Four weeks of cross-training

I have been taking my time getting back to running since the marathon. I have run only nine miles since the race in four separate workouts. I started a four week muscle-building workout this past Saturday thanks to my friends at Active.com.

So far, I have suffered through two one-and-a-half hours weight training workouts and did a track workout of 3.5 miles that was composed of a 10 minute warm-up and cool-down with a fast steady-state mile in the middle. My steady-state mile was an 85% effort and ended up being a 6:33 time. That's about what I expect at my current level of fitness and the fact that my right calf is still really sore due to the marathon.

Today, I am really sore but I feel good. I am seven pounds heavier than I was at the marathon. I expect that my natural weight is 190 pounds and that I'll lose weight as my marathon training resumes in June. For now I am just going to focus on doing something to stay fit.

Changes are coming - a new entry in the Run-Net DNS table

I will be rearranging my blog soon. I started this blog to put some of my draft ideas in grad school on the web. It then became my running journal and has been best used as that. Now I am becoming energized to journal my thoughts on information technology.

I have recently been enamored by Tim Berners-Lee Linked Data project and the Wolfram|Alpha computational knowledge engine. I think these efforts will be big, really big, but I am not sure that I should mix the posts in a single blog?

No. I just finished Steve Runner's latest podcast on the "Run-Net" community on Phedippidations and understand that I am a node to this community and I prefer to have a more consistent and understandable directory.

So, I will be doing some information architecture and most likely producing two blogs in the near future: one for my running journal and another for my Semantic Web/software interests. Please follow me if you are interested. It keeps me energized.

Smile.

Post marathon blues...

I was on top of the world for a day and a half after running my first marathon this Sunday, but now I am analyzing and eager to get out and run again. I think the post-marathon blues is setting in.

I did not meet my goal for my first marathon. Don't get me wrong. I think its great to join the 26.2 club and plan on putting my first car sticker on my car EVER because of it, but I wanted to prove I was faster. I ran 4:03:27. Not bad by my peers opinions, but I actually don't personally know any other marathoners. My forum friends are encouraging, but some of them are so fast. I thought I was one of them.

I am fit, I am 6'4" and 184 lbs. I can run fast. My fastest mile was 5:20. I have run a lot of miles, well at least I ran all but a few of the workouts in Hal Higdon's Novice I marathon training program. Why couldn't I get the predicted 3:30:00 marathon?

Well, to be honest I told myself that I would be happy with under 4 hours, and that is why I am not happy. I trained like a mad man and felt awesome going into the marathon. I found myself well ahead of the 3:40 marathon pace group with only 12 K left, but I hit the wall and it took an hour for me to cover the last 5 miles. I tried to gut out mile 21 and hit an 8:44 pace for it, but slammed down hard afterward.

Oh well, I am waiting for the tenderness to leave my right calf and plan on a 3 mile recovery run tomorrow. After that few low mileage weeks, while I look for a good training plan to get me at least a 3:50 marathon. I have changed my expectations because I feel that if I had merely run the more conservative pace at the beginning I would've had more to give at the end. I will focus on negative splits because I almost never can do them.

I have got another marathon October 10th and I expect to improve.

My First Marathon Race Report

My First Marathon Race Report

It was a cool Spring day about 55 degrees dark clouds in the sky hinted that we would have a long drenching day about an hour into the race. I arrived about 50 minutes early and after catching up with a few friends I ran into by chance and doing my bag check I got in line for the porta-potty with about 30 minutes until the start time. The line moved slow and I was nervous that I would not make it in time in both cases. So, the moral of the story kids is give yourself plenty of time to get to the bathroom when you arrive at a race.

I found my 3:50 pace group and quickly got claustrophobic with all of the people running near me so I broke away and found myself near the 3:40 pace group. A few miles in I got a little annoyed with conversation the women around me were having and my legs wanted to run faster show I got about 5 minutes ahead of the 3:40 pace group. I heard quite a lot about my pace group bib being so far behind and got into a conversation with a lady, her friend and her husband who hadn't trained but was fit enough and kind enough to pace his wife to the half marathon mark. By the time Bobby left us for the finish line I had run my fastest half-marathon by about one minute 1:50:33.

The guys kept me company from mile 8 to mile 16 or so. The conversation was good though I felt like a little bit of a braggart with my marathon expectations. I remember once saying, "what if I qualify for Boston in my first marathon?" Susan and Jeanne have already run Boston and trained to qualify this race. They let me in on this little secret while hearing my speed fancies in the coolest way. At one point the pace was putting a cramp in Jeanne's style and she gave me the most awesome (and polite) brush off so she could run her own race. Jeanne said to me, "Can I bore you with my fastest marathon ever? It was 2:58..." then she took off to find the pace she was looking for. Mind you we had maintained an 8:23 min/mi pace up to mile 14.

Susan stayed with me until mile 16 when it looked like Jeanne was getting almost a half mile ahead and bid her adieu to me saying that she'll be back to check on me. I said I hope you don't have to. I have to say I love runners. In my experience the average runner is polite, thankful for the fans and peace officers that made our race safe and possible and we genuinely look out for each other.

Since this is a long post I will say how the tough parts began. Mile 18 began the two largest hills I have had to run - 142 feet of incline over one mile followed by 147 feet in the next. It was brutal but I maintained a fair pace. By the end of mile 19 the 3:50 group had caught me. Pacer Josh remembered me from my forum posts and our meeting at the expo on Saturday and he reminded me to glide or bounce down the hill we descended. He was a great motivator asking us to give a little something to finish the last 10-K I kept up for another mile putting in an 8:44 at mile 21 but by mile 22 and the return of the hills I was spent.

