Happy Memorial Day.

I start my 7 week training plan for the Presque Isle half this week. It has mondays and Saturdays has rest/cross training days. Which is good since I actually didnt run a monday or Saturday. So I took my grandaughter Riley to a small parade. Small town parade, some cars throwing candy, a few police cars, a few fire engines and a marching band. I was worried the noise of sirens or band would bother her but she barely noticed them, which is good the noise didnt bother her. Or she distracted getting her candy.

But the week looks like this, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday I have 5 miles planned. Thursays are either tempo runs or Speedwork. THis week its says 4 miles at tempo pace, 6 total. Then a long run of 10 miles on Sunday. It could be a tough plan but I think I can get thru it.

Podcast Challenge

Running Friends! We really need your miles for the month of May! The contest ends Monday! Thanks for your time!!!! Please sign up and help the Running Stupid podcast team. Its the last month of the challenge and would love your support!
http://buckeyeoutdoors.com/training/challenges?cid=368

Recovery Week 2.

I think recovery is going well. Did 3 short runs so far this week. Feel ready to start training for my next race. Im still deciding on a June race but have my July goal race picked out. Its the Presque Isle Half Maraton on july 18. Its my 6th time running it. Im making a goal of getting a PR there. If you never been to Presque Isle its flat. Pancake flat. Maybe too flat.

So, Starting Monday, which happens to be memorial day I got a 7 week training plan to follow which I made using Runners Worlds smart coach found on their home page. It was a plan I thought I could follow without too many tweeks. Never know when you might need to switch a day around. So the plan for now is to work towards PRing in Presque Isle! And I may of found a race that serves both purposes, theres a Thursday evening race coming up in June the day im supposed to do speedwork. Dontcha love it when a plan comes together?

10 mile Sunday

Yesterday, unwise known has Sunday, I got in a 10 mile run. It was just my second run since the marathon. I started to feel those aches and pains in my legs around mile 7 or so. Not to mention the humidity was over 90%. This week hoping to get back to regular routine of running 5 days a week. Might only do 4 days but something to that effect would be nice. I was a couch slug enough this week. Really lacking motivation after marathon.

So to get me going I signed up for the Presque Isle half marathon. Next week im starting a 7 week training program for it. I want to PR there! Yep im going on record im going to try and break my half pr of 1:59:10. Its a flat course looping around Presque Isle. Only problem would be how hot is going to be. It is the middle of june. At least you can jump in lake Erie after the race. Now I just need a race in June to keep the race a month streak going, currently at 27 months in a row.

Recovery

I have hardly done anything this week. Probably not the best way to recover, im sure active recovery has its benefits. But I basically vegged till Friday. I did some stretching to try and work things out but no real exercise and no running. Finally Friday I went over to Mill Creek Park and did a run/walk on the trail loop around Lake Newport. Good thing I was planning to go slow. Calf was still sore a little, so wasnt going to be a fast run. But at least I got a run.

Cleveland Marathon '10

Me and wife after race, notice the medal.

Right before race.

Jenny, Me and Michelle at picnice
Riley with Cleveland Browns stadium in background.

The short story: Ran Cleveland Marathon in 4:47:12 chip time.

Now for the rest of the story.

Saturday morning I went up to the Cleveland marathon expo with the wife and my grandaughter Riley. Got there before it opened and we went for a nice walk around block and got little sight seeing, awesome view of Browns stadium. Got mine and Ricks bib and shirt/goodie bag. This was the first time I ever had to show my ID to get it, last 3 years just said who I was and my bib number. Not sure what prompted the change. Walked around a little bit and oddly enough didnt find anything that interested me enough to buy it. That was a first.

I Michelle at the expo from the Runnersworld and runango forums. I saw her and since I had never seen her before except pictures wasnt sure it was her. I was going to call earlier but had lost cell phone reception when I first went into convention center. Luckily, I was able to call her and we got to meet. We walked around a bit talking. She talked me into going to picnice. It was mostly RWOL people who I didnt know except for Jenny and Michelle. All seemed to be a great bunch.

Sunday morning, got up before the alarm went off. I got dressed, everything else was pretty much ready to go. Me and the wife left about 4:30. I got into what I thought was perfect deck to park, halfway to start and finish. I made quick trip to portajohn then finished getting ready. Applied the pacetat on my left arm. Need to work on positioning it properly seemed to be at wrong angle. I got to starting line, it was so crowded I didnt think I would be able to find Rick in the crowd but did shortly before start.

Cleveland was a sellout, up 60%this year, so it was more crowded then ever before. But I think overall fairly well organized. Race started started to the blaring sounds of "Cleveland Rocks!" What else would you expect at the Cleveland Rock and Roll marathon? Being in middle of pack it was slow start, over 5 minutes before I reached starting line. Ran with Rick for the first few miles we did all our long training runs together. I made a pit stop between mile 3 and 4 and never caught up to him.

