New Addition to the Family

Posted on November 7, 2008 by Progman2000

It was delivered at 11:45am on Tuesday, arriving at 82 inches long and weighing 400 pounds. It’s my new (used) Precor C956 treadmill. It’s a used commercial unit in great condition. I’ve already put some miles on it and it feels solid. I never thought I’d be excited about getting a treadmill, but this will go a long way towards getting in the miles during the ugliness of winter, not to mention other times when it’s just convenient to jump on to bang out a few miles. Let the base building begin.

I purchased it from a local dealer in Philadelphia, if any local runners are interested I can pass the number along. It was pretty reasonably priced and delivered personally by the dealer, who also services his equipment. Don’t let me be the only treadmill geek out here.

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Voting and Race Pics

Posted on November 4, 2008 by Progman2000

My polling place is within easy striking distance of one of my morning running routes. So I hit the road this morning and wound up at the polling station at 6:05 am. There were only six other people in line ahead of me, but I was still the only one in shorts, a fluorescent vest, and headlamp (I got some looks).

The race photographer has their pictures up from the 10k on Sunday. I never considered buying a race photo before, but I kind of like the first one with the Philly skyline in the background. That’s right around miles 5, so I look kinda good considering how wiped I was at that point. $15 if I want an electronic copy without the “proof” on it, I dunno…


Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Ben Franklin Bridge 10K

Posted on November 2, 2008 by Progman2000


What a beautiful day for a race! This is my 2nd year in a row running this race, a 10k which starts on the NJ side of the Ben Franklin bridge, runs to the Philly side and back to complete the first 5k of the race. The 2nd 5k runs through Camden and along the waterfront, passing the battleship New Jersey and ending on Campbell field. Very nice scenery considering you are running through, well, Camden, NJ.

I knew luck was on my side early today. I bumped into Flo (aka Girl in Motion) while I was running back to my car. I always struggle with what to wear for a race, especially when it’s cold out and you will be hanging out for a while before the start. I was starting to have a neurotic pre-race clothing crisis and thought that I needed to put something warmer on. She talked some sense into me and made me realize I was fine (she’s alot smarter than me). Thanks to Flo.

We got inside the stadium with plenty of time. I hit the baseball field for a couple of pre race laps while she waited to check her bag and warm clothing as late as possible (again, smart). While I was on the field I was surprised by an approaching ShoreTurtle who recognized me from my ugly yellow RoadRunnerSports hat. This is the first time I have ever met Flo or ShoreTurtle in person – pretty amazing I managed to bump into both of them considering we had made no formal plans and there were like 3,000+ people there. We ended up getting seperated but somehow regrouped at the mass of people at the starting line. It definitely made for some good pre-race karma.

I had pretty low expectations going into this race. I haven’t hit the track since I got injured during marathon training some 7 weeks ago. I just recently started doing tempo runs again and have just been starting to get my post injury mileage up. I went in thinking I would be happy running 8 minute miles and trying to crack 50 minutes. So I was pleasantly surprise by my results:

From the Garmin
Mile 1 – 8:09
Mile 2 – 7:24
Mile 3 – 7:15
Mile 4 – 7:14
Mile 5 – 7:26
Mile 6 – 7:40
.2 – 7:20

Chip Time – 47:10
Age Group – 41 of 174

The one thing I did differently today was I made an effort to not look at my Garmin – I pretty much ran by feel and then evaluated my progress by the three clocks that were on the course. I think the one time I looked at my Garmin was around 5.5 miles. I was pretty tired at that point and was pretty sure the watch would tell me I finished already. A great race, thanks again to Flo & ShoreTurtle!

