Well, I got in 4 yesterday instead of 3. I ran a comfortable pace of 8:22 and felt pretty good. I took today off and will pick back up with 7 miles on Wednesday.

I really need to get some more cold weather gear. I had planned on global warming preventing me from having to wear tights, but I must have mis-understood the concept. The nice wind chill just adds to the fun.

I did find some positives about running in cold weather:

• Gatorade stays cold in my fuel belt.
• More motivation to pick my pace up.
• Adding variables like wind speed and direction make picking running routes similar to three dimensional chess.
• The feeling of getting blasted by a leaf blower is unique.
• Stepping into an ice cold puddle helps numb the pain in your feet and ankles.
• Dry leaves on the ground make it easier to hear the dogs running up behind you.
• The garbage cans and dumpsters don’t stink as much in the winter.

Now that I have wasted a minute of your life with my ramblings, let me know your ‘favorite’ things about cold weather running....

What a weekend! Young son and I headed to Clemson with Lee and Julian Friday afternoon to set up for camping and attend Tigerama. We had a great time and the girls left for home while we were watching the fireworks. The rain held off most of the evening and Bobby played football with friends while I sat in the RV and watched football. We hit lights out about midnight and all was well.

About 2:15 or so, I hear Bobby getting up and heading out of the tent. He said he didn’t feel good and that must have been an understatement. He ended up tossing his cookies for the next 45 minutes while I tried to figure out what to do. I finally woke up my friend Billy and borrowed his car keys and hauled Bobby to my parents house in Easley where he stayed at Grandma General for the rest of the weekend. He was fine by Saturday afternoon, but I think he liked the treatment so much he stayed for another 24 hours of observation....

Meanwhile, I made it back to the tent about 4:00 am and promptly fell asleep for about 30 minutes until the storms rolled in. I slept off and on during the storms while I kept waiting on the tent to collapse. Fortunately it managed to survive. As I was falling soundly asleep after the rain, the guy in the RV next to us started working on his batteries because his generator wouldn’t fire up and his RV wouldn’t crank. That pretty much ended my sleeping....

So I got up and packed up the tent and equipment and had a great breakfast courtesy of Chef Elinor at the RV. The game was fun and we had a great time afterwards.

Now for the running news.... I got in 11.2 yesterday of my planned 14. I just ran out of time, I had the energy to keep going. I ran a nice, easy pace and it was a great feeling. I’m going for 3 or so today, though I may go longer to make up for what I missed yesterday.

Congrats to Marion, she BQ’d in San Antonio!

I can’t wait to read all about her training for that race!

Well, 48 hours after my run-in with dehydration things appear to be back to normal. I went out for a short run today and kept up an 8:06 pace for 3 miles with no ill effects. Hopefully, I’ll get out for a longer run tomorrow. In retrospect, I realized that I was not drinking as much water at work as I normally do and I think that along with my stomach bug helped me along the way towards this episode.

I have pretty much written this week off as far as getting my miles in that I needed. I am camping out with my son tomorrow night, so I likely won’t run on Saturday. I hope to get a long run in Sunday but I see that it is supposed to be pretty cold. I am going to shoot for a ‘normal’ week next week.

On one of my routes, I have to cross in front of a McDonald’s and it gets pretty dicey sometimes with people flying out of the drive though at one spot and people flying to make a left turn into the parking lot at the entrance. I usually think about how many times I would pull in a fast food place before I decided to change my lifestyle. I know what the people in the cars are thinking, because I used to be one of them. I never thought I would be one of those ‘insane running people’ out in the rain.... Of course, I never thought I would like a Mac more than a PC either.... I’m just slow that way....

I have a new game I play while running. When I see a rock, roadkill or some other debris in a pretty busy spot I try to guess how long it will stay there. I am amazed at how long some things sit in the same place despite the traffic and weather. There is one particularly disgusting piece of debris on the sidewalk on the corner of E. North and Haywood that has set the record so far. It has been there for at least 2 months. I guess it will be a good test of how long it takes latex to break down...

Good luck to fellow GTC member Marion this weekend at the San Antonio Marathon! You go girl!

Well, I learned a big lesson yesterday. After a fairly easy lunchtime run, I started getting chills and nothing got rid of them. I ate some warm soup, took a hot shower and got dressed but I still couldn’t warm up. In fact, I was getting colder and colder. I started getting lightheaded and a little disoriented too. I finally made back to the bedroom and got under all the covers I could find. After about an hour I finally fell asleep. Well, you guessed it, I was severely dehydrated.

I had a little stomach bug the day before but didn’t think anything of it. I obviously had not taken enough fluids in to replenish my body from that and then a run really put me over the edge. I am going to be much more diligent about keeping track of my liquid intake now, that was a miserable feeling.

So, remember that even in cool weather, it is important to be properly hydrated!

The Caine Halter Lungs4Life 5K was a great event. They raised over $200,000 for lung cancer research.

The course was pretty good and I think that other ‘downtown races’ should consider using it some. It took advantage of Cleveland Park and the new section of the Swamp Rabbit trail and ended up on the big field at the YMCA. There was very little impact on traffic which is nice for everybody. Anybody else notice how much more ‘runable’ the soft surface on the new section of the trail is compared to the first section they did? That first section is way too soft in my opinion, but the new section seems just right.

I hit a 5K PR at 23:16 (Garmin Time). Even though my first mile was pretty fast, I think I could have gotten under 23 minutes if it wasn’t for the walkers at the front of the pack. It takes time and energy to wade through a crowd. Since it was a charity event, I wasn’t upset about this. There were lots of people that were there for the cause and not the race.

I was disappointed that I didn’t get out for a long run this weekend. I have to figure out how to get those in consistently now that I am in full scale marathon training mode. I still think my best bet is early Sunday before church, but I would like to run some routes that would be safer during the daylight hours. I’m just going to have to deal with it week by week I guess.

I am also beginning to believe that after I dabble in a couple of marathons, I may become a 1/2 marathon guy. The training is significantly less of a burden and I think it would still help increase my 5K and 10K speeds.

I have a really hard time with my off days. Especially when I am not getting in a yoga class or other activity.

I also am cranking my Weight Watchers back up. I have been able to maintain without a lot of tracking, but the last 2 weeks have seen a couple of pounds creep back on. I am going back to tracking everything for a couple of weeks. I want to welcome the New Year at the same weight I was before Thanksgiving and I know it will take some diligence. My metabolism is much higher than it was before I lost weight and started running, but I still can’t eat like I did in high school. During my weight loss period, Thanksgiving week was the only non-loss week I had. I had a .2 pound gain. Other than that, I kept losing at least a little bit each week. That gives me hope that if I pay attention to what I am doing, I can start 2009 off in good shape. One of my favorite sayings that I got from weight watchers was to make sure you Holiday doesn’t turn into a Holiweek.

I’m going to do a little extra hydrating today with some gatorade just to make sure I am in good shape for the 5K tomorrow. My goal is to be under 25 minutes.

I got in an easy 5K this morning. I ran negative splits, but really was taking it easy the whole time. Young son has his last baseball game of the season tonight and I had to go out of town for sales call, so it was all I could squeeze in.

I picked up our numbers for the Caine Halter Lungs4Life 5K. I am looking forward to the race. A lot of it will be on the new section of the Swamp Rabbit Trail behind Cleveland Street. I have no idea how big the field is, but I would expect several hundred runners. I love the fact that the race doesn’t start early, I can finally sleep in a little on a Saturday!

I want to get one of those velcro chip holding ankle bands that they use in triathlons. I am tired of having to tie my chip onto my laces and then have to stop at the ‘Chip Police’ at the end of the race and try to get my laces undone. Someone at Fleet Feet said that the Triathlon shops had those, so maybe I will go there this weekend.

After talking to the folks at Fleet Feet, I am definitely going to skip the Paris Mountain Road Race this year. It sounds like it would really take a lot out of me during a key part of my marathon training. There’s always next year!

I am in bad need of a Yoga class, but I don’t think I will make it there before next Tuesday... I’ll have to do some stretching on my own before Saturday. My calves are starting to tighten up just thinking about sprinting (well, that is what I call my fast pace anyway.... It makes me feel better to call it sprinting.) right now.

I am WAY behind on my mileage this week. I am supposed to do a 13 mile run Sunday, but I don’t know how realistic that is at this point. I think I’ll at least try to get 10 in on Sunday and go from there.

Thinking of long runs, I saw a sign a the corner of Cleveland and Faris that lists the mileage on the swamp rabbit trail... I think it was 9.4 from that point to Furman, so I may use it on an ‘out and back’ for some of my long runs.

Well, it’s time to get through today and look forward to baseball tonight!

Well, I kinda, sorta found some speed today. I ran for 4.2 miles, 3 of them at a race pace.

My legs felt pretty good but I still don’t feel as good as I did before the half marathon.

On a side note, I am ready for all the acorns, hickory nuts and pecans to be cleaned off the road. I am pretty sure it isn’t going to be long before I bust my tail on one of these things....

