Epilog

So ends the first chapter in my running adventures. The marathon has left me with a bitter sweet feeling. It's sad that after all the time and preparation it's over. However it's exciting because I know that my running is far from over and it's time to start a new chapter!

I've really enjoyed blogging my training diary. It allows me a good vehicle to focus my thoughts about running and a rare opportunity to write and express myself. It affords me time to reflect on my goals and helps me analyze my training. It's kept me focused and accountable and forced me to recognize details about my running both good and bad that I normally would have ignored.

I've decided that I'd like to keep blogging about my running (at least for now) so I've started a new site. So for my one follower and anyone else who might accidently stumble across this site you can now find me at my new site: RISE OF A CHAMPION - http://beyond26point2.blogspot.com.

Fin

Day 123! The MARATHON

123 days in the making. The marathon was finally here. I'm not planning on getting too in-depth with my race report because this blog was intended to be more about the training leading up to the marathon rather then the marathon itself, but I'll at least give a summary.

Distance: 26.2 miles
Duration: 3:39:34
Pace: 8:23
HR Avg/Max: 157/167
notes:
It was a cold day... about 32 degrees at the start of the race, but with the mass of bodies and my own excitement I didn't noticed being cold. The start was crowded and I was initially unable to get to my 3:30 pace group so I spent the first mile weaving my way until I caught up. Luckily they were more impeded by the crowd than I was so I was able to catch up by the first mile mark. I wound up running the first mile in 8:03 while the pace group ran closer to an 8:30 so they spent the next couple miles trying to get back on pace. For the next 12 miles we averaged about 7:50 miles. By the half point I was feeling great. The pace group must have been ahead of pace now because they suddenly slowed down. I kept my same pace and was soon ahead of them. I continued with 7:53 miles for mile 13-18. Then at 18 my hamstring and quad started to tighten up. Not sure if it was the cold or dehydration or just lack of conditioning. At this point I was a minute ahead of goal pace so I told myself I just wanted to be on pace through 20. I hit the next two miles in 8:29 and 8:31, respectively. Somewhere around mile 19 I got a total runners high... I really felt like I was tripping... that didn't last long though. At mile 20 I really started to slow down. Mile 21 and 22 I ran at 9:26 and 9:21 splits. At mile 22 I saw my friends Will, Christine, and Ervin at the sidelines... at this point I was dying. I was never so happy to see someone in my entire life! They jumped into the race and ran with me for the next mile and really lifted my spirits. Because of them I hit mile 23 in 8:48 pace. As I hit the 23rd mile marked my friends dropped off to the side and with them my good spirits. The good thing at this point was that I only had about 3 more miles to go but the bad thing was that I was really suffering. I slowed down to a 9:40 pace for the next mile. At the 24 mile marker a whole new level of pain and suffering kicked in. I though that I had hit "the wall" before but it was nothing compared to how I felt now. My right knee was really hurting as well as my feet, legs, everything else... I slowed down even more and ran the 25th mile at a 10:10 pace. At this point I was just willing myself to put one leg in front of the other and to NOT WALK!!! I started yelling and barking and cursing at myself to keep myself going... the hundreds of people who were passing me at this point must of though I was crazy... Finally I hit the 25 mile mark and I knew that I was almost done. I looked down at my time and knew that I'd need to run under 10 minute pace to finish under 3:40. At this point I wasn't sure if that was a possibility. I still wasn't even sure if I'd be able to finish without walking. I decided to break it down into 1/10ths of miles which I'd have to run under 1 minute. I picked up the pace slightly and slowly counted down the .1 miles... .9 to go, .8 to go, .7 to go, etc... finally I came around the corner to the final hill before the finish. You'd think that at this point a hill would be hard, but to me it was almost easier since it used slightly different muscle groups. I powered up the hill at a slow but steady shuffle and came around the corner towards the finish. There it was in front of me. This would normally be the time when I use my legendary kick, but not today... I was still just willing myself not to walk. I ran the final mile point two at 9:27 pace and finished just slightly under 3:40.

I had thought beforehand that finishing the marathon would be a triumphant moment but as I crossed the line I felt like absolute crap. Everything hurt. I suffered for the next 30 minutes feeling about the worst I ever have in my life. Finally I started feeling better so I made my way over to the beer tent to claim the best tasting beer I've ever drank.

Day 122

Day before the marathon... last training run.

Distance: 1.9 miles
Duration: 17:18
Pace: 8:50
HR Avg/Max: 136/145
notes:

took the dogs out with me on my last run. tried out how my race gear would feel in cold weather and I warmed up fast i.e. I'm no longer worried about being too cold. I feel smooth. My legs feel great. The morning was beautiful!

I've done my last training run!

539 miles of running... and I'm ready to run the marathon distance (less than 5% of my total training)

Chitown... here I come!

Day 121

Hard to believe that its been 121 since I started this madness.

The taper is going well. I feel like a ball of energy. I've got some various tightness in my achilles tendons when I wake up in the morning but even that is subsiding for the first time in four months. I've been icing my shins every day and they're feeling better and better (I was really worried I had stress fractures, but I'm hoping that since they are improving that this is not the case). I think that my body is going to be as ready as it can be. My mind is another matter.

At this point I'm all nerves... I wish I could go out for a run to clear my head and get some of the antsiness out of my system but I need to stick to the taper. I'm filled with nervous anticipation. I've been focusing on training for the last four months. My time has been consumed with running; The training, the icing, reading about running, blogging about running, reading blogs about running, reading and commenting on running forums, watching running movies, googling every topic even remotely related to running, analyzing my HR data, mapping my runs (damn I need a job!)... obsession pretty much sums in up... not necessarily in a healthy way probably but I guess there's a lot worse things to obsess about... hopefully after the race I can continue the running but bring a little balance into the mix.

Lately I've been obsessed with what ifs: What if it's too cold, What if it rains, what if I can't handle the pace, what if I'm miserable, what if I have to take a dump mid-race...

...but I try to tell myself that worrying is silly... I'm as prepared as I can be at this time... there's nothing else I can do... I've packed my bags... I have all my gear... I'm prepared for the weather... so I'm going to replace the what if's with so whats!

so what if it rains, I've trained in the rain... so what if it's miserable, I'm running 26.2 miles at a pace much faster than I've ever attempted to run for more than 13.1, so of course it'll be miserable... so what if I can't handle the pace, I'll just have to slow down and enjoy the atmosphere... and if I have to take a dump, I guess I'll just have to stop to take a dump, although I hope to god this is not a problem!

Bottom line is that in less than 48 hours I'm going to go out and race for 26.2 miles for the first time in my life... and no matter what happens it's going to be an important experience in my life... In less than 48 hours I'm going to be a marathoner! I used to talk to people who ran marathons and be impressed and I'd think to myself, some day that's going to be me... It was always in my mind that someday I was going to run a marathon, because in my mind I was always a runner... but now it's going to be real.

I have no doubt that this marathon experience is going to be awesome... some people say that it's going to be life altering... I'm still not so sure about that... but on the other hand, I love to run, and I love to race... I have vivid memories of many of the races and I'm confident that in 48 hours this first marathon will be vividly imprinted into my mind as well. No matter what happens this is going to be my first marathon and no matter what happens on race day I'm confident that I'll look back at the day as an important experience regardless of the ultimate outcome.

Day 120

Waiting... nervous but excited

Day 119

Second to last training run...

Distance: 3.27 miles
Duration: 26:35
Pace: 8:08
HR Avg/Max: 148/161
notes:
Tried to get out early so I could see what the cold felt like (45 degrees)... I warmed up pretty quickly and it wasn't too bad. Of course it was also sunny.

I'm thinking that if it's raining on Sunday then it might suck a little bit... but hey, you can't control the weather so there's no point in worrying about it... And in some ways it could be fitting if we wind up running on a cold rainy day in Chicago since the running season really felt like it started at the Shamrock Shuffle in the freezing sleeting cold. Its like everything has come full circle.

