I was training for the Boston Marathon which of course is in April. I live in Western New York, and the weather leading up to the Boston Marathon sucks for running outside. The roads are often covered with snow, ice, or slush. And temperatures can be well below freezing. Basically it’s not much fun training outside during the winter, and can be downright dangerous at times. Often the shoulders of the road are piled with snow, forcing you to run in the road. Then you really have to worry about cars.
I was curious if anyone had developed a simulation of the Newton Hills from the Boston Marathon course for the treadmill. I did a search and found some different ones. I like one by Ryan Hall, though he had you running like 12 miles before you even got to the hills. I was trying to put together something I could do for an hour workout. So instead of running the 12 miles before hand, I start off running on a 0% grade for a mile, then go straight into the hills. When the winter weather kept me from running outside, I would do this workout. Usually two or three times a week. When I ran it, I worked to keep my heart rate between 75% and 80% of my maximum heart rate. I didn’t normally do a warm up, but I would stretch sometimes. I found that over the weeks and months I did it, I got faster and faster. When I ran the Boston Marathon last week, the Newton Hills were no big deal. I felt like I had run them dozens of times.
Here is the Newton Hills simulation I did on my treadmill:
Miles 0-1 @ 0% grade
Miles 1-1.7 @ 3% grade
Miles 1.7-2.7 @ 1% grade
Miles 2.7-3.0 @ 6% grade
Miles 3.0-4.4 @ 1% grade
Miles 4.4-4.8 @ 4% grade
Miles 4.8-5.4 @ 1% grade
Miles 5.4-5.8 @ 6% grade
Miles 5.8- @ 0% grade
I have a little printout of this program taped to my treadmill. Then I watch the distance readout on the treadmill display and adjust the grade. I also adjust the speed since as the grade goes up, I need to reduce the speed to keep my heart rate in the 75-80% range. I would love to program my treadmill to do this workout, but the user defined programs on my treadmill, go by time, and not distance. So I just do it manually.
Several years ago, I bought an iPod Shuffle. It was the new 2nd generation model. It seems like it would be great for running. It’s small, light, and made of aluminum which you would think would make it tough. I ran with it on multiple occasions. But during one long sweaty run, I paused it, and it wouldn’t unpause. I thought maybe the battery was low. But I couldn’t get it to charge. The computer wouldn’t even recognize it. I took it to the Apple store, and they tried various things, but they couldn’t get it to do anything either. They replaced it, and gave me a brand new iPod Shuffle. I was pretty sure the sweat had killed it.
I was never particularly fond of the iPod Shuffle to begin with. I HATED being forced to use iTunes to load music onto the mp3 player. I would have rather have dragged and dropped the music onto it. I soon replaced the iPod Shuffle with a Sandisk Sansa Clip which I loved. It had a longer battery life, a tiny display, and was only a little bit larger than the iPod Shuffle. And I could drag and drop my music onto it. I didn’t have to use iTunes!
While on vacation, I dropped my Sansa Clip into a creek. I dried it off, and it worked for a while, but eventually died. I guess being FULLY submerged in water was a little too much for it. So I pulled out my old iPod Shuffle and charged it up. I took it out for a run last night. About 25 minutes into my run, it started raining. The iPod Shuffle was clipped to my shorts, and under my shirt. My shirt got wet, and the wet shirt was contacting the iPod Shuffle. Apparently that was enough. By the time I got home, the iPod Shuffle stopped playing. I thought maybe the battery was low. I hooked it up to my computer and nothing. I even tried charging it with a USB adaptor. It’s dead. It didn’t even get that wet. It was just in contact with a damp shirt. Apparently the iPod Shuffles are hypersensitive to moisture, which doesn’t make for a good mp3 player for running! I mean you are going to sweat, and it is going to rain sometimes! And I have read of many other people having the same issues! I won’t be buying another iPod Shuffle! What a piece of crap! I will buy another Sansa Clip!
This was my third consecutive year running the Boston Marathon. I qualified for Boston at the Steamtown Marathon in October of 2009, running a 3:30:26. That BQ was good for both 2010 and 2011. My BQ time was 3:30 and I needed the extra 59 seconds they gave you.