I ran 9.2 last night at a comfortable 9:14 pace. My legs definitely appreciated the time off, but my weight did not. Halloween weekend and no running is not a good combination! The only issue I had last night was that I stepped on a hickory nut that was under some leaves and my left foot was killing me for the last 3 miles or so. I was going to stretch it to 10 or 11 miles, but the pain wasn’t worth it. It feels good today, so I hope it was just some cramping more than a deep bruise. I’ll find out at lunch time when I try to get a tempo run in.

We have the Caine Halter Lungs4Life 5K this Saturday. It is a refreshing change to have a race that doesn’t require me to be out of the house at the crack of dawn. The course looks pretty good on a map. I hope I feel the same after I have run it. I was originally hoping for a PR here, but now I don’t think that will happen. I haven’t gotten all my speed back since the half and I don’t know that it will suddenly appear on Saturday.

As for future races, I am going out to Eastside High on Thanksgiving to run the Turkey Trot there. Other than that, I don’t have much on the schedule. I was considering the Paris Mountain 20K, but given how much time it has taken me to recover from the Spinx half, I don’t really want to do that 8 weeks before the Myrtle Beach Marathon. I will probably look for some 5K or 10K races I can use for tempo runs. I think the Green Valley race is the week before Myrtle Beach, so I may run the 8K there.

I missed yoga yesterday. I hope to get there Friday but I am not sure if I will or not. I’ll definitely make it next week and get back in the rhythm.

The only other thing I am working on is deciding what my next pair of shoes will be. I want to get them for Christmas so I can break them in for Myrtle Beach....

Well, I ended up running on Saturday for an easy 5 miles. Without Yoga and with my week long eating binge since the half marathon I felt that I had to do something to burn some calories. I could really feel some tired legs. Also, Friday while setting up for the hotdog dinner at the pool I tweaked my lower back. It isn’t a major issue and did not hurt while I was running Saturday, but I think it and my tired legs were a sign that I needed to lighten up a little.

I just read today in my new Runner’s World that people typically cut back too far or go too hard after a marathon or half marathon. I think I went too hard. I tend to underestimate the toll my body pays for running at race pace versus slower long training runs.

I am going to dedicate this week to my eating plan and resting my legs. I took yesterday off and will take today off. Depending on how my back feels tomorrow, I will either do yoga or go to the gym for some cardio work. Wednesday I want to get a tempo run in since we have a 5K on Saturday. Thursday I’ll probably run at a moderate pace for 7-8 miles. I’ll then take Friday off and race on Saturday. I had originally hoped to set at 5K PR this Saturday, but I think that is out the window now. I’m just going to enjoy the run and see how it goes. Hopefully I will be able to move back in to my normal training mode after that.

Right now, I have the 5K on Saturday and a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving on the calendar. I won’t be able to run the Greenville News Downtown run in January because of a skiing trip. I am seriously thinking about running the Paris Mountain Road Race 20K in December. It should be far enough away from my marathon that I can recover and it looks like a REAL challenging course.

I got in 6.27 yesterday at a comfortable pace. I am going to rest today and try to squeeze in a 10 miler tomorrow. Yoga got cancelled because our instructor has been ill. Karen get well soon!

I have adjusted my route lately. This is definitely one of the benefits of the Garmin. I just run and it know how far, how fast and how long I have been going. I like changing the route to get different hills in. This new route has a nice mix of long moderate hills and steep hills. I am considering running the Paris Mtn. 20K Road Race, so hill work is essential. It is billed as the ‘toughest road race in South Carolina’ so it may be more than I can handle.

Bobby has his last Saturday baseball practice today. Then we have about a month of no Saturday sports (except for races of course!) We are also going to do a minor re-do of the dining room this week. Just some paint, but it will make a big difference until we are ready to completely re-do it....

It felt great out today and I enjoyed every bit of my run. I am going to enjoy the next two weeks of ‘light’ running before I start full blown marathon training. If all goes well, I will have three 20 mile runs prior to the marathon in February. I am hoping to get Lee to run part of my long runs with me.

I originally thought I would just run multiple loops of some of my normal routes on these long runs, but now I think I may try to map out either one big loop or a destination run where someone drops me off and I run home. I think I could do some pretty fun runs that way, especially if I incorporate some of the downtown area and swamp rabbit trails.

Last week I went in Fleet Feet to get some Shot Bloks before the race and I saw the ’13.1’ stickers at the checkout stand. I almost went ahead and bought them, but I am just too superstitious. I felt sure I would be tempting the running gods to strike me down with a sprained ankle or pulled hamstring. So I waited until after the race, but now I have them proudly on display. I can’t wait to add a ’26.2’ right beside them in February! I used to think it was funny that my kids got excited about getting stickers, but I guess I am no different!

Well, I couldn’t bring myself to get out in the freezing temps this morning before work and I am paying for it now. I wanted to get 10 miles in today, but it looks like I’ll get a big 0 in. If I am lucky, I will be able to run after church tonight. I’ll settle for a quick 5 miles today and then I can try to work in a 10 miler tomorrow.

I need to get out and find some cold weather running gear too. I have a few long sleeve technical shirts, but think I would like some long sleeve compression shirts. I hear they are really good at preventing chafing. I also need to get some running tights. My legs don’t normally get too cold, but I think that on these cold/windy days it would be nice to have them on.

So, I need to do some shopping and figure out a way to get my run in.... I don’t think its going to happen today!

After I finished the race Saturday, I had the opportunity to sit in the stadium and watch others finish. That was pretty neat. One thing that struck me as I watched was the different running styles was that the finish line doesn’t care how beautiful your stride is or how skinny your waist is. Before I started running, I would have thought that all people in races were bean poles with perfect gaits and long strides. After running for almost a year, I realized that there are runners of every body type, gait and speed. I learned to never judge a book by its cover when trying to project finishing times at the start of a race. I have been passed by knock kneed women, bow legged men, foot shuffling senior citizens and gazelle like teenagers.

Once we cross the finish line, we are all equals. The times may be different, but the results are not. We all asked our bodies to do something that takes as much mental toughness as it does physical strength. We all started out on the same side of the starting line and we all ended up on the same side of the finish line. My coach, Allan, put it this way last Saturday as we were waiting for the start and a girl in front of us heard us talking about our ‘goal times’.... Allan told me his goal for the marathon and she turned around and said “I’m just hoping to finish in 6 hours!”. Allan replied, “I promise you that the medal you get will look exactly like the one I get...”. He was right, the finish line looks the same to all of us and that is the beauty of running. Sure there is some competition, but the biggest competition is with yourself.

I went out for an easy 5.4 miles today. It felt good to be back on the road, no soreness at all. I did have a little foot cramp but I am sure that yoga will straighten that out tomorrow.

I have had some time to reflect on the race and I have been reading some comments of others. I think the Greenville Track Club did a great job. I was even more impressed when I found out that a lot of their volunteers were not able to come because they were high school football players that had their games moved to Saturday because of the rain. There was plenty of water on the course and there were more spectators than I expected with the weather. This was the first race I have done where they put your name on your bib, and I appreciated the people calling me out by name as I was running. It was a great experience and makes me wonder what it would be like to run a big city marathon where the streets are lined with people.

I’ve also been thinking about what distance is my favorite to run in a race. I think the half marathon is a great distance. It requires training, but you don’t have re-arrange your life to prepare for it. I will be interested to see how I feel after the full marathon in February. After the half, I felt pretty good. I think I would like to run the Myrtle Beach in February, the Marine Corps Marathon next October and then the Disney Marathon after that. I won’t ever be a Boston Qualifier, so I think getting those three in would be a great accomplishment for me and then I could drop back to 10K’s an Halfs.

Wow, what weekend...

First the race...

I have never run a half marathon so I have nothing to compare it to, but I had a great time. I thought the course was pretty cool. As I feared, it was a little too tight when we hit the Swamp Rabbit Trail the first time. Also, it would be great if they could remove the poles that keep vehicles off the trail. The guy beside me almost got a free vasectomy when the girl in front of him jumped out of the way. I thought the water stops were well placed and well staffed. Thanks to Fleet Feet for the Gu!

My last mile was my fastest, so that is a good thing. I averaged an 8:42 pace on the chip time and my garmin. I was pleased with that and I would love to get close to the same pace for my marathon in February.

Here is a picture of me and my friend Tim at the starting line. I am in the headband and Tim has on the white visor....



Here we are with our medals on...




After the race, I hauled dear son up to Camp Old Indian for a day of hiking and other activities and a very cold night in a tent. We made it back in time for Sunday School. We had a busy day with church and other activities (a lot of it was eating, yikes!) and I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. I’ll probably run tomorrow and see how I feel.

Just a quick report... I made my goal of under 2 hours with a 1:54:14 on my garmin.

Off to camp with young son for the night... I’ll check back later...

Well the big race (Spinx Half Marathon) is tomorrow morning at 8:00. Young son is running the 1.2 mile kids marathon at 8:10 and Lee and young daughter are in the 5K at 9:00. I hope Lee is able to push young daughter to run some.

I have taken care of most of my pre-race tasks. I got some more Shot Bloks (gummy bear like electrolyte candy) today. I picked up all our packets, numbers and chips at the expo. I have been hydrating. I am glad I read Runners World regularly because I noticed an article not long ago that said drinking lots of water prior to a race can actually flush out your electrolytes. I don’t want that, so I am mixing some gatorade in with my hydration plan.

