Final prep

Running: 
It’s hard to believe the Lakefront marathon is only a few days away. I think I am as ready as I can be. I really tried to take the taper period seriously this training cycle. I think in previous marathons I over trained during the taper and went in with legs not fully recovered. Any way I’ll see if this strategy helps me at the end of the race. I think I’ll be going down to the expo and packet pick up on Friday night after work. Saturday could get busy with some other things so I’d rather not take a chance and be rushed to get downtown. Right now the weather is calling for very chilly morning temperatures the day of the race. Frost warnings will likely be up even near the lake and highs should only be in the mid 50’s. This should help produce some pretty good times if this holds up. It will be interesting figuring out what to wear and I still have to decide on which shoes. Also still contemplating my race pace and strategy. I’m really leaning toward at least starting with the 3:20 pace group and adjusting as the race unfolds. I don’t want to sell myself short either if race day proves to be better than anticipated.

Last week I ran a few miles of each run at expected race pace. Most of the miles were just at a comfortable pace for the distance. I took two complete rest days. Monday was one of those rest days, the other was on Friday. Tuesday I ran 6.5 miles in the morning before work in 54:44. Wednesday I ran 5 miles during my lunch break in 37:33. Thursday was 4 miles mid day in 32:14. Saturday I ran 6.5 miles in the early morning in 51:59. Sunday I started at 7:30 am which is close to race start time and did 12 miles with 6 at race pace in 1:33:05 total time. This week will be three rest days and three run days (about 15 miles) and the race Sunday.
Totals through last week.
WTD 34
MTD 172
YTD 1741
ODO 26907

Hunting:

I still haven’t been out hunting yet. I’m starting to feel that itch now though. I’ve been practicing shooting regularly in the mornings and things have gone quite well. I have been seeing several nice deer while on my morning runs, and seeing hunters cars out in the state forest after them. After the marathon is over that is where my attention will shift. I’ve been watching a few hunting shows to get the blood flowing. I really like some of the hunting I see up in Canada. Maybe someday I will be so lucky to try it. I noticed two products I thought were interesting. The first is the airskinner. It uses air pressure to help peel the hide off of a deer. If this works it looks like it will save lots of time and make less of a mess. I’ll keep watching for reviews. This next one is a blood finding agent  product that is supposed to make blood glow. It’s actually the same product that can be used by forensic experts for crime investigation. They advertise it will even work in the rain. Several other tracking products sold at this site (trackem.biz) look interesting too.

Gardening:
This past weekend I harvested what was left of my three rows of potatoes. I ended up with a large garden cart full. I also harvested half of the sweet potatoes and beets which ended up being about a five gallon bucket full of each. Picked the last of the green beans and picked all of the squash. I have about two wheel barrows full of squash of different varieties. We dodged the frost the other night but by this weekend we are supposed to get it again. I’ll be scrambling between now and then to harvest all the pumpkins and get them covered. Looking this morning there will be about 100 or so real nice ones. Almost 100% of them have turned orange already unlike last year when half were still green at first frost. I also managed to get the entire lawn fertilized over the past couple days. It’s nice to get it done after the aeration last week and before the leaves fall in a few weeks from now. The pool is scheduled for closing this coming Thursday.

Garmin is back

Running:
The past couple weeks I have been operating without my Garmin. As long as I was running familiar routes I didn’t really need the distance, so my backup watch was OK. The power cord was not functioning properly so there was no way to charge it. I was really thinking of getting a newer model, but after finding a new cord on eBay for $20 and free shipping I decided to give it a try. I received the new cord late last week at it works perfectly. I guess I’ll just have to wait a little longer for the new model now.

I notice that another local race has gone by the wayside. This race was in Wales and I ran it last year as a tune up before Lakefront. In previous years I had run one in Mukwonago that no longer exists on the same weekend. What’s up with that? I’m trying to see if there is any other race this weekend locally worth considering. Saturday will be busy so unless it is close I don’t think any race will work. It’s too bad. It really is a confidence builder to race and have a good result and is a good fitness test.

Training this last week went pretty well. In fact my run on Saturday was as good as I’ve felt in a while. I’m trying to examine my race strategy based on the last few weeks training. Everything I see points me to about a 3:20 marathon. Last week’s Parrot predictor told me 3:22. Plugging my last 5k time into the race predictor I get 3:21. Plugging in my half marathon time from a few weeks ago I get 3:22. I think I see a pattern. I have a couple of thoughts on this right now. My first thought is to start off with the 3:20 pace group and then hopefully have enough left to leave the group sometime after 20 miles. My second thought is to run at 8MPH. I would then be slightly ahead of the group. If I kept that up through mile 24 I would have 2.2 miles left with 3 hours ticked off the clock. So still an opportunity for a good race time. The first look at the weather that far out on race day shows things to be trending slightly lower than the normal of 50 low and 70 high.

