Thursday, December 15, 2011
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Nothing to report
Seriously, nothing. I went to Ortho today on the advice of my PT and their only advice is to wear a heel lift. Great. That's totally going to make it heal up really fast now! I figure I should be ready to run again just as the temperature turns from an unusually warm winter straight into -20 degrees. Being injured sucks. Being somewhat injured but knowing you can't run because you'll make it worse is just an excruciating agony.
So since I can't run I suppose I will be
So since I can't run I suppose I will be
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Still Not Running
It's been a month since the marathon and I am still not running due to the issue with my Achilles. (ok, I ran once) It is still swollen and sore so I'm still icing, stretching, going to PT..blah, blah...I even got a Strassburg Sock on the advice of my therapist. And here I am still waiting. And getting fatter. And being super-pissed that it is 60 degrees outside and I'm not running.
Time to get back on the horse (figuratively of course) and get back to training. 2012 will be here soon and I've got big plans for the next year. I can feel all that speed just flowing out of my legs and fading away. Need to run!
Time to get back on the horse (figuratively of course) and get back to training. 2012 will be here soon and I've got big plans for the next year. I can feel all that speed just flowing out of my legs and fading away. Need to run!
 |
| Four! Four weeks of not running! Ah ah ah ah. |
Monday, November 7, 2011
Wrentham Halloween Duathlon
Postponed from last week due to the snow which means it suddenly fit into my schedule. I've been wanting to do this race for a couple of years so the timing was great. I pulled out the bike, which hadn't been touched in four months, and dug out my shoes, which also hadn't been touched in three weeks, and got ready for my first duathlon!
Realistically I had no idea what I was doing, but I figured that was part of the fun so just go with it. With an extra hour of sleep courtesy of daylight saving time I was ready to race even if it was only 24 degrees out. Really, 24? That's just freakin cold. I'm not a big fan of riding in the cold so I wasn't sure how that was going to go over.
I arrived at the venue, got my number and made my way to the transition area to rack my bike. Now it seems to me that triathletes spend a lot of time setting up and getting everything perfect, at least that's what I gather from all the race reports. So here I was expecting a big to-do and having to get all my gear and stuff just right. Really though, I hung my bike on the rail, put down a towel with my shoes and set my helmet and gloves on the bike. It took like ten seconds.
Race time! No gun, just a "Go!" and off we ran. I figured I would run a conservative 6:30 so I stuck to that and was surprised to see that the leaders weren't that far ahead. Cool. Three miles went by quick and I was doing ok, not great but ok. On to the bike! My first transition ever! This was going to be awesome. I ran int o the area, put down my running gloves, pulled off my shoes, put on my bike shoes, and finished with the helmet and bike gloves. Grabbed the bike and it was time to have fun!
Ow. Remember when I said that I hadn't biked in awhile? Yeah, it took a couple of miles for the crotch to get used to the saddle again. But I was passing people! Hooray for me! Then I got passed by other people. Boo. By mile 5 or so everyone was pretty set so no more passing around me. Everything was going good, I wasn't cold and I was moving along ok. Mile 6.5 my leg starting cramping, ouch. I kept going, it was either going to seize up or not. No time to worry about it. Eleven miles flew by and I began to wonder if I should become a bike racer instead of a runner, so much easier. No! Time for transition 2.
I got right up to the transition area and jumped off my bike and, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD! Why won't my legs work right?! So I gingerly and slowly jogged my way back to my area. Did the reverse transition, running shoes back on, running gloves, etc. and ran (um, jogged) back onto the road. Two miles left to go so I dug deep and powered my way to a brisk 7:30 pace. Really, 7:30? Come on legs, quit complaining and move! Surprisingly they did. I managed to finish off the two miles with a 6:45 average. I can live with that. Crossed the finish line in 1:09:29 and I had official done my first duathlon! Yeah me! Oh, and I managed to get 3rd in my AG (Men 35-39). Sweet.
Run 1 (3 mile) - 19:21 Cat/Ov 3/15
T1 - 1:19
Bike (11 mile) - 34:12 3/24
T2 - 1:20
Run 2 (2 mile) - 13:15 2/14
Overall - 1:09:29 3/17
Hee hee, look at those transition times. Ouch.
Other notable racers in attendance: Tracey Jones, Melissa Bair (3rd AG), and Lisa Perna (2nd AG).
Realistically I had no idea what I was doing, but I figured that was part of the fun so just go with it. With an extra hour of sleep courtesy of daylight saving time I was ready to race even if it was only 24 degrees out. Really, 24? That's just freakin cold. I'm not a big fan of riding in the cold so I wasn't sure how that was going to go over.
