Marathon By 40

Back in November I set out to mentally and physically prepare for the dedication it would take to complete a half-marathon training program. I decided to walk or run/walk at least a mile every day in December just to see if I could get into the habit of getting up early every day for the run.

Well, it was half a success. I certainly completed the streak on paper. Between Dec 1 and Dec 31 I ran/walked a total of 55.68 miles, with at least a mile every day. While I didn’t get up early for each one of them, I did prove to myself that I can find a way to adapt and keep the commitment required to complete a goal or plan.

With that confidence behind me, I’ve started training for the Big D Half Marathon on April 4. After I complete my “long” run today of 4 miles, I will have finished week 2 of the 14 week plan. I’m following the Half-Marathon Run/Walk plan as prescribed in John Bingham’s Marathoning for Mortals.

So far, so good. I’ll post more later when I decide if I’m going to actually commit to running the race.

I know cardio training requires you to slow down, but this seems ridiculous.

Keith recently posted on his personal experience training to increase aerobic capacity. He does a good job describing it like this:

One of the most important muscle groups for endurance athletes is the heart and lungs—the muscles that define aerobic capacity.  Simply put, aerobic capacity is your body’s ability to transport the necessary amount of oxygen to your muscles for them to operate efficiently for long periods of time.  Aerobic capacity is also called “base” for short and is often referred to as an endurance athlete’s “engine.”

The Run/Walk Half Marathon training program that I’m starting on 12/29 calls for my run/walks to stay between 60%-75% max heart rate. I know that my runs regularly push me way beyond that. Reading Keith’s post and knowing that my upcoming plan calls for measured pace, I decided to experiment with just how slow I would have to go to stay within the plan’s boundaries.

When I went out for my 5K today, I purposely watched my watch to slow down when I crossed 75%. Ugh. I wasn’t able to sustain a pace faster than 16′38″ without pushing my BPM above 75%. I wasn’t “running” at all. I couldn’t even jog for more than 100 yards without going above the limit.

This leaves me with a quandary on how to approach my upcoming plan. I will likely:

1. Stick to the 60%<>75% levels for the remaining 10 days of the 30-in-30 streak to see if I can improve my pace within this boundary, and / or
2. Ignore the aerobic training plan for now, and train as usual for the half, and / or
3. Get an aerobic assessment after the race to see what my true max is, and follow a rate-improvement plan before my training plan starts for the White Rock Marathon in December.

I certainly want to improve my aerobic capacity. But do I have the patience to work on it before the half marathon in April?

Any fellow Nike+ runner is familiar with the cheery encouragement of your iPod chiming in with the “Half-way point!” declaration if you set your workout to a specified distance. It’s always encouraging for me to hear, knowing that my goal for the day is (figuratively) all down hill from then on.

Well, this morning I completed day 15 of the streak. I’ve gone 27.03 miles in those 15 days, and hope to increase that mileage over the last 15. The basic pattern has been to run a 5K at least 3 days a week, running or walking a mile on all other days.

For the most part, it’s been easier than I imagined. There have been one or two days that I didn’t get up in the morning and I’ve realized just before dinner “Doh! I need to go run.” On those nights I simply walk the mile circuit around the neighborhood to meet my self-imposed requirement for the goal.

This morning was particularly rewarding. It was about 30° before the sun came up. While it was expected, it was still a shock to the senses considering the high yesterday was 80°. Anyway, I wore the appropriate layers and headed out for a 5K (including 5 minute warm-up walk). I’ve been doing these 5Ks as 3/1 running / walking intervals, and my times have been slowly decreasing over the month. My final run this morning felt particularly strong.

I have started to feel slight throbbing in my shins in the afternoons of my 5K runs, especially when I actually run on the mile days. I’ve started to only walk on the off days, and I think that’s helping.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get back into the long-run habit this weekend with another 10K.

So for the next 15 days, keep running!

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I spent more time reading about runningthan I actually ran. But, it was time well spent as I was informed and inspired to plan my goals for 2009. My plans (more detail on these later) are to run a half-marathon in April, and to Run The Rock in December 2009.

To prepare for the half, I need to start a 14-week plan on January 5th. This plan includes running / cross-training every most days of the week for 14 weeks straight. In order to get that many workouts completed, I’ll have to get up early and do them as the first priority of the day.

The plan must start in January. It’s cold in January. It’s even colder before the sun comes up.

Now I realize this isn’t Chicago, or Pittsburgh, or Maine. We aren’t likely to get snow like the picture up above. But considering how warm it is the rest of the year, it feels very, very cold for a warm-weather guy like me. So, I need to do some (getting up early and bearing the cold) conditioning before I start (distance running) conditioning.

