Saturday Morning Group Run 5/31

Be there or be square.

MarathonBob's house at 7am. Jog to the route. I'll do 2 miles (slow) - MB you are welcome to trod along with me. Nadene, you will likely want to just go ahead at your own pace and we will meet you at the end.

New Watch needed

I'm thinking I'd like a new watch. The one I'm using now is my Ironman watch and it's seeing some wear from swimming, biking, not so much running. I'd like one that gives me pace, that is not too bulky. Ideas? Garmin, Polar? And I'd like it to be less than $200. Heart rate would be good too. Anyone want to shop for watches?

Uh, maybe next weekend

Well, no running for me this weekend as I spent the ENTIRE weekend in manual labor. I am much more sore than I would have been if I had just done some running. Primed and painted both my living and dining rooms, trim paint, a full day of yard work cutting bushes and planting flowers and driving my bro back and forth every day makes for a long and tiring weekend. Plus got the new bedroom ceiling fan installed. I'm so glad to have the work done though.

Plan is to run Tues/Thur/Sat this week. What are ya'll doing this week?

Quickish 2

I ran 2 miles today at 9:11 each. It was hot and it felt good to go a little faster. The four miles that I ran a couple of days ago definatley felt harder. So maybe I have a few more seconds to shave off. It would be nice.

Jennifer's Training Plan

Here is my training plan. It calls for 16 weeks leading up to 13 miles. From there I will design another plan to work on getting faster until the October half.

2 down, 224 to go

I actually made it to the gym last night to do my running. Yay! My left knee was sore the first 4 minutes or so and my right knee was sore the whole time. Not painful, just sore from the lack of cushioning inside the joint. Did 2 miles at 13min jog.

I'm following a running plan I got off of runnersworld.com based on my current times and my distance goal. My plan called for 2 miles yesterday. My total plan to work up to 13 miles calls for 226 miles. Now I'm down to 224. Yay! Check the link on the right side for my training plan. Last night was pretty slow and I'm glad. It's my first time back running in a while. I've done some elliptical but not much running.

Boy, this is going to be hard to keep up. I think I will move running to the morning as much as possible because I seem to have no free time. Here's my schedule yesterday:

6am up, get ready for work
6:45am leave
7:30am work
4:30pm leave
5:00pm home, get ready for gym
5:30pm finally get kids and everyone in car
5:35pm-6:15pm gym workout
6:35pm- home, make dinner, convince DH to fold laundry
7:00pm-eat, clean up dinner, dishes
7:15pm-give kids bath, brush teeth, pajamas
7:45pm- read to kids
8:15pm- finish putting kids down, finally get a shower, kids keep getting up
8:45pm-"mom, I need a shake...." "Get back in bed!", DH leaves for bball
9:00pm- put wet clothes in dryer, get kids clothes and bags ready for next day
Put away folded laundry
9:30pm- try to read a book, but exhausted. Give in and let Syd sleep in bed
11pm- get woken up by loud DH coming home from bball
2am - get woken up by Tristen who wants me to cover him back up, twice
Lather, Rinse, Repeat...

I'm waiting for the Heat

This is a beautiful morning for a run.. only problem.. I'm going to go 3 and I'd really like to do it without the baby stroller.
I wonder how fast I'm even going these days?
So Devan and I take turns sleeping in on his off days. Its a pretty good system, not one that I'd like to give up anytime soon. I'm beginning to understand though, that my "sleeping-in" will soon consist of long, hard runs.
So as today is his turn, my hair is up, my shoes are tightly laced, and I'm ready to jet at the first sleepy sight of my Man.
I'm just hoping the sun doesn't break out before I do.

Already a wuss

Ok, so I know I should go run tonite, but I am so tired! Isn't that sad? I'm only supposed to run like 20 minutes and I am already getting cold feet. It feels like a long week.

I'm going to do it. Guess we will see tomorrow if I followed through on this!

IF NOT NOW THEN WHEN?

Hello From Old Man

Hello from the Old Man.

My much-younger daughter Jennifer and my even younger niece Nadene are convinced that I must run a marathon with them in the next 12 months, but I am neither as young (I am 54; they are 30 and 27 respectively) or in as good a shape (they are already running 2-3 miles a day, while I do 2-3 miles a week) as they are. Therefore, the likelihood that I will be as ready as they will be to run 26.2 miles in February (or even 13.1 miles in October) are slim to none. However, to give them someone to humiliate, I will endeavor to prepare and join them.

I am the lucky-to-have-her husband of almost 32 years of Karen, my eternal sweetie, and the proud father of 4 "kids": Jennifer (married to Jeff and parents of Tristen and Sydney); Steven (married to Jazmin and the parents of Matthew and Olivia); Andrew (single and "finding" himself); and Elizabeth (single and the "baby" of the family).

I am an attorney of 24 years, focused primarily on complex litigation.

I ran middle distance in Junior High and High School and won a few races here and there. I even held the 1500 meters high school record for the Province of Alberta, Canada (for 1 week, until better runners bested my time). I ran some in college (mostly steeplechase) until I realized that I had neither the temperment nor the speed to run with the better runners. I trained with Paul Cummings, NCAA mile champion, and, as I continued to eat his dust, decided that I did not like dust enough to keep running competitively.

