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! 

End of the Year Recap 2010

Well it's that time again, where I re-live every race and curse review my performance for the year.  Overall it was a mixed bag.  This year, I racked up the hardware (usually placing 3rd in my age group).  I had several goals this year, and I only made one of them.  Here's the numbers (goal first - actual result second):

155 lbs - 168.8 lbs  No dice here.  I really put the pounds on during the holidays.  Turkey, pie and bacon continue to plague me with their delicious, delicious-ness.

5K 21:11, 6:50/mi - 21:22 6:54/mi  Ugh.  This one was a heartbreaker.  I got 3rd in my age group, but I missed my annual goal by 11 seconds.  11 SECONDS!!!

10K 43:23, 7:00/mi - 44:49, 7:13/mi  Another mixed bag on this race.  I got 3rd in my age group again (detecting a trend?), but missed my annual goal by 1:26.

13.1 1:43:00, 7:51 - 1:42:00, 7:47 - This was the only race that I reached my annual goal.  It came pretty early in the year, and I thought it boded well for the year.  Sadly it did not.

26.2 3:30:00, 8:00/mi - 4:07:03, 9:26/mi - I didn't even come close on this one.  But I was so unprepared mentally and physically for this race, I was just glad to finish.

It would truly be a bad year if I didn't learn anything from this, but I did learn a few things.  First, I can't be a good runner just by running alone.  A good diet and strong overall fitness are important too for me.  Second, I need to work more distance into my training to build my endurance.  Third, I need more realistic goals!  As my lovely wife likes to remind me, I'm not 6' and bulletproof.  That means taking a more realistic assessment of what I can do, so I don't get too down on myself. 

Not the year that I was hoping for, but still a good year overall.  I've gotten faster in everything under marathon, just not as fast as I hoped.  Anyway, here's looking forward to another good (and fast) year!  Happy New Year everybody!

The Holiday Protocol

Merry Christmas!!!  Nothing to report.  I've been doing weights/cross-training at the Y while I rest my leg.  I'll be posting my end of the year wrap-up in a couple days as well as my new year goals.  Stay tuned.  I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!!!

Rudolph's Red Nose 5K Recap

That's me in the Man Up shirt and UT Santa hat!

I didn't have a lot of expectations for this race going in.  I'm still mentally dinged up from my marathon, and I didn't run at all this week (instead I did some may-as-well-have-not-even-bothered light cross-training and weight lifting).  Considering how poorly I did last year in this race, my hope for this race was to finish around 22:45, which would have given me 7:20/mi.  The race officials also changed the course this year, adding another hill right after the 1st mile.  Masochists.  I know, I know.  I've run hillier and longer courses before, but there's something about familiarity with a race that makes any change nerve racking. During my warm ups, my right calf felt tight and all of the sudden, 7:20/mi seemed like it would be a real accomplishment.  After my usual last minute pit stop ritual, I scooted over to the start line to find a spot.  There were over 1400 runners this year and it seemed like they all decided to run at the front of the line.  I was annoyed.  I tried not to be (since I was really just running for fun), but I always am.  I started out behind a trio of particularly annoying 8th graders, so I navigated the crowd to an open-less-teenager-y spot.  Then we were off, and up Woodland Street Bridge.  I tried to keep my pace easy but quick, and soon I found myself moving up ahead of the pack.  I could see the lead pack and fought the urge to sprint up and cover ground.  Instead, I held my pace, breathing hard, but moving well (as opposed to my side splitting run last year).  For the last 1/2 mile, I tried picking up my pace and crossed the finish, tired but still standing.  My splits ended up being 6:51, 7:16, 6:59, and 1:09 (6:30/mi) for the last .1 mile.  That gave me a time of 22:17.  Better than I had hoped for, but far from my best.  I hung around to check the official results, and Bam!  I scored 3rd in my age group! (Never mind that there were only 37 runners in my age group).  It's nice to earn some more hardware for my office.  I guess being 40 may not be that bad after all.  Maybe...