May 2017 – Month in review

June 30, 2017ianesenior 1 Comment

The theme for this month is ‘I’m tired!’. I started the triathlon training for my upcoming half ironman event on May 1st. It is a 10 week training plan to get me ready for the Rev3 Williamsburg race in July. I’m actually doing both the Sprint triathlon on the Saturday and the Half Iron distance on the Sunday. Sleep is something I’ll catch up on after the New Jersey State Triathlon at the end of July. ‘Tri Season’!!!

My total mileage for the month was 438 miles which was comprised of 16 miles swimming (all in the pool), 337 miles on the bike (unfortunately 293 were indoors on the bike trainer) and 85 miles running (51 on the treadmill). I have no idea how people train for a Full Ironman. They must never sleep. Or perhaps they drink a lot of energy drinks?

Garmin Connect – May 2017

So most of the month was taken up with training. Up early to get a workout in before work and then up late to get a workout in when the boys were in bed. Towards the end of the month I just got up extra early to get both workouts in before work. It gets harder as the week goes on for sure. You cannot fake training for this distance. You cannot wing a 1.2 mile swim. I’m pleased that I’m sticking with the plan and I’m sure that finishing the race will feel like an amazing reward after all of this.

I took part in a new race for me this month. The Bucks County 10 Miler. This was my first 10 mile race for a long time. I’ve not been able to run the Broad Street Run for a few years as I’ve either run the New Jersey Marathon or the Pittsburgh Marathon on that date or the week prior. This year my wife ran Broad Street so I got my turn a couple of weeks later in New Hope, PA.

This race was so up my alley

The race was started and finished in New Hope, PA so a Star Wars theme was part of the event. Great. I’m a big fan. It was run mostly along the Delaware Canal and the conditions on the day were perfect. Not too hot and sunny. I myself wore a Star Wars themed shirt but I saw commitment from people running in full costume. Kudos to those runners. As much fun as the them was, I was still there to race. My official time was 1:22:25, which is a full 3 minutes faster than my last 10 mile race a few years ago. It’s not a distance I regularly race.

Finisher certificate

Don’t run Solo…Take a Wookie

The race left me confident that I’m able to push when I need to, which is great. The rest of the month was then back and focused on my triathlon training as the countdown to race weekend begins. Next month I will be ramping up the time/distances on the plan before tapering during the last week of the month. I’ve got to get there first…

Thank you for reading. See you next month.

March and April 2017 – Two months in review

May 29, 2017ianesenior Leave a comment

With the Memorial Weekend upon us I am finally catching up on my blog. Between my new job and training for my half ironman in July I haven’t had too much time to sit down and recap so here goes. March and April 2017. Better late than never.

Rather than use my Nike+ Summary to recap I’ll be sticking to my Garmin Connect data as it catches more of the workouts than just running. I still use Nike to track my workouts but my Garmin device syncs the data to the Nike site so it is the same.

March 2017

March 2017 – Garmin Connect data

March was marathon month. My total mileage for the month was 143 miles which was made up of 128 miles of running and 15 miles on my bike. You will see that there was another day of snow shoveling but thankfully that was the last of the winter snow.

The month started with me actually gaining acceptance to the New York City Marathon on my third attempt at going into the lottery. As you will know, I didn’t make it in previous years but my wife was accepted in 2016. I ‘race chased’ her during the event and this made me more motivated than ever to get into the event. The good news is that I got accepted. The bad news…I have a family engagement in Virginia and I cannot do the race this year. I have deferred to 2018 so while I don’t have to enter the lottery next year, I have to wait almost 22 months to run the race. Fingers crossed that all is well and I can fulfill my goal next year.

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Good news….just a very long wait until November 2018.

My wife and I ran the Rock ‘n’ Roll DC Marathon on March 11. My recap is here. It was a great but very cold weekend. That was marathon number 9 for my wife and number 18 for me. Fun times together.

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2017 Rock ‘n’ Roll DC Marathon

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Taking advantage of a weekend away and doing some sightseeing.

Once I got back from DC I was away on a training course for my new job for the next four days. I had planned on resting but the food was both good and plentiful. I spent every morning getting up at 4:30am and hitting the hotel gym for a good number of miles in what should have been my recovery week. Oh well. On the plus side I was in the hotel when the last major storm of the winter hit. My family was not so lucky. Hence the snow shoveling on my return home.

