Keep Moving Forward: A Training Log (Comments Welcome)

[lhermiston]

New year, new goals and all that jazz. I've never done a training journal before, but since I know my race schedule in advance and have a gigantic goal one year away, I figured this could be fun, useful and maybe entertaining and informative. Maybe?

About me: husband, father, journalist and amateur photographer. The 2017 Walt Disney World Marathon was my first marathon and, in October, I ran the Lakefront Marathon in Wisconsin.

Training: First two marathons were run using the training guide in "The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer" a book written by some professors at the University of Northern Iowa that I highly recommend for first-time marathoners. Speed training this winter has been courtesy of @DopeyBadger.

Goals:

- Complete the CRANDIC Marathon on April 29, 2018 (marathon No. 3) - ACHIEVED
- Complete the Bix 7 in July 2019 (Bix No. 4)
- Complete some distance of the Iowa City Run for the Schools in October (5K, 10K or half, tbd)
- Train for and complete the Dopey Challenge in January 2019
- Achieve a 4-hour marathon time. PR is 4:22. - ACHIEVED - new PR: 3:47
- Listen to my body and remain injury-free.
- Run 1,000 miles in 2018

I'll try to post at least weekly. If I can get it figured out, I'll post some of my Disney and travel photography to mix things up a little bit (if anyone can help me figure out how to post from flickr, that'd be much appreciated!). Comments, advice, feedback, questions, etc. are all welcome.

 

[xjillianpaige]

Welcome! Excited to follow your journal! I studied journalism but ended up going back to school for social work, a few of my friends remain in the sports journalism field, however.

I believe that you can embed your Flickr photos into posts. If you click the image that looks like a landscape (it's to the right of the emoji button) that should let you put in a link to a photo, which will post the photo!

 

[lhermiston]

Welcome! Excited to follow your journal! I studied journalism but ended up going back to school for social work, a few of my friends remain in the sports journalism field, however.

I believe that you can embed your Flickr photos into posts. If you click the image that looks like a landscape (it's to the right of the emoji button) that should let you put in a link to a photo, which will post the photo!

Thanks for the tip!

I minored in sports studies in college and had hoped for a career in sports journalism, but have been covering public safety for more than a decade now. Totally different from covering sports, but I love it.

 

[lhermiston]

Okay, now can anyone tell me why the image isn't loading? ha ha. I'm not so tech savvy!

 

[lhermiston]

Door HDR[/url] by Lee Hermiston, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[lhermiston]

Door HDR[/url] by Lee Hermiston, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[lhermiston]

Looks like I'm still not getting it! ha ha.

 

[lhermiston]

I've tried posting photos and have gotten errors each time. And now it looks like Dis is automatically deleting my erroneous posts.

 

[lhermiston]

Dragging and dropping compressed images seems to work! Here's me at the 2017 marathon.

 

[lhermiston]

Got in 12 miles today. According to my plan it was to be 1 mile WU + 5 miles @ M Tempo (9:15/mile) + 1 mile WU + 5 miles @ M Tempo.

Actual pace: 9:02/mile for a time of 1:48:26 (P.S., You can follow me on Strava, if you'd like!)

So, today was the first day this year that temperatures were above single digits and it felt AWESOME. It was a bit overcast and a little chilly, but by the time I hit Mile 2 I was feeling awesome. I think the actual temperature was around 28.

My knee felt a little wonky during the first warmup mile but I hit my stride after that. The first five miles were a breeze and considerably under my goal pace. I really should be sticking closer to the goal place and I'm working on going slower for the sake of training, but it's hard when it's nice out and you're feeling good. I am working on getting away from the "PR every training run" mentality.

After the second warm up mile my temperature dropped a bit (I had worked up a decent sweat and wasn't maintaining my body heat while running slower), but I think I recovered nicely for the next several miles and got back into a good stride.

The last two miles were not awesome. I got new shoes two weeks ago and ... I'm not a fan. I'm normally a New Balance guy and the guy at the running store talked me into trying a pair of Hokas. I figured it couldn't hurt since I've had foot problems in the past and those are supposed to provide the most cushion. These certainly have more cushion, but they are designed to make me come down on my toes and I've decided I don't like anything that "forces" me to change my stride. The bigger issue is the tongues on the shoes have a piece of stiff plastic and I noticed during the last mile of my run on Tuesday that it was digging into my left ankle. It did enough damage that I skipped Wednesday's run. On Friday, I did 5.5 and managed to keep the tongue out of the way and everything was fine. Friday's four miles went well also. But today, starting around mile 10 or so, I could feel some ankle pain. Eventually, both ankles were hurting and I was stopping periodically to try to readjust the tongues. At this point, I'm a little worried the damage is done, but I'm hopeful I can get back out for my next scheduled run on Tuesday.

So, I DO NOT recommend Hokas. I'm hopeful I ran remove the plastic, but it's glued on. I'm definitely going to write the company and advise them of the issue. Next pair of shoes - either in the next couple weeks or in a few months if I can get this straightened out - will be New Balance.

Total miles this week: 27.5

 

[run.minnie.miles]

Excited to follow along- looks like you’ve got a big year ahead!

 

[SarahDisney]

Hey! I'm glad you started this journal and I'm excited to follow along as you work towards your goals.

