Cold feet

It's been snowing like crazy up here in Toronto and it's really been making training difficult. I was having a hard enough time as it was before the blizzards starting hitting the city. A few days after my Vegas half, I caught a nasty cold and I'm still not 100 percent recovered about two weeks later.

I took a week off after the half -- you know I wasn't feeling good if I wasn't running at all. It was the first full week I took off in about a year. I wasn't happy about it, but I was not feeling good at all. This last week, I ramped it up and logged 40 miles in the week, three of the four runs coming indoors.

On my first three runs, I quit before I intended to, which is also an odd thing for me. I couldn't tell you the last time I quit a run for reasons other than injury. I felt really defeated. On a day I planned to run 12, I ran five outside. On a day I wanted to run 14, I did 11 indoors between the track and treadmill. On another day I planned on running 10, I did only four.

But, all was not lost. You can't just mail in a marathon and mine is less than three weeks away now. So, forced inside due to the bad weather, and still nursing a cold and a swollen left big toe, I completed 20 miles on our little indoor track on Sunday. That's 330 laps! You basically feel like you're turning left the whole time.

I took short breaks at miles 3, 11, 14, 17 and 19 to use the bathroom or to drink water or gatorade. When I was running, I averaged 8:09 per mile. And, sticking to what I try to do with every run -- no matter the distance -- my last mile was my fastest at 7:55. That was a good way to finish up what had been a disappointing week.

I took Monday off to recover and planned on running 10 miles today -- "planned" being the key word. I had some errands to run, and when I was going to head to the gym, some news happened in the baseball world and I was stuck working for a few hours. With chores to knock off before our early-morning drive to Chicago, I didn't have time to squeeze the run in.

That's not a good way to start off this week, especially when we're heading home to even colder conditions during the week of Christmas. I have to make sure I get a few runs in this week somehow, though. The marathon is right around the corner and I can't afford to slip up now.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Stay tuned for more...

Las Vegas Half Marathon

Early this morning, and I mean early -- 6 am out here -- I ran the Las Vegas Half, which was a really fun race to take part in. Before I get into the day, I'll get to the results:

I finished the 13.1 miles in 1:41.41, or an average of 7:45.3 per mile. Out of 7,718 runners, I placed 288th. Out of 3,769 men, I finished 235th. I was 32nd overall in my age division (25-29).

This was a really satisfying finish for me. I was gunning for a 1:45 finish, or at least a 1:47 to best my cousin John's half PR. So, needless to say, I obliterated my goal, and by about 15 seconds per mile! This included a mid-run porta-potty stop, too. So I walked away very happy with the end results.

What's funny is my Garmin said I'd only run 12.75 miles when I crossed the finish line. It does the distance with a footpod, so it's prone to errors, but the discrepancy meant I didn't realize I was running as fast as I was. According to my watch, I was pretty much dead on an 8:00 pace. I guess I've been training harder than the ol' Garmin has been telling me. Nothing wrong with that.

The race itself was cool. It was still dark when we started, right by the Mandelay Bay hotel at the edge of the Strip. At the start, they shoot off fireworks and keep them going for a few minutes while everyone gets through the gates. Then you run for about 5-6 miles up the Strip with all the buildings lit up and everything. It was a very cool experience.

It was a slight downhill -- and I mean very slight -- for the first half. In the second half, it's a gradual incline that you start to notice around mile 9 or 10. Either way, it's still a pretty flat and fast course, as my time clearly shows. The second half you're running a few blocks over from the Strip, and it's not the most scenic route. It was probably in the mid-40s for the run, which felt warm after training in the cold in Toronto these past few weeks.

I flew into Vegas on Saturday and bunked with our Yankees writer at the Marriott Suites. He and our Tigers writer also ran the half. Jason -- the Detroit reporter -- finished in 1:35.26 and Bryan finished in 1:59.16. I'll gladly take the silver for us MLB.comers. Beck caught me at about mile 5, but I wasn't able to keep up with his crazy 7:00 pace.

Now, it's back to work here with baseball's winter meetings kicking off on Monday. I have some runs to try to squeeze in this week still, so I'll try to get up early and run the strip again. I still have a lot of work to do before being ready to run the Walt Disney World Marathon in January. This race at least showed I'm on the right track.

Decking the halls

There's Kelly and I, and an almost cooperative Barkley, sitting in front of our condo-friendly Christmas tree shortly after decking the ol' halls here on Sunday night. Every year we put on Christmas music while we decorate and imagine how our kids will be completely embarrassed by us years from now. Always a good time.

Every year, our ornament collections grows as we pick up souveniers from our vacations, family events or my travels. It's tough to see in the above photo, but I added a memento from my first marathon to the tree this year. At the marathon expo in Chicago, I found this ornament that will be a part of my tree from now on:

Anyway, I'm less than a week removed from the half marathon in Las Vegas. If I were only training for the half, I would've tapered this past week or two. Instead, I logged 41 miles this past week and ran a practice 13.1 miles on Sunday, when it was below freezing here with winds that got up to over 30 mph.

For that run, I bundled up and headed out to the Don Valley path. After a two-mile warm-up with splits of 9:02 and 8:21, I did by best to stay between a 7:50-8:20 pace for the next 11 miles. With the exception of a brief walking break that upped mile 7 to 8:31 and a long light at mile 12 that brought that one up to 8:37, I met that goal.

Practice half-marathon splits:

9:02/8:21/7:59/8:02/8:04/8:14/8:31
8:03/8:01/8:02/8:02/8:37/7:51/0:47

total: 1:47:42

So, for the entire run, I averaged 8:13. After the two-mile warm-up, I averaged 8:06. Considering I did this out in the bitter cold weather that I did, I should be able to hit my target of 1 hour, 45 minutes at the Vegas half. Fingers crossed. Doing this 13.1 trial run in 1:47 was pretty encouraging at least.

Prior to that run, I did 10-mile runs on Tuesday (8:17 pace) and Thursday (8:13 pace) and an 8-miler on Friday at an easier pace. The Tuesday run was good simply because I was pain-free during the run after that nasty fall on Sunday. I still have a bruised left knee, some scrapes in a handful of places and a really sore right arm, which I may have landed on.

But, beyond the bumps and bruises, I had no issues when actually running. That's all I'm concerned with right now. This week, I plan on straying some from the program I mapped out in order to rest up and recover some leading up to the Vegas run on Sunday. I'll probably stick to the indoor track to make sure I do shorter distances.

More later...