Living in New England is always, at the very least, interesting. I am guessing that there are very few places that have such pronounced season and rapid weather changes. I have not done much traveling in my life so I do not know if that is a factual statement, but I rarely hear about the foliage in Montana. Ok, Montana was a bit of a random reference but I think you get the idea. Just having the World Series played in Boston (congrats to the Red Sox by the way) you hear national media refer to fall in New England quite often to start a broadcast, but rarely did you hear mention about the foliage in Detroit or St. Louis. With the foliage and the sleeping of trees and other parts of nature, comes the beginning of the cold and dark mornings, which makes my training slightly harder, but it at least gives me something to blog about.
In recent weeks, since the running the half marathon, the weather has certainly changed in the area. The temps in the morning have gone as low as 20 degrees. I think people would notice that the human body reacts differently in colder temperatures than warmer. It takes a little longer for the muscles to get lose, but obviously it helps in preventing over heating. One of the things that I struggle with is the correct attire. My real issue with it is I tend to have cold extremities while I sweat quite easily. Knowing how your body reacts to temperature differences is certainly beneficial when you are looking to purchase all your articles of clothing.
Myself, I was lucky to receive a gift card (thanks to my in-laws) and was able to purchase a fantastic Asics wind breaker. It is actually very warm and breaths pretty well. I have found for me, multiple thin layers is the best way to go about running in sub freezing weather. I have a compression shirt, long sleeve running shirt, and the jacket. I also have two pairs of sock, gloves and shorts. I don't like really running in long pants for some reason, they don't feel overly comfortable so I will go in shorts as long as I can. I would like to at some point try out long tights for running, but as of right now I am not willing to invest the money into them. Perhaps when the temps are sub zero I will consider it more.
So, I have actually come up with some structure here in this blog and I have started a list of things I would like to discuss. So hopefully I can come up with more information and things to talk about like today. I hoping I can mix in some of my other thoughts about running and such things with how my training is going and how my body is reacting to the idea of running a marathon in about 11 months. Hopefully I can articulate the things I would like to say well and be informative to people. So, until next time.......
Friday, November 1, 2013
Friday, October 25, 2013
CHaD Hero
Well, October 20th has come and gone. That day was the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Heroes race day. I participated in the event for the first time. I believed going into this race that I would be able to really put up an good time. I thought I was extremely prepared and ready to go, and I think I did pretty well but not completely prepared. Well, first let's get to the result.
Place Div/Tot Name Guntime Nettime Pace
===== ======== ========== ====== ====== ======
87 21/88 Thomas Rup 1:41:58 1:41:49.51 7:47
To explain this a little more, there was 659 runners in the race. That puts this finish in the top 20th percentile (rough calculation in my head). That is something to be pretty happy with. However I know I have run a better paces than a 7:47, including the race I did in the spring. However, no two races are the same, and this certainly exemplified that. The race in the spring was more geared towards beginner runners. The race started with a good uphill, but then was a gradual downhill and flat course from that point on. The race this fall started pretty flat, with a good downhill and then a lot more gradual hills and flat for the first 8 miles. Then, the last 4.5 miles of the race consisted of steep inclines and far more up and down terrain. The last 1/3 of the race really kicked my tail because I did not do much hard hill training. All in all I would say this was car more of a novice to intermediate race. I think I could do much better at it now knowing how many hills there are at the end, I could train my muscles to be able to handle that much better.
In the days following the race I really struggled with some post race soreness. It has probably taken me about 3-4 days just to have my thighs not be sore when getting out of a chair. As I started to feel slightly better on Tuesday I was able to get out for a slow, 5 mile recovery run. I followed that up with a 7 mile harder run on Thursday to try to loosen my legs more. I went at a pretty good pace and it did seem hard to get my legs moving, but then after my typical 3 miles I was much more loose and ready to go. Plus the temp being at or around 32 degrees really helped me keep cool while pushing a little harder. I will probably be going up to 10 miles or so on Saturday as I hit some recovery and head towards the increase to try to get to 20 miles in the next 20 weeks.
I think I will also do something else while I am training for the full marathon distances. I may look at the 100 push up challenge, taking it slower that the 6 weeks they say someone can do it in. The plan can be found here: http://www.hundredpushups.com/#sthash.TRS5FqN5.dpbs, this would be something to just find a way to get other muscles moving and going to help in fitness and overall body endurance.
I have recently purchased some new technology for running, I will probably post something soon about how those are working out and how life is running in some pretty cold temps.
Place Div/Tot Name Guntime Nettime Pace
===== ======== ========== ====== ====== ======
87 21/88 Thomas Rup 1:41:58 1:41:49.51 7:47
To explain this a little more, there was 659 runners in the race. That puts this finish in the top 20th percentile (rough calculation in my head). That is something to be pretty happy with. However I know I have run a better paces than a 7:47, including the race I did in the spring. However, no two races are the same, and this certainly exemplified that. The race in the spring was more geared towards beginner runners. The race started with a good uphill, but then was a gradual downhill and flat course from that point on. The race this fall started pretty flat, with a good downhill and then a lot more gradual hills and flat for the first 8 miles. Then, the last 4.5 miles of the race consisted of steep inclines and far more up and down terrain. The last 1/3 of the race really kicked my tail because I did not do much hard hill training. All in all I would say this was car more of a novice to intermediate race. I think I could do much better at it now knowing how many hills there are at the end, I could train my muscles to be able to handle that much better.
In the days following the race I really struggled with some post race soreness. It has probably taken me about 3-4 days just to have my thighs not be sore when getting out of a chair. As I started to feel slightly better on Tuesday I was able to get out for a slow, 5 mile recovery run. I followed that up with a 7 mile harder run on Thursday to try to loosen my legs more. I went at a pretty good pace and it did seem hard to get my legs moving, but then after my typical 3 miles I was much more loose and ready to go. Plus the temp being at or around 32 degrees really helped me keep cool while pushing a little harder. I will probably be going up to 10 miles or so on Saturday as I hit some recovery and head towards the increase to try to get to 20 miles in the next 20 weeks.
I think I will also do something else while I am training for the full marathon distances. I may look at the 100 push up challenge, taking it slower that the 6 weeks they say someone can do it in. The plan can be found here: http://www.hundredpushups.com/#sthash.TRS5FqN5.dpbs, this would be something to just find a way to get other muscles moving and going to help in fitness and overall body endurance.
I have recently purchased some new technology for running, I will probably post something soon about how those are working out and how life is running in some pretty cold temps.
Monday, October 14, 2013
6 days and counting
It is Monday and there is a Half Marathon race on Sunday that I will be participating in. It is going to be really interesting to see how well I have trained for this race. The last time I competed in a Half Marathon race in May, I have only run 13 miles or over probably 1 or 2 times. This time I have had a fair amount of times I have run the distance or over. I feel like I am stronger and I have a better technique this time around. I really think I have a chance of beating my first time and putting forth a really good effort. I have had some really fast and strong shorter runs later in the day that make me feel good about how this will all work out. The race is at noon on Sunday so I have plenty of time to be fueled and ready to go. Of course I do have some aches and pains that will probably worry me some heading up to Sunday, but once I get moving and the competitive juices start flowing there really should be no reason to worry.
Lately when mapping my runs through a GPS program on a phone (I have been using MapMyRun) I have wondered about the accuracy of these products. I have been thinking a lot about it and I think I am going to purchase a GPS watch or something of the sort to really see how well I am doing on runs with a little more faith that the pace and distance is true. I guess we will see how it all turns out in the coming months as I work up to Marathon distance. Also, the Marathon here in Keene NH prohibits the use of an music player for runners safety and I have never run with out music, so that will certainly change a lot of things. I am really interested in seeing how I can keep pace with out music.
So it will be Noon EST on Sunday the 20th when I start. I will certainly tweet out my results so please follow @RupBoysDad if you would like to know shortly after how it went. I believe after I will post something about how I feel and then a little about the technology I am looking at for better run tracking. Until then, if you have any questions or anything you would like to know about, please tweet me at @rupboysdad or send me an email!!
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Training is.........fun??
I certainly understand that if you want to get results, you have to work on it. For some people things do not come easy, that is a fact. I would not say that getting to a good point in running has been hard for me, I haven't had to train everyday to get to an 8 minute mile. I have been lucky enough to get to a good, competitive speed while only running every other day. However it is my inner drive, my self competitiveness that has put me to a point that when I do plateau it gets frustrating for me. To be honest, I will never be winning any big races. I haven't been running long enough and started way to late to be able to come in a top 5 for any of the events I run. I try to set a goal and then get to that goal. The first goal for the first Half Marathon was pretty simple, finish with out stopping. I was hoping to get under 1:45 for the race, but that wasn't really anything I cared to much about. Finishing the race in 1:38 was something of a shock for me that I didn't not expect. The problem with that is that now I want to beat it, which brings me to this point in my training.
My next event is October 20th which is less than two weeks away. I have/had a plan to get to a point where I was running 13 miles with two weeks to go, and then throttle down to have my body rested and ready for the race. It is in Hanover NH and I do not know the course at all, but I know there are plenty of hills in that area. I expect this to be a tougher and more interesting course and race. I guess I will just have to hit it with my best effort and see what happens. I did get my 13 in on last Sunday, which was a good one. I tried to do it near race speed and ended up finishing in 1:39.10, which is a pace of just about 7:36/mile. I would be extremely happy if I can finish this half with a pace of 7:35 and getting just under 1:39 for the race.
At this point I think I am ready, I ended up with 4 runs last week for a total of just over 36 miles. I plan on getting two 8 mile runs in this week at a slower pace. I got my first one in today (Tuesday), finishing just under an 8 minute mile. It was a very hard run, as my legs were still fairly tired after the 13 miles on Sunday. It took me nearly 5 miles to just get things loose enough to get a good stride going....which goes back to original premise of am I having fun or just working hard. I guess, at the end of the day, a little hard work helps for a fun day when the race comes!
