Day - 6: Worked on Transitions

Ran an 8.5 mi with Robert, our 17 year old foster kid. We ran the first 3 miles at an excellent pace, then for the next 5.5 worked on transitions into and out of a walking interval. In my previous long runs, I would clunkily start walking from a run, and would simply start running when the interval ended. I quickly learned that the "clunk" into the walking interval made my knees hurt, and my "just start running" at the end of the walking interval made my legs stiff and sore and took a lot of energy. And, the longer I walked, the harder it was to resume running. So, tonight I practiced transitioning from a run into a walk, and a slow and even acceleration from a walk into a run. I practiced numerous transitions, and a 15 second transition seems to be perfect.

My legs are more sore now than if I had just run the entire distance, which concerns me just a bit. This soreness is cause running in intervals, and has been a consistent problem since January. Back then, I quickly learned that once I passed the 6 mile point, resuming a run after a walking interval was difficult. And, the longer I walked, the more difficult it became. For example, in March's 24.5 miler, I decided to walk for a mile somewhere around the 17 mile point. When I resumed running, my legs began to ache and I was unable to establish a good stride or pace for the remainder of the distance. I had a similar problem for my 21.5 miler last month. I used intervals, without transitions, on all my big runs, and my legs ached for days after. Fortunately, I am in much better shape now, and I think the transitions will help greatly. I suspect that these transitions will play a significant role in keeping my legs in the game and keeping me on track to reach my time goal of 6 hrs. The bottom line is that I must not walk more than 3.5 minutes at a time (plus the 15 second slowdown transition and the 15 second speed up transition).

Tonight's focus was on transitioning into and out of a walking interval, and we practiced many such transitions. We did not focus on overall time, but rather creating a solid transition routine Regardless, I did have the stopwatch on, and the overall time was still only 1:46:28, which was a great time for what we were doing. Without the transitions, we would probably have beat my 1:35:00 goal. A 5 mile run on Wednesday, weights on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, with a couple of walks in between pretty much finishes our running schedule before the Marathon.

Marathon Strategy Revised

I have finalized my race strategy, and will spend my last 4 running days working out any last minute details.

My original strategy, which I made many moons ago, still seems like the best overall plan: complete the first 15 miles in 3 hours (5 mph pace), then jog-walk the remainder at around a 3.8 mph pace. I didn't really have any other details back then, but now have refined the strategy quite substantially. Here goes.

Congestion at the Starting Line and Chip Timing. The Lincoln Marathon will have a record 5000 runners, so the start and the first few miles will be quite congested. Because I'm slow, I'll start somewhere nearer to the back of the pack, and 2 minutes or more might elapse from the time the gun sounds before I actually cross the starting line. Last year's event had 4100 runners, and because of congestion on certain parts of the route the race folks narrowed the starting line to string people out a bit better. But, with the additional 900 entrants this year, the first part of the race might be packed worse than last year. Fortunately, this is a chip-timed event with a chip start, so my personal time starts and stops when the chip on my shoe crosses the timing mat at the start/finish line. Chips from the Novartis 10K are on our shoes in the adjacent picture. My first race this year, the State Farm 10 mi (the race where I was assigned the infamous "666" race number), was a chip start, which is good because I started way back in the pack and 30+ seconds had elapsed after the starting gun before I moved up enough to cross the starting line. Because this was a chip start, this 30+ seconds did not count against my time. The 10 K was a gun start, so the 30 seconds or so which elapsed before I crossed the starting line did count against my time.

Mile 1. The race starts on the campus of the University of Nebraska (Go Huskers), in front of the Coliseum (where the National Champion Women's Vollyball teams plays) and the football stadium. After the narrowed start, the route proceeds down a narrow road for about .3 mile, then makes a right hand turn onto another street. With 5000 people running, this part of the route will look line the LA freeway system at rush hour, so I won't be able to set my pace and my first mile time will be slow. Over the past month, I have consistently ran a 10 minute or better first mile on my 5+ mile runs. NOT going to happen this time. My best guess is 13 min.

