Cleveland Marathon Training

Cleveland Marathon 2007 - 4 My Dad

2007-05-22T14:01:00.000-06:00

972.9 training miles, (6 days, 2h 11m 10s) 3 pairs of running shoes, too many bananas and energy gels to count, at least 100 snowstorms :) and a few blisters later I have completed the Cleveland Marathon!

Raising money for blood cancer research, making many great new friends, running with my sister as we passed all of my dad's favorite places in the city: PRICELESS.

Thanks to everyone for your support! I couldn't have done it without you!!!!

I Did It!!!!

2007-05-21T06:07:00.000-06:00

Longer report coming soon!!!! I completed the Cleveland Marathon - final time 3:48:22.

Less Than 48 Hours....

2007-05-18T07:39:00.000-06:00

All the training has been done (save for a quick 3 miler tomorrow). Now it's just time to eat some extra carbs and drink water and Gatorade in preparation for Sunday. I'm antsy and hate this part of marathon training. Lots of rest and extra food and I'm ready to go run NOW!

I'm waiting for the final weather report, figuring out what I will wear in the race on Sunday. I don't want to be too warm, but yet I don't want to be too cold, either as I use up lots of energy just staying warm.

Only 47 more hours until race time.....

T Minus 5 Days!

2007-05-15T08:39:00.000-06:00

Only 5 more days to go until the marathon! This past week of training went well, and I was enjoying the reduced mileage:

05/10: 7 miles
05/12: 12 miles
05/13: 5 miles
05/14: 3 miles
05/15: 7 miles

Today's run was a dress rehearsal of sorts. I pulled my newer pair of Asics out (the one's that I broke in for the race and have been saving) and ran up to the track. Here I warmed up and then ran a couple of miles at the pace I'm hoping to run my marathon at. It went pretty well. The rest of "taper" week will just have a handful of easy runs, with the longest at 5 miles.

The weather has been PERFECT. I'm hoping it lasts until Sunday!

Yes, We Have No Bananas.....

2007-05-09T06:57:00.000-06:00

When I began training for this marathon, I knew that I would be running more miles than I have ever run in my previous marathon training schedules. I knew I would have to start to eat something before my runs to give me enough energy. I hate to eat before I run, but settled on bananas as a good, easy to eat pre-run food. I have eaten a lot of bananas - 1 before each run (2 before a long run) and then one at lunch. I'm enjoying the running, but I am so sick of bananas. Once this race is over, yes, there will be no bananas, no bananas at all in my home :)

This past week or so of training went pretty well:

5/1 - 8 miles (interval work: 800 meter repeats)
5/2 - 5 miles
5/3 - 8 miles
5/5 - 16 miles
5/6 - 5 miles
5/7 - 5 miles
5/8 - 8 miles (last track workout before the race, mile repeats)
5/9 - 5 miles

The schedule for the next week and a half really starts to taper the miles back as I rest up and get ready for the big race! Only 11 more days!

The Last Big Training Week 04/23 - 04/29

2007-05-02T07:39:00.000-06:00

This past week marked the last week of higher mileage training.

04/24 - 10 miles with interval speed training at the track (5 x 1200 meters).
04/25 - 5 miles
04/26 - 10 miles
04/28 - 20.5 miles. The last really long run before the marathon. I ran with the Team in Training group at the Cuyahoga National Park on the towpath. Such a beautiful place to run and the crushed limestone trail felt great for my tired legs and feet!
04/29 - 5 miles. This is always the hardest run of the week. My legs are tired from the previous day's long run. Good mental training for the last miles of a marathon.

That was a lot of running.

The last three weeks prior to a marathon are known as the taper (or TAPER!!!!) time. I will gradually taper my mileage back to rest my legs and let the little aches and pains heal before the race. This coming week will have a 20% reduction in miles, the next week 40%. I'm looking forward to changing the setting on my alarm clock to a time a little later than 4:30 AM!

04/22/07 Trail Run

2007-04-23T14:12:00.000-06:00

65 and sunny today - it doesn't get any better than that. I headed out to the metropark to run on my favorite trail. 9 miles through the woods on a perfect day!

04/12/07 - 04/20/07 Finally, Great Running Weather!

2007-04-21T14:31:00.000-06:00

Training has been going well! This past week has seen the arrival of spring (hopefully for good this time) and some great runs.

