Training - Week 7 Day 3

Easy 4 Miles Scheduled for today. I had a pretty lousy nights sleep last night, so getting up at 5:00 AM wasn't an option for me today. I got up an hour and a half later and went out to the river trail to run my distance. Today's run felt really long. It was only 4 miles, but felt like 8. Hope my next run doesn't feel as slow, as 12 miles is a long distance to run slow. In either case, I felt great during today's run and didn't have any pain.

Stats:
HR - 148/161
Mile 1 - 10:03/5.9
Mile 2 - 10:02/5.9
Mile 3 - 10:02/5.9
Mile 4 - 9:32/6.3
Mile 4.1 - 0:53/7.2
Mile 4.36 - 4:07/4.0
Weight - 182
Pain - None

Training - Week 7 Day 2

Much better run today. I woke up with a bit of grogginess as usual, and after putting off the run as much as reasonable for my sleepiness, I headed out on the trail again. I was a little worried that I would be having more of the foot pain that shortened my run yesterday. Thankfully, I had no pain whatsoever. It was a great run.

As I started out intending to make today a tempo run, I was pushing myself most of the way. I averaged less than a 10 minute pace for the entire 5 miles, including doing the first three in 27 minutes, which is faster than I ever expected to do that in. It was a great run today, and I set a pace I never expected to do.

Now that I am well in to my 7th week of training, and not even half way through with my regime, I am starting to feel a bit fatigued. I know I am just forcing my body to adapt to the rigors I need it to so that I can complete the marathon, but it surely seems as though I am always running these days. Not that I mind, as I really am starting to enjoy my time on the road, its just taking a huge part of each week. And I realize I am only running about half the time I will end up running weekly especially closing in on the last few weeks before the race. I am just wondering what my life will look like in November. To me it seems it might look a bit like this:

5:00 AM - Wake up, start running
8:00 AM - Go to work
6:00 PM - Come home, start running
10:00 PM - pet cat, go to bed
Rinse and Repeat

It isn't nearly that bad, but the running miles I will put on in those later weeks will be like 40 miles a week, which from this vantage seems a bit daunting. Of course so did the 10 mile long run. I am sure I will get through it without too much misery.

Stats:
HR - 152/166
Mile 1 - 10:00/6.1
Mile 2 - 9:32/6.2
Mile 3 - 9:38/6.2
Mile 4 - 9:12/6.5
Mile 5 - 8:56/6.7
Mile 5.25 - 2:05/7.5
Mile 5.5 Cool Down - 4:44/3.5
Weight - 181
Pain - None

Training - Week 7 Day 1

The start of another glorious week. I woke up this morning, feeling ok, and headed out to do my scheduled 4 miles. I started out, having the pectoral pain lightly when I started, and just after the first mile, I noticed a new pain in my right foot. Note that it wasn't severe, but occasionally stepping down on it caused me to grimace a bit. So I decided to turn around and call this a short run. I walked for about 50 feet and started in again a little slower. The pain subsided and I was able to run the rest of the way back without incident. So instead of the 4 miles, I did 2.5 today.

It was a good run nonetheless, and aside from the minor pains, I saw only one other human cyclist, and like 14 bunny rabbits today on the run.

Stats:
HR - 139/149
Mile 1 - 10:47/5.8
Mile 2 - 11:00/5.7
Mile 2.5 - 5:30/5.2
Weight - 181
Pain - Right pectoral pain for first quarter mile. Right foot pain half way in to run.

Training - Week 6 Day 4 - Long Run

This week was supposed to be a repeat of last week, but instead I ended up doing the next week and increased my mileage a bit. I will end up now repeating this week so I can stay on my schedule.

