Training for the Portland Marathon - Week Four

We are officially over a month into training for the Portland Marathon this October 2008! It was a good week, and it was a bad week. Read on to find out the trials of the trail! Jeanette and I are bound and determined to do this race, and we're not going to let a little sickness get in our way. No Sir, No Ma'am!! We're strong and we're motivated. We have a marathon to run!

Just to get our juices going, we've reviewed the history of some really grueling marathon runs around the world. Come view the amazing athletes that have run the North Pole Marathon, the Great Wall Marathon and more. The amazing footage and photographs of these 26.2 mile runs make me want to sign up and get my visa now. But maybe I should "slow down." This is, after all, our first marathon. We'll get to the other countries soon enough.

Another very inspirational story comes right from our own country. Jason Pisano is aiming to do 50 marathons during his lifetime. But what is even more amazing is the fact that Jason is a wheelchair athlete who does not use his arms to propel him. He has completed a number of impressive marathons (at least 12 so far), just by pushing himself backwards by his feet. If anyone with cerebral palsy believes that they cannot be an athlete, just watch this video and your mind will be changed! You can't help but cheer after hearing about Pisano's story.

After viewing the video of Jay Pisano training and getting through a recent marathon race, I'm almost embarassed to share our training logs below.

Sunday 7/20- I could have run today. But I didn't. I thought about it. In fact, by evening, I really wanted to go. I was making this terrific chicken dinner, however, and I had to stay in the kitchen to complete it (it took more than 2 hours, but sooooo worth it!!). Anyway, I'm still glad I took the day off. But I really want to start some mileage this week.

Monday 7/21 - I should have run outside this morning. I got up at 6:30 and it was the first thing I thought about. But I worked on the computer until 7:30. Finally, I got upstairs onto the treadmill. Went 4.3 miles at 6.1 miles per hour. Kind of slow. My left knee is KILLING me!! Advil time. I may go for a quick 2.5 mile loop when I get back from the twins' swimming lessons tonight, depending on the weather. Its going to be 90 again today and a threat of thundershowers in the evening.

Tuesday 7/22 - Finally! Back outside this morning for a run. Did my "usual" route from my home down to Reed Market Road and back, which is 6.3 miles. It is kind of a killer running up the hill for about 2 miles from the Reed Market roundabout. This morning, it was very breezy on the way back. Probably a left over from thundershowers last night. The run felt great. Now, if only I could remember the dogs behind the fence near the Renaissance development. They scare the crap out me each and every time I go running by! My knee is doing better today, which is a relief!

Wednesday 7/23- Not a good day. I had a hearing last night that went until 11:00 p.m. and was too wound up when I got home to fall asleep right away. In the morning, I just couldn't get up to run. I brought my stuff to the office, but then ended up having to drive out to Prineville and Madras.... so, I was on the road for about 3 hours. Rough day with work stuff, so Pete came into my office at 4:30 and offered to take me for a drink at the new Fireside Red - with the huge deck looking out over the river. Hmmmm.... that sounded better than a run. :-)

Thursday 7/24- Bound and determined to get back on track, I set the alarm, got up at 6:00 and out the door at 6:15 for a long run. I did my 9 mile loop that I ran on the 4th of July. Finished in 1:25 (I think about 15 minutes faster than the first time). Very happy and it felt great!! Then, I realized.... huh. The marathon would be that loop 3 times!! Yikes. In 3 weeks, I plan to run the loop twice for my long run. Next weekend, I'll be in Seattle and the following week is my half-marathon. Blood sugar issues worked out fine today. Started at 150 and ended the run at 80. Around mile 6-7, I ate some gummi bears. I know now why runners use gu instead. Too hard to chew and swallow when you're running! Oh, and I ran past a bum this morning as I got close to Third Avenue (old Highway 97). He was walking towards me on the same side of the street. I got a little nervous and then he said something like "that looks like too much work..." Friendly, and probably hung over. LOL

Friday 7/25- I planned on running 6 miles this morning, but chose instead to cut my loop short and ran 4.5 instead. Still, feeling pretty good since I had a longer run yesterday. Tomorrow, I'm going to run on the river trail to start trying to get my legs used to dirt running. My half-marathon on Aug. 10 will be mostly on trails. That will be HARD!! This is going to be a gadget weekend. :-) The Foot Zone is having their sidewalk sale right now, so I stopped by yesterday after my hair cut and picked up an extra pair of shoes for $60 and... a really cool Nike wristband with sensor that you put on your shoe. You download everything to a website and track your distance, time and calories burned. The best part is that it was only $60!! My iPod should be arriving any day now too (with my new laptop computer)! I just have to remember to take time to run instead of play with all my new things this weekend.

