Well here we are, new month, end of year, let's go out with bang. First off, I plan on doing better with the blog, maybe there is someone who can find some use behind my journey, I know I've benefited from reading other people's blogs.
Since we have a new month, and I am proud of accomplishing my biggest feat of the year, I want to go out with a bang. My goal is to run 200 miles this month. This came about from a new blog that I found, http://jrtrunr.blogspot.com/, my fellow twitter friend Jess. Jess managed to run 300 miles in a month, http://jrtrunr.blogspot.com/2009/09/300-miles-strong.html, 300 miles in a month, yes I repeated that because that's a bunch, think of how far 300 miles is just in your car alone. This equals to 10 miles a day, without any rest days, no slip ups, nothing. A very strict schedule which, having accomplished my feat of the Chicago Marathon, I know takes plenty of dedication. Since I'm not running baller status yet, my goal is going to be 200 miles.
I have slipped up since running my marathon, in the sense that 2 months prior to the marathon, running had become fun, if you will, or just eh another run. Since then, I haven't run consistently and now even come to the point where I'm putting pressure on myself for timing. Yes my times have dropped drastically but losing focus of my main priority long distance.
I want to thank Jess, for telling of your feat, and inspiring this goal and Michelle, another friend from twitter. Michelle is a beast when it comes to running. She goes out on early morning runs, and comes back posting 6+ mile runs with times in the 8 min mile pace. This isn't a grand thing to seasoned runners, but you see Michelle just ran her first marathon in October and ran a 4 hour plus marathon. I ran a 3:49:58 and to see her come back with the those times and distances, means I got really really lucky, she had a bad run and I have lots work on. There's plenty of people who have movtivated me in my running, too many to name, you'll have your day to shine in my blogs, just had to mention Jess and Michelle.
So its on....me, my shoes, iphone, and Shures
"Reach for the stars
And if you don't grab 'em,
At least you'll fall on top of the world
Think about it"
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
10 Days
Distance: 7 Time: 1:00:49 Temperature: 64
10 days and counting until what I have been training for since January 1, 2012. Many thoughts atm but this will be a short post as I need to get to sleep and try something new before the big day. I have found that I am at my best running when I have been active for hours, meaning when I run at 5PM or after. When I run right after waking up, it seems as if all my muscles don't have enough blood flow and make for a rather uneasy run.
These next days will be followed with daily posts until The Day.
10 days and counting until what I have been training for since January 1, 2012. Many thoughts atm but this will be a short post as I need to get to sleep and try something new before the big day. I have found that I am at my best running when I have been active for hours, meaning when I run at 5PM or after. When I run right after waking up, it seems as if all my muscles don't have enough blood flow and make for a rather uneasy run.
These next days will be followed with daily posts until The Day.
Monday, September 17, 2012
20 Miles
Distance 20.03 Time 2:58:38 Pace 8:55 Temperature 68
Well today's orginal blog on music is going to be pushed back until its done and for today we are replacing it with today's accomplishments. With 21 days remaining until D Day, I knew that I had to get in a long run to a) make sure I could last and b) to serve as confidence in my training schedule, which is not the one I had started back on January 1, 2012.
We set out today with the mind set of doing at least 15-18 miles as 16 is my longest on the road distance I have ever done. I don't like to go out saying "hey let me do 22 miles," because the way my mind works, its more less setting myself up for failure. I prefer to set the bar low and then feel out the conditions and make a decision as to how much further to keep going.
The day started out rather bad as I didn't wake up at the crack of dawn and had to put the run off until 5PM at the latest. I believe I have found the perfect formula for food before running which is a big problem for runners. My lunch, which was at 12:30PM consisted of Bacon Double Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger, and a Plain Original Chicken Sandwich all three from Burger King. For most people, I'm sure that eating this much food from a fast food restaurant would not sit well, especially before setting out to go run. For some reason, my body reacts totally different to food from just Burger King, even though I only had 4 hours for the food to digest. It seems that it serves as just energy for me. Right before setting out, I drank a 16 oz bottle of water flavored with Crystal Light Peach Iced Tea, and a couple sips of water.
