In a recent post the guy I will be running Boston with, Keith, referred to my use of the word partners, in terms of our running, as squishy. With that in mind, I will refer to the guy I run with, Gary, as a colleague as opposed to a partner.
Gary, my running colleague, took me on a long run Saturday on a route he has found/created. It was my first good strong long run (17 miles) as I train for Boston and I kind of just followed Gary's lead and let him take me where he saw fit. The route was sadistic in nature with a couple of extremely large hills. Tough enough that one would think it was Gary and not myself who is training for Boston. For this I am eternally grateful. While I was cursing him during the run - in particular the last 4 miles or so, I know that such a run will pay great dividends come race day.
The rest of my week wasn't bad either:
I ran a nice easy 9 miles on Monday.
I ran 8 miles on Wednesday and in anticipation of increasing the speed in my workouts in coming weeks, threw in a half dozen accelerations of 30 each in which I got up to a 5:55 per mile pace. The rest of the run was completed at an easy pace.
On Friday, I ran 7 miles and, as I am gradually increasing my pace, threw in 4 miles at about a 7:30 min / mile pace. Slower than I want to be, however, I feel that it is prudent to gradually ramp up my tempo to the 6:30 to 6:50 range. That said, seeing that my virtual colleague is already sticking in some 6:30 stuff is a little disconcerting. I just have to remember to stick to the plan... my plan.
Finally, yesterday I ran a nice recovery run of 5 miles at about 8:40 min / mile pace - nice and slow to work out any kinks Gary may have created on his sadistic route. Feel great today, so hopefully it is all working its way into shape.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Running In Winter
This is, in essence, my first time running through Winter. Last year, I attempted to do so, however, ran into a pesky IT Band problem that stifled my ability to get out. So I have definitely discovered a few things in my limited Winter exposure thus far:
1. Reduce expectations. I have really noticed that my pace has suffered running on slushy roads and snow covered trails. The loss of traction, and therefore pace, has been much greater than I had anticipated. Which leads to.....
2. Run by time as opposed to distance. My running "partner" Keith has turned me on to this. The effort expended in running in conditions that are not ideal from a traction standpoint means that the amount of distance covered is going to be less than usual, however, the effort over a given time frame will be more than normal. Keeping this in mind, it makes sense to run for time. Winter is definitely not the time to focus on speed.
3. Get proper footwear. See earlier post about trail shoes.
4. Just enjoy running for the sake of running. The current weather conditions have me running to just keep an nice easy pace (think base training) and I find it refreshing to be just out there enjoying running for the sake of running again. At some point I will have to think about tempo and interval runs as I prepare for Boston, however, I think that will be a lot later than I had originally intended - which may not be a bad thing.
1. Reduce expectations. I have really noticed that my pace has suffered running on slushy roads and snow covered trails. The loss of traction, and therefore pace, has been much greater than I had anticipated. Which leads to.....
2. Run by time as opposed to distance. My running "partner" Keith has turned me on to this. The effort expended in running in conditions that are not ideal from a traction standpoint means that the amount of distance covered is going to be less than usual, however, the effort over a given time frame will be more than normal. Keeping this in mind, it makes sense to run for time. Winter is definitely not the time to focus on speed.
3. Get proper footwear. See earlier post about trail shoes.
4. Just enjoy running for the sake of running. The current weather conditions have me running to just keep an nice easy pace (think base training) and I find it refreshing to be just out there enjoying running for the sake of running again. At some point I will have to think about tempo and interval runs as I prepare for Boston, however, I think that will be a lot later than I had originally intended - which may not be a bad thing.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
2008 Year in Review - 2009 in With a Bang
Here are the totals for the year:
Total Runs: 194
Miles Run: 1493
Hours Run: 197
All in all, not bad considering I was injured for the first three months of the year and didn't run the volumes I would have liked.
As for races, I raced in 5 different events and established a PR each time out. This is not quite as good as it seems, however, as 3 of the races represented the first time I raced the distance and, therefore, had no choice but to PR. That said, I felt pretty good about most of the races, and while I didn't run as fast as I would have liked in all of them, I didn't have an unmitigated disaster either.
2008 also represented the first time I started to run with someone else. My running partner Gary and I typically run our long run together each week and I must say that I enjoy the company on these longer treks. I had always thought I would hate running with someone else - that running time was my personal time, however, the opposite is true. The opportunity to swap running stories and approaches has been refreshing.
