Plan for yesterday during the trail running series was to just run easy. No effort at all. Well, for those of you who have ever been timed for doing something, know that taking it completely easy is pretty much impossible. Damn ego. That being said, I did take it relatively easy. Easy two mile warm up, and then I just ran nice and smooth. Any time I felt myself working a little harder, I backed off. It was like a really mellow tempo run. I was really tight during my warm up, but everything seemed to smooth itself out during the run. Crossed the line and immediately went out for a 1-mile cool down. My time was about 2 minutes slower than my fastest time, but felt 1,000 times easier. Feeling good.
Took today off, and then it's a short run tomorrow. Plan is to focus on stretching and hanging out on the foam roller as much as possible this week to keep loose. Also need to keep loose mentally. I think I'm doing that. As a bit of a preview to my official MDI preview post, I have to say that I feel ready. To help me stay loose:
That will never get old.
PF Factor: .25 - I'm hopeful that we're reaching the last few installments of the PF Factor. Fingers crossed.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Out of Sorts
I've been feeling off for the last two days. Not sick. But, something just isn't quite right. Hard to describe. In all honesty, I could be worrying myself sick about MDI. It's pretty much consuming all my thoughts. I'm kind of a mess. But at the same time, I feel ready. Really. I think I might need another of my sleep a lot and eat constantly kind of days.
Easy 3-mile run this evening. Nothing to report. Other than it was effortless, and I felt great. Felt better during the run than I did the rest of the day. Then again, I was looking at budget sheets all day.
The fact that I don't feel great made my decision real easy for tomorrow. It's the last day of the trail running series, but I'm not going to push it. I already have first place locked up. (Really, really, really small pond.) I thought about going hard, but with the marathon just around the corner it's probably better to take it easy. I'll add a couple miles before to make it 5 or 6.
PF Factor: .25 - I don't want to day that it's gone because the PF can be tricky, but it's pretty minor. No pain and very little tightness at any point during the day. Didn't notice a thing while I was running. No worries here.
Easy 3-mile run this evening. Nothing to report. Other than it was effortless, and I felt great. Felt better during the run than I did the rest of the day. Then again, I was looking at budget sheets all day.
The fact that I don't feel great made my decision real easy for tomorrow. It's the last day of the trail running series, but I'm not going to push it. I already have first place locked up. (Really, really, really small pond.) I thought about going hard, but with the marathon just around the corner it's probably better to take it easy. I'll add a couple miles before to make it 5 or 6.
PF Factor: .25 - I don't want to day that it's gone because the PF can be tricky, but it's pretty minor. No pain and very little tightness at any point during the day. Didn't notice a thing while I was running. No worries here.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Running and Eating on Mt. Desert Island
D and I just returned from an awesome 2 days on Mt. Desert Island, aka: pretty much the best place on earth. Normally, we hike on the island, but since I'm never hiking again, we ran both days. Both runs were awesome, but way too short. I wouldn't suggest going to MDI to run, when you're tapering. It's frustrating because both days I wanted to do more. Chock it up to another reason to go back. The other reason for this trip was to get a look at the MDI Marathon course, and spend a weekend on MDI and actually have fun...since marathon weekend isn't likely to be "fun."
We hit the road at about 7:30. I wasn't feeling all that frisky, after an evening of libations with the Trail Monsters at Novare Res. I only had 2 beers*, but things were still a bit hazy. The haze cleared along the way thanks to coffee, an egg sammich and a pumpkin donut from Dunkin' Donuts. We arrived at the Jordan Pond House shortly before 10:30 and headed out on the 12-mile "Around the Mountain" Loop on the carriage roads. The carriage roads are awesome for running. You feel speedy like you're on a road, but it's soft like a trail. Our guide book listed this route as "difficult" with an estimated time of 4 hours...on a bike!!! I have no idea who this book was written for, but we've hiked faster than 3mph. The book must be written for all the "less than trim" people we saw getting off the leaf peeper buses: the tourist cattle. "Moo!" Anywho, this loop was an amazing run. There was a fair amount of climbing, but you hardly notice it with the grade. We essentially circled Sargent Mountain. The weather was perfect: high 50's, sunny, and the views were stellar. We need to get a tiny, lightweight camera for runs like this: it was just incredible. The foliage is just starting to pop on the island, so that didn't hurt either. We didn't see a ton of people, but it wasn't dead quiet either. We knew when we were nearing a parking lot because the "traffic" increased exponentially. Of course, each time we saw people waddling along, D picked up the pace a bit. Show off. We returned to Jordan Pond and closed out the loop in 1:43 and change. Top 5 all time runs, perhaps. It was awesome. From a marathon training perspective, it was our last "long" run before the marathon, and we both felt great. In fact, it felt easy.
