Term Limits?

Wow. That's one powerful storm.

Hm. Did you say Nantucket?

Hm...

There once was a storm off Nantucket
that challenged the Massholes to luck it
bombgenesis happened forthwith
and the ocean it started to hissth
and the back bay brahmins said 'oh just ...

Well, you get the idea.

Mark B wrote:Wow. That's one powerful storm.

Hm. Did you say Nantucket?

Hm...

There once was a storm off Nantucket
that challenged the Massholes to luck it
bombgenesis happened forthwith
and the ocean it started to hissth
and the back bay brahmins said 'oh just ...

Well, you get the idea.

...don't suck it. 
They're not crawfish heads, after all.

(I had to look up 'back bay brahmins,' never heard of it.)

Back Bay Brahmins - cute!

Monday, I got outside and walked 2 miles, then ran 2 miles.  It was my first running in a month.  It was in the low 40's with a breeze.  The Half is on this Sunday, where the temps are supposed to be 30 at the start and 48 around 1 p.m., with clear skies.

All 4 miles were transparent to the runner, except for the heavier breathing during the run piece.  But the legs were saying, "We're good!" and I was pleased, no, very pleased with that.  Since that occurred, I'd like to run as many of the miles as possible during the race.

I've purchased some fresh green beans, have a ham bone and an onion ready for cooking Saturday afternoon and eating Sunday sometime after the race, plus the subsequent days.

I figured out which pair of shoes to wear and have a couple of options on shirts to wear.  I'm waiting for TAPER MADNESS to set in to make the final decision on the shirts.  If one can be had.  With as much flu that's going around in Texas, I'm pleased I've escaped it, so far.

ounce wrote:Monday, I got outside and walked 2 miles, then ran 2 miles.  It was my first running in a month.  It was in the low 40's with a breeze.  The Half is on this Sunday, where the temps are supposed to be 30 at the start and 48 around 1 p.m., with clear skies.

All 4 miles were transparent to the runner, except for the heavier breathing during the run piece.  But the legs were saying, "We're good!" and I was pleased, no, very pleased with that.  Since that occurred, I'd like to run as many of the miles as possible during the race.

I've purchased some fresh green beans, have a ham bone and an onion ready for cooking Saturday afternoon and eating Sunday sometime after the race, plus the subsequent days.

I figured out which pair of shoes to wear and have a couple of options on shirts to wear.  I'm waiting for TAPER MADNESS to set in to make the final decision on the shirts.  If one can be had.  With as much flu that's going around in Texas, I'm pleased I've escaped it, so far.

Congrats on the run.
Congrats on avoiding the flu...it's nasty this year.
Enjoy the ham and beans.
Good luck on Sunday...don't forget to have fun.
And in the meantime enjoy TAPER MADNESS.

Congrats on the run. I'm sorry about the dnf in Dec . I hope this spring goes well. Injury free and enjoy the running.
Yes, please keep avoiding the flu. I keep thinking any week my whole family will get it.

Another voice saying it's good to avoid the flu this year. I know people who were taken out for a week or more, and I've heard of others who ended up with pneumonia. Nobody wants that.

Julie wrote:Congrats on  the  run. I'm sorry about  the  dnf  in Dec .  I  hope  this spring goes well. Injury free and  enjoy  the  running.
Yes, please  keep  avoiding  the  flu. I keep  thinking  any week  my whole  family  will  get it.

Hey, thanks for stopping by, Julie!  Yeah, I sure hope to avoid it.  We both should work on 'injury free.'

Mark B wrote:Another voice saying it's good to avoid the flu this year. I know people who were taken out for a week or more, and I've heard of others who ended up with pneumonia. Nobody wants that.

What?  You, too?!?  The paper didn't buy that special newspaper paper immunized against the flu for its readers and employees?  You're the one that needs double protection with 2 residents that spend the work day in a school. 

By the way, how's Alita's 2nd shot at fixing her hearing?

-30-

This morning, it was 60 degrees and I did another 4 miles, split up as 1 walk and 3 run.  Everything went fine and the running splits were 12:57, 13:13, and 13:31.  The slowdown was legitimate and tells me that running the whole thing is not practical.  However, on the flipside, I can run and not hurt.  So, maybe I'll do a 3 run/1 walk or similar.

The weather will be conducive to good times.  It got up to 70, this morning, then the Low pressure that pummeled Santa Barbara came through with a 1/2" of rain, then 25 mph NW wind, and it'll be 32 in the morning.  Race day is still forecasted to be 30 degrees downtown on Sunday with a 5 mph NW wind, clear skies, and a high of 48.

