Saturday, January 12, 2008
Friday, January 11, 2008
It's supposed to say...
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Do what I say or the dog gets it!
-Bill
Friday, November 09, 2007
Goal Achieved!
Today I'm going to start with some news updates - some of them pretty major.
I've hit (and passed!) my Team In Training fundraising goal!! As of this evening, I'm officially at $4140!!! It's remarkable news and it's the part that I was the most worried about when I committed to this. If you haven't contributed, then by all means please do!!
Next up, I ran in the City of Oaks Half Marathon last weekend. Overall, I was pretty darn happy with my results.
Finally, as a serious recommendation, if you're a runner and want good running fodder for your iPod (or any other politically correct mp3 player), go to podrunner. DJ Steve Boyett puts together hour-long, constant beat rate mixes. This means that you can get an entire hour at 160 bpm (or whatever pace the mix is). Using this, you can run at a constant pace for the length of the mix. This solves the main problem I always have with running with music - that my pace changes to match the piece of music I'm listening to. Podrunner used to have a bunch of mixes avaible - from 135 up to 170 bpm - but licensing changes required them to go away as of 11/1. Not to dispair, DJ SteveBoy is busy churning out a new batch of mixes - one every other day for the next week or so. Go check it out - 164 bpm is perfect for my training runs right now.
Go leave comments if you've read this. I'd love to hear from folks.
-Bill
I've hit (and passed!) my Team In Training fundraising goal!! As of this evening, I'm officially at $4140!!! It's remarkable news and it's the part that I was the most worried about when I committed to this. If you haven't contributed, then by all means please do!!
Next up, I ran in the City of Oaks Half Marathon last weekend. Overall, I was pretty darn happy with my results.
Place Chip Tm Pace Gun Time Div Rank Div Gender RankI could have probably finished a bit faster, but I did a couple times to walk with fellow TNT teammates. To me, the blue numbers are the most important - I ran just under an 11 minute pace for 13 miles! If this scales, and I'm optimistically assuming that (with training!) that it does, this puts me finishing the Disney full marathon at 4:46 (or thereabouts). That's completely in line with my goal of finishing in under 5 hours.
1735 2:23:31 10:58 2:26:19.70 160/170 M40-44 908/1029
Finally, as a serious recommendation, if you're a runner and want good running fodder for your iPod (or any other politically correct mp3 player), go to podrunner. DJ Steve Boyett puts together hour-long, constant beat rate mixes. This means that you can get an entire hour at 160 bpm (or whatever pace the mix is). Using this, you can run at a constant pace for the length of the mix. This solves the main problem I always have with running with music - that my pace changes to match the piece of music I'm listening to. Podrunner used to have a bunch of mixes avaible - from 135 up to 170 bpm - but licensing changes required them to go away as of 11/1. Not to dispair, DJ SteveBoy is busy churning out a new batch of mixes - one every other day for the next week or so. Go check it out - 164 bpm is perfect for my training runs right now.
Go leave comments if you've read this. I'd love to hear from folks.
-Bill
Sunday, September 30, 2007
10 Miles - A vote for Intervals
Good-day, Gentle reader!
Dad had his 6 month followup at Duke this past week, and things continue to go as well as we could possibly expect. The tumor continues to shrink. Function is returning as Dad works on PT and home tasks. He's now on the right ritalin / zoloft combo to have him alert and not overly napish. We're now trying a longer, slower taper to get him off the steriods. That's the next big challenge.
Bad news for the week: my Uncle David (by marriage on my Mom's side, so no genetic double-jeopardy) was finally diagnosed positive for lymphoma this week. He's been healthy as a horse his entire life, but has been confusingly sick the past month or two. Early diagnostics were unsure, but this has come in as a pretty confident diagnosis. He's now my number two honoree for my Team In Training efforts.
Yesterday's training run was 10 miles, and (as you read last time) I ran it doing 3:1 (3 minutes of running, 1 minute of walking) and it went amazingly well. Amazingly, astoundingly well. I haven't done 10 miles in a good while (*last* Disney marathon, possibly?) and I finished yesterday's in good shape, and could have easily done another mile or two. I ran negative splits (barely) - 54 minutes for the first 5 miles, and 53:15 for the last 5. I ran pretty solid 10:45 minute miles for all 10 miles. This translates to a 4:41 marathon time, which I would be tickled pink to run. My goal had been to run it in less than 5 hours, so this 10:45 discovery is far better than I had thought. (Good marathon pace calculator.)
Now the challenge remains to keep training at this level for the next 3 and some-odd months. I can't deny how effective running intervals was yesterday, so I'll be doing that for all my long runs from now on, and, over the next few months, work the intervals longer and longer.
Fundraising continues to rock along and rock my socks off. The folks in my life have been nothing short of amazingly generous in response to my request. I'm up to $2335. If you haven't contributed to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in support of my fundraising efforts yet, please do. It's for a great cause, I promise!
Dad had his 6 month followup at Duke this past week, and things continue to go as well as we could possibly expect. The tumor continues to shrink. Function is returning as Dad works on PT and home tasks. He's now on the right ritalin / zoloft combo to have him alert and not overly napish. We're now trying a longer, slower taper to get him off the steriods. That's the next big challenge.