I still need to pick up some band-aids. I was going to just go with the body glide, but with the possibility of rain and the cool temps I think I will go old school with some band-aids.

I also need to do a little shopping because I need to get together the food and stuff to take camping with young son tomorrow night. Yes, I am looking forward to a night in a sleeping bag and tent to recover from the half marathon!

Thanks in advance to all those volunteers that make the race possible. I’ll be easy to pick out if you are watching the race. I’ll be the guy that you see and say “I don’t think he really understood how long a half marathon is...”

One of the other Greenville Track Club bloggers posted a message about her pre-race jitters. That got me thinking and then it got me worrying!

Now every time I stand up, I feel a pain that I am sure is a pulled muscle. Every time I sneeze, I am convinced I have the flu. I look at the map of the race and I think, ‘there is no way I can run that far’. I will be glad to get out there Saturday morning and get moving. One thing I am trying to do to calm my nerves is laying out a race ‘strategy’. I am starting to put together a mile by mile pace plan.

One thing I have decided is that I am going to focus on finishing strong rather than finishing fast. I am going to do my best to go out slow and speed up. I would like to get two miles in at a moderate pace and then speed up for 5-7 miles and see how I feel. I would love to finish under two hours (OK, I have now publicly stated my goal) but I mostly want to finish.

I have a short run scheduled today and yoga tomorrow. I may have to schedule some Pepto training sessions if the butterflies in my stomach don’t settle down!

I ran another five mile tempo run today. Actually, I ran the first three at my tempo pace of just under 8:00 per mile and the last two at about 8:30 a mile. I wanted to see how good I felt slowing down after going out fast. I hope to be able to go out at a target pace on Saturday, but if I go out too fast I wanted to see how well I recovered when I slowed down.

I felt pretty good and I felt like I could have kept up the 8:30 pace for quite a while. I hope I feel the same way Saturday!

I need to by Fleet Feet and pick up some more Clif Shot Bloks for the race. I am planning on wearing my fuel belt even though they are having water every mile. I like being able to drink out of the bottles and I like being able to drink on my schedule. I’ll also carry a half of a clif bar just in case I really crash.

Now that it looks like it will probably be wet and cool on Saturday, I am a little unsure about what to wear. I also wonder if I will wear my ‘rain’ shoes or my ‘race’ shoes. I would much rather wear the Pearl Izumi’s I like to race in than my older Saucony’s, but if it is really raining I’ll probably go with the old shoes.

Hopefully the rain will bail out before we go to Camp Old Indian after the race. Nothing like a night in a sleeping bag after 13 mile race...

We did a very intense workout today. Lots of quad, hamstring and core work. I sweated like I had been doing cardio for 30 minutes. It is a great feeling to be totally stretched out at the end of the workout.

We also did a lot of specific work on our knees to strengthen the joint. I will definitely go again Friday to get totally loose before the race on Saturday.

On another note, my daughter won an award for Most Improved Swimmer on her high school swim team. She worked really hard this year and I am proud of her determination and effort. Now, we will try get her to run a 5K before the spring swimming season begins.

Saturday is looking to be cool and wet. I’m not sure what that will do for my run, but I don’t think it will matter too much. It is a good thing the races are ending at Fluor Field so that the spectators and early finishers can stay out of the weather while the rest of us penguins waddle through to the finish....

Well, the wait is over. Race week is finally here. The Spinx half marathon is this Saturday and I guess I am as ready as I can get. I hiked yesterday and then went out today and ran five miles at a pretty fast pace (for me anyway) with a time of 31:59.

I will do Yoga tomorrow and hopefully Friday. I will run hard again Wednesday four or five miles and probably an easy jog for five or six miles on Thursday.

I want to put together an actual plan for my run this week too. I want to get a realistic goal time set and then lay out a mile by mile plan that lets me achieve it.

I need to get some more shot bloks. I want to run with them again this week just to make sure my stomach still handles them OK.

It should be an exciting week and I am looking forward to Saturday.

No running today. I walked a good bit, but that didn’t make up for the eating I did! Our friends the DeYoungs put on a tremendous tailgate today. They fried fish, shrimp, onion rings, hush puppies & french fries. That was on top of the brownies, chips, dips and other stuff....

Oh well, I guess I will run it off next week during the half marathon.....

Tomorrow our Sunday School class is going to Paris Mountain for a picnic and hike. I’ll probably do a little run later on in the day as well.

If you were driving down East North Street this morning and saw a guy perfectly execute a face plant on the sidewalk in front of the Bi-Lo at the North Hills Shopping Center, that was me!

It was quite an experience. I thought I had perfectly planted my foot on the curb I was stepping onto, only to have it slide off and leave me doing a Super Man like dive to the concrete. Fortunately, I just scraped up my hands and bruised my pride bone pretty good. I briefly thought about doing 10 push ups to make people think I had some kind of really tough training program going, but my hands were burning too much for that.

I got up and kept on moving. The blood clotted up pretty quickly so it wasn’t too bad as I finished up the run. I wanted to go for 13 or 14 miles, but I just didn’t get started early enough.

I liked the Clif Shot Bloks. The texture and flavor were pretty good and I washed them down with a bottle of water with no problem. I felt a pick up pretty shortly after eating them. I’ll definitely take some on the half next week.

I got in a great 5 miles at an 8:16 pace. That felt great to me. I am really trying to run my shorter runs at faster paces than I used to. I am going to try and get in a 10-14 miler in the morning and then figure out a taper plan for next week to rest for the half on 10/25.

I have started hydrating a little earlier in my runs lately and I think it is really helping me keep my speed up for longer periods of time. I have some Clif Shot Bloks that I am going to try on this long run too.



If I like them, I will probably carry some in the half along with a half clif bar. I have some friends that carry fig newtons with them on long runs, but I would eat a whole sleeve of them and I really don’t want to do that.

I just realized that right after the Spinx Half, my son and I leave for a cub scout camping trip. So much for a great nights sleep after the race!

I felt great today and got in another 7 miles at my goal pace. It was a little warm in the sun, but felt great in the shade.

I have been reading John Bingham’s Marathoning for Mortals and I am really enjoying it. At first it was a bit scary as the case is made that it is not something to attempt unless you are totally committed. Once I got further into the book, it became evident that the beginning is like being beat down by a coach or drill instructor at the beginning of training to be built back up in the end. It has lots of practical advice, but the best part to me is that the enthusiasm of the author comes through loud and clear. It has me fired up and I hope to read it through again in January.

I got in seven miles Monday at a good pace. I kept a consistent 8:30 pace for the whole run. I would love to keep that up for the half marathon in two weeks, but we’ll see how that goes.

We had substitute yoga instructor today and he was pretty good. We did some poses with a wide stance that I liked because I could get my hands flat on the floor.

I have been having some email conversation with Allan, my running coach. He is trying to ease my nerves about the half marathon. It is good to get feedback from someone that has been running for a long time and someone that has known me for a long time too. Since his parents and my parents know each other, I doubt that he would encourage me to do something that would actually cause me bodily harm. Plus, he knows my athletic ability pretty well since we were on the JV basketball team together back in the day.... In fact because he knows me so well, he about had a heart attack when he saw me at the Reedy River Run last year!

I spend a lot of time thinking about training, nutrition and hydration for the race. I don’t always spend enough time talking to people that have done the distance and listening to their experiences. I plan to do more of that in the next two weeks and I’ll do it again leading up to the Myrtle Beach Marathon in February.

This was a fun race. It was my first time running a true cross country course. I was a little intimidated at first as the college and high school teams were unloading and heading up to the course. I briefly thought we were going to be running against them. I was very relieved to find out that the 5K was just a preliminary event to the big Cross Country meet that Furman was hosting.

Some of the kids were cheering us on and that was pretty neat. I ran a little slower than I would have on pavement, but I was happy with my time.

I got out for a little over 8 miles at a slow, easy pace today. Then we went to the mountains and did a little hike with my son and the dogs. The dogs wore me out. I need to get a prong collar for Pearl (the new dog) so she doesn’t pull her collar through her neck. I got quite the triceps workout holding on to them.

We need to get some more miles in for Bobby. He has to have 25 in by the time of the Spinx Kids Marathon.

Tomorrow... I may try to get in a short run before work or during lunch. I’ll see how my legs feel.

I got a different kind of cross training in today. Duke Power decided to enforce a right of way through our back yard that they had ignored for 50 years and I had to move a shed. Two of my neighbors had to move sheds too, so we got together and scheduled it today. I spent the day cleaning out the shed, throwing away stuff, taking down a fence, taking down the ramp... blah blah blah...

Well it is all done and I didn’t have time to run today. I was going to go out late today and try to get a few miles in, but with the race tomorrow I figured I would just take the rest and move on.

Hopefully I will post a decent time tomorrow, but I am not too worried about it. I am just looking forward to running on the grass. I haven’t run off road before, so it should be interesting.

I got 7 miles in today. I ran at a fairly moderate pace and felt pretty good most of the way. I was only scheduled to run 5 today, but I decided to run 7 today and an easy 3 tomorrow so that I will be pretty well rested for the 5K on Saturday. I am fading fast, I need a caffeine fix!

