Goal: San Diego Half Marathon - June 5, 2011

Finishing time: 1:53:55

Race Day - Finish Line

Training miles to date: 245.7

Welcome to my Team In Training home page.

I'm training to participate in the San Diego Half Marathon as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. All of us on Team In Training are raising funds to help stop leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma and myeloma from taking more lives. I am completing this event in honor of all individuals who are battling blood cancers. Please let me know if there is anyone you'd like me to run on their behalf. I will write all the names on the back of my shirt as I train and participate for this event. These people are the real heroes on our team, and we need your support to cross the ultimate finish line - a cure!

Please make a donation to support my participation in Team In Training and help advance LLS's mission. Any donation is greatly appreciated and will help the cause.

Thank you for your support!

Peter

Training Update:

WEEKS 12-16: Only one week to go until race day. All the training is done for this race and now I just need to heal up this week. The last five weeks have been challenging as I have been fighting first with a balky back and more recently with a sore IT band on my left side. This has been a challenging endeavour physically, but I think I know what I need to do to get through the race. Going forward, I'm really going to need to focus on the strength and conditioning of the core. I incorporated some of that on this event, but not nearly enough. At this point, it is going to be tough to get one hour forty-five minutes, but under two hours should be attainable.

I just went back and read all my earlier posts. Funny to think my goal coming in was under two hours and now I'm concerned I won't hit 1:45. I was mapping out a plan yesterday, which could get me in under 1:50. That would be something to be in the 1:40s.

Also looking back it is funny to think I never ran more than five miles at any one time, but just in the last five weeks, I've done three 8 mile runs, a 10 mile run, and an 11 mile run. It certainly hasn't been easy, but it does feel good. And, I've managed to drop 10 pounds and I'm closing in on 15.

On the fundraising side, I'm glad I passed my minimum, but it looks like I might fall a little short of my stretch goal. It has been quite an experience learning about what others are going through and in just these four months, I've had a friend diagnosed with cancer and immediately go into treatment and a colleague pass away suddenly from complications related to their treatment. I can only be so lucky to worry about my knee and back issues. I'll be running for them on Sunday as well as the other honored teammates I've met during this process. Total Miles to Date: 245.7 miles

WEEK 11: This was a milestone week for me with both my longest run ever of 10 miles and most miles in a week with 28 miles. The body is feeling good with just normal aches and pains. As long as I warm up and cool down properly, I seem to recover ok. The back is still a little sore, but is not hindering my workouts. Exactly six weeks to go to race day. I'm confident I'll finish under two hours and I'm shooting for a 1:45 pace or 8 minutes per mile. I'm not there yet so the next four weeks will be interesting. On the fundraising side, I'm just short of $3,000 and hoping I can get to at least $4,000, but still trying to get to $5,000. Total miles to date: 166.5 miles

The Old Agouga 10k

WEEKS 6-10: The total mileage reached 100 miles on March 27 with a nice five mile run. The day before I ran my first official 10K race with the team at the Old Agouga 10K. As it was my first 10K, by default it was a PR of 52:58, which was good for 201st place out of over 1300. If I can keep that pace up for another seven miles on June 5, I'll beat my goal of 2 hours or less. In Week 8 of my training, took the family to Park City for spring break. Skiing was great, but I tweaked my back, which limited my running for 10 days and sent me to the doctor. But things got better and this week I was back on the road. Tomorrow is a nine mile team run, which will be my longest run ever. I never thought I'd run nine miles. Only four miles above that is the half marathon. Total miles to date: 138.25 miles.

WEEK 5: The knee issues are behind me and it is full steam ahead. Knocked out seven miles on Saturday like it was nothing. Total miles to date: 62.0 miles.

WEEK 4: The knee troubles continued on Tuesday and some new muscles were really sore from the 5 mile power walk on Sunday. Tuesday night I was feeling really low wondering if I'm going to be able to see this through as my knees were really sore again today. I'm still optimistic this is just an adjustment phase. Wednesday I did an Elliptical workout followed by two days off. By Saturday morning, my knees were feeling somewhat better so I headed over to the beach to get in a 30 minute run. Good news, I finished the run with only normal discomfort. What a relief. I'm ready for Sunday and the longest run of my life, SIX MILES!!! Come Sunday, I was able to rejoin my pace group and cruise through the six miles. Let's hope this continues as I feel much better today. Total miles to date: 48.7 miles.

WEEK 3: This week was tough as my knees really started to bother me and affect my running. I had to dial it back to give them a chance to adjust and skip the Saturday run. My coach suggested I try knee supports to help relieve the pressure. The gear is really starting to add up. Shoes, training watch, runderwear, special socks, special shirts and now knee supports. A few more items and it'll be like getting ready for skiing. On the Sunday team run, I had to take it easy so practiced my race/walk technique for the five miles, but it was not easy. I had some new sore muscles I've never had before. Total miles to date: 35.3 miles.

WEEK 2: Erica helped me pick out a new training watch to help time and track my runs. The Garmin watch is awesome and easy to use. I'm able to set up interval runs, track my pace and route, and then seemlessly upload the data to my computer after the run. As a numbers geek, the watch gives me lots of data to analyze. This week was three more 30 minute runs for a total of 9.2 miles and then a 4.25 mile run today with the whole team. The back stiffness seems to be abating, but now my knees feel a little creaky. My knees are my biggest area of concern for being able to continue the training and run the pace I want to. Total miles to date: 25.85 miles.

WEEK 1: I kicked off my training for the 1/2 marathon on June 5th with a 30 minute run on Tuesday, February 8. It has been almost a year since I did any regular exercise and now I have an extra 20 pounds I'm carrying around. Hopefully the biproduct of this training will be the loss of those extra pounds. This event will challenge me on many levels; to run a distance I've never run before, to raise at least $2,200, and to get up at 5:00 AM several days a week to get my training runs in. I know my challenges are nothing compared to those I'm trying to support, but I'll do everything I can.

The first week was good, but I had to fight lingering stiffness in my lower back. I'm hoping that goes away as I lose some of the extra weight. Saturday was better as it was daylight (no 5:00 AM wakeup call) and I was able to go back to my favorite route along the coast. Sunday was the first group run and I got to meet all the people in my training group. Total miles to date: 11.5 miles.