Category: Running

Week 3

Week 2
Monday
Easy run of 3 miles at 10:32 pace was the schedule. I ran 2.91 at 9:36 pace. Too fast and too short. That was typical of the whole week. Or at least as far as distance goes. I left the house later than I had time to run. I had to hurry through the run and just get back home for an appointment.

Wednesday
Speed workout of 2X1600 meter repeats with 800 meters in between. With warm up and cool down runs this was supposed to be a 5 mile day. Total mileage for the day was just under 5 miles. My speed sessions were supposed to be at a pace of 8:27. I managed an average of 8:36. Just felt sluggish.

Thursday
This was a rest/cross training day. I managed my first bike ride for exercise that day. I rode almost 8 miles at a pace of 13.2 MPH.

Saturday
This was supposed to be a 9 mile run at a 10:32 pace. Again, I left the house with not enough time to do the whole run. I did 8 miles at a 10:31 pace. I was very pleased with my consistent pacing. I ran my 4 mile loop 2 times. It was a bit disappointing to finish the loop and know that I had to do it all over again.

Week 3
Monday: 3 miles easy at 10:32

Wednesday: 3 mile tempo run at 8:57 with a 1 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down.

Saturday: 10 mile long run at 10:32 pace.

Week 2

Week 1
Sunday
I was supposed to run my first run of the program on Monday. It was to be an easy 3 mile run at a 10:32 pace. I ran it in 9:42 pace on Sunday. A little fast, but I don’t think that will hurt me.

The reason I did not do the run on Monday was that I wanted to go to one more swimming class. I knew it would be the last chance I had before we started traveling and would not be in town enough to pay for another month.

Wednesday
A tempo run of 3 miles with a 1 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down. The tempo part was to be run at 8:57 pace. I struggled to keep the pace up.

From my running log:

I tried something different this morning that may have affected my pace. I ran before eating breakfast and hitting the bathroom. I did this in an attempt to get out on the road earlier. I felt awful the whole run. I need to get me some kind of snack bar that will put a little something in my stomach before hitting the road.

Pretty disappointed in the slowness of this run.

I did a 1 mile warm up and then the 3 miles at an average pace of 9:20 per mile and then an almost 1 mile cool down. I have regularly run at 8:45 pace. I was disappointed that 8:57 was such a struggle that day. But, there are just some days that are hard.

Friday
It was not a running day, but I wanted to get out and do a nice easy run. Did 2.89 miles at a 9:52 pace.

Saturday
Long run of 8 miles at 10:32 a mile was the plan. I did the 8 miles (plus a little) at 10:20 pace. I did a run/walk, which is the way I plan to do the marathon. I ran 1 mile and walked 1 minute. It is amazing how much fresher I am at the end of an 8 mile run that way. I am curious as to how well I will finish the half marathon distance doing the run/walk. Based on my run today, I could finish a half marathon 4 minutes faster than my current half marathon PR. And that is without racing today.

Total mileage for the week: 20

Week 2
Monday: 3 miles easy 10:32 pace

Wednesday: 5 miles speed at 8:27 (2X1600 meters with 800 meter recovery jog in between. Plus warm-up/cool-down runs.)

Saturday: 9 miles long 10:32 pace

Week 1

Week 1I started my first week of marathon training on Sunday. It is a 16 week program which should lead me to a 4:30 to 4:45 marathon finish. The Indianapolis Marathon on October 18 is my goal race. This will be my first marathon, and as such I plan to take it easy and have a good time enjoying the run. So even though I am training for a 4:30 finish, I am not going to beat myself up if I don’t make it. That leaves the door wide open in my second marathon to be able to beat my previous best.

This week my training plan says that I need to run 3 miles on Monday at an easy pace. Wednesday is a tempo run of 3 miles at 8:57 per mile with a mile warm up and cool down. Saturday will be a long run of 8 miles.

I am very excited to be back on a training schedule. It has been a year since my last schedule when I was training for a half marathon. To me a schedule is somewhat freeing in that I don’t really have to think about what I am going to run on a particular day. I just look to the paper to give me my guidance. It also lets me know when I can take a break and engage in other activities without jeopardizing my plan.

Get ready for weekly updates as I work through the plan. The end of July and all of August the schedule will be hard to follow exactly as we will be traveling quite a bit, but I have managed to follow a plan the last two years during this time.

June Goals Report

Running
I ran only 50.1 miles during the month of June. I knew this would be a low month because of going to the swimming class for the whole month. I also started riding my bike to go to class instead of running there. I finished the month 21 miles behind my goal pace for the year. I am not at all discouraged about that. It has been good to step back just a little as I get ready for marathon training.

I ran 17 days and did not run 13 days. There were only two times that I took two days off in a row and once I did not run for three days in a row. Even though the mileage was down a bit, I was still consistently on the road, just with lower mileage. My longest run this month was just under six miles.

This week I finished with my swim class. It has been a great six weeks of swimming, but my schedule over the next two months before we leave to move back to the US will prohibit me from being able to regularly continue going to the pool. I will still swim when I get a chance. The most important thing is that I have learned how to swim properly now.

I started marathon training this week. Over the next few months I will be running between 20 and 35 miles a week. By the time I run the marathon I will have made up my lost miles and gotten a few miles ahead of the yearly goal once again.

