WalkBlogRun - My First Marathon

Chicago Distance Classic Half Marathon PR

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:16:00 -0600

I ran the Chicago Distance Classic yesterday as part 2 of my 3 race season with Team in Training. After my Indy Mini PR of 1:58:20 I had a good head start on my training with 14 weeks between races to see how much faster I could get. The Team in Training Summer program features speedwork, stretching and ab work on Wednesday nights and so I pushed those sessions pretty hard. Over the last 14 weeks we've done hill repeats, yasso 800s, strides, intervals and pickups around one of Chicago Lakefront's only hills at Montrose harbor. My pace had gradually been increasing while my heart rate was dropping over the same easy runs week to week and I felt really strong. After studying my runners world training diary and pouring over the Garmin workout logs I decided to start with the 8 minute mile Chicago Endurance Sports pace group for a finish time of 1:45. I started in the first wave as a consequence and left with the first batch of runners. I stuck it out for the first four laps with splits of 7:46, 7:55, 7:46 and 8:02 but realized I was out of my league when I peaked at my Garmin to see a Heart Rate of 175 bpm, a rate typical towards the end of my workouts so I slowed down to 8:13, 8:01, 8:05 and 8:06 for the next four. At that point I hit the gusting wind from the north and was pegged back to 8:17, 8:54, 8:02 and 8:17 for the next four miles. The last mile and change to the finish I had nothing left in the tank and slugged through at 8:54 to finish with an overall chip time of 1:48:38 - another PR! I'm really excited because it's one day later and I don't feel like I've been hit by a bus and ready for the next 9 weeks of training to take me to the Chicago marathon where, through my time in this race, I have secured a corral start! I'll throw it out there now so I can remember it but the Greg McMillan Running Calculator predicts that based on my half marathon time, my current level of fitness would indicate a 3:49 marathon. That would be 17 minutes faster than my 2006 San Francisco marathon finish and a PR so I hope it works! Anyone else run it? What did you think of the course, the weather and the organization?

On the road again...

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 13:22:00 -0600

Yesterday was my first post marathon recovery run and it felt great! Nothing fast - just a steady 9:18 per mile and it was good to be stretching everything out again. A slight twinge in my left foot on the side but nothing sharp, stabbing or painful. I took today off as a precaution and will run Friday and Saturday. The Friday run will be a little closer to my normal pace and then the Saturday run will be a 10k at whatever feels comfortable. I wanted to repost an important comment I added to my iPod Nano Sport Kit review. For anyone considering the iPod Nano Sport Kit but worried about the limited choice of shoes (or having to buy a new pair) - have no fear! I read an article online about using one of those handy dandy key pockets for your shoe to place the sensor in there. I ran the marathon with my sensor in there on my regular running shoe and it worked perfectly! The sport kit is precalibrated and over the marathon distance 26.2, it reported 26.9 miles so out of the box it was almost fine for me. I will calibrate it this weekend at the local 400m track and I expect the accuracy to dramatically improve. The bottom line is that if you own an iPod Nano, 30 bucks for the kit is great value when you combine it with the fantastic Nike+ website which logs your runs and helps you create goals for your training. Now that the limitation of nike+ shoes is gone it really is an essential piece of running kit in my mind. I run in Nike Air Structure Triax 9 shoes which are a little wider than the Nike+ models so I am delighted not to have to switch. I'm stuck on the tagline competition since we discovered the original winning entry was too similar to the US track and field tagline so I'm trying to work out how to declare a winner. The other entries are all close but nothing jumps out at me the same as "Map it, share it, run it" just yet. I've set my goal for the next 4 weeks to running 80 miles, or 20 miles a week. That means 10 miles midweek and 10 miles on a Saturday. The first week will really be easy runs to recover fully from the marathon and then the rest of the runs I'm shooting for 8:30 mile pace.

