jokach's marathon training blog

After two weeks of real brutal heat and humidity, we finally got some rain, but unfortunately it came on a Saturday morning .. yep, the same Saturday morning that I needed to do my first 22 miler of the training season. I was out of town yesterday, so I hadn't gotten the chance to check the weather forecast for today, so I was kind of playing it by ear but realized I was in for a rough morning when I got up, and for the first time in awhile... NO SUN!

I got up and then geared myself for my run thinking that it couldn't be that bad, right? It actually wasn't that bad, except for a few times when I was in a total downpour. It kind of reminded me of the Flying Pig marathon back in May because I was totally soaked like I had jumped in a pool with my running gear on. Thankfully the downpours were far and few between, and by around mile 15, it actually felt good. The whole run was in the rain and despite the conditions, I still was able to keep my goal pace .. I think I found out during the Flying Pig when I last ran in the pouring rain, that you can really do still dehydrate despite the fact you're soaking wet. When the rain let up a little bit towards the end, I didn't realize how badly I needed more water. My fuel belt was about empty and I was parched, but thankfully my local supermarket was near that has an outdoor water dispenser ..

I'm not sure if it was the fact I was out in the rain today or not, but I actually had people honking at me today (in a good way). I hadn't had anybody honk or anything in quite some time, although I hadn't been running any courses that took me near real civilization. It kind of gave me some motivation when I really needed it ..

The course I chose today was killer also, I forgot why I stopped running that way every week. Lots of hills, which is probably a good thing, but not for a long run .. I struggled through it. I've wrapped up week 3 of training and am now heading into the final week of Mesocycle 1 in Pfitz's 70/12 plan...

I continue to say how getting into a more formal training plan that actually allows for recovery time during the week is really making a difference. Usually I head into my long run feeling all worn out, with my legs beat-up and just tired, but except for being tired from driving yesterday, I felt good.

So tomorrow is a longer bike ride, I might hit 18 miles or so ... just got the bike back from the shop though, it had a problem with the front deraullier where it wouldn't switch out of the low gears ... but its all fixed now.

I've been kind of absent from blogging, surfing and tweeting for that matter ... just busy these days. Seems I have more time in the winter to spend blogging than I do now, but i'm still out there. I hope the less frequent updates haven't scared people away ...

Thankfully I got my long run in today before the heat kicked up .. it was actually pretty cool this morning when I headed out, I had a debate as to wear a tank top or a regular shirt when I got up, and the regular shirt won out. I probably would have been just fine with the tank top, but either way I made it through. I actually woke up at 5:28am thinking that it was a weekday and that I forgot to turn my alarm on .. it took a few minutes to realize that it was actually a Saturday.

I had 20 miles scheduled for today, and thanks to my trainer watch, I stayed right on pace by running it at about a 9:15/mile pace (which is ~10% slower than my goal pace for my next race). I took plenty of water with me in my fuel belt and even stopped for more while I passed local grocery store with an outside water dispenser.. the only problem with that is that the water was actually WARM when it came out of the spicket, which didn't go down so good, but I took it anyway because I was really dehydrated. The water actually cooled down as the run went on .. it was strange.

I'm not sure how many times i've said it, but I really like the training plan I'm on now, I seem to be better focused on what i'm doing and surprisingly I can feel the difference already after only 2 weeks. The best part of the plan is that now Sunday is my day off from running after doing my long run on a Saturday, although i'll fill in the void with a 10-15 mile bike ride as I slowly work up my bike mileage. Tomorrow is supposed to be real hot out, which probably means the morning will be pretty hot and humid also, so I want to get out first thing.. I find that i've also been drinking a lot of Gatorade lately, which isn't a bad thing for . I've been trying to fight this chronic dehydration problem i've been having for months now, where I just don't take enough fluids in... I've found that I feel better and recover faster when I'm hydrated, so it really does work.

The biggest highlight right now is that this week I start to kick the miles up a little more as I head into week 3 of the "endurance" mesocycle 1. I'm sill not doing a lot of speed related work yet, that comes in the next mesocycle... I guess we take the endurance and mix it with the speedwork, so those workouts should be real hard, but I do need it.

I can't wait to rest tomorrow ...

