The Slow Man Runneth

Two Posts in one day.....is Hell freezing over ???

2009-09-10T16:26:00.003-04:00

Did a nice lil 5 miler at lunch.....which is good seeing how I didn't have a running partner today.
And if you know me......I need motivation, and having a partner is usually all it takes to get me out there.....peer pressure is a b!&@# !!!

I set out to try a new twist on the route I usually run. I was going to turn this into a loop run today, down at the Riverwalk. When I got to Central City Park, I had gone 2 miles. So I turned around and headed back to the starting point......knowing full well that this was going to be a 4 mile day......well at about mile number 3.75, I got greedy and figured what was one more mile.

So I turned around at the end and backtracked twice more at the half mile point ( from the start ) to give me another mile. So I ended up with a nice number........5.............!!!

It was nice down there.......wasn't too humid or hot.......and running alone wasn't as bad as I thought.

Gonna try and get some swim laps in after work today.......Planning on doing the Vidalia Sprint Tri. next Saturday.

My next post I'll try and recap the Labor Day Road Race........( that was my Goal race for the year )

Yayyy I finally made a new post !!!

2009-09-10T13:21:00.002-04:00

Wow I have been slack as heck....last post was in May.

Well this is for Kat........she gets on to me every time she sees me about not posting.

I should have been posting as there has been a lot going on.

I have stayed true to my word and have been running consistently.....amazingly consistent.
I have went from running 6 miles a year ( 3 miles at the bi-annual SWAT requals ), to 84 miles for the month of August.

My mileage has creeped up by having good running partners and doing my daily run at work during my lunch hour.

Here is the breakdown of my monthly mileage from the beginning of the year.
Jan: 24 miles ( included 1/2 marathon )
Feb: 14 miles
March: 09 miles
April: 18 miles
May:35 miles
June: 53 miles
July: 77 miles
August: 84 miles

Can you tell when I started running at lunchtime ( May ).

I think it's being able to get a run in almost every day of the week that has helped out so much,
plus the fact that most of the lunchtime runs are usually in the 5-6 mile range.....sure makes those numbers add up...................

Well it's time for my lunch time run...........gotta stay consistent......with running and blogging.

I promise Kat I will be as consistent with my blogging as I am my running.....if I'm not you can get Chuck to nag me.......you know how I love that.

My next blog will tell ya'll about my speed......has my pace quickened with all these base miles.......hhhhmmmmm............stay tuned !!!!

I have a running Coach !!!

2009-05-22T10:30:00.003-04:00

Yep I have joined the P.O.D. group ( Pain Of Discipline ).

I have enlisted Sam as a running coach. He is a well of knowledge when it comes to running, and I have finally gotten smart and started taking advantage of this like so many others.

One of the biggest advantages of having Sam as a running coach is not only the knowledge he has, but the fact I have to answer to someone now when it comes to my running. He is very strict when it comes to being consistent with your running. He is very serious about when he says " try to run at least every other day......no excuses". And I think that's what I needed when it comes to my running. Someone standing over my shoulder making sure I'm doing what I am supposed to be doing.

But Sam is awesome because he is so positive about everyone he helps. He doesn't take any excuses but he is also there to motivate you and keep you going.

There's a lot to having a running program though. It goes like this.

There are four distinct phases to this running program.
Phase I is a base building phase, where Sam has me starting all over with my running, starting with the consistency needed for this program ( running every other day ). He has me running a verrrrryyyyy slow pace. It takes discipline to run this slow. But it's all about heart rate and minutes of running, not mileage ( Phase I remember ). I'm starting to feel better about my running already. The consistency is what I needed anyway to make my running better. That slow pace he started me at has already gotten a little faster ( with my heart rate staying the same ) and that's the whole madness behind the science.

Phase I usually lasts a month, dependant on your ability level and pace. Each phase is a little harder than the previous........Yeahhhh !!!

So let's see how this goes.....it's either gonna kill me or make me stronger....woo hoo !!!

Where have I been ???

