Settling into a grove!

Over the past few weeks our little guy, Jackson, has really settled into a good sleeping pattern. He is consistently giving us 4-5 hours of sleep initially, then another 3 or so before I get up for work. He's definitely finding his grove in terms of being a baby. He's still crying a lot, but mainly during the day. However, he's recently started smiling a lot and we think even laughing a little. He just turned eight weeks old, and here is he is snuggling on the couch with the other two boys (Dusty & Coby):

As a result of Jackson settling into his grove, I feel that my training has done the same. I'm hitting the paces coach is asking of me, and feel like I'm making some solid gains. In the pool I feel like I've hit a bit of a plateau, but I've gained some good speed in the past four months. I've gone from doing my 100 repeats on 1:45 and touching around 1:30, to now doing them on 1:40 and touching in the 1:22-1:23 range. Still no means fast by swimming standards, but I'm hoping it will translate into a swim time of around 31:00 in a June HIM, which would be a 3 min gain from last year. I'm still swimming 3-4 times per week, and getting in around 12k yards.

Biking has been steady, and I've been able to get in some good longer rides on the weekends. My tri bike was in the shop for close to three weeks, though, and I was relegated to riding the road bike. I apparently had a crack in my fork, which was covered under warranty. The only problem was that Blue sent out the wrong freaking fork initially, so it took a week longer to get the bike back than it should have. As a result, I actually borrowed a bike for my first tri of the season, but still had the fastest bike split - many thanks to Kyle, who lives near me in Chelmsford for offering to lend me his bike!!! I ended up finishing up 4th overall, behind a Boston University kid and two members of my tri team. If not for a sub-par swim, I would have been in contention for the win. It was also a bit weird being in an older AG this year, and therefore not starting in the first wave. Here are a few shots from that race:

Running has been improving, and I just set a half marathon PR of nearly three minutes yesterday in the Boston Run to Remember. I finished in 1:20:46, which was 23rd out of 6,800, and getting 13.34 on my Garmin. This is the 5th year I've run this race, finishing in 1:47 in my first go. I had a real good last 5k in this race, closing in 18:15 to crack 1:21. I'm psyched with my run gains and feel that I should have a good run in my HIM in three weeks.

Through the first 3 1/2 weeks of May I've hit the following training #'s on about 12 hrs a week:
Swim: 40,000 yards
Bike: 430 miles
Run: 110 miles

2013 Season Goals

This season will be unique for a few reasons. Number one, I'm now a father, and have a little guy who now depends on me. Number two, my sole racing focus is getting as fit as possible for IMMT in August so I can get to Kona.

My tri season officially kicks off tomorrow with the New England Season Opener, a local sprint tri. My goal for this race is the overall win. I know it will be a challenge, as there are plenty of fast local guys, including a few on my own team, Northeast Multisport. However, I feel that if I execute and race to my potential, I've got a good shot at winning.

One slight hiccup going into this race is that my tri bike has a broken fork/steerer tube, and is currently out of commission. On a long ride last weekend I nearly had a serious crash, as a car pulled out in front of me on a narrow road. I was forced to swerve and slam on my brakes, doing an endo, but somehow not ending up on the ground. However, I think the load on the fork may have caused the crack. The funny thing is that I didn't realize it was cracked, and continued for another 50 or so miles. I dropped my bike off for a pre-race tuneup, and the shop called, notifying me of the crack. Blue will cover the fork under warranty, but the new fork won't be in until mid next week.

The 'awesome' result of this incident, is that a local slowtwitch member graciously offered to lend me his bike for the race. So, I'll be racing on a blue TTX this weekend. I picked it up on Thursday night, and took it on a quick spin yesterday. After stopping four times to make small adjustments to the seat and bars, I think the fit is pretty decent. I guess we'll find out tomorrow!

Overall, training has been going quite well. I did an 81 mile ride at 274 watts avg this past weekend, and a short run off the bike felt great. My swim volume has decreased a bit to around 12,000 yards/week (from around 15,000), but my speeds have gotten a bit quicker. Yesterday I did 10x100 touching around 1:22-1:23 on 1:40, which is a good 8-10 seconds faster than where I was last year. My bike fitness is probably a bit better than last year, thanks to Steve's guidance. I did a 20 min test last week and got 361 watts, which pegs my FTP around 340 (around 4.5 w/kg @ FTP). I also feel that my run fitness has increased a bit as well, and running at faster paces definitely seems more manageable.

