Week 16: Nine miles

2:27 hours, 2:3 minute run/walk ratio

Not a bad run today, but not a great one. I got off to a bit of a late start—the decaf coffee I drank at a café yesterday afternoon wasn't so decaf, and I was buzzed for the rest of the day and had a hard time sleeping, so I didn't get up until 7:30 am, and didn't get out onto the road until 9:30-ish. The wind was working against me today, blowing so hard that it made quite a headwind on several of my miles, and slowed me down quite a bit. And my whole left side was giving me pains, in my lower back, butt, hamstring, and across the bottom of my foot. I don't know what that was all about. Plus, I kind of had to go to the bathroom from the middle of mile 3 on. Not enough to have to stop, but enough to make the rest of the run a bit uncomfortable.

Also, I hadn't clipped my toenails in a while, and my right little toenail made a bit of a hole in the next toe. I wore my new Nikes for the first time, and they were pretty comfortable otherwise.

Still, despite all the complaints, I averaged 16.3 minutes per mile, and kept up my run/walk intervals for the whole run. Not too bad for my first long run after being in the hospital.

I think I will slow down to a 1:3 minute run/walk ratio for my 20-mile run next week. It's hard enough keeping up the 2:3 on nine miles.

Friday

19 laps, 2:3 minute run/walk ratio, 31:33 minutes

Pretty good run this morning. The weather was cool, I felt okay. Still feeling a little slow. I think I should start slowing down my ratio on the long runs to 1:3. I've only got nine miles to do this weekend, but I could use the rest of a nice, slow run. For the 20+ runs, we were always advised to slow down by two minutes per mile, and use a slower run/walk ratio, which I don't usually do when training on my own, but this time, I think it would be a good idea.

Wednesday

20 laps, 2:3 minute run/walk ratio, 34:11 minutes

I'm back! And had a pretty good run this morning. Miscounted and ended up doing 20 laps; it would have been 32:33 for 19. A bit slower than my best, but, after being off for a week on account of being horribly sick, I think 32:33 is pretty good.

It was nice and cool out this morning. The ground was a bit wet, but not sloppy or slippery. It felt good to be running (and walking) again, but I can feel that I'm a bit worn out. I've decided to push my schedule back and do the nine-mile run this weekend. I don't think I could handle twenty. It will be fun to run 23 miles in San Francisco. I'll have to look up my old runs and plan a route. Probably twice around the park, including Stowe Lake, and once up and down Great Highway to Sloat will do it, but I'll have to remind myself the mileage on various bits. I think it was three and a half miles from one end of the park to the other, so seven miles round trip. Plus one mile for each loop around Stowe Lake. But I don't remember how many miles it is from JFK down Great Highway to Sloat.

I imagine the AIDS Marathoners will be running in the park that day, too. I wonder what their mileage will be? If they're doing 23 miles that day, too, I might ask if I can run with them, as a three-time AIDS Marathon alumni, even though I'm not doing the AIDS Marathon this year.

Week off

I didn't run this week at all—and I had a pretty good excuse this time! I was in the hospital Monday and Tuesday with cellulitis in my left arm. I'm home now, but still have an IV in my arm and am giving myself IV antibiotics, every eight hours, for seven days total. I have two more days to go. I feel much better than I did earlier this week, but am still tired, and have to work everything around my every-eight-hour IV schedule. And my left arm is very swollen and sore, because I haven't been able to use any compression on it while it was infected. I probably could have still done the nine miles I had scheduled for this week—and was planning to at least try it, right up until I ended up sleeping in until 9:30 am and waking to a cold, windy day, and just couldn't get myself to go out there and run.

I still haven't quite decided whether to shift my schedule later by one week, and do the nine-mile run next week, or try to go ahead and do twenty miles next week. I still have one extra week built into my schedule, so I could shift it, but that would put my 23-mile run the weekend I'm going to be in the Bay Area. On the one hand, it would be a lot more fun and easy to run 23 miles in San Francisco in Golden Gate Park and along the ocean; but, on the other hand, it would mean taking pretty much an entire day away from my friends and other activities to do the run. I've got a week to think about it.

Week 15: Eighteen miles

5:20 hours, 2:3 minute run/walk ratio

It was a good run today. Finally, the weather was decent, sunny but with a cool breeze, and not too hot. I was able to keep up my running intervals the whole way, instead of walking the last couple of miles, as I have for the last few long runs.

I didn't stop my stopwatch for any of my bathroom or water breaks, I just let it run the whole time. I figured I might as well time it the way it will be done for the real marathon, to get a more realistic idea of how long it might take me to finish. With breaks and all, I averaged around 17.8-minute miles, which would make about a seven-and-a-quarter hour marathon. Hm. Well, that's what I thought at the beginning.

I'm not terribly sure about my mileage this time, though. I might have done more than 18 miles. I started out at Highline and Dennison, went down Dennison to Valley, then Valley to Golden Hills Blvd, and down Golden Hills to Westwood to Meadowbrook Park. I started my first loop around the trail, but found the lower end of the trail was covered in sheep! Our local flock of sheep was staying down there. There was a water truck filling a trough for the sheep to drink. I tried to ask the guy with the truck whether it would bother his sheep for me to run through them, but he didn't speak any English. Anyway, I decided not to run through the sheep, but turned around and went back. Along the way, I ran into the path that cuts across the big loop and makes a smaller loop, so I went around that. By timing it, I think one smaller loop was about half a mile, so I did four miles counting two loops as a mile. That was the first place where I wasn't sure about my mileage.

