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Anxious

15 Monday Oct 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Boulder Marathon, sports, training

Twenty meters past the 26 mile marker, the camera caught me with both feet off the pavement.  You can tell by looking at the shoe shadows.  I don’t bother with much of a kick in these long runs.  What’s the point?  But it’s good to see I have at least a little hop in my step.  About 5 minutes later I was laying flat on the pavement with cramps in both legs.  It was a great run up until I stopped.

Hoping the Boulder Marathon is as good a run as the Denver Marathon.  I’m a tad bit nervous because I didn’t train as hard as I wanted.  I won’t decide upfront how hard I intend to push myself.  I’ll make that call after I’ve warmed up a couple of miles.  As an amateur, I get to make those decisions.  If you’ve ever run a marathon, or multiple marathons, then you know how dicey they can be.  Almost regardless of conditioning, anything can happen with such a long distance.

I would love to feel strong throughout the run, but I am mostly interested in how my core will feel after 18 – 20 miles.  I did increase my core conditioning exercises.  Not sure if I’ve been at it long enough to show results, but this will certainly be a test.  Not saying I’ll pick up my pace if I’m strong at 20, but I might to celebrate that my stomach isn’t melting at this point.  This isn’t the wall per se, even though it’s at about when runners hit the wall.  But it’s similar.  My experience is that my overall body feels fine but my stride begins to shorten considerably as I lose strength in my lower abdomen and upper legs between 18 and 20 miles.  I can continue running feeling comfortable, but noticeably slower.  Makes the final 10K progress like a dolly zoom.

This Sunday will be my last marathon of the year, my end of season trifecta.  I survive this, then I can wind down.  I’ll move my runs to the middle of the day once daylight savings time ends.  As part of that, I’ll reduce the distance to 3 or 4 miles – something I can run during a lunch hour.  If I’m dedicated, I’ll work out on weights this winter.  I probably need that more than running.  Lastly, I expect to continue the mountain hiking – or snowshoeing – throughout the winter.  But I need to get through this marathon first.

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Weekend Warrior

06 Saturday Oct 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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sports, Tavon Austin

No big run or massive hike this weekend.  I had planned a 20 mile hike on the Continental Divide Trail.  Instead I’m sitting on the couch multi-tasking between college football, facebook, and re-installing apps on my iPhone because my Apple ID changed earlier this year.  Never change your Apple ID.  I’m not even sure how I did that.  Having a cold sucks but I did just watch Stanford play Arizona and I’m now watching Texas play West Virginia.  Got my MacBook Pro on my lap, iPhone in one hand and remote in the other.  Also eating a bowl of Texas chili Karen just made using my tomatoes and Serrano peppers from the garden.  Good thing since it’s snowed the last two mornings in a row.  It’s fall in Colorado.

Since I can’t run, I’ve been reviewing my race results from all the marathons and half marathons I’ve run over the last couple of years.  The Denver Marathon in 2010 and 2012.  The Austin Marathon in 2011.  The Austin Half Marathon in 2012.  The Moab Half in 2011 and 2012.  And the Boulder Half in 2011 and 2012.  That might seem egocentric, but there are few things more narcissistic than sports.  Except maybe blogging.  But sports is also all about statistics, so I don’t think it’s out of line to review my race results.  I did find something strange.

I ran the half in both Denver Marathons in 1:45.  13.1 miles in two marathons within 9 seconds of each other.  But wait, there’s more.  I’ve never run that fast in a half marathon.  Out of 5 half marathons, I’ve never run faster than 1:48.  What’s with that?  Thinking about it, I don’t think I ever tried racing those half marathons.  I might have treated them more like every day runs.  Either that, or I ran a screamin’ fast pace on those two marathons.  I’m sort of impressed with myself right now in a vain, self-absorbed, couch-potato sort of way.  And what’s with this Austin guy from W. Virginia?  He’s tearing Texas up!

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Under the Weather

05 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by Ed Mahoney in Running

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Tags

Austin Marathon, Boulder Marathon, Houston Marathon, sports, training

Training for the Boulder Marathon isn’t going to plan.  I caught my first cold of the season.  Actually, for me, my first cold in 3 years.  Working from home, isolated in my basement office, sometimes has benefits.  I suspect I caught this from my daughter.

But Ellie is there for me – blessing me every time I sneeze.  And she asked me where the term “under the weather” came from.  According to the Internet, the full phrase is “under the weather bow” and refers to an ill sailor going below deck.  And the weather bow itself refers to the side of the ship that the bad weather is blowing against.  Seems reasonably true to me.

I’m more concerned about how long I’ll be below deck.  The Boulder Marathon is October 21st – just two weeks away.  I know it’s unlikely I’ll fall out of shape, but I was hoping to improve over the Denver Marathon.  The dreamer in me was fantasizing about qualifying for Boston.  Might need to run something at sea-level for that – maybe the Houston Marathon in January.  Nah, Houston sucks.  I could run the Austin Marathon again.  It kicked my ass last time and I’d like another shot at it.  That’s in February.  I’ll think it over while I’m bed-ridden this weekend.

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