Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Mornings?

Hello Everybody! (sung like Charlie on Lost)

Well, today I started doing the one thing that I NEVER thought I would do. I woke up early and ran BEFORE work. I got up a little after 5:30am and went out and completed a 5.5 mile run. I must say that it was much better then I figured it would be. I even had to work until 7pm tonight (2 hours later then normal) and still do not feel exhausted!

I decided to try morning runs for a few different reasons.

1) It is way to hot in the afternoon now as lately when I get home from work the heat index has been around 105! And that just makes for miserable running at a SLOW pace. This morning it was still very humid out, but it was nice because the temperature was only about 75.

2) It rarely rains here in the morning hours but feels like it is always raining in the afternoon with thunderstorms.

3) Wakes me up in the morning allowing me to be more energetic at work and not dragging in rubbing my eyes as I enter the office

4) It allows me to concentrate on my work. When I run after work I feel like I spend half of my day there thinking about my run for the day, how far I will run, mapping out a course for my run, and other various things that prevent me from concentrating on and competing my work.

5) Allows me more time after work to get things done around the house and spend time with my 2 boys other then just going out running.

6) Less traffic on the road making my runs more safe.

I am sure that there are more reason that I have just failed to realize or am not thinking of at this time, but I feel that this list is a plenty big enough reason to start trying it out.

Day 1 was a success for me, now let's just see how the rest of the week goes

Also, one other thing which could be interesting in the future is that my brother in-law said that he wants to start running. He just went out and got some running shoes, now I will do my best to hold him to it. I will gladly help him out and try to bring yet another new runner into the Run Net Community. So I now say in hopes that I don't get sued for copyright infringement (LOL Dan) ERIC, GO RUN!!


Til next time

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Dreams, Festivals, and Blisters

Hello Once again!

It is I, the Crazy Runner, once again with a new blog post to keep everyone updated on myself.

Now that I am getting closer to 30, I have finally decided on what I want as my long term career goal. With the life of a professional athlete not seeming like it could happen, I have decided that I would like to eventually open up my very own running store right here in Ocala, FL. Running stores are great and are the true backbone of any running community. I think this would be a great thing that I would love to do AND there currently are ZERO running stores in Ocala at the moment (unless you count major sporting chains like Dick's or Sports Authority). There is obviously a lot of work to be put into starting a business but, that is why it is a LONG term goal. I obviously would need some financial backing or any small business grants would be super. If anyone has any ideas for the store OR helpful suggestions on getting a business started I would LOVE any advise that anyone could offer to help me out in any way at all.

So last week, I went out on a nice 7 mile run for my first run in like 10 days. This proved to be a mistake. Not the run itself, but the fact that I decided to wear my custom ortotics on this run. You see, all the prior running I had done in them so far was on my treadmill, and well, I quickly learned that running the roads is a lot harder on my feet then the treadmill is. After this run, I realized that I had gotten a nice blister on each foot right on the side of the foot at the arch. This did not feel pleasant at all. Plus I started to get a little bit of runner's toe again as my nail was killing me on one of my toes on my left foot. Well, tons of band-aids and a little rest later I have been back out running again. I will say that I have not worn the orthotics for running in since then (I am wearing them for daily use though). I will soon once again venture out onto the roads with them on some much shorter runs and see if the results are any better OR if I need to take them in and have something done with them so that they do not kill me LOL

Before ending this post, I would like to either remind or inform everybody (depending on who you are) to go sign up for the 2009 World Wide Festival of Races. Here you can sign up to run in the Worldwide Half Marathon, the Zen Run 10K, or the Kick the Couch 5K. These races are absolutely free for everyone. It actually is a virtual race that anyone can do on their own course in their neighborhood, or they can run an actual race and register that time for the event. The WWFOR will take place on the weekend of October 10-11 (or within a week if doing a scheduled race-just send an email to the director of WWFOR and make sure it is OK) and I strongly recommend everybody go out and register. This is the original virtual race (Nike did copy them with their virtual 10K race) and currently has 355 entrants from 24 different countries signed up for it. I myself will be running in the Jacksonville Marine Corps Half Marathon on October 3rd in Jacksonville, FL to obtain my time for the World Wide Half.

Again, I strongly recommend everyone both go sign up and let others know about this event.

If anyone has any advice or comments I would love to hear from everyone.


Til Next Time

Thursday, June 4, 2009

I'm Ba-ack!

Hello once again everyone!


Wow, it sure has been a while since I posted anything new to my blog (partially because my running has been pretty non-existent as of late).

Well, yesterday was my first day of running in over a week, as the last time I ran was on Sunday the 24th. Man, I sure have been a slacker lately. I think it really hurt my running with the combo of my headphones broke and all the non stop rain we got here for like 4-5 days straight (and I got sick of only running on the dreadmill). But now, the weather is clearing up, and I got my new headphones in the mail and I love them. I got the Sennheiser PMX-70's which sell at Target for $50 and I got them on Amazon for only $25 with free shipping!!

Yesterday's run was an interesting run, as it was actually 4 different runs all done consecutively with no breaks in between. First I went out for my normal run and got back to the house after about 4.5 miles. Then (after listening to Phedippidations episode 188 talk all about running with dogs), I felt like taking one of my dogs out for a short 1/2 mile run. Well, she was running so good and fast that the 0.5 mile run turned into a 1.1 mile run. Upon returning home with her, I realized my other two dogs were extremely JEALOUS. So I took each of them out on separate runs (not as long - because they do not run as well as the other) totaling my 3 dog runs at 2 miles. So for the day I did a total of 6.53 miles in a time of 64 minutes.

Overall, the run felt good, and I felt great to once again hit the road. The worst part of the run is that now both of my feet obtained blisters on the inside of the foot right at the arch. I am not sure if this is due to the fact of running 6.5 miles after not running for a good 9-10 days , my new custom orthotics rubbing my feet badly, or both. Hopefully it is the first, but we shall see from future runs how my feet feel. Right now they have band-aids on them and feel fine.

Due to my lack of running, I did decide to skip the 5K race this past Saturday as I truly did not feel best prepared to run the race and did not feel like spending $20 on a race I was not prepared for.

I also have spent the past couple days catching up on my running podcasts and was sad to find out that one of my favorites in Trilogy Running appears to be have came to an end. I hope this is not true and they do continue they show as it is great listening to Shawn and Jason as their podcast is different then all of the others out there as they humor is great and they do push the envelope. This just makes their podcast even better! I will not get into the details of their leaving, but hopefully they will return.

So, the month of May ended up being a pretty bad month for me in running as I only totalled 68.3 miles (a good 45 miles less then April) bringing my year to date total up to 447.7 through 5 months. This puts me on pace to finish the year with 1,074 miles and surpassing my goal of 1,000 for 2009. I expect June to be a much better month and to once again get back to how March and April were and pass over 100 miles for the month.

I was going to go on about what I decided that I want to do for my future long term dream goal, but this blog entry is getting a little long so I will leave that for my next entry (which will not take a month to put out like this one did). How is that for suspense - LOL

Til Next Time