Let Me Hear Your Balalaikas Ringing Out

Coach Fultz, you did it. You had me begging for mercy this morning during some of the 400 repeats. I don't think you planned to have the heat on the indoor track set on "Inferno" with 0% humidity so that after every repeat my mouth felt like it was packed with dry steel wool. But you did plan on having 100 meters of "recovery." My heart rate and breathing could recover enough, but it was my legs, my hips, my quads and shoulders that were filled with a cocktail of lactic acid.
This is what training is all about.

The Minimum

According to my unofficial records, I have raised the DF minimum! I hope this is a just a step along the way to my goal of $8000! I am grateful to everyone who has donated. Thank you!

On the training front, my right ankle has been bothering me a little, so I am going to keep an eye on it. I am scrapping my run today to let it rest. The schedule is a Rest day anyways, so it was easy to give myself a break.

A quick one...

After last week when I plugged my radio show on this, my training blog, I forgot that for the next couple of weeks, I have given the majority of my radio show to the radio students so they can practice. So, if you tuned in after 6:30, you did not hear me, you heard students learning the ropes.

That is fine with me, I am tired, beat, exhausted, weary, worn-out, sleepy. I'm so tired...

Week in Review, Week 8: 2/17 - 2/23

And of course Henry the Horse dances a waltz....
Sun: Off
Mon: 3
Tue: 22 x 200meter (the subtitle of this workout could be: how to make a marathon runner respect the 200!) total for day: 7.5
Wed: Fairly intense Yoga workout
Thu: 5
Fri: off
Sat: 20! Felt strong throughout (its all relative strong at 18 miles is different than strong at 8 miles)
Week total: 35
2008 total: 250

Looking back: Tough week even with only four days running. I was sore from the 200's and am feeling pretty dehydrated right now, several hours after finishing my 20 miler. Beautiful day for the 20, too. The backroads of Keene were beautiful after yesterday's snowstorm.

Looking ahead: I haven't. Let me bask in my post 20 mile glow. I saw something on the schedule about sets of 400's with 100 meter recovery, but I don't want to think about that right now.

Fundraising: go to my page and see for yourself! Know, that what is showing is not the full amount.

Indoors?Outdoors!

Just for posterity, I ran outside this morning. It was raining and in the 30's. It seemed to be a matter of principal after doing every run indoors this past week, including a 13 miler. Considering that the rain and melting snow we had today is supposed to freeze over night and I have to do a speed workout tomorrow, I will be on the indoor track again. It is better than slipping and messing up my leg.

Also, I do a radio show on a college radio station on Monday Nights from 6-8PM. You can tune in online at http://www.wknh.org/ and use the streaming link. I do your usual free-jazz, noisy pop music and obscure rock gems. It's a short line from Punk rock to free jazz.

I don't want to jump the gun on this, but after tomorrow, I will be 100% mailed out. All fundraising letters will have been mailed. I know the letters I send tomorrow will not be the last, but at the moment, they represent the last addresses I have not sent to. From this point, it will probably be one or two at a time. I mention this only because it is a relief, it was a lot of work, it feels really good to be doing this, but the flavor of envelope glue lingers on my lips and Liz wants her dining room table back. I'm just patting myself on the back because, now, the fundraising focus shifts to follow ups, thank you letters and enjoying the fruit of our labors. Oh, and the focus should also have something to do with training for some big race...

Check out my show (mondays 6-8pm). Hopefully the streaming link works.

Week in Review, Week 7: 2/10 - 2/16

SUN: off
MON: 3 easy
TUE: 6 easy
WED: off (ice storm giving way to rain...)
THU: 8
FRI: 3
SAT: 13
weekly total: 33
2008 total: 215

Looking back: a scheduled easy/recovery week with no hard workout and only a modestly long run. This whole week was run indoors.
Looking ahead: It was an easy week for a reason. The week upcoming holds a pure speed workout (repeat 200's: a lot of them) and the scheduled long run is 18-20 miles.

Getting strong now!

Fundraising Update

I had hoped that today would be the day that I would get the mail and be able to blog that today was the day that I finally broke $1,000 raised so far. Instead, I got the mail (which we had not been receiving because our mail carrier did not seem to think we had sufficiently shoveled his path to the mailbox) and in the mail were 14 envelopes with donations totaling $987.20!!!
Ah... but it gets better.

As I put the donations in the mail to DFMC, I was thinking to myself, if only one letter had come one day sooner, I could say I had a thousand dollar day. It was later, back at work, as I was about to leave, I quickly checked my DFMC webpage. I check my page compulsively to see if any donations have come in or if any of the checks I sent in have been processed. I check it so often that 99% of the time I check it, it has not changed. It changed today. Another donation came in making today a ONE THOUSAND DOLLAR DAY!!!!! So never mind that I have broken one-thousand dollars, thanks to the donations I received today, I am just shy of two thousand total; almost 25% of my goal of $8000.

Thank you everyone, today was a very exciting day.

And just a by the way, my Dana-Farber page is obviously behind, and as of now, does not reflect anything but online donations.

Again, thank you to everyone, Dana-Farber is world class, cutting edge research and 100% of your donation goes towards making a difference in people's lives TODAY!

Oh well, tomorrow is a long run and it seems like I have a choice: run in single digit temps with high winds (negative wind chill) on icy, dangerous roads or spend 2 hours on a treadmill and on an indoor track. Do I have a third option of steam room, massage and lemon water?

Week in Review, Week 6: 2/3 - 2/9

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO HAVE DONATED SO FAR!!! THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS TAKEN THE TIME TO READ THE LETTER!!!

