Looking Back on 2010

Goodbye 2010, I must admit I'm not that sad to see the back of you (although that does mean I will be another year older, so I probably want to take that back).

My 2010 started out really early on New Year's day when Nancy and I drove up to Kingwood to run the Texas marathon together. My New Year's resolution was that I was going to run another fast marathon this year, but it wasn't going to be this one - I hadn't trained properly for it, wasn't really prepared, and had a "comedy finish" when both legs cramped as I crossed the finish line.

Most of the first few months of the year were spent battling annoying and niggling little injuries, not helped by my stubborn nature. Even now I still have some pain in the arch of my left foot, and my left hip flexor is still super tight (it's a good thing Nancy booked me a massage appointment in the New Year).

February saw me standing in line for 24 hours outside Austin ISD to get Gavin into the school we wanted. It was worth it as we received notice in March that it had been a successful vigil, and he duly started Kindergarten in August.

And March also saw us heading up to Arkansas for a mini vacation, which enabled me to run the Little Rock marathon. Again my training had been far from ideal, and I was still getting over my foot problems. But I'd had a few good training runs before the race that boosted my confidence, and I surprised myself with a great run on race day.

Arkansas also surprised me with how beautiful it was, and I really enjoyed the time we spent in Little Rock. The whole town seemed to embrace the race, and it probably ranks as my most favorite marathon to date.

Yeah, it's kinda like that

The day after the marathon we traveled to Petit Jean mountain, where we'd booked a cabin in the woods. We hiked, enjoyed the magnificent views from the Mather lodge and met so many friendly Arkansans. It was a wonderful vacation, and hands down the best part of 2010.

Spring was quite uneventful other than a lovely trip to Corpus Christi.  By the time summer arrived I had started doing regular weekend long runs with a great bunch of friends collectively known as "the sisters". This helped me keep running over the horribly humid Texas summertime, and prepare (sort of) for the El Scorcho 50k, held in Fort Worth in July.

The glory of early morning runs

I drove up with another group of friends. We enjoyed ourselves, and I wound up with a new 50k PR (which is probably more due to the fact that I've never really run a good 50k than anything else).

Our lives were swimming along perfectly, but that all changed in August when Nancy's dad had a stroke. This meant that Nancy was out of town a lot, and my running ground to a halt as I stayed in Austin to look after the boys. I quit my coaching slot with Round Rock Fit, gave up leading my Monday night trail group, and when I did get to run my heart just wasn't in it anymore.

The only highlight of this period was an odd case of mistaken identity.

We transferred Nancy's dad to the hospital in Austin, and he eventually ended up coming to live with us. Let's just say it's been challenging.

I hope things get better in 2011.

By October the weather had cooled off, Clea and I were both training for the Frankenthon marathon and my running was going well again. Unfortunately, the humidity crept back in on race day and I did not have a very good race.

I was so angry with myself that I signed up for the White Rock marathon several days later for a chance at redemption.

White Rock marathon

I had 5 weeks until the race, and for the first time in years I had myself a running goal I really wanted. And I trained hard for it. I posted my weekly workouts on the blog to force myself to be accountable, adopted the motto "no excuses", and channeled all my frustrations and anger into that training. I started pushing the pace and found myself running better than I ever had - regularly hitting sub-7 minute miles.

When race day came I was all focus and ran the race of my life - shaving 22 minutes off my PR and qualifying for Boston with a 3:12:46. I may never run that well again, but I will forever treasure the feeling of crossing that finish line having given it everything I had.

Of all the marathons and ultras I've ever run (all 31 of them), that was probably the best single moment.

Decker half marathon

I took the momentum into the Decker half marathon the following week and had another great race.

Although the fire has dimmed somewhat since then, it is still smoldering and I'm ready to rekindle it for the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile race in February. I took the unusual step of announcing my intention to try and run sub-20 hours there, and now that I've talked the talk I need to walk the walk.

Just like I did at White Rock.


So Happy New Year everyone, and thanks to all of you for stopping by to read about my rants, races and recipes. Please come back in 2011 for more tales from the trail and ramblings from the road.

Standing Room Only

If I told you that somebody broke into my SUV and stole the seats, you'd probably be waiting for the punchline, right? But unfortunately there isn't one - as bizarre as it sounds, that apparently is just what happened. Some time between Thursday and last night somebody broke into my Yukon and removed the third row of seats.

Nothing else was taken, and at least we had very "house proud" thieves - Gavin's booster seat was laid neatly on the second row, the camping chair arranged to one side, our compressor left in plain sight, radio, cds all still there.

Just missing a row of bench seats.

I even checked the garage, thinking I must have taken them out and forgotten I'd done it. And in a really bizarre moment I actually climbed into the back of the Yukon and felt around just to make sure they hadn't just become invisible, or were "hiding" somewhere.

But no, they're definitely gone.

There's no point in getting mad, I mean there's nothing I can do about it. At least it will be a good story to tell in years to come.

And I must admit I did crack a bemused smile. I mean, who the f**k breaks into a vehicle to steal the seats??!!!!!

And I thought British car thieves were bad!!!

Of course, the main reason we bought the Yukon was for the third row of seats, because with my parents here we now can't all go anywhere together without using two vehicles. Luckily a good friend of mine owns a Suburban and has offered to loan me his third row while we figure out replacements.

It's a suitably strange end to a strange year.

Hungry Hippos

My Little Hungry Hippo!!!

We bought Gavin the Hungry Hippos board game for Christmas, but watching Dylan tip up his bowl and empty his Kix cereal into his mouth this morning, I think we have our own Hungry Hippo right here!!!

Reindeer Farts

When I look back on Christmas 2010, I will fondly remember sitting in the rocking chair with Gavin in the dark on Christmas Eve, looking out the bay window at the frosty night sky and asking if he could feel the magic in the air. Of course he did - he's a 5 year old boy full of excited anticipation on Christmas Eve.  He wanted to know where the magic came from, so I explained that once a year Santa feeds his reindeer special oats which make them toot magic dust thus enabling them to fly.

I could see him briefly weighing the possibility of magic reindeer farts in his head before concluding that daddy was full of it and laughing his head off. We rocked together and talked quietly about kids 100 years in the past and 100 years in the future, and how they would all be feeling exactly the same excitement as he was on Christmas Eve, and how that was the real magic.

Precious moments that will be gone all too soon.

I will also fondly remember the Mocha Buche de Noel, which was a huge hit with everyone (even my father-in-law grudgingly admitted it wasn't bad). My dad has already requested it again for his birthday in January, and it is definitely going on my "cook to impress" list of desserts!!!

So it was a very enjoyable Christmas with family, good food and plenty of fun. Christmas Day was cold and I got to build a lovely fire, we watched the Muppets Christmas Carol, I played with the kids, didn't ruin the turkey, and we didn't kill each other.

That counts as a successful Christmas.

And now we're into the dying embers of 2010. The week between Christmas and New Year always seems to me a strange time of limbo. It's like the changing of the guard - a time for dispensing with the old and heralding in the new - the rolling over of another digit marking the relentless march of time.

And speaking of numbers, I find myself 19 miles shy of running 1500 miles in 2010. Hopefully I will grab those miles this week since I slacked off over the Christmas weekend.

And from now until the Rocky Raccoon 100 in February there is no more slacking. I just checked my running plan for January and it contains three 30 milers, two 20 milers, four 15 milers, five 10 milers and various other "spare change" runs, alongside a full program of cross training.

If I survive the training plan, I should be good and ready for Rocky!!!

The Road to Rocky (week 4 of 10)

Very pleased with the 81 miles I managed last week, and had a very enjoyable Christmas.  But a house full of guests and Dylan's new habit of keeping me up all night is playing havoc on my workout schedule.  I don't know if he's teething, or has an ear infection, but I'm hoping it will pass.  A full night of sleep would be wonderful right now.

Date	Saturday December 25th - Christmas Day
Plan	Nothing.  Enjoy Christmas day with the family
Outcome	Merry Christmas - spent a good few hours in the freezing cold shooting hoops and chasing balls with Gavin.  Does that count as a workout?

