Tuesday - Played softball today. We normally play 10 handed and don't supply a pitcher. We started this game with 7 and had one player show up in the bottom of the first. There is a max of 5 runs that you can score per inning and by the end of the 2nd inning, it was 10-10. After that, both teams started playing some defense. I played shortstop and 3rd base most of the time. I was actually back in shallow left field to allow myself to try get to as many balls as possible as I was the only one on that side of the field. We started to make some plays and I made some plays as a shortstop and at 3rd. After a huge debacle about losing an inning somewhere, we only ended up playing 8 innings. We won by 8 or so. Not bad for being short handed 2 players. I had a solid game at bat, but nothing great. 4 for 6 with 3 runs, a double, triple, 5 RBIs and a SH. That was the last game of the regular season. I believe we ended 7-5 and were either the highest or the 2nd highest scoring team in the league. Not bad considering I didn't think we'd win any. Next week starts a double elimination tournament. As we have been struggling to field a team lately and since a few people have said they are out next week, we may be in trouble.
Season Stats
G - 12
AB - 60
R - 38
H - 38
2B - 11
3B - 9
HR - 6
RBI - 46
SF - 4
AVG - .633
SLG - 1.417
Wednesday - Ran 8 miles today with a 6 mile tempo. Goal pace was 6:56, which seemed pretty to be a bit slow. Without trying too hard, I averaged 6:38s with my heart rate averaging 169 during the effort. My legs were a bit heavy and my diet and sleep have been horrendous lately. With that that, it wasn't all that hard.
1 - 6:44, 161
2 - 6:43, 165
3 - 6:39, 168
4 - 6:38, 172
5 - 6:38, 172
6 - 6:36, 174
Thursday - Was planning on running to/from work tomorrow, but I'm just too busy at work. I can't afford to lose that much time. As it is, I will be up past midnight again tonight and up before sunrise tomorrow. If I run 20+, I will be useless tomorrow night. I need to work late again and can't afford to lose a night from unproductivety.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Speed Session - 6x800s
Another busy week is happening. Our release date at work just got bumped up by a week or two. That means that somewhat busy work schedule will become a very busy work schedule. As I already have tons of other non work related plans scheduled, I guess all the extra work happens at night for me again.
Today was speed work. The schedule called for 6 800s at 5:36 pace with 1:30 recovery. I'm just not fast enough to hit those times right now. I could do it for 1, 2 or maybe 3, but not 6. With that said, looking at my average HR during each, it looks like I could have pushed harder. Maybe I just need to work on my top effort. But then again, with the schedule I have coming up over the next week or two, maybe I'm better off doing this session.
1 - .50, 2:55, 168
2 - .50, 2:52, 170
3 - .50, 2:50, 171
4 - .50, 2:50, 172
5 - .50, 2:52, 173
6 - .50, 2:47, 174
The tentative running schedule for the rest of the week is tempo on Wednesday, running to/from work on Thursday and potentially the same 23 miler I did this past weekend again on Saturday. Phew! I'm going to be wiped out by the time noon on Saturday rolls around.
We have had some recent activity on the house. No offers yet, but there are people seeing it now and expressing interest. We had an open house on Sunday and have a couple more this week during the week and on the weekend. Fingers crossed. Hopefully we get a reasonable offer so we can start pursuing the houses we want to buy.
There is only 1 softball game for me this week as I have a bye in the competitive league this week. The beer league plays tomorrow. As I will start leaning towards not getting enough sleep again, I'm hoping that my level of play doesn't fall in the crapper again.
I guess that's enough procrastinating for now. I really need to get started working again.
Today was speed work. The schedule called for 6 800s at 5:36 pace with 1:30 recovery. I'm just not fast enough to hit those times right now. I could do it for 1, 2 or maybe 3, but not 6. With that said, looking at my average HR during each, it looks like I could have pushed harder. Maybe I just need to work on my top effort. But then again, with the schedule I have coming up over the next week or two, maybe I'm better off doing this session.
1 - .50, 2:55, 168
2 - .50, 2:52, 170
3 - .50, 2:50, 171
4 - .50, 2:50, 172
5 - .50, 2:52, 173
6 - .50, 2:47, 174
The tentative running schedule for the rest of the week is tempo on Wednesday, running to/from work on Thursday and potentially the same 23 miler I did this past weekend again on Saturday. Phew! I'm going to be wiped out by the time noon on Saturday rolls around.
We have had some recent activity on the house. No offers yet, but there are people seeing it now and expressing interest. We had an open house on Sunday and have a couple more this week during the week and on the weekend. Fingers crossed. Hopefully we get a reasonable offer so we can start pursuing the houses we want to buy.
There is only 1 softball game for me this week as I have a bye in the competitive league this week. The beer league plays tomorrow. As I will start leaning towards not getting enough sleep again, I'm hoping that my level of play doesn't fall in the crapper again.
I guess that's enough procrastinating for now. I really need to get started working again.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
23 Miles on Saturday
For some reason, I've been wanting to do a run from my house, out to and up Iron Mountain and back. On Saturday, as most of the others in my running group had other plans, I decided to stay home and give it a shot. I woke up at 4:30 wanting to get an early start. I ended up hanging around the house until 5:30 as I waited until the sun came up. I'll let the picture below tell most of the story. It was a bit more difficult than I was thinking it was going to be. I ended up running out of water and had to stop on the way. I had to incorporate a few walks breaks at the end in order to get up the last 400 foot hill. It's amazing how much harder things can be after at the 22 mile mark of a run versus the 3rd mile of a run. This run ended up being 2,900 feet of climbing
The plan was for the group to do this run next weekend. I'm wondering how many people will be up for it after seeing this picture.
The plan was for the group to do this run next weekend. I'm wondering how many people will be up for it after seeing this picture.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Running and Softball
Here's a quick recap of the week's info.
