Saturday, November 28, 2009

A Very Good Day

Well, I was able to do 10 miles early this morning. It was one of those beautiful mornings with a nice cool breeze under partly cloudy skies. Hope to have the same weather come marathon day.

I received my official pick-up card in the mail this week. I had read several weeks ago that over half the Honolulu Marathon runners last year were from Japan. Since the Japanese yen has been at near record highs against the US dollar this year, they are expecting an even large group. It’ll make up for the lower numbers they are expecting from the West Coast which has been hit hard by the economy.


By the way, I finished in time to bake our belated Thanksgiving pumpkin pie. Only problem was we didn't have any shortening for the crust. I substituted margarine for it and ended up with a crust having a hard cracker like consistency instead of one with a light flakey texture. The pie filling was pretty good though especially with lots of whipped cream. Kay tried brining our turkey this year, and it turned out moist and delicious. We had a great family dinner to end a very good day.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

I went for my turkey day run this morning bringing my total midweek mileage to 12 miles. A woman startled me with a “Happy Thanksgiving” greeting when I passed her. I didn’t think anyone had their act together at 5:30 in the morning but seeing a familiar face, I suppose, brings us all closer. Actually, while running I had totally forgotten what day it was since we’re not having our Thanksgiving get together until Saturday.

I have a 10 miler this weekend and will likely do it on Sunday. I have to bake a pumpkin pie on Saturday and have been told the oven is mine in the morning. The turkey has the afternoon time slot. However, if I can be out the door by 5:00 on Saturday morning I should be back by 7:00 which should be plenty of time to bake a pie.

Here’s wishing everyone a “Happy Thanksgiving.”

Sunday, November 22, 2009

To Stop or Not to Stop

I did my 12 miler this morning. Got up early and eat a banana and part of a Clif bar washing it down with some water afterwards. I made sure to wait an hour to allow everything to settle before hitting the road. Also, downed a Gu gel on the road without a problem.

It was a nice relaxing run working on pacing myself and drinking water more often. I did encounter an interesting dilemma. While running on the sidewalk under the H-1 freeway, I noticed a bright shiny quarter right in front of me. I had to make a quick decision: should I slow down, stop and pick it up or just run pass it. Well, I just could not resist. I stopped and put it in my pocket. Had it been a smaller denomination, I suppose I would have left it for someone else.

This reminds me of all the coins I picked up while riding my bike (when the weather was nice) commuting to and from the train station to work. I had several old film canisters at the office filled with change I called “street money.” I made it a practice to drop the coins into those donation cans they have on convenience store and fast food counters.

No, I don’t plan on stopping to pickup anything during the marathon…but, if it’s a big paper bill I may be tempted.

Friday, November 20, 2009

Banana for the Road

I did my 18 miles for the week and will top it off with a 12 miler on Sunday. I can’t do the long run on Saturday as Kay has us going to a flea market at Pearl Harbor’s Richardson Rec Park in the morning.

I eat half a banana this morning before running to see if my tummy would be okay. It was fine. On the morning of the race day, it is recommended runners eat a light snack such as a banana, bagel, toast, or energy bar 1 to 2 hours before running. It helps maintain glycogen storage. On Sunday, I will eat an entire banana and down it with some water before starting off.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

21 Miler, a Very Long Day

I did my 20 miler this morning and hit the proverbial WALL. I ran much the same as I had done previously, staying above the 11:30 miles pace, drinking lots of water, and downing a couple gel packs. The weather was windy but mostly cloudy and a little humid. I felt pretty good at my 16 mile mark, and I decided to continue along the shoreline bike path for another 3.5 miles before turning around. By doing this, my total mileage for the day would be 24 miles. I thought I could run “a little over” my planned 20 miles and walk the remainder when I tired out. To my surprise, at about the 20 mile mark I started slowing down and quickly ran out of steam. What’s worst I had just turned around and was starting to head back home. At that point I was over 4 miles out. I managed to run another mile and finally decided to walk the rest of the way including the 1 mile + climb up Waimano Home Road. When I got home I was all tuckered out and could barely down a smoothie. I showered and took an hour nap.

I had originally planned to do the 20 miler on Saturday but I dropped a cabinet door scraping my left shin. I immediately iced it and wrapped aloe around the affected area. There was no pain at all just a black and blue mark Friday evening. I decided to play it safe and wait a day. The foot did not bother during the run.

