Please join me at my new site, Will Run To Eat to continue following my running, with bonus coverage of local (and maybe not-so-local) food carts!  It’s a combined space for my two hobbies: running and eating, and hopefully the overlap between them.  But don’t worry, the real reason for running remains the same: getting the medal at the finish line!

So, in an effort to stir up some trash talk, I think Colin is going to be in some trouble to be as prepared as me for this race.  Nevermind he’s coming off an injury, unsure how he’ll hold up over the entire race distance, and doing a 13-week training plan versus my 18-week plan.  No mercy!  Well, actually, we’ll probably run together the majority of the race**.  I’m sure more accidental comparisons will present themselves as well as some professional trash talk, so stay tuned.

*For the skeptics and internet trolls out there, the vertical scale is the same for both graphs.

**At least until I see the opportunity to Tonya Harding him.  Good luck, Nancy.

At this point this post is LONG overdue, so we’ll keep it short, which seems fitting (or not) for the longest training week.  During the long week I tried not to push too hard.  The only gauge I had for that (other than my totally uncalibrated, inaccurate “perceived effort” meter) was my heart rate.  Monday I had my lowest heart rate on any moderate distance run ever.  It was a good recovery pace, but it wasn’t super slow.  We’re not talking glacial, just slug-ish.  At any rate (pace pun?), I bested myself later in the week with an even lower heart rate.  Now, don’t get too excited, you don’t want to elevate your own heart rate too much reading about my low heart rate.

The 20 miler on Saturday (number two of three 20 milers in this training plan) went alright.  Started off on the easy side, then the middle was epic, and then I just held on to finish.  Overall the pace was solid, but I’d call the run just above average.  I felt unstoppable (more than usual at least) during that middle miles 7-14 until a cramp started, um, cramping my style.  The week as a whole was good and I didn’t come out of it feeling too worn out.  Let’s try to keep it up before one of us flatlines.

Anyway, last week was a bit of a cutback week, finishing up with 44 miles.  Not much to report really.  There was some speedwork, some easy days, a short-ish long run.  Pretty standard.  Rewind to the “running with music” part… The other reason I haven’t been running with music is I lost my iPod Shuffle some time after moving to Austin.  During my trip to Florida the week before I picked up a new (4th) generation shuffle.  It’s alright, but still not quite as good as the 2nd gen version.  Keeping with the theme of everything in Austin, I got the closest color to UT orange.

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I’ve really gotten to enjoy running with music.  It’s like a performance enhancing drug, without the side effects (yes, my head is naturally this big).  The downside is I have zero intention of running any races with music, so I don’t want to become reliant on the unearthly boost it gives me.  I’ll keep training with it for now, but I may need to impose restrictions and sanctions if things get out of hand.  Until then, let’s keep the tunes coming.  What’s on your running playlist?

*Combining ideas… just Google “volcano running“. You’ll be amazed at what you find.
**Hey Hollywood, keep me in mind… it wouldn’t be the worst idea you’ve sent to the big screen ::cough:: Witless Protection :: cough ::

Coming off of my 20-miler from the weekend before, and running with the guys on Monday, I needed a rest day like whoa on Tuesday.  The issue with taking Tuesday off is four straight days of running for the rest of the week, starting with 14 miles.  Wednesday’s 14 miler was terrible.  My humidometer broke due to astronomical readings.  The screen cracked after the 195% mark.  Anyway, I really struggled, which I’ll blame on lack of sleep, lots of miles the previous week, and the humidiculous weather.

Hazel made huge improvements in her training, so it wasn’t all negative soap-opera drama.  Thursday she crushed 2.25 miles, and not wanting to let the training benefits dissolve away, she busted out 2.6 miles on Friday.  She said she felt good after and that her goal is to get up to 5 or 6 miles.  Seeing as how she’s a dog, this conversation all took place in my head.  I’m not crazy.  Yes you are. Sigh.

Finally Saturday I woke up before I even went to bed (read: early) to crank out 16 miles before my 10am flight.  The run was no good, but let me get to the good part.  At the airport I cruised through security with lots of time before boarding, so I rolled up to The Salt Lick taco stand.  Bar-none, hands-down, no-questions-asked: best breakfast taco of my life.  Since moving to Austin I’ve had my fair share of breakfast tacos, but this tortilla, loaded with eggs, topped with pulled pork, and soaked in BBQ sauce, blew my mind.  I’m considering buying some plane tickets just to get through security to buy more of these tacos.  Until then, I’m looking forward to my next flight to anywhere.  Hopefully Week 10 runs more smoothly!

Doesn't look like much, but it will change your life.

