A day late and a dollar short...

As my post on Sunday pointed out; I missed my long run last week. I ran 15.32 in 1:50:35 yesterday to get in a long run of sorts. I did it on the treadmill at my hotel in Saratoga Springs. The plan was to run for 2 hours, but had to cut off the last 10 minutes of the workout to deal with some work emails (maybe I shouldn't have brought my phone with me).

Here’s the plan for the rest of the week:

Tuesday: Track Workout.

Wednesday: MP (probably on the treadmill as I’ll still be in icy Upstate NY.

Thursday: Hills on Park Ave in Arlington.

Friday: Rest

Saturday: 20-30 minutes easy.

Sunday: Great Stew Chase 15k. Part of me wants to run this at MP to practice racing at a 6:40 min/mile pace but the rest of me wants to go out and just race it. That second part of me’s probably going to win. I’d love to get my average pace sub 6 on this one but we’ll see how fresh I can get the legs by race day.

Here's a side-by-side of me "after" in 2013 and "before" in 2006. In the 2006 race I ran 37:03 for the 8k (7:28.2 min/mile pace) in 2013 race I ran 1:20:50 for the half marathon (6:09.9 min/mile pace). Clearly growing a beard makes you faster.

 

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!

Well, this week is over. Hope the next is better...

It was cold as balls in New England this week. Actually, the temperature of “balls” is typically about 96°F so it was much colder than balls. Maybe the expression “cold as balls” refers to the temperature of snowballs. If that is the case, then this week it was exactly as cold outside as were any snowballs that were left outside. Anyway, you get my point. It was cold.

In general, I like to run in the cold. If it’s 20-32°F I like to use it as an opportunity to build toughness just in case it is cold on race day. If it’s <20°F on race day, I’ll find another race. If it’s <20°F on any other day, I’ll find a way to move my workout inside.

It feels like I took the week off (from running, I did plenty of time in the office) because I missed my long and I don’t know how to convert treadmill miles into real miles…

Here are the details from this week:

1/21/13 – 1/27/13: 4 Runs, 0 Injury, 1 Missed Workout, 2 Scheduled Rest Days, 35.28 Miles, 4:00:41.

• Monday: Rest day scheduled. Rest day taken.
• Tuesday: Reggie Lewis Track with Coach Toomey. 4x400m, 3x Mile. Scheduled pace of 1:24 per 400m and 5:40 per Mile with 1:30 rest after the 4s and 4:00 rest after the miles. I started with ~2.15 miles of warm-up, 400m strides in 1:15 and then went into the 400s. 400m times were: 1:21, 1:22, 1:21, 1:23. My miles were 5:33, 5:38 and 5:39. I ended with a 2.6 mile cool down.
• Wednesday: I did an MP workout on the treadmill. 15 minute warm up. 5 miles at ~6:39. Cool down until the treadmill clock ran out at 1:00:00. Total distance: 8.56.
• Thursday: I got off work late and didn'tWe want to run in the cold so I did an easy hour on the treadmill for 8.21 miles.
• Friday: Rest day scheduled. Date night with Sarah!
• Saturday: 9.52 miles in 1:00:00 on the treadmill. When I got in my car to drive home from work, the temperature was 21°F according to my dash and I thought I was going to finally get to do this workout outside. My car was parked in the sun all day so as the sun set on the drive home the temperature fell to 16°F so I went for the treadmill.
• Sunday: I was really looking forward to Sunday. I expected to do 17.5 for my first long run in far too many weeks. I just could not get out of work today. I was just so drained after work that all I could do was go home and watch Top Gear. I hope I can turn tomorrow into a long run…

I’m off to Malta, NY in the morning tomorrow until Wednesday which will throw off my training a bit more for next week, but I’ll try to manage. Maybe I’ll switch my week around a bit and do hills on Tuesday in NY and do my track workout on Thursday with GLRR in Lexington.

They’re not all good weeks, and this one wasn't a good one. Here’s to hoping that week 3 will be better than week 2.

2 week down and 15 weeks left until Providence!

