Sweet Victory

Though my overall mileage isn't much higher this time around than my last marathon, my 25:12 four miler has me feeling great about BQ-ing in May. Why is that? Thanks to Hal Higdon, my miles have been shuffled quite a bit. Here's three ways I'm training differently: 1) Not being afraid of the long run. In the old days, I was scared enough of my long runs that I'd rest the day before and after them. Hal's got me running 8-10 miles the day before the 17-20's, and many of those mid-long runs are at marathon pace. While I don't like running both days on the weekend, there's no denying it's made a big difference. I will say, though, that Hal wants me to cross-train on Monday's, and I'm making a slight concession to my age there and resting, instead. 2) The mid-week, mid-long run. I've always felt this was lacking in my plan. For previous marathons, I rarely went beyond six miles during the week, but Hal has me going 8-10 every Wednesday. Thou...

The Triabetics were at camp last week. This group seems like a lot of fun, though I have little interest in hopping in the pool or on the bike at present. Running running running seems to be working the best for me right now. At any rate, one of the non's (non-diabetic counselor) wrote a good story about the experience. Check it out here . If doing an Ironman is a little insane, here's something that's off the charts insane. I received an e-mail last week about Søren Lilleøre, a Danish man with type 1 diabetes who is competing in the Marathon Des Sables - a six day ultra-marathon across the Sahara Desert , which sound a little warm. At any rate, the race was supposed to start yesterday, but massive storm delayed it until today. You can keep up at Søren's website . And finally, regarding this diabetic athlete, I'm looking forward to Friday, when I switch endocrinologists about nearly ten years. I'd chosen my current group out of sheer laziness -- the office is ...

In other words, a post that's about so many things, it's about nothing. 1) For the first time in a long time, I'm sick... slight fever, head stuffy sick. I would've taken the day off but I had a conference call an hour ago. However, I will be going home this afternoon and crawling under eight blankets in the darkened basement. I am a remarkably healthy person - coming down with stuff once every year or two, partially due to the fact that I am a Zicam freak. However, this bug was un-Zicam-able and I'm on the ropes. And the problem - I think - with being a healthy person is that when you get something, you've forgotten how bad sick can be. 2) Before all of this, running-wise I was hanging on splendidly. In fact, just 24 hours ago I ran 17 miles @ 7:57 pace, and 24 hours before that did another 8 @ 7:47 pace. 3) In last week's Run4Luck, I beat my PR by 45 seconds, giving myself a VDOT of nearly 52 , my highest in years, so I'm in good shape. 4) In shape for...

There are many ways to log your workouts online and though I've played around , I've been a RunningAHEAD guy for some time. RunningAHEAD works for me but - until now - I've never pushed it because we all have our quirks. Members of RunningAHEAD have been whining about Garmin integration for - seemingly - years, and I've never joined the bandwagon, simply because EVERY Garmin upload tool I've seen (including Garmin's) sucks. They've been pitifully slow. So slow I stopped using them. Keep in mind, I NEVER run without my Garmin, but it was just easier and simpler to upload the workouts manually. Meanwhile over at RA, people have been asking for it forever, and even though there were a few posts about beta tests, I didn't pay them any attention. Wow - sometimes I love being wrong. RunningAHEAD now has Garmin integration. It's seamless, simple and as fast as you'd expect it to be (I uploaded my last three workouts in about five seconds). If you have ...

Erika lets the cat out of the bag on a not so well kept secret: diabetics don't get used to needles. Jerry explains with visual aids . As for me, I've got two thoughts on needles: 1. I fear the ones I don't do myself, meaning the A1C bloodwork. I stare at the clock on the wall or the guy getting stuck in the next chair. I never look at my own arm. 2. RE: all the self-inflicted pricks, I've come to the conclusion that if you hit a nerve it hurts. If you don't, it doesn't. Problem is, there's no way to know without doing it. So I just ask myself one question, ala Dirty Harry, "Do I feel lucky today?" Well do you, punk?

The title of this post is what running legend Bart Yasso inscribed in my copy of his book when I met him at yesterday's Ugly Mudder race in Reading. Ironically, where running had taken me yesterday was to that very race. I'd run the mudder in 2007 and was one of the people to run the abbreviated course in 2008. With last year's course mistake and what I thought was a particularly bad shirt, I'd planned on not running the Mudder again this year. And then on Friday an e-mail came saying that Bart Yasso would be signing free autographs at this year's race. I sent a quick e-mail to the race director confirming there were a couple extra shirts available and decided to make the Mudder my plan. Unlike other years, though, I wasn't even a little tapered for the race. I'd done a hard interval workout on Thursday and went out for a medium longish nine miles on Saturday. The plan called for a marathon pace-ish workout for Sunday and a good trail race can serve that p...

