Week 5 - It's all about the Soup!

  This week was a slow one. In fact, there is absolutely nothing to report on the fundraising side of things, so I'll keep this weeks post on the short side and just talk a bit about the training.

The Training

Ughh. The Calories.

Sometime last week, I finally accepted the truth. 

I've been eating too much.

For the last few months I've been frustrated that I haven't been losing any more weight. In fact, I somehow managed to GAIN a few pounds. This is especially frustrating to me because I've been running a lot more these last few months, averaging about 125 miles a month. (compared to about 75 miles a month during the summer and early fall.)

After listening to another one of my recent frustrated rants about this, my wife Kate gently suggested that if i don't start paying attention to my calories, I probably wasn't going to lose any more weight.

Knowing she was right, I had her show me the iPhone App she has been using to keep track of her calories, and dove into it myself.

I won't get too detailed, but so far so good.

By keeping my calories "under budget" just about every day these last 2 weeks, I have dropped about 4 pounds! I've been learning a lot about the nutritional values of the foods I eat. It has been quite a shock to see how many calories i've been (over) eating while thinking that I've been "eating well".  I don't really know how hard core I'm going to be, but I'm hoping I can use this method to drop the last 10 pounds to get to my goal weight of 185.

This Weeks Running

(34.5 miles)

Although this week's mileage was a little less than it has been for the last couple of weeks, it was marked with a couple of cool "firsts"

On wednesday, I ran in the snow for the first time. It was actually pretty nice! I stayed off the road and did some trail running in Hopedale. The snow never really accumulated, so it ended up being a pretty run without the hidden dangers of running on the snow.

Saturday Long Run

13.25 miles

The other big first for this week came on my saturday long run with the Run For the Memory crew.

I did  my first training run longer than the half-marathon distance! 

We met at the same spot as last week, (the top of Heartbreak Hill) and headed back towards Wellesley. A  few of us extended the distance out about 3/4 of a mile further than last week. The end result was 13.25 miles finishing at the top of heartbreak. I was definitely huffing and puffing as I finished, but i think it was because of the uphill finish, not the distance.

This being the last run before Christmas, a few of the runners came in festive get-ups.

(but most of us Scrooge-types dressed in our normal running gear.)

Here are a couple shots of the good sports!

Ed Cederholm is one of our team's leaders and a multiple time Boston Marathon finisher

A few other long time members of the Run For the Memory Crew including the infamous "Dales"
in the black and orange tops.

Sunday Soup Group

7.4 Miles

This week, the Soup Group ran on the Milford bike path, which is part of one of my regular route. 

This is a great place to do a group run because everyone can run alongside each other and chat

without worrying about sidewalks and cars. After the run, we all headed over to Nick's house for the soup!

The payoff! Not sure what this soup is called, but does it matter? I mean, just look at it!
It was supplied by Jeff Hattem.

Soup Group Face of the Week!

Nick Julian

Nick Julian is one of the group original members. This year he's making a big comeback from an injury.
He was this week's Soup Group host, and as it turns out, he's also my cousin!

Thats it for now......

Week 4: Moving steadily forward!

Week 4 was a week of steady progress on both fronts.

Here's what happened....

The Fundraising

I had some nice activity this week in the fundraising department.

Back in the spring, I shot a cocktail story for Northshore Magazine.
The story included some very interesting takes on cocktails including an "Oyster Shooter" from Finz restaurant in Salem, Ma.

On Tuesday, I was contacted by Carol, who is the wife of Finz's owner. As a christmas gift, she wanted to have a large print made of the photo. So in exchange for a generous donation to the Alzheimer's Association, I gave her the rights to use the photos. She is having two 20x30 inch canvas prints done with them. I can't wait to see how they come out!

Oyster photographed at Finz Restaurant in Salem, MA

Another phone call came in on Monday from the producer of Gordon Ramsay's show 'Kitchen Nightmares". They wanted to use some of the images i shot for last month's Boston Magazine cover on their show! The idea was that Gordon would have some large prints of the dishes, and would show them to whatever chef he was berating on his show at the time to show them what the dish SHOULD look like. Unfortunately, I couldn't get them to make the kind of donation I thought was fitting. They did however make a small monetary donation. In addition, they are going to FEDEX me a bunch of autographed cookbooks, photos, wooden spoons, etc. Hopefully they will be able to be used in a raffle to raise some more $$.

Lamb Carpaccio from Barbara Lynch's Sportello
shot for Boston Magazine's 50 Best Restaurants of 2010.
Image to be used on Gordon Ramsay's "Kitchen Nightmares"

The Training

Weekly Mileage - 38.5

IT GOT COLD THIS WEEK!

   Even thought it got so cold this week, I have to say that this was a great week of training! Because it got so cold, I found myself wimping out a bit and hitting the treadmill for all 3 of my weekday runs. Staying off of the pavement and taking it easy on my knees and ankles, left my legs feeling GREAT for Saturday's long run.

