T-Minus 40 Days and Counting. . .

It's been a crazy six days since I've posted. So, here is an Executive Summary for those with neither the time nor the energy to be bothered with the gory details. Herewith:

• Worked out at the Northeast Y on Thursday morning due to the rain. Did 30 minutes on the bike and 1 hard mile on the treadmill.

• Became seriously sick about four hours later with fever, chills, aches and great abdominal pain. Slept for nearly 16 hours straight, interrupted by bouts of GI distress.

• Friday was much of the same, laying in bed not able to do much, along with consistent fluid loss. Very depressed as I knew I would have to miss the Madison Mini Marathon (13.1) on Saturday.

• Illness finally broke mid-day on Saturday. Total weight loss was about 6 or 7 pounds.

• Ran 5 miles easy on Sunday, with the last in 8:20. Confidence somewhat restored.

• Tonight, did my 4 x 1600 intervals, all at sub 8-minute pace, with the last in a rip-stinging 7:35 at about 70 percent effort. Beginning to think that the whole fluid-loss, dehydration illness thing might have been a blessing in disguise. Confidence fully restored, as I haven't run so fast, so easily, all training season. What gives?

• Getting ready for our 8-mile tempo run on Wednesday.

• Cautiously optimistic about our 20-mile Tour of Rockford set for Saturday morning.

To My Son on His First Day of Kindergarten

Yesterday, we left for the hospital around 8 p.m. and 12 hours later I was cutting the umbilical cord and listening to your first cry.

The other day, you pointed out to me that “bats are nocturnal, Dad. That means they sleep during the day and come out at night.”

Oh, how we’ve watched you grow. . .from chubby baby to confident little boy.

The intensity you have when lining up a corner kick during a soccer game.

The ease with which you tackled the skill of bike riding, not afraid to fall a few times, skin your knees and get right back on again.

How you stood in the corner crying on your first day of swim lessons and now are so excited to tell me how you touched the bottom in the deep end.

The protection and love you show to your little sister, always concerned with where she is and what she’s doing. The smiles you evoked in your teachers at the Rockford Health System Children’s Learning Center when hugging and kissing her goodbye each morning before you’d go off to your separate rooms.

Your ability to hide in the shadows at home and quietly scare the crap out of me, punctuating the incident with a mischievous little giggle.

How you’re always eager to show your affection anytime we’re parting ways; “Dad, I wanna give you a hug and a kiss.”

The seriousness with which you approach a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors.

The insistence, no matter how late it is, that you ask “Dad, will you tell me about my day,” a pleasant routine we share that started early on and shows no sign of letting up.

How often you seem to organize the group and calmly direct friends and cousins in how to play this game or start that activity, budding leadership skills that I hope will serve you well.

How proud I am as your father and how thrilled I am to watch you take your first small steps into the world of kindergarten.

No one knows what the future holds for you and that’s what makes this next stage in your life so exciting. If your first five years are any indication, you’re going to do great. I’m just fortunate to be on this path with you.

Have a great day, pal.

T-Minus 46 Days and Counting. . .

Rather uneventful day today as I tackled my 8 x 800s. Jen did hers later in the evening so I was flying solo. Had some sun and the temps were up a bit but it wasn't that much of a factor.

Surprised that I felt as good as I did after the tough 18 miles on Saturday. Find that mentally and physically these intervals are often tough coming off the weekend long runs. My body feels like a car that's been left outside on a cold winter day. Cranky to start and needing a long time to warm up.

Did about a quarter mile warmup on the riverfront path, stretched and jumped right into it. Stayed on sub-4 minute pace the entire set, with the fastest at 3:51 and the slowest a 3:58. Legs felt pretty good. No issues with the left ankle tendons and my right hamstring, usually about as tight as piano wire, caused me no problems.

Going to try to hit the bike tomorrow night, with the the 5-mile tempo run set for Thursday.

T-Minus 47 Days and Counting. . .

