ONE. DAY. LEFT!

FINAL TRAINING LOG:

2011-MAY-26
Keeping with the spirit of the Taper, this was a rest day.  I did go the Mike Blount's Active Stretching class at Synergy Fitness after work to get a good foam-roller "workout."  It's amazing a) how much something so easy looking can hurt so much; and b) how good your muscles feel afterwards.  As of Wednesday night, I started dosing with Aleve 2x daily to try to bring down some of the lingering inflammation behind my left knee.  My leg responded very well, probably to a combination of the NSAID, the standing desk, the lighter workouts & additional rest days, the increased stretching, the PT, and the fact that the damn thing can only hurt for so long!

We also did our Family Meeting for Team Deep Fried Bacon and did some gorging on food (no "drink" for me, at least not the kind that comes in a corked or capped bottle).  I was an alternate to run for the team, but ended up not needing to fill in, so I'll be doing the whole thing solo in my Company's enQuesta Runtime sleeveless shirt vs. the red Team DFB tech shirt (both of which look totally hawt!)

Due to the unpredictable/unknown nature of dinner-time meal, the diet log for today is ends mid-afternoon. I can comfortably say that I hit my calorie goal for the day. :)
2011-MAY-26 Diet Log

2011-MAY-27
Crap, this race is getting close!  I logged 3 miles at my goal pace today in what will be my last run/workout before the race.  The weather for this weekend is looking awful (hot, humid, bleah) and I was hoping it would be hotter out for the run so I could see what it's going to be like.  Alas, it was a very pleasant day to be out & about.

My leg didn't bother me during the run (my hamstring was tight afterward, but it stretched out okay).  I ran at a comfortable pace which ended up being 7:48 per mile (goal was 7:55).  I didn't have my Nike+ shoes today & didn't want to run with The Belt to carry the Droid, so there's no real-time data for this run.  Sunday's run should be fully geeked out. :)
2011-MAY-27 Diet Log
2011-MAY-27 MapMyRun map of, um, my run (manually created)

2011-MAY-28
Writing mid-day with jitters already.  As this afternoon progresses and I move through more & more pre-race prep, the pre-race jitters grow!  I sat down to write to take my mind off it for a bit (fat lot of good that did!)

I'm doing a slightly increased carb diet today & yesterday and dropping down on protein & fat. I'm sticking with my ~3000 Kcal diet goal and not trying to blast in extra calories.  If I've done this right, my muscles will be full loaded with glycogen and adding a gut full of pasta tonight would only add either a) weight to carry for entire race, or b) weight that may decide it desperately wants to part ways with my body somewhere around mile 16.

Laura & I hit the expo today with the girls to get our bibs and race packets.  We went late morning and I was hoping it wouldn't be a mob-scene.  Thankfully, it wasn't and we were able to get our stuff and take a couple of laps around the expo and score a few good deals on running gear.

I'm adding my Diet Log for today now, but it won't be complete until later today.  The 5(ish)AM wake-up call tomorrow morning is going to come VERY early.

For those who want to track my run, my bib (#2056) will update at 10, 13.1, 20, and 26.2 miles.  The link to get those updates is here: http://cdn.bazumedia.com/iframe/vtcm2011-results.html  Additionally, assuming iMapMyRun is working correctly, it will be spitting out every-mile updates to Twitter (@Corrado).

Wish me luck!

Final Week of Pre-Marathon Taper!

TRAINING LOG:

2011-MAY-22
T-Minus one week to race day.  The plan for the day was a 10-mile run at Marathon Pace (~7:55/mi).  I ran my favorite 8-mile loop out through Old Stage Road and added a 2-mile jaunt out to Indian Brook and back.  My left leg was still bugging me a little bit, but my general rule is that if it doesn't hurt enough to affect my stride, it's okay to run.  The idea for the run was that it would act as a dry run for race weekend.  Same pre-race ritual, same attire, same shoes. same pace, etc.

In all regards, the run was a success.  The shoes worked great, the new team shirt was comfy & chafe-free, and the pace felt easy.  That doesn't mean by any stretch that running 26.2 miles will be quite so comfortable, but at least I feel like I've done what I need to do to get there.
2011-MAY-22 Diet Log
2011-MAY-22 RunKeeper Stats
2011-MAY-22 Nke+ Run Graph -- This was the final test for the shoes, so the run also doubled as a calibration for the Nike+ sensor I've been using on the Asics; as a result, the data are a bit off.

2011-MAY-23
This week is all about getting ready for the race -- no hard work-outs, at least, not for the lower body.  On Monday I went to my LIFT! class and was pleased to find that the focus of the day's class was upper-body.  Lots of shoulder work!
2011-MAY-23 Diet Log

2011-MAY-24
Typically Tuesday is the day I run my intervals, but I really felt like an additional day off running would help my *still* naggingly sore leg.  So I went to spinning class and took the approach that anything that felt like it was becoming a good workout was too much.  My goal was to keep moving for the duration of the class and give my legs a chance to warm up and then spend some additional time stretching & rolling out my legs after class.

I also had my a session with my PT to get his opinion on my leg and what I could do to get it to loosen up.  The good news is that he didn't find anything new and gave me a few exercises to do leading up to the race to help free up my hips and get my lower body working like it's SUPPOSED to.
2011-MAY-24 Diet Log

2011-MAY-25
I was a little nervous going into my interval run (6x400) today.  If I felt like it would have been too much of a push for my leg, I would have modified the workout, but I also know that the interval runs also have a tendency to really work out some of the ailments I've had in the past.  I ran the first 400m interval a few ticks slower, just to see how it felt.  The remaining 5 intervals were run at full pace and felt pretty comfortable.

The standing desk thing is getting easier as the week goes.  I don't feel the leg fatigue I did for the first day or two and I haven't been missing my chair as much as I did early on!
2011-MAY-25 Diet Log
2011-MAY-25 Nike+ Treadmill Graph

As the week wears on, I'm marking off the days to the race.  It's still doesn't feel real.  That's not stopping me from getting nervous about it! More than anything, I'm ready for it to be over!

A Week in Shreveport, LA

TRAINING LOG:

Week of 2011-MAY-17
Well, it's officially happened.  I've become senile.  I confused *myself* with my "start at the ending and end at the beginning" post and got about 2 days in to this write-up before I realized I was retracing my steps. We also got our Company Relay race shirts and our Family Relay race shirts in this week (back design for Family Relay shirt to the left).

ANYWAY, this is my "Shreveport Week" and it's an easy write-up.  I took a week off from tracking my food (I still tried to eat modestly) and used it as a bit of an opportunity to try resting my body instead of adding to the stress of travel and client meetings with trying to keep hard workouts going.

