Back from a hiatus

Ok, it has been almost a month since I have posted anything. That is not for lack of running, it is due to a lack of free time. When I was off for the summer I had tons of free time. Now that work is upon me again, the free time is at a premium. When you get up at 3:25 am to run, you have to get to bed early and that scraps the opportunity to do much in the evenings. I will try to be better about posting now that I have a handle on this year's schedule.

I am running the Marine Corps Marathon in October in Washington DC again this year and shooting for that elusive Boston qualifying mark of 3:15. It is possible but it will take the perfect race on the perfect day. My coach is working me hard and things are going great. I am averaging around 50 miles a week and the body is holding up well. My legs are a little sore, but this week's massage should help with that.

Today was the third 20 miler of this training cycle and it went great. I ran solo again from a 4:30 am start and decided do a completely different route than my other 20 milers. There were a few more hills this time but they did not slow me down. In fact, I was a little faster than my coach wanted but the legs were on cruise control and I was not pushing the pace at all. My quads were aching from the first step and I can't figure out why, but they didn't slow me down at all.

I am taking the next two days off to get ready for Tuesday's speed session. It might be one the hardest I have ever done. I will let you know how it goes.

An odd week!

I haven't posted in a few days, but it has been an odd running week. The marathon training has been going splendidly and I have been nailing all of my workouts for a while now. Then came this past Tuesday. I had my normal warm up and cool down scheduled, and my coach gave me 2 x 1200 @ 4:33 and then 4 x 800 @ 2:58. For the first time that I can remember, I did not hit a single interval at the prescribed time. I was slow on all of them. I just couldn't figure it out. I felt like the leg turnover was there, but at the end I would check the watch and I was a few seconds behind. That may not sound like a big deal, but it is to me. I may not be the fastest cat out there on the roads, but I have a talent for hitting my pace marks every time. Not today, however! It actually had me down a little bit after the workout. I talked (e-mailed) with my coach and she told me not to get down about this, everything was going along just as it should.

Then came Thursday's tempo run, 5 miles at 7 minute pace. I hit the first mile at 7:15 and I was sure another bad workout was happening. So I stopped watching the splits and just ran on effort. When I hit the 5 mile mark and checked the watch, it read 35:29. Just 29 total seconds off, and 15 of those came in the first mile. The other splits were 7:04, 7:07, 7:03 and 6:57. All in all it turned out to be a good workout, despite what I thought midrun.

I have to remember that one bad workout does not mean I need to lose confidence on my training. If I don't run a 3:15 in my October marathon it won't be because I didn't have a good training cycle.

My new Nike Lunarglides came in. I will write a short review on them once I get a chance to run in them. Anyone reading this probably doesn't know this but I am a complete running shoe junkie and have more pairs than 3 people could ever wear. I am excited for these and hope they will be the marathon shoe for this year.

Too Technology Reliant?

I shifted my long run from the normal Sunday to today, Friday, due to a weekend trip with Mrs. Tall Guy Running. A little weird shifting the normal day before long run routine to Thursday but since I don't have anything else going on right now, it wasn't that big of a deal. The alarm went off at the usual 3:30 am and I did more normal stuff to get ready. Drove to the lake to meet a friend for the 18 miles and when I strapped on and turned on my Garmin 305 Forerunner it said battery low. ARGH! I have been using the Garmin GPS for almost 3 years now and I rely on it for pace, distance and the auto lap function every mile. It is as essential to my running as my shoes and shorts, and I not going out with those! I switched back to the good old Timex Ironman before we started and was worried how the run would go. Would I run too fast? Would I run too slow? Would I unknowingly shave distance off the route? It was all I could think about for the first mile of the run. The friend I was running with did have hers so I wasn't totally blind, but it was not there at my beck and call for all the info I wanted when I wanted it. Then as the miles ticked by I began to forget about it and as I look back I did almost feel a slight sense of freedom. I was not a slave to that darn thing said and it almost felt good. Now, I did not enjoy it so much that I am going to abandon my electronic running companion, but it was a nice change of pace I must admit. Now will I ever shed the ipod on those lonely 5 mile easy runs at 4:00 am on the dark and hilly roads near my house? Don't count on it. When else would I catch up on the Dan Patrick Show?

Getting started.

As the title of this blog states I am just getting started. With blogging that is, not running. I have been running for about 5 years now and can't imagine what my everyday life will be like once my knee finally goes and I have to get that knee replacement a couple of doctors have told me is looming in my future. I am 35 now and the predictions they made was sometime in my 50s. Who knows, the world may be out of oil by then and then who will be running marathons anyway, right? I am in the middle of my marathon training cycle for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC in October. This will be my 5th marathon and I still have dreams of reaching that marathon Mecca of a Boston qualifying time. I have thought about writing a running blog for a while but just never got around to it. Pretty much all I talk about is running away, so much so that my wife gets sick of hearing about it, so I thought why not finally do it. I hope you check back for future posts.