Week 16 Chicago Marathon Training plus a Rabies Advisory in Central Park?

Rabies Advisory in Central Park? 

Central Park is my favorite place in the world. What other large city has a hilly, 6 mile race track in the middle their city? Sometimes when I run in Central Park, I see a raccoon, skunk, or other little critter. Once earlier this year I saw a raccoon so big that I at first thought it was a little dog. I froze in my tracks... it froze...my heart starting beating super fast....I suspect the same for the raccoon....then it thought about what to do.....I was still frozen....and then it scampered into the North Woods of the park. Today as we were walking around Central Park, we saw the rabies advisory sign above. I did some searching online and found a bunch of articles saying that 3 rabid raccoons were found in Central Park in 2009 and that 20 animals tested positive for rabies throughout New York City .  What I find peculiar about this is that this is the first I've heard of it.  Maybe I live under a rock?  My kids, 4 and 2, go to a school on Central Park West and go to Central Park to play everyday (definitely lucky kids).  I am in Central Park almost every day and I go with my family to Central Park every weekend. Despite all of this, today was the first day I saw one of these signs or heard of a rabies advisory, nearly 10 months after the rabies alert came out.  I guess it took them a while to get the word out, because surely I would have seen those signs somewhere or heard about it somehow.  I really would have panicked had I known that the big dog-like raccoon I was near might have been rabid.


Now for my Chicago Marathon Week 16 Summary
I just finished week 16 of my Chicago Marathon training.  Only 1 week until the race (10/10/10).  I'm in heavy taper mode this week.  I'm running 3 miles on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, and 3 on Thursday.  Then I will take off Friday (travel day to Chicago) and Saturday.  Hopefully I'll be fresh for race day.  The forecast looks dry, with a temperatures projected to be in the low 70s.  Uh oh.  The low the night before is projected to be in the mid 50s, so hopefully with a 7:30 A.M. race start time, so hopefully it will be cool at the start.  Of course we all know that weather projections a week out are worthless, but all marathon runners look at repeatedly to get the latest updates.

I had a good week of training for week 16.  I ran 5 times, 27 miles (5.2, 6, 5, 3, and 8 miles).  I feel good, although my right knee/IT band started hurting yesterday and I caught a cold on Friday too.  My 3rd marathon taper and my third cold during the marathon taper.  Oh well.  I also got my New York Road Runners volunteer event done this week by volunteering for the 1.7 mile Norway Run (my friend JS came in second overall with a 5:01 per mile pace - he is awesome!) and the 13.1 mile Grete's Gallop half marathon.  Since I have run 9 races and volunteered for 1 race in 2010, I now have automatic entry into the 2011 New York City Marathon.  Totally sweet!!!!!!!!

Over the last week, I listened to my body and ran easy, letting my body dictate my speed.  What's funny is that all of my easy runs have gotten much faster over the last few weeks.  3 of my 5 runs were done at a sub 8 minute pace (5.2 miles at 7:58 pace, 6.04 miles at 7:49 pace, and 8 miles at a 7:42 pace).  My other 2 runs were 5 miles at an 8:25 per mile pace (in Washington DC, where I stopped to take a lot of pictures) with a moving average of 8:02 per mile and a very easy 3 miles at 8:39 pace.  No question that my fitness level is at its peak right now. 

For my 8 mile run today, I went out very easy because I was feeling crappy because of my cold.  A half mile into my run in Central Park I looked down at my watch and it showed a pace in the low 8s.  It felt very easy to me, so I held the pace.  After I was warmed up (usually takes 3-5 miles), I felt even better and started to push a little.  I still felt great, so I pushed miles 3 and 4, took the pedal off for miles 5 and 6, still felt great, so I pushed miles 7 and 8, finishing mile 8 at a 6:37 per mile pace.  A great and confidence building final run before tapering.  My splits in order were (click here for the Garmin File)

mile 1 - 8:11
mile 2 - 8:00
mile 3 - 7:44
mile 4 - 7:22
mile 5 - 8:08
mile 6 - 8:00
mile 7 - 7:32
mile 8 - 6:37

Overall - 7:42 per mile

I'm excited to go home for the weekend.  I arrive in Chicago on Friday, will go to Kenosha on Friday to stay with my mom Friday night (which I'm really looking forward to), then will go to my friend RL's house in Highland Park on Saturday.  We will go to the marathon expo on Saturday, I will stay at his house Saturday night, then we will drive to the race Sunday morning (one of RL's friends is also running the marathon and will come with us).  I will come back to NYC on Sunday night.

