i believe

After seeing the forecast for the weekend towards the end of the week, it was decided that we would run on Sunday (it turned out that Saturday was a perfect day too - no rain as had been forecasted). To put a postive spin on the decision, it will help us train our internal clocks for running in three Sundays from now.

My recovery run on Friday was pretty remarkable for me. I went out with the idea of going slow and taking it easy. I even felt slower than usual. The remarkable part was when I finished the run and looked down at my time...my average pace for the run was 8:57/mile. It really boosted my morale and I felt good about my running - something so simple changed my outlook on the marathon. A four hour marathon seemed possible.

Fast forward to Saturday night. I got home and there was a message from Jason on the answering machine... he wouldn't be able to run on Sunday... that left just me and Brooke.

This morning was a very cool, crisp autumn-like morning. We had already made plans to start early, so we got to the Monon Trail at 6am to start our run. It was desolate and dark in the area, for our safety we decided we would start out on the Monon first before heading out on the loop route. It was tough to see the actual path, but we could make out the edges of the pavement. Another thing that helped us see the path were the fire flies. They seemed to be randomly spread out on the path. It was like running through stars... kind of surreal. The first 6 miles was run out and back on the Monon and we ended up back at the truck where I ditched my long sleeve shirt since I had warmed up. Then we decided to forget the loop route, since neither of us cared for the downtown part and decided we could run 6 miles south to the end of the path and then 6 miles back and then finish the run with the same out and back we had run in the dark. We headed south and the sky was lightening up. We felt good on the run down to the turn around point. We stopped briefly to stretch and take a drink. My lower back was sore, but a quick stretch felt good. We head back north still feeling good, and made it to our next water stop where we stretched again and refilled our water bottles. A couple of miles later, we were back at the truck, a quick stretch, a bathroom break and a refill of gatorade into my water bottle and we headed out for our last 6 miles. With each stop it was harder to get going again, but we managed to push on. At the turn around point we stopped for one last stretch and drink and headed back. I could feel the urge to just get finished and our pace was picking up, but it felt good! I glanced at my watch at one point and our pace was almost a 9:00/mile! I didn't say anything at first, but a few minutes later asked Brooke how she felt. She said she felt good , so we kept up the pace. I called out our last mile and that is where we were starting to feel a little tired. When I saw that we ran the 23rd mile at a 9:03/mile pace we thought it would be best to back off the pace and cruise into the finish -- why risk blowing out a knee or something from pushing too hard? The total effort was relatively easy. I believe we can run this thing in four hours now -- I really do.

We finished the 24 miles and felt incredible! Better than the 23 miles we did two weeks ago and better than our last long run for last year's marathon training!

To celebrate our awesome run, we headed to the Monon Coffee Company for a refreshing beverage and some food. I had a 'loco-mocha freeze' and some pumpkin bread - it hit the spot.

I smell something now... no not my running clothes... this smells sweet. Do you smell it? Yep - it's taper. We made it. The three weeks we have all worked so hard to get to.

I am prepared.

I am ready.

I will see you in Chicago in three weeks!!!

Here are the splits if interested...

Average Pace: 9:56/mile

1. 10:07
2. 10:23
3. 10:09
4. 9:43
5. 9:48
6. 10:58 (this included a walk to the truck)
7. 10:09
8. 10:18
9. 9:58
10. 9:59 (got into a rhythm)
11. 9:52 (faster)
12. 9:48 (faster still)
13. 9:47 (still picking up pace)
14. 9:45 (can't slow us down!)
15. 9:39 (on fire)
16. 9:44
17. 10:11 (stopped to stretch and refill water)
18. 9:31 (back on track)
19. 10:26 (stopped at truck / bathroom break)
20. 10:00
21. 9:52
22. 9:34
23. 9:03* (amazing - felt great)
24. 9:25 (eased up at end - felt awesome!)

working hard

It continues to be a rough week. Busy. Busy. Busy. I was able to get my recovery run in on Tuesday - I even got to run at Fort Harrison State Park - a place I haven't run in some time. It was a nice change of scenery. I ran it a little fast, but it felt good to 'get the lead out'. Last night was my tempo run. Another 8 miles. Started out with the skies overcast and ominous looking... I got about a half mile into the run and it started to rain. I wasn't feeling into the run, but I pushed on. It continued to rain. I felt slow and sluggish and wet. I had planned to go out 4 miles and turn around, but at mile 3 I felt dejected and turned around and headed back. I stopped a half mile later and stretched for a couple of seconds and then kept going. I was eager to finish this awful run. As I was approaching my start point, I felt guilty, so I pushed on a little more and decided to suck it up and finish it. Two more miles later, I was finished. Here are my surprising results:

1. 8:15/mile
2. 8:54/mile
3. 8:49/mile
4. 8:44/mile
5. 8:31/mile
6. 8:42/mile
7. 8:32/mile
8. 8:08/mile

Average Pace: 8:36/mile

Maybe not as fast as last week's tempo run, but I feel pretty good that even in the rain, feeling tired and sluggish I was still able to pull out some decent splits (although a little inconsistant).

Tonight is a rest night and tomorrow another run. Then rest for Sunday's 24 mile run...

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…