Fittest Real Athlete

I think that Amber is one of the fittest athletes that I know that holds down a full time job. If you agree with me nominate her for Outside Magazine's Fittest Real Athletes.

First Week of Ironman Training Almost Done

Ironman Training was supposed to start on Monday, where I had scheduled a 45 minute swim in the morning with a spin followed by a 1 mile run at race pace for the evening. Unfortunately, there was a blizzard Sunday into Monday, and I couldn't pass up skiing up at Cannon. Two of my cousins, Will and Kevin, and I made our way to Franconia Notch to get the best skiing I've ever had in the East. Kev and I went over to Mittersill and found ourselves some waist-deep untouched powder. I could get used to Ironman Training if everyday were like that.
However, Tuesday came around and I was able to adhere to my schedule(45 minute run at 7's and 90 minute spin in the evening). Wednesday was great, getting in a swim, a 90 minute run, 45 minutes on the trainer another 15 on the rollers and a 30 minute snowshoe run.
Here I am on Thursday, foregoing my scheduled spin to write in this blog(my readers have to stay informed!).
By far the most challenging part of training will be the swimming as the pool availability is limited to early morning, which is me at my worst(and least motivated).
Hopefully by logging all my failed attempts at adhere to my schedule, I can motivate myself to get my butt out of bed in the morning and fit in those(very needed) swims. May 7th will be here before I know it so I need to get things together.

Go-Lite or Go Home

I'm sure some of you are wondering what the Go-Lite next to some of our 2011 races means. Acidotic Racing has teamed up with Go-Lite, the awesome minimalist backpacking company, probably best known for their super-light weight sleeping bags and backpacks, to work on developing the same high quality worksmanship for trail running shoes. Those of you who read Trail Runner might have noticed the Go-Lite ad on the inside cover with none other than Acidotic's own Geoff Cunningham posing in the newest pairs of trail runners.
What is awesome about Go-Lite is not only that they are helping sponsor a lot of our snowshoe and trail races this year and supplying us with some pretty cool shoes, but that they are asking, actually demanding our feedback. This allows for us to find all those things that just aren't perfect with their current model so that the next one is even better. For instance, I have the Go-Lite Flash Lite which is super-light and breathable but didn't have the flexibility that was desired. So we made that suggestion at a meeting we had with the Go-Lite team and they, excitedly, made the corrections so that the next model will be even better.

I am excited to be a part of such an innovative footwear company breaking into the scene of trail running. You can follow how the team is doing through Acidotic's website or on Facebook, or better still, come out to one of the races and meet the guys at Go-Lite as well as Acidotic's whole team.

Boston Marathon Qualifying Times and Percentages

I have compiled a list of times that Amber and I have qualified for Boston(and Amber for Kona). While Amber has qualified for Boston and Kona at 54% and 50%, respectively, I have only qualified for Boston 35% of the time. Therefore, keeping everything else the same, I have only a 32% chance of qualifying for Kona. As such, I think instead of entering one Ironman, I should enter three Ironman triathlons to increase my odds of getting a spot and having an excuse to head back to the Big Island.

Below are our results since starting running marathons.

Amber Cullen-Ferreira
11/7/10 Manchester City Marathon 3:33:29 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
10/31/10 Marine Corps Marathon 3:14:27 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
10/09/10 Ironman World Championships(Kona) 3:47:14
7/25/10 Ironman Lake Placid 3:29:36 ----> BOSTON and KONA QUALIFIER
2/28/10 New Orleans Mardi Gras Marathon 3:03:51 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
11/1/09 Manchester City Marathon 3:33:14 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
10/18/09 Bay State Marathon 3:21:23 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
9/13/09 Ironman Wisconsin 3:53:32
12/13/08 Roxbury Marathon 4:06:14
11/2/08 Manchester City Marathon 3:48:30
5/25/08 Vermont City Marathon 3:20:29 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
4/21/08 Boston Marathon 3:47:55 (INJURED)
10/28/07 Cape Cod Marathon 3:58:42 (INJURED)
9/22/07 Odyssey Trail Marathon 6:08:11 (INJURED)
2/25/07 Hyannis Marathon 4:44:45 (INJURED)
10/15/06 Bay State Marathon 3:16:26 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER

8/16 or 50% of the marathons in which she has run qualified her for Boston. When you take out the three Ironman triathlons she has done it becomes 7/13 or 54%


Danny, Dan, Daniel Ferreira
10/31/10 Marine Corps Marathon 2:52:57 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
5/2/10 Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon 3:02:21 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
4/17/10 Gansett Marathon(Exeter) 2:47:45 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
2/28/10 New Orleans Mardi Gras Marathon 2:51:44 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
11/1/09 Manchester City Marathon 3:33:18
10/18/09 Bay State Marathon 3:21:23
3/29/09 Ocean Drive Marathon 3:01:41 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
12/13/08 Roxbury Marathon 4:33:23
11/2/08 Manchester City Marathon 3:08:41 ----> BOSTON QUALIFIER
10/18/08 Breakers Marathon 3:25:30
10/5/08 Maine Marathon 3:19:24
5/25/08 Vermont City Marathon 3:26:05
4/21/08 Boston Marathon 3:34:44
1/13/08 Rock 'n' Roll Arizona Marathon 3:21:34
10/28/07 Cape Cod Marathon 3:20:48
9/22/07 Odyssey Trail Marathon 6:08:11
2/25/07 Hyannis Marathon 4:44:46

6/17 or 35% of the marathons that I have run allowed me to qualify for Boston.

Ironman St George Training Begins in 13 Days!

Ironman St. George training starts on December 27th for Danny. Sixteen weeks to try to get his bike up to 20mph for 112 miles and his swim down to 1:40/100yards for 2.4 miles while running a Boston qualifying marathon time. To motivate him, he has looked up some race reports.

From Alex McDonald Team Timex: "[Ironman St. George] was by far the most difficult race I have ever done"

John Moore from iamtri.com "Towards the end of the ride, many people who (based on their equipment and muscle tone) were very good bikers were hours off their expected times and I met and heard from several people who had finished multiple Ironman races who did not make the bike cutoff. That is like Warren Buffet bouncing a check...it just doesn't happen. The bike cutoff is there for senior citizens and first-timers who are in over their heads...not experienced racers. The difficulty of this course, even in relatively benign conditions, was more than almost everyone bargained for."

A RACE2TRAIN RACE REPORT BY R2 "By the time I got to ‘the wall' (a nearly 17% climb just over a half-mile long and over 4,000' above sea level) ...I already knew I wasn't going to make the cut-off... turned the last corner to see the timing mat had been rolled up and the race officials were flagging me down - my race was done just over seven hours into the day."

From Wassdoc's Blog "There must have been 20+ mph crosswinds, and I was gripping the front of my bike for dear life. All I could think was that completing the bike without crashing would be a major accomplishment."

Bart Francois of Bart and Tri: " The bike course is really tough, much harder than Lake Placid, in some segments, we feel like in Le Tour, with laces when you look down. A few steep hill around 15% are quite challenging...This race is crazy, it´s only going up, up and up, and down, down and down, and then you go back and do it twice… Run technique is definitely a bonus here, specially down hill !"

Coach Brett: "At the start of the second loop we had some tough headwinds and this was a downer for me, I really wanted to quit but didn't."

Ryan Denner "My assessment of this run course is: one hilly, tough mofo."


Only 1,915 out of the 2,365 registered showed up for the start. Of those, 272 people did not make it to the end for one reason or another, almost a 15% DNF rate which is quite high.


BRING IT!

Let It Snow....

I have a National title to defend!!!!



Here is the link to the Granite State Snowshoe Series:
http://granitestatesnowshoeseries.org/

Tentative 2011 Race Schedule

As 2010 winds down, Amber and I have started to put together our 2011 race schedule. Most of them are races we both will do, but there are a few that only one of us plans to do and thus is marked as such. The only ones set in stone are the ones already paid for.

