The Fleet Has Been Blessed...

Just a quick note to let y'all know how I did in the 10 miler. Well, honestly, I'm not sure how I did! LOL No chip timing on this one and there were around 2700 people....kinda jumbled at the end of the race. Took about two minutes to get to the start line and then the first couple of miles to get outta the "pack", but overall I felt and ran well. The time when I crossed was 1:27:05 so I figure I actually ran it somewhere between 1:25:00 and 1:27:05... Pretty much exactly what I was shooting for.

Will try to get more detail up soon!

Two days till race day!

Two more days and I'm off and running in the "Blessing of the Fleet" 10 mile race. Getting out for a 3 mile run later on today with a co-worker, but plan to keep it a light one at that. Want to keep myself fresh for Friday evening. Weatherwise it appears that it's going to be sunny and somwhere in the mid to high 70's around 6pm. The first couple of miles being along the water and then heading inland for a loop prior to finishing back by the Narragansett pier. Spent many days in the area during summers growing up, so it'll be familiar territory for sure.

Seeing as how I ran the half-marathon at an 8:55 pace, I'm shooting to bring that down a bit but not sure really where I want to be. Perhaps in the 8:45 range.... First evening race for me and I'm guessing it's a little different on the body than the morning runs. Anyone have advice specifically for evening runs v. morning? Heading down to the folks place in that area Friday morning and will try to take in a quick nap if possible. I've noticed that my energy level on my evening training runs isn't as high as those I get in the morning. Maybe a nap will help...who knows. Food intake times will be different as well since the monring routine probably won't cut it.

Anyhoo, I'll let y'all know how I did as soon as possible :-) May not be till Sunday night/Monday monring since the folks don't have internet access at that house.....perhaps there's an open wireless network that I can tap into... ;-)

Ho Hum...

Well, didn't hit my goal for the weekend (12 mile run). Had to get up early Sunday to get out and to it, but didn't. Stayed up too late Saturday evening hanging with my wife and couldn't drag myself out of bed Sunday morning. Not killing myself too badly here though cause it was time well spent in my opinion. Anyhoo, got 3.5 in on the treadmill last night, variable speed to try and simulate my outdoor run, but at least it was something to show for the weekend.

Not going to push it too much this week as the 10 mile is on Friday evening and I'd like to be fairly fresh for it. Will get out today after work, in the lovely humidity soup, for 3-4 miles and will try to mix up the speed a little as with last night. Kind of a mini speed interval workout with my normal run. Won't have time for too much more as I've got to get home for kid duty. :-)

Random Thoughts

Anyone watch Phineas and Ferb on the Disney Channel? Okay, so it's a kids show, but it's just hillarious. The show has invaded our home so much that my daughter has named our pool robot cleaner "Perry the Platypus". Perhaps I should buy it a cool secret agent hat now...

Running in the heat is difficult..... LOL

Why do I feel worse now that I'm in better shape...whereas I felt fine when completely out of shape....The aches, the pains, gotta love physical fitness! :-)

Body glide is your friend!!! ...but it won't pick you up at the airport.

I now understand what it's like to RECEIVE "the look" when talking about how many miles I run a day/week. That and the "why do you do that, again?"

I'm a converted "why do runners insist on running in the street when there is sidewalk..." person over to "why do cars insist on trying to get as close to me when I'm running as possible!!"

Road kill make for excellent cross-training as hurdles....

**3 miles on da'mill last night and the heel is fine, woohoo. Going for a 4 mile run today after work, hopefully the breeze off the water picks up cause it's hot out there. :-) Got the 10 mile course map I'm running next week. Looks good, fairly flat with some hills at the beginning of the course (between miles 2 and 3), but flat after that. It starts at 6pm, so hopefully the heat has worn off by then, or better yet, rain or overcast!

