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 :)