Titles like that really aren't very SEO friendly, but such is the buffet that is my life. Europe, Part II - I'm home. It was a great trip. Though London's a little different than a US city, and Manchester's more different, Edinburgh was very different enough to know I really went someplace I hadn't been before. The architecture of the castle coupled with the experience of running up Arthur's seat were very cool, indeed, and I was grateful for the opportunity to go. When you travel for business, there's always this nagging feeling: is what I'm doing worth the company dollar? Is the tradeshow worthwhile? Is there enough to learn and enough to teach? This time, I can easily say it was, so it was a success. Our UK team is doing a dynamite job and it's fun to watch them grow in experience. Running-wise, I managed 3 runs throughout the week, which isn't great. After getting back on US time, I did bang out a nice 14 miler, but - as I knew going into t...

It's a shame I'm a bad blogger, because I have a lot to say. In the past week, I've run up this mountain in Edinburgh and twice have run by Princess Di's house in London. I've learned that while London still doesn't thrill me, I'm a certified fan of Scotland. I bought a very touristy Scotland shirt and will wear it with pride. Alas, I'm not a millionaire playboy, so what that also means is that I'm traveling for business, which means: 1) I get up early in the mornings to run. 2) I work all day. This week, it's here . 3) The team and I visit awesome restaurants and rustic pubs all night. That's why it's 12:30am right now and I've got no time for this sort of thing. However, of all my trips to the UK, this has been my favorite and - for once - I've taken pictures. Here's hoping I have time to get them uploaded upon my return.

So 2.5 weeks ago, I started a marathon plan. I also set out on a plan to lose ten pounds to get myself to my peak marathon weight before the plan got too intense. I had a good first week and then lost five days of running due to a miserable bug. Here's what's up: Since the bug left, I've run seven days in a row. I've got two more scheduled before a rest day on Friday. Today's a short recovery run and tomorrow's an interval workout. Because I've been pretty good about going easy on the easy days, I'm feeling pretty fresh. Most surprising, I've already dropped eight of the ten pounds I wanted to lose. This is good, because pretty soon the miles are going to be piling up and dieting when you're running 50 miles a week really isn't a good idea. I'm no dietitian, but here's how I've managed to lose most of the weight: 1) Switched from cereal to oatmeal for breakfast. If I had to pick one thing, this is the big one, as I don't even ...

Why do I even attempt Spring marathons? Last year, I hurt myself after three weeks of training. This year, after a flawless first week, I got the sore throat from hell. It's only now beginning to abate and I haven't run a step in five days. It appears to be getting a little better so I'll try to resume tomorrow. I wouldn't say all hope's lost as the plan's pretty easy at this point, but nevertheless, hardcore training in this part of the country at this time of the year is difficult to say the least. But I'm going to try to be zen about it, remind myself that the marathon's a long way away and I won't even sign up for at least two months. At least, that's the idea. Breathe in. Breathe out.

Last year when the Medtronic Global Heroes program opened up for 2008, I had a lot to say on the subject . Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed and Medtronic vowed to allow old diabetics to apply. They've just opened up applications for 2009 and - true to their word - there's no line about older diabetics being ineligible. For the record, I've never applied to the program and am unsure if I'll apply this year. I think it's an awesome program, but I'm more concerned with qualifying for Boston. However, if you're a diabetic marathoner, I encourage you to do so.

Today starts my 18 week training program for the Delaware Marathon . This time around, I'm using the Hal Higdon Advanced Plan 1 . Various thoughts: * Most important, I think training in January and February is tough. Thus, I haven't registered for the marathon, and won't until deep into training. However, I'm in better shape than I was in this time last year, so I think it makes sense to go for it. * The biggest difference with this plan is two-fold: greater emphasis on middle-long runs and shorter short days. Previously, I was loyal to the long run, but never went further than six miles the other days. Hal has me doing lots of tens later in the training, which I think is a good thing. * However, this plan only has 3 20's (though there's also a 19, so frankly, you may as well call it 4). My last one had five. However, I do think I tapered a bit early last time out, soooo... * My travel schedule is so-so this spring. I've got a week long trip to the UK and an...

When last we left this blog, I was desperately trying to get my act together for a long holiday break. And now, here I am, on the 7th day of my 12 day winterfest. So where are we? In no particular order... * This holiday break was supposed to be a little hectic, with upstairs bedroom and bathroom floors getting re-done. Alas, we lost the "little" when - one hour before we were supposed to go to Christmas Eve service - our gas alarm went off again. The results? a. a later church service. b. a condemned gas furnace c. double the contractors I expected to have trouncing through my house d. more than double the money I expected to spend this holiday season. As I write this, the last contractor has just left (finally). * The day before Christmas, one of my personal e-mail accounts got hacked. That was a joy, both for me and the 3,000 people who think I've lost the ability to spell and like to visit websites selling Chinese merchandise. If you got the e-mail - my apologies. * O...

