3.18.09

Today was a beautiful day to run. Sunny and not too windy. My hams are tight from yesterday, but that wasn't the bad part about today. The bad part was my left quad, which has been having numb symptoms, went totally numb to the point of extreme stinging pain for a good 30 minutes at the end of the run. I'm not sure what is causing this. The good part is that it doesn't prevent me from running, but does suck to have something hurt by being numb? Kind of a contradiction I know. The only way I can describe is to lay on your leg for about 20 minutes then get up and walk around. You feel that tingly burning sensation - yeah now imagine running with that in your quad. Not fun.

Sorry to complain but that's what runners do right? Haha, it really was a great run despite the pain, and it was actually pretty fast too. I'm excited for the marathon. I know it's gonna be a hundred times harder than I can expect, but still I think I will do okay. I'm just hoping I haven't set my expectations way too high as far as running sub 3 hours. It is my first marathon after all and I'm not ignorant as to how hard it is to achieve such a time. Many people out there work just as hard and probably harder than I do at training, and still haven't achieved what I hope to accomplish. I have the will to do it, but I can't speak for my body :)

5:45pm. home. 68?? degrees 8mph wind 40%?? humidity. (warm)
1:26:14, (13.01) gm 949

3.17.09

I wasn't sure what to expect tonight. I had hoped to meet up with some other runners, but there was only one other runner guy, a few walkers, and a couple students. I was about to talk to the guy after my workout but he left before I was finished and I didn't get a chance.

The workout went well considering I haven't done speedwork for a while. I was breathing pretty hard especially on the 3rd and 4th laps, but still I wasn't really going top speed. I just didn't have the coordination. I really need to be working on that -> running drills, quick feet, striders to be precise. Like I said though the workout was fine and I was surprised to even be running as fast as I was to be honest. Didn't wear the spikes tonight, stuck with the shoes I'll be racing in. They are so torn up already (the tread).
So it looks like they don't have too many racing days left in em already. That's okay though - I needed a new pair of trainers and I'll just start using them for everday running. I'm not 100% on that though. I think I'll see how they're doing after the marathon, then decide. I don't like spending 85$ on shoes for a single race and less than 100 miles - that's just silly to me.

Anyway after the three repeat miles (with 2 running laps and 1 walking inbetween) I did an 800. That thing nearly blew up my calves and hams, so I figured it would be best to stop there for the fast stuff. I decided to try a "test pace" mile, where I would go at a comfortable rate that I felt like I could hold for a while. The first ended up being around 6:20, and the second was probably the same, but I didn't catch the time. So that is great! If i can hold a 6:30 that will get me a pretty decent marathon time, and If there's anything left toward the end in the last 6 miles I might be able to pick up the pace a few seconds.

I am nervous. I've been really anxious the past few days when i think about the marathon. I'm not sure why, but my heart starts beating faster and I kind of have to shake off the nerves. I think it's just that I haven't raced for a while, so really anything could happen. I'm a little afraid of totally bonking too. I've put in some really hard work though and at this point I just have to be confident and let what happens happen. My main goal is to enjoy the marathon, have fun, and do my best, hopefully all three. I'll do my best NOT to check the weather constantly in the next week, because there's nothing I can do about that. I'll be running hard no matter what day we are blessed with. Okay enough rambling. I've got other things to do. Like sleep.

5:25 pm. track. 69 degrees 5mph wind 35%humidity (warmer)
3x1600 w/1200m recovery 1x800 2x1600 @6:20-6:30
1:03:09, (10.00) fasttwitch 18

3.16.09

Still sore from yesterday's brutal run, so it was a nice easy recovery run today. Was hoping to go for twelve miles, but other than my muscles being sore the left achilles was a little tight and I didn't want to stress anything. Plus tomorrow I'd like to do a little speedwork (mile repeats) so today's run was just to keep from getting stale. I find that if I take the entire day off, the next day is pretty bad. So anyway it was good just to take it kind of easier and save it for tomorrow.

