Remembering Jordan

It's hard to believe that it's already been 1 year. Jordan, you are always in our hearts. We miss you so much. Happy birthday baby.

"Glory Baby" by Watermark

Glory Baby, You slipped away
As fast as we could say baby, baby
You were growing, what happened Dear,
You disappeared on us baby, baby

Heaven will hold you before we do
Heaven will keep you safe
Until we're home with you Until we're home with you

CHORUS
We miss you everyday, miss you in every way
But we know there's a day when we will hold you, we will hold you
And you'll kiss our tears away, when we're home to stay
*We can't wait for the day when we will see you, we will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you, until mom and dad can hold you*
You'll just have heaven before we do
You'll just have heaven before we do

Sweet little baby, it's hard to understand it
Cause we are hurting, we are hurting
But there is healing, and we know we're stronger people
Through the growing, and in knowing

All things work together for our good
And God works his purposes
Just like he said he would, just like he said he would

CHORUS
We miss you everyday, miss you in every way
But we know there's a day when we will hold you, we will hold you
And you'll kiss our tears away, when we're home to stay
*We can't wait for the day when we will see you, we will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you, until mom and dad can hold you*
You'll just have heaven before we do
You'll just have heaven before we do

BRIDGE
I can't imagine Heaven's lullabies
And what they must sound like
But I will rest in knowing
Heaven is your home
And it's all you'll ever know, all you'll ever know

CHORUS
We miss you everyday, miss you in every way
But we know there's a day when we will hold you, we will hold you
And you'll kiss our tears away, when we're home to stay
*We can't wait for the day when we will see you, we will see you
But baby let sweet Jesus hold you, until mom and dad can hold you*
You'll just have heaven before we do
You'll just have heaven before we do

Time to Finally Take the Plunge?

I've thrown around this idea for a long time now. Well, not exactly this idea, but one very similar. I have had a massive motivation problem lately. I've been eating poorly. I've been sleeping poorly. I've been extremely inconsistent in my "training". Training isn't even the correct word. Exercising is better since I'm not training for anything. Over the past month or two I've gone out for long weekend runs around triathlon races, spoken to cousins who are both training for their first triathlon and even heard that my mom did her first half marathon distance walk/run. This is starting to light a little fire. I've had the idea and interest in doing an ironman distance race for a very long time. It's a bit late to get started in training for a full ironman, but I think 4-5 months should be enough time to train for a fall half ironman distance race. I really dislike the idea of having to do lots of swimming, but the idea of doing the race is a bit stronger right now. Of course, this is all unofficial, but the idea is growing fast. Even out of shape as I am, I'm extremely confident that I could finish a race of that distance if I had to do it tomorrow. However, having some type of training beforehand can only make the experience that much more enjoyable.

Will this become official? Stay tuned for more details.

Speed Run

Well, I finally got back to doing an organized speed run today. This was my first in over 6 months. It felt pretty good. I could have pushed more, but at the same time, that was harder than I had pushed in a while. The 2nd 2 miles of the 3 mile tempo were into the wind with some slight inclines and I definitely felt that. I warmed up for 2 miles, did a 3 mile tempo at 6:26 pace and then 1 mile cool down. Not bad.

1 - 6:21, 171 bpm
2 - 6:29, 172 bpm
3 - 6:27, 173 bpm

Average - 6:25.7, 172 bpm

I hope to do 1-2 speed sessions a week and potentially put in a run to/from work here and there. Even though I'm not officially training for anything at this point, it's helping me get back into shape. There is the possibility of an October marathon or half marathon in my future. This work now can only help.

Twitter?

I hear all this talk about Twitter, but don't understand what all the excitement is about. With that said, I decided to create an account to see what all the fuss is about. Unfortunately, the name Eric Smidt is a bit more popular than I thought. You can find me as http://twitter.com/ericsmidt. Let's just see if anything comes of it.

Getting Back on Track

I think my exercise is getting back on track. I've had two good weeks in a row of getting back to where I was. Last week I did 4 runs for a total of 20.64 miles in 2:45 with 1,100 feet of elevation. I was tired, sore and out of shape but flt good getting started again. This week I ran 35.1 miles in 5:35 with 2,300 ft of elevation in 4 runs. The interest to do more is definitely coming back. I wanted to push more during the runs, but forced myself to hold back. Next week I'm hoping to add 1 bike ride in the mix to start adding some cross training. I may try to ride to work one day and then run home. It feels good to have an interest in this again.

Someone brought up Boston again today. I have 5 weeks to get myself to the start line. It would not be a good showing for me, but I'm confident I could get myself to the finish line. I have no desire to do it though. Actually, I still have no desire to train for any race. I'm feeling good getting back into exercising and getting back into shape. I still have a ways to go, but it's a great start.

Not much else to report this week. There has been way too much going on with work and the house to do much else. I had been playing some micro limit stakes poker lately, but have been too busy to play this week. Unfortunately, I have a habit of playing too much and not getting enough sleep when I'm into it. With so much going on lately, there just wasn't time for it last week. Plus, I was way behind on sleep and needed to catch up a bit.

As I start getting back into things, hopefully I will have more to report on. Until I can get fully back into life mentally, the posts will likely continue to be sporadic. With that said, it feels good to have some positive things that make me feel good to report on again.

Running Again

I've finally been able to start back running again this week. The ribs were still a bit sore on Monday, but I wanted to feel it out and see if I could start getting back into it again. It felt like a minor bruise with no real discomfort.

I feel like a newbie again. I did 4 miles on Monday and 5 1/2 on Tuesday. I was so incredibly sore on Wednesday. First of all, it was a bit slow (for me) and it was only 9 1/2 miles. Crazy. It didn't help that it was 87 degrees on Monday. :) (Sorry, had to add that in there.) I did another 5 1/2 today and averaged under 8s. Of course, my mind and natural gate want me to run faster than I am running, but my body is just not ready for that yet. My heart rate was way too high today given my effort level. I guess I just need to take it easy and ease my way back into it.

There are no race goals in the future. Unfortunately, both my qualifications for the Boston marathon expire this April. So if I ever want to do that race again, I'm going to have to re-qualify. Even if I was in shape, I still doubt I would have done it this year. Knowing that I was going to miss it this year for other reason and then suddenly being able to do it was just going to be too much I think.