My first Boston Marathon was in 2009 and it beat me up badly and I ran a 4:47. I did better in 2010 running it as an easy fun run for a 4:12. This year I trained much harder doing some 80-90 mile weeks and running more hills. I hoped to possibly run a 3:20 marathon. This was an aggressive goal considering my PR was 3:30:14.
We arrived in Boston Saturday afternoon. We checked into our hotel in Waltham, and met some friends for dinner. It was nice to see my LVM21 friends! We ate at a great little restaurant named John Brewer’s Tavern where we have eaten in previous years.
I woke up early Sunday morning, and met my friend Jeff for a jog. We ran the last two of the Newton Hills. I got a picture in front of the John Kelly Young At Heart statue. After Jeff dropped me back at the hotel, we got ready and caught the T into downtown Boston. We headed to the expo. I got my bib # and race packet. Then we explored the expo. I would have liked to have spent more time there, but we had reservations to meet friends for lunch. We left the expo, and headed for the Charley’s where we have eaten the previous two years. This year they were very slow. Lunch chewed up more time than we planned. My friend Mike still needed to go to the expo to get his race packet. But before we went there, we stopped at Marathon Sports and he bought a Boston Marathon jacket. Good thing! It turned out they were sold out of jackets at the expo. My wife surprised me by buying me new jacket as an anniversary/Valentines day present. We headed to the expo, and I managed to get Mike on the local news by telling the news lady that he was the famous white runner from Kenya. Mike got his race stuff, and we cruised through the expo. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long as we needed to catch a T back to Waltham as we had 6pm dinner reservations.
We had yet another get together at The Chateau restaurant. I ate the Toasted Ravioli. I was a little worried about the amount of cheese I ate. I was hoping it wouldn’t cause me issues during the race.
Then it was back to the hotel. I got my race gear together, set my alarm for 5am, and went to bed. I got some fitful sleep. The alarm went off at 5am, and startled me awake. I got up, showered, and headed down to the hotel business center to play on the internet for a few minutes. Then I headed back up to the room, and got dressed for the race. I chose to wear my Brooks shorts, and a Brooks singlet. As for shoes, I wore my Brooks T-6 Racers. I also wore one of my HeadSweats Ironman finishers hats. I had my race bib pinned to my singlet. I wore a Fuel Belt tri belt to carry six Carb Boom gels. I wrapped a 3:20 pace band around my right wrist and pinned 3:25 and 3:30 pace bands to my singlet. I would try to run a 3:20, but was prepared to run 3:25 or 3:30 as backups. I also had my mp3 player loaded with music.
My wife drove Mike, Jon and I to Hopkinton and dropped us off within walking distance of the high school. It was just a short walk. I got some pictures, then settled in. I brought a fleece sleeping bag which I laid out on the ground. I stretched out and got a little bit of sleep. I also managed to visit porta potties several times.
I was in wave 2, corral 4. At 9:40 I was scheduled to head to the start line for a 10:20 start. I stopped at a porta-potty for one last visit. Then I dropped my bag off at the bus which turned out to be bus #25. That was a good sign as 25 is my lucky number! I headed down to the start. My heart rate monitor strap was sliding down, so I quickly stopped at a Polar Spring booth and soaked the strap with water. This worked. I arrived at coral 4 with only a minute or two to spare. I never heard the starting signal, but people were moving, and I went. As we crossed the start line, I started my Garmin 305. I started running. Then I started my mp3 player. My pace band had me running the first mile at 7:32 pace. But there were so many people, that I finished the first mile in closer to 8 minutes. The course was just too crowded. In the next few miles I continued to lose time to the 3:20 schedule. My heart rate was a little higher than I wanted to be at. I planned to keep my heart rate at below 159. But my heart rate was staying in the 160s. I tried to keep it below 170. I decided that a 3:20 marathon was not going to happen today. I managed to hold pace for the 3:25 marathon. I tried to drink Gatorade at every water stop. I missed it at the first couple stops as other runners would grab the cup I was going for, or the volunteer would suddenly pull it away as I was to reaching for it. I also swallowed a Carb Boom gel every four miles along with some water. I tried drinking while running, but this wasn’t working well. So I started grabbing the cup and slowing to walk just passed the water stop, drinking the Gatorade, and starting to run again.
