breath. So with just two weeks left before the Marine Corps marathon, I bagged the long run over the weekend. I also seem to be fighting some leg pain that isn't usual. My left heel hurts, my upper hamstrings/lower buttocks feel strained, calves are a little sore. Not sure what all this is about. It's like my shoes need to be replaced but they only have a couple hundred miles on them and I can usually get 500-600 before I replace them. So my taper has gone from two weeks to a little closer to three weeks. Oh well, hopefully that will allow me to get my legs straightened out.

Today was two warm up miles and then five at about 7:30.

All in: 7 at 7:54.

When is 3 miles greater than 9 miles?

2009-10-09T09:47:00.002-05:00

First of all, catching up on a few items. This is the weekend for the Chicago marathon and I plan to run on Saturday afternoon/evening so that I'm free Sunday morning to get up and watch it. Now the question is do I get up even earlier at 3 AM to watch the World Half Marathon championships until 4 AM or so and then get a few more hours of sleep before Chicago starts. Sounds like something I would do. Also adding complications: forecast for subfreezing temps and snow tomorrow. What's up with that?

My Fedex tracking number showed me that Garmin received my yesterday at 8:10 AM. Not bad. Shouldn't take them too long to replace a battery and send it back. I've been upgraded to hopeful. Side note: when I explained to my wife the dilemma with my watch and the proximity to the marathon her first response was "Buy a new one." I declined but what a great wife.

Finally on to the question in the title. I wasn't up to running my normal MP run yesterday, 2 miles warm up with 9-10 miles at MP. So I threw in a new workout for something different. I went 10.05 miles very slowly, 9:18 pace and then 3.35 at 7:22. Throughout the run I struggled with the fact that I was kind of wimping out. I mean my normal MP workouts are 11-12 miles in under 90 minutes. How can 13.4 in about two hours be better than that? Well, it really can't but it does have this advantage: in my normal MP runs I'm done in less than 90 minutes. In this run I didn't start running fast until after 90 minutes. May not be as good but I'm consoling myself with that anyway.

All in: 13.4 in 8:48.

Dead Batteries

2009-10-06T21:26:00.002-05:00

Yes, the batteries are dead. I charged it up and turned it on and it promptly turned itself off again. The Garmin of course. Aaaaaaauuuuuuuugggggggghhhhhhh! IT'S LESS THAN THREE WEEKS BEFORE THE MARINE CORPS MARATHON!!!!!!! I mailed it in, what else could I do. The Garmin service agent said I'd have it back in 10-14 days. I'm not so hopeful. I'm pretty much hopeless.

Maybe my batteries are somehow cosmically linked to the Garmin's batteries. Somewhere in the past three years of use my electrical system has been linked to the unit on my wrist. It's like I started myself up on my marathon paced run today and turned myself off just as quickly. Five measly miles. Didn't seem to really have it physically; maybe mentally as well. This isn't unprecedented; it usually happens once or twice in each marathon cycle. This is the first time for this marathon, I guess that isn't so bad. So I just shut it down to have a better workout next time.

Stupid Garmin...

All in: 5 miles at 7:53.

Marathon Season

2009-10-04T21:06:00.003-05:00

Marathon season is in full swing. Congrats to all who have already raced and good luck to those in the future. As for me I'm still three weeks out from the Marine Corps marathon. I kind of suddenly noticed all the marathons this morning because today was the day for the Twin Cities marathon and I had friends running. Thoughts of them inspired me on my own 20 (well, almost) mile jaunt. Didn't help me go faster but helped me get through it nonetheless. Wasn't trying to go fast anyway, just getting the miles in.

As I mentioned it was 19.65 miles and I didn't realize I had a tailwind going until I made a turn after about 6 miles in. Not so bad at the time but when I made another turn at 10 miles I was faced with a headwind. Not too bad of one, just enough to be bothersome. Stopped for a gel and water at 11 miles. I've given over to taking them routinely now. What are you gonna do? Coming up on 14 miles I ran smack into the hills that stymied me a couple weeks ago. This time, not so bad. They definitely slowed me a little but also made me stronger right? I felt pretty solid the whole way, kept expecting to feel bad but it never really came around. On long runs like these I often ask myself "why can't I just be done now?" when I'm only a couple miles into them. The answer? "Because I haven't earned that yet." I can only earn the right to be done when I've finished the run. So today, coming in on that last quarter mile I was happy with my right to be done, having finished a run I could be satisfied with.

All in: 19.65 miles at 9:02.

Oops!

2009-10-03T16:42:00.001-05:00

My mistake. I guess the Chicago marathon isn't until next Sunday. October 11th. I guess I get seven more days to decide if I'll get up early enough or not.

Chicago Marathon (not for me)

2009-10-02T21:31:00.003-05:00

Chicago marathon is to be run on Sunday at 8 AM Eastern time; which means 7 AM for me. It is being broadcast live on universalsports.com (hopefully no technical difficulties this time). Normally this wouldn't be a problem but the deal is I have to get a long run done in the morning because the afternoon is filled up with my son's baseball games. What does this all mean? Well, getting up to run at say 5 AM to be done by 8 AM and watching the last half of the marathon. I mean you've got defending champ Evans Cheriyut, Sammy Wanjiru promising a new world record, Abderrahim Goumri and Tadese Tola. On the women's side you have Deena Kastor going for her second Chicago title. I really don't want to miss it but getting up to run by 5 AM?!? Oh bother.