We stretched at the car and changed. In all our trips to MDI (we've gone at least once a year for the past 10), we've never done the legendary lunch at the Jordan Pond House. The timing worked out great, so we decided to try the world famous popovers. Eh, they were fine. Lunch was quite tasty, though. It's pricey, but you're paying for the experience and the view. Worth it.
Next, we drove to Bar Harbor to take care of the business portion of this trip: preview the marathon course. I'm not going into right now; I'll say more in my official MDI preview post. I will say that I swore a lot, and we ate some of the donuts left over from our stop in the morning.
The course tour worked out perfectly because we finished in Southwest Harbor, which is where we were staying. As I mentioned in my previous post, we had a reservation at the Claremont, a gift from D's boss. The Claremont is quite nice. It's not exactly our style, but it was nice. It reminded us a lot of the Balsams. It's not a well done or as over the top as the Balsams, but it has the same Dirty Dancing feel to it.
We checked it to our room, showered, wandered around the property, and then headed back into Bar Harbor to go to one of, if not, our favorite restaurant: Cafe This Way. I had the quail special. I'd never had quail before...it was super tasty. After dinner, we wandered around Bar Harbor laughed at the tourists, strolled through a couple tourist traps, and I picked up a six-pack of Bar Harbor Brewing Cadillac Mountain Stout. (I'm drinking one right now...it's pretty solid. I'd highly recommend it.)
Breakfast was included in our stay at the Claremont, so we downed the cheddar and broccoli quiche and waffles and headed back to the carriage roads. We picked out a short 4.5 mile loop that took us up Paradise hill, which offered great views of Frenchman's Bay. It was a bit chillier today, but still just about perfect for running. Despite it being Monday, it was busy on the carriage roads. Well, not busy further out, but busy around the major trailheads. There was a bike tour of about 2 dozen people heading out when we finished. Glad we missed that. Actually, crossing paths with bikers on the carriage roads can be a bit unsettling. 90%+ of the bikers have rented bikes in Bar Harbor, and they aren't entirely comfortable. You can see it on their faces as they head towards you. That's actually how we saw pretty much all the cyclists—head on; only one pair of bikers passed us both days. Anyway, today's run was just as awesome. Way too short, but it was beautiful. We both felt great. We finished off the last of the donuts at the car.
A quick stop at the very tasty Spot Grill in Bar Harbor for lunch, and we were on the road. We took the scenic route home—Route 1. Nice ride through the coast. All in all a really great two days.
PF Factor: I realized that I forgot the PF Factor in my last post. Well, let's go with 1. For the two days in Bar Harbor, Sunday = 1, Monday = .5. I felt it for about 2 minutes during our run on Sunday, but then it went away and felt fine. Barely noticeable on Monday. The taper is coming at the right time, so I'm not worried about it for the marathon. I have been using my massage ball and daily vitamin I.
*Full disclosure: Each beer was a liter of their special Octoberfest offering. Yeah, a liter...in a big glass mug. It doubled as upper body work.
