Fantasy Video and 1000 Views!!

Here's the link to my Weeks 1 & 2 Video. Also thanks to everybody, I'm gonna make it over 1000 page views!!

Weekend Runs

I managed to get a couple weekend runs in one Saturday and one on Monday. Still don't know how far they were I'll find out that tonight.

Here are some notes I wrote down about Satruday's Run. May not make any sense, but at least I'll know what it means and it can help me remember how that run went. Here you go:

Total Miles - 6.9
Total Time - 55:41  out-27:53 back 27:48
Pace - 8:04 min/mile
# - 169.2
Temp - 77* 30% Humidity 2mph NW

Started off chasing biker on PPath
Lots of Cattails along the river
Heat hit me hard to start
Quick pace
Stops at Crossing
Lots of Wildlife; bunnies, butterflies, squirrels & birds
All the way to River Rd, Construction
Someones dog wanted to run with me
Hispanic Festival and Carnival in parking lot.
Boat on the river made some calming waves on the shore

40 Pushups before run
35 Pushups after
10 Pullups

Monday's Run

Total Miles - 2.5
Total Time - 19:25  out-9:59 back-9:26
Pace - 7:46 min/mile

Draft Board

Here are some shots of the draft board. A little late but oh well. Fantasy Video should be up on Sunday.

A Day for Andrea!!

An idea inspired by my Aunt Janet, turned into a bittersweet day. Vanessa and I are so grateful that Meleah was able to get a new pair of lungs to finally have the chance to breathe. At the same time we know someone or in this case a family had to lose a daughter. We all thank Andrea for being a donor, and our hearts go out to her family on what would have been her 17th birthday. You can check out all the other people flying balloons around the world for Andrea, here.

I'm a donor, are you?

Challenge failed!

Yesterday I challenged myself to do a short run before work. I did wake up to my alarms, but I didn't get out of bed. At the time, my stomach was not doing very well and continued to bother me most of the day. Also my allegries were really asking up so it was hard to breathe.

Excuses, Excuses!

Maybe by some miracle I'll actually wake up and get up tomorrow, even though I work 2 hours earlier then I did today. Well I'm going to make myself do some pullups and pushups before I go to bed, maybe that will carry over into the morning and motivate me out the door and onto the trails.

Happy running everyone!!

YTD Totals

So far in 2012, I have ran 127.9 miles. It's a much lower number then what I was hoping to have by this point in the year. I've got a lot of miles to make up if I'm going to be anywhere near my New Year's Resolution of 500 miles. Only 372.1 miles to go!!

Cat Video...

I have started producing a cat video of our little friends. I figure cat videos can drum up a lot of attention and I've got some cute kitties. Here's an uneventful preview:

I Challenge Myself To....

I challenge myself to run the route I did today, tomorrow morning before work. If I get up at 10 am I'll have plenty of time to get to work at noon. I ran west on the prairie path, taking a shortcut through the neighboring parking lot of one of the apartment complexes on my street which is next to the path.

Down the path and crossing over Church St. and underneath the dense canopy of the forest trail, which made it feel much more humid then it actually was. Coming to a clearing of trees you get to feel the cool air for about 35 seconds before being engulfed by the tree cover. Sprinting all the way to the northern edge of the trail on Indian Trail Rd. Then turning around and picking up stride in hopes of cutting 2 minutes off my time on the way back.

Zooming down the trail with the dark night looming,  I was consistently checking my 6,  I was always making sure it was clear. It makes you go so much faster when you just pretend that someone is chasing you through the woods, as long as you keep your form. The way back was a LOT faster, and was under a beautiful sunset sky of pinks, purples, and blues. It felt good to go fast and to get a good sweat in, in such a short time. Well here are the numbers:

Distance - 2.5 miles
Time :19:08, 10:19-out 8:49-back
Pace - 7:39 per mile
Temp - 75*
Hum - 53%
Wgt - 172.5 #

Purple Balloon Release for Andrea

My cousin, Meleah, received a double lung transplant from Andrea Cleveland, who would have turned  17 this Saturday, Sept 8. Take a picture of yourself releasing a purple balloon by 1pm and post here with your name and location. Thank you for your support.

Coming soon...

Work on Week 1 Fantasy Football Video is underway. We will have a Draft Breakdown, Trivia, Highlights and a Field Goal! Look for it next week!

