End of the road...

After running six days in a row, the time has come to take a day off.  A miniature point-to-point 2.5 mile run yesterday was enjoyable, but the legs were feeling like bricks.  That tired leg feeling always signals trouble.  Having tired legs in a race means something went wrong with the taper (as in, ya didn't).  It could be a sign of general over-training, too.

So, despite it looking like a great (but hot) running day, I will probably give in to wisdom for once and figure out some cross-training...ugh...

Short stuff...

The days keep rolling along and the training runs are getting stronger.  I finally turned the corner after the marathon and have some strength back.  I can feel that at-will leg acceleration when out for those 5 mile runs.  I've been keeping the distance fairly light, though, and working on some speed.  The last two days have been about 1 min/mile faster than my usual 5 mile times.  I just need to keep that going.  I'm also adding some leg weights to the program to hopefully combat the toasted quads that came up last race.

Only 13 days until the Allentown to Bethlehem point-to-point marathon...I'll be getting a ride back to the start line this year unlike the pathetic 2 hour wait for the bus last year.  Can't wait!

Riding the Unicorn...

After every marathon (these days), I always wonder how long it will take to get back to running.  I must have a side of me that wonders if, one of these times, I won't start up again.  Rain or shine, it's typically the Thursday after the Sunday marathon where my legs actually move in a shape and form like running.  This week, I tried to accelerate the process by attempt running on Wed and made it exactly .5 mile before looping back home.

The Thursday run was filled with butterflies, unicorns and awesome sauce (don't ask me).  It was only 3.4 miles, but that is in line with a solid recovery strategy. Run the relative same number of miles per day as in the week leading up to the marathon.

Never jump back into big miles too quickly after a big race or you run the risk of big injury.  Thoughts on that?

Marathon recovery...tight as a drum...

Well, I'm getting closer to having the motivation to run a little bit (and today may be the day), but my hamstrings are sealed shut on the third day after the marathon. I iced my quads right after the race which helped tremendously, but the hamstrings are killing me. This is not a new thing, and requires some stretching and maybe a massage (grrrrr). I like to think about recovery as if I have another marathon on the following weekend. I want to speed it up as much as possible. Here are some of my classic recovery tricks: 1. Ice the legs right after the race. Bring ice packs in a cooler to the race. 2. Get some protein in the pie hole right after the race. 3. Drink some sour cherry juice for a few days after the race. I read that once and have no idea if it does anything. The taste isn't bad as a breakfast aperitif. 4. Stretch lightly each day...don't go wild with this or you run the risk of injury. 5. Take a warm bath, but not on the same day as the race. The age-old wisdom of taking an ice bath right after the race isn't gonna happen for me. 6. Keep doing your core exercises. I do 200 sit-ups and 50 push-ups every day. I throw in an occasional plank, too. It makes you think you are doing something until you feel like running again. Anything else that anyone does for recovery?

Marathon #50 race report aka the good, the bad and the ugly...

