jokach's marathon training blog

Its always a thrill to hang out at the running store today (btw, I shop at The Finish Line Running store in Emmaus) although I was disappointed they didn't have the Mizuno Wave Rider 5's that i've been using in my size ... so the next best thing? The Mizuno Alchemy 8 ... it actually felt more comfortable than the Wave Rider, and the toe box seemed a little wider. I've been having some issues with my second toe rubbing against my big toe since I changed shoes in the spring, I hope this helps alleviate that a bit ...

So I stocked up on shoes and body glide ... yep, body glide. I decided to hold off on buying new outfits for now until its closer to race time. My theory with that is that I enough 'crap' outfits that I don't mind getting stinked up and dirty while i'm in the hard core stages of training, we'll wait to look nice until later in the cycle.. I also picked up some gel's for my long runs and then called it a day. Its weird how you get pumped up in a running store, I guess its just the feeling of 'running' in the air in those places ...

I checked out the official Baltimore Running Festival store .. and am considering getting a shirt with "Blue the crab" on it. I also checked out the Philly marathon store but didn't find anything I particularly liked. Oh well.

I mapped out a decent course for tomorrow, with the intention of running something a little different. I took some of the courses that I was running in the spring, but took out some of the worst parts of it. There is the one hill on Fish Hatchery Road and then subsequently on Oxford Rd (24th st) that was just real brutal (and even looked bad on when i mapped it, so we cut around it a bit and we'll see how it goes. I'm excited about running something a little different.

My foot is feeling somewhat better today, but is enjoying the rest. I took the last 2 days off from the Wii Active and from running today so i'm fresh for tomorrow, no use overdoing it, but I do expect to get back on the Wii tomorrow for some cross training.

I really kicked it up a notch today on my speed run .. not sure why, but I may have kicked it up so far, that I strained my left foot. It might just be sore for no good reason as its not 'killing me', its just sore. The soreness is right in the arch itself, and there is no isolated pain (as if it was a stress fracture or anything like that). I'm being hopeful that with my day off tomorrow, it heals up and doesn't get worse (although I intend to go to an amusement park tomorrow .. that probably won't help. I figure ibuprofen and ice will do the trick, along with taking it easy..

I do remember getting a similar pain last fall as well, and it just went away in a day or so, so i'm hoping thats the case. I got my 7x800's at 3:35/800 this morning like I wanted to, totaling 7.5 miles in all... the foot pain could be due to the fact I need new shoes, which i'll get tomorrow sometime before the long run Saturday... I'm really thinking that this is the case. It probably got sore and then i had my dress shoes on all day at work (which are uncomfortable to begin with).. I guess I can speculate, but only time will tell...

We'll see how it feels tomorrow... I hate to think i'm injured just as i'm starting to peak .. just have to stay positive...

Even though i'm struggling with being overly tired, I still managed to kick it up a notch this morning on my 10-miler. I'm feeling that its time to make the next midweek mileage increase, because I think i'm getting too comfortable with 10 miles. I never thought i'd get bored doing 10 miles multiple times a week, but I have, so next week we increase it to 11 miles and then 12 ... with that, there is just under 11 weeks until the first marathon of the season (the Lehigh Valley Health Network marathon), so I guess its a good thing to keep increasing.

I seem to have adapted to the new training format this year in comparison with the previous years where I focused on a single 'long' midweek run in previous years and now am getting two 'long' midweek runs instead .. it seems to be making the difference. The other change is the different courses i'm running instead of just doing the same course over and over and over like last year. It gets boring real fast, trust me.

So another bright point is that i'm just 15 weeks away now from the Baltimore marathon on Columbus Day weekend ... I have to get better on the 20 milers though, but it all comes with practice I guess. As I continue to increase the midweek mileage, my hopes are the weekend runs would get better... I also noticed that my attitude towards training is different, where in past years, I would find that I would just get the run in and this year, its about using the run to get better and that its supposed to be hard and challenging, its supposed to be tough, and i'm supposed to get tired. It all helps to make you better, so attitude is a lot of it..

Enough for now ..

It was only a week or so back and I was complaining about the rain and the constant cloudiness, and now i'm regretting that I can't go back to it. Running and training (especially marathon training) in the heat is actually a better workout once your body becomes acclimated to the heat. Even though I get out pretty early (especially on weekends), its still warm, I couldn't even imagine how hot it gets for the people I see out running at noon or 2pm in the afternoon. Alot of it depends on the distance you're running though, i'm at a point that my shortest run of the week is around 6 miles, so others might not be out as long as I am, that could be the difference.