Date	Sunday December 26th
Plan	am - 8 miles pm - Yoga
Outcome	6am - 33F.  After 2 nights in a row of being up all night with Dylan, I drove out to Bull Creek and just sat in the car with absolutely no desire to get out and go run.  After I caught myself nodding off, I decided to knock it on the head, drove home, fell into bed and slept the sleep of the dead for 3 hours.  Felt a little better after that. pm - did a good hour of yoga.

Date	Monday December 27th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Strength workout (30 minutes)
Outcome	Ah, a good night's sleep did me the world of good and I extended tonight's strength workout to a full hour

Date	Tuesday December 28th
Plan	am - 10 miles pm - Cardio workout (1 hour)
Outcome	4:30am - 48F and still, great running weather.  Another good night's sleep and a fantastic run this morning.  Did 10 miles in 1:14:47 (7:28 pace) pm - did 30 minutes of kettlebell swings and squats

Date	Wednesday December 29th
Plan	am - 8 miles (easy) pm - Bicycle trainer (30 minutes)
Outcome	am - Dylan woke up around midnight, and from then until around 5am he was either screaming his head off or wanting to play.  Needless to say, I didn't make this morning's run!!! pm - nope.  Fell asleep on the sofa

Date	Thursday December 30th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Bob workout 1 (30 minutes)
Outcome	No - family stuff came up

Date	Friday December 31st - New Year's Eve
Plan	am - 8 miles pm - Nothing
Outcome	4:30am - 65F and humid.  Did 15 miles with Clea, thus bagging my 1500 miles for the year

Christmas Smoking and Festive Humbugs

I ran 81 miles this week - my best weekly haul of the year. I think it officially qualifies me to overindulge in Christmas goodies without any guilt whatsoever.

This morning I reached that figure thanks to a fun early morning 17 miler with Clea.  Unfortunately, as I was driving to her house I turned on the radio and was ambushed by a cornucopia of truly awful Christmas music.

Don't get me wrong, I love most Christmas music (I have a special setting on my jukebox for it), but there are some examples of the genre that are so horrifyingly bad they should be featured on American Idol.

And every song that played was either rampant commercialism (I sincerely hope Santa does not "hurry down your chimney tonight", and I'm sorry but why exactly do you want a hippo for Christmas) or so depressingly morose they fell under the umbrella I've labeled "Christmas wrist-slashers".

I hate to sound like Scrooge, but humbug!!!!

A good run always lifts the spirits though, and I spent a large part of the rest of the day cooking. I made some Mocha Buche de Noel this afternoon and took the turkey out of my brine solution to air dry in the fridge overnight.

I have some honey wheat dinner rolls rising on the counter, pierogi dough waiting to be rolled, filled (thank goodness for my pasta crank - makes fast work of flattening those suckers), boiled and sauteed, and I will prepare some coffeecake before bed to be baked up first thing in the morning.

And tomorrow I'm going to take a big chance and smoke the turkey on my beloved Weber Smokey Mountain.  If it comes out half as good as the turkeys on that site, I will be a happy bunny.

If it doesn't, I'll be in trouble.

Tonight we will all sit down to watch the traditional screening of the Muppet's Christmas Carol and try to ignore my father-in-law's complaints.

It may even get cold enough to light a fire.

Merry Christmas.  And God bless us, every one!!!

Thought of the Day

So I was doing my run this morning, contemplating life, when an interesting question floated to the surface.

If you have a really great race - one that is up there with your all-time favorites, a new PR, a BQ, whatever - do you ever want to go back and run that same race again?

I didn't really have an answer - if you ran it again and things didn't go so well, you could end up tarnishing a great memory.  On the other hand, if you enjoyed it so much and had success, why not?

What do you think?

Hills and Chills

I had an outstanding weekend of running. Saturday morning I did 6 by myself and then another 18 with Meghan, which gave me a 24 mile day. I haven't run with Meghan for a while, and I enjoyed catching up and chatting away the miles. We ran at a steady pace and I felt like I could keep going forever.

I finished the 24 miles in 3:22:46, which roughly equates to a 3:40 marathon - none too shabby.

Then Sunday morning was the hills smackdown. Three of my buddies took me up on the challenge, and I was really up for it.  The weather down by Bull Creek was wonderfully chilly, I had no hangover from the 24 miles the previous day, and ran the 10 miles around the Ladera Norte neighborhood over 10 minutes faster than I ever have before. That included some waiting time for folks to catch up with me, and I had plenty left in reserve.

Then we hit the trails. I was thinking that I would take some time to find my trail legs, but I switched right back into it and hammered a reverse Kens loop. I wanted to see how far I could push on the uphill switchbacks, and it turned out I could push them all the way until I ran out of switchbacks to push against.

So I went all the way back down and did them again, then completed the loop. When we finished, I had that same feeling that I could just keep running forever.

I think I'm in killer shape for Rocky Raccoon. Hope I can hold onto it until February.


We picked my parents up at the airport last Wednesday. They'll be staying with us for three months, so our little house is bursting at the seams. Of course, my father-in-law is mad, but what else is new. He doesn't talk to me anymore anyway, other than barking orders and complaints.

And I've learned that whatever we do he will never be satisfied - it will never be right, or good enough, or fast enough.

For the most part I try to hold my tongue (with just a couple of spectacular exceptions), but it's so hard when he treats my wife like dirt.  Nancy says that's just the way he's always been, but it annoys the hell out of me and puts a strain on everyone (though I have channeled that simmering anger into some huge PRs this year).

And it makes me appreciate Nancy even more for the strong, caring, patient and wonderful woman I do not deserve but am very grateful to have.

I just feel so sorry for Gavin. He's very sensitive, and used to love his "pawpaw". But he has had to come to terms with the fact that "pawpaw" very obviously does not want him around.

That's hard for a 5 year old to understand. It's even harder to explain. Gavin is not perfect by any means, but he has a big heart, is very kind, and is a wonderfully charismatic and engaging little boy.

He deserves better.

Thankfully, my parents do want him around, love him for who he his, and are more than happy to spend as much time as possible with him and Dylan.

I haven't seen him this happy in months, and I'm very grateful to my mum and dad for that.

Trash Talking on Trail

It's going to be a big back-to-back running weekend for me. Tomorrow I'm planning 22 hard miles of road, followed by 10 miles of road hills and 5 miles of hilly trail on Sunday. Some big payments toward my Rocky Raccoon goal time will be made this weekend, and it'll be interesting to see how quickly I can find my trail feet again after training almost entirely on road for the past several months.

As extra incentive for Sunday I sent out an email to some of my old Monday night trail group, challenging "anyone who thinks they can kick my road-loving butt" to "come on out and have a go".

Thus are the devious ways by which I force myself to run hard on tired legs.  And I am as cunning as a fox who has just been made chair of cunning at the University of Sly Old Devil, because the beauty of trash talking is that when you talk the talk you are also compelled to walk the walk!!!

Needless to say, the banter has been flying thick and fast ever since. Some of these folks aspire to even bigger stirring spoons than yours truly!!!

Not mentioning any names Mr Tanner.

The Road to Rocky (week 3 of 10)

Another great effort run last weekend at the Decker half marathon, but I was treading water for the rest of the week. It's time to get the marathons out of my system and refocus on the Rocky Raccoon 100.

12/21: changed the plan to add two long runs on Thursday and Friday as I will be busy smoking a turkey on Christmas morning and do not intend to run.

Date	Saturday December 18th
Plan	am - 22 miles pm - Nothing
Outcome	5am - 38F and clear.  Ran 6 by myself and then another 18 with Meghan.  Didn't run that fast, but felt like I could go forever.  We chatted away and I added on bonus miles to get her up to 18.  I finished with 24 miles in 3:22:46 (8:27 average).  Fun morning.

Date	Sunday December 19th
Plan	am - 15 miles pm - Yoga
Outcome	6am - 33F.  Another strong run today.  Hammered 10 miles of road hills and then ran hard on hilly and technical trail.  Once more I felt like I could run forever. pm - no yoga tonight.  Forgot we had a party to go to.  Oh well - bring on the egg nog.

