The Rowe Family Blog

Yippee!

For the past three years I’ve made a trip to Florida to hang out with my sister and friends.  While there we’ve participated in the Miami Marathon and Half Marathon.  For the previous two years I ran the half marathon.  This year, having achieved my goal just 2 months prior I decided to change things up.  I upgraded to the full marathon with the intent of running 100% stress free.  I wouldn’t worry about my time.  I wouldn’t worry about what I was eating before the race (within reason of course).  I wouldn’t worry about anything!  …And that’s what I did.

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As I mentioned briefly in my race report for the 2009 Las Vegas Marathon I ended up spending a night in the hospital following the race.  I feel obligated to post a few things about that event.  I don’t want anyone that comes across this blog to be discouraged by what happened.  After you read this post I hope you’ll agree that it was just a big misunderstanding and that I didn’t really need to be hospitalized (but I blame no one for what happened).

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I’m having a lot of trouble starting this race report. I have so much I’d like to say and so much I could say but that would be too long and boring for everyone but me. This race wasn’t just a race. It was the bookend of a long and difficult but fulfilling chapter in my life.

The race is less than 1 week away. Training is over. All that I can do now is try to rest my body as much as I can to be in the best condition I can be for Sunday. Almost every other variable is out of my control now. As hard as it is I have to give in and accept that I can’t control everything. I’ve trained hard and endured a lot on the road and off the road. What I’ve endured this year is worse than what I’ll endure on Sunday. I have no doubt about that. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything.  Training for this marathon has been a real challenge.  The mileage hasn’t been much of an issue but it turns out that I managed to end up with “iron depletion.” Read the rest of this entry »

The third weekend in September has meant one thing for the last 4 years, the Rochester Marathon and Half Marathon!  This was my first half marathon back in 2006 and my second marathon in 2007.  I ran the half in 2008.  Each year the race gets better.  This is probably my favorite race of the year.  This year was incredible. Read the rest of this entry »

People say the only constant is change.  I’ll add to that to say that things change in cycles.  A few months ago I was super excited about working my butt off to qualify for the Boston Marathon.  But things happen.  Things change.  I haven’t given up on this goal but I was close.  Some things changed in my life that not only made running a lower priority but also made it less enjoyable for me.  Running became a chore when it had been something that caused me extreme joy.  I don’t think I’ll ever forget running the Miami Half Marathon in January of 2009.  I felt pure ecstasy during that race and I continue to run searching out another high like that one. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I started my official training for the 2009 Las Vegas Marathon.  The first day of the training plan called for a rest day!  For previous marathons I’ve roughly followed training plans generated from the Smart Coach.  This time I’m going to follow a modified version of the Pfitzinger 70/18 plan.  It’s a plan that spans 18 weeks and peaks at 70 miles per week.  The first week is 54 miles which is about the mileage I’ve been putting in lately anyhow.  I’m going to modify the plan slightly to work around my life and to change the focus of the plan slightly.

It was a busy weekend.  One that didn’t allow me to do my typical Sunday morning long run.  Sometimes life gets in the way of running.  I had trouble running most of the previous week primarily due to sore calves that I earned at the 2009 Utica Boilermaker.  Like a small child I was grumpy because my routine was thrown off.  To top it off it started to pour rain while I got ready to head out.  I wasn’t heading out for just any run, this was a 20 mile run.  This would be the longest I’d run since October of 2008.  I didn’t want to go.

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This was my fourth consecutive time running the Utica Boilermaker 15k Roadrace.  The last race I ran, the Airport 5k, wasn’t particularly fun for me.  I took it too seriously pushing for a time goal.  Many times I’ve said I want to keep running fun and avoid being so competitive.  This race was a return to racing for fun for me.

Although my primary goal was to have fun I still had time goals but they were not overly aggressive.   I wanted to break 1:05 and hoped to break 1:03.  Various race time predictors said I was capable of breaking an hour based on my time at the Airport 5k but I felt that was aggressive based on the course (the boilermaker course is far more difficult than running on a runway!).  I had a blast and learned some valuable lessons that day.

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