1.31.09

I started this run at the soccer complex. It was tough out there today and the hills were handing it to me. I barely made it through 15 miles and really couldn't go any farther. I was breathing heavy on the hills, and the legs weren't too happy on them either. Going downhill wasn't bad, but the uphills were killer. So I finished out the run on the treadmill. Ever so slightly my right calf continued to cramp and feel sore, until finally I could take it no longer and had to end the run early. I'm not sure if it a fuel issue contributed to it or not. As I had posted days ago my soleus (connected to the achilles) had been sore and swelled up. For what reason I do not know, but it hadn't hindered my running so I thought it was okay to run. Well that didn't hold true today, and instead of just the outside of the soleus, it was my whole lower achilles that was cramping and sore. I felt it getting worse and worse, but then finally I just said this isn't worth it and stopped running. I was 2 miles shy of my goal for the day.

So I iced it and it feels a lot better. I'm not sure how it happened as I said before - I took two days off and after that is when it started to hurt...so? Not real sure. Maybe I overstretched it, or possibly I could have been overcompensating for when I pulled that ligament in my left thigh? Either way it was not a good sign today. I dont' want to take days off, but if I have to I will. Tomorrow is supposed to be a long run. I pretty much did one today, but I didn't reach my goal so I will try again tomorrow and see how the achilles reacts. If it starts cramping or being overly sore like today where the pain is too much I'll just stop early I guess. It sucks, but I guess it's better to rest and recover than dig the hole deeper. I did have a good run today despite the injury, so at least that was a positive.

12pm. soccer complex/tread. 39 degrees 7mph wind
2:40:37, gm 859 /bf 1113

1.30.09

A nice long treadmill run. I watched the movie 300. If you can't get pumped up watching that movie then you have something wrong with your adrenaline glands. Anyway it was a longer run of 2 hours 10 minutes with a half minute rest to turn on the fan (i forgot to) and grab a little laraba bar because I skipped lunch. I didn't want to skip lunch by the way, but I had a big late breakfast and it just stuck with me. If I would have eaten I would have wait to run till later and I didn't want to do that since April wanted to go out when she got home. The run went fine, it was getting harder towards the end though. I kept the speed at 8 the whole time, and increased it gradually up to 8.6 the last mile.

My right calf is still sore, but I think it will be good to go by Sunday for a long run. I haven't ran a longer long run for a while so I might try to get three hours or more in again. I guess it'll depend on what's going on Sunday. We are going to a superbowl party so that might mean cutting a few miles. I should still be able to get a good two and half to three quarter hours in hopefully. Other than that just the normal burning sensation in the outside of my big toe joints. Tomorrow I'm planning a split run, trying to get two half-marathons in. My new thing is to keep increasing my daily miles as close to marathon as I can - so come marathon day I will be more and more prepared to run hard the whole distance and not die in the last few miles. I didn't get any speedwork in this week, but it was kind of crazy with taking a few days off, then trying to get my miles back up. I hate that, but things happen. I just have to move on and get it in next week.

3:25pm. home. tread.
2:10:30, gf 429

1.29.09

I started this run at the soccer complex. I had an hour and half in mind, hoping that if I split the run up by doing the rest at home it would make it go by a little faster. It worked, although the soccer complex is really hilly. I kept feeling my left hamstring tighten up on the hills. It does that sometimes, it was just noticeable today. Also my right calf is swelled. Not the actual calf, but kind of the secondary calf muscle just below it. It's been sore, but I thought it was my shins, when I actually looked at it today I noticed it was looking rather large. When compared to the left leg it's about twice the size, which kind of worries me. All the same once I get warmed up there isn't any pain so I guess it's no big deal.

Today felt really similar to a long run, which probably isn't a good thing. I just had that achiness. Granted a lot of that is going to come from the hills, so i guess it's expected. At the soccer complex I did discover a neat little trick to remember my laps. Instead of counting forward, I counted backwards this time and actually knew how many laps I had done! Yay for me. It ended up being 3 one way, half a lap to reverse direction, then 8 laps the other way plus a trip around the parking lot, so somewhere around 13 miles. The run at home was fine, but I was starting to get cold and was also hungry as I didn't fuel today. I just didn't want to deal with it, although it would have the run a lot easier I guess. I figured that sometimes you just have to ignore your body and push through things, because that's what a marathon is about, pushing yourself beyond your perceived limits.