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!

adidas Adizero Adios 2

Well, I've been slacking on the whole posting thing for the past few days because I've been busy with work and with running, but I'm back at it now. I'm actually at work while I'm posting this, but the samples I'm running right now each take about 2 hours and require minimal supervision so here goes. I promised some gear reviews in this thing and here is my first one:

The adidas Adizero Adios 2:

I thought this box was empty when I first picked it up...nope, there were shoes inside.

There is a lot of text in this one without many pictures, so let me cut to the chase and give these shoes a score of 37 points. What does this mean? Well, if they were in the Division round of the NFL playoffs they would have beaten the Broncos, the Packers, the Falcons, the Seahawks and the Texans but lost to the Patriots, the 49ers and the Ravens. What does the score mean in terms of comparison to other shoes? For that, you will have to read on...

First: why am I running in the Adios?

The other week I went to City Sports in Porter Square for the Saturday morning Run Club (1/13/13). Melanie from adidas was there to let us try out the adidas Adizero Boston trainers on the run. I was skeptical when I first picked up the Boston and felt how massive the heel was, but I laced them up and took them out for 5 miles in ~36:40. The Boston was better than many of the adidas trainers that I had tried in the past but I still needed to be honest when it came time to review the shoe.

My review reflected the stiff ride, the heavy heel and the steep drop across the shoe. I reported that although I tend to associate adidas with distance running because of their historical associations with the Boston and Rotterdam Marathons, I was yet to find an adidas shoe that worked for me. Melanie emailed me after reading my review to recommend trying the Aegis or the Adios. I did my homework and decided to give the Adios a try. Thanks Melanie!

Second: why am I bulleting this into sections like “First” and “Second”?

Because I want to.

Third: My out of the box impression.

The Adios showed up on Thursday 1/17/13 in a box down next to my mailbox. Thursday was a rough day at work; we had a fairly major layoff along with announcing some significant cost saving measures. I didn't lose my job, but the mood was understandably subdued in the afternoon so it was a nice spark to my day to see the box waiting for me.

I picked it up and wondered if it really was the Adios or if someone had just left an empty cardboard box by my mailbox. I took it upstairs and cut it open to find that there was indeed a pair of Adios inside.

I could bore you with all the technical specs about this shoe. I could tell you about the fit and the last and the upper, the sole and the toe box. I won’t. None of that information belongs in the review of a shoe. You can look up all that information from the adidas website but none of it can give you any idea of what to expect when you put it on.

My first impression of the Adios after taking the shoes out of the box was: these are wicked light and they look like trainers with none of the silly gimmicks I've come to expect these days.

Fourth: My initial review.

I have now had these shoes for 8 days and taken them out for 6 runs totaling 55.9 miles, so I think that I’m ready to give an initial review. I will write another final review when they wear out.

Here are the workouts that I've used these shoes for:

11.6 mile Hill Workout (2 mile warm up, 7.6 miles of hills, 2 mile cool down)

10.3 mile Tempo/MP Workout (2 mile warm up, 2.1 miles Tempo, 4.2 miles MP, 2 mile cool down)

8.2 mile Aerobic Run (Supposed to be 16 mile Long, but lingering Achilles issues cut the run in half)

Track Workout (~2 mile warm up, 400m Strides, 400m, 400m, 400m, 400m, Mile, Mile, Mile, ~2.5 mile cool down)

8.6 mile MP Workout (treadmill: 15 min warm up, 5 miles at MP, cool down until the timer on the gym treadmill stopped it at 1 hour)

8.2 mile Easy Run (just easy miles on a treadmill at the Porter Square Planet Fitness to protect the walnuts from freezing off)

I have never before used the same shoe to run a 75 second 400 and a 10+ mile hill workout but I wanted to find the limits for the Adios. I didn't find them.

On that first hill workout I needed to stop every twenty minutes to make adjustments to the lacing of the shoe. This is probably normal as it breaks in and the cushioning molds itself to my foot; I've just never had a shoe go from new to broken in so quickly. By the end of the 11.6 miles the Adios felt as comfortable as if I had been running in them for 50 miles.

More surprising was how easy they made going faster feel. On this workout, my first watch check is the 2 mile mark at the intersection of Park and Mass Ave. I usually get to Park at 15:45. This is my warm up; it is supposed to be at aerobic pace. I thought I was going aerobic pace, but in the Adios, I got to Park in 13:26 and had to make the conscious effort to check my watch every 1.5 miles and make the effort to keep it slow through the rest of the workout.

