I don’t know how people in Arizona and Texas can stand it. The heat, that is. It was 112 today. It was 111 yesterday. It is after 10 PM and it is still over 80. My AC is set to 78 and it runs 24×7 and I feel like this uber energy hog because that isn’t cool enough so we have fans running, too. I feel like the Air conditioner unit is going to have a melt down and sink right into the ground. And I really need to go to sleep but it won’t be easy. bleh.

I am SO glad I don’t have to do any running. It is already 75 by 6 AM. Too.Damned.Hot!

I know, I know.. you’re all wondering if I’d like a little cheese with that whine. Sorry.

That Bruce Springsteen song “Fire” keeps running through my head. I guess you could call this weather the kiss of death. It is 111 degrees out right now and with the exception of my morning run followed by a pedicure and foot massage this day has been a waste. It is way too hot to do anything but sit in front of a fan.

The run was good! I didn’t get out until 6:30 (late again!) but it wasn’t unbearable. After cruising downhill in the shade followed by motoring up a slight incline in the blazing sun, sweating buckets all the while, I was at the trail of many water fountains. I had carried a water bottle with me just in case and was glad I had because I pretty much emptied it before I got to fountain numero uno. The trail itself was nice and shady and I was tempted to just stay on it and run on and on but sadly I would just end up in some remote area of the state so I had to turn around when I had gone a total of 4.5 miles. When I got to the hill near my house I could hear you all saying “Taper! You’re trained!” and I thought, “Hell yes – my legs are tired and I’ve run 8.5 miles” so I walked the rest of the way. Mission accomplished and I am finally really, really on a taper. Wa-Hoo! I just have to do a couple of 20 – 30 minute slow runs this week to keep my legs from suffering atrophy. No swimming, no biking. Just rest – ahhhhhhh.

My pace, including stops was 10:57 which will get me a sub 5 hour marathon. I predict that I go just sub 5 – nothing spectacular, I’ll just make my goal and that would suit me fine.

I felt fine except for my feet hurting and I know this will be an issue in the marathon but foot pain is easy enough to ignore and easier still to treat. After some food and a shower I headed out for a pre-marathon pedicure and a foot massage. They let you pay extra for more massage time so I added an extra 5 minutes. I’m known to be a good tipper in this place so my 5 minutes was more like 15 – ahhhhhhh…… loved that. I could regale you with some lovely foot p0rn but I’ll leave the results to your imagination (just don’t be a perv about it, ‘kay?)

So that’s it – Roughly 350 training miles since the beginning of this training I’M READY! Thanks for all the support along the way! Weather.com is calling for rain next Sunday but I’m not worried. The weather could do anything between now and then. I’m hoping for typical San Francisco foggy, cool weather with a little sunshine by the time I come in at about 11. We’ll see.

Note to Steve and walking/speed walking/running group – please send an email (link available at top) and let me know how to get in touch with you – I’d love to meet up.

In other news:
Jeanne’s ipod trick is fine if you happen to plug your Shuffle into a USB port and set it up just before you leave the house. My problem is always that I am out the door before I turn it on and discover that the bookmark has been lost. To fix it you have to listen to the book through iTunes and move the slider until you find your place and then sync the iPod with your iTunes. Even at that it doesn’t always hold. So annoying. I’m going to get a nano soon – very soon.

I bought a new pair of shorts today. I know you aren’t supposed to change anything before the big day but shorts are shorts only these are black and will look stunning with my most excellent shirt that my daughter got me for Mother’s Day. I also bought some Body Glide for my feet.

I have an hellacious schedule next week. I have to be about an hour from home (or 90 mins. depending on traffic) at 7:30 AM Monday and Tuesday then fly to Irvine Tuesday night for a Wednesday meeting then back up here Wednesday night. I’ll be lucky to get any runs in at all. I’ll figure out something because nothing is going to screw this marathon up for me now. I’ve made it to the start line injury free and I’m going for it.

The weather is burning me up but that didn’t stop me from getting in a short run this morning. Shutting off my alarm and falling back asleep killed my track plan but fortunately a co-worker called my cell at 6:45 and salvaged the morning – phew!

I managed to run a little under 2 miles at a 9:35 pace and that felt like the perfect thing to do. I used my muscles a bit, got a little speed on and most important of all – I FELT GOOD!

It’s been a while since I’ve said that.

Saturday I do my 9 miles and then I just shamble around a bit waiting to do the marathon. Ye-Haw!

In other news – if you want to listen to books while running do NOT buy an iPod shuffle. It isn’t good at linear stuff and it often loses my place and reverts to where I had started last time. You can’t flip through the chapters – you just have to hold you thumb on the fast forward. I spent most of my almost 2 miles today fast forwarding – and then the battery died. Arrrggghhhhh!!

As soon as I think of a good excuse I’m getting a nano.

You pretty much told me to listen to my body which is just silly because my body wants to plop itself down in a beach chair with an umbrella drink in one hand and a pu pu platter in the other but I get what you are saying.

