Week 2 Review

ZERO running miles.
One trip to Family Doctor for referral.
Two trips to Physical Therapy.

Hip = still hurting.



08/24/09 - 30 minute session on bike at Y.
08/25/09 - 1 hour spin class at Y.
08/26/09 - 1 hour Endurance Cycle class (spin bike) at Y.

One thing I have found out, from all these spin bike sessions, is that they make a special PADDED shorts for biking. Going to be heading to REI or maybe just Walmart in search for some padding in that area.

Physical Therapy is about what I expected. Direct massage, ultrasound on the IT Band, stretching. The bursa sac seems to be more sore today than it was last week. I have made an appointment with the Family Doc for Monday to get a Cortisone Injection, which I've read is the quickest and most reliable way to get going from this injury. I have 3 appointments scheduled for PT next week but I'm not sure if I will keep them, depending on the injection.

In the meantime, I have officially registered for the 30th annual Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon on November 14th, which is 12 weeks away. Hopefully, I can get back to my training as soon as possible to get some mileage in.

On a much more serious note, please keep my Father-in-law, Steve Herald, in your prayers. He is fighting the strong fight against Melanoma cancer, and I am going with him on Monday to do some pre-op tests as the doctors get ready for surgery in hopes of removing the remaining cancer tissue. Hopefully we will know more about any residual problems after some tests are run, and if we will need to pursue chemotherapy. So, the more prayers and thoughts to the Great Physician, the better and will be greatly appreciated.

Trochanteric Bursitis / Iliotibial Band Friction Syndrome

Got into the Doc's office this morning and he pointed right to the pain in my hip and said "It's either ITBS or Bursitis Sac." He gave me some pain med and referred me to the Physical Therapist.

Being neurotic about this stuff, I've been doing some research on the Running Forums, and a few in particular have diagnosed this from doing SPEED work on a TRACK. Let's see, THAT WOULD BE ME !!!

Some quick links in case your interested.

Trochanter Bursitis of the Hip - StudyHealth.com

Rehab Exercises - U of Michigan Health Systems

When can I resume my training? - The Sports Medicine Patient Advisor

I'll give an update after my initial visit to Results Physotherapy on Thursday afternoon. Hopefully a full week's rest and some PT exercises will be the remedy. Let's hope.

Week 1 Review

Pause. This is what has happened.

It is hard to explain the situation and the obsession about this training. My goal is 2 late year marathons, and I had a specific plan to train for these distances. 90% of those who attempt marathons do not train year round for these type of long distances. So for those of us who are below the 90%, we must gradually build up the longer runs, but going longer a little bit at a time. I must be able to get my milage in, one way or the other, or these Marathon attempts will not happen.

So right off the bat, my carefully laid plans have been put on hold. I have a decision to make before the end of next week. The early period for registration at the Chickamauga Marathon is August 30th. On September 1st, the price goes up $15. I am planning to get an appointment at the Physical Therapist on Tuesday. In the mean time, I am icing and heating and using that Stick. (See my last post if you are wondering what happened.)

08/17/09 - Week 1 - Key Workout #1 3x1600 @ 7:13 with 1 minutes Recovery

Headed out to the Vanderbilt Student Outdoor track facility early Monday morning, arriving at 6:30am. Did a 10 minute warm up, and then proceeded to the interval workout. The purpose of this workout is to stress the lactic acid recovery by only having 1 minute recovery between 16oo meter recovery. 1 mile=1609 meters, so this is effectively one mile at 7:13 pace followed by 1 minutes walk/jog between.

According to my VDOT Daniels formula, my goal was 15 seconds faster than my latest 5K mile pace - or 7:13 per mile. My first mile came in at 7:20 mile pace. I walked for 1 minute and set out on interval #2. Well about 1/2 trip around the track, I could tell that keeping this pace was not going to be possible today. I shut down and walked a full trip around the track (400 meters) and picked up interval #2 where I left off, finishing in 7:21 mile pace. Walked another trip around the track, and gutted out one last 1600 meter at 7:18 mile pace. A tad bit faster, but all pretty consistent, although not at goal pace. Did another 10 minute cool down and headed to work.

I did notice that my IT Band was a little sore, and found some stretches on the Internet to perform.

08/18/09 - 30 minute session on bike at Y.

08/20/09 - Week 1 - Key Workout #2 miles easy - 2 miles at Short Tempo (7:48 pace) - 2 miles easy

As I documented in Wednesday's blog, I headed to the Y do this workout on the treadmill, but could tell that my hip was not as OK as I had thought. I had to shut down about 1/4 mile into the Tempo run.

08/21/09 - 30 minute session on bike at Y.

08/22/09 - Week 1 - Key Workout #3 13 miles at MP +30 seconds (9:08 pace)

WOW what a wonderful day Saturday was. At 7:00am it was 66 degrees and no humidity. Perfect running weather compared to the last 2 months of heat and humidity. I have been wanting to try out the Stones River Greenway in Nashville, so I headed to the Percy Priest Dam and headed out. I set the garmin for 13 miles at 9:20 pace and was on my way. Was I hurting? well YES. My thought process was as follows : Thursday was a disaster for my daily training, but all was well until I kicked up the intensity, so I'll keep the intensity low and have a go.