Exponential suffering. I’ve written about it before. In my experience, it’s the running condition whereby I can feel great after 10 miles and, suddenly, I hit mile 11 and feel like absolute crap. That’s one of the great physical and mental challenges of running.

Experienced this on Saturday during our 18 miler, our longest run of the training season so far. Temps were very cool and overall conditions were just about perfect. The first 10 miles went by fairly quickly and without incident. We held to a 9:45 pace and I was feeling good. Hit the 13 mile mark in 2:07, right where we needed to be.

Then things became a little tougher as the cumulative effect of the previous miles began taking hold. Quads started getting a bit sore and the tendinitis in my left foot that I’ve been battling lately started flaring up. Last two miles were a struggle but we maintained our pace and brought it in, slightly in pain, in 2:56.

I shouldn’t really be surprised at the quad soreness or the foot pain, I suppose. The pounding of that much mileage is bound to have an effect. It’s just frustrating when everything else seems to be feeling fine and I still have to deal with the muscle aches and pains.

This week we step back a bit and we’re set for 8 x 800 and then a 5-mile tempo run. We’ve been a little crazy with some kids’ activities lately and have not been hitting the cross training as much, which might be having an effect on the muscle soreness. I need to get in the pool or on the bike to try to alleviate some of that.

Saturday, we’re running in the Madison Mini-Marathon (13.1), which will be a nice change of pace. Our plan is to treat it as a training run so I don’t expect that we’ll be pushing it too hard or going for any PRs. We’ll just take the race as it comes and see what happens.

T-Minus 50 Days and Counting. . .

As Spike Lee once said, 'it's gotta be the shoes." Well, it must be something, because I ran a scorching 5K (3.1) last night in 25:45 as I squeezed in my tempo run before the rain came. Hit the first mile in 8:30 with little effort, sped up a bit in the flat part of the course and then came speeding home with a last mile in 7:55, including the last half mile uphill back to the house. Felt great nearly from start to finish. Those runs are particularly satisfying since the accomplishment is in the speed, as opposed to the "just happy to finish" feeling of some of our longer runs.

Speaking of longer runs, we're set for our longest of the training program, 18 miles, tomorrow and we're apparently going to be blessed with morning temps in the 50s and only low 70s for a high. Cautiously optimistic.

T-Minus 52 Days and Counting. . .

Been a little delayed in posting since Saturday's long run so I'll try to get back up to speed here:

Saturday's 13-mile run finally brought a bit of redemption. We did a modified out and back and I finished in 2:02:45, with a last mile in 8:40. Last two miles felt great after a bit of a struggle in the first half. Couldn't quite get my mojo working in the opening few miles as our group of five jockeyed around between 9:20 and 9:40 pace. Finally settled into a rhythm with about 5 to go and really stepped it up at the end.

Took a gel after 5 miles and then another at 10 and think that really helped after the debacle with the granola bar last weekend. Was well hydrated and the new Asics performed very well.

Took a few days off and got back into it today. Was forced inside because of rain and nailed a blistering 2-mile run on the Y track in 16:28, with a final mile in a scorching 7:43. Took little effort to hit that pace in the last mile and could have easily gone sub-7:30 if not faster. Did some upper body lifting afterwards and felt good.

More rain in the forecast for tomorrow so we'll see if we can get in either a 3-mile tempo or our 12 x 400 intervals. Avoided those on the track today because the tight turns on the Y track has played havoc with my hips and knees in the past and I typically limit my runs there to about 2 miles or so.

Feeling cautiously optimistic about our Saturday 18 miler, as the forecast is calling for temps in the 70s with low humidity.

T-Minus 57 Days and Counting. . .

Could have used little pre-run counseling on Wednesday as we geared up for our 10-mile tempo jaunt. Had had a bad day at work and was about as unmotivated as possible for a long run. I knew we had to do it, figured I'd feel better after it was done but just could not summon the will to want to do it.

