Time of Thanks | #FridayFive

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a lovely day. This week's Friday Five linkup topic is gratitude. What you're thankful for is always important to remember, but get's special attention at this time of year.

1. Running

Running is something I really am thankful for. First, I'm thankful I am lucky enough to be able to run. Not everyone can. Second, I'm thankful I enjoy running. I started out running with the goal of finishing a half in Walt Disney World, but there wasn't really more than that. I didn't imagine I would continue running after completing that one goal race. However, early on, I found a love of running. The journey has been amazing. I'm lucky and thankful that I'm on it.

2. My Family and Friends (that are just like family).

I am truly blessed with a wonderful family. I have an amazing, beautiful wife, whom with I have 2 cute, crazy, and awesome children. It doesn't stop their either. We both have great extended families: plenty of Grandma, Grammy, Grandpap, and Pop Pop moments as well as aunts and uncles galore. We also have so many wonderful friends. Friends that are like family. I'm thankful to have friends like that. It really makes for a full family. There's a lot to be said for having a large full family like that, which I am grateful for.

3. Opportunity to Learn and Educate

I love the work I do, programming. It's an ever changing field, which always gives me opportunities to learn. While I code by day, I teach by night. I adjunct at a local community college one night a week. I love to teach and share my knowledge and love of coding. It's not always easy, but can be very rewarding.

4. Coffee

I wouldn't be me without throwing a seemingly random one in there. I am quite grateful and thankful for coffee. It gets me through many days, especially those when my 1 year old decides to not sleep so well. There's nothing like a nice warm cup on a cool morning. I keep it simple, just one sweetener (usually Splenda). I also prefer a larger mug, because the more coffee that fits in, it's still "just one cup".

5. BibRave and Nuun

I'm very thankful for the two ambassadorship I'm a part of. They both have been great experiences this past year, and both come with amazing and supportive communities. I've gotten to take part in some great races, take part in a post on the Nuun blog, and reviewed so many great products for BibRave. Being a BibRave Pro has also been great for my blog here. All those reviews have had me creating lots of content and helped find my style further. I've even dabbled into videos, which has been fun. I look forward to continuing to be a part of both in 2016 and the opportunities they'll present.

What are you thankful for this holiday season?

Giveaway

Don't forget, I have a giveaway going on right now on my blog. I've partnered with BibRave and Plantronics to help you beat the holiday stress. So head over to read how to beat the weight gain stress and then try and win a pair of Plantronics BackBeatFIT Bluetooth Headphones.

Linking Up

Check here for some links out to others sharing, staring with our three lovely hosts: Courtney, Cynthia and Mar. Check their posts (Eat Pray Run DC, You Signed Up for What?! and Mar on the Run to see the full set of links). I will add some others, usually randomly, as I read them to share the love. Go visit and keep reading!

Our hosts:

You Signed Up for What?!

Mar on the Run

Eat, Pray, Run DC

Some other good reads, pulled from the link up:

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Proud Dad Moment | #NationalRunningDay

Today is National Running Day. I started my day off with a great run (ok, as I write this, it is the night before National Running Day, National Running Eve, and I plan to run first thing in the morning. update: I did). I decided today was a good time to share a story I've been wanting to share with all of you.

Proud Dad Moment

I have a proud dad moment I'd like to share with you. No, it's not the other night when my daughter was practicing memorizing the names of all the ninja turtles at the dinner table, though that did warm my heart. No, this moment occurred on a run, or more specifically on a stroller run. It was a sunny day, so I geared up, threw on my Sport Kilt, ate a Honey Stinger waffle, made up my Nuun and hit the sidewalk. Of course this was not before first snapping a pre-run selfie with my best little running gal.

Off we went. We were cruising right along and after about a mile, my daughter said she wanted to run too. We took a pause, then she grabbed my one hand and we ran and pushed together. Then she took her turn to lead the run and I had to follow. We'd run for a short bit then it was time for a "walk break" so she could get her breath and drink some water.

I have to admit, it was a really proud moment. I'm happy that she wants to run. I try hard to be a good example for her and her little brother. It made me really smile. I will always be supportive of it and hope she continues to enjoy it. So, enjoy your National Running Day, get your there, run, and smile.

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Rockstar 8K

Running like rockstar number 479!

