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Ultra Marathon Training: Weekend 4

Monday, November 23rd, 2009

Total Miles: 23.3

Total Time: 3:48

Total Calories: 2900

Saturday

Workout: 13.1 Miles

Time: 2:08:45

In contrast to Thursday, I just wasn’t really in the mood to run Saturday morning.  I actually started having negative thoughts about it Friday night, but still managed to get up on time and head out the door for the run.  After some debate, I ended up going back to Johnson Park in Piscataway.  However, to switch it up some, I figured after 4 miles I’d cut into Rutgers to see what kind of milage I could do there.

rutgersThe Rutgers campus is surprisingly big.  I took my run up past the newly renovated football stadium, then headed down and around some roads.  And what did I find?  A full golf course, smack dab in the middle of the campus.  I was tempted to run on their paths, but opted against it.  So I stuck to the roads, winding through Busch and the UMDNJ campuses, doing a final lap around a soccer field before I headed back down to Johnson Park for the file 4.something miles.

All in all, I never really got into the run.  My time was good, my breathing was good, nothing hurt…but I just mentally couldn’t get into it.  But, you have to push yourself through these “no fun” runs in order to reach your goals, and so I did.  And, along the way, I found a new course to run and got a first hand look at some of the great facilities Rutgers has to offer.

Sunday

Workout: 10.2 Miles

Time: 1:40

Canada GeeseSunday I was faced with the same issue…I was just not really in the mood to run.  Figuring I was doing only 10, I headed back to Johnson Park to do the 5 out-and-back times 2.  It’s varied enough to keep you from getting completely bored.  The first 2 miles were rough…the sun was in my eyes and I was still groggy and cranky.   It really wasn’t until mile 6 that I finally started feeling good.  And that good feeling took me through 10.2 and on my way home to get ready for some family get togethers.  I saw some of the usual suspects along the way…the ninja lady doing her routine, and this hard core old guy who walks faster than many people run…and he does it with a limp.  And of course, I can’t forget my geese friends with their “what are you looking at?!” attitudes!

People ask me a lot what I think about while I’m running so many miles.  And the funny thing is…I’m mostly either blanked out or thinking about running.  Not so much the run I’m currently on, but about future runs and races, and planning out for those.  While running Sunday I came up with two great ideas:

  1. TeamInTraining_logoReach out (through my Team in Training people up here) to Team in Training in Florida to see if they will come out race day to cheer me on some.  This would be great motivation for me, would help give Stephanie some company, and be good promotion for the Team in Training program.  I know they’d definitely help me get through it.  So, I’ve reached out…we’ll see if it happens.
  2. I decided to make up a spreadsheet for Stephanie that shows where I should be at what times, based on possible paces…so that way it minimizes any worrying she might do thinking I got hurt or passed out or something.  I was (with her help) actually able to figure out how to write a formula in Excel to calculate it for me so I didn’t have to figure it out myself.  I was pretty impressed.  So now she’ll know when I should be showing up at certain locations…but with a much better feeling about the time range I should be showing up in.

Well, that’s it for this weekend.  Next weekend coming up is 18 and 10.  Fun, fun stuff.  I just need to find someone to run those with me.  Any takers?

Until next time…run on friends!

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4 Miles Well Spent

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Workout: 4 Miles

Time: 30:58

Splits: 8:04, 7:35, 7:28, 7:50

After a relaxing night off at my parents house last night, I decided that I’d put in a quality 4 miles tonight.  It had been a while since I ran at North Brunswick park, but I wanted a flat, non-paved course so I took a drive over there.  I started out at a good pace, but quickly stopped when my Garmin beeped at me.  I still had the pace alert on…and I didn’t want to be warned today.  I just wanted to run at what felt like a comfortably moderate/hard pace, without letting my Garmin dictate my pace.  So I turned it off and got back to running.  First mile went well, so I decided to pick it up for the second mile.  Pushed the pace a little, but not to the point of it being uncomfortable.  Mile 3 I thought I might back off some, but I was feeling good so I let my legs go with it…and ended up with another negative split.  Not too bad.  The final mile I forced myself to slow down some, but picked it up the last 0.2 to around a 6:30 pace…what I would call comfortably hard.  Definitely not sprinting…controlled hard running.  No wheezing for breath, no pain, but glad to be done once my watched beeped for mile 4.

