Weekly Training Report - February 24th-March 2nd

Monday: 2.1 miles (7:30)

Tuesday: 3.1 miles (7:27)

Wednesday: 4.2 miles (7:29)

Thursday: 5.1 miles (7:00)

Friday: 6.3 miles (7:37)

Saturday: 3.9 miles (7:50); 6.2 miles (6:02)

Ran the Best Damn 10k and was the first overall male!  Read my race report here.

Sunday: 10.0 miles (7:10)

Ran with the Winter Park running group today and ran with the faster group.  I ran a little faster than I wanted to after a race the day before.  But, I felt good and kept up with the leaders OK.  I guess I'll try to run with them from now on.

Weekly total: 40.8 miles

This was a pretty easy recovery week after the marathon.  I was surprised how good my legs felt on the 10k.  Good enough for a 3 minute PR.  I'll spend a couple more weeks in the 40s before I start adding more miles.  I'm going to try to get a real good base going into some fall half marathons and maybe the Space coast marathon.

Best Damn Race 10k Race Report

This morning was the Best Damn Race 10k in downtown Orlando.  The start line was the southeast corner of Lake Eola and ran around the neighborhoods east of there.  The race also featured a 5k and a half marathon, but the 10k was the first race, starting at 6:45 am.  I enjoyed running around those neighborhoods but I also think it would be nice to run west to Orange and run through downtown.  There must be some problem getting those streets for running though because the OUC half marathon also starts at Lake Eola and also runs east instead of west.

Weather was perfect, 54 degrees in the morning and my race would be starting just before sunrise.  And, I picked the 10k instead of the half marathon because I knew I'd still be recovering from the Breast Cancer Marathon from last Sunday.  My legs were pretty sore Monday-Wednesday, but the last couple of days they finally started feeling better.  I didn't know if I would actually race this run, or just use it as a fast tempo.  Either way, I wanted to set a new PR.  My previous 10k PR was 40:16 from last year.  But, that race was in pouring rain, and I'm in better shape this year.

As we started lining up, the starter kept urging the elites to move up and toe the starting line.  I didn't see anyone I knew from the local running scene, and I know I'm not elite.  But, I figured if no one else wanted the front spot, I'd take it.  So, I got right up front in the middle of the starting mat.  An a cappella group from UCF, the Gemini Blvds, sang the national anthem and then the crowd counted down from 10 to send us off.

I got out front right away, this was new, I've never led a race before.  I think the adrenaline got to me, because about a quarter mile in, I looked at my Garmin and it said I was running 5:30 pace.  Woops!  My plan was to run anywhere from 6 - 6:15 miles depending on how I felt.  So, I backed off a bit, and was kinda hoping that someone would pass me.  I'm used to chasing people.  Eventually, someone caught up to me, it was a woman and she was running smooth and fast.  We ran beside each other and got through the first mile in just under 6 minutes.

At that point, I had to let her go.  The pace was a little fast for me and I didn't want to die too badly over the last couple of miles.  Around mile 2, another person caught and passed me, it was another woman!  She was wearing the same color singlet as the first woman.  These women were fast and it quickly became obvious that I was going to get chicked in this race.  I don't mind losing to women, I'm not elite or super fast, so it happens quite a lot.  But, bystanders kept letting me know that 2 women were leading and that I needed to catch them, like I didn't know!  But, it wasn't going to happen.  Afterwards, I found out they were wearing Hanson singlets and were from Michigan, no wonder they were so fast.

The second woman soon caught up to her teammate around the halfway point.  And, from then on, as each mile ticked by, their gap over me got larger.  I just focused on maintaining my pace over the last half of the race.  My first 2 miles were under 6, and then I started slowing down.  My last mile was my slowest, at 6:11, but it was still in the range I was shooting for.

Finally, I turned right onto Central and I could see the finish line, and somehow I was able to pick it up at the end even though my legs felt dead.  I'm always amazed when the last mile of the race feels like I'm going to die or pass out, and yet I always have some energy left to pick up the pace at the very end.

