Stats are in on the Country Half Marathon

I fared well. Finished in the top 15% in my age group in a little over 2 hours and 7 minutes. I have the full story on another blog. Click here to read about it.

Randy has broken his speed record - now under 8 min/mile

This has been a pretty good week for training. Despite the heavy pollen count, I have finally managed to break 8.0 min/mile in a decent length. I went out this morning on a relatively short course speed training run. I was not consciously trying to break my record, just get a good workout. It was 7.36 miles. This ends a week of two long and one short run for a total distance of over 36 miles in 3 runs. The longest was more than 15 miles. I am happy with this progress. I am proving to myself that I can run under 9 minute miles in the half marathon. Other runners tell me that I should be ready now for the full marathon, but I have not really been seeking extreme sports as my goal. Now I see I can do that and probably will make that the full marathon my goal before I turn 65. The only problem I experienced this week was some wheezing. That occurred on the 15 mile run, right after I drank while running. So I decided to stop that practice and only to take a drink while walking. That is defined as three gulps and no more. I carried my own water on the 15-mile trip. That was extra weight and it helps to further strengthen the leg muscles. All of this training is done on the Woodlands hills. My course is quite challenging for runners in this area. I will need it in Nashville! Today I will also cross train on a bicycle.

2009 Marathon

I am considering the Austin Marathon this year. I have plenty of time to train. The half-marathon is probably the target, although I am going to wait until I see what I can do. I am already running 4 miles.

New milestone passed - Bear Chase Half Marathon 2008

I am happy to report that I accomplished this goal and have as a result, passed another milestone in my life. Unfortunately, Jeff was not able to participate, so I did it alone. The night before, I got everything together to rapidly leave the house early the next morning. I did not sleep well. I got up at 4:15AM on Saturday and could not find my short-sleeved running shirt. So I found a substitute. I had my long sleeve shirt in my carrying bag also. I have learned to carry a bag with me to a race and check it in when I am ready to begin the race. The weather turned out to be chilly - 47 degrees. I arrived at the starting point at 6:15AM. The school was not easy to find in this little town, but a policeman gave me directions. This was the first annual Bear Chase Marathon. Participants came from several countries including UK and several states as far away as Washington. I met one runner from Georgia in the shower afterwards who told me that he was on vacation and plans his vacations with marathon stops. He said this was an easy race and flat.

The truth is there was more than 300 feet of elevation change on the course. Although there were only a few places where the hills were of any significance, one had to run on an incline for long long distances. That proved to me to be a challenge. The beginning of the course was a 1-mile sandy road, leaving the football stadium at the high school. That connected to a small two-lane country highway where you pass farms (you could hear the cows) and country homes. Here were the long climbs and descents. Alongside the highway were many colorful wildflowers. This led to the Davy Crockett State Park, part of the Big Thicket forest of East Texas. About 4 miles on this road, we came to a gravel and dirt road for the third segment. This is where person can really enjoy the forest. The trees are huge and the forest is thick. This segment was about 1.5 miles in with a turnaround and 1.5 miles back.

I finished within my goal of 2 hours in the 58th position. The theme was you are "chasing" a bear (or as the emblem implies, being chased). It was a very organized but relaxed race environment. Some contestants walked a large part of it. The course was open for 7 hours. Near the end, about at the 12 mile point, I drank some Gatorade passed out by the youngsters helping at the odd mile markers. I started to have side cramps and not feeling well. I had to slow down and overcome the problem. I did, and by the time I entered the stadium I was running at a pretty good pace. On entering the stadium, we ran an entire lap, sort of a victory lap where your name, city and placement was announced over the speaker system. Each contestant had their name posted on the rails of the track with a congratulations on completing the run. We got to bring those back as a souvenir. As each person crossed the finish line, the announcer congratulated him on finishing the race. A bear with your finishing number and a medal was awarded to each contestant crossing the finish line. The organizers had some small refreshments to help them recover. That was perfect for me. Then a bit later, they served hot dogs and chips. They had a small town festival at noon; we were invited to stay, but I had already committed my time to work in our own small town festival here in The Woodlands, "Earth Day".

The really good news is that I had no shin splint pain at all and no injuries. One participant fell during the race and had blood on his face as I passed him in the forest. But he was going to run anyway!

Statistics
58th of 149 runners or 39th percentile of all age groups
4th of 5 from The Woodlands
3rd of 8 in my age group
Time achieved: 1:57:44 Pace: 9 mi/min
Time Goal: 2:00:00

Less than one week away to the half marathon

It is very early in the morning on April 12th. That is good and bad. It is 101 miles from IAH airport, so I will have to plan 1.5 hours to get there. It will be in the coolest part of the morning, so that is good. Materials are passed out starting at 5:30. The race starts at 7AM. So I want to leave the house about 4:30AM.

