Inspiration

I've had a lot of really cool sources of inspiration lately. First the Olympics. I am always in awe at how insanely fast people can run. I especially enjoyed watching both the men's and women's marathons to see how the elite handle 26.2 miles. It was incredible! The avg. pace of the winner of the men's marathon was 4:50 per mile. 4:50! To put that in context I challenge anybody to run 1 mile in under 5 min. In fact go to a track and try just one lap in under 1:15. If you can run that fast congratulations, then imagine going that fast for over 26 miles. It's just crazy but knowing that the human body (ok a 120lb human body) is capable of that makes me feel better about just trying to cover the distance before the close the course.
Another source of inspiration lately are the folks that are doing the Transrockies run. For those unfamiliar with this event it is a tourdefrancesque 6 day running stage race in the ROCKIES. They do anywhere from 10 to 24 miles a day ranging from like 8000' to 12000' altitude. Since Gore sponsors the event they have 20 free entries for associates who are interested (a $1400 value). A few people I work with are in this thing (they tried to get me to join because I'm pretty good with the bo staff) and I've been following their progress online. It's been so cool to see them kicking arse up and down the rocky mtns. Way to go Erin, Aaron, Janie, Joe, Bob, and Mark; keep up the good work and I look forward to hearing all about it next week.

New training partners

I've been trying a couple of new things in my workouts this week. First is the Yasso 800's. Named after legendary running icon Bart Yasso who says that if you want a good predictor/workout for a marathon you should try these 800m runs. You run the 800's in the same time (in mins.) you plan on finishing the marathon (in hrs.). So for me I'm hoping to finish in 4 hours, so the 800m runs are in 4 min. You start with 5 or 6 800m intervals with a walk/jog rest of 1/2 the interval time. Then you build up to 9 or 10 of these 800's. This week I did 6 and it was a good workout. I ended up running the 800's faster than 4 mins so I'm not so sure how good of a predictor it is, but by the last couple of 800's I was feeling the burn.
My other new parter are these "magical beans" I found at Runners Corner in Orem.
They are made by Jelly Belly and are similar to the gu, or gels, you get from powerbar, etc. but taste way better. The even have EXTREME sport beans that have caffeine (mmmm vitamin C). My tactic is to take 1 or 2 beans every mile and it has transformed my long runs. Last week I had a great 14 miler and this week my 16 miler felt pretty good until the last mile. So, I ordered a bunch from REI and am excited to have some magic on my side.

I think I'm getting close to being ready to run the marathon. I'm going to keep my goals realistic and just try to finish strong and enjoy the experience. I've got a good strategy and we'll just see how I feel.

Big update

A couple of weeks since the last update, so let me get this up to date.

I ran the Provo 1/2 on the 9th of August. It was "fun". I had a good bus ride up to the start, but things were a bit chaotic at the start and I was caught off-guard when the start gun went off. I was way back in the pack and it took me a good couple of minutes to get to the start. I pushed the wrong button on my Garmin so I didn't start tracking my time until the six mile mark. I wasted a bunch of energy weaving in and out of the crowd at the start. The first 8-9 miles were awesome. I was hitting anywhere from 7:30 to 8:30 miles for those first 9. At about 8.5 I started feeling like I wasn't going to be able to keep the pace. At 9 it started to get painful. So it would have been a sweet 15k, but unfortunately I still had 4 miles to go. Looking at the Garmin now I was able to keep 9-10 min miles over those last 4 miles but it felt like crawling. I guess it was to be expected given my training. I had some great speedwork, but crappy endourance stuff. So I went into the next weeks training thinking about needing more distance training.

The next weeks training was all running. I did a quick recovery run on Monday that felt good. Then Wed. morning I got up and did some Tempo work. It felt really good. Thurs. I did a quick couple of miles in the morning while Drew played at the park. Then on Saturday I did a 14 miler. It felt really good. There were moments on the run when I felt like I wished it wouldn't end. It eventually did and that was the longest I've ever ran.

On to next week.

