I’ve moved

 

For the two of you out in the world that may have my blog on your Reader subscription, take note!

I’ve moved to alandurand.tumblr.com

Later wordpress!

Finished! 3:19:37

It’s finished! With a total time of 3 hours, 19 minutes, and 37 seconds, I smashed my previous marathon time by more than half an hour! The best thing about yesterday’s race was how I felt. There were no cramps, no leg stiffness, no dehydration. It was a textbook race and I felt great the entire way.

My performance yesterday definitely has me wondering if I could make this a more serious thing. As in, if I train more rigorously, maybe I could make marathons an annual thing. I started to fade a little bit at mile 22. If I had done more distance training in the lead-up to yesterday, I think I could have built better endurance and definitely beat 3:10 (thus qualifying for the Boston Marathon)

Maybe Chicago 2011??

For now, I’m savoring the moment. What an amazing course! And I had an amazing support group of family and friends there to cheer for me, which certainly helped propel me.

Pics will be posted when I get them. What a rush!

My marathon finish at the San Diego Rock n' Roll Marathon, 2005. Official time - 3:56:47

 

My marathon finish at the ING New York City Marathon, 2010. Official time - 3:19:37

What Moves Us: Part I

In thinking about how the United States goes about planning for its future transportation needs, there are a lot of questions that are raised. How do we pay for the infrastructure improvements that are needed to bring our country’s bridges, roads, airports, and public transportation systems up to standard? What should be our top priorities? Should the personal automobile (and thus the Interstate Highway system) continue to be our primary mode of transportation? Or must our transit portfolio diversify, with other modes of transportation such as high speed rail, commuter trains, and bus service thrown into in the mix?

These are some of the questions that I will discuss with a series of transportation and land use planners in the coming days on my trip to New York and Boston to check out graduate programs in urban planning. I’m visiting with professors from Harvard, MIT, Tufts, and New York University primarily to discuss my interest in their  urban planning programs, but also to participate  in this policy discussion with experts in the field. I suspect there will be no lack of opinions and insight to these questions. Talking with each of them personally can help me gain a better understanding of how we can go about answering these questions and get a better sense for how each program prepares its students to do the same.

This is going to be a multi-part series in which I explore all of the above questions (and more).

The following is a partial list of planners to meet, along with some thoughts on what to talk about with each of them:

Professor Jose Gomez-Ibanez (Harvard University) - research interests in: transportation, infrastructure, urban economic development, infrastructure privatization and regulation.

• Transportation Revenue Options: How do we address the Highway Trust Fund’s increasing deficit? Of the three options that were highlighted in your discussion in May (VMT tax, Federal gas tax increase, congestion pricing), which one shows the most promise and why? We have an economy that is slowly recovering from a recession, do you think any of these options are politically viable in the near future?
• Privatization: NJ Governor Christ Christie just ended what was to be the country’s largest infrastructure project: the Access to the Region’s Core (ARC) tunnel connecting New Jersey to Manhattan. His decision has sparked a heated debate: what is more important – short-term deficits or long-term infrastructure investment? Do you think privatization can help to resolve this debate, and do you think the private sector has a role in large-scale infrastructure projects on the magnitude of ARC?

Professor Mitchell Moss (New York University) – research interests in: economic development, telecommunications, New York City government

• Stimulus Funding: You once wrote that Federal regulations are often too costly and add too much time to public works projects, and that funding provided by the Federal stimulus should come without the burdensome regulations. Now that the stimulus is well under way and the majority of the funding has been allocated, do you think it was effective? How could it be improved?
• Urban Renewal: Cities that were once- booming in the Midwest and the Rust Belt have undergone decades of depopulation and decline (most famously Detroit). How do these cities reinvent themselves? At what point must they “die?” Does it seem at all counter-intuitive for a city planner to plan for a city’s death?

Mark Chase (Tufts University) – research interests in: sustainable transportation systems, car parking reform, public private partnerships

• High Speed Rail: The Obama Administration has put a lot of stock into the development of high speed rail. What do you think the future of high speed rail is in the United States? Will it take off, and is it an example of an affordable and sustainable mode of transportation?

