Donation Totals

Monday, December 28, 2009

Treadmill Tempo Workout

Well it wasn't that cold out temperature-wise, but with the wind as hard and bitter as it was, it felt MUCH colder. So once Cole went down for his nap, I ran down to the gym and got in a nice little treadmill tempo workout. I started out at 7.6 mph, picking it up to 7.8 mph after about a 1/2 mile. At the one mile mark I jumped it up to 8 mph, and from that point on I pushed it up 0.1 mph every half mile until I hit 3 miles completed. For the final mile I pushed it up 0.1 mph every 0.2 miles, then running the final 0.1 miles at 10 mph. Overall I finished the 4 mile run in 29:53, which is a 7:28 min/mile pace and finished the miles in 7:58, 7:33, 7:22 and then 7:00 min flat. To cool down I ran aa 1/2 mile at 6-6.5 mph and then walked back to my parents house. Felt pretty good overall, think next time I am forced to do this, I will try to beat my PR for a 5K.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Morning run with Betsy

With another morning of built in baby sitters (my parents), Betsy and I got out for another run, this time running in the other direction than our typical runs. It included some nice climbs on the way out. I ended up having to stop at a gas station due to some GI issues, which are still on going, but all things considered it was a great run averaging 8:03 min/mile for the almost 4.8 miles. Betsy is really getting her speed back, it is getting to be more fun to watch with each day!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Morning run in Georgia

Got in yesterday and while still exhausted, am certainly better than I was yesterday. So after a bit of putzin' Betsy and I finally got out for a run. We were going to pick up a cake from our friend Layne who owns an awesome bakery Sweet n' Sinful in Avondale Heights, GA for my mom's birthday, so along with the fact that neither of us has been running recently, we cut it down to about 3 1/3 miles, which we finished at an 8:02 min/mile on a pretty hilly course. Good run overall, hope to get a few more in soon.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Trainer workout with Betsy.

Because of the blizzard (about 2 feet of snow at this point), we had to suck it up and do a trainer workout. We decided on Spinerval's Muscle Breakdown (much to Betsy's chagrin), which involves alot of sprint efforts, some isometric squats and some time trial efforts. Overall a good workout.

Lunchtime run before the blizzard!

They are calling for 30 straight hours of snow starting this evening at midnight, so it appears that getting a run in tomorrow or even Sunday is pretty well in doubt. So when Mike called just before 11 am to see if I was up for a run, I decided to go. We got out for our typical 10k route, this time maintaining just over an 8 min/mile pace (8:06). Felt ok, a little breathless and a bit tight, but on the whole it was a good run. Dissappointed about the weekend though! Guess I will be doing trainer work!

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Treadmill Track Workout!

Since I missed track practice on Tuesday, I decided to break at lunch today to get a track workout. But of course being a wuss and it being 30 degrees out, I decided to do the workout on a treadmill! And once again I had the good fortune of getting stuck with the treadmill with the TV that is stuck on Fox 'news' (quotes intentional). Well anyway I did the workout set out by Jerry, starting with a mile warmup at an 8:30 min/mile pace and then doing a 6:49 mile, a 5:00 min 3/4 mile (6:40 pace) a 3:12 1/2 mile (6:24 pace) and then a final 3:09 min 1/2 mile (6:18 pace) with a 400 jog at 8:30 min/mile in between each effort. I finished off with a nice 3/4 mile cooldown. Good workout overall!

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Spinervals Big Gear Strength, OUCH!

Betsy met me at NRL after the postdoc poster session to give me Cole so she could get to track practice, so Cole and I came home and enjoyed a Man's Evening! After a bit of playing and dinner and then bed time, I hopped on the bike for Spinerval's Big Gear Strength workout, a series of efforts, both standing and seated, all in the hardest gear ratio, along with some squats. Wow what a rough workout.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Morning Recovery Run on the Treadmill

I have been having difficulty holding the pace down for my recovery runs, so I decided with the terrible weather to hit the gym this morning and put in a dreaded treadmill workout. I kept the pace to 8:30 min/mile and felt fine. Had to pee way too many times, so it broke the run up a bit and I couldn't change the TV channel from Fox News, so that was miserable, but overall it was what my body needed.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Long run on a relaxed week

Betsy and I had to switch off because it was too cold to take Coley along with us, so Betsy got started earlier and had by all accounts a great run, and then I got to run. I got out at a pretty nice 7:40 min/mile pace and then found that I was picking it up on mile two, knocking out a 7:29 pace, so I decided to slow down and put out a pretty solid 7:40 min/mile pace most of the way. Overall I put down a 7:43 min/mile pace after finishing with a strong 7:30 last mile. It turns out that overall this run was a PR for both a 7 mile effort and for an 8 miler! Great run despite the cold weather.

Friday, December 11, 2009

Lunchtime Run with Mike P.

