This time around I know how to train for this thing and have the time to really do this right. The last time I just went to go for as much distance as I could without worrying about time nor how I got to my goal. This time around I am going strictly for time. I am basically starting from scratch again. Which means I am going to have to start building up the endurance in the right manner. This means starting off with time exercises. Starting with half hour training sessions. Walking 5 minutes, running 3 minutes, walking 2 minutes, running 3 minutes until the 30 minutes are up. This will in theory mean that I will have run 15 minutes over 30 minutes. Once I feel comfortable with that regiment I will increase it from 3 minutes to 5 minutes with 2 minute walks until finally I can go for 25 minutes. Then I go to 1 hour and then 2 hours. I feel by month 4 I will be in pretty good shape and honestly, if I can find a half marathon at that juncture, maybe it will be a good goal to shoot for.

While I am doing this for a half hour at a time, the rest of my time can be spent on doing work on core stuff, specifically mid back/abdomen which will help me sustain longer runs without that incessant back pain which has basically caused me to fail in longer run/walks.

I have to also look at my diet again. I think I am pretty damned hooked on the yogurt and bananas, but it is the other things that I eat that I really need to start identifying as being good, or bad. No cheat days, get into a pattern of sleep and that will allow me to best press forward. This next marathon is going ot be a snap, it is just a matter of getting back into the mindset of it.

I decided back in December that I would train for the LA Marathon and it finally came to fruition yesterday. 4.5 months of going to the gym, walking long distances, doing short bursts of running, eating properly, making sure that I was able to do it.

The weather was supposed to be rainy and cold, out of any day for the Marathon to run I would not have expected cold and rain in Los Angeles. I drove up Saturday in possibly the worst rain I had seen in Southern California in months. I fully expected Sunday to be as bad as it was on Saturday, and if that would have been the case, I would have not ran.

The morning of the race was cold, painfully cold. I fully expected it rain. I arrived at Dodger stadium at around 430am, probably about an hour before I should have. I found some warmth in Dodger stadium along with other runners and just waited for time to pass. The energy level was high and really amazing.

Race time came and we all got situated and walked forward towards the start and slowly but surely took off down the track. The only thing i remember is that they announced that Frank McCourt was part of the celebration and everyone booed him, which I found kind of funny.

The next 14 miles were a blur. Though I do recall stopping off at my hotel to make sure that I had checked out properly and the lovely lady behind the counter I think was a little shocked that a runner had stopped off to ask a question like that. I got back into the race and got to the half way mark before I was spent. I walked the rest.

The walk down San Vicente to Ocean was possibly the worst, wind gusts of upwards of 40 MPH were hitting us all and it was really difficult to keep going. When I crossed that finish line and got the medal. I was ecstatic, i had finished my goal and that was what I was there for. Next year, sub 5 hours!

Then weighed myself, I ate like shit in Detroit, or so I thought, I actually lost a few more lbs, 225lbs right now, almost back to the weight I was 6 months ago. If I stick to the training schedule that I outlined on the plane, who knows how low that will get, but I would think that by the time the marathon rolls around that I will be below 200lbs. I do think that if I can get to 180 I will be in really good shape for the marathon, but anything below 200 will be a major win and less actual weight that I will be carrying during the run.

I am going to have to make sure that my downhill runs are constant as opposed to staggered, that is really how I will be able to finish this marathon. Looking at the elevation map a lot of the downhills are spaced out and are almost flat, so that means I should probably do more Lake running since that is more flat and little to no elevation. I do think that for the last three weeks I am in pretty good shape for this thing.

On the way there there is a steep hill right outside of my home, which is about .25 mile, then downhill for .75 miels, under the 56, a slight incline on the bike trail, then a steep decline into Mira Mesa on Black Mountain Road. Then a 2 mile slight incline all the way up to Mira Mesa Blvd. It flattens out for about a mile, then declines into the location my folks live. The areas that I can really cut time from are the decline after the first incline by my house, then the steep decline into Mira Mesa, then the flat area after Mira Mesa Blvd into the area where my folks live. On the reverse trip, the 2 mile slight decline towards PQ is really a time saver if it is run, the hill will be my bane for the next month or so. First goal is to be able to go up the hill without stopping, then will be to actually run the hill a little bit.

