Forget about me yet?

OK, so I haven't been posting in recent days, but that doesn't mean I haven't been active. First the bad, however.

Brother came to town as advertised. And while that in itself is a good thing, the excessive amounts of mexican food, more frequent beers, breakfast burritos...well, you get the idea. Tried to maintain some control during the together time, but not really sure how well I did. Guess the scale tomorrow will tell the tale.

There's been much good during that time, however. Since I was last in here on the 9th, the hit list looks like this:

11/10: 1 mile swim

11/11: iron work in the morning, 3 mile run that evening

11/12: iron in the AM, mile swim in the PM

11/13: off day

11/14: 8 mile run

11/15: AM iron

11/16: mile swim at lunch, 3+ mile run after lunch

11/17: mile swim that night

11/18: AM iron, 4.5 mile run at lunch

11/19: AM iron

11/20: off day

11/21: 16 mile run

A fairly decent showing, but the last entry kind of scared me. The 16 hurt. Legs started cramping again, and again I don't think I was drinking enough water. Will I EVER learn? On the plus side, however, I appear to have run that distance 13 1/2 minutes faster than the same distance along mostly the same path just 4 months ago. That's improvement.

Right?

Nope, haven't flaked yet

OK, well maybe just a bit. Monday was a hot mess all the way around, so didn't get the workout in that I'd hope, but think I may have made up for it today with a bit of vengeance. Got up and went the gym and lifted at 6:15, hit the pool for a mile over lunch, and then knocked off the 3miler above after work (about 11:05/per). Not a bad day, but not likely to be able to pull it off tomorrow: got usual M/W obligations after work and brother is coming to town for about a week starting tomorrow, and he's staying with me. This will be a test, especially keeping the eating under control.

Still, a good effort on the day.

On the road again

So, delayed by a day, but got out there today (don't think I'm completely dogging it already, I did get in a mile in the pool yesterday afternoon). Headed out just before 8 this morning and realized why I wasn't quite as eager to get out as I wanted to be. I expected to hurt. Started thinking about it and realized that the last time I'd run was a week ago. In DC. At the Marine Corps Marathon. At the end, everything hurt, and that was plainly what I was thinking about in the back of my head. My first few steps were tentative, but once I got going and realized I wasn't the hot mess I was at the end of the MCM, I settled in OK. Decided not to push real hard today and only did 4.5 at about an 11 min. pace. Not blazing fast, but for a guy that not too long ago was happy to do long runs under 15/per.

My plan right now is to hop on the scale manana, see where I am, and start making some more solid plans then. I doing this.

Here we go again...

OK, yes, it's been a loooong time sine either CS or I have been here and posted anything. It's not all bad however, we've both been busy this past summer and early fall. Since we were last here, we both ran the Garden of the Gods 10-miler (and fast enough to make the Ascent cutoff), I ran the Summer Roundup Trial Run (which I only needed to finish in order to qualify for the Ascent), we hiked from Manitou Springs to the top of Pikes Peak twice, we did ladder hikes at the top once, I went up La Luz about 5 times in the 6-7 weeks before the Ascent, and then tackled the Pikes Peak Ascent itself. And everyone survived (in fact, I finished only minute behind CS... A DAMNED MINUTE!). Finally, this past weekend I was in DC and ran the Marine Corps Marathon, which is prompts this posting today.

I had plans to make a great improvement on my time from my first marathon experience two years ago, and largely accomplished it this year: I finished it running and shaved nearly two hours (not a typo) off of my first marathon time. But it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. Inexplicably, I started to ache around the 13 mile mark, my calves started to grab around mile 17, and by 20-22 they were in full revolt, cramping like crazy. While I beat a lot of people that, at least visually, were in better shape than me, I wasn't and am still not happy about the way the last 6-8 miles played out and started plotting another attempt almost as soon as I'd finished. Clearly, there's something wrong with me. While I'm not going to hide this fact, I'm not going to advertise beyond this blog what my plans are (which you can probably guess by looking at the countdown widget in the upper right corner of this blog page). Right now my plan is to go out to PHX, run the time I'd hoped to get in DC, and then I'll back off.

Since I got back from DC Monday night, I haven't run at all. Wanted to give the body a chance to heal up (today's the first day this week I don't feel any after-effect soreness) and rest. I have been in the pool three times, however, and swam a mile each time, so I haven't completely settled back on my laurels. Planning on going out to run tomorrow, something in the area of 5-6 miles, just to see how I feel and to determine how wise it is to aim for another marathon in just over two months. At this moment, I feel pretty confident it can be done, I just need to stay committed for the duration. I want this.

So, starting tomorrow, I'll try to start posting regularly again. Training runs, timing, eating summaries, whatever will keep me honest and on the ball. This thing goes off in 72 days.