Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Training Run

Distance: 8 kilometers
Time: 45 minutes

Comments: A more difficult effort than I expected. But that's probably due to my physical condition not training. Woke up abnormally early and it seems I'm fighting a little bit of a sinus infection. I can't say I feel <i>sick</i> but I'm certainly not feeling 100 percent either. So I got out the door resolving to do an hour but cutting it back if it got to be too much of a strain. About two miles in I decided not to take any chances and went for the shorter route. My legs felt strong though and, despite the heat, I felt pretty good with my pace the whole way.

Sunday, September 9, 2007

Marathon Training Summary: Week 16

Time: 4 hours
Distance: 40 kilometers (25 miles)

Comments: A busted training week due to travel back from Peru. I wanted to get in a few miles more but I didn't feel pushing any single workout was worth it. It's taper-time, the last thing I want right now is a race-killing injury. The change in climate - from Lima's bone chilling humidity to Arizona's scorching dryness - has been pretty brutal but I hope it's a good transition for more temperate conditions in Australia. If I can avoid illness due to the curve balls I'm throwing at my metabolism, I should be fine. I'm feeling strong in my legs and I'm trying to keep the carbohydrates up in my diet. And, of course, trying not to freak out too much about the race itself...Injury update: There has been stiffness in my lower legs but not much more than that. The new shoes seem to be working quite well and, I assume, the lack of hills in the runs is taking stress off the calves some.

Between the scheduled cutback and the mid-week journey to down under it will be nigh-impossible to have a consistent week of running. But, that should be OK given this is the serious cutback week. My main concern is spacing my runs well so I stay fresh and there isn't a long layoff of work. By now, I'm pretty much convinced that the complete absence of workouts in anticipation of the January marathon was a key factor to my abysmal performance. So I'm trying to be on the pavement at least every other day and pounding down the carbohydrates when I'm not.The biggest problem will be the 19 hours en transit. That's a lot of time to be on my ass.

Long Run

Distance: 20 kilometers
Time: 2 hours minutes

Comments: A pretty solid long run after a broken week of training. I was very apprehensive about this one in the wake of the slog of a run earlier in the week but it actually went pretty well. I ran this one with my sister, doing a five-mile loop near her house in south Chandler. We got up early and out the door just after 6 a.m. The sun was just coming up when we started and a decent part of the route was in shade. So the gettin going wasn't too bad. The second loop was tougher. It was warmer - verging on hot - and the sun was relentless. That’s a big change from the winter-in-Lima conditions I'm used to. But I hydrated well and kept the gels going. I wore my ""race"" outfit which has a lot of black on it. The last few miles I did shirtless due to the amount of sweating. I knew I needed to hydrate after the run but  I was shocked when I pounded down a 32-oz bottle of Gatorade like nothing.