Goodbye Old Friend

Posted on August 11, 2008 by Progman2000


It looks like roadkill, but that’s my Nike Dri Fit running hat. It feels like it’s been around since Bill Bowerman founded Nike, but I think I’ve probably had it for about 3 years. It started it’s life with me on the tennis court. After a year or so of that it hit the road racing circuit. It was with me through my training for the NJ Marathon and than accompanied me for 26.2 miles on race day. I’ve been trying to revive it to make another run at Philadelphia but I think it’s time to call it quits. This sucker is going in the trash this week I think. I am looking for suggestions on where or what to buy for the next one. Some prerequisites:

– Dri Fit, Clima Cool, or otherwise sweat friendly (duh)
– Obnoxious color, something that can easily be seen amongst a crowd of runners
– Reflective accents would be nice, you know, keep me from getting hit by a car on those early morning runs

Besides my hat biting the dust, this was a good week of running. I found an unknown to me, deer infested preserve in Marlboro that I was able to run through on my long run Sunday. And there’s just something about training during the summer Olympics that puts an extra spring in your step. How about Michael Phelps? Good god, the cross training in my current plan makes me really appreciate this guy. I can barely swim two decent laps back to back – he is super human. I think Mark Spitz’s 7 medal record is about to be toast – Go Michael!

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It Starts Today

Posted on August 4, 2008 by Progman2000

Today is the first day of a 16 week training plan targeting the Philadelphia Marathon on November 23rd. Ironically, as is often the case, it is technically a rest day, since most training plans are usually based on a long run happening Sunday. With that thought in mind, Sunday morning I hit Bodman Park in Middletown, the holy land of the Jersey Shore Running Club marathoning community. I was optimistically shooting for a 5:30am start Sunday, which means getting out of bed around 4:45 – 4:50am. Actual starting time was closer to 5:45am – not too bad, a little more realistic, although it probably kept me from running a couple of extra miles. I was the first runner out of the clubhouse Sunday, although there were a few people starting to show up to do 20 miles at 6:00am (obviously the people doing the September and October marathons).

I ended up knocking out 11 miles before I had to bail out. Weather was almost perfect Sunday morning for running – I show 68 degrees on my computer but it felt cooler than that and the humidity was bearable for a change. I gave Stephen King’s audio book “NightShift” a try – nothing better than Stephen King when running through the woods by yourself in the early morning dimness. Some of his stuff leaves me cold though, and this was one of them – I suppose I should have given it a pre-screening. I was 3 1/2 miles in before I even got past his long winded prologue, so that kind of killed it for me.

Local non-runners look at me in bewilderment when I say that the JSRC does it’s long runs out of Bodman Park. If you didn’t know any better, Bodman Park is nothing more than a baseball field in a little recreational area bordering Middletown and Red Bank. However, it sits on the edge of the Navesink river and is adjacent to Hartshorne & Huber woods. Besides providing ample wooded trails to run on and scenic ocean views, it also provides hills – lots of hills. Excellent stimulus for the hills of the Philadelphia marathon. Below is the elevation chart for what I did on Sunday (that hill at 2.5 miles is by far one of the ugliest).


So I felt great Sunday morning and was anxious to bang out a couple more miles, but I had to double time it down to the Sea Girt 5k. We had a couple of friends running the race, and we were planning on having our kids run the kid’s races afterwards. I ran the 5k last year and it was nice but way too crowded for me. I had no desire to do it again this year but the organizers do a good job of providing stuff for the kids to do, including the races. This is the first 5k I have ever gone to where I actually watched the leaders come in (very cool, the winner logged a 15:43). The 5k started at 8:30am, so by the time people were finishing it had warmed up quite a bit (certainly a lot hotter than it was when I was suffering through “NightShift”). Our kids ended up running closer to 10:30am – a little annoying when the temperature is climbing and the race advertised a 10:00am start for the kids, but they made up for it by providing ice cream cones at the finish line. A nice way to kick off a marathon training cycle.

Posted in Bodman Park, Marathon Training | 4 Comments

Could I Beat Donovan McNabb in a 5K?

