Gate to Gate Memorial Day Run - Monday, 30 May

The shirt says it all!

I have decided I love this race.  It will be an annual event for me as long as I am able to be active.  I love the whole idea of it.  What better way to celebrate our military men and women who have fallen in defense of our great nation.  The base puts on a great, well organized event.  Being retired military makes this day even more special for me.  Being able to celebrate it with like minded people is all the better.

There were about 1700 runners out of the 2000 that registered that showed up.  That's a pretty big race for around here.  The course is a fairly easy loop.  The only real challenge is the hill at the end.  It starts at about the 4 miles point.  Needless to say, a hill at the end of the race isn't fair!  LOL

I keep my pace around 8:30 to 8:40.  I felt pretty good with that.  About the 1 mile point, I noticed this young lady to my left.  Pretty darn cute if I must say so.  She was going at the same pace as I was, so her and I ran side by side for the next 3 miles.  When I would see her starting to slip behind me, I'd  motion for her to catch up and then I'd slow down just a tad.  It really wasn't as much for her as it was for me.  She couldn't have been much older then 23 or 24.  If that!  We stayed right with each other pretty good until the last water station at about 3.5 miles.  I stopped to get water as I was pretty dehydrated.  She kept going.  I thought I could catch up to her like I had done at the water station before, but wasn't able to.  Remember, this was the end of the race and the "HILL".  LOL  I ended up having to walk a couple more times on that damn hill, so my overall pace was a bit slower then how I started out.  But hey, I can live with that.

Anyway, I finished the race in 39:32.  Just about a minute slower then last year. But again, I am still not up to my level before the injury.  I was able to met up with the young lady at the end of the race and thank her for helping me keep my pace and post a decent time.  She said she was grateful as well.

Week of May 23 - 29

Nothing real special about the week.  Got in a good number of miles.  44 to be exact.  Worked out every day last week at the gym.  Saturday I woke up and decided to take the day off.  Was having a hard time getting motivated to get outside and run anyway.  It was only my second day off in over 2 weeks so I thought why not.  Of course, then I beat myself up the rest of the day and night for not running.  What the heck?  Can't even give myself a break!  LOL

I still feel like I am in recover mode from my injury.  The endurance is getting better.  When I went out for my run Sunday, all I wanted to do was get in about 4 miles without having to stop.  Thankfully, that is exactly what happened.  I had a good run.  Watched my pace from the very beginning and just took it down a bit when I started to feel tired.  I was able to do that for the whole run and it allowed me to finish the 4 miles without stopping.  I was very  happy.  Slowly, it is coming back. 

Well, that's all I have for last weeks running.

Week Summary

What a great week!  I finished up the week with 51 miles!  My most ever for a single week!  And that is after taking Sunday as a complete rest day.  I decided to do that after twisting my left ankle (yes the one I broke) slightly at the train run on Saturday.  It is nothing serious, but I didn't want to take any chances, so I took Sunday off.

Saturday marked the 24th straight day for running/working out!  Most ever!  24 straight days!  Just saying that seems weird.  That isn't something that would have ever come out of my mouth 2 years ago.  I was a fat, lazy man back then.  Anyway, I'll start the streak again today. 

I had great gym sessions this week also.  For the most part, I felt strong each time.  The race on Saturday was good too.  I took 2nd in AG.  I didn't expect to place since I am still working my way back to my pre-injury level.  But hey, I did and I'm slowing getting back to where I was. 

Saturday's Race

What a great event!  The Pensacola Runners Association's (PRA) annual Beak Lake Challenge 4 Mile Run was a huge success.  Over 150 runners showed up!  The weather was pretty good with just enough of an overcast that the sun wasn't beating down on us.  However, that also meant it was humid.  But hey, we live in Florida.  It's always humid!  LOL  The trail was well marked and even most of the roots were well marked.  I have a habit of falling during these trail runs.  Not this time.  I was able to stay on my feet the whole race.  I did stumble one time, but was able to recover.  Made me a tad nervous as I twisted my left ankle just a bit.  And yes, it was the 'bad' ankle.  It turned out to be nothing serious.  Took a rest day yesterday.  No problems today at all.

Sweet awards too!

Now the race itself.  Since I am still getting back to my pre-injury level, I wasn't sure how I'd fair in the race.  I went out at a pretty even pace.  I told myself I wanted to at least go 3 miles before stopping.  It's still hard for me to say that!  Keep in mind that before my foot injury, I was running 13 miles without stopping.  Anyway, I got just past the 3 miles point and had to stop and walk.  I did this probably 3 times before the end.  I was spent.  Nothing left in the tank.

Needless to say, I was surprised to see my time of 36.13 earned me 2nd place in my age group.  Not near as good as last year, but hey, I did stop 3 times and walk!

Overall, it was a great day.  The PRA uses this race to hold their annual elections.  So, after the race, they held their elections and elected the new officers.  Good food and good company.

Week Summary

Well, it has been a great week for running and working out. Tonight's run means that I have either worked out at the gym or ran 27 of the last 28 days including 18 straight. For me, that is amazing! Just 2 short years ago I weighted in at 250 lbs and was terribly out of shape.