So my goals are just to get back in shape again. I want to put in some running miles and get back into riding my bike again. I had recently started to do yoga and had really enjoyed it before taking about 5 or 6 weeks off due to vacation and injuries. I also hope to find some motivation again. I just don't have any these days. No motivation for much of anything. That reminds me, I just found out softball is coming up again. I love softball, but this is the least excited I've ever been for the start of a season.

That's it for now. Hopefully I will be back soon with updates (and excitement) on running, cycling, The Biggest Loser, American Idol, softball and all the other things I enjoy.

Time to Start Again?

Maybe it's time to start again. I'm not sure yet though. I'm currently unable to run having tried my luck at snowboarding last week and bruised the heck out of my ribs. In fact, I've been pretty useless in the "active" category for the past couple weeks. The desire is definitely coming back, but the physical ability just isn't there right now. So, not sure now is the time to start again when I can't even write anything about running. I haven't felt like doing any of this kind of public stuff in a long time, so maybe this is a step in the right direction.

There has been a lot going on in my life over the past 4-5 months. Most of which I will not be discussing here. I guess it's not that amazing how 1 event can affect so much of your life and for such a long time. No matter how hard you try to run away or how much you try to ignore it, it will always be there with you.

You know, it's weird. I want to write about things, but then again I don't. One time I think I want to share and then I decide I won't. So much uncertainty. So much confusion.

I know that I said nothing here today, but this is a big step for me, even if this is all I do. More tomorrow? We'll see.

Too Much To Do

Well, for better or worse, there is just way too much going on in life right now and for a change, I can't blame work. Things are going to be this way until we move or maybe even longer. I don't expect to be posting much of anything during this time. This is partially due to everything going on and partially due to the continual emotional roller coaster that I am on. As those are mostly personal thoughts and feelings, I don't feel comfortable posting them here. Even though that would give me plenty to write, I'm just not ready to do that at this point. So, until I get back into some type of running schedule (or some other normal schedule) I think posts are going to be few and far between. Not that it's much different from how it's been the past few months. But it will make me feel better knowing that I'm not expecting myself to post anything.

Happy or Sad?

What's up? How's it going? What's new?

Most people do not expect an honest answer to these questions. They ask the question without really expecting or wanting an answer. And people respond with "great", "fine" or "good". I know I do.

Up until tonight, I thought everything was progressing fine. I was making it though each day. I would answer all these questions with the expected answers. But tonight I put two and two together and realized, maybe everything isn't fine. I think I've been a bit depressed the past few days. I can't convince myself to go to bed at night which makes me tired. I always want to be doing whatever it is I'm not doing. I want to do things that I know I shouldn't be doing. I've got a ton of stuff to do and once I start them, I don't want to finish them and would rather do something else.

I guess realization is the first step. Progression, now that is another story.

Getting Back to Life

Over the past couple weeks, I've been getting back to my normal life again. I'm back to work again. I've started to run again. Although, this took some encouragement from friends to get me back out there. I just didn't have the desire any more. To be honest, I still don't even now. But I do have the urge not to feel fat and exercising is helping that.

At this point, I don't really have any immediate running goals or desires other than trying to get back in shape. I'm kicking around an idea I've thought about in the past. During a recent weekend long run, we saw someone running their age in miles on his birthday. I've considered it before and it hearing about it again got me thinking about it again. So that's one idea. I've also qualified for Boston again and have friends doing the 2009 race. Maybe I'll consider that again. Although, that one might be a bit tough to handle as I was going to have to miss it in 2009 because of Jordan.

I'm just not sure at this point. There are lots of distractions going on right now to include preparing to move into a new house, renting our existing house and everything involved with doing those things. I guess lots of distractions are a good thing. They keep my mind occupied.

Good-bye Jordan

We said good-bye to Jordan today. We put together a nice service today to say good-bye. The pastor led the service and added some great words and scriptures, we read some poems and played a couple songs. It was the perfect way to say good-bye.

I'd like to share the music and poetry that we added to our service so that you can share in how we said good-bye.

"Glory Baby" by Watermark

A Snowdrop

The world may never notice
If a snowdrop doesn’t bloom,
Or even pause to wonder
If the petals fall too soon,
But every life that ever forms
Or ever comes to be,
Touches the world in some small way
For all eternity.

The little one we longed for
Was here and swiftly gone,
But the love that was then planted
Is a light that still shines on,
And though our arms are empty
Our hearts know what to do,
With every beat within our hearts
We say that we love you.

- Author Unknown -

Precious Child

In my dreams, you are alive and well
Precious child, precious child
In my mind, I see you clear as a bell
Precious child, precious child

In my soul, there is a hole
That can never be filled
But in my heart, there is hope
'Cause you are with me still

In my heart, you live on
Always there never gone
Precious child, you left too soon
Tho' it may be true that we're apart
You will live forever... in my heart

In my plans, I was the first to leave
Precious child, precious child
But in this world, I was left here to grieve
Precious child, my precious child

In my soul, there is a hole
That can never be filled
But in my heart there is hope
And you are with me still

In my heart you live on
Always there, never gone
Precious child, you left too soon,
Tho' it may be true that we're apart
You will live forever... in my heart

God knows I want to hold you,
See you, touch you
And maybe there's a heaven
And someday I will again
Please know you are not forgotten until then

In my heart you live on
Always there never gone
Precious child, you left too soon
Tho' it may be true that we're apart
You will live forever... in my heart

- Karen Taylor-Good -

"With Hope" by Steven Curtis Chapman

Good-bye Jordan, our precious, perfect daughter. We will always love and miss you.

As We Prepare to Say Good-bye

We’ll never get to hold you,
Or look upon your face.
We’ll never get to show you,
Our love through our embrace.

We’ll never have the feeling,
Of you calling out to us.
We’ll never know the feeling,
Of you looking up to us.

Why you were taken away from us,
We’ll never really know.
We look around for a sign,
As to why you weren’t to grow.

There is nothing we can do right now
Our minds are an absolute mess.
There is confusion, sadness, sorry,
And anger I must confess.

Our tears can not bring you back,
Back into our world.
You are gone from us on this plain
We’ll meet again I know.

So until that time I'll say to you,
And you must listen to your mommy.
Watch out for us when we come one day,
Your mommy and your daddy.

Cameron Azrael & Krystal Sariel

Found at Angel Babies

A Running Hiatus

It's now been over 2 weeks since I've last run and I do not know when I will get out there again. I was at the end of my taper for the St. George marathon when tragedy struck. I was unable and had absolutely no desire to get out there and pound the pavement. I suspect I will get back out there again some time soon, but it will just be for exercise for now. My goal was to train very hard to PR St. George. It was to be my last marathon in a long time as I took a break to raise my daughter. Neither were allowed. Now I have no goals.

