Marathon Training Week 6 Recap

     Another week is in the books and no real issues have come up yet.  One thing I am noticing though is when I get up in the mornings and head out for my run, my legs always feel sore and tired kinda like I am wearing cement shoes.  The weird thing is even though they feel this way I am still hitting my desired pace or faster.  Maybe I need to do a better job of stretching and rolling my muscles out to alleviate this feeling.

     Knocking on wood, I haven't had any real major injury issues to deal with, and all my training runs have gone pretty well.    Wednesday was pretty exciting to me, being able to complete so many miles in one run really effected me emotionally, as I though it might.  I made a nutritional change for my long run, introducing a Clif brand crunchy granola bar into the mix.

     It is hard to pick which run was may favorite for the week, but if I was forced to do it I would have to pick Friday's.  Just the fact that I ran my fastest mile ever on a flat surface on the last mile of a run made me feel like I am really making some progress.

Sunday:

     Sleep is what I needed and Mandy new it.  She asked me if I was going to run in the morning or after work, which is not normal because she knows I run in the morning.  I took the opportunity to sleep in so I could allow my body to rest.  The down side to that decision was instead of running when it was cool with mild humidity now means I had to run when it was warm and sticky out.  When I got home from work, I got changed and headed out.  There was a little breeze that was nice, but there was one stretch of road with tall corn fields on both sides blocking the wind that was the worst part of it.  It made the situation very sticky with stagnate air, it felt like I was running in a sauna.  I decided to take a slightly different route and at one point I had to stop and look at my gps on my phone to see if I missed my turn. The last mile or so was a little better because I was on the bike path with a canopy of trees providing some shade.  I had to show this when I uploaded my watch data.  my pace and my cadence was rock solid steady.
 

     I have been doing some pushups to help build up my upper body strength, but I haven't been logging them to know exactly which days I did them and how many.  I figured, hell I am writing a weekly recap of my training so I might as well add them too.
     - 3 sets of 10 pushups

Monday:

    Nothing to note today other than today was an off day from running.

Tuesday:

     Felt pretty darn good on this run despite how muggy it was.  Lately I've noticed on almost every run my body wants to go faster than my scheduled pace and today was no exception.  I think it shows the work i have been putting in and that I am getting in better shape.  I will continue to let my pace quicken but I don't want to let it get to out of hand.  I figure five seconds or so won't sabotage my training and cause me to over train, but I also want to let my body do what it wants to.

Wednesday:

      This summer has been pretty nice weather for a lot of things especially running and today was no exception.  A very comfortable 60 degrees and low humidity, I couldn't have asked for a better morning to head out for my longest run yet.  Today is my last long run before I hit my first 20 miler.  Now that seems a little dramatic considering today was a 19 mile run and next week it is only one more mile.  

      My goal today was just to keep my pace under the 10 minute mark for every mile.  I headed out and for some reason I felt so good I couldn't get my pace to slow down.  I practically had to slow to a walk to get my pace to settle down.  Once I got past my first three miles I was able to get the my pace a little more to where I wanted it to be.  I was looking to keep it between 9:45 and 9:55 per mile even though my pace bounced around a little bit, I was very pleased with it.

     I went for a little change in scenery so I mapped out a route that would take me east for the major part of the run and then head back to familiar territory.  The reason I bring it up is because on this section of the bike path there was a lot of tree coverage and I have noticed when I am in these type of sections my gps gets a little funny and even though I don't feel like my pace is slowing, my pace on the watch always slows down.  That is when I hit the 9:50s for the first time, the other was when I had a 3 mile section of direct head wind.  The road I was running had tall corn on both sides and and it created a tunnel effect with the breeze and made a light wind quite a bit stronger.

     I had a slight change with my nutrition plan for my run today.  During my 17 mile long run I notice I was getting pretty hungry and the Clif chews were not enough so this time I added pair of Clif brand crunchy peanut butter granola bars.  I ate the first one at mile 8 and the second at mile 16.  It seemed to help, I didn't notice any hunger pains this time and I didn't have any GI issues either.  I am thinking one bar per hour would be good, so I will continue to test this and see how it goes.

     I can tell you this run really effected me today.  There was a certain point where I felt so perfect, you know, those times when you have that perfect song playing at just the right time and everything seems to be going just right.   I had this moment where all I could think about was how far I had come from that guy that just 2 years ago, at that very moment would have been sitting on his fat ass watching a movie and eating his life away with junk food.  I just started thinking about how far I have come and realizing that I am capable of extraordinary things.  No one can show you this or make you feel this, it is something only you can find when you look inside yourself and make the choice to change. 