It has been a struggle to get back to my running level before my foot injury. Until tonight, I haven't been able to go much more then 2 miles without having to stop for a bit. Tonight I completed my 5K training run without stopping once. This run really made me feel like it is indeed coming back.

Yesterday's race went pretty good. As good as I had expected that's for sure. I have another race coming up this Saturday. The Pensacola Runners Association (PRA) Bear Lake Challenge. A 4 mile trail race. It is also the annual membership meeting where the next group of officers are elected. Should be a good day.

There is one thing that I need to fix though. I need to figure out how to get back into my early morning runs. I just can't seem to get my ass out of bed any more! What the hell!!! Right now I am getting my weekday mileage at the gym on the treadmill, the elliptical, and the recumbent. I NEED the road mileage! I will overcome this, I will!

Race Report

Tiffany H and myself

St John's Sunset 5K

Well, this was my second race back from my injury. I'm still not where I was before I got hurt. I'm not sure why it is taking so long to get my endurance back. I suppose it is normal, but since I am new to all this running, I haven't got anything to compare it to.

My plan was to go out strong and go for as far as I could at a relatively fast pace. I did just that. At about 1.55 miles I had to stop. From that point on, I did a kinda run fast, walk a minute, then run fast again. I probably repeated this process 4 times.

You might wonder why I was running this way. Well here it is. I have a very hard time running at a slower pace. For me, what works is to just go out hard and take a minute break and repeat. To be honest, I first 'saw' this in action at the Pensacola Beach Half Marathon. There was this guy that I keep catching up to. He would run for a distance and then walk for a bit. He repeated this I don't know how many times. It must have worked for him as he ended up beating me.

Now back to the race. I met up with Tiffany H. from DailyMile.com. She and her husband are both in the Navy and stationed at Corry Field. I ended up finishing in under 28 minutes. By far not my best time, LOL! All in all though, I'm fine with the results.

Here are the official results:

Place - 148/553
Div/Tot - 6/19
Finish - 27.38
Pace - 8.54

Finally Friday!

What a week! One word - wow! Glad this one is over! Today was Friday the 13th. It didn't take long for things to go wrong. At about 10:30, my whole network at school shut down. Seems we had a loop. For those that don't know what a network loop is, it's when a data cable gets connected back to itself. It took over 2 hours to find it. I have well over a 1000 data drops in my school. You can imagine how hard it is to find a single loop. But, I narrowed my thinking down to student computers. I know, why do we always think it is the students. Well, just listen. We began to look at rooms where I have more then one student computer. Finally after searching about 12 rooms, we happened upon one of the art rooms. This one has 2 student computers. Sure enough, we found the loop. We didn't see any students on the computers, so we thought, oh well, won't find out who did that. The art teacher next door asked me what was up and I told her. That's when she said it! Yep, it wasn't a student being malicious, it was her. She was trying to find out why a network printer on one of our mobile laptop carts wasn't working and used that drop to test it. Apparently, there was a data cable there that wasn't connected to a device. She took the end not connected and plugged in back into the port. Only problem was the the other end was already connected to a port. Thus a loop! WOW! Was that a stressful couple hours or what? So glad we found it as soon we did!

Ok, that wasn't running related, but I'll tell ya, I sure the hell was running around! Tomorrow is the St John's Sunset 5K in Pensacola. It will only be my second race since being able to run again. Am I ready? No, not to do well enough to place or anything. I placed 2nd last year in my AG! They have the best awards. Who knows, maybe I'll push hard and pull something out. Could happen!

I have had another great workout week this week. Hit the gym every day so far. Considering my gym is about 25 minutes from here, I only go during the week after work. I have recorded 34 miles already this week. After the 5K tomorrow and a run on Sunday, I have a chance to have my best week yet for mileage.

I'll try to post a race recap tomorrow or Sunday.

Remember, "Real athletes run, others just play games"!

American Idol

Ok guys, I have to admit, I am a HUGE American Idol fan! This season has to be the best one ever! I have never seen so much talent on one place. If you like Idol, I'd be curious who your favorite is! For me, it has to be James Durbin! I love the others. I am a big Haley fan. She is a Illinois girl, so I have to be partial to her. I also really like Scotty. My 13 yr old daughter is in love with him. And then there is Lauran. What can you say, Lauran is awesome too. But, like I said, James is my fav! To be able to overcome not one, but two major disabilities is just short of amazing. No wait, it is amazing! In case you don't know. James has a mild case of autism (aspergers) and also has turrets! He is just such an inspiration.

GO JAMES!!

Race Pictures

Here are some of my race picture!

Happy Monday

Well, another weekend is over.  Getting closer to the end of the school year.  Can't wait!  I love working over the summer.  The students and teachers are all gone and I get a ton of things done during that time.

As for last week and running, I had my best week ever. I was able to log 44 miles total between the treadmill, the recumbent, the elliptical, and outside running!  It was a great week!