I am feeling healthy enough. I even have a doctor's OK to run. I ran twice this past week without any pain but felt the place in question. I just have to run with caution, so my time will likely not be too good. I will go for a steady pace race. Yesterday, I ran for 5.3 miles and was not stressed much, so my confidence is rising. Tomorrow I will try to go 7 miles. Then, I will fall back to 3 on Wednesday to complete all preparation except for stretching.

It's a borderline case

I have no idea if I am going to run in the half-marathon. Although I was in condition to do that 4 weeks ago, I have run only two times in the last month. As long as I feel the shin splint, I have a shin splint. Yesterday's trial short run gave me minor pain in the area previously effected, but I had no after-run consequences. Today I took a 12-mile walk at a relatively relaxed rate of speed and felt twinges of pain now and then, but in the last half, I felt no pain whatsoever. So I will work in the gym and run a little over the next two weeks, but will try to keep the risk of injury at a minimum so I will have the choice to run when the race comes around.

Running the Park to Park run

This was sheer determination to beat the lady running behind me. It was right at the end of the race when I was pushing the last energy I could muster.

Running a race is very invigorating. In practice, I generally wear heavier clothes. For the race, I wore my very light clothes. I can feel an ounce or two difference. At the start of this race, I felt like a feather. Having to wait for openings in the crowd in order for me to begin racing frustrated me. There were many people in front of us at the starting line. The 6:45 surprised me due to this very slow start.

I had plenty of rest and my muscles were mostly rested, but not as rested as some runners like them to be. My first mile was completed in 6 mins 45 secs. When they called out that time, the knowledge of that influenced me to slow down. I was expecting to run about 8.4 mins/mile. I did not look down at my personal timer. The second mile was similar, running much faster than I wished to run. I must have slowed quite a bit in the last two miles to end with an 8.1 mins/mile pace.

It was great to see the non-participating members of my family waiting at the finish line. By the time I cooled off, Jeff and Sarah had already crossed the finish line. I wanted to be there when they crossed, but a runner must go through a cool down process to allow the heart and circulatory system to return to normal without over stressing the system. I managed my heartbeat rate through the race and it remained relatively low compared to some practice days. The legs were the issue at the end of the race, because I had gone into a long stride sprint in the last 500 yards.

Scary Month of March - Half Marathon critical month

Runner World calls it Monster Month.¹ I call it Scary Month. March is the time to determine if we are fit enough to do the race. Three weeks before the race, we are supposed to forget about running the distance. It is all about the elapsed time endurance training. So about the end of March, we should taper our training program down so that our soft tissues are ready for the gruelling distance and associated body stress that comes with a Marathon or Half Marathon.

Personally, I think I can do it, despite the minor but potentially hazardous issues I am currently having with Shin Splints. I have abandoned my plan for highly strenuous training. I can now see that I have done the work I needed to do and now need to focus on maintaining and doing one long run before the race in April. I will take a week more of rest before I start the final training up to that end, the killer month! I will begin to use my new shoes since I have been approaching the maximum on the older ones. I was told today to not use them past 400 miles and I have passed some 320 miles or so. They said the shoes might be helping to cause the shin splints. On hindsight, maybe I should have used them on last Saturdays race. But then again, how smart would it have been to use new shoes on the day of the race? I have no idea yet what they will do for me.

The dress rehearsal¹ should come at the third week of March. I will put it on my calendar for March 23rd. This will be a distance run, not race, but a two hour run in my race gear. I will not care about the distance, but it must be on pavement like we will race on and maybe even on the roads where we will run. Jeff may go with me; we will see. With constantly rising temperatures during these weeks, it is any one's guess what we will face on run day. The plan is to dress for heat, not cold, but take gloves with us in case of cold. I will carry water on the run as well, so the dress rehearsal will have a little extra weight than normal.

¹ Half Marathon Training

Houston Five Mile Park to Park Run

This race was well organized. Just about all our family who could be there were there! Sarah, Jeff and myself competed. Kelly, Russ and Maria came to support us. We all did much better than we thought we would do. I finished 9th in my bracket (237th overall) with a time of 40 minutes, 50 seconds, or 8.10 minutes per mile. That beat my previous 5-mile race in the Woodlands by more than a minute. This was Jeff's first five mile race. He finished in 29th place in his bracket (267th overall) in 42 minutes, 29 seconds or 8.28 minutes/mile. It appears there were about 670 participants. Sarah's time was nmot posted. We do not yet know why. She did finish and ran the entire distance.

