Cruise to Run - Departing San Juan

I got up early (and let Jenny sleep) in order to make the 8 am run out to the fort in San Juan -- about a 5k run there. It was _great_ to be amongst a bunch of people who just loved to go out for a run. One of the runners was a super-skinny guy with a bandage on his upper leg. That was Dick Beardsley -- one of America's best marathon runners back in the early 80's -- who came second in 1982 by 2.6 seconds in the Boston Marathon to Alberto Salazar in the race known as the 'Duel in the Sun' -- both of them breaking the previous Boston record with a 2:09 and change finish time. Running with Dick was sort of the equivalent of playing shinny hockey with Bobby Orr or throwing the ball around with Roger Clemens.

We met Brenda, Lisa, Heidi (all sisters) and their friend Ann -- all from near Hershey Pennsylvania. We met Mike who was the organizer of the race routes -- whose personal best marathon time was 3:09 a number of years ago. And we met Glenda from Napanee Ontario who was on a cruise a year and a half after losing her husband and who just started running (longest race was a half marathon). A young couple, Emily and Jon Roe, were there as well -- he flies with the U.S. Air Force and she does triathlons. It was a good run -- a bit fast at the end (running with Emily and John) -- clipping along at 5 minute k`s (8 min./mi.).

Checkout from the hotel was at noon so after going for a quick walk after getting cleaned-up, we headed back to Roscoe`s -- luggage in tow -- with Glenda, in order to have lunch. Glenda, Cathy and I had Mofongo (a chicken or beef stew incorporating a root vegetable -- highly recommended) and proceeded to stimulate the local economy by having a bunch of beers in order to re-hydrate from the morning's run. Raoul was our waiter and was excellent -- punctual and with a good sense of humour. If you are ever in San Juan, I'd highly recommend Rosco's.

We took a short taxi ride to the ship. Jenny had prepared me for lots of lineups based on her previous cruising experience. But I have to say that Princess Cruises was very punctual. We got into the lineup to drop off our luggage, which they informed us would be at the outside of our rooms in an hour. We then made our way into the lines to get checked into the ship, and then finally security. It was only about a half-hour until we were at our room, and our luggage was indeed there in about an hour. We met our room caretaker (Dennis -- pronounced Deh-ni, the French way) and then made our way to the top deck to watch the N.Y. Jets battle (and eventually lose to) the Baltimore Colts on the jumbo-tron above the pool. Jed is a _big_ Jets fan. After the game, we all got some supper at the buffet and then Jenny and I toured around the ship to get acquainted with everything.

Jenny packed it in around 10 pm, but I forced myself to stay up until 11:45 pm for the Casino to open. I was testing a new concept in playing blackjack and by midnight I was up $105 (7 times typical bet of $15) so I cashed-out and headed back to the room.

Cruise to Run - San Juan

We arrived in San Juan today from Detroit, in preparation for boarding the Caribbean Princess for Cruise to Run 2010 tomorrow. My legs were already a bit twichy as we hadn't been running since we did our hill training speed work on Tuesday - five days ago! The first run wasn't scheduled until the first port out of San Juan -- St. Thomas on the U.S. Virgin Islands -- but we chatted with Jerry Friesen whom we met in the Holiday Inn Express hotel lobby and he mentioned that a bunch of people were going to do a 10 k run out to the fort and back at 8 am tomorrow, before we board the ship on Sunday afternoon. We spent the rest of the day walking along the beautiful beach, and then 'pre-hydrating' for the next day's run. We met Bart Yasso and his wife -- Bart is the C.R.O. (Chief Running Officer) of Runner`s World magazine -- and Jed asked for some advice on speed-work for a half marathon (Yasso 400`s -- 400 m at your finish time (e.g. 1 min. 35 sec. if you want to do a 1:35:00 half marathon) plus 200 m. rest x 20 repeats).

The beer of the day was Medalla (pronounced meh-di-ya) Light -- a beer brewed in San Juan. It was quite good -- sort of Coors Light-ish. The bar/restaurant of the day was Orozco's -- they had inexpensive Medalla ($2) and $4 for a 'Sunset' -- very friendly and punctual wait staff where we met a couple of girls celebrating a 53rd birthday (neither remotely looked in their 50's). We had supper down the road on Ashford Street at a nice little Italian restaurant, next to Tijuana's (into which we tried to get, but the lineup was too long).