Posted on July 24, 2008 by Progman2000


Crazy right? These are the things I think about when I’m not thinking about what tension to string my racquets at or where to run my long runs. At first glance, it sounds pretty ridiculous – I mean, he’s a professional athlete. But so is guard Shawn Andrews (left, 335lbs) and I’m pretty sure I could beat him. So what about Donovan?

I recently watched one of the videos of Donovan’s Offseason workout in Arizona which is what got me thinking. The workout in the video consists of a lot of footwork, lateral movement, etc. The coach says this is supplemented by weight training, then throwing the football in the evenings – no mention of any running in there. Donovan looks big too – I know he’s done a lot of lifting in the past couple of years and has bulked up, which explains how he can make it look so easy to shake off linebackers. The Philadelphia Eagles list him at 6′ 2″ tall, 240 lbs – he’s a big guy. This is not the usual body type of someone winning their age division at your local 5k. So let’s have a look at the stats:

So while I’m 8 years older than him, he’s over 50 lbs heavier than I am. I know that 50 lbs is all muscle (hopefully), but it’s not all leg muscle (I searched but could not find any mention of miles ran per week). While he is still decent at scrambling out of the pocket, he trains to take a hit and to throw touchdowns. My 5k times are by no means stellar, but they are improving, and the bulk of my training is focused on running endurance & speed. I think I would have had a tougher time racing Donovan when he was still playing at Syracuse. After several years in the Pros and a couple of leg injuries, I’m making this prediction: I would beat him. I wouldn’t want to arm wrestle him and I wouldn’t even want to even try to catch one of his zip passes, but I think I would win in a 5000 meter race.

If he’s reading this and wants to take the challenge, there’s a list of local race applications here (the one on Aug. 3oth is women only, but you could still probably volunteer). There’s still plenty of time to kick one out before the season opener Sept. 7th. And seriously, I would trade the 5k race victory and all the glory that comes with it for a guaranteed ticket into the playoffs this year. I will even run the Philadelphia Marathon wearing a #5 jersey if that would help the cause.

[In the interest of journalistic integrity, I posted a question over at Donovan’s blog asking if anyone knows what kind of miles he runs – doubt I’ll get an answer, all those guys want to talk about is Football, sheesh].

Go Eagles – bring one home for the fans this year, please!

Posted in Eagles | 7 Comments

Real Runners Cross Train

Posted on July 19, 2008 by Progman2000

My venerable Trek 950 mountain bike. Purchased used in 1992 for $250, which was a king’s ransom in that day and age. This bike has served me well, going on cross state excursions to visit my soon to be bride, as well as biking down the mountains of Killington in August. The last of a breed of steel bikes manufactured at Trek’s facility in Wisconsin, it is a true classic. When I took it to an authorized Trek dealer last year to have the shifters and brakes replaced, the store owner suggested the repairs would be priced similar to the purchase of a new, lighter Trek model. Needless to say, I left the store with my steel frame 950 sporting new shifters and brakes.

Enter the Philadelphia Marathon. I am straying from conventional marathon plans by following the Furman Institute training plan. The FIRST training plans advocate a schedule of 3 very specific training runs a week plus at least 2 days of cross training (optimal cross training being cycling & swimming). I will probably be modifying it to include a 4th day of running, at least on weeks where I’m not totally shot. Most running coaches advocate some form of cross training to supplement a running program. However, the idea of actually replacing what would ordinarily be a day of “easy” running with a day of cross training seems crazy to the hard core, 7 day a week high mileage purists. In my case I am hoping to avoid injury by cross training, as well as prevent the burnout that I was starting to feel training for the NJ Marathon. It should be a lot easier to maintain a tennis schedule with a plan like this too.

It remains to be seen whether a training plan like this will get me closer to the 4 hour mark on race day. The plan is definitely more aggressive than my previous plan in that it has five 20 mile runs in it, not to mention the aggressive speed work. So we will see what happens when I tow the line on November 23rd. If nothing else all the speed work should at least allow me to knock off some PR’s in the 5k, 10k and half marathon in the process. Not to mention I will hopefully be a more accomplished swimmer & cyclist when it’s all over (triathlon anyone?).