Monday - Tough speed session. I struggled on this one. My eating and sleeping were a bit off along with some heat. I just wasn't feeling it. The schedule called for 2x1200 (5:41 pace) and 4x800 (5:36 pace) with a 2 minute recovery between each. I didn't really reach goal pace and the last one was short.
1 - .75, 4:31 (6:01), 175 bpm
2 - .75, 4:21 (5:49), 177 bpm
3 - .50, 2:50 (5:43), 179 bpm
4 - .50, 2:51 (5:41), 179 bpm
5 - .50, 2:47 (5:34), 179 bpm
6 - .17, 0:54 (5:21), 171 bpm
Tuesday - I played softball today in the competitive men's league. Our team is not that great, but were not so bad that we should get shut out. We lost 6-0 in 7 innings. These games almost always run out of time before finishing the full 7 innings. We managed to play the whole thing in 10-15 minutes under the time limit. It was 1-0 after 5 1/2. I think the total time was 40 minutes. Crazy! I managed 2 hits on the night which was probably about 1/3 of the team's total. Sad! Oh yeah, I also lifted today.
Wednesday - The schedule called for a 5 mile tempo run today at 6:41 pace. I tacked on a 3/4 mile warm up and cool down for a total of 6.5 miles. I felt great today. I ran faster than goal pace, picked it up on the last mile and could have easily gone faster. That's very encouraging for the upcoming 1/2 marathon. I may have to adjust my goal pace down a bit. I did the 5 miles in 32:37 which is 6:31/mile and HR was only 168 bpm on average.
1 - 6:33, 162 bpm
2 - 6:36, 164 bpm
3 - 6:33, 168 bpm
4 - 6:39, 170 bpm
5 - 6:16, 174 bpm
Thursday - Tonight was the casual beer league. We had 11 players tonight and the other team only had 8. With that, we were tied 19-19 going into the 9th. We scored 8 and shut them down to win 27-19. That would have been pretty sad if we couldn't beat an 8 handed team. My fielding is way better these days. I'm back to where I should. I had tons of touches tonight and had no errors. I probably had something like 4 put outs and 6-8 assists. By the end of the night, I think I had figured out some of my batting problems and really started driving the ball again. Although, my box score might reflect me hitting a bit better than I actualy did. I was 5 for 5 with 5 runs scored, 3 triples and 1 home run. I had 6 RBIs and 1 sac fly. That helps the season totals a bit.
Season Stats
G - 11
AB - 54
R - 35
H - 34
2B - 10
3B - 8
HR - 6
RBI - 41
SF - 3
AVG - .630
SLG - 1.444
I was off on my work estimation. I have one more week than originally planned. My ridiculously busy schedule is definitely made more busy by all this extra curricular stuff, but it's worked out so far. I still have 2 more weeks of this madness and then hopefully things start to slow down so that I can breath again.
Monday - Tough speed session. I struggled on this one. My eating and sleeping were a bit off along with some heat. I just wasn't feeling it. The schedule called for 2x1200 (5:41 pace) and 4x800 (5:36 pace) with a 2 minute recovery between each. I didn't really reach goal pace and the last one was short.
1 - .75, 4:31 (6:01), 175 bpm
2 - .75, 4:21 (5:49), 177 bpm
3 - .50, 2:50 (5:43), 179 bpm
4 - .50, 2:51 (5:41), 179 bpm
5 - .50, 2:47 (5:34), 179 bpm
6 - .17, 0:54 (5:21), 171 bpm
Tuesday - I played softball today in the competitive men's league. Our team is not that great, but were not so bad that we should get shut out. We lost 6-0 in 7 innings. These games almost always run out of time before finishing the full 7 innings. We managed to play the whole thing in 10-15 minutes under the time limit. It was 1-0 after 5 1/2. I think the total time was 40 minutes. Crazy! I managed 2 hits on the night which was probably about 1/3 of the team's total. Sad! Oh yeah, I also lifted today.
Wednesday - The schedule called for a 5 mile tempo run today at 6:41 pace. I tacked on a 3/4 mile warm up and cool down for a total of 6.5 miles. I felt great today. I ran faster than goal pace, picked it up on the last mile and could have easily gone faster. That's very encouraging for the upcoming 1/2 marathon. I may have to adjust my goal pace down a bit. I did the 5 miles in 32:37 which is 6:31/mile and HR was only 168 bpm on average.
1 - 6:33, 162 bpm
2 - 6:36, 164 bpm
3 - 6:33, 168 bpm
4 - 6:39, 170 bpm
5 - 6:16, 174 bpm
Thursday - Tonight was the casual beer league. We had 11 players tonight and the other team only had 8. With that, we were tied 19-19 going into the 9th. We scored 8 and shut them down to win 27-19. That would have been pretty sad if we couldn't beat an 8 handed team. My fielding is way better these days. I'm back to where I should. I had tons of touches tonight and had no errors. I probably had something like 4 put outs and 6-8 assists. By the end of the night, I think I had figured out some of my batting problems and really started driving the ball again. Although, my box score might reflect me hitting a bit better than I actualy did. I was 5 for 5 with 5 runs scored, 3 triples and 1 home run. I had 6 RBIs and 1 sac fly. That helps the season totals a bit.