Miles 2-5. My standard (now) 5 mile time is 54-55 minutes, but I doubt I'll run this well because of race congestion. Once I settle into my pace, the first hurdle comes at the 2 mile point, where we make a left hand turn though an intersection which is partially closed due to major construction. In other words, more congestion. The next hurdle comes at the 3 mile point when we go through our first aid station. Many people walk through the station so they can drink water or gatorade, so more congestion. Aside from the first mile at 13 min, my best guess is that I'll average 12 minute miles for the next four miles.

Miles 6-10. These miles will be like running with an old friend, because mile 5-8 follow a route I have run many, many times. We transition from the street to a bike path just after mile 6, which will pose a serious congestion issue. There is a bit of an uphill around the 8 mile mark, and we leave the bike path at around the 8.5 mile mark for what I think is the quirkiest part of the route. We run up hill on a narrow residential street, then cross through a park with a very narrow sidewalk. Hopefully, we will be spread out enough by that point that it won't be too much of a problem. Depending on congestion, I should be able to average just under a 12 min mile until the 8 mile mark, and am planning a 13 min mile for miles 9 and 10 because of the uphill, the narrow street, and going through the park.

Miles 10-13. These miles are relatively flat and the road is very wide with no turns. At about the 12 2/3 mile mark, the folks running the half marathon split off to the finish line, which should reduce the field by about 50%. Also, marathoners can exercise the "Marathoner's Option" and decide to run only the half marathon, so marathoners who become sore, injured, dehydrated, get nasty blisters, etc will be leaving. I'm figuring a 12:30 min mile for miles 11 and 12, with a 13:30 mile to mile 13.

Miles 13 -15. These miles go north of the University of Nebraska and then cut south through the campus. I hope to complete the first 15 miles in 3 hours. At this point, I'm planning for 3:10:30 because of early race congestion.

Miles 15-finish. Miles 15-25 will again be like running with an old friend. This is basically an "out and back" where we run from the University of Nebraska Campus to Holmes Lake and back, and I have run this portion numerous times. We start an uphill at around mile 19, and the steepest part of the route will occur from mile 19 to just after mile 21. The remaining 5.2 will be downhill and then a straight shot to the finish. I will begin my walking intervals at mile 15, where I slow to a 15 minute mile. I'll do an 8/2 interval (8 minutes jogging, 2 minutes walking) to mile 19, and regardless of the time will walk up the steepest part of that hill. The hill will taper and I will jog for approximately 8-10 minutes, when I will again walk up the steepest part of the hill at mile 21. I know both hills, so I should be able to jog much of the way. My best guess is that I will average a 16 minute mile from mile 17 to mile 21 (which is where I will be listening to music provided by my friends), then should average a 15 min mile the rest of the way in. I scheduled two 16 minute miles at 23 and 24, just in case. The remaining 2.2 are relatively flat, and shouldn't pose any problems.

According to my math, I should finish between 6:03:30 and 6:05:30. I'll definitely be one of the last finishers, but that's ok. My goal this time around is just to finish. According to the Marathon web site, some folks still received official times at around the 7 hour mark. However, police take down their traffic barriers at the 6 hour mark. If I go slower than expected, I'll be ok because the bike trail runs adjacent to the route all the way from mile 15 to mile 25. The last 1.2 would be a pain because I would have to run on sidewalks and would make poor time because of all of the traffic lights. An incentive to finish on time.

Anyway, thats what the race will look like. Jennifer and the kids will be meeting me at certain parts of the route, and Jennifer will have a copy of my plan just in case we need to re-compute a few things. In terms of pace, I won't be able to "speed up" after around mile 15, so my pace will be controlled through adjusting my intervals. If I'm feeling strong, I might do a 9/1. If I start to hurt, I can drop back to a 7/3. I learned on my long runs that I must not walk more than 4 minutes at any given time, or I have difficult running again. So, as a precaution, I will not walk more than 3:30 minutes at a time.

