18 days to go! Reflections.

Walked more than ran, 4.1 miles in 69 min.

Felt really tired after the LSD , stiff, aches and pains. Today realised should have done those recovery sessions because they help recover faster.

Looking forward to the marathon now, each day find something new, but also looking back to see all those things I should have done but didnt. Not because I was hurting, or busy, just plain laziness.

- the recovery walks are important.
- goal had been to do atleast 5 sessions a week; 2 of running, 2 of XT, and a LSD. Most months just managed 4/5 and this last month only 3/5.
- should have increased the distance being covered earlier on- did this in july/august, maybe too late, or maybe we first had to build it up to the shorter distance.
- should have done more hills, some speed sessions, more stretching.
- should have lost some weight instead of only trying to.
- should have....

Lots of shoulds, but note that if we had done all of the above, we would have been perfect, and perfection is boring. OK, I know I will keep all the above in mind the next time, for I am hoping there will be more marathons or atleast half marathons after this. It was a one year goal, there was bound to be some time during which we would let things slide.

And as for weight loss, I think I gave up the day I read somewhere that one does not lose weight during marathon preparation. So maybe that can be the next one year goal with running in the background as the main form of exercise. And a few 5Ks, half marathons, maybe another marathon thrown in for the interest factor!yeah right!!

21 days to M-day, Longest LSD, 23 mile!!

Sweet!!, 23 miles in 6h15min (ofcourse I am taking out all the breaks!).

I had been so nervous of this session, our last longest LSD, after this tapering begins and we had no time to do a >20mile LSD even if we wanted.

Woke up at 3.15Am, started from GB's house at 4.04AM, 60*,slight breeze, thank the administration for the well-lit streets (however, wonder why all the storefronts have to be so brightly lit at 4 in the morning, when they are closed, all that wasted electricity, they can have a couple of lighted signs or so, but it seemed like x'mas in the shopping areas)

The first session was 3h20 min, out of which approx 8 min was a water/bathroom break. So we finished 12.1 miles at a 16minmile pace, which I felt was good. We didnt huff and puff too much, talked a lot, did R2/W2 and were comfortable for the most part. Around mile 6, both of us had some foot soreness, some hip tightness, some back pain, but it was mostly OK. Did our big bad hill at mile 7, another at mile 10.

Reached home,took a break of 17min,I did take a ibuprofen tablet just to prevent the soreness from turning into pain.

Started again, same circle but in the opposite direction, this time slightly slower. Took more effort to keep the same pace, took some water breaks, 4 in total, each lasting 3-5min, went down the big bad hill and that seemed tougher today when we were so tired. At mile 20 the sun was up- 9-10Am, 85*, very warm and now we were drinking the gatorade and water every 10 min. The sun actually slowed us quite a bit because we stopped running after the 20th mile.

Reached home -total session was 7 hours. Sometimes I feel I should include that as total time but we were not moving during that time. I know we will be taking those rest breaks during the actual marathon too - we will Have to because those really rejuvenated us till the next rest break, but I just want to feel good about my pace for today.

Things which helped us:
1. we used gatorade and water every 15-20 min, took 2 luna bars, had a slice of bread with PBJ, so were eating regularly this time instead of every 1 hour.
2. Starting so early so we had 3 hours of no-sun time with temps of 60-70*.
3. Using that Ibuprofen after the first session-I dont know if it is the done thing or not, but I am feeling better after this session than most- maybe it is just psychological.
4. R2/W2, this is just right for us. We will use this for the M-day.

I am sure there are more and I will mention them as I remember.

So good job done. The rest of the 3 miles will be completed with the help of crowd cheer and support.

Tapering officially starts from tomorrow. Recovery r/w.

23 days to M-day

R2/W1 yesterday, R3/W2 today. Todays session seemed slightly better in terms of doing it, even tho the average minmile came out to be the same.

