6 easy miles in the gym on the Elliptical.

2 Mile warm-up @ 8:30 pace, (6) 400's @ Avg 1:25 w/400 recovery, then 2 miles @ 8:15 cool-down.

My dang foot is bothering me again!

Tapering ... Just Tapering ... 

5.65 miles on the elliptical today. Trying to avoid pounding on my foot.

Went and had it injected again this morning. Hooey it relives some of the pressure. Headed out to CIM tomorrow afternoon. This will be a very fast trip. Hooey the race is fast too!

I've been so busy I haven't been able to post much lately. I've set my goal on 3:16 again. ..we'll see how that plays out. Going this trip alone. ..wish someone was going with me. :-(

I found some additional notes I wote about the CIM Marathon...Here they are.

CIM (California International Marathon) what a great race!

Now that I’ve actually done it I would highly recommend it to you guys. The course is very nice, great support and spectators and best of all excellent weather.

I actually decided to run this race last year from a recommendation from DerHammer (I think it was after I had trained for the SA Rock-N-Roll Marathon and had to drop down to the Half Marathon because of the hot weather). I decided to go to Sacramento to try and PR for another Boston BQ.

My training has been a little disappointing leading up to the race with the exception of the last couple of weeks where I finally began feeling good…with the exception of my foot. I have what the doctor calls “2^nd Metatarsal Overload” and it may require surgery to fix it. I have had two injections, one on Friday before the race to relieve the pain. We’ll see about that..?

I planned my race pace based on a racing calculator (www.findmymarathon.com/paceband.php) that I found. It takes into consideration your  goal pace, target effort throughout the race and the course profile. It worked very well for me in the Army Marathon and in this marathon too.

Going out my plan was to run a very conservative first half and then an aggressive second half. I knew if I ran to hard and elevated my HR early in the race that I would bonk and not finish strong. As you can see I did exactly what I had planned except for a few seconds loss here and there. I pretty much walked at every water station to make sure I hydrated well. I also was able to run with a couple of girls for the first half that were pacing for a 3:25-30 marathon. I broke my miles into 5 mile increments, the same way I’ve been doing it in all my long training runs with the intention to drop the average pace at each set of five. As you can see I did pretty well at that except for the last five (7:39, 7:37, 7:31, 7:24, 7:29…5 mile averages).

Throughout the race I felt under control watching my HR trying to make sure, even on the up hills, my HR didn’t spike over 160 bpm until after mile 20. It did begin to spike above 160 at mile 18 but at that point it was time to push and I couldn’t hold back. On miles 22, 24, 26 I walked twice and as you can see it cost me some extra time. My legs were really burning and I thought it best to give them a little extra rest to make sure I didn’t completely burn out.  

Below is my original entry:

Some Race notes... CIM is a great course. I was lucky an hit it on a perfect day (temperature was 54 at the start) for me with it not being too hot or too cold. The humidity was pretty high at about 90 percent but it didn't seem to bother me too much with the lower temperature. I was expecting a much bigger "feel" to the race knowing that it was a very popular fast run. The atmosphere was much more layed back than some of the other marathons I have run. The crowds at the start weren't bad and they had plenty of port-a-potties. 

I used the race pace calculator (www.findmymarathon.com/paceband.php) to help me with my pacing. I had used it when I ran the Army Marathon and it seemed to work very well. It allows you to pick your paces based on the specific course and then adjust based on your strategy (conservative,even,aggressive, very aggressive splits,etc.). I chose very a conservative start with a very aggressive negative split for the finish knowing how I like to run. I also added in my own HR averages based on all of my other races and training runs. I believe I hit my goals about as close as I could expect as you can see from my comparrison chart. At this point I'm not really sure what I could have done better other than be in better shape or simply exerted more effort earlier in the race but based on my slowed pace on mile 26 and my elevated HR I'm pretty sure I would have just blown up earlier in the race.

Stopping for now...I'll write some details on the actual race soon...

I've been comparing some of my target numbers verses actual. Here are the comparrisons.

3:18:40

In the gym & some upper body wieghts.

Callie's home! 3 Miles with her...easy.