I’m going to do my track workout tomorrow AM early and then Saturday I’m going to run 9 miles at a race pace plus 30 seconds/mile clip and then I’m going to do 2 little, short, keep it loose runs during the week and then I’m going to do this thing! Very exciting.

In case you missed it, I’m pimping for funds for this race. Not a lot of money and not to cure anything. The money goes to helping kids learn how to write. Illiteracy and bad grammar are not life threatening but I like the cause and it gives me an excuse to post my pirate picture.

Okay folks. I have been whining and complaining about burnout and you have been full of advice to trust my training and take it easy and I so appreciate that. Thanks to every single one of you for your help. Now I need to take it a step further.

As I wrote some time ago I adopted the FIRST, “more is less” training program more than 1/2 way through my training. It seemed like a great idea at the time. It is a low frequency, high mileage approach to marathon training but it’s kind of killing me. Be that as it may, that has become THE PLAN. So here’s the final steps in the plan which covers this week and next week

Tues – 3 x 1600 on the track with 400 recovery
Thurs – 8 miles (“The speedwork and tempo runs taper down just a little, with a final eight-mile tempo run at marathon goal pace coming 10 days before the marathon”)
Sat – 10 miles

Tues – 30 min easy w 5x60s
Thurs – 20 min easy w 3 or 4 pickups
Sunday – Marathon

I’ve already blown it, though. I had a guest this weekend and didn’t do my long run until Sunday. I also hated most of it (the run, not the guest visit!).

It is Wednesday and I swam yesterday and I’m sitting here in running clothes but have no time to run. So – what would you do? I’m inclined to get that track workout in and then split the difference on the 18 remaining miles and run 9 miles on Friday or Saturday and then throttle back. What do you think?

One more thing – I wasn’t going to do any fundraising for this but 826 Valencia decided to pull together a team really quickly and they have set an individual fundraising goal of just $200. I’m hoping I can find 40 people who will toss 5 bucks their way. 826 boasts the worlds largest retail store exclusively dedicated to selling Pirate Supplies, hence the team is called the Booty Team and has a general piratey feel to it.

From their website:

Simply put, 826 Valencia helps students, ages 8 – 18, to develop their writing skills. Whether the students are working in the realm of fiction, nonfiction, or English as a second language, we are here to help them explore their love of writing. We offer free drop-in tutoring, workshops, and storytelling. We also help students create their own story collections, zines, and other publications.

I used to be a regular volunteer and spent many happy hours working on writing projects with students all over San Francisco. I also was a tutor to elementary aged kids once a week. 826 is a great organization and I would love to help them out but have no time to be an active volunteer any more. If you are interested in helping me help them you can do it here.

Thanks in advance!

If you are going to be in SF please let me know! I’d love to have a packet pickup meet up! I have plans for the evening of the 29th but not for the day.

Yesterday I ran my 3rd 15 mile run. I have also run 2 20 miles runs and an 18 mile run. I expected this 3rd 15 mile run to be a piece of cake. It was not. It was hard and I got the worst time of all 3 of these 15 mile runs.

The first one was June 3rd and I had a very hard time with the last 2 or 3 miles.
The second one was July 1 and was apparently pretty unremarkable. It went ‘okay’
The second was yesterday and I didn’t bonk but I was fatigued pretty much the whole time and really dragged butt.

Stuff like this shatters my confidence that I will make my sub 5 hour goal but at this point I hardly care. I know I will finish and right now that feels good enough. I’m not very fond of ‘good enough’, preferring ‘I rocked’ under almost all circumstances but at this point I don’t have a lot of fight left in me. I have had too many really hard, uncomfortable runs to care.

In all fairness my pace, including long bathroom break at the 1/2 point and a couple of stops to find my water bottles was 11:31 which is still a 5 hour pace (hope springs eternal) but I in no way felt that I had another 11 miles left in me*. I don’t know if it was fatigue from my track workout on Thursday and the fact that I spent Saturday on my flip-flopped feet in a museum plus high heat (I left at 6:30 and was melting by 8) or if I’ve just lost my running mojo. I can only hope that by marathon day I will be rested, fed, hydrated and ready to rock this thing. And if I don’t then so be it.

When I got to 15 I did make myself keep going for a little while. I wanted to transcend that ‘I just can’t do this anymore’ feeling and I wanted to cross the line and get my second wind. I sort of did – enough to remember that in a marathon I’m willing to endure pain and the desire to quit in order to get to the finish line. In fact, now that I think about, since this will be my 3rd marathon I hope the 3rd time really is a charm

*Update – talk about a self defeating attitude. I would only need to go another 9 miles, not 11! I think you are all right – I just need a REAL taper, not this crazy pseudo taper.

I missed my track workout on Tuesday because I had to fly to Southern California. Jeff, the Amazing Hip and I made contact and he offered to take me out for a track run with himself and his lovely wife SMSMH but alas, I had no time since it was a one day deal. Next time, though!