A one minute walking break did not seem adequate, it takes 30 sec for us to catch our breath after running and another 30 to bring up the speed of walking. 2min walk break was good today. I think we will follow the 2R/2W routine during the marathon.( seems rather late in the day to be trying out new walking schedules)

I have developed some left sided hip bone pain. Its not in the hip as such but in the pelvic bone. I think I have had it for a few years but now it is intensified. Does not prevent me from running but hurts when I get up from a chair. Treid icing and using a local gel , hope doesnt affect my borderline times!

And my feet- the bottoms have started hurting- burning pain. I walk like an old, old lady, all stiff and bent and after 2 min it gets better. Ice them, massage and stretches, as long as they do their duty, its oK.

Rest tomorrow, LSd 20-26 miles Sat, depending on available time, mood, determination, motivation, desire, etc, etc , etc.

Countdown begins-25days left!!

Well, I had wanted to do the countdown from 30 days but missed that. Now I am getting into a nervous state of mind- only 25 days for M-day!!

Today walked 4.1m in 66 min-16minmile, but this was interspersed with some intervals of running too.

On marathon day we have to cross the 18.5mile mark by 5 hours, which comes out to be a 16.5minmile, which I think we can do for that distance, but to make up we would have to run the rest of the distance in 11.38minmile. Which we havent done even on our good days, leave alone in the last 6miles of the marathon. So again we are left with the average pacing of 14.5minmile to complete in 6.5hours.

Which might be doable, who knows on that day and time. As per GB the last few miles of the marathon course are downgrading so we might be able to pick up speed at the end. Which I highly doubt as we have not practiced that distance and I know from past experience - the last 2 miles of the half-M - I was dragging myself at 16-17minmile pace, all hot and tired and ready to give up, which I would have, if GB had not been there to buck me up.

And I cant even say the crowd enthusiasm will carry us thru because those 6-7 miles are thru the Lake Merced area which everyone says is the most desolate and has no aid stations.

So now I am stressing about all the details, worrying more-doing less, and it should be the opposite. take one day at a time.

25 days left!!!

Regular run

Was supposed to do a 10 mile LSd today.

GB's back gave out. She is out of the program for a little while her back heals. I was still determined to do my part today. Woke up at 4 AM so could finish by 6.30Am and be at home with the kids when the DH went to work. 4 AM was pretty dark, and there were no sounds of traffic today, so hopped on the t-mill to try and finish off an hour at home and go out at 5 AM when all the runners come out. The plan sounded good.

However, I was getting on the t-mill after 3 months, and I simply did not like it, even tho I had some great programs to watch- like the financial crisis on CNN!! Maybe that was it- I felt so tired and slow, kept telling myself to keep at it till 5 AM, and did too but as 5 AM came by, I was feeling hot and fatigued. So called it a day. Kept telling myself that I would regret it, and maybe in the cold morning daylight I do, after all, I was all dressed up to run and just needed to walk out of the door, but 'didnt feel like it'. Had one of my daughters said it 'I didnt do something 'cos I didnt feel like it' she would have got an earful from me. But who can argue with a middle aged cranky woman - not even me. I guess I was really feeling down,- my poor Dh got a whole big tirade before he left for work - must be wondering if I got off the wrong side of the bed!!

Will try again to do the 10 miles, maybe in the week if have a day off, next weekend is the last scheduled LSD - 22-26miles. I am not sure if GB will be upto it, but I am going to plot the course in the next couple of days and treat it like a dress rehearsal for the real thing.

Setback

I dropped a dime, looked at it and let it go, didn't want to dirty my hands picking things up from the carpet, not a concious decision -maybe was just too lazy to bend....approx 2 hrs later, at exactly the same spot, dropped my cell phone - bent to pick it up and regretted it - felt something in my back, got up, the pain was excruciating, unbearable....

Was at the workplace waiting on somebody to respond to a message, the pain was unbearable, couldn't sit, kept standing, took a pain killer, wrapped up ice in a paper towel and put it on my back inside the jeans...finally decided to go home - took 3 more ibuprofen, put ice packs...didn't help too much....by the evening was slightly better...have taken 2 more pain killers and am lying on the bed with the laptop...

