As of today I am officially entered in the 2010 Cape Cod Marathon.*
*I realize how foolish it would have been if I had started this whole thing and then ended up not being able to run because I had missed the sign-up, the irony is not lost on me.
No longer an issue. I have submitted an application and paid the fee. I'm ready to rock and roll.
In some positive news, I found out today that Roger (part of the aforementioned running team) will also be participating in the Cape Cod Marathon as part of a relay team for his final tune-up for the New York City Marathon. Pumped doesn't quite cover how I feel about this.
In other news, my race schedule is starting to come together for the next few months prior to D-Day.
August 15 - Falmouth Road Race - 7 Miles (one of my favorite days of the year).
August 21 - Canal Run for the Troops - 15K
September 12 - Nahant 30K
October 10 - BAA Half Marathon (if I can somehow finagle a number last minute since I missed the registration as previously detailed)
Always open to race suggestions and comments.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Weekly Update
Miles to date: 66
So this weekend was a bit of a mixed bag. I made the executive decision that going fishing for stripers was more important than my run on Saturday morning. This was the right decision.
Due to this, I had to get my long run in on Sunday (and skip a short run/cross training session)so I headed off to the canal bright and early for a ten mile jaunt.
The first seven and a half miles felt incredible, I finally felt like I was getting in a great long run. I was thinking to myself how great it was and how I could even get a post in about it.
Then the wheels fell off the bus. The last two and a half miles were...difficult.
That being said, I got the ten miles in and it went fairly well. The miles start ramping up at this point so there is going to be a lot more of this to come.
So this weekend was a bit of a mixed bag. I made the executive decision that going fishing for stripers was more important than my run on Saturday morning. This was the right decision.
Due to this, I had to get my long run in on Sunday (and skip a short run/cross training session)so I headed off to the canal bright and early for a ten mile jaunt.
The first seven and a half miles felt incredible, I finally felt like I was getting in a great long run. I was thinking to myself how great it was and how I could even get a post in about it.
Then the wheels fell off the bus. The last two and a half miles were...difficult.
That being said, I got the ten miles in and it went fairly well. The miles start ramping up at this point so there is going to be a lot more of this to come.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Making it work
It's summer time and the livin' is easy.
Well, it's supposed to be at least. It is summer time, which means it is the busiest time of the year. Granted, this business is self-imposed, as I choose to go away most weekends.
This past weekend was a perfect example, Meghan and I were visiting family down at the Jersey shore. It was a perfect opportunity to take a few days off and derail training. However, despite making some bad life decisions, I was able to get both of my weekend runs in.
Suffice to say I was moving a little "slowly" on Saturday morning, yet I still headed out for my long run. I managed to eke out a little under six miles in some very hot and humid weather, with a bit of a head-ache going on. My friend (cousin-in-law?) Anthony made a valiant effort to join in on the run but excused himself about two miles in. Here's a picture of Anthony and I at the beach post-run:
Anthony did however lead the way for a solid paced three miles on Sunday
The point is, it's easy to get sidetracked when you go away. Regardless as to your plans or where you are traveling, it is certainly possible to keep to your schedule. Running is much simpler than a lot of other sports in that all you need is a pair of running shoes and shorts. All it just takes to keep going is a little desire. A good training partner like Pauly D doesn't hurt either.
/hates self for liking Jersey Shore (the show, not the place, the place is great)
Random note of the day: As much as I love running with my dog, she makes it difficult when she decides to stop eight, count them, eight times in the course of a three mile run for bathroom breaks.
Miles run to date: 53
Well, it's supposed to be at least. It is summer time, which means it is the busiest time of the year. Granted, this business is self-imposed, as I choose to go away most weekends.
This past weekend was a perfect example, Meghan and I were visiting family down at the Jersey shore. It was a perfect opportunity to take a few days off and derail training. However, despite making some bad life decisions, I was able to get both of my weekend runs in.
