Mike's Marathon Training Blog

Sat, Oct 04, 2008

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 04:00:00 +0100

A very nice run, very slow and easy for me, but it was 8 miles with Andrea and after mile 2 when Laszlo turned around, Lauren joined us for the last 6. We did a bit of talking and catching up.

Our Rancho Vistoso course is pretty nice, but hilly with about 500 or so feet of climbing, not too bad, but makes you work.

Good run overall, trying to get a good massage this afternoon.

Fri, Oct 03, 2008

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:00:00 +0100

13 miles round trip to work on the bike

Some running for work PT.

Thu, Oct 02, 2008

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:00:00 +0100

1 mile warm up

4 miles Tempo 6:12, 6:30, 6:02, 6:04

1.6 miles cooldown

All with Jeff, felt pretty good. Slower mile 3 because of the two large turns up and over Craycroft and back down.

13 miles roundtrip to work plus 3 more during the day.

Wed, Oct 01, 2008

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:00:00 +0100

10 miles on the bike

5 miles around Reid Park, great group of BPR folks last night.

160 push ups and sit ups---I missed one set of 40 each when I went back to get Kat.

Tue, Sep 30, 2008

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

.6 warm up plus lots of dynamic stretching

5 x 100, 200, 400, 800

13 34 74 2:44

15 37 80 2:47

15 38 78 2:45

16 37 79 2:47

15 37 78 2:45

.25 cooldown

about 20 miles of riding my bike today.

Mon, Sep 29, 2008

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

13 miles on the bike. Round trip to work

Sat, Sep 27, 2008

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

.5 runnig around at the catalina trail race. Did timing with Laszlo

4 miles on the bike to and from LnL's

Fri, Sep 26, 2008

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

Nice hour long hike with the dogs. 36th St. Park

Thu, Sep 25, 2008

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

8.1 Miles with Jeff along the River Path. We ran the first 3/4 mile with everyone, Amanda, Joe and Lauren. Our first mile was 8:21 we maintained sub 7's for a bit, then backed down since I am still recovering from the marathon. Jeff had an emergency pit-stop around 3.5 miles, then caught back up with me. We finished fairly strong, but slower due to the winds and the darkness. It was dark for the last 2 miles. All in all, I felt great, legs were a little more tired than a normal 8 miler, which shows my recovery is not done. Overall pace was 7:21/mile. Not bad at all especially with an 8:21 first mile.

Wed, Sep 24, 2008

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

BPR workout at Reid Park. 4.85 miles with Jeff, plus 5 sets of 40 Pushups and Situps. They got tough, I need to get better on them.

Tue, Sep 23, 2008

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

One mile warm up at the track, Dynamic stretching (logging .25) for all of those.

5x 1000 We ran about 6:40-7:15 pace, I ran with Stacey. First time I met her, very nice girl and pretty quick. We kept our conversation most of the night. As for the run, I am still recovering from my marathon and I feel pretty good.

.25 cooldown and went back and talked to Laszlo about some of the team stuff.

Sat, Sep 20, 2008

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

Woke up a bit early, 4 am, for a 6am departure for the race. Ate a peanut butter granola bar and drank some Propel Gatorade.

I decided to try to set a PR based on the course based on the fact that if you don't try to, you never will. Fairly stupid since my longest training run was 15.6 miles in one day.

At the starting line I met Bill, looking to run a 2:55, sounded reasonable and we ran together for quite a bit. I had to put the reigns on him often as he kept naturally going fast. The first two miles included a 200ft climb so we did them nice and easy as a good warm up, mile 3 was a 6:24...too fast. Slowed back to aound 6:40 and kept it there for a while. We had a decent group of about 6 guys for a while. We hit 1:28:10 at the half and I was feeling better than expected.

Bill and a couple others dropped off the group around mile 17 at a water stop. It left just myself and two nice guys, Jeff and Cody. We mainted sub 7's ...

Fri, Sep 19, 2008

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

Good sleep, important to two days before a marathon!

2.1 miles, mostly easy, with a few strides to open it up a litle bit.

Dynamic stretching for 10-15 minutes.

Met Bart Yasso and heard him speak at our dinner, what a character! He is hilarious and I would LOVE to do his job! I thought mine took me cool places....

Also I look forward to cheering on Capt Ivan Castro, a blind Iraq War Vet, severely injured in battle. He has a great heart and a good head on his shoulders. Even a sense of humor!