Posted in Marathon Training | 4 Comments

Time to get the running shoes back on

Posted on July 15, 2008 by Progman2000

The Henry Hudson Trail, my old friend & nemesis. I forgot how much I missed it while I was traipsing all over the Magic Kingdom for the past week. It’s great to get back on the HH this time of year – it’s close enough to home to ride my bike to once school is over and I have the luxury of time in the morning. By the time the Philly Marathon gets here I will hate every rock, twig & squirrel that comprises the trail, but I will be a stronger runner in spite of it.

Happy 8th Birthday Christopher R. Yeah, those are Mario & Luigi hats and mustaches on those kids. If you don’t know who Mario & Luigi are, then you are far removed from the 8 year old gaming genre, and I am jealous of you for it.

Posted in The Kids | 2 Comments

Congratulations Rafa!

Posted on July 8, 2008 by Progman2000

It figures – what is starting to be called the greatest Wimbledon final in history, and I was in transit home from Disney World. Between watching the first set before departing, airport televisions, and keeping track on my blackberry I was able to stay current with the match until we were airborne and Fed & Rafa were tied at 2-2 in the fifth set. What a great match! I feel both sorry for Roger and happy for Rafa. I think this match will create a lot of buzz among casual tennis fans for the US Open. I know I plan on being at Flushing Meadows in August.

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No Marathon training this week…

Posted on July 1, 2008 by Progman2000

This is the first trip to Disney for these two, and the first time I’ve been here in 20 years (wow I’m old). So training this week will be limited to walking the expanse of the Disney empire. I will be back in running shoes on July 8th, with the formal start of training for the Philadelphia Marathon starting on August 4th.

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Jango Fett in the Disney Star Wars parade

Posted on July 1, 2008 by Progman2000

I don’t know, I thought he looked kinda cool

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Guess which marathon I’m running in the Fall?

Posted on June 15, 2008 by Progman2000


It makes perfect sense, I don’t know why it took so long for me to see it. I was raised in Collingswoood, NJ, which according to Google maps is 8.3 miles away from the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum. I grew up listening to news accounts of marathoners tackling the Manayunk wall, back before marathons were popular and people who ran them were supermen. I first watched Rocky when HBO premiered it at 12:00am on New Years Eve – I don’t remember the year but our cable box was a push button thing which sat on top of our television. I am a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, and I know the proper pronunciation of the Schuylkill River. It should have been obvious to me all along, I need to run the Philadelphia Marathon on November 23rd.

Posted in Philadelphia Marathon 2008 | 2 Comments

The Eastampton 5k!

Posted on June 15, 2008 by Progman2000

Eastampton, NJ – a town I had never heard of before this race. My sister-in-law & I agreed at the beginning of the year to run a 5k together this spring. I tried to find a race conveniently located between her house and my house. Enter the Eastampton 5k. Eastampton makes Freehold, NJ look like midtown Manhattan on a Saturday night (no offense to the fine people of Eastampton). A nice little town though, with a nice recreation area which hosted the event.

This was by far the smallest race I have ever run in. I am used to the road races of the jersey shore, which usually number at least several hundred. I am guessing the Eastampton 5k had about a hundred runners, although I can’t say for sure since I never saw the complete results. The course itself was pretty wacky. A certified USATF course, it started and finished on 1/4 mile of uneven, rocky grass turf. The remainder of the course was a combination of roads and wooded trails, which included a steep uphill with wooden steps. It was definitely not a flat, fast road 5k, but more of a cross country course (I am guessing anyway, since I never ran cross country).

Having said all that, I still set a PR of one full minute from my 5k time last year. I finished at 23:19, beating my 24:19 from the Pier Village 5k last year. I still have a lot to learn about pacing myself; my miles splits were:

1 mile – 6:48
2 mile – 7:52
3 mile – 7:56

So I made the dreaded mistake of going out too fast and fading at the end. Still a decent showing for the first 5k of the season. Now I have a new time to beat by the end of the summer. Best of all I was able to witness the triumphant return of my sister-in-law Beth to the road racing world. She is already gearing up for the next one (who doesn’t get hooked after that first finish?). It was kind of cool to run a small race in a little town on a whim like that – not sure if I will go back to the Eastampton 5k but I will definitely look for the little “Eastamptons” around me in the future.

Posted in Fellow Runners, Race Reports | 1 Comment