Mid-Week Recap

The past three days' training has gone pretty well. Wednesday's run was 12 miles, my first weekday run over 10 miles in quite a while. I definitely want to emphasize the long run and second-longest run in my training, and want to eventually be running parts at tempo/marathon pace. The 12 miles included 18 laps of the track, and idea I got from reading some of Duncan's old blog entries. The hope is that it will build up my mental toughness and help me get through the middle miles of the marathon without losing focus.

Thursday I ran ten miles and this morning eight. I wasn't feeling especially good this morning, so I stopped after eight. So far, running without eating first is going fine. My stomach felt a little funny for a while this morning, but it went away. I haven't really noticed and kind of decrease in my performance, although at this point all I'm doing is base mileage.

I think there's going to be a change in plans of what marathon I'm going to run. J ran this morning with some of her friends, and one of her friend's husbands, along with the husband of another friend who wasn't there this morning, are running Baltimore in October. J mentioned training with them for the marathon. I haven't finalized any kind of training plan yet, and October is still far enough away that I have time to prepare, so I'm pretty sure I'll be running Baltimore.

Listening to my Body

I cut my run short this morning. I was going for ten miles, but turned right to go home instead of left for two more miles, so I ran eight. My legs were rather sore, and I felt my pace slowing, so I decided it was better to head home and stretch out. Yesterday's ten miles didn't feel too good either, but it wasn't like today when I felt like I needed to stop.

I wonder if I'm still recovering from Saturday's 15 miles. I ran two five-mile loops, then took a break for about an hour, and then ran five more miles pushing the kids in the stroller. Saturday morning is Starbuck's morning, and I wanted to try and kill two birds with one stone by running with the kids over to Starbuck's and back. I hoped they would be almost ready to go when I got back from the first ten miles, but they got up later than I expected. Pushing about 40 lbs. worth of kids can be hard work, especially uphill. I'm going to try this again this weekend, but I'm going to run a little more before I get the kids and we'll take the direct route to Starbuck's.

Wanted: One Treadmill

I know that it's spring and the weather's getting nice, but if there's one thing that I think would help my running, it's a treadmill. If nothing else, it would allow me to be home and available if needed, but still run. I think it would be especially useful in the evenings to get in some doubles or on the weekends so I could run while the kids nap. I prefer running outside, but I'd run on the treadmill instead of not run at all.

My running has been inconsistent this week. Monday, B was up as I was getting ready to run. He had a cold and was having some trouble breathing through his nose while he slept. J had already been up with him, so I rocked him and put him back to sleep. I was tired to begin with, and I guess all the rocking made me more tired, so I went back to bed. Tuesday and Wednesday were my standard-of-late 10 mile days, and then this morning was another day off. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I get up at 4:30 to run so I don't leave too late for work. This morning I got up, got dressed, checked on the kids, and then decided to sleep. I haven't been sleeping as much as I'd like lately, and as I was walking around this morning I was tired enough that I felt like I was going to fall over asleep. So I decided that sleep was the better option this morning. Maybe I'll get out this evening.

An Experiment

I was thinking about some comments Evan had made on Mike's blog about fueling before running in the morning. Evan's idea was that not eating before running is a good way to teach your body to conserve glycogen and become more efficient.

I used to not eat before I ran and never had any problems because of it. I'm not sure exactly what changed (that probably means there wasn't a compelling reason) but not long ago I started having half a glass of Carnation Instant Breakfast. The last two days I've had nothing but water. I wanted to see if it made a difference in how I felt, and also if by not ingesting anything besides water I could avoid any pit stops during the run.

So far it's been good. I've felt fine and haven't had to stop once. Wednesday I ran seven and a half miles, and yesterday and this morning ten. I wanted to do more Wednesday, but I was just so tired that I called it a day after seven and a half.

Worst Run Ever

Saturday was supposed to be my long run. What should have been a good 14-16 miles turned into a complete debacle.

I got up early and had some cereal (generic crunchberries that aren't as good as the real thing) and downed a Gu. About a half hour after I got up, I was out the door. From the beginning, I didn't feel good. I had this dull ache in my stomach. About five miles into the run, I had to stop and walk because the pain was getting worse. I walked a little, turned around at the five-mile point, and started to run again. I made it a little more than a mile, and then stopped to walk again. When I started to run again, I didn't make it very far before the stabbing pain stopped me. At this point I was about two miles from home, and I just walked the rest of the way. There were some points that the pain was so bad I just wanted to lay down on the side of the road. When I got home, I lay down on the floor and had some water and graham crackers. I felt better after a few minutes.

While I was running, I thought it was the cereal/Gu combination that made my stomach act up, but when I got home I remembered that the kids had some kind of stomach bug recently, so maybe I caught it. J's been feeling a little nauseous herself lately. The rest of the day I felt fine.

I didn't run Sunday, unless you count the 100 meters I ran to try out the half-dozen pairs of running shoes I tried on. I needed some shoes and had a gift certificate to use, so I made a trip to Metro Run & Walk. I bought a pair of Brooks Glycerins, which of course were the first ones I tried on.

I ran for the first time in my new shoes this morning. They feel good, but are different from the Brooks Axiom, the previous shoe I was wearing. I pieced together two routes and ran nine and a half miles.