Sadness

I am just so sad. As some of you may know, my wife and I just lost our baby. She was stillborn at 24 weeks. How is this fair? How can some people abuse themselves, doing everything in their power to destroy the life that is growing inside of them and produce a perfectly healthy baby while others who take the best care of themselves, doing everything right, have to suffer the ultimate blow? I just cannot understand. Our future that we were planning and preparing for has suddenly been ripped apart and destroyed. I feel like I haven't smiled in forever and that I may never be happy again. How can this be?

As I continue to struggle with the loss of my daughter, I have found some poems out there that help to express the pain.

They Say There is a Reason

They say there is a reason,
They say that time will heal,
But neither time nor reason,
Will change the way I feel,
For no-one knows the heartache,
That lies behind our smiles,
No-one knows how many times,
We have broken down and cried,
We want to tell you something,
So there won't be any doubt,
You're so wonderful to think of,
But so hard to be without.

Author Unknown

An Angel Never Dies

Don’t let them say I wasn’t born,
That something stopped my heart
I felt each tender squeeze you gave,
I’ve loved you from the start.

Although my body you can’t hold
It doesn’t mean I’m gone
This world was worthy, not of me
God chose that I move on.

I know the pain that drowns your soul,
What you are forced to face
You have my word, I’ll fill your arms,
Someday we will embrace.

You’ll hear that it was meant to be,
God doesn’t make mistakes
But that wont soften your worst blow,
Or make your heart not ache.

I’m watching over all you do,
Another child you’ll bear
Believe me when I say to you,
That I am always there.

There will come a time, I promise you,
When you will hold my hand,
Stroke my face and kiss my lips
And then you’ll understand.

Although I’ve never breathed your air,
Or gazed into your eyes
That doesn’t mean I never was,
An Angel never dies.

Author Unknown

Oh Father, my father

Close your eyes and feel me near
keep me inside your heart
let me live in your soul
you see through tears
the things we will never do
running across the fields of my youth
games never played
but it is not gone
those dreams you hold so close
for I live on in every child you see
little ones standing alone…lost
or laughing in a playground
swinging so high
touching the tree tops
that is I
wanting just to love
feel my happiness in the song of a bird
see my sorrow in mother
hold her close forever
feeling your strength
for there will be one to come behind me
whether through God's grace or
from a different calling
a child chosen through His hand.
For in darkness, a light will appear
even if it is just the dawn
signaling a new beginning
and as you gather my mother to your heart
release your tears
let the healing begin
and discover that I am here
in your dreams
in your tomorrows.
Every rainbow is the path home
and if you should stumble
I am the wings that shall lift you

Love, Jordan

Author: Theresa Cochrane

I'm Still Alive

Sorry for the lack of content lately. As has been the case for some time, I'm full of excuses. Everything in life has still been busy, but up until late last week, there was at least a little breathing room. That was ruined by a bit of rash that I picked up. I guess it turned out to be eczema. I don't want to get into the details, but there was a lot and it was all VERY itchy. The medicine I'm taking for the itching has made me very sleepy. So even though I've managed to get a bit more sleep, I've been just as tired.

As we approach our deadline at work things are getting hectic. As of now, we are still on schedule. So the last 4 crazy, hectic months of my life are looking like they may finally be done with. There will be other things, but at least they will be fun things in my life rather than work being my life.

Here's a recap of the last 1 1/2 weeks of running.

Last Monday -
5x1k 3:31 (5:36 pace) today w/ 400 recoveries; recoveries were 200m walk and 200m jog;
1 - 0.62, 3:31 (5:40), 170 bpm
R - 0.25, 2:56 (11:34), 134 bpm
2 - 0.63, 3:27 (5:29), 172 bpm
R - 0.25, 3:01, (12:05), 137 bpm
3 - 0.63, 3:31, (5:38), 172 bpm
R - 0.25, 2:59, (11:55), 141 bpm
4 - 0.62, 3:32, (5:43), 172 bpm
R - 0.25, 3:16, (12:54), 139 bpm
5 - 0.63, 3:34, (5:42), 173 bpm
It was a hard workout today. I really had to push myself to approach the goal times.

Last Thursday
The schedule called for 2 mile warmup, 3 mile tempo at 6:26 and 1 mile cool down. I found ~1.5 mile loop at work that was a bit hilly and it was also quite warm out. Given everything it was very difficult to keep up the goal pace. The first mile was OK as I didn't hit the big hill, but other 2 were slower because of big uphill in the middle of each.
1 - 6:19.70, 176 bpm
2 - 6:45.06, 182 bpm
3 - 6:43.77, 182 bpm

Saturday was the last long run before the race. The schedule called for 8 - 10 miles at race pace. I started out with the group so the first mile was very slow. The 2nd one was faster as a few of us broke from the pack. Then the next 4 were consistent as it was just John and I. John had enough after 6 so I did the last 4 and picked it up a bit. This is pretty much the way I anticipate the race going on Saturday. So even though I was pushing it pretty hard for 1 week before the race, I felt like it was good physical and mental training.
1 - 8:21.57, 137 bpm
2 - 7:12.10, 153 bpm
3 - 6:57.88, 176 bpm (must have picked up someone else heart beat)
4 - 6:55.66, 162 bpm
5 - 6:56.43, 164 bpm
6 - 6:58.43, 163 bpm
7 - 6:32.76, 168 bpm
8 - 6:14.16, 174 bpm
9 - 6:11.78, 177 bpm
10 - 6:04.24, 179 bpm

Today - This is the last week of training before the race. Beings this is a bit more advanced training program, I'm still pushing myself this last week. Just not as often or as long. Of course, I didn't push myself as often the entire training session, but I've complained enough about that. The schedule called for 6x400 at 81 seconds (5:26) with 400 recoveries. I walked first 160m of recovery and jogged the last 240m. I felt better today.
1 - 80s (5:27), 170 bpm
R - .24, (11:03), 141 bpm
2 - 79s, (5:19), 169 bpm
R - .25, (11:16), 144 bpm
3 - 79s (5:14), 168 bpm
R - .25, (11:26), 143 bpm
4 - 77s (5:16), 170 bpm
R - .25, (10:59), 147 bpm
5 - 76s (5:15), 172 bpm
R - .25, (11:08), 149 bpm
6 - 79s (5:19), 172 bpm

I have one more short 3 mile speed session on Wednesday and then I'll be shutting it down for race day. I now have an unlimited data plan on my phone. I will try out sending pictures and info here from the race to post my results. It will be brief, but will try to get something out. I'll also try to put somethings on Facebook. See the homepage of this blog to find my account info.

