Session 8, 9 and 10 and training runs

Session 8 was Monday and we were out on the football field. We warmed up and then did standing still vertical jumps trying to touch the goal post. Then he had us get a short running start and jump for the goal post and the third set was quick repeats. We did a number of 100 yard dashes and then he had us race each other sprinting various distances and touching a tire to finish.  He raced with us.  He is fast.

Also he pulled out the resistance bands and had us do some short sprints.

Session 9 was at WSU stadium on Tuesday. We did our normal warm up and went right into some 40 yard sprints and moved on to what he called active stretching. He set up a line of hurdles and we had to step over them staying on our toes. Then he had us turn a round and do it walking backwards. Then we were on the side of the hurdles and stepped over with just one leg and then we switched to the other one.

We then went to doing some high knees for 15 yards or so, then he taught us the A skip which is a high knee and kind of a stomp. Then we went to the B skip which is the same as the A step, but you kick y our leg out.  This all helps you with your form.

Session 10 was today and it was only a 30 minute session that consisted of just stretching and get us focused on the race tomorrow night.  I'm running the Lunar Trek 100K.  He did not want to over work us and have dead legs when running. He talked to us a bit, there are some exciting things going on in Marquis's career. He is going to be training at multiple branches and growing his client base. I am very excited for him and the opportunities he has been given.  And then some motivational words as well.

I cut Wednesday's run short due to stomach issues, I ran 7.75 in 1:51:25

Tonight before training I ran 10 in 1:38:44

Overnight Run

This is the 3rd out of 4 weeks that I have ran either early in the morning or all night like I did last night. I left the house 11:30 last night and set out on my long Saturday run. I took off really fast and sustained under a 11:00 mile pace the first half which was 2:47 and some change.

About 5 miles into my run I got to see a fox. What a sight to watch it run. I have never seen one in person before other than the zoo. Then at 15 miles in I saw three raccoons together. I have heard they are very mean, so I went to the other side of the road and contiued on.

On the way back I ran acrossed a guy passed out on the sidewalk on Douglas. He was in his mid twenties. I woke him up and made sure he was okay. He was drunk as a skunk. I just didn't want him to get picked up by the police or mugged. This was around 3:00 in the morning.

That was all the excitment I had on the run other than a couple of rabbits hopping around closer to home. My legs felt a little tired from the training sessions this week. This is the first week that we did three sessions in a week. This first two weeks, we only did two per week. We will do three a week for the next five weeks and then hit a new schedule, as this is basically an 8 week boot camp.  Having already seen marked results in three short weeks, we will continue to work with him.

Stopped at my usual QT's. I like them because they are clean and they have a good selection of items to choose from. I had a piece of cake the first stop, dounts the second stop, a turky sandwich and a Snickers bar the third stop and grapes on the last stop. This is the types of food I like to use to fuel me on my training runs.  Plus, we have no sweets at home.

The temps were great. I believe it was around 82 to 85 when I started and I believe it got down to around 75. It made it so much easier to run. Next weekend I will be doing the Lunar Trek 100k which starts at 9:00pm. I wanted to do these early morning and overnight runs to prepare me for that.

I ran 32 miles in 6:05:24.  

Session 7

Before Sophia came over to meet me for a run, we had our 7th session with the personal trainer. We stayed inside this time thank God, but that did not mean it was going to be easy.  This was our 4th hour long session in 6 days as we are now going 3x a week and that is a body shock.

We did our usual warm up laps and some quick push ups to warm up our chest/upper body because we were going to use those muscles. 

We did sets of push ups with bear crawl sprints with straight legs, stopping at the half way point to do more push ups.  Then we did squats with weights and chest work at the same time, followed by bicep curls with resistance bands and a burn out set.  Sets are 45 seconds to 2 minutes long.   Couple of sprint laps and into burpees and planks. 