We hit the road at about 7:30. I wasn't feeling all that frisky, after an evening of libations with the Trail Monsters at Novare Res. I only had 2 beers*, but things were still a bit hazy. The haze cleared along the way thanks to coffee, an egg sammich and a pumpkin donut from Dunkin' Donuts. We arrived at the Jordan Pond House shortly before 10:30 and headed out on the 12-mile "Around the Mountain" Loop on the carriage roads. The carriage roads are awesome for running. You feel speedy like you're on a road, but it's soft like a trail. Our guide book listed this route as "difficult" with an estimated time of 4 hours...on a bike!!! I have no idea who this book was written for, but we've hiked faster than 3mph. The book must be written for all the "less than trim" people we saw getting off the leaf peeper buses: the tourist cattle. "Moo!" Anywho, this loop was an amazing run. There was a fair amount of climbing, but you hardly notice it with the grade. We essentially circled Sargent Mountain. The weather was perfect: high 50's, sunny, and the views were stellar. We need to get a tiny, lightweight camera for runs like this: it was just incredible. The foliage is just starting to pop on the island, so that didn't hurt either. We didn't see a ton of people, but it wasn't dead quiet either. We knew when we were nearing a parking lot because the "traffic" increased exponentially. Of course, each time we saw people waddling along, D picked up the pace a bit. Show off. We returned to Jordan Pond and closed out the loop in 1:43 and change. Top 5 all time runs, perhaps. It was awesome. From a marathon training perspective, it was our last "long" run before the marathon, and we both felt great. In fact, it felt easy.
We stretched at the car and changed. In all our trips to MDI (we've gone at least once a year for the past 10), we've never done the legendary lunch at the Jordan Pond House. The timing worked out great, so we decided to try the world famous popovers. Eh, they were fine. Lunch was quite tasty, though. It's pricey, but you're paying for the experience and the view. Worth it.
Next, we drove to Bar Harbor to take care of the business portion of this trip: preview the marathon course. I'm not going into right now; I'll say more in my official MDI preview post. I will say that I swore a lot, and we ate some of the donuts left over from our stop in the morning.
The course tour worked out perfectly because we finished in Southwest Harbor, which is where we were staying. As I mentioned in my previous post, we had a reservation at the Claremont, a gift from D's boss. The Claremont is quite nice. It's not exactly our style, but it was nice. It reminded us a lot of the Balsams. It's not a well done or as over the top as the Balsams, but it has the same Dirty Dancing feel to it.
We checked it to our room, showered, wandered around the property, and then headed back into Bar Harbor to go to one of, if not, our favorite restaurant: Cafe This Way. I had the quail special. I'd never had quail before...it was super tasty. After dinner, we wandered around Bar Harbor laughed at the tourists, strolled through a couple tourist traps, and I picked up a six-pack of Bar Harbor Brewing Cadillac Mountain Stout. (I'm drinking one right now...it's pretty solid. I'd highly recommend it.)
Breakfast was included in our stay at the Claremont, so we downed the cheddar and broccoli quiche and waffles and headed back to the carriage roads. We picked out a short 4.5 mile loop that took us up Paradise hill, which offered great views of Frenchman's Bay. It was a bit chillier today, but still just about perfect for running. Despite it being Monday, it was busy on the carriage roads. Well, not busy further out, but busy around the major trailheads. There was a bike tour of about 2 dozen people heading out when we finished. Glad we missed that. Actually, crossing paths with bikers on the carriage roads can be a bit unsettling. 90%+ of the bikers have rented bikes in Bar Harbor, and they aren't entirely comfortable. You can see it on their faces as they head towards you. That's actually how we saw pretty much all the cyclists—head on; only one pair of bikers passed us both days. Anyway, today's run was just as awesome. Way too short, but it was beautiful. We both felt great. We finished off the last of the donuts at the car.
A quick stop at the very tasty Spot Grill in Bar Harbor for lunch, and we were on the road. We took the scenic route home—Route 1. Nice ride through the coast. All in all a really great two days.
PF Factor: I realized that I forgot the PF Factor in my last post. Well, let's go with 1. For the two days in Bar Harbor, Sunday = 1, Monday = .5. I felt it for about 2 minutes during our run on Sunday, but then it went away and felt fine. Barely noticeable on Monday. The taper is coming at the right time, so I'm not worried about it for the marathon. I have been using my massage ball and daily vitamin I.