Today, I successfully completed my first race. I skipped doing a 5K, like most people choose for their first race. No, I decided to do it in style, rock and roll style. I chose the Rockstar 8K, a race by Potomac River Running. An 8K race comes out to 5 miles. That is farther than I've ever run before. The race also came with a 75 minute time limit, which meant a 15 minute per mile pace. I've gotten under that in my runs, but never for this distance obviously. I was hoping I could keep it up over that distance as well. I was pushing my distance, pushing my pace, pushing myself.

The Race

The race started at 8am. It started in the shopping center around the corner from our house. The race ran down Burke Centre Parkway and back, which I've been running portions of it in preparation during my training. The plan was it would give me confidence in the course, which it did. I was bib number 479, so there were quite a few people running. I of course had my two lovely ladies, Stephanie and Samantha, there to cheer me on. I started the race off and wanted to stick to my plan, to my run-walk-run. I didn't let myself be overly concerned with where I was, where the other people were. I just concentrated on me. My biggest fear was not keeping the pace. I had done so in my training runs, but hadn't run this distance. I didn't feel like I had enough wiggle room to not worry. I occassionally tried to nonchalauntly check over my shoulder to see if anyone was back there. I felt as long as someone was behind me, I was ok. I tried to be smooth about it, but I know it wasnt. I did try to keep my eyes on the person in front of me, to help keep my walking pace up. I would concentrate on them during my walking intervals to keep me from getting distracted. It worked well too. As I hit the mile mark, I got my update from Endomono; my time, 13:39! Faster than I had run in any of my trainings! Fantastic! Maybe I can do this.

As the race went on, the pack in front of my started to pull apart and thin out. Before I hit mile 2, there was a quick wind going the other direction with a number that I can only assume was the overall fastest time. All I could think was "damn". As the distance went on, I just kept to my 30 seconds running, 30 seconds walking. People in front of me would run for a bit and then usually walk on the up slopes or when they just got too tired. I just kept chugging along. Some of them, I slowly gained ground on. As I hit the turn around, I got past two girls that had been in front of me for a bit for quite a while. I grabbed my paper cup of water, drank most of it, poured a little on my head, and kept on keeping on. I was feeling good. My spirits were high, and my legs not too tired.

At every stop light there were cops to direct traffic. They had closed one of the four lanes down for our race, so they were at the intersections to keep us safe. As I went by each one, I took out my ear bud and thanked them for being there to keep us safe. I was grateful for them and felt they should know it.

Official Results

As the end grew nearer, I was tempted to go for longer runs. I didn't want to over exert myself, so even though part of the last mile and a half was down hill, I kept to my 30 / 30. My legs were feeling good, but I was getting a little more out of breath at times. Finally, when the finish line was in view, I took some deep breaths and waited for the little voice in my earphones to say "Pick up the pace." When she did, I replied "Yes, m'am" and started running. I pushed as I came down the stretch, trying to give what I had. On the right, there were Steph and Sam, waiting for me to get back. They cheered as I grew near, so I gave some high fives as I ran past and sprinted across the line. Click.

Official time: 1 hour 8 min and 12 seconds. 

Success!

Unofficial Phone Results

According the official results, I averaged a 13:45 min / mile. I'm so happy with that. Sub-14, hell yeah I'll take that! From my phone, my slowest was still under 14 while my fastest was 13:23, which was my final mile. Overall, I actually kept a pretty steady pace, something I am also happy about.

The weather was beautiful, the run felt great and I finished.

How's the Body?

So, how am I feeling, on the evening after my first race? A little sore. My legs are sore but not too bad. Mostly slow and a little stiff after sitting for a bit. My knees are a little sore, my right more than my left especially. The bottoms of my feet as well. I'm physically exhausted. All in all though, I don't feel that bad. Or maybe not as bad as I was expecting. I don't know. Mainly, when I'm down for a bit, I'm very slow and sluggish, but I'm doing. Just physically tired more than sore.

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Training Day 12 - Lunch Time Running

My schedule was thrown off again this week for my Thursday run. I got up early to get on the computer. The plan was work for a bit then, after Sam wakes up, help get her off to daycare, then go out for my run. I was up and on the computer early enough, that no time would be lost, and when my run was finished it would equal out the early vs run time. My Thursdays are usually clear until 11:30, so no problems there. However, and interesting happened this week, I became my team's scrummaster this week. I won't bore you on the details, save its a position for our 6 man team to help with the agile development process. It's a good thing. Added responsibility, added work, but a good career item. Also helping me make my mark early on in the company, but I digress. The point is this morning, I had a new item on my calendar, a meeting every Thursday at 8:30 am. Well isn't that just a monkey wrench. I wasn't ready to today, but I guess I'll just switch to running first when I get up early and then start at my normal time again from home. Today, I wasn't ready for that, so my run got pushed until lunch time.