I'm Back...Sort Of

Hey y'all, great comments from the last post, thanks! Mike G. points out trail running and is definitley something I'm going to look into. I live adjacent to what once was a golf course, so I'm wondering what's been cooked up in there by runners/bikers, etc. If not, I'm sure the running folks around here have some locations they can point me towards. Anything that will reduce the impact is good with me. Had a heel problem develop early on Friday (bad work shoes...need some new ones for sure) which got worse due to my "long run" that afternoon. Only got in just under 9 miles and had to stop. One, for the heel throbbing, and two cause I ran out of time and had to head home to help with the kids. Dissapointed that I didn't get my 12 miles in, but also don't want to do something that will mess up the 10 mile race I've got on the 25th. Heel is feeling better today and will be ready to run on tomorrow. Might give it a light mile on the treadmill tonight when the kids go to bed to test it.

Pool deck has been poured and swimming has begun. :-) Have yet to really do some laps, but will get to it soon. Still alot of landscaping work to do around the pool, but hey, it's in and working! Around 6 weeks, not bad at all.

Haven't forgotten that I said I WILL get a 12 miler in this month....If it's going to happen, it'll have to be this weekend as next weekend is the race down in Rhode Island. Stay tuned... Still have aspirations of the Marathon in Oct...novelty hasn't worn off yet.. Gotta get cookin' on the mileage though if I have a prayer... If nothing else, it should help my "half" time!

Another Quick Post...

Hey y'all - Not alot of time for anything this week, but I promise to catch up on everyone's blog activity. Took another quick run yesterday, 3.57 mi, and have found a running buddy at work. Well, sort of. He's rehabbing his plantar faceitis (sp?) issues, so he plans to join me for the under 4 mi runs every now and then. Was nice to run with someone else, the mileage just flew by when someone was there to chat with. Anyhoo, looking to get a nice long run in this afternoon after work. Having a tough time finding a "safe" 12 mile route here in New London....10, no problem....12 is a little more difficult as it would take me into some shaddy neighborhoods...weird mix down here as there are million dollar homes and low cost housing within a block of each other. Perhaps I'm just being paranoid...I dunno...

Leg feels great now that I'm stretching more and have cut the mid week mileage a little bit. Will keep on that plan for July and try to crank it back up a little in August. Still want to keep the long runs and extend them every other week to see if I can get up to a 15-20 mile run.....if I can, then I may go for that marathon in October, if not, I'll stick to the half they do at the same time.

Quick Post

Finally, a pool picture :-)

Quick 3 mile run this afternoon, nothing exciting to report otherwise.

Rough Start to July

Hi y'all. Well, I'll admit right off the bat that July has NOT started the way I'd like it to. Thikining about it this weekend I was thumbing through any number of excuses as to why that is, but honestly, they are just that....excuses. In June I'd had plenty of excuses I could have used to "not" hit my targets, but somehow I was motivated enough to find a way. So, instead of telling you why I'm behind on my goals already, I've just decided to take the heat and put it all on me.

So what were my goals? It's only 7 days into the month, right? We'll I had planning to have completed a 12 mile run over the weekend, but put in a 10.1 instead. Also, skipped out on another mid-week run.... Maybe not a huge issue as we do have the balance of the month to go, but I'm not liking the trend I'm setting early on and need to call myself out on it early!

So, this week will be a heavy run week sneaking it in wherever possible and I'll hit that 12+ mile run target. Next week I'm going to go heavier in the cross-training efforts (bike, swim..hopefully) but still get the long run in at the end of the week. Also, breaking the "Total-Gym" back out to expand upon my strength training (Chuck will be thankful I'm sure...). I've got a couple of weeks to the 10 mile race down in Rhode Island and I want to head into that week feeling like I can put together a great race/time.

Whew, that felt good...now time to execute!

Still backlogged on the picture download (pool photo) front, but promise to get some up this week. It's completely filled as of today, and should be running/filtering, etc. as of the time I get home from work. WooHoo! Concrete decking should be done later in the week with landscaping to follow in the next week or two.