My training log is now updated, well at least past two months are. I have a lot of back-logging to catch up on, but I think the format is looking good. The bad part about Freewebs is that you cannot copy and paste tables, so for each table I have to rewrite EVERY single thing. I also have to resize the tables each time and mess with the font colors and what not. All that and I still have to enter all the data in which takes a while, especially if it's going to be accurate. Theres also no functions, like autosum or any kind of cell numbering (isn't that the point of tables?) So it's really no wonder I sort of let that go the wayside. But it's back now and I'll be better about keeping it updated. I tried out the forum feature - it's crappy I think I'll just delete it and keep the Log as simple as possible.

4:44pm. home. 58 degrees mostly sunny w/6mph winds 80% humidity. (cool)
1:02:38, (9.03) gf 584

3.15.09

Most painful long run I think I've experienced. I don't believe it was dehydration or anything like that, it was just lack of fitness. I haven't been running the longer distances and it really showed today. While 12-13 miles is a breeze, going beyond that lately is like walking into no mans land. The good part of today was going on a slightly different course (found some cool new areas to run) and the fact that I got out there and actually completed this run.

Because I am so close to the marathon this is my last long run. I'll still be trying to get some speedwork and medium-long runs in (16-17) but this run will be the farthest till the marathon, so it was important that I get it done. I wanted to go for 3 hours, I made it to 2:55 before things just completely fell apart.

The first 2 hours of the run went fine, but then things started degressing quickly and I could feel the legs starting to get worn down. By 2 hours 30 minutes I was just hoping the run would be over. It was a combo of three pains: 1 the hips and calves. It's hard to describe this feeling - it's a combination between feeling like they were hit with a baseball bat and having a charlie horse. Just really bad pain that continues to build. The second was from my lack of fitness aerobically my chest felt like it was going to explode. I couldn't breathe properly. I felt like someone had pumped up a balloon full of air and if I took a deep breath the balloon would pop. I tried to get air in whatever way I could. At 2:40 I hit the last hill and that's when my heart and shoulder gave me pain. My heart literally felt constricted, and the shoulder starting to throb - I'm not sure why this happens (the shoulder thing) but I've noticed it before on runs, even back in high school.

I slogged the last 10 minutes and then had to walk. I only needed five more minutes, but with the above three circumstances it was just too much and I ended it just short of my goal. The worst part was because I ended early I had to walk back and the calves were so overworked and tightened that it was just painful to even walk. I stopped by a store and got some water, but that didn't really help, my muscles just needed rest. Layed in a tub of cold water when I got home - it was the only remedy for the pain.

I took a nap because I felt like I was going to be sick after that, and now it's later so I'm trying to get this blog in. Today was a success despite the bad ending. I know it will help me for the marathon, not only physically, but psychologically. The reason being that I will not want to quit and walk - because of the pain that I know I will feel. If I would have kept running today the rest of the 5 minutes, I wouldn't have had to walk as far, and the pain during running was far less than walking. So that alone is encouragement not to walk, and to push through to the end.

After today's run I know that I'm not as fit as I wanted to be at this point (at least not for the longer distances) but I had a bad few weeks and that kind of took me down a notch. Still this training cycle has been full of running and I feel more ready for the marathon than I did for the half last year. Most of all I just want to go out there and have fun, but at the same time I want to leave nothing on the road. I want to push myself to the maximum and after the race, or one day after, or a week after be able to say I gave it all I had and that was the best performance I could have possibly given - that is the goal. Keeping that in mind while searing pain is engulfing my legs, heart, and lungs will be the challenge.

4pm. ball camp+bike trail+2greenway par loops. 58 degrees cloudy w/8mph wind 80% humidity. (cool)
2:55:01, gf 576

3.14.09

Guys this is laughable. Another day off. It rained most of the day. I suppose I could have hopped on the treadmill, but I really want to avoid it. I guess a rainy day is a good day to rest, so whatever.

The fun part of today was all the happenings in distance running and track and field. I had no idea the NCAA championships was even this week, but I found it while searching for the Piers-City-Piers half-marathon that world record Haile Gebreselassie was running in today. So that was a ton of fun. It was like going to a track meet. Galen Rupp was awesome, and you wouldn't have believed the women's mile and 3000 meters it was incredible! I twittered about it if you want to read my reactions.

