Still rolling along

2 and 3/4 weeks in to the training plan and still going strong. We are still doing a run/walk method in these early stages of training and from the reading I've been doing this is a good way for us to go. Right now we run 3 minutes and walk 3 minutes for 5 cycles. The idea is we decrease the amount of time walking over the coming weeks until we can run 30 minutes without walking. It's a little hard to imagine that right now but that's still several weeks away.

We had a good family friend join our little group today. Elizabeth has decided to train with us and says she wants to run the Seattle R&R with us in June. She's a little more speedy than Lisa and me so she ran with Nate but we're glad to have her with us.

Our local trail that we have been running on got flooded when the Snohomish River went over its banks earlier this week. So we had to run on the Centennial Trail in Snohomish on Tuesday but we were able to get back on the river trail today although there are still some pretty wet places we had to deal with. Personally I prefer the Centennial trail, it's wider, nicer, smoother and doesn't feel as claustrophobic to me. It's also considerably longer than the river trail. I imagine in a couple weeks our distance will have increased to the point where we will outgrow the river trail but for now it's nice and close to home and works for us.

Training

Week 1 is in books and we are now half way through week 2. The sessions this week consist of alternating walking for 4 minutes with running for 2 minutes for 5 cycles. Its been a bit harder than I thought it would.

One thing that I have found interesting is that when I started running consistently back in the spring I was able to reach some milestones, like runninng a mile non stop, increasing my distance consistently etc... I was getting into pretty good shape, my weight was coming down and I felt good. But in the few months that I wasn't running I have lost all that. I am essentially starting over. In a way it's frustrating but I have to keep reminding myself that in the spring it took time to get where I was. I want the good feelings I had then now but I want them right now not later. It will come, I know it will. I just need to keep doing the work. I feel better when I'm excersing and I,m really enjoying doing it with my wife and son. It has made staying consistent a lot easier.

Nothing all that exciting to report yet but there will be....

Now I've gone and done it...

It's been a while since I've posted anything and although not much has changed there are somethings I thought I'd throw out here.

Recently my wife and me and our youngest son Nate started a 26 week running program. We finished week 1 today. For me and Lisa we started it as a way to get into shape and shed a few unwanted pounds. For Nate it's the desire to continue exercising since football ended and to get his knee back in shape after a football injury took him out for the season.

I'd been pretty diligent in my running last spring and was seeing definite benefits. Then decided to stop running during the summer because of all the other things I was doing, pioneer trek, cycling northern Idaho for a week, etc... Summer ended and so did my employment and consequently so did my running...

Now that I have my work schedule working for me and have some of my family joining with me on this quest to get into shape and lose the pounds I am back to consistently getting out and moving. I found a training plan that lasts 26 weeks and consists of four workouts during the week. The plan is designed as a training plan to run a marathon. So my thought was if the plan is designed to train for a marathon why not sign up for one? And so I did. I am now officially registered for the Seattle Rock and Roll Marathon . Lisa and Nate are "keeping their options open" at this point. That means they aren't signed up yet but are leaning that way depending on how the training is going. Funny story about that. Today as we were coming home from the trail we have been working out on we were talking about the marathon and the distance and all that. I mentioned something about 26 miles and Nate pipes up from the back seat and says Wait, what's 26 miles? I said a marathon is 26.2 miles. He said it is? I thought it was 8!! I still hope he'll do it with me. Lisa wants to get a little further into the training before she fully commits but I'm hoping she'll do it too.

One of the sites I was looking at before I made this decision said to ask yourself "why do I want to do this?" So I thought about it and here is what I came up with:

1) I want to get myself into the best shape I've ever been in and I think the training for an event of this type would be the perfect medium. When I started running last April (2010) I noticed great results in a very short time so I know this is something I can do and I want to do it at the level a marathon would require.


2) After trek I know I can do hard things and survive them and be stronger for having done them. A marathon by my way of thinking  is a "hard thing" and I think I can get myself prepared to do it. I am not worried about a BQ time but just finishing it in around 4 hours.

3) I want to be able to say that at my age I have done it.

BQ is Boston Qualifying time. Many marathons around the country are Boston Qualifiers and Seattle R&R happens to be one of them. The qualifying time for someone my age is 3 hours 30 minutes. My goal is under 4 hours but I'm not sure I can get that far under. We'll see...
 
I still think I may run some shorter races this spring and summer just to see how I am doing and to get a feel for a race environment. I'll post more about that as I get closer to a decision and actually picking a race.
 
So since I am back to consistently training I am going to be more diligent at recording my progress in this blog. Not sure if I'll post more than once a week but at least I'll get something up here every week.
 
Wish me luck. I think I'm gonna need it....

My first trail run

A couple weeks ago we had our church youth group up on an overnight youth conference at a local scout camp. I brought my shoes and stuff hoping to get a Saturday run in and stay on my schedule. As usual, I was awake before it was light out with no hope of going back to sleep. So I decided that as soon as it was light enough to go without a flashlight I'd go out for a run.

