2nd to Last Video

I am about to go to sleep the night before the marathon. Nerves are wild and yet I feel somewhat calm. Thank you to all who had supported me through this journey, now it's time for me to hold up my end of the bargain. I will write about the race, but just wanted to say thank you again to everyone, we raised close to $4,000! And here.... we.... gooo

You're the one that's stupid... What's that Tommy... Nothing...

Quick Video Blog from run this afternoon. New Blog tomorrow... again sorry for being doofy

EVERYBODY DANCE NOW.....

Just for you that don't get the title, that's the opening line to C&C Music Factories all time classic "Gonna Make you Sweat." This is a celebratory post so I thought I would open it by referencing a song that won "song of the half-century" at the Loisville County Music Festival... ok that wasn't funny... sorry. Anyways I just wanted to tell everyone that we passed the $2,000 mark yesterday! I think we can possibly reach $3,000 by the time of the race with all the new readers coming on! Thank you so much for you're donation. As some of you have read in my emails, the American Cancer Society contributed to a 15% decrease in overall cancer death rate since 1990. It's a great cause and I hope to do my part by coming through on my end.

Today I did 5x .6 miles with 2min rest. It went really well, 5:35 pace on average. I have to make sure to not work too hard, which is a problem when you are in the middle of taper and feel extra energy coming out of ever muscle. One day this week I am going to do a yoga class to stretch out and keep my "chi" in check! Namaste

You have the voice of an angel. Your voice is like a combination of Fergie and Jesus...

Well it finally came, the "less than 2 week mark." Honestly I can't believe that 10/10/10 is only 13 days away. Back when I did the Rock n Roll Half-Marathon, the 2 week mark had me absolutely loosing my mind. I was nervous, anxious, sweaty (always sweaty i guess), worried, [insert synonym for nervous here] that I was not going to perform. In the end I had a pretty good race, started out a little fast but recovered and achieved my goal of running under 1:29 (i ran 1:27:36 if you don't remember). This time I am actually feeling pretty confident that I have put in the work and will be prepared when the gun fires. Now that being said, I have my moments of utter panic. For example, Friday I printed out the race map at the office and posted it in my cubicle. Now I've seen the map before and it didn't look too scary... but that was before I understood the scale of the map. When I saw just how far 13.1 was on the race course, lets just say my heart started pumping a little bit faster. I ran for 3 hours straight a few weeks ago, not at pace, and after a heavy training week, but I still started freaking out when I looked at the map as the actual distance. It's freakin far. But by Saturday I felt much better about things. I only did a 16 mile run, with heavy winds, but was at pace most of the time and tried to use visualization when I started either getting bored or tired. Luckily I have a vivid imagination and can put myself in a state of mind that will help me perform when I have no reason to perform at a high level (ie during training). Sometimes I think about being at the 20 mile mark, deep in the hurt locker (a term i don't like using as much since the movie came out... does the "pain pool" sound more unique? or the "uh-oh attic" i like that...) and needing to keep myself up with the pace group. Other times I go back to moments in my rowing career that I was either really proud of, or on the other hand, times when I failed and needed just a tad extra. The best way I can describe the feeling of when visualization works, is as an adrenaline shot without the needle to the heart (ie nic cage in "the rock" as the other dudes face melts off and for some reason an adrenaline shot to the heart keeps an airborne biological weapon from mr cage losing his face... "i'm going to take my face... off" sorry... just referencing to somewhat good but definitely terrible movies with nic cage). My heart starts pumping, my legs feel a little lighter, and I can find another gear (cliche sorry) to shift into for a few extra mph's. That obviously doesn't last long, but it can get me back into a sustainable rhythm in the off chance I lose it because of wind/hills/other runners in the way/exhaustion. When the ka-ka really hits the fan, I really don't think about visualizing rowing is going to help me at all. When that happens, and it will, I'm going to think of why I am doing this, why I set such a high goal, and think of all the people who can't do what I'm doing because of cancer. Some people ask me why would I want to do a marathon, whats "fun" about training everyday, giving up weekends, and wrecking yourself on a weekly basis? There are thousands of people that would give anything to be able to run a marathon, that never got the chance to "cross it off their bucket list" because cancer took them too soon. I can't discover the cure for cancer, and I can't help someone get through chemo treatments or surgeries, but I have been given the ability to help raise money that can be given to people that can do those things. Maybe having a personal goal for time is somewhat selfish of me, because this isn't about the time, but about the money we raise to help the American Cancer Society. But I think that dragging my child bearing hips across the line in under 3 hours, may encourage some people to donate purely out of pity for me... and if that's the case... donate double!

Checking out for now... 2 weeks... morning practices start everyday now to prepare for the race being at 730. Some of you may be new to reading, we are very close to $2000 (there is $550 not shown on the counter on the top right) with your help we have a good shot at hitting $3000 by 10/10/10! Please donate if you can.... "Slingshot.... engage" -Ricky Bobby

Lots of people graduate in 8 years. Ya, they're called doctors...

This will be short and sweet. I'm feeling a combination of exhausted and stupid... a terrible equation when I'm writing, it leads to some strange tangents that I have no control over. So the marathon is in 16 days 8 hours 25 minutes 55 seconds... 54 seconds... 53 seco... you get it. This week has been a mixed bag. Monday was a decent run, Tuesday I was exhausted and took day off, Wednesday morning I ran 9ish miles before work and played flag football at 930pm, and today I did 3x1 miles w/ 1min (ish) rest. I was pretty dead during today's workout, but I'm going to chalk it up to yesterdays double workout and just overall wear and tear. My runs are going to be cut shorter staring tomorrow for taper. I usually feel pretty terrible during the beginning of tapers, which I always thought was weird, but by the end of the taper I usually feel anxious, full of energy, and ready to fight! I'll talk a bit more about this later this weekend, in general my spirits are good. At times I think about the distance and the time and the effort, and I get pretty nervous. I have to remind myself I've put in the work, I've made the sacrifices, and people are expecting me to succeed (I know nobody is putting pressure on me... but I feel like I owe it to everyone who has supported me to follow through). Alrighty... windy night, which means its going to be hard to sleep and 5AM is only 6 hours away.

I want to say Hi to the new readers... thanks for your support!

Oh Baxter. You're so wise. You're like a miniature Buddha, covered in hair....

