Half-Marathon

Last post for a couple days or until I get settled into the new house.

Ran the Houston Half-Marathon this morning. Great weather. Great run. Made a HUGE mistake by running in a long sleeve shirt. Yeah, I'm still learning some of the basic stuff. Within the first mile I could see steam coming off my arms.

My goal was 1:59-2:15. I told myself that I wanted to run every mile at 9:30/pace. I also wanted to run a solid "Strider" for the last 0.10 of each mile. The established game plan went well. It went so well, I may have a "new race strategy".

I started at the very end of the starting line pack, which slowed me down a lot. For the first three miles I was having difficulty navigating all the other runners. I ran into the back of 10-12 runners who were doing a walk-run. I was following people and when it was time for them to walk, they stopped dead in their tracks, resulting in a small collision. I'm not to sure of running etiquette, but it was frustrated. I always apologized to the other runners and seldom received a polite comment in return. Oh well, my bad.. I think.

This is probably one of my best races ever. Hard to compare this race to my 5k PR, which was paced with Coach, but it's certainly in the top 2. I put a TON of effort into this race and I was awarded with a nice time. I tried sooooo hard to beat the 2:00-hour window, but it was a no go. Talk about negative splits, check out my first half versus the second( 1st: 1:03:56, 2nd: 58:48). That's more than a 5-minute negative split. Way to go Bill!

I'll post more about the race in general... when I have more time.

Activity: Race
Mileage: 13.15 miles (ran a little long, zig-zagging around people)
Time: 2:00:16 -- 9:09 pace
Splits:
9:30, 9:32, 9:19, 9:25,
9:18, 9:33, 9:11, 9:17,
8:57, 8:52, 8:43, 8:42,
8:49, 1:11 (0.15 mile)
Location: Houston, TX
How I Felt: 9.9

Pains: My right ITB was throbbing after the 7-mile mark. It hurt from my hip to below my knee. Never progressed beyond a mild ache. Probably nothing to it.

Blah

No running. No weight training. No biking.

Way over on the calories, due to NO OUTPUT.

You may not see any updates after tomorrow because of the move. The new house is only 10 miles away, but I still had to change internet services. Can't wait to be settled into our new home.

Body Weight: 212.5

Pointless Thursday Ramblings

When you're dieting, why can't every week be as easy as the first week? During those first few days you're totally motivated, you see lots of weight loss (mostly water), and most importantly... it seems EASY. I suppose if it were effortless everybody would be fit, right?

This morning I had another significant drop in weight. I'm refraining from getting too excited because I know these trends will end soon. This time next week, I'll be excited about a 1/4 pound loss. Its the nature of the beast. Those of you that DO NOT battle with your weight, thank your lucky stars. What I put my body through (the good and the bad) is not fun.

Last night, David "Git-R-Dun" Minkin told me that he doesn't own a scale and has not weighted himself in a couple years. Talk about inspiring! There again, if you know David, you would agree that he is VERY active and leads a healthy lifestyle. That is exactly where I want to be. With every weight loss attempt, I get a little closer to a healthier balance. My day to shine is just around the corner.

Sorry, for the meaningless chatter. I'll quit typing what is going through my head.... for now.

Body Weight: 212.5

Activity: Run
Mileage: 6 miles
Time: 1:08:00 -- 11:20 pace
Location: Home Treadmill
How I Felt: 7

Activity: Bike
Mileage: 7.27 miles
Time: 36:05
Location: Woodland Pines Subdivision
How I Felt: 9

I'm really tired. Today made eleven straight running days (70.6 miles). I had hoped to run 8 miles today, but as you can see above I only made six miles before hitting the bike. Looking forward to an off day tomorrow. I have to get the treadmill calabrated. There is no way I ran an 11:20 pace. Well, I hope I wasn't running that slow. Whew, my legs are KILLING ME!

Strider Group Run

The diet is still going well. I know it's only been three days, but I'll take any feat... no matter how small. If I were to guess, I'd say my weight has leveled off and now I will start the slow weight-loss battle. I mentioned it yesterday, but its worth repeating... I feel so much better.

