Bonking In The Sun

The title says it all. I didn't complete my 22 mile run today. I stopped at 20 miles. Actually, I pretty much stopped at 18.5 and walked most of the rest to 20 miles.

So...what happened?

First of all, weather was a big contributor. It was 70 degrees when I started, and 86 degrees when I called it quits.

I think nutrition/hydration had a bit of a factor too. I was so concerned about how to handle the morning of the run and during the run that I forgot to eat extra carbs and drink extra water yesterday and the day before. I felt depleted around mile 14...way too early.

A few other contributors - my first two miles were a bit fast - 10:19 and 10:09. The Garmin also has mile 10 at 8:06...I'm pretty sure the Garmin messed up somewhere - part of this mile was in the Air Rights Tunnel in Bethesda...I would assume that Garmin would extrapolate distance when the satellites were back in range, but perhaps it didn't extrapolate so well?

Elevation was also a factor. The first 9 miles were net uphill 400 ft. This may have tired me out a bit. My route started at Dupont Circle Metro station, went towards Georgetown where I got onto the CCT trail, into Bethesda and over to Chevy Chase where I got onto the Rock Creek Trail and then to Veirs Mill Road. My car was parked on Veirs Mill Road near the Rockville Metro - about 2 miles from the trail. Of course I did not run those last two miles - I hopped on a Metro Bus and took it to my car. Here's a link to the route.

I won't go through all of the details of the run, but here are a few highlights (and lowlights):

• The time of day of this morning's run - I started at 10:25am by the time I got downtown - is almost exactly the time I'll be starting to run in NY for the marathon. I ate my pre-run fuel at 8am and this seemed to work as well. I also wore my Alzheimer's Association singlet which I'm hoping to wear for the race!
• I fueled up this morning with a cup of coffee - black with sugar - and a big piece of injera - an Ethiopian bread. I picked up the injera yesterday at a nearby Ethiopian restaurant. The idea of injera came to me yesterday afternoon. I was thinking what the elites probably fuel up with before their long runs, and I remembered that many of the elites are from East Africa, so I decided to try it out. I think this worked out well - it filled me up, digested easily and I did not have any stomach pains during my run.
• There were three times that I had to "double back" due to going the wrong way. The first time was when I needed to leave the CCT trail and get onto the Rock Creek Trail. I accidentally continued on the CCT trail because I knew the Rock Creek Trail was straight ahead - except for the fact that that part of the CCT trail was on a bridge/overpass a good 50 feet above Rock Creek and the trail. Oops!
• The other two times I had to double back was in the 18th and 19th mile. It was very frustrating. I'm not sure whether there was bad signage or if I was just to out of it to realize there was signage.
• As part of my fueling strategy during the run, I decided to bring some food to go along with my GU. I brought a Cherry Pie Larabar. I like Larabars because most of them have less than 6 ingredients - and I can recognize all of the ingredients. It seems more like "real food" than many of the engineered energy bars. The Cherry Pie Larabar's ingredients are Dates, Almonds and Unsweetened Cherries. That's all. I opened the bar at mile 15 - it was a welcome distraction for almost the entire mile....and it probably got me through miles 16 and 17.

I'm going to try to not let this failed attempt at 22 miles get me down about New York. I felt pretty good after my 20 miler - in much cooler weather. I'm hoping the temperatures in NY will be cooler than today and that will likely give me a few more miles (8 more hopefully!) to run.

Preparing for THE Long Run

Tomorrow I am doing THE long run of my marathon training.

22 miles.

More planning has been put into this training run than many of the races I have run!

First of all, it will take me close to 4 hours to run this distance. Finding 4 consecutive hours on my schedule during the next few days has been tough. This weekend there are special holidays (Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah) so I'm going to synagogue both Saturday and Sunday. It is my 20th High School reunion on Saturday night - so I really did not want to run this on Saturday morning and then be dead tired on Saturday night.