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOWWOOWOOWOWO it was SOOOOO f'n cold out! Mike and I got started just a bit after lunch in the frigid weather for our usual 10k at lunch. We tried to keep a solid pace and over all succeeded. The hill was quite rough and I had to stop briefly for the restroom at the top, but then kept it going the rest of the way. Oddly enough, it turns out that it was our fastest on this course ever! Of course the cold weather led to a serious ache in my ears for the next couple hours, but overall it was worth it... of course until I do it again tomorrow...

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Terrible Run with Betsy and Cole.

I decided to try to avoid traffic on my return to NIST today and therefore went for a run with Betsy and Cole this morning before hitting the road. I have also been attempting to stop using my allergy medicine, an experiment which today's run clearly showed to be folly. Had a decent run as far as time was concerned, but struggled the whole way and had to stop a couple times to get some breath. Of course to continue on my day, my trip to NIST, which I was making later to avoid traffic instead put me in the midst of construction traffic on the Wilson Bridge, which took a 1.5 hour drive and made it close to 3. UGH... Anyway, it has been a very interesting day to say the least.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Tempo Run with Betsy and Cole

I worked from home today after a really terrible night's sleep. I think all in all I got about 4 hours of off and on sleep. However, I did hear that my paper got accepted, with some revisions, so that is why I stayed home to work on that. Therefore, Betsy and I decided to take Cole out for a tempo run this morning as a break. Considering I was pushing the stroller and the weather was in the mid 30's, I was quite happy with the 7:56 min/mile pace we maintained. I did labor a bit at places, but was able to put in a nice push at the end, so it couldn't have been that bad!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Weekly long run

After the snow yesterday and the really cool morning weather this morning (low 30's) Betsy and I didn't feel comfortable taking Cole outside for a run, so we Auntie Elana came over to watch him while we went for our run. Betsy decided to do a new route today, so we took off heading out towards the Potomac, with a quick jut out on Accokeek Rd. Once down to the river, we stopped for a minute and had some Sports Beans and then got going again. I had some really bad tightness in my hips and quads, but we still averaged 8:14 min/mile overall. Had one tough mile on the way back climbing Berry Hill where our pace dropped to 8:44, but overall we never dropped to a pace slower than 8:20 min/mile otherwise, knocking down the miles in 8:14, 8:08, 8:20, 8:16, 8:05, 8:17, 8:02, 8:20, 8:09, 8:44, 8:07 and 8:07 min. We did stop briefly after mile 11 because of tightness in Betsy's insole, but otherwise we had a good finish. Feeling very rough right now, but it was good to get out for the long run.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Trainer workout with Betsy!

For a nice new treat, Betsy joined me this morning for a trainer workout due to the SNOW that we are getting. Since she hasn't done any trainer work in well over a year, she wanted to do a recovery workout, so we settled on Spinervals Recharge, which includes a lot of long intervals at steady pace (3 and 1 min efforts) finishing off with some nice short sprint build work. It was really enjoyable, distracting at times watching Cole play around (a good kind of distraction!) and the time past really quick, then off to some friend's for a Pirate-themed birthday party and then home to watch the UF vs. Bama SEC Championship game!

Friday, December 4, 2009

Trainer workout

It is supposed to snow tomorrow and we have a birthday party and some people coming over after that for the UF/Bama game, so I wanted to make sure I got a workout in tonight. Therefore I put in the Spinervals Zoot Suit Challenge workout, which involves some standing sprints and lots of super spins. Felt pretty good. Overall glad I got it in.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Terrible morning run

Beautiful day, it was in the 60s yet I still couldn't get any kind of rhythm going. Felt tight, rough, and had a terrible run. Wanted to go for a 5-6 miler, but quit it around 4 because of how terrible I felt. UGh...

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

No Track? How about a Tempo Run?

Well it turns out that Elana couldn't watch Cole for us tonight so Betsy and I had to cancel on our trip to track. So instead I headed over to Bolling AFB to get in a nice tempo run as replacement. Overall, I put in a nice 6 miler at a pace 7:33 min/mile, breaking in easier with a 7:50 first mile, then dropping down to 7:31, 7:33, 7:34, 7:33 and then finishing off with a final 7:21 min/mile. Good run considering I beat my previous PR by well over 2 min.

2010 Efforts!

This year, like last year, I will be riding for Mary Payton's Miracle - My friend Steve Kogos from Trigators informed me that his friend Joe's daughter, Mary Payton, was diagnosed a number of years back with Late Infantile Batten Disease. This is a disease with no cure, however, there are special experimental (and extremely expensive) treatments which have shown some significant signs of success! In order to assist with the costly treatments and research, Mary Payton's Miracle was created to raise money to find a cure, hopefully in time to save little Mary Payton as well as the many others affected by this terrible disease!

Total Mileage

Current Challenges

Valid 2/1-12/1/2009