Day 83

Long run day... Hal says to do 13 today, but at this point of my training can 13 really be considered a long run?... I didn't think so and decided to run 15 instead.

Distance: 15 miles
Duration: 2:04:49
Pace: 8:19
HR Avg/Max: 139/169
notes:
When I started this run it was 58 degrees outside. Running weather for sure! Without the added stress of the heat I had no problems keeping the heart rate down, so I went out strong but relaxed. I hit the first 4 miles in about a 8:40 pace til i got to the first water stop. At this point I was warming up and decided to pick it up a little and hit the next 3.5 miles at an 8:28 pace. My goal for the first 7 had been to run it under an hour which I barely achieved. At the turn around point I was starting to really hit a groove so I picked it up some more running a 8:21 pace back to the water stop. After a quick drink of water I continued on to the last 4 mile stretch. I ran an 8:03 pace for the first 3 miles and then kicked it in for the last mile running a 7:21 final mile.

Ran turned out to be a 3/1 run with the last quarter of the run slightly faster than marathon. This was very encouraging, especially after a hard week of training. I think the weather and flat terrain played a big part in today's success and hope for similar conditions in chicago.

6 weeks til marathon!

Day 82

8 miles at "marathon pace"... yesterday I decided that I'd be running 8:00 minute miles for my marathon pace. After today's run I'm not so sure.

Distance: 8.0 miles
Duration: 1:03:13
Pace: 7:54
HR Avg/Max: 156/175
notes:

8 minute mile pace felt hard today... the first four or so miles were easy enough but all the while my heart rate was creeping up into the 155 range which seems a little high if it were really the first four miles of my marathon. Mile 5 I had a tough hill to tackle and about 2/3rds of the way up the hill there was a train crossing the road. When I got to the train I didn't want to stop so I ran back down the hill and then ran up it again. By the time I got there the second time the train was past but my legs were burning and my heart rate pushed up to 175... after that the heart rate never really came back down (except for one brief point where it hit 158). It was in the 160's for the rest of my run. By mile 8 I was glad that I was done!

I know that I had a lot of factors working against me today. I ran the time trial on Wednesday, it was hotter conditions then the race should be, this is my fifth day in a row of training, the hills, etc... but still it was a bit of a hit to my confidence. But there's still 6 more weeks before the marathon and three more weeks of good hard training before the taper, so hopefully the pace will feel better.

Day 81

The pace is on!!! I was supposed to take the day off of running today, but I couldn't resist doing a little something because I think that I finally settled on a pace for my marathon. 8 minute miles, for a 3:30 marathon. I've been contemplating this for a while now and the McMillan running calculator has me right on this pace based on my 1:40 half marathon time. For the longest while I was thinking that this was way too fast, but I had a recent boost in my fitness level as the training starts to pay off so I think I'm going to go for it. Still not sure if I'll actually attain this goal, but I think it will be a good challenge.

With this new plan in mind I decided to go out for a quick 2 mile run to test my new pace. So I set my Garmin for 2 mile/ 8 minute pace and took off.

Distance: 2.0 miles
Duration: 15:59
Pace: 7:59
HR Avg/Max: 143/155
notes:
Pace felt good although I had to keep speeding up and slowing down to get it right. Heart rate was at 144 pretty much the whole time except for when I climbed a hill near the middle of the workout which pushed it up to 155. Tomorrow's run is an 8 mile pace run, so then I'll really get to see what it's all about!

Day 80

Five easy miles today...

Distance: 5.0 miles
Duration: 41:46
Pace: 8:21
HR Avg/Max: 143/168
notes:
started out easy.

My legs are pretty beat from yesterdays time trial, but my heart rate was good. Felt some various pains in my groin, left hamstring, and left knee but nothing that I'm really concerned about. My right shin is really barking at me though. Its been an on and off problem for me since I started training, but today it hurts more than usual. I'll ice it good a couple times while I watch "Spirit of the Marathon" which I just borrowed off of Pirate Bay. Hopefully that'll do the trick and I'll be feeling better by Saturday.

Day 79

Today I decided to attempt a time trial to see how my overall fitness is progressing. Initially I planned to run a fast 5 miler but at the last moment I decided that I really wanted to test my speed so I decided to run a 5k as fast as I could and then finish with a 1.9 mile cool down. Here's how it went.

