Setbacks are just more roadblocks to overcome...

This week was a bit of a down week from a training perspective.  I'll get to that in a minute though.  First, a fund raising update.  As of this morning, $5,975 had been raised for DFCI via the generous donations of many people!  That's a fantastic amount and hopefully the positive response continues from more people and company matching efforts.  I'm trying to update the Barr Impact Statement provided by the program so that you can see what types of research the donations are helping and the potential impact this could have on cancer therapeutics.

Back to the training aspect now...Over the last 1-2 weeks I've started to feel twinges of pain in my left thigh.  Apparently my injuries have multiple personality disorder as at one moment they'll manifest as pain in my quad, then move more towards my knee 30' later, then move again later in the day.  Not fun since I can't really pin down the pain not identify when the injury may have happened.  This led me to not worry so much about an injury and thus go to the track workout on Tues PM.  About 2/3 of the way through, I definitely felt pain coming on and decided that I should stop for the night.  At least I felt a sense of accomplishment in that common sense won over desire to finish the track workout.  I mean 20+ years of education does not necessarily correlate with common sense, and perhaps the opposite is true?  :)  I digress, leaving the workout, I was a bit down on the day and injury.  2mo before the NYC marathon, an overuse injury popped up, was this really happening again?  Sure, finishing is the goal, but I'd really been gearing up to run at a near or sub-4hr pace.

After Tuesday PM, I reconnected with old friends - ice and IBU - and we got together ever few hours.  It made me wonder what % of IBU sales are a result of athletic injuries? I skipped the Crossroads run on Thurs PM, which was hard since the weather was gorgeous and it is a great social atmosphere.  While preparing for the DFMC group run on Sat I wondered what I would be able to/should do.  I wanted to run, but should I?  I knew that I could do Saturday's run, but the goal is bigger than 14-16mi in Feb.  I ended up running 9.5mi and taking the pace nice and slow.  That said, as I finished, I definitely felt that I could have kept running and in fact pushed the pace more.  That knowledge definitely improved my outlook.  Also, running as I did allowed me to see a hawk sitting in a tree about 12 feet off the ground next to the running trail. In meeting RJ a few weeks ago and hearing about his story and treatment I recalled his approach to overcoming cancer...stay positive and believe in yourself.  Overall the week ended on an upswing and RJ's words provided an appropriate motto to remember as I work through this training setback.

20 Mile Weekend!

Wow, what a run today to cap off the week.  First off, in the last week another $250 has been donated to my DFMC efforts, putting the total raised at $5,500 (one check needs to be mailed in yet).  The response from unexpected sources has been fantastic and I'm extremely appreciative of all the contributions!  Thanks to everyone who has followed through on company matches as well as that has added about $700 thus far and to all 84 people who have contributed in some way!

This weekend's long run was a longer version of one we did in early January.  We started in Watertown at the Mt. Auburn Club and ran up to the hills of Newton before proceeding to Wellsley (Garmin: DFMC 19+ mile).  After running the Crossroads runs the last few weeks and the Newton hills at night, running them in the day, and in the opposite direction to start with was a bit disorienting.  Surprisingly, when we hit the 1hr mark and were commenting on how quickly it had gone by, my "only 2 more hours to go" comment wasn't received that well.  Hmm, wonder why?  So over 3 hours of running, what did I learn during the run? Several things I guess.  First, even when my legs started to feel heavy and tired on the hills on the way back, I was still running at a faster pace than when starting, so that bodes well for Marathon Monday! Second, my running partner during the 2nd half, Gina, and I clearly need to work on our communication. Neither of us were trying to run sub-9min/miles the last 6miles, but we did.  Of course, neither of us spoke up that we would be happy to slow down and thus kept chugging along.  Lesson learned.  Third, I'm done experimenting with Raspberry CarbBoom gels.  Times tried = 2, times gel has exploded out the side onto my hands, shirt and shoe = 2.  It was like syrup being poured on my coat...what a mess!  Otherwise, it was a good run on an absolutely gorgeous day, too bad I missed the entire afternoon taking a nap and recovering!