2009-05-05T10:13:00.002-04:00

I have been slack when it comes to blogging. I have turned into the kind of Blogger that I don't care for. A blogger that forgets to post or gets too busy to post.

OK so now I am making a commitment to follow through with my blogging as well as my running.

I have been running, just not as much as I have wanted or needed to do. It has been incredibly busy at work and at home.

I have been able to usually get to the track workouts as well as doing some swim training. I still have the goal of doing some triathlons, hence the swim training.

The biggest news in my running future is the decision to get smart and join in with the crowd utilizing Sam as a running coach.

Sam has graciously offered his assistance, free of charge, his help as a running coach to anyone willing to put forth the effort of training under his guidance. He has learned a lot in his career as a runner and he is the type of person who is not selfish and wants to keep all this valuable knowledge to himself. He gives back to the running community by helping others accomplish their goals. Sam is a great role model, not only as a runner, but as a family man, friend, and person. Not everyone would donate so much of their valuable time to help soooo many people. For that I want to say thank you !!!

Now for the hard part............to get my butt out there and do all these awesome workouts Sam has in store for me.........................faster times.......better shape..............leaner body...........here I come !!!!!!!!!!

Finding the Silver Lining...........

2009-03-12T21:33:00.005-04:00

Well I haven't posted lately cause my running has been non-existent since the Al Toll Masters Race, work has been crazy and I have been trying to get Maddie as much as I can.

But I was able to get some cross training done today.

I have been working on building a Tri bike for the past 12 months. Well I finally got to ride it some today. This was actually a shakedown ride to work any kinks that may have been hanging around. I wanted to do this shake down ride cause I am planning a long ride Sunday, maybe 40-60 miles worth and I thought this ride might help work out any mechanical issues I might have.

Well guess what......there were plenty.

First off as I was getting it all together at the apartment to head out I noticed the bike shop didn't attach the magnet for the computer so I headed to the Bike Store to get one put on. Josh was cool, he found one on the mechanic tray and slapped it on quick enough, plus I did not have a water bottle cage on the frame yet, so I slapped one of those on too, and then I was off to meet at the group ride meeting location.

Well by the time all this transpired everybody had left the parking lot and headed on their ride.....no big deal I knew I was past time to be there, well thennn I realized I forgot my socks.....so I decide to go sock less.....no big deal.

So as I was adjusting my newly magnetized bike computer, I wanted to clear out the little bit of time that was on it from the installation as well as set the clock to the correct time ( now since we have daylight savings time kicking in )....Well guess what, I accidentally set the frickin thing to GERMAN......well I don't speak German so I try to get it reset to English, welll with this being a new computer and seeing as how I don't have the instructions with me, it's time for a call to the bike store. Josh finds a set of instructions and we figure it out and now everything is hunky dory.

Now it was time to clip into the pedals for the first time.......uh oh, I realized the seat post was set wayyyy to high, and it doesn't have the quick release ( it's a Tri bike remember ), and I didn't have the correct tool to adjust it. Well I figured I didn't want to drive it back to the bike store in the van, so I decided I'll just ride it the 4 miles back to the store and get Josh to adjust it for me...........Ohhh if it were only that simple.....the ride wasn't that bad, even though my crotch was cussing at me for the torture it was going through with the maladjusted seat height.

So I get back to the store thinking it was just a little adjustment, well it was a little more than that. Even with the seat post sent all the way down it was still too tall ( tall seat post to start with ) But Josh being the master mechanic that he is........he pulled it out, took out his handy hack saw and took a inch and a half off and adjusted it perfectly.

But while I was there and he was looking at the height and making sure the fit was right, I noticed the handlebars were about 2-3 degrees right, so that got adjusted. I had also noticed the forearm pads were too far out on the ride over so they got adjusted too.

So in and out in less than 10 minutes ( thanks Josh ) and it's back off to the meeting place to see if any other folks showed up late like me.

Well no one was there, so I decided to keep going and put a few miles in.

