Couch2Boston

It seems like only yesterday, but was actually 6 months ago, that I threw caution to the wind and started this whole Chicago2Boston journey.  To be honest, I spent most of the time assuming that I'd never really have to worry about it happening but now here we are so onto the logistics... This is not a normal kind of post but maybe my friends can help me figure out the little details that I'm forgetting!  In all seriousness, forcing myself to sit down and write all of this out helped me catch 3 or 4 different things that might have been forgotten so I guess it has already helped some. What to bring?  What did I forget? Click the title or here to see the list of stuff What to wear? Click the title or here to review the wardrobe challenges of 5 days and 1 carry on bag Friday, October 8th Buffalo2Boston How to get there... Delta kept f'ing with my flights so, "Hello JetBlue!" Where to stay... Nowhere!  Just picking up the Boston Marathon bib on the way to Chicago ...

I've owned the couch2boston.com domain name since right after running my first Boston Marathon way back in April 2014 .  I'd thought about starting a run blog throughout the adventures of 2012 and 2013 but always came to the same conclusion, that I could do the things or I could write about the things but I probably couldn't do the things and write about them at the same time.  This year I resolved to write about training at least once a month.  The resolution stuck pretty well for a while, but the last 3 months put me right back to the beginning, I could do the things or write about them but not both. I'm now on the precipice of Chicago2Boston .  The hay is in the barn.  Taper has started. 😱  I'm scared, for real.  I'm losing motivation fast.  I'm looking for excuses not to run.  I don't know what the heck I was thinking when I put together a training plan for Chicago2Boston that was built around running twice a week.  WTF.  I'm a...

I'm long overdue for a training update for July but that will have to wait for another day.  (spoiler: 👍🏃🚴🏋💦😎) Time to play for a couple of weeks until the real work returns Today is my last day at my current employer.  I'm a software guy and I've had the pleasure of doing software things with a wonderfully talented group of people for the last 8 1/2 years which in software years is, well, like forever and then a bit so I'll soon be off to new adventures with new people.  Until the new work adventure starts, I'll get a couple weeks off to gorge on biking, running, weightlifting and the free time to get the blog caught up on the things I've learned while trying to prepare for Chicago2Boston .   To the friends I've left behind to work, THANK YOU!!!  You've all been wonderful to me over the years and I'll be forever grateful for the many, many, many things that you've taught me and the laughs we've had along the way.  I KNOW we will stay i...

The evidence.  Shhh. About Time It feels like only yesterday, or maybe more like this morning, that I was writing a recap of April and then  May .  I guess that's what happens when life gets in the way and I wait until 6 days into my vacation from work to get around to updating the blog (and my training log) for the last 3 months.  Oops.  Tomorrow?  That's when I file away all of the tax documents that have been sitting on my floor since we filed months ago.  After that, I'll hide the evidence from the stress eating I've been doing during very intense days at work.  Now, back to our originally scheduled programming... What Happened? June vs May  😢 Amount of time training is up 25% (8:51 to 11:06 per week) Training volume is still way too low, but at least it is heading in the right direction Average weekly run mileage has regressed from 16 to 20 miles 🚨 I doubled the number of 10 mile runs to 4 The glute/hip is starting to come around Body...

  TL;DR I'm much happier than I look here.  lol. That's me trying to smile through the coordination needed to selfie us in public while standing. Note the publish date, better late than never? The beginning of the end Chicago2Boston "Training Plan" What Happened? May vs April 😢 Can we just skip this part and move on? Amount of time training is down 22% (11:22 to 8:51 per week) Training volume is about half of what it should be by now. Average weekly run mileage has regressed from 28 to 16 miles 🚨 I'm still struggling to get my longer runs up, but did make it to 10 miles twice, just like April Body Weight?  Who knows. Let's start off with happier things... The Good News The month of May felt like we emerged from a cocoon at the same time as our other butterfly friends, both new and old.  It was wonderful to break out of the bubble and connect with real live people.  The internet is awesome and all, but there really is nothing better than being able to conne...

 TL;DR I give you, my faithful underappreciated reader(s?) a rabbit.  Enjoy. Note the publish date, better late than never? What training log? Got shot (twice) Registered for Boston Marathon 2020 fall edition Still a cranky ass, um I mean glute Be humble, stay healthy continues What Happened? April vs March Amount of time training is down 7.5% (12:17 to 11:22 per week) Includes run, bike, weights and yoga Average weekly run mileage has regressed from 29 to 28 miles I'm still struggling to get my longer runs up, but did make it to 10 miles twice Body Weight is down from 230 pounds to 225 pounds What month is it? This month feels like it had 91 days, and it kinda did.  After the change last month where I took on more responsibility at work, I feel like I've been doing sprints every day while sitting at my desk.  Despite the extra effort, I managed to hold my own and got a lower but similar training volume in during April than I did in March.  However, in the proce...

TL;DR Body still healing, feels better Training more Running longer Optimism stole my credit card Heavy lifting is starting to suffer Day job Warning: Too many puns contained within What Happened? It is hard to believe that another month has gone by already!  It has been a bumpy 31 days, but a good 31 days. At the end of February, I rediscovered that when my glute starts to complain that some easy pedaling on the bike makes it feel better.  I rode that knowledge into a productive March.  Ha!  Rode!  Get it?  Yeah, I'm sorry, please don't give up and stop reading.  No more bad puns. I managed to ride twice in February but have gotten on the bike 18 times in March.  The rides are typically limited to 30 minutes on a dumb trainer (no Zwift) and at an effort just hard enough to work up a sweat.  I'd like to think that I'm getting some more endurance by adding these rides after runs, and I probably am, but the biggest consequence is that they make...

Home2Buffalo2Boston2Chicago2Boston2Buffalo2Home Way back in January (8 weeks ago), I was itching to put something on the calendar that seemed plausible.  I opted for the Chicago Marathon even though a big city marathon seemed impossible.  A friend (Thanks Stef!) made the decision easy by pointing out that I could just buy insurance for the race registration, refundable hotel, etc.  If the Chicago Marathon didn't happen, I'd be out $50 at the most.  Sold.  With the rollout of the vaccine starting and some more time maybe we could get races back in their full glory by the time the starting gun goes off in Chicago on October 10th, 2021. One week later, my jaw dropped when The B.A.A. announced that the Boston Marathon was going to be held on October 11th, 2021.  At first, I was pissed.  I'm still chasing a 10 year streak of running the Boston Marathon, how could they pick the day after Chicago?  How rude!  However, my anger soon turned to excitem...

I used to love a wonderfully simple, but powerful pace calculator over on coolrunning.com before active.com killed the site off.  What was brilliant about this calculator is that it didn't try to only do one thing.  It isn't really a pace calculator so much as a "give me 2 things and I'll figure out the 3rd" calculator.   That feature combined together with an easy way to shift between units, like miles for the distance but kilometers for the pace, and lot's of different units to select from made it very cool.  Where else have you seen the ability to take a 400 meter track time, enter it under pace and find out how long it would take to run 1 mile?  It even helps turn pool swims into open water distances! Marathon Pace If you want to know what pace a 3 hour marathon is, select Marathon from Pick Event, put 3 in the hours box before Time and select "Pace?", answer is 6:51.91 per mile. Oh, you wanted to know the per KM? Then select Per Kilometer and cl...