Verbal

One other thing.
Remember in The Usual Suspects when Verbal Kint leaves the police station at the end of the movie? After limping along for several yards, his leg starts to straighten out and he’s able to walk normally. It just occurred to me….with my sore knee, that’s EXACTLY how I’m walking now. When I stand up, my knee is stiff and painful, but after a few strides, I’m okay. Thankfully, this doesn’t bother me too much while running or I'd be looking for Kobayashi to drag my sorry butt into the Jaguar.
Still fifty eight days to go.
Pat

One Step Beyond

With the onslaught of fall, a few things start to occur around the South Jersey area that I truly love: Cooler weather (although this mornings run was made more difficult due to heat and oppressive humidity), playoff baseball, fall foliage, outside fires, football at any level, comfort food….I could go on & on. The other this that will occur is the training miles required for the Philadelphia Marathon will begin a serious spike up. This Saturday’s training under the Hal Higdon plan will require me to complete 15 miles.
Shouldn’t be a problem, right? After all, I completed 13 miles just a few weeks ago & felt pretty good afterwards. The only cause for concern is one indisputable fact: I’ve never run more than 13 miles in my life.
I’m hoping that every stride after 13.1 miles will carry with it less knee pain & more a sense of accomplishment. Fifty eight days to go.
Thanks for reading,
Pat

PDR or PBR?

Sunday morning one of my favorite runs, The Philadelphia Distance Run will take place. A few of my friends will be running, but I’m going to sit this one out this year. The PRD coincides with my daughter Faith’s birthday, and it’s always difficult to pull of and organizing a children’s birthday party with ice bags strapped to both knees.
It’s supposed to be beautiful weather Sunday morning, so I’ll be thinking of you guys as you make your way through Old City, past The Art Museum & transverse both sides of the Schuylkill River. Before you know it, you’ll be at Boat House Row, and then just up the "hill of pain" to the finish back at The Art Museum.
Good luck to everyone & thanks for reading,
Curls

Lone Wolf

One of several of my motivations for running the Philadelphia Marathon was I knew how fun it would be to toe the line, joke during the many miles & the share the thrill of crossing the finish line again with Rossi, Ron, Kate, Rick, Harry The Hat, Ira & Rob Haney. While my training has been progressing nicely, the camaraderie I was hoping for on November 22 is in serious jeopardy. Registration for The Philadelphia Marathon was topped out at 18,000 & closed last week before many of my friends were able to register. While some of my friends are going to take less than honest methods in order to get on the course, others have decided to sit this one out. Undeterred, and since I signed up in April, I’m pressing forward with my training.
Week 8 is behind me. Thirteen fun filled miles were completed in the early hours Saturday morning. In years past running a half marathon would have put me in the Lay-Z-Boy for several days. However, this time I felt surprisingly good afterwards. The Hal Higdon training schedule really does work. Runs of 3, 7 & 4 miles await me this week, and a fall-back run of 10 miles is coming up this Saturday. After that, things get kinda intense as I’ll be averaging over 30 miles a week cumulating with a 40 mile week right before Halloween. Talk about scary.
Thanks for reading,
Pat

You Talkin' To Me?

Ahh, the cool weather of September has arrived right on schedule. I was able to completely enjoy running three miles this morning while temperatures hovered in the high 50’s. When I made the decision to run The Philadelphia Marathon, one of my main concerns was training in the heat of late July & August. A slight measure of relief is upon me as I know (for the most part) cool runs await me for the remainder of my training.

The mileage is starting to pile up now as I’ll be running 24 miles this week. The Hal Higdon training schedule I’m following offers this nugget of advice for week seven:
"You'll be able to accomplish tomorrow's long run much more successfully if you are rested and ready. This means getting a good night's sleep tonight too. Social considerations aside, you probably don't want to hang out all night at the bars, then be forced to get up the next morning and train hard. What's important in life to you? Make that decision and follow up on it."

It looks like the old boy Hal was may have had Rob Haney, Ira Krassan, Rossi, Ricky Haney, Ron Rossi, Harry "the hat" and me in mind when he penned that paragraph. With football season upon us, I have to make more of a concerted effort to pass up one last beer and the forth quarter of the Tulsa / Tulane game in lieu of a good nights rest.

Thanks for reading,
Pat