Just a quick update .. its been a great week so far, i've added in some cycling time into my weekly workout routine and still working on getting used to it. I found that the absolute worst part of riding a road bike for the first time in many, many years is that my butt just isn't used to it. Even with cycling shorts on that had padding, it was painful after doing just 9 miles on Sunday and 5 more yesterday. Everyone i've talked to has told me that I'll get used to it .... I thought at first that maybe the seat is just uncomfortable and that I can replace it, but apparently this is normal.

As for running, the second week of Pfitz's 70/12 plan is going well for me, i'm seeing the value in taking adequate recovery days and keeping with a target pace during all my runs. I'm still in Mesocycle 1, focusing on endurance although there is one day of speed work. Another one of the other changes I don't think I mentioned the other day in my post was integrating my Garmin trainer watch into the workout. I find that by building the workout in the Garmin software, then loading it into my watch and scheduling it for the week, I stay right at the pace I want to be at (and it definitely helps with those Vo2 workouts).

I'm hoping these changes make the difference as I'm heading for just 10 weeks to go until Rochester ... I'm feeling stronger already ..

It was terribly warm today to get an 18 mile run in, but I did it. I tried to get up real early, but didn't manage to get myself out of bed until around 5:30, so I didn't get on the road until around 5:45 or so. There was still a bit of coolness in the air as I headed out, but it was soon replaced by heat and sunshine.

I decided that in addition to the other changes I've made in my training, I'd start to mix up my courses a bit as well. Each week I always seemed to end up on the same courses over and over, which just made them boring ... I found myself running through a corn field this morning which I thought was pretty cool. I felt like I should have been posing for a picture for Runners World with the scenery around me.. anyway, I got into a good pace this morning by sticking to the training plan of running 10-15% slower than my goal pace. that put me around 9:10/mile, which I did a decent job of keeping. Its funny how you can run so much better when you have a plan (and a watch that complains if you drop too far below the pace).

Some other changes I've made include the fact I don't run with an MP3 player anymore. Weird, eh? After running with one for several years, I've just totally abandoned it .. its been since Memorial Day weekend since I ran with it, I didn't even use it for the last marathon I ran. It may be that I got bored with the same old music over and over, who knows.

Tomorrow is my first bike ride .. I got down to Performance Bikes in North Wales on Friday to pick up my new bike. I was able to get out and just test it out and get it adjusted, but tomorrow will be the first true test .. I intend to take it easy since its been several years since i've been out on the bike, but i'm looking forward to it because the best part is that after my bike ride tomorrow, its a rest day (which means no running)..

So this past week was a pretty easy recovery week and next week I start to kick up the workouts a little bit, so we'll see how good I feel next weekend..

So its the first week of meteorological summer, my favorite time of the year .. even though its been pretty hot the last couple of weeks already. I have to say though that the today had to have been the warmest morning that i've been out running since I was down at the beach a few weeks ago on Memorial Day. The temperature when I headed out today was 77 degrees, and the humidity.. ugh. It was hard to breath, and this was only at 5am today...

I'm 4 days into my new training plan for the fall and I can say that I am enjoying the change in my normal routine, I really think this is what I needed. When I look back at the way I was training for the past few marathons, it seemed too much like just running with no real purpose except to get the miles in. Now I feel like I have purpose again as each run has its own purpose in the grander plan .. we'll see how it holds up. Its really been like a recovery week still because I haven't started pushing it hard yet, but that won't last long, the hardest weeks are yet to come.

There was one other thing that I've been focusing on, hydration. I really feel like I have chronic dehydration in some way because i'm always thirsty, however I've been working harder on drinking fluids ALL the time. I'm drinking water at night, more water during the day and especially after and before a run, i'm downing a decent amount of water. I can't say its made a huge difference, but it might take time for me to get my fluid level where it is supposed to be.

I also have another purpose for the Hartford marathon in October .. I've been asked to be a pace leader for the 4:05 finish, which means I need to work hard to be able to keep that pace. I think knowing that I am expected by others to finish in that time, should give me some more motivation to get there... I'm kind of honored that I was asked, its something kind of different.

Lastly, my road bike that I ordered the other day is in, soI expect to go pick it up tomorrow so that I can get out for a weekend ride.. this is the model I bought so I have high expectations.. can you say duathlon in the near future? We'll have to see how it goes ..

Well, another update this weekend ... its supposed to be hot, but i'd prefer hot over the cold ...