New "Longest Run"

I awoke at 4:45 AM to the sound of birds chirping and the earliest scraps of sunlight peeking through the window.  I covered my head with my pillow and tried for what seemed like eons to get back to sleep.  At 4:46 I got out of bed and got dressed for my run.

I sneaked downstairs as quietly as possible (which is hard to do on those squeaky stairs).  I put on the coffee, found my running shoes, and I swear it took me the entire time the pot was brewing to put them on and tie the shoes.  "This is proof", I thought, "that there is no life before coffee".

I poured myself a big bowl of Cheerios, and then just stared at it blankly.  The thought of eating food just soured my belly.  I decided to go down to the basement and fire up my gaming computer.  I played a couple quick missions of "City of Heroes", a game in which I get to wallop bad guys across the skull with a large stick with absolutely zero social repercussions.  After a while I dragged myself away from my cathartic bad habit and went upstairs to eat my Cheerios and start my day.  I debated over another cup of coffee, but thought better of it and headed out the door.

I was feeling a bit sore and sluggish, nothing new really, as most of the time the first couple of miles feel exactly like that.  It was at mile 3 when I still felt stiff that I started wondering what was wrong with my legs.  It took me a while longer (the brain is completely non functional this early in the morning), to realize that the reason I was sore was that I had run in a 5k race the day before.  I wanted to come in under 30 minutes in that race, so I pushed myself hard.  I ended with a time of 28:54, and came in #222 of 443 runners... dead middle of the pack.  I was quite pleased with that time (9:28/mile) as my marathon training pace is significantly slower at roughly 11:30/mile.

I ate my GU chomps at miles 5 and 9, and finally started to loosen up at mile 10.  Holy cow, 10 miles of thinking "I am not going to make 14 miles today", before I finally felt like I was going to make it, ugh!  I ran out of water at mile 13, so I may need to switch to my 4 bottle belt soon, especially as the weather heats up.

I wear glasses, but not when I'm running.  They tend to fog up or jostle around on my face, and generally make me uncomfortable.  They would have, however, prevented that stupid bug from slamming into my eyeball at mile 11.  Those little suckers hurt!

I finally stopped running when I got to the little loop in my neighborhood, looked at my watch, and realized that I was just over 14 miles.  I walked the last little bit (a quarter mile maybe?) home, unplugged from my iPod, and listened to the birds.  Overall it was a good run, I felt strong, like I might have been able to pull off 15 miles, but I decided to play it safe and leave that for another day.

Falling Flat

Sunday morning I laced up my shoes and dressed for the weather.  It was a bit chilly so I wore my new Brooks Running LSD II jacket which is water proof, light weight, and a good wind breaker.  I ended up being dressed a bit too warm by mile 5 as the temperature crept up and so did my body temperature.  Fortunately I was able to remove the jacket, tuck it into it's own pocket, and attach it to my water belt with the built in clip all whilst running.  Also, according to my wife, the jacket is 'pretty'.

I added fuel to my regimen, using a 1/2 packet of the GU Chomps at miles 4.5 and 9 (as well as a cup of cheerios with some almond milk before setting out).  The run was a nice relaxing way to start the day with absolutely beautiful weather.  I ran into an old friend from high school while out, and we exchange pleasantries before he continued on his way at a much faster pace than mine.  That didn't bother me though, he's always been in great shape and I was at mile 12 while he was basically just leaving his driveway.

The remainder of the day went to getting the house ready for my youngest daughter's second birthday party.  I joined my wife and kids at the grocery store and finish up the shopping, helped put the groceries away, put up decorations, prepared food, and picked my mother up for the festivities.  It was a grand time, the kids played, the adults reminisced, and folks heard about my plans to run the marathon in January.

Most people were supportive and some just shook their head at the crazy man.  I got the sense that while most people were being outwardly supportive of the idea, at least a few of them figured it was something I couldn't do, shouldn't do, and shouldn't even try.  It was disheartening to overhear some of the comments made, and I began doubting myself.  Then I remembered that two years ago I couldn't run a mile, now I run 13 with (relative) ease.  I can do this.  I'm not going to win any races, but I damned sure can finish, and that is my goal.

I'm just getting started.

Week 1 coming to a close

As week number one comes to a close I find myself concerned with 'fueling'.  I haven't run a half-marathon since March 20th, but my 'long' runs have typically been around 12, so I'm not too nervous about adding one mile to this Sunday's run.

What I'm pondering is the use of 'GU Chomps'.  I used to use these things all the time when I first started running more than 8 miles, but now I can comfortably run 13 without them.  As I start to head towards larger numbers (hello 20, you are a scary looking number!), I start wondering when I should start eating these things.

I don't want to eat a serving at 13 miles and start running out of steam at 14 because I haven't gotten them into my system soon enough.  I'm going to have to play with these things to see where they fit in best.  The recommended every 45 minutes seems a bit excessive since (as I said) I've never really needed them to get to 13, but what lies beyond 13?  Will my legs start to wobble without proper fuel, or am I just over thinking the whole thing too much?

I'll start playing with them this week, maybe take a serving around 8 miles into my 13 miler and see how it goes.  So many questions... thank goodness I've got 8 months to try and figure all this stuff out!