5 Miles on the Elliptical easy & 1 Mile on the TM @ 7:30 Pace.

Well, the big news is my daughter Callie Andra is now engaged to a great young man Matt Pfaff. I am so happy and proud of her. I truly believe this is a union God has and will bless. I also got to run, probably for the last time, on the Trinity Trails in Ft Worth.

We came up here last night for the after party. 6 Miles @ 7:05 Pace. Felt Strong

(Tried padding my shoe a little different and it seemed to help a little. Now my toe has this permanent crook. My wife says it gives her the "creeps" to look at it.

Chipping away at the magic 2,000 mile mark. Raining this morning so I went to the gym...dreaded TM! 2 easy, 6 @ 8:30 Pace.

My foot/toe is still not good. Now I've figured out I can't really move the dammaged toe along with the crook in it.

The plan was for 10 somewhat easy miles today. Trying to get to 2,000 miles for 5 he year. My foot is just on the edge of unbearable but I'm getting by.

On the back side of my 10 mile loop l ran up on a girl running and her husband riding a bike supporting her. We stopped briefly and introduced ourselves. Come to find out she is training for the Austin marathon in February. This was her longest run ever and was 17 miles. I decided to turn back and run with them for a while. I ran back 1-1/4 miles and then sail I should probably head home. It added 2.5 miles to my run. It was mice to see another serious runner on the road. We exchanged Facebook names, I am planning to see if I can get her on the blog.

12.5 miles @ 8:11 pace.

8 Miles @ 7:28 Pace in Gatesville on a very hilly route.

No running today...the kids are at home and we stayed up late playing games.

As I am reflecting over the year in running I realized that I have been dealing with this toe issure since mid May. I think I have completly destroyed my second toe as it now has an ugly crook in it and now I can't really move it or push down with it at all. I think I've just torn all of the tendons/ligaments in the joint completly loose. I'm not sure what to do at this point. Last the doctor said was that he could to cut the bone and shorten it. (I don't want to have surgery!) Since then I lost all muscle control of it. I can't really move it or push down at all. It continues to be sore...sometimes better sometimes worse. Although I am pretty tolerant to pain I'm not sure if I can keep up the effort for much longer.

Ran my first 7 by myself around the small loop @ 7:25 pace, then 2.5 with Callie, Matt and Polina slow!

3.2 @ 7:54 Pace. Had to take one of the kids to the airport at 5:30am then back home for a quick 3.2 miles. ... Maybe some more at lunch or after work.

6 more @ 8:00 pace during my lunch hour.

7 by myself then 3 with Polina and Callie.

at the 1.5 mile mark I felt and heard a pop in my foot (at the bad toe joint), then I felt a sharp pain in the joint that also ran the length of my foot to my heel. I couldn't run or even walk for a few minutes but then finally was able to start back home slowly. By the time I got home I was running slowly and most of the pain had gone away. Not sure what happend but maybe I finally tore the joint completly apart or maybe it was out of joint and it popped back in alignment... just don't know.

Updated:

Went to the gym and put in another 5 miles, 3 @ 8:45 pace and 2 @ 7:45 Pace.

__________________________________________________________________

Amazingly my foot feels better today than it has for quite a while. After the pop and burning pain yesterday I though I was finsished running for a while. Today there is only a slight pain at the ball of my foot and a slight pain on the tendons along the bottom of my foot. It felt so much better than it has in a long time so I just ran...

16.29 miles to go to get to 2,000 miles. Didn't go to bed until past midnight so my run was short this morning. Planning to go to the gym at noon and run another 6. Trying my best to get there!

Almost to the 2,000 mile goal. 7 miles today around the Small Loop. I left my watch at work so I just ran....some slow, some medium, some fast. Nice and cool this morning at about 44 degrees.

Got me some new Altra shoes hoping the open toe would help my foot problem. It's actually feeling much better since the pop and burn the other day. My toe is just limp an I can't really move it...but it doesn't hurt as much. :-(

WhooHooo...4.29 miles finishes the year exactly at 2,000 miles. It's been a good but hard year. Qualified and ran Boston, crashed on my bike and tore up my face and broke my shoulder then picked up my training and ran both 5k and marathon PR's.

Got to run my last 2,000th mile today with my newly engaged daughter Callie.

God is good...life is good...even when it's hard!