I guess now that the training is pretty much over I'm going to use the next few days to reflect on all I've gone through so far... hopefully quantifying my efforts will help me build the confidence I need going into Sunday's race.

- 18 weeks
- average of 31.13 miles/wk
- 537 miles
- 76 hours, 16 minutes, 9 seconds of running
- average HR of 148
- average pace of 8:26
- 69,685 calories burned
- 161.8 miles (30% of training) run at marathon pace or faster
- 87.9 miles (16% of training) run at half-marathon pace or faster
- 3 runs of 20 miles or longer
- 4 runs of 30K or longer
- 15 runs of 10 miles or longer (41% of training)

So here I am... seems like decent training for a debut marathon... hopefully at least a good baseline for my future career in running.

Day 118

Things are winding down... i'm in my last week of training before the race. training is down to the minimum. full super taper mode is in effect.

I've been reading different theories on tapering... some say 3 weeks others two... some say take it easy and others say cut milage and but not intensity. I guess different methods work for different people (different folks different strokes as my imaginary grandpa might say). I'm just trying to judge by how I feel to determine the best method for me, but since I'm a newbie at this it's hard to say if I'm succeeding.

Four miles on the schedule today. Hal says three but i'm juggling the schedule to four today and three tomorrow since I did my final sorta long run on Saturday instead of Sunday. I also decided that I'd run this at moderate to hard intensity since my legs are feeling a little restless from the lack of running!

Distance: 4 miles (plus .62 mile, 6 minute cooldown)
Duration: 29:44
Pace: 7:27
HR Avg/Max: 152/169
notes:
First mile I hit in 7:41, second in 7:30, third in 7:37, and the last in 6:55. This last "hard" run provided a good confidence booster. This pace is close to my near full out 3 mile training runs from 4 months ago, except now the pace feels fast but relaxed instead of exhaustive. Its amazing how much progress you can make in 4 short months... Hopefully nothing compared to what I can do in a year.

Day 116

One week to go

Distance: 4.14 miles
Duration: 35:43
Pace: 8:38
HR Avg/Max: 145/156
notes:

Easy paced run... felt the shin at several different moments but for the most part it was quiet.

Weather was 60 degrees. I didn't use my inhaler before the run and I could feel some tightness in my chest but I wasn't running hard enough to need my full breath capacity so it didn't really make a difference.

I'm still adapting to the colder temperatures. They don't bother me too much during the run, but afterwards my body feels chilled and a little achy from it. This week I'm gonna to try to start waking up earlier to adjust my schedule to the marathon time, and getting outside to help get used to the cold.

According to the plan I got 9 more miles to go before the race. According to the Chicago marathon website: 6 days 12 hrs 6 mins 22 seconds till the gun goes off.

Day 115

Back on the road after three days of rest and excessive icing. The weather is a robust 51 degrees (hopefully same as marathon day!) and slightly rainy (I could do without this part). I decided to treat today like a marathon trial run to make sure my gear was in order.

Distance: 10.0 miles
Duration: 1:18:46
Pace: 7:53
HR Avg/Max: 150/173
notes:

First couple steps I felt a little stiff and the shin was aching, but after a few strides I loosened up and felt good. I decided to run at a strong base pace which turned out to be just about marathon pace after taking three days off. After I hit the first mile in 7:50 I decided to make it a marathon pace run since I've only ran 4 other miles this week and I felt so refreshed.

The cold was a bit bothersome for the first couple miles (the rain certainly didn't help)... My knees ached a little and it took a while to warm up but after the third mile I felt good.

I got a couple side stitches about the 7 mile mark and they haunted me for the rest of the run but didn't really slow me down... I'll have to be sure to research stitch strategy since I'd hate to have to run 20 miles with side stitches.... Also one of my shoestrings was a little floppy, so I'll have to be careful of that on race day... other than that I felt good... With another week of taper and good weather I think Chicago is going to be awesome!

Day 112

Forced rest.

My shin pain has progressed to the next level. My right one is now aching even when I walk and my left one is increasingly becoming more and more sore to the touch. I think that the only wise move for me now is to take a couple days off and let my body heal.

I'm pretty much addicted to running now so I'm not enjoying the prospects but it's probably for the best since I've been having trouble taking it easy on the taper.

I'm thinking that I'll take three days off and then hopefully put in some easy miles this weekend depending on how I feel.

Day 111

Training is winding down. I'm committing to my taper.

Today. 4 miles at base pace.

Distance: 4.19
Duration: 34:05
Pace: 8:08
HR Avg/Max: 146/158
notes:
Temperature was 62 degrees. Perfect for running. Kept a good steady relaxed pace. My right shin was bugging me a bit but overall I felt good. My head cold is subsiding. I feel great right now but I can tell that in a few days I'm really going to have to hold myself back from doing a hard workout.

day 110

last of the long runs

Distance: 14 miles
Duration: 2:04:42
Pace: 8:55
HR Avg/Max: 142/154
notes:
I'm sick with a head cold. The run sucked but I made myself do it anyway. It felt lousy but I got it done. Being sick sucks, but it's probably happening at the best possible time. Plenty of time to get well before the marathon.

Also I broke the 500 mile mark today. I've now completed 510.84 miles since I started my marathon training 16 weeks ago.

Day 109

Day 109 a.k.a. The last of the fast...

I have a confession to make. I feel like I rely a little too much on my watch. During my average run I'm looking at it constantly; counting down the miles, checking and rechecking my pace, checking my heart rate, estimating my finishing time... As much as I try I just can't seem to ignore it for more than 30 seconds at a time. So, today I decided to try a little experiment.

I taped a piece of paper over my watch face so I couldn't see what it said and decided to go out and run "blindly". Today was supposed to be a marathon pace day so I figured I'd go out and see how close I could hit pace without knowing how fast I was going.

Here's how I did.

Distance: 4.03 miles
Duration: 27:56
Pace: 6:56
HR Avg/Max: 164/179
notes:

Utterly failed at my pacing efforts as usual. I went out at what I felt was a brisk but relaxed pace. By the end of the first mile I could tell that I was going too fast by how hard I was breathing but I still felt pretty good. By the end of the second mile I was starting to hurt but I figured that it was partly just cumulative exhaustion from the last couple weeks. Mile three I decided I might as well go for broke and at least hold my pace for one more mile and then see what I had left for my four... Mile four I gave it all and pushed all the way home.

Splits:

Mile 1: 7:03
Mile 2: 7:05
Mile 3: 7:02
Mile 4: 6:30

Very even splits for the first three miles which was good. As I was running the pain was getting progressively worse but I managed it well and didn't let it slow me down at all. The last mile was hell but it felt good to push myself near my limits for one last time before the marathon.

Tomorrow I run my last "long" run and after that I plan on taking it very easy until marathon time. The last few weeks of workouts have been intense and hopefully they will benefit me in both confidence and fitness come marathon time. But for now I think that I've attained all the fitness I can expect to get before the marathon and that the best thing I can do for myself is force myself to slow it down and allow myself to recuperate.

I might throw a few 1-2 minute fartleks into next Wednesdays workout but besides that this is the last run I plan to do at a pace which is anything faster than marathon pace so help me god!

Day 108

BLAH! Right now I'm fucking toast. My hard training has finally caught up to me and my legs feel like they've been beat with bats. Climbing stairs in a chore. Walking sucks.

Figured I'd better go easy today...

Distance: 6.18 miles
Duration: 55:00
Pace: 8:54
HR Avg/Max: 134/157
notes:
Sure enough. Legs are beyond dead. I'm like a running zombie. I was able to keep this run at a recovery pace mostly because I couldn't go any faster if I wanted to. Yesterdays speed work seems to of sucked any semblance of speed out of my body.

