An Eureka Moment

As you all know, I've been experiencing a little lack of luster in my running. My legs have felt tired. I've felt tired. Long runs have become difficult.

Ca&Mg on my new Runner's World!

 went out yesterday to do an easy 7 miles. Um, NO. That did not happen. I did a very difficult 3 miles. My legs were heavy. They turned over slow. They felt delayed in response to me trying to get them to work. And, they were a little crampy.

At mile two, after walking TWICE, I had a eureka moment. This has happened before! I've had all these symptoms my first season when I was training for a half marathon. That season I tried eating more bananas. Nope, no help. Then I tried taking an OTC for leg cramps, quinine. It didn't help either. What did the trick was increasing my calcium and magnesium supplement. Instead of taking one tablet once a day, I started taking it one tablet twice a day. And I swear with in two days of adding it my leg turn over, cramps, and heaviness dissipated.

When I'm not actively training I cut it back to one. Last year, while training for the marathon I kicked it back up to two and while I may have had days I didn't want to run, my legs rarely had days they couldn't run.  But, I forgot this for this season. I realized my mistake at mile 2 yesterday. I am now back to two a day and am hopeful that my legs will get back to normal!
I am not the only one!

Review Week 11, Upcoming Week 12

Week 12

I'm not sure I'll be ready for my marathon in a couple of weeks. I went out Saturday ready for 20 miles. I found myself back at my house after 15 with tight, aching hips. The weather had started to turn yucky so I changed shoes and went down the basement to the treadmill. After a quarter mile all my leg muscles cramped up. This could be due to several factors; I had to ration my water around mile 10 and was out by 13. I stopped running stretched a bit and then started again. It was just a bad day. Again. I prefer to think I played it safe Saturday and that I just didn't wuss out. I was ready to put in 20 miles. I honestly think I could have done it had I not cramped up.

This week is relatively easy, as it's a fall back week. I do have a half marathon this Sunday in Toledo but halves have become cake to me. I'm not going to go "balls to the wall" but I'll put in a good effort. I'm hoping for 2:10, ten minutes fast than last year.

On the upside I did get one swim and one bike ride in last week. I'm hoping to bring those back to my routine. It'll be a bit difficult as my "routine" now includes something new, more on that later this week.

Also, don't worry. I'll still do the full marathon. I just don't think it will be a 4:30 as I was hoping. I'll settle for 5:00? Maybe?

How Does This Work?

Adidas is selling Boston Marathon clothing and other paraphernalia. Adidas-Boston

My question is can a person who has never ran Boston and has no hope of ever qualifying buy and legitimately wear Boston Marathon clothing? I mean, you're going to get asked about it. "How was Boston? What was your time?" And you'll have to reply with, "No, no, I didn't even qualify." That's just embarrassing. I didn't even feel right putting my 26.2 sticker on my car until I had actually finished a marathon (it went on right after I finished, though!).

I didn't even run in this shirt till I had finished a half!

Review Week 10, Upcoming Week 11

Week 11

I have been remiss. I know. I said I would get back on the horse and bang out these runs, rides and swims. And for the most part I have with the runs. Last week I did all the weekday runs. Including the Yasso 800s. And I did my Friday run as I was supposed to. But Saturday dawned a bit chilly and I got up a bit later then usual. I put on my tights, Glided up, and laced my shoes. I headed out for my 18 mile run. I only did 1.5 miles you guys. It just didn't feel right. My legs felt like they were dragging. I couldn't catch my breath. I didn't want to spend 3.5 hours running. So, I gave up. I WALKED back to my house. WALKED, y'all! I could have pushed myself to do it. I wouldn't have loved it and it's possible I might have gotten injured. Sometimes, you just need to skip the run to appreciate the next. And that's what I did. Mondays run was AWESOME. I shaved a minute off my training pace and still felt great.
I think the answer to my tired legs lies in the Friday run. Last year while training for Detroit I ran Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I've decided to tweak my schedule and do short runs Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Saturday will still be my long run. I'm giving it a try this week and we'll see how it goes. I'm also adding a bike and swim day back in.

Get off! I'm Sleeping!

She's just not very good at weighing down the mattress.

I wonder if I can use this as my profile for my online dating? It's seriously all I want.
SWF seekingSM to sleep on other side of bed.

Sorry, just a bit lazy today.

All Dark Meat

This is not a commentary on  my cut of chicken (usually white) or my racial dating preference (typically Caucasian, but mostly because I'm extremely picky in what I find attractive in other races) but instead on fast vs slow twitch muscles.

For a review
Dark muscle is from slow twitch fibers, marathoners.  White/light muscle is from fast twitch fibers, sprinters.
The science of meat!

Today's work out consisted of Yasso 800's. If you don't know what these are it's a special form of torture thought up by the Runner's World Editor Bart Yasso. It consists of a 1-2 mile warm up and then repeats of 800 meters at a fast pace with 400 meters at recovery pace. You do 3-8 repeats and then a mile cool down. Today's fast pace was 4:27. Uh? Damn near impossible. I was sure I was dying! I did this on my treadmill so I could set my pace and not worry about it. My performance limitations may be caused by the treadmill. It might go better outside. I'll find out next Wednesday when I have to do them again.

Either way, I am convinced I am ALL DARK MEAT!!! I am not a sprinter. This is why I only played one season of basketball! I hope that these will help me cut my marathon time. I'm told they will. But I have low expectations that they will help cut an hour off my marathon time. That is a lot to cut out. Almost unheard of. If I don't cut an hour off I'll just remember this......

Some one once said it's easy to run for an hour or two but it takes balls to run for 5 and not give up. Ok, that might not be a direct quote but that's the gist. And it does take balls, or ovaries, to continue running for 5 hours knowing that the majority of people have already finished the 26.2 miles.

Asics Gel Kayano 17

On the upside, I picked up my new shoes!!

Review Week 9, Upcoming Week 10

The start of last week involved a lot of recovery from a fantastic weekend. Consequently, I missed my Monday run and felt no need to make it up. Wednesdays, 6 mile run was cut to 5 but I got the 3 miles of 9:36-10:00 pace. I think the goal for the next couple of weeks is to work on speed. Never my favorite. Fridays run happened just as it was supposed to.

2x caffeine but one of my fav flavors

Saturday saw me getting up 6am to get my 16 mile run in. Normally, I'm not that set on when I start but I wanted to make it somewhere by 10 and had to have 13 miles done. I did the 16 miles in 3 parts, so that I would have a chance to get water and snacks with out having to take my hydration belt. Part one was an out and back of 7 miles. It felt great and easy. Stopped at home to get water, pee, and retie my shoes. I then started my second out and back of 6 miles. 2 miles into the second run I felt a little tired and sluggish. That's when I remembered I had taken no GU with me or had any at the house before I left. When I do runs of 10+miles I always use GU and take a water bottle. I GU every 5 miles and it helps to keep me energized and focused. How I could have forgotten this on a 16 mile run I will never know. When I got back to the house I made some gatorade before heading to the meetup spot with the new running group. I was going to do 2.5 miles with them.

The running group was fun. Met some new people with similar interests and chatted about up coming races. They are, however, much much faster then me. I might be that they were running with fresh legs and I was coming off of 13 miles sans GU. I'm still going to meet up with them this Saturday. Running with a fast group will only make me faster.

Week 10

What should be clear in this post is that swimming and biking have fallen to the wayside. I have every intention of bringing them back. Just not this week.