Marathon Monday is here!

Last night Shirley said to me that I had been waiting to run the Boston marathon for so  long and I guess that's true. About 8 years ago, after Dan and I ran the Montreal half-marathon, I've had allusions of running Boston. It really wasn't until October 2012 that I got remotely serious about trying though. Still it will certainly be great to check this one off the list today!

The weather is a fickle beast and while cool temperatures will prevail, sadly it will likely rain a great deal of the day. No point in being bummed about it because it is what it is. Hopefully the crowds will brave the rain too.

I thought running with DFMC would just be another running group but I have have to admit as much as many of them aren't speed demons, it was great to be a part of this team and hear and experience their stories.

As I run today, I personally have been fortunate to not have any family members impacted by cancer but I run today for a great friend, Jess, whose mother passed away from an aggressive, difficult to know you have cancer, and for another fallen angel, Matty, whose mom, Sandra, has made it a mission to make sure her son is remembered and that others don't have to experience similar loss.
While I am not naive in thinking we are close to cures for all the different forms of cancer, I hope that the over 4.5 million dollars DFMC has raised this year so far will help get us closer to that eventual reality. I really hope there is a day when DMFC doesn't have to exist.

Anyways - time to shower, put some bodyglide on, and head out to Hopkinton. See you on the other side of the finish line :-)

14 hours to go! At least it won't snow.....

Pretty quick post here as I watching the Canadiens try to come from behind in Game 3 vs the Sens.

Overall a pretty chill day which is just what I needed before this race. Had a nice nap during the Predators/Blackhawks game but still kinda tired. I have to admit I am not nervous at all at this point, which I hope means a good night sleep and a few good poops in the morning :-)

Shirley made me make a last minute marathon attire change since my green shirt was clashing with the turquoise singlet, so I have made the change to a grey lululemon metal vent tech instead of a green lululemon metal vent tech. What a big difference, eh?

Last night, I reached my minimum goal thanks to donations from Christian, Shay and Chantelle, Rachel and Asher and Marc-Andre! Thank you all!

Pretty tired now! Maybe one in the morning :D

Thank you to those of you who have been following along with my journey!

It's marathon season in Boston.....

Welcome to the Expo....

I have to admit the Boston marathon expo was pretty bleh yesterday. It was huge but full of merchandise that you could get anywhere else and probably at better prices. Picking up my bib was pretty exciting, although I have to admit it wasn't as satisfying as if I had qualified this year but there is a different sense of accomplishment running with Dana-Farber.

After wasting about an hour wandering around the expo, I headed over to DFMC check-in at the Marriott, where I got to see team coordinator Jan and expert Marathon adviser and former Boston Marathon winner, Jack Fultz. I also ran into a teammate from DFMC (who also works at DFCI) who I hadn't seen from the first-timer meeting in December and she seemed so nervous. I tried to get her to relax and reassure her that she was ready for Monday but she was visibly unsure of herself. I hope she has recovered some of confidence since then. 

The Stanley Cup playoffs have certainly been a great distraction from the upcoming race and Montreal's big overtime win helped the evening go quickly.

This morning was the BAA 5k, which I went to cheer a bunch of people I knew, and I have to admit I was in awe of how much traffic there was on the course from just 10,000 runners. Kind of daunting for Monday morning, when I will effectively be passing some 10-15000 runners.....

This morning also marked my final run before Monday, what I intended to be a short 2 mile/3.2 km run, which turned into the regular 4 mile/6.4km run at TMRICE saturday. I felt pretty good except for the phantom knee pain, so I'm ready for Monday.

My bib number is 26239, which is was originally unhappy with since it didn't seem like a cool number to me (ya this is something I think about) but I guess the 2 "2s" and the 3/6/9 makes some kind of mathematical coolness in there.....

Since then I have been in vegetation mode except for ironing on my name and some other names onto my DFMC singlet for Monday. That's pretty much the majority of the plan for the next 36 hours :-)

The weather has decided it isn't going to totally cooperate on Monday with rain highly likely. Honestly, I'd prefer snow since rain is my absolute least favourite condition to run in but I guess I'll have to make do with whatever is there.

One more update tomorrow probably. Sorry if it is boring :-) That's pretty much where I'm at right now!

Just 3 days to go! Wasn't it just December?

Brookline being a little too supportive ;-)

The city is definitely starting to show signs of the race approaching! Here is a cropped photo of the no stopping signs around Brookline. I am all for the support Brookline but telling the runners they can't stop....pretty ballsy ;-)

Everyone keeps asking me if I am excited and/or ready for the race, and the answer is.... I sure hope so because there is nothing I can do now to get ready for it.

I'm trying not to do anything special or unique these next few days and just go about my regular routine. I have 1 more run on the calendar to go, a short 2 ish mile leg loosener tomorrow morning. It will also be nice to have a Saturday morning hangout with the Saturday morning TMRICE gang which I haven't seen in a while.

I can't begin to explain how thankful I am for everyone who has donated so far either directly or through the March Madness pool to get me almost to $4000. It still seems insane to me that 4k is the minimum needed to raise for DFCI or that there are over 200 members of the DFCI team who have raised over 8k already. Thank you all so much for supporting me and keeping me honest!

Marathon expo today -- kinda wondering if it is worth all the hype - will keep all of you posted!

5 days to go - and everybody poops!

This guy has the right idea.....

Well maybe not...but not as unacceptable as you'd think

Last night was the last Track Tuesday before the race and I felt great. All rational thought said to take it easy. Andy and Jill kept screaming at me with every lap "DON'T DO ANYTHING STUPID" but I ran a solid workout, for 400m/800m/400m 3X. It's Andy's favourite and I like it a lot. People were finally back at track making it a much less lonely final workout before the marathon.

But this post isn't directly about running but instead it is about how important your gastrointestinal tract is come race day. Why today am I talking about this finally with the long await poop post? Well mostly because sometime between last night's workout and this morning, my GI tract decided to abandon ship. Let's hope it was some kind of food poisoning that is on its way out. Needless to say let's hope this doesn't happen again in the next few days leading up.

So many of you tuned in to my post with the photo of the runner who literally shat himself during a HALF-MARATHON and continued to run with shit in shorts and pasted on his skin. Amazingly, he went on to finish 21st in that race. When asked why he didn't stop, despite cramps from KM 2-12 and shitting himself, he said, "If you quit once, it's easy to do it again and again and again. It becomes a habit."

Some runners will stop at nothing in a marathon, as evidence by that photo but myself and the majority of runners try to take a more proactive approach in cleansing the system pre-race so that egregious and unfortunate accidents don't happen during the challenge we have worked so hard to train for. So as much as Shirley will be embarrassed by this post, making sure you flushed the pipes (not in the Something about Mary way.....) is probably the most critical thing come marathon morning. There is a reason every race has many, many port-potties right near the start - so you can make sure you get out every last nugget.

So what's my marathon day morning ritual? Without going into details, let's just say like it comes like all good things....because...you never want this sign to be right...

Hopefully not true....

or else...this could happen again....possibly to you! 

Friends don't let friends poop themselves.

