Week Wrapup

Total Distance: 24.3 km (15 mi)
Total Time: 2 hr 15 min

Comments: And so ends the introduction. Two weeks had been barely enough time to prepare myself for the oncoming period of training but I think I'm ready. With my mid-week exhaustion and the litany of little aches it's pretty clear I am going to have to be very careful heading into this. I've got a new pair of shoes on the way as part of that and I plan to confer with the guru this weekend to finalize the plan.Injury update: Well, the hip issue seems to be stabilized but still there. But now I'm a bundle of nerves over this metatarsal pain in the foot. What seems clear is that the stretching/warmup is going to become a fixture of the workouts and I need to be icing as well. I also plan to start doing more upper-body work as well."

Week Wrapup

Total Distance: 28.6 km (18 mi)
Total Time: 2 hr 45 min

Comments: This was the test week. I decided halfway through that the Sydney Marathon was a realistic possibility and quickly altered the more laid back running schedule for something closer to a training workout. Which didn't mean more intensity in the individual runs - which I still did by time and figured out the mileage later - but in the number of runs. I put in three straight days of workouts and a proto-long run at the end.Overall, I feel it went well. My new pre-run warmup workouts seem to be addressing the litany of aches that were giving me anxiety although this hip thing remains a bit of a concern.I downloaded an excel spreadsheet running schedule tool from this website and have been very impressed by how it works. I plug in the data and it spits it

Week Wrapup

Total Distance: unk
Total Time: 1.5 hours

Comments: After the unpleasantness with the hip yesterday I again opted for a two-day layoff this weekend. While three half-hour sessions a week is a drop in the bucket from the miles I was putting in the second half of last year, it's just too iffy right now to take a chance on doing much more.I went walking a bit this morning and while the hip was no big problem there is a decided tightness in my right calf that has persisted long after the achy muscle soreness has ebbed off. It makes sense that a problem there is an antecedent to this thing with the hip. A review of the blog shows this could be the case for the ongoing hip struggles that beset me in December and up to the time of the marathon.I also discovered that I have been running without my orthopedic heel insert

Week Wrapup

Total Distance: unk
Total Time: 40 minutes

Comments: It was a bit sunny today so I decided to take a bit of a walk. I'm still kinda sore but I figured a bit of meandering about the city might help a bit. And it would be a chance to use the new camera as well.So I got down to the beachfront here in Miraflores and there is a race going on. Now that's just cruel, people. Seeing the folks make their way on by, I wanted to hop in and do my thing. At the very least I got that urge to go look up the next race I could find and enter it. But, fact is, I'm still quite a long way from entering any event whatsoever. What I need to be doing is getting my training legs back underneath me.So then I get back home and am bebopping around on the internet and, happen to find

Week Wrapup

Distance: 22 miles
Time: 4 hours 18 minutes

Comments: Not a bad week in light of the fact I am supposed to be cutting back in anticipation of the race at the end of next week. But I'm still feeling like I am behind on my training after forgoing the long run of last week.

I did a bit less mileage-wise this week when I took an extra day off but, since I have decided to cut back in order to shake this case of drag-ass I have developed, it made sense at the time. I'm basically being over-conservative until this half marathon and, after that, I start pushing hard to get in the key workouts in anticipation of the big race.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 21.38 miles
Time: 2 hours 53 minutes

Comments: Not a bad first week of work. No great shakes distance-wise but an understandable mark in light of last week's effort.

I also discovered that my calculations for Monday's distance were rather off (since updated). As a result the mileage for the week is pretty much an estimate only.

But I got some decent speed work in as well as my first effort at Timed Repeats. These workouts, I find, seem paltry immediately afterward but, a day later, they knock the crap out of me. Something to keep in mind as I go forward with my training.

On the injury front, I seem to have gotten through the week alright. But my knees have been noticeably tender throughout the week, particularly the problematic left.

Next week looks like it will be a total wash. I am headed to Brazil for at least seven days and my running workouts will be an impossibility. This is part of the reason I kicked off the training schedule early, I will have time to recover from such gaps.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 71.5 kilometers (44.40 miles)
Time: 6 hours 17 minutes

Comments: Attack of the monster distance runner. By far the greatest effort I have put in since I was a teenager and, very likely, the longest weekly run total I have ever accumulated.

