T minus 3 days

Started the carbo loading at lunch today with the plate below.


Yep, I'm surprised by the plainness also. Usually, I have almost as much dessert as I have pasta. But eliminating desserts from my meals last week took away my craving for sweets. Let's see what clean fuel will do for this race.

Also went on my last run before the race. My main objective was to feel the pace at the start of the race at 7:25 or so. I'm planning on starting off my first five miles like this:

8:00
7:45
7:45
7:30
7:25

I've never planned out my first few miles before, but this is a pretty flat course so I think it's a good idea to try.

Back From Vacation

If there was a perfect time for a vacation during marathon training, it would be during the taper week. I'm now back from spending time with my brother and his fiancee here in the city and my in-laws in Virginia Beach, and have to return to some...uhh...hard tapering? I've definitely enjoyed the last week or so with family, but I'm also happy to feel that I'm back on my schedule. My plans are still sort of loose until Sunday, but it goes something like this:

Thursday: short run (4-5mi) with intervals/begin carbo-load
Friday: rest/carbo load/shop for race goodies
Saturday: packet pick-up/last meal early afternoon
Sunday: qualify for Boston :-)

And there you have it.

One Week To Go

One week to the NJ marathon - where do I stand? Here's a current brain dump of my mental checklist of to do's and do not's:

• Pacing - I think I should be okay here. I don't think I have a problem keeping a 7:25 pace throughout the race. The challenge will be the hydration.
  
  
• Diet - I nearly made up for my lack of dessert this week in one night. My brother and his fiance are visiting. I can't NOT enjoy my time with them. I'll just have to be a little more diligent about my diet the first few days this week.
  
  
• Mileage - About 3 miles short each week of my tapering mileage last fall for the NYC marathon, which I think should be okay because I have run lower mileage to train for this marathon.
  
  
• Runs this week - Probably will do about 3, none of which will be more than 5 miles.
  
  
• Challenges - Driving down to VA Beach and seeing family. These get together's, although lots of fun, always include eating unhealthy foods. Will have to find time to sneak in a run.
  
  
• Other thoughts - Continue to stretch out this week and do crunches in a much lessened capacity.

I'm sure I've missed quite a few from this checklist, but that's all about I can come up with for now. Have to prepare for the road trip tomorrow after a long day eating and walking all around the city.

My First Leg Massage

I've been running for about seven years now, and never have I had a leg massage. That all changed today at my chiropractor visit.

In one word, the massage was all about PAIN. Elbow on my hammies, pressure point on the quads...I don't know how many times I grimaced as tears welled up. I thought my face was going to need a massage when I was done. In the end though, after I got stretched, it was a good experience and probably something I should do a little more often. For you active types, I highly recommend it.

In other activities, I just completed day 3 of 7 for my 1000 crunches. Only 4 to go. Woohoo!

Tapering activities - 1k crunches/day and a revised diet

While I'm tapering for the NJ marathon, I thought I'd get even more disciplined about my conditioning. Since I'm reducing miles, I wanted to do the 1000 crunches (various positions) per day again. Luckily I have friends at work who were willing to join me in the endeavor. In addition, I've decided to cut out desserts until the carbo-loading.

The 1000 crunches per day isn't hard. I'm willing to endure the pain. I've even added push-ups, stretches, etc, to add variety. What I'm having a hard time with is cutting out the desserts. Those that know me know I have an incurable sweet tooth, having dessert after nearly every meal. Thankfully this goes for only another 8 days.

We'll see how these tapering activities help me out for the race. Obviously I'm hoping it'll carry me to a Boston qualifying time. When that happens, I guess I can stop documenting about my Boston marathon efforts.

NYRR Workout - 3 x 1200 at East Meadow

I always go into these NYRR workouts with a little bit of anxiety. Tonight was no different, but I decided to try to take it easy to ease my mind. I figured that I had reason since I'm tapering, did a long run on Saturday and raced on Sunday.

Except for the heavy legged feeling tonight, the workout wasn't so bad. Three sets of 2x600m loop with undulations. I forgot to hit the lap button each time. If I remember correctly though, my times were 4:35, 4:31 and 4:34. Max heart rate was 180 on the 3rd interval after trying to sprint in the final 100m or so.

A Thought About Yesterday's Race

Before anything, congratulations to all the Boston Marathon participants. Proud of the Americans finishing third, but happier for my training buddies that did a great job. With some luck, a Boston marathon will be in my future.

There's one thought that kept popping to mind after I digested yesterday's race results. How in the world did I do a 3.5 mile race at a 6:20 pace? The 3.5 mile race was in reverse of most of yesterday's route, meaning it felt more uphill throughout. Granted it's 800m shorter, but unless I crawled those last 800m, my pace wouldn't drop to the 6:38 I did yesterday. My legs weren't fresh yesterday either, but I can't attest the time differential to that. I must have had an out of body experience that day. Whatever it was, I need to find out so I can replicate the energy. That same race is coming up in less than two months.