Well, I guess I've procrastinated long enough. It's late and I have to work again tonight. Blech! I'm still planning on getting to the August summary info. Maybe I can do that instead of working. How's that for procrastination. Anywho, until next time. (I will be back sooner next time.)

A Big Sports Day!

Not very much to report as far as running went today. The running partners bailed for one reason or another. So I was on my own. The schedule called for 13 at 6:52. As I was running a hilly course, I wasn't expecting anywhere close. It was a somewhat hard effort, but I came in averaging 7:18 per mile. It was more effort than I was wanting, but as it was so hilly, I'm ok with the time and energy. The race is now officially less than 2 weeks away. Sub 3 here I come.

There were 2 huge sports accomplishments today. First, the Cubs clinched the National League Central. This the 2nd straight year they have done this. Any idea when they last did it? Oh, it was some odd year of 1907 and 1908. We all know what happened then. I think it is meant to be. Even though they are not playing their best ball right now, they are still winning more than losing. Go Cubs!

The second big item of the day was in the FCS football league. Number 5 JMU was taking on #1 Appalachian St. Between the 2 teams, we have won the last FCS championships with App State taking down the last 3. JMU started down 21-0 by half time, but by the time all was said and done, we took them down, 35-32. Woohoo! Go Dukes!!!

Time to Catch Up

I seem to be getting worse and worse at keeping with any kind of consistency to this thing. For many months now I have been commenting (maybe complaining) about how busy I have been at work. Our project is still going on, but the ridiculous hours and definitely been reduced. I'm now down to something much more manageable. The problem is that the rest of life is getting in the way. There seems to be a lot more going on in life right now. And as I'm typing this, I'm noticing that my tendencies are to stress about one thing or another. Now that I'm not stressing about work, I'm stressing about everything else going on in life right now. Here's a bit of what is helping the rest of my hair to turn gray. Let's see, closing escrow on a new house in a month, sell or rent the existing house (and everything related to this decision), moving into the new place, picking out new flooring and kitchen designs in the new place, money, weekly appointments that take time away from work, baby/pregnancy stuff, getting in at least the bare minimum of workouts to try to have some success at this race which is now barely 2 weeks away, potentially the best shape I will ever be in for a race and the possible disappointment that it won't be as good as I want it to be, figuring out the new budget estimates, packing, decorating/furnishing/unpacking new house, etc. There are plenty of other things going through my brain, mostly when I lay in bed trying to sleep every night, but these are some of the highlights. Crazy!

Anywho, no one cares about what's causing me stress. After the crazy day I had on Saturday, I still haven't recovered. I'm not sore or anything, but it was very physically demanding. I slept 9 hours the next night and was very tired the next day. Since then, I have averaged around 6 - 6 1/2 per night and this has kept me behind on sleep. So I've definitely been a bit tired. Take that combined with everything above and it gives me less time than I would like. So this is one thing that has been left out.

I played my last softball game of the year, potentially. I've already been invited to join another fall league, but with everything else going on, I think I might need to pass. I got tons of action in left field and left center which was fun, but the other team was just way better. They crushed us 15-1. We ended the season something like 2-9. Horrible.

Monday's interval workout called for 8x800s at 5:36 (2:48) pace. As it was warmer and I wasn't into it, I didn't expect much out of this workout. I was close on most of the numbers, except the last two. Given the temps and my energy level, the results weren't too disappointing.
1 - 2:47, 168 bpm
2 - 2:50, 169 bpm
3 - 2:52, 168 bpm
4 - 2:51, 171 bpm
5 - 2:49, 170 bpm
6 - 2:54, 173 bpm
7 - 3:01, 171 bpm
8 - 2:58, 174 bpm

Today's run called for a 5 mile tempo at 6:42 pace. This is 10 seconds under race pace. My last 2 Wednesday runs have been something like 10-20 seconds faster than goal time so I expected that today would be the same. I didn't set any time goal in my head other than to push it a bit. As I mentioned before, since my workouts have been limited, I decided that I would push a bit harder. My numbers for today were faster than I thought I was capable of running. I could have easily broken 40 minutes in a 10K. I wasn't sure I was capable of that. I think I would have easily broken 19 minutes for a 5K if I was racing today. I did 5 miles in 31 minutes. That's a 6:12 pace. It was way faster than the schedule called for and I felt like I could have gone faster and/or longer if either was required. Nice!
1 - 6:24, 151 bpm
2 - 6:14, 168 bpm
3 - 6:16, 170 bpm
4 - 6:11, 174 bpm
5 - 5:55, 178 bpm

As I mentioned above, we bought a new house and move in next week. There is lots to do and decided between now and then. Most of my spare time and energy go into thinking/stressing about all this stuff. I guess I need to learn how to relax and enjoy all this stuff.

We watched The Biggest Loser tonight. The new season started this week. I haven't mentioned it in awhile, but I love this show. It is so inspirational. It motivates me so much to see these people who have struggled their entire life, who always say I can't and always choose the easy path find so much joy stepping on that scale at the end of the week, especially week 1. Even though tons of the weight is only water weight, the look of complete shock/joy at the numbers they lose is very enjoyable. They worked so hard and put themselves probably through more than they've ever been through and they get to see immediate results. This has got to be one of the greatest shows ever. They teach these people so much. I think a lot of people get themselves into trouble with their weight because they do not know a basic truth. If you want to lose weight, you have to take in less calories than expend. That's it. Simple math. Most of these people are so sedintary that their basal metabolic rate is only like 1200-1600 calories. Ok, as big as they are, it's probably higher. But still when you sit down and eat 800-1000 calories in one meal, you ate 1/2 if not more than 1/2 of the total amount you should be eating all day, especially if you are not exercising. I don't think people realize this. Once they get the basic idea of this down, they need to learn things that affect their metabolism like it's horrible to skip breakfast and glycemic indexes of food.