Which is all well and good but I need to keep it in perspective. Trying to crank out this type of mileage weekly is asking a bit too much of my body at this point. I got through this week with a minimum of pain and injury. I doubt I would be as lucky if I kept up this regimen another seven days.

Where it helps me is knowing that by cutting back when I formally start my 'training' in a few weeks, getting up to the mileage levels I want to hit in December or so is a completely realistic goal.

So I am going to head out and get some seriously carb loaded soup for lunch, sit down at the bar with satellite TV on Larco and watch football for an afternoon. And feel completely justified doing it.

I had played around with starting the training in two weeks or so but, looking at my still-incomplete schedule, it made sense to kick it off next week as I originally intended.

At the present time it looks like I am going to lose two weeks from traveling so I will get my 15-week schedule anyway by starting now. And how am I going to inaugurate my four-month odyssey? 

With a rest day. 

But, after the super long run yesterday, that's the only option that makes sense. I'll shoot for a realistic 30 miles this week but I am more than ready to call it off if I develop any problems.

So next week is pretty much the same as my usual routine over the last few months with a priority on getting the long repeats in that I keep putting off. In fact, that's the only true 'priority' for this seven-day stretch.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 26.80 kilometers (16.64 miles)
Time: 2 hours 11 minutes

Comments: As Saturday wore on I felt worse and worse and upon waking today I wasn't feeling any better. So I scrapped the long run and called it a week.

As a result, this week came to less than half of my initial goal mileage-wise. While it isn't a critical setback, it is disappointing. I will be traveling most of the coming week and there will be little opportunity to get back on schedule for some time.

The other issue this week's illness brings up is a concern about overtraining. I don't know how much the increased miles contributed to my coming down with the grippe. But, despite that, there was no injury so I'll still take it as a win.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 56 kilometers (34.77 miles)
Time: 4 hours 47 minutes

Comments: The best laid plans... I wanted to make this week a mix-and-match week where I played around with different running workouts but it 'gang aft agly' pretty quick with a horrendous effort on Monday. So, after that, I just made it a distance week and concentrated on putting in the miles.

It is starting to look like folks are getting interested in the race. The race website has been updated with the course schedule and info (although it is a bit buggy at the moment). They are estimating 15,000 entrants this year in both the marathon and half-marathon.

I will be updating my training schedule with the race information in the next few weeks but the one part that drew my attention is the elevation chart:

It's not that imposing but and pretty much the whole first half of the race is on an incline. So it would probably be best if I start integrating hill workouts with that in mind.

I have updated the training schedule with a pre-training regimen. This is a basic plan that targets putting in somewhere beween 30 and 35 miles each week. I'll also try and get some track and hill work in there as well.

That said, I don't really want to feel I have to keep on the schedule at all. While I'd like the target mileage to stay the same, I intend to jocky around with the individual workouts as I see fit the day of.

The other concern would be pull-back weeks but that should be taken care of by the fact I will probably be out of town a substantial period of time during this phase. That will require shortened weeks which should fit perfectly in the training continuity.

The idea is to be completely physically ready for the "real" schedule to begin, to have a passing familiarity with all the workout types I plan to use and - this is the most important part - to not injure myself getting to the starting line.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 34 kilometers (21 miles)
Time: 2 hours 50 minutes

Comments: A pullback week that turned into a recovery week for real. My efforts early in the week, although much less than normal, took a lot out of me and, as the week went on, I found myself overtired.

So I took an extra day off and moved my long run up a day to get an extra day off after it as well. The result was a damn good run to finish the week with.

I seem to be gravitating to an 8 minute mile pace. Obviously, that's training pace. I don't really know what my race pace is yet. This is not bad but I would like to be at 7:30 per mile by the time I run the marathon. That means I need to start doing some speed work.

No real injury issues. My knees were achy most of the week but not on the long run so I assume it was from the 2 hour run with the hills from the week before. I will be more conservative about hill work from now on.

With the marathon training looming less than a month away I want to play around with a few workout things to see if I think I can integrate them into my final schedule which is still under construction. This week will be the laboratory for that.