I'm not worried though. While technically I'm starting my taper this week I'm really thinking that I might be better off with a two week taper instead of the three weeks Uncle Hal proscribed. I'm still on course and have plenty of time to recover and if I can get myself refreshed after my last few weeks of training domination I should be an animal come marathon time!

Day 107

First Wednesday of the three week taper... I'm slowly cutting back the milage but still want to get some intensity out of this workout. Next week I'll have to really start focusing on cutting back the milage and the intensity but for now I want to squeeze every last bit of fitness out that I possibly can.

I decided to do some semi-speedwork to work on tuning up my turnover and max out my cardio.

The work out: 2 miles hard, 2 miles easy, 1 mile hard, 2 miles easy.

Total Distance: 7.0 Miles
Duration: 55:03
Avg Pace: 7:52

Here's the break down.

2 miles hard...
Duration: 12:51 (6:26, 6:25 splits)
HR Avg/Max: 166/178

2 miles easy
Duration: 16:30 (8:27, 8:03 splits)
HR Avg/Max: 157/167

1 mile hard
Duration: 6:40
HR Avg/Max: 174/180

2 miles easy
Duration: 19:02 (10:06, 8:56)
HR Avg/Max: 158/172

__________________________________________________________

notes:
another brutal workout on a hot day... I'm really spent from all the running and need to force myself to cool out pretty soon if I want to be 100% by marathon time.

Day 106

5 easy miles.

Distance: 5.0 miles
Duration: 41:34
Pace: 8:19
HR Avg/Max: 148/169
notes:

After the last 4 days I guess there's no such thing as 5 easy miles. My heart rate was up. I was hot. My legs were stiff, tired, and I hurt!

On a positive note, it appears that my achilles pain is completely gone and my shin pain while still intermittent has not gotten any worse so I guess the conscientious icing has been paying dividends.

12 more workouts and 19 more days until the marathon!

Day 105

Another day, another 20 mile bike ride.... really slow though. My legs are out of energy. Had to go back and clean up my gator-aid and power-gel wrappers from my weekend run though.

Day 104

Last of the long runs before the ultimate long run.

Distance: 22.4 miles
Duration: 3:17:53
Pace: 8:50
HR Avg/Max: 132/149
notes:
Started the run off pretty sore after yesterdays 10 miler but loosened up after about 3 miles. From there I pretty much cruised at about exactly a 8:50 pace for the entire run. I was even able to average 8:47 for the last 5 miles which was the first time I didn't have to slow down and fight my way in at the end of a long run. Definitely my best long run to date as far as being a confidence booster.

The conditions of the run were less than optimal. The first 12 miles went smoothly, but then it started to pour rain. I still had 10 miles left to go and the trail that I was running on became muddy and covered with about a inch and a half of standing water. My cloths were completely drenched and my shoes were waterlogged. The traction was terrible as well and I had issues getting good footing. On the bright side I think it made me run faster because I just wanted to get the run finished with as fast as possible.

52 miles logged this week and I'm feeling tired, but not injured. 3 more weeks to marathon time. The taper has officially begun!

Day 103

Hal is going to be mad at me... he said that I was supposed to cut out cross training during the week and what did I do? I went out and biked 20 miles yesterday... Of course I had an excuse. I was dropping off gator-aid and power-gel for my 20 miler tomorrow.

Then today I decided to follow the intermediate 2 plan instead of the intermediate 1 plan... So 10 miles at marathon pace... no problem.

Distance: 10.0 miles
Duration: 1:15:58
Pace: 7:36
HR Avg/Max: 159/176
notes:
Seems like I have a problem with pace. The plan started out easy enough... 8 minute miles. But for some reason I'm always worried that I'm starting too slow (even though I have a Garmin which tells be exactly how far ahead I am of pace) and I wound up running my first mile in 7:15. I slowed down, averaging 7:40 miles for the next 8 and then kicked in the last mile in 7:10.

So I'm happy with the run... this was my third run at this pace in the last week starting with my half-marathon last Sunday. On the other hand I'm a little worried about my inability to keep pace. My plan is to find the Nike pace group at the marathon and let them do the work... otherwise, I'm going to go out too fast and die.

As far as the quality of the run through I figured my lactate threshold to be 158-176 bmp which was my average and max of the run. I hit 158 at about the 3 mile mark so I was in the threshold range for about 7 miles (50 minutes). Hell of a tempo run.

Tonight's the Berlin marathon and they're streaming it live on NBC Universal Sports. Hopefully I can either stay up till 1:45 am or wake up and watch it because there's a good change a world record is going to be set!

101

Another day easy day at conversational pace.

Distance: 5.35 miles
Duration: 45:01
Pace: 8:24
HR Avg/Max: 140/154
notes:

Pretty much the same run as Tuesday... I'm very satisfied with the fact that this pace seems to be my easy running pace now and considering that both Tuesday and Thursday's runs are on the heels of two of the hardest workouts gives me even more confidence.

Also, I feel like my stride is really improving... I've been focusing on it a little bit, but i mostly just think that the faster workouts are forcing it to improve. I definitely feel like I'm mid-foot striking and each stride feels more effortless than it used to. The marathon is getting closer and closer and my anticipation is building!

Day 100

One hundred days since I started training for the Chicago Marathon! I've come a long way... I'd like to stop and reflect on my training so far, but I still have about a week and a half of good solid training before I'm planning on hitting full taper mode so I think I'll hold off on that. Instead I decided to honor the 100 day mark with a particularly grueling Wednesday workout.

I had 8 miles scheduled for today, and it's Wednesday so I wanted to run it pretty hard. I also wanted to get some speedwork in too so I decided pepper some hard mile repeats into my run, by alternating easy running and marathon pace running every other mile. Here's how my plan unfolded.

Distance: 8.0 miles (plus .5 mile cooldown)
Duration: 1:01:12
Pace: 7:39
HR Avg/Max: 156/179
notes:

Started out at a moderate pace but quickly started speeding up despite myself and ran the first mile in 8:09... at this point I decided to change my plan from alternating between E running and MP running and instead alternate between MP running and hard running. Here's the mile by mile breakdown.

Mile 1: 8:09 (feeling better than expected)
Mile 2: 8:03 (all warmed up and ready to burn)
Mile 3: 6:51 (woaw this feels fast, but I'm feeling good)
Mile 4: 7:55 (amazing how easy this pace feels relative to 6:51)
Mile 5: 6:42 (woaw, this feels really fast and I'm not feeling so good anymore)
Mile 6: 8:07 (amazing how this pace doesn't feel so easy anymore)
Mile 7: 7:56 (hit the first .4 at 6:51 pace, next .35 was up a steep hill and my muscles finally remembered the half-marathon from Sunday... heart rate averaged 172 and peaked at 179 during this stretch)
Mile 8: 7:33 (last mile... man I want to walk, but I can't quit now... time to see what's left in the tank)

Last mile and a half was horrid, painful, and the opposite of fun. I just wanted to quit, but I knew that pushing through the pain would help me when I hit the "wall" in the marathon so I pushed on. Glad that I did now because I feel great!

24 more days to the marathon and I'm trying to spend the rest of the time cleaning up my diet, shedding a few pounds, getting some last ditch polish on my fitness, and resting up with a good taper so that I can be in top possible shape come marathon day!

day 99

Tuesday after a half-marathon... 5 miles at a "conversational" pace (not literally since I run by myself)...

Distance: 5.1 miles
Duration: 42:47
Pace: 8:23
HR Avg/Max: 143/154
notes:
My brain said yes but my legs said no! First mile hurt like hell but once I loosened up I felt much better. By 3.5 miles I was tired though. Had to run up a couple hills (even though this is my "flat" course) and those just about killed me. Last mile was mostly downhill and combined with the knowledge that I was almost done went smoothly.