Saturday Long Run
12 Miles

   This week, my Run For the Memory team started training on the actual Boston Marathon course! I met everyone on Commonwealth Ave in Newton, right at the top of Heartbreak Hill. After a pep talk from the coach, we all headed out towards Wellesley. We all took it pretty easy, just focusing on getting in the miles. After 6 miles out, we turned around and headed back towards my first
battle with Heartbreak Hill.
   9 Miles into the run, we hit Heartbreak. I have to say, it wasn't all that bad! Of course, we'll see what happens when I'm hitting it at mile 17 instead of mile 9!
   All in all, a 12 mile run that felt great. I'm definitely feeling more and more like a real runner every week!

   Special thanks to Coach Rich for providing moral support and water support for the whole run!

Coach Rich gives us some advice before sending us out on the road.

Sunday Soup Group
7.9 Miles
Rain

   I woke up this morning to a text from my wife, (who was already at work), warning me to be careful of black ice. Apparently there were several roads in Medway that were shut down!
   I bundled up my son and took him to my mom's for his normal Sunday with Grandma. Then, fearing a bunch of "no-shows" for the group run, I headed to Joe's.
  This weeks host, Joe Hamm, obviously had the same fears as me and sent out a mass email telling everyone not to "wimp out!"  I think it worked, because we still had 6 warriors show up to brave the weather.
  The rising temps and continuing rain melted the ice, and we were good to go!
  The run ended up being another great recovery run from Saturday's long run with about 50% trail running, and 50% road running, all around the Route 126 area in Medway. These runs are great because the pace is a bit easier, and so there is lots of chatting which makes the miles go by quicker.
After 7.9 cold, wet, but somehow still enjoyable miles, we headed in for some hot soup!

The Payoff!

Joe Hamm's Chicken Tortellini Soup and Garlic Bread.

Soup Group Face of the Week!

Hiroshi Morimoto 

Hiroshi is a Core Soup Group member and multiple time Boston Marathon finisher.

I'll be running with Hiroshi in both the Hyannis Half Marathon in February and the 

2011 Boston Marathon.

Having a 20 mile weekend (ok 19.9) is a big charge for me! Just a few months ago, I would have struggled with just an 8 mile run. Now I can do an 8 mile run as a recovery run the day after a 12 miler!

Onward!!

Week 3- Ups and Downs. The dough starts coming in!

This week was a busy one for both training and fundraising. 

The running week was full of both physical and psychological ups and downs, but I'll get to that in a bit. Let's start with the fundraising!

Fundraising

In 2007, 2009 and 2010 I rode in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Ride. This is a 25, 62 or 100 mile bike put on by the Alzheimer's association every summer. Unlike the Boston Marathon event, the Memory Ride is open to everyone and usually has 200-300 participants. Because there are so many more participants, (there are only 15 of us doing the marathon), the fundraising requirements are much lower for the memory ride. My fundraising commitment for the marathon is $3250 as compared to the $1000 commitment for the Memory Ride.

The best tool I have at my disposal for raising this kind of money is my photography.

As I did for last year's ride, I will be doing photo shoots in exchange for donations directly to the charity.

I have a long road of fundraising ahead of me, and the ball got rolling this week.

First off, I'd like to thank the Coleman and Andriolo families for their donations. They made their contributions in exchange for a family photo that I did for them.

Next, I'd like to thank Gerard at Dorfman's Jewelers in Boston.
A couple of years back, on assignment for Boston Common Magazine, I photographed Henry Dunay of Dorfman's. (see one of the shots from this assignment below!) In exchange for a donation, I supplied Dorfman's with jpegs from the shoot.

                    

Henry Dunay of Dorfman Jewelers in Boston

                    

I'm always looking for these types of opportunities. If you know someone who might be interested in my services in exchange for a donation, PLEASE have them contact me! ( anthony@anthonytieuli.com )

IDEA OF THE WEEK

Ok, I don't really expect to have a good idea every week, but it sounded good.
I was thinking that a great way to raise money easily would be to do head shots for Real Estate agencies.
I'm thinking the agency gets together as many of their agents as possible, and I come in and do some great headshots right at their location. The agents would each make $50 donations in exchange for the shots.

Do you know a Real Estate agent or agency that could benefit from this?
Have them email me ( anthony@anthonytieuli.com ) or call me any time at 617-913-0254

Thats all for now on the fundraising front!

If you'd like to make a personal contribution, it's very easy. Just click HERE.


Training
This weeks mileage was 37.5 miles.

This week's running was a bit of a battle. I've been feeling under the weather for about two weeks now, but haven't been backing off at all on my training. Last weeks saturday "long run" left me feeling drained and psychologically beaten up.

