Marathon Brothers Blog

Mike: MB Mar 31

ok ok chris I get the picture you want me to blog more… we for the past week I was down in flordia I ran around 10 miles that week not all that good really.
This week krista and I started off pretty good last night she and I ran 2 miles together around a 10 min pace and I did a last mile at a 745 pace and I felt pretty good about it. We had eaten dinner so it sat kinda hard on me otherwise it was good. So any way I’ve decided to start on a diet and loose my 10 lbs I’m trying to get down to 170 it should help me in my training and should help me in my time. Krista thinks I can do it in about 2 weeks of actually watching my caloric intake Im a little more skeptical. Chris I am sorry about the last week vacation kinda threw me for a loop. I’ll work harder at this. Tell me about your book on running a marathon. My goal is to be able to run 10 miles by the end of may and then amp up my training over the summer we’ll see how that goes. any way see you dude.

Chris: A Good “Long” Run

Well it is nowhere close to what I was running in the middle of the summer but it is a start.  Yesterday I ran over 4 miles at about a 10 minute pace.  The pace was up and down but I ran the entire way instead of taking the walk breaks.  I will find out this week if that was a good or bad thing.  I feel good except for pain in my left heal which I thought might be a stress fracture but might actually just be some bruising.  Given that I haven’t run over 3.18 miles in a couple of months I am leaning towards the bruising.

If it feels better tomorrow I am going to resume with my Tuesday run and do a walk break run of the course I ran yesterday.  If it still hurts I am going to sit it out and wait until Thursday to be safe.  Last week was a good week and I don’t want to screw stuff up with unnecessary injuries.

By the way, we have a few followers of the blog and will probably have even more this coming week.  I hope to get us posted on the links page of the running site that I designed for the running store that I get my shoes and other equipment from.  http://www.runningwithes.com

Chris: Walk Breaks, Afro Hair and Weight Loss

Over a week, I think the spirit of Mike Brown has invaded my soul and caused me to not blog.  Just kidding.  Actually it has just been a busy week.  The good news is that I have gotten my runs in and they have been quality runs.  I also started reading a great book from Jeff Galloway called Marathon: You Can Do It!  Galloway suggests walk breaks intermittently during long runs and I am trying it out with short runs to see how I like it.  So far it is OK but it goes against my need to say I ran the whole way.  The breaks actually don’t have a huge impact on my times and allow me to keep a consistent fast pace throughout the run.  I am running three minutes, then walking one minute.  I feel good after the workout and as Galloway says the recovery is quick.

When we left off I was struggling with keeping up with the runs.  That Thursday I did run on the treadmill in the hotel and the intervals were good.  I ran walked five minutes, ran five minutes at a 10 minute/mile pace and then five minutes at a 8 minute/mile pace.  I did that for forty five minutes.

This week I have ran 3.2 miles on both Tuesday and Thursday and as I said I did it with the walk breaks.  Tuesday’s run was done with a 9:40 pace and I slowed it way down on Thursday to a 10:56 pace.  Tomorrow I take it up to 4 miles.  Check out the book it has a pretty good plan.

As a side note, I competed in the Staff vs Seniors basketball game at the school after my Thursday run.  I wore an Afro wig, red Chuck Taylor Converse, tube socks and white arm and head bands.  Pics will be on Facebook.

Weight is doing well too.  My eating is better now that I am back home and I have shed six pounds this week.

Mike: mar 21

well here were are on vacation and we are working on our run. Of course the eating is not going to help us out but we’re hoping to cancel it out with running. Krista and I ran 3 mile on saturday then I knocked out another 3 at about an 8:30 pace or so. SO that gives me 6 miles on saturday we were planning on having another 2 miles today. We’ll see how much we actually accomplish

Chris: Busy Week

I fell off the wagon on Tuesday and didn’t run choosing to work with Emily on her pitching for Softball.  I was glad I did it because she looks pretty good and with some work she could be regular pitcher this year.  Switching to the standard three days running has been tough because life happens.  I didn’t run yesterday because it is supposed to be a rest/recovery day but probably could have gotten a run in the morning at the Gym (treadmill yuk!).

I like the 10 mile goal for May.  Most likely the end of May for me because I’m having a tough time getting a rhythm.  Next week though the excuses go away and I’ll be able to focus energy on running and cross training.  I will be building some upper body and core strength to complement my lower body.  I will throw in some lower body to toughen up the joints (so the experts say) but I won’t be working the lower body that much on those workouts.  Kelly has a great workout that I enjoy doing and it served me well last summer and fall.

