Rest and Day 23

Ugh, so I didn't really "rest" on Monday. It's hard to do that when a long run is blown off, but I lifted and ran a little over 3 miles. The lift went well I did 8x185, 6x205, and 2x225 with a 14x165 burnout on bench. I've also begun to strap a 25lb weight to myself for bar dips and pull ups. I'd noticed a lot of stagnation in my pull ups and figure it's probably better to up the weight than to just try and do more (which as been the problem). Overall the lift was not my best but it shows I'm sort of maintaining. I just ran at around goal pace on the dreadmill for a few miles.

Tuesday was supposed to be 6, it was in the 20's and the sidewalks are a mess, I ended up running a little over 4 miles and then hit the trainer while watching TV. I'm really growing impatient with the weather around here, I want it to either snow enough so that I can just XC ski or get warm and dry up, we're in sort of a slushy ice limbo world. I'm really considering heading to the gym tonight and just trying to knock out my run there. I've had a hard time doing any good speed work outdoors so far and I have a 1/2 marathon in 3 weeks, I'm really looking forward to spring.

Weekend Review.

Ugh! Bad weekend. It's been cold and snowing since about Thursday, I've done what I could but after skipping my rest day and perhaps working a little too hard Saturday, I was dead on Sunday. This week was a down week in the training and the "long" Sunday run was only 6-8 miles, I did maybe one while shoveling snow along my street.

Saturday I met a friend at 10am for a spinning class followed by strength training and lifting. The spinning class was harder than I expected but I still think I did well. It was a great workout. Saturday quickly fell apart as a met my friends to work on cars and had a few beers, then some JD, then... well I dunno we were wondering down Colfax Avenue (ironically the very road along which I will be running my marathon).

Sunday was cold with a high of around 20 and snowy and after days of snow and cold the sidewalks were not the normal soft fluff but more unconsolidated mushy ice. It was not fun to shovel and probably even worse to run on. I took the opportunity to clean up the house and catch up on other chores. I feel bad blowing a day off, but I feel good and I'm feeling ready to pound the pavement again. It's early on, and like I said earlier, I wasn't blowing off a 20 miler... so it could be worse. Still bad, but not terrible, yet.

Training: Day 22

Today was supposed to be rest, but after not being able to run I decided I'd gut out an hour on the bike trainer. This was a good workout and I was able to play some video games and watch TV while pedaling. It's probably not the best workout, but considering it was supposed to be rest I think I did ok. Tomorrow I'm doing a 45 minute spin class and a lift as my "easy" day, we'll see how that goes. It's supposed to snow all weekend, so I'm just going to do what I can. I'll be in LA next weekend and should be able to knock out some quality runs coming from altitude and having nice weather.

Training: Day 21

I wasn't really feeling a run today, but I was determined to just pound it out. Then the weather blew in and we had a veritable blizzard in Denver. I'd run in gentle snow on a lazy Sunday morning a few times, but this did not look like fun, it was dark, windy, and dumping snow, so I rode my bike. I have a magnetic stationary trainer for my road bike, I pulled that out, set it up and rode in front of the TV for an hour. The effort wasn't nearly the same as the 8 miles I was supposed to run, but it was better than nothing. Depending on the weather I may do a light run tomorrow or ride the trainer some more instead of rest.

Marathon Training: Day 20

Distance: 4 miles

The first 2 miles were great, last two, not so much. These mid and late week runs are killing me. I'd love to tie together two great days of running. The distance was short but I think I just wasn't really mentally prepared, I need to get psyched up for the 8 miles on Thursday. I'm beginning to feel a little burnt out on running. Next weekend I'm taking a vacation from work, I think I may take a vacation from running as well, at least anything too long. We'll see though. Short run, short write up. Weak!

Marathon Training: Day 19

Distance: 8 miles

This was basically a hard 6 miles with 2 cool down miles, but I feel like it was one of my better runs so far. I did my 6 miles in 52:30 (a full minute faster than what I ran 2 weeks ago). The best part was that I didn't feel very well before my run, I was unhappy, road raging, and just kind of wanting to do nothing. The weather was nice, a little cold, but there's still some patches of snow and ice. I know that dodging icy wet spots slowed me down a little. I also really felt like I had a good stride, I don't think my heart rate broke 180 for any long period of time and I maintained a really good consistent pace for the whole run. I ate a power bar before the run and brought a gel but didn't feel like I needed it. After the run while I was cooling down I said "good morning" to someone at 5:30PM, I may have been a bit toasted from the exertion. The weather doesn't look too bad for the rest of the week and I'm really looking forward to spring this year.

