Race report, friends made and things to be greatful for.

Ok for the solo sport that running is where only I can pick up my two feet (or kind of shuffle) at times and move along, there is a great social atmosphere to the task of running. I was never involved with group sports after T-Ball so this is all new to me. I began running a little over a year ago and I have run about 10 races and I am always amazed at how many people I meet at these events and enjoy doing such. Now as a disclaimer I am extremely outgoing and not shy at all, I would talk to a rock if I could. So put me in an event with a group of like minded people and I will be heaven. I love the fact that regardless of how fast or slow people are we all share the same passion.

This past weekend I took the family to Hyannis for the Hyannis Marathon so I could run the half marathon (13.1 miles) on Sunday. We arrived on Saturday and the hotel was not as ideal as it could have been mostly because of location so next time I will spend the $20 extra and stay at the hotel at the race and not 2 miles down the road.

So, how was the race? It was well organized and the weather was over cast, 35 degrees and a 10 mph wind with threats of rain in the afternoon. I got up 3 hours ahead of schedule as planned, had my morning fuel (got to love 3 cups of unsweetened applesauce) and got to the race for 8:30 AM. Once I got there I found some rug and made myself comfortable. It only took me minutes to start talking to a guy who was running the full marathon and then to meet another Mainer who was also running the full. He lives in the same town as my grandparents and came in 2nd overall in the marathon. After fighting the portal potty lines I made my way to start and met up with my friend Steve who was running the 10k. I lined up between the 9 minute and 10 minute group and when the gun went off and the crowd took about a mile to break up.

About 2 miles in I met up with another runner and you guessed it, I started a conversation that went for the entire race. The start of the race went well but while chatting with my new friend Jill we got into an 8:30-8:45 pace and that was way to fast and that came back to haunt me at the end. After 3-4 miles of this fast pace we settled into a 9:12 and the miles went well. I managed to talk to my new friend the whole run and it made the miles go by, but holding a conversation at 85%-90% HR is a chore. We stayed together until mile 12.5 then I faded about 40 seconds back but still finished strong. Compared to my first half were I crossed the finish line completely spent and drained I felt great yesterday. Though I didn’t beat my PR 2:04:18 (I finished 2:05:41) I learned a lot from the run and had a great run.

Here are my lessons learned:

I was coming off a rest week that I had to cut my miles by 70% to baby my calves and my longest run in 2 weeks was 5 miles, so my conditioning was still good and since my calves didn’t bother me it was a smart idea.

Cons/Mistakes:

I need to stick to my PACE and not try to go out to fast since it will not help you in the end. I would have been better to religiously stick to 9:20-9:30 for the first 10 and then have the reserves to turn it up for the last 5k.

I followed my fueling plan for the 2 days before and the morning of but during the race I “improvised” and that was STUPID. I added fuel between my normal 2 mile intervals thinking it would help and it most likely hurt and was to blame for the lack of steam I felt at mile 12.5 and that was just dumb.

I need to add tempo runs in on Fridays and run the middle at MP or faster.

Pros/Things I did right:

I didn’t get injured, no stress fractures.

Other then stopping to wait for someone to use the portal potty I didn’t stop because I had to.

I ran a fun race and enjoyed myself and met a lot of nice people.

So overall I had a great weekend with my family, made some new friends and met some web friends in person. I try not to get caught up on running times and pace but it is tough I need to remember that this is suppose to be fun and in the grand scheme of things my friends and family are not going to care if I run a 1:58 or a 2:05 so I need to lighten up.

My friend Mary McManus ran the half in 3:28:19 with her husband Tom, that amount of time out in the NE weather is more dedication to the sport then I can imagine. I think it is tougher to be slower then the pack because the amount of time you need to put in is significantly longer then most, in some cases they are taking down the signs, closing up water stations, turning the lights out and going home while you are running and I always respect these runners because at least they are “doing it” and not sitting on there but. So, Mary and Tom great race and remember the medal they gave to the winner, the one I got and the one you got are all the same and I checked and they don’t write the time on the back so savor the “bling”. If you ever need someone to pace you for another half let me know.

Thank you everyone, to the friends I met and to my family for tolerating my new compulsive obsession, it has made me a healthier, thinner and a better man. It is hard to believe but I am actually looking forward to my 40th on 03/15, I am healthier then I was when I was 20 and I have family and friends to share it with.

So remember:

“The will to win means nothing if you haven’t the will to prepare”

Juma Ikangaa 1989 NYC Marathon Winner

Cheers,
Tim

Dose of humble pie, return of the calf issue

Ok, so my running was going great, I was running 35+ miles a week, the new fueling plan was working and I was maintaining my MP in my runs. I was even thinking of pushing the upcoming half marathon for a PR instead of a MP-10 run but that has all changed. I have had issues in the past with my calves and through some stability work, some physical therapy and overall care they have been fine but that changed last week. After 3-4 weeks of Dreadmill running then hitting the open roads and these roads are not flat my calves began to protest and demanded some TLC. So last week was my rest week and I was to cut back to four 5 mile runs and a 12 mile long run but I wound up only doing 4 on Tuesday and 5 on Sunday and spent the rest of the week with the TP Therapy to try and get the knots out. It was more of a fear of tearing or straining the calves again and being out for 4-6 weeks that drove me to rest and I am hoping that was the correct action. I am feeling better this week and I will go back to my normal schedule this week and hope that the calves are better. So everybody out there keep your fingers crossed and remember that it requires a dose of humble pie every once in a while to remind you to keep your goals in check.

