Marathon Training Update: Week of December 8th

I felt really good today looking back at this week. That's a first in a quite awhile. As I mentioned in my last post, I started the week off with a long run. On Sunday, December, 8th, I ran 8.93 miles. I had planned to run 8, but then I thought, 8.75 is basically 1/3 of a marathon. The trail I was on ended up being closed so I had to backtrack and ended up running the 8.93. There's so much storm damage on the greenway in Asheville along the RAD section that it's hard to believe they'll be able to run the Marathon in March. I think we'll be on the roads a lot more than we will on the Greenway as was originally planned. My time was slower than before. I ran this distance in 2:07:38, which is a 14:18 pace. Faster than the 14:37 I need to maintain to finish the marathon in the 6.5 hour cutoff time, but still not great. I had been running in the mid to high 13 minute range. I want that cushion. 

The rest of the week, I stayed on it in one way or another. Monday, I was having some heel pain from the day before so I took a rest day, which was actually already planned. I did however do an upper body workout at home with my dumbbells. I did 3 sets of 10 reps of each exercise: Shoulder Press, Bent-over Rows, Arm Curls, Triceps Kickbacks, Front Raise and Side Raise. 

Tuesday I was in the gym. It was super cold out so rather than run I did the following for about 45 minutes. 2 miles on the Elliptical, 2 miles on a recumbent elliptical (for lack of a better description) and 2 miles on a stationary bike. I then did 3 x 15 with Squats w/100 lbs, Calf Raises w/100 lbs., and Leg Curls with 50 lbs. 

Wednesday was a full rest day, but Tuesday I did a 1.73 Fartlek run. I didn't have a watch with me so I just pushed it as much as I could at times. I also did an upper body workout like I did on Monday. 

On Friday, I took a rest day from running but I did a lower body workout at home with dumbbells. I did 3 sets of 10 reps for Dumbbell Deadlifts, Squats, Step Ups, Lunges and Calf Raises. 

Today, Saturday, December 14th, I was traveling and shopping so I had planned a rest day again. Tomorrow is my long run so I want my legs to be fresh. 

Like I said. I feel really good about this past week. I would have liked to have run more, but with the cold and a lot of time constraints, I was happy I got out there and exercised as much as I did. 

Marathon Training Update: Week of December 1st

Here's an update on how training is going. I think I'll do this every Sunday until the Marathon in an effort to keep me going. For some reason, I'm really struggling with motivation. I don't know why. Maybe it's the distance. 26.2 does seem pretty intimidating but this was something I really wanted to try. If I really search my feelings (Jedi trick), I think it's because I missed so much training over the election period when things got so busy. Now, I have no motivation because in a lot of ways, I feel like I'm starting over. 

Anyways, here's what I've done this week. 

Week of December 1st

On Sunday, I did not do a long run. Looking back, I can't even tell you why I didn't run. I just remember thinking, I'll run long on Monday. 

Monday came and I did not run long. In fact, I did not run at all. I did to 3 sets of 10 reps for my upper body workout that I got back to doing. I do Shoulder presses, arm curls, triceps extensions, side raises and front raises. 

Tuesday I again, failed to run. 

On Wednesday, I did 10 push ups but did not run. 

On Thursday, I realized it was just 100 days until the Marathon on March 15th and a little something lit up inside. I ran 4 miles and did my upper body exercise routine. 

On Friday, I did not run, but that was planned. I did however workout my lower body. I did 3 x 10 split squats and glute bridges. 

On Saturday, I planned on running but then ended up Christmas shopping. I figured I'd run later, but we were out all day, and when I did get home and was about to run, my wife reminded me we had a Christmas party to go to that I had completely forgot about. 