Follow me @rondog24 on Twitter
Youtube Channel: boatonthewater
Facebook - Profile

Also should have my Year-to-Date mileage in the near future.

Last Saturday's Run

Took Molitor down to Church and went north over the closed bridge over Interstate 88 and through the construction on the other side. Once over I wove my way threw corporate warehouses and small start-ups. As I reached the top of warehouse hill I could see a few houses and a narrow counrty road would be my path. Having to jump from the ditch to the road as cars came by became a point of focus to distract myself from the steep climb over another bridge crossing back south over 88. I passed cute small houses packed together in the neighborhood behind the Church St. Park. Then I found myself home.

The run had some mist sprinkled in throughout the entire run. Which felt amazing and kept me cool

Here's my route.

Distance - 4.5 miles
Time : 39:07
Pace - 8:41 per mile

Fantasy Football Video

Check me out throwing out some football knowledge.

Just click here

3 Days, 2 Runs, 1 Tired Guy

On Thursday,  the 23rd, I did an interval run at night, along the river on the Prairie Path. Having the only light I could see being the lighter colored rocks in the woods makes you move a little faster. Broken into 4 sprints, here are the times in order; #1 (1.5 miles )12:32, #2 (0.9 miles )7:29, #3 ( 0.9 miles) 7:04, #4 (1.5 )10:22   Here's my route. In total  4.8 miles, 37:29

 In the middle of one of my breaks, I decided to shoot a little video for my fantasy football video blog.

Then on Saturday, I went for a hot midday run from home  along Indian Trail Road, all the way to Eola.  Temps topped around 92 degrees between 3:30-4:30. It was hard  to not focus on how dry my mouth was getting. I would give myself a mouthful of water every 3-5 minutes, to make sure I didn't over heat. Didn't see any other runners out, so once again I am either the most extreme distance runner in the area or the dumbest. The out was around 2.9 miles which I did in 24:44 and my back time was 23:35. Nice negative split! Here's my route.
In total 5.8 miles, 48:20.

Tennis, please!

On Saturday I got to do something that I hadn't done in awhile. I was finally able to have some time and someone to play tennis with. My buddy, Jim, invited me up to the local high school courts by his place. 

Before I left, I had checked the radar and I could see that there was a storm coming, but it looked like we would still be able to get in some good swings. The drive out was uneventful and no rain. By the time we started walking out to the courts it was starting to sprinkling. 

We were able to warm up but as soon as we started into playing a set it started to rain a little harder. As we played the wind picked up and well as the humidity. Then all of a sudden, I felt a really cold breeze and the humidity dropped and the storm got angrier. The rain turned colder and harder, then into very small hail. The rain started coming don in sheets, but we continued to play. Having to account for 50mph gusts made the match interesting. We finally had to suspend play, because there was about a half inch of water on the court and on a soft serve or a ball with any kind of spin would just die in the water.

Today I'm watching a little Olympics, right now its the Men's Gold Medal Tennis match between Roger Federer and Andy Murray. I plan on doing my quick circuit routine of Pushups, Pullups, Planks, Flutter Kicks, Curls, Flys & Situps, before I go for a run. Not sure how far I will go or even where, but i need to go for one. Anyways, hopefully I'll be back on later tonight with my run info.

I'm the worst Blogger ever!

Sunday, July 27th
Another Run with Bobby, this one was on the Prairie Path W1, as well as many more to come.

Distance - 4.5 miles
Time - 36:21=total, 19:03/out, 17:17/back
Pace - 8:04

Tuesday, July 31
After going to Hollywood Casino and stuffing myself on the buffet then watching Vanessa win big, then proceeded to refuse to walk away from the machine as it took all her money. Needless to say I needed to go for a run.

I decided to head east on the Prairie Path E1. Yesterday I dicovered the Woodland Swamp County Forest Preserve with a trail. It ends up onto Felten Rd. which ends up back at the path. The only problem with the prairie path is the buzzing from the electrical wires, it gives me a headache if I'm under it too long. So I sidetracked and on the way back home I cut through a park up to Molitor and head back home. Overall it was a fairly short run, but I pushed it and it was nice to get back out.

