Monthly Archives: June 2008

June is in the bag

At the beginning of the month, my goals were to get between 60-65 running miles and about 25 miles of biking. Well, last night I headed out on my long run for the week, but ran into a few issues — there was a storm on the way, I was tired from the night before from being at my 17th Dave Matthews Band show (19th if you count two Dave & Tim shows), it was a different time of the day for me and I’m battling some sort of weird chest cold. So when I heard a rumble of thunder, I headed home cutting my run to 5.3 miles. My goal this week was just 6, so I figured that was good enough considering how I felt. I don’t want to run myself sick again.

When I added up my miles though, I was just shy of 60 miles for the month. With a trip to the Outer Banks throwing everything off, I didn’t even realize how close I was to 60 miles. I knew I was short … but not less than a quarter mile short! So, with my dog this morning I finished what I started last night and got in 0.7 miles.

After recalculating a math error at the end of May, which sort of threw off the first part of June, my totals for June were: 60.5 miles running, 42.5 miles biking - much of that in the Outer Banks - and walking 19.5 miles. I lifted weights in some form seven times during the month and I totaled nearly 10 minutes of plank work on my abs. While May was a get-back-on-my-feet month, June was about getting back into shape and feeling good about it.

With two months to go to the next big race, I couldn’t ask to be in a better place right now. This year has been so up and down, so it’s nice to put together two months like this without being hurt. My yearly totals halfway through 2008 are: 310.9 running miles, 127 walking miles, and 87.6 biking miles. Having notched 525.5 miles running, walking and biking, I’m well on pace to hit more than 1,000 miles combined. While it would be awesome to run 1,000 miles in a year, you’re not going to see me run nearly 700 miles from July to December. Thanks injuries.

Looking ahead to July, my biggest running goals come with the long run. My goals right now are to do 7 this week, 8 on July 12 or 13, 9 on July 19 or 20 and 10 on July 26 or 27. I’ll be doing my mile test this week, so it’ll be interesting to see what my time is compared to June. For the month, I’ll be shooting for about 75 miles. With biking, I’ll again aim for 25 miles. With my weight lifting, I’m planning to cut back on the weight a bit and do more reps. I built up pretty good in June, but I think it’s time to scale back just a tad.


Workouts since last post

June 28: Doesn’t a DMB concert count as cross training?
June 29: Walk - 0.3; Run - 5.3
June 30: Walk - 0.9; Run - 0.7; Weights; Plank - 2:30 total (:53 max)
Week totals, plus June 30: Walk - 8.5; Run - 17.6; Bike - 8.2

The enjoyment of NOT running

Coming off two injuries, I’ve completely revamped my training this summer. And so far, I’m feeling much better because of it. Simply put, I’ve taken the pressure off myself to run. My rules are simple — run four times a week with only one set of back-to-back running days a week. There is absolutely no running three days in a row either. Lastly, cross training finally means something.

The set up is pretty much this: Monday is for cross training; easy run on Tuesday; speed work on Wednesday; Thursday is for cross training (or rest); moderately paced run on Fridays; rest/very easy workout on Saturday; and Sunday is for my long run. Throughout this summer I will vary things, but this thought process pretty much works for me. I hate running three days in a row. When I have in the past, I always feel pretty worthless by that third day.

Adding in biking and weight lifting in this first month puts my mind at ease. Today I went out for a walk with my dog and it felt nice to know I wasn’t going to run at all. In the past I would’ve been itching to get in an extra mile or so on an “off” day, but that mind frame is gone. And it’s very liberating …

Workouts since last post
June 27: Walk - 1.2; Run - 4.5
June 28: Walk - 2; Ab workout - 1:30 total plank; 75 set ups on Bosu ball; 25 crunches with home gym

First the fries, now the Coke?!?

Ignoring what might have happened on my birthday, my quest with giving up ice cream and french fries has gone well. This week comes something completely different — it’s all about the drink. No, I’m not giving up beer just yet — although that’ll come eventually for a short duration. Instead, I’m opting to give up soft drinks — diet and regular.

