October 2016 – Month in review

October was a fun but busy month. It involved a number of days of business travel for both my wife and myself but also a marathon and continued training.

October 2016 - Nike+ Summary

October 2016 – Nike+ Summary

My total mileage for the month was 132 miles. All running, as you can also see from the Garmin summary below, there was no swimming or biking this month. There were a number of rest days this month as I tapered towards and rested after the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon that I ran in the early part of the month.

October 2016 - Garmin Connect Summary

October 2016 – Garmin Connect Summary

After the marathon I was into my back to back plan. There are six weeks between running the Mohawk Hudson race and the running the Rocky Challenge at this years Philadelphia Marathon weekend. The challenge is to run the half marathon on the Saturday and the full marathon on the Sunday. Although I have done this three times already at Disney (Goofy Challenge 2013, Dopey Challenge 2014 and Goofy Challenge 2015) this still takes a lot of effort and is not to be taken lightly.

I am using Hal Higdon’s multiple marathon plan which I have used successfully in the past. It is a 6 week program divided into 2 weeks of recovery, 2 weeks of training and 2 weeks of taper. I have been making sure that the days before the long run are at least half the miles I will be running for my long run in order to simulate race weekend fatigue on my body.

With all that mileage I am lucky that I have something to absorb the calories from another Halloween. I enjoy this holiday as I get to dress up with my kids and go trick or treating. I never had this growing up in the UK so I really go all in here in the US, decorating the house and for the last few years coordinating costumes with the boys. This year however, my eldest decided he wanted a scary costume and I was not allowed to coordinate with him. I was free to choose what I wanted.

I chose to be Captain Kirk as it was just after the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. I revealed my costume the week before Halloween to my kids, only for my wife to tell my youngest that Daddy was a ‘Wiggle’! What???? Thanks Honey 😦

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Ready to Boldly Go

This was not the look I was going for

This was not the look I was going for

Either way, I had the last laugh when it came to Halloween. I dressed up and went out with the boys. I wasn’t collecting candy (although I did hold the bag for my youngest…and saw to it that he wasn’t overstocked with Kit Kat’s) but I reached house who insisted I look at their license plate on their car and then gave me my own candy. Score!!!

Ready to beam up

Ready to beam up

Appropriately, I got candy from this house

Appropriately, I got candy from this house

I hope you had a good October. It was fun for me. I’m looking forward to November and returning to my local race, the Philadelphia Marathon and to cheering on my wife in the 2016 TCS New York City Marathon at the beginning of the month.

Thank you for reading.

 

September 2016 – Month in review

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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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

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.