David Taylor Gonzales

10/12

It’s Sunday! Unfortunately the kids are still sick so we decided to stay home from church. We got a great night of sleep last night so I feel really good as I continue to recover from yesterday’s long run. A buddy from high school is driving through Springfield today with his wife so he’s going to stop by for some coffee later this morning around 11. I am excited to see him.

I watched football for most of the afternoon. Lane and I took the kids for a walk around the neighborhood after the noon games (cowboys lost) which was the perfect low impact cardio to keep my body active without adding fatigue to the legs. I noticed a little soreness in my right ankle but nothing too alarming. I plan to run 3-4 miles easy tomorrow so it’s important I continue to keep things easy and get good sleep tonight.

10/13

John had some trouble staying asleep last night. He leaked through his diaper around 2 AM so I didn’t wake up with my alarm. Despite the night time interruptions, I actually got decent sleep so I’m going to take advantage of that and try to complete this workout tonight after the kids go to sleep.

Lane texted me asking if she wanted her or I to workout before dinner. I said she should do it before dinner so she can have a break from the kids and I’d workout after bedtime. I always miss them when I’m at work and I know her job can be exhausting (Joy is going through a toddler meltdown phase right now). I got home and finished up making dinner and hung out with them while she did her strength training. I haven’t done any weight training in two weeks so I decided I’m going to do a hybrid workout tonight. 2 mile shakeout, then 20 minutes in the gym.

My legs felt incredibly heavy during the run. I experienced no pain but wow, that was a strange feeling. I don’t think I’ve had “heavy” legs like that in awhile. I ran 2 miles at 9:55/mi pace. Here’s the workout I did after:
Barbell Skullcrushers x 5 sets
Pull-ups x 3 sets
Trap-bar Deadlift x 2 sets
Candlesticks (core workout) x 3 sets
Dumbbell Hammer Curl x 2 sets

Even though it was two workouts, this was pretty low volume for me and didn’t mess up my recovery. I plan to do my threshold run tomorrow morning around 6 (assuming I can get good sleep). I’m drinking magnesium on the couch while watching The Office with Lane.

10/14

Well, last night was another night of poor sleep. John is having tummy trouble. Lane is taking an antibiotic and we think that it’s causing him an upset stomach since he’s breastfeeding. We’re bummed. I slept through my 6 AM alarm and decided to do my speed workout tonight. I am fully recovered from the weekend and last night so I think I’ve set things up to have a good run this evening. Here’s the structure:
1.25 mile zone 2 warm up
5 x 800m @ 5K pace (6:15/mi pace if I’m feeling fast, 7:45/mi if I’m feeling sluggish)
1 min recovery in between
Unstructured cool down (10ish minutes)

This should be approximately 5 miles, no more than 6 miles maximum. My training readiness is 100 according to Garmin so we’ll see how I perform today.

Okay, I’ll be honest that was one of the best workouts of my life. I feel really good. My goal was to run a negative split across all 5 half mile intervals and we were able to accomplish that this evening.
Interval 1: 7:27/mi pace
Interval 2: 7:04/mi pace
Interval 3: 6:51/mi pace
Interval 4: 6:41/mi pace
Interval 5: 6:20/mi pace

My heart rate peaked at 174 BPM so we got plenty of aerobic work in without overloading my body with fatigue. I could’ve done a few more intervals if this were a typical training week but in my taper, my goal is to feel like I had a little more to give after each run. I don’t need to waste myself after every workout. That’s what peak week was for.

Lane made walnut pasta and homemade sourdough so refueling after the run was easy tonight. Most of my runs have taken place either before everyone wakes up or after everyone’s gone to sleep the last few weeks so it was nice to actually get a run in with the afternoon sunshine (even though it took 40 minutes away from time with the kids).

I was able to do part of bedtime routine for both kids though so that was a nice ending to the day. Joy really enjoys singing and we started singing worship songs as part of her routine after we read books together. She likes when I sing You Are Holy by Michael W. Smith and We Delight by Caedmon’s Call (shoutout to 90s worship music).

10/15

I woke up at 6 AM feeling really good so I think we’re back to our regular scheduled programming. Today is a marathon dress rehearsal. 5 miles at marathon pace. No warm up, no cool down, no fuss. I brought a gel with me to test my gut and wore my full kit. The run felt pretty good and the pace is really easy for me to settle into. I can listen to my body and my legs pretty well when I’m in this pace range. I took my Honey Stinger gel at the 35 minute mark to see how my stomach handled the last 10 minutes of running. Unsurprisingly it gave me a little bit of juice for the last mile and little to no discomfort. I’m feeling confident in using those for race day. Total stats for this one: 5.07 miles, 8:53/mi average pace, average heart rate of 133 BPM.

I have been doing all of my easy run/long run race prep in Brooks Ghost and Brooks Ghost Max shoes up to this point. I’ve used Brooks Hyperion Max 2 for my speed training. I don’t feel like a carbon plate is necessary for my marathon goal but I do want something that’s a bit more aggressive and after watching literally dozens of shoe review videos, I’ve landed on the Brooks Hyperion Max 3. From what I’ve seen, it’s a good race shoe for “bigger” runners (men who weigh more than 155 pounds) and it has a plastic plate and a rocker profile that’ll give me some extra pop. It’s still a comfortable shoe from what I’ve seen. I’ll do an easy mile or two in them on Friday and then 13-15 miles with them on Saturday as some final race prep.

