David Taylor Gonzales

8/28

It’s Thursday. It’s rest day. I feel really good going into this weekend. Often on my rest days I find myself “cheating” in small ways: doing pull-ups in the garage, jogging lightly during my lunch break walk, etc. Today I really took it easy. In fact, it was a borderline lazy day. I took 3,800 steps. I didn’t walk on my lunch break. I didn’t run. I stayed out of the garage. I’m proud of giving myself a true rest day even if it felt strange to do so. My mental and physical preparedness for Saturday’s long run should be pretty high.

Like I said in my last blog, I am making nutrition and fueling a bigger part of my training to simulate race day conditions. I went to Fleet Feet to buy Gu Gels for the first time. They had really weird flavors for sale but I wasn’t brave enough to try them. I can’t imagine choking down anything chocolate flavored in the middle of the race. I went with strawberry banana. This Saturday I’ll be using the gels at the 40 minute 80 minute, and 120 minute mark of the run. I’ll monitor my stomach throughout the run. I’ve mixed in some marathon pace intervals into this long run which are totally optional for me depending on how I feel. I’ll be running around Table Rock Lake area (Indian Point) so I may just do easy miles if the route is weird or more difficult than expected.

8/29

I ran 2.4 miles just to shake out the legs in preparation tomorrow. We drove down to Branson after work. The traffic was insane so it took a little longer than an hour to get to the condo. We got the kids down to bed around 8:30 and I was right behind them. According to my watch I was asleep by 9:30. My father in law offered to drive me to a neighborhood with a nice 1.4 mile loop for me to run tomorrow. I feel bad that he’ll be waking up early with me but according to him, “old men don’t sleep.”

8/30

I woke up at five. Based on my previous long runs, I’ve found that I can perform well as long as I finish eating 45 minutes before I start. I got my overnight oats down by 5:15 and started stretching and waking up. I put the Gu Gels in my inner short pocket and I was impressed by how unnoticeable they felt against my thigh. That was a good sign.

I started the run just before six. The route Brian showed me had rolling hills with a short, steep climb at the halfway point. On my first lap I felt really strong. I enjoyed the hills, something I don’t get to experience in my neighborhood back home.

Lap two was rough. Not sure why. I was feeling uneasy in my stomach. There was a dark moment in the first 30 minutes where I wasn’t sure I’d finish the run. I kept the pace slow to see if I could work through it. It subsided by the three mile mark but it became clear to me that running two three mile intervals at marathon pace wasn’t going to be realistic. I thought to myself, “if you keep these next eight miles easy, truly easy, you can run the last three at marathon pace if you’re up for it.”

My plan going into this run was to begin fueling starting at the 40 minute mark. When I crossed that threshold, I tore open the Gu Gel, gulped down about half of it and as the liquid hit the back of my throat, I realized I made a massive mistake. I couldn’t stand the flavor. I forced myself to finish the gel but I was very nervous about how I’d fare the rest of the run if my main fuel source was going to be unusable. Heads up for those of you who haven’t tried Gu gels: they aren’t as “liquidy” as I expected them to be. I found them tough to swallow because of the thickness which is especially difficult if you’re dehydrated. If you want a soft gel that goes down similar to a liquid, Gu isn’t it. And that’s to say nothing of the flavor, which I really disliked. The strawberry banana flavor tasted like sugary medicine. The nutrition facts say that only 7 of the 23g of carbohydrates come from sugar but it tastes like all sugar.

I passed an elderly couple on mile ten, they asked how far I was running. I grinned and said, “fourteen miles” and instead of the usual gasp and horrified reaction I sometimes get from people on these long runs, the woman exclaimed, “Oh! To be young again!” Her reaction made me laugh. Something about what she said gave me juice for the last miles. It was a nice reminder of what I’m thankful for.

Mile eleven started and I picked up the pace. The quads felt great when I stretched them out and quickened my cadence. I looked down at my watch after the first quarter mile. Current pace: 8:05. A full minute faster than my marathon goal pace. I frowned and throttled back down to 8:45. Even on tired legs I wanted to go faster. Something in my brain was telling me I had more to give. I told myself that if I still felt that way at the very end I’d turn it loose for the last half mile. And that’s exactly what we did. I found a guy ahead of me on the road running at a pretty quick pace, visibly faster than me. I turned on the jets going into a long steady uphill. He was visible as I crested but still a good tenth of a mile ahead. I managed to pass him after a quarter mile or so. I turned around and easy jogged back to the truck to finish the run. Total stats: 14.06 miles, 9:51 average pace, average HR 136 BPM.

This is probably the best I’ve felt after a run of similar length. I’m fatigued but my fitness has noticeably improved based on how I’m feeling right now.