Suffice to say I was moving a little "slowly" on Saturday morning, yet I still headed out for my long run. I managed to eke out a little under six miles in some very hot and humid weather, with a bit of a head-ache going on. My friend (cousin-in-law?) Anthony made a valiant effort to join in on the run but excused himself about two miles in. Here's a picture of Anthony and I at the beach post-run:
Anthony did however lead the way for a solid paced three miles on Sunday
The point is, it's easy to get sidetracked when you go away. Regardless as to your plans or where you are traveling, it is certainly possible to keep to your schedule. Running is much simpler than a lot of other sports in that all you need is a pair of running shoes and shorts. All it just takes to keep going is a little desire. A good training partner like Pauly D doesn't hurt either.
/hates self for liking Jersey Shore (the show, not the place, the place is great)
Random note of the day: As much as I love running with my dog, she makes it difficult when she decides to stop eight, count them, eight times in the course of a three mile run for bathroom breaks.
Miles run to date: 53
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Foiled Again!
Sorry for the delay between posts, I'm sure that my loyal readers (Thanks Mom!) have been at a loss, but unfortunately real-life got in the way with the job demanding a lot of time this week.
So I promised some updates:
Miles to date: 41 miles as of this morning
Weight: -1.0
It's been a tough week for training with the humidity levels being as high as they have been, but a little extra sweat never hurt anyone. Given the weather, I have to be sure to get my run in as early as possible, I usually aim for about 6 am, but even then it's been tough. I can not express in words how ready I am for the humidity to break.
Yesterday was the sign-up for the Boston Athletic Association half marathon, which is an incredibly cool race stretching from the Fens in Boston's back bay out to the Franklin Park Zoo. Unfortunately, this race filled up in record time (about two hours) and I was not able to get a number.
As of the moment, the only scheduled race I have between now and D-Day is the Falmouth Road Race on August 15. I'd like to find some other races to supplement my training between now and then as a means to a) gauge my progress and b) stay motivated.
I have always found that it's much easier to stay motivated to run by setting short term goals, generally in the form of a race. This serves as either a gratifying experience and a vindication of the training done (occasionally) or a public shaming exposing my lack adequate preparation (much more often).
Any and all suggestion are welcome.
So I promised some updates:
Miles to date: 41 miles as of this morning
Weight: -1.0
It's been a tough week for training with the humidity levels being as high as they have been, but a little extra sweat never hurt anyone. Given the weather, I have to be sure to get my run in as early as possible, I usually aim for about 6 am, but even then it's been tough. I can not express in words how ready I am for the humidity to break.
Yesterday was the sign-up for the Boston Athletic Association half marathon, which is an incredibly cool race stretching from the Fens in Boston's back bay out to the Franklin Park Zoo. Unfortunately, this race filled up in record time (about two hours) and I was not able to get a number.
As of the moment, the only scheduled race I have between now and D-Day is the Falmouth Road Race on August 15. I'd like to find some other races to supplement my training between now and then as a means to a) gauge my progress and b) stay motivated.
I have always found that it's much easier to stay motivated to run by setting short term goals, generally in the form of a race. This serves as either a gratifying experience and a vindication of the training done (occasionally) or a public shaming exposing my lack adequate preparation (much more often).
Any and all suggestion are welcome.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Dealing with a bad day
Some runs are better than others. That's just a fact of life. Today I met one of the crappy ones. In fact, today might be among my top 3 worst runs of all-time.
I went for a for my weekly long run on the Cape Cod Canal this morning hoping to log seven miles before it got too hot. I failed. It's worth noting that when it's about 82 degrees and the weatherman says "It's as muggy as it can be without raining" it's probably not ideal running weather.*
*The moral of this story is that I'm an idiot, this all could have been avoided.
As much as I love running on the canal for the serenity it provides with the water, the downside is that it's a straight out and back run, which is traditionally very boring. The first half went as well as could be expected. The second half, however, I felt like Sisyphus trying to push the boulder in the attempt to finish the run. It. Was. Awful. It was really all I could do to finish, and even that called for more walking than I had hoped to incorporate.
