Feeling Much Better Two Weeks Post-Tucson Marathon

The Malibu Marathon on Nov 14th gave out finisher towels. Came in handy for those of us cooling off in the ocean after the race!It took me exactly two weeks to feel fully recovered from the Tucson Marathon. Two weeks of holiday preparations, parties, eating, festivities and fun.

What wasn't fun was the sluggish feeling a had last week as I creeped my way through 4 to 6 mile runs each day, not particularly enjoying it. My problem was that I was in a perma-tired state because more than ever I was not getting enough sleep each night. Why am I not getting enough sleep? Kids are up later because they're out of school, Christmas came and went, busy, busy with the new toys and games, etc.

In fact, I'm still kind of in that mode as I write this at midnight.

But something "clicked" yesterday, or I now should say the day before yesterday, since the clock has now struck midnight on Wednesday.

Sunday was exactly 2 weeks post marathon and I ran my longest run since then, 8.5 miles in 64 minutes. A moderate pace that I felt o.k. with. But I still didn't feel GREAT.

The "click" happened on Monday morning, when, even though I was coming off of 5 hours of sleep, there was a spring back in my step. Don't know what prompted it, but I actually felt GOOD even though I was tired.

Same thing today. I only ran 45 minute but I felt like running for hours if I could have. The air was nice and cool outside but not TOO cold. My legs felt fresh. It was enjoyable. Something I haven't felt for awhile.

So now that we are approaching the new year, I will have to figure out what's next for me. My more serious runner friends already have their next marathon on the calendar and are planning to do a 20 miler this weekend. I'm not there yet. But I will be checking my favorite marathon website, www.MarathonGuide.com, for upcoming 26.2 milers.

In other news, for the 2nd time in one month, I am about to lose another toenail. The middle nail on my right foot. This is a personal first for me. My first loss was on December 8th. For about 4 days now this nail has looked the hood of a car. It is hanging by a thread at this point but I'm not gonna force it so as to allow the newbie underneath sufficient coverage. There's one more nail on my right foot, the toe next to the big toe, that I predict will be gone in 3 months.

Lesson learned: MAKE SURE YOUR SHOES FIT. I was stupid. I went to Road Runner Sports in Newbury Park, short on time. The guy found me a shoe that I liked, but it felt a bit small. He didn't have a larger size. But I thought, why not, just buy thinner socks and it should be fine. The worker didn't try to dissuade me. Wish he had. I now have a pair of Saucony ProGrid Kinvaras size 10 1/2 that I wore 4 times. Anyone want them?

Week of Recuperation Post-Tucson Marathon

It is now 1 week post-marathon and I'm starting to feel better, not 100%, but maybe 80%. Went out today for my longest run since the marathon...only 35 minutes, about 4 1/2 miles, and felt fine. It has been raining literally non-stop today and that included my run. Got fairly soaked but felt good.

Tucson sunset night before the marathonI was extremely sore in my quads the first couple days post-marathon, to the point I couldn't walk down stairs without holding the handrail and going one step at a time. Some people walk backwards going downstairs to ease the pressure on the quads. I was tempted but didn't go quite that far.

The 3rd day post-marathon I alternated walking with jogging for several miles. Still sore and tight, and later that morning my lower calves had a sharp pain. Must have been due to the awkward way I was running.

The 4th day, Thursday, I jogged slowly the whole 2 1/2 miles and ended up with a new pain, this one a sharp pain in the middle of my right quad. Felt like someone stabbed me in the leg. But luckily, it pretty much went away on its own overnight.

Friday and Saturday were uneventful. With the pouring rain outside, I opted to "sleep in" until 8 a.m. and I didn't go out for my run until 10 a.m. Body felt like it was hit by a truck. Extremely sluggish. Guess my lack of adequate sleep caught up to me. Left calf was sore this time.

Today I ran around 8:30 a.m. after sleeping a bit late again. Had a chance to run a 10 miler with some friends who also ran the marathon but felt my body wasn't up for it. While I felt fine for the 35 minutes, I just didn't feel like running further. Two marathons in 4 weeks...I deserve a holiday break :>

Tucson Marathon Post Mortem

It is Tuesday night and I've had 3 days, 2 nights to contemplate my marathon performance on Sunday.

But before I go there, let me tell you that Tucson has the coolest looking cactus growing all over town called saguaro. I immediately thought how cool would it be to have some of these growing in our yard. But apparently they only thrive in the Sonoran desert of Arizona a handful of other places. They are growing in center medians, the airport, shopping centers, yards, you name it. They are awesome.

