What were we talking about?

Distance: 7.1

Time: 61:50

The good news about me and running is that I have short term memory loss. I may be miserable about a run that went afoul but it doesn’t last long. I forget runs or they blur with other ones almost instantly. The pain fades and I’m ready to move on. Whether or not the marathon is a victory lap or a death march, I am still very excited about running and already looking forward to life after marathon training. With only 4 long runs left until the marathon there is light at the end of the tunnel. I am hoping to start working on more speed stuff and see if I can’t get my 5K and 10K times down next spring. I am also going to start weightlifting and once I get my armor built I’m going to start fighting heavy weapons (SCA armored combat) again. I have given myself back my health and my body… now it’s time to start abusing it again…

It’s kinda funny when I look at my time for today and think that less than 3 months ago I couldn’t run 6 miles in that same time and I don’t feel like I really ran fast today. I just kinda cruised. It was a beautiful morning but it is definitely staying dark a bit longer now… We had 97 runners this morning and when we took off it was definitely dark! I’m gonna hafta get one of those headlamps soon…!! The route took us out through the trails and then up 3 pretty serious hills, one of which has my friend Kathy’s number. It’s not a big hill but it’s steep and she fights to get up it every time. She cracks me up because she is pretty straight laced but this hill makes her say bad words… yeah, Kathy… me too…!

I still have some of the lingering effects of whatever the heck happened to me on Saturday running through my system. My legs got pretty fatigued and I started getting side stitches about the last mile, but I was able to make it in. Kathy made me kick the last quarter mile (ouch) and I found that even though I was tired, I could still pick it up a bit. Of course… it helped that we finished on a downhill…

This month is going to be a bit of a challenge as far as keeping my running schedule. I am going to be out of the office traveling and teaching all around the state, so a lot of my posts will be from hotel rooms, but I’ll manage.

…Later…

I just did the math and I ran 120 miles in July…  This is more miles than I ran combined in the 10 years from my back surgery until I started running again a year and a half ago.  …and definitely something to be proud of…

They can’t all be great runs

Distance: 14 mi.

Time: 2:25

There is no other sport, in my opinion, that can humble you as suddenly or violently as running. Mainly because there are very few other sports… golf, bicycling, triathlon, rock climbing, etc., come to mind… that are so totally up to the individual. You have no teammates, no direct opponents, just you. Oh sure, you can perceive the elements to be an opponent or to provide a ready excuse for lack of performance, but in the end it all boils down to you. No sport is so personal as an individual sport.

Today was supposed to be 18 miles. In the excuse category (which I do not accept) it was warmer and more humid than usual. I ran a two lap course, as usual. I ran a 10 minute pace, as usual. I prepped my half way food and drink re-supply, as usual. I even got to the trailhead a half hour earlier than usual (but still later than my Tuesday/Thursday runs, so not unusual) to beat the heat. My first lap was about 10 seconds per mile faster than usual. My second lap? I bonked at mile 11 and had to walk back to the truck. My legs (and ONLY my legs, everything else was fine) were done. They ached, felt weak and seemed to be on the verge of cramping. I could no longer take a normal running stride and the cramping started to creep into my abs. I was done. No amount of walking, sitting, trotting or begging could get me past it.

So what happened?

I dunno.

Here are the things that were different with this run:

I ran with a partner. She didn’t push the pace but I did chat a lot as we ran.

I volunteered for a track and field competition last night which ran late and I didn’t get home in time to get a full night’s rest. I only slept for about 5 1/2 hours.

I ran the entire first lap. I did not take walk breaks at my “aid stations”.

I may not have (I’m still thinking about this one) eaten enough or enough of the right things leading up to the run.

In any case, it doesn’t matter. I didn’t get it done. But did I learn anything?

Yes.

