Ghost Writer

Amazing how much slack I've gotten for this blog. There's a direct relationship between running and the amount of posts on this blog. If you saw more posts that's when you should give me crap - that's when I wouldn't be running. But this lack of posts is a good thing since I can't manage a minute between work, runs, and that 50 minutes of free time I have to see "Man vs. Wild."

However, I'm flattered by an amigo who inquired as to if he could be my ghost writer. Here's his first attempt at a post for me:

"I haven't run since, uh, the last time George W. Bush had a thought more complicated than 'I need to take a dump, pronto." I considered running on Saturday, but then I saw this cloud on the horizon, and I thought it might rain. Past experience has taught me that I'll melt if I get wet, so this was obviously a chance I couldn't take. Instead, I spent the entirety of my day alphabetizing the contents of my pantry while singing along to my newly purchased Abba box set. Sadly, I don't have an iPod record of my heart rate to prove to you that it spiked when I was blasting 'Dancing Queen.' I'm hoping to run at least once on Thursday or Friday, but I'm deeply concerned that I won't be able to train this weekend, as the annual My Little Pony Convention is coming to town."

Just for the record, I'm not a fan of My Little Pony - so I'd never go to a convention of theirs! I think there's some promise to his post, and this is another time saving opportunity (I recently stopped doing laundry - but still have clean clothes. How you ask? Wash & Fold service at the laundry mat. I save 2 hours of my life, which I think is worht $25). We'll have to begin fee negotiations now...

Six consecutive days of running. I feel pretty good too! Last night was a 4.5 miler after I dropped my car off for service. It was down along the Charles river, which has some great views of downtown Boston from the Harvard side. Tonight is an 8 miler which should be fun. One of the hardest things is finding new and exciting routes around Boston. Plus, trying to stay off the concrete sidewalks.

Weak!

I know, I know - I'm sooo weak! This blog is sooo weak! But hey, it takes time to train for a marathon - and work a full-time job! Later I'll share some info on someone who shows no weakness! Lately these days I don't find myself with too much spare time - and when I do have a moment or two, I like to unwind by watching Formula 1 (how about this Lewis Hamilton kid?!?) or any type of TV for that matter (I highly suggest "How I Met Your Mother" for a good laugh - it's legend - I hope you're not lactose intolerant - dairy!). I've just gotten back into high priced video games too - mostly because I'm looking forward to connecting with my brother online and kicking his ass in a race or two!

The running has been going well thus far. My long run, as of this past Sunday, of almost 14 miles was an eye opener - a painful one at that. I've never run over 13.1 miles. Never had a reason. As soon as I crossed that barrier, it became mental. It had to have been, because the parts of my body that hurt the most were my feet. It'll be an interesting 2 remaining months, and I hope to continue to build my endurance.

I've heard from some of the others that will be running Chicago. Keep up the hard work girls (no really, most of them are girls that are running - this wasn't meant to be an insult - although, Em, forward this link to Tesh!)! One of our friends, who unfortunately isn't running the marathon (but maybe will make a support visit?), is having a terrific running season so far! What would you say to a 26 min - 4 miler, a 18:42 - 5k, and a mile in 5:25? I'd say that would be quite a career of Personal Records! Julie would call that a weekend. That's right - a WEEKEND! Julie ran in the Tour de Pain this past weekend in Jacksonville, FL which hosts those distances starting on Friday evening and continuing on Saturday and Sunday! To see the full results, and where Julie finished overall, check it out here! Way to kick some ass Julie!! Congrats!

To Run Now, or to Wait

I woke up this morning to move my car, and wanted to get out early for my five mile pace run. However, I hadn't eaten anything or fueled, so by the time and got some energy in my body and put some new tunes on my iPod shuffle (those are great for running), it was 11 am. The past couple of days in Boston have been quite hot and humid, so when I was finally ready to role and looked outside, I wondered if I was making a mistake running at 11:30. I was thinking, maybe I should go sometime this evening when the sun goes down. There I go again, trying to make excuses. But, even though when I got in the car it felt like a sauna, I drove to the Brookline Reservoir. Boy was I wrong, it was gorgeous out! The sun was shinning, but it was only in the mid 70s with low humidity and even a breeze. Although, later I find out on the backstretch of my loop that there was a pretty good headwind. I managed to crank out 5 miles in just under 40 minutes (not sure how accurate this is as I re-calibrated my running computer yesterday) - a 7:57 / mile pace. Average heart rate was 166 with a max of 182. The last quarter mile I was picking it up, and then when I saw someone approaching I tried to hold them off, but couldn't...

Yesterday (Friday) was an active rest day. I did manage to re-calibrate my running computer because of some troubles from my Wednesday run that I noticed on Thursday. After recalibrating from jogging 400 meters, I decided to jog another 400m, walk a 400, and jog one more. Then was able to have a good stretch - around 20 minutes. Good rest day!

Thursday was a simple 3 miler at the gym, so that I could get some stretching in as well. Went late to the gym, so got my pick of treadmills and opted for the one right under the overhead fan. Still, I was sweating a lot - maybe from the water I had been drinking during the day. The run was good - as good as a treadmill run can get. But because I was frantically hitting buttons on my watch at the end of my Tuesday run, I think I hit something I shouldn't have, and put it into Bike mode. Whoops - so my distance and speed readings weren't accurate. I kept the heart rate info and kept things simple with an average of 141 and a max of 160.

