Old shoes vs. New shoes

I did not realize that my old Nike Vomero 4+ with around 350 miles were as worn down as they were. The new ones arrived from Running Warehouse and I tried the new on the left foot and the old on the right foot. WOW ! ! !

Discussion from most runners say the shoes only last around 300 miles. I guess I didn't really believe this, but perhaps it is true.

Heal support on the old ones were non-existant compared to the new ones, which may explain the Achilles Tendonitis (which is getting better.)

Here is the visual proof:

Too bad shoes don't come with treadwear indicators :)

No News is .....

not necessarily good news, always.

The injury bug has once again reared up and bit me, this time in my lower leg in the Achilles tendon area. It happened Sunday morning, while I was on a long run. I had started at the Shelby Bottoms trail head and wanted to run to Kohl’s on the Nashville Stones River greenway. I didn’t realize that it was super hilly, but hills really do not bother me, so I was in good spirits all the way to Kohl’s, which is 8 miles.

The Achilles was bothering me some as I was navigating some of the hills on the way out, and I had stopped and stretched once or twice. The thought even entered my mind to stop and go back around mile 4, but I realize that my opportunities of getting these 16 and 20 mile runs in are getting shorter. So I went on. BIG MISTAKE.

On the way back, I walked up the super steep hill leading to the elementary school right before Two Rivers golf course, and it felt like a rock hit my calf. I knew that a rock had not hit me, and it had to be the tendon getting stretched. My biggest problem was that I was 5 miles from the car, and starting to limp. So for the next 2 hours, I alternated walking, stopping, walking, hobbling, and stopping, etc the 5 miles back to the car.

4 hours later I get back home, and Steph is crazy worried. Now, 3 days later, I’m still resting and messaging as best as possible. I’ve learned from my other injuries that it is better to shut down and heal, rather than trod on, just to keep my fitness up. I’m feeling pretty fit right now, not sure if I’m Marathon fit (the way I would like), but fit none the less. I am going to blame this one on the shoes, which have more than 400 miles on them, and I was looking to replace very soon anyway.

All in all, this running/training regimen may not be my cup of tea after all. These injuries may be telling me that I am NOT A RUNNER, but just a Bucket list guy. I don’t know. I enjoy running and it has helped me to trim down this year, in a good way. I feel really good, except the injury part, although I am spending too much time fretting about the Marathon, instead of enjoying being a “pretend runner.”

Going to rest for at least one or two more days, and give it a test on Friday or Saturday. Will update then.

Rest and Recover

For my "young running career", the past 30 days have been my most productive.

• Run 21 of 30 days
• 153 Miles in 24 hours and 8 minutes
• 2 runs of 16 or more miles 

I had a long run planned for today, but took the girls and dad to Bicentennial Mall to see the historial re-enactments. So, this is 2 straight off days, but my body kind of needed the additional rest.

Not so with Ultra-Marathon man Dean Karnazas, who last year ran 50 Marathons in 50 Days.  26.2 miles a day. 1,310 miles in 50 days. He capped it off by running the NY Marathon in 3:00 flat. Incredible display of endurance. He is indeed the Energizer bunny - he just goes and goes. I watched the move last night, and it is incredibly inspiring. On top of that, he ran out of the NY hotel 2 days after the race, and ran 1,300 miles to somewhere in Kansas, just to "clear his head." MONKEY, SAY WHAT ??

 Tomorrow starts my final push to the 2 marathons. I'm certainly unsure of how it is going to go - do I have what it takes? do I have enough base? will I have enough in the tank and be able to push through?

I'll certainly be thinking of Dean while out of my 20 miler next weekend, and during the upcoming races. One of Dean's primary inspirational quotes in the movie is "What counts in battle is what you do once the pain sets in." - John Short

Gear Review - CW-X Compression Socks

A few weeks back I purchased a pair of CW-X compression socks to see if they would, indeed, help with recovery after medium and long runs.

Stephanie calls them "knee high tights" and tells me they look like granny socks.

