the downward spiral

The last three days (so far) have not been good. After my lackluster week last week, I started off this week still wrestling with my work schedule and my training. Work is winning right now :( I was up late on Sunday night reviewing some drawings for another project, then I had to wake up early - 4:30 am to get to work at 5:00 am (which is some sort of record for me) to find out that I wasn't needed for an early morning meeting that required an hour of travel time. I was relieved to not have to go, but I was exhausted. To make up for my early morning, I planned to leave at 4:00 pm. Well, 4:00 pm came and went and I didn't leave until 6:30 pm. My run I had scheduled for yesterday? Nope. Didn't happen...grumble, grumble... The schedule for today was another early morning meeting - this time even earlier. It was scheduled for 6:15 am... yeah, right. I got up at 3:30 am this morning (yes, this is considered morning), got ready and got to work by 4:30 am. No cars there yet, but I was a little early -- We wouldn't need to leave until 5:00 am to make it there for the meeting. I apparently didn't get the memo because no one showed up at work... grumble, grumble. The meeting is still happening, but I will be missing it. Had I known that I would be traveling solo, I could have gotten a little more sleep and left right from home... grumble, grumble... I am leaving in a half hour to go to the next meeting (there is a series of meetings throughout the day - all of which I will need to attend). I am hoping to be able to get home at a reasonable time tonight and get my run in that I missed. Now is not the time to let my training slip - I have put in way too much effort and made too many sacrifices... it is now less than 4 weeks away...

dave-sleep+stress+humidity = a tired, stressed, wet dave

I have been looking forward to this run all week. A step back run of only 14 miles. This past week has been the worst of any week throughout training. After last weekends 23 mile run, I was feeling pretty good, even if I am another year older now. I was ready for my usual recovery run on Monday, but the schedule was a little different and had me rest an extra day. I was going to ignore this, but when it came time to run, life and work got in the way a bit and changed my plans. I was okay with this," better to rest like the schedule said", I thought. I knew I would be out of town on Wednesday so I moved my 8 mile tempo run to Tuesday night, so all the more reason for the extra day of rest. Then the rest of the week?

Nothing. Zip. Nada. My work schedule increased exponentially and my short runs and cross training went by the way side. It made me grumpy, but I thought a little rest couldn't hurt anyway. This is where there is a flaw in my thinking...I didn't get any rest, I have been exhausted for the last couple of days. It was all I could do to stay up until 10 last night. I tried to sleep in a little later than usual this morning and start the run a little later than usual. It didn't help much - the cats thought I was supposed to get up at my usual time and didn't let me sleep in. Damn cats! The weather called for a 50% chance of rain all day. I didn't let that influence my decision to run. Unless it was pouring down rain, I was going to run. I met Jason at his place at 8am. The sky was overcast and it was an comfortable 68 degrees. The surprising thing was the humidity. It felt very damp out. At first, it didn't feel too bad, but as the run progressed, I was feeling the dampness all the way through my body. I felt like we were running through a tropical jungle. My clothes were soaked, my feet were soaked -- I even think my fingers were pruning! About 2 miles into the run, I was feeling ready to turn around and quit. I felt horrible. Jason wasn't feeling all that good either, but we both decided we needed to do this run and were going to finish it - all 14 miles. The goal was to run this easy for the first two miles, then slip into marathon pace for the remaining 12. Well, we started out just about on pace and were fairly consistant for awhile, then we turned around and ran into a strong head wind... mentally it was beating me up. In fact, it was like having deja vu. Last night I had a disturbing dream that I was out for a run when all of a sudden I was running as hard as I could, but I was barely moving forward... does this mean anything? I love the foreshadowing, but hate that it was so damn literal...

We plodded along, feeling more and more lousy, but refused to give up. We pushed through and actually finished stronger than I thought we would. This run was not a huge confidence builder for me, but a lot of these shorter step-back runs have not been. If I look for a silver lining in all of this, it is that eventhough we felt like crap for the run, our average pace was a respectable 9:18/mile, we were still able to finish strong and my legs never felt like they were ready to give out. I am sticking to my original goals still... for better or for worse... Here's how it all went down:

• Mile 1 -- 9:02
• Mile 2 -- 9:09
• Mile 3 -- 9:02
• Mile 4 -- 9:20
• Mile 5 -- 9:06
• Mile 6 -- 9:24
• Mile 7 -- 9:17
• Mile 8 -- 9:17
• Mile 9 -- 9:27
• Mile 10 -- 9:38
• Mile 11 -- 9:38
• Mile 12 -- 9:24
• Mile 13 -- 9:31
• Mile 14 -- 8:55

t-minus 30 days and counting…

I had a good tempo run on Tuesday night. I switched my schedule due to another all day trip to Michigan. I wasn’t sure I was ready for it after the 23 miles on Saturday, but with two whole days of rest my legs were feeling just fine. I met Jason at his place after work – once again I was detained longer than I had expected, but only by 40 minutes. We started out easy, just trying for a 9:00/mile pace so we wouldn’t go out too fast and have to adjust our pace the entire run. The last couple of miles were starting to feel a little bit like work, but my legs never felt tired. A great run for both of us, and Jason’s best run in a long time. A good confidence booster… Here are our splits:

