Fancy Running Socks.

I ran a 10K on Saturday and another on Monday. It took about an hour each time. I'm signed up to run a couple of these in the next few months, and to be honest, I had no idea how far that was. I've never had a real great grasp of "measures". Distance, volume, weight, whatever- I just have no idea. If you get directions from me and I say "go about a mile", I'm really just guessing.

It was a piece of cake though. The weather has gotten much cooler, which always makes it easier. One of the things I like about using the Nike+ is that you can tell it how far you want to run, and it gives you the total as you're going.

I also got some of these nifty runnin' socks from the Nike store. They're all padded and made from some space-age fabric that was found stuck to the bottom of a meteorite that crashed outside Tulsa in the mid-1800s and jump started the Industrial Revolution. (OK, I'm just guessing on this, but I ran on Saturday during some pretty heavy rain, and my feet never felt wet. Space Age! (Plus they are labeled, so it takes the right foot/left foot decision out of my hands, which has saved me hours!)

Miles... Kilometers... I'm confused about my total.

Advice for the day.

No time is a good time to run after eating a big bowl of home-made gumbo. Even if you think you gave yourself plenty of time to digest, and even if you were feeling fine before you started. It *may make you tummy feel a little peculiar.



That's just some free advice. I really wanted to go out tonight as it's the first night in a while that wasn't crazy hot and humid. Nice cool late summer night! I had a little pain in my leg. I think I overdid it in the gym yesterday. I half-read something in one of the magazines I've been getting since I registered for the marathon.(It's some deal with Active.com. I get Men's Health and Runners World) The basic idea was that since your leg muscles are so large in comparison to all your other muscles, and since they burn calories, you should spend lots of time on them. (Again, I half read it. The last line could have been "ha! just kidding!" and I would never know. I just pick up little tidbits. They really should have the Flash passing this info along and call them Flash Facts! I'd read and remember every word. I'm trying though, or at least my version of trying.

Add 6 to the total, and we're at 45 with lots of Flash Facts to go. I'm going to start stepping things up soon.

* by "may", I mean "will".

Running in a Captain Chaos mask...

Good idea, or great idea?

It's from the Cannonball RUN! It fits the theme of this little endeavor.

Put in another couple of 6 mile runs. Feeling pretty good! It seems like I hit these little patches where it gets hard to run at all. I don't feel like going, none of the stuff on my IPod seems remotely interesting to listen to, maybe I just feel like I have no energy...

I think that's why getting one of these training plans works so well for me. I have a piece of paper saying I gotta run 6 miles, well darn it, I'm gonna.

Hot... so hot

Been taking it a little easy the past few. The heat is really getting to me. I did about 4 miles the other day, and today I did 4 and then another 2 later. I read something in Runners World about splitting your workout. I'm not sure what the benefit is supposed to be, I didn't read it very closely or take notes or anything, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

I didn't really like it. I ran as far as I've been running, but the break made it feel like I didn't go very far. It wasn't as satisfying.

I'm also running funny because I went away for a few days. (Up to Lake George with my brother and his family. While playing in the water with my super adorable niece and nephew, I remembered to sunblock my front, neglected to sunblock my back. I look like a nicely seared bit of tuna. Ouch! I have really fair and sensitive skin anyway. I go outside this time of year, I pretty much just burst into flames like a vampire.

Anyway, I'm really just trying to get a little bit done was preperation for serious training. I also have a 10K in september and another in october. Lots to do!

27 miles to go, ooodles of miles left to go. Hey, 27! That's more than a marathon!

Nike- ?

Just got back from the gym. The treadmill said I ran 6.6 miles, the Nike+ said I ran 6.05 miles. So I'm gonna go ahead and go by what the treadmill said and let Nike+ make a liar outta me.

I don't know if I didn't calibrate it correctly, if the treadmill was wrong, if my "unconventional" running style is mucking up the mechanism, or what! In the grand scheme of things it doesn't really matter, but I do wish I could get some accurate info.

Last year I used a little garmin GPS that I got from saving up all those little codes on the bottom of coke bottle caps, (Everyone said I was crazy to save all those caps and enter all those tiny little codes! Well who's laughing now? Bwaaaa Haaa Haaaaa!) and it worked pretty well, but I'm not sure if that was all that accurate either, and that couldn't play music.

Don't fret IPod, I still love you and think that your Nike+ add on is just about the coolest gadget going around!

Add tonight's 6.5 , another 6.5 I did on Sunday, and my existing total, we have a grand total of

17 miles down, lots and lots of miles still to run.

Quick Summer Night Run

Went for a nice easy 4 mile run. It was really hot and humid, and I started sweating... well basically wile I was putting my sneakers on, so I figured I should take it slow. I'm trying to add some variety to my training, bid leg strength and stamina and what not, so I went for a really long bike ride yesterday. My legs were all sore.

I don't know how people do serious training during the summer, I just get so tired! Hopefully one of these days I'll get into the NYC Marathon, so I'll have to get used to it.

I'm also not crazy about running at night. One of the first times I ever went running was at night. This was a while ago, I was a total beginner. I was just trying to get some exercise. So I'm just running along down the street at a leisurely pace, when a car filled with teeneaged boys pulls up next to me on the street, they throw a lit cigarette at me, call me a "fag", and tear off down the street. I was just stunned by the whole thing. What was their thought process? "Hey, that guy's trying to better himself! Get him!" I was wearing a hat, which was lucky, as it got a scorch mark on it. (It could have been my lovely hair!)

I like going in the morning!

4 miles down, countless miles to go.

So who's doing what now?

I'm running the Walt Disney World Marathon on January 10th 2010. This will be the second time I've done it, and the second time in a row.

I finished last year, but was a little disappointed in my final time. I blame it on the following factors:

My shoes were not broken in, so my feet were killing me by the time I got to mile 13.

I had spent three days prior to the race walking around Disney World with my family, so I wasn't well rested.

I ate 5 burritos at mile 3. (OK, this one isn't true)

I started off way too fast, and couldn't keep the pace I had been setting.

And lets face it, anyone that has ever seen me can tell that I'm not a natural athlete. (Unless you were thinking of competitive eating, I think you could believe I did that)

But never mind this noise! I'm doing the race again! I'm going to do better! I'm going to win! (Note: I'm not going to win) But this is going to be the Rocky II of marathons! No draw this time around, I'm knocking Apollo Creed out!


I'm not sure this blog will be interesting to anyone but me, I'm not even sure this blog will be interesting to me, but I thought it would be nice to have some kind of record of the process. The training, the prep, the deciding on what outfit to wear for the race, the whole enchilada!!

(2nd mention of Mexican food. Must go to Green Cactus...)

I'm not going to start really training hard until at least September, but when I do, I'm going to follow the Nike+ training plan, and post all my goals and runs!

Check back.