We are the champions, my friend

Wed, 02 Aug 2006 00:44:00 -0600

Race Day I started race day with the "continental breakfast" at the hotel in mind and headed down at 3.30am to grab some coffee, a banana and see what else there was. That was all there was besides a couple of bran muffins which looked okay but not part of the plan. Back in the room I ran some water through the coffee stained coffee maker to clean it before boiling a pot of water for my instant McCann's oatmeal. The weather from the balcony felt perfect and I took a couple of photos from for posterity. Once dressed, I headed to the start line with Melissa. There was a buzz in the air and waves 1 and 2 were already lined up in place bouncing around to prepare. It was still dark and the lines for the porta potties spread the width of the street as people made a last minute attempt to clear the lines. I sipped the other half of the orange gatorade I had poured in my bottle and headed to wave 4. The iPod Nano was a little tricky to operate once in place in the neoprene nike sport kit armband, especially since it lacks any kind of view panel for the screen. So you either have to shuffle the neoprene down while trying to keep the controls in place or take it out altogether. I soon got the hang of it and set it up for a marathon distance and selected my running mix carefully selected on Friday for the mission. (see the song list later). I had decided on the 9:09 minute mile pace group and our pace leader for the first half was Jim Lynch of San Francisco Road Runner's Club. We set off at 5.50am as Dean Karnazes counted us down and with that, I had begun my first marathon. I hadn't calibrated the sport kit so the first thing I noticed was that about 75 meters short of the mile marker, the announcer voice cut into my second track to tell me I had completed a mile. In the first couple of miles I tested the pace feature and it reported mile times about 10 seconds faster than the GPS unit Jim was wearing. I hadn't finished setting my powersong either so when I tried it at mile 3 out of curiosity it just clicked and then continued with the current song. Hmph. At around mile 4 or 5 we hit our first hill and whooped triumphantly as the group of 30 in the pace group reached the top. "100 yards to catch your breath" reported Jim as we raced to the second half of the 120 foot climb. Part way up the second part of the hill we passed a runner dressed like an authentic roman soldier including metal armor, helmet, plume and a shield carefully constructed around a waterbottle. I didn't hear whether he made it but I'd like to think so. At the first water stop, the Jim slowed to a walk and we all followed suit to take the opportunity to take in water and for some, Cytomax. Cytomax wasn't part of my routine and after trying it at the expo the day before, I stuck to water. Shortly after these hills we went up another before we hit the Golden Gate bridge. The view is just breathtaking as you run across such a massive man-made structure like the Golden Gate bridge looking out to the ocean on one side and the city sleeping on the other. Mist was burning off north of the bridge but the crosswinds kept the temperature perfect for running. The turning point over the bridge fell at around mile 7.5 and I split from the pace group to hit one of the portapotties before joining them again at the water table a little further around the curve. Gel packets were being handed out here but again, I stuck to water and took a mouthful of one of the Carb boom packets I had brought with me. Today it didn't taste as good as it had on my 20 mile training run so I tucked it away and continued with the group across the bridge. Near the other side I met a runner called Paul from Nashville who has just moved to Chicago for his Masters at Loyola so we chatted away miles 9 thrugh 13. His wife is from Derbyshire, near my hometown in England so we were talking about England and how he is now a Preston North End supporter by proxy since he went to his first football match in England there and has a shirt. We continued to talk as we entered Golden Gate park but I began to notice people cheering me on by name. When we watched the Chicago marathon it was easier to cheer for the people with their name on the chest so the sharpee was the best investment for my running kit yet. Every time we passed a group of people at least one person called my name. Paul broke off where the first-half half-marathon runners course changed and I ran on at that point. The 4:00 hour pace group was joined by the second pacer, Diane Ambrose at that point and Jim put on his headphones after a while to continue running in peace! I found that the pace began to pick up a little under Diane and after a while I slipped back about 20 yards. I read in a Runner's world supplement on the plane that running down hills you should try to lean forward almost to the point where you fall to get a rolling motion going. Having only run hills one other time I put it into practice around the park as we weaved around the equestrian center and the pond towards mile 18. The trick worked and my legs felt much better for doing it but still each bound felt like a hammer in my kneecaps. Due to the diversion, the first-half half-marathoners were finishing mile 13.2 just shy of the 18 mile marker and while it was great to see so many people finishing and celebrating their personal triumphs, it was a bit disheartening knowing that I had another 8.2 miles to go. I bounded on, losing more ground on the pace group as a whole but keeping up with a few other laggers. Melissa had arranged to get a bus to the 18 mile marker to come and give me a boost between 18 and 19 so I ran along with my head up looking for any sign of her. As mile 19 came and went I lost hope and began to wonder if she had trouble with the buses or couldn't get there in time after the start. Mile 20, nothing. As we took one of the traffic flow alternates by Laguna street I turned a corner to see Melissa come running up to me as I bounded down another hill gritting my teeth as each foot fell. Deciding that Melissa was just as important to my race as the water I stopped for a quick hug and a salty kiss before running off again. The sun had begun to come out as I had left Golden Gate park and it was starting to warm up making the run hotter and harder. On the streets of the Mission, Hell's Angels (or motorcyclists in leather jackets at least) had volunteered