Sunday, 3/6

Felt recovered enough from Friday to push out this 13 mile run today.  Woke up and putzed around a bit, trying to prehydrate some and just mentally prepare.  Went out around 10:00am.  Beautiful day for a run.

I'm trying to be deliberate about not pushing top hard and was at least somewhat successful in that regard today.  First mile was 8:33 (slow for what I've been doing normally) and every mile from there earned a split of somewhere between 9:38 and 10:04.  

Consistency!

That's probably still a bit faster than I want to be training, but it is what it is I suppose.

In mile 6 I suddenly felt sharp pain in my calf.  I pulled up, paused my clock and proceded to stretch and rub it out for 5-10 mins.  Once I decided I'd done all I could, I crossed my fingers and gave it a go.  It was tight, but seemed to loosen enough that I could continue.

I was listening to some Radiolab podcasts which helped keep my mind active.  It was also a beautiful day, so it felt good to be outside in the breeze.  Everything was going great until around mile 10 when I started feeling weak and dehydrated.  My shoulders started to slump, my pace slowed a bit, and I started getting some slight chills.  The misery soon followed.  I was able to push through, but those last few miles seemed to take FOREVER.

I also had realized how much battery I was draining without putting my phone on sleep, so I was unsure if I was going to have enough power to make it all the way through with music and distance tracking.  Sure enough, as I went to check my phone near the end of the run (thinking it might have not announced my distance) it died.  When I checked later it turns out it died at exactly 13, miles likely BECAUSE it used the last bit of power to try to tell me.  So... I missed the last tenth of a mile for a true half marathon.  

Oh well.

When I stopped, I stumbled to a bench and just tried to relax for a minute.  When I stood back up the thirst and the pain were palpable.  So stiff.  Walking the two tenths of the mile back to the car seemed harder than jogging the final two miles of the run.  No joke.

Super proud of finishing that run as it's by far the longest run of my life.  That said.... this was half of what I'm training for and THE STRUGGLE WAS REAL.  Doubt is once again creeping in.  Can't stop/won't stop.

After I finished my water in two chugs I drove into Oakdale for some Gatorade.  Getting out of the car and walking into the store made me feel like an 80 year old man.  So stiff, so sore...  Once I got home I showered and then took some time to just sit and relax.  After awhile I was able to rally and take the boys up to the playground, which was a really good choice.  Forcing myself to continue to move seemed to help.

I definitely need an off day tommorow, so it looks like I'm going to treat my soccer game on Tuesday as my first run this week.

13 miles - 2:06:23 - 9:43 pace

Friday, 3/4

 Bump in the road. Jacob was sick on Tuesday… now we’re all sick.  Was feeling a bit punchy on Thursday so I didn’t run. Ended up sleeping on the couch because Liz was sick.  Woke up today at 5am and pulled an Irish double. Spent all day today sick in bed. 

Looks like I’m skipping my second 4 mile run this week. Hopeful I’m able to do the 13.1 this weekend. We’ll see. Fingers crossed!

Wednesday, 3/2

Jacob was sick today so I had to take off work. As a result I was able to pop off my medium run this week when Erin got home from school.

I misread my schedule and actually ran 8 miles instead of the 6 that was scheduled.

But it went great! Tried to be deliberately slow but ended up beating a 10 minute pace anyway. Was zigging and zagging around the district campus and having a grand old time. Felt so good that I decided in mile 7 to run back to the house and back up the hill for some extra challenge. That definitely forced me to slow down toward the end, but all in all felt really good!

13.1 this weekend!

8 miles - 1:14:04 - 9:15 pace

Monday, 2/28

 4 miles today. Was able to push a bit harder than my last fast run and got down under an 8 minute split.

Felt pretty good! Back on track, baby!

4.03 miles - 32:03 - 7:57 pace

Saturday, 2/26

10 miles today on a treadmill. Weather was pretty miserable, so here we are. 

Had to switch treadmills at 5 miles to prevent manual cooldown… felt pretty good at at 5 miles, but boy did that change. The last 3 or so miles were some of the toughest miles I remember running. Was on the struggle bus big time.

8 miles last week wasn’t too much sweat… wondering what was different about today.

That said, still finished at a sub-10min/mi pace, which I suppose I can feel good about.  Feeing pretty exhausted and have some pain in my foot right now… hoping that subsides tomorrow so I can keep trucking.

That last 3 miles today was the first time I started entertaining serious doubts about 26.2. Hopefully that subsides as well. 

Onward!

10 miles - 1:38:12 - 9:49 pace

Thursday, 2/24

Skipped a 6 mile run yesterday because I wasn't feeling ver well and there was alot going on at home.  Decided to do that run tonight at James' practice and forego the 4 mile casual run this week.

Put in 6 miles on the treadmill but ended up having to push a bit harder than I wanted to in order to get all 6 miles in before the end of practice.  Resulted in some soreness and tiredness in mile s 4-5, but felt really good in mile 6.... even picked up the pace a bit at the end to finish strong.

Foot pain is lingering, but not much of an issue when I run.  I'm wondering if the impact of the running is causing the issue to persist... 

On a side note, I bought some bodyglide, some foot powder, and some sweat wicking socks to go along with the running shorts I picked up last weekend.  Looking to do whatever I can to get ahead of any potential negative symptoms of all of this running.  

