4th of July - Week four in the books

It is the 4th of July in 2010. I love the 4th. I love this country and all it stands for, we have problems but what country doesn't?

I had a pretty good week. I started off by saying goodbye to David and Chandler on Sunday afternoon. They went off to boy scout camp and left me alone for the week. I thought it sounded great, a whole week to myself. After the first night of sleeping alone I was ready for them to come home. The house was so quiet and it is hard to cook for one.

Monday it was still warm but my five miles went well. I did all my training runs this week in and around my neighborhood and I really enjoy running there. Tuesday it started cooling off and Tuesday and Wednesday were great runs. On Tuesday as I was running I found about 8 silly bandz for Chandler. Wednesday my legs were feeling a little fatigued and I intended to do an easy 11 minute per mile pace but when I got done I had done a 10:28. Didn't even feel like I was going that fast. I did try to walk during my walk time at a faster pace so I am sure that helped me improve my time. I am feeling really good that I can at least equal Oprah's time if I keep training this good. Thursday there was 4 miles on the schedule. My leg's were still feeling fatigued and I knew I was doing th 10k Saturday so I was trying to decide if I wanted to take the night off to rest up or go on when I realized the yard probably should be mowed, it wasn't bad but it would be Tuesday before David or Chandler could do it, so I mowed the yard for my exercise. We have an old push mower so it was a good workout.

Friday night I went to Shepherdsville for the closing of boy scout camp and to bring David and Chandler home. I had to drive in Louisville rush hour traffic to get there and that is NOT fun. By the time I got there my nerves were frazzled, I don't know how people do that every day. The camp is a really beautiful place and it seemed like they both really enjoyed themselves. By the time we got home and I got in bed it was midnight and I had a 5:30 wake up time for the 10k. But it was worth it, I think Chandler appreciated that I came.

Satuday morning was the Bluegrass 10,000 in Lexington. My running buddy Cherri and I had not yet managed to do a race together. After all the training we went through together for the half we couldn't get together in the crowd and ended up running seperately. We did the Krispy Kreme challenge but I was trying for a really good time and we didn't run that one together. For the Bluegrass I was determined to do it with her. She kept encouraging me to go on ahead and leave her behind but I had decided I was not going to worry about my time or pace I was just going to have fun. I had heard from several of the striders that this was a fun race and they were right. The race starts in downtown and winds around town for a couple of miles before heading out Richmond Rd to the Shriners hospital where we turned around and came back downtown to finish. The course was beautiful and the crowd support was tremendous. We took our time and really enjoyed it. I was surprised how many people I saw that I knew. There was two men dressed as Buzz Lightyear and Woody from Toy Story, there were a couple of Uncle Sams and a fireman were some of the costumes I saw. Towards the end of the race there was a priest blessing us as we ran by. This was absolutely, hands down, my favorite race ever and helped calm my nerves about the marathon some.

Sunday I spent the day at the 4th of July celebration at Mammoth Cave which was a really fun time. Week four is done and now I start week 5.

Till next week

C

I am going to start a running total of my finds while running:

wrench

cordless drill

hubcap

8 silly bandz

a total of 41 cents

Week Three

Ok for those of you who I haven't told this my goal in the marathon is to beat Oprah's time. Many of you may remember that in 1994 for her 40th birthday she did the Marine Marathon in 4 hrs 29 minutes and 20 seconds so I would like to beat that time.

Week three is done and in the running logs. It was a pretty good week although the first of it was really hot. My running buddy, Cherri and I signed up for the Bluegrass 10000 this week. From everything we have been told this is a really fun race that starts in downtown and goes out Richmond Rd(a really beautiful part of Lexington with wonderful old homes and big shade trees). Last year I think there was over 3.000 people who participated.

On Monday when I went to start my run my running watch, a Garmin, history was full so I had to delete some information before I could even begin but then I went out and had a pretty good 5 miles. About mile 2 1/2 I had a real funny sensation, wondering if I was experiencing a runners high. I also experimented on this run with taking some powerade in one of my bottles to drink. It worked out pretty well so on 5 miles or longer I am taking one bottle of powerade and one of water.

Tuesday afternoon I went and checked in at the Optifast clinic. I try to go about once a month as a way to keep me honest. I was down a pound from my last visit and my body fat % was 14.1%. I started at over 54% bodyfat so I am really proud of that reduction. Also a pretty neat moment was when the blood pressure cuff was to big for my arm and they couldn't take my blood pressure. David and Chandler wanted to go to the gym that night for a workout so I went with them and did my 4 miles on the track. 7 1/2 laps equals a mile and 4 miles or 30 laps is about the max I want to go around and around and around. It did feel nice though that it was air conditioned but I don't want to do many of those as the marathon isn't going to be air conditioned. While I was going around and around I was remembering when I first started running on the track. At first I would only run on the sections where I couldn't be seen by anybody, I was embarrassed for anyone to see that fat body flopping around. Eventually I did get to where I would run where other's could see me but I always did a run/walk. I had a real mental problem that I couldn't run one full lap on the track. Tuesday night not only did I run where other's could see me but I did one full mile on the track, not one lap but 7 1/2 laps. Remembering how I used to think I couldn't do one full lap it really makes me happy to know I can now do a whole mile.

Wednesday night you may have seen my posting on facebook, note to self scout a new route before running it. I had 6 miles on the schedule and I don't have a good 6 mile route laid out so I got on gmaps and laid out a route, up through town, through the college and on some different roads in the neighborhood than I usually run. I thought I knew what the roads were like, boy did I forget some hills. It was a good run and I need to do some hills because there is a pretty good hill on the marathon course but man were my legs sore and tired when I got done and it was HOT. I literally wrung water out of my pony tail when I was done.

Because my legs were sore I had thought I would take Thursday off but it turned cooler here and I hated to waste a cool night so I got out and did 4 miles in the neighborhood. I ended up really enjoying it and setting a good time.


Friday was a rest day so I had a date with my two favorite fellas and we went and saw Toy Story 3. Nice clean family movie, we all really enjoyed it.

Saturday it was up early, 4:30 am to meet Cherri at 6 at John's Run and Walk shop for a Saturday run. 12 miles on the schedule for this morning. Cherri did a little over 7 with me before she turned around and headed back and I finished up the rest by myself. It's good to run with her because she is better at pacing than I am. I get started and get to going and before I know it I am going way faster than I should so she really helps keep me on a decent pace. (She jokes that she is going to tie a rope around my waist so she can pull me back to her when I get to going to fast). I rewarded myself every mile with two peanut m&m's, for energy and to help mark the miles. I was really worried about doing another 12 miler but I did fine. We ran in a really pretty neighborhood with lots of big shade trees and by starting at 6am we missed the heat of the day so we were both pretty proud of ourselves. She hadn't done that long of a run in awhile and I finished up my 31 miles for the week. I told her we are now ready to rock out the 10,000. My leg is feeling really good. I have been getting up every morning and doing 10-12 minutes on my stationary bike and doing the stretches the Dr gave me and I had no pain at all this morning, yahoo!!!!

See you next week.