Motivated to Succeed

12:00 PM - Got up early after celebrating New Years with our friends and family. Drove to Albany. Was pretty nervous because I haven't run this race in three years since I got injured. The last time I ran it I nearly PR'ed in the 1/2 with a 1:38. I was also only 170 lbs then. My goal going into this race was A. a sub 2:00, B. a sub-2:10, and C. to simply finish. I met all goals and ended up running the best 1/2 marathon of the year for me by considerable time. All this considering I ran monster miles this week and am a bit tired. 

PRERACE : I knew the race was going to be popular since the announcement they were actually having bib numbers. We haven't ever had them before. Got to the lot about an hour before race time, and it was jam packed! Runners, spectators, volunteers crowded into the athletic center. I estimated in excess of 200 runners were there for the Hangover 1/2 and about a 100 for the Sober up 3.5miler. Saw one of my running buddies from college, Pat. He was going for gold today. He's won the race before and is a very respectable runner. (He ended up going on to come in 2nd after getting told to take a wrong turn, but ran a 1:11.)

THE RACE:  Race got pushed back because of so many last minute registrations. We didn't start until close to 12:10. Moved to the back of the pack. I knew that today was just to test the waters and see what I could do on a long training week. It's kind of eerie being back at a race you haven't run in several years, especially the last one you did before a major layoff. Overall things went splendidly though.

MILE 1: (9:19) Things got off to a rocky start because we thought the race had started and were jogging about 150', but it turned out they had not marked the starting line. Ooops. Finally got going though and cruised up the two hills and out of the central campus to the campus road.

MILE 2: (8:57) Settled into a nice pace behind a pack. Just relaxing and enjoying the gorgeous weather. It was 45 out and partly sunny. Amazing!

MILE 3: (8:49) Running on the inner circle of the campus road. Ran next to Wade Stockman, a 75 year old runner who wins his age group in almost every race he runs. His wife is the same way. Annie is 78 and did the same today as well in the 1/2. A truly amazing couple. My parents were both runners in the 80s and remember seeing them at races too!

MILE 4: (8:36) Heading out onto the second loop, Pat came past me and said, "Benn they sent us the wrong way! Mothereffers sent us the wrong way!". He was taking it in stride and just smiling though and running with Tom O'Grady. The eventual winner came by in 3rd and I said: "Oh man you too!? Keep on truckin' man. Show 'em you mean business." He replied: "Thanks! You have a great race yourself".

MILE 5: (8:47) Uphill mile going on the outside of the campus road. Nothing too eventful. Moving past some runners falling back from starting too fast.

MILE 6: (8:44) Coming downhill towards the end of the second loop. Suzy Pris was pacing a friend for a 2:15. Saw me from the inner loop and yelled across the median to me. I waved and gave a thumbs up.

MILE 7: (8:38) Heading into the central campus now. Up and down a nice steady hill. Caught two more runners.

MILE 8: (8:50) Saw a very good family friend, Vitus Chow as I approached the turnaround. He was about a minute ahead of me, and I tried to catch up to him later in the race, but he maintained the 1+ minute on me.

MILE 9: (8:48) Heading out on the final loop on the faster part of the course. Still feeling good and fresh, but I knew that my legs still had the potential to "freeze up".

MILE 10: (9:02) Uphill going into the inner loop. Found a group about 200m ahead and started to make my way towards them. Picked off a lot of stragglers in the course of about 9 or 10 minutes.

MILE 11: (9:23) Blah. Legs feeling it now. Was expected and I was actually surprised I fought it for so long. I haven't had good training and it shows. Just holding my own and keeping people from passing me. less than 3 miles. I can do it!

 MILE 12: (9:26) Tucked in behind a pair of people that were talking about the racing season coming up for 2011. Laughed when one guy said this was his best and worst race of the year. I got the joke (1/1/11.. ONLY race this year).

MILE 13+: (9:36) Hamstrings and quads feeling it. Stopped for water for the first time ( I had a handheld most of the way.). Long uphill before back into the campus loop. Pat Cullen caught up to me on his cool down and ran me in the last .3 miles. Was nice to catch up with him. We both decided that a sub-2 wasn't "that bad" considering my training. We also agreed it was time to head in and get some pizza! 

Total Time: 1:58:31 Total Distance: 13.11 miles Average Pace: 9:03

Emm, my mom, and Harry surprised me by driving from Pittsfield to meet me to take me to Panera. They missed the end of the race though so didn't get to actually see me run, but my mom did enjoy catching up with Vitus.  

This evening Emm and I went bowling with Missy and her sisters and their significant others. Then we went to Missy's house to see Sophie the new puppy! All in all a great day and a great start to the new year! Goals for 2011 and reflections on 2010 to come in tomorrow's entry! 