Thursday:
     Today is Mandy's birthday and since we celebrated yesterday we decided to just have a quiet evening at home.  We cooked a couple of nice steaks on the grill and continued watching the past sons of anarchy seasons.

Friday:

     Man it was freakin' COLD!  For some stupid ass reason I thought I would warm up once I got going so I didn't wear any long sleeves, hats or gloves.  I dealt with the cold pretty well, but my hands were very, very cold.  My first mile was at the slower end of my pace range for this run, but once my legs loosened up and the pace really increased with an almost 30 second swing.  As the miles clicked by my pace slowed down a bit, nothing I would be concerned about.  When my watch buzzed and signaled that I was in mile 6 I just said to screw it I wanted to see how fast I could go on my last mile.  To my obvious surprise I ran my fastest mile ever, this time without the help of a steep Sothern California hill.
     - 3 sets of 10 pushups

Saturday:

          I had the urge to sleep it in today, which I know may seem like I am being lazy, but I figure as long as I still get my run in then I'm not being to lazy :) This was an easy pace run, but my easy pace has gotten faster as of late so today's run was right around the 9:30 mark instead of the 9:45s I had originally mapped out for myself.  I kept the route simple this time and just did an out and back on the bike trail.  It was pretty warm out sitting at 81 degrees, the low humidity helped quite a bit. 

Week 7 begins now

* For quick access to my entire Marathon training journal click the "Marathon Journal" tab just below the Running In The Fat Lane header

Wednesday Weight In

     Wooooo what a day.  Lots of running around today, pun intended.  We were getting Mandy a new car today and in addition to running nineteen miles I also had to drive an hour to north Toledo to sign some papers at the credit union then drive an hour back to get to the dealer in time to make my service appointment and sign some more papers for Mandy's Jeep.  I got my run in and made all my appointments and Mandy absolutely loves her new ride.

     As for the weigh in today, I feel like I am not making a progress on it.  I feel stuck in a yo-yo right now unable to break free of the up and down in the same spot.  While I am happy I am back on the way down I am just hoping I don't bounce and head back up again.

   

8/13/14 official weigh in

181.5 lbs

Change: -2.5 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 1135.5 lbs

Current BMI: 28.4 (overweight)

Change:-.4

      This summer has been pretty nice weather for a lot of things especially running and today was no exception.  A very comfortable 60 degrees and low humidity, I couldn't have asked for a better morning to head out for my longest run yet.  Today is my last long run before I hit my first 20 miler.  Now that seems a little dramatic considering today was a 19 mile run and next week it is only one more mile.  

      My goal today was just to keep my pace under the 10 minute mark for every mile.  I headed out and for some reason I felt so good I couldn't get my pace to slow down.  I practically had to slow to a walk to get my pace to settle down.  Once I got past my first three miles I was able to get the my pace a little more to where I wanted it to be.  I was looking to keep it between 9:45 and 9:55 per mile even though my pace bounced around a little bit, I was very pleased with it.

     I went for a little change in scenery so I mapped out a route that would take me east for the major part of the run and then head back to familiar territory.  The reason I bring it up is because on this section of the bike path there was a lot of tree coverage and I have noticed when I am in these type of sections my gps gets a little funny and even though I don't feel like my pace is slowing, my pace on the watch always slows down.  That is when I hit the 9:50s for the first time, the other was when I had a 3 mile section of direct head wind.  The road I was running had tall corn on both sides and and it created a tunnel effect with the breeze and made a light wind quite a bit stronger.

     I had a slight change with my nutrition plan for my run today.  During my 17 mile long run I notice I was getting pretty hungry and the Clif chews were not enough so this time I added pair of Clif brand crunchy peanut butter granola bars.  I ate the first one at mile 8 and the second at mile 16.  It seemed to help, I didn't notice any hunger pains this time and I didn't have any GI issues either.  I am thinking one bar per hour would be good, so I will continue to test this and see how it goes.

     I can tell you this run really effected me today.  There was a certain point where I felt so perfect, you know, those times when you have that perfect song playing at just the right time and everything seems to be going just right.   I had this moment where all I could think about was how far I had come from that guy that just 2 years ago, at that very moment would have been sitting on his fat ass watching a movie and eating his life away with junk food.  I just started thinking about how far I have come and realizing that I am capable of extraordinary things.  No one can show you this or make you feel this, it is something only you can find when you look inside yourself and make the choice to change. 

