5AM = No time

Sorry I haven't posted anything in the past week. I've noticed that when I am getting up at 5AM (4:45am sometimes) to run, I have little to no energy after work. I was tapering off all week in preparation for Sundays half marathon race, running at max 6miles. But the speed comes much easier now than it did when I started getting up that early. Today I have completely off, going to go to the expo downtown to pick up my race package and then throw in a movie and hit the sack around 10. Will try to get up around 7am tomorrow so that I can actually fall asleep early enough tomorrow night so I get a full 8 hours before my 4:30AM alarm goes off Sunday morning! Found out that the time i need may be a bit faster than I can do right now. All that means is that I am going to have to find some people going for 3 hours in my "B" corral during the marathon. I'm very confident I can do sub 650 miles for the half marathon, but to get into the A corral I'd have to do 633 miles which is a bit faster than i can do :( Alright... here's to a boring weekend, will let y'all know how I do on Sunday

Wait What???

The half marathon race is in 2 weeks!!!! AHHHHHH FREAKKOUTTTT!!!

Ok I'm better. So as I just said, the 13.1 mile race is 2 weeks from yesterday. To prepare for the early morning race (630AM) I am going to do all my workouts before work. That means up at 5AM most mornings. As I have said before, I am not a morning person, so this is going to be quite the endeavor. Last week showed that I have the fitness to do a sub 1:30 half marathon, now I just need to make sure it translates to early morning running (picture is from a morning in March when it was still dark out... maybe ill see something similar at 5AM). Sunday I was planning on doing an 18 mile run, but the heat was unbearable. I was able to do a little over 10 miles in the 90 degree heat with 80% humidity. It was evident today that it took alot out of me, when I was dying around mile 3 during my 8 mile run. I was able to average 6:41 miles in today's run, but it did take alot of effort.

So tomorrow morning is a big day... oh... also we went over $300 today!!! Thanks again and if you haven't donated yet, any amount helps!!

Weights, Bike, Bonkin, Inspiration, & Fancy Running Stuff

So after my half marathon run Monday I was limping around all Tuesday. I decided it was time to listen to my body and do some cross training, real low key style. So I hit the gym, focusing on high reps for upper body and some strong core exercises. Being that I haven't been in the gym in about 2 months, what I thought was light weight was pretty heavy. After that I used the stationary bike to get 35 minutes of decent cardio. I thought by today I would be good for a long easy run... notsomuch... I got about 6 miles in, but it was very very slow (730 miles) and I was dying! Honestly I had to walk almost 4 blocks after the run to cool down.

On a side note: I watched the Espy's tonight. Seth Meyers was hilarious... although I think he could have made a few more jokes about Lebron and Tiger... but maybe that was too easy. What I wanted to talk about is the Arthur Ashe award recipient. They gave it to the family of a coach of a high school coach in Iowa. He basically helped bring a community back from a terrible tornado disaster in 2008 and last year he was killed by one of his past players. His family was crushed, but in a terrible time they came together, supported the family of the killer, and one of his son took over the coaches mantle. Seeing the family receive the award from Brett Favre (my hero) and hearing the son speak was extremely touching. The jist of his speech was almost a lesson to all these young, rich, and dumb athletes out there: its not that hard to do the right thing and you will reach millions of people. It was extremely humbling, and I couldn't help but think how so many people have done so many good things and I can only hope that I can do a fraction of what other people have done for the American Cancer Society. Thank you all for your donations and support, please spread the word

PS: That picture on the top are these new compression calf sleeves that I got on Amazon. After scouring marathon blogs, they say these compression sleeves help with recovery. I am possibly doing it all wrong, but I will do anything short of EPO to achieve my goal. I wonder if I could find a used hyper-bolic chamber on ebay.... hmmmmmmm

Big Time!

Today was a big day! Had a good one on Saturday too. Saturday we went golfing at 730AM (walked the course!) and somehow made it out for a run with Clarke. We did 10 miles at a comfortable pace and I did another 2.5 at faster pace. I was pooped after. But then today I went on a run thinking it be just a tad over 10, I ended up going at a decent pace, fast enough to do a sub 1:30 half marathon. Unfortunately my watch didn't pick up the distance for a few minutes, so the only way for me to test my pace half marathon was to do 1hr and 30 min and see if my distance was over 13.1 miles. The way back was reallllly tough. I was going real slow and had to make 2 stops to grab some water. It was "Bonk-a-palooza 2010!" I still wanted to see what I could do, so I finished the time and took a slow jog/walk back home. Jumped right onto google pedometer and found that I did 13.125 miles in 1hr and 30min!!! That's 6:51 miles... 1.5 seconds faster than my marathon pace! I think if I did it on a Saturday, after a rest day, I could go even faster! Maybe not for a few days though, I have a feeling I'm going to be pretty sore tomorrow!

On the donations sided we just passed $250! Support is coming from family, new friends, old friends... The support and well wishes have been great! Thank you all so much! Till next time...

A little Video From my New Ipod!

