Finished the Salt Lake City Marathon!
The official time was 4 hours and 13 minutes! I’m happy about it but you probably know my goal was to do it in less than 4 hours…
I think the main reason I didn’t complete my goal was that I started too fast. For the first 7 miles I was doing like 8 minute miles. My goal pace was like 8:45 minute miles. I guess I learned my lesson.
Click here for pace, heart rate, and elevation charts.
Another thing that affected me was the weird pain I was experiencing on my knee throughout my training. I think my pain this year was runners knee, based on what I’ve read online. Because of this I did not complete the toughest week of my training and did not run much for the 3 weeks after that and then it was time for the marathon.
Another thing that could have affected me was that I took more ibuprofen than ever. I took the usuall 400mg an hour before the race and I was feeling a tiny bit of pain on my knee at mile 7 so I took another 400mg just in case. I read online that ibuprofen can hinder muscle recovery, not sure how much this aided in the cramps I experienced.
As you can see on the pace chart (the blue chart), I was doing really good for half of the marathon. At mile 14 I started feeling a cramp was going to come so I lowered my pace to 9 minute miles. And then at mile 17 my right hamstring cramped, it was a serious cramp, those really painful ones. I walked for a couple of minutes and it went away.
At that point I realized I was screwed but I did the math and realized that if I stayed at a 10 or 10:30 minute mile pace I would still finish in 4 hours. So I ran at a 10 min mile pace and at mile 18.5 the same hamstring paid me another painful visit. I walked for a while until it was gone.
I knew this 10 minute mile thing was not going to work so I did 10:30 minute miles, that took me all the way to mile 21 where my right calf cramped big time.
At that point I realized a 4 hour marathon was not possible. I was just going to do the “run walk” which is how my friends and I call running as slow as possible but it is still considered running. It’s like a 12 min mile pace, maybe 13.
Well, as you can see on the blue pace chart, after the three first cramps I had 7 more which I just walked through and then did the run walk. I had several cramps in both my calves and hamstrings. And my right quadricep. I’m proud of my left quad, it’s the only one that did not fail me!
I saw people stop when they cramped and I cheered them to keep going and told them I was also in pain and that we were really close to the finish line.
One of the people I cheered was a girl that looked like she was 15. She and her dad found me at the finish line and thanked me for the cheer, she said it meant a lot to her. I guess she was really thinking of bailing out. It was at about mile 22 where I saw her stretching her hamstring on a fire hydrate.
The marathon was fun. The weather was perfect and it went through streets with old, tall trees. I even enjoyed the painful parts, it helps me know my limits.
Here’s a video of me crossing the finish line. I’m giving it all and fighting some cramps. If you look at the end of it you’ll notice I was totally cramping out when I crossed the finish line. I think it was my left calf and right hamstring that were saying hello there.
Home improvements of this weekend (hung first frames on walls)
We hung the first two frames on our walls! It was about time, we’ve been living in our new home for a year and a half now.
The first one we hung was my brother’s artwork he made specially for me and Carol. It matches our house beautifully:
Our dining room is now close to being done. We just need to hang some stuff on the wall to the right and Carol wants to change the lamp.
Carol found this great pattern that she wanted to frame for our Master bathroom. Since it is right next to the shower, things get really humid so we could not hang really nice artwork there. It’s wall vinyl, but it looks like cloth:
Our bathroom is finally finished! Well, now that I write this I realized we still need to make the “throne” (toilet) room nicer. There’s nothing there besides the four walls and the throne. House work is never over…
I also assembled the last of the two chairs we ordered for our Studio. The first one arrived about a month ago and Carol assembled it and tried it out just to make sure it was a good purchase:
And one more thing: I also did the first yard work of the year! Aerated the grass and applied fertilizer + weed killer. I hope it’s looking green soon!
8 days to the marathon!
I lowered my training mileage significantly 2 weeks ago after my knee started having a new and consistent pain when hitting higher mileage.
2 weeks ago I was certain my goal of a 4 hour marathon was going to be achievable. I’m not so sure about this now. Achieving this goal will be hard. I’m already preparing myself for the the worst but at the same time trying to stay positive and think that maybe there will be no pain at all and the marathon will be a piece of cake… that I’ll be able to go through al 26.2 miles feeling happy, being patient, and above all, under a 9 minute mile pace at all times (not counting steep hills).
