Time for the monthly totals -- not surprisingly, I ran more than I biked.

My legs are almost 100%. I'll be on the bike outside or at the gym later this week.

A 180º turn of events

It was about 12:30am last night and I was wide awake -- I went to bed just after 10pm and wasn't able to fall alseep! I was thinking about the race and couldn't relax. On top of that my legs hurt because my part-time job requires me to be standing and I worked two full-time shifts on Friday and yesteday. By 12:30 I was thinking that the marathon would be a total disaster and I even wasn't sure if I could race. But miracles do happen because I think I must have fallen asleep shortly afterwards and when I got up at 7 my legs felt good and I didn't even feel tired.

The race started at 8:15am and I felt very good from the get-go. Based on my previous experience I knew to start out slow and so I followed an 8:01min/mi pacer (3:30 total marathon time) for the first two miles. I sped up after that and never looked back. I didn't take my GPS watch with me because I didn't want to distract me and I'm glad that's what I did although it would have been nice to see a personal map of the run. At the 13.1mi mark, I clocked in at 1:37:19. When I started the race, my goal was to go under 3:30. The only other time I ran a marathon was in 2003 when I finished at 3:19:23 (Country Music Marathon in Nashville). When I crossed that half-way point today I knew I could go under 3:20.

Did my left leg hurt? Yes, but not as much as I thought it would and it didn't really bother me until the last 3-4 miles when the joints and muscles in both legs were hurting, which is really quite normal. So it will take me a few days to recover, but I will still run again :-). But I think I'm getting an idea as to why it hurt in the first place: I don't think I'm running in the right shoes. Yesterday, while I stopped at the Westin Hotel convention center to pick up my marathon pocket that had a bib and a timing chip, I talked to this guy at one of the vendor booths from the Seattle Running Company and he measured my feet and said I need at least a size bigger than I currently have because the part of the foot from the heel to the back-end of the toes is longer than normal, which means that in my current shoes, the shoe is not bending in the right place. Also, my feet are not very curved (but not quite flat) which also means that my shoes should not be curved in the middle but rather more straight. Anyway, next week I'll go down to the store where I can get an exact measurement and see a video of my stride. I'll pay full-price for a shoe, but the extra $10 or $20 compared to an Internet retailer will be more than worth it.

Now back to the race. The reason I felt so good was that I drank a lot of water yesterday. On Friday I had a lot of pizza and yesterday a regular meal. I ate a banana and an energy bar and drank two glasses of water about an hour and a half before the race this morning and then an energy gel an hour later. During the race, I ate two more gels and stopped about 4 times to drink Gatorade.

Now really back to the race :-). I kept up the pace past the half-point mark. There were a couple of hilly parts after that but it wasn't too bad, maybe a total elevation gain of 400 ft. There was a clock at the 30K point (the marathon is 42.2) and I was running on track for a 3:06 time, which really surprised me. Maybe it was 35k and that was the actual time?? Probably the former, but I can't be sure. In any case, by mile 20 I was feeling strained and by about 22 miles my legs were sore and the muscles were cramping. But, my breathing was fine. Miles 22 to 25 were the hardest. The last mile wasn't that bad because I just pushed it with the thought that I'll be done very shortly and so I lengthened my stride which also helped to loosen up the legs.

I ended up finishing in 3:14:10, just over 5 minutes faster than my previous time. My second split was 1:36:51 -- 28 seconds faster than the first. Now, I did make a pit stop that probably took me about that time or just a bit londer during the first half, which would make the 2 halves almost identical in time. I'm actually very satisfied with that, because almost all runners finish the second half much slower than the first. The most visible exception: the winner of today's race, Uli Stedl (who I think won the Seattle Marathon for the 6th time in a row today!). When I looked at the results, I only saw two other guys do that who finished ahead of me. That's why only a couple of guys passed me past 5 or so miles. Otherwise I was passing other people. I'm not saying that to brag, but the point is that it's important not to start out to fast and to really push it the last 8 or 10 miles. I'm sure there's a good chance I'll make that mistake in the future too...

I got 138th place in the men's division and I think there were 4 women ahead of me out of a total of ~1400 male and ~750 female runners. I'll update the results when they're official. As you can tell from my diatribe, I'm quite satisfied with the results.

I'll be taking it easy the rest of the year and I'll be back on the bike more too when I do work out.

Total: Seattle Marathon Race (26.2mi); 3:14:10 (7:24 pace)

Just a short jog to work - about a mile away - and that's it. Not going to say anything else... see ya tomorrow.

Total: 1.0mi Run

I ran 3 miles today at a "tempo" pace. In this case, that meant a slow pace with about three fast 1 minute intervals. It was chilly this morning at 9am at Seward Park and I have a feeling that it'll be the same on Sunday. As for the hip, it's not a 100%. I will attempt to finish the marathon, but if it hurts too much I will stop. BTW, I wouldn't recommend doing running under any pain as it can lead to serious injury if one is not familiar with what the body can handle. I think I'll be OK, but like I said, I will stop if I feel that's what could happen to me. On a positive note, I took a picture with my cell phone right before the run: a nice shot of Lake Washington with Mt. Rainier in the background :-).

Total: 3.15mi Run; 271 cal.; 146 lb. (It looks like I've gained about 5 lbs. over the past week; probably a good thing).

I went skiing on Saturday and was going to run yesterday but my legs were stiff from the skiing. Today wasn't that much better but I ran anyways because I was afraid of taking off too many days a week before the race. My left hip still hurt today but I'm going to load up on Aleve for the next few days and will only do two short runs before Sunday. So... we'll see how I feel then. As I think I mentioned before I'm in good cardiovascular shape. I'm only worried about joint pain and subsequent injury -- that's what could prevent me from finishing the race.

Total: 8.12mi Run; 836 cal.; 143.5 lb.

An easy ~3-mile run today... Next run is on Sunday. Felt OK, the leg felt better today.

Total: 3.56mi Run

This was the second to last longest run before the marathon. On Sunday, there's one more - an 8-miler and next week will be very easy with at least 3 days off. The bad news today was that my left hip started hurting again. The good news is that I'll talk tomorrow off, go skiing on Sunday as my cross-training day and then the 8-miler on Sunday. I think I should be fine by then unless of course I injure my leg while skiing. Maybe not a good idea afterall? Well, life isn't very fun when one worries too much, so I'll do it anyways and we'll see what happens. Fun is the name of the game :-)

Total: 5.91mi Run; 600 cal.; 141 lb.

Ran 4 miles at the gym... Ran at 8mph most of the time.

Total: 4mi Run; ~450 cal.; 142 lbs.

Today was the first day I wore a hat an gloves! It was about 40 degrees or so but sunny and crisp. I saw the sunset and half an hour later a full moon was out by 5pm. I really liked and felt great about half way through the 8.5 miles or so. The only problem was that the top of my right foot was hurting again so I had to adjust the tongue every mile or two. Otherwise everything was OK. :-)

Total: 8.62 mi Run (8:05 pace); 856 cal.; 139 lb.

Spin class... I found a bike that has Look pedals. There's only one in the gym, the rest are SPDs on one side and cages on the other. Eventually I'll get new shoes with wholes for both SPDs and Looks. I saw some Pearl Izumi ones I really liked at REI.

Total: 15mi Bike (spin class); ~500 cal.; 143.5 lb.

[Backdated on 11/12/2005]

Today was a good test day to see how far I could run. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately as I'll explain in a moment, I didn't run as far as I could. Recently I've been focusing more on running than on biking. That's because since I succesfully finished the 10k on October 30th, I've been thinking about running the Seattle Marathon on November 27th, only two and a half weeks away. I wanted to run about 20 miles today because if I could do that than I wouldn't have a problem finishing the marathon. I've only run one so far -- the Country Music Marathon in Nashville in April, 2003.

The weather forecast called for rain showers in the afternoon so I thought I'd be fine if I started before noon. I went outside about 11:30 and it started raining and it was windy windy -- that's why it felt colder than 52 degrees (the temperature posted on Yahoo Weather). For a moment I thought about going to the gym instead but decided to give it a try because the conditions might be very similar during the marathon. Seattle is known for notoriously bad weather in November.