Season Stats
G - 11
AB - 54
R - 35
H - 34
2B - 10
3B - 8
HR - 6
RBI - 41
SF - 3
AVG - .630
SLG - 1.444
I was off on my work estimation. I have one more week than originally planned. My ridiculously busy schedule is definitely made more busy by all this extra curricular stuff, but it's worked out so far. I still have 2 more weeks of this madness and then hopefully things start to slow down so that I can breath again.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Sorry
Sorry for the lack of recent updates. I'm in the middle of the last push at work. By the end of next week, my 8-10 week ridiculously crazy, busy schedule should start to drop back to my normal 40 hour work week. I'm SOOOOO looking forward to that. I'm excited about getting home at a reasonable time every day and spending time with my wife and child to be. How exciting is that?!?! He/She is the size of a lemon these days. :)
Saturday, July 19, 2008
The Best Pre-Run Meal
I did something last night that I try to avoid when I'm in heavy training. In general, I try to eat better and smarter. It turns out, that this may not be enough food, but that's not the point. For the third time now after eating this meal Friday night, I've had an awesome run. The meal is... Domino's Pizza. :) Friday night I had a bit over 1/2 of a large pepperoni pizza from Domino's and just killed the run this morning. The schedule called for 18. I was pushing the pace the entire time and could have easily tacked on more at the end if anyone wanted to do more. It was great. I felt like it didn't take much effort today and my heart rate reflected this feeling as well. I ended up averaging 7:50 over 18 miles and it was easy. Sweet! I guess all this speed work I'm doing is paying off. Plus, the weather today was perfect.
OK, so I'm joking a bit about the pizza, but I'm serious that I'm now 3 for 3 with great runs after the meal. I think the more probably reason behind it is that I don't eat enough generally and I feel better because I have more food in my system. I also think that my body processes food for a long time. I don't think that it takes excess food and stores it as fat nearly as fast as it does for normal people when overeating. I feel like I'm able to draw on food from the night before which gives me more energy. Of course, it's entirely possible that I'm just full of it. Anyway you look at it though, if I think it gives me an edge, then this gives me more confidence which actually does give me an edge.
Not too much to report on the baby yet. I'll give some updates when there are updates to give.
Our house has been on the market for 1 week now and we've had 1 showing so far. Ugh! That's not very encouraging. So far, we have 1 scheduled for tomorrow. Even though I'm a realist, I'm pretty optimistic that we'll sell the house sooner than the market has been indicating we should sell. Until that happens though, the realist in me is preventing me from getting too excited about any of the houses we are looking at. We saw a nice one today that was just put on the market. I have a feeling this one won't be available by the time we decide to finally put some offers out there. Bummer!
OK, so I'm joking a bit about the pizza, but I'm serious that I'm now 3 for 3 with great runs after the meal. I think the more probably reason behind it is that I don't eat enough generally and I feel better because I have more food in my system. I also think that my body processes food for a long time. I don't think that it takes excess food and stores it as fat nearly as fast as it does for normal people when overeating. I feel like I'm able to draw on food from the night before which gives me more energy. Of course, it's entirely possible that I'm just full of it. Anyway you look at it though, if I think it gives me an edge, then this gives me more confidence which actually does give me an edge.
Not too much to report on the baby yet. I'll give some updates when there are updates to give.
Our house has been on the market for 1 week now and we've had 1 showing so far. Ugh! That's not very encouraging. So far, we have 1 scheduled for tomorrow. Even though I'm a realist, I'm pretty optimistic that we'll sell the house sooner than the market has been indicating we should sell. Until that happens though, the realist in me is preventing me from getting too excited about any of the houses we are looking at. We saw a nice one today that was just put on the market. I have a feeling this one won't be available by the time we decide to finally put some offers out there. Bummer!
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
A Quick Speed Night
The schedule called for a 3 mile tempo run today along with 3 miles of warm up and cool down. The goal pace of the tempo was 6:26. I did 6:22, 6:28 and 6:12. I could have stayed consistent, but wanted to pick it up on the last one over the last 1/2 mile or so. This averaged out to about 6:21 per mile during the tempo. I was definitely tired at the end, but felt like I didn't completely burn it out. It's a good thing too because less than 12 hours after finishing it, I will be out there doing 10+ to work and then another 10+ on the way home at the end of the day. I think bed time will come very early tomorrow night.
Speaking of which, I need to get ready for the run and turn in early tonight.
Speaking of which, I need to get ready for the run and turn in early tonight.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Softball
I'm sure I'll be trashed again for missing ATP, but softball duty calls. I had two games scheduled for tonight. As they overlapped, I had to choose. My loyalties are to the beer league as I've been with them longer.
The good news is that I figured out my fielding problems. I've had 3 solid games in the field in a row. The first 2 came with me back at third again and then I played shortstop again tonight and played well. I didn't get as much action as I would have liked, but I fielded and threw well. Now my hitting has gone to crap. I think I'm trying to do too much and keep popping up.
We played short handed tonight in the beer league against a very good hitting team. They are all friendly and we had a good time. We lost by a lot, but were actually ahead after a few innings. It's wasn't the worst experience since they were nice. I ended up 3 for 5 for 4 runs scored, doubles and 2 RBIs. It's not the worst line ever, but it should have been better. Oh well.
Season Stats
G - 10
AB - 49
R - 30
H - 29
2B - 10
3B - 5
HR - 5
RBI - 35
SF - 2
AVG - .592
SLG - 1.306
The good news is that I figured out my fielding problems. I've had 3 solid games in the field in a row. The first 2 came with me back at third again and then I played shortstop again tonight and played well. I didn't get as much action as I would have liked, but I fielded and threw well. Now my hitting has gone to crap. I think I'm trying to do too much and keep popping up.
We played short handed tonight in the beer league against a very good hitting team. They are all friendly and we had a good time. We lost by a lot, but were actually ahead after a few innings. It's wasn't the worst experience since they were nice. I ended up 3 for 5 for 4 runs scored, doubles and 2 RBIs. It's not the worst line ever, but it should have been better. Oh well.
