Posts Tagged ‘2009’

Friday nights are meant for going out to dinner, having a few brews, kicking back, relaxing. Tonight, though, Friday was meant for a long run. Eight miles to be exact. And eight good miles too.

I moved my long run to tonight mainly because it’s the last day in July. When I added my monthly miles up the other day, I realized how close I was to breaking 70 miles for the month. I wasn’t about to fall short.

With all the complaining I feel like I’ve been doing lately, this turned out to be a good month logging 72.3 running miles, my second best month of 2009. After a disappointing first half of the year, this is a great way to kick start the last six months.

That funky funk I was in is history. At least for the first six days of July. Including tonight’s 4 mile run, I’ve logged 16.2 miles so far this month. While I have some work to do with speed, I finally feel upbeat about where I’m headed. Right now I’m happy to be logging good mileage without it feeling forced.

I’m not sure when exactly things clicked, but it’s working. I just hope this feeling doesn’t end anytime soon.

I’m determined to have a better second half of 2009 than the first six months. To get things started, I ran a pretty good 4.2 miles today. It was the best I’ve felt after a run in quite a while. So if today is any indication of how things will be, this will be an awesome month and an awesome remainder of 2009. When I stop thinking about it so much, running becomes much easier.

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I’m looking for a few more blogs to read. I’m going to do a blog inventory soon. I usually do some sort of inventory a couple of times a year and it’s been a while. There are several bloggers on my list who haven’t posted anything in a while and it’s just time to go through my list. Plus I want to add people. So if you’re reading and you’re not on my list, please let me know! Or if you’re on my list and you haven’t posted in a couple of months, maybe you should get to writing!

I was all ready to beat myself up for a bad June, but then I realized that today is the half-way point of 2009. It’s kind of hard to believe really. With all that’s going on with a name change at the organization I work for and having a new baby in the house, I think I should consider myself lucky that I’ve been able to do what I’ve done already.

Sure, I’m behind on my goals for the year, but I also never expected running two races in a row to feel so rewarding (including the 10k PR). That in itself is enough for me to feel satisfied with the first six months of the year. Injuries and other illnesses were pretty much beyond my control, so why should I criticize myself too much? I shouldn’t.

When it comes to miles, my year is shaping up like this: 300.1 running miles; 116 biking miles; 41.5 “other” miles; and 83.7 walking miles. I was about 20 miles off my goal for June, mainly due to missing a week after being sick … which of course made the whole second half of the month just awful. But it is what it is, so it’s time to move forward.

For July, my first goal is to get my body right nutritionally. As always, I haven’t been completely bad, but I’ve broken into the habit of a soft drink almost every day. If I can break that routine, everything else always seems to fall into place. So with tomorrow being the start of a new fiscal year at work, the soft drinks will stop with it. I’m also giving up french fries when eating out. Not that I eat out a lot, but it’s become a habit now when I do eat out to get the fries again. Each week in July, I’ll made a nutritional change and document it in on here. Four additional changes plus these two will set me up well for August and the final weeks of training.

As far as training goes, I’m not going to get too obsessed with miles. I’d rather focus on the quality of my workouts. Tonight I had a good 3-mile run - I felt good for a change. And I’d rather feel good for 3 than feel like crap for 4. I discovered yesterday that giving myself a break and hoping on the bike just made me feel better instead of going for a run. I’m not forcing my runs anymore. That’s not me, and it’s not fun to do that. I want to get back to the way I felt in February and March and I want that feeling to last for the rest of 2009.

All I really have to say is May will be better than April. I’m well rested and ready to move on and establish a good base that will lead to an even better summer. My final tallies for this month: 33.8 running miles; 18 biking miles; and 6 miles on the elliptical. Once it rains and my allergies clear up, I’ll be ready to roll.

I’ve got a good thing going so far this year. Now’s the time to not screw it up! Usually April tends to be a bad month for me. Sure I need some rest right now, but after a couple of more days I’m ready to get back on the road, on the bike and on the elliptical machine to keep going.

As for “what’s next,” I’m sticking to my original plan of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in September to be my next “big” race. Actually my “original” plan was to do the Charlottesville 10 Miler this coming weekend, but there’s no way I’m doing three races in a row. My legs are worn out.

I’ll probably do a handful of community races this spring and summer, and maybe head to Lynchburg for a race, but I want to stay focused on the big picture. Beyond R ‘n’ R, I would like to do a half marathon again this fall — but let me take this one race at a time approach. Things are going well, but last year lingers on my mind.

For April, I want to ease up on my running miles just a bit and focus on some cross training. Somewhere around 60 running miles is fine with me. I’ll probably take the same approach for May. Ideally, right now, I want to have a long run once a week of 6-8 miles and then build on that this summer. The best-laid plans are meant to be broken, so we’ll see what happens …

What’s in a month? A foot of snow; record lows; record highs; the season’s first lawn mowing; my baby rolling over; my baby eating rice cereal; my dog getting a bath; and a visit from the in-laws.

What’s in a month? Two races I’ve well documented; 70 total running miles; 11.8 walking miles; 20.7 biking miles; and 7.1 “other” miles on the elliptical. Total miles: 109.6.