Happy running!

7 days and the weather watch

My preferred 7 day forecast!

2014s Boston Marathon weather...This wouldn't be so bad for this year!

In just under 7 full days from this minute, wave 4 of the Boston Marathon will start. Nothing much to worry about for the next week unless you are injured, other than rest, eating well and of course, the weather come Marathon Monday.

The DFMC team thread is full of questions and speculation of what will the weather be. Even some out of town runners I know have messaged me asking me what to expect for the weather. Forecasts from many different sites, countries and even cities are being posted. What will the weather be in Hopkinton at the start, or Newton at mile 17, or Boston at mile 25? I have to admit that even though there is nothing we can do to control it, I am equally obsessed with this information. 

Currently my favourite and preferred weather forecast is courtesy of the Canadian weather network which shows a high of 11C/low of 6C with partly cloudy skies. That would be a dream. Weather.com on the other hand, has a decent but much less runner friendly forecast of the high 16C/low 11C. To a lot of you, you might wonder what the big deal is, if I can run 26.2 miles in -10 Celsius, surely I can do the same in +15 or +20. The reality is besides wanting to be able to run my best possible time, which would be easier in cooler conditions, everyone really just wants to pick out their race day attire so that they can check another box off the list, one less variable going into the weekend. Weather can also ruin 18 weeks of training in a flash. 3 years ago, the temperatures in Boston, peaked at 27-28 Celsius, prompting the Boston Athletic Association to recommend people skip the race, despite not cancelling it. Sure, I could run the marathon in those temperatures but it wouldn't be pleasant (as pleasant as running as a marathon is anyways). 

So as 30,000 runners focus on the weather for April 20th over the next 7 days, only tell them the good news if it is 12C/50F and partly cloudy, don't tell them the good news of a warm sunny day :-)

31 and counting.....

Notice the disproportionately large head....and the scary mustache.

If only :-)

No not 31 days left to the marathon but 31 years and counting alive! Time really does start to go faster as you get older. The years just tend to blur together. Needless to say it really doesn't bother me to be 31 except for the reality that life is a lot of work. Part me longs for the days when I was doing my PhD and things were much simpler :-)

I certainly don't "feel" 31 or whatever, 31 is supposed to feel like. Last night at track, the turnout was sparse again after the crushing winter and the gloomy, rainy/chilly weather we were having yesterday. Thankfully, Hudson made his return as promised in April. As customary, the first Tuesday of everything month we do the Shawgo mile (in honor of Ryan Shawgo....don't worry he isn't dead or anything). The workout is a fast with splits of 800m/1mile/1200m/800m/400m = 4809m.
Thank goodness Hudson showed up (no offense Jill) as he pushed me to actually make it into a workout. My mile was rather unimpressive at 5:39 but it was windy and chilly, so won't be too sad about it. I did manage to throw down a 74 second 400 meters, which is my fastest in a while. This marked my last "real" track workout before Boston, as next Tuesday's will certainly be on the lighter side.

Today has been a good day so far with lots of messages for my birthday, a few calls and even a photo or two to make me smile/laugh/cry. Mixed emotions about missing another birthday not at home with my family but such is life I suppose. Maybe next year!

Maybe tapering does suck....and Passover issues

How I felt all week.....

Good Tuesday everyone!

Another gloomy and chilly day here in Boston today, which certainly isn't helping with my dwindling motivation to train. As I mentioned in my last post, last' week was the beginning of the marathon taper, and while I was pretty excited overall, I had a pretty miserable week of running. The one bright spot last week was the return of OUTDOOR Track Tuesdays! The turnout was incredibly sparse because everyone probably though the track was still frozen over but for the first time in 10 weeks, the track was clear and ready to go.

Track Tuesday also proved to be my only decent workout of the week as I skipped Monday's run and Thursday's run I just felt like crap the whole time. Chris, Jill and I did Yasso 800s again (10 x 800m with a 400m recovery in between) and overall it went pretty well except for the gastric emergency during the 400m between interval 6 or 7. In the end, the average 800m time was 2:54, which would predict a 2 hour and 54 minute, something that I couldn't even dream about 2 years ago, let alone 1 year ago. It seems as though training through this winter has really paid off. I am certainly not aiming for that time though come Marathon Monday and really with a good weather day, all I want is a 2;59:59.

This weekend also brought a new challenge for the second to last week of training with the arrival of Passover. It also meant that Shirley and I got to go home to visit family and friends this weekend. While Friday had some gorgeous weather both here in Boston and in Montreal, Saturday, Montreal gave me a lovely welcome with a beautiful snow storm to add the impossibly bad weather I have had for every single training run. I managed only 12.2 of my planned 16 miles but I can't blame that entirely on the weather but mostly on the fact I didn't and couldn't take any Gu because of Passover. The snow did change my planned course, as I had initially hoped of doing a run up Mont-Royal, which I quickly changed to a much easier, flatter run through my local stomping ground. Overall though, I just didn't feel fresh most of the week and maybe it was some taper gnomes, as I felt possible injuries around every turn.  Hopefully this week will go better, although I already took Monday off because I was lazy.

13 days to go....Can it get here already? At least today is Track Tuesday again and the Shawgo mile!

Hopefully I'll have time to update on that, March Madness, and my birthday tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!

It's TAPERtime finally!

This past Saturday marked the final "long" run of my training program. Long is in quotation marks because this upcoming Saturday I have a 14-16 mile run but at this point apparently that is short :-)

What does that mean for my training? Well it means it is time to scale back the weekly mileage and workouts to make sure I am fresh and injury free come race day. So while my running mileage was up around 47 miles last week, this week will be a "relaxing" 40-44 miles with a massive drop next week down into the 23-30 mile range. Who knows what I will do with all the added free time coming up!

For many runners, the taper period is actually not enjoyable as they struggle to deal with the idea that training season is almost over and issues that are not significant or real begin to play mind games. As this image highlights what are known as the taper crazies.

Honestly, at least at this point I am super happy to be tapering as I can honestly say I have begun to feel some wear and tear on my legs at this point with some soreness in my left foot and ankle as well as my right IT band and calf. And I don't think they are phantom pains as above indicated.

So what about that last long run? In short, it was probably my 2nd best run of the season and the longest by almost 4 miles. This despite another horrific weather day with blowing snow and below freezing temperatures that dropped as the run went on. So going into Boston, I am pretty happy with how my training has gone.

Saturday's run was made even more special by a very dedicated volunteer (Sandy) at the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, who lost her son, Matty, to cancer and has made it a mission of hers to make sure her son is never forgotten. She decided to volunteer each and every week this season at the water stops for the running, and before Saturday's run she gave an inspiring speech to motivate the group.
Unbeknownst to her, two of the team members who run for Team Matty had arrange for the majority of the team, if not all of the team, to wear a blue Team Matty shirt in honor of her son's angelversary.

