jokach's marathon training blog

Its really been an uneventful week except that I've tapered down the miles as I head into my final week before the next marathon. I wrote the other day about how humid it has been and it seems to have continued through the weekend. The humidity reminds me of how bad it was in Tampa Bay a few years back when I was there running in April, it was like you couldn't even breath because the air was so dense with humidity.. thats how its been.

The good thing is its raining outside now, and some heavy thunderstorms are supposed to come through to break the humidity down a bit hopefully. The forecast for the next few days even shows a low of 47 degrees overnight Tuesday. We'll have to see if that holds up or not, but if it does hold up, it will be a nice change from what I've been running in recently. Just to be safe, I decided to pick up a new fuel belt to wear for the marathon next weekend.. there is always a chance that it will be considerably warm again by next weekend since it is June. I'm not a fan of using a fuel belt because it usually chafes me up a little too much despite my attempts to lube up beforehand (at least the old model I had did). There are water stops every 2 miles in the race next week, but i'd rather have an extra 40oz on me due to the heat... I am one who sweats a lot, even in the shade.

I got the thought of a fuel belt from my semi-long trail run yesterday along the Lehigh Canal. The goal was to practice a cinder towpath course, break the monotony of running on roads and remind myself how hard running trails along the river is since the race next weekend is 75% cinder tow path along a river. The only bad part of the run was that I decided to not take any water with me, it only took me up to around 12 miles until I was parched, totally. Thankfully as I was heading back down through Sand Island park in Bethlehem along the trail, I found a water fountain in the play area which I took a detour to get to and stood at for about 2 minutes slurping water, it really hit the spot at the right time. I thought to myself how poorly I was running at that point due to being dehydrated, and I decided that I don't just want to rely on water stops .. so I got the fuel belt.

So about that trail run ... it was definitely a reminder of how deceivingly difficult running trails are just because they are perceived to be generally flat, but are they really? I say no (and my legs will agree). I'm glad I took the time to tune myself up to trails for the race, it was really a wake up call. My pace was decent, but I really felt beat up afterward, which I didn't expect and I still can't really explain.

After that run yesterday and a recovery run today, that leaves me with just 6 days now until the last spring marathon. I am looking forward to sleeping in a little bit and resting up this week. I've been going and going and going in so many ways, I know it because I haven't been sleeping as good as I should be, so the extra sleep will help (although I'll miss those early morning runs for now). The only struggle this week will be eating .. I'm craving carbs so bad right now, I have to keep it under control with the reduction of miles, but I think I can do it..

Well, another update later in the week as i continue to taper ...

It sure has been a warm couple of mornings out there training as I get ready to wrap up this training cycle prior to my last spring marathon on 6/13. I formally head into my 10-day taper, which offers some lighter recovery runs with no real speed work or anything. The biggest difference is the cutback in miles. I've been happy with the fast that despite my awful weekend of eating, I managed to still lose 2 more pounds, which will definitely help me in my next race.

The time has come to start planning the summer though and how I'll approach the fall race season. It will be a little different since I'm running such a late spring race and an early fall race, there is only 12-13 weeks between them plus I want to relax a little in there. The good thing is that I'm in great shape for this time of year compared to other years .. like for example, last year at this time I was struggling to get a 15 mile long run in and was struggling with my weight. I feel better than I think i've overcome that now and are being positive for the fall..

So I ask myself, what is the goal for the marathon on the 13th? Well, first, I think its to have fun. I've had 2 serious races this spring already, by serious I mean larger races that are out of town .. this is just a downhome local race, I can even sleep in my own bed. I believe the field is only 250 marathoners and 250 half marathoners .. so 500 people total is quite a small race. The post-race festival and the fun along the course seems like fun and the course doesn't appear to be overly challenging (as far as hills go). I did notice that they said most of the course is shaded since we're running along tow-paths along the river .. that could be a good thing to keep my body temperature down, if there is one thing I don't like, its running in the direct sunlight.

If I pull off a 4:05 finish, i'll be happy. I think I can do it, I've been training pretty hard and feel pretty good, the only thing I get concerned about is hydration. It will be warm, regardless of whether the sun is present or not, maybe the only chance to avoid a warm day is if it rains, and that opens up other challenges (yeah, i remember the Flying Pig).

I'm looking forward to an easy weekend and an easy week next week ... things are hectic all around right now, so running is keeping my sanity (as it always has). My favorite time of the year is here, and Wednesday really reminded me of that as I headed out at 5am with the sun just coming up, the birds chirping and the overall peacefulness that comes with it
all, I love summer.

I spent the full holiday weekend down at my favorite vacation getaway, Wildwood, NJ. Although it felt like I was at Spring Break more than I was on vacation (because of the number of young people around), I still got a good weekend of training in.

I managed to get my last 22 miler in on Friday morning before we left, because I really didn't want to do that long of a run while I was away. For whatever reason, my Garmin watch didn't seem to be charged when I wanted to head out and had to settle for my old watch instead. Apparently I left it on and didn't know it .. I would've thought that it had a time-out feature or something, but I found out the hard way... Regardless, the run was a warm one though, although the sun was not out the whole time, the humidity was terrible.

That terrible humidity continued into the weekend, I did get out to do 10 miles along the ocean and boardwalk (not actually on the beach). I found a real nice course that is north of the boardwalk that takes you right up against the water, it was amazing. I was totally soaked though with sweat, it was just real hot even though the sun wasn't out the whole time. The GPS helped me make sure I hit my miles ... I love it.

