Not much to report. I've been running again the last few weeks - about 10-20 miles per week. I have minor aches and pains but no major injuries. I'll be focusing on just easy runs and one medium long run per week until I feel fully healed from my Achilles strain earlier this year. No track workouts or long runs over ~12 miles until I feel 100%. I'll slowly increase my mileage over the winter to build a solid base for next year's Marathon attempt.

Blue Planet run

I came across this today:

http://blueplanetrun.org/

I don't know much about it, but it's interesting. Check it out...

Still not training...

It's now August 19th and I'm still not training. I tried a short test run last weekend, and only got 1.5 miles before my injury made it's presence known. So, more ice, Advil, rest and I'll try again later. It's now getting late to start training for the Las Vegas Marathon in December, so I'll wait until I'm running again to decide which marathon to try first. Maybe I'll be waiting until the SF Marathon next year...

No SF Marathon this year

I went on a short test run this afternoon. I got about 1 mile when my injury returned. I'm not going to be able to run this Marathon this coming weekend - I won't even make the starting line - damn.

One week to go, still injured...

Well the San Francisco Marathon is one week from today. My calf is still injured and I haven't run at all this last week. The plan at this point is to get in a test run or two during this coming week and go ahead and run the Marathon hoping for the best. I'm starting out with a slightly slower group, aiming for 4:15:00 time for the 26.2-mile event. I'm not sure if I will make the starting line fully healed, but I'm confident my calf will be a mess by the end - oh well, lots of time to heal up for the Las Vegas Marathon in December...

Less than 2 weeks to go and I'm injured - damn...

I strained my left calf during my long run weekend before last. My training is now on hold and at this point I don't know if I'll be able to run the Marathon in two weeks. I'll try to run if I can heal up my strain in time. If I can't make it, there will be others I can run. For example, the Rock and Roll Marathon in San Jose on October 14th and the Las Vegas Marathon is December 2nd....

22-mile run! (well almost...)

Well, I had a 22-mile training run scheduled on Saturday...
I had mild sense of dread prior to the run. I wasn't feeling particularly fresh or rested on Friday. I then ate dinner much later than I would have liked on Friday night and felt sluggish Saturday morning. Based on how my previous long runs had gone, I knew I might start feeling serious fatigue as early as 17 miles...
I ran this training run with the Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders marathon training group. Karen leads this group and plans and coordinates our runs - she's a superstar. She has a broken toe and can't run, but she still shows up every Saturday morning with maps and encouragement. As it turns out, of the 10-20 people that generally show up for these runs there are only 3 of us are training for the full 26.2 mile marathon. For all 3 of us The San Francisco Marathon will be our first. The rest are smarter and wiser and are training for the much easier Half Marathon. My full marathon training partners are Mike, who is my age and has previously ridden in the ALC bicycle ride from SF to LA. The other is Adrien (sp?), who is almost 20 years younger than us and previously lived and trained in Mexico City.
We started earlier (7:30) than our usual 9:00 starting time since our run would last approximately 4 hours and it can get quite warm in the afternoons in the East Bay hills. This Saturday's run was at Briones Regional Park which is about 5 miles North of Orinda. We started with an out-and-back for the first 8 miles. We started with the Half Marathoners for a change, since their scheduled run for the day would be that 8 mile out-and-back (and then they're done!) Mike must have had Wheaties for breakfast since he started out at a fairly fast clip the first few miles with Adrien right behind him. His pace didn't seem sustainable for 22 miles so I held back a little. Even though I held back slightly, the 3 of us finished both legs of the first 8 miles at a faster pace than the half marathoners - and we still had 14 miles to go!
Back at our starting point, I topped off my water bottle with more Gatorade and off we went for the balance of out run. For this run I experimented with energy gels - one every hour. Last weekend I ate very little during our 20 mile run and really ran out of gas at around 17 miles. For the remaining 14 miles we ran around the Briones reservoir. It was a beautiful run with great views. At about the 13 mile mark we started a steady gradual climb for most of the next mile. I was feeling pretty good by then so I pushed the pace up the hill and continued at a good pace for the next 3 or 4 miles. At about the 18 mile mark, my left calf started hurting quite a bit. It didn't feel like a strain - more just protesting the overuse. I took it easy for the last mile or so since by then both calfs really hurt. As far as general fatigue, I felt fine and could have continued for a few miles more. The energy gel every hour made a world of difference - I didn't feel the dramatic fatigue I felt with my previous week's training run.
When I got home I checked the mileage of this run and discovered it wasn't quite 22 miles. I calculate it to be over 20 miles, but not by much - so I'm calling it 20.5. I was really excited to have completed this run. This is the longest run I've done in my entire life. When I trained for track and cross-country in college, our longest runs were 18-20 miles at most and that was over 20 years ago! This was a great workout and a big confidence booster looking forward to the San Francisco Marathon. This run wasn't as long as the 26.2 mile Marathon, but was on dirt trails and with more hills. On the other hand I'll be running the Marathon at a faster pace.
I learned a few things on this run: My stomach has no problems with Gatorade or energy gels, the energy gels will make a huge difference with my level of fatigue late in the Marathon, and the Marathon is going to be hard on my legs and my calves may hurt like hell for the last 6 to 8 miles. My plan is to bring some Tylenol with me during the Marathon and take it with my last energy gel at hour 3. Hopefully that will keep the pain at a reasonable level and I'll be able to finish without it affecting my pace.
Less than 3 weeks to go!

