Motivational Speech

It's easy to understand that distance running involves a lot of motivation. Runners, we just kind of do our thing and oftentimes don't think about what specifically drives us. However, every so often you see it expressed in written form, and done beautifully! Recently I noticed two examples that I'd like to share that kind of blew my mind. Good stuff in my opinion especially on New Years Day when many are thinking about ambitious goals.

The first is about the marathon specifically. I received the book 50/50 by Dean Karnazes (amazon.com link) from my wife Danielle for Christmas. The author (a rock star of ultra distance running) describes his experience running alongside another runner who persevered to complete her first marathon (one of 50 marathons Dean K finished over 50 consecutive days in 50 separate states).

 "The marathon mercilessly rips off the outer layers of our defenses and leaves the raw human, vulnerable and naked.  It is here you get an honest glimpse into the soul of an individual. Every insecurity and character flaw is open and on display for all the world to see. No communication is ever more real, no expression ever more honest. There is nothing left to hide behind. The marathon is the great equalizer. Every movement, every word spoken and unspoken, is radiant truth. The veil has been obliterated." 

Ok, now my reaction to the above -- I guess I've signed up for a little more than I can handle! We'll see.

Second, and applicable to running or whatever else you want, is this comment by Nate Jenkins in his own Running Times Blog. He explains why he hasn't quit even in the face of difficulty:

"No Quit" in Nate Jenkins - see 3rd paragraph of his comment

I learned about Nate at a road race we both competed in last year (Oct. 2010) and have followed his blog in the meantime. Of course if I were a better student of running I would have heard of him sooner based on his considerable accomplishments. It turns out we train on some of the same roadways so that is also interesting to me.

Anyway, enjoy the reading and think about how it applies to your own passions & pursuits. And... Happy New Year!

Fundraising Event Monday January 2 2012 at The Chateau Restaurant in Andover, MA

For those of you in the area I have teamed up with The Chateau Restaurant (Andover, MA) to help raise money for the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts.
 
On Monday January 2nd if you dine in or take out from the restaurant and present this coupon, 20% of your bill will be donated to the Red Cross - Thank you to The Chateau for your support!

Next, it is up to you to help me out!

Local schools will be out that day, and some of you may also have the day off from work. Before returning to the school & work grind, why not enjoy some family time, delicious food (prepared by someone else!) and support the Red Cross?

Important - Don't forget to print the coupon before going to The Chateau!

Training Recap: Week 17, Dec 19 - 25

Big Training and Fundraising Week Ahead!

So Joe, Will and I had a pretty decent week of training (see below) but there is no need to "sit pretty" on this week's results! The new week's plan reminds us that we still have a lot of work to do to get ready for Boston - it will include tempo work (5x 1200m), a hill workout (8x 60sec up), and a 17 miler on Saturday!

Then on Monday January 2nd we will have a fundraiser for the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts at The Chateau Restaurant in Andover, MA. Please see my previous post on that - if you dine there that day and bring the printed coupon, 20% of your bill goes to my fundraising efforts.

Week of Dec 19-25 Recap:

The weather in New England continued to be favorable (little/no precipitation). However we did have a very frosty 9 degrees F start on Monday morning. That left little ambiguity in my decision on "what to wear" - I went with a balaclava, head lamp, wicking long sleeve shirt, mid-layer shirt, windbreaker, gloves, shorts, running tights, socks & shoes. Kind of a lot to keep track of that early in the morning!

Total 41.3 miles this week, the most of the 6 weeks so far!

M: 4.4 mi 7:16/mi pace in the COLD
T: 7.7 mi tot 7:13/mi pace: 1.5mi warmup, tempo 3x {8min on, 4min recover}, 1mi cooldown. Tempo paces were 6:47/mi, 6:40/mi, and 6:21/mi. Negative splits continue in the tempo runs, good!
W: 9mi in 1:05 tot 7:18/mi. Final 4 were run at a faster pace, 7:10 then 3 miles in the 6:40's. This was one of those good runs where you know you're moving well and you're not thinking "when will I finish?". Felt real strong.
T: 5.4mi tot including 4x100m strides at the conclusion of the run
F: off
S: 15mi long run w/ increasing paces. 1-5 at 7:45-8:00, next 5 7:15-7:30 but ran one 6:54, final 5 7:00-7:15 plan but ran a few in the 6:40s
S: off (Merry Christmas!)

