Week of February 16 - February 22

Week off. My left sesamoid continues to nag at somewhat random times walking around.

Week In Review

Time: ~300:00
Distance: ~45 mi.

Welp, that's that. I am very sore in general, but my foot doesn't hurt.

Two weeks off, coming right up!

...and sorry for the delays in updates from the marathon.

Austin Marathon

Time: 160:00?
Distance: 27 mi.

Target: run a smart race; sub-2:30, hopefully sub-2:28
Race: 2:36.02 for 4th (on a very uncompetitive day)
Splits: 5:55.5, 5:59.0, 5:38.8, 5:42.4, 5:37.4, 5:40.5, 5:43.3, 6:01.3, 5:48.0, 5:44.6, 5:51.1, 6:01.0, 5:45.6, 5:37.3, 6:01.0, 5:58.2, 5:54.9, 5:52.1, 5:37.3, 5:40.6, 5:24.0, 6:23.2, 6:26.5, 6:25.0, 7:06.4, 6:57.9, 1:10.0 (last 0.2 mi.)
Course Map
Full Results

Start of the marathon on South Congress
With my shadow through about 10 miles	Final stretch... ouch

This was certainly not the marathon debut I was hoping for, but I learned a lot and it kicked off a great week in Austin. In lieu of a long blow-by-blow recap, I will summarize what I took from my first marathon experience.

1. Eat, eat, eat: One Pop-Tart before the race and GU at 13 and 20 miles is not enough energy. You NEED it for the last 10k, stomach be damned. It was all I could do in the last 5 miles to finish the race.
   
2. Don't be lonely: It is so much easier to let the tempo slip when you are alone or don't have someone to share the pace with. The lesson here? Find a competitive race, or at least an injured friend to bike along with you.
   
3. Make a day of it: Having a good plan for the rest of the day of the race and have some friends around to help lessen the sting of a sub-par performance.
   
4. Run through it: I have never had a major race that didn't come along with one niggle or another. I was frustrated by the tendonitis in my right foot for two weeks leading up to this, but I barely felt it in the race.
   
5. Train better: While my training was perfectly fine (particularly given that I was running solo almost exclusively leading up to this) and probably would have prepared me for a 2:30ish race if I had done some of the other things better, I could have been more reliable on the workouts.
   

Wednesday-Saturday

I wanted to stop over-thinking everything I could the week of the race, so I stopped really paying much attention to recording or worrying about exactly how much running I could get in. In this span, I ran twice or three times, including a nice pre-race run in Austin the day before with the crew in town for the race.

Day Off

Planned day off. Can feel the sesamoid a little bit when walking barefoot.

Echo Hill Loop

Time: 45:11
Distance: 6.5 mi.
Map

Easy 45 minute run in Amherst through Echo Hill. I was neurotically thinking about how my sesamoid felt and I did sense a bit of tightness, but there was really no pain during the run.

I loaded up the iPod with some Ratatat beats to try to keep my mind clear.

Week In Review

Time: 146:00
Distance: 21.25 mi.

Just over 20 miles in two days and three runs... yikes. Definitely not ideal, but I've been managing the tendonitis and it definitely hasn't gotten any worse. My plan for the next week is to run about every other day for 40-45 minutes and focus on managing inflammation and any soreness.

Seven days to the Austin Marathon.

Day Off

Was originally planning to put in an easy 5-6 mile run, but I had to make an unexpected trip back to Massachusetts, so this ended up as an off day.

Day Off

Planned day off. Foot mildly sore.

Opulence Run

Time: 42:00
Distance: 6 mi.
Map

Easy evening run with Colin on his "opulence run." My foot was a little bit sore towards the end of the run and afterwards, indicating that I should probably keep things below 8-10 mile days through the marathon.

Zoo Loop

Time: 34:50
Distance: 5 mi.
Map

Thirty five minutes of running completely pain free. Maybe I've been being too cautious, but I feel good now and that is a whole lot better than the alternative. I'll get in another easy jog this afternoon with Colin.

Day Off

Cautionary day off. Feeling my left sesamoid a little bit walking around, but it's not bad.

Day Off

My sesamoid continues to be a bit sore. I was walking around for a bit during the day and I could feel a dull ache after a while.

RCP South, Georgetown

Time: 69:00
Distance: 10.25 mi.
Map


Montrose Park, which connects RCP with Georgetown (and a shameless plug for my Flickr photostream)

Easy morning run in some light snow. I was definitely in the overthinking-the-pain mindset that Jordan and I talked about recently, in which it is difficult to know how much a small injury is nagging because you can't get your mind off it for one step. I think I was completely pain free in my left sesamoid until 50-55 minutes and then it started to get a little bit sore. The run took me south in RCP through Montrose Park around Georgetown and all the way back up. I cut out of Rock Creek Park a little bit early and ran back by way of Columbia Road rather than finishing up Klingle Road when I started to feel some soreness in my food.

I ran with a mix of eclectic hip hop on shuffle. This included Ratatat's two volumes of remixes which have some nice twists on rap classics (from the era of when Kanye was a rapper and older), and the new N.A.S.A. album The Spirit of Apollo which features performers ranging from Ol' Dirty Bastard to Tom Waits.

Day Off

I could feel the left foot a bit walking around in dressy shoes today, which is not ideal.

Check out the the Boston Globe's Big Picture take on the 2009 Tough Guy Challenge. It is a little silly and a little awesome.


Runners in the 2009 Tough Guy Challenge in Wolverhampton, England

Week In Review

Time: 520:45
Distance: 75.75 mi.

Another good week of training for the last week that I was concerned about running hard at all. I'd like to keep the volume decent for the next week (foot permitting) with easy runs and a short workout and one or two medium long runs. The focus from this point forward, of course, will be feeling good and staying healthy.

Rock Creek Park Loops

Time: 135:00
Distance: 20 mi.

I managed to find company for all of my last long run before the Austin Marathon. I met up with Max at the beginning of the run, and we picked up Rosen at about one hour into it. Max dropped off around 90 minutes and I ran with Jon most of the way back to his house. I first went West in the park, then once we picked up Jon up and down Beach Drive.

I felt fairly good throughout the run, except for at about 100 minutes when my left sesamoid became quite sore in a very short period of time. I definitely had to alter my stride and foot strike to keep the pressure off of it. I can't think what might have brought this on, other than the more minimal midsole of the Lunatrainer catching up with me after having worn it for the last week. I hope this is not the case, as the shoes have seemed great so far.