I meant to get another post up this week, so I didn't end up posting about running twice in a row. Sadly, the week just got away from me and I couldn't find the time. Where did my time go?
Sunday I saw Max Payne with my bro, which was enjoyable. Not a super awesome movie, but fun, and it made me want to install the games again (which I did). I actually had to make a choice tonight between blogging and playing Max Payne, and I decided to go with blogging. It's midnight, so maybe I can still squeeze in some video games too.
The rest of the week was filled in with the usual. Running on Monday and Tuesday night. Wed night I exchanged some jeans I bought on Sunday for a different size. Thursday night I had roleplaying. And then Friday we did something fun as a family, and went to the Rainforest Cafe in the MOA.
That pretty much brings us up to date with today, where this morning I ran quite the half marathon. The odds were slightly stacked against me, considering I have a bad cold. But 1:36:38 later, I ran the race exactly as I wanted, at a whopping 7:14 average pace. I can honestly say it was my strongest run of the year, and I was ecstatic about my time. The best part? No pain, no injuries, nada! I could run again tomorrow if I wanted to (which I don't!).
So there it is. Personal record #6 for the year. Did I mention I finished 56th out of 1018 people? I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one.
To finish up the weekend, we had a wedding tonight. My long time high school friend & running buddy finally tied the knot. Grandma Gayle watched Megan overnight and we enjoyed a solo evening. The service was just wonderful, at a church in Burnsville, and the reception was at the MN Zoo! Talk about convenience... It made for a great night just bouncing around from place to place so quickly.
And now... off to play some Max Payne.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Personal Records
10 hours of sleeping, that's a personal record! I haven't slept in for quite awhile since the last few weekends I've been getting up early for morning runs. But with the mornings now being 30 degrees, that's not happening. Odd thing is, Megan has been giving up her naps lately and she is STILL sleeping in.
The rest of this blog is going to be somewhat of a brag fest, so if you're not on board, might as well just stop reading now. This year of running has been good for me. If you had asked me at the start of the year if I could do some of the distances and paces I've accomplished this year, I would have laughed, but sure enough... I hit a lot personal records this year, including 5 "offical" race personal records and a personal distance record. Here are my records for the year:
The reason I mention these is because I have one last race coming up in a week, next Saturday. It's a half marathon and I'm thinking about trying to squeeze one more PR out of this year. I'm setting a goal of 96 minutes, which translates to a 7:20 pace. So basically, I'm going to attempt to run the half marathon at roughly a 10k pace.
That's rough... and there is big potential that I could hurt myself trying this but I want to give it a shot. I've been speed training a lot this last 2 months, which is in part why I got the recent injury. (I was coming off a speed run the previous day). Thursday of this week I did another speed test to see how my leg would hold out, and although there was no pain, around mile 5 I could feel the initial tightness so I slowed it down a bit. Ran last night with no lasting effects, so hopefully it will be ready for race day.
The thing I'm wondering is if perhaps this year has seen the peak of my running and it's all going to be down hill from here (pun intended).
Here are the details from Thursdays run. As you can see, I only hit my "goal" pace of 7:20 two times during the run. First at mile 5 where I felt GREAT at first, then slowed down, then again at the end of the run. The red line indicates the pace I'm going to try for... for 13.1 miles.
The rest of this blog is going to be somewhat of a brag fest, so if you're not on board, might as well just stop reading now. This year of running has been good for me. If you had asked me at the start of the year if I could do some of the distances and paces I've accomplished this year, I would have laughed, but sure enough... I hit a lot personal records this year, including 5 "offical" race personal records and a personal distance record. Here are my records for the year:
| Distance | Time | Pace | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 m | 5:51 | 5:51 | New distance |
| 6.2 m (10k) | 45:32 | 7:21 | April 26th |
| 6.2 m (10k) | 45:11 | 7:17 | July 26th |
| 13.1 m (half) | 1:38:15 | 7:30 | June 7th |
| 15.5 m (25k) | 2:08:06 | 8:16 | New distance |
The reason I mention these is because I have one last race coming up in a week, next Saturday. It's a half marathon and I'm thinking about trying to squeeze one more PR out of this year. I'm setting a goal of 96 minutes, which translates to a 7:20 pace. So basically, I'm going to attempt to run the half marathon at roughly a 10k pace.
