5 Miles this evening. Much better weather than Sunday. About 39 degrees and no wind. Legs still feeling ok, 6 miles on the schedule for Thursday.

5 Miles yesterday. Legs still ok last night and feel good today. I will try 6 miles tomorrow.

5.0

Last week was a dissapoint as far as my running goes. I ran Tues and Thursday and was scheduled for 4 miles Sat and 5 Miles Sunday. I spoke to my parents Satuday and they were looking for an new generator. If you live in the U.S. and have heard of the ice storm that went through portions of the South, you know several hundred thousand folks are stil without power.

I found a generator at a town near me and drove it over to their place Saturday night, so no run on that day. Then spent about 5 hours with a chainsaw cutting all the limbs that fell in their yard on Sunday. No run, but I guess the cutting could be considered weight training. I had some illusion that when I got home at about 5:00 I would be able to run, but my back was really sore and I was exhausted. My drive home took about 2 hours and I saw hundreds of power poles that were either broke off halfway down the pole, or just leaning at about 45 degrees. I heard in my parents county there were approximately 3000 poles needing replacing. The ice storm came through last Wednesday night and my folks and alot of others still do not have power. They had 1-1/2 inches of ice on everything.

5 miles today and hopefully can get back into a groove as far as training goes.

Brrrr

I realize people north of my location have it alot colder than I do, but my run this morning at 4:30 was on of my coldest ever at 17 degrees. On days like this I usually change my schedule to run after work, but I have plans tonight and I am bound and determined not to miss a day on my schedule. I probably wore too much on my upper body so now I know what is the right combination for todays conditions. The good thing about it was that there was no wind at all.

Even though it was cold I am very satisfied with myself for dragging out of bed and running. I feel great right now.

5 miles both Tuesday and Thursday. It has gotten bitter cold here for this area. 9 degrees this morning. My next run is tomorrow and the hight is supposed to be around 35 degrees so I will postpone my usual early morning run to an afternoon run.

I'm going to try this year to post more random pictures as I blog. Unforunatley I'm at work and dont have many pics on my laptop. Here's one taken on my bus ride from Downtown Tokyo back to Narita airport, this is Tokyo Harbor.

2nd Run

Up again this morning for the second day of training for the Counrty Music Half Marathon. I have dedicated myself to really try to focus on my speed work this time around since I continue to read in every book and article around that to get faster you cant just run long, but run fast....and I guess the people that right this stuff kind of know alot more about running than me.

I have also come to the realization that I must do some type of core work. Because:

1. Many of the same articles I read say that core work is important for running efficiency
2. My mid section is terrible.
3. I don't like wearing a t shirt to the water park when I go with my kids

In this months copy of Runners World there is a good section on Core workouts and I am going to give it a shot.

7 miles this morning. It is unusually warm at 60 degrees. Shorts and a sleeveless short was all I needed. Looks like the cold temps are back in a few days though.

3 Miles Thursday and 4 This morning.

I have been trying the past few weeks to run 6 days a week, but my legs cant really take it. I guess I need the 2 days of rest from running each week. I have spent an untold amount of time looking for a training program that meets my needs and will assist me in improving over my last time at the half of 2:25.

I found on the runnersworld page a program that fits me pretty well. I start it on Monday. It consists of 5 runs per week. This one is 16 weeks and looks to me that it will give me more stamina since there are more runs of 12 miles or more at the end.

Lets keep our fingers crossed.

5.0

5 Miles this morning. Pretty cold for me(24 degrees). I bought some Under Armour pants that other day for mornings like this. These are the kind that are tight, I certainly wont be wearing these around the general population and/or without a pair of shorts over them. Seeing yourself in these kind of puts things in ........shall we say a different perspective? However they really did make a difference today so I may get another pair so I wont be rushing to wash them each time I go out for a run.

I have a question. I have Nike shoes and gloves, and coat. Under armour shirts, pull down knit cap, socks and sweats. If you wear different brands of shoes and clothes at the same time does it somehow throw the cosmic balance out of whack. Does the "Just Do It" some how conflict with "Protect This House" I may have stumbled upon another factor of performance.

6.0

Up this morning for a 6 miler. My calf muscles seemed pretty sore from last night, so I took it pretty easy. An 8 miler is scheduled for Turkey day, probably a good thing:)

Off to Arkansas this afternoon and visiting 3 different places from Today all the way thru Saturday. I will still run while traveling, the good thing is that all of my family live in area's that are relatively flat. My legs will be thankful.

12.0 and Brrrrr

Last long run before Memphis was this morning at 5:00AM

I usually drop off some Powerade along the route the night before, but since it was supposed to get below freezing I waited until this morning. As I went down my route the temp got down to 20 degrees at some points!!

