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!