I am excited, and a bit anxious, that the last week is here. I have scheduled one last 8.5, but taper significantly after that. I have a couple of walks planned, and for one of these I'll walk the leg of the route through the University of Nebraska campus, and on the other will walk the quirky part of the route so I don't get lost. I'll also get a better feel for the uphill on that section once I walk it. Other than this, I'll spend the week working on the huge blister that formed in my right arch, the blister on my right -little toe, on icing my knees and lower back, and carefully watching my intake. I have asked my friends to each email me a song for my I-Pod, and hopefully each will send me one and I can spend an hour or two getting the music on the I-Pod just right!

I also have a few loose ends to tie up. My new contacts have arrived and I need to pick them up because I'll be running in contacts. I will get a new battery for my stop watch, need to get my "Army Dad" ball cap fixed, (the adjustable headband came off) and buy more energy gel things to carry when I run. Of course, I will have a hyper-busy week at work and I give my students a mid-term on Tuesday, but life does not slow down just because I want to run a marathon.

A fine birthday run!

Today is my birthday! I am now 25, er, um, like 35 ish, or, like, perhaps somewhere closer, or possibly farther away than, like 35, plus some years. Ok, today is the 45th celebration of the day of my birth.

I had a very fine birthday run this morning, completing my 3.3 mi route in 31:28. This is my new personal best (since the early 90's), which shaved 2:03 off the personal best I set on April 19 (33:31). I ran as hard as I could but couldn't quite reach my goal of running this route in 30 minutes before the marathon. However, I was excited to shave over 2 minutes off my previous best time, and I'm sure that, once I'm a bit lighter, I'll reach that goal.

My original plan was for a nice 8.5 mile run to celebrate my birthday. Unfortunately, this has been a brutal week, with Friday being day 10 of a parental rights termination trial. I took a nap when I returned home after court, and that nap turned into a very long night's rest. I woke up quite late and quickly realized that I had no time for an 8.5 miler. So, even though a previous blog entry stated that my 3.3 mi runs were finished until after the marathon, I decided to do one more.

I thought of running a 5 miler tonight, as I am currently 15 miles behind my mileage goal for April and had been scheduled to run the 8.5 mi route. However, a group of guys are coming over to play "Diplomacy." It's a grand strategy game based on WWI, and the game can go for quite some time. So, I may or may not run tonight. Jennifer temporarily lifted my soda ban for my birthday ("Soda" on the coasts, "Pop" in the midwest), so we'll have pizza, root beer, and ice cream as we play. Woo hoo! In other words, no 5 miler tonight.

Beat Monday's 8.5 Time!

I ran my 8.5 mi route on Thursday morning and improved upon Monday's time. On Monday, I ran a best time (in many years) of 97:56, which beat my previous best by almost 6 minutes. On Thursday, I ran a 93:58, which beats Monday's time by 3:58 and bests my long standing goal of running 8.5 mi in under 1:35. Double Woo Hoo.

After running Monday I took Tuesday off (trial all day). The plan was to lift weights Wednesday morning and then run Wednesday night. I was feeling great Wed morning and my weight lifting became a "heavy" lift where I pounded the weights and my abs (or, more accurately, the flabby materials which currently substitute for my abs). The weather was crappy Wed night (rain, heavy winds, lightning) so I crawled into bed around 1830 (6:30 pm) for a nap. I woke up around 2300 (11:00 pm), then went back to sleep and didn't wake up until almost 0500 (5:00 am). I jumped out of bed and ran, and my long sleep may be the reason I ran a good (for me) time.

I have trial all day today and will try to lift weights this afternoon. Tomorrow is my birthday so I'll treat myself to a nice run in the morning, and then try not to eat so much that I gain back all the weight I lost.