After tomorrow's sprint the season will go as follows. On May 26th I'm running in a half marathon, where I hope to be right around 1:20. Three weeks later I'm doing a local HIM (Patriot), and my goal there is sub 4:20. I'm shooting for splits of around 31:00, 2:15, and 1:25, plus transition times to get me there. After the HIM in mid June I have nine weeks until IMMT, which will be a solid block of training time. I think that a time of 9:40 or less is realistic, and top 5 in my AG is my goal. If all goes well, I'll have eight weeks between IMMT and a trip to Hawaii!

Katie, Jackson, and I are also planning on a bit of traveling over the summer. We would like to visit Katie's aunt and uncle in Hilton Head, and we are also hoping to spend two weeks on Nantucket with my family in early July. Of course, my bike, wetsuit, and running shoes will travel along with us so I can get in my workouts.

As a result of having our first child, I realized it was about time that we had two cars that Katie could drive. That meant that my Subaru Outback XT with a manual tranny had to go. I traded it in and picked up a 2014 Forester, which will do the trick. It's got 80 less HP than the Outback, but the mileage should be close to 30, a far cry from the 21-22 on premium I was getting before.

Being A Dad!

On April 1st I officially became a father, and the experience is unlike anything I've ever gone through. I'm now able to add 'Dad' to my repertoire of vocabulary words. Katie did an amazing job, and our 'little' man, Jackson Edward Thomas, was born at 10:08 AM weighing in at 10lb 13oz - quite the chubby fellow! We spent four nights in the hospital as a result of Katie's c-section. He had to be hooked up to some monitors initially because of low blood sugar and oxygen levels. Here I am holding him on the afternoon of April 1st.

We got home on Friday (April 5th), and have spent three nights with Jackson. The first night was actually pretty 'easy' and we got around 6 hours of sleep. The second night was quite different, and Jackson didn't really settle until 4 AM. We had a 9:30 AM doctors appointment that morning, which meant a night with little sleep. He checked out great at his appointment and is down to 10lb 4oz. Last night was a bit better than the previous night, and he settled a few hours earlier, allowing for 6 or so hours of sleep. So far, he seems to be a better day sleeper than a night sleeper. We'll be working on trying to flip-flop that for our sanity.

Katie and I timed Jackson's arrival quite well, as I took off two weeks from work, which leads right into April vacation at school. This will give me three weeks at home with the little guy. Katie is taking off the remainder of the school year, which will give her five months at home with Jackson.

It truly is amazing to think that we are now responsible for another life. Having Jackson stare into our eyes is so cool - what's going on inside that head of his?? He loves to be bundled up in a swaddle and also enjoys sleeping on my chest when I lie down. Here he is soon after getting home.

I'll be working with Steve, my coach at Darkhorse Multisport, to fit in training time around Jackson's sleep schedule. I was able to get in a good swim and run yesterday, and that will be the biggest training day of the week. Katie is 'willing' to allow my training to continue, but I'll have to be flexible in terms of when I can get it in, and some days it may not happen. I think the hardest thing will be getting enough sleep, and we'll be trying to take naps when Jackson is sleeping during the day to make up for lost sleep at night.

Bad Days

In the course of training and racing, everyone will have bad days. These are days when we just feel off, aren't hitting the numbers we are accustomed to, or happen to really hit the wall. Sometimes a bad day can be influenced by external factors that we can't control. Weather often is blamed by many for having a bad day. Fellow competitors can influence how things go - look at Macca crashing into Marino in T2 at Kona this past year. And, of course, we, as athletes, can be the root cause of many of our bad days.

I've had two recent races, one a 5k and one an indoor TT on the bike, where things didn't go as I thought they would. First, in the 5k, I just felt flat and didn't hit the paces I felt I was capable of. Sure, there were a few hills and some wind that I hadn't counted on, but I was not pleased with my race. I felt I underperformed. In hindsight, I looked at it as a good speed session, and know I'll have better days ahead.

Most recently, was an indoor TT that I competed in. Back in January I rode the exact same course (6.6 miles) and finished in 16:04 @ 352 watts. Yesterday the TT was in a large gym, and the temp was nearly 20 degrees higher than in the first TT. As a result, my time was 45 seconds slower, my power was 14 watts lower and my HR was 5 beats higher. I felt going into this latest TT that I would be able to shoot for 360+ watts. However, the variable I couldn't control was the indoor temp, and as a result it was not the ride I was looking for. Again, another good training session that will help out down the road when it really matters.

