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

Holy Moley

After a fun weekend back home in Toledo, where we did some alumni rowing races and a fare amount of drinking, I got back into the swing of things monday with an 8 mile run on a beautiful day. The heat caught me a bit off guard, not to mention the throngs of Chicagoans enjoying the 80 degree weather. Enjoying it a bit too much though, past 2 days I saw multiple kids (usually young men who happen to have tramp stamps... surprise) getting thrown into the back of a padiwagan. I had one encounter with an obviously drunk kid who wanted to play chicken with me (he literally looked around, saw me, and stepped off the beach in front of me). So I did what anyone with common sense would of done of course... I put my sunglasses on the top of my head, stared right into his eyes, and turned on the boosters. Lets just say he didn't stay put (although he did have some choice words for me, but I kept running). That mentality never made sense to me, why do people want to pick fight with a random stranger... eh... off topic

My run was good monday, produced ALOT of sweat, and got me back into it. Today I tried something new. I've been reading a great deal of marathon websites with training schedules, and they talk about doing higher intensity, shorter runs. So today I did 4x1 miles with 3min rest in between. I did 5:28, 5:52, 5:58, and 6:12. First one was by far the easiest, and I actually though midway during the 2nd run that there was NO way I could do 2 more. There was a fare amount of dodging and weaving, and people were definitely looking at me funny, but I was pretty excited once all said and done. I hadn't done a workout like that in years and I was pretty impressed with myself (toot toot).

Side note... i stopped watching lost this season... and with the series finale just happening, I got pulled back in! Different experience this time, I watch them on fast forward so I can finish them sooner... it's pretty intense! Still no better season than season 1

Morning run tomorrow with a core workout after... keep your motor runnin...

A Good Week

Wednesday was my fast 7-8 mile run, and I'm still somewhat surprised/encouraged by my performance that day. So Thursday I decided I should take precaution and do a recover run: shorter and slower in the morning. Well didn't exactly get myself up at 5:45AM (damn snooze button is so inviting!) and I had to make up for it in the evening. It was a beautiful day and when I got home my roommate Loren was looking for for a running partner. I thought this was perfect because I'm a bit faster than Loren, and he usually doesn't run for too long. We got on the beach path and I decided to make up for the speed difference, I'd run in the sand while he ran on the pavement. This lasted about a mile and was really tough. I am definitely going to add sand running into my off day repertoire! I barely kept up with Loren, and was happy to see the sand end after about a mile. But then Loren said something that made something click in my head. He said, "alright man I'm going to turn here and head to Ana's (his g/f's) and you can keep going." Maybe it was ego, maybe it was just my years of following instructions in rowing, but once he said that I just thought "ok" and kept going. I ran a total of 9 miles and had to force myself to turn around. My speed varied, as it always does, dependent on the distance of people running in front of me. See for some reason I have to pass everyone. In my head even a training run is a competition, and even if someone is running significantly slower than me, if I see them a quarter mile ahead I kick it up a notch. I had tried to keep myself to 7 min miles, but at times I was going 6:30min/miles. In the end I ran those 9 miles in a little over an hour. Faster than I wanted, but it felt GREAT.

Today was a lift/cross training day, so I got to the gym and went through my core routine and high rep lifts. It's disheartening sometimes doing the lifts because I top strength has left me a bit. I have to remind myself when I can only do 14 pull-ups that I can always go back to heavy lifting after 10/10/10, that I need to focus on becoming a runner. After the lift I did some erging (god i hate that machine) and hoped on the dreaded eliptical. 1.5 hrs at the gym felt good and I feel stronger in the right places (core, legs, and back).

Tomorrow I have to do a morning run because I'm driving back to Toledo for my high school's alumni rowing race. Very excited to see some old faces and splash around in the Maumee River. I should be able to get some runs in Saturday and Sunday. Until Monday I'll leave you with a pic of the lake front at 6AM a few months ago. It's brighter now adays at that time, and I miss the view of the sun rising over the lake. Gotta love Chicago!

Attempt of a Video Blog

So after a pretty decent recover run Friday and a low key gym workout Saturday, I had a pretty lazy Sunday and Monday (read I may have imbibed a bit too much... who me???? noooo). So today I got out on the path with the goal to run close to 8 miles, FAST. I had my GPS watch and I averaged 6:40min miles, which was way faster than i expected! I toyed around with 6min miles, just to see how fast it felt. Pushed me past AT threshold for a bit, which was probably good for my speed but bad for my knees! Anyways, I tried doing a video blog before leaving for the workout... lets see if it works!

"Recovery" Run

Got home from work today a little later than usual. Was exhausted all day, but felt like I needed to do some sort of run being that in the past 7 days I've only been able to get in a few mediocre workouts. So I reheated some coffee from the morning and pounded down a bowl of cereal before gearing up. The plan was to do a short run, about 4 miles, at a slower pace... well that didn't exactly happen. I think it was a combination of the caffeine kicking in around mile 2 and my new ipod playlist that just kept me from wanting to turn around. The weather wasn't even nice! But somehow I just zoned out and found myself farther than I had ever run down the path. Round trip the run was 11.26 miles, and from the reading on my new GPS watch, I was moving at a decent pace (7 min miles... a 3 hour marathon is about a 6:53 min mile). It was just one of those run where my brain turned off and everything felt great. It was pretty surprising being that I am just getting over this bug! Heart rate was in the right range, between 150-165 hpm, and with some sprint work I should be able to get that down a bit. In a couple months I have to do a 20 mile training run (i think a few weeks before the race) and at this rate that should be a breeze!