Marathon Training Week 5 recap

     I have officially renamed Saturday as Eat Garbage Day! Last Saturday night Mandy and I headed to the one of the local county fairs to walk around, see the animals and of course eat the carny food.  Well I let the food get the best of me and boy did my stomach pay the price.  We split some Wisconsin Fried Cheese Curds, I ate a huge greasy plate of ribbon fries and a tasty ribeye sandwich.  By the time we got home, my stomach was revolting and I felt like throwing up all night.  Then last night Mandy and I headed to a local favorite, Fricker's restaurant, to watch the first Cleveland Browns pre-season game against the Detroit Lions.  It is pretty much inevitable that if we go there I will eat like shit and last night was no exception.  Mandy and I shared a plate of nachos for an appetizer, then I followed that up with large breaded BBQ wings and krinkle cut french fries drowning in ketchup.  Like with all garbage food, when you are not use to eating it, it tasted way to good going down, but later causes the gut to revolt.  You would think I would have learn by now, and it worries me a little how easy it was to go overboard.  Right now I can get away with it, a little bit, only because I am putting in so many miles.  I really need to work on this and get it under control.  The only good that came from last night was I wore my Browns jersey for the first time since last season, which use to fit me perfectly and now I am swimming in the thing! :) 

Sunday:

     It was another hot one out there today.  I must really be a glutton for punishment because instead of getting up early and heading out when it was much cooler, I waited till mid day.  I really needed some good sleep so I slept in till around 9am since I didn't have to work today.  Mandy wanted to go to the local flea market just down the road, so we got ready and headed to that for a little while.  When we were done, I felt like just getting our grocery shopping done, so by the time I got home and headed out it was around 12:30.  It was in the low 80's and I don't care what the weather image says below it was damn sticky and felt a lot higher humidity than 48%. Couple that with barely any breeze and hardly a cloud in the sky to block the sun, I was baking out there.  Today's run was at my race pace and I managed to keep it at the faster end of my goal despite the heat.  I normally don't wear my Camelbak vest for shorter runs, but with the heat I needed to take extra water and it seemed like the best choice.  My new shoes felt good as well, so I am going to start using them for my long runs now.
   
     My calves have been bothering me a little lately, just sore and achy so I am looking forward to having Monday off.  I am going to get the foam roller out and The Stick and massage out the legs.  Hopefully that will loosen them up a little.
 

Monday:

    Day off, from running anyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Tuesday:

     Not a lot to talk about with this run.  It was cool temperature wise, which was nice, but the humidity was way way up so it was quite sticky out there.  I was able to maintain a very nice steady pace throughout the run.  It really isn't that hard to do on the easy runs as long as I don't get to lax at any one time.  Obviously I wanted to finish quite strong and it shows in a 16 second swing from mile 4 to mile 5.

Wednesday:

    

     Moving on, normally I am sleeping right now, eventually I get up and go for my run, eat lunch and then sit down and start typing out this post.  This week however, I am short staffed at work and not only am I working today, but I am working 9 straight days before my next day off.  I really didn't have a choice, two of my employees had very important reasons to be off at the same time, so to have enough coverage for the week, here I am about to head into work.

     Do to my work schedule, I had to get a little creative with my long run today.  This week was a cut back week for my long run, so I only had 12 miles to do today.  I decided to get up about 15 minutes earlier than I normally do and try and squeeze in as many miles as I could, and whatever was left I would go for another run tonight when I get home from work.  Probably not the most perfect plan but I really didn't want to get home around 7:30ish and head out for 2 hours and I didn't want to get up an hour earlier this morning so this seemed like the best solution.

     As far as the run goes, it was really creepy and I don't mean scooby Doo creepy I mean like children of the corn or Friday the 13th creepy.  Since I was up earlier than I usually am it was a little darker out and to make matters worse a heavy fog had set in overnight.  I took a pictures in town before I headed out but it doesn't do it justice.  Once I got on the bike path and got out of town the fog got even thicker and even with my headlamp I couldn't see more then 10-15 feet in front of me.  It was really creepy with the trees on the path forming a tunnel effect and when I was in the open areas of the path I had corn fields on each side of me.  I tried to relax and just settle into my run, but that never happened.  You can see it in my pace, I wanted to be around 9:50-10:00 per mile and I just kept running faster and kept my pace in the low 9:40s to high 9:30s just wanting to get back to my house.  The faster pace did help me to get in 7 miles before work so now I only have to hit 5 miles tonight.

