adminI registered for the Providence Marathon on January 2nd, with my goals for 2023: spring marathon, summer intense biking event, fall marathon, and 1,500 miles of running and 1,500 miles on the bike. In the past I have set annual milage goals, but had always kept things pretty light until Spring when it became warm enough to spend lots of time outside running and biking. This year I was excited to get into it right way… or rather to just continue where I left off in 2022, on the heels of 2 marathons in 5 weeks. As of the time of writing this blog (May 20), I’m on pace to hit the annual mileage goals for both, meaning I’ve averaged 30 miles of each per week. I did 100% of my runs at low (120) heart rate (i.e. I didn’t do any track workouts) and 100% of cycling on zwift and my brand new indoor bike. There were three major highlights from training.
On March 19, I wanted to run 17-18 miles, but it was too cold and too windy to even attempt it outside, so I did something I’ve never done before and ran for over 4 hours on a treadmill. I watched the entire MH370 Netflix documentary (highly recommend!) and an episode of The Challenge. For food, I had grabbed 2 packages of poptarts from the cafeteria, and distributed the 4 poptarts evenly across the run. The whole thing wasn’t really as bad as it sounds. It was nice to be looking out the window the whole time too seeing how windy it was out there and that I knew I’d be totally miserable if I was trying to do this outside. It was reminiscent of the 18 miles I ran entirely on the track before Chicago last year (because I was concerned about my knee).
On March 26, I ran the “Eastern States 20 Miler” which starts in Kittery, Maine, goes south along the coast of New Hampshire, through Portsmouth, Rye, and Hampton, and finishes at Salisbury Beach in Massachusetts. There weren’t a ton of participants, but it seems like 90% of them were running Boston in 3 weeks. Temperature-wise it was perfect: mid-40s. It’s also a very scenic route, with ocean views and nicely kept sidewalks the whole way. The big problem was that it was extremely windy, with a strong headwind the entire way. Please play the video below with your volume up for an example. It was like this the whole way, but I had a great day anyway. Early in the race, someone passed me and I complimented something about their outfit and told them to have a great day. They were very appreciative and they told me they loved how “casual” I was running (which is such a meaningful comment to me, due to my focus on low intensity), and I was like that’s the only way to be out here on a beautiful day like this, gotta just enjoy it! I just love exchanges like this with random people. My overall pace was 12:40 and my average heart rate was 140. It was a long day but quite enjoyable (other than when the wind was gusting at 50mph).
On April 16, I did another 20 miler as my last long run pre-taper. It was the perfect day for my favorite 20 mile loop around the city because it was marathon weekend and everything was abuzz with people everywhere, and it was mid-50s. Even though I’ve lived here over 12 years and have run these places countless times, I still love to take in the sights, people watch, and take pictures of things that I find funny (pretty much every single thing I see). The three highlights of the run were: 1) shagging balls for two guys who were doing batting practice with only 5-6 balls at Langone Park in the North End. I ran all around the outfield picking up their balls and throwing them back into the infield in real time. Very similar to when I have fun shagging soccer balls if there’s people practicing on the 11v11 goals while I run at the track. I did that for maybe 10 minutes, and they loved it. 2) I got to the marathon finish line around my mile 16, and there were TONS of people there. In Copley there was a “fan fest” with a live band that I thought was really good (video below). I decided to get a drink and snack at CVS and sit and enjoy a few songs. 3) I got to Amy’s around mile 18. Dan and Amy’s roommate were also there playing Mario Kart. I gave them all of the non-pineapple flavored gummy bears from the bag that I just bought at CVS (I only wanted the pineapple). They also gave me some snacks. All in all, it was a spectacularly fun day, and this is what I love about not taking running so seriously.