To prepare for January, I’m taking on a “30 in 30″ goal - to run at least 30 miles in December by running at least one mile each day for 30 consecutive days. Some days I’ll certainly run more, but the point isn’t really about the distance. The idea is to get used to getting up before the sun and getting out for a decent run; to create a meaningful yet achievable streak. If I can do this every day all month, it should be easier to tackle the discipline of the half-marathon plan.

I got this idea from bigRahn who just completed a very impressive streak himself and vicariously pointed me to the streakers. I’ll be following their rules:

A running streak is defined by USRSA as running at least one continuous mile within each calendar day under one’s own body power (without the utilization of any type of health or mechanical aid other than prosthetic devices).

My only caveat is that I’ll be run/walking, meaning I can mix in walking. The goal is to get my rear-end outside, not to break any world records for speed.

So far, so good. I started on Monday (Dec 1) and have run every morning since. Considering this is day 3, I’m 10% of the way there. Keep track of my progress over at RunnerPlus, and give me heck if you see me miss a day.

Now, off to get some sleep so I can get up and run in the freezing temps they forecasted for the morning!

I’d love to post something more athletic and/or competitive. But, this video reflects my current reality.

I know it’s been a while since I last blogged. October was just a brutal month from both a work and a personal schedule standpoint. Blogging about running fell to the lowest (and thus ignored) priority. Thankfully running did not fall to the lowest, although it came close.

I’m in the middle of a week-long vacation from work. I spent the first part playing Mr. Mom while my wife was out of town. Now that she’s back, I’ll be focusing on completing a few projects around the house and getting back into a rhythm of running.

Some of those projects include some simple enhancements to the blog, and hopefully a post or two over the Thanksgiving break.

Another project will be to select my major running goals for 2009 and select training plans to get me there.

So, this is just to dust the cobwebs off the feed. If there isn’t more by the end of the week, please kick me.

Happy running!

Normally I don’t write about specific runs here on the blog. I’ll generally add notes to each run as recorded on Runner+ and I reserve this space for more general topics. But I couldn’t help but share my sense of accomplishment regarding the mini-milestone I achieved this evening.

Tonight I ran my first 10k.

Wow. That was fun. I used a 3min/1min run/walk mix to run my first 10k workout. Other than making the mistake of not warming up, it went great. I started jogging right out the front door thinking that I was running so far I should just blend the warm-up into the distance. Bad idea. My shins started throbbing 10 minutes in and it took another 15 minutes to run it out. But after that I just got stronger and stronger as the run went on and generally had negative splits the rest of the distance.

I think I can call myself a runner now. Not because of a distance milestone, and certainly not because of any speed accomplishments, but simply because I’m actually crazy enough to enjoy this. I’ve learned that I really love to run.

Here’s another clue that I’m turning into a runner: I’ve gone function over form.

My white & blue Brooks Adrenaline GTS8s weren’t feeling quite as spongy as they used to. I went to replace them this evening. Other than loosing their cushion (over 11 months and 180 miles) they’ve really been just fine. I went to the local running store and asked if they had my size in stock. They looked, and came out with this:

Normally, I wouldn’t be caught dead in something that looked like the Honey Nut Cheerio Bee’s trainers. But, I put them on, and they felt great. The same great fit, but the bounce was back. I didn’t have to think twice after taking a few steps. I was sold.

So, do I care that my feet will glow in the dark when I’m out running before the sun comes up? Nope. Because they’ll feel great again while I’m doing it.

Runner Plus has been an integral part of the support I’ve received during my fledgling running endeavor. The tools they supply to analyze Nike+ data are much better than Nike’s own site, and the community of fellow runners are warm, inviting, and very encouraging.

One fellow runner I met there recently blogged about his run up Currahee Mountain. Currahee is the mountain close to Army Camp Toccoa, where the first paratroopers trained for World War II. If you’re familiar with the book or miniseries Band of Brothers, you’re also familiar with the phrase “Three miles up, three miles down!” In the story (and in real-life) part of the basic training was for men to run the three miles up the mountain and the three miles back in less than 50 minutes wearing full combat gear.

Rahn wrote about his experience running the same trail as the troops in training and what it meant to him personally. What a great opportunity! I enjoy running in my neighborhood, but I’ve wondered what other famous trails would be rewarding to run.

The “Rocky Steps” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art - Ok, so Rocky isn’t historical. But wouldn’t it be a rush to run through the streets of Philly in a wet snow wearing torn-up sweats, then run up the Rocky Steps and turn around to strike the Balboa victory pose? “Yo, Adrian!”

The “original” marathon route - The very first marathon is likely also fiction. Regardless, I think it would be inspiring to run Pheidippides supposed route across the Marathon plains in Greece.

How about you? What famous (real or ficitonal) routes would you like to run?