This morning's run was scheduled for 10 miles. I ran 11.3. I didn't have as sharp a pain in my pectoral as I expected, but I also taped the area in hopes that it would help, which it did. This run I did at my long run pace, staying about 11:15 most of the run. I kept my heart rate below 150 for most of the run, which helped me sustain the distance. I stopped at mile 6 to use the restroom and take a Gu, and I ran with the Gatorade Endurance drink again today instead of water. For the most part I started feeling a bit of fatigue around mile 9, but was able to get to the distance without too much difficulty. All in all a great run.

Stats:
HR - 145/153
Mile 1 - 11:21/5.3
Mile 2 - 11:01/5.4
Mile 3 - 11:04/5.5
Mile 4 - 10:54/5.5
Mile 5 - 11:04/5.5
Mile 6 - 11:06/5.4
Mile 7 - 11:52/5.4
Mile 8 - 10:54/5.5
Mile 9 - 10:44/5.6
Mile 10 - 10:42/5.6
Mile 11 - 10:38/5.6
Mile 11.15- 1:22/5.8
Mile 11.35 Cooldown - 3:31/3.6
Weight - 182
Pain - Light right pectoral pain at start of run. Lasted 1/4 mile.

Training - Week 6 Day 3

Easy 4 miles scheduled for today. I was a bit nervous waking up about having that pectoral pain that I had a couple of days ago. So I procrastinated a bit heading out to run. The pain seems to be from the loose skin bouncing, and thankfully doesn't last long. I guess losing 220 pounds will cause some issues. I just hope this one is short lived. I did have the pain starting out today, but was expecting it and was glad it went away after the first half mile or so.

Today I ran 4.3 miles....at least according to my watch. It was really 4 miles, however. I know I need to calibrate it better, however, so I plan on doing that really soon. I decided to run today at an easy pace, and didn't push it much. I kept my heart rate very low, and really felt like I didn't do too hard of a workout. I was really just lightly winded at the end, and I cooled down rather quickly. Good, if not easy workout today.

Stats:
HR - 139/150
Mile 1 - 11:47/5.1
Mile 2 - 10:54/5.5
Mile 3 - 11:02/5.4
Mile 4 - 10:40/5.6
Mile 4.2 - 2:03/5.8
Mile 4.3 Cool Down - 1:26/3.8
Weight - 181
Pain - Right pectoral pain for first half mile.

Training - Week 6 Day 2

Tempo Run today. 5 Miles. I didn't get up at my normal 5:00 AM as I usually do to run. My mind and body just wasn't in the right place to do so. I slept in until about 6:30 AM this morning. I nearly just rescheduled the run to this afternoon. I told myself that my bathroom scale would help me make the decision. I stepped on it, and was pleasantly surprised to find myself back down to 181, which put me in a good enough mood to go ahead and head out for the run this morning.

I hit the river trail again today, after stretching of course, and tried to keep my pace near 10:00 for most of the run. I wanted this to be a harder run, but not so hard that I couldn't keep the pace up for a distance. I ran a total of 57 minutes, and according to my watch, covered 5.75 miles. I do believe my watch needs calibrated, as I am pretty sure I only ran 5.3 miles today. The last mile I picked my pace up even more though, and was sprinting right before I finished up. I did a cool down lap around the park I started at, did some more stretching and headed home to get ready for work. I did have some pain starting out as noted below.

A great workout today though.

Stats:
HR - 149/166
Mile 1 - 10:36/5.6
Mile 2 - 9:45/6.2
Mile 3 - 9:37/6.2
Mile 4 - 9:64/6.2
Mile 5 - 9:15/6.5
Mile 5.5 - 4:00/6.9
Mile 5.75 Cool Down - 4:31/3.5
Weight - 181
Pain - Had some right pectoral muscle pain when I started out that lasted for about half a mile. It felt like my skin was burning where it connected to the muscle. Thankfully it didn't last long.

