Training Change

So...I think I'm going to need to rethink my training regimen leading up to the race.  I'm dealing with a lot of lingering aches and pains in my calves, hamstrings, glutes; it is definitely affecting my runs and I feel like I'm walking a tightrope between achy and injured.  I've focused more on stretching and recovery techniques to mitigate the aches, to no avail.  

I've been reading about how long someone should recover after running a half-marathon.  Apparently the body is pretty beat up and just needs time to rest for a while; the consensus is to do nothing for a solid week.  That doesn't work if you're one of those hardcore runners that race back-to-back.  Good for you, I'll get there someday.

Overtraining has been a concern from the start.  Intending to go from 0 running to being able to do 13.1 in three months was asking a lot out of my body, especially a body that's thirty pounds overweight and not used to this type of rigor.  In the last several weeks, I feel like my body is filling me in on what I didn't want to hear - I can't handle it and I need to change it up.

So what's a guy to do?  The responsible thing would be to slow things down, reassess my goals, potentially look at a race in the fall to run my first half-marathon.  Screw that.  I admit to being a little reckless, and I want to meet this goal, so I'm going to keep pushing, but make a few little modifications along the way.

First things first, I'm going to reduce my runs from 5 a week to 2.  I'll keep my long run on Saturday and throw in an easy 3-4 mile on Tuesday.  No more interval training or tempo training.  I'm more concerned about finishing this half marathon, not about getting a good time.  My easy pace on my long runs is the pace I intend to run during the half-marathon; I'm not looking to kick into another gear and push faster anyway.  

Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays will alternate between cross-training and core training.  I read that a strong core is helpful for runners.  Long term, it would be wise to try and build it up than to neglect it and think my legs are going to bear the burden.  It's already obvious that they can't, so I need to do my part and give them some help.   

Fridays and Sundays will be rest days, with stretching routines being the only thing I do.  

I'm a wee bit concerned about the lack of running, but my justification is coming off my last distance run.  The week before, I had to stop training because of a calf injury.  Even though I hadn't done a lot of running leading up to my 6.5 mile run, I felt really fresh doing it and felt like I could go longer.  I still have 7.5 8.5, 7.5, then 10 mile distance runs before the race.  If I'm feeling strong in two weeks after the 8.5 mile run, I'll stick with the training.  If I don't make it 8.5, I'll probably seek a different race to run, as much as I hate to admit it.

Time to stretch my poor legs, cross my fingers, and hope I find success over the next couple of weeks!

Week 8

I looked at my running schedule and I'm set for a 2 week taper leading into the race.  Since I'm a week behind due to my injury, I decided to just make it a 1 week taper leading into the week and push the rest of the training back a week.  

Here is the plan for the week:

Mon: Crosstrain 45 Minutes

I swapped my crosstrain day with my easy jog day.  Instead of crosstraining for 45 minutes, I ended up running 2 miles based on the distance I was supposed to do on Sunday.  

Tues: Interval Train 4 Miles

Today, I donated blood!  They warn against strenuous activity for 24 hours after giving blood.  I didn't think running would be too strenuous, plus I'd have several hours to recover before going out on my run.  Long story short, I just didn't have it today.  Stopped after a little over a mile, walked another mile and a quarter before heading to the house.  Hoping I'll be in better form tomorrow.

Wed: Easy Jog 2 Miles

Went a little slower than usual, but knocked it out.

Thu: Tempo Train 3.5 Miles

Made it about 1.5 miles before calling it quits and walking back to the house.  Think I'm going to need to change things up.

Fri: Rest

Rested

Sat: Distance Train 7.5 Miles

Well this felt like an absolute failure.  Ended up stopping after 1.75 miles.  Walked another 3 miles before calling it a day.  It has been exceptionally warm this February.  Today's high pushed 80 degrees.  Either way, I'm comfortable running in 40-50 degree weather and I was out there in 76+ degree weather with a stiff breeze.  I just never really got comfortable and I gave up early instead of trying to push through.  I'm letting my body rest a little more, knowing that I have 4 more weekends before race weekend and that I have little room for error before the big race.

Sun: Easy Jog 1.5 Miles

2017 Running Expenses

I thought it would be interesting to log just how much I spend on running this year.  Between equipment, shoes, apparel, races, doctor visits, ointments, medicine, braces, etc., I'll get a good feel of what it's really going to cost me to complete my quest (and do a whole bunch of side-quests while I'm at it).  