I've read about trail running but never done any. I guess I like the road. I didn't really have much of a choice at this camp, since everything is a trail up there. I was on some pretty well maintained gravel roads at first but when I got to the end of the lake and made a turn the next mile and a half was all trial. I have to say that I enjoyed it! I found that I had to think more about what I was doing and pay more attention to where my steps were going land. The last thing I wanted to do was turn an ankle out there. I also found that my pace was faster and I was able to maintain it, which was a nice surprise.

I still like the road better. I think it's mostly because I'm comfortable with my normal routes but I can at least say I've done the trail thing and it wasn't too bad. I did get my shoes dirty and that kind of bugged me. But I'm over it...

I'm Back...

I was just reading the last post from June and my how things have changed.

I mentioned in that post that I was having some frustrations in my professional life but I was still running and working things out in my mind. More on this later.

I also mentioned that I was still training for the two races I had picked out. I hurt myself after that post and wasn't able to run for several weeks. That was a set back. I wasn't able to run either race this summer. There just wasn't time to get back in shape with everything else I had going on this summer. I had a Pioneer trek, I ended up leaving my job and my focus shifted from running to finding new employment.

Well, I found a new job within 2 weeks, in this economy that is a miracle and I acknowledge the hand of the Lord in that.

So now, tomorrow, October 4th I am back on the road with specific goals and objectives for my running. One of those goals is to post at least weekly on this blog. So stay tuned.....

B

Running more than writing

Well my writing here has dropped off a bit but running is still on track. I am still on the road 4 mornings a week running. Still working on getting my time faster and my distance longer.

I have had some things going on in my professional life that have me somewhat frustrated but running has been a good opportunity to think about my situation and channel the frustrations and anger to something constructive. If you are feeling stress in your life I highly recommend getting out and running through it. The value of exercise as a stress reliever has really hit home with me recently.

I am still shooting for the 5K and 10K this summer. My training is on track and I seem to be getting faster and longer. I still have a ways to go for the 10k, I have to admit that one has me a bit worried just beacause I haven't gone that distance yet. I'll get there but it isn't going to as quickly as I thought it would be when I was new to running and didn't know what I was doing.

The other day my son prayed that "Dad would be happy again" of course we all started laughing but it felt good to know that he was thinking of me. I'm not unhappy. This little setback in my work life is just one of the trials and challenges we are here to work out. Life goes on.

And so will I!

Been a while but I'm still going...

I haven't posted anything for a few days but I am still running and trying to improve.

I guess I can say at this point that my weight is coming down. Since I started about 9 weeks ago I'm down about 10 pounds. Of the different things I have tried over the past few years to get my weight down to where I want it I can say that running has by far been the most beneficial. It seems to be the way for me at least to get weight off fairly quickly and enjoy myself doing it. I have made a few minor adjustments to my diet but nothing drastic. I cut out pop and ice cream and have so far lived to tell about it.

I will keep moving forward from here, I have about 15 pounds to go to get to my first target.

adding elements to improve

Last Thursday was my first speed workout. I enjoyed it about as much as I thought I would.... not at all.

The idea is to do a comfortable warm up distance then incorporate tempo intervals. This means increasing the pace for X amount of time then back to a normal pace in between. I didn't cover as much distance as I would have on a normal run but I can see the benefits of doing these interval workouts. So every Thursday from here until race days will be dedicated to doing the tempo intervals. So I have that to look forward to...

For my Saturday run I set of goal of going five miles. I made it! It ended up being harder than I thought it would and my time wasn't great. I ran it at about a 13 minute pace and it took me a little over an hour. Like I said it was harder than I thought it would be and I wasn't as fast as I had hoped I would be but, I set a goal of five miles and accomplished it. I felt good about it. Now I can work on getting faster at five miles before I go for six.

3 Milestones, 2 Days... not bad

I ran out of time on Monday to post anything so this will cover both Monday and Tuesday.

I reached a milestone on Monday by besting my previous distance without stopping. Previously I went 1.2 miles without a walk break so my goal when I set out Monday was to best that. I pushed myself, although it didn't seem all that hard but managed 1.8 until my brain told me my legs could use a break. My walk breaks are getting shorter and father between so I feel like I'm making good progress.

Tuesday was a really good day. Not only did I best my previous distance without a walk break, I managed 2.25 miles but I also reached the goal of running for 30 minutes without a break. I guess technically if I broke the 30 minute milestone the distance without stopping milestone would have happened by default. But I'm choosing to look at them as seperate just because I like the way it sounds.

I have decided that Thursday has to be speed interval day. As much as I hate speed work I need to do it so I can increase my distance and get my per mile pace down. I am at the point where the distance is coming easier but my pace is still about the same. It isn't a plodding pace by any means but I know I can get it lower.

I've been happy with my progress so far. My weight is down (not quite ready to publish that number just yet) and my waistline is shrinking ( I know this because my belts are on the last hole and someone suggested I needed suspenders the other day). It has been fun to set goals and actually achieve them.

I have my race dates on the calendar now and I'm working my training backwards with those dates in mind.

Saturday...

