National Spaghetti Day

Happy National Spaghetti Day! That's right, the greatest carb packed dish ever is celebrated each year on January 4th. To celebrate Jenny is fixing up her special sauce for dinner tonight.

"An Ode to Spaghetti"

Oh spaghetti, you are cheap and simple to make.
For granted you I will never take
It is you that helps me leave most others in my wake
Your carbs are oh so divine
Nights before a race it is on you I dine
You provide the fuel I need to run
Without you, running would be no fun
So thank-you mighty spaghetti
In your honor I throw confetti!

Marathon Training Week 1 Report

Week one of training for the Steamboat Marathon is in the books. I totaled 73 miles for the week and 7 days of running. This is the first week of a 2 month base building phase. All workouts are based on time and effort not pace. Included was Monday and Friday runs of an hour at current marathon pace. 7:05 for Monday and 7:08 for Friday. Tuesday and Thursday are longish run days of 1.5 hours. These days are harder for me not because of the length but they sometimes drag a little with the slower pace and the legs just usually feel a little sluggish after the harder efforts. Wednesday was an hour at 1/2 effort of 7:29 pace over a hilly course. That run felt easy and was enjoyable. Sunday is when I do my long runs of 2 hours. With Steamboat being in the mountains, I am planning to do most of these runs on terrain that simulates the course ie. hills. For this run, I mapped out the hardest 16 mile course possible. The course is nothing but hills with the biggest being Le Heup Hill that is a 200 ft climb at 7% grade. The course was an out and back so did all the hills twice. Had a better run than I expected and ran a much faster pace than I planned or thought possible running 7:45 pace while keeping my avg. heart rate at 142.

Next week is the MADD Dash 5K at Al Lopez Park in Tampa so I will probably tinker with this week's training a bit but plan to keep mileage pretty much the same.

Cadbury Marathon - Great Reason to Travel to Australia

I have always wanted to travel to Australia and now have another reason to do so. This trip would combine 3 of my loves in life. Travelling with Jenny, running a marathon wherever we travel to and Cadbury's Chocolate. That's right, each January, the Cadbury Marathon is run in Tasmania. It is the only marathon that starts and finishes at a Cadbury factory!!! Wonder if they give out one of the big chocolate bars when you cross the finish? Now that is recovery food. And it wouldn't be right if the finishers medal didn't look like a chocolate bar also. So, this marathon is now officially on my list of marathons to run. Follow the link to check out more infor on the race. http://www.cadburymarathon.com.au/

2010 Running Year in Review

2010 is almost over and running-wise, it has been quite a year for me. I ran 3 marathons, 3 half-marathons, several 5Ks, couple 10Ks and a 15K. Lowered my PR at every distance this year and even won a race for the first time.

One cool thing this year was joining the Dailymile website early in the year where I now have a bunch of new running friends, several of whom I have been able to meet at races.

Opened the year up with a 5K PR at the MADD Dash 5K. Followed that up the next month with a near BQ at the Gasparilla Marathon.

Sandwiched between Gasparilla was the Clearwater and Florida Beaches half-marathons, PRd both races dropping to 1:31. 

After Gasparilla, I had a short two months to get ready for the Kentucky Derby Marathon. On the way to North Carolina, I had a race I found and wanted to run. So, we ended up leaving home at 11PM and drove straight to Western North Carolina University and made it there with an hour to spare before the race started. On a tough little course that went through the campus, I won my first race!

Kinda cool being the first one in.

Got a hand-made cup and a nice little certificate for winning.

From the highs of North Carolina to the Kentucky Derby Marathon. The hills got the better of me and I ended up in survival mode to avoid becoming a cramping heap of flesh. Finished in 3:50. The course was beautiful and had a great time in Louisville.

Slogging along in the rain feeling fine at mile 9.

After Kentucky, it was a month of  repairing myself and getting ready for the summer 5K season as well as starting a new marathon training cycle. 

The summer was filled with highs. Had a huge 4th of July running multiple races in one day for the first time. Ran the Lutz 5K (almost PRd and got to meet Jenny P.) in the morning followed by the 1 mile, 5K, and 10K at the Kiwanis Midnight Run where I got to meet Jenny's husband Mark. Placed in all races except the 1 mile where I paced Chris and used as a warmup.

Taking home some loot from Kiwanis.

