Last Three Weeks of Training

Monday-Sunday: No Running.

Week Total: 0 miles. Cold and rainy on a couple of days and I got sick with a fever for the rest of the week.  This is the third year in a row and the fourth out of five that I got sick the week of the Rocket City Marathon.  I also found out my iron is low.



Monday: 5.5 miles (7:22)

Tuesday: 5.4 miles (7:06)

Wednesday: No running

Thursday: 5.2 miles (6:58)

Friday: 6.6 miles (7:02)

Saturday: 9.3 miles (6:51)

Sunday: 4.5 miles (7:15)

Week Total: 36.5 miles.  Another low mileage week, yet again. Yeah, I could be a little more gung-ho about it but I feel like crap on all of my runs.  I thought for sure I'd be feeling better but on all of my runs, it feels like I have low-blood sugar or something and get light-headed from time-to-time and am really drained on any type of hill.

My blood test results came in and my iron and iron saturation was still low.  My Vitamin D was also borderline low.  Hopefully some supplementation will help boost it up.



Monday: 5.5 miles on the treadmill (7:15). I can't stand the treadmill.  According to the guy at the gym, this was my first time there in 283 days.  I decided I'm old and weak and need to start lifting again.

Tuesday: No running

Wednesday: 8 miles (6:50)

Thursday: 2.5 miles (7:21). Felt really dizzy

Friday: No running.

Saturday: 9.3 miles (6:53). First day I'm not sore from lifting.

Sunday: No running. However, I did jump on a road bike for the first time ever.  I went on a 12ish mile spin with my friends Darron and Leigh and they had to stop every so often and wait for me.  It's not that it's tiring really, I just spent the whole time freaking out because the front wheel always feels unsteady and on downhills, while they opened up, I didn't pedal at all and just rode the brake.  I'd be a terrible cyclist and a really bad triathlete.   However, I'm debating buying a hybrid to ride my kids and cross country runners and also mess go on short rides from time-to-time.  But man, bikes are expensive.

Week Total: 25.3 miles. Originally, I was hoping to knock out 60ish miles this week.  Running is still tough and on all my runs, I feel really drained and lightheaded.  I don't know what the deal is, but this is the worst timing ever.  I ramped up my iron dosage, so hopefully I feel better in a couple of weeks.

However, since I haven't been running as much, I've been staying up late and watching a lot of TV and playing a lot of Fallout this past week. Here's most of what I've watched, along with my rating and brief rant about it.

Good Dinosaur: A-.  Sort of a Lion King rip-off, except there are dinosaurs.My four-year old daughter also got scared several times throughout the movie and begged me to turn it off but she needs to toughen up, so I didn't (especially since the whole them of the movie is about facing your fears).  Pretty good for a kids movie.

Revenant: A. Good movie and like an episode of  Man vs, Wild, if there were very little dialogue, some Indians, a camera crew who wouldn't be allowed to save him after being attacked by a bear and also, someone killed his son and Bear Gryllis wanted to try and get revenge before he dies himself. It'll be interesting to see if Leo finally wins an Oscar and he's a big favorite on most of the betting sites.  Good cinematography and this should probably have been seen on the big screen instead of watching a DVD screener.

Hateful Eight: A+. It's getting somewhat mixed reviews and this was typical Tarantino with heavy dialogue mixed with bursts of over the top violence.  It was pretty long at almost three hours and most of it takes place in a cabin, but I enjoyed it.  Basically, a couple of bounty hunters arrive at a snowed in cabin with a captured , "wanted" criminal.  They are a few other people in the cabin and Kurt Russell doesn't know who to trust.  Eventually, it hits the fan. Samuel L. Jackson plays Samuel L. Jackson for the 100th time in his career, Kurt Russell  had a nice beard/mustache combo and Walter Goggins did a really good job in his role, even though I'm still mad at him for killing Lem.

Making a Murderer: A+. 10-part documentary on Netflix and I even got Netflix for a month so I could see this.  I ended up going through it in under two days and everyone I know that has seen it pretty much went through it at the same rate. Without spoiling anything, there's a guy in a po'dunk town in Wisconsin who is found guilty for rape and is sent to prison, even though there was some shadiness about it all.  After 18 years and a DNA test, it turns out that he didn't do it but was the guy who obviously should have been the #1 suspect.  He sues for $36 million dollars and since the police's insurance wouldn't cover it, it would put a huge hit on the the town and the police force.  But right before the settlement, he's arrested for murder, with most of the documentary being about the trial. Was he guilty?  Innocent and set-up by the police? You have to watch it and form your own opinion.  Personally, I think the greatest tragedy in the documentary is what happens to another person in it.

Wentworth: A+. Technically, I just started season three.  I watched the first two seasons of this last summer on Netflix and went right them them.  You have a woman who was abused by her husband, so she tries to kills him and is thrown in jail for attempted murder.  At first, she's an insecure and weak individual but with a definite pecking order and a couple of ladies duking it out for Queen Bee of the prison, she has to toughen up.

And if you want to know about Fallout, I'm currently at level 39 and after making Piper my girlfriend, I made her go back to Sanctuary so I can cruise the wasteland of Boston with Detective Valentine.

Last two weeks

Monday: 5.5 miles (7:16)

Tuesday: 8 miles (6:46)

Wednesday: 10.7 miles (6:31)

Thursday: 9.6 miles with 5 mile Turkey Trot in 26:22. Ran the first mile with some college kid who runs for Miss St. in 5:06. Slowly gapped him over time and actually was getting a little tired on the hills.  Soleus still on lockdown from the marathon.

Friday: 9.3 miles (6:18); 5.4 miles (7:18)

Saturday: 10 miles (7:40)

Sunday: 2 miles.  Was going to do a progression but I wasn't feeling it at all

Week Total: 60.5 miles. Another booty week.  I'll just call it a post-marathon recovery week.  I actually had zero soreness at all, except for both of my soleus's being insanely tight.

Monday: 8 miles with attempted moderate run.  I was going to run 10 miles, working from 6:00 down to 5:20s but again, I'm being a sissy and my body and mind is being resistant to anything remotely fast.; 5.5 miles (7:24)

Tuesday: No Running

Wednesday: 10.6 miles (6:33) Plan was to start running lower 6s midway through and then work my way to sub 5:30 by the end.  I got down to 6:00 for a couple of miles before I started really struggling.  With a little over a mile to go, I had to scrap it because it was too tough.

Thursday: 3.3 miles (7:42)

Friday: 9.1 miles (6:43)

Saturday: 3.1 miles (6:57)

Sunday: 6.4 miles (7:38)

Week Total: 46 miles.  Super lazy, tired and unmotivated this week.  But I did some bloodwork and found out my iron is really low.  Whenever it's low, my motivation (as well as my fitness) really nosedives.  I'm going in later for more extensive work to try and figure out the cause.  But regardless, the low iron bug strikes again.