4 Days to Go Before the San Jose 1/2 Marathon

Following 4m of training, my target time of 1:49:59 or better is within reach. It will be very challenging, but it's feasible. If I succeed, I'll have taken 20min off of my previous best 1/2 marathon time.

Over the last 4m I've dropped 20lbs, taken 4" off of my waist, and definitely increased running speed and endurance. This past Saturday we completed our last long training run - 20mi - and it wasn't that bad!

18 days to go before the San Francisco Full Marathon.

I'm very thankful to all those who have donated to support cancer research through my web-site. However I'm a little short on my fund raising goal. Can you help with a donation to support cancer research? You can do it right now, right here online.

Thank you so much for your support, and check back on Sunday to see how I did!

We Run for Carlos

Carlos is 17yrs old - he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia when he was 12:

... I underwent three more years of treatment. Throughout this process, I had about two dozen spinal taps, several dozen blood draws, about 50 chemotherapy infusions, I lost my hair four times, I came to a point where I vomited up to 7 times per day, and I was hospitalized A LOT. My family, friends, and teachers were incredibly supportive of me, for which I have much to thank.

I’m currently completely off of treatment! I’m a healthy junior in high school who enjoys biking, designing for yearbook, reading, and refereeing. Because of astonishing people like you, cancer survivors like me have so much to be thankful for. The effort you put into accomplishing your milestones is incredible, and has taught me a great deal about facing challenges in my life. Thank you so much for doing what you do!

20mi Monterey - Beautiful

This morning we ran the last long run before we 'taper' in advance of the marathon. 20 miles.

The setting was the Monterey Peninsula in Northern California - a run along the ocean on a cool, sunny Saturday morning - very beautiful.

You can re-trace the run here: Monterey 20mi. Be sure to click on Player.

I finished in just under 3hr - that's consistent with my target marathon pace. And for the first time, 26.2mi seems feasible. Won't be easy - but for the first time it actually seems conceivable.

Some of us followed the run with a natural ice bath in Monterey Bay. In the photo, I'm at far left. The fellow to my immediate left in the purple Team In Training race shirt is Keith - who has a (presently) incurable form of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. According to Keith, the typical survival for someone with the specifics of his cancer is 7 years. He was diagnosed 1.5yrs ago. He has celebrated his May-October break from chemo by training with us. He already ran a full marathon in Kauai earlier this month, and will run the Nike SF Full with me on October 18th.

We all run and fund raise for folks like Keith.

for Kristin

I ran a fast 7mi this morning in memory of Kristin.

One of my teammates this season, Emory, was inspired by Kristin to train and raise money for cancer research.

Kristin's leukemia came back. She'd been waiting for a bone marrow transplant when she succumbed this past week. 35yrs old. Left a husband and two young daughters.

Thunder, Lightning, Hail, Frogs, Locusts

Well the thunder, lightning and hail part is all true.

This morning we ran 18mi in 2h:44min- the next to last 'long run' of our marathon training. The run was in Golden Gate Park, along the Great Highway and around Lake Merced - all in San Francisco. The marathon takes us through Golden Gate Park; miles 19-23 are around Lake Merced; and we'll finish on the Great Highway. So this morning was a preview.

The weather was half the story! On the drive up to SF this morning from San Jose, I saw a couple lightning strikes. We heard thunder during the run, and in GG Park it hailed on us. Otherwise pleasant, cool conditions for a run. :-)

I've learned something on every long run. This morning: I need to replenish electrolytes. Immediately after completing the run, both calves cramped up. Pretty painful. A teammate gave me a sodium/potassium tablet and 10min later - problem solved. On very long runs, one perspires enough, and loses enough salt, that it needs to be replenished. Muscle cramps are the first indication of a problem. I'm glad it happened this morning and not in a couple of weeks during the marathon. I'll take a sodium/potassium tablet or two during long runs from now on.

Achievements? 18mi is now the longest single distance I've ever run. Also, the first 13.1mi passed in under two hours, so that was the fastest half marathon of my life even though I wasn't deliberately trying to run a fast half.

3wks to the San Jose Rock & Roll Half Marathon: my time target of 1h:50min is within reach although it will be a challenging run - right around the limit of my speed/distance right now.

5wks to the Nike SF Full Marathon: 18mi was hard enough today that 26.2mi still seems daunting. I may have to dial back the pace a bit more to complete, but I really want to finish in sub four hours too. 5wks to take off another couple of pounds, add a little more strength and endurance, and practice getting hydration & nutrition straight during the run.

Faster 6mi Campbell Park

This morning I finished the 6mi run at Campbell Park in 48m:11s. That's almost 20s faster than my target 1/2 marathon pace to complete in under 1h50min. It also shows steady improvement - a month ago on 8/13 I finished the same run in 49m:33s - that's an 80s improvement over this 6mi distance in one month.

Now approximately 1m to the San Jose Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon, I'm beginning to be capable of pace and distance that enable me to achieve my target!

Yasso 800's - take 2

We ran Yasso 800's at Track again tonight. (Take a look at my 7/14 post)

Again we ran 8 reps at 800m. I run these hard - basically at the fastest pace that I feel I can sustain rep after rep. And what is great is that I've improved since the last time we ran this work-out 7wks ago on 7/14. My first lap is now very consistently 1:45, and my two lap time very consistently 3:30-3:35. That's a 15-20s improvement over the distance in just 7wks. This bodes well for my relatively fast pace target for the SJ 1/2 marathon (fast pace for me). As each week goes by, I'm able to increase my pace just a little bit over any given distance. Very satisfying!