runninghouston2025

[runninghouston2025]

Habanero Hundred Training

Talked with the guys yesterday and told them stories from the glory days when I did the Vol State 500k and the hundred miler.

Tore my calf muscle in September and it’s mid April with some set backs. I was back up to 75 minutes a day and then a reinjury. It goes back to the “yoga conundrum” when I only do yoga when I feel like I need it, and then when I feel better I stop doing it, feeling eventually just as bad and crummy as before. When I started running well again I stopped doing my calf rehab, which was mostly calf raises and foam roller and the Stick. Then because I feel strong and neglect the rehab then the injury comes back.

So hoping that I can ramp up the mileage and be able to stay in the rehab mindset even when I feel strong, and not have any more setbacks.

Today was a glorious run, the kind of long runs where I just wandered an had no fixed route, time, or mileage. Just run toward the horizon, then the next horizon, then the next and the next and next.

Total ended up being 7 miles in 90 minutes, all running, with humongous climbs.

[runninghouston2025]

Some ups and downs

But am getting back into it in a strong way. Most days I’m doing 4.5 either outside or on the treadmill.

I’ve got 26 more days until I start the marathon plan.

[runninghouston2025]

One day rest then sore legs still but did 93 minutes on the treadmill. Trying to get a healthy 40 mile week in six days, felt good so I did this as the longest run. Mentally it is helpful to do the longer run the first day and then knowing the rest of the days runs will be not as long.

[runninghouston2025]

Big week, very even, I feel lactic acid build up so I know it’s time to rest tomorrow. Would be good to get to 50 by the end of the month so that I’m set up for starting the marathon plan at the end of September. 50 would be just 2 miles more per day.

[runninghouston2025]

Had a bad week of training and then two weeks vacation with just one run directly in the middle.

Since I came back last weekend I’ve run one hour each day, and have done 19 in the past four days. If I keep this up it’ll have me at 32 by the end of the week. Heart rate was higher but structurally I feel well and did the runs easily. So I feel that—other than the lost time—I am right where I was before I left.

The best thing is that I have been very good about doing my calf raises to help the knot on my Achilles tendon go away, and I can tell it’s paying off because it feels better every day even despite the running.

Last thing, I registered for the Houston Marathon after I saw they have refundable options that cover unanticipated military activity.

So yay, I’m in! And healthy! And nothing now to keep me from training!

[runninghouston2025]

A tale of two 10Ks

First 10K in several months. I am glad I’m at the point that I can add one or two extra miles and am fit enough that it’s not a big deal. I was very please today that my heart rate stayed around 136, which is exactly where I want it (180-39: 141 or less). I did a 10K race of sorts seeing if I could grind out a fast 10K last year and did it in 53 minutes and today it took 1hr23. But having said that I was in a much higher zone in the one last year.

I’m looking at this as proof that the slow miles now will pay off in big aerobic capacity later on, just as the 10K last year proved to be a demonstration of my fitness gained from many mornings running 7.5 easy miles.

[runninghouston2025]

25 miles for the week; “Thanks for all the inspiration”

If I run tomorrow that’d be 30 miles in one week, but then what about a rest day? I’ll just see how I feel.

Every run while traveling this week was hard because they was always a time crunch, then today I had arrived home and didn’t want to leave. I told myself the magic words: in six months time you will wish you had gotten the runs in. If you do it today, you will be glad in six months time that Past Me went and ran.

This run was not so bad. I felt inner turmoil to just stop halfway, but then I told myself that was mostly impatience and a little bit of boredom rather than not being able to handle the mild physical discomfort. It’s hard on the treadmill when the quarter miles pass so slowly, every 3m20s.

I listened to Suzanne Ciani’s Buchla Concert LP and then I found myself doing crazy math exercises (“if my pace is 3:20 for a quarter miles, then how fast am so running every 100 meters? If I’m going 13:20 pace and one lap is 3:20 does that mean the other three laps equal exactly 10:00?”). It was fun for a bit then as I got tired it became a bit too much. I felt like the math was my only chance of escapism and that I was fraying my nerves, stuck in a sort of ideé fixe situation the same way a song gets stuck in your head and slowly ennervates you. I did 33 minutes then a minute for the restroom and 33 more, telling myself “I could stop, but what else would I be doing with this time that is in any way better?” And whenever I ask myself I see the Andre is to stop complaining and keep going for the scheduled amount.

At the end I felt happy I had got the work in, but I was also a bit deflated. An older man was there closing down the gym with me, he was on the rower near where I ran on the treadmill. He had significant white hair and might have been 65 or 70. We said good night and good job and as he left he told me, “thanks for all the inspiration!” It made me feel joyful and close to him, both of us looking for inspiration to continue these slightly mundane, time consuming but important things. I don’t know what it was, but it could be that he saw me slowly grinding it out for more than an hour, or maybe the Ironman tattoo did it; maybe he sensed that I was going til closing, and so he maybe said he would, too.

Either way it was a nice moment and underlined that I did a good thing by not giving into my initial laziness after arriving at home from the long trip.

