3 in the Warm Fall Breeze

I nearly fell asleep reading email today at work. So my plan to run after work was starting to sound like a bad idea as the end of the workday neared. I worried that as soon as I was home I would be sucked into the house, never to find my shoes or put on my shorts. As I let the dogs out, I passed the empty Pop Tart box that I left sitting on the counter from the morning. Yes, I'm ashamed. I took a pack of Greg's Pop Tarts for "breakfast" this morning. Ug. But that Pop Tart box got me out the door!

I felt Lunch sloshing around in my belly as I started off. I haven't ran on Montgomery Road in a while, and only once since the new sidewalks were put in, so I headed down the sidewalk in the direction of Meijer. I smelled Little Caesar's pizza pizza cooking for quite a while as I passed. Not necessarily a good smell while running. My legs killed me. They were tight and crampy all the way from my ankles to about my mid-thighs. At the turnaround, I stopped and stretched. That helped a little bit. I think I was dehydrated...really hadn't drank much the past few days.

I maintained a steady 10 minute per mile pace the entire time. It didn't feel hard, but it didn't feel easy. Oh well - a typical tired, end of the day kind of run.

Tomorrow morning I am planning to hop on my new trainer for the second time. And maybe do my own version of spinning to music...videos! On mtvmusic.com you can queue up videos and make playlists,  then play it and watch all of the videos back to back. Awesome?! I hope. I was thinking about this the other day. I miss spinning a lot. My favorite part of it is the music, which was never stellar. Could I stand just sitting on my bike and listening to music... wait there's that mtvmusic.com site, I could watch too...  The only thing to see about now is if I can hook my laptop up to the TV. It would be a nice variety in the mix of watching Netflix. So far my playlist consists of some Brandi Carlile (warmup), Muse, Foo Fighters, Tool (the one and only Tool video available), Katy Perry, Cold Play, Silversun Pickups and David Bowie. 11 songs total. I hope it works out!

11 miles, and then some

Saturday morning Steph and I completed a very exhausting, but very satisfying 11 mile run. It was cool, but got hot when the sun beat down on me. Like normal, my knee was tight feeling by mile 1, but it didn't bother me. It's just a dull ache, and a knowledge that things are in perfect operating order. As Steph mentioned, we finished at a fantastic 10:09 pace. We had a nice strong pace, with negative splits and by the end I was finished physically. For a change, I didn't feel like I could have continued for another mile or two. I was stiff and sore right away, but walking around the Ren Festival losened me up. Sunday morning my right knee was pretty sore. I had a hard time supporting myself getting out of bed. Later in the day, that knee was fine, but by night it was my left knee. I really think my soreness is muscular, based on the delay of my aches and pains. Fingers crossed.

I rested through till this morning, when Steph and I got in a quick 3 mile run at 9:20 pace. I felt strong at the finsh, not like I had pushed very hard. We got back in time to see Jannelle out the door and wish her a happy birthday. WOOT!

Things I will concentrate on for the last month prior to the race.
- Stretching. if not daily, as often as possible.
- mileage. I've really been slacking on getting in my 3 days of running. I will, of course taper when appropriate.

11

Last weekend, among the busyness, we ran 11 miles. At a 10:09 pace. Pretty cool! The aftermath brought some sore legs, but we both seem to have managed it.

Today is Wednesday and we ran 3 short, easy miles at a... 9:20 pace! It's been a while since I've done that! I felt good. Not much coughing, but it was really hard to breathe at the end. I feel like my throat gets smaller and I find myself feeling like I am physically moving my chest in and out in order to get the air in there. The feeling didn't stop immediately after running either. I guess I will blame it on my allergies. The humidity wasn't there this morning, it was cool and beautiful.

We should register for the race.

You've been away doing WHAT??!?!

Wow, it really has been 6 weeks since my last blog post. Yikes.

Fast forward Benny-Hill style recap......

Spinning, running 8, spinning, running

Race a trail race! WHOOOO HOOOOO!!!!! only 75 seconds behind Greg.

spinning running 8, spinning, weigh in at 189

Nurse my knee, run 4, spin, nurse my knee

Spinning, running, running spinning, running 10 at 10:15, weigh in at 187

Spinning, running, running, spinning, run 6 at 9:35?

