10/16/12 5 miles

my achilles tendon had been hurting since the marathon so i decided to take a full week off to give it a break, even though, i have the nashville ultra coming up. so the last 2 days it had not been hurting, but it was still a little swollen. i hopped on the treadmill, figuring it would be less stress on the tendon to run 6. i could tell it was hurting from the start but it wasn't really painful so i kept on. at mile 2 i had this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach, i felt like i hadn't eaten in weeks and was starving, even though i had 20 chicken nuggets on my way home (yes, that was not a typo). finally, at mile 3.5 i had to jump off the treadmill and run to the kitchen and get a snack and a small drink, weirdest thing ever. don't know if my blood sugar was getting low or what. other than that, from mile 2-3 i felt the best i ever have while running, my legs felt strong, my movement felt fluid-like, it was so easy, my tendon even stopped hurting a little. then mile 3-3.5 the hunger was hitting hard and the legs were getting a little tired (i had bumped up the pace from 6.2mph to 6.6 or 6.8, i don't really remember). then about mile 4 i got an emergency call and only got to finish mile 5 of the planned 6. good thing, i got off the treadmill, hopped in the shower real fast and my tendon was swollen as much as it had been right after the marathon, and it was hurting pretty good now. so, i think the ultra is out of the question. i worry i have some micro-tears in the tendon and i am going to give it a long break before running again. the end for tonight, on a sad note.

10/6/12 Southern TN Plunge Marathon

i wasn't sure i was ready for this, i felt good but i also knew i hadn't got a lot of my shorter runs in lately. i got to the race much later than i wanted to. i knew i needed to use the porta potty for #2 before the race, but we got stopped by a train on the way there. it was also raining, windy and pretty cool. i had bought some wet wipes to use in the porta potty. since i did not get to use the porta potty before the race i stuffed my wet wipes between my fuel belt and shirt along with my trash bag poncho. i did not start out too fast to begin with because my fuel belt came undone about 50 feet into the race. i had to run back and get it in traffic, tighten it up while carrying my poncho and wet wipes and put it back on. once again i stuffed my poncho and wet wipes into it. about another 100 yards, my wet wipes fell out and i had to run back against traffic to get them. not starting off good. about mile 2.5 i felt for the wet wipes and they were gone, who knows where. that concerned me about the future pit stop i knew i was going to have to make. i was going to try and make it to mile 8. the marathon/ 1/2 marathon field split around mile 7.5 and there were only porta potties every 2 miles. when i got to mile 8 the porta potty was full, i think all the marathoners had been waiting for that one. i thought i could make it to mile 10. at mile 10 the porta potty was open and i sat my belt and poncho down on the ground and headed in. to save time i took my shot blocks in the porta potty. one note here. i had used shot blocks for my last 3 long runs (the ones with and without caffeine) and they had been pretty easy to get down. however, as i metioned today was cold and the cold had the same effect on these shot blocks as it does syrrup, they were much harder, so the extra time chewing while on the toilet did help a little. the toilet paper was horrible, oh i missed my wet wipes. i got everything taken care of and got some water to finish swallowing the blocks. it still kind of disturbs me that i was eating in a porta potty. anyway, i was back on my way. from miles 9 to 10 my pace went from 10:05 to 10:28 due to the potty break. i felt pretty good, and up until mile 19 i was still running a 10:24 pace. after that it really slowed, except for mile 23 that was a 10:14 mile, i felt good at that point and felt like i had broken through the wall. i was walking on air, i never thought i could feel so free-ee-e, flying away, into the next hill (sorry, i've been watching greatest american hero on the treadmill) where it all got back to feeling like i was actually running a marathon. the other oddity of this race was that my watch was showing i was actually running less mileage than the posted mile markers, by about .15 of a mile, at every mile. when i got to mile 25 i thought i had it whooped. then, my watched beeped for 26 miles and i still hadn't reached the 26 mile marker. then i got to it and it seemed like forever until i got to the end. but i did. in 4:40.28 officially, a pace of 10:42, a PR by 22 minutes. after the race i needed to sit down and found a seat and got some gatorade. then i got really cold and found a little cafe to get some hot chocolate. my legs and feet were sore sore and my achilles tendon was swollen, never had that happen before. oh, by the way, around 1/2 way through it started raining, the wind picked up and i got cold, so from that point on i wore the trash bag poncho, which covered my bib number, which means there are no photos of me officially for the 2nd half of the race. good thing, in the photos they did get, my form looks horrible, both feet on the ground plodding along. they actually sent me a picture of cousin todd because they thought it was me (the official race photographers). thats all i can think of right now.

9/30/12 12 miles

i did not run much in september, but i did get in some long runs and did surprisingly well, for me. this was a 12 mile run on the treadmill, the balls of my feet hurt, that made me worry since i had planned on wearing either this pair of shoes or the shoes that hurt my foot on the 20 mile run, for the marathon. after this run i decided to wear the asics i wore in my last 2 marathons and just hope they had enough juice. this run took me 1:56.51, a 9:44 pace, wow.

Back: 20 on 9/24/2012

i haven't blogged in a while, since before i went to montana, over a month ago. i haven't ran much in that time either, but i have had some memorable runs. i got back from montana on a saturday and the following monday i ran 20 miles, on the road. this was the longest training run i have ever ran, and it wasn't that bad. i had been dreading it, but kept reminding myself of the marathons that i went into unprepared and i knew i had to do this, more mental than physical i think. of course i started out too fast and i ran the course where miles 2.5 to 6 are nearly all uphill with a big hill to reach mile 6. at mile 6, because i was going too fast, i started getting a side pain. i had also decided to skip my usual mile 5 refuel and to do it at mile 6 at the top of the hill. i needed that walk break. from mile 6 to mile 8 was gently rolling hills, side hurt a little, not too bad. mles 8-9.5 was pretty much all downhill, nice and refreshing. the rest of the run had some small ups and downs. at mile 13 my right foot really started hurting just behind the ball of my foot on the outside. it kept getting worse until i finished. one time i even untied my shoe to let it loosen up as much as possible, that helped very little. my final time was 3:25.07 a pace of 10:15, extremely surprising. i tried using some caffeine shot blocks on this run and did not like the taste but i was able to get them down. everything else was pretty unventful.