not quite the same...

so i tried a new track group last night, and it was not quites the same as my old. to start with it was 10 times bigger and far less personal. plus, i don't think i would get along with the coach that much. after i was done with the workout, i called another coach that was recommended to me and we chatted about 20 minutes, and i think he might work out better. i have to say it is a lot harder without people next to you spurring you on--i think you are lucky in that regard. so until we meet next week (the coach and i) he just said to get some runs in and take it easy. i must say transitioning sucks.

no blue ridge

so i just check on that wedding and it is the same weekend and unfortunately that means no blue ridge. but if you want to get your butt in gear and start training for that marathon, you could always join me for Portland in early october.

them apples

so i'm not sure what the REI/ Amazon combo would be besides the current combo, but i did a telephone interview for a position last friday for a position at REI's headquaters. lets pray i go the second round and ultimately to a new job. it would rock and be something i am much more interested in for the time being.
as for my running i've had a couple of crumby weeks. i got news shoes on tuesday, and then on saturday i received notice that the shoes i pro-dealed at REI (a perk of the job) were in and that i could pick them up the next day. i did and to my surprise the trail runners i ordered were in too. but...here is the kicker--asics messed up my order and sent my size 13 women's shoes.
i did, however, go for a run on saturday and if it were to be compared to an infant's weight, that would be some seriously unhealthy baby at 3.1 miles. i hope to pick it up some this week but it is so cold and i hate the cold. i am beginning to get worried about the 1/2 i have in march--but if i treat like a training run and keep the expectation limited to completing it--i should do fine. it is the north face race in may that i am looking at.
welcome to the marathon club--or rather the marathon hopefuls club!

Blue Ridge Relay

www.blueridgerelay.com

Looks like fun, eh?

I'm a bad blogger.

So I've been a bad boy as far as blogging goes. I've had a pretty eventful few weeks of running, but I have been deterred from posting by technical difficulties. One piece of my excellent run reports is that I have a new running toy. Do to my fortuitous win in the weight-loss competition that I engaged with my friends, I had a gift certificate to put towards buying my GARMIN FORERUNNER. I have been wanting to upload my runs onto here, but I haven't figured out the best way to move them over from the other website to here. Any how, the link here is the best I've got so far. Let me know if you can view it.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/dashboard.mb?episodePk.pkValue=4855825

That link will show you that I ran 7.8 this morning. Today my friend Jeremiah and his wife had their second son. My other friend, Tim, and I were running at the time and upon receiving a text of the baby's name and weight, we ran the corresponding distance. Good times.

I wanted to fill you in on my upcoming plans for running. You'll need to update the countdown accordingly, my boy. My plan to run the Knoxville half-marathon is now on cancelled due to a scheduling conflict with my church's men's retreat. Instead, I'm going to run the Jackson, TN half-marathon the following week. Aside from the drawback of being over near Memphis, it is flatter and cheaper, both of which are big pluses in my book. I hope to set a PR in that race. Then in the fall, I believe that some friends and I will be running the Blue Ridge Relay. I'll have to get you some more details on that. Want to be on the team? Lastly (and here's the bomb), I'm definitely planning to run the Knoxville full marathon next spring. I may even try to run one this fall. How'd you like them apples?

So there we go. I'm pretty excited about running at the moment, of course that doesn't make it super easy to get out there and train day to day. I don't know if you heard much about this, but I went and saw The Spirit of the Marathon on Thursday night. It was a one-time show that was quite inspirational. I had already decided to move on to marathoning, but it certainly got me more excited.

Tell me more about this REI thing. That sounds rocking. If you got to work and both there and Amazon, I think that my head would explode from the retail goodness.

cliff-hanger

i feel like it is the end of an hour of 24, except there are no previews for the next week. so where is the update?

also, i should be getting back on track later today. i decided to forgo the bus and drive in and go get my new shoes which arrived in the store yesterday. i'll post after i run.

glitch in my plan...

congrats on the big win...and thank you for spending at amazon.

so i must say i wish i was running! so after the realization that my shoes are done, i went to go get some new ones today, but they didn't have any in my size. so now i am waiting for shoes...the store says that they should get 'em by mid-week and so hopefully by next weekend i will have some new shoes. this is frustrating since i am now waiting for two of the same type of shoes, the pair i pro-dealed and this pair. i love asics--they seem to be slow as snot (it's like my mechanic in germany)! at this rate the north face shoes i ordered last week will be here. so i am off to obesity for the week. it sucks because i have a pretty open week ahead of me with plenty of time to RUN! ugh!

i can't wait to here the new plan. i got my plan for the next year approved by my coach and here it is: early march a 1/2; early may a trail 1/2 (tnf race); a tri (sprint) in mid july and the marathon in october! it is likely that there will be a few shorter races sprinkled throughout the summer to work on speed.

but nothing is going to happen until i have shoes...maybe i'll run in the pool :(

6.5 hours until my Saturday morning run...

