General Update for Jan and Feb

This entry consolidates several posts from the months of January and February, as one complete entry makes more sense that several disparate entries. I actually wrote this in the early morning hours of March 11, 2008, but have dated the post February 29, 2008, so it fits into proper chronological sequence in the postings.

The Lincoln Marathon is in 9 weeks.

The running schedule for January and February was a disaster. My brother (and only sibling) passed away in California on January 2, 2008. His passing was quite a shock. He was never married and had no children, and we left the following day for California to tend to family matters. The trip ended up being much longer, and much more work, then we expected, and when we finally returned home we were completely exhausted.

I took a few days off from everything (including work) to rest. I made a nifty new workout schedule around the first of February and, after some snowy and bitter cold days, started back up on the 7th. I took it slow and easy, running a 2.4, a 3.5, and then a 4.4 over 5 days, all on the treadmill at the local YMCA. By safety policy, I don’t run outside when the temp falls below 20F, and the temps were consistently in the single digits with wind chills at -13F or worse. While I don’t like the treadmill, they are shock absorbed, which means less wear and tear on my very over weight body. So, the treadmill is a great place to start.

Then the wheels came off again.

I had been feeling very drained from my brother’s passing and all the work we had to do, and it finally caught up to me in the form of bronchitis. And I had it bad (I’m still coughing up goo a month later). Anyway, I was down very hard for three more weeks. Thank goodness I’m self employed, because I missed so much work that I would have been fired if I had a normal job.

All this having been said, the Lincoln Marathon is on May 4, and I’m running. I have only 9 weeks to prepare, so I’ll have to adjust my goals. For example, I won’t have enough miles in to beat a 5 hr time, so I’m planning for 5:45:00. But I’m still running.

I started the nutrition piece in the last week in Feb. I started slow with the intent of transforming my diet over 2-3 weeks, and I started slowly bringing all of my supplements on line. I discovered a long time ago that I had to incorporate them slowly, because starting them all at once actually weakens my immune system and I get sick. I didn’t really make a running plan because my lungs hurt and I coughed at the least exertion (or with no exertion at all), but the idea was to jog/walk everything at a pace that was slow enough for me to move without expectorating a lung. I planned to do long distances at snail-slow speed, and increase the speed as my lungs allowed.

We have several early season runs in preparation for the Lincoln Marathon. The first "big one" is the State Farm 10 miler on March 29. Last season I finished that race in just under 2 hours (1:58:54), and this time I'll aim for 1:55:00. I had hoped for more improvement, but under the circumstances any improvement will do. The next race is the Novartis 10K on April 19. I ran that one last year in 1:08:42. I doubt that I can finish in under 62 min, but I'll give it my best shot.

As noted twice above, I have only 9 weeks to prepare. So, I re-analyzed my running logs from last year to see if I could pick up valuable insights for this year. Several general lessons stuck out at me.

1. I have to do a better job compensating for poor weather. In other words, when the weather is bad, I need to hit the treadmill. Last year, I ran in some really crappy stuff at some very cold temps. For example, I ran an 11.4 at midnight, with the temps in the teens, on an ice covered trail. It's a wonder I didn't break a leg. However, I often just cancelled the run. I ran only 8.7 miles in the first nine days of February due to poor weather. My distaste for the treadmill kept me from heading down to the YMCA, but this year, if the weather is bad, I'm going to hit the treadmill.

2. I overcompensated when I missed runs. I missed several runs to weather, but I also missed 12 days due to bronchitis (got bronchitis two years in a row, but last year's was probably because I ran in the bitter cold and sleet). I then proceeded to run mondo miles my first week back, which led to more absences. I followed up my bronchitis absence with over 48 miles the very next week, which included a 24 miler, and ran 27.5 the next week, which included taking 2 days off to rest for the 10 mile race. I then had to take time to heal and ran only 9.5 miles over the next eight days. I did what I felt I needed to do at the time, but in retrospect it probably was not very smart. I also overcompensated early in the schedule. I ran a 5.1, an 11.4 and an 8.5 over four days, I then ran only 3 miles in the next four days.

3. I need to look at the total number of days run in addition to the miles run. According to last years schedule, I had the potential for 20 running days in February, 22 running days in March, and 20 running days in April. I ran only 12 times for 87 miles in February, and to reach that mileage total I ran 11.4 mi, a 6 mi, and a 14.6 mi in the last five days of the month. So, I ran 32 mi in the last five days, and only 55 in the first 23 days of the month. March appeared to be solid at 105 miles, but the miles were, like in February, very uneven. I ran only 5 times for 29.5 miles in the first 18 days of the month. I then ran only 8 times in the last 12 days of the month, but for 75.8 miles. Those days included a 24.5 miler, a 12 mi, a 10 mi, and two 8.5 mi’s. Not a smart running distribution. I ran 93 miles in April, but that included a 21.5. I ran only 14 times out of the possible 20 running days. Some of the misses were unavoidable, and weather and illness took their toll. But, I have to manage my runs better.

Anyway, we up and running again. We are scaling back our expectations for the first marathon, and will see how well we can prepare for our second marathon in 2008.