Back to the Postings......

So....Since i went on vacation, there's been a whole lot of training going down...Let's look back.....There's last Thursdays mega bonk.....then there's last Saturdays 5 mile Time Trial. Then.....SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!! That was our first official 20 mile run.

The bonk was a little disconcerting. But I will say, it was a direct result of my own poor fluid management. First off....I went into the run somewhat dehydrated. Mistake #1, 2 and 3.....Especially when the temp was during the hottest week of the summer that we've experience yet. At 4am, the outside thermometer read 85 degrees, and it was about 80% humidity. Let's just say.....my body was done at mile 10 and a half....and it was a jog/walk to get back to the comfort of home. I did bring an energy drink, but turns out it was a diet....and had no calories...not a good thing for the conditions.

I spent my off Friday re-hydrating and resting to run fast on sat of the time trial. When I showed up, I realized I was going to have to run naked......errr....without the services of my garmin for mile splits. So I went and ran based on feel. Remarkably....I beat my last on the time by 5 seconds. I'm actually very happy with that. It shows consistency, which is what I need at this point of my marathon training.

Sunday was going to be the first of many mental checks. It was our first of many 20 mile runs. 4 laps of our 5 mile time trial course. Not the most scenic, but a good place to just click off the mileage. My goal was to do it in 3 hours.....and that's EXACTLY what I managed to do. On top of that.....I pulled off my last mile at a 7:40 pace. Mostly because I just wanted to get the darned thing over. I started at 5am.....and finished at 8am. By 8am....it was already 95 degrees, with ridiculous humidity.

Monday and Wednesday were nice easy runs with my buddy Paul! He's back with the group, and we've started meeting each other again! I'm really glad to see him back with the group....even happier to get my running partner back. It's going to make that jump to 5 mile mornings on Mon and Wed that much easier.

Tuesday was a 70 minute Tempo at 90% of our marathon pace. Again, even on the Uber tired legs...I hit EVERY SINGLE TARGET TIME! I love it whe you can do that. And I got 8.7 mile in doing it.

Finally.....was Thursdays 14 miler that mixes in 5x800m. No bonk this week. I finished strong and felt great throughout the entire run. So far this week (including Sunday), I have 54 miles in the books. Tomorrow closes this weeks chapter, and we have a 15x300m hill repeat segment. My targets are 1:24, so look for a report on how I did. We also have another 20 mile run on Sunday, so look for that one too!

Until then.....LIVESTRONG and Train Hard!

Thie miles keep on building....and building....and YIKES.....BUILDING!

So here we are week #3 of the marathon training plan. My first two weeks came and went, and I will say this, actually kinda surprised myself. After last week, I left off with my 12 miler adventure on Thursday. After a much needed Friday off, I toe'd the line on Saturday morning for 15x300m hill repeats. The goal was to run each one in 1:20. Not blazing fast, but a really good pace. There was a group of 5 of us at that pace, and we all stayed together each and every set, and we hit our marks spot on. Well.....except for the last one....where the two little rabbits took off, and I found myself staying with them....that one came in at a 1:16. Not my fastest split ever, but one to be remembered. I will admit, after that workout I was pretty tired. I'm finding my mind looking for that reason not to run. It's that mental fatigue that I need to overcome, and GET THROUGH WEEK #3. The YIKES week. But before I could get to YIKES, I need to get through Sunday's 16 miler. In every marathon training sequence I've never hit 16 miles this early. That's always at least 2 months into the cycle. Also, I've never worked mini bouts of speed work into them, like i am now. The 16 miler included 4 miles at marathon pace. Very similar to last week where we did the last 5 miles at marathon pace. This week, though, they started at miles 9.25 and went through 13.25. So, realistically, I should have been able to knock them out easier then last weeks. Oh how wrong was I .....Actually, the first two miles went very well. 8:05 and 8:06. Mile 3.....that's where we turned into the wind and that little blast of air (which I liked from the cool down perspective), zapped all my energy out....I slowed to an 8:32......Mile 4 was even worse as I argued with myself to keep chugging along. I finished that one in 8:54. That's not acceptable. Honestly I think it's a combination of miles, and the heat and humidity that's starting to build. Although we started at 5am....It's starting to be much warmer. And it's going to ZAP the energy right out of us. Not to mention, the first 9.5 miles weren't the flattest....They were ridiculous hilly. The slowdown hit everyone, and we all came back with the same tales of breakdown in the last couple Marathon Pace miles. And when i got home, I confirmed my bonkage by getting on the scale and having lost 8.5 pounds during the run.....That's AFTER drinking 64 ounces of fluid!

Needless to say...Monday AMs alarm came while i was in a dead sleep. I managed to crawl out of bed and make my 3.5 mile run. Not sure how...But I did it. I even got in a 1.5 mile walk in the evening with the wife and kids. Which leads me to todays workout....a 6 mile tempo run in which I had target times of 7:57/mile. I will say this....My LEGS WERE TIRED! BIG TIME! As we toed the line, I through out my target times and ran by feel. Actually....I didn't remember my target times, becasue i forgot to look at them before i left.... LOL... Anyways, I took off at what felt like a nice easy pace that I could hold for the whole workout....Mile 1: 7:39.....WHAT??!!?? Mile 2: 7:39.......Okay.....Mile 3: 7:38......Huh....Mile 4, which is my mental mile on this 5 mile course.....7:44.......Not a huge slowdown.....Mile 5 (i think) 7:42......Finally, Mile 6: 7:40.....I got back in the groove a bit. Everyone at the finish (of the marathon group) seemed a little down about not making thier target times. Although, Rhonda was very close. Since I knew mine was 7:xx....I was very OKAY....and I thought they were around 7:40-7:45ish. To my surprise they were the 7:57 I listed above. We'll mail those to coach mamma michele and see if I get yelled at, or adjusted from here on out...

Until then.....TRAIN HARD and LIVESTRONG!

Small Victories Come with Consequences....

So.....After my last few days of screweduppedness....yes....that's a word dammit....I finally conquered the wake up daemons that have been plaguing me this first week and a half of training. today, I woke up an rolled out of bed at roughly 4:30 am.....The dog was ready for his morning treat and trip outside.....and I was just happy that I wasn't going to be late. Last night I took some time to get my watch setup for the 60 minute tempo workout. We had a nice group of people show up this AM, and both marathoners and non marathoners took off at the same time. The non marathoners were doing a 40 minute version of our workout, but at a faster pace. We were supposed to run at 90% of our marathon pace, but that's where I made mistako numero uno!

My goal pace was supposed to be an 8:55/mile for this workout.....But as we took off with the group, I went out on what felt comfortable. And by comfortable, I mean conversational pace. There was a pack of 4 of us that pretty much ran the whole workout together, the only problem was that the pace was just a wee bit faster then I should have been running......In fact.....we pretty much ran an 8 min/mile pace for the entire workout. At the 5 mile point the 40 minute tempo twosome bailed off to the side.....and I continued on....my eyes squarely focused on the runner in front of me. Now...She had a good 25 seconds on me, but I didn't want to let her increase that I just wanted to stay nice and even.....and as I clicked off the miles, I kept hitting right at an 8min/mile pace.

In all.....I covered 7.6 miles in that 60 mins. And things were going well, until Mamma Michele asked me what my pace was..... ;) Well....I've never been one to lie, and I knew it wasn't going to be pretty, and she lived up to the hype....She let me have it. I know she's right, but I also know that what she predicts my goal time to be, is based off of times that are a totally different me. That's the me that ran at close to 200 pounds.....That's not the me that is currently running at 183, and just came off a 3 pound weight loss week. So, I should be faster for crying out loud. We both made concessions and I'm going to dial it back a bit for the rest of the month.....and at the end of the month she can go through all my splits and times from the June workouts and we'll make the adjustments for July. So I'll run my thang, and just keep loggin' the miles.

Up for Thursday is 12 miles with 5x800m stuck in the middle. Until then, TRAIN HARD and LIVESTRONG!!!

The long weekend.....

And I don't mean rest......well, except for Friday...... Saturday started out on the wrong foot. For whatever reason on Friday night, I somehow forgot to plug in my phone when I went to bed, and that started the subsequent cascade of dominoes, that I have yet to fully recover from. LOL.... Anyways, since my phone is my alarm clock, and it wasn't plugged in, the battery died sometime in the night. You know that feeling when you wake up that something isn't quite right.....and then as you come to it kicks in, and you jump into OMG FREAKOUT mode....well, that was me Saturday morning. The session started at 5:30, and I literally woke up at 5:20.....to the sound of chirping birds and fresh off some weird dream that involved pole dancing.....and I was the one doing the dancing.....HA....you can deal with that mental image.....LOL

Anyways, in my rush to get out, I got changed, threw on my shoes, grabbed my Garmin....and headed out the door....From that point on, the dog got t'd off at me, and ended up keeping my wife up....so, straight to the dog house for that one...It's okay....it's comfy out there, and comes fully furnished with a pool and gazebo.

I managed to get to the start line on time, but still half asleep. I told myself, that this 5 mile time trial was important, but since i didn't warm up properly, that I would hold back for the first couple of miles. So, I know I wouldn't be breaking any land speed records, or personal bests. Just get in under 40, and enjoy that it was over. When I crossed the finish line in 37:24, I was VERY pleased with my time. That was by far the most consistent take at the course in a very long time. Didn't bonk, and felt great afterwords. Afterwords, the group went off and did the 2 mile cool down....this is where it gets a little sketchy. Since my morning routine was totally screwed up....so was my mornign movement....you runners know what I'm talking about, and about a half mile from the end of the cool down I started getting that clenching feeling.... ;) I was able to hold it back without having to divert into the desert...NOTE TO SELF.....PLUG IN YOUR PHONE THE NIGHT BEFORE.