I arrived at the venue, got my number and made my way to the transition area to rack my bike. Now it seems to me that triathletes spend a lot of time setting up and getting everything perfect, at least that's what I gather from all the race reports. So here I was expecting a big to-do and having to get all my gear and stuff just right. Really though, I hung my bike on the rail, put down a towel with my shoes and set my helmet and gloves on the bike. It took like ten seconds.
Race time! No gun, just a "Go!" and off we ran. I figured I would run a conservative 6:30 so I stuck to that and was surprised to see that the leaders weren't that far ahead. Cool. Three miles went by quick and I was doing ok, not great but ok. On to the bike! My first transition ever! This was going to be awesome. I ran int o the area, put down my running gloves, pulled off my shoes, put on my bike shoes, and finished with the helmet and bike gloves. Grabbed the bike and it was time to have fun!
Ow. Remember when I said that I hadn't biked in awhile? Yeah, it took a couple of miles for the crotch to get used to the saddle again. But I was passing people! Hooray for me! Then I got passed by other people. Boo. By mile 5 or so everyone was pretty set so no more passing around me. Everything was going good, I wasn't cold and I was moving along ok. Mile 6.5 my leg starting cramping, ouch. I kept going, it was either going to seize up or not. No time to worry about it. Eleven miles flew by and I began to wonder if I should become a bike racer instead of a runner, so much easier. No! Time for transition 2.
I got right up to the transition area and jumped off my bike and, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD! Why won't my legs work right?! So I gingerly and slowly jogged my way back to my area. Did the reverse transition, running shoes back on, running gloves, etc. and ran (um, jogged) back onto the road. Two miles left to go so I dug deep and powered my way to a brisk 7:30 pace. Really, 7:30? Come on legs, quit complaining and move! Surprisingly they did. I managed to finish off the two miles with a 6:45 average. I can live with that. Crossed the finish line in 1:09:29 and I had official done my first duathlon! Yeah me! Oh, and I managed to get 3rd in my AG (Men 35-39). Sweet.
Run 1 (3 mile) - 19:21 Cat/Ov 3/15
T1 - 1:19
Bike (11 mile) - 34:12 3/24
T2 - 1:20
Run 2 (2 mile) - 13:15 2/14
Overall - 1:09:29 3/17
Hee hee, look at those transition times. Ouch.
Other notable racers in attendance: Tracey Jones, Melissa Bair (3rd AG), and Lisa Perna (2nd AG).
Sunday, November 6, 2011
First duathlon
Sitting in the parking lot getting ready for my first duathlon, the Wrentham Halloween Duathlon. It's local, it looks like fun, it's festive. Should be fun! It's 24 degrees out and I'm wearing shorts. What have I gotten myself into?
Monday, October 24, 2011
Week of Debauchery
Has come to a close.
After every marathon I allow myself to just do whatever I want for a week. No worries about what I'm eating or drinking or whatever. Months of training and worrying about all of the details can stress out even the hardiest of souls so you need to take some time to let go every so often. It just so happens that this past week coincided with both my daughter's birthday and my brother's birthday party. So there was plenty of cake and cookies to stuff myself with. It didn't help much that I was responsible for baking many of those cookies so I always had a supply on hand.
But with the week behind me it's time to settle back in to a more reasonable diet and to start to focus on the future. I have at least one more week of no running to go in order to get my achilles back to normal and then I can get back out on the roads. My fitness level is higher than it has ever been so I don't want to blow it all with too much punch and pie and too little exercise. There are always more races to be had and singlets to look good in.
After every marathon I allow myself to just do whatever I want for a week. No worries about what I'm eating or drinking or whatever. Months of training and worrying about all of the details can stress out even the hardiest of souls so you need to take some time to let go every so often. It just so happens that this past week coincided with both my daughter's birthday and my brother's birthday party. So there was plenty of cake and cookies to stuff myself with. It didn't help much that I was responsible for baking many of those cookies so I always had a supply on hand.
 |
| They may be baked but that doesn't mean they can't be awesome |
But with the week behind me it's time to settle back in to a more reasonable diet and to start to focus on the future. I have at least one more week of no running to go in order to get my achilles back to normal and then I can get back out on the roads. My fitness level is higher than it has ever been so I don't want to blow it all with too much punch and pie and too little exercise. There are always more races to be had and singlets to look good in.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Ladies and Gentlemen
I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the sub-3 hour marathon club:
Me!
Woohoo!! All the training and preparation paid off as everything fell in to place at today's BayState Marathon. The weather was near ideal (could have used less wind and more cloud cover) with a starting temperature of 55 degrees and low humidity. The fear that my achilles would end up causing an issue proved to be for naught; it wasn't even a factor. My calves hurt most of the race but they held up and there was no cramping. All those months of training had made me into a mean, lean, running, well, not really a machine but more of a person who ran really well.
