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!