Approaching the Home Stretch!

Somehow the months have flown by, and Marathon Monday is just over seven weeks away. That means four more good weeks of training, then time to start tapering. The mileage over the next four weeks should be between 65 to 70 miles per week, and that's kicked off with the Hyannis Half Marathon tomorrow morning. My half marathon PR is 1:25, and I'd love to break that. However, I'm not sure that will happen with the time I took off to heal my left foot. I'll just see how I feel tomorrow and go from there. 

I've been nursing a slight tightness in my right hamstring that cropped up this week, so I didn't run yesterday or today. I did get in a 23 mile bike ride in 25+ mph wind today. It almost seemed like an obstacle course, dodging all of the branches that had come down from the high winds. Because of the higher winds and temperatures in the low 40s, there weren't that many bikers out, which was actually quite nice.

Yesterday, Katie and I returned from a fabulous trip to Utah. We flew into Las Vegas, then drove to St. George, which is in southwestern Utah. While there, we visited Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks, and we also had an awesome day of skiing at Brian Head. The scenery was spectacular, and puts our New England 'hills' to shame.

While in St. George, I ran along a series of bike trails near the Virgin River. On Monday, I got in my third 20 miler of my marathon training. The run went by quickly due to the amazing scenery and fresh mountain air. I was actually expecting the altitude to have somewhat of an effect on my training, but my pace and HR were the same as at home.

I'm happy to say that I'm over 2/3 of the way to my goal of raising $6000 for the Museum of Science! With about six more weeks of fundraising, I'm confident that I can reach my goal.

Here are a few pictures of our trip.

Zion:

Bryce Canyon:

9 Weeks to go till Marathon Day!!

With just over nine weeks until Marathon Monday, my anticipation of my first 'Boston' is building! I recently had a slight issue with my left foot and had to take ten days off from running, but I'm getting back on track. I initially feared a stress fracture, as the pain was pretty severe. I ended up getting three x-rays, but no fracture was seen. The diagnosis was either a slight connective tissue strain or shoe laces too tight, compressing a nerve on the top of my foot. Either way, my foot is feeling a lot better, and I ran 40 miles this week. The coming week is a rest week in my plan, and I hope to build back into the plan for the remaining eight weeks.

While not running, I supplemented my training with some cross-training, including some pool running. While quite monotonous, it will help me not loose fitness and maintain my running base. Heart rate when pool running is about 10% lower than regular running, but the perceived exertion is much higher. Therefore, it feels a lot harder for the amount of time put in. I did about 2 1/2 hours of pool running this past week, along with three hours of bike riding.

Two weeks ago my triathlon team put on an indoor time trial at Goodale's Bike Shop in Nashua, NH, and it was a great success. The event sold out, and each heat went off on time. We had a lot of great sponsors on board, and I had a fun time helping bring in sponsorship. Some of our sponsors included Shimano, Tifossi Optics, FuelBelt, Infinit Nutrition, H2O Audio, and Road ID. I ended up placing 3rd overall in the TT, just 30 seconds back of the overall winner. It was a a great day and a fun event to help put on.

Katie and I are heading to Utah for our school vacation week, which is just one week away. While there we hope to go hiking in the National Parks, and also get in some downhill skiing. At the end of our vacation week I'm scheduled to run in the Hyannis Half Marathon. My goal prior to my injury was to shoot for 1:23. I'm not sure that's realistic, but I'll see how things go over the next two weeks. I may just use the race as a chance to test out running at marathon pace with other runners around. It could also be good practice for taking in nutrition at race pace.

My fundraising is coming along nicely, and I'm more than halfway to my goal of $6000. I've had a number of people sponsor me for a mile. My parents have sponsored miles 19 and 20. My Uncle Todd and Aunt Janet have sponsored mile 21 (the downhill after Heartbreak Hill), and our friends, Dave and Jenn, are sponsoring the last 385 yards to the finish line on Boylston Street.  Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to The Museum of Science and my Boston Marathon!

January Warmup

It's January in New England and it feels more like spring time! Yesterday the temperature got into the 50's and Katie and I enjoyed a nice bike ride. The skier inside me wants cooler weather and snow, but I'm also loving the fact that Mother Nature is allowing me to continue running outside. The ten day forecast doesn't have any snow, and it looks like temperatures will still be above normal.

My training is going very well, and I'm completely injury free. That's a big change from this time last year when I was dealing with an Achilles injury and didn't run at all during January or February. Last week I logged 66 miles, including my first of five scheduled 20 mile runs.