For the past three years, my final race of the season has been the Jingle Bell Run, one of the bigger 5k's in the area. Last year, I came in 26th place w/ a 19:47. This year, I came in 26th place w/ a 19:53 . Last year, though, I missed an AG award by a minute. This year, I missed it by three seconds. Ouch. Without a doubt, it was an interesting year of running, and mainly a good year. My early spring races were all PR's and gave way to a good summer of training for a fall marathon. There were definitely points in the late summer, early fall when I think I was ready for some fast races. However, I didn't deviate from my plan and ended up with a lackluster marathon and without a final 5k PR. About that, I'm not pleased. More than anything, I'm confused going into '09. While I don't think it's weird that 07 and 08 were so similar, given how differently I trained this year, I guess I do... my low-mileage high speed plan yielded very similar results to my hi...

I got into Detroit last night at midnight. Now, it's six pm, and I'm back in the Detroit airport, ready to fly home. That's how I roll -- well, except for the two hour delay part. That's how US-friggin'-Air rolls. Even though I got to sleep around one, the alarm went off at 7:30 because - well, I have no good reason, other than that runners run. And also, one of the things I do love about being a runner and being a sometime business traveler is that it's a great way to see the city, assuming the city is worth seeing. Where I was staying was actually in a suburb of Detroit. I was there for a longish meeting, but knew if I dragged my butt out of bed I could see some Detroitish roads before the meeting. Looking out the hotel window, I realized it was cold and wet and miserable. Colder, wetter and more miserable than I'm used to on Dec. 1. I briefly considered going back to bed. Also briefly, I thought about running on the treadmill in the sterile hotel workout ...

Wow, what a series finale last night. I honestly feel like I lost a good friend last night. I'm no critic, but you can read a wonderfully detailed review of the entire gut-splitting 90 minutes here. My only critique of the review is I would've liked a bit more about Ronnie... I feel for the guy, I tell you. The series ended with an awesome (and relevant) old tune by Concrete Blonde, which you can hear on YouTube here . The guy who wrote the great review has an event better Q&A with Shield creator Shawn Ryan . Don't miss it.

What is happening is that Vibram runs are getting longer and faster. What isn't happening, so much, is that they aren't getting easier, yet. On Saturday, I planned to run to the local pharmacy and back. I thought it was 4 miles, but it turned out to be 5.1 - the furthest I've gone "barefoot" yet. Yesterday, I did 4 miles at a barefoot PR pace of 8:31 miles, including one of them @ 8:15. All of which sounds good, except for the fact that the soreness in my legs after four miles @ 8:30 pace is fairly equal to the day after a hard interval day in shoes. So mostly I'm thrilled with how the transition's going, but also looking forward to having my legs completely make the adjustment. Interesting to note: the Vibrams are AWESOME at protecting the feet. All of my soreness is in my calves and a little in my one achillies. My feet - believe it or not - feel great. Also, my biggest complaint during the first week was cold feet and while my toes are still colder th...

So a few months ago while being on the phone w/ Medtronic to order insulin pump supplies, the rep told me that my blood sugar strips were now being covered by my insurance, to which I said, "Really? Cool. Add them to my order." Apparantly, the rep was wrong, though, because Medtronic just billed me for them - 2 orders to the tune of $612. Keep in mind, I could've run these things through my mail order Rx program for $120! But since the rep said they were covered, I believed them, expecting them to be paid at 100% along with my pump supplies. Like most medical supply houses, the bill comes on on Saturday, when there's no one there to talk to. But you can bet we'll be talking Monday and the first thing I'm going to ask about is that little voice that says, "Some calls are recorded," because I've ordered a lot of diabetic crap over the years and I know exactly what they said. UPDATE: Check the comments for how this one is continuing.

The lady who had a worse run than you last week was on Letterman (bonus recreation animation footage!).

But first, Vibram Run #2. On Tuesday, I did 2 miles in the Vibrams, followed by 4 in my shoes... Putting on my shoes (with orthotics) was like strapping on big marshmallows... very very strange, indeed. But all went well and yesterday's rest day was barely needed. So today was Vibram Run #3. On this one, I did 3 miles in the Vibrams at 8:40 pace (the fastest I've gone in the Vibrams, yet!). And then, I ran in my shoes, without orthotics... The transition was much, much smoother and I was pleased with the overall result. All in all, I'm pleased with how this is working out. I'm sure things will get dicey as the mileage goes up, but it continues to be an interesting experiment in becoming a minimalist runner. Next week, I'm hoping to bump the runs to 4 miles Vibram and 2 without.