     When I got home I quickly changed into my running gear and headed out for my other 5 miles for the day.  I was really surprised good I felt.  I really thought my pace would have been quite slow due to my first run and being on my feet all day at work.  When I looked at my watch at the quarter mile mark of my first mile I was shocked at how quick my pace was and how easy it was to hit that pace.  After I finished the first mile and saw a 9:32 I decided that I would try to keep the faster pace going for the entire 5 miles.  I figured if I wasn't able to run the entire 12 miles at once, running both sets at a faster pace would be the best way to simulate doing the entire run at a slower pace.
     
      When I headed out for my lunch today I noticed how hot it was and I figured my second run was going to suck.  Since I didn't hit the road till almost eight o clock, the sun had started setting while the temperature and the humidity also dropped and it felt almost as cool as it did during my morning run.  My legs were starting to feel it during the fourth mile as you can see by the change in my pace.  Mile five I turned on and really pushed to have as strong finish and boy was I glade when the run came to an end.  All in all this run was a nice, uneventful training run to put in the books.  Tomorrow is a rest day and then its back at it with some speed work on Friday :(

Thursday:
     I had a pretty long day at work, and when I finally got home Mandy and I continued where we left off re-watching the previous 6 seasons of Sons of Anarchy.  Each year Mandy and I re-watch all the previous episodes to prepare for the next season.  It was nice to just be able to put the feet up and relax.

Friday:

     It was a nice cool morning, but even with an extra hour of sleep I woke up tired.  When I finally headed out my legs felt like I was running in cement shoes despite what my pace shows.  My pace was kind of all over the place on this run.  My first two miles were steady, but I don't know what happened in mile three.  I don't know where that burst of speed came from to give me 40 plus second swing in pace.  Before I new it, it was gone and I had a big swing back to a slower pace.  I then had two solid steady miles, followed up with a little bit of a push to finish the run strong.  I added my pace chart to show just how all over the place it was.

 

Saturday:

          It sure was hard getting up again this morning.  I think it is a combination of all the miles and me not getting a day off from work.  I really didn't want to go and when I forced myself to go, I just kept thinking of cutting the run a little short thinking that would make me feel better.  The instant I started my legs felt really tired and my calves were a little sore.  It amazes me how I felt once I got my first mile done.  My entire body felt much better, my legs felt like they broke free of the cement shoes I was wearing and I was able to speed it up a little.  My pace stayed nice and steady after that first mile was out of the way, and as much as I thought this was going to be a terrible run, it turned out to be a pretty damn good one.  I wish I had more to say, but I guess if I did, it was because the run had problems.

Week 6 begins now

* For quick access to my entire Marathon training journal click the "Marathon Journal" tab just below the Running In The Fat Lane header

Wednesday Weigh In

     Do to my crazy work schedule I wasn't able to finish this post till Thursday.  Most of what I wrote was written on Wednesday, sorry for the delay!

     All I can say today is with a negitive outcome I still have a positive outlook on things.  As much as I would love to see a loss every week I know sometimes that can't always be the case.  This week I had no delusions that I would have lost anymore weight considering my eating habits.  Thursday we were at the Toledo Mud Hens game and Saturday at the county fair, allowing myself to eat all that garbage both places were serving up, to be honest I am surprised I only gained what I did.  Also in full disclosure I didn't get my normal pre-run bathroom visit in before I weighed in so it might not have been as bad as it looks, but no excuses.   

8/6/14 official weigh in

184 lbs

Change: +1.5 lbs

Total loss from heaviest: 133 lbs

Current BMI: 28.8 (overweight)

Change: +.3

     Moving on, normally I am sleeping right now, eventually I get up and go for my run, eat lunch and then sit down and start typing out this post.  This week however, I am short staffed at work and not only am I working today, but I am working 9 straight days before my next day off.  I really didn't have a choice, two of my employees had very important reasons to be off at the same time, so to have enough coverage for the week, here I am about to head into work.

     Do to my work schedule, I had to get a little creative with my long run today.  This week was a cut back week for my long run, so I only had 12 miles to do today.  I decided to get up about 15 minutes earlier than I normally do and try and squeeze in as many miles as I could, and whatever was left I would go for another run tonight when I get home from work.  Probably not the most perfect plan but I really didn't want to get home around 7:30ish and head out for 2 hours and I didn't want to get up an hour earlier this morning so this seemed like the best solution.

