LiveSTRONG Seattle Marathon training weeks 16/17 - plugging away

Update: The fundraising goal is $1000, not $100.  Thanks to an eagle-eyed reader for catching that!


Hello, everyone!  For those of you that enjoyed spring break the last week (as we did), I hope you're getting back into the swing of things.  We certainly are around our house, and it will be nice to get back to a regular schedule.  Especially in terms of training - the last two weeks have been a bit of a challenge... but I managed to keep things on track, albeit with a couple of light weeks.


Last week was spent along the Oregon Coast, and the week before that was business travel to Wisconsin and Minnesota.  That meant training was mostly a ton of hotel exercise bikes with a long run sandwiched in between.  And a few walks, since the long run aggravated a sore left arch that had been bugging me the last few runs.  However, that long run was great - I managed a 9:15 pace for over 12 miles, making me think that if I continue to drop a few more pounds and get some speedwork in, a sub-4:00 marathon (9:09 pace) might be possible!


The totals for the last two weeks:

• 34.56 miles cycling (home trainer, hotel recumbent bikes, etc) in 3:16:16
• 2.60 miles walking in 39:00
• 12.21 miles running in 1:52:56
• Weight steady at 193.8

On the fundraising front, things continue to go well.  We're up to $650 raise for Team LiveSTRONG, and I'll be filing my paperwork this week to finalize my entry.  Let's see if we can hit the $1000 goal by the end of April so we can blow it away in May and June!

That's it for now - it's going to be a busy week catching up at work, so fitting in some quality cardio will be a fun challenge.  Onward...

LiveSTRONG Seattle Marathon training weeks 15 - surviving a busy week

This week didn't go quite according to the training plan, but I'm pretty happy with the results.  It was a crazy-busy week at work, preparing for a Wednesday afternoon seminar, then playing catch up on normal work activities the rest of the week.  But I did manage to get in three solid workouts:

• Sunday = rest day
• Monday = 9.18 miles on the trainer in 30:02 with some solid, hard intervals
• Tuesday = rest day
• Wednesday = 3.13 mile run in 28:02
• Thursday = rest day
• Friday = extra rest day (fighting off fatigue, I actually listened to my body and shut 'er down for a day)
• Saturday = 22.53 miles on the trainer in 1:11:38

That checks in at 3.13 miles running in 28:02 and 31.71 miles riding in 1:41:40.  But with a change in diet - eating a lot more veggies (carrots and greens, in particular), I managed to lose a whole 2 pounds down to 193.8.  So I'll be satisfied with that. :)

Also, it was a good week for fundraising - thank you to those of you who've donated to my Team LiveSTRONG page in preparation for the Seattle Rock N Roll marathon!  We're at $600, which is 60% of the way to the $1000 goal.  Now if we can just get the final push over the top, we can focus on blowing away that goal!

Since it has been such a busy week, I'm going to cut this short and spend a little quality time with Christine and the girls.  So until next week, onward...

LiveSTRONG Seattle Marathon training weeks 13/14 - some questions and a plan

Despite a couple of very busy weeks (work-wise, family-wise and in general), my training has somehow managed to stay on track.  The last two weeks of training went pretty much according to plan:

• Sunday 2/21: rest day
• Monday 2/22: 13.61 miles on the trainer in 45:06 at a solid steady pace
• Tuesday 2/23: 4.01 miles running in 36:56
• Wednesday 2/24: rest day
• Thursday 2/25: 9.17 miles on the trainer in 30:02 with some hard intervals
• Friday 2/26: rest day
• Saturday 2/27: 5.50 miles running in 48:12
• Sunday 2/28: rest day (although a lot of physical activity, striking the set after the close of the girls' play Jospeh and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat)
• Monday 3/1: 7.15 miles on the trainer in 24:01 with some hard intervals
• Tuesday 3/2: 3.29 miles running in 28:28
• Wednesday 3/3: 18.54 miles on the trainer in 1:00:04 at a steady pace with a few surges
• Thursday 3/4: rest day
• Friday 3/5: 9.11 miles running in 1:24:21 - yep, the true long runs are back!
• Saturday 3/6: rest day, but 90 minutes of walking around the Oregon Zoo with Christine! :)

That brings the two weeks to:

• Week 13: 22.78 miles riding in 1:15:08 and 9.51 miles running in 1:25:08
• Week 14: 25.69 miles riding in 1:24:05 and 12.4 miles running in 1:52:49

The mileage is slowly getting back up there where I need to be to successfully tackle the marathon.  Now the questions are: 1) will I stay healthy? 2) can I crank it up a bit more to shoot for a PR? 3) is it possible to fit in a fifth day per week of working out? 4) will I start dropping some weight?

Those questions are yet to be answered, although so far #4 is a "no": yesterday's weigh in was 195.8, which is down 0.2 pounds over the last two weeks.  Which - as we would say at work - is statistically insignificant.  But we'll see what happens with a few more dietary adjustments (can you say carrots and green leafy vegetables, everyone?)

As for the plan, I've successfully mapped out the long runs it'll take to get me into marathon shape.  The tricky part will be the business trips (generally once/month this year) and figure out how to work out around them.  What it looks like is this:

The nice this is that - so far - I'm a little ahead of schedule, as you can tell.  We'll see if I can keep that up.  The 11 miles on 3/20 is going to be tricky because of travel and spring break, and the 14 miles on Easter weekend is going to be equally tricky - because it's Easter weekend.  But I've got my "extra" short weekend there in mid-April to bail me out.

Also on the marathon front, thanks to those of you who have donated to Team LiveSTRONG on my behalf.  Thank you!  We're 30% of the way to the $1000 fundraising goal (yay!), which we need to hit by the beginning of May.  So if you've got some extra cash burning a hole in your pocket from your tax refund, please consider donating it to the battle against cancer.

Now on to another busy week!  Onward...