More laps and then into core.  His ten minute core workout is way harder than any 30 minute core class I have ever taken.  8 different sets of exercises with your legs 6 inches off the ground. 

We ended running stairs at the back of the Y, doing lunges and squats up the stairs.   He had me do the duck crawl on the stairs also.  He is pushing me to do things I would never think of on my own, and in ways I wouldn't sustain by myself.

Thursday's special treat

I had a special friend come into town Wednesday and asked if she could come hang out and have dinner. We were very excited to hear she was in town. Sophia is a ultra running friend that I have come to be very good friends with. She happens to love Patsy and her cooking too.

She came over around 8:30 and I believe she left around 12:00. We have so much fun just chit chatting about anything and everything. Even things that have nothing to do with running surprisingly. She brought her dog this time and he is very well mannered.

I asked her how long she was going to be in town and she said till Friday morning. I asked her if she was up for a run tomorrow evening and she jumped at the opportunity.I was very excited myself. Someone I look up to in the ultra running world wanted to run with me.

I was also excited to show her my training grounds. I have to leave it at that for reasons that if I said I would be incriminating myself.  We met at my house a little after 6:30 and left shortly after. We had great conversation mostly related to running since we were on a run. We talked about a KC friend Danny Miller, If I do not get into Cascade Crest in 5 weeks, I will be pacing him. (I am moving up slowly on the wait list, have jumped over 3 spots.  Keeping my fingers crossed). So I was asking a little about him to be better prepared on how to be the most beneficial to him beings I don't know him. The first 5 miles clicked off pretty quick and we got to our water stop/turn a round. Patsy dropped a water cooler off for us.

We made our way back and I took her on a slightly different route back so she could see the other trails that I am get to run on. She was very impressed with what I get to train on. We got back to the house and asked if she wanted dinner and she gratefully said yes.

I am so thankful to have genuine friends like that who do not judge you in anyway and doesn't care whether I am the fastest runner or slowest. She just loves us for who we are (and I thank you for that Sophia).

We ran 10 miles in 1:55:07.

Wednesday's Run

Wednesday is the longest weekday run I have each week. Carving time out for this is a big commitment. I took off on a route that would lead me toward the West side of town. I always enjoy the time I am at SCP, because there is so many others out running, roller blading, walking and biking.

It was a very hot afternoon. I believe it was 106. I left home at 3:00, so I was right in the hot of the day. The first 4.5 miles was a breeze. Then the heat hit me and I struggled the rest of the way. I ended up stopping at QT's to cool down. I do use these for my water stops, but I purchased something to eat each time and took a few extra minutes to make sure I was okay to go back out.

I am not a big fan of pouring cold water on my head during a run, but it felt really good that day. Pouring it right on the back of your neck is the best way to cool your core temperature the fastest. I went shirtless on the way out, but I decided to wear it on the way back, so the sweat would help cool me down a bit.

I ran 16.36 miles in 3:26:20.

Session 6 & Training run

We did hill repeats for a solid hour.  The hill wasn't high, but it was steep.  Anything from spinting with high knees, lunges up hill, back pedaling in a squat position to out right sprints.

He had me do this one thing called the duck crawl and I have to say, it is one of the hardest things I have ever done.

It was an hour of torture.  Not really a whole lot more to say, think you get the idea.

I went home and instantly left for my training run. Thanks goodness I only had 8 miles to do.

I ran 8 miles in 1:18:58.

Session 5

Session 6 was today and the back was bothering me, but I wanted to see what I could handle. Along with running, the exercise kept it loose and I didn't have really any issues. We started out of course with a couple of laps on the indoor track, but he wanted them to be at almost a sprint.

We did more push ups and right into 6 in. raises with spreading your legs out, bringing them back together, hold for a moment, then we were able to rest. Repeated this around 4 times. He took us right into free weights doing bicep curls. Three reps with both hands at the same time and one slow rep with one hand at a time. That was considered one time. We did that 10 times.

