Monthly archives for April, 2012

99 Days of Training: Day 80

Apr16
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

99 Days of a Training is a 99-part series that I will document my daily progress towards my first marathon. Each day I plan on recognizing a word or phrase that corresponds with that day’s training. This series will conclude on May 6th, 2012 when I toe the start line (or somewhere in the back of the pack) at the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, OH.

Monday’s are always the blah. Not sure whether it is the recovery from the 20 miler on Saturday, or the rest day on Sunday, but I can never get going on a Monday. Well, I get going, but it is always sluggish. Today was no different. If I was able to do 20 miles at a 10:33 pace, why is it so hard to do 5 miles at 10:53. I blame it on Monday.

Nutrition wise things went pretty well. I had a surplus of 249 calories after food & exercise.

The Pig is coming soon… and I’m ready for it. But, it isn’t the end. After the Pig, life goes on.. and so does my quest for better health. My goal is still to hit the 140lb lost mark by May 31st. I’m not on track for that right now so my approach now is two-tier: run, train for the Pig while eating enough to be healthy for the race, yet conservative enough with my eating to hit my May 31st goal.

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 99 Days of Training, marathon, morning, outdoor, run, spring, training

99 Days of Training: Day 79

Apr15
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

Oh Sundays… I love them. Today is a rest day in my training. After completing my 43 miles (43.08 actually), I have a measly 32 to do this week. The fun part of that is my long run will have to take place in Los Angeles. I am slated for 5 tomorrow, 4 Tuesday, 7 Wednesday, 4 Thursday and 12 on Saturday. I fly to LA on Thursday morning, but should be able to get in my scheduled run.

This past week is the first week I have legitimately got in all of my miles on my plan since the first week of February. That isn’t good. I’ve had a few weeks where I technically got in all my miles, but they came because I did one long run on a Sunday then the next on a Saturday, thus the big mileage days fell into the same week.

Today was not a good day for eating, though. I went over my calorie goal by 300-400ish. Not horrible, all things considered, but still not what I’d want. Granted, I was under my goal by almost 1,500 yesterday, so it works out. Today was set off by an impromptu stop at Orange Leaf (where I actually tried something new for once), and then a massive fail at temptation with the jelly beans I purchased on clearance the other day (and thus failing at temptation… shouldn’t have bought them, shouldn’t have devoured them).

The best part of this rest day was going to the park. It was an amazingly gorgeous day here in the Bluegrass. Beautiful, clear skies… great breeze (which was fun for flying a kite), and a good afternoon with my lovely family and the green grass of Masterson Station Park. It was very relaxing to just take off my shoes and walk around in the grass.

This may have to be a new rest day tradition… a trip to the park to relax and do nothing!

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 99 Days of Training, afternoon, awesome, family, rest, spring, weight loss

99 Days of Training: Day 78

Apr14
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

Back in October I was about to run my first half-marathon, the Iron Horse, and I recall writing about an awesome training run I had. I had always struggled with the Legacy Trail until one day not long before that race. On that day I ran 10 miles at a 10:30 pace. This was a huge boost in my confidence as before that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to complete race in under 2:30. Thanks to that confidence and some great training I actually finished in 2:11:28. (See full recap on that race and that story here)

Today, I had another one of those things. I’m now only 22 days from my first marathon and I am hoping to finish under 4:30. Whether I do or not, I can’t say at this point, but I hope so. I had some doubts about it (less than before Iron Horse), but today really helped to ease that. I didn’t exactly put down 10 miles at a 10:30 pace on Legacy Trail this time, instead I put down 20 miles a a 10:33 pace. Wow. This was only my second time doing twenty miles. The first time was on March 25th (20 days ago), and since that date I cut OVER SIXTEEN MINUTES off that time. Holy cow that is huge. Talk about a confidence booster. The good thing about this is I did it with no difference in perceived effort. I felt as if I was running the way I always do. The amazing thing is I finished with a good effort. Miles 18 & 20 were done at 9:52. My only 2 sub-10 miles of the day. (You can see full info on splits, map, etc on my RunKeeper data for today

22 days… I’m ready for you Flying Pig. And, if the race holds true to its name and pigs do indeed fly.. after my run today I’m pretty sure that I’ll catch them anyway… and turn them into bacon….mmm…bacon. *drool*

Miscellaneous stuff:
Average Heart Rate: 162
Calories Burned 3,489 (30% fat)