10/16

I woke up a bit later than usual which my body thanked me for. I’m continuing to absorb all the training I’ve done up to this point and shedding fatigue from the last few big weeks. I wasn’t planning on training at all today but my shoes shipped a day earlier than I anticipated. I will do a 1 mile trial in them tonight after the kids go down to see how that goes.

I ran 1.3 miles at easy pace with 2 strides to see how they performed. First impressions: they’re fast. I purposely didn’t look at my watch during the first quarter mile. I felt like I was running around 10:10/mi. I looked down after 2 1/2 minutes and I saw that my pace was closer to 9:30/mi. This is definitely a race/speed shoe. I like the feel but I had some minor toe aching in my left foot and I’m not sure if that’s shoe related. I’ll monitor that during the long run Saturday.

10/17

This morning I woke up for a short run Friday morning. It wasn’t a workout, just an easy aerobic shakeout to keep the legs fresh for tomorrow. Sometimes, these runs are the best because I end up having no fatigue but I feel really alert and ready for action when I head to work. The other great thing, since this is my first taper week, I don’t have to check the mileage box like I so often had to throughout August and September. Total stats: 3.56 miles, 9:38/mi pace. I ran in my Ghost Max’s for this one, I want to keep my race shoes as fresh as possible.

We had friends over for desert and drinks after the kids went to bed. I had some apple cider, strawberries with cream, and muffins. It was a really wonderful evening with some friends from church. They didn’t leave until 10 PM and it may rain tomorrow morning so I’m not sure if I’m going to run in the morning or push it a day. I’m gonna try to get as good of sleep as possible and evaluate in the morning.

10/18

When I woke up, I wasn’t motivated. I told myself I’d get up and treat my routine as if I was running. I allowed myself the out if I needed it. I took a look at the radar and saw that the storm wasn’t going to start until around 8 AM. It was 6 when I looked at the weather app. “Either get out there now or it’s gotta wait until tomorrow,” I told myself. I decided to get out there. Ironically, the weather was perfect. It sprinkled on me for about five minutes but after that, it was clear skies and I got to watch the sunrise as I so often have throughout the late summer and early fall. It was a purple haze today, not as foggy as last week so thankfully I wasn’t running blind on the sidewalks for long. Because of the sketchy weather, I stuck close to home and ran my usual neighborhood 10k route twice instead of running to the Greenway.

I felt good today. I don’t think I would’ve had the motivation or the juice to complete a longer run but since I was able to get this one done in under two hours, I was able to keep my cadence up and my mind in a healthy place.

I almost forgot to discuss the shoes. As I said after my short run a couple days ago, these are fast shoes and that continued to be the case on this run. I ran my first four miles easy which is usually a 10:10-10:30/mi pace. With these shoes, my easy pace was 9:35/mi or so. At one point I tried to intentionally run slower than that but it felt unnatural. My heart rate confirmed that I was running the right pace. My heart rate hovered around 125 BPM during that four mile warm up. After that, I picked up the pace to see how the shoes felt and ran 7 miles at 8:38/mi. They’re definitely not as plush as the Ghost Max’s which I knew going in but they’re still pretty comfortable. I had no toe pain this time around. I will monitor how the legs feel throughout the day. I’m going to watch college football and do a family walk so there shouldn’t be a ton of activity or anything stressful to throw off my recovery. I am off tomorrow, maybe I’ll do a strength training session if I feel really good tomorrow morning.

9/25

It’s my brother Zach’s birthday. He’s 27 years old. He got engaged and graduated college a few months back. His future wife, Katie, is really an incredible woman. It’s been amazing to see him grow and change in the years since Covid. We fought a lot when we were young and it led to a lot of distance and resentment in our late teens. We restored our relationship about 7 years ago. He’s an amazing man. I’m really proud to be his brother.

Today is my sprint workout since I took Tuesday off. I am doing 10 intervals for 15 seconds at 4:20/mi pace. I haven’t done a sprint workout in a month or two but with my increased fitness, I think this workout should go fairly well. I’m excited to get the fast twitch muscle fibers activated!

Okay that was a pretty tough workout. I found a small hill and decided to do all of my intervals up the hill to reduce the impact on my joints. I think that was a good decision overall but it made the 15 second intervals feel like an eternity. Regardless, the soft tissue in my legs don’t feel beat up and that’s a win (but my quads are smoked).

9/26

I had another sleep in day. I think my body is fighting something off which is unfortunate. I may try to run a couple miles to shake things out before my long run tomorrow morning. I get frustrated when I feel like I’m falling behind and missing workouts. This is a good reminder that sometimes the training is as much mental as it is physical. Taking unscheduled rest days can cause me to feel shame and I have to remind myself that training while sick/fatigued would actually be counterproductive. Still, any time I’m not putting mileage on the legs or weight training, I feel like I am doing something wrong. The glass half full outlook would be that I’ve so consistently integrated my training into my daily life that when I take a day off, it feels like a task is incomplete. This training cycle and this race won’t last forever. There’s a hard deadline to the season of training that I have been in. I’m trying to make the most of everyday in training but I know Lane is looking forward to having her husband back (I am looking forward to spending more time with her as well).