3:45pm. soccer complex/home. 40 degrees.
2:22:23. gf 413

1.28.09

Morning run on the treadmill. It was raining all last night and this morning. Supposed to dry up later.

9:35am.tread.
1:15:15, gf 403
75:35 10.19

Late run consisted of four loops around the neighborhood, the same as yesterday. Felt really good on both of them, nice even pace and didn't have to work my legs too hard. I might do speedwork tomorrow, but I might wait till Friday. I guess it just depends on how I feel in the morning. I would really like to do a focused session I thought of the other day - this time taking plenty of rest inbetween reps. I want to do five miles, and I dont' really care how it happens. So I'm thinking 4 mile repeats, then two 800's if I'm totally trashed. Judging from my last two sessions that will probably be the case. Then I will do some cooldown miles, maybe 3-5. Then I will be able to to do a later run of 8-9 miles at home. It all depends on the weather in the morning though. If I end up on the treadmill I'll skip speed for Friday.

5:02pm. home. 32 degrees with some wind.
1:20:22, gf 413

1.27.09

Great run today. There was an eerie mist/fog which was kind of cool to run through. My calves were extremely tight from the two days off, especially the left one. After about a half-hour they finally loosened up. Ran with no music today. I like doing that, but this time I had to turn the volume down. The problem with that is you can't hear updates, so if you accidentally pause or your sensor loses signal or something like that you have no idea. So you could run for a long while before noticing anything and losing those miles. It's happened before. I just kept checking every so often and no problems today. I really did feel great though after I got going. I kind of wanted to keep running, but I figured I wouldn't push it too much since I was working out the rust.

4pm. home. 45 degrees foggy.
1:30:00, bf 1106

1.26.09

Same deal as yesterday. My hip is almost better, I just want to make sure it is before I do anything else. Tomorrow I will be back at it.

1.25.09

Took a day off of running. My inner hip had a pull or something wrong. It feels better already and I'll try it out again tomorrow to see what happens. At this point I'm just wanting to make sure I can do speedwork on Thursday.

1.24.09

I think I pulled a ligament yesterday. When i try to lift my left leg one of the tendons really hurts and I can't lift it above my hips. I thought maybe running would make it go away. It sort of feels like somethings out of place, like my leg bone ain't connected to my hip bone. I keep hoping it will "pop" back into place, but it's probably just something pulled in there. Running went fine actually. As I said I can lift my leg nearly all the way, it's just when it gets to a certain point I can't anymore. So I ran for over an hour and it started loosening up. If it is still that way tomorrow I'm not sure what I'll do for my long run, probably cut it back a bit. I'd like to go for a kind of longer run, but I guess at this point I'll just have to play it by ear. But then again that is pretty much what I do everyday, so nothing new.

3:15pm. home. 40 degrees chilly with strong wind.
1:30:03, gf 394

1.23.09

Wind was horrible today.I ran more than half my run at the soccer complex, then I was sick of the wind so I left and finished the rest at home. The houses blocked most of the wind and at least made the run bearable. I was hoping it would be a beautiful day, but as the 60 degree days usually go around here it was just caused by overcast fast moving clouds bringing all the warm southern air up here. It really wasn't worth it. I thought to myself - I'd rather have it be cold than "warm" and windy. The thing about the wind is that it blows right through you and makes you feel cold because you are sweating. So actually my nose was running like crazy today because of it, even though it was "60" degrees.

My legs were dead today too and that didn't help matters. I'm trying to keep up my mileage and today probably wasn't the best day for a continuous medium-long run, but I really didn't want to do it Saturday. My legs did loosen up a bit, but my hips, hams, and inside of my quads were sore and didn't want to cooperate. I don't blame them, as I said I probably should have just taken it easier, and I did as far as pace goes, but some further rest would have been beneficial. Maybe I'll take Monday off after my long run or take it super-easy for some recovery for next week. I'm kinda wondering how I'll feel tomorrow.