Recently, a guy that I met doing my first triathlon sent me some pictures from the event, and here is the one of me that I liked...

Week 9 of Chicago Marathon Training is done

Week 9 of my 17 week Chicago Marathon training is done!  Work finally calmed down, so I was able to have a solid workout week.

Week Summary

• Worked out all 7 days this week - total workout time for the week = 8.6 hours
• 5 runs (4.5, 7.29, 4.49, 15.5, and 5.5 miles) - total 37 miles
• 2 bike rides (36 miles and 24 miles)
• My legs feel great, only tiny twinging in my right knee
• Cyst behind left knee is still there, although it seems better than the week before
• Still no time to swim - will do so next week

Over the last month, I have been trying to take a day off to hang out with my kids.  Finally, I was able to do so on Friday.  We saw Toy Story 3 at 10:30 A.M. on Friday morning.  This was the first movie for my kids, and they loved it.  My younger daughter Kaiya (22 months) was able to sit through the entire movie, no problem.  Our older daughter Mikayla (turning 4 on 8/31) could never have sat still at that age.  Here's a picture of the event (note that there were only 5 other people in the theater when we saw the movie, which was perfect!).  The kids got to eat a lot of goodies (popcorn, strawberry milk, m&ms, cheerios, goldfish, etc.)

Over the weekend, we visited my friend RS at his new home in the Hamptons.  It is an amazing house and we had a great time!  We spent Saturday and Sunday in the Hamptons, which meant that I had to move up my running schedule by one day (usually I run Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday).  Therefore, this week I ran on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday (long run), and Sunday (5 days).  I added an extra day, as I have made it a tradition for me to go for a run whenever I am travelling.  I ran around the South Hampton neighborhood on Sunday and was amazed at the size and quality of the houses there.  They are amazing! 

Click here to check out the Garmin File from the run to see where I ran.  I like to click on the map to zoom in and out to see where the Hamptons sit on Long Island.  Pretty amazing all this data comes from the watch.

Here is a summary of the week:

Monday - ran 4.5 miles, average pace 8:35 per mile, 151 average heart rate, 38:46

Tuesday - ran 7.29 miles, 8:38 pace, 148 average heart rate, 1:02:59

Wednesday - 4.49 miles, 8:40, 150 average heart rate, 38:59

Thursday - 36.3 mile bike ride, 19.0 mph average, 139 average heart rate, average cadence 70, 1:54:30

Friday - Ran 15.56 miles, 8:50 pace, 146 average heart rate, 2:15:51.  Click here for my Garmin Watch Summary.    Half marathon split was 1:56:16 and ran negative splits the entire way. Average heart rate was 142 after 12 miles, very low for the pace I was running. 70 degrees and 70% humidity, it felt much cooler than this. When I started, I felt like I was running very slow. I wasn't warmed up until the 5th mile. When people used to tell me that it took them miles to warm up, I used to think they were crazy. Now I understand!

Saturday - Rode 24.28 miles, averaged 18.2 mph, average heart rate 120 (assuming that my maximum heart rate is 197, this was 61% of my max.  Can somebody that trains in heart rate zones explain to me what zone this is?  This workout was extremely easy), average cadence 66 (too low, I need to increase this). 1:19:03

Sunday - ran 5.5 miles very easy, average pace 8:56, average heart rate 143, 49:12.  Ran in the Hamptons.

About 7 weeks left until the Chicago Marathon on 10/10/10.