Sun, 2/3 : 11 plus
Mon 2/4: Off
Tue 2/5: 10x800meter with 400 meter recovery. 9 total miles
Wed 2/6: Yoga
Thu 2/7: 6
Fri 2/8: 3
Sat 2/9: 16 (last 5 in a snowstorm)
week total: 45miles
2008 total: 182

Looking back: Great week. Tough workout on Tuesday and felt strong on today's 16.
Looking ahead: My weekly schedule says this for my hard workout this week "Easy Recovery Run." Thank you, coach Fultz.
Fundraising: with almost all of the letters mailed, I am taking tonight off, and will get the remaining envelopes filled and in the mail on Monday.

Why the first 30 minutes of today's Run was best part of any training run so far:
I spent the first 30 minutes of today's run listening to the new Giraffes?Giraffes! album. This is some serious music. G?G! are two guys who do instrumental guitar-drum rock. They are also good friends. The first impression most listeners will get is that these two guys are just trying to show off their chops and that the guitarist is enamoured with his loop pedal. But upon further listening, you can tell that the there is a deep current of emotion running through their music. These two musicians are able to use their chops to express a full range of emotion. The fire burns deep within! There is a good amount of tongue in cheek humor in their song titles, album art and all around presentation of themselves. For example, the second song on their latest album is titled "I Am S/H(im)e[r] As You Am S/H(im)e[r] As You Are Me And We Am I And I Are All Our Together: Our Collective Consciousness’ Psychogenic Fugue."
The song itself is a suite with several distinct sections and features Glockenspiel, layers of e-bow guitar, and the voice of Alan Watts. This is passionate music. For the older generation, they will instantly bring up Frank Zappa at his finest and perhaps shades of Yes. For those keeping up with the million mile an hour growth of the today's underground music, the obvious comparison is early Hella, but I think the more appropriate reference is Battles. G?G! show endless chops, but their ability to use restraint sets them apart. By the end, you realize that these songs are not to amaze you with technical ability, but are there to move you.

Check them out:
www.myspace.com/giraffesgiraffes (you can listen to some of their music here)
www.lovesinheatrecords.com (their record label)

Enough about treadmills

I am already discovering the joy of fundraising! Through this blog and my fundraising, I have learned something new about a "new" cousin (new because he married my cousin Dee who has been my cousin since the day she was born). He is training for an IronMan! I linked to his training blog on the sidebar. He's also a musician. We speak a similar language, because I understand what he means when he says "downtempo electronica." Not sure if we conjure the same influences though (Royksopp, Boards of Canada and Nightmares on Wax anyone?).

I've got about 90% of the mailings done, a sixteen miler on the slate for tomorrow... life is good! What did Jerry sing? "Nothing Left to do but smile, smile, smile."

My Training Motto

Ok, So I was a little harsh on treadmills a few hours ago simply because the treadmill I ran on this morning was placed in front of the local news and then Good Morning America, and all that was on was Britney, Heath and Britney. GMA did show this video of a public defender getting punched in the face by his client... about 15 times as a teaser. It is not the treadmill's fault that the news in our country doesn't show news anymore, but rather focuses on entertainment.

I know that on Marathon Day, I will be grateful for the hours spent on the treadmill. The miles I ran in one place.

This is the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, the Boston Marathon! A few runs on the treadmill is nothing!

I have developed my training motto and I am now going public with it:
"Commitment Today
Sacrifice Today
There is no Tommorow!
Some Finish Lines Just Mean More!"

No Treadmills!

I do not like treadmills. I do not like them when it rains, I do not like them when is snows.
I have been forced onto these horrid creations from the underdark several times over the past few weeks largely due to unsafe weather conditions (ice and dark).
While on the treadmill, I listen to my iPod and watch the local morning news stretch into GMA or Today. I am proud that in today's world, all we have to worry about is a has-been pop-starlet trying to soak up as much national attention and narcotics as possible and how a promising young actor's respiration was impeded by a combination of medications. Seriously, this morning, for what seemed to be 4 out of my 6 miles on the treadmill the "news" focused on Britney and Heath. The other 2 miles focused on the weather and recent extreme weather events. The tornado's being actual news. No coverage of the primaries and certainly no international news. I ran SIX miles, which stretched across actual news and into a morning news show. This is why I hate treadmills. Now I am worried about Britney's children. I need to know where she stands on the issues.
Enough of my rant, it does not make too much sense.
Two quick fundraising notes:
1. I noticed that some of the return envelopes went out with 39cent stamps. I asked the post office and they should still get to me, postage due. They don't say 39cents, but I feel like an idiot for not noticing that Liz had stopped using them on the bills.
2. I am staggering the letters, getting about 20-30 in the mail every day or so, depending on how much time I have to stuff the mailers.

ALSO: A HUGE THANK YOU TO TARA W. She is the first "new" donor. Thank you, thank you Tara for your quick response and generous donation.

Week in Review, Week 5: 1/27 - 2/2

Sunday: off
Monday: off
Tuesday: 5
Wednesday: 5x1000m w/ 600m recovery on indoor track: 7.5 total (yoga in PM)
Thursday: 3.5
Friday: 7.5
Saturday: Off due to unfortunate and unforseen circumstances. As I write this on Sunday 2/3, I have completed the longish run I had planned.
Week Total: 23.5
2008: 137

Looking back: A good week, knowing that I have still completed my Saturday longish run, even if it was on Sunday. The workout on Wednesday was really good.
Looking forward: because of the rearrangement of my schedule, I'm looking at running 50 miles this week. But I don't want to speak to soon.
Fundraising: The first batch of Letters are mailed!!! I have about 150 more to send, but sent out a small batch earlier this week with the stamps I had. It was a random sampling of annual donors to DFMC and new people who I hope will consider becoming donors. Anyways, once I get more stamps, more letters will be in the mail.

Thanks for reading. Please donate!