Philadelphia Marathon bootleg photo

Off season

Well I have been "off season" since 11:15 am yesterday when I dove across the finish line in Philadelphia in my desperate attempt to finish under 4 hours (which I did with 2 whole seconds to spare) . 

So that was about 32 hours ago.

Now I am supposed to be resting.

I feel good physically. 

But I am unwell mentally. In between the dentist, oil change, laundry, and packing for Arizona I have been obsessively checking MarathonGuide.com, Hi-tek Racing Calendar, and even the Springfield Harriers Website (they have. 50K on December 15!). I almost registered for Hyannis Marathon ( end of February) about 20 times...

But I think I better stick to my coach's carefully developed training plan (I am my own coach by the way!!) and concentrate on the bike for now. For the curious that mostly means bike trainer this time of year.

There's an interesting article in Triathlete Magazine this month about avoiding the temptation of an off season Marathon in order to have a better overall next year. The reason is that a full Marathon supposedly takes a lot out if you, and I do believe that even though for some reason I never really physically feel it in an identifiable way.

The author suggests concentrating on developing a speedy half Marathon or challenging yourself to run every day for 50 or 100 days instead. I might try this.

I think after running 5 regular marathons and one 50 miler in 2012 it seems like following that advice might be in order so that I don't develop any injuries and my training does not fall apart again in late Spring/ Summer.

If you hear me talking about registering for Hyannis, remind me of the above!

Philadelphia Marathon

This is a must- do race! Great city, very accessible by car, train, plane. Was able to navigate my journey in Philly on foot no problem. 

The race took us through all sorts of picturesque and historic areas.  Even with the addition of a few thousand extra runners from the NYC Marathon, it was hands down the most organized Marathon I have ever run.

Running the race started ok despite multiple mishaps including forgetting my running clothes, slicing open a finger on a staple, my ipod dying. Thingd were OK right on through mile 24-25 where a bout of ischemic colitis hit me like a ton of bricks. I hobbled through that last mile, then gutted out the last "point two" for a final time of around 3:59:58. 

Not my best, but I think I handled all that stuff well...

Now I am officially off season!I have 2 weeks of travel and unstructured workouts to recover before setting my eyes on 2013.

All in all a good year!

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Race Week

More graphs and charts!

As in the photo, race week has presented me with a complex set if variables.

Brick workout this morning, I think from here on out it will be more sharpening type workouts, walking that fine line between hanging on to chronic training load effects while inducing some recovery ....


Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Another PR!

This just in, oddly enough while attempting only to do easy sets of 100's at the pool today focusing only on form I set a 100 PR by about 7 seconds--while not even actually intending to do so. 

Confused by the scenario, I contemplated calling Timex as maybe it was a watch malfunction. A fluke so to speak. 

So I went on with additional sets and repeated the time again.

Wow, I really must sit down and look at my training light from the past few weeks...somehow I have managed to set a Marathon PR, bike threshold test PR, and a 100 yard swim PR all in a span of a few weeks.

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.

Threshold test and suffer fest

 This morning, I had a nice easy 10 mile run with the Brickyard crew. I threw in some pickups over the last 23 miles and felt great.

 At just over mile 10, I met up with Linda and we walked 1 mile for a cool down.

 This afternoon's mean set was a functional threshold power output bike test. I was a bit nervous about this test because I have been following an off season cycling power based plan for approximately 6 weeks and was not sure what the results would be.

 However I was pleasantly surprised with the most significant increase in power output I've had over the last 6 months!!!

 And I had a great zone 5 bike workout to boot, I nearly fell off the bike and could barely walk when the test was done.

 So now the double edge sword, I have to recalculate all my power zones, and the workouts promise to only get more challenging from here on out.

 In other news, my plans for travel to the Philadelphia Marathon are coming together... we are on the brink of race week once again!

Sent with the Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate™, an AT&T 4G LTE smartphone.