Personal Trainers…. on your mp3 player!

Someone told me about this website where you can purchase personalized training programs and download them on your mp3 player.   There are different sets of training routines and it looks like they have new routines every month.  Looks good to me!

iTrain

It’s been a long time….

A friend of mine recently emailed me letting me that I haven’t updated my blog lately.  Yes, I know…. I know.. I know 

It’s been a whirlwind of craziness these past couple of months.   Notably, I’ve been rehabbing my knee that I injured prior to the NYC Marathon.  It’s been a slow and sometimes frustratingly humble recovery.  I’m almost 90% and about ready to start running again.  THANK GOD.

For all those who are in recovery and/or just want to get stronger running base, I recommend taking a class that concentrates on your Core muscles, which basically are your abs, lower back, chest, butt, and thighs.  I’ve been taking a boxing condition class that includes 1 hour of "hardcore" core strength training followed by 30 minutes of "bag" work.

I can’t wait to start running again…… 1 month and counting. 

What to do next

Now that New York has come and gone, it’s time to figure out what to do next.  New York was one of the “Big Five” that every marathoner should do at least once in there lifetime:

1. New York City Marathon
2. Chicago Marathon
3. Marine Corps Marathon (in Washington DC)
4. Los Angeles Marathon
5. Boston Marathon

Chicago, Marine Corps, and LA are all signup-and-run marathons, meaning that there’s no criteria to get into the marathon.  New York is a lottery-based entry, where roughly 60,000 people apply and only 30,000 get invited.  Boston is a qualifying event, meaning that marathoners need to run under a qualifying time to be invited to run the marathon.  For my age group, I’ll have to run a 3hour15minute race. 

Right now, there’s NO WAY that I’d be able to qualify for Boston.  Well, at least not yet.  My marathon Personal Record is no where near that time.

I love running, but I tend to “enjoy the sites” more during the marathon.  I’m what’s called a “strong-and-steady” runner, meaning that I take longer than usual, but keep a steady pace throughout the race.  It’s a good way of saying that Boston will take longer than usual for me to qualify. 

Last year, I made a 5-year commitment to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2008 and run the fabled marathon in 2009.  Why 5 years?  Well, just like my running, I’ll be taking the conservative route to getting there.  This gives me a long term goal to shoot for.

Along the way, I’ll be doing one of the “Big 5″ once a year with Boston being the final year in 2009.

Next year will most likely be Chicago; however, if I get picked to do NYC again, I’ll do that one again.  It’s THAT much of a good race.

The New York City Marathon experience

I didn’t know what to expect going to NYC for my marathon. Honestly, I didn’t. I’ve been waiting for over 2 years to be in this race and decided, injury or not, that I was going to go. I ended up having to walk for a good 7 hours before I crossed the finish line.

For a big city marathon, I totally recommend doing it. The crowds were really supportive even for us people who walked the race. The race starts at Staten Island, goes through Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronyx, and ends up at the Tavern at the Green in Central Park. Essentially, I had a 26.2 mile walking tour of New York City. I know that if I would have ran it as I was supposed to, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the scenery as much. I plan on signing up for it again next year.

Running at Lemur Speed…..

November 6th is going to be a day of truth for me.  It’ll be the day that I’ll be running my 4th marathon, in New York City of all places.  About 29,999 runners and myself are running through the streets of New York, passing by the bouroughs of Brooklyn, The Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, and Manhatten.

That’s just plain crazy, but I’m going to enjoy every minute of it.