Who Am I?

I am an avid runner and have been running since I was 15 years old. I began running low to medium distances while on my high school track team, running the 800 meter and 1600 meter races (I was a sub 5 miler and a 2 minute 800 runner). In addition to the track team, I also joined the cross country team. After high school I still wanted to run and decided to start doing road races. I have probably ran a couple hundred 5k races (16.29 PR)along with many 10k's as well. In 2009 I decided to step up my game and try to tackle my first marathon. I will be honest; the only reason I did this was because my father ran a few and I wanted to show him that I could do what he did. I trained poorly for my first one and regret it. If you are going to run a race, train like you want to win. I still continue to run marathons and other distances as well, and every race is a chance for me to better myself.
I started this blog to hopefully communicate with other runners and to shed any knowledge I may have about the sport that can help other runners. I believe running is the best sport and can be a great stress reliever. I encourage all runners to spread the word of our sport and show people why running is so good and why the community of runners has such great people. You can follow me on twitter @byrne1324 or find me on facebook- Shaun Byrne

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Let The Countdown Begin

      11 weeks away! that is exactly how far it is until the Pittsburgh Marathon on May 4th.  I try not to keep track of my whole training just how far the race is until right around now.  This is the time where I like to take a step back and see if I am on track with my training.  11 weeks might seem like a long time away but in actuality it is not.  Actually it's more like 8 weeks of hard training and 3 weeks of tapering off (at least the way I train it is).

     So for training you should be running between 12-14 miles for your long runs and you should be working on your race pace as well.  Unfortunately this winter has wreaked havoc on the roads and running outside has been more of a problem than anything.   Today I tried to do my long run outside and made it 7 miles and had to call it quits.  I felt like I was playing the old 80's atari game where you dodge traffic as you run across the road. The sidewalks were still snow covered and people just seemed to have given up on shoveling.(I can't blame them, it feels like we do this everyday anymore). Needless to say I was more disappointed than anything, but I did take a look at my run and I noticed I was not tired at all. I felt great the whole run and even though I hate treadmill running, it has helped a lot and today showed it.  I do tempo runs, intervals and I use the gym to cross train as well.  So even though I didn't get in my long run today I am not in panic mode yet.  On the plus side it looks as though the weather may be warming up a bit and we will get some good outside running in.  
     If you are not on schedule I do not recommend trying to cram a lot of long runs in to try and make up for what you missed.  The down side to that is you will be more tired when it comes to the race.  Just take it slow and add maybe an additional mile that what you normally would for your long run.  You still need to get your rest to be ready for race day.
      During the next 11 weeks I will take this time to do a few post on the race. I will break down the course for first time runners coming to Pittsburgh, both full and half races.  I will give tips on the race and try to make it easier for new runners to come to our great town.

     Also while I am counting down Pittsburgh I am still counting down the weeks till Boston.  9 weeks away basically, even though I am not running I still like to countdown to this race just because I know a lot of people running it and I wish them all the best of luck in the world.   If there was a year I wish I was running it would be this year.  I just think the course is going to be loud and exciting with spectators.  I know I will be watching it on a live stream cheering everyone on.   

No matter what race you are running in 2014 make it count!

Are you on schedule for your races?

2 comments:

  1. You're right, the winter is being really mean to us! I'm hoping the warm up this week, is as good as I dream it will be.

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    1. You and me both! Are you running PGH this year?

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