Archive for the ‘Running’ Category

Not Enough Weekend

Monday, January 26th, 2009

We had a good weekend but it went by way too fast. Susan went scrapbooking Friday night and had a good time. For me I sat at home and did NOTHING. It was nice to finally have a night where I didn’t have anything I had to do. OK, so I had plenty that I should have been doing around the house but nothing got done.

Saturday morning Tyler had a basketball game that he was very excited about. He told me before the game that he was going to get every rebound. It turned out that he was about right. There is another boy on his team that likes to get rebounds and the were about to kill each other. They were both in the game together in the 3rd period and the coach took Tyler out so the two of them weren’t playing at the same time because they were “too competitive with each other”. My mom was there and got a good laugh because I was the same way.

After the basketball game Susan and I ran 20 miles. We had a good run and the weather was really nice which made things easier. Our marathon is 19 days away and that was our last long run until the race. Our longest run that we have between now and the race is 7 miles so we are very excited! After our run we showered and went to Lauren and Elliot’s for dinner. I’m not even sure what time we left their house but I am pretty sure it wasn’t very late. We went home and went right to bed.

Sunday morning we got up and went for a ride with our friend Tamara. She called us that morning to see if we were still going because she knew we were running 20 miles the day before. I knew it was cold outside and wanted to say no (and she also wanted me to say no because of the cold) but I said we were still going. We are doing the 63 mile bike ride the day after the marathon so we have to get use to it. It was 30 degrees with a windchill of 24 when we left the house so we had a very uncomfortable ride, but Susan and I were both glad we went. I’m not sure if it was from the ride or the icing affect from being so cold but I was much looser after the ride.

After the ride Susan and I went to Biscuitville to get breakfast. When we got done ordering we had to tell the lady at the register that we really did only need two drinks and that all that food was just for the two of us. After we ate we picked up the kids, played with them, went to the grocery store, ate dinner and then it was time for bed. I need to figure out how to get 4 day weekends because that all went by way too fast.

Swimming and the Greensboro Gobbler

Friday, November 28th, 2008

Wednesday night we took the kids to the pool, and Susan and I planned to do a swim. When we got there we decided Susan would go first and she said, “Are we doing a easy 750?” She knew that was the plan since we were doing a 5K running race the next day. Obviously she had different ideas because when she finished and I asked her how it was she said “13:38, let’s see you beat that.” My previous fastest time for a 750 was probably around 13:50 but I have never been one to turn down a challenge so I took off to beat her time. I finished in 12:20 so I won but it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for a easy day before a race.

Yesterday morning we did the Greensboro Gobbler, a 5K running race at Country Park in Greensboro. The race was at 9am and when we left the house it was 30 degrees out so I wasn’t exactly excited (I like cold weather I just don’t like working out in it for some reason). There were 1063 people in the race so it was PACKED in the park but it was still a fun run. The park has a lot of hills so it isn’t exactly the best race for us Clydesdales and Athenas but Susan and I both had a good race. The race was two laps around the park and by the second time around the hills were slowing me down more than I would have liked. In the end I was slower than I wanted to be but it was still my fastest time ever in a race (although I have been faster in some training runs), I was even fast enough to lap a lot of people so I was happy with it. Susan also had her best time ever in a 5K so she was happy. I wasn’t surprised with her time because she has been running really good lately. I keep telling her she is faster now but she doesn’t want to admit it.

Romantic Valentines Day Plans

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Yes Susan is a planner and we already have our Valentine’s weekend planned. Although in this case I guess I can’t give her a hard time about it because we had to make the plans early or we wouldn’t have been able to do what we wanted. I had signed up for the Myrtle Beach marathon about a month ago and Susan recently got signed up for the marathon and the 63 mile bike ride. I just completed the plans today when I got signed up for the bike ride also. The only thing we have left now is to get a place to say (which is kind of important).

So for Valentine’s we will be running a marathon and our recovery the next day will be to do a 63 mile bike ride. Are we crazy? The answer to that is obviously, yes! We plan on using the training from all this to do the White Lake Half Iron distance race in May so at least we have a good reason behind torturing ourselves :) .

Good Training Day

Monday, November 10th, 2008

Today at lunch I went swimming and had a good day. The main part of my swim was 750 meters and I felt good. Most of my swims lately have been slow and easy, around 15 minutes for 750 meters. Today I was still going easy so I was surprised when I saw my time of 14:16. Not my fastest swim ever but much faster than I have been going lately. When I was done I knew I still had a 5K run tonight, but I also knew from experience that a good swim doesn’t always translate into a good run.

When I got home I really didn’t feel like going running but when I finally got myself out the door I was going really fast. The 5K route at our house is very hilly and hard so I backed off the pace slightly after just under a mile to be ready for the first long hill. The turn around is on one of the hills and I got there at 13 minutes, which is fast for that run so I knew I was doing pretty good but figured my time would slow a lot on the way back because there is a long hard hill. With all the hills on this run a fast time for me is usually around 28 minutes, so I was surprised when I got home at 25:47.

So Bryan…even though it wasn’t my fastest time, I just beat your fastest time again tonight on a very hard course. If I would have been on the much flatter lunch time run course I would have been very close to that 22 minute time that we are trying to see who can make it to first (I also held back slightly because we have a 12 mile run tomorrow). Time for you to pick it up or this is going to be too easy to win!

I HAVE to Start Stretching

Thursday, November 6th, 2008

I have had this ongoing problem with IT band pain for several years now. It started several years ago with cycling as pain in my knee and now I am having the problem in my hip while running. When ever it starts bothering me I start stretching it and everything is fine again after a few days. Of course once it gets better I forget about it and stop stretching so the problems comes back. It’s been this crazy cycle that has been going on for about the past four years. You would think that after dealing with this for so long now I would just keep up a stretching program and avoid the problem all together. Maybe I will try that this time…but I wouldn’t count on it.

I did a 3 mile run at lunch today and my hip was killing me, so back to stretching. On the plus side it is a BEAUTIFUL day here. It is in the mid 70′s and not a cloud in the sky. I couldn’t pass up a day like this because of a little hip pain!

Run, Forest! Run!

Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

Welp, we just finished our 12 mile run. That’s right folks–amazing for many reasons:

1–It is 9:09pm and usually we are asleep by 8:30pm.

2–It is 9:10pm and we are about to eat dinner. This is a big deal b/c we usually eat between 5:30 and 6pm. Paul was STARVING by the time we finished our run.

3–This is 2 miles further than Paul has ever run.

4–We killed it! I am SUPER slow and make Paul slum it w me. But tonight we did our first 6 miles in 72 min (perfect 12 min miles as planned), then crushed a negative split w 64 min 2nd 6 miles! Same course!

5–It is crazy cold here for Halloween. It was about 58 when we started, dropped to about 43 at the end. Paul usually runs around in shorts and maybe a T shirt. Post shower he is in sweats, sweatshirt and a ski hat (they call them toboggans here…). Madness! But it could be cold on race day!

Myrtle, here we come!