Track Workout & Singlet

Last night was another track workout and it was tough.  Running 400m with 200m to recover and doing this 20x is the same distance as the previous weeks, but it felt sooo much harder!  Luckily my running partners were able to maintain a consistent pace over the 400m so overall it was a good time!  While walking and talking doesn't seem tough, for some reason running and counting to 20 is pretty challenging.  We managed by alternating runners and felt that counting 20 was high enough to warrant a beer at Red Bones.  It's the simple things in life!
Then today, I arrived home and saw that my DFMC singlet had arrived!  Never run a race in a singlet so this will be a whole new experience.  Also, anyone that knows me knows how often I've tried to pull off a sleeveless shirt!  I'm sure that this will be quite the look, but at least I have 8 weeks to figure this one out, or order a Superman costume to wear underneath!

1/2 Way There!!

It was a big week for several reasons.  First and most importantly, I have raised more than $5000 for Dana-Farber and cancer research!!  This obviously would not have occurred without the generous donations that everyone has made along the way to support my efforts and DFMC experience.  THANK YOU to everyone for your support!!!
As for training, we're about 2 months away from Marathon Monday and I'm definitely getting excited the closer it gets.  Tues PM was a great speed workout.  Unfortunately the group that I've been running with is slowly dwindling in #s because of aches and pains.  We still had a good group running the 1000m speed workout but I was surprised to that the extra 200m (compared to the previous week) felt so much harder.
The speed workouts must be paying off though as on Thursday night I did the Crossroads run again.  Taking the T out of Boston and then running the marathon course back in is a good route.  At times it may feel like playing "Frogger" but there's safety in numbers.  This week I wanted to push the pace and we did.  Even with the hills of Newton (which includes Heartbreak Hill) we averaged 8.20min/mi over 9mi!! Made the pizza and beer that much better.
Fri AM was definitely a little more sore b/c of the faster pace, but I planned to take the Sat group run a little slower as an easy run.  Of course, even the best plans don't always come together (unless you're the A-Team of course) and b/c of chatting along the course, the "easy/slow" run was more of a race pace.  Guess that's a good thing since we did 16mi today.  Starting at the BSC in Wellsley, MA allowed us to run a good section of the marathon route today along with a number of other charity groups running.  Given all the miles this week (~48mi including last weekend's 1/2 marathon) what better way to spend a Sat night than stretching out the legs and relaxing on the couch!

Surf City 1/2

A late posting after returning from LA for the Huntington Beach Surf City 1/2 Marathon this weekend.  After running this race last year alone, it was great to have company and run with Kim and Todd for their first 1/2!  It definitely brought back memories of my first 1/2 in 2008...the mental aspect of trying to run 13.1mi for the first time, having a few rough moments during the race and then getting to the end and feeling both elated to be done and that there was NO way I could/would want to turn around and run it again for a marathon.  Funny how things change in a few years time...
The race itself was another gorgeous day, though the 60s were a little warm for running.  Running with Kim also made us both realize that we prefer not to run with each other, but for stylistic reasons, not b/c we don't want to spend time together.  Guess it will be something that we need to work on for any future races together.
In addition to the race, we visited "The Magic Castle" on Fri PM.  It was a fun and interesting experience.  Lots of magicians performing a bunch of slight of hand tricks...cards, coins, etc.  A fun night to see the club of magicians, though when 1 guy spells my name "Kris" as the culmination of a trick, that isn't very magical :)

2nd Track Workout and Surf City 1/2

On Tues PM I did my 2nd speed workout with DFMC at Tufts.  First off, how can NASCAR drivers possibly enjoy their "job?"  I mean we kept turning left during our track workout and that got a bit boring.  Can't really imagine that for several hours in a car!  But I digress, I'd never heard of Yasso 800s before our workout but that's what we did.  Apparently running the Yasso 800s (800m with 400m recovery runs x 10) you can get an idea of your marathon time.  That is, if you run the 800m in 4:00mins, then the equivalent marathon time is 4:00hrs.  The speedsters that we all are, we were aiming for about that 4min mark per 800m.  After looking at our paces, we averaged about 3:50 per 800m so in theory we should be able to run a marathon in 3hrs 50mins.  Not sure I really believe that, but I'll keep it as a goal time and hope that training continues to go well.

Speaking of training, this weekend will be the first group run I miss.  It will be for a great reason though as I visit Kim and Todd in LA and run the Surf City 1/2 with them!  Can't wait for my 2nd Surf Board medal :)  Given the mild weather, I'm hoping that the adjustment to running in CA is not that difficult, but with highs in the low 70s predicted, we'll see.  Of course the other fun part is watching the Superbowl after the race, at 3pm!  Gotta love watching national sporting events on the west coast!