On Tuesday (17th) I had a good interval run (6x800) along the riverwalk and I ditched my late-week tempo run to rest my naggingly sore left leg in order to be as healthy as possible for my last long run @ MP this weekend.  -- Runkeeper Stats & Map and Nike+ Graph

My only other marginally serious workout was a self-administered "gut check" fitness test on Wednesday night.  Last summer, I spontaneously set a goal to do 100 push-ups in a day (inspired by my friend Deb who did 100 per day for the entire month of May!)  After knocking those out pretty quickly, I changed the goal to do 300 in a 24h day.  That was a good challenge at the time and and I split it up to do 10-20 every 30 minutes or so.  Over the winter, I was traveling in Port Huron, MI and decided to see how quickly I could do 100 push-ups (4:00 is supposed to be a good mark).  I think my time was around 6:50.  I can't do 100 in a row, so the idea is that you can rest/stretch/whatever, but the clock keeps moving until you're done with #100.

Since one of my goals for this marathon was that I didn't want to LOSE any conditioning, I figured I'd see where I was about 4 months later.  When #100 was completed, I stopped the timer and saw that I trimmed over 2 minutes off my time, getting down to a 4:28.

That pretty well wraps up the week (last week) in Shreveport.  I rose way too early on Friday to fly home and took Saturday as another "day off" before my last long run going in to the last week before the race!

My next post will pick up on 2011-MAY-22 with the 10 mile run (...and yes, that comment is more for my benefit so I know where to begin!)

"You can stuff your Sorry's in a sack!" -- (it's an expression)

TRAINING LOG:

(Part 2 of the “start in the present and write into the past” thread)

2011-MAY-12

I read an article on the benefits of a “standing desk” and decided to give it a whirl.  I’ve had issues for ever with tight hamstrings and poor flexibility and I know my desk-bound slouch isn’t a good thing.  I also did my first run in my new Asics Gel Kayano 17s.  I’m working on breaking them in advance of the marathon since I’m still not sure if I’m going to race in those or my ultralight Saucony Fastwitch 4s.

The run-du-jour was a 5 mile run at short-tempo pace.  It was a nice, sunny(ish) day and in the mid 60s.  I set out on my 5 mile loop and felt pretty decent for the first mile or so (other than the usual, “OMG this sucks!” you get with the first mile of a run until things warm/loosen up).  One of the things I struggle with when I get new sneakers is the break-in period.  I’ve talked about it before and it manifests itself differently depending on the shoe manufacturer & model, but in the case of the Asics, it felt like there were hot coals where the insole should have been under the ball of my right foot.

The idea behind a tempo run is that you do a fairly intense, sustained workout for a moderate distance to put your body under stress and strong-arm it into accepting the fact that this is something you expect it do and it damn well better adapt!  The problem with this workout became trying to balance the need/desire to complete a solid tempo run (which I could have done, but with extreme discomfort) with the knowledge that the unpleasantness I felt every time my right foot hit the pavement would very soon result in my stride changing to compensate. 

That’s a bad thing.  Once you’ve settled into your running stride/groove/form/whatever-you-want-to-call-it, your body begins the process of adapting to that specific movement and stresses it places on bones, muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, etc.  This commonly causes varying body parts to hurt to varying degrees for varying amounts of time until some sort of equilibrium is reached.  When you change that stride, you start that process all over again.

So my options were a) suck it up & keep running the Tempo Run, knowing that something new would hurt which would likely cause something else to hurt and & so on & so on for days or weeks or b) call off the tempo run and find a suitable pace to get back to the gym.  I ended up doing a little of both, running for a while longer to see if the burning would go away (it didn’t) and spent the last 2 miles of the run at more of a jog, alternating between walking intervals as needed.  The result was that I missed the goal of the tempo run distance, but still managed to get in a decent run.

2011-MAY-12 Nike+ Run Graph

2011-MAY-12 Diet Log

2011-MAY-11

Kettlebell class, nothing remarkable in terms of strength.  We did some extended circuits and kept everything light (16kg).  I’m definitely looking forward to getting back to STRENGTH training.

2011-MAY-11 Diet Log

2011-MAY-10

Today’s run was supposed to be a 8x800.  That just didn’t happen!  I went in with the best intentions and I’m pretty sure I could have powered through the workout, but after the first one or two, my hamstring was still feeling VERY twingy.  Being this close to the race, I’m increasingly cognizant of “pushing the evelope” at the expense of breaking the contents. 

So I called off the interval workout and did some runs at marathon pace to try to improve the calibration of my HRM’s pedometer (it currently says my “race pace” is 10.1 MPH or just under 6:00 per mile) and did an extended post race stretch & cool-down.

2011-MAY-10 Diet Log

2011-MAY-10 Nike+ Treadmill Workout

2011-MAY-09

Happy Birthday to me!  I turn 0x25 today.  Workout today was focused on higher reps and lighter weights and the goal seemed to be complete upper body punishment.  In that regard, class was a success!   Birthday means wine and tonight I celebrated with a bottle Wellington Noir de Noirs and a perfectly grilled medium rare steak and fillet of cod with a stupidly large serving of cake and a reasonable pour of Knob Creek bourbon for dessert.  Happy Birthday to me indeed!

2011-MAY-09 Diet Log

More anything? MORE EVERYTHING!

As a HUGE fans of the sitcom Seinfeld, my wife and I frequently fall into dialog from the show as part of our normal conversation.  You’d be surprised how readily, “Fredo was weak and stupid; he shouldn’t have eaten that key!” and “You put a balm on? Who told you to put the balm on? Did I tell you the balm on?” can supplement everyday discussion!  Yes, there’s a point to this odd bit of trivia and a connection to this post.

I find myself once again behind in my blogging and looking to write an encyclopedic “catchup” post.  Typically I pick up where I last left off and move forward.  Today, however, I’m composing at 30,000 feet with a dose of Woodford Reserve Bourbon (thank you, Delta, for the complementary First Class upgrade!) on my left and some dude who may be reading this over my shoulder waaaay off to my right (Hey Dude!).  International-travel planes aren’t WiFi equipped, so I’m stone-aged with (oooh! Snack tray!! Banana, Sun Chips, low-salt, dry roasted peanuts, and bottled water; no “meal” on this flight? BOOO!!  – sorry, distracted...) no internet, so I can't pull up my blog page.  Since I have no idea where I left off, I’ll start with the current and work backward... which was the very creative premise of (you guessed it) a Seinfeld episode!

TRAINING LOG: 

2011-MAY-16

Travel day, going to Shreveport, LA.  I’ll be getting in a few ‘heat training’ runs.  The weather has been overall COLD in Vermont and there’s a definite possibility that the start time of the race will be the hottest weather I’ve run in since September of last year.  Did I mention I hate exercising in the heat?

I’m not going to formally track my diet on this trip.  It’s such a hassle to manage formal diet tracking when dining out and it’s pretty much shooting in the dark to try to come up with reasonable estimates.  I’ll still try to eat a moderately healthy diet and, from what I’ve been reading, a bit of an uptick of fat (I typically struggle to get up to 25% fat in my diet; research indicates runners do better with 30-35%) with a dropoff of protein in my diet would be a good thing in terms of “performance nutrition.”

(…Biscoff Gourmet Ginger Snaps?  Why yes, sir, I would love a package!  Thank you very much!)

