20 miler, Maine to NH...

Being 3 weeks out from Boston, and only a few days out of my New Bedford 13.1 PR, I still knew I needed to get in one more solid 20 miler before Patriot's Day, and honestly.. I was kinda scared of it.  Since a few nagging injuries, and family life had got in the way of a couple of important long runs, I hadnt run more than 16 miles in about 5 weeks...  and had only done one 20 miler since Feb!

Luckily for me, I've got a friend who is basically a stud.  Bob (aka) Wiles Running, Inc. and I went to high school together.  The funny thing is, we didnt run.  He was 2 years ahead of me, and we played varisty football together.  In the spring, he played baseball while I played lacrosse.  We obviously knew eachother, but never really hung out until this past summer.. when we kinda bonded over running (as fucking lame as that sounds).   Well, the fact that his wife Camie, and my wife Brianne have a ton in common helped. 

We laugh a bit about how we both should have ran XC back in the day, but we both can out run most former high school runners today, and if any other former all-state offensive lineman want to race me... bring it!

Anyway, we both discovered running in our later 20s, and now he is tearing shit up on the racing circuit..I'm talking 15min 5k's, and sub 1:10 half-marathons!   The coolest thing, is (for some reason) he enjoys helping me achieve my running goals.  He was awesome enough to pace me the last 16 miles of the Maine Marathon en route to my BQ, and was more than willing to get up and do a 20 miler through his hometown with me yesterday morning.

I got up at 4:45am for the 90 mile drive, (yep.. drove 90 miles one way to meet a guy for a 20 mile training..so what?), got to his house before 7, and it wasnt long before we were out running the Sea-Coast region of Maine-New Hampshire.   Without question the most beautiful run of my life. 

Below is our route, it was mega windy, so the resistance for sure kept the pace a little slower, but he got me to push myself.. and less than a week out from New Bedford, this felt amazing.

Let the taper begin....

New Bedford splits..

So after reading lots of race reports from New Bedford (mostly from people MUCH faster than me), I don't feel much like writing my normal in-depth, vulgar, brutally honest race report.

Instead, here are my splits from this awesome race, followed by the elevation from Garmin.

Mile 1 6:21
Mile 2 6:33
Mile 3 6:32
Mile 4 6:35 (slowest)
Mile 5 6:19
Mile 6 6:25
Mile 7 6:23
Mile 8 6:30
Mile 9 6:29
Mile 10 6:22
Mile 11 6:23
Mile 12 6:14
Mile 13 6:13 (fastest)
0.18 mi 1:02.67

Ok, obviously I had too much left in the tank... and should have ran a bit less conservative in the middle few miles... but eh whatever.. this is only my 2nd half marathon ever, but damn I love racing this distance!

Oh, and just so you know... I'll be running this again next year, and I will go 1:19 or under...

Weird thing happened on the way to the finish line....

After 2 weeks of horseshit running I somehow pulled a 1:24:17 half-marathon out of my ass today, and it feels damn good.

How's that for a race report?

It's been a minute since I've filled anyone in on my running (or whatever the hell you want to call what I've been doing lately).

Looking back through this Winter, it's been hell on my training.  I was trying to think back to the last time I had a full week of solid pain-free running, and I think it would be sometime in January.  The funny thing is, every week I have had something else ailing me.   I just made a list of my injuries this winter, then deleted it because 1, it was annoying me to read it, and 2, made me look even more like a pussy... so  lets just say, this winter has sucked.  No big deal, it's not like I have the Boston Marathon to run in a couple weeks or anything, right?  ohhhh...

I was actually feeling rather fit last week, after some good back to back weeks (65+ mpw), and awesome lactic-threshold workout, in which I did the middle 7 miles on my run at goal half-marathon pace, (6:25).  During this run it was POURING ran, so by mile 3 my shoes weighed 10lbs. each, I was freezing cold.. yet still hit all my splits with ease.   3 days after that workout I came down with a fantastic stomach-bug, and spent the next 48 hours puking more than running.. and had to miss my 20 miler I was very much looking forward to.

So now here I am, 4 weeks out of Boston.  Questioning all of my training, going back/forth still about what type of goal to set on Patriots Day (just finish the dam race might be one!).   A lot of questions will be answered tomorrow though at the New Bedford Half.  My plan going into this was hit a nice 1:25 finish, which would boost my confidence going into Boston a lot... setting me up for a solid sub 3:00 attempt, or at least a nice/relaxed 3:05ish.

Stay tuned kids.

flyer than the rest of 'em...

I'm 31 years old, and a couple things have been constant since I was a kid..

1. I love the Boston Celtics.
2. I love sneakers.

The 2nd one has recently become a bit of a problem in my house, and it's not what you'd think.... my wife is actually cool with it, it's just I'm running out of room for all my running shoes, and honestly.. it's got to the point where I stand there and take a few minutes to decide which pair to run in that day.   It's a nice problem to have, but a little insane.

When I was a kid I HAD to have the freshest kicks, as soon as they came out.  Which was hard being from Maine, but my mom was super cool about it and always had me in the newest Bo Jackson cross-trainers, and at the end of every Fall I'd get the newest Air Jordan's for basketball season.   This trend has continued into my running career...

This week I'll be posting a few reviews I have been putting off writing... some will be from kicks I love, some from ones I'd never run in again...

A group I used to be really into, Lexicon (underground hiphop from SoCal) dropped this song a few years back, and I can relate... as can a good amount of my running friends