One thing that got me out moving, even before I was trying to lose weight was our dog, Indy.


Two years ago, Lee told my son that he could have a dog for his birthday if he improved his penmanship. Now, how are you going to tell a second grader that he didn’t improve in something? So I knew then we were getting a dog. Well, after a false start with a dog someone was rescuing, we ended up at the pound. They had a nice, two year old, crate trained, calm dog. We decided to think about it while we went to get a haircut. We came back, with Lee’s dad in tow now as well, and someone was sitting outside with our dog!

Needless to say, emotions started running high. The next thing I know, we get stuck in the kitten and puppy room. I’m allergic to cats and constantly feel the guilt of depriving my family of a cat (well, not that guilty they could get an outside cat if they really wanted one!). There is this cute, small, docile puppy in a cage by itself. I try to suggest that maybe it is alone because it is unsociable, but no one listens. The next thing I know, they are all taking turns holding the little puppy with the one broken ear. It starts nuzzling up to them and I know that it is all over and done with.

48 hours later, the sedatives that they had the dog on to make it appear adoptable have worn off and we have a bundle energy on our hands. As Indy grew, her favorite thing became sleeping all day so she could drive us nuts with tennis balls all night. She retrieves them, she puts them under the chairs so we have to get them, she holds one in her mouth and plays soccer with the other one.

In an effort to regain some relaxation at night, we started walking her more and more. It didn’t really slow her down, but it did get us moving and started on our journey to a healthier lifestyle. We finally solved the problem of her not being tired at night. We got another dog. So they play all day and then we all rest at night.

5.4 miles in the rain today. I don’t mind running in the rain. I generally sweat so much that it looks like I have been in the rain anyway...

I tried to go out at a normal pace and then kick it in for three miles. I kicked it in for one mile and then decided to just enjoy the rain and go at a normal pace. All in all, I averaged about 8:33 a mile I think.

One thing about running in the rain is that I look down a lot more. I saw a dead squirrel, a dead bird, a shoe and half of a hamburger. I also saw a pile of dog waste that I avoided, only to step in a puddle that was MUCH deeper than I thought. That’s why I wear my oldest shoes in the rain!

The Spinx Runfest is coming up and I think we are all going to be running in an event. It will be a great family day!

I want you to meet my running buddy, Body Glide.



I first met Body Glide when I weighed about 50 pounds more than I do now and was still running in cotton shirts. A friend introduced us and we have had a close relationship ever since. Once and a while, I forget to take my buddy with me and I end up being bloody mad about it when I get home!

After my 13 miler yesterday, I discovered that I may need to strengthen my friendship with good old Body Glide. It seems certain parts of my anatomy weren’t ready for the extra three miles....

If you like this blog, you will probably love the ones I have linked over on the left sidebar. These are fellow Greenville Track Club members that also blog. The good thing about their blogs is that they actually know a lot about running, so you may learn something from them!

Well, today is a cross training day and I used yoga for that. It always amazes me how much I can sweat while standing still!

I toyed with the idea of taking a short run this morning, but I am glad I didn’t as we worked our lower body pretty hard in class today.

Two months into yoga and I can see some real progress. On a good day, I can actually touch my toes with my legs straight. That is probably an improvement of 3 to 4 inches in flexibility. If you saw me today you might laugh at this, but my balance is improving as well. Today I managed to fall forward onto my head twice during crow pose, I hope my head didn’t dent the floor! The first time I tried crow pose a month ago, I couldn’t bend my knees enough to really get in position to balance.

Another area of improvement is my quadriceps flexibility. They have stretched out nicely and my stride feels much more balanced when I run.

Five days straight of running coming up with the Furman Blue Shoes 5K part of it on Saturday.

It looks like I have a couple of wet runs coming up if the weather forecasters know what they are talking about. Sometimes I really enjoy running in the rain. I hope this will be one of those times.

Thanks to Lee taking the kids to school this morning, I had time to sleep a little later and still get my my 13 mile run in. It was hard to slow my pace down early on, but I was glad I did later on. I had eaten a lot of carbs last night so I didn’t eat anything this morning before the run. I did carry gatorade with me in my fuel belt.

This was by far the longest in distance and time that I have run. I ran about 13.2 miles in about 2 hours and 8 minutes. I ran about 90 seconds a mile slower than my normal pace. I was glad to run the distance, because now I know I can finish the Spinx half on 10/25. My question now becomes “Can I break 2 hours?”. Given my normal race pace, that shouldn’t be a problem. However, I am not sure I can sustain it for 13 miles.

I wonder if they are having any ‘pace groups’ for the Spinx. I might be interested in finding one if they do. Tomorrow is a Yoga day, but I might try to squeeze in a 3 mile run early if I can.

Furman Blue Shoes 5K is this Saturday. It should be fun as it is all off road.

I didn’t get to bed until late last night and then I just couldn’t get my lazy tail out and running this morning.....

I guess I will move my long run to tomorrow morning and try to get back on schedule from there.

Sometimes sleep just wins out...

:-|

We had a great day today... One kid went off with their youth group to Carowinds and the other one had baseball practice at the same time we had Yoga. It worked out well.

Yoga was crowded as Karen is getting bigger crowds now that she has her own studio. It was fun being back on Saturday when we have coffee afterwards.

From Yoga, we picked up Bobby and headed home to clean the house. Then the fun really began as we loaded up both dogs and went to Paris Mountain for a hike. We went up the sulfur springs trail for about 1.25 miles and then back. It was pretty steep and the dogs were a hand full the way they pulled. The weather was great though and we had a good time.

After that, we headed out for some shopping for Julian’s birthday and then dinner with Lee’s dad. Now we are watching ‘Honey I Blew Up the Kid.’

Tomorrow, I start into my new schedule with a 13 mile run. I hope I get out of bed and get it done. It will be the longest run I have had to date and I am doing it to prepare for the Spinx Half.

Well, it is kind of beginning anyway... I have officially registered for the Myrtle Beach Marathon. I am proud to report that Lee has registered for the half marathon!

I think I have settled on Hal Higdon’s training intermediate II training plan. I like it because it focuses on one tempo run per week and one long run per week. I am not sure I could handle trying to keep up with speed work as well. I also like that it gives me three 20 milers during the training. I still don’t understand how I will suddenly be able to run 26.2 miles when my longest run in training is 20 miles, but enough people have done it that it must be true. :)

I added a calendar to my web page to keep track of my training schedule. I had to modify a few things to take care of the Spinx Half on 10/25 and also because I want my X-Training to be on Tuesdays instead of Mondays if at all possible.

We’ll see how it goes. I am pretty excited about it in general and hope I feel the same way when I hit the big mileage weeks.

Wow, what a difference a year makes. One year ago today, at 11:40 AM, I walked into Weight Watchers for my first weigh in and meeting. I remember it very well. It was a little intimidating because I was the only guy there. Fortunately, the leader was very good and she made us all feel comfortable. As I read the materials and listened to reports from those that had already been members for a while, I realized that it wasn’t the program that was magic, it was the desire for change.

Several people had obviously been attending for a long time with what I considered relatively little progress. Others had shown significant weight loss. As I listened to the side conversations, it became obvious there were two types of conversations going on. Some people were talking about what they could eat on the plan and ways to eat more and stay within their ‘points’. Others were talking about ways to take what they were eating or liked to eat and make it fit into the plan. The difference may sound subtle, but over time it became apparent that it was the difference in successful participants and not-so-successful participants.

There is a different topic each week at the meetings and they also try to give you some tools to help you change your mindset about food. Tools for discovering what you think about food and why you think it. Tools to help you change your self image. Tools to help you deal with situations where you will be surrounded by less than healthy choices. A hammer is a great tool, but it is useless if someone doesn’t swing it. The same is true with the Weight Watchers tools.

I lost a little over 8 pounds the first week. That actually made me a little depressed because I had logged all my food for the week and I still ate a lot of food. Then I realized how much I had actually been eating before and it was disgusting. That is when I resolved to make this work.

Other than my desire to change, the single biggest factor in my success has been that Lee did the program with me. It made it nice to have the accountability at home and at the meetings. She was willing to try recipes I found online, even if they weren’t for her favorite foods. She even started running so we could do the races together. She swore she would never run a race, now she is going to do a half marathon!

Today I ran the first annual Robert’s Weight Watchers Anniversary 5K in 24 minutes flat. I am also going to do my monthly weigh in. I never thought I would celebrate anything by running and then getting on a scale. As I said at the beginning, what a difference a year makes...

10.6 miles early this morning. I would have gone further, but once again I did not want to get up and get moving. My transition time from bed to driveway was about 25 minutes. I need to cut that down to 5!

I altered my route a little today and did about 3 miles on the Lake Forest track. This let me focus on some pacing and avoid a second loop up East North Street. I enjoyed the cool temperatures and I look forward to the Furman Blue Shoes on 10/11 to see if my 5K time picks up with less heat.

