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.
 

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!!

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!

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.