The BoormanBlog

Now THIS is a good run! I finally started to use the lap timer on my Garmin Forerunner 101 (just as my 201 is on it’s way from eBay! ) All my miles were under 10 minutes. The last one was about 8:30 - 8:50! Wow! Of course, I was lucky not having to wait for any lights to change, and there was a nice downhill on that last mile, but I felt really good about it. Wasn’t even that tired either!

Tomorrow is an 8.5 mile run. Satuday I rest (from running anyway) and Sunday I’ll try for 22 miles on my longes long run until the marathon. I’m also going to try an ice batch after my long run Sunday. Not looking forward to that.

Well, don’t get too excited, I didn’t run all of it. Here’s how it went down.

Mile 0 - 17 - Run
Mile 18 - Walk. Stop and sit down. Twice
Mile 19 - Scrape together whatever you got left down in your guts and run (more like fast shuffle) the last mile.

So basically, I ran 18 miles with 17 of them continuous. Just slightly better than last week, and not where I wanted to be at this time. But with me only having one short run this week, not too bad. Plus I have a few “explanations” (read: excuses) for not reaching my goals.

It was raining. Not the whole time I was running, not even most of the time, but enough to soak my clothes. No hard math to back it up, but I was probably a few pounds heavier carrying those wet clothes around.

I was running in brand new shoes. I went to this specialty running store “The Run In” in Rocky Hill, CT. Mark was very helpful. I brought my current pair of shoes (New Balance 757’s) to ask about some unusual wear on the inside of the shoes (as in all the cloth and foam wore away down to the plastic shell). Well, as it turns out, my pronation wore away the outer sole down to the midsole on my right shoe (which may explain the pain in my right hip!).

New Balance doesn’t make 757’s anymore, so Mark showed me an upgrade “the Cadillac” he called it!
So out the door with a pair of New Balance 1224’s. They fit great, and had even better support in the forefoot than the 757’s. I got 10% off the shoes too! Thank God! They had a Cadillac sticker price too!

So how did new, better shoes negatively impact my performance? That was my first run in my new shoes. Not a good idea to break in your shoes with a long run! Plus I had left the original insole in them, which my good friend Tom said not to do. Now I remember why! New Balance insoles always start to slice into my foot on the inside edge. I got a blister now

At any rate. If the weather is ok next weekend, my blister goes away and I stay healthy, I should be in good shape for my last LONG run of 22 miles. Then I’ll have a 2 week taper, then it’s the marathon. Woo hoo! The end is in sight! Good thing too, because this training is getting old fast

Today I was going to try for 6 miles, but I just didn’t get up early enough. I figured I try some speed work. I got dressed, got stretched out, got my Garmin on and went outside to do my final stretches.

I can’t explain it, but I got this feeling that I should call off the run. Maybe because I didn’t want to be pressed for time (I have an early appointment this morning), or because I still have a little pain in my labrum area. In any case, I thought “better safe than sorry, especially with a really long run this weekend.”

I may try to make up the run tomorrow.

Well, to be fair, I only ran 16.27 miles of it After only running 13 miles last week (and only 12 of them consecutive), I was really hoping to bounce back this week. I took a mini bagel with me in addition to my Runner’s GU, so that gave me a little extra fuel on my run. Definitely seemed to help. The weather seemed a bit cooler than last week, but also more humid since the remnants of Hanna had passed by the previous evening.

Overall, I’m satisfied, if not happy with running 16.27 consecutive miles, and walking the last .73. That would leave 9.96 miles left in a marathon. I wanted to run at least 16 miles this week to get my “remainder” down to the single digits

Naturally, my legs felt like lead weight at the end. Having a Bud Light before even showering probably didn’t help my recover too much. Still, I made sure to stretch my quads and my hips immediately after running.

Next week? I hope to go about 19 miles. I’m using a different training schedule this year, that actually doesn’t call for any long runs over 22 miles! So my goal is for 19 miles next week, 22 miles the week after, then I start a 3 week taper.

Time will tell though, keep me in your heart!

Holy cow! It is really coming down out there right now. Had a small scare with the power going out this morning. Thankfully, it was only out for an hour. I stocked up on batteries today just in case.

Well, for the first time in a month, I went on a long run. I won’t say it was an unmitigated disaster, but finding anything to call “successful” is going to be a challenge.

First of all, I was tired. So tired, in fact, that I woke up at 5:30 and reset the alarm for 6:30.

Second, I didn’t have much in the house to eat before a long run. I should have stocked up on bananas and bagels. The best I could do was a whole grain english muffin with peanut butter, and a GU before setting out.

Third, I ate almost immediately before starting my run. Not a good idea as my “breakfast” kept repeating on my throughout my run.

Fourth, I started out too late (again). About 7:20. After a few miles, the sun was high in the sky and things were getting warm on that blacktop.

Fifth, I was still sore from Friday’s 8.5 mile run. Probably should have used the 3 day weekend and delayed the long run to tomorrow.

So here’s the breakdown:

Run 12 miles
Walk 1 mile
Run 1 mile
Walk 3 miles

I made the decision to walk the last 3 miles because I started to feel some pain in my groin area, same area that sidelined me last year.

So I traversed 17 mile, but I only ran 13 of them, and not concurrently. That’s not even a HALF Marathon

Well, like I said, this is my first long run in a month. If I had to come up with some positives, it’s that I implemented the changes I needed to make from my last long run a month ago. This time I had a GU every 4 miles instead of 5 miles. I also made sure to stay good and hydrated (I actually ran out of water walking the last 3 miles).

I’m hoping that my long runs over the next 2 or 3 weeks will go much better than this one, and that I snap back into shape quick. I don’t want to increase my long run mileage up to the marathon. I tried that last year, and you all know how wonderful that went This year, I’m going to taper off the last 2 - 3 weeks so I can avoid injury.

Stay tuned…

As of today, there are exactly 6 weeks to go until the Hartford Marathon on October 18. I officially registered today. No turning back now, AND NO REFUNDS EITHER. Now I’m committed!

So say a prayer for me, will you. I’m not looking to win the thing, just to finish strong and to do my best.

Not bad for my first week back! That’s less than a 10 minute mile! Woo hoo! Looks like I haven’t lost that much in the 3 weeks I was absent from running. I am a little concerned about my long run. This will be my first long run in a month, which is going to be a challenge.

But for today, I will enjoy my one little victory.

Well, as I feared, I’m in a little pain today, mostly in my abs of all places. I figure I don’t want to injure myself by jumping back into training too hard after a 3 week absence, so I’ll rest today and try for 6 miles Thursday.

For my first time running in 3 weeks, this is pretty darn good! I’m not feel too terrible afterwards either. I was a little out of breath towards the end, but overall, this was a good solid run for me. I made sure to stretch well, and the weather is (sadly) turning cooler, so I had good running weather.

Hopefully I’m not racked with pain tomorrow though. Usually I’m OK the first few hours after a run. It’s the NEXT day that the pain really sets in!