AATM - Great show guys! Loved the interview with Paige, she's a class act for sure. :-)

A Great Disturbance in the Force?

Yeah, I'm watching Star Wars...how'd you guess? :-) I tell ya though, I think if I had Yoda holding on to my back when I ran, I could shave :30 sec of my mile time!

No run today, no wait, scratch that...no REAL run today. I did a 1.5 mi jog on the treadmill just to get loose and stretch. Was only suppose to be 1/2 mile to get warm, but it felt good and the kids were napping, so I kept going for a while. The stretch was the best part, felt really good and has stayed with me all day. Maybe I'm on to something here.... Anyone out there endevour into Yoga or something for stretching? I really need some kind of routine that will keep me honest.

Was going to do my long run tomorrow, but forgot my wife works tonight, so I'll have the kids by myself in the morning (and no, they don't like the jogging stroller...go figure...). Not sure what I'm going to do here, either try to get it in tomorrow night, or do a light run tomorrow night and then the long run Sunday. Anyhoo, legs have felt better today than they have in a month. A wonder what a couple of days off will do!

Pool is half full.....electrician still needs to put the LED light in and cover it, so we can't fill it all way yet. It's lookin' pretty darn inviting thought. They say they're coming tomorrow to "finish", but as usual, I'll believe it when I see it! Honestly, I'm really looking forward to getting some swimming in for cross training work, but the kids may have other plans.... :-)

Happy 4th, again... Lovin' the holiday, but hoping the neighbors stop it with the fireworks as the kids keep waking up...ugh...

Happy 4th Y'all!

Or as Yakko Smirnoff (or is it Smirnov? Isn't he the vodka guys? ;-)) used to say "America, what a country". Only one thought that I picked up from a talk show yesterday. The host simply asked the audience to remember what the 4th really stood for. It was really the first time in history that a truly free nation was born. Others were sort of getting there, but not quite what the Declaration of Independance had done. Governement of representatives carrying the will of all its people. Something we look at now as a given, right? Like DUH! LOL But honestly, it was a stretch back in the day and we really should be thankful for those who stood up for something unheard of and signed their names to it.

Took two days off to give the ol' legs a rest and got back to it this morning. Ran 5.05 total with the warmup run. Still a little shin pain, but nothing that is bothering me all that much.

Liner should be going into the pool later on today and it's quite possible that we'll be able to swim in it by Saturday...fingers crossed.. Of course there is still much landscaping and decking work to be done, but not as big of a deal if we can start using it! Deb, I'll post some pictures this weekend, thanks for the reminder. Great at taking the pictures...but I'm completely lazy when it comes to actually downloading them onto the computer!

June Recap

What a month for running in the "Stroller" camp. Destroyed my previous "best" mileage month by 20+ miles, ran a half marathon in under 2hrs, and have taken the "Battle from Seattle" (or as I liked to call it, the "Thrilla from Mongella") trophy. Jonathan put up some great mileage and showed his toughness for sure. The great thing is that we both win as I think we're all that much closer to our best effort come January. Not to mention that the Dream Team fund wins as well. I've got to get on your sponsorship for weight loss, Jonathan, so expect a note from me soon.

One other June accomplishment that I tend to overlook is my average mile pace. I had set a goal to reduce my average mile to 9:30, but it appears that I'm averaging more in the range of 8:50 - 9:00. This just blows my mind as I NEVER thought I'd get there this fast (or at all). Just really surprised at what I've been able to do by sticking to the goals and giving my training an honest shot.

One more accomplishment for June. Had a goal of 2000 sit ups and 2000 push ups, and just pulled it off last night. Hit exactly 2000 for each.

Ya know, one thing bothers me.....I figured my singing would have gotten an "American Idol" like review from Jonathan and Bryan on the last show, but nuttin'!!! Perhaps that's a blessing in disguise, but c'mon guys! Rip it to shreds for the sake of entertainment!!!! I'm game! :-)