Tonight I ran a new route with the Striders. Coach has formally labeled the route; "The Rose Garden". The route was an out and back measuring nearly 6 miles. I'd like to do this route again in daylight to see all those HUGE homes. Oh yeah, and without the rain.

I ran two miles before the group run for a grand total of eight miles.

Activity: Group Run
Mileage: 8 miles
Time: 1:25:10 -- 10:39 pace
Splits:
11:05, 10:44, 10:10, 10:17
10:48, 10:48, 10:51, 10:27
Location: Memorial Park
How I Felt: 9.5

Body Weight: 214

One hard mile & one additional mile

The soreness has finally caught up to me. Yesterdays run wasn't anything special, but it was enough to wear-out my lower body.

I'm currently at work. Planned on running five miles with Sean at the park. The formal plan:
2-miles @ 7 out of 10 effort
1-mile @ 9 out of 10 effort
2-miles @ 7 out of 10 effort

I executed the plan perfectly. At the end, Sean wanted to run an additional mile, so he continued running. He ran an AMAZING 6:33 for mile number six. I was so inspired by his pace that I asked if he wanted to run an additional cool-down mile. The extra mile felt awesome. I know its early, but its been a good week.

Activity: Run
Mileage: 6.0 miles
Time: 57:32 -- 9:35
Splits:
10:06, 10:06, 8.01, 9:48, 10:05, 9:26
Location: Humble City Park
How I Felt: 9

Body Weight: 216.5

Six easy miles

I feel better when the temperature is below 70. I'm wired for cooler weather.

My legs felt heavy the first 1.5 miles. I fell into an effortless rhythm at 4-miles. I only stopped at six miles because it was hard to see in the non-lighted park.

Activity: Run
Mileage: 6 miles
Time: 1:03:43 -- 10:37
Splits:
10:29, 10:03, 10:47,
10:52, 10:53, 10:39
Location: Humble City Park
How I Felt: 10

Body Weight: 219.5

The weight thing is TRYING to piss me off. I ate bad yesterday, but it wasn't an all day binge. I started my OCD diet this morning and I PRAY my weight won't get any worse. Hell, I thought it was bad when I saw 215 last week. ugh!!!!! I came up short on today's calorie deficit, so I had to do a small bike ride to pick up the loose calories.

Activity: Weight training
Body Region: Mid-body
Time: 30 minutes
Location: Home Gym
How I Felt: 10

Activity: Bike
Mileage: 3.05 miles
Time: 15:14
Location: Woodland Pines Subdivision
How I Felt: 9

Form work

Missed the STRIDER, Bear Creek 10k/20k due to work. :-(

I'm surprised my legs are not more sore from yesterdays long run. I'll assume fast recovery is good news.

Tonight I ran six uneventful miles. Instead of monitoring my pace, I focused on my form. I concentrated on; keeping my shoulders low, quicker foot turn-over, and softer foot-strike. The run went exceptionally well.

Special thanks to Erin, who kicked me out the door when I started to "blow-off" running today. I really needed this run. Knowing that tomorrow starts my OCD diet, I went a little crazy with today's intake.

Activity: Run
Mileage: 6.08 miles
Time: 1:01:47 -- 10:10 pace
Splits:
11:00, 10:17, 9:46, 9:44, 9:56, 10:24, 0:40 (0.08 mile)
Location: Woodland Pines Subdivision
How I Felt: 10

Body Weight: 218

What started bad, ended GOOD!

I met and exceeded both of today's objectives. What a feeling!

Both Wednesday and Thursday I got a full 9-hours of sleep. I planned on continuing the streak last night, but my body had other plans. I tossed and turned all night. I finally fell asleep at 12:30 am. After waking up tired this morning, I stuck my head outside and made note of the mugginess. Thoughts ran through my head of more bad things to come.

Looking back, the day was good... minus a couple hours of sleep and slightly higher humidity.

This morning I ran with the Striders at Cull-Bear Park. A majority of the time I ran with the girls, Hillary and Kate. The three of us share a similar long run pace. We took a few extended water breaks, but we were never reduced to walking. Kate and Hillary took full advantage of the track part of today's training session, while I maintained a slow and steady pace. During the last half-mile Hillary stated, "Let's pick it up". The two girls took off and I followed. It was nice to have a small kick left at the end of 18.5 miles.

