Beach Week and Week 4

On the road again...

So thankfully, I'm more faithful with my running than I am with my blogging. Though I haven't added a post in over a week, I've kept to my training schedule with only a few minor changes during Beach Week in VA.

On Monday of Beach Week, I jogged the perscribed 4 miles up and down the Sandfiddler and Sandpiper Roads in Sandbridge. It turned out there was a perfect 2 mile loop starting from the house my family rents, north as far as I could go, then back around on the second street off the beach to Marlin, then back to the Regency.

I took that run really light and slow and just enjoyed being in VA and running with the sounds and smells of the ocean just behind the houses on my right.

Tuesday, the schedule has a rest day, but I was feeling good, and my brother was going to run anyway, so I did 4 easy miles with him, then finished 2 more miles a quicker pace including a .3 mile kick at the end that really burned.

Wednesday, I rested and Thursday did 6 more miles at a moderate pace though the schedule called for 5. Since we were leaving on Saturday, and I guessed I wouldn't have time to run, then come back and pack and leave, I did my Saturday long distance run on Friday.

I ended up going almost all the way down to Back Bay Wildlife Refuge area before turning around and doing the 2 mile loop once. That worked out to be a long 10.2 miles. The schedule called for 11 and I felt bad for stopping early, but the last 6 miles were into a stiff headwind, and I had not rested the day before as the schedule had suggested so the work done, I think, by running on consecutive days in addition to the wind, was about the same had I made that last .8 miles. I also tried to keep in mind that I had run 1 more mile than the training schedule said to on Thursday.

All in all it was a pretty good week of training. I didn't splurge too much on soda while I was there and managed to eat relatively healthy meals most of the week.

Now I'm back in Colorado, and working on my next week. Monday mileage has gone to 5 miles and I ran early in the morning. It was tough. Not only was I expecting only 4, but I had not eaten yet, and was running low on calories. Also, because I did the Saturday run on the Friday before, I had a two day rest which I think hurt me a little more than I would have though. I really didn't feel like running.

Today I had a 6 mile run which I got done about 2 pm. It is very hot, so I've been trying to up my water intake as much as possible. I am, thanks to my wife, eating plenty of bananas since Nora likes them for breakfast, but usually only eats about 1/2 to 3/4 of one. So I get at least half a banana every day. I've cut out beer almost completely, though I'll allow myself to indulge a bit on the weekends or in social situations.

I am losing weight steadily. I'm down to 155 which is still about 5 lbs heavier than I was when I got back from basic training, but I think it's the lightest I've been since being back from Cuba. So I'm happy with that. I certainly don't want to run myself into being one of those skin-and-bones runners that look like a stiff wind could break their bones, so on my off days I'm continuing to do a little weightlifting focusing on my back, arms, chest and abs.

Well, run tomorrow that should be 5 miles so I'll try to get back on here after that.

Week 2: Day 6

This morning when I came home from work, I reset my trip odometer at one of my known mileage points and proceeded to drive 3.5 miles more to mark out my 9 mile run for today.
Since it was my first day of work (my Monday in Dispatch Talk), and I had not slept at all yesterday afternoon but worked through the night on the sleep I got Thursday night, my concentration level was down.

I was anxious to get back home, crawl into bed and get a few hours sleep before the longest run to date in my training program. Even when I was driving it (and this should have been where I realized I was making a mistake) it seemed like an awful long 4.5 miles from home. My turn around point ended up being directly in front of Grandview High School on Arapahoe Road.

But, I thought, "Hey, this is the longest run I've done so far, it's bound to feel long." I turned around, drove home and went to bed.

About 4 and a half hours later, I woke up to the sound of jet fighters (F-16's) flying around the area. Since I have trouble getting back to sleep once I've gotten even 2 or 3 hours, I laced up my shoes and hit the road.

I started nice and slow, and figured it was more about getting the miles in than any kind of time target. While I was running I did see a flight of 4 F-16s flying in formation in circles around the area. I imagined they were practicing their fly-over formation for the festivities tonight since it's Independence Day.

