My journey.....so far

[dragitoff]

I guess I need to create a photobucket account because I do not currently have one. That's why I couldn't get the images to upload.

A little update for this morning. I have a wonderful vacation. Since DW couldn't take any time off, we didn't really plan any trips or anything, but I thoroughly enjoyed my week off. Monday, DD's and I did a little yard work. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, I was playing in a 3 day, 2 man team golf tournament. I finished 3rd in my group so I was happy with that!

Thursday, I planned to do my long run for the week since we were going camping with some friends from church. I planned to do 15-16 miles, but due to DD10's last soccer game, I had to cut my run short at 10 miles.

The camping trip was a total wash out! Literally! We set up our camp site Friday evening around 7pm and by 7am, our entire group was breaking camp due to heavy rains. Yesterday, DW and I ran on the local riverwalk with my brother, who just moved into an apartment on the Riverwalk while he is building his new house. I'm so jealous of his location.

I ran 5.37 miles yesterday with him. He's a MUCH faster runner than I am so I struggled keeping up with him, but surprisinly, I did! He runs 15 minutes and walks 2. I stayed in my pattern of 4 minutes running/1 minute walking and even with that rate, I ran the first mile in under 8 minutes! He did slow his pace a little after that first mile.

This morning, DW and I did our daily 3.6 mile route. We talked about it over the weekend and are desperately going to push for 4 days during the week and our long runs on Saturday. We've been slack about it lately and have only been running about 3-4 days per week.

 

[Terapin]

I've had camping trips like that - everything is wet and damp. Yuck. Hopefully next time will be better.

Good job on the distances. I think running 5 times a week is a laudable goal. I run every other day - that's about all I can fit in. With biking and other fitness activities I try to be active every day except Thursdays. Do you do other activities as well? That's a terrific amount of exercise.

 

[dragitoff]

I've had camping trips like that - everything is wet and damp. Yuck. Hopefully next time will be better.

Good job on the distances. I think running 5 times a week is a laudable goal. I run every other day - that's about all I can fit in. With biking and other fitness activities I try to be active every day except Thursdays. Do you do other activities as well? That's a terrific amount of exercise.

We occasionally bike as a family, but that's mostly what we do. I love all sports (basketball, baseball, football) and I'm a youth pastor so I get the opportunity to play those often enough. On top of being a youth pastor, father or 2 and husband, I also work a full-time job as sales manager for a large company so my time is limited. In order to get the running in, we have to get up at 5am every day and head out with our headlamps and safety vests. It's quite a sight.

 

[dragitoff]

I had a good week this week. Got to run 3 times (3.75 miles each) and I'm going for a long run tomorrow. The goal is to hit 16 miles on my long run tomorrow somewhere in the 2:30-2:40 range.

After that, DW and I are taking the family out for some biking. The weather is supposed to be wonderful tomorrow so we'll try to take advantage of that.

 

[dragitoff]

I hit a new personal best for distance this weekend. I ran 16 miles in 2:36:02. I got a little tired the final 2 miles and ran those 2 miles under my goal pace, but every other mile was under pace and I finished almost 4 minutes under my goal time so I was very pleased with the results.

DW and I also changed our weekly running distances now to help her stretch her distances out a little more. She had currently been running 3.6 miles during the week (3-4 times per week) and 4 miles on the weekend. Now we're doing 4 miles each week day (still 3-4 times per week) and she's going to try for 5 miles this weekend. I'm really excited for her.

 

[dragitoff]

DW and I had another solid 4 mile run this morning. I'm certainly enjoying the cooler weather we've had at least in the mornings this week. It's made our runs a little easier. I'm signing up to do another 5k in a few weeks. This will be my first 5k since I've started marathon training so I've got to mix up my runs to prepare for a short run with a much faster pace. My previous PR in a 5k was 24:49 and my best 5k (just running for practice) was 24:11. If I can finish anything close to either of those, I'll be happy.

I got on the scale this morning, and I'm happy to have hit a weight I haven't seen in a really long time!

 

[Terapin]

Great update!

 

[dragitoff]

I'll be traveling next week so running and updates will be difficult; however I'll get some running in even if I don't get to update everyone about it. Another great 4 miler this morning. DW has a baby shower to help set up for tomorrow morning so I'm going to take that opportunity to run a hard 5k. I haven't pushed myself hard on a 5k since I started my half training back late last year. I'm anxious to see how I do.

Later tomorrow, we're taking the family out for a nice bike ride (probably 5 miles or so). I'm really looking forward to that since it's supposed to be beautiful tomorrow.

 

[dragitoff]

So I got into the office for an hour or so while DD7 was at softball practice (the field is literally across the street from my office). That was ample time to give a brief update on this morning's run. I did my 5k in 25:14. It wasn't quite as fast as I had hoped, but certainly nothing to be ashamed of since the last 4 months have been me running everything in 9-10 mm paces (half and full training mode!). I got side stitches bad around the end of the 2nd mile. I took a 1 minute walk break at 18 minutes just to try to massage the stitches out. It worked until the last 1/2 mile or so. All in all, I'm pleased. Now it's on to Texas for business next week and running in my brother's hilly-behind neighborhood! Ugh!!!! He lives in a gated community so I can't get out without carrying a remote to get back in so I just run through his small neighborhood over and over, up and up hills (yeah, it never seems like there's any downhills.) lol.

