When I'm 64 or 150...

"When I get older losing my hair
Many years from now
Will you still be sending me a valentine
Birthday greetings, bottle of wine?"

The Beatles sang the song, "When I'm 64" nearly 50 years ago, but the lyrics (like so many of their masterpieces) still rings true today. I'm two years away from 40 and I can't help but think about what "64" will be.

I really started contemplating this when the keynote speaker at our Telluride in-service spoke on the importance of physical education. Now, I am not sure he helped my educational practices, but he did make one point that had a profound impact on my life. I'm paraphrasing here, but it was something like, "It's not the number of years you live- it's the quality of those years"

That one statement hit me like a ton of bricks. I have been working out more and eating (or trying to eat) better because I want all of the years in my life to be active and healthy. Do I want to live to 80? 90? 100? Sure, if I can spend those years with all of my mental faculties and physicaly fit. Do I want to live that long if I have to suffer through preventable diseases or conditions? No way! I've been in one too many nursing homes to want to see how that story plays out.

Which leads to a greater question- How long should we live? Or maybe even how long do you want to live? This thought provoking article from CNN.com responds to an ad claiming the first person to live to 150 years old is alive today. I know we all want to live a long and healthy life, but how long is too long? Too long for us or too long for the sustainability of our society... Put your thoughts in the comments below.

Here's some Beatles to make you smile:

And of course the 411 on today's run!

Drive time, Run time.

I curse my alarm every morning when it goes off between 5:00am and 5:30am. I am not a morning person, not in the least. However, as a teacher who is at work by 6:45 I have to be a morning person.  I hate mornings, but the youth of America need me when that bell ring at 7:25. So, each and every morning I am there, like it or not.

But, you know what, on nights like tonight I realize that getting up early has way more benefits than it does negatives. I was running through the intesections of N. Quaker and W. Braddock and N. Quaker and King St. at around 6:30 pm and I saw nothing but headlights in every direction. A sea of commuters making their way home as I was in the middle of a 5 mile run. And it got me thinking, "man am I glad I teach." As all of these people where just making their way home, I had already put in a respectable 9 1/2 hour day, picked my son up from daycare, checked in at home, dropped my car off at the dealership and was in the middle of a run. And as these corporate ladder types pulled into their driveway for the first time I was home for good and ready for some R&R.

Will I still curse my alarm every morning? Yep! But will I love the time teaching gives me with my family? Yes, yes I will.

Two quick links- First a song we can all relate to by one of my favorite bands:

Tonights run:

Goals for the week

 In an effort to keep to my plan I have decided to publish my goals for training each week The hope is that by a) reviewing them another time each week and b) adding some peer pressure from my many followers, that I will do better at sticking to my plan. So please feel free to leave encouraging comments or even to chastise me if I am not sticking to the plan.

Here goes...
Tuesday 1/11- 5 miles (hills course)
Thursday - 1/13- 5 miles (tempo run)
Friday 1/14- 5 miles (easy run)
Saturday 1/15 or Sunday 1/16- 12 miles (long run)

Total = 27 miles

Check back at the end of the week to see if I met my goal.

Running in a Winter Wonderland

Last night's run, which was the first run of the spring training season, was awesome. Ellie and I made our way out for an easy four mile run at about 8:30pm last night as the snow was gently falling here in NOVA. And let me tell you running in the snow is so cool! You would think since I grew up in Central New York that snow would be no big deal, but I still love that first snow fall. As I was running I looked down and saw how happy Ellie was as she seemingly danced back and forth in the snow and  I looked up to see the trees lined with a thin layer of beautiful, pristine, snow. There is something about how peaceful and fresh everything looks when that first snowfall hits. I am not usually the guy who gets a "runner's high", but last night as the miles clicked by, I felt a sense of euphoria as the snow fell all around me, and the high lasted well after the run.

Now allow me to tie back in to my last post on the toughest step, as last night truly tested my dedication to running. Yesterday was a tough day. William was up a few times in the night, I had a ton of stuff to do at school,  after school involved taking William to the doctor for pink eye, and as my wife said "why would anyone want to go outside tonight in this weather." All of the factors were there to keep me from running, but I would not be detered. I tought of my goal for the OKC race and  my overall health (helped that the Biggest Loser was on TV) and took that first step out the door. So glad that I did, because I loved running in a winter wonderland!

Running and family

So I am really focused on my training plan for OKC on 5/1 and one thing my training has taught me is that I need to add more mpw (miles per week) to my regiment. More miles, according to most experts, helps with endurance and speed at the same time and I need help with both. Heck, world class runners may put in 120 miles a week or more during their peak weeks of training. Now, I don't want to do anywhere near that many miles, but I do want to bump up from 20-30 mpw a week to a peak of 40-50 mpw. It is my hope that if I can do this I can set a new PR and and finish the marathon strong.

As I imputed the weekly training numbers into my excel spread sheet I became extremely excited about my plan, but then I started to realize... More miles equal more hours, and at my pace (9:45-10:30 m/m at MP- slower for training) even a simple six mile jaunt will take me an hour or so. 20 mile long run? 3 hours or more... That got me thinking about my typical week, with my job, tutoring, family, friends and the time I need to devote for those important parts of my life. With only so many hours in a day or week, where was I going to find the time to add these new miles?

I am sure that many other runners have this dilemma. How do I balance the rigors of marathon training with family and job needs? As I think about this question I become less excited and more nervous about the balance I will need to achieve.

I have some answers that I hope will help others as well.