The fact of the matter is that when you're operating on a schedule, you do your best to stick to it. Some days are going to be better than others, they just are, you need to be prepared for that. As much as I told myself it was going to suck, it was far worse than I ever expected. It looked liked I had jumped in the canal by the time I was done. Not a pleasant drive home.
Runs like this are going to happen. In fact, they're probably going to happen pretty often. All you can do is make the most of it. Get what you can out of the run, strengthen yourself mentally and hope tomorrow will be better than today.
Ed. Note: TANGENT ALERT
On a side note, Lebron is an egomaniacal jerk. I don't think he owed it to Cleveland to go back there, but the way he handled this whole sitation screamed "shower me with attention." Screw him.
I went for a for my weekly long run on the Cape Cod Canal this morning hoping to log seven miles before it got too hot. I failed. It's worth noting that when it's about 82 degrees and the weatherman says "It's as muggy as it can be without raining" it's probably not ideal running weather.*
*The moral of this story is that I'm an idiot, this all could have been avoided.
As much as I love running on the canal for the serenity it provides with the water, the downside is that it's a straight out and back run, which is traditionally very boring. The first half went as well as could be expected. The second half, however, I felt like Sisyphus trying to push the boulder in the attempt to finish the run. It. Was. Awful. It was really all I could do to finish, and even that called for more walking than I had hoped to incorporate.
The fact of the matter is that when you're operating on a schedule, you do your best to stick to it. Some days are going to be better than others, they just are, you need to be prepared for that. As much as I told myself it was going to suck, it was far worse than I ever expected. It looked liked I had jumped in the canal by the time I was done. Not a pleasant drive home.
Runs like this are going to happen. In fact, they're probably going to happen pretty often. All you can do is make the most of it. Get what you can out of the run, strengthen yourself mentally and hope tomorrow will be better than today.
Ed. Note: TANGENT ALERT
On a side note, Lebron is an egomaniacal jerk. I don't think he owed it to Cleveland to go back there, but the way he handled this whole sitation screamed "shower me with attention." Screw him.
Thursday, July 8, 2010
So what's coming up?
There are only so many ways I can say "I ran three miles this morning, it sucked." With this in mind, there aren't going to be a lot of posts that look like that.
What I plan to do is the following:
1) Log how many miles have been run to date, this will be a feature on the first post of any given day.
2) Provide updates as to the long runs. As the training progresses further towards the marathon (hereinafter, "D-Day") there will be some pretty long runs that I'll be tackling with the team. We'll let you know how they go.
3) Go off on a few tangents. I might rant and rave occasionally about something that is on my mind. Feel free to skip these posts.
4) Keep a weight log. This is an idea I've been going back and forth with. Please note, I am not taking this on to lose weight. That being said, it's certainly something I wouldn't mind and need to work on. I'm not going to tell you the starting weight, as it doesn't really matter to anyone but me, we're going to call it 0.00, and the weight log will reflect the variation from the starting point.
5) Provide some background as I go into why I am doing this and what I hope to accomplish, both in terms of this race and moving forward.
If anyone doesn't want to see some of this, let me know. Conversely, if there is something that you are just clamoring for, drop a line and I'll try to incorporate it in.
What I plan to do is the following:
1) Log how many miles have been run to date, this will be a feature on the first post of any given day.
2) Provide updates as to the long runs. As the training progresses further towards the marathon (hereinafter, "D-Day") there will be some pretty long runs that I'll be tackling with the team. We'll let you know how they go.
3) Go off on a few tangents. I might rant and rave occasionally about something that is on my mind. Feel free to skip these posts.
4) Keep a weight log. This is an idea I've been going back and forth with. Please note, I am not taking this on to lose weight. That being said, it's certainly something I wouldn't mind and need to work on. I'm not going to tell you the starting weight, as it doesn't really matter to anyone but me, we're going to call it 0.00, and the weight log will reflect the variation from the starting point.