In a side note, I started running while listening to audio books... I wasn't sure if this was going to work or not, but it turns out that it's not that bad for easy - moderate paced runs. It takes my mind off the run just enough help me ignore the bad parts (pain, fatigue) while still letting me enjoy the good parts (fresh air, freedom, my stride)... Don't think I'll try it for a hard run though, that requires too much focus.

Day 97

Race day! IVS Half-Marathon.

I drove most of the way to the race and then parked about 1.5 miles away from the start on a side street. I used the 1.5 as a warm up and felt great as I lined up to start the race. The gun went off and we were off!

Distance: 13.1
Duration:1:39:19
Pace: 7:35
HR Avg/Max: 161/183
notes:

Turned out to be a way tougher race than I anticipated. I planned to just go out relaxed and coast the first 10 miles and kick in the last 5k. The problem with this plan was that the course was two laps over the hilliest terrain I have ever attempted. My GPS says there was over 3000 feet of total accent!

All in all I think I raced it well. I started smoothly and didn't let the race day anticipation get the better of me. Many of the runners took off fast when the gun went off but I stayed relaxed and ran my own race and hit the first mile in 7:48. From here I picked up the pace slightly, but focused on running relaxed and within my means. We hit the first big hill at the 1.75 mark and this is when I started passing people. By mile 3 several of the runners who had went out too fast were already walking and I easily must of passed about 30 people as we went up and down rolling hills. I just focused on not slowing down on the uphills and coasting on the downhills to recover. I finished the first loop in 50:15, about a 7:40 pace.

At this point I started running into some trouble. Cardiovascularly I felt fine with my heart rate sitting at 160 but my legs felt shot. It felt as if I had been lifting weights rather than running. My quads were tight and I had a pain in my ass! The next 6.55 was pretty rough. I was by myself at this point with only one or two other runners even in sight since the course was so hilly and winding. I just tried to keep my stride loose and not slow down and as I came to the big hills I just put my head down and didn't look up focusing on one foot after the other until I reached the top. Somehow I didn't slow down and maintained a 7:40 pace even though it seemed that I was going much slower. I think the steep downhill forced sprints must have helped with the pace.

By 10 miles I knew that my plan to kick in the last 5k was out of the question. I just maintained the 7:40 pace and was happy even to do that. The next two miles had a couple more really steep hills and I finally started catching some more runners as they died on the hills. About the 11.5 mile mark we started up the last hill and I knew that after this is would be smooth sailing. I powered up the hill, passing two more runners and even surging as I passed them just to make sure that they were completely demoralized and didn't try to latch on and follow me.

The next .5 miles was down hill and I lengthened my stride and let my body go limp trying to regain as much energy as I could for the final mile.

As I hit the 12 mile mark I consciously picked up the pace. Now I was running hard, but still tried to stay relaxed. With about 800 meters left I saw some two more runners up ahead and decided to really push it so as to catch them. I caught one of them with 200 left but there was still a woman up ahead of me. At this point we came out of the woods into the final straight away. She was still 50 feet ahead but I could tell she didn't have a kick. I went into full sprint mode and finally caught her with about 10 meters to spare. I hit the last 1.1 miles at a 6:40 pace so I guess I had something left after all. It helped that it was flat.


Happy with my finish I did some stretching and cooled down the 1.5 miles back to the car... not nearly as enthusiastic about where I parked as I was during my warm-up.


All in all the race was a positive experience. McMillan running calculator predicts my marathon time at 8:00 exactly based on todays time. Considering how hilly it was I suppose this was a positive sign. On the other hand the last 6 miles were ridiculously hard and I couldn't imagine doing another 13.1 afterwards.

I'm still having trouble hitting an 8:00 minute pace and am really going to have to focus on finding that groove if I want to run a successful race in Chicago.

Day 96

Back on the road.

Distance: 5.0 miles
Duration: 38:14
Pace: 7:39
HR Avg/Max: 154/171
notes:
Wound up running harder than planned but after 5 days off I felt good and wanted to get going. I just tried to run at a comfortable pace and focused on being fast but relaxed. Hopefully I didn't over do it before tomorrow's half marathon!

Day 91-95

Temporarily out of commission :(

My right shin and left achilles tendon were bothering me so I figured I'd take Monday and Tuesday off to get some extra rest... I did and felt somewhat better on Wednesday. At this point I was in Wisconsin helping my mother clean out my grandparents apartment. After a day of working I decided to head out for a evening 5 mile run...

I set off but after the first mile disaster stuck!



Here's the image from my run... as you see I was running down Rosa road and everything was going good and then suddenly I took a round about detour... this is me running behind a bush to let out a monster, liquid, literal shit storm. Seems like I must of had food poisoning from dinner. I'll spare the details but I had to run home shirtless. I ran the mile back home and spent the next 2 hours on and off the toilet.

Thursday I was still pretty wrecked and Friday I spent the whole day moving furniture... so basically 5 days off in a row... not great timing, but at least I had a chance to let some of my aches and pains heal.

The achilles is still barking, but I think with some icing and stretching things will be fine.

Day 89, 90

Weekend recap

Saturday, Sept 5th

Distance: 5.0 miles (+.66 mile cool down)
Duration: 38:30
Pace: 7:42
HR Avg/Max: 153/175
notes:
Awesome off road trail run... kept right near pace for the first 4 miles (7:57) but then really kicked it up the last mile (6:57). Finished with a short cool down.

Sunday, Sept 6th

Distance: 20.5 miles
Duration: 3:23:24
Pace: 9:55
HR Avg/Max: 123/156
notes:
Awesome 20 miler up and down lakeshore drive. The pace was conservative but probably wise since I'm ending this week with a total of 50 miles. Feet and shin hurt by the end but not anything out of the ordinary. When I got back from the out and back route my watch only registered 19.75 miles so I ran an additional .75 miles at 8:13 pace so that I would have 50 for the week. I'm glad I could finish strong, but not glad that I didn't get under 8 minute pace for the last .75 since I want to run this pace for an entire marathon.

Day 88

Should take the day off but I haven't been much for days off lately... hopefully my lack of rest won't catch up with me before the marathon.

My shin has been bothering me and I know I should be resting it, but a steady diet of ice and compression have actually been keeping it pretty well in check... It actually feels pretty good until I go out and run on it... after the run it's usually irritated and dully sore.

Distance: 3.25 miles
Duration: 25:44
Pace: 7:55
HR Avg/Max: 153/166
notes:
wanted to make this a marathon pace workout. i want to have a better feeling of what marathon pace is. did a good job of keeping pace, but the effort seemed pretty intense. it was also 15 degrees hotter than it has been so hopefully that had something to do with it. i can't say that I'm confident that 8 minute miles is really my marathon pace but I'll keep training like it is, at least for now.

Day 87

Recovery

Distance: 5.30 miles
Duration: 50:01
Pace: 9:26
HR Avg/Max: 130/141
notes:
not much to say... took it really easy today after yesterdays hard workout and before this weekends hard workouts. Still having some shin splint pain, but I've been doing everything I can to treat it so hopefully it won't develop into anything major.

Day 86

Goddamn... today was the work out to end all work outs (hopefully not literally)

Distance: 10 miles
Duration: 1:23:09
Pace: 8:19
HR Avg/Max: 149/179
notes:
Decided to do a little extra hill work today so I ran down to the Springdale cemetery down near the river. It was a 3 mile run to get there and I took those first three miles pretty easy. From there the madness began. I ran to the first big hill and sprinted up it which took about a minute and pushed my heart rate up to 177. I slowed the pace for recovery and did a mile loop through the cemetery getting my heart rate back to 134 before I got back to the hill again and sprinted up it again, this time taking my heart rate to 179. Again I recovered and decided it was time to head back home. Leaving the cemetery required that I climb another big hill so I sprinted up that one, again pushing my heart rate to 177.

