Running, Biking, Firefighting & other challenges

Upcoming Ride

2009-06-10T13:02:00.002-05:00

After only a couple 20 milers since the first part of March I am registered to do a 62 miler in the Tour de Rock. Did it last year and it was a blast, though I did train for it and rode hard. Plan to ride easy and since its basically a flat course I don't think I'll have a problem doing the distance.

Sunday we did a brick (bike/run). Biked 18 miles and then ran 5 miles. Both were very good. Held an 18.1 mph pace on the bike and a slow easy 10:10 on the run. I wasn't even pushing the bike all the way so I can really tell that the P90x workouts are helping with my legs and core. Aero was so easy.

More to come soon!

Back on the bike

2009-06-01T07:24:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was the first time I had been back on the bike since the first week of March. Had a good 18 mile ride with some of the cruiser guys. Even though it was 91 degrees I felt unbelievably strong. Ended up having a 17.5mph average even though we didn't even push the pace or do any drafting. Well, the last 8 I did push it a little. I wanted to open it up and I did. Guess too much, dropped everyone. Felt good, the legs are not sore, though the heat almost got to me later.

I really think P90x helped. The leg workouts are killers, well, everything about P90x is pretty much killer. If I could only stick to the schedule. Last week was week 5, recovery week for me. And I pretty much have only done one workout all week. Got to get back on the program this week......and only 7 miles running logged. What a slacker.

Still here

2009-05-26T07:22:00.001-05:00

Believe it or not I'm still around. I guess you could say I have had writers block and just haven't felt like writing or been inspired to write on this blog. I'm sure it will come back soon enough. Weather has pretty much sucked too, can't get any bike rides in because of the rain and my schedules. Stay tuned, more to come soon.

Nashville

2009-04-23T07:25:00.002-05:00

We are headed to Nashville today for the Country Music Marathon and Half. Annette and I are doing the 1/2 this year. Looking forward to a fun, easy event. Can't wait to eat at the Gerst Haus and have some German Beer and bratwurst!

Hopefully when we get back things will slow down some so I can catch up on some blogging.

Total lack of blogging

2009-04-16T07:23:00.002-05:00

If anyone reads this I apologize for the total lack of blogging. Basically I have had no time to do it, and now everyone has all of a sudden started using Facebook. Well, Facebook in itself is a lot to keep up with at times. Top it off with training, being very stressful at work, tons of fire department work and the days are over. Each could be a whole column by themselves.

The first week of April we were gone out of town to Brett's Army graduation in Fort Jackson, SC. I have pictures but no time to post right now. Still getting some runs in, in fact Annette and I got to run in London, KY while we were taking Brett to his AIT base at Fort Knox, KY. Must have had a little altitude there because it was hard to breathe.

We have still been getting some great lunch runs in. Usually two to three a week. Seems like we always end each one with a very fast last mile, almost racing to get finished. Makes for some great speed work and negative splits.

Last week I started P90x. Actually I was just testing it the first couple times so now I have decided to stick with it and see how it goes. I really like it. It's hard, but its like having your own personal trainer everyday. Annette and Michele have been doing it for a month now. They start at 5am everyday. I just can't do the early thing. Works better for me after work or maybe early mornings on weekends. Going to stick with it and see how it goes.

May be racing a 5k this weekend if weather permits. It's a small one so maybe I could win something..lol. Next weekend we are heading to Nashville for the Country Music 1/2 Marathon. I don't really have a plan yet, haven't decided if I want to race it or just have fun. I did have a good run at the Inspiration Run last Friday. Did 12 miles of it and conquered Mountain Springs Road with no problems. Felt really strong and it was nice being at the front of the pack, though most of the others had already done 10 or more miles.

Oh yeah, tax day is over with for now. Filed my extension as usual. Our business accountant never gets all the stuff done in time.

Stay focused and think positive!

Week in review

2009-03-29T21:16:00.003-05:00

Just a quick update as to what I have been doing.

Things have slowed down this week at the FD so that's been nice and I've been able to get some sleep for a change.

As far as training goes, did good running Monday and Tuesday and then it seemed the weather turned bad and didn't get to do anything.

Monday, Annette and I did a lunch run. Ended up pretty much being a tempo run even though we said it was going to be easy. I guess my legs felt too good and the weather was actually 72 degrees warm. Ended up running 3.13 miles with a 9:36 average pace. Not bad for an easy lunch run.

Tuesday was another lunch run and another 3.1 miles. Temps were 65 and very windy. We backed the pace down a little on this one and averaged a 10:07.

Saturday was the Spring Fling 5k in Cabot and I elected to work the race and not run it. For some reason I was just not excited about racing. Even though I have been getting faster, the Grand Prix guys in my age group are just so fast its crazy. I have to run a sub 22 5k to even get a 5th place award. I was also coordinating with Police and Fire for the race so that gave me something to do. Also on Friday I went out and bought me a new digital SLR camera. A Nikon D-40 with an extra 55-200mm lens. This gave me something to do during the race. Since the race finishes on the High School track, usually all the race photos are taken there but I opted to do something different. I was back up on two intersections anyway in case the police had to leave so I found me a spot on East Main where the runners ran up an pretty good incline. Had woods as a background so it made some pretty good shots. It was also interesting watching the runners struggle up that hill. I think the pictures turned out pretty good for my first crack at race photos. I'll have to say, it was fun!

If you want to see the photos I took you can see them here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/npfd603/SpringFling2009#

Today (Sunday) Annette and I did our long run. Or at least its long for me. It had turned pretty cold on Saturday but it was warming so we waited and ran around 10:30am. Ended up doing 9 miles with a 10:32 average pace. This was a very comfortable run and actually the pace would have been much better if it hadn't been for having to stop to cross one of the highways. We purposely tried to keep the pace comfortable and it worked out to be a great run on a beautiful day.

We leave on Tuesday to go to Fort Jackson South Carolina for Brett's basic training graduation. I am looking forward to getting away but I will still have to do some work while we are gone. It never ends. We might even come back through the Smokey Mountains if we have time. I would love to get some good pictures there! I'll be taking a bunch at the graduation I know.

Behind again in more ways then one

2009-03-23T07:08:00.003-05:00

Title sums it up for me. Pretty much running behind on everything. Sleep, training, time, you name it. Too many things to get done and not enough time in the day. Quick updates from last week:

Training:
Guess its good that last week was a back down week anyway after the half. I was only able to get two runs in all week and weekend. Tuesday was a lunch run. Basically wanted it just to be a recovery run as my legs were pretty sore still from the half. I got in 3.4 miles @10:25 pace while Annette was right around 3. First two miles were 10:40ish pace as Annette was having stomach problems. Picked it up from there and did a 10:01 and 9:50. Good day to run, weather was just over 50 degrees.

Thursday evening I rode with Annette to Michele's house and ran with them to the track for their Women Can Run Clinic and then I ran on home. Ended up with 5 miles @10:21 pace. This included about a 3 minute wait to cross Hwy 89. I was just trying to stay around a 10 - 10:30 pace. Splits:
1- 10:34
2- 10:33
3- 10:47 (waiting at crosswalk)
4- 9:51
5- 10:02

Hey, negative splits so I guess its not all bad.

FD:
I have been very busy at the Fire Department the past couple weeks. Seems we have an arsonist or maybe more than one in our district setting fires to abandoned mobile homes. Week before last we had two abandoned mobile homes burn and last week we had two more. One was in the same trailer park as the one from the previous week. The other one was at a closed down mobile home dealer early Saturday morning. They are all happening between 11:30pm and 1:00am. The crazy thing is, several of us have the same person in mind as a possible suspect. Arson is one of those crimes that is very hard to prove since the majority of the evidence is burnt up. The other thing on these are that since they are abandoned mobile homes, there is not as much push for opening an investigation. We shall see, but in a 7 day period of time we have had 4 abandoned trailers lit up so I think it is a pattern, maybe it's just coincidence. All I know these 3 hours of sleep nights are getting old!

Also on Monday last week my 35 year old Mack engine was hit from behind by a dump truck. Luckily no one was hurt. One of my guys was driving the engine to station one and had stopped at a stop sign when the truck bumped him from behind. Bent the tail board up pretty good and buckled the bed some so the chief took it out of service. The good thing for me is that Station 3 got Engine 62 to use till our new truck is finished. I think its a 2004 HME chassis with a Ferra body. Automatic, a/c, full custom cab. Pretty sweet after having to drive standard no air trucks for 15 years.

So we get E62 on Tuesday night. First night we have it she makes one of the mobile home fires. Then early Saturday morning she was first in on the other one. Also Friday our day crews fought an occupied mobile home fire, confining the fire to one bedroom.

After getting to bed at 3:30am on Saturday, I had to be at Station 2 at 8:30 for annual hose testing. Needless to say it was hard to get out of bed. We also had a chili cooking contest for lunch and Annette's chili won the "yummiest chili" award. Sunday was another busy day. 5:30am vehicle accident which we got canceled on. Then around 12:30pm we responded to about a 5 acre grass fire on top of the big hill just south of Greystone. Got that done, washed all the trucks and before we could leave we had to go back to that fire as it had flared back up again. I ended up getting home around 4:00ish.

Try to add on to that mowing, trying to clean the pool, visiting some relatives Sunday night. Oh, and I almost forgot Annette and Michele's new P90x program they are trying to start. Came home and they were on a cleaning binge to get our workout room set up. Needless to say, it was a busy weekend and week!! I have some photos to post but no time....maybe later.

Little Rock Half

2009-03-19T07:01:00.003-05:00

I am way behind on posting so I'll try to make this one short. (lol....don't believe it)

Did the Little Rock 1/2 Marathon on Sunday. The day started out very stressful. First off, Saturday night the weather forecast called for a 42 degree start. Kind of borderline for me as to wearing long sleeve or short sleeve shirt and shorts or tights. Actually too warm for tights and I was hoping I could wear my favorite long sleeve that had gotten me through the 15k race and the 1/2 training run in the rain. After getting up Sunday morning, the temp was 50 degrees. Talk about missing the forecast. So now it was plan B, tech t shirt. No big deal other than the one I picked had never been tested on a long run. These are things that one needs to do as some shirts can chaff where others may not. I rolled the dice.

To add to the tension, we needed to meet Michele and some others at 6:15am for the drive down, at 6:45am my phone quit working right. I have a Blackberry Curve and the roller ball all of a sudden started hanging up. I thought no big deal, I'll just pop it out and clean it good with some canned air. I had done this several times with Annette's phone with no problems but after popping mine out, I could not get it to go back in place. It's kind of like doing surgery because the parts are so small and so easy to break. The harder I tried the more it would not go back in place. All I could think about is that I had to have my phone for at least after the race to find out where everyone is. And you can't do much of anything with a Blackberry if the ball does not work. I tried and I tried until finally, I broke it. Yep, I broke the ball, its 6:50am, I still needed to shower and get dressed. We had to meet at 6:15. And one other little thing, it was race day!

Lucky for me I had purchased a roller ball for Annette's phone when she was having trouble. So I grabbed it, out it in my phone and it went right in place. Phone worked, ball worked, everything was good other then it was now a few minutes past 6. Stress!!!

Somehow, I managed to shower, shave, get dressed and get all my gear together in about 10 minutes and at 6:15 we were walking out the door. Met Michele at Team 1 and then found out that Karen had overslept so we didn't have time to wait on her. Off to the races we went.

Since my stress level was now reduced, the race seemed no big deal. My goal was just to stay around a 10:00 average pace and have a PR. My pie in the sky was to run a 2:10. Not fast for some but with my pure lack of training so far this year, it would be a big task. I had only done one run over 10 miles and had only had three over 8 miles leading up to the race so my expectations were really more than my legs should be able to handle. My last half was last April.

After the usual bathroom visits, we found our starting coral and didn't have to wait long and we were off and running. I stayed with Annette, Michele and Jane for probably the first couple miles. We all started separating as we crossed the Broadway Bridge. I felt good and strong but by mile two my right shin and calf was tightening up. At 2.5 I grab water as I slogged through the water stop. By 3 or so the pain in my leg was gone. It was getting warmer and I was starting to sweat pretty good. Much warmer than I would have liked. The next water stop I tried to get some Gatorade down me which required me to walk fast through it. Didn't walk any more than 15 seconds and I was back running. The next stop was close to 6 miles and I wanted my accell gel so I kinda slogged through it. I was keeping a good pace, probably faster than I should have. Average pace here was probably 9:50 which was much faster than my goal so I decided I'd just go with it anyway and bank whatever time I could. I knew I would need it later.

I managed to keep my below 10 min pace up to about mile 10 where things fell apart for a few. There is a long incline leading up to the Governors Mansion and for some reason seeing that for about a mile or so just messes with my head. My legs were starting to tired too just from lack of training and I knew once I turned at the corner, it was only 5k to go. Here I made the fatal mistake of taking a quick walk break to rest my legs and catch my breath. Shouldn't have done it. What cost me time was after I started back running, two blocks later was the water stop. And it was time for my last gel. So, a fast walk here. All in all this probably cost me one minute in time, if that. From there on it was still rolling inclines but I felt better. Tried to push the pace when I could. My average pace was still around 10:05 per my garmin. Nothing spectacular from here other than I passed one of the Grand Prix guys that usually runs about the same time as me. He passed me back then I passed him again when he took a walk break. After that I was determined to make him work to pass me. It paid off in the end. I finished the last couple miles strong. It was nice seeing that finish line though. I knew I had a PR in the bag but I had blown my hopes of a 2:10. Ended up finishing at 2:13:45 which based on race distance was a 10:13 pace. My garmin showed the course a little long at 13.29 miles. Time was the same but my average pace per my garmin was 10:04. Either way it was still a big PR by almost 5 minutes. Still not happy about mile 10 and if it had been a little cooler I know I would have broke that 2:10. Little Rock is a tough course and really not one to PR on. Nashville is next for me at the end of April so hopefully I can train more and have another PR there.

Week in review

2009-03-13T18:50:00.002-05:00

Wow, I am behind on blogging. Seems like everyone all of a sudden got on face book and that takes a lot of time just to keep up. Just a quick recap of what I have been up to since the crashes on Saturday.

Saturday night - 11:30pm structure fire, abandoned trailer. No big deal, just a lot of lost sleep. Was back home by 1:30.

Sunday - Was scheduled to be my long run and I needed around 8 miles. After being up late on Saturday and with the time change no way was I getting up to run with the girls. Well, the weather turned warm and I ended up running at 1:00pm. Decided the only way to get it done was to run to James and Michele's, get the bikes off his rack for them and then run back home. Should get me 8+. It was a tough run, mainly because of the heat. Luckily I wore my water belt with 2 bottles to keep me hydrated. By the time I got to James and Michele's. I was dripping with sweat. The temps had gotten to almost 80 degrees. Annette was at the WCR Clinic so I knew I could catch a ride back home with her if I had to. No way. I visited with James for a few as he was hurting pretty bad from the bike wreck then I took off. Pace was slow and I had to do some walking just to cool down. Annette drove by me a couple times asking if I wanted to get in and I said no. Long story short, I got 8.5 miles done in 80 degree weather. Average pace was a 10:57 so it was pretty slow. Luckily it didn't turn in to a death march and I got it done.

Monday - Another warm day. Had too much going to run at lunch so with the new time I ran when I got home from work. It was warm, and my legs felt like lead weights so I just did a 2.1 mile run. 10:08 average pace so not bad considering I guess.

Tuesday/Wednesday - Tuesday night was my FD night so I didn't get a run in. Wednesday the weather was terrible and we went to a birthday party after work so no time.

Thursday - Slugged out 3 miles on the treadmill. Weather was still nasty, rainy, cold. Amazing how it can be 80 on Tuesday and 31 on Thursday. That's Arkansas weather!

Friday - 12:30am Structure fire. Another abandoned mobile home. I'm starting to wonder if there is a pattern developing. Two in less than 7 days though they were not in the same place. Needless to say, we have our eyes and noses out, especially if there is another one soon. Got back home at 2:30am, just in time to get 4 hours sleep before work. Yuck. Luckily I have plenty of good coffee to keep me going!

Saturday we will be attending the Little Rockers Marathon event for the Magness Creek kids where they run their last mile of their marathon. This is a fun event watching all the little kids race and Annette is one of the leaders of the whole group of around 150 kids.

Sunday is the Little Rock Marathon/Half Marathon. Annette and I will be running the half and hoping for PR's. I'm not even going to say a time but I have one in my head. Wondering if a 9 minute PR is doable? Have been having some weird leg pains since running on the treadmill last night. Hope its just tight muscles from sitting at work and stuff. Seemed to be better on the treadmill when I ran faster so maybe I just need to stretch it out. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Will update the blog later this weekend. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Saturday close call

2009-03-09T20:04:00.005-05:00

It all started out to be a good weekend. Annette and I were riding to the 2 mile race in Conway with James, Michele, their kids, Russ and Jane. James, Russ and I were going to bike back to Cabot after the race along with Phil C. I had decided I was not racing it as the 2 mile distance might hurt my foot and with next weekend being the Little Rock 1/2 Marathon I didn't want to take a chance.

Everyone had a great race. Afterwards James, Russ, Phil and myself got our bike gear on and head off to Cabot. James had just gotten a new Orbea Ordu Tri Bike and this was only the second ride he had been on with it. We were anxious to see how it would do in comparison to his road bike. There was a very stiff southerly wind so when we pulled out of the parking lot we had a head wind for probably 6 miles almost. I pulled for probably 5 miles then James came to the front to see how the tri bike would be. He immediately hit 23mph and I could not hang. I figured he had to gain at least 2mph with the bike and aero helmet he had on. Once we got turned on Otto Road things were nice. Good smooth road, not much wind. It was actually getting pretty warm though and I was starting to sweat, wishing I didn't have the long sleeve shirt under my jersey.

Let me warn you, there are some fast dogs on Otto Road. Had two come out and chase us and one was a little small dog. I looked down and I was going 20 mph and he was gaining on me. Never seen a dog run that fast! Luckily they didn't take us out. We stopped at Otto Road and Hwy 107 to regroup. Then we headed north towards highway 319. It was just maybe a minute or so later when things went bad.

James was the lead bike with Russ maybe one bike length behind him and then me probably 3-4 behind Russ with Phil behind me about the same. We had somewhat of a nice small downhill, then a slight curve, then the road straighted back up. I noticed on my speedo that we were doing 23mph. Then all of a sudden I see James bike shake on the front and he started going down. Russ tried to swerve to the left to miss him but there was no room and he went down. All of this was happening in split seconds and all I could see was James back sliding across the road in front of me. All I knew is that I didn't want to hit him and go down so I swerved hard left and somehow missed both of them by inches. Phil did the same. It was just like watching the Tour de France on TV when they have a big crash other than this was live. By the time I got stopped and looked back Russ was on the side of the road sitting up and James was laying on the side of the road but moving. Since Russ was closest I checked him for injuries. He was holding his right arm and said "I'm ok, I just have a broke arm". Yes, he did have a bad break, but he was very calm about it. Much calmer than I would have been if it was me. I told him to sit tight and I ran over to James. He was holding his shoulder. I checked it and no bones were poking out so that was good. He was alert, conscious and said it was just his shoulder and side. I figured maybe a broken collar bone and maybe a rib. Phil was on the phone and I started calling 911 for an ambulance. I wanted them checked even if they didn't want to be transported. All the while Phil was grabbing the bikes out of the middle of the road. In less than 5 minutes First Responders arrived from Hilltop and Vilonia Fire Departments. It had to be not much over 5 that MEMS arrived. I lucked out and the two guys on the unit were friends of mine so I knew James and Russ would get extra special care. They told them that unless they wanted a ride to the hospital there wasn't much that they could do which both refused transport as Phil had already gotten Michele on the phone and they were on the way there from Conway. The medics did splint Russ arm and we got a sling to immobilize James shoulder/collar bone. They both had some road rash but nothing severe. James had a spot on the side of his head that looked almost like road rash but it was where his helmet slid on the pavement. Luckily he was wearing one, otherwise it would not have been a good outcome.

Michele and the girls arrived within 15 minutes, probably shocked to see James and Russ sitting hurt on the side of the road. Phil and I got their bikes loaded on the rack and then realized we couldn't go with them. They needed all the room they could. So we decided to just ride on. The MEMS crew did tell me that if we really needed a ride they would make sure we got taken care of but Jackie was on her way to meet us from Conway too so we just rode. The rest of our ride was uneventful and we talked some about what happened. We didn't push the pace and continued on to the BP store at Hwy 5 and 319 where Jackie was meeting us. I got a call from Annette when we got there that they had made it to the ER in Conway and that there was a 2 hour wait so I needed to go pick her and Jane up as soon as I could. Luckily Bailey saw us at the BP and pulled in. She ended up giving me a ride back to my truck at James house. I drove home after that to change and get shoes as mine were in James vehicle in Conway. I was at the ER in less than an hour and the guys just got to go back just shortly after I got there. Since the kids were with Michele, we took the kids home with us and dropped Jane off at her house. This all started probably around 11:15am and it was after 6 before James and Michele got home. Russ ended up getting admitted and they did surgery on his arm/wrist. His break was maybe an inch behind the wrist and seemed to have a lot of damage but the prognosis is good with an estimated 6 week recovery time. James did have a broken distal clavicle (collar bone) and a broken rib. So basically he has to wear a sling till it heals. No surgery needed. Both have a lot of pain for a few days. The bad thing is both these guys were training for the 70.3 Ironman New Orleans in April so now they are out. James also is planning on Ironman Lake Placid which is in July so he may still have time to train for that one. And James new tri bike, well, I got it off the rack yesterday and looked it over. Everything looked good other than the top tube on the carbon frame has about a 2 inch crack in it. I'm sure a bike shop will say it needs replaced. He is hoping his insurance may cover it.

He said his foot came unclipped for some reason and when it did he just lost control of the bike he thinks. He was in aero and that's exactly what it looked like from behind, but things happen so fast we may never really know. One minute your having fun and the next your laying on the side of the road in pain. Could have been much worse, could have been all four of us down or even worse, a car could have been close. All in all we were pretty lucky.

As far as my training, for Saturday I ended up with 24.3 miles with a 17.4 mph average pace. The ride would have gotten us close to 40 if we had got it all done. Maybe next time.

Quick Recap for the week

2009-03-06T07:06:00.003-06:00

Monday - 5.0 miles - Treadmill run - Very warm and slow, 10:40 avg pace

Tuesday - 2.2 miles - Treadmill at lunch for a quickie - 9:59 avg pace

Wednesday - Out of town no running

Thursday - 5.0 miles - Ran with Annette and Michele to the Community Center for their Women Can Run Clinic then turned around and ran back home. Very warm outside, 72 degrees plus which we are not used to yet. Luckily we had some brisk winds that helped keep me cool. Avg pace 10:35, would have been better but got stuck waiting on city traffic at mile three to cross the road so I had like a 12:23 pace on that one. Other laps were all under 10:19.

Friday - rest day?