Thu, Sep 18, 2008

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

Early flight to Dayton. Met with most of the team at the airport, went to dinner wih a couple of the guys from the team. We actually did quite a bit of walking, more than I hoped for, but its ok.

Wed, Sep 17, 2008

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

Nice BPR workout this morning with myself, Jeff, Robert (good to see him out) and Prithi, who was a bit later than usual but caught us by going the opposite direction around the park. We stayed together the whole way.

4.85 easy miles. No push ups or situps for me as my marathon is just a few days away and I don't want to be sore at all going in to it.

Tue, Sep 16, 2008

Tue, 16 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

1.25 to the track, .55 mile warm up with Jeff, High Knees, But-kickers, Mt climbers, strides

5x 1 Mile w/ Jeff-- 5:57, 5:57, 5:57, 5:56, 5:46

.6 mile cooldown with Jeff, Phil, and Allison

Got a ride home with Laszlo and talked about some team stuff.

Felt really good all day, no issues. I actually feel pretty good about the marathon.

PM--3 miles, plus 50 push ups and sit ups for recruit training

Sun, Sep 14, 2008

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

Sabino Canyon, man what a beautiful run. 7.35 miles, I actually felt really good for not being around hills much. It is quite a climb going up, about 1100 feet or so. My stomach was not so great, so I cut my run in half, well a little more than half, but I felt better than expected running hills, so I am happy.

Time to knock out some papers for school....

Fri, Sep 12, 2008

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

The toughest 3.1 I have run in a long time, maybe ever.

I did the chalking of the course for tomorrows Run Down Crime 5K. I ran the entire way pushing that thing! Its not too bad on the fairways, but the rough, the soft wet spots and the hills...whew. Its short, wabbly and I am covered in chalk, but I marked the entire course with three and a half bags of chalk in about an hour, hour and a half.

Thu, Sep 11, 2008

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

1.5 miles each way to and from the BPR Tempo run.

10.6 Tempo/MP run with Jeff sandbagging to hang with me. 6:56 pace.

My legs, more specificly my quads/thighs still feel like bricks, so overall being back in Tucson at 2500ft for less than a week and putting in the most mileage in a week in quite some time, I felt pretty good.

The AF Marathon is just a week and 2 days away. I put in a bit more miles and tougher workouts, but I still did not put in any really long runs. I think Sunday I will go for a 18-20 miler, just to get a bit more towards my race miles. I am actually anxious to see if the lower mileage and fewer long runs will still have me ready to run Sub-3. If not, I will be paying for it and will be ready to run the Tucson Marathon in Dec with Jeff.

I think realistically we can run about a 2:45, maybe next year shoot for a 2:37.

We'll have to see how training goes now that I am back ...

Wed, Sep 10, 2008

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

To Reid Park as a warm up, wow I haven't been this sore in a long time! Thanks for all the lunges last night at Recruit Training Lauren. 3.5 miles

4.75 with BPR, Me, Jeff, LnL and Prithi. Plus 20 push ups and situps at 6 stops. Although on two I cut it short to 10 and 15. Too many push ups and sit ups last night at the Recruit Training.

Ran home, 3.35. Actually felt alright going home, but my legs still feel like bricks!

Tue, Sep 09, 2008

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

1.1 with the dogs

1.4 to the track

.55 warmup

800, 1600, 3200, 1600, 800 @ 6:00 pace with Jeff...he is in much better shape than I at the moment. Iraq was not great for my running.

.55 cooldown

Overall not bad for the first BPR workout being back here.

Trip down to Bisbee with Laszlo, we will be directing the Bisbee 1000!

Recruit training, Lots of Push ups situps and lunges, another 1.75 miles, probably really about 2 or so, but I know 1.75 for sure.

Mon, Sep 08, 2008

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

8.2, very nice, took it at what I felt was pretty easy at 7:10's Faster than expected just getting back to 2500 ft in altitude. The river run was nice, the new section opened up and its pretty popular. Got lots of good mornings and hellos, that was a nice change :D I even saw Laszlo in the back yard on my way back in.

1 mile with both dogs, nice and easy.

Sun, Sep 07, 2008

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

1 mile with both dogs, 1 mile easy on my own. Trying to settle back in to being home. I can't wait until my first run again with Blue Pants!

Fri, Sep 05, 2008

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

ON plane all day, finally back in Arizona!

Thu, Sep 04, 2008

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 04:00:00 +0100

Treadmill in Qatar, 3 mins at 7:50-8 pace. 3 minutes 6:15 pace for an hour, plus 5 min cooldown