[runninghouston2025]

-197 Days

Got it in, one way or another. Yesterday was a good lesson, I didn’t have a plan for nutrition and so the only healthy option I felt I could do was buy a chain fast food large pizza, all veggies and no cheese, and eat half for lunch, half for dinner. Then my body felt out of whack because I took several thirty minute naps on the concrete floor.

The spices on the pizza felt more like the chemical flavors sprayed on there and the whole thing seemed so salty that it was as if they baked the pizza then dumped it in sea water. With cheese it would have been doubly salty. I did not feel well the rest of the night and had crazy nightmares.

So the run today felt like I was exorcising the Domino’s pizza and my body was in the throes of whatever effect the concrete floor naps had on me. Sweating the crummy feeling out took nearly the whole hour, and it was only the last half mile where I felt normal. I had to break it down into one mile segments because things just did not feel right, but I persevered, and I am happy that I made it to the god feeling, which to me is always a magical moment: you feel crummy and you want to stop but you manage the bad and eventually have a breakthrough where you feel good again. That is what happened at my hundred miler, where I felt crummy for hours then at mile 90 I felt better than ever and started easily—magically—running again.

So the lesson is to plan ahead. I did have some healthy options but I ate them ahead of schedule way earlier than I planned. To fix that the rest of my trip I bought two bagged salads for each day left.

[runninghouston2025]

-199 Days

Some games have the apparent game and the real game. The Dark Souls series the apparent game is to fight and not be killed by a boss, but the real game is a puzzle that unfolds. The apparent game in marathon running is to run often and get speedier. Te real game in this training endeavour though is scheduling and planning, seeing what advance work I have to do to get the run in despite a busy schedule. I did it today, I had 2.5 hours free between one commitment and another, so that meant the 66 minute run took up half of that, plus losing thirty minutes driving meant that I had really had half an hour at home to pack before heading round my next thing. It worked but only barely.

This consistency game begins again tomorrow in seeing whether I can get the run in from 6 am to 7 am, otherwise it’s not likely to happen. I set my alarm, so we’ll see!

Today’s training felt good, no issues with my Achilles and the legs felt strong. The old break in my left foot complained a bit but that went away after half a mile. The hour seemed to go by much faster in the treadmill today, though I noticed I had more heart rate fluctuation, which is an indicator I am more weary.

[runninghouston2025]

Two hundred days till the race! let’s go!

Enjoyed a day off and I slept hard two nights in a row. Those two hot outdoor long runs took a lot out of me. This workout tonight on the treadmill was the opposite of that, climate controlled, perfectly the same pace and same incline, heart rate has almost no variability (it was 141-143 the entire time once it settled).

The challenge tonight was that I haven’t ran a mile nonstop in months and months! This was good to do because on my outdoor runs I stop dozens of times each hour to bring my heart rate under control and indoors that was not necessary at all, since 180–age : 141, I was exactly the heart rate I needed to be.

This steady effort was beneficial building mental toughness since that’s not something I ever have to utilise when I’m constantly slowing down and walking in the heat outdoors.

Muscles felt it some and my Achilles but after 15 minutes it was smooth comfortable and easy the whole rest of the time.

Weather wise this was the first day where it got so hot that I said “I’d rather drive the fifteen minutes to the gym than to run in the heat and be completely wiped out the next 24 hours”. And it was worth it!

[runninghouston2025]

Dinner. Last year I read the Matt Fitzgerald book on race weight and nutrition and I was blown away by what seemed to be the very deliberate planning needed for elite runners to have enough carbohydrate (otherwise you’re running flat and the negative effect on your workouts lead to a poor trajectory in your overall training). That’s why you see lots of oatmeal as the main breakfast of runners, and pasta, veggies, toast, potatoes, big bowls of brown rice.

To bring my weight down I’m focused on making sure each day I get my beans and greens, usually both in a whole wheat tortilla wrap. That, plus having a fruit salad like the one in the previous post, and the weight should come down naturally and slowly. Those are two meals with high nutrient score a la the Fitzgerald book that I’m hoping to have as my staple. The third meal is then more open, in addition to a Vega protein shake.

This dinner is “potato nachos” based on a Bolivian staple pique machu. It’s baked potato slices from four potatoes, baked golden brown with no oil whatsoever, then the circles make like tortilla chips for a plate of nachos. The toppings are black beans, curry powder, habanero salsa, nutritional yeast, hot Mateo’s salsa, and several spoonfuls of store-bought olive salad. I try to make it as spicy as possible—almost so spicy that it’s no fun—for the anti-inflammatory and mood elevating aspects.

[runninghouston2025]

Getting my nutrition right.

This fruit bowl has :

-one orange

-one apple

-one kiwi

-one pear

-dried cranberries

-chia seeds

-ground flax seed

-bee pollen

-soy yogurt

-powdered PB and chocolate

[runninghouston2025]

This is the most inspiring thing right now, this whole series. I watched the Trials Marathon in February and heard all the interviews. It's really good. Also right now is the Track and Field Olympic Trials, which I've seen nearly every day, every event.

