100 Push Ups and 200 Situps aka @100pushups

Yes, I have officially joined the club and have started the 100 Push Ups plan. I am a glutton for punishment and have also started the 200 Situps just one week later.

It was just over a year ago when my online running buddy, Steve Speirs aka @britishbulldog and blogger extraordinaire over at www.runbulldogrun.com started the 100 Push ups craze. That was right around the time I broke my collar bone so I was not able to participate, but I knew one day, once my collar bone was completely healed I would join that craze.

That time has come and just last week I started the 100 Push Ups. This week as I started the second week I also started the 200 Situps plan and will be doing them on alternating days.

Steve has also written an accompanying book called 7 Weeks to 100 Push-Ups available where ever good books are sold.

I know of a couple others out on Twitter that are currently doing it, if you are one of those, make yourself known in the comments with your Twitter ID so we can check up on each other.

Wish me luck!

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow - virtual4now

New On The Run @BlakeCraig

I wanted to give a quick shout out to Blake Craig. He has just started running again and needs lots of encouragement. He is doing great, but I know how great it is to have accountability and others that care when times get tough.

His blog is blakesdailyrun.blogspot.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @BlakeCraig

Let's flood his blog with comments and followers and his Twitter account with followers.

Make sure you let him know I sent you!

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow - virtual4now

My Fastest Mile

I hit the road this morning and decided I would do a long interval and see how fast I could sustain for 1 mile. I did a warm up mile and then turned it on for the second mile. I wanted to see how fast I could go for an entire mile without giving up or giving in.

You must remember that the person in question here (me) is a former fatty and still carries around a little loose skin and extra weight here and there so running fast is not my fortitude.

My first mile was a nice easy first mile pace at 9:18 and as soon as I saw my MyTach click 1 mile I turned it on..... no looking back! I thought after about 1/4 mile that I wouldn't be able to make it to the next mile marker without giving up, but I pressed on. The houses went by much quicker than they usually do.... funny :) I must have sounded like I was going to die with the way I was breathing (maybe because I was going to) but I finally rounded the last corner and I could see the spot I knew as the 2 mile mark. I didn't let up, and kept pumping knowing now that I would make it. I hit the spot and my MyTach beeped, I looked down to see something I had never seen before....... a 6 as the first digit! It was a high 6, but it was a 6 none the less. It was officially my fastest mile I ever remember at 6:49!!!!

I stopped and walked for a few paces to regain my composure and then picked back up again running. I was going to finish off with a 1 mile cool down but had nothing left and stopped at the half mile mark (4:27) and finished it off walking.

Another milestone, and one I am very proud of. I won't be seeing this time in any races soon (if ever) but I was able to hit it which makes me very happy :)

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow

Running 100,000 miles

I was going through my reader when I came by a post on Scott Dunlap's A Trail Runner's Blog about Raven Craft - link to post

I had read about Raven a year or two ago and how he ran 8 miles every day and hadn't missed a day in over 30 years. I wasn't aware that he was coming up on a milestone this year of 100,000 miles. Pretty amazing stuff!

ESPN did a piece on him which can be seen below or a cleaner copy can be seen on his website.

Camping, the beach, and family running

It has been a busy week this past week. I have been running a lot, but also been keeping busy with life in general.

This past week I missed my run on Friday morning and didn't get a long run in on Saturday. The reason being that we decided at the last minute to go camping at the beach for the weekend. I ran Thursday morning and then again Thursday night (which has been common now that my daughter is training for Cross Country and needs someone to run with on the days she is not running with the team)

Since I had run Thursday night and Friday morning I needed to pack the van for the camping trip I decided I would forgo my Friday morning run. As the morning progressed I was happy I had chosen to do so since I barely had enough time the way it was (and I didn't want to get up at 4:30 on my day off)

We headed to Jekyll Island, on the coast of GA for the weekend camping trip. We are (new) tent campers.... and yes.... it was HOT! It got up near 100 degrees each day we were there, and was probably still in the upper 80's and humid when we crawled into the tent each night.

My daughter Payton and I got up on Saturday morning and planned on running 5 miles. I wanted to do those 5 and then head back out for more after dropping her off.... but..... well..... We drove down near the beach and got ready to go about 8:00 am. I thought we would be able to miss the heat of the day that way, but I didn't think about how hot the sun could be that early in the morning along the beach. We ran the bike trail along the beach for the view, but of course since we were running that close to the beach there was no shade anywhere - mistake! We didn't get far before we were both feeling the wrath of the sun. My daughter just couldn't go any further following 3 miles so we called it quits. It is hard for me to give in to a run, but it was the right thing to do.

