Quite Nicely Recovered From the Malibu Marathon...What's Next...

My recovery from the Malibu Marathon on November 14th has gone about as well as any marathon I've ever run. One week post-marathon, I was running 6-7 miles pain free and my training was pretty much back to normal this past week.

This weekend, I ran 1 hour, 33 minutes on Saturday and 1 hour, 50 minutes on Sunday, a total of 27 miles. There's a bit of soreness in my left leg, but I think that's more due to my half day of yard work yesterday.

The best recoveries mirror the best tapers, slow and gradual. I think I was able to do this. This is one area where experience truly pays off. I've injured myself way too many times the month after running a marathon, thinking I was invicible as my body is struggling to repair all the micro-tears.

My quick recuperation made me feel yesterday that I left "too much on the table" at Malibu. Though I gave it my best effort, a 3:05 for me was slow and reflected the dryness of the day, some dehydration, my battle with illness for a month and some challenging hills on the course. But my recent 5K time told me I "should" be able to run a marathon in the 2:50 to 2:55 range.

Looking back, I've run 28 marathons since 1994. I keep telling people I've run 25, having lost track. Only 2 marathons (Malibu and last year's Santa Barbara Marathon) in the last 5 1/2 years, largely paralleling the growth of my family.

Three times I have run back to back marathons within 6 weeks of one another. The last time I did this was 1999, where I ran a 2:45 Cleveland Marathon then 3 weeks later I ran a 2:40 Rock N Roll Marathon in San Diego. Don't know how I did that.

It generally is not a good idea to do much racing 2 to 3 weeks after running a hard marathon. But if you feel good after 4 weeks, heck why not.

So yesterday I decided what the heck, I'm going to run one more marathon before the end of the year. This marathon is 2 weeks from today. I have the approval of my wife, so I'm good to go and signed up.

I know some other people running this marathon and, unless they read this blog (which they probably don't, since only 7 people read it I think), I thought it would be fun to surprise them when I show up at the race.

Nothing serious...just having fun. Yes, just another nutty marathoner I am.  But all I really want is a 2:59:59 or faster marathon, since it has been 6 years since ran under 3 hours, geezer that I am.

Malibu Marathon Went as Well as I Could Expect

It is now Friday night, 5 days post-Malibu Marathon.  Other than some subtle residual soreness in my lower calves, I'm feeling little effect of Sunday's marathon.

Must have been the dip in the ocean 30 minutes after the race, but I've been able to recuperate from this marathon extremely well. Monday and Tuesday I was sore. My strategy on Monday was to simply walk a mile or so in the morning to get the blood flowing in my legs.

On Tuesday, I walked 20 steps, then jogged 20 steps, walked 20 steps, jogged 25 steps, and so on. The jogging was very slow and deliberate so as not to cause an injury. It felt good.

On Wednesday, I was able to run slowly, pain free. I ran about 4 miles and was amazed at decent it felt.

Thursday was even better and I ran 45 minutes. Today I was slightly more sore in my lower calves, so I took it a bit easier.

One day pre-marathon I tipped the scale in the morning at 138.5 lbs. On Tuesday, I was back up to 144 lbs. I've been eating a lot. I like to splurge a bit after a marathon and eat whatever I want, as often as I want.  But today, I started eating healthy again.

My overall place in the Malibu Marathon was 9th out of 481 finishers. While my 3:05 was one of my slowest finishing times (heck, my first marathon ever was 3:03), I was pleased with my performance given the course, the conditions and my fairly low key training.

The winner of the race, James Nielsen, I discovered was the 50th male in the 2008 Olympic Trials Marathon in Fall 2007 and has a personal best of 2:21. A year ago he ran several marathons in the low 2:30s.  The fact that his time here was a lot slower confirmed the challenging nature of the course. I'd estimate this course in Sunday's warm, breezy conditions is 10 to 15 minutes slower than a flatter course.