 

 

In 72 hours:

+

=

DONE

 

Track my speed, location, and splits for the 2010 New York City Marathon by signing up here

[Bib # 12728]

Marathon finish

This photo is from my finish at the San Diego Rock N’ Roll Marathon in 2005. Hard to believe the last one was more than five years ago! My official time was 3:56:47, I’m aiming for 3:36:00 on Sunday. I’ll be wearing the same cap and shorts that I did back in 2005.

In sickness and in health

Gotta get through this final peak! Been feeling a bit sick lately but I took it easy today, drank plenty of fluids, and medicated myself early to get through. Feeling much better today so it’s game on for tomorrow’s planned 22 miler!

I’m trying out a new advanced sports drink with plenty of carbs and protein so I’ll be ready to go. Also putting on my race day shirt for its maiden voyage during tomorrow’s run :)

As for now, I’m icing my legs, getting plenty of sleep, and powering up! Here’s to the final peak!

17 days to go…

Just over two weeks left to go until the New York City Marathon. Need to get one more 20+ run in this weekend before I will feel confident enough in my endurance. I’ve only gone beyond 20 miles once. I’ve got a 22 miler planned for Sunday (Baltimore to Annapolis) – we’ll see how that goes.

My runs so far have been feeling very good, with the exception of some minor leg cramps here and there. I’ve settled into an 8:15 min/mile pace that I feel I can sustain on race day, which would put me squarely within my target range at roughly 3:36:00. Not bad!

Someone asked me the other day what my strategy will be on race day. In my opinion, there could be nothing worse than starting out fast and exhausting myself too soon. That said, my strategy will be strict discipline. Discipline to stick to my 8:15 min/mile pace and hold steady for the first 13 miles. At the half-way point, I can evaluate how I’m feeling and only then will I experiment with going faster if I’m up for it. It’s kind of like treating the first half of the marathon as a warm-up to the second half. The race really begins at Mile 13!

At any rate, I’m erring on the side of caution with this one. The key for me is to settle into that pace, get into the zone, and power through. Oh, and try to enjoy New York City along the way :)

Remix Addiction

Lately I’ve been obsessed with the Nightwaves remix of Noah and the Whale’s “Love of an Orchestra.” Similar to the Build Remix of “1901″ by Phoenix, the “Love” remix is a gentler, more atmospheric take on an amazing original. Take a listen, they’re good tracks for a bed-time playlist.

Noah and the Whale – Love of an Orchestra

Phoenix – 1901

And the winner is…

Life-long Nike purist here. I just tested the re-vamped Adidas Supernova Adapt and was sold. World, meet my new marathon training shoe:

Marathon strategy

 

So we’re almost 100 days away from the NY Marathon, and I thought it might be a good idea to establish some sort of plan. I’ve been way behind on the training. I’ve got 16 weeks left, so here’s the general strategy:

Week 1: 7 miles total (up to 4 mile run)

Week 2: 10 miles total (up to 5 mile run)

Weeks 3 & 4: 15 miles total (up to 7 mile run)

Week 5:  20 miles total (up to 8-10 mile run)

Week 6,7 & 8: 25 miles total (up to 12 mile run)

Week 9 & 10: 25-30 miles total (up to 15 mile run)

Week 11: 30-35 miles total (up to 18 mile run)

Week 12: 30-35 miles total (up to 20 mile run)

Week 13: 30-35 miles total (up to 22 mile run)

Week 14: 35 miles total (up to 24 mile run)

Week 15: 35-40 miles total (up to 25 mile run)

Week 16: 40 miles total (up to 22 mile run)

Week 17 (leads to marathon): 35-45 miles total (up to 26.2 mile run)

I plan to “peak” at week 15 with that 25 mile run and then start a slight wind-down leading to the Marathon (going no more than 22 miles per run) in the two weeks leading up to the Marathon. This is to prevent any injuries, keep endurance high, and the momentum going. Towards the end of training, as I get closer to the marathon date, my total mileage per week will start to increase along with the length of my longest run. The thinking here is to be running no less than 4 days a week, so my daily runs will be getting progressively longer.

I also built in some plateus during Weeks 3-4, Weeks 6-8, and Weeks 11-13 so I can work on my speed as I slowly ramp up the endurance.

Let’s see how Week 1 goes! Any professional runners out there with comments on my training strategy!?