I am currently looking at marathon training plans for the upcoming Myrtle Beach Marathon. One thing I have noticed is that most of them for beginner/novice/intermediate runners start out with lower mileage than I am currently running. I am trying to figure out if I just up their mileage in the early weeks to meet my current level and stay there until the plan increases it or if I just keep doing what I have been doing until I hit the week in their plan that has similar mileage.

There are lots of races coming up. I hope to fit many of them into my training schedule. I heard there is usually a 5K at Eastside High School on Thanksgiving. I may see if that is happening this year. If not, I may run the first annual ‘Robert Prepares to Pig Out 10 Mile Turkey Trot’. You are welcome to join me!

Yoga today was a good workout. It felt great to stretch my muscles out. I am seeing more and more flexibility every class. I still have trouble with balance, but I am getting less self conscious about falling over. It helps when I can get in the back of the room so I don’t feel like I am distracting those behind me. Here is a picture of the studio from my normal spot in the back....



One area that I have seen great improvement in is my feet. I never really thought about stretching and strengthening my feet, but they feel great. I rarely have cramps in my feet while running since I started yoga.

I am feeling a little odd today since I haven’t run. Six straight days was good in some ways, but I know my body needed the break today. My quads were really tight and it felt good to stretch them out. Tomorrow I hope to get in another 10+ miles. I can’t believe that the Spinx half is only three weeks from this Saturday. I am going to push through some mileage these next few weeks and then taper off for a few days before the half. The 10 day forecast looks great for running with lows in 50’s.

One other note... The Garmin is great. I have really enjoyed being able to explore new areas and not worrying about how far I have run. It also allows me to take off across a field if I want to get out of traffic.

Good luck to my friend Mark Harris who is running the Army 10 Miler this Saturday in Washington, DC.

So far I have been resting today. I think we are going to at least get a walk in this afternoon, but that will be about it. I want to run 11 miles tomorrow, so I don’t want to do much today.

I have eaten too much in the last 24 hours and I can feel it. I need the break from the four straight home games so that I can get back into a normal eating routine.

So, hopefully we will get a little exercise, a salad for supper and an early bedtime. Then I can get in an early run and start the week off right.

I got out for a quick 3.25 this morning to get to my total of 30.8 for the week. I felt pretty good, but my legs were a little tired. I was going to get it in last night, but the rain stayed around and I went to the gym with Lee instead. I think the tread climber is what made me leg-weary this morning. Even though I didn’t exactly hit race pace, I did run negative splits on each mile. I was happy with that.

Now it’s off to Clemson to undo all the exercise I did this week!

Wow, what a refreshing run in the rain. We need the rain and I had forgotten how much I enjoy running in a cool, light rain. I looked for lots of big hills today and had no trouble finding them. The uphills were challenging, but I had two significant downhill portions that really demolished my quads. They felt like jell-o when I got done, but in a good way. I got in 5.47 at a decent pace. I have run about 27.5 miles this week and feel great. I hope to get up and get 4 EASY (read that slow) miles in tomorrow to get me over the 30 mile mark.

My biggest issue right now is fear. Things are going so well with my running that I am getting nervous! How weird is that? Hopefully the yoga is going to continue to help me stay healthy.

I got in a little over 5 miles today at a moderate pace. It felt really good out, even with the wind. I am glad I remembered my Body Glide. If you aren’t familiar with it, this miracle product is great for preventing chaffing in sensitive areas...

I also started thinking back to when I first began running late last year. I started out in cotton t-shirts, under armor compression shorts and gym shorts. As the weather cooled and my intensity increased, the cotton t-shirts and shorts got more and more soaked and uncomfortable. The chaffing got serious then too. After a few runs with band-aids covering sensitive areas on my chest, I discovered Body Glide. I also understood why everyone likes the new wicking fabrics so much.

Since then, that is about all I run in. Even if it is cold and I need a sweatshirt or long sleeved shirt, I still wear the wicking shirts underneath. I have consistently found good deals at Target on the Champion C-9 line of athletic clothes. I’ll also pick up some great technical shirts at Fleet Feet when they have their sales.

Tomorrow, I wanted to go to Yoga, but I don’t think that will happen. I hope to get 5-6 miles in before work.

Well, I didn’t get up quite as early as I wanted but I was able to get 10.35 miles in. The cool weather was great. I ran in my Pearl Izumi’s today and I am pretty sure they are now my favorite shoe. I need to retire my oldest pair of Sauconys, so I think I will get another pair of the Pearls in the next few months.

The Garmin was great today. I actually had to break out the instruction book to find out how to get the backlight to work so I could see it in the dark. I also set up an ‘auto lap’ for 1 mile. It beeps every mile and records the split time. I was surprised that I ran a pretty consistent pace. I need to pick it up from miles 4-8 to get my time where I want it, but overall I feel good about where I am.

Between mile 7 and 8 I had a big downhill followed by a big uphill and my quads really let me know. We worked them hard in Yoga yesterday and I think that contributed to the feeling. Once I got off the big hill, they felt better and held up for the rest of the run.

I only saw a few people out today, but I did recognize two of them. Amy and Megan were working hard running up Shannon while I was doing a mile on the track at Lake Forest. I like seeing people I know. The only other person I recognized was the guy delivering papers on Sweetbriar and McCarter. He had to dodge me about 3 times. I keep waiting on a copy of The Greenville News to hit me on the head.

Well, you might think it would be a guy’s fantasy to be in a room full of women and rubber straps, but it isn’t! We used resistance bands in Yoga today and it took the workout to another level.

Aside from the core strength workout, I had a small victory today in the flexibility department. We got stretched out enough that I actually touched the top of my feet (yes I kept my legs straight!) for the first time. I may make it to the toes yet.

What is a hill? That is an interesting question. When I started running, I realized just how many hills there are around my house. Cars tend to make you ignore hills unless they are really big. Around our house, there are very few truly flat sections of road. When I first started running on the track at Lake Forest, I thought it was hilly because of the incline the track is built on. Then when I started running on the road, I realized how flat that track really is relative to our neighborhood. When I ran at the beach the first time, I truly understood the difference between flat and hilly. Now, I actually like hills most of the time. With the Garmin, I found that my pace stays fairly constant over the course of an entire run, but you can definitely see slow downs on the big inclines. No surprise there, but I would like to work on being able to maintain speed up hills. I think that is where I can cut the most time off of my races. Based on my time at the BMW, which was a flat course, I would say that I could shave 30 seconds a mile off my times if I could maintain pace up the hills. We shall see. Right now my focus is really on increasing distance, not speed.

I am going to do a long run tomorrow morning. I want to go for at least 10 and would like to go for 11 or 12 if I have time. October 25 is coming up sooner than I like to think and I want to be ready to at least finish the Spinx Half Marathon. My goal would be under two hours, but I am not sure how realistic that is right now. I am starting to get a little antsy about this race since it is such a huge distance increase. If I can get that distance in a long run in the next three weeks it will make me feel much better. I hope having the Garmin will keep me from going out too fast.

I have decided to try and place my long runs the day after a Yoga class. I have noticed that any run the day after Yoga feels great, so I hope that carries over to a long run.

I used the Garmin at lunch and it was great. I decided to take a different route halfway through, and I liked that I could easily still track my distance. I saw some interesting stats at first glance... My loop included about 1250 feet of uphill and an equal amount of downhill since I started and finished at the same location.

I also liked the calories burned function, which should be close to accurate since it has my weight and captures my heart rate during the whole run.

Now I just have to read all the instructions so I can learn how do the different workouts and create my own.

I was going to get a long run in today, but decided to sleep in and get 5 miles at lunch. I am looking forward to using my new Garmin on the home course and see how far I have actually been running. I suspect I will be disappointed to find out my routes have been a little shorter than I though, but at least I will be fairly accurate from here on out.

It will be nice to be able to just go out and run and not worry about being on a specific route. I like to be able to detour if I see construction going on or a ‘For Sale’ sign that I haven’t investigated yet.

I was a little disappointed in my totals from last week. I only got 22 miles in and one yoga class. I need to get close to 30 miles in this week and I hope to make 2 yoga classes. I may start adding some speed work on a track in the evenings to get some extra miles.

Got the Garmin, charged it up and took it to my race tonight. Of course, I left the heart rate strap at the office, but the distance and speed was mostly what I was interested in.

This race was really neat. BMW has a performance driving school near their plant here. The course was on their track and through some parking lots and access roads. Totally closed off, so it was fun to run. They had the start divided off by estimated times. Of course, lots of folks had no idea where they should be and we still had to struggle to get running at first.

I ran 14:44 for a 7:22 average. That was a great time for me and I think it would have been 10-15 seconds faster if I hadn’t been so bunched up the first .2 of a mile.

When the race was over, they had beer, water, gatorade, fruit and the gigantic pretzels that were as thick as bagels. We also saw some of the professional drivers on the course and they were flying. You could ride with one for a $10 donation, but we had to leave and pick up my daughter at a party... maybe next year.

I hope to run tomorrow morning before we leave for the game.

Thanks to Marion who’s blog turned me on to sporttracks software... I imported my Garmin run and it put it on a Google Earth map...

Waiting on my Garmin...... It should be here today. Maybe I can charge it and use it at tonight’s race.

