July 18, 2011 Monday 33 days to go

Long run - 2 1/2 hours. This is yesterday's workout. I got up early yesterday morning but didn't leave enough time to finish run and get cleaned up before church - no problem -  would do it after church. We were just finishing lunch and I was getting ready to get into my gear when our friends the Baynes (our 94 year old buddies) showed up. We had a great visit and we ended up inviting them to stay for dinner. It was good having them here. We talked about ideas on how to spend their 66th anniversary today. They wanted to do something different so I suggested riding the chairlift to the top of Mount Washington then having dinner there at the restaurant. Alf thought it was a good idea so I will have to find out tomorrow if they went.

Alarm went off this morning at 5:00am. I got up and had some coffee and sat on the couch. I woke up 40 minutes later still sitting on the couch with my coffee. I'm not doing too well with these morning runs. One would think that after 13 weeks I would have it mastered by now. Seeing as how my window of opportunity had just shut, I went to work and got all my work done by noon. Bad timing as now the sun has come out and it is hot. It is windy too so there is some relief.

I started off on the seawalk with my ipod playing the story Prince Caspian, my metronome, my knee braces, my old Newtons, a heart rate monitor and my GPS. I also had my fuel belt with two flasks of water and 6 mini mars bars. The run started out well enough. I certainly didn't feel energetic, but my pace was around 8:00/K or less. I ran for 2 1/2 hours with 3 bathroom stops. I drank both flasks of water and refilled at the water stop at Willow Point. I ate all 6 Mars Bars. It was a slog of a run. It reminded me of the dog parts of the marathon where one just keeps putting along. I don't know how much the wind and the sun influenced how I felt. I walked another 10 minutes and was glad that it was over. My knees felt fine, but my toes were really sore. I am beginning to wonder if my Newtons are the right shoes for the marathon. Talked to Jerry about it tonight. Might try a run in my old Mizunos that I wore for my last marathon.

Weight: 149.5 (Got into Becky's sweet chocolate squares last night.)

July 17, 2011 Sunday 34 days to go

As I didn't get my long run in I did 45 minutes of core exercises. I used the program that Dave used to use for his Nordic ski team. I will do these every rest day and may try to increase even more than that. I noticed on runs that as I tire I start to bend over. Then I remember and run upright with a bit of a lean and feel much better. I only see benefit coming from doing these exercises.

Weight: 149 (I need to get Becky to hide her baking again!)