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Climb Aboard Explorers! 

Today I officially started my marathon training program.  Yes, I know you're envious--18 weeks of lactate threshold increasing, V02max building, endurance escalating, limit pushing fun.  My plan--largely based on Pfitzinger's 18/55 plan which is 18 weeks building weekly mileage to 55 miles. 

To be fair, the plan is also authored by Scott Douglas, but everyone just refers to it as a Pfitzinger plan, or Pfitz for short.  Sorry Scott.

Today's workout--an 8 mile run with 4 miles at Lactate Threshold pace.  For me that works out to a pace between 8:53 and 9:10 (Heart rate 148 - 165).  So, I set the alarm for 5:30 and away we go with a zoom!

I couldn't sneak out the door without waking the dogs, so they got to come for the first mile and a half.  Then I dropped them off and went out for more.  I pushed up near LT pace, but because it was uphill, my HR was already there so two miles of LT.  After that, I realized that I needed to add a little to my route, so I explored some new ground.  I found a trail that went along the Magalia Reservoir--this turned out to be a Mr. Toad's Wild Ride of a trail, so I had to go a little slower for the two miles of trail.  Finished up with two more at LT pace. 

Viola!  First day of training in the books.  To bolster my legendary fame and running prowess, I am counting the half marathon training as part of my total training bragging rights for the marathon.  That puts me at 318 miles down, approximately 800 to go.

The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow

We have had a solid three weeks of rain here in sunny, northern California.  The official stats for my town record us at 20 days of rain in March with 16.27 inches!  That's enough to discourage even the most resilient of souls. 

Don't get me wrong, I like the rain.  I even like running in the rain in the winter, as long as I am prepared for it:

• hat with a bill to keep the rain out of my eyes
• wool socks (I love my green smartwools)
• a decent outer layer up top

The problem with that many rain days is that it starts to wear on you over time.  I was doing pretty well--either braving the rain or squeezing runs in between rainstorms--until daylight saving time hit.  Since I am an early runner, I was enjoying the extra light in the mornings.  Then all of a sudden, daylight savings add this insult to injury.  It's darker and I really don't feel like getting out of bed an hour earlier. 

Saturday, I had just about had it.  A growing sense of cabin fever began to really get to me.  So, I geared up and went out for a medium-long run.  When I left it was cloudy but not raining.  The rain came about 3 miles into the run.  A sprinkle, then a downpour.  No problem for me, I'm dressed and ready.  The downpour lets up and to more of a sprinkle followed by another downpour.

I was running an out & back course and about a half mile before my turn-around point, the rain starts to turn to hail.  To misquote the country song:  "If you're going through hail, keep on moving!"  I enjoy the crunchy feel of hail under my feet.   I decide to make this run a half-marathon distance so I tack on a little more before making my turn. 

As I'm running in the rain, hail, wind, and fog I begin thinking that this run is perfect for preparing for the San Francisco Marathon.  It's always windy going across the Golden Gate Bridge.  It's usually foggy.  This is the exact type of training I need.  Add to it this route is a pretty fair facsimile of the course elevation profile, and I am having a great training run--building mental toughness.

Two more miles of rain and then it suddenly cleared up.  The clouds even turned from dark grey to light grey with some hints of yellow.  I finished the run after sunset, with my headlamp on, but felt pretty good.

The sun is out today, I guess Annie was right.

Unicycle Cross-Training

My brother Jeff called yesterday.  Jeff has been one of those inspirational big brothers.  He has run the St. Loius Marathon, done the Sears Tower Climb a couple of times (he's training to do it again).  Way back in my first semester of college, he taught me how to juggle as a helpful procrastination method. 