I’m not really a big soft drink drinker. I’ll have a Coke Zero or Diet Pepsi every once in a while. By no means am I addicted. In fact, I’m always shocked at how caffeine gets me going — I drink coffee only once or twice a year. The challenge with this comes when visiting family or heading out to a summer party. I’m not really tempted by it — it’s just convenient to grab a glass and pour. Mix in some Captain Morgan rum and it’s even better.

Living in the south, I won’t give up sweet tea — a man has to have some kind of pick-me-up every so often. There’s just something about soft drinks, though, that disgust me sometimes and this is one of those weeks in which I’m ready to say “no more” for quite a while.

Workout since last post
June 26: Walk - 1.3; Bike - 5.1

The B52's? WTF?

I want to throw up. This year’s headliner for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Virginia Beach is The B52′s. Really? Is that how bad things have gotten in America? After running my tail off for 13.1 miles, my reward will be hearing The B52′s that night? Please forgive me if “Love Shack” is one of your favorite songs of all time. In hindsight 20 years later, is it really that good of a song?

This is a sentence of the RnR Web site: “Past performers include the Goo Goo Dolls, Counting Crows, LIVE, Sugar Ray, Collective Soul, The Commodores, Hootie & The Blowfish, Journey, 3 Doors Down, INXS and many more!” Please note that this race starts with the word “Rock” … not “Crap,” but that’s what I have this year. I really want my $25 back that I paid to get my wife into the post-race festivities. Can you tell that I’m a little bitter? At least there will be beer to drink.

Workout since last post
June 25: Walk - 0.4; Run - 4.1 (15:57 two-mile tempo; 0.25 - 1:47)

The big 3-Oh my gosh I'm in a new age bracket

Just like that, I’m in a new age bracket. Unfortunately for me, it seems that runners in the 30-34 or 30-39 brackets are even faster than the 25-29 or 20-29 brackets. Maybe that’s a good thing though. A fellow Lynchburg College alumnus, who is more than 20 years older than me, told me a couple of months ago that the best running years are ahead of me if I stick with it, and then it trickles off. I hope he’s right.

But now that I’m 30, I have a new way of looking at various things. Whatever my times are in my next races are PRs in my 30s. Everything up until now has been a PR in my 20s. So even if I’m slower next time out, it’s still a record, sort of.

Anyway, in honor of turning 30, I wanted to do a little bit of everything today, with totals reflecting my age. So, I ran 3.0 miles, biked 3.1 miles, lifted weights that I didn’t do yesterday to total 30 reps per exercise, did 30 crunches on the home gym, 30 set ups on the Bosu ball and 30 seconds on the plank. I think it’s more than I’ve ever done on my birthday.

Workouts since last post
June 23: Walk - 2; Weights; Plank - 2:20 total (1:10 max)
June 24: Details above, plus 0.4 walk

A 7.5-mile wake-up call

I know I have a decent amount of time to get into better race shape (10 weeks to be exact), but today was a good kick in the ass. A former co-worker of mine invited me to an 8-mile run with a current co-worker of his. At first I was a bit hesitant — it’s as if I wasn’t ready to run with someone else. I didn’t want to slow people down. And I had really only planned for between 6 and 7 miles today. I went anyway, and I’m glad a did — it showed me I have some work to do on longer distances.

Everything was pretty much OK until I got about 6 miles in. It was at that point in which I just didn’t want to keep going, but there’s something about running with other people that just keeps the legs moving. Toward the end, though, we hit a pretty grueling hill that I just had to walk part of. It’s these kinds of runs that make me better down the road. I know I’m better than this … I just have to go out and find that part of me again.

All in all, this long run capped a great week even though it didn’t feel like it. Coming off a week of vacation that saw very little running, I’m glad to be back on track. Now, if only I could get a job …

Workouts since last post
June 20: Walk - 0.8; Run - 4
June 21: Rest
June 22: Run - 7.5
Week totals: Walk - 5.7; Run - 19; Bike - 7.7
Training totals (since June 1): Walk - 11; Run - 42.9; Bike - 34.3