3.13.09

Amazing run today! I felt great the whole way, even at an increased pace. The calf issue hasn't effected my running at all this week. There's still some soreness in there if I press on it, but the key to that is...not pressing on it. Anyway this run was four loops around the hood, with three trips up the HH. So I felt really confident when I got back to the house and I ran about two minutes faster than I normally do that route without the hills! I'm not sure what got into me today? maybe it was the weather or maybe I'm just recovering some of that fitness from before my time off. Whatever it was it was great.

The one thing I did notice today was some soreness around my hip joints. I did the HH a few days ago as well during my run (forgot to mention) and I think running those downhills has put some additional stress on the hips. Still though it's not a big thing, just something to make a note of. After this run I'm feeling really confident. I might get up and run with the ktc guys at fleet feet, but it's 90% chance of rain (raining already) and I'm just not sure if it's gonna happen. We'll see. Next weekend is the chocolate factory run that is the first half of the course. I'll probably do that, but unfortunately it's probably on the first half of the course, so I might not. I haven't been on the ktc forums for a while, so I might hit them up with some questions about it. Sunday I might try a 17-20 miler and push the pace on it. I really want to know where I'm at and I think that will be a good indicator. I just don't want to push too hard, but get an idea of how far I can go before I really start breaking down. If today was any indicator, I should at least be able to make it to 20 before I have to struggle a whole lot....? So we'll see about that too.

3pm. home. 43 degrees 6 mph wind humidity 76% (chilly)
1:28:52, bf 1239

3.12.09

Streak ended today. It was rainy and spent the day working on art.

3.11.09

Morning run was cloudy, cool 60 degrees, and windy. The wind wasn't too bad, only around 13 mph. I was sweating pretty good so I had no problem with a little extra wind. The run went fine. I actually talked to a neighbor of mine who was interested in buying my car that's been sitting in the parking lot for this past year. I never drive it because April and I have other cars, so our "old" car just kind of sits there rotting away. The only problem with it is that we don't drive it, lol. So the battery has went dead all the numerous times we've replaced it with a new one. Well because of that the circuits have made the left and right blinker not work, so really that's the only problem with it. My dad gave me a part to fix that, but I never got around to it because....we never drive it, haha.

But the morning run did feel good. I really didn't want to get up this morning though. I was having my usual crazy dreams. In this one I was the leader of mankind against the machines in an apocalyptic world where it was mostly my responsibility to find out which humans were terminators and which weren't. It got pretty intense as my dreams normally do, and the entire dreamtime lasted years. There was one cool part where I had been living on a ship (space-vehicle) and actually had terminators I had reprogrammed living alongside me. The rest of humanity had left Earth, and this day they came back, but their ship was ridiculous. My ship was huge, but theirs was like a hundred times bigger. You ever seen those russian dolls where one goes into the next, and that one goes into a larger on and so on. Well my ship was the size of the ones from the movie independence day, and it was the "smallest" russian doll. Yeah. I think i survived the whole thing, but I'm not sure as I was drifting in and out of sleep during the end.

So anyway the whole point of that was just that it was hard to wake up, and in a few weeks I'll have to be racing at that time. I'm doing better though and have got my eight hours for a few nights. The other problem I have is that I don't run as early as I'd like because I'm so hungry when I get up. It's like as soon as I stand up out of bed my stomach goes crazy and I have to eat something. I guess I could eat and run, but I never feel good when I do that. The other option is just to get my butt in gear and go to sleep another hour earlier. So hopefully I'll get my routine going here and be awake and ready on the 29th.

9:45 am. home. 60degrees cloudy 13mph 63% humidity - (felt cool)
1:30:33, gf 546

Later run ended up being an 8 mile tempo. Felt great the whole way through.

4:47 pm. home. 55 degrees cloudy 12 mph wind 50% humidity (cool)
1:07:13, gf 554

3.10.09

Was really hot and windy today. I ran for about 6 miles on the hills at the soccer complex and then stopped for some water. I was pretty exhausted and figured I could run some more later on when maybe the wind died down. I ended up having to go the art store for some things and then went to dinner with April after that. At least I got in some running done in the heat today.

