Race was awesome!! What an incredible event!! Finished in 3:34.
Race report to follow in a day or two...
Monday, April 21, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Baastin Marathon
Yesterday afternoon Shannon and I cruised up to the 112th Boston Marathon race expo and picked up my packet.
My race bib
Shannon made some posters
My mind might need to take over right from the start…
I’m fighting a stomach bug which isn’t helping my hydration and nutrition. (Alex was sick this week and I helped him eat an ice cream cone the other night. Bad move.) Last night my stomach felt stable enough to try some food for the first time in 36 hours. So after going to the expo we hit the P.F. Changs by the Prudential Center and I had a bowl of rice. 
The weather for Monday looks like it will be perfect: Upper 50’s and partly cloudy. The excitement of the race is already buzzing around the city. I’m psyched to be a part of such an awesome event! A great reward for all the hard work of training over the long haul!
I think I’ll take the advice of my fortune cookie from P.F. Changs last night: "Relax and enjoy yourself. "
My race bib At the expo
Shannon made some posters My mind might need to take over right from the start… I’m fighting a stomach bug which isn’t helping my hydration and nutrition. (Alex was sick this week and I helped him eat an ice cream cone the other night. Bad move.) Last night my stomach felt stable enough to try some food for the first time in 36 hours. So after going to the expo we hit the P.F. Changs by the Prudential Center and I had a bowl of rice.
It’s going to be the B.R.A.T. diet for me this weekend!
So my preparation leading up to Monday’s marathon hasn’t been ideal. (I wonder how many people’s blogs out there have a similar statement?) My focus has been to heal my ailing hip as opposed to training for a marathon. I must say though I am pleased that I’ve seen progress and that my hip hurts less each day. The physical therapy routine of stretches and exercises has been effective. I just wish I started it a month ago instead of waiting so long (and just hoping it would all go away.) Oh well. So although this wasn’t what I had in mind for Boston training, I am happy that I am physically ok enough to go ahead with doing the race!The weather for Monday looks like it will be perfect: Upper 50’s and partly cloudy. The excitement of the race is already buzzing around the city. I’m psyched to be a part of such an awesome event! A great reward for all the hard work of training over the long haul!
I think I’ll take the advice of my fortune cookie from P.F. Changs last night: "Relax and enjoy yourself. "
Outdoors!
Finally its been warm enough to get outdoors with the kids. The kids playing and running outside make for great nights of sleep!!
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
A run and some therapy
Last night at around 8 PM Shan and I had the kids to sleep and it was decision time: Go for a run or go to bed. I had just completed a routine day: getting the kids up, getting them dressed, dropping them off at daycare, putting a day in at work, meeting the family at home for dinner and directing at least 1/8th of the food into the kids bellies and not at each other or all over the floor, refereeing during playtime, trying to keep the water in the tub during baths, reading some books and executing the bedtime routine. Normally that doesn’t tire me out, but last night I felt tired and sluggish. I think it was allergies. I had a headache, sore throat and felt achy. I really didn’t feel up for a run. But I ignored what my body wanted, which was rest (and ice cream) and new the right decision was to just get my butt out for a run. So I dragged myself out for my standard 7 ¼ mile route.
The very first step of my run woke up the enormous blister (compliments of my feet being out of running shape and then doing a 14 mile trail run on Saturday) on my left foot. Uhhh… Oouch! Ok, ignore the blister. My next focus was getting the hip warmed up. It was stiff and sore and my legs didn’t want to turn over very fast. I had difficulty settling into any kind of smooth stride. It kinda felt like I was making a run for the border through a mud bog with drugs smuggled up my ass. I concentrated on pushing through and warming up, but it was as if my body was yelling at me “Are you stupid? Are you not getting any of my signals? Do I need to inflict more suffering to get you to go home and to bed?” My lungs began wheezing and I developed a cough. Wtf? I was having difficulty catching my breath. It then became apparent that it was not as warm out as I thought. I only had a thin layer on with no gloves or hat and I started to get cold. Freezing actually. My hands were numb and the wind picked up when I turned onto a less sheltered street. You got to be kidding me. I’m just going for a 7 mile run and I feel like I’m on some epic journey across a frozen tundra. Then my ankle started to scream, reminding me that I rolled it on Saturday and that it didn’t like me right now. What is this the first run of my life? I thought to myself, tonight is perfect justification to the anti-runners of the world that running is just plain stupid. Why punish yourself when you can be eating ice cream and watching TV?
But as I agonized my way through each stride, I couldn’t help noticing how awesome the sky looked. There was a cool afterglow of the sun which had set an hour ago and the stars were out in force. As pitiful as my run was going I still was enjoying just being outside and happy that I was on my 2nd run in three days as opposed to 2nd run in 3 weeks. I completed the route in 1:07 which was the slowest I’ve ever run that route. But I think it was one of my most satisfying runs. I had no business running last night but I knew I needed to get out. And I’m glad I did.
I had my first therapy session today. I’ve been looking forward to it ever since I called the office a few weeks ago to set up an appointment and the receptionist said that she could “Do me on Tuesday at 1:30.” Very nice. “Therapy is going to be great!” I thought.
