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November 27, 2005
Week No. 7
REASON NO. 20 FOR RUNNING A MARATHON
Running a marathon will instill in me a physical “toughness� that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
For most people, their life “experiences� provide them a frame of reference from which to judge their abilities. Ask someone if they could run a 5k race, most people will reflect back upon the days they were in shape, and decide that they could do it (forgetting about the years of neglect their body has been subjected to). Ask a woman about extreme pain, and she will more than likely use childbirth as a frame of reference.
My “frame of reference� for pain and endurance was my first half-marathon. The date was January 1, 2004, and the weather had been absolutely horrible for the previous week.
The start was at Shasta Dam, then we were supposed to run down the old railroad trail (nice gentle grade) to Caldwell Park in Redding. But, mother nature had other plans for us. After 3 days to heavy rain, wind and snow, the trail was blown out with downed trees, washed out bridges and culverts – so the race directors had to make a quick alternate route – and this included surface streets with lots of hills.
The run started out at 39 degrees, with 40 mile per hour winds, and a slush/rain falling. The first challenge was getting started – nobody told us where the starting point was, so we stood in the rain for about 30 minutes waiting. Then we had to cross a blown out bridge – which involved walking across through a 2-foot deep stream of ice-cold water. Then, we proceeded to run the remaining miles with totally soaked feet. My knowledge about sports nutrition was about zero at this point in my training, so my race preparation consisted of a bottle of Gatorade. About 20 minutes from the end of the race, I found “the wall� that long distance runners frequently talk about. I remember thinking, as I was finally approaching the finish, of Julie Moss in the 1982 Iron Man Race – she was leading the race, until just a few hundred feet from the finish her body gave out. She tried several times to continue walking or running, but she could not stand up. She ended up crawling to the finish, but only after being passed by another runner and losing that particular race. As I was struggling to put one painful foot in front of the other, suddenly crawling the rest of the way did not seem like that bad of an option.
I did finish, vertical, and under my own power. This is the first race that my brother and I ran together, and he beat me by almost 10 minutes. I was cold, wet, could just barely walk, and I was starving yet half sick to my stomach at the same time. Even with all that happening, I was one of the happiest guys on the earth when I crossed that finish line.
From that point forward, I knew that I could take on a tremendous challenge successfully. It gave me a new frame of reference for pain, my tolerance to pain, and how well I can perform in adverse conditions
Training is starting to get a little harder. Last week was a recovery week, which was good. It helped my muscles and joints rebuild from the pounding, and by the end of the weekend I felt really good. Monday was a rest day, Tuesday was a treadmill workout using a hill program. Did 4 miles of hills, varying from 1% up to 10% grade. Wednesday I was up at 4:30 getting ready for my 6-mile run, and had a real hard time getting moving. Spent more than an hour surfing the web and writing in my blog, using the excuse that I had to finish my coffee and let my body warmed up before my run. Luckily our office is closed today, so I can go in a little later than normal. I finally got out and finished the run, and it went surprisingly well. Thursday I did my quick 3-mile run early, before we left for the Bay area for Thanksgiving. Friday was a rest day (except for a couple of hours of tennis). Saturday was my first “long� run for quite a while, an 11-mile run. After much debate, I decided to run on the track at the local high school near where we were staying. It has a hard packed sand surface, and really went pretty well (other than being very, very boring). I tracked the lap times, and my goal was to keep the entire 11 miles less than 10-minute miles. I finished the 44 laps in 1 hour 47 minutes, which was well under my goal for this training session. My wife came out and ran 5 laps with me – she is training for her first ever 5k, on the same day of my marathon. I was great seeing her out running, and to have a little company.
Overall, the long run was somewhat uneventful – a little knee pain for an hour or so afterwards, then everything was good for the rest of the weekend. It still just blows me away that I (the non-athlete) can do an 11 mile run, then put in a full day working on my mother-in-law’s house, then go place tennis for an hour or two, and then go out to dinner.
