02/14/2015 Race Report for Cupid's Chase Glen Rock

Today I ran the Cupid's Chase 5K in Glen Rock, New Jersey.  First, I need to thank Maura and the kids for braving the temps.  Especially on Valentine's Day.  It was 14 degrees when I left the car to get ready.  Yikes, I think they deserve the award for standing in the cold watching me.  That was probably harder than the running.

I have never run in 14 degree weather.  Guess what, I will never do it again.  I will run the Cupid's Chase, but it usually ins't that cold.  Yep, it was that cold.  I never felt good from the first step.  It was just painful and didn't allow me to find a rhythm.  That's all of my complaining though.  Regardless, it still felt good to be racing again.  I haven't raced since a run in October and it was good to be out there again.

I had been hoping to be under 20 minutes for the run, but I quickly abandoned any real concern for time once the race started and I realized how cold it was.  As it turns out, I finished in 20:25.  That translates to a pace of 6:35/mile.  I finished 11th out of around 150+ runners and 1st in my age group.  I have no complaints.

A couple of takeaways for the run today include:

1.  Even though all my running these days is around my gym 100's of times, I am in decent shape.

2.  I need to get outside and get some hills in.  There is nothing like hills and hill work to really round out your fitness.

3.  I need to continue the recent nutritional lockdown.  I will race and feel much faster once I drop a few lbs.

02/13/2015 Rest day, wak, and blackberry H2O

Since I have the Glen Rock Cup id's Chase 5k tkmorrow, I decided to take the day off from running. I did mix in a 45 minute walk to stretch out the legs and loosen up after a few days of working out and running.

Today's water festival included a gallon of water with blended up blackberries in it. I did enjoy it, but not like the mango. It's amazing that I have actually made it 5 days drinking a gallon of water everyday.

02/12/2015 Variety workout, old school moves, and a mango

Todays' workout had a little bit of everything in it.  I did some easy miles, some sprints, and some strength stuff.  This is what it consisted of:


1.  2 mile warm up run at about 9:00/mile pace
2.  6 suicides on the court, 1 minute rests  (hence the old school reference)
3.  4 sets, alternating planks and farmer walks, 1 minute and 1:30 respectively
4. 2 mile cool down at about 9:00/mile pace

As you can see, I touched it all and in total, the workout was just a shade under an hour from start to finish.

In regards to the mango, that is what I blended up and added to my water today.  It tastes good and today's edition of the #onegallonchallenge is a lot easier than the last couple days.  I'm sure that is partly due to that fact that I am getting used to it, but also because the mango water is the best tasting so far.  

02/11/2015 Today's workout and dirty water for the #onegallonchallenge

Today's workout was run-less.  Without run, or whatever.  I gave myself a day off from running after two days in a row.  Instead, my workout was a half an hour jumping rope continuously followed by the following mini workout with no rest in between:

2 times through this mini circuit with no break:

25 push ups
25 air squats
25 chair dips
25 box jumps

By the time I was finished, I was pretty wiped.  Admittedly, I am not in the best shape right now, especially the strength stuff.  However, it doesn't really matter who it is, if you are going high intensity with little to no rest, it's going to kick your ass or you aren't doing it right.  

The #onegallonchallenge is still in effect.  Today, I went a little nuts and added some flavor.  I know, crazy right?  That's why I called it dirty water above.  I blended up a clementine and about a 1/4 of a cucumber in the jug today.  I have to say, it tastes pretty good.  By the end however, I am kind of over the flavor.  We'll see what tomorrow's jug tastes like.

02/10/2015 6.75 mile run and workout, lots of H2O going on

Today is the second day of my #onegallonchallenge and it's a lot of water.  Admittedly, I don't plan on doing this for a long time.  What I am hoping to do is simply make water a priority for my body and increase the volume overall.  I am really just doing the #onegallonchallenge to give me a dorky reason why I want to do it.  

Today, I ran about 6.75 miles in an hour, with a faster second half.  As I have said before, finishing with speed is a philosophy I have to build strength, speed, and also to be able to power through some pain at the end of a run/race.  I would say I ran about 3 miles around 9:00/mile pace, maybe a little under.  I then ran probably 2 more mile around 8:30/mile pace.  Finally, I finished up the last 2 miles in about 7:45/mile pace.  All of those paces are give or take, I didn't keep absolute track, just went by feel.  

Today, when I finished up the run, I immediately started a mini workout that looked like this:

1 minute front plank
15 inverted rows
1 minute right side plank
15 inverted rows
1 minute left side plank
15 inverted rows
1 minute front plank
15 inverted rows

Again, this is my attempt at adding strength work seamlessly into my workouts.  It occurred to me the other day that I am a runner, not a gym guy.  I want to mainly focus on the running and simply add supplements to my runs to improve.  I am not looking to make big gains in the gym or look like a gym guy, that's not me.  I simply want to race as fast as possible.

02/09/2015 The #onegallonchallenge is on, who's in?

Well, first of all I have to say I am not the biggest fan of water.  It's just the taste, or lack of.  I know, I know...add lemon, cucumber, lime, etc.  I know the drill and sometimes I do.  
In an effort to clean up the fluid intake over the last couple weeks, I have lowered the caffeine intake and almost completely eliminated the diet soda intake.  I am now, this week, adding a one gallon challenge to the mix and starting everyday with a full gallon of water and trying to get through it before I finish the day.  I have to admit, day one is off to a slow start, but we will see where it goes.  Who wants to join me and have to pee every 10 minutes of the day?

02/09/2015 6.5 miler and 250 reps

Sometimes, a workout just feels more productive than others.  I hooked up some AthleteonFire on my head phones and cruised a comfortable hour long run for about 6.5 miles.  I then immediately jumped into the following 250 rep circuit of these exercises, with no rest between or during:

50 push ups

50 air squats

50 jumping jacks

50 dips on a chair

50 box jumps

I was sweating and feeling real warm at the end of the run.  However, I wasn't even done with the air squats and I was dripping with sweat and seriously tired.  I am going to try and combo some of the run days instead of devoting whole workouts to strength stuff.  I just don't think I am that guy, even though I know there is a real benefit to it.  Hopefully, this will be a more seamless transition to adding strength exercises and tighten up the flab :)