All that said, I will soon be pondering my next marathon. This marathon was a positive overall experience and told me that I CAN do a reasonably paced marathon even on mileage less than what I'm used to doing.

Malibu Marathon Was a Success

Well today I ran the 2nd Annual Malibu Marathon in approximately 3 hours, 5 minutes (still awaiting the "official" time)!

I'm thrilled with this performance taking into account my month-long battle with colds, bronchitis and other ailments, average training mileage of 45 miles a week and course conditions.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day today! But beautiful days don't necessarily translate into good marathon weather! The darn wind was still out there, with some pretty major gusts on PCH near Mugu Rock!

Today was a day that everything seemed to finally go "right" for me. No potty breaks during the race, no logistical fumbles like at my last marathon and no big mistakes!

My race strategy was to start nice and easy and work into it. Easy to say, but not always easy to do if you feel good at the start of a marathon. But given my sparse training, medical trials and trevails and the dry, windy conditions, I didn't want to chance screwing up another marathon!

The strategy worked PERFECTLY!  From mile 1 on, not one person passed me and I passed roughly 20 people, nice and steadily. I did not do stupid things like speed up for no reason (a lot of people do this and it does you no good at mile 9 of a marathon...it just hurts you).

In my more youthful marathon days, somehow a song would come to mind that carried me through the marathon. Not something planned, but usually just some catchy tune on the radio with a cadence that would help me maintain my pace. This happened today. One of my Facebook friends posted this video of her niece covering Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" and she does such a nice job with it that it became "that" song for me today. The 1-2-3 cadence in my mind helped me maintain my pace even through the brutal 3 hills in the last 6 to 8 miles. Here it is...thanks Julie Lavery!

I was fine until mile 22, when I started getting cramps in my quads. If I have one complaint about the race, there was not enough fluids. We went miles at a time without water and the advertised coconut water seemed sparse. I could have used Gatorade or some other electrolyte drink badly. It was way too dry out there.

I managed to merge into the half marathon right after it started, which was both good and bad. Suddenly there was a massive tide of people in front of me that I had to veer around. But the good thing is that after running completely alone for miles, I got to wrong with people again...until the half marathoners veered right at Leo Carrillo.

At that juncture of the race was a daunting hill, but after having absolutely no idea where the other full marathoners were, suddenly the course was clear and I saw 2 targets up ahead of me. One was "road kill" - he was walking. I waved to him. I've had days like that. The other guy was slowing and I was able to reel him in around mile 21 or so.

Physically I was fine the entire race until mile 22, when my quads started feeling like they were gonna cramp up, mostly on the uphills. I fought them off and made it to 24 mile mark, where most of the rest of the race was downhill.

It wasn't pretty, but I made it. I'm sore, but the beauty of finishing a race at Zuma Beach is that you can cool off your legs in the Pacific Ocean afterwards, which I did. My final smart move of the day.

So while this time is 30 minutes slower than my personal best from 15 years ago, I had an excellent day overall and am thrilled I was able to complete this marathon. Things generally went right for me.

Looking forward to finding out my place! Now off for a beer!!

The Day Before the Malibu Marathon

In the good old days, the day before a marathon I'd stay in a hotel room, lounge around and drink Gatorade and read and watch TV all day, then go out for an early dinner and continue relaxing.

That was then. Today's routine was more like...get kids fed and dressed, go to soccer game to coach the last game of the season, break up fights, go to Jersey Mike's with the kids, break up more fights, go to Roadrunner Sports to buy something last minute only to have to leave because the kid were...fighting, stop by the house, drop off one kid, take the other kid out for multiple errands (went to Future Track Running Store instead), came home, jumped on the trampoline w/the kids, bathe the kids, brush their teeth...the list goes on. Now it is 9:30 pm and I've got an hour til bedtime to myself. Alarm is set for 5:30 am.

I'm relaxed, I'm not taking this marathon too seriously. If I can come close to a 3 hour performance I'll be happy.