Tonight we are running the BMW 2 miler. It is on a closed course at the BMW performance center. I am sure the race will be filled with lots of elite runners. This is the kind of race that I am using as a speed workout and not really trying to make a goal time. I just want to see how fast I can run over a ‘short’ distance. I was going to go out and run 3 or 4 miles this morning, but decided to take it easy and then run with my Garmin in the morning before going to Clemson.

We ate pasta last night and I overdid it, but hopefully it will give me the juice for a speedy run tonight.

I am starting to get excited about the Spinx half in October. I hope there will be people out in their yards supporting us on the run, I am going to need it! I used the Runners World tool that predicts finishing times based on past races of different distances and it projects I can finish the half in just under two hours. I guess I will make that my goal, although my real goal is just to finish and hear my name called out as I enter West End Field...

It was perfect running weather this morning. Even though I only ran 5 instead of the 8 or 9 I was planning on running, it was great. I slept in and didn’t have time for the longer run. It was a cool 61 degrees when I went out and I enjoyed every minute of it.

My new Garmin 305 should be here tomorrow. I finally decided on the 305 after hearing of more issues with the 405. That and I had enough money saved up for the 305 too! Depending on when it gets here tomorrow, I may use it at the BMW 2 Miler tomorrow night. I’ll be anxious to see how my ‘calculated’ distances match up to the GPS. I hope I have been running further than I think!

We have a busy racing schedule coming up, so I hope the cool weather holds out. As of right now we have the following races on the schedule:

9/19 - BMW 2 Miler
10/4 - Clemson Downhill 1 Mile
10/11 -Furman Blue Shoes 5K
10/25 - Spinx Runfest (Half for me, 5K for Lee)

After that, I need to look around. I hope there is a Turkey Trot in Greenville somewhere on Thanksgiving. If not, I may just have to have my own...

Got a quick (for me anyway) 5 miles in at lunch. The only downside was I didn’t get any lunch!

A Clif bar and fat free popcorn will have to do....

Also got to check on the new dog and see how she is recovering. She is far from 100%, but she is looking better.

By the time we got home from swimming and got Julian in bed it was 11:00. Then I had to finish some work and didn’t get in bed until midnight. When the alarm went off, I just couldn’t get up and run. I was looking forward to the cool weather too...

I hope to do a quick 4 miles for lunch to get some work in. Maybe tomorrow I can go for 8 or so.

It feels good to be stretched out....

Just when I feel like I have improved my core strength, we have a class like today where I feel my ab muscles shaking like an earthquake.....

At least I only fell once during the balance pose....

I was going to go out for a short run today, but I heard the rain this morning and decided to give myself a rest after the 10 miles yesterday. I will be going to Yoga today, so that will be enough of a workout. My legs feel good and I haven’t had any pain. Tomorrow I want to go out for 7 miles at a decent pace.

Julian has her last swim meet tonight and then we need to figure out what she is going to do between now and basketball season.

The Biggest Loser starts tonight too, I am glad we have the DVR set up to record it. It is kind of a goofy show, but I really like it. It was one of the things that got me off my tail and moving about a year ago. The one thing I really got from that show is that there is no shortcut. You have to decide you want to get healthier and then follow through. They present unrealistic results because they are in a controlled environment, but that does show you how much of a lifestyle change is required to lose weight.

Someone asked me “Are you through losing weight yet?” Well, I guess the answer is yes, but that doesn’t change anything. I am committed to making sure my lifestyle stays healthy and that requires as much effort as losing the weight did. In fact, it is a little harder because when I was losing weight, it was like a game where I won every week when the scale went down. Now, the focus is on keeping the scale where it is.

Another question I get is “Do you weigh everyday?”. This seems to be a very polarizing issue when I discuss it with other Weight Watchers folks. Weight Watchers only wants you to weigh in once a week because of the normal ups and downs your body has. However, I weigh ever morning and every night. The scale is not what defines me, but it does help keep me on track. It is kind of like running without timing yourself, I need the feedback that I was running fast (for me anyway) or slow. It helps to reinforce the new self image I am trying to develop of a healthy, athletic me.

I was a little nervous about my weight this weekend since I didn’t exercise after Friday, but everything held up pretty well. Even with the homemade lasagna last night, I maintained my weight....

I did not want to get up this morning when the alarm went off at 5:00, but I managed to get out of bed. Once I am up and walking, I am OK. It is getting out from under the covers that is hard. I took two 8oz bottles of Gatorade in my fuel belt and headed out about 5:15. It was a beautiful morning to run because of the full moon. It was pretty warm and humid though, so I was drenched by the time I hit the three mile mark at the pool. If the cover wasn’t on it, I would probably have jumped in.

I had wanted to get 8.5 in, but I got 10. I felt like I could have easily made it for 13 or 14, but the clock caught up to me. It felt good to get that long of a run in. I had no pain or cramps. I ran negative splits between the first 5 and second 5 and really was moving really well at the end. I think the two days rest did me right.

I am getting close to buying my Garmin, but I am now having some second thoughts about getting the newer model 405.



Or the older model 305...


I have read that the 405’s touch sensitive bezel kind of gets wacky if it gets sweat on it. And if I wear it while running, I will definitely get sweat on it! I also have heard that the 305 is more comfortable and the battery last longer. I think the 405 does have better satellite reception though. I think I am going to go to Fleet Feet and try on the 405 and see what I think...

Tomorrow I want to get a short run in and go to Yoga class...

We have a busy week this week as Bobby starts back in Cub Scouts and has baseball practice tonight. Julian has her last swim meet on Tuesday. We have church on Wednesday and we are running the BMW 2 mile on Friday night. Oh yeah, our newest addition to the family is having her surgery on Tuesday too... Here is a picture of Indy (b&w dog) and her new friend Pearl (on the bed).... I’ll get better pictures when we get a new camera, this came off my phone...

Spent Saturday at the ball game and today doing school projects after church. I’ll get back on the road Monday after a nice two day rest. Hopefully I can get 8.5 miles in tomorrow morning.

I went out today and ran an easy 4 miles. This is the third day in a row I have run and the 4th out of the last 5... I am working on building a base of 30 miles a week to prepare for the Spinx Half and then push that up to 40 as I prepare for the Myrtle Beach Marathon in February.

So far, I have done well with no aches and pains showing up. I attribute this mostly to the Yoga I have been doing for the past month or so. My flexibility in my quads, hamstrings and calves is significantly better than it was. I think this has really helped me react to potholes, stepping off curbs and stepping on debris.

I may try to get 4 or 5 miles in tomorrow morning if I get up in time. That would give me 27-28 miles this week.

I also would like to get to the point where I run 10 on Monday, 7 on Wed, 8 on Thursday and 5 on Friday. That would make a nice week for me with Yoga on Tuesday and Saturday. Once I get to that level, I want to add a mile a week to the Monday run until I get to 13. We’ll see.....

5 more miles today....

I was going to bike this morning, but I decided that two days of yoga will probably be enough cross training right now. I really need to start building my mileage base. I need to get up to about 30 miles a week relatively soon and then really start hitting a training program.

The question of “Why do you run?” was posted on one of the weight watchers message boards that I frequent. I had to stop and think about it....

The easy answer is that I run to stay in shape, but I don’t think that is really the whole truth. I could go to they gym where I have a TV and weather doesn’t matter. I could play basketball, soccer or some other high intensity sport. I could just focus on my diet and maintain my weight. So why do I choose to run?

Initially, it was because I wanted to get my 4 miles in faster because I was getting a little board walking around the track 16 times. Then, once I started running I noticed some things other than just losing weight and getting in shape.

First, every mile I run seems like a mile further away from the ‘old’ me that was out of shape and unhealthy. Each step is reprogramming my self image to see myself as healthy, fit and someone who makes good choices. Each step takes me away from the old me that dealt with stress and joy the same way... by eating!

Second, every time I finish a run it builds my confidence that I can accomplish whatever is in front of me. Running is a physical battle within yourself. You will always have some pain, fatigue and/or other issue that comes up during a run. Mentally, you have to be able to focus on the task at hand and block out the distractions. If you are 4 miles from home, you don’t have a choice. You have to win the battle and make it back home. Mental toughness comes into play. You build up the mind to be able to block out discomfort, doubt and fear.

Third, I enjoy the competition. Running is very competitive, even when you are alone. You can try to beat your last time or make it up a hill you have never conquered before. In races, you do compete with others but also with yourself and your previous performances. There are not many sports where 7 year olds can compete with 70 year olds and both can win by meeting their personal goals. At the end of a race, everyone is smiling and enjoying the success you feel from finishing a race. There are no losers in running. As my friend Bill Buck Bates told me, “No matter what your time was, you beat all the folks that chose to sit on the couch.”

Fourth, I do enjoy the endorphin rush I get from running. There is always a smile on my face when I finish.

Fifth, I solve a lot of the worlds problems while running. It is amazing the clarity with which I think while running. I am able to find solutions to problems, make decisions and set goals while I am on the road. Somehow the physical exertion clears my mind of the negative thought patterns or self imposed limitations that might creep into my mind during a normal day.

Finally, my ego does come into play. I just enjoy doing something that I thought I could never do. I like being able to say I am a runner. I enjoy knowing people think I am an idiot when they see me out in the rain or the 100 degree heat. I know that is not necessarily a good reason to run, but I have to be honest here.