I crossed the finish line at 37:22, almost a 3 minute PR!  The top two women finishers both broke 36 minutes, serious speed!  I finished in 3rd place, but I was the first overall male winner so they had a banner for me to run through at the finish line.  I thought that was really cool!  If I can find the pictures for this event, and I don't look too retarded, I may have to purchase some pictures for the first time ever.

Overall, I'm very happy with this race, I did better than I expected to do after only have 6 days of recovering from a marathon.  My next race is in 2 weeks at the Winter Park 10k by TrackShack.  And, now I know what I'm capable of, so I'm looking forward to that race.

The BDR finisher's medal also doubles as a bottle opener, that's pretty cool.  I also got a first place trophy and a huge gold BDR medal!  This was BDR's first race in Orlando, and I hope they come back!  I'll definitely sign up for the next one they do!

Splits: 5:56, 5:58, 6:02, 6:06, 6:06, 6:11, 5:46 (0.2 miles)

26.2 with DONNA Breast Cancer Marathon Race Report

This past weekend I ran my 4th marathon.  The Breast Cancer Marathon took place in Jacksonville Beach, FL and looked to be an extremely flat course and as long as it wasn't too hot, I felt I had a good shot at breaking 3 hours.

My cousin Ryan drove down from Virginia Beach to run it with me.  Last fall we were looking at marathons to do together, the Big Sur marathon was at capacity (that would have been an amazing marathon!).  But, this one was lined up in the same time frame that he'd be moving out to California.  So, we both signed up and race weekend got here really fast!

This was also the first marathon that Nikki and the kids would be out on the course to cheer me on!  I was really looking forward to seeing them on the course and I wanted to run well for them.  We drove up to Jacksonville Beach on Friday night and got checked into our hotel, we got upgraded to the kids suite that had a bunk bed in it.  Conner and Maya were very impressed, and Maya was telling anyone that would listen that we were staying in a 5-star hotel.

Saturday morning we made our way to the expo to pick up our bibs and packets.  The kids tried a bunch of free samples and Ryan and I bought some Swiftwick socks.  They're pretty nice socks, but even with a buy 2 get 1 free deal, they are pretty expensive!

The packet pickup process and expo went a lot more smoothly than the Marine Corps Marathon, owing to the fact that there weren't 30,000 people trying to pick up their packets.  I like running in big marathons, but there are advantages to running in smaller marathons also.

The course was more or less 13 miles north on A1A then back south to a 4 lane highway that took us to the finish at the Mayo Clinic.  The run north featured running on the beach from mile 6 to almost mile 9.  My mother also came up with my nephew, Caden, for a night and had a hotel on the beach at mile 8/19.  So, I was going to have a pretty big cheering section:

The morning of the race, the temperature was already at 57 degrees at 6 am, with almost 100% humidity.  I think by the time I finished, the temperature was almost 70 degrees.  Pretty hot for a marathon, but it was cloudy, so at least the sun wasn't beating down on us the entire time.

The first 5 or 6 miles flew by and I was feeling pretty good.  All of my mile splits were under 6:50.  I was in a pretty good crowd of people and was just enjoying the scenery.  I grabbed 2 GUs a little after mile 5 and took one of them at mile 6.  Then we hit the beach.  I was looking forward to this part of the race, I knew I'd see Nikki and the kids soon, and I thought it'd be a nice change of pace to run on the beach for a bit.  Running on the sand, even the packed, wet sand, seemed to take a toll on my legs though.  My pace dropped from the low 6:40s to the high 6:40s even though I felt my effort was the same.

About halfway through the beach run, the half marathon and marathon routes split.  And, suddenly, I was running all by myself.  It was strange.  I'm used to big marathons and running in a pack for the whole race, so this was a new experience.  Eventually, I caught up to a guy, and we ran together for a bit and chatted.  And then, I saw my family!

It was a short lived visit, some high fives and some yells of encouragement, and then I was off again.