Which I successfully did Saturday night. Sundays run was 15 miles, with the last 5 miles at marathon pace. Unfortunately for me, I made the "assumption" that the workout started at 5:30.....Well.....You know what happens when you assume.....it means I showed up 30 mins late....Which sucked, because I was really hoping to run with the group. Anyways, I started out, (at this point I didn't realize they had started at 5:30) so instead of taking it easy, I took off at an 8:30 pace to hopefully do a little catch up. but, since they had a 30 min head start, all I was doing was pulling further away....No biggee though....I made it through the first loop, and decided that I should tone it closer to my target splits for lap number 2. On lap number two, I got passed by Todd and Dave while they were busy hammering their 3rd lap at marathon pace. When I finished lap #2, I stopped at my truck for a quick Power Aide break, and then started the last 5 miles. I started off at an aggressive 8 min/mile pace. That actually quickened on the second mile to 7:55. Mile three was still at 8min/mile, and I made the decision to get some water, so I pulled back the throttle a bit and drank from my fuel belt. At the end of that mile, I had increased my speed back to an 8:40 pace, and with 1 to go, I stepped on the throttle a bit. My legs were screaming not to, but that's about the point where the Rocky songs kicked in on the iPod. Burning Heart, Hearts on Fire, and Eye of the tiger got me to the finish in 8:26 for the 15th mile. In all, my run was MUCH faster pace wise then last weeks 14 miler. That one worked out to be about 8:55/mile in the end, this one was a) only 4 minutes slower then last weeks, but one extra mile, and b) an overall 8:25 pace! talk about GIT ER DONE! I took that one home, and shoved that baby in the BANK!

In all, it was a great ending to what looked like a daunting week. In total, I got 52 miles, and I was still able to get out for my 3.5 miler this AM. I'll definitely take that, and LOOK forwards to this weeks challenges. First goal of the week.....Proper alarm clock setting......Second Goal.....Proper Start Time.......Third Goal.......Proper start location....All the rest is cream cheese!

Until tomorrow, TRAIN HARD and LIVESTRONG!!!

10 more miles in the books!

On today's plan, the first mid week long run of the marathon training schedule. It's was to be a 10 miler with 5x800m somewhere in the middle. So, just to be fair....I realized how crazy I actually am when I went to set my alarm at 3:30 in the am so that I can get through the morning routine and out the door by 4:30. It was designated as a group run, so what I needed to do was get some miles in before, meet the group at 5.....and then finish up with a group run.

So I actually woke up (put up a Face Book note for proof at 3:50am), and got out the door by 4:20.....a full 10 mins before I had hoped to. That was great because by 5am I was able to get in 3.5 miles before we all toe'd the line for the 800s. My target times for the 800s, 4:12 per set or a 8:24/mile. Well......Needless to say I didn't hit any one of them.....Actually, I ran every one of them at 3:50. And to be honest, it seemed SLOOOOOOOOOOOOW! I'm realyl thinking that Michele and I are going to have to sit down after the first month of training and re-evaluate my goals. I was wanting to shoot for 3:30....Mamma Michele thinks 3:40....That's just going to be a wait and see.

Once we got through the 800s, I ran the final 3.5 miles partially with a training partner. And there too.....MUCH faster then prescribed. But, that's not necessarily a bad thing. So, needless to say I'm DAMN excited to know that the most daunting workout on the first week schedule wasn't actually so bad. That's such a mental victory, I can't even explain. Knowing that I CAN get that 10 miles with the 800s in, and actually get home by 6am, so I can get into work on TIME!

Also, with that victory comes a much earned DAY OFF tomorrow. At the onset I'm going to take Friday's off, and get my legs ready for a TOUGH weekend. Saturday is scheduled for a 5 mile Tempo Run. Sunday....15 miles with the last 5 miles at Marathon Pace.

So....Until then.........Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

Group Workout #2 - Glitch Recovery

So talk about a little bit of a workout hiccup....I'm going to have to through in a little Top Gun quote here...."Good Recovery Mav!".....Because today started out just plain weird. For the first group workout of the 18 week marathon training schedule, seems there was a bit of a mixup on the spreadsheet, and I apparently didn't get the memo. Anyways, I actually showed up about 10 mins early, and to my surprise there was a parking lot full of cars. I wasn't sure who had fully signed up for the marathon training program, but this is a pretty sizable group! To be exact there are 17 of us making the plunge into the marathon training plan ravine. So there's going to be a lot of support along the way. So, imagine my surprise showing up 10 mins early seeing all the car of my fellow runners.......but an empty starting location......eeerie! Where were they....I saw two runners coming up that looked to be finishing their warm up, but they went into the parking lot and disappeared. And with the weird cloud cover, I thought for sure I was in the twilight zone.

SO I started to jog the loop we were supposed to run backwards when all of a sudden, here comes the group....full steam ahead. Apparently the start was a half mile from where I was.....although, not on the sked. No biggie....I got my watch started, and took off with them. What I ended up doing was going past the 2 mile finish mark by a quarter mile, and turn around so that I could at least finish and start the next set in the correct spot. Also......Apparently I didn't get the email that gave us target times. Mamma Michele sent out a spreadsheet that gave everyone their goal workout times. Since I didn't get that, I actually pushed todays workout a tad bit too hard. I was supposed to be paired with another runner, who, not only did I catch.....I passed and finished ahead of. Anyways, to make a long story short....I now have my target times to work with! WHEW. So here's what my splits are....and here's what my target times were supposed to be on the 3x2mile workout.

Set 1:
Target - 17 mins (8:30/mile)
Actual - 15:20 (7:40/mile)

Set 2:
Target - 17 mins (8:30/mile)
Actual - 15:20 (7:40/mile)

Set 3:
Target - 17 mins (8:30/mile)
Actual - 15:28 (7:44/mile)

LOL.....At least I was consistent.......consistently WRONG.....

Anyways, Thursday is going to prove to be a bear. We have a 10 mile stroll though the neighborhood planned with 5x800m in the middle. Lets see if I can hold back and make my 4:12 target times. :)

Until then, Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

Let the GAMES BEGIN!

Well...We are officially 18 weeks from toeing the line in Long Beach CA for what will hopefully be a successful attempt at a Boston Qualifier. Last wee was kind of a rest week with some shorter speed sessions and a tempo run that we haven't done in a loooooong time. But the weekend was all about sunday sunDAY SUNDAY and the start of my journey. And of course....all good training plans have to be somewhat flexible....and what I mean by that is that if something sums up, you just have to know when to alter things a bit.

And of course, alterations happened Saturday night. On the schedule was a 14 mile run that was being held across town with my running group. Well.....To get there by the 5:30 start time, meant getting up before 4am and leaving the house by 4:45....That's a tough one during the week, let alone on a Sunday. Well...Saturday night we got invited to a pizza party. Well....After a few too many rum laced Eegees Pina Colada drinks, and lord knows how many beers......I happened to look at my watch and it was already 10:30.....After we packed up the kids, and got home, I didn't even roll into bed until almost 11. Now, in my defense, I did fall asleep quickly......as Saturday started with a 6 mile run with the group at 5:30am....and then I unloaded and spread about 6 tons of rock in my backyard. Needless to say, I was beat....So....I altered my plan, being my alarm clock, and made the decision to run solo Sunday am by 7. I would still do the 14 miles on the schedule. And that was EXACTLY what I did.

As I took off out the door just slightly before 7, I took it nice and easy. My body was kinda sore from Saturday, but my legs definitely wanted to run. My goal for the 14 miles was 2 hours and 6 mins. That's a nice easy 9 min/mile pace. My first mile came in at 9:11 as it almost always does. As my legs started to wake up, I dropped my splits to 9:04 and 9:02......From there, the faster songs on my iPhone started playing and I immediately lowered the pace down to 8:45ish. And that's pretty much where I stayed for the remainder of the run. Which meant, I started putting 15 or so seconds into the bank with each mile. At the end of the 14 miles, I clocked in at 2:04 and some change. Almost a full 2 minute quicker than I had expected. So, that made for a nice relaxing dive into the pool for a quick cool down before I started unloading that last ton and a half of rock.

And what's even more amazing....I FELT GREAT throughout the day. I managed to finish up the rock....Wash my poor 'ol truck free from the debris of hauling rock.....That, and I successfully managed to wake up this AM and log 3.5 miles of a recovery run! BAM! That's what I'm talkin' bout.

So, tomorrow is going to be another group workout. On the dockett is 3x2miles. Let's git er done! Until then, train hard and LIVESTRONG!

The start is about here!

We officially start the mountain climb of training towards the Long Beach Marathon on Sunday. It's going to be a bitter sweet start....It's been a bit over a year since I last trained for a marathon, and I did that one solo. This will be my first time training with a group.....who all have the same goal. A BQ on Oct 11th! The crazy thing is....I'm actually going to miss a football game to run this marathon! I know....I know....It's crazy....In my almost decade long quest of playing my alter ego on Football Sundays, I have yet to miss a single home game. My streak is in the 90s. Crazy!!!! I've never even missed a home pre-season meaningless game. But, unfortunately, the NFL schedule gods wait for nobody. And they could care less if the Kid has a marathon to run! I'll just make sure my seats are fully occupied by a fully qualified NFL fan, someone that has the same dedication that I do to the sport.

Speaking of NFL football......Tomorrow I'm heading up to the Cardinals training complex in PHX for a film shoot. They are doing some promo spots for TV commercials and in game entertainment, and I was asked to participate as my alter ego! OF COURSE I'm going to make that happen! When have I ever turned down a camera OP! That would be never! Look for those commercials in PHX, TUC, and a Jumbotron at UofP.

And so much for a "rest" week. Mamma Michele gave us the week off in the hopes that we'd sleep in....lol.....So many people (myself included) questioned her "mistake" that she threw together some little diddy workouts to keep us running addicts happy. You know....we have to get our fix in! So, today was 10x300m.....45 second recovery, and no target times. It was a git' 'er done kinda morning. We busted them out and then went on a nice and easy 2 mile cool down run. Those are my kinda workouts. But we all know the real work begins on SUNDAY SUNDAY SUNDAY!!! What's 14 miles amongst friends!

Until then......Train Hard, and LIVESTRONG!!!! If I get any video or pics from the photo shoot tomorrow, I'll be sure to get them here!

Marathon Training Officially Begins Monday June 8th

So, in my email the other day, I finally got my schedule that will take me through the next 18 weeks of my life......Preparing to run the Long Beach Marathon on Oct 11th. Now, I know I already have a conflict with that day, as it's a home game for MY Arizona Cardinals, and as a season ticket holder, it's my responsibility to be there. BUT......I also have a great opportunity here. There are about 10 people in my group who are training for this very event....and are all going to travel to Long Beach and take part in the race. Talk about an amazing support network of 40-50 spectators moving along the race course to give us the motivation to help us achieve our goals. Along with that, it's the group training plan where we will all go through this process together.....as one! You miss a workout, you let the group down. Guilt plays a HUGE role in 18 weeks of grueling all summer long......training. I know that if they are out there at 3:45am.....I need to be out there too. And did I mention that my family would be able to attend....that weekend just happens to coincide with Fall Break for my kids. That means, NO SCHOOL on the following Monday, and we can take a couple of days to recover and make the drive back home.