2011 Race Schedule

January 1- Run your Hangover Off(WRFB) –paid

January 2- Beaver Brook(GSSS)

January 8- Bear Paw Classic(GSSS)(Amber)

January 8- Saratoga First Century(danny)

January 9-Freeze Your Buns #1

January 15- Winter Wild #1

January 15- Feel Good Farm(GSSS)

January 22- Whittaker Woods(GSSS)

January 23- Boston Prep 16 Miler

January 29-Sidehiller(GSSS and USSSA qualifier)

January 30- Curley’s Record Run

February 5-Exeter Hullabullo(GSSS)

February 6- Freeze Your Buns #3

February 12-Horsehill(GSSS)

February 19- Snowball Express Century (danny)

February 19- Kingman Farm(GSSS)(amber)

February 20 - Half at the Hamptons(WRFB) –paid

February 26- New England Snowshoe Championships

February 27- Moody Spring

March 5- Winter Wild #4-Sunapee

March 6- Black Cat 10 and 20 Miler

March 11-13- Dion Snowshoe National Championship(hopefully both of us)

March 19- Four Miles For Habitat For Humanity

March 20- New Bedford Half Marathon(NEGP)

March 26- April Fools 4 Miler(WRFB) or Gilmanton 5K Road Race(CARS)

March 27- Saratoga 200 km brevet

April 2- SEA 5K Road Race(CARS)

April 3 Great Bay Half Marathon(WRFB) –paid

April 9- Merrimack River Trail Race(Go-Lite)

April 16- Gansett Marathon (danny only)

April 17- Muddy Moose(Go Lite)

April 22- NHTI/Delta Dental 5K Road Race(CARS)

April 24- Saratoga 300 km brevet

May 1- Seven Sisters(Go-Lite) or James Joyce Ramble 10K(NEGP)

May 7- Ironman St. George- paid

May 14- Shaker Village XC 5k(CARS)

May 29- Pineland Farms 25k(Go lite)

June 4 Will Run For Beer 5K(WRFB)

June 5- Mooseman 70.3

June 18- Mount Washington Road Race(pending lottery)

July 8- Hardrock 100(pending lottery)

July 16- Bill Luti 5-Miler(CARS)

July 17-Stowe 8 Miler(NEGP)

July 24- Ironman Lake Placid(Amber Only)

July 30- Canterbury Woodchuck(CARS)

September 16-18- ADK 540(Danny only)

October 30- Cape Cod Marathon

Thanksgiving

Since running back to back marathons a few weeks after competing in Kona, Amber had rightly taken some time off. Thanksgiving was time to get back into racing apparently. She raced in two Turkey trots last Thursday morning, a 5k in Bow at 8am and four mile in Concord at 9am. I was in Sunapee, trying unsuccessfully, again, to break 18 minutes at that very hilly turkey trot so wasn't able to see the races unfold. However, from several reliable sources, it appeared as though Am was going to take the win at Bow with about 100 yards to go, but was passed by another female and didn't have the legs to pick up the pace thus finishing in 2nd with a solid time of 18:35.
Not bad for the first race of the day. She then booked it over to Bishop Brady High School where she proceeded to run 6:23's up and down and back up Little Pond Road to take the win there.

From Concord, she drove to New London, quickly ate some Turkey, proceeded to out-catch the Ferreira Boys in backyard football then went over to Bradford for desert with the Cullens. After desert Am proceeded to challenge cousins, siblings and husband to a little run up the sand pile.

Amber Getting a head start up the sand pile.

Suffice it to say, it was a race for second place.


After dumping (most of) the sand out of my shoes and pants, Amber's next challenge was to cross a freezing brook on a rotten log. Lucky me, I was chosen to go first.


All in all, a very fun and challenging way to spend a Thursday.

Second and First in two Thanksgiving Races-not bad.
However, she must have been feeling bad about leaving out third place, so she went down to Andover for the 31st running of their famed cross country race. The 3.5 mile run at the Country club seemed to either be going up or down the entire race but she was still able to run a speedy 22:14.