All in all it was a very good, very productive run.  It showed me that my speed is where I want it to be, and that I can maintain it for more than a few miles.  My goal for ING Hartford is 1:44:00, or around a 7:56 pace.  Today I averaged around 7:45, which would bring me to 1:41:36.  I definitely feel as though my last mile would have been a little better had I taken some fluids during the run.  So if I can comfortably, on a training run, handle a 7:45 pace, I don’t see why I can’t hope for a sub 1:40, or around a 7:37 pace.  Guess it all depends on race day conditions and proper pacing…which, thanks to my Garmin, should work out well.  A fellow Team in Training runner ran 1:37:37 (7:27 pace) at Virginia Beach…dare I be that hopeful?  Perhaps that will be my ultimate goal…

runnerwithwakeGoal 1: Finish

Goal 2: Finish Under 2 hours

Goal 3: PR (under 1:50)

Goal 4: Beat my friend Colleen’s time (under 1:44)

Goal 5: Finish under 1:40

Goal 6: Finish under 1:37:37

We’ll see how it goes.  Well, until the next one…run on friends!

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Virginia Beach Thank You!

Friday, September 11th, 2009

The below was featured on Just Finish, a website dedicated to motivating and encouraging ALL runners, walkers, cyclists and multi-sport athletes through the FINISH!  See it here: http://www.justfinish.com/forum/topics/running-for-others

Running for Others

It’s 5 a.m. Your alarm clock just went off. You want to hit the snooze button and just go back to sleep. But you don’t. You roll out of bed, hit the bathroom, and change into running clothes. You take a quick look outside. It’s raining. You’re tempted to slide right back into bed, and why not, you were up late last night. But you don’t. You put your watch on, grab your key, and head out the door into the cold, dark, miserable wet weather. A few blocks in, you think about turning around, heading back home, drying off, and slipping back into bed for an extra hour of sleep. But you don’t. Something drives you, something pushes you, something compels you. And so you push through your 10 mile morning run, wet, cold, and unhappy…but you finish, and you are glad you did.

But what if you didn’t? What if you snoozed when the alarm went off, or slipped back into bed when you saw it was raining, or turned around after a few blocks because of the rain? What if you don’t have that extra something to push you through those excuses? Luckily, in my life, I’ve found that compelling reason to get me through the tough runs. I run for others, and if you don’t, it’s about time you gave it a shot.

Running is mostly a self-serving activity. By running, you gain the speed, you gain the endurance, you reap the health benefits: physical, mental, and emotional. But through running you/we can do so much more. The next time you step out the door, try running for others…you’ll be surprised how much more meaning your running brings to you, and how you can push past those excuses. But who can I run for, you might ask?

Run for a charity. By running for a charity, you use your gift/ability to help raise money for a cause of your choice. Many charities now have programs set up to help you train for a particular event, providing coaching and support, while in turn you raise money for the charity. A good example is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program (www.teamintraining.org). They provide coaching, mentors, clinics, group runs, and race day support. I personally have done 3 events with them, and found the program to be amazing.

Run for someone who can’t. I am sure you know someone who has touched your life, and you wish you could do something for them where they can’t do it for themselves. Personally, I run for my brother and my sister. My brother passed away last year from cancer, and so, each time I step out the door to run, I do it to honor his memory. Before he passed away, he asked that I run the Marine Corps Marathon (www.marinemarathon.com) for him (he was a former Marine). Sadly, injury kept me from it last year, but I still run with him on my mind, and plan to run the race in his honor soon. I also run for my sister, who was paralyzed from the waist down several years ago. I run, because she no longer can, and in doing so, bring strength to her will to one day walk again.

Run to help others attain their goals. This year I had the honor of helping my girlfriend achieve her PR in the Long Branch Half Marathon (www.njmarathon.org). We trained for 14 weeks together, which allowed me to ease back into running, but more importantly, gave me a new outlook on running and how I can use it to help others. Together, through almost 3 hours of rain and wind, we pushed through it all to help her knock 21 minutes off her previous time, for a total time of 2:52. That big of an improvement, by anyone’s standards, is an amazing feat. By helping her achieve her goal, I found a new appreciation for running overall. I was proud and excited to help her reach her goal, but not only that, I actually was able to enjoy the race. I wasn’t huffing and puffing and hurting and struggling to reach a new PR for me (ran 1:50:27 the year before). I was able to run easy, and take time to enjoy the simple act of running. I was able to fully appreciate the beauty of 9,000 mostly complete strangers coming together for one purpose, one goal…to cross the finish line. Sometimes when you’re too focused on yourself, you miss the bigger, and oftentimes greater, picture. Take the time to help someone else reach their goal, whether it be to lose weight, run their first race, or set a PR. Through their achievement, you too will feel like you accomplished something great.