On another note I need to get involved with the American Cancer Society of Chicago pretty soon. The training is alot, but I have done a good deal of morning work and can volunteer in the afternoon. Luckily the adminstrators at ACS are extremely helpful, and I think they will be able to point me in the right direction.

Also I need to get a video camera to make some video of the training, volunteering, and maybe a few video-journal entries. Ebay here I come!

New Weight Regimen and Video of "The Path"

Check out my beach path on a windy day last week. Pretty cool right? Definitely my favorite part about Chicago.

Last week I started a new weight routine that is more inline with my marathon goals. That means no more "beach weights," it's time to work the high reps low lbs. No more mass building, now it's all about building core strength and getting some lean sinewy muscle like Usain Bolt (sorry I dont know the names of any famous marathoners)! I'm still recovering from this annoying bug, so I didn't want to push it too hard today but I didn't want to be a couch potato either. The gym was basically empty, it was a sunday (not to mention mother's day), I could get to each station without a wait, and I was strug-el-ing! It was good to do though, can't let a little sickyness get in my way. Hoping tomorrow I will be closer to 100% and can get a long run in after work. I also think starting tomorrow I'm going to publicize the blog... hopefully to critical acclaim of course!

PS
I just saw that they are bringing back NBA JAM... I remember spending hours playing that with my childhood friend Joey. BOOM-SHAKALAKA!!!!! HE'S ON FIREEEE!!! This remake looks like a bunch of bobble heads playing basketball though... which is a good way to describe what it looks like when I play basketball, but doesn't fly with professionals... oh well I'll try it of course SLAMAJAMA!

Minor Setback... and a Life Lesson

So minor setback… Tuesday was my birthday and to celebrate I decided to do a longer run at my marathon pace before going for dinner and drinks with friends. The run was along the lake (my preferred path) and for a change it wasn’t too windy. The past few days on the path have been a battle against the wind on the return trip, which obviously means the trip out was a breeze with the tailwind. Back in the day during rowing practices, you would sometimes swear you were going into a headwind both ways. With running it is very clear which way the wind is blowing, so I always begin to dread that moment when I have to turn around and face that two headed, foaming at the mouth windy beast. But this time the wind was pretty tame so I decided it was time to push it and work on my technique. Marathon runners always seem to run with a short stride, and being that I am alotta leg, my stide isn’t exactly short. I relate that technique to rowing with a “poppy” feel. It’s what we used to say when we needed to be a little quicker through the water and usually used during longer races. Use a little less energy and quicken up your turnover. It makes things more efficient and allows the rower (runner) to conserve energy for the long haul. Overall the run was successful. I ran 7.66 miles at a pace of 8.6 mph (my marathon pace is 8.7) and felt like I could have gone much farther.

And here is when the “setback” began. Lets just say that what was supposed to be a quiet dinner/drinks with friends turned into a quiet dinner/drinks with friends and a night of drinks with the boss’s son. Yes life is random, actually had a random run in on the path too, and I found myself boozing with Hightower Jr (you’d get it if you knew my boss). Next day was tough, and then for 2 days after I was under the weather. So I am hitting the sack early today (Friday) and hoping to get out on the trail and in the gym tomorrow morning. I did gain 1 good bit of knowledge from my birthday night: never mix scotch, beer, vodka, beer, whiskey, and champagne… it never ends well.

Let the Adventure Begin....

The goal: Raise as much money for cancer research
The plan: Run my first marathon in under 3 hours
The reality: I am 6'4, 200lbs, with "child-bearing hips." This is not going to be easy!

In the beginning of April I started running regularly along Lake Michigan. I've always had the idea in the back of my head to run a Marathon (although if you had asked me what I thought about marathons you may have thought I had the conception that marathons were created by Beelzebub himself) but never had the opportunity. Now that I am settled in a new city (Chicago) with a great job (evil financial minion), I am ready to give it a shot. But there were 2 stipulations: do it for charity and break 3 hours. The first was a no-brainer. So many people in my life have been effected by cancer and I hope this small act will help people much smarter than me find a cure sooner rather than later. My father beat cancer 8 year ago. And my aunt has beat it 3 different times over 12 years (her most recently battle was this past Summer). They are easily two of the toughest people I know, and my main reason I am running. But so many other people in my life have been effected by cancer: friends, neighbors, co-workers, teachers.... the list goes on. And that is why I want this blog to not only be my training journal... but also a journal about the people who have lived with/through cancer in some aspect of their lives.

Now "why 3 hours?" you ask. Well... if I'm going to put myself through this horrific race, I might as well go after it. I came up with 3 hours because that is the number I've been told is "impressive." Two year ago, while living in NYC, I got on a treadmill thinking I would be doing a short run and ended up doing a half marathon in 1hr27min. Yes I know the treadmill is likely easier, but I'm going to actually train for this! And you can read about it here! I know you are just overflowing with excitement, so I'll leave you now to go think about just how much fun it is going to be reading this blog over the next 5 months :/ I do promise to try and make it entertaining and also somewhat educational. I will end with my first plea for donations: DONATE! (PS: over the next few months I will have goals that if we hit I do silly things... ideas are welcome for those prizes!)

And here... we... goooo