After all this tweaking I did notice I will definitely have to go with the 10 speed cassette instead of the 9 speed ( lot of shifting problems were occurring on this ride )

Well even with all the crap that happened tonight............it's exactly what I wanted to happen and I couldn't have been happier. I wanted to find most of the kinks on this short ride ( 11.50 miles )instead of a 60 mile ride, far from home or help.

So see there is a silver lining to everything...........if ya look hard enough

Al Toll Masters Race recap.

2009-02-24T16:10:00.003-05:00

Well a lot has been going on since my last post, not a lot as far as running but some.

I did get to run the track workout after my last post, Me and Tim ran at the track. I did five miles and most of it was at a 1-1 ratio. I kinda liked those numbers, as I was able to post some pretty good times on the running part of the ratio. After I got warmed up I was hitting the 8:15 to 8:45 min mile pace, which was freaking awesome for me. For just a few of those intervals I was able to dip down into the 7:20 range.....WOW !!! Well I finished off the five miles feeling good about the workout.

That's where the running stopped for a few days since I was busy with work and trying to move into my new apartment. Sometimes I don't think there are enough hours in the day.

Well 11 days after the above track workout came my next chance to run, and this time it was the Al Toll Masters Race. There is the 5k for the younger generation and then for us 40 and over crowd it was the 15k.....woo hoo 9.3 miles of pure pleasure ( can anyone hear the sarcasm in my typing ) I had seen Kerry mention all the hills in some of her posts on the Macon Tracks forum and has hoping she was kidding about the hills. Well let me tell you now from first hand experience. Kerry does not kid when it comes to hills. You know the saying, "what dosen't kill you will only make you stronger", well I guess after running the Al Toll Masters Race, I should be a lot stronger....LOL
But seriously those hills made for an awesome workout !!! It was a great day for running. The weather warmed up from a 26 degree nightmare to a not so bad 40 degrees by race start. The weather was perfect and the sun was shining.

I didn't have that great of a race time but it wasn't too bad since my runnnig hasn't been up to what I had hoped in the previous month. I started the race saying my goal was to finish it in under two hours and I made it with 4 minutes to spare.....LOL

I'm on call all this week with the crime lab and if last nights 4 callouts are indicitave of what my week is going to look like I might not get much running done this week either. But I'm hoping to get some done no matter.

Life Goes On.....

2009-02-09T12:54:00.002-05:00

Well it has been a while since I have posted, and there's good reason.

Well I usually post after doing some type of running.
Well I haven't ran in two weeks......so there !!!

The last time I ran was two Friday's ago. Me and Tim and Stephanie ran part of the Run-Fit-Sports weekly run. It was an awesome run, as the weather was just perfect.

We ran through Idle Hour Country Club and then through the Wesleyan Campus on around by the Presidents House and back to our cars. But as you know by now we just can't stop on some odd number so we ran around the perimeter of the parking lot until we reached 3.5 miles.

Ok so now the reason I haven't run lately.

I am going through a divorce and as none of them are never pleasant I was given an ultimatum two days before my little girl, Madison's 5th birthday. So I packed by bags and headed to friends to stay with until I can find a place of my own.

I need to RUN......I want to RUN....I will RUN.....running does the body good and in my case does the mind good as well.

See ya'll at the track workout tomorrow night so I can get back to running.

Half Marathon......DONE !!!

2009-01-21T16:37:00.003-05:00

Sorry it took so long to post this, but for you folks around Macon, and if you've been watching the news ya'll will understand I have been a lil busy. ( I'm a Crime Scene Investigator....hint hint )

Anyway it's official, I have my first official Half Marathon in the books.

The morning started out brisk and cold. I think the official start time temp was 21 degrees.

I had dressed appropriately enough for the run I was guessing, and then after hearing Tim talk about it, I decided to take at least one shirt off.
So that gave me two pair of tights, and a pair of running shorts and wind pants for the lower half. The upper half consisted of a technical tee ( 2008 LDRR ) , sleeveless tee ( Macon Tracks ), and a long sleeved technical tee and a fleece pullover. I also had a scarf and a stocking cap and convertible mittens.