I reached another milestone in Thursday's run, in that I surpassed my mileage total for 2006. Last year I went 321.55 miles in just over six months. So far this year, I have run 326.28 miles in not quite 4 months. As I noted last time, I am still behind my mileage goal (quite substantially), but we're still plugging away.

Marathon Two Weeks Away

This morning I ran my 8.5 mi route in 1:37:56 (97:56), which is my best time at that distance since, I think, 1991. The run felt very solid. My back hurt only marginally, and my knees became a bit stiff but recovered nicely.

The marathon is only two weeks away. So, it seems like a good time to take stock of how my training has progressed so far, and what still needs to be done in the few short days I have left.

I've run a lot of miles in preparation for this race (639 since the middle of last year) and I have learned quite a bit about pace, form, etc, so from that standpoint I feel prepared. Perhaps not "well" prepared, but prepared. As I noted back when I first made this blog, I can go 26.2 miles, but the issue is whether I can do it in 6 hours.

The plan is still to complete the run in 6 hours, but at this point 6.25 hours seems more accurate. The plan was to run a 5 mph pace the first 15 miles (3 hours), then run a 3.8 mph pace the remaining 11.2 miles. When I made that goal I could not run 3.3 miles without walking at least twice. Now, I can run 10 miles in just under 2 hours (which is a bit better than a 5 mph pace), but the next five miles takes me 1:15 or more, and my pace continues to slow quite a bit in the later miles. I've run two long routes in the past 30 days and busted my time on both occasions. On Mar 24 I ran a 24.5 miler in just under 6:43:00, which is a 7 hour pace. The first 10 miles went well, but I slowed around 11 mi and again at 16 mi and never caught up. On Apr 14 I ran a 21.5 miler (on that same trail) and finished in just over 5:36, which is somewhere around a 6:40:00 pace. An improvement, but not quite there yet.

That having been said, there is still hope that I can finish in my goal time. Both runs were on a crushed limestone trail (a much slower surface than the roads we'll be running on for the marathon) and both times I wore a fully loaded Camelbak with a 110 oz water reservoir (total weight around 20 lbs). I won't be wearing the Camelbak during the race, which will be a big help. Also, my form has improved fairly dramatically, as evidenced by the fact that my general running times have improved substantially as of late. l will also do a better job of being ready from a nutrition standpoint, as I did no nutritional prep for either run (no carbo loading, etc). Finally, I have made a solid effort to improve my sleep, so hopefully I will be well healed at the start of the race.

I made a number of goals back when I started. And, as noted above, I could not run my 3.3 mi circuit without stopping twice. Anway, several goals I passed must faster than I anticipated and had to set new goals, some took a long time, and on a few others I never quite made it.

My biggest goal, I think, was to complete 5 miles in under an hour. It took quite a while, but I'm now in the 53 - 54 minute range, which is on track.

I also wanted to complete 5 miles without having to walk. When I could run the entire 3.3 mi circuit, I pushed my goal to 5 mi. It took a long time, but now I can run 10 miles before having to enter a walking split.

Next, I set an intermediate goal of routinely completing my 8.5 mil circuit in 1:50:00 (110 min) or less. I finally broke that barrier in February, then reset the goal to 1:35:00 (95 min). I didn't reach that new goal, but am close (just under 98 minutes).

I wanted to finish my 3.3 min circuit in under 35 minutes, but then modified that goal to 30 minutes. I got close to the 35 minute goal a couple of times (one in Feb and one in Mar), but I finally broke it in Apr at 33:31. I won't be running another 3.3 until after the marathon, so I will not beat 30 min.

If there is any one thing I could change, it would be my weight. I'll need to be much lighter before I can make substantial improvements in my time. I've lost a lot of weight, but the loss came much slower than I planned or wanted. So, I'll be at least 10 pounds heavier than my goal weight on race day. I don't plan to lose any more weight before race day, but we shall see.