Sunday was another rest/travel day, and then we finally got home around 4:00 PM. I turned on my computer, checked the weather real quick, and holy smokes, the National Weather Service has issued a Snow Advisory for Paradise. That’s just great, that should make for an interesting Monday.
Stay tuned for our first snow report!!!!
Posted by Dennis at 07:57 PM | Comments (0)
November 20, 2005
Week No. 6
REASON NO. 21 FOR RUNNING A MARATHON
Running a marathon will help me build a “mental toughness� that I can use to improve my overall life.
Runners, if they want to improve, have to push their mental and physical limits. Most runners have mental blocks about their training and their ability. My biggest mental block is 15 miles. That is the longest distance I have ever ran, and the thought of exceeding that distance somewhat scares the heck out of me. In about 6 weeks I will blow right past that mental block with a long run of 17 miles, and then the long runs continue to lengthen to over 20 miles in the following weeks.
Training this week went pretty well. Rest day on Monday, Tuesday was a gym workout, with an ab and upper body work, then 3 miles of speed work. My base speed was 8.0 mph, with ramp-ups to 8.5 mph. My total time for the three miles was 22 minutes 17 seconds, which works out to 7 minute, 25 second miles.
Wednesday was another dark-thirty 5 mile run amongst the Almond trees around Durham, then another early morning 3 mile run. Saturday was a “short� long run, as this is a recovery week – only 6 miles. I went to Bidwell Park for the run, thinking I would hook up with the Chico Running Club – but somehow I missed the departure time by an hour (they start at 8:00 AM, not 9:00 AM). Anyway, had a good run by myself, lots of people running, walking, and just enjoying the beautiful day. The run didn’t really feel that good for being an easy week. I had lots of knee pain at the end of the run, but after an hour or so it went away.
I went to the gym afterwards, did about a 1,000 yards swimming, did some 100 yard swim sprints – the first two I was able to keep under 2 minutes which is really good for me (the world’s slowest swimmer).
After my shower, I was starving!!! A quick trip to Quizno’s solved that problem, then I went to the mall to get an early start of my Christmas shopping.
Sunday was a cross train day, so I pulled my new bike out for an easy ride into Chico and back. I felt good to be back on my bike, which I haven’t ridden since the Lake Tahoe triathlon back in September. This was my first ride since I installed the Cateye bike computer I got for my birthday - SWEET!!!!. This computer (about the size of a box of matches) tells me the distance I have gone, average speed, top speed, and lots of other neat stuff. I averaged 18 mph on this ride, which is slow for competion, but a good pace for a nice and easy training ride.
Sorry bout the funky picture of the bike, but our camera occasionally forgets to open the shutter all the way.
Posted by Dennis at 09:33 AM | Comments (2)
November 13, 2005
Week No. 5
REASON NO. 22 FOR RUNNING A MARATHON
Running a marathon will help me be a positive role model for my son …At the ripe old age of 12, my son is still somewhat impressionable. I have to believe that the efforts I am making, from running, to triathlons, to playing tennis with him on demand, will help show him how it is “cool� to be active, and that, just maybe, help keep him active and healthy.
Training this week went very well. Rest day on Monday, after the Almond Bowl race on Sunday. Tuesday was a gym workout, with an ab and upper body work, then a 2-mile warm-up run, then two miles on the treadmill hill program.
Wednesday was a 5 mile run, out in dark, amongst the Almond trees around Durham, then Thursday I went to the gym for an afternoon swim (1000 yards, 24 minutes and 10 seconds) followed by a 3.5 mile treadmill run. I set my pace at 9.2 minutes per mile, and I was able to hold my heart rate under 145 for the entire run. Just 4 weeks ago, I could not have been able to keep my heart rate this low – so I am confident that the training program is working.
Friday will be a rest day. Our office was closed for the Veterans Day holiday, but I am so far behind with our plan checks that I brought some of the most critical projects home with me to work on. Saturday was our once a year Pheasant hunting trip – we always schedule for the opening day of the season. I was able to get lots of walking in during the course of the day.