I thought about doing a shakeout run this evening in preparation for tomorrow but decided against it. With the accumulated fatigue from the last week, I think relaxing and getting quality sleep tonight is going to do my body more good than an easy mile or two. My buddy Elliot, who has the same sub 4 hour goal as I do, is going to run with me tomorrow. We’re going to do a RPE style workout for 17 miles

9/27

It’s long run day! I woke up at 5 and started the pre-run ritual: pee, hydrate, eat overnight oats, foam roll and light stretching in the basement, then lace up. I feel really good today. My heart rate variability improved a bit last night so I know my body appreciated the sleep and taking a day off. Elliot’s gonna be arriving at 6:05 AM. Here’s the workout structure:

4 miles at conversational pace
2.5 miles at RPE 6/10
2.5 miles at RPE 6.5/10
4 miles at RPE 5/10
2.5 miles at RPE 6/10
2.5 miles at RPE 6.5/10

Elliot’s running 18 today so I’ll cut the last interval short since I only need 17 miles. This will put me at 34 miles for the week. It’s a bit lower than I wanted, but given the fatigue and poor sleep on Friday, it’s a solid training week overall.

I really enjoyed running with Elliot. Like I said in the video, I had way more juice because we were together and I think it would’ve been really challenging to do this workout without him. I probably would’ve just done an easy run if I was by myself (nothing wrong with that, I just liked the change of pace). Total stats: 17.01 miles, average pace 8:59/mi, average heart rate 142 BPM. The rest of the day is going to revolve around family time and eating enough food to make up for the 2,023 calories we burned this morning.

After my shower, I went to Men’s Breakfast at my church. I ate 7 biscuits to get some carbs in me. The message was on Jonah, and what it looks like to live in obedience to God. I told the guys sitting at my table that obedience was something that I thought was optional in the early years of following Jesus. I assumed, foolishly, that because God’s grace covers me, I could proclaim Jesus as my Savior while changing nothing about my life. After a few years of living that way, I hit rock bottom and realized that this “freedom” I thought I was living in wasn’t freedom at all, it was the opposite. It was keeping me chained to a life that I didn’t want anymore. I realized that obedience to Christ wasn’t the path to the boring and limiting life that I was fearful of. I had some time to reflect on what life has looked like since fully committing my life to Christ. God has given my life more adventure and meaning and fulfillment than I ever had in the debauchery of my youth.

The rest of the afternoon, we went on a family walk together and ate really good food. I received a $100 Pappo’s gift card from work so we picked up pizza and chocolate chip cookies from the Battlefield location around 6 PM. I walked almost 37,000 steps today. Pizza and cookies were the perfect meal to end the day.

9/28

Today I slept in a bit, hoping to see my heart rate variability continue to improve so I can go into this next week of training with good health and recovery. I woke up around 7:30 and my HRV was 130 ms so my body is clearly back to baseline average. We went to church at 9, went on a short family walk around the block (I went barefoot, something I haven’t been doing lately). After that, Joy and I played at her water table outside in the front yard and then grazed on leftovers for lunch. I am thinking about doing a blog on what I eat on a daily basis just to give y’all an idea of what I’m doing day to day as we approach the peak of my marathon training. I think my nutrition has been pretty good overall but I know I make plenty of small (and sometimes big) mistakes day to day.

This evening, I did a strength workout focusing on the usual: posterior chain, (more specifically, calfs, hamstrings, glutes, lats, and traps) quads, shoulders, upper chest and few sets on the biceps as well. Here’s the full list of exercises and sets:

Dead hang 45 seconds (warm up)
Pull-ups x 4 sets
Barbell lunges x 4
Weighted shrug x 4
Barbell shoulder press x 4
Trap-bar deadlift x 4 (light weight, I am being very careful with my back)
Weighted single-leg calf raises (one 35lb dumbbell in hand)
Dumbbell lateral raise x 2
Hammer curls x 3

9/29

Today was the first speed workout of the week. I set this as a seven mile steady tempo run. I wanted something challenging, but shooting for a pace that I can hold for about an hour. I estimated that that pace was 7:40/mi. I woke up a bit late, so I decided to shorten it to a 10K so I could be showered before Joy woke up. One mile in, I felt pretty good. 7:49/mi average pace. From there, I picked it up and the legs felt springy going into mile 3. Maybe it was the improved leg turnover from the sprint workout last week, maybe it was finally getting good rest. It was around the 24 minute mark where I realized I had a very good chance of breaking my previous 10K PR (47:51) so I sped up. The per mile pace I needed to break was just about 7:36/mi and I was averaging 7:37 when I decided to accelerate. I was holding a steady pace in the 7:10-7:25 range, plenty of speed to bring my total average pace down below 7:30/mi. I didn’t feel out of control at all. The pace felt really easy to hold without having to stare at my watch. I set a new PR today. Total stats: 6.28 miles in 46:43, average pace 7:27/mi, average heart rate 150 BPM.