Reading
I read 1097 pages in six books this month. Among the really interesting books were Flags of Our Fathers, Healing ADD and Freakonomics.

Flags of Our Fathers was great! It was well written and gives a history of the six men who are in the Iwo Jima flag raising photo. The author is the son of one of the three survivors of the six. The book helped me understand why my grandfather never talked about the war. My grandfather, like the central character in the book, was a Navy Corpsman stationed with the Marines at Gudalcanal, Bougainville and Guam. Like the men in the book, I suspect my grandfather believed that the heroes were the men who did not come home after the war. He went over there to do a job. He accomplished it and came home, but probably believed the real heroes were the men who sacrificed their lives so that he could come home.

My personal opinion is that anyone who serves in the military to protect my country is a hero.

With a better understanding of what he went through, I only wished my grandfather were alive today so that I could possibly get more information from him.

Freakonomics is a book that was wildly popular a couple of years ago. Steven Levitt applies an economist’s eye to societal trends that don’t necessarily fit in the realm of economics. He explains why school teachers sometimes cheat and how they do it, as well as how they get caught. Also he tells why drug dealers live with their mothers. Many other interesting topics too.

The book Healing ADD breaks down ADD into six categories instead of the traditional two. Besides medication, which the author believes is very helpful, he recommends other interventions that can help each of the different classifications of ADD. While there is a lot of controversy as to whether diet helps or hurts ADD behavior, Dr. Amen recommends dietary changes that can help certain types, but clearly stresses that diet alone is not a cure-all. He also recommends coaching and exercise as two other methods in a multi-faceted approach to controlling ADD. [I have a more complete list of ADD books I have read or recommend.]

Amazingly, I finished five of the six books I was reading. I will be picking up all new books this month to chew on. Or, I will be pulling books from the shelf that were previously partly read and need to be finished. There are 13 books on my “To Be Read” shelf. I have plenty to choose from.

I’ve been hit!

Ok, so it was just a tag, not a full on hit.

Jen from Toughnoodles/On the Way tagged me to find out a little more about my running. There are 5 questions that I need to answer, and then tag 5 more people.

How would you describe your running 10 years ago?
Non-existent. 10 years ago I weighed 235 lbs. Then I went up to 275. About 4 years ago when I was back down to 264 I decided it was time to do something about my weight. I began exercising. Started with walking. Then I progressed to a calisthenic type work out. I used a jump-rope as my main aerobic exercise. Within 6 months (and 45 lbs lighter) I was going to a Tae-Bo class.

Fast forward to a little over a year after I started and I was down 60 lbs or so. Hovering right around 200. My brother mentioned that he was training for a half marathon. I had done a couple of running sessions and found that running wasn’t so bad. I decided to train for a half marathon too. I got my brother’s training schedule and started focusing on that.

I have been running for about 2.5 years and am holding steady at 190 lbs.

What is your best and worst run/race experience?
Best: Without doubt my best running experience was a run I did about this time last year when I was in Long Beach, California. I just went out for a casual run just to see what I could see. No agenda and 3.5 hours before I had to be anywhere. I ran along the beach with a few different training groups as well as through town.

Worst: I don’t know. I have had a few bad experiences, but I can’t think of any one run that sticks out. The thing that frustrates me most is cars that get too close to me. If they are close enough for me to extend my arms and touch them, they are too close. I give them a good whack, but I try to be courteous about it.

Why do you run?
For me it is not so much the running as it is the exercise. I have found that I am addicted to the stuff. Running is something that I have found that I can really do for many years to come. It is also very portable.

My only regret is that I did not learn I was an athlete until I was 36 years old.

I do use running sometimes to clear my head. Especially on Sunday mornings if I don’t feel totally ready for the day, I go over my notes and then head out for a run. I don’t always think about my sermon directly, but somehow things come together during the run. Oh, who am I kidding? You know I am an ADD procrastinator. Most of my Sunday morning sermons are born out of that morning’s run.

What is the best or worst piece of advice you’ve been given about running?
Best: That it is OK to slow down.

Worst: Just mostly the stupid stuff people say about running, i.e., that it is bad for you, etc. I have been one of those people in the past too.

Tell us something surprising about yourself that not many people would know.
I usually am the last person in the house to go to bed and try to be the first person up. I have always done this (at least the first person up thing). Even when I am at someone’s house as a guest or there are guests at my house. I don’t want to miss any action.

Bonus surprise: This was actually a surprise for me. I was a bit of a loon in school. Always the class clown, loved by everyone, hated by only the best. I tried so hard to be “normal” in college. I even thought I pulled it off pretty well. The last few weeks through Facebook I have connected with quite a number of college friends and fringe acquaintances. I have had a few that look at my pictures and my writings and say that I am still just as crazy as I was in college. Apparently I did not hide it too well.

Rules of the game: I am now supposed to tag 5 more people and get them to answer the questions. I will pick on T3rry first and add to the list as I think of 4 more running blogging friends.

If you have been tagged, you will find your name at the end of this post. You should then, copy the rules (or your version of them), and the set of questions onto your blog post, provide your own answers, and then tag 5 new people.

Just to be sure that everyone tagged knows they have been invited to play, go to their blogs and leave them a special comment letting them know, and refer them to your blog for details. One more thing, once they’ve answered the questions on their own blog, they should come back to yours to tell you.

List of victims: T3rry,