I have some vacation days to burn at work, so I decided to take tomorrow off. Excellent! I can run on my day off, right? Well...my older son has a half day due to the holidays - which means there is less than 3 hours between the time I drop my younger son off at school at 9:15am and when I would need to pick my older son up at noon. UGH!!! I coordinated to have my older son go home with a friend until my wife can pick him up later so I can get my run in. Go figure, I'm taking the day off and don't have time to pick up the kids. Did I mention how much I love my wife....

Next I needed to find a route. 22 miles is a lot of ground to cover. I also want some change of scenery so I'm not bored to tears. I have decided to connect the CCT trail to the Rock Creek Park trail route that the Parks Half Marathon is run on. I'll park at or near the Rockville Metro, take the Metro downtown to either Dupont Circle or Farragut North, and start running from there towards Georgetown to pick up the CCT trail (hopefully about a mile). I think it is about 8 miles up the trail to Bethesda and then another 13 miles to the Rockville Metro station if I follow the Parks Half Marathon route. There's 22 miles for ya!

Another cool thing about this training run is that I'll be running it at about the same time of day that I'll be running the NY Marathon. Since I need to drop my son off at nursery school, I probably won't get downtown until a little after 10am. This will be good for me since I'm so used to running at 6am...I need some more practice running later in the day.

This run will also give me a good chance to practice nutrition and hydration. Since I'm running at the same time of day, I can simulate what I will eat on race day before the run and during the run. I need to give this a little more thought this afternoon and evening so I have a plan tomorrow morning.

I'm usually not nervous or anxious for a training run, but this had so much planning going into it that I'm a bit jittery. Perhaps that's also good practice???

Late Lunch Run

I blogged yesterday that I was going to use Wednesdays as my longer-middle-of-the-week-speedwork run - and that since I'm dead tired on Wednesday mornings due to running an Israeli Dance group on Tuesday nights, that I will be trying to get this workout in during my lunch break.

I could see that plan unraveling right before my eyes. Even though I put my run on my Outlook calendar (I'm busy at that time folks!), I managed to get triple booked at 11am. The meeting that was most important for me to attend was scheduled for a mere 30 minutes - and ended up lasting an hour and a half :-(

I ended up getting on the treadmill at the gym at 1:30pm. At least I made it.

However, I'm going to have to work on the pre-run nutrition aspect of things. I had my usual bowl of cereal with soy milk for breakfast, and then grabbed a Kashi bar at 10am for a snack. This would have been great if my run was at noon. I did eat a few pretzel rods that they had at the office (probably 100 calories worth) and then I had a GU before hitting the treadmill. So...I had some calories in my to burn - but not tons.

My plan for today - Yasso 800s. These are half-mile intervals that you do at the pace that equals the time in which you are aiming to finish your marathon.

I'm not gunning for a particular time yet, but I chose 4:40 - which would have me doing my intervals at a 9:20/mile pace. That seems sooooo slow for speedwork after the stuff I was doing last summer for the "fast 5K". However, it won't run me down - which has been concerning me lately.

I ended up feeling very good the entire run. Recoveries run at about an 11:00/mile pace and intervals at 6.5 mph (a 9:13/mile pace). My heart rate never went over 160 bpm. Perhaps I should add some incline next time???

Race Prep

Tomorrow morning is the Parks Half Marathon.  I picked up my race packet this afternoon, I have been drinking a good amount of water and gatorade today (and cut down significantly on the coffee and soda - and no beer during the Michigan game), and I had a pasta dinner.

All in all, I'm ready!

A few last minute items to go through tonight and tomorrow morning.  First, I'll need to figure out which shirt I'm wearing and pin my race bib to it.  The weather is going to be a low of 70 degrees tonight - so tomorrow's race will be warm and muggy.  ICK!  I'll most likely wear my Fleet Feet singlet - I have a U of Michigan tank top - which I wore during last year's race -however, given how poorly UofM played today against Notre Dame, I'm not so sure I want to flaunt my UofM apparel tomorrow.