2:53. soccer complex/home. 56 degrees 15 mph wind
2:08:57, gf 383

1.22.09

I did five easy miles this morning, just to wake up a bit. I was hoping it wouldn't affect the workout later and I don't think it did. Still, I had a tough day. Running-wise I was ready to go and everything felt as good as can be expected when moving at mile pace. The problem was with my stomach. It wasn't feeling good and furthered my exhaustion while running. I also was in a battle of the stopwatch, where I thought I had pushed the button, but actually had pressed it, but it never started... The little things like that you normally don't care about seem a lot more important when you're dying for air and your legs are crying out for no more abuse. My third mile was the last straw. On the last lap (after 3 agonizing ones) my stomach just hit the ground and I about doubled over. I pushed through and finished, but had no motivation to do any more sprinting - at least not at the track. The soccer kids were back and they were doing their little workouts so I didn't want to keep running through them anyways. I did another mile or two at my usual pace and went home.

But I still felt like I could run. So I decided I would finish out the day at home and did about a half hour of running. This time I actually got a few pace increases in here and there, and slowed back down when things felt like they were getting out of hand. If you are a runner then you know this kind of running is called fartlek, yes that's right. It's german, so blame them if you're offended. That worked really well and although I wasn't going as fast as my track speed, I was going fast enough to breathe pretty hard. So the day was certainly not a total loss, I'll just have to plan my lunch better next time. I had a porkchop with some scalloped potatoes and peas. I think the porkchop did me in. I actually second guessed the decision and almost went for something else, but then I figured it wouldn't matter and went ahead. Guess I should listen to my instincts better.

Lastly I wore my fasttwitch on the pavement - not so great. It FELT great, but it tore the crap out of the tread, so I think I'll keep them on the track until race day. Another day in the books.

8:25 am. tread
40:03, gf 367

3:12 pm. track. 40 degrees sunny with 8 mph wind. (shorts+t-shirt)
miles @ 5:43, 5:45?, 5:45? w/recovery + fartlek
1:29.01, fasttwitch 19

1.21.09

One good, one bad run. First on treadmill went by fast with no music at all - funny that that is now a challenge. Second run was much harder and I felt like I was dying the first half hour. Breathing was hard as I said, maybe it was from the cold? Then I got a second wind and things went smoothly. I'm not sure if it was lack of energy or food, water, or just too much running. It must not have been too much running because once I started feeling good everything came together and I finished pretty strong.

Since the sun was out I was a little on the warm side, but that's what you trade off for when the wind is colder. It wasn't too bad, I probably should have dropped the running pants though and just went for shorts. Pants always seem to make me work twice as hard. My right ankle was a little tender yesterday, but nothing today so that is great. That's pretty much it for today - Speed work tomorrow. I'm not sure exactly what that will consist of other than the 5 miles, but I hope to get in some other good running as well. I'll have to check the weather and see what's going on.

8:30 am. tread
1:07:29, gf 362
4pm. home. 30 degrees sunny.
1:07:05, bf 1095

1.20.09

Two runs today. First run outside. It was cold and hard to breathe as usual when the temps get below 20. Second was on the treadmill. At this point it feels a bit like work, but a work I enjoy doing.

2pm. home. 18 degrees w/11 mph wind.
1:14:01, bf 1087
6:49pm. tread.
1:04:03, gm 835

1.19.09

Made up my long run today. It was snowing! This is the first snow of the winter, and it finally feels like Christmas, even though it's already gone. I decided to go ahead and try to run in it. The flakes were huge at first, and throughout the whole run it snowed. I had a hard time seeing in it because it was getting in my eyelashes, and a few got me directly in the eye, which kind of hurt. Other than that it was really wet. Since it wasn't that cold out it wasn't slippery, but just plain out wet. My shoes were soaked when I got back in. I stopped running outside after about an hour and 25 minutes or so, switched socks and shoes and finished up on the treadmill.

