Feeling Much Better Two Weeks Post-Tucson Marathon

The Malibu Marathon on Nov 14th gave out finisher towels. Came in handy for those of us cooling off in the ocean after the race!It took me exactly two weeks to feel fully recovered from the Tucson Marathon. Two weeks of holiday preparations, parties, eating, festivities and fun.

What wasn't fun was the sluggish feeling a had last week as I creeped my way through 4 to 6 mile runs each day, not particularly enjoying it. My problem was that I was in a perma-tired state because more than ever I was not getting enough sleep each night. Why am I not getting enough sleep? Kids are up later because they're out of school, Christmas came and went, busy, busy with the new toys and games, etc.

In fact, I'm still kind of in that mode as I write this at midnight.

But something "clicked" yesterday, or I now should say the day before yesterday, since the clock has now struck midnight on Wednesday.

Sunday was exactly 2 weeks post marathon and I ran my longest run since then, 8.5 miles in 64 minutes. A moderate pace that I felt o.k. with. But I still didn't feel GREAT.

The "click" happened on Monday morning, when, even though I was coming off of 5 hours of sleep, there was a spring back in my step. Don't know what prompted it, but I actually felt GOOD even though I was tired.

Same thing today. I only ran 45 minute but I felt like running for hours if I could have. The air was nice and cool outside but not TOO cold. My legs felt fresh. It was enjoyable. Something I haven't felt for awhile.

So now that we are approaching the new year, I will have to figure out what's next for me. My more serious runner friends already have their next marathon on the calendar and are planning to do a 20 miler this weekend. I'm not there yet. But I will be checking my favorite marathon website, www.MarathonGuide.com, for upcoming 26.2 milers.

In other news, for the 2nd time in one month, I am about to lose another toenail. The middle nail on my right foot. This is a personal first for me. My first loss was on December 8th. For about 4 days now this nail has looked the hood of a car. It is hanging by a thread at this point but I'm not gonna force it so as to allow the newbie underneath sufficient coverage. There's one more nail on my right foot, the toe next to the big toe, that I predict will be gone in 3 months.

Lesson learned: MAKE SURE YOUR SHOES FIT. I was stupid. I went to Road Runner Sports in Newbury Park, short on time. The guy found me a shoe that I liked, but it felt a bit small. He didn't have a larger size. But I thought, why not, just buy thinner socks and it should be fine. The worker didn't try to dissuade me. Wish he had. I now have a pair of Saucony ProGrid Kinvaras size 10 1/2 that I wore 4 times. Anyone want them?

Week of Recuperation Post-Tucson Marathon

It is now 1 week post-marathon and I'm starting to feel better, not 100%, but maybe 80%. Went out today for my longest run since the marathon...only 35 minutes, about 4 1/2 miles, and felt fine. It has been raining literally non-stop today and that included my run. Got fairly soaked but felt good.

Tucson sunset night before the marathonI was extremely sore in my quads the first couple days post-marathon, to the point I couldn't walk down stairs without holding the handrail and going one step at a time. Some people walk backwards going downstairs to ease the pressure on the quads. I was tempted but didn't go quite that far.

The 3rd day post-marathon I alternated walking with jogging for several miles. Still sore and tight, and later that morning my lower calves had a sharp pain. Must have been due to the awkward way I was running.

The 4th day, Thursday, I jogged slowly the whole 2 1/2 miles and ended up with a new pain, this one a sharp pain in the middle of my right quad. Felt like someone stabbed me in the leg. But luckily, it pretty much went away on its own overnight.

Friday and Saturday were uneventful. With the pouring rain outside, I opted to "sleep in" until 8 a.m. and I didn't go out for my run until 10 a.m. Body felt like it was hit by a truck. Extremely sluggish. Guess my lack of adequate sleep caught up to me. Left calf was sore this time.

Today I ran around 8:30 a.m. after sleeping a bit late again. Had a chance to run a 10 miler with some friends who also ran the marathon but felt my body wasn't up for it. While I felt fine for the 35 minutes, I just didn't feel like running further. Two marathons in 4 weeks...I deserve a holiday break :>

Tucson Marathon Post Mortem

It is Tuesday night and I've had 3 days, 2 nights to contemplate my marathon performance on Sunday.

But before I go there, let me tell you that Tucson has the coolest looking cactus growing all over town called saguaro. I immediately thought how cool would it be to have some of these growing in our yard. But apparently they only thrive in the Sonoran desert of Arizona a handful of other places. They are growing in center medians, the airport, shopping centers, yards, you name it. They are awesome.