Training - Week 6 Day 1

Week 6. This week I increase my short run mileage as I repeat my long run. My runs this week look like this:

Mon - 4 Miles
Tue - 5 Miles
Thu - 4 Miles
Sat - 10 Miles

Today I ran on the river trail again, and it was a nice run in the dark. I saw exactly nobody for about the first half of the run, and then saw 5 bicyclists, 1 dog walker, 2 runners, and 3 rabbits during the latter half. When it is light out, I pass that many people every minute, so you can imagine that this well-used trail was just about all mine today. I headed out at 5:00 AM to do my 4 miles. I started it with the intent of it being a rather easy run, but turned it in to a speed workout the last half. I ran my 4 miles in just about 44 minutes, most of which was considerably above my normal pace. No pain today thankfully. Good run today.

The only bummer is that my weight is up a bit, up to 184. Looks like I need to do a bit of food tracking to find out what I am doing with my eating. I have been snacking a bit too much it seems. I will get this back in check this week.

Stats:
HR - 147/166
Mile 1 - 11:06/5.4
Mile 2 - 10:30/5.7
Mile 3 - 10:10/5.9
Mile 4 - 9:16/6.5
Mile 4.16 - 1:16/7.1
Mile 4.25 Cool down - 1:35/3.5
Weight - 184 (sheesh)
Pain - None

Training - Week 5 Day 4 - Long Run

I think today's distance has been more intimidating than any other I have run or even had as a goal so far. I was scheduled to run 10 miles today, a distance not unheard of by many, but was never in my list of goals or accomplishments, until today that is. I slept pretty good last night and got up this morning at 6:00 AM feeling pretty good. I headed out to the local river trail that I usually run on, and stretched and warmed up. The run went pretty good, as I was able to keep my heart rate below 150 the entire run. I am noticing that it is taking a good 2-3 miles to get my heart rate up to where it stays for the run, which is good I guess. About half way through, I downed a Gu (mmm....Chocolate) and took a brief restroom break, and headed back. The last 2 miles seemed to stretch out a bit, but by then, I was in familiar territory and knew that I could finish the distance remaining. I finished up at 10.5 miles, did some more stretching, and headed home to shower. All in all a great run!

Stats:
HR - 140/149
Mile 1 -11:30/5.2
Mile 2 - 11:10/5.4
Mile 3 - 11:22/5.3
Mile 4 - 11:18/5.3
Mile 5 - 11:32/5.2
Mile 6 - 12:40/5.3
Mile 7 - 11:16/5.3
Mile 8 - 11:16/5.3
Mile 9 - 11:16/5.3
Mile 10 - 11:06/5.4
Mile 10.25 - 3:10/5.6
Mile 10.5 - Cool down - 3:32/3.5
Weight - 183
Pain - Mile 6-7 noticed some right foot pain on ball of foot. Went away.

Training - Week 5 Day 3

An easy run was scheduled for today, and not to repeat Monday's miserable workout, I headed out to the river trail to run on the road this morning. Now I get up at 4:50 AM to do these runs, and I must say that trail is awful dark that time in the morning. I knew that it would be considerably lighter later in the run, but starting out was a bit interesting. Today's run felt pretty easy, and I even had pushed myself a bit to get my speed up some. I did 3.1 miles in about 33:16 and felt pretty good afterwards. No pains at all today.

Stats:
HR - 133/155
Mile 1 - 11:14/5.3
Mile 2 - 10:44/5.6
Mile 3 - 10:08/5.9
Mile 3.1 - 1:09/5.6
Mile 3.25 Cool Down - 8:14/3.2
Weight - 183 (ack!)
Pain - None

Training - Week 5 Day 2

I slept in a bit today, and nearly waited until this afternoon to do the runs. If it wasn't for the miserable run I had last Tuesday afternoon in the heat, I would have done so. Instead I went ahead and ran this morning, and I will be in a little late to work as a result. Today's run was a 5 mile tempo run. I tried to go a little further and a little faster than last time. Although towards the end I picked it up quite a bit, most of the run was just under 11 minutes per mile. I ran a total of 5.55 miles in about 58 minutes.

