See Jon Run

Here we are two weeks out from the Marine Corp Marathon.  This week is pretty tough but then we start tapering so as long as things go well this week we should be good for the Marathon.

Sunday’s long run (18 miles) was a little more interesting this week. The weather was much nicer (about 74 at the start and the humidity was at only 65%). This made for a much more enjoyable run and we were able to keep a conversation going for the entire run. Finally some nice weather. It did reach about 85 degrees towards the end of the run so we were glad to see mile 18. All in all the run went well, neither of us were pushing the pace as it stayed pretty steady at about 8 minute pace throughout the run. We did pick it up to about 7:15 pace the last mile for a strong finish. Ended with a 7:55 average and we both felt good. Only one long run left, 15 miles on Thursday. Then we taper.

Nick sliced his thumb open Saturday night and had to go to the hospital.  Cut the tip right off so he was in a little different pain today.  They couldn’t re-attach the sliced off portion so he’ll live out the remainder of his life with a flat spot on his thumb.  Oh well..could have been worse.  He sucked it up and didn’t complain during the run, although he was worried about getting too much sweat in it and getting an infection.  Besides his thumb and my heel, we were both feeling pretty good, as the weather had finally cooled.  A good bit of the conversation was centered around my daughter with Nick giving a younger persons advice to help me out.  Nick’s actually closer to J’s age than mine so I get a little different perspective from him. One of the themes of the day was decisions we make and punishment for bad decisions.  I’m not always good about how do you dole out punishment.  I know J’s got a lot on her mind but she still needs to obey the rules we’ve set.  You don’t obey the rules, you get punished.  We’ve always taught her there are consequences for your actions, both good and bad.  If you make poor choices there are bad consequences. Seems like a pretty easy concept to understand but maybe not so easy for teenagers.  She’s been the model child until the last few months now and it seems like we just can’t get on the same page.  Sometimes I feel like just giving in and letting her do what she wants but I know that’s not the right thing to do.  I feel like there’s a wedge between us and I hate it.  I’d love to get back the relationship we had up until a few months ago but I guess that won’t happen for a while now. It’s sad.. it’s depressing… I feel awful… As I’m running I’m thinking about decisions I’ve made in the past and consequences from those choices.  Of course I’ve not always made the right decisions but for the most part I think I’ve thought things through and made the best decision I could, based on what I knew at the time.  I think my parents did a pretty good job of teaching me right from wrong and I’ve benefited from that.  I’m not really sure what makes some people make bad decisions vs. good ones but I think a lot of it has to do with their chemical make up.  One of my sisters has always struggled with making good rational decisions and has paid a lifetime of heartache for those decisions.  Why? What makes a person continue to make bad decisions?  I don’t have the answer to that but I’d love to know how to make sure J is able to make good decisions.  I guess there are never any guarantees so I think we just need to help our kids when they ask for help but allow them to make decisions on their own and learn from those decisions.  No guarantees….

Monday was weight workout and no run.

Tuesday we opted to ride rather than run so I could give my foot an extra day of healing. Rode 25 miles at a pretty quick pace.  I was tired.

Wednesday we did a 5-mile recovery run.  I also got a weight workout.

Thursday is our last long run then we taper for 10 days.  15 miles with the last 8 being at marathon pace.  The first 11 went well for me but I struggled through the last 4 miles.  I was just not feeling too well.  Maybe I was too tired.  This was a pretty tough week with 18 on Sunday, workout Monday, ride Tuesday, 5 miles on Wednesday, followed by 15 today.  I’m beat and my heel is killing me.  Nick on the other hand ran very well.  We stayed together for about 8 miles averaging about 7:52’s.  I was feeling good and was able to pick up the pace from miles 7 –11 but then struggled to maintain 8:00 minute pace over the last 4 miles.  I ended up with a 7:47 average.  Overall time was right where I needed to be but I’d hoped to feel better at the end.  It was very hot and muggy (80 degrees with about 92% humidity), we were soaked by the time we finished.  Nick was able to maintain about a 7:00 minute mile from miles 7 through 15 and finished with about a 7:27 average.  Now that’s a good run.

Friday was weights, no run.  Plantars Fasciitis is really killing me.  I’m icing at work and home, wearing a night splint, and eating 9 advil a day.  I’ve got to get this under control within the next 9 days or I’m in trouble.  Can hardly walk today, it’s very painful.