About 6 years ago he gave me one of his old unicycles (a classic Schwinn 24") and told me I had to learn.  After about 5 years of mostly letting it collect dust, last spring I finally took to learning it in earnest.  I spent a lot of time at the local tennis courts.  Tennis courts are great for unicycle practice because they are nice and flat and have chain-link fence surrounding them, which is ideal beacuse you have something to hang on to.  After a good bit of work, I managed to graduate to being an official level 1 unicycler who can:

• mount unicycle unassisted
• ride 50 meters
• dismount gracefully with unicycle in front

Six years to get to level 1--that's the equivalent of spending six years in first grade.

Back to yesterday's call.  Usually he calls to rub in how my neice or nephew are doing laps around my unicycle ability--my nephew is working on level 2.  Even my brother's six year-old neighbor is learning.  My brother's latest stunt is riding 2+ miles on his unicycle. 

So, the conversation progresses and he challenges me to get after progressing to the next level.  I give what I think is the ultimate excuse: "I'm training for a marathon."  He responds, "Then unicycle as cross-training."

Ok, he got me there.  So, once a week on one of my "rest of XT" days, I'm gonna work on the uni!

Elitist Prigs

One of the things I like most best about running is the general sense of camaraderie that runners have with each other.  This is best found when you end up near another runner and there is an immediate connection.

These vary from light:
     "Nice day for a run."  
     "Good job."
to the the more involved:
       "What are you training for?"
       "How long have you been running?"
In fact, there is nothing that helps a workout go by than a nice conversation along the way.

In our online world, there is also a great source of encouragement to be found in the various running forums.  These are all over, with some of the more popular being offered by running magazines such as Runner's World and Running Times or on the multitude of online tracking programs such as Running Ahead and Map My Run.  Since a lot of my running is solitary, I have received a lot of encouragement from folks on forums.  In fact, one forum in particular had a great community of people all training for half marathons--what an encouraging group of people!

However, I have found that not all is well online.  The big difference is that in person, most people tend to try to be nice.  Online, on the other hand, people seem pretty free to be total jerks. 

This was highlighted recently as I started to make the transition from half marathon training to full marathon training.  Unlike the really friendly folks in the HM realm, there is a high incidence of what I like to call Elitist Prigs on the full marathon side.  These are the guys that think if you aren't running a 2:30 marathon that you might as well call the mortuary.  Also, apparently these guys were born with at least 5 marathons under their belt.  They are just brutal when it comes to responding to first time marathoners.

My solution--find the turtle rooms (it must be the Terrapin in me).  This is the place where people are running 4-5+ hour marathons.  These awesome folks are humble and helpful.  Plus, they probably work harder at their marathons than the speedy experts do.

What is it about going online that requires some to load up their flame-throwers and unleash all their fiery vengeance?

Running and Reading

Whew!  It's been a few days since my last post.  I have been trying to catch up from the Half Marathon last week.  I am also trying not to become that guy who obsesses completely over running. 

But I am also at a bit of a decision point.  I am in between two training cycles.  I successfully completed my Half Marathon (yeah, I know it doesn't need to be capitalized, but to me it's capital letter worthy)--no major injuries, met my goal, yada, yada, yada.  I am now getting ready to transition into training for the San Francisco Marathon.  The only problem is that I have yet to pick a training plan.

Enter the reading.  Right now I am pretty much reading anything I can find on the topic of marathon training plans.  What I am finding is that while there are are lot of free half marathon plans online, full marathon plans tend to require an investment.  First stop--the local library--to my dismay, they only have one book on running, The Idiots Guide to Running by Bill Rodgers.  Nothing wrong with Bill Rodgers, but this book is written more for the entry level runner and not real specific to marathon training. 

Next stop, my favorite local used book store, Books of Paradise.   These guys are getting ready to close their brick and mortar store and transition to just online sales, so on my first visit, they are selling everything for 60% off.  They only two books on running:  Galloway's Book on Running, by Jeff Galloway and The Complete Book of Running, by James Fixx.  I read Jim Fixx way back in the day, so I opt for Galloway.  A few days later, I find out via Facebook that the bookstore is having a "every book is $1 sale," so I figure I might as well pick up Fixx for a buck. 

