I spent last night trying to figure out how I would get up to the sporting life at Young and Eglington(Actually quite a bit north of Eglington). Today the stars aligned and I found myself heading up to the area for work. So I skipped lunch and picked up my race kit for Sunday’s Sporting Life 10k. No shirt this time, it seems the delivery has been delayed, we’ll pick them up after the race on Sunday. It’s quite exiting to be preparing for my second race. Of course the big one is in 2 weeks when I run the Half Marathon.
Today Melissa and I headed to the Running room and got me some Gu. Energy Gel. It seems strange that my runs are now long enough that I need an energy boost in the middle of them.
Today was race day. After 10 months of running mostly alone on the local streets I finally got into an organized race. Running with a crowd adds a new dimension to running that I didn’t really expect. Though It was a great experience and though I fell short of my ultimate goal of under 28 Minutes, I did beat the Goal I had always set for my first race, under 30 minutes. I Ran it in either 29:34, the time I got from the Races Chip on my bib and 29:25 according to my phones GPS. Considering that my signal was poor for parts of the race, I think I’ll go with the official race time as the time I quote for my run. The race was a little harder than I expected. There were times that I felt I just didn’t have any strength left, that I contemplated pulling over and walking. Though there were a few moments here and there that I did walk, I managed to push through and I feel really good about how the race went. I’m looking forward to the next time I can get out there and that’s going to be sooner than I thought. My next official race is going to be the Sporting Life 10k, but I’ll have more on that in my next running post later in the week.
Continue reading “POD: First Race (29:34)”
Over the last 10 months running has become a major part of my life. It seems to have snuck up on me. It has gone from a chore I was doing to lose weight to something that I really enjoy and miss when I am unable to do it. It has really surprised me how the times when I am unable to run has affected me. Looking forward the next 6 weeks will be filled with challenges but I’m looking forward to them and meeting some of my personal goals for myself.
I’ve never been one who gets down during the winter months but this winter has been hard for me. I have always been a bit of a night owl and winter has always just provided me with more night. This year it was different and somehow winter got to me, making me feel out of sorts and diet suffered as I turned to snack foods. Though the real problem wasn’t the winter at all, in fact the real problem was that the week after Christmas while out for a 10k or 11k run my knee started to hurt. It took a couple of days before it felt better that first time but every time I would brave the cold for a run after that the pain would return. I handled the physical pain and the emotional pain the way I always do, I ignored it. I paid it lip service by going to the doctor, but I never seemed to have time to follow-up with the sports medicine doctor that I was referred to.
I never gave up on running because I knew it was important to me so every week or so I’d head out to see how my knee held out. First I didn’t change anything about how I ran, I just ran untill it started to hurt and then I would push myself untill I got home and be more depressed than before. Finally, after some time, two things changed: one, I started using a knee brace, and two I forced to take a slower pace. With a slower pace and the knee brace I was able to run 45 minutes pain-free, it was during one of these runs that it hit me how much I’d been missing the act of running. I have continued running regularly, but the turmoil of the last few weeks has limited my opportunity but thankfully I have tried hard to take some steps to keep focused in the right direction.
Today I take the next step in my running, In less than two hours I’m taking part in Harry’s Spring Run-Off in High Park. It’s a step I’ve wanted to take since last fall, but I always seemed to have an excuse that kept me from registering for an organized run. Today that all changes and once the race is behind me then the real challenge begins. I have 6 weeks to train before I run my first Half Marathon. That’s 21.1k for in case you were wondering. As I work on this post I have been trying to remember when the thought of running for over 2 hours went from an impossible torture to a doable challenge, but that’s a story for another day. I have been thinking about running this Marathon since the fall, but it wasn’t until last week that I went beyond thinking and registered. It will be just 54 weeks over a year since the first time I asked my mom to sit with the kids so Melissa and I could give running a try. That day we managed to go 3.17km in 33:54. Today I hope to run 5k in under 28 minutes, but will be happy with any time under 30 minutes. So along with this race today I’m starting a new series of running posts, with weekly updates and tracking. I’d hoped to have more of it finished for today, along with the refresh of my blog, but life has had other plans. For now Wish me Luck, You can hopefully follow my run on my RunKeeper page.
Today our fair city got a sprinkling of snow, leaving the streets picturesque. What surprised me most was how I felt walking home from work, I wanted to go home get into my running gear and hit the streets. I wonder were this running monster came from, but there it is. Under the surface there wishing to get out. Of course with my knee injury I can’t head out there, due to the Fight with wife Attorney overland park, so I’m forced to sit here and ponder if today is a good day to see if it’s better. It didn’t hurt today, but then it wasn’t hurting before my last run either. So for now, I sit and look over my past runs. Explore the new features in RunKeeper and wait. I see my family doctor next Wednesday and all I’m trying to decided if I should try my knee before I see her or wait to get her opinion.
Continue reading “POD: The Streets are calling”
A new year begins and with it I find myself reflecting on the year that was and planning for the year ahead. So lets start by looking back at the 3 geeky challenges I set for myself last January 1st. There were 3, Finding my Blogging Voice, Project 365, and Coding Challenge. Over all I’m proud of how I met my Challenges. Though there still work that needs to be done. So before I set out my new goals for 2011, lets take a look at the successes and failures.
The Successes:
Where I succeeded was my blogging, taking and posting a picture everyday was surprisingly difficult. Though I managed to get through it and find that I don’t want to stop. I like being able to look back and see snapshots of my life from the last year, and think it’d be great if I could do it for the last decade, More on that in this years challenges later. I’ve also found that by having to post a photo every day on my blog I want to post more. Though I don’t always have the time to find the words. I’ve started Mobile Mondays and I’m looking to add more regular posts soon.
The Failure:
Where I failed was the coding challenge.Though it started out well, I even had a great source for inspiration on the Dream in Code Forms, I just couldn’t manage to keep it up. What really bothers me about it is that I don’t have a single new program to show for the last year. I have a few skeletons, but nothing that I can point to and say look what I did. This is something that I really want to change this year.
Continue reading “New Challenges for a New Year”
It wood seem that all my running has taken a tool on my feet. So today I thought I would take some time to make them feel better.
After taking Monday night off I knew I needed to run tonight, but I was greeted by rain when I left the office this evening, and I thought my chances of a run tonight were shot. I am not a fan of running in the rain, but as the evening wore on I decided that I needed to get out there, so I wrapped my phone in plastic wrap and pre-pared to face the rain. Of course when I got out there I found the storm had passed and it was a great evening for a run. Though I do think it might be time to invest in a good running case for my phone.
Today Melissa and I popped into Old Navy looking for a new running shirt. While there we noticed the jeans were on sale, so I thought I would try on a pair. The surprising thing I found was that my waist was down to a 34, back in august I was inspired when I picked up jeans with a 36 waist. So tonight I find myself once again inspired by the waist size of a new pair. The most amazing thing is recently I was cleaning out the closet getting ride of some old clothes and found myself getting rid of a pair of pants with a 44 waist. These were pants I wore last year, and now I’m in a 34. It’s just amazing, but enough blogging for tonight I need to head out for a run…
Tomorrow is our family Thanksgiving dinner. We’re not having a big affair, just our little family and my mom and Niece. We didn’t want it to be to big this year, but still feel that we should be celebrating the holiday. So in preparation for eating entirely too much tomorrow, and having eaten too much at the birthday party yesterday, we had a good dinner of Chicken and salad.