Miles 8 through 19 were pretty uneventful.  We continued north on streets parallel to A1A and then ran through some nice neighborhoods to get in some extra mileage before heading south again.  I took another GU at mile 12.  I was starting to struggle with the pace a bit around the halfway mark, but I was still running under 6:50.  I wanted to try to maintain that pace until mile 19-20 and hopefully that would have banked me enough time to slow down a bit and still break 3 hours.

But, then around mile 18, it became apparent I was going to have to stop for a bathroom break.  This was really disheartening to me, because I was pretty sure that it would kill my chance at breaking 3 hours.  This is now my 4th marathon, and I've had to stop at a porta potty on each one.  I've got to try to figure out what works on long runs and my nutrition beforehand to prevent these bathroom breaks.  When I was running 4 hour marathons, it didn't matter so much.  But, now, trying to break 3 hours, every second counts.  Right after I passed mile marker 19, I saw Nikki and the kids again!  And, right across the street was a porta potty, I made a bee-line for it and Nikki got some great action shots!

After my pit stop, I could never get my legs moving again.  Mile 20 was ~8:30, and then every mile from then on was ~7:10.  Also, the marathon and half-marathon routes merged together after mile 20 and now I was running in a crowd, but it was a crowd of walkers.  That started messing with my mind.  I haven't walked on a marathon since my first marathon, but seeing all these walkers, all of a sudden my brain was like "yea, walking would be nice... we should do that".  It was a huge mental battle just to keep running.  So, I didn't meet my goal of a sub 3 hour marathon, but I am happy that I kept running the whole race.

That last 4 miles were on a 4 lane highway heading west to the Mayo Clinic.  The on ramp to get on the highway seemed to go on forever and running on a highway is pretty lonely as far as crowd support goes.  And then, at mile 24 you could see off in the distance a huge bridge at mile 25 to cross the intracoastal.  So you get to dread that climb for a whole mile before finally tackling it.  The cool thing was, at the top of the hill, there was a water stop and a huge crowd of people cheering you on!  I ran the whole way up that monster!  After the hill, it's downhill to the off ramp and then the finish line.  I kicked as much as I could, even though my feet started cramping and crossed the finish line in 3:03:14, and my chip time was 3:02:31.  That's about 45 seconds slower than my PR at the Marine Corps Marathon.

My cousin, Ryan, unfortunately didn't get to finish his race.  It started storming and when the lightning started they closed the course and shuttled all the runners to the finish line.  I think he made it to about mile 21 or 22.  It took forever to find him!

Overall, I enjoyed the race, the last 7 miles were rough though.  Jackonsville Beach is a beautiful city to run in.  And, it's definitely a different feel than the Marine Corps Marathon.  The crowd support isn't as large, but lots of people come out of their homes to cheer you on and throw block parties while you run through their neighborhoods.  Running on the beach for 2+ miles was also really cool, but I still have a feeling that the sand may have taken some of the gas from my legs and I felt it later in the race.  In any case, if you're looking for a smaller marathon field, and a flat, fast course... then this is a great marathon.  And you're helping to support a great cause!

Here are my mile splits for the race: http://connect.garmin.com/splits/450522986

Weekly Trainin Report - February 17th-23rd

Monday: 3.2 miles (7:20)

Tuesday: 3.7 miles (7:27)
I felt a sharp pain in the arch of my right foot after I had to stop quickly for a car pulling out in front of me.  I felt it every once in awhile throughout the run, this has me a little worried!

Wednesday: 4.0 miles (7:24)
No pain in my right foot today, so that's good news.  Just continued my slow easy runs leading up to the race on Sunday.  I'm going to start carbo-loading a little tomorrow, getting up to 150-200 g of carbs a day.  After this race, I'll make a post about my ketogenic diet I've been following since early November.

Thursday: 3.2 miles (7:37)

Friday: 2.6 miles (7:08)

Saturday: 3.5 miles (7:44)

Sunday: 26.3 miles (6:56)
I ran 3:02:31 on my marathon, I didn't make it to my goal of breaking 3 hours mainly because I had to take a pit stop at mile 19 and could never get my legs moving again.  I'll have a race report about it soon.

