Syzdekistan

Early this morning, I ran my last long run of my marathon training. It was 8 miles around the neighborhood and through a park. I saw a covey of about 8 Gambel’s quail near the College and a group of people practicing tai chi in the park (I don’t know the collective noun for people practicing tai-chi and I am not going to look that up). This week I need to do two short three mile runs and then a three mile walk to keep limber for the marathon. I figure I will get the three miles done walking around various airports and San Francisco.

It’s hard to believe that I am done with 16 weeks of marathon training. The amazing thing is that back in March I couldn’t run for 30 minutes without stopping to walk. I finally hit that point in my pre-training right before I started the 16 weeks on April 1. Pre-training is defined as working to a point of fitness where you can jog for 30 minutes without stopping to walk or rest. I worked on pre-training from the end of November 2006 to the end of March. I ran (and walked) about twice a week which was half of what the training book recommended.

I’m pretty nervous about the marathon because I missed quite a few training runs mainly due to work travel, a short vacation, and just plain laziness. Training in July was very difficult due to the heat. I completed three out of four of the very long runs (of the 16, 16, 18, and 18 I missed one of the 16s) but missed most of the shorter runs. I ran in the gym a few times but running outside had to be done so early in the morning or after midnight. That left me too tired to train more than twice a week. My goal was four runs per week. However, my overall goal is to finish and I still think I can finish under the six hour limit.

I picked the San Francisco Marathon because it is the only low elevation run in a cool climate. However, I didn’t really think about the crux of the training taking place in a hot climate during the hottest time of the year!

This morning’s run was quite humid — 40% humidity and a dew point of 59F which is quite high for here. The temperature was pretty nice — I ran at the coolest part of the day just before dawn and it was 86F. After the sun came up, it was hidden behind behind clouds to the east so at least the sun wasn’t beating on me for the last part of the run. I never felt sick or overheated like I have previously but the humidity did make for a lot of dripping sweat. Wearing “technical” breathable clothing really helped with wicking and heat removal. It was uncomfortable and annoying with sweat running everywhere so I am glad I rarely have to run in such humidity. I can’t wait to run in 60F San Francisco!