Bonking is something that many racers talk about, and I had a long ride this past summer where I completely hit the wall with 20 miles to go in my ride (it was nearly an identical ride to one I did earlier in the year, one where I averaged a bit over 255 watts for four hours, and finished the ride feeling very strong). At around the 65 mile mark I began to feel a bit off and my power began to drop. I had taken in plenty of nutrition along the way, and felt strong during the first three hours. However, the temp had reached the low 90's, and, looking back, I realized I was quite dehydrated and low on electrolytes. I pulled into a gas station, and sat in the shade for about 15 minutes, drinking a gatorade, having a snickers bar, and leaning against a trash can. For the remainder of the ride my power was way off and I felt weak and like I was running on empty.

All of these incidents are lessons learned and experiences that I can grow from. Every day is not going to be one of those fantastic sessions where everything goes perfect  (hopefully a few of these days are saved for races). When a bad day does happen, look at it as something to grow and learn from. For instance, as a result of my bonk, I began using salt caps with success, and had a solid race at Vegas 70.3 in conditions far hotter than any weather I'd trained in.

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Training update:

So far through the first three weeks of March I've hit the following numbers:
10.5 hours of biking: 233 miles
15.5 hours of running: 125 miles
16.75 hours of swimming: 56,550 yards

As the weather warms the bike volume will increase. So far, I haven't been outside on my bike since mid December. I'm really hoping that the white stuff will not reappear and that the temps begin to warm soon.

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Baby Update:

Katie's due date is less than one week away, on March 30th. We are really hoping that 'baby' decides to wait until next weekend at the earliest to decide to show up. We both have things that need to get done at work this week, but we know 'baby' ultimately decides when to show up.

We have decided to wait until delivery to find out if we are having a boy or girl. Everything is set up, and the car seat bases are in the cars. Our hospital bags are packed, and we are ready if baby decides today is the day (but please wait!). 

Winter has arrived!

Last winter, as I was training for Boston, I was able to do all but four of my runs outside. This year is quite the contrast. I've already done about ten treadmill runs, and we've probably got about six more weeks until snow is no longer a possibility. Last weekend the entire northeast got hammered, and we got over two feet of snow at our house. It took me over three hours to clear our driveway after the snow stopped flying, and that included 45 minutes with a borrowed snow blower. Even our cats were shocked with all that snow (what is that white stuff?).

Even though I've had to spend more time running inside, I'm still getting in my workouts, and I'm definitely feeling faster across the board. This is especially true in the pool, where I'm getting in four good swims per week, and around 14,000-15,000 yards. My times are steadily getting faster in the pool, and I've seen my 'cruise' pace go from around 1:40/100 to around 1:35/100. I've recently done a few TT's: a 500 in 7:30, a 200 in 2:42, and a 100 in 1:16. While no means fast, I'm pleased with my progress (that of a non swimmer up until three years ago), and know that I should continue to make some solid gains over the next few months leading into the season.

I've always loved riding outside, but I seem to be getting accustomed to the trainer this winter. My trainer experience is neither love nor hate, but somewhat of a grey area in the middle. I know I can still make some gains in terms of power on the bike, but I have to work hard for those gains. Steve has me doing a lot of shorter intervals well above FTP, as well as some longer (10-20' @90%) intervals as well. I recently did a 5 min TT on the bike, and was pleased to average 408 watts. I'd love to see that creep up closer to 420 as the season nears. As you can see from the screenshot below, I faded a little at the end, struggling to hold 400 watts. Definitely pain cave stuff, but I'm already looking forward to the next test!

 

We have about six more weeks until our lives will drastically change with the arrival of our first child. Katie and my emotions are somewhere in the excited to terrified range, not really knowing how things will go or exactly what to expect. Training will also change a bit, and I'll try to still fit in my workouts when I can. I'll be taking three weeks off from work after the baby is born, so that's nice to look forward to. As teachers, both Katie and I are enjoying our February school vacation. We're currently in Jackson, NH, and I'll be only running over the next few days while here. Then it'll be back to regular training at the end of the week.

So far, here are my workout totals for the first 17 days of February:

Bike: 183 miles in 8.5 hrs

Run: 73 miles in 9 hrs

Swim: 38,500 yards in 11.5 hrs

January Recap

On December 31st I began my year of sponsorship with Dark Horse Multisport. My goal for the 2013 season is simple: get to Kona, and I know Steve will get me there! After one month of working with Steve I feel like I have already made some solid gains. The most notable change in training has been a serious increase in swim yardage.

