Another Milestone

Most of the time when I run a half marathon I take the next day off, today was a little different.  Being that it was the last day of the month, I was faced with an opportunity.  Get in a three mile runs, and surpass 150 miles for the month.

Even though my legs were dead I managed to get in a short run to reach this goal.  Now I get to take tomorrow off as a recovery day.  Woohoo!


Today's totals -  3.32 miles  /  320.27 for the year


Totals for the first three months:

Miles:  320.27
Time:  53:53:48 (h:m:s)
Elevation gain:  7,830 ft
Avg Speed:  5.9 mph
Calories burned:  43,748

Westfield Half Marathon

2014 Westfield Half Marathon T-Shirt

Today was the Westfield Half Marathon (formerly known as the Oleksak Half Marathon).  I've run this race the last three years, and love it.  This year, they decided to change the course.  The change was mostly to keep it in the Westfield city limits, and I for one like the change.  It starts off near downtown Westfield, heads out through some rural roads (aka hilly), and finishes with a five mile stretch that's mostly flat with a slight downhill.  This flat portion runs past Westfield State University, Stanley Park, and into the downtown area.

While the course was great, the weather left a little to be desired.  It was 41 degrees (with a 12 mph wind) at the start with a mist.  The mist never let up, and the temp only rose by about two degrees.  Fortunately it stayed a mist, and never developed back into rain.

Finishing the 2014 Westfield Half Marathon

As this was still a training run for Boston, we planned on a 9:45 to 9:55 pace (about a 2:09:30 for the half).  While this was a good plan, most races are usually faster than planned, and today was one of those days.  The first three miles were at a 9:15 pace, but everything felt good.  A 9:46 for the next mile (uphill), followed by a downhill portion at 8:44.  Kyle & I both kept the pace ad a brisk run in which we could still keep a conversation.  The last two miles of the half we were able to run at 9:05 & 9:03.  When the race was over I had 2:03:12 as an unofficial time (official "gun" time was 2:03:26).  Six minutes ahead of my projected time.


I can only hope that I'm ready for Boston, but today does give me a bit more confidence.

Today's totals  -  13.1 miles  /  316.96 total for the year

300 Miles Down

Yesterday, I was a little tired so I never did my blog entry.  I should have taken the time, because it was another milestone for me.  300 miles complete (of my 1000 mile goal).  I find this to be amazing, especially with the winter that we've been having.  Two years ago (while training for Boston) we had near perfect weather, and I din't reach 300 until May 6th, and last year it wasn't until May 16th.  A big part of it is the mileage that I've had this month.  Right now, I'm at the highest total that I've had in a month, and I have a half-marathon to run tomorrow.

I do know that after Boston, I will cut back substantially on my mileage as I go back to my normal training.  But having this many miles at this point in the year is a great way to start my 1000 mile year.


Yesterday's totals  -  9.75 miles  /  303.86 total for the year.

A favor to ask...

So today's run was nothing out of the ordinary.  With a little under a month to go until the Boston Marathon, the training is getting a little harder and the motivation is lacking a little.

What I'd appreciate is if each person that reads this post, add a comment.  It can be as simple as your first name, and state (or country if not the U.S.) that you're reading it in.  If you'd like to give an encouraging word, that would be wonderful.  All positive thoughts are more than welcome!

Thanks in advance, Scott.


Today's totals  -  7.03 miles  /  294.11 total for year.

Run Around Westover

After yesterday's run, I was a little skeptical as to how today would go.  The route that we chose allowed for no "escape clause".  It was 16 miles or bust.

To try to simulate running in Boston, we decided that every three miles we would walk and take water.  The walk breaks would only be about 30-60 seconds, just like in the marathon.  This seemed to work great, I was able to keep a good pace for about 13 of the 16 miles.  The last three were a little bit of a struggle, but better than I had expected.  Twenty-two miles in two days, and both days had hills.

One of my high points for the day was the route that I chose.  Once I started tackling longer runs, I've had this desire to run around Westover ARB.  Not run around ON the base, but actually run all the way around it.  Today I achieved that goal!!


Today's totals  -  16.05  /  287.08 total for the year

Holyoke St. Pat's

One of the sure signs of spring is the annual Holyoke St. Patrick's Road Race.  Usually run the day before the St. Patrick's Parade, the race draws a large amount of runners and spectators.  Today's run was the 39th annual, and it looked like the weather was going to put a damper on things.  The hour before the race, the skies were grey, and there were some showers.  The predicted 50 degrees looked almost out of the question, as it was barely 40.  As the runners lined up in the starting corrals, it became clear the the luck of the Irish was going to be with us.  With almost perfect timing, the skies cleared up, the sun was shining, and the temperature began to rise.

