Last Week of Taper

Today I ran my last even remotely hard run before next Sunday's Napa Valley Marathon. The run was a 13-mile medium long run. I pushed the pace a bit over the last five miles, but ran relaxed for the first 8. I still finished with an average pace of 7:35 over the entire distance. This run gives me confidence about next week's race. I'll finish my final short, easy runs this week (the hardest run I have left is a seven miler, with two miles at marathon goal pace). Hopefully, being in San Diego this week will help keep me distracted so that I'm not fixating on the marathon. Physically, I'm ready. Not it's just a matter of executing.

Since I'll be out of town until late Friday night, this will probably be my last blog entry for a while. I'll try to enter something on Saturday after I get back from the expo. Driving up there will give me a chance to drive the course and see how hilly it will be--the hills are the only real unknown at this point (except of course for the always questionable weather). One thing I do know is that even though there are rolling hills on the course, and I trained almost exclusively in flat Alameda; the course is a net downhill, so gravity should help me more than hurt me.

Down Goes Bart! (doing Cosell boxing imitation)

I took a fall during last night's run. I have a great place to run. It's an asphalt strip that goes along the bay and through the neighborhood in which I live. The problem is that there are a lot of trees in the area, and the tree roots have pushed up the asphalt in more than a few places. Last night I tripped on a spot where the asphalt was buckled. Actually, it is a pretty large bump in the asphalt; I'm surprised I haven't tripped there before. The good news is that other than a small scrape and bump on my arm, I'm fine.

Falling was the weirdest thing. I remember tripping and starting to go down. Once I realized that I was actually going to fall, I remember thinking that I couldn't believe I was falling. It was like I was moving in slow motion, but I couldn't do anything about it. While it wasn't the most graceful of acts, I also remember making sure that I didn't use the palms of my hands to break my fall. When I was a kid I broke my wrist twice that way.

As far as the runs themselves go, there's nothing special to say. I ran an easy five miles on Friday and seven miles today. On Sunday, I'll run a 13 mile medium-long run. After that it's all basically short, easy runs until next Sunday's marathon.

Mile Repeats Today

Today I ran eight miles, including 3 x 1600 meters (1 mile) repeats at 5K race pace. I was not looking forward to this run. I've been doing excellent at getting in my scheduled mileage and at logging the marathon pace runs. However, the faster repeats have been tough for me during this training cycle. I've completed them, but they've been harder than it seems like they should be.

Anyway, I did what I could to prepare for today's run, which mainly consisted of hydrating and running at a recovery pace during yesterday's five mile run. I ran yesterday without a watch so that I wouldn't be tempted to chase any arbitrary time goal.

Today's run started okay, and I completed the first repeat without much trouble. The second and third repeats were much tougher, partially because I had already run a hard mile and partially because I was running into a slight wind. Earlier today I read on Zeke's blog about the mental side of training. When my run got tough during the second and third repeats I started thinking about the power of the mind and how it can either limit our performance or help it. It may sound hokey, but these thoughts gave me extra strength and allowed me not only reach my goal times for each of these repeats but to finish each repeat strong. I only wish I had read worked on developing the mental side of training earlier. During the last ten days of the taper isn't the time to start training hard to challenge the mind and body.

New Shoes!

Yesterday I bought a new pair of shoes. These are the first running shoes I've purchased since June, when I bought two pairs. These are the first pair of Asics I've ever owned. They feel comfortable enough, although my feet got a bit numb on my run today. However, that's common for me when I run in new shoes. After breaking them in for a week or so, I'm confident that they'll be fine.

Since my long run on Sunday, I've had soreness in my quads. I'm not sure why that run was so tough, but it took the wind out of my sails. The good news is that I had a lot of energy for today's run. I ran the first couple of miles faster than 8:00/mile pace, which is good for me. Usually, my first mile is slow as I take some time to warm up. Today I was ready to go almost immediately. I did start to drag towards the end of my run, although I got a second wind and finished strong. The end result was 8 miles, including 8 X 100 meter strides in 1:02:18 (7:47 pace).