We spent the day at the beach, and even though it was hot, we really had a great weekend camping/beach trip.

Last night was also a new and exciting time for me as a dad. If you have been reading long you are aware that my second daughter (Payton) is training for Cross Country so we run together a lot. My 7 year old son, Brady also runs with me occasionally, but my oldest daughter Ashlee, and my wife have yet to lace up the running shoes.

Yesterday I got one step closer to true family running. Ashlee is in Color Guard and has been practicing lately. She realized that she needs to get in better shape so she decided she needed to run. I won't let her run alone so she had to wait till last night. Last night we went out for just a mile. Both her and Payton went out with me. This was the first time Ashlee has run with me, and I don't know that she has truly ever run a mile before.

The run started off good and Ashlee was running with a smile on her face just in front of Payton and I. She said she was feeling pretty good..... but we had only gone about 2 tenths of a mile. She quieted down shortly after that, and when we got close to the 3/4 mile mark she started saying it was really hard and started to slow down. I looked at her and she was not happy, the smile was gone. I wouldn't let her stop before the mile, and to her credit she finished it strong and didn't complain anymore..... until after we were done. She said it was too hard and she was never going to run again. :) I talked her off the ledge and I think she will run with me again, but not as fast as we did this time. I let her pace this run and we ran it too fast for her ability. She ran the mile in 8:54 - excellent for the first mile I know her to have ever run.

This week is going good so far, trying to put some miles in and hope to get a good long run in this Saturday. This past Monday Payton ran on the Cross Country trails for the first time. She said it was fun and she did great running just behind the varsity. This Friday is her time trials for Cross Country. They have to run a 2 mile race to see where they all are on the team and to see who gets to go on the summer training trip. She is one of the top Freshmen on the team, and is running with last years JV most of the time. I think she will do great this Friday if she can mentally keep going when it gets hard. (I think she can do 15 min if she really wants to but am not going to say anything to her)

Till next time.....

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow

S.W.A.T. Trot 2009 - The Race Report

It was a day that I won't soon forget. This race meant so much to me in so many ways. It was a mental battle of being able to come back and conquer the race that just last year conquered me with a broken collar bone, but also because it was my daughter Payton's first 5k race.

The race was a night time race with an 8:00 start time. I prefer morning running and I also prefer morning races so this kinda threw the whole day off for me. I have had a couple issues with my ankle lately but it was feeling pretty good for the race. This being the case I didn't want to get out and mow the lawn or do
anything that might change that
so I didn't accomplish much throughout the day. It also makes dinner interesting because we had to eat by a certain time and I didn't want to eat anything too heavy. We opted for Grilled Chicken Salad which turned out to be a good choice.

The 1k fun run kicked off at 7:30 which my 7 year old son Brady was running so we arrived just before 7:00 to get checked in and get our numbers. Everything went off without a hitch and we started to get ready to run. You can see us getting
ready in the picture to the right.

7:30 came and the race started. Brady has some trouble wanting to run fast and then give up and walk. I also know this is how many people run these 1k-1mile fun runs so I knew he would be very tempted. I told him to take off slow and not worry about what everybody else was doing. I told him that we would pass many of them soon enough. He did a great job of going out strong but reserved. We neared the turn-around cone and he was starting to feel it so he asked if he could stop at the cone. As any
loving father would say.... I said.... NO! You are half way, you are not going to give up now. We continued on, and the second half of the run was not nearly as "fun" as the first. Brady kept stopping and I kept coming back and grabbing his hand to keep him going. He wasn't breathing too
heavy so I knew he was OK, but just in need of some mental and physical prompting.
This continued, but he completed it and finished strong. He came in third overall and first in his age group.
You can see him coming in to the finish line in the picture to the right (with his pacer off to the right in the picture) The race coordinators didn't plan very well and they were not there when the first finishers came across the finish line, nor was the clock functioning correctly. My watch said 5:20 when we crossed the finish line. They did find him and give him the #3 finisher card, but somehow when the awards were given out a boy that finished after him got the 1st in age group and he got the second..... The only thing I can think is that they guessed on the time and put a
faster time and so the cards got swapped. Oh well..... we know!

While we were waiting for the 5k to start my daughter, Payton, and I walked over to the spot where I was tripped last year and we had a moment of silence..... OK, I did, she just thought I was weird.