Today I got up to run but it was by 11 AM so no problem. Well, no problem with the time anyway. Still problems with the running though. After two warm up miles I kicked it into marathon pace but was at a HR of 166 after only mile 3! That is way too high; I should only be up there after mile 8 or so. I had gone to a different park and was running 2.5 mile loops around a lake and to offset how bad I was running I decided to take a small break after each loop. First time around I went potty, second I took my windbreaker off, third I sipped water, fourth I talked a park ranger out of giving me a parking ticket even though my time was up. So basically I cheated my way to 10 miles at a 7:17 pace. At least I got them all in but I did stop way too much and I'm none too happy about it. But the other choice was to keep running and only do 6 miles or so. Currently not so happy with how things are shaping up.

I am happy with the Garmin again though. It seemed to perform flawlessly (aside from not showing me the numbers that I wanted to see). I had to reload all the software from the Garmin website but I think that worked well.

All in: 12 miles at 7:33 pace.

%@$&* Garmin!

2009-09-30T13:21:00.002-05:00

First order of business is to congratulate my wife (not really a runner) on her third 5k last Saturday. She cut 3 minutes off her previous PB and finished in just under 36 minutes. I knew she could do it (she wasn't so sure).

Now on to me. You can tell by the title of this post that I had some technical problems with my Garmin on this run. I was about a mile down the road, driving to a regional park when I realized I forgot the thing. No problem, I just turned around and got it. I think our dog, Hiroo, was confused and distraught when I came home and then left again right away. As I headed of to the park again the thing, Garmin not dog, gave me the dreaded "Batteries Low" signal and died. What? There were still two bars on the indicator. What happened to one bar and then none? I started it up again and this time it worked for a minute or so before dying. Once again I turned it on and this time it would have no more of this funny business. It not only died but died with a bunch of gibberish on the screen and would no longer respond to my protestations. Ugh; I guess I had to run the old fashioned way, with my regular digital watch and push the lap button at every mile. How 1990's.

Luckily the park where I was running was well marked by miles and k's but since it is a 3.35 mile loop I had to do the last .35 on its own and then start over again at the beginning. Also, since I didn't have the Garmin my splits were way whack. Check it out:

8:26
8:27 (warming up)
6:44(!)
2:42 for .35; 7:43 pace
7:07
7:39(!)
6:57(!)
2:38; 7:31 pace
7:08
7:41(!)
7:05
2:38; 7:31 pace
7:16
Total at MP was 9.05 at 7:15.

Now, I wasn't really speeding up and slowing down so drastically. The park has fairly rolling hills and I think I discovered that the first mile although hilly must have a net gain of about 0. The second mile of the loop is the most uphill while the last is mostly downhill. But then again maybe my pacing was that bad. The overall pacing was spot on though.

Anyway, another 9 miles at MP. Really these workouts need to be in the 11-12 (or more) mile range and not stuck in the 9-10 mile range. I even used two gels for this run, orange-vanilla roctane at the start and the old favorite vanilla bean gu at about mile 7. Starting to get frustrated and maybe even a little worried. Oh well, I can only do what I can do and go from there.

By the way, I was on a daddy/daughter camping trip over the weekend so I didn't get a long run in. I did do 13 sluggish miles on Monday. Didn't really get into it physically until about mile 11 but by then I was gone mentally so kept it short. Two more weekends for 20 miles so not to worried on the LSD front.

All in: Monday, 13 miles at 8:56; Wednesday, 11 miles at 7:28.

To Gel or Not To Gel

2009-09-25T14:19:00.002-05:00

Historically I'm not a gel user in training. I'd use them a couple times to simulate race conditions and make sure that I didn't have problems with them but most of my workouts went unfueled. Recently though I've been more gratuitous in my gel consumption. For some reason a couple weeks ago I used them before my MP workouts and had satisfactory results (8 and 9 miles at pace). Then the next week I went back to my non-usage and didn't do as well (7 and 8 miles at pace). Well, now I'm back on them, have been for a couple weeks and have been doing better having gone 10, 9, 9 and 10 miles at pace in the last two weeks. Obviously the writing is on the wall and I'm going to continue to use them but somehow it seems like, well like cheating. Maybe I'm just unable to do the workouts that I used to be able to do (aging? not enough miles?) and I need that external boost to get me through. I don't know why I can't get my mind around this one. Help me out.

So anyway, my gel-aided run on Tuesday went fairly well with 11 total miles and 9 at a 7:12 pace. In fact I did a double boost with a gel at the beginning and another after 5 miles. Today I took one before the workout again but refused to take the second one even though I had it ready. I ended up with 12 miles and 10 at 7:13 pace. The only problem is that my HR was getting so high that I took a little breather with 2 miles to go so that I knew I'd be able to complete the run. That seems a little like cheating too, no? Well if that's what it is going to take for me to get the training stimulus that I require/desire then so be it. But I may not like it...

All in: Tuesday, 11 @ 7:30 and Friday, 12 @ 7:29.

