Day 52- Post Broad Street

Isn't today one of those rainy,dreary Wednesdays that lend themselves to being in a foul mood? Yea sure seems like it but I wont be taken in. This week has well been interesting. Practice has felt like it barely excited since we've had to beat lacrosse games and today and tomorrow will be long days due to coaching obligations today and my graduation tomorrow. This is related in some ways to my training and really any other time we start to let "life" in general get to us. "If you make a decision to bloom where you're planted, you'll live a life of excitement and expectation". I take this as we're going to have bad days, bood moods, and simply not good times. We'll have bad workouts and bad races as runners. If we can just simply give our best in the moment on that day, we'll be OK. We all, myself included, complicate things sometimes when they do not need to be; just breathe and give your best. I didnt get up to run this morning, had trouble falling asleep last night due to my nap but I did not let it ruin my day. I feel a bit more well rested with the extra hour of sleep and I can just do my 50 minute run this afternoon. The expectations we put on ourselves at times I feel lend us to bad moods. If we oversleep a bit, are not quite up to par on something, or make an incorrect decision; the chance is there for it to ruin our day. However, we can practice not letting it ruin our day. We can say, oh well this happened, but I still have the rest of my day to do accomplish good things. We're human..we're going to be negative at times and have negative thoughts but there is always that instant to turn anything into a positive. As a quick joke before I talk about Broad Street, I totally made myself sore for Sunday by completely dancing up a storm at the wedding on Friday...GTs. So Sunday was Broad Street and I have been working since then to just stay positive and learn from my mistakes. Got up at 450 AM to have two pieces of toast w/jelly and a banana and also drank a good amount of water. Left my house by 535 AM and got to the stadiums by 605 AM. There was a ton of traffic trying to park and get onto the subway but Dahl, Beth, & Laura made it to the start area by 7 AM; giving us 1.5 hrs until the race so we could relax and do what we needed to do. I just streched and relaxed..I was excited and confident. Did a 10 minute warmup at 735 followed by active stretching. At 8 AM, we all put our bags in the gear buses and took a final bathroom trip. I was in the corral by 815 so I had time to pop out and do 4 striders. I got back into the corral by 820 AM and just tried to stay loose until the start. I was able to move up to just behind the seeded/elite corral when they moved the barrier and so it maybe took me a couple seconds to cross the start. I have to be honest and say I was pretty comfortable and tried to remain relaxed the first mile. I came through in 531 and the goal was 535 so 4s fast isnt terrible and also thats impossible to measure over a mile when I am just wearing a regular stopwatch. Hit the second mile in 532 and again still felt pretty comfortble. Mentally I wasnt looking at it as 8 miles left to go but was looking at it as 3.5 miles to go City Hall...also, the first two miles felt like they went by extremely quickly. So point is I was off to the start I wanted. Miles 3-5 is probably where I made some bad decisions which led to me not being happy with my race. I was finding self alone in mile 3 and saw a pack ahead of me and worked pretty hard to get up to it versus settling into my pace. I ran 528 for the third mile and again made another bad decision to not sit in the pack. I was afraid of them slowing and fall off the low 55 minute pace I was already on so I pressed forward running 531 and 526 for the fourth and fifth miles. I dont know what happened but things got bad coming around City Hall at mile 5.5. This is what I am most unhappy about but I became very negative. I had 4.5 miles to go, I felt myself redlining and felt that it was too early for this to be happening, and really just got negative. I let my relaxed feeling and breathing go and things got bad. Mile 6 was a 538 and thats still really good but for I let it get to me that I was slowing...BAM...shot at low to mid 55s over. I mean yes I was hurting physically but 4 miles is nothing...I had a weak moment and let negative thoughts get to me. Thats why I say we're human, I'll learn from this, and do better next time. Miles 7 and 8 were both 544 and for some reason I said "no sub 56 today"...wow..I am 28 years old, been running for 14 years, and coaching for 5...I am not above those kind of thoughts and its very humbling...but as they say in the book Running the Edge, "I am in progress". I came through 8 miles in 44:40 whic meant I would need an 11:20 to break 56. The thought of running back two 540s brought pain to my chest and legs. Mile 9 was 551....HAHAHA..I wanted to punch myself in the face...5030. A 530 mile would get me sub 56. Well at this point one of my former teammates and also a current athlete I coach, Matt Dahl came up on me and tried to urge me to go with him. I tried for about 100m or so but I couldnt keep up. Again another decision to be mad at myself for because he ended up breaking 56. I crossed the line in 5620 quite unhappy with myself. I let things slip away and had an amazing race in my grasp with 4 miles to go but let it slip away because of bad decisions I made. I was pretty unhappy with myself for 20 minutes post race...it was not a good race at all. Staying with me for a second, I met up with Matt, Beth, Laura, Stead, and Erik after the race and was in a bad mood. Talked with Laura for a bit and had some other thoughts and felt better about things. Still not happy with the race, never will be, but I am in progress..I can learn and I can go back to training. I will get better, I will run 238. My coach and I agreed that it was not fitness related so much as just bad decision making that led to my slowing at the end which I totally agree. 540 feels crusing on my pickups so the fitness is there. He also said he'll tackle me if I go out too fast in Philly...dont doubt that..also said he'll break my jaw again..dont want that..haha. But all in all it was a good day. Matt who I am coaching broke 56 minutes in his first race since college and his first true 10 Miler. Laura in her first Broad Street PRed!! (proud of you!) Another one of my clients John PRed and another John nearly PRed! Alot of my runners were out there and enjoyed doing the race so it was a great day for me and those close to me! This is truly a great sport with great people and I love motivating others, my friends, and my clients to be passionate about running also. So its back to training for now. I have a 10k in late June which I took third at last year. I'll look to run mid 34s there, and then its PDR in Sept, and Philly Marathon. Good news is again I am still excited each and every day to run. The next challenge will be consistently getting out the door on Saturdays or Sundays to do my long run...No worries there!

