1 Week Until Race Day

We've made it. Today was our last remotely "long" run, clocking in at 8 miles. That's a lap and change (and a snake sighting) around Salem Lake. Next week's runs don't go over 4 miles until we get to Sunday and run for 26.2 miles. In a row. Wow.

This is gonna be the shout out blog if you'll indulge me a bit...

Nathan - Thanks for putting this crazy idea in my head, and applying the appropriate level of torque to my arm to help me decide to run.

Mike - I've seen and smelled more of you over the last 30 weeks than is probably normal. But thanks for sticking with me. I certainly wouldn't have been able to complete the training without your support. I'm looking forward to that post race adult beverage.

Ruth Ann - Thanks for putting up with a half-day husband, and letting me sprout roots and grow into the couch after all of those long Saturday runs. Your patience through this process has been great.

Family/Friends/SRTers - Thanks for listening to my stories/bellyaching/overly detailed running stories (I read this and felt sorry for you all). All of the "so proud of you" comments really helped get me out of bed on those early morning runs.


This will likely be the last post before the big day. I do plan to carry the camera with me on race day, so check back in a week or so to see my footage and trip/race/vacation recap from the 2008 Big Sur International Marathon.

B

Read More

2 Weeks Until Race Day

Holy friggin' cow are we ever close to marathon day.

I had a little scare this week with my hip. It had been bothering me since the last long run. Wednesday's 8 miler was pretty painful - almost to the point of stopping. I was a little leary of the Saturday run, but was able to complete it without any sharp pain. A little discomfort, but nothing I couldn't manage. I did pick up a foam roller to work out my IT band between now and race day, but think I'm in the clear. Saturday's run was laps around Lake Junaluska up in the mountains. Beautiful scenery and great weather, perhaps a little payback for all the recent rain. On more of a down note, it looks like we've lost one of our runners. Nathan has been fighting off knee pain for the last month or so and has come to the conclusion that he won't be able to run the race. Definitely hate it for him, but it's a little more motivation to finish it myself.

I thought I'd take a few minutes this week to catch up on some stats, since I've been tracking them religiously. I started this plan somewhat fit from cycling season, so I had a decent base fitness. But all this running has really dropped some pounds. I'm down somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15 pounds from where I started, tipping the scales at a whopping 161 lbs (my wife affectionately refers to me as Skeletor). A lot of that weight loss was upper body strength, but my body fat percentage has dipped to around 12%.

The runs themselves have also improved. Lower average heartrate (low/mid 130s for the past 3 weeks, down from high 140s at the start back in October) and a mostly consistent pace (9'30" - 9'50" on average) as the mileage has gone up. All said, things are really working according to plan. As we continue to taper (great articles on the taper period here and here), I'm confident that the work we've put in will pay off, and that I'll recover, heal and be ready for 26.2. In two weeks...

B

Read More

3 Weeks Until Race Day

11'06". Really? That's over a full minute slower than my slowest training pace to date, but that was my average pace for the long 20-miler. I had a BAD day. From about mile 5 on, I couldn't find a rhythm, my legs were heavy and just wouldn't go for me. My normal level of effort was resulting in slow, painful miles.

This is the first bad day I've had and hopefully will be the last. There have been tough days, sure, but nothing that felt like this - I just couldn't convince my body to go. But, I hope it's out of my system. I'm looking forward to Tuesday to prove to myself that it's out of my system. I tried to figure out what might have caused this, but to no avail. Did I eat wrong? Didn't hydrate? The best reason I could find was that my mind really fought me. The forecast was for hard rain, and I really didn't want to run through it again. Maybe the ol' noggin just got the best of me. It took the great support of my better half to drag me out of the mental basement when it was all said and done.

But, on the bright side. I DID finish. I passed our starting point at mile 16, thought about stopping, but didn't. It was a moral victory to finish this at all, even if those last few miles were extra slow. Definitely not the triumphant finish to the apex of my training I had imagined, but a finish nonetheless. And other that Saturday, the other runs this week were great. I feel fit and am looking forward to a couple taper weeks to get ready for the big 26.2.

Enjoy the videos - they really show the range of emotion/exhaustion of this rollercoaster week.

Almost there,
B

Read More