Technical Difficulties

2009-09-20T17:16:00.002-05:00

I hope nobody got up and tried to watch the Berlin marathon because Universal Sports was having its problems. When they finally got around to showing the race it was tape delayed by about an hour and since I was following the race on an live commentary, it wasn't really interested. I should have mentioned that Ryan Hall was running the Philadelphia Distance Run and that it was covered live at competitor.com. At least you could have watched that and it was on at a (more) reasonable time, 7:30 AM in the East. Anyway, Haile Gebrsalassie went on to win the Berlin Marathon in a pedestrian 2:06+ and wasn't really challenged. After setting some incredible splits through 30k he slowed, likely from the heat. In other news, Ryan Hall did win the half marathon in Philly in 1:01+. This was just a tune up race for the NYC marathon next month.

As for me I was hoping not to have any technical difficulties because I had a little incident with my left knee on Friday. The incident involved rollerblades, our dog, Hiroo, and the curb. Luckily I was able to land on the grass and the bruising was just superficial so although it hurt, it didn't bother me to run. I was trying out a new route for running but familiar from biking and now I know why I don't run it; the hills toward the end are killer. Killer I say. They really put a stop to my forward motion but the run did go better than last week and I didn't do any walking.

All in: 19.43 @ 9:03 pace.

What to do?

2009-09-18T12:29:00.002-05:00

This Sunday is the Berlin marathon which will be telecast at Universal Sports at about 2 AM central time. I'm thinking I'm going to have to get up to watch it. I mean it will be an epic match up between world marathon record holder Haile Gebrsalassie (2:03:59, 2008 Berlin Marathon) and the second fastest ever Duncan Kibet (2:04:27, 2009 Rotterdam Marathon). The course is very well known to be flat and fast. Will there be another world record? Gebrsalassie has already said that he thinks he can go another 30 seconds faster in the marathon and will attempt to do so this weekend. There will be a few more runners from Ethiopia and Kenya and one from Japan that will be in the lead group but expect them all to fall off the back before it gets to the end. So, sleep from 9 PM to 2 AM and watch until 4 AM and sleep for a couple more hours before I get out and do my own little 20 miler? I guess so.

As for today, 9 miles at 7:13 pace went pretty well. I was hoping for 9-10 miles at that pace but not really expecting it because I never felt like I got in the rhythm early. After the first few sluggish miles they started to tick off fairly well and I was able to get to 9 before it was getting too difficult and my HR started to soar. I'll take it and call it a good week of running.

All in: 11 miles at 7:31.

One Of Those Days

2009-09-15T14:39:00.004-05:00

It seems like, for no reason, you can just have one of "those" days. They don't have to be all bad either. Sometimes it feels like you can just run forever, as fast as you want. But then just as often even running slowly feels like drudgery and nothing outside of stopping and laying down is going to make it better. Well today I had one of "those" days, but...in a good way.

I'm pretty sure it was because I was properly fueled up. Lately I've been able to run midmorning and so haven't been using any gels because I've been eating breakfast before getting out to run. Today I decided to take a gel. Gu, Just Plain flavor. I actually expected it not to be so tasty, like swallowing a wad of phlegm in my mouth. Makes me wonder why I tried it. But it was delightful. Kind of a hint of the vanilla flavor of their Vanilla bean gel but less overpowering. I think I'll continue to use it. Unless of course I switch to the Gu Roctane formula. More caffeine, more other stuff = more better.

But I digress. So I biked to the club to hit the treadmill again (in the 80's today) with no expectation. As you know I haven't been so happy with my training lately so I decided not to have a goal in mind, just run and do what I could do and receive the training stimulus from that and move on to the next day. First order of business was getting my left ankle loosened up again. Check. Then getting in the two warm up miles before I moved on to the MP portion of my workout. Check. I cranked up the speed and didn't really feel like I was feeling any better or worse than I have been lately but after a bit I adjusted to the pace and noticed my HR was fairly low. Lower than it has been recently. I felt good too. Just cruising along, watching the miles tick by. I had to make a short stop at about 8 miles because the treadmills at the club reset after 60 minutes (is this really necessary?). I got right back into it and put in 4 more miles for a total of 10 @ 7:13 pace. Quite happy with that. My HR stayed low throughout and I ended with it topping out at 166. Usually these runs bring me close to or over 170 for a bit. My average HR was 150 versus the 155 and 156 that I've been seeing lately. I hope this is not an aberration; that it's a sign that the training is taking hold and I can expect better in the future.

All in: 12 miles at 7:30.

2009-09-13T17:33:00.002-05:00

Just two days ago I blogged about how motivation has been high lately. How quickly that can turn. Wasn't really looking forward to my long run today, I got up at 6:30 and I had no doubt I'd get out and do it, I wasn't procrastinating or anything, just wasn't looking forward to it. My inner voices were fighting. I got out and immediately my left ankle started bothering me.

"Yes, I don't have to run!"
"You can run, this is the same old pain in your ankle, it will loosen up."

But it wasn't loosening up like normal; and it hurt much worse than usual.

"Oh yeah, it's making you limp and change your stride. Couch here we come!"
"Give it a chance!"

So I did. Stopped, shook it out, walked a bit.

"See? It still hurts. Give it up."
"I won't. It feels a little better. Just another quarter mile or so and it'll be fine. I'll regret it later if I don't run."

Finally it started feeling better. Really this is normally just a little pain that disappears after a few seconds of easy running. Today for some reason it was worse than normal and took longer to feel better but it eventually did, thankfully.