2011-MAY-15

Officially my “day off” and “diet cheat day” for the week. (Yes, I would love another ridiculously small, but refreshing, bottle of Dasani!)  I started diet tracking and then we had Taco Salad for dinner and and I had zero enthusiasm for weighing and entering about a dozen different ingredients, so no diet log!

I chose very wisely to run yesterday as the weather today is truly ugly (low 50s & rain rain rain).  I saw lots of Facebook posts and updates from local friends who ran on Sunday and was very, very glad I wasn’t one of them!

I travel to Shreveport, LA, tomorrow, and travel days are notoriously tough for my diet, but in a way that probably differs for most.  If you’ve been paying attention, you know that I typically shoot for around 3000 Kcal per day on average and even more when I run stupid distances.  It’s often difficult to get nutritive calories in when traveling through 3 airport over the course of 10 hours.  I snack here & there and grab what I can on the airplane (snacks are gone at this point; the carcasses lingered briefly on shelf next to my ¾ reclined seat before being whisked away as I cracked open my 3^rd bottle of Dasani).  

The back of my left knee continues to be troublesome.  I need to resume my PT exercises and rule out hip flexors as the cause.  I can definitely run with this and I don’t think it will end up being a showstopper on the course, but it may make me bed-ridden (or severely hobbled) for a day or two following the race. 

2011-MAY-14

My last kinda “long run” and what I’ll call the official beginning of my taper.  Holy s**t, I’m going to run a freakin’ marathon in 2 weeks!  My long run this week is the shortest scheduled long run since my first week on the plan – 13 miles.  This one was supposed to be at Marathon Pace (Oh, sure, I’ll take another Woodford Reserve.  Thank you, kind sir!) and I felt like I struggled the entire way to keep the pace.  My Nike+ kept spitting out the every-mile updates and my best-case scenario was fighting to keep an 8:00 mile on a slight downhill (my goal MP is 7:55 per mile).  I’ve felt very blah on my last few runs and this really wasn’t helping me feel like I was ready to challenge a 3:30 marathon (for reference, running 8:00 miles for the duration just squeaks in under 3:30).

I ran one of my normal routes in reverse, so I really had no good benchmarks for time & distance.  It wasn’t until coming back into my neighborhood that I realized that my Nike+ had been lying to me for the past 90 minutes.  By its report, I was over 2 minutes off my pace for the 13 mile run (I should be in at around 1:45), but here I was, 0.75 miles from home and seeing a time on my watch that was considerably faster. 

I ended up completing the 13.6 mile run in 1:44:30.  My first “warm-up” mile was right about where I wanted to be at 8:20 and then I was consistently cranking times well under 8:00 for the rest of the run.  My best Half Marathon *race* was run at a 7:41 per mile pace.  According to RunKeeper (which is GPS based vs. the Nike+ which is basically pedometer based) my pace for this *training* run averaged  out to 7:42 per mile. 

While the result somewhat changes my perception of the perceived effort of the run, I’m not thrilled at overrunning the run.  I was pushing too hard and, while I’m glad that I had the fitness to run that distance in that time, I will certainly pay for it in terms of muscle fatigue and recovery.  I usually have a very good sense of my pace and to be that far off of what “felt” like the right pace makes me feel a little n00bish again.  Fortunately, the race has Pacing Groups  and mile markers, so I can better track my actual pace on known intervals and use the 3:30 pacing group as a benchmark of about where I need to be to hit my goal.

2011-MAY-14 Diet Log

2011-MAY-14 Run Data (RunKeeper)

2011-MAY-14 Run Graph (Nike+; wrong mileage & pacing)

2011-MAY-13

(No, thank you very much, but while another bourbon would be great, responsibility dictates that I request another bottle of Dasani instead.  Thank you again, sir!)

Day 2 of the “Standing Desk Experiment” went a little better today, but dear lord is it different!  On a few occasions, I would wander off to talk to a co-worker about some work-related nugget of information. I would start walking back to my cubicle wondering why I was looking so forward to sitting down… only to have my dreams dashed with the realization that that there was no sitting down!  I wore my new Asics Gel Kayano 17s today instead of dress shoes, so at least I was standing in shoes with good support!

Considering how dinged up I’ve been feeling this week (standing-desk didn’t help, but I suspect it will be better for me in the long run), I opted out of my cardio class at the gym.  My left hamstring behind the knee is still sore and I’m not entirely sure why it’s not recovering properly.  I absolutely could have muscled through the class and been fine, but I’m also looking toward this weekend’s long run and, given the lousy running workouts I’ve had recently, I really need to have a good run and at least FEEL like I’m getting my mojo back.

2011-MAY-13 Diet Log

(...and here I conclude my Delta First Class experience, deplane and wander around The ATL for a few hours...)  Good stopping point for this update; the next one will go back in time a bit further.

"This is the 2nd best idea that we've ever had!"

TRAINING LOG:

(link to video; uncensored language, NSFW w/o Headphones)

I made a comment the other day that I never seem to do anything half-assed; it's either no-assed or full-assed.  I immediately realized that, of the three options, half-assed really sounded like the best option!  So, in the spirit of half-assedery, here's what I've been up to.








Monday, May 2nd -- LIFT! 
Class at the gym; upper body abuse with barbells & dumbbells.  Some lower body work via lunges, deadlifts, squats.  
2011-MAY-02 Diet Log

Tuesday, May 3rd -- 10x400 Intervals Run. 
First interval run in a few weeks.  This one felt really good.  Ran in my Saucony Fastwitch 4 race shoes to see how the felt (and they were awesome!).  I'll do one more outdoor run in them leading up to the race to calibrate my Nike+ sensor to the shoe and validate that they're still in good shape for a kinda long run.
2011-MAY-03 Nike+ Treadmill Graph -- you'd think they could figure out a way to better interpret the raw data; these graphs look like CRAP!
2011-MAY-03 Diet Log

Wednesday, May 4th (Star Wars Day -- May the 4th be with you!) -- Kettlebells
I went in to class with the idea of staying light and using only the 16kg KB.  I ended up doing some fun double-KB work with the 12kg KBs (squats, swings, 24kg total) and a few get-ups with the 24kg.  Mike put together a circuit from hell that included get-ups, swings, push-ups, snatches, mountain-climbers, squats, double-jumps with the jump rope, and a few other nuggets.  First time I've started get physio-pukey in a while!  So much for 'taking it easy!"
2011-MAY-04 Diet Log


Thursday, May 5th (AKA Cinqo de Wy-o, so named after our first ferret from long ago, Wylie, who was born on May 5th) -- 8 mile run @ marathon pace.
What the plan did NOT call for was putting a BF Hill (~ 400' of elevation change in a mile) in the second half of the run (profile w/ pace, below).  This was another hard run at race-pace, but ultimately a successful one.  The iTouch was dead for this run thanks to Apple's "genius" idea to permanently keep their Game Center connected via WiFi, thus draining the battery in a day.