After that we ran short sprints outside behind the Y to the parking lot, back to the door where Marquis held the door open, up the flight of stairs and down, and back outside. Not sure how many reps we did, we did this till I caught Patsy. We did this twice. With a lot of interest and applause from the families watching their children in gymnastics. None of them were willing to join us.

More weights in the big weight room. Marquis specializes in cross fit training. Reverse push ups with sets of pullups, more reverse push ups, pull ups where I had to pull my feet to my hands on the bar, more reverse pull ups and the last set I had to pull my feet to the bar and swing back, but couldn't let my feet touch the ground. Very hard.

For the last 30 minutes we went outside to the football field. With the 16 pound medicine ball. Marquis threw the ball, I chased it and threw it, Patsy chased mine and threw it and so on till we did the length of the football field and back.

Next I had to throw the ball, chase it, and repeat this by myself to the end of the field. Then we reversed it, I had to throw it backward over my head, turn and run to it and repeat this for 100 yards.

Marquis said we had one more, we were going to bear crawl and push the medicine ball in front of us. Patsy went first and pushed it to the length of the football field. Wore her out. Basically, pushed it with one hand, crawled to it, pushed it ahead with the other hand, crawled, I ended pushing it 120 yards. This was very hard. It is supposed to mimic using the same muscles you would use climbing up a steep hill. He said he had a funny story to tell us when we were done.

When we were finished, he told us that it was supposed to be a joke. When he showed us what we were going to do and asked who wanted to go first, Patsy volunteered and did it. He was going to stop her at the 20 yard line, but she kept going. So he let her finish, and then let me go before he told us the joke. We left him speechless, he said we are pushing him to come up with ways to challenge us. He also commented again that we are his only clients that he hasn't made throw up.

Session 4 with a long training run

Session 4 was rescheduled from Thursday to Saturday afternoon. We were indoors the whole session this time. So our warm-up laps and then Marquis came on to the track and told us to try to catch him. Neither one of us did of course. We went around the track 6 times.

Then we went into the training room and he had us do regular push-ups and every once in a while he would tell us to hold it half way down, then resume push ups. Then he had us turn over and do flutter kicks till he said stop and this repeated 4 times. While I was doing the flutter kicks, he was taking a 16 pound medicine ball and bouncing it on my stomach. Not a really great feeling.

We then went to burpees for two minute at a time. Then he had me hold a 35lb weight and do squats at different rates of speed, some slow and controlled, some as fast as I could go.  He wanted them parallel to the floor. We repeated that 4 or 5 times and then he had us do burpees for two minutes straight at the end of that routine.

He gave me a 25lb plate and said do bicep curls then, chest presses and then overhead presses. This was timed for each exercise. Then we went out on the track and sprinted 2 laps and came back and did that all again 3 times.

He said it was time for some core work. I had to do incline sit ups while Patsy sprinted 1 lap and then while she did the incline sit ups, I had to sprint 2 laps. We did that twice and then he had me turn around and do reverse sit ups with a lift on an incline. I did them while Patsy sprinted a lap and she did them while I sprinted 2 laps and we did this for two sets also.

I came home and crashed. I showered and fell asleep and slept 2:30 hours. I woke up and had a horrible pain in my back. I then remembered personal training with my friend BJ that I tweaked a muscle in my back doing the chest presses and I believe that is what did it this time too.

We ended the session with holding the squat position against the wall and they were really tough for me. My quads were screaming at me 20 seconds after we started. I believe that he had us hold them for a minute each time and we did them 3 times. He would put weight in our lap every once in a while.  When I wasn't holding the weight, I had to hold my arms straight out shoulder height.  If I wanted to rest, he put the 16 pound medicine ball on my legs.  The price for resting your arms.

I decided not to run Saturday due to the back pain. I got up with Patsy Sunday morning to go run with her and her best friend Sheila for 10 miles and then I was going to do 12 more to get in the miles I needed for the week. We started a little after 5:00.