20-mile run!

Well, I was able to knock out most of a 20-mile run on Saturday. This one was in the Anthony Chabot Regional Park also with the LMJS marathon training group. It had a few hills which after 10 or 15 miles were tough. I had a mild strain in my right calf, so I walked the steeper hills after about 10 mile mark. A also ran out of gas at about the 17-mile mark and walked for a bit then as well. I've been slow to incorporate eating into my runs and I now see the error of my ways! After eating 1/4 of a sandwich I felt better and was able to finish the run.
This coming weekend is a 22-mile training run. This will be my longest run in preparation for the full Marathon on July 29th. I'll try eating a small amount every hour of this 4-hr training run and I'm hoping this will improve how I feel later in the run. In the meantime rest, ice and Advil as I try quickly heal this minor strain in my calf...

17-mile run!

I only have about 3 weeks of serious training left before tapering off in preparation for running the Marathon on July 29th. This past Sunday I ran with a group from a local running club that are also training for the S.F. Marathon. Those training for the Half Marathon ran for the first 10 miles and the rest of us continued on a longer run. The Marathon training group were putting in an 18 mile run. I was aiming for 16 miles so I didn't stay with them and took a slightly shorter route. The route I took came out to be 17 miles and included a lot of hills. The biggest climb started around the 10-mile mark. This turned out to be almost a 1000' climb over the next 3 miles. For reference, the tallest hill in San Francisco is Mount Davidson which is 925' high.
By the time I reached the top my legs were sore and tired - and I still had 4 miles left to go. The last few miles were tough but thankfully mostly downhill. By the time I was done I was beat! Needless to say I didn't do much the rest of the day...
Next weekend I'll attempt a 20-mile run - that should be interesting!

Woodminster race

Last weekend I participated in the 42nd annual Dick Houston Memorial Woodminster Cross County race. This is a 9-mile race starting in Joaquin Miller park in the East Bay hills. This is a small event with mostly competitive runners. It has an interesting feature in that it is a handicapped race with different starting times depending on age and gender. It was a tough hilly course with a long, tough hill at around the 5-mile mark. Most of us running at my pace walked most of the hill. I had tough workouts prior to this event and wasn't fully rested for this race so I wasn't competitive at all. I considered it a workout and didn't worry about how well I did. I finished 136th out of 150 runners - tough field! My time for the event was 1:38:43 - not great at all - the winner finished in just under an hour! This was a fun event and was the third event of the Triple Crown Trail Championship. I look forward to competing in these events seriously next year...