So....All the pieces of the puzzle tell me that I should sell my tickets to that game, and make this thang in Long Beach happen. This is my official BOSTON OR BUST training program. If this one doesn't get me there, I'm not sure what will. For starters, I got tired just looking at the schedule. The first month ramps up like this:

Week 18: 46 Miles (Hard week)
Week 17: 53 Miles (Harder week)
Week 16: 58 Miles (Yikes week)
Week 15: 48 Miles (Easy week)

That's the first ramp that get us to JULY. And it just gets bigger and bigger from there. But....That's What it's going to take to get this job done. I've screwed around long enough...no more solitary training. It's time to get focused and start training with the group.

GIT 'ER DONE!

Until the start......LIVESTRONG and TRAIN HARD!

Recovery Week

There are two times that I actually LOVE running.....besides the whole excitement of racing......It's the pre-race and post race weeks. One is designed designed to get you ready for the target event, the other......get you to the next target event. A good recovery week is so important after a brutal race like Sunday. Running towards a mountain, with the word Pass in it......never fun, but as a group we were all ready and well trained for the hills. That's a major reason we all did so well. This weeks recovery runs included the star step workout of 400m, 800m, 1200m, 800m 400m. We were instructed to take them nice and easy, which wasn't hard to heed that warning. My legs by Tuesday morning were sore. My quads were burning something fierce. But I made it through, and managed to hit all of my relaxed target times.

Today's workout was all about getting back up to speed. My soreness was gone, well, at least in my legs, but I'll get to that later.....and we had on the schedule a 12x400, progressively faster. Basically 4x400 in 1:45, 4x400 in 1:41, and 4x400 in 1:38. This allows a little bit of recovery at the start, but allows your legs to get cranking right up to speed! Why do that....The next race is right around the corner, a week from Sunday. It's the 5K super fast, and super flat course. It's were I am going to attempt to break the 21 minute barrier. It's what I've been training for. This Saturday, I will get a good guess as to where I stand. We have a 2 mile Time Trial, and I'm hoping that I will be able to run it in around 13:00 or a 6:30 pace. A 6:30 pace will give me a 10 sec/mile factor to allow me to run 6:40s in the 5K next sunday, and meet my goal.

So....back tot he soreness thang going on. I've actually started my summer 2 a day routine. In the evening, 6 days a week, I've managed to work in strength training. Monday was day #1, and it was a brutal chest workout. My schedule is going to look something kinda like this:

Mon - Chest/Shoulders Heavy (pm)
Tues - Group Run (am), Back/Bis Heavy (pm)
Wed - Legs Heavy (pm)
Thurs - Group Run (am) Chest Light High Reps (pm)
Fri - Back/Bis Light High Reps (pm)
Saturday - Group Run (am) / Legs Light high Reps(pm)
Sunday - Long Run

Eventually, every other Friday I'm going to start going on some long bike rides. Since I get every other Friday off, it will be nice to wake up, and get on the bike. Hopefully all this will eventually work off that extra 15 or so pounds I need to lose, and when that happens.....Look out age group....there's going to be a new Kid in town.........

New Cinco PR!

Well, it's official, I was able to set a new standard for my Cinco de Mayo 10K performances! Previously, my best time was run back in 2005 where I ran a 49:10. Each year that I've run since, my times have progressively get slower. Each year I go through a tough spot on the course where you hit the out and back segment. The out is a faily steep downhill, and at the 5K turnaround it's the massive climb back up that eventually takes you to an all downhill sprint finish.

Each and every year, I've had to walk a segment of the out and back. Last year, I did not, and whats funny, I actually thought I had a great race......right up to the point where I realized it was one of my worst performances on the course at 52:30. So this year, I had a plan, and i knew what my goal was. I wanted to run an average 7:30/mile and crush my 49:10.

The first mile started out very strong. I think I ran it in a 7:14, a little faster then goal pace, but I knew we had the tough up segments ahead, so I wanted to take advantage of the relatively flat rollers while I could. Mile 2 was where the hill really started getting steep, I just kept grinding it out and ran that in a 7:47, kind of what I expected, and on the 7:30 average for the first two miles. About a quarter into mile three is where the out and back segment of the turn is, and I pulled back into a nice 7:14 pace to roll with the downhill....at the turnaround it started getting hot, and I took some water to moisten my drying mouth and poured the rest over me to cool me down a bit....we hit the turn, but I didn't take a look at my watch so I'm not sure what my 5K time was, but I'm estimating it was in the 23ish time frame... about where i expected it to be at. Mile 4, was definitely my worst. Straining up that hill I had to make a crucial decision....blow out my legs or save some for the downhill finish. My legs just didn't have the gas to get up that steep hill.....so I managed to walk up art of it to the crest. once I crested I started running again, but my split really suffered with an 8:49. That's a full minute that I left on the course, but I knew if I wanted to succeed in getting a PR that turned out to be a crucial decision.

From there I started taking a mental note on the people that passed me. Me made the turn off the out and back, made it past the 4 mile mark, and the downhill started to kick in. At this point there was 2.2 miles to go, and I really wanted to shove it into over drive, and my legs absolutely RESPONDED! I really got back into race mode and started passing all the people who went by me during my recovery walk on the brutal uphill. One by one I picked them off and passed them like they were standing still. I would briefly look at my watch to see what kind of pace i was going, and at certain steep segments, I was down to a 6:20 pace. Mile 5 with the rollers clocked back in at a very respectable 7:14. With 1.2 miles to go, we came up on the final water station where a little hottie gave me a crucial cup of water to again wet my drying mouth and the cooling power to hammer it home. I just kept telling myself, it's just another 1 mile repeat....As I kept passing people, I got past my last competitor at the water station....From there there was a pretty significant gap between the next runner and myself, but I wasn't sure I could close it. Mile six came in around the 7:15ish range and I was still rolling strong with just under a quarter to go.....And so I decided to HAMMER IT HOME knowing that I had under 1:40 to go. And hammer it I did. Not sure what the file .2 split was, but the pace on Dr. Garmin said 5:59/mile, so it had to be significantly less then the 1:40 quarters I normally run in group workouts......As I came across the line, I stopped my watch with a NEW Cinco de Mayo Course PR of 47:29. Just shy of two minutes off my best time in 2005, but a full five minutes off my time from last year!!!!

In all, I'm incredibly happy with that result, even with the trouble spot where I had to make the tough choice to walk a portion. In the end, that minute that I left on the hill wouldn't have advanced my place any in the standings since I finished about a 1;30 from the guy in front of me.....and it may have not allowed me to CRUSH the downhill segment home. Tactically, it was totally the right thing to do!

That's not the last race of the season before we hit the Summer push to Labor Day (another course where I need to exorcise some daemons)....In less then two weeks I'm going to make my final attempt at a 5K PR by going under 21 for the first time ever. With all these hills I've been running as of late, I'm thinking that should be very doable!!! Look out Flat and fast 5K course..... HERE I COME!!!!

Until then, train hard and LIVESTRONG!

One race, a bit of an injury....and an upcoming 10K...

I know I haven't posted since my Dave's Run 5K recap, but not much has been going on in the life of the kid.....well, unless you call dealing with some obscure injury nothing. For the past 6-8 week, I've been dealing with some abdominal pain, and really don't have a good answer to whats going on. Docs have made all of the suspected diagnosis's to come up with every blood test, x-ray, and/or lab as normal....So since I'm "normal", I just deal with the pain. My guess is as good as theirs, so it's probably a pulled abdominal. I've started doing some active recovery sessions of the lower abs, and its feeling better, but still there....This may be a long process.

That being said, I did do a 5K in the Race for the Cure in 22:20, and will be running the annual Cinco De Mayo 10K this Sunday. I've run this race 3 times, and I expect to CRUSH my PB on the course. It is a BRUTAL course.....uphill for 2 miles, downhill to the 5K turnaround.....Back uphill to mile 4, then 2.2 back down hill.

2005: 49:10 7:55/mile
2007: 51:17 8:15/mile
2008: 52:40 8:28/mile

2009 Target: 46:30 or a 7:30/mile

I think that's very doable.....My last 40 minute tempo run (by myself I might add), over a course that we've setup to be a very similar profile to the Cinco course, was right at that pace. So, I'm hopeful that the race day pull you get from running a race will pull me a bit ahead of my goal!

I'll post either Sunday or Monday my results!!!

Daves Run for ALS Recap

Talk about an amazing group. I'm actually proud to wear the Grinders Blue uniform. And I can easily say that I'm not going to embarrass it either. :) We had our first real test of the racing season so far, it what turned out to be a HUGE race. In all, there was over 400 participants this year. That's double last years event. That's pretty staggering considering that the race moved to a new location with a brand new course. And I think they scored a hit with this course. The course was moved to Dove Mountain, a quiet suburb of Marana, and home of the PGAs Accenture Match Play, where the Top 64 gofers in the world converge in a head to head tournament.

The tournament was just a few short weeks ago, and you would really hate to have to close down the only roads leading into the Golf course during that time.....Needless to say, the race course which starts at the base of Dove Mountain is anything but flat. I quickly realized this when we were doing our pre-race warmups and headed up the course. Literrally....Up..... At that point I decided that don't set yourself up for failure by expecting to break your 5K PR of 21:57. That just leads to a bad rest of the day. Run a smart race, don't go out too fast only to blow up after you've given everything you had on the opening hill.

And I raced perfect to plan. Typically I'll start out my 5K efforts around a 6:40 pace, that was an unreal expectation, so I throttled back and ran a 7:05....After we made our first turn, the course went downhill....Not a good sign on an out and back course, so I knew I had better take advantage of this segment, and stretch out the legs.....and just as I suspected....The back was going to hurt. It was funny, I let people pass me at the front, knowing I could reel them in later...And that's exactly what happened as they blew up 1 by 1. I finished mile 2 in 7:15, but I still had about a quarter mile to go up the hill....I started to push this segment, and by the time I hit the turn to go back down the hill to the finish, I think I was pretty spent.....But I knew I had a long downhill segment....And I upped my tempo, but I could only get back to the 7:05 range, which is where the split ended up. The last tenth, turned into a dead sprint that I finished in 40 seconds, and managed a very nice 22:17, amazingly only 20 seconds off my personal best. I can gaurantee there was a full minute on that hill, which means if this were a flat course, I think well onto me goal of breaking 21 minutes in the 5K.

