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Marathon Training – Week 15

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Week 15 Training

Week 15 Training

Week 15 is now over. This included the last long run of the training program (20 miles).

As I started this week my training plan (Hal Higdon Intermediate 1) said “This is the peak week of your training. Rather than fear it, you should greet it with near the same enthusiasm you will greet the marathon one month from now. But, for the time being, take it easy.”

As you can see from my running log this week I actually ran 5 days in a row without a rest day on Friday as per the plan. That is because there are two people in our house training for the same marathon and we have a rule that our training does not get in the way of family time. We certainly know how to entertain our boys. Thankfully we have the stamina to do so. Our weekend was as follows:

Saturday – I was up at 3:30am to head out for my 20 miler (in nice 31 degree weather). I ran with enough time to get home to enjoy an ice bath before we had to all be out the house by 9am for the boys activities. After that we took the boys to the Kid’s Castle in Doylestown, PA for a mid-afternoon event and the over to Sesame Place for a Pass Member party which ran until 8pm. A long day for sure.

Sunday – My wife was up at 5:45am for her run. My boys actually let me sleep in until 7.25am (what a luxury on a weekend…they are never up that early on a school day). Once the second ice bath of the weekend had been taken (luckily not mine this time) we headed downtown to the Philadelphia Zoo for their Boo at the Zoo event.

Zoo time

Zoo time

A busy weekend (of many). Both my wife and I feel good and accomplished our goals this weekend. The boys seemed to have a blast and no one complained about being tired (although the boys fell asleep in the car…it’s as if they were worn out or something).

Now the taper begins. I’m looking forward to it actually. I know my mileage will be decreasing but I plan to maintain the schedule of 5 days running in the week. I actually set out my gym clothes for some cross training tomorrow. I will be up early to do 30 minutes on the stationary bike to keep myself loose going into the week. Ok…there is another reason I will be cross training and that might be my need to earn a few extra calories in the bank before our trip to Hershey Park next weekeend (planning ahead). This year during the taper I actually have 2 races planned. I have never done that before but the mileage doesn’t seem to impact my taper much. I have a 10K next week (after whatever I eat at Hershey…it’s all good carbs) and then a half marathon the week before the marathon. I will be running this nice and easy with my wife as we focus on form not pace in our final semi-long run before Philadelphia. The half marathon is on a Saturday so I will figure a couple of extra rest days going into the final week of training for the marathon.

This week the biggest change for me was the weather. I had to get all my winter gear out to use. My last three runs this week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) saw me running in tights, a jacket and a beanie with progressively warmer gloves on each run (I still have the mittens for the really cold days). Fall is definitely here. I may have to say “so long” to the shorts for a while. That being said, the skies have been clear and the moon has lit my way (as well as the headlamp) during these last few runs. It has been refreshing.

This weekend was also spent cheering on my friends (via Facebook) running the Marine Corps Marathon. Next week is the New York City Marathon and I will be cheering everyone on knowing well that my turn is coming up a couple of weeks beyond that. I’m already looking forward to putting my 2014 schedule together for a couple of marathons in the Spring and the Fall. I have a little time and a couple of marathons to get through first.

1 week until the Benjamin Franklin Bridge 10K

2 weeks until the Trenton Half Marathon

3 weeks until the Philadelphia Marathon

11 weeks until the Dopey Challenge

Thanks for reading.

Marathon Training – Week 14

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Week 14. A mixed bag.

Week 14 Training

Week 14 Training

This was a step back week for me as my long run was only 12 miles. The actual running seemed to go quite well this week including a nice relaxed tempo run on Wednesday which felt good picking up the pace. Both weekend runs felt good. Sunday’s run was accompanied by a beautiful clear sky and full moon which lit up the way.

My morning runs are all around 5.30am so I am out and back before the sun rises. This also means I need to start getting to bed a little earlier. I haven’t been doing a great job of the early nights these and this week despite the lower mileage it all caught up with me.

This affected me in a couple of ways. The morning runs went fine as I said. It seems that I get my morning run in before more mind and body realize what I am actually doing. Later in the day I start feeling pretty fatigued. Not that my body is aching or craving rest it’s just a general feeling of being tired. One thing that was noticeable (and this may well be a factor of the long daily commute and the hours sitting in front of a computer screen) is that my vision was getting a little blurred. I only see out of one eye (my ‘supportive’ Wife calls me ‘Mike Wazowski’) so I was a little concerned and that actually took me to the ophthalmologist for a checkup.