Date	Monday December 20th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Bob workout 1 (30 minutes)
Outcome	pm - really pushed myself tonight and got a really good hard workout in

Date	Tuesday December 21st
Plan	am - 10 miles pm - Bob cardio workout (1 hour)
Outcome	4:30am - 67F.  My legs were all kinds of sore this morning - probably a combination of Sunday's hills and last night's workout.  Decided to make this a recovery run, so I didn't push the pace.  Finished 10 miles in 1:22:13 (8:13 average) pm - realistically, I don't think there was ever any chance I would make this workout. After a busy evening, I'm finally sitting down and enjoying a glass of wine instead.

Date	Wednesday December 22nd
Plan	am - 8 miles (easy) pm - Bicycle trainer (30 minutes)
Outcome	am - didn't happen.  I was up until gone midnight with a crying baby, and there was no chance of me getting up at 4am pm - probably not going to happen either since we've promised Gavin we'd take him to the cinema

Date	Thursday December 23rd
Plan	am - 12-15 miles pm - Bob workout 2 (30 minutes)
Outcome	6am - 56F.  Ran an easy 15 miles with Meghan.  Sometimes it's good to just run, chat and enjoy the morning pm - I guess I underestimated how busy Christmas week was going to be.  Another miss.

Date	Friday December 24th - Christmas Eve
Plan	am - 16 miles pm - Core workout
Outcome	5am - 55F and raining.  Did a nice relaxed 17 miles with Clea and Wesley.  This run brought up 81 miles for the week - not bad at all.

Funky Souls and 100 Mile Goals

I'm in a strange mental funk at the moment, maybe a touch of post-marathon blues. Having originally signed up for the White Rock marathon as an interim goal to help me prepare for the Rocky Raccoon 100, it took on a life of its own and became a major goal race.  Maybe I underestimated how much of myself I threw into it, because now that it's done I'm struggling to maintain the same intensity and passion.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still hitting most of my workouts, and had a great half marathon race at Decker, but the drive is not as strong.

Though that can also be deceiving. I ran 10 miles on Tuesday morning and just didn't feel like pushing it. I coasted for a large part of the run, but still ended up averaging 7:30s.

Which is great.  And it's not such a bad thing to pull in for a while.  The ideal scenario would be to come down a little and peak again in early February.

Because I'm not yet within the gravitational pull of the Rocky start line.

And I know that come race day I'll have my game face on.

But as the euphoria of getting that BQ at White Rock fades, I'm wondering if maybe the downside of smashing my marathon goal so emphatically is that I really don't know what I can replace it with. I guess I could aim to break 3:10, and the obvious goal would be to try for a sub-3 hour marathon, but I don't know if I'm capable of running any better than I did in Dallas.

But that's a discussion for another day. In the meantime, I need to regroup and focus on Rocky.

And I have an idea on how to do that.

One of the quirks with both my 100 milers was that I correctly predicted my finishing times to within 5 minutes. I usually write my prediction down beforehand, seal it into an envelope and leave it for Nancy to find.

But I want to do this one a little differently, so I'm going to post my goal right here on Welshrunner central. This isn't news to those of you I run with regularly as I've been discussing it since the summer, but for the rest of you here it is:

My goal for the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler is to finish under 20 hours.

That equates to almost a minute a mile faster than my previous RR finish of 21 hours and 35 minutes two years ago.

I really don't know if I can do it or not, but I'm going to try. And just like I did at White Rock, I'm going to go out with all guns blazing - death or glory - and if I crash and burn, well at least I'll be happy with the knowledge I left it all out there.

Besides, I've never DNFed a race and do not intend to start with this one.

But it seems there's something about publicly stating a goal that works for me and gets the adrenaline and blood flowing.

So bring it on!!!!

Here's the race plan that will hopefully get me there.

Loop	Time	Distance	Pace
1	3 hours	20 miles	9 min/mile
2	3.5 hours	20 miles	10.5 min/mile
3	4 hours	20 miles	12 min/mile
4	4.5 hours	20 miles	13.5 min/mile
5	5 hours	20 miles	15 min/mile
Totals	20 hours	100 miles	12 min/mile

The Tree is Up

Having once more had my idea of a Festivus pole voted down,we put our Christmas tree up last weekend.  It is traditionally a time when we come together as a family to decorate, squabble and scramble to get everything out of Dylan's reach before he eats them (a feat which has become exponentially more difficult since he discovered how to climb).

Always get some great photos too!!!

New PR at the Decker Half

Every year I run Decker and swear it will be the last time. Yet every year I continue to sign up for it.  That's due to a number of factors.  This is a race put on by runners for runners, and it shows - the race shirt is outstanding, and after the pain of the hills is done they have breakfast tacos and sausage wraps for post-race food.

But there are certain things about Decker that are set in stone - it will be cold, it will be hilly, and it will be windy.

In other words it will be a challenge.

It also has something of a "reunion" quality about it.  We get to be inside the expo center before the race, and I walk around and bump into lots of people I haven't seen in ages - people I've coached, or met through running, or those who know me and come over to chat while I rack my brain to figure out who they are or where they know me from.

I blame my notoriously bad memory for names and faces!!!

Among the people I bumped into before the race was my fellow Brit James.  He didn't know it, but I was planning on using him as my rabbit.  He's a much better runner than me, so I was going to try and hang onto him as long as I could.

And I would be lying if I claimed I didn't have my little brother's 1:37 half marathon time on my mind too.

So we were off, and running directly into the wind along Decker Lane for the first 4 miles of rolling hills.  I hared away to a 6:45 first mile as I wanted to put some distance between James and myself (I knew he would catch me later).  I settled into a consistent 7:00-7:05 minute mile pace for the long straight ups and downs along Decker Lane, and concentrated on running easy, staying consistent and trying (in vain) to find someone who might block me from the wind.

I knew there would be bigger hills coming up, especially at miles 5 and 9.

But I kept it going, averaging between 7:00 and 7:10 miles (with a nice new PR of 43:39 at 10k).  James caught me around mile 7, but I pulled ahead again on an uphill and then threw in a few sub-7 miles to try and shake him off.

Didn't work.  He caught me again just after mile 9, before the big hill.  This one goes on for about half a mile and is a serious mental grind.  I determined not to let him get away, so I dug in and stayed on his heels.  We made the turn onto Decker Lake Road just after mile 10, and he was about 20 yards ahead.

But somehow I started reeling him in.  First he was 15 ahead, then 10, then 5, then I was passing him.

I made sure he was ok as I passed.

But my legs were still firing, so I ground my teeth and dug in.  I was not going to be passed again.  As we hit mile 12, the wind picked up and we were running directly into it.  My pace dropped to 7:27 (my slowest mile) as I slogged away and was glad to make the turn into the expo center.  That last mile and a bit seemed to go on forever, and I was very grateful to cross the finish line in 1:32:43 (7:05 average).

If you'd told me a few weeks ago that I'd be within spitting distance of running a sub-7 half marathon at Decker, or finishing anywhere near James (let alone ahead of him) I would have called you crazy.  But I'm in the middle of a golden seam of form right now, full of confidence and running well.

I'll make the most of it while it lasts, because I have had more than enough bad days out there.

Here are my mile splits:
Mile 1 - 6:45
Mile 2 - 7:02
Mile 3 - 7:01
Mile 4 - 7:04
Mile 5 - 7:07
Mile 6 - 7:10
Mile 7 - 6:57
Mile 8 - 6:54
Mile 9 - 6:55
Mile 10 - 7:08
Mile 11 - 7:13
Mile 12 - 7:27
Mile 13 - 7:16
Final 0.1 - 7:10

Makes me curious as to whether I could go sub-7 at a half marathon that didn't have all the hills this one does.  I am tempted to enter 3M to find out.

The Road to Rocky (week 2 of 10)

What a week. I started it off by smashing my marathon PR and qualifying for Boston at the White Rock marathon. After that, I realized how much emotion and mental energy I'd used up during the race, and decided to take it easy for the rest of the week to recharge my batteries.  I skipped most of my runs, and only did a few yoga and weights workouts.

