Marathon Training: Week 5 and 6

My how time flies. In fact, it flies just a little bit faster than I can run…but not much.

Week 5
Monday
FiveFingers Sprint2 easy miles. This was a continuation of the previous week which was a rest week. I ran 2.02 miles in my Vibram FiveFingers shoes. This was not my first run in them. I snuck in a .88 mile run on Saturday just to test them out. No problems with this run. I kept it slow at just over 11 minutes per mile.

Wednesday
Tempo run, 6 miles. That included a 1 mile warm up and cool down. So only 4 miles at a tempo of 9:31. I did not do so well on this one. I decided to do 3 laps of a 2 mile route that I have. I am not good at loops. When I get close to home I just want to stop. I did 2.65 of the 4 miles at 9:06 pace. Too fast, but it worked.

Saturday
I took Saturday off this week since I went on a 3 day hike. We were going to cover as many as 45 miles in the three days. We were very surprised to only accomplish just under 20. We really only hiked 2 days since on the second day we walked in rain all day and ended up with blisters.

XT Week 5
I did a spin class on Tuesday and Thursday. 1 hour each class. I also ran a short time (about a mile maybe) on each of these days after class. I ran on the treadmill and worked on some running form exercises. I had been watching videos to help me learn a better stride and landing method. I think this is the key to taking care of some knee inflammation I have. It has really helped to clean up my running style. It puts more work on my muscles and less on my bones and joints.

Week 6
Monday
After the hike I was not running. I wanted to get out and do the prescribed 2 mile run on Monday, but my legs and blistered feet would have none of that.

Wednesday
7 mile interval run. That included a 1 mile warm up and 1 mile cool down. The tempo pace was a bit faster this time, 8:54. I took my Vibram FiveFingers to the treadmill and worked on my form in the process. These were 1 mile intervals with a half mile recovery. I did the 3 interval miles, but did not spend as much time on warm up and cool down as I should have. I only did a total of 5.5 miles.

At the end of the run I knew I had overdone the workout with the new shoes. These are minimalist shoes and are essentially running barefoot with no cushioning. I curled my toes under (which I apparently do in my shoes too) and ended up with blood blisters on 2 toes of my right foot. This went with the blisters I had on another toe and the ball of my foot from the weekend’s hike. Rough week for feet.

Saturday
14 mile long run. I mapped out a 13.3 mile route last night. This morning I could not find my CamelBak. I had it just last week. The gnomes hauled it off. I had to do this run without the aid of constant hydration and being able to carry all the nutrition I needed. I stopped at a convenience store about 5 miles into the run and bought me a 32 oz. electrolyte drink that I carried the rest of the run. I made a wrong turn in my route and ended back at home with only covering 11.5 miles. That was fine. It will just make the 16 mile run next week seem a little more daunting, but knowing that going into this week may help me prepare for it.

XT Week 6
I did spinning class again on 2 days this week. I also spent some time on a real bike. I know I need to work on some upper body exercises and did a little, but probably not enough to matter.

Week 7 Preview
Monday 2 miles easy. Wednesday 6 mile tempo. Saturday 16 miles long run. I will be traveling this week which will make the Wednesday run a bit more complicated, but I should be able to do the Monday and Saturday run without a problem.

Marathon Training: Week 4

Monday: 5 miles easy
I ran just over 5 miles at about 30 seconds per mile faster than my training schedule called for.

Wednesday: 5 miles easy
It was Wednesday that I realized that I was on an easy week. My training did not do this last year, but this year I have every 4th week (I think) that scales me back a bit. I ran the same route as Monday a bit faster.

Thursday: XT day
I intended to ride my bike 30 minutes or so since I had not been on a bike in several weeks. I was having so much fun that I was a long way from home before I got turned around. I ended up being a 15.8 mile ride which took me an hour. The interesting thing about this ride was that I did not have to stop for a single light until I was 1/4 mile away from home. The very last light caught me. But that also meant that I did not get a chance to stop and let my backside rest. I was a little sore the next day.

I bought a mirror a few weeks ago (before leaving on our last trip) but never got a chance to use it. It is the kind that clips onto my glasses and I can see cars coming from behind. It was very nice. It gave me much more confidence while riding.

Friday/Saturday: 5 miles easy
The long run for the week was just a 5 mile easy run. But I know I will not be able to run a long run this coming weekend, I decided to mix up my plan a little. Since I had to scrub the 10 mile run from the previous week, I decided to run 11 miles this week. I ran on Friday because it worked better for my schedule. My next long run was to be 12 miles, but I will be on a 45 mile hike when I am supposed to be running that. So I will pick up the next week with a 14 miler to get me back on target.

