20 miles

Did 20 miles.  3:40:14.  11:00 minutes/mile and still no cramping.  Just a lot of fatigue.  Thank you.

39 degrees outside.  Windy.  The Queensboro bridge was way too windy.  Central Park was nice.  Hey I saw Rachel from 4th floor chem free in Oneida walking around the park.

Ugh

20 miles tomorrow.  Not really looking forward to it.

Something is Wrong

Most likely I'm tired.  I'm also bloated in the stomach.  My shoes felt wierd when I put them on. I had to analyze a lot of data today.  I just wasn't mentally in the game.  Not sure what's happening, but I finished the workout today. 

I had to do a 6.5 mile tempo run.  This is a much better change from last weeks 8.5 mile tempo run.

So what I did to "cheat" a little was split the tempo runs into 2 small runs of 3.25 miles with 30 seconds of rest in between. 

So the first 3.25 was 26:30 and the second 3.25 was 26:32.  They're borth around 8:00 mile pace I think, if my math is correct.  I don't know why I felt so off today.  It could be that I got 6 hours of sleep last night.  Regardless, tomorrow is a day off and I am excited about that.

Now I am going to get eat some Brazilian food with Kathryn.  Maybe order myself a caipirinha.  Mmmmmm... caipirinha (I'm wondering if I spelled that correctly).

The usual Tish

6 mile easy recovery run.  That's all I have to say.

Quality #4

That's the name of the run in my plan for today.

10 minute warm-up

1st 1600 - 8:00

2nd 1600 - 7:33

3rd 1600 - 7:41

4th 1600 - 6:44 (oops)

10 minute cool down

I probably could have tried harder on the first 3.  I didn't realize that I could do 6:44 with some effort.  I'm tired though.  

Have fun training today.

Joe

Woke Up This Morning

And said no. I dressed up walked outside and it was 22 and so windy. I was supposed to do mile repeats but it was so innappropriate outside. Instead I got back in my pajamas and slept another hour. Hahaha.

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Cycling Rocks

Got on the good old Cannondale today. Basically did 45 minutes of cycling with 5 minutes moderate and 5 minutes moderately harder.

It was good stuff I definitely want to take the bike out to Central Park one weekend.

The legs feel decent today. They are definitely somewhat sore but I think my body is getting use to this long run thing on the weekend.

Have a good day y'all!!!

Joe

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The Journey to Central Park and Back

I lay in bed anxious, stirring around.  The clock was quietly ticking away, each strike of the second hand was more amplified than the last.  "Wake up (tick), wake up (tick), wake up (tick), wake up (tick)," said the clock.

It seemed eager to remind me that when the alarm went off at 11:00 AM, I had to run.  Had it been any other day I would have been fine.  Running is serene.  Running is therapeutic. Running soothes my soul.  But today was different.  

One number was burned into the back of my eyes.  18.  Today I had to run 18 miles.

So I slid out of bed, feet hitting the cold tile, a reminder that time still lay in the middle of February.  I walked over to my cupboard, pulled out the box of cereal with dehydrated strawberries and prepared the meal that I would trust to sustain me through just about three hours of running.

The cereal bowl was a sand timer.  Every diminishing scoop of cereal meant I had to get dressed and go running.  Crunch, crunch, crunch.  Everyone and everything was mocking me today.

I finished the bowl of cereal and put my clothes on.  Tights, check.  Sweat wicking long sleeve shirt check.  Socks, check.  Windproof vest, check.  Hat, check.  Shoes, check.  Fuel belt, check.

I walked over to the kitchen and like a mad scientist mixed the elixir of hope.  I scooped the magical, holy powder into the each of the 3 neon green flasks, added the second ingredient water, and watched the mystical drink flash with a brilliance that could only soothe my anxiety.

I snapped the bottles onto my belt.  Each one a hand grenade to ward off the enemy.  Mr. Cramp.  I put my watch on and walked over to my computer.  I thought hard about whose serene voice I wanted to hear in my ear as my feet pounded the pavement.  I knew who I wanted.  Taylor Swift.

I uploaded her album onto my mp3 player, grabbed my gloves, and walked out the door.

"Joe," whispered a voice, "just stay in."

No.  I wasn't going to.

I walked down the stairs I had once ridden down on a folding chair in my immature days and threw myself out the door into the cold.  I lifted my left leg, pushed with my right and off I went into the cold winter day to Central Park...

Mile by mile passed by.  Taylor said, "Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone..."

I ran and ran, she sang and sang.  I conquered the Queensboro bridge,  I assaulted Central Park, and I managed to get back into Queens without any scars.  What was going on?  Was it my new cadence inspired by the cross training on my bike and Lance Armstrong?  Was it that I brought an extra flask of magical elixir.  Or had mile after mile added strength into my legs that I've never felt before.