Plus or minus some running and spinning that pretty much gets us to the present. I think Steph is steering this half-marathon-training-boat in the right direction. I felt pretty darn good after our 10 mile run at what feels like a reasonably quick pace. I have no doubts that I could go out and run that 13.1 today if I wanted, but I'm please that we still have another month of training. I really hope that the race will not be as much a test to determine if I can make it that distance, but rather at what speed I can finish. I'm not planning to sprint or anything, but I like knowing that I shouldn't have to push just to finish the race. Kudos Steph... We've got 11 to go this weekend, and it's going to be beautiful out there!



Ok, so here's a funny story. For the last few weeks our in-house music has changed from a light rock channel on Sirius to a straight up elevator Muzak channel. It's terrible. Mild jazz, all instrumental... you know what I'm talking about. Luckily, we have the overhead speakers turned off here at the 'desk. My exposure to the Muzak is only when I'm walking the halls, taking care of business in the boys room, and in the locker room. Thankfully, this is at most a half hour of my day. Today the absurdity of it shone through. Let me see if I can set this up. I walked into the locker room, and noticed right away that it was busier than normal. The space isn't that large, maybe the size of our living room. I'm going to guess there were 12-15 guys in the locker room as I entered, all in various states of undress. It's a bit awkward when there are that many folks in there at once because you start running out of space to find a secluded locker not uncomfortably close to some naked guy. So, I find my locker and start getting dressed for class. There was an awful silence in the room, and I realized there was no muzak. All of a sudden I start hearing this crescendoing chime start ringing out of the speakers in the ceiling, which segues into Moon River. It was like the lights needed to dim and we should all be naked, by candle light. Everyone in the room suddenly felt how awkward the moment was, and we busted out laughing. Brad, standing there naked, turned to the guy next to him, and in his best radio voice says," This one goes out to you, John. You know how much I love you." It was hilarious. Oi Vey.

Spinning was pretty great yesterday. Karen was joking about how it would be a tough class. She said it was because her self esteem had been crushed by the Dr. and assistant at the eye glass store. I guess the way-older-than-her-Dr. kept mentioning that she was getting old, and then when trying to find frames similar to her old ones the assisant said they were all wrong for her face. So, to build her self esteem, she wanted to come in and have a kick-ass class. And it was pretty good. I found a few points to really push hard, and felt really good when I was finished. I think the spinning has really helped to push my cardio limits, and has been an all around great cross training exercise for running.

When I was finished, I weighed in at.... dunh dunh daaaaaaaaaaa! 184 woooooot!

11 miles tomorrow morning. Then, I turn 32 on Sunday. I've never been in better shape, and I hope to never let my body get back to the way it turned 31!

Week in Review: 9/12 - 9/18

Sun 9/12  Disc golf at park near Galloways.

Mon 9/13  20 mile bike ride

Tue 9/14  2.5 miles on track. 1 mile warmup, 8x200s.

Wed 9/15  4 miles in 38:15 (9:34 pace)

Thu 9/16  off

Fri 9/17  off

Sat 9/18  6 miles at 9:50 pace.

running: 12.5 miles - um, that's not enough

bike: 20 miles

6 on a Cutback Week

Saturday's 6 miles went pretty badly for me. There was a potty break, and a few breathing breaks. Still managed under 10 minute pace. My legs hurt for the first half of it - the same really tight and painful feeling I've had before. I'm not sure what that means- dehydrated probably?

Work is going to be crazy Monday. I am hoping to do something in the evening be it the group ride or a ride by myself.

A Speed Sandwich

After the 10 miles at a great pace, I certainly feel I'm at least getting stronger. Unfortunately, this week's track night was pretty much a bust. I've lost my discipline and motivation there. Not sure what it is, but it hasn't been fun for a while now. I warmed up a mile on Tuesday with the intention of doing 400s. I got to my first 200 meters and was mad and tired. I did it in 55 seconds. I didn't want to walk, so jogged very slowly for 200. I did this 5 times, then took a break. I did 3 more to make it an even 8. Those 3 were at 50 seconds each and I walked between them. I don't know. Back in June I did 6x200 at 50 sec each, so I guess it's not horrible. I just wasn't having fun. I didn't bother cooling down. I laid on the ground and did leg raises while I waited for Roman and Greg to finish.

Wednesday was speedy again. We did our 4 miles at 9:35 pace - our quickest 4 in training so far, so says the blog. I felt like we were going faster, but I also felt smooth. The end elevations get me, and I was still hacking a lot. But overall it felt great.

I didn't get to run today as I had hoped. There's something about Thursdays and work just getting rough. Maybe I can go for a short quick run tomorrow. 6 this weekend is going to feel like nothing!