But, I digress. Compression socks were originally marketed to folks with compromised circulatory systems, such as edema and deep vein thrombosis as well as post surgical patients to help aid circulation, hoping to decrease the risk of blood clots.

More recently, they have been marketed toward tri-athlete runners who spend hours biking, then transitioning to running. Meaning they went from not using their calves to really, really using them in a short period of time.

Some of the benefits are supposed to include:

• improved oxygen delivery to muscles
• accelerated lactic acid removal
• help reduce muscle fatigue

More recently, they have moved into the runner community, when Paula Radcliffe was seen winning a major marathon wearing them.  Some website even contend they are a fad.

So off to Team Nashville I went in search of some compression socks. They recommended either the CW-X brand or the Swiftwick brand. Now, I am a real supporter of Swiftwick socks which are a local company, but I really liked the fact that I could run with the CW-X socks. Ok, so they do feel like "tights", but they do seem to make my legs feel good after long or medium runs (which is about all I am doing right now.)

I even wore them on a trip around Percy Warner 11.2, and my legs felt really good, during and after the run.

Bottom line is a hearty recommendation for compression socks. There are many different variety of compression sock sellers, so until I try another pair, I would defiantly recommend CW-X.

Please post any comments that you may have about CW-X or compression socks. I'd love to hear them.

Long Runs and Hedge Apples

Week 11 Review - 46.5 miles - 7 hours 19 minutes - 5,900 calories - including long run, tempo run, hill sprint.

I think (and hope) that I've turned the corner on the IT Band/ hip issues from August. Little aches and pains that come with training persist - like sore hamstrings, sore achilles, and a black toenail that is bugging me - but not the dredded hip pain from before.

I've been meaning to touch on the FIRST training plan that I initially started out to follow for this marathon. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 on these matters, as I was injured on the very first day of training. I think a couple of things lead to the initial injury. 1) I based my training time estimates on a 5K that I ran the week before. Looking back, I should have based the training time estimates on an average of the last 2 5K's  - one from July and the faster one in August. I had inproved almost 1:30 from the July to August because of good training, but this was probably not a good estimate to use for the marathon training. 2) I don't believe that my base of miles was NEAR enough. My best guess is that a base of 3-5 previous marathons, or at least 1,500 miles of recent miles should be considered before using this method.

Reading a lot of blogs and message boards from experienced marathoner's, I knew that what I really need is to develop my base milage more. So with this in mind, I'm going to do my best to keep the milage up, and try to run everyday, unless its rest day before a designated long run.

My long run for this week will be my longest run to date - 18 miles. So Saturday rolls around and it is overcast, windy and cold with a lttle rain falling. My plan was to wait until the afternoon to begin the run, as Steph had some things to do in the morning. Carly and I spent time together watching Phinias and Ferb until around 2:00. It was around 49 and overcast and the wind chill was around 41, so I was re-thinking trying it, as the wind is very tough to run in. But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that I should just go ahead and try it, so off I went. My plan was to run from the Gateway over to Old Fort then on to Cason Lane trail head and back to the Gateway for the first 12 miles. Then over to the battlefield for the other 6 miles.

Most everything went according to plan. I took it easy, keeping in mind that I wanted to get all 18 miles in the book, and kept the pace around 9:30 per mile. There was a ton of mud in some spots on the greenway towards Cason lane, as the Stones River was really high and some over run was still on the trail making it quite muddy, so there were some slow and tricky places.

I slowed for water breaks at Old Fort and Cason Lane trail heads, and headed back to the car at the Gateway and popped a GU (Mocha Chocolate - umm good.) Onward to the battlefield, and I saw the Mock Orange tree with the Hedge apples strewn on the trail, and the one thought I had was "I hope one of these don't fall on my head, because I'm so tired that I would never be able to dodge one" LOL.

