Training :: Jim's Run

Ready for the Nashville Country Music Marathon

Posted by Jim on April 15, 2012

I’m ready. I’ve finished the most difficult part of the marathon training and now I’m tapering my mileage during these last couple weeks before the marathon. I’ve run 441 miles and nearly 100 hours to get ready for this race. I would have liked to get in more miles, but the 25 mile run last week (only 1.2 miles short of a marathon) told me that I’m ready to finish. Even with the nearly six weeks off during December/January (due to injury), I was able to get back on track and ready for the race.

My biggest regret in preparing for this marathon is that I’ve not lost more weight. As of this morning I’m down 16.75 pounds from my starting weight of 161.5, but it looks like I’ll be running the marathon at just over 240 pounds. That’s a lot of extra weight that I simply shouldn’t be bringing along. But I have only myself to blame.

I plan to continue running regularly after the marathon so that I can stay in shape and continue to lose weight. I’m hoping to weight 220 by the end of September this year. That would be a total weight lose of 41.5 pounds in one year.

I completed three training runs so far this week:

On Tuesday I ran a comfortable six miles in an hour and 20 minutes. On Thursday I completed my last speed run before the marathon. I ran a quick pace of 10:43 a mile for a 10 kilometer run on the crushed rock trail at the Walker County Community Center. Then today I completed 8.7 miles on the roads in Cloudland Canyon State Park.

Just 13 more days until I stand in the starting corral at the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, Tennessee. I’m excited. The anticipation is starting to set in as I draw closer to finishing this 30 year goal.

Categories Races, Training
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My Final Long Run…25 Miles

Posted by Jim on April 9, 2012

I’ve not written a blog in the past week because there has been so much going on lately. I start a new job tonight (night shift), my wife is home from work for the last couple weeks with a foot problem, taxes are coming due and life is completely chaotic right now. But I’m still getting in my training runs.

One Tuesday I ran a speed workout of 6.9 miles. I ran 5 minute intervals at about half-marathon speed with 3.5 minutes of jogging and 1.5 minutes of walking between each interval. I felt like it was a good workout. I’m trying to avoid injuries this close to the marathon, so I thought this workout was just the right thing. Overall, I finished the 6.9 miles in about 78 minutes. It was a warm day, about 84 degrees.

The next day, Wednesday, I ran another 6.5 miles at an easy pace. This run, like yesterday’s, was on the asphalt roads in the Chattanooga Battlefield Park. As I’ve shared before, I really enjoy running in the park because of the scenery, the shade and the minimal amount of motor vehicle traffic. This run, although a tad shorter than yesterday’s, was six minutes longer. The weather today was a beautiful 74 degrees.

After taking a couple days off because of other priorities, I went back to the park for another run on Saturday. This run was 5.3 miles at a moderate, but comfortable pace of just under 12:00 a mile. I am hoping to run at about this pace for the marathon on April 28th.

Yesterday, Sunday, was my final long run for the marathon. I will run some moderately long runs of 8-12 miles on each Saturday between now and the marathon, but this was the last 20+ mile run before the marathon.

I went to the Ridgeland High School track to do my run. I’m trying to follow the doctor’s advice about running on more forgiving surfaces, especially for my long runs. The school’s track is surfaced with recycled tires (like most school tracks these days).

My original plan was to run 22-23 miles, but as I was running I realize that that would mean completing 88-92 laps around the track. And if I was going to run that far, why not just make it an even 100! So I did. I had filled several bottles of water and grabbed a couple Clif Bars and gel packets for the run. I believe I drank nearly 100 ounces of water, 30 ounces of Gatorade (the original yellow, of course), and ate 840 calories during the run. I also took Ibuprofen during the run to help with the knee pain.

I fell much less knee pain than usual during this long run. I’m not sure what helped the most, the pain killers or running on a softer surface. Regardless, I was thrilled to finish with maybe half the pain that I felt after my last long run. I even skipped icing the knees when I got home. I did develop a sore toe/toe nail on my right foot from this long run. Hopefully it doesn’t develop into anything that interferes with my running.

The 25 mile run took me five and a half hours. I timed each split with my watch/heart monitor and was excited to see that I ran a negative split (a faster second half) by six minutes. I felt so good after the 22nd mile that I ran the last three miles in 12:40, 10:44 and 9:25 respectively. The average for the first 22 miles was 13:35 a mile. I was particularly pleased with the sub 10 minute final mile.

[PhotoCredit: Lincolnian]

Categories Milestones, Training
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A Visit to the Knee Doctor

Posted by Jim on April 2, 2012

Yesterday I did my “off week” long run of 12 miles in the Chickamauga Battlefield park. The run was nearly two hours and fifty minutes and, as usual, I had knee pain for the last hour of my run. I didn’t take anything, so the pain was a bit worse than usual. Last week my wife set up an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon to take a look at my knees, and the visit was this morning.