Somebody asked me today "so what happens if you don't finish in under 3 hrs?" I am about 95% sure that was not a question asked because they doubted my ability (and I say 95% because there is a 5% that any person can be batsh*t crazy at any moment for no apparent reason. There is no chance I do not break 3:00!), but rather a question posed to make me take a moment of introspection and prepare for the possibility that maybe I may not hit my goal. (note: just took a 30 min break... i'm having a dumb day (waiting for you to make a side joke about all my days being dumb days... ok... good one... not) and my creativity is slowed to a crawl). It was interesting trying to think about what if I don't succeed. During my entire rowing career, I rarely ever thought about the idea of failing. I am not saying that I didn't have my fair share of "failures," its just when you are training for a goal, whether it be in athletics or in everyday life, you are always thinking about what it will be like to actually attain that goal. I am somewhat renown with my teammates as someone that will "blow up" in a gloriously explosion of exhaustion. There have been times where I could barely cross the real (or proverbial) finish line and I would be so disappointed in myself, characteristically sequestering myself in solitude for an extended period of time. The best example I have of this is from 2003, when the Dartmouth team went down to Crash-B's (the world indoor rowing championships) and I had a terrible performance. That year I was battling to be selected for the first boat and felt like I had a lot to prove. I was viewed as more of a "hammer" than as a skilled oarsman when I arrived at Dartmouth. I wanted to continue that image of being strong, the guy everyone can count on to bring the power when it was needed, but I also wanted to develop better touch. The championship was a way for me to show off that hammer image. Unfortunately I barely beat my personal best from high school and felt terrible about it. Instead of waiting for the rest of the team to finish (go to the finals and get in cars and go back to Hanover), I immediately left, bought a bus ticket, and went straight to the gym and started a late night workout. Like many people, my failures inspire me more than my successes. Because of that failure, I began doing extra workouts on my own up until spring training, where I won my seat race so dramatically that I was never seat raced again at Dartmouth. When success happens, I rarely ever relish the moment because in my mixed up head it was always going to end up that way. I do take pride in success, but that pride isn't what spurs me forward. Even in training now, it's more fear of failure that makes me go that extra 30 minutes, or extra few MPH. I do feel like I put myself out there a bit, setting a somewhat high (i had a better word for this but my brain synapses are not firing at full go right now... yes i put this parenthesis in here to use the work synapses... shut it) goal for the marathon, but in honesty, I don't think I could ever do something "just to finish" (insert joke... keep it PG). Don't get me wrong, I will be severely disappointed if I don't break 3hrs. I know its not like I will have to give back all the donations, or that anyone would think less of me (except myself), but I started this journey with 2 goals: to raise money in the fight against cancer and to break 3 hrs. Obviously raising money for ACS is by far the more important goal, and I know that the 2 are not mutually exclusive. But on a personal level the 3 hr mark is important to me. Would failure push me to do another marathon? Likely that answer is "yes." I would have the urge to apologize to my supporters, especially those who come to cheer me on. As I write this, I know how ridiculous that sounds. It's probably a good thing I never became a boxer. I would keep getting up when I shouldn't that I would develop brain damage in record time (and we all know that I can't afford to loose any more brain cells). My view on this, and life in general, is that if the possibility of failure isn't there, whats the point in doing what ever you are considering doing? It's that fear of failure that will make the success more than just "what you expect" (i may have totally contradicted my initial statement here... go on). When I am running, and hopefully it will be with a pace group going for 3hrs, I will be thinking that failure is not an option. If it takes me passing out at the end of the race, then that's what will happen (the video at the bottom could very likely be me on 10/10/10). That means it could get ugly for sure, but I know I can finish no matter what, I've done the distance (close to at least), it's just a matter of how fast I can do it. I may or may not have a "come to jesus" moment with myself sometime in the race, but I'll put jesus on mute as long as i can if that's the case.

I am close... I guess that's why this blog has been so long. 3 hours will be either exactly the best I could possibly do or it will be too fast. My body has been hurting the past few days, a sign I need to pull back a bit, but taper is close. I have 1 more week of hard workouts, no more 20+ runs, and then I will taper for 2 weeks, cutting my work load in half. It worked for the half marathon, I think I've done it even better up to the real marathon so far. I had a 55 mile week this week, next will be around 45 with more speed work, and then it will be cut to 30ish and then 20. I'm getting nervous and excited. I really want to thank all of you readers and supporters. So many people have come out of the woodwork through this blog and facebook. I really appreciate your words and donations. We are close to $2000 still. I really think we can blast through that in the next few weeks. Any thoughts on ways to raise money? I could auction off "real estate" on my body for messages/names of loved ones during the race. Maybe auction off the choice of haircut (read buzz/mohawk???) which if you have seen me recently, thats a big deal (worth a lot a lot a lot of money). If you have ideas, please comment on here. I really like reading peoples comments and I know people are reading because my statecounter is past 1000!

So I'll end this for the night, alarm set for 5am, which may not happen because its midnight now. Thank you all and go out and kill it!

Mock! Yeah! Ing! Yeah! Bird! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah...

Video from this morning's 10 miler (i say 9 in the video... but i also say alot of things that don't make sense in it too... so maybe just watch it muted....) and a beautiful sunrise

Up at 5 again tomm for an easy 10 with Clarke

Dear 8 pounds 6 ounces... new born infant jesus,don't even know a word yet...

Quick post just to recap weekend.

Thursday did a legit 4x1 mile with 1 min rest. Heavy winds & overall tiredness caused my times to be slower than usual. When I saw my first mile was slower than 6 minutes I decided to make sure to be exactly on 1 min rest. In the past I maybe took a few more seconds to get started again, but this time I knew I wasn't going for time so I thought it best to just run myself tired. In the end I was fairly pleased with my performance, knowing that the day before I had done 2 workouts.

Friday was off and Saturday was my long run for the day. Went to be at 1130 on Friday to get up early, but of course ended up reading the paper/watching the news at 8AM on Saturday before getting out for my run at 945 in the middle of a rain storm. The first 11 miles went pretty well. I averaged about 6min50sec miles and wasn't too winded....

ok ok ok... i wrote that first part right before I left work... now it's about 10pm. I left work a little late, and got my 10 miles (avg 6:46 miles) and now I am le (freakin) tired. Sorry can't be funny or even finish what I began writing 5 hours ago... you can guess i finished the long run and took Sunday off... I really wish cool stuff happened to me on the runs (like thwarting an attempted mugging or helping a single mother give birth while defending her from flocks of killer seagulls or accidentally running over and squashing Snooki, hence saving the world from at least one terrible cast member of that stupid, brain sucking, intellectual vacuum of a show... how do i know her name you say... well i do keep up on popular culture... i don't just sit around and watch reruns of Three's Company, Chips, Family Ties, anything on TGIF from back in the day... those shows were AWESOME! nothing like that on tv anymore, freakin "boy meets world,"Family Matters," "STEP BY STEP!" wow utter life molding classics.... i probably should put the other side of the parenthesis here somewhere huh? it's kind of unnecessary now that I've written about a paragraphs worth of my rant and the other side of the closed parenthesis has to relate to whats before the opening parenthesis and I'm sure you already forgot what I was talking about anyways... damn you tired man brain... oh god now I'm going into ripping off the old spice man... ok i gotta stop here's the close...), but in the end I'm just runnnnnning.

We are now just $200 away from $2000! Thank you so much for your donations... if you haven't donated yet please use the button on the top right of the page... every dollar helps a great great cause!

Side note I have to run at 5am the next 3 days... ugh... so time for some zzzzzz's.... dreaming of what it be like to grow up a "Banks"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGTiaywatro

What's that Baxter? You ate a whole wheel of cheese....

For for the love of God I don't want to do today's workout! Yesterday I got up at 5AM, went to the gym for 1.5 hrs of cross training and then did a quick 30 min run after work... so I'm le tired. Workout today will be either 5 x 1 mile with 1 min rest or 8 x .5 mile with 1 min rest. Obviously the latter will be faster, either way I have a feeling that I may be falling asleep during the Vikings domination of the Saints tonight (fyi I have a man crush on Favre, all you haters can stuff it).

Will let you know how it goes....

I'm going to come at you like a spider monkey...

Video Blog!

