First Week Back

November 11th (Monday): Woke up with a sore throat. Normal day at work. Home to run 4.5 miles (31:19) with Derrick. Easy run and good to catch up with him after a few weeks off.

November 12th (Tuesday): Blah day with the sickness setting in. Day off all together from running and night lifting at Fleet Feet.

November 13th (Wednesday): Feeling roughly the same as yesterday. 5.5 miles (39:40) in the evening. Felt good to breath in some fresh air and blow a bunch of snot rockets to clear the sinuses.

November 14th (Thursday): On the upswing. A couple nights of 9-10 hours of sleep, Nyquil (store brand) and some Mucinex. 5.5 miles (37:02) in the evening.

Back to healthy eating!

November 15th (Friday): Normal day at work. Had to stay at work until 5pm due to a high priority tool being signed off. A couple punch list items that needed to be verified the next day. Overtime approved. Boom.v5.5 miles (39:21) in the afternoon.

November 16th (Saturday): Almost all better. Kicked the cold. Slept in. Phone call received around 10am to let me know the work was complete. Work 10:30am-12:30pm. Stopped in at TJ Maxx to see if there was anything new. Grabbed a sweet fleece pullover.

Home to relax and watch a bunch of moves. The Other Woman on Netflix. Cars. PS I Love You. 3 miles (21:15) in the evening with Goup. Bed at a decent hour.

November 17th (Sunday): 7 miles (50:17) with the Fleet Feet Racing team (mostly women's team) at 8am. Easy first 6 miles. Worked in the last mile with Pete (similar to Najem in the speed aspect) and Goup. Sub 5:30 last mile. Boom. Gavs made it out for the run as well from Albany. Sweeeeet!

Relaxed the rest of the day. Listened to Dr. Dre radio on Spotify and this came on. Huh?

 Good song, but no what I wanted to listen to at the time.

31 miles for my 1st week back. Felt great to get out there on the roads. Being back in a routine is amazing. I don't feel like such a bum.

Time Off (11 pounds)

October 13th - November 5th: 1 month of no running. The first week was painful, but recovery was quicker than last year. The crap eating started immediately. The day after the marathon I ate about a half a box of Oreos, a whole box of Charleston Chews, and some other random stuff. I began season 1 of Breaking Bad on Netflix at 1pm on Sunday. I did not leave the couch until 1am. 11 episodes and hooked on it hard.

 Weakness.

Every single day was dedicated to bad eating and sitting my kester on the couch to watch episodes of Breaking Bad. I felt asleep on the couch multiple nights in a row. Ice cream for dinner. I headed to Keene for Pumpkinfest weekend with thrower Phil Elmer and got rowdy Friday and Saturday night. Ended up grabbing wings Sunday night in Vermont with Ferenc and Boj.

Pumpkinfest masterpiece.

The bag of homemade caramel was put to good use. Some of was heated up and poured over my ice cream. It ended up hardening over the ice cream, but still tasted delicious. The rest of the caramel was eating by the handful as a snack. No cross training and whole bunch of vegging out was done through these 3.5 weeks off.

 Vanilla ice cream with caramel.

I did visit my sister one weekend. I hadn't seen her or Bob in a while so it was nice to spend some quality time with them. Always a good thing to see Tucker!

 Roommate while I'm at my sister's house in Massachusetts.

After my time off, I officially gained a solid 11 pounds. My mom noticed when we were FaceTiming one night. She said my face was fuller. Oh well (and don't judge me). I purchased a new pair of prescription glasses. Ordered them off glasses.com. Walked away with a steal. Frames ended up being on sale. Free lenses with the purchase of Smith Optics frames (the ones I wanted). Aaaand 25% off coupon I found randomly online. Free shipping and arrived 5 days later from the order date. 72 bucks. Boom!

Loved the time off, but working back into the swing of things. The week of November 4th-10th had a few shakeout runs before the weekly mileage and training starts. 3-4 miles Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday. Training has commenced and it feels amazing to be back outdoors breathing in the fresh air. Winter has arrived so it's time to bundle up. Plus daylights savings! Headlamp and high visibility vest!

ING Hartford Marathon 2013 Race Report

October 12th (Saturday): 5:45am wakeup. Stumbled around the hotel room while Goup continued to sleep. Downstairs to see if there was any breakfast available. Nothing really. Back upstairs to grab my car keys and head down to the parking garage. Sat in my car and ate a banana with a Clif Bar. Bumped some jams to relax and wake myself up a bit.