I never got cold in this outfit and never really got overly warm.

So once the gun sounded me and my running partner for most of the day ( Bo Drinkard ), were off.

We had decided on running the Galloway method, using a 5-1 ratio (5 running and 1 walking ), since this was his first half marathon as well as mine. My longest run since Bartram Forest had been only 6 miles, and the run at Bartram was mixed with limited break periods.

I'm not going to give a mile by mile report, since that would be boring and I'm not that good of a writer anyway.

Some of the highlights of the run:
Bo's 2 minute potty break at water stop one....LOL
Being able to flex for the camera when we saw Tommy on the back part of the flight line.
I was able to stay with Bo for the first 9 miles of the race, then the lack of serious preparation miles began catching up on me, so I let him head on to keep his pace up.

I was able to hook up with a nice lady from Minnesota who was here for the race. She said her name was Sam and she was here working on her running streak that she has kept going since Jan. 26, 1985.........She has ran every MONTH, either a MARATHON or ULTRA-MARATHON since the streak started ( I think we did the math and it came up to 274 ) WOW what a streak !!!

Well my streak started that day with a half marathon at the Warner Robins Museum of Aviation.

I now consider myself a runner.....for life. I want to thank all my friends who helped make this dream come true ( Amy, Tim, Kerry, Dave, Monika, Perry, Alana, Macon Tracks Club )

Now it's time to start training for my first Marathon...........Deb ya ready to push me !!!!

Two Days till my first Official Half Marathon.

2009-01-15T16:36:00.002-05:00

Yep only two days till my first official half marathon. I'm coasting till Saturday morning so as not to have any injuries or excuses.

The weather is supposed to be brutal, but who cares, pain is only temporary, right, Finishers Medals last Forever !!!

Stay tuned because the next blog will be as a Half Marathoner !!!!

It's Official....THEY WORK !!!

2009-01-14T10:53:00.002-05:00

Well it's official.

It wasn't a fluke.

Last night at the weekly speed workout, those neat little bungee shoelaces did their magic.

I was running a faster pace than I have run in years !!! I was there to just do a few maintenance miles before the Aviation Half Marathon this Saturday.

But I found myself running a lot faster pace than I did before I transitioned to the new laces. I was running 2:00-2:30 a minute faster pace consistently now with the new laces. I even had one lap where my pace would be what it was YEARSSSS ago.

Like I said earlier.........it's amazing what a $7.00 investment can do to help things along.

A lot of blogging to catch up on !!!

2009-01-06T20:53:00.009-05:00

Well I have been a little slack about keeping up my blog.

Since my last post a lot has happened !!!

A friend of mine was bound and determined to RUN 300 Miles in one week. Kevin Hatfield "AKA" Superman, averaged 50 miles a day to get those 300 miles. Several of his friends helped pace him during the week and some of us was there at the end. Troy paced him on his bike that last day and then ran the last 4 miles with him. Me, Tim, Mandy, and Amy were there at the finish line waiting on him and Troy. When Kevin finished you should have seen the vertical leap he finished the 300 with. ( I can't jump that high with no running ).

Next came the New Years day run. This is a concept that has been going on for several years, where instead of going out and getting plastered on New Years Eve and not being able to function the next day, you would get up early and meet at Anne Wrights house for a pre-breakfast run and then a pancake breakfast afterward. Man what a neat concept. Anne had maps of routes from 3-12 mile options.
Well me and Tim started off thinking we would just do a 3 mile run and say hey we did it. But peer pressure being what she is, we went almost 5 miles after hooking up with Amy and her brother Bryan and downtown Deb. Once we got back, what an awesome breakfast ! Makes ya wish it was new years day everyday....LOL

Ok the best thing I have to say on this particular post is, I have a Fitness Changing Revelation !!!

