Training Recap: Week 21, Nov 21 - 27

33 miles total this week
M: 4 miles
T: 5 miles, picked it up esp. at the very end 7:05, 7:00, 6:24 mile 5
W: Rainy 6 miles solo in the a.m. darkness! Good final 3 miles again pushing the second half pace 6:30, 6:34, 6:43)
T: off / Thanksgiving (planned 4 miles)
F: long run 13.1 miles easier pace 7:30+/mi 1:40:43 total (planned off).
S: off (planned 14mi but moved long run to Fri)
S: Andover Striders 6k XC race, 1 mile warmup then finished the 3.37 mi course in 21:53 for a nice round 6:30/mi. Not good enough for the "top 8" awards category though. Finished 10th/70 in my age group. Finished 37th overall
http://coolrunning.com/results/11/ma/Nov27_31stAn_set1.shtml


Also noteworthy I have been consuming a lot of pie during this Thanksgiving and hope some of those workouts compensated appropriately! And my left knee is becoming noticeably sore, so over the weekend I've been working on some leg strengthening exercises (leg lifts) and stretching quad and hamstring muscles to hopefully fend off any serious issues. The XC race was conducted mostly on a golf course and that was a very welcome surface with less impact.

Summary for the week of training November 21-27, graph generated on runningahead.com using GPS and timing data from my Garmin Forerunner 405 watch:

Summary of through 2 weeks of training so far:

A First Appeal for Contributions

Today I received a letter confirming my membership on Team Red Cross in the Boston Marathon. I've known for a while, but now have additional information needed to begin fundraising (my goal is to raise at least $4000 for the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts). So at this time I would like you to please consider contributing to my efforts, and let me know. Send me an email with how much you would like to contribute and I will reply with instructions on how to donate.

Should you choose to contribute, your dollars will go toward providing a number of critical services in the eastern Massachusetts area. The ones that are particularly compelling for me are disaster response (one example: helping those affected by house fires), emergency food assistance through food pantries, and assistance to military members and families.

I am very excited about this project for number of reasons and hope you will be motivated to help me! It really boils down to achieving "big" (and worthwhile) things through good teamwork. Joining my friends Joe and Will in training this year resulted in me stretching far beyond my usual mileage and having a very rewarding first-ever half marathon race. Now I've decided to go for the whole thing, and to do it in the biggest of marathons, Boston! Now I look forward to joining a team of 15 runners, coaches, trainers and manager for Team Red Cross. I would like nothing more than to "blow the doors off" of both my running and fundraising goals - please help me make it happen!

Cheers, and I wish you and your families a Happy Thanksgiving!

Local Businesses Supporting My Efforts

I'd like to say thank you to some local businesses who have agreed to help me get out the word about my marathon run and efforts to raise money for the American Red Cross:

Spinners Pizza Parlor (Link)

Ballardvale Cafe (Link)

Boston Music Center (Link)

Perfecto's Caffe (Link)

Training Recap: Week 22, Nov 14 - 20

M: 4 miles turned out to be more of a tempo run than recovery pace planned
T: easy 5 mi
W: 6 mi, tempo second half to finish strong (new wrinkle on midweek longer runs to get used to going at and faster than marathon pace)
T/am: 4 mi general aerobic run, then 4X 100m strides (yep we're the crazy looking ones running back and forth on the street at 06:00. Pay no mind!)
T/pm: HOOPS (No hall of famer here, but I get to say I did double sessions!)
F: off
Sa/am: 11 mi at (and I love this term) "conversational pace", 28 degrees at the start and didn't warm up too much on the run
Sa/pm: hosted a party with runners and families from the Vale to celebrate accomplishments in 2011!
Su: off

Thanksgiving week ahead will be similar to this, except plan to race on Sunday 11/27, Andover Striders 6K Cross Country race.

Week of Nov 7th Training Recap

When we're in full blown training mode there is a plan each week (drawn from where we are at within a larger program) and it follows a template like this:

M: roll out of bed and run ~5 miles (the "roll out of bed" part applies to all workout days - believe me!)
T: track / tempo run 6-8 miles
W: mid-week longer run
T: 5-7 miles and run strides or hill sprints at the end
F: off
S: long run
S: <run some - or not - depends how you feel>

Right now we're in a quiet stretch between the NYC Marathon just run (by Joe) and beginning a proper program for Boston. Here is what I came up with including a couple of runs with Will, another member of our training trio:

M: 4.6 miles
T: ~5 mi (warmup, 4 x 800m tempo, cooldown, "inspired" push sub-6 minute pace for final 2/3 mile to the finish)
W: 7 mi
T: 4 mi

It looks like maybe one more "wing it" week is likely. Cheers!

Chances

Soon enough we will get to the business of setting and following a particular training program, with high hopes of a strong performance in the Boston Marathon next year. We're going to put in a lot of effort, really aiming it all toward a single day that we hope will turn out to be fantastic. This tremendous contrast has me thinking - what if it turns out that you get only one shot at pursuing your passion and do it well? You'd want to be certain you gave it everything you had!

I don't know if my newfound distance running pursuits will turn me into a marathon "lifer" or if Boston will be it. If I'm (un)lucky I guess I'll be a lifer! :-) But the thought that this could be my one big chance will be in my mind as we put in the difficult workouts and miles over the winter!

Appreciation

Just a quick link to my teammate Joe Loureiro's blog on active.com as he is preparing to compete in New York. Believe me Joe, the appreciation is mutual! Thanks and have a great race!

http://community.active.com/thread/196126

NYC Marathon Week!

Here is our training plan this week - one of our training group members Joe is participating in the New York City Marathon on Sunday November 6! We are joining him in his taper week workouts!

 

Final week before race day! Mother Nature is throwing in a slight curveball to add to the challenges < that would be widespread power outages up and down the east coast >

 

M: 4 miles easy

T:  5 miles; after 1-2 miles of easy running, do 3 x 1600m at goal marathon pace, with 2 minutes of easy training between intervals 

W: 4 miles easy

T: 5 miles, with 6 x 100m strides after your run

F: off

S: 2 miles easy

S: NYC Marathon <I think I'll skip that workout :-) >