1. Flexible schedule- I know most runners thrive on a set routine, but I know that I will have to have some flexibility to fit in the MPW week I need. AM run missed will mean a run after my son goes to bed that evening. Can't run on a Friday afternoon? Then I will get up extra early on a Saturday to fit the run in. I need to allow myself some wiggle room in my weekly plan to ensure I get my MPW in and done.

2. Time management- I will have to manage my time extremely effectively to make this work. Advanced planning and open communication with my wife will really help out in getting my miles in.

3. Less sleep- For my weekend long runs I know I will have to wake up before roosters to get in my 16-20 milers. Normally a waking up a little early wouldn't be too bad, but through in a teething infant and you realize every hour of sleep is worth more than gold.

4. Amazing wife- All runners whose significant others aren't runners know exactly what I am talking about. My wife understands my passion and doesn't mind watching our son or hearing me get up at 4:30 on a weekend. I know my training plan would be worthless if it wasn't for her.

Will it work? Only time will tell. I’ll keep you guys updated as I train.

Got suggestions on training and balance? Let me know and post a comment!

Dealing with disappointment

It's now two days after I completed my second marathon (Rochester, NY '09 and Philadelphia '10) and I have a myriad of thoughts spinning through my head, but I think mostly I am starting to feel more and more disappointed with my result. Yes, I know that, I set a new PR by nearly 45 minutes (Rochester was 5:20:04 and Philly was 4:36:44), but I had a really rough last 6 miles were I had to run/walk to finish and those miles were not enjoyable. Plus, I didn't meet my "A" goal which was a sub 4:30:00 time.

So the question is how do I get rid of this negativity?

There are some ways to combat the disappointment: First to remind myself that: a) I finished a marathon and b) I set a new PR by almost 45 minutes. c) did all of this while teaching full time and starting a family in May d) I have dropped 10 pounds and am in the best shape of my life. So, I am trying to stop every time I have a feeling of disappointment and remind myself of these things. I also need to look forward and know that I will improve.

The second way to deal with the negative thoughts is to focus on the next race. I have already picked my next marathon, the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on 5/1/2011. I chose this race because my wife's family lives in the city and I have heard it is a "must run" in terms of marathons.

And focusing on the future means constructing a better training plan and using that plan to run faster and finishing strong. Everything I have read says that my miles per week (mpw) are on the low side at 25-30 miles a week. So, the new plan will start with a base of 30 miles and work up to 50 miles during the peak weeks of training. Adding more tempo runs and "fast finish runs" to my training schedule should also help a great deal. It is my belief that if I can up the mpw, work on speed, and focus on a stronger finish I should be able to break through the 4:30:00 barrier and finish the next marathon feeling strong.

I will remind myself that Philly was a success and a race I can be proud of, while starting to focus on OKC this spring.

I plan to update the blog as much as I can with entries on training, thoughts on life while training, product reviews and any useful/cool articles I find. Plus, if I do any smaller races during my training I will do some race reviews as well

Philadelphia Marathon 2010

Quick background-I am 35 and Philly was my second marathon. My first was Rochester '09 and it was a bit of a disaster. I put in some decent training, but was just getting into running so didn't really know the right way to train. When I got to the race I thought I would follow the 5:00:00 pace group. Problem is the pacer's watch broke and he went out about a minute a mile fast for the first half. Needless to say the last half was ROUGH. I finished, but it was a shameful 5:20:00 time.

So about Philly...I lined up with the 4:30 pace group, although, this time I had my Garmin so I wasn't as concerned about staying with the pace group. And I had been smarter in my training so I knew what pace would feel good.

Miles 1-3: One word: Crowded! I found it a little difficult trying to dodge and weave through all of the marathoners and half marathoners as we started the race, although I still was just a bit over my goal of 10:00 miles

Miles 4-6: I settled into a great pace and was able to find pockets of empty space to run in. I was right at my 10:00 mile pace and was feeling really good. Crowd support was great and it really helped.

Miles 7-10: One more word: Hills- Well, as hilly as the course got I guess. It may have been the physically toughest part of the course, but I had done a good amount hills in my training so I was still feeling pretty good there too. And I was actually a little under my goal pace

Miles 11-14: The crowds of runners continued to thin out especially after the half marathoners split. These miles were a big psychological barrier for me, because it was around miles 11-13 when the wheels came off in my first marathon. But at this point I was feeling good, maybe to good and had sped up to a 9:45 pace.

Miles 15-19: One word: Lonely! These were some tough miles as we were running along the river. The crowd support had thinned out and I really didn't like the out and back loop. I think seeing the runners coming back as they were in the closing miles messed with my head. I felt discouraged and alone, which I think began to affect me. Although, I was still at a 10:00 mile pace

Miles 20-25: Houston, we have a problem- At this point I can't say I hit the wall, but I did struggle. Cardio was fine, legs were fine, but I felt weak and light headed. I never thought of stopping, but I did have to adopt a run/walk strategy. They had cones separating the out and back part of the course. So I made a deal with myself that I would speed walk to one and then run past two cones. This worked well and kept me goingI think the issue was that I didn't eat enough before the race (was worried about stomach issues during the race). and even though I drank a lot of Gatorade and ate a cliff bar, I think I am going to have to add gu into my training runs as well

Miles 26 and 26.2:I was so close that I knew I had to run the rest of the way. Crossed the finish with a chip time of 04:36:44 which smashed my PR.

Overall: I was disappointed I didn't break 4:30:00, but happy with the new PR. Thought the course was good, but didn't like the out and back. Crowd support was great while the race organization lacked a little.

Looking forward: I know that I need to focus more on nutrition and I think I need to up my MPW so that I can increase my speed and finish stronger that last 10k.