Bedbunks Will Give Us More Room for Activities...

10/10/10 is closing in fairly quickly. In 1 month and 5 days I will be mentally preparing for the morning of the race. What does this mean? Well it means that it is time to totally dedicate myself to this journey. Some may think I have been doing that for the past 4 months, and I won't belittle my effort, but it's time to take it to the next level. I have about 2-3 weeks to put in some really tough workouts before I need to start my taper. I need to do a few 2-a-day workouts, dedicate my weekends to workouts and not my social life, and develop a strict diet that will allow me to fuel my workouts and easily help me to shed the last few pounds to get me below 190. The diet aspect is important. I've done a fairly good job of utilizing simple carbs and proteins to fuel my workouts, but now I need to stay away from the late night fried foods. This will be made easier being that I've decided to "go dry" for the next 5 weeks. Now some of you may be a bit skeptical of my ability to do this, but this is not something new for me. During my rowing career there were times we would go dry for 4 months at a time. My plan will be to have a strict rule of 1 drink. As I've said before, to achieve my goal of 3 hours, I am going to need to do everything possible to achieve maximum performance. So it will probably a good investment to buy some Coca-Cola stock during this month, because I plan on consuming alot of powerade and diet coke.

Ok, now that we've covered that, lets talk about last week. Wednesday was my typical cross-training day, a simple upper body/core workout with 45 minutes of stationary bike work. Thursday was speed day. 4 x 1 mile with 2 min rest and 2 x .5 mile with 3 min rest. The goal was to get sub 6 min on each mile piece and burn out the last 2 half miles as fast as possible. It was a great workout. First 2 miles were well below 6 min, third was 6:01 and last was 5:58. I really think the half mile runs were really helpful. It pushed my heart rate easily over 200 bpm and on Friday I had that feeling you get after a hard lifting workout, where it feels like your muscles are actually getting stronger and rebuilding. Friday was a day off and Saturday was a big day... BIG day. Last week I ran just over 20 miles and coming into Saturday I wanted to significantly eclipse that distance. Luckily I had 2 BS reports saved up for this run. So I had a big bowl of oatmeal, a big mug of coffee, and packed a few "Gu's" into my pockets and headed out. I got to 10 miles without stopping and kept pushing until I got to 12 miles. If you haven't been South on the Chicago beach path, the city has done a great job at building up the area around the path. I kind of wish I took time to take some video actually. There was what I could only describe as a "professional" croquet court! A bunch of old guys in all white were whacking around a croquet stick on a beautiful kept croquet field (i will pause here for you to stop giggling from my usage of "whacking"). Now that you have exercised your allowed adolescent sensibilities, I can continue with the blog.... I ended up doing 24 miles in about 2 hrs: 50 mins. Its close to pace, and I had to stop at least 3-4 times for water on the way home. I'm learning quickly that my ability to achieve 3 hrs will depend on my ability to survive through 3 hours of pounding. My knees were sore as bejesus afterwards. I took some time to stretch and then it was time to bust out the frozen vegetable bags (see picture above). The combo of protein shake, iced vegies, and advil took away from some of the soreness. I would say I am on pace, its close, but if I continue working hard for the next 2-3 weeks, I will be as prepared as I could be to cross that line in 2hrs 59 min 59 sec.

Sunday was a day off although I kind of wish I went to gym and spent some time on the stationary bike just to loosen out the legs. Today I did a 10 mile run that was a little tight but my speed was at marathon pace + for the entire run.

Fund raising is going well. We've raised about $70 last week and are still inching on that $2000 mark. With everyones help I think we can go way past that mark! I really appreciate everyone who has donated early in this endeavor, it really has fueled my fire during my workouts, and will continue to for the next 5 weeks! Thanks for reading and hope you are enjoying the ride!

Hell of a Weekend...

So last week was a great training week. Started off with 2 decently long runs, a good cross training session, and some legit above AT speed work. Anything after that would make it a good week, but I needed to do an actual "long run." So Friday was a rest day, and Saturday morning I woke up at 10AM, had a big bowl of oatmeal, a huge cup of coffee and hit the road. Saturday was the day I was going to prove that my training is working, to show that I can do the time and the distance. I ran 21 miles, all the way down to the University of Chicago, in about 2hr 30min. I wasn't pushing the speed, the pain came from the sheer amount of time I was pounding away on the path. It was only 16 seconds per mile slower than what I hope my race pace will be and I stopped alot for water, stretching and video taping (see below... again sorry for commentary/doofiness). Not to mention I wont have done 30+ miles the few days leading up to the marathon! I used my steadfast trick of listening to a few Bill Simmons reports during my run. Got the down low on a few fantasy sleepers and also found out that in a few weeks it's going to be 9/02/10 (get it... 90210). I was never a fan of the show, I'm sure it was the guilty pleasure of many 20 something males in the '90s (similar to what "The OC" was to my generation... I mean "Party of 5"... wait... wait... I mean "The Man Show"... ya that's it). Anyways, I want to thank Bill for keeping me company and amusing me during those 2.5 hours. At the end of the run I was pooped, and felt kinda funky for a few hours, but it was great! Sunday was an off day and today I did a fast paced 7 miles (still felt the effects of the run on Saturday). I have 6 weeks to go until the race, hopefully this weekend I'll do just short of 20 miles, and next week I will hit the 22 mile mark. After that I'll start to ramp up speed work and slowly start to lower the distance. At least that's the plan... will see.... till next time!

Somehow made it...

Decided to stay up late tonight, and thought this would be the best way to spend the twilight. So just to make things clear, I made it through my 4x 1mile workout today. I did 5:37, 5:55, 5:59, 6:10 and succeeded at destroying myself. I was totally spent at the end of the workout. The demons started talking to me after the second mile. They said, "Don listen: you can just take it easy now, you did 2 miles hard and got your heart rate way above your AT, take it easy." I had to tell the voice to STUFF IT, and I did it by focusing on my form. For the second half of the workout I started thinking about making my strides smooth and not waste any energy on "vertical movement." Mentally, starting the last mile was the hardest, but physically the third one was the most painful. I guess it was the fact I knew I had to do one more mile after that made it harder. It was somewhat funny between the 3rd and 4th mile I saw two girls running by me as I was recovering and heard one say "that guys slobber is AWESOME!" Probably should have stopped and got that girls number with that kind of mentality! During my 4th mile I had to battle with a woman on a bike who was going god-awful slow! I pass alot of people on the path, and many times those people are on bikes or rollerblades, so this wasn't that surprising. Unfortunately this time I had to run through patches of sand which made the run even harder and I couldn't seem to get totally past her for 3/4 of the mile. My frustration definitely propelled me by the end, and I'm sure she was just as frustrated with me as I was of her, but I still couldn't help but be critical of someone on a bike going as fast as I am running. This all goes back to my theory that we are all out there trying to better ourselves in one way or another, and there really is no reason to be critical of anyone that is doing work out there on the path. So thank you slow bike lady, you pushed me through that last painful mile, and even though my thoughts of you at the time were riddled with hatred and disgust, you made it easier to push my limits and feel the urgency of "the race" I usually find missing in most of my workouts.

Alright all, it is bed time. Time to put on my compression sleeves, take some advil, and dream of crossing that 26.2 marker under 3 hrs. Visualization... another topic for another post

Dread...

