Milestones and enter the taper phase…

Well on Sunday, the 21st of September, my 17th wedding anniversary and 1 day after my one year anniversary being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, I awoke at 4:45 AM, laced up the sneakers and headed out for my last long run before the Portland Maine Peak Performance Half Marathon.

My goal was to do 13.1 with 2 miles at a slow pace then pick up to my predicted marathon pace for 9 miles and then end with 2 miles at the slow pace. The run was great, and I was able to maintain a solid pace in the middle miles and finished the run in 2 hours and 6 minutes. This was a great way to end my training. I was able to get the 13.1 miles and the psychological fear of “can I run that distance” off the table and most importantly get the confidence that I can move from the slow “injured” pace back into the fast pace that I wanted prior to the injury.

So now I am done with my training for the half and I will use the next two weeks to do cross training and yoga to maintain my conditioning and show up in Portland on the 5th with a well rested calf.

Update on training…..

With less then 4 weeks to go until my first Half Marathon the training is going very well. I visited my kid sister in Kennebunk, Maine and ran 10 miles on Sunday morning on some of the flattest roads I have ever run. It was a nice run, beautiful farm lands, cool fall weather and clear skies. I am going to get three small runs in during this week and then do 12-13 miles on Sunday and then I think I am going to stop running for the two weeks.

I don’t want to risk injury so the thought is to rest the impact of the roads and swap the 3-5 mile runs out with 30-50 minutes of rowing or cross training and then work on yoga and stretching until the final week. I will replace the last two long slow runs with 1-2 hour sessions on the ARC Trainer to get the conditioning without the pounding of the road. Then the week of the race do two short 3-5 miles runs and rest the Friday and Saturday before the race. This should keep me rested and ready to run strong in Portland.

Cheers,
Tim

Run for 2 hours, who would thought it was possible

In my training for the Portland Maine Half Marathon it was critical that I get 2 hours of running in to get myself use to it. This was a big milestone for me and I am really glad to have this under my belt.

I woke up at 4:30 AM on Sunday the 31st with the plan of hitting the road for 6:00 AM. The weather was perfect and I headed out to meet with Sherry and Dimitra for part of the run. We did the Mendon Road to Quaker to School then 122 to Church Street route. This is normally an 8 mile run and I added 3 miles to it by going down my road.

Well with this run and no injury to my calf from this an even better run. I feel very comfortable at this point that I can complete the half marathon, now I just need to stay healthy.

Tim