Holy Sick Batman!

One day before our Disney trip and *BAM* some kind of virus hits me like a brick last night. Got the chills, nausea, and mild aches. Needless to say the nasea came to fruition last night as well as some other unpleasantness...Not going to get into detail... Just had my first food of the day, a piece of toast, yum. Still need to vote and pack for the trip. Thankfully, my wife handles all of the kid packing.

Here's to hoping that this thing passes today/tonight! :-)

I think I can...

Was the little train that could yesterday.. Sunday was long run day, but waking up I just didn't feel like I was going to make it. Kids have been sick and up/down all night long making the sleep thing, not so much... My goal was to add .5 mile to last weeks run for a total of 10.1 miles. Well, decided to just take it easy for the first couple of miles and see how I felt. Mile 2, junk... Mile 4, getting better...Mile 5, jammin'! Soooo, I just kept it up and did the whole 10.1, woohoo! Going for 10.6 next Sunday while down in Orlando, will need to do the whole MapMyRun thing as I have no idea where I'm going (staying somehwere new).

6 days.....

One week...

Good tune, good tune.... Not to mention that it's also the duration left till vacation! Rae asked, so I figured I'd give the timeline update. :-) Been watching the videos and Tivo'd episodes of Samantha Brown's specials to get everyone in the mood. Staying off site as per the usual with the family, but we couldn't pass up the space we're going to get for the same money it would have cost on-site. Five bedroom house with a pool only a couple of minutes away from the parks, what's not to like? Having said that, I'm psyched to be staying on-site for the January trip.

Going to order the new shoes today and wil hopefully be breaking them in while in Orlando. Should get some great mileage in while down there. Pesky work always getting in the way up here...

Long run tomorrow, going to start adding a half mile to my weekly long runs (per advice from Mike Greene). Based on the horrid final 3 miles of the last half I'm looking to build my endurance in order to finish better and this is route I chose. Running the distance more often will help me know what my body is going to do when I get there and help me plan for it. At least I think it will...lets hope!

The Weather Starting Getting Rough.....

Cold is moving on in here in the NorthEast, much like I'm hearing from upstate NY, MN, and Iowa. So, pro's, I'm new at this outdoor running thing during the winter, what do I buy? I've googled winter running gear and man, there's a ton of stuff out there. Has anyone done the research and learned the lessons that can be shared? Both the wife and I would really appreciate it! Speaking of the wife, Lorraine, she's doing great! Her planter facitis seems to have been treated by the cortisone shots (for the last couple of months anyhow) and she's back up to around 4.5 mile runs (somewhere in the 9ish/mi timeframe). To recap, she's planning on being up to full speed for the 2010 half marathon. Very proud of her fighting through this foot issue as she nearly took a header down a flight of stairs (carrying our son) because of it, but I'm not going to get into all of that. She's one determined person for sure. :-)

Any winter running gear advice would be awesome, thanks folks!

So far, so good..

Training is up this month, feel motivated by the so-so performance I put in at the Hartford Half-Marathon as well as the proximity to the Disney Half. Getting close and can feel it, but need this kind of month in November, December, and early January if I want to meet my goals. :-)

Starting to like working from home a bit more (from time to time that is). It allows me to get a good run in every time where it's hit and miss when I'm at the office. My home course is also a lot more challenging as well. Did 5 miles during lunch today and feel pretty good overall.

Ordering new shoes in the next day or so, these are definitely starting to break down on me. Going with the same make/model as they have served me well in the middle part of this year.

Congrats to all on the Corn-Vator run! and especially to those that ran the half marathon over the weekend! Kate and Jeff W. I believe, right? Great job guys!

Stroller Boy v. Corn-Vator

Yeah, I realize that it's Darth Vader, but ya see what I did there... Corn Elevator....huh, huh... ;-)

Anyhoo, went for my corn elevator of death run this afternoon and completed 9.6 miles in 1:24:27. Not too shabby. Wasn't looking for any kind of speed here as I still feel I'm recovering form the half last week.

Anyhoo, best of luck to the rest of you on your runs this weekend!

Stretch Goals

and no, I don't mean your goals on how much stretching you want to do, although that could be an interesting topic...

At work we have what we know as "stretch goals" and they denote those goals that are not the day to day operational tasks, but those that might be realized if the stars were aligned. As in "full implementation and roll out of a major system within a year". Probably not attainable, but with super smart planning, the right people, and a little luck....it could happen. These aren't things we get "dinged" for as long as we meet the operational goal, but something that goes on your record and toward excellerated promotion and such.

Anyhow, enough of the IT crap... I thought this priniciple could apply to training goals. So, if you have ONE stretch goal for the race in January, what would it be? Mine.... averaging 8:30/mi for the whole race. It's a stretch in that it's nearly 25 seconds a mile cut in my last two half marathon averages and I'm resigning to the fact that I'm going to have to work with only 3-4 runs (more likely 3) a week for training between now and then.

What's your stretch goal? :-)

Boy meets wall....OR...and Now..Main Street Awaits...

Hey there, hi there, ho there....no wait...that's not it.... Hello there and welcome to ALL About the Blog'n Right Along....Nope, still not it....Man, this intro stuff is hard! I need Jeff W. to write me a catchy intro I thinks :-)

Anyhoo. Yes, I hit the wall and then felt like I dragged it for the rest of the race (can you find where in the splits below? :-)). Much tougher course than the half I ran back in June by far. However, I still was able to post a better time by.....well.....16 seconds overall. 1hr56min25sec (8:53/mi average) compared to the 1:46:41 from the other half. Very dissapointed and know exactly why. Didn't get the repetitions in prior to this race as I had in the last. Something to build on for sure. My long runs need to be longer and I need to do my best on getting an extra run in during the week and work on finishing stronger. That said, I'm not completely dissapointed. It was a beautiful morning, lungs were just fine after warming them up properly (49 degrees at the start), scenery along the Connecticut River was amazing fall foilage and such... Lots of folks cheering....8,000 participants between all three races (3120 in the half, of which I finished 1147) .

