14 miles, traveling, and eggnog

Saturday morning Dave, Sue, and I got up early for a 14 miler. I did 14 last week but was a little nervous about this run. I was using my new Christmas presents (Garmin 305 with heart rate monitor, fuel belt, and new shorts) and was not sure how they were going to feel over a long run. I was also a little worried about running with Sue. Dave and I have made several long runs together and we have just about the same pace, however Sues long pace is about 45 seconds to 1 min faster than us. Oh well – just try to hang on. The run went fine. We finished in 2:28 with no ill effects of the new unwashed shorts, a new fuel belt, no chaffing from the heart rate strap, and the Garmin worked like a champ. As for Dave and Sue – it was their first time at that distance! Go Dave and Sue! I am writing this Sunday morning and my legs are still a little sore but no other major after effects.

After the run, we loaded the kids and dog in the van and headed for my parents for a couple of days and Christmas part 2. The trip is 112 miles door to door and takes about 2.5 hours. Evan took a nap and Lauren sat quietly and read for most of the trip. Marcie and I had some nice time together as the miles passed on. I guess the best thing that can be said about any trip like this is: It was uneventful. After dinner, we all sat in the living room and opened presents again. My Parents, my brother and his wife and all of us shredded paper and watched the kids go crazy with delight again.

Getting presents at Christmas is wonderful and I am truly thankful for all I got but I have to say, with the wisdom I have gained over the years, my favorite thing about coming to my parents at Christmas is…….wait for it…..

Dads Eggnog! It is a simple recipe that does not contain eggs – I like it because it does not have that slick mouth feel that you get with lots of cream and blended eggs. It’s a family recipe but we share it with all who ask. So here it is – in my humble opinion, the best eggnog ever.

1 and 1/3 container of eggnog ice cream (This is due to ice cream not being a whole ½ gallon anymore)

1 juice glass of corn whiskey – moonshine!!

1/2 juice glass of rum

1 quart of skim milk

1 quart of whole milk

Break up the ice cream with a fork in a large serving/punch bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. It is best when there are still chucks of ice cream floating around. Some of us will sprinkle nutmeg on the top but that is optional.

Running at Christmas is tough. Dealing with being out of our schedule, eating way more that we need but I do it anyway. Well not really anyway – I do it so I can have three glasses of Dad's Eggnog while opening presents.

Merry Christmas everybody – part 2

Christmas presents

Evan is quite the woodworker - he likes to come out in the shop with me and saw wood, drive screws, and hammer nails. I built a workbench for him. It is his size and now he has a place to store his new Christmas tool box and tools.








I try to make something for the kids each year. Lauren has quite the collection of necklaces, rings, and hair bands - so I thought it was time for a jewelry box. I inherited two truckloads of wood from Marcie's Uncle so I pulled out some mahogany and got to work.

I was really pleased with the box and so was Lauren.

My Big Christmas present for this year was a Garmin 305. I have it charging right now and might be tempted to run tonight in the rain just to see how it works.

Merry Christmas

Posting has gone by the wayside over the last couple of weeks due to building Christmas presents for my kids, building Christmas presents for my kids teachers, baking like a fool, and generally trying to get into the Christmas spirit.

Anyway, here is to all of you - Merry Christmas and have a safe and happy holiday!

Christmas Picture

Christmas Pictures

It has been a Christmas Weekend at our house! We had pageant practice for two hours on Saturday afternoon, Christmas Party Saturday evening, Sunday school, and church, then the kids Christmas pageant was tonight. Both kids are jacked up on sugar cookies, slightly overstimulated, and in bed late tonight - that should make for a fun Monday morning.

The picture was one of my favorites but alas was not the final choice for the family card this year. The slight lean to the picture is due to the less than level tripod the camera was attached to - my bad.

I did get in a run on Saturday morning. It was my first "cold" run of the year and the first long run where I had to plan for the weather. I did lots of reading and talked to Lou at TrySports, both Tom and Kristen (my coaches), and my friend Camille who has forgotten more about running than I know! What it all breaks down to is this - wear layers, wear pants below 45 deg F, cold is a mental thing, the cold gets better after you have run awhile.

I have to say its all true - the worst part was getting out of the car. By the time we had 2.5 miles in, I was un-layering and un-zipping trying to cool down. Camille and I did 8 miles in just under 1:28.

The Good, the bad, and the ugly

The last several days have been exactly what the title said.

The Good - I had my last safety meeting as the safety chairman for our building at work. I have held the post for three years now. My boss said it was time for someone else to take on the responsibility. That is fine with me. I feel I have done a pretty good job at managing the reasonable and unreasonable issues over the last three years but am looking forward to just going to the meetings without having to worry about what needs to be covered.


