Of Fenway and Fartleks

We’ve survived the Boston portion of the vacation, or perhaps more accurately Boston has survived the Southerner invasion. The highlights of the Boston stop were the Duck-boat Tour, where we had a genuinely funny and engaging guide rather than the usual cornball guides who bombard you with painfully overdone puns for an hour+, and the Fenway tour. I’m not even really much of a baseball fan, but you can almost touch the history when you walk through Fenway. Both of my kids are self-proclaimed Red Sox fans because their grandfather has been a lifelong Sox fan, and said grandfather was on the tour with us, which he had never done before. It was a beautiful day and a really interesting way to see the ballpark. A sampling of the sights:

We’re currently in the White Mountains in New Hampshire, enjoying the comparatively frigid conditions versus back home in NC. Overnight lows in the 50s, daytime high today of around 70. Zero humidity. Much love.

I’ve managed to stick to my training plan pretty closely despite the travel. Week 3 was a successful step-back week.

Can’t say my travel diet has been equally successful. Enjoyable …. But not very successful.

Got in 3 runs along the Charles River while in Boston, and really enjoyed the change of scenery. Lots of early-morning crew team practices going on while I was running, which was really fun to watch while knocking out the miles. I don’t think my wife has been terribly amused with my alarm going off at 5AM most mornings, but I’m trying to keep up the running without interfering with the planned activities. By the end of the day I closely resemble a zombie, but that’s not necessarily much different than my non-vacation days.

At the advice of Chris K I googled Fartleks as an addition/alternative to my newfound love of tempo runs, and tried a version of a Fartlek run on our last day in Boston. After about a half-mile warmup I tried to really push the pace for as much as a half-mile at a time, then drop back to my normal pace until my breathing was back to normal, then stepped up the pace, then recovery …. Wash, rinse, and repeat. New approach in a new setting – all good. Here’s what the pace data looked like.

Will definitely be doing some variations of this again once I get back to the homeland.

Internet access is hard to come by here in the mountains, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, it has meant that I’ve hardly had a chance to read any blog entries, so I’m feeling a bit isolated from the bloggy goodness that has become such a part of my morning routine. Looking forward to catching up next weekend.

Tarheels in Beantown

456 miles, and approximately $74,000 in tolls later, we have finally arrived in Boston. Long trip, but not unbearable. The weather is in the mid-70s, which is welcome relief from the hellfire temps we left behind. Hopefully the weather cooperates for the crazy collection of activities over the next few days.

By the time we got settled in our place, did a little exploring and grabbed some dinner it was already dark, so I moved my Sunday run to a Monday early-morning run. Got up far too early, busted out the running gear and headed in the general direction of the Charles River. Went with the assumption that there would be some path/trail options once I got there, and wasn’t disappointed. Week 3 is a step-back week in my plan, so only had a 6-mile long-run on the plan. Took a nice easy pace, enjoyed the scenery, and gave my legs some welcome stretching after too long in the car yesterday.

Week 2 was another good week in terms of miles and overall leg health. Started off with a brutal 12-mile long run on the sun that I covered in an earlier post, but I redeemed myself with the runs for the remainder of the week.

Got in another tempo workout, which is helping speed up my normal pace a bit. Still have some work to do on maintaining a consistent pace across miles. Nothing fancy planned for week 3 in terms of training. Main focus is just getting in the miles while we’re traveling, and not letting running interfere with any of the planned activities and the rare opportunity to spend extended quality time with my family. Really hoping this trip lives up to my wife’s expectations, and provides some lasting memories for my kids. Road trips with my family are some of the more vivid memories I have from my childhood, so if all goes well we’re leaving an imprint on the kids – Griswold style.

Boston Bound

Sadly, it’s not what you think. The powers-that-be still refuse to accept my BQ first-place finish in the Pandora Marathon, where I narrowly edged out Santa Claus, Lord Voldemort, and Sasquatch (a surprisingly nimble runner) at the finish line, then enjoyed a recovery drink from the Holy Grail while soaking in an ice-bath in Hef’s Grotto. Every race teaches us something. That one taught me that I’m too old to come anywhere near Jagermeister before going to bed, or really any time of day.

We will soon be loading up the Family Truckster for a 13-hour fun-filled drive for an extended family vacation in Boston and several spots in New Hampshire. Most all of my wife’s relatives are from areas around Boston, so we’re going to give the kids a chance to meet some of their relatives and see the places where my wife spent much of her youth. Should be an interesting trip. I’ve been so busy at work lately that it has kinda snuck up on me, and although I won’t be battling the Kenyans on the trip, I will be needing to fit in my training runs. I’ve never been on a vacation in a place that I don’t know in the midst of a training plan. A little concerned about finding the places and the time to run (want to avoid the treadmill if possible), but also looking forward to the challenge. Should make for some new and interesting maps to add to the Garmin collection.

Assuming I survive the remainder of the day, week 1 of training is in the books. So far the right foot (Plantar Fasciitis) and the right knee (IT Band) are holding up pretty well. Lots of stretching and ice seem to be helping. There definitely is some soreness involved, but so far just sore, not pain. My day 1 run, according to plan, was supposed to be 10 miles, but since I hadn’t gone more than 6 miles since rehabbing my knee and foot I thought that was too much of a jump and too much of an injury risk, so I cut the run off at 8 miles. Otherwise, I’ve pretty much stuck to plan.

Mixed in my first-ever tempo run during training on Thursday, with the middle three miles at 7:24, 7:20, and 7:12, which is pretty fast for me. Already seeing that it will be a challenge to work cross-training into this plan if I’m going to keep a fairly consistent lifting schedule. Need to get some swimming and biking into the mix – still working on how I’m going to pull that off.

Tomorrow’s long run is 12 miles, and I’m going to go ahead and do the full 12 and see how my wonky leg responds. I’ve taken the advice of Jeff at Dangle the Carrot, my recovery-drink Mr. Miyagi, and ordered some Ultragen recovery drink which I’ll be trying for the first time after tomorrow’s run. Went with the cappuchino flavor, so I’ll be the one in the parking lot sipping from my water bottle with the beret, black turtleneck, haughty affectation, and questionable hygiene. Basically just another Sunday.