the first day of the rest of my life.

okay, not really.

that's a wee bit dramatic.

but ! today is the first day of my training for Rhode Island 70.3. sqeee!

my PF is feeling better. I did a lot of PT specific stretches today and have been rolling a frozen water bottle under my feet at work. I was able to get in an easy three with minimal pain. I think that with stretching, the frozen water bottle, and the foot wheel I'll heal. if I can spent 10+ hours a week training, I can devote a few minutes each day to stretching.

that, or it will get worse and I will suck it up and go to the doctor.

but I'm optimistic.

[some might say wildly so]

anyhow, the first day of training was a success:

RUN: 3.30 miles in 30m 13s // 09m 10s/Mi

SWIM: 1600.00 meters in 34m 16s // 02m 08s /100 meters
400 wu

2 x 50 finger tip drag

2 x 50 single arm drill
2 x 50 catch up drill
2 x 50 swim

100 easy

2 x 50 finger tip drag

2 x 50 single arm drill

2 x 50 catch up drill

2 x 50 swim

300 cd

it's been a while since I did drills and man was the single arm drill tough. I looked like a dying fish. so graceful I am.

four letter word.

r-e-c-o-v-e-r-y is a four letter word.

tapering may be a total PITA but recovery really sucks.

yesterday I did what should have been an 'easy three' but was a 'painful three.'
today should have been another 'easy' run and the whole 1.63 mi hurt like hell.

I think I have PF ... the arch in my right foot really freaking hurts and some people on bt.com have suggested I get a foot roller, take anti inflamatories, and rest.

boo.

now, for the good:
although training for RI70.3 starts officially on Monday, I can afford a few+ days off from running. my running base is very good, and focusing more on swimming and biking [esp. biking!] certainly will not hurt [my guess is that it will help my tri performances.].

oh, and apparently racing 26.2 mi really takes a toll on your body . who knew !

national marathon race report.

suntrust national marathon.
march 21, 2009.
7:00am
washington d.c.

gun time: 3:52:52
chip time: 3:50:43
pace: 8:46
AG finish: 38/167
total finish: 714/ 2094

friday:
I had court in the morning, so I finished up with that and headed south to the district to pick up my race packet. I, of course, spent a good hour at the expo... got a free seated massage, bought Body Glide and two signed copies of Bart Lasso's new book, tried the PowerAde that would be served on the course --- oh, and got my race bib, chip, and tshirt.

J. and I slept at my parent's house [they live in Silver Spring]. my mom made dinner [pasta, bread] and we watched some of the tourney. fell asleep around 10:00.

saturday morning:
up early. up REALLY early. up at 4:30.
it took me a while to figure out what to wear. accuweather.com said 33*f at the start, 41*f at the finish. I ended up with my UA tights, running skirt [to hold GU], and long sleeved UA compression shirt. Red, of course, to support the Terps [... which turned out not to matter. sa-la-haughtered by memphis. ouch].
ate breakfast - oatmeal w. brown sugar - and drove to the Metro.

Metro'd into the city without a hiccup and headed into the runner's village.

J. [aka 'best husband ever'] and I before the start ^^

Race!
found the 3:50 group and decided to stick with them. gun went off AT 7:00a. -- nice amount of runners -- 5k for the half and 3k for the full.

I ended up running with two guys - Lin and Steve [someone I knew from college. random.] the full and half run together for the first, well, 13 mi. it was a teeny bit crowded for the first 5 mi, but then everyone spread out and the streets got wider.

The course was v. nice - went through the 'typical' d.c. parts: the capitol, monument, etc. - and also through some of the lesser seen neighborhoods. the crowd support was pretty good - what you would expect from a medium sized race.

saw J. at mile 14 and got a kiss ^^

I felt REALLY GOOD for the first 15-16 mi --- strong, smooth, comfortable pace.

after we split from the halfsies we re ran the first 5ish miles, then headed south toward Anacostia. we ran along the river for a bit, and then there was a hellish out and back around mile 22-23.

and then, in my head: the wheels on the bus are falling off, falling off, falling off.

I started feeling panic-y around then. I was really starting to hurt and the thought of another 5 mi was freaking me out .. I just kept saying to myself: 5 then 4 then 3 then 2 then 1 then .2

Icandothis, Icandothis, Icandothis.

... my goal of sub 3:50:00, which seemed so possible, so likely, even, was starting to slip away.