But I was jogging and thinking about this and I realized that I restarted my odometer at the 1.5 mile mark, not the 1 mile mark. If I went all the way to the turn-around I picked out earlier in the morning I'd have gone 5 miles from home resulting in a total 10 miles. Worse than that, I had no idea where my actual turn-around should have been.

Arapahoe Rd is beautiful this far east and reminds me of Virginia. There are gentle ups and downs, no sidewalks, washed out shoulders, and vegetation growing right to the edge of the pavement in places. The weather too, was cooperating and the sun stayed hidden for much of the early morning and temps weren't too high. There was even a refreshing breeze that promised some rain later in the day if not an exact replay of the tempests that swept through the area yesterday.

So I did all 10. I felt good. Made sure not to push too hard, and just enjoyed the long slow run. I recall having done 10 mile runs about 1 time a week through my senior year of high school, maybe a little less if there were several soccer teams I was playing on. But I would run down 622, cross at English Tavern, then over to Sunnymeade (sp), up that steep curving hill and down the other side, then out 677 to some railroad tracks just past the rock quary. I did that run almost regularly. Those were good runs.

Anyways... training for today complete. I've got work tonight, but I leave 2 hours early for Virginia!

Week 2: Days 3,4,and 5

On Tuesday, Septemper 23, 1997 I ran 19.2 miles without stopping. Now I'm training for a marathon and you can follow my progress here.

I'm nearing the end of my second week of training (week 4 on the schedule in order to meet the training deadline). On Monday, I wrote that I ran 4 miles. After writing, I did a second 4 miles bringing to total for Monday to 8 miles.

Tuesday was a rest day and I did Push-Up, Sit-Up improvement--doing each of the two exercises for 2 minutes, then 1 minute. For Push-Ups, I managed 65 in two minutes, and 34 in one minute. For Sit-Ups, 53 in two, and 38 in one.

Before the end of our deployment in Cuba, I was doing over a hundred of each in the two minute time limits.

On Wednesday, I did a slow 6 miles and felt pretty good. I have found that running without an iPod makes me run faster though it is harder because there is less distraction for the mind. Time for the 6 miles was about 53 minutes.

Thursday, following the training schedule I did 4 miles early in the morning. I went out before I ate, and really didn't have a good evening meal the night before so I knew my energy would be low. So the 4 miles, again done without music or timer, took me about 33 minutes.

I'd really like to get my per mile time down to 8 minutes instead of the 8.5 to 9 that it is now. For that, I might have to add in some kind of speed work on a day off. Or, if I join a soccer team, that should probably do it. Fencing hasn't really helped my speed, but my leg strength is pretty good.

Long story short, the training is going well, and I feel like the acceleration won't be too much to handle.

Nine miles on tap for tomorrow so for today I am resting. I won't be doing any kind of weights or swimming so that I can make sure I have enough calories for tomorrow's run. I'll have to check where the 4.5 mile turn around is since I've learned I can't really depend on the mapquest mileage.

September 20th will come soon enough and I've got a lot of miles to go--407 including Saturday--hopefully I won't be hampered by injuries of any kind.

For beach week, I'm going to combine the Wednesday and Thursday runs into one day, and run Saturday's run on Friday. That way I'm only running 3 days, but I'm not sacrificing any mileage. In fact, I'll be doing 11 miles on both Wednesday, and Friday. I wonder how that will effect my longer runs--if doing those two in one week will help me with those slower, longer mileage days.

Right now, I'm back down to about 156 lbs. This is the first week I've weighed that little since before Nora was born. I'm guessing I'll get down to about 150lbs. I stayed at that weight during basic training which during which my body fat percentage dipped pretty low. I think it will dip a little lower here, but I've added more muscle than I had in 2001 and 2002 so I think I'll stay right around 150 lbs in the next several weeks. I could be wrong, by a pound or two in either direction, but I think that sounds reasonable.

While my body is adjusting to ever increasing mileage every week, I'll continue to lose, until I get to a point where I'm eating the calories I'm burning and there aren't many more calories for me to burn off as fat.

Keeping hydrated is one of the tougher challenges. I've been weighing myself before and after my runs to make sure I get the water weight back, but I really don't like drinking water that much.

Well, time to go rest and get ready for vacation!