Bottom line, what did I learn about this morning’s outing? For one, the saying about the last 6 miles is the most difficult is certainly true. I will have to be better prepared. I’ll increase the number of gel packs and start taking them earlier. Definitely drink more water through out the run especially during the latter part. I may have to slow my pace or take short walking breaks. I ran most of the 21 miles taking short breaks to fill my water bottle and slowing down to down the gel packs. I was at 4:13:25 at my 21 mile mark. Plan to eat a slightly higher carb and protein diet during the week before my race.

I’ll rest a couple of days and start running on Wednesday. I have 18 miles to do before my 12 miler on Saturday. Today is the longest run I’ll do. From this point on I’ll be tapering (reducing) my mileage as I get closer to marathon day.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Physically and Mentally Prepared

I had 16 miles to do this week before my long Saturday outing. The plan was to do 5 on Monday, 6 on Wednesday and another 5 on Thursday. Well, we’ve been having a lot of rain lately so I took Marathon Mentor Ed’s advice and combined the mileage by running 11 miles on Monday and 5 more this morning. I’ll rest tomorrow and complete my long 20 + miler on Saturday. If it rains on Saturday, I’ll try Sunday.

It’s interesting to note this training has not only developed my distance stamina but also given me a mental boost and the confidence to complete the 26 + mile run. If you would have asked me a year ago to run a 10 miler, I would have bent my head, shook it and said “no way.” Now, I consider the 10 miler my middle running distance. I’m not running very fast though; but I’ve been able to keep my 11:30 to 12:00 minute mile pace. Will let you know how this weekend goes.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Out of Memory and a Reality Check

When I started out this morning, the air was cool, streets were wet and there were occasional refreshing passing light drizzles. I had the feeling it was going to be a great run. But, about the 9 mile mark Garmin beeped indicating the memory was full and stopped recording my run. I should have checked its memory before starting. There is nothing like running and trying to remember how to free up more memory. I kept running and pressing buttons without success. Finally, I slowed down and walked to fully concentrate. I remember, I had to get to the “History” screen and select “Delete.” Of course, instead of selecting “Old Activities” I just hit the “All Activities” which promptly wiped the memory clean including my morning run thus far. So I just started a new running record. After finishing my longest running route to date and what I thought was a 19 miler, I discovered that it was only 17 miles. To be sure, I checked the route using Google’s Pedometer and, to my surprise, it was just a little over 17 miles. If this sounds confusing, it certainly was to me. Where did my 2 miles go?

Since I hate taking the blame for this one, it was Garmin who screwed up. Oh well, I’ll have to recalibrate it to more accurately record the correct distance. As my son reminded me, I should have gotten the Garmin that used GPS technology instead of the cheaper foot pad one that’s like a high tech pedometer. Granted, I had noticed earlier when I ran slower with shorter strides Garmin displayed a few yards off per mile. Didn’t think it would add up to that much.


For the outing I tried a 2 x caffeine Expresso Love and a no caffeine Strawberry Banana Gu gel. Had no problem with my tummy. The coffee flavored one was much tastier. I’m sure the added caffeine must have given me a boost; I couldn’t tell when.




Thursday, November 5, 2009

Mauka Showers But Clear Makai

It rained off and on yesterday so I gave myself an extra day off. This morning I was determined to get some mileage in. When I walked out a little after 5:00 AM and felt a few drops, I had to go back in and checked the horizon from our second floor. There were dark clouds mauka (up mountain direction) where the showers were coming from. However, it looked clear down towards the ocean side (makai). I usually run up and down the mountainside during weekdays to avoid the heavy traffic which I have to run pass to get down to the bike path along the coastline. Traffic is much lighter during the weekend.

Anyway, I braved the traffic and ran down to the coastline and ran into the naval housing area which has good street lights. Much safer while it’s still dark. Although the bike path is paved, it does not have lights in many sections making it difficult to run early in the morning. During my long weekend runs, I run pass the bike path down to the naval housing area first and by the time I return to the bike path the sun is just coming out making it easier and safer to do the path. But, this morning as I ran back to the bike path I felt rain drops. I ended up running around the housing area several time keeping an eye on the mountain for a break in the weather. It finally cleared so I made my way back up the hill to finish my 8.28 mile run.

The weather is supposed to be nice this weekend which will be great for my 19 miler.