Weekend plans - Going to Conway in the morning to watch the 2 mile race then I am biking back to Cabot with some others. Should get around 40 miles biking if not more. Weather is looking perfect for a bike ride other than the winds maybe. Will try to get around 8 miles in Sunday in preparation for the Little Rock 1/2 next weekend.

TGIF!!

Arkansas Fallen Firefighters Memorial - El Dorado, Ar

2009-03-05T19:23:00.003-06:00

This is a great video and they are still raising funds to have this put at the State Capitol. I have two friends whose names will be on this.

Long run and Speed Work

2009-03-01T10:49:00.004-06:00

I hate to say it but this week I have been slacking a little on the running side. Looks like I will end up with only three days of running but still have almost 20 miles in. Not really a big deal to me as the quality of the runs is what counts for me and they have all been good.

I had already blogged a little about Mondays lunch run. Ended up resting Tuesday and had Fire Department stuff Tuesday night. Wednesday is suppose to be my tempo run so I put all my numbers in the McMillan Running Calculator and it said I should run my tempo runs between a 9:40 and 10:05 pace. Sounds about right. So I told Annette we would shoot for a 9:40 pace after a 1 mile warm up. Well, the weather was not in our favor. It had gotten hot for a noon time run. It was 65+ degrees and we were really not used to that. First mile I tried to keep things slower. Ended up being a 10:04. Hey tempo pace upper end. Second mile was a 9:48 and the third mile we really picked up the pace and mine ended up being a 9:24. Actually too fast, but for average pace I ended up with 3.1 miles @9:45 so I was dead on tempo. Afterwards Annette and I both commented how hard the run was. It felt more like race pace, but I know it was because of the warm temps, plus we were still recovering some from the 15k.

Thursday my foot was a little sore so I took off and Friday is almost always a rest day. Saturday called for a 13.1 mile long run with the Cruisers on the Little Rock Marathon 1/2 route so I figured it wouldn't hurt me to have some extra rest days. I like to listen to my body and now when it says something hurts, I don't run.

Saturday was looking like a not so fun run, it was raining Friday and calling for rain and cold Saturday. Not another 15k day I thought. It was Jane's birthday so this run was dedicated to celebrating her birthday. We met the group at the Clinton Library and just after 7:30am we were off and running with right at 25 Cruisers. We had a good large group which was nice since some of the areas we were running in were not so nice. Temps were around 39 degrees.

It started drizzling somewhere around the 2-3 mile mark. Not bad at all, just enough to to make my hat drip a little but not enough to get my feet wet. Ended up being me, Annette and Jane in our little pace group. There were probably 3 or 4 other groups depending on pace and we had 4 bikers out running support if we needed it. First 4 miles were awesome and I kept the girls pacing between 10:30 and 10:40. Took a bathroom break just past mile 4 and then it was a lot of stop and go dealing with red lights and traffic. This slowed our pace some but we were not trying to push it at all. This route also has lots of "inclines" and it always seemed like more ups than downs. The rain started getting worse around mile 9 but never just a downpour. By mile 11 I could feel the ball of my foot starting to get a blister. I think it was because I had taped my foot up for the Plantar and with all the stop and go at the intersections, it was causing the ball of my foot to get a lot of extra use. The girls also started having issues around 11 so we seemed to slow down a lot. Just before mile 13 the girls called the "Scarlata Rule", we were stopping out run at 13.1 and walking the rest of the way in. Which worked out great giving us almost .7 for a cool down walk. Afterwards we met up with the group at the Rivermarket for breakfast, coffee and just hanging it.

Even though conditions were cold and wet again, I had an awesome run and felt great the whole way. I could have ran much faster but I wanted to stay close to the girls. If things will hold together I should have a great 1/2 time in two weeks and possibly a big PR. Just never know what race day will bring though. Last year it was extremely warm temps so times were bad.

Overall, 13.1 miles in 2:26 was not bad for me in a training run. My PR for the 1/2 is 2:18 so I'll be shooting for a 2:10 or better. Little Rock is really not a PR course but I'm gonna try.

Annette and Jane running downtown

Jane and Annette in front of the Governors Mansion right at mile 10

Me and Annette at the Governors Mansion

Am I a Fireman Yet? (True Story)

2009-02-26T16:37:00.002-06:00

This story is uplifting and may make you cry and question yourself each day to live to the fullest, help others, and stop whining about high gas prices and the cold weather. Warning, don't read if you wish to remain the same person you are today. Someone very special in my life shared it with me, and I felt compelled to share with the world - starting with all of you.
Enjoy...

In Phoenix , Arizona , a 26-year-old mother stared down at her 6 year old son, who was dying of terminal leukemia.

Although her heart was filled with sadness,
she also had a strong feeling of determination.
Like any parent, she wanted her son to grow up & fulfill all his dreams. Now that was no longer possible..

The leukemia would see to that. But she still
wanted her son's dream to come true.

She took her son' s hand and asked, 'Billy, did you ever think about what you wanted to be once you grew up?
Did you ever dream and wish what you would
do with your life?'

Mommy, 'I always wanted to be a fireman
when I grew up.'

Mom smiled back and said, 'Let's see if we can
make your wish come true.'

Later that day she went to her local fire
Department in Phoenix , Arizona , where she met Fireman Bob, who had! a heart as big as Phoenix

She explained her son's final wish and
Asked if it might be possible to give her 6 year-old son a ride around the block on a fire engine.

Fireman Bob said, 'Look, we can do better than that. If you'll have your son ready at seven o'clock Wednesday morning, we'll make
him an honorary Fireman for the whole day.
He can come down to the fire station, eat with us, go out on all the fire calls, the whole nine yards!

And if you'll give us his sizes, we'll get a real fire uniform for him, with a real fire hat - not a toy -- one-with the emblem of the Phoenix Fire Department on it, a yellow slicker like we wear and rubber boots.'

'They're all manufactured right here in Phoenix ,so we can get them fast.'

Three days later Fireman Bob picked up Billy,
dressed him in his uniform and escorted him from his hospital bed t o the waiting hook and ladder truck.

Billy got to sit on the back of the truck and help steer it back to the fire station. He was in heaven.

There were three fire calls in Phoenix that day
and Billy got to go out on all three calls.

He rode in the different fire engines, the Paramedic's' van, and even the fire chief's car.

He was also videotaped for the local news program.

Having his dream come true, with all the love and attention that was lavished upon him, so deeply touched Billy, that he lived three months longer than any doctor thought possible.

One night all of his vital signs began to drop dramatically and the head nurse, who believed in the hospice concept - that no one should die alone, began to call the family members to the hospital.

Then she remembered the day Billy had spent
as a Fireman, so she called the Fire Chief and
asked if it would be possible to send a fireman
in uniform to the hospital to be with Billy as he made his transition.

The chief replied, 'We can do better than that.
We'll be there in five minutes.. Will you please do me a favor?

When you hear the sirens screaming and see the
lights flashing, will you announce over the
PA system that there is not a fire?'

'It's the department coming to see one of its finest members one more time. And will you open the window to his room?'

About five minutes later a hook and ladder truck arrived at the hospital and extended its ladder up to Billy's third floor open window-------- 16 fire-fighters climbed up the ladder into Billy's room

With his mother's permission, they hugged him and held him and told him how much they LOVED him.

With his dying breath, Billy looked up at the fire chief and said,

'Chief, am I really a fireman now?'

'Billy, you are, and The Head Chief,
Jesus, is holding your hand,' the chief said

With those words, Billy smiled and said,
'I know, He's been holding my hand all day, and
The angels have been singing..'

He closed his eyes one last time.

True Story---> according to http://www.snopes.com/glurge/fireman.asp

Training with a purpose

2009-02-25T07:10:00.003-06:00

After the 15k on Saturday, Sunday was dedicated to being my bike day. I really need to bike at least once a week until the time changes and then I will get some rides after work. So I met James and the Cruiser group for our standing 1:30pm ride. Ended up being me, James, Phil, Rick W., Duane, and Rob. Nice size group and James and I had already talked about riding easy at first and then picking it up on the way back in. James was wanting a 2 hour ride for his 70.3 New Orleans training. Sounded good to me.

We decided to do the Mt Carmel/Bethlehem/Mt Tabor loop. Almost 30 miles with a lot of hills and rolling terrain. Of course it was windy. Again, we wanted to keep the pace easy going out. And we pretty much did. Everyone stayed together up until about the last hill on Mt Carmel and Rob fell off. We stopped at the Water Dpt on 31 to regroup and went on out Bethlehem. Just kept a pretty steady moderate pace. Rob decided he would cut his ride short and took a short cut back as the rest of us went on. I knew it was going to happen and after we turned on to Mt Tabor we hit a head wind. It was a good one too. We still all kept on pace though we hadn't started to hammer yet. It was tough pulling, not quite as bad if you were in the draft. Phil came up to pull and asked me if we wanted to hold 20mph and I said sure, we can try. Well, we did till about the first hill, even into a strong headwind. I can tell my hill legs are still not back but its getting better. I took all the hills on Mt Carmel in the big ring going out so its just time in the saddle. Needless to say, we couldn't hold 20 long. 17 was much easier. The wind was brutal.

Eventually we were done, with everyone really picking it up for the last 5 miles. Duane had turned off on Dogwood so James, Phil, Rick and myself all made it back at the same time. I know Rick and I had our tongues hanging out, James and Phil didn't seem near as tired. It was a good ride though and we did what we said we were going to do.

Stats:
28.3 Miles
17.1 mph avg. with head wind & hills
28.8 max
1733 calories
150 avg HR

Monday was a recovery run. My legs were trashed. Between the 15k and the bike on Sunday, I just needed to stretch them out a little. So Annette and I did our lunch run. We decided that we would try to keep it slow, around a 10:20-10:30 pace. Weather was nice, mid 40's, sunny, but again there was wind. This was a great run, I kept the pace slow and felt great. It was actually nice running at this pace with very little effort. I decided into the run that I was going to try to keep my heart rate around 160 or less. 164 had been about my marathon rate last year and that was running probably slower than this. It all worked out good and we did stay close to our goal pace. Recovery run done! Here were the stats:
Total miles - 3.11 - 31:52
Avg pace - 10:15 (very very comfortable)
1-10:21
2-10:27
3-10:09 (picked up the pace on the last block just to stretch the legs)
Avg HR 160

Wednesday is tempo day if we get to run at lunch. Weather is looking good for it, maybe a little warm.

Rivertrail 15k Race Report

2009-02-21T17:58:00.004-06:00

I was a little apprehensive going in to this race as I really didn't know what I could do. Ha, I probably said that in my 5k report too but its the truth. After little or no running from June through mid January, I really didn't know. I did know that the 9 miler I did last weekend was great and my fast lunch runs seemed to really be building my aerobic capacity back. I could finally breath again and run many miles without having to walk.

Getting up this morning the weather report had called for rain. At 6:30am it was 47 degrees and no rain which was perfect running weather. By the time Annette and I had gotten to the race site, it started to sprinkle. By 8am race time, the sprinkles had turned to solid rain. All I could think was that this is going to be a miserable race, but at least I knew I wasn't going to get too hot. One thing that probably saved me from mentally ruining the race was the fact that last year when training for Nashville, we ran a 20 miler in a pretty much flash flood. So after that, rain really doesn't bother me as much, and this was only 9.3 miles!

I had two goals for this race. 1) was to run a 1:30 and 2) was just to PR. Last year I ran this one in just over 1:33 and I was feeling much stronger than last year so I figured a 1:30 was realistic. And based on all the predictors out there, based on my 5k time I could do a 1:29 so it was pretty close. One thing I did do different was right before the race I programed my garmin to do the virtual partner and I set it for 1:30 for 9.3 miles.

The race started in the rain and we were off. I tried to stay slow at the beginning but I wasn't as slow as I thought I should be. So from there on I just tried to keep my pace below 10:00. I knew if I stayed below 10 I would PR so I thought maybe in the last couple miles if I had anything left I would just pick up the pace some. It went really well. I fell in to a rhythm and just ran a steady pace. Not slow for me but slow enough I wasn't breathing hard. I paced off a few people in the first few miles then saw some others later on that I ran behind and then passed. Annette was behind me all the way but I knew she wasn't too far. I tried to keep those good positive thoughts coming throughout the run, even when it was miserably wet and cold.

Just before the turn around I saw Bailey and a friend she was running with so I tried to catch up to her. She is a fast runner and we kid her about lolly gagging around. Well sure enough, they stopped in the middle of the race to look at what appeared to be a dead crawdad in the road! Irregardless, I never caught her. I gained on her a few times but then she saw Michele and she took off never to be seen by me again. I did catch Michele just past the boat ramp. She was pretty much done and was not feeling good. We ran together for a few then she told me to go on, she was going to wait on Annette. I did walk the 3rd water stop at about 5.5 so I could take my gel and get a drink. I didn't loose but maybe 20 seconds if that. By mile 8 my legs were getting pretty tired but I kept trying to push. Then just past mile 9 its the parking lots and you can see the finish line but you have to run around to get to it. Since I have ran this race the past two years I was mentally prepared for this but I was hoping that the finish line was different but it wasn't. I knew just when to turn it on and just before the turn to the finish line I started running faster. Baileys young male friend was right there so I really kicked it then passed him right at the finish line. Probably not the smartest thing to do with my foot but it was fun at the time!

Overall I was very pleased with my race and most of all the fact that I ran all miles under 10 other than one. Last year I think I had at least one mile where I ran a 10:46. Here are my stats and the final time is not official yet but it is what my garmin said at 9.3. I actually forgot to turn it off but the virtual partner stopped at 9.3 and gave me a time so that's what I'm using for now. The lap times are correct.

Final time - 9.3 miles - 1:31:39 (missed the big goal of 1:30 but still had a new PR.)
Avg pace - 9:51
Splits
1- 9:47
2- 9:47
3- 9:44
4- 9:46
5- 9:50
6- 10:06 (water stop)
7- 9:52
8- 9:56
9- 9:53
10- 9:48

It's not negative splits but that's a pretty steady pace all the way through. I have never done that on a long run before.

After the race we all went to the Hospitality House for the awards ceremony and also the 2008 Grand Prix awards. We found out there that two new state records were set for the 15k distance both in the male and female division. Talk about running with some talented people!

Here is a pic that Melisha's husband took of some of the Cabot Cruisers at the awards ceremony. The group racked up on the age group awards. The cups were the trophies for the race.

Tomorrows plan for me calls for a 2 hour bike ride. No running. Congrats to all that won awards and to those that stuck it out through the rain.

More Lunch Runs

2009-02-19T09:13:00.003-06:00

Getting some good lunch runs in this week. Took the day off Monday just to save the foot. Tuesday started with rain so Annette and I were not sure if we could run at lunch. By lunch time it had stopped and looked like it was a go. Temperatures were around 44 degrees so it was cool and a little breezy. We opted to do the Fred's and back route. Long sleeves, shorts and gloves were the dress and it was perfect. Never got hot or cold. Our plan was to do this run just at a moderate pace and do a tempo run on Wednesday. Well, that didn't work. Guess we pushed it a little so it was more of an LT or tempo type pace. It was a great run, again! Here are the stats:
Total 3.01 miles - 29:23
Avg. Pace - 9:46
1-10:00
2-9:50
3-9:31
Negative splits!

Wednesday was suppose to be our tempo run but after Tuesday's run we kind of said that Tuesday was it. We decided that our goal for Wednesday was to just run at our 15k race pace which we wanted to be 10:00. Wednesday was the opposite of Tuesday as far as weather goes. Sunny, 70 degrees and very windy. Beautiful day though. I went from long sleeves and gloves to sleeveless. We ran the bridge/ballpark route and it wasn't bad but with the increase in temps made it feel much harder. I tried to keep the pace right at 10 which worked out pretty well. It was a beautiful day to run and the wind even though it was very windy, gave a good cooling affect. The good thing, 10:00 minute pace goal was met exactly according to my garmin. Here were the stats:
Total 3.01 miles - 30:07
Avg Pace - 10:00
1- 10:03
2-10:06
3-9:53
Another negative split.

May take the day off on Thursday or maybe do some core and a short run on the treadmill. Legs and foot are feeling a little sore. Great mid week runs though for me.

Happy running!

Sunday Long Run

2009-02-15T20:05:00.003-06:00

After this weekend I am starting to love running again. About a month ago I was about ready to break up with running and just bike. Not now. I'm back. Or running is back, at least for this past week anyway. I know this will jinx something by saying it but the past 5 runs including the race yesterday were great. It helps that I have gotten my endurance back and the speed is starting to come around.

As for this mornings run, Annette and I met Michele, James, Jane, Karen and Gabby at Michele's house for what started out to be 10 miles. It was pretty cold at the start so we reversed the route we were going to take so the wind would not be quite as bad. We opted to loop around by Knights and the neighborhoods there and come out by the High School. This also included bathroom stops for the girls if they needed them.

It wasn't a fast run but the long steady run is not suppose to be your fastest. The great thing was the people we were running with. Everyone pretty much stayed together the whole time even though some could have ran much faster. We had great conversations which helped pass the miles. After coming out by the high school some of the girls wanted to stop at the gas station to use the rest room. Then we looped back behind the community center and ran up the hill next to the high school track. We were at about 5 miles when we got to Honeysuckle so we decided to run on to Stagecoach and then down Campground. Karen only wanted about 7 so that would be perfect for her. When we got to Michele's, James opted to cut his run short and Annette was struggling a little. We ran around the neighborhood to add on getting another mile. Annette, Michele and Jane stopped at 8. Gabby was wanting 12 and I wanted at least 9 so I ran around the neighborhood with her for another mile before I quit. I should have kept going but I was way over the 10% rule for the week so I just didn't want to push it with my foot. Sorry you had to run those last miles alone Gabby.

I felt really good on the run today, strong with plenty of endurance. I really felt like I could have ran a good half marathon if I had needed to but I'll save it for the 15k next weekend. My only goal there will be to stay under a 10 min. per mile pace. That will get me a PR. Last year I think I was just over 1:33 so if I could just do 1:30 that would be a PR. I really have no idea how long I can hold that faster pace, but I'm thinking I am in better shape this year than last. Hoping to get some lunch runs in this week depending on the weather. I do hate the fact that I didn't get any bike miles this week but running took the lead. Next Sunday I will try to bike.

Final stats for the week - 22.17 miles running. That's 9 miles more in a week than I have had since November! My average pace on today's run was just an 11:08 but we had some good mid 10 min. miles. My foot felt great this morning and after the 9 miles it was just a little sore but no limp. So any run where I feel good and can walk afterwards is a great run.

Hope everyone has a good week running!

Valentines Day 5k

2009-02-14T18:34:00.004-06:00

This was a great race held in Russellville. We had a very good turnout from Cabot with the men's team fielding 7 runners and the ladies close to 12.

As for my race, I did exactly what I planned to do and the plan worked, though I wish I would have pushed harder. It was very cool at the start, around 40 degrees and wind so it felt more like 32. Shorts and a tech t-shirt for me was right for running but not standing around. The race was suppose to start at 9am but got delayed 15 minutes because there were so many people still registering. The race itself is held on a walking trail though it is paved. There was close to 330 people running the race so being congested at the start was an understatement. They did ask for the faster runners to move up to the front and the others try to form based on pace but that never works. Someone slower always wants to get close to the front.

The race started and I just tried to keep Jane in sight which worked for about 3/4 of a mile but there were too many people for me to even run a straight line so I just eased into my run and tried to get it done. My goal as stated in yesterdays post was to be around 28 so I had it figured to try to stay around a 9 minute pace and that's what I did. After about 1.5 miles the course thinned out and it was not crowed anymore, though someone was always pretty close by. I just ran and tried to tell myself that I was doing great and to keep at it. I'd check my garmin every now and then to see if I was on pace and I would be. When I got tired or a little winded I would slow it down just a little, then pick it back up. I was really trying not to over stride and hurt my foot again. That was one of my biggest worries, other than just dying before the finish and having to walk which didn't happen.

No world speed records set but I was very happy at the finish. My garmin read 28:22 for 3.12 miles and a 9:05 average pace. My official time ended up being 28:25 which is close enough. They did have some timing problems so my garmin is probably correct but it makes no difference anyway. The other thing that made me happy was that I had negative splits and was very consistent with them. Mile 1 was 9:11, 2 was 9:06 and 3 was 9:04. Still missed my PR by just over a minute but considering my lack of training, it wasn't bad for me. The most miles I have had in a week since before Thanksgiving was 13.3 miles so as my miles go up, my speed should too. If I can get back to 20-25 miles a week with a little speed work I will shatter my old 5k PR.

As for the competition, it was fierce in this race. In my 50-54 age group alone there were 15 men that finished 22 minutes or under. I just think that's amazing. Wish I could run that fast. The Cruiser men did score with 4 out of 7 taking home trophies. Ladies had 5 or more that took home trophies. Afterwards Annette and I went to brunch with several of the Cruisers at IHOP. Made for a long day, we didn't even get home till after 2pm. It was great spending time with all of our running friends and getting back into racing.

My foot is a little sore but not to the point of limping or anything bad. I need a long run Sunday to prepare for the 15k next weekend so I am a little apprehensive but I think it will be fine. Going to try for 10 miles or so.

Hope everyone had a great Valentines Day!

Lunch Runs

2009-02-12T19:18:00.003-06:00

Monday Annette and I started something new. We are trying to run at lunch when we can and this week has been awesome. We got to run Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at lunch from home. I am amazed at how good this has been, especially the progression. I almost feel like I am back to speed again. And we haven't been lolly gagging around either. We have been pushing it, not to the limit but almost at a tempo pace at times. The weather on these runs has been good, Monday 64 and sunny, Wednesday was around 60 but 30mph winds so how we had good times I don't know. Thursday was perfect, 60, sunny and no wind, almost hot. Here are my results for the past three runs:

Monday
64 degrees, sunny, breezy
3.1 Miles - 31:57 - 10:19 avg. pace
1-10:19
2-10:03
3-10:43 (walked with Annette when she had stomach issues)

Tuesday
60 degrees, partly cloudy, extreme winds (20-30mph)
3.0 Miles - 29:50 - 9:57 avg. pace
1-10:21
2-9:53
3-9:38

Thursday
60 degrees, sunny
3.1 Miles - 29:13 - 9:26 avg. pace
1-9:21
2-9:36
3-9:25

I was extremely happy with today's run. And I forgot to mention I had to walk twice to catch the phone but it was only like 10 seconds each maybe. Saturday we will be racing our first 5k of the season at the Valentines Day 5k in Russellville. My goal last night would have been to finish around 29 minutes. I'm thinking now with the cooler early morning temps and the flatter than my neighborhood course, I'll be in the 28 range. I will not rule out a PR though. I have always been much faster in races than any training runs and checking back on my logs, I have never ran 3 mile training runs this fast. We shall see how it goes come race day. No awards for me irregardless. The Grand Prix Series has some of the fastest guys in the state so I'd have to run around a 19-21 minute 5k just to place in my age group. I'm not going to get my hopes up too much for a PR, just racing for fun.

