Day one - in the bag!

Today officially started my marathon training. It was no huge deal - 3 miles easy pace - but it was important because I'm off to a good start. It's hard because distractions arise so easily, but I have to keep up with my plan.

One thing that I've never done before is to really look at my goal times and build my plan off of that. For example, 3 easy miles...what does that mean? Well, my pace calculator app for the iPad tells me this about that:

"Easy run - 10:40 min/mile
Top coaches and exercise physiologists believe that most runners should do 80 to 90 percent of their weekly training at the easy run pace this includes your long runs, done at approximately the same pace. Easy runs build your aerobic fitness, and your muscular and skeletal strength. They also help you burn more calories and recover for harder workouts."

This is interesting, because my historical method of training was to go out as fast as I could for each run. Running slower than I could seems counter intuitive, but I have to trust the plan. I did pretty good - I averaged 10:21 over the three miles, which is awfully darned close to 10:40.

Tomorrow: second verse, same as the first!

End of the week catch up.

So far I've been great about the training, but slacking on the part where I blog about it.  I did a spartan workout for my strength/core day on Wednesday, and it worked me over pretty good.  I've got a couple of good programs set up for going forward so that's good.  I really slacked on the strength and core training for the last marathon and paid for it the last 6 miles.  If I die this time it won't be because I didn't do the work.

Next up was the hard run.  This week it was two miles @ an 8:45 pace.  Bookmark this, because I clearly remember last go-round (last year) I did a 6 or 7 miler in 9:00 pace and it wasn't that tough.  2 miles at 8:45 had me dying!  But I did it, didn't give in to the voice saying "walk!!  Just for a minute..." and I ran the whole 2.  That kind of mental discipline is key in running distance (not that 2 miles is really 'distance' but we play the way we practice.....).  The key thing is that after my knees felt so racked up on Monday this week, by the hard run yesterday they felt great, no issues at all.  Let's hope it stays that way.  My mantra is STRETCH WHEN DONE.  It will keep my body happy.

Today is my day off.  Poker night.  Beer/Margaritas and a 4 miler tomorrow morning.  Crosstrain on Sunday, then I start the REAL training plan on Monday.

Pre-training - Day 2

My official marathon training schedule kicks off next Monday with 3 miles (easy).  This week I'm mimicking that schedule, just backing off the mileage a bit to get back into it.  Yesterday and today I did 2 miles.  I know, big whoop...but it is amazing how stiff my knees are and how unwilling my legs are - and I've not taken that much time off.  To be fair, today was much easier than yesterday, despite the 82 degree heat.  I have a friend in Phoenix who is dealing with 106 degrees so it's all relative, but 82 is HOT for me.  My ideal temp for running is between 40 and 45 degrees, so 82 kills me.

Anyway, tomorrow is a core/strength day and I have a whopper of a Spartan workout planned.  I doubt I will be able to complete it, but I will give it my best shot - and eventually I will complete it.  I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow night. 

I'll wrap up this week with 10 miles total, and ramp up to 14 next week.  Sunday is a cross training day so I think I'll go hiking up in Wild Basin (maybe) or I might get on the bike if the hiking plans fall through.  As God is my witness, I am not going into this marathon under trained.  More tomorrow - have a good night!

Getting Serious Now!

It's a week after the first ever Spartan Military Sprint and I am jonesing for the next challenge.  Since I am now a member of Team Beef, I have decided to start training for the Denver Rock & Roll Marathon.  The only problem is, despite having completed the Spartan race (slowly), I feel like on a fitness scale of 1 to 10, I am about a 2.  Realistically to start training for a marathon I feel you should be starting at about a 5, and fitness is not something you can fake or put in extra time to catch up on.  As I found out last year, it's all about time on your feet, and you cannot rush that piece or you risk an over training injury.  It breaks down like this: the less trained you are, the more likely you can over train, and hence the more likely you are to get an over training injury.  So the simple task is to train as hard as you can and not any more.  Easy, right?

Last year, I trained somewhat sporadically, often following a mish mash of training plans, including the Runner's World 'three day a week' training plan.  I skipped more training sessions than I should have, and about a month before my race I developed plantar fasciitis, so my remaining training time was limited.  In the end, like the Spartan race, I finished but it was not painless.  In fact, my knees hurt so bad after the first 16 miles of downhill that I didn't run much for the remainder of the year.

I started this year with some hit or miss running, but with no specific goals in front of me, I haven't been exactly focused.  My training for the Spartan Race was 3 running sessions with burpees mixed in and a day where I did 240 pushups in 48 minutes.  Looking back on that, it's a miracle I finished the race.

So the question is, what am I going to do differently this time?  For one thing, I have the power of the iPad.  I have an app called 26.2 that has mapped out a plan for me based on my parameters - race date of September 22nd, training plan = beginner, goal time is 4 hours 30 minutes.  Hit save and BOOM - your own marathon plan.  It's heavy on running - 4 days per week - but light on mileage to start.  One day is dedicated to strength and core, and another day is blocked for cross training.  In my corner for both of those off days - Spartan workouts.  Strength, core and cross training are key components of the Spartan plan.  With these weapons at my disposal, I can't help but succeed.