Campbell Field before the race

Me & Flo (I’m hoping some of her BQ pixie dust wore off on me)

Me & ShoreTurtle (his pictures and his race time are both better than mine)

Posted in Fellow Runners, Race Reports | 9 Comments

Can’t Believe I’m Going to Say This…

Posted on October 24, 2008 by Progman2000

I’m getting ready to pull the trigger on a treadmill. I hate running on treadmills, it seems wicked tedious compared to the relaxed thrill of running on the open road. But I felt kind of guilty during winter training last year. Mrs. Progman is a teacher and I have a 6 & 8 year old. The entire winter they were waiting for the elusive snow day while I was silently praying for clear roads to run on. We didn’t really get any decent snow in NJ last year, so I got lucky on the training but my kids got jipped. I want to have a fallback for the inclement weather this year, not to mention it’s pretty convenient to have when you want to bang out 5 miles here and there.

I am leaning towards a used Precor or LifeFitness commercial machine. I am 6′ 2″ tall and tip the scale at about 185 so I need something that will take a beating. I’m pretty sure if I bought anything less than a gym quality machine I would ruin it in about a year if I was doing any kind of regular mileage on it. I’ve got a spot picked out in the ‘ol garage right next to the racquet stringer, just need to add the machine.

If anyone has any good advice on Treadmills I would love to hear it. I haven’t seen alot of mention of them in the running blog-o-sphere so I’m curious if anyone uses them or not.

Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Comments

Stick a Fork in Me

Posted on October 16, 2008 by Progman2000

I’m done – I’m still far from 100%, I lost 4 weeks of training due to an achilles/calf injury, and I know I’ll have trouble at this point building back up to a 20 mile training run without risking further injury, never mind the marathon. I officially switched my entry from the Philadelphia Full to the Philadelphia Half Marathon. It’s something I hate to do, but I don’t want my 2nd marathon to be a limping jog to the finish and risk being sidelined indefinitely afterward. I knew I was taking a gamble when I picked an aggressive plan on a minimal base back in August. I had assumed I would have plenty of steam left from my May marathon training to carry into Fall training – bad planning on my part.

The good news is I can at least throw in a few races between now and the end of November that I would have otherwise missed. I’ll probably do the Run the Bridge 10k, a cool race that crosses back and forth over the Ben Franklin Bridge, and happens to benefit the special education school that my sister in law is Principal of. There are not a lot of 10ks around here, and this will give me a chance to redeem my crappy time from last year (I would love to hear from any other local people looking at this race). And I may throw in the odd 5k, depending on how the leg is feeling.

So I will be running the Philadelphia Half Marathon on November 23rd. On the bright side I won’t be completely wiped out afterward, and after recovering from that I can start winter base building. I really think I would like to make my target race a marathon in the fall next year, but I still may throw my hat in the ring for the NJ Marathon in May, just for kicks and to redeem myself mentally a little bit after bailing on Philly (not to mention I live like 20 minutes away). So good luck to the Philly Full people – I will be one of those obnoxious half marathoners hogging the early water stations and bailing out at 13.1 mark! Woohoo – I think I’ll eat all of the food before you guys get finished too! See you on the 23rd!

Posted in Philadelphia Marathon 2008, Running Injuries | 13 Comments

Wow, I Need to be in Therapy

Posted on October 2, 2008 by Progman2000


Physical therapy that is. I finally bit the bullet and paid a visit to my physical therapist this week. I haven’t seen him since about 2 years ago when I was having some muscle imbalance issues. My Achilles was still bugging me on Monday so I broke down and made the call. After looking me over he determined my problem is actually being caused by a weakened right hip muscle (again with the muscle imbalances). So my right hip is out of whack, ultimately affecting my stride, and actually shortening my leg length which is causing more impact on my Achilles (all the googling in the world wouldn’t have brought me to that conclusion). He thinks this is something that can be corrected with hip exercises and stretching in about two weeks. And the best part: I don’t need to stop running.

I was fearing the worst – when you get to the point where you actually need to go to a doctor about a running pain all of the worst case scenarios in your head scream “no marathon for you”. When I told my doc my race was at the end of November he shrugged it off with a “no problem”. So I am cautiously, cautiously, cautiously optimistic. I am stretching and icing and doing hip exercises and continuing to marathon train like an idiot. I have taken a few days off over the last 2 weeks so it’s time to crank it back up a notch. I’ll take the old Achilles out for a test long run this weekend and see how it’s responding so far.

