Stepping It Up

Alright, so after nearly half a year of lackadaisical, directionless training, I finally got to the point where I'd had enough. I reached this point a week before the Brooklyn Half Marathon and decided that the week leading up to the Brooklyn Half would be the last one in which I consumed alcohol, at least for the foreseeable future.

As you might know, this isn't the first time I've decided to cut booze out of my life for training purposes. In fact, the very first time I did it was just about five years ago, which is really hard to believe. I did it then for the New York City Marathon in both 2009 and 2010. In 2011, I signed up for my first Ironman and resolved not to drink for the entire year prior.

This time, I'm not sure what the time period is going to be. So far, it's been about three weeks and it hasn't been difficult. The thing I miss most is trying different kinds of beer. Now that I've spent a few weeks resetting my alcohol consumption, I'm trying to decide if I won't keep teetotaling for another month or two before relaxing my rules a bit, or if I'll continue on with total prohibition. This has yet to be decided.

Additionally, Amortya and I are making efforts to train harder and smarter. Our weekend runs have been long (18 miles two weeks ago, 15 miles on Sunday) considering the only marathon for which we've signed up is NYC, which is a full 7 months from now. We've also added speed sessions during the week, which have so far consisted of mile and 2-mile repeats. This week, I also had my own treadmill session in which I ran 5 half mile repeats at a 7:03min/mile pace.

The ultimate goal, and one I've been talking about for over a year, is eventually qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I consider this early stage to be more of a base building stage and I think we're off to a good start.

Yikes!

Holy crap. I can't believe it's been an entire month since I last posted. I'll admit, I am ashamed. I've been hard at work with not only running and triathlon, but also with comedy. Let me catch you up on some stuff:

Boston Training

Guys, I came to the disappointing conclusion that there's almost no way I'll be ready to run a Boston Qualifier by the fall. Perhaps this should have been obvious to me when I set out to accomplish it. If you've spent much time at all reading this blog, you well know that being prudent and realistic are two things at which I'm terrible. The effort and time involved for a Boston Qualifier are more than I currently have to give, considering the other things I'll mention shortly. In no way have I given up on qualifying, I'm just adjusting my schedule. It looks like a BQ will have to wait for 2014. In the meantime, I'll continue with my speedwork and healthy lifestyle efforts. It should be noted that I'm still very committed to those aspects of the plan. No beer 'til November!

Ironman Training

Underway. I have the running bit under control. Now I need to zero in on the bike and swim. Last weekend, I did my first long ride of this training cycle. I rode to the park, did 10 laps and rode home. I consider the trips home as warm up and cool down and the middle 60 miles took me 4 hours to complete. Slow and steady, but I can deal with that and improve on it through the coming months. A hurdle I need to overcome has mostly to do with scheduling. Last year, I rode with Brian and the WorkLiveTri crew on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. At the time, though, I lived a mere 5 blocks from the meeting point. Plus, I had a roommate who could help me take care of Phoebe. Now, I live significantly further away and have sole custody of the pup. I wish I could say that I'll be really amazing about getting to sleep early and waking up early (around 4:30am), but I'm not convinced. I'm therefore doing my weekday rides after work, instead.

Comedy

The biggest surprise of all. Over the last month, I've been committing a lot more to comedy in a number of ways. My sketch group, The Chupacabra Conspiracy, had a show in early June and I spent a period of time last month writing sketches like crazy. Although it looks like we might not be able to put on another live show in the next couple of months, I'm exploring other avenues for getting my stuff out there. I won't go into too much detail about that, though. The one thing I will say and that I'm extremely nervous and a little excited about, is an impending foray into standup comedy. I'm in the middle of writing a set, I've scoped out an open mic with a friend who does standup, and I'll probably hit one up myself in the next week or so.

I'm not going to lie, comedy and endurance sports are two interests that don't mix well. One necessitates late night commitment and the other early morning commitment. And that's just events! Nevermind actually writing and creating stuff, which I'll have to squeeze in around the rest and my job (can't forget about my job). No complaints here, just statements. You know I'm always up for a challenge.