My thoughts as I was driving home...I was a little sad and realised how people feel when they have been preparing hard and cant run the marathon due to some injury...but i overcame that within a couple of mins - ha, wasn't my dream - and i'll have all the fun without putting in all the effort, will go with NB to SF and cheer her on :)

I have had a lower back disc problem since 2 years and doctors have advised against running due to it being high impact..was thinking about this a couple of weeks back about how my back no longer hurt when I climbed hills the way it did earlier - thought that maybe it was getting stronger...but I think I ripped something today - muscle tear or something - I don't know how much time it will take to get better....even if it is a couple of weeks, i'll miss the long run...at this time I am thinking that I will attempt the marathon even if I have to drop out in the middle but i dont know how things will be tomorrow - better or worse...let's see

Walk 4.1m

Walked 4.1m in 65 min, 15.8minmile.

Walked smoothly, a few sessions of faster walking but both of us were not in a mood to push it. So we talked and walked and it was relaxing to be able to talk to each other instead of huffing and puffing and not being able to hear each other.

Had to do shorter distance because DH had to leave by 6.20 Am. So we started at 5.05 AM and finished by 6.10AM.Beautiful weather, breezy, we saw a group of runners - approx. six of them running in tandem, just so beautiful to look at, all fit and with good posture and form - may be it was the morning light!

Yesterday I was going over our first few blog posts and read, ' LSD this weekend:3miles'. GB and I had a good laugh over that. Yup, there was a time when a regular workout was no more than 2 miles and a LSD was 3 miles, after which we hogged the couch for the rest of the day!! We have come very far, but are still not there yet. Oct 19th 2008 will decide where we stand.

Weekly run

R4/W2, 4.6miles in 67-68min, 14.5minmile. 59*. Breezy.

GB wanted to try out R4/W2 combo so we did that today. It was difficult. I think there was only one session which I completed without stopping to walk for a few seconds. And the last 10 min I was definately slower, did more walking than running because it includes the cooldown.

Aim is to do this distance at 13.5min mile before the M-day. I think we will get there eventually.

GB and I were discussing the fact that we have not done a single 20mile LSD, the J.G. plan we are following had recommended 20, 23 and 26 miles before the M. We still have 4 weeks left, so if we do 20 mi this weekend, 10 the next, 24 after that, our taper will be only 2 weeks instead of 3 weeks. GB has researched and the 3 week taper is necessary. But when did we follow the rules? Now the fight is to do the two 20 mile runs versus a 3 week taper.
Have to look into this more.

LSD 13.3 miles

in 204min, 15.3minmile, better, much better than last week.

GB wanted to do 13miles instead of the scheduled 10 , and follow a course simulating the san francisco course. So we did 3 hills, at 6miles, 7miles and then at 11 miles. Our time is 4 min slower than our half-m in May, but this course included the 3 bad hills.

Also our pace is better at 15.3minmile this week, compared to 17.5minmile last week. Today, the weather was beautiful. We started at 4.36 AM, 60 degrees, took 3 short water breaks. Our first mile was actually slow at 17minmile, but we caught on later and completed 8miles in less than 2 hours. Followed the R3/W2 pattern and GB wanted to do the R4/W2, but I think for the 26miler!! next week we will do R2/W2. And this time we ran till the last half mile which we walked as part of cooldown.

Overall satisfied. Had some soreness and tiredness after, which might have been relieved if I had done some stretching. But I had to make a trip to San fransisco with DH and 14yo to meet his college buddy. So that drive to and fro SF, which took total of 6 hours, and wandering around in that big mall in Union Square didnt help much.

I am stiff now. Will do some strtching for a couple of days to help.While in SF tried to drive along the course of the marathon but couldnt due to time constraints. But the drive in SF itself took my breath away. They say 'no cable car hills' but I didnt see any other type there! If I have to do even one of those hills I am dead! GB did compare the hills on the course with our neighbourhood hills and one of them is equivalent to our big bad hill . But nope, not like the ones in the city.

DAys moving faster now. Somedays feel I will be able to do this, somedays not. Lets see. The only thing I am worried about is that each running plan recommends doing atleast one 20 miler, we have not done a single one so far. I dont know if physically we will be able to make a jump from 15 miles max to 26 or even 24 miles next LSD. Or even if we should attempt that.

