The goal of today’s run was to finish 14 miles in under 3:00.  Today was to be my longest outdoor run and the second longest run of my life.  I had some concerns about the weather in that the temperature was in the low 20′s and the wind chill was in the high teens.  It could be one of my colder days but I knew I would not want to run indoors so I put on my cold weather running gear and outdoors I went.

I think it is very important to have goals.  I remember that when I was working out on the elliptical, I would use the distance, calories and time as constant goals.  At first, I might set a short-term time goal, like 30 minutes.  Once I hit that, I would aim for a calorie goal, then I would aim for a distance goal and then move back to another time goal.  By continually setting and hitting my goals, I was able to continue to motivate myself for the entire 70 minutes of my work out.

I could never understand how women could put their sweat towels over their read outs and never look at their performance.  Without short-term goals, I couldn’t keep motivated. 

I strongly suggest new runners set short-term goals.  How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.  How do you run a marathon?  One mile at time.

My goal was to run 5 miles per hour, including walk breaks and had set aside three hours of my Sunday for the run.  I started my run with a nice walk to raise my heart rate and took off after around 100 yards.  I was immediately taken back when, before I had not even run half a mile,  my ankle started to hurt.

I started to wonder how in the world I would run 14 miles with a painful ankle.  I was concerned that I would have to change my stride and that compensation could cause more pain down the road.  I started thinking about my training schedule and wondered if I didn’t run my 14 today, should I run it next week and push back my long run schedule.  I thought about taking a week off and seeing if it would cut the pain. 

I thought that I better use my experience that I have gained over the last 20 months and figure out how to work through the pain and not give in.   I surely would not stop my marathon if I was in pain so I better figure out what to do now, while I had time to see what the results would be.

 I choose to change my stride and started to use my “Half Marathon Shuffle”.  By slowing down,  reducing my stride and minimizing all semblance of “Running”, I reduced my ankle movement and the pain went away.

I knew this would end any chance to hitting the 5 mile per hour goal but it would give me the only chance I had to meet my 14 mile goal.  One must have goals but also the brains to change them as necessary.

I am someone who believes in setting goals that can be attained.  Bing and I have found that it is more fun to meet and exceed you goals than it is to miss meeting you goals.  Since we run for fun, I set attainable goals and enjoy the outcome.  Today I decided that 14 miles would have to be my attainable goal.

Bing stopped by around half way through my run.  It was a pleasant break from my boredom.  Thanks Bing!   

It took awhile but I as able to complete all 14 miles, almost pain-free.  I didn’t run 14.01   or 14.001 miles.   I ran exactly 14 Garmin miles.  I ran around a parking lot by my car so that I would finish at exactly 14 miles.    My body was not going to run any more than it needed to.

My run time was 2 hours, 52 minutes and 45 seconds.  My Garmin pace was  12:30  and my calories burned where 2681 (Garmin) or 2945 (I-Pod).  In either case, I burned over 4000 calories over the weekend.

I was very pleased that my best two miles where mile 12 (11:33 pace) and 13 (10:53).  I just did not feel like pushing mile 14.  I had little left in the tank.  The other pleasing outcome was my average heart rate of 132 BPM.  Sweet.

Marathon Training: As of this week, I have finished 7 of 18 weeks in Marathon Training.  I have run over 180 miles and burned over 30,000 calories.  Unfortunately, I have not lost any weight in that time but I am still hoping that my body will start to get the hint that I am REALLY exercising and start to give me a break by losing some weight.

Plantar Faciitis:  The bad news is that I forgot to massage the bottom of my foot last night.  The good news is that I forgot because I was not in much pain.  I think putting my orthotic in my left walking around the house running shoe and not going bare foot, as well as the massaging I have done, has definitely benefited me.  There was some pain during my run but not enough to make a difference in the effort.

I have not put the orthotic in my actual running shoes in that when I wore them last year, I thought they where detrimental to other muscles in my legs and I did not want to take the time to train my body to use the orthotic.

On Wednesday, I was running indoor my mid-week 5 mile run.  To be honest, my I-Pod was tracking my distance so the 5 mile distance was probably off but since all my indoor 5 mile runs are measured by the I-Pod, they can be compared equally.

I started with my standard walk preparation and took off after 1/16th of a mile, like I always do.  I felt very good during my run and kept my heart rate in the mid to high 130′s.  I would check my I-Pod pace every now and then and it seemed faster than normal. 

With two miles to go, I felt GREAT.  I was very surprised how well I was running so I increased my pace to under 10 minute miles.  Now remember that an 11:00 minute mile is considered good for me.  In addition, I have never tried to sprint (Did I just use the word ‘sprint’?  Clydsdales don’t sprint.  I don’t sprint unless I am in the final lap of my run.) any distance and I was trying to keep a hefty pace for two miles.

Well, I did keep my pace.  The couple times I checked the pace it was under  10:00 minute miles.  Well under 10:00 minutes.  Closer to 9:30.  And as I said, this was not just the final lap.  I ran the whole two miles and felt great.  My final time was 1:30  faster than ever run before and was at a 10:05 pace.  Previously, I thought 11:00 training run was good.  Now I have a new standard to consider.