We got around 2.5 miles into the run and I was feeling really good and I was pulling away from them, but not intentually. I thought it would be best if I just broke away and finished my 22 miles on my own. So I told them I was going to go on and off I went.

As long as I kept running, my back didn't bother me. The minute I stopped to walk, it would give me fits. I did not have much of a problem holding a pretty decent pace most of the time. If I got tired, I just slowed my pace a bit.

I ran 22 miles in 4:12:00. 

Mashup

Well this week has been a little awkward as far as training goes. The only run I have done on the day it was scheduled was Wednesday. The rest have been a bust till today. I did Tuesday's 8 miles, Thursday's 10 miles and part of Saturday's training run today.

I started in the heat of the day which is pretty normal for me and it was tough. I have ran this route before and had the same result. I ran by the West Y here in Wichita and I was really hot. So I decided to finish out my miles there. Last time I ran that way, it was very cold.

It was 8 miles to the Y. Then I got on a treadmill and knocked out another 5 miles and took a quick break to fill my bottles and use the restroom. At this point I have not eaten anything. I also took this time to call Patsy to arrange for her to pick me up.

I was feeling really light headed at this point and I knew exactly why. I was really low on calories. I needed some food. I did not bring any and I only had my debit card, so I could not get anything out of the vending machine.

I decided to get back on the treadmill and tough it out as long as I could before Patsy got there to get me. I made it 2 miles and I did not have the energy I needed to keep going at that time. I got a long break sitting and waiting for her to come get me. It felt good to sit for a while.

We went to the store and got some things for dinner and headed home. After eating my great salad, I was rejuvenated. So I went out and did the other 3 I needed to get me up to date and decided to get a jump on tomorrow's miles and ran 2 of them too.

This is a fall back week for me, so my Saturday run is only 14 miles. Our personal training session got rescheduled to this Saturday which worked well as that was Whitney's last evening with us for yet another out of town trip to see some family in Seattle, so we took her out for dinner and did some shopping.

Tomorrow morning we get to help with a 10k race, the Titan 10K Summer Scorcher, a fundraiser for the South High cross country team. We are calling out times at mile markers 4 and 5 and throwing in some encouragement.  (You can show up and register at 6:00 a.m. race starts at 7:00 a.m. at South High Carpenter Stadium).  Should be a fun time. Then we are going to do our training runs. Then on to our fourth personal training session. It's going to be a busy Saturday.

I ran 20 miles in 3:31:34

Session 3/Long weekly run

Well we had session 3 yesterday of our personal training and it was exhausting. He asked us to meet him at WSU stadium. We did our warm-up routine and he had us do some short sprints and increased the distance each time. He noticed that I was a little stiff on my form, so he had us lean up against the wall and do high kicks so I would be able to relax better, then we did more wind sprints.

We went into the bleachers of the stadium and he had me run up on the bleachers and down the stairs. This was very tough. If you don't know anything about WSU's stadium, it is quite big and the bleachers go up for what seems like a quarter mile. (I know it's not that far, but it seems like it.) I believe I had to do this 6 or 7 times.

Then I had to do high kicks just up the stairs about half way up. I am not sure how many times we did this. Then he took us in the concourse and the way you get from one level to the next is a steady incline walk that has switch backs. I would say the grade goes up 20 feet of climb and it is around a 100 feet in length.

He gave me 2:00 and  up and back down was one trip and he asked that I do it 7 times. I barely made it with 5 seconds to spare. The whole session I never could get my breath and my legs turned into jelly. He just said that each session is just going to get a little harder. I say bring it on, it can only make me stronger for race days coming up.

I was supposed to run Tuesday, but I elected not to. I usually run before our personal training session, but I was unable to. Our daughter has been out of town with a friend and her family for a week and a half and she was going to be coming home shortly before we were to leave for our training session. So I wanted to be home when she arrived.

