Afternoon Heat - 1 Me - 0

Okay, so I headed back to the park this afternoon...Instead of waiting until sunset, I decided to go at 2 in the afternoon...Why? I have no idea....But the temperature went up over 80, and the trail is black, so needless to say....The heat whooped up on me.

Total distance = 0.9 miles

Total time = 9:09.292


Maybe next time I should wait for the sun to relax..

Unemployed, Overweight & Bored

Okay, so I'm no longer doing the ridiculously long commute to work...We've joined a gym and have been going at least 2 or 3 times a week. Last night, though the weather was just incredible so I headed to the old park I used to run and have soccer camp at.

It has a paved trail through the woods that measures about 1 1/4 miles around. I did 3 laps last night. I also have been 'upgraded' as to my running equipment. I'm now armed with an iPod armband. It's amazing how much having music helps.

Anywyas, my iPod also has a lovely lap counter on it, so I loaded up my playlist and started the stopwatch.

I jogged 1 lap, walked 1 lap, and then jogged another lap, then a half mile warm down, and here are my results:

Lap 1 (1 1/4 mile) Jog: 11:46.644 (Minutes:Seconds)
Lap 2 (1 1/4 mile)walk: 20:40.800 (Minutes:Seconds)
Lap 3 (1 1/4 mile) Jog: 12:56.958 (Minutes:Seconds)
Lap 4 (1/2 mile)WarmDw: 5:27.476 (Minutes:Seconds)

I'm hoping to once again run the Run Like Hell race this year; knocking off at least 4 minutes from my time last year of 36:33.

I think I'm off to an okay start, don't you?

Return of the M!

It's been a LOOONG (short) winter for me.

It's been incredibly difficult for me to do a whole lot since our move back in December...I've been commuting 160 miles a day for work, and as you can imagine, by the time I get home in the evenings I really don't have the patience to do ANYTHING....So what HAVE I been doing? Absolutely nothing and falling back into bad habits...But I have 3 weeks left on my commute, and then I'll really be able to get going again.

The biggest news: My wife and I recently joined a gym! We went for our first time on Saturday afternoon with friends, and I'm STILL sore.

But it looks as if my next race is going to be the same race that I ran last year.

My goal for this year: Knock 4 minutes off of my end time.

I've got a LOT of work to do as I'm once again so out of shape I could barely run a half mile on Saturday.

The site here is also going to be going through some changes in a few weeks to reflect the changes that I'm going to go through.

Another Short Break

This project is going to be put on hold for just a little while longer. The Holiday season is upon us, and on top of that, my wife and I are moving in a couple of weeks, so that is going to take up most of our time. Once we get settled down a bit, and I can figure out a new routine and a new place to go running, we'll be back on track. Though I probably won't be back until sometime after the new year. But I WILL be back!

Happy Holidays everyone!

I Have Returned!

Fear not everyone - for I have returned! I know it's been a couple of weeks since I've posted anything, and it was probably thought that after the race I returned to my old ways of not doing anything and eating junk food.

Well, if you thought that....You were right....For two weeks after the race I started falling back into my old habits, and when I once again started getting heartburn, I knew I couldn't do that. So I started back up jogging on this past Monday...I'm not pushing too hard these first couple weeks back since it's been a couple of weeks. Monday I just walked 3/4 of a mile, jogged a mile, and then did my warm down and went home. It's cold now, so I don't want to injure myself. I haven't lost as much of my endurance and what not than I thought I would have. I did fairly well on Monday having not ran for two weeks.

Today it's both cold AND raining, so I'm not sure how well I'll do today. As part of my race day packet, I got a free 30 day trial membership to Gold's Gym...It expires today, so I may take that in so that at least for a month I'll have somewhere to run indoors. We'll see though.

Also; I've got a new race to train for. It's pretty far away as it's not until August. It's called the Mid-Summer's Night Run, and is again a 5k run. I'll have to research later this weekend to see if I can find a website and graphics for it. This time around, my goal is actually a time goal. I'd like to knock about 6 minutes off my overall time to get 30 minutes or under. I have quite a while to train for it, so by the time August gets here, that shouldn't be a problem.

But there you have it - I have returned!

I Did It!

Well, even though this post comes quite late, this past Friday (October 27th) at 8:30 pm EST I completed my first ever distance run. I DID complete the Run Like Hell.

I was JUST shy of my goal of no walking, but I was still happy with my performance this first time around. The coarse was VERY full of hills, and one hill in particular I took 30 seconds to walk up to the top of; but I finished the rest of the race entirely with running.

My final time was 36 minutes and 33 seconds. I was nowhere NEAR the top ten, but I was also NOT last. What I really couldn't believe was the amount of people who took off like rockets at the start only to have me pass them within a half mile as they had to stop and start walking.

There was also a large percentage of people who would practically sprint for a short distance, and then walk, and then do it all over again.

But all in all, I was very pleased with myself the first time around. Now my goal is to find a new race to run in to keep me in shape as I haven't ran at all since the race. I really don't want to fall back into my old bad habits. I plan on hitting the park again tonight, though.

AND - I DO have pictures from the race, though not many as it was raining during the race and we didn't want to water log our camera. I'll get those up on my Photobucket page as soon as I can!

This Is It

Today is officially race day...I just picked up my number, free t-shirt and my race day packet. In just a few more hours we'll be heading down to check in and get this show on the road.

As I've said all along, my only goal for tonight is just not to have to stop and walk. And to try and have a good time...No matter how I do tonight, I've worked really hard for this, so whatever I do, this project of mine will not be a failure.

And also again; this whole event benefits research for cycstic fibrosis, so also no matter what it's for a good cause as well. I urge you once again to check out the race's website down there to the bottom right of my blog. You'll get everything about the event down there.

And after today, this project isn't ending. I plan to keep going, as I don't want to fall back into my old routines. Oh no, I'll have to find other races to run to keep me going, and of course I'll keep updating this blog, because if nothing else, having a journal of sorts to keep track of my progress has really helped keep me in line.

I've armed my wife with our digital camera for tonight, so hopefully I'll have pictures to post when we get home on Sunday. But for now....Here we go...This is it!

*gulp*

Race Day Is Tomorrow!

Well, we've made it. Tomorrow is the official day....Well, tomorrow night to be more exact. I've taken the day off of work so that I can make it to Cincinnati in time.

Am I ready; only time will tell...Will I be able to accomplish my goal of not having to walk any part of it? I certainly hope so.

I've learned a lot about myself during this little project and even if I do have to walk a bit tomorrow night, I certainly accomplished a lot...I HAVE lost weight; practically an inch off my waist...I'm sitting here in slacks for work that back in May did not fit AT ALL....The farthest I've gone during one of my 'practices' has been over 4 miles....I'm by no means blazing the trail, but the fact that I completed all this should be an indicator of some sort of success.

Now I just have to keep signing up for these runs so that I don't quit what I've started.

More profound thoughts to come later today or tonight on this whole experience.