So then on Sunday, I decided that since I took Thursday off instead of doing my speed workout, I could make it up by running a speed workout along the boardwalk. Thankfully there were not that many people out so early in the morning, but it was still a challenge dodging other runners, bikers and people walking but my watch made sure that I got in the workout that I needed to. Once again though, it was warm, I mean really warm .. I got back after the run and didn't stop sweating for like 20 minutes (even in the air conditioning)..

I wrapped up this morning by doing a short recovery run ... I really needed it. After swimming, walking and playing with my daughter in the pool and on the beach all day on Sunday, along with that killer speed workout, I was wiped out ..

The rest of this week is supposed to be warm, so i've stocked up on Gatorade for when I get done with my runs. I always run mornings, but its still humid. I realized that I miscalculated my training a bit in thinking I had 6 weeks between marathons when I only have 5. There are only 13 days until the 1/2 saur and 1/2 kraut marathon in Wyomissing. I checked out the website and found that its totally sold out ..

I also read that "You will be supported by 13 aid stations ( 5 for the half), including the Strudelhaus aid station (german pastries, full marathon only) & the Oktoberfest Aid station (alternative energy drinks). Zenzi, the Bavarian waitress will hand out gels at the 12 & 20 mile mark, and you will be fed by 2 professional chefs at the post race festivities, while “Hans” will entertain you with his accordion."

It really sounds like a fun event, i'm looking forward to it and the post race ... it will be nice to take a break from those big city races and hoopla that goes along with them ... I like the big races, but you really appreciate the marathon more when you can just lay back and enjoy a little, which I think this will be..

Well, back to the grind tomorrow ...

Its been an interesting couple of days analyzing my training using my new Garmin watch .. I've never really taken a good look at my training and why I feel the way I do at certain times during a run.

The most interesting thing, and I don't know if its normal or not, is that my heart rate jumps up very high in the first 1 to 2 miles .. we're talking up to 218bpm, then it kind of regulates itself and I end up training most of the time in "zone 4", which for me is between 150bpm and 165bpm (or something like that) ... is that good? I don't know. I have to do some more research on it I guess .. but what i've also noticed is that my heart rate slows down considerably towards the end of a longer run, like for example I ran 10 miles this morning and my heart rate was at its lowest right towards the end, but at the same time, I ran my fastest mile at that heart rate. I think this is all just information overload ..

Its also good to know that most of my courses are about right on as far as mileage goes (or within about a tenth of mile) compared to the GPS, which reassures the fact that I haven't been undercutting myself on miles.. I know that online pedometers are only so good, but to actually see my course plotted out that I ran (including where I crossed streets) is pretty cool .. technology has come so far in just a few years.

Despite all the questions its brought up, I guess what really matters is that I like my new toy .. I've never been a gadget guy, but now its opened up all kinds of new questions about why I can't seem to lose this weight. I lost about 4 pounds after the Ocean Drive marathon in late March, and haven't really lost anything since. I've been eating well, training, cross-training .. and I just don't know whats missing.

I was happy yesterday that I finally got my new Garmin training watch via FedEx.. unfortunately it didn't get in until AFTER I got back from my 22 miler. I did get the opportunity to use it today though and kind of break it in, and my first impression of it is that it works well. I've always been a computer geek (and actually am for a living now, but in a slightly different form), but its amazing the kind of data that this new watch pulls about the way I'm running (and training).

I headed out for 12 miles today with my new Garmin, despite the rainy and damp weather. It was warm out, so the rain didn't bother me so much. The course that I chose for tday ewasn't terribly hilly, because I needed to stay within 2-3 miles of my house, but still offered a decent amount of hills. Even though i'm not a big fan of heart rate monitors, I can see their value so I decided to strap that on, synced up the GPS and was on my way. I never ran with a GPS before, so it was interesting to see what the actual mileage was on some of the normal courses that i've been running for awhile now.. I was actually short a tenth of a mile based on the GPS vs. gmap-pedometer, so not too bad.

The thing that did bother me though is that it seemed like the heart rate monitor wasn't constantly picking up my heart rate ... although once I pulled the data off of it, it seems like it did. The watch is supposed to "auto-learn" my cardio zones, which i'm not sure exactly what that means, but its currently set to have the split between zone 3 and zone 4 at 150bpm ... which means that for today I spent 1 hour and 2 minutes in Zone 3 and 42 minutes in Zone 4, which I think is pretty good. My average heart rate was 147bpm (so high-Zone 3) and my highest heart rate was 169bpm (high-Zone 4), but the weird thing is my highest heart rate came in the first mile of the run ... maybe because I went from warm-up into my run, my body was just adjusting I guess.

One of the best features is the fact it tells me how many calories I actually burned (if I have it set right).. right now the watch figured the calories based on a 150-lb woman (the default), which isn't even close to being me, but I figure if it calculated 1572 calories for the workout despite being setup wrong, that is pretty good and more data than I had before.

The one thing that kept throwing me off was the pace because it kept jumping around all over the place .. i'm not sure if I need to set something differently, but it'll be something to look into.

So another week down, 66 miles this past week will probably be the high for this short session before the 1/2 saur 1/2 kraut marathon in June. As I wrote the other day, we're heading to the beach for the Memorial Day weekend, so training won't be my priority (although i'll still run).. then its time to head back into a taper again to wrap up the spring marathon season.

Don't forget to mark June 2,2010 on your calendar since its National Running Day. Be sure to make a plan to visit and event and persuade someone into doing what we all spend so much time doing (running).