April 2017

April 2017 – Garmin Connect data

My total mileage for April was 160 miles made up of 147 miles of running and 13 miles on the bike. A big milestone for me this month was reaching 10,000 miles of running since I started logging my workouts in September 2011 (just over a month since I began my couch to 5K program). This happened on April 2nd.

At the start of the month, my wife and I took part in the Phillies Charities 5K down at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia. Home of the Philadelphia Phillies. It was a great spring morning and the weather was perfect for running. We did a pretty good time together and we earned ourselves another medal, tickets to an upcoming game and some time on the field for photos.

We took our boys to their first game of this season on April 8th and we saw a history making win over the Washington Nationals. They scored 12 runs in the first inning to win the game 17-3. It was a great night for baseball and we all had a fun time.

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Waiting for the game to start.

On April 9th I took part in the Bookin’ For Lookin’ 8 miler in Newtown, PA. Over the last few years I have not been able to run this event and only participated by making a charitable donation. This year, without any races on the calendar (the last two years have been the Rutgers UNITE Half Marathon) I took part in this event. It started out at Council Rock High School and was an 8 mile out and back loop into Tyler State Park and back. It’s a hilly course but I hit my stride early on and was very pleased with my time. It was a glorious sunny day and the event was well managed. I’d recommend it if you live near and have the opportunity. It is a fund raiser for two local charities, Foundation Fighting Blindness and Bucks County Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Here is the elevation chart. I’m not exaggerating about the hills.

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Pleased with my time, especially on those hills.

May starts the beginning of my half ironman training. I hope that I will not be waiting too long to post my recap but please bear with me in the meantime. I should have lots to report over the next few months.

Thank you for reading.

September 2016 – Month in review

October 31, 2016ianesenior Leave a comment

The boys went back to school which means it is Fall race season. This month was mostly about tapering for my early October marathon (Mohawk Hudson River Marathon) so there was lots of long runs planned but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have some fun along the way.

September 2016 – Nike+ Summary

My Nike+ summary shows almost 147 miles for the month. Although my 6th year running anniversary was in August, September 2010 was when I started to record my mileage. This month I hit a new milestone in my running career. 9,000 miles.

I ran my 9,000th mile in early September.

My total mileage in the month was 182 miles which included some swimming and biking as I had my final triathlon race for the year mid month, the Hightstown Triathlon on September 11th.

September 2016 – Garmin Connect Summary

The first September in the month is always Labor Day here in the US. With an additional day home I decided to take advantage of the time and get an extra long swim session in. I arrived early at the gym on Sunday morning (they usually open at 7am on weekends instead of 5am during the week) only to find that they had holiday hours which pushed the opening back an extra hour 😦

Yup, only one here.

So after heading home for about an hour I made it back and started my lap swim session. As it was a later start to the day and a holiday there were many more people in the pool. I ended up sharing a lane with another swimmer. I have never had to share a lane before and unfortunately I inadvertently punched my opposing lap lane swimmer during my freestyle stroke. He seemed shaken…but not stirred. I figure as long as he wasn’t floating face down I’d be okay. Hey, I was there first.

September 8th also happened to be the 50th anniversary of the very first episode of Star Trek. I made sure to get my run in on the day and celebrate accordingly.

Run long and prosper.

Early in September I was invited back as a guest on another edition of the Runner of a Certain Age Podcast hosted by my friend John. We spoke about my recent triathlon experience and about the upcoming Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon later in the month. You can listen to the episode here.

The Runner of a Certain Age Podcast

On September 11th I participated for the second time in the Hightstown Triathlon. It is a sprint triathlon up near my office in Hightstown New Jersey. I had a few equipment issues during the race but had a great time. You can read about that here.

2016 Hightstown Triathlon

This was followed the week later by running the Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon with my wife. We always have fun doing this race and it was to say the least a very busy weekend. You can read about that here.

Receiving another Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon medal

By the end of September I was finally able to settle into my taper for the upcoming marathon. Looking forward to what October will bring.

Thank you for reading.