Sunday, ahh, the long run…. The plan called for nine miles, and I probably ran a little longer than that. Overall the run went very well, I took 24 ounces of accelerade, one gel and one power bar. I finished the run in 1 hour and 36 minutes, which works out to around 10 minute miles. The last couple of miles my running was a little stiff, but no real pain issues at all. Afterwards, we went out for more pheasant hunting (more walking) and then tennis later that afternoon with my son. By 6:00 PM, I was beat!!!!
I will really be looking forward to that rest day tomorrow….
Posted by Dennis at 07:58 PM | Comments (0)
November 07, 2005
Week No. 4
REASON NO. 23 FOR RUNNING A MARATHON
Running a marathon will put me in the best shape of my life……
I started running a little over 4 years ago, after almost 20 years of very limited physical activity. Since then, I have dropped about 25 pounds (without dieting), reduced both my blood pressure and resting heart rate by about 20%, and tremendously improved both my eating habits and my physical stamina. With this running base (averaging about 15 miles per week), and my triathlon background (2 years of swimming and bicycling) I am now prepared to take my fitness to the next level.
My longest runs to date have been half marathons – 13.1 miles. The first was very, very painful, the second was almost easy – what a difference an extra year of training makes. Below is the training plan I have decided on – thanks to Hal Higdon and his website at www.halhigdon.com This plan should enable me to complete the race, hopefully with some element of form, in about 4.5 hours.
Already, after just three weeks of pretty hard-core running, I can feel and see the difference. I have lost around 4 additional pounds, and the multiple run days and longer distance runs are getting a lot easier.
I signed up for the race today – what a great way to further my commitment to the race. $85.00 for the race entry fee, non refundable and non-transferable. Now there is no turning back!!!!
Marathon Training Schedule
Napa Valley Marathon
March 5, 2006
Week Mon Tue Wed Thur Fri Sat Sun
4 rest 3 m run 5 m run 3 m run rest 8 cross
5 rest 3 m run 5 m run 3 m run rest 9 cross
6 rest 3 m run 5 m run 3 m run rest 6 cross
7 rest 3 m run 6 m run 3 m run rest 11 cross
8 rest 3 m run 6 m run 3 m run rest 12 cross
9 rest 3 m run 5 m run 3 m run rest 9 cross
10 rest 3 m run 7 m run 3 m run rest 14 cross
11 rest 3 m run 7 m run 3 m run rest 15 cross
12 rest 3 m run 5 m run 4 m run rest 11 cross
13 rest 3 m run 8 m run 4 m run rest 17 cross
14 rest 4 m run 8 m run 4 m run rest 18 cross
15 rest 4 m run 5 m run 5 m run rest 13 cross
16 rest 4 m run 8 m run 5 m run rest 20 cross
17 rest 5 m run 5 m run 5 m run rest 12 cross
18 rest 5 m run 8 m run 5 m run rest 20 cross
19 rest 5 m run 6 m run 4 m run rest 12 cross
20 rest 4 m run 5 m run 3 m run rest 8 cross
21 rest 3 m run 4 m run 2 m run rest rest race
Training this week was much, much easier. I finished the week as planned, with just a little deviation – I cross trained (biked) on Saturday, and then on Sunday I raced in the Almond Bowl run, in Bidwell Park. This was only a 6-mile race, so I ran a mile earlier in the day, and then ran a cool down mile after the race, to make my full eight miles for the long run.
My race time was a little disappointing. Last year I ran the same race in 48 minutes and 51 seconds. My goal this year was to do the 6 miles in under 48 minutes (eight minute miles). But, for a variety of reasons, that was not in the cards – I ended up with a finishing time of 48 minutes and 39 seconds. A whopping 12-second reduction over my time last year!!!!
I record all my race reports online – at www.beginnertriathlete.com click on the race reports tab, look for Almond Bowl for all the details if you are into that kind of thing.
Posted by Dennis at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)