On Friday I drove the course from Camarillo Airport to Zuma to pick up my bib number. Boy does 26.2 miles seem FAR when you drive it.

Roughly 2/3rds of the course is along PCH, which means this is probably one of the most scenic marathons in the world and I can't imagine many races with more oceanfront.

The last 6 miles though look pretty challenging, with some pretty significant hills in the Leo Carrillo area. I will make a note to save plenty of energy for that final 10K...meaning don't worry about the first half marathon. Just take it easy and enjoy the ride.

The liquids served on the course include water and Zico Coconut Water. I tried Zico for the first time at the race expo, but since I've not used it at all during training run, it probably isn't a good idea to try it during the race. But it did seem to go down pretty nicely.

My purchase today was a very small waist pack that fits 4 GU gels. I decided to try something other than pinning the gels to my shorts. This pack is so small that it should not cause me any problems tomorrow. Those GUs may come in quite handy.

It has been windy now for a number of days, but they say the wind will die down tomorrow. Wind is my biggest enemy in the marathon as it dries me out.

So on that note, I'm off to relax a bit more so I'm off and running tomorrow morning...

Back on Antibiotics 9 Days Pre-Marathon

Thought I had my bronchitis, sinus infection, et al beat. But still battling.

It was October 10th when I first felt the soreness in the throat, leading to coughing, sneezing, chest congestion, etc.  My usual course of action with sickness like this is to run right through them.

After 12 days my symptoms got worse, so I visited the doctor, who told me I had bronchitis, sinus infection and conjunctivitis to boot. So October 22nd saw me starting my 7 day Cipro treatment.

Even though the warnings on the label said Cipro users stood a chance of tendon rupture, I decided I needed to get one last long run in a few days into treatment. So I did a nice, slow 19 miler on October 24th. Felt like I was starting to get back to normal that week.

Fast forward to Thursday, November 4th, 10 days before the Malibu Marathon. Sinus pressure, still coughing, etc. I felt like I was getting sick again. The doc made room for me on Friday, I told him my marathon was just 9 days away, and he prescribed me another antibiotic, Azithromycin.

To boot, Friday morning, I woke up with pink eye again. WHAT'S GOING ON WITH ME!!??

The good thing is that this is just a 5 day treatment. The bad thing is it is starting to give me the "heartburn" feeling I tend to get from these types of antibiotics. But with just 3 more days of treatment, that should give me 4 days to recover prior to the marathon next Sunday.

Today I ran 42 minutes and felt like crapola. I've heard antibiotics dehydrate you. Not sure, but I certainly had a tough time finishing 6 miles, let along 26 miles.

Tonight I'm pondering what I'll do tomorrow. Normally one week prior to a marathon I might try to do 7 to 10 miles at marathon pace. That is my goal, but I won't push it too hard. My training at this point can hurt me more than it can help.

So for me at this point, I'm hoping my body magically recovers, feels good and I can have a fun (not competitive) marathon next Sunday. May not be in the cards, but I'm hoping for the best...

P.S. It is now Sunday morning. I got up at 6:20 a.m. (felt like 7:20 a.m. due to the time change) and ran 9.5 miles in 70 minutes. Felt o.k. Energy level was a little higher than yesterday and it was cooler outside, which helped. Nice final training run for the marathon next Sunday.

Betting on Long Runs to Power Me Through the Marathon

I started training for the Singapore Marathon at the beginning of June, then changed my plans 7 weeks ago to run the slightly more local Malibu Marathon on November 14th.