For the three miles home I decided to do some fartleks. I did 4 1 minute fartleks at 5:30 mile pace taking my heart rate up to 177,178,177,& 177. Finally I was approaching home. At this point I had done 9.4 miles so I figured I might as well do a bit of a cool down and make it an even 10. I ran a extra loop with tired dead legs and arrived home half dead.

I downed a protein shake and jumped in the ice bath. Then I crashed out on the futon for 2 hours and had one of the best naps of my running career.

I'm still a bit groggy but I'm feeling alright. My achilles are a bit sore from the speed but the shin pain is pretty negligible! Tomorrow will have to be a recovery day for sure!

Day 85

First workout of week 13... less than 6 weeks to go... week 12 was amazing! I really felt like I hit a new level of fitness and my confidence soared... but what a difference a day can make.

After taking yesterday off I'm not nearly as confident as I was after Sunday. Off days just really don't play well in my world. Not sure why, but the day after an off day I really feel worse than any other running day. Probably psychological but it still sucks all the same.

For some reason I just can't shake a sense of impending doom today. I still have 3 weeks of hard training before my taper, and two 20 milers to run and it just feels like something is going to go wrong. I must be going crazy!

Anyway, nothing else to do then tell myself I'm crazy and go get my milage in.

Distance: 5.35 miles
Duration: 45:23
Pace: 8:29
HR Avg/Max: 144/163
notes:
started out easy and felt good the first two miles. Third mile felt a little laborious, but mostly just a mental block. 4th mile contained my favorite hill which was the reason that I run this course, which kicked the heart rate up to 163. 5th mile I cruised in and finally started feeling good about the run... found the zone by the end and didn't really want to stop, but figured I had a lot more milage to run this week so I better just follow the plan!

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!

Day 53

A hard 7 today... plan called for 7 miles at marathon pace. I decided to run the same seven mile course I ran on Tuesday but in reverse so that instead of going down the really steep hill and up the long gradual hill, I'd go down the gradual hill and up the really steep one. Also, I used this as an opportunity to test out the Virtual Partner on my Garmin Forerunner 305. That way that it works is that you program in the distance and pace that you want to run and then the Garmin tells you how much distance ahead or behind you are from a virtual runner who is keeping the specified pace exactly. So I set the Garmin for 7 miles at a 8 min/mile pace... let's see how I did.

Distance: 7.0
Duration: 52:12
Pace: 7:27
HR Avg/Max: 161/181
notes:

Guess I can't pace very well. I didn't want to start too slow so I pushed it a little and the next thing I know I was way ahead of pace. I hit the first mile in 7:10 which put me .11 miles ahead of the virtual partner. At this point I said too hell with pace, I'm going to whip this Virtual Partner's ass for trying to keep up with me. I hit the second mile in 7:11 and the third in 7:13... At this point I was starting to wear down a little and was wondering what the hell was I thinking going out so hard, but I also knew that even if I slowed down to 8:30 pace i'd still finish the 7 in goal time so I kept on keeping on... 4th mile was 7:38 but it felt brutal. Then came the fifth mile which had the really steep up hill... man I was dreading it, but I just powered through... 5th mile 8:17 with the heart rate hitting 177. I figured that after that hill I'd be done but next thing I know I was feeling better than I had the whole run. 6th mile I hit in 7:54. One mile left and I was ready to see what I had left. I decided not to go all out but to try to stay relaxed while keeping my breathing steady and lengthening my stride. I knocked the last mile in 7:02 with a sprint at the finish.

I can tell as I'm writing this that I'm going to pay for this in my long run tomorrow but I couldn't help myself. Hopefully it doesn't bite me in the ass. In retrospect I'm happy with the time but not so happy with myself discipline. Eventually I'm going to have to learn what marathon pace really is... oh well, maybe next week.

Day 52

Day off from running. It's amazing how much better I feel after a recovery run day... much better than the day after a hard run. I think I'm starting to get the hang of this training thing.

Hit the gym for the first time in a while to get in a little bit of strength work.

3 sets bench: 135 x 16, 135 x 16, 136 x 10
3 sets pull-ups: 10, 8, 6
3 sets curls: 25 x 12, 30 x 10, 25 x 10
tricep pulldowns: 65 x 16, 85 x 16, 85 x 10

I've really lost a lot of strength since I quit lifting and started running. I'd like to lift a little more often as long as it doesn't interfere with my marathon training. I guess I'll see how things go.

Day 51

Recovery 4 miler

I feel like I can certainly use a recovery run after yesterday. I finished up pretty strong and now I'm stiff and sore today.

Distance:4.01
Duration: 35:35
Pace: 8:52
HR Avg/Max: 142/162
morning weight: 173
notes:

Out the door by 8:35 so bonus on that. Legs are stiff and tired. Kept a slow and steady pace. The last mile I was facing into the sun and I was laboring. HR was up in the mid 150's even after I dropped the pace. Also am starting to develop a blister on my left foot arch. Hopefully a day off and some good running socks will help it go away!

Day 47,48,49&50

Day 47 and 48 I spent on the 2nd annual Lake Shelbyville houseboat trip. Had a lot of fun but my diet suffered. 48 hours of straight binge drinking and steak sandwiches really did a number on the body. I tried to at least get some crosstraining in by doing some swimming. Spent much of Sunday feeling ill. I considered running when I got home but decided it would be best to just wait till tomorrow.

Day 49...

7 weeks of training complete. 11 weeks to go. Time to reflect on the weeks gone past and weeks to come.

Still plenty of time before the marathon... on the bright side, that's plenty of time to get more training on; also, plenty of time to get hurt. Lately, I haven't been experiencing a lot of the soreness and twinges that I was having earlier in my training. Hopefully, this is a good sign that I'm starting to get into running shape. I just have to make sure that I don't forget all the problems I was having earlier in the year and go out and push it too hard!

The last couple weeks have been busy for me and I've skimped a little on the training. I haven't quite gotten all the miles in the intermediate plan calls for and I've lost a bit of focus from not strictly following the plan. As far as skimping on the milage I'm not too worried. I've gotten all my long runs in and I'd rather do undertrain then overtrain and get injured. The loss of focus seems to be a bit of a problem though. I think the next 5 or so weeks will be tough because it's kind of a no man's land of training... 11 weeks till marathon seems like a long time and with the 15k and half-marathon out of the way I'm running thin on short term goals.

Part of my strategy to get back focused is get back to strictly following the Hal Higdon plan. I'm also going to try and start running earlier in the morning. Part of my problem is that I'm having a hell of a time dragging myself out the door in the morning. I delay and delay and by the time I finally get out it's mid-afternoon (i.e. hot and muggy). When I finally get the run in it usually goes well and I feel better afterward. It's just a matter of getting out the door. So one goal for the next 5 weeks is for me to get out the door and running by 9:00 am every morning.

Another goal for the next 5 weeks is to lose some weight. When I started seriously training for the marathon 7 weeks ago I was under the false impression that I would lose a ton of weight simply from all the running I would be doing. This has proved to be untrue. First off, my 25-30 miles a week only burn about a pounds worth of calories to begin with. Also, the running has made me hungrier and I wind up eating more than I used too. A lot of people on different forums claim that they usually gain weight during marathon training because they wind up eating more. Luckily this has not been the case for me, but I haven't lost any either. My ultimate goal is to keep training past the Chicago marathon and eventually get back into competitive running shape. Part of reaching this goal is going to have to involve getting my weight down. At my running peak as a senior in high school I weighed about 140. Now I'm at 175. I don't think that I'll ever get back down to 140, but I think that 155 is probably attainable. Right now however, I'd like to shoot for 165. If I can lose 2 lbs a week for the next 5 weeks I think that I'll gain a good bit of speed in my marathon pace just from not having to tow the extra weight along. I'm not planning on starving myself or anything but I am going to try to eat a lot more clean. Since my garden is producing, I think I'll have a daily salad. This will help fill me up at dinner without over indulging. Also, I'm cutting out any desert and alcohol. Finally, I'm going to limit snacking during the day. Hopefully with these small changes and the steady increase in milage I can slim down.