Last week I took Monday off. My weekday runs were all done during my lunch break at work. Tuesday I ran 5 miles steady pace in 38:30. Wednesday I ran 6 miles in 47:11. The first 5 steady pace and then 1 mile on the treadmill at 7:20. Thursday I ran 5 miles easy in 39:02. Friday I ran 6 miles in 45:45. The first five steady pace and then 1 mile on the treadmill in 7:20. Saturday morning it was raining heavily and this was the only time I could run that day. I jumped on the treadmill and ran 7 miles in 52:30 or 7:30 pace. Sunday was a beautiful morning. I ran two loops of my favorite course. The first 8 miles I ran fairly easy, the second loop I pushed the pace up to 7:20. It was surprising how good this run felt. This was really a confidence booster and gives me hope for a somewhat decent marathon time. For the week I finished at 44 miles which is right about where I expected. This week will likely be in the 30’s.

WTD 44 miles
MTD 138
YTD 1707
ODO 26873


Hunting:
Second year in a row I didn’t get out hunting on opening weekend. Saturday and Sunday were just too busy. I thought about just going in the back yard on Sunday afternoon, but my lawn chores ran a little late and I decided otherwise. Having the tractor out in the back so late wouldn’t have helped my cause anyway. If I needed an antlerless deer to get an earn-a-buck sticker my thinking would be a little different. The stickers I got last year are still good for this year so a little pressure is off.

Gardening:

With all the rain over the weekend I was glad to get the lawn mowing chores done on Saturday. Sunday after the Packer game and the rain stopping I was able to hook up the lawn aerator to the tractor and get the whole lawn done. The ground was nice and soft so it worked well this year. It was great timing as we got more rain Monday and Tuesday of this week. Purchased all of my fall fertilizer and will be attempting to get that spread on the lawn this week. Twice a year Steins has a good sale on Milorganite and I try to stock up when I see it. Also have a couple bags with weed and feed for a few trouble spots

20 miler

Running:
Less than three weeks to marathon day. Last week was a pretty good one for me. I was able to ramp up the miles to 63 which is a little low from where I wanted to be, but considering the shortened training period because of the injury I am happy to get there. It’s like the switch was just flipped on the weather. From hot and humid to cool and dry just like that. The days and especially mornings have been excellent. The taper period now begins. This week I hope to be solidly in the 40’s with one long run and the rest of the focus on pace and tempo style runs.

Last week I had no off days. Monday I ran in the morning 6.5 miles from home in 57:57. Tuesday was 5 miles from work in 40.15. Wednesday I ran again in the morning 8.0 miles before work in 1:3:22. Thursday was 7.5 miles during my lunch break in 57:.58. Friday was again the same 7.5 miles during lunch break in 1:2:07. Saturday I ran after the rain storms stopped and got in 8.5 miles in 1:09:48. Sunday was my big run. I ran my 20 mile country road loop in 2:45:36. I started off while it was still dark. I chose to take the iPod for this run. I didn’t use it right away, but it helped a bit during the last half of the run. Overall this tune up run went pretty well. I felt comfortable and ran fairly even pace the whole way. Looking back over my run log from last year at this time I was a full 5+ minutes faster on this same course. Another good sign for upcoming marathon.

Hunting:
Only a few days now from the bow hunting season opener. Still haven’t decided if I will go yet. This week I purchased my license and picked up 4 of the free bonus tags available for this area. I should be set with tags now. I also have two earn-a-buck stickers left from last year so I won’t have to shoot an antlerless deer first. This makes it quite a bit more exciting to get out there. I also got my stands squared away, both in the back yard and on the other property I have permission to hunt. I cleaned up quite a few limbs, branches, and brush that had overgrown sight and shooting lanes. The deer sign looks real promising.

Gardening:

So many vegetables. Everything except the brussel sprouts is either done already or available for harvest. The number and variety of squash this year is incredible. I’m really excited about a new kind called “baby blue” Hubbard. This one looks and tastes like a true Hubbard but is only a fraction of the size. The full size ones are as big as a good size pumpkin. Nice to have something much more manageable. Picked several quarts of fall raspberries. I put the plants in a couple years ago and these are the first pickings. They taste a little different than the early summer kind, but still quite a treat to have at this time of year. Had enough to make a fresh berry pie with some.