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
The Return
Quite some time ago I had decided to take a hiatus on posting to this blog. I didn't have any races to run and I felt like my reasoning for stating this blog had been satisfied, that was when I completed the Mother's Day Half Marathon in Whately Ma. I still ran, knowing that I would still be running more races in the fall. But over the summer my mileage was way down as I tried to just work on getting my muscles to be more in tuned with the distances that I was looking to complete. Well, in just over two weeks I will be running another half marathon, this time to benefit CH@D in Hanover NH. The event page is here for anyone interested: http://www.chadhalf.org/.
However, the real reason to start putting my thoughts and feelings back on the net is not about another half marathon, or the two if I do decide to run one in Nashua on the 24th of November. This past weekend was the Clarence DeMar Marathon run in Keene. It has been run since 1978, just a year younger than it. In seeing the people push themselves to complete the 26.2 mile course, I realized that I would like to be one of those people. So I have decided to mark my progress and my status over the next year as I try to make the jump from running 13.1 miles to the 26.2 (and more) that it takes to be a marathoner.
The site is going to go through a slight change...I am going to pretty much just have my posts, some courses as well as a little bit about me and the distances I have been able to cover. My goals are simply for me and me a lone. I write and post this because I want to and because some members of my family have liked tracking my progress. However, feel free to share my blog and information to others. I would be delighted to serve as a source of inspiration for others, although it is not something that I strive for.
I cannot promise that I will post once a week, or with any frequency at all. But I will keep up with this as much as I can find time to as I move closer and closer to my goals.
However, the real reason to start putting my thoughts and feelings back on the net is not about another half marathon, or the two if I do decide to run one in Nashua on the 24th of November. This past weekend was the Clarence DeMar Marathon run in Keene. It has been run since 1978, just a year younger than it. In seeing the people push themselves to complete the 26.2 mile course, I realized that I would like to be one of those people. So I have decided to mark my progress and my status over the next year as I try to make the jump from running 13.1 miles to the 26.2 (and more) that it takes to be a marathoner.
The site is going to go through a slight change...I am going to pretty much just have my posts, some courses as well as a little bit about me and the distances I have been able to cover. My goals are simply for me and me a lone. I write and post this because I want to and because some members of my family have liked tracking my progress. However, feel free to share my blog and information to others. I would be delighted to serve as a source of inspiration for others, although it is not something that I strive for.
I cannot promise that I will post once a week, or with any frequency at all. But I will keep up with this as much as I can find time to as I move closer and closer to my goals.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Happy Father's Day
Happy Fathers Day to all my fellow Dad's out there. It's especially great to have your children remember it is Father's Day with out their mother reminding them. Great way to start the day, being jumped on by your 7 year old to wake you up!
A little bit of news and "paperwork" to get through this morning. First, please help support the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock by helping donate through me here:
http://chadhalf.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1060825&lis=1&kntae1060825=DD68E4499DDF4E4B9596E5F9B098C089&supId=386041225
It is a great cause and if you read my last post you will see how much it means to me personally. $1, $2, $5, $10....anything possible to help contribute to this organization would be fantastic. I only have a goal of $15 more to hit, but I am going to keep bugging people. This is a charitable contribution so it is a tax write off as well....so please, please, please help!
Second part, we have a new event to look forward to, on July 20th of this year a bunch of family and friends are going to be taking part in the 3rd Annual Howie's Field of Dreams 5K in Rochester NH. This event is to help build a new baseball field in Rochster NH, which both our nephew's play on. As it stands right now, my sister-in-law and a family friend will be participating in it. There are other's that are thinking about racing as well, and of course I will be involved which is why I am posting about it. Information on the race can be found here: http://howies5k.org/.
Beyond that, training for the half marathon in Hanover NH has started. I have been getting in regular runs of 8 miles and one long run on the weekend. Last weekend it was a 10 mile run, and I will be getting another ten mile in today. My plan is to get extend the mileage one week, while then getting a shorted on in the following week. My hope is to get back to the 13 miles by the end of the July when my wife goes to a conference in Florida. I will be taking that week off from running so it would be a good time to rest and recharge. I will then be able to start doing more speed work with the long runs to hopefully kick some butt in October.
Well, hopefully the weather starts getting nicer and I can get out and run more. Enjoy your weekend, week and your Father's Day to any father!
A little bit of news and "paperwork" to get through this morning. First, please help support the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth Hitchcock by helping donate through me here:
http://chadhalf.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1060825&lis=1&kntae1060825=DD68E4499DDF4E4B9596E5F9B098C089&supId=386041225
It is a great cause and if you read my last post you will see how much it means to me personally. $1, $2, $5, $10....anything possible to help contribute to this organization would be fantastic. I only have a goal of $15 more to hit, but I am going to keep bugging people. This is a charitable contribution so it is a tax write off as well....so please, please, please help!
Second part, we have a new event to look forward to, on July 20th of this year a bunch of family and friends are going to be taking part in the 3rd Annual Howie's Field of Dreams 5K in Rochester NH. This event is to help build a new baseball field in Rochster NH, which both our nephew's play on. As it stands right now, my sister-in-law and a family friend will be participating in it. There are other's that are thinking about racing as well, and of course I will be involved which is why I am posting about it. Information on the race can be found here: http://howies5k.org/.
Beyond that, training for the half marathon in Hanover NH has started. I have been getting in regular runs of 8 miles and one long run on the weekend. Last weekend it was a 10 mile run, and I will be getting another ten mile in today. My plan is to get extend the mileage one week, while then getting a shorted on in the following week. My hope is to get back to the 13 miles by the end of the July when my wife goes to a conference in Florida. I will be taking that week off from running so it would be a good time to rest and recharge. I will then be able to start doing more speed work with the long runs to hopefully kick some butt in October.
Well, hopefully the weather starts getting nicer and I can get out and run more. Enjoy your weekend, week and your Father's Day to any father!
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Another Half Scheduled
I know, I am a little late on that post this week. I spent the weekend with my wife in Philly and now I am getting back into training. Plus work has been really busy. But I do have some news....I am signed up for another Half Marathon this fall! Yay! Remember how I have said I like to do running events that support a cause, well this one certainly more than qualifies for that, and I need your help.
First, the event. This event is called that CHaD Hero Half Marathon. CHaD stands for the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth - Hitchcock, which is part of the Dartmouth - Hitchcock medical system. For those that don't know, not too long after he was born our youngest son Riley ended up with a pretty serious case of RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) which put him in the hospital. He was in the NICU at Dartmouth for a few days and then spent a few more at CHaD. We ended up spending a week at the hospital with him before he was released. So when I saw the opportunity to not only run, but run for a cause that is special to me I jumped at the chance.
Now, here is where I put my best salesman hat on. The whole point is to be able to raise money specifically for CHaD, so I am asking anyone that reads this to please donate for this event. The goal is $60 per participant, and I started with the first $20. That means I only really need to raise an additional $40 for this event. I know there are those that are aware of Riley's stay (and helicopter ride) to CHaD some three years ago. So please help me reach this small goal.
Donations for my fund raising can be made here:
http://chadhalf.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1060825&supid=386041225
Thank you and please pass the word!!
First, the event. This event is called that CHaD Hero Half Marathon. CHaD stands for the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth - Hitchcock, which is part of the Dartmouth - Hitchcock medical system. For those that don't know, not too long after he was born our youngest son Riley ended up with a pretty serious case of RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus) which put him in the hospital. He was in the NICU at Dartmouth for a few days and then spent a few more at CHaD. We ended up spending a week at the hospital with him before he was released. So when I saw the opportunity to not only run, but run for a cause that is special to me I jumped at the chance.
Now, here is where I put my best salesman hat on. The whole point is to be able to raise money specifically for CHaD, so I am asking anyone that reads this to please donate for this event. The goal is $60 per participant, and I started with the first $20. That means I only really need to raise an additional $40 for this event. I know there are those that are aware of Riley's stay (and helicopter ride) to CHaD some three years ago. So please help me reach this small goal.
Donations for my fund raising can be made here:
http://chadhalf.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=1060825&supid=386041225
Thank you and please pass the word!!
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Maintenance
So now what? I have completed my half marathon and have no races in site. What do I do? I mean, I am going to keep running because I like the time to myself to clear my thoughts. The hard thing though is finding the motivation to do long runs or even to run on days that are a little less than desirable. Again, so now what?
Well, the good thing I have going for me is that I feel strong. I had a little bit of post race soreness for a few days last week, but for the most part that didn't hamper me at all. I ran a 6 mile route on Tuesday and a 7 mile route on Thursday. I took the dogs with me to keep me slow so I didn't over work my muscles and get proper recovery. I then took two days off and went back out for 8 miles with the dogs on Sunday. I feel like I did well in a recovery week seeing as though I had never done anything like this before. Getting back into a more regular routine this Tuesday I went for 7 miles with the dogs and noticed how strong my legs felt. It was great to have a good cruising pace with out much pushing. The hardest part was not stepping on the dogs!
Now, moving forward. I still have not signed up for any races and have no real plans for what I want to do. I still know I would like to run a race this fall, but what race and how far is still in question. There are two long races in the area that I live in the fall, one is a half and one is a full marathon. I am still leaning toward the half mainly because it felt like a good distance for someone that has only been running for a little over a year and there would be a lot of time I would need to dedicate for a full. I am not sure I want to give up 3-4 hours on any day in the summer for training. It can be hard enough to find 2 hours on a weekend for a long run.
So right now I am just working on maintaining good conditioning by getting 7-8 mile runs in while going once a week long runs of about 10-11 miles. I think that will put me in a good place if I decide to ramp up the work outs through the summer. Right now, my feeling is that at max I would like to be able to hit 15 miles at some point. If I can do that, everything will fall into the right place!
Well, the good thing I have going for me is that I feel strong. I had a little bit of post race soreness for a few days last week, but for the most part that didn't hamper me at all. I ran a 6 mile route on Tuesday and a 7 mile route on Thursday. I took the dogs with me to keep me slow so I didn't over work my muscles and get proper recovery. I then took two days off and went back out for 8 miles with the dogs on Sunday. I feel like I did well in a recovery week seeing as though I had never done anything like this before. Getting back into a more regular routine this Tuesday I went for 7 miles with the dogs and noticed how strong my legs felt. It was great to have a good cruising pace with out much pushing. The hardest part was not stepping on the dogs!
