Half Marathon Training

A few months ago I was researching a training plan for my half marathon.  Thank god for J & A racing and their amazing races and websites.  For each big race, they have a training plan to follow to guide you.  I had a difficult time between choosing the beginner and intermediate. Since I was way ahead of the beginner due to my current running schedule at the time, I chose the intermediate.  Even though it was a bit more push on higher mileage runs, I wanted to make sure I was fully ready.  I also didn't want to back down on my running.   Since then I have ran my long runs on consecutive Sundays with an 8, 9, 10, 9, and 10 mile run.  Each time I run I keep getting faster.  I noticed the training schedule basically ramps up the mileage for two weeks and goes back down a mile or two o re-ramp up to the next longest distances.  I am scheduled for a 11 mile run followed by a 10, 11, 12 mile run before the big day.  I feel pretty good that I have done this much so far and I feel like I could probably run the Rock and Roll marathon in Virginia Beach this weekend.  I chose not to because A.  It's too damn hot to be running a half this early; B. My cousins and Aunt are running with me for the Crawling Crab; and C. I wanted to make sure i was prepared.

The last two weekends I have ran on general Booth to the Beach and ran on the boardwalk.  The boardwalk is a lot of fun to run during the summer because it's just so crazy.  It's very similar to running on it during a race because you have to dodge people all the time.  The last few weeks has been the East Coast Surfing Championship.  This Sunday it was packed.  Perfect waves for the competition.  Beautiful bodies playing volleyball and roaming the beaches even early in the morning.

I have been fighting some kind of foot injury.  During my long runs, I noticed a bone spur, sort of, sticking out and rubbing pretty good on the back outside of my foot.  I noticed last Monday after my long run that my foot was hurting.  It's crazy because i can put pressure on the ball of my foot and the front of my foot without it hurting and it doesn't really bother me too much when I run.  But it is sore when I wear my work shoes.  it feels like its more from putting pressure on the side of my foot.  I hope it's not broken o anything because my body has responded so good to the training.  I need to really keep an eye on it.  it does hurt when I try to cut on my left foot.  I need to do some research and figure out what it is.  No matter what, I will finish this race.  I have worked too damn hard not to.  I know I need to ice it everyday until it feels better.

Other then my running, Weight loss has been doing good.  I hit my 80 pound goal for the race.  So maybe I need to amp it to 90.  We shall see.

Hook

Some people know that I am a huge movie fan.  I have always been addicted to watching movies in the theater or at home.  Growing up my brother and I always had vivid imaginations.  If it wasn't building magical wolds with Legos, or watching cartoons, seeing Jurassic Park in the theater or what else, we also were thinking or imagining some magical place.  For my brother, books was always his thing.  I was way too active for reading a bunch of books until I got older (aka college).  But for me, I LOVED movies.  Some people might not know this but this blog was going to be for a short time a blog about movie reviews.  I am lucky enough my wife lets me sneak out sometimes to see one by myself (even with the our baby).  But watching movies was always something I purely enjoyed.  Even to this day, my brother and I talk about new movies and movies from our childhood.  One of our favorites we always joked about was, The wizard. But one movie in particular was one of both of our favorites.

It was Hook.  It was a sad week hearing about the death of Robin Williams.  I remember as a young kid watching re-runs of Mork and Mindy, Taxi, and Happy Days.  I loved Jumanji.  I mean who didn't.  I think my biggest hopes are that my daughter has the imagination that I had as a child.  It made things so wonderful and beautiful.  It also magically teaches you the good and bad in the world is different ways.  One thing I wish I had with Tim is that he had an imagination like I did.  His is more of just imagining baseball plays.  Which I love but we don't connect like m brother and I did. So anyways, back to Hook.

I remember when Hook came out.  It was amazing.  Steven Speilberg is a super genius and he did such a terrific job on this.  My brother's favorite composer, John Williams, was part of it too.  But the whole movie was just fantastic.  Robin Williams did such an amazing job being an adult version of Peter Pan.  Watching the movie, you just felt that could be you, all grown up, forgetting about the magical things in life.  Then you get whisked away to Neverland and you have to get your imagination back to save your kids.  I never wanted to be Peter Pan but I always wanted to be a lost boy.  I always wished Disney would of built a Neverland like the one in the movie so I could go visit and play just like you can pretend while watching the movie.  Hook is probabl one of my five most favorite movies.  It's one of the few movies I still own on DVD.  I also owned it on VHS.  I purchased it digitally this week so i can watch it with Avery when she is old enough.