Jen and I pushed off and the first few miles were just mental torture. Oh, my new shoes felt great but I was having iPod Shuffle issues and just didn't want to be out there. Finally got the Shuffle to work, which is no small feat while running, and my mood slowly started to improve. We were set to run 9:15 pace and we held right around that for most of the run. The black cloud seemed to lift with about 2.5 miles to go and I actually clocked the last mile in 8:40, which was surprising considering my mood.

Not sure what it was; maybe a bit of burnout, maybe a bad day at work, maybe the fact that we've had a couple of tough weeks of training. Whatever it was, it seems to have passed and I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow's 13 mile long run.

T-Minus 60 Days and Counting, Part 2. . .

Sometimes a little bit of psychological redemption is good. So is a new pair of shoes. Experienced both on Monday during my 3 x 1600 interval workout.

Over the years, I’ve run mostly in Nikes, with one brief interval in a pair of Adidas. I’ve had a couple of bouts lately with some minor plantar fasciitis and was feeling that I wasn't getting enough arch support from the Nikes. So, after spending way too much time trying on shoes on Sunday, I settled on the Asics GT-2140. In the store, the feel was much different and the arch construction seemed to offer more support. How would they feel out on a run?

That question was answered after I cranked out the first 1600 interval on the riverfront path in a blistering 7:49. Followed that up with a 7:54 and a closing 7:53, all under the 7:55 pace called for in our training program. Support seemed better, arches felt good and cushioning seemed a step up from my old shoes.

With confidence restored in my running ability after last weekend’s debacle and confidence in a new pair of shoes, I’m cautiously optimistic about tomorrow’s 10-mile tempo run.

T-Minus 60 Days and Counting Part 1. . .

Probably good that I’m updating the blog a few days after Saturday’s long run. It’s given me time to mentally come around and I feel much better now about how things went than I did for the two days afterwards.

I’d written last week that if I had a bad day with a good time, then it’s actually a good day. Well, Saturday’s planned 17-mile run was a cluster*** from start to finish and I struggled for two days after to find the good in it.

We’d planned to run early, about 6:30, to avoid the forecast of heat and humidity. Woke up around 5:30 to eat something and it was pouring rain. Figured we’d wait it out but it took nearly two hours for the rain to subside and we didn’t step off until about 7:40.

The humidity was high but the cloud cover made it tolerable at the start. With the skies still threatening rain, we altered our course and planned to do a few out-and-backs to get our mileage. Returned to our house after the first 7 miles and was feeling good. Ducked inside to change my sopping clothes and ate a granola bar; big mistake.

The break was too long and when I started again, I was sluggish and the granola bar wasn’t sitting well. Mary and Jen had left before me so I was chasing them down. The next few miles were a struggle, for some reason, but I finally caught up to them. The humidity was getting to them as well so we hit the 10-mile mark and decided to call it a day and head back.

In the end, we finished 12.3 miles in 1:59, coming up short nearly 5 miles. Ironically, our average time was 9:35/mile which was fairly strong, all things considered. Can't really figured out what went wrong to sap my energy. Had eaten oatmeal and an English muffin with peanut butter for breakfast and assumed that was plenty. Eating the granola bar may have been a mistake; need to stay with the gel. The long break certainly didn't help nor did the start/stop of getting up early and then waiting out the rain. Who knows what it was?

Shorting the mileage left me feeling aggravated all day long and into the next. I’m a little crazy like that; I like following the plan and finishing what we’re supposed to finish. In reality, coming up short a few miles in such high humidity and probably recovering better because of it will most likely pay benefits.

We’re set for 3 x 1600, 10 miles and then 13 miles this weekend.

T-Minus 66 Days and Counting. . .

One thought that has always gone through my mind in the four years we've trained for marathon is this: if I can suffer through a bad day and still end up with a fast time, then that bad day really can be considered a good day. Today was one of those days.