Now, moving forward. I still have not signed up for any races and have no real plans for what I want to do. I still know I would like to run a race this fall, but what race and how far is still in question. There are two long races in the area that I live in the fall, one is a half and one is a full marathon. I am still leaning toward the half mainly because it felt like a good distance for someone that has only been running for a little over a year and there would be a lot of time I would need to dedicate for a full. I am not sure I want to give up 3-4 hours on any day in the summer for training. It can be hard enough to find 2 hours on a weekend for a long run.
So right now I am just working on maintaining good conditioning by getting 7-8 mile runs in while going once a week long runs of about 10-11 miles. I think that will put me in a good place if I decide to ramp up the work outs through the summer. Right now, my feeling is that at max I would like to be able to hit 15 miles at some point. If I can do that, everything will fall into the right place!
Monday, May 13, 2013
After all the anticipation.....
364 participants. That was the final count for the WMA Mother's Day Half Marathon in Whately Ma yesterday (5/12/13). 364 people lined up at the Yankee Candle Production plant on Christian Lane to make the 13.1 mile journey through the area that myself and my father grew up. This actually becomes a significant number to me now that I have seen the final results.
Let me rewind a little and reflect more on the day of the first half marathon that I have run. First, I have a fairly active brain, which is shown by me typing my thoughts our on this blog. So, when I have an anticipated event in my life, I tend to think about it and probably over analyze it. In doing so, I come up with expectations for how things will go, like I was doing for the week leading up to the race. I wrote in my last post my hopes for the race and what was happening and what I expected to happen. Well, my expectations were completely scrapped by the events that actually transpired through the day.
There was one part of the day which really set itself a part from anything else, and that was my wife deciding to wake the boys up and bring them down to be at the finish line for the race. There really is no better surprise than to have to have my loved ones waiting for me as I crossed the finish line. Not only that, but my wife gave up her Mother's Day morning to bring the boys down to see my cross the finish line. I really don't have a way to thank her for such a selfless act that meant so much to me. Basically I was sprinting across the finish line when I saw them standing there....the end of the race was after and overpass so I was going pretty fast. I saw them right after I crossed but I couldn't slow down at that point so I had to go past them, then as my brain caught up to the events I then had to compose myself a little so that I didn't end up completely breaking down. There is no possible way I can thank my wife enough or appropriately for what she did.
The not as important part was the race itself, the second part of my expectations. I had posted that I was hoping with my training that I would be able to finish the race in under 1:45, with the belief that would put me in the top 50. If that had happened I would have been incredibly excited about how things went. I had a plan going into the race where I split up the mileage into three sections. The first 4 miles I wanted to really do a good push at a pretty fast pace, the next 6 miles were to be a nice cruising pace, with the last 3 miles I would push hard to the finish, especially the last mile. So I lined up in the top 50, cruised nicely out the start to get to a spot around those that were sprinting out the start and into a good groove. I was able to get to a nice spot about a half mile down the road, which was oddly right at about the house my father grew up in.
The first 4 miles has a little more hills than I expected, but some nice views of the Pioneer Valley. But I hit the four mile mark and went tried to slow and stretch my stride some. I didn't use GPS or even wear a watch to keep my time. I just put on my playlist and went, not worrying about the time. I was figuring that I wouldn't get too high or too low if I just ran and didn't compete, I mean really, I wasn't going to win. The winner jumped out to an early lead and finished the race in 1:24:54, which was about 5 minutes faster than the next runner! Through the next 6 miles I found the nice flat roads a long the Connecticut River. I was passed by two people during that time which was fine. I hit every water stop through those miles to recharge with drink and to pour water over my head once. I was wearing a hat but it had gotten too hot to deal with so I needed to cool down. The only issue I really had, was at about 8 miles the course went by a Water Treatment Plant, I am guessing a few people probably had an issue with running past that smell.
I hit the ten mile marker and started to increase my pace. I caught up to one runner that had passed me (the other was pretty far ahead) and ran with them for a little time. The final water stop was at about 11.5 and I downed a quick gulp and put everything I had left. There was a significant hill at the point that was really hard after over 11 miles. But I made it up, went all out through the slight down hill and sprinted to the finish line. The results of how it all went can be found here:
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/ma/May12_WMAMot_set1.shtml
Thank you all to have supported me, pushed me, and read my blog thus far. Special thanks to my wife for allowing me spend time training and listening to me, and my parents for randomly letting me buy running shoes and footing the bill. I am going to continue to run and post and hopefully decide soon if I want to run a half marathon in Swanzey NH or the Clarence DeMar Marathon in Keene.
Let me rewind a little and reflect more on the day of the first half marathon that I have run. First, I have a fairly active brain, which is shown by me typing my thoughts our on this blog. So, when I have an anticipated event in my life, I tend to think about it and probably over analyze it. In doing so, I come up with expectations for how things will go, like I was doing for the week leading up to the race. I wrote in my last post my hopes for the race and what was happening and what I expected to happen. Well, my expectations were completely scrapped by the events that actually transpired through the day.
There was one part of the day which really set itself a part from anything else, and that was my wife deciding to wake the boys up and bring them down to be at the finish line for the race. There really is no better surprise than to have to have my loved ones waiting for me as I crossed the finish line. Not only that, but my wife gave up her Mother's Day morning to bring the boys down to see my cross the finish line. I really don't have a way to thank her for such a selfless act that meant so much to me. Basically I was sprinting across the finish line when I saw them standing there....the end of the race was after and overpass so I was going pretty fast. I saw them right after I crossed but I couldn't slow down at that point so I had to go past them, then as my brain caught up to the events I then had to compose myself a little so that I didn't end up completely breaking down. There is no possible way I can thank my wife enough or appropriately for what she did.
The not as important part was the race itself, the second part of my expectations. I had posted that I was hoping with my training that I would be able to finish the race in under 1:45, with the belief that would put me in the top 50. If that had happened I would have been incredibly excited about how things went. I had a plan going into the race where I split up the mileage into three sections. The first 4 miles I wanted to really do a good push at a pretty fast pace, the next 6 miles were to be a nice cruising pace, with the last 3 miles I would push hard to the finish, especially the last mile. So I lined up in the top 50, cruised nicely out the start to get to a spot around those that were sprinting out the start and into a good groove. I was able to get to a nice spot about a half mile down the road, which was oddly right at about the house my father grew up in.
The first 4 miles has a little more hills than I expected, but some nice views of the Pioneer Valley. But I hit the four mile mark and went tried to slow and stretch my stride some. I didn't use GPS or even wear a watch to keep my time. I just put on my playlist and went, not worrying about the time. I was figuring that I wouldn't get too high or too low if I just ran and didn't compete, I mean really, I wasn't going to win. The winner jumped out to an early lead and finished the race in 1:24:54, which was about 5 minutes faster than the next runner! Through the next 6 miles I found the nice flat roads a long the Connecticut River. I was passed by two people during that time which was fine. I hit every water stop through those miles to recharge with drink and to pour water over my head once. I was wearing a hat but it had gotten too hot to deal with so I needed to cool down. The only issue I really had, was at about 8 miles the course went by a Water Treatment Plant, I am guessing a few people probably had an issue with running past that smell.
I hit the ten mile marker and started to increase my pace. I caught up to one runner that had passed me (the other was pretty far ahead) and ran with them for a little time. The final water stop was at about 11.5 and I downed a quick gulp and put everything I had left. There was a significant hill at the point that was really hard after over 11 miles. But I made it up, went all out through the slight down hill and sprinted to the finish line. The results of how it all went can be found here:
http://www.coolrunning.com/results/13/ma/May12_WMAMot_set1.shtml
Thank you all to have supported me, pushed me, and read my blog thus far. Special thanks to my wife for allowing me spend time training and listening to me, and my parents for randomly letting me buy running shoes and footing the bill. I am going to continue to run and post and hopefully decide soon if I want to run a half marathon in Swanzey NH or the Clarence DeMar Marathon in Keene.
Friday, May 10, 2013
Half Marathon Playlist
I have uploaded a playlist to iPod. I think it will be a good one that will keep me energized through my race.
Afrojack - As Your Friend
Cascada - Evacuate the Dance Floor
Ke$ha - Blow (Cirkut Remix)
Swedish House Mafia - Greyhound
The Black Keys - Gold on the Ceiling
Eminem - 'Till I Collapse
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Can't Hold Us
Outkast - Hey Ya
Volbeat - A Warrior's Call
Skrillex - Bangarang
Filter and The Crystal Method - Trip Like I Do
Foster the People - Don't Stop
Slipknot - Before I Foget
Youngblood Hawke - We Come Running
Linkin Park - One Step Closer
Linkin Park - Bleed it Out
The Go! Team - The Power is On
Skillet - Awake and Alive
Scorpions - Rock You Like a Hurricane
Calvin Harris feat. Neyo - Let's Go
Alvin Risk - Nemesis
Jimmy Eat World - Pain
30 Seconds to Mars - Up in the Air
The Goo Goo Dolls - Rebel Beat (as suggested by my wife - Extra motivation)
One last light jog, then need to carb load Saturday for some good fuel. GETTING EXCITED!!
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Race Week
I have read and been told that toward the end of a training cycle, when it is time for a race, it is time to tapper down your workouts. I am sort of doing that I think, looking to run more days than I normally do, but far less miles per day. I usually run four days a week at 8 miles for three days and a long run on the last day. My long run this past weekend was 11.6 miles which should put me in good shape for the race. I didn't push too hard on the long run work out, ending up finishing with an average pace around 8:05. I didn't push to 95-100% on it because I want to leave everything on the table this weekend, not on a workout.
What I hope to do this week leading up to the race on Sunday is to do a good set of workout. I started with 4.5 miles today, I hope to have a work out of 4-6-6-4-2 riding up to Sunday. I might no do the 2 on Saturday or not run on Friday and to another 4.5 or something like that. I am not really sure at this point never running a half marathon before. I guess it will be a see how it goes sort of thing. As of right now my body feels really good, so I don't want to push anything too hard the week of so I don't get injured or have any glaring soreness.
