Jeff Galloway

May 2013 – month in review

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May 2013 - Nike+ Summary

May 2013 – Nike+ Summary

115 miles this month. I have learned this month that looking just at the numbers does not tell the full story.

I started the month with high expectations for achieving a PR at the New Jersey Marathon. I was just coming off a PR in the Atlantic City April Fool’s Half Marathon which I thought would be a pretty similar terrain being by the shore and I had definitely put in the miles of training.

As you can read from my race recap things didn’t go according to plan. I didn’t achieve my PR and felt fatigued. This manifested itself about 10 days later when my body just ran out of juice. Rather than be in a funk about why I hadn’t achieved my goals and looking for a dozen reasons why I felt bad I took the time to look at how I got here, what I was doing right and what I was doing wrong. It basically came down to quality vs quantity. I took a couple of days off and readjusted my goals and my training. Hopefully going forward the changes I am planning will pay off. You can read about that here.

This month I launched a Virtual 5K run to raise funds for Autism Speaks for the 2014 Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend where I am running in the inaugural Dopey Challenge. So far the reception to this has been great. Many people have signed up and the first 100 medals have been ordered. I encourage you to sign up and participate if you can just for the fun of it. Remember, if you fully participate and post a picture of Dopey on your run you may be eligible for one of the prizes. See this post for details.

I have my Dopey ready for my run

I have my Dopey ready to run

At the end of the month we celebrated Memorial Day weekend and the official start of the summer. It was a fun weekend as I got to spend a lot of time with the family and celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary. You can read about that here.

Finally, based on a little encouragement, I am venturing into uncharted territory. I have basically been running using Jeff Galloway’s Run/Walk Method since February 2011. It has served me well and got me through 5 marathons. When I revisited what I had been doing as discussed earlier I noticed that although I was putting in the miles I was not getting any faster and all my runs were pretty much the same. Ultimately I want to improve on my marathon times going forward and during the New Jersey Marathon even my walk breaks didn’t seem to help. I am currently reading Pete Pfitzinger’s book on Advanced Marathoning and although I do not expect I will train at that level or follow his plans I am looking to change up my running experience.

Over the last three runs I basically threw caution to the wind and did not use the Galloway Method. I ran a 6 mile easy pace run, a 5 mile tempo run and this morning I ran 10 miles without stopping. These are the furthest distances I have run non stop. That sounds silly coming from someone who has run 5 marathons (including a Goofy Challenge) but I want to see what I can achieve. I believe somewhere out there is a 3:30-3:45 marathon that I can run. It’s worth a try. I’ll be watching carefully how my body reacts and I am open to using Galloway again in the future if I think it will be beneficial. I already plan on doing something like that during Dopey just so I can survive the event!

Looking at the last 3 days of runs it seems to be working so far and I feel okay. Judging from my splits over the last 3 runs my average pace is already that bit quicker. We will see what the future holds I guess.

6 miles easy pace - 5/29/13

6 miles easy pace – 5/29/13

5 miles Tempo run - 5/30/13: 1 mile warm up - 2 miles at tempo with 800m recovery - 1 mile cool down

5 miles Tempo run – 5/30/13:
1 mile warm up – 2 miles at tempo with 800m recovery – 1 mile cool down

10 miles long run - 5/31/13 - miles 1-5

10 miles long run – 5/31/13 – miles 1-5

10 miles long run - 5/31/13 - miles 6-10

10 miles long run – 5/31/13 – miles 6-10

Speaking of future plans, I have a 5K coming up this Sunday (June 2nd) which I will be pushing my two boys in the running stroller again…no PR there 🙂 and on June 16th I will be running the San Francisco Half Marathon with my Wife. I then have the 25 miles Cycle Bucks County event on the 22nd. Lot’s to look forward to. June should be a pretty low key month as the training for this year’s Philadelphia Marathon and January 2014 Dopey Challenge start in earnest in mid-July.

See you on the road.

Family time and relaxation – Memorial Day 2013

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Everyone has their own way of relaxing. Some people like to sleep in late, some like to sit by a pool or spend time at the beach. What do we do as a family? Well, we run 🙂

In addition to being Memorial Weekend and the official start of the summer season this weekend my Wife and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We kicked off our celebrations with a nice dinner at P.F. Chang’s which meant we had chalked up an extra couple of miles mid-week to save our calories for our anniversary dinner. Luckily for us that we did as we were given a free dessert by our waitress for our anniversary and just a few minutes later another free dessert. I like that place for some reason. I could taste the miles with every bite. Ha!