Its weird as I was under the impression that your supposed to stretch before any type of activity especially something as long distance running, but new studies and advice from runners, in my running club have led me to not stretching at all with exception of shins and shoulders. After a couple minutes of taking in the nice weather and scenery outside the apartment I set about my run, which was going to consist of many circles and up and downs on the streets near my apartment.
At about mile 3-5 we started to get this slight left leg falling asleep problem that I noticed on my last run of 13 miles last week. Rather weird if you think about it, constantly moving your leg/foot and it falling asleep, weird. This was overcome about mile 6/7, thank goodness.
I don't know what it is about running long distances more less or just the sense of accomplishment of a barrier one personally didn't think was achievable but it seems that emotions run high. While listening to music there are certain songs that give you that extra jolt of energy. In today's run it was Mana-Manda Una Senal and the other song sticking out more than the other 46 was Havana Brown Feat. Pitbull-We Run The Night. With the former song I remember finding myself running past one of the restaurants, with a patio along Colley Ave, and singing aloud without a care in the world. The latter just has a beat that gave me a jolt of energy finding myself running at what I believe was a 7:00 minute mile pace. At about mile 18 it just hit me and we had a slight buildup of tears. It seems like you get overtaken with emotion from accomplishing something that you personally did with no help from others and that no one can take away. I always wondered why athletes cried and thought to myself, man I'd be super happy not crying, but now I can relate.
What does it feel like when you finish? Well thank god it wasn't as bad as when I used to run long distances on a treadmill. On a treadmill, I would feel like my legs where going to fall off. On this run the only pain was in my upper calves which after mild stretching was fixed. The only downside is what I believe is hypothermia. Your body temperature just drops and your body turns cold. Even taking a shower in hotter than normal water even feels cold. Its cool to wonder about comic movies and these characters having superpowers some which of course would never exist in real life, but while running or after, my body develops this heightened sense of senses. Directly after running I can drink something and with water, for example, I can taste the minerals more than normal, and with other liquids the flavors just jump out making some drinks that I normally drink undrinkable or better yet I can notice flavors advertised but not normally noticeable. I lose a sense of hearing but this is due to the Shures blasting music in my ears for 3 hours, which I'm sure isn't healthy but oh well. Hopefully the only other problem that normally accompany my long runs will not happen tonight which is my inability of sleep? I guess we shall see tomorrow.
Well today's orginal blog on music is going to be pushed back until its done and for today we are replacing it with today's accomplishments. With 21 days remaining until D Day, I knew that I had to get in a long run to a) make sure I could last and b) to serve as confidence in my training schedule, which is not the one I had started back on January 1, 2012.
We set out today with the mind set of doing at least 15-18 miles as 16 is my longest on the road distance I have ever done. I don't like to go out saying "hey let me do 22 miles," because the way my mind works, its more less setting myself up for failure. I prefer to set the bar low and then feel out the conditions and make a decision as to how much further to keep going.
The day started out rather bad as I didn't wake up at the crack of dawn and had to put the run off until 5PM at the latest. I believe I have found the perfect formula for food before running which is a big problem for runners. My lunch, which was at 12:30PM consisted of Bacon Double Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger, and a Plain Original Chicken Sandwich all three from Burger King. For most people, I'm sure that eating this much food from a fast food restaurant would not sit well, especially before setting out to go run. For some reason, my body reacts totally different to food from just Burger King, even though I only had 4 hours for the food to digest. It seems that it serves as just energy for me. Right before setting out, I drank a 16 oz bottle of water flavored with Crystal Light Peach Iced Tea, and a couple sips of water.
Its weird as I was under the impression that your supposed to stretch before any type of activity especially something as long distance running, but new studies and advice from runners, in my running club have led me to not stretching at all with exception of shins and shoulders. After a couple minutes of taking in the nice weather and scenery outside the apartment I set about my run, which was going to consist of many circles and up and downs on the streets near my apartment.
At about mile 3-5 we started to get this slight left leg falling asleep problem that I noticed on my last run of 13 miles last week. Rather weird if you think about it, constantly moving your leg/foot and it falling asleep, weird. This was overcome about mile 6/7, thank goodness.
