Well, I am glad that yesterday was a rest day, because my body was still pretty fatigued from pushing hard on saturday’s 13.3. I was afraid that I may still feel the effects of the run this morning. Fortunately, I found my stride early and feel like I had a pretty good run. A little soreness in my left knee nagged at me a little bit, but no biggie. I finally made it out to pick up some new headphones that might actually stay on my head and they worked this morning like a charm. It was nice to run and enjoy the music without have to wrestle those stupid little earbuds that come with the iPod that kept jumping out of my ears. Anyway, enough blah blah blah. We have 6 miles for our next run, time to start gearing up for that. Later.
February 16, 2008
2/16/2008 – 13 miles!
Wow! This was my favorite run so far. It was pretty high on the difficulty scale, but all the hills we put in now will serve us well in the future. The run was through some of the backroads behind Keeneland and was simply beautiful. It reminded me of the line in “Field of Dreams” where they have the exchange “Hey, is this heaven?” and then the response “No, this is Iowa.” Well, these horse filled fields resembled my view of heaven, so that helped to pass the time. We kept a good pace through the first half of the run, hitting pretty much dead on the desired 10 minute splits, but on the second half, Z took off like he was shot out of a cannon, and I felt obliged to go ahead and keep up. There came a point around mile 9 that I thought I had made a critical pace mistake, but I fought through that wall and finished very strong. I can’t emphasize enough how proud I am of my teammates. This has been pretty tough training, and it is only going to get tougher, but nobody has even batted an eye. These guys are showing me just how strong their dedication to completing this objective is, and that is a huge inspiration to me. So, great job team! Keep on persevering! After monday’s run, we will have less than 10 weeks left until Marathon day (man, that seems forever away!).
6 weeks down, 10 to go!
February 15, 2008
2/14/2008 – Another day, another run
Nothing special to really write about today. I was happy to get back outside for the 4 miles today. I am starting to get tired of running the same 4 mile track, so I might see about mapping a new one. I would like to find somewhere close to the house where I can really tackle some nice hills. Oh well, I am looking forward to 13 with the team! I’ll let you know how that goes!
February 13, 2008
2/12/2008 – 5 miles in silence
Well, due to inclement weather, I decided to go ahead and knock out my five miles a day early and run on the treadmill after work. I really felt pretty bad going into the run and already had conceded that it was going to be a tough run. However, I was able to brainwash myself into thinking “It’s only 5, you ran 11 saturday” and the run actually went pretty well. I MUST get new headphones. The little Ipod earbuds keep jumping out of my ears, so after a mile, I just got rid of the thing altogether and 4 miles of listening to the treadmill and the guy next to me huff and puff is enough to make a man lose his mind. Oh well, I think my mind was lost the moment I signed up for this thing. Have a good one. Later.
February 11, 2008
2/11/2008 – Inside Again
The warm weather on saturday made me soft. I had to head to the gym this morning rather than face the single digit temps outside. Pounded 4 miles at a pretty good pace and called it a day. Weatherman is calling for snow, so I may be back inside for the midweek 5. Talk at you later.
February 10, 2008
2/9/2008 – Mmmm. . . Pizza
11 miles is a long way. 11 miles is basically from Commonwealth Stadium, out to Cheddar’s on Tates Creek and back. Overall, the run went great! I don’t know what it was, but this week’s run went faster, to me, than the previous weeks with shorter runs. It is pretty exciting getting into double digits in the miles column for the first time. I was glad I got to hear Zach’s success story to kickstart my motivation for our run. Good job, Zach! I almost had to take a detour as we ran by the Little Caeser’s for a “Hot and Ready” pizza. It was right around the 7 mile marker and it smelled awesome. I was able to hold off until the end though, but I did go back by right after the run and kill a large cheese. Anyway, 5 weeks in, we still have everyone standing. Things are about to get serious as our midweek distances climb and we up it to 13 miles next week.
5 weeks down, 11 to go!
February 6, 2008
2/5/2008 – Running Naked
Well, not really. But it felt that way! Due to incoming weather and cooling temperatures coming Wednesday, I decided to go ahead and run Tuesday night. 60 degrees and really windy, but being able to run in shorts and a t-shirt had me feeling like I was practically naked compared to running in full cold weather gear. I am looking forward running in this type of weather in the coming months. As far as an update on the knee/IT band, I felt good. All the stretches I have been doing are paying off. I kept a solid pace and finished strong. Another day to cross off the calender. Talk at you later.
February 4, 2008
2/4/2008 – Going inside
Monday, monday. I woke up to thunder and lightning before my alarm went off so I had to make a decision. Get my stuff together and go to the gym to run, or maintain ironman status and run out in the elements. . . so I got my gym bag and headed out. This was the first training run for me on the treadmill and I was not looking forward to the monotony of running, but going nowhere. Combine that with the fact that my iPod earbuds refuse to stay in my ears and you get a rough outlook. To my surprise, it wasn’t that bad, though. Not something I would want to do everyday, but at least I could just dial in the pace of my preference and easily stick to it. Anyway, this is the start of week 5, and we jump on up to 11 this weekend. I am pretty pumped about heading into the uncharted territory of double digits. Oh well, guess I should worry about pounding out 5 on wednesday first. Later.
February 2, 2008
2/2/2008 – Another 7
After an easy 3 on thursday, I think everyone felt ready for the 7 miler this weekend, especially after surviving the 9 miler last week relatively unscathed. We ran out a Greg’s place and I thought it was a great run. Tons of big hills to test us and prepare us for what lies ahead in the first few miles of the marathon. I hope that this run doesn’t discourage anyone because of its difficulty. I heard someone say that if 7 is this tough, how will we make 26.2? Well, I think it is okay to be worn out after 7. Just know that when we attack 26.2, we will do it with a more conservative pace. I really liked how the course finished with some big hills. I am of the opinion that I would rather struggle all through training and have the race be a breeze that always choose easy runs that don’t challenge us and have a false sense of security going into the big dance. Anyway, we are already a fourth of the way through the training and still have everyone. Hopefully the training will keep rolling by quickly.
4 weeks down, 12 to go!
January 30, 2008
1/30/2008 – Midweek 5
It was a cold and windy morning with single digit wind chills, but the ice on the road was minimal so I headed out. This was the longest midweek run yet at 5 miles. The wind on my face was more than enough to keep me concious of the cold, but after awhile, I was numb to it. Last night I sat down and finally figured out how to do split times on my watch to help me moniter my pace a little better, and I think it helped some. Here were this morning’s splits:
Mile 1 – 8:07
Mile 2 – 8:10
Mile 3 – 8:36 – I hit a mini wall here, but fought through is pretty well.
Mile 4 – 8:25
Mile 5 – 7:45 – I was glad to have enough gas in the tank to finish strong.
Another 3 tomorrow and then a nice 7 on saturday.
