catholic guilt

I have to admit, I didn't run last night.

You just try to resist my 5'0" Italian mother giving you a load of Catholic guilt... "Aunt Jo's here, Uncle Frank's here, Uncle Dom's here, cousin George is here, etc. etc. etc." It's not possible.

However, I laid down the law that I'm running tonight (6 miles tempo) before heading over for another get together. Post-dinner will involve playing serious cut-throat Pinochle with my uncles, though, so should be fun!

6 tonight, 6 tomorrow, SRD on Sunday, long run (18 miles) on Monday. Total miles for a peak week during my marathon season = 30? Yeah, that's not great... Missing the mid-week runs is a bad idea.

Here's to us back-of-the-pack runners!

Here's a little inspiration for all of us back-of-the-pack runners...

I've met Grete Waitz a few times (9-time winner of NYC Marathon), and she said the toughest marathon she ever did was when she ran a 5:32 marathon w/ Fred Lebow, founder of NYC Marathon, when he ran it in '91 or '92 (it was the first time he'd run his own race, and he had brain cancer at the time).

In other words, it ain't easy running for 5+ hours.

I just saw the first school bus of the year go by my window. School's back in session, apparently. Back in MY day, school didn't start until the Fair ended. :-)

Today is SRD after yesterday's 14 miler. I'll get out for a short stroll w/ my sister's doggie to keep the legs loose. Needless to say, we don't get very far - she's the most stubborn 12 pound dog you'll ever meet.

Back at it tomorrow w/ 5 easy.

I did 14 on the treadmill after work today, 2:46:40. I've been trying to follow my plan with the long SLOW distance, but I'm getting worried that I won't be able to pick up the pace on race day. Did the last 2.5 miles about 30 seconds/mile faster than the first 11.5. This 14 was harder BY FAR than my 16 from last weekend. I'm guessing it's the allergies and allergy medicine that made me sluggish?

Went over to my Mom's for dinner post-run, and had pasta e fagiole. My aunt is up visiting, and one of my uncles gets here on Thursday, so we'll be having the whole italian feast on Friday: baked rigatoni, stuffed artichokes, rice croquettes, antipasto, broccoli rabe, tomato salad, hot peppers, etc. Yummy, and I'll count it as carbo-loading for my next long run. :-)

Ragweed season

It's ragweed season now, heaven help me. This is the one thing I'm allergic to - to the point where I'd scratch my itchy eyes out if it wouldn't blind me. :-) So I took 2 benadryl yesterday morning, and although it took care of my symptoms, it knocked me out completely for the bulk of the afternoon (which I had off from work) and the evening too.

Today, I switched over to Claritin and took only 1 -hopefully that works w/out knocking me out.

I absolutely HAVE TO DO MY LONG RUN today. So I'll be on the treadmill at the gym, 14-16 miles, in air-conditioned comfort where I might actually be able to breath. Darn shame, though, because it's gorgeous out - blue sky, dry crisp air, low 60s right now.

And since I'm doing last weekend's long run on a Tuesday, I'll push this coming weekend's long run to Monday (Labor Day). I think 6 days between long runs should be ok.

I'll stop rambling now...

It's always interesting...

I worked at a local 5K this morning. Always interesting to see the crowd that runs these races. Up here, folks are fast. i.e. the last few people crossing the finish line are right around my pace. Which is why I WORK at the race rather than RUN it. :-)

Talk about leaving it all on the course... I'm at the finish line writing down runners' bib numbers as they cross. About 30 feet from the finish line, a runner is approaching at full sprint - and then starts puking all over the place - doesn't even break stride, just keeps sprinting towards the finish line....

Gosh, that's giving it your all, isn't it!?!

I'd like to think I could do that at my next race - minus the puking, of course. :-)

a little more speedwork

It was 88 and humid when I left work so went to the gym to run.

Did 6 miles speedwork:
mile 1 - warmup
miles 2 and 3 - 5.5 mph
mile 4 - 5.6 mph
mile 5 - 5.7 mph
mile 6 - 6.0 mph
Then a cooldown, stretch, 100 abs.

SRD tomorrow. I'm working at a local 5k in the a.m., which should be fun.

Long run on Sunday. It's a step-back week for me, so will do somewhere between 14 and 16.

Got the speedwork done!

I did my speedwork tonight, although not exactly according to plan.

I ended up doing 4 x 1 mile at 9:50 pace, w/ 1/8 mile recovery between intervals. I have not been that red in the face since (insert embarrassing story here). I started feeling a little tightness in my left adductor again, partway through the 4th mile, so finished that one up, and then did a 10 minute cooldown. Overall, 6 miles total run, although only 4 of it was fast.

I've added 100 abs and 25 pushups back into my post-run routine (after the always necessary stretching).

I'll do some easy miles tomorrow (well, tonight I guess, since it's now past midnight).

Speedwork tonight

I have either 6 miles tempo run or 6 x 1 mile at 9:53 w/ recovery between. Frankly, the idea of 1 mile at 9:53 pace is intimidating to me, much less 6 of them. Will do a warm up mile and see how the legs feel - and then will make the call then which of these I'll do...

