An Update

Since writing the Legend of the Marathon in early November, my training has been .. impressive. I have been getting fit in New Zealand.

After one week in the country, I had completed one run, a fair-paced night run in Waipu with Skeeter. Two weeks later, with the four day coastal walkway tramp looming, I threw-away my trainers in an effort to lighten my pack. My desire to carry fewer things outweighed my desire to run during my stay in Kiwiland.

So, after one month in the country, I have still completed just one run.

Fortunately, I slammed a half pack of Camels last night (oops), so month two of New Zealand training looks promising. I'll be chronicling that month of training in a new blog called "Drinking Beers and Training like Animals and Dragging on Cigs like a Goddamn Cowboy." Stay tuned.

Easing back in

Just finished updating my training log from my first official week of marathon training. Granted, only the last 4 days of the week were on the schedule (one of which i took off) -- but none the less, I finished with a grand total of 28.25 miles for the week. Now if that's not easing back in, I don't know what is. No where to go but up, I guess.

It's Officially Begun

This morning marked the official start of my training cycle for Boston in April. Two evenings ago, I finally broke down and decided to try running at night in Richmond -- something that I have avoided in my 2+ years of living here due to lack of lighting and no lack of criminals. I decided on a route that I expected to be fairly well lit and logged a solid 4 miles. This gave me the indication that I could in fact run in the dark, I would just have to get creative with my routes.

(side note: That evening run was December 6th. I ran with my shirt off, in the dark, listening to my trusty iPod shuffle. Did I feel like a bad ass? Yes. Did I look like a tool? Most likely. Did I care? Fuck no.)

So this morning I logged a solid 6 miles at 6am. Decked out in tights, and two long sleeve shirts, I proved to be slightly over dressed. Still, the run felt great. I truly do love running in the morning. Now that my body is used to rising before 6am most days of the week, transitioning into running at this time should not be very difficult. It just makes the day better -- both from the standpoint of how my body feels, and that it takes away any obligation to get it done later in the day.

Although this first clinical is coming to a close and I won't be able to take advantage of this new-found training time, I still have 8 weeks left in Richmond starting January 9th with my 2nd clinical at VCU hospital. By then I'll have my Garmin, my trusty iPod, and a ton of motivation.

Early to bed, Early to run makes Ant a sub 2:55 marathon runner.

The Fall, the Catch

My last post mentioned that my motivation gauge read low. It hasn't gotten much better, and with the onset of some minor aches and pains, it's gotten a bit worse. Last week i ran about 5 days out of the week which is pretty good, but while i should have ran saturday, my friend was in town and we did literally nothing but sit in my bed and play video games all day and late into the evening. There was a brief period where i coaxed us into doing a pushup/pull up workout with a deck of cards but otherwise i moved nary a step the entire day.

Sunday i met Sean for an easy-ish 10 on the trails. Having someone who can hold you accountable for making a trip out to run can go a long way for motivation. So at 2:00 i met him at a parking lot near difficult run and by 2:02 we were runnin’. The trail was very muddy after rain showers the previous night and while i recovered nicely from some close calls slipping and sliding, and even barely catching a sharp tree branch that would have pierced my heart, i finally took a crucial digger with 1 mile to go. Bloodied and muddied all over, i finished up the run still feeling pretty good.

Monday i awoke with stinging pain and noticeable tightness in my hip, and a sore dull feeling in the opposite ankle. After a lunch time lift i was trying to summon the will to run after work, battling the guilt that would inevitably ensue if i were to be a pansy and stay in my warm cozy bed the rest of the evening instead. Whether it was the case that I came to my senses and reached an emotionally intelligent level of perspective, or just that i found adequate enough justification for being a coward, i decided that it was unnecessary, and potentially detrimental to run with all of these aches and pains and instead spent some time stretching and massaging the trouble areas. Maybe i caught hold of my emotions and made correct steps to avoid looming injuries, or maybe i missed a day of fitness. Either way, the run tuesday went good as the hip discomfort regressed and today i am probably going to just stretch/massage and play it safe again.

The rainy, dark, chilly winter also seems to be sweeping in with a front of depression that I’m starting to fall victim to. I see naught but WoW and a constant battle to run in the many dark evenings ahead.

Will our lonesome and fearful hero let misery become of him? Will he rise to the challenges and bust out a 100 mile week not knowing the meaning of the word 'fear'? Find out next time!

-Kyle

The Return, The Beginning.

Friends.

I'm sure my absence has been painstaking and that my presence has been sorely missed. I apologize. But since this is primarily a blog dedicated to running and training, I would have be amiss to have been writing, since I have not been running. A quick recap of what I've been up to:

Despite no real motivation, and perhaps even less training, I actually performed pretty ok in the half marathon, running a 1:23 for my red-hot debut. You might have seen the countless threads on Let's Run discussing my feat -- or you may have focused in on the ones that discussed Max's Legend of the Marathon. Either thread was probably pretty entertaining. Anyway. I was satisfied with my effort, as it gave me a good indication of my starting fitness level for my marathon training-- one that I am very content with.

Following the race, I felt a little beat up. Still, I could not resist the urge to get back to some sort of running, so I jumped on the treadmill a mere 2 days later for some light jogging. By the following Friday, I found myself (and my trusty iPod shuffle), on a fairly hard 7 miler, culminating with my new favorite uphill finish up to the top of a park near my house. Following the run, I was shot. Looming in the future, was my traditional Ashburn 10k Turkey Trot. I had to recover. Somewhere in there, I came down with a pretty bad cold and chest congestion. I rested until a day before the race.

The plan for the race was to "relax" and run a sub 40, a decent effort to offset the guilt of the gluttony I was about to indulge in later in the day. After my short warm-up, however, I knew "relaxed" might not be the right word. My breathing was labored, and I just felt crappy.

Long story short about the race, I busted my balls to run a 39:51, a pace slower than my half marathon less than 2 weeks prior. It was one of the more difficult efforts of my running career to run a sub-par time. Sickness, tired legs, I don't know. I wasn't terribly worried about it, but I knew I needed some time off.

Which brings me to the present. I took a full week(!) off, allowing my body and health to recover. I am still feeling pretty congested, and could feel it on my run this morning, but otherwise, I'm feeling good. I just checked in with my marathon training schedule and see that the official training begins this upcoming Thursday. I've talked briefly about the training plan here before, but for those who are interested, here it is:


Anyway. That starts up Thursday and I am feeling very motivated. I got back to lifting weights this morning as well, and I am feeling very excited to have a legit schedule again.

Oh. In other news, I am getting a Garmin GPS watch for Christmas. I am also very excited about that, even though I have always thought Garmins are for yuppies. At this point, I don't even care. 2:55 or bust.

Ant