Philly Marathon Training Plan

I tried to post my marathon training plan but Blogger won't let me cut and paste. So here's my schedule for this week.

Sun: 3M

Mon: 6M (Fartlek)

Tues: 4M

Wed: 7M

Thurs: 4M

Fri: 3M

Sat: 12M

So it's Tuesday and how am I doing so far? Well my wife got back from her trip Monday morning so I couldn't run on Sunday. Monday (yesterday) she was still tired from her red eye flight so was pretty much out of commission which meant I couldn't go out after work. Today I was planning on doing a double but couldn't get up. I'm off today so I hope to get out later this afternoon. It's also supposed to go up to 96 with humidity so we'll see how far I can run. I'm going to take it easy and run really slow. I'll be running in mostly shade in Forbidden Drive so that'll help.

I'm really itching to get out and run. I know my laziness doesn't show it but I haven't ran more than 4 miles in about a week. I hope to get some good consistant weeks of running to get to a good start on my training. The plan (coolrunning.com) is for advanced runners, which I am not. I hope to get as close to it as possible but constantly remind myself that I won't be discouraged if I don't follow it exactly.

I Met a Crazy Today

I was getting my mail during my break (I work from home) and ran into my neighbor across the street. I've lived here for more than 5 years and this is the first time I ever talked to him-shame on me. He's such a nice guy! He's always been really nice, waving to us whenever he sees us and always smiling at my kids. Last week I noticed that he had a 26.2 and 70.3 sticker on his car. So today when I ran into him I asked him about it.

We spent about 25 minutes talking about his training and how he's training for the full Ironman in AZ this November. I told him how I was training for a marathon and he was so encouraging. It was so good talking with him. More than that, I was so inspired to keep running and cycling. He has a trainer that has him workout twice a day. He gets up at 4:30am every morning to either run or ride. Then he does another training later that afternoon/evening. I hope to get to that point some day but for now I'll try to get up at 5:30am tomorrow to get in a good 8 mile run.

I hope to one day run/ride with him and train together and be a crazy man like him.

Apraxia 5K Race Report

My biggest obstacle in running, biking or doing anything else is highly dependent on my bowel movements. Sorry if this is a little gross but if you run/bike/swim you know what I'm talking about. So to make sure this doesn't get in the way, I got up a little early to drop off the kids. I did and did it again an hour later. Since running regularly 2 months ago, I've been very regular which I'm super happy about.

Now on to the race. My wife reminded me that today wasn't about running my first race but rather to support the organization that supports Apraxia which my son is diagnosed with. But of course I still wanted to run a solid 5K.

My time on 5K? A slow 26:11. My goal was 24 minutes. I never thought I was going to run any slower than 26.

Here's a few factors that contributed to this time:

1.) The entire 5k was on trails. I've only ran on trails (Wissahickon Trail) once and I wouldn't really call that trail running since most of it was flat with some small rocks scattered.

2.) I started out way too fast. I ran 7:30 the first mile and then... well you can do the math. I haven't done any speed/tempo training at all so that's why I'm slow.

3.) The music on my iPhone was all messed up. As soon as I started, the music shut off and I spend the first 1/4 mile trying to figure it out. I ended up fixing by mile 2.

4.) Gnats. Lot of gnats all over the place.

5.) I didn't run Wed-Sat. I was lazy and couldn't get up so I didn't run. I didn't want to over train and be sore so just didn't feel that bad about not running.

6.) I'm out of excuses. The 5 reasons above are just horrible excuses that I will learn going forth. I don't like excuses and won't make this mistake again.

My next 5k is next Wed, the Ambler 5K. I hope to break 24 minutes.

My 1st 5k - Apraxia 5K

Tomorrow I'll be running my 1st 5k. This 5K is special to me for a few reasons: First, it's sponsored by Philadelphia Area Apraxia of Speech which is part of the only charity organization that is dedicated to helping children with speech apraxia. My son is diagnosed with speech apraxia and it'll be great to meet up with other parents and organization leaders who are in the same situation as us. Most of you probably never heard of what apraxia is-heck, the word even came up when I was doing a spell check!

Secondly, as my title states this is my 1st 5K! Am I excited for the race? Yes! I have so many different scenarios running through my mind on how I'm going to run it, what time I'm aiming for, what music (if any) I'm going to listen to, etc. My average pace has been around 9:30-10:30/mile so I have no idea what that'll translate to in a 5k race. My Broad St run pace was 9:03/mile with just 3 week training so I'm thinking I should be able to run at least 8min/mile. My only training runs have been easy/long runs so after another month or so, I'll fit in some tempo/fartlek/hill/interval trainings.

I'll post my race report tomorrow.

1st Post!

I'm excited to be able to put up my first post on this site! My goal of this site is to have at least 1 reader (me) keep up with it. It would be nice to have tons of people link to this site and follow it but that's not my intention (not right now at least). I hope to keep a steady journal of my running/biking endeavours so I can see my improvements over the years.

Just a little background: I first started running back in high school where I ran the 100m/200m/4x100m. I was fast but could have been faster if I took it a little more seriously. I don't know how or what made me start but I ran my first mile on April 6, 2011, trying to get ready for my first race (Broad St 10 miler!). I train for a whopping 3 weeks for the Broad St. and did okay. Since then I've been hooked on running.

I always thought that God created me to run no more than 200m. I ran 400m in a meet and thought I was dying afterwards. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I can run more than 1 mile. After I tried running 1 mile, I tried 2.. then 3, then 4, then 10! I learned that it was all in my mindset and not just my physical (in)ability. There's a common quote that really hits home, "running is 90% mental and the other half physical."