So far things are going great. I'm happy that I've been able to run two 5 milers in the last week, and am looking forward to the long run tomorrow. I'm definitely going to do it in the evening because I don't wanna be completely exhausted for the entire day. Hope everyone else's training is going smashingly! Remember to runstrong!

High Five

Remember that episode of Sienfeld when Jerry's buying a new car from David Putty, and Putty keeps saying "High five" to Jerry? High five! That's me asking you for a high five - for the five miles that I busted out tonight in the sweltering heat and humidity this evening (had to be 90%+ humidity at 8.30). I didn't feel too sore this evening, except for the first couple of steps, but I'm sure I'll be paying for this run tomorrow. I was exhausted afterwards and in need of some food so I started cooking, and then ate, and then needed some down time so I never got around to the stretching. Ugh, tomorrow will be fun. Average heart rate during the run was 165 beats/minute, with a max of 179. Check out the graph for my ever rising heart rate. Again, nothing to write home about with my pace - 8:47 per mile - but for the second run, a 5 miler at that - I'm not gonna complain. I'm just happy that I got out again! Tomorrow's a 3 miler and a little strength training. I'd like to do it in the morning at the gym, but it's pretty late right now. I'll get it done at some point during the day!

No Peaking

Today was the first step of the rest of my training. I managed to make it out this evening - and was looking forward to it all day - for a few miles. Three easy miles around the Brookline Reservoir with a little Josh Rouse "Subtitulo" kickin' on my iPod - mellow, but upbeat enough to keep me movin'. The proof is in the pudding. Okay, actually, the proof is in the data - which I had to post! Nothing to write home about (but plenty to write on a blog about - ha!), with an average heart rate of 148, maximum of 158; and an 8:59 mile pace. Like I said, nothing to write home about but it's a start. Gotta give it up to Em for her track workout on Monday of mile repeats - 4 in the mid to low 7's! Impressive. Maybe that'll be be me in several weeks, but right now I'm looking forward to tomorrow's comfortable 5 miler!

Inspiration & Slacker

Okay, so this expirement is not going well thus far. Although I have yet to go for a run since my first blog (this pains me to write it just as much as it pains you to read it) - and I have plenty of excuses to justify this lack of running - my one initial post has inspired someone else to jump into the cyber space library. Glenna Wilson, Jenn's lovely mother, decided that it was time to immortalize her words on some server somewhere for the entire world to read - if they can find it. So that you can find it, check it out here.

Another positive note towards my first running step of this training, is that I have secured the services of my brother, Joe, to train me. Joe knows a thing or two about endurance sports (check out his CV here) - so I feel confident in his abilities. Or, will this be a continuation of the tormenting he did to me as children? Actually, I think this will be more painful. After accepting Joe's offer to train me, he indicated that I should enjoy the weekend because it would be my last free one till October 14th! I heeded this advice and sat on my butt most of the weekend (except for helping my gf move to a new epartment).

Today's workout was "30-60min of cross training." Hmmm... I had to wait for my new bed (a Miralux) after work, but I did mop the bedroom floor in like 80 degree heat and worked up a good sweet. I don't think it was 30 minutes of areobic activity, but at least have a clean bedroom floor and a bed to sleep on!

Oh, I also restored all my Polar Heart Rate data since it was lost when I upgraded laptops. Now I can look BACK to when I used to train! Okay, no joke. Tomorrow's gonna be a good day. Can't wait to show everyone my workout summary!

More than 3 Months

So, who'd a thought I'd post on a blog, let alone create one so that people can read it? I guess like brother, like brother - check out my bro's blog. So the primary reason for my blog is to note my efforts, currently lack there of, towards my training for the Chicago Marathon. I have a little over 3 months to get my butt in shape - the marathon is on October 7th. I figured that if I was accountable towards more people than just myself, maybe I'd have more motivation to get out and log the necessary miles - and there's a lot of them!

I know, the first step should have been to create a training plan, not a blog. But this is an experiment. I'll get to the training plan shortly.

I ran a half marathon over Memorial Day weekend in Boston - the Boston Run to Remember. 13.1 that I wasn't prepared for. The warm weather and the boring 5 miles down Memorial Drive didn't help. Unfortunately, I posted my second worst time in a half. At least for the Chicago Marathon I'll establish a PR! That's what happens when you've never run a marathon before...

So today is a beautiful day in Boston (that's what I said yesterday about the 4th of July and it ended up raining in the evening). I worked from home so could have easily made the move to log the 4 miles that I wanted to, but that's when my lack of motivation kicked in and I decided to finally create this blog. I didn't even run yesterday. My excuses have been weak these past 2 days, and they revolve around having to help my girlfriend move to a new place. We're going to pick up a couch for her tonight, but I could have easily gotten in 4 miles beforehand.

Feel free to post to this blog - maybe for those I'm accompanying to Chicago we can use this as a motivational tool. Post your ups and downs, and we can all get motivated, or feel better about our lack of miles thus far. Again, I've got 3 months - I can do this...