Week 6-8 recap and reason number 2 - you probably don't want to run a marathon

It's been a busy week and I haven't had a recap of progress over the past few. As I am sure many of you know, or are experiencing first hand if you live in northeast US, snow has taken over with little evidence it is ready to give up it's iron grip of power. And while I was cocky last Saturday, the snow finally did me in this week. I managed only 1 run and 4.5 miles so far this week (tomorrow will be outside for the long run) and instead replaced Monday and Thursday's runs with sad depressing elliptical trainer workouts. At least I'm able to stream movies on the iPad via amazon instant video with feature titles this week of The Peacemaker starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman (not worth watching) and Pain and Gain featuing Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnston (slightly better and apparently a true story). I may have to cave next week and go to a gym for treadmill workout, especially with projected snowfalls on Sunday and Monday.

Very inspiration through 8.5 miles on the elliptical

Other than the snow, I can't complain much. I have been a little tired since donating blood last week but that could also be because I haven't taken a day off from cardio in almost 2 weeks.

This past Sunday was the Super Sunday 5 mile race and TMIRCE despite a solid effort and two ringers, we got our asses handed to us finishing in 6th place as a team, a whopping 1 hour behind first place. On a personal note, I finished in 32 minutes, 1 minute slower than last year. I can't say I am too disappointed with the finish, as it was probably about 15 degrees (celsius) colder this year and I had run 13 miles the day before. It was just fun to get out there and run all out for 5 miles. The New Bedford half marathon in March will be a much better test for how successful my training has been.

So, as I promised, another horrible reason you don't want to run marathons/train for marathons. Unlike the first reason, nipple bleeding, I have personally experience this second one, toe nail destruction. Luckily for everyone, I never kept a documentation of the toe damage I personally have experienced but am happy to say that my toes have healed (they don't always). So what kind of toe damage am I talking about? Well it usually involves some form of bleeding either caused by your toe nails cracking or a blister that is really, really bad. The worst kind of blisters are when they occur underneath your toe nail (how does that even happen???) causing your nail to lift and eventually fall off. So while I have had many toe damaging events, the worst one happened in the Jacksonville marathon, where my feet and toes were already sensitive due to running the Baystate marathon just 2 months earlier.

Jacksonville was supposed to be a good BQ (boston qualifier) location with a flat, scenic course and cool temps. It was flat and scenic but unfortunately for Dan and myself, it was far from cool. The temperature peaked at ~87F, making it extremely uncomfortable, especially after months of training in temperatures in the 30s/40s. Anyways, the heat also causes your foot to get a little sweatier than normal and meant that my feet were sliding more in my shoes than usual. After a lovely, 23 miles/37km, I heard and felt two almost simultaneous cracks, which happened to be the nail on both my big toes. Needless to say this was largely the end of my running that day as I struggled to a 3:16 marathon (slowest since my first). I am not sure I would have even finished in 3:16 if not for the motivation by another runner (who is also running Boston this year), Penny. It took almost 4 months to totally recover from the carnage, just in time for the Ottawa marathon :-)

So what was the lesson I learned in Jacksonville from snapping my toe nails?

Never run a Florida marathon. :-)

Thank you to Izabela for her generous donation! Just over 2800 to go to reach the minimum.


Below is a recap of the past 3 week. Just over 10 weeks to the marathon!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Week 6 Scheduled	5-6	7-8	Cross train	7-8	Cross train	16-18	OFF	35-40
Week 6 Actual	1.2	5.25	46min elliptical	12.6	35min elliptical	18	Stretch	37.1
Week 7 Scheduled	4-5	6-8	Cross train	8-9	Cross train	12-14	OFF	30-35
Week 7 Actual	43min elliptical	6	56min elliptical	9	40min elliptical	13	5mi race	33
Week 8 Scheduled	5-6	7-8	Cross train	8-9	Cross train	16-18	OFF	36-41
Week 8 Actual	40min elliptical	4.5 track	37min elliptical	63min elliptical	30min elliptical	18 projected	Much needed OFF