Still in awe of the awesome support this team provides my family!!
Posted by Sandra Cohan Dubuc on Saturday, March 28, 2015

It was a very overwhelming moment that I think helped put the grueling run we had ahead of us in perspective. It certainly made me look forward to miles 8 (10 for me) and 14 (16 for me) of the course where she was manning her family's water stop with her two other sons and husband. They are all so supportive and involved and it is great to see them rally together as a family. For the first time in all the training runs, I even stopped for a photo, since it just seemed like the right thing to do.

Sandy, a photo of Matty and me at mile 16.

Today, there is 3 weeks to go, I haven't lost any of my toenails (yet) or had any bleeding nipples and finally I can pull back on the throttle a bit. Expect some more posts over the last 3 weeks with my extra free time including the one you have all been waiting for and probably one about how I am going to deal with Passover not ruining me.

Thanks for reading!

If anyone read this and wanted to donate, feel free to do so here!

Bring on the spring! #winterforever

Boston skyline during my run....can't you see it?!

Winter decided to give everyone in Boston at least one more fuck you on the first full day of spring yesterday. As you see above, my 2nd last long run in the Boston training calendar was in far from ideal weather conditions. This has been par for the course for Saturday runs, as the last 8 Saturdays have all had miserable weather, whether it was raining, snowing or just plain frigid! As such, as I was ready for it, and felt pretty good for the first 16 miles or so of my 20 miler, despite being under the weather with a sore throat. Unfortunately, the slipperiness of the ground began to affect my running stride and my calf and IT band were hurting big time. I stopped a few times to stretch and rest and slowed my pace until I could get to the end of my run. I finally realized at mile 19 that if I ran in the road my calf wasn't hurting because I wasn't slipping and managed to salvage at least 1 more decent mile.

I didn't do the group run with DFMC this week because it was out in Wayland, which meant I finished off my run with TMRICE. It is always nice to hang out and chat with them after a run. Since moving to Boston and joining this most informal run club, I have greatly improved at running. I owe them a lot!

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful, with decent runs on Tuesday (TMRICE) and Thursday (DFMC) but I was definitely still feeling fatigued from the monster half marathon run on Sunday all week.

I didn't have a free evening all week with a "riveting" DFMC team meeting on Wednesday....Seriously, I wonder if they believe their own crap sometimes. Had poker night on Friday, along with runs on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and am really looking forward to my schedule freeing up when the marathon is over. I miss my lazy weeks :-)

Recruiting people for my March Madness pool took a lot of my time this week but with considerable effort many people graciously joined the pool and many who didn't decided to donate directly. This led to a surge in my total on the DFMC website to over 2000 in addition to the 765$ potentially raise from the March madness pool. Once I use a friend's matching program to double the contribution, I will have almost reached the minimum of 4000$ raised required by Dana-Farber. I really appreciate everyone's support and contribution. 4000 seemed like such a daunting number when I signed up for DFMC and finally I feel like I can breathe a bit on the fundraising component.

In addition to the March madness pool, it also meant there was actually going to be the March madness games. While I don't watch a single minute of NCAA basketball all year, the tournament brings out the deep deep down basketball fan in me. Thursday afternoon turned into a veritable waste of time at work as a result with myself, Tom and Sanchez sucked into the many tight, nail biter games. The same pretty much applied Friday afternoon and parts of Saturday and Sunday. Luckily as I am writing this, the exciting round of 64 and 32 is almost over. Here is a runner/basketball meme that runners with totally get :-)

Right after the water stop.....I always do my best!

To end this less than exciting blog, I'll say that while I haven't had any GI distress on my long runs, I certainly can use some CharcoCaps after my long runs because it really upsets my stomach. Something else I won't miss after this training. As many of you know, this will be my last marathon and between the GI issues and the toe damage, I won't miss the training. I know many people don't believe me on this being my last marathon but it will be, I promised the wife afterall.

Crush New Bedford Half Marathon: Check

Something you don't want to see come Race day!

Race report

Yesterday was the 38th annual New Bedford Half Marathon and with 5 weeks to go to the Boston marathon, it seems training through the winter has really paid its dividends. As we drove down to New Bedford Sunday morning, I really had no idea what my goal for the race was that day. I knew I wanted to break an 87 minute half-marathon, what would be a personal record by 90 seconds but I really was winging it. My chosen gear for the day was my conventional Lulu on the top/Nike on the bottom with a Lululemon tech t-shirt, luon long sleeve and gloves and Nike shorts, tights, socks and shoes. If anyone really wants more details, let me know. Mother nature threw me a curve ball though, as the weather turned out to be much warmer than anticipated or prepared. With no other options, I basically removed the tights and the long sleeve and hoped for the best. My first run in shorts and a tshirt in over 2 months!

Pre-race at the starting line. Ben wasn't allowed in the area!

Pre-race

Chris and Sean from TMIRCE were also running the race, as well as DFMC teammate Sarah. Ben came out to cheer us on, which is amazing because New Bedford's course is not a spectators' course to put it mildly. We got ready for the race knowing our reward of a fish sandwish and clam chowder awaited us at the finish line (seriously - they advertise this as a selling point). Highlighting how not focused I was pre-race, I left my shades in the car and I forgot to take my pre-race Gu. Gu is a gatorade supplement of concentrate sugar in many delicious and revolting flavours.

Chris and I moved towards the front of the start line and when we settled on our location, we heard some runners (one of which I knew, let's call him 'douche' from here on in) talking about their strategy for their upcoming 81 minute half-marathon. At this point I felt that perhaps we had moved to close to the front but figured it wouldn't be too much of a big deal. As the minutes ticked down to the start of the race, the race director said his schpiel and they had a local singer do the American national anthem, which she promptly forgot the words to, about 20 seconds in. The runners were kind to her as they picked up where she got stuck and carried her to the finish, something no one would do for them over the next 13.1mi/21.1km. Chris and I wished each other a good race and we were off!

Race 

Miles 1-4

To say that I started conservatively would be a lie, as I ran a 6:12 on the mostly flat first mile. Probably not a good strategy but I was feeling the energy of the runners around me. The next few miles of the course have a pretty substantial incline and while I slowed to the low 6:30s, this was still well ahead of the pace for an 87 minute half marathon (~6:38min/mile) and I was still passing people as they struggled with the hills, all that winter training on the Newton Hills seemed to be paying off. 

Miles 4-7

As the course began to head downhill, people began to catch up and pass me. Initially this was very disheartening until I realized I was actually running 6:15min/miles. Downhill is by far my weakest area, which may come back to haunt me in Boston. However, I was able to maintain a steady pace and didn't let myself get sucked into running even faster. At mile 4.7 or so, I had my first Gu and felt a boost, soon after. At mile 6.5, 'douche' pulled up along side me and looked super confident and smug that he was going to pass me, since in all our encounters he has been pretty condescending about his superior speed. I was still feeling good but was running my own race and let him get slightly ahead of me. He didn't even return my head nod at this point.

