New Shoes & Gu's

I've put about 450 miles on my Adidas Control running shoes and I've been meaning to get down to skinny raven and get some new shoes. You should really put no more than 400 miles on one pair of shoes. If you wait to long it could lead to injuries. I can really tell when I have a newer pair of shoes on, I feel a lot more cushion and bounce to them. I was downtown all day at the Hilton for the NEA-Delagate Assembly and had a break so I walked down to the Raven in a snow storm. They were having a sale and I couldn't believe all the people that were already their.

Skinny Raven is the best shoe store in all of Alaska. It is a running store that sells shoes and clothing. It has an awesome atmoshpere and the workers are very knowledgable. They are all runners and skiiers or fitness types and put a lot of work into customer satisfaction. It's nice to walk in their and chat about workouts or upcoming races. Todd List, Jerry Ross, Charlie Renfro, John Clark, and Andrew Richie were all their and busy with the sale. Todd List helped me out with a new pair of Adidas Sequence. I've never had this type of shoe before, but I was looking at getting away from the Adidas control because I believe it has a little too much support for me. I've sticked with Adidas lately for trainers because they feel great on my feet and look pretty sweet.

I also loaded up on some Gu's (Espresso Love, Vanilla Bean, and Chocolate Outrageous) and bought a Recovery Drink for after my workouts. I'm all set now to continue my Road to Boston!



Today it was snowing pretty hard and I didn't feel like climbing on the treadmill and running 12 miles, so I sucked it up and did 8 outside and the last 4 on the mille. I ran mostly on the road and was lucky that the plows had just gone by so the running wasn't that bad. I had to jump on the sidewalks occasionally and that is when things got a little slower, but I wasn't too concerned with pace. I was just glad to be outside. It felt good running in the snow storm with the snow hitting my face. It wasn't too hard and it was kind of warm at 20 above.

The last 4 miles on the treadmill I got a little faster and ended up running at 6:35 pace toward the end. I was able to try out the new shoes and they felt great! Tomorrow is an 8 mile recovery that I hope to do outside if they plow the sidewalks. Training is going good!

Getting it done- In the AM

Yesterday I had my 15 mile run and couldn't get to sleep until past 11pm. So, when the alarm clock went off at 5am this morning I was pretty tired. Running isn't the first thing I want to do when I wake up. Sometimes I wish I could just shut the alarm off and get another hour of sleep. But, I have goals and when I set my mind to something I will try to do what it takes to accomplish it. I want to do well in Boston this year (Not just run it) and it takes sacrifice to accomplish goals. If accomplishing goals were easy then they wouldn't mean as much when you accomplish them. I tell my high school wrestlers that if winning a state championship were easy then it wouldn't mean anything to you if you didn't work hard and won it. If you bust your butt and won it, then you will cherish it for a long time.




I have a poster in my workout room that say's "What part of 100%, Don't you understand." When I'm running on the treadmill and don't really feel like being their, I'll take a look at this poster and realize that if I quit, then I'm not giving 100% to my goals.

Today was a recovery day so I took it super easy on both my runs. I ran 6 miles in the morning at 5am and then did 4 more miles after school. My legs were a little tired, but I know that I'm speeding up the recovery process by keeping the run easy. Tomorrow calls for 12 miles and I'm going to try and do the entire run outside.

Windows of time.

Today I had a little window to get my 15 mile medium distance run done. I have to be at work by 7am so it is hard to get a longer run in before work unless I want to wake up before 5am (not going to happen). I'm good at getting up and running an easy 6-10 miles, but I don't have enough time to run the medium distance runs.

After work I need to be at my kid's school by 3:30 to pick them up. Since I get off around 2:30 there isn't enough time for a workout then either. My son has his soccer practice at 6:30, so I had a window from 4:00pm-6:10pm to get this run done.




I did the first 9 miles outside. It was snowing and pretty windy. At first the snow was blowing straight into my eyes, but seemed to die down a little after a couple miles. The footing was also rough because of the fresh snow that made me work a little harder to get through. I changed into shorts, etc. and did the final 6 miles inside on my treadmill. I was able to pick up the pace gradually and finished with a 6:35 mile. I want to start finishing these medium-distance runs and long runs a little faster.

Tomorrow is a recovery day, but it will begin at 5am.

Busy Day, but great workout!

Today we finally had our End of Season Wrestling banquet. The season finished Dec. 13th, but with Christmas break and the banquet having to be rescheduled because of school being cancelled due to the "ice days" we were finally able to have it tonight. The banquet went really well. I have some wonderful parents who do a lot of work for my program. Captain Cook Hotel was able to donate a couple of nice main dishes and salads. We ordered a bunch of pizza's too. And of course families brought a ton of desserts. Wrestlers have to sacrifice a lot during the season and especially watch their diets. Not that they shouldn't continue to do it in the off-season, but it is nice to celebrate the season and eat as much as you want. And believe me, a couple of kids ate a lot. Like I said before, we had a good season. It was nice to see us improve so much from the previous year. And we have put ourselves in a situation to have a great season next year.