I know some trips will be leveraged as vacations and I'll only factor in the cost to get to the race site and how long I would stay if I was just there for the racing festivities.  It'll all eventually make sense when I start populating some entries.  For now, my expenses are pretty bare:

Equipment:

Foam Roller - $33

Total Equipment - $33

Clothes:
2 Athletic Shirts - $16
2 Pairs Socks - $27
2 Pairs Running Shoes - $98

Total Clothes - $141

Food:
Energy Gels - $25
Sports Drinks - $2

Total Food - $27

Running the Vines 10k:
Registration - $39
Gas - $21
Food - $12

Total Running the Vines 10k - $72

Canes 5k:
Registration - $49

Grand Total - $322

My Kicks: Saucony Progrid Stabil CS2

My kicks of choice for the time being are the Saucony Progrid Stabil CS2 shoe.  I have pretty flat feet and know that for most folks with a similar issue, they need a motion control type of shoe.  It's not often that you can find motion control shoes for cheap.  They tend to be the most expensive of the bunch, and the options for us flat foot folks are much smaller.  

I lucked up, grabbed these off a discount website.  Don't think I paid more than $50 for them at the time.  Even bought two pair!  I bought them years ago.  Before now, I didn't exactly put a lot of mileage into them.  I don't wear sneakers often unless I'm running or working out, and that wasn't exactly an activity I spent a lot of time doing.  Feel pretty good about tossing out a pair when I get to 400 miles.  

I just tossed my first pair and am going to work on breaking in my second pair!  I'm going to use this particular post to track my mileage; after 400 miles, I'll toss them and break in a couple pairs of Saucony Hurricane ISO 2 shoes - I picked them up earlier this year for less than $50 a pair and will serve as heirs to the throne.

Miles Ran: 30

My Equipment: Foam Roller

While reading up on various running sites and blogs, I kept hearing about this foam roller thing and how it seemed to be a must have for any runner.  As someone who has experienced some significant soreness in my legs after a run, I thought that any type of tool that could help minimize the length of soreness and improve my legs would be a great investment.  After scouring Amazon and the aforementioned websites and blogs for suggestions, I ended up going with this:

TriggerPoint Grid Foam Roller.  It seemed to be the consensus best pick among the various websites.  Got it in the color shown above.  I also liked the fact that it would be compact enough to store when travelling.  I do enough of it for work that I needed something useful.  

I'll watch some Youtube videos to learn how to use the thing.  For now, it's just another tool to add to the aresenal.  Paid a little over $33 from Amazon to get it (yay gift cards from Christmas!)

Week 7, or is it 6?

Since I didn't finish Week 6, I'm going to try and re-do Week 6, then use the next couple of weeks to try and makeup my distance runs to get to where I need to be.  So it might be a week 6 plan, but I'm still in week 7.  Still bent on doing my first half-marathon in April, even with the setback.

Here is the plan for the week:

Mon: Crosstrain 30 Minutes

I said I wouldn't resume training until Tuesday, so this ended up as another rest day.

Tues: Interval Train 4 Miles

Ended up in Charlotte for work and ran through Uptown and the South End to get my 4 miles.  Didn't try to do any real interval training, I was more interested in ensuring tha I could get the distance without reinjuring myself.  That said, the soreness after the run was significant, but I was able to finish without feeling like I set myself back for not doing anything for a week.  Happy happy, joy joy.

Wed: Easy Jog 2 Miles

Ended up taking a rest day.  My trip to Charlotte was just an overnighter.  Started the day at 5:45AM.  After a day of meetings and after travelling back via the train, it was late in the evening.  It's actually the first overnight trip I've taken since little man was born, so I just hung out and allowed my wife to have a conversation with someone who wasn't a baby.  

Thu: Tempo Train 3 Miles

Another unintentional rest day.  Have some work deadlines that are forcing me to work way past working hours and well into the night to complete.  Sacrificed my time running so I could make sure I got my work done.  Not overly concerned, although that's really dependent on how well I do on Saturday.

Fri: Rest

Rested

Sat: Distance Train 6.5 Miles

Nailed the distance and had gas to go farther.  Sped up in the last half mile just to prove I could do it.  Body felt okay, aside from some tightness in my left calf (the one I think I strained the week before) and tightness in my right hammy.  Just pushed through it as tightness wasn't translating to pain.  That said, I did a poor job of stretching before starting, which might have exacerbated the problem.  Did plenty of stretching afterwards and busted out the foam roller on top of that.  At least I'm not limping along like I'm crippled.