One of the local weather guys said, "With gusts up to 40 mph, tonight, I'm not covering MY plants.  It's every plant for itself, tonight."

Tomorrow is a massage and picking up my bib.  Thank you.

Yesterday was my massage and packet pickup.  Bib # is 39871 for the Half.  Name slot is blank, I thought I put 'Naked' in there, but I guess not.  Here's the link for the results:  http://results.houstonmarathon.com/2018/

This morning, I test walked/ran the shirt combination in 31 degree temps in the dark with a 5-7 mph north breeze.  Two layers, both long sleeved in coolmax and the other was polyester.  It felt fine for being in the dark, but dark/shaded will be for only mile 1 and mile 13.  The rest will be in the sun and a less than 5 mph north to NE breeze.  Temps rose from 31 to 44, today, from 6:53 a.m. to 11:53 a.m.  I would expect similar on Sunday.  The sun will add about 5 degrees to the feel.

I hate being overdressed during the tail end of a race, so I'll probably go long sleeve polyester, short sleeve coolmax, Buff, do rag, shorts, dark sunglasses, injinji, plus another pair of socks.  A trusty dry cleaning bag will be brought along.

I expect to cross the start line around 7:35 (starts at 7), thereby finishing by 11:35 to make it an official finish.  Finishing at 10:38 (3:03 time or 14 pace) would be magical with the shallow endurance level I have.

Thanks.

I didn't sleep well, overnight, but figured since it was just a Half, I should be fine with whatever sleep I get.  It was 31 degrees and calm.

It took 51 minutes to get to the start line and there were still people behind me.  Longest wait ever.

Cutting to the chase, a magical run would've been a 14 minute pace or 3:03 time.  I finished at a 13:25 pace or 2:55:48.  I ran continuously, except for 2 pee breaks, for 10.5 miles in 12 or 13 paces.

I'll fill in the rest, later.  This wasn't a PR, but I sure am treating it as such.

ounce wrote:I didn't sleep well, overnight, but figured since it was just a Half, I should be fine with whatever sleep I get.  It was 31 degrees and calm.

It took 51 minutes to get to the start line and there were still people behind me.  Longest wait ever.

Cutting to the chase, a magical run would've been a 14 minute pace or 3:03 time.  I finished at a 13:25 pace or 2:55:48.  I ran continuously, except for 2 pee breaks, for 10.5 miles in 12 or 13 paces.

I'll fill in the rest, later.  This wasn't a PR, but I sure am treating it as such.

WOW  That's awesome.  Congrats.

I just got home from a family event and thought I'd check in.  I was surprised to see that you had posted.  I expected to have to check the results.  I'm glad you did.  Now rest up...I'm looking forward to the details.

Once again Congrats!!!!!!!

nkrichards wrote:

ounce wrote:I didn't sleep well, overnight, but figured since it was just a Half, I should be fine with whatever sleep I get.  It was 31 degrees and calm.

It took 51 minutes to get to the start line and there were still people behind me.  Longest wait ever.

Cutting to the chase, a magical run would've been a 14 minute pace or 3:03 time.  I finished at a 13:25 pace or 2:55:48.  I ran continuously, except for 2 pee breaks, for 10.5 miles in 12 or 13 paces.

I'll fill in the rest, later.  This wasn't a PR, but I sure am treating it as such.

WOW  That's awesome.  Congrats.

I just got home from a family event and thought I'd check in.  I was surprised to see that you had posted.  I expected to have to check the results.  I'm glad you did.  Now rest up...I'm looking forward to the details.

Once again Congrats!!!!!!!

Thanks, Nancy.  It was more than I imagined.

-30-

It was 31 degrees with a light north breeze, along with an occasional moderate breeze.  Not wonderful when there is nothing to break the wind...so to speak.

I haven't uploaded the Garmin, yet, but I do have the 5K pace splits, which may be just as effective.

5K  13:23
10K 12:57
15K 13:17
20K 14:13
21K 12:38

Starting out, I decided against walking and to just run as far as my two wittle legs will carry me.  I was hoping to get to the 5k mark.  It came and went.  I was feeling really, really good.  I decided to take it a mile at a time, but wanting to get to the 10K mark because at that point, I could slow down and even walk the rest of the way.  I did have two pee breaks, just before mile 1 and again around mile 7. 

I got to about 10.5 miles, just before a water station, and I decided to walk the water station.  Then ran again to past mile 11 and did a walk 1 minute, run a few minutes. 