It didn't take long before it was time for the featured event, the 5k we all came to run. We walked over to the start and waited for 8:00. We lined up just behind the starters because it didn't seem to be all that crowded near the front for some reason. 8:00 came and the race was off. We started off at a nice pace and it felt comfortable. I checked the watch and we were running just over 8 mph so I knew we were running a bit faster than I had anticipated.

We came up on the first mile and Payton did a soft but heart felt "yea!" I looked down at the watch and it said 7:22, that is the fastest mile she has ever run. I was a bit worried at that point that I had taken her out too fast and that we would be paying for it before too long. We got to the half way point and she started to fade. She asked if we could slow down a bit when we got to a "corner" and I said sure. I wasn't expecting her to slow down as much as she did though and had to talk her back into speeding back up at least a little bit.

The second mile marker came and the watch told us it was a 7:58. From this point in she was begging to stop and actually did stop one time. It hurt me as a dad to see her hurt, but I have watched her run, and have run with her enough to know she was OK, but just feeling the pain of racing. Being that she is currently training for Cross Country and running with her team I know she will be racing before too long and needs to know that she needs to keep going, and not give up, even when it is hard.

During the last entire mile I ran just in front of her, constantly turning around and cheering her on and telling her to keep it up. I was not her favorite person in the world at that time I am sure. We finally were emerging from the neighborhood which meant we only had about 1k left, I was telling her to turn it on, that we were almost done. She wasn't listening to me, or she just thought she didn't have anything left, when a face I have seen at many of the races around here started to catch up with us. This is an older gentleman and one of the premier runners in the Run and See Georgia Grand Prix Series. He started cheering her on as well and telling her to keep going and to stay strong. She then kicked it in and we started moving at a great pace.
He told me afterwards that he figured she wouldn't listen to me but she might listen to him. :)

The three mile marker came and Will Chamberlin from Classic Race Services was reading off the time. According to my watch our third mile was 8:24. Once we passed that point she stopped. I said, "what are you doing?" She said "we are done" and I said, "no we have to finish at the finish line up around the corner." She then let out a groan but started to run again.

We came around the corner and I saw the clock. The clock was reading 24:40 and I had a secret (to her - but not my Twitter Friends) goal of sub 25:00. I once again cheered her on and said we have to beat 25:00 minutes!

We ran it in hard and crossed the finish line at 24:50 with 10 seconds to spare, an 8:00 mile pace exactly. They gave me the #32 finisher card and I promptly handed it to the one that finished in front of me :) and I took the #33 finisher card. We filled out our cards and turned them in. It looked promising that both of us placed in our age groups. You can see us coming in hard in the picture to the left. The full splits can be seen on my running log.

The award time came and Payton had placed first in her age group and I placed second in my age group. The net result of the evening was three runners and three awards - talk about a fun, exciting family evening.

The official race results are not yet posted, as well as Don McClellan's Photos (which I am told I will have a big part in this year), but I will be posting a link to them as soon as they are available. If you want to know when these are added just leave a comment and check the box to be notified when additional comments are posted.

**edit 6-16 to add the following
Don McClellan's Photoshow - check this out - I am now a star!
**edit 6-24 to add the following
Official Results - long time coming - but finally up!

The bigger images of the above embedded pictures as well as the rest of our personal pictures can be found on Flickr here >> Flickr Stream

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow

A cool thing to note - my recent post about the S.W.A.T. Trot with links to last years injury is on the first page of Google when you google the race name. My wife was talking to someone when all the runners went by and she mentioned that I made it further than I did last year and told them about the injury last year. A girl standing there said "hey, I read about that today" It turns out she was trying to find out the start time and came across my blog - I am now almost a celebrity..... OK, maybe not :)

Ankle - please straighten up!

This week started off to be a week that I was looking forward to.  This Saturday was going to be the return of the race that last year put me out of running commission for 8 months.  You can see my post just last week for more information and the history of this race for me.

Monday and Tuesday this week were some nice easy runs, and I decided to follow on Wednesday with an 8 miler.  Since I will be running the 5k race on Saturday night it gives no time for a long run.  If I was running the 5k race in the morning I would probably head back out later in the evening for a long run, but since it is in the evening I want to make sure I am fresh.

My 8 mile run was excellent, I really couldn't ask for a much better run.  Each mile was progressively faster than the previous mile and I was just feeling the groove.  You can see the details of this run on my training log.  

