My training for the Chicago Marathon will begin in earnest this weekend, with a 13 mile run. The FIRST plan has the long run mileage ramp up pretty quickly, with next week being 15 miles, then 17, and then the first of four 20 mile runs. I’m excited and nervous to be putting in so much mileage, since it is so different than most other training plans I’ve seen. When I was training for the Chicago Marathon in 2007, I only had one 20 mile run scheduled, and I didn’t even get to do it all at once because I had issues with my hydration belt. I plan to be ready this time, though. I’m also nervous that my calf/knee issues could crop up again with such heavy mileage, but I’m ready to pull back a bit if needed.

The other concern is the Half Marathons I have planned this summer/fall as well – one is August 1st, the other is September 6th. I would like to put in a bit of a taper for the August race, but may just use the September race as a long run. I’m not sure I can get the proper training in for the marathon if I have two full tapers just a couple of weeks apart.

I’m trying something new here with automatically updating my Twitter and Facebook status when I post a new blog entry. Some people may find it irritating, so I may disable it, or just not use it for every post. If you have strong feelings either way, feel free to let me know.

Many of you know I’ve been a runner most of my life, and have become even more into running in recent years. I’ve run every distance from the 800m in high school up to the 2007 Chicago Marathon, and even a Half Ironman Triathlon. When this year’s Chicago Marathon reached capacity, I saw it as an opportunity to turn my running into something that would benefit others. When looking for a suitable charity to run with, I wanted something that had meaning to me, and as a new parent, a children’s hospital seemed like the perfect fit.

So I have decided to participate in the Chicago Marathon as a St. Jude Hero. My fundraising efforts will directly support the work of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to find cures and save the lives of children fighting cancer and other deadly diseases, and I am asking for your help! Click here to go to my donation page, or ccontinue reading below for more on why St. Jude’s is a worthy cause.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas, is one of the world’s premier pediatric cancer research centers. Children from all 50 states and from around the world have come through the doors of St. Jude for treatment, and thousands more around the world have benefited from the research conducted at St. Jude – research that is shared freely with the global medical community. St. Jude is the only pediatric cancer research center where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance. No child is denied treatment because of a family’s inability to pay.

St. Jude is unlike any other pediatric cancer treatment and research facility. Discoveries made by St. Jude have completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. With research and patient care under one roof, St. Jude is where some of today’s most gifted researchers are able to do science more quickly.

Danny Thomas believed that “no child should die in the dawn of life.” Please make a donation to support my efforts for St. Jude and join the fight against childhood cancer. You can read some stories of a few brave St. Jude patients, and find out where your donation goes.

Thanks for helping me reach my goal for the kids of St. Jude!

I’ve updated my racing schedule with some past results and some new races I’ve got either planned, or that I’m already signed up for. You can access it by clicking the “Racing” link at the top of the page.

I’m still considering running the Chicago Marathon for charity. If and when i make that decision, I’ll be sure to update here.

I finished week two of the pushup challenge, and will start week three tonight. I’ve decided to take my time with this and do week three at level 2 once through, then level 3 the next week. Last time I ran through this, I did it ll in 6 weeks, and may not have always hit my minimums for the final set. So this time, I planning in going slowly through it to make sure I can get to 100 by the end, even if it takes me 8 or 9 weeks instead of 6.

I went for an easy run tonight to test out my knee (so far, so good) followed by week two, day one of the hundred pushups challenge. I maxed out at 15, which was the minimum. I might have been able to push for a few more, but wanted to get going on some other things.

I decided to put off running until tomorrow, to give my knee that extra little bit of rest. But I still wanted to do something, so I decided to do Insanity’s Cardio Abs DVD. It’s a quick 20 minutes, but it’s a solid core/ab workout. I know I’ll be feeling it tomorrow.

I just finished week one of the Hundred Pushups challenge. My max reps set for Day 2 was 15 (was a minimum of 9) and Day 3 was 20 (minimum of 13). So I seem to be progressing, which is good. I’m looking forward to starting week two in a couple days.

My running, on the other hand, has been delayed. My knee is still bothering me a bit from Disney, but it’s getting better. I may try to run a few easy miles tomorrow, otherwise I’ll just skip the first week of my nine week plan altogether. It’s better to rest now and be fully healed for the end than risk aggravating the injury now.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, and is getting ready for a great new year.

I was forced to run my long run inside on the treadmill on Sunday, with lots of snow and slick roads outside keeping me from going outside.  It went ok, but I’m not looking forward to doing it too many more times.  I can keep myself distracted for an hour or so, but much longer than that and I get bored quickly.  And when I’m bored, I tend to want to stop running, so it takes extra motivation to keep going.

I actually kept to my plan and got up early this morning for an easy run.  I just did an easy 4 miles, and will have to do a 4-5mi tempo run tomorrow night.  I really need to get it in, though, since we’re just under two weeks away from race day.