7.38 miles on Local Trails

W&OD Trail to Sugarland Run Trail to Folly Lick Trail

Today Handan and I met with my brother and his wife for DimSum.  I tried not to eat anything too oily, deep fried or otherwise unhealthy.  Unfortunately that didn't leave much.  I ate a lot of Chinese broccoli and a few steamed dumplings and that's about it.  So unfortunately when I ran today I was low on energy and I pooped out after 4 miles.  I had to walk/jog the last 3+ miles of the loop.

Speaking of "the loop"... this is a favorite route of mine.  From my house it's about 3/4 of a mile to the W&OD trail which runs through Herndon.  From there it's about a mile on the trail to the Sugarland Run trail.  Then it's about 3 miles on that trail to the Folly Lick trail which runs to within 3/4 of a mile of my house.  I enjoy this trail because it goes through the woods (mostly) along a creek.  There's always something to see... deer, birds and such.  And in the summer it's shady which is nice.  You'll probably see me post this as my "trail of the day" more than a few times in the future.

Exercise
I ran 7.38 miles on the loop.  Which is to say, I ran 4 miles and then jogged/walked three miles.  The first 4 felt good, and honestly I enjoyed the last three as well.  They just weren't great from a "he looks like a runner" point of view.  The last 3 made me happy that I have all spring and summer to get into real running shape.

Nutrition
I did not eat well today from a training perspective.  Since I haven't yet mapped out a real diet strategy I can forgive myself today's poor diet.  It's not that I ate badly... just not enough of the right kind of things to support my run.  It was hard though since I found myself in a restaurant with very few good choices.  While I was running today I spent some time thinking about this: how I'm going to have to find a balance between social obligations and my training. It's going to be a challenge.

Anyway... today was a taste of the season to come.  It was warm (upper 50s) and the trails were full of happy people enjoying being outdoors.  :)

 

By the way, I learned today that the Marine Corps Marathon sold out in 28 hours.  I'm so glad I remembered the day and hour that registration opened!!!

What am I blogging?

This is the question that is on my mind as I type... what exactly am I going to write every day for the next few months?  What information is going to be useful to me three weeks or three months from now (or next year for that matter)?  And how do I format that information?  Of course the main thing I need to capture is my exercise activities.  I should also document what I'm eating.  Maybe how I'm sleeping?  Mood?  Weather?  Clothing?

It can all seem too much.  If I think about it too much I'll never actually get started.  And I need to get started blogging because I can tell this is something I'm not comfortable with, and unless I push myself I won't do it.  So here it goes...

Exercise
Today I ran 50 minutes on the treadmill at the community center.  There are 5 treadmills there.  Most of them have 30 minute limits programmed but there are two that allow longer work outs.  Lucky me I was able to get the one with the 60 minute limit and there was no one waiting for me to get off after 30 minutes (the center's rule is to limit yourself to 30 minutes if someone's waiting).  There were two college basketball games on the TVs.  It was 4:15 pm and I was feeling good after a one hour nap I'd taken at 1:30 (or so).

My plan was to run 60 minutes using the "Hill" program.  I set it to level 10 (out of 20), speed 6.5 mph and put my weight in as 190.  I'd done the same settings a few days ago and could only run 45 minutes.  This time I lasted 50 minutes (5.45 miles) which is an improvement.  My legs felt pretty good but I "bonked" (meaning I ran out of fuel).

Food (AKA "Fuel")
I was bad today.  I only had a banana and a handful of dry cereal for breakfast.  Then for lunch I had some leftover shrimp and vegetable curry that Handan had made last night.  I don't think that was really sufficient for fueling my run.  I'm going to try and be more diligent about eating a good breakfast.

Tomorrow I'm going for Dim Sum with my brother and his wife and a friend of Handan's.  Hopefully I can find something to eat that isn't too unhealthy.  Alaric (my brother) is watching his diet too, so I'm sure he can help guide me.  The weather is supposed to be nicer (high 50s) so maybe I'll try an outdoor run tomorrow afternoon. We'll see.

