You tickle me

Is an expression Dad used when you did something contrary/different than he would.  If my brother and I had to weed the garden and Dad saw us doing it in the middle of the day, he would walk over and say, "You guys tickle me."  If he saw me skinning out an animal with gloves on he would say, "You tickle me."  I sort of forgot about this until this week I saw a guy coming in the do not enter direction at a McDonald's and I said out loud, "You tickle me."  Good stuff.

I chipped away at another week of marathon training.  I tend to zone in and stay focused so apologies to those I typically make time to run with.  If possible I'll bang out almost all of my runs in the early morning since I am up anyway.  I hate to admit it, but I have fell asleep before 8pm the last two evenings.  Weight is down to 170.5 and it really hasn't been much of a hassle.  I keep track through My Fitness Pal.  I'm fairly dedicated to using it as calorie/cardio tracking tool.  I basically live on cereal, sandwiches, soup, yogurt, banana's, and chips.  I'll eat some pasta and salads as well. 

I've been watching the heart rate.  Pretty steady.  Better than I thought.  When I was a teen I could get it down into the 30s, but after the Graves disease in '89 it rarely goes below 50.  What really stresses the body for me is the humidity.  That stuff just drains me.  Probably the same with others.  At least the early hours are much cooler.  The HR is taken when I first awake, so the number you see below is what it was before I ran that day.

7/19 - 10.5 (8:20) moderate HR59
7/20 - 11.0 w/ 7.0 tempo (7:06) HR 58
7/21 - 6.0 (10:02) easy HR 53
7/22 - 10.0 (7:52) moderate felt good HR 50
7/23 - 22.0 (8:00) moderate HR 50
7/24 - 6.0 (9:36) easy HR 55
7/25 - 8.0 (9:44) easy HR 51

Halfway to Memphis

The marathon training has started.  I will dial it up with what seems to have worked in the past and do the best I can.  It has been over 10 years since I specifically trained for a marathon.  There is no doubt the speed has diminished.  I should not be shocked by this, but my brain acts dumb at times.  I tend to not focus on a lot of long runs.  I am happy to get several in otherwise I am just spent.  I am going back to the old standard of checking the resting heart rate first thing in the morning.  I hope I have the courage to understand what it means.  In a nutshell I try and do the easier runs about 40-80 seconds slower than marathon pace, do a fair amount of running at marathon pace, run 5-10% below marathon pace, and rest.  It can be a balancing act because you have to mimic marathon racing, but not get to carried away at times.  Was a time I could go bonkers-Zulu, but not too much these days.

Part of me thinks I let myself get slow, but this isn't true.  I am always in pretty good shape and I'll admit I have leaned towards more pedestrian efforts in training.  I believe that will bring longevity.  I am slowly focusing on my weight.  I ran Madison in 3:15:58 this past November at 179 pounds.  I vowed I would not run my next marathon that big and I am glad to report this morning I am 172 pounds.  That has always been a good weight for me, but my PR at Boston in 2002 had me at 162 pounds.  I would like to get and hold at around 165.

7/11 - 10.3 (7:52)
7/11 - 4.8 (9:25)
7/12 - 4.7 (9:37)
7/13 - 4.0 (9:59) HR 58
7/14 - 6.0 (9:23) HR 56
7/15 - 8.0 (9:16) HR 55
7/16 - 10.0 (8:11) HR 57
7/17 - 8.0 w/ 4 x 1 mile w/ 1 lap jog in 6:34, 6:33, 6:29, 6:35 HR 58
7/18 - 11.5 (8:27) HR 57, I died at 7 miles, extremely humid

I will need to average 7:14 per mile to slip under 3:10.  Lakefront is October 4th.  I found out you can submit another time to Boston after you are registered.  Not sure it will be beneficial, but if I run a faster time perhaps I will try and move up.  I have not decided at this point if I will race Boston, or "take it all in."  For now I want to stay fit and get to the starting line.

No matter...twern't no grizz anyway

3:17:18

That's my predicted marathon time after a sub stellar 7/4 10k I ran in 42:54.  I honestly thought I would run around 40 minutes.  Well it looks like I have a bit of running to do.  I ran 10.3 today at 7:52 pace at the build-up run.  First time there.  Think I will become a regular.  I also learned a group does track work at 6:30am on Tuesday.  Always better to share the misery.  It sounds like a couple others are shooting for 3:10.  I think I will fall in.  Twelve weeks to go.  The Cudahy 10 mile is in 2 weeks.  I going to go spin that bad boy.