20 Mile Bike Ride with Roman

Beeeeautiful evening for a bike ride. I met Roman at the monkey bar. He has Greg's bike right now because he's going to be doing the Morgan's Little Miami triathlon in October. His buddy he's doing it with has a road bike, so he doesn't want to be left in the dust on his mountain bike. So far he had gone on one ride, yesterday. His bum was sore, but I think he's in really good shape for biking because he's such a strong runner.

We headed north and I took him on the road route that we usually do on the shop rides. In South Lebanon we turned left off the trail and headed out to the roads. We rolled along ...uh... I really should probably pay attention to the street names. I was happy I recognized all of the turns though; I've never lead through those areas. After a few miles we were back on the trail, just north of Morrow, and headed back south.

It was a good ride. Most of our pace on the roads was 18 - 20 mph. We were going 16 on the trail going out. But going back I was distracted with talking and stopped paying attention to speed. Doh! But that's OK, it was still a really good ride. Ended up being 20 miles, which was just what I wanted to do.

We saw three packs of deer (are deer called packs?) while we were coming back. And I almost hit a chipmunk. It darted out and back twice before my bike. I was probably a foot from hitting it and braced myself for the squiiiish...but thankfully it didn't happen.

10 miles complete!

Saturday Casey and I tackled the 10 mile distance for the second time, and....drumroll... succeeded! Last weekend we tried for 10, but barely got through 8 due to me apparently coming down with a cold. We did the same route, and wow what a difference it was traversing the same paths and feeling great instead of like I could fall over and fall asleep.

It always takes me a while to get warmed up and settled in to a rhythm with my breathing and pace. I coughed and coughed for the first few miles. I was a little nervous that my chest was going to tighten up like it did Tuesday at track, and that 10 wasn't going to be possible again. But I wasn't tired, so as long as I could manage that, I would be fine. I was very much determined to get the 10 in, even if I had to suffer through it. I didn't want to hold Casey back again.

Eventually my coughing subsided and breathing was normal. And our pace was a little over 10. I was pretty shocked at that. I felt great! I still coughed every now and then, and my head would pound a bit. But it was very manageable, and I had so much energy otherwise.

We sucked down our gels around 6 miles. For the last almost 4 miles home, I was pretty much on a high. I felt super-strong and quick and light. The slight hills we went over still made my lungs work hard and I slowed down, but I would recovery pretty quickly.

For the last about .3 miles, we picked up the pace and pushed down Townsley. I am shocked I had that in me.

The Aftermath.
My knees ache. They ache as they always ache after a long run though; it's nothing new or concerning. Casey seems to have some pretty bad knee pain and has been icing. I hope the icing helps. We've talked about the schedule and how we can do another cut-back weekend. From my experience and all of the training plans I've looked up to develop what we're following, we are certainly in good shape right now. We've covered 8 miles 3 times. And now we've run 10 very well and both felt strong during it, which is awesome. As long as we run 12 miles two weeks before the race, we are very properly trained!

My Own Personal Results.
I suppose most, if not all, of this entry is from my own personal perspective. But, I have to point something out. The 10 miles ran Saturday is the fastest 10 miles I've ever ran. I checked my Log Your Run entries from last year around the marathon training dates. I was never even close to that pace for my long slow distance runs. Closest is 10:30 for 8 miles. But my 10 miler and everything else over 6 miles was in the 11:00 - 11:45 range. And, as I remember, those runs at that pace were very rough. This 10 miles at 10:17 pace average felt great.  That means a few things. One is that all this belly aching I've been doing about my slowness is dumb. I get so caught up with comparing myself to one moment or one person that I miss the big picture and the fact that I am getting stronger. A second thing this means is I'm thinking this is going to be the best half marathon race I've ever had - though I can't really say any of them have been good. All four have had issues: Old shoes = debilitating knee pain, sickness, way too fat to run a half marathon on top of being sick, and horrifically undertrained. That is my half marathon record. So! This is shaping up to be a great experience! And one final thing it means is I know I am benefiting from training with someone. I've always done the majority of my running solo, which is fine. But it lacks a lot also. The part Casey is playing in the training is crucial and invaluable. I'm pushed, motivated, distracted, inspired and strengthened. Thanks, Casey!

Week in Review: 9/5 - 9/11

Sun 9/5  Disc golf at Harbin.

Mon 9/6  off

Tue 9/7  2 miles easy on the track. Sick and chest got pretty tight.