In other news, it's fat Tuesday. I don't plan on giving up anything for lent though, maybe I'll give up being a big fat guy.

AT&T is the Butt of Their Own Commercial Jokes...

"Ring, Ring, Ring... Hi, this is Nate's phone, he'd really like to go to the playoff game with you but since he has AT&T and he's not in the middle of a major city he doesn't have service, have fun with some other friends at the game."

Oh yes, last October I missed out on Rockies playoff tickets! While driving back towards the city from a friends house around 7pm my phone started to blow up as I began getting cell service and new texts and voice mails came in. I had a text from my friend making fun of the Patriots, I had a text from my parents saying "go donkeys -dad" (yes my dad adds a signature to informal text messages) and I had a voice mail from a co-worker... big deal right? RIGHT, he had an extra ticket to the Rockies playoff game and wanted me to go with him. Knowing that I was one of the biggest Rockies fans in the office he thought of me first, and I missed the call and got the voice mail 2+ hours too late.

...kinda like this, only the exact opposite.

Why did I think of this today? Because last night a similar situation almost occured with my friend who was in town for one day on a business trip. He had a few hour window between work and a flight and thought we could catch up over beers, if only AT&T would send the signal to my phone. After getting straight to voice mail twice (which is weird since I work in west Denver) he decided to try and e-mail me. Luckily I was at my computer and got the e-mail. A few hours later while driving to the bar my phone went all buzzy and Oh my there it was, a voice mail from my friend... from 3 hours ago. This my rest day rant about AT&T. When my contract is up I'll surely be switching, likely to Verizon, they seem to have much better coverage in this area.

Marathon Training: Day 18

Distance: 12 Miles... okay that was a long way.

I woke up around 8am this morning and looked out my window to see this...

Ok, so that wasn't 8am, that was taken after I got home. At 8 it was snowing and 15 degrees.

I'm starting to get sick of doing my long runs in the cold and snow, it's snowed the last two Sundays, but I think this is good for my mental preparation. Running when it's cold and wet sucks and it is miserable, so I'm building up the mental toughness I need to run 26 miles. I ate, watched some TV, and eventually got out the door around 9:30. I brought my mp3 player for the first time in a while and I took my belt that has 2 8oz bottles and a little bag with 2 gels in it.

The snow has a great sound dampening effect, and my runs in the snow are so nice and quiet I ended up keeping my tunes really low for most of my run. There's something about a Sunday morning when the streets are quiet and there aren't many people about that is refreshing. There's a great song called "Sunday morning coming down" that I can't help but think of when I'm running around quiet streets on a Sunday. Except that song is about being hungover and I'm out running around like an idiot.

Ok, back to the run. It was slow, cold, and wet. I just wanted to knock out the miles, with the slick ground I wasn't going to go fast. My feet got soaked and towards the end started to feel mushy. I managed to gut it out, the gel and water were nice to have and didn't seem too heavy or bulky, I think this will be nice for my really long runs. I consider the run more of a trot, but that's one more of my long runs behind me. I hope I get a few good long dry runs before the 1/2 marathon in March. I'd like to not finish runs with snow packed into my shoes and my pants wet 1/2 way up my shins...
kinda like this...COME ON SPRING!!!!

Quick notes: DO NOT LIFT HARD THE DAY BEFORE RUNNING FAR! My legs were sore before I started, not the best way to go.

Training: Day 17

Lifting and a short run today. I was actually a little apprehensive to lift after the horrendous lift I had a week and a half ago. This time I made sure to eat plenty, it wasn't a Monday, I used all the equipment I like and I had better results. 185x8, 205x6, 225x2, and 165x16 (burnout). The last lift I didn't even bother with 225, so I'm alright with this. I lifted upper body pretty hard and then did a light lower body and all was well. I did an easy 15 minutes on the treadmill after an easy warm up on an elliptical. Overall a pretty ho hum workout. I think I should focus more on running or biking on "easy" days, but I was really burnt out after that terrible Thursday run. Tomorrow is 12 miles and I'm looking forward to it right now, we'll see about tomorrow morning.

