Aug 22nd - Aug 27th

Five weeks to go! This week was the step down week I have been looking forward to. The weather was great for all of the runs - made a huge differance. Monday Debi met at my house at 4:30am - we headed out and did a 6.5 mile run. We never even saw the sun rise - it's crazy how late it it coming up now. Tuesday we ran the 7 mile loop at Debs house. I got to her house at 4:40 and knocked.... she didn't anwser - her alarm haddent gone off or if it did she had turned it off. So we got off to a later start, but saw the sun rise & it was beautiful - I really felt low on sleep - very tired. Wednesday Deb met at my hosue again for a 6.2 mile run. for the first time in months I walked down the staris and it didn't hurt. It was actually strange. we met at 4:30 at my house for the run. it was alright. not awesome, but not bad. Thursday we met with Boot camp and ran with the group. It was the fastest 8 mile run I have run since I got hurt. Dawn is traing for a marathon 2 weeks after mine and she wants to qualify for the Bosten - she's fast. But I kept up somehow. we ran at an average pace of 8:03 or something like that. one mile speed was 7:45 and it was right up a hill. I wore my newton shoes for all of the runs last week and they still feel great. I kind of love them. I was afrade that I would agravate my healing knee and shin, but Friday I felt fine. Went biking all day in Chicago - Was fun. Debi worked Saturday morning so I slept in and had a nice leasure morning. We decided to run at 5:30 from Siliver Springs. It was a really nice run - I felt great. Debi didn't feel as good but she still made it - her calves were tight. we ran 11.5 in about 8:30 - 8:45's it was nice to feel good for a somewhat longer run for a change. Nothing really too eventful happened last week with running. Pretty much all the runs were good ones. IT's got to be me healing and the weather getting cooler - maybe the Newton shoes too. This coming week is the big 22 miler week. I'll admit... i'm a little afrade.

20 on the 20th = DONE

6 more weeks left - AGAIN. I miss calculated last week. Training is going alright. I ran Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday last week. Discovered sprinting, as good as if feels at the time, is not good for my knee right now :( Sadly I think I will have to cut all the speed work outs out of my training. I sprinted Tuesday and it felt AWESOME, but then my knee was really sore Wednesday.... So I better not do that. Monday was a really fun 4mile trail run, I liked that. we went to sliver springs after work and ran in the woods and by the river and lakes. I wore my Newton shoes, they rock, however I don't think my knee likes them - could have just been the sprinting though. Nothing really eventfull happned on the runs. Thursday we were going to run, but Debi and I and Jer all decided not to because we were hurting a little and needed to be good by Saturday. Debi and I biked Thursday, that was fun. Friday I pretty much rested exept for of course riding horses and mowing the lawn and walking Matilda.... I guess I didn't rest too much.

I did eat good though. Managed 70% carbs for the day and about 80oz of water. I thought I was going to have a good run and felt fairly Prepared mentally. I slept ok and got up at 4:08am. Ate 2 pieces of toast one with peanut butter and one with honey, and half a bannana. We left Jers at 4:50 and started out at the canal around 5:45 I think. I didn't feel that great the whole way. it was about 70 degrees with 90% humidity. we stashed water at mile 5 - turned around at mile 10. Jer picked up the pace and I tried to keep up. I couldn't breath - my chest felt tight, I felt exhosted. at mile 16 I got Debi to go ahead and I walked 0.1 mile out of each mile after that. I made it but my average pace was around 10:30. HORRIBLE, but I made it. I was so tired... We met people who were training for the chicago - one of them had run MN and said he didn't think the hills were that bad - maybe he repressed the memorie, I don't know.

We were about ready to pack up when the girl we had met came running up that someone needed to call 911 because their friend had passed out. Jer called and they very impressiveally came in about 4 minutes. The guy had gotten up by then and was down in the parking lot. He ended up being ok but I heard the emergancy crew say that the previous week they had a call and couldn't get the guy to wake up. sounded like he died, but I don't know for sure.