Celebrating at P.F. Chang's

Celebrating at P.F. Chang’s

With our kids staying overnight at my in-laws we started the weekend with a 10K run in Tyler State Park to celebrate our 10 years. The weather looked a bit iffy overnight but we lucked out and started running as the clouds cleared and got some magnificant sunshine. It was nice to run with Shari in the park as we both train there but we have never run together there as someone is always at home with the boys.

10K celebrating 10 years:

10th Anniversary 10K

10th Anniversary 10K

10K run - great start to our day

10K run – great start to our day

After the run we headed over to the Newtown Athletic Club where I had a massage booked (a birthday gift from Shari that I finally got around to using). When asked by the masseuse what type of treatment I wanted I told her that I was a marathon runner and she should use her judgement but I wanted to be able to run tomorrow. I think she went easy on me but it still hurt…but it was a good hurt I think. It was nice and relaxing and I felt refreshed once it was over.

After lunch together we picked up the boys and got together with some friends so all our kids could play together for the evening. While we were at our friends house my friend Mike suggested I look into reading the book ‘Advanced Marathoning‘ by Pete Pfitzinger if I wanted to look into increasing my speed which I had been discussing recently. I look to Mike for advice as he is a long time runner and still a great competitor and he is patient enough to listen to all my questions. We’ll see how this works out.

On Sunday we let the kids sleep in and took our time to get going. We headed to Yardley to run the Delaware Canal with the boys in the stroller for a family run.

Ready for a run

Ready for a run

We bought this stroller last year to take the boys out together with us when we run. It’s a great piece of equipment for us. My boys however are growing quick and are testing the weight limits of the stroller and pushing this gives me a pretty good workout (I can still feel my triceps two days later). Luckily the Delaware Canal Tow Path is nice and flat and we managed 8 miles together. The boys were awesome and Shari and I pointed out the wildlife as we ran. Funny thing happened within the first few minutes in that my GymBoss timer (I use for the Galloway method) flaked out on me. Rather than stop and fiddle around with everything on the run I just went with it and ran without my usual intervals. Did pretty well running the first couple of miles pushing over 100 pounds of boys without needing to stop. Something else to work on I guess as I take this time to work things out before the marathon training starts in July.

Family stroller run:

Family stroller run

Family stroller run

When we do the Canal run we park at Cramer’s Bakery in Yardley so we have a place to grab a cup of coffee when we finish. With the boys we promise them a treat from the bakery if they are good during the run. It’s amazing how good boys can be when you promise them a cupcake or a brownie. Anyway, we finish up the run and park the stroller at the bike rack next the bakery, choose our treats and sit outside the front of the store to eat and drink before heading home. As you can see by the photo below Asher must have worked hard during the run as in addition to his brownie he needed to take Shari’s bagel…he needed the carbs I guess?!?

Parked outside the bakery post run

Parked outside the bakery post run

Enjoying post run treats

Enjoying post run treats

So how far did you run kid?

So how far did you run kid?

So, how do you follow two days of family runs? You get up at the crack of dawn on a holiday and head out for a bike ride. I got up at 5am on Monday morning, hitched my bike to my car and headed out for my first outdoor ride of the season.

The bike rack is back on the car. It will be there for the summer now.

The bike rack is back on the car. It will be there for the summer now.

I headed out early to the canal path where we ran yesterday. It was a little cooler than I had planned but other than really cold fingers I was pretty much appropriately dressed. I wore my new Team Great Britain cycling jersey for this ride. The ride itself was fine. 20 miles from Yardley to New Hope and back. It felt good. I have a 25 mile ride in a few weeks on a very hilly course and while this was flat it was still a good test for going long. I’ll deal with the hills when I get there. Below is the ride summary.

Yardley to New Hope ride:

Ride route from Yardley to New Hope and back

Ride route from Yardley to New Hope and back

I finished my ride and got back home around 8.15am so Shari could go out for a run. The boys were still asleep when I got home so I had a nice cup of coffee and a bagel with peanut butter and honey. Now that was a treat.

Wearing my new Team GB jersey

Wearing my new Team GB jersey

Micah - who wore it best?

Micah – who wore it best?