And I do feel mentally refreshed.  I did 8 miles with Clea this morning and felt great.

So this coming week it's back down to work and time to refocus on the Rocky Raccoon 100.  I have the Decker half marathon on Sunday which is known for its big hills, and I'd like to make it a big effort run.

We'll see how that goes.

Date	Saturday December 11th
Plan	am - 12 miles pm - Bicycle trainer (30 minutes)
Outcome	6am - 50F and humid.  Did 8 rather than 12 to save myself for tomorrow's race, so I decided to make it an effort run over the Scenic hills.  Just managed to squeak under an hour (59:48) at a 7:28 pace pm - don't think I will ever grow to love the bike trainer

Date	Sunday December 12th
Plan	am - Decker half marathon pm - Yoga
Outcome	8am - 45F and windy.  Set a new half marathon PR over the hills of Decker this morning in 1:32:45 (7:05 pace). If you'd told me a month ago I would come within a whisker of running a sub-7 Decker, I would have thought you were insane. pm - felt like I was coming down with a little cold.  Sat on the sofa and sneezed while Nancy rode the bike.

Date	Monday December 13th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Yoga
Outcome	pm - did a great hour of yoga and feel very loose and relaxed

Date	Tuesday December 14th
Plan	am - 10 miles pm - Bob strength workout (1 hour)
Outcome	4:30am - 39F, clear and still. Did my 10 miles in 1:15:26 (7:32 pace).  Felt lethargic and had no desire to push the pace.  But hey, if I can do an "easy run" at 7:32 pace, that's more than ok.  Need to figure out what I want to be aiming for on these runs now that the marathon is out of the way. pm - busy family evening, but managed to squeeze in 30 minutes of strength training

Date	Wednesday December 15th
Plan	am - 8 miles pm - Bicycle trainer (30 minutes)
Outcome	am - bad me, slept through the alarm!!! pm - 30 minutes of slog in the big gear, now off to the airport to pick up my parents

Date	Thursday December 16th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Bob workout 2 (30 minutes)
Outcome	pm - good hard workout.  Needed that.

Date	Friday December 17th
Plan	am - 7 miles (optional) pm - Nothing
Outcome	4:30am - 42F and breezy.  Lucky to get out of the house this morning - couldn't find my water bottle, gloves, anything.  Glad my head is screwed on or I would have lost that too!!!  Ended up running a nice 8 miles with Clea.  I like these Friday runs because we aren't slaves to our Garmins.  We just chat away, and are always surprised that we've covered 7 or 8 miles.

What the Dickens

I took Gavin to gymnastics a few nights ago. As we were walking out, one of the other kids in his class was having a major meltdown over candy from the vending machine. Gavin rolled his eyes at me and we continued out to the car.

As I was strapping him in I said "well that was a whiney little boy, I'm glad you don't do that". Gavin looked at me and said "daddy, he is wearing the chains he forged in life".

Trying not to laugh I asked "are you quoting Dickens at me"?

Without missing a beat he replied "I am but a shadow of things that once were. That I say what I say do not blame me".

Oh Good God.

For the whole of the trip home he was "Gavin Marley", berating "Daddy Scrooge" for his wicked ways.

"Your chains were as long as mine five Christmases ago daddy" he said sternly (amidst much ghostly wailing).

By the time we got home I was ready to repent.

I don't know what I was repenting for, but I was ready to repent.

Tooth Fairies and Bed Hops

I didn't get up to run this morning.  Dylan woke up crying in the middle of the night, so I picked him up and put him in bed with us.  He cuddled himself up against me and went straight back to sleep.  He hasn't slept in our bed since he was about a month old, so I put my arms around him and that's how we stayed until he woke up.

No run in the world can hold a candle to being snuggled up with your 16-month old.

And we had another momentous occasion last night as Gavin lost the first of his baby teeth.  He ran into our room this morning complaining that he'd been robbed by the tooth fairy.  I went back to his room with him, and he soon found the envelope of cash hidden beneath his pillow.

He spent breakfast happily ruminating on how much money he'd gotten for "one little tooth".

I just hope he doesn't get any ideas!!!

Gavin - mischief personified

Dylan the Villain - don't be fooled by the innocent face

Running for Boston at White Rock

"It is mile 5 of  the White Rock marathon and my Garmin has just clicked over my fifth consecutive sub-7 mile.  It occurs to me that I'm either going to have a breakout day, or I've made a huge mistake.  But I've played my hand quite deliberately and I'll live with whatever it brings"


I've thought about today ever since I signed up after Frankenthon. The White Rock marathon became a big deal to me, and I earmarked it as a major goal race.  I put in the hard fast miles, prayed for good (ie cold) weather, and hoped it would be my day.

And the weather cooperated, with temperatures in the 30s.  It was a little windy, but I'll take that.  My goal for the day was to beat my previous marathon PR of 3:34, try to run a sub-8 minute mile marathon, and if possible run 7:50s and grab a 3:25 finish.

I'd worked hard to carefully build my mental defenses, and I was feeling good though slightly nervous.  After all, it doesn't matter how well you run in training if you don't transfer that to race day.

And I really wanted it.

And I was prepared to suffer to get it.

Now I always start out fast, but I've never run the first 5 miles of a marathon at sub-7 pace before.  And to be honest, it didn't feel like I was running all that hard.  But I still asked myself why I was pushing that much when my goal was 7:50s.

Until the little voice in my head answered straight back "we're not going for 7:50s, we're going for 7:20s".

And then everything clicked.  You see, 7:20s equates to a 3:15 marathon, which is my Boston qualifying time.  I know, because I looked it up and worked it out several weeks ago.

But why did I even look it up?  It's way out of my league.

But have you wondered why I've been so excited about pushing my midweek runs under 7:20 pace?  About running a sub-7 12 miler last week?  Could it be that subconsciously I've been training myself to take a shot at a goal I believed was unreachable?

And just like that I realized that it wasn't out of reach, and that the only thing holding me back was myself.  My race goals changed, and 5 miles into the marathon a 3:15 finish was the new target.  After all, I'm in the best shape of my life, I've trained at the required pace, the weather was on my side, and my mental game was locked in.

Time to roll the dice.

I went through 10k in a new PR of 43:52 and the half marathon distance in a new PR of 1:33:40.  I knew we were going to be exposed to the wind around the lake, and that there were hills in the latter miles, so I made sure to take advantage of any downhills or flats we found to bank time.

The course was pretty - there are some beautiful houses, and the crowd support along the way was wonderful.  There were also some funny signs - "your foot is hurting because you're kicking butt" was one of my favorites.

But as we made the turn down to the lake, I saw one that really hit me.  It said "There is no try.  You either do it or you don't".

And the little voice in my head agreed.  And I knew with utter certainty - about 12 miles into the race - that I was going to qualify for Boston.

The second half was just a blur.  My focus narrowed, my concentration intensified, and the only things that mattered were the road in front of me and the pace display on my garmin.

Whenever I slowed down, I made myself speed up again.  Whenever a hint of doubt entered my head it was instantly silenced.  If I started to feel tired, I just kicked it up a bit until I learned to ignore it.

I systematically ground away everything that would stop me reaching my goal until the only thing left for me to do was run.

We hit the famous hills known as the "Dolly Partons" between miles 20 and 23.  To be honest, I'm not sure exactly where we passed them.  I train on hills a lot, and these were nothing special.

I distracted myself by imagining how I was going to break the news to Nancy.

With 3 miles to go, I knew that barring disaster I had it in the bag.  The rest of the course was downhill, and I could run 8 minute miles and still make it with something to spare.

But I couldn't let myself coast, I wanted to get everything I could out of this run.  So I started talking to myself - saying anything I could think of to motivate myself.  "Don't give it away" and "finish the f***ing thing" were my favorites.

We joined up with the half marathoners for the last mile, which I hadn't anticipated, and I'm sure they must have thought I was crazy as I sped past chattering away to myself.

