Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Assuming you know your own limits is like kissing your sister

I know, I know...the title is kinda weird, but I'm stretchin' here people. I try to make these posts somewhat interesting for you people to read. I try to give you guys something worthwhile, something of substance, and hopefully, something that will make you sit back in your chairs and think on for at least 2 minutes.

Anyway, as I begin my summer of running, I find myself having to redefine my motivations for the training that I will have to do in order to not only run another marathon, but to improve upon my first marathon time (5:04). Last summer, it was personal, it was about doing the impossible, setting that bar sooooo far above what I felt was realistic, a desire to achieve something I never thought I would have even wanted to try....

Based on my own assumptions regarding my limits, I did the impossible and I reached the bar.....so now what? My motivation this time around is simple: do it and do it better than before. Last summer, I assumed my limit was 26.2 miles (actually, I assumed it would be somewhere around 24 miles and I have to just gut out the last 2.2 miles). I was wrong. I'm glad I didn't think my limit was something like only 13 miles cuz I never would have ever gone to Chicago and I would have never run the marathon. NEW PHILOSOPHY: I don't ever want to assume my own limits...I think from now on, I'd rather know that whatever I'm going to do, I'm gonna do it "BALLSOUT," "balls to the wall," as great as I can do it. After I'm done, I'll sit back and look at what I did and analyze whether I reached my limit or not. I don't wanna propose to know what I am capable of cuz I proved to myself on October 22, 2007....that I know NOTHING of what my own limits may be.

Wouldn't it be great if we all just gave up on putting limits on ourselves and decided to shoot for the stars?! How creative and over-achieving would we be in life? WOW! I think I may be the smartest man alive!

Anyway, I've been running up a storm lately. Friday, I ran 4 miles in under 40 minutes (that was my long-run for the week which is not really meant to be timed or paced out but I still try to stay under 10 minutes per mile). Saturday, I did 3 miles then took Sunday off (not really cuz I played a baseball game on Sunday). Monday morning, I ran 3 miles and then around 6PM, I did a short 2 mile speed session with my boy Mike "the animal" Knill. We did the first mile at an 8:30 pace then did Fartliks for the 2nd mile. (Ha ha, funny name, I know) Fartlik workouts are a form of speed workouts where you run for a prescribed amount of time (ours was 30 sec) at about 75% speed, then slow to a jog for 1 minute, then back up to 75% for 30 seconds then back to the jog. We did that for the last mile. Needless to say, doing the speed workout 6 hours after my morning 3 miles, I was gassed....but it felt good to just all out sprint. I took off Tuesday (well, actually, I worked on the baseball field at Middletown for about 3 hours then threw batting practice for an hour before our game). Today, I went out and ran 4 miles. I think tomorrow I'll drop down to 3 miles and then do 5 on Friday. I'm gonna try and make my long runs every Friday so I can have my off day on Saturday (and recover from the long run)and still be kinda fresh for my baseball games on Sundays. Last summer, I did my long runs on Saturday (which maxed out at 22 miles) and then turned around and played a double header on Sunday......NOT MUCH FUN FOR THE KNEES!

Anyway, that's all for this time! Lemme know if you ever wanna go for a run with me! Jus' gimme a call and we'll find a time and place!
Thanks for reading!
Thanks for sharing this with me!
SEE YA ON THE HILL!
Michael

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Harrisburg, here I come!

It sounds so anti-climactic doesn't it? I had hoped to be able to write in this week's post how excited I am to be planning my trek to NYC....but alas, I was notified this morning via my trusty email that I had not been 1 of the lucky 38,000 runners chosen to run this year.

The email the NYC Marathon people sent me just kinda sounded like a college rejection letter(not that I have ever received one...but that's the way they always read them-when they read'em aloud-in the movies). It said all the same things: "thank you for your interest blah blah blah"..."sincerely regret to inform you blah blah blah"..."at this time blah blah blah"..."we thank you for your interest blah blah blah"..."good luck in your future endeavors blah blah blah." I immediately began to look around at other marathons around the same time frame. I checked out the OBX Marathon (which is the week after NYC) and while OBX sounds sweet, the course did not look too appealing and the comments I read didn't make it sound like the kind of event I would enjoy.

