Three Miles Up

Today began at the ripe hour of 5:30...again. Combined with the running program, my good friend WD put together a lifting schedule for me to follow. In the last two marathons I've run, I did no lifting but found my body got fatigued as the miles climbed. Rather than continue telling myself, "The breathing is fine, get the body to follow," I decided to take a more active approach and let the body lead. I'm in my seventh week of lifting but in order to accomodate the running, I've had to get up early so that I'm not eating dinner at 9:00 every night. The price I pay is sleep walking through the first few hours of work once the adrenaline wears off. I figured out that since Monday morning, I've worked out roughly every 10-12 hours...I'm ready for a rest. Fortunately, I've decided to only do this Monday and Tuesday...what a pleasure sleeping in until 6:20 will be tomorrow.

The lifting schedule looks like this:
Monday: Chest and arms in the a.m./Swimming 30 minutes in the p.m.
Tuesday: Shoulders and back in the a.m./Running three miles in the p.m.
Thursday: High reps-low weight legs p.m./Run three miles p.m.

Despite feeling exhausted this afternoon, we set out for the first official run, an easy three mile loop that carves through a neighborhood and ends with a quarter mile uphill. During the MCM training, the hill felt brutal to get up, especially at the end of a run. I used the hill this time on our "hill training" days, sprinting up it as many as five times. Now, at the end of a run it's mentally easier to get up because all I have to say is, "Up one time, no sprint."

I used today's short loop to also take my new pair of asics for their virgin run (seen above). I had forgotten what a pair of shoes that still had their cushion felt like...in fact, I couldn't feel the pavement at all.

Miles Run to Date: 3

Early On

Five-thirty a.m. – the official start time on my long road to the finish line of the Chicago marathon. Bleary-eyed and groggy, I pulled on gym clothes, got my wife out of bed, and together, we trudged to our community gym (.7 miles from our house). And there, it began.

Chicago, the third marathon we’ve taken on, has loomed since completing the Marine Corps Marathon in October '06. At MCM, I came seven minutes away from breaking four hours - a goal I set for myself after signing up. It’s hard to be disappointed after completing a marathon but nevertheless...I tried to put those seven minutes behind me and focus instead on training to reach this new goal, that suddenly felt not so new anymore.

It did not start as I planned.

A week following MCM on my first run, I ended up in a physical therapist’s office being treated for tendonitis in my right knee. A month of rehab and a two-a-day stretching routine brought me back to running form…lacking any of the endurance I had built up for Marine Corps. The word frustration took on an entirely new meaning. I tried setting out for runs that at one point had felt like jogs but now felt like entire marathons.

My Chicago training start is different from the two prior in that I just completed a nine week “spring training” program to prepare for the actual 18 week program, not to mention a rather drastic change in my diet. Given that I’m focused on bringing my time down, the program interspersed several speed and hill workouts each week with longer runs on the weekends. What I found was that when I forced myself to run faster for longer distances, I got tired but always handled the workouts. I had to train my head to know that I could push my body harder. Since then, I may be reevaluating my goal pace time of 9:00/mile and lowering it to 8:30-8:45.

So, this brings me back up to the beginning. Mondays are dubbed x-training days, so in the official log, I have run zero miles. However, I did end up swimming laps for 30 minutes (more than I’ve swam since I was in elementary school), prompting a quick night following dinner given that my body felt like it had been hit by a truck.

Day 1 of Week 1. Complete.

Miles Run: 0