Good luck to everybody tapering for early October races, a bunch of big ones go down next weekend – watch those hip muscles!

Posted in Philadelphia Marathon 2008, Running Injuries | 14 Comments

Slight Change of Plans…

Posted on September 25, 2008 by Progman2000

Well, I knew I was having Achilles issues before running the Philly Distance Run, so I took 3 days off before the race. However, I gave the race a decent effort so it should come as no surprise that I am a little beat up the week following the PDR. Under normal circumstances it usually takes me about a week to bounce back after racing a half marathon. Going into a half marathon with some injury issues apparently makes it a little worse (who would’ve thought?).

Luckily, since I am completely in the middle of a training cycle, it’s actually an optimum time for me to take 5-7 days off to nurse what could otherwise grow into a bigger issue. So here’s my plan: No running until Monday (best case) or Wednesday of next week. Continue cross training between now and then, along with a barrage of stretching, ibuprofen & ice on the offending leg. Taking the time off now will actually allow me to build the mileage back up so I can still fit in 2 more 20 mile runs before the marathon. One of the bigger bummers of this ordeal is I think I have narrowed down the track workouts as one of the possible culprits with my Achilles. After extolling my love for the track in a bygone blog post, I come to find out the track does not love me back. Oh well, time to swap out the track workouts for a weekly medium-long run once I’m back to normal. The track sucks by the way, I hate the track…

In the meantime, good luck to anyone running an early October marathon – we are less than 3 weeks away from some of the local favorites (Hmm, Steamtown, Mohawk Hudson, Baltimore immediately come to mind). This means right around now is when you’ll start to see crazy, psycho, taper induced blog posting from some of the crazy locals, followed closely by a bunch of endorphin filled race reports. Good stuff man, thank god, something to take my mind off of the slumping economy and the ugliness of campaign season. Good luck everyone!

Posted in Running Injuries | 8 Comments

Philadelphia Distance Run

Posted on September 22, 2008 by Progman2000


The Expo: I hit the expo on Saturday to pick up my race number. I always go to these things with a wad of cash hoping to pick up some good running paraphernalia. I had three items of interest in mind I was looking for: an Endurance Bag, some Smartwool socks (keep hearing raves about these), and Cliff Shot Double Espresso gel (w/100mg of caffeine, yeah). Alas, with all of the vendors there, I couldn’t find these three things or anything else I wanted to blow my money on. I did end up picking up a shirt for my running wife from One More Mile, though, so that was cool. And I did end up playing running groupie and getting an autograph from Catherine Ndereba (won the Boston Marathon 4 times? showoff!), so the expo wasn’t a total waste.

The Race: I was dealing with an achilles tendonitis flareup mid week, so I hadn’t run since Wednesday – 3 days of no running, which is an eternity during marathon training. So I approached the starting line thinking I would at least go out the first couple of miles at marathon pace, which for me is around 9:05 per mile. If the legs felt ok I would try to run negative splits. So that’s exactly what I did – first couple of miles were conservative, just under 9:00 per mile. The leg felt ok so I started to gradually run negative. I ran a half marathon in March of last year (E. Murray Todd HM for those NJ people) where I averaged an 8:48 pace throughout the race. Once the legs felt ok, I figured I would try to run negative splits and just work on getting my average pace under 8:48 (does anyone actually sign up for a race shorter than a marathon and just run marathon pace?). I ended up more or less cruising negative throughtout the race – my final 4 mile splits were:

8:36
8:34
8:27
8:10

So I was feeling pretty good, the Garmin showed me averaging 8:42, well on target. However, my chip time at the finish was 1:55:34 – my race in March was 1:55:32 – Ack! I should have realized when my Garmin was recording splits 400 meters before the course mile markers at the end that I was a little off. I guess I did a bad job of running the tangents on the course which screwed me up distance wise. Oh well, another lesson learned about leaning too heavily on the GPS. It did help me run a clean negative split race, though, which is hard to do, especially in those early miles. My training schedule called for 13 miles @ 9:24 on Sunday, so I did 13.x @ 8:48x – not too shabby. I think I’ll focus on a half marathon in the Spring for a goal race to PR in (probably the New Jersey HM, we’ll see).