I  finished the long run in 2 hours and 54 minutes averaging 9:45 per mile, which is just fine with me

OktoBEERfest and post 1/2 Marathon thoughts

This weekend, Stephanie and I headed down to Helen, GA to celebrate the German heritage holiday, Oktoberfest. It seems to be very simular to Mardi Gras, as in, they have created a "holiday" in order to drink a lot. One thing about runners, though, is they love to drink beer. So much so, they have a race, every now and then, called the BEER MILE RUN. Basically, you drink a 12oz can of your favorite beer, run once around a track (1/4 mile) and chug another beer at the start/stop line. Continue this for 4 laps. Sounds like good times, I will have to try one some day. This weekend, however, was not about running for me. It was for relaxing and have a few pitchers with my wife and some friends, un-winding and forgetting about training. I commented to Stephanie, that I was going to forget about running on Friday and Saturday, and if I did mention anything, just tell me to shut up.

So, with the Murfreesboro Half Marathon still fresh on my mind, I thought I would wrap up my thoughts on that race, and move on to LONGER and BIGGER races.

1)  I broke the cardinal "have everything ready the night before" rule. Since we left the house and it was still dark, I totally forgot my sunglasses. Very fortunatly for me, Stephanie had her running Oakley in her purse and let me use them. Very fortunate because, we were on the course several times STARING into the the rising sun, and the shades really helped.

2) I broke cardinal "do not try anything NEW during the race" rule. I got a really good deal on the nice ASICS tech shirt at Athelete's House. I could tell that it was a good shirt, because I am so used to wearing bargain price stuff, this one really felt good. BUT, the insignia left my nips a wee bit on the raw side after 13.1 miles. I even applied my Body Glide before the race, but I guess it rubbed off. OUCH.

I was a little more sore on Monday than on Sunday, as my quads were letting me know that I used them for 13.1 miles at a good effort. Not near as bad as the few days after the Country Music Half back in April. I ran on a treadmill for 4 miles on Monday afternoon, and worked out much of the soreness. By Wednesday, I was ready to move on, so I headed to Percy Warner park and did the 11.2. Thursday, I followed that up with a 10 mile run out at the Greenway. I could tell that I was tiring at mile 6 - 10, but still finished.

Friday and Saturday was mostly this:

Helen, GA is right on the edge of the Chattahoochee National Forest, and if you have ever been to Gatlinburg, you know how the cabins are built: i.e. right on the side of a HILL. Big time hills all over the place, which I took full advantage of early Sunday morning. 8x10 second hill sprints and the steepest hill I could find. Ten second sprints of a hill that is inclined at a 30 degree angle does not get you very far, believe me, but it was a great VO2 workout.

On the drive back to Murfreesboro, I was thinking that this is the last weekend to relax and enjoy the time, because the real training starts Monday. Over the next 4 weeks leading up to Chickamauga, I will be doing an 18 and 20 mile Long run. Most of the hill and speed work are over. I will be concentrating on tuning for the longer distance and trying to maintain it. So now that I have celebrated the minor victory of the Middle Half, it's time to get serious. SERIOUSLY ! ! !

09 Middle Half Pics

http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=47641&PWD=&BIB=1408

Shared via AddThis

Race Report - 2009 Murfreesboro Half Marathon

5:00AM came very early Saturday morning. I felt like I only had a few hours of restful sleep the entire night. Probably still pre-race nerves on my part, as I am still relatively new at racing. Even though the 1/2 was just another "long run" as a part of my over-all Marathon training period, I was internally pretty juiced about this run.

First, it's in my backyard, so to speak. I really enjoyed my last race in the 'boro and had heard many good and positive remarks about the race. Secondly, I was really wanting to do well in a race environment, before I went down to Chickamauga in November, where I will not acutally "race" but use as a training run (for real.)

It was plenty chilly, around 49 degrees, at 6:15 when we arrived on the MTSU campus. I had meant to come down and drive the course on Friday, but had too much to do, so when we arrived I was surprised to see the lights on the Track and Field stadium on. The whole time before the race, I had mistakenly thought we would finish the race inside the MTSU football stadium, so much to my surprise we ended up heading over to the track. Yes, it makes much more sense, in retrospect, to finish at the track instead of the football field. The vibe around the whole pre-race was very calming. No one was rushing around. The short line to the port-a-potties moved very fast. The entire feeling was just way different than the Country Music Marathon earlier this year. I guess it was probably the weather, which was PERFECT for a long distance race. I had been out running at this time of the morning twice this week for early runs, and was used to the nice chilly-ness of the weather.