All I knew is that I made it.  I made it.  And my crotch hurt.

Run stats:

18.1 miles

3:17:41 - ~10:52/mile

Have a good training day!

Five miler

Went out for a medium paced 5 miler this morning in my comfortable, running enhanced (Your brand name here) shoes. Started out fine until I hit the board walk, where looming competition and the 75 yr old runner shadowing me pushed up my pace to a little under sprinting. Ended up running 3 miles at around 6.30 pace and slogging back the rest of the way. It’s going to be tough maintaining some semblance of pace control in the marathon crowds.

Stats:
Miles trained, to date: 13
Marathon time goal: 4.3(repeating of course) hrs
Current forecasted time: 5.6 hrs

Good luck on the training, and the weather,
Andy

Post #2

Training is going well.... except that today I was supposed to run 6 miles but its snowing really hard with 20 mph winds so I think I'm going to have to shift it. My legs are starting to feel stronger and my lungs are adjusting to the cold. Looking forward to the warmer weather. Hopefully spring comes early. On a humorous note I was poking around on facebook and found that someone posted a really interesting picture. Took me a while to figure out was I was looking at but once I figured it out I was laughing really hard. I wont give it away you will have to look for your self. Andy if you don't start running soon we might have to take drastic action and something like this may happen to you again!

Days Off

Days off are the most wonderful thing in the world. Why?

1. I don't have to get up at 5 which usually sends memories of rowing practice flashing through my mind. 4x2k, towers, a 2k erg test, 1 2 3 2 4 2 3 2 4 2 3 2 1 or whatever that day was.

2. I don't have to feel like I'm still in college and fight to stay awake during meetings or not drool on my notebook.

Ummm, I think those are the 2 big ones. Waking up really sucks especially if you have to go to work and can't sit in a dining hall molesting grapefruit and putting soy sauce in the waffle maker. All stupid things we used to do.

Oh well. Tomorrow I'm not really sure how to run 18 miles. 18 is like taking a quick 4.5 mile run 4 times. It's mostly the boredom that gets me. How long can I possibly listen to Mozart or Ratatat? Not too long. So please wish me luck and all of us luck as we approach the glorious weekend.

Love,
Joe

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New Glasses

Ouch...

It's 6:44. I just got back from a difficult tempo run. I learned a valuable lesson today.

1. Splitting the run into 2 4.25 mile segments does wonders psychologically. The 1 min rest in between doesn't take away too much of the benefits of runnig continuously, or at least I thought.

First segment was run in 38:01 and the second was in 36:06.

Now I just want to sleep insteadnof going to work.

Oh and whoever (if anybody) reads this regularly could you click on follow this blog so Andy, Dave, Greg and I could feel good about ourselves.

Joe

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I still hate the Erg

Joe  - I still love you.

I am in D.C. for work and the hotel gym has only 3 treadmills.  After 30 minutes of running I noticed someone waiting and the sign that said "when others are waiting please limit use to 20 minutes," so I decided t hit up the erg to round out the hour that I was planning on running.

I set the monitor to 5K and off I went . . . 

It hurt.

One of Those Days

Ever since I started my new training cycle in January every run felt decent. I hypothesized I had a good base going into this marathon and I was mostly right. The runs I've had felt doable. The hard ones were hard the easy ones were easy. But I guess every now and then you have to have one of those bad training days.

Today was an easy 5 miler and the legs felt like lead. Oh well. It was accomplished and I can move on. Hopefully tomorrows 8.5 is better.

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Mobile Blogging from the Subway

That's where I am. Going to Manhattan to hang with some friends. Today I did 3 sets of...

1 x 1200@ 10k pace (1 min rest)
1 x 400 @ 5k pace (3 min rest)

It hurt a bit. My 1200s were at 5:30s and my 400s were around 1:30. Oh well I can do better.

Happy Training.

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More Cross Training

Basically did more cycling today. I had to because the Tour of California is happening rigt now and that gets me into cycling, plus the plan allows for cross training during the week. I wasnin the trainer for 45 minutes doing some good moderate cycling.

Have a good President's Day!

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45 minutes on the Trainer

Today I had the choice of either 5 miles easy running or 45 minutes cross training.  I opted to get on the bike today and did 45 minutes of moderate cycling.

It felt good since cycling engages pretty much the opposite muscle of running.  Cycling utilizes the quads more than the hamstring and running does vice versa.  

But that's all I did today.  Legs feel pretty good from yesterday's run.

Good luck today.

Hello Blog!