We also did the Lakeland Watermelon Series again. My 5K times really took off here. I finished the series blasting my PR by running 18:30. Took 1st in my age group for the 2nd year in a row. Got to meet Sandy, Ben and Jay at these races.

In July, we took a trip to St. Augustine and ran the Bridge of Lions 5K. They finished restoring the original bridge, so it was nice to get to run over it. Beat my time from the year before by a minute and snagged 2nd in my age group.

Sunrise over the Matanzas.

As Fall rolled around, it was time to say goodbye to 5Ks and hello to 10K, 15K and Half-marathon. Ran two 10Ks. The Komen Race for the Cure and Lake to Lake. Again, both were PRs dropping to 40:09.

Jenny and I after Komen.

For the first time since High School, I ran a 15K. Did the Miracle Miles in Orlando. Finished in 1:02 and placed 3rd in my age group. Scored two tickets to Sea World for the effort so that was cool. Met Brian and Melanie at this one.

Somewhere in here, I dropped my 5 mile PR at the Rattlesnake Run placing 2nd in AG there also.

For Halloween, it was time for the Daytona Half-Marathon where I went up against my arch nemesis, "The Bridge". That bridge had kicked my butt the previous two years and I was determined to beat it this year. The bridge slowed me a little on the return trip, but I ended up running my first sub-1:30 half-marathon which I was ecstatic about. Unfortunately, I didn't place in my age group (was 4th) which broke my Summer's long streak. Also got to meet Harold.

For some reason, my stomach didn't like the finishing stretch. First time I have almost hurled at a race.

Feeling much better now.

The running highlight of the year was the Space Coast Marathon where I finally achieved my goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon. I finished with a time of 3:10:24 (5 minutes better than I needed to BQ), 14th overall and 3rd in my age group! The race was awesome from start to finish. Enjoyed running with a guy from North Carolina until I dropped him late in the race. Don't know why, but I had a feeling I would need to beat him to place in age group. Several Dailymilers at this one...Harold ran his first, Brian, Melanie, and Mark.

Getting ready before the race, love my stick!

Off to a good start right behind Brian.

Pretty sunrise.

Halfway, coming in for a banana.

Grinding out a strong finish and an awesome BQ!

Whew, finished!

Can't believe I got 3rd!!

Receiving my award with Dick Beardsley.

Coolest award I have!

Wow, what a 2010! Planning an even bigger 2011. I have two marathons planned, Steamboat and Pensacola. We are taking a 3 week camping trip to Colorado where I will do Steamboat followed by the Garden of the Gods 10 miler and the Moon Pie Festival 10 miler the following weekends. In February is the inaugural Dade City half-marathon (gonna be a tough course) and I will be doing the Michelob Challenge at Gasparilla where you run the 5K, 8K, 15K and half-marathon. Jenny and I have a cool 15th wedding anniversary trip to North Carolina where I will run the Tar Heel 10 miler and we will take in a Hurricanes hockey game along with camping. Will also run the Gate River Run 15K in Jacksonville and Miracle Miles again to complete the Florida 15K challenge. 

Should be a fun year ahead that I have just started training for. I also look forward to meeting as many new friends as possible.

Hope everyone has a great 2011!!!

New Marathon Training Cycle

After a month off, it is time to start up a new marathon training cycle to prep for the Steamboat Marathon June 5th in Steamboat Springs, CO.

Again, I will be using training designed by Arthur Lydiard using a schedule designed later in his life. The big difference will be the 10 week conditioning phase. Instead of doing all the runs at easy aerobic pace, there will be runs at marathon pace and also fartleks thrown in. Everything will still be aerobic. I look forward to the variety this will provide compared to doing almost the same pace each day. To prepare specifically for running in the mountains, will be doing a lot of runs on the biggest hills I can find. Also going to work on strength a bit with push-ups, crunches and pull-ups to build up the upper body a bit. I am hoping to get an indoor spinning bike to get in more aerobic work. I am going to try to start getting myself up a bit earlier in the morning to do a short 20-30 minute run, we'll see how that goes.

I am looking forward to getting back into training and seeing the results. I have the next 6 months of racing planned out and hopefully will set more PRs at all distances.

Merry Christmas...Again!

Hope everyone had a great day. We ended our day with a trip over to Lakeland to walk around downtown.

Jenny and Emily playing in all the leaves that were blowing around.

The Lakeland Electric building over Lake Mirror.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.