I was hoping to meet some fellow RWOL people who are training for the Philly Marathon but race morning was crazy and that never happened. I did get a chance to bump into Flyers26 for about 2 minutes, long enough to wish each other luck, while I was waiting in the porta pottie lines. He ran a great race and has a good race report on his blog, along with some quality pictures which I’m missing (http://flyers26.blogspot.com/). So now we get to sit back, relax, and bust our butts for the next 9 weeks prior to race day. I’m thinking it may be time to adjust my race goal, hmmm…

Posted in Race Reports | 11 Comments

Sunday Sucky Sunday

Posted on September 16, 2008 by Progman2000

I was among the unfortunate population of northeastern Fall marathoners that had a 20 mile run scheduled for this past Sunday. My first 20 miler of this cycle was two weeks ago, and I felt like I could probably have run another six when I finished – this past Sunday, uh, not so much. According to my SportTracks software, the temperature got up into the mid 70’s at least, although the real killer was the humidity. I don’t quite have a handle on that number but a solid scientific guess puts it somewhere around 1000% (humidity, one of the few reasons I hate New Jersey).

I MappedMyRun to put me by a water fountain at 4.5 miles and 15.5 miles to replenish my handheld bottle, as well as dropping 20oz of gatorade at mile 11. This is a strategy that has been uber successful in the last couple of weeks but fell way short on Sunday. In addition to the hydration plan falling apart, I had changed up my route to add a little variety, which inadvertantly gave me a bunch of unexpected hills (funny how it all looks flat from the driver’s seat of your car). I still managed to finish a little over 20 relatively strong, just a hair under my prescribed pace, but was definitely pretty dehydrated. If I had to do another 6.2 I would have been medical tent fodder for sure. That kind of gave me a whole new respect for anyone who was at Chicago 2007, be it a finisher or DNF’er. One good thing that came from Sunday was the successful maiden voyage of the SpiBelt I picked up to hold my BlackBerry (yeah, I had to do a sweaty 20 miles while on-call). Never even noticed this thing on me, pretty cool.

So this weekend is the Philadelphia Distance Run – a nice break from the increasing mileage and my only scheduled tune up race for the Philly Marathon. Still on the fence as to how to pace it – after this past weekend’s debacle I may just cruise at marathon pace and enjoy the bands (one at every mile!), but we’ll see, game day decision.

Posted in Long Runs | 13 Comments

Sunday 20 Miler

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Progman2000

Between all the wife’s racing this weekend I was still actually training for a marathon. Sunday was the first of five 20 mile runs in my training program. So I set the alarm and hit the road around 5:30am Sunday morning. Really long runs, at least for me, are a completely different animal than the day to day BS runs that are just meant to maintain fitness. For me these runs progress through stages – it takes the first 5 miles just to shake off all the little aches and pains, loosen up and get past knowing you have a hard couple of hours ahead of you. Somewhere around 10-11 miles I cross over the hump and get a second wind. Everything after that is just maintaining on cruise control.

This was by far the best 20 mile run I’ve ever had. Everything just came together – I am trying to make a note of everything I did so I can try to recreate it during the next four 20 milers I have in the FIRST program. I had 1 gel pre-run and then 1 at 9 miles and 1 at 15.5. I stashed a 20 oz bottle of Gatorade around mile 11 which I used to replenish my hand held bottle (definitely going with that strategy in the future, I have been going all water up until now). And I used an mp3 player. I won’t race with it but it’s invaluable when you’re out there for over 3 hours. And there’s something to be said when you’re at mile 19 and Pink Floyd’s “Run Like Hell” comes on – oh yeah.

So I finished with 20.24 miles on the Garmin – I felt so great at the end that I charged that last quarter mile at a 7:40 pace. Not sure if it was endorphins or what, but I hope I can sustain it on future long runs. Anyone interested can look at my course map and other notes I made here.

Posted in Long Runs | 10 Comments