By the way, I love running at lunch even if it is just 3 miles!

More From The Weekend

2009-02-10T07:10:00.004-06:00

Thanks for all the biking comments. I wish running was as easy but its not. Saturday was a tough day. I met the Cruisers at 7am for the normal Saturday morning run. There ended up being two groups, one doing 13+ miles and our group doing around 8. There was just a little chill in the air when we started but the wind had already started blowing.

By mile 2 I wanted to quit running. I couldn't hardly breathe. My legs felt great, it was just a struggle to keep moving. Ran a lot with Jane who is always great company on a run so that really helped. Probably didn't help that I started out probably too fast leading the group we had for about 3/4 of a mile. Then I started dropping back. Kind of like getting dropped on the bike, once you get dropped, it's over and it's hard to catch back up. That was me. But I really wanted 8 miles.

Somehow I managed to keep going and it was nice to know that Jane couldn't breathe either. I had thought it was just me and my lack of training but it was everyone. It was the high humidity we had. Anyway, long story short, got the 8 miles done and glad I made it.

Felt great afterwards, went home and changed. Followed Annette up to the Dinner to meet some of the other runners for breakfast. Everyone was talking about how tough their run was. My average pace was no where close to what I wanted but it was mileage. 8 miles @10:50. With mile 1 being a 10:05 and mile 2 being a 9:57. Should have ran those slower. Was hoping to keep a 10:30 but it was hot too.

Afterwards I went by the Fire Station to check on my trucks. With the high winds I figured we would have some idiots burning and set their fields/woods on fire. Had a problem with the batteries on one of the brush trucks so I worked on that a while then went home. Worked on the plumbing problem, went to Home Depot and got a gauge to measure water pressure. By that time it was after 1pm and I was getting hungry again. Headed up to Sonic but they were all backed up so I decided on some Mean Pig Barbecue. Was in a long line, made it all the way to second spot to order when my fire pager went off. Large grass fire! I knew it was going to happen. So I took off for the station to grab a truck. I sure hated missing that Mean Pig Barbecue but this is the life of a firefighter sometimes.

The fire was almost as far west as you can go in our district and probably a 17 mile run from my station. The scary thing was, we only had one engine responding with one firefighter at the time. Another called in en-route and no one else showed at my station so I took off as fast as my engine would go to get there. We also called for mutual aid from one of the surrounding departments. Our first truck in started calling for brush trucks. They had a field on fire and it was getting into the woods. When I got there no brush trucks had arrived so I grabbed a rake and did what I could which wasn't much. The flames were 3-4 feet high in the sage grass so it was too hot to get to with a rake. I concentrated on stopping it before it got in the woods and the next field which had a house and two campers close by. Two brush trucks came in with one getting stuck in the field before they could even get close to the fire. We had the other come around a different way and then we started getting some water on the fire. In about 3 minutes we had the field out but still had woods burning. Myself and another firefighter went into the woods and used a rake and water pack to put out what we could. What saved us was there was a creek running around the the wooded area so it acted as a natural fire break. It was very windy which made conditions worse but the woods were so think with thorns and thick brush the wind didn't push the fire much. It did play havoc on my arms though. It looks like my right arm was in a cat fight from all the vines, thorns and sticker bushes. To top that off, my fire boots give me blisters after so long so that was happening. We ended up fighting fire for a couple hours. I was pretty dehydrated by then, my eyes were burning from sweat and smoke. Once everything was contained we were finally able to take a break and get some water to drink. Then after checking with everyone we decided we had the fire out and were going back in service. Looking at what burned, it had to be close to 10-15 acres of sage and woods. Not a bad stop for basically 4 firefighters.

I drove engine 64 back to station 3, realizing that I had to get fuel as it was getting low. Had to stop at station 3 to grab a gas card and was talking to the chief on the phone when we get paged out for a rollover accident on 67-167 in front of Ace Liqueur. That didn't sound good. So here I am by myself, had the chief on the phone and he asks, "so are you going on that call?" I'm like, yeah, but I am waiting on a crew, not much I can do with an engine and no other people. Plus I figured Cabot would get paged too and they did. About that time one of my guys checked in route to the station so I knew I would have a crew. I really wanted out of those fire boots, my feet were killing me and I could feel the blister on my heel and toe forming. A couple minutes later we were screaming down Highway 5, passing traffic on the center lane. There was a lot of traffic so as a driver, its always a concern to be extra safe at intersections. A couple minutes later we were on scene, had a pickup truck up on its side in the middle of the service road. MEMs and Cabot had just got there and were treating two patients. I assisted getting one man on a backboard and basically we were done. Lucky for us, I was behind the Cabot engines so we were the first to leave. Even though the accident was actually 3 feet into our county. I love it when that happens. Usually it works the other way, the paid guys leave and we get stuck on scene for another hour or so. Not today. I was ready to go home!

I had talked to Annette when I cleared off the fire and she said we had dinner plans around 5:30. I looked at my watch as we left the scene and it was about 4:45. I still had to stop and fuel the engine. Got that done, got the engine back in service and in the bay and headed home. It was about 5:15 by the time I made it in the door. Annette would not come within 3 feet of me. I was almost black from head to toe from the soot and smoke from the fire. I probably looked like I got beat up by a smoke monster or something, scratches on my arms and everything else. Had to take a double shower to get all that off. The water ran black for about two or three minutes and before long I was clean again. Even made dinner just a few minutes late.

Ended up being just another average Saturday for me. I really hated I missed my lunch though.

Leading the pack

2009-02-09T06:52:00.004-06:00

It feels pretty good sometimes to be one of the fastest in the group. I sure can't do it running but the bike is a different story. I know I'm not the fastest but I can hang with the top 5 anyway.

Sunday I met the Cruiser group for the normal 1:30pm ride. Had a pretty good turnout for a change. Rick W, David S, Duane ?, Tammie, Don, Lisa F. and 10,000 miles a year Charlie. We decided to do what we call the Bethlehem Loop, ride out 321 to Bethlehem Road, loop back and connect to Mt Tabor for the ride in. I really just wanted an easy ride...lol...that's what we always say. Well, Charlie took the lead with Rick and myself following. In about a mile we were separated from the other group pretty good. We were not even riding hard yet, which I was perfectly happy with at the time. Nice to get a warm up in before you try to kill yourself. We were still averaging at least 16 but 321 has lots of up and downhills.

By the time we got to Lemay, Duane had caught up to us from the other group. He had to have been riding hard to catch us. That's about when I decided it was time to stretch these boys out a little so I took off. Duane and Rick tried to hang on for a little ways but I guess once I got down in the aero bars it was all over. By the time we were past 321 spur, I had a pretty good lead. Another mile and I couldn't even see the others. I looked at my speedometer and I would be riding 21-22mph at all times except for the hills. There was wind too and it wasn't a tail wind at all. The wind was coming from the south, southeast and we were heading east. I was kind of liking this. Out at the front, all alone. Sure can't do that running.

Stopped at the water department on 31 to wait on the others. Rick, Charlie and Duane pulled in a couple minutes after I did. Charlie made the comment that he was going to start calling me Lance...lol. Yeah right. Wish I was that fast. Took a while for the other group to ride in but we waited. I didn't want to wait too long though because my legs would start getting cold. Before long we were off and riding again. East on Bethlehem, I tried to ride slower. I really did. But before long I had left the others again and was out there alone. I actually slowed down from my earlier pace but still had a big gap between me and the others. I knew someone in the pack would be trying to hunt me down though. After I made the right turn of the loop on something Cemetery Road, I could see Rick gaining on me. No big deal, I was getting tired of leading all alone. I slowed and just kept an easy pace and before long Rick was there. So we started drafting back and forth and kept a nice pace going. He may have tried to drop me but it wasn't going to happen. I stayed right there anytime he would make a charge. We stopped at Hwy 31 to wait on the others but they were no where in sight. After a couple minutes we decided to take off. Going south on 31 was a straight on head wind and it was blowing. It was all I could do to go 16mph, though we were going up a slight incline. I tried to draft behind Rick but it really didn't help much. The wind was brutal. When we turned on Mt Tabor it was like relief. Smooth road, little traffic and wind to our back a little. Well, maybe not. The wind just seemed to be coming every direction or at least it felt that way. We continued to push on Mt Tabor and would sometimes alternate leading. I was happy drafting. I could lead but its just more work. When we started getting close to Dogwood we could see some other riders ahead of us. Rick said they must have took a shortcut. So I told him we can't let them beat us in so we picked it up and blew past them. We kept a nice pace all the way back in, 16-22 most of the time but you have to keep in mind these routes are not flat and have rolling hills and lots of inclines. We were back at the church, and had our gear loaded by the time the next group got in. It was Tammie, Don and Lisa. We asked where the others were and they said they thought they were with us. We talked for a few and we were fixing to pull out of the parking lot when Charlie pulled in. He made the comment that "dang you boys are too fast for me". Never did see David or Duane roll in but I knew they were riding slower and this was Davids second ride of the year. It was nice to be at the front for a while. I think Rick and I both ended up with a 17.5 mph average pace for just over 28 miles. Rick made the comment that this was his fastest ride of the year and thanked me for pushing him. I was pretty happy with that considering the wind and hills. I'd love to see what I could do on some flat terrain with little wind, but then again, flat terrain is boring. It is nice to be at the front of the group in one sport anyway.

Happy biking!

Almost Friday

2009-02-05T20:17:00.003-06:00

This week has been a blur. Trying to get end of year, end of month, accounting for this, accounting for that all done along with anything else that goes wrong. My foot was a little sore after the weekend so I didn't run on Monday. Tuesday night I was at the Fire Department. Wednesday night I managed to get 4 miles on the treadmill at a 10:30 pace. Pretty easy run really. I need to start stepping it up but weekdays just seem so hard lately to get a run in. I have just about decided to try to start running at lunch when I can. Some days I am at the shop in Cabot so I am just a couple miles from home so it would be pretty easy. Run 3 miles, eat and head back to work. Of course that's weather dependent. Running just seems harder and harder lately, not physically but more on the mental side. Just getting out the door is the tough part or maybe its just the want to.

We have some weird water problem going on at our house now. When you flush toilets or run a lot of water, hot or cold, the pipes make a banging sound. This started last week and I thought it would go away but it didn't. So tonight I started trying to diagnose what was going on. I think its some type of water hammer or air in the lines. I even turned the water off outside and tried to bleed off any air in the system and that didn't work. So, I am back to researching it on the Internet to try to figure out how to fix it or if I can fix it. I am also still having some pool pump problems so I have to work on that too.

I did get my broken spoke replaced on my bike yesterday. The guys at Arkansas Cycle and Fitness on Kiehl Ave fixed it while I waited and even replaced one of the others that had been replaced before because it wasn't black. They seem to be a great bunch. And since our local bike shop moved from Cabot, I needed to find another that was close by. The cool thing was, spoke replacement and truing the wheel was only $10. Amazing that you can get anything done for $10.

Looking to be a super nice weekend so I am hoping to get maybe an 8 mile run in and get some good biking in. Pending getting all the broken stuff around here fixed. Who knows what will be next.

Super Sunday

2009-02-01T19:42:00.005-06:00

First off, Annette and Bailey completed the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach, CA in 5:33:13. They ran together the whole way which was great. Not bad considering their only goal was to finish in under 6 hours. I know they had a great time. Wish I could have made it. Here are a few pictures that Annette sent me. I'm sure she will post a bunch on her blog when she gets back.

This was taken during one of the breaks during the race

Annette walking next to the beach

This is Annette's Step Mom, Dad and Aunt who were in California and got to see her finish. Can you see the surf board around her neck?

As for me, I just did a little bike ride. Arrived at Mt Carmel Church at 1:30pm for the standing Cruiser Sunday ride. I was about 10 minutes early but no one was there. I was a little shocked since the weather was almost perfect for riding other than the wind. Wind, who cares about wind? Well, about the time I decided I was going to ride by myself, Duane pulls up on his bike. We start talking routes and then Jeremy rides up. Tried to get James and Russ to ride but I think they wanted to just take it easy for the day. I wanted to do the same but its not very often that we have 63 degree days in early February so I wanted to take advantage of it. My legs were really sore from yesterday but I was hoping for an "easy" ride to act as recovery. So let me repeat one more time, "there are no easy bike rides with our group". If your not being pushed, your pushing someone, that's just the way it is. I guess it works as most of us keep getting faster.

Our route ended up being what I would say is the Mt Tabor/321 loop. We left the church and took 89 to Mt Tabor and headed east. The wind was really getting it and I let the group starting out. I had never ridden with these two guys much so I really didn't know their pace so I just rode moderately. Mt Tabor is always fun as there are a lot of "inclines" which you really feel on the bike. After a few miles Jeremy asked if he could lead for a while and I said sure. Much easier to draft than to pull. He is a pretty strong rider and I had to work to keep up with him. Duane hung in there too. Just before we got to Hwy 31 I heard a loud pop. Sounded sorta like a rock hit my wheel but I had the sneaking suspicion that I had broken a spoke. We stopped at the intersection and sure enough, I had a rear wheel spoke that was broke at the hub. The weird thing is, last time I had a broken spoke, I had stopped at the exact same place when I found it.

I told the guys that I would just have to limp it in. Luckily my rear wheel wasn't wobbling so bad that the brakes were rubbing like last time so I was able to keep going. I was a little leery about doing a lot of speed but I figured I could make it with no problems. In fact, I got back in the lead and pulled all the way onto 321. It seemed like when we were going east we had a little bit of a tail wind and when we turned north, it was like not as much wind. But when we turned on to 321, we hit one of the worst head/crosswinds I have had in a while. It was so bad a couple times I almost ran off the road trying to hold my bike in line.

I guess we had dropped Duane just before the turn and Jeremy dropped me on the next hill. My hill legs are just not back yet, but they are getting there. And 321 has some good hills on it. The wind was bad so we were working extra hard. I looked down and it was all I could do to hold 15mph. Luckily there were downhills to gain some speed and rest.

Made it back to the church and I was amazed to see that I had averaged 16.5 mph. I figured I would have dropped to 15 or less with that wind and a broken spoke. So much for an easy ride. But my legs felt better for doing it, though when I was done, I was really done. Here are the final stats which I am happy with considering it was a very hilly and windy route.

Total Miles - 18.78
Bike Avg Speed - 16.5mph
Calories - 1128
Avg. HR - 160

That gives me total bike miles for the weekend of 45.01 and I burnt right at 2800 calories just on the bike. No wonder I'm tired and hungry! Hope everyone has a great week.

Saturday Reverse Brick Sort of

2009-02-01T10:17:00.003-06:00

So Saturday I couldn't make a decision when or where I was going to run. There was a 7am group and an 8am group running from South Side Elementary. Being unable or wanting to make a decision, I woke up, looked at the temp for the 7am run and decided I would stay in bed for a few. It was in the upper 20's or close to 30 and it was suppose to be a beautiful day later. So why start so early?

Well, i finally made it out the door around 10am and just ran up and down South First Street in my neighborhood. It's nice sometimes just to walk out your door and run, no driving, no gear to worry about. I wanted around 7 miles, though 6 would work. By 10 it had warmed to almost 49 degrees so for me, that was perfect running weather. Shorts, t-shirt was the dress of the day. It did get pretty warm but not bad. My head was sweating but I was never really uncomfortable. As far as the run itself, it was just, "ok". I started mile one with a 10:10 pace and then fell off from there. I can always run much faster when I am with a group or in a race for some reason.

My foot was a little sore from my speed work on the treadmill Thursday night. Remind me not to do that again. Makes me wonder if I should even attempt the upcoming 5k. I can and want to run faster but if it hurts the foot I just can't do it. I tried to keep it slow on Saturdays run thinking it would keep the foot from being sore. Did work to a degree and it was slow. Ended up with 6.3 miles total. Here were my splits:

6.3 total miles - avg pace 10:39
1-10:10
2-10:28
3-10:39
4-10:41
5-11:28
6-10:42
7-10:04
874 calories
Avg HR 174

After the run, I rested a little bit and was thinking about biking. Friday night a plan was made to bike around 3:00pm from the Community Center with James and Russ. Cindy was going to join us too but with the pretty weather, she decided to go a little earlier. I knew riding with these two guys was not going to be a slow, easy ride as it never is. We tend to push each other.

I had to change my back tire before I left the house, taking off my old trainer tire and putting a better back tire on. Those trainers burn the rubber clean off a tire so don't use your good tires!
We hit the road from the Community Center at 3, riding across to 367 and then riding to Austin. From there we turned on Ed Haymes Road which has some big hills on it. I was not looking forward to that part as I am just now getting my riding legs back.

We actually kept a good pace on the hills, lots of fast downhills. There is one big climb on Ed Haymes and I made it up with no problem but I still had to go to my lowest gear to get over the top. We turned left on Lewisburg and headed towards Highway 5, then turned on a little cut through road over to Hwy 319. We decided to take this in to Ward and back to Hwy 38. We had a nice tail wind on parts of this route and at times would get a tough head wind. Ended up stopping at the store in Ward for just a few. Then it was on across 367 and 319 to 38. Here we hit a major head wind. We had averaged 17.7mph up until Ward even with the hills but that started dropping in the wind. We still hung on to a 16mph pace in the wind but it was a lot of extra work. Turning back on 38 we still had wind. But there was a couple nice downhills to make up some speed. We were pretty much all together up until the last downhill. James took off and I followed but he pulled away from me. I think Russ may have just burnt out a little because I left him trying to catch James. I pulled in the Community Center about a minute or less behind James and Russ was a couple minutes back. Still ended up being a great ride and we all got a good workout from it. Funny, the mileage worked out to exactly 26.23 miles. Guess that's a good number considering Annette and Bailey are running a marathon today.
Here were the final stats from the ride:
26.23 Miles
16.7 Average bike MPH
1666 Calories burnt
161 avg. HR

My legs are trashed now so still trying to decide if I will ride Sunday afternoon. The weather looks good for it though.

Good Luck Bailey and Annette

2009-01-30T21:03:00.003-06:00

Correction to my last post, this will be Annette's "5th" Marathon in less than a year and her 6th for all time. This is also Baileys 4th marathon in a year. They both will qualify as "Marathon Maniacs" after this race.

Good luck on Sunday at Surf City ladies!!

Getting ready to leave at the airport - Bailey and Annette

Blogging through the cold

2009-01-29T20:52:00.003-06:00

It has been an extremely cold week here. We had ice on Monday evening and Tuesday. I had to travel to Memphis Monday morning for a meeting. The original plan was to spend the night but after watching the weather deteriorate, I decided to high tail it home after we had an early dinner. It was 36 degrees and a light mist when I left Memphis. Before I made it 30 miles into Arkansas, the temperature had dropped to 30 degrees. Can you say major pucker factor when you cross bridges! Actually, never encountered any slick spots for a long ways. I was worried about the White River Bridge on I40 but it was clear as a bell. Between there and Lonoke though things started to change. Just before Lonoke the temp had dropped to 28 degrees. The first bridge west of Lonoke was icy and had a bad wreck off on the side. I had my fire radio on so I heard South Bend getting paged out for another accident on I40 between the 169 and 170 mile marker. I looked where I was and I figured it would be about Remington. Sure enough, it was just west of Remington so I managed to get off the exit with no problem. Still one bridge on 89 to cross before home. When I got to it traffic was stopped and I guess the police were turning people around so I turned around and came back to Cabot via Kerr Road. No problems after that but it was a stressful drive home for sure.

Tuesday was pretty bad in some places but didn't really affect me any. It was suppose to get worse on Tuesday night but that never materialized here. The northern part of the state got it bad though with a lot of ice and power outages. We missed the bullet here!

Wednesday night I ran 4 miles on the treadmill. It was actually a pretty good run. Just an easy get it done run in 42:00. Average pace 10:30. If it was cold on the treadmill it would be easier but mine is upstairs and it always seems to be too warm for me even with a fan. But that's ok, it makes me sweat which is good.

Tonight I did a little speed work for the first time in a long time. I wanted to see if I could do a timed mile on the treadmill. Started with a 1 mile warm up and then went into the timed mile. Well, it's kind of hard to really do a timed mile on a treadmill. All you can do is start out at a pace you think is moderately hard and then increase. Pretty much what I did. Could have been faster but I didn't really have a clue as it's been so long since I really ran fast. Timed mile ended up being a 9:15 and I know I could have done better. I at least have a number to start basing a little speed work off of. I also wanted to get a feel of what my 5k time could be. This is a start and I think I am going to try one tempo or LT pace run once a week. I am just going to try to stay away from the repetition pace as that's where I get hurt most of the time.

Oh yeah, Annette and Bailey are headed to Huntington Beach, California this weekend to run the Surf City Marathon. It will be Annette's 4th marathon in less than a year. I think she will also qualify as a "Marathon Maniac" since this will be three marathons in a 3 months time period. I had plans of doing the same back in the summer but injuries forced me out. In fact, I doubt I will do another marathon until fall, but that's subject to change. Right now work is too stressful to get the needed training and have the right frame of mind that I need. Going to work on the shorter distances and improving my 1/2 marathon times without getting injured. That's the main goal. Stay healthy!

Good luck this weekend Annette and Bailey!

50 Is Not That Bad

2009-01-25T16:14:00.003-06:00

In case you didn't know it. I just turned 50 this week. That's right, the big 50. Half a century old. 12 years to retirement maybe? Ha....not at the rate the economy is going. Getting done with 49 seemed quite the task between a long time dealing with Plantar in my foot and then kidney stones. But now that 50 has hit, those things seem 100% better. I am also getting my endurance back and yesterday was my first Saturday run with the Cruisers in forever it seemed. Had a great run too. Ran with Annette, Jane, Michele and Eugene for most of the run. Eugene and I left the girls later as they were doing 8 miles and we just wanted between 5-6. I ended up getting 5.54 miles with just a long slow average pace of 10:21. On top of that, no walk breaks for me either. And we ran some good Cabot "inclines".

Saturday night we were invited to Jackie's house for a birthday dinner. Annette told me before we left that Brenda, Tony, Michele and James was coming also. I was starting to smell something. When we turned on Jackie's street there were cars everywhere. Annette said that Jackie's neighbors were having a party. Then I saw Cheryl's truck and I recognized some of the others that were parked and I said "yeah right". I knew something was up then. But I did get surprised! When we opened the door it seemed like the whole running club was there. Had to be 20-30 people. It was an awesome surprise party. Great food with a great group of friends. I cannot say enough about how lucky I am to have friends like this. Thanks guys for making it a great 50th!

At the party plans were made to bike to Conway Sunday morning with James and Russ. They wanted to ride to Conway, then catch a ride on up to the Grand Prix race in Russellville. I had my doubts that it may be too cold to ride but I said I would go if it wasn't too cold. Well, this morning it was 26 degrees when I got up and didn't promise to get much warmer. We would have had to leave around 9:30 to make it to Conway in time so it was just too cold. Ended up working out, Alex was sick so Michele couldn't go and do the shuttle and it was too cold for James too. James and Russ did drive up and run the race. I just didn't feel like I was ready to race yet so I stayed home.