Back to the hotel room to relax and received a phone call from Sarah (my sister) to see where I was. She stopped in with my parents around 7am. Chilled in my bed to stay warm and used the heating pad to keep the legs/back extra loose. Started getting feelings of anxiousness in the room from all the questions/comments so my mom and dad left to head out to the course. Goup headed out for a warmup with TPaq. Sarah grabbed her stuff out of the parents car. I changed up and prepped all my stuff. Out for a easy 5-6 minute pre-warmup to push everything out for a final poop. Back up to the hotel room to put on the finishing touches (band aids over the nipples, flats - Nike Streak 4's, and Powerbar gels).

Jogged over to the line with Sarah and Goup with time to spare. No need for any extra layers because it was about 50 degrees at the start. Wished Sarah good luck and made sure she was set at the starting line. 8am start that did not seem to go off on time. Elongated prayer by some dude, a flash mob I couldn't see and other random announcements. Gun went off and out well with the front pack. The ideal pace was sub 5:20's, but that's if all the stars aligned and absolutely nothing went wrong.

The start.

Splits as followed with a couple hiccups here and there:


Mile 1 - 5:21 (solid start, keeping the body relaxed)

Mile 2 - 5:26 (I knocked into Matty P's arm and the watch split at 1:29, but added the 1:29 to 3:56, I'll forgive him)

Mile 3 - 5:24 (rolling side by side with Matty P by this point)

Mile 4 - 5:28 (keeping it under 5:30)

Mile 5 - 5:23 (1st 5 miles: 27:04 - feeling it out and remaining smooth - Powerbar Gel taken - no issues)

Mile 6/7 - 10:49 (split at 6 mile marker over the bridge and saw 4:55. Daaamn. Then the next mile was 5:54 so I used common sense)

Mile 8 - 5:23 (Matty P stopped to take a piss and caught up at some point along the bike path, I dropped the two other guys during that time and Matty P thanked me, saw the entourage along the bike path screaming my name, Matty was bumming that I didn't tell him his name to cheer - I didn't know I would be rocking the miles with him - haha)

Mile 9 - 5:32 (after this, made a push to change the gears)

Mile 10 - 5:21 (niiiice - 54:10, 2nd 5 miles: 27:06, even and feeling smooth - 2nd Powerbar gel taken with some fluids)

Mile 11 - 5:22 (keep it going)

Mile 12 - 5:20 (boom, don't get ahead of myself - starting racing Matty P and gapping him)

Mile 13- 5:21 (right on)

Half marathon - 70:49 Cruising and feeling solid (2+ minutes faster than year)

Mile 14 -5:23 (beautiful, I got this)

Mile 15  5:22 (1:20:59, 3rd 5 miles: 26:49, rocking it - Powerbar gel taken, but not too easily)

Mile 16 - 5:22 (straight away along the residential section and saw the 2 leaders running back from the turnaround point - killing it - sitting in 3rd and focused on the end goal)

Mile 17 - 5:33 (it's all good, just use the downhill - advice shouted from Matty P as I saw him on the way back - he looked effortless so I knew he would close up the gap)

Mile 18/19 - 10:17 (off splits individually but averaged to 5:08 pace, daaang - didn't fully register until reviewing these)

Mile 20 -  5:22 (1:47:33) 4th 5 miles: 26:34, 2nd 10 miles: 53:13 - no complaints here

Mile 21 - 5:30 (uh oh, don't sweat it - Powerbar gel taken and couldn't muscle down the first squirt, spit it out all over myself, tried again soon after and made it happen)

One of the leaders (the pack of two) dropped and was sitting on the curb around this time. Badaboom, here comes the podium finish and some more money! AKA Stay within my means and it could happen to anyone.

Mile 22 - 5:33 (I believe Matty P was cruising by me in this mile or around here with ease)

Mile 23 - 5:31 (okay, okay, you got this Eric - pouring water over my head the last couple miles and the remaining miles because the sun was out and it was warming up slightly)

Mile 24 to 26 - 17:01 (almost puked my Gels back up at one point, but keep it down - stop splitting the watch and focused on the finish line - 5:40 pace for the 3 miles, last 6 miles: 34:35)

Mile .2 - 71 seconds

Official time: 2:22:21

Into the top 3 finisher's corral to wait for the podium finish announcement. Sweeeeet! A bouquet of flowers and a sweet glass plaque. Lots of stretching and moving around so I wouldn't tighten up like last year. Over to the elite tent to see the rest of the gang. Greeted the family (Aunts, Uncles, Parents) with a big hug and whatnot. Great to see them at the finish line!