Mike Wazowski

Mike Wazowski

The ophthalmologist gave me reassurance that nothing was wrong but said that I may be experiencing a little dryness in the eye for a number of reasons; change in the weather, the long commute, the staring at the screen AND not enough sleep. With too people in our house training for the same marathon it takes some schedule juggling to make sure we get our training miles in without being disruptive to our plans with the family. I do the early shift so my Wife doesn’t have to run in the dark. I am out running and back before anyone is usually awake and so nobody misses me. I hope the same would be said if I went out when everyone is awake! 🙂

The other thing that was noticeable this week was as my mileage was lower, my appetite was not. Often during training for my previous marathons I have gotten to the point that I was craving food (or fuel as we marathoners like to call it/kid ourselves). Last week I feel like my body was expecting another serious mileage week and was just craving food. Now, I am very careful (or try to be) about what I eat. I record my food every day in the LoseIt! app on my iPhone not to lose weight but to maintain. Last week I went through the craving week and although I didn’t eat badly I just overate a little every day. Not that the scale showed any difference but this may have added a little to the feeling of tiredness through the week.

The irony is that the weeks I seem to have little to no issues with my daily calorie budget are the weeks the scale doesn’t seem to like me. Last week when I struggled maintaining my calorie allowance the scale seemed to be sympathetic to me and didn’t add to the stress levels 😉

With less than 4 weeks to go now week 15 is going to be the peak week of training. The last 20 miler is coming up at the weekend and the taper is now in sight. I just need to make sure that I am resting well as this week will demand lots from my body and that I take advantage of some downtime and watch the diet. All seems to be going well otherwise.

2013 Walt Disney World Marathon

2013 Walt Disney World Marathon

2 weeks until the Benjamin Franklin Bridge 10K

3 weeks until the Trenton Half Marathon

4 weeks until the Philadelphia Marathon

12 weeks until the Dopey Challenge

Thanks for reading.

Marathon Training – Week 13

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Week 13 Training

Week 13 Training

Week 13 is now complete. 5 weeks to go. Only one more 20 mile run to go in a couple of weeks and then the taper begins. The race is now in sight. This week’s training went well. No ill effects or major fatigue. Yesterday’s 5 miler was a nice tempo run at a good pace. I hope I can sustain that for the upcoming Benjamin Franklin Bridge 10K run in 3 weeks time. That would be great.

Today’s 20 miler went well. I felt a little tired around mile 14 but got my second wind (or maybe that was the caffiene laced energy gel) and the last 3 miles felt great. My time was nothing spectacular but this was not designed to be a pace run just an endurance run. I came back and soaked in an ice bath (actually a bath filled with water from the cold tap only) for about 15 minutes or so to reduce any inflammation and then hopped into a nice hot shower. All being said I had run 20 miles was showered and ready for the day just after 9am today. Not bad.

In our house we are juggling two people training for a marathon at the same time. I started my long run today at 5am so I could be home in time for my Wife to get out and run her 18 mile run and not have our whole day disrupted. Mission accomplished. My Wife and I ran 38 miles combined today and were back at Sesame Place for their Halloween Spooktakular in the early afternoon. Actually this was our second visit of the weekend…in costume.

Fun times at Sesame Place this weekend

Fun times at Sesame Place this weekend

It seems many of my friends were running in marathons this weekend (Baltimore, Atlantic City, Hartford and Chicago) and/or will be running in the next few weeks (Marine Corps and New York). It’s getting to the exciting part of the marathon season when all the big races are being run. I have to wait patiently a week or two longer until Philly. It was really great following everyones posts and see their pictures on Facebook this weekend and I am really happy for all their successes.

Fall is definitely here now. I actually had to head indoors for a treadmill run this week. It was my first treadmill run since early August. I’ve been pretty lucky weather wise. Now I’m running through fallen leaves and routes lined with scarecrows and the temperatures are getting cooler. Good for running in the mornings but sooner than later it will change to the colder side. I remember last year at Philly it started around 40 degrees and I wore my gloves all 26.2 miles. I’m ready for it. I’ve got enough gear.

3 weeks until the Benjamin Franklin Bridge 10K

4 weeks until the Trenton Half Marathon

5 weeks until the Philadelphia Marathon

13 weeks until the Dopey Challenge.