I did get an awesome workout in today though. I set the bike up on the trainer in the living room and watched the Tour Down Under while riding. That is the way to do the trainer! I never got bored, and every time they would race to the finish line I would race with them. Think I watched 4 segments of the tour and rode a total of 1:18:00 for about 23 miles. Then it was off the bike and up to the treadmill for a run. Got a nice 2 mile run in while I was still warmed up from the bike. The first half mile my legs felt pretty heavy but I just ran slow until they came to life then just picked it up a little. Ended up with a 10:16 average pace for 2 miles which I was very happy with after being on the bike so long. Then finished out with a .3 walk to cool down. Should have burnt plenty of calories to make up for my birthday cake last night!

Remember, getting older is really not that bad, especially when you have great friends to help you celebrate!

Birds

2009-01-22T18:46:00.005-06:00

Saturday evening Baptist Med-Flight departed Memphis enroute back to Little Rock without a patient. Med Flight struck a flock of birds around the Forrest City area and made an emergency landing. The pilot suffered some minor injuries and everyone was shaken up. Below are the pictures from the incident and the associated damages that occurred to their aircraft. Med-Flight does not wear helmets and the crew is lucky the pilot’s vision remained intact to land the aircraft.

Flying is for the birds!

Trying to get out the door

2009-01-19T07:16:00.003-06:00

Some days are harder than others, Sunday was pretty easy. I didn't run early, waited till about 11am and took off from the house. Annette had done her long run early but I didn't need that kind of mileage so it just didn't make sense to deal with the cold if I didn't have to. 11am was perfect weather. Sunny, about 49 degrees, a little windy which was good, otherwise to me it would have actually been too warm. Just ended up getting a 4.1 mile run in but it felt good. I never took any walk breaks. Average pace of 10:28 and I actually was making myself slow down a few times just to get my heart rate down. Ran around the soccer fields one time in the grass just to add mileage. Probably be back on the treadmill tonight. Wanted a bike ride but time just didn't allow it, met my daughter and her husband for lunch and then we had a Cruiser club meeting at Jackie's house.

I need a plan. Nothing makes sense to me without a written plan. I have several 1/2 Marathons coming up so I probably need to focus on those, or maybe 5k's, but 5k's mean speed work and I really don't want that hurt again. The BIG race will be the 1/2 Iron Duathlon in June. That's my big event for the year, at least the first 6 months anyway. So until I find the right plan I'll probably just be running blindly until I have a set schedule in front of me. Hope to have something soon.

Have a good week everyone!

Getting My Adrenalin Fix

2009-01-17T21:37:00.005-06:00

Had to travel for work a couple days this week so I have only gotten one little run in and it was 2 miles on the treadmill at the hotel Wednesday night. It pretty much sucked. Needless to say, I have not been very motivated lately to brave the cold and try to get a run in.

For all good intentions, I had planned on running sometime today but it didn't happen. Instead I got my adrenalin fix in other ways, fighting fire! It has been very slow at the fire department for many months and we just really haven't had the fires we normally have. So today people decided to burn outside, even though the winds were blowing pretty good, 15-20mph at times I think. I had hopes just for a lazy day but instead I ran my butt off. It's about 10pm now and I'm hoping this is it for the night.

First call came in about 11am for a grass fire that was threatening several structures. This was up off Justice Rd and it is very hilly so we knew we had to make a quick attack. This fire got very close to an out building on the home owners property but never really threatened anything else. We had 3 Engines and a Brush truck to knock it out. Luckily it was still wet enough that the fire moved a lot slower than it could have if it had been drier. The wind did make the top surfaces very dry though. Ended up being probably 2-3 acres that burned. No big deal at all for us.

This fire came really close to this outbuilding and tractor

It burnt around the building and out into the woods at one point. The 4 wheeler was not there during the fire!

After most of the fire was out, I drove E64 to the back of the property to hit some of the hot spots that were left. If there is fire, always stay in the black(burnt) area!

Some of the guys loading hose back on E65 with Brush Truck 67 sitting next to it

I was out on this fire for probably an hour, then went back to the station and did equipment checks and maintenance which entails starting vent fans, power pumps, generators, checking fluids, refilling trucks with water, etc etc. Got done about 2pm and headed home, stopping by to bring some fast food home. There was still some things we needed to do so plans were made to meet some of the guys back at the station at 3.

By the time I ate lunch and checked some emails, it was time to meet the guys back at the station. I had just got in the truck to leave when we got paged out for another grass fire on Mt Pleasant. Dang, I should have left a few minutes sooner! That's about 1.5 miles from my station so I knew we would be first in. Man, this was starting to feel like the old days again. The adrenalin was flowing, and its probably a feeling that some people never really get to experience except when something bad happens to you or you have a near death experience. It's like the runners high actually, and chemically I think its about the same thing. No wonder I like running too!

So we roll up on this fire, burning along side the road in the woods. No houses were threatened and we were able to get most of the fire out from the road. We did send one of the Brush trucks in to do mop up on the hot spots. Finished up and headed back to the station. Probably, 3:45pm by now. We fill Engine 64 up with water again then start working on brush truck 67 that had a few minor issues. I also did the monthly equipment inventory on Engine 64, Tanker 2 and Brush Truck 67. Between three of us, we get a lot of things done but we were wanting to go home. We had been around the FD since 11am.

This was a quick, easy fire, maybe an acre or so. Brush Truck 69 is hitting the last hot spots in the back ground.

E65 staged on the road. By the time they arrived E64 crew had the fire out. Can you say quick attack!

I headed home around 5:45pm, came in, washed my hands again, made a bathroom break and boom, before I could even sit down the pager is going off again. This time a medical call which was on the other side of the district so I started to relax then it goes off again. I figured it was a cancellation page but no, another grass fire. Just west of 89 and Hwy 5. I figured we would be first in again and I was beginning to wonder if it was going to stop! Had one of the other Captains go direct to the scene to see what we had and luckily it ended up being a controlled burn. Someone was burning and a passerby called in a fire. It was not threatening anything and since there was no burn ban, we advised the home owner to watch it close and call us if they needed us. I was on standby at Station 3 for this and I was anxious to clear up and go eat some dinner but as always, it's hard to get away when the guys show up and start talking. I was hungry and thirsty. It was almost getting to be no fun.

By the time I got home this time, it was about 6:50pm. I washed my hands again and told Annette I was hungry, but if she wanted to go out I would have to take a shower. I smelt like smoke! She had some stuff at home so she started cooking it. Well, guess what happened? Dang pager goes off again, probably not 10 minutes after I'm home. Damn. This time it was a woods fire at 89 and Hwy 5. Well, that was just too close to the other fire so we figured it might be the same one we were on earlier and it was. Again I headed to Station 3, stood by hoping I would not have to roll an apparatus. Well, no luck. Had to take the brush truck up there and put it out this time. It wasn't threatening anything but the fire was close to the road so at this point it was a nuisance and the home owner agreed to let us put it out. It was also dark now so fire always looks bigger in the dark. Just more time out for me, still hungry, wanting to eat bad now.

Finally got finished up with this one around 7:45pm, had to fill the brush truck with water and I headed home hoping this was it. My cold dinner was still waiting when I got home. But guess what? I sit down to eat and boom, the pager goes off again! Ha, medical call, other side of district, I'm staying home and eating. I lucked out on that one. I did finally get to eat and best of all, I even got to take a shower! Annette may want to throw my clothes away though.

It may sound weird but this is part of the reason I am a firefighter. Its the adrenalin rush you get at the beginning of a call. Its the comradeship that you get on a scene when you are fighting the flames or trying to save someones life. And when your done, you may be sore, tired, hungry, wet and cold, but you would not have done it any other way. Best of all, its about helping people and hopefully making a positive difference.

Stay safe out there and don't burn when its windy!!

As the Stone Goes

2009-01-13T12:01:00.003-06:00

Well I think I finally passed that sucker! If there is anything left it can't be much. This thing is the size of a rock. Luckily it didn't hurt one bit. Still gonna keep drinking water like crazy.

Think this close to 5mm??

Hopefully this will be the end to my kidney stones. Whewwwwwww!

Endorphin Rush Sunday

2009-01-12T06:48:00.004-06:00

Well I got my dose of endorphins Sunday so it was a great day. In case you didn't know the definition, here is part of it that I copied: The term endorphin rush has been adopted in popular speech to refer to feelings of exhilaration brought on by pain, danger, or other forms of stress, supposedly due to the influence of endorphins. When a nerve impulse reaches the spinal cord, endorphins are released which prevent nerve cells from releasing more pain signals. Endorphins allow someone to immediately after injury feel a sense of power and control over themselves which allows them to persist with activity for an extended time.

Sunday morning I ran with Annette on the second half of her run here in the neighborhood. Bailey had come earlier and ran the first 5.5 miles so it gave me a little extra time to get awake and drink coffee. Only did 2.75 miles and then added about another 1/2 mile walking in but it was a good run even though it was 30 degrees. It was sunny so that helped. Held a 10:26 pace, not too hard and not too easy. I told Annette that I couldn't believe how my legs and foot felt. They felt like I had done nothing.

Sunday afternoon we met the Cruisers for Litter Pick Up. The club has a one mile section of road that we clean up every quarter. Had a record number of people show up, 25, which was awesome.

Afterwards 6 of us headed off for a group bike ride. James, Russ, Rob, David S., Rob, Scott and myself. The first couple miles we just eased around as we were waiting on James to meet us. Ended up we stopped at his house then we took off. I really liked the easy pace but as always, that wouldn't last.

The route that was picked was Campground Rd to 321 spur. 321 spur to Mt Carmel. Mt Carmel to 31, 31 to Mt Tabor, Mt Tabor to 89 and back. Anytime you have a road with the words "Mt" in it you know it will be hilly. Campground has a couple small climbs and some great downhills. Wasn't long and James and Russ were leading the group with me holding on to third. I let them go on at times as I didn't really want to work that hard. We stopped at 321 to wait on the others and then took off again. It was pretty breezy and I think we had just a little bit of a tail wind at times. Pace seemed to be 20-23 then slow on the hills. By the time we hit 31, Rob was the only one in sight so we stopped and waited. Then decided we didn't want to let our heart rates drop too much and headed on out. 31 seemed to be the flattest of the roads and I was glad. I can feel my lack of conditioning most on the hills that I was speeding up back in the summer. When we turned on Mt Tabor we had a head wind. Still, I looked down and I was maintaining 18mph but working hard for it. I should have been down in the drops or aerobars more but some of these roads have no shoulder so I tend to watch for traffic and holes more. Had a good pace line going here a few times and that really helped cut through the wind. It was still pretty chilly, around 48 degrees. I was so glad to have gotten my gortex shoe covers in last week. My feet were toasty!!

I said goodbye to James and Russ at 89 and Mt Carmel as I was parked at the school. It was a good ride with lots of hills thrown in. I waited around for the other three guys to get back in as I loaded up my bike and gear. I was about to leave when I saw them coming so I waited to chat for a bit.

Ended up with 21.4 miles and a 16.5mph bike average. I didn't think it was too bad considering all the big hills on this route and the fact we piddle around for 2-3 miles at the beginning. I'll have to say it took me a little while to thaw out afterwards but I felt good for doing it.

Later Sunday evening I had an officers meeting at the fire department. During the meeting we got called out for a vehicle accident. I manned engine 65 along with Bobby, Daryl, and Marcus. So we took off with sirens and air horns blazing. It's pretty rare to have three Captains and a Lieutenant on one engine. Two of the guys work for Little Rock Fire also, Bobby and Daryl both work for MEMs so we had probably 50 years plus of experience riding on the rig. I made the comment that we had the dream team on the engine tonight. Ended up getting canceled en-route. Finished our meeting, was heading home then we got called out again saying that the car that was in the accident had caught on fire. I was almost home so I turned around and headed straight for the scene. Ended up just being some leaves got stuck on the exhaust when the wrecker driver was loading it and they put it out with an extinguisher. Still added some extra excitement for the day.

All in all I got plenty of endorphins for the day and some good workouts, especially the bike.

Just Checking In

2009-01-09T07:19:00.003-06:00

Not much to blog about here. Arkansas weather sucked earlier this week. Rain, freezing rain and all that fun stuff.

My doctor's office called me on Tuesday and said the doctor had reviewed the xrays of my kidney stone. He wanted me to consider doing what they call an IVP. It's a special xray where they give you an IV with dye in it that runs through you. They think the stone is just sitting there and it may pass anyway, or it might not. They just want to do this to look again. Then they might want to do something where they run a scope in there and grab it. Well, I thought they kind did that when I had the Lithotripsy! Guess not, guess they just used the camera. But, they said I didn't have to do this. I could keep trying to pass it. And maybe some of it has. So of course, I told them I would give it a couple weeks and see what happens. Drinking water like crazy all the time now so we shall see. It's just annoying that they seem to half way guess at all of this.

I have got some very short runs in this week. I said to heck with it, I was going to do a little and see if it aggravated anything. Ran 1 mile on the treadmill Monday night. Did 2 miles and a .3 walk on Wednesday night and 2.5 miles and .5 walk on Thursday night. So far no stone movement problems. And the best part, the PF in my foot is not showing its ugly face right now. So maybe I'll just have to run the 3 miles or less till I get this stone problem resolved. Limits my run training to 5ks pretty much. Only big event I will be training for anyway will be Nashville which right now I'm pretty certain I will just do the half. I'll see what the weekend brings.

Happy Friday everyone!

Getting Organized

2009-01-04T21:40:00.002-06:00

I took on the task this weekend of totally redoing my home office. Well, not completely. It was more like a clean up. And a major one at that! To get me motivated I bought a new computer system. I have been needing one for a while as the one I have been using has the hard drives full and not enough memory or processor power to get the things done that I want to do. I did the research and found the best deal for the money. I ended up with a Gateway DX4200 along with a 19" flat screen monitor from Best Buy.

The computer is a pretty powerful one. It has an AMD Phenom X4 Processor which is a quad core processor. 4GB of memory and a 600GB hard drive along with a built in media card reader. I have never used Vista before so I am learning but this thing is so fast its unbelievable. When you click on something you are there. The quad core processor helps a lot with that along with the 4GB of memory. Vista is a memory hog. About the only thing you can get in store bought equipment but the more I use it the more I like it.

I did learn a lot about processors though in my research. There are so many different ones now days a normal person would have no idea what to choose. Well, you have to choose what you can afford and something that is going to be able to handle whatever work you do with the computer. A good example is I found that Wal Mart has some what appears to be good deals on computers. But when you look at some of the processor's, they have some of the cheaper ones. Everything else looks good, but they get you on the processor. There are AMD, Pentium's, Celerons, and the list goes on. Then you have single, dual core, core duos, X3's, quad core, etc etc. Bottom line, if your buying a new computer, do a little research on the processor speeds. You might just find that deal you think you are getting is actually cheap for a reason.

Back to the office. I have an L shaped desk. So I spent all afternoon Saturday clearing it and throwing junk away and reorganizing what was left. Ended up being almost 4 hours time before I ever got the new computer hooked up. That was the easy part, redoing the desk was the task. I don't know how so much stuff just accumulates. I also moved a 15" flat screen monitor I was using in my Ham Shack upstairs to the office and hooked it up to my old computer. It's small and out of the way so I can still access my old files easily.

I spent most of the afternoon cleaning out the closet which also was filled with junk. I used to have a bad habit of saving every box. So I had printer boxes, a laptop box, and the list went on. There was a four shelf rack in the closet I wanted to use so clearing that off was what took time. I did end up rearranging the computer on my desk again.

I'm pretty happy with the whole arrangement and this was a long over due project. I still need a couple hours work to clear one more bookcase and finish off the closet. No telling when that will get done, and if not soon its still 110% better than what it was.

Now I have at least a fairly nice and neat desk with a good work area if I need it. I was really hoping the weather would have been nice this afternoon so I could have biked. As most know we had drizzle and cold move in early so that canceled that. Should have rode Saturday but once I got started on the office I really didn't want to quit. Not sure how much of the kidney stone is left now. I have been drinking fluids all weekend like crazy. Haven't had any pain yesterday or today so maybe some of it has passed. All I have to do to tell is run.

Have a good week and if you can't work out, get those inside projects done.

Is it 2010 yet?

2009-01-02T20:18:00.003-06:00

2009 is not starting out as I had planned. On Tuesday I had my follow up appointment with my Urologist on my Kidney Stone procedure. The first thing he asked was "did you get your xray yet?" I was like, "no, I haven't been scheduled for one". He said that the hospital should have scheduled me one after my Lithotripsy but nope, they didn't. So he said he would get it scheduled for this afternoon. I told him no way, I had a conference call I had to do but I could do it on Thursday (New Years Eve). He said he would have the nurse schedule it and they would call me back. Of course, no call all day Tuesday and I was there at 10am. Well, I HAD to get it done before new years because my Insurance was changing plus I would have to pay another deductible. They never called. Finally on Wednesday morning I called. The nurse said they would be calling me back next week to schedule and then I explained the situation I was in. I HAD to get it done today! Well, they called back later and got me scheduled for an Xray at 2pm at Springhill.

Getting the Xray was easy, after tons of paperwork, you just go in the room, lay down and they take a picture. I figured all was well because I had been having no pain or complications. By the time I got back to the shop I started feeling sick. I was having pains on my lower left side and I knew it was a stone. It was hard to tell what it was because by this time everything feels like a kidney stone. Maybe it was just a stomach bug or something. After about 8pm we ate dinner and then shortly there after it went away. Weird.

James, Michele and Karen came over around 11pm so we could celebrate New Years. I was feeling great then, even had a couple beers. James and I watched some triathlons I had recorded and we had a good time. It was nice to ring in the new year with good friends but I was glad to be home and not out. We never even got called out at the Fire Department.

New Years day I felt great. I did pass on the 8am run. It was 25 degrees out and when I saw that I said no way. I didn't feel "that great" to be running in the cold. I did want to run though. Annette made it out and got 3 miles in I think. Later in the afternoon we went to James and Michele's and we all ran together. It was a nice slow, easy run. Actually my endurance sucks so bad it was more like a race to me, even though we only did about a 10:40ish average for 3 miles. I was happy to get some miles on New Years day. Wish I would have biked. Annette even made black eyed peas for dinner so all things were looking good for the new year.

Then Friday came. Basically another Monday since we had to work. One of the first calls I get was from my West Little Rock store and they were letting me know that someone had cut a hole in the fence and broke in to two cars on the lot. Looked like they picked the most expensive stereos to get.

While I'm there looking at that, I get a call from the Urology doctor. The nurse tells me that the Xray is still showing a kidney stone, 3x5. I was assuming this was millimeters. Since the original stone was 7mm, that meant they only crushed maybe 2? You have to be kidding me. And the bill the hospital sent for that Lithotripsy procedure was right at $10,000. I thought, I bet they want to do it again! I had already told them that my Insurance was changing and I had a very large deductible so I think that cut those thoughts short anyway. The nurse told me that I may have already passed it or if not, it was getting ready to come out. She told me to keep drinking fluids and that she would talk to the Doctor more and let me know.

I still had other things to get done with work, we had a welder broke and I had to pick up another one. After the nurse had told me that I started feeling the stone. All day I could feel it just sitting there, wanting to come out. At times it would hurt some and then it would pass. I have a very high pain tolerance anyway so I wasn't even taking aspirin. Didn't get lunch till 2, then I started drinking water and haven't stopped all day.

Kind of puts a damper on any major activity or training because running seems to make it hurt more. Not sure if that's good or not. I just know I am sick of dealing with it and ready to move on. So for now, I just have to wait till the next pee and hope a big piece of rock comes out. Ha, now that sounds like fun doesn't it!

I hope everyone else's start on 2009 is better than mine. I'm hoping that this just means its going to get better and better from here on. Keeping my fingers crossed and water bottle full.

2008 is Almost a Rap

2008-12-30T21:12:00.003-06:00

One day left and I know I won't be adding anything to the log so I figured I would go ahead and throw out or should I say "throw up" my final stats for the year. The first half of the year seemed to be all about running then injury hit and biking took over. I almost feel like I have become a biker that runs some. Anyway, here is some of the final numbers for what its worth.

Running:
Finished 14 Races of various lengths not counting one Duathlon. Injured in mid-June with PF.
Raced 12 races in the Grand Prix Series finishing 8th in my age group out of 14 runners.
Here are the races by length:
2 - 2 milers
6 - 5k's
2- 10k's
1- 15k
2 - 1/2 Marathons
1 - Full Marathon

Set 7 new PR's at various times prior to my injury.
1 mile - 7:56
2 mile - 16:19
5k - 27:20
10k - 58:01
15k - 1:33:58
1/2 - 2:18:16
Marathon - 4:58:03

By the way, the one mile and 2 mile time was right when I started hurting in June. Had really started building up a little speed and then lost it all to injury.

Biking:
This was the fun stuff. Not sure how many long rides over 60 miles I did training with others but here are the official rides.
2 - 100 mile Centuries
1 - 62 mile bike tour

Multi-Sport:
1 - Duathlon (wish there would have been more)

Here are the total miles logged. I know people that ran as much as my bike and run combined. Maybe '09 will be better.

Total Run Miles - 690
Total Bike Miles - 1440

Looking forward to a better '09. Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Last Outside Ride of the Year

2008-12-28T17:47:00.003-06:00

Since the weather looked favorable today, I broke my temperature rules and met the group at Mt Carmel Church for the normal 1:30 Sunday ride. We ended up having 8 riders which according to Charlie was the record since October. I know October was the last time I was on the bike outside too. The temps were suppose to be in the mid 50's but they were not. It was about 50 degrees at ride time and partly cloudy. Little to no wind, at least that's what the weather said. I dressed pretty warm, had a long sleeve bike jersey on top with a Pearl Izumi thermal jacket to keep me warm. Had my tri shorts on the bottom with my CW-X running tights on top of them to keep my legs warm. A beenie under my helmet and some full finger gel biking gloves finished it off. Pretty warm sitting still but as soon as we started moving it was cool. But never cold.

We headed out Kerr Station road and soon the breakaway group consisted of James, Russ, Mark O. and myself. I knew this would not be an "easy" ride. Never is on the bike when there are guys. Before I knew it we were in a pace line and getting some pretty good speed going. On this stretch of road with fresh legs we seemed to be averaging 19-22mph. We took turns pulling and when it was my turn it was 20-22mph. First hill and I could feel my lack of training though. We turned on 236 and when we slowed you could feel the heat, had to keep moving.

Didn't take long and I just couldn't hold that kind of pace and once you fall off the wheel, your done. I decided I would just take my time and catch them later on. Its a lot harder working on your own than in a pace line and I could feel it. My heart rate was high, higher than normal on the bike which just told me I haven't been doing enough lately. The guys stopped at the 236/31 junction and I got back in line heading down 31. This was the best part of the ride for me. It felt like I was in a rocking chair, drafting off the bike in front of me and doing 19-21 mph. The effort was so much easier in the draft. I was dreading the hills on 321/Mt Carmel though.