Saturday I set the alarm for 7:00 but forgot to turn it on so I didn’t wake up in time for the BS ride.  Slept in late and didn’t do anything my foot was still very sore.  J had a soccer game and that was about it for the day.  Nick went ahead and did the last 8 mile run solo with no problems to report.  My plan is to keep icing and do none impact exercises for the rest of the week and not run until Sunday’s MCM. 

Nick made it back from California late Saturday so we’re ready to do a 20 miler today.  Nick has been non-stop since last Saturday and jet setting all over the country, not to mention riding 6-gap last Sunday.  He was a little apprehensive about the run today but we headed out anyway.  Our remaining long runs include 20 today, 18 next Sunday, then 15 the following week, not bad, we’re almost there.  I ate well again last night so nutrition should not be a problem. As we started out we notice how hot and humid it was already even though the sun wasn’t up yet.  “We’re in for a tough run” we commented to each other.  Temperatures soon climbed into the 90’s with 92% humidity.  The run started off well with the first 11 miles being right around an 8 minute pace. When we got to our water stop at mile 11 Nick said he wasn’t feeling well and couldn’t get his breathing under control.  We agreed we’d try 8:30 pace and kept that through mile 13 when Nick said go ahead, he needed to slow a little more.  I picked it up a little and kept somewhere around an 8-8:15 pace for the next 4 miles.  Stopped for water at mile 18 and was beat at that point.  Nick came in a few minutes later and we sat for a few minutes.  Miles 18 - 20 were all about survival for me and I even missed a turn and cut off about 2/10 of a mile.  We finished but we were beat.  I ended up with an 8:06 average but would have been more like an 8:09-8:10 if I hadn’t missed the turn.  Good enough in this heat.  Nick said this it the worst he’s ever felt on a run.  As for me, my heel was killing me and I needed to get off my foot.  Time to ice.

Found out later in the day they were having heat problems up at the Chicago Marathon as well.  Chicago Marathon was today and they ended up calling the race after about 3.5 hours of running.  They diverted runners who weren’t at least half way done, to the finish line.  Of the 45,000 entries, 10,000 never showed up, and 11,000 didn’t finish.  Temperatures in Chicago reached 88 degrees.  That’s almost a nice day here in Florida.  I guess all this heat training we do might actually help us in some ways.  We were both in a different world today so there wasn’t much conversation during the run.  Normally we’re chatting but Nick was having a tough time keeping his breathing controlled so he was just doing what he could to make it through 20 miles.  I didn’t feel too bad until mile 18.  Most of my thoughts were of some problems my daughter is having.  We’re still not getting along as well as I’d like but we’re working on it.  Evidently teen dating is more stressful for her than it should be.  She’s let things get to a point where it’s changing her personality.  She’s certainly not the happy go lucky daughter we used to have.  I’m not sure exactly how we can help her get through all this other than just trying to keep communications open and letting her know how special she is. It’s not really working, she dislikes us a little more each day.  It’s a terrible feeling.

Monday was weights and no run.  Didn’t workout too hard but was tired when I left the gym. 

Tuesday my foot was still hurting so we opted to ride rather than run.  One more day off my foot won’t hurt.  We rode 25 at a pretty decent pace.  Nick was riding well and I was doing what I could to hang on.

Wednesday is speed workout day.  This week calls for 2×4 speed workout.  It was still pretty hot (93 with 95% humidity) so we chose to run on the treadmill.  Not to mention it’s easier on my foot.  We started out with a mile warm up then we hit the first 4 miles of speed.  I ran my first 4 miles at a 7:20 pace while Nick was running 7:08 pace.  All went well and we did our half-mile recovery then started the next 4 miles of speed.  I picked it up to a 7:13 pace for the next 4 miles and Nick was steady at 7:08.  No problems to report, other than sore foot, and we finished without incident.

Thursday is our normal group ride where I usually get in 40-45 miles but we had some challenges with J so I skipped the ride and opted for some alone time.  I was able to get in a 10 mile tour through Winter Haven and I stopped by to watch J at soccer practice.  After that I went to the gym and did 30 minutes of cardio on the arc machine then got in a workout.  Good workout concidering.  I try to keep out of site at J’s practice because I know she doesn’t want me there.  I just can’t help but go watch, I love seeing her play soccer, it looks like she doesn’t have a care in the world and that’s nice to see.

Friday I took the day off.  