Robin Williams was an amazing actor.  His imagination was something that the world couldn't even keep up with.  I can only imagine what it was like to be raised by him.  I can imagine some amazing couch tents, castle building, and other great adventures.  I will surely miss his incredible talent.  Thee will never be another Robin Williams nor will there ever be the talent that he was.  But we will always have his movies.  Hopefully, one day, I can show them to Avery and she can imagine a world just like mine except with her own funny ideas.  I can only hope that she laughs as hard as I did watching his jokes or is as amazed as I was as the moment Robin Williams flies into Neverland and how beautiful it looked on the television (I still purely enjoy the North Arrow in the water.  I am a planner and mapper by trade).  I hope that we someday have someone as amazing as he was to make Avery imagine and laugh.  because without those two things, we as humans wouldn't be so much fun.

So instead of thinking about how sad it is, I like to think about how amazing it is to be able to imagine with him how wonderful life is.  To the Peter Pans of the world, keep having an imagination. RUFIO!!!!

Achievement: Awesome

Sometimes I don't know what my headline should be.  I know what I am writing about but most the time I think it's about the same stuff; family, health, and exercise.  Well, anyways.

Another great week.  It is amazing how wonderful things can be when you have everything you dreamed of.  Our lives have definitely changed this past few months but we have settled in pretty good.  You just really need to be patient when you have a baby.  I don't know how my buddy did it with three young ones.  We have really settled in with Lori going back to work.  I have been enjoying the three hours I get with Avery while we wait for Lori to get home from work.  I think Avery enjoys it too.

lolololol

This week went well I guess.  Last weekend I got in my 9 mile run and yesterday I got in my first double digit run.  Felt great.  I really felt good running. I averaged around 11:41.  I only had two mile intervals where I went above my 12 minute mile goal.  I was pretty happy with that.  I got my run on late.  Avery slept in (clearly she didn't this morning).  But on the weekends, we just wake up with her.  Which is typically pretty early.  I was pretty dehydrated and hungry.  Clearly Orange Crushes and Sushi didn't help me on my run from the night before.  But overall, pretty happy. My body is handling the mileage well. Only 7 more weeks until my half marathon.

Weight Watchers has been doing great.  I kicked ass this weekend.  I lost 2.8. The Weight Watchers app even told me I was losing weight too fast.  Clearly it doesn't know that I am exercising more on the extreme side.  I was pretty happy.  I got my 75 pound anchor. Which is really important to me.  We were talking with our friends last night about our vacation last year and how much weight I loss. We were all blown away by pictures of me from last August (right before I started WW). I was shocked myself because until I really hit the 60 pound loss mark, I didn't really notice it that much.  But most of that is a mental thing.  Anyways, felt good.  On to the next steps.

Big Morning

Today I ran my long run.  I ran 9 miles.  I will be honest. It was tough.  But I guess that's why I am training so its not tough later.  I did pretty well.  I ran an average pace of 12:05.  Not bad.  At 5 miles I felt really good.  My legs were loose and my foot pain, shin splint, and other little kinks went away.  Mile six I started to go down hill.  You could tell from my splits that I was slowing down.  I could feel it too.  But it's okay.  I don't expect it to be easy.  On the positive side, I ran my longest run ever.  Very proud of that.  I do think I need to start going somewhere else to do my long run.  I think next week I am going to the boardwalk.

Yesterday I weighed in and lost 4.8 pounds.  I was pretty excited.  I had been struggling and only loosing a minimal amount.  To normal people,that's fine but I know I have been on the extreme side because of my running regiment.  So I lost another five pounds and I am less then one pound away from my next anchor, which would be the 75 pounds.  That's exciting.  Looking forward to getting that and making my next goal weight of 80 pounds.

Today is my best pal Ryan's birthday.  He is turning 5.  Looking forward to partying up.  Here's a picture of us rocking our onesies.