The Bad - Monday and Tuesday I felt like crap. I actually stayed home from work on Tuesday and slept. I slept 5 hours straight and still went to bed by 10:00PM and went right to sleep. I have be expelling all sorts of semisolid materials out of my nose for several days and I am tired of it. I am back on my nasal spray and it seems to be helping. I woke up this morning with no nose crustys - that's a good thing.

The Ugly - Wednesday night is the Tom workout. The workout was fine. I felt I put in an honest 1.5 hours of training. We did a little over 2 mile warm up then some hard 400's with tempo runs in between. I slowed a little on the second tempo set but I still felt good about the run. The ugly came about when we did our core workout after running. Tom has these workout aids that I refer to as the "Wheel of Death". The are wheels you strap your feet too and then you can do all types of cool ab work, among other things. We did knees to chest (think pushup position and the wheel rolls under you as you knees come forward). We did pikes, same thing except you butt goes up in the air and your knees stay straight. We also did standard pushups. The ugly is that I have the upper body strength of a 2 week old baby. So as we did the knees to chest - my abs were saying bring it on where my arms, shoulders, and chest were screaming for me to stop this craziness. It was worse with the pikes because I had already done the knees to chest one. I will not even go into how bad my pushups were.

I made myself a commitment at that point. After every run for the next month - I will do at least two sets of pushups to try to build up some strength.

Dedication, Insanity, or Just a good run?

Saturday morning was our planned long run for the week. Unfortunately the weather decided to not give us a beautiful fall day but instead provided a 50 degree rainy day. Thus the title of the post - was I dedicated to get up and run 12 miles in the rain, was I insane or was it just a good run that needed to be taken?

I have been thinking about perspective lately. Short run versus long run - really its what you are training for. The good news is that no matter what the run, they are all good. Good weather versus bad weather - I was sweating by the first mile anyway so whats a little rain. My best runs have all been in the rain so.... I needed to get my run in and I made the 12 miles and was still functioning when I got home so in my book it was just a good run that needed to be taken. (please don't ask my wife - its the insanity answer in case you were wondering.)

On a separate note: we are in Christmas mode here at home. The kids and I decorated the tree last night while my wife decorated the mantle. I worked on the front yard this afternoon and hope to have most of it done by Tuesday or Wednesday. If I can figure out how to take, save, and upload pictures, I will post a few.

Wednesday Night Practice

Wednesday night was Tom workout night. I was pretty excited about the workout – I have been getting in my long runs, so I seem to have more endurance lately. Tom mixes things up well so there is some level of excitement about what will he plan for us, and I really like the people I run with – they are cool, supportive, and will not let me get away with anything. Now for those of you in southeastern North Carolina – Wednesday was a very rainy day. We had rain from about 8 am on. I checked the radar picture at 4:30 and it looked like we were going to have a break in the rain, maybe kinda sorta if we are very lucky, so practice was on.

I got to the track about 5:30 – no rain but very soggy – and started my warm-up run (1 mile at very easy AC pace). Coach Kristen was in charge Wed night. She pulled our group together and passed out assignments. We were to do a 20 min AC pace run, then go straight into a 6 lap progressive run. The first lap was to be at AC pace, with each lap just a little faster than the previous one.

Our group ran around UNCW campus for our 20 min run which was nice. It was 70°F with a light breeze. We got back to the track and started our progressive set. Our AC pace was 2:25 min/lap or just under a 10 min mile. Lap 2 was 2:15, Lap 3 was 2:05, then 2:02, 2:00, and 1:55. I was right on pace through 2:02. Lap 5 – my wheels fell off and I dropped back off the group. I tried deep breaths, tried to refocus, tried to pick it up but my legs said No Thank You. Lap 5 was 2:12 and Lap 6 was 2:24.

We then did 4 laps of turnovers – jog the curves and do a pick up on the straights. For us – the straights should be a recovery jog start building to around 80% of all out by about 70 m through 100 m, you should never be out of control on these, then back to a recovery jog in the curve. I love these! There is no pace limit on the curves, just no walking. The straights are fun. My straights were not as fast as other practices but I still love the feeling of the building of speed and holding on until the curve.

We finished with stretching, some planks and pushups. Then home! Not my best workout but not worst either, just an off night. By the way, it started to rain again as soon as I pulled in the driveway.