7:00 PM - Went in to school today to try to get things Xeroxed before Monday's back to school. Went in last week but couldn't get in because of renovations. Got there today and none of the printers were working, the wireless was out, and the xerox machine was unplugged. I got it working, albeit with several paper jams, but got enough things Xeroxed to be in okay shape for tomorrow. Then went grocery shopping for us. Came home around 5pm, and Emm was sleeping in her Snuggie-style blanket on the bed. She said she just lay down listening to her audio book and conked out. I woke her up at 5ish just because I wanted to make sure she was okay. She went right back to sleep and is still sleeping at 8:30 as I write this entry. I may go wake her up so that she isn't up all night!

Hopped on the treadmill to work out some kinks in my legs. Quads were pretty sore this a.m. when I woke up. First mile was rough, but after that things were fine. Went nice and slow. After doing 3.5 miles, I stretched, something I didn't do enough of yesterday. Then I wanted to see what the straight arm plank was all about. I managed 1:00. Oh well. A place to start. I will go for 1:10 or 1:15 next time. Then I did a 1:00 wall sit. Quads were really burning, and last 20 seconds I was near tears. Phew! Tired!

Total Time: 33:47 Total Distance: 3.5 miles Average Pace:  9:39/ mile

2010 Reflections: This past year I ran the most miles I have ever run in a year, 1160. It is not much, but considering the setbacks I've had and basically starting over post-injury it is just that, a place to start from. I had a lot of great races, though no PR's. I even won two races (BArT's Field Day Mile, and the Alumni 5k Race this past fall). I was happy with my performances. If I had to pick a race for most fun, it would be the Highland Forest 1-2-3 20miler where I had a blast and finished a 20 mile trail run feeling great!

Breakfast: 2 cups decaf coffee w/ skim milk, 2 pieces of raisin toast with spray butter.

Lunch: Light 'n Fit yogurt, Choibani yogurt, carrot sticks, celery, Triscuits, banana, bosc pear

Dinner: homemade soup that Emmy made followed by a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich

Hopped on the treadmill and ran only .35 miles. The treadmill started to shift under me. i.e. when my foot came down instead of hitting and sliding back, it would either stay in place or appear to slide forward. I didn't like this feeling so I ended up jumping off and biked for 33 minutes (9 miles total). Got up a good sweat. Then tried 2 minutes on the elliptical, but that machine is not for me. I don't like it. Afterwards I did free weight lifting with Emmy. I did 3 sets of curls, bench press and triceps. Nothing major as I only have 12 lb dumbbells. All in all a good first day back to school. It is going to be hard to get in workouts now that school is back in session. Urgh!

7:30 PM - Got home early for once. I was beat after teaching my second half of the day from 11-3:35. I gathered up my things, drove home and crashed. Then I went to get Emmy from work before coming home for dinner. One problem though. I found that I forgot my laptop charger cord at work! Doh! Guess it will be an early morning for me!

Breakfast I had 2 slices of raisin toast with fat free squirt butter and 2 cups decaf coffee with skim milk. Lunch consisted of a granny smith apple, banana, fat free yogurt, and a ziploc bag of cinnamon life cereal. Dinner was not good for me - Emm's dinner was fantastic. I had a bowl of soup, grilled green beans and 2 low fat turkey sausages. However before that I polished off a couple servings of baked lays, ate about 20 ritz crackers (angry at myself for this), and had a skinny cow ice cream.

Went running on the treadmill. Read two issues of Running Times while I ran. Felt pretty good. Treadmill slipped like yesterday during the first mile, but then was fine. I was tentative though as my orthotics broke this morning. My old ones were the 3/4 kind that stopped at the ball of your foot. This "new" pair that I've had since 2008 was a full orthotic, but the left one busted at the 3/4 mark. It had always been flimsy and considering how many trail races, pairs of shoes, and streams, rocks, mud, etc. these things have been through I'm surprised they didn't bust sooner. Will take a couple days to get used to not having any padding under the balls of my feet. Maybe I can jerryrig something else to fix it?

Total Time: 47:30 Total Distance: 5.31 Average Pace: 8:57

7:00 PM - Long day at work. Had horizontal team meetings after school. I really liked sitting in on the English meeting. I really got a lot out of it! Headed home and had just got in the door when Emmy called to get a ride home from work. I drove over there and picked her up, though she didn't know I was coming the back way and had started to walk home the other way! Don't worry. I found her :D.

