Shorter than normal

I have had a shorter mileage week than normal. The extra work hours over the last couple weeks once again caught up with me and I just couldn't drag myself out of bed in the middle of the night to go running.

I only put a couple 4 milers in during the week, but with excellent negative splits. Run 1 Run 2.

I did however put in a 10 miler today which I was really pleased with overall. My pace was 9:09 which is just a small bit slower than my half marathon pace.

I am looking forward to getting back at it this coming week.

I want to Tri......

for those of you that have followed my blog at all or know me from the forums, you know that I want to do a tri. I really wanted to do one this summer and started looking for a bike. Well, $ is not available and the check from the IRS went to pay off some debt so I had to stop looking. The kind of bike I could afford were not suitable to do what I wanted..... tri, and start commuting a couple days a week to work.

My hopes have been up and down at getting a bike, but so far have not been in the right place at the right time..... until maybe now. You see I am going to win a bike from www.johnisfit.com. He is giving away a bike from Lipton in their Are you young enough contest.... and a nice one I might add.

I would recommend that you head on over to his blog and check out the give away post, but that would be kinda mean considering I will already be winning it and you would all just be wasting your time anyway.

So, how long do you think it will take me to train for my first tri once I get this bike? :)

Officially Normal - 90 lbs later

Yes - Today I am officially normal in the eyes of the government. You can check out more about it on my weight loss blog over here: blog.2big.org

WOW - 2nd Overall..... and a New PR!

I really just don't know quite what to say.

Today was just awesome. You have to understand that 1 year ago, the Inaugural Saratoga 5k Fun Run was my very first race since I had run back in high school. To put that into perspective.... I am 38 now. Last year for this race I was 50 lbs heavier and came in dead last. You can see last years results here. You can see more about my running journey here, and my overall journey here, but for now back to the race.

Yes, you read that right.... I came in SECOND OVERALL! It was not a really big race, but it more than doubled from the first year when I think there was a total of 27 runners. Today I think the total runners was somewhere in the 50's, which is not bad considering this is a very hard and hilly course. It really and truly is the hardest course I have run. To give you an idea, here is a shot of the elevation:

I started the race near the front of the pack, and the Chik-Fil-A cow was there and was starting off the pack. I was following him and trying to go around him when he stepped over right in front of me and I ran into him.... that had to be a sight to see! I almost fell over! I ran for the first 1/2 mile with a pack of runners and then started to pull away a bit from them when we got to the first hills. When I was almost to 1 1/2 miles I started to round a corner when one of the course volunteers said "you can catch him"...... What? Him? not Them? I was pleasantly surprised, but I had thought there may only be one in front of me. I ran the rest of the race kinda watching my shoulder to make sure nobody was coming up on me..... It was so much fun! The first place finisher finished in 21:xx and my time was 23:23.

I haven't run a 5k since January because my training turned towards my First Half Marathon. I have only run one 10K during that time as well. One of the cool things is that this race set a new PR for me! 23:23! And that was on a very difficult course to boot! I can't wait to see what I can do on a normal course. I heard a couple people mention that this race was 4 minutes longer than a 5k they ran just the week before. And I think they were in the 20's so that is quite a difference. I don't think it would be that much of a difference for me, but maybe a minute or two.

Here is my splits on my running log: link Robbie said the race results will be up tomorrow, I will update the post when they are posted.

Well, the results are in and my 2nd place stood :) Here is the results from today >> link and some pics as well >> link Hey..... I even got honorable mention on the front page. Thanks Robbie!

Was my first 5k

Kinda misleading title I know. No, I didn't just run my first 5k, but the 5k I am getting ready to run this Saturday was my first 5k last year. This Saturday I plan on running the second annual Saratoga 5k Fun Run.

This race is kinda important to me, and I am really looking forward to it. Last year at this time I had only been running for a short time, just over a month. I had just started to lose weight and finally felt that I could maybe actually run and not just walk. This race last year was my first race. It was a hard course with a lot of hills, and I ended up walking a lot of the hills, but I finished it. It is actually kinda funny, because I came in dead last in this race, not by far, but still dead last.

Last year my time was 36:37, I am hoping that this year I can do a little better :).

I was a bit concerned I was not going to be able to run it this year because of some scheduling conflicts that came about in the last few weeks, but it looks like things have worked out and I will be able to run.

4 miles in the rain - negative splits

I woke up in the middle of the night to a major downpour. I thought - wow - this morning is a 4 mile run, I hope it slows down a bit before time to get up and get going.

When I rolled out of bed at 4:45 it seemed to have stopped raining so I proceeded to get ready and do all my Monday morning measurements. I was looking forward to my run on this rainy, 61 degree, 99% humidity morning. I finished up and headed out the door at about 5:15. When I walked out the door I noticed the rain had not stopped, but was very light.

The rain came and went the entire run, but since it had rained so hard overnight I had the wonderful enjoyment of puddle hopping, and trying to find all the puddles in the dark (or not find them as it be this morning) I did pretty good at missing most of them, but a couple times the light was not good enough to keep from the splash. I can only wonder how many worms lives were ended under the soles of my running shoes.

My run went really good, and I felt really good. I ended up with an 8:50 average mile on my 4 miler. I had negative splits of 9:26 - 9:15 - 8:45 - 8:16 which I was very happy with.

Well, I blew it....

Well, I blew it. I got up this morning and had breakfast before my run. I got tired of never being able to eat breakfast on Saturday mornings because of my long runs. This is the only morning my wife cooks breakfast for me and I always miss it. So, I chose to eat breakfast and then go out after a bit of letting everything settle. I ate a yummy egg, sausage, hash brown, and toast at about 9:15 and then headed out the door at about 10:30.

By 10:30 the sun was nice and high, and hot. It was not too hot out, but with the sun and the almost 80% humidity it was rough. I planned on running 12 or 13, and on my way out strategically placed my water bottles and a gel for the run. I felt really good and my run was starting off really good. I then realized after the first mile that I was going out too fast.... in fact a good 30 sec a mile faster than my Half Marathon race pace. Considering I was going about the same distance I was starting to wonder when I would crash.

During the first few miles it was running through my head about how great of a blog post that would be. Me telling everyone how well the miles have been paying off and how I did a Half Marathon in training faster than when I did the actual race. All that came to a halt at about mile 5 when I started really feeling it. I ended up giving in and hanging up the towel at a 10k, under half of what I set out to do.

I am not upset, it was just some poor planning that got me where I was. I had a really good run, and probably the best ever 10k in training at just over 52 minutes. This is something I am happy with, I just wish I would have been planning a 10k all along, and not giving up on my 13 mile long run. I did what I felt I needed to do, my legs and all felt good, but I just pushed my body too hard under the circumstances. I think pushing myself on would have very possibly hurt me in some way.