Season Stats
G - 10
AB - 49
R - 30
H - 29
2B - 10
3B - 5
HR - 5
RBI - 35
SF - 2
AVG - .592
SLG - 1.306
Monday, July 14, 2008
Update on The Past Few Days
Saturday Run - The group met at Lake Miramar on Saturday. As I live about 3 1/2 miles from there, the plan was to run there, run with the group and then run home as I was scheduled to do 20 on Saturday. I wasn't sure that the group would only want to do 13 though and I had a feeling that meant I would be doing over 20. I wasn't ready for that. As I woke up early, I decided to head to the lake early and put in about 3. Dano and I headed out around Scripps Ranch and put in 1500 feet of climbing/descending. I know that's not tons of elevation compared to some people, but it is more than I usually put in my long runs, especially the 20 milers. I was not fully prepared for this run and only brought along water for the run. I started feeling the lack of food the last 2 miles and really had to push myself to finish. As we hit the cars, Dano hit 17 and I was 1/4 mile short. I was thinking about not being my anal self and just quit, but Dan made me finish. That's good. I needed it. All in all, a good, but challenging workout.
Sunday Gym - I actually made it to the gym for the 2nd time in one week. I had a great workout on Sunday which included lifting legs. As I'm just getting back into it, I'm not pushing myself super hard, but I picked up the intensity a bit this time compared to last time.
Monday Run - Well, I'm sore today from the gym yesterday. My legs are especially feeling it. Just want you want during speed work. The schedule today called for 3x1600 @ 5:51 with 1:00 recovery. I got carried away on the interval and burned myself out. I struggled to maintain on the last one. I really had to force myself to continue as I really wanted to quit. Times were 5:51, 5:43 and 6:11.
In other parts of my life, I'm not sure that I've shared this here or not, but we are looking to buy a bigger house as we are getting ready to get a bigger family. We've been working to get the house ready and we put our house on the market on Saturday. Unfortunately, we had to list it a little lower than we wanted to as another house in the neighboorhood undercut us as they are trying to sell their house at a low price. That sucks as we need the extra money for the new house. Anywho, the pictures and virtual tour should be coming in the next day or two. If anyone is interested in or knows someone else interested, please let me know. It's a great first home and priced lower to match others in the neighborhood.
We are also out there checking out houses that we can expand to. As the market sucks these days, we are not really pushing this aspect until we get some interest in our house. We have found a few that we are interested in, but as houses easily go 1, 2, 3 and more months before selling, we are not letting ourselves get too excited about any options out there yet. As Wendy progesses through her pregnancy, things may become a bit more urgent. For the time being, there is not too much of a hurry.
Things don't slow down the rest of this week. Tomorrow is the gym and softball. Wednesday is a tempo run at 6:26 pace. Thursday I'm running to and from work for my 2nd 20+ mile day of the week. Friday will likely be a rest day, but could potentially be another gym day. As Saturday only drops to 18 miles, I'm thinking it may be a good day for a break.
That's it from here. Talk to you soon.
Sunday Gym - I actually made it to the gym for the 2nd time in one week. I had a great workout on Sunday which included lifting legs. As I'm just getting back into it, I'm not pushing myself super hard, but I picked up the intensity a bit this time compared to last time.
Monday Run - Well, I'm sore today from the gym yesterday. My legs are especially feeling it. Just want you want during speed work. The schedule today called for 3x1600 @ 5:51 with 1:00 recovery. I got carried away on the interval and burned myself out. I struggled to maintain on the last one. I really had to force myself to continue as I really wanted to quit. Times were 5:51, 5:43 and 6:11.
In other parts of my life, I'm not sure that I've shared this here or not, but we are looking to buy a bigger house as we are getting ready to get a bigger family. We've been working to get the house ready and we put our house on the market on Saturday. Unfortunately, we had to list it a little lower than we wanted to as another house in the neighboorhood undercut us as they are trying to sell their house at a low price. That sucks as we need the extra money for the new house. Anywho, the pictures and virtual tour should be coming in the next day or two. If anyone is interested in or knows someone else interested, please let me know. It's a great first home and priced lower to match others in the neighborhood.
We are also out there checking out houses that we can expand to. As the market sucks these days, we are not really pushing this aspect until we get some interest in our house. We have found a few that we are interested in, but as houses easily go 1, 2, 3 and more months before selling, we are not letting ourselves get too excited about any options out there yet. As Wendy progesses through her pregnancy, things may become a bit more urgent. For the time being, there is not too much of a hurry.
Things don't slow down the rest of this week. Tomorrow is the gym and softball. Wednesday is a tempo run at 6:26 pace. Thursday I'm running to and from work for my 2nd 20+ mile day of the week. Friday will likely be a rest day, but could potentially be another gym day. As Saturday only drops to 18 miles, I'm thinking it may be a good day for a break.
That's it from here. Talk to you soon.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
2008 Heritage Festival 5 Mile Race Report
My parents had been looking for a local 5K to enter for their first race in preparation for their participation in the Sacramento relay marathon. Since Wendy and I were planning on being in town over the 4th of July, I looked around and found a 5 miler within 30 minutes from their house. They were super excited about entering a race we all signed up. As long as you signed up by July 3rd, the entry fee was $20. You can't beat that. We even got a t-shirt and a timing chip. Two days before the race we went down to get our numbers and both Roni (my sister) and Wendy decided to enter as well. We ended up with 5 of us entering the race. The Smidt's (and 1 Shevlin) were planning on taking down the race. Ok, maybe not. I was shooting for 32-34 minutes. My Dad was aiming for 1 hour. My Mom was going for 1:05 and Roni and Wendy were hoping for under 1:25.
This was definitely a low key race. We got there a little less than 1 hour early and there weren't many people around. As we got closer to 20-30 minutes before the race it starting picking up. We hung around for a bit just chilling and trying to convince my mom that she wouldn't get lost on the course. Apparently she had nightmares that she got lost.
Fortunately, the weather cooperated as much as you could hope for in Virginia during summer. The race started at 7:45. It was humid, but overcast and the temperature wsa 73.
With a couple minutes to spare I headed out for some pickups around 6:30 pace. If all went well, I was going to aim for 6:30s and try to pick it up at the end if I had anything left. We all got on the street by everyone else I said my good byes and good lucks and headed to the front. I couldn't get all the way up there and there were people in front of my that had no business whatsoever being up there. So after a bunch of maneuvering, I was able to get 1 back from the front row. As it turned out the chips we were all wearing were for the finish only. So everyone else lost a few seconds as their time was gun time.