2011-May-05 RunKeeper Map (public) and run stats
2011-May-05 Diet Log

Friday, May 6th -- WhatWhatWhat? Another run?
It was too nice to be inside.  With all the rain and cold we've had, I couldn't pass up a sunny & 50s noontime outing.  Instead of doing my Cardio class, a few of us from work went out for a slow 5 mile run (avg. pace ~ 10:00/mile). Over the last quarter mile, I added a bit of speed at each telephone pole until I was at an all out sprint for the last 50 yds or so.
2011-May-06 Nike+ Run Graph -- Pace/Distance is off.  My stride was much shorter at the slower pace, so more steps = Nike+ thinking I ran faster/further than I did.
2011-May-06 Diet Log

Saturday, May 7th -- 20 mile run... or not.
Scheduled for a 20 mile run, was gunning for around 22.  The run was also prescribed at being 15 seconds off my race pace, but I had already made the decision to run closer to a 9:00 pace to better work the muscles used for "easy effort" running.  Part way into the first of what was going to be two 11 mile loops, I realized that this was a) the first time I'd run 3 days in a row and that 22 miles would put me over the "no more than a 10% increase in weekly mileage" guideline for training.

I ended up re-routing myself after the first loop and shortening the run to about 17 miles.  This still had me running constantly for two and half hours (a good long run).  Even though this was well off my expected race pace, the goal for every workout at this point is to stay healthy.  If I ran longer on this day, I ran the risk of over-taxing my body and affecting the rest of my training leading up to the marathon.  I still have 2 more hard runs (one interval, one tempo) before my training starts tapering off to get ready for the race.

2011-MAY-07 RunKeeper Stats (stopped RunKeeper when I stopped running.  I walked home for the other third of mile that shows up on Nike+)
2011-MAY-07 Nike+ Run Graph
2011-MAY-07 Diet Log -- Came up over 800 Kcal short today and relatively light on water.

Sunday, May 8th (Happy Mother's Day)
Spent the day with my folks, Laura's folks, and family friends in 'dolph.  Ate way too much, then ate some more.  I consider it compensation for being so far under my calorie goal yesterday.  No diet logging today.

An 1800 Kcal exercise day

TRAINING LOG: 

So I stopped writing my last post intending to immediately start up a new one to complete the catch-up.  They I saw Tweets and Facebook updates start popping up in RockMelt which caused me to turn on the TV to see what "big news" Obama was announcing. ...and there went the rest of that night!

Friday ended up being a pretty serious workout day.  I parked my car at work Thursday night and caught a ride home.  Friday morning, I got up early and ran 10 miles to work.  I had left a change of clothes and lunch at the office along with my laptop, and (most importantly) car keys!  There's a LOT more planning & forethought that goes into a run like this than you'd think!

The run was intended to be 10 miles as my marathon pace (I've settled on 7:55 as my goal pace).  My last 10 miler was busted out at a pace about 20 sec/mile faster, but for some reason, the force was not with me on this morning.  It was a fairly tech-free (for me) today since I left my iPod and HRM/wrist watch @ work, but I did run with my Droid and Runkeeper.  It's set to update every mile, so I simply tried to run on what "felt" like a touch faster than 8:00 and used the updates to chart my progress.

It was more difficult to hold the pace than any of my previous runs at this pace or faster for a mid- to long-distance run. My hamstrings just felt off for most of the run.  The only time I really started feeling discouraged was between mile 8 & 9 when I thought, "I really don't think I can keep this pace for 26 miles!" to be follow a few moments later by RunKeeper informing me that I ran that last mile at a 7:30 pace.  Whoops!  Slow down, dumb-ass!

My first mile was 8:53, second at 7:58.  Other than two hills (8:16 & 8:02), I kept everything else between 7:44 and 7:56 (also not counting the 7:30 "oops").  There are some moderate uphills segments, but the net of the run was downhill by a couple hundred feet, so I don't feel like I really over-ran my pace for effort.

I get to work, scamper (yes, scamper) over to the gym, shower, change and start the work day.  A few hours later, I'm back at the gym for my cardio class.  What do we start off with?  Resisted sprints in the parking lot -- one person has an unbreakable resistance band around their waist and a second person trailing behind holding tension on the bands.  10 sprints total.  Then we went inside & did kickboxing moves interspersed with core work.  Total calorie burn for the day estimated at just shy of 1800 Kcal.

2011-APR-29 RunKeeper Stats
2011-APR-29 Diet Log -- yes, I ate allllll 1800 exercise calories!

Saturday ended up being completely an off day.  We went to friends' for their 2 yr old daughter's brunch birthday party which had many, many delicious home-made delights, none of which are remotely close to being on my diet plan... so I didn't track any of them!

Sunday was a wake-up-and-run-15-miles day.  The weather was beautiful when I woke up... with a migraine.    I decided the fresh air may fix it and I really wanted to get out.  As I was getting ready, the nausea which tends to accompany my migraines started creeping in.  No amount of mental coaxing was helping either condition and I ended up getting out of my running gear and crawling back into bed for another 3 hours.

The nausea was gone when I woke up and the headache was bearable, probably transitioning to a hunger- and dehydration-induced headache.  My opportunity for a 15 miler was shot, but I was able to get out for a nice 5 mile run with my Sister-in-law who will be running in the VCMarathon this month on our Family Relay Team (Team Deep Fried Bacon; believe it or not I think it was probably the best option given the other names we were coming up with).  Sunday ended up being another "off the grid" day for diet tracking, but I did manage to remember to turn the iTouch on for the run.

2011-MAY-01 Nike+ Run Graph

I seem to be doing a pretty good job keeping myself 2-3 days behind being current.  I've also been doing a terrible job keeping up with the "MUSINGS" theme I was adding in my early editions of this blog.  Many of those topics will most likely start showing up after the marathon as I reflect on my training and the result of the race.  I've learned a lot about the science and physiology of running as well as nutrition for endurance athletes and it's information that's valuable to consolidate and share.

4 days with noooo running

TRAINING LOG: 



In our last episode, our Hero had just completed a 20 mile run, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat and foiling Captain Fatigue and his IT Band once again.  What lurks around the corner this week?  Well, not much.


The recovery from the 20 miler really wasn't that bad. On Monday, I did my typical LIFT! class at the gym.  The weather was nice enough that we went outside for the class and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  We did a lot of supersetting (two exercises back-to-back) and got a good full-body workout.
2011-APR-25 Diet Log

Tuesday was scheduled to be Interval Day, but one of the staples of my previous training was Spinning and it's something I haven't done as much of this time as I wanted.  I was feeling more quad/hammy soreness today than on Monday and a Spin felt the best option.  The ride today had a Hawaiian ride-along video that was, frankly awful. You think, "Cool! Riding in Hawaii!" but the majority of the video was riding through residential neighborhoods. Where's the coastline?  Where're the volcanos?  ...and I'm pretty sure I saw at LEAST one cloud!