to help control traffic and they stood proudly in front of cars ushering the runners on and cheering us as we went. I caught up with Jim again and we ran mile 21 and 22 together in silence as we listened to our music. At mile 23 as we pounded into another hill I finally lost my grip and began to feel a crazy pain in my left shoulder. I felt terrified because I had no idea what it was. I later learned that it was probably a spasm from hunching my shoulders forward as I run. I slowed to about a 10 minute mile pace and Jim disappeared in the distance. A little further up the road as I watched the course twist away to the south, away from the city we were supposed to be running towards, my mind caved too and I broke my stride down to a walk shortly after a marathonfoto team taking pictures. Walking along I felt mortified that once again I had come to walking during a long run and after every 100 yards or so I forced myself to begin running again before slowing back down to a walk. This continued until Illinois Street when we turned north again to head directly towards the Transamerica pyramid and my spirits lifted. I began to jog lightly but now a sharp pain behind my knees, more specifically at the base of my hamstrings held me back. I slowed to a walk again but this time at a faster pace and by the time I reached AT&T Giants Ballpark I started running again as I heard the crowd shouting my name again. The iPod began a premature countdown from 400 yards when I still actually had about 3/4 mile left to go to the tune of "Happy Together". As the crowd grew and got louder, my pace picked up and as we turned the corner to the finish line I had hit a full stride and the faces lining the street were a blur. All around me I could here people shouting things like "that's it Adam" and "come on Adam, you can do it" and it was incredibly emotional to run with so much pride in your heart. I stormed across the finish line victoriously pumping my fists in the air and yes, small tears filling my eyes. So much so I nearly forgot to turn in my timing chip at the exit as I raced for water, bananas and anything I could find on the tables at the end. A soldier handed out finisher medals as a young girl marked off the medal portion on my bib. A quick marathonfoto shot as a "Marathon Finisher" in front of one of the trams and I turned the corner to see Melissa waiting for me. I had placed 1268 out of 4062 runners, 1028 out of 2706 men, 174 of 436 men aged 30-34 and my time was 4:06:52 for an average pace of 9:25! I had completed two goals in one foul swoop - to finish the marathon and then the secret goal of finishing in under 4:30. My 7.4 mile chip check-in registered me at 1:07:40 for a pace of 9:02 per mile, the half marathon time of 9:05 mins per mile and 20.9 mile marker at 9:08. This was clearly just before the physical breakdown of mile 23! The iPod Sport Kit registered me at 4:07:15 for a distance of 26.91 so over the course of the measured marathon course, the uncalibrated unit was just 0.7 miles off. It also suggested that for my weight I had burned off 3844 calories during the race. This probably explains why after elevating my legs, a sports massage, plenty of water, a bath, a shower and some sleep I woke up feeling like the beast had awoken to devour anything I could place in front of it! At the massage tent I had met another guy from England who was celebrating his 53rd birthday with his 35th marathon. I was just glad to have finished number 1 in one piece and ready to take on my next challenge. Later that night after some food, we took a sunset cruise around Alcatraz and under the bay bridge on the "Adventure Cat" catamaran before taking in the scenery from a window seat at Pier 39 for some excellent seafood. The next morning I woke up and my knees and hips felt a little stiff but after some moving around just the hip ache remained. Today, I feel much better and tomorrow I'm going to attempt my first slow recovery run of 2 or 3 miles with Melissa to blow away some of the cobwebs. It was a great trip and one I will never forget. The memories of my training and determination, the preparation, the anxiety, the delight of finishing and the satisfaction of a job well done. Thanks for all your support and for reading along. I intend to keep on posting as I set new training goals and continue to learn about the wonders of running. I have included a snapshot below of the Nike+ website showing my pace throughout the various points of the race, all calculated automatically when I connected my iPod Nano back up to the PC at home this morning. YOu can clearly see the way my intensity (pace) was consistent throughout the first 23 miles before bonking at mile 23 and recovering for the finish! I have some pictures up on Flickr of the marathon weekend and the marathonfoto people have some of the in-race shots I couldn't catch. As promised, here are the songs in order from my iPod nano which helped me get through the most challenging four hours of exercise of my life: B.O.B.,Outkast Welcome to the Jungle,Guns N' Roses Ring of Fire,Johnny Cash The Scientist,Coldplay Lady Marmalade,All Saints A Small Victory,Faith No More Drive: Nike+ Original Run (Continuous Mix),The Crystal Method School's Out,Alice Cooper Paradise City,Guns N' Roses Seek & Destroy,Metallica Yeah!,Usher Feat. Lil' Jon & Ludacris Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,The Police Don't Stop Me Now,Queen Pretend Best Friend,Terrorvision Underwater Love,Faith No More In Da Club,50 Cent Somewhere Only We Know,Keane Shorty Wanna Ride,Young Buck Bend and Break,Keane Give It Away,Red Hot Chili Peppers Alive,Pearl Jam Another One Bites the Dust,Queen Can't Stop Now,Keane Ice Ice Baby,Vanilla Ice Fix You,Coldplay Fools Gold,The Stone Roses Disposable Teens,Marilyn Manson Dancin' Papa,The Kleptones Fly Away,Lenny Kravitz Epic,Faith No More Crazy Little Thing Called Love,Queen Enter Sandman,Metallica Sympathy for the Devil,The Rolling Stones Every Breath You Take,The Police Television, the Drug of the Na,The Disposable Heroes of Hipho Midlife Crisis,Faith No More We Care A Lot,Faith No More Nighttrain,Guns N' Roses Laid,James Bring the Noise,Anthrax Oblivion,Terrorvision This Is the Last Time,Keane We Are the Champions,Queen I'm the Man '91,Anthrax Renegades of Funk,Rage Against the Machine Till Kingdom Come,Coldplay Happy Together,The Turtles Speed of Sound,Coldplay Good Riddance,Green Day Baby Boy,Beyoncé & Sean Paul

