Thursday, March 28, 2013

Changing schedule already...

Well, I've changed my running schedule already.

As you might recall, I was doing my long run on Tuesday and my medium run on thursday.  Well, last week, that felt like a little too much mileage for me on consecutive running days.  I finished my medium  run on Thursday, but decided to switch it to a recovery run for this week.

That meant on Saturday I needed to start off with my medium length run.  That meant that the 8 mile run that felt so heavy on my legs on Thursday really felt leaden on Saturday.  I ran 8 miles on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Sunday was a piece of cake run at 5 miles and this Tuesday I did a 10 mile run.

I mentioned before that I have no issues running on land and a 10 mile run on the Chicago Lake Path is a pleasant 9:00 minute a mile jog.  Doing 10:00 minute miles on the treadmill wiped me out.  I'm going to play around with my starting speed and see if that helps me.  Maybe I need to start off slower so I can ease into faster miles.  I'd love to get my land speed and treadmill speed to match up.

I've also been working on my nutrition.

I'm not the best eater.  Oh, I eat well.  I just don't really eat the right things.  If I could eat pizza every day, I would.  I bought a Runner's Guide to Nutrition and am trying to eat a little more "correctly".  I'm trying to eat the correct kinds of carbohydrates and concentrating on consuming more fruits and vegetables.

I'd like to slim down while still fueling my runs.  Which means I can eat the whole grain pancakes and strawberries, but that bacon has to go.



Sunday, March 24, 2013

Running on a ship...

Working on a ship and getting paid to perform for Second City is great.

At the ships gym, you see a lot of things you'd never see anywhere else.

An example?

Well, here's a list of just a few thing I've witnessed while running on the treadmill:

24 year old girl running on the treadmill in flip flops. (Actually, this isn't that uncommon to see. I see lots of people in flip flops, sandals and barefoot on the treadmills.)

Woman walking on treadmill wearing heels.

Man walking on treadmill in shorts and dress shoes.

Shirtless guy, barefoot, wearing cargo shorts that were hanging below his butt, running on the treadmill.

Shirtless guy on the elliptical, carrying a beer in each hand.

Middle aged woman on the stairmaster eating an ice cream cone.

Girls in bikini's running on the treadmill while wearing running shoes. (I'm not complaining about seeing this one. Just baffled at the fact that they go all the way back to their rooms to get socks and shoes, but don't feel the need to get shorts or a tank top.)

A guy sitting on the treadmill and eating a huge plate of spaghetti while his wife walked on the treadmill next to him.

I once saw a woman speed walking on a treadmill. She stepped off the treadmill to get a drink of water, but didn't bother to stop her treadmill. She stood behind it for fifteen minutes while she drank her water and talked to her friend. When she was ready to get back on, she forgot that she'd left the treadmill running. She took one step on and it sent her hurtling. She crashed into two other treadmills and knocked down two other walkers. No one was hurt, but me. I had an ache in my side from stifling my laughing while I was running.

I once was in the middle of a 15 mile run when I felt a woman tap me on the shoulder. "Were you in the comedy show I saw the other night?" She asked. I told her I was and she nodded her head. "I thought so," she replied. "My room steward didn't give me enough towels. Can you get some for me and bring them to my room?" I smiled politely and said no.

It's a wild world at sea. Beautiful facilities and great tools to get in shape. Some people just aren't sure how to use the tools or facilities.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone 5

Friday, March 22, 2013

Cozumel...

We're in Cozumel today.

Here I am enjoying a lychee bubble tea.

Here's something I'm curious about.  On land, my runs are usually 9:15 a mile.  On treadmills, I run a 10:00 mile.  I really don't understand.

Often, I cruise along at 8:30 minute miles without any trouble whatsoever.  On the treadmill, 10:00 minute miles are laborious.  I don't really understand.  Isn't running on land supposed to be harder?

I wish someone could help me out and explain why treadmill running can be so agonizing.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

My training miles...