4/12 - 8 miles
4/14 - 18 miles with 15 at the pace I hope to run the marathon at. Whew, this was a tough workout, but I was able to hold the pace fairly easily (I did need a nap later, though .....)
4/15- Easy 5 mile run on the park trails
4/17 - 11 miles
4/18 - Track workout (5) 800 meter repeats, 8 miles total
4/19 - Best workout of the week with my TNT training partner who is back doing great with her training after a serious health problem that didn't keep her down for long. 5 miles enjoying catching up on things :)
4/20 - 17 miles around the Shaker Lakes. Part of it enjoying the company of my sister. What a beautiful day.

Only one more week of hard training to go, including the last 20 miler, then the training will taper back to rest up for the big day!

Thanks to everyone for your support, encouraging me in my training, listening to me complain about the weather, and helping to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I have exceeded my fundraising goal thanks to your help!

04/11/07 Track Workout

2007-04-11T07:16:00.000-06:00

Today's schedule called for some interval training at the track. Since the high school track is still covered with snow, I found a street that measures 1000 meters. The workout consisted of a 2.5 warm-up run to get to "my street", 5 x 1000 meter repeats in 4:30 each,with 2 minutes of jogging in between each repeat, then a 2.5 mile run back home. It was a tough workout, I was pretty tired by the fifth repeat, but it was nice to break up the monotony of just running mile after mile.

04/10/07 Loops in the Hood....

2007-04-10T08:36:00.000-06:00

It feels like someone turned the calendar back a couple of months. All of the sidewalks are buried under the snow, so it was back to running loops in my neighborhood. 12 miles - felt strange to see all the snow but hear the birds chirping too!

Spring, Summer , WINTER

2007-04-10T08:26:00.000-06:00

This pretty much sums up last weeks training!

The week started out spring-like, with 5 miles on Monday.

11 summery miles for Tuesday. The temperature got up to a record 80 degrees.

Wednesday, it was 60 when I left the house for my run, it then started to rain, and by the time I was done it was snowing! I somehow managed to get in my interval work - 8 miles with 5 X 600 repeats. Next time I will turn on the weather before I head out!

Thursday - winter returned in full force - 9 snowy, windy miles. Blech. I figured this would have to be the last snowy run of the year, it's April, right? Wrong!

Saturday - Our Team in Training group run was cancelled due to snow! I ended up slogging out 17 miles in snowy, windy conditions. OK, I'm pretty used to this by now, but the ice pellets hitting me in the face the last couple of miles were just unnecessary!

Sunday - 26" of snow on my deck! I pulled out the snow shoes and went for a 5 mile plod around the neighborhood.

Hopefully spring will make a reappearance again.....

03/31/07 Practice Makes Perfect (In Theory!)

2007-04-02T07:10:00.000-06:00

The marathon training schedule called for a long run of 21 miles today. The purpose of these runs, besides the obvious need to train for surviving the full 26.2 mile run is to have a dress rehearsal for what you are going to do on race day. It's never good to find out in the middle of a marathon that your new socks give you blisters, your shoes (or shorts!) don't fit quite right, Gatorade gives you a tummy ache, or you should not have coffee before you run, but a bagel is fine. So this run was about practicing not only running, but what I am going to wear on marathon day, as well as what I will eat before and during (McDonald's always tastes good afterwards!)

This was a solo run, but enjoyable. I ran from my house out to the North Chagrin reservation, where I detoured onto the bridle trails until the end of the park, then back home. I tried using some Clif Block Energy Chews and water for fuel and this worked great. The energy chews tasted pretty good (Cranraspberry) and were easy to eat. I will just carry them with me during the race, and take only water from the aid stations. (I already know that Gatorade and I do not get along!) I finished the run feeling pretty strong, so that was a good confidence booster. This will probably be my longest training run ( I will run one more 20 miler) before the marathon. Unlike races of shorter distances, it is not adviseable to train up to the race distance - it just wears you down too much and leaves you too tired to train properly the next week.

Only 7 more weeks until race day!

03/29/07 Another Early Start

2007-03-29T10:59:00.000-06:00

12 miles on the schedule for today. Up early and out the door - I think I'm starting to be able to do these longer runs in my sleep, cause before I knew it I was back home (my GPS watch did say I ran the full 12 miles!) and I don't remember much of the run. I hope I can do the same on Saturday's 20 mile run!

03/28/2007 Hump Day

2007-03-29T10:55:00.000-06:00

6 miles run at an easy pace.

