Putting on a race

 

 

 

 

As many of you know, I am now the middle school cross country coach at Monadnock Middle School. Therefore, I am putting on a race to benefit the team. The race will be in May.

Here is a link to the web site. ididarun10k.blogspot.com You can also find the race on coolrunning.com. I would love to see as many people as I can get there, so please spread the word.  

11/4 - 11/10

Mon.  Work to home, 9 miles, 1:03:34
Tues. Home to work, 9 miles, 1:04:52
Wed.  10 miles on drummer hill,  workout, 1 mile, 4x400, 4x200, 7:06, 71, 79, 74, 0, 32, 31, 28, 31 
Thur. Home to work, 9 miles, 1:08:03
Fri. off
Sat.
Sun.

I just need to do it

I have no excuses why I have not been fit for several years know. I am very frustrated that I can not run fast though. I know all I need to do is run, more. My mind knows what I want and how to get it. At what point do I actually apply the knowledge and allow my heart to do what it wants. I want to run fast. I know I can run fast. I need to run consistently to run fast. No more week on week off stuff. The one thing that I love about running is that it is such a great metaphor for life. My mother says you only get out of it what you put into it. So true. I need to put it into running to get running out of it. I have a new sense of motivatin after coaching the middle school. Some of the kids just want to run because it is fun. That's right, running is fun. I love to run like the kids. I love to run because it is fun. How simple fun can be. All you need to do is to just run. I am going out for a run.

The Marathon

AS said previously, I tried to go from couch slog shape into pr marathon shape in 10 10-12 weeks. Yeah, right. Don't know what I was thinking. All was going good until about a month before the race, them my overzealousness caught up with me. Apparently I cannot do a 24 mile long run, 9mile tempo run, and three mile race all within 4 days. When I got up that Thursday morning my left calf told me so. Two weeks out from the race I was worried I might not make it to the starting line. I gave it one last hard workout, a 3 mile race again, then all of a sudden the next morning the pain was gone. WOW. Now I am excited. I did a mile race on Wednesday before the Sunday marathon and ran 5:07 and felt great. I felt great up until race morning when I had no energy at mile 2, it was tough to get to mile 20 but I did it at a 2:55 marathon projected time. Then it all fell apart. I managed to stager in 3:12, still qualified for Boston, but way under my pr and planned race. Oh well. Swanzey half up next, then Pisgah, then redemption after last years horrible De Mar.

Mileage to this point this year, not enough to remember. This has been a really busy year thus far. Unfortunately life has not left a lot of time to run. I have recently made a move to force myself to have the motivation to get up early and start training. Earlier this week I decided I wanted to run Boston next year. I will have to renew my qualifying time as the last one has expired. Also, from what I have been reading, merely qualifying may not get me in. The goal is to beat my bq time by at least 15 to 20 minutes. The problem is the marathon I signed up for is on August 18. I did this to guarantee time to register for Boston when reg. opens in Sept. This gives me 12 weeks of solid training to go from the worst shape I have been in for 10 years, to a mararthon pr. Lets see, I need to loose 25 pounds, go from zero miles to 70 a week in just a few weeks, increase intensity to maintain pace for 26 miles, and not get injured doing so. Did I mention I will be a masters runner at the time of the race.  To look at it another way, kind of like floating down a lazy river on a leaking raft, 100 yards later you are in a class 5 white water, 100 more yards and your going over a 300 foot water fall with sharp pointy rocks at the bottom.................Sounds fun, Bring It On!!!!!

New Year, New routine

      My routine has not been conducive to running lately. Needless to say I have not run a step since DeMar. Then on New Years Day my 7 year old Jace said something to make me change all that. Ang, Jace and I went to the Peanut Butter Chip 5k. Ang ran solo, and Jace wanted to run also, he actually asked to run a 5k as a Christmas Present. What better present than one of the harder 5k's in the area. I decided to just run with Jace to make sure he was ok. Yeah, no problem there. He hit the first mile in 9 minutes flat, this is all up hill mind you. Then ran just under 10 minutes each for the remaining 2 miles. Finished in 29 and change. Only 3 minutes behind his mom. Any ways, back to the question. He asked me how he could get faster, I obviously told him he needed to run more often. Then the question came, How come to don't run more often? What kind of example am I setting for him? I guess he is old enough to understand what kind of lifestyle we live and it is up to me to be the example that a regular routine is part of  that lifestyle. Hence the reason I ran to work Thur. morning at 7 below zero. I have no excuses not to run, and I guess sometime the ambition came come from somewhere you would not expect it. I will be thinking everyday I wake up what kind of example am I going to set for my children today?