Anyway enough ranting... here my training from the last two days.

Day 47 (July 27, 2009)
Distance: 4.01 miles
Duration: 35:40
pace: 8:53
HR Avg/Max: 149/168
notes:

Couldn't get motivated to run so I finally drove to Bradley park to force myself out of the house and for a change of venue. I was still pretty tore up from the weekend so I took it pretty easy. Even the 8:53 pace felt laborious but the venue was nice. Ran through the park and then through some of the nicer old neighborhoods in Peoria and the Bradley campus. By mile 3 I was feeling a little better and I wound up enjoying my last mile which was another loop through the park.


Day 48 (July 28, 2009)
Distance: 7.0 miles
Duration 57:12
pace: 8:10
HR Avg/Max: 153/182
notes:

It was a hot and humid run. I took the first mile casual and then pushed the pace. Mile 5 started with a big hill (700 ft elevation over about a half mile distance) this kicked my heart rate up into the 170's and I decided to push the pace the rest of the way in order to keep the HR up. I ran my final mile at a 7:15 pace and my heart rate slowly climbed up to 182 by the end of the run. I feel good now and hope that I am getting my focus back.

Day 46

Short and sweet...

I've been putting in the long slow miles this week and I'm pressed for time so it's time for some speed. One 5K at strong hard pace coming up.

Distance: 3.1 miles
Duration: 21:37
Pace: 6:58
HR Avg/Max: 160/181
notes:

4:30 pm. Full sun. 87 degrees and humid. fuck it, time to run. Hit the first mile mark in 6:50. 2 mile mark in 13:55. 3rd in 21:00 and kicked it in. Legs burned, actually out of breath for once and could have benefited from my inhaler. But the speed felt good and nothing hurts... Dripping with sweat as I type this! Time to get my stanky legs into the shower and get ready to head down to Lake Shelbyville for some good clean wholesome fun!

Day 46

5 mile Recovery run

Distance: 5.01 miles
Duration: 48:30
Pace: 9:40
HR Avg/Max: 138/156
notes:

I actually managed to accomplish close to a real recovery pace... HR is supposed to be under 135 and I averaged 138 so close enough for me. My legs are still fatigued from yesterday, but not really hurting. Just went out an enjoyed a nice slow run with my ipod on. Life is good.

Also, I joined the President's Challenge today. Kinda hokey but you get medals based on accumulating points for being active each day and I'll do anything for a medal for my trophy room!

Day 45

Supposed to do 7 today but I decided to do my long run instead. I figured I'm plenty rested from last week and it'll be a pain in the ass to try to get it in this weekend since I'm going to be on a houseboat trip so I might as well knock it out now.

Distance: 14.0 miles
Duration: 2:01:22
Pace: 8:38
HR Avg/Max: 144/160
notes:

Drove out to the Rock Island trail for a nice off road course. Figured it would be shady, relatively flat, and the path would be easier on my legs then concrete.

The first couple miles were pretty rough. My left leg was still tight and cramping in the shin and calf and even in the quadriceps. I stopped a couple times to stretch and walk it off. By Mile 4 I finally loosened up and was feeling good. I tried to keep a steady pace with my heart rate below 150. Mile 5-7 were on an incline so I was starting to feel kind of roughed up by the halfway point. Luckily it was an out and back run which meant miles 8-10 were on a decline. I recovered quickly and got a pretty good groove going until about the 12 mile mark. At this point I started to fade and my legs were feeling exceptionally tired. No worries though... I kept telling myself that this was what the long runs were all about and these last two miles would help my body adapt to running more efficiently in the future. I tried to focus on keeping a good form and not lumbering. I finished the last mile strong pushing my heart rate up to 160. Right now I'm tired but not exhausted. I was happy to see that I could keep up an 8:40ish pace without getting my heart rate up over 150... My legs are feeling stronger every day and I'm really starting to feel the results of my training!

Day 44

Finally caught up and back on schedule. Houseboat trip this weekend so I'm not sure how I'm going to get my runs in. I know I'll have to do some modifications and skip some milage but I want to make sure I get my long distance in. Today I'll stick to the plan and go with the 4 miler though.

Distance: 4.0 miles
Duration: 32:11
Pace: 8:03
HR Avg/Max: 150/164
notes:

So good to be back home. I'm still beat from traveling but still made sure I got the run in. It's 68 degrees out!!! but humid :(... still beats 100 degrees and sunny though!!!!! Tried to take this run pretty easy, but I've been running slow since the half marathon so I kind of started to push it a bit. My legs are still tight from the traveling, I think. 3 miles into the run my left calf and shin kind of tightened up on me. Nothing too bad but it kind of was stiff and sore for the last mile. I didn't let it stop me and finished the run. Once I stopped I stretched it out good and got some water. It felt fine after so no worries. Should be better and more rested tomorrow. I don't think I'm quite adjusted to the 2 hour time change either.

Catchup 2 (Day 36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43)

Day 36

Sore as shit from running half marathon then riding on plane for 5 hours... day off.

Day 37

Still sore but hiked 8 miles including 5 mile hike to top of Lassen Peak... Elevation was kicking my ass... not sure if it was asthma related, had something to do with recovering from half marathon or if it was just normal for 10,000 ft elevation.

Day 38

Distance: 5.0 miles
Duration: 43:54
Pace: 8:47
HR Avg/Max: 151/175
notes:

first run after half marathon... legs are starting to feel better. Natalie's aunt is a certified massage therapist and gave me an awesome massage which helped a lot. Course was pretty hilly and it was 106 degrees outside!!! Dry heat though, not humid like in Illinois.

Day 39

Distance: 3.0 miles
Duration: 25:45
Pace: 8:35
HR Avg/Max: 144/171
notes:

nice easy run around the gated community in Cottonwood, California. Heat still in the hundreds.

Day 40

Rest

Day 41

Distance: 3.29
Duration: 32:14
Pace: 9:47
HR Avg/Max: 147/173
notes:

Running at Natalie's Grandma's house in Hidden Valley, California. Natalie's Grandma lives on a hill overlooking a lake in a valley... first I ran up the hill, then I ran down which was murder on my still recovering legs. I ran down to the lake hoping to find some flat area but no luck... I started to run back up and decided to call it quits at the 3.29 point. It's still over 100 degrees here and I've been breaking out in a heat rash. Natalie's family doesn't have air conditioning so no relief there... 9:47 pace and I'm still getting my ass kicked!!!

Day 42

Distance: 9.0 miles
Duration: 1:17:22
Pace: 8:36
HR Avg: 155ish
notes:

103 degrees today in Sacramento so there's no way I'm running the 9 miles outside. I opt for the treadmill at the Holiday Inn express. I usually hate treadmill running but this is the lesser of two evils. I set the treadmill to 7.0 mph pace and the incline to 1% and let it rip. It was hard at first. I'm always paranoid about falling off the back of the treadmill so I am always running way up at the top which means my arms hit the handles when I run so I have to hold my arms real high which is uncomfortable. After a couple miles I finally started to get used to it and relaxed. It was still pretty hot inside and I was sweating my ass off. About 20 minutes in, some guy came in to use the other treadmill. I walked for about 10 minutes and then sped it up to a faster paced walk. After another 10 minutes he slowed back down and walked for another 5. Meanwhile I was running away at the treadmill next to him and sweating my ass off. I was soaked! I was flipping sweat all over the machine and floor. I can only imagine what this guy was thinking... then again he was a younger (35ish) skinny guy so no excuse for going to the exercise room just to walk.

Day 43

Woke up at 4 and travelled all day... otherwise, day of rest

Day 35 (Joker's Wild)

Day 35, Sunday July 12th, 2009

Today we ran the Joker's Wild half-marathon in an attempt to get qualifying times for start corrals at the Chicago Marathon.