I'm 7 months away from the marathon and while most training schedules are for 14 or 18 weeks, my plan is to put enough miles on my legs that hitting 26.2 miles won't seem like an earth shattering event.

At the end of last year, I worked my way up to 18 miles, then tapered down. This time around, I'm going to work my way up to 20 miles then taper down.

It's weird putting together a running schedule while you're working on a cruise ship. It's difficult running while the ship is moving because the motion feels like you are running up and down hills. However, you don't particularly want to run on a ship track or treadmill while the ship is standing still because that means the ship is at port and you're not going to spend a whole lotta time on land.

Our current itinerary is the following:

Sunday: Miami
Monday: Bahamas
Tuesday: At Sea
Wednesday: Jamaica
Thursday: Grand Cayman Islands
Friday: Cozumel
Saturday: At Sea

To complicate the schedule a bit, we perform 2 shows on Wednesday and 3 shows on Saturday. I can't be tired on those days because the shows are the whole reason I get paid to do this awesome job.

So, here's the schedule I've come up with:

Saturday: At Sea
5 Miles

Sunday: Miami
6 Miles

Monday: Bahamas
Off Day

Tuesday: At Sea
Long run. First week was 8 miles, next week is 10. The weeks after that will be 12, 14, 14, 16, 16, 18, 18, 18, 20

Wednesday: Jamaica
Cross training

Thursday: Grand Cayman Islands
8 miles

Friday: Cozumel
Off Day

So that's it. It's a little odd having my long and medium long runs be right after each other, but I'll have a light cross training day in between them. That'll give me a mental and physical break that will be very helpful. Although, once I get up to the 16 mile run days, those Wednesday cross training days will probably disappear.

Wish me luck!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone 5

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Ship running...

We're now on the cruise ship.

It's not the ideal place to train for a marathon because it's a little tough to get in your outdoor miles. And, I'm not a fan of running on a treadmill.

However, if you have to run on a treadmill, this is the way to go.


The treadmill's are very nice and this I'd the view when we run.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone 5

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

My Shoes...

I didn't include my shoes on my winter gear, because my shoes are my year round gear.

I love my shoes.  They're Brooks Revenna's.

When I first began running 5 years ago, I was just running with whatever cross-training Nike's I owned.  My knees hurt, my feet ached my back was sore and I had a bad callous on the sole of my foot that actually felt like a bone spur.

I picked up a running magazine and it had an article about running injuries.  I didn't have an injury, just soreness and pain that wasn't going away, I thought.  The article suggested that symptoms I was feeling could probably be tempered or cured with better, proper running shoes.  The magazine also had a feature review about the season's upcoming new shoes.

A few days later I was at Sports Authority and stumbled across a pair of Brooks running shoes in the "clearance aisle".  The magazine article had rated a pair of Brooks shoes as the Editor's Choice. They weren't the shoes that I saw in the magazine, but I figured they would be better than the cross trainers I was currently wearing.

I was right.

The Brooks Adrenaline shoes changed everything.

My feet stopped aching and my back no longer hurt.

I told me wife (well, she was my girlfriend back then) that running in these new Brooks was like running on pillows.

I ran the treads off those shoes.  When it came time to buy new shoes, I did some research.  I figured out my running pronation/mileage/arch and bought the precise shoe that was prescribed for me.

The pain in my knee completely subsided.  It was unbelievable.  The true miracle was that the callous/bone spur on the bottom of my foot healed and disappeared.  It was a pain that I had lived with for 20 years and buying the proper shoes had completely eradicated it.

So, I'm very attached to my Brooks Shoes.  I'm staunchly loyal to Brooks and have testified their powers and comforts to every running friend I have.  My wife chucked aside her Nike's several years ago and has become a Brooks disciple as well.

A lot of my friends love Asics and Mizuno's and I know that I could find styles in those shoes that would be comparable to the Brooks Ravenna's that I so dearly love.  But, I love being a Brooks guy.

