Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Toughest Part is Over

The last 20 miler is now in the books, wrapping up a tough 54 mile week. I ended up running 5 days in the week and four consecutive days, which is more than I like to do. When this week is in the books every training session, there's definitely a feeling of happiness and accomplishment as you finally feel like you are over the hump. You know there's just a couple weeks left before the marathon and the beating the your body has endured over the previous 13 weeks is now complete. Over the last three weeks, mileage is cut considerably and the minor injuries that have mounted up will hopefully heal in time for the big one.

I ran the first half at about an 8:12 pace and the second half just under an 8:00 pace. It was a warm morning and pretty humid, so I feel good about my time. The hammy felt pretty good, while the knee still felt a little sore at times.
I am beginning to think my knee pain may be caused by my shoes. I have worn the Brooks Adrenaline 6 is the past but finally ran out of miles on those earlier this year. I went to the Adrenaline 8's prior to the start of training. My oldest pair, which I had to wear on Tuesday of this week, now has 305 miles on them. I think they are officially done. I used to be able to get closer to 500 miles in the Adrenaline 6's. Now I am wondering if the second pair is almost done and may be contributing to my knee pain. They now have just 220 miles on them. I ran in the freshest pair today (now with 63 miles on them) and they felt much better. I only have 78 miles left before the marathon, but that would put pair number 2 at 298 miles. So, as of 5 minutes ago, I am thinking about buying one more pair. Although it may have to be my last pair if these bastards are only going to last 250 miles. I may have to move on to a different show in the future. It's not something I would consider doing three weeks away from the marathon though.

The old Ipod took a turn for the worse last night when I tried to update a new playlist. So, I added the playlist onto Tiffany's Ipod this morning and away we went. I am not sure what I am going to do for the marathon just yet. I'll try to swap out the battery in the newer Ipod and see if that gets me anywhere. The last resort is to use Tiffany's Ipod, but as I told her earlier today, I am not sure that's the best idea. I seem to be breaking them lately with pretty good regularity.

Here's what the upcoming week looks like:
Tuesday: 10 Miles @ 8:00
Wednesday: 8 Miles @ 8:00
-I may not pay too much attention to pace on the early week runs-
Friday: 9 Miles, 4 x 1600m @ 6:34 w/800m jogs in between
Sunday: 12 miles @ 8:00 pace, although I may crank it up a little bit
39 miles for the week

***
In other news, the Cubs are in the playoffs, the Bears appear to be in for a long season and the US won the Ryder Cup. Try not to get too excited.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Zab, you're starting to look like Jaime Kennedy's character in Boiler Room with the goat you're sporting

yasso800 said...

Who knew Dennis Miller was logging in to this blog? Can we get a more obscure reference than Jaime Kennedy in Boiler Room? What's next, a reference to Ben Affleck's turn as Basketball Player #10 in Buffy the Vampire Slayer?
My first vote for songs to be included on the list is a song called "A Little Bit of Faith," by up-and-coming band Shouting and Pointing. I'm not sure if it's on iTunes yet, but keep your eyes open. If you can't get your hands on that how about Lodi by CCR?