Disappointed to miss a run this week, but excited/nervous for a 10 mile run this weekend.  I don't know that I've EVER run 10 miles in one session, so this will be a nice little milestone to hopefully be able to cross.

Slow and steady, baby.

6 miles - 52:38 - 8:46 pace

Monday, 2/21

Got my foot checked today.  The pain was more frequent over the weekend (again, not when running, but mostly when not wearing shoes around the house).  Went to Robinson Physical Therapy where Chris checked me out and wasn't able to definitively call it either way.  Still possible I have a stress fracture, but could be more likely it's just a carryover issue from kicking someone's foot at soccer.

Basically I have 3 options:

1. Shut it down for a bit and see if time heals all wounds.  (That one's for you, Liz 😏)

2. Get an x-ray or some clarity, though even if it is a stress fracture, it may be too early to show up.

3. Keep training and hope it doesn't get worse. 

Well... option 1 is never gonna happen.  I only have 12 weeks to train which is already irresponsibly short and I'm certainly not interested in taking time off from soccer, especially since I really don't get any pain when running/playing.

Option 2 doesn't sound like me either... why invite bad news?

So... option 3 it is.

Now that I have that settled, went for a 4 mile run today.  That hill up to campus continues to be a soul crusher, resulting in some definite slower splits on mile 2 and 3.  To be honest, though, I probably could have pushed myself a bit more in miles 3 and 4, but I was being overly cautious... maybe too much so.

That said, even though today was a push day, it's better to err on the side of caution rather than go too hard too soon.

4 miles - 33:25 - 8:20 pace

Saturday, 2/19

Ran 8 miles today which feels like kind of a big deal! 

The downside is I mismanaged my time and missed all of James' basketball game. I went down early to hopefully get the run in before his game so that I could watch the rest of it once I finished, but I miscalculated my time and got out of the house later than I had planned and as a result I finished right after his game was done. I feel kind of crappy about that, but I was able to see half of the court and catch some of the action. Also, Liz was there, so it's not like he didn't have anybody watching. 

Regarding the run, it went very well. I obviously kept a slow pace (averaged 9:41/mi) to focus on building my body's tolerance for the increased distance, and I really didn't struggle at all, which is a pretty good sign.

One thing popping up on my radar is some foot pain that's beginning to get concerning.  I've had some sharp pain and numbness in the center of my foot when I step a certain way.  It's especially noticable when I go up or down stairs or if I'm not wearing shoes.  Wearing shoes tends to mitigate it quite a bit, and I only noticed very slight discomfort very intermittantly on this run.  But when I step the wrong way when barefoot, boy does it hurt.

At first I thought it might just be the result of a deep bruise from some contact I took at soccer but now I'm starting to worry that I may have a stress fracture, which would throw this whole charade into doubt.  We shall see, I suppose.

8 miles - 1:17:29 - 9:41 pace

Thursday, 2/17

Last night my calves were on fire from the 6 mile run. I was nervous I wasn't going to be able to do much today, but ended up being surprised that I wasnt sore at all. After my first run last week it took a couple of days to get rid of the soreness. Bouncing back quicker now has to be a good sign, I suppose. 

Was scheduled for a 3 mile run today, but because I skipped my earlier 3 mile run this week, I pushed it to 4, which was easy because I was using the treadmill at James' basketball practice and had plenty of time. Pushed the pace a bit at times, eased off at others. Overall felt pretty good, clocking an 8:33 pace, which is not bad for where I'm at. Gotta remember though, this isn't about speed, it's about endurance. Need to continually remind myself. Off tomorrow, 8 miles await on Saturday.

4 miles - 34:13 - 8:33 pace

Here we go...

I decided to run a marathon. 

With 12 weeks to train. 

At age 40. 

Why? Not sure, but it's probably just a tame version of a mid-life crisis. Though I must say I don't feel like I'm in any real version of a mid-life crisis. But I DEFINITELY didn't consider running a marathon last year at age 39. However it is something I've always tossed around in the back of my head. In any case, this thing is like 10.5 weeks away and I may have made a huge mistake.

I've decided to document my progress. I don't know if I plan on pushing this out to anyone, but I think it'd be cool to look back on and fun to share some of this experience with my kids if and when they ever care to hear about it. I just officially signed up today and I've thus far been on three runs coming off of a winter of playing a bit of soccer but not much else. Suffice it to say, I did not arrive at this decision in ideal shape. 

So far I'm a week and a half into this decision and I've accomplished runs of 3, 5 (almost), and 6 miles (while skipping two runs of 3 and 5 miles along the way). Today was a nice 6 mile run and to be honest, I feel great, though my calves are super tight and I'm beginning to question my body's ability to ramp up on such a short timeline. I'm planning on continuing to play soccer on Tuesday nights, though I'm not sure if that's necessarily a great plan for optimizing marathon training. Oh well.... I signed up today and, barring injury, I'm committed. 

I don't care what time I post. 

I don't care how I feel for the days following the race.

I'm running this bitch. 

3 mile run scheduled for tommorrow. See you then.

Progress so far:

2/7 - 3.09 miles - 26:15 - 8:30 pace

2/10 - 4.7 miles - 42:32 - 9:03 pace

2/16 - 6 miles - 54:01 - 9:00 pace