TIART – Looking Back…Looking Ahead

Time for the Runners’ Lounge and Take It And Run Thursday…this week it’s “Looking Back and Looking Ahead.”

Soooooo, looking back to January I didn’t have any goals. I hadn’t run in five years thanks to an injury, so just stomping the pavement was nice. At first. But as soon as I started adding on the miles, my goal changed. Back when I used to run I always looked at one day doing a marathon.

As my Achilles healed, I began to think more about running longer distances. A weird series of events( check out the older posts for a lengthier explanation) came about and I signed up for a trail half marathon five weeks before the race.

I trained and ran. Ran and trained. On May 24, I ran my first half marathon. It was awesome. And great. And fantastic. And a bit addictive.

So now here I am training for a full marathon that I’ll run in November. The last few weeks of training have been rough, including a rest week, a vacation, a stomach bug and a head injury( which by the way still looks worse than it feels). But yesterday was a good comeback run. Four miles at a sub nine minute pace for the first three miles before my thighs started to give out. I finished in about 37 minutes. It wasn’t bad, but it was a run, and a good building block.

I’m still planning on running the marathon in November. I feel I’ll be on pace if I do a long run this weekend. As for my sub four hour goal, we’ll see.

It’s funny, but I can’t stop setting goals for myself. I want to run a 50K next year. But let’s get through this marathon first!

Back in the Saddle

Well, the head wound is healing and I’m ready to hit the road again. I’ll go running tonight after work and hopefully lift some weights as well. I also need to do a bit of cleaning since I’ve been gone for a few days.

I’m a little nervous getting back into running, given that it’s been a week since my last run. Have I lost everything? Will I even make it four miles? Why do I ask these questions? When’s dinner?

Elsewhere, the Braves suck. Completely. Mark Texeira is gone and so is the season. On the bright side, tickets are dirt cheap!

Outside of running and smashing my head, I’m working on my web site. I hope to start advertising for my photography business next week. I’m mostly held back by the fact I’ve been at home one night since Friday. So hopefully I’ll unveil the site tomorrow.

I took 200 photos in New York and about 100 last night and this morning as my brother-in-law and his family left for a two-year teaching job in Taiwan. Sad to see him go, but I know he’ll do great.

The Braves still suck.

Tuesday Addictions – Special Edition

Just got back from New York, so the addictions will have a vacation theme.

Aaaand, here we go!

Towels – These are great for wrapping around your head to slow the bleeding caused from cracking your head on the side of the pool while on vacation.

Foreign Languages – I’d love to learn ‘em especially if I’m sitting in a hospital waiting room where nobody speaks English.

A Swingline – It’s the Lexus of staplers, and I think might have been a better choice than the generic boring medical staples the doctor used to close my head wound.

Tylenol – See above.

Goggles – To use while swimming underwater. Would come in handy at certain instances. See above.

Overall, the trip was great. The hotel was directly across from Shea Stadium, so our walk was less than 10 minutes to the ticket gate. Had some great meals, watched a couple of movies(See “Baby Mama” Avoid “What Happens in Vegas”), and took about 200 photos.

I’ll post photos tomorrow or Thursday.

On the down side, I forgot my running shorts and then overslept this morning( was just lazy really) so I’m so far behind right now that I’m worried about being ready for the marathon.

Workin’ Out

What a day. I was in meetings from 9 a.m. until almost 2 p.m. And I’m exhausted.
Yesterday was a long day with work and then some geeky hanging out time with some friends. It was too dark to run, so instead I lifted weights.

It felt good to sweat like that.

But who cares… Tomorrow we head to New York for a weekend trip to visit Shea Stadium. For the record: I hate the Mets. But we want to see all the parks and that includes Shea. We’ll be meeting up with one of my best friends and his wife too, so add that to the cool-o-meter. I’ll be gone until Monday. I’ll have photos up Tuesday.

As a side note, I do plan to run in New York Sunday morning. If I can wake up early…

Finally, thanks to everyone who visited yesterday and in previous weeks. I’m going to make a concerted effort to update my blog roll by next Tuesday. Have a great weekend!

Take It And Run Thursday – Tough Stuff

It’s TIART time over at Runners’ Lounge. The topic this week is overcoming the tough stuff. The tough stuff is, as follows:

Running uphill
Running downhill
Waking up to run
Running after work
Running in heat
Running in cold
Running when tired
Running when it’s windy
Running on sidewalks
Running on grass
Running at night
Running during the day
Running

Running is tough. It’s tough doing four miles, and it’s tough at 13 miles. It’s tough because if it wasn’t everyone would do it. It’s tough because nothing feels better than finishing a run you didn’t think you could finish just minutes earlier.

Run. Run when it’s tough. It only feels tough for a while. Then it’s no longer tough. That’s why we run.
Because in the end, the runs are not tough. But we are.

Tuesday Addictions

1. Running- I need to do it more. I took two days off so now I’ll spend a good bit of this week pounding the pavement. I’m trying to figure out when to do my long run since I’ll be out of town over the weekend.

2. Complaining about the Braves – Can they sink lower than Sunday’s disaster? My guess is yes.

3. Photography – The new camera came in today and the web site is going up slowly. Hopefully tonight I’ll get some good practice in and start putting up flyers for the business tomorrow.