Training for a marathon is not like training for most other sports. You must set up a routine and STICK WITH IT. No changes allowed (unless it is obviously not working… which mine is). It has to be SO personal and SO meticulous and SO “routine” that it may mean that you do most of your runs (at least your long ones) alone. And your last two months, especially, have to be very methodical, planned and non-varying. If you don’t have a training plan or routine down by now? Yer hosed…

But see… here is the humbling part. There is no one to blame here but me. It’s not the weather’s fault. It’s not my partner’s fault I blabbed too much during the first lap. It’s not the track meet’s fault there was a rain delay. And it’s certainly nobody’s fault but my own that I didn’t eat EXACTLY the same as I did on my very successful 16 mile run and that I didn’t get enough sleep.

Lessons learned?

Yup. I have 4 long runs left. They are 20, 22, 24 and 26 miles. I will run them alone. I will sleep at least 8 hours the night before, get up early and eat a good amount of the right things. I will take my walk breaks as I drink. I will not add anything (non work related… of course) to my schedule for the next 2 and a half months. It’s time to make the big push which means I need to put just about everything else on hold.

Do I have to do this?

Stupid question… It’s too late now and I am too far into this to back out.

I doubted myself again today. For the first time in a while I found myself thinking about quitting. Doing a shorter race. Getting my mountain bike back out again… Canceling my hotel reservation.

…nah.

Listening to others

Distance: 5.8 mi

Time: 48:56

Another great morning.  Had about 80 runners (there are lots of races this weekend so the numbers were lighter) and ran a mostly flat, with one BIG hill, course.  I could have extended out to 6 or 7 miles but chose to cut it short and save myself for the 18 miler this weekend.  Ran with a couple of friends, Kathy, Maggie and Rick, who are all doing some sort of long run silliness this fall.  Kathy and Maggie are running marathons (St. Charles and Columbus) and Rick is doing a half Ironman triathlon.  It’s always fun to hear how other people are doing it.  Kathy worries about not getting in enough miles, Maggie worries about her feet and Rick worries about eating and sleeping enough.  Too funny…

After this is all over, I am going to try to get all of the people who ran long races this fall together for coffee and a debrief.  Just a fun little “we did it!” party.  I want to hear the stories, good and bad, find out how people trained, whether they kept going after their race, what their goals are, etc.  I would love to record it in a podcast, but I don’t know how.  I think lots of people who are newbies or are maybe just thinking about it would enjoy hearing real life experiences of some people who are “just runners”.  Not competing to win, just competing.  Kind of an everyman story of marathoning/triathlons, etc.  I may explore that…

Finding a few Corn Flakes

Distance: 6

Time: 48:00

My baseball coach used to tease me about my “warning track” power by telling me I needed to eat a few more Corn Flakes and the ball would go all the way out of the park.  I have used that saying forever when I wasn’t quite strong enough or didn’t push quite hard enough, telling myself I was “a Corn Flake short” and so on.

Well this morning, I found all of those Corn Flakes and more on the group run.  On yet another SPECTACULAR morning with a temperature of about 60 degrees, no wind, light ground fog and tolerable humidity, I set out with the group for a 6 mile run.  One of my marathoning friends, Kathy, ran with me and as we eased into the run I noticed a couple of things.  First, the front runners in the group were not leaving us as fast as they usually did.  Second, I was chatting while going up the biggest hill on the run.  Third, nothing hurt.  And finally, the run just seemed short.

I found my pile of Corn Flakes at the base of the last uphill we had to run.  Kathy commented that I was running strong and that if I wanted to finish I should take off because she wanted to relax and coast in.  The hill seemed flat and I noticed that I was gathering in some of the people that usually beat me in.  We crested the last hill and hit a bit of flat before the big downhill to the finish and I just took off.  I don’t know who’s legs I was using but I hope they let me keep them because I sprinted down the last hill.  I think I was as wide eyed as everybody else when we all got in.  Everybody asked me what happened and all I could do was shrug.  I sure wish I knew…  I would definitely do it again!