Maybe I should take this blog in a new direction once I finish this race. Since I will have so much spare time on my hands, I might as well take on another hobby to go along with the too many I already have. I should start adding daily, weekly, whatever posts about weight loss and was to help other people. I am so inspired by people who are able to overcome their weight problems through education and hard work. The problem is that I'm more of a teacher by example. So I'm not sure how succesful I can be at this needing to use words to motivate. Hmm, this will require some thought. Can I come up with something that will people will use as a resource to help themselves become more active and lose weight. There's so many resources out there already on the internet that I'm not sure there is need. Maybe this could be a resource to consolidate what is out there into a central location. Need some more thought and ideas on this I guess. Nothing like brainstorming as I type.

Well, this ended up being ridiculously long as I rambled on about things as they entered by head. Sorry about that. It's all because of The Biggest Loser. That shows rocks and it inspires. If you have never seen it, I highly recommend it.

The Last Long Run

I woke up Saturday morning know it was going to be a very long day. The goal for the morning run was to head out for the last long run before race day (which is now only 3 weeks away). We were looking to do the Tour of San Diego which is a 22 mile loop around downtown San Diego. We started at 6 am. Just under 3 hours later, we were done. It was another bad run for me again. this means my last 2 longs runs before race day were crappy. That's not good for the mental training that I need. I was able to push myself for the last 3 miles when I was really struggling. When I get to that point in a marathon, I tend to crumble. Hopefully when this hits again, I'll be ready for it.

I was hoping for a speedy recovery so I jumped into an ice bath when I got home. It's amazing how much and how long that lowers your overall body temperature. I was cold for a long time, but hey, my legs weren't hurting anymore.

After that we had a bunch of running around and shopping to do. Nothing exciting, but just making things clear that I'm not resting yet. After that, I was able to rest for around 30-60 minutes.

After the rest period, it was time to start the 2nd major part of the day. My company had a softball tournament all day Saturday. There were 3 different levels. I was playing in the very competitive Open division. The talent is very high in this division. I have played with the the same the last 4 years. We won it a few years ago and had a very disappointing tournament last year. There has never been a team in the league that has a woman playing, except us. The same woman has played with us every year. I guess most teams figure it would be a waste of a spot to add a woman. Not us. She is one of our best players. Anyway, I digress. Long story short, we played at 6, 7, and 8 in a round robin fashion to set the seedings for the finals. We won the first 2, was a head in the third 8-6 until we we gave up 12 runs in one inning. In 3 games total we gave up 35 runs. It's pretty sad that 12 of those runs were in one inning. Three teams were 2-1 and one was 0-3. The tie breaker was runs given up. We ended up second seed by 2 runs. D'oh! We won the first game at 9 pm and we were in the finals schedule for 10 pm. We played the same team that scored 12 runs against us. It was back and forth until the 4 or 5th inning were down 7-8 and scored 11 on them to go up 18-8. That's ironic. We held on to win by 7 or 8 and took it down. Sweet! It's now 11:10ish by the time we were done with everything. I was home, showered, in bed and sleeping by pretty close to 11:35. Man was I wiped. What a long day!

The Last Longer Tempo Run

I did a 10 mile tempo run last Wednesday and the schedule called for 8 miles today at race pace. As the temp was down and the tempo runs have been a bit on the quicker side, I figured this run would be a bit faster. I met Mike S. right at the start and he rode the 8 miles with me. We spent the hour talking which made this work out much harder than last week's. Both the 10 and 8 mile tempo runs were supposed to be at 6:52 pace. But as I've been slacking on the quantity of my workouts lately, I feel it's that much more important to stress the quality of the workouts I do get in. I averaged 6:40s for the 10 miler and 6:30s today for the 8 miler. Like I said, the 10 seconds per mile definitely felt harder than it should have been that I was talking the whole time. The speed of this work out wasn't one of those that fit into the saying that if you can't carry on a conversation while running, you're going to fast.

I did 8 miles in 52:03 with an average heart rate of 172. That approximately 90% for me. That's definitely a bit high, but as I've been too busy to work out too frequently, there should be plenty of recovery time built into my schedule.
1-6:26, 152
2-6:25, 168
3-6:31, 173
4-6:36, 173
5-6:40, 173
6-6:25, 177
7-6:27, 180
8-6:17, 181

I also heard from John A. today. He ran a 10 mile tempo today at 7:14 pace. He is shooting for a race time of 3:10. That's puts him right on track. Given that the race is easier than the course he ran today, he will go just fine.

Boston qualifiers, here we come.

Quality Training Sessions

As my work and life schedules continue to only allow me quality running of quantity, I'm taking whatever I can get.

My schedule called for my Saturday run to be 15 miles at marathon pace + 10 seconds. That equates to a 7:02. As the route was tougher and hillier, I had no intention of running that fast. I was just looking for a good running session unlike my prior workouts. Ended up doing a touch over 16 miles at 7:19 pace with about 750 feet of ascending/descending. I definitely pushed it, but I felt good. I finished by doing the last two at 6:43 average. Not bad.

I was able to hit the gym on Sunday and got in about 1 hour of lifting and core exercises. Wow! I am getting so incredibly weak. I guess all this running (even though it's not nearly as much as I wanted) and stress are causing me to lose weight. That and the lack of working out has made me very weak. I better hit the gym before my daughter is born else I might not be able to carry her. :)

Today the schedule called for 10x400 at 5:26 pace (approx 81 seconds) with 400 recoveries. For each recovery, I decided to walk the first 200 fast and jo the next 200. I averaged 11:30 for each 400 recovery. I had enough in the tank today to jog the recoveries, but I felt like pushing harder during each interval. It went really well today and I was able to be fairly consistent the first half. I decided to pick it up a bit for the 2nd half and put in some very good times.
1 - 84s, (5:39), 169
2 - 81s, (5:27), 169
3 - 81s, (5:25), 166
4 - 78s, (5:13), 167
5 - 80s, (5:10), 171
6 - 77s, (5:12), 171
7 - 77s, (5:10), 171
8 - 77s, (5:11), 174
9 - 74s, (5:05), 175
10- 72s, (4:50), 177

Well, I'm back to night time working. So no more procrastinating.

Can't Sleep

My busy schedule continues. I only managed to get in 3 workouts this week, two speed session on Monday and Wednesday and my long run tomorrow morning. This is no way to prepare for a race. The race is only 4 weeks away from tomorrow. I guess I'm in the middle of a super extended taper. The continued stress and pressure caused me to miss workouts and now it's preventing me from sleeping. The only thing that trying to sleep has gotten me this week is a lot of extra time to let me mind think about everything going on. So, here I'm am, writing about nothing. Maybe this will help. If not, running 15 miles in little sleep may help me crash during the day tomorrow. The goal pace is 10 seconds over marathon pace, but as the run tomorrow will be hillier than the race course, it may be more like 20-30 seconds over race pace. Anyway, I'm too tired to write anything productive like my August summary blog. I will work on that over the weekend and see how bad the month really was. Enough babbling, off to other things that do not include me sleeping.