After mile 9 when the course was headed east the wind seemed to pick up. Right in our faces, and we didn't change directions till mile 17. Of course shortly after mile 12 it got alot less crowded since thats where we split from the half marathoners.

The real fun started after mile 18, thats when my calf cramps started. I was able to keep running for most part for the next couple miles but last miles were mostly run couple minutes till calf cramped up then walk a few minutes to work it out. Took a few short stops to try and stretch it out but would only help for so long. I did finish in 4:47:12, Short of my 4:30 goal but I did finish, always my number one goal. Got a nice medal, new tech shirt and had a good weekend.

Summary 04:47:15 26.49 10:50

1 00:10:03 1.00
2 00:09:47 1.00
3 00:09:47 1.00
4 00:10:19 1.00
5 00:09:50 1.00
6 00:09:40 1.00
7 00:09:45 1.00
8 00:09:56 1.00
9 00:09:40 1.00
10 00:10:09 1.00
11 00:10:37 1.00
12 00:10:05 1.00
13 00:09:51 1.00
14 00:09:57 1.00
15 00:10:24 1.00
16 00:10:57 1.00
17 00:10:44 1.00
18 00:12:09 1.00
19 00:10:56 1.00
20 00:11:50 1.00
21 00:12:09 1.00
22 00:13:05 1.00
23 00:11:52 1.00
24 00:12:12 1.00
25 00:12:26 1.00
26 00:12:59 1.00
27 00:05:54 0.50

Week to go

http://www.pacetat.com/idevaffiliate/idevaffiliate.php?id=209

Im tapering for the Cleveland Marathon, less then a week to go. Needless to say im starting to get excited. I dont think this has been my best training and like always I dont really feel ready. But im going for a 4:30. Can I do it? I have no idea.

I went 20 miles 3 times, twice it didn't go well. The last one crashed due to going out too hard and too much humidity. But im still going for my orginal goal just to see if I can do it. I even got a pacetat to help me stick to the pace. Im hoping not to go out too fast and pay for it the last 5-6 miles.




I also trying hammer gels this training cycle. I think its coming down to certain flavors. Some were fine, but had trouble with tropical. But Montana huckleberry and orange no problems at all. Finding right one for my stomach is the trick. I also going to use enduralyte tablets for this race. The one 20 miler I tryed them out I dont remember the calf cramps being bad at all.

Toe Running

If you are reading this then I am very excited to welcome you to the world of toe running! By now I'm sure that you have heard all the wonderful benifits that running on your toes can bring to your running. I won't waste your time by rehashing all the great things you stand to gain from this powerful new movement sweeping the country. I will simply describe what you will experience as life changing. The best part about all this is it won't cost you a dime. Let's see Newton, or Vibram make you the same promise! Enough talk, here are the four simple steps you can take to becomeing an instant toe runner.

Step 1: Place your regular running shoes flat on the floor in front of you.

Step 2: Insert sharp objects into heels of shoes. (I recommend a small rock just for the simple fact that they are easy to find and they are less likely to pierce the skin.)

Step 3: Put shoes on being very careful not to displace your object from the heel.

Step 4: Begin running and enjoy the new world of toe running!

FAQ:

Q: If I run with a sharp object in the heel of my shoe won't I hurt myself?
A: Actually studies have shown that after the intial shock of being stabbed in the foot the body releases an increased amount of dopemine which can help with overall endurence.

Q: What kind of rock should I look for?
A: This really is a matter of personal preferance but I like ones that are not so big that they lift me to high off the ground and also ones that are so small that float in the shoe to much.

Q: Do you have an instructional video for this technique?
A: Well at first I thought that one was not neccesary since the concept is so simple. I mean come on how hard is it to put a stupid rock in your shoe. Like most things though people have really surprised me, and there will be a video coming very soon.

April: The month in review

I must stay I felt overall April went very well. I set a new PR for most miles in a month. I finish April with 166.4 miles. I went in to Friday April 30th needing 3 miles to break the old record. I did 7. It wasn't one big week that did it, but a fairly consistent month and some long marathon training runs in there. Also unlike in March, due to illness, I got in all the planned speedwork I wanted to do. So it was a good month.

Other the last long run last Sunday, the 25th. Me and Rick went up to the Towpath Trail for are last 20 miler, we met Pam who I knew from dailymile.com. She's alot faster then me. But said she wanted a nice easy long run. We went out too fast and it was very humid out. We did the first 10 miles about a minute per mile faster then I should of. I did lot more walking, especially the last 4 miles. I got it done, oddly enough in about same time I finished my last 20 miler in. And it was a much hillier route though. We then proceded to the Winking Lizard for post run grease and liquid pain killers.

Now Im supposedly in taper mode. Cleveland here I come.............