January, Hokas, and Myrtle Beach Marathon

2013 is apparently running on fast forward.

Somehow we’re almost halfway through February, and it barely feels like the new year got started.  Stepped up training has swallowed up my calendar, and the days are just flying by.  A little too fast for my taste, but there’s definitely not time to get bored.

January marked the beginning of my first-ever triathlon training cycle, and it has definitely been tiring, but overall I consider it successful thus far.  I’m still a little too run-heavy on my plan, but that is by design with a marathon that is now just 5 days away.  Twice-a-day training is not easy to schedule, but I didn’t really expect it to be.  Here’s where I ended up for the month of January:

Running – 19 runs, 178 miles

Cycling – 9 rides, 188 miles (2 outdoors, 7 trainer – lousy weather)

Swimming – 7 swims, 5 miles

Lifting (upper body, core) – 8 trips to the gym

Running continues to go well, with a couple of nagging minor injuries, but generally overall good health.  Bad weather meant more trainer rides than I would have liked on the bike, but I expect to get outdoors more as the weather improves.  I really like riding the bike outdoors, and enjoy speed entirely too much.  Swimming is getting better, but still not great.  I need to work on my stroke and building my lung capacity.  Or else grow fins and gills.  I’m open to either approach.

In my continuing tinkering with my footwear, after much research I added a pair of Hoka Bondi B shoes to the rotation.  I’ve only worn them on one 10-mile run so far, but I was very impressed with the maiden voyage.

There really was no break-in with these shoes.  They are designed for ultra-cushioning, and they deliver.  Despite the maximum cushioning, I still put a part of Superfeet Green insoles in them, and they felt great.  I’m planning to make these primarily my devoted long-run shoes, so they won’t get a lot of use in terms of volume of runs, but they will get a lot of miles.  I’ll keep providing updates as I get more experience with them, but first impressions are VERY promising.  Unfortunately these shoes come with a non-trivial price tag, so I’m also curious to see how well they hold up.  If I’m only getting 300-400 miles out of these like most of my other shoes, then I don’t know that the ROI will be worth it.  We shall see.

This coming Saturday I’ll be lacing up the shoes for the Myrtle Beach Marathon.  I’ve tried to maintain a fairly heavy marathon-training plan within the triathlon training I’ve started, and I think it has worked fairly well.  The obvious test will come Saturday when I see how my legs respond.  I’m tapering this week, with only 2 runs, no bike rides, and primarily just focusing on swimming.  I’m not entirely sure of my strategy yet for the marathon.  I ran two marathons, and 50k, and a 50-miler last year, but didn’t really ‘race’ any of them.  I haven’t ‘raced’ a marathon since the Marine Corps in the Fall of 2011.  I’d like to give it a go this weekend, and see if I can’t pull a PR.  I’ve been nursing a minor groin strain for a couple months, that some days doesn’t factor at all, and other days really starts talking to me at around the 10-mile mark.  Right now I’m leaning towards starting out the race with the 3:35 pace group, and just seeing how I feel.  If things feel good, I’m going to see if I can hang with that pace for the whole run.  This race will have a few new twists for me:

• No support team – my family won’t be making this trip, so I’ll be running this one solo.  Two good friends of mine will be running the half, and I’ll be staying with them for the weekend, but I’ll be on my own once the gun goes off.
• No Fuel Belt – I’ve always run with my own drinks, gels, etc., and my family has helped me swap out my fuel during the race.  This time I’ll be relying on the fuel stations to get me through.  I’ll carry two Gu with me, and that’s all.  Will feel a bit naked out there, but we’ll see how it goes.  I’ve learned that I require a lot less food and drink during races than I used to think, so I’m not too concerned about this as long as it’s not freakishly hot.
• No tunes – iPods are prohibited for this race, so no motivational music for me.  I usually try to run the first half of races with no music, and fire up the iPod for the second half, so I don’t think this will be a big deal.  Would have liked to have had the option, however.

Looking forward to the weekend, and looking forward to reworking my training plan post-marathon to more evenly work on the three disciplines.  Still need to sign up for some shorter triathlons between now and the 70.3.  Also need to win the lottery.

