DAY FIFTEEN – CROSS TRAINING – ONE HOUR
Any time that I can ‘trick’ myself into exercising, it’s a good thing. If I can think of a good reason that I have to get somewhere on foot or on bicycle, I can just view my ‘exercise’ as ‘transportation,’ and I don’t avoid ‘transportation’ in the same way I try to avoid ‘exercise.’

I heard that the City of Tempe was putting together a “Healing Field” at Tempe Town Lake to commemorate the victims of 9-11. Tempe Town Lake is about 4 miles from my house, so I figured I could ride my bicycle up to look at it, then ride back, and that would be about an hour of ‘cross training’ that would sneak by me undetected. I would just think I was out on a patriotic field trip, not that I was exercising.

That worked out fairly well until I got to where I thought the “Healing Field” was supposed to be. Turns out I was about a mile off. Okay, more ‘free’ exercise. Then, I got to where I could see where the “Healing Field” was, but I couldn’t get to it without riding away from it, then carrying my bicycle up two flights of stairs to get onto a bridge that would take me across to it. More ‘free’ exercise, but now I’m starting to get worried about time.

I visited the “Healing Field,” which was several very large areas where hundreds of large American flags had been arranged in rows. I don’t actually know how many flags are there, but there are alot. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen so many flags in one location before. And, they’re big. They’re not just little puny flags, they’re like ‘taller than you’ flags. It was impressive, somber, and sobering. I shed a few tears, then had to get back on the road.

With two extra miles added to my trip, I was a bit behind schedule, so I rode as fast as I could on the way home. More ‘free’ exercise! So, this was a very good cross-training trip and I’m glad I got to see all the flags. They’re at Mill and Rio Salado if you get a chance to visit, it’s worth the trip.

DAY SIXTEEN – REST

DAY SEVENTEEN – RACE PACE – 1.7 MILES AT 5.25 MPH
I love my new GPS! I can’t believe that it makes running fun, but it does. Perhaps it’s just the novelty, and it will wear off, but for now, I’m enjoying it. I didn’t even have to struggle to get ready to run today. I was looking forward to using my GPS for my run. I headed out towards one of Tempe’s many canal systems that are lined by wide, gravel running and biking paths. I knew it wouldn’t matter what crazy direction I headed, I’d still be able to know when it was time to turn around. However, I underestimated the distance TO the canal and I had to turn around before I even got the beginning of it. Oh well, maybe on one of my longer runs, and they will be coming. What I thought was interesting is that I actually had a somewhat hard time keeping my speed DOWN to 5.25. That will be interesting to watch as my ‘race pace’ runs get longer. I wonder if I’ll slow down the longer they get or if 5.25 is just too slow of a running speed for me these days. (Ha ha ha, I can’t believe I said that! No, I’m sure I’ll slow down as those runs get longer.)

DAY EIGHTEEN – PACER – 2 MILES AT 6 MPH = 10 MINUTE MILE PACE
Today’s run wasn’t that fun. I did it on a treadmill to be sure I would hit and hold 6 miles per hour. First of all, it took me like 3/4 of a mile to even work up to 6 mph, and then it seemed to be all I could do to hold it there. I so repeatedly wanted to move the speed down or stop or quit, it was ridiculous. It was only a measly 2 miles, but it seemed to be more like 20. Wow. Days like today really worry me when I think forward to trying to run 26.2 miles on the road with 84 million other people trying to do the same. However, I do have to try to remember, this is only the 3rd week and this IS training, so it’s supposed to get harder and harder, but if you’re keeping up with it, it shouldn’t get harder faster than you can adapt.

DAY NINETEEN – SPEED – 1.4 MILES AT 7 MPH
I survived. One thing I’m really noticing that gets me into trouble in my life that’s also getting me into trouble here is impatience. I want to just jump on the treadmill and start pounding out my 1.4 miles at 7 mph and that’s just ridiculous. I need to warm up. I even know that, and I’ve even convinced myself to do it, but I don’t do it enough. Today I started out at a very low speed and walked for a while, then bumped it up a little bit at a time until I was jogging slowly, then jogging more quickly, and at some point, I was doing about 6 mph and I had already racked up almost a mile of warm-up. I got impatient and decided to jump to 7 mph at the 1-mile marker instead of climbing slowly until I was ready to do it. I guess I feared that if I waited too long, I’d use up all my energy doing 6 mph and I wouldn’t have any left to do my actual run. Well, I gotta quit that kind of thinking because when I put the speed up to 7, I really wasn’t ready. I coped with it, and I did my run, but it was probably harder than it had to be because I forced the rest of the warm-up. I was, however, kind to myself afterwards, and spent a good deal of time cooling down before getting off the treadmill, and I also took the time to stretch. I know that really helps and that it’s very hard for me to make myself take the time to do it, but I’m really committed to not only completing this marathon, but to doing so – uninjured – and warm-up, cool-down, and stretching are going to be key.

DAY TWENTY –EASY – 1.9 MILES at 4.5 MPH
Learned more about my GPS today – at very slow speeds, it simply is not sensitive enough to monitor very accurately. There are several ‘alert’ features that you can set and I used the speed alert today. I set the unit to alert me each time I would go UNDER 4 mph and every time I would go OVER 5 mph. I figured that one mile per hour was a big enough range, but it most certainly was not. My poor watch worked it’s butt off for a solid 1.9 miles.

I set out on my run and immediately was told to slow down, so I did. Ten seconds later, I was told to slow down, so I did. Ten seconds later, I was told to slow down, so I did. Ten seconds later, I was told to speed up. What the heck? Well, that’s how the whole rest of the run went – slow down, slow down, speed up, speed up, speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down, slow down, slow down, slow down, speed up… It was absolutely annoying. So, I won’t do that again.

However, one thing I really learned about myself and my running is that 4.5 miles per hour seems unnaturally slow to me at this time. I really wanted to go much faster, so that’s cool. I think next time, I will set the bottom speed, but not the top speed because this run is supposed to be easy and I get to decide what’s easy. If I feel like I can run faster and that it’s still not hard to do, I should be able to. I was encouraged by the fact that it was hard to go so slow. I think my training is paying off in that my ’slow’ speed is getting faster.

DAY TWENTY-ONE – LONG – 2.6 MILES AT 6.2 MPH
Today should be fun. In about a half hour, I’m going to go get Duane Brickner, my 75-year-old running buddy, and we’re going to do a 5K together. If it were not for Duane, I probably never would have done a 5K. I had no idea I could. About 4 years ago, he told me that if I was afraid to run a 5K, he’d run with me. I thought that it was so ridiculous to need a 71-year-old man to hold my hand to complete a run that I simply had to do it. Four years later, we run several 5Ks together each year and it’s a blast. It is still embarrassing to me that we run at about the same speed, with Duane, at times, being considerably faster than me, but I can deal with that. It’s a good motivator. And besides, I know that one day I will be faster than him and I look forward to that day even less than I do to getting beaten by a guy as old as the Empire State Building.

Today’s run was fairly uneventful. Duane was coming down with a cold and actually tried to call me this morning to cancel, but my cellphone battery was dead, so I didn’t know that until I showed up to pick him up. He was sitting outside his house, ready to go, so he decided to give it a try anyhow, even though he was sick. Apparently, that’s the only way I can beat him – if he’s sick.

It was not our best 5K, but we finished in about 38 minutes even though we stopped to walk over a half-dozen times, so I still think we did a pretty good job. We averaged 5 mph, which is pretty good, too, considering all the walking we did. Hopefully we’ll have a better run later in the season.

It was a very nice end to Week THREE!