I am now actively trying to figure out what Ironman I am going to sign up for next year. I'm told that they sell out a year in advance, almost immediately.  I am looking at Ironman Florida and Penticton, B.C. Canada in late 2011.  Anybody have any advice?

http://www.ironmanflorida.com/.  Of course, the registration for this race is on 11/7/10 at noon, which is the date of the 2010 ING New York City Marathon, so I may need somebody to help me register for this one.

Bonus Material

Here is a video of me finishing the 2009 ING New York City Marathon (I purchased a video and my brother edited it down to this - Thanks John)!  The quality is poor, but it is still pretty cool.  The thing that still amazes me in the number of people around me.  I finished just under 4 hours at 3:58, so nearly everybody around me was trying to do the same thing!

Week 8 of Chicago Marathon Training is complete

Week 8 of my Chicago Marathon Training is complete.  I had another very busy week, working about 90 hours.  Over the last 3 weeks, I have worked about 100, 90, and 90 hours, respectively.  I have been so busy that I didn't even write a summary for my week 7 training, so I'll include a summary here.  As my friend PN said: "during those crazy work weeks, one should focus on simply maintaining fitness" which is what I tried to do.  I'm very proud that I didn't miss one scheduled workout during those 3 weeks, despite sometimes sleeping less than 5 hours and never sleeping more than 6.5 hours in a single night (most nights I slept 5 hours).  It definitely wasn't easy getting up some mornings (although some mornings I was excited to do something other than work, so that made it easier to get up early).  I know that sleep is absolutely critical for recovery, so I am really going to try and get more sleep over the next few weeks (which isn't easy to do with 2 young kids).

I can definitely feel my fitness improving.  For the most part, I feel very healthy.  I had some chest pain about 2 weeks ago and saw a cardiologist.  I regularly get heart palpitations where my heart adds extra beats.  It is normal in some people, nothing to worry about. I'll write a separate post about my visit to the cardiologist another time. 

Regarding my running health, unfortunately, the cyst that I had behind my left knee has come back, so that has been nagging at me over the last week.  Not much I can do about it.  Since I've had it before, I am used to dealing with the nagging pain.  It comes and goes.

Week 8 Summary (for the week ended 8/8/2010)

• Worked out 5 days, running 4 times (30 miles) and riding once (30 miles).  I haven't gone swimming in weeks, something I am going to need to do with my next triathlon coming up on September 12.
• When I set up my marathon schedule, I hand typed the schedule into my own excel tracking spreadsheet.  This week seemed like a lot of running, with a schedule of 3, 7, 8, and 10 miles.  When I finished the 8 miles on Thursday, I emailed my friend RL (also running the Chicago Marathon) and said "hey, how did your 8 miles go today?"  He responded "the schedule only had 3 miles for today".  "3 miles?..... oops I ran 8 today".  I went back to the schedule and checked the rest of the schedule and realized that I made a bunch of mistakes in it, which I fixed. 
• My right IT band twinged all week.  I continue to roll it out, but due to my busy work schedule, I haven't been able to get any physical therapy, something I am hoping to do next week.
• I have been focusing very hard on making every run very easy to minimize the pounding on my body.  I feel extremely good during these easy runs, as evidenced by my heart rate staying low despite the very hot and humid weather every day this week. 
• My marathon race plan will be to run a very easy first half marathon, focusing on my heart rate, which for me, is directly correlated to how I feel.  My target heart rate for Chicago for the first half marathon will be 149 or less.  We'll see if I can actually force myself to run slow enough to achieve this (usually about 8:55-9:00 per mile).  If I can go out easy, then my plan will be to turn up the speed after 13.1 miles.