Seeing such consistent progress in these speed sessions, especially in the last two or three weeks has been really encouraging. I am eager to get to race day but we’ve still got two weeks of peak training to get through before we taper. Two goals are in front of me now: stay consistent but more importantly, don’t get injured. If I show up at the starting line with my body intact, I’ve got a really good chance of breaking four hours on November 2nd.

I feel well rested and recovered for the training ahead. I drank my magnesium tonight to help with sleep. Tomorrow is an easy 6 mile fartlek run. Here’s the structure:

1 mi warm up (9:30 pace)
1 mi on (8:00/mi pace)
2 mi off (9:30/mi pace)
2 mi on (8:00/mi pace)

9/30

I woke up and pressed snooze on my alarm. Didn’t wake up again until 7:20 AM. This was the best night of sleep I think I’ve had in 2 weeks. I feel really well rested. I’m bummed about missing my run, but I honestly think it’s for the best. I have a VO2 Max workout tomorrow and I feel confident in my ability to execute well with the extra day of rest. All the research I’ve seen points to long runs being more important than weekly mileage so, even though this week I’ll only hit 32-36 miles, I haven’t missed a single weekend long run in training and I don’t intend to start this week.

I got home from work and grilled up some chicken for caesar salads. Lane is on a 5k stroller run with Joy while John takes a cat nap. I’ve decided I’m going to do some light weight training in the garage just to get some exercise benefit despite the day off. I kept the volume and sets super low today: 3 sets of pull-ups, 3 sets of barbell skull crushers, single-arm dumbbell rows, and 5 sets of barbell bicep curls. I am excited for tomorrow’s run. Since I know my body needs about 10-15 minutes to warm up on these mornings, I’m giving myself a full 15 minute zone 2 warm up before the intervals start. Here’s the workout structure: 15 minute zone 2 warm up, 2 x 15:00 @ 6:45/mi pace, 10 minute cool down (no pace target). If I feel good tomorrow, I’m allowing myself to speed up to 6:20/mi and if I feel rough, I can throttle back to 7:10 pace. 6:45/mi is Garmin’s estimate of my lactate threshold so this one should improve my high aerobic capacity. I’ve been doing these workouts consistently throughout the year and they have helped me maintain faster paces without burning out.

10/1

It’s October. It still doesn’t quite feel like fall. The high will be 88 degrees and sunny today but I’ve noticed the sun setting earlier and earlier with each passing day. These morning runs have been getting dark as well.

I got out the door by 6:15. I am going to shorten my cool down a bit so I can be home in time to help with the kids. I completed 12 minutes of my warm up and felt good enough to start the intervals. I could tell in the first 100 steps of this run the legs felt fresh. The intervals were the exact right amount of challenging, about an 8/10 by RPE. I wasn’t sure if holding pace at 6:45/mi was sustainable because I haven’t done intervals this long at my estimated lactate threshold before.

It wasn’t as “flowy” as some of my speed workouts the last few weeks but I was able to hold the pace for both intervals. Interval 1 was run at an average pace of 6:45/mi and the 2nd interval was an average pace of 6:47/mi. I was in the pain cave for portions of this run but I was able to get my heart rate down to 134 BPM during my recovery interval in between which helped going into the 2nd interval. The last 45 seconds of interval 2 was run uphill and I was able to get my heart rate up to 175 BPM, the highest heart rate I’ve had in months. I’m very proud of my mental fortitude today. I’ve learned over time that these speed runs require more mental strength than physical strength. I had so many mental off ramps, opportunities to quit on this run but I didn’t take the bait. In prior training sessions I might have. I didn’t cheat myself today and that’s as big a win as the workout itself.

If the weather holds up tonight, I’ll jog to group. I haven’t had a low mileage easy run in awhile and that might be a nice shakeout after this morning. If I do that, I’ll take tomorrow off and get prepared for 18 miles on Saturday. We’re driving to St. Louis for my sister in law’s wedding shower so I’ll be doing the long run out of town. The terrain in the in law’s neighborhood is very hilly but I am looking forward to a new route! I may drive down to Grant’s Trail and run there. Since I did a workout last week on my long run with Elliot, I’m going to keep this one easy and mix in some marathon pace in the last 3 miles.

Keep Going!

9/18

Joy woke up in the middle of the night three times. Lane and I didn’t get any sleep between 1 and 3:30 AM. I’m glad today is a rest day. I do not plan on doing anything except going to work, coming home, playing with the kids, and going to sleep. This is my last recovery week before my taper for race day so I’m trying to take it seriously. If overnight sleep isn’t going well because of the kids, then I’m going to be very mindful of that throughout this week and weekend.

9/19

We had the same sleep problems as the night before but not quite as bad. Lane took the shifts for me since I had to be up early to get one of the cars registered at the DMV. I pressed snooze on my alarm at 6 AM, decided I’m going to run tonight after dinner. I feel like I can afford to do so since I only have to run 11 miles tomorrow morning. It should be manageable.

