If you think you have no idea of what captcha is, you at least know something about it, it is working!

Captcha stands for…

“Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. Basically it is a plugin that runs on my site generating images with scrambled letters and numbers that have to be typed in before posting a comment. I installed captcha some time ago to try and cut out all the spam comments that were being posted on this site. I wasn’t able to get it to work initially, so I would disable it, get hundreds of spam comments, re-enable it and then get no comments. I finally decided to take the time yesterday and figure out what exactly was wrong and why captcha wasn’t working. Not to get into too much detail (maybe it’s too late for that…) but it turned out that Freetype wasn’t installed on the server my website is hosted on. Once that got done, presto – captcha works!

Well what are you waiting for? Post a comment!

A little over one week into my marathon training schedule and I’m already having doubts about actually running the St Louis Marathon. It’s not that I don’t think I can run it or that the training is going to be too tough, it is more a matter of timing.

Experts say you should plan on taking a month to fully recover from a marathon. However, the St Louis marathon is only 6 days out from the Max Trax Duathlon, a race I’ve placed 2nd and 3rd in several times and which I would really like to finally win. So while I’m still going to train long, as if I were training for a marathon, I’m probably only going to run the 1/2 marathon.

I’m also a little disappointed in the training plan I was going to follow. In the first week of the plan, it already had me doing speed work and hill workouts. Unless I want to end up with an injury, I’ve decided I should come up with a different plan. I already have the basic plan laid out in my mind, it really is quite simple. I ran 30 miles last week. This week I’ll increase that by 10% and continue doing so for 10 weeks. In my 10th week of training I’ll be up to 70 miles of running per week. Up to that point all my miles are going to be LSE, long slow & easy or enjoyable. Once I’m up to 70 then I’ll start incorporating some faster workouts in to the mix. By that point I’ll have built up an excellent base and my body will respond rapidly to the increase in speed. I’ll post a more detailed plan shortly.

It has been almost three years since the last time I ran a marathon. The last marathon I did was the Houston HP Marathon on January 18, 2004. That marathon remains my PR, 3:06:39. I know I can run faster, provided I can train better than I have in the past. I have attempted to follow several different training plans leading up to previous marathons, but I’ve always ended up abandoning the plan due to injury or burnout. It’s time for another try. Not only will the training provide me with an excellent off season training base, it will also help improve my running which I’ve let slide over the last few years.

I’ll be following one of Hal Higdon’s marathon training programs, it can be found here: http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/advanced2/advancedII.htm

At a minimum I will do the runs recommended by Hal. I will also add additional runs; doing well in running and in a marathon requires running, lots of it. I will track my progress over the weeks to come on this site…

With the first major winter storm dumping 14+ inches of snow and ice on Columbia, I spent most of this weekend inside other than a few hours of cross training with a snow shovel. Unfortunately this meant missing a return trip to Kirksville to visit friends and compete in the annual Reindeer Romp. I also skipped the Masters swim meet this weekend at Mizzou, 0 for 2 this weekend!

What better way to prepare for a day of eating than a brisk 3 mile race! Got up around 4:45am to drive to Kirkwood where I picked up Nikki and we headed to downtown Kirkwood for a Turkey Trot.

I might have been a little overly optimistic in my expectations; I was shooting for holding a 5:45 pace for the 3 mile run. The race started at 8 am and while it was chilly, once we were under way things warmed up fast. I was surprised to see Trey Robinson, a friend from Truman State that I hadn’t seen in some time. He ran for Truman’s cross country and track team so I knew he would be fast but he made it sound like he was a little worn out, he had run the Chicago marathon followed by a 50k race. For the first 1/4 of a mile or so I hung with Trey and a few other fast runners, but I realized they were going a little to fast for me so I let them go. Passed the first mile marker in 5:40 but I was hurting and contrary to what I thought it was going to be, the course was either up or down, not more than a few feet of anything flat. Ended up slowing down considerably in the last two miles ending up with an 18:23 for a 6:08 per mile average. I should have been happy with that pace for the difficulty of the course, but I know I can run faster. 4th place in my age group and 28th overall.

Complete results