     As far as the run goes, it was really creepy and I don't mean scooby Doo creepy I mean like children of the corn or Friday the 13th creepy.  Since I was up earlier than I usually am it was a little darker out and to make matters worse a heavy fog had set in overnight.  I took a pictures in town before I headed out but it doesn't do it justice.  Once I got on the bike path and got out of town the fog got even thicker and even with my headlamp I couldn't see more then 10-15 feet in front of me.  It was really creepy with the trees on the path forming a tunnel effect and when I was in the open areas of the path I had corn fields on each side of me.  I tried to relax and just settle into my run, but that never happened.  You can see it in my pace, I wanted to be around 9:50-10:00 per mile and I just kept running faster and kept my pace in the low 9:40s to high 9:30s just wanting to get back to my house.  The faster pace did help me to get in 7 miles before work so now I only have to hit 5 miles tonight.

     When I got home I quickly changed into my running gear and headed out for my other 5 miles for the day.  I was really surprised good I felt.  I really thought my pace would have been quite slow due to my first run and being on my feet all day at work.  When I looked at my watch at the quarter mile mark of my first mile I was shocked at how quick my pace was and how easy it was to hit that pace.  After I finished the first mile and saw a 9:32 I decided that I would try to keep the faster pace going for the entire 5 miles.  I figured if I wasn't able to run the entire 12 miles at once, running both sets at a faster pace would be the best way to simulate doing the entire run at a slower pace.
     
      When I headed out for my lunch today I noticed how hot it was and I figured my second run was going to suck.  Since I didn't hit the road till almost eight o clock, the sun had started setting while the temperature and the humidity also dropped and it felt almost as cool as it did during my morning run.  My legs were starting to feel it during the fourth mile as you can see by the change in my pace.  Mile five I turned on and really pushed to have as strong finish and boy was I glade when the run came to an end.  All in all this run was a nice, uneventful training run to put in the books.  Tomorrow is a rest day and then its back at it with some speed work on Friday :(

Marathon Training Week 4 Recap

     This week was a little off for me.  The heat and the humidity on a couple of the runs, 17 miles on the long run and almost skipping a day has really tested me this week.  I wouldn't say I couldn't handle it, I could, it just ended up being a little rough and tested my resolve.  One day I almost skipped all together and a couple of times I kept saying I can cut a mile or two off this run and it won't make a big deal in the grand scheme of things.  Every time I had that thought, I told myself to just keep on pushing, just one more mile and your done.  I am happy to say I managed to get in all the miles I scheduled myself this week and didn't let a single excuse get in the way.

Sunday:

     Phew it was a hot one.  It was a sticky one with the humidity.  Thunderstorms were foretasted for today and the sky sure looked like it, but no rain ever came during my run.  In fact not only did it not rain but the clouds broke and the sun came out, which made it a lot worse.  There wasn't a breeze, mix that with the humidity and boy did this run suck.  I was extremely tired so I slept in and didn't hit the road till a little after 11.  My fault for waiting so long to head out so I can't really complain about it.  My training plan said I should do today as an easy run but I really wanted to do a race pace run this morning.  I wasn't sure which way I was going to go, but once I finished that first mile I was feeling to good to back down.  I sped up, hit my race pace window and kept on moving.  I remembered to take water with me this time and I am glad I did because I used every drop on this one.  I was also suppose to slow back down to an easy pace for the last mile, but screw it, I wanted to finish strong.  Now I'll take tomorrow off and then Tuesday is an easy run so I am gonna give the new shoes another go.
 

Monday:

    Day off!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Tuesday:

     It was quite a cool this morning.  Once I got running and got my body temp up I felt pretty good, but my hands were a little cold and I could have used at least some thin gloves to wear.  Today's run was at my easy pace and I was doing quite well with my pace until I hit mile three.  I ended up having to slow down a little because I got a side stitch.  Just as my stitch seemed to go away I got a little GI pain during mile 4.  It kinda felt like some gas pressure built up and I wasn't able to release it.  Eventually it went away and I was able to get back to my normal pace and finish the last mile strong.  I wore my new shoes again and they worked great.  So far I have no complaints with them and my feet have been quite happy with them.