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 20mi, 99 Days of Training, awesome, legacy trail, marathon, mild, morning, outdoor, run, spring, training

99 Days of Training: Day 77

Apr13
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

This week has been a tremendous success thus far. Since Monday morning I have been meticulously tracking my food intake in an effort to get back on track towards my goal of dropping 140 pounds by the 2 year anniversary of starting this journey. Combine my eating along with exercise this week and I dropped 2.2lbs since Sunday morning. That, is winning. Bad news though, I’m still above the line where I need to be, but not as much. Last time I weighed in I was about 2.5lbs above the line, now I’m only about 0.6lbs above. My trend line is showing me back on track in time, but with very little wiggle room. At this point I need about 1 pound a week to get there, which is very doable.

In news of running… I have put in all 23 miles scheduled to this point this week. I have a 20 miler for this weekend that will put me at 43 for the week, and would be the first week in almost 2 months that I actually got in all my miles.

Tapering sort of begins after this. While 32 miles next week isn’t easy, it is much friendlier than the 43 this week.

Today is a rest day, a much needed rest day. The only bad thing about rest days is I have less calories to work with. Luckily I have 2,010 for the day and I’ve done fairly good the past few days not to go too far above that.

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 99 Days of Training, rest, spring, weight loss

99 Days of Training: Day 76

Apr12
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

Whew. In a way it is starting to feel really good to be back on track. But in a way I miss sleeping in I’ve been on the road all week and regardless of whether I was getting up to run or just getting up, I’ve been a wake way earlier than I had to be. I somewhat miss my lazy days. But, I also remember what those days were like otherwise, and I don’t want to be there again.

Today I got in a fun 4 miles on a chilly morning in Evansville. I didn’t put up the screaming pace I did on Monday, or even on Tuesday, but 4 miles at a 10:13 pace is still pretty good for me, so I’ll take it. You can see full details by looking at today’s RunKeeper data

I’m feeling a bit of soreness from yesterday. Not the 10 miles I detailed in the previous post, but the 55 or so pushups I did yesterday. Maybe that was a bit too much considering I hadn’t done pushups in 2-3 months.

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 4mi, 99 Days of Training, family, hotel, Lap Log, marathon, mild, morning, outdoor, run, spring, track, training, travel

99 Days of Training: Day 75

Apr11
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

So far so good for this week. I’m scheduled to do 43, of which 19 was scheduled between Monday and Wednesday, and I’ve actually done it for the first time in ages. I’m at 19.04 now. As I’ve already detailed I put forth a blazing 5 miles on Monday, a steady 4 miles on Tuesday, and tonight I topped it off with 10 grueling miles.

I’ve also mentioned throughout the previous posts how much I love this track out here. I’m on the road this week and there is a great place to run, which helps. But, it is only about 0.62mi in length. If you do the math it is right around 16 laps to do 10 miles. It doesn’t matter where I am, 16 laps is very monotonous and I believe that really played in tonight.

I won’t lie, I struggled a bit. My pace wasn’t that bad (10:24), but I just wasn’t mentally there for this one. I firmly believe distance running is much, much more mental than physical, and I didn’t have it tonight. When you know you have to do 16 laps around the trail, and that each lap will take you 6-6:45 minutes, it doesn’t put you in the right mindset to start. I probably should have mixed some street running in to break it up, but I wanted an apples-to-apples comparison of miles for comparison.

I definitely did not come close to even splits tonight. I started out too fast, though I felt as if I was going slow (but when it was also the same course that I threw down 5 miles @ 8:26, anything will seem slow). My first mile was 9:36.. way too fast for me. I tried to slow it down some more, only made it to 9:51. This would come back later as I was no longer trying to slow down, rather speed up. By mile 8 I put down a 10:52. Not good if trying to achieve negative splits. For more details see my RunKeeper info for tonight.

