I feel old...

I woke up Tuesday morning and felt a shooting pain in right hip. I did manage to run that night although I just felt like I was shuffling along like an old lady. Yesterday morning, I woke up feeling pain in every part of my body, even my stomach didn't feel quite right. I went for my run; I was scheduled to do five miles at easy pace but I only managed to do have half the mileage.

Later on, I went in for my gum graft. Essentially, the periodontist takes gum from the roof of my mouth and then transplants it to my front tooth where the gum is receding. It as much as fun as it sounds. This was my second round, so at least I knew what to expect this time around. I have one more to go. My diet for the next few days will consist of soft foods like pudding and creamed corn.

Hip pain, receding gums, eating mushy food... I feel so old.

Ultramarathon Man

I just finished reading Dean Karnaze's book Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All Night Runner. Most people know Karnazes from his most recent endeavor in 2006 which was running 50 marathons (one in each state) in 50 days. The book is bascially a memoir of his early running years up to the completing a 199 mile relay race by himself. Karnaze's may be an amazing athlete that repeatedily pushes the envelope on human endurance but his writing style is rather banal. Some of the andecotes are amusing (like projectile vomiting after his first 50 miler and ordering pizza in the middle of nowhere) but the book lacks any depth or inspiritation. Instead of feeling inspired to push beyond the 26.2 mile distance, I was just left the thought of "wow, this guy has a real Type-A++++ personality". I am quite happy with my Type Y (not quite a Z because I manage to some things done) lifestyle, no ultras for me.

I am so cool

On Friday night, I jogged down to the high school track which is about a mile from my house which is perfect for a warm up and cool down when I do my speedwork. As I entered the road that leads to the high school, there was a group of girls that I passed. One of the girls said "that is sick, I want one of those" as I passed. She was referring to my super cool Fuel Belt that I was wearing. If you are not hip on today's lingo, "sick" means cool these days. Yes, I am very cool.

Marathon Times

I have completed four marathons in the past couple years. Since I have another big event in my life (my wedding) to plan for this November, I decided not to train for a fall marathon. Instead I decided that a more attainable goal would be run a half marathon time under 2 hours (my current PR for the half is 2:01:31).

Anyway, here's my marathon times:
10/1/2006: Maine Marathon (Portland, ME): 4:58:11 (11:23 min/mile)
4/28/2007: Country Music Marathon (Nashville, TN): 5:14:03 (11:59 min/mile)
11/4/2007: Manchester Marathon (Manchester, NH): 4:45:48 (10:55 min/mile)
5/4/2008: New Jersey Marathon (Long Branch, NJ): 4:34:48 (10:37 min/mile)

To qualify for Boston, I would need a run a marathon in 3:45 (a pace of 8:35min/mile). I have a way to go. As you can see, with the exception of Country Music (where I was running on sprained ankle - not smart), I have continually improved my times by 10+ minute increments. I just have to keep chipping away at it.

Poor Deena...

I watched the women's Olympic race on Sat. night only to be disappointed that Deena Kastor was out of the race with an injured foot at 5k mark. Click here for the complete story.

On the upside, the winner, Constantina Tomescu Dita from Romania is 38 years old, the oldest ever to win the marathon at the Olympics.

So, there is still hope that Deena will make a comeback in the 2012 Olympics. Heck, she's the same age as me (34 years young), maybe I can make it too :-)

Heart Rate Monitor

I am starting a new tactic in my training which is part of the reason for this blog. In the past few years, I have been continually improving, setting new PR's in different categories of races but I wanted to take my training to the next level. My far reaching goal is to actually qualify for the Boston Marathon.

My chiropractor advised that I start using a heart rate monitor and loaned me a couple of books on how to actually use one (as opposed to just wearing a chest strap under my boobs for the fun of it). One of the books, Heart Monitor Training for the Compleat Idiot by John L. Parker, Jr. is now my bible.

The whole concept behind using a heart rate monitor in training is to truly measure your aerobic effort so that you run your easy days easy and hard days hard. The problem with trying to do this unaided is that most people simply do not know how much they need to slow down on their easy days and end up working harder on those days. When the true hard day comes, they already hit the "wall" sort of speak. In any case, the book explains a lot better than I am doing right now.

This is my fourth week into it. I have to say it's harder to do the easy days simply because I have to sometimes stop and walk to bring my heart rate down to below 70% of my max. heart rate. It's very frustrating to not even make a 10 min/mile pace on those days. But I am determined to stick with it and hope to see the results.

Top of the Bell Curve Explained

The idea of this blog actually came from my chiropractor, who also happens to be a former coach for Team in Training triathlon events. I was mentioning how I was out of a job at the moment and I was joking how I now can seriously train and get corporate sponsorship (yeah, I don't think Nike will be beating down my door for me to sign a contract). He then said I should put a blog up about how my training to get to the top of the bell curve on my next race. My goal is not to be at the top but to be dead center of the pack that they can't even announce my name or take my picture since so many other folks are running through the finish line at the same time. It's all about attainable goals.