My Marathon Training Motivation Story

I just did my longest speed workout session for my marathon training program, which was 10x800meter repeats.  Ugh.  Yes, I'm happy to have them out of the way.  That said, while doing them I started to think about why I was out there and what has been motivating me these past 6 months, and I want to share that story with you.  So, I created this video blog. 

Nice picture.  :-)

Here is the link to the Luekemia Society's page: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

Thank you for your help!

Kelly Clarkson!!

• Wednesday - 6 miles at 9:43 pace
• Thursday - 8 miles at 9:05 pace
• Saturday - 13.1 (half marathon) at 8:49 pace. 
• Tuesday 3.7 miles at a way slow pace. Don't know what happened, but I felt awful during this run.

Saturday's pre-Christmas 13.1 mile run was astonishing.  I set out to run at about a 9:40 pace, but everything felt great and I ended up going faster and faster over hill after hill and busted out a sweet time.  I was feeling invincible and my legs were like steel bands, which makes me a bit nervous because it isn't good to taunt the marathon gods by say, or thinking, that you are going to easily come in under the goal of 4 hours.  And I think they reminded me today.  Holy cow!  Today was hands down the worst run I've had while preparing for this marathon.  It was awful.  I planned on doing 7 and did half that. Nuff said. I hope tomorrow is better because I need to squeeze in a speed workout.

On another note, let's dive into a subject seldom discussed, but is something that all long distance runners fight...chaffing.  Many runners have a story that makes them wince when they talk about stepping into the shower after a long run and the letting out screams of pain as the water hits a spot that got rubbed a little too much. owwwwwwwwwwwWwWWWWwwwwWWWWWWwww!!!!

As a result, through trial and error most marathoners have Vaseline or Body Glide (cocoa butter), as well as band aids strategically place all over their bodies.  When I did 19 miles last week, I forgot to address my...chest.  More specifically, I forgot the more sensitive part of my chest and paid a heavy price.  This past week, shirts have been uncomfortable to wear, sheets seem to be made out of sandpaper, towels look menacing, etc.  So this weekend I decided to put band aids over those "spots", which worked well, HOWEVER, I had to take the band aids off after the run and ended up waxing my chest.  OOOOOoooWWWwwwWWWwwwWWwWW!  I felt like Steve Carell in The 40 Year Old Virgin

Now that I'm all manscaped (I'll let you google it if you don't know what it means), I'm thinking all I need is a fake tan and I can try out for the next season of Jersey Shore. 

Another painful lesson learned on the road to the marathon.

Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who is currently fighting cancer by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

The Perils of Christmas Shows

Runs this week:

• Wednesday: 7.6 miles at 9:40 pace
• Thursday: 9x800, keeping the halves as about 6:50 pace. Total distance 8.6 miles
• Sunday: 19.5 miles at 10:00 pace.

To iPod or not to iPod, that is the question.  Whether tis nobler to listen to audio books, podcasts, and music, and by doing so end the trudge of 1000 miles or bear thine ears and mind to outrageous fortune and by opposing them master the art of being one with the road and your thoughts. 

Well, this past Sunday during my 3 hours on the road, some in the dark, some in the half-light provided by clouds, some dry and some in an all out downpour of rain, I think I'd have gone for the iPod.  More specifically, I can trace my desire for that device to one individual, the Grinch.

Before starting my run, I fired up the Grinch for the kids and the last song I heard as I headed out was the classic, "Your a mean one, Mr. Grinch," which is kinda cute for the first 10 minutes or so of a run; however, 2 hours and 50 minutes later, you start to get a little daffy in the head.   No matter what I did, I couldn't get that flipping song out of my head.  The only relief I had from the song was at about mile 14 when I saw a huge double rainbow that was soon followed by the huge dounpour that had created said rainbow.  I got soaked to the bone.  With my clothes pasted to my body and my shoes squishing during each step, I recall thinking to myself, "so there IS a difference between 'water resistant' and 'waterproof'."  Anyway, I wrung out my gloves and kept on running. 

So, in sum, I've been weighed, measured, and have been found wanting when it comes to matters of the mind.  Give me the iPod.  :-)

Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who is currently fighting cancer by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

To run or not to run...

