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December 25, 2005
Week No. 11
REASON NO. 16 FOR RUNNING A MARATHON
Marathons are not getting any shorter – and I’m not getting any younger!!!
This year I turned 45 years old. As anyone older than 40 can attest, as you age it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the physical activity level that you used to have. Training for and running a marathon will (and has) force fed me a steady diet of exercise, that hopefully will help me delay the inevitable physical limitations that come with the onset of the “golden years�.
Training this week again was a struggle – with all the Christmas get-togethers and shopping, it made for a hectic week.
Tuesday was a 3-mile run around my house, followed by a 7 mile run in the Fog on Wednesday. Thursday got blown out by an out-of town party we attended, so I did an abbreviated run on Friday (about 2 miles with my wife).
I did my long run this week on Saturday, to miss the nasty weather predicted on Sunday, as well as avoiding running on Christmas Day (and the obvious family implications that would have). I met up with my brother and we ran from my house, south to Butte Creek, then followed Butte Creek north almost to Chico, then came back along the bike path and Jones Avenue. Total distance was 18.4 miles, and it was pretty painful. I felt good for the first 12 miles or so, after that it became increasing harder to maintain a decent pace, and to run smoothly. I only took one water bottle with me (my other one was borrowed by a family member), and about mile 13 it became painfully obvious that I did not take enough water or gu/powerbars for this long of a run. Luckily we went by the corner store in Durham, and I was able to buy a Gatorade to make the trip home – otherwise I really would have been in trouble. Bottom line, next long run (in two weeks) I will be dusting off my Camelback – it carries about 100 ounces, which should be more than enough for any distance I can run.
Total run time was 3 hours and 20 minutes – which works out to a pace of 10 minutes and 51 seconds per mile. If I can hold this pace for 26 miles, I will finish in about 4 hours and 42 minutes – which is just 48 minutes faster than the cut-off time to finish. If a runner is still on the course after 5.50 hours, they collect your bib number, and you do not get an official time for the race (which would be very, very frustrating, to put in this level of training and then not have an official time).
I am hoping to be able to hold a faster pace during the race, once I have completed my training program, and allowed all my muscles to recover during the taper period. Only time will tell if that is this strategy will actually work out for me on race day.
Posted by Dennis at 07:39 PM | Comments (0)
December 18, 2005
Week No. 10
REASON NO. 17 FOR RUNNING A MARATHON
Running a marathon will give me the opportunity to beat my brother in the longest and most difficult race we have run together.
My brother and I have been racing against each other for about three years. He is strictly a runner, whereas I have branched off into doing triathlons as well as running races. Thus far, the score is 3 wins for myself, and two wins for my brother. Our most recent race was the Bidwell Classic ½ Marathon in Bidwell Park last March. I was able to beat “The runner� by an embarrassing 4 minutes (see results here).
This, of course gave me lots of opportunities (virtually every family get-together) to extol the virtues of triathlons, and preach to Dave how swimming and biking makes you a faster runner.
This was a long, long week. It was the usual pre-Christmas craziness, then throw in a bunch of training, and the last ravages of a nasty cold, and by Friday I was beat!!
Tuesday was a frosty 3-mile run before taking my son to basketball tryouts at 6:30 AM. I didn’t get home until late due to our Town Council meeting, then I was up at 3:30 AM on Wednesday, to get in a 7 mile run before basketball.
Thursday was gym workout, with a 3 mile run on the treadmill. Friday was cross training, with a pool workout. I did 200 yards to warm up, then five 100 yard sprints, trying to hold my time at under 2 minutes/hundred. I averaged about 2 minutes, 5 seconds per 100. I then did a couple of 50-yard sprints, with my fastest time ever of 47 seconds. This is glacier speed compared to real swimmers, but at least I am still improving, even with my reduced level of swimming during the off-season. After my son got out of school, we managed to get an hour or so of tennis in before it got dark. My son’s tennis skills have just exploded this year, and I am trying to keep him encouraged.
Saturday was a rest day, in anticipation of my long run on Sunday. Or, was supposed to be a rest day. After a long day of eating (we had our pre-Christmas family get together), my son wanted to play tennis, but it was wet and rainy. So we (Ryan and his 13 year old cousin) went to the gym to play racquetball. Fit-one was closed for a private party, so we went to North Valley Athletic Club. What an awesome place!! We were not members, but that was no big deal to them. We did not have rackets for the kids, they had equipment there for rent. We played probably an hour of racquetball, and then went to basketball court. We met up with another family there, and played a couple of incredible 3 on 3 basketball games with them. By 8:00 PM, we were pretty well exhausted, did just a little shopping at the mall, then a Jamba juice for the ride home.