This blog has not dwelled too much on my daily/weekly mileage over the last 22 weeks, but I do track it. I measure weekly mileage starting on Sunday through the following Saturday. Here it is for those of you who like numbers:

5/30-6/5: 43 total miles, 10 mile longest run

6/6-6/12: 42 total miles, 8 mile longest run

6/13-6/19: 25 total miles, 6 mile longest run (back problems took me out this week)

6/20-6/26: 50 total miles, 10 mile longest run (came back and ran a 17:27 5K)

6/27-7/3: 34 total miles, 6 mile longest run (this week the stomach flu laid me up a bit)

7/4-7/10: 46 total miles, 7 mile longest run

7/11-7/17: 34 total miles, 13 mile longest run (2 full days of travel cut into my training)

7/18-7/24: 60 total miles, 15 mile longest run

7/25-7/31: 40 total miles, 6 mile longest run

8/1-8/7: 57 total miles, 17.5 mile longest run

8/8-8/14: 54 total miles, 17 mile longest run

8/15-8/21: 57 total miles, 19 mile longest run

8/21-8/28: 57 total miles, 22 mile longest run

8/29-9/4: 41 total miles, 8 mile longest run

9/5-9/11: 44 total miles, 10 mile longest run

9/12-9/18: 60 total miles, 22 mile longest run

9/19-9/25: 43 total miles, 7 mile longest run (ran 17:30 5K)

9/26-10/2: 53 total miles, 22 mile longest run

10/3-10/9: 45 total miles, 9 mile longest run

10/10-10/16: 42 total miles, 19 mile longest run

10/17-10/23: 21 total miles, 5 mile longest run (sick with a cold, bronchitis, sinus infection)

10/24-10/30: 45 total miles, 19 mile longest run (still recovering, ran 19 on antibiotics)

10/31-11/6: TBD total miles, 13.5 mile long run on Halloween (still recovering...)

Average weekly mileage 45. At my marathoning peak 15 years ago I was running upwards of 80 to 90 miles per week. I've aged quite a bit since then and stay up too late and don't sleep enough...so I'm happy all things considered to average 45.

More importantly though, while I'm not fooling myself into thinking I'll be running a sub 2:40 marathon like the good ole days, I am very pleased to have run 18+ miles 7 times (I'm rounding up the 17.5) in preparation for this marathon. As long as I "hold my horses" and not take off running Malibu like a 10K race, I should be able to do around 3 hours for the marathon.

That said, the Malibu course has a 200 foot climb over 4th quartile of the course (miles 18 to 24) which may present some challenges. Not exactly a "fast" course it would appear. The good thing for me is the course I ran my long runs on had some hills.

13 more days until the marathon...time to start easing up and resting....

Sunday's Long Run: Powered by Cipro

After nearly two weeks of sore throats, blowing, sneezing, massive chest congestion and to top that off, conjunctivitis (pink eye), last Friday I decided a trip to the doctor was in order.

I pretty much always "run through" colds. I feel that it helps me both physically and mentally and that it helps move some of the "stuff" through my system.  Usually the cold goes away in a few days. This one I thought went away on October 14th. But on the 15th, I found out otherwise.

The biggest wild card in my training over the last 5 years has been injuries and illnesses. I blame my kids for both, but I still love them! Comes with the territory. It wasn't my 5 year old's fault that some other kid in his preschool class came to school with pink eye!

So two weeks of misery and I'm off to the doctor on the 22nd, figuring he'd give me a 5 day Z-Pack antibiotic to beat this thing. He looked and listened and told me I had bronchitis and a sinus infection. Ycchh! My head WAS hurting. So he put me on 1000 mg of Ciprofloxacin a day for 7 days.

My fear with antibiotics based on previous experience is that they tear up my gut and give me heartburn. And that does bad things for my training, which already went down the tubes for weeks 5 and 4 prior to my marathon.

In the meantime, I spoke with my friend Dave, who said for me to get a "decent" performance at the Malibu Marathon on November 14th, I really needed 1 more long run, since my last one was 2 weeks ago. I'm thinking the chances of that were quite slim given how I felt. But between that discussion and my catching this awesome Will Smith motivational video on Saturday, I was determined to run 18 to 20 miles on Sunday come hell or high water.

