My Journey....Revisited (comments welcome)

[dragitoff]

Stinking rain again forced me to the treadmill, but I did knock out my 4 mile run this morning. I did some calculating and I think 1000 miles this year is realistic even without training for a full marathon. I will make that my goal, but secretly will settle for 900 miles this year.

[Terapin]

Way to go! Looking forward to running our first marathons together! Even if you will finish hours ahead of me...

I think I got in about 800 miles of running/hiking this year. I didn't get up to my 20 miler in this training season, but got 17 due to the weeks lost with my knee injury. It will have to do!

I don't know about you but I am kinda glad for the taper as I am feeling a wee bit tired of running long distances. I think I am going to take January a little easy without really pushing myself and find my love again. I also have a HM in early March so I can't ease off too much.

If you see a woman of generous proportions with long brown hair and a white blaze at the front next week, say hi!

[dragitoff]

Originally Posted by Terapin

Way to go! Looking forward to running our first marathons together! Even if you will finish hours ahead of me...

I think I got in about 800 miles of running/hiking this year. I didn't get up to my 20 miler in this training season, but got 17 due to the weeks lost with my knee injury. It will have to do!

I don't know about you but I am kinda glad for the taper as I am feeling a wee bit tired of running long distances. I think I am going to take January a little easy without really pushing myself and find my love again. I also have a HM in early March so I can't ease off too much.

If you see a woman of generous proportions with long brown hair and a white blaze at the front next week, say hi!

I will definitely say hello! It's always nice to put a face to the name of the people you've known for so long, but never actually met. I've seen enough of your pics on your thread, I think I could recognize you. I'm in Corral C so I'll look out for you pre-race.

I am so with you on the taper! I felt almost burnt out on the long runs. I think it had more to do with the extra stress and hours from work + the holidays, but either way, I was glad to see it come. I was looking at this week's schedule and laughed. I told my wife so many people talk about fighting the urge to over-do it on the taper weeks. Other than the 12 mile run a few weekends ago, I haven't had to fight that at all. I've embraced the taper!

I have a half-marathon less than 2 months after this full marathon so I won't be able to take much time off; however I do plan on taking a few days completely off before slowly working back into my training for the half.

[dragitoff]

My 8 mile run Saturday was nice. I didn't overdo it. I finished with an average pace of 9:22. I did the first 1.5 miles with DW who was running at a 10:17 pace so I was definitely pleased with the avg. pace. I didn't try to do too much but I did push myself a little on the last 2 miles to give myself some sort of challenge.

[dragitoff]

Had a nice 3 mile run this morning. It was so nice running a full run with DW. Since I've been training, my runs have all been longer than distances she is currently running. Running with her also makes me take it easy and not go to fast the week of the big race. We talked the entire run. That's quality time if you ask me! Really looking forward to my little wimpy 2 miler tomorrow.

[Terapin]

I went out for a two miler yesterday and it was like walking to the convenience store and back.

[dragitoff]

Originally Posted by Terapin

I went out for a two miler yesterday and it was like walking to the convenience store and back.

I know right! BTW, I sent you a PM.

[Desiree]

Ya'll are too funny. I just finished my W8D1 yesterday and I pushed to actually complete 2 miles. Felt like I was Rocky Balboa!

[dragitoff]

As much as I hate the treadmill, I made myself run my 2 miler on it this morning to simulate some of the warmer temps I'll be encountering this weekend at the WDW Marathon. I ran it much faster than I would have normally run to get my heart rate and sweat going early on. I finished it in 17minutes which is close to 5k pace.

This will probably be my last update before the marathon! I have a 2 mile run to do Saturday morning, but I probably won't be accessing a computer after that as we're heading out to WDW that morning.

[dragitoff]

I can officially say I'm a marathoner now! Sunday sure was a hot one to complete it and I'm not sure who thought having all the hills and very little shade on the back end of the course after it was hot and everyone was tired, but whatever!

I enjoyed my experience for the most part. I started getting a little bit of cramping in my calves at mile 16. I wear compression sleeves on my calves because I've battled that before. I stopped at mile 17 to stretch and slip the sleeves down to relieve the pressure. It helped with the calf cramping; however my hamstrings started tightening up badly after that. I've never had issues with my hammies cramping during a run so this was a new, and uncomfortable experience. I spent the majority of the time in the WWOS walking and stretching. I tried running again in Champions stadium and made it all the way to the left-field bullpen before my calf siezed up. I walked it out for a while longer

I kept stretching, Bio-Freezing, hydrating, walking and a little running until I finally crossed the finish line at 5:36.38 (more than an hour slower than my modified goal pace), but I was proud to finish.

Today, I'm a little sore, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. I'm proud to have completed it. Now, the next few weeks I've got to slowly get myself ready for the Albany Half-Marathon on March 2nd. I ran that race last year and cramps forced my to finish 10 minutes slower than my goal pace. This year, I plan not only to finish in under 2 hours, but to PR. I was running half marathons in 1:57 during my marathon training, so I should be in excellent shape to do a 1:56 or better if I can get back out there slowly in the next few days. I plan on taking it easy though for at least 2-3 weeks.

