Back at it again!!

So let's try to do this again.  I find I train better when I hold myself accountable and update this blog once a week or so.  Its hard to believe my last post was almost 6 years ago! 

I've started a new marathon training program this week in preparation for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 30.  It's an aggressive plan to say the least and that's good since I have some lofty goals to meet.  I will post those goals in the future but let's just say I'm looking at an aggressive pace for my next marathon and I'm putting in the work to get it done!!

The marathon plan is Hanson's Marathon training.  The key aspects of this plan are more runs, (6 days a week) with very calculated pacing, speed, tempo and marathon pace runs.  It also has you run a shorter long run (16 miles) instead of the normal 20 during your peak week.  But that run is preceded by a 10 mile run the day before.  My total mileage will top out at 57 miles in the longest week of running.  From what I can gather, this plan does two thing, teaches you to run on tired legs and trains you to run at your goal marathon pace.

Pretty easy week this week, mostly 3-4 mile runs and some speed work.  The plan doesn't specifically call for speed work this week but I added it in since I'll need to ramp up to the speed work they'll need me to do in week 6.

On the road again.

Well I seem to do the best in training when I blog about it. So hopefully this will keep me on track until the Boston Marathon! Yes I do plan on running it again in 2011. I'm also training for the Bay State Half Marathon in October. This week I have run 3, 4, and 5 miles and I plan on running 6-7 on Saturday. Here are some of the running highlights from the summer.

Ran the Sharon Timlin 5K in June and beat last years time by 4 1/2 minutes.
Trained for a half in early July but ended up not doing it at the last minute.
Also bowed out of a 7 mile race due to the weather and a nagging achilles.
Plan on running for the Dana Farber team again, assuming I'm accepted to the team.

More updates to follow.....WELCOME BACK!

Where everybody knows your name....

Well, my second boston marathon is complete and even though I'm a little disappointed with the results, I know where I need to improve. I ended up getting very dehydrated at the end of the race and my stomach was pretty upset around mile 23. Here are a few observations:

The conditions were great for running a marathon. It got a little too sunny towards the end of my race but otherwise, very nice.

I started out WAAAAAAAAAAY to fast. I ran 11:30 min/mile pretty consistantly for the first 15 miles or so. I thought I would lose some time over the Newton Hills but then be able to pick it back up over the last five miles. But when I got to 22 I had nothing left in the tank. And when I say nothing, I mean nothing! There were times I felt like getting on one of the buses they had at the medical tents but I pushed through. I ran the second half 39 minutes slower than the first half.

I've often seen runners put their names on thier shirts so people can cheer their name when they run by. I had never given it much thought but when I was hanging out with the Hopkinton Running Club at the old town hall before the race, they had some stick on letters there so I put my name on my shirt. For about 90% of the race it was AMAZING!! It's like having thousands of people there just for you to cheer you on. Towards the end of the race though, it got tough to hear the shouts of encouragement when I was dying out there. I just wanted it to be over.

The training was a success because I feel pretty good today, other than some sore quads and a few spots that chaffed during the race.

So here's where I went wrong:

More hydration (water) during the taper especially the final week/three days.
Start slooooooower
Should have walked the water stops.

Hopefully I can build on this as I'm going to probably be doing another marathon in the fall.

Thanks for your support and those who followed my blog.

5:42 finish

Beat last years time but started out too fast and paid for it. More details to follow later.

Follow my progress at baa.org

Here's my race number

Follow my progress at www.baa.org.

I'll be checking in after the race with my final time and then later in the week with a complete race report.

Wish me luck and don't forget to make a donation if you can!!

The waiting begins...

Well I just finished my last run of 1 mile. Felt strange to only run for about 10 minutes but it's really done to keep my body loose and ready for race day. I picked up my number at the expo yesterday so that's all done. I've been carbo loading to beat the band since yesterday. I put 11 miles on the shoes this week. So now all that's left to do is wait. I checked out the starting line today and I'll probably head in again tomorrow. The weather looks great for race day. Low 40's to start, low 50's to finish. Assuming I can make it through the race without any injuries, I should finish pretty strong.

The countdown begins

One week to go before the big day! Up until today, I was so psyched to run but I didn't have a very good run today. I'm going to chalk it up to not sleeping very well last night. But the taper continues with a weekly mileage of 21 miles and long run of 8 miles today. This week coming up will be an easy one. My longest run is 4 miles. I heard a great comment today about training. The first 15 weeks of training will prepare you to get to the finish line and the last 3 weeks of training will prepare you to get to the starting line.

I'll check in before the marathon with info to track my progress on marathon day.