The Run

Today is my last "prep day" before my race this weekend. I didn't want to push too hard, but needed to get a good reaffirmation that I'll be ok this weekend. I ran Burke Centre Parkway again, putting in my half hour going up and back on what will be a portion of the course. I did alright. I didn't have my head really in it. I was a little hungry, since my schedule was all thrown off. Between that and just not really concentrating out there, my pace was slowed down. I was still under 15 min / mile, which is what I need for the race, but I had much less wiggle room today. Hopefully, I was just getting that out of my system before the weekend.

The Stats

Time: 31:13 mins (workout), 44:23 (total)
Distance: 2.12 miles (workout), 3.69 miles (total)
Average Speed: 4.07 mph
Average Pace: 14:44 min / mile

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And So It Begins...

This is where it all starts. I've just registered for the first official race I'll run. I'm going to run the Rockstar 8K, which is right here in Burke, VA. In fact, the start / finish line is right around the corner from our house, so bonus points on location! As you might of guessed from the name, the race is 8K in length. That comes out to just under 5 miles (so says sir Google). It starts right around the corner, runs down Burke Centre Parkway, goes almost to Burke Lake Road, then turns around and comes back. The biggest incline is the long(ish) one in the beginning, that I've been running the past couple times out. 

And oh yeah, it's this weekend...

I'm supposed to run 4 miles this weekend, so I figure doing 5 is only cheating a little. The race has a 75 min time limit for the course, which is 15 minutes per mile, but I've been keeping under that. I did it for the 5K this past weekend, so I think I can keep it up for the other 3. I think being in the race, I'll probably have a little adrenaline to help too. [Man, that scares me to type something like that, like I actually am enjoying running. That can't be right.]

If anyone would like to join me, I'd welcome the company. I warn / remind you I do the run-walk-run of the Jeff Galloway plan, but feel free to join me on the road. I'm excited for the race though. I'll be working hard to do my best. All I want is to finish under the time and complete my first race. I was going to try and start with a 5K, but hey, that would make too much sense for me.

Guess it's time for me to run like a rockstar!

Would this be appropriate attire?

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Training Day 10 - Week One Done

Week one down! Three miles run in the book. I feel really good having completed the first week of my program. It may not have been much, but I had a good sense of accomplishment from it.

The Run

Since it was the weekend, I had a distance goal. Being the first week, it was just 3 miles. But 3 miles is farther than I've gone so far, so it's yet another step forward. I started my day early, up before the rest of the family was up, geared up and out the door I went. I was sure to stretch more than Thursday, which paid off. I didn't have the same tightness this run. It was a little brisk, cooler than it's been lately, but I was still warm enough in just shorts and a t-shirt while moving. As I ran, the clouds cleared up as well, and I got to see some nice blue skies. I had a little bit of head wind for about the last mile home, but it was not well at all. I tried to push hard to keep up my pace as well. I wanted to sustain my pace, keep it down over the full distance. I'm hoping if I can keep it down for 3, maybe I can do it for 5. In the end, I did over 3 miles, so I completed a 5K! And I did it with just 5 seconds more per mile. I call that a success.

The Stats

Time: 46:59 mins (workout), 1:03:57 (total)
Distance: 3.27 miles (workout), 3.92 miles (total)
Average Speed: 4.17 mph
Average Pace: 14:22 min / mile

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Training Day 9 - Thursday

It was time for my second run on my 1/2 marathon plan. Today was another maintenance run. It's meant to be around 30 minutes, then length not mattering. My main goal was to keep my pace under 15 minutes a mile, and improve it if possible. My schedule was thrown off by some morning rain. So instead of running early before working, I started working earlier then ran at lunch time. It was a short rain in the morning, so I knew it would / should clear up later to run, so I went with that instead running in the rain.

