Nice 7 miles today...

It was very humid and a little warmer than I had hoped for, but it was a good run. I almost stretched it out to 9 or 10 but I felt good at 7 and had run a good pace, so I decided to end on a high note. I’ll probably try to make Monday mornings my long day and go for 10 then.

I ran in my oldest pair of shoes and they still feel OK. I think I am going to keep them in the rotation for a few more months. I want to make it through the end of the year with the three pairs I have and then get a new pair to break in for the Marathon. Sounds like a good Christmas present.

I have two pairs of Saucony Pro-Grid Omni 6’s and one pair of Pearl Izumi Syncro Pace II’s. I like the Pearl’s for racing because they seem a bit lighter. All my shoes have super feet green inserts too. They are expensive, but have been worth it in my opinion. I’ll give a shout out to the folks at Fleet Feet for setting me up with the shoes.

The race calendar is really filling up. If we add in the Race for the Cure and the Caine Halter Lung Run, we will be running almost every weekend for the next two months. Sounds like fun to me!

Yoga today...

What a workout today. I didn’t realize it until afterwards, but we worked pretty hard. I am very happy with my improved flexibility and core strength. My quads are significantly more flexible. We also work on parts of the body that I had never considered stretching before like the top of my feet and my shoulders. All of this has made a big difference in my running.

Prior to taking yoga, I was wasting a lot of my energy trying to maintain good form. I also suffered from some calf, shoulder and knee (IT Band) pain during longer runs. All of that is gone and I attribute it to my increased strength and flexibility. My breathing is also improved and allows me to control my pace better.

So, if you get the idea that I am now a big fan of Yoga, you are right. My instructor, Karen Noonan, gets a health history from you before you start and makes sure that you work within your limits. It is amazing how she keeps up with each student’s individual constraints during class.

Just like biking is a great ‘off day’ exercise for running because it works the opposing leg muscles, Yoga is great because it works on strengthening and stretching your whole body.

Fired up...

This month’s Runners World magazine is all about marathons and it is getting me fired up. I hope I can maintain this level of excitement for the next six months as I get ready for the marathon. These cooler mornings help too. I was going to ride this morning, but decided that Yoga would be enough for today. I don’t want to go in with tired quads, I have enough trouble balancing as it is!

Bobby had baseball practice last night and while I was out at the fields, I started looking around to see if I could run out there. The fields aren’t surrounded by the best neighborhood and it is dark during most of his practice. I think I will be able to go on one of the empty fields and do some speed work though. Once I get my Garmin 405, I will really be able to judge my distance and then I can run laps around the fields for distance too.

Fall is a great time for running races. I just went through my calendar last night and I believe you could run some sort of race every weekend between now and Thanksgiving. This year, I am going to run a Turkey Trot somewhere on Thanksgiving day to offset my food intake. Weight Watchers takes a holiday on holidays.... I just have to remember to keep it a holiday and not turn it into a holiweek!

Upcoming races...

Well, we have the BMW Performance Classic on 9/19. It is a two mile sprint with cool prizes and adult beverages at the finish line.... Hmm, I might have to run more than two miles to work that off...

We also have the RC Cola and Moon Pie 1 mile downhill race at Clemson on 10/4.

Next up is the Furman Blue Shoes 5K on 10/11.

Then the Spinx Half Marathon (5K for Lee) on 10/25.

We may do the Race for the Cure 5K on 9/27 if the timing works out.

I’m glad Lee humors me by doing these races. Knowing I have a race coming up gets me out of bed and on the run. There is nothing like the fear of failure to get you motivated!

Actually, each race I complete places another brick in the wall that I am building between the ‘old’ me and the ‘new’ me. Filling my mind with reminders of my new lifestyle helps me keep from backsliding (good southern religious term there) into my old habits. I have a wall in our mud room where I hang all my bib numbers from each race. It is a reminder of how far I have come. Eventually that wall will be so full that I won’t be able to remember each race. When that day comes, I will have built a strong image of the new me that hopefully will serve to keep me healthy for the next 50 years or so....

7 hard miles today...

I thought I was going to have a nice, easy run today but it wasn’t that way at all. I figured since I rested yesterday, I would have an easy time this morning. I guess I had not completely recovered from the triathlon. I struggled the first two miles and tolerated the next three. After that, I felt pretty good. I had hoped to run 8 or 9 this morning, but I just didn’t have the time with my slow pace.

Yesterday we closed the neighborhood pool down. Between that and going to the Clemson game on Saturday, I realized summer was officially over for 2008. I am enjoying the cooler mornings for running, but I always hate to see summer go.

Bobby starts fall baseball practice tonight and Julian still has Wade Hampton swim team for a few more weeks, so we have lots going on. Once Julian is done swimming, I am going to get her and Bobby started on some light running and hope to have them ready for the Greenville News run in January.

Lee is contemplating run/walking the Myrtle Beach half marathon in February instead of running the 5K there. I think she can handle it. I am still planning on running the Spinx half in October and then the Myrtle Beach full in February. If that goes well, I will taper down after the spring running season and then start next August really getting ready for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC in October of 2009.

I will be glad to get back to Yoga tomorrow. I think part of my problem today was that I missed Yoga class on Saturday. I think I will ride a few miles in the morning tomorrow too.

Beat my goal....