After a quick potty break and a mile warm-up, I headed over to the start line with Stephanie and her Dad. (Thanks to everyone who said a little prayer for Steph's dad before his cancer surgery a few weeks ago. I'm happy to say that the doc got all of the cancer out and they have not found any cancer spread to his lymph nodes.)

My hip was feeling pretty good this morning, not really giving me any tightness. My internal  goal-time was to shoot for two hours, which means all miles under 9:09 per mile.

Races generally tend to suck you into the excitement of the moment and get you going faster than you want to. The trick is to settle into your pace, and folks with the your pace will find you. So with my eye more on my Garmin, than the road, I set out on the 3rd Annual Murfreesboro Half Marathon, better known as The Middle Half.

I was quickly over the starting mat and guys and gals were blowing by me in every direction. I thought, my goodness there are some fast peeps running today. I felt good going out at a 8:30/mile pace. It really felt like a jog, more than a run. The first mile came in at exactly 8:31/mile. My first thought was "ok, I have banked 30 seconds towards the 2 hour goal, let's keep this pace though mile #2 and bank another 30 seconds."

Mile #2 came in at 8:30/mile. Around this time I noticed a guy wearing a Team HCA shirt from the Country Music Marathon. I chatted with him for a minute of two, as we were running the same pace. Then I heard someone taking to the HCA guy, and it was Rick, who is the Team HCA organizer, whom I knew to be an accomplished marathoner. As he passed the other guy, I asked Rick what he was shooting for, and he said he would be happy with a 1:50. Ummm, 1:50 huh? Mentally I said: 1) we (meaning me - unless I am bi-polar and didn't realize it) have 1 minute in the bank towards the two hour goal. 2) 8:30 per mile wasn’t giving me any problems this morning. 3) 1:50 sounds better than 2:00. So I got in Rick's draft and let him pace me for a half mile or so. At some point I looked down at the garmin was saying 8:10 pace. A little too fast, so I let Rick plow on. Mile #3 clocked in at 8:19 pace. Now I mentally noted 1:40 in the bank.

About this time, we were turning right to go to the out-and-back at the Oakland Mansion. As I was turning left, I noticed the race leader, Jacob Korir going in the opposite direction, which meant he was at mile 5.5 having already gone around the Murfreesboro square and heading out. The nearest person was at least a tenth of a mile back of him already. Seeing him motor on, kind of pumped me up, so I kept up my good pace. Mile #4 was 8:20 at the Oakland Mansion and Mile #5 was 8:22 at the square. I was beginning to think that I had the 2 hour goal, but then realized that I still had 8 more miles to go. YES, EIGHT MILES ! ! !

Back down E. Main St towards the MTSU campus and clocked the first 10K at 52.11. We turned down Hwy 70 and I just settled into the pace. It felt comfortable, and most everyone around me was running the same pace. I just blended in and put it on auto-pilot. I could feel the training really kick in and felt good. Now left onto N. Rutherford Blvd and I popped my GU right before the water break at mile #9. I wanted to make sure that I slowed down enough to get the water down without choking, so I walked the water stop. Wow, this really did my legs good. Mile 10 and 11 were still going strong and I averaged 8:19 and 8:16 respectively. I did not feel any fatigue until we turned onto Old Lascassus Blvd between mile 11 and 12, which heads to the finish line and the stadium. At this point, I could see the stadium in the distance and at mile 12 I knew I still had a mile to go. At this point I was picking off people at a fairly good clip. This, more than anything, kept my legs churning. I was determined to pick it up, and go strong into the stadium.

For the entire race, I was just looking at my pace, and not the time. I didn't have a clue what my time was going to be, although I knew it would be under 2 hours. Coming around the turn to the stadium, I just let go and cruised in. Coming into the stadium was very cool. I came around the turn and they called my name over the intercom, and I saw the finish line and the clock.