Distance: 13.3 miles
Duration: 1:40:08
Pace: 7:32
HR Avg/Max: 167/184
notes:

Not really sure how to approach these notes... I felt like I had a really good race and I enjoyed the run but at the same time I felt the event was poorly managed which left me in a post race bad mood (being exhausted probably didn't help either)...

THE BAD
_____________

I think I'll start by venting about the race... First and foremost was the fact that the race was 13.3 miles instead of 13.1 like a half-marathon is supposed to be. Maybe I'm wrong but I feel that if I shell out 60 bucks to run a half marathon then they could at least measure the course right...

Secondly, there were not joker's wild... let me elaborate on that. Supposedly the reason this race was called the Joker's wild was that everyone who finished the half-marathon was supposed to be handed a playing card and if you got the joker you won a prize, but when we got to the finish line, no card! I asked a race staffer about this and they didn't really have a good explanation. Seemed like poor planning. Not necessarily the biggest deal in the world but after all the entire theme and concept of the race was based around this, plus it seemed like a fun and I can't really think of a good reason (besides poor organization) why they couldn't pull this off... but anyway, enough bitching, on to the fun stuff.

THE GOOD

______________

First off, the course was really really tough... The course was a 6.5 mile loop which was completed twice. Each loop contained a two plus mile stretch of some pretty steep up hill running. Basically Mile 2-4 and Mile 8-10 were entirely uphill which made for a ass kicking race. I don't mind the hills (actually I find them challenging and fun) but it didn't make for a good race for setting any PRs. Combine this with the heat and the extra .2 miles of running and you have quite the race.

My goal was to break 1:45 so I could qualify for start corral C at the Chicago Marathon, which I did quite handily... My secondary goal was to break 1:35:59 for start corral B, but this turned out to be right out of reach.

I decided that since I wanted to at least attempt to break 1:35:59 that I should start the race fast so I went out with the 1:30 pace group. I kept up for the first two miles at 6:50 mile pace until we got to the hills. At this point I dropped off the pace and was on my own. I battled up the hills for a couple miles dropping off to a 7:30 pace. After the hills, I was beat and I still had 9 more miles to go. I knew that I couldn't keep up the effort I was going. I started to get passed by several runners. Luckily what goes up must come down and the next couple miles were down hill. I used the next miles to gather myself and dropped my pace back down to 7:20. Somewhere along this stretch I got passed by a young lady who seemed to be going at a good pace so I decided to tag along with her and let her set the pace. I stuck with her for about 2 miles and we steadily started passing some people.

When we got to the halfway point I had caught my second wind and was feeling pretty good. I hit the 6.55 mark at 47:29 which was exactly on pace for a 1:35 half... I knew that if I really pushed it I could be able to hit my goal.

I picked up the pace a little and ran my 7th mile in 7:12 hitting the 8 mile point at 57:51 (7:15 pace). That's when I got to the second round of hills. I hit my next two miles at 7:51 pace and by the 10th mile I was dead. I hit the 10th mile marker at 1:13:37. This meant that I would have to run the last 5k in 22:22 to meet my secondary goal (7:12 pace). The course was downhill so I thought it might be possible, but I also knew that I was wearing down. At this point I made to conscious decision to slow down and coast it in for the next 3 miles. I knew that I would easily meet my 1:45 goal and if I went all out I still might miss my goal by a few seconds plus would pay the price in my marathon training for racing too hard. It turned out to be a really good decision in light of the fact that I had 3.3 miles left because of the long course. I know I would have been really upset if I had put it all out there and hit my goal time for 13.1 only to find I still had .2 miles left.

I ran the final 3 miles at a 8:15 pace. I started getting passed by some people including the girl I had ran with and then passed earlier but resisted the urge to speed up knowing the my legs would thank me for it later.

Finally I reached mile 13 and started to approach the finish line which was of course up another hill. Luckily I had slowed down and was starting to feel pretty good again so I had a little left for my legendary kick... I burned up the hill towards the finish line, raising my hands in victory... 1:40:07... wish I had ran a little bit harder so I could have broke 1:40 but it didn't matter.


THE UGLY

______________

Some additional notes from race day...

Robbie's story...

__________

My friend Robbie also ran the race. He finished in a time of 1:38:45... now the reason I bring this up is that he claims to have finished in 1:36... he even timed himself and showed us his watch to prove it. I figured they must have screwed him up by passing his timing chip over the mat again after he had finished. However after further investigation it's not so clear... See, I reviewed the race results which list him finishing 41st overall with a time of 1:38:45. I figured that if he really ran faster than he should have finished in a higher place, in fact according to the results the 30th place runner finished in 1:35:51 so 1:36 would put Robbie in 31st... This means that the 32nd-40th runner should have actually finished after Robbie finished, but when I looked at the race photo's which are shot in chronological order they clearly show that Robbie actually finished 41st as stated in the results... Now I suppose it's possible that there was some kind of timing hiccup that messed up all the times around Robbie but I also know that I finished in 1:40:07 which I could collaborate with my own watch... At this point I remember looking at Robbie's watch with the 1:36... his watch was not a timex or anything, it simply read 1:36 with no seconds after it. This leads me to think that maybe Robbie just has a broke ass watch, but hey... if he thinks he finished in 1:36, who am I to tell him any different.

______

Photo Awards

Also wanted to include some racing photo's just for fun!

Here's Robbie, Me, and Symons finishing, post race, and some funny ones of some other people's mishaps to make us feel better about ourselves...

Ketchup!!! (Day 32, 33, 34)

Guess the blogger on the blackberry experiment failed... no worries! Back in Peoria and ready to do some real catching up on my interweb running diary blog thing...

Day 32 (Thursday July 9th, 2009)

Distance: 4.08 miles
Duration: 34:46
Pace: 8:31
HR Avg/Max: 150/168
notes:

Was supposed to do 3 miles today but did 4 instead, knowing that I was going to skip my Saturday run as I mini-tapered for the half marathon Sunday.

Ran down old Carlyle road in Germantown, Illinois until I reached the end of the road (beaver creek) and then turned around and ran back.

Day 33 (Friday July 10th, 2009)

Day of rest... Worked at the All-Star game fanfest as a volunteer for 10 hours last night and today and my legs were beat. Made an effort to stay off my feet for the rest of the weekend before the race.

Day 34 (Saturday July 11th, 2009)

More rest... My ankle was really sore in the morning but an ice bath seemed to do the trick!

catch up

I've been travelling for a couple weeks now and have'nt had a chance to access the internet sob I'm going to atemt to ppppublish a quick update using my wife's blackbery... Here goes nothing.

Day 31

Today calls for a 6 mile run. I'm stayed the night at my mother's house in Murphysboro, Il which means that I'm going to inevitably be running some hills today. My hilliest run (up until last Sunday's 11 miler which covered 1600 ft of accent) had been a five miler I ran here several weeks ago which covered something like 1500 ft of accent. That five miler had been an out an back. For today's 6 miler I plan to run the same out an back except go out an extra .5 miles before turning around. Also, I plan on finishing up by running up the big hill that my mother's house is located on. Of course I won't be able to check the elevation changes till I get back to Peoria in a couple weeks but I'll still know that I ran a tough one today despite the pace.