Miles 7-12

As the downhill ends in the race, you get near the coast and have ocean views for part of this section. It is really the only decent scenery you see anywhere on the course. Unfortunately, it also means it gets windy, really, really windy! Wind sometimes is the end of me because of my larger frame but it also helps prevent me from getting thrown around by the wind. As much as I tried to draft behind or next to other runners, it was proving impossible and I just decided to break off from the pack of 4-5 runners that we had formed. By mile 8, I had pulled alongside 'douche', gave him a nod and went right by him. This would be the last time I'd see him until after the finish line. At mile 9, I had Gu number two, which I had planned to be the final one. Again it gave me a huge boost of energy, and I passed some more people as a result. In my mind, I knew I had to save some energy, as mile 12 of the race is a monster hill. At mile 11.5, was the last water stop of the race. Since I forgot to take a Gu at the start, I had an extra one and with the knowledge of the hill ahead, I downed my 3rd Gu in 7 miles (oops?!) and embarked on the challenge ahead.

Miles 12-finish

I thought the hill was only mile 12 through 12.5 but I was wrong, it actually stretched all the way through 12.75. Last year, when I hit this hill my race totally went to shit and while I finished, the hill definitely got the best of me. This year, while my pace did slow slightly, I just plowed through it, knowing that on the other side was the massive downhill to the finish. Based on the earlier splits, I knew a sub 85 minute half was possible at this point. As I finished the hill, I didn't know what I had to do the last 0.35 miles in but it didn't matter, I just started running with everything I had left. I passed the 13 mile marker clock at 1:24:13 or so. Since I started at least 20 seconds post-gun time, I knew I had sub 85 in sight. I sprinted down the hill and made the turn to the finish and checked behind me to make sure there was no one there to pass me. There was no one to pass in front of me either as they were too far ahead and sprinting as well but I chugged my way as fast as I could to the finish and a 84:38 half marathon. Soon behind me was Chris, who also PR'ed by almost 3 minutes and finally over a minute later, 'douche' crossed the finish line. I went over to congratulate him but he didn't seem in the mood and sulked away. Just some icing on top of a great race!

Sean finished in an awesome 99 and Sarah encountered some garment issues and somehow moved her bib from her jacket to her top while running, on her was to a respectable 118.

Sean and Sarah part-took in the awesome fish sandwich and chowder, while I passed and just ate the crackers and banana :-)

Everything on track now with just 5 weeks to go and now a huge question ahead for me, what time should I be aiming for in the Boston Marathon?!

Thanks for reading!

Pre-New Bedford rest day

Courtesy of a DFMC teammate

Today is a pretty dreary day in Boston with overcast drizzly skies and a balmy 1degC/33degF. My plan was to do a short (6.4k/4m) run this morning with the TMRICE crew but my leg felt a little sore, so I figured I would rest up for the race tomorrow instead. Rain is my least favourite running condition, way worse than cold or snow, so it was an easy decision to rest up.

In other news, I finally managed to finish shoveling out our sidewalk at our corner, and I realize I should have taken photos so you all could understand what a feat that truly was. We have over 400 linear feet of side walk to shovel at our condo building and the other owners are about as helpful as a manatee. The city had plowed the snow off the street directly onto our sidewalk leaving piles as high as 12 feet in some places. Hopefully now I can put away the shovel for at least 9 months :-)

I owe a lot of thank yous to people who donated lately:
Richard Roskies and Jessica Wertman
Sung Hee Choi
Tejas Inamdar
Michael Katz
Todd Stupell
Michael Bourkas
Jocelyn Mang

Thank you so much for supporting me, the cause and my research. Post-marathon expect something, sometime, somewhere :D

Apparently I have been going about this blog thing the wrong way, as yesterday's blog was clearly good click bait with numerous views. I don't know if anyone read it or just looked at the photo laughed and/or puked but it showed me that I need to make it less boring. But how can I do that without just going off the rails? Perhaps George and Kramer can shed some light?



So I promised with 5 weeks left, I will come up with tasteful (at least to me - Shirley won't even look at yesterday's blog post) but amusing posts here on in. Obviously, this excludes the post that will finally discuss a runner's marathon day arch nemesis, the gastrointestinal tract.

And to end today's post, something that every male runner does/experiences when he is running.
Something for the ladies in the next post!



Enjoy your Saturday!

Is this Brandon's running post about pooping?

Sorry this photo was too good.....

Sorry to disappoint you all but this will not be my post about one of the most significant hurdles any runner faces on marathon day. Saving it for a bit later....This guy just couldn't keep it in his pants....

Things have really turned the corner in Boston and within basically one week, the vast majority of the snow has melted. It would be difficult to tell right now that we had 250cm of snow over 1 month if you visited. While running conditions are still a bit treacherous because of melting snow turning to ice overnight, it really have been a pleasure to go out and run in the light as a result of daylight savings time (thank you George Bush! ugh....).

All this training has not been without sacrifice, as I feel like I haven't seen most of my friends at all over the past few months except for a few sporadic events and I am really looking forward to the end of training.

DFMC's marathon team training adviser posted a video that reviews the Boston marathon course. I thought it would just be boring (which it is) but I honestly had some chills watching it. I haven't cried in a marathon since finishing Montreal in the Olympic stadium but there probably is a legit chance that there might be some waterworks in this one.

Work in the lab has had more downs than ups lately, mostly thanks to a company's error in sending me a bad reagent but there is progress there. Amusingly, the fund that I am raising money for via DFMC, funds one of the projects I work on in the lab. So to all of you who have donated so far, thank you for directly supporting the cancer research that I do. I have definitely stepped up the effort in the fundraising the campaign over the past week or so, which I hate to do but it is necessary. The march madness pool starts on Thursday, March 19th @ noon, so please join and have a chance to win some money in the process! Just so everyone knows - if I win the pool, I will donate all the money towards my fundraising goal.

This week in running

Not much of interest to report this week so far. Have had some pretty decent runs and actually regained some of my motivation to train. Didn't have anything crazy to juggle around this week and I even managed an early morning Monday run (I always prefer to sleep). I have felt a couple of twinges here and there while running lately but it is probably more about me being hyper concerned about an injury that actually having one. No long run for me this Saturday because Sunday is the New Bedford Half Marathon. Conditions look OK for the race but pretty cold but still hoping to finish in under 1:27 which would be a PR by a 1 minute and 31 seconds, wish me luck!

I did have a "uh oh" moment this week when I learned that unfortunately I could not finagle my way out of the non-qualifier wave through a friend who knew people at the B.A.A. To explain, there are 4 waves of runners in the Boston Marathon, which are set based on your qualifying time. Wave 1-2-3 are made up of qualified runners and wave 4 is mostly the fundraising groups. Since Boston is so huge, each wave is separated by ~25 minutes making the start time for the 4th wave, 11:15am. Depending on the weather, you actually want to get out as early as possible, so that the temperatures are as low and cool during the majority of the race. Anyways, my efforts to move from wave 4 to wave 1 or 2 through a friend resulted in a email from the coordinator of the DFMC team to call her immediately. I have to admit I was shitting bricks that she was going to tell me that I had violated some team rule and they were kicking me off. Luckily, she just wanted to comfort me that it would be OK to start in wave 4 and that it would all be okay.

Hopefully I will have time to post after the New Bedford half!
Thanks for reading!

March's arrival, Boston's thaw and what seems like the home stretch!