Week 8 detail:

Monday - OFF

Tuesday - 4.55 miles, 38:59, 8:34 pace, 155 heart rate

Wednesday - 7 miles, 1:01:54, 8:44 pace, 151 heart rate

Thursday - 8 miles, 8:46 pace, 155 heart rate, 1:10:15

Friday - OFF

Saturday - 10.31 miles, 8:42 pace, 151 heart rate, 1:29:44  - very easy and very hot

Sunday - rode 30.74 miles in Central Park, 18.4 mph, 72 cadence, average heart rate 132


Week 7 Training Summary - 5 workouts, 4 runs (30 miles) and 1 ride (30 miles)

Monday - OFF

Tuesday - 4.5 miles, 8:25 pace, 157 heart rate, 37:57

Wednesday - 6 miles, 8:26 pace, 152 heart rate, 50:45

Thursday - 6 miles, 8:42 pace, 155 heart rate, 52:48

Friday - OFF

Saturday - 30 miles on the bike in Central Park, 19.2 mph (my record, and I averaged 20.0 for the first 12 miles), 141 heart rate, 71 cadence, 1:35:02.  Definitely getting stronger on the bike

Sunday - 13.43 miles, 8:56 pace, 148 heart rate, 2:00:00, half marathon split 1:57:03.  I felt AWESOME this entire run, it was very easy for me, and around mile 11 I was easily running an 8:18 pace.  Ran the ING New York City Marathon training run with my friend DG.  I took a speed class with DG last summer and ran into him at the start line of this practice run.  I said "how fast are you planning on running and how many?"  He said "easy, around 9:00 per mile and 18".  I said "I'm running 13, want to run together?".  And we did, I ran 13.3 miles with him. 



I have attached a picture of me after my week 7 long run (13.3 miles), taken by my mom who was visiting from Wisconsin. Kaiya, my 22 month old daughter, is standing next to me.  I am soaked because it was very hot and humid that day.

Week 6 of 2010 Chicago Marathon Training Summary

I just completed week 6 of my 2010 Chicago Marathon training.  This week was tough, as I worked 100 hours this week (yes 100, it is not a typo).  At least 13 hours a day all 7 days this week, with 3 days of more than 16 hours.  A brutal week.  I barely saw my family at all the entire week, which was the worst. My mom was also in town visiting for her birthday, so I hardly spent any time with her, which was a bummer (although it was great having her here because she got to spend some quality time with my kids while I was working and the kids loved it!)  I had Rush tickets at Jones Beach for Saturday night (7/24/10) with my friend NN, and at the last minute I had to cancel (I felt guilty about leaving the rest of my team behind in the office when we still had a ton of work to do while I would be watching the show) plus, I was unable to go to the Walking with Dinosaurs show at Madison Square Garden with my family and some clients (although I heard everybody had a great time!). 

On the swim/bike/run front, working 100 hours this week made it very tough to get my workouts in, but I did it, always is a severely deprived sleep state.

I got 5 workouts in this week - 4 runs (total 28 miles) and 1 bike ride (30 miles).  My long run was 12 miles this week, in 85 degree heat with near 100% humidity.  Not fun, and as I was running, I thought to myself more than a few times "do I really want to keep running marathons?  6 miles seems like a long way, let alone 12 miles or 26.2 miles!".  Then I thought "do I really want to do an Ironman someday?  If I get a hot day, I'm going to be miserable!"

Here is a summary of the week:

Monday - OFF

Tuesday - 4.49 mile run, 8:10 pace, 158 average heart rate.  Slept only 6 hours the night before.

Wednesday - 6 mile run, 8:41 pace, 154 average heart rate.  Slept only 5 hours the night before (worked until after midnight the night before).

Thursday - 6 mile run, 8:37 pace, 154 heart rate.  Slept only 5 hours the night before (worked until after midnight the night before).

Friday - 30.2 mile bike ride of Central Park (5 loops) with my friend MH - 18.5 miles per hour (last loop approximately 20.1 mph), average heart rate 136, cadence 71, elevation gain 1,024 feet.   Slept less than 5 hours last night, up at 5am and in Central Park by 5:37 A.M.

Saturday - 12 mile long run, 8:58 pace, 158 average heart rate.  85 degrees, near 100% humidity, very muggy.  Stopped many times to drink water, went easy.  Felt good after the run.  Slept 7 hours last night after working until about 11pm.

Sunday - OFF.  Slept 7 hours last night.

I hope to catch up on my sleep this week!

Since I missed the Rush show last night, I looked for a video or two from the Jones Beach show last night.  I found this one, a very high quality HD video of the show.  These guys rock, this is a great video, check it out (La Villa Strangiato).