Ups and downs

The past week has been up and down. I went for my first 20 miler in this training plan and did not go well. I had been fighting a cold and still coughing some. But I went in with high hopes of finishing. Well we stopped at 19.6, close enough but I hit the wall. It was a tough one the last 4 miles. I finished by walking/running it in. I had no gas left in the tank.

But after taking Monday off Tuesday's run felt good. Legs still sore but no more then expected. Actually better then expected. On Wednesday did speedwork. At least thats what im calling it. I did 4 1 mile repeats. Slower then I would of liked but fast enough to call it speed work for me.

Also on Monday my Hammer energy gels showed up. I ordered the variety pack, 9 different flavors to try to figure out which one I want to take with me for Cleveland Marathon. Monatana Huckleberry certainly sounds interesting. Also included were unflavored, orange, tropical, apple-cinnamon, chocalate, raspberry, vanilla, and banana. Also sent me a bunch of free samples like heed mix, enduralytes, recoverite, perpetum and a hammer energy bar. They must of known I was a brand new customer. Makes me want to go for a long run to test them out.

Good running.

http://essenceofrunning.blogspot.com/

Yesterday I was reading Kenleys blog, the essence of running(see link above) and he was discussing his log. I found out we both had a log on running2win.com. Then realized while obsessive about tracking my miles im also obsessed with running logs. I currently track it on running2win.com, dailymile.com, buckeyeoutdoors.com, garmin training center, occasionally on garmin.com and a written log.

Let me explain how this happened and my logging history. I started off with a simple log back in 2004 when I started running. I was one Runners World gave out free for subscribing. It would still be sufficient. Then decided to keep it online at Runnersworld.com. It seemed a natural place to have one. But shortly after that they quit having a online log. Why I dont know.

So I switched to coolrunning.com and kept the log there. I had it there for a few years and was happy with it till about 2 (?) years ago they did away with their online log also. In the mean time Runnersworld had restarted their online log. But was a little hesitant to go there again. Some reccomended to me running2win.com. Thanks to the guy running it everything logged on coolrunning was able to be transfered to there and I was set. Most of my lifetime running is posted there.

So thinking I was set with running2win.com wish I still like, my friend Greg reccomended to me that I start using dailymile.com. So I did, I think its got some good features and I do describe it has Facebook for runners. Lot more ability to interact with other runners then running2win. So suddenly I had 2 online logs I was keeping up with.

Then the now defunct podcast trilogy running started a podcast challenge on Buckeyeoutdoors.com. Being a running podcast fan I got in on it and started logging on their too. I was doing it daily but since its just for a monthly total needed for the podcast challenge I now only go post once every week or 2. Once the challenge is over im done with buckeyeoutdoors, its a fine site but is a little too much with all the others.

Then back in November I got a garmin. It came with a program to install to upload all my runnning data to the computer. Luckily its quick and easy and gives me all the data for the other logs. I recently discovered the garmin website has a great log with maps included. I only go there when I want to see the map of a recent run.

All along the way I have kept a written log. But after the first year it wasn't the little one given away free by runners world but a nice one I got at the book store each year. This years was made by Bob Glover author of the Competitive Runner's Handbook.

Now if you ask me to pick one, it would be............ you gotta be kidding.

cough drops and running

I got in 5 miles today. I was coughing less, I averaged fewer coughs per mile then the last couple running attempts. Sign im still sick was how high my average heart rate was for the pace I was going. Im supposed to run 20 miles on Sunday. That should be interesting.

Ugg

Last Sunday March 7th I ran the Mill Creek Distance Classic half marathon. I met a great new friend Dannielle, and then promptly got sick. I been sick all week since. Its really hard to run while your coughing. So last week was a horrible week for marathon training. Hoping next week will be better. And I will feel like blogging again.