Technology is amazing.  Early this morning technology enabled me to see the current weather radar around my house on my phone, which is when I saw about a 100 mile wide patch of rain with my house smack dab in the middle.  Not fun.  But I had a secret weapon.  Technology came to the rescue in the form of the Brooks Essential Run Vest with super duper water proofing and fairy dust to make me 10 pounds lighter when I run in nasty weather. 

I figured I was good, but when I went to strap on my running shoes, I could hear the rain hitting the roof of my house with a vengeance and I started to wonder if technology would fail me...or if I would fail me.  Then I opened the door to find a splendid weather channel moment going on in front of me; there was wind, rain, more wind, and more rain, which was when I decided to disappoint the many scientists who worked tirelessly to create the weather proofing technologies on my jacket because I was NOT going out there. 

The next 33 minutes found me in the safe confines of my wife's office plodding away on our elliptical trainer, listening to Christmas music from Pandora on the iPad while playing cribbage against the computer.  

Technology to the rescue!

Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who survived her fight with cancer by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

A Trough in Motivation

• Wednesday 5.8 at a very slow 10:40 pace.
• Thursday 8x800 repeats at around 6:40 pace. Total distance 8 miles. I woke up late and scrimped on the warm-up and cool down. 
• Saturday 5 miles at around 9:30 pace - did the whole run watcthing the lunar eclipse.  It was AWESOME!!!  I'm surprised I didn't end up on the hood of a car, because I was not watching where I was running. 
• Sunday 17.6 miles at 10 minute pace

I don't normally dump two ideas into one blog post, but I guess I'll live life on the edge tonight.  I dread this time of year for the following reasons:  the runs are longer and harder as I approach the marathon, the mornings are colder, the weather is wetter, there's no hint of sunshine for any run that isn't a super long run, and the bed feels extra cozy every flipping morning.  Every year this happens.  I hit the time when I need to be most motivated and my motivation leaves me; however, as I am no stranger to this lull/trough/down-patch/blue-period, it affects me a little less.  I sort of expect it to happen and it does, but I also know I'll work through it like I do every year.  It still sucks.

On another note, let's talk about injuries.  I think a lot of us treat injured joints, tendons, and muscles like we we treat infections.  Follow me on this.  When you get an infection, the doctor gives you antibiotics (which is causing other issues in this world, such as anti-biotic resistant staph, but we'll save that for another post).  When you get about half way through the bottle, you usually feel like you've pretty much healed and ask yourself why you are continuing to use the drugs, but the doc says for you to finish the bottle or you'll get an even bigger and nastier infection.  You have a choice to make. You can either continue with the medicine and heal or be an idiot and expose yourself to a worse illness later on down the road.  Injuries are the same way.  I hurt my foot and was hitting the Chiro regularly, icing, using a massage pad, etc. to ensure I got better.  Well, the pain started to subside and what did I do?  Yes, I was an idiot and now my foot is aching again.  So I'm back on all the aforementioned treatments and will probably use them until the day I toe up to the start line at the marathon.  Lesson learned?  Probably not.

Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who survived her fight with cancer by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

Men in Tights

Saturday - 5 miles in the rain. What's with the wet weather this year?!?!
Sunday - 16.8 miles easy pace
Tuesday - 7.1 miles at about 9:20 pace

First, kudos to my brother, Eric Norton, and his 3:27 finish at the California International Marathon on Sunday and a shout out to college friend Brian Beck who got a PR at just over 5 hours. Way to go guys!

Like most of the United States, we are experiencing a nasty cold streak in Phoenix. I don't do cold well, which is why I moved to AZ in the first place.  So I was forced to break out...tights. Let me say here and now that I run in the dark and no one ever sees me.  I'm not one of those guys who proudly parades about in speedo-like apparel. Anyway, I wore 'em and they worked well.  HOWEVER, when I got home, my 5 year old daughter saw me and said with a snicker that could only be mustered by a little girl, "Daddy's wearing tights." 

At first I thought this was fun and did my best Swan Lake impersonation, but then I realized my daughter isn't one to keep funny stories regarding daddy prancing about the house in tights to herself.  I'm fairly certain her teacher, the teacher's aid, the school nurse, crossing guard, and parents of half the students in her class now know that Shannon's dad runs around the house in tights.  I'm eager to see what happens when I drop her off tomorrow.  I hope parents are sheltering their children from me as If I'm John Merrick.  I'll keep you up on how it all progresses.

Until then, I leave you with evidence that manly men run about in tights:

Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who survived her fight with cancer by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

If I'm doing 7x800 intervals and no one is around, will I screw up my intervals?