It was an unbelievable feeling to cross that finish line in 3:12:46 (7:21 pace), knowing I'd just qualified for Boston when I hadn't even considered it a possibility at the start of the race.

I was so buzzed.  I couldn't wait to get my medal and shirt and get back to the car.  I called Nancy and my first words were "so do you want to plan a trip to Boston in 2012"?

She was silent until it sunk in and then she screamed down the phone.  I think she was more excited than I was.

According to the unofficial results, I finished 165th out of 4578 finishers.  Their stats also tell me I passed 37 runners in the last quarter of the race (hooray) and was in turn eclipsed by 8 speedier souls (if I had but known I would've tripped 'em!!!).

I enjoyed this race - I've heard great things about it from a lot of people and they were all well deserved.  But of course, I would say that when I've just smashed my marathon PR by 22 minutes and qualified for Boston!!

There's a lot to take in from this race, and a lot of questions I need to ponder.  I'm going to have to take a few days to process it all before I come up with answers.

But for now I'm off to enjoy some Gavin time.

Guns, Bikinis and Posh Pasta

I had a relaxing and interesting drive to Dallas this afternoon.  Amongst the highlights was an advertisement for "holiday deals on AK-47 assault rifles", and another for a "bikini stop" which appeared to point to some dilapidated old farmhouse straight out of Texas Chainsaw massacre.

And they say Austin is weird!!!

As I drove I sang along to Christmas music for the first hour or so, and then chanced upon a station that was playing a string of Vivaldi, which is my favorite classical music.

It put me in a mellow mood and helped me keep my head once I hit the zoo that was packet pickup.  It also made me realize that I really miss Gavin.  We've spent a lot of fun time together recently, and he was upset that daddy was going to be away today.  I talked to him on the phone tonight and I'm looking forward to getting back home and seeing him again tomorrow.

I'll add that to my growing stockpile of motivation to go run a fast race.

I'm now sitting in my hotel room in Mesquite barely able to move.  I've just gotten back from Spaghetti Warehouse where I demolished a huge platter of spaghetti, meatballs, stuffed mushrooms, a bowl of soup and some cheesecake.  A large portion of the spaghetti (and a slice of cheesecake) is now sitting in an equally large doggy bag taunting me.

It does not yet realize I intend to eat it before bed.

Dallas is truly a strange place.  You would expect the Spaghetti Warehouse to be a pretty casual eatery, but it was filled with a plethora of dapper dandies - all plucked, pruned, painted and pimped up.

And that was just the blokes!!!

There was a couple that sat behind me having a heated discussion about whether or not she should order the cheesecake, because "you know it goes straight to your thighs" (I tried not to listen - I really did).

And then there was me - haven't shaved for a few days, wearing an old shirt from some long forgotten race, retired running shoes with holes in them and a pair of cargo pants that I've used for climbing in the woods with Gavin (one of my superstitious quirks - it's the same outfit I wore to packet pickup at Little Rock.  I ran really well the next day).

Yeah, I enjoyed that.

The Road to Rocky (week 1 of 10)

Yes, I know. I haven't even run White Rock yet.  So why am I posting week one of my Rocky Raccoon training schedule? Well, the fact is that my White Rock plan transitions smoothly into the Rocky Raccoon 100 miler. And I was surprised to see there's only 10 weeks before the race.  And I've already planned out all of December.

So there!!!

I'm off to pig out on pancakes before the drive to Dallas.

Date	Saturday December 4th
Plan	am - Sleep in for once pm - Drive to Dallas
Outcome	am - enjoyed a lovely lie in with the Gavster.  Thanks to Nancy for getting up with early riser Dylan!!! pm - ready for tomorrow's race

Date	Sunday December 5th
Plan	am - White Rock marathon pm - Yoga
Outcome	am - had a great race.  Took 22 minutes off my PR and qualified for Boston.  3:12:46 (7:21 pace) pm - skipped yoga in celebration.  Going to lie down with the Gavster instead.

Date	Monday December 6th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Yoga
Outcome	Had a great yoga session that left me feeling nicely stretched and relaxed

Date	Tuesday December 7th
Plan	am - 8 miles pm - Bob workout 2 (30 minutes)
Outcome	am - yeah, I slacked off. Cuddled up with my 16 month old instead pm - made up for it tonight.  My arms feel like rubber right now.

Date	Wednesday December 8th
Plan	am - 6 miles pm - Bicycle trainer (30 minutes)
Outcome	am - it's just not happening for me this week.  Dylan was up screaming the house down most of the night, and we were still trying to get him to go down when my alarm would have been going off this morning.  Maybe I should just count this week as the post-marathon break and start afresh next week pm - spent every minute of the 30 I was on the bike trainer wondering how in hell I managed to stay on here for 90 minutes the other week

Date	Thursday December 9th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Bob workout 1 (30 minutes)
Outcome	pm - another workout missed (I was stuffed full of yummy homemade pizza).  I'm calling this my break week.

Date	Friday December 10th
Plan	am - 7 miles (optional) pm - Nothing
Outcome	4:30am - 45F, foggy and chilly.  Did 8 miles with Clea.  We kept a nice steady pace and finished in 1:07:40 (8:27 average).

Ready to (White) Rock

When I look back on 2010, I will remember November as the month when I finally quit making excuses, got off my lazy butt, and back to running the way I should again.  I did 221 miles in November, most of it at a sub-8 pace, some at a sub-7. I really pushed myself with the cross training, regained my edge, and zeroed in on one goal - to smash my marathon PR at White Rock.

Make no mistake - this is no "training run" for Rocky Raccoon - this is a major goal race.  The marathon is this Sunday, and I'm ready, focused and determined.

I've checked a few weather forecasts, and the consensus for Dallas is a low of 38 and a high of 60.

I couldn't ask for better weather.

I've been good about tapering this week.  Tomorrow morning I'm going to do an easy 6-7 miles to stretch the legs out, and then rest up until Sunday.  I've carb loaded well (including the delicious creamy peanut butter chicken and pasta dish I made tonight), so there's no excuses.  I'm just going to go for it and leave it all out there.

And if I drive home on Sunday having crashed and burned, that's alright as long as I know I've given it everything.

That's where the mental side of things comes in.  I need to recapture that mental toughness to keeping pushing when it hurts.  I haven't had that kind of grit (or motivation) since I ran Little Rock back in March.

But I don't think I need to worry too much - I'm 100% into this race.  And as this is a solo trip for me, I'm going to have plenty of time the night before to get my head right and make peace with myself.

That's been a key feature of all my best races.

So the only question left is am I going to hold back early on and try to run a smart race, or just throw all caution to the wind and go for it from the start.

There's no question really.  When it comes to running goal races, I have the soul of a gambler.

Bob Harper's Inside Out Method : Bob's Workout Review

I have also reviewed the other dvds in the series - "Pure Burn, Super Strength", "Body Rev, Cardio Conditioning" and "Yoga for the Warrior".

This is the fourth and final dvd in Bob Harper's "Inside Out" series.  I may be wrong, but I believe you can only get this one directly from his website (and if you buy all 4 as a set, it's a terrific deal).

It consists of two 30 minute workouts in which Bob is one-on-one with a selected minion.  He doesn't do any of the exercises himself (that's what minions are for after all), but he does provide non-stop commentary and instruction.

It is different to the others in the series in that the production is more low-budget and basic, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  I miss the countdown timer on-screen, but I don't miss some of the "artistic" camera effects.  This is more your "sawdust on the floor" old-school workout.

The claim is that these are the type of workouts Bob does when he goes to the gym.  If that is true, all I can say is it's no wonder that he's in such great shape, because these are anything but easy.  Every time I've done them (and I've done both a lot) I've finished up super heated, dripping sweat and feeling tired but exhilarated.

Workout 1 claims to concentrate on "extreme core based upper body training", and workout 2 on "advanced core based lower body training".  That's just a pile of marketing BS - they are really whole body interval workouts (though if I had to voice an opinion, I would say workout 1 favors lower body and workout 2  favors upper).