The Start of a New Week

Sunday, December 8th - just to give you a preview of next week's edition - I planned to run 8 miles. During the run, I thought, let's go 8.75 which is roughly 1/3 of a Marathon. I ended up having to make a small detour and actually ended up running a little bit extra and finished my run at 8.93 miles in 2:07:38. This was approximately a 14:18 pace which is better than the 14:37 I have to maintain to finish the marathon in the time allotted, which is 6.5 hours. 

The Hominy creek greenway was very clear from the RV park most of the way until just before the parking lot. It turned out, the trail was closed there. They had work crews cutting downed trees and removing debris so I couldn't finish my run by going that way. I had to turn around and head back toward Carrier Park. 

Marathon Training Update: If You Can Call it That!

WOW! I suck. That's really all there is to say! I have not been running at all. Work was supposed to get better after the election but we have been dealing with recounts, protests, and other issues. Here's a quick summary of things since I left off last. 

Week of October 27th

I didn't do anything. Nothing. Didn't even go for a walk. It was just work, work and more work leading up to the election. At the end of the day I was so exhausted and in the mornings, I had to drag myself out of bed from being so tired from working the day before. 

Week of November 3rd

On Sunday, Nov. 3rd, I did take a walk around Lake Junaluska. It was a 3.5 mile walk and felt good to be outside. Tuesday, November 5th was Election Day so I never planned on doing any exercise. This was a 17 hour day for me. On Wednesday, Nov. 6th, I walked 3.5 miles home after dropping my car off at the garage for repairs. I then had to walk back to get it that same day so I walked 7 miles total. Why didn't I run? No idea. Would have been a good training. On Saturday, Nov. 9th, I ran 3.5 miles and it actually felt ok. I did have to walk some but overall, I felt ok. 

Week of November 10th

On Sunday, Nov. 10th, I hiked and saw 5 different waterfalls. I didn't do anything again until Saturday, Nov. 16th when I ran 3.5 miles again. This time I felt great and actually ran my fastest time for this route. 

Week of November 17th

On Sunday, Nov. 17th, I hiked Deerfield Loop which is a little over 4 miles. On Monday, I had to travel all day. On Tuesday, I did a little weight training at home with my dumbbells. That was all for this week. I traveled all day Thursday. Traveled again and stood up scanning ballots for 8 hours straight on Friday. Traveled again most of the day on Saturday the 23rd. 

Week of November 24th

On Sunday, Nov. 24th, I ran 5.32 miles and felt pretty good. I was only going to run 4 but I felt good so added a mile. On Monday I lifted weights at home after having stood for 8 hours scanning ballots again for the recount. On Tuesday, Nov. 26th, I was on the road all again delivering voting equipment. On Thursday the 28th, I hiked 4 miles at the arboretum. I finished the week on Saturday, Nov. 30th by doing 10 push ups. My left bicep has been hurting which I haven't mentioned but it's really strange. It feels so week and it hurts to lift anything. I cut my arm curls from 20lbs down to 15lbs. Long story short, 10 push ups was all I could squeeze out for fear of hurting my arm more. 

With less than 15 weeks left before the marathon, I need to get my act together. December has not been good and it's only the 2nd, but I'll save that for next time. I have no excuse for not running yesterday or today. I will do a short upper body workout tonight though. 

Marathon Training? Not So Much! Thank you Hurricane Helene!!

Last I wrote, things were going good. I had mentioned that the week of September 22nd I started with a 5.37 mile hike and that I was going to do my long run on Monday. I did. I was working out with dumb bells doing curls, triceps, push ups. I was eating a lower carb diet, but feeling totally fine with running. I was doing really well at keeping my carbs to 120 grams or less per day. I was losing weight, getting faster, feeling better, things were GREAT!! But let me tell you, it got crazy after that!

Week of Sept. 22nd

After the 5 plus mile hike on Sunday I went for my long run on Monday. I ran the farthest I've ever run: 14.05 miles in 3:20:52 which is a 14:18 pace. Not as fast as I'd like, but faster than I need to run to make the cutoff of 6.5 hours. I rested Tuesday and Wednesday I was going to run in the morning but work got crazy and I was taking phone calls. I figured that I'd run at night but it poured rain! 