Day 46- Pre Broad Street Run

First big race of my 2012 year! Feeling excited and positive; ready to trust my training to this point. Had a decent week of training last week. My 600s workout went well and my pickups on Friday went quite well. I am doing well with finding a rhythm at 545 and find myself having to hold myself back a bit. This tells me 536 pace for 10 miles is certainly in the cards for Sunday. This past Sunday's run was quite the adventure. I signed up for a 5 Miler at the Heritage Winery in Mullica Hill. I was going to use it as part of my long run that day. So I woke up at 7 AM and left my house by 740 AM to run to the race. It was a 10.5 mile run so I figured thats how I would tie it into my long run. It was a very very nice day out: low 40s and sunny so I was able to run in shorts, dry fit, and gloves. My legs felt a bit tight on the run but I was absolutely cruising 640s to 650s. I got to the race site by 850 AM and this is where things took an interesting turn. Well I mistimed it a bit because I had to wait around for 20 minutes until the 5 miler Started. For some reason they started that AFTER the walk..hm. So we start out and first off the roads arent closed. They had us running on the shoulder, which was not a wide one, on the side of cones. There was a police presence..but come on..if you're putting on a race..shut down the roads. I had to do 2x2 mile pickups at 530-535 pace with a mile jog in the middle. The first two mile pickup felt pretty good, my knees and legs were a bit tight from the standing around but it went OK. I was in third place as two guys were racing pretty well. Well at about 2.5/2.75 they run past, and then I run past, this group of kids and when I say kids they were at least 10 or 11. Run RIGHT PAST THEM. Well another half mile to a mile (who knows) up the road and I see the two kids turned around kind of standing there. I come up on them and I knew we were off course. They asked me if I knew the area which I did but just dont run over that way alot. I made an educated guess to make a left, run down the road, and make another left. Eventually we see cones in the distance straight ahead and on our left. That group of kids was supposed to turn us!! I only say this is funny b/c I wasnt racing..otherwise I would have been quite unhappy. Me and these two other guys led the ENTIRE race off course. Someone saw me ahead so they followed me, someone saw that person follow me, and so on. This whole stopping and starting in my second pickup did my legs in and I cut the second one short. I am not great at changing gears to begin with but we were starting and stopping alot as we were trying to figure out our way. So apparently we ended up running 10k..but oh well. This week has been scaled back as I am trying to get my legs to feel light and fresh. Even went and got a massage on Tuesday and the legs while they felt tight still yesterday, feel pretty good today. I am in the red (2nd) corral on Sunday behind the elite and seeded corrals. I tried to get into the seeded corral but I was denied. Not thrilled that I was but hey, extra motivation cant hurt! Besides last year, I started right behind the seeded runners so I am not worried. The plan is mid 530s for first couple miles and then try to work down to 530 and hold it. Conditions are looking decent with lows at low to mid 50s which is good. So I am ready to rock and to droptimesandraisetheroof as we say at Eustace track!

