3/30/10

Tuesday’s Training – Am: 70 mins easy Pm: 45 mins slow

Mileage - 16 Miles

I was feeling pretty tired this morning and the conditions didn’t help to make me feel any better. I drove to the gym and ran from there, heading out along to the train tracks to see just how far the dirt road that follows the track went. I did a few strides in the run to try and waken up my legs a bit but to no avail, today was going to be slow. The wind today was very strong so no matter which way I was going to run, I was going to have to hit a headwind at some point.

The wind in Flagstaff is notoriously strong at this time of year. Even at 8am it will be 30 mph so we always have to plan the training accordingly. Once I got back from the run I emailed Greg to say that I wanted to go ahead and do the planned training session of 8*1 mile but to just do it on Lake Mary Rd instead of the track in Sedona. This means that we can get there in the morning and see which way the wind is blowing and then start the run from either end of the road.

The rest of the day was spent napping and lounging to see if I would feel any better on my second run of the day. This was fine as I managed to reply to a lot of emails and get some work done. I was feeling increasingly tired and the sound of the wind outside wasn’t helping that. I wanted to get motivated so I watched a bunch of videos that were made of the top American runners before the Olympic marathon trials and that helped a bit. I got changed and headed out to the trail (just 30 meters from our front door) that leads up to Buffalo Park. I was pushed all the way up the hill by a strong tail wind but this only meant that at the top of the trail that I would be running against the wind the whole way back. The wind was probably a good thing as it meant that I kept the run very slow (I really didn’t have a choice as I was feeling so tired) and it ended up just being a short recovery run. I got some drills and strides done after the run and I felt good for those for some reason. I was just trying to wake my legs up and it seemed to work.

I thought Julie would have been home by now but she wasn’t so I made up a burrito from the leftovers we had and waited for Julie (we had a meeting to go to at 6.30pm). She still wasn’t at the house at 6.30pm so I went by her work and found her there still attending to a patient. We left her work and headed to our meeting and as I sat in the meeting, the tiredness set in again. My legs felt like jelly and because the room was hot, I was starting to get sleepy. After we were done, we caught up with a friend of ours who had just run 36 miles through the Grand Canyon at the weekend in preparation for an assault on the rim to rim to rim record in 4 weeks. He’s seriously crazy! That’s over 6 hours of gruelling pounding straight up and down the canyon. I think we’re going to go out for dinner with him and his wife next week before I head back to the UK so that should be nice.

My mum had sent over some books that I had ordered a while ago so a night of reading in bed is on the cards before bed time.

Questions

I have made my recovery runs a lot slower (7min pace) this winter and been injured less. My steady running is usually around 6:30 - 6:00min pace. Do you tend to run most of your steady running quicker than this? (Steven V)

To be honest I don't tend to do a lot of steady running. Its usually easy or hard! My easy running up here at 7,000ft is anywhere between 6 minute miles to 7 minute miles. It changes so much because I feel so different after each days training. If I really want to recover for hard workouts then I will run really slowly and make sure that my body really isn't being taxed. During times like now, when I am training for a marathon or during a base phase, I usually don't ever run much slower than 7 minute pace because I don't have lots of races to worry about and its all about as getting as strong as possible. The main thing for me has been to listen to my body and respond accordingly. For example, this past Sunday I just did one easy run because I knew I was tired. The next day I felt great and was able to run pretty quickly. At sea level thing were different. I almost always did none of my main runs slower than 6 minute pace (my morning runs were always pretty slow) except during the track season when everything would be really slow as the main focus was to run as fast as possible during the hard days. Hope this helps a little!

I was wondering what sort of drills you do and when you do them? Do you do drills before and or after a run or both? Does core strength have any impact on foot strike? (Niall McGrath)

I do my drills before and after runs depending on what the run is. If its an easy run I will do the drills after followed by strides so that my muscles will lengthen back out to the state they were in before the run (your muscles shorten as you run and this is what can cause tightness). If I am doing a hard workout then I will do the drills before the workout so I can be as loose as possible so I can run hard without tightening up. In regards to core strength and foot strike I am not the best person to ask about this. Changing your foot strike may not be a great option as this can lead to injuries. On the other hand, it can help with your speed if you are able to push off your toes more efficiently. My former coach in Scotland spent a year trying to get me to be more efficient as I would tend to lift my head back when I got tired. This lead to me shortening my stride and moving to a heel strike so every time this happened he would shout something like think of Liz (Liz McColgan who was the epitome of someone always moving forward) and this would trigger me to drop my head and reopen my stride. It also took a lot of sprint drills (these were very tough), plyometrics and an increase in mileage for me to be strong enough to always run off of my mid foot.

I've never tried an ice bath before but tempted to give it a go. How often would you suggest having an ice bath and is it more beneficial after a long run or interval session? How long do you tend to stay in the water? (Iain Taylor)

Ice baths aren't the most comfortable thing in the world to do but they really are great for your muscles. They are beneficial all the time as they help to constrict blood vessels and decreases metabolic activity, which in turn reduces swelling and tissue breakdown. I find them most beneficial after both long runs and any hard workouts as that is when I've put my legs through the most stress. Of course it is a lot easier to do this during the summer time when the weather is nice but I find it necessary to have them year round. I stay in anywhere from 12 to 15 minutes and anything below 60F (15C) is good. I prefer close to 50F (10C) and then take a nice shower afterwards. There is also the option (if you are able to do it) of a contrast bath where you go from a cold bath to a hot bath (I did this a lot at FSU as both the hot and cold tubs were next to each other). This basically opens and closes your blood vessels so that you are basically getting a shunting effect that helps to pump out inflammation. I used to do a 3 mins cold to 1 min hot ratio.

3/29/10

Monday’s Training – Am: 97 mins easy Pm: 58 mins easy progressive to steady

Mileage – 24 miles

I felt great this morning after taking yesterday evening off and getting a good night’s sleep. I met Martin at Trina’s loop and ran with him for his warm up and then headed off on the urban trails to see if they were celar. Almost immediately I was met by Ian Torrence, Andrew Middleton, Trent Briney and Nick Arciniaga heading the other way so I just ran with them for the next 7 miles, heading through town and out along the train tracks which to my surprise were all clear. It felt really good to be on this soft ground and I felt like I was just bouncing along (we weren’t going fast but when we got to any kind of hill I felt like I was still running on the flat). I got back up to Cheshire with Trent and then did a 2 mile loop and headed back to the car. I did some drills, strides and stretching before heading over to Martin’s house to get some stuff (I am storing a bunch of stuff there until our house is built) and then headed home for some breakfast. Julie had made up a big batch of steel cut oats the other night so I warmed some of that up with some almonds, cranberries and prunes and washed it down with some orange and mango juice. Needless to say that I passed out pretty quickly after finishing that off and woke up half an hour before I had a meeting with our realtors to sign the last of our forms for upgrades and additions to the house. We’ve not seen much movement at the plot but they said they would be starting the building this week so I’m happy that we’ll be seeing some progress soon.