Wow, as bad as February was in Boston, it sure seems to have gone by quickly. Boston's sits about 4 inches/10cm from the all time snow record and we will probably break it with two small snowfalls over the next coming days but psychologically I feel like winter is over and it is time for things to warm up. At work, Tom joked about how there is always a march storm, which led me to giving him the evil eye. Seriously, though as far as I am concerned, the corner has been turned and it's time for some decent weather, as you can see below, even the parking meters are getting ready.

Even the parking meters have made an appearance and have their shades ready!

Saturday's run was again extremely fast (16miles @6:50min/mile or 4:15min/km) but unli ke last week, I felt pretty shit. It was a real struggle for the 2nd half of the run, which wasn't helped by the extreme congestion on the marathon course. I can only imagine how bad it is going to be on marathon day when more than 30,000 people will be on the course. On a positive note, there are only 5 long runs left before the marathon, it almost seems too easy.

My recent pace explosion on the long runs has left me thinking about my plan and strategy for race. I have promised the wife that this will be my last marathon that I do (unless someone asks me to pace them) and I am conflicted about whether I should. Basically, my main goal for this marathon is to not implode during the race but I also want to give it my all without ruining the experience. One of my running club friends who ran the race in 2013 fainted at mile 25 while on pace for a 2:58. So with 7 weeks to go, I have a lot of thinking to do as to what my strategy will be that day. In reality, a lot will depend on the BAA and where they seat me in the starting lineup as there will be 4 waves this year again, 10am/10:25am/10:50am/11:15am.  In all likelihood, we start at 11:15am, which after a 4:30am wake up will be quite a wait and challenge and will definitely influence my race day performace. I mean, how does one even make a pre-marathon pooping schedule with that time lag? (More on that later)

While I have been very serious about running up until this point, I have definitely taken a laisser-faire approach to the fundraising side. I (like most people) don't like harassing people to donate for money. While that hasn't been totally useless to this point that is obviously going to have to change.

First on the docket is a March madness basketball tournament fundraiser. 50% of your contribution will go towards my fundraising - the rest to the pot. The pot will have 4 prizes: 1st overall (30%), 2nd overall (5%), 1st place after round 1 (10%), and last place overall (5%). Please sign up even if you know nothing about college basketball. If you don't want to sign up, then feel free to head over directly to my fundraising page and make a donation. :-)

Thanks for reading!

8 Weeks to go!

Haven't written anything in a while pretty much because my schedule has sucked and been spending a lot of time still shoveling out our property. We got a notice of violation from the Brookline PD for our sidewalk, so 3 hours of Friday was that. Hopefully though, I won't have to talk about snow anymore and we are past the worst of winter with only 1 week of February left.

With the busy week I had made some changes to my schedule and didn't find time to do any crosstraining on Wednesday (yearly condo association meeting instead - could write a whole blog on this) or Friday (3 hours of shoveling), so I felt really fresh for my long run on Saturday. That said, on both my Tuesday and Thursday runs I felt the development of potentially my first injury in training this season where the region between my calf and ankle were got very sore and was causing me to limp. It was still a bit sore Saturday morning but I had stretched it out a long and used the "rumble roller" a torturous foam roller to massage the region. After dropping off the wife at work, I raced home to get out to the DFMC training run of the week, I ended up being late but I felt so good that I blazed by everyone within the first 0.5 mile. I kept hoping that Steve, the other DFMC runner with a similar pace to me would be there, but I never found him (because he wasn't there). Anyways, long story short I did the Newton Hills twice plus the distance to and from my home that brought me to 20 miles. It also was the best run, I've had in a while, possibly ever. I felt great and was cruising at a pace ~6:50min/mi or 4:14min/km for the entire run. It was as if the up and down hills weren't even there. Shout outs to Andrew Scholte and Chris Montgomery who I saw out there on the course from TMRICE. Thumbs down to Jill Conway and Jason Rossman who were nowhere to be seen ;-).

I really owe a lot of thanks to the DFMC volunteers for being out there on the course and for the water to wash down the 3 Gu I took. They are so friendly and a pleasure to talk to and really put a difference perspective on the run. They are so appreciative of the runner's raising money for Cancer Research as they have all been touched by cancer in some way. They and their stories are really inspiring to keep on pushing.

It also happens to be National Margarita day tomorrow, so the 1st water stop was set up in that theme, which was totally amazing. In that spirit, I took a shot of spirits at the water stop on my 2nd trip and had a shot of tequila to wash down my Gu. Probably not a good idea but it was fun and it didn't seem to affect the end of my run at all!

The amazing volunteers at water stop #1

I wish today had been Marathon Monday but I still got 8 more weeks of training to make sure I am going to crush this marathon. As much as I hope to do the marathon in under 3 hours, my real goal is just to be able to actually feel good and enjoy the marathon, which has only happened once in my previous 5 attempts. At this point, things seem to be going well but a lot can change it 8 weeks. Hopefully it doesn't!

March madness is coming up and I hope a bunch of you will be willing to play in my march madness pool where 50% of the pot will go towards my fundraising goal. If interested, please contact me - you don't need to know anything about College basketball! It is just a lot of fun and often people who know nothing win these things, since they are so hard to predict. There will be prizes for last place, the first place leader after round 1, and the overall winner! If you don't want to play and just would like to donate, please click here.

Thanks for reading!

Week 6-8 recap and reason number 2 - you probably don't want to run a marathon

It's been a busy week and I haven't had a recap of progress over the past few. As I am sure many of you know, or are experiencing first hand if you live in northeast US, snow has taken over with little evidence it is ready to give up it's iron grip of power. And while I was cocky last Saturday, the snow finally did me in this week. I managed only 1 run and 4.5 miles so far this week (tomorrow will be outside for the long run) and instead replaced Monday and Thursday's runs with sad depressing elliptical trainer workouts. At least I'm able to stream movies on the iPad via amazon instant video with feature titles this week of The Peacemaker starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman (not worth watching) and Pain and Gain featuing Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnston (slightly better and apparently a true story). I may have to cave next week and go to a gym for treadmill workout, especially with projected snowfalls on Sunday and Monday.

Very inspiration through 8.5 miles on the elliptical

Other than the snow, I can't complain much. I have been a little tired since donating blood last week but that could also be because I haven't taken a day off from cardio in almost 2 weeks.

This past Sunday was the Super Sunday 5 mile race and TMIRCE despite a solid effort and two ringers, we got our asses handed to us finishing in 6th place as a team, a whopping 1 hour behind first place. On a personal note, I finished in 32 minutes, 1 minute slower than last year. I can't say I am too disappointed with the finish, as it was probably about 15 degrees (celsius) colder this year and I had run 13 miles the day before. It was just fun to get out there and run all out for 5 miles. The New Bedford half marathon in March will be a much better test for how successful my training has been.