Sunday was my long run – due to the rain I opted for the treadmill at In Motion Fitness. The treadmill will only program up to 9 miles, so it broke it into a 9 mile and a 7 mile run, with just a minute or two of walking in between. I kept a pretty even pace of 9.8 minutes/mile, with just a couple of walking breaks towards the end. I actually took a grocery bag of stuff with me to the treadmill – 30 ounces of water, 28 ounces of Accelerade, 3 GU’s, 1 Powerbar, and some Kleenex. I’m sure people thought for sure that I was crazy – but all the “fuel� worked really well. Total running time was 2 hours, 45 minutes to cover about 16.5 miles (including warm-up/warm-down).
I’m not going to try to kid anyone – 16 miles is a long ways, especially on a treadmill. By the end, my knees were complaining a little, as were my hips – but I finished the run, and held my goal of 10-minute miles. This was the longest run I have ever completed in my life – so I guess it is understandable that some of the body parts would complain just a little bit.
I saw Marty and Dan there at the gym – they were gearing up for a 12 mile run. They are both training for the Napa Valley Marathon as well. It will be great to have some local folks running with us, and someone to cheer us on the last couple of miles.
I met up with my family a little later and went to Applebee’s for lunch – man, food never tasted so good. Had a big bowl of French Onion soup, and a huge salad with chicken – um,,, yummy!!!!
Posted by Dennis at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)
December 11, 2005
Week No. 9
REASON NO. 18 FOR RUNNING A MARATHON
Running a marathon will help inspire my friends and co-workers to “GET OFF THE COUCH� and become more physically active.
In 2003, I was able to convince two of my coworkers to join me in a charity fund-raiser triathlon relay team, competing against our local Police and Fire Department Teams. It was the Sporthaven Triathlon, and our team easily beat our Police and Fire challengers (we are still unbeaten, to this day, I might add). In the process, we raised over $4,000 for the local Paradise all-weather track fund. This was our first attempt at charity fund raising, and we had a blast with both the fund raising and the actual triathlon.
Since that time, I have used every opportunity to spread the word about the value of exercise and training to my co-workers. I try not preach to anyone, but if someone asks me what I am training for this month, I tell them. I also show them by example, that even someone with a pretty busy schedule can find time to exercise, if you look hard enough for the time.
I put together a display at our Company Health Faire this week. I plotted out some pretty cool banners and triathlon related displays – and asked for anyone interested to contact me about joining our team this year. I hope to be able to get at least three teams together this year, to race in the City of Gold Triathlon in May, 2006.
This week started out a disaster, as far as training goes. After my long run on Sunday, I began getting a scratchy throat and a light cough – and sure enough, by Monday morning I had a full blown cold, with the achy joints, plugged up sinus’s, and a monster headache. I had at least four people in our office sick last week, as well as a couple of people at the party we went to last Friday night, so I guess it was inevitable. Even though I made it to work every day (at least a part day, to put out some of the inevitable fires that erupted), I didn’t even touch my running shoes until Thursday, when I finally felt good enough to attempt running. Thursday I did a 3-mile run, that actually felt pretty good. Friday I ran with my wife, and we did a two-mile run together, then I split off and did another 2 miles of Fartleks. I’m so proud of my wife – she has gone from being a non-runner in September of this year, to her current long run of over two miles non-stop. Her goal race is a 5K, on the same day as my marathon.
Saturday was kinda a crazy busy day, as we had a party planned for that evening at our house. We were able to get the house clean and all the other party preparations done in time for me to squeeze a 25-mile bike ride in. It was a good change of pace from all the running I have been doing, and the weather was beautiful, around 55 degrees and lots of sunshine.
Sunday was my long run for the week. I was up at about 5:30, had some coffee and a Cliff "Builders" Bar, did my “around the world�, and then I was out the door by 7:00. It was a brisk, frosty morning, with a beautiful sunrise. Went from my house, north to Durham, then west to Troxel and then back home, running through the orchards. I was a great run, 11.88 miles, and took me just over 2 hours and 7 minutes. I took 24 ounces of Accelerade, 2 Accel gels, and a Peanut Butter PowerBar.
My pace was a little slower than I had planned, at 10 min, 41 seconds per mile. My pace really slowed down the last 3 miles or so, as I was a little sore/stiff from my bike ride the previous day. I even took a 2 minute walk break at the 1 hour point, to get my knees happy again, then another 2 minutes at 1 hour 30 minutes point. It's amazing what a physological "boost" these little mini-breaks to give you.
This is a “recovery� week, in many senses of the word, so my long run was only supposed to be 10 miles (down from last weeks 14.5). Next week, with any luck I will blow through the 15-mile barrier!!!
Posted by Dennis at 11:20 AM | Comments (2)
December 04, 2005
Week No. 8
REASON NO. 19 FOR RUNNING A MARATHON
Running a marathon will help inspire my 12 year old son and his friends to “GET OFF THE COUCH� and become more physically active.