It was very humid and a little warmer than I had hoped for, but it was a good run. I almost stretched it out to 9 or 10 but I felt good at 7 and had run a good pace, so I decided to end on a high note. I’ll probably try to make Monday mornings my long day and go for 10 then.

I ran in my oldest pair of shoes and they still feel OK. I think I am going to keep them in the rotation for a few more months. I want to make it through the end of the year with the three pairs I have and then get a new pair to break in for the Marathon. Sounds like a good Christmas present.

I have two pairs of Saucony Pro-Grid Omni 6’s and one pair of Pearl Izumi Syncro Pace II’s. I like the Pearl’s for racing because they seem a bit lighter. All my shoes have super feet green inserts too. They are expensive, but have been worth it in my opinion. I’ll give a shout out to the folks at Fleet Feet for setting me up with the shoes.

The race calendar is really filling up. If we add in the Race for the Cure and the Caine Halter Lung Run, we will be running almost every weekend for the next two months. Sounds like fun to me!

What a workout today. I didn’t realize it until afterwards, but we worked pretty hard. I am very happy with my improved flexibility and core strength. My quads are significantly more flexible. We also work on parts of the body that I had never considered stretching before like the top of my feet and my shoulders. All of this has made a big difference in my running.

Prior to taking yoga, I was wasting a lot of my energy trying to maintain good form. I also suffered from some calf, shoulder and knee (IT Band) pain during longer runs. All of that is gone and I attribute it to my increased strength and flexibility. My breathing is also improved and allows me to control my pace better.

So, if you get the idea that I am now a big fan of Yoga, you are right. My instructor, Karen Noonan, gets a health history from you before you start and makes sure that you work within your limits. It is amazing how she keeps up with each student’s individual constraints during class.

Just like biking is a great ‘off day’ exercise for running because it works the opposing leg muscles, Yoga is great because it works on strengthening and stretching your whole body.

This month’s Runners World magazine is all about marathons and it is getting me fired up. I hope I can maintain this level of excitement for the next six months as I get ready for the marathon. These cooler mornings help too. I was going to ride this morning, but decided that Yoga would be enough for today. I don’t want to go in with tired quads, I have enough trouble balancing as it is!

Bobby had baseball practice last night and while I was out at the fields, I started looking around to see if I could run out there. The fields aren’t surrounded by the best neighborhood and it is dark during most of his practice. I think I will be able to go on one of the empty fields and do some speed work though. Once I get my Garmin 405, I will really be able to judge my distance and then I can run laps around the fields for distance too.

Fall is a great time for running races. I just went through my calendar last night and I believe you could run some sort of race every weekend between now and Thanksgiving. This year, I am going to run a Turkey Trot somewhere on Thanksgiving day to offset my food intake. Weight Watchers takes a holiday on holidays.... I just have to remember to keep it a holiday and not turn it into a holiweek!

Well, we have the BMW Performance Classic on 9/19. It is a two mile sprint with cool prizes and adult beverages at the finish line.... Hmm, I might have to run more than two miles to work that off...

We also have the RC Cola and Moon Pie 1 mile downhill race at Clemson on 10/4.

Next up is the Furman Blue Shoes 5K on 10/11.

Then the Spinx Half Marathon (5K for Lee) on 10/25.

We may do the Race for the Cure 5K on 9/27 if the timing works out.

I’m glad Lee humors me by doing these races. Knowing I have a race coming up gets me out of bed and on the run. There is nothing like the fear of failure to get you motivated!

Actually, each race I complete places another brick in the wall that I am building between the ‘old’ me and the ‘new’ me. Filling my mind with reminders of my new lifestyle helps me keep from backsliding (good southern religious term there) into my old habits. I have a wall in our mud room where I hang all my bib numbers from each race. It is a reminder of how far I have come. Eventually that wall will be so full that I won’t be able to remember each race. When that day comes, I will have built a strong image of the new me that hopefully will serve to keep me healthy for the next 50 years or so....

I thought I was going to have a nice, easy run today but it wasn’t that way at all. I figured since I rested yesterday, I would have an easy time this morning. I guess I had not completely recovered from the triathlon. I struggled the first two miles and tolerated the next three. After that, I felt pretty good. I had hoped to run 8 or 9 this morning, but I just didn’t have the time with my slow pace.

Yesterday we closed the neighborhood pool down. Between that and going to the Clemson game on Saturday, I realized summer was officially over for 2008. I am enjoying the cooler mornings for running, but I always hate to see summer go.

Bobby starts fall baseball practice tonight and Julian still has Wade Hampton swim team for a few more weeks, so we have lots going on. Once Julian is done swimming, I am going to get her and Bobby started on some light running and hope to have them ready for the Greenville News run in January.

Lee is contemplating run/walking the Myrtle Beach half marathon in February instead of running the 5K there. I think she can handle it. I am still planning on running the Spinx half in October and then the Myrtle Beach full in February. If that goes well, I will taper down after the spring running season and then start next August really getting ready for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC in October of 2009.

I will be glad to get back to Yoga tomorrow. I think part of my problem today was that I missed Yoga class on Saturday. I think I will ride a few miles in the morning tomorrow too.

The results of the triathlon were posted late last night and I was happy to see I beat my goal of 1:45. I finished in 1:38:39 and Lee finished in 1:36:37. I was very happy that my swim time was under my goal of 8 minutes and my run time (including transition) was right on pace with a 26 minute 5K including transitioning from bike to run (probably 1-2 minutes).

The day after the race, I definitely feel like I want to try it again to see how much I can improve my bike time if I use a road bike. I think I could knock 10 minutes or so of my time.

Well, after my first triathlon, I can’t say I am hooked but I can say I am intrigued. I don’t have results yet, I don’t know what is going on, but the website says they will be available later this evening. I don’t need to see the official results to know that Lee smoked me on the bike ride. Those road bikes just crushed me going down hill. Well, they crushed me going uphill too but I expected that.

One thing I didn’t expect was that it would take about an hour for me to get into the pool. Since they line you up by seed times, we were in the back because we had put down a slow seed time. Next time, I will probably not put down quite as slow of a time. The elites were moving well, but after the first 10 or so swimmers it started slowing way down. Several of the elites were done with the triathlon before we got out of the pool. I also didn’t realize that I would have to tattoo my bib number on both arms and both thighs. We also had it on our bike and our helmet as well as the regular racing bib. When I went to the football game this afternoon, everyone wondered why I had 1318 written all over me!

My friend Judy suggested we take 5 gallon buckets to use in the transition area. That was a great idea because you can sit on them while you are drying your feet and putting on shoes.

The swim went about like I expected. I really will have to work on this if I am going to do more triathlons. Lee started a length ahead of me and finished about a length and a half ahead of me. I got passed by two people. One of them should have been seeded higher. The other one just had a nice, steady stroke.

Going into the transition area, I hit the body glide again and quickly put on a shirt, socks, shoes, fuel belt and helmet. I grabbed a couple of bites of a Clif bar too. Lee was out of there before I knew it and I only saw her one time on the bike route. Then she hit a downhill and was gone. I really struggled on the early uphills. Once I got in a groove and got my gears right, I did much better. Since the bulk of the crowd had gotten out way before us, we were pretty spread out and I literally went a couple of miles in one stretch by myself. The scenery was great but I was ready to get off the bike. I was happy I had my fuel belt as the gatorade really helped me in the last half of the ride and in the 5K.

Now, the run was really great. It started uphill and ended uphill and I passed several of the bikers that had passed me on the ride. It was obvious to me that most of the crowd was made up of cyclists.

I need to get our camera replaced so we can take pictures at all these events. I hope to find some online and I will link them later. If you are a runner and haven’t done a sprint-tri, I would recommend it. It will force you to work on parts of your body that don’t normally get work in running.

Now, if they would just publish the results so I could see how I really did... Days like this make me want a Garmin more!

I was originally going to Yoga today, but work got in the way. Even though I normally don’t do much the day before a race, I decided to stretch my legs a little this morning and got 4 miles in at a nice, easy pace. It felt good and I know that I probably won’t do anything on Sunday, so I will have a full day off then. I still need to 2 buckets for the race to use as storage and seats at the staging area. I also may pick up 2 chamois towels because Judy told me they really get you dried off quickly. I also need to figure out what food to take. I think I am going to carry my old standby, a clif bar. I’ll carry gatorade in my fuel belt too.

Once this triathlon is over, I am going to start putting together a marathon training schedule for Myrtle Beach. I have seen several websites that help you create one and the book I am reading has some in it as well. My next book to read is all about running your first marathon, so I am sure it will have tips as well.

I’m also saving up for my Garmin 405 GPS watch. It will really help when working on pace for the marathon.

It was a nice 65 degrees when I went out this morning. There were lots of people out and about, especially after 6:00. I am going to have to start wearing my ipod even if I don’t listen to it so that I have some sense of what pace I am running and how long I have been out. When I looped by the elementary school at my 6 mile mark, there were several teachers already there and I started to panic that I had been out too long.