At this point, I started calculating whether I could go sub-3.  I made a math error thinking I had 3 miles to go, when I really had 2.  This made my calculation 13-14 minutes more than reality.  But I ran with that error until getting to downtown.  I blame that on a lack of clarity, now.  I forgot that I needed something to clear the fog, as the miles clicked along.

During mile 11, I latched on to an Oreo, a favorite in-race snack of mine.  I knew I would get a sugar kick in less than 10 minutes.  Mile 12 came and I was doing roughly run 3 minutes/walk 1 minute.  Coming into downtown, a bit after mile 12, I wanted to run the rest of the way in.  I have never ran the whole length of downtown during a marathon; I wanted to do it now.

I looked at my watch.  The elapsed time was 2 hours, 41 minutes.  What?  I had 19 minutes to run less than a mile and still be under 3 hours?  I got this.  I ran faster, but not so fast that I'd get tired.  The Oreo had kicked in.

The street to the finish line is 5 lanes wide and orange cones separated the Full runners and the Half runners.  Most of the Half runners were walking, whereas most of the Full runners (also on their last mile) were running and faster than I.  There was one point when the walkers were too thick to get past.  So, I looked on the Full side of the street and there was no one coming.  I jumped onto the Full side until I passed the slug of walkers, then went back.  Until the finish line, the Half side was thinner.  2:55:48.  13:25 pace.

SUCH a rewarding finish.  Clearly, I was not so thick in stamina to run a marathon, but that was a fun race.  I saw a lot of Full finishers that looked like I have felt after a marathon...the walking dead.  Here I was, able to make conscious decisions, stop on a dime, even smile.  I was even able to joke with a couple of the cops.

I saw two cops after the finish line, one male and one female.  I chatted a bit with them, then I looked at the female cop:
Doug:  "You know how if you see something strange, to say something?"
Female cop's expression changed to a laser focus on what I said.
Female cop:  "Yes."
I pointed to her partner and said, "He looks really strange."
Female cop relaxes and says, "Oh, that's true."

The weather was really nice, except the full sun was losing its appeal in the last 2 miles (or was it 3 miles? )  I'm glad I didn't have to put up with that sun for another 3 hours.  Tonight, we have a Winter Storm Warning after having afternoon temps of 64 degrees.  You may see some wrecks or sliding from Houston, tomorrow.  Enjoy our Ice Madness!

Thanks for stopping by.

A forced, in-house, recovery is going well.  Monday was a prep day for the pending cold days on Tuesday - Thursday.  It was 64 on Monday.  Temps plummeted from 54 at midnight to 30 by sunrise, yesterday.  We had freezing rain, sleet, and/or snow all day, yesterday.  I never saw snow.  North winds 10-20 gave wind chills in the teens.

With temps yesterday staying +/- 2 degrees, all of the roads in Houston & SE Texas would freeze over with a forecasted low of 19 for this morning at IAH, about 12 miles north of downtown.  It hit 19.  This was the first time in the teens since January 8, 1996.  The snow that IAH saw made it the first winter since 1973 that Houston has seen snow 3 times.

I remember 1973 because I was taking the class part of driver's ed at school and about 4-5 inches fell on a purple AMC Javelin we had.  This was my first time to see a snow, other than a dusting.  It was enough to make many snowmen.

So, I haven't and couldn't run since Sunday's Half.  This morning, roads are iced over, but the sun is out and it's supposed to get up to 36 today, then freeze one more night.  Saturday, it'll be 70.

Hope you're enjoying your recovery.  Talk about nice scheduling as far as race weather is concerned...  Can you imagine trying to conduct a race in the weather you had mid week!

Take care and get back out there when you feel up to it.

Congrats again on a fantastic race!

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!

What a terrific race, Ounce! So happy for you. I looked at your splits and the chip vs. gun time, and I'm amazed you didn't go crazy waiting to just get across the starting line. No wonder you had such pent up energy by the time you crossed the mat. (I would have had to go pee 2 or 3 times just in THAT time period.)

Your pacing was solid, and your decision to just go for it and see what happens was THE ABSOLUTE RIGHT THING TO DO. You looked happy and confident in your race photos, too. It was a great day for you.

Side note: The BEST (not the fastest, but close) marathon I ever ran was in similar conditions. It was just about freezing at the start, but the chill went away after a few miles and I was in shirtsleeves and shorts the rest of the day. It let me push harder and not be affected by heat build-up. I think the same thing happened with you, too.

So excited. What a great race!