I think I have my nutrition/hydration plan down for tomorrow.  I'll have a granola bar either on the way to the race or when I get there.  I'll bring 3 GUs - I'll most likely only use 2 during the race, but if the weather is really humid and hot I'll have an extra one just in case.  As for hydration - I'm not going to bring my water belt and I'll rely on the water stops on the course.  I'm hoping I don't regret this decision later on...

The one thing that I have have not figured out yet is my race plan.  In the past I have run according to heart rate, however, two weeks ago I ran my 5K trying to stay at a particular pace and I set a PR.  I'll definitely have my heart rate monitor with me tomorrow, however, I'm thinking of trying to keep to a 10:00/mile pace the whole way through - or even better, for the first 9-10 miles and then speed up for the last 3 or 4.   And, if I decide to do this, should I stick with the "official pacer"?

I have conflicting thoughts about running with a pace group.  On one hand, it's a great way to keep a consistent pace throughout the race and meet people who are at the same level/speed as you.  However, I kind of feel like I'm cheating a bit...I mean, someone else is leading you through the race.  Am I crazy to think that this cheapens the race time if I use a pacer?

I'll try to get to bed early so I can get a good night sleep before waking up early for the 7am race start.  Hopefully I'll post a race report tomorrow afternoon while watching some NFL football!

Last Minute Preparations

It's the night before the marathon.  Wow!

This afternoon I went to pick up my race packet.  I got my number, my chip and my pull-over jacket.  It's definitely too warm now to use the pull-over, but everyone who's running this marathon trained through cold weather so I guess we'll all get to proudly wear it in the fall and winter.

I'm laying everything out in preparation for tomorrow morning.  I've pinned my number on my shirt, put the chip on my shoe, filled up water bottles and snapped them on my AmphiPod, filled the pouch on my AmphiPod with GU, set aside a granola bar to eat before the race, put a new shirt, shorts, socks and sneakers in a bag to keep in my car just in case I want to change before I get home....you get the picture.

Tonight for dinner we decided to go to California Pizza Kitchen - we were close to there around dinner time, the kids like it and they have pasta there.  I had a spaghetti with tomato/basil/garlic sauce.  I hope the garlic doesn't upset my stomach tomorrow...

Tonight I will read a bit.  I'm about 2 months behind on Runner's World - I'm still reading the April edition and June just came in the mail today.  I may also re-read my blog to get an appreciation for where I was 18 weeks ago when I started my journey, and what I have been through to get to this moment.

My next post will most likely include my finishing time.  UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!

Last Minute Recommendations and/or Encouragement?

I can't believe the race is in THREE DAYS!!!! Unbelievable!

I have started to receive a few emails giving suggestions and recommendations for the race. I'd love to hear from everyone, so please leave your comments. Here's some excerpts from a few emails I've already received:

Jamie wrote: "I checked out the map of the course. I believe it should be fairly flat; although, going out towards the airport and 144 could be hilly....Get plenty of rest the week before, stay off your legs as much as possible, and eat lots of pasta. I'm excited for you - you have been preparing and training for this for a long time, you're ready to have a great run!"

David wrote: "As far as the marathon goes, you've been following a plan and that's the
main thing. If you keep to your pace, you'll do fine. If you think you feel good and get going too fast, you'll pay for it later....As for fueling and hydration, you've probably got that pretty well worked out. Avoid the temptation to take in more--it won't help. Most inexperienced runners have problems from over-consumption, not underconsumption. Even if you're burning 600+ calories/hr, you can't take in that much because you can only process about 250-280 cal/hr. But you don't need that much anyway, because you've got about 2000 cal of glycogen on board when you start and enough body fat to run to Indianapolis. Body fat converts slowly, however, which is why without any supplemental energy many runners bonk at about 20 miles...Keep hydration to about 20-25 oz/hr unless it's a real hot, humid day. Overhydration takes out far more beginning marathoners than dehydration. Electrolytes are your main concern...The main thing is to go with your training, keep your pace, and fuel/hydrate only as much as you can process, which is a lot less than you're actually expending. Start hydrating early, though and keep it
constant.