If you're going, to San Francisco

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 07:15:00 -0600

Day before the race Trains, planes and automobiles safely carried us through 8 hours of travelling to our hotel at the Hyatt Regency in the Embarcadero. The hotel was chosen by RunSFM as the race hotel for it's proximity to the race start. We had stayed there last year after our engagement in Napa so it was a no-brainer to book it. We dropped the luggage in the room and made our way to the expo via Massimo cafe for some carbs in the form of a ham foccacia sandwich. The foccacia was fantastic but lunch cost just over 20 bucks for 2 people. Having seen the organization of the Shamrock Shuffle 8k in Chicago for 40,000 runners it was a little disappointing to see the expo for 16,000 runners where shirt pickup and bib pickup were in different venues and a strict order for collection. The result was lots of people asking questions. The t-shirt looks really good - it's a technical T with breathing regions in the armpits. As Hal Higdon advised, I saved it for after the race to make sure no surprise chafing ocurred although there were plenty of runners who gladly donned the shirt. In the same hall as the t-shirt pickup we came across Dean Karnazes, author of Ultramarathon Man and race host, signing copies of his book and other items. Melissa got a picture of me with him and he signed my race number so I could look down for inspiration during the run. I'll provide a link to the photos from the weekend later. In the line to meet Dean we started chatting to the guy in front of us, Oz Pearlman, who told us he expected a top 10 finish and that he was on his 9th marathon I believe. We later heard the medal ceremony from our hotel room that Oz won his age group (20-24) and finished in 2:41:38 - congratulations Oz! After the expo we headed back to the hotel and ditched the energy beans, energy bars and other items and headed down to the hotel lobby for pasta at the Eclipse restaurant in the hotel. This wasn't the official pasta feed but an alternate put on by the hotel which seemed like better value than a food court feast at Pasta Paradiso. We were seated by a lone server and after 10 minutes a woman at a nearby table explained that they had waited 30 minutes for service and that the order was wrong. Not wanting any glitches in my preparation, we left and headed for Pasta Paradiso. The reason for the rush was that I wanted to eat early enough before my early bedtime to give me enough time to get a good nights sleep and optimal carb loading. This meant dinner at 6, bed at 8 and out of bed at 3.30am. Pasta Paradiso was no better - we waited in line for about 20 minutes before hearing reports that they were out of the specials listed for the race so we left there and headed to North Beach for some reliable Italian food. We found Figaro - house of Gnocchi and had a thoroughly enjoyable dinner. I had read an article on the plane from Runner's World about avoiding bowel problems for long runs and adhered to the suggestions of avoiding dairy the day before. After dinner we headed to the hotel and I set out all my equipment for the next morning, laying out the clothes, pinning my bib to the shirt, writing my name in big letters with a sharpee and prepping the iPod Sport Kit for action. The name on the shirt was a trick I learned watching the Chicago marathon last year where it was easier to pick someone to cheer from if they had their name on the shirt. I figured I would need all the encouragement I could get. At 9pm I finally fell asleep and 6 1/2 hours later I woke up for my first marathon. The next post will wrapup the race and the aftermath.