5 easy

I have 5 easy on tap for tonight.

Well, actually, I have a choice between the 5 easy truly on my schedule tonight, and the 6 tempo that was on my schedule last night. I took yesterday as SRD since I did my long run on Sunday. Tomorrow is 5 easy, and Thursday is long intervals (7 x 1 mile at 9:53). For that reason (the intervals), I'm leaning toward the 5 easy rather than the 6 tempo.

Also, the long runs on my schedule are following a funky progression. 16 last weekend, and now it's moving me up to 21! That's a huge jump. Then back to 11, then 15, then 23! Uh, no, I don't think so...

So my plan is 14 this coming weekend (drop-back week from the 16), then to 18 next weekend, then drop back to 16, then 20, then start tapering. Holy cow, that means my race isn't far away! I was hoping to do more quality long runs, but w/ my small but frequents pulls/aches/pains, getting to the starting line injury-free is my main goal this year.

SRD (Scheduled Rest Day), thankfully

Did my 16-miler yesterday, 3:11:50. The last 2 miles were pretty torturous, but I got it done. Felt a little adductor pain in the first few miles, but kept going and it disappeared by about mile 5 or so. Slow as molasses, I know, but I'm competing w/ myself, no one else.

Somehow, I think a sub-5:00 marathon is a little out of reach this year. I've been doing my long runs between 11:15 and 11:30 miles up until yesterday, when I had to drop it to just under 12:00 miles. A 5 hour marathon would be 11:27 miles, and right now, I don't see being able to keep that up for 26 miles. Not being defeatist, but trying to be realistic.

Respect the distance

I'm in training for my 5th marathon right now. Having done 4 already, I know the training, I know the gear, the nutrition, the need for BodyGlide, good socks, GUs/sport beans/Clif Bloks, etc.

But this is the first of my marathons where I've kept up decent mileage in the off-season. This is the first of my marathons where I'm physically fit enough to realistically and logically train for a marathon. This is the first of my marathons where I'm actually running most of my scheduled runs.

So why am I so nervous?

I figured out that I'm scared of what it means for me on race day. It means that I'm actually going to have to "bring it" mentally and that I'm going to have to push through my fatigue because I've trained to do so. In years past, if I was tired, I dropped to a walk and stayed there because it was comfortable and because I knew my half-assed training hadn't prepared me to go the full 26.2 running so why even try to make it past 20 running - hey, as long as I made it across the finish line, that was ok.

Now, I'm really training and that means no excuses on race day. Damn, that's scary.

Back to it...

I'm back from a weekend in NYC. Fantastic in every way!

I did the NYRR Long Training Run #1 on Saturday. Saw a ton of my Fred's Team teammates and friends and our coach Jeff; and a few folks I know from the NY Flyers as well.

I was hamming and hawing all last week about what to run on Saturday. Should I do the 11 miles scheduled (a cutback week), or stay around the 14 miles from the previous week? I did the scheduled 11 miles.

I had some sharp pain w/ my adductor around mile 3, but kept going and after a few minutes, it eased up. No change to my gait, so I kept going. The hills kicked my butt as usual. Also had issues getting the Clif Bloks package open and had to come to a full stop to fight w/ it - if I use those during my marathon, I'm putting them into snack-size ziplocs pre-race. Lost my pace group at that point but kept them in sight.

Anyways, walked a good 5-6 miles post-run on Saturday just tooling around town, and walked a good bit yesterday too, so my legs feel pretty good.

Back at it tonight w/ 6 tempo if I'm not mistaken. That's where I got my adductor problem last week, though, so I'll play it by ear and maybe go 6 easy.

What a sunrise!

I'm up early for a flight to NYC to do LTR#1, as always, I wake up hours before my alarm in fear of missing my flight - even for an 8:00 a.m. flight. d'oh!

The benefit to that is I'm witnessing an absolutely gorgeous sunrise right now - some blue sky w/ scattered clouds, but the color starts at the pink of cotton candy and ranges all the way to hot pink and a little orange in there too. :-)

Did 3 easy miles last night. Had some adductor discomfort, but not enough to change my gait, so I went ahead and did it. That brings my running for the week to 5 on Monday, 3 Thursday, a grand total of 8 miles so far.

We'll see how the long run goes tomorrow. I'd like to do 14, a repeat of last weekend's run.

adductor issues

I went running for the car when I left work yesterday during a downpour, and had the same adductor pain as Monday during my tempo run, so I took yesterday as USRD#2.

I'll try again tonight w/ an easy run, any distance at this point will be fine.