Thanks everyone!!!!

20 Mile Loop, Passover Carb Loading and Good Luck Rick!

Yesterday evening I did some "homework" to come up with a 20 mile loop course for tomorrow's run. This will be my longest training run of the program - and the last really long run before the marathon. After that I start to taper (some notes on tapering from Sara's blog are here...I'm not looking forward to this!).

I tried a bunch of different routes - adding on to, or trying to combine some of my previous courses - but they all came in too short or too long. In previous weeks, I didn't care if my 16 mile run was 16.8, but for 20 miles (and in a bit of a time crunch as I'll be going to synagogue afterwards), I need it to be 20 miles.

I finally got one to measure 20.05 miles! I'll be running through Olde Town Gaithersburg, down Rt 355 and picking up the Rockville Millennium Trail going the opposite way that I'm used to.

The last thing I may want to do is figure out if there is a place I can stow a water bottle tonight (or figure if someone I know lives near the course and have them put a water bottle somewhere???). We'll see....
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During the tapering period, you're supposed to keep your carb intake at the same level during your training (for me it's been about 60-70% of my calories from carbs...take that Atkins folks!). However, Passover starts in a week - so carb intake will be a bit difficult. I have nothing against matzah and potatoes, but I don't think I'll be able to get such a high percentage of calories from carbs on matzah and potatoes for a week.

I remembered seeing a recipe for home made granola in Runner's World about a year ago, and I was thinking perhaps I can substitute broken up matzah for the oats and make Passover "matzah-nola". So I tried this out last night - substituting broken up matzah for the rolled oats and bran flake cereal, and substituting matzah meal for wheat germ. It actually came out pretty good. It still has that matzah aftertaste, but the honey and cinnamon and raisins makes it bearable. I'll definitely be making this stuff during Passover!
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Lastly, I want to give a shout out to one of my running "dot-comrades" Rick who will be running his first marathon this Sunday in Toledo. Rick has endured a really horrible winter up in Michigan, and a pretty bad lower leg injury in the later part of his training - but he's getting it done and will be at the starting line Sunday morning (and no doubt at the finish line later that morning!!!). I decided to check the weather in Toledo to see if at least he'll have nice conditions to run in:

• Sunday: Rain and snow showers likely, mainly before noon. Cloudy, with a high near 43. North wind between 13 and 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%

Sounds yucky to me :-( Hopefully the wind will not be that strong come race time...

GOOD LUCK RICK!!!!!!

A Change In Plans

Yesterday's Total Calorie Intake: 1984

This morning's scheduled run was 7 miles. I have been doing speedwork on my mid-week longer runs - mostly Yasso 800 interval runs on the treadmill. Since the temperatures had warmed up, I was really hoping to run outside, so last night I decided that I would do a tempo run - start out at a relaxed pace for about 1 mile, then go at a "comfortably hard" pace for about 5 miles and then slow down to a relaxed pace for the last mile. No problem. I had the 7.33 mile loop from my house set up from a long run a few months ago, I laid out my running clothes - shorts and a long sleeve running shirt - before going to bed knowing that I was going to have a wonderful tempo run outside this morning.

Except that the weather did not cooperate.

At 4:55am (only 20 min earlier than my alarm was going off, so the time didn't annoy me too much) I was awoken by a torrential downpour outside. Buckets of rain, high winds - really sucky conditions to run in :-( I'll run in the rain - I'll even run in the cold rain...but I won't run in a downpour. I didn't go to a half marathon that I signed up for and trained for due to the Nor'easter that came through the area last April (I still feel strange wearing the shirt for that race since I technically did not run it...but since I did all the training I still feel I "earned" it).

