my right hamstring has just been killing me over the last several weeks. its the upper hamstring, right below the glute (i think). brutal! i think i started back too fast in the spring or something.

for a few weeks now, i've been getting up a little after 4am to run in the mornings. a switch flipped one day and instead of snoozing i just started getting up and heading out the door. makes it easier to spend time with the fam in the evenings. its not easy, and there are still days where i can't get up.

its very satisfying but the worst part is that i feel so hungry all day after running in the AM.

my sister and I at the finish..

TCM #6

Another quick update here. For those that didn't see on twitter, I had an amazing marathon experience on Sunday.

I posted a 3:36:45.

I held myself in check during the first 8-10 miles when I wanted so badly to bust a gut out there and run like the wind because I felt so good.

According to my chip time: first half marathon in 1:48:32 and the second half in 1:48:13. Can you believe it? According my garmin I ran 26.5 miles but I can't get the data to download correctly so I'm not sure how my 1H vs. 2H may differ at this moment.

The weather was absolutely perfect. Everything was perfect pretty much. Now that I've had a few days to think on it more, I may have been able to shave off 2 minutes by running a little more aggressively in the back half given that I still felt ok but you know what? A 3:36 vs. a 3:34 is really neither here nor there for me; not a big deal.

I've had such colossal meltdowns out there from mile 18 to the finish that I think I played it smart by keeping myself in check and running a great race. I felt fine after the race, and I can tell the recovery time is going to be pretty quick as well. I probably won't make an effort to do much this week but I already (secretly) want to go running again! heh.

Big shout out to my cheering section, you all know who you are. I appreciate all the support through the training and on race day and couldn't get through it without you's.

Big should out to my buddy that trained hard all summer and nailed his goal to run a 3:30 by posting a 3:29:22 in his first marathon, outstanding work dude.

I'll post more later, not because it's interesting stuff but because I need to get it down in writing.
Two things: I'll mention that this year I did not have a thing to eat pre-race! NOTHING! I followed some advice from an interview I heard with a founder of Hammer nutrition. I had followed this during my last month of long runs.

Secondly, I put in a lot of marathon-paced long runs during the last 8-10 weeks of training. For the last month of training prior to taper, all of my long runs were right near my goal pace, which felt right and didn't impact my recovery in a negative way. I'm a big believer in marathon pace training, and running the second half of your long runs faster than the first (during the last month of training anyway, in August and early September). I never did any major speed work or hill running during this cycle.

Ok a third quick point....oh crap I had something interesting to say and I forgot. hmm. Oh yeah, I didn't taper as much this year.

Oh the baby is here and my wife...they went out to dinner with friends, by now!

race day again

Thank you so much for all the comments everybody! Every day is a new adventure, but it has been great so far. The whole not sleeping too much thing is kind of tricky, but hopefully we'll get that down (probably just in time for him to change it up on us!).

I will post more in the coming weeks regarding parenthood and the like, but for now I thought I should post at least one more time on the eve of my sixth marathon. Knock on wood, I feel ok this year although I'm not shooting for that 3:30 like I was last year. I plan on lining up with the 3:40 group and letting things play out. I missed my last 20 miler due to a birth of our son (seems like a good reason?), but otherwise I was pretty much on track during this training cycle.

Thanks for all of your encouragement and support along the way...here we go again!! One of the new things I'm trying this year is to have absolutely nothing to eat within 3 hours of the marathon...the nutritional logic behind this was given in a recent podcast by one of the founders of Hammer nutrition. I followed this for my last several long 18+ mile runs and it worked fine.

See you on the flip side.

Here is our little guy. Born Sunday night on 9/12 at 6:30pm, 21", 6 pounds 11 ounces.
Everyone is doing well. We are learning what its like when sleeping for two straight hours feels like a miracle. Cute little guy.

a.

Half Marathon Part 2

Another huge gap since my last post!

Last Saturday I toed the line at my chance for 1/2 marathon redemption. This time I finished in 1:40:41 vs. that previous 1:47 a month ago. Better course, more accurate course, and better conditions. And another month of training under my belt didn't hurt.

I ran the first couple miles with the 1:45 group and then I said forget it, I felt great so I went after it at a pace I thought I could maintain until the end. I admit I had to dig deeper for the last couple of miles, but my pace didn't suffer. Using the mcmillian calculator, I estimate that last year (the year of running), I peaked at 1:38:30 half marathon shape. So to run this in 1:40:41, I am pretty pleased.

One of my favorite parts about running a strong race particularly anything over a 1/2M, is sneaking up along side these skinny runners with 5% body fat....and blowing right by them late in the race! Trust me, at 7:45 1/2M pace, everyone is skinny ('cept me). Its pretty sweet.

This race was really important to me because 1) I wanted to prove to myself that I could qualify for the 1st corral of the marathon, and 2) the marathon can be such a pressure cooker because you build for it all summer and if the conditions aren't great you can experience a big let-down. Like last year...I just didn't feel great on marathon day but I can still look back to my 25k race (month before the marathon) with a smile and know that despite the marathon performance, all of the training paid off for at least one solid race. Not that it matters at this point, but after months and months of thinking through my marathon performance last year, I think I was simply over-trained after following the 24-week 70 mpw peak plan. Anyway...

Speaking of skinny, my diet continues to waver here and there. Did you know in our baby book there is a line that says "Mommy has gained ____ pounds. Daddy has gained ____ pounds."
Ha! I can see how the dad can put on a few as well. For the record I'm probably up about 2 to 4 pounds, but I blame my new job (Feb start date) more than anything. I suppose without the marathon training I bet I'd be up more like 8-10 lbs?

I'm hitting that phase of the training where I tend to eat too much. Dang it sucks. I get all hungry and eat the wrong things. Some days are better than others.

I'll be a dad in almost exactly 1 month! Holy Cow!!