The other "fall flat" dissappointment was that I wanted to have completed at least 450 miles THIS YEAR before race day. That won't happen. So far in 2007 I've gone almost 317, and will have crossed the 350 mi mark before race day. Total distance, including last year's prep, has crossed 639, and at the conclusion of the marathon I should be somewhere around 700 mi. Not quite the distances I wanted, but it will have to do.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my progress. Marathons require a lot of training, and I've been at this for months. I wasn't in the best shape when I started and we had a few "fits and starts" because of my workload (especially in November and December). But, I've trained hard, and am pleased with my progress.

The last two weeks of training will focus on completing 10 miles in as far under 2 hours as possible without burning myself out. I have one "two-a-day" scheduled, but won't run two days in a row for recovery purposes. I'll get in just over 30 miles this week, but next week will taper substantially, with runs on Monday and Wednesday, and a very light timing walk on Thursday. I then rest until the Marathon.

Ran the Novartis 10K (6.21 mi)

Good (but slow) run today! Ran well, no injuries, and finished in 1:08:42. AND I WASN'T THE LAST MAN TO FINISH!!! Notice, in the picture that a person is behind me! The little bitty blobs of color way in the back are other runners, too. Other pictures from the race are in my pictures section below.

Jennifer and David ran the 2 miler, which boasted a field of 311 runners of all ages. David finished in 20:58 (189th place), and Jennifer finished in 28:36 (266th place). This is Jennifer's very first race ever, and David's first two miler.

Here's my numbers:
Time: 1:08:42
Pace: 11:04
Overall Finish: 377/399
Place in Gender: 182/185
Place in Age Division: 48/49
1st 5 K split: 31:39
2nd 5 K split: 37:03

The Good
- Beat my goal of finishing in under 1:10:00.
- The first split (5k or 3.145 mi) was good (for me anyway) at 31:39. My 5 mile time was 53:26, which was my fastest 5 mile time since my military days. In the State Farm 10 miler a few weeks ago, I hit the 5 mile mark at 55:22.
- I wasn't the last man to finish!
- I kicked butt on 22 people (3 men, 19 women)!!! An improvement of 3 men and 2 women! WOOF, WOOF, WOOF, WHO IS DA MAN! Of the people upon whom butt was kicked, only 3 were older than me, 6 were in their low 30's, and 10 were in their 20's. (I'm conveniently ignoring the fact that I finished behind 376 people, including a 9 year old boy who finished 15:49 before I did).

The Bad
- I croaked on the long uphill (.8 mi) up 56th street, so my second 5k split time was 5:24 slower than the first 5K split. This is the same uphill I ran on Thursday, and have run a few times since starting my marathon prep. Gusty head wind all the way up the hill.
- Started my "sprint to the finish" too early, so I slowed as I approached the finish line and had to reaccelerate to the finish. Bad move.
- I had a memory lapse while writing this entry (see the last sentence under "The Good").

Just Is.

There were several people who I passed multiple times (for example, a duo of two women and I passed each other about 6 times), and I learned a lot from this experience. My goal was to run all the way up the hill and not walk any of the 10K. The other folks would walk and I would pass them, but then they would start running again and pass me. In the end, I finshed before several of these people. However, four of the folks (the two ladies running together, a heavy set younger woman, and another person) finished before me. The duo in particular ran more disciplined than I did; by walking the steepest parts of the hill they had more energy in the tank than I did at the finish.

Marathon is in two weeks, which will be discussed in a separate entry.

Busy Week, 10 K Race Tomorrow

Run the Novartis 10k tomorrow. My goal is 1:10. Jen and David are both doing the 2 miler tomorrow (David running, Jen walking), so we'll have 4 racers in the house! Cornell, our other racer (the one with the real speed) is not running in this event, but he is a sprinter (400m) and triple jumper for Southeast High School.

Crunch time for training, but work has been so busy that my running schedule has taken major hits. I was also especially sore after my 21.5 miler last Saturday, and it took me a lot longer to heal than I had planned. No blisters, but my knees were alarmingly sore. I'm doing better now, but definitely not healed.