On saturday I ran 13 miles, I took 400mg of Ibuprofen 1 hour before the run and my knee did not bother me at all when running. But the next day my knee was in pain and I felt like my healing process was hindered when I went up and down stairs; it would hurt.
I ran 8 miles yesterday (wednesday) with no Ibuprofen and my knee did not bother much when running. It’s feeling a bit sore today but I can climb stairs without feeling I’m injuring the healing process; pretty much no pain.
So on marathon day I will take again 400mg of Ibuprofen and I will make sure my knee is healed up before the race. This means this coming week I won’t train much. I might run 6 miles total. With 4 being monday or tuesday.
I look at my heart rate a lot when I run and use these 3 levels as guides assuming I’m running about 10 miles.
150-155 beats per minute: I feel like the run is a walk in the park. I don’t even pay attention to my breathing. Pace is around 9 minutes per mile.
155-160: I’m getting a good workout. My breathing is fast but I could still miss a couple of breaths and would be fine. I usually fall into an in in oooout, in in ooout breathing mode. Pace is around 8:30 minute miles.
160-165: I’m going hard. Every breath counts. I’m in iiin ooout, iiiin ooout mode. But I can still finish my workout ok (assuming it is about 10 miles). Pace is around 8 minute miles.
So this is my marathon plan: The race starts at 7am. So I’ll take 400mg of ibuprofen at 6am with a 350 calorie ensure. I’ll have another 350 calorie ensure when I wake up. Running a marathon takes like 2600 calories from you. There is no way in hell I can carry or eat enough when running to make up for that but I’ll carry some Gu’s (I’m thinking 4 or 5; 100 calories each) with me and make sure I eat bananas at the aid stations.
For hydration, I typically do one cup of gatorade and one cup of water. There are 16 aid stations on this marathon so I might not do this on all of them; but I will on most.
Heart rate wise I’ll keep it in the 153-158 range for the first 18 miles. Depending on how I feel I might adjust there.
I’ll carry another 400mg of Ibuprofen with me just in case. But if I need these it means I’m seriously hurting my knee so I might decide to give up on my goal of a 4 hour marathon.
So those are only a few things we marathoners worry about (and plan for) but I don’t want to bore you with all of them. Figuring out when to poop is critical and you can’t fully control it, what to eat the days before, which of your shoes to wear, how will you be carrying your stuff during the run, etc….
Wish me luck!
Yakima Rack on Nissan Rogue!
Now that fair weather is around the corner it was time to figure out how to get bikes on our Rogue.
I purchased the Nissan crossbars and Yakima Universal MightyMounts to fit my KingCobra racks. I just put one up for now but I bought enough MigtyMounts for another one.
I got the Nissan crossbars, as opposed to the longer Yakima ones, because I eyeballed you could fit 3 bike racks on it; even though the Yakima website said you could only fit 2. I’m happy to report that my estimate was correct. You might have to place the outmost MightyMounts on top of the chubbier piece of the crossbar (where you see the black “maximum roof load of 100lbs” sticker), but the MightyMounts are so versatile that it should not be a problem.
I was also happy that the standard lock system I already had worked on the new MightyMounts:
I have 3 KingCobras and the lock system only fits 2 of them (the ones I bought first, the newer one has a skinnier hole). After I had set up everything up I noticed I used the KingCobra where the lock system does not fit, go figure. But I’m not switching racks now!
Anika’s closet is finished!
When we bought our house we decided we wanted to customize the closets ourselves. We told the builders to not do anything inside the closets but they said that was not an option (weird) so we asked for the simplest closets because we knew we were going to take them down.
Anika’s closet is the last one we had to customize in the house. We really wanted to put some drawers in it but we noticed they had to be narrow or they would not be able to open because of the sliding doors. Luckily Ikea had an option for us.
And between the two Ikea frames that have the drawers on them we placed the common Billy Ikea book shelve. You can’t see it on the pictures but it is behind the column that’s between the two sets of sliding doors.
On the sliding doors where there are no drawers, we just left the simple closet rods with their original shelve on top of it. It sounds simple but cutting the shelve and rods, and holding them from the Ikea frames took me a while.
We’re happy with the way things ended up. But I’m really not surprised since Carol had Autocaded it before we started the project. She’s the one that figures out what furniture we need to get and where to place it. I really just set them up and figure out the little details on how to make it happen.