5) Provide some background as I go into why I am doing this and what I hope to accomplish, both in terms of this race and moving forward.
If anyone doesn't want to see some of this, let me know. Conversely, if there is something that you are just clamoring for, drop a line and I'll try to incorporate it in.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Meet the team
I am most certainly not taking on this endeavor on my own. In fact, I've got a really great team I'll be training with. I've been running with Roger and Stephanie on and off for the past two years.
Roger and I were law school classmates and started running together while studying for the bar. After bumping into each other on numerous early morning runs, we decided to bring Stephanie into our group. Once the bar exam came and went, we took a bit of a hiatus as we all scattered to different parts of Boston. This past winter we started running together again and have done two half marathons together.
While we're all training for marathons, we all plan on running different races. Roger will be running the New York City Marathon on Nov. 7th, Stephanie will be running the Marine Corps marathon on October 31 and I will be doing the Cape Cod Marathon on October 31.
I think it's high time that we meet them.
Roger is the most experienced runner of the group, with three marathons already under his belt. He enjoys cooking food so hot it burns the nostrils, long walks on the beach, candle-lit dinners and moonlit strolls.
Stephanie will be running her first solo marathon but has completed some marathon relays and a number of half marathons and just finished her first triathlon. When she's not logging crazy hours at her firm, she enjoys sculpting bonsai trees, origami and reading about the newest developments in insurance defense.
While not running with me per se, my biggest support will be coming from my wife, Meghan. She'll be putting up with me disappearing for hours at a time on the weekend and listening to me complain about a voluntary choice I have made to put myself through hell. And she'll do it all with a smile.
Lastly, there is my most faithful running companion, Levee. She'll be logging a lot of miles with me over the next few months, and by logging miles I mean dragging my ass behind her for 3-4 miles at a time.
Roger and I were law school classmates and started running together while studying for the bar. After bumping into each other on numerous early morning runs, we decided to bring Stephanie into our group. Once the bar exam came and went, we took a bit of a hiatus as we all scattered to different parts of Boston. This past winter we started running together again and have done two half marathons together.
While we're all training for marathons, we all plan on running different races. Roger will be running the New York City Marathon on Nov. 7th, Stephanie will be running the Marine Corps marathon on October 31 and I will be doing the Cape Cod Marathon on October 31.
I think it's high time that we meet them.
Roger is the most experienced runner of the group, with three marathons already under his belt. He enjoys cooking food so hot it burns the nostrils, long walks on the beach, candle-lit dinners and moonlit strolls.
Stephanie will be running her first solo marathon but has completed some marathon relays and a number of half marathons and just finished her first triathlon. When she's not logging crazy hours at her firm, she enjoys sculpting bonsai trees, origami and reading about the newest developments in insurance defense.
While not running with me per se, my biggest support will be coming from my wife, Meghan. She'll be putting up with me disappearing for hours at a time on the weekend and listening to me complain about a voluntary choice I have made to put myself through hell. And she'll do it all with a smile.
Lastly, there is my most faithful running companion, Levee. She'll be logging a lot of miles with me over the next few months, and by logging miles I mean dragging my ass behind her for 3-4 miles at a time.
Why am I doing this?
This is a wonderful question, one for which I wish I had a more satisfactory answer.
I know an awful lot of people who run in memory of others or to raise money for a charity. I am not doing it for these reasons (though I hope to some day run Boston for charity, but that's a different story for a different time).
I'm much more selfish than that. I am running this for me. I am doing this to see if I can. If I can't, well then I'll go down in spectacular flames.
Running a marathon isn't something I think sounds particularly enjoyable, I don't think it will be an especially fun event, but it's a challenge. I want to push myself to see what I am capable of.
I figure at this point, it's pretty much now or never. I'm at a time in my life where I have the time to train and I have a great support group around me to help out (information on them coming very shortly).
I know an awful lot of people who run in memory of others or to raise money for a charity. I am not doing it for these reasons (though I hope to some day run Boston for charity, but that's a different story for a different time).
