New Mexico Running

Garbage day is normally Thursday in my neighborhood, but I made Wednesday my personal garbage day. I ran 11.5 easy miles – 3 in the morning and the rest in the evening. The morning run was around Kit Carson Park and back on Central. The evening run was up to Johnson field on UNM Campus, 1 lap around (0.5 mile) and then over to the North Golf Course and back home on Indian School. The heat has relented somewhat, so the evening run wasn’t so awful. This puts me back on track for a 60 mile week. I’m not sure if it advanced my fitness, though. Every day can’t be quality, I guess. We’ll see.

I’ve been starting to think about which marathon I should run this year (or January of next year). I don’t want to push it past January because I want to run in Boston and I’d like to have enough time to recover and rebuild for that. So January is the latest, I think. The Duke City (Albuquerque) Marathon is out because it looks like I will be sent to work overseas for a week or possibly 2 in late September or early October. That will mess up my training for 2 or 3 weeks because I know I won’t be worth a darn for at least a few days after I get back. Duke City is Oct. 22 - only 2 or 3 weeks later. This marathon is not a good idea. I will probably do the half marathon or 5K there instead.

Looking at the schedule, I’ve narrowed it down to 3 possible races: Las Vegas on Dec. 10, Tucson, also on Dec. 10 and Phoenix on Jan. 14. Right now, I’m leaning towards going to Tucson. For one thing, I’d prefer a low-key race, which Las Vegas and Phoenix definitely aren’t. They both look to be huge events. I think I’ll save the hullabalo for Boston. It means a little more there. Tucson is a point to point downhill course, though. Sounds fast, but downhill running hasn’t exactly been my strong point. I should decide pretty soon. Any other ideas for a winter marathon are welcome.

I ground out 9 miles in 2 workouts today. I did 5 miles on the treadmill at 8:30 pace on a 4.5% grade this morning. I followed that with a weight room workout that included 30 incline situps, 10 pullups, 2×20 chest press, 2×20 curls, 2×20 triceps, 2×15 shoulder rotations and 2×20 rows. Tonight I did 4 miles around the neighborhood in 3 1.3 mile loops. I devised the longest loop that didn’t involve crossing a major street. Neighborhood running is slow running. Anyway, this starts me out on track for another 60 mile week. Tomorrow is yoga and the Run Fit workout.

I’ve decided to run a 20K on July 30 at Sandia Pueblo (on the North side of Albuquerque). This is a cross country run, so I won’t be so focused on time. I’ll run my guts out just because. Anyway, it’ll be a good shakedown for the Chips and Salsa half marathon in September that my Run Fit program is pointing to. Hopefully, somewhere between those 2 races, I’ll run that fast 5K.

I had planned a 16 miler, but I ended up doing 18 along the bosque. The plan was to run 3 miles hard, cruise for 7 and then do the last 6 at marathon pace (what that means right now, I’m not sure). I took the first mile easy, then ran the next 3 hard, from the Bio Park to the Nature Center, like a 3 mile tempo run along the bike path. After that, I went back into cruising mode and moved over to the dirt road. A few miles later, when I was almost to Paseo del Norte, I heard some heavy breathing coming up from behind. A man pulled up along side me. I continued running with him, and he gasped “You’re running 6:17 pace” (according to his wrist gadget, I suppose). He had been using me as a rabbit to pull himself ahead of his 2 training buddies following behind. He was working pretty hard and I didn’t have the heart to tell him that we weren’t going that fast. Sub-7s maybe, but not 6:17. We ended up talking and I decided to continue running with him all the way to Alameda just to help him keep the screws tight. That’s where the extra miles came in. This course is an out and back, so there’s no shortcut home.

He’s part of a training group of over 40 guys trying to do the same thing I’m doing - get in shape and run a marathon. They are going to do the marathon in Phoenix, which is one of the ones I’m considering as my Boston qualifier.

He stopped at the Alameda bridge to wait for his buddies to catch up and I turned around and headed back. I decided to do my 6 marathon pace miles from there, and go easy for the last 3 back home. I accelerated until I became a bit anaerobic, then backed off a tad and held on. This method has worked well for me in the past. I maintained it with surprising ease. I didn’t time the six miler by itself, the distance wouldn’t have been very precise anyway, but I hit 16 miles at 1:54, a 7:08 pace. That’s pretty good. I cruised home with a couple of 8:30 miles to finish it off. I finished the week with 62.5 miles.

Afterwards, I weighed myself. The first number I saw on the scale was an alarming 133. That couldn’t be. I checked and the zero had been reset, way off. I’d originally set this scale to read the same as the one in my doctor’s office. I reset it by memory and got 145, about 4.5 lbs in a week. This number is still a cause for concern. That’s too fast. I think it had more to do with dehydration than anything else, though. It’s been really hot lately. Also, the scale is now zeroed differently, so I’m not going to worry yet. I’ll have to wait another week to see what my weight loss rate really is. It should never exceed 2lbs a week, and 1 is more like it when I’m training hard like this.

However, even allowing for some dehydration and a possibly more optimistic scale, I’m taking this as my warning to back off on the training a bit. I was planning on going from 60 to 80 mile weeks in three weeks, but after I hit this weight so quickly, I’m going to stick to 60 miles for another week at least. I’m feeling really good and I don’t want to mess around with extreme weight loss. Slow and steady is the way to go, as far as weight loss is concerned, anyway.

I ran an easy 6 this morning around Kit Carson and down the bosque trail and back on Mountain road. Unlike yesterday, I was really feeling the effects of Thursday’s effort. I started slow and felt better as I went along. I drove 500 miles to Las Cruces and back to pick up my daughter who has been staying with my brother and sister in law in Tucson. Las Cruces is the halfway point.

I just got back, so I’m a little fried. I’m still on course to do a 16 miler tomorrow with some tempo/marathon pace miles thrown in. This will be a bit more challenging than last week’s steady pace 16 miler.

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