Run A Marathon Before You Die

I closed out Week 12 of my training with an 8 mile run this morning. I’ve already done my long run for the week during the Outback Half-Marathon on Thursday so today’s run was pretty easy. The weather’s very cold this morning so I got the chance to try out my newly acquired running gloves by Nike.

Week 13 which begins tomorrow will be a bit complicated as will be leaving for Mesa, Arizona on Wednesday for a family vacation. I’ve decided to bring my running gear so I can continue my training there. I have an 18 mile run waiting for me at the end of the week so that will be a little tricky since I will not be familiar with the neighborhood there so it will be interesting.

Recap of Day 82 – Recovery Run
I did a 4 mile recovery run. on Friday after Thanksgiving around my usual Riverside-Downtown route. I was still pretty sore from the half-marathon the day before so I took it easy. I also squeezed in some intense ab workout after the run.

My first half-marathon is coming up in 2 days. The Outback Distance Classic Half-Marathon will be held the morning of Thanksgiving. I don’t want to make it too big of a deal for me even though this will be my first half-marathon race, because my goal is still the full in January at Disney. I will be treating this as a tune up race instead so I will try not to push myself too hard. To accommodate the race’s schedule, I had to switch my schedule around this week to:

Monday – Rest
Tuesday – Easy 4 (Real easy this time)
Wednesday – Rest and Yoga (so I will get most of my stretching for tomorrow’s race)
Thursday – RACE DAY (My long run for this week according to original schedule was 12mi. I’m doing this race instead)
Friday – 5 mile recovery run (I hope I still have the energy to sweat out all the Turkey)
Saturday – Strength training at home
Sunday – 8 mile

Day 77

Due to bad weather, I decided to hit the treadmill for my 16 mile run. I learned that running on the treadmill is more of a mental challenge than physical. I had to think of so many things just to keep myself from quitting because of boredom. Looking at the same spot for 2+ hours while running was torture. TV didn’t quite do the trick, it was more of a distraction actually. When I run, I just want to focus on what I’m doing, but I learned that doing that is more difficult if your environment wasn’t moving along. I still finished the run but I wasn’t sure how accurate my time was. I had to stop several times because I had to reset the machine. It only allowed me to go 60 minutes so once that’s over, I had to reset everything. For some reason, I also found that running on the treadmill was more physically challenging than running on the road. I feel more relaxed when I’m running on the road because I can set my pace anytime I want to. With the treadmill, I have to keep up with the machine for most of the time. I could slow it down or speed it up but that’s kind of annoying.

I once read somewhere about this one lady who did all her marathon training on the treadmill, I give her credit for that. I don’t think I can do something like that.

Hard time getting up from bed today. The temp was a bit warmer today for my 8 miler run. My legs are still sore so I took some extra time to do some extra stretching before the run. My legs felt heavy at first but started loosening up after the first mile. I felt comfortable doing this distance now, but I’m a little bit worried about the 16 miler this weekend.

4 miles at an easy pace tomorrow.

I did a nice 4 mile Bridges run today. My legs were still sore from Sunday night’s brutal 15 miler. Today’s run helped me loosen up a bit. I’ll be doing more stretching later.

Day 71 Recap:
I did some upper body strength routine and some stretching.

Yesterday’s Exercise log.

Last night’s 15 mile long run was a humbling experience. I had to walk most of the last mile. My legs just didn’t want to go on. My right hamstring started tightening during the last 3-4 miles. I just didn’t see this one coming. I thought I got the run under control from the beginning. The weather was awesome and my breathing was in perfect rhythm that for the first time, I didn’t even pay attention to it. I was feeling strong all the way to the 10 mile mark. I wasn’t exhausted at all even towards the end. After the run, my lungs felt like it could go 4 more miles but the problem was my legs were already saying no.

I’m not exactly sure what caused it but I decided to list down the obvious:

• Lack of stretching. (I have to admit I got lazy on this department during my off days. I need to consciously remind myself to stretch every chance I get especially now that my miles are getting up there).
• Not stretching enough during walk breaks.
• Doing my run late in the day. (Legs are not as fresh because I’ve already walked a lot earlier in the day)
• Did not make adjustment on form during the run. Did not focus on the Pull (POSE method).

Today, my legs felt like they were used as punching bags…Very sore indeed. So I guess I will be skipping my leg workout today and do some stretching instead. Next time we will also try to do it early in the morning when there’s less traffic. I had to do a lot of stops because of vehicle traffic and that kinda ruined my rhythm too. On a lighter note, I was glad to have my wife back on the bike. She did help me a lot during that final 5K.

My legs are still sore from Sunday’s run and yesterday’s workout so I thought I’d take it easy on today’s 3 miler run. I ran with a couple of peeps from work. I still did the Bridges route at what I thought was a relaxed pace so I can loosen up my legs for tomorrow’s 7 mile.

The weather’s not looking great though for the week because of a hurricane and according to the forecast, it will be rainy tomorrow so we’ll see how it goes.