On Saturday I took them out on a trail in North Carolina for 10.3 miles of up tempo running. There’s not much to say about them from this one. I expect lightweight trainers to be good for this kind of run and they were. I got a bit ahead of myself and went too fast on a downhill during my cool down from this run and reaggravated my right Achilles, but I do not believe that this was related to the shoe.

On Sunday I cut my long run short because I didn't want to hurt the Achilles, but if I wasn't looking forward to putting the Adios on I might have skipped this run entirely.

I have only ever run in spikes or flats on the track before so I expected the Adios to slow me down and let me hit my prescribed paces. They felt good in warm up and I did my 400m strides in 1:15 so by the time the workout started I had found some new confidence in these shoes. The workout started with 4x 400m intervals at an 84 second target; I ran 81, 82, 81 and 83. Then came the mile repeats. My first mile was 5:33 and felt smooth and easy (my target was 5:40 for all 3x miles). The second mile was 5:38 which looks like I was closer to target pace, but because of how busy the track was I ran this mile in lane 3 which probably meant that my pace wasn't much better than the first mile.

Finally, I asked Mike to pace me through the first 400m of the last mile. With Mike’s help, I was able to run an extremely relaxed 5:39.

On Wednesday, the Adios got their first taste of the treadmill. Not much to say about this run from a shoe stand point but they didn't cause any problems. Not much to say about the easy treadmill run either.

Historically, my problem with adidas trainers has been that they seem to try to be too much of a compromise and never end up being a useful shoe for me. The Adios is different. It does not seem to be a compromise of a track shoe and a racer and a training shoe and a trail shoe, it just seems to be a shoe that is perfectly suited for all of these. I frankly did not believe that a major athletic wear manufacturer like adidas could make a shoe this good. I thought that shoes like this came only from niche manufacturers. I was wrong. The Adios has replaced the Kinvara 1 as the best shoe I have run in.

Ultimately, the difference in weight between a 4oz racing flat and a 15oz stability trainer will not have much effect on your race time. A shoe cannot magically make you run faster. What the Adios does (and any good shoe should do) is make you excited to put it on and go out and train. Consistency in your training will do more for your race time than any change in racing shoe weight ever can.

I expect to wear out his pair of Adios long before the Providence Marathon, but I think that I have found my training/racing shoe until adidas discontinues the Adios (or until they do an update that I don’t like).

In a month or so, I’ll post an update with how many miles I got out of this pair before it wore out.

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!

Why the WMDP selection as “Club of the Year” was not controversial to me.

WMDP and GLRR at the start of the 2012 Kerouac 5k (and other clubs).

Recently I was faced with the question of what club to vote for as 2012 USATF New England Club of the Year. We all have the childish reaction to vote for our own clubs for some sort of pat on the back. For me, that would have meant voting for one of three running clubs: the Wicked Running Club, the Greater Lowell Road Runners or the Saratoga Stryders. The Saratoga Stryders were out because they are in USATF Adirondack. Neither Wicked nor GLRR were nominated so I was forced to think about what club deserved the award. My vote went to the Western Mass Distance Project.

WMDP was named co-Club of the Year along with the Whirlaway Racing Team at the USATF New England banquet and to my surprise this selection was controversial.

The first thing to come to mind was that members of snubbed clubs would think that their club should have won, but it seems to be more than that. There seems to be a genuine disagreement about what Club of the Year should mean, and that’s ok.

USATF stands for United State of America Track and Field so some members might think that the Club of the Year must stand out in throws, jumps and track events. In addition to track and field events, USATF New England also governs road running, cross country, mountain running and race walking so perhaps each of these racing arenas should weigh into the decision, but how much does each event matter? Does a club winning the Men’s Open category of the road Grand Prix count as much as another club having a member set the Women’s Masters American Record at the Triple Jump?

Then there is the question of activities like race organization, volunteering at races organized by other organizations, youth outreach, philanthropy, club member benefits and so forth. Do these activities matter for Club of the Year and if so, how much do they matter relative to racing and each other? I don’t have THE answer.