The evening’s run was a good one. I felt really fresh so I started to pick the pace up a little once I got to the dirt road as I was heading from the gym. The road was completely dry but no cars had really been on it so it was a little too soft and very rutted so I was turning my ankle quite a bit. It did feel good to be off the road again though so I shouldn’t really complain. I got to the 5 mile mark at 30 mins, stopped for a pee and then headed off back to the gym. I made it back in 28 mins without any real increase in effort so that was a nice feeling. I went into the gym but I just wasn’t in the mood for the workout so I decided to do it tomorrow (we are pushing everything back a day this week as the wind is going to 30mph all day for the next couple of days) after my morning run. I got back and Julie was still out running so I managed to get the dinner all ready for when she got back. I had out some steaks in the fridge to marinate yesterday so I cooked those with some asparagus and yam’s.

I managed to get a little comfort about my performance at the weekend as I looked over Charlie Spedding's training on his run up to the Olympic marathon. I remembered that he had used races to get sharp and I wanted to compare my 10km to his performances to see how he was competing during his marathon build up. It turns out that he was running similar times but with less mileage during the week (he did his mileage quicker than I did). That made me feel a little better about not running a good time and I also talked to Trina Painter (one of out assistant coaches and former USA 20km record holder) and she said that before her best marathon, she had run slowly in a 10km. I wasn't the least bit worried about how slow I ran (because I felt so strong) but it was just comforting to know that others have had similar performances before good marathons.

3/28/10

Sunday's Training - Am: 70 mins easy Pm: Off.

Mileage - 10 miles

Week's Mileage - 120 Miles

Today was a recovery day for me. I had to get up at 6am to get my run in before we headed to church at 9am. It was really hard to get out of bed at that time as I had had such a long day the day before but once I got some coffee, toast and laced the shoes up, i felt fine. It was a great temperature outside but it was very windy so it wasn't going to matter what direction I went in, I was going to have to hit the wind at some point. I basically just did a big loop on the reservation and I felt pretty groggy the whole time. I got back to the house, had some breakfast and then once we got to church I started to feel the tiredness. My eyes were closing and I was having trouble sitting and standing the whole time. I was going to leave straight from church to head back up the road to Flagstaff but being as sleepy as I was, I decided to head back to Julie's parent's house and take a nap before I got on the road. This was the best decision I could have made as I felt so much better after waking up and really alert once I had another coffee. The drive up went by pretty quickly and I met Julie at an RCIA retreat that we were to be at (RCIA is Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults and i'm in my final week of classes before I get baptised next week). For some reason I was really hungry all day and after we finished the retreat, we headed over to the supermarket to stock up on groceries. I had picked up a French Bread loaf when we were there and the two of us ended up finishing it off in a few minutes. As it was such a nice day, we headed over to the little park that is just along the road and threw the frisbee around a bit before heading off to the little cliff near where our house is going to be and watched the sunset. It was really nice to relax and not worry about doing a second run. I was actually supposed to do another 60 mins easy but my body was just so tired from yesterday that I felt it better to relax and eat lots tonight instead. We made up some burritos and again, as soon as I was under the covers, I was asleep!

3/27/10

Saturday’s Training – Am: Monument Avenue 10km. 3^rd, 29.16. Pm: 69 mins easy

Mileage – 23 miles

This morning’s race was weird. Really weird. I’ll tell you about that in a minute. I woke up at 5.30am this morning as the race started at 8.30am. I surprisingly fell right asleep last night and slept well. I fumbled around for a bit when I woke up and got the coffee going so I could at least have my eyes half open. I picked up the bagel that I had grabbed yesterday to find that it was rock solid so that was out of the window. I always have a back up of Power Bars and drinks so it wasn’t too much of a problem but I decided to go downstairs to the café to see if the lady would be there yet. I was talking to her yesterday and she said she would try and be there for 6am. To my surprise she had done it and she gave me a fresh bagel and jam. She looked tired and no one else was about so I felt a little bad for her. I lazed about in my room for a little while and before I knew it, it was approaching 7am (when we were to meet in the lobby). I went down and waited in a now, long line for coffee. I got a double espresso and knocked that back in one gulp. I thought we were all going to be walking to the start and I would warm up from there but one of the volunteers took my bag to the start for me so I could stay inside for as long as possible as it was pretty cold. I went for a 5 minute jog so that I could do some stretching before I headed out for my warm up. I was surprisingly loose so that’s always good before a race. I went back to my room to get my sunglasses as the sun was rising and it would be in our face on the last half of the course. I warmed up for 20 mins and then started my drills and strides. I took a minute to go and sit on some steps and get my head in the right place for the race. I went through how I was going to run the race and then I was ready to go. I put my Mizuno Flagship racing flats on (which were really good. It was the first time I would be using them on the road and I’m looking forward to using them again. I don’t know if I would use them for anything much further than 15km because of how minimal they are (4.4 oz) but they didn’t give me any calf problems at all which is always a good sign! They really grip the road well and have just the right amount of cushioning without weighing the shoe down) and my vest, checked my number and headed to the start. Just before the start I had to run back to my bag to get some arm warmers as the wind had a real cold bite.

The gun went and tried to tuck in as we were heading into the wind for the first half. It didn’t feel fast which was great but I found myself at the front of the group just before we hit the mile which was fine because the aim of the race was to get the competitive juices flowing again. Alene Reta* was way out front and there was no catching him. He was picking the pace up every step and we were just maintaining our speed. By the turn around it was just me and an Ethiopian left and he just sat in which I didn’t mind but he kept kicking my feet so I had to turn around and push him to the side so he would stop it. It didn’t! There are some slight rises in the course and I felt great running up them so I knew my strength is where it needs to be this close to the marathon. Unfortunately I just couldn’t shake off the Ethiopian and when it came down to a sprint, he just edged me out. I felt like we were running fast the whole way (my turnover was good and I felt strong so I figured it had to be a PB). I looked up and saw what I thought was 28.16 which would have been great but it turned out it was a good minute slower! Darn! What was good though was that I wasn’t out of breath and my muscles weren’t sore or fatigued. It was one of those days that you wish the race just continued because you can hold your pace all day. It was baffling though that I wasn’t able to run faster if I was feeling that good. I went through 10km quicker in my last half marathon before I was in good shape. The point of doing this race was to get my competitive side revved up again and I accomplished that so I was fine about the result.

Now was the worst part. I had to stand around in the cold for 30mins to wait for the prize giving. It was horrible as they wouldn’t let us leave to go warm down. As soon as we were done, I went by the hotel to dump my stuff and get a warm down in. The flowers I got I gave to the lady in the coffee shop as she had gotten up so early to give me my coffee and bagel. I wanted to go for 30 mins but I had to be in the lobby for 10.30am as there would be only one shuttle out to the airport (My flight wasn’t until 2.55pm so there would be a long wait!). I felt strange on my warm down, as if I was drunk. I don’t know if I hadn’t drunk enough or if the caffeine was doing something funny to my body but it didn’t feel good. As soon as I stopped running I was fine but it was a really weird feeling. Anyway, I got showered and changed quickly and then stuffed everything into my bag so I could get going. I met Evelyn Lagat (Bernard’s sister) in the lobby and we headed out to the airport. I was hungry at this point but unfortunately there was nothing I wanted to eat so I snacked on all my bars and trail mix and decided to wait until I got to the airport in DC to grab something more substantial. I talked to Julie for a while and then called Greg and he just reassured me that it was a good thing that my muscles were fine and I was in no aerobic trouble during the race. Usually a few hours after a race I get pretty tight but my legs were fine but I still got my rope out and did some stretching, got the tennis ball and rolled around on my glutes and then rolled my calves out on my metal water bottle. I can’t carry my massage stick when I just take hand luggage so the water bottle is great for doing the same job.