24-26: ouch ouch ouch.

the wheels on the bus are falling off, falling off, falling off.

mile 26: you can see the pain ! ^^

then: the strangest thing happened. I got about 200 feet from the finsish line -- and stopped. I litereally Could Not Run Anymore. everyone was yelling GO! You can do it ! but I couldn't. I only stopped for maybe 10 seconds and then I just went. I crossed the finish line with a watch time of 3:50:46.

missed by goal by under 50 sec. but PR'd by 2 1/2 minutes.

me and J. after the race ^^

proof! ^^

after

found J. and saw hilary and andi and met my parents for lunch at Haad Thai. delicious.

so freaking sore.

then we went to Rock Bottom in Va and watched Md. got slammed by memphis.

reflections

I feel ... okay about this race.

that's it: just okay. I'm happy about the PR but annoyed I didn't break 3:50:00.

the most frustrating: I don't know WHY I'm not thrilled about this race. It's another 26.2 under my proverbial belt, a PR for christsake. I ran a good race. yes, I was hurting at the end, but it's a freaking marathon, not a day at the spa.

next up! training for Rhode Island 70.3.

26.2 in 48.

thanks for the good wishes !

48 hours from now I will be be around mile 10 of the marathon.

I'm rested, tapered, and ready to go sub 3:50:00!

haikus.

national in six.
taper madness setting in.
ready to race now.

need to go running.
want to lace up shoes and go.
cannot - need to rest.

t minus 6 days.
daily check weather dot com
please be fifty five.

confidence !

marathons are as much mental as they are physical.

for me, it's so important to go into the race feeling good: trained, prepared, well rested, ready.

tonight's run was So Unbelievably Good.

I met up with my running group -- me + 2 guys. small group.

we started going a sub 8:00 pace... um, guys, we need to slow down a smidge.

and then -- I settled comfortably into an 8:10ish pace. unbelieveable.

5.10 miles in 41m 17s // 08m 05s/Mi

EIGHT. OH. FIVE.

splits:
mile 1: 8:17

mile 2: 8:05

mile 3: 8:16

mile 4: 8:04

mile 5: 7:54 (SEVEN. FIFTY. FOUR.)

taper explanation.

from the ever-so-brilliant coach Jorge at beginnertriathlete.com :

Tapering is nothing more than reducing training load enough to allow your body to recover while doing enough to sustain the maximum amount of gained fitness. Every time you train you get fitter but you also can get proportionally more fatigue. Think it like this, every time you train you earn fitness and fatigue points. Usually fatigue points worth more than fitness point but fitness points linger longer than fatigue ones. You get more tired after a session but you recover faster and the adaptation gains (fitness) will last longer.

The reasoning behind tapering is that you want to keep as much fitness as you have achieved during months of training but at the same time get rid of as much of the accumulated fatigue. When you taper you get rid of that fatigue but you can also start losing some of your hard earned fitness hence while the volume is diminished we still perform some intensity to generate enough load to ‘maintain’ your fitness while allowing your body to recover at the same time.

With that out of the way; you mainly want to reduce your running volume during tapering while keeping some runs (with some intensity like strides) to recover while maintaining fitness. Since you also bike and swim and if the marathon was an important race for me then *I* would keep some of those swim/bike sessions but I would keep 'em short and easy for the last 10-14 days leading to the race to get a nice aerobic workout without the stress induced by running. Maybe something like 30-45 min swims and max 60 min bike ride.

No one knows you body better than you and tapering is very specific to the person; if reducing your running volume is plenty for you to feel that you are recovering and ready to kick booty at the mary then keep the swim/bike as it is, if you need more rest make swim/bike sessions shorter/easier and go from there. I prefer to lose a tad of fitness but making sure I am 100% recovered and ready for the race.

last double digit + neg. splits

last double digit run before National. sqeeee!


ah-mazing weather. high 60s/ low 70s and most of baltimore city, it seemed, was out running. it was weird to actual sweat -- it's been a while since I've finished a run covered in salt.

and check out those negative splits!

t minus 13 days and I am so ready to go.