The gun goes off and wear are flying. A group of 8-10 runners were just in front of my and some guy decked out in all JMU colors lead the pack. There were a few others around me, but I was right there near the leaders. Very cool! I felt great. I looked down at my watch and saw that was I doing about 5:25. Oops! I really forced myself to slow down as there was no way I could maintain that pace. At mile one I was falling back some from the leaders (which is a good thing) and the guy at the marking said 5:55 (it was a hair short on the GPS). Crap! What a rookie mistake. I know you are supposed to start a bit easier and then pick it up. I just got caught up in the moment. But since I was there, I decided to keep pushing it to see what I could do. During the next mile I was feeling it. I knew I was in for a battle. I had slowed a bit to a 6:22, and I was tired. I could tell I was slowing and my HR was out of control. The next 2 miles I tried with all my might to maintain focus and to continue to push myself even though I wanted to walk. I did 6:37 for each. About 3-4 people passed me from the first mile to the end. So even though I was slowing, I knew I was still pushing it pretty good. About 300-400 meters from the end I make this left hand turn and see this hill facing me. Ugh! I didn't want to see that with how I was feeling. I pushed up the hill, made a right hand turn and saw the finish line and it was down hill. I picked up the pace and pushed towards the line. I heard someone coming from behind and pushed it a bit more. I crossed the line at 32:18 for a 6:28 pace. I was 26th out of 620 runners and 4th in my age group. The top 3 were paid. What a bummer. Unfortunatlely, I'm in the fastest and most difficult age group. Next year I'll graduate to the 2nd or 3rd fastest age group. I would have been 2nd or 3rd in the other age group. Anyway, here are my splits and heart rate. No wonder I felt tired. I guess I was pushing pretty hard.
1 - 5:59, 178 bpm
2 - 6:22, 185 bpm
3 - 6:37, 185 bpm
4 - 6:37, 186 bpm
5 -6:32, 188 bpm
Thinking back, if I started smarter, I really believe I would have been closer to and likely under 32:00. I think if I did 6:30s for the first 2 or 3 miles that I would have had enough energy to really push the last couple. Instead, I was just hanging on. Even with that silly mistake, I'm still very happy with my result. I didn't know I could run that fast for that long.
So I crossed the line, got a couple cups of water and then started jogging backwards looking for my Dad. I found him somewhere between miles 3-4. We was doing the Jeff Galloway. He was jogging 3 minutes and walking 1 minute. He was ahead of pace and feeling pretty good. He was a bit suprised at the speed he was going. I tried to prepare everyone for the fact that their time would be faster than anticipated given the race atmosphere. It still caught him off guard. I tried to make sure he didn't drop off the pace we were going and gave words of encouragement. Before we came to the hill I prepared him for what he was about to see. We headed to the finish coming in at 57:19, well under his goal.
I turned right around and headed back to find my Mom. I didn't expect her to be too far back so I pushed pretty hard to get to her to catch her before she had to see the hill. I found her between 4 and 5, before she could see the hill. She looked tired, but was ahead of goal pace and feeling OK. I gave her the same talk I gave my Dad about her pace and the hill. She was mostly walking, but was throwing in a few runs. As we made the right hand turn after the hill she started to jog. My Dad was there and the three of us headed to the finish line running at approximately a 10:00 pace. She finished at 1:02:47.
I turned around again to look for Wendy and Roni. I found them somewhere around mile 4 and we walked it on in. There were both feeling good, for the most part. They were ahead of pace too. The pace was a little slower then Wendy usually goes and she was staying with Roni the whole way. They started a bit fast, slowed down bit the next 2 miles and then Wendy picked up the pace while telling Roni it was the same speed. :) I told them about the hill and when we finished and made that right hand turn, my parents were there. The 5 of us headed to the finish line together. They finished at 1:17:27.
All in all a great performance by everyone. Everyone had fun and beat the time that they were expecting. I definitely enjoy doing races that I'm not out there to burn it up and do it for myself. Even though I did that today, I was able to still do the race with other people at their pace. It is so much more enjoyable doing that. Maybe as I begin to get out of shape next year as Wendy and I start a new chapter in our lives, I can put in a race here and there with some people slower than me and just enjoy it and help them. We will see.
As we were walking back to the car, my Dad and I found someone handing out free Drumsticks (the ice cream cones). Score! How awesome is that. That was a nice little treat after the race. My Dad was already looking for his next race. He picked up a flyer for another local race. It's a 10 miler about a month later. LOL, they are hooked.
Race Results
A local write up. I almost made the paper. I was just to the left of the camera at the start and missed that picture. Also finishing 1 out of the money prevented me from getting my name ther.e
This was definitely a low key race. We got there a little less than 1 hour early and there weren't many people around. As we got closer to 20-30 minutes before the race it starting picking up. We hung around for a bit just chilling and trying to convince my mom that she wouldn't get lost on the course. Apparently she had nightmares that she got lost.
Fortunately, the weather cooperated as much as you could hope for in Virginia during summer. The race started at 7:45. It was humid, but overcast and the temperature wsa 73.
With a couple minutes to spare I headed out for some pickups around 6:30 pace. If all went well, I was going to aim for 6:30s and try to pick it up at the end if I had anything left. We all got on the street by everyone else I said my good byes and good lucks and headed to the front. I couldn't get all the way up there and there were people in front of my that had no business whatsoever being up there. So after a bunch of maneuvering, I was able to get 1 back from the front row. As it turned out the chips we were all wearing were for the finish only. So everyone else lost a few seconds as their time was gun time.
