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Tuesday, March 29, 2011

got my 3 in

I finally got back out there and ran 3 today. It felt great to be out. My ankle was still a little tender but I'd say its mostly healed at this point. I did keep it slow and tried to stay on flat roads, so we'll see as time goes on. I'm off to ice it. We'll see how Friday's 5 mi and Saturday's 10+ go.

Monday, March 28, 2011

more rest

I'm not sure if running right now would make my ankle worse or not, but I do know this: rest is certainly not going to hurt any. I planned to run 7 yesterday, but after stretching, I noticed that little nagging pain emerging just a bit. I had that voice in the back of my head calling me a lazy ass but at the same time I had a voice of reason coming out. Plus I had a hungover lazy ass body that agreed with the latter right away.
Today was my wife's birthday and to be honest I needed to take care of a few things relating to that, so once again, I decided that rest isn't going to kill me.
With that said, I have to get my ass on an elliptical and start logging some serious time asap. And soon, I need to at least get out there and see what a few miles does to me.
So my contingency plan for this week is as follows:
Tuesday: run 3ish + strength. stop running if I feel any pain.
Wednesday: 7 miles on the elliptical
Thursday: 3 miles + strength
Friday: 5 miles
Saturday: 12, or as many as possible
Sunday: rest
Monday: rest
Next Tuesday: back to schedule

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Training Plan Modified

One thing I've heard from all experienced runners and fitness people is to be flexible in your training. You must be willing to modify your plan up or down based on your experiences. You never know what is going to come up, whether it be an injury, race cancellation, who knows...
I'm still not sure I have a real injury, but I don't want to screw with it and I have the advantage of planning ahead. So I've modified my training based on the time I project I'll need to rest to avoid making it worse and the time I have left. It just so happens that we're exactly 18 weeks away from the race. It just so happens that most of Hal Higdon's stuff is 18 weeks long.
I had originally wanted to start a few weeks in, as my mileage had been built up high enough to support that. But I need a week or two and then I'll be rusty, so this works out perfectly.
My new training plan can be found here.
Once again, you'll notice I've modified it to my specific needs. I'm running a half right in the middle of training, so I moved the 19 mile long run from week 10 to the week before. I should be able to handle that, but if I'm not feeling up to it, I'll cut it back that day.

Monday, March 21, 2011

52:49

What a race! That was without a doubt the most fun race I have been a part of. Oh, I have some complaints. But you can't beat a run where you have people cheering you on the entire race. There were kids handing out gatorade and water literally everywhere and people encouraging you constantly. Plus the block party at the end far surpassed anything I've ever seen at a run. Beer and food, bands, people all ready to have a great time. This is the type of race to invite your friends and family to watch since you know they'll have a great time too.
My ankle preparations worked beautifully- not a problem at all there. I felt great throughout physically.
My complaints are really more about my ignorance going in rather than about the race itself. I wanted to make this the race I'd get my PR under 50. However, the first four miles were consistently uphill. Not opressive, and I trained for hills, but by mile 3, I just had to slow down. The last 2 miles were sharp downhill which was awesome, but I wasn't able to cut my pace down enough to hit my goal.
Another challenge related to my goal was the number of people. The helicopter (yes, helicopter) that was giving us directions at the beginning of the race was saying to line up by pace, but on the ground it was way past the point where that was possible. The line was literally a mile long. According to the results, the difference between the gun and my start time was about 5 minutes, but I am pretty sure it was even more than that. It felt like 20. Either way, I started with so many people that there was just no way to get to and stay at my pace. Instead, I was playing the sprint and pace game for the first 4 miles. That took a lot out of me both physically and mentally.
Next year, I'll do this one as a fun, get back into shape for spring run. Even if its just an excuse to join the party afterwards.