"Fine. We'll run but it's going to be slow and I'm taking lots of breaks and I'm not going to enjoy it." (How prophetic that would be.)
"Fine."

So off we went, me and my voices. I did feel pretty good through 10 or 11 and stopped for a gel and some water and a potty break. You know this is unusual for me for long runs. Shortly after that some fatigue started to set in.

"Uh oh, not good 9 miles from home."
"See I told you to lay on the couch."

I figured I'd bounce back in a few miles and although it didn't get any worse, I never really did. I went through 17 miles at a pace of just under 9 minutes per mile. Right then and there my body decided that it wanted to be done and my brain agreed. Great decision but not much you can do about it 4 miles from home. I started the jogging/walking that is so familiar towards the end of some of my marathons.

"If you pass somebody, ask them if they have a cellphone."
"Agreed."

Some one was walking ahead so I started running again to catch up to them. They turned up a street before I could get there, D'OH! A biker appears out of nowhere but speeds away before I could yell "EXCUSEMEBUTI'MREALLYTIREDANDWANTTOGOHOMEANDDOYOUHAVEACELLPHONEICOULDBORROW?"
Finally at mile 18+ I came across two joggers that were trying to cut their run from 8 to 5 miles but didn't have a cell phone either. Ugh! I was on my own. Using my walking/jogging I made it home averaging 10-11 minutes per mile.

It was a warm and humid one out there. What's up with this Minnesota weather? Fellow blogger Jean had the same experience in a 20 mile race yesterday that I wanted to do too but couldn't since both kids had their soccer debuts. Anyway, I walked up to the door of my house and as I reached for the doorknob I heard this in my head:

"Boy am I glad to be home."

All in: 20.57 miles at 9:13 pace.

Bloggers Are Motivational

2009-09-11T12:20:00.002-05:00

There are a lot of running bloggers out there. Of course anybody who is reading this doesn't need me to tell them that as they likely follow/are followed by more bloggers than I'll ever have. But all you have to do is pick one or two and then they link you up with several more and it just multiplies from there. This is motivating to me. Knowing that there are so many people out there running every day, fast and slow, always striving for more, getting better. I like that.

I'm not really having any trouble with motivation now but that still doesn't mean I'm getting the job done satisfactorily. I'm beginning to think that my standards are too high at this point in my marathon cycle. I was hoping to come off my month of speedwork in August and move right into long marathon-paced runs. What I'm finding out is that sure, the speedwork helped my speed but it really didn't do much for my stamina. So I'm really second guessing the decision to do that versus building up the marathon-paced runs from short to a decent length right now. Marine Corps is still six weeks away, four good weeks of training, eight chances for marathon paced runs. Ideally at least six will be from 10-12 miles; but at this point I wouldn't be disappointed if only four are.

As for today, 8 miles at 7:10. Not bad but not good when you consider that I took a little break after 5 miles and the last couple miles my HR was higher than I usually let it get for these runs. Oh, I did decide to run on the treadmill today. Like Lindsay, sometimes I just like to run on it even though it is nice outside.

All in, 10 miles at 7:30 pace.

Meh and Meh

2009-09-08T13:26:00.002-05:00

Over the weekend we were away from home with friends. Had a great time at the lake, boating, tubing, skiing, kneeboarding and swimming but it doesn't make for the best running. But I knew it was going to happen so I built that into my training plan. So it was just an easy 11 miler, nothing special. I was tempted to turn it into an MP run for 8-9 miles but I really wasn't up for that. At about half way I looked down as I brought my arm up to see my watch and Bam! I was stuck in the middle of my back with a sharp knife. Well, that's what it felt like anyway. I jogged long enough for the only car that was around to pass me and then I stopped to try and stretch it out. Couldn't really relieve the pain, couldn't twist and certainly couldn't take a deep breath. So I started jogging on a shortcut back to the lakehome and found out that it really didn't hurt that bad. I turned around again and was able to finish out the run. Not long, not fast but finished.

Today I was hoping to get my MP run in, maybe upwards of 10 miles but once again that wasn't in the books. It was midmorning by the time I got going because I had to get the kids off on their first day of school. I went to the park and started doing laps. Just 5 miles in I was working hard, more than I should have been. Kept on going, took a couple extra water breaks but just knew I wasn't going to get all the mileage in today. I ended up with my 10 miles but unfortunately only 7 were at 7:13 pace. I don't want to look for excuses but I do try to find reasons and I think today was just to hot and humid. The temps were in the mid 70's and the humidity was about the same. Lately it has been in the low 50's when I have been running so I think that is what knocked me back. I'll try to hit it again on Friday but here is my question, do I get up at, say, 6:30 and run before school when it is cooler or do I run at the club where it is climate controlled or do I just hope for better results back at the park? The club does have the added benefit of letting me compare my current training and fitness to my training for the Myrtle Beach marathon because I had to do all my running on the treadmill for that. Hmmm, such a decision.

All in: 11 at 8:17 and 10 at 7:34.

Running Talk

2009-09-04T10:36:00.004-05:00

Today I get to put a big tic mark in the Long MP run column instead of the short run column. This is only because I reached the arbitrary distance of 9 miles in MP. My pace was 7:13 which is okay but you might be able to see that I've been slowing a bit over the last few MP runs. I'm keeping a close watch on that, hopefully I can reverse the trend. Also I've increased the distance so I'd like to keep that trend up. Once again I had a terrible time trying to keep a consistent pace what with running on those "deceptive" hills. I saw numbers ranging from 6:45 to 7:33 on the Garmin. Maybe I should set it to beep if I stray from, say 7:05-7:15. It can do that can't it? For some reason I'm thinking I still won't do that but I probably should.