The flight to DC was painless but I got really hungry a I was trying to find a place to eat and the when I found a Tex Mex place the line was really long. I got my burrito and wolfed it down and it really hit the spot. As soon as I got on the next flight (to Phoenix) I passed out (I had been given an exit row seat) and woke myself up by catching a glob of saliva that was about to fall onto my shirt. I tend to drool when I nap and have to constantly move my pillow about just to find a dry spot. I pulled out my computer and watched Transformers 2 and Ghost in a Shell: Innocence. This helped pass the flight by and we actually landed about 30 mins earlier than scheduled. Julie’s parents came and picked me up and as soon as I got back to the house, I got changed and went out for a 10 mile run. I didn’t feel great but I didn’t expect to after travelling all day and it was actually 11pm my time (8pm in Phoenix). When I got back, Lorie made me a nice dinner of salad and a BBQ chicken sandwich and then I went straight to bed as I would have to get up early to get my run in before church at 9am. Needless to say that as soon as I saw the pillow, I fell asleep.

*Alene Reta – Alene is a convicted drug cheat that changes his name as he races around the country so that he can compete in races (some races don’t allow people to compete that have a drug conviction to their name). I don’t understand why race directors invite him to their races. He is going to make it fast but at what cost? He races almost every weekend and runs fast but you will never see him at a race that has drug testing. There have been a few threads about him on the Letsrun.com forum about him and it seems like most people are in agreement about him. The New York Road Runners apparently won’t allow him in any of their races. Sorry for the rant but I just feel that people like Alene shouldn’t be allow to ruin the sport that I love.

3/26/10

Friday’s Training – Am: 50 mins easy Pm: 35 mins easy

Mileage – 12 Miles

I was awake a few times throughout the night from the pounding of the rain on my hotel window. I usually sleep with a sound machine that makes a rain noise but this was different. My room is on the 17^th floor and it was more like someone knocking on the window rather than the soothing pitter patter of rain drops. I eventually remembered that I had some ear plugs so I got them and fell back asleep. I woke up around 8.30am, made some coffee and unpacked my bag. I usually don’t have coffee in the 5 days leading up to a race as the studies I have read have shown that you get a bigger benefit from the caffeine come race day when you have your coffee. This was just a tune up race so I decided against coming off the coffee but I might as well have as the coffee that came out of the machine in my room was pretty bad. I luckily brought my own Starbucks VIA packs so I could try them out on race morning. There is also a coffee shop in the lobby so that will be good for an espresso before I head out to warm up tomorrow. I spent a little time trying to workout on the map of the course and a google map where I was so that I could run the course this morning. The knocking on the window started again just before I headed out so I knew I would be getting pretty wet during my run. I was only half a mile from the start so I ran along to Broad street which I guess is the main street in Richmond. It had a very inner city feel to it with shops and some run down buildings but what amazed me (and I remembered having the same feeling when I raced here last year) was that only two blocks down and running parallel to this street was Monument Avenue, a gorgeous street that is lined with old Georgian and Edwardian looking homes and buildings. The race is named after this street and you basically just run down one side of the street, turn around, and then head down the other side. The street is appropriately named as every half mile or so there is a big monument or statue in the middle of the road dedicated to some one of importance. The only name I could see on one of them was Arthur Ashe, the 3 time Grand Slam winner who was born and raised in Richmond. I ran for 50 mins and then stopped to do some drills and strides before heading into the hotel to quickly get changed and grab a big breakfast. My biggest problem now was getting dry as I was soaked from the run and I couldn’t peel off half the clothes I had on. After squirming about for a few minutes, I managed to get into some dry clothes and headed downstairs for some eggs, potatoes, pancakes, pineapple and OJ. I also managed to grab some snacks for later on a tomorrow morning. I got back to my room and realised that I had to somehow get all my clothes dry again for my next run so I threw them on the fan and cranked the heat up.

Most of the day was spent relaxing in front of the TV and napping. I realised when I got up and walked about that I had gotten some pretty bad nipple chafing this morning so I went for a little walk to see if I could either find some Vaseline or band aids for my second run. Luckily there was a pharmacy just along the road but they only had huge tubs of Vaseline so I was just going to improvise with some lip salve. When I got to the checkout I found some travel packs of Aquafor (pretty much the same as Vaseline) and immediately rub some on as my nipples were getting very sore at this point. After 10 minutes of stinging, they felt much better and I felt more comfortable about going for a second run. I called Thom Sudeth, the elite athlete coordinator about what I was supposed to do in terms of picking up my number as last year I had to go to the expo and get it. He said he would be at the hotel an hour later but 4 hours had now passed and I didn’t know what I should do.

I met Thom just before I left for my second run and picked up my number and he told me he would be taking the elites out to dinner. It was pretty cold when I was running, especially because everything I was wearing was wet from the morning. I warmed up though and the run passed by without much to worry about.

I met Thom and the Africans for dinner and we headed to a place called MamaZu’s. I figured it had to pretty good because when we walked in, it was packed out with an hour wait. We had a table waiting for us so we sat down and Bart Yasso ordered the food for us (because it was busy and we had a big group, we had to order family style). This was fine until I realised that every time they brought a plate full of food, they gave it to the other end of the table so that meant there was nothing left for me. I was getting very hungry and pretty annoyed at this point so I had to just grab a plate and take as much of the food as possible so that I wouldn’t be starving for the rest of the night! After hearing some of Thom’s stories (apparently he has 84 guns in his closet!) we headed back to the hotel and I snacked on some energy bars and trail mix as I was still a bit hungry.

Now I’m just going to watch a film and try to get to sleep as I have to wake up at 5.30am for our 8.30am start.

3/25/10

Thursday’s Training – Am: 80 mins easy

Mileage – 12 Miles

Today was a travel day as I was heading over to the east coast for my race in Richmond, Virgnia on Saturday. I slept badly again last night for some reason but got up at the same time as usual (6.40am) and spent most of the time before my run packing for the trip. I quickly checked my emails (which had some great news and I will elaborate on this after I get back from the race) and then headed out the door. It was pretty windy this morning, which was great for the first half of my run as I was being pushed all the way out to Country Club. Of course I knew what was coming on the way back around the town but the wind really didn’t feel too bad which was good as it gets pretty hilly on the route that I took. I didn’t have anytime to do any drills or stretching after the run as I was already cutting it close for driving down to Phoenix and making my flight in good time. I had a quick shower and some breakfast and headed down the road. The roads were pretty clear so the drive went by pretty quickly and I got to Julie’s house in the usual amount of time. Lorie, Julie’s mum, dropped me off at the airport and the rest of the day was spent sitting on planes. I watched a movie about steroid use in the USA (Bigger, Faster, Stronger) and then started to watch the Beijing Olympic Marathon. I thought I had the whole thing but it shut off after they hit 20km so that was annoying. I got into Richmond at 11.30pm and jumped in a taxi to the hotel which was in the downtown area. I just dumped my bag and had a quick shower before getting off to sleep at around 1.30am.