Once Shari got back we got the kids, our picnic lunch and headed out to the Philadelphia Zoo for the afternoon before heading back for a family barbeque.

It seems like we did a lot with all this running and biking but to me it was a great relaxing weekend and I wouldn’t have it any other way. 🙂

Hope you all had a good holiday weekend too.

Also, as a quick reminder, now that Memorial Weekend is behind us here’s an activity for next weekend (and through July 31st). Great fun for a great cause with great prizes. Check out the great medal too. Everyone who enters receives this specially designed medal!

"Where's Dopey" Medal

“Where’s Dopey” Medal

As it is a virtual run you can run/walk this 5K anywhere in the world before July 31st.  You can head over here to sign up. Don’t forget to send your photographs in to be eligible for one of the prizes.

2013 Atlantic City April Fool’s Half Marathon recap

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‘An elephant, a purple tutu and an unintentional PR’.

This weekend my wife Shari, my sister in law Rina and I headed down to Atlantic City, NJ to run the Atlantic City April Fool’s Half Marathon. Shari and I had run the inaugural race in 2012. It was a fun weekend and so we signed up again together with Rina which was to be her second half marathon after Walt Disney World this last January.

We don’t really have a choice ‘NOT’ do to run in this event, after all we were part of the advertising campaign for this race which we discovered at the expo for the Rock & Roll Half Marathon in Philadelphia last September.

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Shari recreating her pose

Shari recreating her pose

The weather this weekend finally was seasonal and so we headed down early on Saturday to get our race packets (packet pick up was at the Revel Casino and Hotel) and then headed over to Ocean City, NJ so that the boys could have some of their own fun at the amusement rides on the boardwalk. They had a blast. I on the other hand broke my own rule about fun fairs (which is that Mummy does the rides and Daddy holds the bags). Let’s just say I never want to see a ‘Tilt-a-Whirl’ ever again. Not a good idea to lose your sense of equilibrium the day before a race. Anyway, once everything seemed upright we headed back towards our hotel with a carb-loading stop at one of our favorite Italian restaurants before heading in for a reasonably early night.

Tutu's and Jester hats available for race day during packet pickup

Tutu’s and Jester hats available for race day during packet pickup

We had booked our hotel (Marriott Courtyard) when we signed up for the race as it was close by Bally’s Casino and Hotel which was the start/finish line last year and what was on the initial information we had. The start/finish line was moved back about a mile to the Revel Casino and Hotel so this called for a walk of just under a mile to the start line early Sunday. It was a little chilly as we left our hotel and we were all worried we were not dressed appropriate but better to be too cold than too warm when running. We huddled into the lobby of the Revel with all the other runners to stay warm. One advantage of such locations is that there are real bathrooms available pre-race and somewhere warm to stand.  A nice luxury on a chilly morning.

Shari and Rina wrapped up before the start of the race

Shari and Rina wrapped up before the start of the race

Warmth and marble bathrooms pre race at the Revel Hotel and Casino

Warmth and marble bathrooms pre-race at the Revel Hotel and Casino

As we shuffled out to the start line with the rest of the runners we bumped into our friend Mayela who we first met at last years race. She looked like she was dressed for summer and made us even more concerned we were dressed wrong with our multiple layers. Oh well, too late now.

Mayela, Rina and Shari at the start line

Mayela, Rina and Shari at the start line

Following the singing of the National Anthem the race started promptly and off we went. My plan for this race was to take it steady and run easy as my goal was to use this as a training run with the New Jersey Marathon just 4 weeks away. I didn’t want to overdo it. The last time I had run with Shari was at the Walt Disney World Marathon back in January and we had previously run the 2012 Philadelphia Rock & Roll Half Marathon and Hershey Half Marathon together step by step from start to finish. I thought we would be doing the same and was looking forward to doing so as last year we both ran our own race here (and both PR’d). What I didn’t expect was my little red head in a purple tutu to go off the start line like Lightening McQueen!!! What the heck?!?!

This was unexpected. I wasn’t quite prepared and I spent more than half the race just trying to keep Shari in my sights. Luckily she was easy to spot all in purple with a tutu. I felt good running and was monitoring my heart rate to make sure I wasn’t exerting too much effort. It was a nice sunny day and so I settled into a good rhythm and got my head in the game. Once we left the Boardwalk in Ventnor, NJ we headed through Margate, NJ past Lucy the Elephant to the turnaround just inside of Longport, NJ. The course is pretty flat, in fact the only ‘hill’ was the ramp up to the Boardwalk at mile 8.5 on the way back into Ventnor. On the way out, I would say I was around mile 5, I saw the leaders running back towards me. I tried to kid myself that they must have been running the 11K race but no, they really were that much faster than me.