Sun: Easy Jog 2 Miles

My legs were feeling a little extra achy so I decided to swap Sunday with Monday.  So I ended up doing 45 minutes of cross-training and will run the 2 miles on Monday. 

My Tier Races

I'm 32.  I have 17-18 years to run a half marathon in all fifty states.  If I include Washington DC, I have 51 races to run.  Divide by 17, I get a clean easy number of 3 per year, which seems pretty reasonable.

I'm the type of guy that likes to have a plan.  I want to know which races I'm going to run.  I want to already have the dates set aside.  I want the order of how I do my races to make a little bit of sense.

To help with that, I decided to break the 50 states (and DC) and assign them to tiers of 1, 2, or 3.  Tier 1 races are in my opinion marquee or bucket-list type races that I absolutely want to do.  If the race isn't ideal, maybe the location may be ideal, which would put it in the tier 1 category.  Tiers 2 and 3 have good races as well, but maybe I'm not as psyched to run them or they are in a state that isn't overly interesting.

The intent is to run a Tier 1, 2, and 3 race every year.  By doing things this way, I ensure that I don't front-load my race list with all of the fun runs and potentially put myself in a situation where I look at the races remaining and not have as much interest.  

As I build out my schedule, I'm trying to front-load races and locations that won't make my wife jealous.  I have two young kids, both under 2 years old.  Quite frankly, it's too difficult to try and attempt travel with them.  However, they will get older, they will be easier to travel with, and my wife will get to join me on all my travel exploits as she loves to travel and see new places as much as I do.  Maybe she'll even train up and do some racing of her own!  Either way, these are the tiers and the associated states listed with them.

Tier 1:

Alaska

California

Colorado

DC

Florida 

Hawaii

Illinois

Indiana

Louisiana

Massachusetts

Michigan

Nevada

New York

Oregon

Pennsylvania

Texas

Washington

Tier 2:

Arizona

Connecticut

Georgia

Kentucky

Maryland

Missouri

New Jersey

New Mexico

North Carolina

Ohio

Oklahoma

Rhode Island

South Carolina

Tennessee

Utah

Vermont

Virginia

Tier 3:

Alabama

Arkansas

Delaware

Idaho

Iowa

Kansas

Maine

Minnesota

Mississippi

Montana

Nebraska

New Hampshire

North Dakota

South Dakota

West Virginia

Wisconsin

Wyoming

I likely won't change the order of my tiers, although I'm sure I could gather feedback and be told that certain states belong in other tiers.  It's just my opinion that helps me order these things anyway.  I've looked at some races in some tier 3 states that I'm quite excited about!  I'll eventually fill out my plan in some other blog post.  

My Training Route

For most of my runs, I opt to run in my neighborhood.  It's actually a pretty large subdivision and offers plenty of hills.  I'll be the first to admit that as someone who doesn't do a lot of running, it might not be the greatest of ideas to try and take on a tough course.  Even better, I can take a route and end up finishing in roughly the same place even if the distances change.  

The longer the run, the more hills I take on.  Last time I ran 5 miles, I ended up climing over 500 feet.

I like to believe that if I can train and handle these hills just fine, it'll just make running a flatter race even easier.  Certainly, barring any setbacks, my first race only climbs about 850 feet.  I feel like I'll be well on my way to pushing through that race with little to no problems.  

Week 6

I'm currently week 6 into my 13 week training plan for my first half-marathon.

Here is the plan for the week:

Mon: Crosstrain 30 Minutes

This ended up being a walk for 30 minutes.  I've had some extra achy legs, particularly in my calves and quads and wanted to do something a little less impactful without just resorting to a rest day.  Ultimately, I need to do a better job of stretching before and after runs to minimize some of the aches and pains.

Tues: Interval Train 4 Miles

Oh joy, my first real setback.  Had to stop after 3.3 miles after feeling a pain in my left calf that was more than just the typical dull ache.  Didn't want to risk making it worse.  Walked the remaining rest of the way, did some stretching, and wrapped the calf in an ace bandage.  Still bent on running Wednesday, although I'll likely keep the calf wrapped and take as easy a route as I can.

Wed: Easy Jog 2 Miles

Decided to take rest of the week off, will try to resume next Tuesday.  Calf was acting up that I felt the need to just rest and let the body heal.  Didn't want to aggravate it.  I know next Tuesday will be interval training, but I'll just go marginally faster with the intervals.