Alright, so I am getting really excited about running my first half marathon this weekend. I don't know what to expect from it. The race is in Whately Ma which is where I grew up. My home Town is South Deerfield Ma which is the northern bordering town. My parents house is about a mile from the Whately Town border. So it is sort of a home coming for me to be able to do my first big time race at home. I know my parents will be there by the end of the race, hopefully between 9:30 and 9:45 for me. My wife and kids will not be attending this one for two reasons. First it is Mother's Day and it wouldn't be fair for me to force my wife to drag the kids around at 5 am to then sit around for and hour and a half or so while I run. By the way, I wasn't aware that the race was actually on Mother's Day when I signed up, I thought it was Saturday. The second reason my wife and kids will not be attending is that the race is at 8 am on Sunday morning, with packet pickup starting at 6 am. That would me leaving the house around 5 am to prepare and I am not about to wake everyone up at 5 am to, again, sit around and wait for me to run.
I really have not been thinking about the actual race very much yet, meaning visioning my run and my technique. I have been thinking a lot about how I handle the week and specifically the Friday and Saturday leading up to the race. I want to make sure I have my meals planned out and that I have my self sufficiently hydrated for the week so I don't have to over hydrate in the morning and end up needing to use the bathroom around mile six or seven. During the work week it is fairly easy to stay hydrated, I have a desk job and can keep a bottle of water by to drink and get in around 64 oz of water in daily. Weekends are where I struggle with that so this Saturday I will have to make sure I watch what I am drinking through the day. I will also be stretching more during the week, not just before and after a workout. I am going to need to do some leg stretches additionally two more times a day.
Finally in preparation I am going to create a new playlist for my run what will hopefully be 1:45 in length. I just received an email from the race director this morning stating that there is going to be over 300 people in the race this year, which is up from the 220 or so from last year. I would like to come in the top 50% of the race so my target time to keep is that 1:45 which should equal 8:10 per mile. I am pretty sure with my training that I can do that, so my goal is to finish under 1:42 which should put an average pace just under an eight minute mile. To do that I am going to be creating a new playlist with some of my favorite and most high paced music to help me keep a nice even and fast pace.
I will post a pic of my results on Twitter the day of the race when they start to display them. That way hopefully the people that wanted to know how I did can get that information pretty quickly. I will post again probably Monday after the race to chronicle how my body feels the day after and also how I feel I did in the race. Being the first one, I am just happy to able to say I did it.....something even a year ago I never thought I would do.
What I hope to do this week leading up to the race on Sunday is to do a good set of workout. I started with 4.5 miles today, I hope to have a work out of 4-6-6-4-2 riding up to Sunday. I might no do the 2 on Saturday or not run on Friday and to another 4.5 or something like that. I am not really sure at this point never running a half marathon before. I guess it will be a see how it goes sort of thing. As of right now my body feels really good, so I don't want to push anything too hard the week of so I don't get injured or have any glaring soreness.
Alright, so I am getting really excited about running my first half marathon this weekend. I don't know what to expect from it. The race is in Whately Ma which is where I grew up. My home Town is South Deerfield Ma which is the northern bordering town. My parents house is about a mile from the Whately Town border. So it is sort of a home coming for me to be able to do my first big time race at home. I know my parents will be there by the end of the race, hopefully between 9:30 and 9:45 for me. My wife and kids will not be attending this one for two reasons. First it is Mother's Day and it wouldn't be fair for me to force my wife to drag the kids around at 5 am to then sit around for and hour and a half or so while I run. By the way, I wasn't aware that the race was actually on Mother's Day when I signed up, I thought it was Saturday. The second reason my wife and kids will not be attending is that the race is at 8 am on Sunday morning, with packet pickup starting at 6 am. That would me leaving the house around 5 am to prepare and I am not about to wake everyone up at 5 am to, again, sit around and wait for me to run.
I really have not been thinking about the actual race very much yet, meaning visioning my run and my technique. I have been thinking a lot about how I handle the week and specifically the Friday and Saturday leading up to the race. I want to make sure I have my meals planned out and that I have my self sufficiently hydrated for the week so I don't have to over hydrate in the morning and end up needing to use the bathroom around mile six or seven. During the work week it is fairly easy to stay hydrated, I have a desk job and can keep a bottle of water by to drink and get in around 64 oz of water in daily. Weekends are where I struggle with that so this Saturday I will have to make sure I watch what I am drinking through the day. I will also be stretching more during the week, not just before and after a workout. I am going to need to do some leg stretches additionally two more times a day.
Finally in preparation I am going to create a new playlist for my run what will hopefully be 1:45 in length. I just received an email from the race director this morning stating that there is going to be over 300 people in the race this year, which is up from the 220 or so from last year. I would like to come in the top 50% of the race so my target time to keep is that 1:45 which should equal 8:10 per mile. I am pretty sure with my training that I can do that, so my goal is to finish under 1:42 which should put an average pace just under an eight minute mile. To do that I am going to be creating a new playlist with some of my favorite and most high paced music to help me keep a nice even and fast pace.
I will post a pic of my results on Twitter the day of the race when they start to display them. That way hopefully the people that wanted to know how I did can get that information pretty quickly. I will post again probably Monday after the race to chronicle how my body feels the day after and also how I feel I did in the race. Being the first one, I am just happy to able to say I did it.....something even a year ago I never thought I would do.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Back in the Saddle
Well, now that the vacation is over I am back into my regularly scheduled programs......Sort of.
Vacation at the Walt Disney World Resorts in Orlando Florida was fantastic. We had a great time and can't wait to go back when our three year old is a little older (and hopefully tall enough to ride all the rides!). I went down with the intention of getting in a couple of short runs to keep the muscles working correctly. That all went to heck once we started staying at the parks late to watch fireworks as well as staying up late while the kids played. I don't tend to function well waking up early when I go to bed late. Most experienced runners will tell you that running on less than 6 hours of sleep really affects your body. The good thing was after basically taking a week off, my body and especially my legs feel fantastic. I have been able to really push some good runs in and get myself back to where I was right before I left.
So now I am under 2 weeks until my first running of a half marathon. I am getting excited about it, but with the nicer weather and other things going on, I will have less time to write about how things are going. So I am changing this blog slightly. I am not going to go in depth about what I ate and those kind of things. I will be doing more of a weekly summary of how things are going and where I am in my "training". At this point I think that is going to be a good way to go about it.
I did mention before vacation that I would like to run the Maine Marathon this year, and although I would like to do it and have until July to really decide, I am starting to lean away from it. I am looking at all the things I would like to do with my kids this summer and the amount of time that I would have to dedicate to running and they don't match up. I am instead rethinking about running a second half marathon in Swanzey NH this fall. Right now that just feels a little more like the right thing to do instead of trying to push 4 hours out of a weekend day just to run.
To summarize my week, we got back from Orlando on Friday later in the afternoon. I ran about 7.25 on Saturday, a little over 10.5 on Sunday, 8 on Tuesday and 8.5 on Wednesday. I am going to be taking tomorrow off, then probably look to run 8 on Friday, something under 6 on Saturday, then 12 on Sunday. Next week will then be a light week of jogging to make sure I am fresh for Sunday!!
Vacation at the Walt Disney World Resorts in Orlando Florida was fantastic. We had a great time and can't wait to go back when our three year old is a little older (and hopefully tall enough to ride all the rides!). I went down with the intention of getting in a couple of short runs to keep the muscles working correctly. That all went to heck once we started staying at the parks late to watch fireworks as well as staying up late while the kids played. I don't tend to function well waking up early when I go to bed late. Most experienced runners will tell you that running on less than 6 hours of sleep really affects your body. The good thing was after basically taking a week off, my body and especially my legs feel fantastic. I have been able to really push some good runs in and get myself back to where I was right before I left.
So now I am under 2 weeks until my first running of a half marathon. I am getting excited about it, but with the nicer weather and other things going on, I will have less time to write about how things are going. So I am changing this blog slightly. I am not going to go in depth about what I ate and those kind of things. I will be doing more of a weekly summary of how things are going and where I am in my "training". At this point I think that is going to be a good way to go about it.
I did mention before vacation that I would like to run the Maine Marathon this year, and although I would like to do it and have until July to really decide, I am starting to lean away from it. I am looking at all the things I would like to do with my kids this summer and the amount of time that I would have to dedicate to running and they don't match up. I am instead rethinking about running a second half marathon in Swanzey NH this fall. Right now that just feels a little more like the right thing to do instead of trying to push 4 hours out of a weekend day just to run.
To summarize my week, we got back from Orlando on Friday later in the afternoon. I ran about 7.25 on Saturday, a little over 10.5 on Sunday, 8 on Tuesday and 8.5 on Wednesday. I am going to be taking tomorrow off, then probably look to run 8 on Friday, something under 6 on Saturday, then 12 on Sunday. Next week will then be a light week of jogging to make sure I am fresh for Sunday!!
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Moving Forward
As most have seen by my post early Tuesday morning, the events on Monday really affected me and hit close to home. However, instead of letting it get the better of me, I have refocused on my running and training levels. Personally, I feel the best way to honor all those that were intimately involved is to continue to do the thing that they were all there for, running. So I have decided that not only am I going to run the Half Marathon on May 12th, but I am going to start training to try to run the Maine Marathon in Portland Me on October 6th 2013. I have not signed up or paid for it yet, the deadline to do it is June 30th, so I have some time to see how my body reacts to increasing my long run mileage to 26.2 miles.
Some people are going to ask, is this an attempt to run the Boston Marathon? Well, the Boston Marathon is NOT an open event. You need to either qualify or run for charity (or be a Bandit runner). I do not really know any charities that have put people in the Marathon before, if you know of one please let me know and I will happily volunteer my legs to run for them. So, unless that happens, I will have to try to qualify. Now the really hard part, for someone my age you need to run a qualifying marathon under 3:10:00. That equals to about a 7:15 mile for 26.2 miles. Good news, the Maine Marathon is a qualifying event! Bad news, 7:15 is a little over my 5K time. So I am not looking to qualify this year, but I want to get the marathon experience.
I have run three days in a row again this week. Tuesday was a 5 am 8 miler, Wednesday was a 4.75 5 pm hill run, and today (Thursday) was another 5 am 8 miler. Tuesday was an interesting run, I started out at an 80% run after my whole wheat bagel breakfast. I found myself lost in my thoughts about the events that had taken place some 15 hours earlier. Before I knew it, i was cruising at a pretty solid pace, probably closer to 90% effort, but it didn't feel like it. Perhaps my endurance has started to change as I have been working hard to be ready for the half marathon. All I know is I felt really good after a sub 8 minute mile, 8 mile run.
