Down to it...

Today I am 4 days away from the marathon. I haven't been very good at keeping up on the blog for the past 6 weeks of so. I'll try to recap a bit.
The week of Oct. 4th I did ok. I hit my total goal miles anyway. The next week was terrible though. The plan called for 53 miles in the week and I only did 19. We had gone to Utah to see Morrison (and everyone else there of course). On the 12th we were to drive home and I didn't want to run and then sit in the car for 10 hours so I skipped the run. As it turned out I didn't run that whole week until Saturday. On Saturday I ran 19 and it hurt. I decided the week of rest wasn't a good thing.
The next week I did better but still didn't hit the miles. I had a good speed workout on Tues (10/20). I ran 2x(4x800) at a good pace and felt good. Wednesday I didn't have time to get 10 miles in so I only did 5 and then I didn't run on Thurs or Fri. Saturday morning we volunteered at a Half Marathon so I ran in the afternoon. Amber has had some pain in her knee so she rode a bike along with me. I felt pretty good at the start but about 5 miles into the run I felt spent. I kept going but at about 10 miles I asked Amber to ride back to the car and come back to pick me up. I kept going but at times I walked and by the time I had reconnected with Amber I had gone 16 miles. I was really exhausted and felt very hungry. We stopped at a Carl's Jr and I got a big hamburger and was amazed at how much it revived me. I guess I just wasn't well nourished in preparation for that run.
The week of Oct 25th... to be continued.

Cross training???

This week I again didn't get in the miles I needed to run. I ran 5 miles on monday. I didn't have time to run in the morning and I started late in the afternoon so I ran out of light. Tuesday I did speed work at the track. I ran 1/2 mile repeats. It was good but again I didn't have enough time to do enough repeats. I ran a mile warm-up and then 5, 1/2 mile repeats.
Wednesday and Thursday I again didn't run. Friday I ran in the afternoon and again I ran out of light but I finished 19 miles at 8:30/mile before it got too dark.
I was supposed to run 22 miles on Saturday but I moved the long run to Friday so we could do a Super Sprint Triahlon on Saturday. A super sprint is shorter than a sprint. It consisted of a 200 yard swim, 5 mile bike ride and 1 mile trail run. Had I not run 19 miles the day before, I would hardly think this little triathlon would be a warm-up, let alone a workout but it pretty much kicked my butt. The swim was especially tough for me. It has been a long long time since I swam much at all. I feel like I need to learn to swim all over again if I'm going to do any more triathlons. I didn't have a wetsuit either and the water was pretty cold. Ok, enough whining. I need to get better at completing all the miles on my schedule or I will never make my goal time.

Goin' long

Well, Saturday (9/26) was my longest run to date. Terry and I ran 21 miles. I didn't feel great from the start but not too bad. Nicola Savage-Elliot ran with us. She is getting ready for Boston. She qualified last year but then was injured so they gave her a pass to run in 2010. She did 12 miles.
I only ran 7 miles last Wednesday (9/23). I rested on Thurs and Fri hoping my foot would feel better. It didn't improve much.
I decided to try Jeff Galloway's method for this run so I did it without any Gu or any other carb boost. I had water and I had one Shot Block. I definitely felt carb depleted. By the end I had to fight to lift my knees. My first 18 miles were at a 8:48/mile pace. My last 3 were well over 9. My pace for the 21 averaged out to 8:56/mi.
Today I didn't have time to run this morning so I ran tonight. I only did 5 miles instead of 10. I didn't feel great. I'm still feeling Saturday's miles and I didn't eat well today. I'm going to try to do some speed work tomorrow. We'll see how that goes.

Still blogging...

So, it has been a while since I wrote. Last week was kind of messed up. I didn't run on Monday the 14th. (I was supposed to do 10 miles.) Tuesday I only did 2 miles (instead of 5). Wednesday was a good run. I ran from Cool to Lotus and back to Coloma. It was 12 miles and I ran it at a 7:46/mile pace. I have to confess that it was mostly down hill though. I wouldn't want to run it the other direction. The bad news is I came home with a stone bruise on my right foot. I'm not sure when it happened but it is an annoyance. I didn't run on Thurs. or Fri. I had the beginnings of a head cold and my foot hurt. I know, I know... excuses. On Saturday we went to the "Tough as Granite" 1/2 marathon, 10K, and 5K. We worked the race, directing runners and then we did the 10K as "Ecorunners". We jogged the 10K course and picked up trash. As a reward for doing the Eco-run we got vouchers for a future race. So we'll see what race we can train for after the marathon. At this point I don't even want to think about running after this marathon.
Yesterday (Monday 9/21) I ran 10 miles again. It was tough. I don't know if it's the head cold or my foot or what but it was tough. I ran more than a minute/mile slower than my 12 miles last wednesday. Today I had to leave early so I didn't run. Tomorrow I need to be at my job at 8:00 so if I'm going to do 10 miles I'll need to leave early (in the dark). So we'll see...