Summary after 6 weeks of training for Boston:

Fundraising vs. Running - Getting out to a Fast Start?

Everyone always says about running a race (especially the long ones) - "don't go out too fast". You'll pay for it at the end. It is true! But it is so hard to control that race day energy. I didn't pay for it too badly but in the 2011 Bay State Half Marathon. I finished this race in 1 hour 27 minutes (6:42/mi pace) - and I was thrilled! I assumed that I was "ready" to run 7:00/mi for the race and call it a success. So at the beginning of the race when I ran 6:27, 6:35, 6:38, 6:34, 6:39 I thought I would be in for some serious trouble! I like to say I was on "cloud nine" for the first five. Luckily I survived that (I probably underestimated my conditioning), having only one mile greater than 7:00/mi pace. Nice!

Anyway, in fundraising I think I need to use the reverse rule - I would like to go out fast, but I have been waiting a little bit until our fundraising infrastructure is set up. It is nearly ready, but could take until the new year. Many of you have told me you prefer to donate online. However, some of you may also wish to make your contribution before the new year for tax deduction purposes. So with this in mind I would like to ask those of you who don't mind writing a check for your donation to do so and send it to me (contact me by phone, email, facebook, twitter DM @kcainmc, if you need my mailing address):

1. Make check payable to "American Red Cross"
2. Send it to me
3. I will enter the data into our online system when it goes live, and I will also send your check to the American Red Cross of Eastern Massachusetts.
4. You will receive a letter from the American Red Cross for tax receipt purposes
5. I will receive credit toward my fundraising total

Thanks to all of you who will be contributing to my efforts!

Training Recap: Week 18, Dec 12 - 18

"The marathon deserves respect". I wish I could provide a link, but I've forgotten where I read or heard this first. The idea is that you have to put in serious levels of training, meanwhile staying sensible and listening to your body to avoid an injury that derails your quest.

Well this has been in my mind particularly after this week's long run (17.5 mi personal distance record!). The run overall went quite well but felt pretty tough in the last two miles - and whose after effects included pain in my left iliotibial band (IT band) - i.e., the side of my left knee. Imagine having to anticipate each walking step's landing because you know it's going to give you some minor pain. This is what I felt a couple of hours after finishing that monster run. Luckily I've been down this road before, having spent some time off a few years ago undergoing some physical therapy (basically - stretching) before returning to action. I know the stretches and also have a foam roller that can help me keep that band limber enough to keep going.

In other highlights (or lowlights?) this week, we did some hill sprints including the last one in which we started from a lying (prone) position on the pavement! We'll credit training teammate Joe Loureiro for that surprise twist that he learned from "Sprinting: How Ryan Hall Gets Fast" (scan ahead to about 4:10 into the video).

39.6mi tot this week:

M: off
T: 7.45mi tot - 1.35mi warmup, 5x {1000m tempo, 2 min recovery}, 1.75mi cooldown. Tempo negative splits! 6:21/mi pace, 6:13, 6:12, 6:08, 5:54
W: 9mi medium/longer run, 7:06/mi pace, whole lot of those miles right around 7:00, 1:04:18 total time
T: 5.6mi tot, 4.05 mi run then 15x {17 sec "up" the hill, walk down to recover ~60 sec}, 0.25mi cooldown to the finish line
F: off
S: 17.5 mi, 7:30/mi pace - uphill climb that if you look at the elevation profile kept going off and on for 5 miles - WOW!
S: off (listening to the body and getting too many other things that need to get done, done)

Elevation profile from the monster run:

Summary after 5 weeks of training for Boston:

Training Recap: Week 19, Dec 05 - Dec 11

This was an interesting week not so much for any particular training highlights but for meeting new teammates on Team Red Cross, and also discovering others (and being discovered) through this blog and social media / twitter. Also I am laying the groundwork for a first fundraising event and hoping to get that set up shortly. You'll find that I've added links to other running blogs and started to build a list of "partners" who are helping me (and others on the team).