I started off the same path as I've ran the last couple of 10 milers: down to Elliot Bay and then all the way to the marina and back. I planned on doing that twice. However, when I got down to the bay it was very windy with gusts up to 25mph probably. And it was raining, although not very hard. I started it out slow - about an 8:30 min./mi. pace, which is what I'd in a marathon. It's something I read in a running book about running a marathon -- start out slow. It definitely worked for me in 2003.

I felt good throughout, meaning that my breathing was fine and I wasn't feeling tired and all. I began to pick up the pace gradually and was running at about 7:30 pace 4 miles in. There were two things that bothered me however -- my underwear, which was wet by then, was rubbing my inner thigh (I should have put powder on before going out) and the tongue of the right shoe was causing discomfort on the right side of the top of my foot, a problem I've had for a bout a week now in addition to the achilles tendon.

At 10 miles I decided to keep running instead of turning back. I went about half a mile past the ferry terminal along Puget Sound and turned around. At that point, if I ran straight back home, it would have been about 13.1 miles. That's what I decided to do. I didn't want to go to far and perhaps cause an injury from which I wouldn't be able to recover by marathon time. Part of it is that it was easier to stop running than go another 7 miles, but I think that I made the right decision. This wasn't the marathon, and I'll save my energy for then.

So as of now, unless I get injured, I will run the marathon on the 27th. :-) By the way, my legs did of course feel stiff after running, but I only felt slightly tired. So I think I'm in good enough shape -- it'll just be a question of whether my bones and muscles can make it through 26.2 miles.

Total: 13.1 mi Run (1:48:46; 8:13min./mi. pace); 1354 cal.; 143 lb.

It was reasonably warm and not raining today so I went for a 2 mile jog around Seward Park. Besides my left leg not being a 100%, the right achilles tendon is feeling strained. Hopefully they'll both heal soon.

Total: 2 mi Run; 143 lb.

[Backdated on 11/10/2005]

A 5 mile run on the treadmill today. My left leg is still hurting a bit... I think it's possible I overdid last week.

Total: 5 mi Run (39:03; 7:48 pace, treadmill); ~550 cal.; ??? lb.

[Backdated on 11/10/2005]

The standard Seattle loop -- Elliot Bay, Magnolia, Discovery Park, Ballard, Fremont, Belltown -- today. The only difference between ones I've done before is that it was pretty cold today: ~45 degrees and quite windy. I wore two quick-dry long-sleeve shirts, one of which was medium in thickness, and full-length tights with my bike shorts on top of them. I also had full length Pearl Izuimi bike gloves that are water resistant but not too thick -- perfect for ~32-50 degrees. I would have also worn a water-resistant or a water-proof light-weight jacket, but it was dry for the first time in about a week (it started raining as soon as I got back).

Total: 13.6 Bike (15.2mph); 527 calories; ??? lb.

Another 10k at the gym. It wasn't as hard this time, but my left leg hurts a bit today, so I'm taking the day off today (Saturday)...

Total: 10k (6.2mi) Run; (49:01; 7:54 pace); ~700 cal.; 140 lb.

[Backdated on 11/05/2005]

Spin class again as on Thursday and very hard again. Found out there's a new spin class at the gym on Fridays...

Total: 15mi Bike (spin class); ~500 calories; 140 lb.

A rainy and cold day outside, but a good day at the gym -- I ran 10k with a pretty good time, on a treadmill that is. That's the furthest I've ever run (because I sometimes feel like a rat on a treadmill) and I felt good today so it wasn't as difficult as the 10k this past Sunday.

Here's the breakdown in mph:
Mile 0-.5: 6.0
.5-1.0: 7.0
1.0-5.85: 8.0
5.85-6.2: 7.0

Total: 10k (6.2 mi) Run; (48:56; 7:53 pace); 695 calories; ??? lb.

[Backdated on 11/3/2005]

Back to the gym for spin class. I haven't been to one since October 4th, almost a month. A very hard class...

Total: 15mi Bike (spin class); ~500 cal.; 140 lb.

These are the monthly totals since I've started the blog in August. I'm a bit surprised that I worked out so much in September...