Lucy the Elephant (Margate, NJ)

Lucy the Elephant (Margate, NJ)

During this race I was still experimenting with my run/walk ratio ahead of the NJ Marathon. I had gone from 5:00/0:30 which I used for almost all of 2012 and through Disney to 4:00/0:35. However during the race my Gymboss interval timer malfunctioned and I had to fix it on the run. Delicately handling the device so not to lose the battery I removed and replaced the battery and reset the device all while moving at a consistent pace. I am not sure how long I was running but probably missed a walk break. I moved the interval to 4:00/0:40 so I could have a little more time to bring my heart rate down during walk breaks and soldiered on.

I saw Shari after the turnaround heading in the opposite direction and later saw my sister in law who yelled that Shari was beating me by a lot (thanks for the support Rina). I finally caught up to Shari just before we turned back onto the Boardwalk. We pretty much were close together until the last half a mile when annoyed by my constant chit chat she told me to go ahead. We finished within seconds. I ran 1:52:43 and Shari ran 1:52:54. I had PR’d by just over a minute and Shari PR’d by over 5 minutes. Awesome stuff. I looked at Shari’s splits after uploading her run to Garmin Connect when we got home and she was consistently within a few seconds of 8:30 a mile all through the race. I had a negative split (maybe my first) and that is the only way I was able to catch up with Shari.

We had told my in-laws that we would probably be around the 2 hour mark but thanks to the purple speed demon we were ahead of plan. At around mile 12.5 I passed my in-laws coming to the finish line with the boys. I gave a quick yell so they could see me but I was a green blur to them. Luckily they were able to catch Shari just as she ran past as a purple blur. We crossed the finish line and again bumped into Mayela who finished about a minute or two ahead of us. We quickly grabbed some water and food and headed to see the boys. They were so excited to see us and I think more excited that we brought them food. Everyone seemed to be having fun while we waited for Rina to finish.

We did it!

We did it!

Finish line fans

Finish line fans

We were all full of soft pretzels, bananas and Gatorade (and Micah was full of ice cream….before 10am) as we waited for Rina and cheer her on to the finish. After a couple of false alarms (we saw pink in the distance but the runners were not pink) Rina came into view. Everyone was excited for her, no more so than her Mom and Dad who came down with the boys to the finish line to watch. We cheered here on in all her pink tutu’d glory as she PR’d by almost an hour in only her second Half Marathon.

Rina sprinting to the line

Rina sprinting to the line

Great weekend, great race and a nice start to our race season. I am very proud of Shari for her run yesterday. She kept me on my game. I wish she was my official pacer for the NJ Marathon next month as I actually go for an intentional PR (no pressure). I am sure we will run races together again the whole way and look forward to running the San Francisco Half Marathon in July with her. Very proud too of my sister in law Rina. I guess I’ll have to get my own tutu for upcoming races. It seems it’s a necessary accessory for fun and fast races. 🙂

Sisters rocking the tutu look

Sisters rocking the tutu look

3,000 miles (so far) and how I got here

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Today I passed the 3,000 mile mark in my running career (it’s a full time gig).

Running history from Nike+

Running history from Nike+

So how did I get here?   On ‘My running story‘ page I tell how I got started running. But that is not really the whole story of what I do and how I do it.

I started running on a treadmill back on August 2nd 2010 (I had joined the gym on August 1st) doing a Couch to 5K program.  I persisted through the first couple of painful days as my body reacted to this new activity, and got through the initial shin splints I developed and by mid-September I had gained enough confidence to take a run outside.  In anticipation of this I had started to look at how I could track my runs and invested in the Nike+ Sportband.  I took my first run using the system on September 22, 2010 on an 80+ degree day.  I struggled to run 1.8 miles in the heat (I said I was confident enough not necessarily smart enough) but pushed through gradually building up my distances until by December of that name having lost 20+ pounds I ran my first 10K distance on December 31, 2010. You can see where this is going right?  I’m a statistic tracker (geek) and have recorded all my runs since.  I moved up to a GPS device in February 2011 (my birthday treat) and haven’t looked back.  I use the Garmin Forerunner 305.  To load my Garmin data into Nike+ I use a web app designed by Angus Smithson. Here is the link.  I also upload my data into ‘dailymile‘ and ‘Strava‘ so that I have a history in more than one location should any of these sites stop supporting Garmin devices.  I do this manual upload routine after each run…until I get a watch which will upload to all at the same time!!