Rest Day: Weight Plateau

Nov 14th 2008, weight 238 pounds. I hadn’t weighed that much since I passed it on my way down from 265 in 2003. I’m pretty sure I was above 240 and some point around there as well. Things were getting out of control. I’d recently starting cycling to a new job and had all kinds of plans to get in shape, but I was going the wrong way. One night I got on the scale and, for lack of a better term, freaked the f*** out. I was angry at myself for slipping so far. As recently as mid 2006 I was 215 and the strongest I’d ever been. A torn pectoral muscle ended my bench strength and 2 years on the road with work had really taken its toll on my physically. I wasn’t a total loss, I could still run and bike, I was just a big fat guy.

The first weeks of eating healthy in my experiences are the most motivating. Within a month I was down to the low 220’s, the weight that had always been what I considered “normal” for me. I stayed within shot of the 220’s for the next month. At that point things cooled off a bit, but I was always seeing results. In March I was 206 and 19% body fat, sub 20 was a good target for me. I trained for a ½ marathon and met my goal time of <2 hours, I trained for a century ride and made it in just over 6 hours, the weight became a secondary issue. The century ride was Jun 6th, I was 194lbs. Almost 50 pounds lost from my peak in about 7 months.

I was laid off the next week. With a severance package and a poor economy I began to work a pretty rigorous lifting schedule into my routine. 6 mile bike each way to the gym and lifting 5 days a week (lots of golf too). Ironically summers have been harder for me to lose weight, more drinking and BBQs I figured, despite the increase in activity. I attributed my plateau to my lifting program, but I always felt like I would drop the weight sooner or later, I couldn’t be building muscle mass at the same rate I was losing fat, but this continued, and continued, and continued. Weight was still not a priority but more of a bizarre confusing issue to me and I’ll admit I really wanted to hit the 180’s. I purchased calipers so more accurately measure body fat and after that I didn’t care what the scale said. 15, 14, 13, 12% body fat as per the caliper readings every other week. The weight was staying the same but the mm on that caliper kept dropping. At the end of the year I was 12% per the calipers and 194. The same weight I was 6 months prior, but lower body fat by 5-6%.

I still have what I call “flab” or “flubber” but I think it’s just left over skin from my big fat guy days, I’m hoping to keep the weight off for the years it may take to become tighter. I’m not expecting a 6 pack, just not the handfuls of loose skin. The lesson here is that weight loss really should be secondary to overall health and if you are serious about getting in shape get some body fat calipers. The measurements one can get with them are much more valuable than what the scale tells you, especially when you get near your goal weight. By the way, on the high end or error for my body fat calculation, I would have to be in the mid single digits to be “normal” weight via BMI. That’s another story all together.

Marathon Training: Day 16, At Least I Got Off the Sofa

Distance target: 8 miles w/speed work
Actual: 7 miles with walking and being worthless

This ranks as one of the worst workouts I've ever attempted. Like any weekday run, the plan was to run after work. I ended up stuck at work for an extra 30-40 minutes, stuck in additional traffic and not home until around the time I finished my pretty decent Tuesday run. I was hungry and not really feeling it, but I took a gel shot, threw another one in my pocket and took off. The first mile felt fine, I was somewhere around my goal pace and contemplating the possible routes I could take to add 2 miles to my usual 10k loop. Nearing 2 miles I started to feel like I was out of energy, I wasn't nearly as nimble in dodging the snow and ice, and I started thinking about that second gel in my pocket. With a full 10k left I thought there's no way I can eat that thing that early in my run. At about 2.5 miles I just couldn't run anymore, I'd run away from my house the entire time and thought about turning back now, I ate the gel and plodded onward. I got a decent energy boost and was able to "trot" up to mile 6, with some stop lights and a bathroom break mixed in, where I could turn to go home and call it a day. I headed past my turnoff, but when it came to make a right and hit 8miles or make a left and round it off at 7, I couldn't make myself go right. I walked a block, yelled at myself a little (crazzyyy) and then ran pretty hard the last 1/4 mile or so. Time for a rest day and an easy day and then a long 12-14 on Sunday. With two beautiful days ahead of us in Denver lots of the snow should be melted and I'm looking forward to a good high energy run to make up for this disaster.

The good: I did something, plenty of times I could have stopped and shortened the run, but I got most of it done.
I salvaged some DECENT miles out of something that was a total disaster at some point.

The bad: I ran slower than pace, and not as far as planned. It's like a double suck run. Also I just let my brain demotivate me. I felt fine physically, I was a little low on energy, but I think I let that take over.