I remember my original plan (if I didn't make NYC) was to run the Harrisburg Marathon (which is scheduled for 11/11/07)...but honestly, I was just saying that to myself just to be sure I would be running a marathon in November....I didn't really believe it. I actually thought luck would smile and I'd be writing to tell you all of NYC and how awesome it's gonna be. I was wrong. Harrisburg is not exactly what I am looking for in an event.

One of the things that I have found over the past 2 years is that one of my favorite parts of doing this whole marathon thing is the travel. It's a great excuse to go somewhere and experience a new and different place! I love going to new places, staying in hotels, wandering around a new city, eating at new restaurants, bar hopping in the local pubs...I live in Harrisburg, no need to stay in a cool hotel. I've already wandered around Harrisburg many times (many many times). I've already eaten at "The Spot" and "The Jackson House," and I have definitely bar hopped downtown...so there is no hope for a new adventure.......

On the other hand, it would be much less expensive for the exact reasons I stated above (which would be nice). As I think of more perks to running HBG Marathon, the major perk (I think) would be the training. I could do a lot of my running on the course itself. I think that idea alone is VERY tempting. I also can easily adapt to weather here (if you read the post on my first marathon, you'd understand that one). The last reason that running at home would be good would be that all of my friends and family could come see the race! They could make awesome signs, paint their faces, run alongside me (Courtney), see me at multiple points in the race (like later in the race when I'm running on empty), and greet me at the finish (showering me with gifts of praise and money)......oh, sorry, got a lil'carried away. It'd be cool to have a huge group of people to celebrate with afterwards too. We could all go downtown and eat at one of the local restaurants that I have already eaten in a million times, then go bar hopping to all the bars I've already spent way too much time and money in.

I think I have just talked myself into running the Harrisburg Marathon! I guess it won't be that bad. I'll travel on the next event. My next "hill" after The Harrisburg Marathon is an amazing adventure... For my next event (supposing I survive this one) I wanna do The Jay Challenge in Jay, VT (put that on your calendar now for summer 2008). Check out the website link I posted, it looks pretty sick!

So there it is. I hope you guys can make it out to The Harrisburg Marathon (11/11/07). I put a link up to the race site so you can go in and check it out.

Thanks for sharing this with me!
SEE YA ON THE HILL
Michael

Thursday, June 7, 2007

WE CAN'T ALL BE GYM TEACHERS

I received a harassing email this morning from my "friend" calling me lazy for not updating this week....the pressure of deadlines! I didn't know my blog had become sooooo important to soooo many people. Legion baseball started up, school is winding down, final grades are due, students are clamouring for any of that important work--that 3 weeks ago, was NOT that important to them....long story short: I've been busy...I guess we can't all be glorified floor-hockey and dodge ball coaches.

Anyway, training has been going well. I spoke 2 posts ago about being old and taking the week off due to some knee pain. I took that week off and started back up last week again. I made it through this week relatively pain-free. Jesse and I ran 3 miles Monday (1st mile in 10 minutes, 2nd mile in 9:30, and the final mile in 8:15. We did an easy mile Tuesday and some repeats as our speed work. For those of you who are not handy with running lingo, repeats are timed 400 meter (one-time around the track) with a rest in between runs. We did 7 X 400 meter repeats at 2 minute intervals. Don't worry, as the blog grows, I will try to give you some more impressive terminology like lactate threshold, VO2 MAX, quality runs, tempo runs, pace runs, recovery runs, yasso 800's. Before ya know it, you'll sound like you know what you're talking about!!!

I am looking forward to getting to train without the strain or stress of school. I never thought I'd say that was looking forward to a summer of running!!!

I'm still trying to spruce up the blog, my friend Jake has been trying to help me get things going, but I suck and have been too busy as of late. It's a work in progress, right?

Thanks for reading!
SEE YA ON THE HILL!
Michael