We made the turn on to Mt Carmel and I noticed that everyone had slowed down some. It was kind of nice as I was working about where I wanted to be and I could hold the line with no problem. I was leading when we made the junction of Mt Carmel/321 spur and I dropped back and told James that I couldn't pull on those hills. I stayed on till the first hill then I fell off the group big time. If you haven't ridden Mt Carmel back into town there are a few monster hills. My legs were singing to me by this time. I tried to keep speed up the hills but the legs were burning out and downshifting was needed. By the time I made the last hill which we always call "Heartbreak Hill", I figured I was going to cramp up anytime. I didn't though and I made it up and over Heartbreak but it was slower than I had done it in probably a year. When I got off the bike at the church, my legs felt like jello. They had definitely gotten a workout. I was disappointed that I couldn't keep up with the guys but then again, I haven't really done diddly squat for almost two months.

After looking at the final stats and then looking back in my log book at other rides on this route, I was pretty happy. I probably worked harder than I normally do on this route but my average speed was about the same or better. Heart rate was high, high, high for biking. Not sure whats up with that other than my pure lack of hard cardio work lately. It was still nice to be out and on the bike, pushing it and seeing the countryside. Best of all, I never really got cold. I was sweating and several times had to unzip my jacket to let in some air. I do need some shoe covers to keep my feet warm. I just ordered some from Performance Bike along with an extra tire that they had on sale.

Here were the stats from the ride:
Total miles - 26.67
Time - 1:33:17
Average - 17.1 mph
Calories burnt - 1722
Avg. Heart Rate - 174
Temp at finish - 49 degrees/partly cloudy

Hope to get at least one ride in before new years on the trainer. I know I won't get to ride outside. I am reducing my lowest enjoyable temperature to ride outside to probably 45 degrees. May have to raise it if I ride when its that cold.

Happy biking everyone!

Screw it - I Did A Brick

2008-12-27T15:19:00.004-06:00

With the crappy weather we have been having I finally took my bike and put it on the trainer to see if I could burn my back tire off. After an hour and five minutes of various intervals I did a pretty good job of shedding some rubber. It felt good to be back on the bike even it was on the trainer in the house. I alternated with 5-10 minute speed intervals with 5 minute light spins in between. I would also vary my position on the bars but most of my time was spent totally in the aero bars. Got a good 18 miles worth anyway.

After that I was feeling so good I decided that I had to run and just make it a brick workout. Yeah I know, I said I wasn't going to till after the first. Well, I couldn't help myself. Like a kid in a candy store, feeling those heavy bike legs starting a run was something I was longing for. Just so I didn't kill myself or drop some more kidney stones I only ran a mile. It was good though, not fast but it felt good to run even on the treadmill. I must be sick, I even liked the one hour on the trainer. My butt is a little sore, has been almost two months since I got a mile in the seat. Glad to get some miles for December anyway.

Hopefully I won't be paying for this tomorrow. Still a little concerned about the kidney stones though I haven't had any problems at all. I'll know tomorrow anyway. If all is good I may just do it again. I am for sure running at least a mile on New Years day no matter what or how I have to get it.

I am at least feeling a little lighter today. Must be time to eat again!

Here's a pic of my bike on the trainer along with all our workout junk

Help - I'm getting Fat!

2008-12-26T21:38:00.003-06:00

I am scared to even look at the scales after all the holiday food I have had. Christmas Eve we went to my sisters house in Otter Creek for a big dinner and to see my family. We had all the usual, ham, turkey, dressing, etc etc....oh and the sweet potato casserole. Of course I had to have some of my sister in laws banana pudding! Came back to Cabot afterwards, exchanged gifts with my kids at our house and then headed to Magness Creek to eat again. This was about 9pm so I had ham, mashed potatoes, and way too much other to mention there again. I was so stuffed. But it was so good. Food like this doesn't happen very often!

We spent the night there so we could watch Kylie do her Santa Claus. All this food is giving me writers block so I won't try to tell everything else that we did on Christmas Eve. Maybe Annette will post it all to her blog. Back to food though, Christmas morning we woke up, did the Santa thing and then Livia and Vonda cooked the most awesome breakfast ever. Annette told them this was much better than the breakfast buffet we had at the Hyatt in Memphis a few weeks back.

It still didn't end there. We came home about 1:00pm, did our Christmas. I had a little cat nap and Annette slept on the couch sitting up for about 2 hours. I guess Michele called and invited us over for dinner so we went over there about 6:45. Ha, another full course meal. Turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, corn, I was beginning to feel like I died and went to heaven. Or maybe I was sinking from all the extra added weight...lol.

I had planned on biking this morning since the weather was suppose to be warm but I was surprised to find out that it was misting rain. No bike:( Annette did get a run in but since I was self grounded from running I sat around and got fatter. Well, this dang cold doesn't help much, I'm hoping food will cure it...I wish. So after Annette got home and rested a little we headed off to pick Kylie up and go shopping. I was starving by then so we went and had Mexican food at a place called Cactus Jacks on McCain where we had never been. I got fajitas. It was good but the same type Mexican food that all the others have. I think they should all just be a franchise, even the menus look the same. I miss Tia's, now they had some good TeX-Mex style food.

OK, the good news is I didn't have supper. Well, supper consisted of pumpkin pie, and I can't say how many pieces. I think it may be time for an intervention! Well, all good things must come to an end and I gave myself till the first then its all out. I just hope that running is part of it.

Hope everyone had as great a Christmas as I did!

I'm Done

2008-12-23T16:30:00.002-06:00

I'm done running till 2009. After running Sunday afternoon I thought everything was good then Monday I started passing kidney stones again. Guess the running was shaking what was left loose. To top it off, now I have a bad cold right here at the holidays. I go back to the doc on Tuesday so I figured I might as well wait till '09 to start back up. If I can get a bike ride in I will be doing that since its not as much impact. May do some weights/core training but its not as fun as running or biking.

PS: Santa, you can bring me a new Cervelo P3 Tri Bike and a Nikon D60 DSLR camera. Well, a P4 would be better but I would settle for a P2 even. But since you have way too many to get presents for, we will save these for our wish list for '09.

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

Dedication

2008-12-21T21:35:00.003-06:00

I'll have to say, Annette, Brenda, Jane and Cindy had it today. They went and ran around 5.5 miles in 24 degree weather around a lake. They actually enjoyed it too. Except maybe for the shivering part afterwards. I was suppose to go but I was still feeling a little sick from the antibiotics I was having to take so I figured why be even more miserable with the cold. Good excuse huh.

Hey I did get a run in on the treadmill this afternoon. A whole 3 miles. Was actually hot, since the treadmill is in the house upstairs. Have to keep fans on me to keep cool and it still wasn't cool enough. I guess now I am so out of shape it showed on my heart rate. An 11:00 minute pace had me up to a 183 average. I usually race 5k at that rate. Could be the meds still wearing off too or maybe again I have to rebuild. I never did any walking though other than to turn a fan on. I think that's my new rule for the new year, no walking, unless of course you just can't go anymore.

I do have a big event to train for. Still not sure which full marathon I am doing. We have reservations in Nashville so I'll probably do the full there though I have thought about Little Rock and then doing the half in Nashville. Time is short for Little Rock though and I am on schedule for Nashville. The most exciting event though will be a new one for this area. It is a long course duathlon, basically a half ironman without the swim. 2 mile run, 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run. It is June 6th at Lake Beverfork in Conway and is part of the Ironmountain Triathlon. I am so excited to get to participate and not just be on a team. August 15th there is also an Olympic distance duathlon. This one is held at Lake Degray and it is a 2.5k run, 38k bike and a 10k run. Along with the Du for The Parks which is usually on Memorial Day, I should have some great run/bike multi sport events to train for.

Speaking of training. After January 1st, it is on! I don't have the plan together yet but my intensity will increase where no one has ever seen it. Of course, pending any injuries or other old age problems. I turn 50 on January 21st so I was really wanting a special event for my birthday but it looks like there will be none. Maybe I'll try for a 50 mile week running. Which I could probably do but it might not be too smart. I could do a 50 mile bike ride but that's just not really hard enough. Will have to give it some thought. Irregardless, I am going to try to be more dedicated to training harder. We do have the Grand Prix season to deal with too.

By the way, if anyone has or knows of any free long course duathlon training plans let me know. I will be looking for one though I could probably use a 1/2 ironman plan and just run for the swim part.

Stay warm and be safe!

CCC Christmas Party

2008-12-20T17:50:00.005-06:00

Friday night was the Cabot Country Cruisers annual Christmas party. For the past several years it was always held at someones home but the club has grown so much that this year we had to find a place to hold it. Ended up being held at the First Baptist Church in Cabot. It was nice as there was plenty of room. It was a big potluck and everyone brought some kind of food and a dirty Santa gift. Special thanks to Ginny who headed up the Christmas committee.

Club President David H. started things off with a welcome and announcing that he was stepping down as club president and turning it over to Jackie C. Well, Jackie was the perfect candidate. She was featured in Runners World Magazine about her Family Track Nights here and the Inspiration Run she started to the local schools. I know she will do an awesome job and the club will grow even more. By the way, I was told that our running club has a short mention in the January issue of Running Times. I haven't got a copy yet or even know if its out. Jackie was the point person on this too.

After the official stuff was over everyone ate and talked. These things seem so short when there is so many people you want to talk to. Especially since I haven't made any of the runs in a while and there hasn't been much biking activity. Well, other than Charlie W. who is still on his quest to break 10,000 miles again this year. He did it last year, and I didn't have the chance to ask how close he was but I know he is riding some almost every day. That's pretty awesome in itself.

After dinner the fun stuff started. Rick P. became the Master of Ceremonies with his guitar and microphone. He started things off with the traditional 12 Days of Christmas. Only thing was, for each day there would have to be one of the people from the group up in front of everyone mimicking whatever number they got. So, to choose who all the victims were, Rick started it off with picking the person for the 1st day. It was Tammy F., then she had to pick the second day person and the second day person picked the third and so on. Well, I got picked by Michele for the 12th day which was the easiest because I didn't have to do my part over and over again. It was pretty funny what some of the people came up with to simulate their day. When the song came to your days part you would have to make the gestures, some were doing bird calls.....it was pretty funny.

We thought we were done but then came Christmas carols. Same thing here, Rick picked the first one, they would have to get up in front of everyone and sing the song. Well, for some it wasn't a big deal and lucky for me I didn't get picked. Annette got picked but she wouldn't sing so she got Kylie up there with her. Let me tell you. Miss Kylie was not shy at all. She wanted to be up there and later she even went up there by herself to do some singing and some backup vocals. It was too cute.

This was my niece Kylie in pink with two of Jackie's girls and Rick on the guitar

Kylie doing backup vocals

Finally we were to the "dirty Santa" gifts. I had never done one of these before and everyone that brought gifts were given a number. When it was your number you would go up and pick a present, any one you wanted. The next person up could "steal" your present if they wanted it. Then you would go pick another. There were several "thefts" but it was all in good fun and everyone really had a good time. I ended up with a pair of gloves and some liquid hand warmers.

Can't wait till next year, word is we will need a place for dancing too by then!

Crushing Stones

2008-12-18T16:29:00.003-06:00

Well yesterday was the big day. I was scheduled to be at St Vincents at 9:30 to get prepped for the Lithotripsy procedure to crush my kidney stone. We had ice on the roads Tuesday and lucked out driving there other than the traffic was terrible and people were crawling across the bridges. They were quick to get my paperwork done and we didn't have to wait less than 5 minutes after that to go back to pre-op. All the nurses working pre-op were watching for me already as my sister used to work in that area and knew all of them, so she warned them about me.

I don't remember her name but the first nurse was so nice. Had me get naked and put on the hospital gown. Annette had to tie the back for me but not before she took a picture of my behind. No telling where that will end up but it won't be on here!

Another girl came in and got blood, another did an EKG, they took blood pressure, temp and all that stuff. My nurse started me on an IV around 10:45 and put some drug in there to ease secretions in the mouth. Well, I couldn't eat or drink after midnight so I was starving and dying of thirst already. But I couldn't have anything. I did get one swig of water when they gave me some pills for something.

I was scheduled for the procedure at 11:30 and really up until about 11:00 we stayed quite busy. About 11:30 the nurse came back and said that there had been a delay, the doctor had gotten tied up on a surgery before me so it was going to be at least an hour. Well, I had already been laying on the gurney for almost an hour and I was getting pretty bored. Annette was falling in and out of sleep between text messages with people checking on me. About 12:30 a nurse came back and told us it was going to be another hour. This was really starting to suck. Laying there with nothing to do at all but stare at the walls with an IV stuck in me. Finally about 1 they came to get me and take me for an xray to make sure the stone was still there. That takes all of 15 minutes. After that I went into the Urology Surgery Center at a waiting area. More waiting......I was so tired of waiting. Lets just get this over with!

Finally about 2 they rolled me in the room. There was a machine that looked like an xray camera and a bed underneath it. They wheeled me next to it and told me to scoot over under that thing. Well, the funny thing was, this was not a regular bed or table. My butt was put on some kind of rubber looking thing and then it felt like I was laying on a metal bar. Not very comfortable. The rubber thing reminded me of an over sized condom. Really weird. But hey, the anistesisologist said he was giving me something to relax me and then next thing I knew I was out. Whatever happened there stayed there because I remember nothing of it. I was glad too, because they were also running a tube/camera up the front end to look into my bladder. I was most happy to be out while they did that.

I woke up in recovery looking at the monitors going and listening to my heart beat. It probably wasn't 5 minutes and I was wide awake and felt great. I guess my vitals were great because it wasn't long and they were wheeling me back to the pre-op area where I started. Annette met me there along with my sister. I felt like I needed to pee while I was in recovery and they gave me one of those jugs to use but I just couldn't pee laying in the bed. The rule was that you couldn't go home until you could pee. Well, I was ready to go home so I was determined to pee.

Back in pre-op I had a male nurse named Walter who was very nice. He gave me another jug to use but I told him I wanted to go to the bathroom across the hall. He said that would be fine but that I still had to use the jug. Guess they wanted proof! Well, that wasn't at all pretty. Looked like I was peeing blood which it was but it was expected. They said small sand like pieces of the stone would come out for the next 48 hours.

The doctor told Annette that everything was great, no other issues to worry about. They gave me a prescription for some pain medicine, an antibiotic and some med that was suppose to open things up so whats left of the stones will pass more easily. By the time I was dressed and released it was almost 4:30pm. And we had expected to be home by 2 or 3! Delay after delay and all the waiting. But we were not done yet!

We hit rush hour traffic going home. Annette had called our personal pharmacist and running friend Kelly to see how late they were open. They were open till 5:30 but she was going to wait on us. I knew I had to have those meds. By the second traffic jamb I just wanted to be home. I felt like I had to pee but with what I was peeing I couldn't just do it anywhere. We rolled in the pharmacy about 5:20 and Kelly got us in and out of there in record time. I was never so happy to be home and be done with all the waiting around.

The night wasn't too bad. I did end up needing one of the pain pills and finally got some food. Annette kept me drinking all into the night which really helped clear things up pretty quick. I got to pee through a strainer so could save any pieces of the stones for the lab to check. The stones look like extra small pieces of sand or some say they look like cuckleburs. I was going to take a photo but they are too small to show up.

Today Annette put the girls on me. I was getting multiple text messages and emails asking how I was and telling me to drink, drink and drink some more. Thank you ladies! You guys are the best and I love all of you! By the way, I drank everything in the house!!

BOSU Balance Training

2008-12-12T11:28:00.003-06:00

About to go nuts not being able to run or bike. Last night I did a bunch of core/yoga and bosu ball training. I ended up making my own Bosu training that was kind of fun. I would stand on the bosu ball, balance then throw darts at an electronic dart game I have on the wall. Did give my lower legs and ankles a good workout and broke the boredom. I have found that over the past year I can stand on this thing forever. When i first started I could barely stand on it without falling off. It is good for strengthening lower legs and core. Along with that a few yoga poses, plank, side plank, etc seem to help a lot and I can see lots of improvement there over time. These help not only for running but biking too. Winter is a good time to work on strength even though it can be boring at times.

On a side note my Lithotripsy has been rescheduled from Monday to next Wednesday. Just more days that I can't run. It's making me nuts!

Memphis Marathon Weekend Slide Show

2008-12-10T20:01:00.001-06:00

Memphis Marathon Weekend

2008-12-08T21:08:00.005-06:00

Sorry if this is long but read on if you dare.

The St Jude's Marathon is now over but it was a whirlwind weekend for Annette and I. Me as a spectator. Annette as a full marathon finisher. And I'll have to say, I am pretty proud of her. She ran 20 miles without a walk break and set a new marathon PR of 4:57:53. This was her 5th marathon and her 4th this year. Amazing!!

We left Friday morning meeting a caravan of Cabot Cruisers at Brenda's house around 10am. The initial count by Vicki was that there was going to be at least 35 Cabot Cruisers at the race either doing the full or the half. Vicki was doing the 5k even. We hit the road with the official Cruiser caravan and the funny thing was, it was three Honda CRV's and all with 26.2 stickers on the back.

We arrived at the expo around 12:30 and got our packets and made the rounds. I was a little disappointed that the expo was so small. I guess it was maybe bigger than Little Rock but there was no comparison at all to Nashville. Memphis may have been smaller than Tulsa in fact. Nashville was so crowed you couldn't even walk. Memphis you could look around and chat all you wanted which was nice. Afterwards we all got checked in at the Marriott and started thinking about where to eat dinner. It was soon determined that we would eat at the hotel since they were having a pasta buffet. Around 5 we met in the lobby and took over the restaurant. There were other Cruisers that had arrived and I think we must have had 20-25 there by that time with more arriving. It was pretty cool to see that our one little town had this many runners here.

After dinner we hung out and chatted, sat down with James and Michele while they ate dinner and also went to a 25 year wedding anniversary toast for Don and Tammy. Pretty busy night and it was still fairly early. Since I wasn't racing, I could really see and feel the stress and tension everyone had. Wondering what to wear, what the weather was going to be like, what to eat, did they have their nutrition right, what pace they were running and the list went on. We even walked back over to the Expo with a few of the crew then it was time to head to the room.

That was another story too. For some reason we had gotten a room with two double beds and Jane, who had her son and a friend with her, only got a single king bed. We were staying two nights and she was only staying one but to make things easier for them, Annette offered to swap rooms for the night. No big deal, happy to do it. Only problem was, late check out was 2pm and we had to get our stuff back in our original room by then. That meant that the girls would have to run the marathon and be back at the hotel within 6 hours. Well, Annette really didn't want to think about that the night before and I didn't push the issue. She had stuff laid all over the room trying to figure out what to wear. It was very interesting to say the least because the marathon had totally taken over everyone at that point. I think we finally got to bed at 10 maybe. Set the alarm for 4:50. Of course, hotel rooms always suck and it was hard to sleep.

Annette was up and going at 5am so she could eat. By 5:30 she was getting up and starting to get ready. Think I made it up around 6, headed down to the coffee shop and got coffee. The group was all meeting at 6:50 to head to the race start. I wanted to see them off but I really didn't want to go to the start as it was about 28 degrees or less and you really can't see anyone in that mass group of people. Instead, I came up with the plan for the support crew in the group to go to the corner of Popular and Main to cheer everyone on. That would be just past mile 3. We got a couple photos before everyone left then the rest of us had a little time.

Just past 8am, James, Bob, Cindy and myself headed to the corner to cheer on the runners. It was very cold and it was windy too. This was one time it would have been better being a runner because at least the running would warm you up some. We got to see the lead vehicle and then the lead runners come through. The first two were very fast and obviously just running the 1/2. About a block back came a group of Kenyans who all appeared to be running the full marathon. One of our runners was not too far behind them though. Josh who is very fast was maybe a couple blocks behind them and this was his first marathon.

We saw several of our runners and it was fun cheering everyone on as they came by. I would often tell the people running that they were warmer than I was. I don't even remember who all we saw. We wanted to see everyone but we missed a bunch in the traffic. I hope we gave some of the runners a boost at least. And we hung out there in the bitter cold till probably past the 5:30 runners. By then we had to go get warm and headed back to the hotel with hopes of breakfast.

After checking our time, Bob informed us that he didn't have time for breakfast as he wanted to see Lisa finish the half. She is very fast so she was expected around 1:40ish. We didn't have over an hour so we opted for coffee and some got a snack there. We lucked out and caught the warm trolley and headed for Autozone Park and the finish line. It was a good thing we did things the was we did. It wasn't 3 minutes after we got there and Lisa and Rock's name was called out as coming in to the finish line. The finish line for the half wasn't really where you could see it good so James and I ended up going over to the food. Since both of us had paid to race and couldn't, we used our number to get us some free race food. After all, we paid big money for this little perk!

After killing a little time talking and walking around, it wasn't long till we were in the 2:30 time range. We all knew that Josh was shooting for maybe a 2:45 marathon time so we sat and waited in the bleachers to watch for him. Time passed but there was still plenty for him as he needed a 3:10 to Boston qualify. Just past the 3:00 time we saw him run in the stadium. He crossed the line showing 3:02 but officially it was a 3:01. Amazing time for his first marathon! I also forgot to mention that I got to see the marathon winner come in and finish. That was pretty awesome too!

We knew it would be at least an hour before we had anyone else come in so James and I headed over to the Peabody to see if they were showing the pay per view fight Saturday night. After that we headed back to the hotel and I had intentions of getting our bags moved back to our original room. We did luck out and catch the trolley so it only took maybe 5-10 minutes to get there. Still plenty of time for me to get back to the finish line. When I got to my room my key wouldn't work so I had to go back downstairs to get another one. But, Jane's son was at the stadium and not the hotel so I couldn't move our bags back. Time was running out and I had to get back to the finish line to watch Brenda finish so I took off. Unfortunately the trolleys were all going the other way and I had 15 minutes before the 4:00 race time mark. Brenda needed a 4:00:59 to BQ and I was determined to not miss seeing her make it. I ended up running and walking all the way back to the stadium. Walked in and the clock was showing 3:58 I think. I found Cindy and asked her if Brenda had come in yet and she said no. I knew there was some cushion though because the race was chip timed and it could have been 10-15 minutes to cross the start. I was hoping at least for Brenda who had worked and trained so hard for this race. Something told me though that the extreme cold temps had slowed some people down and I was right. As the clock ticked past the 4:01 time we all got more and more anxious. Our little group of spectators was almost chanting, "come on Brenda," "come on Brenda". Well, she gave it her all and it was just not the day to do it. Her final time was 4:07 and change I think. Still an awesome time but the course and weather conditions just didn't let the BQ happen. I have no doubt that it will happen on the next one! Next came Andrea, Bailey, Michele, Robert and Jane.