The gun goes off and wear are flying. A group of 8-10 runners were just in front of my and some guy decked out in all JMU colors lead the pack. There were a few others around me, but I was right there near the leaders. Very cool! I felt great. I looked down at my watch and saw that was I doing about 5:25. Oops! I really forced myself to slow down as there was no way I could maintain that pace. At mile one I was falling back some from the leaders (which is a good thing) and the guy at the marking said 5:55 (it was a hair short on the GPS). Crap! What a rookie mistake. I know you are supposed to start a bit easier and then pick it up. I just got caught up in the moment. But since I was there, I decided to keep pushing it to see what I could do. During the next mile I was feeling it. I knew I was in for a battle. I had slowed a bit to a 6:22, and I was tired. I could tell I was slowing and my HR was out of control. The next 2 miles I tried with all my might to maintain focus and to continue to push myself even though I wanted to walk. I did 6:37 for each. About 3-4 people passed me from the first mile to the end. So even though I was slowing, I knew I was still pushing it pretty good. About 300-400 meters from the end I make this left hand turn and see this hill facing me. Ugh! I didn't want to see that with how I was feeling. I pushed up the hill, made a right hand turn and saw the finish line and it was down hill. I picked up the pace and pushed towards the line. I heard someone coming from behind and pushed it a bit more. I crossed the line at 32:18 for a 6:28 pace. I was 26th out of 620 runners and 4th in my age group. The top 3 were paid. What a bummer. Unfortunatlely, I'm in the fastest and most difficult age group. Next year I'll graduate to the 2nd or 3rd fastest age group. I would have been 2nd or 3rd in the other age group. Anyway, here are my splits and heart rate. No wonder I felt tired. I guess I was pushing pretty hard.
1 - 5:59, 178 bpm
2 - 6:22, 185 bpm
3 - 6:37, 185 bpm
4 - 6:37, 186 bpm
5 -6:32, 188 bpm
Thinking back, if I started smarter, I really believe I would have been closer to and likely under 32:00. I think if I did 6:30s for the first 2 or 3 miles that I would have had enough energy to really push the last couple. Instead, I was just hanging on. Even with that silly mistake, I'm still very happy with my result. I didn't know I could run that fast for that long.
So I crossed the line, got a couple cups of water and then started jogging backwards looking for my Dad. I found him somewhere between miles 3-4. We was doing the Jeff Galloway. He was jogging 3 minutes and walking 1 minute. He was ahead of pace and feeling pretty good. He was a bit suprised at the speed he was going. I tried to prepare everyone for the fact that their time would be faster than anticipated given the race atmosphere. It still caught him off guard. I tried to make sure he didn't drop off the pace we were going and gave words of encouragement. Before we came to the hill I prepared him for what he was about to see. We headed to the finish coming in at 57:19, well under his goal.
I turned right around and headed back to find my Mom. I didn't expect her to be too far back so I pushed pretty hard to get to her to catch her before she had to see the hill. I found her between 4 and 5, before she could see the hill. She looked tired, but was ahead of goal pace and feeling OK. I gave her the same talk I gave my Dad about her pace and the hill. She was mostly walking, but was throwing in a few runs. As we made the right hand turn after the hill she started to jog. My Dad was there and the three of us headed to the finish line running at approximately a 10:00 pace. She finished at 1:02:47.
I turned around again to look for Wendy and Roni. I found them somewhere around mile 4 and we walked it on in. There were both feeling good, for the most part. They were ahead of pace too. The pace was a little slower then Wendy usually goes and she was staying with Roni the whole way. They started a bit fast, slowed down bit the next 2 miles and then Wendy picked up the pace while telling Roni it was the same speed. :) I told them about the hill and when we finished and made that right hand turn, my parents were there. The 5 of us headed to the finish line together. They finished at 1:17:27.
All in all a great performance by everyone. Everyone had fun and beat the time that they were expecting. I definitely enjoy doing races that I'm not out there to burn it up and do it for myself. Even though I did that today, I was able to still do the race with other people at their pace. It is so much more enjoyable doing that. Maybe as I begin to get out of shape next year as Wendy and I start a new chapter in our lives, I can put in a race here and there with some people slower than me and just enjoy it and help them. We will see.
As we were walking back to the car, my Dad and I found someone handing out free Drumsticks (the ice cream cones). Score! How awesome is that. That was a nice little treat after the race. My Dad was already looking for his next race. He picked up a flyer for another local race. It's a 10 miler about a month later. LOL, they are hooked.
Race Results
A local write up. I almost made the paper. I was just to the left of the camera at the start and missed that picture. Also finishing 1 out of the money prevented me from getting my name ther.e
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
June Monthly Summary
I did a 6 mile run today with a 4 mile tempo with a goal pace of 6:41 for the tempo. I felt pretty good during the run. I definitely felt the pace, but could have gone faster if needed. The actual pace was a bit quicker than goal pace. The 4 mile tempo average took 26:05 and I average 173 bpm. That's a 6:31.4 minute per mile average. That included some hills as it was done on the street. Here are the splits:
- 8:31.77, 139 bpm
- 6:28.47, 167 bpm
- 6:43.38, 173 bpm
- 6:29.97, 176 bpm
- 6:23.62, 177 bpm
- 7:52.52, 167 bpm
I know I'm way behind in providing my monthly summary for June. My schedule has been hectic along with being out of town at the beginning of the month is the reason for the delay. The numbers are off this month since I wasn't doing any heavy duty training, June was spent recovering from the Rock and Roll Marathon and a very hectic work schedule that caused me to lose lots of sleep and not be able to devote as much time for working out as I would normally like. For comparison, see June's summary.
I'm still on pace for my first 2,000 mile year, but barely. Since I've been so busy and taper/recovering from a marathon, I'm not barely on pace. I hope to step it up for the next couple months to give myself some buffer for when I taper for the next race. Plus, after October, I'm predicting that I won't be training for anything for some time. I guess the motivation of getting to 2,000 may help me at the end of the year when I'm not training for a race.
