Its amazing how much of my life I had on hold while training for a marathon.   Now that fall is here, crew and scouts have taken over a lot of my free time.  I may end up being an assistant scoutmaster too.  Egads.  I have training to do, people!  I’ve got the camping schedule on my calendar now and have to line up races carefully so they don’t conflict.

Thanks to Danny and MG for the tip to use SportTracks for tracking my Garmin 205 data.  Garmin basically has the market cornered for wrist-mount GPS, so making the product better by including useful software is not profitable for them.  They won’t lose any business if they don’t do it, and it just costs money to manage software.  So they have junk for software.  Its a short-sighted business model, which will eventually come back to bite them.

SportTracks rocks.  I downloaded the free version, but will likely upgrade soon, once I’ve figured it all out.  The best part is that copying and pasting all the data from the run into Excel is two clicks (right click: copy, right click: paste).   So here’s my data from Saturday’s 8 mile run:

1    08:53.6
2    08:44.3
3    08:33.0
4    08:36.1
5    08:24.3
6    08:22.8
7    08:21.3
8    08:19.1

Here’s my times from last night’s 5 mile run:
1    08:29
2    08:24
3    08:11
4    07:52
5    07:52

I like how both of these had a steady increase in speed.  Maybe I needed warm up time to get it moving.

Last night felt good to get myself moving faster again.  Still a bit sluggish, because it felt like I was doing better than 7:52.  It was the end of the day, so I wouldn’t be too fast, but when it feels like you are going faster than you really are, then you know you are up to speed yet.  Makes sense?

I’m trying to get the sugar addiction under control again.  I was do good during training, but the week of carbs before the race got me way off track.  I find the sugar cravings are very tough now and I find myself looking for sugar when things are stressful.

I also noticed that I used to get hungry before lunch at work, and now I don’t.  I think the mileage drop has decreased my food needs, and now I’m packing it on.  I haven’t stepped on the scale lately, but I feel like I’ve gained a bit in the past week or two.  Not good.  Winter time is the easiest time for me to gain weight.  Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas just kill me in terms of the fat.  I need to go run more.  I need to skip the sugar.  I need to get my sleep.

Speaking of sleep, I need to go to bed!

I had to do a small run tonight, so ran it very slow and easy.  Seriously, I did tiny little circles with my feet, very quiet steps.  I just needed something to keep the muscles moving and lubricated.  3 miles.  29 minutes and change.  See?  Nice and easy.  I was good.

I got a very timely email from McMillan about food during the last week.  It said to make sure you don’t let yourself get hungry, especially 2-3 days before the race.  I know that during the day, I normally do get hungry for lunch and will delay if I have work to do.  So, I brought a small bag of pretzels to munch on in between my mini-lunches if I get hungry.  Not gorging, just staying satisfied.

Not much else to say.  I’m trying to stay positive and get sleep, although I keep having crazy dreams and end up waking up early.  But at least I’m getting to bed at a good time.  I want to watch Spirit of the Marathon again before the race.  Maybe Friday morning.  We’ll see.

60 hours to go.

I took yesterday as a rest day, instead of the scheduled 5 miles.  Tonight I had 8.  I have been unsure how fast to run these midweek runs, because I am taking my pace from McMillan and the mileage from Higdon.  Higdon doesn’t give specifics on pace, and McMillan doesn’t say which runs are “easy” and which are “recovery jogs”.

So, I decided the midweek runs are “easy” runs (8:30-9:00), pace runs are at race pace (8:00), and the long runs are…well…long (8:40-9:20).

And tonight’s 8 miles?  1:07:41, 8:27/mile.  I guess its close to the fast end of the easy runs.  I tried to keep it light, but the air was a cool 60F and the neighborhood is very flat.  In that case, speedier is ok, since the effort is lower.

My legs are feeling pretty good today.  A little sore still in the right calf, and I can still feel the race a bit when I get up from sitting, but overall very good.

I missed sleep Tuesday night because my Dad fell in the night and could not get up.  Mom found him face down, and he was not responding.  She called 911, then called me.  We think he was there for a few hours.  These things seem to always happen at 1 am.    Long story short, he’s all ok.  Just another sleepless night in the ER.

Oh, and someone told me today that he wanted to kill all the Muslims so that ” there would be peace in the world”.   I asked him 1) did he intend to kill the Muslim babies as part of his peace plan, and 2) does the peace come before or after we bury the bodies of the millions of slaughtered people.   Then he got all huffy for some strange reason.

I’ve been trying to make sure I am eating enough protein.  Did I mention this?  I need about 90 grams of protein a day.  Normally an adult male needs about 50, but you need extra when you are doing training.  Actually, its something like 90-120, but I think the high end is for body builders.

Either way, I was only get around 50 grams.  I wanted to add more but didn’t want to add fat or carbs in there.  So decided to add a cup and a half of shredded fat free mozzarella cheese.  Now, some people think that’s horrendously gross, but I really like it.   I get 3/4 of a cup as a mid-morning snack, and then 3/4 of a cup at dinner time.

As it turns out, I was only eating about 1200 calories during the day, which left me feeling very empty by the time I got home, so I would snack on all kinds of stuff and add on calories from carbs.  The carbs are very helpful the evening before a long run, but the rest of the week, it just gets packed away.  So, eating the shredded cheese helps add protein which makes me feel more full and stops me from assaulting the crackers, bread, and chocolate when I get home.

I have 4 weeks left in training.  During that time I need to make sure I am eating healthy, getting sleep, and sticking to my training.  I can do this.  I will remain strong.  I will stay focused.

