Personal Record at Philadelphia Marathon 2010

Well, kids, training does make a huge difference. I trained well for the Philadelphia Marathon this year, and I had my most amazing marathon race ever. I set a personal record. I went under 3:30 for the first time. I had my first negative split. It was the race that I had always wanted to run since I started running 6 years ago.

I started out with the 3:30 group and hung in with them for the first 9 miles. I broke away after mile 9. By mile 15, I was between the 3:30 and the 3:20 groups. I slowed down a little bit the last 5 miles but never too far out of my pace. Half way through, I knew I was in a position to break my personal best, and that reason gave me a huge motivation to push through.

So, now I can put aside my under-performance at the Philly marathon. I always had one reason or another to run poorly at this race. I beat my time last year by 1:21. Here are all my Philly times:

2010 3:28:42

2009 4:49:57

2008 4:32:22

2007 4:14:14

2006 4:12:05

2005 4:25:29

2004 4:56:53

Confessions of a Fins swimmer

Fins locker room
Originally uploaded by reflexblue

In the past few months, I have reached another milestone in the pool: swimming 4,000 yards in a Fins practice. At first I thought I mis-counted, because many Fins swimmers including myself can't count from 1 to 8 during a set. I counted again a few times, and now it's not really a big deal anymore to go over 4,000 yards in a distance focused freestyle set.

Philly marathon training, week 7

From Picasa File Photo

November 8-14 (one week until the Philadelphia marathon
Monday: swim
Tuesday: swim
Wednesday: chest, run
Thursday: swim
Friday: biceps and triceps, run
Saturday: swim, run
Sunday: rest

Total for the week: 9 miles swim and 22 miles run

Training is over! It's race time!

Philly Marathon training, week 6

November 1 to 7 (2 more weeks until the Philly Marathon)

Monday: swim
Tuesday: chest & triceps, run
Wednesday: run
Thursday: swim
Friday: rest
Saturday: swim
Sunday: Ben Franklin Bridge Challenge 10k (43:56 chip time)

Total for the week: 6 miles swim and 21 miles run