I took a walk with David on Sunday after church in the hopes that it would loosen me up, but it didn't. I then had trial on Monday and Tuesday so I was very busy from early morning until late at night. I was able to get in an upper body workout (lifting) on Tuesday morning, but later that day I had still significant difficulty walking down stairs, and my knees didn't feel stable. By Wednesday night I felt I could run again, but the time was very late and I didn't feel as though I could run on Wednesday night and again on Thursday morning and still recover properly. So, I went to bed and had a good night's sleep.

I ran a 5.5 on Thursday morning and was very happy with my time: 1:00:03. I took the route that takes the long uphill on 56th street. I slowed a bit on the hill, but my body handled it well. Beautiful spring morning. A bit windy in spots, but otherwise a great morning for a run.

I did my last pre-marathon 3.3 mile "sprint" this morning. My goal since starting had been to complete the 3.3 in under 30 minutes. It was not to be, as I finished in, no kidding, 33:31 (3.3 in 33:31. Too many 3's there, but if I had recognized the coincidence I might have slowed at the finish to get 3.3, 33:33. Alas). When I started this in June of last year, my 3.3 mi time was 53:30, and I though I was going to pop one of the disks out of my back. I ran a best time of 36:59 in March (16:01 faster than when I started) and today reduced my best time by 3:28 (an overall improvement of 19:29). Didn't reach my goal of 30 minutes, but I can live with the result.

I have tried to set my goals high enough so I would have to struggle mightly to achieve them before the race. I was able to surpass some of my goals (for example, I wanted to run 5 miles in under an hour and beat that, then set 10 miles in under 2 hours and bested that), but when I passed a goal I simply pushed the bar a little higher. The only goal I really busted was my mileage goal. I crossed the 300 mile mark in 2007 this morning, but I wanted to be around 400 miles at this point. Lots of excuses (weather, age, work schedule, weight, sickness, etc), but the bottom line is that I didn't make it happen. My best guess is that I will cross the 350 mi mark on marathon day. I'll cross 630 mi mark (since I started last year) tomorrow.

Off to bed for a good night's sleep, then up early for race day!

Last Big Run Before Race Day

Just finished a 21.5 miler on the MOPAC trail. Jennifer dropped me off at the end of the trail in Wabash, and I ran to the trail head in Lincoln. The official distance, according to the Great Plains Trail Network (GPTN), is 21.5 miles. There are no markers on the last 4.5 miles (or, when you start in Wabash, the first 4.5 mi), so its hard to tell if the distance is accurate. From my different pedometer readings, I think that leg is more like 4.88 mi, for a total distance of 21.88 mi. Regardless, I'll go with the distance reported in the GPTN brochure.

The Good, the Bad, and Lessons Learned.

The Good News:
- I cut 13:12 off my previous best time. Woo Hoo!
- I'm sore, but no injuries except for a blister on my little toe. That toe always gives me fits.
- MY BACK DIDN'T WIG OUT! It hurt a bit (and still does), but it was very managable.
- The new shoes are great.
- Weather was wonderful.

Mixed News:
I lost almost 7 minutes for an unusual reason; my sweats started falling off and I could not undo my drawstring. I haven't unfastened that drawstring for weeks, so the knot was very tight. But, I lost so much weight that my sweats quickly dropped from the nexus of my gludius and spinal erectors to the gludial-hanstring region (that is Kurt-speak for my pants kept falling from above my waist to below my butt). An unseemly problem, especially given my special physique and that the fact that people keep running and bicycling past.

The Bad News:
- I did not make my goal of 5 hours (not even close): 5:36:44. That puts me on a pace of 6:50:00, and I'll have to do better if I'm going to finish the Marathon in under 6 hours.
- I had to walk a little over a mile for reasons stated in "lessons learned." My legs then seemed to freeze up, and running again was very difficult.

