I would say that this weekend was one of the nicest we’ve had since we moved to Austin. The weather was nice, a little warm, but not too hot. We went to get pumpkins, went to the Wells Branch Renaissance Festival and generally hung out together. Here are a few photos to give you a peek.
Saturday morning we went to the Red Barn nursery to get pumpkins. We had heard that it was a great photo op. But we weren’t too thrilled. We did take a few pictures, but none of their $10-12 pumpkins
Later that afternoon we walked down through the park to go to the Renaissance Festival that was being held at Katherine Fleischer park. On the way:
Wesley loves this digger. Unfortunately it is pretty beat up and he has some trouble getting it to work. Teamwork payed off though.
When we got there we were underwhelmed. Only a few tents and not much going on to speak of. Not even any music. And nary a dragon to be found.
So we went to play at the playground. We played on the swings, the slides, and the playhouse. And of course in the big tube:
As we left the park Wesley and I could resist a good roll down the hill to the soccer field. By the end I was a bit queasy and Wesley still wanted “more, more, more!”:
On the way home we stopped at the bench swings to take some photos:
Amber wasn’t happy with the photo setup at the Red Barn Nursery. Frankly, neither was I and I’m not nearly as picky. There were stickers on the pumpkins and junk in the background. We took a few photos, but Amber needed more. She had a vision and it needed to be realized. So, we now have a pumpkin photo studio in our backyard complete with bales of hay and a bunch of pumpkins. I love her little obsessions so much.
Pumpkins arriving home from the HEB (half as much as at Red Barn, but three times as many):
Wesley helped transport the pumpkins from the garage to the backyard. I guess we need a wagon.
He also helped me moved the hay bales and insisted on adjusting the pumpkins to make it look just so.
Tags: Amber, Jillian, pumpkins, Renaissance Festival, Wells Branch, Wesley
Apparently there is a rather large cave system under Austin. Who knew? Kicks it up one notch on the cool scale as far as I’m concerned. I’m just glad I wasn’t the one on the news last night being rescued. Three UT students (Aggies insert jokes here) were rescued from the caves unharmed, but after being lost for 31 hours or so. Two girls and a guy. Hmmm….
Tags: Austin, cave, rescue, spelunking
During my run yesterday I took a stab at drinking while running. I have no problem using the bottle with the bite valve, but you don’t get paper cups with little bite valves during the marathon. So I took the lid off the bottle and got more water on my face than in my mouth. I see now why they recommend you walk through the water stations during the race. I’ll probably keep practicing with the drinking on the run, but I’m guessing when it comes down to it I’ll walk that part of the race. After all a few minutes difference between walking and running won’t mean much in a four hour race.
To give you an idea how important it is to drink during the long runs and race I did a little experiment. During a 5 mile run lasting 45 minutes I lost 2.2 lbs. How do I know? I weighed myself before and after the run, nekkid (that’s naked in Texas talk) and holding the water bottle. The bottle was full when I left and nearly empty when I got back. The run was in the evening and temperatures were in the mid to upper 70s. At that rate I need to drink nearly 3 lbs of water for every hour I run. During a 4 hour run I’m looking at 12 lbs = 192 ounces = 24 cups of water = 1.5 gallons of water. That is a lot of little paper cups. Especially if you are splashing most of them all over yourself while running.
Perhaps the most critical element in my marathon plan is the training program. Basically running, running and more running. I am following an 18-week program developed by Hal Higdon. The program has grown organically after years and years of coaching runners (literally thousands), writing for Runner’s World, and writing many books on running. I chose this program after reading his book Marathon: The Ultimate Training Guide
His website is also a fantastic place to find information on running and many race training programs. I am following his novice training program more or less to the letter. The training program is built on three different kinds of runs. Tuesdays and Thursdays are best described as quick or short runs. These runs are in fact short (3-5 miles) and if you are fast I guess they would be quick. Saturday is the long run. They start at 5 miles and work up to 20 miles. These are to be run slowly (below your marathon speed) to help prevent injury. Wednesdays are the sorta-long runs. Longer than short runs, shorter than long runs. These too are run fairly slow. Better slow than hurt. Below is a quick breakdown of the runs as shown on Hidgon’s site.
| Week | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thur | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| 1 | rest | 3 m run | 3 m run | 3 m run | rest | 6 | cross |
| 2 | rest | 3 m run | 3 m run | 3 m run | rest | 7 | cross |
| 3 | rest | 3 m run | 4 m run | 3 m run | rest | 5 | cross |
| 4 | rest | 3 m run | 4 m run | 3 m run | rest | 9 | cross |
| 5 | rest | 3 m run | 5 m run | 3 m run | rest | 10 | cross |
| 6 | rest | 3 m run | 5 m run | 3 m run | rest | 7 | cross |
| 7 | rest | 3 m run | 6 m run | 3 m run | rest | 12 | cross |
| 8 | rest | 3 m run | 6 m run | 3 m run | rest | 13 | cross |
| 9 | rest | 3 m run | 7 m run | 4 m run | rest | 10 | cross |
| 10 | rest | 3 m run | 7 m run | 4 m run | rest | 15 | cross |
| 11 | rest | 4 m run | 8 m run | 4 m run | rest | 16 | cross |
| 12 | rest | 4 m run | 8 m run | 5 m run | rest | 12 | cross |
| 13 | rest | 4 m run | 9 m run | 5 m run | rest | 18 | cross |
| 14 | rest | 5 m run | 9 m run | 5 m run | rest | 14 | cross |
| 15 | rest | 5 m run | 10 m run | 5 m run | rest | 20 | cross |
| 16 | rest | 5 m run | 8 m run | 4 m run | rest | 12 | cross |
| 17 | rest | 4 m run | 6 m run | 3 m run | rest | 8 | cross |
| 18 | rest | 3 m run | 4 m run | 2 m run | rest | rest | race |
Beside the runs themselves there are three other important things to note. The first is that the there are two days of rest each week. These are critical to let the body recuperate after the runs and to help prevent overuse injuries. When in doubt rest. The next thing to notice is that their is an additional day of cross training each week. This too is to help prevent overuse. Swimming, cycling, walking, hiking, skating, aerobics, whatever you want, just not running. You need the extra day of exercise, but this way you can work other muscle groups and still give the running muscles and joints and tendons a break of sorts. Finally you may notice that the runs don’t increase in a linear fashion. They step up for a few weeks and then drop back. Then up and then back. Two steps forward, one step back allows you to push yourself to the limit and then get a little rest before moving forward. Related is the taper. Beginning three weeks before the race you begin to run fewer and fewer miles. The idea is to be fully rested before the big day.
My training officially starts Monday 10/15. I’ve got that first day covered. It is a Monday so rest is in order. Rough.
Tags: Higdon, Marathon, Running, training program