Anyhow, my plans had to change this morning. I was doing my run on the dreadmill at the gym. Yuck! At least I'll be able to control my pace for the tempo run...

Despite it all, I ran well. Warm up mile of 11:13, followed by 5 miles at an average pace of 9:09 and a cooldown mile of 11:12. My Personal Record (PR) for a 10K is at a 9:03/mile pace...if I can now train close to this pace for a tempo run, I should be able to set a new PR. After May 4.

After that run I was HUNGRY! I had a yen for a breakfast burrito. With potatoes. Lots of potatoes.

I got home in time to help with "the morning rush" (fixing Doron's lunch for school, getting Matan dressed, etc.). While helping out I started to peel and cut up an onion and a potato (yes - the full russet spud made it into my burrito!) and had that simmer in a tablespoon of olive oil. While looking in the fridge for components of Doron's lunch I spotted a few extras to throw into the burrito stuffing - a mild green chili pepper and some kale. Those were thrown in the mix as well. After a few minutes I scrambled up two eggs and threw them in the pan. When it was all done, it was laid in a burrito shell with cheese and topped with salsa and Cholula hot sauce. Yummmmmmmmm! At first, there was too much there to wrap the darn thing so I had to attack it with a fork first :-)

Fueling the Furnace Yesterday and An Easy Run This Morning

Yesterday's Total Calorie Intake: 2810

(Exercise Calories:  916)

Total Net Calories:  1894

I felt like an eating machine yesterday.  Every few hours I was trying to eat to ensure I was getting enough fuel for recovery in an effort to not feel "flat" by the end of the week.  At 3pm, I took a look at my remaining calories and it was still over 1600!  In order to add some additional calories at the end of the day, I ended up having a dark beer (Black and Tan - yummmm), some fig newtons and rice crisp crackers in front of the TV.  Not the model of nutrition there - but at least it was all high-carb and low fat :-)

To put a little perspective on what I ate yesterday, I consumed over 2800 calories - 90% of my calories were from carbs, 11% fats and 9% protein.  Even with those percentages, I ate close to 69 grams of fat - when I went on my diet 4 years ago I was limited to 36 grams of fat per day.  I probably do need to bump the protein up a bit...I don't eat much meat - mainly only for our Shabbat meal on Friday night - so this won't be easy.  Especially since yesterday's foods included peanuts as a snack and yogurt with my dinner and I was still low in the protein department.

I received a comment on the blog regarding how I count calories (thanks to "the other Mike" for reading the blog and leaving a comment!).  I use the software from Calorie King.  I currently use it on my home computer but I also have a copy on my Palm Pilot that I used previously.  If you don't want to spot $45 to purchase the software, you can do a lot of it on your own with the Food Database on CalorieKing.com - it will just take more effort (you pay for it somewhere, right?).  Here's a previous post on the subject - or you can click on the "losing weight" tag in the "Label Cloud" on the right to get all of the posts that have something to do with losing weight.

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Today's run was a 4 miler at an easy pace.  Again it was dark, cold and windy this morning so I went to the gym - although I really longed to be outside.  I know that if today was a long run day I'd be pounding the pavement, but I just couldn't get motivated to bundle up this morning.  To add a little treadmill variety, I used the Cardio setting - basically, you tell the treadmill what your target heart rate is and starting speed, and the treadmill adjusts the incline to keep you around that heart rate.  (I'm able to do this workout since I wear a HRM strap and I don't need to hold on to the heart rate sensors on the treadmill).  I set the heart rate at 147 and the speed at 5.5 mph since that's where my recovery runs were yesterday.  I was able to keep this speed up until the last quarter mile when the treadmill reduced the speed to keep my heart rate from climbing.  The incline was about 3% for the first 1.5 miles, and then it went down to the 1% range for the remainder of the run.  I felt good afterwards...and hungry!