After the training session, we stopped at the store and got some things for dinner and by the time my food settled enough to go run, it was getting really late and so I decided to put that run off till Friday which is normally a rest day.

Today I did my Wednesday miles and did 8 miles out on the trail and waited till Patsy got home and did my other 4 with her since I knew that is how many miles she was going to run today.

I ran 12 miles in 2:24:34

Back to Back

Well Saturday morning I wanted to beat the heat once again, so I started my long run at 3:00AM. Unlike last Friday night when I was able to get about 4 hours of sleep before I got up to run at 2:00 AM. This time I wasn't so lucky. I laid down around 11:00 and just tossed and turned and was not able to get any sleep.

I set my alarm for 2:30, but I did not need it. I got up at 2:22 and started to get things ready to go. At this point I have technically been up since 5:00 AM Friday morning. My plan was to park at the QT at Maple & Tyler and do 4 mile loops.

I started out going East on Maple toward Ridge and not even 2 minutes in I came up close with a skunk. I made some kind of noise and he scurried across the street. I breathed a sigh of relief. I can say that was the most eventful part of the run.

The first 4 mile loop was as I said starting down Maple to Ridge to Central and then down Tyler back to the QT. I did not like that way because it had too many low limbs to maneuver around. So my next loop I decided to go to the West and go Maple to Maize to Central to Tyler. This worked a lot better for me so I stuck with that.

There is a lot of rowdy folks out at 3:00 AM I noticed. Quite a few people were pulled over and I saw one police car race down the street at a pretty high rate of speed going to a call. Not a good time to be out and about. No one bothered me on the sidewalks at all thankfully.

I ran 30 miles in 6:39:17

I was able to sleep a full 11 hours Saturday night into Sunday morning. Boy, Saturday was a tough day. I tried to take a nap, but could not sleep. I didn't start my Sunday run till around 5:30 in the evening.

I saw a couple of great friends along the way which is pretty unusual for me. Not in that I don't have great friends, but that I hardly ever run past any on my training runs. I ran into a friend from church Adam Dreher and his son Sutton, and an ulra running friend Hannah McBeth and sorry I did not stay around and make small talk to meet the friend she was running with.

It was great to see you all.

I ran 16 miles in 3:09:06.

Thursday training

I went to the Y a couple of hours early to get my training run in before our personal training session. I decided to do my training run on the treadmill this time. I was going to be out in the heat for our training session.

I ran 10 miles in 1:39:48

We had our second training session with Marquis yesterday. Started out with the warm up lap and the stretch routine he showed us the first day. He laid out a rope ladder on the ground and had us do 6 different variations of foot work through half of the ladder and hop the other half. With each variation, we would do 3 to 4 trips per.

Then we had to do bear crawl. First, we just went 10 yards out and back. Then he increased ten yards at a time with the last one a bear crawl to the 50 yard line. This was really taxing on the shoulders and legs, but especially on the palms of my hands. The turf was really hot.

The good news was that we were going inside, but that did not mean for a rest break.  He took us to the back hallway of the Y and pointed at the stairs and said we would be getting to know them very well today. We did 6 different variations of footwork on the stairs with multiple trips up and down.

The last one was skipping a step and I think he had me do that one around 10 times up and a back down being one trip. He really got my legs to burning on that one. He gave us a little insight what we were in for in the next couple of weeks and frankly, I'm a little scared.

He is so impressed with how we are doing that he wants to video us so he can put it on his website to demonstrate and promote this type of training. That is pretty cool.  He has clients in all stages of fitness, from the very obese, a blind man, and former athletes returning to a work out regimen after years of inactivity. 

July 4th training run

Wednesday is the longest week day training run. Was very glad to be off work today. I slept in till 11:15. Not a very good idea when temps are going to soar a little over 100 today. Got up and ate a pb&j and a banana, then I got ready to go for my run.

