It's a sprint, not a marathon

As I type this at 4:30 a.m., my body is screaming "go back to bed" and my brain is screaming "get some work done." It's a miracle that I can concentrate and type with all that screaming going on!

So I'm back from China, can't say I'm fully adjusted yet to east coast time, but will do my best to shock myself back into a running routine for the remaining few weeks. As I look ahead, there's the need to accomplish 2 short-term ("sprint") goals: (1) stamina and (2) strength.

Now, you'd think I'd have both of those under my belt by now, but given the travel to China and my recent work in local town political effort (that's another story altogether), I'm probably 6 weeks behind a 'real' training schedule. The benefit of having done this marathon thing a few times now is that I do honestly believe that I can make up for some of this lost time; however, I'm also smart enough to know that the body will only take so much abuse at once. So, I'll be back targeting 4-5 runs per week from here on out, with a long run of about 22 miles planned for sometime in the next couple of weeks...will likely 'taper' with 2 weeks to go rather than the traditional 3, and will likely do some 'stairs' at the local high school stadium to get the legs a bit stronger in the short-term.

As of yesterday, I cleared a big fundraising hurdle for the Pine Street Inn, surpassing the $3,000 mark. Thanks to all of you who've contributed to date. I'm still about $1,500 short of my goal, but am hopeful to cross this important 'finish line' in April, as well. Thank you again to my family and friends for your support. Sincerely, Paul

Greetings from Shanghai!

So, I never thought I'd be in China just a few weeks away from the Marathon, but life has a funny way of mirroring the running experience that way...sometimes it's more fun to take a new road and enjoy the change of scenery! Anyway, my first run in the PRC was on a treadmill (not exactly my favorite way to go), but am hopeful to get an evening run in (outside, pollution and weather permitting) on Friday night. The funny part about running on the treadmill was the ambiguous label on the speed/distance numbers -- here I am thinking that somehow flying for 20 hours and getting erratic sleep and consuming new foods turned me into this supercharged, running dynamo stud...turns out, the distance and speed metrics were km, not miles and so, not so ironically, my speed was about exactly where I left off in Natick (slow, giving way to partly slower over time)! Oh well, in my mind, I could hear that funny noise from the Six Million Dollar Man. BTW, Shanghai is a great city. Am enjoying the experience so far, and look forward to working with some colleagues here over the Easter weekend...hey, it's still Communist China (don't let the huge church outside my hotel window fool ya!)

Heading to Shanghai!

So, as if my erratic training hasn't already got me wound-up (I've been embracing the 1-2x per week extreme training runs...18 mile, 14, 13, 17, you get the idea), I'm also about to fly to Shanghai for a week! Nothing says "disrupted training regimen" like a trip half way around the world!. More about China some other time, this blog's about running (well, lately it's been about my utter lack of running)

So over the past few weeks, as I train for Boston, I've run at long distances, followed by long periods of NOT running...don't try this at home!!! I'm quietly starting to freak out about the Marathon and my ability to actually finish this one. What's funny is the reaction I get from real runners about how illogical it is that I can actually run like this...here's my secret...I stop when I'm too tired or in too much pain, and I listen to the aches and pains and, above all, I respect the course...hopefully that will be enough to get me through on April 21st!!