I'm Alive

"You know it's funny what a young man recollects? 'Cause I don't remember bein' born. I don't recall what I got for my first Christmas and I don't know when I went on my first outdoor picnic. But I do remember what Enda Johnson said to me my first day of cross country camp."

- Forrest Gump

"You can only do two of three things well. School, Party, and Run. Pick two."

I don't know where Enda picked up this timeless kernel of information, but time and time again in my life it has proven itself to be true. I haven't posted in a while, mainly because of the fact that I have been insanely busy. Even as I write that statement, I think to myself, "what a panzy". I have friends all over the US and the world that seem to be busier than I and still find the time to run. Well my friends, I am no Superman like you.

For the last month or so, running has been limited to 5 or 6 days per week of jogging 6-8 miles. While part of me was content with keeping up this semblance of fitness, no matter how pathetic it may sound to most of the people I coach, it wasn't made to last. The last two weeks, with looming finals, papers, and work deadlines, running has become an occasional break from sitting at a computer writing and editing HTML. So, while running might not be of particular interest at the moment, I encourage my faithful readers (and you must be faithful after not seeing a post for a good two months) to check out my new business project I've been working on in my spare time after the real 9-6 and school work.

I've partnered with the Baltimore Marathon to be the official Marathon Training Plan provider for the race. Baltimore is one of the top 10 biggest race weekends in the country, with it's half marathon and full marathon participation numbers topping 20,000 in 2009.

The new business model provides expert training plans to runners of all levels - beginner to Boston Qualifier. What makes our training unique compared to any other online training plan is individual access to your coach. With the ability to ask questions, read expert training tips, and connect with running groups, we offer a unique training program that makes training for a marathon an experience in itself. With us, "You've got people".

With the deadline for completion being December 13th (that's opening registration day), and my html skills rivaling that of any CS2 student, the crunch is on to get everything up and running smoothly.

If you would like to offer up some comments, suggestions, praise, or bugs - here are the website links.

Sign-up page: http://www.marathontrainingplans.net/

Members page (Will be password protected, so check it out soon): http://www.marathontrainingplans.net/baltimore/

Obviously, the design is to make the business scalable, so I can partner with other marathons around the country. I am excited about the potential and hope the work pays off.

Hopefully, after finals and this deadline, I will be able to get out the door more during December and put some good mileage on the legs. Until then, stay tuned faithful readers...

Early morning

Mon: 9/28/09
AM: 10 mile run (1:08:00)
Had to get up extra early this morning so I can hitch a ride to work with the vacuum in order to clean the glass out of my truck from the break in. Let's just say I wasn't pleased. However, the run was quite enjoyable. The temperature was crisp, yet I elected to run without a shirt. My legs felt a little beat up, probably from the pavement but my breathing felt much more normal today. A really pleasant run. Off to a 9 hour workday, 1.5hr drive to class, 2.5 hour class and a 1.5 hour drive home...Yeah, I have extra incentive to hate Monday's.

Sunday's are for Packers

Sun: 9/27/09
AM: 10 mile run (1:10:00)
Melanie and I lounged around a bit before we hit the streets for this jaunt. When I woke up this morning the sky was over cast and a light drizzle whispered amongst the trees. Correspondingly, I thought that we would be good waiting until the late morning to begin our run. False. It was humid and hot when we ventured towards Herring Run park and we paid the price for our laziness. I felt like crap and the pedestrian 7 min miles left me out of breath. At one point a car rolled by and yelled "Nice shorts fa*". I became irritated and surged after the car in hot pursuit. About 17.5 seconds later I became amazingly short of breath and gave up my chase; wheezing at the intersection. I am pathetic.

I like pancakes

Sat: 9/26/09
AM: 8 mile run (1::01:05)
Melanie and I got out the door a little later this morning after a pancake breakfast and me creating some delicious concoctions in the crock pot for later tonight. God do we sound domesticated. The run was nice as the air was cool and there was the slight presence of a drizzle. Again we took the Hopkins trail to the "new" hopkins trail to keep on the softer surface. Wanna know what we did after running? We went to the grocery store! Awesome, right?

Running is my mode of transportation

Fri: 9/25/09
AM: 3 mile run (21:00)
With my truck safely parked in the garage at work -with no window - I am forced to find other modes of transportation. I decided to pack the necessities in small spike bag and jog to work. Because Melanie scolded me, I included a fresh shirt so my co-workers would not think I had engaged in nefarious activities the previous night and strolled in wearing the same duds. The run was nice but way too short.

PM: 8 mile run (1:00:00)
Got off work a little early this afternoon and packed up my essentials and ran back home to pick up Melanie. We took the Hopkins trail to the "new" Hopkins trail, great run names - I know. It was cooler this evening and we didn't have any pressing plans other than to find some Gyro's for dinner so it was a relaxing run.

It's been a long time since I left you, without a dope beat to step to

So, it seems I have taken a hiatus from blogging my runs. Part of the long layoff was due to a drastic increase in my daily time commitments - starting school and new job. The second part had to do with me being stupid and injuring myself. On Thursday, September 9 I started to run a 3x3 mile workout but after 1.5 miles I felt a slight twinge in my left calf. Deciding to err on the side of caution, I stopped the workout and cooled down easily. The calf wasn't too bad during the day and decided to run an easy 10 miles in the rain on Friday. While the calf didn't hurt per say, it did feel a little "off". It's a tough feeling to describe and I can only say that it is an innate feeling I have developed over the years. This is where things get interesting, or stupid some might say. On Saturday, an acquaintance in Baltimore recruited me to run a 5k on the track to help add some depth to his race. I obliged, knowing that if I wanted to stick to the plan and run the Parks Half on Sunday, my calf needed to withstand a 5k. Well, I got 1200 meters in and wrenched things mighty good.

I wisely took Sunday and Monday off and when Tuesday rolled around the calf was feeling good. I got 20 mins out and started experiencing some slight tightness so I decided to turn around and be safe. The idea was to add on at the end if things didn't get worst. Well, 5 mins later the calf knotted up again and I was left to walk/jog the rest of the way back to the house. Luckily, the week and weekend were busy and taking the time off to recover wasn't as difficult as it otherwise might have been. Jilane did a great job of chronicling Ben's birthday weekend and Melanie and I added on to the fun fest with a somewhat "select audience" MGMT concert.

I started back running on Tuesday with an easy 6 and 6 double. While it didn't feel that long, a week off really zapped any semblance of fitness I had built up in the last few weeks. There is nothing to be done now but sack up and start over. Wednesday was one 7 miler. Thursday was one 7 mile because my car was broken into and the passenger side window shattered - pretty pissed about that one.

Anyway, time to move on and get back to running and blogging!

Finally, a long run

Tue: 9/8/09
AM: 15 mile run (1:36:00)
This was a super hilly route that I put together for the marathon training group. I added on an extra loop around Lake Montebello, which is 1.36 miles, to make 15. Overall, I think I felt ok. It's tough to maintain pace when things are so hilly, but the average pace came out to 6:24's. I got pretty tired around the 70 minute mark. My hip flexor tightened up the last few miles which made it tough to pick up the pace when things came back downhill. Good effort. Lifting session after.\

PM: 7 mile run (NT)
Was working with a client this evening who had 3x2 miles on his schedule so jumped in for the warm-up and paced him through the first 2.5 sets. Amazing how easy 6:10-20 pace on the track is. Calves were a little tight but was surprisingly chipper after some stretching. Solid mileage day.