Day 20: Free Agent Deadline

at the 23rd hour, team signings:

-Sean Boisvert
-Adam Bober
-Chris Barker
-Chris's GF

and the weekly Nike Free spending occurs again.
7.0s for KOB and gold 5's (at an insane price) for Nikki

Day 18: Rain stops training in Prov

Just awesome:



Sri:
i woke up this morning thinking "i have to go running today" lol
i dont think thats ever happened to me in my life

Day 17: The House Divides

runners:
Knapp (Saucony)
Nikki (Nike)
Sri (NB)

IL:
Tang(Icy Hot)

2.8 miles
Wild Colonial route before the Spring Break split.

our satellite team in Plano collected 3 medals at today's race, 5 medals total in 2 races.
age group finishes:
Mom Tang 2nd
Dad Tang 3rd
Sister Tang 2nd

Day 16: Cliff Walk pt 2

Who needs a changing room when you have Brian's car?

Super winds at 40 degrees in Newport = bad planning on my part.
FYI 40 steps is dangerous.

Runners:
Knapp (Saucony)
Sri (NB)
Brian (NB)
Nikki (Nike)

Injured List:
Tang (IcyHot)

The shoes of choice for a dinner at Zooma on Atwells: Nike Free 5.0.

Day 15: Newport Cliff Walk Run

After a seminar in Newport, the running quadruplets hit the Cliff Walk.




Runners:
Sri
Knapp
Brian
Tang

31:30
3.1 miles





Imitation is the sincerest of flattery.

How many Nike Free 5.0 shoes do we have? 4
How many did we awkwardly buy today? 3; white, gray, black.
After going to all 4 shoe stores in the Providence Place Mall, we found only one with the required shoes, Champs Sports.
Astutely, Knapp pointed out the guy helping us wore Frees. With my love of Frees (Nike, feel free to send us some more pairs for this free endorsement) it was bound to happen.
Thanks to my dumbass, we traded Frees in the Providence Mall.

Day 14: The Fish and Karthauser delay training

"DON'T BAREFOOT RUN KEVIN!!!"

I AM happy that some of the religious zeal that I use for promoting Nike Frees and barefoot running is coming across and not falling on deaf ears. In an act of pure faith in what I have been preaching and in an act of pure...Kevin O'Brien...
...
...
barefoot. running. on a treadmill.

After returning from dinner at Nick's on Broadway, I was ecstatic when Kevin said,

"Hey Tang, I listened to your advice and I ..."
[In my head, I'm thinking wtf did I teach this kid?]
"ran barefoot on a treadmill."

...reports less knee pain.

In other news, Harpoon is sponsoring the 5k so if you needed a better reason to run the race, they will be spotting our first beer at the finish line.

Day 13: Rain

Dreadmill for Brian and Knapp. The breaking in of the Saucony Omni 8's return a positive review. (Nike and Apple aren't the only products this blog endorses)


As our brave runners patiently await their debut, the rain has halted training for another day. In the meantime, I wanted to stress a couple race day pointers.

A couple of weeks before:
Most races occur at 8 am, meaning you have to wake up at 6, drive to the race, warm up and be ready to run at 8. Luckily for some of these kids, this race starts at 11:15 am a mile away. Get used to waking up around 9 am on Sunday.

The night before:

You picked up your bag of goodies, shirt, and bib number (right?).

Look at your log. No, not that log. Your running log. If everything went according to plan, you put in the work and will do just fine.

Lay out all your running gear for the am. You don't want to scramble for your lucky socks or shirt and stress out. We already have enough stress of running 3.1 miles.

Set 2 alarms (or have a handful of other runners in your house)

I don't know how reliable my memory is but I remember seeing something about young Native American warriors who would drink a ton of water the night before a battle so that they'd have to wake up to take a #1. I believe I did that for my first race.

The am:
Eat a small breakfast so you are not dying around race time. Don't carbo load like Michael Scott; this is a 5k, not a marathon.

Evacuate all bodily functions; I have been reading about running for the past year and I don't want anyone pulling a Uta Pippig (funny name, serious results). What's "pulling a Uta Pippig" you say? In 1996, this female runner won the Boston Marathon...and had her monthly surprise from mother nature. I know none of us have the gall to:
a) finish first
b) keep going after something like that happened


Race Day:

Make sure to get to the race 30 minutes to an hour before. Again, we want to be stress-free pre-race.

Warm up with a slow jog for 5-10 minutes.

Remember that log you read? Yeah, you put in the work so if you have race day jitters, know you DID run before this.

When lining up, make sure you are not on the starting line; we are NOT that fast (yet). So either ask people what their paces are and line up accordingly or base it on the past year's finish times and estimate how many people should be in front of you.

...3.1 miles happens...

mile 1: SLOW DOWN. Adrenaline will be your worst enemy. Pacing means slowing down this mile. You'll want to be able to give it your all on the last mile so you can pass people and build up confidence at the same time.
In fact, follow a woman since they pace better

(that's right, PubMed used for running)

-there is a photographer on course; if you see him or her, try not to look like death (trust me, I've done it). Flash him the thumbs up. Or depending on how you feel, flash him some other finger.

When you see the finish, you are going to want to stop; don't do that because 10 other runners will run in to your backside.

If they ask, remove your chip for timing ( I think we don't have chips but some paper tag system)

And there you have it, you are done with your first 5k.

Day 12: Bonk day

Runners:
Kevin
Brian
Knapp

1.08 miles, 10:30


Injuries across the board left the group reeling along with the crappy weather.
infirmary:
Brian (calf)
Knapp (leg)
Nikki (sick)
Tang (hamstring)

Day 11 Chipotle Burritos

Coming out of Wrentham Nike Free-less...womp womp.

































Running, meet Chipotle. These burritos are putting the kibosh on 5k training and left arm function. Along with the pizzas, beer, daiquiris ... thank God there are 6 weeks still to train. The team put up the proverbial goose egg.

Day 10 Saturday

Thanks to Nikki's Shuttle Service to Hope Street, the jobless kids run Blackstone, Angell, and back to the west side.
Blackstone + Angell = no stop n go
a multitude of runners = great day.
Accidental parkour on Angell St. = almost not a great day.
Per Knapp's route, ran through Brown's quad but didn't see Hermoine (sp?) but I did see a bevy of co-eds; I miss college so much.

3.9 miles

Runners:
Knapp Saucony TR
Tang NB 903

Checklist:
"Yankees SUCK!" yell at Knapp's Yankees shirt--only in New England
A Rat (only on the west side)
pharmacy student #26 spotted in Providence.

is anyone else having foot numbness while running?

post-run, the March Madness Marathon Meeting took place at Union Station Brewery and has peaked 5k and marathon motivation (thanks to Lauren and Pat saying I ran marathons) at an all time high.
Boston Marathon 2011? The notion of it has been toyed with but this may be the day it sinks in. The bad news? Having to run 3:30 to keep up with Pat. It all depends on:
-sub 7 5k
-a respectable half-marathon time in december
-injuries
-responsibilities (haha, just kidding; I don't have these)

Also, the Nike Frees that I love have been d/c'ed since the 9th apparently (per runblogger)

I know I should be promoting shoes that are probably the most beneficial, but I am all about the looks.



current pair:





new pair mock-up for nike free run + (women):


japanese link

Tomorrow's Wrentham outlet visit could be that much more important.
(if not, Finish Line is offering 10 bucks off...hmmmm)

Circle your calendars ladies and gentlemen, Blackstone Park run on Wednesday, per Sri