That's rough... and there is big potential that I could hurt myself trying this but I want to give it a shot. I've been speed training a lot this last 2 months, which is in part why I got the recent injury. (I was coming off a speed run the previous day). Thursday of this week I did another speed test to see how my leg would hold out, and although there was no pain, around mile 5 I could feel the initial tightness so I slowed it down a bit. Ran last night with no lasting effects, so hopefully it will be ready for race day.
The thing I'm wondering is if perhaps this year has seen the peak of my running and it's all going to be down hill from here (pun intended).
Here are the details from Thursdays run. As you can see, I only hit my "goal" pace of 7:20 two times during the run. First at mile 5 where I felt GREAT at first, then slowed down, then again at the end of the run. The red line indicates the pace I'm going to try for... for 13.1 miles.
Monday, October 13, 2008
3 Come and Gone
It's weird how little time I spend on the computer now. Okay, let me clarify and define "now" as the last week or so. Basically I can't be on the computer when Megan is up, because it just leads to a fight between her and I about the fact that I don't want her on the computer, or she can't watch Panda (of the Kung Fu variety), Turtles (TMNT), or Mermaid (Little Mermaid). Point being, it's tough to find time to blog. It happens in between naps or after she has gone to sleep but I somehow manage to not have fallen asleep with her (like now for example).
Megan turned 3 on Thursday of last week, and we had a small birthday party on Saturday afternoon. The highlight of the week was when she went from saying "Happy day" to "Happy birthday!" to "Happy Birthday Megan!" It was a very exciting time for us. Her birthday party was great, and she was excited to see everyone and get all the presents. Thank you everyone for all the wonderful gifts!!
Tonight we had pre-school "conferences". They were... interesting I guess. It's hard to put into words, but it felt like the teachers were way too nice and just trying too hard not to offend. I think the best way to describe it is that Andrea and I are not on the same page with the ECFE folks regarding where Megan is at and where we think Megan can, could, and will be at in the coming months. In other words, it just made it clear to me what Andrea has known for quite awhile - we are Megan's best bet, her best teachers, and her best chance at being fully caught up in the next year (which we both feel is a totally possible goal).
In other news, I'm back into my normal running routine with no pains or residual effects of my recent injury, so I've been happy about that. Now I have to decide how I'm going to get through this winter: Indoor or Outdoor? Weight training or no weight training? It's tough to give up the time running, so at this point if I can't decide anything soon I'll probably just default to standard indoor running all winter.
Megan turned 3 on Thursday of last week, and we had a small birthday party on Saturday afternoon. The highlight of the week was when she went from saying "Happy day" to "Happy birthday!" to "Happy Birthday Megan!" It was a very exciting time for us. Her birthday party was great, and she was excited to see everyone and get all the presents. Thank you everyone for all the wonderful gifts!!
Tonight we had pre-school "conferences". They were... interesting I guess. It's hard to put into words, but it felt like the teachers were way too nice and just trying too hard not to offend. I think the best way to describe it is that Andrea and I are not on the same page with the ECFE folks regarding where Megan is at and where we think Megan can, could, and will be at in the coming months. In other words, it just made it clear to me what Andrea has known for quite awhile - we are Megan's best bet, her best teachers, and her best chance at being fully caught up in the next year (which we both feel is a totally possible goal).
In other news, I'm back into my normal running routine with no pains or residual effects of my recent injury, so I've been happy about that. Now I have to decide how I'm going to get through this winter: Indoor or Outdoor? Weight training or no weight training? It's tough to give up the time running, so at this point if I can't decide anything soon I'll probably just default to standard indoor running all winter.
