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!

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.

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...

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.

4th Quarter Update!

Hey everyone!

So the year is about to come to a close, only one month left for 2009! I wanted to write and update everyone on Mary Payton's status, a new fundraising method that we all can do without spending a cent and where we are for total mileage and fundraising! First, the new dosage of her medication has been working fairly well, dropping the frequency of her extended seizures (20-60 sec in length) to about 1-2 a day. She still is having a number of myoclinic and lip smacking seizures, but progress is still progress. If you check out the website (www.marypaytonsmiracle.com) you will also see that the research group at Cornell University has agreed to initiate the gene therapy treatment with only a 20% downpayment, allowing the cost to be paid over a period of years. However, with about a $2.5 million dollar cost to treat five children with Batten's Disease, significant fundraising is still required. As always, if you would like to donate, even $5 is a huge help.

I of course realize with the current state of the economy, giving is more difficult than it has been in the past. However, there is a way for you to help out financially without spending a dime! There is a search engine on the internet called GoodSearch that is powered by Yahoo. As with all search engines, websites pay the search engine for traffic directed to their websites, however, unlike all other sites, at Good Search 50% of all money raised is donated to charity! Furthermore, you can designate which charity you want the money made from your web searching to go to! It would be wonderful if you would all be willing to use this website and designate Mary Payton's Miracle as your charity and help the Vigil family get the gene treatment for Mary Payton and four other children stricken with Batten's Disease, strictly by doing something we do every time we are online! Furthermore, Goodsearch also includes GoodShop, where between 2-6% of all purchases made online through GoodShop will be donated to the charity you chose! Further, as an added bonus, it pops up with any available online coupons to that store when you do the search!!! So if you do any of your Christmas or Holiday shopping online, simply by searching and purchasing through GoodShop for the retailer you are interested in, you can save a couple bucks while you help out at the same TIME! Finally, GoodSearch does have a downloadable seach menu bar for your web browser if you prefer to have it up there!

As for our efforts, we are still doing quite well! Overall, together we have raised $3443 to date and I have gotten in 5061 charity miles! This has included a marathon, a 10 miler, Muddy Buddy, an Olympic Tri (in which I won my age group for the first time ever) and on Thanksgiving a Turkey Trot 5K in Charlottesville VA. To all of the donors and well wishers, thank you again for all the help and support. For those of you still wishing to give or who now find themselves in a better position to do so, it is never too late and every dollar raised is used 100% towards helping Mary Payton and others battling Batten's disease. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and hope this year has been as productive and enjoyable as it has been for Betsy, Cole and I!

Josh Caldwell

Trainer Workout: Spinervals Recovery and Technique

I wanted to go running this morning, but woke up a bit late and couldn't quite swing it. Of course, by the time I got into work and got going it was pouring rain outside. It kept raining all day, not stopping until well after 6PM. So after getting Cole to bed, I decided to do a trainer workout before watching my Pats on Monday Night Football against the undefeated New Orleans Saints! Since I hadn't been on the trainer in months and I am still recovering a bit from the combination of the hilly 5k and our 10 mile run on Sat, I decided to do the Spinervals Recovery and Technique workout. Lots of one leg drills and super sprints. Good workout overall, felt pretty decent and nice and easy to work my way back into the trainer efforts. Track tomorrow!

Morning Long Run with the Fam!

We returned from Charlottesville yesterday and took the day off from workouts so that we would be prepared for our long run today. As I didn't sleep well (got to sleep around 2am) on Thursday and Betsy didn't get to sleep until after midnight last night, we slept in a bit this morning and therefore didn't get going until almost 10:30! With the chilly weather though, it wasn't really that bad of a deal to start a bit late. So we hit the road with Cole for our 10 mile run. I felt quite good most of the way, having a bit of soreness in my hips, but nothing too terrible. We kept a great pace, finishing in 1:22:17 (8:13 min/mile), with out miles in 8:21, 8:17, 8:09, 8:07, 8:14, 8:18, 8:14, 8:14, and then an 8:04 min mile. Betsy was a bit rough at the end, but finished strong despite it all! Great long run to get back into the swing of it!

Charlottesville Turkey Trot 5K

We arrived at my mother in law's for Thanksgiving yesterday evening and knowing we were going to be here, we decided to run the 5K in Karen's neighborhood. As it was close by, we started with a nice easy jog from Karen's house down to the start line, keeping about an 8:40 min/mile pace. After stretching and waiting a bit, we pushed our way to the start line and then got started. I took off pretty quickly, getting out a 7:05 min/mile, then hit the hills on the second mile (grades up above 10% multiple times), which slowed me down to 7:41 min mile. Following the completion of that mile, I was able to get it going again and put out a final 7:15 min/mile and then finished the final 0.1 miles at a 6:08 min/mile pace, finishing in 22:23 overall. Considering this was my first 5K outside of a triathlon since 2004 and was an extremely hilly course, I was quite pleased with the overall result! Will get my placement tomorrow! Betsy on the other hand finished in about 24 min, which last year would be enough for a top 3 finish in her age group! It will be interesting to see how she finished tomorrow! Afterwards Betsy and I did a nice easy cool down run home.

Afternoon run at Bolling

I wanted to get in a nice run just to loosen up before heading out for Charlottesville tomorrow, so I headed over to Bolling to get the run in. I got started at the fitness club, keeping a nice 8 min/mile pace pushing off through the general's row, then down to the water along the path. It seems like they finally finished the trail, with it extended past the DIA into the Anacostia Park! However, the downside of this was I kept on running and got to a point where I had some trouble finding my way back. I ended up figuring it out, but only after spending an extra 1/2 mile running around trying to find my way. It ended up being about 5.5 miles at a pace of 7:49 min/mile overall. The miles were completed in 8:08, 7:53, 7:50, 7:49, 7:42, and finished the final 1/2 mile at a 7:24 min/mile pace.

Afternoon Tempo Ride

So today has been a great day, started off with Betsy having training for Behavior Watch with the Lion's at the National Zoo, so Cole and I had a morning to ourselves. We started off with church, where he was the best behaved little boy a daddy could ask for, only uttering a cute little 'Uh Oh' when he dropped his milk, which of course got quite a few giggles from the congregation. After hitting Lowe's for a new chisel, we got a bagel as a treat at Panera before heading home for a bit of play time and then lunch and a nap. After Betsy got home, I got out for my tempo bike ride. I did really well heading out, with a really strong tail wind, averaging 20.9 mph over the first 10 miles. Of course when you have a tail wind on the way out, you have to have a head wind on the way back. Which of course beat me into submission over the next 19 miles, dropping my average to 17.8 mph, ugh... Overall, I still averaged 19.3 mph, so not too shabby. Now for a beer and an afternoon watching the Pats play the hated Jets with Betsy and Cole!!!