Praying and Running

As you may already be aware I pinched a nerve in my right leg at the end of October. The pinched nerve kept me out of running for a full 8 weeks. During this time I cross trained like a boss with pool running, cycling, arc trainer. That might be good enough for some people to stay in reasonable shape but when I pinched the nerve I was in the best shape of my life. I was a finely tuned machine that was crushing workouts and destroying PRs and it would prove to not be any where close to enough to maintain that level of fitness. I have always used an 18 week training cycle but this time the injury still had me relegated to the aforementioned cross training when the start of the cycle came around. By the time I was back to running I was really out of shape and there was no way I could jump into my usual marathon build up: 7 mile runs were leaving me feeling like I got hit by a truck. I decided to use an abbreviated 12 week cycle and use the 4 or 5 weeks I had until then to just to get my...

The weekend, March 12, 2016 I ran the Land Between the Lakes Trail Marathon. This marathon is run along with options for 50 miles, 60k, and 24k (a little over a half marathon) at the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Kentucky which is a little over a 5 hour drive from my house. I ran, and won, this marathon last year but due to heavy snow and rain in the weeks proceeding it last year it was moved to the roads. So, while I ran it last year, this year was truly my first "trail' marathon and I had no idea what I was in for. As with last year, the purpose of this race was "marathon-as-a-training-run" for Carmel Marathon in April. The goal was to finish the distance and need as little recovery as possible after. Meaning I wasn't planning on going into this and trying to win. I knew I wanted to run slow enough to keep the damage to a minimum. So my plan was maybe 7:30 for the first half and 7:15 for the second if I felt good. That is a minute sl...

I really just finished week 5 according to the plan with the week late start mentioned in the previous training update. About that plan, it went pretty much by the way side over the last couple of weeks due in large part to running Blister in the Sun Marathon on Sunday the 8/2/2015. More on that when I get to it. As I eluded to in my last post, I have really been struggling with getting going in this cycle and I think a lot of it had to do with the vacation to California and then rushing and trying to cram workouts in to get caught up. In the future I think I would simply trust my fitness enough to know that I could have sacrificed that first week and maybe even the second week in order to not start out the cycle stressed and tired. Enough with the psychology and on to the training. Week 4 only had 1 real workout which was a 20 mile long run and 2 other "kinda" workouts with 14 and 12 mile medium long runs. No tempo or race pace workouts scheduled but I skipped the race...

Race Stats Date 1/18/2015 (7:05 AM) Gun Time: 3:40:50 Chip Time: 3:40:45 Overall 1/136 Male 1/63 For Christmas this year I received a trip to Florida and entry into the Clearwater Distance Classic 50k from my wife and daughters. I had been looking for a couple of 50ks to include as extra-long long runs in my training for the Carmel Marathon this year. In the past I have just done these as self-supported runs but that is a very daunting way to go about it. I figured with a fully supported race and plenty of other runners it wouldn't be such a mental task. My wife and I left for Florida on Thursday afternoon. We flew out of Indianapolis and into Tampa Bay. It was great to get away from the single digit temperatures for a few days. The race wasn't until Sunday so the plan was to spend a few nights at our favorite Disney resort and then drive down to Clearwater on Saturday Morning and check into our hotel for a couple of nights on the beach. I slept remarkably well Satur...

Training Details 18 Weeks Total 8 weeks with more than 80 running miles 2 week in a row at 100 running miles 10 runs of 20 miles or more 2 runs of full marathon distance Race Details Finish Time 2:49:46 62nd/3725 52nd/2163 5th/354 Age Group (40-45 male) Negative Split (My first in a marathon) 1st half 1:25:15 2nd half 1:24:31 The best short description of this race would have to be the perfect end to the perfect training cycle. The long description follows. My goal for this race was simple. Crush my PR by running under 2:50 and show the marathon who's boss. Based on my training and tune up races everything looked to be set. All I had to do was go out and execute. Then the weather forecast stared coming in. Cold and windy. In fact the forecasted winds were 15 to 20 MPH and the wind chill a cold 18* for the start and it wasn't going to warm up much. At first I was a bit disheartened but then I decided I had worked way too hard to sacrifice my goal and the fir...

I am about 6 weeks out from the  Indianapolis Monumental Marathon . I haven't blogged to much about my training to date but I am currently on week 12 of an 18 week cycle that peaks at around 90 miles per week. As usual I have been running a lot of 20 and 20+ mile runs. More than prescribed because it works well for me. I have also been pushing the pace because my primary goal is to drop about 3 minutes and 30 seconds from my marathon PR which is currently 2:53:28. While that might not sound like I knew when I set it that it would require a lot of work...hard work. With that in mind, this morning I ran a tough workout that was not on my schedule. The workout was a total of 22 miles and required me to run at goal pace and faster for about 8 miles after I was already 12 miles into the run with my legs good and tired. In this workout each 6 and a half minute segment begins at 10k pace, pretty hard but sustainable, for a minute and a half and then finishes with 5 minutes at goal mar...