4. What I do wrong – I think this list tends to grow faster than the list of things I do right. Here’s to turning that around…I’ve made a list and I’m going to try and work on as many of these as I can. I think it’ll help me get turned around in a lot of areas. I think the running has helped. I can organize my thoughts, the good and bad and work on a plan as I hit the streets.

5. Ice Road Truckers – Love this show. Those guys are crazy. But in a good way.

Limits and Dark Knights

Saturday morning’s run ended up happening Saturday afternoon due to forces and events beyond my control. So instead of running at 6 a.m. in 75 degree heat, I ran at 3:30 p.m. in 94 (I checked) degree heat. It was brutal.

My goal was 10 miles, but I ended up stopping after 8. I don’t think of it as a failure. My body was exhausted. The heat blasted me for more than an hour and I even stopped to fill up my water bottle in the middle of my run.

My legs felt good for most of the run, but I think the earlier hill workout took more out of me than I realized. My thighs grew tired after six miles, which was odd since the course only had a few hills. Mostly, though, it was the heat.

I started getting chills about mile seven and my body was starting to slow down. So I called it early and headed home to cool off. I took yesterday off, and tonight I’ll do the bike and weights. I’ll run tomorrow morning, and Wednesday will be weights. Thursday I’d like to go running early in the morning for my long run of the week since I’ll be gone all weekend to New York. :0

Saw Dark Knight. An impressive piece of film. I could talk about Heath Ledger, but it’s nothing you haven’t already heard or read. What’s being lost a bit is the rest of the movie. It’s a fantastic crime drama, like nothing you’ve seen since Heat. Aaron Eckhart gives his greatest performance, and he does get overshadowed by Heath, but that’s fine.

What’s most amazing is Christopher Nolan. The man has made five movies so far, and the worst is easily a B minus. Not a start. In fact, I don’t know of any other director who has five first movies that are so incredible.

If you haven’t seen The Prestige, rent it. Today.

The Hills and Learnin’

Yeah, so nothing to do with that horrible, awful, terrible show. Yesterday I had a strong hill workout doing seven repetitions up and down the hill at the end of my street. It’s a substantially steep hill and that made for a good, tough workout.

I had zero knee pain again, and my IT bands seem looser than ever after runs. Tomorrow will be my long run of 10 miles. Hopefully. My legs are sore today so I’m giving them the day off. If they’re still sore tomorrow I’ll push my long run to Sunday.

In other news, my photography business is officially off the ground. Sorta. I ordered the camera, I have a domain for my site. Now I just need to get the site up and running. Here’s the problem: I’m fairly to new to web development. I’ve always been one to learn as I go, trying different paths until I finally find what I’m looking for. Last night was a long night of trying to build a background, move photos and just good ol’ fashioned learnin’. I’ll let you know when the site goes live.

Regarding yesterday’s post, a friend at work and I sat down for a break with tortilla chips and habanero salsa. It was like eating fire. Tasty fire.

Take It And Run Thursday – Hurray Food!

This week’s Take It And Run Thursday topic at the Runners’ Lounge was food. They asked for nutrition tips and good recipes. I’m going in a different direction.

Some moments I’m proud of, but probably shouldn’t be:

1. A roommate and I in college polishing off a box of Girl Scout tag-alongs in under five minutes.

2. Eating an entire jalepeno pizza on my own.

3. Decimating a full plate of crab legs at a popular seafood restaurant…as a 10-year-old.

4. Eating packages of jalepenos with my dad at the movies.

5. Ending up in the hospital with a mysterious stomach pain following number four. The doctors sent me home without ever being able to figure out what caused the pain.

I love food. I believe pizza is a perfct food and as such should not count against a person’s daily or weekly calorie intake. I think a well-made Reuben is hard to find, but when you do…heaven.

I believe nachos are a food group unto themselves.

I also believe in moderation and working out after eating numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Finally, I believe all restaurant tables should be equipped with a special electronic device that zaps anyone at the table who says “Do you know how many calories are in that?”

Yeah, I know. And obviously that information has little bearing on my decision to cram this entire eclair down my throat, so back off.

As I write this, a bottle of habanero salsa is sitting on my desk. I actually do eat pretty well. On days that I slip, I make sure I work out a bit more. I love to eat, but I don’t go overboard. Often.

Yesterday I ran four miles and my hips are sore, but my knees aren’t. At last. I think the insoles are finally doing their job. I had some knee tightening during the run, but nothing awful. Today I’ll do a hill workout, and tomorrow will be a five mile run.

My long run moved to Sunday after some events earlier this week postponed my running a bit.

Tuesday Addictions

Since I didn’t do Tuesday Addictions last week, I figured I’d jump right in today. Annnnd here we go:

1. All-Star Game – It’s always a fun game even though the American League tends to beat their counterparts every single year. With it being the last year of Yankee Stadium, the game should be especially memorable.

2. Marathon Training – I get more excited every day for my runs. Today’s four-miler will be a nice warm-up for my first double digit run of the training on Saturday.

3. Movies – Dark Knight. Hellboy II. I want to see them. Now. Please.

4. Writing – I’ve started writing again. And I’m loving it. I think I might start sending out submissions soon too.

5. Photography – I’m big in photography. So much so that I might start a side business. I’ll try to post a photo a week on this blog.

6. Blogging – I think this is pretty self-explanatory.