Day 38

Moving on with the normal stages of training. Things are going fairly well for the most part. I have heard a fellow coach say many times that a person cannot coach and be a competitive runner at the same time. I just dont agree with this. I do not know if its an excuse or not but I feel as long as I dedicate time and attention to my athletes; I can certainly train seriously as well. If both provide me with satisfaction and fulfillment; why not? I also get creative with it sometimes. If my runners are doing a distance run and I have pickups, I'll work it so we do a loop opposite direction and I can meet them in the middle. I have had solid long runs lately. I did a nice 12 miles on April 14th and cruised fairly well. This past weekend I paced the 7:00 group at the Rutgers Half Marathon. I cannot tell a lie; the night before I was in zero mood to get up at 430 AM and go up and do it. I was up early for Woodbury the previous day, I had to get up at 430 AM Wednesday to get my run in; it was just a busy week. Props to Laura for helping me put things in the right perspective. I had a the opportunity to help someone reach their goal. I have to say she was right on as the morning was very fulfilling. I paced with Greg Wilkinson aka Raphael of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turles and we had a nice group with us for about 7/8 miles. It was nice interacted with the people, finding out their goals, their past running experiences, etc. As we got into the 9/10 range people either picked it up as they felt comfortable they could hold that pace to the finish or they started to drop off. The last 3 miles were us periodically dropping back and keeping people up with us. I got a few handshakes and thank yous after the race so it did make it all worth it. Personally I was a bit down because the 7:00 pace felt like 6:00 pace to my legs...could have very well been from not getting much sleep the previous two nights. I could be onto something there because I got good sleep Monday and Tuesday nights and my workout and my run this morning before work felt very good. I had 10 600s and 6 200s yesterday which went well. With the wind it was tough to find a rhythm but I hit the times. I was surprised with how well I felt on my run this morning. Could it be the placebo/actual effect of me wearing my compression socks from 6 PM yesterday to 6 AM this morning? I wont debate that but point is I felt pretty good on my run this morning. Again, I keep going back to the fact that I am motivated and excited to run each day at this point, which to me is the most important. Its always my goal with my athletes to keep them motivated to run because if a person is motivated; the training will take care of itself because that running will do ANYTHING. I am looking forward to my pickup workout Friday and my long run Sunday. Sunday I am jumping in the Heritage Winery 5 Miler. I am going to run there from my house which will be 10.5 miles and then I'll do 2 x my Broad Street Goal Pace with a 1 mile jog in between. Very much looking forward to that. That leads me to Broad Street. My workouts are going well. I think with a few easy days prior to the race, I certainly think a PR is doable. I ran 56:01 in 2008, which as a side note Lord knows how the heck I did that as I was not in shape at all as my 2008 PDR race will show. I ran 56:10 last year two weeks after Boston. I will go for 56:00 and this is a debate for another day but I'll be happy with low 56s. Some may say I am compromising but I dont see it that way. Reason why I dont is I am not going to compromise..I am going to run 535s for as long as I can. Heck I think mid 55s is definitely possible. Looking forward to it!