Will try and go for a recovery walk today, rest monday, R/W 4.6m on T/W/TH, rest F, LSD of 10 miles on Sat.

Recovery run

R3/W2 for half the session, 4.1m, 14.3minmile again, slow today because still feeling tired after sunday. But not too bad.The weather was amazing today-55degrees-ideal.

Was discussing with GB, if have to complete atleast 18.5 miles in 5 hours, which is approx a 16.2minmile, we just might be able to do it. The last few times our times on the LSD have been a bit slow - approx 17minmile, but thats OK - it was too hot or something. I hope theres no 'something' factor on M-day. I hope the fact that ones pace during the actual event is faster than training pace is true for us. Hope sustains life and our training!

I saw a video of a lady who completed the Nike womens marathon 2007 in 5h45min. She looked so relaxed thruout - playing and hugging her kids,running smoothly. I told GB if my kids came to cheer me, I would probably be screaming at them to leave me alone.

The elusive 20 OR

The height of stupidity OR
Warm/Hot weather running OR
What beginning runners should absolutely not do OR
The day we died!!!

Any of the above could be a post heading.

Sat. is the day I usually do my LSD , one, to get it out of the way, and secondly if perchance I miss it, I can still make it up on Sunday.

This saturday was very busy with 2 soccer games and the mega-event of the 13yo turning into a 14yo. So, no thoughts of LSD.

Sunday AM:
Gb and I had decided to start at 3 AM so as to finish by 8-9 AM, before it got too hot. Very sensible idea one day before. Not so sensible at 2 AM when the alarm woke me up. Pushed the snooze button, closed eyes for a minute, next opened them at 530 AM. Called GB, yelled at her for missing the LSD, decided it was too late now, and made the highly idiotic plan(with 20/20 hindsight) of running in the evening from 6PM to 11 PM - it would be sunny for only 2 hours, and we could run on the main roads which are busy till 11 pm.

Started at 557pm. The sun was burning hot. The first mile took us over 2 major hills so the at the end of the second, GB showed all signs of heat distress and I could barely hear her complaints because felt so faint.

Any other intelligent person would have turned back , called it a day and tried again in a week. Did I say I belong to that group of people?

Thankfully we reached a shaded portion of the road, and had access to a water fountain, which was like manna from the heavens. After which GB got very activated and decided to run again, even tho I ,like the big sister I am , kept telling her to slow down. She kept on, we came to a downhill and ran a good portion of it, and I think that was the only portion we ran, the rest was walking at a fast pace.

There is nothing else to say. Night fell, we kept walking, I tried to sing to pass the time, throat got dry, made GB sing, and she started wailing. Took a short 5 min break at her apartment, after which the stupidity continued for another 5 miles. WHy, you ask? because GB did not want to do this distance again. Our logic! How can one have done 20 miles if the distance covered was only 10?? We could have finished 10 miles then and done 20 miles next weekend!

We were dead by the time we finished at 1030pm. Reached her apartment and were treated like the big babies we were feeling by our parents -cold water, cold towels, toast and eggs , even tho we were feeling nauseous.

I went home, took a tylenol( motrin was in the car, that might have done more good for me)drank some water, put on the ice pack. Couldnt sleep for 2 hours and when I did , it was uncomfortable.

No pain anywhere the next day, just generalised soreness and fatigue.

But when I look back - we were so silly, stupid!!
GB tells me its written in J.G's book'Marathon' that if the temps are above 85 degrees to forget about running. And we - we ran in 100 degrees. I had read it too, but I saw so many runners in the afternoon that I thought we would be ok too. Did not factor in the lack of running experience and the excessive heat insulation(fat)we carry.

On a better note , we did do some hills and GB has found after extensive research, that those are almost equivalent to the hills we will face in SF on Oct 19th. I just hope the temps are better.

So :
Men learn from their own mistakes,
The wise learn from the mistakes made by others,
And fools never learn.

So, be wise, never run in higher than 80 degree weather, even if it is a LSD scheduled for a marathon training goal.