12.05 miles in 1h 47m 56s // 08m 58s/Mi

splits:
mile 1: 9:23
mile 2: 9:16
mile 3: 9:24 [slowest]
mile 4: 9:22
mile 5: 9:24 [slowest]
mile 6: 9:09
mile 7: 9:03
mile 8: 8:43
mile 9: 8:42
mile 10: 8:25
mile 11: 8:26
mile 12: 8:20 [fastest]

totals 2 march through 8 march.

swim: 3750.00 M in 1h 18m 03s
bike: 31.00 Mi in 1h 43m 55s
run: 26.67 Mi in 3h 58m 03s

total: 07h 00m 01s

totals - feb and last week.

february 09:
swim: 10425 M in 3h 37m 10s
bike: 111.5 Mi in 6h 07m 09s
run: 129.94 Mi in 19h 31m 52s
total: 29h 16m 11s

23 feb through 1 march:
swim: 2125.00 M in 45m 15s
bike: 34.00 Mi in 1h 53m 23s
run: 23.00 Mi in 3h 30m 43s
total: 06h 09m 21s

the biggest .. liar?

the story:
Ex-'Biggest Loser' contestant didn't exactly run marathon
BY AARON BARNHART • MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS • February 28, 2009

NBC has launched an investigation into an episode of its popular reality show "The Biggest Loser" that showed an eliminated contestant purporting to finish a 26.2-mile marathon. Eyewitnesses posting to a tv blog said he had done no such thing.

In the final segment of Wednesday's broadcast, a story about Dane Patterson, who lost more than 100 pounds in an extreme weight-loss regimen while competing at The Biggest Loser ranch, showed him back at home after having left the show, running a marathon with his wife, Carli, in Arizona.

The program reported that Patterson finished the marathon in 3 hours 53 minutes. Clearly, the time was in error; a clock can be seen showing the race time at 5:53, not 3:53. But the assertion that he had run 26.2 miles was a lie, as Carli Patterson herself admitted on her blog.

"We had stopped along the way to film at a water station and to make up for lost time our producers drove us ONLY 3 miles up the road," she wrote, "but we are still incredibly happy about the 23 miles we ran."

Unfortunately, Carli was contradicted by her husband in an online video that NBC removed later. In it, Dane Patterson says, "It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life to run side by side with my wife for an entire marathon."

Several runners, writing on various Web sites, asserted that Patterson was disqualified after failing to disclose to race officials that his time had been van-aided. Another reader, whose wife ran with the Pattersons near the finish line, offered a different explanation: Stragglers' times simply were not recorded in the official results.

But that was a trivial concern to many long-distance runners, who still remember the notorious Rosie Ruiz cheating in order to win the Boston Marathon in 1980.

Not surprisingly, NBC went into damage-control mode after the initial story appeared at TVBarn.com. A conference call with Dane Patterson, who was eliminated from the show this week, was canceled abruptly Thursday morning.

Late Thursday evening, a network spokesman issued a statement about the "Biggest Loser" episode in question. The statement said that "the segment as aired was contrary to NBC policy," and that network executives would work with the show's producers "to ensure that corrective action is taken."

Late Thursday evening, a network spokesman issued a statement about the "Biggest Loser" episode in question. The statement said that "the segment as aired was contrary to NBC policy," and that network executives would work with the show's producers "to ensure that corrective action is taken."

------------

my thoughts:

When I saw heard (I usually watch the show, but missed this particular episode) that Blaine ran the marathon in 3:53, I was, like others, flabergasted. 3:53:13 is my PR at Richmond, and that came as a result of many, many miles and a few sacrifices.

Then: a van drove his wife and him 3 mi.
Then: it was actually 5:53. For TWENTY THREE miles.

Any marathoner can tell you that the three miles around 17-20 are the most painful. You have been on your feet for a few hours but still have at least a 10K to go. Mentally those miles are hard. Physically they hurt.

I - like many others - take offense to his wife saying that it was "only" three miles. I don't care if it was "only" 200 feet -- if you don't run 26.2 mi, you did not complete a marathon. You can pass out at mi 26.1 and, as much as that really sucks, it's a DNF.

Oh, and the different between a 5K and a 10K is 3.1 miles... can I just use my 5K PR as my 10K PR? It's ONLY three miles!

I would have perferred to see him take 6+ hours, and cross the finish line with integrity.

I understand that NBC, who is shocked, I'm sure ::sarcasm:: , pushed for this. They had the van waiting for him, told him to get in, etc. But: we have free will. Just because NBC says 'cheat!' you don't have to say, 'sure, by how much?'.

I'm glad the truth came out. Everyone who runs/ walks 26.2 mi is a marathoner. Sub 3:00 or 7+, 26.2 is an amazing accomplishment.

But: only if it's 26.2.