Chris' Marathon(s)

Once More into the Shevlin

This route was made up "on the fly"--in the sense that I didn't plan it out ahead of time--but it was 75% on roads and trails I've been on before, so I would hardly call it new.

After looking at the route elevation change, it looks like I went up and back down a mountain--albeit a mountain that was only 400 ft high.

Comments on running in mid-July in Bend:

- It's HOT. It was oppressively hot. And it was a miracle I got through the big-sky fields between the Bend and Deschutes National forest without succumbing to heat exhaustion. Fortunately I made it to the trees and shade.

- Shevlin Park suddenly becomes a mosquito and gnat breeding ground. More incentive to keep running, because if you stop you are covered in the little blood suckers.

Along with the bug feeding frenzy, I got a call about 4 miles out from home telling me I was being waited for. No one could watch the TiVo'd World Cup game without me. So I was further inspired to move my ass. In the last two miles I really felt a big time second wind.

I'm not sure of my exact time, because (again) I forgot my GPS watch. But, I think I was at 160 mins for 14.75 miles or 10:50 min/mile. If you subtract out the 5 to 10 minutes I spent doing things I wouldn't do in a real race--take a few pictures drink water out of a river (surprise)--then these were about 10 min miles. Not good enough for a 9 min marathon. But not absolutely terrible--especially considering how good I felt at the end.

Three Sisters

A view of Three Sisters from the road through Tumalo Park

Deeper into Shevlin

I tried to make this run a 15 or 16 mile run, but it looks like it was about 13 miles again. Whoops. Things get a little fuzzy once I get into the woods in the back of Shevlin Park though: lots of little trails were taken and doubled back on, so I suppose I could actually call it 14 miles.

I found a gorgeous spot at the very South-western tip of Shevlin Park, a trailhead that sits where that famous Bend thoroughfare, National Forest Rd 4606 / B-S Logging Rd, crosses what I think is Tumalo Creek. The trail keeps going to god knows where but at least in the beginning leads up a steep set of switchbacks that bring you to some small, but probably good-for-climbing rock faces. And from the top you can get quite a view...

13 Miles

Ran another 13 miler yesterday. The legs are little more sore than they've been getting, maybe I went faster this time? Unfortunately I keep forgetting my stupid $280 GPS watch so I'm never really sure the speed I'm going. It has not, as of yet, proved to be a great investment, but theoretically it is exactly what I need to monitor my training properly. I just have to bring the thing!

Once again I tried to plot a different route than usual but, as happens frequently in a place like Bend which has had a recent construction boom, Google Map's idea of what's on the ground and the reality can be drastically different. As such, I ended up on some nice ladies private property. Or at least I think she was nice, she pointed me in the direction of a trail she said would take me roughly where I wanted to go and I ended up running through a very un-traily field jumping on top of boulders to try and see where I was going.

But I survive again to run another day.

Check out the route I was on.

And Again!

Ok, ok. This route is mostly roads so it's not nice enough to go on three times in a row, but yet again I found myself on the same 13 miler I've been on twice in the last week. At least there are some spectacular views of Tumalo Park and the Three Sisters on the way.

Fauna

Again

Nearly the same route again today. 13 miles-ish. I think I feel better and stronger though afterwards than the last one and other 13 mile runs. This might actually work out!

The New Strategy

I think the problem I had at my last (and first) marathon, was simply that I hadn't run long enough and far enough before. I had been falling off and on a plan on the build up to the marathon for months. I had put in the miles on the weekends ("the ones that mattered" as far as I was concerned), but I just didn't put in the time on weekdays. Sure I would cross-train (Crossfit is awesome), and run my shorter runs mostly, but I always felt like they were hollow as far as marathon-level endurance was concerned. And, as a result, I think I may have been missing out on the solid base that is really whats important for staying strong through a marathon. It's not so much that you've run at least one or preferably two 20-23 milers, two or three weeks before the marathon. It's more that you've just run a lot. You've run and hammered away at endurance training until your body just expects to run well after the point where it feels stupid to take one more step.

And so, coming with the long days and the warm evening which make summer-time training so much more accessible, comes a new strategy! Big runs (or rather, little-big runs), can take place two, maybe three times a week. Real big runs on weekends. The little big runs take up two hours or so, and if you really want to, it's not impossible to find two full hours in days when the sun is up at 5:30 and set at 9:00. The plan thus far is to replace the commute home from work with a run taking the side roads and trails; the laptop and clothes go home with my helpful workmate/roommate who has yet to balk at the prospect of transporting my gym bag all over Bend.

Listening to my body and my legs as much as possible: being realistic if my legs feel like lead but to not fall for it if my body is just being lazy.

At any rate... attempt #1 was a success. 13 miles past Tumalo Park and on into Downtown Bend. Let's see how this new plan shakes out.

Here We Go Again...

After an "okay" showing at the LA Marathon (at least I beat Shia Labouf), I'm gonna dive back into the time-sink that is marathon training. I've been "sorta-maybe-almost" keeping up with my long distance running by getting a 13+ mile run in two out of every three weekends--not to mention I've been cross training pretty hard--so here's hoping I'm a bit ahead of the game.

This time I've signed up for the Santa Barbara Marathon. Thats the one that started me off on this journey a little more than a year ago--my first marathon I signed up for. It's also the one which I missed because of a training injury which was probably a stress a fracture.

Hopefully this training will go better.

The goal this time over my LA Marathon is two-fold:

(1) Less than 4 hours.

(2) Don't want to kill myself around mile 21.

Heres hoping.