Turtle Training : 2008 : August

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Not fast and not pretty, but my RB and I managed our first 20 miler in our quest for Batlimore marathon glory. Yesterday evening was an an okay running evening in DC - around 70 degrees and very humid, but for August in DC? A welcome respite from the oppressive heat.

So we decided to extend our planned 18 mile LDT run and see how we felt doing 20. And it was just great. I could easily have gone more. What a big psychological boost as we head into the last weeks of training for Baltimore.

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Team Sadie and the Baltimore Marathon, 2008

Posted by Steve Carton Aug 28, 2008

I've aligned myself with Team Sadie for my run in the Baltimore Marathon, October 11, 2008. Team Sadie is raising money for "Sadie's Gift", a charity established to raise funds for Johns Hopkins Hospital Children’s Center. You can read about the charity at this site: http://www.sadiesgift.org/.

Here's the short version:

Sadie’s Gift has been established to raise funds for Johns Hopkins Hospital Children’s Center. After acheiving great success in 2007, we hope to establish an endowment that will be created in Sadie's memory. This endowment will support the training program for doctors who care for critically ill children in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) along the east coast.

I'm a true sucker for this kind of thing, being both a parent and a grandparent, and I grew up in the Baltimore area. And my dad taught at Hopkins (Peabody, actually), so Hopkins is near and dear to my heart. So I'm dedicating my run to this cause. What does that mean? Well, first it means I made a donation of my own. But I'm also asking anyone who reads this to donate. You can do so easily and securely, over the internet...

Just go to the Johns Hopkins Childrens Center website and to the ONLINE GIVING FORM page (https://jhweb.dev.jhu.edu/eforms/form.do?formId=5733).

You can make you donation on that page. Please (please please) indicate that your gift is for "Sadie Elizabeth Abell Endowment" by checking radio box near the top. Please also "Select a Runner" -- Steve Carton (that would be me:-). My name is near the end of the long list and they are not alphabetical, so be persistent

And most of all, thank you. Thank you for the support and thank you for the gift.

Steve

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7 Weeks to the Baltimore Marathon

Posted by Steve Carton Aug 26, 2008

Actually, a little less. And reducing that by 3 weeks for the taper means we have 4 heavy training weeks to go. At this point we're up to 18 miles on the long runs and 6x800s for intervals. I'm still hoping to get as far as 10x800s before the marathon, but it doesn't seem likely. I am comfortable that we'll get a couple of 22-milers in. This week is 18, then 20, then 22. One thing I have to add in is more hill work -- Baltimore is hilly in the latter half. I'm planning to do some strong hills in place of some of the intervals runs in the next few weeks so as to prep for them.

I'm getting comfortable with my hydration and fuel plan too, though the jury is still out on protein in the fuel. I think it's a good thing and will probably keep it in -- I've been doing my long runs with the Hammer "Sustained Energy" for a while now and it doesn't bother me much, except it means wearing a belt for the marathon and I would prefer not to. So I should look for a prepackaged gel that has some protein in it. Or suck it up and wear the belt (I'm such a whiner). But, I'm feeling good -- like I should at this point.

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Getting Psyched for Baltimore, 2008

Posted by Steve Carton Aug 20, 2008

It's been awhile since I've written. I'd like to say I've been hard at work training, but that just ain't so I went through a funk in July, coupled with a long vacation and some work travel that left little time for running. But October 11 and the Baltimore Running Festival is drawing closer and I definately needed to get going with the training. Thank goodness for the great base we've created in the last 18 months. I was able to jump back into the long runs at about the 16-mile point. Not fast, but in the DC summer heat, I slow down a lot anyway. But now I'm back on track and feeling great about it. This is an off week -- my mother in law passed away and my family is embroiled in the funeral so not much time for training, but that's okay -- I'll be back on it next week.

I decided to run Baltimore as a part of "Team Sadie" representing Sadie's Gift Charity (http://www.sadiesgift.org/) if they'll have me. So if this kind of charity interests you, please let me know how much you would like to donate and I'll hook you up. More on that later.

I've been trying some protein mix in my fuel for the long runs and this seems to work well for me. Or, at least I don't feel bad or anything. Hard to tell if it is actually doing anything, but as the runs get longer, the protein may pay off. We'll see. At least I'm not smelling amonia anymore.