Jiu Jitsu Training Log - February 17th-23rd

Monday: Advanced Class
We worked on an Ouchi Gari takedown, I didn't feel very strong with this takedown.  I felt like my tripping leg was not very strong.

On the ground we worked escapes from the North/South position.  Use your legs as a pendulum to create space and get your elbows under your partners are arms.  Then swim your arm through as you turn to your belly and come to your knees.  Now, you have a single leg, you can finish that or reach for a high underhook and shrug him off to get his back.  The next, was continue the pendulum motion with your legs but come all the way around to and hook one leg, bringing your other knee through to the other side of your partner's hip.  You can finish a sweep here by moving your hips and turning your arms.

The last one, was creating space and getting your elbows between you and your partner again.  Then, bump and push with your arms at the same time and bring both knees between your partner's armpits.  Next, spin under your partner and you'll end up with one leg along his hips and another over his head to recover guard.  A sweep from here is to control his far arm and grab his pants, bump into him and when he pushes back, load him up onto your legs to complete the sweep.  Whew, that was a lot of escapes with a lot of technical details I'll probably forget!

Tuesday: Randori
Nothing specific, just good drilling and rolling.

That's all the training I did this week, with a marathon coming up on Sunday I decided I needed the rest.

Jiu Jitsu Training Log February 10th-16th

Wednesday: Advanced Class
We worked on a sliding single leg takedown with a cross collar grip.  As you slide in for the single leg on your hip, you pull with your grip.  This is a fast, dynamic movement... not my strong suit.  Then wrap the leg with your free hand and do a technical stand while driving your head into your opponent's ribs.

On the ground, we worked a loop choke from butterfly guard with a cross collar grip.  This was a hard choke for me to hit for some reason, I never really felt like I was applying the choke correctly.  Then, we worked on a sweep when our partner defends the loop choke by pulling their head out and posturing back.  We use that momentum to come up to our knee and knock our partner over and then do a knee slice pass.  I had a lot of trouble coming up without posting my free hand.


Thursday: Randori
Live rolling with no submissions, person coming in took the worse position.  Good, hard training!

Friday: No Gi Class
Takedown was snapping down partner's head and pressuring them down to turtle position with our shoulders and hips.  Then, we finished with a choke after sliding our knee inbetween and clamping our hands around their shoulder and arching back.

On the ground, we worked some clock chokes.  Starting off by going to a seatbelt position with our arms, the arm around the partners neck goes to a rear naked choke position.  Then, we move to the other side of the turtle and either gable grip our hands or do the normal rear naked choke and walk our hips forward.  Pretty nasty choke!

Saturday: All Levels Class
We worked a few passes when our partner is in butterfly guard.  The first was grabbing the belt on the side our partner has the underhook and pushing down on their opposite knee with our other hand.  Then, turning our partner like a steering wheel while stepping out and finishing in side control.

The next one was getting their ankles close to their hips and reaching under their leg and up to grab their opposite knee.  Our free hand controls their opposite sleeve and pulls it across their chest.  Then, twisting their upper body and lower body in different directions, again, step out to the side and end in side control.  Then, we ended the class with some live rolling.

Weekly Training Report - February 10th-16th

Monday: 5.3 miles (7:02)

Tuesday: 5.8 miles (7:30)

Wednesday: 5.8 miles (6:45)
3 x 1 mile repeats at (5:56, 5:53, 5:50) with 3 minute rests.  I did another quarter mile after those repeats at 5:46 pace.

Thursday: 4.2 miles (7:07)

Friday: 4.5 miles (7:19)

Saturday: 3.2 miles (7:45); 3.1 miles (5:45)
Run Around the Pines 5k race

Sunday: 13 miles (8:10)

Weekly Total: 44.7 miles
Tapered back this week.  My legs feel pretty fresh, evident by my 22 second 5k PR yesterday.  I'm ready for the marathon a week from today.  Next week, I'm going to take it real easy, maybe low 20s mileage wise before the race.