Yet Another App

I haven't gotten a physical timer yet to do my intervals. I'm not sure if I will, but I'm looking into it. I want to use something other than Endomondo for the intervals. Endomono is great for tracking my pace, distance, updating me on my averages and everything else of the run. I lose that if it tracks my intervals as well. I've decided, at least for now to use another app in conjunction with everything else. I'm using the aptly name Run Walk Intervals Timer. It's basic, but does it's job. You can set your own custom run and walk interval, add a warm up and cool down if you'd like, and customize the wording it says to prompt you to run and walk. The only small issue I have with it is I cannot seem to have my phone on vibrate and have it still have the audio prompt. However they're doing the text to speech, it is silenced when on vibrate, even though I have media playing. Small inconvenience, but I just keep the ringtone at the first level above vibrate instead.

The Run

My run went pretty well. Instead of running the lake, I ran straight down Burke Centre Parkway. It has paths the whole way, which makes it great for running. In fact, the whole area is really good for this. I decided on because there is an 8K on that next weekend, that is tempting to me. I have to do 4 miles next weekend, and 8K is 5 miles. I wanted to try running it, to see how difficult of a path it is. The run starts with a pretty long steady incline. It was tough, but I handled it pretty well. The only problem on my run was around my shins was really tight. I did barely any stretching, so that could be the likely culprit, combined with the incline. I was able to improve my pace as well. My first mile was barely over 14 minutes. My average pace was 14:17 minutes, on over 30 second per mile improvement. It was humid out, so I was tired and sweated a good bit, but still felt good at the end and like I could have kept going. I hope to keep feeling this way at the ends of my runs, so I can build my confidence of distance.

The Stats

Time: 33:51 mins (workout), 56:24 (total)
Distance: 2.37 miles (workout), 3.30 miles (total)
Average Speed: 4.20 mph
Average Pace: 14:17 min / mile

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Training Day 7 - Evening Run

My weekend run got bumped around a little. Instead of the Saturday morning run it will likely be most weeks, it was a Sunday evening run. It worked pretty well, though I may need to start earlier until it gets lighter later, because the second mile was by the light of the street lamps.

And on a side note, yes, I am going to keep listing the training day number. Even if only because that way, in 9 months, 3 times a week minimum, that number will be pretty and and feel like an accomplishment all in of itself. Frankly, it will work as a reminder to me of how far I've come.

The Run

The evening run worked out well for me. The temperature was in the upper 60s, so a good one to run in. Since it got darker quicker than I expected, I only did one loop on the lake and ran up the parkway. It was a good change because it was a long slow grade upward, give a good workout on my legs. I set up a 30 / 30 run / walk interval. It worked great. The beginning even felt like the 30 seconds of running weren't long enough. Haha. In the end, I broke 15 minutes on my pace, coming in at 14:51 per mile on my 2 miles I ran. Getting under that makes me happy. I'm having some good early progress in my workouts.

The Stats

Time: 30:45 mins (workout), 40:28 (total)
Distance: 2.07 miles (workout), 2.58 miles (total)
Average Speed: 4.04 mph
Average Pace: 14:51 min / mile

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Training Day 6 - Morning Run

Today was a work from home day so I was able to get in a morning run. I haven't officially started the training plan for the half marathon. I plan to start that next week. I was however to at least partial comply with it. The plan consists of two maintenance runs during the week of a half hour and then the longer run on the weekend. So, today I shot to have a maintenance run of a half hour.

Tricky Tracking

I've come up with a new tricky tracking plan. I'm using my phone with GPS to track how far I go and long I run. The problem I have is warm up and cool down vs the actual run. I want to know the full distance I go overall, but I want to know my pace for my actual work out and the distance I cover there. I found a solution that will give me just what I want. First, when I go to start my warmup, I start recording on My Tracks from Google. That will give me my total distance and time. After I get through the warm up and I'm ready to start my run, I press play on Endomondo to start recording my workout. This allows me to get updates on my progress as I run. When I finish the run of my workout, I stop Endomondo and continue my cool down walk. When my cool down is finished, I stop My Tracks. Just like that, I have all the information I wanted between the two applications. It worked out wonderfully this morning.

