just a test...

Time

4:17:18

8th place in my age group out of 13.

I have unofficially retired from full marathons. It's time to get fast and concentrate on the half-distance. I believe my hips will thank me 10 and 20 years down the road.

24 hours from now...

we'll be in our second mile.

Last run!!!

I decided to do the last run on Wednesday, to get an extra day of rest in.

Only 26.2 miles to go...

Only 48 hours and 9 minutes until the gun fires...

93 hours and 45 minutes away...

Got my 30 minutes with 5 x 60 sec. in there this morning.

Getting fired up!!!

Weather forecast...

HOLY HEAT WAVE, BATMAN!

Sat Nov 11
Partly Cloudy
high 71° / low 50°
10% chance of rain

We're looking at sleeveless with that weather!

So, how did the foot do?

10 miles was completed in 1:25:41.

The last mile was in 7:30.

I was feeling really good.

My foot was there, but I'll make it through the race, as long as the Dawg is with me.

AS PROMISED

Well, I'm not sure what kind of taper week this has been with life and work being so hectic, but my three runs are now done for the week and were completed in 24 hours.

Last night:
On the treadmill
3 x 1 mile repeats

1 - 7:25
2 - 7:25
3 - 7:10

I felt very good, as if I could have done 3 more with no problem.

This morning:
It was burrry cold at 35 degrees and I found myself in tights for the first time this year. I originally was thinking I'd throw up 12, but after the first mile I decided to go for 10 instead. It took a few miles to feel good, but towards the end, I felt very good and was more than pleased with my time. I believe that taking 1000 mg of tylenol before the run really helped the hips (good idead Tim).

10 miles - 1:25:00 (no joke)

Now, I'm going to rest, stretch and eat well for a week and hopefully 4 hours will be attained.

Last Tempo of Training

8 Miles - 1:06:23

Felt very good. The hips are feeling okay, a lot of stretching to do still over the next week.

Tonight - 3 x 1 mile repeats on the treadmill.

Tomorrow - 10-12 Miles.

23 miles in 24 hours.

Spooky speedwork...

3 x 1 mile:
1) 7:24
2) 7:27
3) 6:58

My foot bothered me some on the last mile, but not too much. Nothing I can't handle.

Tempo Thursday...

4 miles in 32:29. 8:07 pace.

Having a left foot problem. I may not do the 15 until Sunday. We'll see how I feel.

9 mph on a treadmill = ice cold bath

I had probably the toughest (but maybe most profitable) speed workout of this training. Hopefully it is not "too little, too late". All were in the range and possibly too fast. The ice cold bath (15 minutes) was restorative...I think.

This week's speedwork...October 25th!

7 x 1/2 mile @ 3:36-3:40.

Got it done. Most below the range rather than in it.

Remember, this is an ACTIVE taper. Keep going at it.

Stretch. Strengthen. Eat well.

17 days until the race.

Tempo

5 miles - 42:11

I felt pretty good, but I'm definitely more sick this week than last week. I've been hacking up stuff all week. I was planning on 15 this morning, but I ended up having to be at my goofy job at 8:30am, so I guess I'll be running 15 tomorrow morning before we leave for ATL.

12 x 400s

all within range...

GOAL: 4:00:00 #1

Gabcast! GOAL: 4:00:00 #1

Not too bad on the tempo...

1:09:51 total, for a 8:44 pace.
I don't feel quite as good as I did pre-transplant, but I'm committed to be ready to hit the 4-hour mark come race day.

Saturday is huge. Let's do it.

No more food excuses...

Your body can run on crap; you just have to train it to do so. Remember that day that we went long after I had eaten pepperoni pizza and slammed 4 beers the night before? It was a great run. It's partly physical, but I believe it is mostly mental.

If you eat good food, then your body can perform even better. But I think you can do just fine on what you've been eating. Don't let your head make excuses for you. MIND OVER MATTER.

Not So Tempo

So the tempo run could have been better. I could make many excuses. For instance, speedwork the day before, or eating a huge grilled (not so done) burger (with two Mooseheads) the night before. But at the end of the day, if you don't have it, you don't have it. I even walked a couple of minutes at the 5 mile mark (What the Crap!!). Historically my long midweek runs always have sucked and have been difficult and then I bounce back for the long run. Let's hope that is the case for 20 this weekend.

8 miles - 1:11:45

(still not terrible considering I walked for 2 minutes)

Speedwork still sucks...

Since I had a wonderful chicken casserole, with salad waiting for me when I got home on Tuesday, I decided that I would get up early Wednesday. The one problem with this was that Ashley informed me that it was my turn to get up with Ben, which meant that I needed to be up earlier than usual. So at 5:30 I arose, stumbled outside into the fog and ran my 4 x 1 mile repeats. My times were okay, but whatever...

1 - 7:29

2 - 7:34

3- 7:39

4 - 7:31

Please note that there was no break between 3 and 4, because I needed to get back in the home and out of the shower before Ben arose from his slumber.

Speed, not so much...

4 x 1 mile @ 7:36-7:44
1) 7:31
2) 7:32
3) 7:41
4) 7:45

Eh...

"get well katie"

15 miles

Well after the previous week's run, I had some very tired legs (as if I was recovering from a race or something), so I decided for forego the planned speedwork and tempo. Instead I went out for two comfortable three mile runs during the week.

Yesterday, I began my 15 at 7:30 (with a shirt on-but I probably did not need one). After six, I ran back into the apartment for a pitstop. Apparently, it's not wise to eat a phillycheese steak the day before a long run. After the pitstop, I ran the next 9 at a faster pace, but surprisingly I felt much better the second half of the run.

Time - 2:14:24 (the watch was stopped while I was in the bathroom)

A new experiment!

Thursday, 7:00 a.m. - I head out the door, fully intending to try and get through the weekend's scheduled 15 miles. About one lap in, I realize that I'm not going to have enough time to complete the run before I have some things to do during my day. I'm feeling kind of tired and nervous anyway, so I decide to run half now and finish later. I get through a bit more than 7 1/2 and hit the stop button on my watch.

Thursday, 6:48 p.m. - I have completed my 15 miles for the day, after finishing the second half in some pretty heavy rain. The second half felt surprisingly better than the first. I'm pleased.

If I can get through next weekend's 20, then I'll sign up for the race the next day.

Believe it or not, it's only six weeks until the race.

Not quite there...

I ran two miles this morning, and I tried to keep a comfortable pace.

My breathing seemed too labored for the pace I think I was running. Hmm...

Ugh...

How miserable was I last night???

Obviously, my body is not normal right now, considering we did 17 at a good pace two weeks ago, and I couldn't go a few miles now without slowing to a ten minute mile pace.

I'll be back.

We did a total of 13.65 miles running/jogging/shuffling along, and a little more than a mile walking.