I generally will go out at what ever pace seems comfortable to do for the daily workout when an easy pace is called for, so I just let my body be the best judge at pace. I went out, intending to hit 9:20, but hit the first half mile at 8:50 pace as my "perceived effort" was slow. Yes, I knew the pain in my hip was starting to boil up, but I thought : it's not tooooo bad, maybe it will get better when I get warmer. I was totally lying to myself, as the pain was making me grimace, and other people were looking at me weird. Lots of runners, bikers and walkers were taking advantage of the greenway, which is really a nice place to run.

The farther I went, the worst the pain got. I had finally had enough when I hit a little hill and had tremendous pain in my hip and leg. I kept saying to myself that I needed to get my miles in, and what a wonderful day (unless your leg fells like it weighs 10 pounds heavier than the other one). About 1.7 miles in, I shut down and took a stretch and contemplated what to do. Nothing else really, except to WALK back to the car. What a long walk that was, but on a brighter note, at least it wasn't 3 miles.

So now I'm going to just hit the pause button until I can get into see the Physical Therapist. I have a good one that has helped me with sore calf's after the Country Music Half earlier this year, so we will see what the prognosis is. The next 2 races are now in serious doubt, the Franklin Labor day 5K and the Run Chickn Run 10K, which I was really looking forward too. Meanwhile I will Ice/Heat and use The Stick, which I highly recommend for any self message that you may want to do.

Right out of the Gate

AN INJURY !!!

Wow, seriously. And this training program was SUPPOSED to prevent injuries, because of the amount of training involved.

Well, I am experiencing what is probably ITBS (IT Band Syndrome). It flared up right after my Speed workout on Monday. It feels like someone has taken a 6-inch needle and stuck it in my right hip. I have pretty much rested since then (Biked on Tuesday) and felt like most of the pain, from Monday, had subsided by this morning before my planned workout.

After dropping C off at Kindergarten this morning, I decided to go to the Y and hit the treadmill. The ONLY reason I will do treadmill is when it is overly humid outside, or a chance of thunderstorms. This morning, both was a factor, plus I didn't want to get to wet from the humidity or rain that I couldn't get into work.


I hit the treadmill and eased into my 2 mile warm up. I usually take a good 1/4 mile to 1/2 mile to get warmed up, and today was no different. About 1/2 mile into the warm up I could feel my right hamstring staying tighter than usual, so I hopped off and stretched a little bit. I could feel a "pull" in my hip after I hopped back on, but the further I went, the more I loosened up. I set the treadmill to 6.5 mph and did the rest of the warm up mile at a 9:15 mile pace.



Stretched a bit more and cranked up the speed to a 7:40 mile pace. First lap (the treadmill shows the distance as a 400m track - or about 1/4 mile) went good and I felt lite on my Nikes, but could begin to feel the tightness boiling up in my hip. It hit all of a sudden, and literally felt like someone stuck a needle in there. I shut it down and did some stretching, and headed home (working from home today). Trying to contemplate how to proceed now. I have Jeff Galloway's running book and he says to take Vitamin C 3 times a day and stretch. Lots of info on the web also, but mainly says to take it easy for a while.


At worst, I'm hoping that this just sets me back a week or two on the Speed and Tempo work. I'm going to proceed with my Long run this weekend, but at a slower pace than planned.


So right now, Mr. Bolt over there, doesn't have anything to worry about from me.

The Marathon Training Plan - 2009

I have decided to go against the "traditional" method of training for the Marathon by following the FIRST training philosophy. This plan was originally outlined in the book Run Less, Run Faster in which you only have 3 scheduled runs each week, as opposed to 5-6 in a normal training plan. The mileage is also much less, typically, than a normal plan, in I only hit a high of 32 miles in a week, as opposed to each week averaging 35-50 miles per week.

If anyone is curious about what I'll be doing for the next 16 weeks as I train for the R'n'R Las Vegas Marathon, you can view my training plan here.

Only 3 days? Well, each run is considered a Key Run, in that it pushes the envelope of the type of run for that day: Speed, Tempo or Long. Begin by determining the MP - Marathon Pace - from your last 5K. Using the McMillan or VDOT pace calculator (or the FIRST method, which is right in line with these other 2), we come up with a pace that pushes you to become stronger, but one that is within your limits AND minimizes the chance of injury. A prerequisite for the plan is being able to run at least 10 miles for your long run. My weekly average has been in the 35 mile range for the past 5 weeks, and my overall fitness is pretty good right now. My recent 5K run of 23:08 has my MP set at 8:38/mile or 3 hours and 38 minutes for a 26.2 time. I'm a little sceptical about this pace, and would be thrilled with a 4 hour finish.

In place of the 2-3 days of running that I'm missing in a normal plan, the FIRST method calls for, I will be doing XT - Cross Training - which will consist of biking, spin class, P90X, plyometrics and possibly some swimming.