Wednesday was not so good. Mainly because I took my dogs on the hill/speed run. The dogs were HORRIBLE on this run. They were pulling in opposite directions, stopping every 2 minutes.....The good thing was that I ran this after work and it was a beautiful day, in the low 60's. It was great to get out in nicer weather to try to work with looser muscles. Tuesday was ok, in the low 40's in the morning, but running in 60 degree weather is nice. Quick turn around to Thursday morning and a breakfast of toaster waffles with peanut butter and a banana lead me to a great workout. I mixed some really fast half miles in to an 8 mile run to exhaust my legs so I could work on tired leg form. I feel really good about how that work out went and how it will contribute to my overall endurance and speed in the next few weeks.
So, my plan. As of right now I will be out for a 5am ish 13 mile run on Saturday. Then it will be packing and heading to Hartford to board a plane bound for Orlando Fl! I will try to post how I am feeling after hopefully hitting this major milestone for me while in the airport. However, if I do not get the chance you can always check out my workout page on Mapmyrun.com to see if I was able to make my goal. My ID is tomrup815 and my maps are open to the public so you do not need a login to see how far I got. You can also follow me on Twitter, @rupboysdad, and I will tweet my run results.
Enjoy your week and you will hopefully hear from my again when I am a little bit more tan!
Some people are going to ask, is this an attempt to run the Boston Marathon? Well, the Boston Marathon is NOT an open event. You need to either qualify or run for charity (or be a Bandit runner). I do not really know any charities that have put people in the Marathon before, if you know of one please let me know and I will happily volunteer my legs to run for them. So, unless that happens, I will have to try to qualify. Now the really hard part, for someone my age you need to run a qualifying marathon under 3:10:00. That equals to about a 7:15 mile for 26.2 miles. Good news, the Maine Marathon is a qualifying event! Bad news, 7:15 is a little over my 5K time. So I am not looking to qualify this year, but I want to get the marathon experience.
I have run three days in a row again this week. Tuesday was a 5 am 8 miler, Wednesday was a 4.75 5 pm hill run, and today (Thursday) was another 5 am 8 miler. Tuesday was an interesting run, I started out at an 80% run after my whole wheat bagel breakfast. I found myself lost in my thoughts about the events that had taken place some 15 hours earlier. Before I knew it, i was cruising at a pretty solid pace, probably closer to 90% effort, but it didn't feel like it. Perhaps my endurance has started to change as I have been working hard to be ready for the half marathon. All I know is I felt really good after a sub 8 minute mile, 8 mile run.
Wednesday was not so good. Mainly because I took my dogs on the hill/speed run. The dogs were HORRIBLE on this run. They were pulling in opposite directions, stopping every 2 minutes.....The good thing was that I ran this after work and it was a beautiful day, in the low 60's. It was great to get out in nicer weather to try to work with looser muscles. Tuesday was ok, in the low 40's in the morning, but running in 60 degree weather is nice. Quick turn around to Thursday morning and a breakfast of toaster waffles with peanut butter and a banana lead me to a great workout. I mixed some really fast half miles in to an 8 mile run to exhaust my legs so I could work on tired leg form. I feel really good about how that work out went and how it will contribute to my overall endurance and speed in the next few weeks.
So, my plan. As of right now I will be out for a 5am ish 13 mile run on Saturday. Then it will be packing and heading to Hartford to board a plane bound for Orlando Fl! I will try to post how I am feeling after hopefully hitting this major milestone for me while in the airport. However, if I do not get the chance you can always check out my workout page on Mapmyrun.com to see if I was able to make my goal. My ID is tomrup815 and my maps are open to the public so you do not need a login to see how far I got. You can also follow me on Twitter, @rupboysdad, and I will tweet my run results.
Enjoy your week and you will hopefully hear from my again when I am a little bit more tan!
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Boston Marathon
As an aspiring runner, I spent a good part of my Patriot's day watching the strong people take the 26.2 mile journey from Hopkington to Boylston St. I had coverage up from boston.com and refreshed it well enough to see some of the pictures of people crossing the line. I hit F5 on my keyboard at 3 pm and I got an error page. I didn't think anything of it until I got an email from my friend saying "Did you see what happened at the Marathon?" I finally got to some national pages to read about explosions near the finish line. I took to twitter to see what some reporters I was following were saying. My friend, who went to college in Boston (at Emerson I believe), knew of the manhole "explosions" that happened in the city. I, not spending very much time there, immediately thought bomb.
I had planned a long post today about watching the runners, and the talks I had about seeing the men run a 5 minute mile for a great deal of the race. About how watching them and the 27,000 participants inspired me to push harder and to study their movements to be a better and more efficient runner. Later that evening it was learned that one of the 2 people killed in the explosions was an 8 year old boy, Martin Richard. I assume right now that most people know that I am a father of two boys myself. My wife and I have a highly energetic 3 year old and a compassionate, intelligent and talkative 7 year old. Hearing the news of how this boy, as well as his mother and sister, were seriously and gravely injured made everything else seem......trivial.
I am the type of person whose mind is always going. Sitting around, out for a run, driving, whatever it is. My brain starts coming up with different scenarios and I think about how I would react. Yesterday and this morning, all I could think about is: "What if I was out on the route or in the finishers area and it was someone I knew, or my family that was standing there?" I cannot fathom what anyone is going through at this point. These tragedies come up and I pretend to think that I would be this and I would be that in order to be strong for those around me, but would that really be the case?
The reason this comes up for me at this time is, beyond being a parent, that the people that were crossing the finish line were just like me as a runner. This happened at 2:50 pm, some 4:10 minutes into the Marathon. My initial reaction, as my wife can attest to, is that this was a senseless act of terror from some sect trying to make a statement on an international stage. My faith in humanity is so warped at this point with all the things we have seen from theater and school shootings, to crashing planes into building and now things like this. I would like to think that where we are as a society, we would stop the stupidity and try to work out our issues in a better way. The reality is violence is a part of humans, dating back as far as recorded, and will continue to be.
However, there was a "bright spot" in all the senselessness of the day. If anyone watched the news and the video of what happened, take heart in the way that the people there reacted. As soon as things unfolded, there was event staff, police, off-duty armed forces, and innocent bi-standards running to the aid of others. There was people that just completed running almost 26 miles that stopped their path to the finish and went to help before being diverted by safety personnel. That is the one thing, in my mind, that we as a society should take away from all this. The amazing response by the first aid people, the event staff, and the Boston police department that were already on the scene. Not a single person panicked, they got everyone they could safely evacuated and the scene secured almost immediately. Those people were true heroes on a level that no one watching on TV could possibly understand.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those injured or killed in this horrifying act. My thoughts and support to anyone that saw something they hoped they never would and are having a difficult time dealing with it. My support and admiration to the people that were just trying to finish their "bucket list" in running an amazing event. And my admiration and gratitude to everyone that reacted selflessly to aid others.
I am about to start my run this morning, and will continue to in honor of everyone involved. I will continue to push myself and try to get to the point that the thousands of people were at 2:50 PM on April 15th. I am posting this on Twitter and Facebook, if you like me to continue to so you can follow, please let me know. Otherwise I will quietly go about my business and try to get to the point where I can proudly say I ran a Marathon, like the 27,000 that registered and the countless that ran the 2013 Boston Marathon.
I had planned a long post today about watching the runners, and the talks I had about seeing the men run a 5 minute mile for a great deal of the race. About how watching them and the 27,000 participants inspired me to push harder and to study their movements to be a better and more efficient runner. Later that evening it was learned that one of the 2 people killed in the explosions was an 8 year old boy, Martin Richard. I assume right now that most people know that I am a father of two boys myself. My wife and I have a highly energetic 3 year old and a compassionate, intelligent and talkative 7 year old. Hearing the news of how this boy, as well as his mother and sister, were seriously and gravely injured made everything else seem......trivial.
I am the type of person whose mind is always going. Sitting around, out for a run, driving, whatever it is. My brain starts coming up with different scenarios and I think about how I would react. Yesterday and this morning, all I could think about is: "What if I was out on the route or in the finishers area and it was someone I knew, or my family that was standing there?" I cannot fathom what anyone is going through at this point. These tragedies come up and I pretend to think that I would be this and I would be that in order to be strong for those around me, but would that really be the case?
The reason this comes up for me at this time is, beyond being a parent, that the people that were crossing the finish line were just like me as a runner. This happened at 2:50 pm, some 4:10 minutes into the Marathon. My initial reaction, as my wife can attest to, is that this was a senseless act of terror from some sect trying to make a statement on an international stage. My faith in humanity is so warped at this point with all the things we have seen from theater and school shootings, to crashing planes into building and now things like this. I would like to think that where we are as a society, we would stop the stupidity and try to work out our issues in a better way. The reality is violence is a part of humans, dating back as far as recorded, and will continue to be.
However, there was a "bright spot" in all the senselessness of the day. If anyone watched the news and the video of what happened, take heart in the way that the people there reacted. As soon as things unfolded, there was event staff, police, off-duty armed forces, and innocent bi-standards running to the aid of others. There was people that just completed running almost 26 miles that stopped their path to the finish and went to help before being diverted by safety personnel. That is the one thing, in my mind, that we as a society should take away from all this. The amazing response by the first aid people, the event staff, and the Boston police department that were already on the scene. Not a single person panicked, they got everyone they could safely evacuated and the scene secured almost immediately. Those people were true heroes on a level that no one watching on TV could possibly understand.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of those injured or killed in this horrifying act. My thoughts and support to anyone that saw something they hoped they never would and are having a difficult time dealing with it. My support and admiration to the people that were just trying to finish their "bucket list" in running an amazing event. And my admiration and gratitude to everyone that reacted selflessly to aid others.