Saturday was a 35 mile bike shop ride.  The ride was pretty quick and I was trying not to work too hard as we were going to be running 18 tomorrow.  Try as I may I can’t help but chase down any break-a-ways.  We rode fairly hard and all-in-all it was a good ride.  Nick opted to go 50 and said they kept it at a pretty moderate pace.

I forgot Nick was traveling to CA this week so I’m on my own all week. This could be tough but I guess that means more time to think about life. Just to update, Nick rode 6 gap Sunday. A very tough ride in the mountains of North Georgia with 10,000 feet of climbing in 100 miles. Our group has ridden it for three or four years now and it’s a really challenging ride. Nick did well on his new Medone finishing in 5:38 placing him in the top 50 riders. Good job to everyone in the RRR group. I stayed home and did my own training.

Monday was weight training no run. Good hard workout and I’m sore.

Tuesday was a recovery run of 6 miles. I ran at the gym since it was raining. Running on the treadmill is not that fun to me but it beats being out in the rain. Started out at 8 minute pace and increased my speed every 1/2 mile just to keep it interesting. Ended up with a 7:35 average.

My thoughts & questions:
Running at the gym is always interesting.  Lot’s of people seem to be looking for “the perfect mate.”  Better to look for someone at a gym than a bar.  I hope they all find what they’re looking for, there’s nothing better than a good relationship. When I see this I think of how lucky I am to have a good, loving relationship with my wife.  But then I think, is it really luck?  Was I really just lucky or did we pick well?  You hear people complaining about their wife or their husband and they’re just not happy.  I start wondering why are so many people unhappy in their relationship?  Did they not choose the right person?  Were they not thinking rationally when they got into the relationship?  Do they understand all relationships take work or have they just become complacent?  Are people willing to overlook obvious signs of a problem, hoping things would somehow get better if they get married?  As I’m running and thinking about these things I’m remembering friends and family who are now divorced or separated.  What a terrible thing to go through.  What caused them to reach a point where they would rather be apart from each other than with each other.  What happened to the love they once had for each other.  I feel bad for them and as I’m thinking about why some of thier  relationships ended, I start asking myself questions: Why are people so surprised by the actions of the one’s they should know best.  Don’t get me wrong, I realize every now and then people do things that are just totally out of character but for the most part these actions aren’t totally out of character.  For example, Is it really big surprising your husband would cheat when he cheated on you when you were dating?  Why would his cheating now be shocking?  Why are some people willing to overlook things like that?  Why do some people stay in abusive relationships?  Do they have no other alternative?  Have they been isolated from everyone or are they just hoping it will get better?  Why would you date someone who makes you feel bad about yourself?  Better yet, why would you marry them?  Isn’t dating sort of a “trial run” a “test drive” of sorts?  If the relationship was not great when you’re dating, why would you think it would get better if you get married?  If you test-drive a car and it doesn’t meet your expectations you wouldn’t buy it, so why would you marry someone in the hopes that it might get better?  Do some people just ignore what’s in front of them?  Maybe it’s just me?  Maybe I rationalize things too much?  Maybe I’m too safe?  If that’s the case, I’ll take safe and rational any day. I’m happy… my life is good.

Next thing I know 6 miles done…….time to go.

Wednesday is speed workout day. Calls for 3X3 miles with 1/2 mile recovery in between. That along with a mile warm up and 1/2 mile cool down, means I’m running 11.5 miles. Good thing yesterday was a recovery run. Did the 3X3’s at a 6:54 pace with half mile recovery between. Very tough workout.
Thursday night is normally our group ride but my bike is torn apart for cleaning so I missed the ride. I did a weight workout and did 30 minutes on the Arc Machine for cardio. Good workout. I’m beat….

Friday weight workout. Not too hard. I’m ready to go home.

Saturday I played in a Golf tourneyment for our company.  I played really well considering I haven’t played in 3-4 years.  I used to play about 2-3 times a year but it’s been a while.  It was a nice relaxing day.

On my own today. Nick was off to 6 Gap with most of our riding buddy’s so I’m on my own to run 16. I haven’t ran since last Sunday’s bonk so I’m a little nervous. I ate well Saturday night to make sure nutrition would not be a problem again.  The run started off well with the first 6 miles being right under an 8 minute pace.  I picked up the pace after 6 and started to run about 7:40 miles.  Mile 9 through 15 were around 7:30’s.  I hit 16 as hard as I could and ended up with a 7:15.  Average ended up at 7:41.  Good run after last Sunday’s crash.  My foot felt good until mile 8 when the plantar’s fasciitis started to bother me again.  Oh well, just keep icing it and it will be fine.