My body was dragging and I got to bed too late on Saturday night, so I didn't wake up until 8 am on Sunday. But I reminded myself, you're on drugs getting over bronchitis, dude. Don't kill yourself.

So by 8:20 am I was out the door. I didn't take my morning Cipro. Jeez, I was reading the label and it said it could cause inflammation and tearing of a tendon...doh!!...and here I am running 2 1/2 hours. Ughh. Coughing and spitting every 20 yards or so, I left my mark on Newbury Park. At least it would allow me to retrace my steps should I get lost.  In fact, the coughing got so bad at times, I thought I was going to lose a lung.

But after awhile, things settled down. I didn't concern myself with pace and told myself I would just slog this out. I drank fluids and took in my "GU" packs and steadily moved along. By 11 am I had run a loop around Newbury Park, later determining my run was about 19 miles in 2 hours, 40 minutes. That was about an 8:25 average pace, as slow as I've ever run, but I DID IT! I celebrated at the pumpkin patch later that day with my kids.

So it is now Wednesday night, October 27th. I have one day of Cipro left. Still coughing but not nearly as much. Seems like everyone I meet these days has this same cough.

With 2 1/2 weeks left, all I can do is stay fit, maybe do 12 to 15 this weekend, then ride in the taper to marathon day.

And stay healthy!

No Long Run, No Race and No Running!

That was my weekend. After weeks of decent training and long runs, my plan was to run a 5K in Westlake Village yesterday. Didn't happen.

Has been a week since the cold that knocked me out and about 5 days since I thought I had it completely beat, but doggone it...I still have the congestion in my chest.

The congestion in and of itself seems to remedy itself after moving around a bit and loosening it up. But my body has been telling me...SLEEP...PLEASE SLeeppp....ZZzzzz. I've been having a hard time waking up before 7 a.m. And the feeling continues.

But...I was DETERMINED to run the 5K yesterday, even knowing I was low on energy. But then came hurdle #2...the wife...

My wife has been laid up with a cold and/or sinus infection for the last 4 or 5 days, and she laid down the law with me yesterday. YOU ARE WATCHING THE KIDS!

The kids weren't getting up for a 5K and my body wasn't cooperating anyway, so other than a visit to IHOP, I didn't do much of anything on that rainy, dreary Sunday.

But then towards 6 p.m. I thought I might be able to sneak out to do a run. Within minutes, instead of running, I was driving off to local pediatric Urgent Care because both of my little ones came down with a combination of pink eye, cold/sinus infection and ear infection.

We closed down urgent care at 8:15 p.m., brought home our stash of eyedrops and antibiotics and that was the end of my weekend.

Not a good weekend. Still not feeling up to snuff. But I'm alive and hoping that this forced rest helps me in 4 weeks as I run the Malibu Marathon. What I'm really hoping is that I can run one last 18 to 20 miler next Sunday.

The Yin and Yang of Sunday's Long Run

Probably wasn't a great idea to do a long run this past Sunday morning. My right hip flexor (where the leg meets the groin) had been sore for a week. But I still ran an hour on Saturday morning.  Got home and took kid to soccer game. Meanwhile we had a birthday party at the house most of the afternoon. Mom flew into town Friday night and that kept me busy. Kids were amped up on sugar Saturday night.

I was moving around on my feet from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday, the day before my planned 20 miler. And it was hot this weekend. But I was determined to get my long run in.

Plan was to leave at 6 a.m. and finish around 8:20 a.m. to beat the heat on Sunday. Problem though...my body was so worn out from Saturday that I slept through the alarm and didn't get out the door until 7 a.m.

So in any case, I managed to run through my tiredness and "deal" with the hip flexor issue to slog through just under 19 miles in 2 hours, 17 minutes. It was not one of my prettier runs and was not one my most enjoyable runs. But I did it.

