My journey as a marathoner...

The elevation profile above is the workout I did on Thursday, April 28, 2011. Freshman year, Coach Gardner introduced me and the rest of the cross country team at UMass Lowell to the infamous "Christian Street Hill" in Lowell,Mass. Many of you have probably noticed the name from my weekly training logs. When I first did the hill, I only ran it halfway because it was absolutely painful (especially for a freshman). The hill is 222ft up covered in just half a mile to the top. When I was getting ready for my New Bedford Half Marathon, I was able to do the full hill 8 times, which was probably one of my best workouts at the time. I run about 3 miles from the gym to the hill, go up and down the hill several times and then back the same 3 miles to where I started. This has become one of my favorite staple workouts during base phase. The entire run is all continuous which makes it even better. There has always been a saying that runners don't really need to do a whole lot of tr...

Monday April 18 10 miles, 64:44 + strides Tuesday April 19 8 miles, 52min 8x400 with full standing rest: 82, 77, 77, 75, 74, 72, 72, 69 Wednesday April 20 AM 5 miles, 35min PM 5 miles, 35min, drills + pool Thursday April 21 AM 6 miles, 40min PM 7 miles, 47min, strides Friday April 22 10 miles, 65:20 + drills Saturday April 23 10 miles, 69min + pool Sunday April 24 15 miles at 85% on Boston marathon course, 1:26:40 5:56, 6:01, 5:44, 5:50, 5:48, 5:55, 5:45, 5:46, 5:47, 5:48, 5:37, 5:40, 5:47, 5:37, 5:39 76 miles

Monday Apr 11 off, travel from Brussels-London-Boston Tuesday Apr 12 5 miles, 36min + strides Wednesday Apr 13 60 min bike at 120rpm Thursday Apr 14 5 miles, 33min + strides Friday Apr 15 off Saturday Apr 16 5 miles, 35min + strides Sunday Apr 17 off 15 miles For now, I have no racing plans on mind. However, I am hoping to just spend the next months building my training back up. If I feel good and confident enough, I will try some road racing in July or August. However, this will also depend on whether or not Cape Verde decides to send me for the World Championship in late August or even the African Games in mid September. Now that I have done a full marathon, I think I can finally consider myself a "distance runner". My racing options have opened up and I will be considering any races from track to marathon distances.