Things were going well. I ran passed the girls at Wellesley College this year, not stopping for kisses. The girls didn’t seem as loud this year.
Around the halfway point, I started getting a side stitch. It was seriously hurting me. I had side stitches like this before during a race, but that was at mile 23. I managed to suffer through them, then, and get my first BQ. But now I was only halfway, and started thinking my race might be over. I stopped and spent part of a minute stretching and rubbing my side. I started running again, and the side stitches subsided. I came to the hills around mile 15. I have been running a lot of hills around my house. I have also been doing a Newton Hill Simulation on my treadmill. Because of the hill training, the Newton Hills seemed much more manageable this year. Soon I was over the top of Heartbreak Hill. I was keeping an eye for my friend Jeff, but never saw him. Now it was mostly downhill to the finish. Only 5 miles to go, but I was getting tired.
The last five miles are mostly downhill, but there are still some slight uphill parts. I was no longer on pace to run 3:25, but should be able to break 3:30. The crowds were amazing and were really cheering on thee runners. I was getting tired and forced myself to keep running. I didn’t have any more to give to push the pace, but I was able to hold the pace I was running, or at least close to it.
I saw the Citgo sign and there were only a couple miles to go. I was busy doing math, counting down the distance to the finish. My GPS distance was off as always. At mile 24 it said I had run about 24.5 miles. So I was busy doing the complex math of adding half a mile and figuring out how far I still have to run. So I was turning on the Hereford Street. One more turn. I was scanning the faces in the crowds for Helen or anyone I knew. But there were so many faces. Then I turned onto Boylston. Only about a quarter mile to go. I ran to the finish still scanning the crowds. There were signs guiding us to the left or the right depending on which wave we started in. I ran to the right. I threw my hands into the air as I crossed the finish line. I stopped my Garmin 305 at 3:28:58. I knew I finished slightly faster than that. I knew it was a PR (personal record) and a BQ (Boston Marathon qualifying time).
Right after I crossed the finish line, I slowed to a walk, and then sat down on a railing. After three and a half hours of running, I just need to sit. After a minute, I got up, and made my way through the finishers chute. I got some water and a Mylar blanket. I noticed that my right shoulder was hurting, especially when lifting my bottle of water to drink. I switched the bottle to my left hand. When I got my medal, I asked the girl if I could have a hug, and she gave me one. I got some food, but none of it appealed to me. I continued my way through the chute and got my drop bag. I saw a guy dressed in a full gorilla suit with a medal. I asked if he ran in that, and he said yeah. I asked what his time was and he said 3:40. OMG! 3:40 in a gorilla suit! I told him he was an animal. I ran into Jon who finished about the same time I did. Jon and I made our way to the family meeting area. Helen was waiting there and congratulated me. She got a text about my finish and said my official time was 3:28:52. My bib # was 12009, meaning 12008 people qualified with faster times than me. I finished in 7324th place overall. It was like I passed almost 4700 people! So I had a really great race! Jon’s wife and daughter were a few blocks away, though we actually had to walk around the long way due to closed roads. Actually it was more of a hobble than a walk. Soon we met up with Jon’s family. We hobbled to the T station and headed back to Waltham. We made a stop at McDonalds and I got an Angus 1/3 Pounder with Bacon and Cheese and a vanilla milk shake. Then it was back to the hotel to relax.
We met up for dinner with Jeff, Jon, Connie and Hannah. We had a great time. Hopefully I will be able to get in to the next year’s Boston Marathon.
My first treadmill was a ProForm that I bought used for $300 on eBay. I owned it for about a year and a half during which I broke the frame, had it re-welded, and then trashed the belt.
The second treadmill I bought was a Horizon T900 for which I paid $1000 new. I owned it for three and a half years during which I wore out bearings and cracked the running deck 4 times. Thankfully I bought the extended warranty, so they refunded my money for this treadmill.