 

[Terapin]

Sounds like you are working hard!

Good luck on the hills - I despise hills. My coach finds all the hills on our runs for me

Enjoy Texas. Have never been but will be driving through top of Texas next month on our big trip to Cali. Looking forward to it.

 

[dragitoff]

I didn't log many miles last week, but had some good runs. My brother is recovering from ACL surgery and was only released to run about 4 weeks ago so he wanted to run with me. Since I get bored running loops in his neighborhood, I was game for it. He said he was only currently supposed to run about 2 miles per day (doctor's orders), which I said was fine since I knew so much of that would be hilly. He lives on a golf course on the side of a mountain and the we had to cut across the golf course to get to the road for the first 1/4 mile. I didn't think about the altitude there and was struggling to breathe properly despite going very slow (about a 10 mm pace). He had said he had been running a 8mm pace so I asked him why he was going so slow. He said it was to let me keep up and get used to the air. I told him to go ahead and run his pace.

As we started descending the mountain (about 3/4 mile), his knee brace kept slipping down. He told me to just take the lead and he'd keep up. I gladly did so as I teased him about running too slow (brotherly love-lol). As we hit the 1 mile marker, we were leveling out and about to climb again. 1/3 mile into the second mile, I looked back to see where he was and noticed he was way behind me. I looked down at my watch to realize I had been running a 6mm pace! I slowed down and let him catch back up. He asked if I was trying to kill him. I jokingly said I was just trying to see what he was made of (while in my head, I was merely thinking holy crap that's a really fast pace for me!).

The last 1/4 mile of the run is straight up the mountain. It was brutal, but I finished it strong and waited at the gate to his neighborhood for him. Of course, I didn't have a choice since I didn't know the code.

We did that run again the following day and then I was forced to treadmill it for 3 miles on Friday. My long run Saturday didn't go exactly as planned. Due to some schedule changes on my trip, I had to rent a car in Atlanta and drive home from the airport Friday night. That made me get in later and I had to run the rental car back Saturday morning. I woke up later than expected and was only able to log 10 miles due to time constraints. Honestly, I don't physically see me hitting my goal of 17 miles anyways. I ran the 10 miles relatively fast and was getting a little fatigued. I may have gotten a second (or by that time 3rd or 4th) wind and finished it, but it would have been tough. The hills last week kicked my butt and my legs, knees, and entire body felt it!

 

[dragitoff]

With DW and DD's sick, we skipped our run yesterday morning and did it yesterday afternoon after everyone was better. I did a timed 5k run in an attempt to get my 5k times down to where they were pre-marathon training. Since I've been employing the run/walk techniques for half and full marathon training, my body automatically wants to walk after certain times. I thought yesterday I would really push hard during the running times and actually try walking at a 9:1 ratio. The results were surprising. I ran a 5k in 24:55 with me walking 2 minutes of it! That's only :44 off my 5K PR and better than my last 5k race time. I was moving along pretty fast during my running period. I may tinker around with that strategy some more before my next 5k race in a week and a half.

 

[dragitoff]

This weekend's 17 mile run has been derailed again due to a crazy overscheduling of things by all of my family. Why are we such gluttons for punishment? lol. Seriously, I've changed my running schedule yet again for this weekend, but I'm excited about it.

In addition to me running in a local 5k next Friday night, my brother will be running it with me. It'll be his first 5k. He'll most likely beat me by a few minutes since he's a crazy fast runner. His 5k practice runs have been around 21 minutes while mine are still between 24-25 minutes (both practice and actual races). That's ok though, I can run longer distances than him!

DW and my DD's are also going to enter this race. They'll be going slow, but DW and I are going to work with them this week and hopefully it'll encourage them to fall in love with running as we have. DD10 was honestly pissed when we told them this morning we signed them up for it. I tried to encourage her this morning and told her mommy was going to run with them. We were going to try to let them run for 2 minutes and then walk for 2 minutes. That way they wouldn't get so tired. I said that's how mommy and daddy started off when we started running. DD7 jumped up and said "OH YEAH!" (sounding like the Kool-Aid man), "I'm gonna' go fast. I'm gonna' tell all my friends I'm running a race. What's it called again? I'm gonna' go so fast, I'm gonna' run 3 minutes!" Then she proceeded to run across the room to the wall as fast as she could. DW and I just laughed.

Tonight, I'm going to run a timed 5k (race pace) and DW is going to run a 5k with the kids to see how they do. We'll do the same thing Sunday after church. We'll get at least one more run in with them sometime during the week. They'll either hate us or love running before the week is over! lol. HOpefully it's the latter.

 

[Terapin]

Let us know how the kids did? Did they love the running or hate it?

 

[dragitoff]

It was kind of a love/hate thing. lol. They felt so good about themselves and proud of completing the 3.1 miles afterwards, but DD7 cried at the end and said "I'm never doing this again!". They both did it again yesterday and shaved 1:30 off their time.

