Mainieri Sings 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' at Wrigley Field - LSUsports.net—The Official Web Site of LSU Tigers Athletics

Mainieri Sings 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' at Wrigley Field - LSUsports.net—The Official Web Site of LSU Tigers Athletics

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Do or do not.There is no try.

Mixed results this weekend. Saturday was a Do Not day. I ran virtual miles at best while watching live coverage of the Tour de France in the morning. Sunday was a Do day; I ran between 10-11 miles up in Huntsville State Park. My post run dirt tan line is in the pic above. HSP was not as comfortable this morning as it has been the past month. The air was heavy and there was no breeze to be found. Even with me getting out an hour earlier than I have been. I did see a couple of deer and a racoon that climbed a tree right in front of me. Gotta love the park wildlife!

Got home mid morning and watched the final stage of the Tour de France that I DVR'd while running. I've been lazy since that.... may have to watch Star Wars to get more wisdom from Master Yoda.....

Sneaking one in in 2010

My 2010 race calendar is shaping up to be a year of the repeats. I've got the Goofy Challenge up first in January. This will be the 10th anniversary of my first marathon that was also run at WDW. I'm also planning on doing the Disneyland 1/2 next September to complete the Disney Coast to Coast Race Challenge. This will be another repeat as I've already run the San Francisco 1/2 marathon.
I'll be heading to Boulder, CO Memorial Day weekend to run the Bolder Boulder 10k. Even if it was a 1/2 distance, I already ran Georgetown to Idaho Springs in Colorado. However, this morning I noticed that Wyoming's Medicine Bow 1/2 Marathon (5k, marathon and double marathon distances are also available) is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. The race is within 2 hours of Boulder so it looks like I will actually pick up another state while experiencing one of the larger 10k races out there. This will be my first out of state trail run.

Putting some flexibility into my training plan

After running on the treadmill Monday and Tuesday at work and seeing how much easier it is to maintain HR without battling heat and hills, I ran the golf course from Rico's Thursday evening. I gave myself an extra 5 beats to try and have a nice recovery run at 142 beats instead of the 137 I should've been running. Well 142 turned into 145 and then up a little but I managed to keep it around 142 for the most part. I ran right at 6 miles; AHR 135 MHR 148

For my long run this morning, I headed to Huntsville State Park once again to tackle more hills. My target rate for this long run was 70-75% effort. I gave myself extra beats again but didn't define them before I started my run. First incline my HR got up to 152 so I tried to keep it at 150 max. That worked for awhile until I got to the steep incline on the outer loop. I ran it moderately and my rate got a little over 160. 160 became my new target after that. My reasoning behind the increases was to allow me to get in some consistent running on inclines; I find I have to walk at least a portion of every major incline if I stay at a 75% max HR. That sorta negates the reason for running hills if I can't run up the inclines. A month ago I would've run as hard as I could up the inclines to try and get a higher max HR; I think I'm running smarter these days.

I ended up buying an annual pass to HSP as it seems I'm there every weekend these days. With the Boston 1/2 in mid October, I'll probably continue visiting HSP after I complete Parkersburg next month.

Productive Day

I signed up for 2 races, booked a flight, booked a rental car, and booked hotels in both Hartford and Boston for my now upcoming back 2 back state weekend in October. Must be something about back 2 backs and October; my previous 2 backs at least straddled October as well. And yeah there were 4 days of awesome Northeastern weather. Here's hoping for 2 more similiar days Columbus Day weekend. This week's spur of the moment trip booking wiped out the next 4 potential races from my board; I hadn't signed up for anything in what seems like forever as my August and September trips have been set in stone since way early this year.
No running today as I had a massage tonight with Ute. The back of my heel/lower achilles was really swollen and sensitive tonight for some reason. May be my new shoes without my custom orthotics causing this?

Have you seen my motivation?

After what's been a way too hot and already seems like forever long summer, I only ran one day last week. Trying to get motivated again, I think I may have found a temporary fix by taking it from the street onto the treadmill the past couple of days. Treadmill running seems to be my best friend these days.....especially now that I'm attempting to start training using a heart monitor. Yesterday at lunch I ran with my Polar monitor for the first time in quite awhile. After running 10 minutes or so on the treadmill, I noticed that the Cybex treadmill picked up my monitor frequency and displayed my HR on the scrolling stats screen. It stayed within a beat of my watch monitor and was usually dead on. I found it much easier to stay below my recovery ceiling both days. I did creep up a little each day and backed off my pace to keep my rate steady. I think the treadmill over the next couple of months will help keep me cool plus establish consistency for my monitor training. I still plan on running my long runs on trails at HSP; we'll see how that goes.

More State Chasing

It all started innocently enough as is often the case. I went to the Boston Athletic Association website to figure out which Monday in April is Patriots Day. The thought/plan in its early stages was to try and locate a 1/2 Boston weekend in nearby Rhode Island and/or Connecticut in order to check off a state while experiencing the Boston Marathon. No such luck. However, while at the Boston site, I noticed that the Boston 1/2 is the BAA's next event; cool thoughts of Boston in October entered my mind. The Boston event lines up perfectly with the ING Hartford marathon/1/2; more coolness in October up north. I was sold reading Hartford FAQ's about possibly needing gloves race day morning. So unless I come to my senses before Boston registration opens Wednesday morning, I will most likely be doing my 3rd back to back Northeast states this fall. It's gotta be good training for the Goofy Challenge right?

Stimulating the Economy

It all started out innocently enough.... I went online to check out the new Garmin 310 watch that's coming out later this month. BTW, I'm very interested but will wait til price comes down a bit, anyways, my search took me to Road Runner Sports that was advertising free shipping. So I looked for my New Balance 1063s and they had a pair in my size on sale for $99. Before pulling the trigger, I backed up and checked out the net for cheaper prices. I ended up finding a pair for $10 cheaper/right under 70% of retail at Kelly's Running Warehouse. Kelly's review seemed ok so I bought from there; they are in transit by UPS with an eta of Monday. My old 1063s have around 330 miles; I usually get 350 miles max out of my shoes given my near Clydesdale Division status.