I ran 4 miles, I was going to make this a tempo run around 7:45/mi pace but my good buddy Tim decided to join me. He’s a former high school soccer player with some running experience but now he mostly mountain bikes and fly fishes. His girlfriend runs and he has started to join her on occasion. I could tell pretty quickly that whatever natural talent he had as a runner hasn’t left him since high school. I thought we’d keep it very slow since he hadn’t run four miles in years but we ended up running a touch faster than my marathon pace. Total stats: 4 miles, 8:56/mi average pace. I forget how much I enjoy running with friends.

We’re having some friends over for desert and drinks when the kids go down. I’ll refrain from the alcohol so I sleep well and start my run tomorrow morning around 5:45/6.

9/20

Okay so 5:45 AM didn’t happen. I had a splash of wine and didn’t get to bed until 11 PM. Even though I only drank less than a glass, I always notice my sleep quality diminishes when I consume alcohol the night before. I told Lane the next day, “This might be an overreaction, but I really feel like unless we’re on a date or I have the next day off from training, I don’t think I’m going to drink anymore.” She chuckled and smiled at me, not because she didn’t believe me, but because she knows I’m halfway serious.

I ran in the afternoon when Joy took her nap. I structured a workout into the 11 miles today: 5.5 miles a touch slower than marathon pace (9:30/mi) and last 5.5 at 8:00/mi pace. I wore my race day “kit” (a term I was unaware of until recently). It’s not flashy, just a gray singlet, black shorts with sewn in lining, my Brooks Ghost Max’s and my Darn Tough socks.

It was a humbling run. Because of the long distances I’ve done recently, I overestimated my ability to execute without prep. I ate a solid breakfast but my lunch fueling was severely lacking. It was 75 degrees at the start which didn’t sound too hot, but comparing that to the 55 and 60 degree long runs I have been doing up until today, it was hot enough to make a big difference. I wasn’t adequately fueled or hydrated. The first half of the run came and went without much to report other than a slightly elevated heart rate due to the hotter temp. Once I started the faster second half of the run, I knew within the first 2 miles I was in some trouble. I was able to keep 8:00/mi pace for the first two miles of the run but the wheels quickly fell apart from there. I felt severely dehydrated on mile 8 so I decided to call it a bit early. Total stats: 10.83 miles, 8:57/mi average pace, 146 BPM heart rate (y’all know from my other blogs how high this is for me). I was a bit frustrated with my performance but it’s not about being perfect in training, it’s about being good. I’ve been very good, even if today didn’t feel very good.

9/21

Today I did my strength training workout. I focused on my posterior chain and quads as usual but also did some work on my side delts, shoulders, biceps and and chest. Full workout and number of sets: barbell back squat x 4, weighted calf-raise x 4, trap-bar RDL x 4, barbell shoulder press x 3, pull-up x 3, dumbbell row x 3, shrug x 3, barbell skullcrusher x 4, dumbbell lateral raise x 4, dumbbell flat bench curl x 2, hammer curl x 2.

I’m writing this Wednesday before this blog is published. One thing I noticed the day after this workout is that my upper back, just to the right of my spine at the lowest point of my trapezius muscle, is very sore. It actually hurt to laugh on Monday morning. It has improved throughout the week through some stretching and foam rolling, but the pain has persisted so I am going to the chiropractor tomorrow (Thursday after this blog goes live) to get an adjustment.

9/22

Today was a tempo run. It was difficult to show up for this one but I’m learning more about how long it takes for my body to warm up. When I started around 8:00/mi pace, it felt impossible to hold. Once I got to the 1.5 mile mark, I was able to settle in and accelerate down to 7:25/mi for most of the run. This was another success, one where I could see year over year improvement. I never look forward to these runs when I step outside in the mornings but I feel great once I get my legs underneath me. Total stats: 5.64 miles, 7:39/mi average pace.

9/23

Joy woke up in the middle of the night again. It was a rough night of sleep for all of us and when we woke up, it was raining, dark and gray outside. It felt like 5:30 AM even as I was packing my lunch for the day. I’ve decided today is gonna be rest and recovery. It’s been pouring rain all morning. My body probably needs the rest anyway, I’ve had some back pain since my weightlifting session. I think I might have tweaked it a bit during my last deadlift set. I need to get back to filming those workouts so I can be confident that I’m keeping good form. Tomorrow I’m going to keep my Threshold running plan and move my sprint workout to Thursday. When I got home from work, we had a small break in the rain so we went on a 1 mile family walk. My legs should feel really fresh assuming I get to bed by 10 PM. It’s 9:34 as I type this.

9/24

Happy Threshold Day! I woke up at 6 like usual. I found it easier to get up than most days, I finally got to bed at a decent time and the kids slept through the night. I noticed on my morning report that my heart rate variability dropped to 104 ms which is a bit alarming. I’m worried I might be getting sick. Despite the data, I actually felt mostly fine, a slight sore throat but nothing a little hydration couldn’t fix. I foam rolled my back in the basement before heading out because it’s still sore from weight training. I’m considering a chiropractor appointment later this week.

Here’s the workout structure: 1.25 mile warm up, 2 x 10:00 intervals @ 6:50/mi pace, 1 mile cool down. I kept my heart rate in Zone 2 for my warm up and it started pouring down rain on me about 10 minutes into the run. I realized I was in some trouble since the pace was about to speed up significantly. I decided against running all out to hit the pace goal and to keep things in control but speedy. The goal shifted from speed and performance to control and injury prevention. It was still really dark out with some muddy spots so the last thing I needed was to slip and sprain an ankle.