I’m sure you have all heard about the results of the California Physical Fitness Tests, which came out in the local media last week. As headlined in the local newspaper, Butte County Schools failed these tests miserably, as less than 25% of our students were able to perform up to the minimum standards on all of the tests. One of the local radio stations (103.5 FM) blamed the problem on the kids, saying that they didn’t get enough exercise. The Editorial Page of the Enterprise Record blamed the problem on limited school resources, lack of funding for exercise programs, and parents buying the kids X-boxes for Christmas, rather than bicycles.
In this debate, it is very easy to blame the kids (mainly because they don’t care if we do, and they do not write letters to the Editor). But is it really the kids, or the Schools fault? I think not!!!
In my opinion, the blame for the current childhood obesity EPIDEMIC should lie squarely on the shoulders of Parents (and the society that we adults have created). Why should our kids work and train to run a minimum 12 minute mile, when they know for a fact that neither of their parents could run a 15 minute mile if their life depended on it? Why should they workout to increase their upper body strength, so they can do 3 pull-ups, when they now for a fact that their parents have not been able to do a pull-up since they got out of High School? Crunches??? Crunches are hard, and if my parents feel it is OK to get flabby and out of shape, why should I break a sweat trying to get in better shape?
We all know that our kids emulate their parent’s behavior. All you have to do is go to Hometown Buffet on a Friday night, and you can see that played out in a very graphic manner. The heavier a person gets, the harder it is to exercise, which causes them to get even heavier, and so it goes. In my opinion, much of this also is caused by a fundamental lack of education with respect to nutrition, the inherent laziness of our society, and poor, poor eating habits.
As usual, no training scheduled on Monday, to recover from my 11 mile run on Saturday. That was good, because with the Winter Storm Warning issued by the National Weather Service, I had a very long day at work. I was up at 4:00 AM, to check the weather, and to get ready to head in to the corporation yard to make sure the snowplows were ready. Luckily, the day turned out to be a whole bunch of preparation, and zero snow plowing. The snow level tried several times to extend down into Paradise, but the temperatures never dropped much below 35 degrees.
Tuesday was a gym workout. I’m trying a new AB workout called “Around the world�. It is a series of 15 different core exercises, that works both the front and side muscles http://magthree.com/Thoughts/Core_Work.htmlI’ve been doing this for a few workouts – and man, does it get the lactic acid flowing!!! Right now I’m at 10 repetions per set, I hope to advance to 15 rep’s in the next couple of weeks.
After the Ab’s, I did 20 minutes on the spinning bike, and then shifted to the treadmill for a 3 mile run. I was pushing pretty hard, as this was to be a speed workout, at 8.3 miles per hour. Around 2 miles into it, the treadmill shut off, and said that I was “pushing the belt too hard�. Great, now I have the stupid treadmill telling me how to run. I shift to the next treadmill over, and it does the same thing to me after about ½ mile. That convinced me that I need to just quit, and extend my run the next day an extra mile.
My Wednesday run was in the dark, around the orchards in Durham. Luckily, the rain slowed down, but the road edges were still really muddy. I set my alarm for 4:00 AM, and dragged myself out of bed. After a cup of coffee, a Cliff Bar, and some light stretching I was ready to go. I ran 6.5 miles, at an pretty slow pace of 10 minutes 15 seconds per mile.
Thursday was another 3 mile run around Durham, in the dark. This one was a little weird, with the high winds and all – there were a lot of things “rustling around� as I was running. Always in the back of my mind is the very, very remote possibitliy of meeting up with a mountain lion while on these early morning runs, and the wind made those thoughts just a little more prominent. Several weeks ago I bought a can of pepper spray that I now carry with me – it probably would not stop a mountain lion, but at least it would give me something to do, rather than just hitting the damn thing with my water bottle.
Friday I rested, in preparation for my long run on Saturday (12 miles). Actually it wasn’t totally a rest day, as I ran into the gym after work and got a quick 25 laps in swimming (30 minutes and 33 seconds).
Saturday was really busy, and a long run just didn’t fit into the daily plan, so I scrubbed that idea. Tried to get a bike ride in, but that didn’t work either. Ended up taking my son and one of his buddies in to the 20th Street Park later in the evening, and we played a couple hours of some really competitve tennis. It was fun playing under the lights, even if it was a little cold.
Sunday I hooked up with my Brother in Princeton for our long run. We ran from his shop, west to Willow Creek, and then north to Co. Road 60, then back again. It was a great run, as we are both pretty evenly matched pace-wise, and it was almost all out alongside the flooded rice fields. There was a nearly constant cackle of geese, and we disturbed quite a few that had landed in the rice fields. Most people that live in the bigger cities would do anything to be able to run in such a beautiful environment, with no cars or weirdo’s to worry about.. We ran 14.5 miles, with a time of 2 hours, 29 minutes and 29 seconds. The last couple of miles were a little bit of a struggle for me, as my “plan� only called for a 12 mile run. My brother, who is on some kind of an accerlerate mileage plan, continued his run after I quit – I think he was shooting for about 20 miles. I’m clearly not ready for that distance – yet…..
Posted by Dennis at 11:26 AM | Comments (2)