80 degrees sunny 15mph wind 40% humidity.
46:35, gf 535

3.9.09

It was hot today. The run was hard and even by mile 2 I felt dehydrated. This weather is crazy, 30 degrees last week, and now it's 70-75 all of a sudden. What happened to the 50's and 60's !?!? Either way it's good training, so I'll take, it is just hard adjusting to it. I really had to push my way through this run, nothing came easily. By the last two miles my mouth was crusted and my lips were sticking together because I really needed some water, but I knew if I stopped it was over. I was determined to run the entire time and not stop early though. Finally after feeling not so good at the finishing pickup I was finished and cold water was sweet and delicious. It took a while for my lips to return to normal as they had caked layers of salt and dried saliva, gross! So enjoy that little detail my fellow runners or perhaps readers who just like to peruse my blog.

On secondary exercises I've been diligent with sittups, it's been about a week straight and I've done leglifts and planted sittups every night - a little later than I'd like it to be, but at least I'm getting it in. Last night I did wall sits which killed (and I was sore today by the way) and also some lunges so that was good too. Anything at this point additional I really feel is going to affect my performance at the marathon.

4:45pm. home. 70 degrees sunny with 4 mph wind 37% humidity.
1:30:07, gm 937

3.8.09

Not a very good run. Was really tired and just seemed to be worn out quickly. Stopped this run early. Left quad - which as been numb since I started running again, was numb again. Also my left hip bone (the joint area) was really sore when I got up this morning. Since I was also exhausted I decided to just end it early and try to go longer tomorrow.

5:15 pm. ball camp .74 degrees 18 mph wind.
36:29, gm 925

wall sits 1:45/2:00
lunges 2 x 10

3.7.09

Wow 22 days from the marathon! Holy smokes. I knew it would come fast, but man it's here. Today was awesome! I'm using tons of exclamation marks to let you know! haha, well today really was good. It was like 70 degrees and a little windy, but not too bad. The legs felt surprisingly good and....drumroll.......calf was fine. yaay me. So yeah it didn't hurt at all this run. Now it's not gone completely, but running was pain-free. If I press on it in the right spot definitely still there, but being able to run free was awesome.

Great run today, felt controlled but loose, not too hard of an effort. I even managed to push it a bit on the last mile. Good news things to be falling back into place a bit. Tomorrow I'm planning a 3 hour long run. Kinda long, but hey, three weeks to go so no holding back. The run tonight was an even number, kinda funny I wasn't even trying for it :O

5:10pm. home. 72 degrees sunny 13 mph wind.
1:32:00, gm 920

3.6.09

Calves were not good today super-tight and I have no clue why. The right one especially. The soreness isn't the "good" kind like you feel after weight lifting, it's the bad kind that is just pain. Must have been from all the days off? Either way I did a shorter run today because I didn't want to push things too soon. Hopefully tomorrow they might loosen up a bit. Left quad has been numb past two days? Not sure what that is about, but it's kinda freakin me out. Well, at least I did some kind of running today.

4:29 pm. home. 62 degrees 16 mph wind.
42:27, gm 908

3.5.09

RUNNING OCCURED TODAY! Isn't it amazing. The calf still isn't 100% but clllose enough for me. Gah, 3 weeks out from the marathon and I'm having all these days off. I would be sorry for not updating, but nobody reads this but me so it really doesn't matter. I'm mostly just talking to myself I guess. Anyway me, you had a rough week.

IT WAS HORRIBLE. My head hurt constantly. I literally had a headache since Sunday all through yesterday. I even almost passed out. My brain hadn't been getting it's fix of oxygen and my body really didn't react well to it. It was crazy to think how exercise is kind of like my addiction. If I don't get it my body goes into withdrawal. Crazy Week.

Good news is the calf isn't healed all the way, but it isn't sore to the touch, I can press on it pretty good before any pain, so that is good. Now it's time to just go slow and get back into a routine. The marathon will be here before I know it!

3pm. home. 60 degrees partly cloudy 15 mph wind.
1:22:05, gf 532

3.4.09

GAAAH DAY 6 I feel like I'm dying :(

3.3.09

Day off 5 :(

3.2.09

Day off 4 :(

3.1.09

Day off 3 :(

2.28.09

Day off 2 :(

2.27.09

Day off :(