Leavin, on a jet plane

Fri, 28 Jul 2006 07:32:00 -0600

Tomorrow we leave Chicago for San Francisco and I can't believe it's here. I'm excited and anxious at the same time. It's my longest run ever on one hand but on the other my training has been such a wonderful, life changing experience that it almost feels like just another run. I'm sure Sunday I'll have the jitters as I bounce up and down on the start line awaiting the release of our wave. I have my new iPod Nano and at lunchtime today I'll be picking up the Nike+ sport kit and an armband for me to run with it. I just did my 2 mile run I postponed yesterday in 15:11 made up of an 8:03 mile followed by 7:08. This run was more than just 2 miles today though - it was the last training run of 18 weeks of commitment and focus. I really appreciate the support and interest of every person who has taken time out of their day to read my blog at some point. After the marathon there will be a week or so of no running followed by some gentle runs but I'm sure the marathon will provide enough material to get me through the week off :-) I can't use the category "My first marathon" after that though so I'm sure my flight home on Monday will involve some decision about my next race. I'm thinking a couple of 10k races perhaps or maybe a half marathon. Any suggestions for the category name post marathon? I think I'll sacrifice the song lyric post titles at that point and come up with a new gimick. The next post will probably be Monday night or Tuesday morning and I'll hopefully be 26.2 miles older. Good luck to anyone else competing or running this weekend and if you see a British guy in San Francisco hauling ass up the hills in a singlet with the WalkJogRun logo give me a holler!

Lazy you just stay in bed

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:36:00 -0600

Yup. Today's run was postponed until tomorrow after I woke up and felt a little hungover after Melissa and I celebrated her finishing the bar exam yesterday. Tonight we're off to Everest restaurant to indulge her for her hard work - her own version of the marathon. 3 months of studying over now it's time to plan the wedding, eesh. On the wedding front I am delighted to report that my employer Michael Silverman at Duo Consulting bought us an early wedding present in the form of an iPod Nano! Tomorrow I will head to the Nike store to pick up the sports armband and Nike+ Sport Kit to take with me on the marathon. I'm really excited and can't wait to try it out for real. It's great to work at a company like Duo which is small enough that the CEO still cares enough about the people who work at the company but large enough to offer the opportunities to work on bleeding edge web development projects. We're looking for new staff right now too so if anyone has a design or ColdFusion programming background take a look.

We're not gonna take it

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 07:42:00 -0600

Thank to regular reader and co-worker Drew for the title suggestion for today - "We're not gonna take it". It came about as I was discussing my disappointment late yesterday afternoon when I discovered that San Francisco doesn't actually have a 10 minute mile running pace group! The 10 minute mile pace group is a run 8 walk 1 approach which I think is really strange. I understand that a lot of people do run-walk marathons and that this strategy still results in a 10 minute mile but surely a marathon should focus it's pacing groups on people attempting to run the whole event. If I want to join a pacing group that runs the whole distance I have to crank up my pace to 9:09 minute miles. I was planning on a 10 min mile to make sure I didn't underestimate my ability. The only hilly run I did in my training had a similar climb of about 250 ft over the first 3 miles and the rolling hills to match for the remaining 10. Needless to say this was is in England instead of Chicago ;-) On this run I made a 10 minute mile average so theory would suggest I can run San Fran at this pace plus 10 mins or 4.5 hours. After that my long runs have broken down as follows

10 miles @ 8 mins per mile
15 miles @ 8:12 mins per mile
16 miles @ 9:56 mins per mile in upper 80s heat
12 miles @ 7:49 mins per mile
18 miles @ 8:26 mins per mile in 90 degree heat
14 miles @ 8:42 mins per mile in crazy humidity
20 miles @ 10:35 mins per mile in 95 degree heat

