I’ve come across a lot of adventures during my runs. I’ve had old people stick their cane in my path, people drop suitcases causing me to jump over and pull my groin with about 8 miles left, I’ve ran through shin splints, massive tightness/pain in my calf, nagging knee and arch pain. I’ve even ran drunk to prepare me for running on tired or not-100% legs. I think I will need this for the marathon, as I don’t expect to feel 100% throughout. I’ve had four people say they would run with me, none did. I’ve been cheered on by Greeks, Asians, and blacks, one who just happened to be fluent in Greek. I’ve been heckled by little kids and a black guy telling me his girlfriend runs faster than me. I’ve received both praise and condemnation for the Lebron jersey I wear. I had the marathon date be pushed up from Early January (Disney), to Early November (NY) to 9/29/12. One thing I never did though was sit down or get off my feet because I could no longer stand. I did stop to walk a few times (Approximately 7) but never did I sit to rest. Some say this is bad because that means I never pushed myself to the Max, but I say it’s good because I kept trucking. Those times I was forced to stop because I couldn’t run anymore I consider pushing it to the max. All in all, the experience really sucked and I will never do it again but there’s just one more run left!
Showing posts with label marathon training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marathon training. Show all posts
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Training runs complete!
Today was my last training run; 8 miles. Rather than do my normal course of making it a loop to end at my apartment, I had it end on Park Avenue and Broadway because there is a big fountain with lots of water spraying toward the center. As I past this on previous runs, I always wanted to run through it to cool down but as it was normally about half way and I didn't want to run over 8 miles in wet shoes, I never did. Today, in celebration for the training runs being over, I jumped into the fountain and walked around to cool down. It was awesome. Now a quick look back of my 6.5 months of training.
I’ve come across a lot of adventures during my runs. I’ve had old people stick their cane in my path, people drop suitcases causing me to jump over and pull my groin with about 8 miles left, I’ve ran through shin splints, massive tightness/pain in my calf, nagging knee and arch pain. I’ve even ran drunk to prepare me for running on tired or not-100% legs. I think I will need this for the marathon, as I don’t expect to feel 100% throughout. I’ve had four people say they would run with me, none did. I’ve been cheered on by Greeks, Asians, and blacks, one who just happened to be fluent in Greek. I’ve been heckled by little kids and a black guy telling me his girlfriend runs faster than me. I’ve received both praise and condemnation for the Lebron jersey I wear. I had the marathon date be pushed up from Early January (Disney), to Early November (NY) to 9/29/12. One thing I never did though was sit down or get off my feet because I could no longer stand. I did stop to walk a few times (Approximately 7) but never did I sit to rest. Some say this is bad because that means I never pushed myself to the Max, but I say it’s good because I kept trucking. Those times I was forced to stop because I couldn’t run anymore I consider pushing it to the max. All in all, the experience really sucked and I will never do it again but there’s just one more run left!
I’ve come across a lot of adventures during my runs. I’ve had old people stick their cane in my path, people drop suitcases causing me to jump over and pull my groin with about 8 miles left, I’ve ran through shin splints, massive tightness/pain in my calf, nagging knee and arch pain. I’ve even ran drunk to prepare me for running on tired or not-100% legs. I think I will need this for the marathon, as I don’t expect to feel 100% throughout. I’ve had four people say they would run with me, none did. I’ve been cheered on by Greeks, Asians, and blacks, one who just happened to be fluent in Greek. I’ve been heckled by little kids and a black guy telling me his girlfriend runs faster than me. I’ve received both praise and condemnation for the Lebron jersey I wear. I had the marathon date be pushed up from Early January (Disney), to Early November (NY) to 9/29/12. One thing I never did though was sit down or get off my feet because I could no longer stand. I did stop to walk a few times (Approximately 7) but never did I sit to rest. Some say this is bad because that means I never pushed myself to the Max, but I say it’s good because I kept trucking. Those times I was forced to stop because I couldn’t run anymore I consider pushing it to the max. All in all, the experience really sucked and I will never do it again but there’s just one more run left!