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Dance-A-Palooza
I've already been on the computer too long, updating my running information. I haven't had time to post, but last Saturday I suffered a pretty bad injury. While doing a longer weekend run, I got what I assume is a typical overuse muscle strain in my inner upper thigh. If I had to guess, it's a sartorius strain. After 2 days rest, I've done 2 more light runs with no pain, but I can tell pushing much past 5-6 miles would aggravate it. For now, I'll keep up light runs and see how it goes. Maybe this winter will finally bring me to weight lifting as an alternative.
Okay so enough about my lameness, let's get on to the real purpose of this post. The other night, Megan did the most adorable series of dances for us, that I was able to capture all on tape. For your viewing pleasure, I present, Megan's Dance-A-Palooza!!
First, we start of dancing with the pudding...
And we move on to some solo dancing...
More moves, wait, we need a dancing partner?
Get down with those panda moves!
And now to thank the wonderful dancing partner.
Okay so enough about my lameness, let's get on to the real purpose of this post. The other night, Megan did the most adorable series of dances for us, that I was able to capture all on tape. For your viewing pleasure, I present, Megan's Dance-A-Palooza!!
First, we start of dancing with the pudding...
And we move on to some solo dancing...
More moves, wait, we need a dancing partner?
Get down with those panda moves!
And now to thank the wonderful dancing partner.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
Blog in 20
Can I get a blog post up in under 20 minutes? Ready... GO!
So this week flew by, as did the weekend despite the fact that we didn't have anything planned at all. The biggest news for me was a semi painful running injury I got on Saturday. I finally pushed myself too hard, and have just put in too many miles over the past month and it caught up to me. It's only a muscle injury so nothing serious, and I should be back out there after a few days rest.
Rented Iron Man over the weekend and watched it in two parts over on my TV at Mom's house (I've seen it, Andrea hadn't). Saturday night was a spaghetti dinner to help prep John for his marathon run this morning. Felt bad for all the rain, but I bet the marathoners didn't mind. Grats to all that ran this year.
In other news, Megan's sleeping habits are going from not so good, to bad, to worse. Not quite sure what the deal is or how to steer her back on course. I suppose I haven't mentioned much about this area at all... To get people back up to speed, here is a quick run down.
Megan is back to having a hard time falling asleep on her own. She has also taken to coming up to sleep in our bed most nights, somewhere between midnight and 4am. Some nights it's no big deal, she climbs in and goes to sleep. I understand it's a phase most kids go through, I did, Andrea did, all other parents I talk to mention similar stories. So no big deal right?
The problem is it's starting to get worse at bed time, Megan demanding things or crying if she doesn't get her way. My guess is I just need to put my foot down and be more firm and consistent (isn't that always the case?). I'm too much of a push over / cave in-er. Well damnit, not anymore!!
And... blog done. 11 minutes. Not bad!
So this week flew by, as did the weekend despite the fact that we didn't have anything planned at all. The biggest news for me was a semi painful running injury I got on Saturday. I finally pushed myself too hard, and have just put in too many miles over the past month and it caught up to me. It's only a muscle injury so nothing serious, and I should be back out there after a few days rest.
Rented Iron Man over the weekend and watched it in two parts over on my TV at Mom's house (I've seen it, Andrea hadn't). Saturday night was a spaghetti dinner to help prep John for his marathon run this morning. Felt bad for all the rain, but I bet the marathoners didn't mind. Grats to all that ran this year.
In other news, Megan's sleeping habits are going from not so good, to bad, to worse. Not quite sure what the deal is or how to steer her back on course. I suppose I haven't mentioned much about this area at all... To get people back up to speed, here is a quick run down.
Megan is back to having a hard time falling asleep on her own. She has also taken to coming up to sleep in our bed most nights, somewhere between midnight and 4am. Some nights it's no big deal, she climbs in and goes to sleep. I understand it's a phase most kids go through, I did, Andrea did, all other parents I talk to mention similar stories. So no big deal right?
The problem is it's starting to get worse at bed time, Megan demanding things or crying if she doesn't get her way. My guess is I just need to put my foot down and be more firm and consistent (isn't that always the case?). I'm too much of a push over / cave in-er. Well damnit, not anymore!!
And... blog done. 11 minutes. Not bad!
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