I would like to get in a good hill day - if my knee allows it - and a good speed day - if my energy levels allow it. Otherwise it will be just regular running and tallying up the miles.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 55 kilometers (34.2 miles)
Time: 4 hours 35 minutes

Comments: Strange week. I did a number of shorter distances at the start but at faster paces. Then I tried and failed miserably at my first speed day. Lastly was one of my longest runs to date and completed at a significantly better pace than the first time I tried to go the same distance.

All in all a damned hard week of work. And my body has let me know it. Afternoon naps have become a necessity and I am sleeping damned hard at night. Which is fine for now, but I need to get to the point where a week like this doesn't take as much out of me.

Injury-wise it has been a good week. There has been some regular soreness in my quads and elsewhere due to the workload but nothing that sets off any alarm bells. My ilitobial bands on both sides seem to be somewhat tighter than normal but I think that is due to the fact my hamstrings have been as well.

My plan is to take it pretty easy next week; shorter runs, slower pace, less intensity overall. Not a break so much as an effort to maximize the recent gains and get myself completely ready for the serious miles ahead.

Cause, at this point, I am just a month shy of starting formal training for the marathon. I am tinkering with different training schedules and I hope to have something formalized in a week or two. Mainly, I need to get the guru to weigh in with his sage advice. My working template can be found here.

Essentially, I will be using an 18-week schedule and I want it to include two 20-mile long runs, a three week taper and at least two 10K races. Each week should include one day of speed work (this can include race pace intensity runs), two days off and the option of cross training either on a rest day or lower impact running day.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 33.7 kilometers (21 miles)
Time: 2 hours 45 minutes

Comments: Shortened week due to my return from traveling. Overall, though, I think the effort ended about at the level of my normal training week.

The main reason is that I spent the last weekend hiking up and down the steep trails of Macchu Picchu which gave me a pretty frickin good hill workout. Monday was spent walking all around Cuzco which, at close to 11,000 feet in elevation, certanly was tougher than wandering around the mall.

My training guilt kicked in when I got back and I found myself running the first few runs at 3/4 race pace rather than a more leisurely 8.5 minutes per mile as I had planned. Which felt great... until afterward.

This pain in my knee has been with me for a few days now and it is starting to worry me. It is not at all like the former IB-related pains I had in sensation or location. This is more like a muscle soreness in the meaty part of the quad on the right upper side of the knee. It's not painful, per se, but it is clearly not happy.

I am applying ice and have a good rest day tomorrow to see if it sorts out. If not, I'll probably cut out hills for awhile as a start.

The focus this next set of runs seems to be speed or as close a facsimile as I can muster. I don't know how well I can hold to the prescribed paces in the training schedule so I will most likely be guestimating and trying to get a better feel for my pace.

I am still a bit nervous about this knee thing. It tends to ache when I am going to sit down or get up which lends me to think it is a reaction to my excessive hill action. That being the case, the emphasis on speed this week (and absence of inclines) should help some.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 48.2 kilometers (29.93 miles)
Time: 4 hours

Comments: Not the best week. My weekday runs were all underwhelming even the one that I did in the new shoes. The long run made up for a lot of it since I felt much better about my performance and my control over it than any other run in the past seven days.

I think part of the problem is the cumulative soreness that has been building due to the increased training (or, more precisely, the reduction of "off" days) and the punishment I was giving my legs and feet in the worn out shoes. I have been careful because the last thing I want to to push myself to the point of injury.

I have to go to Cusco and Puerto Moldonado for work and, as a result, I will not be running for at least a week-and-a-half. At first this worried me but now I think the time off will be good. I will be walking a good bit so it is not like I will be completely sedentary.

The guru and I agree that my goal over the six weeks or so after I get back should be building a base for the start of my actual marathon training in mid-September. I want to be completely comfortable with a 30-35 mile weekly total and having only one or two off days. So instead of any mileage building like I have had this past month, I'll probably try and hold it pretty much where I have it now.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 61.9 kilometers (32.17 miles)
Time: 4 hours 30 minutes

Comments: This was the first week of consecutive running days since I have started. It's a change that I have been concerned about due to the fact it bumps up mileage and cuts into recovery time pretty severely, an equation that can easily add up to injury.

And its clear the change is a tough one on my body. My feet have been struck with soreness at different points pretty much from the get-go. First the underside of my left foot at the fourth and fifth mandible were a problem and then the side of my right foot.