Today it was a pleasure to meet Karen Teller captain, Dan Fitzgerald coach and Justin of SEAC>>>>Boston, and a number of runners from the team. We met at SEAC and ran a 10 mile loop through the city. It was a very crisp and cool morning but gloriously sunny for a run through the South End, Boston Common, Cambridge, Charlestown, the waterfront, a bit of South Boston and back.  The pace was nice and easy but perfect for conversation as the teammates got to know each other "on the run". We topped it off with a nice brunch at Tremont647. I found it enlightening to hear that nearly everyone at the table said they are on this journey to Boston because someone that they know encouraged them and said "you can do it!" I know it rings true in my running experience dating back to before high school when I ran XC.


Training this week: 38 mi tot (about the same as last)
 
M: 4mi
T: 5.9mi tot - warmup, then 3X {1200m tempo, 2 min recovery} {4:45, 4:37, 4:28}, cooldown
W: 7.2mi planned recovery pace went a bit faster in miles 4-7 with several close to 7:00/mi
T: 4.9mi tot - 4.6mi moderate pace, inspired final 3.6 pushing it 7:03, 6:53, 6:32, 6:42/mi, then 4X ~100m strides
F: off
S: 5.8mi easy- participated in first portion of 13.1 mi long run that Joe & Will completed, opting to save some of my energy for Sunday's first long run with Team Red Cross. Probably too early for weekend warrior heroics.
S: 10 mi city loop with Team Red Cross
Garmin Connect - Map of Team Red Cross run through Boston

Looking ahead: Next week is going to be a fairly significant step, with plans for 5000m of tempo  in the Tuesday workout, decent mid-week longer run, hill repeats, and then a 17 miler on Saturday. That's the plan at least, and I'm hoping we can register another successful week as we inch closer to the marathon.

Summary through 4 weeks:

Training Recap: Week 20, Nov 28 - Dec 04

The training plan this week was pretty ambitious, upping the mileage and with track/tempo, a proper hill workout, and a 16 miler as the signature run (with a spontaneous detour onto a trail for 1.5 miles)! Unfortunately the constant has been getting barely enough sleep - an issue when you go running around 5:15 a.m.

My left knee has been sore and so I've been monitoring it and worrying about it during every run. I wonder if the issue is that my running shoes have ~600 miles on them. Here's what I've been running in since July - New Balance trail shoes
New Balance MT915 grey (onlineshoes.com)

So I bought the same model, but took it up a notch on the style point scale and got the black and red/orange model:
New Balance MT915 black/red
Now these kind of felt like a Cadillac compared to the old ones, so I decided to break them in on the 16 miler. I like how these are lightweight, my top concern when buying shoes.

38.5, maybe 42+ total, depending on Sunday/tomorrow

M: 4.4mi, 31 min, 7:03/mi pace
T: 5.7mi, warmup, 4X 800 meters about 6:00-6:10/mi pace, cooldown
W: 7 mi, 7:30/mi for first 4, then ~7:00/mi final 2mi
T: 5.3 mi, "Mr. Porter's world famous hill work" named after a road in the area - 8X {60 sec "up" + easy jog to base of hill}
F: off
S: 16 mi with increasing pace progressions
Plan: first 6mi 7:45-8:00/mi, next 5mi 7:30-7:45, final 5mi 7:15-7:30
Reality:  phase 1 yes, phase 2 mostly (trail miles slower) phase 3 fast (7:08, 7:07, 6:54, 6:52)
S: 4mi (planned)


Summary through 3 weeks of training for Boston: