Headcheese

I took today has a rest day, hopefully get a good run in tomorrow. Sure was tough not to go out there in those sunny single digits but Im managing. Would think after running 6 days in a row I would be happy to take a day off but if it was warmer I think I would be real tempted to go out but probably for the best I dont. At least I keep telling myself that.

My new book I ordered from Amazon.com arrived today, Amazon.com: advanced marathoning, I have only skimmed thru it so far. I probably read it for most part over the next week. If I dont read it all tonight. For Cleveland marathon this year and last year I made my own training plan based on what I read in Bob Glover's book and Hal Higdon's website. When I ran the Towpath Marathon I just ran long every other week based it on article in TrailRunners magazine, "Run a marathon and still have time for sex" training plan. It said it would get you to finish line but dont have any time goals. Which is what I did, I finished that one. Now I think for my next Marathon, after Cleveland, I may go a bit more aggressive. I am going after a goal in Cleveland of 4:15, and pretty much have my training plan in place. My one problem is I would like to run Akron Marathon in September its 19 weeks after Cleveland. I guess that aint a problem.

Salami

I got in 4 cold, slushy miles. Winchill was 4*, actual temp was 17*. I have decided not to worry about hitting an alltime high total for Feb. I decided this based on 3 things:



1. Think I need a rest day. Feeling a twinge in calf.



2. The weather. I cut todays short because of it.



3. My plan for this week was to get in mid 30's. I have 13 right now and plan/hope to be in 15 to 17 area on Sunday. I know I will be 13 because of the half but keep saying I am going to run a couple extra before and/or after it to make it more of a long run. So if I get to 18-22 miles thur Saturday I will be good.



4. Oh, also the fact with the 3 long runs in March I should put more miles in then this month either way if all goes good. (knock on wood.)



Plus I was going to take 2 days off this week. Which would mean taking 2 days off between thursday, friday and saturday. Right now I plan the plan is take thursday off, run 5 on friday and decide saturday by how I feel. If I run it will be short and easy 3 or 4 miles.

Numbers

Trying not to play the numbers game. If I run enough this February will be the most miles I have ever run. I dont think I should just run them to be able to say that. Even though I hope to run more the next couple months. Either way it will be close. Real close. Most ever was 148.3. Im currently at 136.6 and debating whether to take 1 or 2 rest days this week. It may depend on how much I work the next couple days. I do want to take either Friday or Saturday has a rest day for Distance Classic on Sunday. I am using it has a long run and not going for a certain time or tapering for it. But dont want to go way overboard with mileage, just be in mid 30's like I feel I should be right now. But so tempting to go for it. And March should be a big month since I have 3 long runs planned. Plus hope to continue pushing weekly mileage upward. And if weather improves like it should it will be so much nicer then the cold, snow and slush I been running in.

Got in 4 miles at a real easy pace. They calling for a winter storm to start tomorrow, hoping the worse of it misses here. At least by running today I can take tomorrrow or wednesday has rest days if its real bad or cold out. Yep checking weather report to plan my run schedule. Im signed up for a half marathon next Sunday so I wont over do it this week. Already got my number and shirt. Its a burgandy running vest. I wont wear it till after race, call me superstious. Its first time I ever had a running vest so now to figure out when to wear it.

2/18-2/24

This morning I ran long with Rick, got in 11.6 miles, it was really cold at the start but we orginally only going to do 10 but didn't get has much in during week has I wanted. Apperantly neither did Rick. I had hoped to have a few more miles this week but between work and weather and life in general I got in 29.2 miles. It was real close but after last weeks jump probably better off it being a cutback week. Next week I hope to be in mid 30's. With the Distance Classic Half Marathon next Sunday I not positive what I should do this week. Roads in no condition for speedwork anyways. But I do plan to run it has a long training run. Nothing beats a long run with 400 or 500 other runners and water stops.

Saturday snow and weight

It was sunny but cold has I left to get to Mill Creek park, but roads had a covering of snow. Since my hill running partner had canceled on me I turned it into a easy/easy run. I went to the Lilli pond and a did 4.6 miles. I went up big bear but looped it around on way back instead of out and back because of the snow. Had to be 8 inches in the closed off section. So stuck to the roads they maintain there. I am a little short of where I want to be for the week mileage wise but too many things interfering with it. Kind of lost mojo for a few days and my desire to run but I feel it coming back. Maybe I guess I did over did it a little last week but still plan to push MPW up wards but try not to over do it.

Weight
I am hoping to have my weight under 180 before the Cleveland Marathon. I am currently about 189. Thats down from 193 at begining of January I guess I have been eating too much. I have kept running consistently and put alot of weight back on that I started running to lose. Hoping to be down around 170 eventually. But those long runs may burn alot of calories but they sure do make me hungry. I guess I felt long has I ran I could eat has much of anything I wanted. I guess you can but doesnt help your running.

On a side note if I keep to my plan and do 10 miles tomorrow my miles for February will be more then January with 5 days to go. Must be the leap year affect.

I have enough character

I got in 4 miles tonight. I was going to run 5 but the cold got the best of me. Im so tired of these cold runs. Just the cold in general. 40 degrees would be so great. I can dream of running in shorts some time soon. Right now I think 30's wouldnt be so bad. I planned to cut back some this week but now thinking of doing even less. I am hoping to keep my weekly mileage over 30 at a minum and try to top out in the 50's. I plan to go longer every other week so the week I dont will be less. It is easier to keep mileage up while running 5 or 6 days. Dont think I could do 7 days a week. I need a day off to rest legs. This week my orginal plan was to run 5 or 6 days and hit at least 30 miles. Im not too far off track for getting there but if this cold keeps up IM not sure I have it in me this week. Maybe I just didn't get enough sleep the last few days. I hope to get back to how I was running last week. But at times that was frustrating in the cold. Just get thru this week and see what next week brings. At least I wasn't so sore tonight, like I was on mondays run. Wheres global warming when you need it??

W/E 2-17-08

Overall it was a rough week. I was laid off all week, but weather was definitely not good for running. But I did get alot of miles in, 43.2. Thats the most miles I ever ran in a week by a .2. Last year I topped out at 43 miles my last week of marathon training before the taper. Im trying to work up to some 50 mile week. Last week I had a good pace week, with a couple or three days of speedwork. This week was just miles. Slow miles often caused by the conditions. Next week I will cutback some for sure but still would like to be in the 30's.

I need to stretch more. Right calf and hip bothered me today. Both felt like they were too tight. I think hamstring is too. I keep saying it and never seem to do anything about it.

I am in search of a new winter spectator sport. Something to get me from end of football to baseball season. Im trying out hockey, but its a tough one since Cleveland doesnt have a NHL team and only team I can see consistently is Pittsburgh. Guess I can root for them to lose. I lost interest in basketball. Im considering giving a NASCAR another chance but not sure. Curling doesnt get enough TV coverage. Im not seeing too many other options.

Friday the 15th

I got in a 5 miler today. If all goes good should be a real big week for mileage. Of course my pace has been real slow. Mostly due to weather conditions and some traffic. If I keep running from home I will do more hills then at Buhl park. Mill Creek has plenty of hills but at Buhl this time of year only the lower part, no hills, is maintained for traffic. But to do speedwork (intervals, tempo) I plan to still go there. Or when I dont feel comfortable running the roads here. The other plus is I am using some of the routes I made on mapmyrun.com and have never used before. (go to mapmyrun.com and put in 44438 for zip code to find routes and you can see them) The 7.5 mile run I did on Thursday was a good run but one section had just a little more traffic then I like. But once the snow is gone the road might be wide enough then that it will alright. Or maybe I picked wrong time of day, 4:00 pm. I know I wont get a treadmill or be joining a gym, so making new routes help to spice things up. And has much has I like to run at the parks even they can old, especially Buhl its so much smaller then Mill Creek. So if I stick to this plan of run from home or Buhl park on week days. Go to park for any type of speedwork. Easy runs and maybe hill work outs from home. Then on weekends go to Mill Creek Park for whatever. I can do hills there. And my park loop is 17 miles so can do long runs there. Actually its a great place to run. My main reasons for driving to the parks to run are first safety. People seem to be watching for runners/walkers unlike regular roads. Secondly Mill Creek is where my running club meets and I meet people to run. This past summer when the club switches from Sunday morning runs to Monday evening the group I normally run with continued to meeet Sundays, and we started to get more then Monday night. Mill Creek is basically where I go to have others to run with, except when Rick came here for my Hellacious Hill run.

Global warming my butt

A snow storm hit, its been cold this week. But got in 4 miles Tuesday and 6 today (Wednesday) so mileage wise I am good. Since im not working I should have no problem getting plenty of miles in this week. The plan calls for a long run of 16 on Sunday. I am more seriously considering running Akron marathon in September. Plenty of time after Cleveland to recover and train for another one. See how Cleveland goes first before I make a definite decision. But leaning that way. And hopefully can do it faster then Cleveland.

I looked at my training for last year's Cleveland Marathon and think it was light and weekly mileage and could use another long run over 18 miles. Maybe 2 more. I looked at my mile splits for the marathon and thru 18 miles I was on pace for a 4:15 averaging 9:42. But I had no choice but to take a pit stop during mile 19 that cost me about 3 minutes. Mile 20 was back on pace. Then I averaged 11:06 over the last 6 miles. Which tells me I need to build more endurance. Only ways I know to do that is more MPW and get in a few more long runs. I did some speedwork last year, but it was in good weather nothing like it is right now. Last year my type week was 43 and only had one other week over 40 miles. I averaged around 30 if I remember right off top of my head for the 13 weeks leading up to the taper. This time I feel im already ahead in MPW. Plus its an 18 week plan , last year it was 16. I hopefully it will work. Shooting for 4:15 but if im under last years time I figure its a good race. Under 4:15 is great,

Laid Off

I am laid off for the next week or so. grounds frozen so cannt do much burying cable. At least I will be able to get some good running in. Of course weather will suck so hoping I get lots of miles in.

