The Road to Boston (week 11 of 16)

This is the month that will either make or break my Boston race, so it's time to pull out the stops, knuckle down and do some hard work.  I'm finally back home for a decent stretch, and newly armed with a couple of new workout dvds.  Bring it on.

Saturday March 10th
5:10am, 45F and rainy.  Did 18 miles in 2:34:37 (8:35 average).

Sunday March 11th
5:30am, 55F, pouring rain and stormy.  Since this clocks went forward last night, this was a particularly early start.  Had a point in this run where I could have cut it short to 7 miles, but happy to report I kept with my original plan and continued for the extra mile.  Yay me!!!  8 miles in 1:06:54 (8:21 average) - not bad for a recovery run.

9pm.  50 minutes of core work.  Gavin joined in with me, and we had a good time working out together.
 
Monday March 12th
9pm.  60 minutes of circuit training.  Earned a good bit of sweat equity for Boston tonight with a good hard workout.  Sweated through my shoes for the first time since running through last summer's heat.  Concentrated on lots of variations of squats, lunges and jumps.  Really pushed it, and it felt great.  Tired but happy.

Wednesday March 14th
5am, 68F and muggy.   Was supposed to run 10 yesterday, but was awake with a "not quite feeling himself and wants his dad" Dylan instead.  Wanted to make up for it by meeting James for a pace run this morning.  Did 7 miles in 54:50 (7:50 average).  Not as fast I would have liked, but I'll still take a sub-7.

5pm.  Did an hour of kettlebell swings, squats and holds.  Legs like rubber, back really tight, sweat pouring off, sweated through my shoes again.  Paying my entry fee for Boston right here.

Thursday March 15th
 5am, 68F and muggy.  7 miles with Clea this morning.  Legs still sore from last night, but got better the further we went (possibly fueled by the conversation about closets and cockney rhyming slang).  Ran 58:44 (8:23 average).

The Road to Boston (week 10 of 16)

6 weeks to go, and I really don't feel prepared at all (so what else is new, right?).  My running does not seem anywhere near as easy as it was a few short months ago, and my focus has wavered (plus I've been eating way too much junk stuff on all my travels).  On the other hand, I probably don't want to be smooth sailing this far out.  If I play it right, I can run myself into form and straight into the start line at Hopkinton.

And I'm still contemplating what to do after Boston.  Part of me wants to sign up for another race (like the super fun BCS marathon I ran last December), while another part of me wants to give it a break for a while.  Good angel, bad angel.  Jekyll and Hyde.  Right now the powers of light and darkness are in perfect balance.

Though as my plans to run a marathon with my brother in the UK this summer fell through, I guess I don't need to make a decision for a while anyway!!!

Saturday March 3rd
5:10am, 55F and windy.  Met Clea for 18 miles, with a guest appearance by Megan in the middle of the run.  Sore hamstring because I was stupid and did a boat load of leg curls last week on an already dodgy hamstring.  No monster Stratford hills today (thank goodness), but still enough inclines on Scenic and Jefferson to keep me interested.  Finished in 2:36:11 (8:41 average), with the highlight being a quick stop to check on a "drunk as a skunk" yuppie sprawled across the trail.  At the risk of sounding old, man I do not miss the party scene at all!!!

Sunday March 4th
5:30am, 48F.  7 mile Shoal Creek recovery run with Clea.  We kept a good pace and equally good conversation to finish up in 57:37 (8:14 average).  Big day as I rushed home to celebrate Gavin's birthday.  Good thing I clocked up the miles this weekend, as we all enjoyed Cheesecake Factory cheesecake.  I only wish I hadn't looked at the nutrition label!!!

Tuesday March 6th
5am, 58F and humid.  Met James for our 7 mile pace run.  He's training for London and me for Boston, so we're right at the same point in our training.  Which means we were both tired from 18-20 mile runs this weekend.  Still, we managed 7 miles in 53:55 (7:42 average), which is not bad at all.

9:30pm.  Traveling again at another client site.  After a 4 hour drive to North Texas after work, needed something to loosen me up.  In the absence of a good single malt, that something turned out to be Bob Harper's 15 minute "yoga" abs workout.  Now I'm ready for bed, with the best intentions of getting up for an early morning run in a bid to avoid the runner-unfriendly local motorists, thus saving wear and tear on my middle finger.

The Road to Boston (week 9 of 16)

Ok, completely disorganized this week, but greetings from Little Rock, AR.  Man am I ever racking up the air miles and hotel points these days!!!  Been slacking on the blog front after some late night work sessions, but sneaking in a few minutes to get it done.