It wasn't till the last 3 tenths of a mile that this run turned horribly wrong.  I came down on my right foot and my ankle kinda gave way and started to hurt.  The only thing I can think is that I put off replacing my old shoes for way too long and my ankles had started to bother me.  I have my new shoes now, and my ankles have been feeling better, but I am afraid they are still a little weak and will take a little time to fully recover.

By the time I got to the office on Wednesday my right ankle was hurting pretty bad.  I do have a desk job so I was able to rest it most of the day and by the time I got home it was feeling a lot better.  I decided to go ahead and forego the runs I had in the plans for Thursday and Friday to let the ankle strenthen up before my race on Saturday.  It is feeling pretty good now.

Do you ever have problems with your ankles?  What do you do when you have this type of pain with your ankle?  Looking forward to hearing from all my seasoned runners, and even those that are just starting out.  Should I wrap it for the race tomorrow night, and if so, how should I do so?

Till next time....

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow

Marathon Season Training Tips

.....from Coach Chris Carmichael

Chris Carmichael is the founder, CEO and president of Carmichael Training Systems, a team of coaches for endurance athletes and personal coach to seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.

Millions of Americans run daily, and whether it’s a few laps to get in shape or training for a marathon, each run starts with a single step. Having a basic routine to follow will help you reach your goals and stay healthy. Here are Chris Carmichael’s top 10 tips to help you go the distance:

  1. Run with a sports drink: To get the most out of your training you need fluid, carbohydrate, and sodium during your workouts. Fortunately, you can get all of these from a sports drink; just make sure it’s one that’s rich in carbs, not just electrolytes.
  2. Check your shoes: Running shoes take a beating and once they’re worn out they don’t provide the support needed by your feet, ankles and knees. To help prevent injuries, replace your shoes every four months or 400 miles, whichever comes first. It’s also important to take care of your feet. To prevent blisters and treat dry and cracked skin, apply an anti-chafing ointment like Aquaphor Healing Ointment to your feet before you run and after you get out of the shower.
  3. Focus on flexibility: Runners benefit from flexible muscles in the legs, hips, and torso, but when you stretch is important. Some light stretching as part of your warm-up is a good way to loosen up for your workout, but stretching again after your workout is more effective for developing greater flexibility.
  4. Food is fuel: When you’re exercising to gain fitness you absolutely have to eat. If you’re working out but not consuming enough calories to support your activity level, you’ll get tired but you won’t get faster or more fit. As a runner training for a marathon, shoot for 5 moderate-sized meals a day, with 50-60% of your calories coming from carbohydrates, 20-25% protein, and 15-30% fat.
  5. Get the most out of your time: To improve performance and burn more calories, interval workouts are more effective than running at a constant pace. Start running at your normal pace, then pick up the pace and go faster for a one-, two-, or three-minute segment before returning to a slower pace to recover for a few minutes. Repeat this 3-5 times during your run and watch your fitness take off.
  6. Get ready for hills: Great fitness goes a long way to carrying you up and over hills, but some hill-specific training is a good idea too. Once a week, find a short, steep hill and sprint straight up the hill for 15 seconds, driving with your arms and raising your knees to get up the steep grade. Walk or jog for one minute, and repeat four more times. Walk or jog for five minutes and repeat the set.
  7. Enter local road races: Big city marathons put you on the road with a huge crowd of people, and that’s a very different environment than you’re used to if you mostly train alone or in a small group. Enter a local race, a 5K or a 10K early on in training, or a half-marathon about three months out from your goal event, in order to get comfortable running in a crowd.
  8. Boost your sustainable pace: The stronger your aerobic system and greater fitness, the faster you can go for the same amount of effort. But to gain that fitness and make it easier to run at your current cruising pace, you need to get out of your comfortable cruising pace and bring it up to as fast as you can maintain during a workout called a Tempo. Beginners may run 10-minute Tempos, intermediate runners 20 minutes, and advanced runners 40 minutes or more.
  9. Don’t get rubbed the wrong way: Anyone who says running is not a contact sport has never had their inner thighs rubbed raw during a marathon or long training run. My advice is to protect the skin with Aquaphor Healing Ointment. Use it before you run on your inner thighs, underarms, nipples, under sports bra straps and under the waistband of your shorts.
  10. Practice for race-day eating and drinking: Race preparation is about more than just fitness. During a marathon you’ll be grabbing cups of water or sports drink from tables or volunteers. Set up a table with cups and practice grabbing one or two without stopping. To drink from a cup on the run without spilling most of it down your shirt, pinch the top to create a spout. Also, be sure to experiment with different foods on your training runs so you know ahead of time what works for you and what upsets your stomach.