A Race-Pace Tempo Run

The schedule called for a 10 mile tempo run at race pace which for me is 6:52 per mile. This is my goal marathon pace. The race is less than 5 weeks away and my confidence is not all that high as I've only been getting in about 3 runs per week for the past 4-6 weeks. They have been key workouts, but that's about I'll I've been able to fit into my schedule. So I didn't expect much today. It was also over 80 at the start too which is not ideal.

I was thinking I would try to start out around 6:52 for the first 5 miles and then pick it up a bit the last 5 miles. I started out a bit faster right out of the gate and kept trying to slow myself down. It didn't really work as my average pace continued to be under the goal pace of 6:52 for every mile. The watch finished the 10 miles in 1:06:49, but I think it was 33 seconds faster as I stopped for a few seconds around the start of mile 9 having seen someone I knew. I hit the lap button on my watch instead of the stop button. After analyzing the data, it looked to be about 33 seconds. So i think that lap ended up being closer to 6:05. All of this averages to a 6:40 per mile pace (6:37 with taking off the 33 seconds).

Here are the lap totals.
1 - 6:43, 151 bpm
2 - 6:37, 163 bpm
3 - 6:41, 165 bpm
4 - 6:38, 169 bpm
5 - 6:50, 170 bpm
6 - 6:35, 173 bpm
7 - 6:39, 175 bpm
8 - 6:42, 174 bpm
9 - 6:38, 177 bpm
10- 6:39, 179 bpm

I felt like I could have gone more miles and/or faster pace. This was a very needed confidence booster that I have needed lately. I feel that I could have easily tacked on another 5K to the workout to total a 1/2 marathon distance. At the pace I was running, I could have easily finished with a 1:27 1/2 marathon time and that's not going all out. I think this is why I was a bit disappointed with my results at the AFC Half Marathon because I knew I was capable of this. Even though the race was warm, it was cooler than it was during today's run. Of course, the run today was quite flat (only 210 feet of elevation gain/lost) compared to the race. I guess that made the difference.

As the St. George race profile is a downhill course, I would expect a slightly slower pace than I average today spread out over 26.2 is still still in the realms of the possible. I need to average 6:52 per mile during the race to finish under 3 hours. My confidence is climbing, a bit.

Any of you other there looking for a good training plan and like what you read here, I may have a recommendation for you. You've read how much I've been slacking and I still feel that I'm arguably faster than I've ever been.

A Quick Post

Did a speed session on Monday. The goal was 3x1600m at 5:51 pace with 400m recoveries. As running and working continues to be more and more limited, I didn't expect much. The results weren't horrible, but also weren't great.
1 - 6:08.54, 169
R - 3:32.16, 122
2 - 5:55.62, 173
R - 3:29.19, 131
3 - 5:52.09, 176

As we are now out of the casual softball league, I'm now in one league. Our team is bad. We got our first win last week. We were ahead by 1 in the game tonight going into the top of the last inning. Our pitcher walked the first 2 batters who eventually both came around to score. We lost by one. Bummer! I got more action tonight in left field than I have in all the other games combined. It was nice to get the chance to make some plays. I ended up making 3 really good, tough plays amongst all the others. My hitting was much better tonight as well as they batted me lead off.

Tomorrow speed session will be 10 miler at 6:52 pace. I suspect this should be doable without too much work, as long as it's not really hot.

My eating still has not improved that much, but I have become more conscious of it and have been making some better decisions. Unfortunately, I've been and will likely be over the next couple days way to busy to keep track of everything in this journal. Writing it on a piece of paper will not have the same affect as putting it up here when I know others see it (even though they could care less).

Anyway, lots of other things to prepare for as other things are going on in life. I will post some of it in the coming days once things solidify a bit.

A Bad Week for Exercise

Monday - After taking a week off from speed work because 1 I was too busy and 2 I was recovering from AFC, I got back to speed work this week. The schedule for today called for 1k, 2k, 1k, 1k aiming for 3:31 /K (5:39 /mile) for 1Ks and 7:25 /K (5:56 /mile) for 2Ks with 400m recoveries. Definitely felt a bit rusty as I came close to hitting my goal times.
.62, 3:39 (5:56), 168 bpm
.25, 3:10 (12:36), 129 bpm
1.24, 7:24 (6:00), 170 bpm
.25, 2:58, (11:55), 141 bpm
.63, 3:30, (5:34), 175 bpm
.25 2:59, (11:44), 144 bpm
.63, 3:39, (5:50), 177 bpm

Tuesday - We played our last softball game of the season in the casual league. We were playing awesome, up 8-1 after 6 innings. We made a few errors and gave up 8 runs in the 7th, fell behind for first time and never caught back up. I was fine in the field, but my hitting was horrendous. I was something like 0-3 with a sac fly and an RBI. Everything I hit was a weak popup. I didn't drive anything and definitely cost our team some runs where I can usually be counted on. What a crappy way to be knocked out of the play offs.

Wednesday - Goal was 1 mile warm up and then 5 miles at 6:41 pace. Hit goal pace, but it felt harder than I thought it would.
1 - 6:37, 164 bpm
2 - 6:34, 168 bpm
3 - 6:31, 170 bpm
4 - 6:38, 174 bpm
5 - 6:26, 178 bpm
averages 6:33.2, 170.8

Thursday - I was too busy to get in any type of workout before, during or after work.

Friday - I was too busy to get in any type of workout before, during or after work.

Saturday - The goal for today as to run 20. I have not done a 20 miler in quite some time. I had a pretty terrible week of eating and I wasn't able to workout nearly as much as I would have hoped to. The plan was to run out to Iron Mountain and back (but not up it). This gets us around 17 and then we would tack on another few here and there to hit 20. This is not an easy course by any stretch of the imagination, but it would be easier than the last time as 1,000 ft of elevation ascent and descent. Long story short, it was a crappy, crappy workout today. I ended up having stomach cramps for about 1/2 of the run and walking part of it. I hit 19.26 miles and called it quits. I'm usually pretty anal when it comes to hitting my goal distance, but I figured it was pretty much going to be useless miles and I had no desire to go any more than I had to. It was brutal. It's amazing how I could run 18 last weekend and then immediately do 30+ on my bike, but today, I run 19 and had nothing left in the tank at the end. I was pretty useless afterwards too. Very frustrating!


