2010 Running log

This post is for my information only. I need somewhere to write down how far I run every week just to keep track. This year is a big big year for me as I plan on running my first (and hopefully not my last) marathon in November in Richmond. When I start to really think about running 26.2 miles, which my goal is to do it under 4 hours or 9:00 pace, seems nearly impossible to do. Luck for me I have some great guys I have gotten to know over the past 4 months or so who the majority of them have run marathons before so they can and will provide that motivation that I will need. My biggest concern will be this summer when we are planning on being gone for two weeks for a weeding and family reunion in Arizona and New Mexico which is not cool during the summer. So I hope to be able to find the time and motivation to keep my training up during this time. So here we go.........

Week of Jan 4th, 01/05/10 3.2 miles (treadmill)= Total for week 3.2 miles
Week of Jan 11th, 01/13/10 4 miles (Percival's Island) + 01/14/10 6 miles (treadmill) + 01/16/10 5 miles (treadmill) = Total for week 15 miles
Week of Jan 18th, 01/18/10 4 miles (Kemper St) + 01/19/10 3.3 miles (downtown) + 01/20/10 4.2 miles (Percival's Island) + 01/21/10 4 miles (Wyndhurst) = Total for week 15.5 miles
Week of Jan 25th, 01/25/10 4 miles (Kemper St) + 01/26/10 4 miles (treadmill) 01/27/09 4 miles (Cabell St) 01/28/10 8 miles (Wyndhurst) = Total for week 20 miles
Week of Feb 1st, 02/01/10 4 miles (Reverse Miller Park) + 02/02/10 4 miles (treadmill) + 02/03/10 4 miles (Reverse Miller Park) + 02/04/10 3.6 miles (Graveyard run) = Total for week 16 miles
Week of Feb 8th, 02/08/10 4 miles (Reverse Miller Park) +

I don’t need no pace.

Most people know that I was a swimmer for most of my life. During my last two years of high school and all 4 years of college I had the problem of always taking races out way to fast. Well now that I am getting into running nothing has changed. My first race last year, the 2008 Virginia 10 Miler, my first mile split was 8:30 which when compared to my goal pace of 10:00 is way to fast. Well on Saturday November 14, 2009 Darrell Manning and my self signed up to run the Danville Half Marathon (13.1 miles). It was supposed to be on a FLAT trail next to the river (I highlight flat for a reason). Well the week of the race the left over rain from a hurricane came through the area and the river flooded. So the race director had to find another course and find one very quick. The course they choose was very hilly, which is not what I was prepared for. So when the race started, as usually I took off like a bat out of h***. Our goal pace for the FLAT course was 8:00 but with the hills we were thinking closer to 8:15 would be good. Our first three miles was at a 7:30 pace, which is not close to either of my goal paces. The biggest and longest hill was at the beginning of the course (which we had to run 3 loops of). In the following pictures you can tell that each time I was in more and more pain. By the third loop around my body was done with and I had to walk almost the entire last loop.

(1st time up the hill and still felling good)

(2nd time up the hill and starting to really fell the pain)

(4th time up the hill almost to the finish line.

I thought I was going to die at this point.
There is no picture of us going up the hill the 3rd time because I was walking)

I am grateful for my good friend Darrell who decided to stay with me the whole race even though I know he could have easily run the last loop with out stopping. The only lesson I learned from this race is “slow and steady wins the race.” Darrell and I have signed up for our first full marathon (26.2 miles) at Richmond in November 2010. Luckily the Richmond race will have pace teams which will help me make sure I start out at a good SLOW pace.



On a little side note I am grateful for our wives who have learned to put up with a training schedule for these races and also for good friends who come to support us and watch us die in pain.