My calendar is now full of days to run. Since we've moved into the new place I have been putting things in my sight line to remind me to do pullups or pushups. I've noticed my self feeling stronger and having more energy, which is awesome. Now back to work for the next 48 hours, then I get my weekend off hopefully be bck on here and talking about a run on Friday as well as my updated, Year to Date Total Miles!

Dist - 2.7 miles
Time - 19:40/loop
Pace - 7:16

Another Farm Run

After a busy day I thought I should hit the pavement on this balmy June Saturday evening. I was battling with the brake pads for a couple hours in the afternoon heat. I also managed to do an oil change and grab a few things from Menards for the garden.

My run route wasn't decided until I had to make a decision on whether to run east or west on Theodore. Of course I decided to head west. I knew most of the mile markers so I figured I'd push myself a little bit.

The first mile was slow an easy since it was so hot I didn't want to go crazy. After running down Theo, I took a left onto Ridge and pushed myself uphill for about a quarter mile stretch then it was a nice smooth half mile southerly length to Black Rd. which I finally head east.

The 3 mile marker is the start of the open field that I run through. It slows me down some, but I make sure I'm keeping my knees up and pushing it. The turn north onto County Line is mostly uphill. It's a nice way to finish a tough and hot run. My last mile was actually quite fast. Here are my stats:

Dist: 5.0 miles
Time: 37:57
Pace: 7:35
M1 - 8:03
M2 - 7:50
M3 - 7:15
M4 - 7:41
M5 - 7:06
Temp - 83*

Comments!!

I finally managed to allow anyone to post comments, sorry to those of you who have tried and were unable.

Night Run...

Last night I pushed myself and enjoyed a tough intervaled night run. With the tunes jamming on the iPod Shuffle, I was focused and was ready for this run all day.

I ran down Theodore Ave, past 59 to Bronk Rd and ran back. The back half of the run was so much faster then the first half. I'm itching to sign up for a 5/10K here real soon. I feel like its a much better distance to really gage my ability, after being disappointed about my Soldier Field time.

I made sure I sprinted in parts of the run. I focused on keeping my core tight, swinging my arms, lifting my knees and breathing. My right calf is a little stiff just above my new Achilles, I'll keep an eye on it and make sure to report how it feels in the morning.

After I was finished I knocked out 30 V-ups and 40 push ups, which I can add to the 35 I did on Monday as well and 10 pull ups. I feel that I really need to start adding in much more weight training, and stop falling back on running keeping me in shape. I know it will help me at work with lifting all those heavy tile boxes. Also as a side note for me, the whit UA Fitted Shirt felt amazing, and should be my new race shirt.

Here's my Stats:

Out: (M1) - 7:42, (M2) - 7:16, (M3) - 7:22, (M.4) - 3:20 = 25:40/7:32pc

Back:(M6) - 7:03, (M5) - 7:10, (M4) - 7:01, (M.4) - 3:11 = 24:25/7:10pc

Time - 50:09

Dist - 6.8 miles

Pace - 7:22

kCal - 849

Temp - 61*

Check out my Athlinks page

Soldier Field Run

First off, let me apologize for not getting this posted earlier. I was waiting for some of the pictures to post on Brightroom. I also wasn't sure of how I felt about the race, so I decided that I should give it a few days since I wasn't happy about my time. I enjoyed myself but I didn't want everyone to think I was upset about it.

I started off preparing for the race on Friday.   I made sure I drank plenty of water and didn't let myself have any bad food, no candy and no pop, which I know I need to cut out completely if I want to survive more race days with a time that I'll be happy with. I had a long work week which limited my pre-race run. I was only able to get my 10 mile and 5K runs in the 2 weeks leading up to the run. So Friday night after getting done with work at 10:15, I managed to get home around 11. Vanessa had made some pasta for me, so I could get some carbs in before bed. I hung out with her for a little bit and finally got into bed around 1, but I still couldn't fall asleep til 1:30.

I jumped out of bed on Saturday at 5:00am to my alarm. Luckily I had everything in a bag ready to go. So, all I had I to do was take a shower and try to wake Vanessa up. The shower was nice and easy, trying to wake Vanessa up wasn't so easy. She wasn't moving so I realized I was going to have to make the trip on my own. I grab an English muffin with some peanut butter and some water. I made coffee, but I decided not to have any, which might have cost me some time. Next time I'm not passing on the coffee, I've heard too many good things.  Then I grabbed my bag and finally let Vanessa know that I was leaving, since she was half awake.

