Carrollton 5k (Week 18)

On Saturday I ran the Carrollton 5k, which is a local race put on by the city.  It's a nice race that tends to top out around 500 runners, which is good considering we are running on a cement trail that is about twice as wide as a regular sidewalk.  Many of the runners live in the immediate area but there are some folks that come from other nearby cities to run this specific race.

I did alright in the race.  I managed to finish 17th out of 41 runners in the Male 30-39 division.  I finished with an official time of 28:19.90, which is about a 1:15 slower than what I ran last year (26:55.16).  I had a chance to PR had I not gotten a severe leg cramp right around the 3 mile marker.

I heard via a third party (I don't know if the woman was the race director or not) that the race course will be changing next year.  The idea is so that people won't have to park at the high school and then be bused to the start line.  The course will still be on the Carrollton trail network which is nice in that there aren't any significant street closures with how the course is currently designed.  We did cross the street in two places and the Carrollton PD is there to manage traffic but it's nothing like most races where you run on nothing but streets.

After the race I ran back with some other people to pick up their car, so I managed 6.2 miles for the day.  For the most part it was a pretty good day.

I paid for running that 5k pretty hard the next day when I needed to run 10 miles as part of maintaining my marathon training schedule.  My legs felt like jello and that nasty cramp in my left leg was still there.  In fact it was so bad I walked most of the abbreviated route.  I decided to walk rather than trying to run through the pain since I am too close to my race that I didn't want to risk an injury.  I was worried about having the cramp turn into some worse like a pulled muscle.

Product Review: Knuckle Lights

Knuckle Lights Product Review

This is my product review of Knuckle Lights.  Friendly disclosure: I bought these lights with my own money; they were not sent to me by the company to try for a product review nor was I paid any money for this review.  I will only review products I purchase myself that I feel others might benefit from.

I purchased these lights directly from Dicks Sporting Goods through their website.  As of the publishing of this blogpost, these lights retail for $39.99.  The lights are eligible for free shipping if you purchase the lights from the company directly; Dicks may ship the lights for free depending on whether they are offering some sort of promotion that may require you spend a certain amount of money.

These lights come in a number of colors -- Blue, Pink, Silver (pictured), Black, and Yellow.  They come with AAA batteries already included but it might be best to replace them as soon as possible as mine only seemed to last for a very short time frame.  I recently invested in rechargeable batteries in an attempt to reduce the cost of constantly replacing batteries roughly every month to two months.

These lights put out good light that fully illuminates the area in front of you.  Unlike a headlamp that shines where you are looking, you don't have to worry about shining the lights in someone's eyes, which is a problem for me since I am 5'11" where people shorter than me tend to shine their headlamps right into my eyes.  The lights have three settings -- High, Low, & Flashing.

The primary reason I bought the lights was that I wanted to see where I was running as I have seen too many people that run in my group trip and fall over something.  It also makes it easier for other people, most importantly cars, to see you in low light situations.  I've even run with the knuckle lights during the day with them set to flash when I haven't gotten tired of carrying them.

They lights are not very heavy and not really noticeable while you are carrying them.  I got tired of carrying them though when I was doing my really long runs for my marathon training.  I can be really bad about clinching my fists and holding the lights will start to cause my hands to hurt.  Since I run with a Nathan hydration belt on my really long runs (13 or more miles) I got two carabiners that I used to fasten the lights to the belt when I don't want to carry them anymore.

All in all, I have been extremely satisfied with these lights and would recommend them to any runner that runs in low light situations.

Week 17 - 20 Miles

This week was a much, much better run.  I didn't have any stomach problems since I didn't use the same stuff that upset my stomach the past two weekends.  I still have to walk some after the 13 mile mark as I very much have the endurance to run a half marathon.  Past that and the distance becomes a lot more cumbersome and taxing.  It might be good for me in training runs to run past 13 miles so that I can stretch my endurance to longer distances.  That might help make marathon training be less of a beat down, both mentally and physically.

My marathon is just a little more than 4 weeks away.  I'm both excited yet terrified.  I am very certain I will be able to finish it but I still get freaked out by the distance.

We're at the point in the training runs where we start tapering.  Next week we are scheduled to run 10 miles!  I am running in a 5k and so while I want to try to be my previous best of 27:15, I really think it might be best to just run at a pace that is comfortable for me that doesn't put too much stress on my body.  If I were to run a 9:30/mile pace I'd be very happy.  After the race I think we will be finishing the route with a 7 mile run in the area.

Well, I am starving after burning 1,800 calories this morning and so I am going to sign off to raid the fridge.

Week 16 - 20 Miles

This was the run that wasn't.  I was suppose to run 20 miles this morning but I started having a really bad upset stomach almost immediately after I started running.  I had struggled with a sour stomach the week prior but managed to man it out but that was not the case this week.  I bailed after about 3 miles and made my way back to the park where we start from.  I went home and slept it off and felt fine later in the afternoon.

I am 99.9% certain it is from shaking the protein/energy drink aggressively which puts a lot of air in the drink and when I drink until I feel "full" it puts a lot of air in my stomach and the running just makes it worse for me.

Everyone has bad runs and this one was a bad one for sure.  The good thing is next week LiveWire is starting a new running class so I can make up some of the miles throughout the week and just run 20 (or more?) miles next weekend.

Week 15 - 18 Miles

Today I ran 18 miles.  This was by far the hardest run I have ever completed.  When I look over the training schedule I will run 20 miles next weekend and 22 miles after that.  We will start tapering in May.

I can tell I am best conditioned right now to run a half marathon.  I start having to walk more and more after 13 miles.  I still finished the route but I have never been so physically tired in my life.

There is no doubt that this will be the hardest thing I will have ever attempted in my life.

Looking back on this so far I do know there are some things I need to do differently if I ever decide to run another marathon.  I need to log more miles during the week to get my weekly mileage to no less than 50.  That could mean running somewhere between 6 and 10 miles at least twice a week in addition to the long runs I do on the weekend.

500 More Spots Opened for Mountains 2 Beach Marathon

Post by Mountains 2 Beach Marathon.

Week 14 - Big D Half Marathon

Today I ran for the second time the Big D Half Marathon.  I did better by about four or five minutes better compared to last year's run, despite last year having better weather conditions.  I didn't mind the cool temps as I love running in temps between 50 and 65 degrees but it either threatened to rain throughout the race or it was a light drizzle.  The last 5 minutes of running were perhaps the worst in that it poured rain and made for a very cold finish.

It's a fairly hilly course (in my opinion) but it can be a very pretty run through a couple nice neighborhoods.  I think it lead to part of my running struggles later in the race as it caused me to expend more energy than I wanted.  I also didn't eat or drink anything before the race and so I bonked right around the 9 or 10 mile marker.  This just further reinforces that I must eat or drink something before each training run or race if I want to perform my best.

I really don't mind this race and would run it again.  They offer a full marathon course and if I ever decide to run a full marathon I would consider it.

Course

Elevation Chart

Up next - and 18 mile training run on Saturday!