Saturday, September 22, 2007

Tapering Madness!

Rolled up 12.25 miles this morning with the Chicago marathon training group. It's a bit funny to hear us talking about a "short run" and that we're now "down to 12 miles". I couldn't have imagined back in March when I joined Power In Motion that I'd ever feel like 12 miles was a SHORT run! I didn't even know if I could make it 1 mile that first night.

Our group consisted of Randy, Josh, Miranda, Biff, William, and me. William peeled off after about 3 miles but the rest of us finished together and finished strong. Everyone seemed to be feeling good with the shorter distance and the cooler temperature (around 72).

This whole concept of "tapering" for the big race feels incredibly counterintuitive to me right now. It seems I should be doing more ... make that much more ... to get myself ready for 26.2 miles in 2 weeks. I understand the purpose of the taper and while it makes complete sense, it's still frustrating.

The run went well. I was surprised that I had a little soreness throughout and wondered if that was from Thursday's speed workout. After the track work Thursday, I warmed down with 2 slow, easy miles but didn't stretch or get some recovery nutrition fast enough. Other than the soreness today's run was great!

With the taper on in full force, I really have to focus on nutrition, hydration, and rest over the next couple weeks. The upcoming runs are short and generally easy so the conditioning is basically done (funny ... I don't feel "done"!). The best thing I can do now is just take care of myself the best I know how. Hopefully that puts me at the start line in the best possible situation.

12.25 miles @ 8:32 (1:44:32)

Thursday, September 20, 2007

AM Work on the Track

I didn't get out last night due to another late evening at the office. So I left the house at about 4:30 this morning. I used the 2 miles over to the Klein High track as a warm up. Initially it looked like the facility was locked up but after circling the perimeter I found an open gate.

Once on the track, I ran 4 x 1600 with an 800 jog in between each. The targeted time for each 400 was 6:55. I ended up with:

6:50
6:42
6:55
6:59

I'm a little disappointed that I fell off on the last one and that the trend was generally for increasing times rather than decreasing. But, I suppose it wasn't a bad workout overall.

When I started I was the only one on the track but by the time I was finished there were several others walking, jogging, and running.

Oh, I should mention that after an exchange with my running conscience, I finally admitted that running a half marathon this weekend is a bad idea. What was I thinking? I'm supposed to be tapering! Thanks for helping me with that realization, Stephanie.

The next workout is Saturday morning. I'm scheduled for 12 miles and expect I'll get out with the regular Saturday group. Randy will be leading the run in Stephanie's absence.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Oh Boy !!!

There was the slightest hint of "coolness" in the air this morning. It felt great! So good in fact that I had to "bridle the horses" at the beginning of this morning's run.

I ended up with the following:

7 miles @ 8:40 pace


I was happy with the effort. I was still a little sore from Saturday's long run but felt fine once I got going. I wore the new Mizuno's. I'll probably be wearing them the rest of the way now.

I've been using the training schedule from Runners World for several months now and I've just realized that I don't know exactly what marathon finish time I'm training for. It's not one of the inputs when setting up the Smart Coach. It seems I'm running at an 8:46 pace the rest of my workouts (except for speed and tempo runs). I wonder if that's the marathon pace I'm training for? That calculates out to a 3:49:41 marathon.

I'm toying with the idea of testing my fitness level with a half marathon this coming Saturday. My thinking is that at least I would have a better idea of exactly where I'm at. Stephanie will be in Cancun so there's some question of whether the Chicago marathon crew that I usually run with will have an organized run on Saturday. My scheduled run is for 12 miles. This happens to be the exact distance ChampionsFit - Green is running. I've still not introduced myself to the group and it seems they're rather disorganized (judging from the discussion board entries).

On Saturday there is a half marathon in Dallas and one in Shawnee, Oklahoma. These are the closest I can find. If I run one of these 2 weeks prior to the marathon, will I have time to recover? It seems like I should. At the moment, I'm kind of liking the idea of flying into Oklahoma City late Friday evening, running Saturday morning then flying home. The flights look okay.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Training Schedule: Sep 17-23

Mon - 7 @ 8:46
Wed - 8 w/ 4 x 1600 @ 6:55 (800 recovery jogs)
Sat - 12 @ 8:46