Marathon Training: Day 15

Distance: 4 miles w/intervals

Great run! I ran fast and felt good before, during, and after this run. First two miles in 16 minutes, mile 3 was <8 minutes, and mile 4 I broke into basically 2 pretty fast 800's. I did get a new weird knee pain, but it went away after a few steps, hopefully it's nothing too serious. I took a gel before leaving the house and felt like I had plenty of energy the whole time. It's warming up a little, and I may be able to ditch the gloves and long pants soon, but I still need my trail runners for traction on the packed snow. My run for Thursday is 8 miles, and I may focus more on getting the distance than the speed work. There is still substantial ice/snow coverage that makes some of the faster runs a little dicey. Friday I think I'll discuss my weight plateau, basically I've been between 191 and 194 since early June, despite continue the efforts that got me to 194 from 240 about 16 months ago.

Marathon Training: Day 14

Ok, change of plans, I'm not going to count rest days anymore. My rest day posts will just be about things unrelated to running, unless I'm feeling particularly RUNNY at the time. Today is a day of celebration though as the Meat Mass has finally begun to run.

Distance: 7 miles

Today I was on a big time crunch, my girlfriend had secured opera tickets to The Barber of Seville. Being a cultured bloke and never one to pass up free Opera tickets (this is the first time this situation has presented itself) I began to find a way to modify my run in such a way that I could run 8-10 miles and be ready to hit the town by 6ish. I left work right at 8 hours and got home, I immediately changed and ran out the door. There was a bit of snow and ice on the ground and I never really had the chance to open up for some higher speed miles. I felt alright, but these conditions aren't great for the higher level marathon training runs that require speed work. With precipitation on the ground just getting the run done is enough in my book. At 6 miles I felt good but I knew I was on borrowed time and cut the run off at around 7 miles. I was able to shower, shave, and get my suit on with some time to spare, I sure clean up nicely. The opera was surprisingly entertaining, if free tickets present themselves again I'll be sure to try and go.

I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing...

After gorging beyond any reasonable amount of food yesterday, I realized that as far as I’ve come in self control and weight loss I still have a long way to go. I am very much an "all or nothing" kind of eater, I rarely can slide and then stop the slide and get back on track within a sitting. I've done great at all you can eat buffets before when I take one plate with a reasonable sampling and make a good meal out of it. Then I’ve had ones where I’m at the soft serve machine pouring it into my mouth with brownies and cookies and pizza stuffing my face like a freak and going back for more. Yesterday was like that, one M&M, 2 M&M…then I had visions of me pouring them into my face. It wasn’t THAT bad, but I just can’t shake the feeling of sitting there so full I felt like I was gonna puke and still wanting to eat. Today I actually feel like I do sometimes when I drank way too much the night before, that sort of ashamed/embarrassed feeling like “wow, what did I do?” Okay, well I gotta just get back to it, and seriously, I friggin ran 11 miles, I think I get a little bit of room to gorge.

I figure that in the long run (no pun intended) I’ve got the right idea, it’d be hard to go from 265ish to 190ish doing all the wrong things, however SO many days like yesterday remind me that it is an everyday, every meal issue for me. There are days at work when someone brings donuts or cookies where I get the feeling I’m going to grab the box and eat all of them, for no reason. I can usually control myself, and honestly I do a pretty good job of it about 90% of the time. I’ve read somewhere that will power is finite and maybe that’s part of the problem. My workout yesterday was tough and I had a really hard time gutting out the last 2-3 miles, maybe by the time I got to the party I was ignoring my brain saying “STOP EATING!!!!!” I have family members in AA and they talk about booze in a very similar way, I’m not that familiar with 12 stepping, but one big problem is it’s impossible to abstain from food and even “healthy” food in freakish excess is unhealthy. The unhealthy garbage I tend to binge on is pretty friggin damaging to a healthy eating routine.

Today is my rest day, and I’m doing some stretching and possibly 20-30 minutes on the bike trainer just to burn out the acid. It’s snowed several inches so we’ll see how tomorrows run works out.