Here is a video I took a little after my turn around from my 14.5 mile day.... It may have been an excuse to take a short breather as well ;)

Note: Please forgive my "doofiness" during my videos... I'm not exactly a trained play-by-play announcer

Good few days

So lets rewind to Friday: I had the day off and it was a gorgeous day going into the 4th of July weekend. I knew it was time for a run that was longer than I have ever done, so I thought it was best to go a different direction. So instead of heading North on the beach path, which actually would only allow me to go a little over 6 miles before the end of the path, I went South towards Millennium Park and Soldier Field. Some people don't like doing the same path over and over again. For me I actually would rather run the same route until I can run it with my eyes closed. Really the only way I can cope with the sheer amount of time I have to be continuously running is to totally zone out. I'm not sure if it's a good thing that I can so easily shut off my brain. It either means I have the power of a Buddhist monk or I have gotten so much dumber over the years that I may have the intelligence of a 4th grader (although I had a vivid imagination back then... hmmm)... i prefer to think the former. So anyways, I put on my favorite podcasts on (PTI & the BS Report... stand for Bill Simmons, although he is full of BS too) and I started runnnning. I went out about 7.25 miles (although I thought it was 6.5) and felt a little lost. Luckily the path is over 18 miles long, so it's not like I needed directions. On the way back I needed to stop at 3 water fountains so I didn't overheat, thank god there is water and gatorade given out during the marathon! I ended up doing 14.5 miles in about 1 hour and 43ish minutes. I was pretty pumped with myself to say the least. I'm hoping to get myself up to 20 miles by August. Speaking of August, my half marathon is on August 1st. I really feel ready to run it at my marathon pace. Only problem is race starts at 630AM!!!!! Which means I have to get up at 5 at the latest to get warmed up and ready. Running in the morning is super hard. Heck one of the major reasons I chose to go to Dartmouth is that they never had morning rowing practice! That may be a bit of a stretch, but I am not a morning person let alone a morning athlete!

I took Saturday off to recover from the Friday run (and friday night...oooops) and Sunday and Monday I did 6.5 miles and 7 miles respectively. Legs were definitely still sore, but I am finding speeds coming quite a bit easier. Yesterday and today I did over 9 miles and during both runs I got rained on. Yesterday was pretty awesome actually. It was coming down hard enough that it was actually hard to see a few feet in front of me. Nothing is better than running in the rain, especially being caught after the turn around point.

At the top is a picture of the sky after the night that there was a tornado spot close to the city. It was very surreal to say the least. I'm not sure if the picture does it justice but the sky was literally purple.

Thanks for all the donations by the way. We are over $200 so far!!! Way ahead of where I thought I'd be at this point, so thank you and please if you haven't donated press the "Chip-In" widget at the top right of the blog!

AMERICA!

I love America... I was too busy all weekend to post, because I was loving America so much, but I did take some time for a few good runs and even made a short video during one of my runs. Will update later tonight. Happy belated 4th, hope everyone had a good time and welcome back to work!

X-Training, Run, Volleyball, and Epic Win!

I'm not going to lie, I was beat on Wednesday! I had done about 23 miles in 2 days and knew I needed to do some x-training. So I finally used the Lincoln Park Boat Club and went for a row. Rowing a scull is very different from rowing... I feel like I'm in pretty good shape, but in both the alumni rows I have done over the past month, I have been exhausted just paddling. We used to do 15 miles a day at steady state and in no way was it close to the level of exhaustion i experienced in just a few kilometers. The row was relaxing and tiring, but worst of all the shoes were too small! Recreational rowing clubs seem to be biased against people that are actually big enough to be good rowers! My feet were numb after 4k! So i had to get out of the boat and jump on an erg for 20 minutes to get a decent workout in.

Fast forward to today, got out of work early and got out for a run before volleyball. The run started out at a decent pace, but I got to 4.5 miles and felt pretty beat. Turned around and starting messing around with my stride. Lengthened out a bit and kind of felt like I was going over 7min miles. I wasn't tired, it felt like a comfortable pace but too comfortable. But low and behold I look down at my gps watch and I am going 6:30 miles! The realization I was going faster than I ever thought was invigorating. I kept pace all the way home and ended up doing a little over 9 miles in 59:50. I know I need to be above 10 miles in all my runs now, but I also know there will be times that I may be tired and can not do as much (especially in the morning) so I am pleased with today's run. I plan on doing a half marathon tomorrow sometime being that I have the day off. After the run I took a quick shower and headed out to volleyball. I am so happy I joined a volleyball league. Honestly it is the highlight of my week. The group I play with are all really cool people, and its more about just having fun than it is about winning. I'm not all that great though... i spend alot of time in the sand rather than hitting the ball over the net. I would describe my play as "floppy." Tons of fun nonetheless

So as for the epic win... after having my call "escilated" numerous times with DirecTV's customer service, they are finally realizing the ridiculousness of their policy! WIN! See what a little hard headedness will get you!

Donations are coming in... I'm almost up to $200 already! Thank you to everyone for donating and I really appreciate it! Please pass on this blog to your friends and family... I promise to do the work and with your help we can really help a great cause! Ok better post tomorrow!