One thing about my blog content (or lack thereof). I try to mainly focus on my training so that I can use this training cycle as a learning experience for future efforts. However, I would also like to keep it mildly entertaining on the off chance anybody else actually reads this thing. During the day and while running, I often think of questions or thoughts on running that I would like to include in this blog, but by the time I sit down to type something, those thoughts are long gone. I guess I need to find a way to record these thoughts and try to actually have something to say here.

Long, Tough Run

Yesterday I did my last long run of this training cycle. I was going to run in the morning, but didn't have much energy. I ended up putting the run off until the afternoon. I still didn't have much energy and considered just running an easy, short run on Sunday and taking advantage of President's Day and running long on Monday. What I was actually doing (and I knew it at the time) was just using the short run as an excuse to get out the door. Once I started running, I knew I'd go the full seventeen miles.

The first three miles felt good, and I thought I'd be fine to keep running. As I approached four miles, my legs started to get pretty tired. I hoped that by running through it I would get a second wind. That's pretty much what happened. After a couple of tough miles, I started feeling better. The problem is that the I got the second wind fairly early in the run, and it didn't really carry me to the end of the run. After ten miles or so, I was ready to stop. I was at the point where I was telling myself to just put one foot in front of the other, and you'll get to the end. I always run alone. Yesterday was one of the few days when I think a training partner would have really helped.

I'm not sure why yesterday's run was so tough. Last week was pretty easy. I've been eating and sleeping okay. I guess it's just one of those days. As long as they don't continue, I'll be confident on March 5.

Easy Painfree Run

I got off work early today, so I was able to get my run in without worry about sunset and running in the dark. After yesterday's fairly tiring 12 miles, I ran an easy six miles today. I paid no attention to pace and just ran. I ended up finishing at just under 8 minute mile pace (6 miles in 47:44). It was cold and wet here in the Bay Area, so I only saw a few people during my entire run. The fact that I ran before most people got off from work also contributed to the empty path.

The good news is that I ran painfree. I wore a different pair of shoes today, which really lessened the pain from the bruise on the bottom of my foot. I don't pretend to understand why it makes a difference. My form feels the same, so I should put the same pressure on the same parts of my foot, but whatever. I was just happy to run without any pain.

I'm going to run tomorrow morning (unless it's pouring rain) and may run again in the afternoon, depending on how I feel and what the weather's like.

Ouch!

On Tuesday I ran seven easy miles. During this run, I stepped on what may be the sharpest rock in the world. I felt a sharp pain when I stepped on it and a dull pain for the rest of that run. All through Tuesday night and Wednesday, I felt pain from the resulting bruise every time I took a step with my right foot. As it turned out I didn't run my 12 miler on Wednesday -- not because of the rock. I got involved in some family stuff and doing a favor for a friend and didn't want to start my run at 7:30 p.m. and then be awake until after midnight.

As a result of missing yesterday's run, I decided to run the 12 miles today instead of the 5 or 6 mile recovery run that was on my schedule. I figured that since I'm in my taper, I could just run the longer run today, the normal recovery run on Friday and blow off the other shorter run. I was rested and ready to run after work. I hit my first mile a little faster than normal and was feeling good, so I decided that a mile at goal marathon pace couldn't hurt. The better I get at recognizing the desired pace the better off I'll be on race day. This turned out to be a mistake. After approximately 1/20th of a mile, I turned a corner to run along the bay, and the wind hit me square in the face. However, I continued my marathon pace mile. The problem was that I upped the effort a bit to overcome the wind. Also I didn't check my Garmin this entire mile. I want to get to where I can feel the correct pace. I ended up running the mile at 6:50 pace (goal is 7:00 pace). If you factor in a relatively strong wind, I would guess that I ran close to 6:40 effort, which is okay for one mile. However, I did pay for it later. After 7 or 8 miles, my legs were much more tired than they should have been after an easy week up to this point.