After dinner I hopped on the treadmill, though it didn't sound right. I started to run and the tread was slipping all over the place and it was making a really ugly noise. I decided no time like the present to get in some miles outside. I suited up and headed out to Taconic High School to test out the loop I have mapped out (.55 miles) to train for the Mind the Ducks 12 hour. When I got there the parking lot was entirely full.  Must have been a couple sports matches tonight. I opted for a safer decision and came back home and ran the loop around the block. Added on an extra .5 miles at the end. Felt really good. Ran 8:41, 8:38, and 9:30ish. Last mile was slow because I had to walk past a dog in a driveway that was barking at me and then my sister Su called so I was talking while running! (Luckily, no cops saw me!)

Total Time: 46:00 Total Distance: 5.1 miles Average Pace: 9:01

Breakfast: 2 slices cinnamon raisin toast, 2 cups decaf w/ skim milk

Lunch: 2 x Light 'n Fit yogurts, apple, 2 x low fat chewy granola bars, apple sauce w/out sugar 

Dinner: Macaroni and cheese with spray butter (non fat), 1 Guinness extra stout

Night: cup of camomile tea

Weight at bedtime: 212.6 (possibly losing weight?) 

Breakfast: 2 slices raisin bread with peanut butter, 2 cups decaf coffee w/ skim milk

 Lunch: whole wheat pita with white albacore tuns (mustard and FF ranch dressing), 2 x light n' fit yogurts, low fat chewy granola bar, apple.

Snack: Wheat thins with extra sharp cheddar cheese

Dinner: whole wheat tortilla, FF refried beans, lettuce, tomato, FF sour cream x 3, 1 Guinness extra stout

No chance to exercise today. Today was my long day with teaching from 8-930 and 11-5. Absolutely exhausted. And since the treadmill was broken it is going to be increasingly harder to get in exercise dates. Agh! We need a new one, but the cheapest treadmill big enough to support my weight effectively looks to be $799.  

9:20 AM - Got another few inches of snow last night. I fell asleep at 7pm last night and got up at 7am this morning, 12 hours of sleep! I shoveled out the driveway and cars and drove Emmy to work. Then I drove home and got changed into running clothes (treadmill still broken). I drove to a 3 street triangle loop I mapped out last night and parked the car. I hopped out and stretched, and turned on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on my iPod. Saw a set of tracks in the snow as I was going around the first loop and came up on a lady who had just started walking. Looks like I am not the only one that realizes the seclusion of this culdesac area. I said "Good morning!" and she smiled back at me. The second loop around she stopped and turned and said, "Are you Dr. Snow Eyes?" And I was like "Excuse me??" She said again, "Are you Dr. Snow Eyes, because if not you look just like him!" I said, "No, but I AM a Gemini!" Maybe my long lost twin is Dr. Snow Eyes. 

Splits I took every 2nd lap. Was really happy with this. I ran it much harder than I should have, but I had Harry Potter, Dr. Snow Eyes, and work on the brain. Next time I will try to tone it down and shoot for slower times, somewhere in the 6:00-7:00 range.

• Lap 1/2 - 5:36
• Lap 3/4 - 5:33
• Lap 5/6 - 5:30
• Lap 7/8 - 5:30
• Lap 9/10 - 5:30
• Lap 11/12 - 5:26
• Lap 13/14 - 5:26
• Lap 15/16 - 5:22
• Lap 17/18 - 5:15
• Lap 19/20 - 5:07
• Lap 21 CD - 2:43 

3:00 PM - Blustery cold. Temperature probably in the low 20s but wind chill in the low teens or single digits. After a morning of running errands and wishing Mary Rose safe travels (she left today for California for 6 months), I convinced Emm to go with me to run at the .33 mile loop off of Jason street that I ran at yesterday. I really like this loop. Not too much traffic since it's off the main road. We bought her a pair of Yak Trax too so now we are both outfitted for winter running! We started clicking off some laps together, but between laps 7-11 Emm had to run home to pee. She drove back and joined me but then took a couple laps off as she explored her old elementary school via running through the playground :). She rejoined me for the last 3 or 4 laps. Unlike yesterday I kept splits for each lap today. At the end after 7 miles we walked one lap cool down and started strategizing for the race in May. Splits today were:

• Lap 1: 3:10
• Lap 2: 3:04
• Lap 3: 3:03
• Lap 4: 3:06
• Lap 5: 2:58
• Lap 6: 2:58
• Lap 7: 2:59
• Lap 8: 2:46
• Lap 9: 2:47
• Lap 10: 2:46
• Lap 11: 2:48
• Lap 12: 3:01
• Lap 13: 3:06
• Lap 14: 2:58
• Lap 15: 2:55
• Lap 16: 2:49
• Lap 17: 2:45
• Lap 18: 2:51
• Lap 19: 2:56
• Lap 20: 2:56
• Lap 21: 2:40 

Home from work today. Spent the day compiling needed documents to "drop" for tomorrow's Professional Development and then graded papers. At about 3pm needed a break so spun on the wind trainer for an hour (15 miles biked: running equivalent of 4 miles). Hopefully going for a jog with Emma tonight when she gets home from work!

