Run 11/29/2008 3.11 mi@29:11

This was a short easy run the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Piney Flats, TN. There were several large hills on this route and it was cold, but it was a nice run. Lots of country side and barking dogs, but none chased me, so that was OK!

Up & At 'Em Turkey Trot 5K (Johnson City, TN)

After driving Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning up to the Johnson City, TN area, I went into this race on Thanksgiving morning with no expectations. On top of the driving, the last time that I ran was Sunday at the Lighfest 5K, the race time temperature was 25 degrees, the race location was at about 1700 feet elevation, the course was full of hills, and I slept the night before with my 9 year old's knees and elbows in my back (we shared a bed at my in-laws house)! Plenty of excuses for a bad time.

When I picked up my race packet, they said they were expecting 3000 people for the race. In the end they about 2200 register and 1725 or so finish. This was the biggest race that I have run in so far, but somehow I ended up starting the race at about the same spot I usually do - not at the front, but not too far back either. When the race started, the front group went out really fast! By the time I looked at my watch we had gone about a half mile and at a 6:43 pace! I knew that was way too fast, so I backed off a little. I ended up doing the first mile in 7:22, which was pretty good, but I couldn't hold that pace. The next mile was 25 seconds slower and the third mile I just ran out of gas. People were passing me left and right (literally), but I couldn't do anything about it. I pretty much coasted over the finish line and I recovered very quickly, which means I could have gone faster. The race finished inside Steve Spurrier Field and everyone received a medal. I finished at 24:34, which wasn't my best 5K time, but it wasn't my worst either, and given all of the variables I encountered, I'm pleased with my time.

Here is a link to the official results.

And here is the info from my watch. The watch is consistently reporting that the courses are longer than 5K. I'm sure the courses are measured accurately, so it looks like the watch is off. The time was the same as the official time (within 1 second), so at least it has that going for it.

Lightfest 5K (Melbourne, FL)

Another 5K, another personal record! This time my watch had me at 22:58, but the official time was more like 23:15. For the second race in a row my watch has me completing the 5K quite a bit before the official finish line. I tried to start the watch as I crossed the starting line (since I have to start back in the pack a little ways), so it shouldn't be that far off. I'll have to do some research to see what I can find. Either time I use, it was better than the last 5K that I ran in October, so I am happy. At the October race I thought I had a little more in my tank. For this race I didn't feel the same way, I gave it pretty much all I had. Improvements from here might come a little harder, but I'm going to keep plugging away.

UPDATE: The race results are in and I finished at 23:18, good enough for 3rd in my age group! I didn't stick around for the whole trophy presentation, but I guess I should have. Actually, both times I won a trophy this year I missed the presentation. Looking at the results I finished 81st overall out of 469 finishers and 62nd out of the males.

Here is the link to the results: http://www.runningzone.com/results.html?id=519

I forgot to hit the stop button on my watch at the finish line, so this entry runs past the end of the race.

Run 11/22/2008 2.55 mi@22:33

Well the cold weather is still here and it is really windy this morning. Going over the causeway the first time was more difficult than usual since we were running straight into the wind. I wanted to take it easy today since I have a race tomorrow night, so I cut the distance down to about 2.5 miles. Coming back over the causeway with the wind was much easier, and with the bright sunshine I actually felt warm. The group enjoyed a "Box O Joe" from Dunkin Donuts after we finished. Cedric was there taking pictures, so hopefully I can get a few of them to post.

UPDATE: Here are some pictures from this morning:


The group that battled the weather and showed up (minus Cedric since he was taking the picture)!


Going up the causeway the first time, straight into the wind. Motionbased shows that the winds were averaging 14 miles an hour at that time.


Just after the turning point.

Circle of Life 5K

I just snagged this off of the Disney Sports website. It is the route we will be running for the Circle of Life 5K in January 2009. Looks like we start in the parking lot, and then wind our way through Animal Kingdom before finishing back in the parking lot. I'm not sure how fast the course is going to be, since the paths through the park might be kind of tight.

Run 11/20/2008 2.17 mi@18:28

Still cold outside (I can't wait for Spring!) and I'm a little tired/sickly/worn out from a long week (not just running, but work and life in general), so tonight was a short run. Besides, I'm running the causeway on Saturday morning and I'll be running in the Lighfest 5K on Sunday evening, so this was enough. Hopefully I'll feel better for the weekend.

Run 11/18/2008 5.29 mi@46:38

Boy was it chilly tonight. It is about 52 degrees with a steady wind coming straight out of the north. On my way out I was mostly running south, so the wind was at my back and all was good. At the turning point (2.6 miles or so) I had to run straight into the wind. This not only made it harder to run, but it was darn cold too! I was glad I put on that old hat and a pair of gardening gloves as I headed out the door. I guess I need to stock up on a few cold weather items for the winter. My knees are a little sore after the run, but my foot feels good, so I guess I'm even. We'll see how I feel in the morning.