As for my diet today.. it was good, though a bit high. I say high because I like to try to limit myself to around 2000 calories, which I know is stupid to do when running 10 miles. According to my HRM I burned 1,654 calories during this run, add that to the 2,010 calories that MyFitnessPal says I need a day to hit my goal and in theory I should ingest 3,664 calories. It looks like I’m ending the day with 2,298… but I feel stuffed. For dinner I had St. Barts Citrus Chicken at Cheeseburger in Paradise, which comes with rice & broccoli. By my guestimation that is only about 600 calories, but it is soooo good, and filling. To bump it up I also had a cup of gumbo for an appetizer. For lunch today I had a chicken salad sandwich on croissant along with a bowl of corn chowder soup (I love corn chowder!). In there I also had a banana for a morning snack (and potassium) and a fruit cup for an afternoon snack. Yogurt, mixed fruit, hardboiled egg and a bit of oatmeal for breakfast. I am not sure why I didn’t start using MyFitnessPal earlier, as it totally rocks!

Okay, that is long enough for tonight… back up in the morning to do 4 more before a much needed rest day on Friday.

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 10mi, 2012, 99 Days of Training, evening, frustration, hotel, jog, Lap Log, marathon, mild, outdoor, run, spring, track, training, travel, weight loss

Quick Update (Training, Goals, Weight Loss, Inspiration).

Apr10
2012 1 Comment Written by @drose0

Just wanted to provide a quick update on my training. If you haven’t been reading my 99 Days of Training Series I recommend you do so. They are basically a daily update on my training, along with some other inspirational and motivating things I can throw in.

As I’m writing this there is merely 25 days and 8ish hours until my first marathon, The Flying Pig in Cincinnati, OH. While training hasn’t went as smooth as I’d hope due to injury, sickness, or whatever, I’m still going… and now back at full strength. At the bottom of this entry I have included my Google Calendar for training… as you can see there has been a lot of hitting and missing, but the important thing is I finish out strong and have a good showing at the race. I’m not in it to win, or finish in a quick time… I’m in it to finish. With that said, I’d like to finish in a good time, but whatever I finish with is good enough for me.

This is my last big week of training before the miles start going down. I’m scheduled for 43 this week, including a 20-miler on Saturday. I have done the 20 one other time, and am looking to improve on it again this week. First I have to tackle that 10-miler tomorrow though. Bad thing is I’m out of town, but the good thing is I am at the perfect place for my running. As I’ve chronicled over the past few 99DOT entries, this is an awesome course, of which I have ran two-straight days of sub-10 (including 5 miles at 8:26 pace, and 4 miles at 9:51 pace).

In some other news, I have got back on the calorie counting. I have two goals going right now: 1) to finish my first marathon on May 6th, and 2) to finish my weight-loss journey by May 31st by hitting the 140lb lost mark. I was on good track until the last few weeks to achieve #2, so now I have to get back on it. This time around I’m utilizing MyFitnessPal, which so far is a million times better than LiveStrong, in which I used before. At last weigh-in I was still about 9.4lbs above my goal, but I was back in the right direction compared to the previous weigh-ins. I’ll check again Friday when I get back from my business trip and hopefully will be even closer. So far I’ve been doing good on the eating this week, and definitely rocking the exercise. I’m going for a big push over the last 7 weeks or so to get this goal.

One interesting thing that has came up recently is inspiration. This time it has circular meaning. Regardless of what I’m doing, I’ve been told by multiple people recently that I am inspiring. I don’t really feel that way.. I feel like anyone else: someone struggling to achieve what they want to do, and really desiring to do more. I really don’t feel like I’m being inspirational; I’m just trying to do what I need to do. I am very humbled that I am inspiring others, though, so don’t think I’m not happy about this. I am glad that in some way I can help others. I set out on this mission about two years ago to achieve something for myself, and thus for my family. I’m glad that along the way I’ve been able to give something to others without knowing it.

As for my inspiration… it is simple. Instead of words, here is a picture that shows my real inspiration in life:

Posted in Flying Pig 2012, General, Training - Tagged 99 Days of Training, awesome, family, marathon, race, training

99 Days of Training: Day 74

Apr10
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

On the heals of my blazing run yesterday I decided to get up this morning and go at it again. No, I didn’t even try the pace I had yesterday, for multiple reasons. First off, yesterday’s run was done in the afternoon, having a good lunch earlier, having been up and going for hours, and it was sunny, warm and breezy… a gorgeous day. This morning I got out of bed, had breakfast (not sure why, I never eat breakfast before I run… I guess I was just thrown off by being at a hotel), then went running. I did put up a better-than-average pace, but nothing compared to yesterday. Today was a fun 4 miler (4.02 in 39:33) at a 9:51 pace. While not quite the 8:26 pace I threw down yesterday, 9:51 is still considerably ahead of my norm. The plus today, though, is my HRM didn’t complain nearly as much. I was still out of my target zone a bit,but not as bad as yesterday.

