New Hampshire

Spent the week of June 30 - July 6 with my family and parents in New Hampshire. The only remarkable thing about the week was the consistency of running and biking. I had set a goal of running or biking each day of the trip. I actually exceeded that goal one day by walking 6-miles in the morning with my mother and running 6-miles later in the day.

The running route did not change much. Back and forth between the house and the Tuftonboro General Store. It was a nice 6-mile round trip with a killer hill in both directions. The owners of the store must have thought I was a little nuts, coming in every day at various times and purchasing the same thing over and over again: Gatorade Rain.

I ran about 24-miles and biked 38-miles for the eight days we were away.

I managed to map out a nice 20-mile bike route that took me along the Tuftonboro and Wolfeboro shores of Lake Winnipesaukee. Unlike my previous routes, this one had a nice balance of uphill, downhill and flats. It also calculated out to about 21 miles, rather than the 18/19 mile routes that I would round up to 20.

On the final ride, I had a great climb up the last hill to the house, clearly demonstrating the power of regular, aggressive training.

The only other development has been structuring a solid training calendar based on information from Runner's World and the NYRR website. With less than 18 weeks left until the marathon, I don't have any time to screw around. I'm either going to seriously train for this thing or I need to get off the bus. Thankfully, my base mileage is pretty good at this point.

I also bought a new pair of sneakers from Asics. Not sure of the model but apparently my foot has grown from 9.5 to 10.5 in the last year or so.

I continue to struggle with diet and picked up a copy of The Runner's Diet by Madelyn H. Fernstrom, PhD. I'm just a few chapters in and so far, it's a lot of impractical words that have limited application to my needs.

However, a few pieces of information do stand out:

A) 1 mile = 100 calories = 2500 steps.

B) To loose a pound a week, you must have a caloric savings of 500 calories. This can be achieved through increased exercise or reduction of calories.

C) A 3-mile walk in one hour burns the same calories as a 3-mile run in 35 minutes.

D) To loose one pound, you need to burn 3500 calories

Interesting facts to keep in mind.

Footnote: On April 26 I completed a 10 mile run with an average heart rate of 147 bpm and a maximum HR of 167 bpm. Strangely, when I bike, I can get my heart to run much higher (176 or so). I've also seen clearly how the heat and humidity can impact my heart rate, respiration and perspiration.