The Spirit of the (Boston) Marathon

"If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon."

-Kathrine Switzer

Of all the things I've read and seen in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, this quote stands out a bit. For all the truth it conveyed before the horror that took place on April 15, Kathrine Switzer's message seems ever more meaningful and true now, as Boston and the rest of the world heal from this tragedy.

It's hard to even find words that adequately describe the impact the bombings have had. First and foremost, the memory of those lives lost in the tragedy, Martin Richard, Lingzi Lu, Sean Collier and Krystle Campbell will be forever mourned and cherished not only by their immediate family and friends, but by an entire nation. In addition, we hope and pray that those who were injured heal quickly, and we have faith that they'll recover better and stronger than ever before.

We've also seen incredible resilience, grace, and generosity in the city of Boston, the running community and humanity at large. From bystanders who rushed to help the injured to residents across Massachusetts offering all they could to help displaced runners in the aftermath, it's clear that the good in this world heavily outweighs the evil perpetrated by a few individuals and it always will.

Now, nearly two weeks later, Boston has begun picking up the pieces of a reality that was shattered by two cowards with little regard for human life. The pieces already coming together beautifully, into something new that's brilliant and strong, if more somber than before. Boston has opened up Boylston Avenue and a makeshift memorial has been erected. From what I can tell, it's a beautiful tribute to the victims of the attack and the city itself.

The cover of Boston Magazine's May issue

Next year's Boston Marathon will be the most beautiful, stirring display of human nature I can imagine. I get choked up over any marathon, so I can only surmise that one so filled with heart and meaning will not be something to be missed. Whether I participate by running or cheering, I don't intend to miss it.

#BostonStrong

All Aboard

I would like to clarify that the goal of this post is less self-realization and more a logical study of where an entire year of training has put me. And I’m starting to have a sneaking suspicion that it’s a lot closer to something big than I ever imagined.

The Staten Island Half Marathon was on Sunday. I went into it expecting to do decently, but not all that well because I haven’t done speed work since the summer. To my delight and utter shock, I ran a personal best of 1:47:58. It’s not even 30 seconds faster than my previous PR, but considering the speed work thing and the fact that I haven’t even raced a half marathon since Brooklyn (almost 5 months ago), I was mildly dumbfounded about the whole thing.

This got me thinking. Imagine one of those montages in an hourlong crime drama in which the protagonist (brooding detective, mystery novel writer, quirky consultant, main character of whatever your flavor of police procedural happens to be). That was like me on Sunday afternoon and yesterday. Various scenes, ideas and facts started flashing through my brain. Synapses were firing and I began to make connections and develop hypotheses. My eyebrow is sore from being so ponderously raised for such an extended period of time, but more importantly, something that should have been obvious to me a long time ago became crystal clear.

I’ve been running a volume of miles that I would never have thought myself capable of maintaining and spent the better part of the year training for an Ironman. I’m in really good shape. There’s no artificially inflated bravado here, it’s just fact. All these race results should have been telling me this from the beginning of the summer, but I’ve been writing them off as…well, I don’t know. Maybe not even writing them off, but also not extrapolating what they could mean about the future.

And now I’ll get to the point. I now hope, very legitimately, to run a sub-4 hour marathon before the year is over. Okay, fine, that’s a goal I’ve had from day 1 of this year. Let’s go one step further. I’m not sure there will ever be a point in my life when I’ve built up such a solid training foundation. If ever there was a time to seek the holy grail of marathon running, it is now. If I can run a big marathon to close out the year, I think I stand a decent chance of running an even bigger one come spring.

Months ago, I wrote that I intended to enjoy this ride, wherever it took me. I’ll do you one better, past self. Fate’s been relegated to the passenger seat and I’ll be steering from now on. This train is headed for Boston.



Amortya ran a not-too-shabby 1:50!
Yes, it's a phone screenshot. So sue me.