SalsMiles2

Jan and I convinced Eileen to snowshoe at the Lake Effect Snowshoe Festival, sponsored by Fleet Feet sports, held this morning, January 27, in Webster New York. Eileen, wearing snowshoes for only her second time, ran the 100m, 200m and 400m sprint races. Her times were quite competitive when compared to previous Empire State Game finalists. Jan and I completed two 1500m races, thereby qualifying for the ESG games. We did not try the shorter sprints. After getting our butts kicked at the ESG games by people who have fast-twitch muscles, we just didn't feel it was worth our time and energy. The three of us also ran a four mile trail race, which, unfortunately didn't have enough snow cover for what was supposed to be a snowshoe race. But the race, a two mile loop, was still fun. Many thanks to Lou and Mike W. for giving up much of their weekend in constructing the track for snowshoe sprinting and timing the events! It couldn't have been done without their help!

Sunday, January 27, is the Lake Effect Snowshoe Festival sponsored by Fleet Feet sports of Rochester, NY. If we have snow there will be a choice of a 2, 4 or 13.1 mile snowshoe race, along with sprint qualifiers for the Empire State Games (100m,200m, 400m and 1500m) all held on a 300m "track" with four lanes. If there is no snow the trail races will be done in running shoes, but the sprints must still be done on snowshoes (ESG qualifying rules). Many members of the Sal's running group from Spencerport will be volunteering at the race and/or running.

Jan swam Saturday at the SUNY Brockport pool for the first time since mid-December. On Sunday we ran a trail race (no snow, supposed to have been a snowshoe race) as part of the Mendon Ponds Winterfest. Eileen and Jan finished the 5kish distance together. Jan came home and rode her bike indoors for 90 minutes before completing the workout with a short weight training segment. Coach-Janet.com , a certified USA Triathlon coach and personal trainer has a 3 minute video on her web site where "You'll learn 5 keys to a strong swim leg for your next triathlon". There are training plans for all distances of triathlons, for your first triathlon and more technique guides. Youtube has more swim instruction videos. Just do a search on Youtube for triathlons or swimming and triathlons. I'll post some of the more interesting and useful ones on this blog.

Why run the Walt Disney World marathon? 10. Beat the crowds into the parks. 9. See all the parks for free. 8. High five all the Disney Characters. 7. Be cheered on by pirates outside of Magic Kingdom. 6. Run down Main St. and through the icon of Disney - the Castle. 5. Start the race with a fireworks display. 4. With a 6am start you will have finished 26 miles when most people are eating breakfast. 3. It's a great place to visit even if you don't run as fast as you want. 2. The spectators, Disney workers, volunteers, cheerleaders and live bands are awesome. 1. The finisher's medal is HUGE and cool.

Fireworks lit the early morning (6a.m.) sky to announce the race start. The temperature of sixty four degrees wasn't horrible, but I was comfortable in shorts and a short sleeve breathable top, never a good sign. The dew point was a drippy 66, probably not unusual for Florida, but from personal experience it didn't bode well. As the dew point rises past 60 my race times also increase. By three miles, through Epcot, sweatboy's pores began to open. After the race I found out Jan was in a similar state. Where was that cold front TWC had promised? Turned out it was 18 hours away and would bring wonderful marathon weather Monday-Wednesday. It was strange running in the dark for over an hour, a stillness to the life of a normally bustling park. The streets were well lit, we had thousands of runners around us, but it was a surreal experience. Based on previous times I was able to start in the first corral, Jan was in the second and Amanda was in the first corral in a start line o...

According to the weather channel and weatherunderground , race day should be decent for running. The temperature range is 58-a high of 72 by 1pm, dew point in the upper 50's, wind under 10mph and a 30% chance of rain/thunderstorms. If this forecast is accurate it will be better weather than our Steamtown participants had. Thunder would be bad, WDW will shut the race down if thunder is heard within 6 miles. I'm going with the odds and locals and believing that if it does thunder in Orlando it's usually mid-day. DisneyRunning.com , an unofficial guide to races at WDW, has some useful information, including a mile by mile race report, an aerial view with the course marked, corral assignments and spectator information. This is going to be a fun marathon, no matter what the results. We ran a 5k a few years ago through Epcot and that was pretty neat. Being able to cruise through Epcot, Magic Kingdom, MGM, Boardwalk and Animal Kingdom will be even better and probably help the mile...

In the book, " The body has a mind of its own " by Blakeslee, the authors state that, "While many types of mental practice are undoubtedly helpful, motor imagery is the only technique that alters your body maps in the same way physical practice does. Visual imagery (as from a spectator's point of view), relaxation, hypnosis, affirmation, prayer...may help you...but will not alter your motor maps." (page 60). Several experiments have been conducted that verify this information. A simple example is that if you imagine moving your little finger for ten minutes a day, after four weeks it will be up to 20% stronger. Motor imagery has been used by pianists, dancers and all types of athletes. It is not something that will help you overnight get better at swimming, running or biking, but over time, just like with physical exercise, it does promote stronger muscle memory and physical attributes.

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Tapering for the marathon is overrated. What does it get you? Fresh legs, maybe, unless you tapered too much, then they just get stale and feel like cement blocks during the race. More energy, yes, but for what use? Jan and I began our tapers for WDW a few days ago, which coincided nicely with New Year's day and time off from work. But it also meant way too much time on our hands. What could a husband and wife do with so much extra energy, time off from work, kids all back at their own homes, running less? Hmmm. Yes! That's It! We could watch marathon sessions of HGTV and TLC Flip That House shows. Surely we could come up with doable projects at our house? And so there I was, paint brush in hand, putting on the first of two or three coats of paint on our kitchen molding. Everything was going well, I was painting up a storm listening to Benny Goodman on my new under the cabinet cd player Jan had bought me for Christmas. I thought Jan was still working on the computer when Goodma...

Reviewing our log books today Jan and I discovered we combined to lose 28 pounds since January 1 of 2007. I lost 17 and Jan lost 11. We are hoping to lose a couple more before next Thursday when we leave for Florida. I think we could beat the couples who are beginning their competition tonight in the Couples Biggest Loser, at least we could have by percentage of body weight. It's interesting putting on tights and having them be baggy when last year I couldn't tie the waistband string together.