6 1/2 weeks to go! Feeling strong and injury-free!

Well, I have just over 6 weeks to go until the San Francisco Marathon. I'm currently without any injuries which is a very pleasant surprise. I've been plagued with injuries for most of my training. I think the 9 days off took care of my shin splints and taking 3 rest days per week is paying off.
I'm feeling relatively strong and confident. I had a challenging 13+ mile run Saturday, another hilly 7 mile run Monday and then 7 more miles with a good track workout today. Even with 27 miles of pretty hard running in the last 5 days I feel relatively fresh and could go for another easy run this evening.
My main challenge now is to increase my mileage from my current longest day of 14 miles to 16, 18 and then my longest scheduled run of 20 miles on July 7th. These long runs are critical as they train my body to adapt to running longer distances.

My first attempt at a 16-mile run: crash and burn!

Well, on Sunday I attempted a challenging 16-mile run in Tilden park. I made a couple of minor miscalculations so it didn't work out so well...
I got a late start, so i didn't start my run until about 10:30. I started out by running a fairly flat 3-mile loop. I had a quick drink of water and then started on the rest of my run. This 2nd segment started with a 500ft climb in elevation over the next 2 miles. This took me up to Inspiration point. I had then planned to run out Nimitz Way for 5 miles and back to my starting point which would make for a 16-mile run. I didn't think there was water at Inspiration Point or on Nimitz Way, but I wasn't 100% sure. A mile or 2 along Nimitz way in the sun and I was ready for more water. I realized that my 13-mile loop in the sun on a warm day was going to be much too far to go without water so I changed my plans. I instead ran out Nimitz 3.5 miles and then back to my starting point with the intention of adding on the final 3 miles after drinking more water. By the time I got back to my starting point I was totally baked and decided to call it a day. 10 miles in the sun on a warm day was much too far to run without water. If I had started my run earlier it may have been fine.
So, in the future, I have to be more careful planning my long runs. I need to get a couple of 18-20 mile runs in before the Marathon and it will be important to make sure I have water available along the runs and that I'm not running out in the sun when it's hot. I grew up in San Francisco in the fog and I don't do well in the heat.
I wasn't able to push my mileage to 16 miles, but I did put in a challenging 13+ mile run that included plenty of hill running. I'll attempt another 16-mile run next weekend or the weekend after.

Training again and now raising funds for Diabetes research!

Well, my shin splints seem to have responded to some rest, ice and Advil. I took 9 days off with no running at all and now I have only a dull ache in my left shin when I run. I now have a 9 mile run and a 6 mile run since starting again and I think it's going to be fine to pick up where I left off. I'm determined to do what I can to avoid further injury. I intend to run most of my miles at a slower pace (~10 minute miles) and to not race as often. I'll probably take 3 rest days per week. I expect to run a long day each weekend and one other medium hard day during the week. I think I have just enough time to get a couple of 18-22 mile runs in and should be able to complete the full Marathon in late July.
Also, I am now raising funds for Diabetes research! I have joined Team Diabetes to help raise funds for The American Diabetes Association.

Ready to restart training?

Well, I've taken a week and a half off with no running at all. I tried an easy 3-mile run today and it seemed fine. I only have some minor discomfort in my left shin. I'm hoping that this means that I can carefully restart my training. I'll continue with the ice and Advil and take tomorrow off. Saturday I may try a longer run with a local group of runners also training for the SF marathon...

Crash and burn - game over?