Then I headed back up Westwood to Golden Hills Blvd to Valley, running back the way I'd come. When I got to Snyder, I turned down to the school to run at the track, but there was my second confusion of the day. The gates leading to the track all appeared to be locked. I saw people running on the track, so I knew they'd gotten in there somehow, but I didn't know how. I ended up going back out to Snyder, down to Tehachapi Blvd, and across to the other end of the track, where there was an unlocked gate. I did two miles at the track, plus an extra lap to make the time come out right for another mile, and headed back to Valley and Dennison and home. So I'm not sure how close to 18 miles I was. I'm fairly sure it was more than 18, rather than less, but I don't know by how much.

In any case, I got my long run in, and another week's training is done!

Friday

19 laps, 2:3 minute run/walk ratio, 30:50 minutes

What a difference the weather makes! It was actually cold this morning—58F in the house when I got up at 6:30—and still chilly when I went out to run at 9 am. I think this is the first time since I started that I finished 19 laps in under 31 minutes, and didn't even feel like I was pushing myself.

I hope the cool weather holds for Sunday's 18-miler!

Wednesday

19 laps, 2:3 minute run/walk ratio, 31:45 minutes

Back on track with my midweek runs. It was a good run, nothing special, just an ordinary jog around the house.

The big news this week is: I have new running shoes! I didn't wear them today. (I don't know what I'm saving them for, maybe my next eight-mile recovery run.) I wasn't intending to buy new shoes, but I was in Bakersfield on Monday and checking out the sports shoe stores for socks, and I decided to try on a pair of new Nikes. They were so comfortable and fit absolutely perfectly! I loved them. So I bought them. They're Nike Air Max Moto+ 5s. I guess I'm saving them for the marathon, but I do need to break them in a bit before Honolulu. Maybe wear them just on my recovery runs.

I did also get three pairs of new running socks at the Big 5 Sporting Goods store. Not Wright socks, no one seems to have them, but I tried out a pair this morning, and they seem fine. Wearing them on a long run will be the real test.

And I sent for a couple of running shirts from JCPenney. I was getting some new handkerchiefs from them, and needed something else to bump up the value of my order to make it worth the shipping charge. So I picked out a couple of shirts. Hope they fit okay! If not, I'll send them back.

Week 14: Eight miles

75 laps, 2:3 minute run/walk ratio, 2:16 hours

It was one of those runs, at the end of one of those weeks. First of all, I missed both my midweek runs this week; Wednesday I wasn't feeling well, and Friday I had the guy coming to install the new floors, so I had to get to work right away getting furniture out of the kitties' room and pulling up the carpet.

Then this morning I got up late—7:30, and still feeling tired—and wasn't ready to go run until 9:30. Since it was so late, and since my stomach was still feeling a little icky, I decided to just do my run around the house. I started out reasonably well, finishing my first couple of miles in 15.5 or so, but it was hot and I soon started to lose energy. I walked the last mile and a half or so, and was eventually not even trying to walk quickly, but just plodding along wanting to be done.

I averaged 17 minutes per mile, which, considering I was doing 15 minute miles at the beginning, means I slowed way down at the end. And on only eight miles. I really need to start early next week for my 18-mile run. And hope it cools down a bit. This heat is really, really making it hard to do my runs.

Week 13: Sixteen miles

4:43 hours, 2:3 minute run/walk ratio for about 12 miles, walk about four miles

I had planned to try to get up even earlier than usual today, since the weather report called for a high of 92F, but it was not to be. I had a bad night the night before last, and was exhausted yesterday. I had a hard time getting up at 6 am, even after going to bed before 10 pm. But I did manage to get out on the road a little before 8 am.

I had also planned to run on the track at the middle school and nearby roads, so I could stay close to water and bathrooms today, but that was also not to be. I drove to the school, but found the bathrooms locked. I knew I was going to have to make at least one bathroom stop today, so I just ran four miles at the track, then filled my water bottle and drove back to the mailboxes at Dennison and Highline, then ran to Meadowbrook Park from there, going down Dennison to Valley, taking Valley to Golden Hills Blvd, then down to the park along Westwood. I figured that was five miles, so I'd done a total of nine by then. I stopped for a much-needed bathroom break, filled my water bottle, and soaked my hat and bandanna, then did three loops around the trail for about two miles, made one more water stop and headed back along Red Apple Ave.

By then it was after 11 am, the sun was high and hot and there were no clouds or shade to be had. There was a light breeze, and keeping my hat and bandanna wet helped keep me from overheating, but I just couldn't run any more. I only did about every other run interval along Red Apple, but when I reached Tucker and Tehachapi Blvd, I stopped trying and just walked the rest of the way. At that point, I figured I wasn't trying to keep up a pace any more, just trying to get back to my truck without giving myself heat exhaustion.

I walked up Tehachapi Blvd to Snyder, then turned up Snyder so I could take advantage of the water fountains at the school for one more water refill along the way. Then I finished up along Valley and Dennison.

I stopped my stop watch while I drove from the school back to the mailboxes, but otherwise I just let it run, through all the water and bathroom stops. Even with rest and water stops, and walking more than four miles, I still managed to maintain about a 17.7 minute per mile pace, which is pretty impressive, I think. The new mesh hat worked really well at keeping my head cooler, especially when I kept it wet. Wearing a wet bandanna around my neck helped, too. I was able to keep walking at a fairly quick pace even when I was on my last few miles. Taking numerous brief breaks to pour water over my head and catch my breath made it easier to keep going in the long run.

Now, I just hope the weather starts to cool down by the time I'm ready to do my next long run!