As luck would have it.....I'm happen to be in the most competitive age group at 37 years old. Overall places 2, 3, and 4 were there.....I think 6 out of the top 10 were in my age group. I will say this. I was 8th overall in my age group. That is the HIGHEST placing in a race of this size and a race with this much talent in it.

To say that I am happy with my result would be an understatement....I'm ecstatic with my result. Today was an off day....and tomorrow is a recovery 10x300m hill work out. Thankfully I haven't missed a hill session......It really paid off yesterday!

Until tomorrow....Train Hard and LIVESTRONG !

12x300s......Gotta Love Dem Hills.....

The Hill workouts are an important part of any training plan.....Especially when you have some hilly courses coming up....it also makes the flat courses that much easier. Having said that, this morning was one that I really wasn't looking forward too. I've been battling some weird Lower Abdominal/Groin Pull thing...I'm still not sure what it is, but it's definitely still there. I guess I'm just getting more used to it, because even today I noticed it.

I decided that I would just take the first 9 sets nice and even, then see how the issue felt.....and push if allowable on the last three....Which is exactly what I did...My first 9....every single one of them was 1:20 on the button. Never strayed. At the end of number 9, on the way back down the hill, I kinda took a little inventory to see how I felt. I decided it was okay to open up the throttle a bit. My next two came in at 1:17....Very nice and respectable pace. Finally, my last one, I clocked in at a 1:15.... I made the jog back to the start and chatted with the group for a few minutes, but had to forgo the cool down jog since I had an early morning meeting at work.

Absolutely nothing earth shattering to report, and tomorrow I'm planning a little nice and easy jog.....Until then.....Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

An absolutely BRUTAL workout....

Okay..so when I looked at my schedule last night, I totally underestimated today's workout....I wasn't even in the same ball park with regards on degree of difficulty. I haven't blogged this week because I haven't really run much. Last week I managed to do something, and I'm not sure actually where I'm injured. I can't tell if it's a tweaked groin or abdominal strain..All I know is that I get a cramp just to the right of my belly button, and it showed up last Thursday. Thursday I blew it off as a cramp because I had drank a bottle of water on the way to my workout that I don't normally do. But it was there on Saturday, and Sunday was absolutely painful. I guess lets start there. That was a long an tough workout. 6 miles at a brutal effort. 2x800, 2x2mile, and 2x800. I toed the line and had a pace that I'm supposed to run, and I hit those goals. ran a 6:40 average pace on all of the 800s and a 7:15 pace on the 2 miles. I was actually kind of shocked.....Especially on the 2 mile segments. That's where whatever is wrong seems to hurt.

So onto Sunday....Pain....Pain....and more Pain.....I was slow.....and I even had to stop at one point. I only got in 5.5 miles, which wasn't good....And I just wasn't feeling it. So, being the smart engineer that I am....I decided that two days rest would be best....I did that, and went for a nice easy jog on Tuesday....Whatever the problem is....It's still there, but it doesn't seem to be as bad and piercing. So with that, I figured today would be a good workout to come back to the group....especially after I looked at the workout... 8x30sec, 8x45sec, and 8x30sec all with a 60 second rest..Heck...that's only 14 minutes of hard effort...allllll righty then....what I didn't realize is that the goal of the workout is 14 minutes of SPRINTING......

Yes.....These were up tempo, all out sprints. I did manage to get through them, and I was running a large majority of my sets at a 5:40ish pace. That is sprinting for me. Even more so, I was shocked to see the mileage when we were done....according to Dr. Garmin, we just did 4.42 miles. And there wasn't a LOT of movement going on during the 1 min off segments....we're talking a reallllllly slooooooow.......almost walking jog......In fact...I think I've seen elderly peeps with walkers moving quicker. But that's what's necessary to keep that kind of up tempo effort....It was crazy. As for the pain....I think I was in pain in so many other areas, that I didn't really notice it. I do feel it a bit now, but it's not like it was this past weekend....hopefully whatever it is gets better....and QUICK!

12x300m Hill Repeats

Today was another staple of the workouts....Well at least for the next several weeks. After that they get harder. Guess that's why it's PROGRESS! Things are actually progressing very well. You know that you've made progress when you have an 'off' day.....And you still run fast. And that's just what today was. An 'off' day. First off....I didn't sleep real well. The temps here in Tucson have been record highs the last couple of days, and yesterdays morning run was 63 degrees at 5am. Needless to say, I overdressed...I had gotten through that, but when I woke up this morning, my stomach wasn't feeling all that great. Not like sick, but just not right. I went out for the run with the group anyways. My split times were equivalent with 2 weeks ago and I altered between 1:18 and 1:19 on each of the 12 sets. I really think that I could have gone faster, but I didn't want to push my stomach to where I'd end up throwing up. That's not the goal of the workout.

Afterwords, I decided a good cool down with the group was in order, and for once I ran with them. I don't know, but that mile+ actually felt pretty good and I ran really relaxed. I noticed that we were actually going at a pretty nice 8:30 pace. It was kinda funny, because I started having flashbacks back to my military days. We were in two rows running in formation at one point. I should broke out into one of the Jody's....Now that would have woke a few people up...

When I got home, my stomach still didn't feel right, so I took a couple of Pepcid, and I have to report, that I actually feel pretty decent. Hungry...but decent. Tonight, I'm going to break out my bike and to some nice and easy spinning on the trainer. I'm sure the wife will just LOVE that....but hey....I need to start getting my legs in riding shape too so that I can ride into work a couple of times a week once my sons football season is over. Tomorrow it's going to be a nice and easy jog through the neighborhood. Thursday.......4 miles of 30seconds fast....30 seconds not as fast....Whatever that means... :)

Until then....Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!!!

Another New PR!

This was an absolutely ROCKIN' weekend for running. You couldn't have asked for better weather at the 7am start, and I went balls out on our 2 mile time trial. This was technically the first time we've EVER run a time trial at this distance. Sure, we've done numerous workouts with 2 mile intervals, but realistically, they are not at the same level of effort. This was at your 5K race pace or a bit higher. It's quick and fast from start to finish. Leave everything you've got on the course, nothing less.

The course was on our normal path, but instead of starting at our normal meet place, we were a half mile further back. This gave us a nice point to point, slightly downhill, wind assisted course to run on. I didn't do my normal warm up jog, but I did a much more abbreviated version and went into some quick tempo striders in order to wake up the legs from my morning slumber. Once everyone was there, we all toed the line, and hit the course. I started off VERY FAST. I think the first quarter was 1:30, it was all a blur. My goal was to hang at the front as long as I could. And that I did for the first mile which clocked in at 6:38. From there, it was hold on and come in under 14:00 for a 6 sumthing per mile pace. Anything with a 7 would not satisfy my competitive fire. And hold on I did. I checked my pace every 200m mark on the road to make sure I was where I should be. And once I got the finish line in sight.....It became an all out sprint. I managed to get across the line in 13:25 which gave me a 6:47 second mile!!! That's ABSOLUTELY HUGE!!!! Think about it....3 weeks ago, I ran a 22:03 5K. Yes...22:03. Even if I slow to a 7 minute mile, I still come in at 20:25 with a tenth to go. That's a HUGE PR!!!! IN JUST 3 WEEKS!!!

So needless to say....My legs are back baby....and it's getting into the FUN time of the season!!!!!

Stay tuned for what's up NEXT..............................

A tough first week of hard training!

This was a really tough week of training. I came in well rested since I ended up not being able to run my Saturday session with the group due to a conflict with my flag football coaching duties. But I did a really good Sunday run of 8 miles where each mile I got progressively faster. It felt good to finish the effort at 66 minutes, and means that my distance legs are still there.

Tuesdays session this week was absolutely BRUTAL! 4x200, 4x1000, 4x200. The 200 sets were to be run at a split time of 47 seconds. That's just plain and simple QUICK! And I'll say this, over the entire workout, I was incredibly consistent and hit 47 seconds on the money, every single time. That works out to be a pace of 6:14/mile for each 200m set. My goal times for the 1000m sets was 4:10. I'm not sure where coach came up with that, maybe is was an overestimation, but I didn't hit that mark, and to be honest....I was quite a bit off. I ran every set at 4:17....Consistent, but off of the desired times. However, I will say this, I don't know how I would shave 7 seconds off of my times. That's about 1-2seconds per 200m, and I was really pushing it as it was. But I do feel good that I was at least consistent, and I can use that as a building block.

Thursday was another bear! On paper, 16x1min doesn't look all that bad. But, it's the decreasing rest intervals that will get you. The rests go 60, 45, 30, 15 and then repeat. 60 seconds isn't much...15....your barely turning around before you have to muster the gitty up and go! But, I kept each of these sets consistent and around a 6:51/mile pace. I'm not going to complain.

That was the easy part of the week.....so to speak. On Monday, I started the first week of my 100 push ups challenge.



Last Friday I did the initial, how many push ups can I do at one time. This sets your weekly program that will take you to being able to do 100 push ups. After 6 weeks. I managed to get 20 push ups.....We're talking good form, chest all the way to the ground and back up, good push ups. Honestly, that's pretty good for me considering that I have been doing them off and on, nothing real regimented. So week one looks like this in the plan for me:

Mon: 10, 12, 7, 7
Wed: 10, 12, 8, 8
Fri: 11, 15, 9, 9

Wednesday was actually really tough. I was still a bit sore from Monday, but I managed to get them done. Today's will be very interesting. Again, I'm still a touch sore but I think I will be able to bang them out. I'm really looking forward to getting my push ups back to where I can do at least 70 in two minutes like I was able to do when I was in the military at boot camp....16 years ago! I remember being sore back then the first couple of weeks. Just need to get through theh first couple of weeks of soreness and all will be good.

Since that's M, W, F....I had to add something for T, Th, and Sat. Those days will be focused on Sit-Ups and back exercises. This weeks target sit up count is at at 50. Next week, I'll jump that up to 70. When I'm done with the push up challenge, I'll move on to 200 sit-ups, and put the Push Ups in maintenance mode.