I'm on the fence on whether or not I'll attempt another full marathon. I'm leaning against it only because I can comfortably run a half so fast w/o any walking. Of course, I'm super competitive and love to push myself so my wife says I'll be back at WDW next year. We'll see. As Coach has told me...."don't make any running decisions for at least 3 weeks after the marathon". I'm counting down the days!

[Desiree]

Originally Posted by dragitoff

I can officially say I'm a marathoner now! Sunday sure was a hot one to complete it and I'm not sure who thought having all the hills and very little shade on the back end of the course after it was hot and everyone was tired, but whatever!

I enjoyed my experience for the most part. I started getting a little bit of cramping in my calves at mile 16. I wear compression sleeves on my calves because I've battled that before. I stopped at mile 17 to stretch and slip the sleeves down to relieve the pressure. It helped with the calf cramping; however my hamstrings started tightening up badly after that. I've never had issues with my hammies cramping during a run so this was a new, and uncomfortable experience. I spent the majority of the time in the WWOS walking and stretching. I tried running again in Champions stadium and made it all the way to the left-field bullpen before my calf siezed up. I walked it out for a while longer

I kept stretching, Bio-Freezing, hydrating, walking and a little running until I finally crossed the finish line at 5:36.38 (more than an hour slower than my modified goal pace), but I was proud to finish.

Today, I'm a little sore, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. I'm proud to have completed it. Now, the next few weeks I've got to slowly get myself ready for the Albany Half-Marathon on March 2nd. I ran that race last year and cramps forced my to finish 10 minutes slower than my goal pace. This year, I plan not only to finish in under 2 hours, but to PR. I was running half marathons in 1:57 during my marathon training, so I should be in excellent shape to do a 1:56 or better if I can get back out there slowly in the next few days. I plan on taking it easy though for at least 2-3 weeks.

I'm on the fence on whether or not I'll attempt another full marathon. I'm leaning against it only because I can comfortably run a half so fast w/o any walking. Of course, I'm super competitive and love to push myself so my wife says I'll be back at WDW next year. We'll see. As Coach has told me...."don't make any running decisions for at least 3 weeks after the marathon". I'm counting down the days!

Congratulations on being a marathoner!!!!!!!!

[Terapin]

Originally Posted by dragitoff

I can officially say I'm a marathoner now! Sunday sure was a hot one to complete it and I'm not sure who thought having all the hills and very little shade on the back end of the course after it was hot and everyone was tired, but whatever!

I enjoyed my experience for the most part. I started getting a little bit of cramping in my calves at mile 16. I wear compression sleeves on my calves because I've battled that before. I stopped at mile 17 to stretch and slip the sleeves down to relieve the pressure. It helped with the calf cramping; however my hamstrings started tightening up badly after that. I've never had issues with my hammies cramping during a run so this was a new, and uncomfortable experience. I spent the majority of the time in the WWOS walking and stretching. I tried running again in Champions stadium and made it all the way to the left-field bullpen before my calf siezed up. I walked it out for a while longer

I kept stretching, Bio-Freezing, hydrating, walking and a little running until I finally crossed the finish line at 5:36.38 (more than an hour slower than my modified goal pace), but I was proud to finish.

Today, I'm a little sore, but not nearly as bad as yesterday. I'm proud to have completed it. Now, the next few weeks I've got to slowly get myself ready for the Albany Half-Marathon on March 2nd. I ran that race last year and cramps forced my to finish 10 minutes slower than my goal pace. This year, I plan not only to finish in under 2 hours, but to PR. I was running half marathons in 1:57 during my marathon training, so I should be in excellent shape to do a 1:56 or better if I can get back out there slowly in the next few days. I plan on taking it easy though for at least 2-3 weeks.

I'm on the fence on whether or not I'll attempt another full marathon. I'm leaning against it only because I can comfortably run a half so fast w/o any walking. Of course, I'm super competitive and love to push myself so my wife says I'll be back at WDW next year. We'll see. As Coach has told me...."don't make any running decisions for at least 3 weeks after the marathon". I'm counting down the days!

Congratulations! You DID IT!

My finish time was more than an hour off my modified time too. Dang heat and humidity.

[dragitoff]

I've never been more eager to get on a treadmill than I was this morning! I did an easy 1 mile run on the treadmill just to shake the cobwebs loose post-marathon. It was effortless and I felt good. I ran it in 9:55 so I wasn't exactly pushing the pace, but I wasn't walking either. It felt really, really good to run again. I'll do a conservative run Saturday of maybe 3-4 miles easy.

[Desiree]

Are you still sore from the marathon?

[dragitoff]

Originally Posted by Desiree

Are you still sore from the marathon?

No. I was good this morning. I was a little sore yesterday morning, but was good by late yesterday.