8/30

John woke up around 5:30 this morning and I wasn’t able to get back to sleep until six. Once I did, I was able to sleep until eight which I was very thankful for. I still need to rest and fully recover from the miles so I’m going to do Lane’s mobility workout after lunch and some light bodyweight exercises since we’re not in Springfield and I don’t have access to gym equipment down here.

Turns out I’m not very mobile. That was a pretty difficult fifteen minutes. My TFL and IT band are really tight. I’m glad I did the workout because it showed I have a lot of weak spots in terms of flexibility and strength in my legs. They are probably limiting factors in my running so it’s worth considering adding some of these exercises to my weight training sessions as a cool down. I did decline push-ups, Bulgarian split-squats, lunges, single-leg calf raises, and straight leg dead lifts (just to stretch out the hamstrings). It wasn’t a structured workout, just trying to keep the blood flowing today. I have a five mile hill sprint workout tomorrow. I have to take advantage of the hills when I’m out of town like this. It’s an easy thing to neglect when I’m in Springfield.

8/31

I slept in today. It’s been hard to wake up early with the kids recently and I didn’t get to bed until later than I wanted to anyway. John woke up at four again so I had to put him back to sleep. I am looking forward to getting back to sleep training him this week. We had to pause it because he got sick a couple weeks ago. We’ll all start sleeping better once he figures that out.

The whole family woke up around eight. Lane and I decided to run at the same time since her parents offered to watch the kids. We ran different routes but ended up together for about half a mile. I completed five miles with five 45 second hill sprints mixed in. I think I was wearing my watch too tightly during the first two miles. I found a small stretch of steep downhill trail that I really enjoyed. I don’t have the right shoes for terrain like that, but the change of pace and the technical nature of it really got me excited for next year. (Spoiler alert: I’m probably going to make trail running a bigger part of my overall training in 2026.)

I am doing a VO2 Max workout tomorrow to get some speed work in. We’ll do 5 x 2:00 @ 5K pace which means we’re targeting 6:30 pace or a perceived exertion rate of 8/10. Since I didn’t have access to any gym equipment this weekend, I shouldn’t have any left over fatigue in the quads or hamstrings. We’ll see how tomorrow morning goes.

9/2

My buddy Tanner was in town visiting from Phoenix so we had a late night catching up. I didn’t get to bed until eleven so I woke up this morning feeling very tired. Since we’re starting our sleep training again with John, I’m taking today off. Lane needs to be able to get some strength training in when I get home from work tonight and since I didn’t wake up for the workout this morning, I’m gonna take the day and get back in the saddle tomorrow morning.

Sleep training went really well! John was able to put himself to sleep within three minutes of laying him down tonight. I’m really proud of him and I’m excited to finally get him into a regular routine. It’s going to be good for our family.

9/3

John woke up a couple times in the middle of the night. I went in there around 4:30 to put him back to sleep but despite the interruption, I still woke up at six and was out the door in time to get the VO2 max workout completed.

I ran 5.77 miles. Here’s the workout structure: 1.25 mi keeping heart rate in zone 2, 6 x 2:00 @ 5K pace (6:28/mi average), with 1 minute recovery jogging in between, followed by 2 miles of cool down mileage at marathon pace (average 8:56/mi). My average heart rate was 144 BPM and peaked at 177 BPM during the last interval. The legs feel pretty fresh since I took yesterday off. We’re gonna do a short anaerobic sprint workout to and from bible study tonight. Tomorrow’s run will be 5-6 easy miles followed by 3-4 miles with 4 x 60s strides on Friday. I’m trying to stay fresh for Saturday’s run while still getting close to my weekly mileage goal of 35-38 miles.

The run to and from Bible study wasn’t really a sprint workout. I mixed in some strides as I jogged but I ate too big a dinner (pork, eggs, kidney beans, spinach, nutritional yeast) about an hour before I left so I wasn’t able to really get after it. I ran a total of 2.5 miles this evening.

I was consistent with my training this week. Not perfect, but consistent. The biggest lesson I’m learning from marathon training is all about consistency. It’s almost impossible to execute every workout perfectly every week when I’m trying to also balance kids, job, community responsibilities, etc. but I’ve drawn a good boundary for myself: I can’t say no two days in a row. That rule has served me well in training and I think there’s a lot of value in incorporating that into all facets of my life.

Every long run after this Saturday will be the longest run I’ve ever completed. As race day gets closer I can feel myself getting more anxious, there’s a fear about my ability to execute on the big day and hit my sub 4 hour goal. But I have to remind myself that I still have plenty of time to put hay in the barn. I’m doing a good job of clocking time and miles on the legs. I’m getting stronger. It’s time to trust the training, trust the plan and ultimately trust that God is in control no matter what.

Keep Going!