Like Kathy said, some runs are special and just make you feel invincible.  You wish you could bottle it and sell it, but you can’t.  You just have to put that memory in your pocket and save it as one of the special times you had as a runner.  Then you just hope you keep running long enough to have a pocket full of them…!

Thirteen miles and one pound down

Distance: 13 mi

Time: 2:09: 26

Well I was shooting for a 10:00 mile pace and I would say that was pretty close…!

On one of the most beautiful summer mornings I can remember, I and about half of Columbia decided it was time to go for a jog… Even though there are 6 races (2 runs, 2 bike races, a triathlon and a duathlon) today, it seemed that most people were just out with me, enjoying the day. I even had a hot air balloon go right over my head at about 150 feet. I said hello to the pilot and he jokingly asked where the nearest Starbucks was. Kinda funny.

Today’s run was just OK as far as how I felt. I would love to say that I felt great, but I didn’t. My lower legs were really uncomfortable for most of the run and I have this odd pain in my groin muscles on longer runs that gets pretty annoying. But, it’s another 13 in the bag and another pound lost. And with that pound, I leave the 190s and head into the 180s… Hopefully, for good. I still don’t know if I will make my goal weight by marathon day, but it doesn’t matter. I’m doing the right thing. I will get there.

I’m not gonna say it was “bad”, but…

Distance: 5.5 mi

Time: 50.03

I don’t know if I would classify this as a “bad” run as much as maybe just a tough run after a bad night and another tough run.

The track workout yesterday left me a bit dehydrated and sore.  Although I tried to drink lots of water during the evening, I was very uncomfortable when I went to bed and only got about 3 hours sleep.  So this morning 5:00am came a bit earlier than usual.  I felt stiff and sore for most of the run and never seemed to settle into any kind of groove.  The run was supposed to be fartleks every half mile, but I could only do 2 of them.  In the end I just slogged back in and was happy to put another 5.5 miles in the books.  I am very tired, sleepy, hungry and sore.  My legs are really uncomfortable.  I have chugged about a half gallon of water so far and still haven’t gone to the bathroom yet (on top of two cups of coffee in a desperate attempt to wake up…), so, obviously, I’m still dehydrated.

I knew this schedule would be tough because running at 5:30pm and then running again at 5:30am is just barely enough time to recover, but I was hoping it might get better.  But the hot weather and withering wind conspired against me.  I am already looking forward to crawling into my bed this evening and it’s only 10am…

The upside of all this is that I don’t run again until Saturday morning, which gives me the majority of 2 full days off.  I need it.  And I never in a million years thought I would say this but… I am really looking forward to this Saturday’s run because it is “short”.  It’s ONLY 13 miles.  When that became “short”, I dunno.  Seems like only a week ago that 3 miles was “long” and 13 miles was impossible to even think about…

Hot track

Distance: 4 mi

Time: Track Workout

Gah!  Now I remember why I started running in the mornings!  How does 95 degrees and 88% humidity sound?  Heat index a pleasant 103…  Hey… at least there was a blast furnace like wind to dry the sweat instantly to make us miserable AND give us a nice salt crust at the same time…

Actually, I’m joking.  Yes, it was hot and muggy.  But there is something about group exercise like this that seems to help/motivate me.  I do like the solitude of running but secretly…  its nice to see other people suffer too…

…is that bad?

I could, however, feel myself wilting a bit on the second lap of the 800s we ran.  I was trying to maintain a 1:40 per lap pace for both 800s but faded on both of them.  I tried to run 1:30 pace on my 400s.  I nailed the first one but wilted on the second one.  And it was definitely the heat.  My legs felt weak and it seemed harder to breathe.  We should only have about another month of this, though, and then it will start to cool off again.  I can put up with it that long…

I try to run these distances essentially as fast as I think I can.  I doubt very seriously I could maintain this pace for a full mile, much less a 5K.  I’m just trying to air out my stride a little bit.  Those short, choppy, marathon strides are made to work as few muscles as possible.  Track running is completely different and I think it is helping me.

