See Ya at Boston

I got my confirmation and assignment yesterday for the Boston Marathon, not to run it but to work it. I have been assigned to the Finish “Sweep Team”   according to the website this consists of grabbing people in need of medical attention as they finish the race an getting them to medical attention in the treatment areas. 
“Sweep Team - Finish
Meeting Place: Auditorium, John Hancock Hall
Expected Duration: 8:00 A.M. - 6:00 P.M.
Captain: Michelle Kanavos, MS, APN, BC, LCCE, FACCE
A medical sweep team is responsible for coverage of a large area that includes Boylston Street and the surrounding side streets. This team of 110 medical personnel will bring in runners who encounter difficulties after completing the race. Patients are transported in wheelchairs or on medical golf carts through a dedicated medical lane.”

In order to work this area you must be medically trained and since I am currently a certified Emergency Medical Technician I qualified.
I have never actually been to the Boston Marathon and cannot tell you how excited I am to be able to not only be there but to be able to work at the finish line.  This should make for  a great blog post after the race.  

Remember, Everything Always Looks Better After a Run,



Going Slow to Go Fast

I recently hired Coach Jeff from PRSFit to coach me as I work towards running the Half Marathon this year.  One of the things he has me doing is training in my Zone 2 HR range (145 – 154 bpm) for a period of time.  The Zone 2 is 70-80% of max HR and he calls these runs endurance building runs.
The first time I attempted one of these runs my heart rate kept creeping up and I was going so slow that my calfs were painfully cramping.  I would have been better off walking.  My pace was around 13 – 14 min/mile which is really, really, slow.  It’s now been only two weeks and I can already see that my pace is slowly increasing while remaining in that heart rate zone.  What a concept, go slow to go fast.  
In a lot of the articles I have read lately biggest benefit is that in this zone you are able to burn calories and also retain the ability to process the lactic acid produced as well as building endurance.
On my run today I found it really difficult to stay in that Zone 2 because my HR kept spiking into Zone 3.  At first I thought this was because of some hills I went up.   However as the run progressed it continued and even happen while going downhill.  It was suggested that the GU w/caffeine I took before my run may have been the cause.  The next time I go out for a Zone 2 run no caffeine for me and will see if that was the issue.
The real benefit is that on my tempo runs my pace has really increased a lot in a relatively short time.  I really think 2010 is going to be the year of PR’s and believe that including Zone 2 HR runs into my training is a really big part of that. 


Remember, Everything Always Looks Better After a Run,

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