But I do have AN answer.

My answer is that there is no mathematical formula for deciding what club should be the Club of the Year. The answer is that it doesn’t matter how many events a club wins or how much money it raises or how many youth outreach events it has or how many members volunteer at the Boston Marathon.

When deciding what club should be Club of the Year I go back to the two core functions of a running club that supersede everything else:

1) Does the club inspire runners to run more?

2) Does the club inspire more people to become runners?

I listed these two questions in this order because I consider the first more important. There are as many reasons why people start running as there are runners and for the most part the running club isn’t something that starts us running. The running club should be something that keeps us running.

In my early days as a runner I joined Wicked Running Club partly because Tim Short was wearing a Wicked singlet when he won the Men’s 20-29 group at all the races around Salem, MA and he was always at the finish line when I crossed, waiting to cheer every Wicked member in to the finish. When I joined Wicked, I started training with Danny (Chick), Tim and Rich (Tomlins) on Saturday mornings.

Rich and Tim cruising in the 2008 Nahant 30k.

Wicked had club social events, hosted races, gave scholarships, volunteered at Boston, hosted youth track meets and competed at races at many levels, but for me, the most important thing that Wicked did was have that Saturday morning run because Tim, Rich and I pushed each other to run faster and train harder.

After running the first 2 USATF-NE GP races in Wicked red I decided that I wanted to use competing in the series as a catalyst for my training. Since Wicked wasn’t fielding a team for the USATF races, I wanted to find a club that I could train with where I would have the chance of scoring for the team if I worked my ass off, but where I would get pushed by other runners passing me if I slacked off. I found the Greater Lowell Road Runners.

GLRR makes an appearance on the Steamtown Marathon website.

Whether it was EJ logging a 3000 mile year and running a 2:50:04 marathon (fastest runner 50 or older at Steamtown) or Lauren winning the Bermuda Challenge, Bui running BQ marathons on three consecutive weekends or Bash terrifying everyone by getting hit by a car only to come back with two fall marathons including a BQ in Tucson, GLRR has never failed to provide inspiration to keep training.

So that is what I value in a club: the ability to inspire runners to run more.

To me WMDP earned their place as co-Club of the Year by living the blueprint for success. It is so easy to turn a 90 second rest between intervals into 2 minutes. It is easy to do your tempo runs at Marathon Pace and it is easy to figure that 18 is enough on a 20 miler day and it is even easier to decide that rest days don’t matter and go out for an easy 10k with your friends. WMDP has shown that success comes from the combination of only two things: you must work hard and you must work smart. Or, in their words: Respect the Process. In my eyes this is not a competition club vs. club. We are all in this together and if one club can not only inspire its own members to train harder and smarter but also inspire the rest of us then that club deserves the accolade of Club of the Year.

I still have not met anyone who runs with WMDP, but to all of you, my hat is off. Though I (and many others like me) cannot race as fast as you guys, we can follow your lead and Respect the Process of our training. Congratulations on being named Co-Club of the Year.

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!

The First Week of Training

I’m still hopeful that on 5/12/13 I’ll be putting up a post celebrating a <2:55:00 finish at the Providence Marathon. If I do that it will be at least a 22:31 PR which will instantly make what I’m doing for training at least somewhat interesting in that it will show what works. Otherwise, maybe a look at my training will be an example of what not to do. Either way; this probably won't be worth looking at until May, but here it is.

Here is my update about my first week of 4 months of training for Providence. I’ll start with an overview of the previous week.

1/7/13 – 1/13/13: 5 Runs, 1 Injury, 2 Unscheduled Rest Days, 29.73 Miles, 3:45:25.