I don't know what it is about running long distances more less or just the sense of accomplishment of a barrier one personally didn't think was achievable but it seems that emotions run high. While listening to music there are certain songs that give you that extra jolt of energy. In today's run it was Mana-Manda Una Senal and the other song sticking out more than the other 46 was Havana Brown Feat. Pitbull-We Run The Night. With the former song I remember finding myself running past one of the restaurants, with a patio along Colley Ave, and singing aloud without a care in the world. The latter just has a beat that gave me a jolt of energy finding myself running at what I believe was a 7:00 minute mile pace. At about mile 18 it just hit me and we had a slight buildup of tears. It seems like you get overtaken with emotion from accomplishing something that you personally did with no help from others and that no one can take away. I always wondered why athletes cried and thought to myself, man I'd be super happy not crying, but now I can relate.
What does it feel like when you finish? Well thank god it wasn't as bad as when I used to run long distances on a treadmill. On a treadmill, I would feel like my legs where going to fall off. On this run the only pain was in my upper calves which after mild stretching was fixed. The only downside is what I believe is hypothermia. Your body temperature just drops and your body turns cold. Even taking a shower in hotter than normal water even feels cold. Its cool to wonder about comic movies and these characters having superpowers some which of course would never exist in real life, but while running or after, my body develops this heightened sense of senses. Directly after running I can drink something and with water, for example, I can taste the minerals more than normal, and with other liquids the flavors just jump out making some drinks that I normally drink undrinkable or better yet I can notice flavors advertised but not normally noticeable. I lose a sense of hearing but this is due to the Shures blasting music in my ears for 3 hours, which I'm sure isn't healthy but oh well. Hopefully the only other problem that normally accompany my long runs will not happen tonight which is my inability of sleep? I guess we shall see tomorrow.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Bad Morning Turning To Great Run
So my day didn't start off as planned. It started by me sleeping past my alarms for my running club meetup at 6:00 AM but still managed to turn it into a real positive run afterall.
I woke up at 5:30 as normal but hit the 5:45 snooze button and didn't wake up till 6:16. I laid in bed for couple mins in disgust before throwing covers off and going about my run on my own.
I set out at 6:45 ish and started right outside of my apartment. I knew that I wanted go get in 7 miles but didnt want to keep looking at gps, as it dismotivates me so I kept count of songs played. I figured 2 songs for every mile with adding another 5 songs to make up for short songs. The run was going great, everything from temperature, 64 degrees, to no stretching, Ill explain that part another day, to the actual run itself. Right when was thinking of checking time I looked at the gps and figured I had another 2 to 2.5 miles until my 7 mile mark and to my suprise I had already passed it. If only I could explain the joy running through my mind. Since I was feeling so good, I kept going and put in 9.36.
I don't know how much my experiment of pasta for lunch worked and not eating anything after 3 PM, but it leaves something to try again manana due to todays success. We shall see???
I woke up at 5:30 as normal but hit the 5:45 snooze button and didn't wake up till 6:16. I laid in bed for couple mins in disgust before throwing covers off and going about my run on my own.
I set out at 6:45 ish and started right outside of my apartment. I knew that I wanted go get in 7 miles but didnt want to keep looking at gps, as it dismotivates me so I kept count of songs played. I figured 2 songs for every mile with adding another 5 songs to make up for short songs. The run was going great, everything from temperature, 64 degrees, to no stretching, Ill explain that part another day, to the actual run itself. Right when was thinking of checking time I looked at the gps and figured I had another 2 to 2.5 miles until my 7 mile mark and to my suprise I had already passed it. If only I could explain the joy running through my mind. Since I was feeling so good, I kept going and put in 9.36.
I don't know how much my experiment of pasta for lunch worked and not eating anything after 3 PM, but it leaves something to try again manana due to todays success. We shall see???