I decided to buy a heavier duty treadmill. After reading reviews, I bought a Sole F85. It was delivered last Friday. The box weighed over 300 pounds! I unboxed it Saturday, and with the help of a couple friends, we managed to carry the heavy deck up the stairs to the room where I planned to have it set up. I am guessing the deck weighed over 200 pounds. And since it was so wide, we had to carry it turned on it’s side to fit up the stairs and through doorways. It took about an hour or two to put it together. I probably could have done it faster, but I was taking my time making sure I did everything right.
The first thing I can say about it is that it is very heavy and solidly built. I didn’t have time to run on it Saturday night, so my first run on it was Sunday morning. I wore the Sole heart rate monitor strap and started my run at about 7:30 pace. My heart rate quickly climbed up into the 190s which was ridiculously high for the pace. I paused the treadmill and rewetted the strap. This time my displayed heart rate stayed a little more reasonable. As I ran at a reasonably easy pace, my heart rate climbed into the mid-150s or over the 144-151 range I trying to run in. I bumped the speed down a 1/10th of a mile per hour, and my heart rate dropped down into the 130’s. I bumped the speed up a notch and my heart rate climbed into the 150s again. I have been training with a heart rate monitor for a long time, and found this very strange. So I pulled out my Polar HRM, and started using it. I found that the treadmill seemed to be picking up the signal from my Polar HRM strap. Cool! But I noticed that the treadmill heart rate display didn’t match the Polar watch display very closely. In fact, I have routinely seen it disagree with the Polar watch by 20 or 30 beats per minute higher or lower. That’s ridiculous!
Next, the built is fans are useless. If I stick my face right next to them, I might feel a little air. So I have a fan on the floor pointed up at me while I run.
When you start the treadmill or change the speed, the speed changes kind of on the slow side. It would be nice to be able to adjust this. It registers the speed/distance during this speed up differently my Horizon. On the Horizon, if I started the treadmill, and hit 10mph, it registered that I was running at 8mph (7:30 min/mile pace) even during the speed up and I would finish the first mile in 7:30. On the Sole, it will register the actual time/distance covered, so if I start the treadmill, and hit 8mph (7:30 pace), with the slow speed up, I might actually finish the first mile in 7:45. I kind of miss the ProForm which came up to speed pretty quickly. Surprisingly the cheaper ProForm had some great features that the more expensive treadmills don’t have.
If I pause the Sole F85 by hitting the stop button once, it’s supposed to pause for five minutes. But there have been a couple times when I have paused it, did a quick chore, and came back to find he treadmill had reset losing the time/distance I had run. I am almost certain I was away for less than five minutes. I used to do this on my Horizon with no issues. The Horizon would also pause for 5 minutes. Again, I miss the feature of the ProForm treadmill which would pause for much longer. It is possible I might have hit the stop button, and it registered two taps which will reset the treadmill. I don’t know. But I have lost my workout data a few times like this which is really annoying.
Someone said they purposely make the courses long for certification. This is true, but they don’t add much. For USATF certification they have to add 1/10th of 1% of the distance, so every certified marathon course is at least 26.245 miles.
The courses are measured the shortest possible distance, from corner to corner. Most runners don’t run this. (I try to when I think about it). For some reason, I see most runners actually run the corners wide. Why? I have no idea. Bust all that distance adds up.
But the biggest error comes from the Garmin itself. It doesn’t know exactly where you are. It knows approximately where you are, usually within 3-15 or more feet. Bigger error with poor satelite coverage…like if you running under thick tree cover or around buildings, or hills. It thinks you are 3 feet that way, wait you are 15 feet that way. So as you are running, it thinks you are zig zagging side to side and back and forth.
Try this, start your Garmin and set it somewhere for a while…the poorer satelite lock the better…Notice that it will occasionally show speeds and distances, even though it is not moving. Garmin has some logic to figure out the unit has not actually moved, and will filter this out. But when the unit is actually moving (the locations are changing more than a certain amount of feet), these errors are not filtered out. So that is why most marathon courses come out as 26.7 or more miles on the Garmin.