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BB is the ultimate football coach. We need a linebacker, he gets the best one. We need a receiver, he gets the best slot and two of the best wides available. I can't wait until September and kick-off of the Pats 07 campaign. Brady to Moss is going to be very exciting.
That's all I got.
Tough going on the marathon course out there today. About 45 degrees and raining at the start with tons of wind coming out of the East/Southeast. Very difficult running conditions. The times were crap. People who decided to go for it and missed their guess (like me) paid dearly over the last half of the race as the temperature dropped and the wind picked up. It almost seemed like a cruel joke someone was playing on the runners today.
A brief rundown.
Here I am in our bedroom before the whole experience. All full of confidence and ready to roll. This was taken before I stepped outside.
Things were much brighter then.
I started out with a good group and After about 11 miles I just couldn't keep it up. Very odd because we were not going that fast but I was just dead tired. I think it was just fighting the wind for so long that it was just leaning on me and the effort of trying to maintain oly trials pace in such wind killed me. I should have backed off my goal and just run with Jeremy the whole time but that wasn't the purpose of this effort. Great job by him to run smart and rip a 2:27. The worst part was from 17.5 to 18.5 where the wind just really picked up and started to downpour. Very disheartening. At that same point I was working really hard to catch up to a runner I had trained with and right when I got there, he stepped off the course. Discouraging to say the least. It was great to see everyone out on the course. Thanks for the cheering.
Here is the data from the watch.
1) 5.25
2) 5.18 10.43
3) 5.24 16.08
4) 5.20 21.28
5) 5.31 27.00
6) 5.25 32.25
7) missed
8) 10.52 43.17
9) 5.23 48.41
10) 5.29 54.11
11) 5.33 59.44
12) 5.29 1.05.14
13) 5.35 1.10.49
14) 5.47 1.16.37
15) missed
16) 11.41 1.28.18
17) 6.03 1.34.22
18) 6.16 1.40.38
19) 6.14 1.46.53
20) 6.16 1.53.10
21) 6.26 1.59.36
22) 6.12 2.05.49
23) 6.19 2.12.09
24) 6.03 2.18.12
25) 6.14 2.24.26
26.2) 7.39 2.32.06
Here is a shot christy mae took while I was approaching 14. I am the speck in the green.
Shout out to my cousin Shanna who ran her second Boston Marathon after a red eye flight from Germany (where she lives in the winter because her husband plays pro hockey in one of their leagues).
14620 Bekar, Shanna L. 27 F Bedford NH USA
Finish Pace Projected Time Official Time Overall Gender Division
0:08:47 3:49:59 10372 2798 2088
I am gonig to take a nap. I will write more about the whole breakdown of the race tomorrow.
That's all I got.
Well, Just finished my last little shake-out run and strides in the beautiful April New England spring storm. Heavy flakes and a chilly rain mix for 21 minutes and a few easy strides. Feels a lot more like a December storm. I would really like for either the temperature to rise or for the rain to stop. Both of them combined will make for a chilly run tomorrow regardless of the wind. There has not been much else going on with my training. 5.5 on Friday with some strides. 4.8 yesterday in 35:28 (the name of the blog is Easy Gait) which felt like I had the e-brake on. Just forcing myself to go slow. Now is the most difficult part for me. The not doing anything just trusting the work. You want to do something last minute that you think will help but the best thing to do is just trust it.
For those of you tracking on the internet, I will be wearing number 46. For those of you watching on the sidelines. I will be wearing this New Balance uniform.
If you are going to be on the course feel free to drop a comment and let me know where you are watching from and I will look and listen for you. Enjoy the race. It will be on versus network and if you are local it is on channel 4.
I will post a brief update tomorrow on what happened and how it went. Later in the week I will give the breakdown and play by play.
That's all I got.
A lot of people have been asking me what my contingency plan for Boston is in comments and e-mails. I figure it deserves an entry to itself.
I have no plan B.
Is it smart? Don't know. Here is the twisted reasoning.
I picked a day about 14 weeks ago in which I would aim for another assault at a 2:21:59 and that was that. I knew weather could be a factor in Boston in April when I picked it. Weather can be a factor anywhere though and I thought the benefit of being able to train with a group on the course with everyone shooting for the same day would be very advantageous.
The reason I didn't come up with a plan B is because I am a wimp. If a rough patch were to occur during my training, like say, a pukefest 48 hour flu or a stinging shin splint, I would jump ship to plan B. Which would be pushing it to another date. Then when something happened during that training, I would go that plan B. It would just be one excuse after another as I go through race after race never putting it on the line and saying "Today is the day." All of my training, workouts, and taper have been focused to this week. There is no marathon next week in which I could push it to. Even if I wanted to abandon ship, there is no other vessel to which I could swim. You have to dance with the one that brung ya. The Boston Marathon and I are dancing partners.