Wed 9/8  3 miles in 31:00? (10 something pace). Coughing, tight chest.

Thu 9/9  off

Fri 9/10  off

Sat 9/11  10 miles at 10:17 pace and it was awesome!!

running: 15 miles

biking: 0

8 (ish)

This past weekend's long run was not as long as planned. Just another wake up call that the body can sometimes win. I'm pretty sure I must have a very slight cold. And that combined with my allergies perhaps just kicked my butt? Whatever, it's done with now. That good thing is we've ran 8 miles three times which is still great. I am really looking forward to 10 this coming weekend.

I was pretty tight after those 8 and have been doing a lot of stretching today. In general I haven't been stretching enough, and really need to! Hand slapped! 


Tomorrow is track night. I'm still not feeling very up for running; I got so tired today doing yard work. But, I will slog through some miles regardless. They just might not be speedy ones.

Week in Review: 8/29 - 9/4

Sun 8/29  Disc golf attempted at Harbin. Tourney going on, so just played a little then watched.

Mon 8/29  worked late and wimped out due to soreness.

Tue 8/24  worked late and wimped out again.

Wed 8/25  3 miles in 30:17 (10:06 pace). Tight.

Thu 8/26  4.3 miles in 44:00 (10:20 pace)

Fri 8/27  off

Sat 8/28  8 miles that was supposed to be 10. 

running: 15.3 miles

biking: 0

4 Weeks Done

So. I was updating the half training schedule tab and realized that Casey and I have 4 weeks of training in the bank, are in the midst of the 5th week, and therefor have 7.5 (let's call it nearly 8) more weeks to go. I'm glad I looked at the schedule again. For some reason, I have it in my head that I'm done already – that this right now is as good as I'm going to get for this race. And that I'm just riding out some miles before race day.

Nearly 8 more weeks!

That's a long time! And, as it's been proven in other 8 weeks periods, a lot of good stuff can happen if one works hard. So, I need to run more and this just isn't over yet. I think I've heard that before from my own mouth. Sigh.


Behold... this blog now features  –gasp–  a picture!
Here is what's on the menu for this weekend's long run:

After seeing Casey's face after the Cran Berry Gu from when we did 8, I thought it would be nice to have a larger selection of nasty gels to let him try something else and find his endurance caloric groove. So I purchased some of my faves (seen above).

I tend to stick with orange or raspberry flavor and avoid things like "vanilla" and "espresso". But! In my new, open-minded gel flavor testing, I thought perhaps espresso is in fact yummy. So I got it. The Montanna Huckelberry has real huckelberries in it! What the hell is a huckelberry besides the name of a boy in a book I was forced to read in Junior High?! Exciting!

I have had Gu Roctane, which has 35 mg of caffeine in it. I'm not so sure the caffeine really does anything for me, but I let it do things for me mentally. 100 calories each, 25g carbs. Maltodextrin is the main sugar. Other ingredients include sea salt and many things that end in -ine.

Hammer Gel was the first gel I had that I didn't upset my stomach. But they all seem to have improved now (or my stomach's gotten more used to it). As it says on the package, it's "Made with Natural Ingredients!" It's so exciting! 100 calories each, 24g carbs. The espresso flavor has 50 mg of caffeine. The main sugar is a long chain maltodextrin. BONUS: hammer shaped package! Clever!

Gu Chomps. YUM! I'd eat these for breakfast! Not really. These are pretty good though, all things considered. Downside is they aren't quick and easy to eat like the gels are. But, this can be nice on long runs. You can open the pack up and start chomping away as the miles go by. Gives you something to do. 180 calories per bag of 8 chomps, 46 carbs. The strawberry one has caffeine, but apparently it's a secret how much because it's not anywhere on the package. The main sugars are Tapioca syrup, cane sugar, maltodextrin, and pectin...followed by an assortment of other stuff.

There. I just wrote a nerdy gel/endurance activity supplement review.
10 miles here we come!!!

Week in Review 8/22 - 8/28

Sun 8/22  Disc golf. I think. Somewhere.

Mon 8/23  group ride, 35 miles easy

Tue 8/24  track: 1 mile warmup, 4 x 800, cool down. 3 miles total running.

Wed 8/25  3.1 miles in 29:18 (9:27 pace)

Thu 8/26  off

Fri 8/27  off

Sat 8/28  3.6 mile trail run! Powder Keg Trail Race

running: 9.7 miles

biking: 2 hours 26 minutes / 35 miles