I have been plagued for years where my feet would tingle or go to sleep while I ran. I knew my feet swell when I run so I figured my shoes were tied too tight. Well I have always used a technique where I skrunch my toes up to spread my feet out and then tie my shoes real loose. This has worked most of the time to an extent. On my last post I wrote where I ran the old SWAT course. This ran sucked to the max and my calves and ankles were swollen and were sore and the run time was embarrassingly SLOW.

Ok so here comes the revelation.............I have been thinking about getting a pair of those cool little bungee shoe laces. So I went to Run-Fit-Sports and bought a pair of Yankz shoe laces.
My first run after putting these in, was the New Years Day run, and after 4 miles I realized that my feet hadn't tingled at all and my legs felt great and my times were even faster. I have been wondering why my run times haven't been getting better and then I realized, the slow circulation ( since my circulation was constricted at me feet ) is a factor on aerobic capacity, not to mention ( like Kerry said tonight at the track workout ) running with the pain of my feet being asleep will cause my runs times to suffer.

I have been a skeptic about the new laces being a factor, since I have only ran one run using them.
But tonight at the weekly track workout, I realized after I warmed up my pace was 2:00-2:30 minutes faster than my recent 5K pace !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and once again there was no tingling or swelling.

Now I am convinced about these new laces......Buh Bye old laces !!!! Hello Yankz !!! This was the best 7 dollar investment I have ever made. Perry ya better stock up on em cause I'm gonna be singing their praises.

Well 10 days till my first real Half Marathon (Aviation H.M.) ......a few more maintenance miles then it's race time !!!

SWAT Course Run

2008-12-26T22:20:00.003-05:00

Well I haven't had a chance to run all week, using the excuse "I'm on call for the Crime Lab".

Well I figured I had no miles to show for this week and making running an unbreakable habit wasn't going well without the miles.

So I put a shout out to Tim and Amy. Well Amy was busy tonight and Tim will never turn down the chance to run.

So I met Tim down at the Police Academy and we headed out (with my on-call phone in hand). The plan was to do the old SWAT qualification course, which winds it's way through Mercer Campus, being a 5 mile run.

Well since my blog is so aptly named, I won't bore you with the time tonight's run was, I was just glad to be out there doing the miles. Especially as crappy as I felt tonight. Low on energy and long on cramping lower legs.

Well the plan was for 5 miles, but what goes around comes around. Last week when me, Tim and Amy had finished our little run downtown it was me who wanted to do an extra mile so I could call it an even 5 miles. Well tonight Tim got me back, cause after about 3 1/2 miles he said, "hey let's do 6.2 so we can count a 10k"......Paybacks huh ?....or in Tim's words...."fighting fire with fire".......well that didn't work cause I had us do a little more so it was an even 6.5 miles......LOL

Ah the joys of running camaraderie !!!!

Awesome Down Town Run

2008-12-18T23:01:00.003-05:00

Man what an awesome night to run downtown !!!
The weather was nice and as Goldilocks would say the temperature was just right !

I met up with my usual running partners, Tim and Amy. We decided to meet up at 5 at the Gateway since Amy had FitCamp at 6:00 p.m.

We also decided to run from there, up Mulberry St., to First St., to Washington Ave. to College St. and meet up with the Mercer Run Group.

We ( I say we, I let Tim and Amy pick up their pace and leave me behind at College and Forsyth. ), met up with Monika, F.M. Leora, Kevin, and the rest of the Mercer Run Group on the Mercer Campus.

We left there and headed back up College Street. After a couple blocks I let the others go on their merry way and kept to my own pace.

But ya know something, I learned something important tonight. I see why real runners warm up before races by doing a mile or so warm up run. Cause I saw how sucky slow my early pace was. But after leaving the Campus, I saw myself picking up my pace and feeling great about it. I even hollered at the faster group a block ahead of me...."Don't let me catch ya'll".....LOL

And believe it or not I did catch them ( while they were waiting for the light to change to cross the road ) I passed them as they were going straight up College Street and I was turning right on Georgia Ave. to follow Tim and Amy on our way back toward Gateway.