(Sorry for the belated congratulations, but I was doing my own marathon this past week trying to get through the flu, then a sinus infection.)

nkrichards wrote:Hope you're enjoying your recovery.  Talk about nice scheduling as far as race weather is concerned...  Can you imagine trying to conduct a race in the weather you had mid week!

Take care and get back out there when you feel up to it.

Congrats again on a fantastic race!

Thank you, again.  Yeah, there would be about 24,000 people pissed for the race being called.  We lucked out...big time.

Mark B wrote:WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW!!

What a terrific race, Ounce! So happy for you. I looked at your splits and the chip vs. gun time, and I'm amazed you didn't go crazy waiting to just get across the starting line. No wonder you had such pent up energy by the time you crossed the mat. (I would have had to go pee 2 or 3 times just in THAT time period.)

Your pacing was solid, and your decision to just go for it and see what happens was THE ABSOLUTE RIGHT THING TO DO. You looked happy and confident in your race photos, too. It was a great day for you.

Side note: The BEST (not the fastest, but close) marathon I ever ran was in similar conditions. It was just about freezing at the start, but the chill went away after a few miles and I was in shirtsleeves and shorts the rest of the day. It let me push harder and not be affected by heat build-up. I think the same thing happened with you, too.

So excited. What a great race!  

   

(Sorry for the belated congratulations, but I was doing my own marathon this past week trying to get through the flu, then a sinus infection.)

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!  Thanks, Mark!  I figured you were in a drug induced stupor.  The weather was splendid for running a Half, but too, too sunny for a Full.  I relaxed after the third mile and just tried to go as far as I could at a 13 or less pace.  Although, I'm not used to having SO many people running or walking around me.  I adored the few streets where I was alone on one side of the street, while the herd was following, well, the herd.

I will file away for next year's start that if it's close to as long a wait that I would run/jog for a few moments to jostle the bladder awake enough to void and avoid another 1st mile wetting of a fence.  I have every confidence that it will be at least a 30 minute wait.  I didn't leave the Convention Center to go to the corral until 7:15.  The race started at 7:00.  Some first timers went out to the same corral at 6:30 (talk about bladder issues).

Yes, 30 degree weather does allow for maximum cooling...much like an old VW Bug with the air-cooled engine.  The breeze was spot on and wasn't even a bother when it became a headwind.

It gives me great joy to begin training for next year's marathon.  Enough time to heal, should that be needed, plus time to get stronger, fitter, faster, and thick in endurance.

In that vein, I started doing 100 push ups a day, starting Jan 1.  There was this pretty durn buff 59 year old female that does ultras in this Facebook group called "Running after 60."  She was starting a challenge or whatever to do 100 push ups a day for the whole year...36,500 push ups.  It was personal choice to do knee push ups or feet push ups, split up into batches or all at once.

I thought, "hmmm.  I wonder what would happen?"  I did that 22 pushups for that vets who commit suicides for 8 months.  What the heck?  I didn't sign up, but I am doing it.  Knee push ups, doing either 20, 25, or 30 push ups in a batch.  I'm working on increasing the number in a batch, like 35.  So, since this is the 21st day of the year, I have done 2,100 push ups.  The first 4 days, the upper arms and trapezoid muscles were sore, but it's settled down quite a bit.  I hope I can keep it up and eventually be able to do 100 traditional push ups by day 365l


Well, I'll get at it.   Thanks, y'all.

Here are the splits, as recorded on the Garmin, which is notoriously poor amongst big buildings.

13.43 miles, 2:55:50 (official 2:55:48), 13:06 pace (13:25 official pace), 157 avg cadence, 0.78 m avg stride length
1.  13:25, 154 spm, 78 sl (46 second pee break)
2.  13;09, 159 spm, 77 sl
3.  12:53, 159 spm, 78 sl
4.  13:05, 159 spm, 77 sl
5.  12:54, 161 spm, 77 sl
6.  12:38, 162 spm, 79 sl
7.  13:07, 152 spm, 81 sl (34 second pee break)
8.  12:50, 161 spm, 78 sl
9.  12:58, 160 spm, 78 sl
10. 13:07, 162 spm, 76 sl
11. 13:35, 155 spm, 76 sl
12. 14:37, 142 spm, 78 sl
13. 12:35, 149 spm, 86 sl
14. 11:35 pace, 163 spm, 85 sl

Nice splits!

BTW, there's a secret for that long starting grid wait. Wear an OPAQUE trash bag and bring along an empty Gatorade bottle.