One thing about running alone is you get a lot of time to think.  I had two hours worth of thinking Sunday so just about everything went through my mind that day.  J & I went by the library and saw Mom on Saturday.  Mom was looking better than I’ve seen her look in a while.  Mom’s had a series of health issues and has really looked tired for about a year now but yesterday she looked good.  Talked to her for a little bit but she was at work so we had to go.  I always feel better when I talk to Mom even if it’s about nothing.  There’s something about your Mom that makes you feel secure even if everything isn’t perfect.  So on Sunday’s run I thought a lot about Mom which lead me to thinking about Dad which lead me to thinking about the importance of taking care of yourself (which he had not done).  Running and riding gives me a since of control over my health.  I also thought about my sisters who also do not take care of themselves.  Both smoke and don’t get enough excersise.  I worry about them.  I thought about how strange it is that three people who were raised by the same mother and father can turn out so different and end up in different places in life.  Not that any of us are right or the others are wrong we’re just all so different.  I guess different things make people happy and the fact that we’re not all alike makes the world more interesting.  This lead me to thinking about how blessed I am to have my wife and daughter.  We really have a great life despite some small challenges here and there.  We’ve been a very close family and the three of us have done a lot together over the years.  Having a 16 year old does create some challenges but I guess it’s all part of the game of life.  She tries to spread her wings but we want her to stay grounded.  There must be some happy median between letting go totally and holding on to what is the most precious thing in your world.  I just haven’t found that happy median yet.  As I watch the miles click by I’m thinking of the years that are clicking by and wonder if I’m making the most the time I have here.  Have I done all the right things? Have I spent enough time with my Mom?  Daughter?  Wife?  Sisters?  People who really matter the most to me?  Have I made right choices?  I guess you have to just figure out what are the most important things to you and make sure you put most of your time and energy there.  I’ve come to realize you can’t do everything, there’s just not enough time.  Seems like only yesterday we were taking J to her first day of school and now she’s a junior in high school and wants nothing to do with her parents.  We used to be so close and now we can barely talk to each other.  I feel terrible…it’s just a horrible feeling you can’t describe to your child.  The most important thing in your life wants nothing to do with you.  I know this will pass and we will all grow but only time will tell.  Do I need to spend more time with her or back off and hope I’ll have time to spend with her later.  She won’t understand that we don’t always have time later. I guess that’s a teenage thing, there’s always tomorrow.  When you get older, you realize there isn’t alway’s time later.  I always thought my Dad would be around forever but then one day he’s gone.  We’re sitting, talking, laughing and watching a football game one minute and the next minute he’s gone.  How do you find a balance?  Other than wishing I could have convinced him to see a doctor for checkups, I’ve got no regrets when it comes to Dad.  We were very close and had a great relationship.  No regrets, we had a lot of fun while he was here.  This made me think of all the things J and I have done and I’m proud to say, up until two months ago, we’ve probably been closer than any father/daughter I know.  I just hope we can be again some day.  No regrets…..I’ve got a good life.

All these things go through your mind while your running and the next thing you know….16 miles done.

This week started very badly.  Several things happened to cause this.  1) Going into the 18 mile run Sunday I didn’t have much rest.  Wednesday through Saturday last week were killer workouts.  2) My nutrition stunk.  I didn’t eat lunch after a tough day Saturday and I ate my dinner way too early which left me not hungry enough to eat anything Saturday night.  3) Too much stress from my 16 year old daughter kept me in the wrong frame of mind.

 Enough excuses?  The run started out with a lot of talk about my daughter and the first miles were fairly slow with at  about 8 minute average.  Then it happened, I started hitting the wall and things started to go south.  Miles 9-11 were all around 8:15’s.  Miles 11-17 found me struggling to stay around 9+ minute miles.  From 17 to 18 I even stopped to walk for about 1/4 of a miles just to make sure I could make it.  Here it was….  I officially bonked…..  First time in three years so I guess I was due.  Bad day.  Ended up with somewhere around a 8:45 pace.  Wow!!!!  I felt terrible.  Nick on the other hand looked like a champ.  He didn’t want to push too hard because of the up-coming 6 Gap race so he kept an 8:00 minute pace and had no problems. 

 Monday and Tuesday were weight days with no running or riding so I could try to recover from Sunday’s disaster.  Nick did run 3 slow miles with Buddy just to keep the legs loose. 