While I'd like to give a little respect to the dead, the Fixx book is not really turning out to be helpful on the specifics of marathon training.  Galloway, on the other hand, has a thorough plan for training for marathons and differentiates between goals of finishing and various time goals--now we are getting somewhere.

In my internet browsing on the topic, I keep reading about Pfitzinger's marathon training plans (and some insane workouts on the way), so I decide that to be thorough, I ought to pick up a copy of Advanced Marathoning.  The local Barnes and Noble didn't have it, but Amazon.com to the rescue--the book will be delivered by my friends at UPS any minute now (What can Brown do for me?  Bring my book!).

I used a hybrid Galloway/F.I.R.S.T. plan for my half marathon trianing--mainly because I only had 10 weeks to move from 5K fitness to the half marathon.  But there are some very appealing things to me in Galloway's plan.  I especially like that he has you do long runs of at least your race length, if not longer.  For the HM, this meant I worked up to 16 miles--compared to some plans that have you peak out at 10-11 miles.

However, for the marathon, I am wanting to put in a larger base of weekly miles and the Galloway marathon plan for a 4 hour marathon only builds weekly mileage into the mid-40's.  Enter Pfitzinger.  I am strongly considering what is commonly called the Pfitz 18/55.  It is an 18 week program that builds up to 55-mile weeks. 

I realize that I am a novice, not an advanced marathoner, but I also realize that I am venturing into a world that I know nothing about, so I thought I'd like to get some race-specific info as I launch into this. 

The best part, I get to build on my previous training cycle and count the miles toward my marathon goal:  241 miles down, approximately 700 to go!

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

2.4 easy miles this morning.  I was running with my friend Ryan.  His training plan has him alternating between running and walking (run 5 minutes, walk 3, run 8, walk 3, run 5).  There were two great things about this workout this morning.

First of all, on the running portions we pretty much ran what I hope my starting pace will be in the race on Saturday.  Nothing fancy, slow and steady wins the race.  I'm going to purposefully start slow and reserve some energy for later in the race.

The other great thing was that my slow and steady starting pace felt comfortably easy.  A nice little confidence booster two days before the race.

212.1 miles down--13.1 to go!

Training for the Half Marathon, Week 10/10

Well, I am officially tapering.  One week ago I did my last long run (16 miles) in preparation for my first half marathon.  Instead of my usual weekend long run, I did a 6 mile tempo run on Saturday.  Today, just an easy four miles with the dogs (two miles for Molly, two miles for Snicker).  They are both napping to show their appreciation. 

Tomorrow, I'll do about 4 miles with intervals.  Half mile easy warm-up, 4x800's with 400meter rests in between, and then a half mile cooldown. I'm going to try to push the intensity.

Looking at my running log over the this ten week training plan, I have put in 204.2 miles.  Probably the most I have ever ran in a two-month period.   Saturday's forecast for Chico, CA:   cloudy with a chance of rain, racetime temp:  mid-40's.

15 Miles done! No Bears!

Completed the 15 miler this morning.  Longest run of my life (until next week).  It was tough. 
I aimed for an 11:00 pace and came pretty close--averaged 11:04 for a total run time of 2:46:00.

Things that went well.  Yesterday, I hid a couple of gatorades in the pine needles at my 5 and 10 mile marks.  My wife predicted that the racoons were going to enjoy them, but to my delight, they were undisturbed.  In addition to the two little 8oz gatorades, I had the following nutrition:  before the run--a banana and a generous tablespoon of peanut butter.  During the run:  two GU packets (the Lemon Sublime flavor ROCKS!)  I felt totally hungry at about 8.5 miles.  This makes me wonder if I need to get a little more food in me on my Half Marathon day.  Also, despite the early morning hours of the run (left at 4:50 AM and got home at 7:36)  I didn't see a single wild animal.  No bear, no deer, no skunks, no nothing.  That doesn't mean they didn't see me.

Things that hurt:  this was a new mileage territory for me.  Guess what!  My knees hurt, bunion on my right foot was really aching.  Lower abs still hurt--I really think this has to do with all the hills.