We took a rest day on Tuesday, after the tough intervals on Monday. According to our training program, we were set for a tempo run today of 8 miles at a pace of between 9 and 9:15 per mile. One problem: in my mind, I thought we had to do 8:55 miles. So, we cranked out the first 4 miles at about 9:05 and not only was I feeling like crap, I was frustrated at how slow I thought we were going. Felt sluggish and just didn't have the energy I usually have.

We'd left from our house, ran around the path at Rock Valley College and then cut over into a subdivision to head north. Crossed over Riverside and then hit another subdivision for a bit 'til we hit the 4-mile mark on the GPS.

Hit the turnaround in 36:30 and began the slog back home. As Jen will tell you, when I'm running I'm usually focused on two things; I like to suffer and I like to hit my times. So, I dialed it up quite a bit in the last three miles. With two to go, I was still feeling less than optimal but the end was near. Hit the last mile marker, looked at my time and realized I could bring it home with an easy 9 minute mile and still hit the average per mile time that I wanted.

Well, that would be too easy. So, I throttled up the suffering and cranked out the last mile in 8:15. And, I'm all the more happy with that last mile, considering it included a wicked uphill at Rock Valley that usually ticks my heart rate way up. Watched my pace on this and hit the crest feeling great.

Soooooo, after feeling like crap for nearly the entire run, I was able to bring it home in 1:11, for an average pace of 8:54. Jen pulled in just a couple minutes behind me and felt pretty good about her run as well.

By the way, if you talk to Jen, don't tell her that I misread the training paces. I like to suffer. She typically doesn't.

T-Minus 67 Days and Counting. . .

After last week's 5 x 1200 intervals, I was convinced that those were my least favorite intervals. I was wrong. That honor now goes to the 800, seven of which I ran last night. Had to alter the training plan a bit this week and, so, was hitting these on only about 52 hours of rest since the 15 miles on Saturday.

Temps and humidity picked up yesterday and that made for a bit of a challenge. Planned pace was 3:55 and I was pleased to knock them off in 3:57; 3:50; 3:53;3:56; 3:53; 3:54; and 3:51. Last two were tough, as the heart rate was up and the legs were feeling a little heavy.

Recovery was good. Ending pulse was 144 and it dropped to 112 within 60 seconds and 100 after two minutes. Been monitoring that more lately. Felt good the rest of the evening. We're now set for 8 miles at tempo pace (about 8:45 to 9) on Wednesday.

T-Minus 69 Days and Counting. . .

You know, 15 miles is a long way to run. Felt good yesterday to get that one under our belts. Did a 15-mile loop course, the first non out-and-back we've done this year and I enjoyed the variety. Our luck with the temps continued as the morning dawned overcast and in the high 50s, perfect for running. We headed out from the Y to downtown and then turned north after we crossed the river.

Our course took us north for about 6 miles, to a quick Gatorade/gel break at Jen's work and then we pushed on for about two more miles before heading south on what is essentially the inward half of the Rockford Marathon's half-marathon course.

My run followed it's usual pattern. First two miles, "I feel like crap and there's no way I'm gonna do this today." That was followed by "Hey, we're five miles in and I'm feeling good but we still have 10 miles to go." Next came, "Wow, I can't believe how good I'm feeling right now at mile 11. Oh shit, we still have four to go?" And, finally, "Good God, we still have two miles to go? My legs are heavy, my feet and ankles hurt and I'm just getting really tired."

Cranked out the run in 2:21, with the last two miles clocking in at an absurd 18 minutes flat. I say absurd not because that's really fast but rather because it was done after 13 miles. Overall, I was happy with my run. Pace was about 9:25, putting us quite a bit faster than we hope to do the marathon. The last two miles, true to form lately, were the worst. That's OK, though, as it means the program continues to do what it should.

Tough week this week as we continue our step-up period. We lead off with 7 x 800, followed by an 8-mile tempo run and then 17 miles on Saturday. Sleep and diet will be critical. Been getting to bed a little too late recently and I've been feeling it later in the week. Diet and hydration will also play a role, as we have to make certain we're taking in enough fluids, and watching our carb/protein ratio to be fully-fueled.