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

Feet meet Street.

I've been antsy for a week now, waiting to get back out (ask my beautiful wife.) Well, finally, I hit the roads on Monday morning with a nice 6.2 miler though the Stones River Battlefield. This is the course that the Run Chickn' Run 10K will be held this coming weekend. It had been so long since I had been out, I couldn't remember what it felt like to run and I wondered how much conditioning I had lost, but mostly how my dang hip was going to feel like.

Went out sooo slooow, it felt like I was walking. Stopped quarter mile into the "run" and did the IT BAND stretch, so far so good. Stopped another 1/2 mile on the "run" and stretched. You get the point. After the first mile, I figured I was as loose as I am going to be, so I just eased into the run. Murfreesboro is a great place to run and train, as there are many places; the Murfreesboro Stones River greenway, the Gateway, the Stones River Battlefield, etc.



I turned the legs over a little bit faster though the park, but keep it dialed in nice and easy, for the most part. I could feel the bursa a little when running, but not in a painful sense, just like "hello, remember me?" Got back to the car and was pleasantly surprised with the outing: no pain, just a little inflammation, conditioning is good - not great, and not sweaty - I guess the humidity has dropped since last I was out.

WEEK 3 REVIEW - No miles - 3xBike at Y - which I gotta say, I'm starting to like the bike. Possibly an IRONMAN in the future?

I've updateed my Marathon training plan (on the right, over there). It is geared less on SPEED drills and much more on volume and training at/near goal pace (which I've also adjusted - - - DOWN.) I'll give some thoughts on the FIRST training plan that I had originally mapped out, in the near future.

Thanks to everyone who is reading this, please leave me any tips or comments that would help me toward this 26.2 folly of mine - or just any comments in general.

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.

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.