Around the same time I started running longer distances I began strapping my right knee as I was struggling but too hard headed to quit (good decision).  I figured I needed to do something about this and while Googling runners knee and other ailments I came across Jeff Galloway and his ‘Run Injury Free‘ method.  I didn’t know who Jeff was at the time but I thought this was worth a try.  I hadn’t signed up for any races at the time but I had a couple of goals. Since February of 2011 I started using Jeff’s ‘RUN-WALK-RUN’ method experimenting with various intervals.  I had signed up for the 2011 Broad Street Run (the largest 10 miler in the US) and that was to be my first big race.  My wife noticed an inaugural Half Marathon in Tyler Park nearby a couple of weeks before Broad Street so I decided to sign up.  My practice run the week before the Half ended up with me getting lost in the park.  It was my first time there and I wasn’t familiar with the park, plus I had the map upside down….D’oh!!

During that Half Marathon (and many subsequent races) many people stopped to talk to me during a walk break as they had seen me taking regular walk breaks in between set periods of running.  I would pass them during the run section and then they would pass me during the walk and this kept going on.  It is usually the latter part of the run when I get stopped as these people have seen me taking these walk breaks but have not managed to pass me.  Jeff’s basic philosophy is to take regular walk breaks before you get tired as this gives your muscles a chance to recover and you can finish a long run faster and stronger.  In his books he states his goals are to have runners cross the finish line standing up with a smile on their faces.

Having run (to date) 7 Half Marathons and 4 Full Marathons I can attest that this method works for me.  In fact I PR’d in a 5K last year with 23:31 which included 3 minutes of walking (6 walk breaks of 30 seconds).  If I had gone flat out I would have faded towards the end of the race.  I once tried a 5K when I wanted to see the difference not taking a walk break would have and I finished with 28:04. That’s a pretty big difference.  So I guess I will stick with what works.  I currently run with a 4:00/0:30 ratio.  This is my plan for this year although I sometimes play around with intervals between races.

Taking walk breaks also reduces the risk of injury as it gives the body time to recover.  I use this time to let my heart rate come down.  I watch this pretty carefully so I can judge the effort I am expending with the pace I am trying to maintain.

The reason I use this method is so that I can continue to run as long as I can.  It’s only been 2 and 1/2 years so far but I would like to continue as long as I can and by using this method I can hopefully continue for many years to come.  One day I hope that I will be running events with my boys.

I recommend you check out Jeff’s site to learn more about him and the training methods he employs.  Now I know a lot more about Jeff, have a few of his books and occasionally ask him questions (to which he timely responds) on his Facebook page.  Jeff is actually the official runDisney trainer and his programs are available on the runDisney website.  One day (hopefully next January) I hope to meet Jeff in person and thank him.  At Disney I am in good company.  There are many Gallowalkers.  Everyone uses their own timers for their Run/Walk ratios and many times I heard beeping and had to check whether it was my turn for a walk break or someone else.  I was in good company.

My goal was never to run to win everything or to always be looking to place in my age group.  Running has enabled me to lose 60 pounds, turn my health around and spend quality time with my family.  In that way I have already won.  Running has given me opportunities to explore different cities and countries.  I have run in the USA, England and Israel to date (and if you count EPCOT’s World Showcase, plenty more countries).  Mostly I compete with myself and enjoy the camaraderie of fellow runners in the events I run in.

Using Jeff’s RUN-WALK-RUN method I have indeed crossed the finish line standing up with a smile on my face.  Long may this continue.  Let’s see how far I can go.

Finishing my 1st Marathon in Philadelphia, November 2011

Finishing my 1st Marathon in Philadelphia, November 2011

🙂

If you are interested in the products above I would recommend you look at them on Amazon.com for some reviews.  I would also recommend checking out DC Rainmaker for running electronics reviews.  They are very comprehensive and do far more justice than I can provide in terms of testing all the functions.  Plus you get to check out how Ray and his wife are doing with their move to Paris and the bakery they opened up there.  Interesting stuff.

See you out there.