I've had a few initial attempts at training properly for a decent marathon in the past year and a half. All of them have ended in the midst of busy work and travel schedules or even my love of enjoying a nice cold beer after work. Well, now I don't own a car nor do I have a job to speak of, but I do have 3 pairs of perfectly good training shoes. The weather is right, the time is right, the motivation feels right. Presto change-o...bring on the decent marathon! Riiiiight. I said properly train for a decent marathon. That means a decent ramp-up to a big winter base training stint. Well, actually more than a stint, the term marathon comes to mind.
Now I'm not the first person to run nor am I the first person to challenge himself like this and write about it. I give credit to those that have inspired me to do this, especially Sundog, Richie-a-new, and PR. Here's my initial post about training. Bear with me while I continue to set up this site.
8/20 5.5 miles (42:37)
This felt like it would have been easier running on my hands. Talk about havin’ the rhythm of a white guy! This run brought back memories of taking way too much time off between track and summer training. To be expected since my last real ‘training session’ was about two months before, in prep for the June 29th Kona half (1:13:59).
8/21 4 miles (29:15)
Quick…er…not-so-quick four miler. Gotta ease back into it. Starting back with a sub 20 mile week so I don’t blow up in 8 weeks.
8/22 5 miles (36:11)
Went to summit brewery in the afternoon yesterday and could feel it every bit of the way. Not that I was expecting any rhythm to return after trashing an afternoon and evening getting familiar again with the local brews. I remain pleasantly optimistic that my body will remember how to respond in the near future Rode in the car all day helping my cousin move back to school (UND, Grand Forks) and ran to check out campus and saw my old coach. Makes me want to blow my old times out of the water…
8/23 OFF. Partied too hard last night. Although I did run from party to party!
8/24 OFF. See previous day’s comment. Ugh!
8/25 6 miles (45:49)
Another bad run although this one was shared with an old teammate who kicks ass (Richie). I was suffering from what I call ‘Football Liver’ where my liver is the size and density of a kicking football. It’s hard to get a full breath and have decent posture with this syndrome. Too many days drinking in GF; this will change soon I tell myself. Hey, at least my legs aren’t getting sore anymore! Must be the Deek’s Pizza and Red Pepper Grinders working magic on the recovery.
8/26 6.5 miles (48:?)
Ran w/ Richie again and one of the UND cross/800m guys. By today I’m feeling a flicker of hope that I can still hang with these guys in a few more months. At least I ended up in GF for the best weather days of summer. The nights were pretty nice too!
8/27 6 miles (48:07)
Back in the cities thanks to the overnight Amtrak ride from GF. Not good sleep at all. Went for an afternooner and felt sleepy but not too physically fatigued. Progress is mounting.
8/28 7.5 miles (52:56)
Slept 11 plus hours last night and had a good session thanks to it. Started my hip/pelvis range of motion plan and did some abs afterward too. I’m starting to feel better at the end of my runs which is a good feeling. I finally sketched a rough plan for the next two weeks and will re-evaluate my distance spread after I feel out these two weeks.
8/29 4 miles (29:07)
Morning run that felt pretty good, but my left heel is asking for a break or better warm-up. It’s time to get serious about stretching before these snakes in my legs get wound too tightly. Looking for a car and a job so I’ll be able to a) get to and b) afford the upcoming community yoga classes. Possibly the best strength/flexibility training I’ve had luck with in the past.
I’ll be heading up to northern MN for a few days this weekend and have every intention to run both days to round out a 43 mile week with 7 consecutive days of running. I’ve been pushing water all week but feel a bit thirsty all the time anyway. It has been pretty warm this week, and coming from Hawaii, even I’m not used to this kind of humidity! Overall this week has turned out to be productive running-wise. Now if I can only find employment and transportation I’ll be set. Goals will be reviewed in writing on this blog soon. Stay tuned…
5 years ago
