Sweet Sixteen

Ok, so “sweet” might be an over statement considering the post run soreness, but Saturday’s 16 mile training run from the Longfellow Club in Wayland was my longest of this training season. Let’s face it, considering my lacking of training discipline in past marathons, it was also my longest training run period. The route was scenic, windy, and rolling. We ran past conservation land and agricultural areas in Wayland, Sudbury, and Concord. It was a great route.

Heading to the run I planned to run only 14 or perhaps 15, but once the legs start moving plans change. I decided to run the full sixteen for 2 reasons. Janel, my running partner, was determined to go the full distance and her determination inspired me to push myself a little further. Second, the routes for the group runs are not published in advance so it is difficult without a GPS unit to know the appropriate turnaround points for different distances. This is problematic for the engineer in me who needs to know to the tenth of a mile how far I’ve run. We were told pre-run that the water stops would be at miles 3.1, 6.2, and 8.0. In actuality I heard after that the 10K stop was more like 6.5, which makes sense since it seemed like the 8.0 miles stop was really close to it. But as you can see, no easy reference point for a 7 or 7.5 mile turn around point existed. And let’s face it, because it allowed me to hit an extra water stop, trekking the extra 0.5 mile prior to turning around make a bit of sense.

I ran pretty even splits on each leg of the run which I was pretty excited about. There was a time on the run back that I felt I got a “second wind”. Perhaps the second Gu kicked in. Whatever the reason, I felt the need to pick up the pace while I still had the energy. I’m not sure if that was the wisest decision since I fizzled out a little later and had to take a two small walk breaks, but I finished with the group I turned around with so no real harm done. The way I look at it, training runs are the perfect time to experiment with different techniques to learn how my body will respond before the marathon.

I did have a few uncomfortable moments with my left knee during my run. On the way out, I had some pain across the knee cap for about a tenth of a mile. The roads were very narrow and had a steep cant to them, so I think this contributed to the pain. On the way back, similarly for about a tenth to two tenths of a mile I started to feel like my tibia was trying to push itself through my patella. That was a new sensation I hope not to keep again. The top part of my tibia has been a bit sore. . . seems like bone and not muscle but I can’t be sure. Neither my knees nor my shins gave me any troubles on a 40 minute Arc Trainer workout on Sunday, so I’m hopeful it is just normal aches and pains of running so far. A Physical Therapist will be speaking at this week’s DFMC team meeting and she will be providing complimentary injury consultations so I hope to get some answers then, or an opinion on whether I should be seeing a sports orthopedist.
On the fundraising front, things are going very well. My total to date stands at $3650. Many thanks to J.C. Cannistraro, Peter McManus,, The Welch Corp., Roz Lemieux, and C.P. Blouin. I am almost halfway to my initial goal of $7500, and 36.5% of the way to my stretch goal of $10K. Thanks everyone. I love checking the mail boxes (virtual and physical) each day to find your fundraising surprises.

Milestones

Tuesday marked exactly 3 months to the 2010 Boston Marathon. Oh boy. . .

At least I've run half the total distance of the marathon in training already. Fifteen miles on slate for this weekend. I hope Janel makes it so I have a training buddy. I've been the caboose of the Crossroads runs so it'll be nice to have company again. This week's run is at the Longfellow Club in Wayland. Laury Hammel, co-owner of Longfellow is part owner of The Adirondack Club where Dave was Fitness Director prior to starting his PhD Program. I'm sure he has no idea who I am, but kind of cool to have a connection to the venue. It'll be a new course for our team runs this year so I'm hoping the lack of familiarity will help the miles click by.

Today I was greeted by a great surprise in the mail . . .6 donations! Those combined with my 1 online donation since my last post brings my fundraising total to date to $2600. Anybody want to sponsor me $20 or more to push me over $100 per mile? Many thanks to James W. Flett Company, J&M Brown, Bay State Building Specialties, Construction Material Service, Inc., Mary Crowell, and Robert Gilligan!!!

