This weekend’s update is certainly a few days late, my apologies. Saturday was a short run of 12 miles to let the body recover from the previous weeks. It was not a great run for me although I still managed a very goo time. I recorded a time of 1:31:47 which is a 7:38 average mile. It was a little too fast, certainly much faster than my projected marathon pace, maybe because we knew it was a shorter run than what we had done before? I kept up with Glenn for about 9 miles and then he kicked it up a notch to chase down another runner. I was a little bummed out when I could not keep the pace up but when I noticed my time I could not complain.

This coming saturday we step it up a notch and go for 17 miles. One good thing is that SRC has moved up the Saturday morning run to 7:00am instead of 6:30, that extra half an hour of sleep will be nice to have. On other related news, over the weekend we caught the opening of a large sports store, Sport Chalet, so we went in to check it out. Most athletic gear had a 25% discount so thanks to Sarah’s influence I signed my contract with Adidas — in the form of a credit card receipt — and now I own a long sleeve running shirt, as well as a pair of running shorts. Sarah wanted to throw in the matching hat to complete the outfit but that is where I draw the line!

On other related running news, we officially signed up for the PF Chang’s Rock N Roll Marathon over the weekend. Again, if you would like to come out for a weekend of fun, music, and great weather then you know were to find us.

The course map for the 2006 PF Chang’s Rock ‘N’ Roll marathon and half-marathon race has been released to the public. The race website also has a video of last year’s route, sort of like a virtual tour of the race, in case you want to check it out.

Today’s long run was 15 miles, one more than last week, and also Bob came back to join the group. I had the usual muffin and juice at home but more important we stayed home last night so I felt good about today’s run. Five of use went out together but at about the 4.5 mile I had to make a pit stop — the body works in mysterious ways and I am glad they are doing some construction work in that part of the canal.

I ran on my own until the turn around point, my task was to try to catch up with the group I went out with but I knew it was going to be a hard task. I didn’t quite catch them but at the turn around point there was about a 400 yard difference between us. I was close enough since I knew they were going to pick up their pace, something I had done already while trying to catch up to them.

So I ran the 7.5 miles back to SRC mostly by myself although the canal was busy with walkers and other runners. Even a race was getting setup (not sure what race it was) but we managed to get through before they got started. I ran a time of 1:57:31 (7:50 avg. mile) which is an improvement over last week’s performance. Next week we scale back to 12 miles before bumping it up once again to 17 miles on Nov. 9th.

We increased the milage once again after our 10 mile run from last week, this time we were going for 14 miles. This is the longest distance I have ran at one time so I am learning how my body reacts to it. The same will apply for the next few weeks as we move onto 15, 17, 18 and 20 miles over the next few weeks. These runs are become critical as I try to decide on a pace for the actual race.

Today a group of 3 of us (Glenn and another one of the regular guys) went out to the halfway point in 57 minutes flat. My final time was 1:54:07 with a final mile of 7:39. The average pace was 8:09 minute miles which is still within my range. Next week expect the 15 mile update where I would like to improve my average to 8 minute miles.

Today, the group took a small break in our training after building up for these last few weeks and ran a 10 mile loop. It makes quite a difference in the mental aspect knowing that we have ran this distance three times already. We ran a 1:19:34 (7:57 mile average) with our last mile taking 7:30 – not too shabby!

In my entry about last week I mentioned the fact that I was running injury free up to this point. During our tuesday run, Glenn and I were also discussing our injuries and I told him I felt surprisingly good. I think I might have spoken too soon. After that run, I felt some tightness right above my left ankle but I didn’t think much of it. I experienced some soreness on Wednesday morning and that evening during our indoor game I could not stretch that part of my leg. Finally, during the thursday run I had some pain in the area during my last mile or so, to the point where it was affecting my form. A little scary.

I was a little worried about this morning’s run and I was hoping to talk to the physical therapist which usually attends on saturday. I am not sure if it was running with the group or what but my leg felt much better than thursday evening, a little sore during the day but not with the pain that I felt then. I am going to give it a couple more days but I don’t think it is anything serious.