This seemed like a pretty bad week of training as I missed 3 days of workouts because I simply did no have enough time to get them in and I ended the week with one of my worst long runs in a long time. I have found that I have been getting a bit more sleep these days, but my eating has gotten to be very bad. I haven't cut that much caffeine out of my diet yet either. As the race is now only 5 weeks away, I really need to get things under control. I think I may need to reenact the food journal for a week or two as it forces me to eat better as I have to report everything I take in. I don't feel like I've been taking in enough water either lately. I think doing this will help all of these "problems" I feel I have right now before the race.

Ultrasound Results and It's a ...

---girl! We're so excited to find out we are having a baby girl. We got to see what she looks like today. She is 10 ounces and very active. She was dancing a little jig on Wendy's bladder. Looks like she may be a bit hyperactive, just like her father. :)

Endurance Session

Today ended up being quite the marathon session. By the time noon rolled around and all was said and done, I ended up running 18 miles and cycling 34 miles. I have not been on my bike in about 1 1/2 years, but I ended up doing relatively well, especially considering the run of 18 miles prior.

I started off by running 17.66 miles at an average of 8:07 per mile in 2:23:22. This included quite a bit of rolling hills along with some trail running. It ended up being 1164 feet of elevation gain during the run. My HR averaged 152 bpm and maxed out at 179.

I then road home and got on my bike and rode 34.45 miles in 2:11:02. This included all the stops at a bazillian stop lights and stop signs. My legs were definitely feeling it, especially withing the first few minutes that started off up hill. It was an up and down ride as my energy levels were up and down. Every time I through down goo, my energy level spiked and I would do good for about 4 miles or so. The HR effort averaged 144 and maxed out at 170 during the 1044 feet of elevation gain.

I knew that hydration and food were going to be very important during these workouts so I made sure I took in enough. Let's see if I can recall everything before and during both.

Slim Fast like diet drink 250 calories (8 oz of fluid)
During and after run, 57 ounces of water
150 calorie eGel goo
250 calorie Power Bar after the run
Approximately 12 oz of Gatorade
During the ride, 40 ounces of water containing 2 Nuun tablets
3 goos at 100 calories each

Took in a lot of calories, elecroltyes and fluids. I think I could have done a couple more calories and a little more fluids, but all in all, it ended up helping considerably.

2008 AFC Half Marathon Race Report

I've had high expectations for this race ever since the 5 mile race I did on the 4th of July. I had a lot of high quality speed sessions as well as high quality long runs leading up to the race. As has been reported here, the 2 to 3 weeks before the race were definitely not ideal. My eating habits were taking a turn for the worse and my already poor sleeping pattern as getting worse.

The night before the race, I managed to eat a healthy grilled BBQ chicken breast, potatoes and green beans meal. Already being tired, I only managed to get 4 hours of sleep the night before the race. I woke up at 4:10 AM completely exhausted. The say the night before the race isn't all that key when it comes to getting rest before a race and it's more the days leading up to the race. Even though I was getting more than 4 hours of sleep on average, it probably wasn't much more than 5. Oops.

For breakfast, I had my normal 1/2 serving of N-Large weight gainer shake mixed with 8 ounces of skim milk. This usually works pretty well for me. It's around 400 calories with carbs, fat and protein. In comes in around 40 grams of protein and has a lot of milk. Both of these are not recommended pre-race by a lot of people, as they have digestions problems from it. However, I have found it to work pretty well for me. I also made some black tea in hopes that the caffeine would help me wake up some. Of course, there are also studies out there about the benefits of caffeine on endurance events. I was looking more for the energy boost to wake up though.

I got to the parking lot around 5:15 near the zoo. I tried to meet Andy and Nicole to take the buses over to Cabrillo National Monument with them, but we were unable to find each other. Due to us missing each other and a mixed post race schedule, we were unable to meet up during the morning.

As I was on the bus ride heading to the start line, there was a thermometer on the bus going back and forth between 70 and 72 degrees. It was still dark outside and that warm already. Not a good sign. The skies were clear. Also not a good sign.

Nothing too exciting the 45 minutes leading up to the race start. I waited in the ridiculously long lines for the bathroom, looked for Andy and Nicole for a bit and then headed to the start line. I got in pretty good position and waited for the gun.

As we waited, there was a lot of chatter about the sun being out and the skies being clear. It was definitely going to be a cooler race than it was last year, but far from ideal. I was keeping a positive attitude and not letting the temps bother me as most of my speed sessions had come at very warm parts of the day. My goal was to push as hard as possible with the ultimate goal of breaking 1:30. If all the stars aligned and everything worked out, I was hoping to approach the 1:27 finishing time. As it was warm out and the sun was shining at 7 am, conditions were already not ideal. So I expected 1:27 to be unreachable, but I really wasn't sure what I'd be capable of.

Sadly enough, that's the majority of the race report. There really was not much to report during the race. The gun went off and 2 guys behind me were talking about Usain Bolt from Jamaica and his ridiculous 100m world record race the night before. After I pulled away from these guys, the first couple miles were very quite. There was no crowd cheering and none of the runners were talking. All you could hear were the pounding of shoes on the pavement.

My splits for the first fourmiles were a bit sporadic as the terrain was rolling and then a big downhill. Once I got done with the downhill, I tried to find a pace where I felt like I was pushing it a bit, but not so much that I would be compeltely dead by the time I hit the hills at the end. I found the pace to be around 6:45-6:50. I was hoping it would be more like 6:30-6:40. I just couldn't hit that pace today.

I spent a lot of the race running by myself or around very limited amounts of people. I guess part of that is the speed I was running, but there were other groups out there. It makes for a bit of a boring run, but the good thing about it is that you get a lot more pictures taken at the photo spots. There were 2-3 photographers at most spots. When I would approach, they'd all take a couple pictures. This made for lots of pics of me.

http://www.marathonfoto.com/index.cfm?RaceOID=27252008M1&LastName=SMIDT&BibNumber=7510&Mailing=16315

As I approached the last 5K of the race, the uphills began. I definitely increase my effort while my pace decreased. I was thinking at this point that I would be righ around 1:29 and likely be a few seconds over.

