Back to Reality

It is time to return to reality, and of course my work. I tried to get work to keep sending me a paycheck, but they wanted me to actually show up. I though that was pretty narrow minded of them.

The trip to Europe was nothing short of amazing. I cannot possibly begin to journal it all on one sitting. The photo to the left is my lovely bride and I at Park Guell in Barcelona Spain. My favorite place in the entire trip was Barcelona. During our travels we visited Italy (Florence, Rome, Naples), Greece (Mykonos, Santorini, Athens), France (Villafrance, Monaco), Turkey (Kusadasi) and Spain (Barcelona). We spent a lot of that time on a cruise ship with several extra days spent in Spain. What a trip!!

I must confess that in spite of my good intentions, I only ran twice the entire trip. i do not know how those that travel a lot get their runs in. One on my runs was on the treadmill on the ship while it was at sea. That was just short of a treat. It takes a lot of concentration to keep your footing on a speeding treadmill while the floor is moving with the sea waves. That just added to my dislike for spending too much time on the "dreadmill". I had really hoped to get more runs in, but the schedule was just to busy (read I was lazy) to get them done. Now that I am back to work it is time to get back into it.

Of course 2 weeks on a cruise ship did not at all equal to any weight gain on my part. If you believe that then I have some swamp land for you. I am finding the motivation hard to come by. It might be that I need to find myself a spring race to train for. There is nothing like a good race to get motivated for. I have been considering lately on backing off on my mileage and training for a shorter distance. Something in the 10K range. Wit that I would up my cross training and get some weight lifting in. I have never been a big fan of weight lifting but really need to work on my "chicken arms".

Tomorrow however is a new start...

Today was the day for my run in the Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon. I had slacked off some on my training since my Half Marathon 3 weeks ago so my run was less than stellar. I choose one of my long run routes for today's run. I turned out to be a good day for the run as a cold front had moved in so the temp was about 55F. My time logged in at 2 hours 12 minutes and 27 seconds. Not a PR but still a good run.

On another note, I will be away from the blog world for a bit while on holiday. We have been planning this trip to Europe for over a year and the time has finally arrived. Best wishes to those who who have races coming up. I promise photos and reports when I return.

Crossroads Half Marathon Race Report

September 16th saw the 2007 running of the Crossroads Half Marathon. This is a charity run. Crossroads is an organization that offers assistance to victims of domestic violence. Hard to think of a better way to spend a Sunday morning than by raising money for this worthy cause.

The start was scheduled for 8 am and when I left the house at 7 it was already 67 degrees. The scheduled high for the day was 88 degrees. This was going to be a hot run. Hooray!

My goals for this race was to PR with anything less than 2.05:59. It is a pretty flat run but my PR came from a mostly downhill race so I had my work cut out for me. I also had been slacking on my training program.

The start was pretty subdued with the race organizer standing at the front and when the time came he said "Go!". I was near the front, in a pack of 500 runners, and only knew we were starting because the front of the group was off and running. The start was downhill and I was feeling really good. At the first mile I looked down at my trusty Garmin and was amazed to see a pace of 8.37! I knew I needed to slow down or I was in for a long day.

I backed of on the speed and set myself for a steady pace. The race course is a mix of residential streets and our local bike paths. The paths are my favorite place to run so this was familiar territory. Miles 2 through 7 were a good comfortable pace. That is if I was only going to run 7 miles. My average pace was now at 8.50. I just knew that I was going to pay for that pace at some point and really concentrated on slowing down some more.

The payment for that effort came at the 10 mile mark. I was entirely out of juice. The miles between 7 and 10 saw my average pace slowly creep past 9 minutes. And finally, I had to walk. I would walk a total of 4 times between miles 10 and 12. At 12 miles I promised myself that I could make that 1.1 miles all in one push. I lived up to that promise.

The last mile of the race follows a very beautiful tree lined residential area in downtown Fort Collins. This leads to the finish, which is in the same place as the start. I finished the race strong with a final time of 2.04:59. A new PR!

I am conflicted. I am excited about a new PR and am proud of that effort. I am also very disappointed in myself in how I ran the race. If I had shown a little more discipline in the early miles, I am convinced I would have run a better time.

So now after an earned shower, and an ice cold New Belgium Skinny Dip Beer, I have a date with my easy chair and a day of football. Go Broncos!!

Where in the world is...?

I offer no acceptable reasons for my absence, but do ask for forgiveness. Like most of my friends out there my training has been pretty miserable. My summer has been packed and has left little time for my running. I have managed to get some training in and with my half marathon only a week away I am marginally prepared. But, the cooler weather has arrived and the running is getting better. I have an alternate plan for this winter and will share that in a future blog.

I just arrived home from a weekend in Breckenridge Colorado. The photos I offer this post are all from the area. This was a weekend for getting the ATVs out. For the sake of my friend Charles, we were on the Wise Mountain /Radical Hill Loop. This was a great ride that took us to 12,600 feet in elevation.

The wife and I enjoyed the wonderful views at the top of this fun ride. We had perfect weather with sunny skies and moderate temperatures. we shared the ride with our close friends and this will be our last camping trip for the summer.

There was a mishap however and the photos below show the aftermath.















This is a good news / bad news story. The good news is that the young man (21) who was riding this machine is fine and only suffered a slight bruise when he flipped the ATV into a creek. The bad news is this is my wife's ATV.

Until next time...

Twist and Shout!

This summer has just been cruising by at a rapid pace. Life has been in the way of being faithful to my blog. With the winding down of the summer (I hate how that sounds) I now have a little time to blog.

The running has not been going so well. I seem to have lost a little of that loving feeling and my motivation has dropped. I decided to take a week off to rest and ponder my training plan. it turns out that was a good idea. In a freak simple move, I wrenched my lower back. I am not a person who has back problems. but this dropped me to my knees. The good news is that slowly the pain has gone away and tomorrow I will head out for a 5 miler to get back into my running groove. It is just 5 weeks before my half marathon and I need to get back to my regular running. I hope the week off has not hurt me too bad. I just need to remember that I run for me and I do it because I love it.

After the half I am off to a conference in Milwaukee. I have never been there and am looking forward to the trip. It will be an exciting conference. There is a 5k fun run that everyone participates in and it is a great time.

Time on Legs - Dog Days of Summer

It has been a bit since I have last blogged. That seems the norm during these busy summer days. I am ready for this heat to give way to the fall. My runs have been taking place in 90 to 100 degree weather and it is taking its toll. I am finding that my motivation to run wanders all over the place as I contemplate the heat. It does build character however!

My training however is going pretty good. I will be more than ready for my September 16th half marathon and the World Wide Half.

Time on Legs - Heart Rate

First a report on my 5K race on the 4th of July. This was a local race that benefited our local running club. They had a record turn out of about 900 runners. The course was set up around our local City Park and is a very flat course. I ran this as a training run and vowed that I would not worry too much about time. When the gun went off, I forgot my vow. I shot out of the starting line at a blazing pace and realized that I would have to slow up considerably. I finished the race with a PR of 25.53. What a great way to start the day.

This is the end of my first week running with my new Garmin 305. I found that in order to keep my HR in the desired range I had to run a lot slower than I wanted. Today I went for my long run of 10 miles and kept my HR at or below 150. This slowed my pace by about 45 seconds per mile. I was a little frustrated. What helped me was that I felt really good following the run. It is clear to me that I have been over training and an injury was just around the corner. I like how watching my HR keeps me in check. I think I will leave it off on the days I go for a specific tempo or speed workout pace run.