Also on the books is a 2 mile time trial tomorrow morning. This will be a fast up tempo effort, that's at a much quicker pace then the 5K effort. My goal....sub 14!!! You'll have to tune in on Monday to see how close I came!!!

My Review of Action Images Arizona Cardinals 2008 Conference Champions Poster

NFL

This officially licensed Arizona Cardinals 2008 Conference Champions poster from Action Images is a true collectible. The 24-in x 36-in poster is ideal for framing and displays the official team graphics, the Super Bowl® XLIII logo, and a recap of all regular-season and post-season scores.

Action Images Arizona Cardinals 2008 Conference Champions Poster

Get the LOGO right....

KidStallyn Tucson, AZ 2/11/2009

 

1 5

Pros: Shows Off Team Pride

Cons: Unattractive Design

Best Uses: Office

Describe Yourself: Die Hard Sports Fan

I hate it when a company comes out with something new, but doesn't take the time to get the logo correct. Great miss there guys...

()

Interrupted Weekend....

This was a very interesting weekend. I pretty much spent all of last week playing catch up from all the Super Bowl festivities, and managed to get back into the swing of things. My running hasn't taken that far of a back seat as I had thought, although I was pretty darned sore after the Thursday workout from mamma Michelle that I posted about the other day. Saturdays workout was a 5K time trial. If you remember, I started off the new year right with a new 5K personal best of 21:57. My first 21 anything at that distance. But with the playoffs and Super Bowl really getting in the way of my running, I hadn't been putting in the same kind of miles over the previous 3 weeks. I was very interested in seeing how far I had fallen off the 5K time. My weight had stayed almost steady until I got back from Orlando. When I hopped ont he scales, I had noticed that I had gained a few pounds, I guess not totally unexpected since we were eating out, and that's just plain a simple a recipe for disaster. And not too bad since it was only 3 pounds....That increased to 5 as I re-hydrated throughout the week, but that was just water so I wasn't totally worried that I'd fallen off the wagon. We had a pretty good sized group, about 25 in all. We toed the line and took off. I actually felt really relaxed through the first mile at a 6:46. My goal was to hang with Butch as long as I could, and I did that pretty well. My second mile was a little slower, but half of it included the turnaround and uphill back stretch, and I came in at a 7:20. I wasn't real excited with that, but it was still better then the 7:40ish I had run on New Years day for mile two. This is where it gets kinda sketchy. There's a little dip that include a pretty steep climb out....This is where I lost it...I lost the rhythm in my breathing and really struggled. Even though I had passed one of the runners who was in front of me...I just felt labored, and really started feeling the lactic acid that was still there from Thursday run. I made a quick recovery plan where I slowed down, and managed to get my breathing back in order. from there it was just get back to the start in one piece and see how close you are to the PB. I figured that since I had some slack in the first two miles, I could get pretty close and possibly beat it if I just held on, and really hammered the last tenth. So that's what i did, I got back in a good rythm, but I missed where I wanted to start picking up the pace. I missed the mark on the road, and started my kick about 7-10 seconds too late. I came in with a time of 22:03, only 6 seconds slower then what I ran on New Years, but it wasn't a smooth effort by any stretch of the imagination. That's what I've really got to work on over the next few weeks of building miles back on my legs.

Sunday was interrupted by rain showers and the phone call that nobody wants to get. Just after I had gotten out of the shower from running on the treadmill (which I despise by the way), my sister calls me from Denver. She says that she got a frantic call from mom, and my father was rushed to the ER and was having a possible heart attack. So, in a frenzy, I get the kids all bundled up, and get them to mom and I rush up to PHX. By the time I got there, things had settled down a bit, and they were beginning to think it wasn't his ticker after all....WHEW! Turns out, he was having issues with his stomach as a result of all the chemotherapy treatments, and it felt a LOT like a heart attack. After 6 hours of observations and a couple of lab works to confirm, they sent him home....and I made the trek back to Tucson. Sheesh...We were just in Orlando a week ago. Thankfully that didn't happen there. WHEW!

So, back to running.....Today was a great start to that. we had our 12x300m hill repeats with a jog back to the bottom of the hill. Today was unusually cold, as we had a winter storm roll through that dropped snow on the Tucson valley floor. Really cool to look at, since we don't get that very often, let alone in February. When we ran this workout 2 weeks ago, my target times were in the 1:25 range, but I managed to run them all at around 1:18. Today my legs felt incredibly fresh. I beat my time from two weeks ago, and ran every single one of the efforts in 1:16 or 1:17. It was INCREDIBLY consistent. So, I think my legs are getting back to the grind quite nicely, as I figured it would take a couple of weeks to get them going.

Tomorrows I'm going to do the 5 mile loop, and then Thursday is a 4 mile effort of 30 second repeats between fast and not as fast. Until then.....train Hard and LIVE STRONG.

The workouts are Baaaack.......

Blogging yesterday wasn't an option with Telecon day from hell, so hopefully I will be able to get up parts III and IV of my Super Bowl XLIII recap in the next couple of days. Today, though, I thought I would get back to what my blog originally started out as.....My training diary. Now that football season is over for the next few months, it's time to get back on track and get those miles back up. Today was my first official day back with the running group, and we had one seriously tough workout on the docket!

Mamma Michele's evil mind brewed up just a torturous workout. 4x400 (60), 6x200 (45), 4x400 (60). The rest period is in second in the parentheses. You'd think that 1 minute and 45 seconds would be a huge time to rest....Think again...Your just barely getting your breath back before you have to get goin' again....

Mamma Michele does a great job at setting up our target times for each workout. Mine were as follows:

400s: 1:38
200s: 46 secs

That's a real quick turnover!!! Especially since my speed work in the last couple of weeks hasn't been much. I did get in the hill workout last week before I headed to Tampa, but that was it for the whole week.

We're also paired with other runners, I think there were 6 at this time goal. So having a nice pack of runners is good, because you get the whole group running a single pace, and it's easier to judge if your going too fast or not.

My times were very close to the targets, and NOT ONCE did I ever go above. Every one was either on the money, or a few seconds fast. Here's what I pulled off the Garmin and sent to Michele for her tracking purposes.

Actuals:
4x400: 1:38, 1:37, 1:35, 1:37
6x200: 43, 45, 44, 45, 43, 44
4x400: 1:33, 1:35, 1:36, 1:36

What I'm really proud of is that my last set of 400s were faster then the first set...except for #3 were I was one second slower. I'm really happy with that!!! Every single 200 was faster with #1 and #5 at a blazing 43 seconds!!! That's under 1:30 for a quarter!!! That's SUB 6 pace for a mile if I could hold it that long!!!

And that's the goal of the workout....Get your legs and lungs used to running at an above lactic threshold pace.

Oh yeah....And did I mention that I did this on heavy legs today. See, yesterday at my kids flag football practice, the kids were dogging routes most of the time. To me, that's a terrible habit to start forming at 9-12 years of age. I try to preach, practice how your going to play. If you don't, then your not going to play well in a game with the time comes, because the timing is off. The offensive scheme I lay out is all timing based. It's quick, and they know it. So when they were dogging the suicides, I challenged them on the last one. Told them the old man was going to run with them. Guess what....The old man beat them. And I was wearing JEANS!!! I even had one of the moms jump in and run it with us. So next practice I'm going to add a little incentive to beating the old man......Win.....and you get to be captain in the next game. Lose....and you have to do an EXTRA suicide....I'll make it just one has to beat me...then 2....etc...Make it a game. They thrive on challenges like that.

With that...It's off to work, and get a move on on the day!!! Train hard and LIVESTRONG!!

Super Bowl XLIII Wrap Up (Part II of IV)

Saturday
Saturday started out a little slow. We woke up late due to the 2 hour time zone and the late night check in. The room we were staying in was pretty nice. The Hotel was located just outside Disney World, and was hosting an RC Car event. That was pretty cool. Watching cars zoom around a carpet track at close to 40 miles per hour was pretty amazing. The race is scored very similar to NASCAR. All the cars have transponders in them, and their position on the track is all tracked via computers and sensors that are under the carpet. Talk about high tech. This was the premier RC Race car event. They literally went 24 hours per day while we were there.

After watching that for a few mins, we headed out for a little breakfast at Dennys, and we were off to Tampa for a day at the NFL Experience. The weather was absolutely BEAUTIFUL! You couldn't have asked for better weather. I brought most of my game day attire, left the jacket for Super Sunday. Ya know...I can't give it all up. Donned my Garrison Hearst jersey for the the. The drive to Tampa proved interesting. The number of people donning Steelers gear on their cars was immense. At one point, I was TOTALLY boxed in. My front, rear and both sides had Steelers fanatics around us giving us the BIZ. I had my Cardinals flags flying.....well....until pops rolled down the window at 80 miles per hour....that flag really took off! Oh the agony.....After the lengthy traffic jam, we got to the parking and headed to the EXPERIENCE! Since we didn't have tickets, we stood in line to get them. Some really nice people gave us one VIP entry into the experience, so we only had to buy one ticket. The line wasn't near as long as everyone said it was. I would say we spent maybe 20 minutes. As we were getting ready to go in, we ran into an Arizona Republic photographer who knew me from teh stadium and wanted to get some pics. This one made the BEST OF THE SUPERBOWL in their must see section!



This is where the insanity starts!!!! See, people in PHX know that I'm not actually Kid Rock. I've done enough media interviews that it's pretty well published that I'm just a crazy fans of the team that looks a LOT LIKE Kid. BUT.....Tampa didn't quite get that memo! Add in the fact that there are famous people in town who want to be seen, and you have a recipe for photo ops with "fans" all over the place. Literally! I swear....I couldn't walk but 5 feet before people would run up for me to take a picture. That was a totally new experience for me!!!! We pretty much hit everything that the NFL Experience had to offer!!!! As we were leaving, we made out way to the NFL store, and bought our commemorative Super Bowl Ticket Holder. From there, it was back to Orlando to the Hotel, clean up a bit, and off to a Cardinals Fans ORLANDO meet up at Fridays again!