I ended up just keeping my head down for most of it and "visualized" my own ride. Overall I felt good on the bike, but felt weak in the knees toward the end, meaning I've probably lost some fitness there over the past several months.  I definitely need to get a few more sessions in before the race.
2011-APR-26 Diet Log

Predictably, Wednesday was Kettlebell day.  Another outdoor class!  It was upper 60s (maybe low 70s) and gorgeous! My back was still feeling a little tweaky, a carry-over from something I did last week (no clue what).  I stayed light and did the entire class with the 16kg weight, focusing on form & technique and trying to ensure I got full range of motion from the exercises.  Even going light, it was a great workout!
2011-APR-27 Diet Log

Thursday ended up being mostly a day off.  I needed to do a 10 mile Tempo Run and my solution for that was to run to work.  The weather Thursday was ugly, Friday was looking nice, so the extent of Thursday's workout was an Active Stretching class at the gym.  The was short (25 minutes) and centered around the proper use of a foam roller to "massage" muscles using body weight.  I'm already a believer in the therapeutic benefit of using a roller, but it was nice to get a professional walk-through of some of the varying ways it can be used.  I learned some new techniques and left the class feeling fresher than when I went in
2011-APR-28 Diet Log

(to be continued...)

Next to last 20 mile run!

TRAINING LOG:

I took the weekend off from writing and will do a quick (for me) update through the weekend.  Last Thursday's episode left us doing a late-week Interval run on Thursday.  That workout backed up to Friday's kick-boxing based workout that had things hurting and sweat pooling within the first 10 minutes of class.  The kick-boxing, which, was more shadow-boxing with dumbbells vs. getting to hit people this week, was intermixed with core work on the ground and some cardio drills to ensure heart rates stayed elevated.

2011-APR-22 Diet Log

Saturday was a rest day in preparation for my 20 mile run on Sunday morning.  For this week's run, I tried eating a more normal day's calories and hydrating well.

2011-APR-23 Diet Log

Sunday we had plans to go to my folks' house for Easter, so my run needed to be completed relatively early.  20 miles isn't a fast workout anyway you cut it!  For this run, I was running with, Jed, a friend I've known (and see too little of) since college.  Jed ran the Burlington Marathon last year and ran away from me at last fall's Shelburne Half Marathon and has a 3:30 stretch goal for this year's marathon.

The route we ran took us through 3 towns along the Lake Champlain waterfront, through downtown and the Old North end "ghetto," a blink through Winooski out into farmland on Malletts Bay Ave, back into residential neighborhood before bending around Lakeshore drive with a view of Mallets Bay and out to the end of Colchester Point before looping back through the Delta Park wetland, running back over the Winooski River for the second time and finishing back where we started on the bike path.

Our goal was to run around 8:30s.  We (and by We I mean Jed) pushed the pace early and it wasn't until our biggest climb of the day around mile 5 that we got *up* to an 8-minute mile.  Our pace was comfortable, but I suspected it wasn't sustainable for the distance.  Once we got up to Willard St from the Lake, it was a gradual downhill for a few miles almost all the way to Winooski.  The miles were really clipping by quickly and we were feeling great.  We pit-stopped around mile 8 at a store on Malletts Bay Ave before setting off again.

I was hitting my Clif Shot Bloks religiously every 30 minutes and keeping the Accelerade flowing in small sips.  On this run, I halved the dosage I used for my last 20 miler and that definitely helped make the drink more refreshing vs. cloying to drink while running.  In terms of nutrition, I get a lot of what I need from the Clif Shot Bloks (Margarita w/ 3x sodium) and it really felt like overkill to have such a sweet beverage washing them down.  This go-around, I also had a sleeve of caffeinated gels that I alternated with the Margarita gels, take 3 every 30.  On my next run, I'm going to drop to 2 bloks from 3 bloks every 30 minutes and see what sort of a difference I feel.

My legs start feeling a little bored around mile 10, so I sprint the last significant hill of the run and go into a recovery jog until Jed catches up a few minutes later.  While this may seem counter intuitive, the quick change of pace and Call to Action by a whole bunch of bored muscles serves to get things moving and typically leaves me feeling better when I'm done with it.  Besides, the faster you run up the hill, the sooner you get to the top!

We run along pleasantly, still pretty consistently holding down sub 8:00 miles.  We hit a little downhill coming into Lakeshore Drive around mile 12.  Both of our paces naturally pick up slightly to take advantage of letting gravity do a little more of the work, but once we get back to flat ground, out pace doesn't match the change in terrain and when I do a Sanity Check of our pace on the Nike+, it spits out a 7:22 pace.  We back off slightly and hit half marathon distance at 1:45.xx.

By around mile 15-16, the fast early pace starts taking its toll.  I'm feeling pretty decent overall, but Jed (who doesn't run with water or gel) starts running out of gas.  We start interspersing some walking intervals.  Around mile 17 the gels I'd taken about 10 minutes earlier kick in and run out ahead to sprint the last little slope and I go to a recovery walk afterward and do some stretching for my hamstrings as Jed catches up.

I take my last gels at 2:30 around mile 18.  We make one more water break about a mile and a half from the end of the run and set off for the last bit.  With the end in sight, both of our paces pick up a bit.  I'm by no means fresh, but I'm also not feeling gassed, so with just under a mile left to go, I let my Podrunner mix (168 BPM) take over and keep building my pace to a Tempo Run.  For that last stretch, everything just came together.  The gels kicked in, the clock was ticking toward 2h45m (which was my goal for the run), the music tempo was spot-on for my cadence at the pace my legs wanted to run and I just ran.

I punched the "Stop" on Nike+ at 20.02 miles in front of Jed's place, walked for down & back the bike path for 100 yards or so to catch my breath, did my 25 jumping jacks & 30 push-ups (a proper finish to any long run!) just as Jed was arriving.  RunKeeper puts my last mile at a 7:22 which includes a bit at around an 8:00 pace.  Nike+ says it was sub-7:00, but it's also counting foot-strikes to come up with pace and I'm pretty sure my cadence increased enough to fool into thinking I was running faster than I was.

The run officially ended with both Jed and I standing on the bike path looking at long bank of stairs that led up to his development and wishing there was an elevator.  As we jogged up the steps at 11AM, we both marveled at the accomplishment of the run and realized that there were still countless people in Chittenden County still in their PJs watching TV.  A sore as we knew we both going to be, we think we chose... wisely.

2011-APR-24 RunKeeper Stats & Map
2001-APR-24 Nike+ Run Graph
2011-APR-24 Diet Log -- Easter Dinner.  Beer.  Wine.

Sleep is good. Must. Get. Sleep.

TRAINING LOG:

I have been a nite-owl for as long as I can remember.  It's rare that I am in bed before midnight and can run indefinitely on 6 hours of sleep and for several days on 5 before I start feeling cruddy.  This does not mesh well with good health practices and certainly isn't good for training.  Sleep is prime-time for healing and recovery.

My typical evening gets me home from work, spend some time with the girls, eat dinner, get the girls to bed, clean up from dinner, watch some TV to unwind, catch up on email, Facebook, Formula 1, research whatever had piqued my interest during the day (nutrition, shoes, ideas for a running route, etc.), and, as some point, realize that I should have written a blog post.