Stats:
HR - 149/172
Mile 1 - 10:36/5.6
Mile 2 - 10:16/5.8
Mile 3 - 10:26/5.7
Mile 4 - 10:18/5.8
Mile 5 - 10:02/6.0
Mile 5.31 - 2:44/7.2
Mile 5.56 Cooldown- 4:03/3.7
Weight: 178
Pain - None

Training - Week 5 Day 1

Some days are just not made for running. After this weekends 8 mile run, you would think that a 3 mile run would be an easy thing. I swear that the longer I run, the easier it is to do so. It is the short runs that kick my ass. Today was scheduled for an easy 3 mile run. I didn't find it so easy. I am not quite sure why though. Perhaps I just didn't get enough sleep. It just felt that this run just dragged on and on, and was hard as hell to finish. Well, I got through it though. At least tomorrow's run is on the trail, as those at least have a bit of scenery and pass the time better. Today I ran on the dreadmill and added an extra point to the incline to just push my endurance and heart rate up a bit.

Stats:

HR - 147/167
Mile 1 Warmup - 12:41/4.8
Mile 2 - 11:18/5.3
Mile 3 - 10:46/5.5
Mile 3.36 Cooldown- 6:19/3.7
Weight - 180
Pain - None
Treadmill 3%

Training - Week 4 Day 4 - Long Run

I almost didn't get up early this morning. I stayed up a bit late last night playing a video game, and was a bit tired starting out. I had an 8 mile run scheduled for today. I ate a banana before heading to the trail, and took a gu pack and a bottle of water with me. I completed the distance in about 1:36:00 and felt pretty good afterwards. I had a brief bout of minor left foot pain about half way through, but it went away and didn't cause me any more problems. At the end of the run I stretched and cooled down normally. I kept my heart rate pretty low (140-150) most of the run, and it never got above 155, which made the run reasonably tolerable.

Stats:
HR - 145-154
Mile 1 - 11:27/5.2
Mile 2 - 11:12/5.3
Mile 3 - 11:08/5.4
Mile 4 - 11:14/5.3
Mile 5 - 11:52/5.1
Mile 6 - 11:10/5.4
Mile 7 - 11:08/5.4
Mile 8 - 10:56/5.4
Mile 8.3 - Cooldown - 6:48/3.5
Pain - Brief minor left foot in mile 4
Weight - 179

Training - Week 4 Day 3

This run was a 3 mile run. I ran it easy, keeping a 12 minute pace on a 2% grade on the treadmill. I ran for about 45 minutes, including warmup and cooldown. No pain today, but slept pretty lousy last night. I was surprised I didn't have any trouble running, as the nights where I don't get good sleep, I tend to have a bit of a hard time running. Not today though. I kept my heart rate near 150 the entire run, with only the end of it getting up a bit high.

Stats:
HR - 144/159
Mile 1 - Warmup - 12:46 / 4.7
Mile 2 - 11:46 / 5.1
Mile 3 - 11:48 / 5.1
Mile 3.25 - 3:24 / 5.1
Mile 3.5 - Cooldown - 5:00 / 3.1
Pain - None
Weight - 180

Training - Week 4 Day 2

Today was an increase of my moderate-distance run to 5 miles. I was going to run with my running club, and actually planned on it, but when I got home from work, I just wanted to get the run out of the way and not sit around waiting for an hour and a half for them. So I headed out to the river trail and ran 5 miles.

It was a hot afternoon, and I believe that that was what affected me the most. I brought water with me, but I just couldn't seem to feel comfortable in my run. Of course, I did do the near 10-minute pace again, like last Tuesday, which kept my heart rate above 160 for most of the run. It seemed a long run, but I completed it in 55 minutes, including warmup and cooldown, so it really wasn't that long. It sure felt that way though. No pain running today. I did a few sprints in Mile 5, running over half of it at about an 8 minute pace, the rest was dog-slow.