My schedule has me running a long run tomorrow, so I wanted to take it easy today.  I decided to think of this as a training run with 6,000 of my closest friends.  My friend Tom & I decided to run together.  He's recovering from an injury, so he didn't want to push too hard.  This turned out to be a great move for me, because we kept the pace to between 9:45 and 10:00.  Hopefully, this will leave me the energy I need for tomorrow.


Today's totals  -  6.20 miles  /  271.01 for the year.

May the Wind Always be at Your Back

Being the week of St. Patrick's Day, I'm reminded of an old Irish blessing...

An Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you. May the wind always be at your back. May the sun shine warm upon your face, and rains fall soft upon your fields. And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

I can always relate this blessing to running... sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn't.  Today was a day that it didn't.

Long run day.  Scheduled was an 11 miler, so we opted for an 11.4 mile route.  The weather was almost perfect.  50 degrees (woo hoo shorts weather), but there was a breeze (13 mph).  Looking at the direction that the flags were blowing, we figured that we'd have a head wind about miles 5 thru 8.  For some reason we hit the wind during the first mile, and every mile after.  How the heck can you run a route that is a square and have the wind in your face the whole way?  Then at about 9 miles the sun went behind the clouds.  Apparently this was a cold front, because the temp dropped 5 to 10 degrees in the the next half hour.  That's the thing about New England weather... If you don't like it, wait five minutes, it'll change.

Saturday is the 39th running of the Holyoke St. Patrick's Road Race, hopefully the blessing will be in our favor.

Today's totals  -  11.38 miles  /  264.83 miles for the year.

Two in a row

After taking a couple of days off last week, I feel like I might be back on track.  Now I know that the cold I have is not 100% gone, I just need to ensure that I'm eating well, and getting the proper sleep so it doesn't get worse.

Today was the middle day of three in a row, and it felt good.  Hills yesterday, flat today, and tomorrow will be rolling hills.  All I need is to get through the next 5 weeks, and then it'll be time for a well deserved rest.

Today's totals  -  6.15 miles  /  253.45 total for year

Unstoppable - Motivational Video

33 Days left until Boston... it's time for a motivation check...




Today's totals - 7.04 miles  /  247.30 total for year.

Back to Work

After a couple of forced days off (due to sore legs & a cold), it was back to the roads today.

The schedule called for an 18 miler (no way am I ready for that).  I opted for an 8 miler instead.  My training partner mapped a route that came by my house, so I could join him in the middle of the run, and turn off when it looped back about 1.5 miles from the house.  This was perfect.  18 for him, and 8 for me as I'm still not 100%.  Both of our courses finished with uphills, so it was definitely a challenge.

The temp was a little cool, 26 with a wind chill in the teens, but it was a sunny day.  I don't know if the sunshine made a difference or not, but people that were driving seemed to be courteous, and not try running us off the roads.  All in all, it was a pleasant run.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.


Daily totals  -  8.08 miles  /  240.26 total for year.

Rainy Days and Hump Day

Hump Day... the week is half way done.  with the training schedule that I'm using, it also means another long day.  Today was supposed to be 10 miles, but again I had a case of the "blahs".

3:00 PM I headed out for my run.  Right from the start I didn't feel right.  Heavy legs, and just not comfortable at all.  About two miles in, and it was evident to me that unless I felt great all of a sudden, I should cut the run short.  At three miles I made the decision to cut the run in half.  The temp was decent, but now it had begun to rain... and my legs still felt like crap.

I headed back to work, finished the run, and then headed out for a pasta dinner with my wife.  While eating dinner, I made the decision to take an unscheduled day off from my running.  If this is a cold, or a sign of over training, I want to end it as quickly as I can.  As the saying goes "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."


Today's totals -  5.13 miles  /  232.18 total for the year.

Another one of those days

Today's weather was absolutely beautiful, so why did I lack the energy needed for today's run?

Fifty-four degrees, with a little wind, and blue skies... it doesn't get much better than this.  But today I really didn't have the energy that I needed to go out for my run.  The schedule called for 5.5 miles, and it was tough just to get out the door.  My legs felt like lead from this weekend's runs.  Especially the 14 miles of hills on Sunday.

As much as I didn't want to, I forced myself to do it.  No training partner this week because he's in Florida for a conference.  After I was done, I felt a sense of accomplishment in completing the run (even though my body felt otherwise).

Hopefully tomorrow will be better!


Today's totals - 5.38 miles  /  227.05 total for the year.

Weekend Update...

What a great weekend!  Friday night, Bren & I headed down to Providence, RI for Saturday's St. Pat's 5K.  This is the second year that we took part in this race.  This is one of the few races in the area that gives a medal to all the finishers.  Last year I ran with Bren, so this year I wanted to push myself (especially since most of my training has been at a slower pace).