• Monday: 7.32 Miles in 0:59:42. Ran around Fresh Pond in Cambridge. I skipped the muddy trail section of the loop (usually 7.50 miles). The road was fairly clear so I can’t blame my speed on the black ice that has been my bane recently; I was just flat out exhausted. My 16.12 mile long run the previous day and the 10 miles with tempo the day before took more out of me than I had expected.
• Tuesday: Reggie Lewis Track with Coach Toomey. 6x1000m. Scheduled pace of 3:32 per 1000m with 2:30 rest between intervals. I went a bit faster than I was supposed to; 3:24, 3:25, 3:23, 3:26, 3:22, 3:18. I only did 10 minutes warm up and 10 minutes cool down. In retrospect, going too fast and not warming-up or cooling-down enough probably wasn't a good idea.
• Wednesday: I woke up with pain and swelling in my right Achilles. Shit. It got worse all day. Skipped my MP run.
• Thursday: Achilles was supposed to get all better overnight or during the day on Thursday so that I could do my normal hills workout (8.56 miles, 800ft vertical gain). The Achilles didn't cooperate so instead I skipped my run again and made ravioli with a sauce made out of vine ripened tomatoes, fresh spinach, roasted red peppers, EVOO, garlic, pickled spicy onion and pan seared cod (plus various spices). I didn't run but at least Sarah and I ate well that night.
• Friday: The Achilles felt a bit better so I went out for a 1 mile loop at aerobic pace to test it out. 1.06 Miles in 8:55. I was dreadfully slow and my form was all over the place, but at least the Achilles didn't hurt any worse after the run than before.
• Saturday: 5 Miles in 36:29. On a normal week, this would have been 5 miles at MP (6:40 min/mile) bracketed on either end by 2.5 at aerobic. This wasn't a normal week; I was still babying the Achilles. I ran this with the Porter Square Run Club. Melanie from adidas came to let us try out some trainers. I did this run in Adizero Bostons. After the run we wrote reviews of the shoes and got free adidas running socks. The socks are quite good, but the Bostons weren't good shoes for me and my review showed it. Long story short, adidas is shipping me a pair of Adizero Adios to try out. Moral of the story: come run with the Porter Square Run Club (this is also where I met Lynn, EJ, Lauren, Bash and Bui who eventually convinced me to join GLRR).
• Sunday: 10 Miles in 1:19:19. I don’t think I've ever run 10 miles this slowly before. Nothing really hurt; I was just exhausted and never got the turnover going. Laps through the muddy section of the Fresh Pond loop didn't help me feel inspired for this run.

So that's where I was coming from when I started this week.

1/14/13 – 1/20/13: 5 Runs. 0 Injuries, 2 Scheduled Rest Days. 42.69 Miles. 5:11:01. (Time and distance not counting top secret Monday run).

•  Monday: Mike scheduled this one as a rest day. I probably needed it after how bad last week was. I might have run a few sneaky aerobic pace miles because I wanted to keep the legs moving…but shhhh, that’s our little secret (call it 3.06 at 7:50 pace).
•  Tuesday: Reggie Lewis Track with Coach Toomey. 2x 400m, 400m, 800m, Mile at target paces 85, 85, 2:52, 5:46 and rest 90, 90, 2:30, 4:00. As usual, I went out too fast. Basically what’s happening is that I’m having rounding errors when I check my splits every 100m and the error is propagating along to make my run too fast. Here were my splits: 83, 81, 2:46, 5:35, 80, 81, 2:43, 5:38. I did a good 15 minute warm up this week and did dynamic stretching before and after the workout.
• Wednesday: 4.44 in 30:00 MP run on the treadmill. The pavement around my house was a sheet of black ice when I got home from work so I wasn't interested in trying to do my 30 minute MP run outside. I went over to Planet Fitness in Porter Square for my first time in about a year. There was a line for the treadmills! New Years should be in the summer so that all these resolutioners are going when I’m safe to run outside!
• Thursday: Hill workout! 11.61 miles with >2500 feet of elevation change in 1:30:14. I got my free adidas Adizero Adios trainers and took them out for this run. They were really good…they’ll get their own post!
• Friday: Schedule called for a rest day. I took this one. I really wanted to get out in the Adios a second time but I needed to do laundry and pack for the trip to NC with Sarah.
• Saturday: 10.30 miles in 1:13:55. Two miles easy, 6.6 miles of tempo on the trails and then two miles easy back to Sarah’s grandparents’ place. It was nice to be out running in shorts and a t-shirt! A (probably not) interesting note about my running log is that at the end of this run my YTD time spent running was exactly 15:30:00; it doesn't mean anything but round numbers very rarely show up in my log.
• Sunday: 8.20 miles in 1:03:04. This was supposed to be twice as far but my Achilles was barking. I’d rather take it easy and get it healthy than push a long run too hard four months out and put myself on the shelf.