I had a race scheduled for Saturday, but it was cancelled due to a lack of participation.  A shame considering it was for our local high school's band. It was gonna by my wife Kim's first race after trying to get back into running.  Secretly though she was glad!! 

I am still struggling to get back to my endurance and distance levels before the foot injury.  I tire at about 2 miles or so.  It seems my legs are not there yet.  I'm amazed that I lost so much over what I thought was a relatively short time.  I ran my last 'run' on March 6th.  That was the Seaside half.  I didn't run the following week at all.  I did got some easy miles in on March 12th when I was in Jacksonville for the Gate River Run, but that was when I knew my foot was shot.  From that point on, I didn't get any running in at all until about April 16th.  I know it will come, but it is very frustrating.

Well guys, we'll see ya the next time!  Happy running!

Mornings

Ok, I don't know what is up with me, but I can't get my ass out of bed in the mornings to go run!  It started back when it was cold as hell.  I wasn't going to get up at 5 am and go outside to run in 20* weather.  Once it did start to warm up, I struggled to get up early and run.  Then I got injured and couldn't run.  Now I can't seem to force myself to get up and run! 

What do I need to do to get back on track? Well, I know the answer.  I just need to push myself to get it done.  I'm sure after a couple of times, I'll start to get it back. 

I am getting plenty of miles at the gym.  Between the treadmill, the recumbent, and the elliptical, I am getting anywhere between 6 and 9 miles every day.  But nothing beats the pavement!  I have to conquer this!

Catch Up!

I’ve been terrible about posting to this blog.  I knew from the start that it would be hard for me to keep this up. 

So, what has been happening since the first of the year?  Well, I’m still running.  I have run numerous races since then, most notably the Pensacola Beach Run Half Marathon and the Seaside Half Marathon in Seaside, Fl.

While training for the Seaside Half, I twisted my ankle pretty bad.  I was on a long run and stepped off the side of the road.  Like a dumb ass thought I could just ‘run’ it out.  NOT!  By the time I got to the 5 or 6 mile point I knew I had hurt it pretty good.  Unfortunately, I was miles from home and just had to run, hop, walk, limp, repeat all the way back home.  I tried to stay off of it as best I could, but didn’t want to drop out of the half.  I injured it on Feb 20.  The half was scheduled for Mar 6^th.  Well, you know what’s coming.  Yes, I went to Seaside and ran the half.  By the time I got to the 9 or 10 mile point, I had to stop and walk a few times.  Overall, I still did pretty well.  My time was 1.57.58.  Under 2 hours.  The bad news was my foot was killing me.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I was also already scheduled to run the 15K Gate River Run race in Jacksonville on Mar 12^th.  And, yes, I went.  I took my wife and daughter and one of her friends for moral support.  The morning of the race, I and a couple of friends were going to run to the start as our warm up.  Our hotel was about 2 miles from the start and on the course.  As soon as I pushed off to begin the warm up, I knew I was in trouble.  Instant pain! I mean real pain.  I pushed through it, but I knew there was no way I was going to be able to run.  I had a green chute placement.  Not a bad start at all.  I knew, however, that I was not going to be running at that pace, so I dropped way back in the pack.

I started off with the gun and managed to hobble my way to the hotel area.  My wife was standing there with camera in hand waiting to take my picture.  Unfortunately, all I could do was to signal her that I was ‘through’ and was stopping.  It was horrible. I have never had to do that before. 

I few of us Dailymilers had planned a meet up after the race, so my family and I made our way back to the finish area.  Oh and the buses weren’t running, so yep, we walked there, another 2 miles.  My wife said I was crazy!  I suppose she is right!  Anyway, I managed to find my fellow DMers and it was nice meeting them.  It was also sad that they all had their finisher medals and I was dressed in my civies.  I was so depressed. 

After we got back home, I made an appointment that Monday for an MRI.  Boy am I glad I did that.  The MRI results showed I had a non-displaced fracture of my cuboid bone in my left foot.  I know, what is a cuboid bone right?  Well, I didn’t know either.  Look it up and you’ll see where it is located.  The MRI also showed that I had 3 deep bone contusions (bruises).  My foot was a mess.  No wonder it hurt so damn bad.

The lesson here is, when you have an injury, TAKE the time to heal.  I didn’t and it cost me big time.  I spent the next 4 weeks missing race after race after race.  I missed some of the best races in my area.  So sad!  And to think, if I had taken the time to heal, I might have only missed a couple. 

Well, all is better now.  My foot is all healed and I was able to run my first race this past Saturday.  It was the Fiesta 10k.  I was really hoping I had signed up for the 5K, but of course not.  No, not me.  I had to go for the 10K.  I hadn’t run more than 4 miles up to that point.  But it turned out fine.  I wanted to finish around 55 or 56 minutes and ended up doing it in 56.47.  Success!

I am back to my normal running routine.  I am still not back fully to my endurance levels, but it is getting better.  Another month and I should be back to normal. 

Well, I guess that is all for now.  I think I have gotten all caught up.  Hope you enjoy your running and remember, if you get hurt, give yourself time to heal.