So, as I promised, another horrible reason you don't want to run marathons/train for marathons. Unlike the first reason, nipple bleeding, I have personally experience this second one, toe nail destruction. Luckily for everyone, I never kept a documentation of the toe damage I personally have experienced but am happy to say that my toes have healed (they don't always). So what kind of toe damage am I talking about? Well it usually involves some form of bleeding either caused by your toe nails cracking or a blister that is really, really bad. The worst kind of blisters are when they occur underneath your toe nail (how does that even happen???) causing your nail to lift and eventually fall off. So while I have had many toe damaging events, the worst one happened in the Jacksonville marathon, where my feet and toes were already sensitive due to running the Baystate marathon just 2 months earlier.

Jacksonville was supposed to be a good BQ (boston qualifier) location with a flat, scenic course and cool temps. It was flat and scenic but unfortunately for Dan and myself, it was far from cool. The temperature peaked at ~87F, making it extremely uncomfortable, especially after months of training in temperatures in the 30s/40s. Anyways, the heat also causes your foot to get a little sweatier than normal and meant that my feet were sliding more in my shoes than usual. After a lovely, 23 miles/37km, I heard and felt two almost simultaneous cracks, which happened to be the nail on both my big toes. Needless to say this was largely the end of my running that day as I struggled to a 3:16 marathon (slowest since my first). I am not sure I would have even finished in 3:16 if not for the motivation by another runner (who is also running Boston this year), Penny. It took almost 4 months to totally recover from the carnage, just in time for the Ottawa marathon :-)

So what was the lesson I learned in Jacksonville from snapping my toe nails?

Never run a Florida marathon. :-)

Thank you to Izabela for her generous donation! Just over 2800 to go to reach the minimum.


Below is a recap of the past 3 week. Just over 10 weeks to the marathon!

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Week 6 Scheduled	5-6	7-8	Cross train	7-8	Cross train	16-18	OFF	35-40
Week 6 Actual	1.2	5.25	46min elliptical	12.6	35min elliptical	18	Stretch	37.1
Week 7 Scheduled	4-5	6-8	Cross train	8-9	Cross train	12-14	OFF	30-35
Week 7 Actual	43min elliptical	6	56min elliptical	9	40min elliptical	13	5mi race	33
Week 8 Scheduled	5-6	7-8	Cross train	8-9	Cross train	16-18	OFF	36-41
Week 8 Actual	40min elliptical	4.5 track	37min elliptical	63min elliptical	30min elliptical	18 projected	Much needed OFF

January winter blast arrives but hasn't stopped me yet!

The memory of our amazing winter in Boston has quickly faded this week after two snowfalls including "snowmageddon". This morning we got a light dusting from the Alberta Clipper but Monday may bring another blizzard, bringing 10-14in/25-35cm with it.

Despite missing my Monday run in exchange for shoveling, I managed a fun and stupid run on Tuesday in the blizzard, although that meant there was no track Tuesday, and something tells me we will be a few weeks before the next one since Harvard doesn't clear the track in the winter. Thursday, the DMFC run from Crossroads did a few repeats on the river back and forth (Thanks New Balance for paying Boston to plow the esplanade) to reach the 9 miles I needed.

As a result of an email plea from Dana-Farber, I donated blood which was definitely not in my marathon training plans. They said they were really low on blood supply, so I figured I'd make the donation. Apparently I was nervous as I spiked my blood pressure but luckily they can accept you as long as your BP is below 200/100.

Today's group run was largely revised because of the snow banks in Wellesley, so it ended up being a double out and bank along the Newton Hills starting at Boston College. Since I already despise out and back routes as it is (they are very boring) I decided to run back and forth between Boston College (~2miles/3.2km), which meant I only had to do 1 out and back to reach my target of 12-14 miles. I didn't want too crazy of a run today because I am racing the Super Sunday 5 miler tomorrow.

Tim and Steve weren't running their usual pace, so I luckily caught up with 3 runners from the Spaulding rehabilitation network run for Boston and joined them for the run. Thanks Sam, Dan and Jen for the company and a solid run!

Will post a weekly update tomorrow and hopefully a good result from Super Sunday!
Stay tuned for embarrassing marathon fact #2 next week!

Thanks for reading!

Snow day = snow run

As I am sure you all of heard the snowpocalypse is hitting the north east of the States, and numerous states declared a state of emergency in preparation for the storm. In an unprecedented move for Dana-Farber, they closed down all locations since pretty much everything is closed in Boston.

Shoveling is definitely a lost cause in this storm (see below), and a couple of my TMRICE friends decided to go for a snow run. Since I am obviously insane as them, I figured it was a good idea as well. So I suited up and met them in Kenmore Square (~2.5 miles from our place) for a fun snow run.
Numerous people definitely laughed at us as crazies but there were plenty of people out for walks or cross-country skiing in the streets. There was even a cow man running in the snow but I didn't get a picture.

The best I could do with our walkway, driveway.....still snowing.

While many people bailed on the run, Erin and (American) Chris came out and we enjoy a brisk enjoyable ~3 mile run together. The snow is useless for snowballs so there was no snowball fights, sadly.

Hope everything is enjoying their day!

Kenmore Square and me waiting for Chris and Erin to show up (20min late!)

The end of the run....I swear my eyes are open....

Let it snow! And embarrassing secret/fact #1 of marathon running!

So winter finally hit Boston today with a lovely powdering of at least 4 inches of snow. While I love snow usually, it is really throws a wrench into normal running plans. It also means that I have to shovel the sidewalks (in Boston/Brookline, residents are responsible for shoveling the snow on the sidewalk....) and driveway at our condo building, which is such a joy. The DFMC run was already cancelled for today because of the snow, so I was largely on my own for the run. This is an older photo, but this is legit how Boston cleans the sidewalks they are responsible for....

After warming up for 30 minutes by shoveling the snow for the building, I somehow convinced myself to get out there for the planned 18 mile/29 kilometer run. My plan was to run the first 10-11 miles on my own, and then meet up at City Sports for TMRICE's Saturday morning run at 10am. That meant ~ 5 miles out of the city through Newton with a return through the dreaded Newton Hills trifecta from the marathon. Honestly, I thought about abandoning this run at least 3-4 times in the first few miles as I trudged through the slush and snow but decided to suck it up. Once I got to the Newton Hills, I was spurred on by all the other crazzies (runners) who were out there with me. It didn't hurt that I passed every single person I saw. "Heartbreak hill" was extremely challenging, especially with the difficult footing because of the snow but within a few minutes it was a distant memory. 

Made it to TMRICE on time but unfortunately even though there was a bunch of people there, no one was my pace or running my distance (thanks a lot Jill ;-)) The last 7-7.5 were lonely and difficult on the Charles, especially since the river was only plowed on the Boston side (thanks New Balance!) but the Cambridge side was a disaster. 

TMRICE gang pre-run!

Full details on the run here.

Some gross stuff to end the post! There are a few runner secrets/shameful facts when it comes to marathon running that no one wants to talk about or discuss. Today, one of the grosser ones, nipple bleeding during long runs, especially marathons. So first off, let's get this clear - I do not deal with this thanks to an amazing product called body glide. It is an amazing stick that prevents all sorts of chaffing and can help with blisters on your feet too. I was going to share a picture with you about nipple bleeding but that just seemed wrong. Anyways, if you decide to pick up running, don't forget your trusty anti-chafe stick.