Hills times two

This week I ran the Newton Hills twice. . .and in case you were wondering, yes I must be a masochist.

Last week's DFMC group run (also on the hills) hit me hard. Late on Sunday and on Monday I felt like I'd played for the Pats and spent most of the day getting tackled over and over by the Ravens. With Monday as a rest day and Tuesday on the Arc trainer, I recovered somewhat but opted to take another rest day on Wednesday. Thursday I attended my second Crossroads run, and my first taking the T west to run the Newton Hills back to the pub. About half the group decided to get off a few stops early at Newton Centre and run approximately 6 miles back in tackling Heartbreak along the way. I decided to stay on the T with the rest of the group to run just under 9 back to the pub tacking all the hills except the 128 overpass. I started out with Steph and Jeff and could see them up ahead of me until a little ways after heartbreak. I definitely pushed the pace trying to keep up with them over the hills. Since I didn't run with my Fuel belt, I needed a water break at Marathon sports and lost sight of them soon thereafter. While it was a tough run I completed it in my goal time at slightly less than a 10:00 min / mile pace, in "marathon time" as Steph calls it (basically not stopping your watch at water stops since, the clock on Marathon Monday doesn't stop for water breaks, or nature calls).

Since there was a group run on Saturday morning and Thursdays run was a hard one for me I took Friday off. I was surprised how good I felt on Friday, nothing like I'd felt on Monday after the previous long run so I thought my body was finally adapting to the stress / recovery cycle. But alas, when I got up on Saturday morning to head out to Lexington my body screamed at me in protest, and with a little more than 13 weeks to go I listened to it and instead opted to hit the gym to Arc Train for 60 minutes instead of running the 10-12 miles planned.

Before heading to the gym, I also stopped by PR Running in Westborough to procure "The Stick" to add to my arsenal of weapons of self torture. I have not been using the foam roller on my IT Band as much as I should have been in recent weeks and now the knee area on both legs has gotten a little too tender to massage with the foam roller (body weight too much pressure right now). I'm also having soreness on the inside of both my thighs. I tried to think of ways to massage that area with the foam roller, but alas I'm not a contortionist so the stick seemed like a good investment.

Considering that I'm writing this with an ice pack strapped around my left knee, I probably should've taken Steph's advice and Arc Trained today as well, but instead not to let those fuel belt bottles I prepared Friday night go to waste, I chose to tackle the hills again for the second time this week in an out an back to Heartbreak. Again just under 9 miles, about the same distance as the Thursday run but I finished a few minutes faster (9:34 average pace) . . . and with negative splits to boot! A few disclaimers (1) Most likely my pace wasn't really that much faster than Thursday because I didn't take a non moving water break like Thursday because I wore my fuel belt, and (2) My negative split was most likely due to more downhill running on the second half of the run. Nevertheless, since I'm sore from the effort I'm going to pretend I conquered those hills.

On the fundraising front, donations from my mailing on Monday have started to roll in with contributions from Harrington Brothers Corp, Ahern Painting, and the Howard family. Thanks so much to everyone for the support. Fundraising total now stands at $1,500. Planning to stuff some more envelopes tonight in hopes of keeping up the momentum to support the Barr Program Investigators in finding new ways to kick cancer.

Now . . .off to find the ibuprofen and let my ice pack get cold again so I can muster the strength to tackle those hills again in 4 days for Shifter's Crossroads birthday run.