I am dreading today's workout! Sneaking a quick post in during work. Tuesday I did 10 miles, yesterday I did cross training (weights/erg/bike), and today I have my speed workout to do. That's 4 x 1 mile w/ 1 min rest at around 615 pace. Next to stretching, speed workouts are the 2nd biggest aspect of training I have been apathetic about. Run 18 miles, fine. Run a half marathon at sub pace, easy. Do 4 measly miles somewhat hard and I turn into a head case! I guess I haven't done high intensity stuff in a long long time. I used to love it... ok that's a lie... we used to do this workout in college called "Clubs" every Monday. First of all this put a damper on your weekend, but really even as you finished one Monday you were thinking about the next! Those workouts were 10x500m w/ 30sec rest on an erg, and your highest split was your "club." If you rowed before, you can understand how this type of workout would cause you to go insane. So that is what I am feeling right now, maybe to lesser extent. I'm going to do it, but I'm not going to be happy about it... watchout casual runners... here comes gumby (what i think i look like since loosing 20 lbs over past couple months)

I wish my face had wiper blades...

Last week was good up until I ran into my old friend Jasper Hassel from Cambridge on the beach path on Thursday. I was doing speed work, 4x1miles with 1 min rest, and noticed on my 3rd mile that some dude looked exactly like Jasper. Of course I yelled out "JASPER!" and got no response. I yelled it again, "YO JASPER!" And still nothing! By this time everyone around me thought I was a guy with non-cursing tourettes. But I was sure so I flipped around and caught him and lo and behold it was him, visiting from NYC on business. So after about 15 minutes of catching up we made plans to grab a drink later, and I tried to start up the rest of the workout... turned into a run home. I had already done 35+ miles that week, so I was pretty pooped and could tell my body needed to recuperate. I then took off 3 days by accident. Combination of friends being in town, roommate moving to Denver (sad day), and a trip to Toledo for Coach's retirement party. So today I knew I needed to do something big. I ran 15.8 miles at a pretty good pace, just under 1hr 50min. My training started late today, so by the time I got to mile 10 it was dusk and I quickly learned the advantages of running in the morning rather than at night... no walls of bugs! Lets just say after the run I wasn't too worried about my protein intake for dinner! YUCK! I had to put my sunglasses on in the dark to protect my eyes from all the gnats. I learned that basically I need to stay on the directly near the beach and away from trees to avoid the bugs. It was kinda funny seeing people swatting as they ran (i was doing the same and probably looked just as doofy). My legs are pretty sore right now, and my arches are still a bit sore as well. I took extra time to stretch today, something I have not been very good about doing over the past 4 months. Everything I have read says that stretching not only improves recovery time, but also makes you faster in the long run. I think why I have been so reluctant to stretch is because I am not nearly as flexible as I used to be while I was rowing. I used to be able to wrap my hands totally around my feet. Now I'm lucky if I touch my toes!

Alright, tomorrow is going to be tough... i hate you morning... you always ruin the best part of my day!

A Team Thing

So training last week was back to the 9 mile minimum. It was still a bit tough though. For example I was in the middle what was supposed to be my first "speed" workout, and didn't exactly finish the full workout. The workout was supposed to be 6 x 1miles with 1 min rest. I got about 2 x 1miles with 1 min rest! I may have gone a bit too hard, first one was 525 and second one was 545. I started the third but that little voice popped into my head and made me pull up. Everyone knows the voice. It's just the simple idea that pops into your head that says "you know you can stop right?" Back in the day when I was rowing, I was really good at shutting the voice out. I can probably count on 1 hand the number of times I gave into the voice, and all those times were during the off season. And that begs the question, "how do I go back to the old me when things get harder during training and when things are REALLY hard 2hr30min into the marathon? When I was rowing I always felt like I had to perform beyond my abilities because my teammates were counting on me. I had this narcissistic view of myself that everyone expected me to be the one they can count on if things got tough. Maybe narcissistic is a bit strong, but its something I think everyone has that competes at a high level in a team sport (see picture of back in the erg dungeon, suffering together). And that's just it, I am training and performing at a high level now. My macho-instincts have died down over the years (no joke, you should ask people like Joe Gwin and Arthur Peterson what they used to call me freshman year: "angry Don"), so even though I have been doing everyone on my own, it's going to take more on race day. That is why I am so happy I decided to joined up with the American Cancer Society. I have personal reasons of why I chose this group, but seeing the others running with the same jersey, and seeing the people on the sidewalks with the ACS shirts will give me the feeling I am on a team, that people are depending on me. Not only that but everyone that has supported me with kind words of encouragement and donations has really helped during all the times that voice pops into my head. The money I raise will probably be a drop in the bucket compared to other people, but hopefully this whole experience will inspire others to do something similar. That being said, I want to thank everyone who has donated so far! We have passed the $1,000 mark and hopefully we can continue this rate up to the race!

So this week has begun and thus far I have run 23.5 miles in 2 days. Yesterday I did 13.5 and did it in 1hr30min and today I did 10miles just over an hour. It was a great 2 days. This morning I woke up with sore as !?*$ arches. Weird because shoes are somewhat new and I've never had a problem with my feet (except for my toenails cutting my toes because i forgot to cut them... sorry... that was gross... TMI... OMG... ttyl... bff... sorry off on tangent). But today's run was actually pretty good. Tomorrow will be a crosstraining day: core, lifting, and cycling. Thursday will be a speed day and hopefully friday will be a long easy day (2hrs should do the trick).

Alrighty all... till next time! Keep spreading the word! Every $ helps!

Catching up!

So it has been a week since my half marathon, and almost 2 weeks since my last post! Don't know why writing seems so painstakingly hard right now. Everytime I sit down to write, I find my mind wandering extremely quickly. So before that happens lets get down to business... on sunday I ran in the Rock N Roll Half Marathon. The race started at 630AM, for the week run up to the race I cut my mileage in half and was doing my training at 5/530AM everyday. I was in bed by 830pm on Saturday and woke up at 430AM Sunday. I put down a bagel, a big mug of coffee, and an energy gel before heading down to get a cab at 515AM. I actually ran into a buddy just getting home from the night... I did start questioning what I was doing! The event was HUGE! Much bigger than I expected. There were 18000 participants, just look at the line for the porto-potties in the video below! One thing that pissed me off was all the celebrity cameo's a the event. It is a sad state of our culture when all the "celebrities" were just reality stars, a bunch of "no-talent-ass-clowns" just like Michael Bolton talks about in office space. Seriously, can we please stop promoting these people who don't actually work, that are paid just to go to events! I am constantly getting in arguments with people who talk about watching the Jersey Shore or any of that "Real Housewife" crap. I am happy to say that he biggest cheers from the crowd came for the olympic runner! So anyways, back to the race... I started out with the 1hr 25min pace group. I felt really good for about 5 miles, then I had to make a decision to either kill myself for as long as possible or pull back and let the group go ahead of me. I obviously went with the latter. But because I pulled back I was able to recover after about 2 miles and really crank it in the last 5 miles. As you can tell from the pictures above I was hurting by the end. I tell the story about how we turned the bend and I could see the finish I gunned it trying to catch the 2 guys ahead of me. Lets just say I started sprinting about a full minute too soon! It at least allowed me to die and then sprint again at the end! My time was 1 hour 27 minutes and 36 seconds. My goal was to break 1:30, and I think I left it all out there. It was kinda funny actually going through the finish... they corral you, pass out "finisher" medals (hilarious to somebody who used to get medals for actually winning... very reminiscent of the "participant" awards you would get back in grade school!), banana's, water, damp towel, and photo booths! I ended up sitting on the corner watching people finish for about 10 minutes... it was kinda cool to think i placed 162 out of 18,000, 28th in my division of 1200ish. By that time it was 8AM, and I am not going to lie, I felt pretty awesome about having ran 13.1 miles by that time in the morning! I kinda get why so many people get hooked to this stuff. I was able to find the pace setter for the 125 group, he gave me some good training tips and thinks that 3hrs is definitely doable if I really kill the next 2 months. Overall it was a successful event

This week has been a recovery week for sure. I only ran 4 days and those runs were short and felt like I had cement legs the entire time! Today I did 9 miles in about an hour, so I think I am back into it and next week is going to be my first week of speed work and end with an 18 mile run.