In previous years, I maxed out my swimming at around 40,000 yards per month, and have swum in the range of 300,000-350,000 yards a year. In my first month with Steve as my coach I swam just under 60,000 yards and have already shown some solid gains in the pool. My paces are incrementally getting a bit faster, and my endurance is definitely increasing. I also am no longer in fear of doing 4,000+ yard workouts - I'm actually starting to enjoy the water - weird, huh?

My offseason in the past has usually been run focused, and I've generally spent 2-3 hours on the trainer. I've been putting in about the same amount of time on the trainer, but the intervals have been more demanding than what I've done in the past. My usual go to workouts had been 3x15 or 2x20 at 90-95%. Steve has me doing a lot of 30" intervals at 130% and max efforts in addition to some of the 'sweet spot' intervals.

The result of this new bike training has been a bump up in my power. At my tri team's indoor TT I was able to come in 2nd @ 360 watts on the Computrainer (352 on my PT). Last year I put out 336 on my PT, so roughly a 5% increase from this time last year. Here I am somewhere in the pain cave:

I also put my run training to the test this afternoon in a 5k in Lowell. I had been doing 1/4 mile repeats at around 5:20-5:25 pace, and was hoping to be around 17:30 in the race. However, it was just one of those days where I didn't feel that great, and I ended up at 17:51, 9 seconds of my PR. I'm planning on another 5k in two weeks - hopefully the legs will be there for that one.

2012 Wrap Up & Happy New Year!

Somehow, the year flew by and it's now 2013. 2012 was quite a busy year, with lots of racing, traveling, and good times.

After the race in Vegas I was all geared up for racing the New York Marathon in early November. I had a solid seven weeks of higher mileage, then Hurricane Sandy appeared, wreaking havoc in the New York area. After learning that the marathon was canceled on the Friday before the race, I was able to quickly register for the Manchester (NH) Marathon, which was on the same day as NYC.

The Manchester course was far hillier than NYC, and I ended up running a 3:04. I'm pretty sure that would have translated into a sub 3:00 run in NYC, but I'll never know. This secured a BQ for 2014, so I'll probably be running Boston in April of 2014. Here is the course profile for Manchester:


Three weeks after Manchester I ran a half marathon in Nashua, NH. I probably wasn't fully recovered and had done little running between races, but I still set a PR of 1:23. My goal in the upcoming year is to lower that time to around 1:20.

After running the half marathon I took a little time to reflect on the past seasons. Starting in the spring of 2011 and running through the fall of 2012 I never had a break. After Beach2Battleship in October of 2011 I went right into training for Boston in 2012, then right into tri season and qualifying for the 70.3 World Championships.

I decided it was probably a good time to take it easy and let my body recuperate a bit. I took a few weeks easy in early December then of course got quite sick (probably the flu). This knocked me out for close to two weeks, resulting in very little training.

During this this time period I was made aware of a coaching service based in Colorado that was offering a sponsorship coaching program for 2013. I thought it would be worth a shot to apply and see how things went. A few weeks later, I was quite surprised to find out that I was selected by Steve Johnson of Dark Horse Multisport Coaching to be their 2013 sponsored athlete. I am psyched to have this opportunity. Steve is a very accomplished athlete, and he will take me to new places in terms of my athletic ability.

The one goal that I have in 2013 is quite simple: qualify for and race in Kona in October. It will take a lot of work, but I'm confident that Steve will devise a training plan that will have me ready on August 18th in Mont Tremblant to decimate the M35-39 AG and have me booking a trip to Hawaii for mid October.

I know that my main area of weakness is my swimming. I'm consistently chasing people down on the bike and run. It's looking like the plan for the coming year is to address this weakness by swimming 4x a week, and getting in around 12,000-13,000 yards a week. I'm happy with that, and feel that I'm already getting faster just after about two weeks of this frequency and volume of swimming. I'd love to be able to knock about 10 seconds per 100 off my average swim time, which is a sizable time savings for an IM swim.

I'll also be doing several running races, ranging from 5k to half marathon over the next few months leading into tri season. With some weekly speedwork, I'm hoping to be able to also set some PR's in those shorter distances as well.

Vegas, baby!

Two weeks after our venture to Vegas, I can now look back and reflect on my experience at the 70.3 World Championships. It's said that Vegas has a dry heat, but 100 degrees is still 100 degrees, and while we were there the humidity was higher than usual (in the 30-35% range).