Therefore Monday is the day. Come hell or high water I am going to race. It looks like the hell was reserved for 05 and this year it will be high water but it is what it is. It may not be ideal but we don't choose these things, they choose us. So I will just have at it and hope for a solid effort.
After the race I will figure out where I am and where I am going.
Back to paying for the big dig. Taxes are due on the 17th.
Damn the man.
Save the Empire
A driving rain in a 15 mph wind out of the east today. Good practice for marathon monday. I went out at lunch today specifically to get in some running in the rain and wind. It was cold, wet, and dreary. Just what one would expect.
Today I got in to see Dr. Weiss at performance health center for an ART session. He did a quick review of my spine and legs, which is what chiropractors do I guess. The conclusion was I am a mess. But my lower left leg was a real disaster. I guess my right leg is about twice as mobile as my left. He did some stretching, flexing, pulling, and popping. He almost yanked me off the table trying to stretch my ankle. To my absolute surprise, my lower left leg feels noticably better. Now this is what I remember him telling me so it may or may not be right. I have a tight tibialis anterior muscle (shin muscle) which is being held tight by my superior and inferior extensor retinaculum. Right now my left leg is in a bucket of ice water (it only hurts a little) and I will do this for 20 minutes on 20 off for a while. If I can race the marathon on Monday with no pain I will be a happy runner.
My thanks to Jen Fields (who I have never met) who had a similar shin problem and relayed the information to Matt V. who got me to call Dr. Weiss. What a twisted web this blogosphere weaves.
Tomorrow morning I am going for a run and if it feels good and I think the ART helped I will be heading in for another quick session.
That's all I got.
A nasty storm is expected to make Monday in Boston feel like a winter day in London -- 40 degrees with lots of rain.
"We are confident that it is going to be pretty dismal," said Charlie Foley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton.
The storm is expected to settle over New England on Saturday and punish the region with several days of frigid temperatures, gale-force winds, and enough rain to cause costal flooding. The Boston Marathon has never been canceled in its 111-year history and organizers say this year will be no different. The Boston Athletic Association issued an advisory today warning participants to come prepared for foul weather.
- Boston Globe
How awesome is that? When I say awesome, I mean sweet! I hope those jokers are wrong. I really would not care if I was racing to race, because I think I am very good at racing in adverse conditions and would do better placewise in nasty conditions. Unfortunately, I am chasing 2:21:59, which would be a huge PR and the weather forecasts my group has been mailing around and the newscasters can't stop talking about would not exactly make for a PR type of day. The cold and rain do not bother me nearly as much as the 20 - 30 mph easterly wind that is predicted. That would really put a wrench into the machinery. I apologized to my training group today because this is my fault. Whenever I sign up for a marathon I get crappy weather. Boston 05' 80 sunny, headwind. Chicago 06' cold wet raw 35 with a 30 mph headwind the last 10k. Boston 07' Nor'Easter predicted. I know how to pick'em. Oh well, screw me if I can't take a joke.
Last night was my last workout before the marathon with Mario. We did mile 20 - 21, 21 - 20, 20 - 21. 5:19, 5:08, 5:29. No problems. I hope I can run a 5:29 during the marathon from 20 -21 because it will be followed by a 5:15 and then I will be rolling to the finish.
Today I did an easy nobscott loop in the trails in 46:47. Nice and easy in the trails. I have all nice and easy until Monday.
That's all I got.
Change is brewing in the state forest trail system right across the street from our road. The DCR is logging the Sudbury State Forest (which is almost completely located in Hudson) to thin out the trees and make some money. They say they are going to preserve the trails and clear them at the end of each day but from the running Christy and I have done on them it is very difficult pass over all the garbage they leave behind. Hopefully they will do a final sweep when they are all done and get rid of all the branches and small timber they can not sell. I doubt it but it doesn’t hurt to hope. You can see the timber proposal here.
http://www.mass.gov/dcr/stewardship/forestry/manage/docs/Forest%20Product/Northeast/Sudbury%20Goodale.pdf
It was a busy Easter weekend with the family which left little time to write about my running the past few days. Friday night I did my last track workout before the marathon. It is probably also my last track workout at Reggie Lewis ever. It took 55 minutes to get into the track because of the fun time I had at the Mass Pike/128 interchange. When I got the track, it said my ID had run out on the 5th and they gave me a whole bunch of crap about not being allowed in and I have to pay 90 bucks for another quarter. Anyway, I am sick of driving into Boston and working out on an over-crowded track. I may change my tune next winter but I was feed up on Friday. Here is the Data from the watch.
