Little Rock Marathon

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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!