Well, I either have a bad case of anterior shin splints or even possibly small stress fractures in my left leg. My left shin is visibly swollen and even a short, easy 3 mile run on Tuesday was painful. I've decided to not run at all until it's better. I'm trying ice, elevation and Advil for a few days and if it doesn't improve then I'll get it x-rayed. Either way this brings my training to a screeching halt - possibly for weeks. So, I'll probably have to skip the Lake Chabot Trail Challenge on June 3rd. Looking ahead to the SF Marathon in July, I probably have to give up on my goal of running the full Marathon in 4 hours or less. Depending on how things progress, I may run the Half Marathon or run the Full Marathon with the goal of simply finishing - regardless of time. Of course, if I'm unable to run the Full Marathon in July there will be others. There is the Portland Marathon in October..;-)
Hopefully, I'll learn from my mistakes. I was impatient and training too hard. Most of my runs should have at ~10-minute mile pace - including all my long runs and all of my easy recovery runs. I was running most of my mileage at 8:30-9:30 pace mistakenly thinking that my legs wouldn't know the difference. I sort of assumed that my cardiorespiratory system would be the limiting factor and that my legs could handle anything. As it turns out my 46-yr old legs haven't been up to the demanding runs I've put them through. So, I'll recover and start training again - hopefully smarter next time...

The Tilden Tough Ten

May 21st I ran in the Tilden Tough Ten sponsored by the Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders. This is a 10-mile race along the East Bay hills. I have a painful case of shin splints so I took it fairly easy. The course is a simple "out and back" with the middle third being quite hilly. There are photos and a course description here:
http://www.lmjs.org/Tilden_Tough_Ten
I ran the first 5 miles in 44:17 and felt pretty good charging the uphill sections. In the 6th mile I met my match with a steep dirt hill on Mezue and my time dropped own to 10:54 for lap 6. I took it easy after that and finished the event in about 93 minutes. So more, ice, Advil, rest and hopefully I can shake this case of shin splints and be back training at 100%. I may run the LMJS 15k next weekend and the Lake Chabot Trail Challenge the weekend after next - we'll see how my recovery progresses.

MT. TAM WILD BOAR RIDGE 18k

I ran the Envirosports Mt. Tam. Wild Boar Ridge 18k (~11.25 miles) on May 12th. The short story is that I started out too fast on a cold morning with inadequate warm-up and now I have a new injury - shin splints!
I got a late start the morning of the event. With some careful driving I made it to the event site on Mt. Tam about 5-10 minutes before the start of the race. It was clear out, but cold and windy. I had no time for a warm-up run and after quick announcements from the event coordinator we were off. The first few miles were on pavement and hilly. At about the 2 mile mark the strain in my left hamstring was back - damn. I had probably gone out to fast and wasn't warmed up either. I stopped briefly to quickly massage the strain and stretch. Then I started out again at a much slower pace and spent the next mile or so deciding if I should finish the event or not. I decided that I would just continue and hope for the best. I was able to finish but my legs were wrecked by the time I was done - with a new injury, a painful case of shin splints in my left leg - damn.
Other than my little injuries, it was a fun event. About the first 4 miles were on pavement, but the rest of the race were on trails. Some of these trails I trained on 20 years ago when i ran track at C.C.S.F. so it was fun to run on them again. The first section of trails was along a grassy ridge with beatiful views of the Pacific. The trail was less than a foot wide with grass at least knee high whipping your legs, with the occasional thistle to spice things up. On the first steep uphill section most people walked! I was initially shocked, but then I reminded myself that I was running with slower runners and why not? The trail wasn't wide enough to pass, so I tried walking a few steps - it was refreshing- haha. Anyway, once back into the woods (this is Matt Davis trail if you know Mt. Tam.) the trail widened, but now we has rocks and roots and branches to dodge. One runner took a nasty fall in front of me and another almost did the same. At the 10 mile mark, we came to the last water station and then a 500' climb of switchbacks to the finish. I ran the some of it but everyone around me walked the steepest portions. It seemed almost sacrilegious to walk, but I could see no reason to kill myself and appariently no one else did either. There were great snacks and a cool T-shirt at the finish. Simple things like cold water and chez-its are sooo good after a hard run...;-)
My official time for this event was 1:52:21, but I had my time as under 1:50 Either way, not very impressive, but so it goes...

The Half Marathon in 1:56:42 !

