The Post-Race Wrap Up

Well, well, well...It is a day shy of one week after the 23rd running of the Big Sur International Marathon. I've mostly recovered from the race, had a nice vacation and am now back to home on the East coast ready to unload the details of this thing for which I trained for so long (hold on, I've got a lot to say).The last week of the taper was pretty uneventful. Lower mileage, a lot of time working my IT band with a foam roller and hoping not to have any problems on race day (I didn't). We were up, out and on a plane by 7:20 on Friday, which put...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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....

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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...

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9 Weeks Until Race Day

Well...To put it mildly, this was a low morale week for me. I've been feeling under the weather all week, so it makes it that much harder to find the motivation to stay on track and get out there and run. Add that with the fact that I've been on a structured, 5 days a week plan for 21 weeks, and I feel like I'm allowed a week of blarg now and then.I'm definitely a morning guy, but had to postpone my long mid-week run (7 miles) until the afternoon on Wednesday. The weather was much better (shorts and 60s), but the 4 miles the next morning were...

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10 Weeks Until Race Day

Halfway there! Uhh, sort of. At least by mileage. Ten weeks to go, and today was our longest and most challenging run yet - 13 hilly miles. I'm hoping that the route we took today is somewhat comparable to the Big Sur course. We still haven't found a 2 mile long hill (hello Hurricane Point), but I feel like we got a lot of ups and downs today. Everyone survived unscathed, but ready to be done (at least I know I was).Today was also time for new shoes. As I tally up my training miles, it looks like I've put about 319 miles on my shoes. They're not...

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11 Weeks Until Race Day

Today was a 12 mile jaunt around Salem Lake. Uneventful it was not, as Nathan found a pile of something to step in and Mike took a tumble (or two) over some very poorly placed roots. I managed to stay upright and survive the run, but I was cashed at the end. Feeling pretty good now, so I'm hoping I'll recover strong and be ready for another big week next week (up to 13 miles, with a much hillier course than this week).You'll notice from the video that we all had headphones today. No, we're not completely anti-social, but as those miles tick by,...

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12 Weeks Until Race Day

Another week in the books, faithful readers...This week was capped off by a 7 mile run today. As a "stepback" week, the mileage was a little less than last week. This is, unfortunately, the last Saturday that we'll see single digit miles until our taper down period a couple weeks before the race. For any of you that may be interested in the details, you can check out the training plan we're doing here. Next week jumps up to a 12 mile run (almost halfway through the full marathon distance). See how I'm using that glass half full mentality? I'll...

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13 Weeks Until Race Day

Here we are with blog post #2. This week's total mileage was 21, with 10 of those being today. Thursday was a major battle of wills between myself and the pillow, but I prevailed (barely). 10 miles was another uncharted distance, but I think we covered it well. My average pace per mile was 9'13" - pretty respectable with 2 walking breaks for water and power gel. That would put me in roughly the 4 hour range for the actual marathon. As you'll see from today's clip, power gel/GU is the ever-so-appetizing source of calories during these longer runs....

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Getting Started...and Caught Up

OK folks, let's get caught up to speed before I dive headfirst into this blogging thing. Late last summer, a couple friends (thanks Mike and Nathan) decided that running a marathon would be a good idea. After some heavy convincing (thanks in large part to the Big Sur website), I decided that I would give this thing a go.Now mind you, I've always had a pretty strong aversion to running (unless being chased or chasing a soccer ball) , but after researching marathons and training, I decided that this would be a great goal/personal challenge for me....

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