What the heck is a hill repeat?

So a few people have mentioned to me that they have no idea what I am talking about sometimes in regards to running and that I should provide a Running for Dummies guide in my blog when I mention new concepts. Yesterday I talked about how my failed attempt at actually going for a run in Montreal resulted in a last resort workout with Dan of 6 hill repeats. One person was particularly vocal (Roni - famous again! - you can check out her awesome year 2000 website here.) about that she didn't understand what that meant.

Hill repeats are an essential part of any half or full marathon training program but are especially critical for Boston. Technically Boston is on the easy side of marathon courses if you were just to look at the elevation net drop (450 ft lower at the finish) throughout the race.


While it is true that downhill running is easier, this much downhill can destroy the best runner if they aren't prepared. To make things more difficult, Boston has 3 climbs/hills between miles 15 and 20, culminating in the last hill known as Heartbreak Hill. So what's a hill repeat? Basically, you should warm up with 10-20 minutes of light-medium intensity running and then find a hill with a grade between 6-12% , long enough that you can run for 1-2 minutes without finishing the hill. Once at the hill, you should run up the incline at ~ race pace or slightly slower, until you reach the top (~320-400m of distance) and then slowly jog/walk down to the bottom to repeat the process again. Rinse/repeat 5-12 times, depending on how masochistic you are/where you are at in your training. Once the hill repeats are complete, do a cool down run for 10-15 minutes and bask in the glory that you completed the hills.

While most people only do uphill repeats most people recommend some downhill repeats, since the first 15 miles of Boston is largely downhill. I still haven't attempted that and I probably should because I am a miserable downhill runner.

Other posts will explain what a rumble roller is exactly as well as other running workouts including tempo runs, interval training and other assorted runner issues.

No run yesterday since it was an off day but hoping to pick up 10-12miles tonight to catch up for my short Monday and Tuesday.

I'll leave you with this image which was in my facebook feed, which is funny as a Canadian but even better as a Habs fan!

Week 5 into week 6 - Time is flying!

I am sure you have all been dying for the next installment of my training for Boston. Sorry for the delay but we were in Montreal this weekend and things are always crazy hectic there. It was great to see everyone and spend time with family and friends but if I had to train in Montreal instead of Boston for the marathon, I am pretty sure I would have almost no shot.

I had moved my long run to Thursday under the hopes of just being able to get in 7-8 miles on Saturday OR Sunday. Sunday, I didn't really have much of an excuse besides being busy seeing people and eating every minute of the day but Saturday was something else. It was a veritable freezer outside with temperatures reaching a high of -20C. It looked and felt like we lived in Narnia under the evil witch's regime.


Cold enough for the snowmen/women to have a picnic.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Week 5 projected	5-6 miles	6-7 miles	Cross train	7-8 miles	Cross train	14-16 miles	OFF	32-37 miles
Actual	6.08	6.44	60min	14.1	36min	off	OFF	26.6

Monday was beautiful in Montreal except for the overnight snow, which left the roads and sidewalks a bloody mess. Dan and I tried to go out for a 7-8 mile run but quickly realized it wasn't meant to be. We settled on 6 hill repeats of about 320m, which honestly was better than nothing. After that I made a quick trip to visit my PhD supervisor to get some DNA for my research project at Dana-Farber and then Shirley and I were off back to Boston with our rideshare passengers (Greg and Ruby).

The drive back was pretty solid and in my mind I thought as soon as we got back, I would lace up and go for a run, since I planned on going to work anyways. Obviously, this didn't happen, we had local Jewish Chinese food from Golden Temple when we got back, watched some Castle (you should watch it people, it's awesome) and then I went to work for a bit at around 10pm.

Since last update, I managed to make some more progress on the fundraising front thanks to Roni and Evan and Beatrice and Dan. Thank you guys so much for helping me raise the money to help DFCI's Barr program.

Next post will focus on week 6 and getting back on track after a delicious and fattening weekend in Montreal.

On a positive note, I am down almost 4 pounds now. Still need about 14-15 to reach my goal race weight but I am getting there. And despite popular belief, it is crazy difficult to lose weight during marathon training because you need to eat to let your legs recover.

That's all for me today. If I made you even smile for half a second, consider donating to my DMFC fund.  In the next few weeks, I will work out the details for a March Madness pool that I will organize to raise money.

On that note, does anyone have interest in a superbowl fundraising pool (superbowl squares)?

Week 5 - Anyone seen my legs?

Saturday's 16 mile run felt great but since then my legs have been seriously fatigued. Basically, we can go to the Anchorman weather desk to show what I am dealing with.



I still managed to run both Monday (amazingly warm weather) and Tuesday (freezing cold - colder than last Tuesday weather), but I really felt like my legs didn't want any part of the workout.

It isn't to say that I had a bad track workout, I just didn't feel fresh like I usually do. It could be that the increased running load is finally catching up with me, or it could also be that I haven't been stretching very much after many of my runs, especially those that I have been doing with other people.

Last night, I used my rumble roller for like 20 minutes to release the tension in my legs and I almost fell asleep on the floor because of all the tension that came out/I was just really tired.

To make matters worse, I am switching up my long run this week to Thursday since I will be in Montreal over the weekend and who wants to run 14-16 miles (22+ km) in the frigid cold of Montreal, instead I will do my relatively short 12-14km run from Thursday on Saturday.

Hopefully my legs will come back soon though because it is going to be a long 14 weeks without them.

Week 4 recap

There was definitely a few times this week where I questioned why I was forcing myself to run outside in the cold. Boston had its first actually cold week of the winter and my motivation level wasn't as high as I would like. Luckily, I only had to run once on my own this past week (Monday's run) with TMRICE's track Tuesday, DMFC's Crossroads Thursday and DMFC's organized Saturday run. Great people were there each time to help me through my run, notably Jill and Ivan on Tuesday at track, and Steve and Colleen for the long and hilly 16 mile Saturday run.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Total
Week 4 projected	4-5 miles	6-7 miles	Cross train	6-7 miles	Cross train	14-16 miles	OFF	30-35 miles
Actual	5.01 miles	6.4 miles	54 minutes elliptical and core	7.4 miles and core	52 minutes elliptical and core	16 miles	OFF	34.8 miles

I did my first morning cross-training workout this weekend and it was horrible. I was so tight to start I felt the first 10-15 minutes was just me trying to get my legs moving. I will definitely have to try and find some way to warm up quicker, maybe do P90X's warm-up for 3-5 minutes or something.

On the fundraising front, it was a decent week with donations from two lab peeps, Wendy and Sasha. Thank you both so much!

In order to help reach my minimum goal, I decided to try an approach where each person donating can "sponsor" a kilometer of the marathon that way when I am running the race, I can be even more motivated with each section knowing that someone was behind me for each piece of the race.

I know it is still a lot of money to ask for especially for those of you who are Canadian (with the horrible exchange rate currently) but 100% of the funds go directly to the Barr fund at Dana-Farber, which invests towards projects and research aimed at developing novel approaches to cancer therapy.