Lessons Learned:
- The distance to a porta-potty is at least twice as far as it appears. If you see one only half a mile way, it is actually more than a mile.
- Porta-potties are named that way because they are portable. In other words, one can move away from you if its senses an urgent need. I personally saw the only one on the trail sprout little legs and attempt to scurry away from me. I finally chased it down, but it took me about a half mile of diligent effort before it tired and stopped so I could use it. While they are mobile, fortunately they don't have too much stamina.

Working on pacing

I have continued my "pacing" experiments I noted in my last entry. I ran a 7.2 mi on the 11th, using the treadmill to assist me with my pacing problems. After a 5 minute warm-up (which is not included in my mileage), I ran two miles at a 6 mph pace. I then reduced to a 5 mph pace, then walked the next two miles at a 4.0 pace. I then ran a mile at the 6.0 pace, then did a brief cool-down to get to 7.2 miles. Because of the way the treadmills are set, there was a brief stop at the one hour point where I had to reset the machine. It makes you wait for a few seconds before you can reprogram it, so I was down for probably a minute or so in the middle of the run.

Overall, I feel pretty good. The blisters are gone, and I feel a bit worn because I had only 1.25 hours of sleep on Wednesday night due to a trial on Thursday. This should be my last "big run" week (I'm doing another 20+ miler on Saturday), as the Marathon is only three weeks away and I go into a wind-down and heal mode.

I'm Still Alive!

Have not posted in a week. Much of my preparation for the week surrendered to the vagaries of real life. I spent Mon, Thu, and Fri in a hotly contested parental rights termination trial (with 2 + more days to go) and the other two days getting ready for trial, so my schedule went to pot.

On the workout front, here's what happened.

I was unable to run on Mon -Thur. I tried to run on Tueday morning and Wednesday morning, and got out of bed promptly at 0430 am to get started. Each day the I could hear the wind howling, and when I stepped outside I was greeted with bitter cold. Both mornings were just over 20F base temp, but with wind chill were under 10F. I don't run when the temp is that cold (I don't have cold weather gear that works in heavy winds, and I want to avoid injury).

On Tuesday, my wife kidnapped me and brought me to the quack (Doctor's office in Kurt- speak). I turn 45 at the end of the month (April 28). Cholesterol low, blood sugar normal, triglicerides low, everything else looks very good.

Wednesday I bought cool new running shoes. Woo Hoo!

I went 5.2 mi on Friday, and took them as easy miles. Also maintenance lifted.

Saturday, I worked in the office for a few hours and spent the rest of the day with family.

Sunday, I went to church, and took a walk with David in the afternoon.

Monday, I was back on the running plan. I did "two a days" as Becca suggested. My morning was an experimental run on the treadmill at 5.53 miles. I wanted to see if I could sustain a 6 mph pace (my goal is 5 mph for the first 15 miles), so I did a warmup, ran a mile at a 6 mph pace, slowed to a 4 mph walk, ran another mile at a 6 mph pace, slowed again to a 4 mph walk, then ran a final mile at a 6 mph pace and then finished out with a 4 mph walk. I thought about one more cycle, but the time was already 0800 and I had to stop so I could get into my office by 0900. Overall, it went well, but my morning running problem (see my "a bit of history" below) reared its ugly head. I because somewhat nauseated around the 3 mile mark, and I was afraid that I would ralph my guts out (more Kurt-speak) on the treadmill. I didn't, fortunately, but I have to get this morning running problem under control because start time for the marathon is 0700.

Around 2300 I was back in the gym and went 4.37 miles. I ran a 6 mph pace for one mile, then maintained a 4 mph walk for the remainder. After the run, I did maintenance lifting, but did some additional lower back work. I'm feeling it right now.

Overall, my body seems to be holding up. My knees and shins are a bit sore, but the 4 day layoff after the 10 miler helped. The bottom line is that I'm strong, but I'm still carrying too much weight. And, I probably won't be down to my preferred weight until the end of the year (comes on quick, goes off slow). But, I'm being very careful, so I'll be fine.

