happy memorial day

This is a photo from last year's Indianapolis Marathon, but I love the photo of the American Flag - it was huge and the day was so beautiful...Happy Memorial Day everyone!

The weekend has been nice. On Saturday Steph and I had our nephew, Noah, for a few hours, so we took him to Fort Harrison State park for a picnic and to play on the playground. We even drove over to the horse stables to see the horses - we had a lot of fun. Too bad we didn't have more time...Sunday I ran. While it was pretty hot and humid I felt great! Just an easy 8 miles from home to the state park where I ran just a couple of hills and circled to the back and then back home. I was dripping when I got done, but it felt so good to get out and run...

running out of time

With the excitement of signing up for the marathon over and hotel reservations made, I have gotten back to finishing up the painting of my great room at home. I have spent three nights in a row painting, with one more to go to finish it up. I have been trying to get it finished before the Memorial Day weekend...I remember that it was much easier to paint when there was no furniture in the way...my running has been sporadic at best, but I am going to try to get out this evening for an easy 3-4 miles. I have finished my big project at work and the drawings are being printed as I type, so on to the next one...I have narrowed my training program down to Dave Kuehls from his book, "4 Months to a 4 Hour Marathon" Can you guess my goal time for this marathon? I do not have to start training officially until the end of June, but I am going to try to get my running back on a routine, with strength training being a big focus until then...

the next big run

I finally found my running spirit again. In the last few days there has been a lot of talk among my running friends about the next big run - The Chicago Marathon. Andy has been signed up for quite a few months, I on the other hand was waiting until after the Mini to see how I felt. All the talk (not to mention the news about registration hitting 30,000 participants already and it closing once it reaches 40,000) has piqued my excitement and I am going to get signed up tonight! I even felt like going out for a run last night, so I went over to the park for an easy 4 mile run. The weather was nice, even when it rained on me at the very end of the run it was fine - it reminded me of playing in the rain like I did as a kid. The next thing to do is get a training schedule together so I can get my long runs scheduled. I am looking at schedules by Hal Higdon, whom I used last year, Jeff Galloway and Dave Kuehls. I want to see which program will work best for me, eventhough I'll probably modify it to work for me. I have a few household chores to get finished up so I can focus on training...I have some drywall repair work that is almost done, all that is left is painting the walls. Next will be painting our fence and spreading mulch...after that just my weekly lawn mowings - which I find relaxing, almost zen-like, and always great for cross-training :)

running on empty

So much for a run this weekend...Honestly I am burned out both physically and spiritually. I actually was feeling like this almost a month ago and have never really recovered. I have been running without any real break since January of 2004. Normally after I run the Mini, I stop running or am injured for training too hard and have to stop running. After last year's high of finishing in under 2 hours and not being injured I knew it was the year for a marathon. So in October I ran that marathon - what a grueling but uplifting experience. Afterwards I was sort of in a funk, but thought I would come out of it once training for the Mini started. I think I placed such a burden on myself to run faster that I took the joy out of my running. Every run became a chance to run as fast as I could, which left me disappointed more times than I would like to admit. So, I have been on a sabbatical from running for just over a week now. I am not missing it like I usually do and this has me worried . I am taking this time to figure out some "new" things I can do to make running fun again. I think the first thing I will be doing is ditching my wonderful GPS that I got for Christmas. I focused too much on time and pace and not on just running and having fun when I wore it. I'll only where it for the purpose of calculating my distance on long runs or to time my speed work. Secondly, I am going to experiment with trail running. Fort Harrison State Park has some nice trails that I'd like to try. Finally, running with other people. I always thought of myself as a "loner", but I have realized that running with people makes the run more fun and gives you a reason to meet up and run. This last one is probably the toughest one to try to follow -my schedule is going to continue to be crazy at work this summer. One last thought is to have a goal. Okay, having fun is a goal, but I mean something like a PR or an event. No secret here - I am seriously contemplating running the Chicago Marathon. I have a few weeks before training will have to start, so there is time. I just need to get excited about running it. There is a movie coming out later this year about the 2005 Chicago Marathon - a documentary. I have a link to the movie titled, "Land of the Gods". It looks to be a great inspirational movie - just what I need right about now...

the perfect race

Mini Marathon #6...After what I thought was my best run last year (I finally broke the two hour mark) I ran a perfect race - or a near perfect race. One could not have asked for better weather - perfect. Started out at 47 degrees and sunny. I felt great the entire race, which was a miracle in itself as I hadn't had a really good run in the weeks leading up to the race. I went into the race with the attitude of having fun and not worrying about my pace or time. I ran it easy and felt great the entire race - I never slowed down - pretty much ran even splits - perfect. I have to give credit to my friend Brooke, whom I ran the first 10 - 11 miles with. We talked the entire time, cathcing up on stuff since we hadn't had a single training run together this year. It was great. The track didn't even seem daunting as it had in past years - perfect. Okay, maybe it wasn't perfect in all aspects, but it was damn close and for a guy like me and I am going to call it perfect. I think the photo speaks for itself - it is at the end of the race when I usually feel tired, but I am smiling... My euphoria is over already, but I have been working very hard at work the last few months and I am needing a break. I want to run, but have not run this week. I am going to try to make it out for a run this weekend just for fun - no expectations on pace or time. Maybe I'll have another "perfect" run...

up and running

I am trying this blogging thing out...thought it might be cool to post my thoughts...we'll see...