Over the past several months I’ve documented my training in preparation for the Vermont City Marathon (VCM), which I ran last Sunday morning. Like any marathon training cycle there were a lot of ups and downs, and a number of memorable runs (some good, some bad). The story of this marathon training cycle for me […]
Vermont City Marathon 2013 Race Report: Executing the Plan, and A Big Thank You to Mother Nature
May 28, 2013 By 31 Comments
Marathon Training: Final Prep, and a Tough Shoe Choice
May 23, 2013 By 11 Comments
I’ll be running the Vermont City Marathon this Sunday, and I’m amazed at how calm I am given the amount of uncertainty that I’ve been experiencing lately. My past several weeks of training have included multiple lousy long runs, and I’ve had general sense of deadness in my legs that I’ve had a hard time […]
Marathon Training: Respect the Heat
May 14, 2013 By 25 Comments
Image via Nasa.gov I’m at the two week countdown to marathon day and my confidence heading into the race is at the lowest point that it has been this training cycle. My major goal for last week was to get in a final, solid 20+ mile training run. Well, I ran 20 miles last Tuesday, […]
Marathon Training Update: A Lesson in Perseverance From My Son
May 5, 2013 By 7 Comments
Some weeks life aligns in such a way that running becomes secondary to other, more important/essential pursuits. Such it was that what was supposed to be the final big week of this marathon training cycle aligned with my final week of classes, final exam prep, and office/lab clean-out and packing. I’m giving a final exam […]
Marathon Training: DNF’ing a Long Run – Is It Sometimes Better To Cut It Short?
April 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I hate cutting workouts short. I’m a numbers guy, and when I have a target distance for a workout I like to hit it. However, one of the lessons I’ve learned over the past few years is that sometimes it’s better to cut a workout short when things just aren’t feeling right. Today was one […]
Marathon Training Update: April 14 to April 20
April 21, 2013 By 4 Comments
I’m going to keep this one short since this has been an eventful week on multiple fronts. My main goals for the week was to get in a solid mid-distance run during the week and a strong 20 mile run today – everything else was secondary. The plan at the outset was for it to […]
Boston
April 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I was not in Boston on Marathon Monday. I’m mostly thankful for that, but part of me wishes I had been there since so many people that I know and care about were suffering through the events that took place yesterday. In talking with other runners over the past 24 hours, the common thing that […]
Marathon Training Update: April 8-14
April 15, 2013 By 4 Comments
After a great week of training last week, the current week started out well then fizzled a bit toward the end. I could feel fatigue starting to set in – hard training and an insane schedule for me and my wife were taking a toll. Opted to ease off a bit, and I think it […]
Marathon Training: Long Run Hydration
April 9, 2013 By 23 Comments
Boston 2011 was not a good marathon for me. I actually don’t remember much of the actual race, but what I do recall is having massive problems regulating my body temperature. I remember drinking a lot, and pouring more than a few cups of water over my head to cool down. What I remember most […]
Marathon Training Update: April 1-7, Making Progress!
April 7, 2013 By 9 Comments
I feel like I things started to click a bit this week – ran 5 out of 7 days, got in three strong quality workouts, and the toe seems to be almost back to 100%. The biggest validation that my training is starting to pay off came on my long run this morning – 18 […]
Marathon Training: Long Run Pacing
April 3, 2013 By 23 Comments
I received a few questions in the comments section of my most recent training update regarding how my pace on my long run seemed pretty fast given my goal marathon pace of 7:45-8:00 min/mile. Rather than leaving a long comment in response, I figured I’d write a post explaining my approach to long runs, and […]
Marathon Training Update: March 25-31, Do No Harm
April 1, 2013 By 25 Comments
“Listen to your body.” It’s one of those pieces of advice that every runner should heed. Unfortunately, it’s also advice that is all too often ignored. We runners can be rather stubborn when it comes to getting in our miles, especially when a race is looming, and the consequences of not listening when your body […]
Weekly Marathon Training Update: March 18-24
March 24, 2013 By 15 Comments
Last weekend I made a deal with myself. I’d get my training plan from my coach (who, by the way, just won the HAT 50K yesterday!), post it here on the blog, then update how things went the following weekend. The goal was to both keep myself honest with my training, and also to give […]
Spring Marathon Training: Keeping Myself Honest
March 18, 2013 By 8 Comments
I wrote a few weeks ago about how my training for my Spring marathon (VT City) has been pretty lousy. A combo of time constraints, awful weather, and a string of low-grade illnesses had whittled away at my motivation to log in the miles. After returning from vacation in Florida last Saturday, I finally managed […]
Race Report: 2011 Boston Marathon
April 22, 2011 By 31 Comments
Last summer I spent a weekend in Boston with my family, and during the trip I paid a visit the the Bill Rogers Running Center for the first time. While there, I admired the many Boston Marathon shirts that were for sale, but chose not to buy one since I had not yet qualified for […]