Taking 2 days off. 10 miles this weekend.
So we are still there. Longest LSD is 15-18 miles. Not good. Have to cover atleast 24miles atleast once before the marathon. Getting panicky now.

Short workout

Went alone today, GB too tired because she had done the r/w session yesterday too. And I had missed it because just could not get myself up.

Then realised I was as stiff and tired at 630AM as I would have been at 430AM, so those 2 extra hours of sleep didnt help much.

Today went for a shorter session of 2.1miles, tried to run faster but then the walk intervals got too slow, so it averaged out to 13.6minmile, also I bent over to tie my shoe once, and also stopped to let a car pass at the stop sign- that should be another 30 seconds- what am I? an Olympic athlete? talking in seconds, but u no wot- each 30 sec matter when one has to move faster than the sweepers at the marathon!

I have to really thank GB today. I was going over my log and realised -- I had been doing all my workout sessions on the t-mill at the same pace everyday with no intention of trying to go faster. She got me started on running outside, which does help-I would have not tried it on my own.And she also pushed me to try and run and walk faster. I might have eventually done it, but it is harder to work thru the mind on ones own. And she also increased the distance of the weekly sessions, or else I would have just done 3 miles in45 min and beenhappy about it. So heres to my marathon partner -may we finish our marathon before the allotted time ,and in one piece, andbe able to function as human beings later, and do a 100 more marathons in our life!!

Beep Beep

So the beep beep sounded irritating? Well, just about an hr earlier when you heard it for the first time, when you were not exhausted with the running, when you had not done an R3/W2 several times, you found it to be musical, remember NB?

Bought a timex ironman with interval timers. The freestyle I had bought earlier did not have interval timing and though I had found a way to do interval timing on that, it was, let's say, not very efficient.

Just a few days ago, NB and I were discussing that we didnt have any cool gadgets nor felt the need for those - well, we should have got this toy earlier. As NB mentioned today that she always wanted to focus on interval running - I would like to say that I wanted to focus on how to get started on running. Running intervals was the least of my concerns at that time. And the best interval I would have run was R1/W10 or just W ;)

Even though the weather was cool, there was no breeze. Didnt enjoy the R3/W2. Was tired after the run.

One step forward, one step backward

R3/W2 , 4.6m in 67 min. One extra minute.Which I had thought to cut off this week. 14.5minmile pace. Wanted to be 14minmile by this weekend. Still might be if try really hard on thursday.

GB bought some new watch which can be set at intervals. She set it for R3/W2 and I think we had been already doing the R3 but taking longer breaks than the W2. So now we have a routine to follow. But this seemed a bit difficult today, we were out of breath by the last 3 min. And its very irritating to hear that beep-beep to push us to start running, I am sure I will start having nightmares about that soon. As long as it pushes us to try harder, I am all for it.
It might take us another few days to sort out our comfortable routine.Tho comfort is still walking at a snails pace.

Walk tomorrow, R/W on thurs,LSD 23 miles on Sat!!

August review, Sept goals

So did 100 miles in August. WOW!! MAinly due to GB. About the end of july, early august, she woke up and decided we needed to have longer sessions, done outside and that we need to really stop whining and start running. I am glad she did that because I was on cruise control here, did only 54-55 miles in july.

So we picked up the pace in these last 4 weeks and most of sessions are completed at less than 15minmile pace. Which is not great , but better than before for us. And we have covered the big bad hill twice in our LSD with no major damage to our timing.
Also our workout sessions have all been longer than 45 min, which is good too.

Goal for Sept is to cover this distance of 4.6miles in 60min, R/W, 2 days a week. Break it up into a minute improvement each week. Also to alternate it with a walk of approx 5 miles which might include a hill. And ofcourse the LSD on the weekends will include atleast 2 hills. This will mean starting earlier because I have to be done by 630AM, so start by 5AM. It is very dark and lonely and scary at that time...

Is this doable, I dont know. But we have to work harder this month, only 30 days ,and then in Oct the tapering starts. Also have to prepare for the trip to SanFrancisco! We are almost there!