I'm fighting my first two blisters of this entire year, but they don't seem too serious. I bought my new shoes at the Lincoln Running Company, and the guy who fitted me is a runner and marathoner, so his experience was very helpful. I explained my troubles with blisters on very long distances (20+ miles), and he said that part of the problem was that feet swell in longer runs, so for longer runs I needed a shoe that was about a half size larger than what I would normally wear. My other shoes are the right size for most things, but when my feet swell my toes jam into the end of the shoe and viola! Blisters. Unfortunately, I put my nifty, expensive arch supports ($30 each) into the new shoes instead of buying new arch supports. The supports were fitted for my other shoes, which are smaller, so there is a gap between the end of the support and the end of the shoe. So, as I was sprinting this morning, the tips of one of my toes found its way into that gap, and that caused the blood blister. I ran with my old shoes tonight (until I can buy new inserts tomorrow) and got a blister on my other foot. No blisters the entire year, then I get two in one day (I think the fact that I ran twice on a treadmill is what caused the problem).

It's almost 0300 and Jen is going to kill me for getting to bed so late, so I better quit now so that I can honestly report that I was in bed before 0300.

First day of the final month!

April is the last full month before the marathon. That gives me 4 full training weeks and 1 recuperation week before the race. I've looked backward after completing February and March, and now its time to look forward to April and the marathon on May 6.

My goal for this Marathon is simply to finish within 6 hours. I have understood (read it somewhere) that race organizers want folks to finish within 6 hours. The official races results, however, shows 4 finishers after the 7 hour mark, the latest being 7:04:48. Regardless, I'm still planning for 6 hours.

I have developed several scenarios for finishing within 6 hours. Fortunately, I have not had to change my scenarios. The primary is to complete the first 15 miles in 3 hours (12 min/mi or 5 mph pace), and then finish the last 11.2 in the remaining 3 hours (16 min/mi or 3.7 mph pace). I think this strategy is still do-able. I just finished a 10 miler in a minute under 2 hrs (11:54 min/mi or just over a 5 mph pace), and have one month to get my 15 mile time down to 3 hours. It will be tough, because 1 month is not a lot of time. But, given my progress in the 10 miler and my 24.5 miler of two weeks ago, I think I can do it. My fall back strategy is to complete the first ten miles in 2 hours, then jog-walk the remaining 16.2 miles in the remaining 4 hours. My concern with this strategy is that each mile after 10 becomes progressively slower. I can maintain, barely, a 16 min/mi pace for the remaining 11.2. Under the backup strategy, I would have to average just under a 15 min/mi for the last 16.2 miles. In my recent 24.5 miler, I finished the last three miles with a 17:07 min/mile. That won't cut it.

For the next month, I'll focus on 10 and 15 mile distances, with one more long MOPAC trail run (probably on Apr 14). I'll intersperse the longer runs with shorter runs (5 -6 mi), and these will be "hard runs" where I focus on my time. In my off days, I'll walk parts of the marathon route so I can get a better idea of how the route will look. The best surprise is no surprise! I have a 10K coming up in three weeks (Apr 21), but I won't specifically train for that distance.

March in Review

March was a mixed bag. Worked hard and had some successes, but had some setbacks due to illness and weather.

Not Good

1. I logged just over 105 miles for the month, but was scheduled for 154. I was way behind schedule. I lost 7 runs to illness and 1.5 to weather. That accounts for the entire 49 miles.
2. Having mid-back problems during longer runs.

Good

1. Logged a 24.5 miler. Cut over 48 minutes off my 21.5 mile time from last year.
2. Consistently running 5 milers (or the first 5 miles of a longer run) in under an hour.
3. Very pleased with State Farm 10 miler time, which was under 2 hours.
4. Still had 13 runs totaling 105 miles, which is an average of just over 8 miles per run.
5. Bought some contact lenses.
6. Not losing runs for the wrong reasons.
7. Morale is still high.
8. Minor soreness, but no real injuries.
9. Wife, children still speaking to me!