Workout 1
Stephanie, the mouth-breathing facial contortionist from the strength dvd is the minion in this workout.  She shows a quirky sense of humor which I liked, and she's obviously pushing herself.  But at many points during the workout I could swear I was ahead of her in the count only to find that she'd reached the end before me.  And this happened workout after workout.  It really irked me.  So I replayed the workout and counted her.  Guess what?  She's can't count.  She skips reps on multiple exercises, so you're left with a choice - either skip a few reps on each set or keep pressing the pause button.

Or maybe I'm doing her an injustice and they just edited it badly.  Either way, I wonder why the production crew didn't spot it.  I kept finding myself yelling "there's no freaking way" at the tv screen (much to Nancy's annoyance).

Despite that minor gripe, this is one of my favorite workouts.  It's less than 30 minutes but is super intense.  It's also home to some of my nemesis exercises - in particular, rollups and the sadistic Turkish getups.

At one point, Stephanie tells Bob that her body is so heated she feels like she's been laid over a charcoal grill and is sizzling away.

I know just what she means.

As far as equipment goes, they use a pair of dumbbells and kettlebells (I don't have kettlebells, but the dumbbells work just fine).  There are some elevated rows (and elevated one legged plank), which I used the coffee table for. Everything else is powered by you.


Workout 2
This one features Zack from the Cardio Conditioning dvd.  I found this the harder of the two workouts, whereas Nancy found the other one tougher.  Maybe it's because I used heavy weights for this.

Bob is relentless here - he pushes Zack to exhaustion and beyond.  The guy got so red that I seriously thought he was going to puke or pass out, and eventually he is unable to complete the exercises and has to take a break.

I liked the fact that I was able to outlast him, but it did leave me wondering what I should be doing while he's taking a break, so I just carried on doing deadlifts.  At one point, Zack is doubled over sucking wind for over a minute while Bob prowls around trying to fill time (with an evil grin on his face).

The equipment used here are dumbbells, kettlebells, elevated step (for plyo pushups and step-ups - again I used the coffee table) and a skipping rope (used in the warmup).  Of these, I only had the dumbbells, and didn't feel I was missing out on anything - I still got a great workout.

At just under 30 minutes apiece, these workouts are excellent if you need to get in an intense interval workout but don't have time for the full hour sufferfests offered up by the other dvds in the series.


So there you are.  This 4-dvd set is probably the best workout collection I own.  Each one of the workouts is tough and demanding, and they all feature regularly in my rotation.

If you are just beginning an exercise program, you may want to start with something a little easier.  But if you have a measure of fitness, and are prepared to put it all out there, these will certainly get you results.

Sixes and Sevens

I woke this morning to temperatures of 25F. It was frosty and still - beautiful running weather.  This is when my running really comes to life.  My schedule called for 12 miles, and since my old group at Round Rock Fit were also scheduled to run 12, I decided to head up there and say hello to everyone.

It was great to see all my old friends again, and I was looking forward to chatting away the miles, but I found I'd opened up a huge gap within the first half mile, and ended up running alone.  I wondered why everyone was running so slowly until I realized they weren't - it was just that I was running 6:50s.

Last year when I was one of the coaches I often ran sweeper for the group, so I never got the chance to do the whole run at my natural pace.  But after running for myself the past few months, and building up my speed over 10 and 20 miles, I really saw the difference today.

I have done several runs before where I've managed a sub-7 minute mile, but I've never been able to string a series of sub-7s together.  But when I hit the first 3 miles all around 6:50 pace, I started to wonder if I could do the whole run at a sub-7.

So taper and easy run went out the window and a sub-7 finish became my new goal for the day.

And I did it - by 2 seconds.  I finished the 12 miles in 1:23:58 (6:59 pace), and sneaked home courtesy of a 6:42 last mile.  I really had to dig deep, but I was super proud of myself.  That was a barrier I've wanted to break down for quite a long time, and I had no idea that today would be the day I got it.

Yeah, maybe not the easy taper run I should have done, but a great mental boost before White Rock.  I can only hope we have the same weather conditions for the race.

The White Rock Diaries (week 5 of 5)

Well we're into the last week of the White Rock countdown. Last week was a bit of a pullback week for me, and this week should be another taper down to my goal race next Sunday.

Things have gone really well, and I'm hoping for a good race in Dallas.

Date	Saturday November 27th
Plan	am - 12 miles pm - Plyometrics (1 hour)
Outcome	6:30am - 25F, cold and still.  Magnificent running weather.  Really should have taken it easy, but when conditions are like this I just have to go for it.  Ran 12 miles in 1:23:58 (6:59 pace) - the first time I've ever finished a run averaging under 7 minute mile (albeit by 2 seconds). pm - didn't make this one. Family time took precedence.

Date	Sunday November 28th
Plan	am - 8 miles pm - Yoga
Outcome	6:00am - 42F.  Did a nice easy-paced 14 miles this morning with Steve, Meghan and Clea.  Still ran 8:30s, and enjoyed the beautiful morning. pm - ah, an hour of yoga with the mop top guru known as Bryan Kest. Very relaxing - I almost fell asleep during corpse pose.

Date	Monday November 29th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Bob workout 2 (30 minutes)
Outcome	pm - that yoga session last night was really good as my legs were quite sore today.  Tonight I managed the first 5-7 minutes of the workout before Dylan decided to wake up and scream the house down (a new development).  As this is taper week, I didn't really mind and went to soothe him while Nancy completed the workout.

Date	Tuesday November 30th
Plan	am - 8 miles pm - Yoga
Outcome	4:30am - 52F and really windy.  At several points during this run, it was all I could do to keep moving forward against the wind.  Decided to hold back and not push it too much - finished in 1:03:23 (7:55 pace). pm - another hour of Bryan Kest.  This time I really did fall asleep during corpse pose!!!

Date	Wednesday December 1st
Plan	am - 8 miles pm - Bicycle trainer (30 minutes)
Outcome	am - woke up for my run this morning and my calf completely cramped up.  After massaging it for a while, I figured I hadn't drunk enough after my yoga practice last night so I decided to skip the run and enjoy the rest instead.  So that's it - my next run will be on race morning pm - spun 'em around for 30 minutes.  Done with working out until the race.

Date	Thursday December 2nd
Plan	am - nothing pm - nothing
Outcome	Rest

Date	Friday December 3rd
Plan	am - nothing pm - nothing
Outcome	4:30am - 49F and clear, beautiful morning.  Ok, so I got antzy and met Clea for an easy-paced 7 miles.  Good to stretch my legs.  All set for Dallas.

The Things you See

So I was out doing my run early this morning, and as I made the turn onto Woodrow I spotted an older gentleman with a huge belly striding purposefully along wearing nothing but baseball cap, hiking boots and a European-style skintight buttock-clenching speedo.

The image is still burned into my retinas.

Now I'm European, but even I have been banned from wearing speedos.  It was one of the first rules Nancy put in place when we first met, and I have been grateful to her ever since.

But enough talk of paunchy posing pouches.

Many congratulations to my little brother who ran a breakout 1:37 at the hilly Conwy half marathon this past weekend.  It's nice to see somebody who has worse race photos than me.

Contrary to popular belief, he did not run it in a speedo!!!

The Spouse Smackdown

As I have documented extensively in these very pages, I hate working out on the bicycle trainer.  It is one reason why you will never see me do an ironman (and probably not even a triathlon).  So Sunday night (a workout-free zone for me) I found myself watching Nancy as she pounded the hell out of the thing.  At one point she was doing 120rpms while I sat there with my mouth open, comparing that to my "damp squid" of an effort the night before.

Fast forward an hour, and we were sitting in front of the tv catching up on past episodes of Chuck (our favorite tv show), when I happened to casually toss out the "hand grenade" comment that really she should still be working out on the bike while watching the show.  She countered with somewhat less than complementary comments about my "effort" of the previous night, which led to an admittedly shaky defence of said effort, which (somehow or other) led to me agreeing to a "2 chuck" challenge.

Which basically means I have to stay on the bike and keep pedaling for the duration of 2 Chuck episodes.

That's about 90 minutes total.