7 Miles today at an easy pace today. I took it pretty slow the first 3 miles and then picked up the pace. I could have easily run 10+ today, but I didn’t have the time. Hopefully that energy will carry over to the triathlon on Saturday. I got in another 3 or 4 miles of biking last night chasing Bobby around Lake Forest while Lee got used to the road bike she borrowed. I am starting to enjoy the biking and we may have to trade up to some road bikes if we enjoy the triathlon. I will definitely get a light on my bike if I keep riding because it is pretty scary to be flying down a hill in the dark and worrying that you may hit a rock or pothole and wipe out.

Julian has a swim meet tonight and I am a timer, so it looks like another 2 hours at the Westside Aquatic Center. She and her friends are really enjoying swim team and the exercise is great. I think I am going to start working with her and Bobby on a little running at night. I want to get them up to where they can run a 5K in the spring....

Lots of people ask tell me they can’t run because of various ailments or failed attempts in the past. My experience is that most of the time people start way too fast. Here is a link to a beginners running plan called Couch to 5K. You will see it abbreviated a lot of places as C25K. Take a look and realize that you can run a 5K in just a little over two months without a lot of work!

I just found some cool (well, OK maybe not cool) action shots of our running this summer...


In this one, I am the guy in the middle with the old school headband on.....



In this one, I am getting last minute instructions from my coach (bib #359). Once again, I’m the guy in the old school headband...



In this one, I am leading the pack (yeah, right). I’m the guy in the old school headband.... (Notice a pattern here?)

Ran 4 miles at lunch today at just under a 9 minute pace. 4 Miles is a good lunch distance because I can knock it out and shower in about 50 minutes. That keeps my lunch at an hour and right on schedule.

It should have been an easy run, but with the bike ride this morning and the heat at mid-day it was not as easy as it should have been. Lee wants to ride tonight for some practice. I am either going to ride with her or run some intervals at the track while she is riding or toss some balls to my son to get him ready for fall baseball....

I have been reading Bart Yasso’s book about his running life. I’ll write more later, but basically it recounts his life in running and how he got started. He credits running with helping him overcome the demons of alcohol and drug addiction. I can understand that, because in a few short months running has helped me overcome some of my unhealthy lifestyles. Just to give you an idea of where I was, here is a picture of me from July 4, 2007. It was three months after this that I started changing my ways. I probably weighed about 277 pounds here....





After we started running, both of us experienced more weight loss than we ever expected plus we got our bodies in better shape than expected. Running has definitely changed my perspective on life and allows me to feel good about what I accomplish. Here is a picture of us last June. I was about 195 in this picture...



When I was running the 10K last night, I was struggling a little the first mile because I went out a little too fast. I was able to reflect on where I was and where I am and not only did that help keep me going, it strengthened my resolve to never go back to where I was. Each race is like a statement that I am not going backwards. I don’t know how healthy that attitude is, but I’m happy to have it right now. Fear can be a great motivator. My hope is that continued success can slowly change the fear to confidence, but I think I will always have some fear of returning to my former self.

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” -

Wow, what a great 10 hours...

The Anderson race was a lot of fun. Big crowd, lots of music and food and great organization. Lee had a good 5K and I enjoyed watching the finish. The winner posted and awesome 15:02. Somehow I lost Lee between where I was yelling for her and where she took her chip off. Once we finally met up, I handed her the car key and headed up to the starting line for the 10K. They had over 700 in the 5K and about 330 in the 10K. I was hoping to be under 52 minutes and just missed it at 52:02. It was still a PR for me. We got home about 1:00 in the morning and then showered and got in bed a little after 1:30 for a nice 5 hour nap before heading out to the Stars and Stripes 5K this morning.

The Stars and Stripes is part of the US Cycling event in Greenville this weekend. It was run on the time trial course the cyclist will use. It was an out and back course that was 1.5 uphill to start and 1.6 downhill to finish. No one was calling out splits and I didn’t have a watch on or my iPod so I had no idea what my pace was. I knew I was pacing some quick runners because I had seen them before. The wind was in my face the whole way out and then of course disappeared as it was to my back on the downhill return. I kept a decent pace on the way back and really picked it up (for me) the last 1/2 mile or so. I finished with a new PR of about 23:30 (still waiting to see the official results). Lee brought home a new PR too with a 26:30 time.

Now I am ready to head to the pool for a while and then get some tailgate food for the Clemson/Alabama game tonight. If the Tigers do as well as we did today, it should be a great weekend.

I went to Anderson to pick up our registration packets for tonight’s races and also to drive the course. The course is mostly long, moderate hills. The start is downhill about a mile and it is an out and back course, so that tells you all you need to know about the finish!

Packet pickup was very organized and I liked that they gave me my chip ahead of time. I have been very disappointed in some races where you go to early pick up and they give you everything but the chip.... What’s the point of early pickup if I have to stand in line before the race anyway?

Of course, once I got home I looked at my bib and noticed I was a female. Now, I am on hold with the race folks trying to get that corrected. I think most women would be upset to have me classified as one of them, I just hope I don’t get some smart aleck guy on the phone that says they did it on purpose!

:)

Today feels really odd. I have the day off but I am not going to run because of the race tonight. Lee and I were talking about how to eat today given the fact that we have a late night race. I am going to eat like I normally do, except that we already have plans to meet my family out for Pizza tonight. I think I’ll take a zantac before dinner just to make sure I don’t get some acid working on me during the race!

I want to get the kids to run some. I haven’t figured out how to get them involved on a regular basis yet, but I think it will be easier once it cools off. I hope we can pick a 5K and let them do the Couch to 5K program or something similar.

I finally signed up for the half... I signed Lee up for the 5K. It looks to be a fun day with all the races finishing in our downtown ball park with our picture on the jumbotron and name being called out over the PA system. I hope I am not crawling at the finish.

:)

I wasn’t going to run today since I have a 10K tomorrow night and a 5K on Saturday morning, but I just didn’t want to go to the gym this morning. I ran 5 easy and should be fine for tomorrow night. The Anderson Midnight Flight does not allow headphones, so I have been running all week without my iPod. I have been really surprised how easy it has been. I have run with my music since the beginning, so I wondered how I would adjust. My A.D.D. brain just flips from one topic to another and I lose track of time. It is really pretty pleasant and I think I may continue without it for a while.

I got Bart Yasso’s (Runners World Magazine Guru) new book My Life on the Run and Bingham’s Marathoning for Mortals for my birthday. I started Yasso’s book first and it is a great read so far. I had read excerpts of it in Runner’s World and it piqued my interest. I’ll write more on it when I finish reading the book.

OK, I think today is the day that I finally sign up for the Spinx half...

Wow, talk about being sorry you slept in.... I ran 5 miles at lunch in the rain. I don’t mind running in the rain too much, but I was running on East North Street and it is amazing how much dirt and grime the cars throw up when it is wet out....

We need the rain though, so I guess it is a small price to pay.... :)

I was planning on doing a 6 mile bike ride and 5 mile run this morning in prep for the ‘Tri The Ridge’ sprint triathlon on 9/6 but I didn’t get my lazy tail out of bed this morning. Hopefully I will have time to get 4 or 5 miles in at lunch today, otherwise I will hit the gym tonight. I haven’t quite gotten back into the school routine yet. I enjoyed sleeping late in the summer and still being able to run before work.

I guess I need to get down to the pool and swim some too. It would be pretty embarrassing to not make it out of the pool and onto my bike during the race...

I guess I should tell a little more about myself...

I live in Greenville with my wife and two kids. I grew up in Easley and graduated from Clemson, so you can see I have spent most of my life in a 30 mile pocket of NW South Carolina.

I love the beach, football, fishing and running.

We have a dog and may be getting another one soon....

I am IT Consultant but in previous lives I have also been a director of operations and a sales rep among other things...

I used to be a PC guy and now I run a MacBook Pro with VMWare Fusion that allows me to also run Windows to support some of my clients. I don’t know why I felt inclined to mention that, but I did want to come clean to all my old Windows-centric friends...

My long run to date is about 10 miles.

I still don’t understand how you fast runners do it.

I was shocked when I heard the words “I only ran 3 miles today” come out of my mouth.

Well, that’s a few tidbits anyway. I’m sure I will reveal more as time goes by....

Here I am running my 2nd 5K last March at Furman....

It amazes me how much I can sweat while standing still. I have really enjoyed yoga so far, even though it is a very humiliating experience at times. It is obvious that my balance needs a lot of work. My ankle strength needs this work too.

In a few short weeks I have seen a big improvement in my flexibility, especially my quads and hamstrings. My core must be improving some as I have noticed my form is better when I am running. I have always had a problem moving my arms in line with my running motion. My normal motion is to move them more diagonally and across my body. Since starting yoga, I have noticed that I have a much easier time straightening out that motion.

We are racing this week.... Midnight Flight 10K for me on Friday night (5K for Lee) and then the Stars and Stripes 5K on Saturday morning. This will be quite an interesting experience to see how my time is affected on Saturday. I am glad to see so many races coming up, it seems like we could do one a week if we wanted to.

I still need to get off my tail and sign up for the Spinx half. Maybe I’ll do it tonight....

Tomorrow, I hope to ride 6 miles and run 4 if it isn’t raining.