great day to be alive

Beautiful day today. Great day for an early morning 5 mile run.

So tomorrow I start a 10 week marathon training program. I've basically taken a 12 week prog and adapted it to my needs. I'm going to train using a 10:30 pace, which would give me a marathon time of 4:35:18. Realistically, I'm going to predict my marathon time, right here right now, at 4:55. If I could finish it in anything under 5 hours, I'll be stoked beyond belief. When I did the Disney Marathon in January 2007, I was aiming for 5:30, I did it 5:58 I think. My big problem there was the weather. For the 3 months prior to the marathon, I was running in the typical New York late fall / winter weather.. I get to Florida, and it was 87 degrees. I ran a few miles the day I got there just to attempt to acclimate myself, but it didn't help much. The day of the race, I had to be at Disney at 3am. 3am in Florida is a lot like winter in New York... cold. At 6am, when the race was about to start, it was already up to 68 degrees, warmer that New York for sure. About 10 miles in, the air temp hit 89 degrees. This totally messed up my breathing and everything else.

But I should be alright this time, since I'll be training in the same climate where I'll be running the race. However, one thing that is different about Providence compared to Long Island is the hills. I remember back in the day the Gravity Games held their street luge competition in Providence. One of the perks about moving out here to the country (and by country I mean East Northport, 10 minutes from the Nassau border), is the availability of hills to run on. I've incorporated one full day of hill training into my training program. I live about 5 minutes from the Cow Harbor course, so I'll definitely be running over there.

Adam, whom I mentioned a few posts ago as being a huge sissy, has made another bet with me. He believes he can lose more percentage body weight than me before July 4th. Now, I'll be training for a marathon for 10 weeks of this period. Training for a marathon is much more than just running. It's a totally different diet, more yoga, more gym times, etc;. So be prepared for July 4th, when I might just make another blog dedicated to Adam being a sissy.

Miles run today: 5 Year to date: 132.5