The weather was near perfect... sunny skies, 50 degrees, and just a slight breeze.  The race started, and because it's an out-and-back course, you're allotted the chance to see the lead runners as they're heading back from the turn-around.  As I passed the mile mark, I could see the leader on his way back.  It was Alistair Cragg (last years winner, and Olympic athlete).  At the point that we crossed, I was at 1.19 miles, and he was already at the 2 mile mark.  His finish time was 15:12, and he was more than a minute and a half ahead of second place... that's friggin' fast!

I ended up finishing 435th place (out of 2688) with a respectable time of 25:41.  Bren finished a little further back, but she finished and got her medal.


Today After our drive home, it was time for my long run.  The training plan had a 16 miler scheduled, but the course I mapped out ended up being a 14 mile route with hills.  The first 2.5 miles took me to the start line of the Holyoke St. Patrick's Day Road Race (which I'll be running on the 22nd).  From there, I followed the complete 6.2 mile course, hills and all, and a not-so-direct route back home.  The route home included a 3 mile hill (not steep, but it was 3 miles of an uphill grade).  Once I finished, I was spent for the day.  Time to lay on the couch and get ready for the Bruins game.  And yes, they won!!


Weekend totals  -  Saturday, 3.1 miles  /  Sunday, 14.1 miles  /  total for year, 221.67

200 Miles Done

Today I reached another milestone... 200 miles done.  I'm now 20% of the way towards my goal of 1000 miles this year.

When I started back running in 2009, i don't think I really could imagine that I'd be back to this type of mileage.  That year I had 474 miles and thought that it was a lot.  Each year since then, I've increased my mileage, and last year I had a total of 843.

When it gets tough running, I always try to remember "A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with One Step."  So keep moving forward, and you'll achieve any goal.

Today's totals  -  6.01 miles  /  204.47 miles for the year.

Mid-Week Long Run?

Week number six in the training plan, and now we start double digit runs on Wednesdays.  This week the plan called for a 10 mile run.  Using mapmyrun.com, we planned out a course that had minimum hills.  Unfortunately, we couldn't get it down to 10 miles.  The result, an 11.5 mile run.

The weather today was actually tolerable.  Not warm, just OK.  Luckily there was only a little breeze, so that had no factor.

It's interesting how when you run distances like this, you run through cold pockets that make it feel like the temp went down about 5-10 degrees.  This happened a couple of times on today's run.  The only explanation that I could think of is that these areas don't get too much sunshine.

The best part of a run like this is the feeling of accomplishment you get when you finish, and today was no different.


Today's totals - 11.43 miles  / total for year 198.46  -  Tomorrow is another milestone!

Motivation Time

There are times when we all need a little motivation.  I'm now in week #6 of the 12 week training program, and this is one of those times.  It's not that I can't get myself going, or that I want to quit, it's because we all need that invisible push to drive us harder.

If you have 5 minutes available, watch this video.  Listen to the words.  They are from some of the greatest sports movies ever.  I almost wish that I could find all these speeches, and put them in my ipod.  Maybe having one of them come on in a race might be the boost that I need.



Today's mileage - 4.55 miles  /  187.03 total for the year.

Flexibility

One of the keys to running is flexibility.  Physical flexibility is not one of my strong suites, but mental flexibility is another story.  Today's run was scheduled to be a 14 mile "easy" run.  Being that this was a work weekend, there was not way I could get in a long run today after work (and before darkness).  So I planned on taking Monday morning off from work, and doing my run then.  As the week went on, the forecast was calling for more snow on Monday... just great.  Luckily the precipitation was removed from the outlook, but it was replaced by colder temps.

I really didn't want to run in the cold, and spend the rest of the day trying to warm up (especially at work).  Time for plan #2 (or was this #3?).  On working Sundays I go in an hour early to help a few of my co-workers with their fitness program, and I never ask for the time back.  Today I thought, "What the heck."  I asked my boss to leave an hour early, so I could take advantage of the daylight and warmer weather (well at least warmer than the predicted high for tomorrow).  No problem.

A quick look at our options for routes, and Kyle & I we out the door.  We opted to go a little shorter than planned, but we did include a couple of big hills.  As we finished the workout, both of us felt that it was better to keep the basic schedule & go a little shorter than it would have been to manipulate it.


Today's totals - 9.03 miles  /  182.48 total for year

Just another day

Nothing exciting about today's run.  After working for the sixth straight day (out of 12), I went out for a "short" 4.5 mile run.  Kept a good pace, felt normal, and aside from the wind it was actually a nice afternoon.


Today's total - 4.38 miles /  173.45 total for year.