12 IN A ROW

This will be my 12th consecutive Boston Marathon this year and 26th marathon. Things have come back together this last week. My weight is way down to 150 lbs and continues to drop. I will probably try to gain a few pounds back before The race. I have good numbers last week with no issues:

Swimming: 8000 yards
Biking: 160 miles (1 outside 35mi, 1 megahard spin @ BSC)
Running: 75 miles (1 track - 2x {4x800 @ 6:00 pace}, 1 tempo 6 mi @ 6:25 pace)
Cross Training: 1 weights

It's amazing how used to the trainer I've become. It's almost bizarre that I have come to such ritualistic behavior of riding that thing every day. We are in for some spring weather FINALLY and I am on the bike outside now two days in a row, with more warm days coming. I will finally get in a long ride in this week. IM France is coming quick and next week is the taper for Boston, so I am really feeling the pressure. Never again! Two big races like this so close together!

My wife has managed to connect me with a fellow Ironman France athlete training in sunny California. Jenn http://seejenntri.blogspot.com//will be doing here first IM and is with Team In Training. Unlike my selfish racing for myself, her goal is to raise $15K, so any contributions are appreciated. It will be great to hook up with Jenn and hopefully meet up with some other Americans in France. Anyone doing IM France or knows anyone doing the race, have them contact me at lp_ironman07@yahoo.com.

Cheers!!

BIB #1804 112th Boston Marathon

I am totally psyched to be starting in corral 1 this year! It will be wierd to start actually seeing the starting line (if I get there early enough). It had been a very hard training season. The NE weather has not cooperated and I am just getting to run trails in the last few weeks. I have pushed as hard as possible in March and have paid dues by getting the flu and a GI infection that I am still shaking. I may have pushed too hard and paid, but I have continued to train though it - the addiction is too strong and only yesterday did I take what could be considered a rest day. The last week has not been fun and I look forward to the warm weather approaching later this week. My numbers are still okay this week: 65mi running with one day off (no speed workouts), plenty of bike time ~ 150 miles and two easy swims (4200yards). The final few weeks approach for Boston and I will down shift long runs and focus on speed. I still want to keep my mileage high though, as always. Runs will be broken into doubles to keep the numbers high.
I hope everyone is healthy and injury free. We are odds on for a good race day this year!

-Kyle

Race Report New Bedford 1/2 Marathon

No Nor'easter made this a typical race day in New Bedford; cool in the mid-30s and breezy. Not nearly as windy as last year. Once again, a big crowd with some top NE runners making the trip to whaling town. I opted to run in a coolmax long-sleeve, shorts and gloves, but could've easily gone with a spandex tee. I had the gloves off my hands after mile one. Managed to hold 6:15s through mile 8. The next few miles are tough though, as they go along the ocean and make for some pretty breezy conditions, especially at the turn to head for mile 10.

Here are the numbers:

1:23:09 (6:21 pace) - gun to chip time 1:23:19 - why was I so far from the line??

199th overall, 29th AG

team 6th (I scored 4th behind Vitelli, Stumbras the machine and Bernie O'Reilly, then Kaiser)

My PR of last year stands 1:22:08. The good news is that I am closing in on where I was last year very quickly. In the last week or so I have started to get that feeling again, which is good news. I believe if I work hard enough, I can actually cross where I was last year and take this thing to a new level. I have five weeks until the marathon.

Here are last week's numbers:

Run: 59 miles (1-track, 1-race)

Bike: 6 hours (1.5 outside)

Swim: 8500 yards

All in all a good week. Sore lower back made good timing for small taper before the race.

Congrats to my BAA, MRC team-mates and friends that ran!

Big Training Numbers

A lot of people are looking for inspiration this winter and are curious about my training schedule, so I'll post this once a week for folks to gander at.

Running: 73mi (1-track, 1-LSD (20mi) and 1-tempo) - above avg.
Swimming: 8500 yds (approx., but probably more, 3d) - about avg.
bike: 6 hours ~ 96mi (1-outside) - below avg.
Weights: 1
Cross Train/S&C: 1/2 day easy downhill ski

Overall a pretty good week. I am focused on marathon training into the first half of this week. I'll then bike/swim later to give my legs a rest for the New England Half Marathon Team Championships this weekend.

-Kyle

Sunrise Winter Duathlon

My second one of these this year and ever. I never thought I would ever do a XC ski race. After skate skiing for the first time over up at Waterville, I figured out I should rent a pair of these for the race and it made a big difference. This race was put on by my pals at Channel Mulitsport http://www.channelmultisport.com/ and was a lot of fun. A definte race for next year. I think I'll drop for a real pair of skis too. Don't forget to put the machine screws into the bottom of your flats, as the run is XC style over snow base and was deep this time.

Overall Place: 19th
Total time: 1:08:56
Run 1 (4K): 18:57 (7th)
ski (6K): 31:06 (30th)
Run2 (4K): 18:53 (4th)

Old Fashioned 10 Miler

Race Report:

Knowing I am no where near where I was last year at this point (1:02:28, 6:15), I set a goal for anything under 65 minutes. I have also been training crazy hard (no big surprise) trying to get myself back into shape. I may have over done it, as I was feeling very exhausted on Saturday and didn't really do much.

The race actually went well. I felt pretty good running and was fairly consistent in the 6:20 to 6:30 range with the exception of downhill mile 2 (6:10). There are a lot of hills in this race, so I knew that I would run closer to 6:30 on the tougher miles. The day also featured a tough head-wind in the first couple and last few miles.

Time: 1:04:44
Pace: 6:28
Place: 68th
AG Place: 17th

Overall I am happy with this prep-race. I did a post race shlog of about 3.5 miles and felt very tired. I felt tired yesterday too and a little bit today. I will do the track workout tonight and distance tomorrow, then take a couple days off and get ready for this weekend's long bomb on the Boston course.

I hope everyone is staying healthy and getting into shape! It has been a tough NE winter to train this year and I hope we will get some better weather here leading towards Boston. I will also try to get back into the swing with this blog as many have commented that I am not keeping it up like I should! Please leave a comment if you visit, so others know you've been by (I changed the comment field so you can comment anonymously). I will try to get with the program! Now off to MIT to get those hard 800s in with my BAA team mates!

-Kyle

Finally Some Time To Train

I'm no where near where I was this time last year, but I am starting to catch up. January was an up and down month with many distrations, but I still managed to build-up running mileage. Also, I am religeously on the trainer for one hour each morning. I don't want to make that same mistake from last year (not enough time on the bike through April). IM France comes one month earlier than Lake Placid, so there is no time to screw around. I must bike train and marathon train in parallel. The two big races are:

112th BAA Boston Marathon April, 21 2008

IronMan France Nice June 22, 2008

February and March I will be training absolutely as hard as I can. As you can see there is no time to train between post-marathon recovery and tapering for IM France. I am back swimming too. I need to get to three days a week - definitely putting more emphasis on the bike training this year, I am not too worried about swim training. It should be interesting swimming in the mediteranean.

Anyway, the body seems to be healthy and ready to go. I need to get to my race weight, but there is still plenty of time.

I hope everyone is healthy, getting back to shape and focused on their races this year.

Cheers,

-Kyle