Bad news this week when I heard my little brother had to pull out of what would have been his debut marathon at London due to injury.  Tried to convince him to run his first marathon with me when I'm over in the UK this coming summer, but it's not to be.

Oh well, take care of yourself and heal up quickly bro.  I am not accepting that as an excuse when I nail your ass at a park run this summer.

I am reading "Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham and the Science of Success" by Matthew Syed.  It is a fascinating book that delves into the psychology and similarities of the most successful people in sports, music etc.  There are some real insights into human behavior, though I think it's telling me I'm not much good at anything because I'm lazy.  To be fair, it's probably right :-)

Saturday February 25th
5:15am, can't remember what the weather was doing.  13 miles, annoying hamstring injury, the hills of Stratford, 1:56:07 (8:54 average).  On the plus side, I got home in time to watch the Wales rugby team win the Triple Crown by beating England, and the Marathon Talk technical shirts arrived from the UK (Boston race shirts for Clea and myself).

Sunday February 26th
5:30am, no idea about the weather.  Weird run - seemed to get more into it as it went along.  7 miles in 57:45 (8:17 average)
pm. 1 hour of strength circuits.  A rare chance to work out with Nancy.  Oh man, she ground me into the dirt!!!

Monday February 27th
In Little Rock.  The hotel I am staying at has free access to a gym across the road, and very nice it is too.  Found myself working out on the 29th floor in front of floor to ceiling windows with magnificent panoramic views of downtown Little Rock.  Did the elliptical, the stair climber, the bike and then beasted my legs with 5 sets of 15 reps of leg extensions, leg curls and weighted squats.  Oh boy, those leg curls did nothing for my sore hamstrings.

Tuesday February 28th
Drama at the gym tonight as some guy collapsed and had to be carted out by the EMTs.  Spent a bit extra time on the eliptical as I watched events unfold.  Did more leg extensions, but my hamstring was in full rebellion mode as soon as I tried the leg curl machine.  Gave up and went to eat Chinese instead.

Wednesday February 29th
Happy leap day.  Back in the gym tonight - more bike, elliptical, stair climber and weighted squats.  Also did weighted core rotations and lat pulldowns.  Then I had a go on the heavy bag (pretended it was some of my clients - haha), and had a great time with the battling ropes, making them dance for me.  Never used them before - they were fun.  And tiring.  Will have to get me some!!!

Thursday March 1st
Last night at the panoramic gym as I fly back to Austin tomorrow.  Did the elliptical, the bike, the old "rubber legged" workout, and threw around the battling ropes with somewhat of a spring on my step.  Spent quite a bit of time chatting with the receptionist in the hotel.  She was flirting big time, which explains the spring in the step!!  Useful things these British accents :-)

The Road to Boston (week 8 of 16)

I'm counting this as the mid-term break.  I did not run a step last weekend - a combination of thunder and lightning, Brownwood duty and plain old lack of motivation did me in, and I did nothing at all.

And what's up with the motivation?  I have no idea, but it's suddenly gone South.  Nancy is putting me to shame - she gets up at 4:30 most mornings to work out (and you can tell because she's looking really good), whereas I have to drag my lazy butt out of bed to grind out runs that are nowhere near as easy as they seemed a month ago. I have a nagging fear that I have peaked, and I'm now on the slippery downslope.  The good part of that is that I have more than enough time to regroup, come again and peak once more for Boston.

And another spanner in the Boston wheel is a lot more business travel coming up.  In the next month I will be heading out to Virginia, Arkansas and North Texas.  I will have to keep my discipline, zip up the old man suit and just get out there and do it.

In other news, I am reading "Into the Silence" by Wade Davis (author the "The Serpent and the Rainbow").  It is the story of George Mallory - taking apart the legend that surrounds him, and going into painstaking detail, not only about his legendary Everest expeditions, but also the motivations and political posturing of the age.  It delves into the Great War, along with the implications and attitudes of the Raj and the British Empire.

The human cost of trench warfare is unimaginable, and described in vivid detail.  I remember my grandfather telling me stories of being in the trenches when I was a boy, but I didn't truly appreciate it then.  Now that I would, he's no longer here to tell them - funny how that works.

While fascinating, it is a huge book.  I am a fast reader, but I have been working on it for weeks and am still nowhere near half way through.  It is one of those that I may need to break up and come back to in bits.