Yesterday morning I met up with the Marathon Coalition Team in Newton and I ran Heatbreak Hill for the first time! We ran ten miles in all, hitting all of the Newton Hills. I felt nice and relaxed and took it easy. Heartbreak Hill isn't actually at that big - .4 miles long and 88 feet of elevation gain, but hitting that after 20 miles of hard running will be an experience!

This morning I had a very successful marathon-pace run. I ran 18 miles in all, finishing with 10 miles around my goal marathon pace. As my overall goal is to go under three hours, that equates to a 6:52 pace. The average pace for the ten miles today was 6:41, and I felt quite relaxed at that pace. My heart rate was right around where it should be, so I'm feeling very good about my training so far. A good test will come at the end of February, when I'm doing the Hyannis Half Marathon. I'm targeting a 6:20 pace for that race, which would translate into a time of just under 1:23. With a PR of just over 1:25 last spring, I think this is quite attainable.

I now have three sponsored miles from donors. My parents have sponsored miles 19 and 20, which includes Heartbreak Hill. Todd and Janet Zimmerman have sponsored mile 21, which Uncle Todd says is his 'favorite mile in the world of running.' Many thanks to these 'mile' sponsors!!!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

I hope that everyone has a great holiday season! Christmas has come and gone, and Katie and I are greatly enjoying our vacation week. My parents and grandmother had Christmas at our house, which was great. My parents' dog even got along with our two cats!

Last weekend I raced in a local 5k, finishing 37th out of a little over 5,500 runners. My time (18:32) was 17 seconds off my PR, but the course was a bit hilly and temps were only in the low 20's, so it wasn't ideal for a fast time. I was also getting over a little cold. Considering the circumstances, I was pretty pleased with how I did.

Training is going well, and there have been no setbacks. Last week I ran 58 miles and this week should be right at 60 miles. My long run of the week was 16 miles on Monday, the day after Christmas. I ran 8 miles at marathon pace and then finished with one mile at half marathon pace.

This morning I ran 13 miles, and I felt great. I love having no snow on the ground, as I don't have to negotiate snow banks yet. While I'd love to have snow for skiing, I'm quite content with it snowing just a bit further north of us and leaving the roads nice and clear around home.

Katie and I are heading to New Hampshire for the next few days. Hopefully there will be a bit of snow for us to do some cross-country skiing on. Downhill doesn't look very promising, as most mountains only have a handful of trails open, and snow conditions are far from ideal.

Happy New Year in advance to all!!!

Official Training Starts Tomorrow!

It’s now been six weeks since I finished Beach2Battleship, my first iron-distance race, at the end of October. While my legs have felt great for the past four weeks, my heart rate is finally beginning to return to normal ranges again, a sign that I’m pretty much fully recovered.

My base training is now complete, with a 6 mile run with Katie this morning. This final base week was right at 50 miles, and the one harder run of the week was on Thursday – 8 miles at an average pace of 6:50. Right after the run Katie and I headed into Boston for a night on the town – a nice dinner and The Nutcracker. It was a nice reward for relatively tough workout.

On Saturday of last weekend I attended the first run of the Marathon Coalition. The Marathon Coalition is comprised of ten education related non-profits that are running in the marathon. In all, there are 133 runners in the Coalition. Our coach, Rick Muhr, is very knowledgeable and is a former 2:33 marathoner. He’ll be a great resource over the next several months. I won’t be able to attend the weekly run this week, but I’m looking forward to hopefully doing 1-2 runs with the Coalition each month. We’ll be culminating with a 21 mile run that starts in Hopkinton and finishes atop Heartbreak Hill about three weeks out from marathon Monday.

The fundraising page is still not up on the Museum of Science website, but the hope is that it will be up soon. When that happens my plan is to send out some correspondence to begin my fundraising.

Starting Off!!!!

Here I am, about 140 days away from the start of the 2012 Boston Marathon. My goal during that time is to log approximately 1,225 miles of training and to raise at least $5240 for the Boston Museum of Science.  For each of the miles that I run during the marathon (26.2 miles), I aim to raise at least $200. Any donation amount for the Boston Museum of Science would be greatly appreciated!!

Over the next 4 1/2 months I will be updating my training and fundraising progress.

This past week (11/19/11 - 11/26/11) began the first of three 'base' weeks. One of the week’s highlights was running a Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving with my wife, Katie, and my brother, Jon. My time in the race was 18:47, good for 2nd overall, and I celebrated by running another 4 miles home for some turkey!

The first 'official' week of my marathon plan will kick in on December 11th, with 54 miles. I'll be peaking with two weeks right around 70 miles before tapering in the last three weeks for the race on April 16th.