Yes!

People ask me (especially my friends who run with iPods) what I think about or do to occupy my time during my runs.  The answer is lots of stuff, like: looks at constellations and watch for falling stars; concentrate on my running form, which I do a lot; curse cars with high beams on in residential streets; curse wild animals who scare the crap out of me on residential streets; and much more. 

Today I had planned to do 7x800 intervals at around 6:40 minute per mile pace.  I got to my 5th interval and my mind started to wander.  Here is a look into what was going on:

In order to run a sub 4 hour marathon, I need to average under a 9:09 minute per mile pace.  However, I also know that if I plan to do 9:09, that is a recipe for a failed sub 4 goal because I'll have to pee, I'll have a shoe untie, I'll spill water all over myself or need to apply Vaseline or... you get the picture.  I need a cushion.  So what is a good cushion.  How much faster should I go?  10, 15, 20 seconds per mile?  Hmmmmmm.  Well lets see, if we go one minute per mile faster, that's 26.2 minutes faster...don't need to go that fast; however, how much faster would 10 seconds per mile give me?   I know, I'll divide 26.2 by 6 and that will give me splits for how much faster 10 seconds will give me.   So 6 roughly goes into 26.2 4 times with 2/6 left over.  Reduce that to 1/3 and multiply by 60 gives me 20.  So, 10 seconds per mile faster results in 4 minutes and 20 seconds of cushion through 26.2 miles.   Thus, running 8:50 pace will give me about an 8 minute cushion.  Yes, I'll shoot for an 8:50 pace. 

Yes folks, that's what happens when my brain is left unchecked during a long workout; however, the problem, as we noted above, was that I was in the middle of interval number 5 and lost track of whether I was on lap 1 or lap 2 of my 800.   I also discovered that my watch was no help because it only showed, lap pace, cumulative time and cumulative distance.  It only gives me relevant data when I hit "lap" at the end of each interval.  I decided that I had only done one lap and proceed to do one more at my 800 pace. 

Can you see where this is going?

Yes, I finished that "second lap" only to discover that I had done 3 laps or 1200 meters at 800 pace, which would explain why I was sucking wind going down that final stretch.  Doh!!!  I did one more 800, paying very close attention to each lap this time, and was cooked.  So I called it a day after 6 intervals. 

Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who survived her fight with cancer by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

Unavoidably Running in the Rain

Weekly Runs:

Tuesday - 5.5 easy pace
Thursday - 6.2 (10K) Run to Feed the Hungry 7:15 pace (VERY HAPPY) + 1.25 mile warm up and warm down.
Saturday - 15.5, Eric ran slow with me, which means I was running my a** off.
Wednesday - 5.2 easy pace - 9:30 per mile +/- a little

Went to Sacramento for Thanksgiving.  I was there for 6 days and it only rained one day for about 4 hours.  Of course that was exactly when I was joining 26,000 of my closest Sacramento friends for the 18th annual Run to Feed the Hungry.  It rained the entire time, but it was a lot of fun.  Here are some observations from the race:

- I found out that running in a constant and steady rain isn't that bad; however, the minute you stop running, you freeze.
- If you are trying to coordinate meeting up with your (fast) brother after the run, it helps to give him an accurate guess regarding your finishing time.  Otherwise, he'll miss you, stand in the rain, and, as mentioned above, will start to freeze.  Brothers don't like that. 
- If you aren't going to run an X-minute per mile pace, DON'T LINE UP IN THE X MINUTE PER MILE PACE CORRAL!!!!!  I started the race at the 7-8 minute per mile corral with about 800 people in front of me.  I finished in 199th position, which means I had to wade through 600 people who were in the wrong spot.  And they didn't like that, but again, if you don't like it LINE UP IN THE CORRECT CORRAL!!!
- When I was younger, I'd finish a race like this and bound home with my limitless energy. At 42, I finish the race and shuffle home like a sloth. 

My brother, Eric, finished 128th out of 2,341 timed runners (a bunch didn't pay the $5 extra to get timed) with a time of 42:44 or 6:53pace.  Great race, his 1k intervals are paying off and he on pace for a great CIM Marathon time this weekend.  Good luck Eric.

I finished 199th (very stoked to not be "Mr. 200") with a time of 44:57 and a pace of 7:15.  I exceeded my expectations.