On the plus side, twice-a-day icing seems to have resolved the issue but I remain wary. What I really need is a new pair of running shoes but I have run into severe problems in that regard. More on that later...

Conditioning-wise, it has been a great week. I was able to put in all the workouts and do a damn good effort at them. A couple were not a hell of a lot of fun but none were simply beyond my ability to do. It's a good feeling after so long at simply building to get to the point where I crank out this level of workout.

One of the ironic downsides of training for a marathon is that, instead of being able to enjoy being in the best shape of your life, you spend most of your time worried about injury. Because the plain fact is, putting in the miles you need to prepare for the race are damn hard on the body - particularly if you aren't the sprightly whipper-snapper you once were.

"Running Injury Free" had been my guide to navigate this aspect of training. It has proven to be an immensely helpful book but, like a lot of running books, it relies on the anecdotal storytelling that can be irritating to wade through. Having an idea what the heck is causing all these different aches and pains helps put my mind a bit more at ease - which makes the training a hell of a lot easier.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 20.5 kilometers (12.71 miles)
Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Comments: Not as good a week as I had hoped but pretty much what I wanted to do. I pushed myself pretty hard the two weeks or so prior and I put up some mileage totals that were significantly above anything I have done to date. Keeping that pace is a recipe for injury and I know it.

I wanted to put in a long run but I got pretty busy and, honestly, didn't feel very good. Not sick, or even tired, just blah. Which, if I am not mistaken, is a good sign of fatigue and exhaustion. Especially when mixed with a healthy dose of sleeping like crap.

There are some irritating little aches in my legs that I am having trouble getting rid of. I have been stretching lots throughout the day but they are damned persistent. My guess is that the shoes have reached the point where they are taking their revenge on me. But, with luck, that will be solved this week.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 43.7 kilometers (27.16 miles)
Time: 4 hours

Comments: As far as I am concerned this was my first week of real training. I finally put in a solid week of work. There were high points and there were low points but I was able to concentrate and see it through to the end. When you add the mileage up, I ran my first marathon this week.

Overall the runs were strong but not particulary fast. My times will have to improve substantially to reach the goals I am shooting for in January. That requires a great deal of time and effort so it is best to start concentrating on establishing the foundation for it now.

On the injury front, the side of my left foot was sore after Wednesday's run and the day following. Not severe, just sore. And, on Friday I developed a tender bruise-type pain beneath the ball of my pinkie toe on the left. It was gone today.

There was the battle with fatigue at the middle of the week that seemed to be resolved by a very-inactive off day.

I have also been having a weird pain in my left side after I finish running. It is an interior thing in the vicinity of my kidneys but feels like a weird muscle twitch of some type. It hits for about two or three minutes and then disappears.

With the most intense two weeks of work just completed, it's probably best to pull back a bit this week. I will be keeping on my every-other-day pattern but with slightly less time each day - probably only 45 min runs - and an hour long run this weekend.

I have started to give some thought to my actual training schedule. To get started, last week I picked up Hal Higdon's book on marathon training aptly titled "Marathon." (His website can be found here.)

Essentially I wanted a general text to get basic answers for my questions on diet, pacing, training and so on. This was a great start. The book has a ton of good information although the author isn't shy about touting his own accomplishments.

By augmenting that with what the guru has to say and general research, I should be able to come up with a reasonable plan. At this point, I have decided is to use Higdon's 18-week program with a three week taper at the end. I will also be including at least two 10K races in there.

But, outside of that it's all up in the air.

More immediately, for the next two months I will be working to have a solid foundation to begin the "real" training. Basically, I want to be prepared for the punishment I have in store when the miles really count. So if I develop a problem or injury during this process, I want it to happen in the next two months, not after Sept. 11.

Week Wrapup

Total Distance: 27.5 km (17 miles)
Total Time: 2 hr 45 min

Comments: First week back after the post-race layoff. More than a few mornings I spent quite some time awake but not willing to move and further aggrivate the aches my body was suffering through.

After three damn good runs, I feel a lot better about my progress. I have a lot more strength than before and my recovery time is a hell of a lot shorter. The best news is that my knee hasn't been much of a problem at all. Which isn't to say I feel confident that problem is solved - but I do feel rather optimistic for my ability to accomplish my goal.