I never walked, but I was never the same from mile 22 until the finish. My legs tried to cramp, but a little sprint pushed those back. My diaphram felt that familiar stitch, but I wouldn't let it get me and I tried to put down more water at every rest stop. I ran double digit miles all the way to the end taking an hour to complete the last 5 miles.

I must give a shout out to the car full of the cutest kids ever who cheered me and other struggling runners on as we closed in on mile 25. They kept saying, "Go Kris!" and "Keep going Kris!" I actually saw them at the finish line and they said to me great job and I was very touched. I would thank them personally for what that meant to me if I could, but I'll pay it forward instead. Another shout out goes to my big brother who showed up to the race just in time to see me finish and helped me to my car as I was in bad shape at the end and to my wife and kids who met me at my hotel room with an old favorite - Fox's pizza.

I finished in 4:03:27. I did not meet my goal, but I tried to sprint to the finish line and I will be more smart about keeping a conservative pace all the way up to mile 20 and try to make up no more than 10 or 12 minutes at the end. Hey, its my first marathon I had a great time and met cool people. I am going to learn from this race and try to be better for my next marathon at Baltimore October 10.

Happy running and thanks for reading. I'll be back.

Split, Total Time, Elevation Gain, Elevation Loss
* 1, 08:18, 142, 62
* 2, 08:06, 63, 131
* 3, 08:22, 102, 79
* 4, 08:12, 57, 77
* 5, 08:37, 240, 224
* 6, 08:16, 101, 102
* 7, 08:10, 13, 54
* 8, 08:19, 68, 88
* 9, 08:19, 62, 52
* 10, 08:13, 65, 41
* 11, 08:11, 41, 85
* 12, 07:58, 41, 33
* 13, 08:13, 62, 33
* 14, 08:14, 177, 169
* 15, 08:32, 84, 137
* 16, 08:59, 87, 22
* 17, 09:04, 33, 58
* 18, 09:27, 142, 60
* 19, 10:18, 147, 33
* 20, 09:58, 52, 79
* 21, 08:44, 65, 185
* 22, 11:21, 95, 47
* 23, 11:46, 114, 80
* 24, 11:41, 58, 129
* 25, 12:24, 82, 73
* 26, 12:30, 52, 73
* .2, ???

If you are what you say you are, then have no fear the camera's here...

I spent a lot of time talking about how I won't run the 5K race next week at work if my legs are all beat up after my marathon on Sunday. I know I was bragging and probably was obnoxious, but I starting to feel my improvement and want to show it with good times. Does this get in the way of having fun?

If you are what you say you are, then have no fear the camera's here...

I planned on just running a good pace for four miles with a negative split tonight. A slow first mile followed by progressively faster miles until I finish, but alas it was not to be. I galloped out of my cul-de-sac and found myself stretching out down the hill. At this point I just straightened up and worked on my form and just held the tempo. The hills caused me to vary my splits between 7:42 and 7:19 for the first three miles. I decided that my last mile will be my fastest and by gosh I did it. My final mile was 7:17. I am geniunely stronger and when I start training for speed after this marathon I will really see what my potential will be.

Pace groups - to fall back or sprint ahead

The Marathon Movie preview I just saw puts the DVD on my short list for Father's Day gifts.

I have been chatting with the members of the 3:50 Geico pace group on the Active.com Frederick Marathon forum. I think that I am going to start my race with them to ensure that I maintain the right pace up to mile 16 and test myself based on my strength at that point. The pacers have given me great food for thought that make me comfortable with the decision. Miles 16 - 22 of the Frederick marathon are really challenging according to the elevation chart, but I think that I've prepared myself well since I have often run elevation gains of 1000+ feet.

Tonight was beautiful weather in my town so I could not help but run outside and accidentally found myself trying to prove something about my 5K abilities. I ran 3.13 miles in 22:57 because my job is having a 5K the Wednesday after the marathon and I have not yet decided whether I want to run it. You see, alot of people at work know I am training for the marathon and I would not like it at all if I could not post a good 5K time. However, I am not sure my legs will permit me to impress if they've been zapped by the 26.2 I am going to race (not run) only 3 days earlier. Pride has got me twisted. If I don't run some people may not understand if I do run I may not look like a superstar (forget the fact that I may hurt myself - can you say stress fracture?). Seems like a simple problem, but I still don't know what to do.

What the treadmill has taught me

I started my running doing late nights on the treadmill after getting inspired by Runner's World Half-Marathon Challenge. I set myself goal paces for certain amounts of time and I went from DNF to slowly accomplishing each workout. The treadmill was integral to my training because I used it like free weights - the speed was my weight the time my set. I knew how much improvement I was making by setting the weight/speed higher and and doing more sets (read: running for a longer time).

Running outside (on my own) can do the same thing, it keeps you honest - but honesty is not always what you need. Sometimes you need that prop, that assist, that helps you trying harder than you normally would. Sometimes you need to run on the back of the treadmill or cheat on a rep.

However, you always need to translate this training to the field, out of the weight room. That will be shown a week from now on the hills of Frederick, MD.

Training note: Sunday, 8 miles, 66 minutes