1:50:28

I'll have to admit, the first thing through my mind was, "if I'd just ran 29 seconds faster, it would have been 1:49", jeeeezzz. I exhaled and got the finishers medal and a drink, and felt really good. I feel like I still had some left in the tank. We'll see soon.

Headed over to the Food tent, which was fantastic. My daughter Hayley and her friend were there with Stephanie and her dad. Pizza, Chick-fil-A nuggets, bagel with cream cheese, fruit, etc. Very nice.

My sister and parents were able to make this race, and I was very excited that they were there to see.

We (Stephanie, her dad and I, not the bi-polar "we") headed over to catch her uncle finish. We also got to see my nephew Jonathon having a good finish.

All in all, a good race for me. I really did not think my fitness level was very good, because of the "not so good" long runs of late. The hip didn't really bother me, but my knee has been giving me some problems this week.

Like the famous football coaches always tells his team after a victory - "Enjoy this today, then get back to work tomorrow, we have another game to play" - this is my motto for this race. It does feel good to get a new PR for the 13.1 distance, but my larger goal is the December Las Vegas Marathon, with a "26.2 Long Run" thrown in for good measure in November, which is only 6 weeks away

Steph and me after the race

Here are my splits, for posterity sake:

1 Mi 8:31 8:30.51
2 Mi 8:30 16:59.88
3 Mi 8:19 25:18.57
4 Mi 8:22 33:39.61
5 Mi 8:20 41:59.21
6 Mi 8:24 50:22.58
7 Mi 8:22 58:44.40
8 Mi 8:20 1:07:03.83
9 Mi 8:33 1:15:36.50 Water walk
10 Mi 8:19 1:23:55.12
11 Mi 8:17 1:32:11.64
12 Mi 8:37 1:40:47.68 Water walk
13 Mi 8:25 1:49:12.31
13.18 Mi 7:22 1:50:31.70

Long Runs and snuffly noses.... Great.

Quick September review and training thoughts. 110 miles and 14,652 calories later, I have finally gotten back to training for 26.2. Coming up first is The Middle Half Marathon on Saturday.

This past Saturday had a 16 mile Long Run listed on the schedule. Of course the rains were not letting up, as it has rained over the past 4-5 days. Headed out to the Greenway at 7:00am with a ton of dark, gloomy clouds in the distance towards Nashville. I went ahead and thought that the rains may stay north, and set out on the Murfreesboro Greenway headed south towards Barfield Cresent trail head. 1 1/2 mile into the trip, the clouds opened up. I raced along toward the I-24 underpass on the Greenway and let the rains blow by, so out again I went. I played this cat-and-mouse game with the rain several more times: find a tree, get back to the underpass, find another tree. Every time the rain would pour down, then slack off. I took the opportunity twice to wring out my socks and dri-fit shirt.

What a great invention the dri-fit type of shirts are. They sure do a great job in wicking the moisture away and keeping the body relativly dry, but gosh do they STINK. I'm going to need to try some of the newer laundry detergents specifically for the dri-fit clothes. Same goes for the shorts (NO, I didn't take them off to ring them out) but they do a nice job of getting the wettness away. The shorts, however, keep the moisture on them, and quite often feel like wet camping tents after a run.

So, after several starts and stops and re-starts, I said "Screw it" and just sucked it up and ran. I know that I don't have a whole lot of opportunities to get in the longer runs, so I just went with it, soaking shoes, shirt and all. So, for the first 5-6 miles was starting and stopping, not a true test of the long run. I ended up with 16.5 miles on the day around 2 hours and 40 minutes - sometimes in a down pour and sometimes between showers.

See that Germ-X bottle up there? Yep, the kids are sick. Between the middle and elementary schools where the kids go, there are several hundred kids out of class. We took Kayla to the doc yesterday and she has strep. Taylor went last week and had a sinus infection that really resembled strep. So its not so surprising that I am feeling the BUG creeping my way. Yeah, this should make Saturday interesting, to say the least.

Next up... The Middle Half .. hopefully.