Yesterday and today's mileage enables me to log my FIRST 50-mile week. I'm excited! Lots of calories burned this week. In fact, the calorie calculator on my sidebar, which was recommended by Katherine Kruppa, indicates that I burned 3,110 calories on today's run. That ROCKS, especially after seeing this mornings pre-run weight.

Activity: Long Run
Mileage: 18.65 miles
Time: 3:14:40 -- 10:26 pace
Splits:
10:21, 10:16, 9:48, 10:16, 9:56,
10:28, 10:52, 10:56, 10:48, 10:54,
10:45, 10:11, 10:44, 10:29, 10:22,
10:25, 10:32, 10:52, 5:45 (0.65 miles)
Location: Cullen and Little Bear Park
How I Felt: 9

Body Weight: 218.5 I have no idea where that came from. Yikes!

Time for another RESET, (long post)

Felt good in the gym. I've decided to run two extra miles tonight. How cool will it be to run 50-miles in one week?

Activity: Weight Training
Body Region: Upper-body
Time: 30 minutes
Location: Home Gym
How I Felt: 10

Weight: 215.5

Why do something today, that can be put off till Monday? :-) Starting Monday the diet is going into overdrive. I'm forever changing my plans, trying to find that one thing that will change my life. I'm close. My current problem is "stick-to-it-ness". Its not enough to talk about a healthier lifestyle. The proof is in the action of a man.

I was REALLY happy below 200 lbs, so that's the first of many goals. The timeline is now represented as a range. Similar to my last race, where I wanted to run 1:30-1:40. My weight goal range is 12.31.06 to 01.13.06. Sounds reasonable, right? I'll keep records of my intake, but probably leave it off the blog. Some of my family and friends said all the numbers were rather boring. The body weight posting's will remain, until I see it's not working. Right now I like the idea of seeing it every single day. I'm already full of motivation.

Now, for a running update. I'm going for mileage, placing speed training is secondary. This makes since for a lot of reasons. One. It is all about intake versus output for someone trying to lose weight. Two: I'll never be "fast" until I get my weight down. Three. More than one speed session per week is not fun to me. Four: I'm more intrigued by distance than speed.

With that said, I don't know where I stand with the SMART program. SMART is solid as a rock, with a track record second to none. I'm confident I could meet or exceed any expectations with just minor adherence to the program. After giving the idea some thought, I think I need to knock-out the first marathon with little regard to my finish time. I want it to be fun. I can almost promise you next year I'll be looking for a Houston Marathon PR and SMART will get me there. Can we say, Steve Bezner??

I'm going to follow the SMART program the best I can. I'll amend some of the "speed" days, by converting the training into mileage to be completed.

Stay tuned. I'll probably change everything next week. ;-)

Update:
Activity: Easy Run
Mileage: 2 miles
Time: 24:00 -- 12:00 pace
Location: Home Treadmill
How I Felt: 9

8 easy miles

Tonight's run was so nice that I decided it needed its own post.

I got lazy and skipped the SMART group workout. I enjoy the SMART sessions, but the long drive gets really old. Elected to run in my neighborhood. Over the last couple weeks, I have spent a fair amount of time running of softer surfaces. This may sound odd, but it felt good to be on solid ground. Of course, most of today's utopia is due to the 20 degree drop in temperature. Either way, the run went really well.

I hate to mention anything negative, but there is one thing. Every time I tried to drop the pace below 9:30, I got a side stitch. I tried all the typical remedies. The only thing that worked was a slower pace and trust me, the pace suited me just fine.

Its time to ready myself for a new distance PR. Saturday I will take a shot at 18-miles. I feel good about it. The game plan is slow and easy.

If I could run an additional 2.5 miles between now and Saturday, I would have my FIRST 50-mile week. With a little hard work, this week could be filled full of milestones.

Activity: Easy run
Mileage: 8.07 miles
Time: 1:20:30 -- 9:59 pace
Splits:
10:26, 10:15, 9:53, 9:57,
9:48, 9:48, 9:47, 9:56, 0:40 (0.07)
Location: Woodland Pines Subdivision
How I Felt: 9.5

What a difference 12-hours makes!

