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