Hill work / speed work

Today Jenny and I did an 8k speed work / hill work session. 1k of warm up plus 7 x 500 m. of hills at, basically, as fast as we could go without puking. 500 m. cool down run between each uphill leg took us to 8k in total. Jenny's calf in one of her legs was still a bit sore from the long run we did on Sunday -- but she still managed to bang out consistent 2:32 to 2:35 500m. uphill legs and finally managed to slow down to 2:40 for the last leg. My hill runs ranged from 2:17 at the start to 2:06 at the finish, so I was reasonably happy with those times.

There was a light snow falling while we were running and the road was wet but not too slippery. Certainly our last hill work session (on dry roads) was a bit faster. But I was satisfied that I worked hard enough to build some muscle and, hopefully, some speed with tonight's run.

Overall -- with the speed segments and the slow cool-down segments -- we were at 6 minutes per kilometer. Not bad, really.

Long Run - 28k

Jenny and I did our long run today, starting from our house with a scenic (in the fog) route to Lucan, a 10 k route around Lucan, and then a 7.5k run back. The temperature was -3 degrees C. when we started and about 1 degree C when we finished. Foggy when we started, but pretty clear when we finished 3 hours later.

At the start, Jenny wanted to do no faster than 5:40/k (9:04 per mile) and in fact we did an average of 5:41/k (9:05/mile). We started in the 5:40-5:50/k range and by the finish we were consistently around 5:30/k with our last mile at a 5:10/k (8:16/mile) pace.

It was a good run. Took us 2:38:26 to do the 27.9k distance. We were both tired by the end, but feeling good. Not out of breath -- but glad to be done.

We get a two weekend break from long runs as we do the Cruise to Run beginning next weekend. Starting in San Juan, Puerto Rico and then going to St. Thomas, Tortola, Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados and then back to San Juan. There is a run in each port (other than San Juan). Should be fun!

9.5 Mile Tempo Run

The weather was cooperating tonight -- probably about 1 degree above zero Celcius -- so compared to when we started training in December, it was downright balmy! We ran just over 15 kilometres -- roughly 9.5 miles -- at a pace of between 8:07 and 8:24 per mile. The average pace (including the warm up and cool down) was 8:30 per mile.

We didn't get the normal "runner's high" after this run, though. In fact, I feel like crap now. Think I may have caught a bug or something. Taking it easy tonight.

Hills - 6 x 500 m.

We did 6 repeats of 500 m. hills -- from the base of Fallon Road to the top of the hills on Coursey Line about 500 m. on either side of Fallon. Brian Watson joined us tonight as he is officially starting his training to try to set a 2:55 PR in the Mississauga Marathon (I believe) in May or June this year.

My repeats of the 500 m. hill climbs (roughly the same as Heartbreak Hill along the Boston Marathon route) were: 2:10, 2:09, 2:07, 2:10, 2:12 and 2:03. Jenny was anywhere from 16 to 20 seconds slower than me -- so quite good no matter how you look at it!

The weather was not bad -- about -5 degrees C. with no wind to speak of. Traffic along the road was light -- the occassional car, truck or snowmobile. Footing was okay -- not perfect, but better than other days when we were running on loosely-packed snow (like running on sand).

We both felt good after the run! (Now I go to play hockey in about an hour!)

Training for the 2010 Boston Marathon

It's been a long while since my last post -- 2 days after the 2009 Boston Marathon to be exact -- and a lot has happened from a marathoning perspective. Specifically, my wife Jenny ran her first marathon in Grand Rapids, Michigan and qualified for Boston in her very first try. And she beat her BQ time by over 15 minutes, running it in 3:45:49!

So now we're training for this year's Boston Marathon, which is being held on Monday, April 19, 2010.

Jenny has put together the training plan and we're getting out for a speed work, tempo run and long run each week -- no matter what the weather. Plus I'm playing hockey 1 or 2 times a week, and I'm also exercising my horse 3 or 4 times a week. So I have between 7 and 9 athletic events each week, which is keeping the muscles feeling like they're being worked.

I'm going to try to make posts more often. They won't be exciting -- more of 'Speed work tonight. 6 x 500 m. ' -- but it will at least let me keep a web log of our progress.

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to run in Boston. The two options I'm considering are to pace Jenny and simply enjoy the run, or train hard and try to get a Boston PB upright and smiling. Probably won't make the decision until a few weeks prior to the race. In the meantime, Jenny's training times are close enough to what I need to do that I'll run with her for tempo and long runs, and do my own pace for speed work.