4 Weeks Until Race Day

We're really into the home stretch now, faithful readers. In less than a month, this thing will all be over and done with. I will have hopefully conquered the marathon, got a medallion and bought up as much 26.2 memorabilia as possible, and will be ready to start the real vacation part of the trip.

We ran a total of 33 miles this week, but after some brief flirtation with spring last week, it was back to chilly starts in the morning. And a brand new element for our long run.

Rain.

Believe it or not, it's the first time in this entire plan that rain was unavoidable. In that context, I really can't complain, but the first 5 miles or so were pretty miserable. We were wet and cold out of the gate, but the rain did taper off towards the back half of the run. And now, we mentally can handle a wet day, in case the marathon gods are in a bad mood on the last Sunday in April.

Next week is the big one. Our peak training week of 40 miles, with 20 of those coming on Saturday. Stay tuned for the report.

B

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5 Weeks Until Race Day

Here we are again. Another big training week in the books, capped off by a new long distance of 18 miles on Saturday. We continue to plod through our training and fight of the aches, pains and parnoia of serious injury. Someone getting sidelined at this point in the game (after 25 weeks of training) would be a tough pill to swallow without a doubt.

The long run on Saturday was slower than normal (9'50" average per mile), but I think we've all attributed it to the training load. This plan has a 2 week taper period before the actual marathon, so that time of rest and recovery should (let's hope) deliver us to the starting line ready to go. And just before that taper is our longest training run of 20 miles, which comes a week from Saturday. It's all downhill from there.

Over the last week or so, we've started looking more closely at our agenda for our time out West, which makes this whole thing seem more real and has helped the motivation as well. Monterey, San Fran, Napa Valley - here we come...

A couple of video clips this week. The first set is from an early 9 mile run. I'll just say that I've been lucky enough not to suffer from Mike's "condition". The second clip is just after the 18-miler - tired, salty and ready to sit down.

B

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6 Weeks Until Race Day

I'm pretty sure the light I'm seeing is that elusive light at the end of the tunnel. With just 6 weeks of training left and of those weeks, only 2 with really long runs (18 and 20), I'm feeling pretty good about surviving this plan and accomplishing this wild goal of running 26.2 miles.

This week wasn't so bad. Upped the midweek mileage a bit, but came back down for a shorter weekend run. Felt pretty good about the long run, but am definitely feeling the effects of all this wear and tear. The knee hasn't gotten any worse, but my body is starting to revolt against all the pounding. Cardio-wise, things are good, but after we finished yesterday, everything just ached. Still nothing a little time on the couch didn't remedy, so no major complaints.

I think that's it for now. Check in again next week to see if running 18 miles makes me cry...

B

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7 Weeks Until Race Day

Pain. Sure, some is to be expected - I AM training for a marathon. And not to say that this training regimen has been all fun and games, but...


Until recently, I've had the occasionally soreness, stiffness and general desire to sit on the couch after our long runs, but nothing more than that. Starting last week, I went to a new place. I went deep into the pain cave, dropped the flashlight and it was dark, if you catch my drift. I worked up some serious blisters that didn't quite heal enough through the week and came back with a vengence yesterday. Add into that a nice case of "runner's knee" and I'm feeling a little banged up. The knee thing is weird and kind of comes and goes during the longer runs, but I think I can manage it. As long as I can shake these blisters, I think I'll be in good shape. I certainly haven't done all this training to let a little extra pain sidetrack me...

B

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8 Weeks Until Race Day

I am writing this post as one tired puppy. Just finished our first 15 mile training run. This was my first long run in my new shoes and I paid for it. I've got blisters that would make Dr. Scholl's blush - on both feet. Hoping that these will quickly heal/harden and I'll be back on my merry way, but they definitely caused me to struggle today. Towards the end of the run, I fixated on each step and couldn't get my mind to a happy running place.

That being said, we did still finish. Big shout out to Nathan for running the whole distance after being sick all week, and equal props to Mike for "headphone mode". That guy puts on the tunes and disappears down the trail/road.

Next week we up the mileage during the week and tag on another mile to the long run. Here's to quick recovery and being ready to run again on Tuesday.

B

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