Quote to ponder

“Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as a reality-in your own mind.”
- Bruce Lee

Taken from He's fit - 1/27/08

This quote got me thinking about the two marathons that I dropped from. Were the dropouts a defeat or acceptable decisions?

I think in the case of my first marathon drop, I would say no, I was not defeated that day. I just avoided being stupid and injuring myself further. I was running TCM on a sore foot and 8 weeks or so after knee surgery. It turned out when I get the foot diagnosed that I had a torn ligament.

On the second one, was I defeated because of my thoughts or did I make the right decision? I was throwing up at mile 22 and had been battling the stomach cramps for 10+ miles. I could have walked in but chose not to. I had endured more in other marathons and had battled cramps longer in past marathons. I will need to continue to ponder this one for a while longer as I am not sure........

Decisions - 2nd thoughts

Ok, it has taken a few weeks to come to a conclusion but reality does interfere once and a while. The knee isn't good enough to try and ramp mileage. I would be bummed more but the reality was influenced by some sub zero weather which drained my enthusiasm. Said another way, I wimped out and didn't get my rear out the door.

Plan B begins - start to get the base back, target an April marathon and see what happens.

The question is which one?

What about

April 26th: Trestle Valley in Bismark, ND
April 26th: Vasque Free State in Lawrence, KS (could up it to a 40m or 100k)
May 4th: Lincoln in Lincoln, Nebraska
or
May 17th: Fargo in Fargo, ND

I could even think about doing two of them :-)

Oh decisions, decisions..............

Decisions, Decisions.................

I was giving it some thought in church tonight, yes in church I think about running at least occasionally and while on runs I often think about God and churches.

Anyway, not the point tonight. I did the math, if I am going to ramp for Olathe on March 29th then I need to ramp my mileage quickly and dramatically. Let's see if I ramp from 10 to 15 a week to 30 a week, I think I will violate the 10% rule by a wee bit. So the choice is do an aggressive ramp on a sore knee and then pack it in for the year (meaning running in pain, not to stop running) or back off on Olathe and target another marathon a month or two later.

By my reckoning I would need to run 10 miles this weekend and then add 2 or 3 every other week or I could just skip the rest weeks.

Plan 1
1/13 - LR - 10
1/20 - LR - 9
1/27 - LR - 13
2/03 - LR - 10
2/10 - LR - 16
2/17 - LR - 11
2/24 - LR - 19
3/02 - LR - 12
3/09 - LR - 22
3/16 - LR - 15
3/23 - LR - 12
3/29 - Marathon

Uhoh....plan 1 might be a bit painful and I normally try to avoid adding 3 every other week to my long run, let's think what else could I try, how about if i skip the rest weeks and do a steady ramp?

Plan 2
1/13 - LR - 7
1/20 - LR - 9
1/27 - LR - 12
2/03 - LR - 14
2/10 - LR - 16
2/17 - LR - 11
2/24 - LR - 19
3/02 - LR - 12
3/09 - LR - 22
3/16 - LR - 15
3/23 - LR - 12
3/29 - Marathon

Hmm....plan 2 might work, so I think I will go for 7 this weekend and see how it goes. The ramp is still aggressive and I won't have a PR day but I can probably get to the finish line and then think about the Trail Mix 50k. You gotta have dreams. It would be a heck a lot easier if it was March versus January, maybe I will get lucky and we won't go sub-zero.

Or I could just back off and target another race...........but which one?

I love mild winter weather

I have started getting back into a running routine, yes finally and yes it is probably related to an increase in the temp.

I ran yesterday at Lake Nokomis, the weather was such that I almost ran in shorts. Think of that, a run on January 7th in shorts, I should have done it. Lake Nokomis is a small lake with two paved paths around it, a loop is approximately 2 and 1/2 miles and it is nice and flat. In the winter they plow one of the two paths so it's a good place to run, there are lights so even in the dark you can pretty much see the path.

I had knee pain throughout from the tendonitis but it was manageable just not enjoyable. Hopefully the ice, every other day running and stretching will resolve it. I need to start to ramp the mileage if I want to try and do Olathe Marathon in Kansas on March 29th.

Have a good week.

New Year, New Goals

It's a new year and time to make my running resolutions.

Running Goals:
1. Stay Healthy
2. Stretch
3. Cross Train
4. Run 3 marathons
5. Run 1 50k
6. 5 workouts per week
7. Train Smart...................

If I can deliver on the first goal then the other goals will take care of themselves.

Have a Happy New Year