This post will be updated after my evening run. The weather is delightful outside. Yeah us! I couldn't resist posting the following information:

This mornings weight looks better than yesterday, but its still a far cry from 200.

Body Weight: 214.0

My legs are incredibly sore this morning. Feels like I ran a hard race yesterday. Speaking of yesterdays run, Sean and I didn't talk much during the workout. Later, he admitted that he had a tough time too. Sean also talked about yesterdays effort level versus the actual pace. Our "feels-like" pace was 9:00 minute miles, yet the real numbers revealed 1.5 minutes slower than our perception.

Received my annual flu shot yesterday. Boy, my arm is sore. I guess that's what I get for allowing the rookie to administer the shot.

Lessons Learned?

Probably the worst run this year.

I'm at work. Sean and I planned on running 6-8 miles at the Humble City Park. The weather was tough. Humid and sticky. I never settled into a rhythm. I forced myself to pound the mileage, in an attempt to teach my body that quitting is not an option.

The entire run was miserable, but I think I found something deep inside of me today. I try to learn something new with every run. Today was a tough lesson, but a lesson that was much needed. At this point, all I can do is look forward to cooler weather.

Activity: Run
Mileage: 6.20 miles
Time: 1:05:40
Splits:
12:55 -- 1.20 mile
10:11
10:22
10:16
Stopped. Walked 0.50 mile. Resumed running
11:02
10:52
Location: Humble City Park
How I Felt: 3

As promised, I will post today's weight. Yesterday, I weighed myself for the first time in several weeks. I nearly passed out in disbelief. After seeing my weight this morning, I'd gladly take yetserdays weight, which was 1.5 pounds less. Any ways, here it is. I'm completely embarrassed.

Body Weight: 216.5

Today's weight equals 1.4 lb gain for every week since I went sub-200.

Tour de Bayou #3

No running yesterday. Tour de Bayou #3 today.

Tough, short course laid out for today's runners. I enjoyed the run. Even though my legs felt good, I walked the hills. I need to stop wimping-out on the hills. Equally wimpy performance through the "out and back, douple-loop" course. Poor effort on my part. With the exception of a dozen ant bites, I had fun.

Activity: Cross Country Run
Mileage: 2.71 miles
Time: 30:52 -- 11:23 pace
Location: Spotts Park
How I Felt: 9

Pre-race jog with Coach Steeve. My garmin hadn't acquired enough satellites, so all I have is the time. I'm making an educated guess on the mileage.

Warm up: 9:12 -- 0.90 miles -- 10:13 pace

I've made several hints about my weight getting out-of-control. Its been a steady incline since breaking 200. I know exactly what to do, but its not happening. Starting tomorrow, I want to post my weight again.... at least for awhile. Maybe seeing the number will help motivate me. Be ready to be appalled at tomorrows number. This morning I nearly **shit** myself when I saw it. :-(

USA 10-miler race report

New race distance PR.

The morning started a little shaky at packet pick-up. The volunteers were not able to find my registration. The staff went out of their way and issued me a new bib and chip. So, all was well. As most of you know the weather was on-and-off rain. Temperature was nice, just wet.

Coach had an "effort" schedule for me and I wanted it to translate into an 1:30-1:40 finish time. I ran the first 5 miles sub-10:00 minute pace. Tried to run miles 5-8 near 9:30 pace, mile 9 sub-9:00 pace and then let it all hang out for the final mile. I ran comfortably hard for the first 8 miles and uncomfortably hard to the end.

I might have improved my time a little if I had not walked all the water stops. Most stops were less than 20 seconds and 20 yards. You can easily identify the water stations by looking at my mile splits below. I also needed to urinate from the beginning, which made the mental aspects harder.

I was passed my more runners today, than any other prior race. I picked off a couple dozen on the last mile, but otherwise it was a steady stream of runners passing me the entire way. I only saw two Strider's during the race. The first was my friend, Kate. Well, I think it was Kate. She was moving INCREDIBLY fast and went by in a blur. Hillary and I ran in the same area between miles 6-8. She too looked very strong and appeared to be racing well.