When the race starts, leave the bag and the filled bottle on the starting grid.

Oh, as a corollary, if you see some nice full bottle of lemonade gatorade sitting by the side of the starting area, don't drink it.

Mark B wrote:Nice splits!

BTW, there's a secret for that long starting grid wait. Wear an OPAQUE trash bag and bring along an empty Gatorade bottle.

When the race starts, leave the bag and the filled bottle on the starting grid.

Oh, as a corollary, if you see some nice full bottle of lemonade gatorade sitting by the side of the starting area, don't drink it.  

As Royce would say...eeewwwhhh.  But I guess it's no worse than peeing on someone's fence or tree.

And yes on the splits...nice!

ounce wrote:
In that vein, I started doing 100 push ups a day, starting Jan 1.  There was this pretty durn buff 59 year old female that does ultras in this Facebook group called "Running after 60."  She was starting a challenge or whatever to do 100 push ups a day for the whole year...36,500 push ups.  It was personal choice to do knee push ups or feet push ups, split up into batches or all at once.

I thought, "hmmm.  I wonder what would happen?"  I did that 22 pushups for that vets who commit suicides for 8 months.  What the heck?  I didn't sign up, but I am doing it.  Knee push ups, doing either 20, 25, or 30 push ups in a batch.  I'm working on increasing the number in a batch, like 35.  So, since this is the 21st day of the year, I have done 2,100 push ups.  The first 4 days, the upper arms and trapezoid muscles were sore, but it's settled down quite a bit.  I hope I can keep it up and eventually be able to do 100 traditional push ups by day 365l


Well, I'll get at it.   Thanks, y'all.

Keep at those pushups Doug.  They're a good core/strength exercise.  Nice choice for a goal this year.

We had a family pushup challenge a few years ago.  We each did the maximum number of pushups we could and recorded the number.  Then we trained for a few weeks and retested ourselves.  We gave an award for the largest increase in number but also the largest percentage increase.  It was a lot of fun.  I found a website with an actual training plan to work towards doing 100 pushups and it also ranked us depending on age and gender.  I'll look for it if I have time.


Edited to add...try www.hundredpushups.com

nkrichards wrote:

Mark B wrote:Nice splits!

BTW, there's a secret for that long starting grid wait. Wear an OPAQUE trash bag and bring along an empty Gatorade bottle.

When the race starts, leave the bag and the filled bottle on the starting grid.

Oh, as a corollary, if you see some nice full bottle of lemonade gatorade sitting by the side of the starting area, don't drink it.  

As Royce would say...eeewwwhhh.  But I guess it's no worse than peeing on someone's fence or tree.

And yes on the splits...nice!

I remember a 30K race through a residential neighborhood.  I found some shrubs on the side of a house to water.  A woman entrant announced, "That's disgusting!"  I replied, "Have a nice day!"

nkrichards wrote:

ounce wrote:
In that vein, I started doing 100 push ups a day, starting Jan 1.  There was this pretty durn buff 59 year old female that does ultras in this Facebook group called "Running after 60."  She was starting a challenge or whatever to do 100 push ups a day for the whole year...36,500 push ups.  It was personal choice to do knee push ups or feet push ups, split up into batches or all at once.

I thought, "hmmm.  I wonder what would happen?"  I did that 22 pushups for that vets who commit suicides for 8 months.  What the heck?  I didn't sign up, but I am doing it.  Knee push ups, doing either 20, 25, or 30 push ups in a batch.  I'm working on increasing the number in a batch, like 35.  So, since this is the 21st day of the year, I have done 2,100 push ups.  The first 4 days, the upper arms and trapezoid muscles were sore, but it's settled down quite a bit.  I hope I can keep it up and eventually be able to do 100 traditional push ups by day 365l


Well, I'll get at it.   Thanks, y'all.

Keep at those pushups Doug.  They're a good core/strength exercise.  Nice choice for a goal this year.

We had a family pushup challenge a few years ago.  We each did the maximum number of pushups we could and recorded the number.  Then we trained for a few weeks and retested ourselves.  We gave an award for the largest increase in number but also the largest percentage increase.  It was a lot of fun.  I found a website with an actual training plan to work towards doing 100 pushups and it also ranked us depending on age and gender.  I'll look for it if I have time.


Edited to add...try www.hundredpushups.com

Thanks for the encouragement.  I will do my best to keep at it.  The website looks interesting and even allows the knee pushup to be acceptable for the goal, as long as you maintain good form.