Half-Time

I've been thinking a lot about this "tune-up" race Saturday. As always I'm getting a bit nervous and excited. I feel like I'm mentally prepared. For some reason the distance doesn't seem so daunting. It may be because I've been so occupied with the full marathon that this just seems like a walk in the park. This is my 4th attempt at this distance and 3rd time on this course so I have a good idea of what to expect. It's still 13.1 miles so I have to respect it. The only real question mark right now is if my endurance is there. My speedwork sessions have been going really well and my recent 5k was a pleasant surprise. But, I haven't done many training runs over 10 miles leading up to this race just because I wasn't training specifically for this race. The plan is to start at about 8:20-8:30 min miles and see how I feel. If I'm doing good I'll work it down closer to a 8:00 min mile for the last few miles. If all that works out I hope to finish in under 1:50:00.

Wish you were running with me.

-Justin

Marathon Training Week 7

Not sure how to relate this week to you. I had some real high's and low's. I'll just give the weekly rundown then get into what made the high's high and low's low.

Mon - 4 miles, made up a new route from work but had to do some bushwhacking through the forest to connect a couple of trails (sorry environment). Good run, nothing spectacular but solid

Tues - Yoga = good

Wed - Tempo run, 4 miles fast/ 1 mile warm and cool. It was sort of a crazy day and I was originally planning on doing this run in the morning. I didn't make the morning in time then thought I would run buffalo park at lunch. Then I had a noon meeting sprung on me at work so I just went to the gym and hit the treadmill. This was the "high" for the week I'll explain later.

Thurs - Another crazy day, wasn't able to get in any workouts

Fri - Got up early and ran 3 miles, this was the start of the low. Then at lunch I did some quick lifting and swam 400m. I felt tired, but overall ok afterwards. Just the usual dizzyness after swimming.

Sat - Supposed to be 12 miles, just under 2 hour run. Turned into an 11 mile 2 hour 5 min run. It was a beautiful morning on a new trail but my body was not in the mood to cooperate. I'll elaborate below:



(how I felt after Wed. run)

High Times: No not the magazine just the elaboration on my wed. tempo run. I'm not sure what the trick was, but I felt great for this run. It was literally an indestructable feeling. I felt like I was running fast the whole time, but like I could have gone even faster and could have kept it up forever. This was in sharp contrast to low times experienced this week.



(the wall I hit)
Low times: Like I said, it started Friday. Three miles felt labored, but was to be expected somewhat because I never feel that great when I run outside of my usual schedule. It's like I have to be mentally prepared for the workout and if it's somewhat chaotic I just don't do well. The reall downer was Saturday. I started out ok for the first mile or so, then things started getting ugly. The trail was uphill on the way out, but nothing to gnarly. About a 1000 ft climb over 6 miles. By 4 miles I was walking cursing at myself for being such a wimp. It was a continuous walk/run battle for about another mile and I decided to turn around early and maybe make up the extra couple miles at the end. Since the way back was all downhill I figured I was in the clear but was gravely mistaken. It was still a mile by mile battle. I was able to convince myself that I should take a detour back and at least get 11 miles. I beleive the technical term for what happened to me is "bonking" (look it up). It was a little scary. It was warm outside and I was sweating, but my body felt cold and clammy. I felt like I was screaming at my muscles to run, but they wouldn't. When I got home I basically just fell down in the bedroom and watched the ceiling spin and move up and down. After eating and taking it easy for a few minutes I recovered.

I'm not sure what happened exactly. I've done much harder runs and have gotten tired, but nothing like this. I fueled up the same way I do before every other run, but the night before I didn't eat much because of a slightly upset stomach. I think it was a combination of a bunch of factors: Not enough sleep, a little upset stomach, not enough fuel, too much training. The positives I can take away from the experience are: I know it can't get much worse so I don't have to be afraid of "hitting the wall" again. I know to fuel up well the night before as well as the morning of a long run. I am however a bit nervous for the half-marathon this Saturday. This wasn't much of a confidence booster, but I'm confident my body will bounce back with some light training this week.