Wednesday was (as usual) Kettlebell day.  I did the majority of the workout with the 24kg kettlebell, dropping down to the 16kg a few times for overhead stuff.  I've had to drop down to the 16kg for some of my left-side get ups.  My right side has stayed pretty strong, but my left side has weakened considerably in the past few months.  It feels like it's coming from my core, which may mean that I need to start paying attention to my hip flexors again.

2011-APR-21 Diet Log

Thursday's run was scheduled for intervals.  1k, 2k, 1k, 1k, with 400m Rest Interval (RI) between each one.  The 1k pace was 9.2 MPH and the 2k pace was 8.9 MPH (ballpark 6:30 per mile).  My time for today's workout was bookended by meetings, so I had to cut the last interval off and there's a good chance I would have anyway.  I was trying out a "new" pair of shoes, some Montrail Trail Running shoes I got a few months ago.  They actually felt pretty decent to run in, but I definitely struggled through the last half of the last interval. I don't know it if was the day, the shoes, or yesterday's Kettlebell workout, but I was definitely looking forward to hitting the showers when it was over!

2011-APR-21 Diet Log
2011-APR-21 Nike+ Run Graph (downloaded from treadmill)

20 miles coming up this weekend.  Here's hoping for nice weather!

Training Update: Three Most Excellent Runs!

TRAINING REPORT:

Getting behind seems to be a recurring theme!  I've been spending more of my "screen time" researching performance nutrition and doing some work getting print samples ready for some shirts I'm designing for marathon relay teams.

I also seem to tend to write more when I hit bumps in my training and that may be another reason why I've gone MIA for a few days.  My last post caught me up through Wednesday of last week. Not counting family walks, I've had 2 non-training days and 4 training days.  I skipped last Friday's workout to be on Daddy Daycare duty while SWMBO had some appointments and errands to run and Sunday was my planned off day after Saturday's long run.  Monday's workout was almost exclusively upper body and my biceps & triceps are still feeling it a bit!

2011-APR-15 Diet Log
2011-APR-17 Diet Log
2011-APR-18 Diet Log


My last 3 runs have felts great.  Thursday was a 10 mile at my expected marathon pace (MP).  The course I ran was downhill or flat for the first half and mostly flat for the second half with a BIG hill at 7.5 miles.  I was supposed to run at an 8:00/mile pace, but I instead chose to run at a pace that was comfortable and felt realistic for the distance I was running.  I ran the second half (the uphill portion) faster than the first half and ended with an average pace of 7:33/mile and felt great doing it!

2011-APR-14 Diet Log
2011-APR-14 Run Graph (Nike+)
2011-APR-14 Run Stats (RunKeeper)

Saturday was scheduled to be a 15 mile run at MP + 20 seconds per mile.  My long run this weekend was awkward.  We had plans Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon and an ugly storm was due to blow in Saturday afternoon through noon Sunday.  I decided to get the run out of the way on Saturday despite REALLY not wanting to go out in gusting winds as the storm blew in and not really sure if the rain would start pelting down mid-run.

Still working from my MP being 8:00, my scheduled pace for the run was 8:20 per mile.  I completed the run in under 2:00 with an average pace of around 7:51 per mile, again running comfortably and exceeding my expected training pace by nearly 30 seconds per mile.

2011-APR-16 Diet Log
2011-APR-16 Run Graph (Nike+)
2011-APR-16 Run Stats (RunKeeper)

Finally, I typically run my treadmill intervals on Tuesday, but the weather was BEAUTIFUL, so I flip-flopped my Tempo run to today (Tuesday).  It was supposed to be a 6 mile run, 1 mile easy, 5 miles at Mid-Tempo pace.  My training partner has been working with a PT to address some Achilles & IT Band issues and was on a similar run schedule for the day.  We decided to keep the distance, but turn it into a Hill Run + Tempo run.  The course we ran was pretty flat for about 2 miles, then a big hill about 3/4 of a mile long with a few seriously steep portions.

We ran at a relatively easy pace out to the hill (9:00 per mile) and then maintained that pace or greater for the ascent before coming back down and doing our own Tempo Run back to the gym.  I wasn't running with a specific pace in mind, but I pushed the pace for the entire 2 miles I had to run.  I ended up running the 2 miles in 13 minutes for an average pace of 6:30 per mile.  What's truly sick to think about is that the guy who won this year's Boston Marathon did it while averaging almost 2:00 per mile faster for the entire 26.2 miles (and only won by 4 seconds)!

2011-APR-19 Diet Log
2011-APR-19 Run Stats (RunKeeper)

(no Nike+ Graph; dead iTouch battery!)

I don't know where this sudden flurry of success is coming from with my runs.  I've been paying a lot more attention to nutrition and have started working a L-Glutamine supplement into my diet a few times per day.  I've also made an effort to increase the fat and reduce the protein in my diet to help fuel my activity.  Running in the Asics is a dream, too, so I'm not sure what has really made the difference, but so far, I LIKE IT!

My Training Taxes Me Enough; I Don't Need The Government's Help

TRAINING REPORT:

I've been spending much of my 'screen time' teaching myself Adobe Illustrator (Photoshop is a breeze!) and working on designing some apparel for the Marathon Relay teams I'm working with (Family team and 4-5 Company teams).

Wednesday was a non-running Kettlebell day and it was yet another stellar workout!  My abs are still sore a day later (which may also mean that I haven't been doing enough core work lately).  I was powering through right-handed exercises with ease, but struggling to move the weight with my left.  I did several get-ups, about 20 snatches on the right side with the 24kg KB, but was only able to do about half the number of snatches with the left and had to drop down to the 16kg KB for the get-ups on the left.  It felt almost more like it was lack of coordination than lack of strength, but regardless, I wanted the weight going up and it wasn't happening.

At the end of class, I got down with the 32kg KB and went through the first few moves of the get-up, just to see how it felt moving it around.  It's heavy (duh!), but considering it's only April and I have until December to do a full get-up with it, I was encouraged.

I'm looking forward to this $%$^(&#$ marathon training being over so I can get back to challenging myself in the gym.  I've got enough invested in this marathon that I'm not about to do anything stupid and wreck all the training hours I've put into this (and that my family has put up with).  I've still got 100 on 100 and Race to the Top of Vermont in August, so I can't completely let myself go, but at least I get to stop saying things like, "I only have to run 15 miles this weekend!"

2011-APR-13 Diet Log

Skipping in Hell

TRAINING REPORT:

I mentioned last week (or was it two weeks ago now?) that I was going to re-revise my pacing/training strategy. I started off too ambitious in search of a 3:20 finish time and it became clear that my current level of fitness was not such that I could train at that pace.  I fell back to the pacings I used for my half marathon training which put me on around a 3:35 pace.  Finding those paces pleasantly easy, I've stepped up the training paces in accordance with my revised 3:30 goal.

Monday was a gym day and we did a pretty active full body workout -- lots of plyometrics and balance drills.  I will publicly state for the record that I *hate* jump-lunges (AKA Scissor lunges) where you alternate lunges by explosively jumping from the down position, switching leading & trailing legs in the air, and landing into another lunge.  It's like skipping in Hell.