Looking at the weight numbers from June, it looks like I manage to lose muscle and gain a bit of fat. I guess that is expected when I don't go to the gym, don't exercise as much and eat very poorly. July should be slightly better and August noticeably better. With that said, I'm continuing to lose weight. Is that a good thing? I'm not sure. I think it's helping me to get faster, but I'm definitely weaker.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
In My Defense...
So I've been called out. In a post by Michelle she basically said that I've been slacking off and not upholding my reputation. See I've missed the last 2 weeks of MarcFit ATP. I have legitimate excuses so far. Last week I was out of town. Tonight I had a softball game. As it turns out, I will be playing softball games the next couple months on Tuesday so they will have plenty of time to drag my name down. No baby excuses for me yet. I'm sure there will be plenty coming in the future, but that is not my reason for "slacking" at this point.
I guess I will need to bump up my numbers just to make sure I keep my reputation. Tomorrow is a 6 miler witha 4 mile tempo run at 6:41 pace. It sounds like my project at work will be delayed a little bit so I may be able to start my commute runs again next week to get my weekly mileage back up to 50-70 miles per week. Plus this weekend is the first of 5 20 milers in preperation for St. George in October. I guess to truly redeem myself, I will need to start doing ESEs on my own.
I started playing softball in a competitive mens league at Poway Sportsplex. These games are timed and you only play 55 minutes. We were home and likely in the last inning. We were up by 6-4 with 2 outs. A bunch of hits and a couple errors later, we were down 5. WTF!?! We scored 3 in the home half to lose by 2. How much does that suck. To make matters worse, I hit like complete crap. I was 0-3 with 2 popups and a groundout. I should have stayed home and worked.
I guess I will need to bump up my numbers just to make sure I keep my reputation. Tomorrow is a 6 miler witha 4 mile tempo run at 6:41 pace. It sounds like my project at work will be delayed a little bit so I may be able to start my commute runs again next week to get my weekly mileage back up to 50-70 miles per week. Plus this weekend is the first of 5 20 milers in preperation for St. George in October. I guess to truly redeem myself, I will need to start doing ESEs on my own.
I started playing softball in a competitive mens league at Poway Sportsplex. These games are timed and you only play 55 minutes. We were home and likely in the last inning. We were up by 6-4 with 2 outs. A bunch of hits and a couple errors later, we were down 5. WTF!?! We scored 3 in the home half to lose by 2. How much does that suck. To make matters worse, I hit like complete crap. I was 0-3 with 2 popups and a groundout. I should have stayed home and worked.
Monday, July 7, 2008
A Recap of the Past Week
Now that I'm back in town it's time to catch everyone up on what has happened over the past week. Wendy and I went back to Virginia to visit my family and break the pregnancy news to them. Before we took off, we hit the Lake for a quick speed session as I wasn't sure what I'd be doing when we got to Virginia. The schedule called for the following intervals in meters (and pace) with 200 meter recoveries: 1200(5:41), 1000(5:39), 800(5:36), 600(5:31), 400(5:26), 200(5:21).
.76, 4:32.13, (5:59) 172 bpm
.13, 1:38.33, 144 bpm
.63, 3:31.95, (5:37), 175 bpm
.13, 1:43.90, 151 bpm
.50, 2:50.47, (5:40), 175 bpm
.13, 1:43.38 155 bpm
.38, 2:00.57 (5:17), 177 bpm
.13, 1:38.05 161 bpm
.25, 1:22.65 (5:24), 175 bpm
.13, 1:42.23 159 bpm
.13, 0:38.57 (5:01) 172 bpm
I was pretty close on most of the numbers. It was mid 80s out there which may have slowed me down a bit.
Our plane was scheduled to leave at 10:15 pm, but it was delayed nearly 45 minutes. That sucked. Unfortunately for me, I can't sleep much on planes. I guess it's just too uncomfortable. I manage to get somewhere around 30-60 minutes combined sleep on the trip and was pretty wiped by the time we arrived and drove an hour to my parents house. We wanted to break the news to the family then, but some people were still sleeping. We had breakfast and talked for about an hour and gave up. We headed to bed for a couple hours of sleep. Everyone was awake and around when we woke up, but it's hard getting everyone together in one room with the kids running around and the family getting things ready to head out on the boat. We were going to tell them by showing them pictures from my last marathon and at the end we slipped in the picture of the EPT and pictures from the sonogram. Right when I pulled out the pictures, everyone but one sister and my dad left. We figured we might was well go ahead. When the last race picture came up, my dad got distracted by something and my sister was the only one to see the real picture. She was very happy and excited for us, but tried to keep quiet so it would be a surprise for everyone else. Slowly but surely, everyone finally saw the pictures and found out the news. It feels so much better not having to keep that a secret anymore. Phew!
The next couple days were spent just hanging out with the family. It was good seeing everyone again. But as I expected, my running suffered. Between the lack of sleep and the energy exerted out on the water and the heat and humidity, my speed session on Saturday which included a 5 mile tempo run at 6:46 pace didn't really materialize. I ended up getting in 3 pretty weak runs on both Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was the 5 mile race in the Heritage Festival 5 Miler. I will put up my race report for this race in the next day or two.
My attitude towards running definitely suffered over the past week. Marc Fit ended up meeting for a run on Sunday. That worked out perfectly for me as I had to do a 17 miler and missed it on Saturday. I felt my time would be better spent sleeping in though. So I missed the weekend long run. Today I was still not completely into it, but was able to get myself out there for today's speed session. The schedule called for 5x1000 at 5:36 pace with 400 recoveries. I was a bit off today as I'm still getting back into it. Even with that, I'm still pretty happy with the results today.