Marathon Training: Day 13

Distance: 11 miles

Super Run-day. Ok I thought about that while on my run. I woke up Sunday morning to about an inch of snow on the ground. I knew I would be consuming a gratuitous amount of food at a super bowl party, so I had to run. I decided with temps in the 20's and fresh snow on the ground I would wear my trail runners, long underwear (tops and bottoms) with my regular clothes on top, gloves and my head band. I looked AWESOME yet again. I had similar preparation to last week, except instead of a protein bar before my run I ate a gel, and I took another gel at just over the 5 mile mark. My energy level seemed fine, but the weather really killed me mentally. At 5 miles I turned to make the loop 10+ instead of shooting home and wrapping it up at 6. I wasn't really cold, but I was getting wet and just sick of running. I didn't wear my knee bands and I think this was a bad idea, I will plan on wearing them for all future long runs. Again I didn't take a watch or HRM for the long run, but will probably start doing that in the future. The trail runners were great in the snow and I didn't feel like the weather really messed up my pace, just my morale. After the run I laid around and prepared to eat and drink. I believe I consumed enough food to break even for the day, a feat in and of itself, and fun was had by all. I'm very much looking forward to a day of rest, stretching, and a little time on the bike trainer.

...as for an update with the meat mass, he has purchased shoes (yes that was an excuse for a while) and will be running shortly.

Marathon Training: Day 12

Exercise: 45-60 min easy

I'd like to be someone who has a life while training for a marathon. Running 5 days a week is really pushing it for me, but I do what I can. I've talked to a few people about the "easy" days and decided that cross training is perfectly fine. Cross training for me is basically anything that requires some physical exertion. I consider both "hardening" the legs and/or increasing my cardio strength during activities. Activities like hiking, cross country skiing, snowboarding, swimming, cycling, or just running are all ok by my list. It's also a good day for me to get in my lift. This allows me to still hang out with friends and also not blow off a training day.

That said, today I went snowboarding. A lot of people might think "weak, snowboarding is NOT a legit physical activity", but I beg to differ. Strapping on the HRM last year yielded several hundred calories per hour of burn. My friends and I lap a lot and charge hard. I often find myself winded on some harder runs. Regardless the requirement is "45 min easy" so I consider 6 hours of snowboarding at least the equivalent of the easy workout. To add to it, I ran 1.5 miles when I got home just to burn the legs out a little. It's supposed to snow tonight and into tomorrow, but I'll do my best to get the required 11 miles. I need to in order to stuff my face tomorrow.

The Dome Deconstruction

Marathon Training: Day 11... REST!!!!

Since I'm not supposed to work out today, I'll post something unrelated to anything involving working out, nutrition, running, and especially nothing involving powerbar gel.

As some of you may know, I spent 13 months at the South Pole (Oct 2005-Nov 2006). Over the year I formed strong friendships forged through the trials of living in close quarters with the same small group of people. Many of those people still work with the Antarctic program, so I regularly get updates on the station. Anyone who has any general knowledge of modern antarctic inhabitation is familiar with the venerable geodesic dome as the symbol of the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. 2006 was the last year the dome was inhabited, our year we moved everyone out, turned off the power, and let it go cold. Recently the dome has been taken down and I have to admit, I'm sad to see it go. There was a lot of history in that structure and it really represents a period that we'll not likely see again in the Antarctic Program. A lot of this reminds me of seeing an old mothballed ship intentionally destroyed. The dome was home to all polies for 30 years, protecting people from the elements and being the becon on the vast Antarctic plateau. I understand that it had been used well beyond its intended service life, but that's part of what made it so special. Here are some pictures from http://www.southpolestation.com/

The site is maintained by Bill Spindler and a great history of the South Pole station. Including science, research, and life with a focus on winter overs (last count there were about 1400 of us).

Here is the dome when new in the mid 1970's

And here is the last picture of the last pieces of the dome.

Marathon Training: Day 10

DAY 10, double digits. 100 days till the marathon. This was a big day for me, not really for any reason, other than it was the day before a rest day and I was really looking forward to that rest day. (Day three, meat mass... not running, go for a run dude)

Distance: 6 miles, goal pace w/ the middle 2 miles at 20-30 seconds faster than goal pace. Translation for me, try to run 6 miles a bit faster than goal pace, which would come out to 55 minutes.

I ended up doing a bit over 6. I was at 53:30 at the 6 mile mark, which is certainly above my goal pace. I had to keep telling myself "REST DAY TOMORROW, KEEP PUSHING." I felt like I had plenty of energy, but I was getting a little burnt out on the run. Time wise it was a good run, but I feel like I could have pushed it harder. I still don't feel like I have a my upper cardio limit figured out. That is to say, I'm not sure how hard I can push myself and maintain that for several miles. I will be disappointed if I'm not doing 6 miles in 50 minutes by the end of my training.
The weather was chilly and windy so I wore long pants, long sleeve shirt, gloves, and my head band, which is to say that I looked AWESOME. I had eaten a TON of food with a free pizza lunch earlier, but I still ate a gel before the run and I really think it helped. The tightness in my calve was present but not significant, could just be soreness at this point. I'm happy to have my first 10 days down, I'm looking forward to the next 100... omg shoot me, what did I get myself into?