I have a plane ticket to NYC this weekend to run the NYRR Long Training Run #1 on Saturday, and I darn well better be able to run it.

and the meat of the playlist - because you know I'm a fanatic about these guys - U2 and lots of it

Angel Of Harlem
Bad
Beautiful Day
City Of Blinding Lights
Crumbs From Your Table
Elevation
Gloria
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
I Will Follow - THE BEST RUNNING SONG ***EVER***
In God's Country
Kite
Mysterious Ways
New Year's Day
New York
One Tree Hill
Party Girl
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Red Hill Mining Town
Running To Stand Still
So Cruel
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Sweetest Thing
The Electric Co.
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
Vertigo
Walk On
Walk On [Live]
Where The Streets Have No Name
Yahweh
Zoo Station

my iPod running playlist

Conventional Wisdom -Built To Spill
Finally -Ce Ce Peniston
Move On Up -Curtis Mayfield
Bennie And The Jets -Elton John
Shame -Evelyn "Champagne" King
Brown Eyed Girl -Everclear
Wonderful -Everclear
I Don't Wanna Be -Gavin DeGraw
Freedom 90 -George Michael
One Man Wrecking Machine -Guster
You Sexy Thing -Hot Chocolate
Dancing In The Street -Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
Everywhere -Michelle Branch
It's My Life -No Doubt
Take A Letter Maria -R.B. Greaves
What's The Frequency, Kenneth? -R.E.M.
The Power -Snap!
Burning Down The House -Talking Heads
Once In A Lifetime -Talking Heads
This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) -Talking Heads
Dream On Dreamer -The Brand New Heavies
My Best Friend's Girl -The Cars
When The Stars Go Blue (Featuring Bono) -The Corrs
What You Get -The Damnwells
I Confess -The English Beat
Mirror In The Bathroom -The English Beat
Save It For Later -The English Beat
Fire Island, AK -The Long Winters
Bitter Sweet Symphony -The Verve
6th Avenue Heartache -The Wallflowers
One Headlight -The Wallflowers
How's It Going To Be -Third Eye Blind
Free Fallin' -Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
I Won't Back Down [Live] -Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Wednesday 8 Aug.

I took yesterday as an USRD (UnScheduled Rest Day) to be safe about the adductor pain I was having Monday. Bothered me most of the day yesterday, but seems to be better this a.m. so I'm going to try running again.

So tonight is either 5 easy miles, OR long intervals (4-6 x 1 mile at 9:53 miles). Frankly, I think I'll cough up a lung after the first of those intervals, and am not sure speedwork is a great idea right now w/ adductor. So, plan of attack is to do a mile warm-up and see how I feel - and that point, either do another 4 easy miles, or move into the intervals.

I'll keep you posted. :-)

it's always something!

I'm home from my run. I was schedule for 6 tempo at 10:28 miles, I ended up doing 5 miles. Felt a little tightness at top inside of my left thigh for most of the run, and at 4.75 miles, it was suddenly painful enough to alter my gait, so I finished it up at 5 miles.

Guess I'll play tomorrow by ear. Won't panic right away like I did for my 1 week ITBS flare-up that disappeared as quickly as it arrived.

My 14 miles are done and dusted. I took my plan seriously today and did slow (although not as slow as it told me - it had me doing 12:28 miles and I'm just not gonna do that ).

So did 14 in 2:43:30. First 5 felt awkward, next 5 felt great, last 4 weren't a lot of fun. Treadmill, by the way. Bored senseless, but let's just go w/ the mental toughness theory.

Now that my miles are getting up there, I'm having a decent amount of discomfort where I have a screw in my tibia from an ACL reconstruction. I think about having it removed every year when it starts bothering me, but the recovery would impact my running season or my ski season, neither of which I'm willing to give up.

I'm all crusty w/ salt right now, so off to get myself cleaned up and then possible mini-golf game in the works...

I think I'm entering the mid-training-season doldrums. I know my legs can do the mileage, but gosh, it's tough getting the motivation to get out the door for these long runs.

I say this as I sit here trying to motivate to go run 14 miles. Next week, 16 miles; and the week after that, even more miles. I'm tired just thinking about it.

I love the payoff of marathon Sunday - it's more fun than you can possibly imagine - but DANG, I really hate the training. I say this every year (and anyone who knows me has heard me say it a thousand times), but I'm sticking to half-marathons for a while after I get through this year's marathon.

change of plans

Well, my drinks date for tonight has to reschedule so I'm free to run tonight. Is that like pouring salt on the wound or what? :-)

I took yesterday as USRD (UnScheduled Rest Day), so will either run the 6-mile tempo that I was supposed to do last night, or will more likely do my 14-mile long run and get it out of the way.

That'll be 14 miles in the bank before the weekend gets out of hand.

Tempo run again tonight

My schedule has me doing a 6-mile tempo run again tonight, so guess that's what I'm doing. We're in the mid-90s today, so I'll definitely be on the treadmill tonight. Fully loaded iPod, water, and I'm good to go.

Did 6 tempo last night, so 5 easy on tap for tonight. We're reaching the high 80s by mid-afternoon, so I might be on the treadmill. Not that I mind it, to be honest... :-)

High 90s and humid forecast for tomorrow so am DEFINITELY on the treadmill then.

By the way, have I mentioned lately that I'm sticking with half-marathons for a while? :-)