Oh... you're not misreading. I'm running a 26.2 marathon 3 weeks before the R'n'R Las Vegas marathon. My training plan called for 20 miles at marathon pace on that day anyway, so I decided to do a "long run" during the 30th Annual Chickamuga Battlefield Marathon in Ft. Oglethorpe, GA (about 10 miles south of Chattanooga. Chickamauga is a small marathon, but I have heard lots of great things about it. I can take advantage of all the water/fluid stops and get the benefit of a practice run. I've also thrown in a few 5K, 10K and 1/2 Marathon races to keep in tune with.

So, for the next 4 months, I will be hitting the roads hard for the rest of the summer and into the fall. I'll keep you posted. Let me know what you think.

6th Annual Fenton Payne & Fred 5K

Murfreesboro, TN - 08/15/2009 - 7:00am

Nice and beautiful morning for a 5K run, hosted by the Nashville Striders running club. I arrived at the MTSU campus, outside of the football stadium and checked in and got my bib and t-shirt. As always, everything runs so smoothly when Nashville Striders are in charge. Walked back to the car and put the t-shirt in the car and put on the bib and ran a warm-up mile before the race started.

Along came 7:00am, and the gun sounded. Before the race started, I noticed the Brentwood Kenyon's were here, so no thoughts crossed my brain about finishing first. I had set my Garmin to pace at 7:30 miles per minute and off I went.

Since winning the whole shebang was out of the question, I'll lead you through what goes into a NOVICE RUNNER's head during a fast, mid-distance run - THE 5K.

First Mile. I was checking the Garmin and went pretty well, clocked a 7:28 mile. I thought "this isn't so bad, feeling pretty goods, legs feel good, heart rate pretty low, easy breathing." Let me say that this was the nicest race route that I have run, thus far. The tree lined streets of Middle Tennessee Blvd, and running toward the square were a pretty site. But please remember that all of these things are recognizable to a runner in the first mile.

Second Mile. "Ok, it's really kinda warm out here, funny how I'm just noticing it." Clocked a 7:29 mile, and that perks me up a little, since I'm right on pace.

Third Mile. "Squirrel, was that a squirrel?" OK, the mind starts wondering a little bit, but mostly it's saying "this is the LAST 5K ever, why am I doing this to myself? I'm just a recreational runner." By now, my legs are on fire, and I can barely breath. I tell myself "I am a Runner, I am a Runner, I am a Runner. Squirrel, was that a squirrel?" So much for the mantra. Around 1/4 mile left, I picked up the pace a bit, and started passing a few folks. 3rd mile came in at 7:32 mile

Now, only .10 of a mile left. Any respectable runner leaves it all behind, and SPRINTS the last tenth of a mile, some more experienced runners will hi-tail-it much sooner. Well, I was going as hard as I could and lo-and-behold I picked off a 10-year old kid by stretching my neck, right at the end. Actually, I kinda snuck up on him and with 25 feet left and he couldn't quite recover, but I DID pass him. The Garmin say's I clocked a 5:56 pace for the last tenth and I thought that was pretty dad-gummed fast. Well, remember the Brentwood Kenyon ran all 3 miles at 4:50 per mile, jeez.

Final time was a 23:08 finish and a new Personal Record for a 5K. They had a big door prize giveaway after the run, sponsored by a local outdoors company, and I was the first bib number called, and got a sweet pair of running sunglasses. All, in all, a great race and good morning. Of course, every runner will experience similar things during a run, and will most of the time, 20-30 minutes after the race, be ready for another one. So will I.

The Beginning

Since I'm new to "long distance" running, I love to read experiences from others. So, I thought I'd start my own rambling blog, to document my progress toward running a late fall marathon (with a half-marathon and 'warm-up' 26.2 marathon thrown in for good measure).

Hopefully, as I get the blog set up more, I can show my progress for this year. It all started on my Birthday, last December. I had finished with one round of P90X in October and was in pretty decent shape (for a 40 year old guy). I had dropped my weight from 205 to 175 during the round. I was eating better and generally feeling better. But (and it was pretty pronounced BUT)my muscles and legs were sore all the time. I guess age and not being AS active the past few years as I was accustomed to, left me tired and sore all the time.

Then the holidays hit, and I cut loose on all the good food. My family loves gatherings during the holidays, and in general there is more food available - you know how it goes. Well, by my birthday, 2 days after Christmas, I was back up to 182, and just feeling lousy about letting it go so quickly after getting into shape.

On my birthday, I logged onto the company network and checked my email. There is was. An email to participate in the 2009 Country Music Marathon or 1/2 Marathon. The company wanted to do a Wellness Challenge in which they would pay a portion of the entry fee. We, as participants in the Challenge would raise funds for the company's Charity AND get FIT in the process. My campaign for the charity was called "From the couch to 13.1 miles in 4 months". Well I raised money for the company and participated in the "beginner" running meetings the company held, to help us get ready. 4 months later, I stumbled across the finish line of the 09 CMM 1/2.

But along the way, I became ADDICTED. To running.

So here I am, now 8.5 months into running. Next week I start my "official" 16 week training schedule. I have decided to do the FIRST Marathon Training Program, so we will see how it rides.