All about that pace.

5:00am

My knee is still sore. I took it very easy, but now I'm thinking I might need to take a day or 3 off, ouch. No splits today, my garmin was dead on the charger this morning. No signs of life whatsoever :(

Pace 7:46

7:00am

I did 4 easy miles this morning. The first 2 of my 10 miler and back. When I say easy I mean effort-wise not necessarily speed-wise. For the first mile I was uncomfortable at best, but I was a little stiff and had a cramp in my calf that made it hard to judge the feeling in my ham. There was definitely some discomfort, but not really painful by my standards. I probably should have discussed the definition of pain with Preston yesterday when he said to stop if there was any. Aside from my leg which was mostly manageable, 7:30ish felt like a brisk walk and it was hard to resist going faster. It was also really hard to stop short of my normal 10 miles; my legs want to run!

Distance    Split pace
1.00    7:28
2.00    7:25 down hill
3.00    7:46 up hill
4.00    7:28
4.08    7:31

Apparently, this little guy is the problem:

12:00pm

I was hurtin' again last night after my little 4 mile run so I didn't run this morning and instead went to the doc to get a referral to PT so Preston can get paid :) The doc gave me the referral and practically yelled at me for not cross training during the last week and told me to go straight to the Y and find something that would get my cardio going for a couple hours without straining my leg! I expected to hear something more like "if running hurts then you should just stop". Well, I just got back from the Y and I'm pretty excited! I ended up on a machine called sci-fit REX, it's like a recumbent eliptical thing and the first 20 minutes on it didn't bother my leg at all! I accidentally set the difficulty on 20(the highest setting) when setting the timer to 20 minutes so needless to say it was a bit of a workout. After that I figurured another hour on a hilly profile with a difficulty level of 10 should be good. It was good...and hard! 80 minutes on that thing was a much harder cardio workout than my usual 10 miler(around 75 minutes). Now i'm just praying that things don't flare up later like they did after my run yesterday. My calves did cramp up pretty bad when I got off the machine, which was a weird feeling, but I'll beat them into submission with the stick :) I didn't think to check if REX measures distance or not so I still get zero miles for today.

5:00pm

I spent another 80 minutes on the REX machine at the Y today. This time all in one session on the same progressive hilly course. I also learned something really simple today: the longer you set the overall time, the longer each hill lasts, duh. I was drenched in a puddle of sweat by the time I finished. I seriously looked like someone threw a bucket of water on me! And I'm pretty sure I grossed out everybody that walked by after the first 20 minutes. REX does calculate distance and it seems fairly close considering that I'm putting way more effort into this than it takes to run for 80 minutes. I may go back before work tomorrow morning if my quads are up to it.

5:00am

Another 80 minutes on the REX machine today before work. I'm actually off on flex time for most of the day now(except for a couple meetings) since I was there all day on Sunday. This was a great workout, but the sweat issue has to be dealt with. It is out of control! I'm going to walmart today to find a fan I can set up next to me. There is an electrical outlet in the floor right by the machine, I hope they don't mind me using it. I am so relieved that this is working for me, I think it's about as close as I can get to running with out stressing the hams. I'm getting my cardio now and my leg is feeling better each day. I may keep doing this in addition to running if I even get back to running before the race.

5:00am

80 minutes on the REX again. I used my new fan today so it was a little cooler and easier to mop up when I was done. I think my quads are starting to assimilate all this new activity. I may go for 90 minutes tomorrow.

5:00am

I decided to simulate a long run today. I set the resistance down from 10 to 8 on the REX machine and put in 2.5 hours. 13.6 miles in the first 99 minutes and 7 miles on the next 51 minutes. As I was cleaning up the machine one of the staff came up to me and said she had never seen anyone on that machine so long before. I explained that I'm training for a marathon and we had a nice chat. I even got in a plug for FRB. I'm starting to wonder if this machine is doing enough for me now, it seems to be working my legs a lot harder than my heart. I'm working up a good sweat but recovery is very quick. I wonder if less resistance and more speed would be a better combination. Maybe I'll wear my HRM next time too. Now I kind of wish I had been wearing it before so I would have a baseline to compare. Oh well, at least I'm not just sitting around while my hamstring is healing. I'm resting tomorrow and running for real with my PT on Friday. He will see to it that I take it easy for a few miles. I hope it doesn't hurt afterwards like it did last week...

6:00am

8 easy miles this morning with Preston and Paul. The pace was slow, but the time and miles seemed to go by very quickly. Preston did a good job setting the pace and so far I'm still felling pretty good. Kym and I are going on a bike ride this afternoon and maybe a visit to the Y tonight for a workout and some time in the hot tub. Kym just got a new tri-bike and this will be the inaugural ride of "white lightning". I hope I can keep up on my clunky urban assault bicycle :)

I got my confirmation sheet for the Rock and Roll Marathon today! Race number: 2086 Corral number: 2 Predicted finish time: 3:15:00

Pace 8:19

Avg HR 158

Distance    Split pace
1.00    8:06 running solo to meet the guys
2.00    8:34
3.00    8:26
4.00    8:13
5.00    8:27
6.00    8:34
7.00    8:34
8.00    7:49 this is where I left the guys to go home. I tried to keep it slow...