Annette had called me when she was at mile 22 pretty upset. She was cramping and was having to walk. I told her to take some electrolytes and drink some water. This was all before Brenda came in and I kept texting her trying to keep her updated. She sent me a text later saying she was at mile 24. I knew her ultimate goal of 4:45 was not going to happen but her under 5 hour goal was still doable. If only we knew what time her garmin had! It was like sitting on pins and needles watching the race clock as it went past the 5:00 mark. Brenda said her time was almost 15 minutes off so that was encouraging. Then as the clock was about to show 5:10 I saw a lady in pink come running in. It was Jackie. And then behind her was Annette. They were going to finish right together. It was an awesome sight. They crossed as the clock said 5:11 something but everyone said they were under 5 hours. That was all that mattered. I took off to meet them. The bad thing about this marathon is that afterwards, all the runners have to walk up stairs to get out of the stadium. Is that cruel or what?? Anyway, I was there at the top when Jackie and Annette made it there. Annette was happy but pretty upset that she missed her 4:45. She said a cop let a car through an intersection and she had to stop running real fast which caused her to cramp up. Irregardless her 4:57:53 is an awesome time and a big PR for her. Kelly finished a few minutes back behind Annette and she also had a big PR.

Unfortunately I couldn't stay around to celebrate. It was 1:30 pm and I had to have our stuff out of that room by 2:00. So I took off leaving Annette with the others. Luckily Jane and the boys had already went that way too. Again I missed the trolley so I fast walked it back. And again, my room key wouldn't work. Got new ones, they wouldn't work. Finally the maid let me in as she saw all the trouble I was having to go through. She must have wondered what the hell was going on when she saw me moving bag after bag from one room to the other. I just said, we are crazy runners! All the while this was going on Annette was calling telling me they had walked to a Mexican Restaurant to eat and for Jane and I to come join them. Once we had everything situated we took off for the restaurant. Again we missed the trolley but it was good for Jane to get some walking in anyway. Had some good food and a couple beers at the Mexican place. All the marathon finishers were hobbling around. Must have been at least 15 of us that ate there.

We lucked out and made the trolley back to the hotel. When we got back Jane and her gang started grabbing their bags to head home. One of the maids knocked on the door and handed us some shoes. I guess I had left a pair of Annette's running shoes in the other room. The maid had remembered the room we were in because of all of the confusion. Robert and Kelly also had stuff in our room so it was a whirlwind again, everyone getting their stuff and changing to head home.

Annette and I stayed the night and later met up with James, Michele, Phil, Jackie, Bob, Lisa, Ken and Debbie. Made it down to Beale Street for some food, fun and more walking. Ended up at BB King's place where Annette and I even got some dancing in. I was amazed that she could dance after running a marathon! We also got to see a parade of Santa Claus's walking down Beale Street. Now that was a weird sight!! We were all back at the hotel before midnight. It was a fun night with some great friends and running companions.

Unfortunately neither Annette or I got a good nights sleep. The room was either too hot or the pillows were too flat. I ended up getting up pretty early, got coffee and then we ended up meeting James and Michele for a breakfast buffet. It was awesome! Headed home about 10:45 ending an awesome weekend in Memphis. Hopefully next year it won't be as cold and maybe I'll get to run St Jude's for once.

I'll try to post some photos that I took later.

It's A Stone

2008-12-05T07:01:00.003-06:00

I got a call about 8:30am yesterday that the doctors office had finally gotten everything approved to have my CT scan done. They wanted to get it done that morning so I agreed to be there at 10:15 and try to get it over with. Not knowing and wondering was getting to be a pain. Got in pretty fast, the CT scan was nothing. Laid me on this table and the lower part of my body went in this big round hole on this big white machine. It wasn't one of those whole body things. It was over in 15 minutes and I was on my way. They said the doctor would call if they found anything.

Had a lunch scheduled with my managers and some vendors at Olive Garden at noon. Just as we were finishing up my phone rang and it was the doctors office. I had to answer. The nurse told me I had a kidney stone. And that it was 7mm in size and that I needed to be at the Urologist at 2pm. I was relieved to know it was a stone. I was a little worried at how fast she was wanting to get me in to the Urologist. 7mm seemed big to me. Actually, that's just a little over a 1/4 inch in diameter. Since I was just up the street from that doctors office I waited a few and headed on over. Didn't know what they were going to do. Had to fill out paper work there and wait probably an hour and a half before I went back. First thing they do as I'm walking down the hall is give me a cup and told me to pee in this. Got that over with then went to a room and waited on the doctor.

When the doctor came in he asked a few questions and I explained the "how it started after I was running" story. He said that made total sense. That the running makes the stone move around and causes a little blood to pass. He said my stone was too big to actually pass down the tubes so they would need to crush it by doing what they call lithotripsy. This machine uses extracorporeal shock wave technology to break the kidney stone into small pieces so it can pass out your system. Not a major deal, just an outpatient thing. He said mine did not hurt because kidney stones usually don't cause pain until they start passing down the urinary tract tubes and mine was just sitting there. He said there was no immediate rush to get it done like right now, but it had to be done, otherwise over long term you would have kidney damage because of the blockage. So, long story short, I am scheduled for December 15th to have the procedure done. He said no running for sure as this causes the stone to move around. So, at least I still get to go to Memphis. I was worried that I was going to have to sit home and use a strainer all weekend to see if the stones pass. I still get to enjoy the race.

So, me and my stone are headed to Memphis for the weekend!

Memphis

2008-12-03T21:15:00.002-06:00

Well I am not running the 1/2 at Memphis Saturday. I will be there for support and join several of the other guys as spectators. After doing my long run Monday night, mid morning on Tuesday I had a little blood show in my urine again. That's always a weird feeling even if it is just a very small drop. Still haven't heard back from the doctor when my CT scan will be so its a wait and see game right now. I do know that running makes whatever it is worse or aggravates it. Because for 13 days of non running, I had no issues and nothing what so ever was visible. Then the first time I run, boom the next day I have it and felt like crap. So, I figured there was no need to feel bad on Sunday after the race if I didn't have to. Lucky for me there are at least 4-5 other runners that are not racing that is in our club so I will hang with them and we will have fun. One other good thing, the weather at race start is suppose to be pretty cold so most likely, I will still be inside where its warm, at least till its time for the 1/2 marathoners to come in. I want to be there at the finish for them but especially for Brenda and Josh who are trying to Boston Qualify. They have worked so hard, especially Brenda and I know she is going to do it. It's going to be awesome watching them achieve their goals.

Annette is shooting for a 4:45 I think & she can do that with no problem if she doesn't have a lot of bathroom issues. My Tulsa marathon partner Jane, will be shooting for a 4:30 I think so I'm crossing my fingers that they will all make it. Several others will also be running the full, Kelly, Robert, Michele, Jackie and I'm sure more that I will forget to mention. Should be a lot of fun even if I'm not running. Wishing I had one of those really good SLR digital cameras now. Maybe one of these days.

Good luck to everyone racing and I hope you achieve your goal.

New Treadmill Record

2008-12-02T07:11:00.003-06:00

I set a new distance record on my treadmill last night. 8.5 miles. Probably set a new record for slowest time too. Average pace, 12:02. Think I could have walked almost that fast. First couple miles were good, 10:04 and 10:31 pace but pretty much went downhill after that. Maybe not all so bad considering a stressful day and the fact that I haven't ran in 13 days. I could have ran faster but my heart rate was so high I backed down. Maybe it was from the temperature or maybe it was just from the day. Either way averaged like 174bpm and that's too high for me on a slow easy run. Legs and foot felt good, started feeling a little towards the end but at least the foot isn't hurting bad. Actually could have went a few more miles. They would have been slow but I figured I better not. I actually enjoy the treadmill sometimes when the Ipod has some good songs and there is something to look at on the tv.

Now the bad, went yesterday and did my pee test again. I figured it would be perfect. Wrong. They called me back late yesterday afternoon and said I still had the microscopic blood. May not be anything but they want to do a CT Scan and see a urologist. Needless to say, this will screw up your game plan, especially the not knowing what the hell is going on part. May not be anything, but they want to do more tests to make sure. I don't mind the CT thing at all. But thinking about some urologist running a camera up the front end is pretty scary. I'd rather run in a burning house. So, now its a wait and see when I get to do this. Then the big question is, can I run Memphis? That's this weekend. Of course if I ask they would probably tell me no, but I really don't see what it would hurt at this point.

I hate waiting and wondering.

Trying to Maintain

2008-11-29T12:34:00.003-06:00

Just trying to keep my endurance till I can get back to running on Monday. So today my goal was to walk as fast as I could for 1 hour. Actually surprised me how fast it went by, even on the treadmill. Ended up doing a total of 4.5 miles. Jacked up the incline on the treadmill to get my heart rate up and with the fast turnover, it was pretty easy to sit close to 160bpm. Wish I had done more of the walking thing back during the summer. The good thing is it has no impact on my plantar facittis at all. Hope doing this helps, if not I am doomed next weekend at the 1/2.

Walking stats for the day:
4.5 miles - 1:04:16
Splits
1-14:16
2-14:12
3-14:06
4-13:44
hit 4.3m in 1:00:00

Does this mean I'm goal oriented since I'm tracking walking pace?? Probably.

Link

2008-11-29T09:27:00.003-06:00

Here is the URL for the video in the previous post. I guess Youtube or the owner decided they would no longer allow this one to be embedded. Good video and song though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEQYN1DC220

Lonestar - Mountains

2008-11-27T22:53:00.002-06:00

This is still one of the most motivating songs I know of. It has helped get me through many long runs. Every time I hear it I want to reach down deep for whatever extra is there. Like the song says, "you can't lean on no one else, that's when you find yourself", "the good lord gave us mountains, so we could learn how to climb"........
That's just a few of the words, I think the whole morale of the song is that we all can do outstanding things if we really want to and set our mind to do it. Listen to this next time you need that extra push.

Turkey Day Maximum Fat Burn

2008-11-27T11:30:00.003-06:00

Well I got a good pre-thanksgiving meal workout in. Spent 1:18:33 in my home gym. 31:00 minutes on weights, core, abs and threw some leg presses in. Then I hit the treadmill for some walking. It is so hard not to run. Especially when you look at the beautiful weather we are having today. Sunny and 55 or so at 11:30am. Perfect running weather. But, since I had to hold back for a few more days, I challenged myself to see how fast or how much faster I could get just walking.

Actually speed walking is kind of fun. It's a lot like running but you just don't get the miles done as fast. I'm sure there are ways to increase the pace and if I was stuck to walking I'd start playing around with different techniques. As it is I just want to see how much I can improve from the last time. I do know that swinging your arms like in running makes walking faster much easier.

So I started out at 4.0 mph on the treadmill then pretty quickly increased it to 4.3. Varied the incline from flat to 3.0 just get some hills in. Most of the time my heart rate was around 160 or a little less which is almost but not quite where my marathon heart rate normally is. Ended up doing 3 miles in 42:55 which is a 14:18 pace. Kind of funny that I'm trying to lower my pace walking. Again, it really was not bad, even on the dreadmill. It was a fast pace, had to keep my legs turning over pretty good but never running or jogging. Had my garmin on to keep up with my heart rate and it showed an average of 145 for 1:18:33. It didn't calculate my calories for some reason but from experience on the bike, this gets me probably around 1100 calories burnt. Now I can go eat!!

Next time your bored with running or just don't want the impact, try some fast walking and just see how fast you can walk 3 miles. Maybe it will help in your next marathon or event. If nothing else, the lower heart rate will burn a ton of calories.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Not Running

2008-11-25T21:52:00.003-06:00

Well my blood tests came back today and they were perfect so here I am, not running till Monday so I can make the doctor happy. I've had no issues since last Thursday when I went to the doctor so now I feel like I did all this for nothing. Guess its better to be safe than sorry but it is messing up my training. I'll go in Monday and pee in a cup just to satisfy the doctor, but I'm 99% sure it will be good. Everything adds up to me now. 1) I was a little dehydrated from being in Vegas the week before. 2) Ran some good tough runs, three 5 milers with no water on any of them and I am not used to that, even when its cool. 3) The cooler weather I have to force myself to drink more water. Since last week I have been drinking a lot more and I can tell the difference. 4) I still think I may have had some kind of bug or something on that Friday and that could have further caused me to dehydrate some. From that, it all makes sense a little, but it sure has screwed up my training for Memphis.

Since I haven't been running, Sunday I had to do something. I did about an hour on the weight machine and also did some core and ab work. Then I hit the treadmill and walked 1.5 miles at a fast pace. And NO, I didn't run. Annette told me, "you better not be running", was kind of funny hearing that. Guess when people tell you that you know you must be a runner that's injured or sick.

Not to be outdone I hit the weights and treadmill again on Monday night. This time I only did a 1 mile walk. Did it in 16 minutes and could have walked a little faster. I really think its not a bad idea to practice speed walking some. I know now that I can at least walk 4 miles per hour with no problem. That would give me about a 6:30 marathon if I walked the whole thing. May have to implement some walking next weekend at the 1/2 in Memphis but I hope not. After I go back to the doc on Monday I'll probably do an 8 or 9 miler on the treadmill. Sounds bad, but I think I can occupy myself better on that then running in the dark probably alone most of the time. I really need one good run with that kind of miles but I feel pretty strong and the 12 miler I did a few weeks back was not that bad at all.

Let me tell ya, it's hard not to run when you can. Much easier not to run when your injured but just waiting is the worst.

Another Racing Season Winds Down

2008-11-22T21:09:00.002-06:00

The Spa 10k was held today and it was the last race of the season for the Arkansas Grand Prix Series. I did not get to race it, but there will be another race. Maybe next year.

Sitting here tonight I thought back on the season and the races I did get to run. 12 in fact in the Grand Prix Series not counting many others that were not part of that. There were 22 races in the series this year and Curtis, who is one of the runners on the Cruiser team, ran every one of them. He will be given an Ironman trophy along with not more than 5 others that ran every race. Let me tell you, that is a feat in itself to make every race of the year, all 22 of them! We even raced a 10k on a Saturday this year then drove about 175 miles to run a half marathon the next day. My plantar facittis injury took me out of most of the races since June but I was still able to score some points for the team even running extremely slow.

I'll have to say it's been a fun year and pending a doctor telling me NO I will be running the 1/2 in Memphis in two weeks. Should be a perfect ending to the year in racing.

The Grand Prix will start back up on January 25th and continue till November 28th next year. Only 20 races for 2009 so I hope to run the majority of them. Easy to look forward and say that. But I remember many races that we went to this year that I asked myself why?? Like the Survivor Classic 5K in Fort Smith. 6 hours of driving to run a 5k?? And we didn't even get team points, but we still got our individual points. Not that it helped me much. It still will be a much better finish for me this year compared to last. The past two years I have been competing in the 45-49 year age group which is the toughest and fastest in the state. Next year I will move in the 50+ age group. Times are starting to come down a little so maybe there is still hope for a slow runner like me. Maybe by 60 I can start winning some awards!

Off from running for a few days here but the planning for next year has already begun. Everyone should start thinking about their goals for next year and how to achieve them. I know I will be.

Happy running!

Even the best of plans get messed up

2008-11-20T15:28:00.003-06:00

Well I am officially not running the Spa 10k this weekend.

Ever since I was sick last Friday I had noticed different and weird colors in my urine. Not really anything unusual as endurance sports does cause different colors due to hydration levels. I just figured that I was dehydrated. With the cooler weather I know I'm not drinking enough water and I have been running longer without drinking than normal. Rested all day Saturday, drank a lot of water. Rested Sunday then ran again 3 miles. Monday started getting the weird colors again. Got some cranberry juice and started drinking that. Have been feeling fine all through that. Felt great yesterday and then saw just a very small drop of blood in my urine. Figured it was time to call the doc then.

Went today and saw my doc. Had me do a pee test. He said there was microscopic blood particles in it and that he thinks its just from the running. Seems there is a condition called "Joggers Hermaturia", where the bladder bounces around and the bouncing can cause blood. I guess it's pretty common in runners and probably a lot of people don't even realize that its happening. In fact, he told me he had a local runner in there today with the exact same problem, and that he knew I knew them but he couldn't say who it was. Weird to have two with this kind of problem the same day in a small town like Cabot.

He also ran some blood tests to check my kidney functions but I won't know the results on that for a day or so. They said they would call me. He told me that he would like for me to not run for 10 days then get checked again. If nothing shows up then it's most likely caused from running. If something does show up, then they want to do a CT Scan and run a tube up places I don't want. Yuck.

So there you have it, I can run, but I can't run. It still leaves me open to run the half in Memphis I suppose if everything is OK. 10 days off will for sure hurt my chances for a PR. Sure wish the weather was warmer so I could bike more.

Hope to know more soon, till then I'll be thinking about all of you running in the cold while I'm warm and getting fat!

Tuesday Night

2008-11-18T21:46:00.003-06:00

Feeling much better today. Still not sure what the heck I had or have. Did run 3 miles Sunday afternoon but it wasn't at all pleasant. I was really disappointed in missing my chance at a great weeks worth of mileage.

This week is COLD. Took Monday off to get well and tonight I had Fire Department training which was basically a bitch session on what needs fixed in the department. It is so hard to have happy people in a volunteer organization and then you add all males, with a bunch of macho, I know more than you type people and your going to have bitching. Like I told them all last week, business is slow (no fires) so everyone has more time on their hands so all they have to do is gripe and moan about whats not getting done and who is not doing any work. And wait till there is an officers position open. Talk about one being better than the other. It's not the pay that's for sure, because that equals ZERO. So why would someone even want to be an officer? More responsibility? More to do? Well, some just want to be able to boss people around and then there are some that just want to have a tittle. The best do it because they are leaders.

When it's all said and done, when it's time to do battle with the fiery beast, we do all come together and will do whatever it takes to get the job done to save life or property. Most of all, we will take care of each other. After all, we are brothers, and brothers always fight but we are still family always no matter what.

Not sure where I was going with that but back to running, I still plan to run the Spa 10k Saturday if I'm feeling good. Hoping to get a run in Wednesday night and maybe Thursday too. Suppose to be cold, may opt out for the treadmill. We shall see.

Stay warm and safe out there.

Down for the count

2008-11-15T15:13:00.003-06:00

Had a good run Thursday night, again meeting up at Michele's for another 5 miler. This was supposed to be a little easier and it was to a degree. We ran the Krooked Creek area so it wasn't quite as hilly as Blooming Ridge is but it still had the rolling hills. Ended up with a 10:27 pace for non-stop 5 miles.

Now I am sick. Friday morning I didn't feel really good then about 10am I started having hot flashes and sweating. Fever. I actually felt like I do when I give blood and almost pass out. Not sure what was up with that. Ended up going home once I felt like I could drive. Must have had fever the rest of the day. Just achy, sometimes hot and sometimes cold. Still ended up working from home as we had several conference calls scheduled. It was so hard to sit on the phone for 30-45 minutes at a time. I almost fell asleep a couple times. From 10:30 till 4:30 was on and off calls so I was never so glad when they were done. Felt achy and like I could barely move last night.

Much better this morning but no where near 100%. I'm thinking it must be a bug that's been going around. All I know is that after a great week of training, I may end up missing my long run. I guess I will know tomorrow as to how I feel. I am not planning on anything early tomorrow for sure. I really needed about 13 miles, but I guess I'll get whatever I get. Kind of frustrating, if its not work stuff its injuries or now sickness keeping me from getting my miles.

Another Fast 5

2008-11-13T14:50:00.003-06:00

Last night I met up with Annette, Michele, Brenda and Kelly at Michele's house for what was supposed to be your normal everyday run. Annette, Brenda and Michele started a little early and Kelly and I ran about half a mile or so to warm up before we saw them. Then we were off to the races.

Michele was on fire last night. We were all having trouble staying up with her. We were running through Blooming ridge which is nothing but rolling hills. To make things even harder, it had to be 100% humidity or close to it because it was foggy and the streets were all wet. If anyone would have taken a walk break I would have too but we didn't and we all just kept running. Not much conversation going on, we were all gasping for air it seemed. I wrote it off to the humidity then afterwards when I saw my splits I knew I was running at almost 10k race pace. Even towards the end Brenda let Michele go on. They had gotten ahead of the rest of us and they had to be running 8:30 miles.

I finished with 5.01 miles for the night. When we walked the last block as a cool down Kelly said she felt like she was about to get sick. It was one of those runs. Great training though for the upcoming Spa 10K next weekend.

Here are my splits.....I'm still amazed. I have never ran this route this fast. It has some tough hills!
5.01 miles - 49:37 - 9:55 avg.
1-10:25
2-9:42
3-9:46
4-9:53
5-9:48

5 Milers

2008-11-10T21:23:00.003-06:00

I didn't even get to blog about last Monday nights run with Annette, Brenda and Jane so I will now. As some of you may know, Annette had just ran the Wynne Marathon on that previous Saturday. So Monday night was her first night to run again. She was determined to get 5 miles and of course I told her she didn't need that many but that was like talking to a brick wall.

We started out from the Community Center at 6:15pm, it was about 55 degrees so not too hot and not too cold. My goal was to do 5 miles and stay around a 10:30 pace. First mile we ended up with a 10:26. Right on pace. Then Annette started getting faster. Second mile was a 10:07. I started asking her what was going on and that she better slow down. Think that fueled the fire maybe. Third mile was a 10:04. Still getting faster. OK, I was starting to feel like I was in a race just to keep up. By mile 4 Jane was thinking the same thing. Of course Brenda runs low 9's so she was comfortable. We started kidding Annette asking her if we made her mad or something. You are not suppose to run like this after just doing a marathon! Well, mile 4 was even faster. 9:46. I guess I started running out of gas cause mile 5 slowed to a 10:01. Thank god it was over! I know that's not that fast for some but it was fast for me just coming off an injury. if I had been racing a 10k, I would have had a PR.

Final time was 5.0 miles in 50:30 for a 10:06 average pace. I loved the negative splits too! Best of all, I never had a walk break or even water. 5 miles solid running and really it was at a comfortable pace.

This is kinda starting to freak me out. I have always been one who liked to run/walk. Now, all of a sudden I can run 5 miles non stop, not even wanting to stop. And my legs and foot felt great which even more so made me question what was going on. Maybe my recovery is over and I'm back in race mode.

Didn't get to run while I was in Vegas but I did get a lot of walking. I roughly figured it up and I walked at least 22 miles in the two and a half days I was there. Didn't run Sunday, my feet and legs were a little sore from all the walking so I figured I would just call it a week. Only 5 miles logged running so that sucked but I think with all the walking it really had no affect on hurting my training.

Tonight i ran 5 miles on the treadmill. And again, non-stop, no water..................this is becoming a habit, and a good one for me I think. Now I'm starting to wonder how far I can go. 6 miles? 7 miles? 10? Do the whole half? Well, I know I will have to walk to drink a little, especially in the half. By the way, I am officially signed up for the Memphis Half Marathon. I will also be doing the Spa 10k in two weeks so that will be a prep race for the half to get a feel of what I can and can't do. My goals for both are new PR's which I think are realistic and achievable. We shall see.