The reality is I have to get my weight down a bit more to lessen the strain on my legs.  I’m hovering around 225 which is about 15 pounds more than before the winter started.  I am confident I can get it off, but I’m ticked that it came back at all.  In the end, it beats 280.

Tonight I get to run on a hotel treadmill because I am at a conference in Detroit.  The fitness center is supposed to be pretty nice at the Renaissance Center so I will find out.  I will run again on Saturday extending out to 4+ miles, we’ll see what the total is at the end.  I’m looking forward to seeing where my endurance is on Saturday.  I have no aspirations for time and plan to take a nice long run on the trail between Spring Arbor and Concord.

Mike: Mar 18th

well Krista and I got up at 6 this morning and ran over 3.5 miles. I then knocked out another mile. This time my time was better about an 8:00 min mile pace. I felt pretty good about it considering I had already ran 3.5 miles but not at a difficult pace. We’re getting ready to head down to disney world for a few days. So I plan on trying to run for at least an hour Saturday by myself. If not than maybe tomorrow morinning. It was a great run today for me krista had some kind of heart burn that killed her time but she knocked out her last mile at about a 1015-1000 pace which is good for her. well I’ll see you all later.

Mike: mar 16

WEll krista and I ran together monday morning. She and I ran 3 miles at a pretty slow pace. I though it might just be a crappy monday. So I added an additional mile on the end to see if I could do much better. No dice. I ran a crappy 4th mile only pulling off a 8:45. I was hoping for something closer to 7:45 or 7:30 which I haven’t ran since April of Iraq. (is that a cool way to date years or what… April of Iraq = april of 2008) anyway we took tuesday off . I will say I failed to blog last week because I just didn’t. However I ran four days that week Mon Thursday Fri and Sat which only totaled 11 miles for week and Saturday was a crappy run as well. Not exactly a great plan but my goal is to be over 10 miles by may or so. Considering I’v already ran 7 it shouldn’t be too hard. I just need to train my knees to take the pounding. I plan on running tomorrow morning.. or perhaps even tonight. well here’s to running… by the way chris I suck when I don’t run with music I’ll just let you know that..

Chris: Running with Kelly

Well kind of.  I had Kelly ride the bike along side of me today and as usual it had a great impact.  When she rides along my pace is a lot more consistent and I don’t slack when I’m tired.  The funny thing is that she says so little.  She just rides along, directing traffic at times, but otherwise she just lets me run.

The run was uneventful and the weather was great.  It is supposed to be even better the next few days.  Although Sunday and Monday are rest days I plan to walk those days so I can get my weight back down again.  I’m still fighting those 10 pounds from Christmas.

Next Saturday I will take the mileage up a little.  I’m aiming for 4 miles.  On a treadmill I’d be golden at 6 miles but the pavement is presenting difficulties that I hadn’t planned for.  I did feel better to read about others having the same transitioning problems on Runnersworld.com.  After reading the article I’m happy to scale back a bit to avoid an unnecessary injury.

210 days until Chicago!

Chris: No Music

My Zune player wasn’t charged when I was ready to run yesterday so I went without it and it was hard.  As previously mentioned my music is motivator but this is only a recent habit I picked up during my treadmill slavery.  I ran the majority of last season without a musical tether.  Not that it is bad but most suggest to keep the music off so you can pay better attention to your surroundings.  Still, my time was WAY off of Tuesday’s time.  I came in north of 32 minutes on the same run.

I will have to decide whether the music is good or bad on my own.  I do think I will run with music tomorrow and procrastinate on the decision.

Tomorrow is my last 3 miler on a Saturday.  I am going to slowly bring my mileage up on Saturdays with hopes of being at the Half Marathon level within 10-12 weeks.

Mike: March 9, 11

Monday night krista and I ran for 2.7 miles. yea it wasn’t difficult but it was nice to run outside. It was a great night 65 70 degrees no speed records but nice.
today (thursday) was a lousy run. I forgot my good tennis shoes I forgot my Ipod I only got 2.5 miles and I felt like crap so I just quite. I expect to try and run 7 or so again this saturday. I plan on buying new tennis shoes though the ones I forgot today are over a year old $100 nike’s but thats too old and way to expensive so I keep running on old shoes just because I think I should get my $100 worth… is that stupid or what?