So how do I marathon train in the blazing heat? Heres my advice:

1. dress accordingly .. light clothes, singlet if possible (i'm not a 'no shirt' guy)
2. body glide .. lots of it (use vaseline as well). You will chafe in those special places, trust me.
3. get out early.. I find that getting out before 5:30am tends to keep you somewhat cooler for at least the first couple miles.
4. drink plenty of fluids the night before
5. DON'T STOP! Regardless of how hot you get, if you stop, it'll only get worse. If you absolutely feel that bad, stop but find cover somewhat so the sun doesn't continually beat on you
6. use suntan lotion, it helps reflect and not allow the suns rays to heat you up. I'm not sure that i'm convinced this works, but I can't dispute it.

Hopefully you'll find some value in my advice, it works for me and i'm running quite a bit in the heat these days.

So I took a different route today for my 10 miler, and although I expected to do a tempo run, it really turned out to be more of a hill workout than anything. I'm finding that its difficult to do the old tempo run these days since I don't have anywhere flat to go, nor do I have a measured mile like I used to have before I moved. I expect to add another mile to my Sunday run this coming week, and some more speed to my 10 milers this week as well. I was supposed to be doing that this past week, but it never seemed to have happened, so we have to kick it up a notch. For being 7 weeks into training, I think things are going well, I've fallen into a decent pace, gotten comfortable with the long run again (and the fueling during it) and haven't suffered any specific injury as of yet. Hopefully we can keep it up for the fall marathon season so we can do well ...

For some reason I found myself over in the Runners World forums reading about people who are against others doing multiple marathons. My opinion is that its my business to do them if I want, and I enjoy them. The best part about training is that you really learn your body and you know when enough is enough. Its a tough road to train up to the first marathon, but after that, its not too bad because its a constant mix of recovery and getting ready for the next marathon and by October, its cooling off finally.

Well enough about the fall, lets just enjoy the training ..

Another weekend goes by and another long run in the books. I expected to get 20 miles in today but again missed it by about 2 tenths of a mile like I did last week, what a bummer. It was a little more difficult today to complete, and i'm trying to understand why .. one thing is that it was warmer and the sun was out about 75% of the time, whereas last week it was pretty cloudy and getting ready to rain .. also I think I ran the first half of the run a little too fast, I was at just over an 8 minute mile at mile 5, which isn't good as far as the long run goes .. we have to get that under control. Other than those two things, I used the same gels, water, etc that I used last week, so i'm not sure why I was so worn out in comparison.

One thing I noticed when I got back though is that i've burned out a pair of shoes already and its only been just over a month ... I guess whe you're running 60+ miles a week, it only takes a few weeks to burn a pair out. Its an unfortunate thing, because the shoes I wear (Mizuno Wave Rider 500's) go for about $90-$100 a shot, so it starts to get expensive, but I have to do it I guess. I'm considering changing shoes at some point to get a larger toe box so that the this major callus I have on my second toes start to go away. Yes, that was plural. On both of my feet, my second toe has a big callus on it from rubbing against the big toe, and sometimes it gets painful ... I can't think of too much more I can do besides change shoes. I didn't have this problem before, but ever since I moved to this shoe, its a problem (but I love the shoe)..

So tomorrow I have 10 or 11 miles scheduled, and I expect to head to the trails so i don't burn out my normal courses for during the week. Its still supposed to be warm in the morning, so i expect to sweat like a pig just like I have been, its quite embarrassing. It is humorous though, because if there is one thing I noticed living in the Lehigh Valley, its that the recreational runners are really into their matched, neat and clean running outfits. When a nasty, foul smelling, sweaty looking creature like myself comes along, I hope they they know that I am a serious runner.

Its only been a week since I started cross training using the Wii Active. Its weird, but I feel my core being worked harder now when I run ... could the 22 minute workout I get on the Wii actually be what I was looking for? I guess we'll see. I really do suggest it if you have no other way to cross train ... I like the sports (volleyball, tennis, basketball) along with the cardio boxing, it really does me good...

At some point I have to schedule a step back week, not sure where we'll fit it in, but one of these weekends .. I'm getting tired and need to recover, we don't want to get burnt out!