Bad news for the week: my Uncle David (by marriage on my Mom's side, so no genetic double-jeopardy) was finally diagnosed positive for lymphoma this week. He's been healthy as a horse his entire life, but has been confusingly sick the past month or two. Early diagnostics were unsure, but this has come in as a pretty confident diagnosis. He's now my number two honoree for my Team In Training efforts.
Yesterday's training run was 10 miles, and (as you read last time) I ran it doing 3:1 (3 minutes of running, 1 minute of walking) and it went amazingly well. Amazingly, astoundingly well. I haven't done 10 miles in a good while (*last* Disney marathon, possibly?) and I finished yesterday's in good shape, and could have easily done another mile or two. I ran negative splits (barely) - 54 minutes for the first 5 miles, and 53:15 for the last 5. I ran pretty solid 10:45 minute miles for all 10 miles. This translates to a 4:41 marathon time, which I would be tickled pink to run. My goal had been to run it in less than 5 hours, so this 10:45 discovery is far better than I had thought. (Good marathon pace calculator.)
Now the challenge remains to keep training at this level for the next 3 and some-odd months. I can't deny how effective running intervals was yesterday, so I'll be doing that for all my long runs from now on, and, over the next few months, work the intervals longer and longer.
Fundraising continues to rock along and rock my socks off. The folks in my life have been nothing short of amazingly generous in response to my request. I'm up to $2335. If you haven't contributed to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in support of my fundraising efforts yet, please do. It's for a great cause, I promise!
Saturday, September 22, 2007
8 miles - Intervals or Not
The title rang a bell as I typed it, and this post has nothing whatsoever to do with the Eminem film. Just in case you were confused.
This morning's run with the Team in Training group was 8 miles, and it thoroughly kicked my butt. (But in a good way.) I ran the first 18 minutes with my lovely TNT mentor Courtney in sight of the fast group, and it felt great. I started doing run/walk intervals after that. At the half-way point, I found myself not wanting to willingly run anymore, and dropped back into the tried-and-true 2:1 intervals I ran for Disney last year.
I stopped at the 6-mile point and talked to Coach Elaine about intervals vs. straight running. Intervals work, and worked well for me last marathon (God, that 'last marathon' thing still sounds wrong coming from me) I have some sort of story about it not being "real" running. (Okay, Galloway people... I know it's still legitimate running if you can interval a marathon, so back off already.) I'm out to run all of Disney in '08, and my body isn't adapting to the run-only training regime nearly as quickly as I'd like. Just trying to "run more" isn't cutting it as a training transition plan.
Elaine had the best idea on managing this transition, and it's one that I'd had for a while, but just hadn't really wanted to do. She said
In other areas, I'm getting my fundraising letters and emails out to everyone I know. I'm sure I'm bugging some folks - that's always a possibility when asking people for money. If you're just finding this blog because of my letter or email, then leave a comment and say hi.
Early fundraising response has been amazing. A week since the first email and I'm already at $1,500, which just absolutely blows me away. I'm still getting letters out, so it can only get better from here. A big THANK-YOU! if you've contributed already. If you haven't contributed, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do so. Just go here - it's really easy. Or throw a check in the mail to me. Email if you need my postal address.
This morning's run with the Team in Training group was 8 miles, and it thoroughly kicked my butt. (But in a good way.) I ran the first 18 minutes with my lovely TNT mentor Courtney in sight of the fast group, and it felt great. I started doing run/walk intervals after that. At the half-way point, I found myself not wanting to willingly run anymore, and dropped back into the tried-and-true 2:1 intervals I ran for Disney last year.
I stopped at the 6-mile point and talked to Coach Elaine about intervals vs. straight running. Intervals work, and worked well for me last marathon (God, that 'last marathon' thing still sounds wrong coming from me) I have some sort of story about it not being "real" running. (Okay, Galloway people... I know it's still legitimate running if you can interval a marathon, so back off already.) I'm out to run all of Disney in '08, and my body isn't adapting to the run-only training regime nearly as quickly as I'd like. Just trying to "run more" isn't cutting it as a training transition plan.
Elaine had the best idea on managing this transition, and it's one that I'd had for a while, but just hadn't really wanted to do. She said
You know you can do the distance doing intervals, so go with what works for you. If you really want to run it all, then just work on stretching your intervals. You look pretty shot for this week, but starting next week go for 3:1 intervals for a couple of weeks, then go to 4:1 once that feels comfortable. Just keep increasing the run intervals until you get to where you want to be.Smart woman, that Elaine.
In other areas, I'm getting my fundraising letters and emails out to everyone I know. I'm sure I'm bugging some folks - that's always a possibility when asking people for money. If you're just finding this blog because of my letter or email, then leave a comment and say hi.
Early fundraising response has been amazing. A week since the first email and I'm already at $1,500, which just absolutely blows me away. I'm still getting letters out, so it can only get better from here. A big THANK-YOU! if you've contributed already. If you haven't contributed, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do so. Just go here - it's really easy. Or throw a check in the mail to me. Email if you need my postal address.
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