The drive down was smooth right up until Lake Shore Drive. Once I got into my parking spot I had about 20 minutes to get to the corrals. I had to find a restroom and had to drop my stuff off at the gear check, since I didn't have anyone to hang on to it. The gear check and port-a-potty run went without any trouble, but trying to find my corral did. Since there are 2 color corrals and about 17 total, I managed to find the green corrals, but my race bib is blue. Once I went through the green sections I was able to spot the blue corral with about 5 minutes to race start. Finally in the right area, I turned on the iPod and let my mind focus on the music. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't able to get a decent warm up in aside from me jogging around trying to find the bathroom and corral.

The last few minutes seem to take forever before our corral start. Once it did the skinny pathway seemed to slow everyone down. I wasn't able to break away until the route turned into the McCormick Center underground tunnel. From there it was smooth sailing. The first 4 miles seem to fly by and felt great. I was running negative splits for those first 4 miles.

At mile 5 I started noticing it was getting harder to lift my legs. I was just trying to get to the turn around point at 4.8 mile spot and getting ready to push the last 5+ miles, but as soon as I turned north up the lake shore path, a very strong headwind hit me in the face. How had I not noticed it at my back, I kept asking myself. The next couple miles were a struggle, it felt like the winds kept getting stronger.

Once I realized I didn't have a chance to beat my time from last year, my focus shifted. My mind went from race mode to enjoyable run mode. I made sure I took everything in, the view that I was enjoying running along Lake Michigan, smiling and high-fiving the spectators. Last year I felt I didn't get a good chance to take in the stadium. This year as soon as I finished I made sure I slowly walked over to grab a water, then I took a seat and stretched out a little and stared at crowd and the seats. Since growing up in Minny, the only big stadium I had was the metrodome. Soldier Field is a timeless stadium, even after the remodel. After finally being yelled at for sitting for too long I managed to get myself up and moved my stretching to the tunnels under the stadium until I was told to move on again. Then I moved on to get my finishing medal, food bag and blanket. Once I got outside I saw the Muscle Milk stand and made sure I got my free bottle of Cookies'n'Creme. My tired legs started walking to the car to head home. I made sure I used my foam roller and The Stick before I headed out, I didn't want to cramp up as soon as I started driving, which I didn't.

Now it's time to figure out what my next run is going to be. Maybe a 5K or 10K, but I'm still planning on attempting to run the Chicago Marathon, I know I will need to run a half marathon sometime soon. Still trying to figure all that out. What I do know is that I need to start eating a lot better, which I have been lately, and making sure I add in more strength training into my workout regime.

Here are my mile splits:

M1 - 7:43               M6 - 7:44
M2 - 7:26               M7 - 8:01
M3 - 7:13               M8 - 8:19
M4 - 7:08               M9 - 8:39
M5 - 7:31               M10 - 8:09

Total time: 1 hour 17 minutes 57 seconds


I have managed to get out on a run since my race. On Wednesday I decided to take a nice and easy run around the farms again. Check out my route here. It ended up being 6.3 miles and it took me 49:19, which is 7:49 pace. It was a really solid run, I managed to get some good intervals in.

Pre-Race Warmup Run

So I decided that my last little warm up before the race on Saturday, was to do my old 5K route. After looking at my times of running the same course last time, I don't feel to good about my split times, but at least they are decent. This time around I didn't wear any headphones and had very little water. I remember telling myself to focus on keeping my form right, by swinging my arms and getting my knees up on every stride. I tend to slouch over when I get tired and thinking about it makes me stand up a little straighter and run a little smoother. I also tried force myself to take long deep breaths every few steps, it help fuel my legs and keep them fresh longer and my arms didn't feel so heavy while I'm swinging them.

Run Stats:
Date - 5/21
Distance - 3.2 miles
Time - 24:01
Pace - 7:31
M1 - 7:40
M2 - 7:36
M3 - 7:26
M.2 - 1:18

Overall not a bad run leading up to the Soldier Field 10 miler.

So I do have a worry, I feel like I'm missing something from my Race Day List! If you don't see anything that I should have with me please let me know. Here's my list so far:

Breakfast: Banana, toast/pb, juice & coffee
Watch
iPod & headphones
Towel
Water Gallon
Race Bib
Race Clothes
Water bottle
Foam Roller & The Stick