Sure enough, March has been a mad (in a good way) month. It’s been fantastic in my eyes, especially when I think about where I was a year ago (when I obviously was lacking creativity with a headline for March’s summary). There’s really nothing more I can say about it.

For a quarterly report, things are shaping up nicely for 2009. I’m a little off my non-running goals, but my pace for running miles is well ahead of my goal. And, honestly, that’s what I was hoping for, but didn’t want to be too optimistic start this year.

For the first three months of the year, I’ve logged 205.4 running miles; 40.9 walking miles; 67 biking miles; and 30.5 “other” miles. Total exercising miles (not including those pesky stairs at work): 343.8.

So far, so good.

The last week of the shortest month of the year turned out to be a pretty good week. As I mentioned earlier, I had a 10.1-mile bike ride to start off the week; I closed it off with a pretty good 10-mile run yesterday. It was a run filled with everything - part of it was with my dog; part of it was with a group of Lynchburg College alumni; part of it was me taking a slightly different route to catch up to that group; some of it was by myself; there were hills, flat areas, great views of the James River and scary moments with speeding traffic on Richmond’s Huguenot Bridge. It was an adventurous 10 miler.

For the month, I ended with 76.4 running miles — that’s less than last February, but more balanced out with a steady increase throughout the month. Last year’s running miles were 41.2 and 86.5 for the first two months; this year was 59 and the 76.4, which makes more sense from an injury-prevention standpoint. Unlike last year though, this month was full of cross-training. I had a good month on the bike with 30.7 miles; the elliptical saw less activity, but I still logged 6.1 miles in three different workouts. Also for the mileage, tag on 14.6 walking miles. And, lastly, was the stairs initiative at work. Simply put, that’s part of my daily life now and I won’t log the steps anymore. It’s too much to keep up with, but I certainly will not stop doign it.

All in all, I’m very pleased with February. I’m looking forward to March though. Two races, warmer weather, more sunlight … I can’t wait!

Today I got in a good 6.4-mile run, with much of it coming in a group of Lynchburg College alumni who are getting ready for the Monument Avenue 10k. It was a fitting close to a month that for the most part has been very good to me. As I continue to adjust to life with a baby, there were certainly times in which I wish I could have made it to the gym, even for just a quick workout, but I’m not really complaining. A four-day trip to Ohio in the coldest part of the month also put a small dent into things.

For the month I ran 59 miles. With last year still on my mind a bit, this is great. I’m kicking myself just a bit for not hitting 60. This is better than all but four months from last year, including the just over 40-mile start in January ’08. But this month is so much different than a year ago in the fact that I also logged 15.6 biking miles and 17.3 miles on various elliptical machines. Add in 14.5 walking miles and I have 106.4 total miles for this month.

I’m a bit disappointed that I haven’t been able to shed much weight, but I can only blame myself for what goes in my mouth. Overall I haven’t been eating that bad, but this small snacking at work when people bring in food has got to stop.

As I look ahead to February, my goals are simple - do more and do it with more intensity. With running, I want my long run at the end of the month to be 10 miles. After what I did today, I’m pretty confident that a 10 miler on Feb. 28 won’t be a problem (weather permitting). On Feb. 14 I’ll be running in the Sweetheart 8k. My goal for that is to beat last year’s time of 38:26. That race will be a good test to see where I’m at with being in racing shape. I’m just not looking forward to that damn hill at the beginning.

Lastly, I just want to say: Go Cards! I’ll be an Arizona fan tomorrow, if only for a day.

While things continue to be a work in progress at this new site, there’s something that’s very refreshing about moving my blog. It just fits with this being a new year. Although all my old posts have moved with me, changing sites helps me move forward. It’s really time to put 2008 behind me and focus on 2009. Last year seemed like an endless cycle of things I wanted to do, but just never quite got to where I wanted to.

I feel like I’m starting 2009 off like I did 2004, the year that I first started running and lost weight. While I’m nowhere near that 220 pounds that I was then, I’m at 192.8 today. I want to get back to 180 or below and stay there. I’ve been up and down 5 to 10 pounds for a while now and it’s time that I recommit to eating better and focusing on getting in the best shape of my life. It’s been a good few months of doing what I feel like doing, but it’s time to take back to a level I haven’t been at in a while.

So quickly back to this blog. If you’re unfamiliar with the comments section on WordPress, it’s pretty simple — leave something in the name section and leave an e-mail address (which is never published) — it’s that simple. The Web site category is optional — if you have a Web site, please leave it. I’m always looking to add to my blog roll. Also keep an eye on the links at the top of the page — over the next week or so I’ll be finalizing them. I’ve already completed the “About” section and the “Race Times” section. I like have that there instead of clogging up my one page … just one of the many benefits of WordPress I’ve already noticed. (Jan. 2 edit:I’ve turned off comment moderation, so you can actually leave anonymous comments. I’d still prefer that you still leave a name, but it’s all optional now.)

Lastly, I just want to say Happy New Year to everybody out there. Thanks for following me to here, and I look forward to having you along this next journey.