I was all over the course, chasing softer asphalt. With the exception of the bridge over Clear Lake, the route was visually boring. No ones fault, there just wasn't much to look at. On the other hand, the pre and post race festivities were First Class. The long sleeve tech-shirt seems really nice.

The race was nicely done. Job well done, On the Run and BARC.

Activity: Race
Mileage: 10.07 miles
Time: 1:35:01 -- 9:26 pace
Splits:
9:31
9:51 made myself slow down
9:56 walked the water station
9:31
9:55 walked the water station
9:27
9:19
9:35 walked the water station
8:53
8:31 walked the water station
0:27 (0.07) Accurate course, but I zig-zagged making it slightly longer
Location: Clear Lake, Texas
How I Felt: 10

Warm-up: 0.78 miles -- 8:02
Cool-down: 1.14 miles -- 15:12
Total mileage today: 11.99

The highlight of my day: I found out that John Yoder reads my blog!

USA 10-miler pictures (2of2)

The talented Bessie W. enjoying a soda

Ruben, enough said!

Yeap, I have a touch of "Tent-envy"

Matt and his boat paddle

V.P Ted and Wonedwossen

USA 10-miler pictures (1of2)

Coach congratulates Vic on an impressive run

Lee's "Bitter Beer Face" impression

Barry and Yong after a successful race

Andrew and John talking trash

Santos poses for a quick picture

I love this Stuff!

King of the Hill: Bill, Boomhauer, and Dido



I know of two King of the Hill episodes with "runners". Both are very funny. The video is 7:00 minutes, but worth every second!

The other episode evolves around Bobby making the track team. I'll post it sometime soon

Quick recovery needed

Somewhere along the way I made a mistake. My legs feel like mush. I'm hoping today's recovery will be enough to spring my legs back into action before Sundays race. I had a good week for mileage, but two days of hills did me in.

After several conversations, viewing data, and dreaming about predictor times, I have established my goal for this weekeneds race. My anticipated goal time is 1:30-1:40. My time should be just enough for Joe to finish his race at 1:20 and have a beer waiting for me at the finish chute.

In other running news: I've decided to decrease the amount of time I spend reading blogs and forums. I have an abundance of quality reading material getting neglected due to my excessive forum/blog reading. I'll still read my favorites, but the forum(s) are dead to me, for awhile. I'll check in on them on occasion. Yes, I read more than running forums.

Good luck to anyone racing this weekend. Should be a lot of cool post race reports.

Rain Delay

I'm at work today. Skipped the scheduled SMARTie Hop due to rain. Sean and I planned to run six miles around the station.

A little more than a mile into the run, we stopped due to the severity of the storm. I did a partial lower body workout after the run. Within thirty-minutes, the weather improved and we continued the run. My legs remain heavy. I knocked off the final mile.

Activity: Run
Mileage: 5 miles
Time: 48:10 -- 9:37 pace
Splits:
10:05, 9:36, 9:47, 9:16, 9:27
Location: Humble Fire Department
How I Felt: 9

Activity: Weight Training
Body Region: Lower body (partial)
Time: 20 minutes
Location: Humble Fire Station Gym
How I Felt: 10

Wednesday training

Made time for weight training early this morning. Then I decided to run the greenbelts near my soon-to-be house. Tons of shade, but I felt warm. I pushed Alison in the stroller. I don't know if it was the recent hill training, heat, or stroller, but the run did not go well. Planned on running five miles, yet I only completed three. My legs are very, very tired.

Activity: Weight Training
Body Region: Mid-body
Time: 30 minutes
Location: Home Gym
How I Felt: 10, almost too easy??

Activity: Run
Mileage: 3 miles
Time: 32:36 -- 10:52 pace
Splits:
10:56, 10:48, 10:51
Location: Kingwood Greenbelt
How I Felt: 7

Hills and Mud

Tour de Bayou practice #2.

Ran the run as any other training session. The course was 3 x 2k loops. The hills were slippery on the decent. I was dead last for the first two loops. On the final 2k, I picked up the pace and didn't walk up as many hills. For what its worth, I passed 3-4 people. Had the opportunity for one more at the end, but I didn't have the heart to step in front of the runner within 20 yards of the finish line.