Here are some pics that show the process:
Anika might be born in a week or two!
On our last visit to the doctor, he gave us the news that Anika might be born a week or two from today; as opposed to in 4 weeks like expected. But everything is normal, Anika has been inside Carol’s belly for 36 weeks now and if she comes out at week 37, it is already considered full term.
With these news we realized we need to be ready for the delivery and we were slacking. So today I assembled the stroller and figured out how to put the car seat.
The stroller and car seat work together as a “travel system”. Meaning the package came with the car seat base to leave on the car all the time, the stroller, and the car seat that can be latched to the car seat base or the stroller.
Once Anika is older, the stroller can be used without the car seat on it. For you guys that already have kids, these were no news for you. But I didn’t know about these things until a month or two ago. I think it’s pretty cool that the baby can stay in the seat and you can move her from the car to the stroller or simply carry the seat around by its handle.
Our Nissan Rogue has the child LATCH system so getting the seat’s base in the car is super easy.
I also worked on Anika’s closet (it’s almost done!) and carol is thinking hard about what we need to take to the hospital and what things are missing for the first weeks after the delivery.
Here are some pics of the “travel system”:
St. Patrick’s Day 5K – 21 mins!
Celeste and I ran the St. Patrick’s Day 5K yesterday. We were lucky the weather changed and it wasn’t raining. It was a bit chilly but great for running. I ran in shorts, light t-shirt, and my running gloves; the layering was just right.
I ate a little bit one hour before the race thinking it was going to help me, but it didn’t. I felt like puking after the first mile. But that didn’t stop me, I figured I only had 2 miles more to go.
The first half of the race I had a 13 year old girl running ahead of me! She finished just 1 or two minutes after me, hard core. She was tiny, long blond curly hair, and thick glasses.
I finished the race in 21 minutes 29 seconds. It’s the fastest 5K I’ve ran. I got third place in my age group. And celeste got 2nd place in hers! The Neumont Runners are on fire!
Thanks Greg for taking pictures! And for holding our stuff as we were running =). Next time I need to grab the camera and include you in the pics.
Once the race was over, Cody showed up and we went to Rumrz to have a couple of beers to celebrate St. Patty’s. Carol joined us there for a bit a little later. It was a really fun race.
The key to the universe is Pi
Neumont is holding a Pi sign and costume contest today! Check out my sign:
And the best part is we’re taking the signs and costumes to the street! You heard right, the party will be around noon at 10600 S and River Front Parkway.
Baby status: 33/40 weeks!
The birth is near! If you’re around Carol make sure you know how to get to the Jordan Valley Medical Center! I meant that as a joke but now that I think about if you see Carol frequently why not take a look at this map.
We now see Anika dance making Carol’s belly wobble like jello. She sometimes stretches her legs like she wants to break free from the bubble. At night, she wakes Carol if she is being squished and when we’re watching a movie she kicks on the action scenes where the volume gets high. It’s cool for me because the stretches don’t hurt me, make me want to pee, or make me nauseous like they do Carol.
Seeing all that movement does make me think that Anika will want to poke her head out soon. I feel very lucky that things have been going normal for us and hope it continues that way throughout. Good vibes and prayers are welcomed =).
Here are some pics of the ever-growing belly:
New marathon training schedule
With the marathon only 10 weeks away, I figured it was time to get serious.
I had been following a training schedule that was not prepared specifically for me so I was being really flexible. And I was in the mindset of running only 2 times a week with one day of swimming.
But after reading a bit about marathon training, I noticed all training programs say that in order to improve you have to run at least 3 times a week. And right now I feel I’ve been training too close to just barely meeting my goal of a 4hr marathon.
So I revamped the schedule and customized it for me. Check it out here. This fits perfect with my weekly wednesday swim that I do with friends. I took a lot of ideas from Hal Higdon’s training guide. He recommended the swim to be a day after the long run (monday). But I didn’t want to ask my friends to change the day we go swimming, plus I feel unusually tired after work on Mondays.
And don’t think I’m just counting the weeks and days for the marathon. My baby girl will be born around that time too and I’m extremely excited about that! But prepping for the baby to come is less demanding than training for the marathon. At least for me, not for Carol that is carrying 25 extra pounds right now!