Week ending 2/10/08

I feel it was another good week of marathon training. I finished it off today with a good 12 miler. I got a 16 miler planned for next Sunday. Due to the cold I thought todays 12 miles was tougher then last weeks 14 miler. My mileage over the last 4 weeks has been up. I looked and had never gone 30 mpw 2 weeks in a row before. Now I have gone over it 4 weeks in a row. GO ME!! I hope to keep the upward swing in mileage. Plus the intensity has been good. I ran 5 times last week and felt 4 were of quality. Todays long run, Tuesday did intervals, Thursday did tempo intervals and tough hill run Saturday. Speedwork will probably depend on the weather and road conditions but I am going to keep the MPW where it is or greater.

I must be stupid. I have a 10 or 12 miler planned for tomorrow and I met some one to run hills. She's getting ready for a half (im runnign it too), the Mill Creek distance Classic in Youngstown, OH and its very hilly. Its held at the park we ran at. Actually we ran the last 5 miles of it. We did 6.2 with lots of hills. Good workout not sure how smart it is to do it the day before a long run. And this is a cutback week. Well mileage will be less then last week. A little

2-7-08

After yesterdays run where I was unmotivated, in a bad mood and barely felt like running. Today has soon has I started to run it felt good. Like I had a runners high from start. So I did 2 mile intervals. First at 8:13, a little faster then I thought I should be going. So got back to start and did another, and it was in 8:10. Go figure. Not sure whether to run tomorrow or not but should be good mileage for week with the 5 or 6 planned saturday and 10 on sunday.

Intervals

I went to the park to do intervals on the loop around the lake. (its a .7 mile loop around) It had rained earlier but was record highs in the 50's so I wore shorts which is rare in January. Which was one reason I decided to do speedwork.I had so many signs saying not to run this evening. First my lunch seemed to be sitting like a brick in my stomach. Then right after I started to run my warm up it started to rain. Perfect.So I started to run half mile intervals. I wasnt sure what kind of time I would be able to run but just wanted to feel it was a good effort and get 5 done in a close range. It started fine, then on second loop the ice on the lake was causing it to mist up. So areas was like running thru fog. On third loop went by a couple of familys walking with kids and couple of them were smoking. So I was able to get a hit of nicotime while running. Perfect.After I finished the last interval I did a cool down and still felt the brick in my stomach. But was happy I got them done, and actually faster then the time the running calculator says I should be doing them at. Perfect. And of course has I was finishing it stopped running. I guess it was a perfect run.

Week ending 2/2/08

Overall I thought it was a good week running. The Good: I ran 6 days, only resting on wednesday. I got a tempo run in, a hilly run in Saturday and a long run in Sunday. My friday run I had a good pace for my 4 mile run. The other 2 runs were supposed to be easy/recovery runs so I guess they were what they were supposed to be so thats good.
The Bad: I ate too much the last couple days. And days I didn't I really didn't eat has good has I should.
Next week, I think I should do a cutback week. My long run Sunday is only 10 this week. I got another hill run planned with Christine and Rick Saturday. Hopefully, will be able to get around 30 miles this week with speedwork or tempo run on Tuesday and let rest of week be easy running.

The Scale

After years of not having one I bought a scale a few weeks back. My weight had gone up. I kind of knew it but didn't realize it was has much has it was. First "official" weigh in I was 193. I was thinking at least 10 pounds less. Last sunday morning it was 190.2. This week may of eaten too much so hopefully I didnt gain. I weighed in one day after a run and it was down to 189. I am trying to avoid weighting in too much. Once a week at same time should be good. Long has it continues with a downward trend I will be happy no matter how little at time. Still hard for me to believe I gained that much back after losing it. Especially since its not like I quit running.

January review

Last month was a pretty good month all things considered. Weather didn't help Im not a much about winter person. Hopefully be a short winter. The 125.2 miles I ran was one of my top months, third most in a month ever for me. It also puts me ahead in my marathon training of where I was last year training for Cleveland. This time its an 18 week plan. I figure longer the plan, the more flexiblity. This time im trying to do more weekly mileage. I hope to have more weeks over 40 miles and top out in the 50's. I would like to continue the higher mileage. The more I do the more I get used to it, at least thats the theory. Next week probably be a cutback week then starting uping mileage a little at a time again.