Thunderupdate: 05 in '07

[As promised...]



[Which reminds me - few things have made me prouder than learning that the Spike gained a reader when the young man (I presume it was a man) Googled the phrase "rocky and apollo running all gay on the beach."]

[Spikeditors note: BT has foolishly vowed to complete 6 half marathons during 2007.]

First of all, my apologies to those readers who are enjoying Dave Law's real estate blog.

Well, I haven't done the best job of updating the fans of my running, but rest assured I'm still plugging away. The first thing to mention is the change in the title. Unfortunately, my quest for 06 in '07 is not to be. I've scaled back to 05 in '07, which admittedly doesn't quite have the charm of its predecessor. The change has nothing to do with lack of drive or commitment to achieving my original goals. Simply put, there is not an available half marathon every weekend (without flying all over the country), and the scheduling doesn't work to get 6 in with realistic down time between races. So I've scaled back to 05 in '07, with the caveat that I will do 06 in 12 months by having the early February San Francisco half be my first and last race of my running year.

Which brings me to my current status: the first half marathon is this Sunday (rough map of the course via the very handy Gmaps Pedometer is here). It seems to be a very flat course, which is good news for me. I think I'm ready to go.

The training has gone pretty well. Very few missed runs, and noticeable improvement literally every week. I know that my speed is improving a bit (though I'm still extremely slow comparatively - I'd say the ratio of runners that pass me to runners that I pass is 12:1, literally). Perhaps the best sign is that on Sunday I ran 7.9 miles, and it wasn't all that difficult. The legs never got too tired (nor sore the next day) and I wasn't completely drained at the end. Unthinkable a mere month or two ago.

Training notes:

Longest run - 10.4 miles. There are different schools of thought on how long to run in preparation for half marathons. Most novice programs top out at 10. In the past, I've topped out as low as 9 and run the race without dying, so I'm not too worried. However, as I continue to progress, I'm going to build my long runs into the 12-15 mile zone, so that the race itself is more about my time, rather than just finishing. That said, the stated goal for my first race was to finish comfortably. And I think I should.

Weight - Still very high. Throughout November and December, when I started training, I ate whatever I felt like. I did my usual holiday gorging, and on January 1, I stepped on the scale. When the shock wore off, I got down to being more serious about eating. No real gimmicks, just trying to stay below 2,000 calories a day, while eating a fair amount of vegetables and avoiding too much white flour and sugar. I'm happy to say that its working. As of last Friday, I'm down 10.5 lbs from January 1. However, while this sounds like a good accomplishment, its not all that impressive. My weight on January 1 was my heaviest ever. It was like I was just saturated. So the first few pounds just flew off as a result of eating like a human being. However, I'm hoping to continue losing on a slow and steady basis. My goal is to lose 48 more lbs. Wow. I'm fat.

Injuries - In my last Thunderupdate, I said this: "during sunday's run, I tweaked my right calf, though it seems to be fine now. Let's hope it doesn't linger." Well, it has done just that - lingered. It never was bad enough to make me stop running, but it hasn't felt normal normal either. I've been doing some extra stretching of it throughout the day, which seems to help. I don't foresee it being too much of a problem.

Outlook - I'm right about where I hoped to be at this point. I'm going to finish the run, though it will be tough. I will be embarrassed by my time, but that's ok. In the coming months, I'm going to continue to lose weight, but I'm also going to increase the intensity of my training. I'm going to start running four days a week, and upping my mileage. I will also include some interval training and hills, which should increase my speed.

Here's a handy chart:

Miles per week: January - 15+, Upcoming months - about 19-25

Miles per month: January - 68.6, Upcoming months - 85-110

Days running: January - 3 per week, Upcoming months - 4+ per week

Average miles per run: January - 5.7, Upcoming months - 5-6.5




My Prediction: Big Thunder rolls across the finish line this Sunday in 2:16.