Know When to Head Home

Today was a hill work out. I was planning on a 2.25 mile warm-up, about 6 miles of the hill work out, then 2.75 mile cool down. But there was nothing cool about today. OK, so I'm a little spoiled with Colorado Summers, but it was in the mid 80's - hot enough to mean times were gonna suffer. Or maybe it was me that was gonna suffer...
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Catching Up

It has been an interesting year since the marathon, but it feels like my training is finally back on track. One week after running Napa, I had minor surgery for a hernia repair. That was 30 days with no running. And a relatively slow come back when I did start back. It was probably good to give my body a break anyway after the marathon training, but I felt like I lost a lot. It really wasn't until June when I began to feel like I had fully recovered. Then I had another 7 day break in early July for another unrelated medical issue. But since mid-July I have been consistently over 30 miles a week, including a long run of either 13 or 15 miles.
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Race Day - Napa Valley Marathon March 7th, 2010

I had my alarm set for 4:30am, so that I could arise, and prepare my coffee and oatmeal in time to eat by 5:00am, exactly 2 hours before the start of the race. I woke up early and often. I saw 1:25am, 3:00am, and then at 4:10am I decided it wasn't worth laying in bed any more and got up. I started the coffee maker - no grounds, I needed the not water for my instant oatmeal and I had some of that new instant Starbucks coffee. I had the coffee first, then at about 4:55am I made the oatmeal.

I did some light stretching then decided I had plenty of time for a shower. It would both relax me and finish waking me up. It did both nicely. At 6:00am I started to dress. On with the shorts, shirt, socks and shoes. I had put the timing chip on my shoe Saturday night, so I didn't have to deal with it race morning. I used to not put my shoes on until right before the start of a race because my feet sweat a lot, but I also have issues with my laces. I have very high arches and the laces have to be quite loose or I end up with numbness or pain across the top of my foot. I wanted to have them on for a while to make sure there were no issues.
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Preparation: Napa Valley Marathon - March 7th, 2010

As the marathon approached, I got caught up in work and other things and did not posted my progress. I intended to go back and cover my real long run of 24 miles and my last Fast Finish Long run, but now they are both a distance memory. But today's post belongs to the story of the marathon - thank goodness I drafted this back in March.

We arrived in Napa, California on Friday the 5th. We stopped by the marathon expo so I could pick up my bib and get my goodie bag. Napa did a very nice duffle this year. Rumor had it there was also a backpack, but there were none to found on Friday - apparently they had not yet arrived. Diane, Hannah (daughter - 12), Sarah (daughter - 10) and I walked through the expo and talked about how to dress for the cold weather. The projection was for 40 degF at the start with temps in the low 50's around my projected finish time. 50 and above is good. In fact, it's great. But 40 is a bit on cool side.
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Making Progress

Progress is sometimes hard to see from day to day. The change from any one running day to the next is always negligible, and in fact, might be in the wrong direction. But with the perspective of time, it becomes easier to see how far we have come. I suppose you could also say, with a sufficiently long perspective, I would also see how much I've lost from my youthful peak in my 30's. And while that's true, it doesn't seem important.
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Race Day Rehearsal

It seems February has gotten away from me just a bit. Haven't missed a workout, but haven't put down any thoughts. I'd like to believe that it's not because I haven't had any thoughts, but you can be the judge of that. Saturday's run was my 2nd of 4 Fast Finish Long Runs (FFLR). This run is one of three marathon predictor runs that Greg McMillan recommends. You can think of it as doing an extended warm up, then putting some miles in at Planned Marathon Pace (PMP).

At least, that's how I think about it. Read more » Race Day Rehearsal

When 2 miles Seem Like 20

This week, I spent Friday night and Saturday with my family down at my sister's farm in Boone, CO, east of Pueblo. I wasn't quite sure how it was going to work out, because my training plan called for 22 miles on Saturday. And generally after a long run, I'm not very interactive - I stretch, shower, do my nutritional recovery routine, take a brief nap, then I start to come back around.

I think it is hard to understand what it is like to recover from a 20 mile run unless you've done it. I know I certainly didn't understand. Read more » When 2 miles Seem Like 20