The Deception of Equipment

So being a non-runner, I'm prone to listening to the advice every runner I know gives me. "You've got to do this Chris", "Make sure you do that, Chris", etc. I listen because I'm a novice runner. (Note to actual runners: I use the term "runner" for myself very loosely. I am not yet a runner of any type and those that might see me run would agree. But I need a term to utilize and "runner" is all I've got. So my apologies.)

But some of the advice was great. Most involved equipment. Like the new shoes deal. Much improved. I was running with the wrong equipment. I corrected it and I've moved on. Great advice.

Other advice was also good. Run to music. I do and it helps. Especially long songs that are like 10-12 mintues long. Those help and it helps me keep my pace.

Other advice included getting a good watch. One with a pace timer, heart rate monitor (with chest strap no less) so I know how fast my heart rate is going so as to not overtrain or run too fast. Yes, like that's a problem. But I got one.

I was also told about a new iPhone app called RunKeeper which tracks your run, pace, time and distance on a map using GPS. Very cool. I've used it the past three weeks and it works great.

But this morning, I set out for my run. I was in a hurry because I had a busy morning. So I set out at 5:15 AM running for training sake. But in my rush, I forgot my music. I forgot the iPhone. I didn't have my fancy running iPhone application. I didn't have my fancy heart-rate watch. I just got out and ran. Solo. Sans equipment.

And guess what? Turns out I ran 6 miles.

Officially matching the longest run I've ever taken in my life. All without the equipment. Just me and road. In my third week of training.

And it was good.

(But I did miss the music.)

Summary: Week 2 Training

This week the mileage stayed about the same. A couple 2-3 miles twice this week and a four mile run today with the training group. All in all, not bad. Although I felt a little tired today. I also noticed a small issue: some low back pain this week. (This picture was on the canals again today. I was actually running when I took this mid-stride with my iPhone as that's my shadow. I'm surprised it's not more blurry.)

Now, it could be due to some golf. But I've been playing golf for 32 years and never had a back issue. I started training for a marathon two weeks ago. Something tells me it's the running. So all of you runners out there, leave me a comment and let me know if this is normal. It's not that bad, just a small irritant now.

Runners tell me that good shoes will eliminate those small things. Well, low and behold, I went to Road Runner Sports in Scottsdale and got fitted for a pair of shoes. They videotaped my stride, had me walk on electronic pads. They did this over two rounds until they came to a recommendation that showed my feet running in the "proper" form and felt good on me.

The result? I'm now rolling in the Nike Zoom Structure Triax+ 12. How about them apples? So we'll see how this helps over the next week. They felt great today and earlier this week.

Yes, I know it's a sales ploy with the videos and technology mumbo-jumbo at the store to sell me a shoe. But it worked. And so have the shoes so far. I'll give updated details as we progress.

Week 1 Training Complete

So, week one of marathon training is over.

We met as a group today to do a group run of about 4 miles up/down the canals along the Biltmore Hotel. It was freezing cold. So note to self (or others) that if you're a native Arizonan and you decide to do an early morning run at 6:45AM or so and the temperature is about 40 degrees, you might want to think about some running gloves. Just a tip. Your hands will freeze to the point you think you have arthritis. Again, just a tip.

That said, I plowed through a massive 12 miles this whole week. Not bad. Got through it without any pains or problems. Next week we start moving some mileage up so we'll see how that goes.

Oh, so make no bones about it. As well as I think I've done in week 1, the funny thing was there were 2 women that weighed 175 pounds (between them) that started their runs today, did their four miles in the time I was barely done with two. So I have new running heroes to look up to. Two women that weigh less than my torso. And they'll kick my ass running any day of the week.

You always need to be wary of small statured, powerful women. They seem to rule the world.

Training: Day 3

So here we go. The training starts. It's actually not bad. One, because the mileage is really low. Something that I am definitely used to. Like 2 miles. My adage is, I am going to start off slow and taper off from there, so the mileage now is easy.

But you fast forward to the training schedule which show by end of March 2009, I will be doing long runs of about 8-10 miles. This seems daunting. The longest "race" I've ever run in was a Phoenix 10k about 1000 years ago and that is 6.2 miles. So 8 miles seems steep.

And add to that is that a marathon is 26.2 miles. Doing some quick math shows that 26/8 is 3.25. This means that my longest run ever will happen in a month and that's only 1/3 of what I'll need to complete this run.

I feel like I'm in school when given a large book to read and you see the page count. I feel like there's a lot of pages here. Not sure how it's going to get done.

But I venture on...