I remember once I was listening to Cartalk (NPR listeners will know what I'm talking about) and a caller talked about how he hadn't changed the oil in his car for several thousand miles. Click and Clack (the hosts) recommended that he never change it again, that somehow, the oil had become one with the car (don't try this at home). On my MP runs I inevitably end up thinking that if I run far enough, like 15 miles, eventually I'll become one with the pace and begin to float in this heightened state of nirvana. That my body will get in tune with what I am asking it to do, will embrace it and it will become effortless. Unfortunately I'm never able to get beyond the effort it takes to get to that mythical place and in all honesty my mind never really believes it is there anyway.

Sunday will necessarily be a shorter run as we are mini-vacationing with friends. I don't want to cut out three hours of the morning for myself and I definitely don't want to get up at 4 AM to do it on my own time. So, do I do an easy 10-12 and call it a rest day or do I insert another MP run of say 12 miles with 10 of it fast?

All in, 11 miles at 7:29 pace.

A Run in the Park

2009-09-01T21:49:00.003-05:00

We were going to the Great Minnesota Get Together today so I had to get out for my run a little earlier than normal. Not so bad, just a bit before 7 AM. But since it was earlier than normal I didn't have chance to eat breakfast. So I did take a gel before the run because, as a contrast to my long, slow runs, I need some energy to do my marathon paced runs. I always like doing my MP runs because I know they get me in my top physical shape. All my PB's from 5k up to the marathon have come within marathon training cycles that I was in the midst of doing MP runs.

So today I got out and after a two mile warm up I picked up the pace. Kind of hard at first to dial into a 7:10-7:15 pace since I've only been running faster or much slower than that. In fact I never really comfortably got the pace but part of the reason for that was the route I chose. I went to a regional park that has a 3.35 mile track around a lake and through the trees. Very nice except that it is deceptively hilly. I say deceptively because I think the hills are bigger than they look and there are more of them than there seems. Does that make sense? Anyway, constantly going up and down makes the pace difficult. But since the Marine Corps marathon is fairly hilly those first 8 miles I think it is a good route to run. Anyway, I ended up doing 8 miles at a 7:10 pace. Something I think I can build on.

All in, 10 miles at 7:28 pace.

My Best Workout Ever...Or Worst?

2009-08-30T21:03:00.003-05:00

Sorry, I`m not talking about today. No, this was in January of 2008 when I was in the midst of some serious marathon training. To the tune of 2-3 80 mile weeks in a row on my way up to 100 miles (what was I thinking!). Early in the morning I set out for a 16 mile run and knew from the outset that I was quite fatigued. I was living in Tokyo at the time and fortunately there is a subway stop every mile or so and I thought I`d just go 4 miles and then grab a ride home. At 4 I decided to go one more mile and then 5 became 6. I said to myself I could turn around now and put a nice 12 mile run in the book but I couldn`t even fathom running another 6 miles. On I plodded up to my 7 and 8 mile marks chanting my mantra "just keep running, just keep running" in my head. Yes, you might recognize that I paraphrased that from Dory in Finding Nemo. So I turned around and started heading back, each time I passed a mile marker I told myself I`d catch a ride at the next one. Finally at the four mile mark, 12 miles into my run, I stopped my watch and turned to walk to the subway. After 10 meters I stopped, turned back around, restarted my watch and ran the rest of the way home. A run that I never thought would go more that 4 miles at the outset and never thought I`d complete. Mentally the toughest run I`ve ever had. Less than a week later I pulled out of the marathon with achilles` problems. Should I have just given my body the rest that it was asking for?

Well contrary to that run I felt pretty solid throughout my run today, which is saying something for a 20 mile long run. I felt like I was lagging a bit from 14-16 but that was only because I was going through a particularly wicked section of hills. Around 17 I was mentally ready to be done and started calculating how slow I could run these last miles and still finish under 9 minutes per mile. I started counting the miles, hills and minutes remaining. Under 20 minutes, 10, less than a mile, only 5 more minutes, 4, 3, 2, 1 and...done. Long, slow run, very casual but still at a faster pace than I`ve run a long run since I was doing only 14-15 in my build up. Also I went without the Powerade. No sports drinks or gels, just a drink from a water fountain at a park I ran through, which is how I usually do my runs. Maybe that`s why I realized I was so hungry when I finished.

All in, 20 miles at 8:52 pace.

Rain, rain, go away...

2009-08-28T10:40:00.003-05:00

...and take these mile repeats with you. Didn't look so bad heading out, maybe a few dark clouds in the West. By one mile it was sprinkling. Another half mile brought a drizzle and at the start of my first mile repeat it was raining. I was trying to figure out if I was painting the romantic portrait of a lone runner hammering out intervals in the rain or if it the rain was just making an already tough workout even more difficult. I decided that it was up to me to decide. My attitude towards the rain and my workout could be positive or negative and that would make all the difference. Unfortunately at the time I was smack in the middle of the workout and didn't really have any good feelings toward it. Fortunately by repeat #4 blue skies were making an effort to show up so I figured I could too.