Learned: Don't freze the water bottle you intend to carry in your hand.... No matter how hot it is, it starts to freze your hand.

Plan to run fast when Debi has new music

Its really awkward to have your Gynecologist/Doctor ask you about all your running rub marks

Sleep, Nutrition & quality work outs matter in a marathon training plan - in that order.

Corn fields are your friend

Make sure you dethaw your frozen fish before you put it in the oven - Otherwise the middle is sushi

Sweet Potatoes are good mashed

When making Lasagna make sure to add eough sauce on top of ALL noodle layers. If you don't they stay crispy - and that's just no good.

Week Nine done - 7 to go

Yorkville to Sandwich Photo By Debi Hass

Strange dead bird - Photo By Debi Hass

 Week 9 of Training is over & I'm feeling some improvement from my injuries. Monday I ran 1.5 miles with Matilda, Tuesday I ran with Debi, Vicky & boot camp almost 7 at 5am, we went to from Debs to YMCA to blackhawk hill back to Debs. Wednesday we Met at my house at 4:30 and did my 8 mile "flat" rout past the highschool and down rock creek road - Thursday we ran with boot camp again from Debi's house - almost 8 again I think. Friday I just went biking because we were going to do our 16 mile run at 6pm because Debi worked in the morning on Saturday. HOWEVER, it didn't work out. I had pasta at 3pm in preparation, had been guzzling water all day and was all mentally prepared for it (not drinking Fri. night etc.) then a storm came around and had the potential to land in our running path with large hale. Turns out it did hale in Sandwich around where we would be running around the time we would have been their, so I guess it was a good call, but I hated that I hadn't run Friday AND Saturday in preparation - and that I had eaten a large amount of pasta. But... what can you do? So, we met at Santa fe and had drinks and Mexican food -

16M long Run - Bud Road. Photo By Debi Hass

then Jer and I headed out to hide water on mile 10 of the route, then back home for me for yet another early night. We headed out at 7am it was a perfect day. Nice breeze, great temperature. I felt pretty good the whole way. The 10 mile water stop worked really well - We did sprints at the end and that felt pretty good too. This was the route that we did for our first 15 mile run last year - I have to say, it was a LOT eayser than it had been last year. As far as what's wrong with me this week it's pretty much the same thing - Knee hurts after a while on the long runs still and my shin hurts the first few miles. nothing seems to be getting worse - not better too fast, but what can I expect the way I keep running on it... I still haven't felt up to speed work, but with the sprints on Saturday feeling so good I think I may be ready this week.

elevation map for the marathon - mile 20-24 = ouch

Next week we're doing 20 on the 20th - Longest yet. at least I have the step down week to look forward to.

My Bannana cranberry nut bread. YUM

08-15 run went good 5:50pm Silver sprints - Debi and I did a 4 mile trail run that was actually really fun. our average pace was 9:30 however we had to turn around 3 times because our trail turned into a rabbit trail... I felt really good and wore my Newton shoes.  08_16 run went good too - 7.17 miles at 9 min. mile average pace. I wore the newton shoes again and they were AWESOME. my foot feels a lot more free to move and I love

