Oct 15, 2013

(Non-) Progress Update

Lately hasn't been a very good time for my training. In fact, it's been completely lacking. I haven't written my round up for last week, because I didn't do anything. I may not bother to write it, but I wanted to at least provide some sort of update. I have a draft post or two that I'll look to get out soon. My content here has been lacking lately.

Any way, why haven't I been training. Last week ended up being a washout. Tuesday was raining, so I took it as an easy excuse to push my run to another day, thinking of just putting on the shift again. Not a good thing to do, but at the time, no ill intent. I'm not proud of myself taking the easy way out, but I did intend to run that week. However, it decided to keep raining the rest of the week... and the weekend. I ended up not running my other training sessions, because of the rain. I reasoned, with the rain and the cooler temperatures, I did not want to risk getting sick. The reason being my wife is going to be traveling this week into next week, so I couldn't be sick when it'd be just Daddy and daughter time. That was less easy way out and more legitimate reason. Now, if I had run, would I have gotten sick? Probably not. Did I hedge my bets on the easier side? Yes. If I had gotten sick on Thursday, would I have been healthy again in time? Most likely. Could I have squeezed in a run Sunday when the rain was more misty and been ok? Yeah, probably. But I didn't.

The important thing though is it's in the past and I can't change that. In the words of Pumba
you need to put your behind in your past.
The point of this post wasn't to dwell on it, but to be honest about it and share it. Part of this blog was to make myself write and be accountable, so I'm being true to that. It was not a good week for me, and that's hard because it was after training was starting to get pretty good for me again.

Then there's this week. This is a week I knew wouldn't be very good for my training going in. With my wife gone, obviously running before my daughter wakes up or after she goes to bed doesn't work by myself. With no gym at work yet (still not in our new offices that have one), I'm pretty much s.o.l. So at least today's run should have been ok. However yesterday, I was home playing around and running around on the carpet in the afternoon, since daycare was closed, after which my knee was sore. In a specific spot and down around a little bit on the side. Not a good feeling, in a spot where a ligament is. I don't mean I think it's anything serious. I think I just strained or pulled something a little. By the time I went to bed it was hurting down the side all the way down. Still feels that way now in the morning. So no morning run. We'll see if we feel any better by tonight. I'm trying to be hopeful though I'm not sure I believe it will feel better.  I'm going to need to find some alternative stuff this week to do to at least feel a little good about myself. Just making for a down two weeks of training. Couple that with the continued barely progress, up-and-downs of my weight and you get not a high point right now.

What have you done to pull yourself out of some down times in your trainings?

Oct 6, 2013

Weekly Roundup: October 6th

Eat Me
Well, if you insist.
We're already through the first week of October. Moving fast. The half marathon is fast approaching. I've been looking into getting a race or two in between now and then. This past week has been hectic getting ready for my daughter's 2nd birthday party. It caused some flux in the scheduled, but in the end, all my runs were in.

One Word to Describe the Week

Busy

Training

Weekly Total:
Miles: 12.64 miles
Time: 1:18:48

Sunday, September 29: Distance Run
Where: Outside
Distance: 7.02 miles
Time: 2:46:36
Average Pace: 12:50 min / mile

Summary: This run was my distance run from last week, that I pushed to Sunday night. I almost didn't go out, and then almost didn't run the full distance. I was tired and unmotivated but got myself out the door. When I started running, I told myself that I would see how the first mile went to determine how I would run and how far I would go. I was ready to throw in the towel and skip out but then my first mile came in at 13:58. My goal on longer runs is now 14 min / mile, not 15, so I had hit my goal and decided to keep going. I'm glad I did. It was an interesting run. I've learned where the limits of street lights are and my confines for distance evening runs will be. In the end, I did a long down and back with some side loops to get in the full 7 miles.

Monday, September 30: Rest

Tuesday, October 1: Rest

Wednesday, October 2: Maintenance Run
Where: Outside
Distance: 2.19 miles
Time: 27:06
Average Pace: 12:20 min / mile

Summary: I took a quick little run Wednesday while working from home. It was nice to run in the sun light but it ended up being hotter than I expected. I had a good quick pace, but my shins were a little tight. In the end, I was a tad shy of my 30 minutes.

Thursday, October 3: Rest

Friday, October 4: Maintenance Run
Where: Outside
Distance: 3.44 miles
Time: 42:52
Average Pace: 12:26 min / mile

Summary: Friday was back to an evening run. A friend of Steph's was over, staying the night while she was in town, so I left them to their bottle of wine and went out for my run. It was a little humid but not too bad. The run itself felt nice and easy despite the quick pace.

Saturday, October 5: Rest (Distance on Sunday)

WeightWatchers

I had a good week for my eating and weight. I ate pretty well and lost 1.3 pounds. Well, I ate pretty well except for Saturday. Saturday was the party and I'm not really sure how much I ate or drank in the end. The problem was I got small amounts (which was good) but didn't track it as I was going along. After the party, I snack a good bit more (which was not good). In addition I had some beers as well, but I was drinking draft, so I'd often top off my glass, so don't even know how much of that to track my points. In the end, I didn't track anything on the weekend, which has been my m.o. lately. The weigh in on Friday was good, but we'll see if there is any backtrack next week with the weekend eating.

Thoughts on the Week

While this week was all over the place, I was glad to still get in all my runs, even shifted from their normal days. I also got in my run on today, though not reflected in the round up. My runs felt good, which is really building my confidence. The Tower of Terror 10 miler was this weekend, which my cousins ran, which just increased the runDisney excitement. They look like they had a good time too. October may not be my best month for staying on track with all my trainings based on my scheduled but at least I got a good start to it.

Oct 4, 2013

runDisney: Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10-Miler 2013

Credit: http://www.noahslightfoundation.org/
This weekend is the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 10-Miler in Walt Disney World. This is a cool race event for several reasons. First, the race starts at 10pm at night and goes from Disney Hollywood Studios (you'll always be MGM to me) to ESPN Wide World of Sports and back again. With it being nighttime and October, the race also has villains throughout, which makes it a little more unique. If that's not enough, there is also a villain bash afterwards, letting you stay in the park until 4am. Not a bad deal at all.

At the risk of sounding like a infomercial salesman or Steve Balmer selling Windows in the 80s, "but wait, there's more!" While there is a separate Wine & Dine Half Marathon in November, named for the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, the festival has already begun. So not only can you experience the villains and Halloween vibe, you can also get your food and alcohol fix at the same time. Not a bad package deal at all.

This is one of the runs on my planned to do list. All runDisney races are really on this list, but this is one that I already have planned out. We plan to take a trip to Disney for my daughter's 4th birthday. Her birthday is in October, so why not line it up with the race so we can kill 2 birds with one stone. She'll be old enough to do some of the fun runs or even the Happy Haunted 5K Trail Run herself as well, so everyone can get in on it. Tower of Terror 2015, look out.

This time I wanted to give a shout out to some people I personally know that are running the race. I have some of my relatives running the races. So Rich and Don, best of luck in the runs. They're doing both the 5K and 10-miler, so they're pulling the all day split half marathon and going for 2 medals.

Good luck to everyone running. Run hard, smile, don't get lost in the dark and most importantly have some Disney FUN.