Saturday Morning, Day 4

Last night we had one heck of a thunderstorm. Things were flying in the patio, the rain was belting the house, the lightning lit up the entire city.

It rained most of the night. My run (OK, it's a walk, but it's easier to say run) was scheduled for 7:04 a.m., which meant I needed to be up at 6:00 a.m. Keith asked if I was going to run in the rain. I said if others were, then I would, too. But I wouldn't know until I got to the park.

Well, it was about the half the crowd I expected. But they were ready to run. And it had stopped raining, still cool, but no rain, so there was no reason not to go.

The Boise Greenbelt was a mess, especially the first stretch from Shoreline Park down to 9th Street. Lots of downed branches, some really big ones, and some minor flooding. I decided to walk the entire six miles today, not a casual stroll, but my goal was to keep a consistent pace. Walking the entire way gave me a 15:20 pace per mile. Not bad, considering that I didn't feel tired after it was over, and some of the pains weren't nearly as bad as when I was trying to run half.

After the run, the seminar was on Jeff Galloway's Run/Walk method of training and running marathons. The simplest way to describe this method is this: By incorporating a "walk break" into your run, you give your running muscles a chance to catch their breath, and in turn, the running muscles last longer, allowing you to complete the race. For me, I'd start with a "run break". But it has to be done over time, so that you can figure out what your personal optimal run/walk times are; for example, the coach who discussed this with us said her best time is a 7-1 pace, seven minutes of running and one of walking. She has a watch that has interval timing on it, she sets the alarm to go off in seven minutes, then again in another one minute, then again in another seven minutes, and then another one minute, and so on. No keeping track of miles in your head, just listen for the beep.

I will recommend Jeff Galloway's book Marathon, it explains the run/walk method in greater detail, and gives training schedules based on what you're trying to achieve.