To make matters worse, somewhere near the 9.5 mile mark, the dull pain from my rock bruise started to really hurt. It got steadily worse up to the 10-mile mark and just hurt like hell for the last two miles. I'm going to run a recovery run tomorrow and see how the bruise on my foot is doing. If it's still painful, I may take Saturday off. I'm in my taper now. I'd rather lose of few miles here than do something stupid and not feel 100% on March 5.

I'm Officially Tapering

On Sunday I ran my last 20 miler before the Napa Valley Marathon on March 5, and I’ve finally started my taper. As I mentioned before, I like the taper. I slowly feel stronger and stronger as the taper progresses. My only problem will be to make sure I don’t overeat while I'm running less. The week before the marathon, I’ll be at a Navy school in San Diego. It will hard not to chow down at restaurants and at my mom’s house while I’m back in my hometown. I think my best bet will be to buy fruit and healthy snacks so that I can eat a decent breakfast in my room, find a way to eat a good lunch (depending on what’s near the school), and only go out for dinner.

Having discipline around food is not my strong suit. I need to think about all the effort I made to prepare for the marathon and ensure that I make other lifestyle choices to give me the best chance to succeed on race day. Of course that’s easy to say now when I’m not sitting only a few feet away from the chance to get a serving of rocky road ice cream or when I’m not looking at a menu containing a number of delicious fried food selections.

I found out recently that I have to go to the marathon expo to pick up my race number and goody bag. The website said numbers could be picked up before the race and the goody bag could be picked up at the finish line. However, it appears that information is left over from previous years. The only real negative is a waste of gas driving up there twice (it's about an hour drive one way). The good news is that I'll get to drive the course and get familiar with where I'll be trying to go at an ungodly hour on race day.

Monday is my weekly off day. Tuesday I ran seven miles at a general aerobic pace, with eight, 100 meter strides included. Tonight I’ll be running a 12-mile medium long run.

Last Week Before Taper

Today I will wrap up the last week of training before entering my taper. I will run a slow, recovery 5 miles this morning. It is important that I make an effort to run this pace at a slow recovery pace (notice a theme as I convince myself to run easy and not chase the clock?). Based on how tired my legs were last night, this shouldn’t be a problem, but if I push the pace at all today, tomorrow’s 20 miler will be hell. I don’t need to carry the doubt associated with a crappy long run through my taper. I’ve had a lot of great training runs lately. After tomorrow, I need nothing but positive thinking as race day gets closer. Since Tuesday, I’ve run 11 miles (a 6.5 and 4.5 double), 11 miles with 6, .75 mile repeats at 5K pace, 14 miles, and 8 miles with 6 X 100 meter repeats. I’ve had tired legs after each of these days but have recovered well and have felt good as I entered the next run. Last night the cumulative effect of a hard week had my legs tired, and they’re still a bit tired today. Pardon my rambling, I didn’t have a plan when I started writing this paragraph; I just wanted to capture how I’m feeling physically and mentally as I finish my last pre-taper training week.

I finally registered for the Napa Valley Marathon last night. I had been putting it off because I had already missed the early registration price and had no incentive to give up my money sooner rather than later. However, yesterday I saw on their website that they often fill up by now, so I figured I’d better get on the ball and register. I realize that the statement about filling up may be put on all marathon websites just to encourage people like me to register instead of waiting, but I didn’t want to take a chance. I really had put it off long enough. Plus, I’ve had two other marathons fill up while I was procrastinating – the Bizz Johnson Marathon in October and the Pacific Shoreline Marathon, which was run last Sunday. I think missing those two marathons was ultimately a good thing. I feel much stronger with the extra training.