Got out of the house around 12:00. Stepped out into the sauna. I just told myself, just slow and steady today. After all my training yesterday, I was pretty worn out before I even started. I ran at a 10:00 mile pace and then I took frequent power walk breaks. This continued through the whole run.

My wife told me that she read in Runner's World that running in the heat is a good way to train for altitude. With the possibility of getting into Cascade Crest 100 this year, this is my fuel for getting out there in the heat for my training runs.

If you don't have the mountains, do what you can to improvise your training to per pare for what you are about to embellish. That is also why I agreed to join my wife in the speed, agility and endurance training.

The first 7 miles I did with the Infinit product I use and on the way back I filled one of my bottles with fountain Gatorade and the other with ice cold water. With using the Infinit product,. I do not use salt tablets or any gels. On the way back not having Infinit, decreased the amount of energy I needed to run more efficiently.

Never the less, I made it back with a negative split. Got to the turn a round in 1:29 and change and finished in 2:50:56. The energy level was not there, but the will to get this thing done was much stronger. I dug deep and got it done.

I ran 14 miles in 2:25:56.  

This weeks progress

Well we had our introductory meeting for our speed, agility and strength training on Monday and started our first workout today, it was intense. We started with a light jog around the football field and then went through a series of active stretches.  This basically meant that we did lunges for 5 yards, high kicks for five yards, etc.

He had us do some sprint work, working on long strides to the 10 yard and back, 20 and back, 30 and back, 40 and back and then worked our way back the other way.

We then went to resistance sprints. He would wrap three resistance bands around our waist and we would have to sprint 25 yards and back. We switched out twice and then he had us sprint one way with the band 50 yards and walk back.

Then we went to some circut training which was one squat with a 15 or 20 pound ball and throw it, then pick it up and do it again to the 20 yard line. Then, pick it up and run back carrying the ball. The other circut was jumping both feet together over a series of small hurdles and sprint back and repeat till the other person is done with the other circut.

He had us do shuttles which is sprint to the 25 yard line and back repeated 6 times. He wanted us to do it in 56 seconds. (In week 3 we have to do this twice) I came in at right at 52 or 53 seconds.

Then inside for a killer ten minute core workout.  With the 2-3 times a week I attend core express classes, I didn't expect this to be as hard as it was, but he did push me.

What a first day. Looking forward to seeing our progress. I am doing this to have more endurance and strength with hills in races.

Monday I sneaked in a run before our appointment with the trainer. I ran 7 miles in 1:20:11. Not a knock out performance, but glad to get in a run on a rest day since my Sunday run was cut short.

After work today I got my training run in before I went and did the madness I just told you about. I had decent run. I tried to keep a consistant pace to whole time. No walk run this time. Had to wait at street lights, that was my only breaks.

I ran 8 miles in 1:25:58.

South to North

We thought we had our introductory appointment for our strength and agility training. He texted us and said today, but called back and said he meant tomorrow night. I said all that to say that I just planned to run home from our training.

I knew it wasn't going to be the distance I needed today, but something is better than nothing. To get a little bit more distance, I decided to run to Seneca and then head North toward home. I started at the QT on Meridian and MacArthur.

I did not have the mojo today. I walk/ran the whole time. Tried gels and it really didn't give me the boast I was looking for. So I just made the best of it and ran hard then tried to walk as little as possible.

With the heat, I never felt I drank enough, but felt like I was water logged the whole time. I didn't care, I drank anyway. Everything felt great considering I ran almost 30 miles yesterday. I do believe that contributed to the fact I did not have the energy I was looking for tonight.

Patsy was out and about and happened to see me and drove up to me and I gladly just got into the car cutting my run even shorter than it already was. I know that some of you may read this and consider this run a failure, but I did get out and run. That is always a victory in itself. I also realize not running for two weeks and jumping right back into my training plan is going to be a little tough at first.

I ran 8.70 miles in 1:52:01.