Let them Eat Cake

Dacy has many many talents and she is finding more talents every year. One of those new talents she discovered at the beginning of November is decorating wedding cakes. There was a couple in our ward at church who were getting married and had asked another lady at church who was not going to be able to do the cake for them, so this lady asked Dacy if she would be willing. Dacy has a small problem of saying no, so Dacy had about 2 weeks to get ready. The week of the wedding was crazy with cakes and frosting all over the house.
The worst part of this is the fact that I was getting ready for a half marathon the weekend after the wedding so I was trying to eat good, but with a large bowl of frosting sitting on the kitchen counter I had more than my share of frosting. The cake turned out beautiful and I am very proud of my wife. She as many amazing talents that I could only dream of doing which you can see at her blog Dacy Did It.



Since I am talking about cake I thought I would share one of my favorite routines from Bill Cosby about chocolate cake for breakfast.

Sweet Halloween there Matey

This Halloween the kid’s costumes where somewhat homemade with the girls being sweet witches this year and Max being a pirate, which he was really really good at. Dacy was able to find the girls matching shirts and then made their skirts from fabric. Max’s costume was made using some pants that were too short already and using a shirt from his dress up box. The kids had fun and were ready to get lots of candy. On Wednesday night we went to our church’s trunk or treat and filled up the bags there and then Halloween night we went to my mom’s neighborhood and made off with a good amount of candy. As usually the kids were done walking by about the sixth house and the fact that a little rain was falling did not help the problem.

What a difference a year makes

Last year I started training for the Virginia 4 miler but after a week changed to training for the Virginia 10 miler. The course for the race is a tough one. It is an out and back with some major hills between mile 1.5 and 3 and then the last 1.5 miles are uphill. Last year I took the race out way to fast and died like no other and had to walk up the hill. This year I have been training since the end of May and what a huge difference it made. My time last year was 1:52:25. I had several different goals in this year’s race. First was to run the whole the race, which I completed. The second was to beat my training partner’s time from last year 1:24:55. My third goal, which to meet I would have to a perfect race, was to beat my last years time by 30 minutes. My time this year was 1:23:47. As stated I completed my first goal. I also completed my second goal. My third goal I was off by 1:22, which was so close. I was very very happy with my time and only hope over time to keep dropping time. My goal next year is to break 1:20:00.
(See web site for information if you would like to run next year www.virginia10miler.com/dotnetnuke/)

Race Log

I have created a training log which helps me keep track of my mileage I am running. I have keep track of the races in which I have run on a post it note on my desk which I know will one day be lost. That is the reason I am creating this post. Like I stated in my training log, this is mainly for my information only.

2008 Virgina 10 Miler 1:52:26 (pace of 11:15)

2008 Apple Valley 5k 29:44 (pace of 9:36)

2009 CVKA Memorial Day 10k 52:28 (pace of 8:27)

2009 Presbyterian Homes 5k 25:09 (pace of 8:07)

2009 Percival's Island 5 miler 39:29 (pace of 7:54)

2009 Virginia 10 Miler 1:23:47 (pace of 8:23)

2009 Apple Valley 5k 23:27 (pace of 7:34)

2009 Danville Half-Marathon 2:03:00 (pace of 9:24)

Strabismus

If you are wondering what that words means then I would suggest you look it up on Wikipedia. For the lazy people out there, it is a condition in which the eyes do not properly align with each other. Well we noticed one of Zia’s eyes was turning in. We went to the eye doctor and we started by patching the good eye.

We went back to the doctor about a month later and she told us that Zia needed glasses. After that it seemed to us that both eyes would turn in (not at the same time). So we went back and the doctor told us that Zia was only using one of her eyes at a time and she could switch pretty quick between which eye she was using (that takes some talent).

Well the doctor suggested that Zia have surgery to try to correct the problem. The day of surgery was a hard, somewhat long day. We were at the hospital at 6:30 am and we were home about 1:30 pm. Zia was happy most of the time. She cried when the nurses took her back for the surgery, which I knew was going to happen. When Zia first woke up after the surgery she was a little grumpy, but after she quickly feel back a sleep and after her third 30 min nap she was back to her normal crazy self. The pictures below are the night after her surgery.