30 miles?..... are you crazy???

I enter this week completely exhausted from a high-intensity week of biking in the mountains and a very strenuous weekend. Ed, the thought of the entire Boston Marathon course is a tad daunting (you'll hoodwink me into it someway or another). After 90 minutes of LT riding on Saturday, followed directly by a 30 min LT run, yesterday's 21.5-22 miles run was significantly more draining than it would normally be.

Good news, however, is that we did find a good hilly run near Barrington, (Barrington High School is the start) that offers about 13-13.5 miles of good running. Rolling hills, little traffic and the like. Even saw about 5 deer wandering around the road, likely wondering what the heck we were doing. Ed is no longer allowed inside yet another gas station in the Chicago area. The move to Boston is becoming much more understandable as time progresses.

Off to Boston on Friday. Don't expect a rosey report on this blog next week.....

Not so cold here fallas... come on down !

Yep. its a balmy 28 today, 20 with the wind chill. basically Alaskan summer conditions. I had a long run (a 20 miler) and did it with the Cambridge Running Club. There was some general amazament at the fact that I was wearing shorts, so i had to put the balmy conditions in perspective for them by referring what you poor chicago sods are enduring. then I demosntrated the effects of real cold by showing off the wind burns in my legs, which I still have since we did the cary run 2 weeks ago.

At any rate, it was a fast 20 (at a 2:22, basically slightly sub 3:10 pace). This was good, i hung in with their fastest guys and we ran in part of the race course, getting quite a few hills. Incidentally, i did not see any girls by Wellesley.

Another thing to report, my weight is back down to 155, so with a little luck i can get it to 145 by Boston time.

I'm starting to enjoy running again!

Ed

Solo Hill

Ok, so after much email traffic about a weekly hill run, I have been on the hill 2 of the last 3 weeks without anyone from that email list (Ed you're excluded since yours was a "Cameo" appearance). Today, 2 degrees at 545a when I left the house.

Highlights of the day:

Bosco exited early. Bare paws on 2 degree pavement caused him to begin "three legging" it only a half mile into the run. So now, definitely no partner for the hill run.

Fearghal slipped by as I was about to leave the hill after about 30 mins. He was there "just to check the footing" so I made him spend about 5 rotations on the hill. Good Irishmen are not intimidated by the cold!!!

Ed..... drop the books and get back to posting.

Minne- F-ing Freezing - apolis

OK, Ed.... try this without shorts......

-2 WITHOUT windchill yesterday morning in Minneapolis (where I was for business). With windchill, -14. I hate to admit it, I thought browsing the web and riding when I returned to Chicago was a much more productive use of my time.

It was a sizzling 12 degrees here in Chicago for my run back from the VW dealership in Evanston. Musta been a bit colder with the windchill cuz my fingers were freezing. Again, love to see Ed in shorts in this weather this week.

5 degrees... yes, FIVE. With a windchill in the below zero range. 9.6 miles in this junk is not fun. Bosco started three-legged running (no Ed, not the kind you think) because the sidewalk was sooooo cold. A quick visit or two to Cricket Hill on the trip. Three layers, including a thick UnderArmor leggings and shirt as well as windpants. Just barely enough! I'm not divulging pace as I'm going to blame the cold.

Chris, fix that leg and Rick.... you're gonna get out here soon.

Some insightful views on winter running from the web.......

http://www.runningcoach.com/tips/coldweather.html

Finally, my training exposed on the internet for all:

http://www.TrainingPeaks.com/MatthewLGibson

No heckling!!!

On the hill again

so after the laid back 2:48 from last sunday (Phoenix) its time to get to work for REAL. A light hill work out this morning though, 'cause I'm still winding down papers for my clases. But still got my arse to cricket Hill at 5:45 for 4 miles on the hill, 8 total.

Later

Ed

Phoenix

What a weekend!!!

BTW, how can it possibly be COLDER in Phoenix than it was in Chicago when we left? I thought we were doing this marathon down there because it was supposed to be WARMER.....

So I took the whole notion of carb loading to an extreme. Shall we just call it carb "overloading" for the time-being. After a mid-week visit to Solomon's cookies, located right next door to my Vision Quest guys, for $28 worth of cookies, I proceeded to devour nearly anything that wasn't nailed down in the house with sugar in it. Ed and I, in order to complete the cycle, stopped by store on the way out of town. I now have at least one more fan of the "goods"... and they are good. See link below for additional love handles and tooth decay.

http://www.solomonscookies.com/

As for the marathon, it was a sizzling 28 degrees when we got down to the start. Well done on the porta potty supply, but give us some heat!!! Preferred corral was only modestly full and not overly full with fast runners (meaning really fast, not "Gibson" fast). I was quite excited about the eastbound course only to find that the wind decided to shift to become a wind from the EAST. Oh, well. Not a strong wind, just an annoying one. Nice course, good and flat, a reasonably amount of turns...... but nearly NO people. Given the ability to defect to the Half, I believe that the spectators did the same from what I heard. At about 15, I realized my "dream" of sub-3 was at risk because of ADD that I was experiencing. I was a good 90 seconds off time, somewhat similar to my fate in Chicago. So I gave it about 3 sub-640 miles beginning at 18 and then cobbled together the remaining at 640-645 to slip in just a mere 15 seconds ahead of the bell. Trust me, I don't like hearing countdowns while heading toward finish lines. For results on other great accomplishments, I have the link below. Other notable finishers include:

Eduardo Ledesma

Meshelle Osborne

Brian Sweney

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/azetc/07rnraz/07rnraz_index.html

A couple photos from the weekend.....

Criminy! what a day...

R.I.P. chris woods... sorry about your fibula fracture this morning... Thats what happens when you are not careful with SEX. i mean ICE. Hope you are back up at it soon (I mean RUNNING).

Matt and I had a relaxed 8 miles, and we ran into jordan and some fast dude who trains with the likes of Wehrman. jordan told me his training secrets.

I am also going to make a weight disclosure: 160 lbs, 10 more than before I left Boston for the holidays.

I need to get down to 140 lbs by April for the Big Marathon.

xxx ooo xxx

ed

BTW thanks for the photos Matt...

Pathetic attempt to post

Ok.... so as a newbie on this blog, I'll try to add something of minimal value to begin with. This would be the throwbacks to hairdos of old (or hair don'ts). We might muse of what one Chris Woods might have looked like in his Pontiac Firebird days while listening to some Bob Seger. Or, we might imagine Ed in detention, or Brian asking for a quick "hit." I, on the other hand, am just trying to fit in here.

Now, onto the running. Motivation has been a bit of a problem as of late. Therefore, I am using Ed's free time to become my battering ram for getting mileage up, although I have hardly cracked the 60+ distance in the last two prior weeks. This silly biking thing is rearing it's ugly head and taking up about 3 workouts a week. Boy, Boston might be a bit uglier for me than I'd expect.

Friday Five

I think the last two days of tempo runs caught up with me today. I headed to the hill by myself this afternoon--after learning Rick and Ed went without me this morning (read: I am bitter)--and did only a half mile on the hill. Feeling terribly sluggish, I headed home.

See you in the AM for more tempo.

Training: Recovery & Hills
Total: 4.5 mi | Hills: .5 mi