If you've ever thought of doing a marathon...

It's time.

To do one.

Now.


Today, I ran with a colleague of mine. Usually, I train alone so this was a bit different. It was a great run. We did 5 miles and talked the entire time.

One more video. God, I love YouTube...



It's not bragging if you can back it up. --Muhammad Ali

Woot!
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To donate to the Carolyn E. Miller Steps for Solace Fund, please click here. I am raising $25 thousand to provide comfort and solace to cancer patients seeking treatment.

73 miles in two weeks

So I think I've reached a new high in terms of mileage. The training regime I am following is Hal Higdon's Intermediate I program. The training is really kind of cool in terms of its setup. The idea is you run 5 days a week. Each week either is a progressively longer mileage week or it is a shorter mileage week.

Last week I ran 36 miles, this week I ran 37. Next week, I'll drop back to 31. The following week, I'll run 41 miles.

The idea is to give your body a rest during the training and have some rest weeks built in where you don't increase the weekly mileage. Last year during my training, I think the max I ran in one week was 37. And that was like once. This time, I'll be in the 40's for a while with a max at 44.

My body is adjusting well. I have little soreness and generally feel great. Of course, I'm in much better shape than last year too. Also, the added biking and swimming are definitely helping.

Today I ran 15 miles. Steph didn't get her long run is as she is visiting her sister. Next week is 4-5-4-7-11.

Woot!
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To donate to the Carolyn E. Miller Steps for Solace Fund, please click here. I am raising $25 thousand to provide comfort and solace to cancer patients seeking treatment.

Long runs rock!!!

So Steph and I went for our long runs yesterday. Steph did 8 and I did 14. Man, I love the long runs. I really do.

What's interesting is how I felt last year about this same time. I looked up my posts from last year and, wow, what a difference a year makes. I remember thinking then that I would never finish some of those long runs. Now, I am really digging them. I guess now that I know I can run them, they become more fun.

Whatever the reason, it felt great :)

This week is 4-7-4-7-15. I am traveling to College Park, Maryland for most of the week, so I'll be running around UMD's campus. I'm also going to try and sneak into their pool for a swim or two. I can pull off looking like a student, right?

Woot!

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To donate to the Carolyn E. Miller Steps for Solace Fund, please click here. I am raising $25 thousand to provide comfort and solace to cancer patients seeking treatment.

The Connoisseur of Spider Webs

I ran 7 miles this morning. I love early morning runs in good weather. It is so peaceful and calm. There is no one on the trail but me. It's great.

Today's run, however, was neither peaceful nor calm :)

Over the past few mornings, I've developed the habit of running into every spiderweb on the trail. And I don't mean just brushing by. I mean full-on, web-swallowing, spider-almost-biting-me, crashes. I don't know if you know this or not, but not all spiderwebs taste the same. In fact, I pick up some extra protein every once in a while. I mean, who needs breakfast. So long recovery drink. Spiderwebs provide all the nutrition I need in order to recover from those hard runs. Yeck!!!!!

Ohh, and as I recover from ingesting said webs, I tend to prance and jump around like an idiot. Because, I mean, who really likes to swallow spiders.

Which leads me to the next part of my story.......

As I was convulsing and high-stepping like a frightened little girl, I came upon some construction workers who decided this morning that they were going to pave a part of our trail. They thought I was out of my mind. In fact, I'm pretty sure they thought I was some deranged lunatic who happened to be dressed like a runner. You should have seen their faces. It was priceless. I waved and acted like nothing was wrong. Meanwhile, I could feel 8 tiny legs inching their way down the back of my throat. It's amazing what suffering a little embarrassment will make you do.

Tomorrow I run 14. I'm not sure how many Steph is doing. Next week is the same as this week except I up my long run to 15 miles (4-7-4-7-15) for a total of 37 miles.

Woot!!!

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To donate to the Carolyn E. Miller Steps for Solace Fund, please click here. I am raising $25 thousand to provide comfort and solace to cancer patients seeking treatment.

I'm on the WVU Hompage

Check out WVU's homepage. Click on Building Community near the top. Woohoo that's me!!!

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To donate to the Carolyn E. Miller Steps for Solace Fund, please click here. I am raising $25 thousand to provide comfort and solace to cancer patients seeking treatment.

Back to normal (except for the dead body)

Ok.

So I'm back.

Sorry for the lack of posting. Things should be back to normal now.

After a cross-country trip to LA and back last week, I'm finally at home once again. Of the more interesting things that happened during my trip was the fact that I saw a dead body.

Uhmm...yeah.

A dead body.

During one of my runs.

Yikes!!!

I went out for a 5 mile run soon after I arrived at the hotel last week. I was expecting typical LA stuff: loud music, weird hair, low-riders, etc. I've been to LA before so I kind of knew what to expect. Going out, that's exactly what I saw. Actually, it was refreshing. As you can imagine, in West Virginia, I don't get to see too much "culture".

Anyway, I did my 2.5 out and then turned around to come back the same route. About a mile from the hotel, I saw a bunch of LAPD cars with uniformed and plain-clothes officers milling about them. I slowed down as I came up on them as I really didn't have a way to cross the street. I had to run right beside the cop cars. As I did, I turned to my left and peered through the crowd of officers to see a dead guy lying on the side of the road.

Now, if you haven't picked up on it yet, I didn't see the body during my run out. That means that either the guy died between the time I ran by the spot he was found, or he was dropped off by someone. How freakin' spooky is that?

Now, can you top that? What's the weirdest thing you've seen while running, biking, or swiming?

Last week I had a rest week. I did 3-5-3-6-9. I ran 4 today and the rest of the week looks like 7-4-7-14. I also swam about a half mile.

Woot!

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To donate to the Carolyn E. Miller Steps for Solace Fund, please click here. I am raising $25 thousand to provide comfort and solace to cancer patients seeking treatment.

Trip after trip

Whew!!

Got back from Indianapolis on Thursday and what a great trip!!

For my runs while I was there, I ran around a canal that meanders through downtown. It's a nice little run...about 3-4 miles round trip. I also ran around the capitol. It was great.

Before I went to Indy, I did a radio interview on our local AM Station, WAJR, regarding the Steps for Solace Fund. You can find the audio here. The first 15 seconds or so are missing as they forgot to turn my mike on.

Steph and I did our long runs today. She has taken it easy this week and only ran today and Monday. Today, she did 6 and I did 12. Total I ran 30 miles this week (3-6-3-6-12). Next week, I drop back a little and then the following week I pass 35 miles.

The program I'm following really believes in taking appropriate rest weeks where you don't stop running but reduce your weekly mileage. So, next week I'll do 3-5-3-6-9 for a total of 26. Then the following week I'll do 4-7-4-7-14 for a total of 36. I can't wait. I forgot how much I really enjoy the long runs.

Next week, I'm headed to Burbank California for three days, so expect a light blogging week again. Sorry :)

Also, be sure to check out the 2008 Tour De France this week. It started today.

Woot!!

PS. That's our dog Winnie :) She helped with my long run today.

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To donate to the Carolyn E. Miller Steps for Solace Fund, please click here. I am raising $25 thousand to provide comfort and solace to cancer patients seeking treatment.