Week 10 update

Wow it is hard to believe that the Boston Marathon is 68 days away, as much as I am looking forward to the day getting here, I need as much time to train as possible. The training is going very well and I am feeling very confident at this point that my plan is preparing me for the race.

I am averaging about 35-40 miles per week with 5 runs per week. I have gotten up to 17.5 miles on my Sunday morning runs which are very time consuming and eats up the majority of my day. The thing about my long runs that are keeping me positive is that the pace has been right on, I did 16 on the race route at my MP and I did 17.5 this past Sunday on a very hilly route at MP+45.

So at this point the miles pick up to 18, 19, 20 then 22 and this is where I will push my training to the max but it will make the marathon all that much easier (who am I kidding?). My next test is the Hyannis Half Marathon on 02/22. This is a flat course and with my new fueling plan I am looking to run the firs 5 miles at 9:10-9:15 and if that feels good I will continue that steady pace through 11 and then give the last 2 miles 100% of what I have to get a new PR. If the 9:15 doesn’t seem possible then I will settle back into a slower 9:40 pace and enjoy the race.

Cheers,
Tim

Midway into week 16 of my Boston training

Hello,

I hope everyone had a nice holiday? My holiday was nice, I was a good boy last year so Santa was nice to me. I got some running gear, some clothes etc and the little man (Alex, who is now 6) had a great holiday. Santa brought the family a Wii so that has been a lot of fun. Well a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks. Here is the update:

• I was using the Furhman FIRST Marathon training plan but I was having a hard time getting the cross training sessions in and thus the 3 runs per week were not going to cut it. So I did some sole searching and talked a lot with friends and did a lot of searching on the web and I have decided to go with a plan that works for me. I am able to run 60 minutes per day during the work week at any one time and I need to rest atleast once over the weekend to handle the needs of every day life so I am going to run Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri and Sunday with Sunday as my LTR, Friday as a tempo run and Wed as Speed and Hills and the other days for easy runs. This will bring me to 35-50 per week which is more realistic.
• The health of my calves and left foot have been great and I have not had any pain since getting the orthotics

Overall, training is now going well and I am enjoying getting the miles in even if it means running on New Years Day when it is 7 BELOW ZERO....

Tim

Building base miles pain free....

Ok, knock on wood I have been running for about 2 weeks after being cleared by my podiatrist from stress fracture without any discomfort. The first couple of runs without the orthotics produced some pain but now that I have the orthotics in all is well.

Now the plan is to build the base miles and prepare for week one of training which begin 12/17/2008.

Tim

Stress....

So, it has been 15 days since my first half marathon and I am now in an "injured timeout" phase. When I got home from the half, my left foot hurt really bad and I couldn't stand to walk on it. It took 2 days before I could walk on it so I went to my PCP for some x-rays and they showed nothing so I was told to "rest". Well I did that and felt fine that weekend so I tried to run 2-3 miles at a gentile pace while running along side my son as he rode his bike. That was all it took for me to figure out that my foot was still not right. So I made an appointment to see a Podiatrist and met with him this past Friday. Within 30 seconds of looking at my x-rays and then another set to be positive I was diagnosed as having a stress fracture in my left foot. No running or impact training for the next 3-4 weeks but I am not really upset because if it had been a soft tissue or tendon problem it could have dragged on for 8-12 weeks.

So, no running for me until November and I will be spending some time in pool. The good news is I will be well rested for the start of my Marathon training on December 15th....

Tim

Peak Performance Maine Half Marathon

On a beautiful fall Sunday morning in October I lined up with 1611 other runners to run the Peak Performance Maine Half Marathon along with about 900 runners for the full marathon. This was my first half marathon and training was a little scattered. I didn’t follow the training plan I original chose because of the calf injury but I was able to get my long runs in and I felt comfortable that I could finish the run but I wasn’t positive I could get the sub-two hour time I was looking for.

I was able to meet a guy named Doug McCrae online via the Extra Mile Podcast and we had similar goals so we hooked up and ran the race together. It works out that it was good that Doug was planning on running with me because when he had car issues I was able to drive him to the race. So after picking up Doug and his friend John (he was running the full marathon) we headed off to the gym at the University near the start line to hang out in a warm room. My only complaint for the pre-race was the limited number of restrooms but other then that everything was fine.

The weather was great, it was about 45 degrees so I started with shorts and a long sleeve shirt over my race short with the plans of tossing that later on. The race started on time at 7:45 and the 2500 plus runners made their way down Baxter Boulevard and overall the crowd moved well considering there was no corrals for the runners. Doug and I made our way and easily settled into a 9:15 pace, in we were to get under 2 hours we knew we needed to average under 9:09. The race went well and the course was pretty flat through the first 5 miles then there was so rolling hills. We stayed at about a 9’15 pace so we were on target.

At mile 9 I started to loose steam and get a side cramp. I am not sure if it was because I didn’t fuel up correctly the night before (loaded pizza) or a lack of electrolytes but regardless I started to fade. So I let Doug go ahead and I struggled through the last few miles. I finished in 2:04:18 and I gave it all I had, Doug finished in 1:58:20 (he followed my strategy and he had the fuel to pull it off). It wasn’t a bad race, I had fun I just learned a lot:

1.) I need to focus more on running my long runs at race pace, how can you maintain a pace that you are not use to running.
2.) I need to stick to a training plan and log the miles and maintain quality runs.
3.) I need to loose more weight, running Boston with 25 pounds less on me is a big benefits.

Cheers,

Tim