As far as fund raising, we are past $450! Thank you so much to everyone who has donated, and if you haven't yet please follow the link at the top of the blog!

Happy running!

5AM = No time

Sorry I haven't posted anything in the past week. I've noticed that when I am getting up at 5AM (4:45am sometimes) to run, I have little to no energy after work. I was tapering off all week in preparation for Sundays half marathon race, running at max 6miles. But the speed comes much easier now than it did when I started getting up that early. Today I have completely off, going to go to the expo downtown to pick up my race package and then throw in a movie and hit the sack around 10. Will try to get up around 7am tomorrow so that I can actually fall asleep early enough tomorrow night so I get a full 8 hours before my 4:30AM alarm goes off Sunday morning! Found out that the time i need may be a bit faster than I can do right now. All that means is that I am going to have to find some people going for 3 hours in my "B" corral during the marathon. I'm very confident I can do sub 650 miles for the half marathon, but to get into the A corral I'd have to do 633 miles which is a bit faster than i can do :( Alright... here's to a boring weekend, will let y'all know how I do on Sunday

Wait What???

The half marathon race is in 2 weeks!!!! AHHHHHH FREAKKOUTTTT!!!

Ok I'm better. So as I just said, the 13.1 mile race is 2 weeks from yesterday. To prepare for the early morning race (630AM) I am going to do all my workouts before work. That means up at 5AM most mornings. As I have said before, I am not a morning person, so this is going to be quite the endeavor. Last week showed that I have the fitness to do a sub 1:30 half marathon, now I just need to make sure it translates to early morning running (picture is from a morning in March when it was still dark out... maybe ill see something similar at 5AM). Sunday I was planning on doing an 18 mile run, but the heat was unbearable. I was able to do a little over 10 miles in the 90 degree heat with 80% humidity. It was evident today that it took alot out of me, when I was dying around mile 3 during my 8 mile run. I was able to average 6:41 miles in today's run, but it did take alot of effort.

So tomorrow morning is a big day... oh... also we went over $300 today!!! Thanks again and if you haven't donated yet, any amount helps!!

Weights, Bike, Bonkin, Inspiration, & Fancy Running Stuff

So after my half marathon run Monday I was limping around all Tuesday. I decided it was time to listen to my body and do some cross training, real low key style. So I hit the gym, focusing on high reps for upper body and some strong core exercises. Being that I haven't been in the gym in about 2 months, what I thought was light weight was pretty heavy. After that I used the stationary bike to get 35 minutes of decent cardio. I thought by today I would be good for a long easy run... notsomuch... I got about 6 miles in, but it was very very slow (730 miles) and I was dying! Honestly I had to walk almost 4 blocks after the run to cool down.

On a side note: I watched the Espy's tonight. Seth Meyers was hilarious... although I think he could have made a few more jokes about Lebron and Tiger... but maybe that was too easy. What I wanted to talk about is the Arthur Ashe award recipient. They gave it to the family of a coach of a high school coach in Iowa. He basically helped bring a community back from a terrible tornado disaster in 2008 and last year he was killed by one of his past players. His family was crushed, but in a terrible time they came together, supported the family of the killer, and one of his son took over the coaches mantle. Seeing the family receive the award from Brett Favre (my hero) and hearing the son speak was extremely touching. The jist of his speech was almost a lesson to all these young, rich, and dumb athletes out there: its not that hard to do the right thing and you will reach millions of people. It was extremely humbling, and I couldn't help but think how so many people have done so many good things and I can only hope that I can do a fraction of what other people have done for the American Cancer Society. Thank you all for your donations and support, please spread the word

PS: That picture on the top are these new compression calf sleeves that I got on Amazon. After scouring marathon blogs, they say these compression sleeves help with recovery. I am possibly doing it all wrong, but I will do anything short of EPO to achieve my goal. I wonder if I could find a used hyper-bolic chamber on ebay.... hmmmmmmm

Big Time!

Today was a big day! Had a good one on Saturday too. Saturday we went golfing at 730AM (walked the course!) and somehow made it out for a run with Clarke. We did 10 miles at a comfortable pace and I did another 2.5 at faster pace. I was pooped after. But then today I went on a run thinking it be just a tad over 10, I ended up going at a decent pace, fast enough to do a sub 1:30 half marathon. Unfortunately my watch didn't pick up the distance for a few minutes, so the only way for me to test my pace half marathon was to do 1hr and 30 min and see if my distance was over 13.1 miles. The way back was reallllly tough. I was going real slow and had to make 2 stops to grab some water. It was "Bonk-a-palooza 2010!" I still wanted to see what I could do, so I finished the time and took a slow jog/walk back home. Jumped right onto google pedometer and found that I did 13.125 miles in 1hr and 30min!!! That's 6:51 miles... 1.5 seconds faster than my marathon pace! I think if I did it on a Saturday, after a rest day, I could go even faster! Maybe not for a few days though, I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty sore tomorrow!

On the donations sided we just passed $250! Support is coming from family, new friends, old friends... The support and well wishes have been great! Thank you all so much! Till next time...

A little Video From my New Ipod!

Here is a video I took a little after my turn around from my 14.5 mile day.... It may have been an excuse to take a short breather as well ;)

Note: Please forgive my "doofiness" during my videos... I'm not exactly a trained play-by-play announcer

Good few days

So lets rewind to Friday: I had the day off and it was a gorgeous day going into the 4th of July weekend. I knew it was time for a run that was longer than I have ever done, so I thought it was best to go a different direction. So instead of heading North on the beach path, which actually would only allow me to go a little over 6 miles before the end of the path, I went South towards Millennium Park and Soldier Field. Some people don't like doing the same path over and over again. For me I actually would rather run the same route until I can run it with my eyes closed. Really the only way I can cope with the sheer amount of time I have to be continuously running is to totally zone out. I'm not sure if it's a good thing that I can so easily shut off my brain. It either means I have the power of a Buddhist monk or I have gotten so much dumber over the years that I may have the intelligence of a 4th grader (although I had a vivid imagination back then... hmmm)... i prefer to think the former. So anyways, I put on my favorite podcasts on (PTI & the BS Report... stand for Bill Simmons, although he is full of BS too) and I started runnnning. I went out about 7.25 miles (although I thought it was 6.5) and felt a little lost. Luckily the path is over 18 miles long, so it's not like I needed directions. On the way back I needed to stop at 3 water fountains so I didn't overheat, thank god there is water and gatorade given out during the marathon! I ended up doing 14.5 miles in about 1 hour and 43ish minutes. I was pretty pumped with myself to say the least. I'm hoping to get myself up to 20 miles by August. Speaking of August, my half marathon is on August 1st. I really feel ready to run it at my marathon pace. Only problem is race starts at 630AM!!!!! Which means I have to get up at 5 at the latest to get warmed up and ready. Running in the morning is super hard. Heck one of the major reasons I chose to go to Dartmouth is that they never had morning rowing practice! That may be a bit of a stretch, but I am not a morning person let alone a morning athlete!

