Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Thanksgiving and Beyond!

How was your Thanksgiving?

Mine was great!  The holiday started with the turkey trot.  I met up with some friends and earned myself some extra calories for the day.  It was great weather and an electric atmosphere.  A record turnout of over three thousand runners!  Pretty good for a small town race. 

The stats of my performance aren't necessarily worth mentioning.  A mile in I felt like I was running in place.  Had a good amount of tightness where my shins meet my feet and I couldn't shake it.  My running compatriot Bryce smashed his PR though.  Way to be!

I don't know what it is about running, but it just puts me in a good mood for the day.  Put that good feeling and Thanksgiving together and I was on cloud nine.  From the trot me and the fam fam (mom included) headed down to Columbus to spend the day with my sister and her lovely family.  Played some football with my nephews, joked around with my family, hid the remote so I could keep football on all day, and ate some AWESOME food.  One of the appetizers was a stuffed jalapeno pepper wrapped in bacon....

mmmmmmmmmm

Along with that was home made sweet potato casserole, my wife's amazing broccoli casserole, my mom's cheesy potato casserole, and all the usual suspects of a Thanksgiving meal.  For dessert there were four pies and a pumpkin roll.  FOUR PIES!  Now that I think about it there were 6.  SIX PIES!

I may have eaten more calories than I burned that day......

That's OK though!

The grossest/funniest story of the day goes to my soon-to-be 1 year old niece Kaylee (KK).  My brother in law brings her down from her nap and notices she's got one of those looks on her face.  My sister wants to see her baby girl so she grabs her and proceeds to open the fridge.  As soon as it's open KK vomits.  Projectile.  All over the floor and the bottom half of the fridge.  How a small child like that has enough fluids to cover a refrigerator and a couple feet in front of is beyond my comprehension.  I'm pretty darn impressed though...

ANYWAY!!

Since Thanksgiving I've been streaking.  Today is day 6 and it's still going strong.

Wait a second.  There's been a development in my shoe complaining that I mentioned in my previous post.  I got new shoes!

Sunday we celebrated both mine and my mother-in-law's birthday (She's the 22nd and I'm the 29th).  A few days before the party Aimee told me she spent $60 on my birthday gift.  Hearing this made any thought of running shoes fly out the window.  She even told me that she swears she only spent $60 and you know what?  The bugger wasn't lying to me.  She teamed up with her sister, parents, and my mom to buy me a nice new pair of Newtons:

Ooooooo... Ahhhhhhhh...

The excitement can't be described.  She knows me so well.  I'm a lucky man!

So yes, the streak.  6 days down.  About a month to go.  Oddly enough the pain I felt at the turkey trot hasn't persisted.  Hooray!  Chalk it up to improper stretching I guess.  There was one run where my ankle was on the brink of imploding but the pain was temporary.  Life goes on.

As far as the new shoes go they are a different breed of running shoe.  They require me to break them in slowly so I'm running in a couple different pairs.  Weird feeling between the two but the future is looking bright. 

This Saturday Bryce and I are running in the Jolly Jingle 5K supporting the Minerva Area Christian School.  The race director also organizes the Jolly Jaunt 5K supporting the MACS.  The jolliness of it all is borderline unbearable.

I look forward to filling you in on all the jolly details.

Have a great day everybody and thanks for reading!

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

We're Going Streaking!!

Happy Thanksgiving week everybody!

Thanksgiving is, easily, in the top 3 of my favorite days of the year. There are the obvious reasons like food, football, friends, and messing around with your family but this year I’ve added a new one.  Streaking!
 





Sorry folks, not that kind of streaking...  Or maybe I should say you're welcome!

It's time for a running streak!

It’s these hibernation months that get to me.  Last year I finished the Cbus half late October and a 5k on Thanksgiving. After that?

 Nothin.

The holidays came around and I was eating just as much, if not more, than I ate during the training months.  Except I wasn’t running like I was in training. I’m not trying to sound over critical of myself.  Rest is very important, but in the spring of last year I felt like I had to start my conditioning all over again. I felt like a slug.  This year is starting to be not much different.  I'm coming up with a lot of excuses.


I'd say my biggest excuse is shoes.  I have over 300 miles on both of my pairs.  In my extensive recreational reading of running publications and websites I have it in my head that I should only do 300-500 miles on my shoes.  These numbers have captured my focus.  I don't like that.  They're just numbers.  I don't think they're made up though because my shoes look pretty beat up. 

A couple days ago I stopped myself and these thoughts.  I'm complaining because my TWO pairs of shoes are too worn out.  I have two pairs of just running shoes.  That's more than most people have of normal shoes.  I'm blessed and very thankful.

Which brings me back to Thanksgiving.  I’m taking part in a holiday running streak challenge sponsored by Runners World. From Thanksgiving to New Years I’ll be running at least a mile a day.  Starts Thursday with a few thousand people at the Perry Rotary Turkey Trot.  It's time to get motivated.  I'm lacing up my experienced shoes and dumping the excuses.

I'm looking forward to the challenge so I can start 2013 on the right.... foot.  Next year is going to be very busy.  I'm in the process of planning a 5k for Active:Water, completing my first triathlon, running either a half or full marathon in the spring, and recruiting/fund-raising/training for the Akron marathon for Active:Water in September.  Not to mention my lovely family, work and school.

I'm asking anyone and everyone to join me in this quest.  Whether it's emotional or physical assistance.  We're going to kick the crap out of 2013.  Kickin butt.  Takin names.  Buildin wells.  Savin lives!

Who's comin with me??