Stats:
HR - 160/178
Mile 1 - 10:00 / 5.9
Mile 2 - 10:04/ 5.9
Mile 3 - 10:38 / 5.8
Mile 4 - 10:20 / 5.8
Mile 5 - Sprints - 10:03 / 5.8
Mile 5.25 - Cooldown - 4:12 / 3.5
Weight: 179
Pain: none

Training - Week 4 Day 1

Easy 3 Miles. I ran today on the treadmill at 3%. I have recovered nicely from Saturday's run, and although my 3 mile runs are always a bit tough, the longer I run, the easier it seems to be. The first 3 miles are tough though. I did require a bit of a nap on Saturday though, much to my kids amusement.

Stats:
HR - 150/177
Mile 1 - 11:47 / 5.1
Mile 2 - 10:48 / 5.6
Mile 3 - 10:20 / 5.8
Mile 3.1 - 1:24 / 5.7
Mile 3.3 Cooldown- 4:48 / 3.0
Weight - 180
Pain - Light left foot pain
Treadmill 3%

Training - Week 3 Day 4 - Long Run

Today I awoke at 6:30 AM and headed out to do my long run. I was a bit worried at the distance, as I have never run that far before in my life. But I guess this will be a weekly experience for the next few months while I train. Today's distance was scheduled for 7 miles. I ran 7.3 miles in 1:22:09 averaging just about an 11:00 minute mile. Not too shabby. I was able to keep my heart rate in the 150-160 range for most of the run as well, which is probably what kept me going.

My stats:
HR - 154/165
Mile 1 - 11:24 / 5.2
Mile 2 - 11:00 / 5.3
Mile 3 - 11:04 / 5.4
Mile 4 - 11:08 / 5.4
Mile 5 - 11:06 / 5.4
Mile 6 - 10:54 / 5.5
Mile 7 - 10:54 / 5.5
Mile 7.1 - 1:15 / 5.3
Mile 7.3 - 3:24 / 3.4
Weight - 179
Pain: Light ache in left foot

Training - Week 3 Day 3

I stayed up way too late last night. I was up with some co-workers playing poker until nearly midnight. As I have to get up at 5:00 AM to run normally, this posed a bit of a fatigue issue today. At least I won at poker. :)

I ran for 3.25 miles today at an average of about 11:00 pace. I started a bit slower, and sped up to 6 mph. Today's "easy" 3 mile run was one of the hardest so far though, as I had to fight every quarter mile. On a positive note though, I weighed in today at 179.

Stats:
HR - 152/172
Mile 1 - 12:23/4.9
Mile 2 - 10:59/5.5
Mile 3 - 10:14/5.8
Mile 3.25 - 4:26/3.1
Weight - 179
Pain - None
Treadmill 2%

Training - Week 3 Day 2

I planned today to run with my the running club I just joined, and nearly chickened out. They run in the evenings, and I usually like to run in the mornings, but as I need to log a bit of road time and get off the treadmill, as well as get out and meet a few new people, I went ahead and joined them. There were 5 of us in all, and they all ran at about a 10 minute pace, which for me is a bit fast, but for some reason, I was able to keep up ok. My heart rate was a lot higher during the run than it usually is, but as I was running 2 minutes per mile faster pace than I usually do, that is understandable. I ran a total of 4.2 miles and walked about .4 miles. I did the 4.2 in 40:41, definitely setting a personal record for extended distance speed for me. I never expected to break a 10 minute mile this year. I am sure, however, that I will pay for this a bit tomorrow. I am jazzed anyway.

My stats:
HR - 161/178
Mile 1 - 9:44/6.3
Mile 2 - 9:54/6.0
Mile 3 - 9:50/6.1
Mile 4 - 9:48/6.1
Mile 4.14 - 1:23/6.1
Mile 4.66 Cooldown - 11:14/3.2
Weight - 180
Pain - None