9 weeks to go...

I'm into the single digits for weeks until the marathon. Nine weeks from today is the race.
This week was more miles running than any before but I ended at 43 miles. Monday I didn't have time to get the whole 10 in so I only did 6. Tuesday was an easy 5. Wednesday I ran in the evening and did 10 miles at 8:07/mile. That felt good on Wednesday night but I hurt on Thursday. I leave early Thursday mornings so I didn't run and didn't feel like it on Thurs. afternoon. I woke up hurting on Fri. morning too but pushed myself to do a slow 4 miles. I was supposed to do 8 but looking ahead at the 18 I had to do today, I just couldn't push myself. As it turned out I think that was a good decision. Today I ran 18 and it felt good. I even finished with my fastest mile of the day: a 7:54 pace. We ran steadily faster as we went along in the run today. It was a fun run. The weather was perfect. Terry and I had company, Justin Lyman (who is planning to run the marathon too). The conversation made the miles go faster.
I'm tired but feel good otherwise. Over all our pace was 8:35.
So, I need to shave off a few seconds and then keep going 8.2 more miles. I feel confident that I could finish if I had to run the race next week but I need to get faster to reach my goal time.
I have 9 weeks to get faster and build my stamina.

Mixing it up a little...

Terry's schedule has some optional speed work that can be substituted for some of the shorter mile days. I have done some of the speed workouts but not all. Sometimes making the time to get the running done has been a factor.
This weekend we are visiting Amber's brother in Oregon. The schedule called for 8 miles on Friday and 14 on Saturday. I ended up running the 14 miles on Friday and on Saturday Amber and Jim and I took a bike ride. I ended up doing about 40 miles. We all rode together from Jim's place in Central Point (on the north side of Medford) to Ashland. We ate lunch in Ashland and then I rode back to Jim's place and drove down and picked up Amber and Jim. I tried to push the ride back to Jim's. There was a brutal headwind and at times when I checked my watch I thought to myself, "I could run this fast". I ended up averaging about 15 mph. My legs are feeling it a bit today. I may try to work in some more biking. I've read that cross-training is good. It is definitely another set of muscles. I'll see how my legs feel for running tomorrow. I'm supposed to do 10 miles.

A little more history...

About the second week of Terry's schedule was the week Amber was camp director at Camp Ritchie. The lodge at Camp Ritchie is at 6000' and the only really decent place to run from there is up the road to the highway. Unfortunately "up" in this case really means up-hill. In the first two miles out of camp you climb over 700' in elevation. So not only were we 4000 feet higher than home but running up hill. It was a pretty brutal initiation. Needless to say I didn't run up very fast. I tried to just run steady. I didn't run all the miles I was supposed to but by the end of the week I was getting acclimated to the elevation and feeling a bit stronger. I was hoping that I would feel a real difference when I got back to my home elevation but there wasn't a really noticable difference.
For father's day I got a present... a GPS watch. It is a Garmin 205. It allows me to just take off running and it tracks how far I have run, my pace, elapsed time, calories burned, etc. It is great because until I got the watch, Amber and I were always driving around trying to figure out how far it was between certain landmarks and street corners. We were always having to calculate and figure routes to cover the miles we wanted to run. The watch takes all the guesswork out of it. It helps me know my pace so I know if I need to pick it up or slow it down (but that rarely happens).

A new beginning...

For Christmas 2008 my wife got a book from our son and his wife. She (my wife, Amber) has been a fan of "The Biggest Loser" and has followed it each season. It is truly an inspirational program. I am in awe of what the contestants accomplish. One of the trainers from the Biggest Loser, Jillian Michaels, wrote a book called "Making the Cut". It is a plan for people who want to lose between 10 and 20 lbs and really get into good shape. We started just after the 1st of the year and followed it pretty strictly for about 90 days. I lost about 20 lbs and could feel that I was in much better shape than I had been for a long time. The food on Jillian's plan was really good as well as good for you. I never felt hungry and I had more energy than when I was just eating whatever I pleased. I began to become more educated about what I was taking into my body and a lot more aware of the good, the bad and the ugly.
I had resisted running for some time because, while I wasn't fat, when I ran I felt things bouncing and giggling that I didn't like. After a couple of months on Jillian's plan though, I felt ready to get back out running.
After we decided on which marathon we would run I started looking for a plan to get myself ready. My friend Terry Tuttle had run a few marathons (including Boston) so I asked him if he had a training schedule that I could follow. There are any number of training plans out there. They vary from, "go from couch potato to marathon in 6 months", to "train for competition and run your PR". Terry's plan is somewhere in the high middle I'd guess. It is pretty aggressive for me but I decided to try it. The biggest challenge would be to find the time. When you start doing runs that are longer than 4 or 5 miles, you have to dedicate some time to get them done.
In our area it gets pretty hot in the summer time. When I had trained for races in the past they were always early spring so I was training through the winter. I definitely prefer running in cooler weather. The heat really sucks the energy out of me.
Terry's plan was a 24 week schedule. He customized it to fit the time I had so I will be ready to run on November 14th. I have had to work it around things like camping trips, family reunions, school reunions, etc. Summer is a busy time but I have been able to stay reasonably close to the plan. I am making some progress too. Two weeks ago I ran a 14 mile run. While doing so, I checked my time at 13.1 miles (1/2 marathon) and found that I had just run my PR by almost 10 minutes. Today I did 14 again and beat that PR by 2 more minutes. That feels good. Now if I can just keep up that pace for another 13.1, I'll make my goal time! Fortunately I have about 10 more weeks to build the stamina to do that.