This time, the meet up at FRIDAYS was a HUGE success. Imagine the local Orlandans...if that's even a word....when they came upstairs to a watch a UFC fight, to be overwhelmed by Cardinals fans! Their face were priceless. In all, I'd say at the highpoint, there were about 40-60 member from the Arizona Cardinals Fans forums there. I have a BUNCH of pictures, and I will get those uploaded tonight as well! You talk about a fun little pep rally!!! The beer was flowing, and the excitement was in the air.....TOMORROW was the SUPER BOWL and my Cardinals and our fans that made the Trip were READY TO SHOCK THE WORLD!!!

The SUPER Re-CAP! Part 1 of 4

Wow...What an amazing four days. All those emotional highs, and the HUGE emotional low that was the ending of what will come down as one of the BEST SUPER BOWLS EVER! I'll say this.....Regardless of the outcome I had an absolutely AWESOME time, and I truly felt as if I was a ROCK STAR for the weekend. Lets recap the adventure.

Friday
Friday was really the first day that started it all. I had packed some of my things Thursday night, but I managed to get up early enough to get in the couple of hours of work that I needed to complete to get my 40 and finish up the little pack of odds and ends. The local news channel had my taping up for thier story on me being a DIEHARD Cardinals fan from Tucson. You can see the video here:

(http://www.kvoa.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=3395885&h1=Arizona%20Cardinal%20Fanatic&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=108233&LaunchPageAdTag=Sport&activePane=info&rnd=93843484)

From there it was off to the Airport. The Tucson Airport is incredibly uneventful. When we checked in, I was offered an upgrade to First Class for 90 bucks. In retrospect....I should have taken it! Ahh well...Probably better that I didn't, because they more then likely wouldn't have given me the keys to the rental car later. Our flight took us through Dallas, and when we got on the ground, I received a bunch of txt messages from Pete. Turns out his father in law was on our flight from Dallas to Orlando. So when we got to Orlando, we all met up, and after I got the rental car met for Dinner at Fridays Front Row. At the airport, it was apparent we were going to be significantly outnumbered by Steeler fans...And this was in Orlando. As I was standing in line, another van full of Steelers fans got off the bus....and the heckling of the LONE Cardinals fan...ME....began... I held my own as I walked the long line to the agent....And he said man...that was rough. They've been coming in all week.....but I haven't seen any Cardinals fans until today. I had to remind him that we all had JOBS and couldn't come in until Friday. He absolutely loved the response and gave us a free upgrade to a MINI-VAN....Gee thanks. Once we got the Van we turned on the GPS and headed for FOOD. Friday's Front Row was great, and sat and talked with Pete and his crew, just taking in all the amazement that we were actually in the Super Bowl! I'll update these posts with Pics as I've got a bunch on iPhone, but need to get them on here.

We finally got to the hotel about midnight and were so beat by then that we literally went to sleep and didn't wake up until about 9:30 the next morning....... (continued in Part 2 of 4)

D-DAY IS HERE....

That's right...Today's a day that will live in infamy....It's the day where I start my SUPER BOWL WEEKEND!!! The start of something great and where champions are born! These last two weeks have FLOWN BY! I've been featured in articles that have been displayed form local Tucson stuff all the way to ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/090129&sportCat=nfl). Let me just tell yah, it's been one WYLD RIDE, and it's only beginning. Should that clock count down to 00:00 and the Cardinals are the victors, our lives as fans will have changed FOREVER. We will be the ones that teams will be trying to knock off that thrown. We will have gotten one of the biggest monkeys off an organizations back. We will have done what CUBS fans have hoping for over a century now. We will be in that ELITE club of members that can say that they are SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS!

Look for the Kid walking down that Cardinal Red Carpet dressed in his SUNDAYS BEST!

The Kid LIVE Tonight on The Carey Sisters.

Tune into www.LVRocks.com and listen to the Kid LIVE on the Carey Sisters show. The show airs 7-8pm pacific. Don't worry, if you miss it, it will be available on PodCast after the show.

Also be Sure to Check out the KID who's featured in andother ESPN.com article on thier Page 2 segment. Here's the direct link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=caple/090129&sportCat=nfl

Another News Shoot....This time in HD...

Just finished a news shoot for KVOA NBC Channel 4 this morning. The spot will run tomorrow after editing today, and will run through all of the Channel 4 Broadcasts, and will be online at KVOA.com. That marks my final interview.....well.....you never know what will pop up......until I get to Tampa tomorrow. The party starts then. My flight leaves Tucson at 12:30 en route to Orlando with a quick stop in Dallas. I cannot believe that the day is already here to fly down there. You talk about an amazing trip....This is going to be EPIC! My friend Dave's girlfriend picked up their tickets yesterday, they got club level 201, so they too are now totally set!

As I've been going over all of the late breaking Cardinals news I came across a couple of great stories. One about Darnell Dockett that talked about how his mother was killed. Darren Urban of AZCardinals.com talked to him more in depth about it and he talks about that if his mother hadn't have been murdered, he probably wouldn't be who he is today. It was a tragic incident, that changed and shaped his life. (http://www.azcardinals.com/blog/post.php?author=1&id=1599)

The second was a poll conducted on ESPN.com's sports nation. I went ahead and submitted my vote for who I thought would win, and I was SHOCKED when it came up 50%/50%!!! The United states is absolutely DIVIDED on this one. They have a political state by state breakdown that shows the Midwest-western region of the US showing Cardinals as the majority pick....And the East coast mainly picking the Steelers. That is absolutely CRAZY! Did I mention that sample set is over 350 THOUSAND votes!

Strange things are afoot at the Circle K my friends.......

This Kids UP on the Champ of Sports.com!

It's here....The best radio show in ALL of the sports talk internet world! My interview on the CHAMP of Sports talk!



Tune into our pre-superbowl segment at http://www.thechampofsportstalk.com

Check it....The KID Made Forbes....

And it sure as heck wasn't for money.....all the luck....Guess I should have played my lotto numbers last week! Anyways, here's the link and pic.


http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/26/nfl-steelers-cardnals-biz-sports-cz_kb_0126teams_slide_6.html?thisSpeed=15000

T-MInus 4 Days

I'll start with last night....well early afternoon...I'm ticked because my damn iPhone started acting up yesterday...There's definitely a hardware problem somewhere in there, since when you squeeze it or push to hard on the touch screen and it does it's best impression of a tickle me Elmo doll.....well...without the annoying giggle..

Thankfully, it still receives and makes phone calls, plays music, and gets my internet and email. Which is basically all I use it for. And it's a good thing it functioned as a phone, or I wouldn't have gotten to do the Phone Interview with The Press Box (http://www.thepressbox.org). The Show is scheduled to play on Thursday, so when I get the link, I'll update it here. I'm doing another radio show tonight, this one is my own personal show that I do with the The Champ of Sports Talk (http://www.thechampofsportstalk.com). The Champs been on injured reserve for the past few months, but we plan on putting together a GREAT show to talk all about the NFC Championship game, and my preview of what to expect this coming Sunday in Tampa. I'm also scheduled to be a guest on the Carey Sisters Radio show Thursday night. They are live on in Las Vegas, and you can here their show over the internet at http://www.thecareysisters.com this Thursday evening. I'm telling ya, it's as if I'm having my own blitzkreig of Media Week, AND I"M LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT!

This week also started a new schedule of running. Today was 12x300m hill repeats. Tough workout, and one we haven't done in a VERY LONG TIME! In fact, I think it was sometime back in August...I had just started my trianing blog....and I think I was running somewhere in the 1:30 range per set. Well....that was about 35 pounds ago and a WHOLE LOT OF MILES ago....Totally a different me. Today I ran all 12 sets in 1:15....Okay....the last set I ran in 1:12. Yeah.....Totally different me. The month of January really took an unexpected turn. My half marathon got overcome by NFL Playoff Football.....Something that's NEVER happened before. So, I ended up reducing the miles, but increasing the intensity of my workouts. Instead of slogging along at a 8:45 pace, I would run my mid week workouts at 8:15....Just not as long. And it's really paid off by allowing my body a full month of recovery without sacrificing my cardio!

But, as soon as I get back from Tampa, that will all change. It's time to exit that cycle of recovery, and start banging out the miles. There's a half marathon in March that I am going to target, and NOW IS THE TIME!!!

So, until tomorrow.....TRAIN HARD and LIVESTRONG!

T-Minus 5 days!

Not that I'm keeping track or anything, but in 5 short days I should be hopping on a plane and heading EAST! This isn't a short trip by any stretch of the imagination. It would only be worse if I happened to live in San Diego or Seattle....So, when it's all said and done, it's two legs, Tucson to Dallas, Dallas to Orlando. We get into Orlando about 8pm local. I'm also going to be missing my first ever flag football team. Honestly, the kids could probably coach themselves, but.....We know I'm not letting that happen. I do have a couple of parent volunteers to keep the gears grinding while I'm gone. Hopefully, we'll be 2-3 when I get back....

My running is still going strong. I've cut back the miles in January so that I could give my body a little recovery period, but next week that all ends. I'm going to be starting the progression back up and need to work towards a mid March half marathon. Starting as soon as I get back from the Super Bowl XLIII trip, I'll get back to logging tons of miles. Until then, I'm keeping my cardio up, and working on some strength training until then.

Today is going to start being what will be a busy week for the team. This morning they fly off for Tampa, and tomorrow begin the circus known as Super Bowl Media WEEK! I plan on hosting my own media week....Today I've got a radio show interview planned for 3pm local AZ on www.thepressbox.org! They were looking for a DIEHARD Cardinals fan to give insight on the upcoming matchup. Should be a great interview, and I cannot wait. On Thursday AM, I'm going to be on LIVE TV in Tucson. Our local NBC affiliate KVOA contacted me and want me to do a live spot at 7am. So I'll be hading to theier studios to get the GEAR ON, and talk about being a DIEHARD Cardinals Fan who's making the trip to TAMPA!

And we'll see if I hear from the Ellen Degenerous Show. Apparently, they're looking for the most DIEHARD Cardinals and STEELERS fan. Look no further man...Search over! When you'bve got two hallways dedicated to you at the teams stadium.....Who else can say that....She has no other choice then to seelct the KID!

We'll see how that turns out!!! Until then...ROCK ON, TRAIN HARD, and LIVESTRONG!

T-MInus 6 Days Until Tampa!

One day down, and an eventful one at that. I coach my sons flag football team, and we are the Card-Pitt Steelers. The past 3 years we've been who else, but the Cardinals. This year, it was an 8 week wait to get jerseys. Well......As fat would have it, we were given the Steelers. Ironic....Don't chya think!!