In my head I figured 5 x 1 mile in the 6:40's (same as last week) would be sufficient. Mostly I just wanted to get this last session over with so I can get to my marathon paced runs next week. I went 6:40 with the first one and felt okay. The next four were 6:38, 6:38, 6:38 and 6:35. I knew I had one more in me so I did a sixth in 6:37. Not bad, something I can definitely be happy with. Maybe my fitness is coming around.

All in: 11 miles at 8:24.

The truth is you can always run faster. Sometimes the truth hurts.

Wisconsin Dells

2009-08-26T13:47:00.003-05:00

We went to Wisconsin Dells with some family friends for the last few days. It was a lot of fun but after three days of swimming, sliding, tubing, putt-putting and lazer tagging, I've had enough. I needed to get back home just so I could rest (and run). Before we went on Sunday I did dutifully get up at 5 AM so I could get my weekly long run in.

I ran 19 miles on a 3 x 6.33 mile loop. The loop swings by our house a few times so I could continue to experiment with Powerade but it does include a few good sized hills. I was really starting to sag on miles 11-12 and figured I might be cutting the loop short for the last lap. Fortunately I seemed to revive a bit around mile 14 and was able to finish it off. As for the Powerade, I took a swig when I ran by home at mile 6.33 and 12.66 then shortly after that my stomach felt mildly uncomfortable. Nothing bad, I just hope I get used to it a little more so it doesn't bother me at all. Probably I'm just imagining it. Maybe that's what I'll tell myself and see if that works.

As for today I'm entering my last couple of speed workouts before I hit the MP phase of my build up. I didn't really know what to do but somehow ended up with 24 x 200m in my head. Fine, I'll do that. Not sure of what pace to do I figured I go with 40-45 seconds and adjust from there. It seemed okay but for the first dozen or so I was dreading having to do 24 of these things so much that I didn't realize that they weren't so hard. By 16 I started to realize that my heart rate was probably not getting up as high as it should. In the middle of the 20th one I decided I'd do the last 4 under 40 seconds. Couldn't pull it off for the first but the next three were 39, 39 and 38 and my HR was definitely high enough. I should have been at that pace a little more often I think. Postrun I checked the McMillan calculator and it says 38-43 so I was actually in the zone except for a couple that might have been 44. Of course it wasn't totally exact since the middle school track where I was running didn't have any markings that a high school track would so I had to eyeball my position between the curve and straightaway. You know what is incredible? World record marathon pace for 200m is 35 seconds! I could definitely run that fast and put in a few intervals at that pace but for a whole marathon? Incredible.

All in 19 miles at 9:02 pace and 8 miles at 8:20.

The Marathon Paced Workout

2009-08-20T13:43:00.005-05:00

I have quite a bit to say about today's run so I'll skip any anecdote at the beginning and get into the meat of the workout.

Two and a half weeks into my 4 week speedwork period and I wanted to get an assessment of my fitness. For me the best way to do this is by doing a marathon pace (MP) run. For this workout I'll warm up with two easy miles and then speed up to the 7:10-7:15 range. These are the meat and potatoes of my marathon training. Dare I say it, at least as important as my long runs. I'll complete two of these each week usually with 10-11 miles at MP. A friend once told me (he read/heard it somewhere) that if you can complete 2/3 to 3/4 of your race distance in an untapered workout you should be able to complete the whole race at that pace. For me that would be about 18 miles at that pace. Yikes! I've never gotten beyond 12 miles at MP. Maybe that's why my marathons are run at about a 7:35 pace instead of 7:15.

Still I think these workouts are so beneficial because with only three runs per week, a long run plus two of these, I'm able to run a pretty good marathon. This was my training plan leading up to Myrtle Beach in February and with it I qualified for Boston and missed a PB by less than 2 minutes. I occasionally did a fourth workout that was a short, easy run but more often it was a swim or bike ride (with an eye towards my June half iron triathlon).

I divide these workouts into two groups, short ones and long ones. The short ones are 6-8 miles and long ones are 9+. This is an arbitrary distinction based only on the fact that running 9 miles at that pace makes it over an hour. I build up through the short ones and into the long ones throughout a 2-3 month build up before a marathon. The more and longer the long ones I can do the better trained I am. So with all that in mind, I embarked on a MP run to test myself.

I was hoping to get into the range of long ones but more expecting to do 7-8 miles at that pace. What makes me stop? Usually fatigue and my HR. If it is too high too long then I know I'll have a long recovery and my later workouts in the week will suffer. I felt good getting started, the pace was easy; must be the payoff from my recent speed sessions. After six and then seven miles though I could feel the fatigue and my HR was becoming elevated. I know I could have pushed and completed an 8th mile but a 9th (and therefore a long workout) would have been too tough. So I called it quits there and did a mile warm down. Seven miles at 7:08 is probably about right and looking at my build up for Myrtle Beach I'm in exactly the same place. Maybe that's not bad not having done that workout for about a month and when I enter that portion of my training in September I'll still have 6 solid weeks to push the distance.

So let me know if you have any thoughts on this. I'm toying with the idea of intentionally keeping one of these workout in the short range each week in order to maximize the distance I could do in the second one.

All in, today was 10 miles at 7:49 pace.