Distance: 3.1 miles (5K)
Duration: 20:43
Pace: 6:41
HR Avg/Max: 164/180
notes:
I'm pretty psyched about the performance overall. 1st mile I hit in 6:25, 2nd in 7:00, and 3rd in 6:50. Considering I did this on a a hot day and on my own I'm beginning to think that I can break 20 minutes in a race... especially come fall. Hopefully I can test this theory come November after the marathon is over.


and the cool down...

Distance: 1.9 miles
Duration: 17:31
Pace: 9:13
HR Avg/Max: 155/169
notes: not a bad cool down either... heart rate stayed in the 150's but I felt very comfortable. Adding the times together I wound up running 5 miles in 38:28 which is a 7:42 pace which isn't that bad either...

time to go over to the mcmillan running calculator and see what my new 5k time gets me for my marathon prediction pace.

Day 78

Five easy miles today as I begin my cut-back week... I decided that since this was going to be an easy run I would take the dogs along with me. I ran two miles with Sasha, dropped her at home, and then ran a mile with Annabell before dropping her off and picking up Sasha again for the last two miles... Sasha did great until about the 4.75 mile mark where she simply stopped and lay down in the grass, deciding that she was not going to run another step further... so I picked her up and carried her the last quarter mile tucked under my arm.

Distance: 5.0 miles
Duration: 42:07
Pace: 8:27 min/mile
HR Avg/Max: 140/161
notes:
I'm really starting to see results in my cardio conditioning as my heart rate surely and steadily declines. I wore my heart rate monitor to bed last night to get a reading on my resting heart rate and I recorded 42 BPM as my low which is about 15 beats slower than when I started.

Furthermore, five miles seems like a short run now! My leg muscles are recovering much faster than they used too and I can walk down stairs after a long run... My restless legs haven't bothered me in a while and I'm feeling more energized... It took a bit, but I believe I'm finally starting to get in shape.

I still have some weight to lose, since I haven't dropped nary a pound since I started training. But I'm optimistic that if I combine some weight loss with some speed training than I will eventually turn myself back into a runner again!

5 miles tomorrow and I'm thinking I might make a time trial of of it... I'm feeling pretty good and would like to test myself.

Day 76

Long run day...

Distance: 18.50
Duration: 2:51:20
Pace: 9:16
HR Avg/Max: 135/150
notes:
Today's run kicked my ass more than any run has for quite a while. I'm assuming that the culmination of last weeks 20 miler, the 5 days I ran this week in a row, the fartlek workout, and the 41 miles I ran this week finally caught up to me. I started off decently at about an 8:30 pace and kept it up for about 6 miles... but then at the 6 mile mark I started to fall apart. My legs were dead and just didn't want to move. I wound up slowing down wavering between a 9 and 10 minute pace, and while my heart rate was still low (129 BPM) I just couldn't get my legs to go any faster. When I hit the 9 mile mark I stopped and walked for about 2 minutes to gather myself and then started back towards home. The next 5 miles were more hell... I plodded along telling myself as I hit each mile mark that I would stop after the next mile and walk some more... I kept this trick up until mile 14 where there was a water fountain. I stopped and drank and then walked for another 2 minutes... starting up again was even harder this time but I managed to get going. The water must of helped because I felt better and even picked up the pace slightly. I was able to finish strong and when I hit the 18 mile point I still had a little bit of trail left so I went ahead and ran the extra .5 miles, although it wasn't actually that I felt good enough that I wanted to run the extra .5 but rather that I was so desperate to get back to the car and I had been running so long that I couldn't really process the idea of stopping.

I'm guessing that today was probably the closest to glycogen depleted that my body has been so far (although I didn't hit "the wall" or anything)... When I got home Natalie made me a coke float which did wonders for my psyche... tomorrow's a day off and I plan of resting up!

11 weeks of training down... 7 more to go!

Day 75

After yesterday's fartlek and before tomorrow's 18 miler I figured I better just stick to a recovery run.

Distance: 4.0 miles
Duration: 38:02
Pace: 9:24
HR Avg/Max: 136/148
notes:
nice and easy run. no problems here! Tomorrow will be the true test.

Day 74

I've been feeling a need for speed, but just haven't been able to shake the idea that a track workout at my current state of conditioning may prove to be counter-productive especially with all the additional milage I've been running. As a compromise to myself I decided to attempt a fartlek style workout instead.

