Last Long Run Before the Race!

Today's run was a short one: 6 miles. It's taper time, so we're not running as much.

In 8 days, I run the Rock n Roll half-marathon. The anxiety and doubt that was present a year ago is no longer there.

Supportive family and friends, a conscious contact with HP, and a great training program via USAFIT San Antonio, have all brought me to this point.

No fear. No worries. Next Sunday morning: 13.1 miles.

O yeah.








If you ate pasta and antipasta, would you still be hungry?

Ten Miles Today!

Not only did I run the longest distance I've ever run in my life today (ten miles), I met my goal of doing it at a pace of less than 13 min/mile! HELL YES!

Thanks to all my buds who sent text messages and Facebook messages to cheer me on this morning: Elizabeth, Cherre, Wayne, Jane, Noel, Shawn, Sharri, Michele, Deanna, Jacque, Veronica, Nancy, James, Maria, Deborah, The Other Michele Also With One 'L', Jennifer, Pam, and John. YOU GUYS ARE ALL AWESOME!

And a big shout-out to a loving and supportive HP, who helped me get from a place where this chemically-abused body could barely go up a set of stairs without wheezing, to being able to run ten friggin' miles! Holy shit, who'd have ever thought it?

I am exhausted. I'm going back for nap number two.

Rock and Roll half-marathon in November! O yeah!







Santa is so jolly because he knows where all the naughty girls live.

Longest. Run. Ever.

MILESTONE! Today I ran 8.1 miles. Longest distance I've ever run IN MY LIFE!

Next week will be nine miles. The following week will be a ten-mile race. So, two more HUGE milestones are approaching for me!

I could not have accomplished ANY of this without the help of a loving HP and the support of my wonderful wife, daughters, and friends.

YOU GUYS ARE ALL THE BEST!

Joined a Running Club

So far my longest run was awhile back at Hardberger Park. Nine miles.

(Did you know that you're not supposed to start a sentence with a numeral? You're supposed to write out the word. That's why it says "nine" instead of "9")

As I've mentioned before, my sweat rate is astronomical. I sweat worse than a cheap hooker sittin' in church with a five-dollar prospect outside.

(In the middle of a sentence, you gotta write the word for the number if it's less than 10).

The point is, I require much more water than the average runner.

So, to do that nine miles I had to stop about half-way thru at my truck to refill all my water bottles. Ugh. Annoying. And not something I want to do every five or six miles.

(Did you see the number rule in effect there? Good. You're learning!)

So I decided to join an organized running group: USA Fit San Antonio.

Two cool points:

1. They organize the weekly long run and plan the route. Love that!

2. They have WATER POINTS! Every five miles, there is a refill station where I can quickly refill my bottles with water or an electrolyte solution and get back into the run with only a few seconds lost. Very nice.

(WTF is an electrolyte solution? Look it up; learn sumfin'! ALL HAIL GOOGLE!)

Today we ran six miles. Avg per mile pace: 12:55. Next week, seven miles.

I hope to run the entire 13.1 miles at an avg pace of less than 13 minutes per mile.

(Do you see the new number rule? If not, Google it. ALL HAIL GOOGLE!)




If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

Prolific as Always

I see my last post was almost two months ago. For those that know me, two posts in two months constitutes an active writing lifestyle for me.

Big developments since my last post! A marathon-running buddy recommended I traing by 'heart rate interval' as opposed to 'training by pace'.

A little research (Google knows all--ALL HAIL GOOGLE!) indicates that heart rate interval training is a more effective method of preparing for a half-marathon.

Thus, I am now officially training by heart rate interval.

First, you gotta have a heart rate monitor. Luckily I had one stashed away. It came with my GPS watch. It looked uncomfortable and I figgered only elite athletes needed something like that. So I tossed it in my closet and forgot about it.

Big mistake. Have I mentioned I share a closet with a FEMALE? Finding anything in there is an epic saga in and of itself. But that's a story for another post. Bottom line is I finally found it.

Looking annoyingly uncomfortable, this sucker spent months covered in high heels and random junk. Now it lives in my gym bag and, three to five times a week, around my chest.

Then you gotta identify your max heart rate (MHR). The easy way to do this is a simple math formula:

MHR = (208 - [0.7 x age])

Although studies show this calculation may actually be off by +- 10 beats for some people, it is by far the least painful and sweaty way to calculate your MHR (the gold standard for finding your MHR consists of doing a treadmill stress test. Since I find it stressful to get on a treadmill anyway, I chose to forego this method and instead stuck with what I know--math).

Armed with a calculated MHR of 175 bmp, I did one last little calculation to get my heart rate intervals:


Easy Run (recovery--YAY! EASY!) = 65 - 70% of MHR = 105 - 123 bpm

Training Run (aerobic training--GOOD WORKOUT!) = 75 - 80% of MHR = 131 - 149 bpm

Tempo Run (speed training--UM, OUCHIES?) = 88 - 92% of MHR = 154 - 161 bpm

Intervals (sprint training--HOLY SHIT! PAINFUL!) 95 to 100% of MHR = 166 - 175


And that's the tale of how my training for the Rock & Roll Half-Marathon got a little more complicated.

I'm running out of motivation (and coffee), so I'll end here. If you're interested in pursuing this topic further, I suggest you Google (ALL HAIL GOOGLE!) heart rate interval training. You'll get a million hits.

You can probably also find some good articles at Runners World.




I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly alert.

Longest. Run. Ever.

On May 22, I ran nine miles at Phil Hardberger park. Check out the park here.

This is a beautiful park, with miles of running/walking trails. I really like running here because the trails are well-shaded by trees. Makes running in the heat much more bearable.

But that's not the point of this post. In my 47 years on this planet, I have NEVER run nine miles. This was a first for me on the way to the Rock and Roll Marathon.

To get to this point, I've overcome funky knees, an old man's bad back, and asthma. Thanks to my lovely wife and my two wonderful daughters, I have the motivation and support I need to overcome and succeed.

If I can do it, so can you. C'mon out and run with me at Hardberger this weekend.

Oh, did I mention that this Sunday's run will be 10 miles? ;-)






If you're lucky, you may even see some wildlife while running the trails! This little guy came out to say hi at the two-mile mark.




Never stop. Never quit.

A Tunnel!

Today's run: 4.0 miles. Had a little trouble with the asthma. I think whatever the Hell has blown into town is causing me some issues. My handy-dandy iPhone app that tells me such things says that oak, hickory, pecan, and willow pollens are in the air in very high concentrations.

Yay.

But that's not the exciting part of today's run! I found a tunnel! A running trail over by Barbara Bush Middle School goes under Evans road via a drainage ditch.

Very cool. Check it out:

















I ran thru the tunnel and snapped a picture while inside. Kinda creepy. Check it out:

















And that's when the zombies attacked...







When the zombiepocalypse occurs, I only have to run faster than the slowest person...