Last weekend I finished the Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon with a great time of 1:56:42. That's an average pace of 8:54 per mile for 13.1 miles. That was good for 172nd place out of 883 runners - well entrants - some were walking, not running. Not too shabby for a 46 year-old guy with only 6 weeks of training! The bad news is that I was nursing an injury and possibly shouldn't have run at all - and definitely shouldn't have run so hard. I started out easy, but picked up the pace once I warmed up. I ran miles 3 thru 13.1 at a 8:48 pace.
So ice, aspirin and rest most of this week and hopefully I'll be ready for the Envirosports Mt. Tam. Wild Boar Ridge 18k this weekend.
A month ago I hadn't expected to run in this event. Tina and I had planned a 9 day road trip to Utah this week. Unfortunately, our dog Squeak was hit by a car last month and required surgery. So we canceled our vacation to help pay for the pet hospital bill. Since Tina had the week off we decided to take an overnight trip up to the Redwoods and I'd be able to run in this event.
The weather was beautiful and we had a nice drive up. We drove up Saturday and stopped at the site of the Marathon to check in. We drove the route of the Half Marathon so that Tina would know what it would be like. Lodging was tough to find so we actually had to stay in Arcata almost an hour north of the event. Sunday morning we got up at the crack of dawn to head down to the Marathon site.
The weather was perfect and the location is beautiful. There were about 1200 participants for the Marathon and Half Marathon. We all started at the same time so the road was crowded for the first 3/4 mile. I was nursing an injury - a strain in my left hamstring - so I took it easy at the start. At the 3-mile mark I was surprised to find that I had run the 3rd mile in less than 9 minutes. Doing some quick math I determined I could finish the half Marathon in less than 2 hours if I kept that pace. My injury felt ok so I kept up that pace. I averaged 8:48 per mile for miles 3 thru 10. After the 10-mile mark, I started to tire and my times for miles 11 and 12 were 9:06 and 9:10. The last mile or so in picked the pace and ran mile 13 in 8:38. I mistakenly thought the finish line was at the starting line and kicked too early - I had another 1/10th mile to go - oops! Anyway, I finished with a great time - at least for me. Between the injury and fatigue, my legs felt terrible after the event and I have a lot of ice, aspirin and rest planned this week.

Injury - again!

Eighteen weeks is not enough time to train for a Marathon when you haven't been running at all. Most training programs I've found prefer that you have been running 25-30 per week for a few months before you start the 16-18 week training for the Marathon. So once I started researching how to train for a Marathon I quickly understood that what I want to accomplish is somewhat unreasonable and that I'd be training at the verge of injury. Well, this has turned out to be the case. Week 3 I strained my right calf and had to take 3 days off. Last week my right calf and hamstring were bothering me and I had to take it easy for a few days. Yesterday I pulled my left hamstring while on a 'tempo run" (3 miles at a pace faster than my target race pace this weekend). I had to take a taxi home! So, I'll take a few days off with ice, aspirin and stretching and hopefully be able to make the race this weekend. Instead of trying to go out at 8:50-9:00 this weekend I'm going to go out at ~9:30 pace and just try to finish!

A quiet week and a big race this weekend

Not much to report today. I plan to run easy this week with two rest days of no running at all. This weekend I have the Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon up in Humboldt county. This 13.1 mile race will be a good test of how much I've been able to improve my conditioning with 6 weeks of training. The 13.1 mile race will be a jump in distance from my current longest day of 10 miles. My first challenge will be to not start out too fast - my target first mile time of 8:50-9:00 will feel very slow in a race environment. The bigger test will be to then sustain that pace for the entire race. My goal is to finish in less than 2 hours.

Yesterday marks 5 weeks of training

I've now run about 100 miles since I started training 5 weeks ago - I've run 24 of those miles in the last 5 days! I've lost 7 pounds since I strarted and 13 pounds since my heaviest weight this winter. I'm down to 190# which is heavy for a Marathoner and about 30 pounds heavier than I weighted when I ran track in college. I expect to weight between 170 and 180 pounds on race day late July - still heavy for a Marathoner but a good "fighting weight" for me.
I'm feeling pretty good about how my training is proceeding. I've had a few minor strains as my old legs have adjusted to running again, but I feel healthy now. I expect to be ready for the Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon coming up May 6th and then the Mt. Tam. Boar Ridge 18k 6 days later.
Our dog Squeak needs a lot of attention but still seems to be doing great.