03/27/07 - Wake Up Call

2007-03-27T07:39:00.000-06:00

After last week's reduced mileage, it was a wake up call to look at my training schedule for this week. 12 miles scheduled for today with 7 of those miles at a pretty fast pace. It ended up being a good workout, but it takes an early wake up call and some good organization to get these longer runs in and still make it to work on-time!

03/25/07 - Sunday Run

2007-03-27T07:37:00.000-06:00

Beautiful morning for an easy run of 5 miles around the neighborhood.

03/24/07 - Trail Run

2007-03-27T07:33:00.000-06:00

It's amazing how your perspective changes. The marathon schedule called for "only" 14 miles. A few months ago, this would have been a long run. After all of the training this winter, that seems like a jog through the park. So that's what I did. The bridle trails at the park are finally free of ice and snow, so I spent a nice couple of hours jogging through the woods on the trails. It felt good to get off of the pavement and into the woods - this is what running is all about!

03/22/07 Perfect Weather

2007-03-22T06:47:00.000-06:00

65 degrees this morning - perfect running weather in my book! Shorts and a t-shirt, not battling the elements, just enjoying being outdoors and running. 8 mile run around the neighborhood.

03/21/07 A Little Speed Work

2007-03-22T06:35:00.000-06:00

8 miles with a bit of interval training in the middle of the run. The schedule called for 5 repeats of 600 meters at my 5k race pace. Without access to a track, I had to do a little math (math is actually the only thing I'm good at!) and found a side street that is exactly 600 M long and calculated that it should take about 2:45 for each repeat. I came pretty close to the target time on each repeat. I'm not sure how 600 meter repeats are going to help with running a marathon, but it did break up the monotony of the run, especially since my Wednesday morning running partner was unable to join me.

03/20/2007 Last Day of Winter

2007-03-20T07:51:00.000-06:00

Last "official" day of winter! 8 easy pace miles through the neighborhood, watching out for icy sidewalks.

03/18/2007 Recovery Run

2007-03-20T07:48:00.000-06:00

6 miles at an easy pace, pretty tired from yesterday's run. Next week is a recovery week, with reduced mileage. Bring it on!

03/17/2007 St. Paddy's Day Long Run

2007-03-20T07:41:00.000-06:00

It almost always snows in Cleveland for the St. Patrick's Day parade. This year was no exception. I woke to several inches of snow, a good amount of snow still falling, wind and temperatures of 15 degrees. Piled the now familiar layers of winter running clothes on and met the Team in Training group at the N. Chagrin reservation for a group run. I had a challenging run on the schedule for today: 15 miles with 12 at the pace I will run the marathon at. Most of my training has been at a much slower pace than this. I warmed up with the group and then ran the 12 miles pretty close to marathon pace. That was challenging. I can't imagine running another 14.2 miles at that pace! I'm hoping that a 8 more weeks of training and not having to wear a ton of winter clothing will help! Finished the morning with green Rice Crispy treats chased down with green Gatorade (the green beer came later in the day!)

03/15/07 Back to Winter.....

2007-03-16T07:42:00.000-06:00

I knew yesterday's weather was too good to last, but I wasn't prepared for today's snow! 6.25 miles at a pretty good pace - probably because I was a little underdressed for the weather and wanted to get home quickly. Gym day tomorrow and then a long run on Saturday.

03/14/07 That wasn't a low flying UFO....

2007-03-16T07:36:00.000-06:00

No, there was not a low flying UFO that people may have seen early Wednesday morning, it was just my very scary pale legs making their 2007 debut in shorts. Seriously, they are so pasty they practically glow in the dark! 65 degrees felt like summer and I had a nice 6.5 mile run with my TNT training buddy. This weather probably is not here for good, but it was nice to wear shorts even for a day.

03/13/07 Left, Right Repeat

2007-03-13T11:02:00.000-06:00

The marathon schedule called for a 14 mile run today. When I first saw the schedule, I thought there was no way I could ever complete this, especially so soon after Saturday's 20 miler, (plus the little detail of making it to work on time!). I was thoroughly organized the night before: running clothes ready - check; work clothes ironed and laid out - check; lunch packed and in the fridge - check; alarm clock set to 0 dark thirty - check. I woke up, got ready and went out the door. It was simply a matter of left, right, repeat and I finished the run! I even made it to work on time :)

Today's picture is of the Larsen B ice shelf that my sister took during her trip to Antarctica. She was studying the effects of global warming on the polar ice cap.