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Tapering down
three weeks ago, I ran 20 miles, which was the longest run I was supposed to do during training. I was successful and rewarded myself by going to the beach.
Last weekend I didn't run beause I was vacationing in Maine and the running coach just said to "Taper off" but I didn't get clarification what that meant until after I got back. This week I went to my normal schedule and found myself running faster but I started geting sore again. Not sure what to make of this. The 12 mile run today went really well. It was 6 minutes faster than the pace I run my medium runs (8 miles). I have recently switched from G1 packets to GU energy shots, and given today's run and my medium run on Wednesday being 2 minutes faster than my best time to date, it appears to be working. I'm really surprised by this to be honest.
As my last post was right before I hit a wall, I'll briefly go into that. The week after my 12 mile run, I tried going 14 as that's what the schedule called for. At 12, I had to stop to walk, I figured it was just a bad day but the next week when I was to run 16, it happened again. So, I tapped out and started drinking water. I also asked the 2 people I know who have run marathons and a girl that runs double digit miles for fun for advice. They said to eat the night beore and run on a near empty stomach. Before I tried to carb up an hour and a half before the runs, but apparantly that's not how you do it. It worked! The week after the 16, it was scaled back to 14 again and I was able to run it without stopping after spending the night before eating Italian and Thai food..and a lot of it. Since then I've ran 16, 18, & 20, 12 following the carbing up strategy. I felt a lot of pain in the 18 mile but not so much the 20. Not sure why that was but I was happy to finish.
They say if you can run 20, you can run a marathon because your body goes on auto-pilot muscle memory alone mode that carry you for the remainig 6.2 miles. with that logic, I'm ready. I'm very skeptical of this though but so was my friend when she ran hers but she became a believer on race day. Maybe I will too....I hope so.
Today was the last long run of training. Now, I just have a normal week, than a week of only short runs beore the marathon. I can't wait to get it over with, but I'm still nervous despite hitting all my benchmarks. I don't think I will update this before the marathon so hopefully I finish.
Signed copies of my book can be bought at the bottom of this page.
Last weekend I didn't run beause I was vacationing in Maine and the running coach just said to "Taper off" but I didn't get clarification what that meant until after I got back. This week I went to my normal schedule and found myself running faster but I started geting sore again. Not sure what to make of this. The 12 mile run today went really well. It was 6 minutes faster than the pace I run my medium runs (8 miles). I have recently switched from G1 packets to GU energy shots, and given today's run and my medium run on Wednesday being 2 minutes faster than my best time to date, it appears to be working. I'm really surprised by this to be honest.
As my last post was right before I hit a wall, I'll briefly go into that. The week after my 12 mile run, I tried going 14 as that's what the schedule called for. At 12, I had to stop to walk, I figured it was just a bad day but the next week when I was to run 16, it happened again. So, I tapped out and started drinking water. I also asked the 2 people I know who have run marathons and a girl that runs double digit miles for fun for advice. They said to eat the night beore and run on a near empty stomach. Before I tried to carb up an hour and a half before the runs, but apparantly that's not how you do it. It worked! The week after the 16, it was scaled back to 14 again and I was able to run it without stopping after spending the night before eating Italian and Thai food..and a lot of it. Since then I've ran 16, 18, & 20, 12 following the carbing up strategy. I felt a lot of pain in the 18 mile but not so much the 20. Not sure why that was but I was happy to finish.
They say if you can run 20, you can run a marathon because your body goes on auto-pilot muscle memory alone mode that carry you for the remainig 6.2 miles. with that logic, I'm ready. I'm very skeptical of this though but so was my friend when she ran hers but she became a believer on race day. Maybe I will too....I hope so.
Today was the last long run of training. Now, I just have a normal week, than a week of only short runs beore the marathon. I can't wait to get it over with, but I'm still nervous despite hitting all my benchmarks. I don't think I will update this before the marathon so hopefully I finish.