I finished at a respectful time for me, but probably could have done a little better but I just ran it nice and slow. I picked up my pace a little at the 7 mile mark since I felt pretty good. I took some Clif Shot Blocks with me and believe it made the difference. These are orange flavored and went down pretty well. They are a little like gummy bears, it was kind of wierd chewing on the things while I was trying to run.

For the next 2 weeks its taper time baby!!!

7.0

7 Miles last night and crap was it cold. I wore a T shirt under a pullover Brooks running top I got a couple a years ago on sale since it is some wierd brown orange color. I still wore some long shorts since my legs really don't feel cold after the first mile. It was about 37 degrees when I got back to the house, but the wind was whipping up to around 10 mph some times.

The best part of my day yesterday was standing in the hot shower for about 10 minutes just soaking up the hot water.

My time really sucked based on my 10 minute pace Wednesday. I felt really run down the last 3 miles. I may have not took in enough carbs. My calf muscles are sore this morning, but thank goodness its a rest day for me.

26 degrees this morning here and forecasted to get down to 20 tonight. I will have to load up the wood stove in my living room this evening.

6.0

6 miles last night on the backroads.

I don't know how I did it, but I ran at a pace just a few seconds shy of 10 min miles. Its very hilly here and I focused on keepinig a real good pace down hill and a steady one up.

Who would have figured all this training actually works?

I'm starting to get a big head now and was searching the internet for a half marathon in January. I could not find any near me except for a trail run the "Swamp Stopper 25k/50K". 25K is a little longer than a half and this one is on January 18th. It does not seem too soon after the one I am running on Dec 6th.

I have never run a trail race, but it seems real interesting and a nice change. Comments are appreciated.

8.0

Up at 4:30 for an 8 miler. Temp was just around 30 degrees, not real cold. I am not going to complain after the hot summer I had to deal with.

With the full moon out it is almost like running at daybreak. I had one of those moments that I have always read about at about mile 7 where I kind of zoned out and seemed not to notice I was tired and/or sore. I picked up my pace and it felt great.

I really enjoy the early morning runs, the hardest part is from my bed to the front door.

Out this morning for a quick 3 miler. Weather here is cloudy, 43 degrees and windy, and spitting a little wind. A typical November day.

6 and 10

6 Miles on Friday. I was supposed to run Thursday also but I was really having some stomach issues and missed that one. I don't feel too guilty since it is the first scheduled run I have missed in probably 3 months. Actually the missed day helped me legs recover a little.

10 miles today but not the results I had hoped for. First I overslept and did not get to run in the early hours(5 AM) I went out about 1:00, the weather was pretty nice...45 degrees). I had laid out a water bottle at about mile 3.5 last night that I could grab during my run but someone had run over it sometime after I left it out. WTF? I left it in the grass on the side so somone must of really not been paying attention. So no hydration for me until on my way back at mile 6 I saw a couple of guys outside a house and asked them if they would let me get a drink from their hydrant. They were nice enough to allow me.

I still did not get the water I needed and I started to feel it at mile 8. After that I took about 5 walk breaks for about 50 feet and then would run for about a quarter mile and walk again. My ending time was an 11:06 pace but if I did not have the water problem I am sure I could have gone maybe 10:45.

I also think my pace was a little fast early on. My first 3 miles were at about a 10:15 pace. Oh well, Tuesday will be another day for some speed work and I'll put today behind me.

Less than 1 month to the Memphis Half.

Happy Halloween

October has been a pretty good month. I ran almost 20 miles more than in September. I have not weighed myself in awhile, but I am sure I have not lost much weight. On of my goals the next 6-8 months is to lose some weight. My biggest weakness is portions and sometimes just eating some really stupid stuff like Nachos, fries, pizza. I've been pretty good about staying away from the sweet stuff, but its the greasy/salty things that I really crave. Its seems crazy, but all this running makes me eat more.

I also eat fruit and veg's each day, I just pile on other crap that is totally unacceptable.


Prayers are appreciated and welcome.

Back in the states

After being up for about 24 hours with 3 hours of sleep I made it back Thursday night. Certainly good to be home. I still enjoy going to Tokyo. It is a great town and I had some world class sushi and Sake.

5 Miles this morning.

3 Miles yesterday afternoon and 7 this morning.

I shaved almost 2 minutes off of my last 7 miler 3 weeks ago...woo hoooo. Problably due to the cooler weather this morning. 40 degress and it felt great. These new shoes may work out, my toe did not start giving me trouble until the last few feet of my run.

My next run will be a 4 miler in downtown tokyo on Monday morning(Sunday night central standard time)

3 Miles this morning. New shoes felt pretty good, but darn they are big. I took them off this morning and they were next to my wife's shoes and hers looked liked toddlers shoes compared to my 15's.