I am about to start my run this morning, and will continue to in honor of everyone involved. I will continue to push myself and try to get to the point that the thousands of people were at 2:50 PM on April 15th. I am posting this on Twitter and Facebook, if you like me to continue to so you can follow, please let me know. Otherwise I will quietly go about my business and try to get to the point where I can proudly say I ran a Marathon, like the 27,000 that registered and the countless that ran the 2013 Boston Marathon.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Almost there
The Boston Marathon! No, not what I am writing about. But it is the Grand Father of modern marathons and it is tomorrow. But what I am writing about it is my quest for a half marathon. I ran 11.83 miles today, the longest I have ever run. I am posting the map on my maps section. That was not my only run this weekend. It was a back to back in training, shorter and faster on Saturday, slower and longer on Sunday.
Saturday started with a 3 year old up at 3:30 again.....but this time my with got up with him. I slept until almost 5 am. I started with Oatmeal toast with Peanut butter and Jelly and my traditional cup of black coffee. I hit the road at about 6 am listening to playlist 2. I went 90+% for 6.5 miles, and it felt really good. That was until I get back and turned to pull a muscle in my back again. It didn't stop me from doing anything, but it put me into buying a heating pad to help stretch it out better. My legs felt great and my pace was really good as well, really pushing the end of the run.
So today, Sunday started out with me getting up at 3:30 with the 3 year old to play Minecraft with him. Yes, my three year old likes Minecraft. Knowing I was really pushing miles today and knowing that I went fast yesterday, I decided to have a breakfast of 2 toaster waffles with peanut butter and a banana. I don't have any banana muffins left, and I don't want to make more only to have some left over while we go on our family vacation. So I am going to be finding other things to eat for my running this week. My energy felt really good with that breakfast, my legs were a little tired from the run the day before (and building a new fire pit), but it didn't feel sore. My back was a little sore, so I stretched really well before heading out. I went about 80%, just trying to keep good form and good strides. I did have some strange issues with my left toes, that caused a small blister, it almost felt like my toes were giving out.
Getting to almost 12 miles was hard, harder than I thought. But it wasn't so bad that I was out of energy for the rest of the day. I think my plan and progression has been working well. Getting through that run and still going and doing things (granted, not a lot) for the rest of the day was something I though I would never do. It actually gets easier planning it out right when I make sure to get proper stretching, rest, and nutrition. Interestingly, my wife made a point about running and how doing other things get easier, even if you get winded you recover much faster. I realized that today when got back pretty winded, but was better with in 10 minutes.
I am going to run on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week, going 8 - 4 - 8 or something like that. I am going to put another post tomorrow about my lower body form, including my foot strike and some other myths. I will then post on Thursday with how I did with the three in a row. Finally, I plan on going for hopefully over 13 miles early Saturday morning. So if my wife's family sees me a little tired on Saturday on the plane, you know why!
Saturday started with a 3 year old up at 3:30 again.....but this time my with got up with him. I slept until almost 5 am. I started with Oatmeal toast with Peanut butter and Jelly and my traditional cup of black coffee. I hit the road at about 6 am listening to playlist 2. I went 90+% for 6.5 miles, and it felt really good. That was until I get back and turned to pull a muscle in my back again. It didn't stop me from doing anything, but it put me into buying a heating pad to help stretch it out better. My legs felt great and my pace was really good as well, really pushing the end of the run.
So today, Sunday started out with me getting up at 3:30 with the 3 year old to play Minecraft with him. Yes, my three year old likes Minecraft. Knowing I was really pushing miles today and knowing that I went fast yesterday, I decided to have a breakfast of 2 toaster waffles with peanut butter and a banana. I don't have any banana muffins left, and I don't want to make more only to have some left over while we go on our family vacation. So I am going to be finding other things to eat for my running this week. My energy felt really good with that breakfast, my legs were a little tired from the run the day before (and building a new fire pit), but it didn't feel sore. My back was a little sore, so I stretched really well before heading out. I went about 80%, just trying to keep good form and good strides. I did have some strange issues with my left toes, that caused a small blister, it almost felt like my toes were giving out.
Getting to almost 12 miles was hard, harder than I thought. But it wasn't so bad that I was out of energy for the rest of the day. I think my plan and progression has been working well. Getting through that run and still going and doing things (granted, not a lot) for the rest of the day was something I though I would never do. It actually gets easier planning it out right when I make sure to get proper stretching, rest, and nutrition. Interestingly, my wife made a point about running and how doing other things get easier, even if you get winded you recover much faster. I realized that today when got back pretty winded, but was better with in 10 minutes.
I am going to run on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week, going 8 - 4 - 8 or something like that. I am going to put another post tomorrow about my lower body form, including my foot strike and some other myths. I will then post on Thursday with how I did with the three in a row. Finally, I plan on going for hopefully over 13 miles early Saturday morning. So if my wife's family sees me a little tired on Saturday on the plane, you know why!
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Good Form
It's Thursday and that means it was another 8 mile run day. I like the 8 milers in the morning, something about that distance and the quietness of early morning really helps me clear my mind. This morning was no exception to that, but let me rewind to review the rest of the week first.
After the last post of a 90% 10 mile run on Monday, I went for a little recovery run on Tuesday morning, a straight and easy 4 mile job at about 50%. It was about 50% because my legs couldn't handle much more than that after a 10 mile - 4 mile hills - 10 mile in consecutive days. Also, I didn't eat breakfast before or really consume much of anything, just put on my Run 3 mix and headed out the door. And I took the dogs which was interesting because the woodland creatures are starting to wake and run around. Dogs like rabbits if you didn't know. I made it through that and rested on Wednesday, which was well needed.
Back to Thursday. This morning started with my 3 year old waking me up at 2:30 and my energy levels not allowing me to fall back to sleep. My body was ready to go again, so I was able to eat a banana muffin 2 hours before my run, and actually some chocolate about an hour before. So I had enough of both slow burning and fast burning carbs to get out a different run. I headed out a little before 5 am in some 46 degree, cloudy weather. I started at about 85% for the first mile, slowed a little in the effort to about 75-80% effort after that for the next 6 miles. During that time I was really working on form, and I will get into that a little more in just a bit. After around the 7 mile marker, I picked up the pace to about 90%. Then, when I hit the access road to our neighborhood, I went all out for that small bit. It was really a productive run, even with the early start. 2:30 am started to take it's toll as the day went along though, which might explain why I feel like I am rambling.
Alright, so I spoke of form earlier. I have talked to some people who are true beginners recently about their running and they were talking about their frustration in how far they can get. They feel like they are not progressing. Well, there are a couple of factors to that, first in being what are they trying to progress. Are they looking for farther distances, faster times? My first suggestion to people is to try to build endurance (run farther) before you worry about times. More than likely, unless you have been running your whole life, you are not going to be winning any major events. One thing that is going to help build endurance is to have a good form when running. Why? Well, having a good form means you are not going to be wasting away an energy from unnecessary movements.
I did a lot of research on this when I first started, so hopefully what I am writing is going to help and make sense. When you are first starting, and doing interval running (Jog X distance, walk Y Distance, repeat), this is the perfect time to pay attention to how you look when you run. I will have to put a warning, if you are a, shall we say well endowed female, you may not have a good comfort level for posture as you might get a few honks from passerby;s. I have talked to women that have told me that this does happen. Having said that, the upper body is very instrumental when trying to gain distance. First, keep your head up. I know, you want to look down to make sure you are not going to trip and fall or hurt yourself. Well, it is far better to scan ahead when running and not hunching over see where you foot is. With your head up, keep your shoulder down and back. This is important to pay attention to because when pushing yourself, as you start to tire you will start to notice your shoulder shrug. This is your muscles unnecessarily contracting and spending energy, and we want to save energy for our legs.
If you can hold this posture, you will notice now that is looks like you are pushing your chest out some. That is what some females struggle, and tend to roll in to avoid cat calls. Again, this is contracting muscles and wasting valuable energy. You will also start to notice that with good posture, you have increased lung capacity which will help fuel your muscles! So with good posture you can increase your ability to run longer. To finish the upper body, try to keep your arms at about a 90 degree elbow bend and DO NOT make a fist. Keep your hands somewhat loose, again preserving energy. Arms out as compared or to the side does not really matter much, but try to keep them somewhat quiet. Not need for large arm movements, that is more for sprinting, the faster the speed the more your arms will naturally swing.
That's about it for the upper body, I will probably post again on Sunday after hopefully an 11 mile run. In that post I will talk about breathing and good form for the lower body! Please, ask questions and comment, it will help me move forward and stay motivated!
After the last post of a 90% 10 mile run on Monday, I went for a little recovery run on Tuesday morning, a straight and easy 4 mile job at about 50%. It was about 50% because my legs couldn't handle much more than that after a 10 mile - 4 mile hills - 10 mile in consecutive days. Also, I didn't eat breakfast before or really consume much of anything, just put on my Run 3 mix and headed out the door. And I took the dogs which was interesting because the woodland creatures are starting to wake and run around. Dogs like rabbits if you didn't know. I made it through that and rested on Wednesday, which was well needed.
Back to Thursday. This morning started with my 3 year old waking me up at 2:30 and my energy levels not allowing me to fall back to sleep. My body was ready to go again, so I was able to eat a banana muffin 2 hours before my run, and actually some chocolate about an hour before. So I had enough of both slow burning and fast burning carbs to get out a different run. I headed out a little before 5 am in some 46 degree, cloudy weather. I started at about 85% for the first mile, slowed a little in the effort to about 75-80% effort after that for the next 6 miles. During that time I was really working on form, and I will get into that a little more in just a bit. After around the 7 mile marker, I picked up the pace to about 90%. Then, when I hit the access road to our neighborhood, I went all out for that small bit. It was really a productive run, even with the early start. 2:30 am started to take it's toll as the day went along though, which might explain why I feel like I am rambling.
Alright, so I spoke of form earlier. I have talked to some people who are true beginners recently about their running and they were talking about their frustration in how far they can get. They feel like they are not progressing. Well, there are a couple of factors to that, first in being what are they trying to progress. Are they looking for farther distances, faster times? My first suggestion to people is to try to build endurance (run farther) before you worry about times. More than likely, unless you have been running your whole life, you are not going to be winning any major events. One thing that is going to help build endurance is to have a good form when running. Why? Well, having a good form means you are not going to be wasting away an energy from unnecessary movements.
