Exercise Goals for 2008

Alright, did 20 miles this morning. The last 3 miles my body just started to ache; probably because I haven't been doing a very good job keeping up with the mid-week runs (but I've done every long run on the weekends). I'll need to make sure I'm running during the week. I'm noticing that running isn't the hardest part about the marathon.....it's the TIME it takes to train.

Anyway, I'm starting to wonder about what my time goal should be for the marathon. I ran the 1/2 marathon last week in 2:07:08 (9:43/mi) and my 20 miles today were done in 3:32:19 (10:37/mi). So, Joe/George (the experts), what would you suggest I shoot for on the marathon (only 21 days away)? My goal is just to finish, but it helps me with pacing to have a time goal as well. Thoughts?

I'm off to watch football....keep up the good work this week everyone.

The NFL thread, maporsche... you have about a half hour to post your pics..
(sorry if you already got a message about this.)

Here's the link (RJB posted the teams/games a few posts before this one.)
http://able2know.org/topic/121781-15#post-3409274

I'm not exactly an expert, but my suggestion would be to shoot for a 10:30 pace.
No faster. Be very careful at the start not to go out too fast. Everybody gets
this advice. Everybody agrees with it. Everybody goes out too fast anyway.

Week 38
22.8 miles

Scheduled cumulative mileage: 760
Actual cumulative mileage: 786.9

[Shufflin' through Sanford NC on the Virtual Jog to Georgia]

Good goin'.

Ran today! It was really good. I wasn't expecting much -- since Friday the 12th, I've run once (last Friday, the 19th). I had a bad night (sozlet kept waking up for no reason that I could discern). I was feeling generally bleh.

We all ran (me, trackmom, newbie, newbie 2) the first lap, slowish. Newbie's ankle was NOT feeling good so she stopped. Newbie 2 took off to do her own thing. Trackmom and I did three more laps together -- FAST! Super-fun. Really felt good.

We decided that the zoom was due to the fact that for the first time in weeks it was both a) cool and b) dry.

Good running weather, isn't it?
I love this time of year!

I did an interval workout today. I haven't done one since I lost my sports watch.
At least I think I lost it. I'll probably happen upon it somewhere around the
house. Fortunately I hadn't yet sent away for my "Recognition Gift" for five
years service here at the Widget Factory. Turns out one of the available gifts
was a sports watch. I asked, they sent, and now I am able to time my runs
again.

Today I did the first ten minutes as a warm-up, then I did six sets of one
minute fast, three minutes slow. I finished up with a ten-minute cool-down.

It felt good to be pushing hard in the sprints.

Sorry to take so long to reply.....
these last twenty days are the hardest days of training because they contain the LEAST amount of miles. Your longest run should be about a fifteen TEN days before the marathon. After that, you should run no more than five or six miles at a time and, in the last week, no more than four miles.......taper taper taper taper so that on marathon day your body will want to leap out and run and run and run run and run and you get the idea.

Really. Put your feet up. take every opportunity, even on race day, to sit down, rest those bones, boy, because boyoboy, are they going to get a workout. Tahhhhhper.

As to time, Set a Goal. 10:30 miles breaks five hours. That's a very good goal. 10 minute miles gets you close to four and a half. that's a good goal too.

I have NO DOUBT that you will finish. That's a given. I think if you watch your watch and keep yourself close to 10's or 10:30's you will have a really respectable time you can take pride in.

If at all possible, run the last five miles of the marathon route about three times before the race. It's a remarkable thing to come over a hill and see that little tree that marks the five mile mark to the finish, and you have seen it before and run by it before and felt great...... I know, it's weird///// but it really helped me to know the roadway at 22 and a half miles....

Tell us everything about your most recent training.

Joe(we are your fans, porsche, fans are fanatic about details)Nation

...and while you're tapering, get your NFL picks in...
John-Boy's been hounding me to hound you.

Recently upped my weights to 25; I wasn't lifting 20 for very long at all, so I'm moving up the increments more quickly.

It's gorgeous!

We did more speedy laps yesterday -- all four of them this time. (Just us two, no newbie.)

I think I've asked you this before but I just did a quick scan of the thread and couldn't find it, and I forget your response, sorry! Do you run outside year-round? If not, how much of the year is it too cold to run outside?

I do run outside all year round, unless
1. The temperature falls below 20F.
2. The footing is too dangerous.
3. It is both cold and rainy. (I can handle cold and I can handle rainy,
but I can't handle them both at the same time.)

Great, thanks!

It's not below 20 here often.

I'm going to start doing some continuous, slower running -- will work up to 2 miles. I'm hoping we can talk and run at the same time if it's on the track. We'll see.

They say you're at a good aerobic pace when you're going slow enough to talk,
but too fast to sing.

Cool, that's good to know.

I'm more uncertain about the lipreading part of it than the speaking part of it. Not sure if I can avoid a) falling on my face b) getting a neck cramp, if I try to chat and run at the same time.

(Gymmed today btw....)

Me, too. Except that I start getting whiny about 25F. I actually do better in the rain if it is a little cold, something about just how shocked a system can get.

It's pouring pitchforks out there this morning, but I think I will try to get in about four miles. (The 18 mile is Sunday. Three laps of Central Park. aa-ommm.) I've done a lot of short runs this past few days. (I just looked. It's eight days in a row.) Hmmm.

Joe(going back to bed for awhile now. 4:19am))Nation

It was 60F and raining here in scenic Chelmsford. Ugh. But having just said that
I could handle the rain, I felt honor-bound to run in it. So I added a cap to my
usual regalia and out I went.

The first thing you need to do is accept that fact that you are going to get
absolutely soaked. No way around it. At the saturation point, however, you are
as wet as you're going to get. If you last that long, you may as well keep going. I
hit that point at about a mile and a half today and continued on to do a total of
four miles. I was drenched.

The second thing to do is to generate heat. One thing about running in the rain
on a not-so-warm-day: there's little tendency to lolligag. I ran at a 9:03 pace,
which - for me - is stepping along quite nicely. The old bod' was pumping heat
pretty well, too.

The best thing, though, is that hot shower afterwards. Aaaaahhhh!

OK, thanks fellas.

We did a longer, more sustained run today -- just me and trackmom. We started out normally -- one pretty-fast lap -- then went two continuous slower laps, stopped and walked a lap, then went two more continuous laps.

It went better than I expected! We were able to talk, which was huge. I got a little labored towards the end of the second lap each time, in terms of talking, but I was able to watch/ lipread trackmom more easily than I expected. That made things go faster.

The running itself was definitely a different feeling but it was good.

Had to do battle with myself to motivate me to 1) get out of the house this morning, 2) get to the race. 3) then found out had to run 1 mile to get number and another to get shirt, fought self to accomplish that, 4) actually got number pinned on shirt, chip on shoe, bag packed for baggage with 10 minutes to go before race time and STILL was trying to just go back to bed.... . Told self, shut up and get to the Start Line.

Had a very start and stop run. Two stops to pee (I still drink too much fluid on long runs) and once to massage a reluctant knee (at 17 and a half miles !!!) Three hours and 29 minutes, no land speed record but a PR for 18 miles. (Any time would have been a new PR)

Puts me at 762.7 miles if I count the two miles of running around getting stuff.

Joe(and I do)Nation

Joe just did my goal for the week in a single day!