3/24/10

Wednesday’s Training – Am: Short Track Workout @ Sedona (4,500ft). 3200m, 5 mins rec, 2*800m, 4 mins rec, 2*200m, 200m jog rec. Pm: 49 mins easy

Mileage – 18 Miles

We all met at 8am at Late For The Train to travel down to Sedona together. I went down with Martin and it was one of the quicker drives down there. Usually we’ll always get stuck behind tourists taking photos and taking their time but we got a clear run. It was nice and sunny at the track although there was a bit of a cold nip in the wind. We warmed up across the road on the trails and then met Greg who was sitting at the finish line righting out the workouts on his clipboard. I decided to help Brett out with his workout and do a shorter version of what he was doing. He was doing 2 miles then 4*1mile so I decided to do the 2 miles and do 800m of his first 2 1mile reps. I wanted to run hardish but not really tire myself out for the race at the weekend. Brett, Martin and I started the workout and decided to trade off the lead after 3 laps. Brett lead first then Martin and I finished with the last 2 laps. It was pretty windy down at the bottom end of the track so it was good we were in a group and we could shelter for each other, I really didn’t feel that ok for the first 6 laps but as soon as I went to the front I felt fine and we cruised through the finish having averaged 69 sec laps. The 5 mins rec was an 800m jog around the track and then I would take the boys through the first 800m of their reps. I felt good on these and the 68s felt easy. A couple of 200s later and I was finished and wasn’t tired so that was good. I jogged around the track and shouted the guys on during the rest of their workouts and then we just warmed down around the infield (a nice soft artificial grass).

Photos courtesy of assistant coach Ian Torrence

Greg's Tools

2 Mile Rep

A lap later

And away we go

Recovering

Hi there!

During the mile reps

Recovering again

200m

All done!

We headed back up the road but stopped by Safeway so I could grab a sandwich. Just after we got out of town, I told Martin to pull over so I could soak my legs in the creek. The creek was pretty high and flowing quickly but that wasn’t the problem. The water was so cold that neither of us could stand it for any more than a minute or two at a time. The squealing that was coming out f our mouths would have suggested that a couple of 5 year old girls were nearby. We ended up just getting back in the car after a few attempts and headed home. I had a really good nap of about an hour and woke up pretty groggy.

My second run was a bit of a rush as I was still desperately trying to find a massage today but no one was available (I had left it late because I didn’t know I would racing on Saturday). I suddenly remembered about the high street massage place, Massage Envy and gave them a call. They had a slot at 5pm and they said I should be there for 4.45pm. It was already 3.45pm and I wanted to run for 10 miles but I knew that wasn’t going to happen as I had to drive over to the shop and run from there. I jumped in the car and got there at 4.05pm and went straight into my run. I figured I could get there at 4.55pm so I ran for an easy 7 miles and got there right on time.

A massage with someone new before a race isn’t always a great idea but I told the guy I was racing and just to flush my legs out. Well instead I got a full body massage, which felt great with minimal work on my legs. My legs actually felt ok today so I wasn’t too bothered and it actually felt great to get my back worked on. I got out of there feeling good and went next door to Safeway to pick up some salad stuff, cereal bars for the weekend and a couple of bags of ice for the bath. On my way home I picked up a couple of small Pizzas from Fratelli’s (Barbeque chicken and Buffalo chicken) as we had a voucher to use there. Julie was out running so I made up some salad and prepared my ice bath. The bath was cold but nowhere near as bad as the creek was this morning. I ate my salad while I was in there and then Julie arrived back so I had a quick shower, got changed and we ate dinner. The problem with ice baths at our apartment is that we run out of hot water pretty quickly so I am always still shivering and cold when I get out of the shower and it took me a couple of hours to heat back up and feel comfortable again. I had to pull the covers off of the bed and get wrapped up in them and have Julie as close to me as possible so I would defrost.

3/23/10

Tuesday’s Training – Am: 90 mins easy Pm: 51 mins slow

Mileage – 21 Miles

For some reason couldn’t get to sleep last night. We went to bed at the normal time but I think my mind was just too active thinking about a plethora of things rather than just switching off and relaxing. This meant that when Julie woke up 6.40am, I lay there for another 40 mins so I could get some extra rest. This was fine as I wasn’t meeting the guys until 8.30am this morning.

Andrew Carlson, Martin Fagan and I all ran out at mailboxes again. The run went by pretty quickly and it was good to talk to people on the run again! The guys stopped at 10 miles so I just headed back out on the trail and turned around after a mile as the headwind was picking up. I got back to the car and ran on the road and noticed a dirt road on the left side of the road that I had never seen before. I investigated it a little and it looks like it will be a good trail to run on soon but it was still a little wet and muddy so I turned around and headed back to the car. I spent the next 20 mins doing my drills, strides and stretches before I headed back to the house. I made same pancakes but instead of the usual chocolate chips (No deserts during lent!) I fried up some apples in butter and topped the pancakes with those. They were really tasty so that set me up perfectly for a good little nap. I don’t what it is about pancakes but they always put me to sleep so maybe I should be eating them before bed now!

My second run of the day was a very slow affair as I felt pretty tired (from not doing anything all day) and it being very windy. It was just a case of putting one foot in front of the other and getting through it. I went over by Buffalo Park and that is starting to dry up now so maybe by next week I can start using that more often for runs as it is so nice for running (very scenic with great views of the peaks) and it is only a 10 minute jog away. Its going to feel good to be getting on the trails more now as I have been on the road so much over the last few months. The good thing about that though is that it has prepared my legs for some pounding on the road.

I just cooked up some leftovers from last night when I got back, Making a salad, heating up the polenta, chopping up the turkey, adding some red pepper and mixing in some soy sauce and barbeque sauce for a bit of a glaze. Num num num!

Questions

Can I ask you if you remember what kind of training you were doing when you were 18, how many miles and how many hard sessions etc? John (EKAC Tartan army)

When I was 18 I was probably running 50 to 70 miles a week with 3 hard training sessions and a long run. The most important part of training is running so that means staying injury free so if that means cutting down the mileage, thats what you need to do. When you're building your mileage you have to do it slowly and get used to what you can handle before starting to do more.

I just developed a bout of achilles soreness and stiffness and wondered what you did to treat your achilles problems? Henry

I was very lucky that Julie was able to help me right away with my injuries. I'm not afraid of taking a few days off when I have a little problem and cross train instead of running to stay off of the problem (aqua jogging). I also saw a very good doctor who is trained in Active Release Therapy (ART) and could diagnose what the problem was before it got too bad (scar tissue under my big toe). I did lots of icing, eccentric calf stretches and relative rest to help also.