I am now an official uncle! Have always been called "Uncle Benn" to Janey, but now I am legit. Little Eve was born on 1/11/11. She's 7lb 13 oz and 20.5". A cutie!

6:00 PM - Temperature about 10 degrees with the windchill. Bundled up and went jogging with Emmy at the 1/3 mile loop. It is surprisingly well lit at night! We heard a lot of dogs, saw a wild chihuahua and thought some wolves were coming after us. But thankfully we made it home! :D Splits were:

• 3:11
• 3:03
• 3:03
• 3:01
• 3:02
• 2:57
• 2:57
• 2:53
• 2:53
• 2:46
• 2:44
• 2:25
• 2:46 (cool down)

5:00 PM - At home in NY today. Helping clean out a lot of my stuff that I left here when I moved out in February. So far I have 5 boxes of books to keep, and 1 box of books to give away. Ut oh. I may be in the dog house with Emmy! Also have 1 box going of things to take to work.  Helped clean the kitchen and shovel the driveway. Started snowing around noon and it snowed close to 4"! I put the exclamation because this snow wasn't forecasted. This evening I went for a run on my mom's treadmill. It was glorious. Harry went with my mom up to Glens Falls to play the national anthem for an AHL hockey game. Pretty cool! I wanted to practice my long run strategy for May. So I jogged 25 mins, walked 5 mins, and repeated. Felt pretty good. Legs were a bit tired, I think do to the fact that I had to chase my two St. Bernards down in the woods. They decided it was a perfect afternoon to run off. I was running and jumped over two barbed wire fences, went back past the junk cars, and finally found them. It was really hard running through the snow! My quads were burning. I was hoping to do 2.5 hours today, but just couldn't do it. On a plus, my weight is down. I was 207 today. Had yogurt and a granola bar for breakfast with a cup of coffee, lunch was broccoli cheddar soup and half a panini at Panera, and dinner was a piece of tilapia with 3 small red potatoes. Feeling pretty good overall. Tomorrow is a long walk with Emmy!

Total Time: 2:05:00 Total Distance: 12.1 miles Average Pace:  10:20

3:30 PM - Air temperature was -2 this morning when I woke up, with a wind chill below that. High today was only around 12 degrees. Needless to say, not a very great day to run outside. Luckily at about 8am the delivery people brought in our new treadmill. Emm and I spent about 2-2.5 hours building the thing and by and large had a great time. Only exception was towards the end in the homestretch some nuts and bolts wouldn't find their respective holes and it became a challenge. Mostly everything went together great! This was our first big project together, with the exception being last night we built our first bookcase too! All in all a great day. Have helped reorganize much of the house with Emm these last two days. Going to go now and help her a bit and then maybe order Indian food! It's been a couple months since I've had it!

Total Time: 1:00:00 Total Distance: 6.5 miles Average Pace:  9:14

12:30 PM - Another storm hit this a.m. This one closed almost every school because it was supposed to sleet and freezing rain is supposed to get here this afternoon. Gave me time to get a little more school work done and prepare for the week. Hit up the treadmill for an hour. Felt good towards the end, but man the first couple my legs were dead!

Total Time: 1:00:30 Total Distance: 6.55 Miles Average Pace:  9:14

5:30 PM - Long day at school. Woke up and had ice caked all over the cars. Had to get to school early to make copies. It wasn't a terrible day and actually most of my classes were productive. We talked about what a social pyramid is and I got them to construct a social pyramid of power of school principals, office staff, teachers, student council members, and students. It is funny to see the 7th grade mind work and see just how many of them put students at the top of the social pyramid. While, yes, I pointed out, there would not be a school without them there, that by default does not give them power in the school system they are a part of. While they might have ultimate authority as to whether or not the school exists, once it does exist, they are thrust into the bowels of the social pyramid. However, I did explain that my goal as a teacher was to get as many of them higher than me on the social pyramid because it is that important to me to see them succeed. They seemed to like this. Tomorrow we will go and look at the social pyramid structure as it occurs in Egyptian society. Woot. 

