Week 10 - Week of January 3rd

Snow and ice won't keep me from running!

New Year, New Shoes!  My wife got my a new pair of running shoes for Christmas - Nike LunarGlide2!  I wore them for the first time on January 4 and they're awesome!


Week 10 - All runs at John A. Phillips Park, unless otherwise noted.


January 4 - Hard Progression Run.  Total = 5 Miles (splits - 7:07, 6:52, 6:43, 6:32, 5:59.  Ave = 6:39 p/mi).  Felt real good and new shoes were awesome!
Weather = 35/28/52%; SSW11; PCl
Weight after run = 148
Shoes - Nike LunarGlide2


January 5 - Easy Run at Marlboro Retro Fitness.  Planned to run 17 miles (8 in the first hour and 9 in the second), but felt flat.  Thought about my last 17-miler and it was only 14 days ago and I also ran a hard progression run yesterday!  What was I thinking?!?  Decided to just do 10 miles and not push it.
Weight after run = 147
Shoes - Nike Air Zoom Skylon (orange)


January 7 - Easy Run - 5.25 miles (splits - 8:15, 7:47, 8:00, 7:45, 7:42, 7:51.  Ave = 7:54 p/mi).
Weather = 27/19/52%; ESE8; Lt. Snow
Weight after run = 146
Shoes - Nike LunarGlide2 (orange)


January 9 - Easy Run - Total = 8 miles (splits - 7:52, 7:32, 7:38, 7:23, 7:38, 7:23, 7:26, 7:01. Ave = 7:29 p mi).  Ran with the removable spikes my brother-in-law gave me for Christmas with the shoes my wife gave me for Christmas!  The road going to the park was mostly clear, but the park paths were covered with snow and ice.  I had no problems running and even turned the corners, which were covered with ice, with confidence and no slipping!
Weather = 
Weight after run = 146
Shoes - Nike LunarGlide2 (orange)


TOTAL MILES WEEK 10 = 28.25

Week 9 - Week of December 27th

I should've ran on the morning of December 26th!  We had a great time with family visiting from New Hampshire for Christmas.  They arrived on December 24th, we went to midnight mass, then opened presents on Christmas morning.  There was a lot of food and wine, as well as XBOX Kinect!  Also, we kept on talking about going to Jollibee in Queens (it's a Filipino restaurant popular in the Philippines).  We decided to go on December 26th despite the incoming blizzard!  We left as the first snow began to fall.  By the time we got to Jollibee, snow was falling sideways!  We enjoyed the delicious food and I indulged in their famous fried chicken...skin and all!  We all left with more food for later and carefully drove dack to NJ!  The entire trip took us about eight hours!  The blizzard dumped about two feet of snow when it was over the next day.  After shoveling for the second time on the 27th, I wanted to go to Retro Fitness to run.  I waited until the So Family left and drove out to the gym later that afternoon.  Guess what?  The gym was closed and the parking lot wasn't even cleared!  Even the roads going to and from the gym weren't that cleared!  I was so upset, but I should've called ahead of time!  I couldn't even run outdoors because the streets were even worse and the park was closed.  I tried to think positive saying that the shoveling of snow was my exercise.  I even tried running in place during a football game!  I lost a total of four days of no running!  Ugh!

Week 9 - All runs at John A. Phillips Park, unless otherwise noted.

Dec 29 - Retro Fitness.  Easy run.  Roads still not too clear and the park is closed (paths not plowed at all)!  Felt flat after not running for four days.
Miles = 5
Weight After Run = 148 (not bad after not running for four days and eating all the Christmas food!)
Shoes - Nike Air Zoom Skylon (orange)

Dec 31 - Retro Fitness.  Easy Progression Run.  Roads still not too clear and park still closed and not plowed.  Drank my last soda at dinner!  No more soda until after Boston!
Miles = 7
Weight After Run = 148
Shoes - Nike Air Zoom Skylon (orange)

Jan 1 - Happy New Year!  Retro Fitness.  Long Sustained/Progression Run.  Ran 8-miles in the first hour (7:30 p/mi ave), then 9.15 miles in the second hour (6:29 p/mi ave).  Felt great taking in GU gels every half hour with water.
Miles 17.25 in 2h 00m 00s (6:58 p/mi ave)
Weight After Run = 146
Shoes - Nike Air Zoom Skylon (orange)

TOTAL MILEAGE = 29.25

2010 Recap

During dinner with my wife at a Chinese restaurant in the Brunswick Square Mall on January 11th, she reminded me again about updating my blog more often!  She said it'll help more for me as I recount not only the miles I run, but how I felt.  I told her that I have my log on Garmin Connect, but she said the blog would be to give updates for those who contributed to my fundraising efforts.  So I gotta get on it and update my blog more often!