There are many other ways to run for others, and I’m sure just reading this helped you think of some. So, I’m simply going to end with a quote, which I find very fitting and very inspirational:

“A life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives.”
- Jackie Robinson

Run on friends.

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Rock N Roll Round Up!

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Event weekend came, and event weekend went.

Run on Friends!

Just kidding…I can’t leave you all hanging like that.  Time for some details!

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So we got up NICE and EARLY for our flight out of Liberty International Airport (EWR) aka Newark on Friday morning.  Nice and early = 4:30.  Fun fun stuff.  Quickly got through security, and sat and waited for a plane.  Surprise, the flight wasn’t delayed.  Well, I mean, we did sit on the run way for about a half hour, but we did get on the plane on time.  The flight itself was pretty uneventful…pretty sure I slept most of it.  None of us really got to sit with each other though…we were pretty spread out.

Upon arrival at Norfolk Airport, I was very impressed with the airport.  Probably the nicest I’ve ever been in…and I’ve been in a lot.  Things went smoothly there, hopped in a van, and took off for the hotel.  The van’s AC didn’t work, and we were packed in there…very uncomfortable ride.  But we got there quickly…and our room wasn’t ready yet!  Luckily it was maybe 20 minutes later…but I just felt jaded since everyone else’s rooms were ready.  We stayed at the Cavalier Hotel, but luckily not in the haunted building.  I did not want to stay in the haunted building.

P1010772Off to the Expo.  Got our race numbers, free shirts (coolmax type material, bonus!), goodie bags, and visited all the booths.  Signed up for a bunch of stuff, tried some samples.  Gu now has chewables…they were really good.  Snickers endurance bars are always good.  Tried some other fruit stuff and some vitamin drink, both not bad.  The Penguin was there giving a clinic…caught about 5 minutes, but at that point we were ready to head back to the hotel…once our shuttle got there 20 minutes later.  Later that night we caught some dinner (I got fried pickles as an app, and they tasted fantastic!), and then saw Boyz II Men in concert on the beach.  Good show.

Next morning we did a warm up run, then went to Pocahontas Pancakes…the food was incredible.  I had banana covered french toast…so good!  The rest of the day was spent loungin at the pool.  The water in the pool was SOOOOO cold.  But, we went swimming anyway…they had a diving board…I had to jump in!  Later that night was the pasta party.  Good food, with GINORMOUS cookies…those were good.  Then…team meeting, where we got yelled at for violating fire codes, and then off to bed.  Usually I cannot sleep the night before a race…that night I slept like a champ.

Race day.  Up at 4:15/4:30.  Felt awake, alive.  Ready and down to meet everyone by 5.  At the starting area by like 5:30.  Still dark, with a full moon still out.  It’s such an amazing feeling and sight…thousands of runners meeting before the sun even rises to all compete in the same event.  It’s just an incredible feeling.  I took 2 trips to the porta-potty…usually never do.  So then we headed to our corral, and slowly inched our way to the start line, one corral after another.  The elite men went off at 7:00 a.m.  We started at around 7:40.  I got a few looks because my bib number was 5653 and I was in corral 23 with my girlfriend, but it was ok.  Finally, the start!