An exciting few weeks ahead and I’m full of anticipation for some fun times. I’ll be running Trenton and Philly with my Wife. It’s great to be able to share this with her.

Thanks for reading.

Marathon Training – Week 12

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Week 12 Training

Week 12 Training

Week 12 down. 6 more weeks to go. Now we are in October so I can really say the Marathon is next month.

As usual it seems I skipped the cross training on Monday. Let’s face it, I’m tired from the long runs and I don’t think I have done the Monday cross training since the early weeks of the plan. I guess it doesn’t hurt to have an extra rest day at this stage.

As my Wife was away this weekend (she ran the Long Island Diva’s Half Marathon with her sister) I had to squeeze my long run into early Saturday morning. This week then was 5 days straight of running. Luckily it was a step back week. Total mileage this week was 36 vs. last weeks 47 so that helped. I know it sounds silly to look at it like this when in January I will be running 48.6 in 4 days (yes, its Dopey).

This week I did something really stupid..you can read about it here. Luckily for me I didn’t injure myself. That would have been upsetting after all this training and it would have been my fault. I know not to do anything silly from now on. I want to be healthy enough to keep doing this for a while.

The training itself this week felt fine (apart from the Wednesday run) and on the long run this week when I should have been slowest of all my runs I kind of turned up the heat. Not exactly my marathon pace but quicker than I should have. Given the hills where I run it felt great especially after worrying about the right foot for a couple of days.

Week 13 is the first of the 20 milers on the plan (although I did 20 last week). Then a step back, then the final 20 miler and then the taper. We are getting close to the race date. 5 more Sundays before the big one.

4 weeks until the Benjamin Franklin Bridge 10K

5 weeks until the Trenton Half Marathon

6 weeks until the Philadelphia Marathon

14 weeks until the Dopey Challenge.

It’s getting real. I’m getting excited.

Thanks for reading.

September 2013 – month in review

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September 2013 – Nike+ Summary

September 2013 –
Nike+ Summary

175 miles this month.

I’m getting into the peak of my training for the Philadelphia Marathon. I’m well over half way through the training plan and luckily feeling healthy and not too tired. The weather has been great and I’ve been able to take all my runs outside still although it is definitely feeling like fall. The long sleeve shirts and gloves are coming out and now I am finishing my morning runs BEFORE sunrise. We don’t turn the clocks back for another few weeks so I’ll have to accept that as the norm for a little while. The training runs are getting longer and I just knocked out a 20 mile run yesterday with another couple coming in October. All the training is worth it as I appreciate the journey as well as the race although I am looking forward to taper time which I can see coming shortly.

Fall race is season is now in full swing. My friends are all training for their respective marathons (Chicago, New York, Atlantic City, Marine Corps) and I have to wait another couple of weeks after these for Philadelphia. I’m looking forward again to this race as this year I will be running the full maratthon alongside my wife. We have a time goal which is essentially to beat our Walt Disney World Marathon time (which should not be too difficult). I was actually featured on the Philadelphia Marathon blog earlier in the month for their ‘Why I love the Philadelphia Marathon’ [2013 ENTRY #6] series. As you can see from the article, as it was my first marathon it will always be special. Last year I broke the 4 hour mark so that helps too. 🙂

My wife and I ran the Philadelphia Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon mid month. The weather was perfect and we beat our time together from last year. You can read the race recap here. Not sure we would rush to do this again as there are many other races to run and places to explore (Disneyland 2014/Coast to Coast perhaps?).

Speaking of runDisney (as I often do) they just released some official photographs of the all new medals for the upcoming races. It brings everything closer to reality and is generating a lot of buzz. There are less than 100 days to go now to Marathon Weeekend. I am looking forward to running in January in the first official Dopey Challenge. The good news is that I made my fund raising goal this month to be able to run the event with Team Up for Autism Speaks. If you are interested in learning more about Team Up and the events they have for 2013 and 2014, please head over to my page on their site and go from there.

Marathon Training – Week 11

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Week 11 Training

Week 11 Training

So week 11 is now in the books. This on paper was the longest week in terms of mileage. 5 runs of 5, 8, 5, 8 and 18 miles respectively. As it was, I felt good this morning during the long run and had a little extra time (I guess I got up too early!) and sneaked in a couple of additional miles to make the long run 20 miles. I guess three 3 training runs of 20 miles isn’t going to hurt me during my marathon training as long as it is not excessive and I do take the designated rest days.

