About Cavedog

Welcome to Cavedog Running. I hope you find my blog informative and slightly entertaining.

My name is Neil Clements and I have been running consistently since 2008 when I decided to get myself back in shape and also enter races to quench my competitive thirst. There is nothing special about me, I am just like everyone else. I ran in High School and was not very good at it. I didn't have the needed desire nor the training knowledge to be fast. As the years went on, so did more weight. What triggered the initial change for me was about 10 years ago when I had to get a physical for work. I weighed 195 pounds and my cholesterol was something like 220 (not good). I started off with simple changes like not eating two chicken sandwiches and burgers to just eating one. I also started taking the stairs at work. After a while my weight dropped into the 170s and I maintained that for a few years. I got back into playing tennis and also played a few sessions of indoor soccer and got into better shape. Indoor soccer closed up and it was a pain scheduling time to play tennis so I got the crazy idea to start running again. I weighed 165 at this time and decided I would first lose 10 pounds before starting to run. After some research I settled on using the information at Body Fat Guide to help me. I started keeping track of my calories in and out and started a walking program. After 2-3 months, I had dropped 10 pounds and was down to 155.

At the end of 2007, I started running on the treadmill using a generic training plan from the internet. The plan was for my first 5K to be the Bolt Run in February 2008. My goal for the Bolt Run was to get under 25 minutes, which I did coming in at 24:43 and was sore for 3 days after. Throughout 2008, I steadily lowered my 5K times with more training. In the summer, I saw an ad for the 1st Daytona Half-Marathon and decided to give it a try. This would be the 2nd half-marathon I had ever done. After Daytona, I got the even crazier idea of running a marathon which I swore I would never want or be able to do. So, I signed up to run the 2009 Disney Marathon, trained for and completed. After the initial "I don't want to do that again," I planned my next one. Another thing I never thought possible would be qualifying to run the Boston Marathon. I couldn't grasp the amount of effort required to pull it off. Well, at the Space Coast Marathon (my 5th marathon), I did it posting a time of 3:10:24 a full 5 minutes faster than I needed for my age!

It boggles my mind all the things I have accomplished in runnng that I never thought possible. I never thought I would run the times I do, never thought I would consistently place in my age group, and definitely never thought I would win a race.

I attribute all of my success in running to the hours spent pouring through the internet and books researching running form, training, nutrition, how to race and every other aspect of running. Thank goodness for the internet, wish it was available when I was in high school.

I feel I have come to a point where I have figured out a lot of what works and what doesn't, at least for me. I am using this blog to write about what I know and hopefully, the information will help or inspire you in your running.

I also like to blog about family activities. We are the Clements Family-Neil, Jennifer, Tommy, Christopher, and Emily. We mostly enjoy each other's company and love to go on adventures that create memories for a lifetime. We believe in family first and do our best not to let life get in the way of that.  We like going to new places and seeing new things as well as just hanging out with family.  We enjoy all kinds of sports (hockey, running, soccer, tennis to name a few). Believe it or not, the kids actually enjoy going to museums such as the Daytona Museum of Art & Science, MOSI, and others. We are continually surprised by some of the things they get interested in. Stuff that I would have been kicking and screaming if I was taken to when I was little.
We love doing photography. My favorite is landscape, sports, and airshow photography. I love capturing beautiful (and not so beautiful) places we go plus the action and intensity of things that move.

Thanks again for checking out our site!