I did a lot of research on this when I first started, so hopefully what I am writing is going to help and make sense. When you are first starting, and doing interval running (Jog X distance, walk Y Distance, repeat), this is the perfect time to pay attention to how you look when you run. I will have to put a warning, if you are a, shall we say well endowed female, you may not have a good comfort level for posture as you might get a few honks from passerby;s. I have talked to women that have told me that this does happen. Having said that, the upper body is very instrumental when trying to gain distance. First, keep your head up. I know, you want to look down to make sure you are not going to trip and fall or hurt yourself. Well, it is far better to scan ahead when running and not hunching over see where you foot is. With your head up, keep your shoulder down and back. This is important to pay attention to because when pushing yourself, as you start to tire you will start to notice your shoulder shrug. This is your muscles unnecessarily contracting and spending energy, and we want to save energy for our legs.
If you can hold this posture, you will notice now that is looks like you are pushing your chest out some. That is what some females struggle, and tend to roll in to avoid cat calls. Again, this is contracting muscles and wasting valuable energy. You will also start to notice that with good posture, you have increased lung capacity which will help fuel your muscles! So with good posture you can increase your ability to run longer. To finish the upper body, try to keep your arms at about a 90 degree elbow bend and DO NOT make a fist. Keep your hands somewhat loose, again preserving energy. Arms out as compared or to the side does not really matter much, but try to keep them somewhat quiet. Not need for large arm movements, that is more for sprinting, the faster the speed the more your arms will naturally swing.
That's about it for the upper body, I will probably post again on Sunday after hopefully an 11 mile run. In that post I will talk about breathing and good form for the lower body! Please, ask questions and comment, it will help me move forward and stay motivated!
Monday, April 8, 2013
Weekend and Day Off
I had a lot going on this weekend, both in life and in running. I didn't get a chance to post earlier because we spent a lot of time outside both at my parents house and at our house starting to do some things because it isn't freezing cold out. I have also really picked up the training, maybe motivated by the Boston Marathon on the 15, or maybe knowing that the family vacation is coming up. Either way there was two new routes over three runs in three days, plus a hike up Mt. Sugarloaf in South Deerfield Ma. I would say I god plenty of exercise.
Before I get into the routes let me address two questions/comments. First, I don't post on Facebook directly. I do, however, tweet my blog updates and my twitter account is connected to my Facebook account. So, if you have a comment to make on something that comes up on Facebook, please either comment here on this blog or get a twitter account. Commenting on this blog is honestly better.
Second, so there has been some questions and good natured ribbing on my playlist selections. As far as the ribbing is concerned, that's fine, at least I know people are reading! But, as I have said before to each their own. So I don't expect everyone to want to follow what I do, eat, listen to, etc. The reason so my musical selection are more based on pace. Alternative music is a slower pace, upped by Hard Rock and Electronic, and the fastest that I listed to is the dance or house music. Which is shown in the routes and pace I ran this weekend.
Saturday and today (Monday) were 10 mile runs (same route) that sandwiched a steep 4 mile jog. The Saturday run was an intentional 80% while listening to Alternative Endurance on Pandora. Breakfast was......Banana muffin 1 hour before running. The map can be found on my Maps section. The run was nice, a little cold as it was around 30 degrees. I felt good, my right leg was annoying but not hurting. Sunday was a slow paced incline up the map for Drummer Hill. It was a two dog run with no music, on again a 30 degree morning. Breakfast was a wheat english muffin with peanut butter and come cottage cheese. I probably ate about 45 minutes before heading out. Today I returned to the 10 mile rung (same as Saturday) while eating the same breakfast 2 hours before running, while also taking 600 milligrams of Ibuprofen. I went at 90% for this run listening to my iPod on Run1. It was s fantastic run and everything feels great this morning. If you want to know how my "splits" were between runs, I am on mapmyrun.com as tomrup815. You can follow my workouts there with my pace.
I really think I have done well with taking care of my sore leg with out compromising my training. I feel really good about how my body is responding right now and hope that it stays well through the next two weeks before the family vacation to Disney. I am going to be ramping up my workouts and frequency to get where I want to be, probably trying to hit 11.5 miles this weekend. I think if I can do all of that, I will be in a good spot as I decline into the half marathon.
Before I get into the routes let me address two questions/comments. First, I don't post on Facebook directly. I do, however, tweet my blog updates and my twitter account is connected to my Facebook account. So, if you have a comment to make on something that comes up on Facebook, please either comment here on this blog or get a twitter account. Commenting on this blog is honestly better.
Second, so there has been some questions and good natured ribbing on my playlist selections. As far as the ribbing is concerned, that's fine, at least I know people are reading! But, as I have said before to each their own. So I don't expect everyone to want to follow what I do, eat, listen to, etc. The reason so my musical selection are more based on pace. Alternative music is a slower pace, upped by Hard Rock and Electronic, and the fastest that I listed to is the dance or house music. Which is shown in the routes and pace I ran this weekend.
Saturday and today (Monday) were 10 mile runs (same route) that sandwiched a steep 4 mile jog. The Saturday run was an intentional 80% while listening to Alternative Endurance on Pandora. Breakfast was......Banana muffin 1 hour before running. The map can be found on my Maps section. The run was nice, a little cold as it was around 30 degrees. I felt good, my right leg was annoying but not hurting. Sunday was a slow paced incline up the map for Drummer Hill. It was a two dog run with no music, on again a 30 degree morning. Breakfast was a wheat english muffin with peanut butter and come cottage cheese. I probably ate about 45 minutes before heading out. Today I returned to the 10 mile rung (same as Saturday) while eating the same breakfast 2 hours before running, while also taking 600 milligrams of Ibuprofen. I went at 90% for this run listening to my iPod on Run1. It was s fantastic run and everything feels great this morning. If you want to know how my "splits" were between runs, I am on mapmyrun.com as tomrup815. You can follow my workouts there with my pace.
I really think I have done well with taking care of my sore leg with out compromising my training. I feel really good about how my body is responding right now and hope that it stays well through the next two weeks before the family vacation to Disney. I am going to be ramping up my workouts and frequency to get where I want to be, probably trying to hit 11.5 miles this weekend. I think if I can do all of that, I will be in a good spot as I decline into the half marathon.
Friday, April 5, 2013
What I am listening to
Someone asked me about how I can run, aren't I bored? No, I am not....which is part of preferring running outside over inside. That and I listen to music, it helps me not get too involved in thought. Currently I will either listen to Pandora or my iPod, depending on what I want to take with me. I have a huge mix of music that have. If I on Pandora I go with one of:
Dance Cardio Radio
Alternative Endurance Radio
Hard Rock Strength Radio
Electronic Cardio Radio
My iPod you ask? Ok, I will post a tab called Playlist. It is a strange mix of....well take a look
Dance Cardio Radio
Alternative Endurance Radio
Hard Rock Strength Radio
Electronic Cardio Radio
My iPod you ask? Ok, I will post a tab called Playlist. It is a strange mix of....well take a look
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Train Smarter
The Boston Marathon is coming up on April 15th. When the marathon comes, so doesn't a whole bunch of blogs and training tips from runners. I actually found one run very interesting, it is by Shalane Flanagan (actually it is an interview) and really shed some light on my training. You can read it on Boston.com at:
http://www.boston.com/sports/marathon/blog/2013/04/shalane_flanagan_on_boston_mar.html
Shalane is rated the #1 American Female Marathoner and is expected to be in the lead group right to the end of the race. It opened my eyes to know that she feels that "a little bit less can be a little bit more" when dealing with training. Well, knowing that I am coming off a back injury and still dealing with getting my body in shape, I decided that I needed to scale back my workouts some. Typically I would try to run race speed every time I go out, mainly because I only run 4 days a week right now. That and I have always been under the "give 110%" mindset and that doesn't really work with running.
That brings us to today's run. The dogs were begging (literally) to get out this morning. Considering I usually run slower with them and have to take AnnaBelle pee breaks, it was the perfect morning to start varying the intensity of my training. So today I ran "The Loop" at about 75-80%. "The Loop" is posted in the maps section, it is a route that works really well for me. The hard thing about it is there are spots that are not lit, thankfully my wonderful wife found my headlamp to go out with. BTW, if you are driving at a point with morning or night where you have your lights on, you see a runner and decide to put your high beams on in order to "give better light".....don't. It literally blinds the oncoming runner, which happened three times this morning. Which stinks because not only do you have to wait for the car to go by, you then need to wait for your eyes to readjust to low light levels so you don't twist an ankle.
Today's workout started differently. I decided to have a different breakfast of toasted Country Kitchen oatmeal bread with peanut butter and 1 cup of cottage cheese, which my 12 oz cup of black coffee. I then had 8 oz of cranberry juice about 1/2 hour before running. Knowing that I wanted to do a slower run and less miles I felt this was a decent breakfast. I did not have an issue with energy or strength, however I am starting to notice some issues with my lower right leg. It was pretty sore, but not in the normal shin splint area, a little more in the inside and back. I think I am going to look into a compression sleeve for it to see if that helps a little more with my stretching and massages.
Saturday I am planning out a route for a little over 10 miles. I will post that map at some point. I plan on getting out pretty early and then head to my home town not long after. So I probably won't get a post up until that night.
Enjoy your day!
http://www.boston.com/sports/marathon/blog/2013/04/shalane_flanagan_on_boston_mar.html
Shalane is rated the #1 American Female Marathoner and is expected to be in the lead group right to the end of the race. It opened my eyes to know that she feels that "a little bit less can be a little bit more" when dealing with training. Well, knowing that I am coming off a back injury and still dealing with getting my body in shape, I decided that I needed to scale back my workouts some. Typically I would try to run race speed every time I go out, mainly because I only run 4 days a week right now. That and I have always been under the "give 110%" mindset and that doesn't really work with running.
That brings us to today's run. The dogs were begging (literally) to get out this morning. Considering I usually run slower with them and have to take AnnaBelle pee breaks, it was the perfect morning to start varying the intensity of my training. So today I ran "The Loop" at about 75-80%. "The Loop" is posted in the maps section, it is a route that works really well for me. The hard thing about it is there are spots that are not lit, thankfully my wonderful wife found my headlamp to go out with. BTW, if you are driving at a point with morning or night where you have your lights on, you see a runner and decide to put your high beams on in order to "give better light".....don't. It literally blinds the oncoming runner, which happened three times this morning. Which stinks because not only do you have to wait for the car to go by, you then need to wait for your eyes to readjust to low light levels so you don't twist an ankle.