One weird thing did happen though. The loop I’m doing is around a beautiful lake outside my hotel. It is right around 0.62mi in length, and as with any lake it is surrounded by ducks, geese, etc. Usually they mind their own business and leave me alone, and today would have been no exception except for a little doggie. As I was getting near the doggie decided to chase the ducks, which made them want to fly back to the lake, and of course they flew right at me. I did a good job of avoiding them, except the last one decided to ram me in the back of the leg. Not sure if he couldn’t slow down or if my movement confused him and he thought he’d miss since my right leg was going forward, but whatever it was, he got me. I got a good laugh out of it, and can now add “being hit with a flying duck” to my list of running oddities.

Less than 26 days to go until the marathon… I’m ready to tackle it! I’m scheduled for 43 miles this week, and so far I’ve got in 9.03 of that (right on schedule). Tapering sort of begins after this week, so it is really starting to be crunch time!

RunKeeper data

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 4mi, 99 Days of Training, awesome, hotel, jog, Lap Log, legacy trail, marathon, mild, morning, outdoor, run, spring, track, training, travel

99 Days of Training: Day 73

Apr09
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

8:26. No, that isn’t the time… that is the pace at which I ran tonight. Not just for 1 mile, or 2 miles, but 5 miles. Wow. Back on January 1st I ran a 5-miler in which I thought I was blazing. I ran that 5 miler in 45:35, for a pace of 9:04. Even my PR of a 5k was only at 27:12, or an 8:45 pace. Tonight I would have ran roughly a 26 minute 5k (8:22 pace). Considering my first 5K was about 13 months ago and I ran a 10:30 pace, this is nothing short of amazing.

I’m still amazed at this hours later. Oh, mile 2 was SUB-EIGHT!! I still am at a loss for word,s but this is awesome! This was a regularly scheduled 5 miles, but I wasn’t planning on the speed. I was looking forward to this all day and when I got out there I was just flying. The loop I’m doing is 0.6mi, and going in I was hoping for about a 10:30 pace.. but after I nailed lap 1 at 5:31 I thought this may work. The next 2 laps were exactly 5:01. Then I think a 5:14, 5:25, 5:35 ,and I forgot from there… but regardless that was freaking awesome.

As a reward, I had more Starbucks tonight .

Check out my RunKeeper data for this one…

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 5mi, 99 Days of Training, afternoon, awesome, hotel, jog, Lap Log, marathon, outdoor, PR, run, spring, track, training, travel

99 Days of Training: Day 72

Apr08
2012 Leave a Comment Written by @drose0

Today is Sunday, therefore that means it is rest day. While that is true from running, it wasn’t true about eating or basketball. Since today was Easter we had the normal family dinner after church at my wife’s grandmother’s house. She just happens to make the beast rolls in the world (of which I only had like 3 during the meal)… and the best broccoli casserole (of which I only had 2 servings)… and some kind of lemon dessert that was beyond fabulous (and here is where I can’t use the word ‘only’ because I gluttonized). Luckily I did get in 3 or 4 games of basketball and didn’t eat much for dinner (more dessert, but just enough to restart my metabolism).

Tomorrow I’m heading out of town for a few days. Luckily the hotel has an awesome area to run right behind it. I’ve been there once which I apparently did not chronicle on here… but here is a map that I mapped out… be sure to look at it from satellite view as it is pretty nice. Only about a 6/10 of a mile loop, but as long as the geese cooperate it is pretty nice. Tomorrow I’m back on the MyFitnessPal diet (thus meaning I log everything) and have 5 miles tapped to do. That’ll be fun after 3+ hours driving, working for 5-6 hours and then a 20+ minute drive to the hotel. I’m ready though!

Posted in 99 Days of Training, Training - Tagged 2012, 99 Days of Training, basketball, family, hotel, marathon, rest, spring, training, travel

Monthly archives for April, 2012

99 Days of Training: Day 80

99 Days of Training: Day 79

99 Days of Training: Day 78

99 Days of Training: Day 77

99 Days of Training: Day 76

99 Days of Training: Day 75

Quick Update (Training, Goals, Weight Loss, Inspiration).

99 Days of Training: Day 74

99 Days of Training: Day 73

99 Days of Training: Day 72

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