Also good news from this week; Mark sent me a code to get $20 off of my registration for Providence! Score! More good news is that I didn't get laid off on Thursday (and neither did Mark, David, Phillip or Paul so it looks like the core of the Axcelis Running Team will still be here for the JP Morgan Challenge). Mark and David will also be running Providence with me…in a few months I’ll probably put together a list of names and bib numbers to track but that’s quite a ways off.

1 week down and 16 weeks left until Providence!

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!

The dreaded Lance Armstrong opinion piece…

Opinions are like assholes: according to a recent study, if you slice them thinly enough and deep fry them, no one will be able to tell them apart from calamari.

I shit you not:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/16/imitation-calamari-sliced-pig-rectum_n_2482063.html

Okay, “This American Life” is not Fermilab but I might stick to cooking my own calamari from here on out…

So while I admit that opinions are just opinions, this is a blog and thus the proper place for me to share mine. And seriously, can you have a blog about an endurance sport and not mention Lance Armstrong this week?

So here’s my take:

Surviving cancer and working tirelessly to benefit cancer research and to support victims of cancer does not mitigate the fact that he doped to win his cycling stuff but neither does the fact that he cheated at his sport tarnish the good he has done for those living with cancer.

Also the sport of cycling is not a victim of Lance’s cheating. They set this up for themselves. Here’s where I need to stop talking about cycling and start talking about running. I don’t know enough about cycling as a sport to have an intelligent opinion so I’ll talk about running and hope that there is some parallel.

I've won maybe $500 in prize money, some gift cards, a few pairs of shoes, a free entry or two and a 6 month gym membership in the entire 10 year span since I ran my first race. So let’s say that in the average year I win: $50 cash, a $25-$50 gift card, the laces from a pair of running shoes and a few coupons for free ice cream. Clearly not enough to offset the annual cost of ~10 pairs of trainers, 1-2 pairs of racing flats, 10-16 race entry fees, coaching fees and an indoor track membership.

It cannot be more obvious that I’m not in this for the money, but pretending I was and I was thinking PEDs:

If I kept my training the same and started blood doping or taking HGH or something, maybe I could improve enough to win $1000 per year in prize money which probably wouldn't even cover the added cost of the drugs. If I quit my job so that I could train harder and I started taking some sort of PED, maybe I could bring in $30,000-$40,000 per year. It just doesn't make much sense to take a >50% pay cut and give up my health insurance to take a banned substance for a shot at a running career which couldn't possibly last more than a few years.

That’s where just about all of us runners are. We don’t make money off of running and we can’t even improve enough with PEDs to win enough money to make it worth our while. If there’s no financial incentive is there some other incentive? I would argue no. Let’s be honest here: no one cares that I ran a 16:55 at a 5k last fall. Running sub 17 matters only to me because of how hard I needed to work to get there. If I took some PEDs and ran a 15:55 it would still be too slow for anyone else to care and the PR wouldn't have been as fulfilling because I would know I hadn't done the work.

The elite level professional runners (and I assume cyclists) are different. When Meb won the NYC marathon in 2009 he had a lead of 41 seconds over second place finisher Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot. That works out to a difference in pace of less than 1 second per kilometer. What is the difference in prize money between first place and second place in New York? $65,000.

I finished the Manchester City Marathon in 3:17:30 in 78^th place for my PR this past fall. Had I been 1 second per kilometer faster I would have finished in 3:16:48 and still would have been in 78^th place. I still would not have won an age group medal or anything else.

Cheruiyot took home $65,000 less than he would have if he had been able to run 1 second per kilometer faster. With the stakes changed from a slightly different PR and no change in field placement to a check for $65k (actually exchanging his $65k check for the $130k one that Meb took home) it isn't hard to imagine that those elite athletes are looking at PEDs a little differently than the rest of us.

Lance was an elite athlete and for elite athletes it is all about the money. Unfortunately, if you’re not doing whatever you can to get that money then you’re doing it wrong.

For us amateur runners, it is all about icicles forming in our beards. If you’re not coming home from your long run with your beard caked with ice then you’re doing it wrong. Your biggest mistake is probably not having a beard. You should get on that. 