Final stats: 5.08 miles, average pace 8:05/mi. Interval 1: 7:13/mi pace. Interval 2: 7:02/mi pace. I’m still proud of my performance considering the less than ideal weather conditions. Garmin counted this as a tempo workout even though I built it to be a threshold run. I didn’t quite hit the pace targets I was shooting for so that probably explains it. Not a big deal.

The last 7 days of training have been good but not perfect. I have some work to do on my humility, that much is clear after last week’s shorter long run. I can’t be taking this training block for granted, that’s when the training load will sneak up and bite me. Right now, I’m healthy and I should do whatever I can to stay that way. As Peter Attia has said before, the most important thing we can do as we age is stay in the game. Failing a workout, missing a training day due to weather, sleeping in occasionally because of poor sleep, none of those things take us out. Injuries take us out of the game. And that’s what I’m working hard to avoid as race week approaches.

Keep Going!

9/4

I completed a 5.5 miles easy today. The weather is cooling down. The sun rises noticeably later into the morning now. The sky was dark and full of purple clouds. I was struck by how quiet the neighborhood was. It felt as if the whole city decided to sleep in because of the dark. I didn’t structure in any strides or speed play intervals for this one. I said it in my last blog, my training has been good but it hasn’t been perfect. I’m still playing a bit of catch up from missing my run on Tuesday. I want to keep the legs fresh for Saturday’s 15 miles. That will be the longest run since my distance PR which I set back in late September last year.

I focused on eating carbs today in preparation for Saturday’s run. I heard from someone that carb loading isn’t something you only do the day before, but even two or three days out because those nutrients will still be in your system on race day. I had eggs and sourdough for breakfast, leftover salmon Mac ‘n Cheese for lunch, a protein shake and Lane’s marinara pasta bake for dinner. For desert I had a couple gluten free brownies and three oatmeal chocolate chip cookies later that evening while I watched my Cowboys lose to the Philadelphia Eagles. I probably went a little too hard on the sweets today but I should be fine.

9/5

I ran 3.5 miles with Travis this morning. He and Jenny just had their fourth child two weeks ago and it was really good to catch up and hear about how life has changed and how things are going for them. We kept the miles pretty easy, we hovered around marathon pace for most of the run. I wanted to go slower than that when I made the plan for this week but we both felt really good as we warmed up. I don’t like depriving my legs of faster speeds when I feel up for it. I don’t think it’s going to negatively affect my long run tomorrow. The plan is an early bed time tonight, wake up around 4:45 and start the run around 5:30 AM tomorrow. I want to be done before 8 AM so I don’t miss out on making family breakfast.

9/6

Happy Long Run Day! I woke up at 4:45 like I planned and started eating overnight oats. I tried them cold and I actually enjoyed them that way. Saves time and the texture didn’t bother me so I’m happy with that small change to the race day routine. I bought a honey Stinger Waffle that I brought with me to try during the run. They contain 19g of carbs but are a little high in fat (6g). I got out the door to start the run a little after 5:30 AM. The legs felt fresh so I stuck with the original workout plan today: 8.5 miles easy (average pace: 10:13/mi) followed by 6.5 miles at marathon pace (average pace 8:45/mi). The easy miles felt really easy, in part because it was 54 degrees outside with no sunlight for the first hour and ten minutes of the run. My heart rate never left zone 2.

I ate the Stinger waffle at the 45 minute mark even though I didn’t feel like I needed it. I figured it’d be better to eat it as a precaution (and to experiment with my stomach) to prevent bonking. I ran down to the Galloway area and once the marathon pace miles started, I turned around to head back home. The legs felt really good going into the faster miles. I didn’t consider this until later but the waffle was really easy to digest and I’m glad I had it with me. I’m gonna continue to use them for fuel for these long runs to see if I want them with me on race day. Based on how today went, I think I’ll do one at the 1 hour mark and 2 1/2 hour mark on race day. We’ll tweak that as I continue to train these last eight weeks.

We only have two months left before race day. I’ve been building up to this race for so long, the idea of training being over is hard to imagine. I’ve gotten very accustomed to the rhythm of my training weeks.

9/7

Lane decided to sign up for the Bass Pro Half Marathon so we’re going to run together. Because of this, she has moved her long run to Sunday so that we don’t have to plan for both of us to be gone multiple hours on the same day. She ran seven miles during the kid’s nap while I watched some football. I was able to complete my 50 minute strength training workout this afternoon. I focused mainly on my quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves and back. Because running is my main focus, my gym training emphasizes lower body workouts and strengthening my posterior chain. I did three sets of pull-ups, three sets of walking lunges with dumbbells, four sets of trap-bar deadlifts, four sets of barbell back squats, three sets of single-leg calf raises, and three sets of candlesticks for my core. I also mixed in four dumbbell bench press sets. I’m an imperfect man, what can I say. The “gym bro” workouts are still tempting. In all seriousness though, part of why I did that specific workout today was to see if my Costochondritis issue from July is healed or not. I haven’t exercised my chest since June. This was an anaerobic workout which I don’t do a lot of so I enjoyed switching things up.