And then there is the Tucson Marathon host hotel, the Hilton Tucson El Conquistador Resort. For only $145/night, it was quite a beautiful setting. The room was nice, clean and comfortable too. Plus, the busses picked us up directly at the hotel lobby that morning, which was nice (others had to drive to a parking lot for pickup).

Driving up to the hotel.View from the outdoor courtyard of the Hilton, near the pool areas.I ran the marathon Sunday morning and my flight got me to LAX at 7 pm. With some Advil in me, I was able to move along fairly well that night. I even managed a burst of energy to catch the parking lot shuttle bus.

By 10 pm that night, the soreness in my quads really started getting ugly. Comicly ugly. As I kneeled down to grab something out of the closet, I realized I was too sore to get up. It hurt too much to stand up, and there was nothing to grab on to to help me. So I literally shuffled on my knees across the room to the couch, and with some effort finally pulled myself upright. Now I know what it feels like to be an invalid.

The soreness was worse the next day as my coworkers laughed. I usually fly down the hall, but I was walking like a 97 year old man. Advil in moderation helped me, but I didn't overdo it - I limited my intake to 2 or 3 a day.

I did walk a mile on Monday morning and a few miles this morning to get the blood flowing. By Thursday I'm hoping I'll be able to do some light jogging.

A visitor to this site asked me what I thought caused the trashing of my quads (and by the way, every other part of my body feels just fine...hamstrings, calves, knees, arms, etc.). Here are my thoughts on the matter:

1. First and foremost, I didn't do any downhill specific training, name downhill running on a paved surface, for this marathon. I do run on plenty of hills, but nothing anywhere near as significant (2000+ foot drop) to the Tucson course. Why? Well for starters, I only decided to run the race 2 weeks ago.
2. My base mileage was quite low. It had been nearly 3 months since I ran as much as 50 miles in one week. This is more than most casual runners run, but to run a sub 3 hour marathon, most people need 50+ miles a week in running or possibly a lot of aerobic cross training.
3. Though I felt pretty good only 2 weeks after the Malibu Marathon, I probably never FULLY recovered. But additionally, I spent 2 weeks recovering from Malibu and then had only 2 weeks left to train for Tucson. Those final 2 weeks are usually relegated to tapering, not training. So basically I was attempting to fool my body into a sub 3 performance...but there's no fooling this old body!
4. Admittedly while I felt I was holding back the first half of the race, I didn't hold back enough. My half marathon split was 1:27, nearly 3 minutes faster than an even 3 hour pace. My average split was 6:39 but only should have been running at a 6:52 pace. I felt good and fine, but that pace on that course obviously was not sustainable for me.
5. I wore my 5K racing flats because I discovered that my longer distance racing shoes were too small for me. That might have contributed to the hammering of my quads, though the alternative was to run in my training shoes, which I didn't want to do.

It is easy to point out your mistakes...but much more challenging to DO SOMETHING about them. The main thing I need to do to run a FAST marathon is...STOP WRITING and START RUNNING. I think I'll do that. But first, I'm going to bed. :>

Tucson Marathon Today - There's No Fooling This Body

29th marathon down the hatch. The good news is that I finished today's Tucson Marathon. Around mile 17 I was having some doubts.

I digress. Two weeks ago I decided to sign up for ANOTHER marathon, 2 weeks after the Malibu Marathon. This was kind of an experiment to see how many body would respond so soon after the last marathon. My hope was to run a sub 3 hour marathon.

Today's 26.2 miler was basically 2 runs. The first half of the marathon I ran in 1 hour, 27 minutes and felt just fine. That feeling lasted until about mile 15, at which point I noticed my quads could no longer respond.

By mile 17, my quads were TRASHED and I started alternating walking and running. And so it went for the next 4 miles...walk 20 steps, run as best I could.  Around mile 21 I was able to take in more fluids, namely a sports drink called "Xood" that the race was serving up, and I was able to regain some composure with a slow paced "death shuffle" to the finish.

Yup, it was one of those days. The weather was fairly warm and dry and once again I wasn't getting enough fluids in. But while that did impact my running, I'm not going to kid myself.  I did not do the base mileage homework for this marathon, and there's no fooling your body into running a fast marathon. But I enjoyed trying, as painful as it was.