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
25 Days
So it has finally hit me that getting up at 5:30 AM sucks bad. I mean, who really wants to get up anytime before 9 AM? My main motivation in getting up is knowing that after October 7, I will be sleeping in till at least 9 for a couple weeks.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
13 Miles In Ghent
Well I've been away for awhile from blogging, busy with the move to Norfolk and getting into the rythmn of things.
Its crunch time now for the Chicago Marathon and today called for a long run, managed to put in 13, 2 shy of what I ideally wanted but it will do. For todays run, I ran around Ghent and pretty much just went up and down side streets and in circles. Its pretty fun with only downside being the up and down sidewalk ramps, too much stress on knees from changing elevations if you will.
The overall status at this point is very promising being the ankle is fine, the lower body is fine, and upper body with exception of shoulders being okay. My mentallity on long runs is a bit bothersome with things going through my mind but something that I can manage or will have to. I keep telling myself to just go along with it. At the present time another concern is my time, or pace being too fast.
When I started running last year I started running on a treadmill and I never imagined that whatever pace I programmed my body to would be what would actually happen on pavement. My pace on the treadmill was 8 and 1/2 minute miles which equates to 7 miles per hour. This is the pace that I am running on pavement and in my opinion it is too fast. There are miles that I am putting in at upper 7's lower 8's. I would love to be running a constant 9:30 pace that would put me right at 4 hours and hopefully prevent me from spending all of my energy too soon. Maybe it can be something to work on in the coming weeks.
This week we will continue my unorthodox plan of 7 miles a day and then my long run on Sunday. Till tomorrow.
Its crunch time now for the Chicago Marathon and today called for a long run, managed to put in 13, 2 shy of what I ideally wanted but it will do. For todays run, I ran around Ghent and pretty much just went up and down side streets and in circles. Its pretty fun with only downside being the up and down sidewalk ramps, too much stress on knees from changing elevations if you will.
The overall status at this point is very promising being the ankle is fine, the lower body is fine, and upper body with exception of shoulders being okay. My mentallity on long runs is a bit bothersome with things going through my mind but something that I can manage or will have to. I keep telling myself to just go along with it. At the present time another concern is my time, or pace being too fast.
When I started running last year I started running on a treadmill and I never imagined that whatever pace I programmed my body to would be what would actually happen on pavement. My pace on the treadmill was 8 and 1/2 minute miles which equates to 7 miles per hour. This is the pace that I am running on pavement and in my opinion it is too fast. There are miles that I am putting in at upper 7's lower 8's. I would love to be running a constant 9:30 pace that would put me right at 4 hours and hopefully prevent me from spending all of my energy too soon. Maybe it can be something to work on in the coming weeks.
This week we will continue my unorthodox plan of 7 miles a day and then my long run on Sunday. Till tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Hotel
Well not a running update, but news about the marathon. I was able to score a hotel, relatively close to Grant Park which is the start of the marathon.
I was actually worried due to the fact that every hotel within Chicago city limits is booked. The closet thing I found were hotels near the airports, O'hare and Midway, which would have sucked given that they both take about 40 mins to get into town.
My stay came from cancellations through the actual Bank Of America Chicago Marathon site, putting me up at Hotel 71. I had originally planned for 4 nights of complete relaxation leading up to marathon, but I booked three as it was kinda pricey and 4 days being alot of time to be alone and staying in a hotel.
All that needs to be booked now is my plane ticket. This to has also changed from original plan, which was to drive there, to have transportation. Upon finding that parking at the hotel was $50 a day, the decision was easy to make.
38 days until the big day....
I was actually worried due to the fact that every hotel within Chicago city limits is booked. The closet thing I found were hotels near the airports, O'hare and Midway, which would have sucked given that they both take about 40 mins to get into town.
My stay came from cancellations through the actual Bank Of America Chicago Marathon site, putting me up at Hotel 71. I had originally planned for 4 nights of complete relaxation leading up to marathon, but I booked three as it was kinda pricey and 4 days being alot of time to be alone and staying in a hotel.
All that needs to be booked now is my plane ticket. This to has also changed from original plan, which was to drive there, to have transportation. Upon finding that parking at the hotel was $50 a day, the decision was easy to make.
38 days until the big day....
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