Back in Black (and Orange)

October 2009 Stats:

• 143 Miles
• 22 Hours - 33 Minutes running time
• 18,299 Calories expended
• 1 aching Achilles Tendon
• 2 New Nikes

OK, after a 6 day rest with a lot of R.I.C.E (thanks for the advice, Mel) supplemented with a heating pad and The Stick working on the tendon, I got out and ran 7 gingerly miles on Saturday afternoon. Then went home and watched the Vols hand Steve Spurrier a good ass whoopin' on Saturday night. I thought the Black and Orange uni's that the Vols wore were pretty tight. I really like the attitude that the Kiffen's are bringing to UT. Hopefully in a couple more years, UT can be back in the national picture.

I guess the best thing that has come out of this injury is the fact that I recognized it pretty quickly and knew that I needed to shut down to get healed as quick as possible (and the new shoes have defiantly helped.) Training for a marathon has been quite a revelation for me. It is most defiantly a double-edged sword. You must teach yourself to push though the pain, but you must also recognize when to pack it in, and regroup (like with an injury). I am always hungry for new information, and the World Wide Web makes it easy to find information, especially in the form of running bulletin boards and especially other experienced runners blogs. Even with all this info so readily available, everyone trains different and you must still put in the miles and work to get ready for such an endurance event.

I really don't know what to expect when I get out there and attempt it myself. I feel excited, but anxious to put my body through this experience, since it is an unknown for me. The consensus is that it is an extremely tough thing to do, but can be very gratifying. For me, it's also to push myself past my comfort zone and see what I am made of. Do I have IT ? ?

I earned a gift card from work, so I purchased a second pair of new shoes. Now I am the proud owner of 2 pairs of Brand New Nike Vomero 4+ (orange/black and the blue/white ones), which I plan to rotate, and see if that extends the life of the shoes. Lots of experienced runners claim this is a good method. I'm just hoping that they will last longer, because training puts the miles on them.

Less than 2 weeks until the first marathon. More on my thoughts on this soon.

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.

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

Must... keep...

It's Titan's time, and we all know that Fisher will "keep it close" going into the 4th quarter, and try to win it there. I have no hair to pull out, or there would be locks a' flyin' tonight.

So tonight, it is Must keep from yelling at the TV, because all the kids are in bed. Normally, I'd be yelling at something about now. It's been a slug fest all night, 2 good teams, will probably see each other in the playoffs.

Yep, 4th quarter is starting with the score tied 7 - 7.



Running is going pretty good. My quad's have forgotten that I used to be a Runner, and are giving me soreness. Hip is good, just dealing with it now. I am going slow, so slow sometimes, I trip over my own feet. I'm wanting to GO GO GO, but am reeling it in.

Run Chickn Run 10K is this weekend, but I am taking a rain check on the race. I am, however, volunteering to be a race attendent on the course. My girls are also volunteering with the Y to be drink aides, so we are all going down to the Gateway very early Saturday morning.

Stephanie is planning on running in the Christie Cookie 5K in Green Hills. I think it may be up in the air, as her dad had his surgery today and could be coming home Saturday. I keep you posted on that, as well.

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.