	Distance	Time	Pace	Heart Rate
Monday	6.05 Miles	58:15	9:36 min/mi	140 bpm
Wednesday	14.20 Miles	2:00:05	8:27 min/mi	159 bpm
Thursday	6.24 Miles	56:15	9:01 min/mi	144 bpm
Friday	6.13 Miles	53:58	8:48 min/mi	144 bpm
Saturday	16.10 Miles	2:12:23	8:13 min/mi	159 bpm
Total	48.70 Miles	7:00:57	8:38 min/mi	152 bpm

]]> http://runforthemedal.wordpress.com/2010/09/16/big-or-small-week-9-review/feed/ 2 Mike long and short DROOOOOOOL http://runforthemedal.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/rebound-week-8-review/ http://runforthemedal.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/rebound-week-8-review/#comments Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:19:18 +0000 Mike http://runforthemedal.wordpress.com/?p=817 ]]> Bouncing back from an injury is always a tough process.  On the one hand you want to get back as soon as possible.  On the other hand you don’t want to start too soon and set yourself back.  And in some freakish odd cases, on the third hand you don’t want to get back to it at all because you like sleeping in.  Fortunately I only have two hands, so that alien third option didn’t apply to me this time.

Week 8 hinged on my foot recovering from its unexpected meltdown last weekend.  After missing Sunday’s long run, I was hopeful to be cleared for Monday.  Not the case.  Tuesday?  Nope.  Well that was demoralizing.  My foot was improving, but not 100% better.  After it felt well enough, I carved in stone that I would run Wednesday morning, as a sort of gift for Ev’s birthday*.

I still don’t know what was scheduled for Wednesday, but I ended up running 6, with a sore foot that got a little better as the miles wore on.  I consider it a success because things didn’t get worse.  I love it when the bar is set so low.  Thursday got a little more ambitious with a serious 9 miles.  Not only did I (kinda) cruise through the distance, but I really pushed the pace.  I felt a little worn down, but overall not bad.

Friday was a travel day en route to Myrtle Beach, bachelor party style.  Yes, my bachelor party.  I might have a separate post on this, but the 20 miler that I ran on Saturday was out… wait for it… standing.  The first 13 miles were shared with Colin, which made things much better.  Add to that 30% lower humidity and 30% lower temperature (both unverified wild guesses), and a super flat run along the beach, and we had a grand ole time.  After the 13 mile mark, I took off on my own and threw the hammer down.  Only one of the last 7 miles was above 8 min/mile, and that was 8:01.  I felt amazing, even thinking of going even farther, but ultimately cranked out a 7:23 minute final mile in preparation for 18 holes of golf later.

Where Week 7 ended at the bottom of a roller coaster ride, Week 8 was the exact opposite.  Let’s try to keep that momentum going into Week 9!

*Still waiting on that thank you card…

As I alluded to in my Week 7 Recap, things haven’t been going according to plan.  If you’ll remember, I shifted my schedule by a day to accommodate life getting in the way.  Because I had to work Saturday morning (fail), my long run found itself set for Sunday.  Well, Saturday morning I woke up early, slid out of bed, and nearly fell over.  Son of a fish… My left foot sent a piercing stab of pain screaming from the floor up to my brain as if I stepped on a bolt of lightning.

All day Saturday I limped around like a chicken with its foot cut off, but tried to put it out of my mind.  Ultimately, it didn’t matter if my foot hurt on Saturday; I wasn’t even planning on running Saturday!  All my hopes lied in my body fixing itself over night.  Alas, I let me down.  Sunday morning.  6am.  Foot still hurts.  Son of a Twix…  Bitch.

There was a long period of demoralized time where the main thing I could think about was missing a long run and breaking my streak.  Looking back, I’m impressed with myself that I had the discipline not to jam 18 miles worth of steps onto my left foot, which at about 1000 steps per mile, per foot, is 18,000 impacts for my stressed out left foot.  No thank you.  Alas, no long run, but it actually made missing the next two runs a little bit easier.  I was able to say “well, I missed 18, so what’s the big deal if I miss another 7?”, which parlayed into “12 miles?  Who needs it?”.  In the end, I missed 3 runs in a row, which totaled 37 miles and immeasurable momentum.  Son. Of. A. Peach.  Bitch.

So, after taking Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday off, Wednesday was set in stone as my first trial of the foot after gradually diminishing feelings of “owwwwww”.  I’ll consider it a bit of a birthday miracle (as it was Ev’s birthday) and had a successful, though mildly uncomfortable run (and certainly not better than my run from exactly one year earlier).  Keeping with the birthday miracle theme, I was able to lay down 9 miles Thursday morning for my own birthday run.  It wasn’t easy, but I attribute 90% of the struggle to the extra 12 lbs I was carrying, also known as Dual Birthday Celebration Dinner.

As it were, it seems that the foot is steadily improving, even after back to back runs.  Next up, 20 miles in South Carolina!  Stay tuned for a word from our sponsors me.  Bitch.