mevb1The race went alright.  2.5 miles in we took a detour into the woods…pit stop #3 for me…I was definitely drinking too much.  The weather was warm, not hot, and a bit humid, but not insane.  Things were going well and on schedule for about 6 miles.  Then, at mile 8 we should have taken our gels/shot blocks, but instead we skipped.  And my girlfriend, at around 8.5, started to cramp up.  Can’t believe we made that mistake.  One of the coaches caught up with us, but did not have any salt with her, so she had to battle it out until 10 or so when there was a water stop.  After a rough couple of miles, we were able to gut out miles 12 and 13, and had a nice sprint for the last 0.1.  You can watch us cross the finish line by visiting http://www.rnrvb.com/videoreplay.html and typing in bib number 5653.  It’s pretty cool, go check it out.  Don’t worry, I’ll wait…

meandstephvb

Ok, you back?  Excellent!  So we headed out to the Team in Training tent to check in, got our snazzy 13.1 finishers pins, and headed back to the hotel.  Luckily we caught a shuttle pretty quickly, because we were definitely tired.  Instead of just napping, we changed and headed to the ice cold pool to take an “ice bath” in the water.  I definitely think that helped in our recovery.  We met a few other Team in Training people from our team down there, and hung out for a while.  One of the people, Tony, and alumni, ran a debut half marathon of 1:37…pretty snazzy.  After that we headed back up to the room to get ready for the victory party.

Enter victory party.  Not gonna lie, it was pretty dead at first. I guess that’s what happens when you arrive at 2 for a 2:00 party.  But, we were starving so we hooked up the plates and chowed down.  After that there was a DJ with some decent music, then he held this beer related relay.  We had a team…our team lost.  Of course, both of the other teams cheated, but we won’t get into that (you know who you are).  Since we had no interest in seeing the Black Crowes that night, we headed back to our room and pretty much crashed out.  We did order some room service (food was ehhh and overpriced), but otherwise slept.

Monday morning had some breakfast, than kinda just hung out because it was rainy outside.  We did go and get some ice cream once it cleared up, but that was about it for our adventures.  Back to the airport, back to the plane, back to Newark, back to NJ.  And so we’re home.

Collectively, our Team raised over $50,000 for LLS for this event.  Not too shabby.  I believe overall all TNT chapters for this event raised $500,000 or there abouts.  Can’t complain about that.  If you didn’t make a donation and still want to, you can by clicking the “Donations Welcome” image on the side bar of the screen.  Any amount is welcome!

Well, that’s about it.  Hopefully will be heading out for a run sometime this week…gotta get ready for Hartford in about a month.  So I’ll be writing again soon.  Until then…

Run on Friends!!!

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Team in Training Updates

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

Man oh man, life sometimes gets busy and hectic…and sometimes I just get lazy.  Put those two together, and you can see why I haven’t blogged in a few days.  First things first…I didn’t run for 3 days (Sun, Mon, Tues)…SHAME on me.

Team_in_Training_logo

Good reasons?  Yes.  Monday was the fundraiser for Team in Training at the Somerset Patriots ball park.  We managed to raise $375 that night from selling 50/50s, and overall from the event (selling prior 50/50s and tickets) we probably raised over $1000.  Not bad, not bad at all.

rocknroll

And Tuesday’s excuse?  Team in Training Send Off for the Virginia Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon I’m running in two weeks with my girlfriend (now of 1 year…happy anniversary!).  Really looking forward to the race, should be a good time.   So let me catch you up on the other runs…

Day: Saturday

Workout: 12 Miles

Time: 1:53ish

Weekends have NOT been friendly to waking up at 5:00 am these past few weeks.  It always seems to be rainy out.  But this time I pushed through it and actually went to the run.  It rained most of the run…not hard, but it was still wet.  Parts of the trail were flooded, so we had to make some detours, but overall it was a good run.  Prior to this 12 I had only run a 9 miler this training cycle…so the last 3 were a little though.  At 9.5 my stomach was very unhappy, and at 10-12 I ran/walked the rest.  Not my best workout, but time wise it was still pretty good.  I’ll be in good shape for Virginia Beach, then I can still get a few quality long runs in before the ING Hartford Half in October.

Day: Wednesday

Workout: 3 miles

Ran an easy 3 miles with my girlfriend.  About 0.8 miles in my Garmin went in…luckily shortly after that her Garmin finally found a signal and kicked in.  We ran a somewhat hilly course…not too hard, but not flat and easy either.  I was really impressed with her running.  She keeps getting better.  I’m trying to convince her to run a marathon…she’s slowly swaying in that direction, but she doesn’t like running in the cold and training would mostly be throughout the winter, so we’ll see how that goes.  In any case, I think she’s ready to PR at Virginia Beach, assuming good weather and no injuries.

Well, that’s it for right now.  I’m going to try to post after tonight’s run too.  Until then…Run on Friends!

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