Or 5400 seconds if you happen to be counting.

Which I happen to be doing.

How do I keep getting myself into these stupid challenges?  This is the damn cracker challenge all over again (and btw, I know the cracker challenge is possible because my buddy Derek confirms he actually managed it).

So the spouse smackdown challenge is tentatively set for Wednesday evening.  If it doesn't happen then, it will be reconvened after White Rock.

But there's something the good lady wife doesn't yet realize, and it is this.

Babe, if I have to do it, you're going to have to do it too!!!

Running with the Moon Gods

If I were a horror movie director, I would have had my film crew up early Saturday morning because we had the perfect combination - a misty morning with a huge blood red full moon.  I loved it.

And I had a great run to boot.

I met up with Clea for my last 20 miler before White Rock and we chatted away the miles - I don't think a 20 miler has ever gone by so easily.  We didn't really pay much attention to our pace, and the miles flew by as we savored the aroma of barbecue surrounding the few tailgaters in the downtown area.

As we got near to the end I decided to put in a big effort, and managed a 6:48 for the last mile - a great way to finish up the run.

Oh, Mike and Clea - the carrot cake was delicious!!!

Most of the rest of Saturday was taken up playing with Gavin down at the park.  We took the ball, and it was a good few hours of "kick it high daddy", "kick it higher daddy", "go fetch it daddy", "chase me daddy", "can you climb through there daddy?"

We had a super fun time, but it was a tired daddy who fell asleep on the sofa Saturday night.

And after another 11 miles this morning followed by some more chasing around after the ball at the park, I'm already ready for a nap.

I don't think that's going to happen though.  My father-in-law is mad at us again (for what, who knows, and I really don't even care any more), so Nancy and I may just grab the ball and take the boys back to the park.

No rest for the wicked :-)

The White Rock Diaries (week 4 of 5)

Another week of great training in the books, and up next is my last 20 miler before White Rock.  This week is also Thanksgiving, which is an American holiday I knew very little about until I moved Stateside.  The key to it seems to be the ability to eat as much as possible - something I am remarkably good at - so I'm planning on getting some good runs in early in the week, and then moving smoothly into feasting and taper mode.

Then I will probably have to work it all off again!!!

Date	Saturday November 20th
Plan	am - 20 miles pm - Bicycle trainer (1 hour)
Outcome	am - 49F and foggy.  Ran a fun 20 miles with Clea.  Beautiful misty morning with a huge full moon.  Finished in 2:44:32 (8:14 pace) with a nice 6:48 for the last mile.  Felt like I could keep going and do it all over again. pm - 30 minutes on that darn bicycle trainer is about all I can stand.

Date	Sunday November 21st
Plan	am - 16 miles pm - Nothing
Outcome	am - 70F, humid and windy.  Ran the 11 mile scenic loop in 1:31:38 (8:20 pace).  Not a great run, but the positive was I still managed an 8:20 pace.  Traffic was surprisingly heavy and I seemed to catch every red light so I never got a rhythm going.  Decided early on to take it easy and turn it into a recovery run.

Date	Monday November 22nd
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Bob workout 2 (30 minutes)
Outcome	pm - does dancing to Johnny Cash count as a workout?  In case it doesn't, I also did the Bob workout 2.

Date	Tuesday November 23rd
Plan	am - 10 miles pm - Bob Harper's Inside Out Strength workout (1 hour)
Outcome	4:30am - 71F and humid.  It's the middle of November and it's 71F at 4:30 in the morning?  Oh boy.  Felt tight this morning and didn't feel like hammering it, so I settled for 10 miles at MGP - 1:18:51 (7:53 average).  Can we get some 50F (or colder) weather back please? pm - real life sometimes gets in the way.  It was crazy here tonight and I just didn't get time to do this.

Date	Wednesday November 24th
Plan	am - 8 miles pm - Bicycle trainer (30 minutes)
Outcome	4:30am - 72F, humid and windy.  Did my 8 miles in 1:02:16 (7:47 pace).  Felt tired, especially running into the wind.  Legs were heavy and wooden - I'm looking forward to taking the next few days off pm - did the "spouse smackdown" challenge: 90 minutes on the bike trainer while we watched Disney's Christmas Carol.  I think I need bigger bike shoes.

Date	Thursday November 25th
Plan	Nothing - Thanksgiving
Outcome	5:15am - 72F and muggy.  Met Clea early to get in 8 miles before leaving town.  Got in my 50 miles for the week (57).

Date	Friday November 26th
Plan	am - 7 miles (optional) pm - Nothing
Outcome	Nothing - ran yesterday instead

Hungry like the Wolf

I know I said I was going to stop titling my blog posts with song lyrics, but I couldn't resist this one!!!

Because it seems that I am almost constantly hungry these days, and I prowl around the house scavenging for food like, well, a wolf.

And when I'm not eating, I'm planning my next meal.

When Nancy comments on the fact that I'm always snacking, I just reply "fueling the furnace babe".

And it really feels like that.  It's like I've kicked my metabolism into high gear and there's a constant fire simmering just below the surface.  I burn hot, it doesn't take much to get a sweat going, and when I work out I can almost hear and feel the blood sprinting through my veins - it's an amazing feeling that leaves me energized, exhilarated and ablaze (in a good way).

My weight is at 145lbs and I'm taking advantage of the lighter, leaner me.  I ran the 8 mile danish route on Wednesday morning in an all-time best 58:27 - a 7:18 average pace, topped off with a 6:59 last mile.

I wonder.  If I keep pushing those midweek effort runs, maybe I can get my average down below 7:00.  That would be cool.

I'll ponder on it after I find something to snack on :-)

Feeling Fly like a G6

My two cross training coaches!!!

I really need to stop using song lyrics to title my blog posts, but this crappy "Far East Movement" song was playing on the radio when I started my run this morning, and it was still playing when I got back to the car.  Very annoying.

It's been another great training week for me.  I did 23 miles on Saturday at an 8:08 pace - not quite as fast as I would like, but it was a hard run and I left it all out there.  If you factor in some monster hills, windy conditions and running the whole thing solo, I think I did a great job to keep going.

I was looking after the boys on Saturday afternoon, and we went to the park.  They kept me running around, and I spent a good bit of time chasing Gavin with Dylan giggling away on my shoulders.

I'm not sure which was the harder workout!!!

This morning I woke up with legs stiff and sore from all the cross training I've been doing, and really didn't want to go run.  But I made myself get up and get out.  It occurred to me that this would be a great opportunity to see how much I could push myself when I was feeling tired.

And it turned into one of my best midweek runs ever - 10 miles at a 7:23 pace.  I just found a rhythm and let it flow.  My slowest mile was 7:31, my fastest (mile 8) was 7:07 and it felt great.

One of my short term goals has been to run 8 midweek miles in under an hour, and I did it this morning with room to spare - the first 8 miles were run in 58:56.

Gotta be happy with that.

It also occurred to me that my training tends to bookend my day.  I do my run early in the morning before everyone gets up, and my cross training at night after reading Gavin his bedtime story.

I think I need it right now - it channels a lot of anger and frustration I need to let go of.

And it's been a very long time since I've been quite as focused as this.  Almost every run I do is an effort run and I pour my heart and soul into some intense cross training that usually ends with me lying on the floor dripping with sweat.  And when I'm feeling tired, the old mental steel that pushed me to all those ultra finishes kicks in.  It's nice to have it back.

And I've taken to talking back to the TV when I'm working out.

"We're going to hold squat position for 30 seconds" says Bob the trainer.

"Bring it on" I grin.  "I can hold this for a loooooooong time".

The White Rock Diaries (Week 3 of 5)

Week 2 was a very good one for me.  I hit my pace on the 22 miler, kept it going for the midweek runs and cross trained hard.  I also picked up my first 50+ mile week in months - 63 miles.  Whoop whoop and hooray for me!!!  Up this week is my biggest back-to-back weekend before White Rock - 23 hilly miles Saturday and 16 on Sunday, with a weights workout stuck in the middle.

I should be whining pretty good after that!!!

