A Little Behind

I had my long run this weekend and I am just now getting around to writing about it. After a long week I really needed to run off some steam and decided the best time to do that would be Friday night. With the kids in bed I set out on my longest non-stop run ever at about 8:20 PM. I ran most of the time in and out of subdivisions to avoid fast moving traffic, so I really don't know how far I ran. I do know that it was the longest time I have ever gone without walking one step, 2:51:30. Which I believe was over 20 miles. After walking for a few minutes I ran about another 1/2 mile to see how it felt and it was good, I definitely could have kept going. That was my 4th straight day of running so I felt pretty good that it went that well. I will slowly start to taper now that I am 20 days away from the big day.

I have really been neglecting this blog because I have been working on another one. For anyone who reads this one I think you will find the next one to be far more compelling. I will be sharing more in the days to come and will be introducing the new blog in about a month.

Late night and early morning

Tuesday night I had the opportunity to go to a concert with a good friend. We went to see the band Mute Math, who are incidentally, incredible live. I got home a little after midnight and then had to unwind, so it was around 1:00am when I finally settled into bed. Scheduled for Wednesday was my 5th straight week of hill sprints, something I knew I could not miss. The alarm was set for 6:00 and after 2 punches of the snooze button it read 6:14. I got up and stumbled out into the humid dark morning for my warmup, followed by my 6 hill sprints of about 12 sec a piece, capped off with a cool down.
Tomorrow morning I am taking the day off and actually have the opportunity to get 8 hours of sleep tonight. As for the 5 hours of sleep followed by the hard run in the thick, humid, morning air... it was worth every waking moment.

20 Mile Run, 12 Mile Canoe trip, and an Ice Bath

Today was a long and adventurous day. I started this morning with a 20 mile run. The first 14 miles or so went really well, then I got a horrible side stitch. At a little after 18 miles I actually started walking. I walked for about 6 and a half minutes and then went back to running for the last mile or so. Overall it was a pretty good run, with an average pace of 8:34. Considering I walked for almost a half mile I did not think that was too bad. After the run I took my first ice bath. It was not as hard as I thought it would be to get in and I really think it helped. After being home for about an hour after my run, my dad and I drove to a local canoe place and did a 12 mile canoe trip. I am pretty tired to say the least but it was a really good day. Tomorrow marks only 4 weeks until the marathon and I definitely still have some work to do.

20 Miles
2:51:32
Pace 8:34

An exciting day

Yesterday was an exciting day. I have been running off and on for the last 20 years and I am proud to announce that I finally, after all this time, lost my first toe nail. Two weeks ago during my 15 mile run I could feel that my toe was hurting a little, but just a little. I took my shoe off after the run to discover my toe nail in a dark shade of purple. At that point I figured it was a lost cause. After talking to a co-worker I decided to cut it back some. When I did it relieved some pressure and the next day it was actually looking pretty good. I started to think maybe it was going to be okay. For the next week or so it seemed to be getting its color back and was looking more like my other toes. Then I ran 18 miles on Saturday, it did no hurt at all but when I took my shoe off it was as white as could be. Yesterday, I went to cut it back some and discovered it was just hanging there ready to be cut completely off. Perhaps the most surprising thing about he entire process is that it has barely hurt at all. I always thought losing a toe nail would be a pretty painful endeavor, perhaps for some it is. What I can say is that I am so proud, like a kid losing his first tooth. I thought about leaving it under my pillow, but I would guess the nail fairy is kind of creepy.

Today's Run:
5 Miles
40:26
8:00 Pace

18 miles

This morning was 18 miles. To make sure that I did not crash like last week I ate a bunch of food yesterday. I decided to run my 9 mile course, an out and back course, 2 times. That way I could check my watch at 4.5 miles, 9 miles, 13.5 miles and 18 miles. I also decided that I would shoot for negative splits. I know that I should be doing my long runs at like 8:45-9:00 minute miles but I really struggle with that so I just ran what felt comfortable. The splits were as follows.

37:52 8:24 pace
36:59 8:12 pace
36:42 8:09 pace
35:32 7:53 pace

Total
2:27:03 8:10 pace (3:34:00 marathon pace)

Solid 6 this time

I set out to run 6 today. I started pretty slow thinking I would pace around 8:00. It was very difficult to get up this morning so I just thought I would go at a pace that was comfortable. I actually thought to myself before leaving about how sometimes when I start running I wake up and do much more then I thought. This morning that seemed like a joke. Sitting in the kitchen putting my shoes on jogging 6 miles seemed like a long shot, I was just happy I got up.

About half way into the first mile I was awake and starting to realize that I was having a pretty good day. The first mile ended up being about 7:25. At that point I thought it would be really neat to run a 7:00 pace. It got really difficult around mile 3 but I pushed through it and the last 2 miles really weren't that bad. I ended up running about 6:58.

Today's Run:
6 Miles
41:42
6:58 Pace

Back to Back semi long runs

Well, the plan called for 17 on Saturday. I decided to get up with my family and run when my son went down for a nap. This meant that I would be leaving about 4 hours later then usual. Unfortunately, it also meant it would be close to 20 degrees warmer. I started about 10:40am and it was already in the low 70's, with a humidity of around 90%. The first three miles I was feeling pretty good and was averaging under 8:00 per mile, too fast for a long run. About 5 miles in I really started fading. By 9 miles I was in a lot of pain and my muscles started shutting down. I held on until 10 and had to start walking. After some walking I ran about another mile and called it a day. Besides the heat I think my sore throat from earlier in the week was the main reason I did not run well. Since I had a sore throat I had not been eating nearly as much as I usually do. I think that finally caught up with me on Saturday.

The good news is that I ate a lot on Saturday and prepared for another run on Sunday. I started about 6:30, so it had only be 20 hours since my last run. I ran 9 miles at about a 7:54 pace and it felt great. It is very important to me not to have two horrible runs in a row, that can really get to you mentally. Fortunately, I was able to run well on Sunday and make up for the shameful performance on Saturday. Monday is a day off and then I will be back to it on Tuesday. Next Saturday will hopefully go better and I will be going for 18 miles.

My sore throat made me run

This morning I awoke to my alarm clock, swallowed and cringed. I got up and turned the alarm off. That's right I bypassed the snooze and when strait to skipping my run. My throat hurt so bad I could barley swallow so I thought that was a good enough excuse to get another 80 minutes of sleep. Getting back into bed felt great but swallowing was so painful that I could think of nothing but my throat. Realizing I would not be going back to sleep I decided to put myself in the kind of pain that feels good...I Ran.

The run was a decently paced 4.25 miles. Then I did 3 hard hill sprints, 10 seconds each. I followed that up with 1.25 cool down. And by the way, it did make my throat feel better.

Today's Run:
5.75 Miles
Varied Pace