De Mar

       Well, I think that went just about as I expected. I knew going in I had the worst preparation I have ever had for a marathon, and I never train or prepair the way I should. (next time I will, ha, ha) I knew I could run ok for 8 to 10 miles before coming unglued, it's the last 18 I was worried about.
        So, after a very restless night sleep, I was almost scared to go to the race in the morning, I made my way to Keene to catch a bus to the start. I did hydrated well the day before and morning of the race. Although I was very nervous because I knew how hard this was going to be I had a calming feeling before the race and even once we got started because I was not worried about any specific time goal, and felt confident no matter how hard it got I would still finish the race. That was all I had to do.
       At the start I got talking to Chris Rielly and Chris Berry, they were both trying to run in the 3 hour range, so I figured I would just tag on with them for as long as I could and when I fell apart, oh well. Chris B had a gps on which kept us on about a 6:50 to 7:00 minute pace right from the start. I felt very relaxed and smooth for along time. At around mile seven we slowly started reeling in some of the jackrabbit starters but kept along at our planned pace. Mile 8 I started to pull away from Chris B, I was worried I may have been starting to push harder for some reason but felt really good so didn't change anything. At mile 9 and 10 my splits were still within the same range as from the start so I kept going with it. At this point I could see myself pulling in Chris R. The dam was my first big mistake. As I started to reel in Chris R it started to feel really hard, I thought here we go, I'm probably falling off pace and starting to bonk already. To my surprise when we got to the next mile marker I realized it was so hard because we just threw down a 6:10 mile. Whoops. I don't know if Chris did this intensionally or not but it was the first nail in my coffin. Chris stopped to water a tree and that gave me an opportunity to go by, I still felt pretty good so kept pushing until the hill just after Brettwood, were I got my first real indication that I was on the way out. Chris blasted past me on this hill and I pushed hard to stay with him. Now I could really start  to feel it. We past James and Wilson on court street and their cheering helped somewhat, when Wilson said I was in the top ten that gave me a energy rush,,,,,,,, short lived. Now on  Maple Ave I was having a hard time staying with Chris. I fell of the bus around mile seventeen and a half. Up around skyline drive Chris pulled away fast as rigormortis set in to my legs. This was the norm until Arh street when I had a second wind, which lasted until the cemetary. Convenient place for the real rigormortis to take over. At one point on the first hill in the cemetary I thought I could walk faster up the hill than I was currently running so I tried, no way, much to painful to walk. How can it be that after 22 or so miles the so called running that I was doing, more like a shuffle, felt better than walking. I don't know but it hurt less to run so run is sort of what I did. Somehow, although I don't really remember most of the next couple of miles, I navigated thru Lincoln and Eastern Ave. Seriously do not remember it at all. Scary right? Oh well. It was very cool to get to Marlboro street and have so many kids cheering me on and giving me high fives. Several time I heard parents say in a surprised tone to their kids, hey there goes your soccor coach, very cool. Main street was the highlight. Ang and the boys were there to cheer me on. Ang told Jace to run me in to the finish and he did. Man can that boy run. I pushed all the way up Main street and on to Appian Way and he was right on my heal most of the way yelling for me to go. Nothing in this world could have made me push harder.
     Not surprising to worst pain was felt after the finish when I stopped, I almost wanted to run more just to not hurt. I ran a 3:16, my second to worst ever, with the worst prep ever. Not bad, just were I predicted. It was fun never the less. Congrats to every one who hit their goals on that day, and to those who had guts enough to try. better to try and fail than to never have tried. There is always another day.

          I ran a couple of days in the week following the marathon. This week I have rune every day and felt really good. If any one is interesting in running at 4:00 to 4:30 in the morning during the week, let me know. This is the only time I have to train. I will train. No matter how crazy it sounds, I just love to run. Since I can run then I will run.