The pull up (chin up) and the push up are my nemesis (nemesisissis?) going back to the elementary school.  That 'humiliation' caused me to hate PE class and was a huge factor in me becoming a trainer in high school, so I didn't have to go to a PE class.

This past Monday, I took my soccer ball up to Memorial Park and dribbled 2 miles with it.  The first mile was challenging because I was zig zagging trying to keep the durn thing going forward.  The second mile was easier because I figured out my running shoes had a blunt toe and I could actually kick the durn thing STRAIGHT. 

I kinda, sorta used the Garmin to measure off around 100 yards (<0.06 of a mile), so I can do some kinda sprints, then work up to almost sprints, and finally to sprints over time.

It's amazing how not having a near-term race activates my 'don't-give-a-shit' morning thoughts.  I have started paring back on sugars, breads, muffins, fries, cookies, cereal, ice cream, and other contraband.  But last week sure was lovely!

However, the green beans turned out wonderful.  I even went to the store and bought 2 bunches of collard greens with some of the other remaining ham.  The best collard greens, I'm told, come from North Carolina after the first frost.  They are properly and regionally called after cooked "a mess of greens."  Never had those.  Nancy, are collard/turnip/mustard greens something that your compadres grow in your neck of the woods?

A question for the audience:  Is there any documentation on a theory of working on getting faster by doing short distances (100 yd), then 400, 800, etc. working up to a marathon training distance plan?

Well, Thursday morning, I went out for a real live run.  I ran the Devil's Loop to Memorial Park and back.  It measures anywhere from 6.65 to 6.75 miles.  It was 36 degrees out there and no breeze.  I wore my thicker UA crew neck 'cold' weather shirt as the base layer and my Wolverine construction reflective short sleeve shirt on top.  New combination.  I usually wear the crew neck shirt when it's colder and/or windier with another layer with another shirt on top for 3 layers.  With no wind, I wanted to test this combination out.

I haven't uploaded the data, but remember the first half was at a 13:16 pace, the 2nd half was 13:30 which makes an average of 13:23.

Not bad.

This morning, I wanted to see if I could run faster miles back to back.  It was 48 degrees, this morning with a south breeze of 5 mph.  I did a quarter mile warm up and took off.  And took off.  Well, the only thing I can say was that I was the FASTEST runner out there at 5 a.m.  Doing well for the first half mile, I started slowing and finished the first at 11:43.  The second mile wasn't going to be something that I would want to time, so I just walked back.

But it's a start.  I think I'll remember 11:43 on January 26.  Time will tell.  Thanks for stopping by.

Wow, fantastic race, Doug.  I'm proud of you as that was very well executed.  I heard the conditions were fantastic in Houston and everyone I know ran very well there this year.

Keep doing those pushups - I do 50 per day - 25 in the AM and 25 before bed with stretching.  They are great for core strength as Nancy said and I feel like a badass since I couldn't do any a few years back.

Keep up the good work.

ounce wrote:

However, the green beans turned out wonderful.  I even went to the store and bought 2 bunches of collard greens with some of the other remaining ham.  The best collard greens, I'm told, come from North Carolina after the first frost.  They are properly and regionally called after cooked "a mess of greens."  Never had those.  Nancy, are collard/turnip/mustard greens something that your compadres grow in your neck of the woods?

A question for the audience:  Is there any documentation on a theory of working on getting faster by doing short distances (100 yd), then 400, 800, etc. working up to a marathon training distance plan?

Sorry to respond to this so late Doug.

Collard greens aren't a thing in our area.  Of course they're available but it's more a southern thing.  I had them in Atlanta once and they're OK.  Spinach and more recently Kale are the greens of choice in our area.  We like spinach raw, sautéed or boiled.  Not a huge fan of Kale mostly because I never learned to cook with it.  I do enjoy it if someone else prepares it.

There is a lot of support for faster intervals during marathon training.  Have you ever looked into Hansons Marathon Method?  They have some really good information on what paces we should run and why.  They discourage really long runs if they are a disproportionate percentage of your training.  They have some great information/recommendations for intervals including suggested paces.  I have their book but I'm sure you can find info online if you don't want to buy the book.

Good to see you out there running and looking into healthy life changes...

There's a lot to be said for fast repeats in marathon training, as long as they're only part of the training plan.

Starting with 100s and graduating to 200s, 400s, etc., as you can tolerate them is a good strategy. It'll help you boost your VOmax, which will help you go faster at all distances. And pushups, while evil, are a good idea. I really ought to think about doing them again someday.

Impressed with the soccer ball experiment, btw!