I am learning to cherish my legs. I try to remind myself of how thankful I am for my body overall, but with marathon training, my lower body has been taking a beating. Earlier this year I was spending a lot of time in the gym lifting for muscle growth in areas that didn’t directly help my running. I would do hammer curls, triceps extensions, bench press, lateral raises, and shoulder press. Though those things certainly aren’t a bad thing, they were a symptom of having more time on my hands. Now that my weekly mileage is creeping up into the high 30s and low 40s, that time is diminished. I’m only able to work in one or two weightlifting sessions per week (assuming no rest days). That means if I’m to use strength training to improve my running, my legs need most of the attention. I’m going to focus on unilateral leg movements such as Bulgarian split squats (though this is one that has caused me knee issues in the past so I keep the dumbbells light), dumbbell walking lunges, and single leg calf-raises. I’m going to experiment with single-leg deadlifts with my trap-bar next week. I don’t know if that movement is stable with the trap-bar or not but we’ll find out. If it’s not, I’m okay doing a bilateral movement to strengthen my hamstrings.

9/8

I pressed snooze on my alarm for the first time in awhile. Lane and I stayed up last night watching The Wire and I didn’t fall asleep until 11:11 PM according to my watch. I convinced myself to get out of bed at 6:09 and had to rush out the door. Today was a 6 mile progression run. We started out at an easy warm up pace, which felt great in the brisk 54 degree morning. Then, we sped up 30s/mi for each mile. Total stats: 6.23 miles in 54:38, 8:46/mi average pace. My splits were 10:08, 9:33, 9:03, 8:29, 8:00, and a fast 7:17 to close out the last mile. I have started incorporating more of these progression runs into my training in recent weeks, partly because I enjoy them but also because they teach me how to accelerate in a controlled manner. It’s easy during a run to speed up way past my heart rate zone or pace target and then slowly settle into it but I know that with nerves, excitement and crowd energy, my body is going to want to sprint that first mile. I need to learn how to stay in control of my body so we don’t burn through glycogen stores in the first 15 miles of this race. There’s a reason “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” is one of the most common clichés.

Joy woke up a bit early today, Lane took her to go potty while I was in the shower. That was a good reminder of why wake up on training days has to be 6 AM at the latest. Still, we threw down the miles and I’m excited for this training week. It’s going to be high volume again (38-40 miles total), with a sixteen mile long run on Saturday. Lane is out of town this weekend for her sister’s bachelorette trip so my mom’s coming into town to help me with them when I’m at work. Next week is going to be a recovery week to give my body some rest.

9/9

I completed my threshold workout this morning. Here’s the structure: 10:00 warm up followed by two 18:00 intervals @ 7:00/mi pace with a half mile of recovery in between. This was one of the hardest workouts I’ve completed in this training block. I’m super proud of the effort today. When I first started ramping up my training to prep for the marathon back in April, I did a threshold workout where I attempted to hold 7:00/mi pace for one 17 minute interval. I couldn’t hold that pace and it was nearly a max effort. The fact that my high aerobic capacity has improved this much in 4-5 months is really encouraging. Workouts like these are really intimidating but there’s nothing like that feeling of accomplishment when I complete one, especially if I feel like I executed well.

Total stats today: 6.63 miles, total time 51:04. Average pace: 7:42/mi. Average HR: 149 BPM. This run was also a 10K PR for me. I’m curious what I’d be able to throw down if I fully trained for a 10K. That’d be a fun thing to do in a couple years. I have had some sciatic nerve issues and some ankle pain recently so I’m going to the chiropractor this afternoon so we can get adjusted and hopefully relieve some of that. Turns out, if you run 45 miles in seven days, you’ll be sore. Who knew?

9/10

I slept in today until 7:15. Lane and I stayed up late talking and had a really fun conversation about parenthood, the future and things we’re looking forward to as our kids grow. My body was pretty fatigued from the workout yesterday so I’m going to push the run to tonight after Bible study. I plan on running 4 easy miles this evening and I’m gonna keep them pretty easy.

I ran one mile to bible study and ran a longer route home so I could complete five miles total tonight. I kept the miles easy. I skipped the strides on this run since I couldn’t see that well in the dark. I’m looking forward to my rest day tomorrow! I need to take advantage of those days as much as possible so I can handle the miles on my legs. My peak week is just a month away, I estimate that I’ll run 45-48 miles that week.

I’m excited for Saturday’s long run! It’s going to be the longest run of my life. I ran 16 miles last September to celebrate hitting 500 miles in 2024. I’ll run an extra 0.1 just to pass last year’s PR. My folks will be in town to help out with the kids while Lane is out of town and I’m working. She leaves Friday morning and my job is to keep the house from catching fire and to try to maintain the training routine.

Keep Going!

8/21

I rested today. It’s been a slow ramp up coming back from sickness. To reward myself for actually taking a day off, I’m gonna do a threshold workout tomorrow after work. I haven’t done enough high aerobic work recently and I want to train in a higher zone. My hope is that doing so will improve my body’s ability to clear lactate from my bloodstream in the higher paces and heart rate zones.

