End of the Week Recap 1/16/11

This week I did 18.15 miles at an average pace of 8:32/mi. Not too bad. I tried a little speed work (as in almost non-existent), but I think that I need to lay off the speed work till I get my endurance back up. Interesting (to me, but not to anyone else with a pulse), I stealthed in a long run unintentionally! I had intended to get in a nice 6-7 mile run on Friday. My run was fair, but with my wonderful Garmin 405 (that I got for Christmas!  Thank you honey!) on the lap info screen, I didn't notice that I got in 8 miles! My longest run for the year so far (I know, I know...2 weeks. Big whoop.), and it felt good to get in the mileage. I did about 75 mins of cross-training and weight lifting. I'm starting to feel buff again, but not quite beach ready yet. So the re-tooling of the "Gun Show" continues on! Updates as they develop!

End of the Week Recap 1/9/11

First week of the year, and it was a decent comeback. I did 16.84 miles at 8:22/mi. I also managed 2 hrs of cross-training. My weight was back down to 166.8 lbs from a ridiculous 173 lbs after New Years. I'm trying to stretch at night and do some core work to reduce injury. So far, so good, but that being said, I'm sitting here with an ice pack on my shin. So an easy day tomorrow if the snow holds off. Have to remember, nice and easy. Going for the distance. This is harder than I recall.

The Race Schedule

Well, I've fleshed out my schedule as much as I can at this point, which you can see on my blogsite.  Most of it is still unfinished as many of the races that I want to do haven't posted any information yet.  A few notables:  The 8th Annual Race Judicata is on February 26, 2011, which unfortunately is the same day as my daughter's last basketball game.  I may only run the 5k this year, so I can make it to her game.  Maybe I'll get 2 suckers teammates and we can enter as a team.  Hmmm.

I'm currently planning on doing 2 local half-marathons, the Tom King and the Middle Half, that I have not yet run, so those should be fun.  They're both allegedly very flat and fast.  I'm taking another stab at the Country Music Marathon, and hopefully it won't be the disaster that it was last year.  My intent is to use it as a training run for my fall marathon.  So I'm looking for a nice, easy FINISH that doesn't leave me completely dead.  That leaves my big marathon, which should be the Tupelo Marathon.  Registration isn't up yet, but in the past they've had the coolest looking shirts and finisher medals (a skull and crossbones!).  Even though it is supposed to have some rolling hills, that will be the marathon that I look for my fast time this year.

The race I'm looking forward to the most is the Warrior Dash.  Not only does this race have fun obstacles like barbed wire and fire, but it has lots of adult beverages and a cool buffalo hat!  There's even steel viking hats for age group winners.  Throw in that it's near my hometown and I'm so there!  I considered wearing a kilt in the "traditional style" but I think that my lovely wife would probably frown on that.

Finally I'm also considering the Disney half and full marathon in 2012.  It doesn't really count for this year, but I'm keeping this in mind for later as I don't want to finish the year either completely dead or injured.  We're planning on making it a family thing with my wife and kids and my brother's family and also watch me kill myself run.  I want to run the half (on Saturday) and the full marathon (on Sunday) to get the coveted Goofy Medal.  My lovely wife thinks that this would be a bad idea (granted this is not the first time that she's said that I've had a bad idea).  But seriously, if I'm going to go all that way to run, shouldn't I go for it?  I say, YES!

The Running Geek Upgrade

Well, it's 2011 and I'm still cobbling together my race schedule for the year (i.e. sweet-talking my lovely wife into letting me run some of the crazier races), but I have figured out my goals for year.  As stated, I've decided to keep 2011 within more reasonable boundaries.  First off, my plan is to get my weight down to 160 and keep it there.  Ugh.  I can't believe that it's even gone up.  Moving on!  My race goals are simply put:  to be faster than I was last year in every race distance.  

Along those lines, I'm scrapping any formulaic training program and using my own what-do-I-feel-like-doing-today methodology.  That being said, I will incorporate one day of speed/hill work and one long run.  I'll also be working up my distance to get closer to 50-60 mile weeks, but at much slower paces than I did last year to reduce injury and increase recovery.  Throw in a decent amount of cross-training/weight lifting to build strength, endurance and overall fitness, and I think I have a recipe for a decent year (consequently, this is close to the same formula that I used 2 years ago to get here).  And add in a name change to the blog for some added motivation, and we're off!