OK, let's get it out of the way to begin with. The race was the definition of suffer-fest. It took me nearly a month to recover mentally. If this is the first post of mine you have read, I spent the last 8 weeks of the cycle literally limping by with a strained groin muscle so when I toed the line on 4/21, muscle still pulled, I was as under-trained as I have ever been heading into a race.. All of that aside, before the injury I was in the best shape of my life and by a whole lot at that. I had a very aggressive goal of 2:49:59 and the week or so before I got hurt I was thinking that I would be in shape to make 2:49:59 look like child's play. I had 8 or 9 weeks left and I could have run a 2:49:59 at  that point. In fact on 2/22/2014 I ran a very tough workout. It was supposed to be 16 miles with 12 at marathon pace. I felt so good I tacked another 4 on the end for a cool down. I just remember how satisfied I was with that run. You can read about it yourself here. This ...

For the last 2 and a half years I have had a singular focus; to run the Boston Marathon. Why? Because it is the super bowl of running. Because it is a legendary and challenging course and because it is the most iconic marathon finish line in the history of the sport. Merely qualifying for the marathon is a badge of honor among runners and is something that they aspire to and once they have completed it, it is a cherished moment for the rest of their lives. It was a lofty goal by most accounts and one a lot of people didn't think I could achieve given my background and fitness level. In order to accomplish my goal, I ran. A lot. I ran 2700 miles in 2012 and 3000 miles in 2013 and about 900 in the first 3 and a half months of 2014. I trained in the early morning hours well before the sun was up and in whatever Mother Nature threw at me. I wore out countless pairs of running shoes and although they never complained I’m sure I wore out my wife and daughters’ patience. But on Monday A...

I feel very sorry for people who get hung up on fad exercise and diets. I watch you flail and fail and try again with the next fad. Never getting where you want to be. Never getting to know what it feels like to be healthy. Never understanding what fitness is and how it changes every aspect of your life. You never get there because the fads get in your way.  If you really want to get healthy I'll tell you how. It is plain. It's simple. I can't write an entire book or books about it and I can't dedicate an entire website to it. There just isn't that much to say about it. Remember, this is coming from a guy who was 50 lbs over weight and growing, smoked 2 packs a day, guzzled Coke like you can't even imagine and ate pizza more days a week than not.  Here is it, don't blink because you'll miss it. Move more, eat less and eat better .  That's all. OK, fine a little explanation. Just to prove it really is that simple because I know you think there...

Training Stats Number of week -- 18 (7/1/2013 - 11/2/2013) Total miles -- 1199 Average daily miles -- 8.5 Longest run -- 26.2 (Fox Valley Marathon) Peak weekly mileage -- 88 Average pace -- 7:30 Number of 20 + mile runs -- 8 Race Stats Goal -- 2:54:59 Actual Time -- 2:53:28 (PR) Avg HR -- 165 (92% of Maximum Heart Rate MHR) Peak HR -- 175 (97% of MHR) Avg pace -- 6:36 Finished 62/3494 Overall 51/1994 Men 5/334 40-44 Age Group First half 1:26:16 Second half 1:27:11 I ran a strong race as shown by continually moving up in ranking through the race 101st @ 10k 88th in the first half 79th @ 30k 59th in the last half The Monumental starts and finishes in downtown Indianapolis so to avoid the stress of travel on race day we stayed in a hotel just a couple of blocks from the start line. We checked in early afternoon on Friday hit the expo, did packet pickup and then headed over to the Spaghetti Factory for some serious carb loading. After dinner we drove the course ...

This morning my daughter is on her way to a cross country meet and I wish I was going to watch. If I were there I would remind her of this before her race. The feeling you get when you are running as hard as you can, your gut turning to liquid and being as close to puking as possible, your legs turning to jello and your lungs screaming for relief. All of that goes away within a matter of seconds after crossing the finish line. But the feeling of satisfaction, knowing you gave it everything you have,the pride of a shiny new PR and the disappointment of your rivals.That lasts much longer. So go, give it all you've got and never, ever be afraid to puke. But then again I know she's not afraid to puke. I know she's going to give it all she's got. I know because I've seen it before.

This has quickly become one of my favorite races of the year and I am not alone because there was a record 575 participants across the different events this year. I like the small town atmosphere, I like the course that is an out and back on a country road, and the timing makes it a perfect tune up race for the fall season. After my performance here the last two years I am also really beginning to appreciate it for the confidence booster it is and it's ability to add a breath of fresh air to the end of the training cycle for the 2013 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. For this race I added an early morning shake out run to get my body primed for running. This was just a short and easy 20 minute run very first thing out of bed. Nearly all of my running is first thing in the morning but  I've never done it as a shakeout for a race. I liked it and think I'll keep it. The last 5k I ran I didn't do a warm up and I learned my lesson because it cost me a very slow fi...

It wasn't exactly a race for me but more like a training run. I used this marathon as one of two extended long runs that I planned for this training cycle preparing for the goal race, the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon on November 2nd, 2013. When this cycle started I had planned the same 2 extra long runs that I did last time. A 25 mile run and a 30 mile run. Then in early August the Carmel Marathon had a facebook contest to win 1 of 2 entries to this race. I won one of them and decided to swap out the 30 mile run thinking it would be way better to run 26.2 with full support, other runners and spectators. It was a Sunday marathon 3.5 hrs away so we got to town the day before and spent the night. The first order of business was packet pickup. My first complaint about the race is that the expo was in way too small of a space. Then when I got to the table to get my packet they handed me a medium shirt. I don't wear a medium, I wear a small. They couldn't do anything abou...