On top of that, on Monday I think I aggravated a tendon on the top of my foot which lead to me dealing with quite a bit of pain all week.

Fortunately, a trip to PR Running in Westborough and a chat with Rich Allen who owns the shop led me to an alternate way of lacing my running shoes that helped with the tendon thing. Thanks Rich!

I basically forced my way through my running week and told myself that if I wasn't feeling better by the end of the weekend, I'd back off a bit.



Saturday Long Run - 10.4 miles

Unlike last week, I decided to take friday off before this week's saturday long run with the Alzheimer's team. This was probably the smartest thing I did all week.
Saturday's run went really well. I felt great for the entire run, even feeling like I could have kept running for quite a while if I had to.
Afterwards, the team got together at Panera for coffee. Coach helped me a bit more with my lacing/foot issue.

Here's a shot I took "on the run"

The Alzheimer's Association Marathon team heading onto Memorial Drive in Boston.

Sunday Soup Group - 6.1 Miles

Todays Soup run was a very nice one. More trail running, which is so nice on the tired legs after a long run on pavement yesterday. Felt great the whole time. Not much else to say.

Ok, well one thing. I cant help but feel pretty awesome about doing a 10 mile run one day and having absolutely no problem doing 6 the next. Things seem to really be coming along!

Now, on to the soup!

This was a big one. It was my week to bring the soup! I have to admit, it was actually pretty easy. I just asked my wonderful and beautiful wife Kate to make it!

Of course she kicked ass and made a killer beef stew. Everyone loved it! ( I was a little bummed that she wasn't there to see how much everyone was enjoying it. )

This week's soup. Beef Stew made by my wife Kate.

One last note about the Soup Group. We now have 5 runners who are running Boston 2011!

Congrats Hiroshi and Jeff for getting numbers!

Thanksgiving week training and eating!

Well, another good week of training in the books.
My mileage was slightly down this week at about 35 1/2 miles, but that's ok when you consider that just a few months ago I was only averaging 15 miles a week!


Here is some notable stuff from the week...


Thanksgiving Day 5 Mile Road Race


On Thanksgiving morning, my mom and I started what I'm hoping will be a new Thanksgiving tradition.
We ran a 5 mile road race together in Whitinsville, MA. 


I was hoping to break 40 minutes, but just barely missed it coming in at 40:06. I think I could have been faster had I taken it easier in the days leading up to the race, (I ran 8.25 miles on Tuesday and 5 miles wednesday), but I had a great time anyway.


Mom had a GREAT race coming in around 51 minutes!
I'm incredibly proud of her. She's just started running again this summer and is not letting her asthma get in the way of getting back in shape.

Mom finishing her first race in 25 years!

It was nice to see to see my Aunt Nancy (my mom's best friend since they were kids) and Uncle John, along with their son Jeff (who is an amazing runner and came in 30th overall with a time of just under 32 minutes. 6:19/mile!)

From left to right: Jeff,Aunty Nancy,Uncle John,Mom and Me

Saturday Long Run (Nov 27th, 2010)

Saturday brought the weekly "Long Run" with the Alzheimer's association team.

I was looking forward to this run because I needed to burn off the 2 days of holiday gluttony.

I woke up feeling good and met the crew in our normal spot in Watertown.

This weeks crew for the team Long Run

   I'm not really sure what the culprit was, but this ended up being one of the toughest runs I've had in recent memory. I just didn't have it today. Leg pains, huffing and puffing, the whole thing.


I managed to hold on and finish the 10 mile run with the group, but I was feeling pretty beat up by the time I was done. I'm going to chalk this one up to bad eating over the holiday and not enough sleep, and remind myself that the good days only feel good when you have bad ones to compare them to!



Sunday Soup Group (Nov 28th 2010)


To be honest, after yesterday's really tough run, and another night of not enough sleep, I had every intention of skipping the Soup Group run today. When I woke up this morning though, my legs just took me to the "workout drawer" of my bureau and off I went.
I guess I just cant pass up free food!


The group did some trail running today at the West Hill Dam in Uxbridge. This was the perfect run for me because the technical trails mean we are forced to slow the pace down. Also the soft ground versus the hard pavement was a welcome relief.

From left to right: Tom, Jeff and I. Tom is the son of one of our regular Soup Group runners.
He was home for the weekend and led our lead group on the trails.

 I felt 1000% better on this run than I did yesterday. It was nice to end the week on a positive note.


Speaking of a positve note, here is this week's soup!

This weeks soup! Roasted Vegetable and Bison

20 Weeks until Boston 2011!

First week of training in the books!

Well I started off big!
At 38.5 miles, this was my biggest week of mileage since starting running again about a year ago.
The majority of this weeks miles were by myself, but I did get in two group runs.