Whats up guys, thanks for letting me crash your marathon party. This is something I have always wanted to do, wasn't planning on it this year but I thought to myself well you can wait till your 30 something and run some random marathon by yourself or you can get in shape and do it with three good friends in sunny S.D. It was pretty much a no brainer. My only goal is to finish. So I have this book (The non runners marathon trainer) and its 14 week plan and I'm going to go for it. I ran two 10 mile races last summer but thats about as long as I have run. Just finished the first week of the plan. The longest run so far was 5 miles. Not quite caught up to Joe yet (the idea that I will at some point have to wear a hydration belt and contemplate how many electrolyte beverages to carry along is blowing my mind right now) but the plan says I will be ready by May 31st. Its been really cold here (in the 20s) but it has been sunny and the roads have been dry so it hasn't been to bad. Hoping its a mild 2nd half of the winter. We have already had 115" of snow how much more could we possibly get? Im just happy to be outside and running. Really excited to be a part of this. Hope everyone is doing well. I will try to post once a week, so Joe isn't the only one. In closing:

Dave- whats up man its been a long time
Joe- No matter what you tell me I will not run the race in a Binghamton Crew Uni suit.
Andy- As tempting as it will be im not getting drunk with you the night before the race.
Is Berto officially in yet?

Over the River and Through the Woods

16 miles hurts.  Did that today.  Felt really good in the beginning.  The small hills in central park really hurt me for some reason and the run back was nice.  Overall it was a good time for all.

Bye.

Meal Before the Marathon

My idea for the night before the marathon...

Gels, Asymmetry, and some other Random Thoughts

I went to GNC today.  I bought some gels for this weeks long run on Saturday.  Even though I know I should bring more than 16 oz of Cytomax, I like running with only 2 flasks on my belt.  I figure since the 2 flasks were good for my 14 miler, 2 should be good with 2 gels to get me through my run this weekend.

The run's going to be over the Queensboro into Central Park and back.

I've been feeling asymmetric lately as well.  I have a feeling one leg is longer than the other and I'm not sure how to fix the problem but I guess I can deal with it for now.  I should probably go to a specialty shoe running shop and have them watch my run.

Office is coming on so I have to go.

Bye.

7.5 Tempo Run

Tried to run at a relatively uncomfortable pace, which of course was the goal. Finished the 7.5 in just over an hour averaging around 8:30 per mile. Felt a little off today, definitely not what I expected to run. I was hoping I be around 8:00 per mile.

Oh well. Tomorrow rest day, means I dont have to wake up at 5. Relatively anxious about Saturday's 16 miler. I'm at a high mileage so early I'm the plan but it should be fine.

Love,
Joe

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They say you should...

Adjust your eating on the days of training that are light. Well today was a light day and I thought Burger King was a good idea.

Mmm... Burger King:

• Whopper.
• French Fries
• A Large Iced Tea

That's the way it goes.

Hope everybody had a good day of training.

Duh... my training distance today

5.5 miles this morning.

In Response to Dave's Comment of Love

Yes Dave, we started a blog. I know you may hate the transparency of our training but you'll learn to love it.

Being a engineer/mathematician I'm formulating a correlation in my head that I'd like to test out.

Does a lack of blog posts directly correlate to a lack of training? That's the question of the day folks. Hahahaha. Sorry guys I'm an idiot.

That being said I woke up about 2 hours ago and cruised on my EASY run. I love easy run days because it's the most relaxing thing to run in Astoria and to think we are all united because of this wonderful idea.

Still don't know why you guys registered...

Happy Training to all today...

Love,
Joe

And we're back...

So apparently Google thought our blog was a spam blog. That was a close one because I thought Andy deleted it so he dent have to run. Anyway Saturday did 14 miles. It was a beautiful day at 42 degrees.

This morning I did 6 x 800 with 10 min warmup and 10 min cool down. The 800s were at 10k pace.

Back to work.

Oh news flash! Greg is running too. Andy you have to add him to this.

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21 precious degrees to keep me warm

6.5 miles in 52. Felt good in the cold. Tomorrow rest day... thank you very much. Saturday a 14 mile.

I just downloaded the complimentary Active Trainer advanced marathon plan. Interesting. I think I like mine better.

Time for my lovely 8 hours of sleep.

Anyone else wanna do San Diego with Dave, Andy, and I.

Love,
Joe

Oh! The Weather is so Beautiful!!!

These last 2 days I had a fantastic workout. Tuesday was 5 x 1km with 2:00 rest in between. Today was a 5.5 miler nice and easy. It's hard to believe that you're going to run this thing Andy. I'm very excited about it. It should be hilarious.

On other news, I'm almost done filing my taxes. I'm sitting here in my apartment, just chilling. Dave has yet to write on this. Maybe well see him appear.

Oh and the looks you get running in the cold are hilarious. I think people are very confused.

Roof Roof

14 Miles in Philadelphia

Went to see some friends in Philly... old co-worker friends. Saturday morning went for a 14 mile run from South Philly to Center City down the Schuylkill and back. I counted about 7 other runners. The weather was perfect at just about freezing. Did the run in just a little over 2 hours. Weather must be nice in San Diego...