May the Mass x Acceleration be with you

3 easy miles on the trails in 23:25 (7:48/mile) 

Due to my knee problems I took Saturday and Sunday off. Today's run was pretty good. I wish it were perfect, but didn't expect it. The first mile was great. On the second, I had a little bit of pain once or twice, but nothing compared to last week. It did make me more cautious, though. The 3rd mile felt fine again. Mostly there is just the feeling of some swelling in and around the patella. If I ran the marathon feeling like I did today I don't think it would slow me down. I'd be concerned that I might have problems in the last few miles, though, as the quads became exhausted. Hopefully I will keep improving through the week. Weather in Eugene is supposed to be a high of 64, but 45 for a low the night before. Sounds nice.

5 miles in 37:48 (7:34/mile)

Feeling a little bit better than yesterday. I'm definitely getting some good energy benefits from the taper. Usually I start out around 8:10 the first mile.

First mile felt great. Second mile, like yesterday, was a little dicey, but not as bad. I think I got overconfident. I stepped too hard off of a sidewalk. Third mile was ok. Then 4th and 5th miles I felt great. I even forgot about the knee and just ran normally.

Splits: 7:45 - 7:34 - 7:40 - 7:28 - 7:21 

Day off today. I just did an easy walk on the trails for a few minutes to loosen up a bit.

I decided to do a comparison check to see how my fitness compares with my last marathon (Oct. 2010). I used a standard test before both marathons where I run 21 miles with the second 10 at marathon pace. In both cases I ran the exact same courses for both the warm up and the mp part of the run. I ran an average of 6-7 seconds/mile faster than last time, and I had no slow miles this time.

Last time I ran 6:53/mile through 9 miles. In the marathon I ran 6:52/mile through 22 miles, then lost 4 seconds/mile from my average. If I did the same thing this time I'd be running 6:45/mile through 22 miles and then slow up to around 6:49, which would get me under my goal. In fact, I hope to average around 6:48, so it looks like that pace should be reasonably safe for me to target during the race. 

5.38 miles in 40:11 on the Eugene marathon course (7:29/mile) Feeling a lot better today. I'm sitting in a hotel in Springfield, about 2 miles from Hayward Field, with a lovely view of Best Buy from my window. I went over to the expo around 3:30 to get my packet and shirt. I got to shake Meb's hand and get a picture with him!!! Since the format buttons aren't loading right now I'll have to post the picture later, if I can figure out how. Maybe RT can tell me.

After that I had my wife drop me off at the 21 mile mark of the marathon so I could run over the last few. So I backed up over the foot bridge to around 20.6 and ran until around 25.6 or so. This is the best part of the course. Hopefully I'll be able to appreciate it during the race. I ran the last full mile at mp. It was tough to do, but felt good afterwards to have a little faster running in. I would normally do this run the day before the race, but with my lack of training all week I'm glad to get it in two days beforehand instead. I'll just jog an easy 3 or 4 tomorrow, maybe less, to loosen up.

Splits: 2:57 (.37) - 7:41 - 7:39 - 7:26 - 6:51 - 7:32

3.4 miles in some amount of time. When I get back to my Garmin I will check it out.

This is the best my knee has felt in two weeks. I ran in my racing shoes, and also with a knee compressor. Not sure which helped, or both, or just because I'm healing, but had almost no problems with the knee.

One thing about the course I don't like, though I hate to complain as it is such a beautiful course, but the river trail is all concrete sidewalk. I had thought, based on Google Earth that it would be asphalt.Concrete is a lot harder on the knees, or at least it seems like it. Oh well, I'm sure it won't be a big deal when it comes down to it. 

 3.4 in 26:13 (7:43/mile). I stopped to take a few pictures of the course along the way, too.