So, today we played against the Broncos. So far, we were 0-3. The kids are really starting to get it, and after the first game blowout, the other two have been real close! We should have won th eprevious two....One play away two games ago......and last week, neck and neck until about the final 2 minutes.

So this week, we played yet another undefeated team. And they started the game on the forst play with a little run right up the middle for a TD....Man, all those flag grabbing drills out the door. But it was kind of a fluke...the flag litterally slipped out of the kids hadn, and the rest was paydirt freedom. After that they really buckled down, and just before halftime, we gave aup a long TD...we got the ball for one final play and BAM!!! TD PASS!!!! I called a split formation, XZ52. My Z receiver got 10 yards behind the defense, and my QB made a perfect throw. Just like that we went into hafltime down by 5 and the ball to start the second half. And we capitalized from the get go and NEVER looked back. We kept a 7 point lead until the final 26 seconds of the game. They scored a TD but had just missed the extra point. So we had a 1 point lead. My first call was to run the clock out. Running play that ended up us losing two yards. In flag you start each posession on the 5. So, with only a 3 yards cusion, I called a pass play that had killed them all day long....ALMOST an interception for a TD....Thankfully they dropped the pass. With 6 seconds left, I called a running play to the fastest kid on my team. I just wanted him to get free and run out the clock, WITHOUT geting a safety. I called my final timeout and talked ot the kids, and they executed with PERFECTION, giving us our first victory of the season! That will hopefully open the floodgates that will have them clicking the next time we face the undefeated Falcons!

So, tomorrow, we are one day closer to Tampa....I'm really starting to get JONESED!!!!

T-Minus 7 Days Until Blastoff!!!

Well, now that I've got my tickets safely in hand, I can easily say that a TON of pressure has been lifted off my shoulders. But that does not mean that it's not going to be crazy times getting there. This is the point where my blog trip down Super Bowl lane starts to take a turn from planning and preparation to a game day discussion. Sure there's a ton of stuff to discuss with respect to getting there, but man...What about all the stories about players, nerve, and getting to the day! We'll touch all of that along the way.

I would be rimiss if I didn't pub the fact that I'm going to be on Live TV Thursday morning. I got called by our local NBC station herein Tucson, and they'd like to have me on in the morning to talk about being a HUGE Cardinals fan and what to expect when I hit the road to Tampa. Honestly, I think it's funny they're actually sending a couple of reporters to Tampa. I'm like, why start now...LOL . Oh wait, they're the story of the century. I personally think they ought to give me the mic and let me do the tough inside scoop reporting. I would LOVE to be there for media day, next week. Who knows....Maybe that will happen. I did just submit my information to the Ellen Degenerous show to let her in on a little secret... I AM THE #1 ARIZONA CARDINALS FAN! I'm sure once she sees my crayz pics, she'll agree!

Well, that should cover it for now.....At least today's the 23rd. I can finally start replying to text messages again! Man....This time if the year, and a 200 per month limit....Not coolio....I get shown on TV, and the next thing I know my phone goes ballistic!!! Keep checkin in here.....You can find all your breaking Cardinals news here. And if you've got a lead on an extra ticket, I'm still pimpin to find my boy Pete entranceinto the stadium!

MIRACLES DO COME TRUE!

That's right folks! My dream of getting Super Bowl tickets, at an affordable price, has been realized! I just happened to be at the right place at the right time! Throughout the day, I was actually upset with the whole process. Seeing deuchbag after deuchbag coem onto the Cardinals Message board trying to hock their tickets for thousands of dollars. The worst, a guy came in being selected for $500 seats wanting $3900 for the pair. Give me a freakin break!

Anyways, I was on the Arizona Sports Fans message board when I saw a post show up stating Super Bowl Tickets for Sale. A long time fan, and club seat holder, who's dealing with health issues could not go, but he didn't want his tickets to end up in the hands of scalpers. The man stood in line for 3 hours today, in not the greatest of weather, and got his tickets. He only wanted $1000 per ticket when he paid $875. I sent him a message and he graciously accepted. The amount over face value is negligable, especially considering he had to stand in line for as long as he did. I didn't think twice about paying him the amount he wanted.

What a great guy! 40YearFan, you just made two new BEST FREINDS in my father and I, and we would love to tailgate with you next year! You just made my dream come true when I thought all was lost. Thank ou again, and this is what the team means by WE DO THIS TOGETHER!!!!

Let the Ticket Search Begin!

My mountain to climb to get to the promised land all of a sudden looks like Mt Everest. I'm telling ya, the range of emotions I've felt in the past 24 hours have gone from amazing highs to gut wrenching lows. The fact of the matter is, I'm flying to Orlando on Friday the 30th of January and flying back on Monday February 2nd. That's all I know right now. There's still hope that somehow, by the grace of god, I will still somehow land a Super Bowl ticket at face value. But that hope fades every day. I've seen people, who I've been season ticket holders with for almost a decade now, and partied with for many years, whom you thought were your friends tell you that even when they had no intentions of going, are selling the tickets they got at $825 for face value at double the price. Pretty scary what money will do to you. Why, because I would have NEVER done that to them. If I couldn't make it, and I was selected, the first people I would have offered it to were friends and/or family at face value. That's just how I roll. This is something that I feel very strongly about. There are vary many fans who have followed this team for a very long time who didn't get selected and really want to go. I'm not the only one in this boat. Yet, the prices right now are so ridiculous, that we as fans are being forced out. And it just plain SUX.

I still have hope.....But every passing day that hope dwindles. Perhaps there's some Corporate sponsor who's looking for a couple of Diehard fans to help promote their business out there. I've got a line on people who are passionate about this team, love to paint thier faces, and dress up in crazy outfits that are looking to attend this game.

DENIED!

Just got the word from the Arizona Cardinals that I was NOT selected for Super Bowl tickets. I need a beer to put out these flames!

So much hope......All gets CRUSHED!

Well, it doesn't look good for my ticket quest for Super Bowl Sunday. Yesterday I was informed via email, that one of my season ticket accounts was not selected for Super Bowl tickets. I have two accounts because I added two seats last year for my boyz. I didn't expect that account to get picked since it was so new. I had hoped that my main account would get selected, and that I just hadn't received the letter yet. I happen to know other people that are in a similar situation, that ended up getting two rejection emails.

So imagine my jubilation. I just figured, that since it didn't get delivered on Saturday, that it should be here yesterday since there was no mail on Monday due to MLK day. It didn't come yesterday, but I still have hope due to the fact that I hadn't received an email for that account.

Well...That hope just took a square shot to the midsection. There are very credible reports from people that I know very well who did NOT get the email yesterday, but got the letter of DOOM today! This absolutely SUX! So I'm guessing that now when I go home, I too, will have the letter of DOOM for my other account. To add insult to injury, I've already purchased my plane reservations so that I could lock in the price at $250 round trip. It's a good thing, because the price jumped to $400 a couple of hours later.

The next couple of hours are going to SUCK! I'll post here when I get home this afternoon and find my letter of DOOM!

I'M ON ESPN.COM!!!

Yes..I got an email today to that gave me a little heads up that my mug is the feature picture on espn.com!

OH SNAP!

THE UNTHINKABLE! THE ARIZONA CARDINALS ARE GOING TO THE SUPERBOWL!

That's right fans of all ages. You read that right. THE ARIZONA CARDINALS HAVE MADE IT TO THE SUPERBOWL. Again, I must admit, this blog is supposed to be about running. But right now, that story line has to take a back seat as my travel plans have just taken on a whole new adventure. Yesterday was probably one of the the absolute BEST days of my life, other then my children being born. It has that same kind of....OH SNAP....feeling to it. For me to say I'm surprised and in shock would be an absolute understatement. This game was a tale of two halves, in what will turn out to be one of the BEST playoff games EVER. I have to give credit to the Philadelphia Eagles. At halftime when your team was down 24-6, and had absolutely NOTHING going for you, you guys rallied and just about gave us Cardinals fans yet one more GUT WRENCHING LOSS that would rival the Monday Night debacle that ended up making Denny Green a very rich man with his sound bites of how we LET EM OFF THE HOOK!

Well, did what what Cardinals teams with close to a century of history could not do! We took the ball back after giving up the go ahead touchdown, and we methodically drove down the field and chewed up a large majority of the 4th quarter and RE-TOOK control of game that had slipped out of our hands. and in Un-Cardinalesque style, we didn't just settle for a game winning field goal, we PUNCHED PHILADELPHIA squarely in the mouth with a TOUCHDOWN and TWO POINT COVERSION. Those "Same 'Ol Cardinals" would have either squandered the drive and/or settled for a FG leaving enough time for the opposing team to drive down the field and kick the gut buster in the closing seconds. NOT THIS YEAR! NOT THIS TEAM!

We FINALLY did the unthinkable, and became the NFC Champions, and held the Eagles on a 4th and 10 to basically end the game. What an amazing POST SEASON. It's as if the GOD'S above hand wrote this script. It's as if there was divine intervention. That's right people. This is NOT a dream. We are going to TAMPA to play the BIGGEST GAME IN FRANCHISE HISTORY! We're going to play in the Super Bowl against the team that passed on HIRING Coach Whiz....The PITTSBURGH STEELERS.....

Now.....I must play the waiting game.....Since today is Martin Luther King Day....I have to play the horrific waiting game to see if I've scored Super Bowl tickets.....OH THE AGONY! Come on mail gods....Devlier me that all important letter stating YOU'VE BEEN CHOSEN!!!!

The Whirlwind Continues....

Well......It happened......The Arizona Cardinals did the unthinkable and ended up beating the Carolina Panthers on the road this past Saturday to earn a spot in the NFC Championship game. At the time, it hadn't been determined as to WHERE the game took place, so Saturday night I became a HUGE E-A-G-L-E-S fan!!!! Why you ask....If the Eagles could pull an upset victory in New York, then the NFC Championship game would be held in GLENDALE ARIZONA at UofP Stadium. To my total surprise...


IT HAPPENED!!!!

And that's where the whirlwind continued....Monday night, I receive a phone call from an Associated Press reporter. 30-40 minutes later, we finally close out the interview. A few email sessions back and forth later that night, she's got all the information she needed from me complete with pictures.