The very first step of my run woke up the enormous blister (compliments of my feet being out of running shape and then doing a 14 mile trail run on Saturday) on my left foot. Uhhh… Oouch! Ok, ignore the blister. My next focus was getting the hip warmed up. It was stiff and sore and my legs didn’t want to turn over very fast. I had difficulty settling into any kind of smooth stride. It kinda felt like I was making a run for the border through a mud bog with drugs smuggled up my ass. I concentrated on pushing through and warming up, but it was as if my body was yelling at me “Are you stupid? Are you not getting any of my signals? Do I need to inflict more suffering to get you to go home and to bed?” My lungs began wheezing and I developed a cough. Wtf? I was having difficulty catching my breath. It then became apparent that it was not as warm out as I thought. I only had a thin layer on with no gloves or hat and I started to get cold. Freezing actually. My hands were numb and the wind picked up when I turned onto a less sheltered street. You got to be kidding me. I’m just going for a 7 mile run and I feel like I’m on some epic journey across a frozen tundra. Then my ankle started to scream, reminding me that I rolled it on Saturday and that it didn’t like me right now. What is this the first run of my life? I thought to myself, tonight is perfect justification to the anti-runners of the world that running is just plain stupid. Why punish yourself when you can be eating ice cream and watching TV?
But as I agonized my way through each stride, I couldn’t help noticing how awesome the sky looked. There was a cool afterglow of the sun which had set an hour ago and the stars were out in force. As pitiful as my run was going I still was enjoying just being outside and happy that I was on my 2nd run in three days as opposed to 2nd run in 3 weeks. I completed the route in 1:07 which was the slowest I’ve ever run that route. But I think it was one of my most satisfying runs. I had no business running last night but I knew I needed to get out. And I’m glad I did.
I had my first therapy session today. I’ve been looking forward to it ever since I called the office a few weeks ago to set up an appointment and the receptionist said that she could “Do me on Tuesday at 1:30.” Very nice. “Therapy is going to be great!” I thought.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
Plan B: Case Mtn.
The original plan for today was to run the Northern Nipmuck Trail Race (16 miles). However, due to my ailing hip, I had been wavering on wether or not to actually do the race. I was unsure on how much I could actually run and also feared getting caught up in a race environment and pushing myself too hard and causing some further damage. Also, Mark was looking to head down to NJ and the 10:00 race start time didn’t suit his travel plans (and he’s been nursing an injured ankle.) So we both decided on bagging out and going out for our own trail run earlier in the morning. This way I could take it easy and test my hip and do whatever distance I could handle and Mark could be done at a better time to get on the road. It was a bummer to not support a local race but it was a decision best suited for our situations. A friend pointed out to us “Don’t jeopardize the bigger plans” which is in reference to our first 100-miler attempt this summer. Absolutely true!
So Mark and I met up at 7 AM at Case Mountain and put in a 14 mile run at a controlled pace. We explored a bit and made it around the reservoir, an area that we had only mountain biked to in the past.
My hip felt surprisingly a lot better than I anticipated. The time off my feet is slowly allowing me to recover. The pain peaked on the downhills when I had to absorb the most impact, but it was manageable. I rolled my ankle towards the end of the run and wasn’t thrilled about that. Oh well, sh#t happens. I was happy to get in almost 3 hours on the trails and hopefully my hip didn’t take too much abuse. Post run assessment of the hip was positive: Things didn’t feel too bad! It seems to be a bit of a rollercoaster for me lately. In the past week, I attempted two runs and could hardly move and had to hobble back to my starting point, but today I could manage a steady run with a respectable distance. I’m looking forward to physical therapy on the hip in a few days.
Gear note: Mark’s Inov-8 Roclite 285s saw their first significant mileage today. Mark reported that they were indeed light, had great traction (which was key with the slick trail today), and no blistering or hot spots were experienced. A solid thumbs up rating!
I’m hoping to break out my new Inov-8 Roclite 318 GTXs soon and am looking forward to getting them dirty!
After the run I retraced the first section of the trail to snap a few pics. Also, here's a link to a couple of Buckingham Reservoir pics which we ran around this morning.
So Mark and I met up at 7 AM at Case Mountain and put in a 14 mile run at a controlled pace. We explored a bit and made it around the reservoir, an area that we had only mountain biked to in the past.
My hip felt surprisingly a lot better than I anticipated. The time off my feet is slowly allowing me to recover. The pain peaked on the downhills when I had to absorb the most impact, but it was manageable. I rolled my ankle towards the end of the run and wasn’t thrilled about that. Oh well, sh#t happens. I was happy to get in almost 3 hours on the trails and hopefully my hip didn’t take too much abuse. Post run assessment of the hip was positive: Things didn’t feel too bad! It seems to be a bit of a rollercoaster for me lately. In the past week, I attempted two runs and could hardly move and had to hobble back to my starting point, but today I could manage a steady run with a respectable distance. I’m looking forward to physical therapy on the hip in a few days.
Gear note: Mark’s Inov-8 Roclite 285s saw their first significant mileage today. Mark reported that they were indeed light, had great traction (which was key with the slick trail today), and no blistering or hot spots were experienced. A solid thumbs up rating!
I’m hoping to break out my new Inov-8 Roclite 318 GTXs soon and am looking forward to getting them dirty!After the run I retraced the first section of the trail to snap a few pics. Also, here's a link to a couple of Buckingham Reservoir pics which we ran around this morning.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Last Few Days
Sunday I took advantage of the 40 + degree temp and sunshine and hit the roads for 35 miles of cycling. Although I enjoy running, I must say I love cycling. I hope to put in some more miles on the bike this year!Tuesday I saw the Doc and x-rays of my hip were negative. Looks like my hip muscles just need some strengthening. I'll be starting physical therapy next week. (I've been scheduled for 3 X a week for 4 weeks.)
This morning I hit the pool again. I might try some running tomorrow...
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