I took Saturday off to recover from the Friday run (and friday night...oooops) and Sunday and Monday I did 6.5 miles and 7 miles respectively. Legs were definitely still sore, but I am finding speeds coming quite a bit easier. Yesterday and today I did over 9 miles and during both runs I got rained on. Yesterday was pretty awesome actually. It was coming down hard enough that it was actually hard to see a few feet in front of me. Nothing is better than running in the rain, especially being caught after the turn around point.

At the top is a picture of the sky after the night that there was a tornado spot close to the city. It was very surreal to say the least. I'm not sure if the picture does it justice but the sky was literally purple.

Thanks for all the donations by the way. We are over $200 so far!!! Way ahead of where I thought I'd be at this point, so thank you and please if you haven't donated press the "Chip-In" widget at the top right of the blog!

AMERICA!

I love America... I was too busy all weekend to post, because I was loving America so much, but I did take some time for a few good runs and even made a short video during one of my runs. Will update later tonight. Happy belated 4th, hope everyone had a good time and welcome back to work!

X-Training, Run, Volleyball, and Epic Win!

I'm not going to lie, I was beat on Wednesday! I had done about 23 miles in 2 days and knew I needed to do some x-training. So I finally used the Lincoln Park Boat Club and went for a row. Rowing a scull is very different from rowing... I feel like I'm in pretty good shape, but in both the alumni rows I have done over the past month, I have been exhausted just paddling. We used to do 15 miles a day at steady state and in no way was it close to the level of exhaustion i experienced in just a few kilometers. The row was relaxing and tiring, but worst of all the shoes were too small! Recreational rowing clubs seem to be biased against people that are actually big enough to be good rowers! My feet were numb after 4k! So i had to get out of the boat and jump on an erg for 20 minutes to get a decent workout in.

Fast forward to today, got out of work early and got out for a run before volleyball. The run started out at a decent pace, but I got to 4.5 miles and felt pretty beat. Turned around and starting messing around with my stride. Lengthened out a bit and kind of felt like I was going over 7min miles. I wasn't tired, it felt like a comfortable pace but too comfortable. But low and behold I look down at my gps watch and I am going 6:30 miles! The realization I was going faster than I ever thought was invigorating. I kept pace all the way home and ended up doing a little over 9 miles in 59:50. I know I need to be above 10 miles in all my runs now, but I also know there will be times that I may be tired and can not do as much (especially in the morning) so I am pleased with today's run. I plan on doing a half marathon tomorrow sometime being that I have the day off. After the run I took a quick shower and headed out to volleyball. I am so happy I joined a volleyball league. Honestly it is the highlight of my week. The group I play with are all really cool people, and its more about just having fun than it is about winning. I'm not all that great though... i spend alot of time in the sand rather than hitting the ball over the net. I would describe my play as "floppy." Tons of fun nonetheless

So as for the epic win... after having my call "escilated" numerous times with DirecTV's customer service, they are finally realizing the ridiculousness of their policy! WIN! See what a little hard headedness will get you!

Donations are coming in... I'm almost up to $200 already! Thank you to everyone for donating and I really appreciate it! Please pass on this blog to your friends and family... I promise to do the work and with your help we can really help a great cause! Ok better post tomorrow!

Ouch ouch ouch... and Eff DirecTV

I AM LIVID RIGHT NOW! Why do we put up with companies that treat their clients like dirt? I have been jumping through hoops for DirecTV to get be able to use a used receiver, and when I finally get one that they say is acceptable... they tell me (after i buy it) that the account it had been hooked up to is "in collection" and cannot be activated for my account. WTF!!!! Somebody already told me it was good to go and I dropped money on it! So long and short I just got my heart rate up for a good hour as I felt like I was talking to monkey's who sniff their own butts even after they discover it doesn't smell very good the first time (i love that youtube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAgEgEda12c).

Ok so today prior to that whole debacle, I went for a run along the beach path... did about 10 miles with only 1 stop to do some pull-ups in the park. This is where the "ouch ouch ouch" comes in... my legs have been super sore as of late. So today's 10 mile run was at 7 min miles and in all honesty I was happy to stop and change it up for a few minutes. Although on the plus side my new (used) ipod didn't crap out on me half way through... I can only take singing songs in my head for so long.

So facebook group is looking good... I've already got 2 donations!!!! So excited! Definitely now feel more of a sense of urgency being that the race is only 3 months way. Hope you are enjoying the blog!

Still running... farther now

So I've been MIA on the blog for the past 2 weeks. Busy summer. But nonetheless I have still been getting in some pretty good workouts. My average distance has started to get farther and farther. I'd say over the past 2 weeks I've gone from averaging 7 miles to averaging over 9. My last 2 runs were 12.6 and 11.1 at decent speeds. Today I had quite the reality check though: I was passed by guys that were obviously college runners. Now I don't expect to be at the same level as those guys, but it still was very much humbling to have them zoom by me. I caught one of them grabbing a drink and asked if I could pass off him on my way in, he was nice enough to say no problem. My watch said we were doing 5:40 miles and being that I was on mile 10 at that time, I only lasted about 4 minutes. Instead of getting down about it, I tried to watch the way he ran, see if there was anything in my stride that I could fix. He was about 3 inches shorter than me, but had a much longer stride. I've been trying to keep my strides short and peppy, I think I'm going to try getting a little bit longer for my next few runs. I also need to start getting more than 6 hours of sleep a night, I am dragging hard by the time I need to get out and could easily tempt myself into taking a nap. (it also doesn't help I've been going at the weekends pretty hard... and I'm not talking about working out... so that's going to have to be a lifestyle change pretty soon). I still think I can reach my goal of a 3 hour marathon, I can tell that the last 10 miles are going to be really really hard, but if I continue to up my mileage, stay true to what my body is telling me, I think it will come down to toughing it out. Natural talent didn't really get me very far in my athletic career... and this is no different. I've got to push through all the walls I hit and remember that whatever sacrifices I may be making, and whatever pain I may feel, it's nothing compared to what the people who have to fight cancer have to go through. That's real toughness.

After this post I'm going to start up a facebook group and send out a few emails to promote cause and publicize a bit what I'm doing. I hope you enjoy the blog and please donate whatever amount you feel comfortable with... every dollar counts. See you soon

Interview Numero Uno

(full disclosure: this is blatant thievery from one Adam White... so thanks... and don't sue)

So I thought I'd do my first interview... the idea of doing interviews was mentioned in my first post, so I thought I'd follow through with it. But who should the first interviewee be? Why not interview yourself? Ya that's a great.... wait who are you!?!? I'm the right side of your brain being creative (slash stealing this shtick)! Well this is weird... ok lets do this

Q: What have you been doing the past few days?