So today was an interesting long run. I'm glad I ran in the snow, but it wasn't quite as fun as I thought it would be, especially considering 40 minutes into the run, I could feel my socks were squishy from my feet being soaked all the way through. Also my gloves were attracting all kinds of snow, and they were wet as well, so my hands started to get cold. Needless to say I was happy to get in on the treadmill. At least until I actually started running on it. My legs were tired, but I managed a pretty decent pace. It was nice having water/snacks available because whenever and I felt a little hungry around 2 hours, I was able to get a few bites of marathon bar. I also had water readily available, so that helped as well. I don't like the treadmill because it's repetitious and you go nowhere, but other than I really feel a difference when I'm running on it. It takes much more effort to run at my normal pace on a treadmill, where outside I just float along. The hams and calves were pretty tired at the end of this one- which is normal, but I definitely had less hills so I actually thought that would help with the legs. It really didn't. Breathing wise though it totally did, and there were only a few times where I could tell I was exerting a bit of effort to maintain. Ok that's it for today. Later.

2:45 pm. home/tread. 30 degrees snowing and wet.
2:48, gm 827 /bf 1078

1.18.09

I didn't get a long run in today. I actually just didn't feel like running. It was a nice day, but my legs were a little sore and I didn't have much motivation. I still managed my normal run, although I had to do it later on the treadmill. Tomorrow I plan on doing the long run, so no big deal. Hopefully after this easier day I will be feeling a bit better to go for a long run.

9pm. treadmill.
1:07:04 gm, 817

1.17.09

Lazy day today, but I still got out for a decently long run. I've been running twice a day lately, and that means more 8 milers. I might have to start combining them so I can get some medium-long runs in. I think that will help with my endurance for the marathon more than two runs. Still, it's easier on me to run twice a day sometimes, so I could also just increase those by a few miles as well. Two months seems like a long time, but before I know it I will be toeing the line and nervous about if I trained hard enough and what to expect. My goal over these next 70 days 12 hours and 41 minutes is to diminish that anxiety as much as possible by training hard and putting in more miles than I probably even need.

3:45 pm. home. 37 degrees 15mph wind.
1:28:59, bf 1081

1.16.08

A little bit longer than my usual run today, nothing special really. I decided to run on the treadmill again so it was the complete opposite of outside, sweating buckets instead of sub-freezing temps. My left shin was acting up a bit after the run. I had the same pain a while back. It comes and goes I guess. I don't think it's anything to worry about, but I thought I would mention it. As far as how I felt today I ran 8.0 most of the time, then 8.2 for about a half hour, then 8.4, which felt like a race pace. I kicked it up to 8.6 which felt a little faster, then tried 9.0 toward the end for a minute or two just to get the legs really moving, that felt like a two mile race pace or so, where it was hard to maintain, but I wasn't overly breathing, just the legs had trouble keeping up.

3:47 pm. tread.
1:21:00, bf 1070

1.15.08

My morning run was tough. The cold air made it hard to breathe and I was really struggling pretty much the whole time. Still it wasn't as cold as I had expected, but it really did effect my breathing in a big way. The sun was out and it was a beautiful day to be outside running. Although the run didn't feel that great, I was happy to get out there and brave the cold weather.

1pm. home. 22 degrees (11 w/12mph wind) sunny.
1:05:04, bf 1052

After this morning I decided to go for the treadmill. For one I didn't want to be struggling along like this morning, and I also wanted to watch my pace a bit and the treadmill doesn't lie. It was a good run even though I would have liked it be a little more spaced apart from my early run. The only bad part was I forgot my towel, so I had to pause about halfway through to get it, but that was okay too because I got some gatorade as well. My legs are definitely feeling yesterday's workout, but not anymore than usual. I should be back to normal by Saturday. That is the good thing about doing a Wednesday hard workout, you have two days to recover from a long run, then three days to recover before the next long run. It's good, but as I said yesterday I might try and do a second workout- I'm not sure if that is necessary as I like this setup, but maybe I can just do some accels on Friday.