I got back to the Gateway Building shortly after Tim and Amy got back. Amy had already gone inside (she better not be late for Ricks class). Tim was like "Good job Bud", I was like my Garmin says 3.85 miles, let's keep going so we can log that magical 5 miles. Well Tim is one to never turn down "more miles", so we were off to finish that 5.

We finished it off circling downtown around Cherry Street, Walnut and back to the Gateway.

What an awesome run downtown.......if ya don't take the opportunity to run downtown, ya'll are missing out.

Overall it was a good night, as after the run, me and Tim went to the SWAT Christmas party for some carb loading (spaghetti and lasagna, not beer...LOL) as Tim and I are both medical support for the SWAT Team. It was a special night for me, as I received two awards from the SWAT Team, as earlier this year I retired from active duty after 11 years as a SWAT member, Sniper Team Leader, and swapped over to a SWAT Medic position after graduating EMT school.

All and all it was a good night.....good friends.....good run....good food !!!

See ya after the next training session !!!

Tuesday Night Run / Track Workout

2008-12-17T12:20:00.005-05:00

Well I met Amy and Tim down at the Central City Park Running Track.
First I showed them the new shoe tying technique I learned from the video Neel posted on the Tracks Forum. I actually learned how to tie my shoes properly....Woo Hoo !!!

Then it was off to a 3 mile leisurely run around the track, well it it was leisurely for Amy and Tim, cause we were still running faster than my normal pace, well after a couple miles I let them head on out front. My intentions was to save some for the track workout later that evening....so much for my intentions....LOL

After we finished at the park, Amy went to fit camp and me and Tim headed to the Stratford Track for the usual Tuesday night track workout.

Most of the regulars were there, and even some new folks showed up. Michelle Archer showed up with her husband and two of their three kids, for their first track workout. It was awesome seeing someone bring almost their entire family for a night of family training. I guess Michelle is trying to better her previous time at the Boston Marathon. You go Michelle !!!

Well tonight's workout consisted of intervals of short-fast paced sprints. 100 yds....recovery....200 yds....recovery....300 yds....recovery.....400 yds.....recovery and then repeat this sequence two more times.

Well as they say the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. I intended to do the whole workout, but because of me going too long and too fast at Central City Park, I was pretty much done half way through the second repeat. But I did have some good times on the shorter sprints. I was able to manage a :14 second 100 yds on the second go around.
But I figure I'm still new at these track workouts, and at least I was there trying. But it did teach me one thing.........if it's a track workout night and thats the main focus for the night....STICK WITH THE PLAN......LOL

More to come as the saga unfolds !!!!

Time to Quit Running !!!!

2008-12-15T15:39:00.003-05:00

Well I have been reading one of Galloways books on running and trainnig. I'm seeing how much running and training there is associated to getting better or faster, and it seems like an ungodly amount of time dedicated to the sport.

So it looks like it's time for me to throw in the hat and give it up before I have invested too much time !!!

NOT !!!

It's time for me to step up my running and get my butt out there and start logging more days running......the speed will come later.......it's time for me to quit making excuses and start DOING. So TIM,,....AMY.... and anyone else who dosen't mind a slow pace....get ready for the phone calls to start coming more frequently......let's get out there cause........................................."The Slow Man Runneth"

My First BLOG Post

2008-12-10T17:26:00.003-05:00

Just getting the Blog up and running !!!

Last night Tim and I participated in the regular Tuesday night speed workout.
It consisted of 5,4,3,2,1's Which was 5 minutes of running with a recovery period followed by 4 minutes of running with a recovery, etc. you get the picture.

And the long legged freak that Cook is, he was able to keep up with the pack on the shorter intervals. In fact at one point on the last interval, he was running behind Troy, tapping him on the shoulder. That's probably what kept Troy from being able to do 400 meters in 1:00 flat.

Well more to come after I get this BLOG thang figured out, until then Happy Trails !!!