Signed copies of my book can be bought at the bottom of this page.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Update on marathon training
Yesterday I ran 12 miles. When training started, I didn't time my runs, I just ran and hydrated every 2 miles as that is about the recommended 20 minutes since I averaged a little less than 10 minute miles. Now as the mileage as been increased and I run along the FDR where there aren't really street markers, I have resorted to keeping a timer on my watch. Originally I kept a countdown of 20 minutes to continually repeat on my watch, but with the noise of NYC, I would often not hear it beeping, so now I clock my runs.
As I have, I noticed that runs over 8 miles, I do drop to slightly over 10 minute miles. I was dicouraged by this because in high school, I ran Cross country and we would make fun of people who would run 10 minute miles or slower. Now, I'm that guy. But, cross country we trained to run 3.1 miles, not 26.2. So, since 8 miles is closer to 3x that, I'm okay with it. Last week, my 11 mile run, I kept at around the 10 minute mile pace. Since this was a busy/good week with many of my friends finally being available to hang out, I didn't run Monday-Wednesday, which is one of the longest breaks I've taken. It was a total of 4 days, as Sundays are always my days off. Thursday, I again hung out with my friend and even had three beers. I was able to complete the 8 miles due on Thursday, but it was 2 minutes slower than normal. I was okay with this because you're supposed to drink a 20oz of gatorade 1.5 hours before running and I hadn't, and the beers probably didn't help.
Yesterday though, when I got to 10 miles, I noticed I was 10 minutes off my normal 10 mnute mile pace. I couldn't understand, I didn't feel like I was going any slower but the time doesn't lie. The odd thing was, the next 2 miles I kept the 10 minute mile pace. So the last 2 miles I was on pace, but somehow I had dropped off during the 10 miles. This made no sense to me. They say you can go 2 months of idleness without losing your cardiovascular endurance, so 4 days should have been fine. On one hand, I was able to complete 12 miles, on the other, I dropped the pace pretty significantly. I will continue with it as the goal was never time, but next saturday is my 2nd big milestone...the half marathon (13.1 miles). I wish I was in top confidence for it....hopefully my time for the half marathon is similar to my time for the 12 yesterday, as that would mean, I'm back on track. I'll keep you posted.
As I have, I noticed that runs over 8 miles, I do drop to slightly over 10 minute miles. I was dicouraged by this because in high school, I ran Cross country and we would make fun of people who would run 10 minute miles or slower. Now, I'm that guy. But, cross country we trained to run 3.1 miles, not 26.2. So, since 8 miles is closer to 3x that, I'm okay with it. Last week, my 11 mile run, I kept at around the 10 minute mile pace. Since this was a busy/good week with many of my friends finally being available to hang out, I didn't run Monday-Wednesday, which is one of the longest breaks I've taken. It was a total of 4 days, as Sundays are always my days off. Thursday, I again hung out with my friend and even had three beers. I was able to complete the 8 miles due on Thursday, but it was 2 minutes slower than normal. I was okay with this because you're supposed to drink a 20oz of gatorade 1.5 hours before running and I hadn't, and the beers probably didn't help.
Yesterday though, when I got to 10 miles, I noticed I was 10 minutes off my normal 10 mnute mile pace. I couldn't understand, I didn't feel like I was going any slower but the time doesn't lie. The odd thing was, the next 2 miles I kept the 10 minute mile pace. So the last 2 miles I was on pace, but somehow I had dropped off during the 10 miles. This made no sense to me. They say you can go 2 months of idleness without losing your cardiovascular endurance, so 4 days should have been fine. On one hand, I was able to complete 12 miles, on the other, I dropped the pace pretty significantly. I will continue with it as the goal was never time, but next saturday is my 2nd big milestone...the half marathon (13.1 miles). I wish I was in top confidence for it....hopefully my time for the half marathon is similar to my time for the 12 yesterday, as that would mean, I'm back on track. I'll keep you posted.
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