Run 11/16/2008 4.19 mi@36:23

After taking three days off to go to the beach, play disc golf, go kayaking, and play Tiger Woods 09 on the Wii with an old friend, it was time for a run. I set out to do 6 miles this evening, but I didn't wear the right kind of shirt, so I got cold after I soaked my shirt from sweating. It is chilly here this evening, and I wanted to wear long sleeves, but I don't have a wicking long sleeve shirt. So I wore cotton and paid for it. I made it a little over 4 miles before I called it a night. I'll try again to get a long run in early this week. Next Sunday is the Lightfest 5K, so I'll try to take it easy toward the end of the week. Here is the link to the run tonight.

Run 11/12/2008 4.0 mi@35:56

Tonight was easy run night. 4 miles at 9 min/mile pace was the easiest I have run in a while. My right foot is bothering me a little bit right behind the heal and running slow seems to make me land harder on it. I have read this is common and the condition is called plantar fasciitis. I need to read more about how I should treat the problem, but I plan on taking the next couple of days off to rest it. The next run should be Saturday over the causeway. Until then, here are the details for tonights run.

Run 11/11/2008 3.75 mi@33:03

The summary doesn't tell the whole story about the run tonight. This run include 4 - 1/4 mile intervals at faster than normal pace. I didn't set the watch up correctly to save the individual interval times, but the run went like this:

1 mile warmup
1/4 mile fast pace followed by 1/4 mile jog
repeat 3 more times
finish up with 3/4 mile cool down

Intervals are not a whole lot of fun, but they are like strength training for runners. Doing this type of run regularly will help me learn how to run faster during races (hopefully). We did do quite a few interval days during the Set Goals Not Limits running camp this past summer, and my race times did improve, so I have to think that it works.

Run 11/9/2008 4.26 mi@36:46

A friend and I took our sons to the skate board park this morning, but instead of sitting around and chit chatting like we normally do, we decided to go for a run. We really didn't have a good plan for where we should run, so we just ran around the immediate area around the park. The scenery wasn't that nice, but we had a good run.

Run 11/8/2008 4.66 mi@38:57

This was my first causeway run in a few weeks and we had a good group show up today. I'm hoping as the temperatures continue to drop more people will participate. I went out much faster than I usually do, and made it to the beach running pretty strong. After turning around I kept up the pace until about 5K and then I backed off a bit. I have lots to do today around the house, and if I had kept up that pace I would have been useless the rest of the day. It is really pretty here today, so outside is the place to be!

Post Election Observations

The Republicans still don't get it! All I hear and read from the true right wing partisans is that they think they lost the election because they didn't attack enough! They feel they needed more talk of Democratic Socialism, more Joe the Plumber, more "Drill Baby Drill", etc. It wasn't the lack of specifics on the issues, it wasn't the choice of Sarah Palin for VP candidate (honestly, what were they thinking?), it wasn't the lack of a clear message to the American people, it wasn't the constant reminder that the Republicans focus their energy on the wealthy among us. If this is the mentality of the Republican party, it is my opinion that we will see Democrats in power for a while.

It seems obvious to me that both of the parties should be pandering to the middle, not the far right or far left. There are many among us that are one issue voters and they will almost always vote with the party that supports their position. Why spend time and political capital on this group? I understand you have to keep the bases of the parties engaged, but why is it that the issues alone can't keep the Republican base energized? There are many more among us, I believe, that are concerned with the bigger picture. It is my observation that these people fall somewhere in the middle. Maybe they lean a little left or right, but they hang around in that gray area between the hard core Democrats and Republicans. The more of these people that I talk to, the more I hear how turned off they are by the mud slinging and hate that always seems to rear it's ugly head in a Presidential campaign. We need calm, determined, and focused leadership at the top and in this election the Democrats and Barack Obama brought these attributes to the table.

Only time will tell if the Republicans can find someone like this that the masses can rally behind. If they think this person is Sarah Palin in 2012, they are sadly mistaken. We need problem solvers and consensus builders in the White House, not idealogues that divide the country. And they need to turn their attention to the 95% of people that don't make $250,000 a year! Corporations don't vote and there aren't enough people making that kind of money to elect a President on their own. I still can't figure out why hard core Republicans are so protective of the rich and how much they pay in taxes. The money has to come from somewhere and if the people that are most able to pay a little bit more don't, then it comes out of the pockets of the people that can least afford it.

As a long time Republican voter, I was embarrassed by the Republican effort and strategy (or lack thereof) in this election. It will be interesting to see if the party clings to these scorched earth tactics or changes to be more moderate and inclusive.

Run 11/7/2008 3.34mi@28:45

After a couple of days off, I hit the pavement for a run this morning. I felt realllllly slow, so I just took it easy. My overall pace turned out to be 8:36/mile which is about what I run when I don't feel realllllly slow! I did a little research, and it looks like I am running my easy runs too fast. I used an online pace calculator and it says I should be doing my easy runs at a 9:24/mile pace. That just seems really slow, but it wasn't too long ago that 10:00/mile was all I could maintain for 3 miles. I guess I'm getting stronger, but I do want to start mixing in more interval and tempo run training. It will be interesting to see how low I can get my 5K time over the next 6 months or so. It is cooler here in Central Florida, so in theory my times should continue to get better. I just have to take it easy enough to avoid injury. I don't want to sit on the sidelines and lose everything that I have gained this year.

Anyway, here are the details on this mornings run:

Run 11/4/2008 3.15 mi@27:07

Run 11/2/2008 5.4mi@47:25