Date	Saturday November 13th
Plan	am - 23 miles pm - Bob workout 1 (30 minutes - this should really hurt)
Outcome	5am - 49F and windy.  Did a hard 23 miles in 3:07:14 (8:08 pace).  Slower than last week, but very pleased for several reasons:  it was very windy, I added in the monster hills of Stratford early in the run and attacked them (though they did take some of the starch out of me) and I did the whole run by myself (it's a real mental challenge to keep your pace going for 23 miles when it's just you, you're tired and you're running into the wind, but it's also great practice for Rocky).  And I just realized, if I finished out another 3.2 miles at that average, it would still be a marathon PR.  Have to admit, I'm pretty tired now though.  Tonight's workout and tomorrow's 16 miles should be interesting. pm - tonight's workout has been moved to tomorrow since the TV is booked (wife is watching the Texas A&M game).  Ever the opportunist, I am instead enjoying an extra slice of the yummy pumpkin pie I made this afternoon.  I may just go and get another piece too.

Date	Sunday November 14th
Plan	am - 16 miles pm - Nothing
Outcome	am - curtailed this morning's run to 8 miles because of a sick kid.  Ran with Steve and Clea - a nice 8:11 pace pm - holding plank position, feeling completely alive and watching the sweat pour off me, I'm so glad I shifted the weights workout to tonight.  Some days you just need to hit something really hard, and this was one of those days.  Great workout.

Date	Monday November 15th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Weights with balance (30 minutes)
Outcome	pm - 30 minutes of weights circuits while balanced on one leg.  I notice I'm still sore from yesterday and Saturday.

Date	Tuesday November 16th
Plan	am - 10 miles pm - Weights circuit training (1 hour)
Outcome	4:30am - 48F, clear and breezy.  I woke this morning with tired and sore legs.  What a great opportunity to see how much I can push.  Found the zone, ran the soreness out and did 10 miles in 1:13:49 (7:23 pace).  Mission accomplished. pm - held back a bit tonight because I want to put in another big run tomorrow morning

Date	Wednesday November 17th
Plan	am - 8 miles pm - Bicycle trainer (30 minutes)
Outcome	4:30am - 46F, chilly and still.  Great running weather, and another big effort run - I did the 8 mile Danish run in 58:27 (7:18 pace) with a 6:59 last mile.  Felt awesome. pm - oh bike trainer, how much do I hate thee!!!

Date	Thursday November 18th
Plan	am - 6 miles pm - Bob Harper's Workout 1 (30 minutes)
Outcome	am - rewarded myself for a good training week by having an extra hour in bed instead of running this morning.  I don't know why I never do the Thursday run, maybe because it's "only" 6 miles. pm - got in a good hard workout tonight.  Here's to the end of another great training week.

Date	Friday November 12th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Nothing
Outcome	Rest day

I Like the Way it Hurts

Endurance is leaping around and dancing to Rihanna with one boy in your arms and the other hanging off your back on the Sunday afternoon of a weekend when you've run 38 miles at a sub-8 pace.

But that's alright because I like the way it hurts (love the song too).

Kids are a great source of cross training.  I'm just glad they didn't pay attention to some of the lyrics!!!

Saturday was a great run for me.  I've chanced upon a golden seam of running form and had decided beforehand that I was going to hit it hard, and I did.  I ran 8 miles by myself and then met up with everyone.  I didn't want to be anti-social, but I was also aware that I needed to be running at a faster pace than the group were going, so I took off by myself again.  My goal was to keep my average under an 8 minute mile, and I finished 22 miles at a 7:55 average, with a nice negative split thrown in for good measure.  If I kept that average for another 4.2 miles, that equates to a 3:27 marathon.

And I was still feeling frisky when I finished.  Very happy with that.

A nice hour of yoga Saturday night stretched me out nicely for another 16 miles on Sunday. 

So it's now Tuesday, and I did 10 miles at a 7:35 pace this morning.  I keep hitting these pace targets, and I credit that to the consistency of a written plan and the accountability that entails.  It all boils down to a simple matter of repetition and these pace targets are getting easier to hit.

I'm already at 48 miles for the week, and I think this is going to be my biggest mileage week for a long time.  I'm so glad that I signed up for White Rock because it's really given me the extra drive and focus that I needed to kickstart my running for Rocky Raccoon.

I haven't trained specifically for a goal marathon in years, and I'm looking forward to laying it out there in Dallas and seeing what happens.

The White Rock Diaries (week 2 of 5)

I'm very happy with the way that week 1 unfolded. I got in some quality runs at a very good pace, and cross trained really well. The plan for this week is to maintain consistency in pace, and to make Saturday's long run an effort run and keep under that 8 minute mile pace.

Date	Saturday November 6th
Plan	am - 22 miles pm - Yoga (1 hour)
Outcome	am - had a great run this morning, and did 22 miles in 2:54:22 (7:55 pace).  That translates to a 3:27 marathon (if I could hold that average for another 4.2 miles)!!!  The best part was that miles 15 thru 22 were my fastest.  The temperature was in the low 40s, and I really hope we get the same weather at White Rock. pm - great hour of stretching.  Legs felt fine after this morning's run - I could tell because I enjoyed the chair poses.

Date	Sunday November 7th
Plan	am - 16 miles pm - Hill repeats (optional)
Outcome	am - another cold morning.  Started out with 8 miles of downtown hills.  Managed to keep just under an 8 minute mile pace, and my legs felt fine after yesterday's 22 miles.  Joined up with Steve and Clea for the second 8 miles. pm - I don't even know why I put these on the schedule, because let's face it - I'm never going to have the time to do them.  I did spend the afternoon cutting branches off our trees though.  Does that count as cross training?  It should.

Date	Monday November 8th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - abs workout followed by tabata
Outcome	Ok, the abs workout was hard.  And I thought I was really good at core work!!! Did two sequences of 8 round tabata afterward - scored 19 on bicep curls and 20 on squats.  My arms felt like there was liquid lava flowing through them after the bicep curls - it was a great feeling. Also played ride the horsie with Gavin and Dylan.  I was the horse.  Good times.

Date	Tuesday November 9th
Plan	am - 10 miles pm - Plyometrics (1 hour)
Outcome	am - another perfect 55F morning, great for running.  Did 10 miles in 1:15:50 (7:35 pace).  Kind of a strange run - felt tired in parts, but then hit my stride and finished up the second half really strong. pm - did a combination of kickboxing and plyometrics.  Nice change-up, though I think my legs (especially my quads) are going to be sore from all the jumping.

Date	Wednesday November 10th
Plan	am - 8 miles pm - Bicycle trainer (30 minutes)
Outcome	am - it was a bit foggy this morning, but still mild (60F) and a great morning for running.  I did 8 miles in 1:03:41 (7:57 pace) and my legs just felt tired, though I was determined to stay under an 8:00 pace.  Maybe all the fast runs and cross training (hello plyometrics) I've been piling on this week are catching up with me.  I may need to rethink tomorrow's run as I want to ensure enough recovery for a good 23 miler on Saturday. pm - busy evening.  Took Gavin to gymnastics, did his homework with him, made supper and managed to squeeze in 30 minutes on the bike trainer.  Damn, but I'm not much good on the bike.

Date	Thursday November 11th
Plan	am - 12 miles pm - Bob Harper's Workout 2 (30 minutes)
Outcome	am - ok, Thursday morning runs are just not happening for me.  When I scheduled this knowing I had the day off work, I didn't take into consideration the fact that we still needed to make the school run, and that I ended up working anyway.  I may revise the next few weeks to remove the Thursday run.  Since I was feeling tired yesterday, the extra rest might do me good. pm - this is just a flat out badass upper body workout.  I love it simply because I can outlast the guy on screen.  I plan on doing an easy-paced run in the morning to make up for the one I missed today.

Date	Friday November 12th
Plan	am - Nothing pm - Nothing
Outcome	am - 4:30am, 68F, wet and humid.  I met Caroline this morning for an easy 7 miles.  It felt good to run without constantly checking my pace - I didn't even take my Garmin.  Nice relaxed way to end the week.