Tuesday was a group workout day, and I run some ridiculously fast 1K splits. For me, a 4:25 split is kind of crazy, but my legs were feeling fresh after some light running last week. All 8 were in this range. Tuesday morning, I find out that my article was going to run in the afternoon, so check Google News and do a search on my name. And that's where it gets a little hazy.....The Article his EVERYWHERE....Phoenix, Tucson....Sporting News.....You name it...It's out there. Thinking that's it, I go to bed and call it a night....

Imagine my surprise when I wake up to this picture on the local newspaper online version...



Yes...that's me in all my Super Fan goodness. The Article, an opinion piece from Greg Hansen, a local Tucson Sports write who must have caught the feed. It's a GREAT article....I must admit. At least it's a picture of me that's NOT in an orange Jump Suit with Numbers....WHEW!!! got that going for me! Which is nice.....

So as the week goes along, it's going to be interesting to see what transpires over the next couple of days leading to the BIG GAME! I dunno....but this ride has been great so far! I'm just happy we ate those Black Eyed Peas for Good luck on New Years Eve and New Years DAY!

Have I Arrived???

So this isn't running related WHATSOEVER.....Especially since i didn't' run this morning.....Seems the two weeks of break has caught up with me....There is actually a 4am...My alarm can prove it....But my body fought with it today and wasn't budgin!

So, I was hanging out at my Arizona Cardinals message boards when one of the posters there alerted me to an Article in the Charlotte Observer where they did a story about Cardinals fans and used my image from the Game this past Saturday...Check this out!!!


That's ME ROCKING before the Playoff Game Vs the Falcons! When I say that I'm na NFL Fan....That's really an understatement! If my boyz in Red and up going to the Super Bowl in Tampa Florida in a few weeks, you can guarantee that I will be there, and I will BLOG about the entire expereince!!! Not quite sure how I will pay for it, but since the Cardinals are one of 6 teams who have never made it to the Super Bowl in the History of the leagues (This is Super Bowl 43, so 43 years), you can rest assured that I AM NOT GOING TO MISS THIS ONE!!! And remember, I can be booked for events now that I'm a semi celebrity! Can't wait for the Papperazzi to start following me.....Or maybe my first Perez Hilton article on TMZ!! YES!!!

Hopefully I will ahve more tomorrow in the way of my training. I'll get my run in today, it was just quarters, so I can get those done tonight......Before the BCS Championship of course!!!

Getting Back to the Group Thangs.....

So today was really my first day officially back to running with the group....Over the past couple of weeks since I had so much off time from work, I was really just focusing on piling on the miles. So when the alarm went off at 4am yesterday to get back into the routine it was really a SHOCK to the system. My back was still a little sore, and I kept the run short at 3.5 miles. Piling on the miles over the break allowed me to identify some weaknesses that I need to focus on strengthening! Mainly my abs and back. SHOCKING NEWS FLASH! My core is not very good, and really took a beating over the break with the added work load. So over the Sunday of watching football, I put the X-Mas tree away and got the Bowflex put into position so that I can get back to working on Core strength in the evenings. I had already started doing sit ups and push ups, but I really need to expand the workouts at night.

This mornign was yet another shocking 4am wakeup call to meet the group. Motivation at o'dark early is hard to come by when it's dark and freezing cold, but knowing that there were other Grinders out there got me out of bed. I didn't drive to the normal parking lot to meet the group, I went to the trailhead closer to my house which gave me a bit longer of a warm-up jog to the start. It's a little bit over a mile instead of the half mile at my normal parking spot. That warmup was crucial since it was so cold out there this AM. We had a above average turnout for the group this AM, which was nice to see. A lot of the group is getting ready for the Half marathon going in in PHX on the 18th.....Unfortunately its a race I just can't commit to at this time. I've got a LOT of money tied up in NFC Championship game tickets and SHOCKINGLY the Cardinals still have a shot at hosting that game! And no way am I racing a half marathon at 8am with a potential football game of the Century scheduled for 10:30....And even if we don't host it, I still don't want to miss the action should we win on Saturday Night vs the Panthers.

Anyways...Back to the workout! Today was session guaged at setting up racing speed sfor various distances. 1 mile at your Half Marathon Pace, 3/4 mile at your 10K pace, 1/2 mile at your 5K pace, and 1/4 mile at your 3K pace. Let me just go on the record and state that Mamma Michele chastized me for good reason after the first set. 7:15 is NOT my Half marathon pace! Yes..I buggered up that one! But I didn't let it effect the rest of the workout by running it too fast. I settled into the next set at my 7:30 10K pace. Actually ran it at a 7:27 pace. Then, the 5K pace at 7:00, I did run that a little bit fast and came in at a 6:45 pace. Finally, my 3K pace was pretty ridiculous fast, at a 1:32 quarter mile split. For those keeping track, that's a 6:08/mile pace. That one was a bit off the charts. But, my legs felt good, and I wasn't laabored in my breathing so I went with it. Yes, it's someplace where I want to train in the future, and it's good to know I have a little Spurt at the end of a workout. So, I'll take that one as an overall victory for the workout. In all, it was only 4.5 miles of running after the warm ups and cool downs were added in.

The cooleest thing of the entire workout came during the cool down. The temperature at the start of the workout accoriding to my car was somethign in the low 40s. Well, that only dropped into the 30s which brough on this really cool FOG effect on the path we were running in, and man did it move in FAST, but what was funny, was that it held off until after the workout.

Tomorrows going to be a mid week longer run....I may cap it at 7 or 8 just to stay with the consistency of keeping the week a little shorter as I work my way back into the grind. Until there......LIVESTRONG and TRAIN HARD!

What a long two weeks.....

Wow.....Talk about a break....I pretty much took a break from everything but running and training. I had a few goals I wanted to accomplish over the time off and I managed to log some pretty impressive miles (for me anyways). For me, this was the first time in a VERY long time that I could focus just on running. I was off from the day to day stresses of work and I didn't have to worry about our now closed business. I also had the ability to actually train as if I were a professional, which meant logging ridiculous amounts of miles!

My biggest goal of the Holiday season, break the 70 mile week barrier. I set the goal pretty lofty, and honestly, I didn't get off to a great start. Monday and Tuesday of X-mas week, I was totally knocked out with a massive head cold. Thankfully my previous training wasn't compromised andI was able to get back to running on Wednesday. On X-Mas, I didn't plan on running at all, it was my boys day and I was smoking a Turkey outside, so I needed to be home to man the fire. That was okay, my run on Wednesday almost put me out on a relapse, so the day off was nice. I started my 7 day 70 mile quest on the Friday after X-mas. Since I hadn't done a long mid week run, I set out on a 12 mile journey. That run went EXTREMELY well. I ran the 12 mile course in 1:39 minutes! To me, that was just going out and having a nice run. I didn't expect it to be fast, but there were some fast miles in there. That put a huge smile on my face! Day 1, felt AMAZING! Day 2 was a 60 minute tempo workout where we did 6 sets of 5mins at our 10K pace, and 5 minutes at our half marathon pace. I finished this workout at exactly 8 miles when the timer went off. I was tired from teh 12 miles the day before, but I managed to hold back on the early sets and ran a very paces of 7:15 for the 10K segments and and 7:45 for the half marathon segments.

Day three (Sunday) started my rediculous adnveture. During the O'Dark early run, I came up with the hair brained idea that if I did i12 miles on the remaining days I could hit 80 miles. So from there I did 12.5 miles on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday is where things start to get a little blurry. Okay...Not blurry, but I knew the onset of overtainning was rapidly approaching. My first sign is when I start to lose sleep at night. That actually started happening on Sunday night. I was tired from teh run, but I also was exhausted from my trip to Phoenix afterwards for the home finally of the Cardinals game. It was just a long day, no other way to put it. I did sleep in, but they weren't quality unintterrupted hours of sleep. By Tuesday, I was overtired. I woke up and headed out for my 12 miles, beaten and battered. At mile 10, I did the unthinkable, and WALKED for about 4 minutes. At that point, I did the 'ol gut check, and got them done. This is the point of the week where I realized, I'm not ready for 80, let's refocus back to 70. Two 7 mile days and your there. I knockedout the first 7 miler no problemo. My old running partner Paul was back in the game...well sort of...he dropped off at 3 miles, but I managed to get on through the run.

And this is where something amazing happened. It's New Years Eve and I get an email from my coach about either doing the workout on New Years, or the Egg nog Jog....The Egg Nog Jog is a 5K race that takes place about a mile from my house. I thought, why not. Forget the 70 miles, let's go out and do a speed workout instead. Honestly, It's not about the miles, it was more about performaing on really tired legs. I wanted that challenge more then going out and doing another 7 miels on the same roads I have run all week long. Oddly enough, there weren't a lot of peopel signed up. About 150 peopel from around the neighborhood, who made thier new years resolutions to exericse again. There were a few runners out there that I knew, but amazingly there weren't very many (if any) from my group or the Southern Arizona Roadrunners.

I was just hoping to get top 5 in my age group. So at 9am, when the gun went off, imagine my amazement when I'm running the race in second place....Okay...There's no chance for me to get first place, the guy in front is a 2 time Olympic Marathon Trials guy. So, his "18 or so" minute goal, waddunt even in the same state as my goal. Needless to say, my 6:50 first mile, he was still in sight....That was until we reached the hills....that was also the point at which I turned over 2nds and 3rd places....But once i crested the first hill, and made the right turn into the neighborhood, I looked back, and there wasn't anyone back there....except for the womans leader. And that's how it stayed. My 21:55 (new personal 5K best on a tough HILLY course) gave me a really nice way to start the new year. I wasn't just top 5 in my age group...I was 4th place OVERALL! I pretty much didn't see that coming....and neither did imy coach as she gave me a HUGE hug after the race.

I went back to the last 5K on a measured course that I ran, and I did 23:55. Now, that wasn't a race, it was one of our time trials on a very flat course, but that's 2 minutes cut off my 5K time since AUGUST! So with that, I ended my 7 day stretch with a grand total of 67 miles. hey...I didn't hit the 70 mile mark, but I did manage to break a new personal record with some MAJOR gusto! I can't wait until the 5K and 10K racing season which starts at the end of the month, when I'm racing on tapered and not tired legs!!!!

Should be a great 2009! LIVESTRONG and TRAIN HARD!