Camaraderie

ca·ma·ra·de·rie : a spirit of friendly good-fellowship

I can't think of a better word to describe the DFMC group runs and Thursday night Crossroads runs. This morning I attended my second official DFMC group run. This makes 4 total counting the unofficial runs on Thursday nights at Crossroads (12/10) and the New Year's day Crossroads run (aka the Welly Elly run, named when the run went from Wellesley to the Eliot Lounge instead of Crossroads). Unfortunately I missed the 12/17 Thursday night run and the 1/7 run in order to rest my achy knee and ensure I'd be in one piece for the group runs that week. Both nights I missed, I found myself missing running with teammates and talking with them after and meeting new teammates. Of course, the free pizza is great too, but as Brian pointed out in his post this week, It's not about the pizza (but it sure is delicious and appreciated!). Prior to today's run, I actually was able to meet Brian for the first time in person as well as Judith who was wearing the same 2004 MCM jacket as me.

This week's run was from the Mount Auburn Club in Watertown. What a hospitable experience. Paul, the club's owner was out bright and early directing the DFMC runners to parking near the club so we didn't get lost. If that wasn't nice enough, the club also put out a great food spread for the runners to enjoy upon our return . . . lots of bagels, cookies, OJ, coffee, yogurt, fruit salad, etc. I couldn't have thought of anything better to help recover from the frigid temperatures. Just as great as the club's support was the support of volunteers. While the temperature was in the high single to low double digits, the feel's like temps were about 2 degrees. I know I was a bit cold at times running . . .I can't imagine them standing still for hours supporting the runners with gatorade, water, a gatorade / water mix, pretzels, peanut m & m's etc. Thanks so much. . .we can't do it without you all!

This week I ran 13 miles with Janel. Janel is running in honor of mom who lost her battle with breast cancer. Her reason for running was to do something optimistic to honor her mom's optimistic attitude toward life. I knew the DFMC runners were an optimistic bunch in order to accept this challenge, hence the title of my blog, but to have a fellow teammate use that word to describe her reasons for running was pretty special. Janel has already raised more than half her goal in fundraising dollars which was also very inspiring. We ran a solid 10:00 min pace finishing at the Mt Auburn club in 2:11. We thought we'd run about 12.5 since we ran a little past the second water stop which was reported to be about mile 6, but driving my car the route on the way home, I was pleased we'd run an additional mile since my plan for this week was 12-14.

In other news this week, Dave set me up with a strength program this Thursday night in lieu of the Crossroads run. It was a good mix of legs, core, and upperbody work. He designed my program so even when working upper body, I'm also working my legs are core in order to maintain balance and proper exercise form. I definitely felt the work in upper arms, back, quads, and hamstrings on Friday and Saturday. If I can get over the fact that I feel really stupid doing squats, an incline press in a lunge position (or that other upper body move in a lunge position that I already forgot) AND if I don't fall over doing a single leg romanian (as shown in this article Dave wrote), adding these workouts to my routine should help keep me injury free and improve my posture to boot.

On the fundraising front things are going well. Since my last report, I've received donations from the Nagle family, the Muscatello family, former DFMC runners Lori Suher and Chris Wile, and Morrison and Abraham in Randolph. Thanks so much for your generosity! I also made part of my own contribution to my run at the end of December with more to follow later. Total stands at $1325 as of this posting. This evening I have a mailing to start putting together to keep up the fundraising momentum.

Favorite Things

With three longish runs under my belt (and after a viewing of Sound of music this week) I thought I'd share some of my favorite things about marathon training, in alphabetical order. . .one for all 26 letters of the alphabet . . .

Advil

Band-Aid Advanced Healing Blister band-aids

Crossroads Runs

DFMC Teammates

Endorphins

Flexall

Gatorade

Hot Showers

IT Band Stretch

Jack's training plan

Kicking cancer's butt

Long runs with good company

Mooing at the Belted Galloways on Route 30

Nexcare reusable ice packs

Orange Gu

Pizza at Crossroads

Quiet time on long runs

Rest days

Sleep

Team meetings & Beer works

Unbelievable sponsor support

Vegetable Bean Soup

Water

XT days

Yak Tracks (jumping the gun on this one since I don't have any yet but I think I'll learn to love 'em and couldn't think of any good "Y" things!)

Zero-guilt desserts