3/22/10

Monday's Training - Am: 90 mins with 12*1 min hard/2 mins easy Pm: 64 mins easy

Mileage - 24 Miles

The view from the balcony this evening

I was unsure what to do this morning as I thought I would be training on my own. I had a fartlek to do but I thought Brett was still going to be down in Phoenix so I was going to drive down to Sedona and do the workout there on the track and then get into the creek afterwards. I decided to stay in town and just drive over to Trina’s loop to see who would be about. As I was driving there I saw Brett jogging down the road so I beeped the horn, pulled into Late For The Train, tied my shoes and joined him on his warm up. He was doing the same workout so I was glad of that. He had jogged down from his house so he was just finishing up his warm up so I only really got 13 mins of running in before I jumped back into the car and drove it to the start of the loop and put my flats on. I felt fine although my achilles was a little creaky to start with but it soon warmed up and I didn’t feel it again after the first 2 reps. The workout wasn’t supposed to be a difficult one and it felt pretty good just to be striding out. We covered about 6.5 miles during the fartlek so once we were finished I changed back into my trainers and ran with Brett back up to his house. I continued on for another 30 mins as I was to run for 90 mins total. I got back, did some drill and enjoyed doing my stretching on the dry grass outside of Trina’s house.

I drove back to the house, had breakfast and then had a really good nap. I hadn’t got a nap in during the day since Thursday so this felt really refreshing. I woke up with a dead arm and had trouble pouring my coffee into the mug! I had a really good navel orange and set about replying to my emails and emptying my inbox. I noticed that the sun was still out but the wind was blowing so I was trying to figure out where I could run that wouldn’t be too windy. As I had to go to the gym anyway, I decided that I would run from there and see if Woody Mountain Rd was clear yet (this is a great dirt road but it is shaded so it usually stays snowy and muddy for a while). I parked at the gym and ran over to WMRd and was pleasantly greeted by a dry(ish) dirt road and saw Carlson’s car parked there. It felt so good to be running on a softer surface for once although I did have to jump from side to side on occasion to dodge the mud and puddles. As I got ready to turn around at the 5 mile mark I saw Carlson coming towards me so we ran back together which made the time fly by. The last 10 mins was on the road but as soon as I got to it, my friend Rob approached me on his bike and he kept me company for the rest of the run. Rob’s wife is going through chemotherapy and has one last bout left before she is completely finished with it all and she is celebrating this by running the Big Sur Marathon on the same day as the London marathon. She is inspirational on how she is taking the cancer head on just getting on with it and not letting it get in the way of her life. She has been positive about the whole thing and running the marathon is her way of saying goodbye to it all. We’re all planning on getting together the weekend after and celebrating it all. I got back to the gym and did some drills and strides in the car park before I headed inside to get on with my weights routine. I felt pretty good in the gym and the exercises were coming easy to me so I took that as a good thing and stopped before I did too much and wake up sore the next day.

I got back home and Julie cooked up a great meal of marinated turkey, polenta (with fontina cheese added) and some asparagus. It was delicious and just what I needed after a long day’s training.

On another note, I got invited to a 10km road race in Richmond on Saturday and after talking to Greg about it we decided to go for it so I now leave for Richmond on Thursday and race on Saturday morning. This means that we will move the planned 30km tempo run to the next weekend. I’m looking forward to racing again and get my juices flowing again. I always like to race when I’m getting ready for big races and this 10km will serve that purpose. Now we have to decide what kind of training to do on Wednesday but I am going to look over my training diary and Greg and I will discuss what kind of session will be the best for me.

And another thing

I forgot to mention that if anyone has any questions for me about training or anything really, feel free to email me at adlemoncello@hotmail.com or post a comment on the blog and I will do my best to answer them

3/21/10

Sunday’s Training – Am: 61 mins easy Pm: 79 mins easy

Mileage – 21 Miles

Week's Mileage - 145 Miles

I had another easy day on the cards today and the weather was fantastic so it was very enjoyable running around the town. The trails haven’t cleared yet and the ones that have are still pretty wet and muddy so I’m still doing everything on the road. I headed out to the east side of town for the morning, which I don’t often do but it was good to get a little change of scenery. As long as you stay north of Linda Vista Rd there really isn’t much traffic so it was nice to have the run of the road and look at all the really nice houses. I ended up doing my shorter run in the morning as I woke up thinking it was 7.15 and it was actually 7.45 so I was running a little late getting out the door. This meant I could only get an hour in otherwise Julie and I would be late for church (which we still were!).

We went straight from church over to the realtors to meet Julie’s parents who had driven up from Phoenix to check out some houses. We spent a few hours looking at some places and they liked one very close to where we will be living so I think they were going to go ahead and put an offer in on it. We headed over to Pita Jungle for some lunch and after filling up and saying our goodbyes, Julie and I headed over to Home Depot to pick out our fans and lights that we will have in the house.

The weather was still great at 6.15pm when I headed out for the second run so again I was looking forward to the run. I actually headed straight down the hill and into town just so I could get my legs moving quickly right away and it seemed to work. After about 30 minutes, the sun started to drop down and it suddenly got dark and cold (Flagstaff is a low light city because of the observatory). Luckily I was close to Trina Painter’s house (our assistant coach) so I stopped by and borrowed a pair of gloves from her so I wouldn’t totally freeze on the remainder of the run. The cold actually made me speed up as I just wanted to get back to the house and be warm. It was great to get back and feast into the leftovers we had from lunch – Mediterranean chicken salad and Fatoosh. Before I headed to bed I checked what the weather would be tomorrow and I was very pleased that it was going to be nice again with minimal wind in the morning.

3/20/10

Saturday's Training - Am: 74 mins Pm: 68 mins

Mileage - 20 miles

As much as today was supposed to be a nice recovery day, it ended up being pretty jam packed. I got to bed late last night because I was at work so I slept in till 8am and got some coffee and toast down me before heading out for a nice and slow 10 miles. My legs felt absolutely fine from yesterday so that was great news. For some reason it was really really cold this morning, I mean chilled to the bone cold. Yesterday was really nice and warm but it was the complete opposite today. I actually had to go back into the house and put on 2 more layers. It was also really windy so that was good for keeping me really slow and at recovery pace.

When I got back from the run, Julie and I got quickly changed (she had also just been for a run) and jumped into the car to take a quick trip down to Sedona. I had been telling Julie about some amazing waterfalls I saw the week before so we were hoping to get some pictures of them. Unfortunately, the snow had melted a lot and there were no more waterfalls but Sedona being Sedona, we could get some nice photos anyway. We stopped and had a coffee in a cafe that faced out to the red rock cliffs which was really nice. We had to head back up the road pretty quickly though because I had to get my second run in before heading to work at 3.30pm. I jumped out of the car, got changed and headed right out for another 10 miles. I felt fine on the run but I was pretty sleepy (missing my nap) so still kept it slow.

Work wasn't actually too busy tonight so I got away right at 10pm and headed home for a really nice sleep!

