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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 November 20, 2005 09:33 AM
Comments
Good Luck with your marathon! I've never enjoyed running so think those of you who do are a little crazy but you are inspiring as well!!
I think the role model you are for your son is awesome as well!
Posted by: Kelly Grago at November 26, 2005 09:51 PM
Hi Kelly,
Believe it or not, up until four years ago I had no interest in running either!!! It then took me about 6 months to get past the pain and the boredom - then all of a sudden it clicked, and running is just a big part of my life now.
Thanks for visiting my blog page, hopefully you can check back in a time or two and help keep me inspired on those hard weeks that are coming up real quick.
Later,
Dennis
Posted by: Dennis at November 27, 2005 03:25 PM