Don: Well I've been pretty busy with hanging out with friends on the weekend, working during the week, and finding time/energy to fit some good training in between. Friday was an off day, and Saturday (after getting locked out of my own apartment... long story) Tommy and I went for good 6 miler and Monday we did a fast 6 miler. I've been more tired recently, so I'm a little worried of over training. Luckily being 4 months away I have time to recover.

Q: What made you think you could do a marathon in 3 hours?

Don: What? Why couldn't I?

Q: I'm supposed to be asking the questions! Well even your mother said "you were never an athlete," and it takes an athlete to go that fast, a smaller athlete at that.

Don: Oh come on don't tell everyone that story! She was just saying that I had to work harder because I wasn't a born athlete. But this whole idea of 3 hours came up because its the time that many non-runners point at as a very impressive time. In 2008 I was working out pretty consistently, running on the treadmill in the gym alot and did the math to find that a 3 hr marathon is 8.7mph. One day in the gym, I got on the treadmill just as the 2008 US Open playoff started between Rocko Mediate and Tiger, and set it to 8.7mph thinking it would be just a 30 minute run and after an hour I decided to go for the half marathon. I ended up doing 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 27 minutes. Lets just say I had some blisters but it also planted the idea of going for a 3hr marathon.

Q: He's a big dumb animal folks...

Don: Shut-up

Q: Easy buddy... so do you know anything about running marathons?

Don: Not a thing... I've been trying to do research, but I'm keeping it simple: upping my mileage every week, doing some interval stuff, trying to lose some weight, and using some stuff I've learned about training during my rowing career

Q: What has your "research" come up with professor?

Don: Yuk yuk... well I now know that I have to average 6:51 miles to get my goal, which is a few seconds faster than I thought, but doable. Shorter strides with quicker turnover (# strides per minute) is more efficient than long lunging strides like I used to do.

Q: How come nobody has read your blog yet?

Don: Because I'm self conscious about my writing and have yet to publicize it yet... thanks bringing that up....

Q: You're welcome

Q: To close: do you have anything else you'd like to say?

Don: Yes. Please donate and leave comments!

Q: But I'm just your sub-conscious, I don't have any money...

Don: The readers!!! Not you damn sub-conscious!

And I'm Back!

So I took a quick trip down to Florida over Memorial Day weekend and even though I was able to crank out a few runs, I wasn't nearly as productive as I am here in chi-sizzle. And because golf doesn't count, my total workout count was 2. That may have had to do with the fact that even at 9AM it was in the low 90's and humid to boot. So on Friday I got out for what I thought would be a easy 6 mile run with my dad riding along on his mountain bike. Side note: my dad will wear a hooded sweat shirt if he was running across the Sahara. I mean it's crazy, I have no idea how he doesn't keel over from heat stroke! He says its from his days as a wrestler, where the goal was to lose as much weight as possible in every workout. Amazing... Anywho, I got another short run in on Saturday and then took Sunday/Monday off to recuperate.

Now that I am back in Chi-tropolis, I kicked it off with a 9.6 mile run at 7min mile pace. The beach path is getting super busy, every category of activity has increased in popularity, but it seems biking has become the most popular. Apparently there are more Lance Armstrong wannabe's in the midwest than I expected. These bikers are extremely angry people. On average I get yelled at by a biker 3.38 times a run. I try to look out for them when I am passing someone in front of me, but why do they have priority over us "faster than average" runners? I mean as far as toughness, runners produce much more lactic acid over a much shorter distance. The fact is you have to spend double the amount of time on a bike to burn the same amount of calories you would by running. Therefore as the chancellor of the beach path, you bikers are ordered to CHILL OUT! We're all out there doing our best to not get in anyones way.

Ridonkuous

Holy Moley

After a fun weekend back home in Toledo, where we did some alumni rowing races and a fare amount of drinking, I got back into the swing of things monday with an 8 mile run on a beautiful day. The heat caught me a bit off guard, not to mention the throngs of Chicagoans enjoying the 80 degree weather. Enjoying it a bit too much though, past 2 days I saw multiple kids (usually young men who happen to have tramp stamps... surprise) getting thrown into the back of a padiwagan. I had one encounter with an obviously drunk kid who wanted to play chicken with me (he literally looked around, saw me, and stepped off the beach in front of me). So I did what anyone with common sense would of done of course... I put my sunglasses on the top of my head, stared right into his eyes, and turned on the boosters. Lets just say he didn't stay put (although he did have some choice words for me, but I kept running). That mentality never made sense to me, why do people want to pick fight with a random stranger... eh... off topic

My run was good monday, produced ALOT of sweat, and got me back into it. Today I tried something new. I've been reading a great deal of marathon websites with training schedules, and they talk about doing higher intensity, shorter runs. So today I did 4x1 miles with 3min rest in between. I did 5:28, 5:52, 5:58, and 6:12. First one was by far the easiest, and I actually though midway during the 2nd run that there was NO way I could do 2 more. There was a fare amount of dodging and weaving, and people were definitely looking at me funny, but I was pretty excited once all said and done. I hadn't done a workout like that in years and I was pretty impressed with myself (toot toot).

Side note... i stopped watching lost this season... and with the series finale just happening, I got pulled back in! Different experience this time, I watch them on fast forward so I can finish them sooner... it's pretty intense! Still no better season than season 1

Morning run tomorrow with a core workout after... keep your motor runnin...

A Good Week

Wednesday was my fast 7-8 mile run, and I'm still somewhat surprised/encouraged by my performance that day. So Thursday I decided I should take precaution and do a recover run: shorter and slower in the morning. Well didn't exactly get myself up at 5:45AM (damn snooze button is so inviting!) and I had to make up for it in the evening. It was a beautiful day and when I got home my roommate Loren was looking for for a running partner. I thought this was perfect because I'm a bit faster than Loren, and he usually doesn't run for too long. We got on the beach path and I decided to make up for the speed difference, I'd run in the sand while he ran on the pavement. This lasted about a mile and was really tough. I am definitely going to add sand running into my off day repertoire! I barely kept up with Loren, and was happy to see the sand end after about a mile. But then Loren said something that made something click in my head. He said, "alright man I'm going to turn here and head to Ana's (his g/f's) and you can keep going." Maybe it was ego, maybe it was just my years of following instructions in rowing, but once he said that I just thought "ok" and kept going. I ran a total of 9 miles and had to force myself to turn around. My speed varied, as it always does, dependent on the distance of people running in front of me. See for some reason I have to pass everyone. In my head even a training run is a competition, and even if someone is running significantly slower than me, if I see them a quarter mile ahead I kick it up a notch. I had tried to keep myself to 7 min miles, but at times I was going 6:30min/miles. In the end I ran those 9 miles in a little over an hour. Faster than I wanted, but it felt GREAT.

Today was a lift/cross training day, so I got to the gym and went through my core routine and high rep lifts. It's disheartening sometimes doing the lifts because I top strength has left me a bit. I have to remind myself when I can only do 14 pull-ups that I can always go back to heavy lifting after 10/10/10, that I need to focus on becoming a runner. After the lift I did some erging (god i hate that machine) and hoped on the dreaded eliptical. 1.5 hrs at the gym felt good and I feel stronger in the right places (core, legs, and back).