2011-APR-11 Diet Log

Tuesday was my first interval run in a few weeks and my first run on the revised plan.  The prescribed run was 3 sets of 2 x 1200m @ 9.2 MPH (or about a 6:18 per mile pace).  One of the seasonal challenges in Vermont is knowing at what point to switch the control on the HVAC from "HEAT" to "COOL."  I think the gym hadn't made that switch yet because it was *HOT.*  I did a 400m easy run on the treadmill and had a sweat going.  Running the intervals felt pretty decent, very reminiscent of the feeling I had during my half-marathon training.  The pace & distance was challenging, at times uncomfortable, but ultimately doable.

Throughout my training I've tried to balance listening to my body with pushing my body.  Getting the balance right is crucial.  Push too far and my recovery will carry into my next run and lead to a cascade of failure where I ultimately have to take multiple runs off to recover.  Push too little and I won't maximize my training and I won't be in the shape I need to be in to run the race I want to run.  For my interval session today, I chose to blow off the last 2x1200 and spend some extra time stretching and cooling down before heading back to the office.  This run was my first shot at a challenging pace in nearly a month and I was still sore from those damn scissor lunges.

I could have pushed through 2 more (and maybe I should have!), but I still have a 10 mile run at race-pace on Thursday and a 15 mile long run on the weekend and I really want to try to see if I can hit the pace for both runs.  In order to do that, I need to be healthy enough to run and that little voice in my head didn't like where that last set of 2x1200s might lead.  I think it probably led to Hell.  ...and there would probably be skipping.  ($#^$&% scissor lunges).

2011-APR-12 Diet Log
2011-APR-12 Nike+ Run Graph

Boogity Boogity Boogity! Let's Go Racing!

TRAINING REPORT:

This past weekend I "ran my first race" since November.  I air-quoted part of that sentence because my mindset for the day had almost nothing to do with the race distance itself.  The event I participated in was the RunVermont Unplugged Half Marathon.  It's pitched as a "No Hills, No Frills" event and pretty well lived up to its billing in both regards.

My goal in running this event was to complete a dry run of the pre-race routine for the marathon.  It was all about watching the diet the day before, getting everything ready for the morning, getting up, getting to the event, pre-race nutrition, and navigating the crowd during the first few mile of the race.  I ran both of my half marathons last year in just under 1h41m and have completed training runs at that distance at about a minute per mile slower than that.  What added to the challenge of this run is that after crossing the finish line we (my friend Shannon & I) had an 8 mile run back to near the starting point to complete a 21 mile run.

The weather was absolutely perfect for a 10AM start.  The problem was, the race started at 9AM.  Fortunately, there was no rain, but it was hovering around freezing when we made our way to Airport Park in Colchester, VT for the start.  We were dressed for the 50s that we were going to be running in 2-3 hours later, not the 30s it was then!

The race shot off at 9AM.  We had discussed goals for the day and agreed that the best bet was to find a pace that was doable for a 20+ mile run.  Though being half a decade younger and a life-long runner, Shannon's race pace is about a minute per mile off of mine, so my role for the day was to try to keep a steady, consistent pace that she thought she could maintain for the distance.

The first several miles fell away quickly, snaking through some of the back roads and neighborhoods of Colchester before crossing the Winooski River on a bridge that felt that the engineer never expected hundreds of people to run across it at the same time.  From there, the course picked up the Burlington bike path until near the finish in South Burlington on Flynn Ave.

Shannon ran this race last year and finished in about 2:10.  Her last HM race was in the fall and she dropped her time to 1:57.  I've started getting a pretty good sense for my own pacing and knew we were setting a pace that put us right in the neighborhood of a 2:00 finish for the first 13.1 miles of the run.  Both of our fitness levels have increased since that HM in October, but I know that I can't run 20 miles at my fall 2010 half marathon pace!  I was doubtful that we'd maintain the pace, but part of training is trial and error, so we hung steady at a pace just over 9 minutes per mile.

Another one of my goals for this run was in-race fueling.  Shannon had complained about running out of gas for 15+ mile runs, but also admitted to not really paying much attention to hydration or remembering to take energy gels.  My plan for the run was simple.  There were 3 water stations during the run.  We'd walk through each one, drink a bit of water, take 2-3 Shot Bloks, and get back to it.  For the non-race part of the run, the plan was to hit 2-3 gels every 30 - 35 minutes.  We each took sports drinks with added L-Glutamine on the run with us and set a goal of finishing half by the end of the race and using the other half for the remaining 8 miles.

When we first started talking about doing this race, I always knew I was going to do it as the race + 8 mile run.  Shannon strongly contemplated doing the race to try to set a new Personal Record (PR), but in the end figured that getting a long run in was more important to the big picture than getting a good time.  Since we weren't running for time, the race itself was quite uneventful.  With both of us being competitive runners, I kept our pacing and expected finish time to myself.  The goal was 21 miles, not 13.1.  We finished with the clock showing 2:00.xx and with very little effort could have been under 1:55 for the event.

After getting a re-fuel (and bit of un-fuel at the portolet), we set out for the run back.  The brief downtime caused me to experience a few calf twinges when we started back up and our overall pace was down a bit.  That was when both quads started cramping, something I haven't ever had happen before.  It wasn't bad enough to stop my run, but it hurt and made running extremely unpleasant.  One of the problems with the course being so flat is that there weren't any hills to break up the monotony of the repetitive flat-ground running motion.  I look forward to some ups & downs to give my legs something different to do once in a while and this run really didn't give me that.

After a few miles of ouchy/crampy, we hit the base of the only real hill on the run (Battery St., Burlington) and I took a minute to stretch my legs before we tackled the hill.  The combination of the stretching and the change in stride to tackle the hill gave me a bit of relief from the pain, but it soon returned.  Through trial & error, I figured out that the root cause was that our pace had slowed, causing me to to run just differently enough that my quads got over-worked.  Once we picked our pace back up, the cramping mostly went away.

The remaineder of the run back was all about just trying to find that zone and tick away the miles.  The last 4-5 miles evaporated very quickly and, before I knew it, 21 miles were in the book and I was sucking back chocolate milk, Accelerade, and a banana as quickly as possible.  For the rest of the day, I felt surprisingly good.  My feet didn't hurt.  My knees didn't hurt.  My shins didn't hurt.  My quads...  okay, those still hurt a bit.

I devoted myself to being a pig for the rest of the day.  As of around 2PM, I was still running at about a 700 Kcal deficit for the day with 3200 Kcal left to the break-even point.  I make every effort to eat all of my exercise calories for the day to ensure that my body is fueled for recovery mode and ready to take whatever I decide to throw at it the following day.  I attribute the majority of our success on that run to solid running nutrition and giving our bodies exactly what they needed to sustain aerobic activity for 3 and a half hours and the raw materials for rebuilding the damage we did on those 21 miles.

The experience was a great confidence booster and as much as I'm looking forward to getting this marathon behind me, I'm also starting to look forward to the day when I can bring all of this training to a point.  There, the talk and the theory stops and it all becomes about one thing: racing.