To-Do
Right now I'm not following any of the training plans I mentioned in my previous post.  Tops on my "to-do" list is to sit down with a calendar and count the weeks backwards from October 30th and figure out when I'll start the program in earnest.  Secondly I need to start outfitting myself with a few essentials.  I have running shoes and a water belt, but I'll probably want to get a few new pairs of shoes (professionally chosen at one of those stores that analyzes my running style... there's one in Fairfax on Rt 7) and maybe a new belt with more capacity (my current one only holds 2 bottles).  Finally I've been meaning to buy some kind of ID tag that I can take on my runs with emergency contact information.  My generous parents have offered to buy this last item for me. :-)

Health
I just remembered that I need to include a "Health" section.  At least, I need to include one when there's something to talk about, and today there is.  Last Tues. I went to see a podiatrist about a plantar wart on my left foot.  It's been there for many months and thankfully it doesn't bother me.  But as I understand it these things can spread and I'd hate to get close to the marathon only to find new warts that do bother me.  The podiatrist dropped some acid (ha) on the wart and now I have some other liquid that I'm supposed to put on it twice a day.  And then I go back in a few weeks for more treatment.  And meanwhile I'm supposed to scrape away the dead skin.  Hopefully it will not bother me as the skin and wart are eroded away.  So far so good (knock wood).

Registration Complete

Today was the first day of registration for the 2011 Marine Corps Marathon.  I didn't want to get shut out of this popular event so as soon as registration was opened at noon (EST) I started hitting the web site.  It took a few failed attempts (and one call to active.com's tech support) for the registration to finally go through.  I guess a lot of people thought the same as I did.

Some History...
A year and a half ago I was nearly 50 lbs heavier than I am now.  I had started taking blood pressure medication and was not living a healthy lifestyle.  And then at a pool party in July my wife took a candid photograph of me in my bathing suit.  Once I saw that I knew it was time to make a change. 

I started watching my diet and walking regularly.  At first a brisk 2 mile walk wore me out.  My legs hurt and I was short of breath.  But I kept with it through the end of the summer and into the winter.  Gradually the pounds started dropping, I was able to stop taking the blood pressure medication, and I could walk longer distances (and faster too).  I even started to throw in a little jogging here and there.  Finally by the time springtime came I was able to really run.  I ran only a few miles at first, but by summer I was running four or five miles a few times a week.  My weight was down to 185 and I was enjoying the running and I started to push myself to run further than I ever had before.  By the fall I was running 10+ miles at a time and loving it. 

Training for the marathon...

I've never run a marathon before.  The most I've run in an organized event is a 10 kilometer race (last year's Marine Corps Marathon 10K).  I thoroughly enjoyed that race and got a hunger for more. 

I'm excited about the challenge that I'm facing, and I'm comforted by the fact that I have all spring and summer to train.  I've read various marathon training guide web sites and they all map out a similar path to the 26.2 mile race.  Some of the sites I've been reading are Hal Higdon's Marathon Training Guide and State of the Art Marathon Training.  They recommend keeping a runner's log of my exercise, equipment, and my diet.  With this information I can easily make the connection between what works for me and what doesn't, and use this information to refine my training and race-day strategy.  To that end I started this journal.

Goals...
The training sites also recommend setting goals.  They talk about having "obtainable" as well as "stretch" goals, and they recommend articulating the goals publicly (I guess so I'll feel more accountable to them).  So here it goes - my goals are...

• complete the 2011 Marine Corps Marathon (obtainable)
• finish the marathon in 4:00 or better (stretch)

...

It's still winter and I really dislike running in the cold.  I'll be doing most of my runs on the treadmill at the Herndon Community Center for a while (unless we get those wonderful warm bonus days where it's 60F outside and there's still piles of snow melting).  I may not post frequently until I start my outside running.  Stay tuned...