And then there is the Tucson Marathon host hotel, the Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Resort. For only $145/night, it was quite a beautiful setting. The room was nice, clean and comfortable too. Plus, the busses picked us up directly at the hotel lobby that morning, which was nice (others had to drive to a parking lot for pickup).

Driving up to the hotel.View from the outdoor courtyard of the Hilton, near the pool areas.I ran the marathon Sunday morning and my flight got me to LAX at 7 pm. With some Advil in me, I was able to move along fairly well that night. I even managed a burst of energy to catch the parking lot shuttle bus.

By 10 pm that night, the soreness in my quads really started getting ugly. Comicly ugly. As I kneeled down to grab something out of the closet, I realized I was too sore to get up. It hurt too much to stand up, and there was nothing to grab on to to help me. So I literally shuffled on my knees across the room to the couch, and with some effort finally pulled myself upright. Now I know what it feels like to be an invalid.

The soreness was worse the next day as my coworkers laughed. I usually fly down the hall, but I was walking like a 97 year old man. Advil in moderation helped me, but I didn't overdo it - I limited my intake to 2 or 3 a day.

I did walk a mile on Monday morning and a few miles this morning to get the blood flowing. By Thursday I'm hoping I'll be able to do some light jogging.

A visitor to this site asked me what I thought caused the trashing of my quads (and by the way, every other part of my body feels just fine...hamstrings, calves, knees, arms, etc.). Here are my thoughts on the matter:

1. First and foremost, I didn't do any downhill specific training, name downhill running on a paved surface, for this marathon. I do run on plenty of hills, but nothing anywhere near as significant (2000+ foot drop) to the Tucson course. Why? Well for starters, I only decided to run the race 2 weeks ago.
2. My base mileage was quite low. It had been nearly 3 months since I ran as much as 50 miles in one week. This is more than most casual runners run, but to run a sub 3 hour marathon, most people need 50+ miles a week in running or possibly a lot of aerobic cross training.
3. Though I felt pretty good only 2 weeks after the Malibu Marathon, I probably never FULLY recovered. But additionally, I spent 2 weeks recovering from Malibu and then had only 2 weeks left to train for Tucson. Those final 2 weeks are usually relegated to tapering, not training. So basically I was attempting to fool my body into a sub 3 performance...but there's no fooling this old body!
4. Admittedly while I felt I was holding back the first half of the race, I didn't hold back enough. My half marathon split was 1:27, nearly 3 minutes faster than an even 3 hour pace. My average split was 6:39 but only should have been running at a 6:52 pace. I felt good and fine, but that pace on that course obviously was not sustainable for me.
5. I wore my 5K racing flats because I discovered that my longer distance racing shoes were too small for me. That might have contributed to the hammering of my quads, though the alternative was to run in my training shoes, which I didn't want to do.

It is easy to point out your mistakes...but much more challenging to DO SOMETHING about them. The main thing I need to do to run a FAST marathon is...STOP WRITING and START RUNNING. I think I'll do that. But first, I'm going to bed. :>

Tucson Marathon Today - There's No Fooling This Body

29th marathon down the hatch. The good news is that I finished today's Tucson Marathon. Around mile 17 I was having some doubts.

I digress. Two weeks ago I decided to sign up for ANOTHER marathon, 2 weeks after the Malibu Marathon. This was kind of an experiment to see how many body would respond so soon after the last marathon. My hope was to run a sub 3 hour marathon.

Today's 26.2 miler was basically 2 runs. The first half of the marathon I ran in 1 hour, 27 minutes and felt just fine. That feeling lasted until about mile 15, at which point I noticed my quads could no longer respond.

By mile 17, my quads were TRASHED and I started alternating walking and running. And so it went for the next 4 miles...walk 20 steps, run as best I could.  Around mile 21 I was able to take in more fluids, namely a sports drink called "Xood" that the race was serving up, and I was able to regain some composure with a slow paced "death shuffle" to the finish.

Yup, it was one of those days. The weather was fairly warm and dry and once again I wasn't getting enough fluids in. But while that did impact my running, I'm not going to kid myself.  I did not do the base mileage homework for this marathon, and there's no fooling your body into running a fast marathon. But I enjoyed trying, as painful as it was.

I was also happy that I ran a very comfortable 1:27 half marathon over the first half of the course. I was running at a moderate effort.

