Another mixed bag of exercise today which started with the another round of the Hundred Push Ups plan. The program is still as popular as ever and with the 7 Weeks to 100 Push-Ups book almost ready to go to print, I’m keen to discover how well it sells. Latest word from the publisher is that Kroger and BJ’s have ordered copies of the book, which is great news indeed. I must be honest, it’s going to be strange to see the publication in stores and think “hey, that’s my book!” Very weird…
Anyway, back to the workouts. I ran another 4 miler outside in the 87°F heat – a nice easy pace, but I made sure to get progressively quicker in each mile. I wore my planned race day shoes (the Brooks ST3) and am happy to report they felt great, although I did experience a slight burning sensation on the bottom of my feet towards the end of the run. I would guess the burning was a combination of a fairly thin sole and a very hot pavement and I’m not really too concerned at this stage. After all, the marathon starts at 6:30am and I’m almost positive the roads won’t be too hot at that time of the day.
After the run, I swigged down some Melon flavored HEED (a great Hammer Nutrition sports drink) and jumped on the bike for 30 minutes of easy spinning. I made sure to keep the resistance fairly low and the cadence pretty high – I definitely don’t want to stress my legs too much with just 5 days to go to the marathon.
The rest of the evening was just me relaxing, watching TV, catching up on email and icing the calves. Again, there are no reall issues of soreness at the moment, but it felt good to ice the muscles and elevate the feet.
Tomorrow is Day 1 of the Race Day Boost loading cycle which means there are only 4 full days to go before the Frederick Marathon! Race day will soon be here…
Hi Steve
Before I say anything else, thank you for being so supportive on my blog. It is borderline (maybe over some borders) whiny to complain about a 3:05, but it certainly wasn’t what I had trained (or planned) to run. But you understand what it means to have lofty goals and train so hard to achieve them. It is what we do. And sometimes we get great results and sometimes not so much.
I hope you get some decent weather for your race. I was just down in Williamsburg for 3 days and it does get pretty intensely hot in Virginia. I personally loved it as the heat allowed me to really sweat and clean out my sinuses a bit. I am also hoping that it fried whatever bug has kept me sick for almost 2 weeks.
I really like what you are doing with trying to acclimatize yourself to the heat. It would be nice if you could catch at least a little break and have a cool morning.
Best of luck and whatever your time you are always an inspiration to me.
Thanks Bill. Hopefully you’re almost back to full strength and the bug has left your system.
I really appreciate the good luck wishes. I’m looking forward to the race and am hoping for favorable weather conditions, but I’ll take whatever comes my way and perform to the best of my ability.
3 more days to taper…
–Steve