It's Taper Time (Kinda)

The long runs are over. Halleluiah!!!! I did 20 miles on Saturday. I was scheduled to do 22 but 20 was plenty and two more miles were not going to make a difference.

So now that the long runs are done, it's officially taper time. Except, it's not. This week I intend to do over 30 miles and I'm doing the Capital City Half Marathon on Saturday. I am saying right now that I'm not going to race it, but I think it's going to be a pretty solid run.

Track meets start this week so it's a good thing it's taper time because it means less time to run. Luckily one meet is at home and the other is at a school really close to work, so I'm going to have time to run before the meets and still get in three or four miles before I have to work.

It's looking like I'm actually going to make it through training successfully. Yippee!

I'm Famous!

Our track team hired Otis Winston as our new jumping coach. For those of you who don't know, Otis was a member and captain of Ohio State's basketball team back in the early 90s. What most people don't know is that Otis was a standout in track and field too. He was a three time state high jump champion in high school and also won the long jump one year. In college he was an All-American, Olympic trial qualifier, Ohio State record holder (7'4-1/2"), and placed third in the NCAAs.

The local newspaper (New Albany News) did a profile on him and he mentioned by name me and my dad as the people who convinced him to coach at the school. I got my name in the paper. I'm famous!

In real running news...(1) our bib numbers are out for Boston. Mine is 12880. (2) My runs are going really well. Yesterday's was pretty choppy. I did 1/2 mile. Then had my runners do a time trial. Then I ran 2-1/2 more miles on the track. And finally I ran 3 more miles on the treadmill while the kids were in the weightroom. Got it done and that's all that matters.

Sad News

This post is going to have nothing to do with running, but I know some people might be interested to know.

My grandpa died last Friday (March 18th). He's been sick for a long time and fell really sick last week. He went to be with the Lord around 8:00am while Grandma was washing his feet. How beautiful and poetic and Biblical. My brother-in-law, Rob, is a paramedic and was the one who pronounced him. The police chaplain offered a prayer for the family (I missed this) and we all consoled Grandma as the funeral home took my grandpa's body.

The last few days have been filled with family and friends as we had showings on Monday and the funeral was yesterday.

Grandma has been taking all this pretty hard and she should. My grandparents were married 64 years. I can't imagine losing my best friend after 64 years. My mom seems to be okay but I've noticed her crying a lot. Surprisingly I've seen my dad really ripped up by this. I don't know if it's because Grandpa was like a father to him (Dad's dad lives in Kentucky and we don't see him very often) or if it's because it brings back memories of when his mother died. Myself, I'm doing okay. I'm sad because I have really great memories of my grandpa and I'm really going to miss him. But at the same time, I'm comforted knowing he's not going to be sick anymore and knowing that he passed while Grandma was taking care of him...the way it was meant to be.

One more long run

There's one more long run to go before Boston. Saturday we ran 20 miles and in two weeks we'll do 22. In typical fashion, it snowed Friday night and the trail was covered when we started. In addition, it was sleeting the first couple miles of the run too. But, then the sun came out and it got warmer and the run wasn't so bad. We ran north for the first 5 miles and then south for the other fifteen. When we got in the campus area the wind was so strong that it knocked both Andrea and I to the side. Overall, I think the run went well and I'm not really all that sore.

How quickly you fall out of shape

Yesterday I didn't have track practice because the boys basketball team was playing in the regional semifinals (they lost), so I took the time to do some extra training. I went to the gym and ran three miles on the treadmill and then went for a swim. This is the first time I have swam since my eye surgery, which was four weeks ago. At that time I was able to swim 1000 yards continuously and probably could do more. Yesterday my plan was to swim about 800 yards. I quickly learned, however, that I had fallen out of swimming shape in that four weeks. I was able to do 400 yards and struggled throughout. I might go back to the gym today after practice to do a little more swimming. I think it helps my running a lot and I need to get on it if I'm going to do the triathlon this summer.

Math, Diet, and huh isn't that interesting?

Have y'all read the new Runner's World out now? It has an article in it about diet and exercise just like every month. Usually they don't mean that much to me, but this one I found particularly interesting especially with what I've been finding out in my spinning classes. First it said to maintain your body weight you should take your current weight and multiply by 13 and this was the number of calories I needed in a day. For me that was slightly under 1500 calories. Then it said if you wanted to lose a pound a week (not a high priority for me, but I would like to get down a little for better racing) that you should cut 500 calories a day with reduction in food intake and exercise. It also said that running a mile equaled 100 calories.

So, I experimented to see where I was. On Tuesday I ate what I usually eat and then some and had about 1900 calories. I did 3 miles of running and 45 minutes of spinning on Tuesday. Our spinning instructor said we would burn about 800 calories during the spinning class. So 3 miles equals 300 calories plus 800 calories from spinning is a total of 1100 calories burned. Let's do a little math. 1900 calories eaten minus 1100 calories burned leaves me with 800 calories to keep my body functioning.

Here's what I learned. I am not getting enough calories everyday to keep my body functioning properly for what I am putting it through. I probably crave sweets and chocolate all the time because I don't have enough calories to burn fat during my workouts and instead burn glycogen, sugar. If I want to lose any weight, I need to consume more calories so that I can burn fat during my workouts. Explains why the only time in the last several months that I lost any weight was at Thanksgiving and Easter.

Isn't that interesting?

Tough Run

Saturday's long run was really tough. The plan was to do 2-1/2 laps around Highbanks which is about 15 miles. Not only is this tough to do at any time because of the hills, it snowed a fair amount last week including Friday night and the trails were covered. Andrea, Dad, and I did the first three miles together but Andrea said she wasn't feeling it so she stopped and said she would do it on Sunday. Dad and I ran together until the next hill, but I went up it faster and then I had to run all the rest by myself. My stomach started hurting going up the big hill and I had trouble catching my breath the rest of the way. I stopped after one lap and Dad did the second lap. I didn't want to have to do the entire 15 miles again on Sunday, so I headed out again on Saturday afternoon and did an additional 8 miles. So, my mileage for Saturday was 14 miles and my mileage for the week was 31. This week ought to be a big week...20 miler on Saturday!

I just don't know!!!

I was over at Sue's last night and I was talking to her about her sister-in-law, Grace. Grace did the Wendy's Triathlon last summer and this summer is planning on doing a half Ironman. This morning I've been chatting with Andy who again is pushing me to sign up for the Muncie Endurathon. I'm so torn!!! I just don't know what to do!!! I really want to try it because I think I have the endurance for it, but riding a bike for 56 miles is not exactly what I call fun. If it was just swimming and running, I'd sign up in a heart beat. I'm just not really sure when/how/where I can fit in bike training. Right now I take a 45 minute spinning class twice a week but I know that's not enough. I wish there was a training program out there on how to do a half Ironman for marathoners. I just don't want to compromise my running. I'm not willing to give up my daily run.