For 2009, I don't really have any focus right now - outside of training for Boston. I think I will establish some thoughts around other races to run after Boston as right now it seems silly to think beyond it.
Happy New Year Everyone!!!
Total Runs: 194
Miles Run: 1493
Hours Run: 197
All in all, not bad considering I was injured for the first three months of the year and didn't run the volumes I would have liked.
As for races, I raced in 5 different events and established a PR each time out. This is not quite as good as it seems, however, as 3 of the races represented the first time I raced the distance and, therefore, had no choice but to PR. That said, I felt pretty good about most of the races, and while I didn't run as fast as I would have liked in all of them, I didn't have an unmitigated disaster either.
2008 also represented the first time I started to run with someone else. My running partner Gary and I typically run our long run together each week and I must say that I enjoy the company on these longer treks. I had always thought I would hate running with someone else - that running time was my personal time, however, the opposite is true. The opportunity to swap running stories and approaches has been refreshing.
For 2009, I don't really have any focus right now - outside of training for Boston. I think I will establish some thoughts around other races to run after Boston as right now it seems silly to think beyond it.
Happy New Year Everyone!!!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Shoe Time
Perhaps the best investment I have made this year is a pair of trail running shoes for my Winter running. Last Winter, in the limited running I managed to get in, I just used regular trainers and I suffered from the cold and wet as a result - not to mention the lack of traction I had.
Enter the trail shoes I am now wearing (pictured above). Increased traction and the water resistance means that the wind doesn't blow through them and slush, for the most part, is repelled. They are a little clunky, but that is a small sacrifice for the other benefits they provide.
Oh, by the way, I managed to get them for $59 at a local running store as they are a previous year's model. Cheap on the pocket book with plenty of benefits. I will never run in anything but trail runners outdoors in Winter again.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
What Has He Been Doing?
It has been a funny time lately when it comes to this blog. Since running the Valley Harvest Marathon in October I have only posted twice... which is woeful. So I figured I might as well bite the bullet and post something before too much time passes and it gets too hard to post.
So, what have I been doing from a running perspective? Miles... and lots of 'em - at least for me. The last two months have been the highest mileage months of the year for me. I ran 177 miles in November, for example, and am on a pace to eclipse that this month. You may be asking yourself why, am I increasing my distance at a period in time in which I am not even racing, and should be resting prior to increasing intensity of training for the Boston Marathon.
I really feel, that this year I was not racing under ideal conditions (who does). But hear me out. I only started running in earnest in July of last year and was felled by an injury most of last Winter. As a result, I did very little running from January to April of this year and I think I ended up running without a base of miles that I would have liked to have had. So I have been trying to establish an aerobic base this past couple of months before I begin to up the intensity with intervals and tempo runs. Currently, the distance I have been running has been increased, however, the intensity I am running at is less than normal. As opposed to a 6 mile tempo run on Thursday's, for example, I am now typically running 9 miles focusing on keeping my heart rate below 140.
Up until the last week or so I had been noticing improvement. Running at the same intensity (by heart rate) I was noticing that my avg minutes / mile pace decreased by about 20 seconds on the same trail. Lately, however, that has reversed itself - but I think that says more about footing on snow covered sidewalks than it does about conditioning.
You may be asking yourself, why would I be subjecting myself to this. I submit to you the following link:
http://undecider.blogspot.com/
I will be racing... yes racing the Boston Marathon against this man. It will be a friendly race when all is said and done, however, for the time being I do not want to risk embarrassing myself and feel the need to be as prepared as I can for our "Duel In The Sun". I will be starting from a disadvantage, as I will be carrying about 40 extra pounds than him on race day, however, I am hoping sheer determination will provide me with some sort of buffer.
Anyway, I plan on becoming far more diligent at posting in the New Year as I train to slay the man with a PR 10 minutes below mine. I am David to his Goliath in a role association that belies our physiques. Here's to hoping I can pull off an upset of biblical proportions.
So, what have I been doing from a running perspective? Miles... and lots of 'em - at least for me. The last two months have been the highest mileage months of the year for me. I ran 177 miles in November, for example, and am on a pace to eclipse that this month. You may be asking yourself why, am I increasing my distance at a period in time in which I am not even racing, and should be resting prior to increasing intensity of training for the Boston Marathon.