In the beginning...

I have always been generally active. I ran in high school and before that. I played sports, skied, biked, etc. I like to hike, rock climb, mountain bike, snow board, water ski and more, but since high school I have never done anything competitive or that would really be considered "exercise" for the purpose of getting or staying "in shape". I have been blessed with good genes (my grandmother is currently 98 years old and shows little sign of slowing down) so I haven't ever really had to. I know that I am extremely lucky in this regard. I feel guilty sometimes when I see the effort that many other people make to stay fit and the struggle they go through to keep the weight off. I have spent the last 30 or so years basically abusing my body by eating anything and everything that I have wanted without any thought as to whether it was good for my body or not. It never seemed to make any difference. I know that is really annoying to those people who gain weight by only looking at food. I am greatful for my genes.
I have thought many times over the years that I should at least make an effort to eat better and to exercise.
A few years ago we learned that some of our family were going to run a half marathon in Moab, Utah. Moab is a great place to mountain bike and hike so we thought we'd join them for the run. I had never trained to run that distance and I hadn't run more than 3 or 4 miles in years but I started running a couple of miles once or twice a week. I didn't bother to look for any real kind of training schedule, I just ran (and not consistantly). When the time came for the race I was in decent shape but I wasn't really ready to go the distance. I finished but was completely exhausted and I hurt for days.
The next year we decided to do it again. I guess it's like when a woman decides to have a second baby, she must have forgotten the first time. I didn't train any better and to make things worse, we took our bikes and went mountain biking the day before the race and spent our legs. I barely finished the race. I was being passed by people that were walking at the end. People were cheering me on as I approached the finish. I think they thought I was handicapped the way I was stumbling along.
There was something infectious about the whole race atmosphere though. We signed up to do it all again. This time I trained a little better. I was still following my own training plan but I ran more and did more distance. I ran my PR and broke 2 hours. I was content with that. I know that's not very fast. I was near the bottom of my age group but I didn't mind. I felt good just finishing and having fun.
The next year we signed up again but weren't selected in the lottery. (They limit the race to 3500 or so runners.) Not having a race to train for we just dropped the running. I guess for me there needs to be more to motivate me than the "joy of running". I need to be preparing for something or I just won't do it.
Having done the half marathons, Amber and I had talked off and on about doing a whole marathon sometime. I had friends that had run them. I was inspired by them and knowing how I had felt after the half marathons I was in awe of anyone that ran twice that far. I knew that if I was ever to run the whole thing I would have to find a more serious training schedule.
We live in an area that is known for endurance events. The Western States 100 mile endurance run comes through our town and finishes just 20 miles away. To some people around here a mere marathon is just a training run. Personally, I think they are crazy. I think there must be something genetically different about them. Some of them don't even do any significant training for it, they just go out and run it. Being around people like that can make one feel somewhat wimpy having never even completed a marathon.
Amber and I decided it was never going to get any easier (and most likely harder) so we should do it now if ever. I searched on the web and found the "Run the River" Marathon right here in Sacramento. It begins in Folsom and finishes in Sac. We have been biking and running on the American River parkway trail before and it is a very pretty route. No hills to speak of and lots of shade. We decide this would be as easy as any we might find so we signed up.
Next post: the training begins.

Just what the world needs...

Ok, so the last thing the world needs is another blog. Heaven knows there are too many out there. So, why am I doing this? My first reason is just to document my progress as I prepare to run my first marathon. I know, I could do that in a less public arena, but I thought there may be someone out there that might relate to my experience. I hope to get some feedback from others who have been through or are going through the same things that I am. As I sit here typing this I think that chances are no one will ever see this or care if they do, but what the heck, here I go.