On the weight front,  I havent’ lost a pound in over 3 weeks.  However, the pants I bought 2 months ago at a MUCH smaller waste size are now starting to get loose.  And although I don’t have that six pack yet, I can at least say I have a 2 pack.  I can definitely see the top two abdominal muscles now.  That spare tire just won’t let go, though.  It has shrunk to the size of a mountain bike tire (from the tractor tire I started with), but it’s still there.  I haven’t changed anything about my diet in over 3 months.  In fact, I might be eating a tiny bit more.  Just no eating out, homecooked meals (thanks to my darling wife) with less fat and no processed sugar and healthy snacks.  I have, for the most part, had to say goodbye to pizza and my beloved beer (like I said… for the most part), but these are small sacrifices.  I know if I keep doing what I’m doing, the weight will come off.

Rat bastard chasing…

Distance: 6.66 (devilish… no?)

Time: Dunno… forgot my frickin’ watch…

After the baby got up at 4:30 because she had an accident in bed (she’s 3) that was pretty much it for me. I went ahead and got dressed and piled in the truck and headed for the group workout at 5:30. Even with all the extra time, I still managed to walk out without my watch. I got there about 5am and just rested in the truck. Oddly enough there were already people there when I got there. I wonder if they have kids too…?

The route went out the nice, flat trail to one of the main roads in town, then down this (hilly) road for a couple of miles and then turned down a road I had never been on before. Our group is split up into A, B, and C routes, with the A group going the longest and fastest. The problem is I want to go longer on distance, but I’m always the last of the A’s to come in. The B’s are my people but the route is usually a mile or so too short for me. The net outcome of this is that I have accepted my last placeness… but on the more complicated routes I am still not comfortable enough yet with the city to be sure where the heck I am going. Although there aren’t any “bad” neighborhoods to run through, I’ve still gotta be at work by 8:30 so getting lost is not an option. This has all had the odd and humorous effect of making me run desperately faster when I run the A route on unfamiliar ground just to keep sight of the pack so I don’t get lost… *sigh*. Today added insult to injury when the last of the A’s next to me was a lightning fast Ironman Triathlete named Andy Peele who is still recovering from his last Ironman, so he was half trotting, half running BACKWARDS… and I still couldn’t catch him… rat bastard…

I mentioned to my friend that is running the St. Charles marathon about how great my 16 mile run was and how my changes had really helped. I still don’t think it got through to her but there were 3 other people in the conversation and all of them completely agreed with me, not only about fueling during the run, but also about the walk breaks and the Perpetuem drink. Hopefully, all the nodding heads got her thinking at least…

There… That’s better…

Distance: 16.2

Time: 2:47:00

OK… That… was doable.

To say that I was “worried” about my long run today was a bit of an understatement.  After the belly flop I performed on my last 16 miler (had to walk most of the last 3) I had managed to intimidate myself a bit about the long runs.

After much research, consultation with everyone from professional triathletes to the local psychic (no… not really…) and a bit of soul searching (as in: that really hurt… why do I wanna do this… again?) I came up with a plan to try it again.  A plan I am pleased to say really worked.

Oh, I still hurt a bit, but I just ran 16 miles… I’m kinda supposed to.  But no more than after a hard 10K.  And I don’t feel like I need a nap.  In fact, after I finish this, I’m going out to do yard work!

Here’s the plan.  Take it for what it’s worth:

I have cut back to 4 days a week training.  Three organized “group” runs for motivation and variety and one long run.  I was just beating my body up too much at 5 to 6 days a week and I never had time to recover.