Tuesday was my first run of the week, and a solid 10 miles with 5 at half marathon race pace.  A great start to the week with a hard effort.  Things are looking good.  Took it easy on Wednesday with a light 4 miles.  Hazel joined me for the first.  Thursday called for a lengthy 11 miles, but it was pretty easy.  I did find myself in a bit of an interesting situation, but more on that in an upcoming post.  Finally Friday was a mild 7 miles.  Nothing too taxing by any means.  That was that.  The weekdays weren’t too tough, though it was four consecutive days of running.  Sounds like a lot, but it was only 6 miles more than a marathon!

As I mentioned, life forced my Saturday run to turn into a Sunday run, which was fine by me after four straight days.  I have a whole post coming up about this, but to give you an idea, just look at the picture.

When I woke up Saturday, I could barely put any weight on my left foot.  Like bite-a-pillow-so-you-don’t-wake-the-neighbors pain.  After hobbling around a bit, I took Hazel for a walk, did some work, and moped for most of the day.  Sunday offered enough pain that I chose to break the running streak at 32 days and not pound 18 miles onto an already-damaged foot.

Grand scheme of things: not a huge deal.  In my own little world: apocalypse.

We’ll see how Week 8 turns out.  Hopefully less fire and brimstone, and more rainbows and unicorns.

I shifted a few things around to accommodate the Hottest Half recovery without needing to take any days off, which is why I started the week with a recovery run.  Tuesday and Thursday I ran the exact same route.  It’s rarer than you’d think.  The Thursday run was exactly 2 minutes faster and felt a lot easier.  No real reason I can think of other than before Tuesday’s run I had raced a half marathon and then ran a recovery run, versus before Thursday was a rest day.  Actually, that makes a lot of sense.  Let’s go with it.

On Friday Hazel asked me to join her on her 1.3 mile run.  Unable to say no to her puppy face (literally), we cranked it out at a good recovery pace.  She’s great on the leash, and I certainly needed to reel her in a bit.  She takes after me always trying to push the pace, but it caught up with her as she seemed pretty tuckered out by the end.  I have a strong feeling we’ll be keeping each other company on my recovery runs, eventually getting her up to the full 4-5 miles.  A boy can dream!

The Saturday Sunday long run was… interesting.  I needed a route change as the scenery was getting a little monotonous, so I started mapping with the only focus on going somewhere different.  In retrospect, not the best idea.  I did see 6 deer while running through neighborhoods, but I also found a 1.5 mile stretch of shoulder-less, sidewalk-less, three-lane-each-way mini highway.  Oh, and that stretch also consisted of one of the steepest hills I’ve ever run.  So it wasn’t monotonous, but it was mountainous.  Good times.  Next time Google Maps Street View will be consulted.  But I made it!

Next week we get to unleash the 50-mile week.  Prepare for exhaustion!

The Boulder is a Metaphor for Life; the Road is a Metaphor for Running

This week life reared its beautiful head in a way that has redirected my running schedule.  Lucky for me, it’s actually several things cropping up, all in the same week, that fall on cooperative days so that I can easily roll with the punches.  Saturday I had someone come to the apartment between 8am and 9am, so I decided to move my 12 miler to Sunday, rather than try to get up early enough to be back by 8am.  Normally I wouldn’t think anything of it and keep the following week’s schedule untouched.

gears = running, wrench = life, in case you aren't a visual-type

However, Ev gets back from Florida on Wednesday around 5:15pm.  Usually I’d run to work on Wednesday, which leaves me car-less, but I’m picking her up from the airport.  Instead of trying to convince the bus driver to make a 20-mile-detour to the airport or shuffling runs around in some rocket science-y way, I’ve decided to just move Saturday to Sunday, Monday to Tuesday, Tuesday to Wednesday, etc.  This Mensa-level master plan works out even better this particular week because next Saturday I need to work between 6am and 9am (fail).  Now, if you asked me what time I was planning to run 18 miles next Saturday, I’d tell you 6am to 9am.  So again (quite literally), I’m easy like Sunday morning, and will do my long run on Sunday… morning. The main challenge is going to be getting back on track after next week’s Sunday long run.  That’s where I can slide around some recovery days to get me on track.

Um, Life = Lemons, Running = Eyes?

Interestingly, the one thought that never crosses my mind (except now, when I think to myself “what am I not thinking about?”) is to just skip a run to get on track.  This is the first training plan where I have kept up with every scheduled run.  In the past I ran maybe 20% of the recovery runs, typically taking the days off.  I have this sense of pride now in my Cal Ripken-like streak*(28 for 28 at the time of writing) and want to keep it up.  Anyhow, sometimes life throws a wrench in the proverbial gears and you just gotta go with it.

*forgive me for the baseball reference