Vegas

2008-11-08T13:04:00.009-06:00

I have been in Vegas since Wednesday for Automotive Repair Week. Has been very busy, dinner with BASF on Wednesday night. Almost all day Thursday was spent at the NACE Trade Show which is all about auto body repair equipment. Thursday night was a party at House of Blues put on by Enterprise Rent a Car. Then me and my counter part from St Louis headed out on the town, ending up at Coyote Ugly at New York New York till almost 2am. What a fun place!! Not even standing room it is so packed.

Friday was spent at the SEMA Show. This is "THE SHOW" for anything automotive. Though it was obvious attendance was down. This is all about specialty equipment, oems, pretty much anything automotive or custom. Guess you could say its a lot of bling bling. Can't say how many miles it covers in the convention center and outside. It is dominated by west coast people that's for sure. If you love cars this is the show, which the general public can't get in unless your in the business. I do have to give a thumbs up for ESPN Sports Zone at New York New York. Best food, best service I have had in Vegas.

We stayed at the Hampton Inn Tropicana which is off the strip but a nice hotel. Not in the best neighborhood but within walking distance of the strip which we did. I don't know yet how many miles of walking I did but it has to be at least 30. Hope I can count that as training miles!!

Here are some pics from Vegas and the SEMA show. I am off to catch a plane back to Little Rock!

Whats Vegas without the fountains at Belagio

Just a view

New Dodge Truck

Chrome Paint

Big ass truck!! And people buy these to drive around.

My next Ford Truck-The Raptor

You can't buy this on the showroom yet, totally custom

This is a Pontiac, like an El Camino

Black Camaro

Yellow Camaro Custom

One of my favorites- new "Cuda"

Another BIG truck - flat paint color is in

Totally Show SSR - everything opens to music

Sweat Gutr

2008-11-03T20:10:00.003-06:00

For those of you like me whose head sweats buckets, I have finally found the perfect solution. Ever since I started running I have tried hats, sweat bands, bondi bands, nothing, towels, anything to keep the sweat out of my eyes. Well, I have found the one. It's called the Sweat Gutr. It's kind of like a head band but its made out of plastic, just over 1/4 inch wide and you wrap it around your head. In the front it has a gutter or channel that the sweat will run into and then it goes off to the side. In my case it felt like it went to the back of my head which is awesome.

There is nothing more frustrating then having to stop your run to wipe sweat from your eyes and so far, after using it on two runs, I have yet to get any in my eyes. I could feel a little building up on my brow but I could have probably lowered the gutr and that wouldn't have happened. In any case, I'd highly recommend one of these. Will be great on the bike too, in fact that's what it is designed for I think. Another good thing is you can wear a hat with it and it doesn't get in the way, unlike a sweat band or bondi band. I couldn't even tell I had it on.

Here is a picture and the link to their website. Most bike shops have these.

http://www.sweatgutr.com/home.html

PS: I will take sponsorships :)

Trying Something New

2008-11-02T19:54:00.002-06:00

Ever since I started running I have been more of a run/walk type of runner. A lot of times I would run really fast, then burn out, have to walk, then do it again. Sometimes I just didn't have the endurance. Sometimes I think it was just mental. Sometimes maybe I thought that walking would make my legs feel better, even if it was just a short 30 seconds. Something has changed as of today. Not sure if its endurance, weather, or just some mental block I had to over come but today was different. Today I never even wanted to walk.

This morning's run was suppose to be a recovery run from yesterdays 12 miler. So when I started out I thought I'd just try and stay around a 10:30 pace. I needed 4 miles to hit my goal for the week so to top it off, I challenged myself not to walk during any of it. I didn't take water so I couldn't use a water break for an excuse. The new sweat gutr was even working good so no sweat in my eyes. First mile went good, 10:29. Second mile, slow and steady 10:28. Third mile I decided to pick things up a little at times then ease back some. Had a 10:09 for it. Fourth mile was a 10:15 and I ended up getting an extra .2 on top of that. And it was hot. The sun had gotten up good as I didn't start till about 9 so when I was running without shade I was sweating pretty good. My breathing almost amazed me. It was almost like walking. And no lactic acid build up in my legs. They felt great, no foot pain. I'd have to say this was almost the perfect run. 4.2 miles, 10:18 average pace and negative splits to top it off. I was pretty happy. And that was slow and steady, not pushing anything. Just strictly endurance training. Why can't all my runs be like this?

Recovery has been great so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I have pretty much decided to run the half at Memphis and try to have a big PR. I really want to do the full but I know my best bet is to do the half and keep training for Huntington Beach in February. If things continue as they have, I will have an awesome marathon then. Doing the full at Memphis would not be pretty, but I could do it. And I am still not ruling it out 100%, but at least 90% anyway.

I am off to Vegas on Wednesday to attend a trade show for work so I will be limited on how much I can run this coming week. It's suppose to be a back down week on my schedule anyway but who wants to back down?? I just want to get better and faster. I am hoping slow and steady will get me there.

Saturday Run

2008-11-01T15:16:00.005-05:00

Sorry for the lack of posting this week. Annette and I left Monday morning for meetings in Memphis and didn't get back till late Tuesday. Seems like from there on I have been playing catch up. I did manage one mid week run. 4 miles on the treadmill on Wednesday night. Was one of those nights that I was lucky just to get it done. Always seems harder to get my runs in during the week.

Saturday morning I met up with a bunch of the Cruisers at Central Elementary. I wanted 10 miles minimum. Annette, Kelly, Michele and some others were off doing the Wynne Mid-South Marathon as a "suppose to be" training run. Jane did not go so I ended up running with her from the school. Brenda and some of the other fast girls left us in the dust but that was ok. We kept up a great pace I thought. First 6 miles was a 10:23 average and I felt good. Started slowing some after that for some reason but unlike last weekend's long run, I never had any pains in my knees or legs. The foot was ok, not perfect by no means but not painful. More or less just a nagging type of low pain at times. Pretty much what I dealt with before orthotics.

The weather was great, start of the run was 52 degrees and humid at 6am. First 6 miles was pretty much in the dark which is good. We couldn't see the hills! Not many on the route we took but there were a few. Not many walk breaks either. Pretty much only a short water break every two miles and I could have gone furthur. I figured I better practice what I'd do in the marathon though and I will definatly need water every two miles at least.

I'll have to say Jane is a great running partner, helped get me through Tulsa injured last year and today was no different. I know she could have run faster than me today and I was thankfull to have the company. I actually hit the 10 mile mark with a 10:46 average pace, the same as my 10 miler last weekend. We ended up adding on a little at the end to make it 12 miles total. I wasn't sure how I would feel or if I could do 12 but when we had hit 11 I knew I was going to do 12 and I'm glad I did.

Here were my splits, there at the end I should have kept pushing a little harder.
Total Run - 12 Miles - 2:11:10 - 10:56 avg pace
Splits
1-10:17
2-10:12
3-10:44
4-10:08
5-10:45
6-10:28
7-11:04
8-11:28
9-11:27
10-11:08
11-11:28
12-12:00

By the way congratulations to Annette, Kelly and Michele. Finished the Wynne Marathon in 5:28. Good training run!!

Running early in the dark

2008-10-25T09:54:00.004-05:00

Started running this morning at 5:00am from the Community Center with Kelly and Jamie. Kelly had mentioned earlier in the week that she needed a long run before work on Saturday, so since I wasn't racing anywhere and needed 10 miles, I volunteered. I was having seconds thoughts as to why I would do such a thing Friday night when I saw that the temps were going to be in the lower 40's. Jamie read a post on the Cruiser forum that we were running at 5 so she decided to jump in there with us.

Getting up at 4am to go run is almost insane. Especially when its 40 degrees outside. The lowest it has been this fall in fact. Once I got there and got started I was glad I did. We just ran a big loop route, looping through various neighborhoods to make our way back. It was almost surreal, no traffic, everything quiet except for us talking as we ran. Pretty much we had the city to ourselves which is pretty cool in itself.

The cooler temps made for one of the best runs I have had all year. We took very few walk breaks, maybe one every 2-2.5 miles if that. I finished with an average pace of 10:46 for 10 miles. I looked back in my training log and that was the best 10 mile training pace I have had all year. Whats up with that?? Must have been the cold, the dark and the other runners helping me push through the pain. And we ran some hills too. Best of all we were done before 7am so the whole day is ahead of us now.

I could feel my foot through the whole run, not bad but I could tell it was still hurting some. Tomorrow will tell how well my recovery is. At this point I guess I am just pushing the foot to see how much it can take or hopefully, make it stronger so it doesn't hurt. Plantar has to be the worst possible running injury there is.

Its all good though when your running early in the dark!

St. Louis Fire Department- Quint vs Quint accident

2008-10-23T09:19:00.001-05:00

If you haven't seen this twelve seconds of video, make sure you do. It is the close-up view of the two rigs that crashed in St. Louis on October 10, injuring eight firefighters. This is pretty powerful stuff. Remember, all eight firefighters were wearing seat belts and there were no life threatening injuries.

Getting the miles

2008-10-23T07:19:00.003-05:00

Starting to get a few running miles for a change.

Monday night jumped on the treadmill for 3 or 4 but only ended up getting 2.3 as I got called out on a vehicle accident with the FD. My hamstrings were singing to me though. Must have been from the hard bike ride on Sunday afternoon.

Wednesday night Annette and I met Brenda and Kelly at the Community Center for a good night run. It was a good run I guess. I was slower than I wanted to be. But my goal stands just to stay around 10:20-10:30. Well, I am not there yet, or at least not last night. It was still a little warm to me, and once my head starts sweating bad, I'll have to walk just to get the sweat out of my eyes. Wish I had a good solution for that. I have tried different hats, bondi bands, etc. Think I'll get one of those sweat gutters that they sell at the bike shops and try. Once it gets cold it won't be as bad.

Anyway, I did end up getting 5.3 miles in, even though I walked a few times. My heart rate was getting up pretty good, must have been the heat and humidity, plus the route we ran had several inclines on it. Some of those kinda creep up on you. They look like a small incline but they are really long, slow, inclines. Averaged an 11:06 pace, actually thought it was much better than that but that's what my garmin said. I know we started out pretty fast at the beginning and Annette had to stop at Phillips 66 just before mile 1 so Brenda and I kinda slow jogged to wait on her. This brought the average down a lot but its all good. I got the miles and that's all I'm after right now. If the foot holds up to the mileage, then I can start working on the speed again.

It does suck to know that in April, I was running 9:20's for a longer distance than that. I ran a 9:35 average in February for the 15k. I looked back at my Nashville Marathon splits and at mile 20 I was averaging 11:07. I also have to take into account it was cooler then, though June I ran in the upper 7's for a 2 mile race. Sucks to be slow but I have come to the conclusion that I will never be a fast runner, but I hope to get back where I can at least cover the distance again.

It's all good though, any running is better than none at all. Even if your slow at it.

Multisport Sunday

2008-10-19T19:40:00.004-05:00

This is starting to be a Sunday regular. Run in the morning then bike hard in the afternoon. A good way to burn calories that's for sure. Past two Sundays I have burnt over 2500 calories each day. Not bad.

This morning started with a great run with my lovely wife Annette. We haven't gotten to run long together in a while and I really wanted to get in 8 miles. So we started out around 9am. No rush to get out the door, it was still nice and cool out, sunny and probably around 50 degrees or so. The sun makes it feel a lot warmer though.

We ran one of Annette's routes that she runs with the girls some mornings and it was great. We held a nice steady pace up to just past mile 3 when Annette started having some stomach issues and she had to stop and walk. We ended up running on to Knights so she could use the potty. On the return trip we had to stop again at Phillips 66 but really other than that we pretty much ran the whole time. On the way back Annette wanted to head straight to the house but I only needed about a mile or less to hit my 8 mile goal so I made a loop around one of the neighborhoods. Finished up with 8 miles at an 11:04 average pace. In reality the pace was much better, we pretty much stayed at around a 10:30 pace but the bathroom breaks slowed down the average. I'm happy though. This was the longest run I have had since June. The other good thing is I can still walk and the foot is not killing me.

After the run we loaded the bikes and went over to James and Michele's for some breakfast or actually I'd call it brunch. It was after 11 at that point. We had planned on riding with the group at 1:30pm and it was "suppose" to be an easy ride. LOL......with some of the people I bike with there is no such of a thing. It didn't help that James sent Gary a text and told him that I was there eating with them and that Gary was going to have to ride my wheel all day if he wanted to keep up! That was enough to get Gary and Curtis fired up and drive to Cabot to ride.

We had a good group of bikers show up. There was at least 15. Annette was going to ride with Brenda and Vicki so they could ride easy and chat. I had hoped that was what we were doing but no way. Once we hit Kerr Station Road, Curtis took off like he was on fire. Gary followed and James was right with them. Russ and I tried to jump on but they were just too fast. We drafted each other for probably 6 miles trying to catch those three but it was useless. Even though we were doing 19-20 most of the time. The wind was a factor though. We had a head wind and it was hard work when you were pulling. James finally fell off just before we hit Military Road. Gary and Curtis kept on.

During that time a weird, funny thing happened. Curtis ran over a squirrel with his bike and when he did I guess his rear wheel threw it up in the air. It hit Gary in the chest and then bit him on the arm. Funny but very strange. He was going to call his doctor and ask about rabies shots or what he needed to do if anything.

We met Cindy C. at the store at Furlow for the final 8 miles in. Of course she took off with Curtis, James and Russ on her wheel before I could even get out of the parking lot. I tried to catch them but I was a lone biker and they were four. Gary caught me a couple miles out and he said he was going to try to catch them. So I got on his wheel for a few. At 24 mph it didn't take me long to drop off. That new tri bike he has is wicked and he is a good rider so the combination is hard to keep up with when he wants to turn it on and he was then.

Great ride though, even though it was much harder than what I wanted to do but I was glad I did it when we were done. Only 22.2 miles but considering we fought heavy wind coming and going, we did pretty good. Average pace was just over 17.5. Slower than what I expected but then again, I had tired legs from that run.

Also Saturday I ran 4.25 miles. Was going to do my 8 mile long run but I got started late and it was just too hot and sunny. I was half sick with a cold so I just said the heck with it. Glad I made it up on Sunday.

This past week started week one of my 16 week marathon training schedule for Huntington Beach. I'm not going to get too excited until I get a few weeks of long runs in and see how the foot feels. I will say I am not training for speed, though I still have the goal of running at least a 4:30.

Hope everyone has a great week!

The Endurance Path

2008-10-17T07:08:00.002-05:00

Get out there and start to exert yourself.
Go long or go hard or both.
Begin to experience pain.
As you go further and/or harder, the pain increases.
The pain starts to annoy you.
You assess the pain: is it injurious?
If not, then you make a conscious decision to accept the pain.
You don't mind the pain.
You are not attached to the pain.
Finally, you accept the pain.
The pain just is.
After acceptance, you realize the pain doesn't matter.
Without it mattering, it can't contain or control you.
You have transcended the pain.
Now you can do anything.
Here's the critical part: As you go further or harder, the cycle can either be repeated or not.
You decide.
It's your pain.
Go with it.

No Pain

2008-10-14T07:02:00.003-05:00

That's my new mantra. "No Pain"

I ran 10k on Sunday morning and I kept saying to myself over and over "no pain". Well, it seemed to work. Had one of the best runs I have had since June. Not super fast but I felt like I have almost got my running endurance back. Ran the first two miles without stopping or slowing down then took about 30 seconds to fix my Ipod. I can always find a good excuse for a break! Ran another mile solid back to the house where I had some water waiting and got re hydrated and then took off for what I had planned just to be another couple miles. The run felt so good that when I started getting close to 5 I decided to see what kind of 10k time I would end up with. Needless to say I wasn't racing or even trying to push the pace, just a relaxed pace run.

At mile 5 my legs felt great and strong. Guess all the hard biking was paying off. The PF in my foot was starting to rear its ugly head some but I just kept my mantra going and it was all good. Before I knew it I hit the 6.2 mark at 1:04:22. I didn't think that was too bad considering I wasn't even trying to do a tempo run. That ended up being a 10:22 pace and about dead on where I should be on my long, slow, steady runs. The weather was pretty nice as long as you were in the shade so at times I really felt like I could have ran forever. Great run and brought a lot of my confidence back even though the foot problem is still there. I'd have to say its about where it was just before I really hurt it in June. Some icing and a couple days of no running will help it.

Sunday afternoon I even got some biking in. I haven't even been back on the bike since the Big Dam Bridge 100 so I was glad to get on it again. Met up with James, Russ and Heather for the regular Cruiser 1:30pm Sunday ride. We had an awesome ride. Since the three of them are constantly training for triathlons, we worked on 20 minute hard intervals. It actually ended up being more like 20 minute races to see who could hang on. I really wasn't into pushing quite that hard since I hadn't been on the bike in a couple weeks but I hung in there ok. Heather and James pretty much left me and Russ in the dust most of the time. Heather has a new tri bike too and that thing is fast in the flats.

We had some pretty strong head winds at times but even with that there were times we were hitting 24 mph flat out with no help or drafting. It was a good hard ride and just what I needed. Right at 24 miles with a 17.4mph average. Not the fastest average but the wind on Highway 31 was brutal, probably 4 miles of a 15mph head wind made it hard to keep the 17-18 average. Also have to factor in the hills on Mt Tabor, Mt Carmel and 89. I did have to use my running mantra many times to get through it as my quads were screaming a few times. Good ride though!

Catching up again

2008-10-10T07:21:00.007-05:00

Has been a super busy week for me. Trying to get caught up from being gone last week.

Monday - Monday night I had a good run. Jane, Michele, and Kelly came over to run with Annette so I jumped in for the first few miles. I'll have to say these four girls are my favorite's to run with as we all run a similar pace and they are always so much fun. At least I used to be able to keep up with them. I only did 2.5 miles, with about 1.5 running with the girls. First mile was a 9:52........so I was pretty much glad to turn around after that! I ended up with a 10:16 average pace which is good for me right now. They went on to make it 7 miles for the night.

Michele, Jane, Annette and Kelly having a small drink of beer to celebrate their 7 miles. Aren't they cute!! And no, Kelly didn't run in that hat.

Tuesday- 1:30am I get paged out for a structure fire. Fun fun. Got to the station and we had 3 others there plus me. The Chief took the tanker with Bobby driving E64 and me riding Captain. Billy was in the back jump seat. Communications told us that it was fully involved and that there was a hydrant a little less than 1000 feet away. We figured it would be over by the time we got there since it was all the way on the other side of the district.

Upon arrival, I had to take over command as one of the LT's that had command was running the pump on E65 also. I hate command, you have responsibility over the whole scene at that point and every one's life. At that point though it was pretty much a surround and drown situation. Still burning but since it was a mobile home, not much was left. They burn so fast, usually 5-7 minutes.

The deputy on scene advised me that the trailer was a "known" meth lab, but had been busted back in February so it had been unoccupied. We still had a bunch of crap to deal with. There were propane bottles everywhere and one was leaking to the point we could smell the gas. I hate propane tanks, as one large one like what most homes in the country have, if they explode, can take out about a 1/2 mile area. Not a good thing. That's why we have to protect those tanks with water or run like hell!

We also had two other fire departments on scene for mutual aid and by 3:00am we were loading up hose. I didn't feel like I did a lot other then tell people what to do and watch out for safety issues. Hope we didn't breath too much of that smoke! No telling what was in it. Guess I didn't feel like I smoked too much crack. I ended up getting home and back to bed at 4:45am, then back up for work at 6:20. Not much sleep!

Tuesday night - went to training at the FD and we discussed Incident Command and all the branches of it, span of control, etc etc. Just before we were done we got paged out for a rekindle of the fire from the morning. We sent a crew there with a brush truck and upon arrival they had a lot of fire at the back of what was left of the structure. They immediately called for an engine company to respond and since we had Engine 64 there from my station, we loaded a crew and went over.

Pulled one hose line off and had the fire out in a few minutes. Then when we started investigating. We found distinct signs that this was not a rekindle but arson. Someone had evidently thrown gas or some other flammable liquid on the back wall which was still standing. Makes you wonder why someone wanted the rest burnt down. Was there evidence still there of something else? Probably. We had the sheriffs office come out to take a look but really not much they can do. We all know its arson but not enough evidence to prove who did it. It is interesting to see the scientific evidence, even if nothing can be proven. Arson is one of the hardest crimes there is to prove and prosecute. We did get finished up around 10pm so at least it wasn't an all nighter again.

Do you think the gas can means anything??

Wednesday - Missed my run, which didn't make me happy. Annette's dad and step mom came in to town from Brazil so we went to visit them. I almost ran on the treadmill when we got home but just really couldn't muster up the motivation to do it.

Thursday - We have been having trouble with our Dish satellite receiver so I was on the phone with them for about 45 minutes when I got home. I had planned on running so this was costing me daylight. I wasn't a happy camper at all. By the time I got off the phone with those idiots, it was starting to get dark. Annette had rearranged all our running equipment so I couldn't find my lights so I gave up and headed for the treadmill. Got a 5 mile run in, averaged about a 10:40 pace. Not bad for me on the treadmill I figured. It's always harder to run on ours because its hot upstairs and even with a fan and a/c, there is not enough cool air movement. I slugged it out and actually could tell I was getting my endurance back. However, I could feel my foot most of the time. Afterwards I iced the foot, it was still pretty sore. Seems no matter how hard I try it still hurts at some point. Guess I just have to live with it or not run at all.

Have been debating on doing the Arky 100 bike ride on Sunday. I haven't been on the bike in almost two weeks now. I could still do it but I seem to be losing motivation. Plus I really don't know what to wear on the bike with the cooler weather. It is located in Sheridan so that's another issue. Pretty long drive from here. So, I have pretty much talked myself out of it. I would like to get some biking in this weekend but I really need the running miles. IF I am to do a marathon in February, I have to get started training. My goal this week is 15 miles running. I need 7.5 more to meet that goal. Hope to get that covered this weekend and maybe more.

Training Summary First Week of October

2008-10-06T07:25:00.002-05:00

Since I was out of town almost all week I was pleasantly surprised to end up with much of anything this week. No bike miles unfortunately. I guess after last weekends 100 miler I just didn't have it in me but then again I was enjoying running. New shoes put a new spring in my step!

Monday - 2 mile run in the neighborhood. Pretty much a terrible run. It was hot and humid, just didn't feel it. 11:39 average pace. I could probably walk that fast.

Wednesday - out of town but got 1.5 miles on the treadmill at the hotel in my new shoes. Felt pretty good but there was no air circulation so it was pretty bad.

Saturday - AWESOME run. 5.2 miles in the neighborhood. Met up with Annette, Jane and Kelly while they were doing their long run. Gave Kelly a ride back to her car and then met up with Annette and Jane for more. The foot felt good and I felt a little faster. The air was cool and that helped a lot. Glad they were on about mile 11 or 12......made me seem fast to them, lol. Slugged out an 11:22 average pace. I would have ran probably 9:40's or better back in May for this distance.