It was a great day for our family. My son-in-law raced in off road cycle competition and we went to support him in Conroe. The mud which resulted from recent rains made the course very treacherous.

I am ready also

It has been 11 days since I ran, so this morning I decided to give it a try and test my readiness. I ran 6 miles at 9 mins/mile - slow!

It was tough getting started. Everything was stiff. I have been walking every day lately using long strides, so that probably had something to do with it. Will need to be jogging in advance of the start on Saturday. I used my normal hilly run to practice today. The calf that has been giving me problems behaved quite well. Now no more running, weights - nothing but maybe a short walk tomorrow to only remove stiffness, until the race. We gotta leave early Saturday morning and get handouts and emeitionally ready. My heart beat was higher today for some reason and I had to slow myself down because of it. It was at 181 at one point and my goal is to keep it below 175, with a normal running pace of 165.

Three signed up for Houston race

The three of us are registered to run from Reliant Center to Hermann Park. Should be a lot of fun to run at least part way together. This five-miler hopefully will be in decent weather, but rain or shine (or snow), we (my daughter and son) will be out there (competing?) trying to run a decent race. This will be my second five-mile race. There is also a family walk and my wife might participate in that. If she does, my second daughter might also. Five miles does not sound so daunting to me anymore, but it is a significant distance. Wish us luck!

Half Marathon Training

One might think that it is relatively hard to train for a long race. The truth is that it is! But let's qualify that. Everytime I think I have reached the maximum I can possibly run, I prove that it is only a mind barrier. Today after about four months of training, I almost ran 12 miles on my distance day. Near the end, the legs were heavy, and I felt exhausted but the time was well within my goal. I am getting close now to completing one run at half marathon distance. That is reassuring. It is telling me that the plan is working and my body continues to be trained at a reasonable pace. In one month, I have increased the distance more than three miles by reaching out in small increments in each long run. Even the other practice runs are longer now. The practice run that was 3-4 miles a month ago, is 4-7 miles now. I might run my first half marathon distance this month. It appears to be within reach now! Today I started out at an easy relaxed pace, similar to what one faces in a crowd at the start of a race. In the middle I picked it up a lot and near the end, I had to force myself to keep going at a slower pace. I eat a lot of carbs these days. It is difficult to keep my weight up where I want it. In todays run alone I burned over 1500 calories. For the first time, I consumed more than a pint of water during the run. I am considering changing to Gatoraid in at least one of the pint bottles that I carry with me. I'm confident that Jeff will catch up with me. He started in better shape than I did when I began. However, he must run and run many times to be ready for the half marathon.

Now in the cold rain

It was cold today. I stepped out in my usual shorts and tank top only to ask myself, what in the world are you doing? Brrrrrr. So I went back in the house and put on my new long sleeve running outfit from my daughter. A perfect Christmas gift it is! Then I put on the gloves my wife and children got me for Christmas. Boy did all that make a difference! I ran comfortably in the cold rain, a normally shorter run for recovery, but today 6.3 miles in my recovery run after the 9+ miles yesterday.

Thanks for the perfect gift Sarah! And to my wife - you did a really nice thing by getting me those gloves. Thanks, they are perfect for winter running.

As a postscript, another serious running day came a week later. I set out for a 7 mile run and noticed it was a little cooler than I expected. My hands were cold even inside the gloves! The weather forecaster said the temp was going to be about 50. Well, it was sleeting and raining while I was running, so I went in the house afterwards to find out how cold it really was. It was 38 degrees according to the weatherman. I made good time because I wanted to get back into the house.

New Gadget - Polar F6

I started using my new Christmas gift from my thoughtful wife today. For the first time, I now understand how hard my heart is working during a run. This gadget measures heartbeat, time of runs and estimates calories burned. It does not know about elevation, so it cannot get the effort factor into the solution but it all generally averages out anyway. It keeps a weekly tally of workout times. I use my pedometer for mileage but also have several routes mapped out on MapMyRun.com to make sure the pedometer gives me what I need.

The Polar F6 has a chest band that I thought would bother me, but I rarely noticed it when running. It beeped a few times as I crossed the beat limit for my age as it automatically calculated for me. I am typically running about 6 beats over the recommended maximum for my age, and at times, get over 12 or 13 beats too high on elevation grades. The device helped me to lay back a little on the grades and put more into the level and downhill segments of the run. It is easy to use and a good reference since it is a watch, stop-watch and heartbeat monitor all on a watch-like device on your wrist.

