20 Deer , 1 Skunk, and an Earth Day Challenge

Well, I arrived in the Buckeye State in the wee hours of Friday. 9 hours and 2 movies later, it was just me, Nancy and Leopold who were still awake.


Yesterday, I ran an easy 3-miler on the beautiful Kokosing Trail with Nancy, Ty and Leopold. Considering how my runs have been going lately, I was slightly trepidatious as we set out. However, I immediately knew that I felt GREAT. My legs felt fresh and springy. Amazing! It sent a chill up my spine.


That was yesterday. Today is very low key. Just a lot of relaxing, eating and stayin' off the feet as much as possible. Ssnarfing up the carbs like a rabid Ms. Pac Man.


Also, yesterday: we saw 20 deer and a skunk. Yep. There are so many deer here, we started keeping count. As we gathered around our awesome bonfire last night, roasting marshmallows, we heard a branch snap nearby. We thought we were about to witness our 21st sighting of deer, but lo and behold, the flash light revealed a... SKUNK. Visions of winning my race by default immediately flashed in my brain. Just so ya know, those are not the first thoughts of a normal person when they see a skunk. Hey, I don't care how I win, I thought...


Yes, I am given to flights of fancy. I dreamt I won the 100-meter final in the Olympics, too. Let me be. It's all I have.


So, now we're (and when I say we're I mean Nancy) making dinner, and preparing our race gear for the morning. I'm beginning to get excited. I'm getting some serious good good vibes about tomorrow. I'm strangely relaxed. I'm sure if Nancy had a blog, she's be busy typing away right now, about how she's been feeding me valium in my snacks..


Before I go, a shout out to everyone for their great comments and solid support. All my blogger friends mean so much to me. I feel stupid saying that, but it's true. Earlier, I was thinking about The Sean and LawMonkey, who raced today. Guys, if you felt a sudden jolt of adrenalin, you can thank me later:).


I hope I get to meet the awesome AZ tomorrow. Considering there's 500 people in the race, there's a pretty good chance (because he probably has nothing better to do than to wait a full 45 minutes for me to finish).


Wish me luck!

Commence Countdown

I've begun thinking of my race in terms of how many key workouts I have left.

That number is 3.

As in, 3, 2, 1... commence marathon.

1. Today -15 miles with the last 8-10 miles at marathon pace.

2. Saturday- 3 x 2 miles at Tempo Pace with a 1/2 mile steady recovery in between.

3. Wednesday- 8 miles, with the last 3 at marathon pace.

Sunday, April 25th is the Marathon.

...Good thing I'm not thinking of the marathon in terms of how cool Chuck Norris is.

QUE THE LIST!

Chuck Norris is so cool he can choke you with a cordless phone.

Chuck Norris Counted to infinity... Twice.

When Chuck Norris does push-ups he pushes the earth down.

Chuck Norris can split the atom. With his bare hands.

Chuck Norris almost got struck by lightning, but then it got scared and swerved.

Chuck Norris doesn't bowl strikes, he knocks 1 pin down and the other 9 faint.

When God said "let their be light," Chuck Norris said "say 'please'".

Put "Chuck Norris" for every answer on your SAT's. You'll score double 800's.

Happy hump day, everyone!

Adjusting to Adjustments

Five weeks in, I finally feel in sync with my training plan. Making changes to my established marathon plan was difficult in a number of ways, but I’m convinced it will ultimately pay off.

For the last two marathons I’ve run, I followed Matt Fitzgerald’s (Brain Training) Plans. I used his Intermediate Plan for Buffalo, then moved up to the Advanced Plan for Charlotte. Both plans were 24 weeks long, with step back weeks culminating in a race every 4 weeks. Each of these training cycles produced PR’s for me in the 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, and Marathon distances. That’s pretty successful by anyone’s standards. So, why change?

First, in both training cycles, I felt like I peaked too soon. I felt as if I’d peaked 4 weeks too early in the Buffalo Marathon. For Charlotte’s Thunder Road last month, it was even worse. I felt like I had peaked right after my 10K race in October- nearly 2 months before the marathon! Also, my experience in Charlotte suggested that I need either 1) more miles at tempo and marathon pace, or 2) the same amount, but to reduce the amount of speed work I’m doing at the point where I feel the quality of the longer marathon pace workouts slipping.

My new plan is a Brad Hudson hybrid plan. Originally, 12 weeks long, I’ve extended it to 16 weeks by repeating the first 4 weeks. Running Drills have been added and 10 x 100 Striders replace the Mixed Interval sessions. There are other differences, too.

Instead of running easy following a key workout, you run at steady training pace. (The idea being that Tempo and MP runs shouldn’t feel so hard that you need drastic amounts of recovery from a few miles of it).

As the workouts get easier to do, you increase the pace of the recovery effort, not the pace of the MP sections.

As the hard days get harder and longer, you ease back on the pace of your other runs.


So basically, my running week now looks like this:

Sunday - Long Run (Progression, MP, or Steady)
Monday - Rest
Tuesday - Strength Training (a.m.)/ Drills + EZ Run 20-50 min. (p.m.)
Wednesday - Base Run (6-10 mi.)
Thursday - Intervals or Tempo Run (HM pace or M pace)
Friday - Strength Training (a.m.)/ Base Run (6-10 mi.) p.m.+ 10 x 100 Striders
Saturday - EZ Run (walk-run with kids training for the HM)

I may further tweak this Plan and use it for either the next marathon or my attempt at 50K. I would somehow like to re-incorporate (is that even a word?) the 4-week cycles that culminate in a step-down week and race: Running shorter races that you feel you've peaked for is just too much fun to give up.

[ORN: Obligatory Running Note] 6 mile base pace run last night in 57:00 (9:31 pace). I felt especially strong last night. Not so much "strong" as efficient- running faster using less effort. It was very enjoyable. I left the iPod at home, and I noticed how much more I tuned in to my running. I felt like I was making constant small adjustments to pace and body carriage yesterday. (Perhaps the iPod prevents making these constant refinements..?)