*Full disclosure: Each beer was a liter of their special Octoberfest offering. Yeah, a liter...in a big glass mug. It doubled as upper body work.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
3 Miles...That's It
Ran a mellow 3 miles in the Commons this afternoon. That's it. That's all there is to report. Felt great. Weather was perfect. Things are good. Although, I was fighting the urge to run faster. I had to force myself to keep it easy.
D and I are headed up to Mt. Desert Island tomorrow to go for a run and do some official MDI marathon course recon. We thought it would be a good idea to check out the course before the race, and we also thought it would be nice to head up to the island on a weekend separate from the marathon weekend. You know, so we could actually have fun. D's boss was nice enough to give us a one night stay at the Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor. Their website includes this photo:
Yeah, I'm sure we'll fit right in.
My hope is that it's some sort of hardcore Heathers fan club. "Greetings and salutations..."
D and I are headed up to Mt. Desert Island tomorrow to go for a run and do some official MDI marathon course recon. We thought it would be a good idea to check out the course before the race, and we also thought it would be nice to head up to the island on a weekend separate from the marathon weekend. You know, so we could actually have fun. D's boss was nice enough to give us a one night stay at the Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor. Their website includes this photo:
Yeah, I'm sure we'll fit right in.
My hope is that it's some sort of hardcore Heathers fan club. "Greetings and salutations..."
Thursday, October 2, 2008
I Don't Get It
OK, smart running people, help me out.
Tonight was week 5 of the trail running series. With the rain and fallen leaves, the first mile of the course was full on sketchy. I really had to dial it back through all that single track. The result was a 9:24 first mile. Slow, slow, slow. But, I stayed upright and no turned ankles, which was key. I really worked hard once I got off of the single track. Really hard. Final time was 25:28. That works out to 6:58 per mile over the final 2.3 miles. (I know, 3.3 miles is a strange distance, but work with me here.) Here's the thing: the 6:58 average was brutally painful. On Monday, my 21st mile was a 7:30 and didn't hurt nearly as bad. Why is that? Am I at some weird anaerobic/lactate threshold? Am I a big wuss? Any ideas?
Whatever the answer is, I'm really happy with my effort today. Really happy. If the first half wasn't so sketchy and the rest of the course wasn't so soft from the rain, I'm pretty confident I would have gone under 25, which would be pretty solid on this course. Best of all, I felt strong. I was able to really dig for a little extra. Even felt smooth on the cool down. Overall, a good day.
I'm going to introduce a new feature here at Snowman Says: The PF Factor. Each day I post, I'm going to rate the badness of the plantar fasciitis on a scale of 0 to 5. 0 being no pain or discomfort. 5 being excruciating, unable to walk pain. That's the PF Factor.
Today's PF Factor: 1.
No pain at all today. Just a little tightness from time to time. Stretched the calves as much as possible. I didn't even notice or think about it while I was running. I paid special attention to how it felt when I started my cool down. I didn't feel it at all. Good stuff, and all systems go.
Tonight was week 5 of the trail running series. With the rain and fallen leaves, the first mile of the course was full on sketchy. I really had to dial it back through all that single track. The result was a 9:24 first mile. Slow, slow, slow. But, I stayed upright and no turned ankles, which was key. I really worked hard once I got off of the single track. Really hard. Final time was 25:28. That works out to 6:58 per mile over the final 2.3 miles. (I know, 3.3 miles is a strange distance, but work with me here.) Here's the thing: the 6:58 average was brutally painful. On Monday, my 21st mile was a 7:30 and didn't hurt nearly as bad. Why is that? Am I at some weird anaerobic/lactate threshold? Am I a big wuss? Any ideas?
Whatever the answer is, I'm really happy with my effort today. Really happy. If the first half wasn't so sketchy and the rest of the course wasn't so soft from the rain, I'm pretty confident I would have gone under 25, which would be pretty solid on this course. Best of all, I felt strong. I was able to really dig for a little extra. Even felt smooth on the cool down. Overall, a good day.