.62 miles, 3:41(5:54 min/mile), 173 bpm
.62 miles, 3:35(5:46 min/mile), 175 bpm
.62 miles, 3:39(5:53 min/mile), 174 bpm
.63 miles, 3:34(5:40 min/mile), 177 bpm
.62 miles, 3:25(5:33 min/mile), 180 bpm
My schedule is not going to be any better than it was for the past month for the next week or three. I pretty much need to spend every waking hour working as I aim to meet a nearly impossible goal that is two weeks away. During this time I'm also playing in 2 softball leagues that will take up time 2 nights a week. I need to get in 2 speed sessions a week along with some other running. We are getting our house ready to put on the market on Saturday. Unfortunately, there is a lot involved with doing this. We are looking for another house to move into which also takes time. Somehow I'm thinking I may not have time to get in my runs to/from work at least once per week. Ugh! Bring on the caffeine!
And saving the best for last (anyone still reading?). We went to the doctor today for the 2nd checkup. We are now 12 weeks in. We got to hear the heartbeat of our child today. That is so cool. Knowing that little guy (probably a girl) is in there growing like mad is such an exciting thing. We can't wait to meet him in 6 months.
.76, 4:32.13, (5:59) 172 bpm
.13, 1:38.33, 144 bpm
.63, 3:31.95, (5:37), 175 bpm
.13, 1:43.90, 151 bpm
.50, 2:50.47, (5:40), 175 bpm
.13, 1:43.38 155 bpm
.38, 2:00.57 (5:17), 177 bpm
.13, 1:38.05 161 bpm
.25, 1:22.65 (5:24), 175 bpm
.13, 1:42.23 159 bpm
.13, 0:38.57 (5:01) 172 bpm
I was pretty close on most of the numbers. It was mid 80s out there which may have slowed me down a bit.
Our plane was scheduled to leave at 10:15 pm, but it was delayed nearly 45 minutes. That sucked. Unfortunately for me, I can't sleep much on planes. I guess it's just too uncomfortable. I manage to get somewhere around 30-60 minutes combined sleep on the trip and was pretty wiped by the time we arrived and drove an hour to my parents house. We wanted to break the news to the family then, but some people were still sleeping. We had breakfast and talked for about an hour and gave up. We headed to bed for a couple hours of sleep. Everyone was awake and around when we woke up, but it's hard getting everyone together in one room with the kids running around and the family getting things ready to head out on the boat. We were going to tell them by showing them pictures from my last marathon and at the end we slipped in the picture of the EPT and pictures from the sonogram. Right when I pulled out the pictures, everyone but one sister and my dad left. We figured we might was well go ahead. When the last race picture came up, my dad got distracted by something and my sister was the only one to see the real picture. She was very happy and excited for us, but tried to keep quiet so it would be a surprise for everyone else. Slowly but surely, everyone finally saw the pictures and found out the news. It feels so much better not having to keep that a secret anymore. Phew!
The next couple days were spent just hanging out with the family. It was good seeing everyone again. But as I expected, my running suffered. Between the lack of sleep and the energy exerted out on the water and the heat and humidity, my speed session on Saturday which included a 5 mile tempo run at 6:46 pace didn't really materialize. I ended up getting in 3 pretty weak runs on both Wednesday and Thursday. Friday was the 5 mile race in the Heritage Festival 5 Miler. I will put up my race report for this race in the next day or two.
My attitude towards running definitely suffered over the past week. Marc Fit ended up meeting for a run on Sunday. That worked out perfectly for me as I had to do a 17 miler and missed it on Saturday. I felt my time would be better spent sleeping in though. So I missed the weekend long run. Today I was still not completely into it, but was able to get myself out there for today's speed session. The schedule called for 5x1000 at 5:36 pace with 400 recoveries. I was a bit off today as I'm still getting back into it. Even with that, I'm still pretty happy with the results today.
.62 miles, 3:41(5:54 min/mile), 173 bpm
.62 miles, 3:35(5:46 min/mile), 175 bpm
.62 miles, 3:39(5:53 min/mile), 174 bpm
.63 miles, 3:34(5:40 min/mile), 177 bpm
.62 miles, 3:25(5:33 min/mile), 180 bpm
My schedule is not going to be any better than it was for the past month for the next week or three. I pretty much need to spend every waking hour working as I aim to meet a nearly impossible goal that is two weeks away. During this time I'm also playing in 2 softball leagues that will take up time 2 nights a week. I need to get in 2 speed sessions a week along with some other running. We are getting our house ready to put on the market on Saturday. Unfortunately, there is a lot involved with doing this. We are looking for another house to move into which also takes time. Somehow I'm thinking I may not have time to get in my runs to/from work at least once per week. Ugh! Bring on the caffeine!
And saving the best for last (anyone still reading?). We went to the doctor today for the 2nd checkup. We are now 12 weeks in. We got to hear the heartbeat of our child today. That is so cool. Knowing that little guy (probably a girl) is in there growing like mad is such an exciting thing. We can't wait to meet him in 6 months.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Back Home
It's good to be back home. I took 5 days off as I went back home to visit the family. Other than logging in here to post my message about Wendy's pregnancy, I pretty much unplugged during this time. It was great spending time and catching up with family. It was also nice to disconnect with the rest of the world for a bit. Now that I'm back home, I have a back log of things to get through. In the days ahead I'll get you a brief recap of my week to include my race report from the Heritage Fesitval 5 Mile run that my family participated in. For the time being, I'm just trying to get caught up on tons of email and other miscellaneous things. Back with more tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Breaking News
The MarcFit family is going to expand once again. Now that the immediate family has been told, it's time to start spreading the word.
Wendy is expecting. We are super excited. It's finally sunk in that this is really happening. So far we are enjoying the journey and are looking forward to our new adventure. Other then some nausea, tiredness and some minor things here and there, the mother-to-be is doing well so far.
Woohoo!
Wendy is expecting. We are super excited. It's finally sunk in that this is really happening. So far we are enjoying the journey and are looking forward to our new adventure. Other then some nausea, tiredness and some minor things here and there, the mother-to-be is doing well so far.
Woohoo!
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