I'm much more selfish than that. I am running this for me. I am doing this to see if I can. If I can't, well then I'll go down in spectacular flames.
Running a marathon isn't something I think sounds particularly enjoyable, I don't think it will be an especially fun event, but it's a challenge. I want to push myself to see what I am capable of.
I figure at this point, it's pretty much now or never. I'm at a time in my life where I have the time to train and I have a great support group around me to help out (information on them coming very shortly).
Practice? We talkin' bout Practice?
If you google "Marathon Training" you get an awful lot of results. Everyone has an opinion of how you should train, distances you should run, rest you should take, etc.
The decision of which training method I chose doesn't hold the drama of, say, Lebron's choice in Free Agency, but it was a choice that will severely impact how the next few months will unfold for me.
I went through a lot of the options and settled on one that I felt appropriate for me. The top two choices were Marathontraining.com and Hal Higdon's Marathon Training Guide. I ended up going with Hal Higdon's novice training schedule for a few reasons.
1) I'm not looking to break any records, my goal is to finish this thing; and
2) I felt the weekday training runs fit into my schedule much easier than other programs I had seen.
Like most people, I lead a fairly busy life. It's hard to find time to disappear on a run for an hour-plus during the week. This method doesn't demand too much week-day time which was a huge selling point for me.
The decision of which training method I chose doesn't hold the drama of, say, Lebron's choice in Free Agency, but it was a choice that will severely impact how the next few months will unfold for me.
I went through a lot of the options and settled on one that I felt appropriate for me. The top two choices were Marathontraining.com and Hal Higdon's Marathon Training Guide. I ended up going with Hal Higdon's novice training schedule for a few reasons.
1) I'm not looking to break any records, my goal is to finish this thing; and
2) I felt the weekday training runs fit into my schedule much easier than other programs I had seen.
Like most people, I lead a fairly busy life. It's hard to find time to disappear on a run for an hour-plus during the week. This method doesn't demand too much week-day time which was a huge selling point for me.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
What is this all about?
We will not be analyzing the secret to life in the posts to come, this much I promise to you, loyal readers.
What I will do is chronicle the next 4 months of pure crap that I am about to put myself through. You see, I plan on running the 2010 Cape Cod Marathon on October 31, 2010.
There is no logical explanation for this. I have decided to enter this race without consulting my wife, my doctor or any other person whose opinion I should likely value.
I am not the kind of guy who you would expect to be running a marathon. My physique does not exactly scream "Distance Runner." It would be much more likely to mumble something along the lines of "It's time to make the donuts," or "Where's the beef?" but definitely not "distance runner."
I'm not jumping into this completely blindly. I have some experience with running, though certainly nothing of this magnitude. I have been running on and off for the last ten years or so and have peaked out at half marathons (Boston Oct. '08, Cape Cod Feb. '10 and New Bedford March '10). I've also had the distinct pleasure of running the Falmouth Road Race five times previously, this summer will mark my sixth time.
I have been in official training for this marathon for just over a week, this is my story.
What I will do is chronicle the next 4 months of pure crap that I am about to put myself through. You see, I plan on running the 2010 Cape Cod Marathon on October 31, 2010.
There is no logical explanation for this. I have decided to enter this race without consulting my wife, my doctor or any other person whose opinion I should likely value.
I am not the kind of guy who you would expect to be running a marathon. My physique does not exactly scream "Distance Runner." It would be much more likely to mumble something along the lines of "It's time to make the donuts," or "Where's the beef?" but definitely not "distance runner."
I'm not jumping into this completely blindly. I have some experience with running, though certainly nothing of this magnitude. I have been running on and off for the last ten years or so and have peaked out at half marathons (Boston Oct. '08, Cape Cod Feb. '10 and New Bedford March '10). I've also had the distinct pleasure of running the Falmouth Road Race five times previously, this summer will mark my sixth time.
I have been in official training for this marathon for just over a week, this is my story.
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