Hopped on the treadmill tonight once I got home and shoveled out the driveway. I have decided no race this Sunday. Saturday night's low is projected to be -5 and Sunday -10 with highs only in the single digits. I'd rather stay close to home and the car! I will try to do the .55 loop over at Taconic high school if I wake up early enough on one of the weekend days. I want to try to get to 2.5 or 3 hours this weekend. Legs were pretty heavy tonight. I think because of all the miles I've run in the last week.

Total Time: 50:00 Total Distance: 5.26 miles Average Pace:  9:30/ mile

9:45 AM - Windy and cold. Temperature about 5 degrees at the start with a wind chill of -3. Projected high today should be about 15. Knew I wanted a long run and as Emmy was on the treadmill, I decided to layer up and get some ultra training under my belt. Put on 2 pairs of socks, a pair of spandex tights, pair of wind pants, thermal shirt, sportwick long sleeve shirt and a purple fleece top as well as an orange hat and gloves. Brought a 1/2 gallon of gatorade with me and 2 granola bars for fuel. Drove over to Taconic and it was pretty much deserted. I had mapped out that running the loop around the school is approximately .55 miles long. Parked in the far corner of the lot, stretched, and I was off!

Goal was to have fun, run for 3 hours, and stick to the 25 minutes of jogging and 5 minutes of walking routine, which I am happy to say I was able to stick with throughout the entire run! Splits were great. Note: every 3rd mile or so is slower because it incorporates my 5 minutes of fast walking. Almost all my fast walking 5 minute blocks were in the 14-15:30 minutes per mile range which is really strong! Very proud of today's accomplishments! (Note: I ate 1 granola bar at 55:00 and another at 1:55:00. Also drank about 8 oz of gatorade each at the 55 and 1:55 h marks.)

• Mile 1: 10:23
• Mile 2: 10:47
• Mile 3: 12:27
• Mile 4: 10:50
• Mile 5: 10:47
• Mile 6: 12:03
• Mile 7: 10:22
• Mile 8: 11:25
• Mile 9: 10:39
• Mile 10: 10:06
• Mile 11: 12:13
• Mile 12: 10:33
• Mile 13: 10:16
• Mile 14: 11:55
• Mile 15: 9:55
• Mile 16: 9:46

 Total Time: 3:00:33 Total Distance: 16.50 miles Average Pace: 10:56 / mile 

9:00 AM - Slept close to 10 hours last night including passing out on the couch around 830 while we were watching "Superbad". Uh! Good news was I was not really all that sore from yesterday's run. I got up, did some work, and then went and did my long fast walk on the treadmill. I did very well! Tonight and tomorrow, projected lows are supposed to be somewhere around -15 below so treadmill will be my friend this week. I did most of the walking for the first 3 miles at 4.3 mph, then sped up to 4.4-4.5 for the next mile and did the last two miles between 4.5 and 5.0 mph! Walking machine!

Total Time: 1:21:13 Total Distance: 6 miles Average Pace:  13:32/ mile

6:00 PM - Long day at work. Just stressed. Two more coworkers put in their two weeks' notice and another has made it clear she is keeping her options open and actively looking for a new position next year. Just when I think I have a break through moment there is something to bring me down - either a bad class, getting reprimanded in front of the whole staff for talking while we are working an extra hour to grade a school wide assessment, or just basic BS. I absolutely love my coworkers and they are the only reason I can make it through the days, but sometimes I feel like I am the worst teacher that walks this earth. Nothing goes right, my lesson flops, and I feel like all I am doing is failing my students and friends.

Needless to say, came home and felt like a progression run. I don't have the time or strength to do the 6 full miles, so I started at 6.4 for a mile, then 6.6 for the second, then 6.8, 7.0, 7.5, and 8.0 for the remaining laps. Really clicking away at the end. A good tired. Just what I needed.

Total Time: 36:01 Total Distance: 4.10 miles Average Pace:  8:47/ mile

5:00 PM - Easy shakeout on the dreadmill. Hoping to spend quality time with Emm and maybe even stay up past 8 tonight! Haven't seen her all week! Long run tomorrow!

Total Time: 20:00 Total Distance: 2.1 miles Average Pace:  9:31

9:00 AM - Long run on the dreadmill. Watched some of Season 4 of the office and then watched "Running on the Sun". Always a good choice when forced to do a long run on the treadmill. The rest of today will be full of catching up on grading, doing progress reports, and then helping to clean the house. Hope to go shopping and make a yummy dinner with Emmy tonight and then some p90 and crunches!

Total Time: 3:18:27 Total Distance: 18.25 miles Average Pace:  10:52/ mile

1:00 PM - Did Power 90 Cardio with Emmy on the VHS tape she has from like 1999. Still worked. It was tough! 45 mins. Then jumped on the treadmill and did 1 mile to keep my sanity. Felt great!