Focused now on getting the training back on track for January (and WDW vacation in 20 days). The friend of mine that will be running in the WDW race ran this one as well. On a very bad knee he was able to finish in 2:40:00 so a great job to stick with it on his part as well. Although he hasn't officially joined T.V. I kinda feel he's an honorary member as I talk about y'all to him and he always asks how "the team" is doing. He'll come to the Epcot meet after the race so y'all can meet him (military vet, very proud of him).

So now.....I can really feel the words...."Main Street Awaits"!!!

PS - I'll keep sayin' it....Body Glide....best advice EVER given to me, thanks Jeff! (I think it was Jeff..Saw many bloody shirts at the finish...OUCH!!)

Splits (from my watch, pretty well in sync with the race timing)

Mile 1- 9:10 (working through the crowd)

Mile 2- 8:43

Mile 3- 8:36

Mile 4- 8:24

Mile 5- 8:33

Mile 6- 8:40

Mile 7- 8:40

Mile 8- 8:51

Mile 9- 8:50

Mile 10- 8:47

Mile 11- 9:24

Mile 12- 9:34

Mile 13- 9:51

Ready...I think...

Took in a good run yesterday, 4 mi route down here where I work. Lungs felt good...of course, the weather was beautiful and warm. Will definitely warm up the lungs tomorrow prior to the race and hope for the best. Overall, I feel good about this race though. Trying not to look too far ahead to January, of which I've been thinking more and more about. Man, that's going to be a great trip! :-)

Will post in the afternoon/evening tomorrow to let everyone know how I did.

Sidebar - Anyone have a routine a couple of weeks out prior to a race to buid up the resistance to colds and such? Thinking about this as my kids have been sick all week and hoping it's not going to get me between today/tomorrow!

Oh, and uh....22 days till WDW.... :)

Climate Change and Training

All - Had a horrid run yesterday and think it had to do with not properly warming my breathing up before running in the cooler air. Chest tightened right up and made for a painful run! Only 3 miles and ran it at 9:06/mi pace when it should have been 8:30'ish.



Found this article. May be a "duh" think for you experienced runners, but news to me! Most of my training in Feb-April was indoor, so I never had to deal with this till now. Guessing the asthema has a little to do with it in my case, but perhaps not.....going out tomorrow and will try a different approach. Saturday's start is at 8am where it's expected to be 49 degrees.



http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NHF/is_/ai_86649559

Go Sox!

Sox moving on to the ALCS to meet the Tampa Rays..woohoo! Okay, so I know most of you aren't into the baseball thing, but I had to say SOMEthing. Ya know, since my Eagles have been stinking up the place....OY!

What's this? A little life injected into T.V. as of late? Lets try to translate that into some training folks! Heading out tomorrow for a light run in prep for the Hartford Half Marathon this Saturday. Totatly didn't expect that I'd run two of these races prior to the Disney race in January, wow. Just goes to show you what you can do when you don't think too much about it. :-) The half I did in June I decided to run like two days in advance, lol.

FYI - finished my first MBA class tonight, only.....well...a bunch more (like a year and a half worth)

The Long Run That Wasn't...

Tough day yesterday...woke up feeling a bit sick, not to mention the 5 hours of sleep. Anyhoo, I was committed to getting one long run in prior to the Hartford Half Marathon next Saturday. Was really only shooting for 9-10 miles and got 8.5 in, so it wasn't completely horrible. The local town fair is happening this weekend and is smack dab in the middle of my run route, thus the .5 cut in mileage. Anyhoo, was a little on the slow side with the hills in this route (averaged just under 9/min miles) but feel pretty confident about next weekends race. Looking to get as much sleep as possible this week and watching the diet very closely, want to be down a lb or two for Saturday.

Definitely going to purchase a new pair of kicks pretty soon as I think these are on the down-side of their life. Will hopefully take me through the half in January (the shoes that is).

Congrats to Jonathan! While we've all seemed to slow down a bit he seems to be taking off! Way to go! Keep up the energy as I think it's starting to energize the rest of us.

Oh, and GO RED SOX!!!! **Another reason I didn't get so much sleep Friday night...game ended at 1:35a east coast time..

Training Update

Ran 5 miles yesterday, 8:30/mi pace. Laps were 8:20, 8:29, 8:35, 8:32, 8: 34....From what I remember anyhow as it downloaded off the watch and I haven't checked that computer yet. Sore in right "cheek" region. Need to stretch it out better, for one, but this has developed as a theme as of the past few weeks. Happened once before with my old shoes, but the ones I'm running on now took care of it. I'm at about 350 miles on these and wondering if they are breaking down on me.... Thought that wouldn't happen till around 450 or so, but it is what it is I guess. Like this model, so I may just order the same pair on-line to save a couple of bucks (let me know if any of you have experience with this and think it's a bad idea...the on-line thing...).

Hartford Marathon/Half-Marathon Information - http://www.hartfordmarathon.com/marathonnew.htm

Elevation and course map - http://www.hartfordmarathon.com/marathonnew/race_information/half_marathon/coursemap.htm

Note - In the last couple of miles of this race we get to run down Park Street in Hartford.....This is the street made famous by it's residents allowing a man to die in the middle of the street while cars and spectators passed by... Made the national news earlier in the year. WooHoo! Just not a very good spot for running, walking, driving through with a bullet-proof car, tank, etc. Hey Rae, do those Team Voice shirts come in kevlar? ;-) If I run fast enough I'll be through there before anyone gets out of bed...good motivation!