Julie

My fiancé, Julie Fisher has been invaluable to my marathon build up. She used to be a good runner on the Northern Arizona University track and cross-country team so she knows what it is like to punish your body in the ways I do. There was actually a book (Inner Strength Inner Peace) recently written by her old coach in high school, Tim McClellan, that devotes a whole chapter on what a hard worker she was and how she would collapse over the line every time she raced because she literally gave everything she had. This is something she never told me about so it was quite inspiring to read these things about her. Julie has been my physical therapist, water carrier, pacer and general sounding board for me and she has really helped me so much in the last few weeks when my training has become progressively harder and longer. She is always so positive about everything and it has been great to have someone like that around me all the time. I have felt bad for her as something always seems to happen when she is out there on the bike beside me. On my first 24 mile run, she followed on the bike with fluids but it was freezing cold and the snow was coming down and being whipped into our face by a nasty wind. She got to 10 miles and as we tried to grab our drinks she was in tears with how painful her hands were with the cold (She gets very bad Reynauds). She then had to ride 10 miles back while I continued the run and get in the car to try and warm up a little. She was still cold 70 mins later when I got back to the car. Then there was the bike crash she suffered just over a week ago when I was doing my 26 mile run. I’m not sure if it will be safe for her to come out when I do my 28 mile run in a few weeks.

Ever since I met Julie I have been amazed by how happy she always is and this was such an attractive quality for me. She always just wants to please others and its something I really admire in her. I feel so lucky that she said yes when I asked her to marry me and my challenge now is just not to mess anything up before she says “I do” on the big day!

3/19/10

Friday's Training - Am: 3 hours

Mileage - 26 miles

Long Slow Run (LSR) was the name of the game today. I was supposed to be doing this tomorrow but today actually fit in better with wanting to relax down in Sedona tomorrow and also giving me an extra day of recovery if I decided to run the Stanford 10km next week.

I arrived out a a trail we call Mailboxes and was gladly met by Phil Wharton, Stephan Shay (brother of the late Ryan Shay and who also recently ran 62.26 recently in the Houston half marathon) and David McNeill of Australia and NAU, fresh off a NCAA indoor 5km title and runner up in the 3km. I was glad there were people for at least the first part of my run as that would take some of the monotony out of the run. I ran with the guys for 10 miles and it was lucky they were there because I was always find it very hard to stay at a slow pace but we were running 7 to 7.30s for most of the 10 miles. We got back to the car and I loaded up on some fluids and turned and headed back out on the dirt trail. It was a gorgeous day but there was a little wind so that helped me to stay slow. The point of the run was just as the name suggests...to run slow and just get time on my feet. These runs help you develop the energy systems that you will be relying on during the marathon and I have always struggled to keep them slow enough. The next 8 miles went by without much concern and no pain from my achilles so once I got back to the car I again took on some more fluids and also gulped a gel down...and then again, headed back out on the dirt trail. The trail is basically an out and back 8 mile U shaped dirt road. It actually made it very easy for the run because I could just break it down into 3 parts with a 2 mile add on. The time actually flew by and the run really didn't feel hard or take too much out of my legs. It felt just like any other 2 hour run I have done, just an hour longer. I was using the Mizuno Nirvana 6 that I was recently sent and they work out great . Usually after the long runs there has always been some sort of chaffing or blisters but my feet were just how I had tucked them into the shoe 3 hours before. The cushioning was perfect and my feet didn't overheat which can be a bit of a problem. I would definitely recommend these shoes as a great mileage shoe. After I got to the finish and did some stretching, I headed back into town and headed straight to the Himalayan Grill for some refueling during their lunch buffet hours. I actually controlled myself well and just had one big plate of chicken curry, rice, noodles, naan bread and finished off with a bowl of mango chunks. This was just what I needed after such a long run. I managed to get my shift swapped from 3.30pm to 5pm also so that I would have enough time to get some good rest before heading into Karma for a busy night's work.

3/18/10

Thursday’s Training – Am: 84 mins easy Pm: 39 mins easy

Mileage – 18 miles

I was taking today very easy to see if I could start feeling a little fresher than I have in the last few days. The morning run was a slow plod around the town and it was just a time to switch off. It went by fairly quickly and the weather was lovely so that made it enjoyable. I spent the most of the day doing an online driving school (4 hours straight) only to find out that I couldn’t take the test at the end because the school didn’t get my citation (I got a speeding ticket a month ago and taking the class will get it off your record). This was really annoying as all the information was fresh in my head and I just wanted to get it out of the way. After trying a few methods of trying to get the citation to them I realized that I was running a little late so had to quickly put my shoes on get a short 6 miles in. I felt pretty good for this run but it was pretty windy so I’m hoping its not going to be getting any worse up here (the wind gets really strong in the spring). I finished the run and had no time to do drills or stretches as I had to get to work in 25 mins so I showered changed and drove straight there. It turns out there was no rush as the restaurant was empty but this gave me a little time to work on my toe stretches to try and break up the scar tissue underneath it. It actually turned out to be a good night at work although it meant getting home at 10.45pm.

Work and Training

I have always worked and run ever since I was 16. I have never found it too hard as I am dedicated enough and good enough at time management that I can always fit in both. For me, work is mentally stimulating and it helps me to forget about running for a little while. I have always worked in restaurants and coffee shops as they tend to be the most flexible with working hours and taking time off. I have been fortunate enough to have had great employers who have understood my situation and always given me the leeway to get away at weekends for races and trips abroad. I currently work 2 or 3 shifts a week at a local sushi restaurant on Route 66 (Karma Sushi) and its always evening shifts so that means that I can get my training done during the day and get some rest also. It can be a little tight sometimes as I have to fit in both runs before 3.30pm but my body is used to it now. I didn’t have this luxury before as I had to work a lot more before I got my contract with Mizuno and had to work 30 to 40 hours a week and found it tough to get enough recovery. I think the hardest I’ve had it was during the summer months of 2005-2007 when I worked at the Old Course Hotel in St Andrews and my shift started at 6am. I had to wake up at 4am and get my first run done before work and then I would get a little rest in the afternoon before I did my 2^nd workout and then get to bed by 8pm. This may sound a bit rough but it just meant shifting my day forward a few hours and I was really just running and working so it was a good situation for me. Right now I feel a bit lazy when I am just staying at home and resting because I could be working but I know I need to do this to let my running career progress the way I want it to.

3/17/10

Wednesday’s Training – Am: ASU Track – 2 miles, 3 mins rec, 1 mile, 3 mins rec, 2*800m, 90 secs rec, 4*200m, 200m rec Pm: 57 mins easy

Mileage – 20 miles

Today was no fun at all. I woke up at 6am and headed downstairs to grab some coffee and a bagel. Julie’s dad was up as he heads to the gym early every morning so we chatted for a bit and then I headed upstairs to get my achilles ready for the session I had in front of me. I left the house at 7am and drove over to the ASU track where it was already getting warm and it was surprisingly windy. I had to sneak through a hole in the fence to get onto the track and jog 800m before I started stretching. I then headed out along the edge of Tempe town lake for a 20 min warm up. This was the point where my legs started to feel tired so I started to think about options if I needed to break down the workout (it was supposed to be a 4 mile tempo). I got on with my drills and strides and decided to just assess how I felt once I got going. As soon as I started I knew I would have to adapt the workout as I was just feeling groggy and almost sleepy. I stopped after the 2 miles and continued with a mile rep, 2 800s and some 200s to get my legs turning over. I warmed down slowly on the infield and stretched for a while before heading back to the house to rest up.

I didn’t manage to sleep at all but I lay in bed watching TV so at least I got some rest before we headed out for a St Patrick’s Day lunch. I actually had the corned beef and cabbage special and it was really good. Nothing like what corned beef is back home but it was still very tasty. After saying my goodbyes to Julie’s parents and brother I headed over to Tempe to grab another coffee and see Dr John Ball for another appointment. Roisen McGettigan (Top Irish steeplechaser) and Gary Reed (World 800m silver medallist) were also there getting some work done to them. John again mobilized my toe and made me really suffer by sticking his thumbs deep into my glutes to try and release the muscles that are trapping my sciatic nerves. After quite a few expletives and whinces, John said that he was really pleased with the way my injury has progressed and the improvement he is seeing is telling him that its not an achilles problem. That was great news because that can be a real problem and it takes a long time to heal.

After my appointment I headed straight up to Flagstaff and went straight out for my second run. I was feeling very stiff as I had just driven for 2 hours but after half an hour I felt fine. I got back to the house, shovelled some veggie burgers, broccoli and salad down my throat that Julie had prepared for me, and we then headed off to our marriage encounter sponsors, to talk with them about marriage issues. These meetings have been great for Julie and I as we have really opened up to each other and its forced us to talk about things that we would probably never would have. It has been tough at times but it has made us much closer and I think we both feel that can really take on anything that is thrown at us once we are married.

3/16/10

Tuesday’s Training – Am: 73 mins easy Pm: 43 mins easy

Mileage – 16 miles

I woke up today and my back was really stiff. After thinking about it I realized I had maybe over done it in the gym yesterday as I had taken a week off of doing weights so I didn’t put any extra stress on my achilles. I think the back extensions I was doing just sent my back into spasm but this is something I am quite used to so hopefully it won’t affect me too much. After massaging and heating my achilles I drove out to Cheshire where I used to live and met the guys for an easy 10 miles. We took it nice and slow which was fine by me because I worked hard yesterday and I wanted to run well in my workout tomorrow. A nice Tour De Flag in great weather was what we got this morning and although I didn’t feel good (its up hill the last 3 miles), it was enjoyable to just relax and trot along for 73 mins.

I headed back to the house with the hopes of a message from the car garage telling me my car was ready to pick but to no avail. I again, iced, had breakfast and past out while watching Cold Case. I was told the car would be ready around 3pm but was hoping for an earlier time so I could get on the road back down to Phoenix and hopefully miss rush hour as the journey takes an extra hour if I hit it. The phone call came and the car was going to be ready in half an hour so I drove over to Julie’s work and dropped off her car keys, said goodbye to her and headed off for an easy 6 mile run over to the car garage. I felt so much better this evening and I didn’t feel my achilles at all. I think really taking the time to do everything to help it as well as the eccentric calf stretches is helping a lot and hopefully I wont be able to feel it all soon. It was lovely and sunny outside but everywhere was wet as the snow is melting like crazy. I picked up my car, which looked great (it even had the ground effects that I have on the car which I didn’t think they replace for me. I was just expecting the standard issue bumpers back) and headed back to the house to shower and get on the road down to Phoenix. The problem with driving to Phoenix is rush hour. I didn’t want to hit this so I took my time changing and getting everything ready and headed out to the highway. I stopped by Quiznos to grab a big sandwich for dinner. By the time I got down there I was knackered so I watched TV with Julie’s parents until 9pm and then headed to bed as I needed to get up early to try and beat the Phoenix heat.

I was treated to a wonderful sunset on the drive down to Phoenix

My car looking brand new again

3/15/10

Monday's Training - Am: 90 mins Pm: 60 mins + Weights

Mileage - 24 miles

Fairly easy day today. I went over to Trina's loop where I thought everyone was meeting to run but only Middleton and I turned up (he was doing a fartlek as he runs the LA marathon on Sunday) so I warmed up with him and then headed of round the roads for the rest of my run. I actually did a little fartlek also just to get my legs going a bit. My legs were still a bit tender but my achilles felt ok after I spent 30 mins massaging my lower leg and loosening it off. I got back home and spent another 30 mins stretching, foam rolling and massaging it. After this I strapped an ice pack onto it and prepared my usual breakfast/lunch of granola with dried cranberries, prunes, almonds and strawberries. This is my usual morning routine and has been for a while - run, stretch, breakfast and then nap in front of the TV. This is the reason I gave up working the day shifts at work so that I could have all the time I need to do the little things that are involved in running.

After waking up and cleaning the apartment up a bit (I hadn't unpacked from the weekend yet) I started to get ready for my second run a 3pm. Another bout of massaging and a hot pack on my achilles helped loosen me up a bit as well as some toe mobilization. I drove over to the gym and ran my usual 10 mile loop at a good pace as I was feeling good. It was windy but it really didn't bother me too much. I finished off with some drills and stretching and headed into the gym to do some weights.

Once I was finished I headed over to the Summit Center and Julie treated me again with some Ionto and then headed home as she was making some Apricot Chicken fro dinner. It was served with broccoli and rice and was just what I needed.

Weights

My weights and circuits routine isn’t anything special. Greg likes to keep this section of our training quite easy so as not to risk any injury but still get the benefit of strengthening. Since the new year, I have been a member of the Summit Health and Fitness Center so have been able to dedicate more time to this area of training. I typically head to the gym on Tuesday mornings and Thursday evenings (we do our hard workouts on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday) so it doesn’t take away from the running workouts of the week. I have actually gone back to doing more of a routine that I did when I was at Florida State University as I always felt strong when following the routine we did there.

I first head upstairs and do 20 mins of core and upper body and its continuous so it can get pretty tough as you really don’t get a break in this period. After this I head downstairs and start on my full body routine. I tend to do 3 sets of each exercise set (there is 3 different exercises per set) and there are 4 exercise sets (so in total there is 36 sets of reps). I don’t lift anything heavy but do include squats, dead lifts and lots of body weight stuff. I also change the workout depending on the day. For example, the Tuesday workout (in between hard running session days) will be a bit easier than the Thursday workout as I don’t want to be tired for the workout the next day.

Here is an example of what I do:

3 sets of

Bar Warm Up

20 Step Ups

25 Seated Crunches

3 sets of

10 Squats

50 Hanging Abs

10 Back Extentions

3 sets of

10 Box Jumps

10 Bench Press

10 Dead Lifts

3 sets of

10 Lunge Jumps

10 Wall Angels

20 Calf Raises

3/14/10

Sunday's Training - Am: 70 mins easy Pm: 50 mins easy

Mileage - 17 miles

Sunday again, was a recovery day. After yesterday's hard workout I really needed to just switch off and run easy. I got out the door just before 11am as we had gone to church at 9am and I think I needed this extra wake up time to get ready for the run. It let my legs and achilles warm up a little and apart from the dull pain still lingering in my legs, I felt fine. I found a nice 5 mile loop on hard sand so it was good to get off the road and do a couple of loops of this. There is one sharp hill (only about 10m long) and this was enough to send a hot pain through my achilles and nearly stopped me running but as soon as I got to the flat I couldn't feel a thing. After jumping in the pool again to help my legs, we had some lunch and got ready for my next appointment with Dr John Ball.

