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!

Rainy Wet and COOOOOOLD!!!!1

Well, for us here in Southern AZ....the weather here has been what we would consider cold. Yesterday I scrapped the plans of my morning workout for a bit more sleep. The forecast was supposed to be windy, rainy and cold, but that's not how it turned out at ALL! It seems as though all the predictions just kept pushing themselves out, and I ended up outsmarting myself. So, I figured it was important to get that mid-week long run in! Once i got home, I changed into my running gear and went out for an hour and a half run through the neighborhood. My goal was to run parts of the workout with some intensity, as I wasn't sure what this morning would bring. It was also a weird feeling, I don't usually run in the evenings, and for that matter, I don't ususally run well in the evenings. I started out on the course that I did last Wednesday, my typical 9.5 mile course. As I went out, I noticed that my starting pace was a bit higher then what i do in the morning, but it felt good, and I didn't have to wait for my legs to wake up....So I just went with it. Miles 1, 2, and 3 were very nice and even. For miles 4 and 5 I figured that would be a good place to do a little race pace scenario. 4 is a continuous and gradual uphill segment. Along the way, I saw a pair of runners out who had a nice lead on me, and I used them as a rabbit that I could catch and overtake. I passed them, and kept up with the great leg turnover and motored my way along trough 4 and the downhill mile 5. From there I backed out of the throttle a bit and settled into a nice 8:15 pace and pretty much stayed there up until mile 10, where I struggled a bit as the course changed to again going slightly uphill, but added in the wind in the face factor as the strom front finally decided to make it's appearance. I'm sure your sitting there going...but he said above that the course is 9.5 miles, how'd he get to 10....Well, at mile 8 I decided that I was running well, so I took a left turn through a neighborhood that ended up taking me down to our marked path, and I extended the run from 9.5 to 11 rather easily. Mile 11 was nice and even as I made the right turn for the 1 mile straightaway home, which turned the wind to cross and slightly at my back. Some great things to focus on, my 7 mile time was 59:04! 4 seconds slower then Tuesday, and still 1:51 faster then Monday! I did the full 11 miles in 1:28:50. Dr. Garmin put that at a 8:34 pace....Not bad for a average everyday run! Sheesh, I can remember plodding along at 10 min/miles thining I was cruising. That was so 33 pounds ago, and a totally different stressed out me.

Today did finally getting washed out. I may actually do the workout this afternoon as it looks like the front may have mosved through for good. The suns back out, and it's a balmy 52 degrees. It's the standard 12x400m repeat day, so I can run across the street and do them in the seclusion of a nice and quiet retirment neighborhood. Today also marks my last day of work for this Calendar Year. that means I get to sleep in tomorrow and go running when nanna and pop pop show up. 9ish...10sh...Whatev! I get two full weeks where I can focus on nothing but training, just like it was my JOB! I'm going to give myself the gift of working out as if I'm a pro athlete. I'm going to see if I can get 60 miles in each week, and break out the bike for a few afternoon rides.

Anyway, I should finish up those last few things I need to get done before I'm off for the year. Until tomorrows Blog adventure, LIVESTRONG and train HARD!

The quest for More Cowbell.....Errrr......7s....

HA....And I'm not talking about gambling! I'm talking miles. Today's workout plans with the group got scrapped when I took a look at the workout and saw that they were only doing 2 1/4 miles. I thought to myself...What the?? After not running the prescribed 15 miles in the rain on Sunday, I've got a little bit of makeup to do, and 2 1/4 miles wasn't the prescription. No, my workout had a fever! And the only perscription was more COWBELL....errrrr....Miles. So I did the same run that I did yesterday, the 7 mile run through my neighborhood. My goal though was to be yeasterdays time since Tuesdays was a more of a speed day. As usual, I took the first mile easy to wak the body up. Once the alarm went off, I then gradually started to ratchet up the speed. I started at 8:35, down to 8:25, and then 8:20. At thispopint I decided miles 4-5 should be at my hal marathon pace, so I ratched up to a 7:40. After that I dropped back into an 8:15 and stayed there till the end of the workout. I managed to take 1:55 off of yesterdays time, and still got some speed training on my legs.

There's not a whole lot to report out there. Last night I did the unthinkable and went into my pools 58 degree water. WHOAH!!! You talk about an ice bath! Thankfully I got the Hot Tub back up and running, so the transition to the hot water was oh so nice.....You know, you can't not do a double dog dare from your nine year old son!

On that note.....Until tomorrow....LIVESTRONG and train hard!

Mixed Weekend of Results

This past weekend was a mixed bag for me. I knew that Sunday's run was going to be jeopardized by the weather, and that held out to be oh so true. Needless to say, as the downpour raged on at 4:30am, I made the command decision to call it and go back to bed. I had a long day ahead and starting off soaking wet wasn't going to help the cause. And I felt as though I had kind of earned it with the effort I put out on Sunday in the 50 minute workout where every five minutes we altered from 10K pace back to Half Marathon pace.