I am really horrible at asking people for money/donations but anything you could give would not only help me reach my goal but also help Dana-Farber, one of the top cancer institutes in the USA, work towards the many cures we need.

14 weeks to go to Boston.

Track Tuesday - Yikes it really got cold

Quicker post tonight hopefully I will have more time tomorrow and can talk a little bit more than just my life and talk about running in general.

Here is the schedule for the week

So not only was it -15C with the windchill today but it was snowing too. Luckily it was Tuesday, which meant it was TMRICE's (the most informal running club ever) track workout at Harvard Stadium in Allston. In 2014, I ran 33 of 52 Tuesdays the most runs on any day of the week thanks to this workout. You can pretty much count on people showing up whatever the weather.

Tonight, even with the track dusted in snow, we had a great turnout 8 people braving the cold. I again decked out in similar gear to yesterday, which was much more necessary given the cold. I got there early to run some extra distance and luckily Jill was there doing the same so it passed the laps around the track quicker.

Just a quick note, a track is 400 meter in length and usually the track workouts feature some sort of intervals that add up to 4.8km or 12 laps. Every first Tuesday of the month is the "Shawgo mile" where we run a timed interval of 1 mile within the track workout which helps track your progress month to month.

The total workout is as follows 800m/1mile (~1609m)/1200m/800m/400m (and sometimes a 200m sprint if the weather is decent). Everyone was pretty reserved tonight because of the weather and not running at full speed. Thankfully, Ivan showed up for the first time in 6 months or so and together we ran a pretty quick  mile for the weather. I clocked in at 6:08 tonight. It was my slowest timed mile at TMRICE in almost 1.5 years but I was still pretty happy with the effort. The rest of the workout was pretty slow except for the final 400m because my stomach really didn't feel well. Also, I apparently I was very energetic tonight as Meredith needed earmuffs numerous times while I was talking. Sorry Mere - I'll clean it up :-)

I got in 6.4 miles tonight - over the 5-6 I needed, which is good considering how cold Thursday is supposed to be! Probably will plan on going to DFMC Crossroads run on Thursday since I am not planning on going to their run on Saturday.

Apparently, reading about me running inspired a friend of mine to get out and run tonight, so if nothing else I have that :-)

Anyone have any questions? Anything you want to hear about?

Brrrr - Cold and Windy outside! Winter arrives in Boston.

The beginning of week 4 brought the first actual cold day of the year and the winter. Walking to work wasn't too bad as it was sunny but both my hip and ankle felt weird, which was surprising because I haven't felt any injuries on my runs and Sunday was a day off. It didn't seem to be too bad though, so hopefully it isn't a sign of a future injury.

Everyone was finally back at work but it was still super quiet. Everyone seemed tired/still on vacation and so it was a lazy day in the lab. Steve joined us for lunch and Brian's paper was accepted to Molecular Cell, which is awesome. A good way to start the new year it seems. I finally gave the lab the Christmas/Holiday gift we purchased back in December, and we all hung out for an hour and shot the shit except Mike who wasn't anywhere to be seen until the end. Izabela was amazing as always and made us have a few good laughs.

After the coffee break, I finished up my work and started the walk home in the cold. I feel like I became soft since we moved to Boston, as it wasn't very cold as all just like -2/-3 degreesC but it was wicked windy with gusts in the range of 50 kph. Needless to say that after my 30 minute walk home, I really wasn't feeling that getting out for my run but as I was leaving work Liz harassed me if I was going to run tonight, Andrew thought I was insane and I promised them both that I'd be logging the miles in the cold tonight.

So I got home and prepared dinner and put it in the over and got ready for my run. I definitely overdressed for my run with a base layer, a mid layer and an outer layer on top and tights and thermal tights on top. Even more, I had my hat, neckwarmer and running gloves, which had almost every inch of me covered in Luon (Yes I love Lululemon - feel free to make fun - if you don't have ). Shirley came home just as I was getting ready to leave but I still managed to convince myself out the door.

The cold actually wasn't too bad but the wind was incredibly strong making it difficult to run in multiple directions. Apparently, most of the running community in the area decided they didn't need to get out for a run tonight, as only 3 other people were out there for my 5 mile/8 kilometer route. Luckily, it was a shorter run tonight and within no time I was home to have dinner.

Izabela asked me today how this blog helps me stay motivated to run or how she can help me stay motivated. Basically knowing that people are possibly reading it makes me feel pressure that people are looking to see if I am keeping up the runs.

So for reference - my running schedule features runs on Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday and elliptical workouts on 2 of the other 3 days. Keep the pressure on guys because this will be my last competitive marathon ever and the goal is to break 3 hours.

Thanks for reading and happy Monday!

Week 3 recap - Happy New Year!

Week 3 is over. Obviously I haven't posted a lot even though the week was quieter at work.
Running has been going very well,- even with the dramatically increased mileage over the past 5-6 weeks. My legs aren't THAT sore and so far I don't feel any injuries developing.

Thursday was a lonely run New Year's day run around Chestnut Hill reservoir and Boston College. The weather was beautiful, a sunny and cool day which meant that at least there were 10-20 other runners at the reservoir. I hadn't drunk too much on NYE, so I wasn't hungover or that tired.

Friday was an elliptical day, which I think really has been helping me not get injured. After driving Shirley to work and putting in a short 7 hour day at the lab, I watched part of the latest Star Trek movie while riding the elliptical. Since it was the first Friday of the month, we went out to First Friday happy hour with TMRICE. It happened to be at Washington Square Tavern, so we hopped on by and saw a lot of the regular crew there. We didn't join them for Golden Temple Dancing, which if you haven't done or you don't know what it is you definitely need to try out at least once. I wanted to get a good rest as I was running 14 miles on Saturday, so we ended up being lame and heading home early.

Saturday morning I met up with Jill prior to TMRICE's (https://www.facebook.com/informalrunning) Saturday run to get in some extra mileage. 2.2 miles to meet her, 3 miles with her and then I broke normal protocol and ran 8.8 on my own to complete the 14. I couldn't find anyone in my pace this time with the younger Franco blazing his way with Anthony (visiting from NYC and leader of The Rise) at a 6:30min/mile pace and everyone else running 7:45s or slower. Anyways, after pissing off the planned parenthood protests for the 4th time that day - I got back not much after some of the 7 milers, and had a nice potluck style breakfast as usual. Hudson made a return appearance fresh off his flight from Panama and a few of us headed over to his favourite spot (T. Anthony's on Comm ave) for some Italian eats.

The rest of Saturday was super lazy - I didn't even go to work (?!?!). Shirley and I continued our 24 day ab challenge that was 50 crunches/50 leg raises/38 second plank. For the first time in the challenge, I actually needed to take a break to get through the set, and it isn't getting any easier going forward. Afterwards, we had a lovely dinner at our friends' place where I drank way more than I should during training, while it snowed/rained/hailed outside. Thankfully today (Sunday) was super warm so most of the snow has melted.

So as week 3 ends, I have been so lucky so far weather wise but that looks to be coming to an end. The high for this Thursday is a lovely -11 deg C (-19 with the wind chill) which will definitely start to put my dedication to the test.