New Year. New Goal.

Completing the 3-mile a day challenge of 2010 was awesome.

The goal for 2011 is the biggest half marathon in the world this spring and the Marine Corp Marathon in the fall.



Never mind. The damn race is already sold out. The previous record was 62 hours. Today it sold out in 28. Missed it.

Guess I need another marathon. But anyways run a marathon, and run it in under 4 hours (I would squeal if I could break 3:50).

My first marathon I just focused on the long runs. I lived by the moto If you can run 20, you can run 26.

This time I want to use Jeff Gaudette's theory of marathon training: 

For success at the marathon distance, you need to training specifically for the physiological demands of the race. In the marathon, this means three things: 

1. Increasing your fitness so that you can decrease your marathon pace and make it more comfortable
2. Teaching your body how to burn fat as a fuel source as opposed to carbohydrates
3. Simulating the fatigue you'll experience the last 10k without getting hurt or becoming too tired in training

Turining those goals into a training plan focuses on:

1. Faster paced tempo runs that are often broken into shorter, but faster intervals [this seems like two short/fast runs during the week 5-6 miles] 
2. To simulate the fatigue at the end of the race, this FitnessClass breaks up the long runs over the weekend into two moderately fast paced runs

Long and slow 22 milers will breakdown the muscles and will completely exhaust you, which will lead to a significant delay in recovery. In addition, running for longer than 3 hours and 30 minutes can significantly increase the chance of injury and doesn't produce significant physiological adaptations...by running on both weekend days, this allows you to carry the fatigue of Saturday's run into Sunday, which will simulate the latter stages of the marathon without having to run 20 miles.

This sounds like it focuses on the wall I ran into around mile 21 in Queens/Harlem. Sounds like what I need to do for success.

Trip to Sanoma

Jeff Bundschu of Gundlach Bundschu Winery Visits WLTV – Part 1 – Episodes #773



Jeff Bundschu of Gundlach Bundschu Winery Visits WLTV – Part 2 – Episodes #774

Three miles a day for 2010 is done.

I ran with Nak and the rest of the Run Detroit posse on January 31st to complete The Goal.

Gary and crossed the finish 1 and 2 in 27 minutes and then I circled around to pick up Bo and run another couple of kilometers.

Final numbers:

• 1097.17 miles
• 187 runs
• 5.9 miles per run
• 15.6 runs per month

I was cruising through the goal until October and November when getting ready for my talk at the ASN Renal Week crushed me.

I had to come back with my fourth 100-mile month ever (Dec '08, Aug '09, Aug '10 and Dec '10) to cross the finish line with 2 miles to spare.

Here is how the year stacked up against the goal:

The nomogram of run distance stacks up like this: 

6-8 miles is the sweet spot, just like last year:

So after three years, the running odometer looks like this:

I'm reading Ultramarathon Man

Dean Karnazes was one of the characters mentioned in Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. McDougal's descprition isn't so kind, as he is used as a foil in opposition to Scott Jurek. I had read one of the other books mentioned in Born to Run, Lance Armstrong's autobiography (written by Sally Jenkins) It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. McDougall describes it as being the story of a warrior poet. It was good and gave me a much better understanding of who Armstrong is and his personal philosophy. Last summer, Michael Schoffman recommended Karnazes' book.

Michael had just months before met Dean. Michael was running his first marathon, the LA Marathon and around the 20th mile he looked over his shoulder and there was Dean Karnazes. Michael had already read his book so he starts talking to the guy and they ran the last 10k together.

Take a look at those Clock Times, they crossed the finish practically arm in arm.

Turns out Dean had previously rode some crazy contraption called the ElliptiGo for 500 miles to the start of the Marathon. Crazy Fuck.

So much cooler than my frenetic sprint around Central Park trying to keep up with Lance.

As I read the book I was enthralled and inspired. The book starts with all the charm of the Rocky Balboa narrative. It is a small underdog learning to escape his upper middle class yuppie existence by stretching free of all rational physical bounds. The whole transformation and training process capped by the epic battle with the Western States 100 stirred my soul.

Unfortunately after that portion (about a third of the book) the story devolves faster than the Rocky series. Each subsequent adventure, the Bad Water 100, running a marathon at the South Pole, running 199 miles straight, becomes equal parts repetitive and preposterous. He tries to engage the reader by explaining how dangerous running at the South Pole is. Yea. No shit its negative 100°. Don't be a dip shit. Its too cold to be outside.

Overall a good read but it's no Born to Run and even falls short of It's Not About the Bike.

This brings back memories of my marathon

2010 NYC Marathon Time Lapse from wnyc culture on Vimeo.


Here is the Camera she used. Totally cool website.

And here is the story of the runner.

Thanks Lynn

State of the goal: June, July and August

I haven't updated this blog on the quest to run 3 miles a day for a year.

So here is the update.

I failed to hit three miles a day in June (85 miles, with a goal of 90) and July (89.6 miles with a goal of 93). These were the first misses for a month this year. I crushed August (132.3 with a goal of 93) running more miles than I ever ran before.

The long and short of this is I'm still on track for 1095 miles for 2010. August 31st was the 243rd day of the year, so I needed to have run 729 miles. I had run 770.

I have a new goal

Sarah Palin apparently ran a sub 4 hour marathon, (another link) just barely, at 3:59:24.

I gotta beat her. If I do it this year, I'll be the same age as her. Could I do it at Detroit? Probably not.