4-6 Day! 9 miles...took it "slow"

Wow...that took a little longer than I thought it would, but that's ok. I felt great when I finished and now, 4 hours later, I am good to go. Thanks in part to the fine people that discovered espresso!! And I made it at home, didn't buy it at Starbucks.....

So how slow was I? An hour and 38 minutes and two seconds. 1:38.02. That's a 10:49/mile pace. I stopped to walk a couple of times to drink my proprietary blend of Gatorade and water...ok...not an ancient Chinese secret...it's 1 part water to 1 part Gatorade. Pretty good stuff.

If anyone reading this has any tips on some good flavors for those "power gels" I would greatly appreciate it. If your mind went to a dark place, keep your comments to yourself, I already beat you to it.

Seriously, a friend gave me a tip to mix the pouch of Gu power gel (plain flavor) with water. What I have been doing is taking one of those on my long days. Well, I mixed it with water and it tasted like hell. So I added apple juice. All better!

Back to it, power gels that taste ok. Here's what I have tried:

• Chocalate fudge (too thick)
• Lemon Lime (just gross)
• Double Latte (see Lemon Lime)
• Banana Strawberry (passable)
• Plain (see above)

Thanks in advance for the help. Take care. My cross-training tomorrow? Mowing the lawn. HA!

4-4 Day...3 miles - easy...

Three miles today in 30:38...that's a little under 10:13 per mile. It was a nice pace that I probably could have continued, but one must stick to training.

More later...

4-3 Day!!! 4 miles the hard way....

I am using my Wednesday runs to liven up the pace a little. That said - 4 miles in 37:15....that's about 9:20 pace.

Like yesterday, I used my heart rate monitor to ensure that I stayed in Zone 5 for a good period of time. Tomorrow I'll ratchet it back to Zone 4 and take it easy.

4-2 Day...3 miles

Three easy miles today. Done in 29:58.

What do I mean by easy? If you run without a heart rate monitor, that means run at pace that allows you to talk while you run. If you can't because you are breathing too hard, than slow down.

Another way to do it is to find out your exercise zones and use a heart rate monitor. There are ways to guess-timate what your zones are but the best way is to do a VO2 Max test.

The VO2 Max test will determine the level of exercise at which your body uses oxygen. Check at your local running store or fitness center for help.

4-1 Day (Week 4, Day 1)...

Today is a day of rest for me so that's the plan...absolutely nothing!

The long run this coming weekend is 9 miles. That will be interesting to say the least. As I blog my progress, I'll include a link to the route that I ran so that y'all can see what I am actually doing.

Unfortunately, USATF turned off the elevation data, which would give an indication of the hills that I have. Now, I ain't running in the Rockies or anything, but there are a couple of tough ones here and there.

Either that, or I'm a wimp...

3-6 Day!!! A relaxing 5 miles...

Posting this a day late. I'm not totally OC, but I'll try to post on the day that I am talking about...

It was cool and drizzling. To me a perfect day for a run, as long as you watch your footing.

Yesterday's run took me down the usual path that I will be using for my longer runs, but allows me to tailor it for distance. And it's relatively quiet at 7am on a Saturday which is an added bonus!

I did the five miles in 52:17. That's just under a 10:30 pace... 10:27 to be exact according to this calculator I used.

Did you end up here "randomly"?

Meaning, if you didn't get here through my fundraising webpage, please visit and consider donating to my cause. Don't want to donate to mine? Let me know through the comments if you're looking for a specific cause. I'll be more than happy to help you find a cause you personally believe in...

Day 1 of the blog....Day 5 of Week 3 of training...

Here it is 3 weeks into the training program and I have something to actually talk about. I found out yesterday that I received a slot on the Run to Remember team for the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. So let the training continue and the storytelling begin!

Some background first...

My father was diagnosed with colon cancer in early spring 2005. He "moved on to the next room" as a result of this in February of 2007. In the last few weeks of his life, he had the assistance of the exceptional people at the Alliance of Community Hospices of Louisville . My family was blessed with their help and doubly fortunate in that he was able to partake in what they termed "home hospice". The thought there is that the patient is best served in their needs by being at home with the family provided that the appropriate levels of care can be provided. It wasn't too long after he started in this program that he passed, but we are glad they were there even for that short time.

What charity are you running for, Rob?

I am running for the National Hospice Foundation through their Run to Remember program. This program supports the efforts of the Foundation and also allows charity runners to commit 50% of their donations to a hospice organization of their choice. For my run, I am going to direct the 50% of the funds to the hospice group that assisted my father so well.

So what makes you think you can run a marathon???

Last year I started dabbling in some running, biking and swimming under the auspices of doing an Ironman-length triathlon by the time I am 45. Unfortunately, I allowed training to get interrupted at times and so in the spring, I took up running again, just to get off my lazy ass.

A less-than-epic performance at the JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge induced me to get back into gear for real with the running. A couple of weeks later, I find myself thinking "hmmmm...the Chicago Marathon is do-able..." Mind you, this isn't because I was training so well and consistently. Let's just chalk it up that inspiration was upon me!!!

So I did some research the next day only to find that lo! I was only 4 days away from being able to kick into Week 1 of the 18 Week Novice 1 Training program on Hal Higdon's training site. So off I went.

Let me be absolutely clear about this one - I am not out to nor am I able at this point to set any land-speed records. Gimme until next year to start getting quicker. That said, I am averaging a 10:15 mile when "running easy". As long as I can get the marathon done in less than 5 hours, I'll be satisfied.

How's it going so far?

I can't complain. I'm liking the running. I'm pleased with the routes that I have set up on the USA Track & Field site and I don't have to get up at 4am to run - yet!

Tomorrow is what I'll call 3-6 day (week 3, day 6). It's a step-back week, so I am only running 5 miles for my "long run". Shouldn't be too bad.

Are all your posts going to be this long?

Probably not. But there had to be a primer, eh?

So there it is read and (hopefully) enjoy!