Yay! So after resting some I got in a good run on Friday (3.5 miles) and another good run on Sunday (5 miles).

I’m going to head out again today… but the real question is: Am I ready for the actual 13 mile run next Sunday?

Unfortunately I don’t think so. Missing a whole month of good training took it’s toll and I was really sore on Monday after the long run.

I went to visit Dr. Von Bergen yesterday to try and figure out why I’m still having continued leg problems. Since the problem seems to really only appear after I run a mile or more and fades over time I decided to head to his office a little early and go for a run before my appointment. It worked out well, except for me forgetting to bring my running towel and wearing way too much. I normally run in shorts and a couple tee-shirts when it gets cold but I was wearing sweat pants and a fleece … and I got waaay too hot and sweaty. Doh.

EFS is the culprit. It turns out I’m one of the small percentage of people that have a problem with sucralose (splenda). It’s not bad in small doses, but I guess over time it built up to a toxic level in my system. We figured it out on Friday morning. I had run on Thursday not thinking that EFS could be the problem and that run was just awful. Of course I was also drinking EFS on the run.

I went out last Sunday to run 10 miles.

I managed to run 1.86 miles.

My legs were killing me. I tried walking for a bit but even that wasn’t working. Eventually my ankles were so swollen that my feet started going numb and I figured that’d be bad to continue running. I was pretty bummed since this was supposed to be one of my big runs and I had been prepping for it.

That’s my new max distance… 8.64miles. It took me almost 2.5 hours to complete, but I did it. I came back from the run and my wife opened the door and paused. She was staring at me with this bewildered expression and giant eyes. I didn’t realize it but I had been out there for so long that I had crusted salt from my sweat evaporating all over my shirt. I guess it looked kind of ominous. I guess she thought I was about to collapse on the floor. I didn’t though. I felt fine.

I’ve got the hydration down with EFS. That stuff rocks, but unfortunately my little water bottle is a little unwieldy when I’m running longer distances and… well… it’s too small. Mom sent me some money for my birthday though and told me to buy a Camelbak running hydration pak. I had a Camelbak that I wore on my back and used while snowboarding and biking, but that didn’t work so well while running.

Last week was a rough week. It was supposed to be my first week of distance running (as opposed to time running) and while it started out great on Tuesday with a 3 mile treadmill run I was barely able to do half of my 4 mile run the next day and didn’t do the Friday 3 mile at all. By Thursday morning I had a sore throat and rhinosinusitis (runny nose… really… check wikipedia). I visited my Dr. who said I was too stressed, which made sense since I work for a company that does a lot of mortgage business and… well… that business is bad right now. The other thing he did was give me some arginine pills because I am still having trouble with shin splints. Even though I am trying to eat more peanuts it’s still not enough.

Dad sent over his current training log to look at. It looks like it starts not long after he ran his Marathon this year. It’s really interesting, especially because I’m doing well with the pre-training and about to go into week 1 of my real distance training. My pace is averaging something like 16.5 minutes per mile, but on his log he’s got all these “sluggish legs” and he’s still running an 8-9 minute mile. He called on Monday and reported that he’d run 10 miles in 1:27:26 which is like 8.5 minutes per mile.

The wife and I went up into the mountains for a little vacation last week. Just about every year for the last 20 years or so her parents and other relatives go and rent a cabin in Estes Park, CO for a week. The area up there is fantastic, scenic and just feels so healthy… although unfortunately the cabin they’ve stayed in for the last 20 years hasn’t kept up with the times. Especially the beds and chairs.

We haven’t gone every year, but this year we were able to book plane tickets using frequent flier miles so the trip was fairly cheap overall.

I’m not sure how I missed this, but I did. On Tuesday I ran my daily allotment indoors at work. The new gym at the office is nice and is definitely much much cooler than the temperature outside right now so I opted to run on a treadmill. After my highly successful run on Sunday I was expecting an even better one since this one was going to be in the cool gym. Instead my leg problems came back. Ouch.