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.