I know that my running customer/buddy, Bob has told me that his half and full marathon benefited from his 50 mile race  training program, I can only assume that my extra long miles and additional total miles has helped my shorter runs too.  Wooppeee.

Today’s long run was 12 miles and I was very proud of my effort.  The weather was 16 degrees, felt like 8 when I went out to run so, even though I want to minimize my indoor track running, I felt it was too cold to put myself through that cold of weather conditions.

I had many bad signs preparing for my long indoor run.  My left leg was hurting on the way into the building.  It was like it was saying”  HEY, Clydesdale, I thought we where running outside today.  what are you dong taking me to this tight little indoor track!”  Once in the locker room, I got a minor bloody nose which could very easily escalate into a “Full Metal Jacket” bloody nose or an ongoing problem due to the jarring nature of my running.  Lastly, I got to the track and realized I left my I-Pod and Garmin back in the locker room.  It was like my mind was supporting my nose and leg and telling me to forgot the run.  I have only been putting on my Garmin and I-Pod of revery run for the last year and a half and I forgot both of them today.  Very Bad Omens.

My plan was to walk after every mile to maintain my strength for the 12 miles but I felt good at the beginning so I kept running till mile three when I took a Gu break.  At mile 6 I took a Bonk Bar break and at mile 9 I took another Gu Break.  There was probably a break or two for water stops but in all I felt good.

Garmin tells me I ran for 2:11:53 at an average Heart Rate of 135 and my I-Pod told me I ran 12.25 miles and burned over 2400 Calories.   The best part of the run was that my nose never bleed again and my leg never hurt me once I got on the track.  I was amazed that I was able to make 96 laps and 384 turns and not hurt my leg.  I mentioned later in the day to Bing how happy I was that I did not have any residual pain from any of the 18 miles I ran this weekend.  In fact, after 5 weeks of training and over 120 miles, I am feeling GREAT!  In fact, when you look at the last two days, Saturday was a successful run and Sunday, assuming my I-Pod Distance was correct (Which we know it’s not) I was running 12 miles at as good as a half marathon pace as I could and today was supposed to be a slow run day.

Before we get too excited about my performance, lets remember that the I-Pod is not something I can hang my hat on and my only goal in the Marathon is to finish (Ok, I would like to finish better than 5:30 and really like to finish better than 5:15) but I am feeling good about my effort.

 January in Review: Here are the I-Pod numbers of my first full month of MArathon Training.

• 22 Workouts
• 23 hours and 4 minutes of exercise
• 123.46 miles
• Average Pace was 11:13 ( It was probably closer to 11:45 in Garmin time)
• 24590 Calories
• Pounds lost: NOTHING HONEY!
• Outdoor Workouts of 4

Bing that the most miles I ever ran before was 94 in December and 72 on three different occasions in 2009, I think I did very well in JAnuary and, most importantly, I did not hurt myself and I feel good.

Today was the last  day of week four of the Marathon Training Program.  I had hoped to run outdoors but wasn’t going to be stupid about pushing my body if the weather was not going to be semi cooperative.  From the time I woke up (At 5:30 A.M.  I don’t want to get off on a tangent, but why in the world after I drove two hours to Milwaukee, ran for one hour, stood at track side for four hours and drove two hours back, did I not sleep like a baby till 8:00 am or so?  I don’t understand why the more I run, it appears the less I sleep.  So I got up and did some work work, pre-made my protein snack, peeled my oranges, made my veggies snacks, all before 7:00.  It was great to get all the work done but I would have thought I would have needed to sleep more.  OK, now back to the regular scheduled show.) to the time I planned to run, it was raining. 

My bag was packed with indoor running clothes and as I went to load the car, the sun came out, as did Plan B.  I went back in and changed clothes to run outdoor in 40 Degree windy wet weather.  Runners World suggested shorts, long sleeve shirt and vest.  WHAT, ARE YOUR NUTS!  I put on my Mizuno Breathright (Takes the body sweat and actually heats it up) pants , my wonderful Nike Illinois Marathon long sleeve shirt and my Nike Windbreaker.  I brought a baseball cap, a headband ear cover thingee, and stocking cap expecting to wear just the baseball cap but when I arrived at my destination, I realized my ears would not take the cold wind and I put on the stocking cap.

My results where acceptable for the long run.  I have read that you are supposed to pace your long runs in two to three minutes slower than your race runs.  For me that would mean slow and slower.  I ended up running the scheduled 11 miles in 2:19 running a 12:20 pace.  Calories burned where Nike + @ 2363 and Garmin where 2070.  Nice on either case.  My heart rate averaged 134  and my last two miles where my fastest at 5.1 miles per hour for mile 10 and 5.4 miles per hour at mile 11.  I felt tired but good the last two miles so I kicked it up a notch so as to get to the car faster.  I was tired, cold and wet from sweat.  My hat was drenched and my sweat had definitely wicked though my shirt and my windbreaker.