Katie and I arrived in Vegas on Friday morning, going to pick up my race packet, checking in to our hotel in Henderson, then heading over to the T1 area for the welcome dinner. I also squeezed in a quick ride before dinner.

On Saturday morning I went back to T1 for the practice swim, and followed that with a quick 2 mile run. Later in the day we dropped off my bike (back at T1), then dropped off my run gear at T2. Dinner was at Olive Garden, and I was in bed by 8:30.

Race day arrived, and I was up just before 4 AM. Our hotel opened up breakfast for racers, so I headed down for a bagel, oatmeal, OJ, and coffee. Katie and I were then off to T1, and she dropped me off around 5:20. It took a little time to set up my bike and borrow a pump to inflate my tires.

My wave (#7) didn't start until 7:00, so once I left T1 I waited along Lake Las Vegas with others from my wave and chatted until it was time to get in the water. My goal for the swim was around 35 minutes. I had felt good in the practice swim and swam 1/2 a mile in 14 minutes, which I felt would translate into a 35ish swim. It may have been the hot water (84 degrees), or maybe my choice to take a direct line to the first turn buoy instead of drafting, but I ended up swimming just over 38 minutes. Here I am coming out of the water, and realizing how slow I went.

 On to T1. There was a run around the end of the lake (T1 is pretty much across the water behind me in the pic where you can see the port-a-potties). It is never a good sign when it's very easy to find your bike, and mine was one of only a handful on the M30-34 rack. I grabbed my bike, and headed up the short hill to the mount line.

My goal for the bike was to average 275-280 watts, which I hoped would translate into a time of around 2:25. I had averaged 278 watts at Tremblant 70.3, so this goal seemed reasonable. However, the heat seemed to get to me. At Tremblant my HR averaged 154, but by the one hour mark my HR was in the low 160's and I was averaging right at 270 watts. I knew that at that HR with the heat I'd have a longer than planned day. I decided around the turn-around to dial back the power and go more off HR. Even though this translated into a slower bike time, I really feel it helped me have a decent run.

The majority of the biking at this race took place in the Lake Mead Park, which is pretty much a desert with a road running through it. My Garmin 500 pegged the average temp during the bike at 92 degrees, but it was definitely hotter than that near the end. To combat the heat I went through seven bottles of water plus a 500 calorie bottle of Infinit. I also took 8 salt caps on the bike.

By the end of the bike leg my power average was down to 241, 10% lower than what I was expecting, and my bike time ended up being 2:31. Again, a bit off of what I was hoping for. It wasn't time to dwell on the negative, though, as I arrived in T2.

Having been to T2 a few times for registration and T2 drop off, I knew about the hills and layout of the 3-loop course. After putting on my hat, shoes, and FuelBelt, I was off. The run course never really felt overly steep, but it's pretty much a constant up or down. The first mile was down, and I felt pretty solid, coming in around 6:40.

My goal was to aim for around 6:40's on the downs and 7:40's on the up portion. After the turnaround just after the first mile, it was two miles up, then two down, two up, two down, two up, and one down. In all there was around 1300 ft of climbing, and the heat was climbing, peaking at 100 degrees a little after I crossed the finish line.

There was never really a time when I felt bad, but the heat just kept slowing me down, little by little. I just couldn't get my legs to turn over at the rate that I wanted. I was actually passing quite a few people, but just not at the speed I was hoping for.

Going into the race, I knew that the heat would slow me down, and I realistically thought that a time around 4:40 was reasonable. However, during each leg I was 3-5 minutes slower than my 'A' goal, which translated into a run time of 1:36 and a finish time of 4:52, good enough for 199th overall. I wasn't really pleased with the time, but I soon realized that a lot of people were much slower than their goal.

It wasn't until I actually stopped that I actually felt the heat. I guess while I was moving it didn't seem quite as hot, but stopping made the heat feel truly oppressive. I went into the food tent, but only felt like having a few pretzels. Eventually, I found Katie and got a massage. After that, we went down to pick up my bike, and headed back to the car. All in all, it was a good experience, albeit very hot!

Loooooooong overdo update!!!

Well, here it is nearly the end of August, and I haven't done a blog update since mid spring. Here's a quick rundown, race wise, of what's happened in the past five or so months:

Boston Marathon: It was hot! Not summer scorcher hot, but hot for April, and not what 90% of the runners had been training in. At 10:00 AM, when the race began, it was already close to 80%. Expectations of going sub 3:00 were long gone. I went through the half-marathon at 1:32, still on pace to squeak in with a BQ, but the heat got to me in the second half, along with the hills, and my finishing time was 3:12. Even though it wasn't what I was looking for, it was a fun experience.