Injury update:
- I've decided that this year my foot is going to be problematic throughout the training process and as long as I'm smart about my training I should be OK, but it's going to be close.  Also, heavy doses of my chiropractor, ice and massages are in order. 

Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who survived her fight with cancer by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

Who is "your guy"?

Runs:

Tues - 5xHill repeats
Wednesday - 5 miles easy with a few brisk miles in there
Thursday - fanned my speed workout because of a foot issue.  :-(
Saturday - 5 miles with two at about 8:30 pace.
Sunday - 14 miles at 9:55 pace.

Being 42 I'm no stranger to pains, creaking joints, stiff legs, twitchy knees, squeaky ankles, etc.  In fact, the first mile of every run is a montage of aches and pains that traditionally subside by mile two.  I won't even consider them worth paying attention to until that point.  During my long run last week, however, I started to feel a dull ache in my foot toward the end of my run and that is usually not a good sign.  First, when you are 10+ miles into a run, you don't feel a whole lot of pain; fatigue, yes; however, pain, not really.  My foot ached and was stiff through Tuesday morning, but I still couldn't give up the idea of running my hill repeats.  And, as you can imagine, my foot was worse after that run.  After that, I was nearing a panicked state of mind, wondering if I had jeopardized my goal of hitting the RnR Marathon in January.  That's when I picked up the phone and pulled in the help of "my guy,"  Chiropractor, Matt Teusink who is a runner/triathloner and overall good guy.  He did his magic for about 20 or so minutes and got me moving again.  Crisis averted, running was able to commence again. 

So who is "your guy"?  I believe anyone running past the age of 30 needs a Chiropractor or Physical Therapist who knows athletes and can get them through these sticky little injuries so the athlete doesn't miss weeks or, worse yet, their entire event.  Talk to your running/swimming/biking/hiking buddies and find one of these "guys"  (guy is metaphorical, I have a rockin step-sister who is going to be a "go to" person someday too) and keep running. 

Outcomes from last week's issues: 

All the materials I've read on speed workouts suggest you shouldn't do more than one major workout per week.  I, of course, ignored all that info and kept doing hills and 800's.  Naturally it took an injury to remind me how stupid I am.  So my weekly workouts moving forward will only feature one speed workout, probably just the 800's.  I will pass on hills, partly because I naturally encounter hills on a daily basis and partly because I'm going to add squats and lunges to my workout regime.  

This week will feature cold foggy weather in Sacramento along with a kick butt 10k Turkey Trot on FLAT GROUND.  I can't remember the last flat run I had.  Actually, I can, it was at Newport Beach in August, but that's neither here nor there.

Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who survived her fight with cancer by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

Running Between Raindrops...or not.

Run updates:

Saturday - 4 at 10ish per mile pace.  Goal was just to recover from the speed workout on Thurs.

Sunday - 13.5 at  10:17 pace.  I really felt like I had a bunch more miles left in me at the end.  The run felt great.

Many moons ago I remember my dad asking me how mustered the motivation to hit the road when it was raining outside, to which I responded, "I don't."   First, I live in Arizona so rain is rarely an issue.  Second, I can usually time my runs between storms during any given day or even alter my weekly schedule if it looks like the weekend is going to be soggy. I have no rain gear and I don't particularly like running in the rain, especially long runs (10 miles or more). 

Why am I saying this?  Because I got duped by the the Weather Channel into thinking that there was only a very mild chance of any precipitation this past weekend only to see them do an about face on Saturday afternoon and predict doom and gloom between the hours of 4am and 3pm on Sunday.  Thanks Weather Channel.  I had already missed the opportunity for a long run on Saturday and I had obligations in the afternoon for Sunday, which meant it looked like I was all-in for a 13+ mile run in the rain. 

I altered my route to make sure that I was never more than 2.5 miles away from the house, just in case I needed to escape the predicted deluge.  Also, I grabbed my most rugged rain gear...a 10 year old Nike wind breaker covered in dust.  I was ready.  

When 5am hit and I popped out onto the roads, they were wet and clouds loomed darkly overhead and...it never rained.  It turned out to be a beautiful overcast day at a perfect temp for a long run.  I'd have been angry if the day hadn't been so pretty. 

