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.............

Another good week

Last week ended up being a good week of marathon training. Not great, not horrible. I lived up to the title of my blog and did a race. Yes, I was able to keep my race a month streak alive.

It was the Steps Challenge 5K. I had a fun time at it. Not my best race time for a 5K but right where I expected to be. I guess everyone in my age group was at the Boston Marathon because I won my age group. Got to love small races, just under a 100 runners

Then, on Sunday I got in this weeks long run, 15 miles. Nothing spectacular to report. I met Rick at the Lilly Pond parking lot. Ran 15 miles, with a couple of pit stops. Tryed the chocalate hammer gel, no problems with it but not chocalate fanatic.

Update

I just did a 3 mile run today.. I cann't remember last time I ran that short. But due to time constraints lately and that looks like im going to be running 6 days this week instead of 5 I thought keeping it short was good idea. I'm signed up for a 5k race this Saturday, I did it for 2 reasons. First my cousin was talking about it and doing it has she is working out trying to lose something like 70 pounds. Plus it keeps my streak of a race a month alive. I believe it makes it 26 in a row. Go Me!

Amazing Grace

Sunday went for my long run, only 14 miles this weekend. After running 20 the weekend before 14 was seeming shorter. Hate to say it but the run last weekend went better then this weeks. I met Rick at the Lilly Pond with our plan to get in 14 miles. It did contain a few highlights, like doing a few loops around the track at Chaney High School and seeing the new water fountain installed by the Old Mill in Mill Creek Park.

But the oddest moment had to be while running up along Cohasset rd in the park. The road is closed but on other side of it is a church that was having service out doors. It was a nice of enough day for it and my friend Sue says she goes there and they always do it outside weather permitting. The strange occurance was they were singing "Amazing Grace." We were looking at each other. Are we that bad that we need saving? We need to have devine intervention? It was surreal. I have had run that could be considered spiritual (or I was badly dehydrated) but that was more then normal.

Long run

I got in my 20 miler today. It went well, better then the last one. I didn't totally crash like last time. Legs were sore when I got done but no worse then expected. I also discovered that tropical hammer gel isnt for me. No problems with the other flavors I have tryed so just going to avoid that one.

Earlier this week I finished Born to run. Yes, hard to believe I had never totally listened to the Bruce Springsteen classic to now. Ok just kidding I actually finished reading the book Born to Run by Chris Mcdougal. It was a good read, might like it even if you dont run. It's the book that got the barefoot running debate started. If you like to run barefoot great for you. I just dont see me trying it. I understood there concept that people are born to run without shoes. And did bring up some good points.

One point was that there wasnt all the injurys like there is today till they started running in running shoes. Ok but before the running boom of 70's there were lot less runners. With more runners, more likely there would be more injurys. Also today the shape and sizes of runners are much differnt then before. In the 60's and before most runners were skinny and built like distance runners. Now you have people like me doing marathons who back in the day would never have thought of lining up for a race or marathon.

Kenyans, built like you would want a runner to be built like were mentioned how they ran barefoot and didn't get injured has much. Of course alot of that running is on dirt trails. Alot of my running is on concrete roads. I do some trails, but usually at Mill Creek Park where its technical trails with lots of rocks and some road crossing.

The one point I did take from reading about barefoot running was form may be more important then just going out and doing what feels natural. Especially if you have been injured.

Take it for what its worth, but I reccomend the book, not for the barefoot running debate but for a good read.