I had 17 miles this morning on the schedule, and had planned to leave by 7 am.  I was out the door by 8:30, not quite on time.

65F and cloudy skies with a little breeze made for a nice run.  The humidity was a little high and it just started to rain when I was finishing, but still very good weather.

I passed a vegetable stand around mile 10, and saw the guy putting out a fresh quart of tomatoes.  Heading back at mile 16 I saw they were still there, and made a mental note to use my “emergency” $5 in my fuel belt to buy them on the way home in the car.

My hips were aching a bit near the end, and I was happy to spot my starting point right where I left it.  On a previous run, I had taken a wrong turn and ended up adding two miles to the run.  I had a nice 1/2 mile walk to cool down on this run.

2:39:21, 17.03 miles, 9:21 pace.  A lot faster than I had expected, but I’m happy it was at the higher end of my training pace.

I tried using V8 juice in my water bottles.  I diluted it in half with water and filled the other bottle with diluted gatorade.  I like the V-8 better for electrolyte replacement.  One can (11.5 ounces) has 600 mg of sodium, 670 mg of potassium, 3 grams of fibers, 3 grams of protein, and 11 g of sugars, all with only 70 calories.

I have to say that even though it was diluted, the V8 juice wasn’t very “thirst quenching”.  But I didn’t get stomach cramps or feel nauseous from it, which it what I was checking for.  I may bring gatorade and V8 for the race, and then drink water from the course.

I hope every out there had a good weekend.

I had 11 miles at the park yesterday. Not a bad run, but horrendously hot. According to the internet weather people, I can expect an entire week of hot before I get a week of rain. I’m just loving the weather.

At Saratoga park (and around Saratoga) there are multiple fountains and geysers. You can tell when you are near them because they usually stink like sulfur. I’ve always seen people lining up with giant plastic jugs at the fountains, like water-crazed lunatics. I couldn’t understand why they would drink that crap. Then a friend pointed out that not all the fountains taste like sulfur.

The fountain directly in front of the Automobile Museum (total non-sequitor for upstate NY), apparently tastes like the Saratoga water you buy in the store. So people go there to get their water for free. I’ve never tasted the water from the fountain, but the the bottled stuff tastes gross to me, but not like sulfur.

Inside the park (beyond the toll booths) is a small rectangular fountain, near the big geyser. This one tastes like normal fresh water. I’ve passed it many times on hot days and seen people drinking from it and wondered (again) how they could stand it. Despite being very hot and thirsty, I would always pass it by.

Well, yesterday I stopped and drank some of it. Cold and refreshing. It tasted like (as my friend had described) melted snow. I now have a new refill point for water on the Sunday run. And cold water too!

This morning (moments ago in fact) I ran 3 miles. Its already incredibly hot outside. Normally this would be a rest day, but I needed to shift the runs due to scout meetings midweek. Not bad. About a 9 minute pace. I was trying to keep it slow and light, but I will take the faster pace as practice for my race pace.

I have today off due to the 4th of July holiday. I wanted to go out on the boat, but its so hot, I’m sure it would be miserable. I may just spend the day inside with the A/C cranked up, making chocolate.

I’ve avoided making chocolate because it makes me want the sugar. I’ve done well staying away from sugar and I think its done wonders for my brain. I feel more clear-headed. Less tired during the day. Although, the cravings are still very strong. I spend a lot of time thinking about food. I find myself skimming very rapidly through blogs that routinely post pictures of food. Love the blogs, but can’t look at the food.

Speaking of food, I think the bowl of pasta did very well for a pre-race meal. Now that I know just how much I’m eating, I think I can be smarter about managing my food during training. In the past, I would just eat as much as I could. I remember eating more, thinking I need “a little extra”. I remember eating something “in case I get hungry later”.

That’s the entire basis for fat storage right there. In case I get hungry later. My body stores the food as fat, for when I’m hungry later. Unfortunately, in the society I live in, I am never hungry later. There is always food around for when we are hungry later. But my body won’t give up what it stored, so the weight piles on. I have a very efficient, survival machine in an environment that requires no survival.

I had 3 miles scheduled for Thursday, but had to shift all the running this week.  I went to the fireworks last night, so I did my 3 this morning. I was on the road long before it got hot, so it was actually quite pleasant.  Driving around later, I was surprised to see so many people out running (and dying) in the noon day heat.

3 miles, 8:37 pace.

The weight is going well, although I had to totally cheat today.  I’ve got an 11-mile run tomorrow morning early.  Up until now, I have done just fine without the carb meal the night before a run, since the mileage has been low.  Now that it is in the double digits, I’m worried it won’t work.  So, I had a small bowl of spaghetti with just Parmesan cheese (“domestic Parmesan” as Kraft calls it).  I did a small calculation and it came to about 370 calories.  It doesn’t take much pasta for the calories to add up!

I went to the fireworks  last night.  We took Dad’s boat and sat on the river.  Very nice seats. :)  Driving back was a little hectic because there were so many boats in the dark.  We had this little line of lights going along the river very slowly, like that scene from the first Harry Potter movie when they were going to the castle in boats with lanterns on the back.

I hope everyone is having a good long weekend in the US.  Everyone outside the US?  We’ll be thinking of you while we are sleeping in on Monday morning.  :)

6 miles tonight, 8:27 pace.  Oddly, this would be my race pace if I were qualifying for Boston.  Heh.  Not happening this year.

Weight is down 13 pounds.

I wore the thin pants today.  :)

I want to eat an entire loaf of white bread.  Must go to sleep and fend off the carb attack…