On Thursday, I had to go to a county first thing and it poured ALL Day so I did not run. Friday the rain continued non-stop and late Friday early Saturday, Hurricane Helene arrived in Western North Carolina. We lost power, water, cable, internet, and even cell service. In the afternoon, when the storm left and the sun came out, I walked 3.1 miles to check on my daughter and then walked back home. Why? Gas stations were closed. Numerous roads were closed or impassible by car, etc. but since I couldn't reach anyone by phone, I walked to check on her.  

Week of Sept. 29th. 

On Monday, I walked 4.25 miles to the local County Board of Elections office so I could start assessing damage in my various counties. (Remember, I work for the State Board of Elections). I of course then walked home 4.25 miles. I repeated this again on Tuesday, walking a total of 8.5 miles or more, since I did a bit of side excursions to find food, water, etc. I was able to find gas Wednesday, but I was still walking places after work to find food and water each night for this week.

Week of Oct. 6th. 

I didn't run most of this week. Hard to run and get sweaty and gross and then have no way to shower, not to mention that trails, greenways were still closed. I did finally run on Friday, the 11th for 3.5 miles which felt really good overall but I could tell I hadn't run in awhile. Work was insane this week trying the help get counties back up and running. We did manage to go to a friend's place in Waynesville, NC and stayed there and once again had water and power and such, hence me running again. 

Week of Oct. 13th

On Sunday, I decided to try a semi-long run. I went out for 7 miles and ran it in 1:25:17. That's a 12:11 pace!! I was so happy and excited by my time/pace. The funny thing was that I wasn't even trying to run fast. I was just out exploring Waynesville. Sadly, work was insane and this was the only day I ran this week. 

I was supposed to have a half-marathon on the 13th but it was canceled due to storm damage on the greenway and rescheduled to November 2nd, which I can't do so I canceled my entry. 

Week of Oct. 20th.

Crazy work schedule and I didn't run. Phone calls early in the a.m. starting at 7 or earlier and calls as late as 9 p.m.

I'll save the week of Oct.27th for next time as I haven't run yet today, but plan to run later. I was on-call this morning until noon. 

Marathon Progress - So Far So Good

Back on July 29th I wrote about how I had signed up for a marathon, but I haven't been very good about documenting my experience. So here goes - 

July 2024

On July 17th, I decided to go for it and signed up for the Asheville Marathon. 26.2 Miles!! I have run several half-marathons but never a full. I'll be 57 by the time the marathon comes around but I really think I can do this. The hard part will be training around my crazy hours working in Elections. With this being a Presidential year, the overtime will be really rough so training will be scattered at best. 

The week of July 21st, on the Sunday after I signed up, rather than a long run, I hiked 6.4 miles. The next day I did run 4.13 miles on a very hilly course and I believe I wrote about that in my last post. I did another short hike of 2+ miles and two short runs of 1.5+ miles the rest of that week. 

The week of July 28th, was not the best of my efforts. On Sunday, rather than a long run, I hiked 3.7 miles. The rest of the week, I did another hike of 2.35 miles and two short runs of 1.54 miles. 

August 2024

The week of August 4th I was away at a conference but I was good and ran. On Sunday I ran a 10K - not a race, but why run 6 miles when you can run a 10K? That Thursday I ran my neighborhood run of 1.54 miles. 

The week of August 11th, I was not much better. I did run 7.54 miles for my Sunday long run but I only ran one other day that week for 1.54 miles. 

The week of August 18th, I did a long run of 7.88 which I thought would be 8 miles but my Fitbit messed up and tracked things wrong so I guessed. I later tracked my route on Footpath and found out I came up short. The rest of this week I hiked one day for about 90 minutes and then ran on Wednesday and Friday for 2.2 miles each. 