I have some thoughts on why I had an off night:
1 – I am in marathon mode and have been increasing my long runs. It may take my legs a couple of weeks to get used to the new schedule and requirements.
2 – I am eating cleaner than I have in months. I was doing ok through the Battleship ½ but then my diet took November off. I ate Snicker bars and loved them. I had cake for my daughter’s birthday and after the kids went to bed, I had a bowl of ice cream. Yes – I am a bad person. I am back on the straight and narrow now. So – I am taking in less calories and that may be having an effect on my short term energy. I am going to stick to the new clean eating diet for at least a month and see how things go.
3 – I have has three nights in a row of less than normal sleep. I like to average 7.5 to 8 hours a night and have been in the 5.5 to 6 range since Sunday. Last night I went to bed early and go a solid 8 hours sleep.

Saturday should be interesting – several of us are going to run our long runs together. I have 12 miles on my schedule.

The Glide

Being new to the blogging thing is nice because you have past events to pull your posts from.

I work out with my coach, Tom, once a week. The workout has as many as 25 or so runners all together but my pace group has 3 or 4 runners on most nights. Our workout for the evening started with a 20 min warm-up run and dynamic stretching. The main set was a 2 X 2 mile tempo run. The recovery time between sets was a jog (no walking) of about 300 meters from the end of the 2 mile run back to the start point. The pace times were assigned to each group and ours was 9:15/mile. My first reaction was WHAT? 9:15 – our group has been running much faster over the last several tempo runs. We have done several 5 min at X pace, 4 min at X-1 pace, 3 min at X-2 – you get the picture – and these paces have started out at 2:05-2:10 per lap or 8:40 pace. Yes I understand that we are now to run 2 miles twice without slowing but……Yes Coach – I will do what you tell me.

We moved to the starting line and off we went. Our group was spread out over about 50 meters as we all tried to find our “pace” but by a ½ mile we were all together and working as a team. We passed Tom at the 1 mile point at 8:58 – a little fast but not bad. I tend to die on the end of tempo runs but that night was my night. The last 1000 meters of the course is a straight flat road with only street lights so it would have been easy to cheat – slow a little and set the bar lower for the second run but with the group working as a team – the pace stayed strong and we finished in 18:23 or a 9:11 pace. Now the trick was to do it again.

We made our way back to the start – cleared our watches – and were off again. We lost one of our teammates (she has a sore IT band and was only to do one of the runs – not good because she is a great pacer) but kept the pace solid. I was beginning to feel the pace at about ½ mile in but I took several very deep breaths, relaxed my upper body and arms, dug deep and was not let the pace slip. And then it happened – The Glide – my whole body relaxed and I was just running. My breathing deepened but did not increase (no shallow chest huffing crap), my arms stayed down, my chest was higher, and my head was up – with NO extra effort. The last mile was a dream run. We had to go over a small bridge – aka hill where I run – I charged it, down the back side I lengthened my stride and used gravity instead of energy and the last 1000 meters was like I was out walking with my kids. Tom had told us – NO RACING – hold the pace and stay consistent. We finished the second 2 mile tempo at 18:12 or 9:06/mile. Truth be told – I felt like I could have sprinted the last 800 or just kept on going.

I hope that The Glide will come back very soon – I like that kind of run!!!

My first marathon plan

I am in training for my first marathon. I completed the Battleship ½ Marathon on November 1, 2009 and have decided to try a full one. My marathon of choice is the Quintiles Wrightsville Beach Marathon, March 21, 2010. The choice was actually very easy for several reasons. First – my coach – Tom Clifford of Without Limits Running (www.withoutlimitsrunning.com) is the race director so I get the inside info on all the goings on and I hope this will help me get through the miles. Secondly, the race is local. The race start is a 5 min drive from my house and I am training on some of the same roads the race is on, a real home field advantage. Third – talk about flat! The course is flat, flat, real flat. For those who live in hill country, the biggest hill on the course will be crossing the bridge over the Inter-coastal waterway. Last but not least – I want to say I have done a marathon and you get to put the 26.2 sticker on your car! (Yes - I know it’s a childish reason but what are you going to do)



I have put together a training plan based on several online plans and from Tom’s input. My long run this past weekend was a 10 miler and I will slowly ramp up to a 22-23 mile run in the middle of February.



In triathlon news – Setup Events (www.setupevents.com) posted the 2010 schedule for the North Carolina Triathlon Series today. I am now working on my schedule to see how many to try and fit in and finalize my 2010 tri goals. I will keep you updated.

Greetings and Salutations

Welcome to my life or at least some portion of it.

I have come to endurance sports over the last couple of years to help me deal with my own family health issues, loose a little weight, deal with some stress, and have something to talk about except work and last but not least - help me deal with my love of great food.

I hope to share some of my hopes, fears, and maybe some great eating stories with you - my loyal reader.

On with the show.