Saturday, March 19, 2011

Race Preparation


I happen to have the benefit of being very good friends with a sports-focused physical therapist. He related my injury to Curt Schilling's bloody sock thing. Check this wikipedia article out to learn more.
I don't think it's torn yet but the pain is the same. What my buddy Mike says is that it could turn into a tear if I continue to run the same way. I may not be running exactly right even though I'm a pretty functional runner. I'll deal with that after the race tomorrow.
Anyway, he gave me some comforting race preparation advice. Ice it and warm it and ice it again, both tonight and just before the race, take four ibuprofens, tape it up (one tip he gave me there was to avoid wrapping around my foot, as this will be bulky and affect performance) then run right through the pain. And stretch my calves a lot.
So I'm doing everything he says and we'll see how it works tomorrow. My plan is to go hard in the mutha f'n paint. But if I can't, I can't, and just finish. But go hard...

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Injury 4 days before 10k

Of course it happens like this. I was just over a mile into my 8 mile tempo run, just started picking it up on this 1000 foot incline. I felt alright but not as awesome as I did with my tempo run last week. Anyway I felt fine enough, when all of a sudden I just felt this sharp pain in my ankle every time my left foot struck the ground.
There was no snap or tear or roll or anything like that. It just came. This has happened to me before about a half a dozen to a dozen times. Just never this close to a race and never this bad.
I have no idea what it is and have never asked anyone about it, because generally I just run it off and be a man and stuff. In fact, I tried to do that a few times today and the pain persisted for awhile. My old high school track happened to be nearby so I was able to just get myself up the hill and to the track where I could run until I couldn't handle it anymore.
I went easy and it slowly started to go away. By the end, I was running at near pace for short spurts, maybe 200 to 400 meters at a time.
After thinking it over, I decided to cut my run short. I could use the rest anyway after the condensed week I had last week.
I am not running tomorrow and I'll see how I feel on Thursday, but I certainly won't be pushing it at all. I think that formula adds up to doing everything right to have a great race on Saturday.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Is it the Shoes?

I have been running for about a year and a half and never gave much thought to footwear until recently. For my first pair of shoes back in 2009, I knew footwear was important and that you shouldn't go cheap, so I went to sports authority and tried on shoes in the $100 range. These ones looked pretty sexy so I gave them a try.


Under Armour Proto Speed II's

They felt good enough so I bought them. They never caused me any pain or discomfort so I bought another pair, then another.
But once I increased my mileage and started running 10+ long runs week after week, I developed some nagging pain in the tendon behind my knee as well as my achilles tendons. I knew it was the shoes 'cause I was doing everything right.
And so I did basically the same thing as before. I did a little more research online and it seemed like people really liked these new barefoot inspired Nike Frees, so I went and tried them on. They felt great- like a glove.


With these shoes, you have to break them in much more gradually than normal shoes. They really are closer to barefoot running, meaning there is no support, so you have to allow certain muscles time to repair and all that.
Well, I love wearing these shoes. They are unbelievably comfortable no matter what you're doing. And I run fast in them. But I still have the same problem: pain after long runs.
Now that things are getting serious with this training, I knew I had to get some real shoes. I'm 200 lbs and going to run a marathon. Time to get real and get myself some good shoes.
Once again I did some research. But this time instead of just reading a few reviews, I looked at tons of reviews from multiple sites, took shoe finder quizzes, and read running shoe FAQs. I realized that I am one of the bigger runners out there and need a shoe that can handle my weight.
What I came up with was a need for max cushioning. I have no issues with pronation or flat feet or anything like that.
So I was able to narrow down the field quite a bit. There were 3 shoes that kept coming up:
Nike Vomero $130 retail
Asics Gel Nimbus $130 retail
Brooks Glycerine $130 retail
I trust Nike and couldn't find a bad review so I figured lets do it. I shopped and called around and found that the only place that had them was my local running store. I asked them to put them on hold and said I'd be in later that evening to pick them up.
When I arrived, I decided I might as well try them on, even though I was pretty sure I would like them. Well, when I put them on my feet, I wasn't actually crazy about them. There were certain places on my feet that were crowded and the stride didn't feel natural to me.
So I tried on the others. I had similar problems with the Asics. Perhaps a few runs would've broken them in more. But when I tried on the Brooks, they just felt right. Similar to the feeling I had when I first put on the frees.
Winner= Brooks!