So the big question for me is that given the temperature for Sunday is set to be about 60 degrees which is 30 degrees cooler than my 18 mile run at 8:42 per mile, and that I run faster in cooler weather - should I push myself to the 9:09 minute mile group for the marathon? Today was a 5 mile run with pretty muggy conditions - I arrived home with my cotton shirt soaked from sweat. I try to save my technical t-shirts for the longer runs so 5 mile shouldn't have been this hot! I was concentrating on my pace trying to shoot for 9 min miles but my splits were 8:42, 8:39, 9:13, 8:18 and 8:02 for an average of 8:35 so not that far off target. For the marathon I have listed out each mile, the estimated time of arrival for each mile and the severity of the mile (e.g. uphill hard, downhill gentle). As one of my mind games to help me through I have dedicated each mile to one of my friends and my goal is to spend a good part of each mile thinking about the good times we have had and all the fun things we have done together. My friend Jeff instantly claimed lucky number 7 which is when I make the turn at the golden gate bridge. For anyone who wants to cheer me on in the San Francisco marathon this Sunday, albeit remotely, my wave leaves the start line at 5.40 AM if I run the 9:09 group for a four hour finish in San Francisco which is 8:55 AM Chicago / 9:55 AM Atlanta or Boston / 2:55 PM England. You can track my progress at http://www.liveraceresults.com/sfmarathon/. Just enter my bib number "1198" to track me down.

We're gonna make a supersonic man out of you

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 07:52:00 -0600

I was reading more in Hal Higdon's Marathon about training intensity during the taper and in an effort to keep myself in peek condition for this coming Sunday when I take on 26.2 miles I ran fast this morning on my 3 miles. My splits of 8:08, 7:20 and 8:02 gave me an average of 7:50 and it was a lot of fun to run this fast. On a less sleepy morning I think I could go faster than this but I was dragging when I left the house. If you haven't had a chance to add a suggestion for the tagline for WalkJogRun, don't forget to read the post and add your suggestion before Tuesday. It's free to enter and you could win a free WalkJogRun t-shirt!

Easy like Sunday morning

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 10:31:00 -0600

I'm on a rest day today, nothing is planned, the coffee tastes good, the weather is warm and a nice breeze is blowing in through the window. Yesterday I posted about the competition for a tagline before I went on my 8 mile run but then neglected to write about the run which I'm sure is why most of you read this rather than my occasional WalkJogRun updates about the changes I have made. In a change from my usual approach I waited until late afternoon to run the 8 since I wasn't feeling so hot from the night before when I had a few Guinness. I spent most of the day working on WalkJogRun updates that you won't notice yet but something good is coming, just you wait ;-) I started the run at about 4pm so it was pretty warm outside. This is always a problem because it means the lakefront path is always crowded with different kinds of people. There are two distinct groups: those who are on the path to exercise, and those who are there for leisure. In the exercising group you have cyclists, rollerbladers, runners and walkers who generally get frustrated at the overcrowding and the presence of all the leisure users. The leisure users may well be walking, running, rollerblading or cycling too but they tend to be less aware of other people on the path so they may be ambling along side by side with three other people, forcing the exercising group to veer onto the wrong side of the path to get around them. Add to that the potential for the leisure group to be smoking, wearing too much cologne or simply be goofing around it can make a run irritating rather than relaxing. The smoking really bothers me when I'm running not because I'm a non-smoker but because when I'm running I'm usually breathing pretty hard and to take in a lung full of smoke when you are winded is pretty gross. The cologne is less common but a similar concept. The goofing around usually means that just as you are passing a group they lunge out in front of you causing you to have to dive out of the way at the last minute risking ankle injuries. I know, I know, I sound like a crotchety old man and I am very fortunate to be able to live in a city where I have a path at all rather than plot my runs around city streets waiting for traffic signals etc. But still, it drives me a little crazy so that is why I like to run in the morning when the leisure class are still sleeping off their hangovers :-) Despite the crowded path and the heat, my run was pretty fast and went by really quickly at 1:09:14 for the 8 miles, or an average of 8:39 per mile. It felt really good and dare I say it, pretty easy. I made a point of mapping out a new 8 mile run since this was my last weekend long run before the marathon and I didn't want to just do the same old 3 mile loop a couple of times. It took me from Addison down to Oak Street beach and around the curvy part of Lake Shore Drive to Delaware and then all the way back again. There were plenty of distractions beside the dangers of the path to keep my mind occupied. The beach was full of people throwing around a football, playing volleyball, sunbathing, making out and just plain old relaxing so there was plenty to see. The Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) have a tournament here this weekend at the North Avenue beach so they have erected a temporary stadium on the sand there and as I ran by the crowd was cheering for one of the games. I think all this helped make the run go by so quickly and my pasta diet has really helped keep my energy levels up. I'm just 9 miles away from the marathon and this time next week I will be about 3 hours into the run so probably just exiting Golden Gate park if all is going according to plan at my 10 minute mile race pace. Tuesday I run 3 miles, Wednesday 4 miles and then Thursday 2 miles and that will be the end of 17 weeks of training and 410 miles with just 26.2 between me and the completion of the most challenging physical goal of my life.