I was also happy that I ran a very comfortable 1:27 half marathon over the first half of the course. I was running at a moderate effort.

Overall my time was 3 hours, 14 minutes. Talk about crash and burn! 1:27 1st half vs 1:47 2nd half.

Time to recuperate...and think about 2011.

One Less Toenail Four Days Before Tucson Marathon

I think it started last December after running the Santa Barbara Marathon, which would make the process almost exactly one year. But the days and weeks are blurry and I don't track the specific time I discovered the toenail on the toe next to my big toe was black.

Black toenail for illustration purposes only. The real black toenail has been changed to protect the innocent.

On Sunday I felt something odd when I put my sock on, like there was a leaf in my sock. But I was in a rush and didn't think much of it. When you have young kids, namely two perpetual motion machine boys, you quickly forget about things.

That night after I showered I noticed what caused that odd feeling. The toenail on the toe next to my big toe (it sure would be nice if they actually had names for the toes like we have for our fingers) was loose. It was more than loose. I could actually open it up like a door, with the hinge attached at the bottom.

I didn't rush the process. It seemed fine. I just carefully placed my socks over the toes and went on with my day. It wasn't until Tuesday night that finality to the situation occurred. The entire nail fell off and underneath was a brand new nail. It doesn't look as "pretty" as the other nails yet, nor do I ever expect it to, but I do have a nail.

Although I have been running now for 17 1/2 years, it is still a pretty rare event to lose a toenail. I take pretty good care of my feet, namely, I keep my toenails trimmed, buy shoes that fit and have some room in the toebox so they don't get smooshed and on most runs 18 miles or longer I sacrifice my socks by slathering Vaseline on the toes to prevent blistering.

Given the rarity of the moment, I pondered for 10 minutes whether I should keep that toenail and show it to the kids. Yes, for 10 minutes, as I brushed, flossed and gargled, that toenail sat on the countertop (which has since been washed) as I considered the benefits of keeping it.

Some ultramarathoners have been known to keep their fallen toenails. I've seen a Ceremonial Toenail Necklace online. Quite nasty looking.

Also on my mind was the fact that one of the very few mistakes I made at the Malibu Marathon on November 14th was that I had NOT cut my toenails enough and as a result, now my RIGHT FOOT has not one, but TWO toenails that look like they are on their way out. The other mistake I made was that I bought a pair of shoes that were just ever so slightly not big enough in the toebox to accommodate the pounding in a marathon. Dammit!

My kids told me to paint all my toenails black. I don't think so.

Ultimately after these deep thoughts, the toenail made it to the trash can that night. I figured I'd spare my family from the excitement, though my 7 year old got a kick out of seeing the new nail.

Maybe I'm talking about toenails because it is only 4 days before another marathon and I'm in taper mode again (not that I had much mileage to taper from). Too much time on my hands? Nah.

Cat's Out of the Bag - Running the Tucson Marathon on December 12th

I guess someone actually reads this blog.

Last Sunday I mentioned I was running another marathon in two weeks and that it would be fun to SURPRISE some friends who also are running this marathon...which happens to be the Tucson Marathon.

Yes sir, today my friend Dave called me up and said, hey, I was talking to Jim, and Jim asked about my training for Tucson...and he mentioned you're running it too. GULP, the cat's out of the bag! Gee thanks Jim! :>

But that's o.k., it was all in fun. Oddly though, I never mentioned  Tucson in last week's post, though I did mention it several times in Twitter.

So yes, 3 weeks post-Malibu Marathon and I am now about a week away from another marathon. Not a lot of tapering necessary for this marathon as I had about a 5 month illness-induced taper for Malibu. Since Malibu, I've been doing very moderate training, with an easy 15 miler last Sunday.

This is not my first time running the Tucson Marathon, but assuming all goes well it will be my first time FINISHING the race. About 8 years ago I DNF'd (Did Not Finish for those unfamiliar with this running acronym) at Mile 20 due to severe shin splints.

Shin splints is a rarity for me but I had them going into that race. That was a problem because the Tucson Marathon is one of the most severely downhill marathons in the country, with an elevation drop of over 2,000 feet and starting elevation close to 5,000 feet!

So I'm going into this race knowing that I'm nowhere near my peak, nearly 2 months away from any solid training. But having done a 26.2 miler 3 weeks ago and feeling recovered, I know I can cover the distance. The question is, can I go under 3 hours. We shall see. I'm a pretty good downhill runner but I haven't exactly trained for a downhill marathon.