As of today I have only 11 miles in them so I can't report much other than that I can see how cushioning can make a big difference- striking is was considerably less painful on my 5 and 6 mile runs.
Also, they're bad ass. I'm riding in the Cadillac of running shoes, or as close as it gets.

Friday, March 11, 2011

Training Starts Now!

Actually, it started about 4 days ago. I finished the 1/2 now almost two weeks ago and originally planned to calm the running down and focus on lifting for a few months. My plan was to sort of periodize my training. Alternate cycles between lifting and running, and just try to maintain a minimum "maintenance" level for whichever cycle I wasn't focused on.
But then I gave myself a week off to allow my body some rest after the 1/2. I like to do that if I can after every event or training cycle.
Well, I spent that week reflecting on my most recent victory. No, I didn't win the race. I didn't place in my age group, or even the Clydesdale division. In fact, I finished with my worst results (both time and pace) of any race I had previously run.
My victory was finishing another freaking 1/2 marathon. It was doing so while training in the middle of one of the worst New England winters of my life. I ran 13.1 miles in February! Bi-Winning.
So, I figured, screw it. Running feels good and I'm already halfway there. Why not just start marathon training now.
I already knew where to go. I had loosely followed both the beginner and intermediate Hal Higdon 1/2 training for previous races and seen great results. Before that, my wife Jessica inspired me with her dedication to Hal's training when she ran her first 1/2, the Lowell Sun 1/2 in October 2009.
I'm sold. His shit works.
With that said, my goals are just slightly different from the cookie-cutter runner Hal has in mind. I have a little bit of muscle mass on my body and I'd like to keep it that way. I believe having an all around athletic, muscular physique is beneficial to one's health in more ways than one. Muscle looks good. It keeps you safe and prevents injuries. And, you burn more calories with every step you take. Yes, it will make me a slower runner. But thats a trade off I'm willing to work with at this point. My buddy Steve has a higher BMI than I and will likely qualify for Boston this summer.
Hal's marathon training also starts with long runs of 10, 11, 8, and then 13. I'm so ready to do more than that right now.
So, I modified his training just a bit. I basically just skipped the entire first 4 weeks of the Advanced Marathon-1 plan and tacked on the first 5 weeks of his Advanced Spring Training program with extended long runs in its place.
Check it out here.

Thursday, March 10, 2011

First Running Blog Post

A good first post for a running blog includes a synopsis of the runner's history and goals. I'll get right on with it so you can move on with your life.
I've been interested in fitness in one form or another for most of my life. As a kid I played a lot of basketball and spent a lot of time roaming the town on my bike. As soon as I was able, I joined sports teams and stuck with them for a long time.
But between my sophomore year in high school and two years after I graduated from college, I somehow lost interest. I was more concerned with other things. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll...Money, power respect...That sort of stuff.
One day, my big sister told me I looked really big. At first I was flattered. I was used to being a skinny kid my whole life and hadn't thought about my weight to that point.

(me at 245 lbs. with the sister in question on the very date of my epiphany)


But then I realized what she said. It was shocking. I went home, took my shirt off, and looked at my huge gut in the mirror for about five minutes. She was right! I was really big. I freaked out. At that point I realized that I had to change my lifestyle.
I did so immediately. I bought some fitness books and started a combination of weight lifting, cross training, and running short distances on a treadmill.
More or less, I stuck with that plan until the late fall of 2009, when I was invited to run my first 5k race that December. Since a number of my friends and family agreed, I figured what the hell.
Since then, I have found myself increasingly afflicted by an indulgence in running. After the December 5k, I ran another in May 2010, then a Half at the end of that month, a 10k in October 2010, and most recently another Half last month in Hyannis, Ma.

(47 lbs. lighter at my 3rd Half Marathon- the Hyannis Half Marathon- 3/27/11)


This blog marks the beginning of my next running adventure: the marathon. I hope other runners find it interesting and useful, but to be honest, I would be happiest if it helps me grow as a runner. Training for a marathon is going to take a lot of commitment, and having something like this might provide just the amount of accountability and narcissistic massaging I need to keep motivated over the next 20 weeks.
Goal: Nova Scotia Marathon in Barrington, NS on July 24, 2011