The next couple hours was spent stretching, walking around, eating mad food, pounding cans of Coca-Colas. Signed up for a free massage. Very relaxing. Watched intently for my sister to finish. I must of grabbed food when she crossed the line because I had no idea she finished.

Back to the hotel to take a hot shower and change up into some comfy clothes. Downstairs to greet everyone and grabbed food at the hotel restaurant. Pigged out on a portabella mushroom sandwich and rewarded myself with an Angry Orchard. 

Over to Newtown, CT with the family and Goup to relax the rest of the day. Some foam rolling. Lots of food and chilling on the couch to take a load off the legs. Just shy of a 4 minute PR on the day in 1 year. I have to be thankful for having my roommate and teammate as my coach. The training is working out well and loving every minute of it. It felt pretty awesome to have Matty P say that I made the race and we wouldn't of run that fast if I wasn't there. He also stated that if we had just sat on each other and waited until the end, I would of beat him. I don't know about that, but I'll take it any day.

Blurry, but major pain face.

 

Tres. Nothing hurts when you win.

Hmm, I did feel this later.

So Close To Hartford

October 10th (Thursday): Cereal for breakfast. Leftovers for lunch at work. Finished off the rest of the yogurt container. Brought my personal spatula spoon along with all the goods (granola, Clif Bar, and a fruit strip) to dip in my yogurt. Home to chill on the couch. Out at 6:50pm for 5 miles total (4 miles of running plus some strides in the parking lot). Smooth run and feeling good.

Big ole dinner to fuel up for Saturday. FaceTimed with my sister Kate and then with my Dad. My dad had recommended watching Breaking Away for a motivational movie. I decided to park it on the couch with my dinner and find it on Netflix. Awesome movie. I recommend it highly (and the movie is from 1979, I know, right?). It has Dennis Quad and Daniel Stern (the taller robber from Home Alone, Wet Bandits) in it. A good laugh and got me in the right mindset.

Bed at a decent hour. Some laundry done for the weekend of racing and traveling.

 Pasta, BBQ chicken, and broccoli.

October 11th (Friday): 6:15am wakeup? Huh? Yeah, I couldn't fall back asleep. Could of been the nerves. Not sure. Stayed in bed for a while before arising to attack the morning. Bowl of cereal was the first course for breakfast as I entered the kitchen. Oat bran was the second course of the morning at around 9am. Finished it off with a hefty omelet. Cleaned the house, organized my room, did the dishes, finished doing my laundry, big breakfast items, and packed up the bags for the weekend.

 Clean room. Clear mind.

 Broccoli omelet.

Left at 2:15ish from Ballston Lake. Prepared Goup and I each a chicken and avocado wrap for the road trip. Picked up a fellow NEF athlete in Albany before heading down to Hartford. Smooth ride. Arrived at 4pm. Expo from 4-5:30ish. Lots of free snacks and a great deal at running store vendor. A pair of shorts and a couple singlets. Carefully picked out the keepers and purchased them. Dropped off a couple people at the elite dinner. Back to the hotel to change up for a shakeout.

 Cool.

Easy run at 6pm. Just shy of 3 miles (20+). Might of been a more epic experience than last year. I had my bright yellow Nike Lunarfly 4's on my feet trotting down the street sidewalks of downtown Hartford with Goup. Passed a guy walking towards us and he commented along the lines of, "Ooo, those are so crisp." I am luckily down with the lingo (Crisp's definition = fresh, dope, swagger) and knew it was a good thing (not an insult). Smiled, thanked him with a head nod and continued on our way.

Back to the hotel to stretch, shower and head over to the elite meeting. Fairly short meeting. Dropped off the water bottles, picked up our swag (all white NEF pullover, uhhhh yeahhh), and down to the hotel restaurant for some mad grub. Exact same dinner as last year for Hartford. Tomato, basil, and mozzarella. Homemade guacamole with chips. Grilled Tuscany chicken sandwich. Devoured all of it. Goup helped on the appetizers. Dinner with some ARE guys (Kevin Treadway, Nick Webster, Jaime Julia) and Matty P (plus the fiancé). Back to the hotel room after some jokes were exchanged to relax the mind. Prepared the gear for the following morning before crashing for the night.

A good sign. All the way from San Fran!