Doing it again - it's her fault

About three months ago, I was in bed, trying to go to sleep, with Michelle next to me attempting to plan another marathon. She has been marathon crazy this year. Yesterday was her 6th marathon since June. I had been resisting her attempts to get me to sign up for another marathon. Partly because I hurt my right knee sometime around last Christmas and hadn't done much running since then. Actually, the furthest I had run was about three miles all year. However, I had also gained a lot of weight (about 20 pounds) and knew I needed to get it off. As I laid there listening to Michelle bubble on about all these cool races, I told her okay. If for nothing else to get her to let me go to sleep. So she quickly signed me up for the Mississippi Blues Marathon on January 6th, 2016. I actually had fallen asleep before she finished filling out the online entry form but she woke me up to click the Okay icon so that she could say that she didn't sign me up. I disagree. I was asleep and clicked the button under duress.

I decided to actually try to train the right way this time and gave myself five months to train. August was easy until school started and I had to get up even earlier to get my runs in. I don't run well in the heat and humidity of the late Iowa summer. With school comes seminary. That means that I am in the classroom teaching at 6:30 am. I have been getting up at 4:30 (or at least close to it) to get the shorter runs in. Due to my training schedule, I had only run an eight miler before the Park to Park Half Marathon so I decided not to run it this year and instead ran a 10 mile training run while Michelle ran the race. The next weekend was the Air Force Half Marathon in Dayton, OH. However, the week leading up to the race, I got sick and spent two days in bed. I decided to do the race anyway and came away with my worst finish in a half marathon ever. Also, I realized that the Nike Structures I have been running in for the past year or two are no longer the shoes I need to be running in. As my running stride has changed, so have my shoe needs. I found the Nike Odyssey and haven't had any foot or ankle pain since. After Air Force, I took a little bit of a break from long runs but got back into it at the beginning of October.

The nice thing about October in Iowa is that it begins to cool down. Running in the afternoon or evening is bearable. Still, I have been getting up early to get the runs out of the way. I have found that if I leave the run until after work, I just won't do it. I am too tired from the day. 

Yesterday, I had a 12 mile training run to do. I planned on getting up early and getting it out of the way but didn't. I actually didn't get out of the door until almost 9 am even though I had been up since 6:30. I managed to get nearly 4 miles in before I had to drive over to Williamsburg to help a friend. When I got back I got ready to go out and run the remaining 8 miles. I decided to run down Mormon Trek Blvd, up the strip to IHOP, hit the Clear Creek Trail to Camp Cardinal, Camp Cardinal to Melrose, and Melrose back to Mormon Trek and home. I got about half way down the strip when I started to feel light headed. It felt like I was both dehydrated and under caloried. I walked for about a block and decided to run up to Running Wild to get some water and maybe buy a Gu packet. The water helped tremendously and I decided against the Gu. The run progressed just fine until the first Camp Cardinal hill. This hill is loooong. I ran almost all the way up the hill be about 50 meters from the top, I had to walk. From this point on, I just couldn't find a good running rhythm. The toes on my right foot kept slamming into the front of my shoe on the down hills so I stopped to re-tie my shoe. When I  knelt down, I was about knocked over with a severe hamstring cramp. Thought I was going to die. I finally made it Melrose and knew that I was only about 1.5 miles from home. It was a slow slog but I made it. 

I am pretty sore today but not too bad. Next Saturday I have a 13 miler. The easy runs are over. Now, as it starts to get cold, my runs start to get really long. I hope I can stay healthy and motivated.