I arrived at the doctor’s office about 20 minutes early knowing that I would need to complete the medical history paperwork for my first visit. As I sat waiting for my name to be called, I continued to worry that the doctor would simply reply to my “It only hurts when I run” with a simple “quit running”. But when I finally saw the doctor and shared my problem, he had a little better advice.

I felt kinda silly because the pain isn’t something that lasts long or occurs outside of long hikes or runs. And the medical exam didn’t reveal any pain or knee problems for the doctor. But he seemed to understand the issue and recommended the following: 1) continue taking the walking breaks during my long runs as that seems to be helping, 2) don’t do my long runs on the Tennessee Riverwalk or other concrete surfaces (instead run on a local school track), 3) do stretches before and after all of my runs to stretch my Iliotibial band.

I’ve never been much for stretching, so that will take some getting used to. But the doctor seemed to think that the stretches would do the most to alleviate my problem. So stretching it is.

[PhotoCredit:Maigh]

Categories Training
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An Easy Week of Running

Posted by Jim on March 31, 2012

This past week was basically a recovery week that I had not scheduled. I took the day off after my long run on Sunday, and only ran 3.8 miles on Tuesday. The Tuesday run was my first trail run since my 10k trail race back in December 2011. It was an easy run around the Back Country Trail loop in Cloudland Canyon State Park. I had worked about five hours before the run helping put in a new trail in the park. So I was a bit exhausted when I did my run.

Because of scheduling issues I didn’t find time to run during the next couple of days. So I didn’t run again until yesterday (Friday). I ran 7k (4.3 miles) at the Walker County Community Center. This is the crushed rock trail of one kilometer in length. I enjoy running at the Community Center because the trail is comfortable and there are a couple moderate hills that give me some variety and extra training. I always run a little slower here because of the surface. I finished the run in 55:38.

Categories Trail Runs and Hikes, Training
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Run Cut Short

Posted by Jim on March 25, 2012

Yesterday’s run was cut short by a cold, hard rain in the late afternoon. I was planning to run five miles in my new running shoes, but the weather changed my plans. The biggest problem was the drop in temperature that came with the rain. I had dressed in just shorts and a t-shirt. This was fine until the rain brought along a quick drop in temperature. Being wet and cold was enough to make me stop running.

The good thing is that I was running on the 1/3 mile loop at the church. This means I was not far from the truck when the down pour started. I got in three miles of running, and at a pretty decent pace. My 11:36 per mile pace is about two minutes faster than my typical training runs. I was using the heart monitor and was still able to run at this pace without exceeding my heart rate zone. I’m finally feeling like I’m gaining a little speed. Final run was three miles in 34:45.

Today is my long run, somewhere between 21-22 miles. I have a refueling plan involving gels, a Clif Bar and Gatorade. I need to test this before the marathon. I figure that I need about 160-200 calories for every hour I am running. So a six hour marathon will require 1000-1200 calories. Today I am planning on a five hour run, so I need at least a 800 calories.

Categories Diet, Training
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Picking Up the Pace

Posted by Jim on March 22, 2012

The last two days I’ve set out to run a bit faster than normal.

Yesterday’s Run

Yesterday I went to the Chickamauga Battlefield to do some speed training and to get in about six miles of running. I was thinking about doing some fartlek training, but decided to modify it a bit by running 50% of my training time at a faster tempo pace. I set my HRM to 80% – 88% of my maximum heart rate. My training run was 3 minutes of easy running, 5.5 minutes of fast tempo running then 1.5 minutes of walking….rinse and repeat. I ran a somewhat flat route in the park with only a few gentle hills. The tempo runs felt great.

After an hour and sixteen minutes I finished the run of 6.6 miles. During the 1.5 mile walk back to my truck, my calves felt a little tight, but not painful. I’m still a little worried about the calf pain as it seems that at any moment I could pull or tear a muscle. I’m trying to be careful to not push so hard that I injure myself.

My average heart rate for the run was 150 with just over 40 minutes in my targeted heart rate range.

Today’s Run

I woke up this morning feeling great after yesterday’s run. The weather is cloudy, but nice. It’s supposed to be stormy this afternoon and evening, so I decided to get my run in before noon.

I left my heart rate monitor at home because I felt that I just wanted to run without worrying about staying in an predetermined heart rate zone. I knew that this would probably result in a faster pace than normal, but I was looking forward to a somewhat quicker run. I reminded myself that running is supposed to be fun, so off I went.

I chose the church loop to do my run. Since measuring the distance on Google maps, I’ve come to the conclusion that the loop distance is 1/3 mile and not the 3/8 mile that is posted on a sign at the track. This means that I had to adjust the distance/pace of all my past runs at the church. I determined that I would run four miles and continue with my typical 1.5 minute walk breaks every ten minutes.

After four miles I felt great and ran another mile just for fun. I finished the five miles in just under 58 minutes.

[PhotoCredit: Air Beagle]