Pre run (night before) Dinner

how the rubber wedge pushes my foot forward more. they were really comfortable, no chance of a blister. They are also really light which is a nice change from my super structure shoes. We met at Debs at 4:45 and headed out down Faxon and did a loop back on Eldamain to her house. We sprinted the last quarter mile or so and it actually felt great. I feel like i'm coming back - i'm sure it has something to do with the weather, but it also feels like my burn out is finally fading. My shin is throbbing just a big right now - and it hurt a little most of the way, but it seems to feel about the same as last week, so i think i'm ok to keep going.
A few things I have learned lately is that all calories are not created equal.  Diet is SO important to train for a marathon. I always have pasta the night before long runs. usually half white noodles and have wheat. I also try to have a couple pieces of bread and light meat. Pop corn is a good snack I think. I have made pasta with home made sauce or just beefed up a canned sauce with squash and zucchini. Another thing that I really like and feel that it helps my performance is my recipe for Banana nut bread.  the recipe is: (in the bread maker in this order)
.5c warm water
1 egg
1tbs Oil (I just use what ever i happen to have, olive now, but I bet veggie would be better
4tbs Honey
1tbs butter
dash of salt
2 ripe bananas sliced
1.5c white flower
1.5c wheat flower
2-3 tbs dark brown sugar
dash of nutmage
dash of Cinnamon (when I say dash it usually means .5 to 1 tps but I just put some in :))
1/4 - 1/2c chopped walnuts
1/4 -1/2 dried cranberrys
1 pouch of active dry yeast
Then all you do is set it as a med. loaf (think it's 1.5) and press start. THEN here is the REAL secret - once the dough gets to the ball stage and the bread maker is doing it's thing - you add more flower (white or wheat, your choice) you add it till it isn't all sticky and it is in a nice ball. then once it rises and starts to spin again check it again. kidna use butter knife to help it get un stuck and rolling in a nice ball.... Give it a shot, it's AWESOME.
Lastly it's the recovery drink, ice bath and foam roller. I try to get around 20  grams of protein with in a half hour of the end of my long run (the sooner the better) then with in 2 hours I try to sit in at least cold water (the coldest my tub will bring me) I would rather add a bag of ice though. After that, I make sure to roll out my legs on a foam roller. I know it sounds like a lot of work - and it is - but it's worth it. I have neglected to do these things a time ago and have taken a lot longer to recover with out it. All for now :)

Well... I guess I'll keep training then



 After my amazing week off I continued my plan to take it easy for a week. I ran a 5m run alone, then a 6.5 mile run with my sister and then a 5.5m run with boot camp at silver springs. Felt pretty good, but deffantly suffering with my breathing because of the time off.





Sunrise run with Deb

Friday night I had corn on the cob, pasta with a sauce made from yello squash and my home grown tomatoes, topped with grilled chicken. I also ate 3 fig bars :). I was in bed and sleeping by 8:15pm. Saturday I was up at 4:10am for a 18 mile canal trail run. I was supposed to meet jer and Deb at Jers house at 4:45, but I got pulled over after my first turn :( Aparently I didn't stop fully at the stop sign going out of my street nor did I signal) The officer also let me know that I could get a ticket for not having my licance changed over to my new addeess - but he didn't give me a ticket or a written worning - he just made me late. I think this is the 4th time I have gotten pulled over in Plano with Matilda - she didn't even care - she was half asleep the whole ride and i'm sure she was curled up on the couch at Jers the whole time I was out running. Lucky dog. We got out to where we wanted to start and the gate was closed - so we headed to the place we started at last time - we were trying to avoide the .6 mile treck of black top on that part of the trail, but oh well... We started out at a good steady pace and kept it up pretty much the whole run. I ended up having 2 gummys but all my water bottles were with endurance fule. it worked out pretty good but I did get sick of the stuff and really craving regular water. but it gave me energy, so that's ok. We put some bottles on a rock at mile 4.5 again.

I actually stayed pretty hydrated - I even had left over water, it was nice. The last 3 miles were tough, my hips really hurt and I just wanted to stop. but it was better than last time - last 18 mile run my knee hurt the first 5 miles and the last 5 miles I felt pretty awful, so deffantly an emprovement.



post run stretching - so
glad to be done

Jer finished about 7 minutes behind us - it was funny watching him run the last few tenths of his run, he looked about like I had felt. After the run I had some breat and protine drink. Then I took a cold bath at home, had coffee and used my foam roller. Yesterday I was a little sore and I am today as well, but not too bad. My knee feels just fine, but my shin hurts. I didn't run this morning - I might tonight. not sure. Might just give myself more time to revover... 18 miles is no joke. This week I'm going  to try to do my speed work out - Might go for a little run tonight - then run with B.C tomorrow. Wednesday speedwork out, Thursday boot camp run.... 16 mile run this weekend, however I might wait for Sunday to go with Deb. Probably will, i'd much rather run with her than run alone.