2011-APR-09 Diet Log
2011-APR-09 Nike+ Run Graph

The Ups & Downs of Running in Vermont

TRAINING REPORT:

The hodge-podge of updates continues!  I need to devote an entire write-up to this past weekend's run and I still "owe" an update for the previous weekend's long run, so it's time to clear the decks and get that old one outta here!

Where I live, I can pretty comfortably run and 8 mile loop without encountering any significant hills.  If I stick exclusively to the busiest road running near my house (Rt. 15), I can run almost indefinitely before I hit any sustained terrain.  There's only so much running you want to do where traffic is bombing along at 50+ MPH, so I tend to go off the main thoroughfares which means tackling hills.  I really don't mind uphills and I'm starting to learn how better to run downhills.

My goal is to lose less time on the uphill than I'm able to make up on the downhill.  I've worked on dialing in a shorter-than-was-initially-natural stride for my flat-ground running.  This causes me to use a bit less energy launching myself into a longer stride and catching myself on my heel as I land.  In theory, it should also be easier on my body since the overall impact is reduced.  In shortening up my stride, I can come a little closer to a flat-foot landing, but I still end up leading with my heel.

When I hit a reasonably steep uphill, I shorten up my stride considerably and run on the balls of my feet.  I think of tacking a hill the same way you'd run (or jog) up a bank of stairs.  My mental picture is literally chipping away as the slope, little by little, until I reach the top.  This also uses different muscles than my flat-ground stride, so it gives me a chance to recruit some additional muscle groups into the run.  I try to keep my overall pace the same, especially if I know there's a downhill immediately following the uphill.

I used to hate downhills and, while I won't say that I love them, I've found a way to cope with them.  When I first started running, I would resist gravity and try to keep a pretty steady pace going.  This ended up with my landing very heavily on my feet and jarring my legs.  It wasn't pleasant!  What I've started doing since then is allowing my stride to elongate and go into almost a loping gate down the hill until I find a pace that feels like I'm as close to "coasting" down the hill as possible (the pace will vary with the slope).  This also has the 'different muscle groups' benefit that my modified uphill stride has.

Whether this is right or not, it's what I've found works for me as part of my training in the hills of Vermont.  This past weekend's 18-mile run covered close to 1500' of elevation change.  Most of the uphill was a gradual slope, but there were some steep downhill sections that were challenging.  My run took me out from my home onto the busy Rt. 15 for several miles into Jericho.  After little bit of a muddin' detour along Raceway Road, I picked Rt. 15 back up for a short bit to get to Brown Trace Rd.  Climbing to pinnacle of the run, I then started a several mile descent down via Barber Farm Rd to River Rd/Rt 117 and the Winooski River.  I've been fighting off a bruised or irritated tendon/ligament on the top of my right foot and I was able to very clearly determine that running downhill does not improve that condition!

The way this route was laid out, I was running somewhat into a headwind on the descent.  Unfortunately, that headwind was present for about the next 3 miles as I ran back toward Essex on Rt 117.  I hit the bottom of Sand Hill Rd. at about mile 16 and started the last SERIOUS hill of the day.  Near the top, the wind was dead in my face and blowing hard enough that my pace at walk was not substantially slower than the pace I was pushing at a job.  Finally reaching the top, I got back up to speed and finished out the last 2 miles strong at still had enough left to comfortably complete my 25 jumping jacks & push-ups at the conclusion of my run.

2011-APR-03 Diet Log
2011-APR-03 Nike+ Run Graph -- distance is off; shoes not calibrated to sensor.
2011-APR-03 RunKeeper Stats

What happened to the last week?!

TRAINING REPORT:

Man, I knew I was slacking a bit on the blog, but a week?  Criminy!  Time flies!  Now that I sit down to write, it's clear that too much time has passed since I posted an update.  My attempts at "short" blog get verbose, so what now for a post that could see me up 'til all hours of the night writing?

I can't believe I didn't update after last weekend's long run.  I'll hodge-podge that in with a write-up about this weekend's 21.2 mile run.

I had a little mini panic attack when I couldn't recall any of my workouts for the first 3 days of the week.  Then I remembered that I traveled for business last week (flights on Monday & Wednesday) that killed two workout days.  Tuesday was the lone day of activity, a 2.5 mile run the Port Huron YMCA, a mixed-bag workout, focused primarily on upper body, and a 2.5 mile run back to the hotel.  The only day I did any diet tracking for was Monday.  It's so hard to accurately log food while eating out for 3 meals per day.  For this trip, it just didn't seem worth the effort.

2011-APR-04 Diet Log
2011-APR-04 Nike+ Run Graph (run to the YMCA)
2011-APR-04 Nike+ Run Graph (most of the run back to the hotel)

Thursday was an awesome tempo run.  6 miles in total with ~ 1 mile easy in and ~ 1 mile easy back with a 4 mile mid-tempo run in between.  I was supposed to hit an 8'54" pace for my Easy pace and 7'36" for my tempo pace.  If I did the math right, I ended up running the tempo portion at a 7'12" and the "Easy" pace was an 8'18"  This was the second run I did in my new Asics Gel Kayano 17 shoes.  I swear they cut ten seconds off my pace.  Pure comfort to run in.  The only downside is that I need to recalibrate my Nike+ setup with the new shoe... or not, since I've got it perfectly dialed in with my Saucony Guide's.

This was also a test run with a hydration belt.  I picked up a CamelBak Delaney Plus belt and wanted to do a test-run with it before setting off on my long run on Saturday.  Getting the cinching adjusted right took the majority of the run, but once I got it right, it was snug and comfortable. I barely noticed I was wearing it (and hauling 24oz of Accelerade around on my arse!)

2011-APR-07 Diet Log
2011-APR-07 Nike+ Run Graph -- calibration is off (and, therefore, so are pacing & distance)
2011-APR-07 Run Map & Stats (RunKeeper)

Friday was an off-day, both from work and from working out.  It was a "daddy daycare" day looking after Maeve & Vivian (now 21 mos old) while Laura did some about-town errands.  Knowing my long[est] run was coming up the next day, I committed to hydration and set a goal of at least 4000 Kcal of nourishment.  Factoring out the calorie burn of a 3-mile walk with the family, I ended around 3800 Kcal and put down a gallon of water.

2011-APR-08 Diet Log

MUSINGS:

One of the reasons I intended to do this blog thang every day was to keep a good log of my diet & training plan.  I will likely NEVER come back & read it, but the pack-rat in me likes to know that it's there... just in case.  I also know that memory fades very quickly and that things I'm SURE I'll remember the day of a run are gone from my memory banks a few days later.

In the coming days (more likely weeks), I intend to start writing less about the monotony of my runs and workouts (they'll still get a mention) and writing more about some of my daily routine and the self-experimentation I've done, both with what I put on my body for exercise and what I put in my body for exercise.

With this last push of travel behind me for a month or so, I also intend to get back into the habit of making this a daily blog.  I've had a lot of idea recently and I can't stuff them all into one post!