Thanks

To those of you who wrote comments on my last post I just want to say thanks. Those were all things that I needed to hear and it means a lot. I am starting to pick myself back up and am really getting excited for what I have in store next.

Defeated

Disappointed, humiliated, stripped of confidence.

The decision to run my second marathon was made moments after the completion of my first. Disgusted with the way the first one went, I was determined to do things differently. After a week of recovery I went to it, with back to back 50 plus mile weeks, and then I became injured. I spent the next two months trying to get healthy and really stared running again with about 11 ½ weeks to go. I was still in some pain, but I was running. I worked up to about 40 miles a week but the overall average was only 25.5 miles. I had several long runs that would suggest a 3:30-3:40 was well within reach. Just 2 weeks before the big day I ran 15.75 on a very hilly course at a pace under 3:30 with ease.

Wednesday night I began to feel sick. Thursday I started to get worried and Friday I was in the midst of a head cold. Saturday I woke up feeling better but had developed a cough. That’s right, it moved into my lungs. Sunday the cough was worse. Still there was no way I was not running and I still thought I would meet my goal.

Below are the splits that will be haunt me for a long time.

1 8:55
2 8:12
3&4 16:33
5 8:03
6 8:09
7 8:28
8 8:09
9 8:01
10 8:20
11 8:28
12 8:34
13&14 17:20
15 8:42
16 8:54
17 9:00
18 9:28
19 9:58
20 11:32
21 11:26
22 14:38
23 12:18
24 13:38
25 13:04
26.2 12:59

I started out feeling pretty well but not great, I knew that at that pace during a marathon with the crowd and the excitement I should have felt great. With each mile after 13 I began to realize more and more the restrictions I was feeling from my cold. At mile 19 I was demoralized by my 9:58 mile and began to walk. The rest was just horrible. My final time was 4:13:01 only 3 minutes and 17 seconds faster then my first marathon. I know it was because I was sick but it is still really hard to take. I am going to get another race on the calendar quickly and will hopefully have something to feel better about. I have plenty more to say but wanted to get this up.

I'M SICK!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I've got some pretty bad timing. Yesterday I started to feel bad and today I had a full blown head cold. I still have like 50 something hours until the race so I am really hoping to be better. Right now it is all in my head and I am doing everything I can to kick it, so we will see how it goes. No matter what, I will be running on Sunday.

A couple of people asked about my training for the last marathon compared to this one. I took a closer look at the stats and they are not great. Last time I averaged about 31.5 miles the 12 weeks leading up to the race. This time I have only averaged 25. However, I think my running was much better this time and my long runs were much more strategic. My biggest concern was to get healthy and I have done that, so I am okay with not running really fast this weekend. I know that I will be right back to training and don't have to worry about an injury. I hope I have learned my lesson about over training and will continue to build slowly this time.

Final Thoughts

Well, for the most part all the training is in the books, now I just have to wait until Sunday. I started out training for this marathon with a fury, sure I was going to run somewhere around 3:00. Two weeks of hard training and I was sidelined with an injury. Determined not to make that mistake again I got back in very slowing after losing almost 1/2 of my training time. I put together a light training plan and stuck pretty close to it. The good news is I stayed healthy, the bad news is I am shooting for 3:40 instead of 3:00, big difference. However, I think I probably only averaged about 30 miles a week for the last 12 weeks so my mileage just was not where it would need to be to run faster. Throughout this process I worked up a plan for a new adventure. I am starting a new blog with a new purpose. I am really excited about the launch of this new site and hope to do a lot with it. The readers of this blog will be getting a sneak peak at the new site in about 2 weeks. I am hoping that if you like what you see you might be inclined to write about it on your blog. Well, there will be more on that later. I am going to enjoy this week taking it easy and hope to have a great marathon. For the rest of you racing this weekend I wish you the best as well.

Through The Country

This weekend we made our way back to my hometown for the first time since January. I grew up in a little country town in Indiana, and now live in another world, the suburbs of Cincinnati. Coming back is fun and it brings back a lot of good memories. This weekend I planned to do about a 15 mile run and was ecstatic to do it on the country roads of Scottsburg. The weather was perfect, in the low 50's, with low humidity and a perfect blue sky. Leaving my parents home I had no idea where my legs would take me but quickly came up with a grand plan. Having no idea how far away a particular hill was I decided to run towards it. Just outside of a little village called Leota are the floyd knobs. Indiana is not know for its hills, but southern Indiana landscaped with the Floyd Knobs is scattered with beautiful peaks, none of which are very high but are constantly up and down. This particular hill is a destination for hikers. At it's peak is a trial head on the Knobstone Trial, named after the nearby village, Leota Trial Head. As I ran towards the hill I caught glimpse of it weaving my way through the curvy roads flanked by cornfields and cattle farms. Run down barns appearing to be waiting for the next strong wind to turn to a pile of wood were scattered through the country adding to the array of sites that enticed every step of the adventure. My watch seemed to be set on fast forward and every time I looked down I was shocked to see how much time had passed. I was truly gliding through the country side enamored by the simplicity of the country.
Approaching the bottom of the knob I prepared for the accent to come. I had already been running for almost an hour and knew the climb ahead would be challenging. Once engrossed in the climb the sharp turns and tall trees shielded my view of the daunting peak. Turning each sharp corner I began to expect to see the top and was let down several times before finely getting a glimpse of its peak. Once at the stop I turned around and throughly enjoyed the decent, smiling the entire way about my accomplishment.
As I said I planned to run about 15 miles but had not marked the course in advance. I stopped at 2:05:40 hoping it was close to 15 miles but thinking it might be a little short. After getting home my wife and I drove the course and I was thrilled to learn that it was in fact 15.75 miles. That means I ran a 7:58 pace on a course littered with hills and conquered a .75 mile hill a little over half way into the run. All said and done it was a huge confidence builder for me and I can not wait for my next adventure.

Today's Run
15.75 Miles
7:58 Pace

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.