They honestly can't run as much as they walk, but we're taking it slowly. DW and I both want them to be encouraged, not discouraged about it. They finished each time well under 1 hour which was what we hoped. They're around 50 minutes so it's not horrible. DD7 is really short for her age, but she runs faster than her older sister during the running stretches. DD10 has a little more fire when she runs though. She lingers in the back and then kicks it at the end to catch it at the end of our running period.

DW and I both told them they needed to run "their pace" during the running stretches, but they had to catch up with the pack before they could start walking again.

I personally had a good 5k run both Friday night and yesterday. I guess I'm pretty much ready for the race Friday. I'm still starting off too fast whether it's a race or a training run. I keep running my first mile in the low 7 minute range when my target pace is around 8 minutes. I fade out or get side stitches by the end of the 2nd mile.

We did have a great personal breakthrough for DW this morning! She's been struggling with her times. She has been fighting to consistently get her time under 10mm. She can usually hit that 1 out of the 4 miles we run in the mornings, but ends up being over 10mm avg. for the entire run. This morning she ran her fastest 5k to date (just over 30 minutes) and fastest 4 miles to date (39:43). I let her pace us this morning instead of me pacing and it seemed to work so much better. I was so proud of her!

Forgot to mention, the kids were a little more excited about the run yesterday since we got them both a pair of real running shoes and some real running gear this weekend. We told them this was something we were going to be doing from now on as a family. DD7 had another crying spell yesterday, but I was really proud because she pushed through. Her little legs are so cute how they're moving probably twice as fast as mine just to try to go as fast as she does. She's got 3 softball games this week and then we've got church on the one night without a game so they won't run again until the race Friday. That's fine anyways since I really only planned for them to run once a week anyway.

Hilarious story from our Friday run.....DW was telling me that Laney (DD7) was getting bad side stitches on her right rib cage. Apparently, Laney was listening in and said, "Yeah, I was hurting under my girls". Shelby (DD10) without hesitation said, "you mean your infants". lol. Kids do indeed say the darndest things!

 

[Coachymom]

That is wonderful! Congratulations for making that choice for yourselves and your children!

 

[dragitoff]

Quick update.....my family 5k is tonight. Now, even my dad who used to be a fast runner (5k's and 10k's only) is thinking of running tonight. He tore his ACL, LCL, MCL and every other CL up a few back in a bad skiing accident. He's never been able to run much since, but he started slugging out 3 miles on the treadmill a few times a week recently. He says it'll be hard to not run at the pace he used to run (sub 20 minute 5k at age 40), but if he thinks he can do that, he'll make a go of it. I told him to listen to his body, not his ego or pride! lol.

DW and DD's are excited about the run (DW much more than DD's. lol). I'm pumped too. It'll be my first 5k since early December and my first one at night so I'm not sure how that'll work. It'll also be my first one in hot weather. Either way, I've been running at the same time as the race and in the same temps for a few weeks in preparation.

My personal goals are: Finish in the top 50 overall (tougher task than most of my other races because there are alot of track team members that run this race), Finish in the top 3 of my age group and finish under 25 minutes.

I'll post an update next week! Have a great weekend everyone!!

 

[Terapin]

Good luck! Great goals! Keep in touch with how it all went.

 

[dragitoff]

Friday was great. Although I didn't place, I was somewhat pleased with my time of 25:21. It was almost a minute off my PR, but still not terrible. Most of all, I was so proud of my girls! My DD's finished in 47:53 which was 5 minutes faster than their previous best time. DW said they were running one minute and walking 4 minutes. We'll keep working with them, but they both were so excited upon completing the race. My baby brother finished 1st in his age group (his 1st 5k) with a time of 21:24!

 

[dragitoff]

I'm so ready for my long run tomorrow! It's been weeks since I've gotten to do anything over a 10 miler. I'm hoping for 17 miles, but I'll listen to my body since it has been a few weeks since a really long run. I'm meeting my brother. We're going to run a golf course we play on for the first 4 or 5 miles before they open and then head down the road about 4 miles to a local college here that supposedly has a really nice running trial (part paved, other parts not paved). All in all, he's trying to go for 10-12 miles himself so I'll leave him at the college (where his truck will be parked) and then head back to the golf course where I'll be parked.

I've had a couple of 5 milers this week, but didn't run after Tuesday since my knee was bothering me just a little bit. I think it was the extra work I put in the previous weeks getting my legs and body reaccustomed to a 5k pace for last weekend's 5k race. The knee is feeling fantastic now and I'm ready to go!

We'll probably take the girls out Sunday afternoon for a 5k run. Since I will be coming off my long run, I'll run/walk with the kiddos while DW gets to do a nice run at her own pace.

I registered this week for the 2013 WDW Marathon! I'm excited and have to get cracking on my training hard again. I know it's a long time away, but I want to build up my endurance to handle the distance and then start honing in on a goal time. I'm currently running it at a pace of about 4:20. I'd love to shave that down to closer to 4:00 before January. First things first though. I've got to get myself conditioned to run the full 26.2 at whatever pace!