I did what the FIRST program says and didn’t sweat it. Yesterday I decided would be the day to get in 7 x 800 with 400 recovery. I got up, got dressed and the bargaining began.
“Maybe I’ll just do 5 because I have to run 15 miles this weekend and I don’t want my legs to be tired”
“The program says 7”
“I know but well… we’ll see”

I got to the track, set my Garmin for intervals of 1/2 mile run, 1/4 mile recovery and and hit start, immediately realizing that I should have done a warm up first. Oh well – I took the first 1/2 mile easy. On the 2nd interval the bargaining was getting really strident

“Man, I really am NOT feeling it! I’ll TRY to go for 5 but I don’t know”
“The plan calls for 7 – you need to to 7”
“I know but… my legs… I’m tired… you know I haven’t really been doing my track work”
“You need to do 7”
“Okay fine, I’ll get to 4 and think about it”
“Don’t forget to do some in the other direction”
“check”

But if I’ve learned nothing else about myself during training I’ve learned that if I just keep going I can do what I set out to do. On a remote corner of my brain I was thinking “If you just get through 4 you’ll be more than 1/2 way done” and with that in mind I carried on.

After 4 I turned and started going the other way.
After 5 I thought “One more – you can do it”
After 6 I thought “you only have 1 more so what’s that? 5 or 6 minutes. Keep going”
After 7 I was really happy. My Garmin played a happy little tune and said “Finished!”

And thusly, one bargained interval at a time I did all of my repeats. Today I was going to get in my 15 miles because I have a friend coming in from out of town tomorrow but I didn’t have time so I will either do them tonight, or early tomorrow or late Sunday. I’m not worrying about it anymore because I’m starting my taper and I will get it done and I am almost to my marathon. And that’s a good thing.

Interval Splits (in min/mile):
9:14, 8:06, 8:29, 8:50, 8:27, 8:14, 8:29
not bad.

I missed my track workout on Tuesday because I had to fly to Southern California. Jeff, the Amazing Hip and I made contact and he offered to take me out for a track run with himself and his lovely wife SMSMH but alas, I had no time since it was a one day deal. Next time, though!

I did what the FIRST program says and didn’t sweat it. Yesterday I decided would be the day to get in 7 x 800 with 400 recovery. I got up, got dressed and the bargaining began.
“Maybe I’ll just do 5 because I have to run 15 miles this weekend and I don’t want my legs to be tired”
“The program says 7”
“I know but well… we’ll see”

I got to the track, set my Garmin for intervals of 1/2 mile run, 1/4 mile recovery and and hit start, immediately realizing that I should have done a warm up first. Oh well – I took the first 1/2 mile easy. On the 2nd interval the bargaining was getting really strident

“Man, I really am NOT feeling it! I’ll TRY to go for 5 but I don’t know”
“The plan calls for 7 – you need to to 7”
“I know but… my legs… I’m tired… you know I haven’t really been doing my track work”
“You need to do 7”
“Okay fine, I’ll get to 4 and think about it”
“Don’t forget to do some in the other direction”
“check”

But if I’ve learned nothing else about myself during training I’ve learned that if I just keep going I can do what I set out to do. On a remote corner of my brain I was thinking “If you just get through 4 you’ll be more than 1/2 way done” and with that in mind I carried on.

After 4 I turned and started going the other way.
After 5 I thought “One more – you can do it”
After 6 I thought “you only have 1 more so what’s that? 5 or 6 minutes. Keep going”
After 7 I was really happy. My Garmin played a happy little tune and said “Finished!”

And thusly, one bargained interval at a time I did all of my repeats. Today I was going to get in my 15 miles because I have a friend coming in from out of town tomorrow but I didn’t have time so I will either do them tonight, or early tomorrow or late Sunday. I’m not worrying about it anymore because I’m starting my taper and I will get it done and I am almost to my marathon. And that’s a good thing.

Interval Splits (in min/mile):
9:14, 8:06, 8:29, 8:50, 8:27, 8:14, 8:29
not bad.

So ThisNext, the new ‘we do it for you but really we just want the click-thru traffic’ blog has stolen my words without asking and they have NOT invited me to participate in their super secret beta test to which they issue invitations and then ask the participants to keep be vewy, vewy quiet and not tell anyone about this fabulous new “shopcasting” network.

So to ThisNext I mist say – if you don’t want people to find your site before it is ready for launch hide your URL from search engines. If, on the other hand, the “don’t tell” line is just a Jedi mind trick to get people talking then please, give me a break.

I can say with some authority that you folks are off to a very bad start. I’m as much of a traffic ho as the next blogger but I prefer people referring to me out loud, not behind my back and most certainly not for commercial gain.

I decided to take a look at ‘Blogs that Link Here’ and found this entry

http://blog.thisnext.com/blog/when-in-doubt-buy-shoes.html

Someone is using me to pimp Saucony’s shoes. Weird!

Anyone else ever have this experience?