Day 17-still in early stages

oooops..sorry for the long break..busy week last week. Training is moving along and taking my time as the race is a long ways away. I was having some soreness in my calves and quads as the workouts came back in; I was hitting the times but was feeling quite sore on my long runs. Those have been going well. Sunday the 25th I did one, out the door by 630 AM, and had a nice pace the whole way. Just to see what I could do I picked it up the last mile and ran it in 6ish as I ran a bit longer than a mile. Everything is healthy and feeling good and I am doing good with the motivation. I can tell because I am looking forward to running each day and its not a chore to get it done. I feel that running should be enjoyable to someone regardless of how hard they are training and that should be the primary gauge of their success; their enjoyment. I say this because when running and training is enjoyed, a runner is motivated to run each day, and that alone progresses them. Anyone I deal with who runs, I try and pass the enjoyment aspect along. I did not always think this way. Especially in college, and a couple years after, my enjoyment was based on times and increasing my training. During my Boston Marathon training last year, it was very dark and cold during the months of January and February. I had a lot of reasons to be unmotivated due to those two things; plus training completely solo: long runs and all. I look back on these times as when I started to find enjoyment in my training, where yes I was concerned with the outcome, I mean who doesnt want to do well; but I knew if I would do the training, stay positive, and give everything I had on race day..how could I not be happy with my race? I took this outlook towards Boston and I enjoyed the marathon as much as one could enjoy one. I ran past all the cheering people, the girls of Wellesley College and gave some high fives, a guy with a keg telling me to come back for a beer, and some familiar faces. I described it to people as being as fun as a marathon can get. After this race, I bought Ryan Hall's book "Running With Joy" and its one of my Top 3 running books. It really challenged it is 1/2 with Once a Runner. But Ryan Hall is an elite marathoner and could very easily be driven to greatness so much where it actually takes away from his training. His whole book details his training and his ongoing struggle to Run with Joy while training to be a great marathoner, to reach his time goals. I lost a bit of this in September for my Chicago training but I am determined to love my training for Philadelphia 2011. I am also using this outlook to inspire others to complete their first marathon, to drop their time, etc. Thats what is great about running you can always get better at it and there is always SOME aspect to improve on. I feel very lucky to enjoy running each day. Now I also know that I am not at full training yet, not even close; but at least I am starting there. I know I have talked about that positive attitude towards running before but its something that for me needs to be constantly practiced.
The training right now is consisting of two workouts per week, a long run, and some continuous/maintenance runs. I am doing a race in late April, 5 miler through some vineyards in Mullica Hill but that will just be more of a run. Then its Broad Street and I am feeling good about that, havent set a goal time yet.
Moving along!

Day 4 Still motivated

haha..i better still be motivated after only a few days of training. Dont really like being as sore as I am only after two runs and a workout but ah well. The workout went well on Tuesday. I hit all of the 300s in 55-56 and the 200s in 35. It was tough to describe how I felt and only a runner would understand it. I felt OK, good, strong, just not fast. It was as if I could not go faster or slower, which happens to me a lot actually. But I was happy with it. Yesterday we had our scrimmage versus Haddonfield. It was good to see some people get out there for the first time and afterwards I had a 50 minute run to get in. I was looking forward to it although I had the initial goal of getting it done Wednesday before work. I woke up at 430 AM feeling OK but elected to get the extra hour of sleep. I agree with the advice that sometimes its better to go back to sleep, which I am happy I did. I ran from eustace to newton creek, through collingswood, and around the Cooper River back to Eustace. I am happy I have a natural motivation to stretch for 5-10 minutes after my runs and not just hop in the car. That caused me to miss two months of running back in the winter/spring of 2010. I had a nice follow up dinner of eggplant and tomatoes and spinach with water. That is another thing I am happy I am off to a good start with...during the week I am only drinking: coffee, water, milk, or OJ. Hydration helps with recovery and overall helps us feel better, happier, and healthier. I did some t and foam rolling and was asleep by 1030. Feeling good this morning and besides still being sore I am looking forward to my run.
I always talk about positive thinking and self-talk and I dont want to give the impression I never get frustrated or mad. This relates to running very strongly! Its amazing how we can convince ourselves that we feel good or bad and how that actually physically affects us. Last night, I was trying to work on a new project and was getting frustrated because it was not getting off to a good start. Well then I had two athletes text me that their past two days of runs/workouts went very well; one in particular who is on their way back after a long hiatus from competitive running. Then this morning I had the dilemma of deciding whether or not to attend a presentation that would help me prepare for one I am giving next week. I was looking forward to going right home after practice and getting home by 515-530. But I would eat dinner and then be lazy on the couch. However this decision frustrated me because it was not in my day's plan. I was happy that this did not frustrate me or get to me and I went with the flow and decided I would benefit from attending the presentation. I'll simply occupy the time between practice and the presentation studying for my CSCS exam this summer. Its interesting how like Joel Osteen says, we can CHOOSE to have a good or a bad day. The stuff that happens to us throughout a day does not choose if we have a good or bad day; we do.
Looking forward to the rest of the week/weekend: workout and more dancing tomorrow, nice relaxing Saturday, long run and communion breakfast Sunday.
On a cheap/homeowner note...loving this rain this weekend= Free watering for my grass!!!!!