I am going to get around the rest of the day (and probably tomorrow) doing the "distance runner shuffle" but I feel pretty good about the day.  Celebrating with a Peanut Butter and Honey sandwich.

154.45 miles down, 69 to go!

Does Thinking About Running Count?

Yesterday, I missed two miles of speed work. I did four miles in the morning and was planning to head to the track in the early evening. My wife wanted to start running a little and she thought the track would be a nice place to start. Unfortunately, she got called to take minutes at a school board meeting and we had to cancel our run.

This morning I thought about getting up and putting in the missed miles from yesterday. I sat in bed listening to the sound of the wind wipping leaves around outside and decided that the warm bed seemed like a nicer idea.

So instead of a make-up run, I spent some time planning out my training plan for after the Bidwell Classic in March. There is a possible "next goal" race this summer that I am starting to scratch out a training plan for. So me and my Excel spreadsheet began to see how I can get in the mileage after recovering from my first half marathon. Two goals: add mileage safely (trying to stay near the 10% rule) and get my overall mileage up into the 40 mpw range.

It should be fun!

Guaranteed PR

I was digging through some old stuff the other day and found a couple of old race numbers stuffed in my high school yearbook. One of them was a 5K I ran when I was 14. I placed third for my age group with a 23:30. I'm pretty sure that's one of the few times in my life that I have actually placed in a race.

Now I'm not a very good record keeper, because I have no idea what my other times where in those early years of running. Do you know what that means? Aside from this 5K PR, I have a clean slate on PR's!

This brings up an important issue: do PR's expire? I read one running article where the writer suggested that any PR more than 2 years old is invalid. Personally, I think this is a bunch of hooey. A record by it's very nature stands until it is broken.

Anyway, back to the topic: since I only have one PR that I can remember, every race distance (except 5K) that I choose to run is a guaranteed PR! In four weeks, as long as I finish my half marathon, I will have a new PR!

5K 23:30
13.1 __________

115 miles down, 107 miles to go.

Four Weeks to Go!

Four weeks from tomorrow I will be running my first Half Marathon.

I can't wait! That means I only have two more weeks of hard training. After that I get two weeks of taper leading to the race. Can I do it? You bet! Last Sunday's long run was 13.4 miles, in the dark, while raining, and over hilly terrain.

Now, just because I can do it, doesn't mean I am taking the next few weeks of training lightly. Here's what the next two weeks have in store:
2/6 9 mile long run
2/8 6 miles with intervals (4x400, 2x800, bleachers)
2/10 7 mile tempo run
2/11 2 miles easy
2/13 15 mile long run
2/15 6 miles with intervals (2x200, 2x400, 2x800, bleachers)
2/17 7 mile tempo run
2/18 2 miles easy
2/20 17 mile long run

After that I head into my taper until the race.

Bidwell Classic here I come. My goal: finish! I'd love to come in under 2 hours, but finishing is the main thing.

Speed Kills!

Speed Kill! At least they say to teenagers who drive too fast.

Well, speed also kills your running plan. Of course, I'm talking more about my little setback--hurt my lower abs all because of last Friday's speed workout and then running my long run on Sunday a little too fast.

So, what speed should I be running? I found a great tool over at McMillan Racing that calculates your proper training paces based on a previous race result. In my case, I plugged in my last 5K time and it spits out this incredibly detailed report that predicts my time in any length race (assuming I've put in the training) and gives me my goal times for training.

Now, I already knew that I did last weeks sprints too fast. But after checking the running calculator, I saw how fast is appropriate. Real numbers: last Friday, I was doing 100m intervals at 18-19 second pace; I'm supposed to be doing them at 22-24 second pace. My long run was also a problem. Sunday, I ran 13.4 in 2:15:00 which works out to 10:04/mile pace. I stoked that I CAN do that, but I should have been closer to an 11 minute mile.

Speed Kills!