Marathon Training: Day 9

Distance: 4 miles with hills.

This was a great run. I decided to run in green mountain park and made it a trail run. The rolling hills and differing terrain were a great way to mix up my usual runs which typically cover the same exact route. I had my camera with me, but left it in the car. Next time! I'm fortunate enough to work on the west side of Denver near the foothills, so the parks and open space are minutes from work. This is especially convenient in the winter because I can run before it gets dark and cold. I have a new pair of Salomon trail running shoes and so far I'm pleased with them. They have a moderately aggressive tread and a quick lacing system. There was some variable terrain and they handled everything adequately. This summer I'll be looking forward do some longer hikes and 14ers with them, as long as they hold up. As far as fueling, I ate a lot yesterday and finally felt fine on a weekday run, no gel necessary! Thursday is 10k and I'm looking forward to that rest day on Friday. (Also, day 2 of meat mass not training for the half, you better get running!)

Marathon Training: Day 8

Distance: 4 x 1 mile at 45 sec faster than goal pace (about 8:20 for me) with 2-3 minutes recovery.

One day I'll actually explain this whole marathon training program that I'm following. Either way, a bit to report today. Today is officially day one of my friend the meat mass NOT training for the half marathon on the same day as my marathon, so meat mass if you're reading this, go for a run.

I arrived home from work in my typical famished state. No matter how much I eat at work I am ALWAYS hungry when I get home. I made a huge mistake of eating extra hot wings for lunch and then a piece habenero corn bread when I got home (that's right, this stuff is HOT). NEVER again will I do this on a run day. My esophagus was unhappy during my entire run, I basically felt like I was about to barf fire. I also ate a banana strawberry power bar gel. I'm not really sure if it did anything and couldn't really feel anything other than the urge to barf. I had a short run but wanted some energy, at no point in my run today did I feel like I was hungry or fading, so that's good. The run itself went fine, I did my usual jump around the house warm up and then took off. Mile one was just faster than pace, mile 2 was right on pace, and mile 3 was a bit below pace. I took a 2-3 minute break between each mile. After mile 3 I stretched my left calf a lot, it's been getting tight on my runs, I'll have to keep an eye on it. Mile 4 was <8min. Overall a good run, hit my targets, and feel good now. Cheers.

More Thoughts on Lifting...

I had a really poor lift yesterday. I'm trying to figure out why, the previous few weeks I'd been having good lifts. I have a few theories.

One is that it was a Monday.... ok weak theory.

Another possibility is that the gym was packed so I didn't use my usual bar/bench. I would give this one or two reps, but I could only get 3-4 at 205 and I can normally get the same at 225.

Another, when I'm not "feeling it" I'm done. Since I tore my pectoral muscle in 2006 I've been very slow to recover and often sheepish with "heavy" benches. This doesn't explain my crappy burnout set though (13x165, instead of 17 last time I burned out).

Another problem is fatigue. I was hungry and I ran 10 miles the day before and came up 1000 calories below my target. Monday is supposed to be a rest day, and maybe I should keep it at that. I also can't lift if I'm hungry, I know that. I picked up some bars and stuff I can keep in my bag so I don't have to lift hungry.

I was confident I could maintain my lifting performance or at least not lose too much strength while training for the marathon, but I'm cutting back on lifting and instead doing much more cardio. I was hoping I wouldn't become weak. With runs 5 days a week I may just not have enough time to get in good lifts with adequate recovery. I'm lifting again on Friday and we'll see how that goes.

Marathon Training: Day 7

Today is rest/recovery. I'm not sure what I'll do, I feel pretty good.

update:
Lifted poorly. Felt good to get in the gym, but I didn't lift as much and just felt sluggish. Maybe the 10 miles took it out of me more than I thought. I picked up some powerbar brand gel, I'll be taking that on my next few long runs and we'll see how that works out. I'm going to be trying out some different brands (clif, gu, clif blocks) throughout my training to try and nail down my favorite. Tomorrow is a pretty short day, but I always seem low on energy after work.