• Mile 1 – 9:07 (taking it easy)
• Mile 2 – 9:06 (still taking it easy)
• Mile 3 – 8:45 (right where we were supposed to be)
• Mile 4 – 8:28 (picked up the pace – felt good)
• Mile 5 – 8:25 (on cruise control)
• Mile 6 – 8:26
• Mile 7 – 8:29
• Mile 8 – 7:40 (nice way to finish – felt good)

Average Pace: 8:33/mile

I plan on a short recovery run tonight and then cross train on Friday. Then it is time for a 14 mile MP run on Saturday…only 14 miles…piece of cake…

Oh yeah, by the way – only 30 days to go… bring it on…

a marathon weekend

It has been a busy weekend for me...it started very early on Saturday morning...4:30am to be exact.

The idea was to get started on our long run by 6:00am. So up at 4:30, get dressed, get the cooler, fill it with ice, water and gatorade, load my truck and head over to the designated "refreshment zone". Brooke meets me there at 5:30am, I leave my truck there and we head over to Jason's.

It is still dark out, and it remains this way for about another hour. It is so dark, we could barely see the path in front of us. The nice thing about it being dark though, is the miles go by very quickly (or so it seemed). What you can't see, won't hurt you, right?

Before we knew it we were at the "refreshment zone" - 8 miles into the run and we grab some gatorade and gels and then continued on. We got to our turn around point, but decided to run just a little further to the drinking fountains in the park - an extra 1/2 mile or so. This would create a little bit of a walk at the end of the run, but thought it would be fine. It was a little tougher to get started again after the short break to refill water bottles, but we felt good. We made it back to the "refreshment zone" one last time at approximately mile 16.5 and got more gatorade and gels. Still feeling pretty good, we headed back to Jason's. Only 6.5 miles to go to get our mileage in. Andy and Jason held on for a couple of miles, then they took a walk break. Brooke and I continued, settling in on our pace and focusing on getting the run done. Our legs were protesting a little more with each mile, but we didn't hurt enough to stop. We talked the entire way back, which helped keep our minds off of our pain. Before we knew it we were done. We waited about 10-15 minutes for Andy and Jason, and then we had to walk an additional 1.5 miles to get back to Jason's...it was good and bad. My feet hurt, my legs ached - in fact it seemed a new spot on my leg ached as we walked along. By the time we got back, my legs weren't too bad - certainly not tight at all, just tired.

Didn't look at our splits until we got back. They were surprisingly slower than our previous long runs. Interestingly, Brooke and I picked up the pace after we separated from Andy and Jason. I don't think they were holding us back at all, but we just settled into our comfortable pace. I felt like I could have easily run another 3.2 miles, and in fact with the 1.5 mile walk back, then mowing my lawn when I got home, I think I easily covered 26.2 miles...my last "marathon" at the age of 33...

Today is my birthday. #34. I am going to rest today. I feel like I earned it. My legs don't feel too bad - slight ache in my right hip, but other than that, good. We are going to go have brunch with my parents this morning (it is my mom's birthday today too). We went out for dinner last night with my wife and her parents - went to McCormick and Schmick's - awesome seafood restaurant!!! I had an incredible cashew crusted tilapia with a jamaican rum butter sauce...excuse me while I wipe up my drool...afterwards I had a 7 layer carrot cake... it was sweet heaven... I couldn't even eat the whole thing (I was disappointed in myself, but it was a huge piece!).

Here is how each mile looked:

• Mile 1: 10:32
• Mile 2: 10:35
• Mile 3: 10:11
• Mile 4: 10:35
• Mile 5: 10:57
• Mile 6: 10:50
• Mile 7: 10:57
• Mile 8: 10:53 (water/gel/gatorade)
• Mile 9: 10:32
• Mile 10: 9:35
• Mile 11: 10:28
• Mile 12: 10:21 (water)
• Mile 13: 10:43
• Mile 14: 10:25
• Mile 15: 10:35
• Mile 16: 10:25 (water/gel/gatorade)
• Mile 17: 10:37
• Mile 18: 10:36 (Andy & Jason take break, Brooke & I continue)
• Mile 19: 10:14
• Mile 20: 9:46
• Mile 21: 9:56
• Mile 22: 9:53
• Mile 23: 9:28

Average Pace: 10:23/mile

did i miss my chance?

I was doing some reading on Dean Karnaze's Endurance 50 Website…he is running the Boston Marathon on October 15th…THE ACTUAL COURSE! ...AND he is running his races in 4:30 to 5:00 hours - I could so run that! Had I known this, I could have prepared to run Boston in October this year (a better time than April!)… oh well, I'll make it there some day…first comes Chicago, where I hope to finish faster than him...