Thu: Tempo Train 3 Miles

Rested

Fri: Rest

Rested, although my calf is starting to feel better.

Sat: Distance Train 6.5 Miles

Calf feels pretty good, only thing still achy are my knees, but I can deal with that.  Still erring on the side of caution, waiting until Tuesday even if it feels like my body is somewhat recovered.

Sun: Easy Jog 2 Miles

Rested

Training

Years ago, a co-worker gave me a copy of a training plan that he obtained from Runners World magazine.  He was going to train to run a marathon and do it in a time to qualify for Boston.  He was in his early sixties, so he liked his chances since he could still run very effectively.  Unfortunately, an injury kept him from being able to go the distance, but at least he was still able to go to Boston to watch his daughter race.

The training plan was a rookie plan of sorts to train for a marathon.  Since I have no desire to run a marathon but was interested in maybe doing a half-marathon someday, I figured I would just take the plan, divide the distances by two.  Bam, there's a half-marathon training plan.  

I mentioned that I received this plan years ago.  Every time I would try to get into running and get into shape, I would use this plan...and I'd make it about three weeks before I stopped or couldn't find the time or had achy legs and took extended rest days/weeks/months.  

Lo' and behold, I'm using the same plan now to train for my half-marathon.  Only problem is that the plan is a 16 week plan.  When I decided to train for my first half-marathon, I found I had 13 weeks to do it.  Instead of scrambling to find a plan that worked for my time period, I just kept with the same plan, cut out three weeks of it, and kept chugging along.  It makes things a little harder, but so far I'm pleased with the results.  

For example, the last time I ran a 10k was in college.  I was probably thirty pounds lighter and certainly a lot more fit.  I actually took a college course in running and the 'final' was to train and run a 10k race.  I did it in 54-56 minutes.  I'm running a lot slower, but in my last distance run, I ran 60 minutes without stopping.  It might have been slow going and I certainly did not get the distance I got some ten years ago, but I still get a feeling of accomplishment that I'm able to run that long and still feel like I have gas in the tank.

Anyway, I thought I'd post a quick summary of my plan:

Monday: Crosstrain (15-45 minutes)

Tuesday: Interval Training (1.5-4 miles)

Wednesday: Easy Jog (1-2.5 miles)

Thursdsay: Tempo Training (1.5-4 miles)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Distance Training (3-10 miles)

Sunday: Easy Jog (1-2.5 miles)

The distance varies depending on what week I am on the plan.  The most I'll run is 10 miles, but I feel pretty good that I can find it in me to get the last 3 miles if I'm not struggling to get to 10 miles.  During peak training, I don't run more than 20 miles a week, which I appreciate since I don't feel like that will overtax my body too much.

I'll get into more details about my week to week plan through various other posts.

The Journey Begins!

Okay, so the journey really began shortly after New Years day.  On a whim, I just decided I'd run a half-marathon.  I was in a text thread with my buddies from college and I said I'd do it, that I'd complete a half-marathon.  Like I expected from my good friends, they assumed I was talking about the Snickers Marathon bar, since that's about the only marathon I'd ever do.  Well, I'll give it to one of my buds, he actually showed some encouragement.  

I had initially started with the idea that I would run a half-marathon and be done with it.  Then I thought to myself that it would be neat to do runs in nearby states like South Carolina and Virginia.  Soon, that line of thought expanded - why not run a half-marathon in every state?  And how about I 'touch them all' before I turn 50?  I'm 32 now.  Doing the math, I could make my idea a reality if I just run in 3 new states every year.

I'm a person that believes that life is about experiences and less about having 'stuff'.  Sure, I want to be wealthy, but I want to use that money to do things, not so much to buy them.  And I want to be able to do some of these things now, not when I'm retired and I'm looking to catch up on lost time.  This is a grand opportunity to travel the nation, to visit every state and appreciate the culture and geography and beauty of this great nation! 

So let me get this out there - I don't like running.  I'd rather play sports that involve running than to actually just run.  However, if I actually want to be competitive in those sports, I need to have a level of fitness and endurance.  Being able to run is a fundamental necessity, and it's why I don't mind doing something I may not particularly like, especially if it helps me improve in the things that I do enjoy.  On top of that, I wanted to make this a challenge.  By choosing to perform a task that I don't necessarily enjoy, I know that I could very well fail in the next six months.  Succeeding in this challenge will require sheer force of will in some cases, and I intend to post about every success and every setback along the way.  Here's to 50!