Ladies: they sell hats with built in beards so that you don’t have to take BEDs (beard enhancing drugs) to grow your own: http://www.beardhead.com/

In case you’re wondering, I’m not the only one who thinks you need a beard to be a badass runner:

http://running.competitor.com/2011/01/features/the-top-5-bearded-runners-of-all-time_21006

Lowell’s own Nate Jenkins made this list; here’s him showing off his beard...and also running a race.

This is Shalane Flanagan showing off her Wicked Running Club pride. No beard though so she should invest in one of those beard hats.

 

In 2012, I think that part of my problem was sticking to racing mustaches:

Running with a handlebar for the New Bedford Half Marathon and the Olde-Timey Inventor for the Cape.

In 2013, the beard is making a comeback.

So my takeaways from the whole Lance Armstrong doping thing are:

1. Grow a beard.
• If you are incapable of growing your own beard, it is permissible to purchase one to wear while running.
2. If your fried calamari tastes funny, don't say I didn't warn you.
3. Amateur racing > Professional Racing.
4. Beards > Mustaches > Face Tattoos > Beards…think of it like facial Rock-Paper-Scissors every time you meet someone new.

Until next time: 

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!

Off to the races!

Last night was track night at Reggie, but I’m not going to post about that now. I’ll save that update for Sunday night so I can summarize the entire week of training. Second, thanks to EJ for the tip about Stu's 30k...we'll see about that one. Also, there are rumors of things (reorg…) happening at work tomorrow. More on that later…

Instead, can I tell you how excited I am for the Great Stew Chase 15k on February 3^rd? It’s pretty damn excited.

Brief commercial break…

http://www.stewchase.com/stewchaseroadrace/

Now back to our irregularly scheduled post.

If you clicked the link above, you will see Tim Short of the Wicked Running Club smack dab in the center of the front page photo. He’s the one in the shades and red singlet, literally in the center of the photo. I’m there too, standing next to Tim but all you can see of me is the white stripe down my sleeve.

The photo was taken in 2009 when this race was part of the Wicked Running Club’s Grand Prix.

That’s me on the way to finishing first for Wicked (but 24^th overall) in 2009.

Back then I wore sun glasses. Since then my sun glasses broke and I haven’t bought a new pair. It’s been 4 years, sun glasses aren't made to live forever; at least not the ones you pay $10 for at a gas station. I'm over it.

Well, my shoulder is getting sore from all of this patting myself on the back about a race I ran four years ago so back to 2013. In 2009, the Stew Chase was a bit of a breakout race for me. It was my first race after spending the winter on the track with Coach Mike Toomey and Doug, Danny and Jarred.

That’s me with Danny and Jarred at Reggie back in the day! Photo by Michael Conners.

When I started running with these guys at the end of 2008, my 5k PR was 18:48. At the Stew Chase I averaged 19:22 per 5k for 3 consecutive 5ks. I didn’t know if that was “good” or “bad” but I felt good about it and it catapulted me towards more serious training, over to the Netherlands to run the Rotterdam Marathon and getting a stress fracture while trying to win the Half at the Hamptons (even without the injury I wasn't in the kind of shape to place at the race but if there's one thing I'm never short of it is unreasonable expectations).

Jumping back to 2013 for real: in December of 2012 I signed up with Mike for personal coaching because I felt that I had run really poorly at the Cape Cod Marathon and only slightly better at Manchester.

Here is commercial break #2:

http://www.mypersonalrunningcoach.com/

Hopefully my races this spring will be an advertisement for Mike. Back to the post:

So far this winter, track’s been going well. I've been hitting the hills and got in a few good long runs so now I’m getting excited to get back out there and try my legs out at a race.

As a bonus, the field for the Stew Chase seems to be shaping up nicely. Both Jarred and Suzanne (also shooting for sub-3, but at Boston) from Mike Toomey’s training group have said they’re either planning on running or thinking about it and Rich “The Hammer” may make an appearance to prep for Boston! You can also usually count on GBTC and CMS to bring some speed. Who knows, there may even be some Angry Chickens who make their way to this one. I hope to see you all at the start line!