Wednesday we rode 25 at a pretty moderate pace but still I haven’t ran since Sunday.  Nick bought a brand new Trek Medone 5.9 and just had to test it out before going to 6 Gap this Saturday.  He was riding well on that beast.  

Thursday was my first real test since the bonk on Sunday.  30 mile ride and 3 mile run.  I finished the 30 mile ride without any problems but decided to go the the gym for the run.  Instead of running I decided it might be best to go ahead and take the rest of the week off with no running to hopefully help my plantars fasciitis problem.  I did 30 minutes of interval workout on the arc machine instead.  I hit the machine pretty hard and got in a good cardio workout.  Rest day on Friday. 

Saturday I entered a golf tourneyment so I could rest.  I hadn’t played in about 5 years but things went really well.  I enjoyed playing again and did very well but remember why I don’t play anymore.  Too slow and not physically challenging for me.  

This week was pretty tough.  Started out with a 13 mile run on Sunday (7:28 pace for me, about 7:20 for Nick).  Everything went as planned and we were able to keep a pretty good pace.  No real problems.

Weights on Monday, no run.

5 mile recovery run on Tuesday at a 7:40 average pace.  No problems to report.  Nice conversation type run. 

9 miles of speed work Wednesday (3X2 at 6:45 pace plus recovery and warm-up).  Because of the heat we decided to do our speed work on a treadmill at the gym.  Kind of nice running indoors every now and then. 

Thursday was a 30 mile ride followed by 5 mile run.  Nick was off doing some husband type duties so he was off Thursday.  I rode and ran solo.  The rest of the group gets there later than I do so I went ahead and rode so I could get a run in before it got too dark.  The run was a just under an 8 minute average and all went well.  I was beat by the end of the run. 

I took Friday off.  Saturday I started with a 5 mile run at an 8:00 minute average, then a 35 mile ride.  I’m beat…  Legs are tired….  Nick opted for a longer ride with no run since he’s in training for 6 Gap next week.  I’m skipping 6 gap this year, not enough vacation time and I’ve not really been riding enough to a decent showing.   Not looking forward to tomorrow’s long run.

This one is a little long just to get caught up with the past months training.  Future posts will be shorter. 

Well, my running partner (Nick) and I started preparing for the 2007 Marine Corp Marathon about 6 weeks ago.  Although we continue training throughout the spring and summer, we usually pick the running mileage up in the fall.  The one bad thing about the MCM is that most of our training has to be done in the heat of summer.  Here in FL it’s pretty tough up until mid October with temperatures usually around 90 by 9-10am, which along with 98% humidity makes for some pretty tough training.  Having a teenage daughter assures there will always be plenty of conversation material which usually helps the miles go by.  Nick has been patient in listening to miles and miles of rantings about the pleasure and troubles in having a teenage daughter.  Better than a therapist. 

I love running the MCM there’s beautiful scenery, great spectators and all the historic sites make it a real pleasant experience.  This will be my 3rd MCM and Nick’s 4th and since we both have family in the DC area it makes for a nice vacation.  My lovely wife was able to go watch the marathon last year and will be going again this year.  It’s really nice seeing her along the route and since this is a pretty spectator friendly marathon we see them about 4 times during the marathon. 

Our weekly training this year has consisted of one long run on the week-ends (13-20 miles), at least one speed work out of 6-13 miles, one recovery run of 5-8 miles, one shorter 5 mile run, and lots of riding.  Many times we’ll do a 5 mile run at moderate pace then ride 35-70 miles on Saturdays.  Sunday’s we normally do our long runs (15-20) which can be anything from 15 miles at marathon pace plus 10% to 20 mile progression runs.  As usual it’s a little tough trying to fit riding, swimming, workouts and regular family activities in with the increased running miles.  But once again, having an understanding family really helps.  Over the last few years Nick and I have gotten better about training and knowing what we should and shouldn’t do.  Our route mapping has become much more precise and we’ve got miles marked all over town to accomodate the various runs.  We’ve also gotten much smarter about water breaks and nutritional needs on the long runs.   We are currently at week 7 of official training and all is well with the exception of some Plantars fasciitis problems I’ve been experiencing.  Oh well, just keep icing the feet and all will be OK.  Nick’s been experiencing some pain in his glut for several months now but says it not debilitating so we keep plowing forward.     

Jon and Nick running in the 2007 Boston Marathon wearing our FNG shirts.   Great experience.  Who would have thought a year ago that Nick and I could qualify.  Great feeling.