Maintaining a running training program while traveling

Running in Venezuela presents new problems. Right here in the middle of winter, I am in a tropical setting. Traveling some distance that requires a full day does not do the body well! The next day, friends and family did not allow me to run and I had to party with them. That does not do the body well either! Recovery on the third day did not permit a run. So the fourth day I went out reluctantly to a park and it was difficult to get back into the swing of things. The good news is that there is a park here and from my pedometer and time running, I estimated the distance around the park to be about 2 miles. The park is on the lake and there is always a significant wind blowing to help cool ones body. Nevertheless, it is a challenge although a flat surface. The wind serves as an obstacle when running into it and provides a good training environment. I decided to run every other day, not every day since the park is quite a long way across town. So the last run was 6 miles. Today I will try to extend that a bit. I am falling short of the 20 miles a week program but it will hold me over in the program until I get back home. Dodging the children in the park is an issue, but so far, I have not collided with anyone on a bike, anyone walking nor anyone running. There are many runners there and one time someone tried to run with me, but could not keep up with me. We selected this park because it has police in it and we feel more secure in an otherwise less-than-desirable sucured environment.

Run in nature - Woodlands new trail

I took an opportunity this past week to run in the new preserve which officially opens in February. A trail has been built from an old logging road in a low area along a small creek feeder for Spring Creek. This is a two mile circle trail that starts and ends on Flintridge just west of N. Rush Haven. There is a sign on Flintridge indicating the trail head. The trail was a little wet at the end, at the lowest spot, where the trail will intersect with the George Mitchell Preserve on the Montgomery side of the larger Spring Creek preserve and park project. I felt quite isolated and realized the tremendous size of the park that is being developed there. This new public area is very natural and will be a very welcome addition to our amenities here in The Woodlands. One can walk or run in this and enjoy the birds, the solemnity and the foliage. I will publish an extensive article on this soon in the parks section of The Woodlands Commentary.

The long distance running wall - maybe I found it

Today I broke all my old records and managed to run 8.75 miles under 9 minutes per mile. I just decided to see where my limits are. That is where it is! I felt like stopping several times on the hills near the end. I stopped twice this time to take a drink. I need now to work on breaking through this wall. I have added a speed workout and strength workout to my weekly schedule to improve on this. Monday is my distance day, and I try to run at race pace to make it more beneficial.

Shoes and their importance - black toenails

I have learned how to tie my shoes! I bet you thought you knew how to do this little task, like I did, but guess what? I had to have a toenail problem before I discovered that I did not know how to tie shoes! Runners World has a short video on how to avoid black toes. I am changing to this method. Also keep in mind that runners are advising to purchase shoes 1/2 size bigger than normal street shoes to also prevent this problem. I still have the toenail issue and it hurts if I bump it into something but it is not interfering with running right now. I have been told that I will probably lose the nail in about two weeks. Long distance running has its special considerations. Running World Video - Zigzag shoelaces Update - three weeks afterwards, the nail is 3/4 disconnected but I cannot get it off altogether. So I am continuing to use a bandaid to keep the nail secured to my toe. It sometimes hurts with the wrong casual shoe, so I still have to watch what I wear. Fortunately, my running shoes are secure and I do not have any problems with the toe when running.

Injury but not serious

I wore a pair of old shoes to run today and it left my right big toenail black and blue. It hurts on a toe that has little feeling from past surgery. Now I will have to be careful with it and that will slow down progress significantly. I have been running more than 5 miles every day lately. SO we will see ....

IndianSprings Guy Training Goals & Progress

This will be maintained to show progress against goals until the marathon in April. The plan is to seek maximum distance once a week but cautiously. The maximum of these trial runs will be considered the progress milestones and will be published here.

Month	Distance		Pace		Projected time for 13 mi
	Goal	Max actual mi	Goal	Actual at max distance
Nov	5.	5.8	9	9 mins/mi	117 mins
Dec	7.	8.75	9.2	8.6	112 - big surprise achieved 12-15-07
Jan	8.	10.4	9.3	9.0	Jan 19th - one of two 10 miles runs
Feb	10.		9.5
Mar	13.		9.6
Apr	14.		9.6

I went to marathon.com and used a tool to see what milestones would be neccessary to finish about in the middle of the running pack of any given marathon. Jeff and I would need to finish the full marathon within about 4 hours. That is of course two hours for each half marathon. We can use the table below to guess what our goals would need to be.

Distance	Time mins
5K	26
5M	42
10K	54
10M	89
Half Marathon	120
Marathon	251

I now have upgraded my training program: (Jan 16th)
Mondays: Distance runs
Tuesdays: Recovery runs
Wednesdays: Speed training
Thursdays: Intermediate practice run
Fridays: Strength day. Weights and muscle workout. Short run.
Saturdays: Intermediate practice run. No speed!
Sundays: Rest