Saturday is my long run day. My schedule called for 75 minutes today. I was only able to do about 50.

We have been recording one of our favorite shows and decided that we were going to watch way too many episodes Friday night. I didn't feel like I was rested enough to go the full 75 minutes. I logged just over 3.5 miles at a fairly consistent sub 13 minute per mile pace. That was a little fast but I felt ok maintaining it.

The weather was perfect. It is getting warm enough in the mornings that I can leave the jacket off and I should have done that today. I kept feeling drops hitting my legs and at first I thought it was bugs until I realized it was my sweat dripping out of my jacket sleeves... I know, gross!

The dilema I have is that my jacket has a large zipper pocket in the back for my car keys but more importantly for my Zune. I hate carrying stuff in my hands when I run but I also hate not running with my Zune. I need to find one of those arm band set ups but they are all designed for the iPods so my Zune won't go in it. I'll have to keep looking because the jacket has to go....

This morning was perfect along the Snohomish River trail. The was a bald eagle sitting up in a tree watching the water. People were putting their boats in the river and of course all the locals with their dogs and kids out enjoying the spring morning.

The only bad part about the Snohomish trail is that it's only 1.5 miles long so I have to get creative to add a little extra distance. It all works out ok for fairly short runs but really I out grew this trail a couple weeks ago.

My plan is to get the date of my first 5k on the calendar and start planning my training runs with that date in mind. I am consistenly getting through my first 1 to 1.5 miles without walking but I need to get to point where I can go 30+ minutes at a good pace without walking. So this will take a little planning on my part. The 5K is July 24. This is the build up to the 11K on September 11.

Onward...

A bit of a crisis. But I got over it

My Thursday run started out ok.

My current running schedule is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I really look forward to Wednesday after back to back runs but then by Thursday I'm ready to go again.

So Thursday started out ok. I have a nice loop by my office that is mostly on Tukwila's Green River trail. Like most city owned paths this one is nicely paved and maintained and runs right along the Green River/ Duwamush Waterway. The scenery is nice the trail is not busy and everyone that I come across is friendly and either on their way to work or just trying to stay in shape. But I digress... again.

So back to Thursday. I was running along at a good pace, not killing myself but working hard enough to feel it. As I got close to the first group of homes near my first turn where I cross the river I noticed a dog out in the yard sniffing around. As luck would have it he noticed me as well. I slowed to a walk just to see what he was going to do and, sure enough he starts towards me. The dog gets out to the trail and is about 20 yards or so behind me. I am still walking and so is he. I stop and look at him and he stops and looks back at me. I decided I better not run. I'm averaging about a 13 minute mile but my guess is the dog can move considerably faster. Luckily for me one of the regular bikers was coming along behind and saw what was going on, slowed down and put himself between the dog and me. I was able to start running again and the dog lost interest. I appreciated the riders help and thanked him as he sped off. I'm not sure but he was probably considering the old wisdom when hikers cross paths with a bear. He didn't have to be faster than the dog, just faster than me...

I was back on pace and cruising along pretty well when the real crisis came. I was about two and half miles out and working hard when the question came to my mind "what in the world am I doing out here running around at 6:30 in the morning?" It seemed like a fair enough question. So I slowed to walk to think this through. As I looked around at the river and the sunrise and trees covered in spring leaves and thought about the benefits I have already gotten from these past few weeks it all seemed worth it. It was a beautiful spring morning, golfing weather we call it at work, watching the neighbors waking up and starting their day and actually feeling good about the workout I get when I run my pace picked back up and I was on my way again. Crisis averted. I finished strong and completed 3.75 miles in just over 48 minutes.

I was talking to a co-worker who is a pretty avid runner about this little mental meltdown I had. His response was "you went nearly 4 miles in just under 50 minutes? no wonder you had a mental lapse."

So I felt good about that.

Well, Hello... I guess

I went to blogspot.com about a year ago and signed up for an account. I was excited to join the ranks of all the bloggers and post my thoughts and musings out there for friends and family to read and enjoy. So I created the account and realized I had nothing to say that anyone would really be interested in reading.... So I left it alone and largely forgot about it.

Until today. For some odd reason the mood struck me to go back to blogspot and start a blog. So, well, Hello... I guess.

I think what motivated me this time was that I have started a training program to run a couple races this coming summer and I wanted a place to record my thoughts, ideas, things I enjoyed about a particular run or things that were less than good about a particular day.

I have been running for about 6 weeks now and I am averaging just over 3 miles per day. I reached milestone the other day in running my first mile and quarter non-stop on back to days.

This may not sound all that great to many of you out there but there are a couple things to keep in mind about me. I am 46 years old, not in particularly good shape and unless someone was chasing me really had no reason to run anywhere.

But like I said, about 6 weeks ago I decided to start running and I have to say, at this point I'm hooked! I look forward to my morning runs. I look forward to pushing myself toward goals I never imagined I would even set, let alone push myself towards.

So I guess all this is to say I am going to be blogging about my adventures as a runner. You're welcome to come along if you like, but if you'd rather not that's fine too...