I'll be loyal to them until they stop making shoes.

Saturday, March 2, 2013

My Gear...

When I first started running 5 years ago, all my non-running friends all commented, "The bad thing about running in Chicago is you can only do it 8 months out of the year.  You can't run in Chicago in the Winter."

I believed those statements and shut down a little after November the first couple of winters.  I'd hit the treadmill once or twice a week, but my running really was put on the shelf when the snow and cold arrived.

Now, the cold and snow arrive for us at sporadic times.  Since my wife, Jeannie and I work on cruise ships, the longest amount of time we've spent in the snow and cold has usually just been 2 or 3 months. We're usually home in Chicago for the months of January and February and then head out to a ship in warm weather until we return again in June or July.

After my wife and I ran our first half marathon (The Chicago Half Marathon) in 2011, I decided I didn't want to stop running during the cold weather.  We have a small gym in our apartment building, but it's too cramped for me and I think the treadmills are too old.

So, I invested in some cold weather gear.

Now, I get a pretty big thrill hitting the lakefront path on a cold, snowy day.  We live in Wrigleyville, near the lake.  This is what the path looks like on any given February day.
Here's my gear:  Craft Running Tights
I don't know if they're called tights, but that's what I call them.  These are insulated and super-comfortable.  I like the spider-man design behind the knee.

I always wear shorts over my tights because it feels too obscene to run in just my tights.

Don't get me wrong, I don't feel it's obscene when I see anybody else running in just their tights.  It seems perfectly normal to see guys and girls chugging along in form fitting lycra.  I just feel naked with just my tights on.

Here are my gloves, hat and yurbud headphones.
Those yurbud's are key.  My headphones used to slip out of my ears all the time and it drove me crazy. Jeannie bought the yurbud's and it changed my life.

My newest piece of gear is my new jacket.  I have a soft-shell running jacket, but it's a little constrictive.   I bought this Sugoi Jacket at Fleet Feet when we returned home from our contract in Mexico and this light, thin thermal has exceeded everything I hoped for.
I love it.  It's light, thin and keeps me toasty warm.  So warm that I only need to wear a light, long-sleeved, dry-fit shirt beneath it.

I have a couple of base-layer shirts that are super thermal and warm, but I don't need them with this jacket.  I save the SmartWool base layer shirts for those -10 below zero temperature days.

The most important thing I learned about running in the cold is that you need to be comfortable and you need to keep it light.  You want everything light and close to the skin, but you don't want to be bundled up in big, cumbersome clothes.  Also, keep as much skin as possible covered.  You can take off your gloves or hat as you run, if you get too warm.  But, you're going to want to have it on when you start.

My friends were wrong.  You can run in Chicago in the winter.  Some times, it's even more fun than running in the summer!

Friday, March 1, 2013

We're signed up...

You may have heard about the disaster that was the registration for the Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

Well, my wife Jeannie and I were fortunate enough to have gotten in.  It was a bit of a fiasco and I was double charged and never received a confirmation e-mail, but in the end, it all worked out.

Training has gone well.

We work an unusual job (thus the lapse in blog updates).  We work for a theater company aboard a cruise ship.  It involves us living on cruise ships for four months and then heading back to Chicago for a few months and then back out to sea for another four months.

We're currently on a break, but we'll head back in a few days.

While we were on the ship, my marathon training was clipping along nicely.  I stuck my schedule and was running 5 miles on Wednesdays, 8 miles on Thursdays, 5 Miles on Saturdays and increasing my long run steadily each week.  We departed the ship on January 15th and on the 14th, I ran 18 miles.  It's the longest I've ever run.

Getting off the ship, I tapered down and am trying to run 6 or 8 miles, 3 to 4 times a week.  Once we get back on the ship, I'll bump my schedule back up to the 5, 8, 5, Long Run schedule that I grew comfortable with on the last ship.

I'll also update this more often now that we're officially headed to the marathon.  The miles are going to start accumulating once again.