Distance: 5.0 miles
Duration: 39:28
Pace: 7:53
HR Avg/Max: 154/178
notes:
After a 1.5 mile warm-up at about 8:30 pace I started my fartleks. I wound up running 7 legs of increased speed, each one for about 45 sec to 1 minute in duration, with .4 to .5 miles of recovery running in between. Reviewing the data it looks like I ran about a 4:45 pace for each segment and an 8:30 pace for recovery. All the distances and times were pretty informal as I tried to just do what felt right. When I felt ready for another speed-up I would just pick a target, like a bush or a house, and run to it. All in all I found this to be a pretty rewarding workout and hope to start incorporating more fartleks into my training while slowly increasing the pace, frequency, and duration.

Day 73

Lately my training has been lacking some focus. My runs have been laboring and I've been dreading leaving the house. In light of this I decided that today I was going to just get out, take it easy, and enjoy the run.

The weather couldn't have been much better considering its the middle of August. 69 degrees with a breeze. I took off at a recovery pace for the first four miles averaging 9 min/miles and keeping the heart rate at about 130. Along the way I saw a beaver!

At the four mile mark I started to heat up from the sun and my heart rate slowly started creeping, but I felt good and pushed the pace a little.

Mile 6 had a tough hill and I really charged it getting the heart rate up to 176. After this I coasted it in all the way home.

Distance: 8.60 miles
Duration: 1:16:05
Pace: 8:51
HR Avg/Max: 137/176

Day 72

another couple days off. I've been dealing with some shit lately and it's definitely fucking with my training, but hopefully the worst is over and I can get back focused again.


Distance: 5.0 miles
Duration: 41:27
Pace: 8:17
HR Avg/Max: 152/168
notes:
Barely got myself out the house, and when I finally did I felt like crap. I tried to keep a moderate pace but even then my heart rate was up and I was laboring. On the other hand... running for 5 miles and running for over 40 minutes with my heart rate up is still pretty good exercise, especially considering it was a "bad" running day. Still feeling like I'm in limbo and the marathon is still a long ways away... got to stay focused and build on the work I've done, and not let myself slide backward.

Day 69 (haha, 69!)

Day 67 was a rest day and Day 68 turned into another rest day since I haven't been feeling too well.

Can't miss the long slow distance day however so I headed out to the Rock Island trail. Not sure if it was the 75 degree weather or the cloudy sky or maybe the extra day off, but I felt great. I planned to do the scheduled 17 miler but as I got to the 8.5 mile mark where I was supposed to turn around and run back I decided to fuck it and run 20 instead... must of been runners high! Not sure if this was a mistake or not, but I finished the run (although the last mile or two was brutal). I'm hype right now though... although I'm sure tomorrow's going to bring the pain!

Distance: 20.02 miles
Duration: 2:56:43
Pace: 8:50
HR Avg/Max: 141/162
notes:
Good overall run. Stopped for water at 4 mile mark and then again on the way back at 16 miles... I'm confident that I probably was getting pretty dehydrated during this run but I'm thinking that by training in less than optimal conditions my body will really excel come marathon time, when I can actually drink water more often. Also, I mean to start experimenting with energy gels on these long runs but I figure that not using anything will help train my body to better use glycogen come marathon time. Overall I'm pretty pumped about this run. I figure if I could have kept this pace up for another 6 miles (although my last 2 miles were at 9:40 pace), then I'd be looking at a 3:50 marathon time... My speed is still not where I want it but my endurance is definitely building and I still have tons more training before Chicago!

Day 66

Distance: 4.0 miles
Duration: 32:08
Pace: 8:32
HR Avg/Max: 144/156
notes:
Easy run today... probably didn't take it easy enough. Feeling some shin pain coming back in my right leg but it hasn't progressed in the last 6 weeks so hopefully some rest tomorrow will tame it back down. 25 more miles to go this week, assuming I get it all in. That will make a total of 43 miles in a week... uncharted territory for me... we'll see if I hold out or if the injury bug bites my ass.

The summer heat is brutal again. I've never actually trained through a summer before come to think of it. Fall will be welcome when it comes and hopefully it will bring faster paces and lower heart-rates with it!

I'm back

The last week+ has brought some unexpected challenges which have kept me from blogging my training progress. Time to catch up.