Overall my time was 3 hours, 14 minutes. Talk about crash and burn! 1:27 1st half vs 1:47 2nd half.

Time to recuperate...and think about 2011.

One Less Toenail Four Days Before Tucson Marathon

I think it started last December after running the Santa Barbara Marathon, which would make the process almost exactly one year. But the days and weeks are blurry and I don't track the specific time I discovered the toenail on the toe next to my big toe was black.

Black toenail for illustration purposes only. The real black toenail has been changed to protect the innocent.

On Sunday I felt something odd when I put my sock on, like there was a leaf in my sock. But I was in a rush and didn't think much of it. When you have young kids, namely two perpetual motion machine boys, you quickly forget about things.

That night after I showered I noticed what caused that odd feeling. The toenail on the toe next to my big toe (it sure would be nice if they actually had names for the toes like we have for our fingers) was loose. It was more than loose. I could actually open it up like a door, with the hinge attached at the bottom.

I didn't rush the process. It seemed fine. I just carefully placed my socks over the toes and went on with my day. It wasn't until Tuesday night that finality to the situation occurred. The entire nail fell off and underneath was a brand new nail. It doesn't look as "pretty" as the other nails yet, nor do I ever expect it to, but I do have a nail.

Although I have been running now for 17 1/2 years, it is still a pretty rare event to lose a toenail. I take pretty good care of my feet, namely, I keep my toenails trimmed, buy shoes that fit and have some room in the toebox so they don't get smooshed and on most runs 18 miles or longer I sacrifice my socks by slathering Vaseline on the toes to prevent blistering.

Given the rarity of the moment, I pondered for 10 minutes whether I should keep that toenail and show it to the kids. Yes, for 10 minutes, as I brushed, flossed and gargled, that toenail sat on the countertop (which has since been washed) as I considered the benefits of keeping it.

Some ultramarathoners have been known to keep their fallen toenails. I've seen a Ceremonial Toenail Necklace online. Quite nasty looking.

Also on my mind was the fact that one of the very few mistakes I made at the Malibu Marathon on November 14th was that I had NOT cut my toenails enough and as a result, now my RIGHT FOOT has not one, but TWO toenails that look like they are on their way out. The other mistake I made was that I bought a pair of shoes that were just ever so slightly not big enough in the toebox to accommodate the pounding in a marathon. Dammit!

My kids told me to paint all my toenails black. I don't think so.

Ultimately after these deep thoughts, the toenail made it to the trash can that night. I figured I'd spare my family from the excitement, though my 7 year old got a kick out of seeing the new nail.

Maybe I'm talking about toenails because it is only 4 days before another marathon and I'm in taper mode again (not that I had much mileage to taper from). Too much time on my hands? Nah.

Cat's Out of the Bag - Running the Tucson Marathon on December 12th

I guess someone actually reads this blog.

Last Sunday I mentioned I was running another marathon in two weeks and that it would be fun to SURPRISE some friends who also are running this marathon...which happens to be the Tucson Marathon.

Yes sir, today my friend Dave called me up and said, hey, I was talking to Jim, and Jim asked about my training for Tucson...and he mentioned you're running it too. GULP, the cat's out of the bag! Gee thanks Jim! :>

But that's o.k., it was all in fun. Oddly though, I never mentioned  Tucson in last week's post, though I did mention it several times in Twitter.

So yes, 3 weeks post-Malibu Marathon and I am now about a week away from another marathon. Not a lot of tapering necessary for this marathon as I had about a 5 month illness-induced taper for Malibu. Since Malibu, I've been doing very moderate training, with an easy 15 miler last Sunday.

This is not my first time running the Tucson Marathon, but assuming all goes well it will be my first time FINISHING the race. About 8 years ago I DNF'd (Did Not Finish for those unfamiliar with this running acronym) at Mile 20 due to severe shin splints.

Shin splints is a rarity for me but I had them going into that race. That was a problem because the Tucson Marathon is one of the most severely downhill marathons in the country, with an elevation drop of over 2,000 feet and starting elevation close to 5,000 feet!

So I'm going into this race knowing that I'm nowhere near my peak, nearly 2 months away from any solid training. But having done a 26.2 miler 3 weeks ago and feeling recovered, I know I can cover the distance. The question is, can I go under 3 hours. We shall see. I'm a pretty good downhill runner but I haven't exactly trained for a downhill marathon.

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...