...and I am still awake. I don't know why. Anyhow, I've been much more a runner than an eater over the last week and a half. I'm hoping to get back on track (again) in the morning. Hopefully, it won't be too too cold. There have been some changes in my upcoming race schedule that I will detail in my post tomorrow. For now let me tell you what I'm excited about. I have a new gadget, which everyone knows is the best way to get me excited about doing something.
I'm not sure if I mentioned that I was in a Thanksgiving to New Year's weight-loss challenge with 2 of my friends. Well, I was, and I won. The prize was a $50 gift certificate to your beloved Amazon which was to be put towards a running purchase. Well, I got my gadget there and I will hopefully share its worth with you tomorrow.

new week resolution...

so after a crumby start to my week and a serious lack of movement, i am vowing to move my butt in the next days. for a measurable goal, i am going for 3 out of the next 4 days, with 2 of them being runs. and hopefully i will be back on the wagon next week...what's your goal?

the power of redaction

there is a huge part of me that wants to use the redaction powers bestowed upon me by blogger to remove Hal from the blog, but i won't. the reason for his picture remaining is that he is your first venture into posting with pictures. congrats.

ALSO, THE IMAGE TO THE LEFT IS TO CLEANSE OUR EYES OF HAL

last night marked a sad night in the life of my running/ triathlon group. as a group we said goodbye to our coach who took a job in california working for avia shoes. it is a great opportunity for her, but hard on us. we all are going our own ways to one degree or another. it truly is a sad moment, as all of our support systems change slightly. we all desire to get together and run/ train from time to time but it will be harder without our leader. so now, i face the challenge of figure out my next move--i am looking into a few new coaches, but it will definitely cost more than my old coach. however, without the face-to-face support of another i really do struggle. you have Hal and i need someone too. i'll keep you posted...but until then i will keep plugging along.
peace out!

Well Done

Great to hear that you conquered the rain and wind (more wind than rain). My update is that, as usual, I've been up and down. Following the 5k on the first, I began my half-marathon training program. I'm using Hal Higdon's intermediate program. He is very old, so I figure he must know what to do. Anyhow, I did most of my runs last week, but over the weekend I fell victim to the desire to eat to excess and be generally lazy, thus, no running occured. I got back onto things yesterday with a half-hour tempo run. It was nothing special, but I suppose it was good that I got back on the horse. If someone was selling motivation, I would probably want to buy it. By the way, how scary and old is Hal?

mission accomplished...

so i made it out on saturday! it was rainy and windy (more wind than rain), and about 40 degrees out. brrrr! we (the dog and i) hit the trails near the house and tackled about 4 miles. i would love to say it was a great run, but i convinced myself several times that walking was okay. very frustrating and rather disappointing. i am sort of upset with myself, but i did get out. i discovered that my workout several days before, that included several chest exercises affected that run quite significantly. with a tight chest i simply couldn't get a good arm drive and was fatigued a lot quicker--i never thought it would affect my running--i've seen it swimming, but not running.

but like i said, i did it! and then i had to make a quick turn around and get my butt to work by noon. i had to wear a watch in the shower so i wouldn't take forever in the bathroom, and i simply just had to throw the muddy dog in the fun box and call it day.

and you--did you make it out?

excellent job...

it looks like you have started the new year off on the right foot. awesome job on the 5k--i must say it sounds like you are a far better runner than i am. but there is always hope for the future, maybe if you were ever to come out here and run the hills with me things would be different.

i must admit i slept through my first scheduled run of the new year, that would be on jan 1. i have started to add some strength training back into my routine and i am trying to incorporate a weight routine into my winter/ spring training...but that is no substitute for the actual miles that need to be put in. the plan is to get out on saturday and hit the trails by my house.

also, i am looking at possibly doing a 1/2 in early march, so i will need to do some running or it will just be doing a really long training run. i am also looking at doing the 1/2 (or 10k) portion of the North Face Endurance Series when it makes its way to seattle in May. i need to makes some plans otherwise i will live in the land of maybes all year long.

check in on sunday to see if i followed through.

I'm Back (not the first time I've said that, probably not the last)

So Crage, I once again find myself in the grip of the running bug. Despite my "quest for obesity" eating habits of the Christmas week and my lack of training during the last month in general, I managed a PR in yesterday's New Year's Day 5k. Results can be found at www.ktc.org. I brought a 22:36 and no one was more surprised at that than me. In fact, when I hit the one mile split, the marshall was calling the last part of some minute, and I was expecting him to go from minute 8 to 9 or at best, 7 to 8, but he was going from 6 to 7. I was a little freaked out. Anyhow, I should be happy to have bested my previous PR by nearly 2 minutes, but I still couldn't help but think, "what if I had done this or that and gotten an even better time." Kristina also ran yesterday, but her time is not indicative of what she can do as she ran with my sister who was a first time 5k'er and a bit slow. My wife has been bringing it lately.

The best result for me is that a good run yesterday got me off on the right foot for training for the half-marathon and for making good efforts in some other spring races. The 5k fit perfectly with my Hal Higdon half-marathon plan as it called for a 3 mile run yesterday. This evening we ran speedwork in 22 degree weather at a track near my parents house. 5x400's which I ran at a 7:00 pace. Maybe a bit faster than I should have, but I was feeling jazzed. The cold air was quite envigorating, at least it was until we stopped, when I suffered a mild asthma/wheezing/hiccup fit. All this to say, it's a new year and a new you Crage! Get on the road!