But there are still serious concerns to be dealt with. While I clearly have the endurance for the distance I don't seem to have much speed right now. My pace is steady but not spectacular by any means. It's clear there is going to have to be some speed work involved as the training goes further along.

I also intend to start doing gym work again on the non-running days. I considered it this week but I felt my body was busy enough trying to get back in the running groove. I will be focusing on upper body but with some quad work in order to build the strength there I need to keep the knee issues at bay.

The schedule this week is to follow the guru's plan. Although he suggests 5 mile runs each day, I have felt good with the hour long jaunts so far. So I will keep at that level for three runs and shoot for an hour and a half or so on the weekend long run.

That said, I will feel completely fine pulling the plug on any days run if there are any disturbing developments in the danger areas like the knee. And I'll make an assessment of how I feel Saturday before heading out for the long run as well.

In addition, my aim is to start the upper body gym work back up as well on the "off" days. I would have liked to do this last week but I felt it was better to abstain from any real exertion on my off days to get a sense of where my body was at.

Week Wrapup

Horrible effort his week. I got busy on the stories from Ecuador and never really left the house for the entire week. By the time I got any work done each day it was after dark and, while I might be less nervous about my safety in South America than most, I ain't going running in Lima unless it is daylight.I hope to get everything wrapped up at the start of next week and start back on the training schedule. My worry is that I have gone so long since working out that I may have lost any real progress I have made. But, on the positive side, my different aches and pains have had plenty of time to heal up.

Week Wrapup

Distance: 20 kilometers (12.42 miles)
Time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Comments: Strange week. Not the most auspicious for preparing for my first 10K in years but I guess I can't be picky. It would be a bit naive to expect my 37-year-old body to respond to race training like it did two decades ago.

I didn't complete a single workout I planned on when I set out on my individual runs but, looking back at the week in retrospect, I probably trained harder than I should have - particularly in light of my illness last week. I have felt pretty sore the last two days and have slept inordinately hard at night. That's not what I need to be doing before a race.

Injury wise there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that I have developed a real blister issue on my left foot. I will be going into this race with two toes rubbed raw and in a spot where the band-aids tend to come off after about 20 minutes of running. The logical option, tape it better, has led to other spots being affected.

The better news is that my knee has not been a problem at all. No real aches or stiffness either during the runs or afterward. I have even played around with some range-of-motion exercises searching for the "hot spots" but have come up empty. Again, I am not about to declare this thing "solved" but it is the best progress I have made in years.

So now I just wait and take it easy until the race itself. I already have a bit of pre-race jitters and that's not helping my anxiety about my blisters and my conditioning. But there is nothing left but to see the thing through now...

Week Wrapup

Distance: 10.2 kilometers (6.35 miles)
Time: 50 minutes

Comments: Hugely disappointing week but not necessarily from a running standpoint. I came down with a flu on Wednesday and didn't feel even close to human again until today. Needless to say, I wasn't about to take the scheduled long run and, instead, opted for an additional rest day to recover my strength a bit.

The meltdown of my immune sytem late in the week confirmed my concerns about it during my early week runs. While my performance was fine and the runs went well, it was clear I was dragging for some reason. This is the second time my training has been derailed by illness and it is damn frustrating.

Despite the letdown I have to admit it is not a real setback training-wise since I was looking at doing this race more to establish a baseline than anything else. My plan is to scrap my running plan and treat next week as a normal training week leading up to a 1 hour long run on Sunday.

After the disappointment of last week's illness abreviated workouts I have to reassess my plan to prepare for the 10K race next Sunday. An hope of making it a banner effort has completely evaporated and it will, instead, be a measure of what exactly do I have in the tank.

It isn't a question of "Am I strong enough to finish the thing?", because I clearly am. But rather, the more pertinant inquiry is "How will I hold up under race conditions?" It looks like this one is going to be a real baseline for my work over the next six months - which is what I intended, just not to this degree.

Anyhow, I think I am going to do an easy run today and a bit more tomorrow if I feel OK (the last thing I want is a relapse and the Lima weather is not being very cooperative). I will take a day off and do two longer runs on Wednesday and Thursday. Then I will sit tight until the race.