As a recap, here's my running year for 2010:

Total Miles = 1,073.60
Total Racing Miles = 83.5
Total Time Running = 139 hours, 59 minutes, 13 seconds

Races:

March 7 - 34th Annual E. Murray Todd Half Marathon
                 13.1 miles in 1h 27m 23s (6:40 p/mi ave)
                 38th out of 597 finishers

April 19 - 114th Boston Marathon
                 26.2 miles in 3h 13m 31s (7:22 p/mi ave)
                 3,237th out of 22,540 finishers

Sept 19 - ING NYC Marathon Tune-Up
                18 miles in 2h 10m 59m (7:16 p/mi ave)
                175th out of 4,596 finishers

Oct 10 - 34th Chicago Marathon
              26.2 miles in 3h 11m 58s (7:19 p/mi ave)
              1,335th out of 36,088 finishers

Week 8 - Week of December 20th

It was a challenging week to get my three runs in before Christmas, but I got it done.  I ran hard during two of the three runs and felt really good!

Week 8 - All runs at John A. Phillips Park, unless otherwise noted.

Dec 21 - Hard Progression Run. Ran 5.01 miles in 32:12 (6:26 p/mi). Splits = 6:38, 6:31, 6:25, 6:22, 6:13, 4:09.
Weather = 25/12/50%; WNW16; Cloudy.
Weight After Run = 148
Shoes - Nike Air Zoom Skylon (orange).

Dec 22 - Easy Run.  6.2 miles in 46m 19s (7:28 p/mi ave).
Weather = 23/13/73%; W9; Partly Cloudy.
Weight After Run = 148
Shoes - Nike Air Zoom Elite4 (green)

Dec 24 - Long Sustained/Progression Run at Marlboro Retro Fitness.  Decided to put in a hard, long run indoors to sweat it out!  Ran the first 8 miles in 1-hour (7:30 p/mi ave), followed by 9.11 miles in the 2nd hours as a hard progression run.  Last mile was about 6:02.  Felt great taking in GU every half hour with water.  Also tried the GU Chomps, which weren't so bad to take during the run.
Total Mileage = 17.11 (6:59 p/mi ave)
Weight After Run = 144
Shoes - Nike Air Zoom Skylon (orange).

TOTAL MILEAGE WEEK 8 = 28.32

Week 7 - Week of December 13th

52% of goal! Thank you for your support!  I was excited to actually run the morning of December 14th because the forecast was a wind chill in the single digits!  I went to Road Runner Sports in North Brunswick to buy a neck warmer that I can pull over my mouth when I run.  It turned out that during that run, the wind chill was 4 degrees and the neck warmer actually made it too hot!  I had it down away from my mouth most of the time!

Week 7 - All runs at John A. Phillips Park, unless otherwise noted.

Dec 14, 2010 - Easy Progression Run - Wind Chill = 4 degrees! Felt great and actually warm with layering, gloves, neck warmer and skull cap.  The neck warmer was a bit too warm! Ran 6.20 miles in 44:36 (7:11 p/mi). Splits = 7:36, 7:33, 7:21, 7:18, 7:07, 6:27.
Weather - 20/04/42%; WNW19; Cloudy

Weight after run - 147

Shoes - Nike Zoom Elite4 (orange)

Dec 16, 2010 - Newton Hills Simulation Run at Marlboro Retro Fitness

Attempted the Ryan Hall's Newton Hills Simulation Run again in preparation for Boston's infamous hills that begin at around mile 16. It's a tough workout, but I know that I can do exactly what Ryan does, but not as fast! The 0% incline that I noted is supposed to be at 1% under Ryan's workout. Also, it calls for running a total of 16 miles before starting the hills, for good reason! I ran 9 miles, then got into the hill workout! I'll get there eventually! 7 miles in 56:00 (8:00 pace); 2 miles at 7:30 pace; then the following at the 7:30 pace! Mile 0.0 - 0.7 @ 3% incline Miles 0.7 - 1.7 @ 0% Miles 1.7 - 2.0 @ 6% Miles 2.0 - 3.4 @ 1% Miles 3.4 - 3.8 @ 4% Miles 3.8 - 4.4 @ 0% Miles 4.4 - 4.8 @ 6% (8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3 mph for each 1/10th of a mile. Followed that with 0.2 miles in 7:30 pace and last mile in about 6:27. Cool down of 1 mile barefoot for about 12 minutes. Felt much better than the first time, but need to increase my mileage before getting into the hills.

Total mileage = 16

Weight after run = 146

Shoes - Nike Zoom Skylon (orange).

Dec 19, 2010 - Tempo Run.  Okay run.  Not feeling good after 5 miles.  Calves felt tight and unresponsive to go any faster.  Maybe it's the shoes?  I was still able to push a 6:19 last mile. Ran 10 miles in 1:08:12 (6:49 p/mi). Splits = 7:10, 7:01, 6:52, 6:55, 6:47, 6:42, 6:46, 6:52, 6:42, 6:19.

Weather - 20/18/60%; NNE8; Cloudy

Weight after run - 147

Shoes - Nike Zoom Elite4 (green)

TOTAL MILES WEEK 7 = 32.20