In terms of Flickr ... if you click on the picture you want to share, then click on the 'share photo' arrow (for me it's the one between edit and download, but I don't know if it's always like that), then click BBCode on the top of the window that pops up, it'll give you a piece of code that you can just paste into the DIS (if you want to get super fancy and not link back to the original post or have a caption, you can take out everything except the stuff between '[ img ]' and '[ /img ]' - that 'img' tag and the url inside it is what actually puts the photo in there)

Above single digits is nice. We're actually getting above freezing by me tomorrow and I'm so excited. These low temperatures are so rough for training.
Sorry to hear the Hokas didn't work out for you - I've heard good things about them, but I guess they're not for everyone. Like you, I'm a New Balance person, so I definitely understand wanting to go back to NB!

 

[lhermiston]

Hey! I'm glad you started this journal and I'm excited to follow along as you work towards your goals.

In terms of Flickr ... if you click on the picture you want to share, then click on the 'share photo' arrow (for me it's the one between edit and download, but I don't know if it's always like that), then click BBCode on the top of the window that pops up, it'll give you a piece of code that you can just paste into the DIS (if you want to get super fancy and not link back to the original post or have a caption, you can take out everything except the stuff between '[ img ]' and '[ /img ]' - that 'img' tag and the url inside it is what actually puts the photo in there)

Above single digits is nice. We're actually getting above freezing by me tomorrow and I'm so excited. These low temperatures are so rough for training.
Sorry to hear the Hokas didn't work out for you - I've heard good things about them, but I guess they're not for everyone. Like you, I'm a New Balance person, so I definitely understand wanting to go back to NB!

Thanks for the tip! I’ll give that a whirl.

 

[lhermiston]

Sunset HDR by Lee Hermiston, on Flickr

Hey! There we go!

Sunset on Lake Michigan in Door County. Honestly can't remember if this a true HDR or if I slapped an HDR filter on in post. Either way, enjoy!

 

[lhermiston]

ADRIAN!

I did my best Rock IV impersonation this afternoon and trained in the snow. It wasn't intentional. I got to the track and it was still covered in 2-3 inches of snow. Well, actually, I wish it was covered. It had been used some and the footprints had frozen and hardened, so it felt like running on a really poorly maintained dirt road.

But, the weather wasn't too and that made it much more tolerable. So, there's your silver lining.

Anyway, started off with about a 1.3 mile warm up from my house to the track. The actual workout was 5x1000 with 1/4 mile slower intervals in between. I didn't track my splits because there was seriously no point. Snow = no traction = no speed.

My ankles were a little sore yesterday and I iced them last night with my trusty bags of frozen kale - the one thing in our freezer I know won't get accidentally eaten. My shoes didn't give me as much trouble today as they did on Sunday, but I also had opportunities to adjust the tongue between intervals. I wrote Hoka yesterday and haven't heard back. I'm really not expecting anything, but I'm not going to modify the shoes just yet in the event they offer some kind of refund. My next plan is to try to use a couple safety pins to try to hold the tongue in place.

All in all, it was a good run and a good workout. Any runners from the Soviet Union better watch themselves.

Distance: 7.3 miles
Pace: 9:10/mile

 

[lhermiston]

Easy peasy 5.5 miles today. It was around 47 degrees this afternoon when I went for my run, which meant the streets and sidewalks were wet and slushy, but it was also considerably more comfortable than any other run this week. I took it pretty easy and just enjoyed feeling the cool, crisp air.

Also, the snow finally appears to be melting off the track, which should make segments of Friday's work out MUCH more enjoyable.

Distance: 5.5 miles
Avg. Pace: 9:26/mile
Time: 52:00

 

[Baloo in MI]

Sorry to hear the Hokas did not work out. I have been transitioning from Brooks to Hokas and I really like them. But running shoes are such an individual thing. Anyway, I hope Hoka does respond. Looking forward to following along!

 

[lhermiston]

Sorry to hear the Hokas did not work out. I have been transitioning from Brooks to Hokas and I really like them. But running shoes are such an individual thing. Anyway, I hope Hoka does respond. Looking forward to following along!

I heard back yesterday, but the response amounted to, “we get a ton of emails during the holidays and assume this has been addressed by now. If not, call this number.” I called and apparently Hoka is owned by Ugg? Either way, I didn’t feel like messing with it.

The good news - for yesterday, anyway - is I wore the shoes a little looser yesterday and didn’t have any problems.

 

[lhermiston]

After a couple of nice (for Iowa winter) days this week, the temperatures plummeted yesterday. We got some sleet, too. This afternoon's run was about 16 degrees. The good news is it's good cold acclimation training for marathon weekend next year

Really, though, this weather isn't *that* bad, provided you keep moving. I'm wearing lots of layers, including the new running hoodie that my wife got me for Christmas. I adore it. If anyone is interested, I'll post the Amazon link.

Today's run included a 1 mile warm up, 3 miles running at a goal pace of 8:15/mile, 4x200m with 200m resting intervals and a 1.5 mile cool down.

Pace-wise, I was all over the place. After a 9:47 warm up, I had a 8:39 first mile and followed that up with a 7:55 mile. My third mile was 8:30. Sleet covered sidewalks definitely played a roll, but so did gravity. Definitely ran my fastest mile on a portion that was more flat/downhill than flat/uphill.

Anyway, it was one of those days that I had to talk myself into running with the temperatures being so cold. As per usual, I was glad I got out there, but I'll be much happier when temperatures are consistently in the 20s or above. Two more runs this weekend in the single digits or teens, but a week from now could hit the 30s and 40s so I'll just have to gut it out.

Total distance: 6.5 miles
Time: 57:22
Avg. Pace: 8:49/mile

 

[run.minnie.miles]

I didn’t realize you lived in the Midwest- I border you to the west! You are brave to run outside in this cold! Way to go! I quickly default to my treadmill.