Keith Granger

This morning’s run was back to jumping on and off curbs, avoiding snow plow piles and slogging through giant slush puddles. I’m ready for spring!

I registered today for the Wenatchee Marathon on 22 April. I usually wait until the last minute to register, so that I can back out right up until the last minute. But I wanted to get in on the early registration discount so, I’m committed now. Above all else, I hope that I can avoid injury for the next 55 days and show up on race day feeling healthy.

I generally don’t eat before my runs. I usually run early (5 am) so it’s not realistic to try to get up early enough to allow time for food to digest before I start. I planned to practice eating something before my run this morning, since the marathon I’m training for stars at 8:00 am and I think I might actually need something in my system by then. I got out of bed 2 hours earlier than I planned on running, but I just couldn’t make myself eat. I drank a glass of water and a cup of coffee and that was all I could get down. At mile 8, I passed the Fred Meyer bakery. If the wind is blowing from the right direction on this loop, the Fred Meyer bakery can stop you cold in your tracks. (If the wind is blowing from the wrong direction at this section of the loop, it comes directly out of the wastewater treatment plant, which can also stop you in your tracks.) The bakery was tempting, but I stuck with my original plan of Hammer gel at 10, 15, and 20 miles. Not quite as satisfying as fresh pastry, but it worked. I may have to try the breakfast plan on another day.

For water on this run, I tested the Nathan speedbelt 2 pack (thanks Joe for loaning this to me). This is a very simple system that works very well. I will be purchasing one of these in the future, though I may consider the 4 pack for more volume. The two flasks on the belt are 10 oz, which is about half of what I like to use for a 3 hr run. I was running on the loop trail this morning and planned on re-filling the flasks at 14 miles, but at that point in the run I didn’t want to break momentum by stopping to refill. I ran out of water before I wanted to, but at 30 degrees in snowy conditions the 20 oz was enough to get me by. The Nathan pack is actually very comfortable. I also had a gel flask in a fanny back strapped on my front but everything seemed to ride well and I wasn’t bothered by weight or bounce through the run.

Do you eat breakfast before the marathon?
How long before and what do you eat?
Do you run or walk through aid stations?
Do you drink water or sports drink?
One cup or two?

I’ve run four marathons over the past six years, but I’ve hit and missed on race day nutrition. In the past, I’ve neglected the subject until it was really too late to do much about it. I’d like to have a little better plan this time. I have been practicing with Hammer gel and Perpetuem on my training runs and am happy with how they have worked for me. I’m hoping I can work out the other details over the next 59 days, so when race day gets here I’ll be ready.

My legs get tired during the intervals, but the limiting factor is cardiovascular. I hit 187 bpm on about three of these intervals. Using the formula HRM=220-age, my maximum heart-rate is 182. Obviously, I disproved that today or I wouldn’t be here to write this. My wife worries when I exceed my maximum heart-rate during workouts - it’s all about pushing back the lactate threshold, I tell her. It’s all about surviving to pay for the kids’ college, she tells me. The way I figure it, now my maximum heart-rate is 187, which means I’m really only 33. See, right there we have proved that exercise makes you younger. Given that obviously brilliant logic, how can you not exercise.

I felt horrible when I got up this morning, but decided to try to run through it. I headed out, once again, with the Camelbak filled with water but, despite repeated efforts, could not adjust it to a position that was tolerable. After about a mile of constantly fooling with it, I unbuckled and chucked the stupid thing into the bushes and left it behind. I seriously would not recommend the Camelbak flashflo to my worst enemy. This thing is one giant design flaw. I paid for this decision at the end of the run, but I’ve run enough long runs without water to know that I would survive. It just takes the rest of the day to rehydrate and recover.

I know if all the workouts were easy, it wouldn’t be training. Those days when everything feels perfect and you’re able to cruise through the workout with ease and power are rewards for days like today when you just have to gut-it-out even though it’s not fun and it doesn’t feel good.

We sing the new shoes song a lot since I started this training program, except lately it’s pretty much just me singing - ‘cus nobody else gives a crap that Dad just got another pair of new shoes.

That’s okay, I love new running shoes! I’ll be singing this song the rest of the week. This is my 3rd pair of Adidas Supernova Control 9 (from RunningWarehouse). I really like them.

Last week, I had the Garmin set to autolap at 1 mile so that I started and stopped my interval wherever it beeped. This week I turned off the auto lap and manual lapped my intervals so that I had a 1600 meter time (from when I actually pushed the start/stop button) compared to a gps mile time. There was a difference of almost 14 seconds on some laps: lap1: 6.03/1600 (5.50/mile), lap2: 5.55 (5.45), lap3: 5.57 (5.47), lap 4: 6.00 (5.46), lap5: 6.03 (5.49), lap6: 6.06 (5.52).

Some of this is from moving out of the inside lane to pass other runners, but I think part of it may have been inaccuracy on the Garmin. From the tracks, it looks like it was extrapolating on the corners. Using the Garmin times for comparison, my laps were actually pretty close to last week. But I think for consistency, I’ll probably manual lap these workouts from now on.

When I previewed this training program, I wondered if the 24-mile runs would ever become routine. This was the 4th 24-mile training run that I have done and the 12th weekend in a row that I have run 20+ miles on my Saturday long run. I haven’t changed my pace for these runs since beginning the program. The long runs are still challenging, but I think my recovery time is improving.

I used my Camelbak Flashflo to carry 48oz of water today. I also used Perpetuem mixed into a paste (4 scoops in enough water to fill my 5oz flask). I’m really happy with how the Perpetuem is working out. I carried 4 oz of Hammer gel as well, but didn’t feel the need to use it today.