8/22

I completed my threshold workout Friday evening. Here’s the basic structure: 1 mile warm up in Zone 2, 3 x 8:00 @ 7:00/mi pace and a cool down. I felt fully recovered from sickness which is a great sign. Unfortunately I had GI issues during my cool down. I planned to run a mile or 2 at the end but dinner didn’t sit well with me. I’m glad it didn’t affect me during my intervals but my mileage will be a little lower this week. That’s okay. I’m trying to be okay with not being perfect.

8/23

I did my long run, 10 easy miles during the kids nap time. I mixed in marathon pace at the end but it wasn’t a structured part of the run. I put on an absolute clinic on how NOT to fuel for a run. I had a high protein, low carb breakfast, too much coffee, not enough water, and leftover pasta too close to the run (about an hour before). Thankfully I didn’t have any GI issues but I felt heavy, sluggish and thirsty for much of the run. It hasn’t been as hot recently and it’s going to cool down even more later next week.

I completed 19 miles, my lowest weekly total since February which is WILD to think about. I went into this year, before I started marathon training, hoping to average 15 miles per week. I’ve been well above that this year, a significant shift from even last year. I’m really proud of the work I’ve put in. Hopefully it translates well on race day. Fueling is still my main area of weakness right now, I really want to have that more dialed in when these long runs start to get longer. It’s going to become a necessity once these runs approach the three hour mark. I’m committing to doing all my long runs in the early morning going forward so I can practice fueling with plenty of time before I take off.

8/24

Today I completed 45 minutes of strength training. I tried to take short breaks and do high intensity load so that I could get some anaerobic benefit. I enjoy some of the anabolic training because I sometimes get paranoid about injury risk as I increase mileage. I focused on legs like usual with 3 sets of barbell back squats, trap-bar deadlifts, walking lunges with dumbbells, weighted calf raises. I mixed in some arm, shoulder and core work as well. I am attaching a video showing some of the workouts I did, specifically the pull-ups and leg work.

I am going to do a speed workout tomorrow even though the legs are tired. I think it’s good to do those workouts when I’m fatigued because it forces me to go off of relative perceived effort (RPE) instead of pace.

8/25

I woke up at 6 AM to run. Okay well, technically that’s a lie. I actually woke up at 4:50 AM to put John back to sleep. The kids have been sick and it was a rough night. Lane was with him multiple times overnight so when he woke up a little before 5, I decided to go in there so she could catch a couple Z’s before it was time to get breakfast ready for the kids. I nodded off in the rocking chair while holding him until 5:55 AM. I didn’t feel great so I only did 4.3 miles. Nothing about my recovery and readiness was optimal for this run but I’m really proud of my cadence. I felt like my mechanics were really dialed in. We kept this one moderate, just sustained marathon pace.

8/26

Today was a 7 mile progression run. I did a better job of getting enough sleep last night. The kids are finally starting to recover from sickness so we weren’t interrupted in the middle of the night quite as much. I started at 9:20/mi pace, and completed the last mile in 8:11. The MSU XC team was out this morning and I found myself glancing over as they ran in the grass alongside me. College athletes run like deer. It was mesmerizing to watch. These morning runs are really good for my training. I feel great throughout the day after and I end up eating better and hitting my macros because I’m not paranoid about overeating before an evening run.

8/27

This morning was a 6 mile tempo run. 3 intervals x 10:00 @ 10k pace (~7:30/mi pace). I did not want to wake up for this one. I had to tell myself, “you don’t do this because it feels great when you start, you do this because it feels great when you finish.” That helped me get out the door. I was worried about some pain in my heel when I woke up but it went away almost immediately during my warm up so that was encouraging. I ran into my New Testament professor from college and I said hello to him. That was a fun blast from the past.

This workout was a sweet spot for me. It was challenging, but not impossible. It wasn’t built to run my legs into the ground. A year ago, the idea of running at 7:30 pace for more than a minute or two would’ve been unimaginable. But as my fitness has increased and I’ve continued to lose fat, I’ve definitely gotten faster. I thought going into this run that 10 minute intervals at 7:30 pace would be touching close to my lactate threshold but I noticed how “flowy” the intervals were and how easily I was able to stay in range without obsessively looking at my watch. I was surprised to find myself actually enjoying myself during the 2nd interval.

My Garmin tracked this as a tempo workout so it was certainly more intense than a base run, but I was proud that I was able to keep my heart rate in the 150-165 range during each interval. I’m working on adding more high aerobic exercise in this build cycle, something I’ve been neglecting this last month. The goal is to do 1-2 high aerobic workouts per week depending on how I recover from each weeks’ long run. That should put me in a good range if I commit to keeping my easy runs easy.

I don’t have any profound reflections from the week. My bible study started last Wednesday and I’m really thankful for the group we have. We’re studying Mark and taking things back to the basics: reading the words of Jesus and learning how to live more like Him. I’ve said it before, I really think running teaches us about spiritual endurance in a way that very few things in life can. As always, I’m thankful for good health and God putting the desire in me to be a good steward of the body He gave me.

Keep Going!