The Run

For my run, I tried to do the run / walk tactic from Jeff Galloway's plan. I didn't set a custom interval up, so I tried to count it my head. Yeah, didn't work out great. I tried to go 30 / 30, but when I ran I think I counted faster and when I walked, I counted slower, so it was probably more 20 / 40. Then there was when my mind gets distracted and I forget where I was in my counting. So, didn't really work ideally. The strategy did help though. I ran 2 miles in just over 30 minutes, getting a 15:14 pace. The half marathon needs to be under 16, and they recommend a 15 minute pace to give time for bathroom breaks and photo opportunities. Granted, 2 miles isn't 13 miles, but it's a start. In addition, I wasn't as tired this time at the end, so I could have run longer. I stopped however because I was trying to stick to the 30 minutes. Overall, I felt good coming out of the workout, which made me so happy. It's already giving me confidence over getting in shape.

The Stats

Time: 31:15 mins (workout), 46:19 (total)
Distance: 2.05 miles (workout), 2.70 miles (total)
Average Speed: 3.94 mph
Average Pace: 15:14 min / mile

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Officially Crazy: Walt Disney World Half Marathon

Well, it is now confirmed. I am officially crazy. I have officially registered for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon. I decided to take the leap. Registering will force me to have a set in stone date that I cannot change, cannot sidestep, cannot avoid. Training for a half marathon, even just to finish, will have the very positive side effect of losing weight and getting in shape, that I want to achieve. Choosing the particular half marathon I have also has the very positive side effect of going to Disney World. We're Disney fans in this family, so that is very very positive.

The Race

The Walt Disney World Half Marathon takes place every January. This upcoming year, the marathon weekend will be January 8 - 12, 2014. There are 4 main races, a 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon. (there are also some kids races as part of the festivities). The races are run in that order; Thursday has the 5K, Friday the 10K, the half marathon is on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. Each race gives you a finisher medal. In addition, they have the Goofy Challenge for running the half marathon and full marathon back-to-back. With the addition of the 10K this year, they also added the Dopey Challenge, for if you're dopey enough to do all four. My running partner for the half marathon, Dave is going to be dopey. In addition to the half marathon, I plan on running the 5K, since my training calls for a half hour run on the Thursday before anyway, so I might as well get a medal for it.

The Training

I'll be training for the race, as I alluded to, using Jeff Galloway's 19 week plan for the Walt Disney World Half Marathon. The main points of the plan include 2 maintenance runs during the week and one longer run on the weekend. For the runs, he also suggests a run-walk-run strategy where you run 15 seconds, walk 45 seconds (or variations of this 10 / 50, 20 / 40, etc). There's a lot more to it than that. I'm still working on wrapping my head around it and planning it out so I can use it. I suggest you go download the PDF and read it if you're interested in more information.

So, be sure to follow along in my journey to the half marathon. I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time. I'll be really excited when I know I'm ready to complete it.

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First Encounter with Nature

Today, I had my first workout encounter with nature. Yes, that's right, I ran outside. I wanted to get a better feel of where I stood, under the more difficult setting of running not on an elliptical. I upgraded to Endomondo Pro, purchased some music from Amazon music (the particular CD of running tracks with bpm was $1.50 cheaper than on the Play Store) made a quick playlist and was ready to rock.

The {Sorta} Run

So, how did it go? Not quite as good as I might have hoped but not as poor as it could have been. It was probably a good representation of where I am and need to go. I'm happy with the result of me being out there doing it. In thr end I did 2.38 miles with just over a 17 min mile pace. This included my warmup and cool down walks and about 30 seconds stopped fixing my shoes part way through to be laced a little tighter. You can see my full stats in the screen grab from Endomondo. The weather was cooler at the start but not too bad as I went because it was bright and sunny. I ran around a small lake nearby, which was a nice path. It was about 3/4 of a mile around, with some up and downs. The sun and water made for a nice environment to run in.

In the future, I'm going to be sure to only start the tracking after my warmup and before cool down to get a better read on my pace. I was happy with the app. It gave me all my information at the miles, seemed to get good GPS tracking and made it easy to pull up my playlist. It also has good ability to do custom intervals. That will be good for the training program I'm looking at, which uses them to build up your stamina. The author suggests a 15 second run, 45 second walk (or 20 / 40 split) which will still enable me to make the pacing requirements for the race I'm looking at. More on that when it becomes officially official.

In the end, I'm happy with my run because it happened. Thats the most important part, getting out there. By getting out there, the improvement will come with it.

Stats

Time: 40:47
Distance: 2.38 miles
Average Speed: 3.5 mph
Average Pace: 17:08 min / mile

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