The week of August 25th I ran a Sunday long run and felt great! I went 10.64 miles and I ran it at a 13:28 pace. I'm still not sure how I managed that for 10 miles but like I said. I felt strangely really good. I should have documented the weather and what I ate but I hadn't thought of it. I only ran one other time this week for 2.64 miles but I did hike 4.2 miles. 

September 2024

Now we are up to September so I'll fill you in on the month so far. Work at this point has gotten crazy!  A lot of late nights and weekends proofing ballots, setting up an online portal for visually impaired as well as military and overseas voters. Of course we had to proof the regular ballots as well. However, once we had everything ready and ballots were set to be mailed, the courts got involved and made us change our ballots. We had to start everything all over from scratch to remove a candidate. This candidate sued to get on the ballot and then turned around sued to get taken back off. Talk about a major headache and SO MUCH unnecessary work!

Anyway, the week of September1, I backed off my long run and ran 8.08 miles. The rest of that week I hiked 2.5 miles one day and then ran two other days for 2.8 miles each time. I should have made it 3 miles but it's the route I experimented with. I was trying to find something new. 

The week of September 8th, I missed my Sunday run long due to work but made it up on Monday but running my longest run so far in this training which was 12 miles. Later that week, I ran 1.5 miles and 4.3 miles. Friday, Sept. 13th marked 30 days until the Half-Marathon I signed up for in Hendersonville. I can't wait to run it. My goal is go sub-3. Hard to believe in 2012 I ran sub-2 but that's what 12 years of not running will do to you. 

The week of September 15th, I also missed my Sunday run due to work but ran 8 miles on Monday. I wanted to go longer but I was running out of daylight with the sun setting earlier. That week, I ran 4.3 miles one day and 3.15 miles another day. I also took a 3 mile hike in the middle of the week. 

That brings us to this week. Did I do a long run today? No. But I did hike 5.37 miles and I plan to do my long run tomorrow. I will again run into the issue of running out of daylight, but I have an idea where I can do trails until dark and then snake my way home on streets after sunset. My area seems pretty well lit at night. I'll find out tomorrow. 

That's enough for now, but next time when I wrap up this month, I'll also cover my diet and weight training elements. 

I Must Be Crazy - I'm Running a Marathon

Well, I made the jump! I signed up for my first Marathon. It will be the Asheville Marathon in Asheville, NC on March 15th. Let me just say, I have my work cut out for me. For one, I know myself and I will procrastinate. so in an effort to keep myself on the straight and narrow, not only did I sign up for the Asheville Marathon, but I also signed up for a Half-Marathon in October and another that I will be signing up for that takes place in January. I figure that having these two on the race calendar will keep me motivated to actually put in the work even though March seems SO far away. 

In my last post, I mentioned how I mis-remembered the turnaround point and ran 5.5 miles instead of 4. That run was amazing for my confidence. In fact, I recently ran a 4 mile route that is super hilly and I ran the whole way and conquered all the hills. I was so excited and the Marathon seemed so possible!

Today, however...today was a different story. I didn't feel like running. I was dreading it on some level so my head definitely wasn't in the right place. But I made myself go anyway. It was hot, but I was OK. However, less than a mile into the 4 mile run I was going to do, my shins started getting really sore, really fast. I have no idea why. I've been stretching. I've been doing calf raises. I did notice that my form felt off and like I really couldn't get a good stride rhythm going. So maybe that was part of it. Everything just felt off and awkward. 

The really bad part though was what it did to my confidence. While walking back, it started to rain. I felt like I was in some bad movie scene where just when you think it can't get worse, it does by raining on the already defeated main character. Me. 

I know March is a ways away. I know I have time and that this was just a small speed bump. I didn't expect training to go super smoothly, I just didn't think I'd have issues this early on. One thing you can say about running is that it can humble you.  