I need to eat.  I need more calories DURING the run or I run out of gas and BONK.  So I changed two things.  First,I made my run a double loop so that I could stop back by my truck and refuel.  I stopped for 3 minutes, ate a peanut butter sandwich, a gel and a bottle of water.  This REALLY helped.  Second, I switched from water to Perpetuem in my water bottles.  It’s a calorie replacement fuel that is easy to take and is a major help.  I felt as if I had very few of those speed up/slow down periods and I was able to maintain a very steady pace.

Other things I did:

I took gel packs every 4 miles (I used to do every six).

I stopped and walked for 15 seconds every mile through my “water stops”.  The time was easy to make up and the walk not only helped me recover just a bit, but also helped make sure I got a good drink.

With the walks and the stop in the middle, I still managed a 10:18 pace (my goal is 10:00) AND, and this was the most impressive thing to me, my second eight mile loop was 2 minutes FASTER than my first loop.  I also think I probably could have gone at least a couple more miles.  I felt that good…

I think with all these changes, as my fitness improves and I can trim the walks and breaks a bit, it should be easier (NOTE: I did not say “easy”… just easiER) to meet my goal time of 10 minute miles.

I’ll let you know in 2 weeks when I try this again for 18

ID-10-T

Distance: 6.5

Time: 54:30

OK… For the third time today I will try to post this…

The Thursday run was supposed to be a tempo run but I was still a bit stiff and sore from the Wednesday night track workout so I just ran.  I hung with a couple of people for a while and then kinda just faded a bit and ended up finishing alone.  It must have taken me 3 miles to shake the crap out of my legs and get going… oy…

I got to talk with a friend who is running a marathon about a month before I run mine.  She is right in the middle of her big push towards 26 miles and she is really feeling it on her long runs.  I sympathized with her but at the same time, it was good to hear somebody else say they were struggling with the longer distances.  I mean, I’m sure until we get used to it, we all will struggle.  I can’t imagine for most of us that distances over 13 miles ever get “easy”.  But one would assume that if you are fit and train for these distances constantly, it would eventually get “easiER”… maybe…  a little…?

Her big problem, even though she is skinny as a rail, is that she is worried about eating too much and gaining weight during her taper.  She also doesn’t believe in eating or drinking anything but Gu and Gatorade during her runs…  When I told her that I had changed my planned routes to accommodate loops so I could come back by the car at the halfway point of my long (16 mi and over) runs to refuel and eat something, she was appalled.  When I told her about all the people that had suggested this, she seemed to let up on her disgust a bit, but she still didn’t think this was the reason she was bonking…

Side note:  What a juxtaposition…  A fat guy telling a skinny woman she needs to eat and having my claims be backed up by doctors, coaches and professional athletes… heh!

Seriously though, I did a little math with her… Tell me if I’m wrong…

Average caloric intake for an active woman is about 3000 calories total per day.

Average calories expended one mile of running is 115.

Number of miles in a marathon is 26.2

Calories burned in a marathon (115 * 26.2) is 3013

If you stick to your regular diet, you will have eaten between 400 and 1500 of these calories by the time the race starts, so anywhere from 4 miles to 13 miles you burn through those initial calories…

So where ya gonna get energy from?  Fat stores?  They take too long to break down to be of any use during a race…

The bottom line is… you have to refuel DURING the run.  As many calories as you can take in.  Easy to digest calories like energy packets (Perpetuem, Exceed, etc.), gels, PB&J sandwiches, whatever you can tolerate.  Otherwise, when you run out of fuel…  BONK.

She didn’t buy it.  She thinks that during her taper she should be on a strict diet.  Granted, she shouldn’t go out partying and drink beer and eat pizza every night, but isn’t the purpose of the taper for your body to heal and rebuild glycogen stores?  How are you going to do that on 2000 calories a day?

…maybe its just me…  maybe I don’t get it… She thinks I’m nuts.

I guess I’ll find out tomorrow morning when I stop halfway through my 16 miler to refuel.  If I make it all the way to the end… I was right.  If I hurl my PB&J and Powerbars at mile 10… I’m an idiot.