I usually pick a starting goal time and then keep track of the number of seconds under that pace that I run every mile. For this race, I picked 7:00 miles. This would give a 1:31:43 finishing time. By the time I hit the last 5K, I had something like 150 seconds in the tank. Take that off the finishing time and I get 1:29:13. Ok, well, that must not have been the number, but you get the idea.

I hit the hills and pushed hard to try keep my pace reasonable. The sun was really bearing down by this point and it was definitely getting warmer. I had been dumping water over my head as much as possible and drinking water at every water stop. I took two e-Gels from Cranksports during the race to give me 300 calories of energy during the run. I definitely wasn' hungry, but the energy definitely helped.

I approached the top of the last hill feeling tired, but not nearly as wasted as the past 2 times. I took the right hand turn to head over the bridge and into Balboa Park. I was right behind 3 other guys. The last 2 times I did this race, I tried picking the pace here and felt like I was going to puke. Having the motivation of catching and passing the guys in front of me, I picked up the pace. One got decided to hang with me and we quickly dropped the other two. I was getting pretty tired by now, but had less than 1 mile to go. I wasn't getting sick this time either. I felt like the guy next to me was more tired than me so I dropped the pace down a bit more. He couldn't hand and fell back. Again I was by myself. I made the last right hand turn headed towards the finish line. The crowds were roaring by the time. I spotted Dano and Melissa cheering and pushing me to run faster. I rounded the last curve and saw someone in front me. I dropped the down again and easily past him. Right before the line, I saw the race clock hit 1:29 and I did a dead sprint. I crossed somewhere around 1:29:03 or 04. I knew I was a few seconds back at the race start. So, I knew it would be close to 1:29.

Officially, I finished in 1:28:59. That was good for 94th out of 6,482 finishers and 10th in my age group. My average pace was 6:48 per mile. It was a PR by 56 seconds. So I was happy with my results, but still wish I had done better. I felt like I couldn't have run this race on this day much faster. I was just hoping the finishing time would have been a bit quicker.

Below you will find my race splits and the race profile with some of my info.

1 - 6:50.17, 164
2 - 6:59.32, 170
3 - 6:33.68, 170
4 - 6:05.62, 169
5 - 6:44.15, 175
6 - 6:56.43, 174
7 - 6:55.87, 174
8 - 6:46.81, 175
9 - 6:45.37, 177
10 - 6:48.11, 178
11 - 6:47.57, 180
12 - 7:26.12, 183
13.1 - 7:22.18, 186

No News Today

I am dragging this week. From the intense effort at this past weekend's race, a continued lack of sleep and some added stress at work again this week, I am struggling for energy. My eating has been poor and I missed both speed sessions this week. I did do 2 5ish mile runs that felt pretty easy at a 7:30 pace, so I guess that's worth something. I'm not going to beat myself up too much about it. It's probably better this way. It keeps me from pushing too hard immediately after the race and increasing my chances of over training, which I do have a tendency to do. Anywho, I'm tired and will be hitting the sack early tonight. Maybe one good night will help bet me back on the path to recovery.

Softball and More Softball

My AFC race report should be coming tomorrow. Unfortunately, I have not had much time to do it yet. For example, I was pretty much gone from the house today from morning until now. I had a full day's work, which included me getting out for my first post race run, played softball, and then played softball again.

The first game today was the beer league. We are now in the loser's bracket having been crushed the week before. Tonight we played the team that we beat the first time 39-15. We should have scored more that game and they should have scored less. It was a very much different team tonight. I think they improved a bit and also picked up some talent. It was a very close game the entire way. We pulled ahead a bit at the end and hung on for a 14-10 win. At this point, we play until we lose or win it all. I did ok tonight, I was 3-5 with 1 run scored, 1 double and 1 sac fly. I reached on error once and the sac fly and other out were both hard hit line drives to the left fielder. Not great, but definitely an improvement from the last couple weeks. My fielding was solid. I made every play hit to me at short stop including 2 over the shoulder catches heading out to center and 1 more that had me completely laying out for a ball hit over the 2nd base to make the out. Sweet! The team played great. We only had 9 players, but fielded a very solid team. Very encouraging.

I then rushed home, got a quick snack and headed out for my other game in the competitive league. We are winless playing against the other winless team in the league. The other team has outscored us by 50%. We hit like mad men out there tonight and pulled out a 22-10 win. I was something like 4 for 5 in that game with a double, an rbi or 2 and a few runs scored. The only bad thing is that when I slid into 2nd for my double, I tore up my legs. I skinnned my ankle and knee pretty good. The very next play, I slid head first into third and scraped the heck out my hand, finger, hip and took a huge chunk. Out of my right arm near my elbow. It was full of dirt and bleading like crazy. When I got home, I cleaned it out with water only and put some neosporin on it. I hope that works. It is the deepest gash I've ever had taken out of me. Hopefully neosporin is enough. Given my lack on medical knowledge, not sure what else to do. That is more than I usually do for my scrapes and cuts. In fact, I did nothing for the test of them. Oh well, I guess if something happens to me then we'll know what it was.

Anyway, gotta run as it's late and I've got more stuff to do before bed.

My Normal Pre-Race Meal

It's funny. I see a few people have made it to this site by way of my post titled The Best Pre-Run Meal". While I was completely honest about it and have done it again since then, I don't know that it's the best advice to be giving people. I've brought the idea up with friends and have had some others agree with me. I don't think you will read any advice any where that suggests it's a good idea, even beneficial, to eat 1/2 of a large pepperoni pizza before a long run. I have had good results with it, but I've got to believe that I'm in the minority with that view. With what I'll be writing below, you'll see that I don't believe it to be the best, because I never eat anything like that before a race. When it comes to preparing for race day, I usually follow along the lines of what most others think.

Most people suggest a pasta dinner the night before a race. I've found that I have the best results when I do pasta 2 nights before a race. The night before a race, I like to do a simple, small to average sized portions of plain chicken breast, brown rice and a vegetable. That's almost 180 degrees different than my pizza meal suggested earlier. Maybe one of these races I don't plan on taking too seriously I'll do the pizza meal before a marathon. It would be interesting to see if I'm able to push the wall out a couple miles.

For me, this advice is definitely for those longer workout/races. When it comes to half marathons as I have coming up on Sunday, pretty much anything goes. As I plan on taking this race seriously and going for a PR, I will be eating a light meal with protein and carbs.

So for those of you that come here looking for food advice, you may want to lean towards this post rather than my earlier post.