I really feel, that this year I was not racing under ideal conditions (who does). But hear me out. I only started running in earnest in July of last year and was felled by an injury most of last Winter. As a result, I did very little running from January to April of this year and I think I ended up running without a base of miles that I would have liked to have had. So I have been trying to establish an aerobic base this past couple of months before I begin to up the intensity with intervals and tempo runs. Currently, the distance I have been running has been increased, however, the intensity I am running at is less than normal. As opposed to a 6 mile tempo run on Thursday's, for example, I am now typically running 9 miles focusing on keeping my heart rate below 140.
Up until the last week or so I had been noticing improvement. Running at the same intensity (by heart rate) I was noticing that my avg minutes / mile pace decreased by about 20 seconds on the same trail. Lately, however, that has reversed itself - but I think that says more about footing on snow covered sidewalks than it does about conditioning.
You may be asking yourself, why would I be subjecting myself to this. I submit to you the following link:
http://undecider.blogspot.com/
I will be racing... yes racing the Boston Marathon against this man. It will be a friendly race when all is said and done, however, for the time being I do not want to risk embarrassing myself and feel the need to be as prepared as I can for our "Duel In The Sun". I will be starting from a disadvantage, as I will be carrying about 40 extra pounds than him on race day, however, I am hoping sheer determination will provide me with some sort of buffer.
Anyway, I plan on becoming far more diligent at posting in the New Year as I train to slay the man with a PR 10 minutes below mine. I am David to his Goliath in a role association that belies our physiques. Here's to hoping I can pull off an upset of biblical proportions.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tortoise and the Hare
It has been a while since I posted anything on the blog - I have been trying to pay a little more attention to other things in life and right now, while I am really enjoying running, it would be really boring to create reports on a regular basis - at least more than it normally is. Here is why it would be so boring to report on. I am currently base training for the lead up to the Boston Marathon. With this approach, I am running all of my runs at a pace in which I can remain conversational the entire time. Read, no real speed. What I am doing is trying to get a good aerobic base in over the next couple of months with an aim towards speed specific training in the 2009. So for now, I am the proverbial tortoise.
This leads me to the Hare. For those of you who have read my profile, or the earliest of my postings, you will recall the reason I got into this whole running thing is to become competitive with my childhood friend. In our first race together, he paced me and almost got me to a Boston Qualifying time. That first marathon was completed after only 9 weeks of training - the result of him seeing a picture of me in a 5K I had signed up for on a whim without real training and making the comment in response that my time was "not bad for a guy carrying two hams around his waist". I took the comment as a challenge and as a result of the relative ease in which he paced me, I felt the need to at some point challenge him.
So here we are one year later. I have qualified for Boston and we are going to run it together. The intention at this point is for us to run the first 24 miles together pacing each other and then, in a form of childishness that is rampant in middle-aged males, we are going to race the final 2.2 miles in a fight for bragging and/or Last rights. Seriously, I am really looking forward to this. Running has allowed us to share something in the past 1 1/2 years that would not have been possible otherwise given our geographic dislocation - goals. So while I will be pushing myself as much as possible from the start in Hopkinton to the finish in Boston, I will also be in the moment with more than a few memories of when we were side by side on the same line playing hockey as kids. Who knew we would be still competitive in sports 30 years later.
Perhaps the message in all of this is that running is my mid-life crisis - if it is, I think I could have chosen worse.
This leads me to the Hare. For those of you who have read my profile, or the earliest of my postings, you will recall the reason I got into this whole running thing is to become competitive with my childhood friend. In our first race together, he paced me and almost got me to a Boston Qualifying time. That first marathon was completed after only 9 weeks of training - the result of him seeing a picture of me in a 5K I had signed up for on a whim without real training and making the comment in response that my time was "not bad for a guy carrying two hams around his waist". I took the comment as a challenge and as a result of the relative ease in which he paced me, I felt the need to at some point challenge him.
So here we are one year later. I have qualified for Boston and we are going to run it together. The intention at this point is for us to run the first 24 miles together pacing each other and then, in a form of childishness that is rampant in middle-aged males, we are going to race the final 2.2 miles in a fight for bragging and/or Last rights. Seriously, I am really looking forward to this. Running has allowed us to share something in the past 1 1/2 years that would not have been possible otherwise given our geographic dislocation - goals. So while I will be pushing myself as much as possible from the start in Hopkinton to the finish in Boston, I will also be in the moment with more than a few memories of when we were side by side on the same line playing hockey as kids. Who knew we would be still competitive in sports 30 years later.
Perhaps the message in all of this is that running is my mid-life crisis - if it is, I think I could have chosen worse.
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