April 10 – 8 Days to Go, How To Track Me On Race Day, Some Year Over Year Comparisons

Today was a rest day. 8 days to go and basically 2 days before I leave to New York, then Boston. Since I leave on Tuesday, I started today to lay out all my gear/clothing for the trip. I am packing heavy. I have business to attend to in New York city so I will be wearing a suit/tie. I then have a weekend in Boston and then of course race day attire. Predicting race day attire is not easy. Right now the forecasted weather for next Monday in Boston is perfect for running; sunny and a high of 55 degrees. But Boston weather can change so I am bringing everything, plus my food, my nutrients etc etc. It is a lot of stuff!

People have asked me how to best track my progress on race day. There are several options. I have a twitter account that Diane will post to from her phone during the race. Look me up and become a follower; kwaldron99. The other option is to sign up for a text message alert (although this did not work well last year as the service had a technical malfunction). Simply text the word “runner” to 345678 and you will get a reply text that asks you to insert my bib number: 11077. That is all there is to it. Then during the race you will get text messages at four milestones with my time: at the 10k/half marathon/30k and finish. If you go the Diane twitter route, you will undoubtedly get a bit of color commentary from Diane, but don’t expect four exact time updates from her. If you go the text message route, you will get only the times and no color commentary. Up to you. But either way, thanks for the support.

As previously noted, I did no exercise today. I did however receive a deep-tissue massage which I desperately needed. The masseuse said my calves seemed tight, so did my quads and my I.T.-bands. No surprise on any of that I suppose. She dug deep.

I also took the time today to compare year over year numbers. Needless to say I am a numbers guy so this should come as no surprise to anyone reading this. From January 1 thru this same Sunday last year in 2010 I had swam 25,200 meters, biked 236 miles and had run 570 miles. This year the numbers for the same exact period are 25,700 meters swimming, 476 miles biking and 450 miles running. So my swimming distance is incredibly similar between the two years. My biking is WAY more this year, virtually double. And my running has decreased by 120 miles, or an average of about 10 miles per week. I am okay with this. I think my workouts this year have been of significantly better quality, much more with a purpose and a whole lot more focus on hills and speed versus last year where I probably put in a lot of “garbage” miles. That means I probably ran last year for the sake of simply running and that does lead to garbage miles, whereby you are putting in the time but not really reaping any reward from the workout. Plus, with my foot the way it is right now, I am not sure I could have handled doing much more mileage this year. Lastly, having come off my ironman in November, I am working off of a much better and stronger base for my training this year.

8 days to go and the real taper starts now. I am itchy to get things going. Laying out all my stuff today sure got me fired up.

Tally for the Day: 0

Tally for the Week: 4,100 meters swimming, 25 miles biking, 34.6 miles running

 

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