About 15 miles into the run, I felt on irritation in my throat, which I though was a particle or something. It didn't go away when I got home, and then I started sneezing. so after my mediocre run I'm treated to what I thought were allergies the rest of the day. It was warm and slightly windy out and it certainly felt like an allergic reaction.

Well the next day...BAM...here comes the sneezing and runny nose. Yes, my first cold of the Fall. But I still ran 5 miles that morning to clear out my head. That night, though I don't like doing this, I took a Nyquil that knocked me out and dried me up. The next morning and day I was a zombie, parched mouth and lips, no energy, felt like I hit a brick wall.  But I still managed to run a SLOW 1.5 miles in the morning, once again, to "clear my head."

By Wednesday I felt about 60% and today, Thursday, I'm back to 90%. I still get the chest congestion but my morning runs help me unclog that with some massive coughing attacks.

And I visited the chiropractor today to work on my hip joint. I think I made some progress in attacking my hip flexor issue. Crossing my fingers...

So while I'm quite happy to have completed this long run, one of my final ones prior to the Malibu Marathon on November 14th, this was not one of my better weeks!

So why the Chicago Marathon medal you ask!? I was reminded of the Chicago Marathon this weekend because it was a spectacular finish in nearly 80 degree heat. Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru won his 2nd Chicago Marathon in a row in a time of 2:06:24...pedestrian compared to Haile Gebrselassie's 2:03:59 2 years ago in Berlin. I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2:42:47 exactly 15 years ago. That was my 5th marathon and a PR at the time (even with a 1 1/2 minute mid-race "pit stop).

Sometimes Races Don't Go As Planned

So this past Sunday my plan was the run the Camarillo Half Marathon as a training run. A way to gauge my speed over a longer distance than 5K/10K. With the Malibu Half Marathon only 6 weeks away, this would be a great, local opportunity to kick up the training a notch.

But sometimes things don't go quite as planned.

I paid $65 to enter this race, a significant amount of money for a local training run. Would have been a lot cheaper to just go out and do a hard "tempo" run locally, but that's no fun.

My body was not quite ready to do a full bore half marathon on Sunday. The week prior I ran a solid 21 miles and 2 week prior I ran a decent 5K. But last week was HOT, which made me tired, cranky and dehydrated. My training was mediocre at best.

So come Saturday, I decided to run an hour, not hard or anything. If I was really planning to do an "all out" half marathon the next day, I would not have run more than 30 minutes the day prior.

In any case, what I noticed is that my right hip flexor (where the upper inner leg meets the groin area) was sore.  I believe my body was still in recovery mode from the prior 2 weekend's runs.  I crossed my fingers and hoped my body would magically feel better Sunday morning.

I woke up. Felt pretty much the same. But I had to go and make the most of my $65.

Long story short. I actually ran pretty well for the first 30 minutes of the race. I was in 6th place overall, behind 5 much younger stallions than this old geezer, when 5th place stopped and turned around. We had shared some doubts about the course (e.g. did we make a wrong turn) magnified by a lack of mile markers. He stopped and asked someone, they apparently didn't know, and he turned around. I, the sheep that I am, followed him, soon realizing we had indeed been going the right away.

At that point, my hammies felt like rocks. My right hip flexor was tight. I slowed down considerably as we both ran back to the start. Not wanting to be confused with the finishers, I tore off my number and called it a day. My body needed a little break.

It is now Tuesday night. While I didn't actually take a day off, I ran light the past few days and am feeling better. Next stop...a 20 to 22 miler this Sunday, followed by a 5K next weekend.

My good friend, 57 year old Dave Louks, was the top masters runner in the Camarillo Marathon. This workhorse ran a 2:58, good for 5th place overall out of 235 finishers. The VC Star contacted me to ask about the race. Apparently there were some issues (that I wasn't aware of given I didn't do the whole course). So I had them talk to Dave and...wallah...he is prominently featured in this article that, unfortunately, highlights some major shortcomings of this inaugural race.  I do hope they can work out the kinks and come back next year.