August 2016 – Month in review

September 21, 2016ianesenior Leave a comment

A fun month with lots of running, relaxation and family time. No races this month but lots of other activies.

August 2016 – Nike+ Summary

This month was the most running I had done in a long time as I am ramping up the training for the upcoming Mohawk-Hudson River Marathon in early October. We also had a family vacation so I used this extra time to get a few extra miles in (I ate a lot of ice cream that week).

I didn’t do too much cross training this month. The majority of my miles were from running although I did do a couple of swim sessions totaling just over 3 miles. No bike riding this month though.

Garmin Connect – August 2016

The month started off with a quick work trip to Atlanta. Atlanta in August is hot hot hot. I had a couple of hot runs out there but I was fortunate that the hotel where I stayed provided cold towels in their gym so as soon as I returned from my run I went up to the gym and grabbed a couple of cold towels to cool down. BEST THING EVER.

Cold towels provided to hotel guests. So welcome.

I got back from Atlanta and we took a quick family trip to Washington DC to see some of the sites and explore the museums. It was a really hot and humid weekend but the boys were troopers and the museums were nicely air conditioned so that helped.

A great family weekend in the Nation’s capital.

Another week at work followed but I took the Friday afternoon off to see my boys to finish their summer day camp. I was happy that my son came home with the following award from his bunk at day camp. I can only hope he enjoys running as much as I have over the last few years.

My future pro?

Packing with a 6 year old is always a challenge/fun. Here I am trying to pack my bag…he was lucky I didn’t put him on the roof with the rest of the luggage!!

My 6 year old’s attempt at packing a suitcase. Not what we had in mind.

Finally we were all packed and headed out on the road to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Looking forward to a week of family fun together.

On the road

So, Myrtle Beach in August is hot and humid. Very. I haven’t really done marathon training in the Southern States during the summer and it was quite a shock to the system. I had on my plan a 17 mile run at the beginning of my vacation and an 18 mile run before heading home. I had plenty of time to relax during the week so I didn’t mind getting up early to beat the heat. There were, however, a couple of times when the heat nearly beat me. Thankfully I run with a debit card and a $5 bill in my running belt when I travel away from home. This was the first time that I had to stop midway during a run to refill my 50oz Camelbak water pack.

I had to stop around mile 9 of my 17 mile run to replenish all my fluids.

I’m not exaggerating (well maybe a little) but I swear I saw this on my run:

Anyway, hot or not, there was ice cream to be had this holiday in addition to daily rounds of mini golf for the boys so there were daily runs by everyone in the family. We had been working with the boys to run a 5K this summer and I had signed them both up for the runDisney ‘Virtual Running Shorts‘ series so by the time we reached the end of summer they could run a 5K and earn the ‘Red Pants’ medal.

Despite the heat and humidity (they would be running later in the morning than I would) they both managed to run and finish their 5Ks. Luckily we planned the route so everyone finished at Dunkin’ Donuts everyday for a treat and some chocolate milk (and coffee for the parents). Both boys seemed to really enjoy the experience (one more than the other) and they were both totally thrilled when I produced the medals for them to wear.

Asher completed his run first.

Micah completed his run the next day.

Both boys were really happy with their new medals. The medal was quite impressive.

It was a great vacation (the boys said it was the best ever) but ultimately it had to come to an end and we had to get back home and get ready for the start of the new school year.

A fun family vacation.

Back home and shopping for school supplies.

August was a fun month and as we wound down our vacation ready for the new school year we look forward to what September will bring.

Thank you for reading.

June 2016 – Month in review

July 20, 2016ianesenior Leave a comment

Phew….what a month. Along with the training for my upcoming half iron distance triathlon I had a very quickly arranged work trip to the UK. Lots of hours of training and traveling. My training total was almost 396 miles (136 miles running, 252 miles cycling and 8 miles swimming) but you can add 6,980 for flying (but someone else was the pilot).

