Week 8 -- toughest week thus far

i did 33 miles this week, including a 13-mile long run yesterday. tuesday's run was by far the most painful; thursday's: the most difficult to finish--a mile in and i wanted to just stop. my long run went ok, though i didn't have my normal bounce and finished with little in reserve. today's run went ok. my legs feel really, really strong. thankfully, week 9 is a recovery week, including a long run of only 10 or 11 miles. i'll do 15 or 16 the following week. looking back at my week 8 long run of 2007, of which i did about 13 miles, as well, my pace was about 10 seconds slower, but i noted that i felt extremely strong finishing. i think i might have pushed too hard the past two weeks, but i'm glad i caught it when i did. i'm going to go completely on feel this week and recover the right way. cheers. //ryan

people's state forest -- barkhamsted, ct

I did my long run here on Saturday and woke up on Sunday with a tick in my upper back. My mother irresponsibly went to town on it and pulled it off in several pieces. We're pretty sure that she got it all. My doctor called in a prescription for two doses of an antibiotic. There's a Summary of Tick Testing Results for 2008 on the CT Dept. of Agriculture's website. In Barkamsted, one of four ticks tested positive for Lyme Disease.

Marathon Training -- Week 6

I had a breakthrough in fitness this week. It seems like once you break 20 miles per week for a few weeks, the gains are huge. I did a 5 plus mile training run tonight at 8:45 pace. I haven't been able to run this pace at that distance as comfortably as I did tonight since the latter weeks of my first marathon buildup. Going into this buildup, I must have been fitter than I was going into my first buildup. I bet the shoes--Nike Lunar Trainer+--have something to do with it, too. I have much stronger feet. My turnover is solid. Everything feels even, comfortable, and I'm up on my toes and flying the whole time. I'm going for eleven miles this weekend. I've made a vow not to race during this buildup. I think that it really threw off my first marathon buildup. I did three races and it only further injured my foot. I know that my foot is healed now, but I don't want to jeopardize this solid buildup thus far.

Marathon Training -- Week 4

I don't know if it's that I'm just fitter or not holding back due to an injured foot this time around, but I'm training at about a minute per mile faster than I did two years ago. I'm beating up my legs pretty good. My feet feel fine. I've gone back and looked at my early marathon training of two years ago and noticed a pattern of nagging aches and pains in my left knee and right shin. I also struggled with a sore right hip. After about 6 weeks of training, all of these issues worked themselves out. I don't have any of those this time around, hence my beating up on my legs a bit more than I probably should. I want to be stronger in the last four miles of this marathon. My pace dropped off two and a half minutes after 22 miles of my first marathon. I don't want that to happen in SF. I want to run an even-paced marathon. I don't know if it's going to be in sensible pacing or preparing my legs for the last few miles that will allow me to do this. I have to figure this out.

Good Article About Training and Improving

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/health/nutrition/23best.html?em

I thought this was a good article. Makes me think I need to get my lazy ass on some kind of a training program again.

Boston Marathon

My predictions, Tune and Merga, finished 2nd and 1st, respectively. Tune collapsed at the finish. Goucher (2:32) and Hall (2:09) both finished 3rd. At last, podium spots for Americans. I really thought that Goucher had this, but her pushing over the last five miles apparently took a lot out of her. When the lead pack dropped Hall, I knew he wasn't out of it. He battled back but didn't have enough to outrun Merga and Rono. The guy's an aerobic monster and showed some real stones beating up on four of five Kenyans. Unfortunately, Merga's stones have stones, so...

Judging by this 8-mile tempo run, Hall may win Boston. Does anyone know if it will be televised?

This a test from my iPhone.

Second week of marathon training

Looking back on my first marathon buildup, on July 3, 2007, my first workout of my second week of marathon training, I was between 5 and 8 pounds heavier than I am now at the same point in my second marathon buildup. I'm also completely vegan now. I don't know how this will affect my training, but I can already tell that I will need to consume more calories during the day. My habit is to back-load my day. I always eat some semblance of a breakfast, scant little for lunch, and the lion's share of my calories for dinner. This has not translated into my best performances. Maybe more moujadra from Mamoun's will do the trick.

Ryan's marathon training plan revealed...again

This is the same plan that I followed for the Hartford Marathon. I was a slave to this plan and got pretty fit--fit enough to think that I could actually run a 3:30 marathon with my initial goal at 4:00. Given my history of injury, I think a good goal for the SF marathon is 4:00 (or to just finish)...for real. The idea is not to run my fastest marathon but to travel the country and see SF. I hope that I will remember this when I want to push myself.

To ensure that I get all 16 weeks of training in, I must start the marathon-specific workouts tomorrow. Since having the hardware removed from my left foot, I've been running 10-20 miles per week in Nike Free. There are about 220 miles on them. I'm going to continue using these for my shorter runs but need to decide on a more supportive shoe for my longer runs. I think I'm going to go with the Asics DS Trainer. I tried this on once and remember liking its feel but didn't buy it because they wanted way too much money for it. The current model is 14. Maybe I can find a 12 or 13 at a discounted price.

Road Trip and San Francisco Marathon

I've decided to spend my summer vacation on the road to California and back. Originally, my idea for a summer vacation was a road trip across the country, hitting the northern states on the way out and the southern states on the way back. Then, I got the brilliant idea to couple the trip with a marathon somewhere along the way. I registered for the San Francisco Marathon today. It seemed the perfect marathon, as it's in California, my final destination to the west, and it gives me exactly 16 weeks to train. The marathon is on July 26.

another (short) break from running

With a slight cold and no appetite this week, my running really suffered. I won't be doing a long run this weekend--only four or five miles--or next weekend, as I'm having all four of my wisdom teeth extracted on Friday, March 27. My two top wisdom teeth are erupted. My two bottom wisdom teeth are impacted. The two top ones will be pulled out--it's as simple as that. It's not so simple with the two bottom ones, which will have to be cut in half and extracted using special elevation tools. I assume I'll be in some pain and unable to run for at least a few days. I have to use prescription mouthwash (as seen in the only photo of mouthwash appearing in this post) for the two days prior to the surgery and for the ten days following the surgery.

I'm in the market for a more supportive shoe for only my long runs. The Nike Free 3.0 do not provide enough support in the latter miles of my long runs when my feet start to get sloppy. There are about 200 miles on my Frees (see photos above). They have held up better than expected. I plan to continue using them for my weekday runs.