Shamefully my 11 mile long run this weekend was the longest run since my half marathon (13.1 miles) PR back in November. I can’t believe I have not been more consistent with the longer runs. I used to always feel like I could get out and run 8 miles any time someone wanted to go out for a run. It is embarrassing that I have let that slide. But I am determined to get back into good form.

Friday I also bought me some new shoes. I got a pair of Vibram FiveFingers Sprint. I have already done 3 miles in them. I have been reading and watching videos about running form and how the barefoot running is supposed to help me run more efficiently. I look forward to the bio-mechanical benefits more than, necessarily, an increase in speed. I don’t plan to run my marathon barefoot (or shod with FiveFingers), but I might. It depends on how the transition goes with these shoes. I need to build some muscle strength in my legs to be able to go the distance in the FiveFingers.

Marathon Training: Week 3

I guess I owe you an update on the first two weeks before I can go on with the third week.

Week 1
I am running 3 days a week for this program. I would have liked a 4 day a week program, but this actually is a bit better for my traveling schedule. If I miss a run it is much easier to try to fit it in during the week since I have extra days off.

Monday was a 3 mile easy run. Those should be no problem throughout the course of the training. Wednesday was a tempo run of 5 miles. I got that one in just fine as well. The 8 mile long run on Saturday had to be pushed to Sunday. Fortunately our church in Mexico does not start until 11:00. That always gave me extra time to get a nice run in if necessary. (In contrast, our church we go to in Florida starts at 9:00, which is never enough time for lazy me to get a run in before church.) I only ran 7.7 miles since that was the best route I could come up with that got me home close to the distance.

Week 2
Not so good. Monday’s run did not happen at all. Oh, look! Neither did Wednesday’s run. Saturday’s long run of 9 miles ended up as a 4.5 mile run. That was the week we were traveling from Merida, Mexico to Florida. We were up and out the door early each day. Early being a relative term. Anyway, not much time to run.

Week 3
Monday’s easy 3 mile run ended up as a 3.32 easy run. Just an out and back course that I may make a regular route. There is a nice hill about 1/4 mile from the house. I go down to leave the house and then back up to get home.

Wednesday’s 5 mile tempo was pushed to Thursday afternoon. I was taking a seminary class and had to be up early each day trying to get my reading and studying in for the day. I was up by 6:00 each day, with some days up well before 6:00. My best time to run was Thursday afternoon before I had to be at an appointment. I was physically beat by the time Thursday rolled around. I only got 3 miles done and it was not even close to tempo pace. I do not feel badly about this since I at least attempted the run. It was certainly better than just scrubbing it and not running at all.

The long run on Saturday was supposed to be 10 miles. I made several mistakes during this run that doomed me. I am somewhat glad it happened this early in training. I have not been doing runs this long in a while and I had forgotten a few basics. I did not fuel or hydrate well. When I knew the run was falling apart I adjusted my route to make it a 7 mile run. But by doing so I also eliminated the last couple of gas stations that I could have stopped at for more food and drink to get me back home. At 6.5 miles I had to make the phone call to have someone come and pick me up.

Lessons learned and I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks being able to be home enough to get back on track with the training. Rough start, but I am not discouraged nor feel like I have put myself too far behind.

Trip out of Mexico: Day 6 (and following)

We did get home last week if you were wondering. We had another wonderfully boring day. Things just tend to go much more smoothly on US roads. It is amazing the contrast between the roads here and the roads in Mexico. There are some rough spots across Lousiana, but not near like Mexico.

As soon as we got home we started preparing for the coming week. I had a seminary class I was taking and really was not well prepared for it. By Tuesday afternoon I started feeling like my head was back in the game. Fortunately my teacher is one of these wise, practical scholars. He did not expect us to memorize everything he taught. He is more interested in us getting the information on paper so that we can access the material in the future. For my tests this week we had to write a couple of long papers (took me close to 6 hours Thursday night). These papers were “open Bible” essays. As long as we knew how to dig in the Bible and intelligently explain what we had learned, he was satisfied. I don’t know my grade yet, but I feel like I did well and learned much.

Trip out of Mexico: Day 5

Boring
A perfectly boring day. Not much to report other than we got on the road late after a nice long night of sleep. We traded off the driving duties all day and napped when we could.

The most exciting thing that happened today was that I faked the need for a nap and made my wife drive through Houston.

We made it from the bottom tip of Texas up to Orange, Texas which is just a few miles from the Lousiana border. Should be less than 8 hours from home. Even though we are on better roads we are still traveling pretty slowly. Keeping the speeds between 50 and 60 MPH to make sure we don’t over tax the trailer and its tires.

Day 6 (Preview)
We will skip church tomorrow for the second time in my ability to remember. With a class starting Monday morning I want to try and allow as much time as I can to get home. There is still the possibility of a blow out or some other big event tomorrow. Using the extra time as wisely as we can. We are arriving 48 hours later than what we were planning last Monday morning.