Nantucket Daffodil 5K: Katie and I traveled down to Nantucket two weeks after the marathon, and did a 5k there. With only 150 or so runners, I was able to take the win in 18:07. My legs weren't back to 100%, but it was still fun to take the win.

Nashua Tri: My first tri of the year was also my first overall win - by three whole seconds! My swim still sucks, but my bike time was solid and my run time was decent. Fun day, and a good way to start off the tri season.

Mont Tremblant 70.3: This race took place a week after school ended. Katie and I drove the seven hours from the Boston area to Tremblant on Friday. The venue was gorgeous, and staying in the pedestrian village meant we didn't have to move our car for three days. The race went pretty well, and I qualified for the 70.3 World Championships in Vegas (cough - Henderson, NV) by placing 6th in my AG and 40th overall. I didn't have the run I felt I was capable of - 3rd place in my AG was only one minute faster, so I feel like I really should have had a better result. Still, qualifying for the world championships was cool, and Katie and I are going to Vegas in September.

Mass State Tri: This was a race in July that I was training through. I didn't taper and placed 3rd in my AG and 12th overall. I had the fastest bike split of the day, but didn't seem to have much left on the run.

AG National Championships: We traveled to Burlington, VT this past weekend for what I felt would be a race of redemption. I did this race last summer, but was very sick with a sinus infection. I went over seven minutes faster this year, and moved my overall placing up over 300 slots and my AG placing from 55 to 24. I still didn't feel like I had a great race - the swim was choppy, I didn't seem to have the legs on the bike, and I only got into a good rhythm in the last two miles of the run. My time of 2:09:45 was good for 158th overall out of around 2000 racers. 

Next up is the 70.3 World Championships in Vegas in a little over two weeks. Training has been going well. I've been averaging around 15 hours a week over the summer, and should be close to 20 hours this week. I've been putting more of an emphasis on running, as I'm doing the NYC Marathon eight weeks after Vegas. I'm not really sure what my goal should be for the world championships - it will definitely be hot (the average high for 9/9 is 98 degrees!), so that could play a role. I'm thinking that going sub 4:40 on the hilly course is something to shoot for.

Now, hopefully I'll do a blog update sooner than five months from now!

Taper Time!!!

It's hard to believe that a month has gone by since Katie and I spent a fabulous week in Utah during our school break in February. During that four-week period, I raced in a half marathon and a 5k, and racked up 264 miles of solid running. I also had a few little minor injuries (right calf, right adductor, left hip flexor) that cropped up, but have since healed. It's finally time to start my taper, and I feel like I came through 16 solid weeks of marathon training in pretty good shape.

The half marathon, which was the Hyannis Half Marathon, was run under very windy conditions on Cape Cod. Winds were 20-30 mph with higher gusts. I trained through the race, but I still managed to PR by about 45 seconds in 1:24:36. Three weeks later I ran a 5k in Somerville, again training through the race, and finished 4 seconds off my PR in 18:19. I was really hoping to be under 18:00, but it just didn't happen. I feel like I could have gone quite a bit faster in both races if I was doing more speed work, but I was still pleased with my results.

Over the course of my training, which started in December, I have run about 950 miles, and adding in my three taper weeks will put me around 1100 miles. I did miss 11 days of running at the end of January and early February due to a mysterious injury to my left foot that eventually healed itself. It hasn't bothered me since then (knocking on wood!). I'm feeling confident about breaking 3:00, especially after my longest training run yesterday. I started in Hopkinton, ran to the top of Heart Break Hill, then ran back to Newton Center, for a total of 22.64 miles. My average pace was 7:15, and I ran miles 15-21 at goal pace (6:45ish).

The plan for the next three weeks is to reduce my mileage from 74 last week to 56, 43, and then 32 the week before the marathon. I have a 10k next weekend, and I'm targeting 37:30 as the time I'd like to shoot for. This is a race I've done the last three years, but it is in Cohasset on the south shore, and can be windy. The forecast a week from now looks promising, but a lot can change in New England in a week. After all, it was in the 80's last week, but this week is forecasted to only be in the low 50's or upper 40's.

In terms of fundraising, I'm nearly at my goal of $6000. Donations to the Museum of Science can be made through April 6th, which is now less than two weeks away. I need $700 more to reach my goal, and I'm hoping I can get there.