Distance: 6.02 miles
Duration: 47:50
Pace: 7:57
HR Avg/Max: 160/186
notes:

The run was tough as expected with some pretty killer hill work plus I didn't get out the door till about 11:30 so it was fairly hot and sunny. Despite all this I was still able to keep the pace under 8 min\miles! Also, I was able to get the heart rate going pretty good even though my perceived effort didn't feel all that bad. I've been picking up the pace the last few runs and I've been feeling the results in my legs. I just don't have a lot of spring to my step. I've also been slowly deviating away from my HR training as I become impatient for improvement. I realize that I'll have to refocus my efforts here soon if I want to make it to the end of the program but keep telling myself that I'll take tomorrow's run easy to make up for running too hard today. My one saving grace is that I've been basing my heart rate zones off of MHR instead of HRR and since the MHR zones are a bit lower than the HRR zones so I figure I'm probably doing okay. Never the less, I also think that my cardio shape is a little better than my leg muscles shape (even though neither is probably where it needs to be 13.5 weeks before I'm supposed to run a marathon). I know there's still plenty of training to do but I think that I need to really rethink my goal for the marathon. Maybe 4 hours might be more reasonable? At this point I think I'll be happy just to be able to run 26 miles at all... And if I don't completely kill the marathon and finish strong it will probably give me a better chance of continuing my training without too much marathon recovery so that I can be ready for my second marathon... I'm probably getting ahead of myself, but the second annual Illinois marathon in Champaign might be a good 2nd Marathon...

Day 30

Huh, Day 30... that means I've been seriously training for a month now. Good for me to put that into perspective because it seems like I've been running for a lot longer and I'm stating to wonder when I'm going to start improving.

I guess I should be positive and think about all the milage that I've put in. I mean I ran 11 miles on Sunday! It's just hard to put my running past behind me and let go of the high expectations I have for myself.

Today was a 3 miler...

Distance: 3.12 miles
Duration: 24:50
Pace: 7:58
HR Avg/Max: 152/167
notes:

Kind of a hot day but all in all not a bad run. I probably pushed it harder than I should of but I also plan on going relatively easy tomorrow so it will probably balance out. I'm just starting to get fed up with this pace. I really want to go out an hit 7 min miles without totally wasting myself in the process. Oh well, I guess I just need to stick with it, put in the milage, eat right, and the rest will come with time and patience.

Day 29

Day 29 and the beginning of week 5. Week 4 was particularly tough and Sunday's 11 miler was brutal. I was exhausted all day yesterday. I was irritable, depressed, and pretty much completely physically and emotionally drained.

But what a difference a day can make! I took an ice bath yesterday. Spent the rest of the day off my feet. Got a good night sleep. Ate some good food. And today I feel like a new man. I plan on making this week an "easy" week in prep for the half marathon at the end of it. Pretty much will try to get my mid-week runs in at a comfortable pace. And then cut my saturday run down to an easy 2 or 3 miles. I figure I'll really be pushing it pretty hard on the half marathon so that should pretty much cover my VO2 threshold training for the week.

Besides my training, Ethan Zeman will be heading to St. Louis on Wednesday to volunteer for the All-Star fanfest. Hopefully I'll be in charge of running some of the kids games which should be fun and also allow me to get some exercise, but I won't know till I get there.

After St. Louis I'll be off to California for a week so hopefully I will be able to get my training runs in. Luckily it'll be an easy week, plus we'll be headed to some national parks so if all goes well I should do some pretty awesome runs!

Today is a cross training day so I'll probably try to get on the bike and maybe lift some weights.

Also, since I'm feeling pretty good and it's the beginning of week 5 I'll use this time to reflect on my training so far.

Total Distance: 95.4 miles
Total Duration: 13:34:04
Total Pace: 8:32
Total HR Avg/Max: 148.7/190
notes:

97 more days till Chicago and 14 more weeks of training. Week 4 was the toughest week so far but I think week 5 and 6 will go more smoothly and then I'll be a third of the way there. I haven't lost any weight yet which I think is paramount if I want to get any faster but hopefully as the miles increase I can also start focusing more on diet and the weight will start to drop off. There's still a lot of time so I'm not too worried.

Day 28

End of week 4 (groan)... This was definitely a tough week and I compounded it by pushing harder than probably I should of on several of my runs.


Distance: 11.0 miles
Duration: 1:42:22
Pace: 9:18
HR Avg/Max: 138/158
notes:


Today is long slow distance day. The punishment of the day... 11 miles. I woke up early and got out of the house and onto the road which felt like somewhat of an achievement itself. The sun was out, but the air was cool and there was a light breeze making the beginning of the run pleasant enough. I kept my hear rate down around 135 for the first 6 miles running at about a 9:20 pace. At the 6 mile point I started having some misfortunes. To begin with, the hard training really began to hit me and my heart rate jumped about 10 beats as my pace stayed even. This coincided with me reaching Bradley Park which has several big hills. The next two miles were rough and I wound up running mile 8 at about a 10:00 min/mile clip. At this point my headphones decided to crap out on me as the left ear piece kept cutting in and out every stride I took. I threw those away in a trash barrel as I exited the park and made my way back to the road to get my final 3 mies in. Getting back on the road helped my psyche and I was able to pick the pace back up.

Mile 9 I had an incident with a homeless guy on a bike. I was running the sidewalk on one side of the road and he was riding his bicycle on the other side of the road going the same direction. He was going pretty slow so we were basically side by side for a while. Then for some reason he decided to cross the road and get onto the sidewalk I was running on. He fell in behind me and biked along on the sidewalk about 6 feet behind me for about a half mile. I was somewhat annoyed, but tried to block it out. Finally he turned off and let me be.

Mile 10 I had an incident with a Rottwieler dog which was off leash in its front yard. Luckily it was friendly but that didn't stop if from coming over and jumping up on me as I ran by. I yelled at the dog and it left me alone. At this point I was pissed off and that got some adrenaline going which actually helped my run.

I got back to my neighborhood and got through mile 11 pushing the pace up to 8:35 min/mile.

Got home and jumped in an ice bath before accompanying my wife and her family for brunch. After brunch I rough housed with the boys for a while. At this point I'm completely exhausted and ready to spend the rest of the day on the couch. The in-laws are finally gone along with their two little boys and two not so little dogs. The chaos is over and hopefully the rest of today and tomorrow will provide the recovery I need to get me into week 5.

But for now. Week 4 is over! 14 weeks to go (groan).

Day 27

Woke up early before the in-laws got up and hit the road for my 6 mile "pace" run. The plan was to run it at 8:00 miles because I think that I want that to be my marathon pace (at least for now). Stepping out the door I had a change of heart and decided I'd run it faster, rationalizing that it would be better prep for my half-marathon next weekend.

Distance: 6.0 miles
Duration: 45:43
Pace: 7:37
HR Avg/Max: 158/180
notes:

Ran this one in the rain. The rain doesn't normally bother me too much but today I was wearing my Shamrock Shuffle tech t-shirt which morphed into a constrictive spandex-like body cast after it got wet... Otherwise, it was a good run.

Day 26

Day of rest... if you consider building a fence and mowing the lawn in the hot ass sun before the in-laws come with their two little boys and two crazy dogs who you must entertain and chase around the yard a day of rest.

Day 25

3 mile recovery run today.

I ran pretty hard the last two days so I'm going to be extra careful to keep this one in the recovery zone.

Distance: 3.0 miles
Duration: 26:57
Pace: 8:58
HR Avg/Max: 135/148
notes:

I ran the first 1.5 miles with my dog Sasha. I figured this would help me slow it down and enjoy myself. We started off pretty fast with Sasha pushing the pace (or more literally pulling the pace). However, Sasha is not so much of an endurance athlete and started to slow down after about .5 miles when the excitement of going for a run started to wear off. At this point she fell in stride with me at my side and with the exemption of a few bunny spotting incidents made a very nice running partner. After the 1.5 mark I dropped her off at home and finished up by myself. I was able to keep a good pace and pretty much had my heart rate under or at 135 the entire distance. I was pleased to be able to stay in the recovery zone and still hit under 9 min/mile pace (although I did push it the last .2 miles to get me there).

I'd like to have a better idea of how my fitness is improving but I still don't have enough data yet to get a good picture. I've run so many hilly courses of different degrees and at so many different temperatures that it's hard to find data that can really compare. I probably need to start running more consistent courses and then in a couple more weeks I'll probably have a better idea on where I stand.