Activity: Hill Run
Mileage: 3.73 miles
Time: 42:37 -- 11:26 pace
Location: Allen parkway at Montrose
How I Felt: 8

The Battle

The battle was long and hard, but we won. The house is OURS! Erin and I are really excited.... kind of. We put our initial bid on the house 24-hours after it hit the market. The owner was in Europe until last night. By the time the realtor talked to his client, there were three different contracts for the house! Our first bid was one-thousand below asking price, which I thought was very solid. Early this morning the selling realtor called for a "push". He advised all three contract parties of the others and to make any amendments. The final contracts would be reviewed and a selection would be made today. I was uncertain of the appropriate action. My gut told me to go a couple hundred over asking. With the time restraints we were forced to make a VERY aggressive offer. We offered nearly $3500 OVER the asking price. We were still worried it wasn't enough, because the HCAD appraisal was nearly 20k over the asking price.

Our realtor called a couple minutes ago, to say that our bid was accepted. There's a small part of me that hates the idea of paying more than what they were asking. But there's another part of me that says a house like this only comes around once in a blue-moon. We got a nice home at a fair price. YAY!!!!!

Just "wing-it"

Custom workout by AW-B. The SMART-Lite workout calls for an off day and the full SMART workout is 4 easy miles.

I designed a workout that fit both my mood and my work schedule. Jason and I started with two easy miles, then we executed an upper body workout, followed by 2 more additional easy miles. My legs felt tight and heavy on the first 2-miles. The combination of 14-miles with hills from yesterdays run is quite evident in my lower body. I considered cutting off the last two miles, but I knew I needed to redeem myself from last weeks pitiful effort level. I'm glad I didn't talk myself out of the extra mileage, because the last two miles were near perfect. I felt like I was moving effortlessly. The more I tried to slow down, the faster I ran. I know it may sound weird, but its the honest truth.

I'm very proud of Jason from work, he is progressing nicely. Jason is nowhere close to overweight, but his overall fitness level has improved significantly. Talking to him about the progression is very inspirational.

This week is off to a great start.

Activity: Weight Training
Body Region: Upper body
Time: ~ 30 minutes
Location: Humble Fire Department Gym
How I Felt: 10

Activity: Run
Mileage: 4 miles
Time: 41:37 -- 10:25 pace
Splits:
11:01, 10:25, 10:24, 9:50
Location: Humble Fire Department
How I Felt: 10

EZ pace + Cool weather = SUPER Run

What a great morning. The weather was perfect. Dare I say, I was cold?

Kevin and I stashed water and hit the roads a few minutes before 7 am. Our pre-run plan was to take it slooooow, which is why we started before the arrival of Strider Nation. We wanted an opportunity to get ahead of the other runners, so we could attend breakfast with the gang.

Once we reached Lake Conroe we completed a full session of Silly Walks. This was Kevins first time and he seemed to enjoy the exercises. Since no other runners were in sight and to avoid cooling down, we ran back towards the starting point. The "lead pack" was in sight within half a mile. From that point, Kevin and I ran back to the lake and then ran two complete loops of the Hills inside the resort area. I'm not too sure of everyone's game plan, but we saw very few runners inside the resort. Those are some tough hills inside there, which made for a quality workout. We finished the morning run with a 3.5 mile trot through Teaswood.

I found my "Run-Forever" pace today. A couple of weeks ago I ran 15 miles and thought I was going to die. At the end of today's 14.28-miler I wanted more. Kevin ran 9 miles yesterday and admitted that he had enough for one day. I'm very proud of Kevin, because today was a HUGE distance PR for him.

I am so inspired by today's run. It is hard to put into words. In its purest form; today was a good running day.

Non-running related news: We put a contract on a house today. The house is beautiful. Erin and I fell in love with the house at first sight. The owner is in Europe, so we will not have an answer until late tomorrow night. Send your "good vibes" our way.