Week 9 (Step-back)

Spent the week in Wisconsin. Got some good trail runs in and found a very steep long hill with an 11% incline that I tackled several times. Times were slow and I was hurting. Temperature picked up which could have contributed to the slowdown. Also my Grandmother got ill during my visit which extended my trip and brought some extra stress which could also have hurt my training. Also, I only packed an old pair of shoes which I seldom use anymore. Anyhow, enough excuses... here's the training log.

Day 57: (August 4th, 2009)

Distance: 5.08 miles
Duration: 44:22
Pace: 8:44
HR Avg/Max: 146/173

Day 58: (August 5th, 2009)

Distance: 4.24 miles
Duration: 37:12
Pace: 8:46
HR Avg/Max: 144/166

Day 59: (August 6th, 2009) Rest
Day 60: (August 7th, 2009) Rest

Day 61: (August 8th, 2009)

Distance: 11.02 miles
Duration: 1:42:37
Pace: 9:19
HR Avg/Max: 148/167

Day 62: (August 9th, 2009) Rest

Day 63: (August 10th, 2009)

Distance: 2.34 miles
Duration: 21:39
Pace: 9:15
HR Avg/Max: 139/167

Week 10

Back in Peoria for a few days before heading down to Carbondale for the weekend. Time to focus on training and get some hard runs in. The heat and humidity is killer, but it could be worse.

Day 64: (August 11th, 2009)

Distance: 4.0 miles
Duration: 29:22
Pace: 7:20
HR Avg/Max: 160/173
notes:
didn't expect to run this so hard but it turned out to be my third fastest training run yet! Went out hard but relaxed and didn't start hurting till the third mile. At this point there was not slowing down so I pushed on and finished strong.

Day 65: (August 12th, 2009)

Distance: 8.0 miles
Duration: 1:02:27
Pace: 7:48
HR Avg/Max: 159/174
notes:
hit the first 4 miles at 7:30 pace. Way too hard for the afternoon heat! Slowed way down on my 5th mile as I tackled a killer hill (9:00 min pace). Then picked it back up on the last 3 miles as I got back to flatter ground (7:57 pace).

Day 55&56

Rest and Recovery...

August 2nd was spent resting with as little time on my feet as possible, plenty of stretching, and some icing of the shins.

August 3rd, Day 56

Distance: 4.36
Duration: 36:56
Pace: 8:28
HR Avg/Max: 144/164
notes:

Humid day but not too hot. Pace felt good but I'm still fatigued from the weekend. Didn't worry as much about heartrate today, but just focused on keeping a comfortable pace and keeping my form correct. Finished the last 800 meters strong and strode it out at the end.

Heading up to Madison today for the week which will hopefully provide me with a change of scenery and some slightly cooler conditions for me to get my runs in.

Day 54

Long run today. Body is still sore from yesterday but not so bad that I can't get my 15 in. The weather is awesome! 64 degrees with a slight sprinkle of rain... just enough to keep you cool but not enough to get you soaked. I grabbed a bit of breakfast and drank some water and then headed out to the Rock Island Trail for 7.5 miles out and 7.5 miles back.

Distance: 15.0 miles
Duration: 2:18:38
Pace: 9:14
HR Avg/Max: 133/148
notes:

The cool weather was such a pleasant relief! I've been reading about cardiac creep and how hotter weather can elevate you're heart rate, but I had no idea how much of an effect it really has. Normally I haven't been able to keep my HR under 135 (70% of my max) no matter how slow I went, but today I was hard pressed to get it above 135! Yesterday's hard workout certainly helped slow me down as my legs didn't feel like they could go much faster than 9:00 minute pace even if I wanted to. This was good because today's 15 was the longest I've ever run in my life (possibly true about the 14 too but I'm pretty sure I did 14 once or twice in high school). Not only that but the 15 capped a 37 mile week which is considerably farther than my previous max of 29.

The run went excellent. The first few miles I was a little fatigued, but that soon went away. By mile 5 I was feeling great and pretty much felt ok until around 12.66 miles. At this point my left foot started hurting and my energy levels dropped. I stopped and stretched for about 10 seconds and then continued on at a slower pace. My foot felt better but I still labored for the next mile in a half. Then with less than a mile left I rallied the energy I had left and pushed the pace slightly finishing strong.

I'm hungry and tired but I'm also happy. We're on our way to Indian buffet and I'm going to put a hurting on some basmati! 2 hours and 20 minutes is a long time to run, and 15 miles is a long way! but add another 1 hour and a half on and 11.2 more miles and you have yourself a marathon... I'm beginning to think that I'm crazy!