1600: 4:56 (1:26)
1600: 4:56 (1:29)
1600: 4:53 (1:38)
800: 2:32 (1:11)
400: 1:10
Felt really easy and I could have done more but was nervous about a little twinge I felt in my shin. I don’t want to ruin any gains made in the past two weeks. Especially after glancing at the weather report just now, 38 to 48 degrees and overcast. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Saturday was 59 minutes in the ARWR trails solo at a leisurely pace.
Sunday, last run of any distance. 12.5 in 1:24:26 through Memorial Forest C loop. A lot of dog walkers were out. I ran about .25 miles with a collie named Maggie. I knew the dogs because there was a women chasing after us yelling at the top of her lungs “MAGGIE, MAGGIE!!” I have a no stopping policy for people walking their dog off-leash because if you can’t control where your dog goes, you really should not be walking your dog with out a leash. 99% of the time the dog turns back after 10 seconds. This time the dog followed me for about 90 seconds. Down the trail, over the oxbow, up the hill, I was impressed. Then the lassie wannabe turn around and headed back to the women I could no longer hear shouting but was probably a little bit nervous about her dogs location and how far she would have to chase it into the woods. She wasn’t in the best shape so another long walk was probably not on here Easter agenda.
Today was a lunchtime nobscott loop in very windy conditions. The trails dried out nicely over the windy weekend and there was hardly any mud to be seen.
That’s all I got.
Snow today. I was pretty excited to see an inch of sloppy slippery snow on the ground this morning when the brilliant weather guy said all we were going to get was rain. Good work, glad they pay you. What a job. You look at all these models, maps, and graphs, completely botch your forecast, and then say "what do you expect, it's new england." I have to get into that racket.
56:00 nobscott loop today at lunch which is a casual 6 minutes slower than I usually do it. The snow was very slippery on the trails so it was slow going.
Last night a got a massage from Glenn at heart break hill massage. It went really well and it really loosened up my legs. Unfortunately it didn't take care of my little shin behind the knee problem. I didn't think it would. A friend of mine at work stopped in to give me a suggestion from a friend of his to try some ART with Dr. Weiss in Natick at performance health center. I think I have some overuse/scar tissue type of thing so maybe that will help. I think the taper is helping a lot as well.
That's all I got.
The final workout of the Boston Brigade took place last night along the Charles River. Now we will all spread out and get ready for the race in our own way. Relying on our, self-made through trial and error, tried and true tapers that work for one but certainly not for all.
I want to thank everyone who in the past 14 weeks has helped out with the workouts, driving, logistics, and time keeping. I think we had a great training group that really made it through some difficult workouts that probably would not be possible solo. Good luck to everyone on their tapers and final preparation. It was a hoot. I will see you all on race day.
2 mile intervals on the the BU side of the River from the Hatshell to below the BU bridge where the wooden bridge starts at the boathouse. Brings back Chicago training memories. Good group tonight. The following is lifted from directly from Mr. Shea except for the last interval. On Charles River using mm5-7. Weather was 37 degrees w/ 13-16 mph NE wind and thus tailwind on 1st and 3rd and headwind on 2nd and 4th. Group included TPS, Stants, LaRosa, Ox, Ward, Mario, Callahan, and Jeremy.
10:16 (5:10, 5:06)
10:15 (5:06, 5:09)
10:09 (5:03, 5:05)
10:55 (5:24, 5:31)
After mile 5 I had to go to the dirt path to get on the soft surface. I ran the last interval by myself on the path because I couldn't stride all out on the pavement anymore. Pain in shin after last interval during the warm-down was intense and radiating along the entire lower leg. If I don't get this thing licked, completing a marathon on it in this condition will be difficult. It felt fine for 5 miles and then all of sudden really tightened up. I will try to get in for a massage this week and see if any miracles can be worked. I iced and stretched a lot last night
This morning I ran in to work via the 10k route along the railroad bed. Everything felt good. The shin was fine with just a little tightness behind the knee.
That's all I got.
ARWR with Tim, Justin, and Christy Mae. Last long run. 1:57:42
The trails felt good. The back of left leg above the knee really tightened up on the run. The shin was good one the soft trails.
93.2 Miles last week.
The taper starts now. 60 miles planned for this week.
That's all I got.
The Upton 15k as a tempo. Wanted to start out running PMP but ended up going too fast. It was much too hilly to try and match splits. I did a lot of running behind, then running in front, going back from water stops to the group to simulate getting caught up. Just sort of playing around until 6 when I tried to pick it up. Here is the data.
5.19
5.16
5.26
5.12
5.29
5.17
5.16
5.01
5.25
1.31
49:16
Left leg killing me on the warm down. Felt great until a sharp downhill at mile 4.3. Just like the Tuesday night tempo. If I am flat or uphill. It is fine. A lot of ice.
That's all got.