Running with the night

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 20:05:00 -0600

Okay, that song title was a bit of a stretch but after missing the run this morning due to the storm Melissa and I just got back from 3 miles and it is 8:10pm. There is such a different feel to running in the evening and I can't explain why. I'm excited because Melissa is in the process of making a double batch of her tasty pasta sauce so each night and probably each lunch between now and the marathon I'll be eating pasta and sauce. Very exciting! I wish I could share her recipe but I'd have to kill you ;-)

Waiting for the Sun

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 07:34:00 -0600

Just as I woke up this morning an explosion of thunder boomed outside and as I looked outside the rain was coming down hard. I decided that my 3 mile run could wait until tomorrow. It felt good to be a slacker and it will help give my ankle a little rest. The last few days I've had a dull ache in the outside of my left foot midway between my toes and my heels. I'm sure it's will go away with the extra rest so it's advil and elevation for me.

Bring the Noise

Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:03:00 -0600

Today's post title is inspired the chatty ladies who we came across today as I ran 6 miles, the first 3 with Melissa. At the end of mile 1 our path converged with one from Montrose Harbor and four women came bounding along the path and ran about 10 feet behind us. Over the volume of our respective iPods, Melissa and I could both hear these women yelling to each other as they ran. Our first thought was that their pace was a little faster than ours so they would pass us but instead they slowed down so we ended up closer to them than before. Finally I told Melissa we needed to go faster to escape and we pulled away. Even at a distance of about 50 yards I could still hear them over my music but eventually they were gone. Yesterday when we averaged a 10:26 mile for the 4 miles but despite feeling sleepy and irritable we ran a 9:55 average pace for the first 3 and then as Melissa left I pushed it up to an 8:10 average for the last 3. I am re-reading many of the chapters of Hal Higdon's marathon for last minute tips on nutrition, tapering and other things ready for a week on Sunday and one of the tips about tapering is not to drop the intensity of the runs, despite dropping the distance. I figure an 8 minute mile pace is a good target for my remaining 5 runs before San Francisco. 21 miles to the marathon, 386 completed...

Under pressure

Tue, 18 Jul 2006 07:57:00 -0600

Today's run was mostly uncomfortable for me - tired, hot and hungry. Yesterday, due to problems encountered launching the new look and feel of the Chicago Park District website I didn't leave my desk except for bathrooom breaks so all I got to eat was granola bars and pop tarts until mid afternoon. Needless to say that when I woke up this morning I was really hungry and after 105 degree heat index yesterday it made it uncomfortable. The best part was that my fiancee Melissa was able to run with me despite being in the home stretch of her bar exam preparation this week. It's nice to know that despite the pressure of exams, wedding planning and work we can still run together and it feels the way it always does.

Woah, oh, oh, I'm on Fire (after 20 miles)