Tomorrow I have to do a morning run because I'm driving back to Toledo for my high school's alumni rowing race. Very excited to see some old faces and splash around in the Maumee River. I should be able to get some runs in Saturday and Sunday. Until Monday I'll leave you with a pic of the lake front at 6AM a few months ago. It's brighter now adays at that time, and I miss the view of the sun rising over the lake. Gotta love Chicago!

Attempt of a Video Blog

So after a pretty decent recover run Friday and a low key gym workout Saturday, I had a pretty lazy Sunday and Monday (read I may have imbibed a bit too much... who me???? noooo). So today I got out on the path with the goal to run close to 8 miles, FAST. I had my GPS watch and I averaged 6:40min miles, which was way faster than i expected! I toyed around with 6min miles, just to see how fast it felt. Pushed me past AT threshold for a bit, which was probably good for my speed but bad for my knees! Anyways, I tried doing a video blog before leaving for the workout... lets see if it works!

"Recovery" Run

Got home from work today a little later than usual. Was exhausted all day, but felt like I needed to do some sort of run being that in the past 7 days I've only been able to get in a few mediocre workouts. So I reheated some coffee from the morning and pounded down a bowl of cereal before gearing up. The plan was to do a short run, about 4 miles, at a slower pace... well that didn't exactly happen. I think it was a combination of the caffeine kicking in around mile 2 and my new ipod playlist that just kept me from wanting to turn around. The weather wasn't even nice! But somehow I just zoned out and found myself farther than I had ever run down the path. Round trip the run was 11.26 miles, and from the reading on my new GPS watch, I was moving at a decent pace (7 min miles... a 3 hour marathon is about a 6:53 min mile). It was just one of those run where my brain turned off and everything felt great. It was pretty surprising being that I am just getting over this bug! Heart rate was in the right range, between 150-165 hpm, and with some sprint work I should be able to get that down a bit. In a couple months I have to do a 20 mile training run (i think a few weeks before the race) and at this rate that should be a breeze!

On another note I need to get involved with the American Cancer Society of Chicago pretty soon. The training is alot, but I have done a good deal of morning work and can volunteer in the afternoon. Luckily the adminstrators at ACS are extremely helpful, and I think they will be able to point me in the right direction.

Also I need to get a video camera to make some video of the training, volunteering, and maybe a few video-journal entries. Ebay here I come!

New Weight Regimen and Video of "The Path"

Check out my beach path on a windy day last week. Pretty cool right? Definitely my favorite part about Chicago.

Last week I started a new weight routine that is more inline with my marathon goals. That means no more "beach weights," it's time to work the high reps low lbs. No more mass building, now it's all about building core strength and getting some lean sinewy muscle like Usain Bolt (sorry I dont know the names of any famous marathoners)! I'm still recovering from this annoying bug, so I didn't want to push it too hard today but I didn't want to be a couch potato either. The gym was basically empty, it was a sunday (not to mention mother's day), I could get to each station without a wait, and I was strug-el-ing! It was good to do though, can't let a little sickyness get in my way. Hoping tomorrow I will be closer to 100% and can get a long run in after work. I also think starting tomorrow I'm going to publicize the blog... hopefully to critical acclaim of course!

PS
I just saw that they are bringing back NBA JAM... I remember spending hours playing that with my childhood friend Joey. BOOM-SHAKALAKA!!!!! HE'S ON FIREEEE!!! This remake looks like a bunch of bobble heads playing basketball though... which is a good way to describe what it looks like when I play basketball, but doesn't fly with professionals... oh well I'll try it of course SLAMAJAMA!

Minor Setback... and a Life Lesson

So minor setback… Tuesday was my birthday and to celebrate I decided to do a longer run at my marathon pace before going for dinner and drinks with friends. The run was along the lake (my preferred path) and for a change it wasn’t too windy. The past few days on the path have been a battle against the wind on the return trip, which obviously means the trip out was a breeze with the tailwind. Back in the day during rowing practices, you would sometimes swear you were going into a headwind both ways. With running it is very clear which way the wind is blowing, so I always begin to dread that moment when I have to turn around and face that two headed, foaming at the mouth windy beast. But this time the wind was pretty tame so I decided it was time to push it and work on my technique. Marathon runners always seem to run with a short stride, and being that I am alotta leg, my stide isn’t exactly short. I relate that technique to rowing with a “poppy” feel. It’s what we used to say when we needed to be a little quicker through the water and usually used during longer races. Use a little less energy and quicken up your turnover. It makes things more efficient and allows the rower (runner) to conserve energy for the long haul. Overall the run was successful. I ran 7.66 miles at a pace of 8.6 mph (my marathon pace is 8.7) and felt like I could have gone much farther.

And here is when the “setback” began. Lets just say that what was supposed to be a quiet dinner/drinks with friends turned into a quiet dinner/drinks with friends and a night of drinks with the boss’s son. Yes life is random, actually had a random run in on the path too, and I found myself boozing with Hightower Jr (you’d get it if you knew my boss). Next day was tough, and then for 2 days after I was under the weather. So I am hitting the sack early today (Friday) and hoping to get out on the trail and in the gym tomorrow morning. I did gain 1 good bit of knowledge from my birthday night: never mix scotch, beer, vodka, beer, whiskey, and champagne… it never ends well.

Let the Adventure Begin....

The goal: Raise as much money for cancer research
The plan: Run my first marathon in under 3 hours
The reality: I am 6'4, 200lbs, with "child-bearing hips." This is not going to be easy!

In the beginning of April I started running regularly along Lake Michigan. I've always had the idea in the back of my head to run a Marathon (although if you had asked me what I thought about marathons you may have thought I had the conception that marathons were created by Beelzebub himself) but never had the opportunity. Now that I am settled in a new city (Chicago) with a great job (evil financial minion), I am ready to give it a shot. But there were 2 stipulations: do it for charity and break 3 hours. The first was a no-brainer. So many people in my life have been effected by cancer and I hope this small act will help people much smarter than me find a cure sooner rather than later. My father beat cancer 8 year ago. And my aunt has beat it 3 different times over 12 years (her most recently battle was this past Summer). They are easily two of the toughest people I know, and my main reason I am running. But so many other people in my life have been effected by cancer: friends, neighbors, co-workers, teachers.... the list goes on. And that is why I want this blog to not only be my training journal... but also a journal about the people who have lived with/through cancer in some aspect of their lives.

Now "why 3 hours?" you ask. Well... if I'm going to put myself through this horrific race, I might as well go after it. I came up with 3 hours because that is the number I've been told is "impressive." Two year ago, while living in NYC, I got on a treadmill thinking I would be doing a short run and ended up doing a half marathon in 1hr27min. Yes I know the treadmill is likely easier, but I'm going to actually train for this! And you can read about it here! I know you are just overflowing with excitement, so I'll leave you now to go think about just how much fun it is going to be reading this blog over the next 5 months :/ I do promise to try and make it entertaining and also somewhat educational. I will end with my first plea for donations: DONATE! (PS: over the next few months I will have goals that if we hit I do silly things... ideas are welcome for those prizes!)

And here... we... goooo