Ouch ouch ouch... and Eff DirecTV

I AM LIVID RIGHT NOW! Why do we put up with companies that treat their clients like dirt? I have been jumping through hoops for DirecTV to get be able to use a used receiver, and when I finally get one that they say is acceptable... they tell me (after i buy it) that the account it had been hooked up to is "in collection" and cannot be activated for my account. WTF!!!! Somebody already told me it was good to go and I dropped money on it! So long and short I just got my heart rate up for a good hour as I felt like I was talking to monkey's who sniff their own butts even after they discover it doesn't smell very good the first time (i love that youtube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAgEgEda12c).

Ok so today prior to that whole debacle, I went for a run along the beach path... did about 10 miles with only 1 stop to do some pull-ups in the park. This is where the "ouch ouch ouch" comes in... my legs have been super sore as of late. So today's 10 mile run was at 7 min miles and in all honesty I was happy to stop and change it up for a few minutes. Although on the plus side my new (used) ipod didn't crap out on me half way through... I can only take singing songs in my head for so long.

So facebook group is looking good... I've already got 2 donations!!!! So excited! Definitely now feel more of a sense of urgency being that the race is only 3 months way. Hope you are enjoying the blog!

Still running... farther now

So I've been MIA on the blog for the past 2 weeks. Busy summer. But nonetheless I have still been getting in some pretty good workouts. My average distance has started to get farther and farther. I'd say over the past 2 weeks I've gone from averaging 7 miles to averaging over 9. My last 2 runs were 12.6 and 11.1 at decent speeds. Today I had quite the reality check though: I was passed by guys that were obviously college runners. Now I don't expect to be at the same level as those guys, but it still was very much humbling to have them zoom by me. I caught one of them grabbing a drink and asked if I could pass off him on my way in, he was nice enough to say no problem. My watch said we were doing 5:40 miles and being that I was on mile 10 at that time, I only lasted about 4 minutes. Instead of getting down about it, I tried to watch the way he ran, see if there was anything in my stride that I could fix. He was about 3 inches shorter than me, but had a much longer stride. I've been trying to keep my strides short and peppy, I think I'm going to try getting a little bit longer for my next few runs. I also need to start getting more than 6 hours of sleep a night, I am dragging hard by the time I need to get out and could easily tempt myself into taking a nap. (it also doesn't help I've been going at the weekends pretty hard... and I'm not talking about working out... so that's going to have to be a lifestyle change pretty soon). I still think I can reach my goal of a 3 hour marathon, I can tell that the last 10 miles are going to be really really hard, but if I continue to up my mileage, stay true to what my body is telling me, I think it will come down to toughing it out. Natural talent didn't really get me very far in my athletic career... and this is no different. I've got to push through all the walls I hit and remember that whatever sacrifices I may be making, and whatever pain I may feel, it's nothing compared to what the people who have to fight cancer have to go through. That's real toughness.

After this post I'm going to start up a facebook group and send out a few emails to promote cause and publicize a bit what I'm doing. I hope you enjoy the blog and please donate whatever amount you feel comfortable with... every dollar counts. See you soon

Interview Numero Uno

(full disclosure: this is blatant thievery from one Adam White... so thanks... and don't sue)

So I thought I'd do my first interview... the idea of doing interviews was mentioned in my first post, so I thought I'd follow through with it. But who should the first interviewee be? Why not interview yourself? Ya that's a great.... wait who are you!?!? I'm the right side of your brain being creative (slash stealing this shtick)! Well this is weird... ok lets do this

Q: What have you been doing the past few days?

Don: Well I've been pretty busy with hanging out with friends on the weekend, working during the week, and finding time/energy to fit some good training in between. Friday was an off day, and Saturday (after getting locked out of my own apartment... long story) Tommy and I went for good 6 miler and Monday we did a fast 6 miler. I've been more tired recently, so I'm a little worried of over training. Luckily being 4 months away I have time to recover.

Q: What made you think you could do a marathon in 3 hours?

Don: What? Why couldn't I?

Q: I'm supposed to be asking the questions! Well even your mother said "you were never an athlete," and it takes an athlete to go that fast, a smaller athlete at that.

Don: Oh come on don't tell everyone that story! She was just saying that I had to work harder because I wasn't a born athlete. But this whole idea of 3 hours came up because its the time that many non-runners point at as a very impressive time. In 2008 I was working out pretty consistently, running on the treadmill in the gym alot and did the math to find that a 3 hr marathon is 8.7mph. One day in the gym, I got on the treadmill just as the 2008 US Open playoff started between Rocko Mediate and Tiger, and set it to 8.7mph thinking it would be just a 30 minute run and after an hour I decided to go for the half marathon. I ended up doing 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 27 minutes. Lets just say I had some blisters but it also planted the idea of going for a 3hr marathon.

Q: He's a big dumb animal folks...

Don: Shut-up

Q: Easy buddy... so do you know anything about running marathons?

Don: Not a thing... I've been trying to do research, but I'm keeping it simple: upping my mileage every week, doing some interval stuff, trying to lose some weight, and using some stuff I've learned about training during my rowing career

Q: What has your "research" come up with professor?

Don: Yuk yuk... well I now know that I have to average 6:51 miles to get my goal, which is a few seconds faster than I thought, but doable. Shorter strides with quicker turnover (# strides per minute) is more efficient than long lunging strides like I used to do.

Q: How come nobody has read your blog yet?

Don: Because I'm self conscious about my writing and have yet to publicize it yet... thanks bringing that up....

Q: You're welcome

Q: To close: do you have anything else you'd like to say?

Don: Yes. Please donate and leave comments!

Q: But I'm just your sub-conscious, I don't have any money...

Don: The readers!!! Not you damn sub-conscious!

And I'm Back!

So I took a quick trip down to Florida over Memorial Day weekend and even though I was able to crank out a few runs, I wasn't nearly as productive as I am here in chi-sizzle. And because golf doesn't count, my total workout count was 2. That may have had to do with the fact that even at 9AM it was in the low 90's and humid to boot. So on Friday I got out for what I thought would be a easy 6 mile run with my dad riding along on his mountain bike. Side note: my dad will wear a hooded sweat shirt if he was running across the Sahara. I mean it's crazy, I have no idea how he doesn't keel over from heat stroke! He says its from his days as a wrestler, where the goal was to lose as much weight as possible in every workout. Amazing... Anywho, I got another short run in on Saturday and then took Sunday/Monday off to recuperate.

Now that I am back in Chi-tropolis, I kicked it off with a 9.6 mile run at 7min mile pace. The beach path is getting super busy, every category of activity has increased in popularity, but it seems biking has become the most popular. Apparently there are more Lance Armstrong wannabe's in the midwest than I expected. These bikers are extremely angry people. On average I get yelled at by a biker 3.38 times a run. I try to look out for them when I am passing someone in front of me, but why do they have priority over us "faster than average" runners? I mean as far as toughness, runners produce much more lactic acid over a much shorter distance. The fact is you have to spend double the amount of time on a bike to burn the same amount of calories you would by running. Therefore as the chancellor of the beach path, you bikers are ordered to CHILL OUT! We're all out there doing our best to not get in anyones way.

Ridonkuous