Oh, yeah, there's the little thing called actually DOING the work...

...to be continued.

No one's watching...

I just watched Seven Pounds again.  What a terrific, although horribly sad, movie!  Will Smith does a marvelous job at being tormented and though it wasn't hard to figure out where the movie was going to go, I was impressed that they actually went there.

There's one scene that struck me.  He's talking to the hockey coach, to whom he's donating a kidney, and the coach says "Why are you doing this?  Why me?"  Smith responds "Because you're a good man."  The coach starts to protest and Smith continues with "even  when no one is looking."  After Smith completes that thought the coach's eyes water up and he can't respond.  Frankly, I felt the emotion of that moment too.

But it got me thinking - if I were in that coach's chair, would Smith's character say the same thing?  Could he say the same thing if he were vetting me for organ donation.  I don't know.  With the exception of the speed limit, I obey traffic laws, even using my turn signals when no one is around to see them.  I hold doors open for people I don't know.  I give up my seat to the elderly or women when ever I'm in the position to do so.  But would that be enough? 

I'm also pretty judgmental.  I have little patience for other drivers...while I will use my turn signal to change lanes while I blow their doors off, I do blow their doors off.  I honk when they turn in front of me after obviously running the red on the turn arrow because my light is green.  I use a lot of colorful language when people are in my way because I don't obey the speed limits.  And I have a pretty dim opinion of people who don't share my view of the world.  So I don't know if Smith's character would qualify me for that kidney.  Let's hope I never need one.

What do you think he would say about you?

Signs You've Gotten Old

When we were in high school we'd often go to my friend Greg's house for lunch.  His house was the central gathering point for most of our misadventures as he had what we thought were the most permissive parents.  They knew, however, that we were going to get in all kinds of mischief, so they figured it was best if they had at least some level of visibility to us, and that would be maximized if we were at their house all the time.

As such, they stocked the freezer with El Charito frozen dinners (I think they got them in bulk for like $.50 a piece).  They were supposedly Mexican frozen dinners, but they were not good.  Being teenagers, however, we didn't care.  You could have covered a dead opossum in re-fried beans and we would have eaten it.

Anyway, when we were out of frozen dinners we would get creative and one of the staples we turned to was the cheese crisp.  You take a tortilla, cover it with shredded cheddar cheese, nuke it, put some hot sauce on it, slice it like a pizza, and take the slices and roll them from the outside edge toward the middle.  Fast, easy, and delicious.

Once Greg put his cheese crisp in the microwave and then ran across the kitchen and did his patented "I'm slalom skiing down the stairs" moves which turned into a "I'm just caught an edge and wiped out" move.  He tumbled down the short flight of stairs into the sunken family room and began rolling around , pulling his leg up to his chest and screaming "Oh, my ankle, ow, ow my ankle."  This went on for a few seconds, but then he remembered what was really important.  "Oh, my ankle, OW OW, my ankle!" then, pointing toward the kitchen, "Dude, turn off the microwave, my cheese crisp is burning." and then back to "Ow, my ankle!"

Of course he was fine because young boys tend to bounce, and we finished lunch and went back to school.

So, all of this flashed through my head tonight as I was making a cheese crisp for lack of anything better to make for dinner.  So I got out the basic materials; tortilla, and cheese.  A whole.  Grain.  Tortilla.  And fat.  Free.  Cheese.  A whole grain tortilla kinda tastes like the cardboard that supports a frozen pizza, only not as flavorful and much less chewable.  And fat free cheese doesn't melt quite like normal cheese does, which makes sense because it doesn't taste like normal cheese does.  So why do we have this crap in our fridge?  Because it's GOOD FOR YOU.  Soon I'll be drinking Metamucil and saying "Hey, the orange almost tastes good!"

It sucks getting old.

A Long Overdue Update...

I started a program I called "Minisize Me" which was geared toward losing weight by not dining out as much, eating better and exercising more.  I can't believe it, but I started this over TWO YEARS ago, and a knee injury, a hip injury and nine months spent finishing our basement threw me off track.  I'm back at it though, and here's the update - I am down 18 pounds from the start of the year (from 195 to 177) and have been sticking with it very well.  My hip is a non-issue now, and my knees are doing well, though they require a lot of looking after.  My goal is to get down to 155 lbs this year, preferably by the time we do the 24 Hours Of Boulder in October.

I used to say the secret to weight loss was 'eat a salad and run a mile.'  I've modified that to 'eat a salad, run a mile and drink a glass of water.'  Staying appropriately hydrated is the key to a lot of things - digestion, endurance, and weight loss.  Replace soda and alcohol with water and it's amazing how quickly the weight slides off.

I also realized that I haven't updated this blog for over a year, so I will make more of an effort to keep up on the personal side as well as the political side of events.

That's it for now...