This whole new running experience is quite an experience. We're in that cycle where we we have about 3 to 4 week between same workouts. This I like because you can really see how far you've progressed. This particular workout we did 3 weeks ago, and I had a GREAT run, so I was a little unsure how much I'd progress. What I didn't expect was what happened....

My first 5 mins on, I set out on a blistering pace, one that was FASTER then my 30 minute tempo the previous Saturday. I felt great, but I was running in a territory that I'd never seen before. We're talking 7:04 pace. But it was only 5 minutes, so I wasn't too alarmed that I went out too fast. My off set I trottled back to 7:45 and my legs just felt GREAT and overall I was running nice and relaxed. Set two started, and I took off like a greyhound trying to get the rabbit. I didn't even realize how fast I was going until I passed the 2 mile mark at 14:04.....yes, you read that right...14:04. I was TRUCKING!!! I looked at the pace of Dr. Garmin, and it read a 6:40 pace, and I still had 56 seconds to go on the on set. I kept it going as I figured that it was only less then a minute of effort.....But When the set ended, I had a little discussion with myself. I didn't need to go out there and blow up on sets 4 and 5. So I made a concious decision that I needed to slow down a bit. I set my target on pace at 7:15, realistically where it should be. And with that when the on set came, I settled very nicely into the 7:15, and that's where each of the 3 remaining sets were, ON THE NOSE. there was absolutely NO variation. And, I finished the 50 minutes at 6.75 miles. The last time I ran that workout, I only managed to get 6.4 miles. That's a FULL 3 tenths further, in just 3 weeks! Another MAJOR step towards where I want to be. In two weeks, we get another version of this workout, but we add one more set. I'm thinking that I should be able to do a full long loop, and close the short loop by then. That's my ultimate goal. In fact, I should go past closing the short loop, as where I finished was about a mile from that point, which I'll cover more then a mile in 10 mins. So all looks very very promising. This coming Saturday, we'll get an official reading to where my Long Loop 5 mile time trial is. I'm going to have to go deep into the spreadsheets to see what my PB is. When I find it.....We'll set the goal to CRUSH that time!

And I started the week off by doing a nice 7 miler this morning. Since i didn't run yesterday my legs were incredibly fresh. I kept the last 6 miles under 8:30 pace, as I always take that first one pretty easy. Today, that was a 9:15. I'm really starting to evlauate the caledar and see where to work in that marathon. Right now I'm looking for a fast March timeframe event, but I don't see any. If anyone knows of a close marathon to Tucson in the March timeframe...lemme know....I'm in the HUNT!

Until tomorrow, Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!

And the weekly grind continues

Yesterday was the standard 12x400m intervals. Thursday workouts are going to be rough for a while as I get adjusted to the mid week Wednesday long run. Last week, I was fairly well recovered, but only because I did 8 miles and didn't do the Thursday run at 5am, instead I waited until 6pm to get it done. that extra few hours of recovery seemed to really help. This week, I didn't give myself that break and I added an extra mile and a half. So the fact that I didn't totally rock the house wasn't shocking. I will say this, my goal on that workout is to keep the 400s under 1:45 per set. And I managed to accomplish that goal, even on the first set which is typically my slowest as I ease into the workout. I will say this, my last three sets, although not the 1:32s that I ran last Thursday, were VERY respectable at 1:37. They weren't easy by any stretch of the imagination either, I really had to work at them to make them happen. But that's just the thing you have to do if your going to continue to make progress. Push hard, and do it on tired legs. As you roll through that 20 mile mark of a marathon, you're going to be tired. But your body has to be trained and you have to mentally push yourself through it and know that you've done that a million times in previous workouts and have the confidence to keep going.

Today's workout my legs were sluggish. There was no time requirement, just go on out there and turn the legs over for 5.6 miles. I was doing the big loop around the neighborhood. Today's temperature, for whatever reason was about 10 degrees warmer then the previous two days. In my morning fog of trying to wakeup....I didn't quite notice that, and I bundled up like had for the rest of the week. I will say this. If the temps in the 50s.....Don't wear so much clothing, unless theres a really stiff wind. I got warm....Almost to the point of stripping stuff off. I didn't, cuz i didn't want to have to carry it around...so I just sucked it up. If I were racing...That $4 winter cap I bought at Walmart yesterday....would have ended up missing somewhere. :) The miles were not fast, but they were very consistent ranging from 8:55 to 9:01. Nothing real spectacular to report. I got it done, and it's job of a recovery run should serve itself well. So far this week, I've already got 26.6 miles in the books. If that's any indication of where I'll be after my Sunday run, that's a good sign I'll be somerewhere around 45-47 range. That could get a bit dicey as we're expecting some rally bad weather this weekend. I just hope it's not of the thunerstorm variety, as that's going to cause me not to head out the door....uggghh....But, so goes life eh!

Until Monday AMs weekend report, Train Hard and LIVESTRONG!