The plan I hope to follow for the marathon is the Higher Running BQ All-in Plan. I have watched Sage Canaday's videos for years, and this year I've discovered the how-to videos from Irish runner Stephen Scullion ("Scully") . I also paid for their sets of both of their marathon educational videos. So I'm hoping to put these things in to practice after spending three years really learning how to improve as a runner. Work and life have meant that I haven't had much chance to put what I've learned into practice, but hoping to keep the momentum up for the next 202 days and see what I can do after following a real marathon build.

Going through the running materials from Scully, there is big emphasis on recovery, having run 27 miles in the past six days, the next day and a half I'll be implementing those routines to recover as well as I can.

[runninghouston2025]

Day 5 / -202 Days

End of the Week : 27.65 miles

Tried to go for another 8.5 in order to meet the goal of hitting 30 mpw. Today I started when it was much harder and had some Achilles discomfort, but the first hour flew by and felt strong. I went in for five minutes to cook off, drank Nuun and reapplied sunblock. I pushed myself out the door to continue some more, and that was feeling strong and I thought I could hit the remaining 4 without too much stronger. Then it started to feel like it took a whole lot more effort to breathe, and so mentally I switched to “time to call it a day”. I said the second hour was about building mental fortitude as much as getting in the extra distance, and I got a good dose of that even if the miles didn’t hit the number I was going for. I thought of driving to the gym for the treadmill but the idea of sitting in a car for fifteen minutes each way made me say, no, nope, I’d waste half an hour and I’d become really stiff.

Mental toughness. The idea is that when you push yourself out to get the miles in when it’s way too hot, it’s way too cold, it’s rainy or snowy, or way to early or way too late, then when an average day comes in which it’s none of those things, typical everything, then it should be a lot easier to get the miles in.

I also remembered the Murakami running quote about “whether running and writing, you always want to finish the day feeling like you could have done more” because that way starting up the next day will be much easier.

I also swam once, did a deadlift exercise, and did well on my eating (minus last night when it was late and I shopped at H-E-B so in my late night moment of weakness I ate both donuts and a package of six macaroons.

[runninghouston2025]

Day 4 / -203 Days

Ran 8.5 miles. Goal for the week was try to hit 30 miles, which is challenging, so this put me closer to that in a big way.

Did a big concert last night, woke up stiff but got out a little early knowing I didn't want to run in the heat. This was a great example of a few things:

1) the more fit I get, the easier it is to wake up and go run. I don't feel as much inertia or dread, which is huge and I think which is why I was able to run 90 minutes consistently at 5:30 AM last year on most days, where I could finish before the sun was even up. For a long time I felt a disconnect between the person I am now and the person I was then, but that disconnect is starting to go away the more regularly I run. And I can tell I am sleeping more deeply where I need less sleep, which is also why those 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. runs were not so challenging

2) how I create A, B, and C goals for workouts, which gives me a big mental edge. I knew my goal was to hit 30 miles, so I needed 17 to do in just two days. I was thinking different ways to do that, 10 + 7, or more even 8.5 + 8.5, or two days of doubles, doing 5 and 5 and 5 and two. The idea of going for ten is daunting though, and when the numbers become daunting I have felt that to be demotivational, where it's hard to even get out the door. Adopting this way of having A, B, and C goals though is great because it avoids thinking "such a huge workout planned today" and instead it taps into the power of "doing something every day, even small, will pay off hugely later on".

So my A, B, and C goals were like this:

C) Did I get out the door?

B) Complete the usual workout, 60 minutes / 4.25 miles

A) Keep running miles past one hour until two hours pass, going based on how I feel

If I do C, then the day was a success, if I do B the day was a success, if I hit A, then a great success.

As I started, the first thirty minutes passed a little stiff then everything felt good, and I was blessed with some recurrent cloud cover, so I just said "I'm feeling good, make it to my B goal, then push it another mile or two, and then if I'm still feeling good after that keep going til I fill two hours."

Kept everything real easy, stopped at the house to get a different hat and some water. I can tell when I stopped that I am a little more fit because it didn't take as much out of me and I wasn't wiped out the rest of the day. Not the most happy that my average pace is 14 minutes/ mile, which seems crazy, but I am getting the mileage up knowing that I am preparing for everything that's to come later.

I realized with my weight now 15 pounds heavier, that the rule of thumb "gain 15 seconds per mile for every five less pounds" works in the other way: "lost 15 seconds per mile for every five pounds extra". So twenty pounds is a minute per mile slower, so 13:00's instead of 12:00's, and with walking through in that stretches to 14:00's.

[runninghouston2025]

Day 3 run

D-204

Brutally hot. Started at 10:00 am and finished at 11. 92*

[runninghouston2025]

Day 2 part 2

Got out there and ran again. I was inspired by watching the great Clayton Young training series on YouTube. It felt not too bad, legs a bit sore from the first workout yesterday but it went away. It was easy to keep it easy. Goal is to get to 30 miles this week, and if I didn’t go out it would have been a lot harder to do that with just three days left in the week, but now with this run I hit 10 for the week, so that’s 2 days of 5 and one of 10.