Anyway, on to the training log.

Saturday 18th February
Woke up to thunder and lightning and the prospect of a trip to Brownwood.  Not motivated.  The zipper on the man suit broke right off, and I lose my 100% Febulous record.

Tuesday 21th February
5am, 48F, foggy and humid.  Finally got my butt back into gear, and met up with James for a pace run.  Dang, I seem to be trying twice as hard only to go a lot slower than I did a month ago.  What's up with that?  Still, we managed 7 miles in 54:47 (7:49 average), while we both enjoyed a good old moan.  Fantastic!!!

Thursday 23rd February
5am, 60F and humid.  Relaxed run around Mueller with Clea - she is recovering from pacing the marathon last weekend, I am carrying a slight hamstring strain.  Knocked out 7 miles in 59:43 (8:32 average).

The Road to Boston (week 7 of 16)

T-minus 10 and counting.  We're down to the last 10 weeks before Boston - technically still base building, but in my periodization plan we're getting close to the time where I will start fine tuning by throwing in some extra midweek pace runs.

Training has been derailed somewhat by all my travel of late, but I am now home for a few weeks in a row.  I will be in Little Rock, AR at the end of the month, but the hotel I am booked at has free access to the 24 hour fitness next door, so that is a great chance to start throwing in some cross training in the final month before Boston.

From here on in, I have a lot of 20 milers planned.  These are mostly psychological - I seem to run better on race day the more 20 milers I have under my belt.

Saturday February 11th
5am, 38F and windy.  Kind of a low energy day - a weird kind of "nothing" run. I did 20 miles in 2:55:23 (8:46 average) which was fine.  I never bonked, but never dropped into the groove either.  Got lucky and Clea jumped in for the first 11 miles - long runs are so much easier with company.  Then had an uphill slog against the wind for most of the rest of the run.  Ah well, no big deal - it's another 20 miles in the books.

Sunday February 12th
5:30am, 29F and breezy.  Lovely cold morning for a nice relaxed recovery run.  Ran the Danish route backwards - 7 miles in 59:58 (8:34 average).

11:30am, 30F and sleeting.  A trail run at Walnut Creek with Gavin, my 6 year old - such fun.  3 miles of tearing around the trails pretending to be Robin Hood and the Sheriff, followed by playing tag at the playground, then a retreat to a toasty warm car and home for hot chocolate.

Tuesday February 14th
5am, 41F and foggy.  Pea soup this morning - unable to even see street names.  Pretty cool actually.  Did 7 mile reverse Danish loop in 56:10 (8:01 average).

Wednesday February 15th
5am, 63F and humid as all get out.  Urggghh, 22F warmer than yesterday morning, and an early reminder of summer running.  Ground out 7 miles in 54:58 (7:51 average) and just glad to be done.

Thursday February 16th
4:30am, 45F and humid.  Early morning run around Mueller with Clea.  Kept it easy as she's pacing the Austin marathon on Sunday (just as well as I was feeling pretty tired anyway).  We managed 7 miles in 57:55 (8:16 average).  Faster than I thought - no wonder I felt tired!!!

Richmond

So I just got back from a business trip to Richmond, VA.  Never been there before, and my perception was a little colored by Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta novels - I expected to see serial killers lurking behind every pillar at the airport!!!

Thankfully that was not the case (or if it was, I didn't spot them).  Everyone I met was super nice, and it was a really quaint, historic little town.  I was lucky to be teaching a class with a good friend I don't see too often, so it was much more fun to walk around downtown and explore the city together while catching up.  Also got to sample a few of the local brews, which was great.

On the other side, this was the third week in a row I'd been on the road, and I was missing Nancy and the boys.  Plus it's tough to be "on" for 8+ hours a day 3 weeks straight, so I was mentally tired when I got back into Austin around midnight last night.

The good news is that I'm not traveling again for another few weeks.  My next trip is to Little Rock, AR at the end of the month.  I ran the Little Rock marathon a few years ago, and it remains one of my favorite races.  And my trip just happens to coincide with the date of this year's marathon.

So I checked out the website.

Unfortunately, the race is sold out.  Oh well, would have been fun, but probably just as well.  Don't really need to be running a marathon a month out from Boston.

Here's some photos I took wandering around downtown Richmond yesterday lunchtime.

The Virginia State capitol.  What, no dome?

I'm not sure what this building is, but I loved the architecture.

This was the home of General Robert E. Lee.  If only walls could talk!!!