Fortnight to Semper Fi

Two short weeks until the Marine Corps Marathon.  14 days left for fine-tuning and incessantly checking weather.com.  14 days to figure out where I’m supposed to go and when I’m supposed to be there.  2 weeks to prepare myself for more than 15 times as many runners as I’ve ever run a marathon with.

This morning was 14 miles of hilly trails, and it wasn’t pretty.  Not especially bad, but my legs were very heavy and dull.  Had this been race day, it wouldn’t have been very enjoyable.  I’ve had a mild calf strain for a couple months now, and for some reason it really flared up this week.  I was concerned about this morning’s run, but the one upside to the run was my calf felt much better than expected.  Not great – but better than I thought it would.

I think this morning’s run proved that although my mind isn’t crazy about it, my body may just need a nice taper to be ready to go on 10/30.  It was a beautiful morning, perfect temps, beautiful sunrise … but my body was having none of it.  Sometimes you’re the windshield …..

On the professional front, after completing my sixth interview (my company is nothing if not thorough) I was offered a new position in my company on Tuesday.  Haven’t let anyone other than my current boss know at this point, but I’m very excited to head in a new direction in my career.  Major departure from what I’ve done for the last 20 years.  A chance to switch back into learning mode rather than continuing to apply the same knowledge over and over again.  Old dog …. meet new tricks.

Checked on the MCM website to try and start working out race day logistics, and discovered in the FAQ, contrary to what I had been told, that iPods are in fact allowed during the race, but not encouraged.  Now I have a decision to make – go with the tunes or soak in the crowds sans music.  I think I may bring it along with me in case I need a little jolt later in the race, but try to go without for the bulk of the race.  Depends on the weather as well – don’t want to fry another one during a downpour.  That was an expensive lesson to learn.

I think the most important thing for me to do in the next two weeks may be getting some sleep.  Still not getting enough for my mind and body to recover every day.  I don’t seem to be applying this lesson-learned very well.

Midnight Monsoon

Training week 6 is off to a wet, ugly start. For those who may have grown up in a military family like myself, the term SNAFU comes to mind. It all started when my wife pulled out of the driveway Friday morning for a girls’ weekend, leaving me at the mercy of my kids and the puppy. The challenge was figuring out how to do my 18-mile run on Sunday. The solution didn’t work out so well.

I knew my wife wasn’t getting back until around 5PM Sunday. 6PM Sunday was the start of a daddy/daughter dance for my little girl’s Y-Princess tribe. I figured with the dance, followed by getting the kids to bed and some stretching, best-case I’d be getting my run underway around 10PM. Not ideal, but I was pretty intent on keeping the Sunday run on Sunday. So, after a day of lawn mowing, house projects, kid wrangling, puppy chasing, and daddy/daughter dancing, I got underway just before 10PM. I was dragging right from the start. The first couple miles weren’t feeling good. Then, in the distance, the first of the lightning appeared.

By mile 5 I was dragging enough that I slowed to a walk long enough to down a Gu and a fair amount of water. At this point the wind had picked up, the lightning was getting a bit more insistent, and the first of the raindrops were wetting the pavement. By mile 6 I was feeling better, but the weather was going downhill. Just as I crossed mile 7 the dam burst, and the rain started coming down in sheets. Hard enough that the water was running in rivers down the gutters and the sidewalks. Hard enough that I could no longer see. Hard enough that the squirrels and rabbits were forming into pairs and crossing the path in search of an ark.

It looked just like this ..... at least the rain did

My run consisted of 2 times around an ~9-mile route, and although I was tempted to keep going and gut out the full 18, I ended up turning around at about 9.5 miles when my iPod was no longer lighting up, and the sound was barely audible. I also had my Garmin on, and the rain was coming down hard enough that I was worried about it as well. By the time I got home I had managed to get 9.94 miles done. After stretching, drying off, hanging up the gear to dry, and doing some Google research on wet iPods (always a gamble including the term ‘wet’ in a Google search – never quite sure where the internet is going to take you), it was almost 1AM. Set the alarm for 5:30AM to knock out the remainder of the run, which I did this morning (8.03 miles), and now I could really use some sleep.