Today's workout started differently. I decided to have a different breakfast of toasted Country Kitchen oatmeal bread with peanut butter and 1 cup of cottage cheese, which my 12 oz cup of black coffee. I then had 8 oz of cranberry juice about 1/2 hour before running. Knowing that I wanted to do a slower run and less miles I felt this was a decent breakfast. I did not have an issue with energy or strength, however I am starting to notice some issues with my lower right leg. It was pretty sore, but not in the normal shin splint area, a little more in the inside and back. I think I am going to look into a compression sleeve for it to see if that helps a little more with my stretching and massages.
Saturday I am planning out a route for a little over 10 miles. I will post that map at some point. I plan on getting out pretty early and then head to my home town not long after. So I probably won't get a post up until that night.
Enjoy your day!
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The tired run
We have a sick 3 year old at home. Running a fever and overall just lethargic and cranky. Because of this he didn't sleep well, and when he doesn't sleep well, we don't sleep well. I had done a lot of research on running last year as I was working up my mileage and pace. I never really wanted to put too much effort into it, just enough to feel good. But one thing that I read from a lot of places was that getting in good sleep habits really makes a difference. I can tell you that I believe this to be true!
Three year old MsSickypants was up at about 12:30 to climb into bed. He is an active sleeper anyways and we really prefer not to get him in the habit of climbing into bed with us. But we figured he was sick so we would make an exception. Well, that wasn't the best of moves when trying to get out a decent run. Was up often trying to get comfortable, and finally at about 3:30 he decided he wanted to watch a movie and not stay in our bed. At that point I was going to be up in the next half hour anyways so might as well have breakfast and stretch out. It was a cool 28 degrees when I left the house, which doesn't help in motivation either. My legs didn't feel good through most of the run, mostly just very sluggish. I did the 8 mile route in the maps section. After about 7 miles I really needed to push myself to get moving.
My breakfast was the same. I am going to change that up on Thursday when I head out. I will probably try for 7 miles on Thursday, depending if I can find my headlamp. The 7 mile route has some spots with out light. My oldest son was pretending he was Tony Stark with it over the weekend and it seems to be missing. Such is life with kids.
My plan is to get to up my long run by 1 mile every week leading up to our Florida vacation. That should put me at 12 miles at that point. I still plan on running while at Disney, there is a 1 mile track that goes around the three All Star resorts where we will be staying. I would like to be able to get out on those at least 4 of the days we will be there, depending on what time we can get into the parks. I guess we will see how it goes.
Three year old MsSickypants was up at about 12:30 to climb into bed. He is an active sleeper anyways and we really prefer not to get him in the habit of climbing into bed with us. But we figured he was sick so we would make an exception. Well, that wasn't the best of moves when trying to get out a decent run. Was up often trying to get comfortable, and finally at about 3:30 he decided he wanted to watch a movie and not stay in our bed. At that point I was going to be up in the next half hour anyways so might as well have breakfast and stretch out. It was a cool 28 degrees when I left the house, which doesn't help in motivation either. My legs didn't feel good through most of the run, mostly just very sluggish. I did the 8 mile route in the maps section. After about 7 miles I really needed to push myself to get moving.
My breakfast was the same. I am going to change that up on Thursday when I head out. I will probably try for 7 miles on Thursday, depending if I can find my headlamp. The 7 mile route has some spots with out light. My oldest son was pretending he was Tony Stark with it over the weekend and it seems to be missing. Such is life with kids.
My plan is to get to up my long run by 1 mile every week leading up to our Florida vacation. That should put me at 12 miles at that point. I still plan on running while at Disney, there is a 1 mile track that goes around the three All Star resorts where we will be staying. I would like to be able to get out on those at least 4 of the days we will be there, depending on what time we can get into the parks. I guess we will see how it goes.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Mother's Day Half Marathon
Thanks to my fantastic wife I am now officially registered for the Mother's Day Half Marathon to benefit Cancer Connection in Northampton Ma. I added an events section to this blog so you can see what I am doing and when. If you have an event you think I might like or there is something out there that you would like to see me run, please suggest it in the comments or send me an email. Please keep in mind that I typically like to run events that benefit a good cause. The other race listed, the Rugged Manic, benefits the Wounded Warrior project.
I am officially 41 days from trying to complete a 13.1 mile half marathon.
I am officially 41 days from trying to complete a 13.1 mile half marathon.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Happy Easter!!
Today was my Easter Sunday run. A little 5.5 mile recovery run from yesterday's 9 miles. I don't know the time because I am not timing myself in preparation for this Half Marathon. I personally don't care how fast I run it, it's about finishing right now that matters to me. The only time you will probably see a pace from me on this is when the results are posted. As mentioned in other posts and areas, it's not about bragging, it's about chronicling how I feel and sharing with the people that want me to.
This morning started off at 4:45 thanks to our 3 year old Riley. Another Chocolate Chip Banana muffin with a 12 oz cup of black coffee for breakfast. I think my energy from the the breakfast was fine, however I was slow because my legs were tired as well as I had our two dogs with me. I will explain why that matters in a moment. I am not sure what other details people might want about my workouts. If there is something you want to know please email me on the email link to the left or commenting on a post. I hit the road at about 6:30-6:45, I don't really remember.
Running with our two dogs is always interesting. It's amazing the two personalities of them. We have two labs, a black male American style lab named Brody. We also have a female yellow English style lab named AnnaBelle (or more appropriately AnnaBull). Brods has been pretty much running with me since the start. He is a great running companion, he trots along side of me with only a slacked leash and collar. I honestly could just have him run off leash with me, but there are laws in the city and it is better just in case I need to get him out of the way of something. AnnaBelle, well we got her last year so she is still working on the whole running thing. When running she has a dominant personality, running in front and stopping to mark her territory. She has gotten a lot better, but she still needs to be run on a harness because she has a taught leash and would probably choke herself.
Well, that's all for today. Happy Easter!
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Watch your step
On Saturday's I am going to push my workout mileage. Being out of it for a little while I went for a good one today. I had to drop my car off to the Hyundai dealership to have the idler pulley (my Brother-in-law will probably hit me for using the wrong term) and went out for a run from there. It was a variation of a route that I have done before. I put it up on the Maps section. It ended up being 9.12 miles that it tracked before the batter on my cell phone died. It was a nice run though.
A couple of notes. First, I ate my chocolate chip banana muffins for my breakfast fuel source. That recipe, found here, is actually something I took from a banana bread recipe. So the muffins are pretty dense, filling, and have been referred to as "very banana-y". I also had two 12 oz cup of black coffee to get me going. The run felt good but I would suggest to anyone that if you are going to run on a trail, make sure you don't space out. You might end up running through a thorn bush, which will tend to sting a little. Yeah, my legs have a few scratches on them. I guess I can just call them my battle wounds.
At this point my goal is to get my Saturday run to about 12 miles before we leave for Florida on the 20th of April. Or be able to run 12 miles that day before we leave would probably be a decent goal. The race that I am going to be doing is about 6 weeks away, the site for it is www.racewmass.com. It starts at 8 am so my goal on the Saturday runs is to start my day of training at 8 am. I was able to do that today as the Hyundai dealership took my car in at 8.
Moving forward, if you have any questions for me about anything please email me or send me a comment. I will spend some time answering them on my off days. In the past people have asked me about what I eat and what I wear when training. I am going to get to those in future posts. Until then, enjoy your day!!
A couple of notes. First, I ate my chocolate chip banana muffins for my breakfast fuel source. That recipe, found here, is actually something I took from a banana bread recipe. So the muffins are pretty dense, filling, and have been referred to as "very banana-y". I also had two 12 oz cup of black coffee to get me going. The run felt good but I would suggest to anyone that if you are going to run on a trail, make sure you don't space out. You might end up running through a thorn bush, which will tend to sting a little. Yeah, my legs have a few scratches on them. I guess I can just call them my battle wounds.
At this point my goal is to get my Saturday run to about 12 miles before we leave for Florida on the 20th of April. Or be able to run 12 miles that day before we leave would probably be a decent goal. The race that I am going to be doing is about 6 weeks away, the site for it is www.racewmass.com. It starts at 8 am so my goal on the Saturday runs is to start my day of training at 8 am. I was able to do that today as the Hyundai dealership took my car in at 8.
Moving forward, if you have any questions for me about anything please email me or send me a comment. I will spend some time answering them on my off days. In the past people have asked me about what I eat and what I wear when training. I am going to get to those in future posts. Until then, enjoy your day!!
Thursday, March 28, 2013
The beginning
Ok, so a few days ago I decided I wanted to push myself a little. For those that know me know that I have been running for about a year now. Over the winter I have been running on a treadmill and doing elliptical work as I have been trying to heal shin splints, some massive blisters, and a herniated disk. I am now at the point where I feel like running on the treadmill or around the track at the local Y is boring me greatly. The weather is starting to get nicer and it is time to get out and run! I like running, it clears my mind and helps with stress relief. But I really wanted more of a reason, like I did last year when I decided to run so I could run a 5K. So I picked one, a half marathon.
So what does that have to do with this? Well, I want to chronicle my progress and work outs so at some point I can look back at it. I also wanted to share with the people that have asked me to. I don't like facebook anymore and I do not want to use it for this. I wanted something a little more detailed in what I was doing. I also think the interaction with this will be better. Plus, why not?? So basically I am going to share the my exercise routines, dieting, recipes and overall thoughts on how things go.
I hope you enjoy and feel free to put any feedback you would like.
-Tom
So what does that have to do with this? Well, I want to chronicle my progress and work outs so at some point I can look back at it. I also wanted to share with the people that have asked me to. I don't like facebook anymore and I do not want to use it for this. I wanted something a little more detailed in what I was doing. I also think the interaction with this will be better. Plus, why not?? So basically I am going to share the my exercise routines, dieting, recipes and overall thoughts on how things go.
I hope you enjoy and feel free to put any feedback you would like.
-Tom
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