So what will I do? First of all, I will think of all the positives. That I tried. That I've been hurt before, but got past it. I will focus on the future but I will also fix the past. I put on my coach hat and reviewed my plan and what I realized was this. I have not been putting in the work I mapped out. I've been active every day. Hikes, walks, some runs. But not the running I had in my plan. I would hike or walk and then the rest of the day would slip by. I was telling myself it was fine. It was not fine. For me and looking back at my running journal - I lack consistency. And today was my body letting me know. 

Considering Running A Marathon. Am I Crazy?

Lately, I keep having this "crazy" idea that I want to run a marathon. Back in high school, in the 1980's, I wanted to run one, but I never did. Before I had the chance, I moved to Miami and struggled to acclimate to the heat. I had grown up in Minnesota so you can imagine the change. Just for reference, I now live in North Carolina but the summers are still crazy hot here. But at least there's some semblance of  seasons. 

I've been a runner pretty much the whole time. However, Between 1998 when my first child was born and today it's been sporadic at best. I'd say the last time I was in decent shape still was in 2012 when I broke 2 hours for the Half. I ran a 1:57 and really did not train at all. In 2013 I ran another Half-Marathon with no training but was a little over 2 Hours. Why does it matter the times? Well, after that Half, I pretty much stopped running. I would run a 5K here or there, but nothing consistent. 

In 2018, I ran a 10K with my son and after the award ceremony, I could barely walk to the car. I was in excruciating pain! I tried to rest, I tried to stretch, but nothing really helped. I had a horrible case of Plantar Fasciitis. Literally a couple of years went by but every time I thought I had taken enough time off, the pain would come back the moment I ran. 

Long story short, I switched to minimalist shoes after reading Born to Run and it changed everything! I trained and ran, completely pain free, a Half in 2022, but my time was 3 hours and 6 minutes. 

So - Knowing all that, I am now in a situation where I find myself regretting that I ever stopped running. And I'm having regrets that I never took on the Marathon. There's one coming up in March, 2025 here in Asheville where I live. It's incredibly flat so it seems like the ideal introduction to the Marathon. If I attempt it, I would not be looking to compete at all obviously. My goal would be to just complete it and beat the cutoff time of 6.5 hours. 

So, why am I crazy? I work in Elections. Is it crazy to try to train for a Marathon during a Presidential Election year when I'm working 60+ hour weeks? Is it crazy to train for a marathon in barefoot-style shoes? Is it crazy to train for your first Marathon at age 57? The answer to all of this is - maybe. 

However, here's my thoughts: 

• If not now, when? Yes, it will be hard to train with work being so crazy, but I'll have all Summer and Fall to ramp up mileage and save the really long runs for December, January and February - my favorite months due to the temperature. 
• I'm never going to be this young again and I'm sure there have been people that ran their first marathon later than this. 
• The Tarahumara runners mentioned in the book, Born to Run, run ultras in sandals. There are also completely barefoot distance runners such as Zola Budd in the 1984 Olympics and Abebe Bikila in the 1960 marathon. He won in Olympic record time running barefoot!  

So - Registration opens up for the March Marathon in Asheville on July 17th. I have about a week to decide. 

Yesterday, I went out for a four mile run. But it had been so long since I had run on the greenway, I remembered the 2 mile turnaround incorrectly. Instead of 4 miles, I ran 5.57! I was going really slow and didn't want to look at my watch for fear it would take me out of my running trance, which is why I wasn't aware of the 2 mile mark. What was so great about this run was that even though I was slow, I ran the whole time. Just two weeks before I had tried to run 3 miles and had to walk two different times. This got me thinking that with the right mental state, I can actually train for and run a Marathon. 

I know this sounds weird - saying "maybe I can actually run a marathon" - I have coached numerous people to their first marathon so I don't know why I should be any different. I guess we all have those demons that sit on our shoulder and tell us we aren't good enough. I ran again tonight for just a short run and felt good. All signs are pointing to me signing up for a Marathon next week. I'll keep you posted!