8:00am

10 miles at GMP to see what my avg. heart rate is at that pace. It took more effort than usual to maintain that pace. I have lost some fitness for sure, along with what little ability I had to regulate my pace. I was constantly watching the garmin and trying to make adjustments. My leg felt fine while I was running, but was pretty sore soon after I finished. An ice bath afterward, followed by a hot shower and a heating pad helped quite a bit.

Pace 7:34

Avg. HR 187

Distance    Split pace    Avg. HR

1.00    7:09    163 didn't look at my garmin much during this mile, I was sure I was going around 7:30
2.00    7:10    174
3.00    7:32    181 up hill starts here
4.00    7:36    187
5.00    7:45    193 caught up with another runner named Jared and chatted for a while
6.00    7:41    196 more uphill...
7.00    7:44    196 more uphill...
8.00    8:01    194 more uphill... this is getting old. I was asking myself how I ever did this 5 days a week?
9.00    7:31    192 downhill finally.
10.00    7:32    191 flat for the home stretch
10.04    6:48    198 trying to out run my neighbors stupid little pug. Reminded me of Allie's ferocious chihuahua story. I'm going to kick a field goal with that thing next time he bites me. grrr...

4:30pm

I went to the Y and spent 99 minutes on the Rex machine again doing what felt like a 20k race effort with my legs, but my average HR was only 156. I got it into the 170's once or twice, but my legs just didn't have it in them to keep it there for long. I tried hills, less resistance, more speed, etc. My heart seems to be stronger than my quads. I don't get it. I am really going all out on this thing and my heart is like yawning and asking when the work is going to start. Running seems so much easier, yet my HR is so much higher when running, it doesn't make sense. I tried to get manual mile splits on the garmin, but they didn't show up when I downloaded the workout. Rex said I went 14 miles... ...yeah right. I'll keep doing this, but I'm not counting the miles anymore.

Avg. HR 156

6:30pm

14.8 REX miles in 99 minutes. Average HR 164.

4:30am

I woke up feeling pretty good and did my 10 miler this morning. It was much easier than it was on Sunday morning at about the same pace and my HR monitor reflected that. I was very encouraged by this until later when the pain set in. No more real running for me until race day... ice, ibuprofen, heating pad... I'm getting ready to tape one of Kelli's cookies to my leg, something has got to help!

7:00am

3 miles, the first one around 8, the second at 7:30ish, and the third at 8. Now if I can just do that 8.7 times in a row on Sat :) Should be easy enough huh?

Now I'm off to pick up my race packet and volunteer at the fitness expo with Jake.

I slept in today and then went to yoga with Kym and Jake. It was the first time for me and Jake, he disappeared after 30 minutes. One second he was there and the next he was gone like Houdini. It was weird, the teacher didn't even see him go. All that stretching actually felt pretty good. Now I'm going to relax and watch marathon movies all day. I've got Chariots of Fire, Prefontaine, Saint Ralph, Spirit of the Marathon, and Without Limits. That should keep me busy for a while... 

update: Has anyone seen Saint Ralph? Definitely not for kids; it earned it's PG13 rating, but I'm still laughing. Hilarious! It was like Prefontaine meets Napoleon Dynamite.. My ribs are going to be sore tomorrow :)

Traffic was terrible near the drop off zone so I walked a mile and a half to the start area and got in a good warm up and some stretching. I felt really good when the race started and I wanted to run a lot faster than I was for the first 11 miles, but I kept right between the 3:15 and 3:20 pacers. Not long after mile 11 my leg started hurting so bad that I had to walk. By this time I had already passed the split point for the half so there was no hope of finishing either distance. My 12th mile was over 13 minutes and it took another 24 to hobble my last mile to the nearest aid station where I got a ride to the finish area. No BQ, no medal, not even a banana :) I'm not complaining though, I still feel good about today because I did my best and I know I can do better once my leg is healed. Maybe Tri-Cities in October?

I've rested for two days now and I still can't walk. Even a little pressure causes intense pain in my knee and lower leg. There must be something wrong in there. I had to borrow crutches just to get around. I went to the doc today and he sent me out for an ultrasound to look for a blood clot of all things(nope, didn't find one). I expected maybe an X-ray or an MRI, but then maybe that's why I'm a computer guy and not a doctor. I go back again tomorrow to see what he wants to do next...

Today my leg is a little swollen and light purple in color. I saw the doc again and he gave me a novocaine shot in my knee joint to see if the pain was coming from the joint or the muscles/tendons before ordering an MRI. The shot had no effect on the pain and he said that was a good thing? Now I'm sitting in the waiting room for an MRI watching the runners go by outside...

I wonder if I can find a cheap hand-bike on craigslist?