Today's workout called for 11 miles w/ 5 miles at tempo pace (or half-marathon pace). I decided to do the workout right after school. So, I jumped on my treadmill and did 3 easy miles for a warm-up and then jumped right into the workout. It was an awesome workout too. I eased into my first mile right at 6 min. pace. My 2nd and 3rd miles were at 5:57 pace, and miles 4 & 5 were at 5:52 pace. So, a little under 30 straight minutes at tempo pace. It felt so easy! I knew I did them correctly because I could've stayed at this pace for at least an hour. I'm not going to lie, I still needed to concentrate on my form and breathing, but I was really enjoying going a little faster for a change. I finished the workout with 3 more miles a little under 7 min. pace to get my 11 miles.

The idea of this workout is to increase my lactate threshold. To be able to run longer without my legs creating lactate, which forces you to slow down. I believe I will work up to 7 straight miles at tempo pace.

1st Cycle is complete!

My training for the Boston Marathon is 18 weeks total. It is broken down into 4 different cycles.
Cycle #1- Endurance
Cycle #2- Lactate Threshold+Endurance
Cycle #3- Race Preparation
Cycle #4- Taper

I just completed the first cycle which is 6 weeks long, so I'm one-third on my way to Boston! I feel real good too. The first cylce basically gives me a solid base. There was basically no speed involved. Just putting some quality miles in and did a few short lactate threshold runs for workouts.

Here is my mileage for the first 6 weeks:
Week #1- 65 miles
Week #2- 67 miles
Week #3- 70 miles
Week #4- 70 miles
Week #5- 81 miles
Week #6- 72 miles (Recovery Week)

Total Mileage for 1st cycle: 263 miles.

The 2nd cycle will involve a lot more Lactate threshold workouts (basicall half-marathon pace). My mileage each week will also increase a little. I will also do 1 workout which is 16 miles, but 13 at marathon pace. That workout will give me a good indicator where my fitness is at. I'm really excited for this next phase to begin because of the harder workouts (or faster running).

I'm really stoked right now about where I am at in my training. I'm feeling good, strong, and have no injuries. As long as I stay smart and progress slowly I should improve and get that sub 2:40 marathon at Boston! The next 6 weeks will be important.

I had a good run today with Jerry and two others from his training group whose names slip my mind right now. We took it nice and easy the whole run and we notched it down a little to 16 miles, since it is a recovery week. The temps were great, but it was super slick in spots. You really needed Ice bugs.

I really enjoy sunday's runs. Not just because it's a long run, but I enjoy the company of people with goals that are similar to my own. Our times may be different but we are all trying to become better and faster runners. It's motivating to me!

Here is a picture of Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia who is the world record holder for the marathon, which is 2:03:59!

Ticket to Boston

It's really official now. I bought my plane ticket to Boston. To cut a few hundred dollars off the cost I will have a couple stops on the way. On the way to Boston I will fly from:
Anchorage to Seattle to Chicago to Boston taking about 12 hrs.
On the way back I will fly from:
Boston to New York to Seattle to Anchorage taking about 13 hrs.

I'm getting to Boston on Friday, April 17th at 4pm, so I'll have plenty of time to get adjusted and get a couple of easy runs in to get rid of the jet lag before the race on monday.




I did my easy 6 mile recovery run today outside. I ran to Huffman road and back and added a little extra to make an easy six. The sidewalks and roads were really icy, but didn't bother me to much with the ice bugs. Plus, it was nice to be outside. My legs were a little tired. I did a medium long run yesterday of 13 miles at the dome and I probably went a little to fast. I'm not sure the dome is the best for me because I get to caught up on my mile splits. I may take another approach the next time I run their. I'm hoping to run most of my 11 mile run tomorrow outside.



I'll leave you with a new video by coldplay. Life in technicolor ii

Getting tougher

I wanted to congratulate a friend of mine Joleen Smith for finishing her first ever Marathon. She ran the Rock N Roll Marathon in Arizona over the weekend. She put in some good training and should be proud of her accomplishment. I have a feeling she may do some more marathons in the future. Keep it up!



Not much to report today in my own training. I couldn't run today until 5pm and it was very icy and dark outside, so I opted for the treadmill. I ran 10 miles at a pretty easy pace. I made it a little harder at the end by upping the grade a little. One thing I have been noticing is that I'm recovering faster after these medium long runs. The Pfitzinger plan really works well for me. It has the perfect amount of recovery days to help you get the key components of marathon training in during the week.

I'm also excited that my friend Charlie Mahlen and his wife Jenny will be in Boston too. Jenny is running the marathon and charlie will be their for support. He bought us some Boston Red Sox tickets for that saturday. They will be playing the Baltimore Orioles. It will be nice to kick it in Fenway!