June 2016 – Nike + Summary

June 2016 – Garmin Connect Summary

The intensity of the double workouts stepped up and my weekly training hours got into the double-digit realm. Interestingly enough in all the training cycles I have done for marathons it has been mileage based but this training plan is time based. Not focusing on exact mileage requirements has been a lot of fun but I have definitely racked up distances without needing to specifically plan out routes. It was kind of liberating. At the height of my marathon training I’m probably putting in 7+ hours a week and running into the low 40s in terms of mileage. For this training plan I’ve been putting in 10 to 12+ hour weeks. It’s exhausting but hopefully making me ready for the big event.

The unexpected work trip to the UK was a nice surprise. My parents and sister still live in the UK so I extended my work trip with a couple of vacation days on each side of the trip. My only issue with this was having access to a pool so I could continue my training program and also the ability to cycle. I took my swim gear with me on the chance I could find access to a lap pool (not so easy in Central London) but didn’t take any bike gear as I figured I could just use a hotel bike (and I had no desire to cycle through the streets of London).

As it happened I didn’t get the chance to swim and I had one bike session in the hotel…but I did a heck of a lot of running. Since I didn’t run when I lived in London and I was just sightseeing on our last family trip with the boys I took the opportunity of travelling alone to explore.

I tried to map out a couple of runs in advance of the trip based upon the distances assigned on the training plan but pretty much ended up winging it and had a lot of fun doing so. I was based very close to Tower Bridge in London and got the opportunity every day to run along the Thames and across the bridges and when time allowed to explore some of the more famous sites when time allowed.

My first run after checking into my hotel in London

Morning run on my last day in London

Here are a few of the highlights from my trip.

Running along a very busy Oxford Street during a break in the rain

Running past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

The Houses of Parliament from across the Thames early in the morning

Early morning at Buckingham Palace

Picadilly Circus before all the tourists arrive

My daily view on my run

Finishing my time in London with a final run over Tower Bridge – Maybe one day I will be able to get back for the London Marathon

After my work was done in London I went up to visit my parents in Leeds (in the north of England). I tried to map out a route for a long run but it had been years since I have lived there and I ended up finding a route without any sidewalks so this involved a few miles running cross-country style along the side of the highway. I also didn’t consider how hilly it was. However the countryside was beautiful and I earned plenty of dessert calories.

Heading out of London on the train from Kings Cross (for all you Harry Potter fans)

Welcomed off the train by my Mother in a totally non-embarrassing way

Running around the areas where I grew up

I could have planned a better route…

Great to be outside of the city

I did take the opportunity to do some shopping for a few or my favorite items from the UK…mainly chocolate. I ended up having to take an extra suitcase home with gifts for the kids and chocolate for…well, mainly me.

Just a small stop for some UK treats (and this was before I finished going through the supermarket)

Okay, maybe more than a few treats – the smaller one has the chocolate and gifts

I arrived home on Father’s Day so I got to spend the morning with my Father in the UK and the afternoon and evening with my boys back in the USA. It was a little like Phil Collins at Live Aid (okay…stretching that one a bit). Either way it was a nice weekend and I was delighted with my Father’s Day gift which was tickets to see Paul McCartney in Philadelphia in July. Happy days.

My boys were wearing UK and England shirts for a full week after I got back

My wife had to travel to San Francisco the day after I got home so I wasn’t able to get back in the pool for a few days (all in all about 2 weeks with no swim training!!) and combined with the jet lag I was a little behind in my training but luckily the weather was great towards the end of the month so I was able to get back on plan with the triathlon coming up in the second weekend of July.

As I said, a very busy but rewarding and fun month.

Thank you for reading.

May 2015 – Month in review

June 9, 2015ianesenior Leave a comment

May – Nike+ Summary

142 miles during May. As you look at my monthly stats you will notice that there were a lot of rest days but that’s not the whole story. It’s been a busy month.

At the beginning of May my wife and I ran the 2015 Pittsburgh Marathon. We had been looking forward to this race weekend for a long time (we had signed up last September) and we included a family trip as part of our race weekend. It was a lot of fun. The race was great and we had a good time showing the boys around my wife’s alma mater (University of Pittsburgh).