I took to slower, longer runs and eventually ran -- and finished -- my first marathon in the mountains around Salt Lake City, Utah. I ran 3 more marathons thereafter, with a best time of 2 hours 42 minutes 30 seconds, running 6 minute 13 second miles. I ran my last marathon in 1984, at the age of 30, in St. George, Utah, at a respectable time of 2 hours 54 minutes 15 seconds (6 minute 39 second miles), but beat my legs and body up so much on the downhills that I took many months to recover and never tried a marathon again.

Although over the years I have run as much as 50 miles in a week, but in the past 3 years I jog only occasionally and less than 10 miles a week. It has been 1 1/2 years since I undertook anything over 7 miles, "running" the Dallas Turkey Trot in a scintillating 8 minute pace. The last 5K I ran was at a 9 minute pace and I was gasping at the end.

So, now I undertake to build enough miles to run the 1/2 and full marathons.

Wish me luck or, better yet, pray for me!

Old Man

Meet Nadene

Let me start by saying AHHHHHHHH!!, ok now that is out of the way.

I'm 27 years old with a great husband and two great daughters, oldest is 4, youngest is nearly 2. I really started running in High School. I owe that moment of inspiration to my Big Bro. Shon. Cross-Country Shon, as I like to call him.
I was pretty good as a Freshman, I think the coach actually let me run with the Varsity girls once or twice. Then as I took interest in other things running faded out of my life. Every once in a while I'd dust my shoes off and head out for a nice road run. Devan has always joked that I could be lazy for months then go and run 5 miles "like it was nothing".
This trait helped a lot when I joined the Navy. See, a lot of your advancement depends on your Physical Fitness tests. My best 1.5 mile time was 10:27, just about :45 shy of the best possible score! Ok I know I sound cocky by now, but I'm not the same as I was then.
Now I have all of these "issues".. flat feet, weird right knee, then there's the baby stroller I usually train with... Last year I ran a couple of 5K's thanks to the Gibbons and the Sabins. (They're all pretty great people) These were my first official races outside of a Military Base.
I had SO Much FUN. Now I'm hooked. I love that feeling of early morning runs, I love when your lungs burn but your body feels great. I love knowing a few extra miles are coming on.. I love it I love it.
My biggest weakness, doing to much to fast.
My greatest strength, Family running with me.

Meet Jennifer

Get to know our team>>

What is your running background?

Howdy! I am the ripe old age of 30 and I don't think I have ever run more than 5 miles at a time before. I've played plenty of sports that required some kind of stop/go/sprint running for up to two hours before. But no running background. And I'm not even built for it. I'm stocky, not lanky like a runner. I did participate in summer track, cross country, and even lettered in track in HS, but I quickly found out that this is just not a sport that I am very gifted at. My best accomplishment was 6th place in the City Championship in the 300 hurdles. And probably because...well, seriously, who runs the 300 hurdles?

What do you think is your biggest obstacle?

My knee holding up to increased work. I have had two right knee surgeries for a torn meniscus. I have had about 80% of the cartilege in my knee removed and as a result, I have pain and swelling when I workout. Last year when I was training for the triathlon I was able to basically 'work through it' and it became less and less painful. But running is so hard on your body. I wonder if the increased miles will be more than I can take. I went to my Ortho to get checked out ahead of time. After xrays and some exams, he said it looks like there ate some bone spurs which are causing me pain but otherwise I am ok to move forward. So that was good news.

Why would you like to accomplish this?

I'm not getting any younger. This is one of those 'I'd like to do this in my lifetime' events and I figure if anyone is willing to go through the nonsense with me...then now is the time.

What is your out of the blue, initial goal time?

If Oprah can do 4 hours, I would really like to come in under 4 hours. Um, I should probably check out how fast that is first. Oh well!

Some random times:

Age 15, 400 yards - 1:09

Age 17, 1 mile - 7:00

Age 29, Sprint Triathlon 1:43

Age 30, 5k - 33:00

I can use all the encouragement I can get people! Comment here!

In the beginning...

I think the conversation went something like this...

"Wow that 5k was fun."

"I feel pretty good."

"Yeah, maybe we should run a marathon!"

Well, maybe not exactly like that.

We three runners are three very different people. Different ages, different fitness levels, areas, abilities, injuries, health, and demands on our time. However we are all working towards one common goal.

Last year Nadene and Bob (aka Dad) were doing some pretty consistent running. If you didn't know, Dad has a history of running. High school team, during college, and some marathons under his belt. (Because if you are a type A personality, this is a challenge that one must accomplish). And Nadene has a history of fitness. The kind you get from boot camp and a career in the Navy and running around in full gear and carrying all that equipment and your gun.

And me? Well I have a history of up and down fitness...but I DO love a goal. Around the same time last summer, I was training for my first triathlon. And it necessitated some running. Nadene divulged her secret goal was to run a marathon...and I added that it was a deep down goal of mine too. So we invited veteran Dad to help us and join in.

We set the preliminary date for February 2009. And promptly proceeded to reduce our running to zero. You know how it goes. Life sometimes gets in the way. Undaunted by this lack of training, we have recently decided to pick back up this goal and run both the Tyler Half in October 2008 and the Cowtown Marathon 2009.

This blog commemorates our journey, our training, ups and downs and everything in between. Follow us and see if we make it or break it.