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 11:18:00 -0600

Continuing the them of song lyrics to describe my run, thank you Mr Bruce Springsteen. Man, is it hot this weekend in Chicago. I started my 20 mile run at 6am and the heat index suggested it was 85 degrees. I prepared for the run with a good night of sleep and plenty of water yesterday, a chicken sandwich and fries for dinner and three pints of Guinness as is traditional at this point. When I woke up at 5am I set the coffee going and ate a banana while it brewed. At 5.45 at the suggestion of an article in Runners World I took one of my carb shot packs to get me started and put 3 more in the waist pack I run with. I have settled on Orange flavor Carb Boom as my Gel Shot of choice after a week of taste tests as my mid afternoon snack. I filled my bottle with full strength orange Gatorade, the new endurance formula and headed out of the door at 6am. Since I was running twenty miles I decided to try Hal Higdon's suggestion of running 3/4 of the race at 90 seconds slower than marathon pace (9:30) and then try 30 seconds slower than my marathon pace for the last 1/4 which would be 8:30. I have the Crystal Method 45 minute mix of the Apple iTunes store on my iPod so at this rate each 1/4 of the run would take about 45 minutes so that was 4 repeats of the Crystal Method track. I also planned to take one of the carb boom gel shots every 45 minutes to keep my energy up. The first 5 miles flew by and I decided that each time I reached my water fountain at Belmont Harbor, I would top up what was left of my Gatorade with water. The plan here was to avoid that taste in my mouth late run when I just want a splash of flavor, not the full strength gatorade since that tends to make me gag later on in a long run. It worked perfectly and the mix was essentially water by mile 15. My pace was working out really well and I was able to hold steady at around 9:45 per mile all the way to this point. At mile 15 (around 9am) I had started to hit another wall and according to the weather channel the heat index meant it felt like 93 degrees at this point. Baking sunshine and an actual temperature of 90 degrees had begun to take it's toll on me. I made it to mile 17 without having taken any walking breaks throughout the whole run but a new problem had settled in. My legs weren't aching but my feet were on fire from the sun heating up the path where I was running, not to mention pounding my feet up and down for 3 hours. I continued another 1/2 mile to 17.5 and then had to walk until the start of mile 20. I forced myself to finish mile 20 running and did so with a good 9:45 pace again. My total time for the 20 mile run today was 3 hours, 27 minutes and 36 seconds or an average pace of 10:22. As a reward I decided to follow the lead of a random guy who had pulled his bike off the path and climbed in to the lake to cool off. The water was sharply cool compared to the temperature which was now climbing to the mid-90s. I've never swam in Lake Michigan before but it was the best thing to be floating in 15 feet of water after a 20 mile run. The random guy had been cycling for about an hour when he climbed in and shortly after I swam out we were joined by another guy who just ran 10 miles training for the Chicago Marathon in October. We shot the breeze about training and then I headed home. I've read that you hit the physical wall at 20 miles in a marathon where your body has depleted the glycogen stores to sustain running and extra fuel is essential and some willpower to push you through the sensation but only Dean Karnazes has mentioned the multiple mental walls you come up against as you run long alone. I realized on Thursday night at the Nike+/Apple Sport Kit launch that running with other people in a group actually is a bit of a buzz and a distraction. I've been training solo for the last 15 weeks with Melissa running 3 miles here and there with me whenever she can and I like the distraction. Given the opportunity to start over at week 1 knowing what I know now, I would have joined a running group from the outset and secondly I would have reconsidered my training pace earlier. Week 15 is not a good week to realize that the major stumbling block you have been facing is that you are running too fast. Unfortunately I'm the kind of person who likes to push myself so knowing I can go faster I generally do and putting the brakes on is really hard. Today was a victory in that I feel like I mastered my pace over 17 miles and given slightly better weather conditions I feel like I could have completed 20. Another alternative would be that if I had dropped my pace even lower to maybe a 10:00 or 10:15 pace I might have been able to finish despite the heat. Those are all maybes I know but I'm really happy that my last long run is done and now I have just 2 weeks to taper before the big day. San Francisco may have an average start temperature of 56 degrees but there are also some wicked hills to contend with! 40 miles knocked out this week and it feels great, and a little emotional to be able to say that.

Slow down, you move too fast

Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:33:00 -0600

I've been really anxious about my long runs recently and as part of my preparation in the closing weeks I decided to re-read Hal Higdon's book "Marathon" where my training guide came from. I wish I had re-read it earlier. I was reading about pace for long runs it is clear that part of my trouble is that I attack my long, short and medium runs at the same pace. I just read this morning that a 20 mile run for example should be run in a 3-1 format with three quarters of the run at a pace 90 seconds slower than your race pace and the last quarter 30 seconds slower than race pace. This poses an interesting problem because unless I'm running with someone, I really struggle to peg it back out of habit I guess. On the back of this new information, my 5 mile run this morning was my first attempt to slow down ready for my 20 mile run on Saturday. Running with Melissa usually means a 9 to 9:30 mile pace so this is where I need to be for my long runs. We ran the first 3 in 27:43 so an average of 9:12 per mile. Great! Mile 4 and 5 took 8:34 and 8:19 respectively which is slower than my usual pace so that was good but it was still 30 seconds too fast really. Does anyone have any good tips for slowing down when you run? I tried counting each footfall while running with Melissa and then tried to repeat the same tempo but I kept speeding up! Any tips would be greatly appreciated since I'm sure I can't be the only person to struggle at slowing down. Lastly, the Nike+ site is launched today although I am unable to do anything but login at this point. I am attending an event at the Michigan Avenue Apple Store tonight (7/13/06) at 6.30pm where the Apple / Nike+ sport kit is launched officially. Hopefully I can win one since they are having some kind of giveaway. Other venues are scheduled around the US. Follow the "trial run locator" link on the nike+ site.