2015 Pittsburgh Marathon

After some recovery from the race and the trip I rested up a little more than normal as I undertook my first (unofficial) ultra-marathon where I ran ‘Goofy in a Day’ for the charity organization ‘Give Kids The World’. This was effectively the two days we ran at Disney rolled into one day and was the distance of the half marathon and the full marathon combined. It was a great experience and I was fortunate to have a couple of folks separately run about 12 miles with me. This definitely helped get over some of the tougher miles. My fellow Mickey Miler team-mate Tammy drove up and ran 9 miles with me which took me over the 20 mile mark and marathon distance and then a I co-opted a colleague who was running to join me and pace me for a few miles when I was into the 30s.

Goofy In A Day

I was astonished at my actual time/pace for the day. I’m not sure I would rush to undertake such a challenge again too soon but ultimately I raised $1,500 for ‘Give Kids The World’ and brought my fundraising through running total to $13,000 over the last few years for both Autism Speaks and Give Kids The World. I’m quite proud of that fact.

I am a brand ambassador INKnBURN apparel and on May 4th this year they offered a secret product that you had to sign up for sight unseen. The hint was that it was May 4th (when people celebrate Star Wars day) so I threw caution to the wind and purchased this mystery item and waited for my package to arrive. When it did it was “O.M.G!!!!!! I’m hyper(space) ventilating”. It was a full sleeve Boba Fett t-shirt!!! Although my wife thinks I said I was bald and fat…and she calls me a Trekkie. I still love her though. I also love my INKnBURN. So proud to be an ambassador.

My INKnBURN Boba Fett shirt

Now, getting back to that 142 mile image up at the top, since I started this blog I have always used the Nike+ image to start each monthly review. With the Pittsburgh Marathon over and the Goofy in a Day done I am now able to concentrate on my summer goal of completing my first triathlon (New Jersey State Triathlon). Some of my running days are now being replaced or supplemented with biking and swimming. Swimming is where I need to most work so I am trying to concentrate on that skill set the most for the time being. In regards to biking, I typically only get out during the summer months and then only at weekends. Well, we managed to rectify this situation this month by setting up a gym at home.

Both my wife and I have long commutes to and from our places of work and with the activities for the kids it is getting harder and harder to get to the gym before or after work. As both of us are training for the Marine Corps Marathon this October we are both needing to get our miles in at the same time. Typically I go out in the dark with a headlamp before dawn but I didn’t want my wife to be outside at those hours so we finally purchased a treadmill for the home (a NordicTrack Commercial 1750) so she can run inside when I run outside in the early morning hours. We also now have the flexibility to jump on the treadmill when the boys are in bed or when one of us is travelling for business and the other has to stay home with the boys.

A trip to the Home Depot was required to set up the base for each machine

The end result – our private workout space

So as I cleared out my office to make way for the new machine (we figure after 17 marathons combined it is more than a fad) I decided to also set up a bike trainer so I could get some bicycle time in during the week. So far so good. Together this has allowed me to do a couple of brick workouts (bike to treadmill) in preparation for the triathlon in July. I’m also getting to the gym early enough to get around 30 minutes of swimming in a few times a week. I’m getting there…slowly, but still I can see some improvement. So now I cannot use the Nike app alone to recap the month. I use Garmin Connect to give me the ability to record all activities so its not just 142 miles this month but 171 miles. Again, pleased with this although I’m finding muscle groups I never thought I had. I am sure my body will get used to it. I hope so!!!

Garmin Connect – May 2015

Garmin Connect – May 2015 detail

This Memorial Weekend we celebrated our 12^th wedding anniversary. We had a great family weekend together with the boys at Sesame Place and we also took them to Philadelphia for a day at the Franklin Institute and tosee the Lion King before I had to jet off again to Arizona for business.

Celebrating at Sesame Place

Enjoying the Lion King touring production in Philadelphia

While in Arizona I took advantage of the unseasonably cool (for Arizona) temperatures and enjoyed some time exploring the area through running from my resort. It was a busy week with many hours sitting on planes and in airports but looking back it was a good trip that yielded some good work.

Taking in some of the sites

Exploring new areas to run

So May was a pretty busy month by both running, racing, home and business activities but was rewarding all around.

Thank you for reading.

philly2goofy

…and all the miles in between

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Garmin Connect

May 2017 – Month in review

March and April 2017 – Two months in review

September 2016 – Month in review

August 2016 – Month in review

June 2016 – Month in review

May 2015 – Month in review

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