Special shout out to my mom and dad.  Thank you for your donation.  You guys rock!  Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who survived her fight with cancer by clicking on this link (only $1300 to go): http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

Wild Kingdom in the Hills of AZ

Tuesday - 6 miles with 5 hill repeats and it was cccccooooooooolllllllldddddd 42 degrees
Wednesday - 6 miles. 3 on my own and 3 with the dog.  Easy pace.
Thursday - 8.5 miles 5x800 intervals below 3:30 and 1x1000 at...who knows, I messed up the lap function on my watch for this run.

Yesterday the dog and I ran into a pack of Javelinas and then today I went around the corner at the end of my street only to find 4 coyotes.  Its like I live in a wildlife preserve.  

Truth be known, the dog and I disagree on which animal is more dangerous.  She see the Javelinas and I can tell that the only words running through her mind are PLAY? PLAY? PLAY? PLAY?; however, when she sees coyotes all the fur raises on her back and she means businss.  And when a 100 pound mastiff/lab is agitated, it's quite a site. 

As I said, I disagree with my dog on who is the actual threat.   The coyotes know we'd be a challenge to bring down and they steer clear of us.  The minute they saw us they ran off the road and into the bushes.  On the other hand, the Javelinas get all panicky and that, I find, is most unsettling.  There's no telling what they'll do.  If the freak out enough, I think they would charge.  Give me a coyote anyday. 

Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who survived her fight with cancer by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

GPS observations and more...

I've become one of those annoying GPS guys. If you have a friend with a Garmin or Nike/Tom-Tom GPS watch, you know who I'm talking about. The person who says, "I ran 8.71247 miles today. Did it at a 9:14.7558 pace." Dooooooorrrrrrkkkkkkkk. It's a way for the GPS guy to brag about his/her high-tech watch without directly stating that they own the latest GPS technology for their arm. And I've become that person. I'm apologize to all my friends who patiently refrain from rolling their eyes when I go off about the latest run, elevation, change, pace, splits, etc., but I'm going to continue doing it.

A few other GPS observations to bore you:
- When I'm doing a speed workout or a difficult run, I will try and cut the corners as close as possible...why???? It's not like the run will get and shorter or faster because the GPS gets fooled.
- The local track is 10 feet lower on the south end, which means that the, during my speed workouts where the prevailing breeze comes from the north, I'm doing the hard part of the track uphill and into the wind. I didn't need to know that and neither did you.
- GPS is like crack cocaine. Once you start using it and downloading your runs to Garmin Connect, you're instantly hooked. My evenings can be completely lost to the limitless details I can search on that website. I can't envision ever doing a run without it ever again.

Run updates:

Speed workout last thursday: 5ish miles (gps ran out of batteries after 4.22 miles :-) ) 4x800 at close to 6:35 pace. I'm a total idiot. I wanted to do Yasso 800s but did very poor math and ran them way too fast.  I'll get them closer to the 3:45 time that is needed.

My right knee was totally squeaky after that run.  Didn't feel good at all and totally scared me, especially since I had to recommit to Team-in-Training (yes, I'm a purple person) for the marathon.  So I took it easy on Saturday and ran 5.7 miles nice and slow.  Still hurt. 

Soooo, on Sunday I was supposed to do 12, but after a conversation with my brother (my resident marathon expert) I decided to back off and do only 10.   The run went GREAT.  The knee pain totally disappeared.  My last two miles were close to a 9:00 minute/mile pace.  Very happy. 

I'm thinking about throwing in some extra miles this week to make up for the lost miles this weekend. 


Help me send my marathon finisher medal to a person who survived her fight with cancer by clicking on this link: http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/pfchangs12/mnortonnpu

10 weeks to the RnR Marathon

10 weeks to go for the RnR Marathon. Goal: Get my slow 40-something body to be as somewhat-fast as my 20-something body used to be. Mission Impossible? Maybe. Current state of Mike: Weight - 10 pounds lighter than last year when I ran 4:13 (9:40 pace). Shape - Pear, pear is a shape, yes? Actually, I've been really good about doing hill repeats (ghastly) and 4x800s at the local middle school track. My long run last weekend was 12 miles at a very slow pace. In short, I've been is worse shape. Worst news of all...I shared with my twin brother that I've been doing hills and intervals, which I knew would spur his Kenyan-thin, very fast rear to replicate my efforts. In the immortal words of Admiral Yamamoto, "I fear we have awoken a sleeping giant." I don't need him to be any faster, He beat me by 50 minutes in last year's marathon. So folks, let's count down the next 10 weeks together.