The results of the triathlon were posted late last night and I was happy to see I beat my goal of 1:45. I finished in 1:38:39 and Lee finished in 1:36:37. I was very happy that my swim time was under my goal of 8 minutes and my run time (including transition) was right on pace with a 26 minute 5K including transitioning from bike to run (probably 1-2 minutes).

The day after the race, I definitely feel like I want to try it again to see how much I can improve my bike time if I use a road bike. I think I could knock 10 minutes or so of my time.

What a hilly course...

Well, after my first triathlon, I can’t say I am hooked but I can say I am intrigued. I don’t have results yet, I don’t know what is going on, but the website says they will be available later this evening. I don’t need to see the official results to know that Lee smoked me on the bike ride. Those road bikes just crushed me going down hill. Well, they crushed me going uphill too but I expected that.

One thing I didn’t expect was that it would take about an hour for me to get into the pool. Since they line you up by seed times, we were in the back because we had put down a slow seed time. Next time, I will probably not put down quite as slow of a time. The elites were moving well, but after the first 10 or so swimmers it started slowing way down. Several of the elites were done with the triathlon before we got out of the pool. I also didn’t realize that I would have to tattoo my bib number on both arms and both thighs. We also had it on our bike and our helmet as well as the regular racing bib. When I went to the football game this afternoon, everyone wondered why I had 1318 written all over me!

My friend Judy suggested we take 5 gallon buckets to use in the transition area. That was a great idea because you can sit on them while you are drying your feet and putting on shoes.

The swim went about like I expected. I really will have to work on this if I am going to do more triathlons. Lee started a length ahead of me and finished about a length and a half ahead of me. I got passed by two people. One of them should have been seeded higher. The other one just had a nice, steady stroke.

Going into the transition area, I hit the body glide again and quickly put on a shirt, socks, shoes, fuel belt and helmet. I grabbed a couple of bites of a Clif bar too. Lee was out of there before I knew it and I only saw her one time on the bike route. Then she hit a downhill and was gone. I really struggled on the early uphills. Once I got in a groove and got my gears right, I did much better. Since the bulk of the crowd had gotten out way before us, we were pretty spread out and I literally went a couple of miles in one stretch by myself. The scenery was great but I was ready to get off the bike. I was happy I had my fuel belt as the gatorade really helped me in the last half of the ride and in the 5K.

Now, the run was really great. It started uphill and ended uphill and I passed several of the bikers that had passed me on the ride. It was obvious to me that most of the crowd was made up of cyclists.

I need to get our camera replaced so we can take pictures at all these events. I hope to find some online and I will link them later. If you are a runner and haven’t done a sprint-tri, I would recommend it. It will force you to work on parts of your body that don’t normally get work in running.

Now, if they would just publish the results so I could see how I really did... Days like this make me want a Garmin more!

Ran anyway......

I was originally going to Yoga today, but work got in the way. Even though I normally don’t do much the day before a race, I decided to stretch my legs a little this morning and got 4 miles in at a nice, easy pace. It felt good and I know that I probably won’t do anything on Sunday, so I will have a full day off then. I still need to 2 buckets for the race to use as storage and seats at the staging area. I also may pick up 2 chamois towels because Judy told me they really get you dried off quickly. I also need to figure out what food to take. I think I am going to carry my old standby, a clif bar. I’ll carry gatorade in my fuel belt too.

Once this triathlon is over, I am going to start putting together a marathon training schedule for Myrtle Beach. I have seen several websites that help you create one and the book I am reading has some in it as well. My next book to read is all about running your first marathon, so I am sure it will have tips as well.

I’m also saving up for my Garmin 405 GPS watch. It will really help when working on pace for the marathon.

I love this weather!

It was a nice 65 degrees when I went out this morning. There were lots of people out and about, especially after 6:00. I am going to have to start wearing my ipod even if I don’t listen to it so that I have some sense of what pace I am running and how long I have been out. When I looped by the elementary school at my 6 mile mark, there were several teachers already there and I started to panic that I had been out too long.

7 Miles today at an easy pace today. I took it pretty slow the first 3 miles and then picked up the pace. I could have easily run 10+ today, but I didn’t have the time. Hopefully that energy will carry over to the triathlon on Saturday. I got in another 3 or 4 miles of biking last night chasing Bobby around Lake Forest while Lee got used to the road bike she borrowed. I am starting to enjoy the biking and we may have to trade up to some road bikes if we enjoy the triathlon. I will definitely get a light on my bike if I keep riding because it is pretty scary to be flying down a hill in the dark and worrying that you may hit a rock or pothole and wipe out.

Julian has a swim meet tonight and I am a timer, so it looks like another 2 hours at the Westside Aquatic Center. She and her friends are really enjoying swim team and the exercise is great. I think I am going to start working with her and Bobby on a little running at night. I want to get them up to where they can run a 5K in the spring....

Lots of people ask tell me they can’t run because of various ailments or failed attempts in the past. My experience is that most of the time people start way too fast. Here is a link to a beginners running plan called Couch to 5K. You will see it abbreviated a lot of places as C25K. Take a look and realize that you can run a 5K in just a little over two months without a lot of work!

Action Shots...

I just found some cool (well, OK maybe not cool) action shots of our running this summer...


In this one, I am the guy in the middle with the old school headband on.....



In this one, I am getting last minute instructions from my coach (bib #359). Once again, I’m the guy in the old school headband...



In this one, I am leading the pack (yeah, right). I’m the guy in the old school headband.... (Notice a pattern here?)