I am thankful to have personally tried the Aquaphor Healing Ointment following a couple of my long runs.... you know the kind of long runs that leave you a little sore.... and not with muscle soreness? I tried some of this ointment a little apprehensively, but it soothed the pain, the same type of pain that lingered with me for days in some cases following other long runs. I have yet to try using it before a long run because I always seem to forget until the pain is already there, but will on one of my next long runs.

What are some of your recommendations? That is one thing I really like about fellow runners, they are always willing to share what has worked for them.

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow

30+ Miles - First time ever

This past week marks the first 30 mile week I have ever put in (30.2 to be exact). The closest I came before was a 28 mile week back in April of 2008, just following my first half marathon. It was shortly after that when I was injured and my mileage came to a screeching halt. Even during the month leading up to my first half marathon I didn't come close to a 30 mile week.

Being that this is the first week of the month, this also puts me easily on track to hit my first 100 mile month, the closest before being just this past month at 91.8 miles, and April 2008 with 96.1 miles.

I am on the verge of starting my training for my first marathon, and also my second half marathon. I know I could get out and do a half marathon now if I had to, or at least after a couple more weeks of building mileage, so I am not concerned with that. My current longest long run is 10 miles, which I will probably not increase until next week.

This week will probably not be a 30+ week as I will be forgoing my long run this Saturday to run the S.W.A.T. Trot 5k with my daughter. This is the race that I was tripped in last year and subsequently broke my collar bone.

My running log from Running Ahead can always be found on the right sidebar, but following are some links to weekly and monthly mileage since I began running. I began running in early 2007, but didn't start logging my mileage until my first race in July. The drop to zero in 2008 was due to the broken collar bone.










Extremely good run with my daughter.... and new shoes!

I just got back from an extremely good run.... with my daughter.

I am not sure where to start. My daughter has been running off and on for a while, but finally got serious just about a month ago as she was leading up to Cross Country training starting. She is going to be a Freshman and will be running Cross Country her first year. When she first got serious about running she almost cried when we went 2 miles because she had never been that far before.

When she ran with me before she was always right around the 9:30 mark for the mile, and that is about what she started with at the two mile distance as well. We have since built to 4 mile runs and she is doing those pretty easily with the team and her coaches now, although in my opinion she is not running them as fast as she should or could :)

Her fastest two mile run (without me trying to kill her) was a couple weeks ago when she ran one of the miles in 8:19. I was so very proud of her to say the least. Her best two mile run was at a 8:33 pace. Both of those runs she was completely spent at the end.

Well, today brings a new smile to my face. She did not run with her team today so when I got home we went for a two mile run. It was just starting to sprinkle a bit when we walked out the door, but we hit the road anyway. We took off at an easy but brisk pace. She was doing really good, but she did comment it was faster than she runs with the rest of the team. By the time we hit the first mile it was raining pretty good on us, but we still hit that first mile in 8:31. We made the turn and kept on moving. The rain kept up and we sped up. I tried to speed up a little, but keep it where I could see she was managing it well. Well, the punch line to this story is....... she finished that second mile in 7:45!!!!! That is right, 7:45!!! I told her we would stop at two miles no questions asked so that is what we did. She was acting as if she could keep going, it was easy to tell she had been putting the miles in. I then talked her in to running easy to get home since it was another .4 miles and it still was raining quite good. The last .4 slowed the pace for the overall run, but the overall pace still turned out to be 8:15! I am so very proud of her. Here is the log from this run >> link

Now..... on to the shoes

I just got my new shoes in today. A big thank you goes out to one of my new Twitter Buddies @RaceSpeed who runs the online store www.telarun.com and who helped me by answering many questions about shoes and suggested I buy the shoes I ultimatly bought from him.

I wanted to replace my shoes with the same New Balance MR768ST shoes since I really liked them and they were exactly what I needed. I ended up finding out that they were discontinued and no matter where I looked I could not find my size in the shoe I currently ran in. The shoes were replaced by the New Balance MR769SB, but I was nervous that they would be enough different and would cause me problems.

The shoes I bought were in fact the New Balance MR769SB, and they came in the mail today. This same run became my trial run with my new shoes. If all is based on the first run, I am sold! I forgot what it was like to have the feet and legs feel so good. I guess that is because I had way too many miles on my old shoes (don't ask how many)

Bottom line, the day started out horrible, but it ended on running cloud 9!

Tim Wilson - blog.262quest.com - subscribe - follow