I was lucky enough to fall into a group of four (and later five) that all ran the same pace for the first half. We traded off being the person in front so we all got some relief from the wind. One of the runners was a female who ended up doing a 3:03 (and score second in the 40-49 division). It was nice running with her for so long. Everyone kept yelling out her name and I was so impressed at how many people she knew! Then I remembered that our names were on our numbers. Doh!
After the halfway mark I was all alone, literally. Strangely enough, no one was within 20 feet of me for more than a short period for almost the entire second half. Weird.
I was nervous on approaching mile 18 because Mary had told me that if I get to mile 18 and want to die "YOU HAVE DONE IT RIGHT" (accent hers). So as I hit mile 18 I realized that I didn't want to die. The calves hurt but that was about it. It was then that I knew, I had this in the bag as long as there weren't any cramps.
So I ran, and ran, and ran. Mile 20, still feeling good. Mile 22. Doing alright, the legs kept turning over. Mile 23, or was it 24? Uh oh, I was starting to get confused; clearly I was getting tired. I had stuck to my nutrition plan though and even though my head was getting fuzzy the legs kept moving. Finally mile 26 arrived. Now I wanted to die. But I kept going. At this point it was all mental. I knew I was going to finish with a 2 as the first number in my time, I just needed to keep running. And I did. Here is where I have my one complaint about my race (I have to nitpick at something); this was the only mile I ended up running slower than 7 minute pace (7:05). By the time I crossed the bridge with less than half a mile left I was sufficiently toasted.
Last turn. Into the Tsongas Arena parking lot and the clock at the finish was just turning over to 2:58. I crossed the finish and let out a roar. I'd done it. All the training. All the pain. All the worrying, the stressing, the being a cranky bastard had paid off. Two hours, fifty-eight minutes and five seconds. I had beat three hours, taken 21 minutes off my best and virtually guaranteed myself a spot in the 2013 Boston Marathon.
And I had a great bottle of beer waiting for me at home. Time to relax and enjoy again. Cheers.
2:58:05
6:47 pace
29th overall
12th place 30-39 division
Boston Qualifying time for 2013
Me!
Woohoo!! All the training and preparation paid off as everything fell in to place at today's BayState Marathon. The weather was near ideal (could have used less wind and more cloud cover) with a starting temperature of 55 degrees and low humidity. The fear that my achilles would end up causing an issue proved to be for naught; it wasn't even a factor. My calves hurt most of the race but they held up and there was no cramping. All those months of training had made me into a mean, lean, running, well, not really a machine but more of a person who ran really well.
I was lucky enough to fall into a group of four (and later five) that all ran the same pace for the first half. We traded off being the person in front so we all got some relief from the wind. One of the runners was a female who ended up doing a 3:03 (and score second in the 40-49 division). It was nice running with her for so long. Everyone kept yelling out her name and I was so impressed at how many people she knew! Then I remembered that our names were on our numbers. Doh!
After the halfway mark I was all alone, literally. Strangely enough, no one was within 20 feet of me for more than a short period for almost the entire second half. Weird.
I was nervous on approaching mile 18 because Mary had told me that if I get to mile 18 and want to die "YOU HAVE DONE IT RIGHT" (accent hers). So as I hit mile 18 I realized that I didn't want to die. The calves hurt but that was about it. It was then that I knew, I had this in the bag as long as there weren't any cramps.
So I ran, and ran, and ran. Mile 20, still feeling good. Mile 22. Doing alright, the legs kept turning over. Mile 23, or was it 24? Uh oh, I was starting to get confused; clearly I was getting tired. I had stuck to my nutrition plan though and even though my head was getting fuzzy the legs kept moving. Finally mile 26 arrived. Now I wanted to die. But I kept going. At this point it was all mental. I knew I was going to finish with a 2 as the first number in my time, I just needed to keep running. And I did. Here is where I have my one complaint about my race (I have to nitpick at something); this was the only mile I ended up running slower than 7 minute pace (7:05). By the time I crossed the bridge with less than half a mile left I was sufficiently toasted.
Last turn. Into the Tsongas Arena parking lot and the clock at the finish was just turning over to 2:58. I crossed the finish and let out a roar. I'd done it. All the training. All the pain. All the worrying, the stressing, the being a cranky bastard had paid off. Two hours, fifty-eight minutes and five seconds. I had beat three hours, taken 21 minutes off my best and virtually guaranteed myself a spot in the 2013 Boston Marathon.
And I had a great bottle of beer waiting for me at home. Time to relax and enjoy again. Cheers.
2:58:05
6:47 pace
29th overall
12th place 30-39 division
Boston Qualifying time for 2013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)