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.