Biking and Mile Repeats Revisited

2009-08-18T12:53:00.002-05:00

Last week Kaori learned to ride her bike without her training wheels. Yes it is a little bit late since she is six years old and entering first grade this Fall. However when we lived in Tokyo it was just tow crowded with automobile and pedestrian traffic for her to ride a bike very much. So she's really only been riding for about one year. This Spring we started riding with just two wheels but after one minor wreck we shelved that idea for a couple months. Then last week it just clicked for her and off she went. That first day Cole and her mom offered her $1 to keep going, making more and longer passes in front of our house (how sad is it that I entered the mile in my training log that I ran with her?). When it came to my turn to bribe her I didn't do it. I wanted to end on a positive note and so we finished the session. Now she is pushing for family bike rides and riding all over the neighborhood.

I was kind of tired and sluggish this morning and lacking any sort of motivation. I started thinking about what I commented to another blogger that sometimes low motivation could signal a need for more rest. Still I decided to get out and run but I used the same strategy with myself that I had used on Kaori, give myself a positive experience. I decided to couple that with some mile repeats because I've been eager to redeem myself on those after my bad experience last week. So I gave myself a moderate goal of 4x1 mile in the 6:40's. I know, a little slow but I still think that should provide a pretty good stimulus since it is about 30 seconds faster per mile than my planned marathon pace. I ended up doing 5 from 6:41-6:45 and in doing so I left the track with a satisfied feeling. All in: 10 miles in about 81 minutes.

P.S. Both Yasso and McMillan only mention doing up to 5 mile repeats for marathon training. I would have expected more but I guess I'm doing enough distance with those.

From Triathlon To Treadmill

2009-08-16T12:11:00.003-05:00

I'd hoped to be doing a sprint triathlon this morning and that would get me out of my long run. Unfortunately my friend hasn't trained and didn't want to do the race. I still could have but without him it wouldn't have been the same. Also, I've swam only once since the half ironman triathlon I did in June.

So the threat of thunderstorms drove me inside this morning. An 18 miler on the treadmill isn't ideal for most people but since I live in Minnesota I have kind of gotten used to running indoors. Today's long run was a little better than last week but still didn't feel overly sharp or energetic. I probably felt a little better because I was drinking some Powerade during my run. I usually don't do this. I usually don't drink or need anything. Even though I have a fuel belt I don't like carrying water and I definitely don't like stopping during a run unless I'm doing intervals. I mean, I don't stop during races so why would I during my training. I also think that if I don't take in any gels or sports drinks then my body will have to rely on metabolizing my fat and that is something that is good to train my body to do. This is just a theory though, what do you think?

But the Marine Corps Marathon will be offering Mountain Berry Blast (although their website says mixed berry blast, but they don't have that flavor) and so I need to train with it for at least a few runs. Was that what it was that gave me a little unsettled stomach (apologies to those around me, I was a little, what's the word?, gassy).

Today's run, 18 miles in 2:41:45; 8:59 pace.

Mile Repeats

2009-08-13T11:47:00.003-05:00

Since it's been so long that I have done speedwork I've been checking out Greg McMillan's running calculator in order to get some pace times. I'm not sure what I should run though. Should I do mile repeats in the 6:30's like the 3:20 marathoner that I am or should I do them in 6:20's as my marathon goal is 3:10? Also do I need to push to do 8-10 of them and try to make them an endurance workout as well as speed or do I just need to do 5-6 to strengthen my body to running that fast and the endurance will come with other workouts? Right now I guess I'm just trying to do as much as I can as fast as I can...

...which today meant not so much, not so fast. I set out for my second set of mile repeats and hoped to get 6-7 in. After the second one (6:32, 6:37) I could tell that not only did I not have it but I sure wasn't going to get it. "It" being the thing that lets you run well on any particular day. The third one (6:53!) prompted a long rest of a 1.5 mile jog and even though I was planning on running home after that I just couldn't stand not doing at least one more. Probably not a good idea but I don't think it hurt anything either (6:52). A far cry from last week's mile repeats. Now I feel like there is unfinished business and even though tomorrow is supposed to be a rest day I'm already feeling like I want to run. A short, fast jaunt would be okay right?

My Best 5k Ever

2009-08-11T11:10:00.003-05:00

I was able to run my favorite 5k ever just a couple weeks ago. What made it so good? I was able to run it with my 9 year old son that's what. He had run his first 5k a few weeks prior. He started out with my wife but after finding her pace too slow he took off by himself and walking only once finished just under 31 minutes. Not bad! This time he wanted to go faster and enlisted me to help pace him. This time he didn't walk at all and was working really hard toward the end. I was impressed by him. It was a big (5,000 runners) but casual (no times, not sure of the starting line) race and we were weaving through a lot of runners. We ended up finishing in 28:26. Great job Cole!

Today's workout put me at the local middle school track, an easy 1.75 mile warm up from our house. I was a little worried about my ability to do a good workout since my legs were sore and tired all day yesterday. Fortunately when I woke up this morning I was feeling pretty fresh. I entered a 16 x .25 mile workout with 100 meter rests into the Garmin and got started. My goal was to complete them all in 90-95 seconds and after 2-3 intervals I was able to dial in on my pace. I slowed a little bit in my 7th-10th intervals but number 12 was my fastest one. I cruised through a couple more and then definitely felt the fatigue set in on number 15. Luckily I had only one left and was able to bring it home. I had started out jogging the 100 meter rests but found that didn't give me sufficient recovery to let my heart rate reduce so I ended up walking them (also I was tired). I wasn't so excited about the 1.75 miles to get back home but at least it was slow. Of course I usually try to refuel within 30 minutes of my workouts because we all know that is prime time for your muscles to absorb their required nutrients but that just had to wait as I dived into my kids' pool to cool down. Plus playing with them in the pool is kind of a workout in itself.