I'm going to introduce a new feature here at Snowman Says: The PF Factor. Each day I post, I'm going to rate the badness of the plantar fasciitis on a scale of 0 to 5. 0 being no pain or discomfort. 5 being excruciating, unable to walk pain. That's the PF Factor.
Today's PF Factor: 1.
No pain at all today. Just a little tightness from time to time. Stretched the calves as much as possible. I didn't even notice or think about it while I was running. I paid special attention to how it felt when I started my cool down. I didn't feel it at all. Good stuff, and all systems go.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Is Planter Fasciitis Contagious?
If so, I blame Jamie.
I don't think it is, so he's off the hook. But, I do have some mild planter fasciitis in my left foot. I'd say we're on PF watch yellow...or chartreuse...or whatever level means we're aware of the threat and monitoring the situation, but not ready to blow up any civilians. We're at that level. In all seriousness, I don't think it will be a big deal. There's no pain (only a touch first thing in the morning), just tightness. It felt fine on my run today. What was strange was that it just kind of appeared. I hadn't felt it at all until Monday morning before our long run. The PF is a sneaky bastard.
Speaking of today's run, I ran 3.5 in the pouring rain. Not entirely enjoyed. However, I felt great. Really good. Very encouraging after running 21 on Monday. Of course, some credit goes to Shannon, the official massage provider of Snowman Says. I was able to get a massage yesterday, which was hugely helpful. I'm hoping I can squeeze at least one more in before the marathon.
Speaking of the marathon, I was starting to think about splits and times last night. My head exploded. I do have a goal...to be revealed later, but I think I'm just going to go by feel. I'm going to figure out the splits for a few key spots, e.g. halfway, but I'm not going to worry about each mile. I'm not going to worry about hitting certain times. I'm just going to run. The 21-mile run gave me plenty of confidence that I can complete the distance. The fueling strategy I used worked well, so I'm confident in that. It will be all about surviving the pavement, and I think with a nice, easy taper, I'll be in good shape there. It's getting close, and starting to feel real.
Not related to anything, I'm in love with the new Genius feature in iTunes 8. It's very cool. You pick a song, and the Genius picks an entire playlist, up to 100 songs, based on that one song. It's really found some gems for me. It's found some songs I forgot I had. Good stuff.
I don't think it is, so he's off the hook. But, I do have some mild planter fasciitis in my left foot. I'd say we're on PF watch yellow...or chartreuse...or whatever level means we're aware of the threat and monitoring the situation, but not ready to blow up any civilians. We're at that level. In all seriousness, I don't think it will be a big deal. There's no pain (only a touch first thing in the morning), just tightness. It felt fine on my run today. What was strange was that it just kind of appeared. I hadn't felt it at all until Monday morning before our long run. The PF is a sneaky bastard.
Speaking of today's run, I ran 3.5 in the pouring rain. Not entirely enjoyed. However, I felt great. Really good. Very encouraging after running 21 on Monday. Of course, some credit goes to Shannon, the official massage provider of Snowman Says. I was able to get a massage yesterday, which was hugely helpful. I'm hoping I can squeeze at least one more in before the marathon.
Speaking of the marathon, I was starting to think about splits and times last night. My head exploded. I do have a goal...to be revealed later, but I think I'm just going to go by feel. I'm going to figure out the splits for a few key spots, e.g. halfway, but I'm not going to worry about each mile. I'm not going to worry about hitting certain times. I'm just going to run. The 21-mile run gave me plenty of confidence that I can complete the distance. The fueling strategy I used worked well, so I'm confident in that. It will be all about surviving the pavement, and I think with a nice, easy taper, I'll be in good shape there. It's getting close, and starting to feel real.
Not related to anything, I'm in love with the new Genius feature in iTunes 8. It's very cool. You pick a song, and the Genius picks an entire playlist, up to 100 songs, based on that one song. It's really found some gems for me. It's found some songs I forgot I had. Good stuff.
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