Squeak update and the LMJS 15k

So it's now been a week since Squeak's accident and surgery. She's doing great. It's amazing how much fight there is in that little 5 pound dog. Thanks to those of you that have offered to help with the hospital bills, but we are not accepting any help with those - these pups are our responsibility. You are encouraged to donate to my favorite charities - there are links on the right side of this page - thanks.
On Sunday I ran in a 15k (9.3 mile) race in Oakland sponsored by the Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders. This was 3 laps around Lake Merritt. I started out at too fast of a pace, passing the 2 mile mark at 16:30 (8:15 mile pace), and knew I'd pay for it later. I slowed my pace and passed the 5k mark at 26:10. At about the 5 mile mark I started to fatigue and the remaining 4 miles were a challenge. I passed the 10k mark at 54:00 and finished the race with a time of 1:22:22. My times for each 5k were 26:10 (8:25 pace), 27:50 (8:57 pace) and then 28:22 (9:07) pace.
I'm a little disappointed that I went out quite so fast, but thats one of the reasons I'm running so many races as part of my training for the Marathon in July. Going out too fast in that event could be disastrous. The good news is that even though I faded later in this 15k, my pace for the race overall was 8:50 which is in the range I was aiming for. This was my longest race ever and my longest run in 20 years.
My next event is the Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon in 2 weeks. This is a much larger event than the two local races I've run so far - thousands of runners instead of 100 or 200. Also 13.1 miles is a significant distance. It will be critical that I don't start out faster than my 9 minute target pace or it won't be much fun later in the race...

My first race and our dog gets hit by a car!

Well, the best news first: Our dog will probably be ok. Squeak, the smaller of our two dogs (they are Chihuahua/Dachshund mix), was hit by a car Sunday while I was running my race. She has two fractures in her pelvis and had some internal injuries as well. They operated on her yesterday and it seems that she's going to be fine. Hopefully she'll be wiser or at least faster after this...

Anyway, I also had my first race in over 20 years and I'm thrilled at how well I did. I was expecting a time of somewhere between 54 minutes and an hour for this 10k (6.2 mile) race. I finished in a time of 51:29! I was shocked. That's an average of 8:18 per mile, a much faster pace than I thought I could sustain. Also, this was not a flat course - the last mile or so was uphill and I felt it. Anyway, I'm thrilled I did so well...

Next Sunday, I'm running a 15k (9.3 mile) race in Oakland sponsored by the LMJS (Lake Merritt Joggers and Striders). 3 laps around Lake Merritt. This will be my longest run thus far and I'm hoping to average 8:40-8:50 for each mile of the race. I'll run a little before and after to make it an 10-11 mile day...

I have some fun but tough races ahead in May:
Avenue of the Giants Half Marathon - May 6th
Mount Tam. Boar Ridge 18k - May 12th
Tilden Tough 10 miler - May 20th

And tougher races ahead in June:
Lake Chabot Trail challenge (Half Marathon on tough fire roads) - June 3rd
and the Double Dipsea (13.7 miles - up and over Mt. Tam twice on tough trials) - June 23rd

Hopefully with some of these tough races under my belt, the S.F. Marathon in July will feel like a stroll in the park...;-)

Today marks 3 weeks of training

So my most excellent adventure started 3 weeks ago today. I've now run a total of 50 miles, lost 3 pounds and have pieced together something of a training plan. At this point I'm not even running the distance of a Marathon in a week. By July 29th I hope to be able to run the entire distance of 26.2 miles - in less than 4 hours! This weekend I have my first training race and my longest run thus far. The Dolphin South End Runners sponsor races almost every weekend of the year. They have a 10k (6.2 miles) race this Sunday. I plan to take it easy in this event. My goal is to finish the race in less than an hour and run a little extra to increase my mileage for the day to 7 or 8 miles...