Double and Repeats

Not much to say, I'm in the last week of my hard training before I enter the taper period. On Tuesday I ran 11 miles (6.5 at lunch and 4.5 after work) and today I ran 11 miles, including 6 x 1200 meter (actually .75 mile) repeats at 5K pace with a two minute slow jog in between. I did a decent job on the first three repeats, although I'm still going out too fast and then working to find a rhythm that will get me at the proper pace. Anyway I was able to run the first five repeats at the desired pace (6:15 was my 5K pace in late December) or faster. The last repeat was run at 6:20 pace. I gave a good effort on the last repeat, but the faster pace earlier in the other repeats took too much out of me. Tomorrow I have a 14-mile medium-long run scheduled.

I'm looking forward to the taper period. I know a lot of runners aren't fond of the taper. They get stir crazy because they aren't running as much as they're used to. I love the feeling I get as I get more and more rested. By the last week of the taper, I have so much energy when I run. I get more confident about race day with every step.

Only One More Long Run Before the Taper

Sunday I ran a mostly easy 18 miles. I pushed a little to run the last 5 miles at an average of 7:30 pace or better. Usually I run the last five miles of any run over 12 miles at no slower than 7:30, but with the wind today it made more sense to make 7:30 the average. Otherwise I would have had three miles at a very easy 7:30 pace, followed by a horrible 7:30 mile with the wind pounding in my face and finishing with an honest 7:30 mile with the wind mostly blocked by houses and what wind there was coming at me from the side. My first 13 miles were run at an average of 7:52 or so. The wind made it difficult to get much consistency, so my pace during the run was all over the place.

There’s not a much better feeling than when you notice an increased fitness level. I can remember only a few months ago, when those last five miles were a challenge to run at a faster pace. For the past few long runs, it’s just a matter of a slight increase in effort and the pace drops. Plus, I’m better able to get into a rhythm and cruise along at the slightly quicker pace without laboring.

I’ve basically been in marathon training for six months. I can’t wait to run a marathon and see what I’m capable of. This is my last hard week before my three-week taper. After I run next Sunday's 20 miler, the taper starts. I’m hoping I can find a local 10K this coming weekend to give me a reference point for my fitness level and see if the pace charts say I have a shot to reach my marathon goal. Plus, it will give me one more thing to stress over.

Listen to the Body; Sometimes You Don't Have a Choice

This evening I ran 13 miles at an easy pace. I had planned to push the pace for the last five miles (like I run most medium-long or long run), but I quickly realized that Sunday's marathon pace run and Tuesday's repeats took more out of me than I realized. After one mile at a faster pace, I knew I had to slow back to an easy pace if I wanted to finish the run.

Not to look too far ahead, but I've been thinking about what marathons I'll run for the rest of 2006. The first step is the Napa Valley Marathon on March 5. I was hoping to run Bayshore on May 27, but I don't think I'll be able to justify the expense of the trip. An alternate plan is to drive up to Oregon and run the Newport Marathon on June 3 or drive south to San Diego and run the Rock 'n Roll Marathon on June 4. The San Diego trip would be less expensive because we could stay with family. On the other hand, the Newport trip would be a great chance for all of us to get away and enjoy the beautiful scenery through northern California and Oregon. I've been in Northern California but haven't really seen Oregon (crossed the border by a foot or so once just to say I've been there). I guess I'll just wait until April or early May and see if the finances can handle the more expensive trip. Either way, I'm probably going to basically train through the June marathon. I'll build a mileage base from late March through May, taper for a week, run the marathon and then figure out a training plan for a fall marathon and a potential shot at a sub-3:00.

One thing I'm fairly certain of is that I'll use a fairly unstructured training plan. A weekend long run, a midweek medium-long run, some tempo runs, some marathon pace runs, and easy runs and recovery runs to fill out the schedule. Looking at the previous sentence, it doesn't look too unstructured. I don't know what I'll do. I'll figure it out sometime in May or June.