Not sure where I’ll end up with the iPod. It still seems to play music ok, but the screen is REALLY dark. It’s currently in a container filled with uncooked rice to hopefully draw out any lingering moisture. It would appear the backlight isn’t lighting any longer. Kinda like ET, only completely different. I’ll leave it in its hyperbaric rice chamber for 24 hours, and see how it’s feeling for tomorrow’s run. That may turn out to be an expensive 10 miles.

Gimme a Beat

Quick update from the running front – Still doing my therapy every day, and have gotten into an every-other-day running groove that usually goes pretty well. I’m now allowing myself somewhere between 3-4 miles on each run, and have had some discomfort in my knee, but no real pain. Haven’t gotten to the practicing of Yoga yet, but am reading the ‘Athlete’s Guide to Yoga’ book right now, which I ordered after watching the ‘Athlete’s Guide to Yoga’ DVD and realizing I needed a bit more instruction than just diving in. Much of my time lately has been devoted to planning my wife’s birthday party this coming Saturday, for a milestone birthday that rhymes with ‘shmorty’, but that’s probably a good topic for another blog posting about my plans to embarrass myself.

As for the title of the blog entry, I realized on my last jog that I’m spending a lot of time pressing the next-song button on my iPod as I run, and am basically a bit burned out on my current collection of playlists. I’ve got 2 main go-to playlists for running, but after my last training cycle those songs and I need a little time apart to rediscover our love for one another. Thus, I’m taking to the blogosphere for some suggestions for building up a new collection of ear-candy. Once I discovered the wonderful world of Walkmans back many years ago, I found that I can’t run without some sort of music playing. I added podcasts to the mix on my longer training runs for the marathon, just for a little variety, but bottom line … I needs the noise in my ears to makes the feets go.

For reference, here’s a merge of my two go-to lists right now so you get an idea of what I like for running. Many of these aren’t necessarily favorite songs, or things I would listen to while driving if given the choice, but they keep me moving for whatever reason. I don’t look for a particular beats-per-minute or some sort of fancy cadence to match my running, I’m just mostly looking for a good tune with a good beat. I’m open to most any genre, although there’s definitely a lack of country music in my current rotation. If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments and I’ll start loading my iTunes account with some $ so I can start the buying:

Bad (Live) -  U2
Won't Go Home Without You -  Maroon 5
My Life Would Suck Without You -  Kelly Clarkson
Lips Like Sugar (12" Mix) -  Echo & The Bunnymen
Use Somebody - Kings of Leon
Panama -  Van Halen
Pavement Cracks (Mac Quayle Extended Mix) -  Annie Lennox
Poker Face -  Lady GaGa
Crazy -  Seal
Just Dance -  Lady GaGa & Colby O'Donis
Eye of the Tiger -  Survivor
Far Behind - Candlebox
One Slip -  Pink Floyd
Love remains the same -  Gavin Rossdale
Shattered (Turn the Car Around) -  O.A.R.
Sabotage -  Beastie Boys
100 Years -  Five for Fighting
I Am Mine -  Pearl Jam
A Sort of Homecoming - U2
Training Montage -  Vince DiCola
Born to Run -  Bruce Springsteen
Basket Case -  Green Day
Free Fallin' (Live) -  John Mayer
Rock Your Body -  Justin Timberlake
Everlong -  Foo Fighters
The Stairs -  INXS
According to You -  Orianthi
Crazy In Love -  Beyoncé
Love Drunk -  Boys Like Girls
We Will Rock -  You Queen
She Sells Sanctuary -  The Cult
Gold Digger (feat. Jamie Foxx) -  Kanye West
Sober -  Pink
Time Stand Still -  Rush
Somewhere Only We Know -  Keane
Miss Independent -  Kelly Clarkson
My Hero -  Foo Fighters
Shine Like It Does -  INXS
Canned Heat [Album Version] -  Jamiroquai
Disappear -  INXS
Sympathy for the Devil -  The Rolling Stones
Gives You Hell -  The All-American Rejects
Hearts On Fire -  John Cafferty
You Can't Always Get What You Want -  The Rolling Stones
We Are the Champions -  Queen
Just Like Heaven -  The Cure
Happy Hour -  The Housemartins
Rocket Queen -  Guns N' Roses
Breakeven -  The Script
Remember the Name -  Fort Minor featuring Styles of Beyond
The Boys of Summer -  Don Henley