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!

Two hours, fifty-four minutes and fifty-nine seconds.

Two hours, fifty-four minutes and fifty-nine seconds. I have never seen that time on a clock next to a finish line. I have never been fast enough to finish a marathon in that time or slow enough to limp across a half-marathon finish line with that time showing. Somehow, despite 168 career races, I've managed never to run a race between 13.11 miles and 26.22 miles. That last point is something that I will be addressing in 2013, but not really the point of this blog at the moment.

This is the story of my journey towards seeing that 2:54:59 as I complete the Cox Marathon in Providence, RI on 5/12/13. Actually, I’m not all that concerned about seeing the exact time because there will be a bit of time between when I last see the clock and when I cross the line and there will also be a difference in time between my gun time and my chip time. To continue to make a short story long, what I’m getting at is that my goal for this marathon is a sub 2:55:00 chip time.

Do you like that? I managed to stretch out something as simple as saying how fast I want to run the Providence Marathon into two paragraphs, and right now I’m adding a third paragraph to summarize those two unnecessary paragraphs! So if you’re at work and are so ridiculously bored that you’ve already read the entire internet and looked at the picture of every possible permutation of kitten plus inanimate object, then this is the blog for you.

So here’s what’s to come:

Training! My current marathon PR is 3:17:30. I ran this at the Manchester City Marathon one week after falling apart at Cape Cod to the tune of 3:40:31. My only other marathon in 2012 was the Marathon de Napoli where I finished in 3:48:32. My fastest half marathon in 2012 was 1:31:49. So what evidence do I have that I can get to <2:55:00? Why do I think that I can chop 22:30 off of my marathon PR and run both halves of the race 4:19 faster than my fastest half marathon from 2012? To be honest, it’s more of a want than an expectation. I believe that the only difference between a 2:55:00 marathoner and a 3:17:00 marathoner is training, so most of this blog will be about training.

Racing! What can I say about race reports? Everyone likes to write them, and by everyone I mean some people some of the time. I’ll try to write more of a review of the course, the swag, the organization and so forth than about my run. Race reports can turn into a list of splits really fast; I’ll try not to go there.

Gear! I’m currently doing most of my training in the Saucony Lightspeed. I will have a review of this shoe up sometime in the next two weeks as it finishes wearing out. My next trainer is the Adidas Adizero Adios. I’ll post some pictures and thoughts out of the box and then a review around 250 miles and when it breaks down. Along the way, I’ll be trying to find the perfect marathon shoe. I expect to run through 3-4 pairs of trainers in the next 4 months leading up to Providence. My spikes and racing flats are old as hell, so I’m not going to review them, but I’ll review my new gear as it comes up. Every review will cover, comfort, durability, speed, price and the eventual cost per mile.

Injuries! Some readers may like to hear what I do to avoid injuries and how I treat them, but because I’m not actually any good at either of those two things this will be more of a Schadenfreude section where you can read about me riding the waaambulance and making excuses.

Pasta! I like to cook and eat pasta. It really has nothing to do with running but I might post something anyway.

Running in exotic places! Thus far, I've run or raced in the 11 States, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, Ecuador, South Korea, Peru, Singapore, and Taiwan. From the heat and humidity in Singapore, to the easy miles on the Elbe in Dresden, Germany, every run in every location is different, perhaps none so much as Taiwan where I was fed Pig Testicle Soup post run one day. I’ll tell you where to run outside, where to stick to the treadmill and where to insist on a menu with English translations.

So that’s what this is all about.

Who: Me, James DeLuca, a guy with a 3:17:30 marathon PR trying to run <2:55:00.

What: A log of my training, my gear, my races and my life.

Where: I have no idea where the server is located that’s hosting this blog. Fortunately, you can find it just by going to the URL at the top of the page. Chances are, you already know where it is because you’re reading this right now.

When: When I’m bored and feel like posting something. That probably means I’ll shoot something off on my lunch breaks during the week or after my long run or race on the weekend.

Why: Following a training plan requires building in rest time. If I can’t run I might as well write about running. Also, posting my thoughts about running might help me stop annoying my wife by talking about running constantly.

How: By typing things?

May your training miles be ever hilly and may all your races have free beer!