We got to his office and he dug in again to certain areas that sent lightening bolts through my body and forced my face to screw up into a tight little ball. He first of all try to mobilize my left toe which has a lot of scar tissue on the underside and is maybe the cause of my achilles problem. The toe doesn't bend well and he thought that it has been creating a greater force than it should do with my increased mileage which has flared the achilles up. He also dug around into my hips and glutes to release some tightness which again was very sore. Afterwards I was much looser and I was able to bend my knee a lot more than I was able to when I walked in that afternoon. He doesn't do a lot but what he does is incredibly affective. I have another appointment on Wednesday so I will drive down and back just for this short period of treatment (its a 4.5 hour round trip by car).

After I was finished with my treatment we started to head back up the road but visited with my aunt on the way out of town as she was back at home from having sinus cancer removed from behind her face. I couldn't believe how good she looked and how well she could speak. It is very invasive surgery where there was a possibility of her losing her eye but a lot of the swelling had gone down and her prosthesis fit her well. Talking to her about what she had gone through in the past few months made me realize how little and insignificant a flared up achilles is. As a runner is feels like a huge deal but it is nothing like the life threatening disease that she had just battled. I'm so glad she is ok and happy.

We got back up to Flagstaff at around 7.30pm so I jumped onto the treadmill for 50 mins and switched off while I watched Man Vs Food on the travel channel. Julie had a great dinner ready for me when I got back of a broccoli omelette and potato pancakes. This was a great ending to a nice weekend.

3/13/10

Saturday's Training - Am: 15 mile tempo Pm: 35 mins easy

Mileage - 25 miles

Today's training was horrible. I still don't know why but my legs were still killing me from the last few days (which consisted of doing very little!). They felt like I had run a hard hill race. It was that dead legged sore to touch feeling. It was bad enough that I was walking down stairs backwards so it wouldn't feel so bad. We drove down to Phoenix last night so the pace of the tempo was supposed be 5 min miles as I was down from altitude. Julie and I got ready (she was going to be on the bike handing me my fluids and gel) and headed out to where the start of the workout would be. Only a mile into the warm up I said to Julie that there is no way that I am going to do this workout because I felt so bad. I had to summon everything I had just to get some drills done and get into my flats. My achilles was feeling OK although there was a slight ache and when I changed into my flats there was no difference in the pain so I just said to myself that would start the workout and just see how I felt. I was doing the tempo around a 2.4 mile road loop called Lakewood so it was going to be a monotonous 6 laps but I have done a 10 mile tempo here before and it seemed to go by pretty quickly so I just hoped it wouldn't be too mind numbing.

I started the run and ran the first 3 miles in 5.06, 5.00 and 5.04. This was a decent start but I felt bad and wasn't sure if I should just call it quits or push on and see how I felt as I went on. I was taking on fluids every 3 miles and doing fine with that I was really happy about that as this is the factor I was most worried about during the marathon but now I am very confident with this aspect so no more worries there. The next 4 mile went by without too much incidence (5.02, 5.03, 5.05, and 5.03) although I was finding the loop very tough because it was getting very windy and I really had to concentrate to maintain the pace I was running. I was close to breaking point on the next mile as I again headed into the wind and my legs were screaming for me to stop. This is where I really had to use my head to get through the rest of the run. I used a few different things to keep me going. There was Greg telling me about how this period of training was just about getting tough and strong for the race, there were images of the other Brits training for the marathon and there was the last few miles of the London course and getting through them, feeling good and sprinting down The Mall to the finish line. It also helped that I was getting to the halfway point and I always find it easier once I get to this point as I am just counting down miles from there on out. Tough , tough, tough is all that was going through my mind with a background beat by the Black Eyed Peas to keep my legs going. I took on some gel with some caffiene in it which turned out to be disastrous. I got the first gulp down with my electrolyte drink but as I tried for a second mouthful a bunch of air just squirted out of my bottle instead of the drink and I ended up coughing everything up all over my shoulder and sputtering for the next half mile. I did feel like I was running faster for some reason though although my splits were getting slower. I told myself that if I ran slower than a 5.10 mile that I would stop as I was getting really far off pace then. Mile 13 was a 5.11 but I willed myself to finish the workout as it was only a couple of mile left at that point. The last mile seemed to take for ever. I must have checked my Garmin about 8 times and I literally fell to the ground as I stepped across the 15.00 mile point!

I took me a little while to get up and finish off my drinks. I ran the 15 mile is 76.30 which is an average of 5.06s. I was really disappointed as I was supposed to run 5 flats. My achilles had tightened up at this point so I knew the warm down would be a tough one. I jogged a very slow 2 mile (20 mins) warm down but as I was running this, the better I felt about the workout. I almost didn't start the workout because I was so sore and feeling so bad so I felt good that even on my worst of day I could still run a half decent pace. I decided at that point that today was going to be my worst day in my marathon training and everything would only get better from here on out.

I got back and took a nap before heading over to Tempe to see Dr John Ball about my achilles. He found a whole range of problems with my legs and hips but he reassured me that this was quite normal for any runner. After some hard probing and jabbing in some uncomfortable areas Julie and I headed out to the mall and then back to the house so I could do a 5 mile shake out run. I quickly jumped in the pool afterwards to give myself an ice bath. It wasn't that cold (58F) but it was enough to give my legs some respite.

After a great dinner with Julie's family and the priest who is marrying Julie and I, we all relaxed in front of the TV and watched Couples Retreat before heading to bed for a good nights sleep.

3/12/10

Friday's Training - Am: 89 mins on Alter G Pm: 60 mins on Alter G

Mileage - 23 miles

This is going to be the view from the front of our house

Today was a good day! I woke up with no pain in my achilles and it was bright sunshine out side so all the snow is melting away. Our cable has been acting up for the past few days so I scheduled an appointment with a maintenance guy to come out between 8 and 10am. This meant that I would have plenty of time to stretch and roll out my calves before doing my first run on the Alter G but it meant that I didn't have that much time between runs as Julie and I are heading down to Phoenix again this weekend. The cable guy never showed up so I drove out to Greg's house and got onto the Alter G for 14 miles. I started at 90% body weight at 6.15 pace and slowly increased the weight through out the run so the last few miles were 100% body weight. I was doing this run by heart rate as I wanted to keep it nice and easy as I have a hard tempo tomorrow. I kept the HR between 110 and 120 but for some reason my quads felt very heavy. I don't know if they were just tired from the aqua jogging yesterday but I didn't think they would be as I only did an hours work. For some reason running on the Alter G is not as mind numbing as it is on a normal treadmill for me. Its maybe because I can have the music blasting beside but it seems to go by quicker than it does in the gym. I put on an audiobook, Scott Sigler's Infected, that I had just downloaded and got through the first 9 chapters of that while I ran. I headed home after this and after a failed attempt at an nap I headed down town to get the new plans of our house as they had just been redrafted.

My 2nd run was at 3.30pm on the Alter G and it passed by without much concern. I did feel my achilles a little more this evening and again my quads felt very heavy. I quickly got back home so I could stretch and shower before picking up Julie from work and head down the mountain to Phoenix. I managed to get an appointment with Dr John Ball, a miracle worker from what I can gather from all the testimonies that everyone on the team has given about him. I'm looking forward to that so we can maybe figure out the root of the problem and fix it.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and good luck if your racing somewhere!