Good Weekend

Well, I have had a good weekend race wise. Yesterday I finished 1st in my age group in a road 5K and today I finished 3rd in my age group in a cross-country 5K.

As you know if you read my blog yesterday I ran the road 5K in 27:14. Today I ran the cross-country 5K in 28:13. I feel that running the x-c race only a minute slower isn't to bad.

I was a little tight at the start of today's race, but I loosened up in the first mile.

Races This Weekend

As you know I started 1/2 Marathon training this month for the Disney
Half. I have done pretty good on the running part of the training
schedule, but haven't been doing to good on the Cross-Training days.
This coming week I am going to make a special effort to get all of the
cross-training sessions completed as planned.

I ran a 5K race this morning, the "Run for the River 5K" in Buford,
GA. Had a good race, I ran slower than I wanted, but I still won my
age group. I completed the 5K in 27:14, two minutes slower than last
year. It was a new course so I will use that for the reason I was
slower, and not use the excuse that I was a year older. Hey! I won my
age group, that is what counts.

I am also running an Atlanta Track Club Cross Country 5K tomorrow, so
it will be a 2 race weekend. It is kind of like running a 10K race in
2 pieces, half one day and the other half the next day.

ORN: 5K, 27:14, 1st place age group 65-69.

Brief Entry

I thought I would write a brief update. I missed my second workout of my new training plan, I had a windload trainer session planned for the 16th and time got away from me.

I am back on track now though, I had a 45 minute workout today. I walked for 5 minutes to warm up then I ran easy for 40 minutes. As usual this workout took place at Stone Mountain Park on the North side of the mountain.

ORN: 3.83 miles, 45:00

I'm Back

Today was the first day of my new Training Plan. I decided to use PCCoach again. PCCoach is a computerized training system that has plug-in training plans.

I am using Jeff Galloway's 1/2 Marathon training plan. The first training week has three running days and three cross training days.

Today I ran just over 3 miles, I will list out the plan for the week.

Monday  - 3 miles easy, keep heart rate below 135 bpm.
Tuesday  - XT 45 minutes, keep heart rate below 135 bpm.
Wednesday - run 30 to 45 minutes, keep heart rate below 140 bpm.
Thursday - XT 40 minutes, keep heart rate below 135 bpm.
Friday - run 30 to 45 minutes, keep heart rate below 140 bpm.
Saturday - XT 45 minutes, keep heart rate below 135 bpm.

I haven't decided if I will update the Blog daily or once a week. I'll just play it by ear.

Now for today. I got up this morning and picked up one of my copies of Trailrunner Magazine to read during breakfast. As I read some of the articles it got me thinking today would be a great day for a trail run. It was cool and clear out this morning, so I decided to run the Indian Island Loop Trail at Stone Mountain.

I went to the park and started my run near the main train station where the big carving on the mountain is located. I hit the trail and ran easy, felt good for the whole run. Very short trail run but it was nice to be on the trail.

For a little past news, I ran a 10K in Cartersville, GA on the 7th of October and ran really slow. I expected to be slow though because I hadn't run much for the last month. I did do some walking so I wasn't completely out of shape, just slow. My time was 58:32 for 10K.

ORN: 3.17 miles, R4/W1, 42:07

Stay Tuned!

I promise that I will start keeping this blog up to date starting Oct 15th.  The 15th is the day that I start my training for the Jan 12th 2008 Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon.

Back Again!

 I haven't written in many months now. Don't have a good excuse, I guess I am just to lazy.

Ran the ING Atlanta 1/2 Marathon on March 25th in 2:12:09, I was hoping to break 2 hours, but just didn't make it happen on that day.

My running has been going fine, just slow.  As of today I have run 358.5 miles, biked 152.6 miles and walked 11.2 miles this year.

The next race I will run will be the Peachtree Road Race on July, 4th.

Track Club 1 Hour Run

I ran in an Atlanta Track Club race today. It was the One Hour track
run held at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA.

Ran with my Garmin 305 set to Virtual Partner, I programed one hour
at 9 minute pace and it worked well. I ran 6.74 miles in the hour,
which was an 8:54 per mile pace.

Hanging In There

Well, since I wrote last I have run about 50.5 miles and have been
feeling good. The weather has been variable, by that I mean it has
been as low as the 30's and as high as 70 degrees. I don't plan on
running tomorrow because we are forecast a winter storm, freezing
rain and sleet. If the forecast turns out to be wrong, I'll
reconsider and may run.

I have been using a Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS while running and it is
very accurate. I will be getting a Garmin Forerunner 305, it has a
built in Heart rate monitor. I like using heart rate training, that
way I am never burned out, because I stay in my aerobic zone and
don't overtrain.

One thing that I really like about the Garmin Forerunner is that it
works in the woods, the tree foliage does not interfere with the GPS
accuracy like other GPS's that I have used.

I am in the 5th week of Hal Higdon's Intermediate 1/2 marathon plan
and am just chugging along. I haven't done long runs in so long that
it is hard to get motivated to run one, but I have been hanging in
there and just doing it. I am up to 8 miles this week for the long
run, I have it scheduled for Friday.

OK! OK!

OK! OK! I know I said that I would update the blog once a week from
now on, I only missed one week. I guess that is not a very good start
to the year.

Well, at least I have been running. I ran about 18 miles last week
and 14 miles the week before, so I am doing OK.

I decided to use Hal Higdon's Intermediate Half Marathon Training
plan instead of Galloway's. I felt that I would pick up a little more
speed as well as endurance with Hal Higdon's plan.

I have been running mostly at Stone Mountain Park with a few runs at
Mountain Park. Had a good 6 mile trail run at Stone Mountain last
week, slow but good. This Saturday I am running in the ATC Peachtree
City 5K instead of a long run, then next week I will go back to the
trail and run 7 miles for my long run.

So I have run the following this year:

Week starting 12/31/06 - 14.1 miles
Week starting 01/07/07 - 17.8 miles
Week starting 01/14/07 - 3.5 miles

New Year, Renewed Blog

I haven't written in this Blog for quite some time. Maybe what I
should do is start over with the goal of writing at least once a week.

I originally was trying to write every day, but that just ends up
being to much. As you can see the last time I made an entry was in
September.

So, since this is the start of a new year, I will start over.

Yesterday being January 1st, I ran the Atlanta Track Club Resolution
Run. It was moved from Stone Mountain to Marietta this year, and the
course was changed back to 5K and 10K distances.

As usual I started the year with a small nagging pain in my right
hamstring, but I went to the race anyway.

I thought I would start out slowly, and increase speed as I got into
the race. As it turns out the 1st mile was my fastest mile. I guess
as I got more comfortable during the race, I eased off a little. I
ended up 3rd in my age group and got 60 Grand Prix points for my effort.

My hamstring was a little tight but never really bothered me during
the race, maybe that signals that my hamstring has recovered. I guess
I should start stretching more than I have so I can keep some of
these little aches and pains at bay.

I have signed up for the ING GA Half Marathon that is in March, so I
have to start a training plan now. I guess I will go with my Galloway
Program in PC Coach. If you are wondering what PC Coach is, check the
sidebar of my Blog and click the link to PC Coach.

I guess I will go for now and start planning for the Half, see you
next week.