So, marathon #50 has come and gone this past Sunday...I have four more before the end of 2014, so I don't have much time to linger on this one. Here are a few highlights, though: Chasing the Unicorn, Washington Crossing, PA - Sunday, August 17 7:15am start Set in the beautiful Washington Crossing Historic Park north of Philadelphia, PA, this race was a double-out-and-back on a canal path (about 1 car-length wide) that runs parallel to the Delaware River. About 300 brave souls ran the race and they seemed to be all Type A Boston qualifiers. Despite only 300 runners, there was a 'wave' start to spread out the field on the fairly narrow canal path. I should have taken the hint when I saw that I was in Wave 6 and there wasn't anyone behind me in the starting corral. I took off with the Wave 5 people so I wasn't standing there alone with a sheepish grin on my mug. I knew there was rain forecasted, but I didn't want to mention that to my wife or she would have stayed in bed. She bravely brought her bike and patiently trekked around for the 4+ hours, including the last 10 miles of feet shuffling with me. She really knows her birds and wildlife, of which there were plenty to see along the canal (swans, turtles by the caseload, egrets (I'm in way over my head mentioning egrets), etc. As the eventual winner cruised by me on his final leg while I was heading out for my second half loop, I was struck by the level of talent at all of these races. The same person doesn't win every marathon, so the depth of the fields is always staggering. These are folks who put in 50-150 miles per week plus speed work to reach these levels (while probably working full-time and having families, etc). Amazing! My 30-40 miles per week is paltry in comparison. I eventually made it over and under several bridges on the pancake-flat course to the turn-around and clicked off the last 6.5 miles to the finish. The crowd support was rated a B+ where folks had taken up positions on the bridges. Other exercise enthusiasts were running and biking along the canal at the same time, so it was not a closed course (which was completely fine). Things that went right: 1. I finished. 2. I didn't hurt myself (at least I don't think) or anyone else. 3. I spent some quality time with my wife. 4. I realized how lucky I am to be able to do these crazy events. Things that didn't help: 1. Had a sports massage a couple of days before the race. I wouldn't normally do this, so the added muscle tweaking might have tightened me up rather than loosened me up. 2. Swam laps in a pool the day before the race...not just casual laps, but crazy man, all-out, trying-to-win laps...dumb... 3. Believe it or not, I wore a brand new pair of Mizuno Precision 13s for this race. The tread on my previous two pairs of MP 13s was trashed, so I called a last minute audible. This seemed to lead to some foot pain (metatarsal?) for the duration of the run which kept me running on the grassy part next to the trail. It doesn't hurt today, so we'll see. Rookie mistake #99... 4. I started the race too fast. I was running 1 min/mile faster than what I usually do trying to keep up with the Joneses..rookie mistake #12... 5. My patented (um, not exactly) method of walking through the aid stations (which were about 1.5 miles apart and had water (always) and Gatorade (sometimes)) didn't seem to help my running. I think this technique works really well if you start slow and shoot for a negative split in the race. 6. I didn't see anything resembling food on the course. There was a person handing out Honey Stinger gel packets (which were delicious), but no bananas, cookies, etc. I like a little snack somewhere in the proceedings, so this was a bummer. 7. I have a new Garmin 220 which displays the distance, time and was set for current pace. This was great to see my current pace, but I really want to know my average pace. I had to do a bunch of math during the run to figure out how I was tracking. Math and running long distances don't really mix. All in all, I would recommend this race as a bare-bones, no thrills, good time. The medal was top-notch and the shirt was a white singlet (which is unusual and was welcomed as a change-of-pace). A final top tip is to wear your short gaiters to keep the dirt and stones from invading your shoes.

The dreaded taper...

I can't think of anything worse (well, yes I can...) than wanting to run and not running. This is the informal definition of tapering before a marathon. Even worse would be wanting to run and not being able to due to injury, etc. The taper takes many forms and shapes for different people. Some people can power through them and keep running their usual mileage. I like to take it easy the week before a marathon with a couple of short, easy runs. This makes me crawl out of my skin, particularly not running on the Sat before the Sun marathon. Saturday is usually one of those days where one should have time to bust a move long or short and fast. Taking Saturday off is pretty much anathema. Even worse (maybe) is taking a couple of days off on the other end of the marathon due to soreness, exhaustion, complacency, laziness, etc. That gets old real fast... The good news is that I usually don't change up my schedule too much other than the week before and the week after a marathon. I don't have a long complicated taper starting weeks in advance. What does your taper look like, so to speak?

Exactly the opposite...

Have you ever had a vacation where you returned home exhausted? Well, I just did. It wasn't from being overly active or from doing so much. It might have been exactly the opposite. The bed, the air conditioner, blah, blah, blah. Whatever it was, it wore me out! I ran the 6.2 mile 'bagel' trail run down to the Brandywine River and back yesterday. I was trying for a record time, but it was pretty much exactly the opposite. I enjoy this particular trail run for multiple reasons: there are multiple water crossings; there are some serious hills; I always say hi to the horses at the farm along the way; the midpoint is the wonderfully scenic Brandywine River; it's uphill on the way back, so the second half is harder than the first half; the corn fields were about 8 feet high, so there are spots where I was running through a tunnel of corn; and the trail landscape changes every time I run it - new trees are down, new rocks are on the trail, etc. What runs have you had that turned out exactly the opposite of what you thought?