Goal by January 15 is to get the 12.45 miles in around 3 hours. That would mean an average speed of around 4.1 mph, while I am averaging around a speed of 3 mph with the stopping and walking. What I would love to do is get that average mph to around 4.8 by end of January to early February. That would get me at around 2 hours and 40 minutes.

I am under no belief that I am going to run the entire LA Marathon, but if I can run at least 7 miles of the race, I will finish it before they close down the streets. To finish the race in 8 hours, one must assume an average speed of 3.275 miles. With the law of diminishing returns, I will start the race at a higher mph than I will end the race. I need to get my average mph higher and then walk the rest, or at least run the downhill portions and maintain a decent speed on the uphill portions.

The goal was 6.2 miles and I got it, this is the distance of the first leg of my training and I did it in a respectable time. Though it was all on a treadmill and without a whiney ten year old following behind. This saturday will prove to be interesting.

weighing in at 233 today, that is down 22 lbs from early October.

The eventual goal will be to run from my place to their place, back to my place, then back to their place and then back again, which would put me at around 25 miles total. In the interim during the week to help build up the legs a little more for the duration, 3 miles a day on the treadmill at an incline and some weight work. I am looking at the calorie counter and it is saying to take my weight and multiply by 13 and then take that calorie count as the amount of food intake I need, but to reduce the amount by 300 to lose about 1lb a week. This would put me at about 2750 a day, I will probably get somewhere near that without issue.

View Larger Map

Actually really jazzed about this, the distance actually worked out perfectly, now it is just about executing on it. This week will allow me to get started on it at the gym, the Saturday morning is when I am targeting the first real test of the distance with the little girl. The parents can drive us back home where I am sure I will just lay in bed and be exhausted for a bit, but it will be good to get some road work done.

The one good thing about the LA Marathon compared to the Rock and Roll Marathon held in San Diego is that there is a lot of flat land in the LA Marathon and a lot of downhills as you can see from the LA Marathon route map:

LA Marathon Route Map

Mile 1 is straight up hill, mile 2 to 4 is basically all downhill, miles 4-15 looks to be pretty flat with a few ups and downs, miles 16-20 are downhill and flat, miles 21-24 is a gradual incline, but generally flat, the last stretch of the race is downhill into Santa Monica. The problems that I will run into is going to be out of the gate, that uphill is going to be difficult, the second leg is going to be a coasting leg, where the major issues will come are int he bulk of the race from mile 4 – 15 which is fairly flat with a few ups and downs, so a long stretch of relatively flat running will be tough, build up some energy on the next leg with a gradual downhill for 4 miles, then the pain will be brought with the 21-24 mile section as it is an incline basically. Then roll into Santa Monica with arms held high on my birthday, sweaty, exhausted, sore, smelly, turning 40 years old on the day I cross that finish line.

Two things need to be done, which I will try and accomplish this evening. 1 is a training schedule, I need to run at least 3 miles a day for the next couple of weeks during the weekdays, one the weekends go 5. Then steadily increase the distances by increments of .25 each week after my conditioning phase. If by February I can run 10 miles without issue a day and 15 on the weekends, I should be in really good shape for March 18. 2 is a strict diet, this will allow me to convert my food into usable energy, as opposed to fats and reduce the amount of weight I am carrying for the race. Which will make me leaner and quicker. If everything works the way I want it to, I could see finishing the race in under 8 hours. Assuming a pace of 6mph, that would get me in around 4.5 hours, I will mostly likely average out at around 4, so that would put me in that 6-7 hour range, depending on how many times I stop to cry and urinate on myself during the race.

last three days been eating cottage cheese, honey and fruit salad pretty much, though had some chicken wings today… like 5.. but still.. been keep the calories off… hopefully if I can get down to 220 my blood pressure may fall back into check and I may not feel short of breath all the freaking time.