I missed Monday’s cross training session as I still felt tired after last weeks long run. That being said I also had an impromptu rest day on Thursday as when I stepped out of bed my ankle felt a little funny. I strapped it up for the day in a support bandage and by Friday it felt okay and I tried to make up my Thursday mileage which I did with no issues. I ended up running Friday, Saturday and Sunday for mileage of 5, 8 and 20. It’s almost as if I was planning to run the Dopey Challenge or something….oh, wait!!!

Interestingly today I finished my 20 miler and I took a quick look at my compression sock on the right foot. It had started to fray a little at the heel along the seam. I took a quick picture and sent an email to ProCompression asking about the warranty as I had only worn this pair twice (for the Rock and Roll Half Marathon a couple of weeks ago and today). Within 5 minutes I got a response from customer service on the West Coast. They asked my order number which I gave them and within 10 minutes they had written back and said that a replacement pair was on the way. That is amazing customer service seeing as it was 9am here on a Sunday morning and 6am over on the West Coast. I was impressed.

I will need to skip cross training tomorrow as I plan on taking a rest day after today’s long run. My wife is heading to Long Island next week to run the Diva’s Half Marathon so I will be unable to use Sunday for my long run. I will therefore be running Tuesday through Saturday (5 days straight). Luckily it’s a step back week and my long run is only 13 miles.

Today officially marked 100 days until the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend. Lots of exciting things to do between now and then.

Countdown to Marathon Weekend (runDisney)

Countdown to Marathon Weekend (runDisney)

5 weeks until the Benjamin Franklin Bridge 10K

6 weeks until the Trenton Half Marathon

7 weeks until the Philadelphia Marathon

100 days until the Dopey Challenge

Thanks for reading.

Marathon Training – Week 10

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Week 10 Training

Week 10 Training

Week 10? Did that say week 10? Yup. Over half way and only 8 weeks to go.

42 miles this week. A few early mornings. Again, I missed Monday’s cross training. I figured sleep was necessary. I’m pretty beat up at the end of the weekend. Not from the running, probably just the early mornings.

The weather has changed. It’s Fall. A couple of mornings had me running in long sleeves and gloves this week. Luckily it was a little warmer this weekend. This morning for my long run was just perfect. I got up around 4.30am to find a beatiful full moon in a clear night sky. I hardly needed the headlamp, then the fog rolled in for a couple of miles and then a beautiful sunrise. Wonderful. It made my long run (17 miles today) very relaxing.

I did a pace run yesterday (Saturday). I managed to maintain an average 8:50/mile pace. If I could do that for 26.2 miles I’d be pretty happy. It felt good and I was still fresh for my long run today.

Overall pretty happy with my week. This was one of the longer mileage weeks. Next week I’m up to 18 miles before a small step back week. I’m probably going to be getting the long sleeves and running tights out soon. I’ve been lucky up until now and haven’t had to run inside the gym for quite a number or runs. That’s been great. I’ve really been having some great morning runs recently, the cool weather has definitely been a factor.

6 weeks to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge 10K

7 weeks to the Trenton Half Marathon

8 weeks until the Philadelphia Marathon

Looking forward to staying healthy, running well and meeting lots of good folks on the way.

Thanks for reading.

Marathon Training – Week 9

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Week 9 Training

Week 9 Training

Week 9 done. Officially half way through the training plan for the Philadelphia Marathon.

Shifted a couple of things around this week but managed to get my cross training day in on Monday. The temperatures crept up again this week and my mid-week morning runs were tough in the heat and humidity. Thankfully this was a step back week. One morning this week I had to run in fog. It’s amazing how useless a headlamp is in fog. I chose my steps carefully and stayed on the path inside the park. Better safe than sorry.

I was supposed to run 11 miles as my long run this weekend but my wife and I ran 13.1 as we were taking part in the 2013 Philadelphia Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon. I will be doing a separate race recap on this in the next couple of days. Tonight I plan to get an early night as I start upping the mileage again this week with a long run of 17 at the weekend.

Today’s half marathon took my total of half marathon events to 10. Something I never imagined when I started running just over 3 years ago.