Long Run

2009-08-09T14:59:00.002-05:00

Sunday today and that means a long run for me. I don't know why but I've always done my long runs on Sunday mornings. A lot of people do them on Saturdays. I guess I just like to get up early and get them done before we head off to church.

Anyway I did 17 miles today at a 9:06 per mile pace. A little slower than normal but I really don't care since long runs are supposed to be just that, long. All about time spent running. I did 5 laps on a path around a lake plus and additional 400 meters to make it 17 miles. I was going along pretty well until about 4 miles left. At that point it really became a grind. I had a water stop with a little more than 2 miles left that helped, for about a half mile anyway. I think I was tired because of the speedwork on Friday. Maybe it was the 100% humidity that wouldn't let my sweat evaporate and therefore my body to cool down. Maybe it was our party yesterday. Although I don't and didn't drink any alcohol, I was on my feet quite a bit shopping, cleaning, preparing and hosting so that could have had an effect. Likely it was all of those and more.

Glad to have gotten it done; sort of looking forward to my workout on Tuesday (but more looking forward to my rest day tomorrow.) (;

Speed Work

2009-08-07T13:27:00.003-05:00

Since we moved back from Tokyo in July of 2008, marking the time since I ran with my running club, Namban Rengo, I haven't done any actual speed work. Well this month that is going to change. I'll be somewhat following this article by Greg McMillan in Running Times magazine. It advocates doing your periodization for marathon training in this order: build up, speed work, tempo runs. For the Myrtle Beach marathon I built up my tempo runs along with my mileage, did not speedwork, and as previously stated, that was good enough to qualify me for Boston. (note: tempo runs for me are long runs at marathon pace, usually 12-14 miles with 10-12 miles at 7:10-7:15 pace)

Previous marathons that I've run in the 3:20 range, Tokyo and Nagano, I did a build up and then tempo phase while doing speedwork throughout. With this new format after finishing up my mileage build up (I peaked last week at 3 runs of 15, 13.4 and 15 miles) I'm starting up with intervals again and today that meant mile repeats. Since it was raining pretty hard this morning I decided to make use of the treadmill and joined the rest of the family at the health club. I did a two mile warm up, which I pretty much always do, and then did 5 x 1 mile at 6:24, 6:26, 6:22, 6:25, 6:26 with half mile active recovery in between. Nine and one half miles total. Not bad especially since this week I'm trying to ease into the faster pace (on Tuesday I did 12 x 1 minute at 6:20-6:30 pace with 1 minute recoveries). I don't want my tendons, ligaments, muscles and joints to revolt against the sudden increase in intensity.

Resurrection

2009-08-05T21:25:00.003-05:00

I thought it was dead but here I am again blogging on my running blog. I'm still not sure why. Not like I'll be having anymore readers this time around. I'm going to do it though, I'll update after my workouts and races and other events that impact my running/triathloning.

A little more history since I last blogged. I ran the Myrtle Beach marathon on February 14th, 2009 and finished in 3:19:56 to qualify for the Boston marathon for the second time. Not sure if I'll be running it this time though. I had a great time during that marathon; really enjoyed it for some reason. Mostly I'm thinking because I didn't crash and burn towards the end like I have previously. After that I trained pretty hard for a half ironman triathlon that I completed in June 2009. That was not so good an experience. In fact, I crashed hard on the run and didn't enjoy it so much. I'm thinking that's why I'm back into running mode and not swimming and biking so much.

Next up I'll blog about my training for Myrtle Beach and how my training is different from that now and why I think I'll be able to do better.

Catching up on some business

2007-05-30T18:28:00.000-05:00

Time to do some blogging. Where have I been? I'm still here, always have been. Blogging has lost the luster that it had though so I'm visiting my own sight less frequently. Anyway I'll continue to update but it might not be so consistent.

First order of business: Kanuma Satsuki Half Marathon. What is there to say? 1:43:47. Obviously a sub par performance but about on par with where my training was at that point. Nice day, decent course, just didn't have it. I got out to a 1:35 pace and held that through 10k or so even though after just 4-5k I knew I didn't have it. I was surprised at how quickly I got into the "I don't care" phase. Didn't care about pace, finishing time, drinking water, anything. I just wanted to be done running. I carried a gel with me that I planned on taking at about the half way point. At that time though I had such indifference that I thought it was too much trouble. Not only that but it might make me feel better and then I'd run faster and that didn't sound like much fun, just more work. So there you have it.

Now on the other hand was last night's 5k time trial, in the rain, around Oda field. I was shooting for a time under 19:30 but figured I'd go out at a 19:10 pace and see how long I could hold it. Turns out I could hold it the whole way, finishing in 19:07. Quite happy with that, given my recent training (see paragraph above). In fact that is my 4th fastest time since moving to Japan. So now I have a little more confidence that I can perhaps step up the pace of my training a little bit. Put in a little tempo run here or there and see how it goes. I'll keep you posted.