Wednesday:

     Sore is the only word that comes to mind when I think about how I feel right now.  Today I had my longest run yet, and as great as I feel I am so glad next week is a set back week to allow my body to rest a little.  Seventeen miles sure is a long way and to think that I just got done running that truly amazes me.

    

     Last night I mapped out my route using the course function at runningahead.com.  Its a great little tool that allows you to draw your route on a map and gives you the mileage and elevation changes.  I don't want to finish to far from home and I don't want to get back home only to have to head back out because I didn't get enough miles so by using the course creator I know exactly where to go so I finish right back at my house.  I also checked the weather as thunderstorms were forecast for today.  I new I would be out for almost 3 hours so I got up a little earlier so I could finish by noon and stay ahead of any potential weather, which didn't show up till almost 6:00. 

    

      I got all packed up and ready to go and noticed it was mostly overcast and the temp was still quite cool.  Last week when I took off, even though I held a steady pace it felt tough to get any pace much below the 10 minute per mile mark, today it felt so much easier and was actually hard to keep my pace slow.  My body just kept wanting to go faster and I had to fight it most of the run.

     My run got a little slow around mile 6; I seemed to have taken a funny step because my ankle began to hurt.  I tried pushing through it and slowed my pace down.  The pain wasn't more than a 4 on a scale of ten so I pushed on and eventually the pain vanished.  Mile 10 was the other time things got a little slow for me.  I think my legs were just trying to get me to say hey its ok to quit or take a little break, but I pushed through and ignored them.  I was also proud of myself for maintaining a nice steady pace in the middle of my run while I was listening to a podcast.  If you remember last time I did this my pace fell off quite a bit and had to shut off the podcast and put my music back on to recover my pace.  I listened to the entire 45 minute podcast and only slowed a couple of seconds per mile.  

     I am happy to report that the Clif Shot Bloks are working quite well for me.  So far I have not had any GI issues and I have been able to get down every one I attempt to eat.  As of now I have been eating one blok every 2 miles and taking a drink immediately after swallowing it.  The one thing I notice this time is at around 2 and a half hours my stomach was grumbling a little telling me I was starting to get really hungry.  I may need to rethink my strategy a little bit and consider adding a more tradition food to my fueling strategy.  

     Once I hit mile 15 I was again breaking new ground as I went 2 miles further than I ever had before.   To top it off, those were my two fastest miles out of the whole run.  I decided to take the governor off and not worry how fast or slow I was going and just go with what felt good.  It was nice to see I could go faster on tired legs!

Thursday:
     Nothing major to report, legs obviously still felt tired following yesterday's long run.  Mandy's work had a company picnic at a Toledo Mud Hens game.  It was nice to just kick back and enjoy ourselves.  They were serving chicken, hotdogs, burgers, chips, cookies, the worst most tasteless mac n cheese I have ever had and an open bar.  I kept to the chicken and had one ball park dog, a few chips and tried the mac n cheese.  While we were enjoying the game a rouge rain cloud came over and poured on us, luckily Mandy and my seats were under the second level overhang.  As the rain quit a double rainbow appeared behind the scoreboard.
  

Friday:

     I will tell you this right now, the next time I get up to go run on a cool morning and my body says no way, wait till the evening to run I am gonna kick my own ass.  I woke up this morning and my body just kept saying no please no.  I wasn't sore or anything I was just tired and couldn't bring myself to go do my speed work.  All day I told myself I was just going to skip, that is till I got home and I just said screw it, go get it done.  I tell you speed work is the worst when you are doing it but you feel so good after you are done.  Now the reason for the opening line is because despite what the image of the weather conditions below says it was super humid and I was sweating my ass off compared to the nice cool morning I could have ran in.  The run went pretty well considering I was on my feet all day at work.  The first two miles were going well and then all my energy seemed to disappear and miles three and four were a total struggle.  I managed to push through on the last mile and turn out a decent time.  

Saturday:

          I wore my new shoes for this run and no issues with them.  I will be trying them out on my race pace run tomorrow, if they work well then I am going to make them my main shoe and use my high mileage shoes for the easy runs.  This mornings run was pretty uneventful.  My legs were still pretty tired from last nights tempo run and I couldn't seem to get my pace to settle down.  I felt like cutting the last mile off of my run, but of course I didn't.  I told myself to go just a half mile further and I can turn around. 

Week 5 begins now

* For quick access to my entire Marathon training journal click the "Marathon Journal" tab just below the Running In The Fat Lane header