Saturday 7/26 - OK, I'm officially pissed. The Nike wristband thing had awful instructions - both Pete and I fiddled with it for over an hour each. Finally called a 1-800 number and thought I had it all straightened out. I went running on the Deschutes River trail for an hour and ten minutes (granted a little bit of it was hiking out of the river canyon - way too steep to run!) I got home and the stupid thing said I ran 4 miles! There is absolutely no way - the place at which I turned around is over 3 miles from our house! Suffice it to say, I've wasted most of my day on the stupid gadget and now I have a "workout" on the Nike website that says I ran a 17-minute mile pace. LOL. I'm going to put down my run as 7.25 miles. It could have been as much as 7 1/2, but I'm totally guessing. Oh, and I forgot to talk about the run. It was fairly tough, but I kept up a good pace to train for my half-marathon, which is largely on dirt trails.

Stephanie's Week Four Grand Total: 31.35 miles

Sunday 7/20- Just when I thought we were all beyond the vomiting and flu, Hailey now has this bug. After spending the morning and afternoon doing family stuff, Hailey and I went to a friend's birthday party. In the middle of the party, Hailey had big time diarrhea. So, we zipped home. After giving her a bath and dealing with all the new drama, I was out of time for my run. I had to spend the evening catching up on all the work I missed last week while I was sick. So, no run today. Probably for the best, as I still feel fairly crummy.

Monday 7/21 - I gave myself all day today to try to recover my energy and feel less queasy. It's now 6:00 pm and I'm heading out to try to run at least 6 miles. It's sunny and hot, but the sun is heading down so hopefully I'll be okay. I'm taking water and crossing my fingers! Okay, so I did it. The first 5 miles were fairly good -- I ran it in 45 minutes. Not my best time, but good considering my heartburn and general state of nausea. The last mile was mostly uphill, so I alternated walking and running. All said, I ran 6.2 miles. Better than yesterday!

Tuesday 7/22- Okay, still suffering from the flu here at the Petersen household. Kurt pulled up from work this evening and vomited all over the driveway -- "Honey, I'm home!" We cleared out of the house and headed to my mother's, where she proceeded to vomit outside the door to the family room in mid-conversation. Do I still feel queasy?!?! Ummmm, yes. Maybe it's just all the folks vomiting around me, maybe I'm still sick. I don't think it really matters anymore. But I'm determined to get my run in....even if it's 9 pm and I have to run on the treadmill! 5 miles on the treadmill. Painful and boring, but done.

Wednesday 7/23- I'm still feeling under the weather and just can't shake this bug. I've accepted that this week just won't be a great one for mileage. I decided to stop beating myself up about it and took the day off. I'm hoping to feel better tomorrow and be able to run every day for the rest of the week.

Thursday 7/24- I'm back!! Feeling the best I have in over a week, I zipped the kids over to the drop in day care at my club and headed out for a run. The weather was sunny, but a nice breeze was blowing and kept things relatively cool. I headed out hoping to run 5 miles at a decent pace, but at the 2.5 mile point I felt great and kept going. I ran 6 miles in just under 54 minutes. A flat nine-minute mile! Not as zippy as Stephanie's race last weekend, but still very good for me. Best of all, I felt great throughout the entire run.

Friday 7/25- Another great run today! After spending the morning with my mother-in-law at the spa (ahhhhh, relaxation!) and carbo-loading on a pasta salad for lunch, I hit the high school track for some speed work this evening. I ran 4 miles in 34 minutes (averaging an 8.5/minute mile). As I typically do with speed work, I ran three laps at my regular pace and then ran a fourth lap as fast as I could (gasping for air and nearing death by the end of the lap). I did this cycle four times total. I jogged to and from the track, so a total of 4.5 miles for the day. Feeling good! Now I'm thinking ahead to hitting the Foot Zone sidewalk sale tomorrow....thank goodness Steph tipped me off!!!!!

Saturday 7/26- From the minute I got up today I knew I needed to get a run in (given the fact that I already took two days off this week). I also knew that there was no way it was going to happen. My younger sister just arrived into town with her new baby and we were excited to get together and see them. Kurt was off golfing for the day, so that left me in charge of the kids (code: no time for a run). And then this evening we had to go to a friend's birthday party. Normally I'd run at night, but I'm meeting a group tomorrow morning for an early run in Seward Park so it wouldn't be wise to wear myself out tonight. Even though it was a fun day, I'm still irritated I couldn't run (I wanted to hit at least 25 miles for the week). Oh well.

Jeanette's Week Four Grand Total: 21.7 miles

So, we made it through the first month of training for the Portland Marathon. All in all, I would say that we're both doing well, for first time marathoners. In August and September, we'll have to kick up the mileage and hope that neither of us (or our families) get sick! Both of us have scheduled races in the near future. I'll be running a half-marathon the second weekend in August, in fact. Jeanette has a long race in September, too. Stay tuned for more running trails - I mean trials!