On saturday the 20th, I met and ran with the Alzheimer's team for the first time.
It was really great to see that I am capable of keeping up with those guys. (for the most part).
It was also very cool to run on Memorial drive in Boston. I'm always so envious when I see all of the runners out running along the river when I'm driving in to work!

I forgot to bring my camera, but I'll be sure to get some photos on future training runs with this group.

On sunday I ran with the "Soup Group"

A few members of the Soup Group!

This was a nice and easy run (6.7 miles, but very slow). These runs are alway great!
They are lead by my friend Joe Hamm who I met earlier this year. Joe is also the guy who convinced me to do the Lowell Half Marathon.

My buddy Joe Hamm

Of course the real selling point to this run is that every week, someone makes a big ol' crock pot of soup. Its a nice way to warm up from the cold winter runs.

The Payoff!

After the run.

How all of this happened!

Well, here it is. My first ever blog post!

This blog is going to be mostly about my training and fundraising efforts for the 2011
Boston Marathon on April 18th.

After a month-long application process, I found out last week that I have been invited onto the Alzheimer's association team for the 2011 Boston Marathon! 

This means that in addition to training on my own,  I will be training with the Alzheimer's team as well as with another group of guys I run with. (The Sunday Soup Group)

Anyone who hasn't been keeping up with me on facebook for the last year or so might be very surprised

to hear this. After all, 18 months ago I was about 35 pounds heavier than I am now and wasn't exercising at all!

Well, here's some background info about how it all happened.....

2010 has been a busy and amazing year for me so far.
The year started out with the birth of our son Max on January 10th.
He's a little over 10 months now, crawling around and climbing all over everything, and has been an absolute blast!

Our little guy! Max Anthony Tieuli.

I've also had a strong building year with my photography business with several large projects for clients
like America's Test Kitchen, The Boston Consulting Group, Simonton Windows, The Healthy Pantry, and Boston Magazine. Although the year isn't over yet, the most exciting accomplishment so far has to be this months cover of Boston Magazine (see below). Its on the racks for just a few more days!

The November 2011 Issue of Boston Magazine

I shot these dishes for a feature story for Boston Magazine's "50 Best Restaurants" story.
They loved the photographs so much they used them on the cover!

Along with the birth of my son, I will remember 2010 as the year that I finally got in shape!
Sometime late last year, after a bunch of hemming and hawing, I was convinced to sign up for a triathlon by my friend Rori.

Up until this point I had only been riding my bike, and not training seriously at all.
I quickly discovered that for me, the trick to sticking with a workout/training plan is to register for races, and then tell people about it!
After spreading the word to a few friends and family members about my plans, I found myself spending the winter on the treadmill and spin bike, trying to lose weight and get ready for the May 9th triathlon that I registered for. There was no way I was going to back out once people knew about it!

The training slowed down a bit when Max was born, but after 6 weeks or so of settling in, I resumed the training and got myself ready.

When race day came, I was both excited and scared to finally see what I could do.
Unfortunately, I never really got a chance because windy conditions forced the race directors to cancel the swim portion of the race, leaving only the bike and run.

It was still fun to compete, but I came home
feeling let down and not able to call myself a triathlete.
My biggest fan didn't really care about that though....

Me and my biggest fan back home after the race.

That night, determined to remedy this disappointment, I registered for another triathlon and set back to training.

About a month later, I competed in the Escape The Cape Triathlon in Onset, Ma, and had a wonderful time.

That was it! The floodgates opened and I went on to compete in 3 more triathlons over the summer.

Along with all the racing, I participated in the "Memory Ride" which is a 100 mile charity bike ride to support Alzheimer's research. I have participated in this event several times in the past, but this year was special because of the loss of my Grandmother Lee to the disease in January.

I really focused my efforts raising money and was able to raise over $6,000 Alzheimer's research!

After my last triathlon of the year in August, a friend of mine convinced me to train for a half marathon in October. At this point I was feeling up for pretty much anything, so I immediately signed up for the Baystate Half Marathon in Lowell.

After 6 weeks of training with some new friends, I competed in the half marathon and finished it easily in 1 hour and 48 minutes.

It didn't take long before I started thinking bigger....

The Boston Marathon is actually very difficult to get into. People may not realize it because on TV it looks like there are a million people running it.
In truth, there are only a couple of ways to get in. You have to either qualify by running another marathon and finishing in a certain amount of time (which I am nowhere near being able to do), or to run it for a charitable organization.
(ok, there are a couple other long shot ways, but I won't get into those here)

My best shot was to contact the Alzheimer's association and see if there were any opportunities to run for them. (considering my past involvement, I thought I would have a good chance of getting one of the 15
numbers alloted to them by the marathon organizers)

With some guidance from Michelle Gonzalez at the Alzheimer's Assoc. headquarters in Watertown, I filled out an application and crossed my fingers!

Last monday I heard back.

Time to start training!!!