Activity: Long Run
Mileage: 14.28 miles
Time: 2:46:28 -- 11:39 pace
Splits:
11:43, 11:21, 11:15, 10:58, 11:15,
11:11, 11:05, 12:02, 12:46, 11:55,
12:06, 11:59, 11:56, 11:36, 3:14 (0.28 mile)
Location: League Line Road, Conroe TX
How I Felt: 10

Can't think of a title

Activity: Run
Mileage: 4.0 miles
Time: 42:20 -- 10:35 pace
Location: Home Treadmill
How I Felt: 8.5

Steve Bezners advice to slow down has helped my nausea. Probably going to run again later today. I need to get some mileage before the week ends. Maybe another four-miles this evening and run long tomorrow in Conroe with the Striders.

Update: I didn't have time for a second run due to Alison's soccer game and house hunting. I'm excited to say that we may have found a house we like at a reasonable price.

Called Kevin tonight and asked if he would like to runwith me in the morning . Even though he ran 9+ miles today, he replied, "Sure, what the heck". It's going to be a good time in Conroe.

Below is a picture, albeit a bad picture of the house we want.

De-fuse run(ning)

Something huge just went down. Definitely too personal to blog about. Went running. My stress-level is at maximum tolerance! I suppose I'm on a break, because I'm going to stop here and run some more.

Activity: Run
Mileage: 5.85 miles
Time: 1:15:00 -- 12:49 pace
Location: Home Treadmill
How I Felt: 9

I surrender, here is your update.

Ok, ok.... uncle. I've had an abundance of questions about my last post. So, here are some of the things going on in my life. Finally got a contract on my house. Its scheduled to close October 30th. I still haven't found a new house Erin and I like (and can afford). This is getting very stressful. Even if we find one in the next couple days, we are not sure we can close before this house closes.

For the last 4-5 weeks I've had an occasional upset stomach during and after my run. It has gotten worse over the last week. Probably should see a doctor and determine the root cause.

I was featured in the local newspaper. They did a great job. There are other minor things going on, but now you are caught up on the big stuff.

Today was a one-mile time trial. I treated it as "another run", considering it was my first run since Sunday. I'm bummed about the lack of running this week. I want to make up the mileage, but the stomach issues have stopped me dead in my tracks. Running with nausea is not fun.

Witnessed some very impressive runs. Vic shocked everyone with his time. Nope, you won't read his time here. He threatened to break my legs if I stole his thunder. Just kidding, but I will say that Vic had a record number of pacers and supporters. Chip was tonight's heavyweight with a 5:15 mile. If that isn't impressive enough, ten-minutes later Chip paced new Strider Stewart to a 5:48 mile. I may be off a few seconds on these times, but I assure you they are close. Bessie debuted with a 7:18! Stacey shocked everyone with a 7:50 mile. Kate ran an IMPRESSIVE and solid low 7-minute mile. Santos "schooled" Lee, though it was a tight finish. I didn't see their times, but Hillary, Steeve, and Yong looked strong. There were others, but its late and my memory is not "all that".

As for my run, well.... I ran. I had no intention of an ALL-OUT run. Felt strong on the first lap. In fact, I felt good enough to pick up the pace on the second lap. I slipped in front of a runner and quickly crumbled like a French soldier. I positioned myself in the third lane and backed off quite a bit. I tried to make up some ground on the last lap so I could finish with a sub-8:00 mile run. No kick or finish line sprint. Stopped the clock at 7:38. Trying to stay positive I thought about this: I only ran a "9" on a 1-10 scale and I wasn't winded at the end. I won't say it was easy, but I know I'm much better than 7:38. I cut my cool down short due to more nausea. Trust me, I'm trying to make the best of the situation.

Activity: Run
Mileage: 3.04 miles
Time: 28:51 -- 9:29 pace
Location: Stratford High School track
How I Felt: 8

Hello, stranger!

Day three, no running. Very, very busy. A lot of things going on around Casa de Bill. Since it has little to do with running, I'm leaving it off the blog.

Recovery-Long Run

The schedule: 8 easy miles

Didn't feel like running this morning. The first two miles were the worst. Kate helped me "talk" our way through the run. Pleasant weather. Felt strong at the end. Had a great time. Kate Rocks!

Activity: Easy-Long run
Mileage: 8 miles
Time: 1:16:53 -- 9:37 pace
Splits:
9:55, 9:36, 9:33, 9:39,
9:20, 9:43, 9:55, 9:12
Location: Cullen Park
How I Felt: 9