"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go"
T. S. Eliot

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Treadmill Hill Striking

Last night, we decided to run a few miles at the HTRC. We tried to hit the treadmills, but they were all busy, and there were three treadmills malfunctioning!
We met Nacho Medina working out on my favorite treadmill. I took some slow-video of his running.

Hill-Striking on Treadmill

VFF on Treadmill

Interestingly, he is hill-striking. It will be interesting to video shoot him at different speeds and see if his running form changes.

Monday, February 27, 2017

Week # 13 and Tokyo Marathon 2017

Wilson Kipsang obtained first place running Tokyo's Marathon in 2:03:58 breaking the Tokyo record. That is an average pace of 4:43 min/mile! It's amazing to see how a person can run at that pace for 26 miles. 


Finished week 12 with more than 50 miles. Yesterday's long run was 20 miles. Beautiful 5 mile course on Lake MacBride (five miles each way). Garmin. Ran for three hours and average pace was 9:02 min/mile. Tried Gu after six miles and energy bar after eleven miles. Ran the first eleven miles on gravel road with the Altra shoes, and the rest of the miles with the Nike shoes. 


Altra shoes hurt my big toes when running downhill. Erin suggested I need a larger size. Jeff said they look like clown shoes. Ha-ha, they do! I will keep running in these shoes and see how I feel for April 9th.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Week #12

Here I go! another week of over 50 miles of running. Ran four times on the treadmill and every time I did it in my VFF. Sometimes I feel some pain in my feet, but it goes away. Yesterday's long run was 16 miles, Garmin, @ 8:58 MPM pace. Weather has cooperated. It does not look like February. It feels more like April's weather. I wonder if running at 9:00 MPM is good training for the marathon. I'd wish I could do a few miles at around 8:30 MPM.

Monday, February 13, 2017

Week #11

This is week #11 of the marathon training towards BQ in Saint Louis! Did a long run yesterday @ North Liberty (14.6 miles @ 8:53 MPM pace). The wind in front of us was so strong it made half of the run extremely difficult. It was an excellent workout when running against the wind. Garmin. Ran with Dan, Dave, Keith, and Erin. Kim ran with us just for a couple of miles. Dave treated us with some nice breakfast treat after the run in his man-cave. This man-cave is a very nice room decorated with lots of medals, pictures, and posters from his races.

Did a 5K walk/run/walk on the treadmill using VFF (Garmin). I started with a 5K trying to be very cautious. Also, just walk @ 3 MPH and run @ 5 MPH. Plan to keep running 5K on the treadmill wearing my VFF.


Eventually, I'd love to be able to run barefoot or in my VFF. For now, I plan to take it very easy and do the best I can to stay injury-free.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Week #10

Week #10 is here and I am continuing to be injury free! I have been logging lots of miles each week without getting injured. I also had a couple of Sunday long runs under my belt (16 and 18 miles). I feel a little bit tired and my feet hurt in the mornings, but other than that, I feel alright. I also noticed a little bit of weight loss. I hope to continue to lose a few more grams of fat!
Have been thinking about my marathon goal. I believe, the smartest thing is to run with the 3 hr 40 min pace group and see how I feel. Other than that, it will be a disaster. That is 8:23 min/mile pace.
I listened to an episode of Sage Canaday (VO2maxProductions) where he talks about how to avoid the 22-mile-wall in a marathon. He recommends logging lots of miles to the training program, to get the body used to the long mileage. Sage also recommends running several miles at marathon pace or faster. That I normally don't do. I guess, at least, I should try running at marathon pace. I'd wish I could do some half marathons at marathon pace, to get my legs used to it. Unfortunately, there are no half marathons nearby at this time.
I hope that logging miles using the walk/Run method counts. At least, I am logging lots of miles each week!