I’m supposed to be cross training again tomorrow but I’m feeling pretty tired after this weekend. I may sleep a little longer tomorrow and break out the stability ball and foam roller for 20 minutes or so when I get up. It’s something which is better than nothing. I’m heading into the chiropractor again in the morning for another adjustment. All this training can beat you up sometimes. An ache here can lead to an ache there. I pulled a muscle a couple of weeks ago and although the discomfort went after a couple of days I must have overcompensated elsewhere as I began to develop some heel discomfort. Without a diagnosis I was worried that I may have the beginings of plantar fasciitis but thankfully (I guess) although the symptons seemed like that it was actually a result of my leg, ankle and foot locking up as a result of the muscle pull.  Relief for sure.

Interestingly at the Rock and Roll expo I spoke with a Brooks representative about the wear on my running shoes and he diagnosed the wear pattern on having tight hamstrings and not clearing the ground enough while running. I stretched quite a bit over the last couple of days and took extra time to do so before today’s half marathon and I have to admit that I did notice a change that I was not scuffing my feet so much (which my wife often points out when we run). I’ll be looking into stretching a bit more over the next few weeks as a way of staying healthy and hopefully less sore.

I broke out a new pair of the Pro Compressions socks for the half marathon today and they are feeling good. Again, I appreciate the arch wrap on some tired feet.

Onto week 10.

Thanks for reading.

Marathon Training – Week 8

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Week 8 Training

Week 8 Training

Week 8 done. 12 weeks until the Philadelphia Marathon.

Again this week’s schedule didn’t allow for me to stick strictly to my training plan other than the mileage which I completed. I missed my Monday cross training (probably too tired from last week) and I missed my Friday rest day as I had a committment on Sunday morning so I ended up running 5 days in a row. Again, I can only say this is training for Dopey as my excuse.

The longest run of the training plan so far was the 15 miler on Saturday. I did my first run back in Tyler Park since the spring. It is pretty good training as there is a lot of hill work to be done. I did three loops of just over 5 miles each and felt good. The hills weren’t too tough although the first couple of miles (uphill) were probably my slowest of the run, but once I had warmed up I was a little faster and brought my average pace down so the long run ended up under 10 minutes per mile overall.

The seasons are definitely changing. I broke out the long sleeve shirt and thin gloves one on my runs this week. I wished I had brought my gloves along for my long run on Saturday but it did warm up eventually so all was good. I’ll need to start reassessing and resorting my running gear shortly. Maybe a shopping spree?!?

Again I ran in the Pro Compression Marathon sock and I’m feeling comfortable in them as I go longer and longer. I actually bought another pair for myself this week and a pair for my wife too for her to try. Next week we will be running together at the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia. Looking forward to that.

A highlight this week was that I was featured on the Philadelphia Marathon blog [2013 Entry #6]. It was a nice end to the week and I’m looking forward to the Marathon in just over 2 months (whoa…just over 2 months).

Next week is a step back week again and my long run will be the Philly Rock and Roll Half. The plan calls for an 11 mile run but I am not planning to race the half so I’ll run those extra 2.1 miles fairly easy (I hope).

Thanks for reading.

August 2013 – month in review

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August 2013 - Nike+ Summary

August 2013 – Nike+ Summary

129 miles this month.

I’m one third into the marathon training for this year’s Philadelphia Marathon and feeling good so far. The runs are begining to get a but longer and I’ve been lucky that it has been great running weather for August. There have been a couple of really warm days but more or less I’ve been able to run outside for most of the month.

I passed another milestone at the begining of the month when I celebrated my 3 year ‘runniversary’ and I still have plenty of goals to achieve and races to look forward to.

With my wife joining me in the Philadelphia Marathon this year we are both finding that we have to juggle things around to get those long runs in. We’ve got a couple of races together before then (Philadelphia Rock ‘n Roll Half and the Trenton Half Marathon) and judging by my wife’s recent runs she is probably going to leave me in her dust. She has promised to stay with me during the marathon though.

We took a couple of weekends away which meant I had to run 5 days in a row (including the long runs) for a couple of weeks. If anything this will be useful training for the Dopey Challenge (yeah…I keep telling myself that) but with school starting back up in September I don’t see too many of those cram weeks ahead and should be able to stay on schedule and enjoy the rest days. I dd miss a couple of cross training days this month but September should have me back on track.

With racing season now upon us I want to wish you well for any races you may be training for.