5:15 pm. treadmill.
1:06:18, bf 1060

1.14.08

Speed Day! It's finally here. The day I go out and kill myself burning off miles at a rate much faster than I should probably be going and haven't preparation for. Well okay, maybe I had a little preparation, but still. Here is the runcast for today. I like doing them, but I'm not planning on making this a daily thing.....yet


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So the miles went like this:
1- dodged kids on the track 5:48
2- Clear track, 5:38
3- Kinda died, 5:44

I definitely thought these were harder than they probably should have been. I'm not sure how last year's speed felt fitness wise, so i might go back and read about that to compare, but today was pretty tough. I was definitely pushing hard on the last mile. It was difficult to simply get my legs going as fast as they wanted to go, my lungs were fine, but I need to play some catch up with my coordination. I have been slacking on form drills unfortunately. Honestly I can't remember the last time I did them. So instead of crying about it, I'm going to make an effort to remedy that now so in the next few weeks or months I'll be able to benefit.

For how fast I was feeling, I wanted to guess 5:30. Honestly I'm still kind of hoping in the back of my head that the track is long and I'm actually running a lot faster. I know it isn't, but I really thought I'd be faster. The weird thing is I ran my 5k at 6 minute pace, which isn't too far from today's miles, and that really didn't feel all that hard. I still felt like I could have gone a lot faster that day. But today I felt like I was closing on top speed and was surprised I could hold on as long as I did at that pace. So I thought maybe I'd be ahead, but I suppose it's a good place to start from. I mean I wanted to run these at 5:40 and add 2 (or more if I can handle) every week. So I'm actually able to run at the speed I wanted, but now I just have to make it easier to run at that speed. So next week looks like 5 x 1 at 5:40-45. I think it's doable.

My second idea was to do a secondary workout and switch to Tuesday and Thursday workouts, also cutting back a bit to be fresh for speed on Tuesday. Tuesday would be a normal workout, increasing the number of miles each week, and Thursday would be shorter, faster training focusing on holding a near-top end speed - like 800's or 400's, or a combination. Basically I need to wake up my fast twitch fibers, as they seem to be asleep at the wheel. So we will see about that second workout, but I think it could be a possibility. If it doesn't work out, then I'll just have to use form drills and some focused accelerations instead. So lots of options to consider and I'm pretty excited.

4pm. track. 35 degrees.
1600m @5:48, 5:38, 5:44 w/jogging rest
1:05:47, fasttwitch 8

1.13.08

Well I didn't feel like going outside today. I'm not sure why. I ended up on the treadmill. Here is a runcast I made during the run. I just upload straight from my camera with no editing, so fair warning that it might be a little loud (big treadmill doesn't help matters).


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It turned out to be a great run except for the fact that for about 10 minutes my ipod wasn't recording. Egh. Anyway it was a good run. My legs were a little tired toward the end, but nothing major. Should be good for some speedwork hopefully tomorrow, but maybe thursday depending on how my legs are feeling.

3:20 pm. treadmill.
1:40:00, gm 809

1.12.09

Back in the groove. I had a rough start to this year with three days in a row of no running. But I hope to make up for it over the next few weeks. Today was a great run. It felt easy and I was breathing fine the whole time. Now the legs were a whole other story where I was just trying to make it through the run. It was cloudy today, but not really cold, somewhere in the low 40's with maybe a 5 mph wind. My mindset on this run was just to make it to halfway. I planned a 2 hour run, and figured if I could make it to halfway, taking it easy if I had to, that I could definitely do it.

So the run went good as I said, no real problems other than the legs being a little achy from my long run yesterday, and a little extra effort was needed on hills. I ran at the soccer complex, so it's a repeating one mile course, with rollers and one kind of steeper hill. I tried to count my laps, but I got lost around 10. i ran two one way, then the rest the opposite direction. I was going to run a few more the opposite direction, but since I lost count I didn't bother. My thinking was that if I ran a few the other direction it would help me keep track, but once I was going I didn't feel like turning around. so i think I ran 12 laps, maybe 13, heck maybe 14 it's near impossible to remember when you are running the same long course, so much time to get sidetracked or miscount.

The sun came out with about forty minutes to go and that was nice. It brightened everything up and made it just a tad warmer as the sun was setting. It was nice. I kept a good pace the rest of the time. It turned out to be just an awesome day, couldn't have asked for better.

3:20pm. soccer complex. 40 degrees, got sunny slight wind.
2:08:19, gm 796