Day 2-First Workout

Day 1 went pretty well...did an easy 40 minutes and still felt a bit sore from Saturday. I ran around Audubon and Haddon Heights, which is a loop I enjoy. So many people and pets out walking and running, you can tell its spring...they better hope it does not turn 40 degrees out of nowhere. Did some dancing, had an amazing eggplant w/ beans and salad for dinner and hit the hay. Woke up today feeling a bit tired but generally good for the most part. I'll be able to get in bed by 10 at the latest tonight. I am also really excited because its Senior Wing Night! The runners I coach and myself are going to wing night as a little celebration. Unfortunately I cannot eat wings because of my teeth but I think I'll have some pulled pork and famous fries as a treat to myself for completing my first workout. For some reason, it feels like I have been coaching this bunch for a while and will definitely be sad to see them go. Some of them will have completed all 12 seasons of running and the rest have 3 of four years of 2 or 3 seasons under their belt...feel pretty connected to this group and again, looking forward to tonight. But first I have a workout...first once in about two months. But I got my road racers with me and I'll be ready to go. I got good news that I'll be able to use the track today. Its 300s at 520/mile pace and then 200s at 440 mile pace. I have another workout later this week and then my long run has a couple marathon pace pickups in there. I am really really happy that I am motivated and excited to start doing these workouts! Ready to rock!

Day 1- March 19th

I am not gushing..I truly feel this way...isnt life great? Isnt it awesome to realize the plans God has for you? I am not the most devout guy around but I do enjoy thinking about that, going to church, and trying to improve myself. I have listened to three of Joel Osteen's books, which to put simply, center on positive thinking and living. The stories he tells are downright inspiring! Its easy sometimes to find something we did wrong or something that is wrong about us and that in turn affects how we act at the current moment. I have realized this and identified times when this has happened to me. We all make mistakes and living in the past only hurts our future. So here's to living positive! Here's to realizing that every set back is a set up for a come back! Here's to not being a victim but a victor! Finally, here's to realizing all the amazing things I have in my life every single day! Why did I start off like this? Because heading into Saturday's race, I had a lot of reasons to feel unconfident and to build up excuses. But as one of my runners A.S. says and I laugh about it but I like it and its true, "excuses are the bricks that build the house of failure".
My weekend started with an interesting pre meet of dance lessons, which I had a blast at! My instructor said I was good..oh yea! Matt-1 Bad Dancing-0 I watch a couple episodes of 24 when I got home to get myself jacked up...hey Jack Bauer can pump anyone up! I was asleep around 10ish.
I woke up Saturday at 6 AM, had some toast with jelly, lot of water, and headed out by 645 AM. I picked up the gf and went over to a friend's parents house (who graciously let us use that as our "base"). I did a light jog, stretched, and then did a 12 minute warmup. I wore my road races and it was great to put them on again! I walked to the starting line with Laura, did some striders, we gave each other some encouraging words, and then went to focus on our individual races. I went to about the third or fourth row of runners (which the start was PACKED) and who do I line up next to? My boss..haha..we chated briefly and then focused on our task. The first 400m was crowded and fill with potholes but I just focused on staying comfortable and with a few runners I knew. I hit the mile in 515 which I was happy with since my goal for this race was sub 17. The effort started to get tougher but I really worked on staying positive and telling myself I was running well. Hit the two mile in about 1043 so a 528 with a small uphill. It was tough to stay positive on the uphill because I was hurting mile 1.75 to when I got back onto Kings Highway. I just kept telling myself to keep contact with the pack ahead of me that I had fallen off of. I made the turn for Kings Highway feeling ok but I was really hurting. I told myself Haddon Ave, Grove St, and finish! That helped the final long straighway and then after grove that final stretch seemed like forever. I finished in 1645 so 602 for the final 1.1 so probably in the 520s for the last mile. I had a wave of heat on my face after and exhaled very loudly but I was happy. 1645 was a surprising time and only 23s off of what I ran last year in the height of my Boston training. I cooled down with Laura and one of my athletes Angela and we were all upbeat about the day. Then I got some food, hung out at the store for a little bit, and had a great nap. I was feeling extra sore though so I just went for a walk Sunday and therefore today is Day 1 of my quest to break 240 and possibly 239. My coach and I discussed that I probably could have ran 238 at Chicago if I had held back a bit miles 5-12. Its crazy how much a 558 versus a 605 can affect a marathon. My coach also said that Saturday starts our path to 238 and I know I can do it. I know a few runners, a lot faster than me, but still I can run with at times who are doing it. I feel confident but more importantly very motivated to start training, which requires up early on the weekends. I know I can do it and I can feel the support! Real talk..I am going to do this each day.

244 days to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!