Saturday

Hah! I just got back from Below the Knee. I went with the Asics GT-2110. I worked with a fellow named Mike at BtK who happens to have a blog as well. Matter of fact, it was seeing his blog that got me thinking of starting my own. Anyway, here's a picture of the shoes... I'll have a running report for you later in the day.

I also posted a few pictures from our afternoon hike at Pine Moutain last week. Enjoy.

We decided to head up to the river for the day and even ended up spending the night. I did get my run in when we arrived up there. I had plenty of company too as Honey and Coco and a couple of the neighbor dogs decided to go with me. All I ended up doing was to the end of Mtn. Dr. and back (about 3 miles). I was planning on trying to get at least one more mile on the out portion, but that would have put onto one of the busier roads and with 4 dogs in tow, I didn't think that such a good idea.

So three miles in 28:00 even. Lots of hills on this run as well. So I felt pretty good about my time. This week on my runs, I'll be trying to hit about 3.3 miles or so. I may try to get in a 4-5 miler at the end of the week. I am running in a 5k on Feb. 3 that the Columbus Track Club is hosting. My goal for that is to finish in 27:30 or better.

Totals:
Running
D: 3m
W: 10.5m
M: 21m
Y: 21m
Biking
D: 0
W: 0
M: 8m
Y: 8m

Friday

Another rest day as it turns out. I slept in this morning (still at work by 7:00) and didn't get home from work until about 6:15. Stacey had a couple of steaks for me to cook...nice big filets. I cooked them for about 4 minutes on each side and ended up with the most delicious med. rare steak i have ever cooked. these steaks were about 2-1/2" thick so the color inside was just perfect.

Anyway, a rest was probably a good thing. I am thinking of trying to get some new shoes tomorrow. I always run faster in new shoes.

Thursday

I was able to squeeze in a run today. It was another treadmiller...2.7 miles in 25:00. Another slow one for sure, but it was just an easy run I got in before a business dinner. My heart rate for the run got up to about 158bpm. I ran this one on about 1.5 degrees of elevation, which ended up at about 200ft of vertical climb. Hopefully I'll get to work on that later.

After I finished my run, there was an open house at our fitness center, a trainer was available to give you a quick body make-up assessment. I stood on this little box that had two footprints on it and after about 30 seconds, it spit out a sheet that tells your weight, BMI, body fat%, plus what your targets are in those areas. I weighed in at 215.6 with a BMI of 26.8 and BF of 11.6%. My goal for those were 214, 26, and 11%. I never knew my feet contained so much valuable information...Anyway, I was feeling pretty good about it. That means that I've lost about 6 pounds since I started this thing. That gives me some pretty good incentive to keep things moving...although I am still looking for my runner's high.

I'll post more pictures of Cordele either later today or tomorrow. peace out.

Totals
Running
D: 2.7m
W: 7.5m
M: 18m
Y: 18m
Biking
D: 0
W: 0
M: 8m
Y: 8m

Wednesday

I haven't run yet, but I did map the 10k course (give or take a half mile) on the USTF website.

Here's the link: MWTC 10k

More later...

Ended up not getting a run in today. We didn't leave the foundry until almost 9:00, so the day was pretty much shot. I'll squeeze one in some time tomorrow though. It looks like it's going to be another busy day.

Here's a couple of pictures of what we're up to in Cordele...

Tuesday

Decided to use today as a rest day. I've got an eye appointment this a.m. and then I'm heading to Cordele for a couple of days to help in our site prep for our new plant. Cordele is extremely flat so I know that I won't get much hill work in, but I do plan on trying to work on increasing my pace while I'm there. I'll run there tomorrow morning, most likely.

I'll likely go to the river or to Pine Mountain this weekend to get a little more hill work in. I'd like to try the Mtn Dr/Lickskillet run that I mapped out last week...It'd be the longest run I've tried to date.

*****Update: I did run another couple of miles today. After we finished up at the foundry, I came back to the hotel to run on the treadmill, but it didn't work, so I went to a local gym/fitness joint and put in a couple of miles on theirs at an avg. grade of 4.5%. It took a little over 20 minutes. Still running a really slow pace, I hope that is something that I can change. I won't be running in the morning. I'll probably run after work again tomorrow. By the way, tonight's run did include a little over 500 ft. of elevation change.

Totals
Running
D: 2m
W: 4.8m
M: 15m
Y: 15m
Biking
D: 0
W: 0
M: 8m
Y: 8m

Monday

Woke up Saturday around 5:30 and decided to go ahead and put a couple more miles in. I ended up running about 2.9 miles in about 28:30. It's still a snails pace, I know, but it was another day with some good hills. I ran down CC and back up/down Springdale and then up Garrard to Oak. I stopped/walked 3 times during that run for right at about 1 minute each, though I stopped the watch on one of them. My heart rate about midway through the run was 150 bpm.

Sunday, Stac and I took the kids and the dogs to Pine Mountain for some hiking and so that I could see if there are some places to run some good long hills up there. We hiked about 2-2.5 miles. The kids did pretty good, but I ended up carrying Lucy and Ed for the last 1/4 mile. Here are some pics...



This morning, I woke up at 5:00, got out of bed about 5:30 and put in 2.8 miles. I ran over by HHS and Columbus State. It was a nice run, temp around 60 degrees. My time this morning was 27:14. I was feeling a little better today than I was Saturday. My pace today was 9:44/m.

My resting heart rate today is 60 bpm.

I'll start adding weight numbers as soon as I get a scale at the house. I'll be doing that this week I hope.

Weekly Totals:

J: 2.8m
B: 0

January 12, 2007

So, I've entered a race that will either be the end of me or something that will make me extremely proud for having finished it. It is out in California at a place called the Mountain Warfare Training Center just south of Tahoe. This is a Marine facility that was started in the 50's to train soldiers in cold weather and mountainous conditions to then be sent to Korea. It is still in use today and is the venue for the 10k race that will come complete with obstacles such as tire course, 5 foot wall climb, low crawl, tunnel crawl, etc. The other little bit of information is that it is going to be run at 7,000ft of elevation with around 1,000ft of change during the race. So, the way I have it figured is either I'll finish the race in fine style or die trying.

Since I am not a runner, I decided this week that I had better get moving to try to get in shape for this event. I am hoping that as I do this, I'll develop a love of running like I've heard is available out there, and then be committed to a life long routine of staying in shape. As of now, I am really not digging this running thing. Fact is, I really don't much like it. I started running last Saturday (1/6) with a 1.8 mile run around the neighborhood. Added an 8 miler to/from work on the bike Monday. Rested Tuesday. Ran 2.75 miles Wednesday round the neighborhood again. Rested Thursday. Ran 3 miles even this morning. My route this morning was basically all hills so it took me a little longer than a normal run would have. I ran the 3 miles in 32min having walked one minute at the 13" and 22". Hopefully, there is a picture of the route below. Needless to say, I was pretty gassed at the end of each of these runs, but I still managed to work in ab work and push-ups after each of them. I'm considering weight training again, but it depends as much on time as anything else.

3 miler

I'm starting this log to help me keep track of how I am feeling after my runs and to hopefully track an improving level of fitness.

Here's a few routes I'd like to try in the next week or two...

Park Route +

Ed's 10k

Mtn. Dr/Lickskillet

Weekly Totals

J: 7.6m
B: 8m