Sunday - Should have rested but wanted to test the cool air. Still didn't even get out till around 8:30ish. The sun was up so it really wasn't cool then. Did 3.0 miles with almost a mile of it being on the grass at the soccer fields. Average pace 10:40 and had more to give. First mile was a 10:19, 2nd 11:06 and third 10:37. Pretty happy with these. The grass slowed me down but it was good.

Finished the week with 11.8 miles. Wow, second best week I have had since June! Maybe I can hit 17-18 this week and 20+ next week. We shall see.

A New Lady In My Life

2008-10-04T19:34:00.005-05:00

Yes, that's correct.

She is very pretty.

She is a red head.

She can be very flashy at times.

She loves playing in water.

She has very shinny teeth.

Guess you could say she is a BBW......or BB something.

Actually she was just conceived this year and by years end will weigh close to 18,000 lbs.

She is a big lady...........and will someday save lives, property and make a difference in someone's life.

If you haven't guessed already she is actually a fire truck. We just received the cab/chassis on our new engine this week. Today I met with Darrell at David's Fire to look at the truck and get some photo's. It is a VERY nice truck. It's a 2009 model Spartan chassis and when it's complete will have a Reliable Fire Equipment bed. Darrell, who is one of our Captains will be building the bed from the ground up, doing all the aluminum welding along with designing and painting it. He will also be doing the wiring and all the plumbing for the pump. He even builds the poly water tank. Talk about talent!

A few specs:
Cummins 360 HP engine - top speed about 66mph
Allison Automatic Transmission
Dual stage Waterous Fire Pump
Automatic tire chains
Completed bed will have roll up rescue doors
1000 gallon poly water tank
All lighting will be LED
Dual sirens, dual air horns
Will meet 2009 NFPA and EPA Standards

Here are a few photo's of my lady, whom I will soon be her Captain. Completion time should be around 90 days from now.

Front view-2009 Spartan Chassis -there will be a front mounted suction along with a trash line. You can see the dual sirens and dual air horns in the bumper.

Drivers side view. When done there will also be white reflective stripes at the bottom and chrome wheel covers

There will be a full LED lighting package, some are already on the truck

Both doors have this on the inside when you open them

This is the console, which will eventually house VHF and 800 megahertz radios along with siren control box

Crew air pack seats in the back. The captain's seat also will be air pack equipped

Two extra jump seats in the rear. Gives total crew capacity of 6 firefighters.

This is the first stage of building the pump panel. The pump itself is in the center. It will have two, 200ft pre-connected crosslays of hose mounted towards the bottom of the pump panel.

This will be the only time you see her bare butt!

As the truck progresses I hope to post more pictures of her progress so check back often.

Weird Shirt

2008-10-03T19:44:00.003-05:00

On my way back from St Louis today I stopped in a fast food restaurant to grab some quick lunch. A guy walked by who was obviously riding a motorcycle since he had his leather chaps on. He had the weirdest t-shirt on I have seen in a while. It said "Organ Donor's Save Lives". Just seemed really odd that someone riding a motorcycle would be wearing that. After all, the usual non rider calls them Donor Cycles a lot of times which really annoys me, since I have one and bicycling is not much different, just slower and usually your not in the middle of the cars. I agree that being an organ donor is a good thing but I'm not going to advertise it on a motorcycle by wearing the t-shirt.

By the way, I did get 1.5 miles in on the treadmill at the hotel while I was away. It wasn't pretty though. We had just come back from eating at The Spaghetti Factory and I was still stuffed. Tomorrow I will try the new shoes out on the road and see if they hurt my feet.

New Shoes

2008-09-30T20:36:00.003-05:00

Hey I got new running shoes today. I am in St Louis for meetings till Friday and I am staying in Chesterfield. There just happened to be a Fleet Feet store just down the road so I stopped in this afternoon and got fitted.

My foot doctor had told me that I needed a more neutral shoe now that I have orthotics because the orthotics compensate for my pronation and the shoe doesn't have to anymore. I wanted to try some Muzuno's but the sales guy told me up front that the heel was less cushioned than the Nike's I was used to. The other shoe that my fit pointed to was the Nike Air Pegasus. I tried the Muzuno Ride first and he watched as I ran down the sidewalk. The shoe felt good but the heel was a little less cushioned. Then I tried the Nike's and they felt great. So, I walked away with a new pair of Nike Pegasus. They sure make me feel more flat footed anyway. I'll know soon how they are for running. I feel good that they will work as I have ran about 400 miles in Nike Air Structure Triax 10's.

I also picked up a couple of long sleeve technical shirts for $5 each that were on sale. Couldn't beat the price at all. I'll probably go back sometime this week to shop more as I was pressed for time today.

Chesterfield is really nice. There is a shopping center at least 2 miles long with every store imaginable and lots of good eating places. Other than meetings and eating, I won't have much else to do so I may do a little needed shopping. Then again, maybe not!

Big Dam Bridge 100 Ride Report

2008-09-28T11:41:00.008-05:00

This was my third Century and I’ll have to say the best ever. My longest ride in training for this one was only 66 miles and the past two weeks I missed most of my mileage so I really didn’t know what to expect. We had trained hard at the shorter distance so I hoped that would help. I just knew I had to be conservative.

Heather, James, Gary, Rock, me, Curtis, Russ just before the start

We almost missed the start but were able to jump in the middle of the pack. The first 25 miles we rode somewhat conservative with Gary, Curtis, Rock, James, Heather and Russ. I think going out a little slower helped us a lot latter on.

Part of our group crossing the bridge at the start

We stopped at the Maumelle rest area so everyone could use the bathroom then we rode past the Mayflower stop. James, Russ and Heather turned around there as they decided to just do 50. We saw one crash before Mayflower then another really bad one at the intersection of I40 and 89. There would be more. Just past Mayflower we started hitting the hills. Rock started having some issues with her IT but stopped and stretched it out. Next stop would be the Fortson and Sayles rest stop to prepare for Billy Goat Mountain.

Gary, Rock, Curtis, me, fellow blogger Gabby and Gary

Billy Goat was hard but not as bad as last weekend when I rode it. Maybe it was because I already knew what to expect. I found that as long as I didn’t look up and just keep moving, the hills would eventually go away. They did throw a twist into the course. Instead of going out to Hwy 107 and then to Otto Road they turned the course up the mountain on another road that cut over to Otto. This road was terrible. It was rough chip seal and felt like you were riding on a gravel road. We had a long climb to the top of the mountain but it wasn’t real steep so it wasn’t that bad. Then it was a fast downhill. Halfway down the mountain there was a hairpin turn and the volunteers were set up there warning people to slow down and watch for loose gravel. Once you made the turn it was a long rough downhill into the valley. Here we saw another bad crash. We think someone blew a tire on the downhill and the guys arm was pretty scrapped up.

Otto Road was nice and smooth and we started pacing again here. We stopped at the aid station at the church and refueled. Rock got here cleats adjusted some. We saw another guy there that had crashed evidently. He had a bandage on his head but was still riding.

The ride on in to Conway was good but we had some wind to deal with. We had a big group of fast riders pass us and we latched on to their wheel for a while but they were really fast and we just really didn’t want to ride that hard. I really liked the new route around the airport. Made the traffic not as bad. We stopped at the Conway stop and refueled again.

Me at Conway

Curtis & Rock at Conway

Getting out of Conway was not as fun. There was little or no support through the red lights on Donaghey. We had to fight the traffic here but we got through it. Slowed us down quite a bit.

Then it was more hills again. There were a couple monsters between Conway and Mayflower but after doing Billy Goat they didn’t seem too bad. By this time we were close to 70 miles in and the hills did hurt. We planned to buzz through the Mayflower aid station and just refill with water but we got stopped by a train. This cost us a good 5-10 minutes. Then we did have to stop for water.

We picked the pace up a little on the last 25 and had the wind helping us some it seemed. The hills coming back seemed like nothing after the big ones earlier. We stopped at Maumelle so Curtis could get his jacket that he hid in the bushes.

By the time we were on the other side of Maumelle I realized that we were going to finish in less than 7 hours which would be a big PR for me. We were on the home stretch and all we had to do was keep moving. We crossed the finish line at 6:58 and we were 4 wide crossing which was pretty cool. We all stayed together the whole ride and never let anyone drop. I never felt like I wanted to quit the whole ride and never felt bad. My shoulders and butt was starting to get sore though. Curtis did an awesome job pacing us most of the way though we all did some pulling. After the finish I did feel a little light headed, why I don’t know. Tried to walk it off but that didn’t help. Thanks to Vicki, she had a coke in her car so that helped a bunch.

Fixing to cross the finish line together, me, Rock, Gary, Curtis

Gabby, aka Gab's a trucker finishing her first 100 miler

On nutrition I think I did pretty good. Probably didn’t drink enough during the first 25 since it was cooler. I ate one whole banana, 3/4 ‘s of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, probably 5 cookies at least. I really liked the Vanilla wafers and peanut butter at the Maumelle stop. Had pickle juice, ate about two ounce of Hammer gel, and some peanut butter crackers. I tried to take two endurolytes every hour, ended up only taking 8 though. Took 2 Sportlegs every two hours which I have no doubt helped my legs, especially on the hills.

Post race I had a big plate at Corino’s for dinner, Spaghetti, lasagna, and chicken parmesan plus salad and cake for desert. I ate all of it too! Almost got my 6500 calories back that I burnt.

It was a great ride, great weather, with great friends.

Final stats:

Official clock time - 6:58

unofficial bike only time - 5:55 - 17.0 mph avg. pace

6487 Calories burnt

Avg. heart rate 156 max 186

Starting temperature - 62 degrees

Ending temperature - 83 degrees and sunny

100 Miler Tomorrow

2008-09-26T09:20:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is the Big Dam Bridge 100. This is the premiere century ride in Arkansas and there is an expected 2000 cyclists to be on hand. My only goal right now is to beat last years time and set a new Century PR. We shall see. Weather is suppose to be perfect almost. Right at 60 degrees at the 7:30am start but it's going to get up to around 87 degrees by finish time. About the same as last year so at least I know what to expect.

The course has been reversed on the north loop this year and it actually makes the hills a little easier I think. The big hills will be around 40 miles into the ride. Then we will have a few more around 60 I think. My main goal is to be consistent and not crash and burn the last 25 miles like I have done in every other century so far.

My training has been off the last two weeks but Sundays 54 miler was good and it was on the hilly portion of the route. I just hope the group I am riding with will be more conservative than in past centuries. We shall see.

I did weigh in this morning the lightest I have been @ 166lbs. How I have no idea. I have only biked about 13 miles since Monday and have eaten bad at lunch at least three days. Makes no sense to me but the lighter the more power I will have on the hills. I do need to carb load today so I'm sure I will gain it all back before the day is over.

Here is a photo of the jersey I will be wearing. I just got it in yesterday. I earned this one by fund raising efforts for the Tour de Rock ride back in June. I'm pretty excited to have a jersey that only a select few can wear.

I will post a full race report after I recover hopefully Sunday!

Bikes and Dogs

2008-09-25T07:16:00.004-05:00

One of the guys in our club sent this out in an email yesterday and I just had to put it on here because we have all been or will be up against that dog. This is a classic. He really needs to become a blogger!

Okay, yesterday I met a dog that did not like me nor listen to me. The teeth inside the huge mouth of the Great Dane, reminded me of why I always hated Scooby Doo. Goliath stood taller than my bike, perhaps 8 feet taller. His teeth looked like implants from a Great White shark. I won't say I had fear in me; I had resolve to keep both legs. The coming bloody fight would not be pretty, but I intended to persevere and hoped there would be more dog blood than human blood at the scene of our demise. Vegas would not have bet on me,but I would. I had real anger that the people did not come out and control the beast that forbid my movement in any direction. If I took one step backwards, Godzilla took two angry steps forward. My retreat emboldened his courage.

When did I know my destiny. Oh, at the time he was two feet from me with jaws agape as we both looked at my right leg dangling like meat on a stick. I think it was then that I realized he was ticked that Susan Cormier, on her fancy, new, and faster bike, got past. I remember the old joke, you don't have to outrun the bear, just the other hunter. Away, Susan rode...how I longed to join her. But reality and fate had me in peril as soon watched from a distance that only binoculars could observe. I heard the dog actually swear that I would not be so fortunate as the one on the bike with wings. Recognizing a tasty meal when I see me, at a speed that would make Superman seem slow, I dismounted and put the metal between the beast and the food chain. Not a second earlier I had a nice bike. The thought of owning an expensive (to me it is) bike had left me. In a flash of teeth, I realized I owned one heck of an unwieldy club. I knew exactly how I intended to get the whole damn mess down his throat...and down his throat it was going. I only sweated, I mean waited, for the moment. Susan, at her distant perch, looked on as if she had paid for the cheap tickets at Madison Square Gardens.

In time, it got better. Well, no it didn't; who am I kidding? The dog had absolutely nothing better to do and kept pressing me. Susan pulled out her trail mix and water and settled to watch the brawl from the safety of her perch. I could hear her snickering that it served me right for my earlier comments of how to talk nicely to a dog.

After several minutes, it could have been days, time flies when your life flashes in front of you, Scooby Doo's dipstick step-sibling, who looked something like an ugly bulldog, joined the fray. From a distance, I thought what does this little twit want. As it got closer and I could discern the bulldog features, I thought, you have got to be kidding me. Two dogs and both have mouths that could swallow watermelons. I only had one club and
that one was definitely committed to the largest threat. When the runty came yapping to me, I got indignant and threatened to kill and rape his entire family if he didn't back off; Winston Churchill, the jerk, backed off, at least a bit. But the other garnered courage from the runts distraction. The ugly one remained on my side of the bike and distracted me. When I turned my
attention to the ugly one, the ape with the big teeth pressed the fight. The mutts were tag teaming me. I couldn't believe it. My entire day had gone like this; unbelievable. I couldn't believe how quickly my ride turned to a fight in the trenches.

I remember yelling for the owners to come out and get their dog. I say dog, as I had dismissed Ugly's threat. Ugly could just bite me, Scooby could swallow me whole and then drop my remains where no one would notice. The owners never appeared. I then yelled that next time I would carry my concealed permit and one of my guns and that would be the last encounter anyone would endure with the beasts from hell. That produced nothing, not a neighbor, not a gosh darn thing. I believe Marmaduke might have snickered.
Eventually (just short of eternity-at least for one of us) Marmaduke backed up to his yard and I eased toward Stagecoach Elementary and Campground Rd.

I will be armed from now on with something better than a bike: gun, knife,pepper spray, rocks, hand grenades, dog treats injected with exlax, whatever it takes. If I had a bike like Cindy's, I would just take my handle bars off and beat the hell out of every dog I pass. I love dogs but would rather kill one than take a bite. In fact, I encourage all of you to kill at least one dog a day. If that's offensive to you, start small: kill an ant, then a small dog (like the poodle that bit me when I was a teen); develop your inner
instincts to kill and just keep working your way up until you can kill a German Shepherd (like the one that bit me also when I was a teen). Don't stop there, mentally prepare yourself until killing Scooby Doo is child's play and a great day is going Postal at the local dog pound. Hey, what do you mean I have issues? Anger management?

Rank Roo for Ristening,

Marty

Not so sucky Sunday

2008-09-21T21:00:00.004-05:00

This week sucked so it was time to at least have one good day. After only logging .5 miles for the whole week I was feeling pretty down about the whole running/biking thing. Life happens and does interfere with training, but that's just the way it is and it seems to be happening more and more to me.

So this morning I decided it was time to run. Good, bad, ugly, I needed to. And it was actually not bad. The foot felt pretty good and I tried to run an easy pace. Which considering my running fitness level that's probably all I could do anyway. Ended up with 4.14 miles with a 10:35 average pace. My splits were all pretty consistent with a 10:10, 10:35, 10:35 and a 11:11. Walked too much that last mile plus I didn't have any water.

I had planned on biking with the 1:30 group but I had to go work for a couple hours at our West Little Rock location. One of my managers had a death in the family so I have to get their payroll done. I figured I might not be able to make the ride but it worked out that I got back home at 12:30 so it was a rush but I went.

Met the group at 1:30 at Cleland and Hwy 5. We were biking part of the Big Dam Bridge route and the plan was for about 65 miles going all the way to Conway and back. The plan was also not to ride hard but we all know how those plans go. We had a pretty large group, James, Heather, Russ, Rick S1 ,Rick S2, David, Lisa M and Lisa F and myself.

We took Cleland pretty slow which was nice since its very rough. Towards the end of it the group started splitting up some. Pretty much was everyone except David and Lisa F. We took Cleland all the way to Batesville Pike and then turned on Dorsey to Fortson. There were a few good rolling hills in this part. But Fortson we all knew was going to hurt. And it did. Right on Fortson towards 107. A couple miles down the road was the first major hill. It was one of those that took almost everything you had to get over it. I have climbed worse, but this one would be in the top 5 I think. Several nice downhills made up for it and the road was soon newly paved which was nice and smooth.

We all stopped at the top of Fortson hill to take a quick break before descending down to 107. This is a tricky decent as you have a stop sign at Hwy 107 and its kinda hard to stop! We didn't have any problems though. Left on 107 then took a left on Otto Road. This was another nice, smooth road with rolling hills. We had some good speed on this road and I'm sure we averaged 19-20mph most of the time. The main group all hung pretty close but we were not really drafting. I think we may have had a little tail wind helping us out which was OK. The return trip might not be as fun though.

We turned right on Hwy 286 and headed towards Conway. Another rough road and lots of traffic. This road really sucked but we were still flying along at a 19-20mph average most of the time. We had some truck pulling a tractor attempt to pass us and then before he even got to the back of the first bike he locked his brakes up, squealing and burning rubber. I guess there was a car coming in the other lane and he decided he better not pass. Didn't really bother me that much and I was the one at the back.

We stopped at a Citgo station just on the edge of Conway to refill and wait on David and Lisa. This was just over 25 miles. Heather was needing to get back early so James, Russ and myself decided that we would turn back and take 286 over to Hwy 89 and then back in. This would cut out probably 10+ miles which probably 3 miles was going to be in city traffic which I wasn't looking forward to.

So the group split here and we rode on. We tried to up the pace some but we had a little bit of a head wind and there was countless hills. We stopped at the Hwy 89 intersection for a minute then had to climb up a long hill. Not super steep but one of those long slow ones. It had to be at least a half mile long if not longer. A couple more smaller ones put us to mostly flat ground again. At least the road here was smooth too!

We made a left on Batesville Pike and then rode back to Cleland and back in. After we turned on Cleland from 107 I couldn't get back into my big ring for some reason. I fought with it for half a mile or so then just rode in the small ring. This put me behind which at the end of a ride always makes you wonder why the hell you do this. I finally tricked the gears and got into the big ring and I could get some speed again. The group was 1/2 a mile ahead of me at least by this time. I said the heck with it, I was just riding it in and not pushing it.

Ended up finishing with right at 54 miles with an average pace on the bike just under 17 mph. I didn't think this was too bad considering the slow hills we had on Fortson. I was glad afterwards that I didn't do the 65 mile route. It had even more hills and I'm sure the others didn't get back till almost dark. I was pretty wiped out afterwards, and the run this morning I'm sure didn't help.

Next weekend is the Big Dam Bridge 100. I am almost doubting my sanity in doing 100 miles. Which I know if I do it slower it won't be as bad but I would like to have a new PR at least. My lack of training the past two weeks further makes me question why. The bad thing is, I will have little to no free time this week to get any running or riding in the way it looks now. Hopefully I can cram something in.

See you on the road!

The fountain of youth?

2008-09-20T19:55:00.000-05:00

Feeling better

2008-09-18T06:10:00.004-05:00

Finally feeling quite a bit better. The stomach issues have just about gone away so hopefully that is over. I have never had pains like that before.

This week is becoming pretty much a wash out as far as any training goes. I have business associates in town since yesterday and they won't be gone till Friday afternoon. So basically I am stuck from 8am-8pm with them. Not that that's bad, its just bad for any training I needed to do. If I hadn't been so far behind on sleep I could get up early and get a run in. Maybe tomorrow morning. Just not enough time in the days this week.

I desperately need some bike miles. Next weekend is the Big Dam Bridge 100. I was ready for it, now I am starting to doubt my sanity in doing 100 miles. I just need to get on the bike though and things will be fine. I had been training super hard so hopefully slacking for a couple weeks won't mess me up too bad. I am concerned though at this point. At least from Sunday on I have nothing on the schedule to mess my training up. I hope to get at least a 50 miler in on Sunday if the stomach will cooperate.

What about running? I have some decisions to make pretty fast. If I can't start ramping up some miles quickly my fall marathon hopes are over. I might as well call it a season and be done. We shall see.

I test Saturday for IFSAC Driver/Pump Operator and have had no time to study this week. Which means I will have Friday night only to cram 80 hours worth of studying in. If I pass the test it will be a miracle. I can retest up to 3 times without going through the whole 80 hour course again. Could someone please put more hours in a day!

Another Long Night

2008-09-16T19:17:00.002-05:00

When it rains it pours, and such as the way it is for firefighting. We go weeks with nothing more than bs medical calls then you can bet money that when its been quiet for too long, the stuff is going to hit the fan.

Last night we had a structure fire around midnight. It was about a mile from my station so even though I had felt like crap, I knew I needed to go. We would be the first engine in and make the initial attack. Our chief drove to the scene while myself and two other newer guys got on the engine. When I pulled out of the station one of my brakes were sticking. This made it tough to get any speed at all but I was committed and they needed that truck there. Upon arrival the chief informed us that there was a hydrant right across the street from the residence. How nice! We dropped about 100 feet of 5 inch hose as I got as far up the driveway as I could with the engine. There was already a power line down so I had to make sure there wasn't any others that could fall on the truck.

The structure was a single wide mobile home that was about 40% involved with fire upon our arrival. This is when it gets crazy. While I'm putting the pump in gear, trying to get water supply established the other two guys are pulling two attack lines to stretch to the fire. I also had to connect the 5inch to the truck, its just a few minutes of mass confusion then it smooths out. All fires are that way and it probably doesn't look like mass confusion to someone else but the first few minutes always feel that way on the first engine in.

About the time I was charging the hand lines two other engines pulled up with crews so things got down to business real quick. I was pumping a 30 year old truck so I always have concerns with the safety of my crew but the old Mack did a great job. Even after we added a 3rd line she kept on pumping like a champ. It didn't hurt that we were on a very good hydrant.

The attack team was fast and knocked down the fire keeping it confined to just one end of the trailer. By the time we had things under control the fire had consumed less than 50% of the trailer and 4 walls were still standing. In the firefighting world, having 4 walls standing on a single wide mean you made a good stop. The structure is still a total loss but the home owner still has over half their belongings that can be salvaged so that's a good thing. The room that they were sleeping in was a total loss and they said their dog woke them up otherwise they may have not gotten out. One word, smoke detectors! Make sure you have them and test them twice a year!!

By the time we got all the hose, tools and other equipment loaded and back at the station it was about 3am. Then of course we have our critique where we talk about everything we did right and wrong. Mostly right on this one for a change. I did take my engine out of service until the mechanic can fix the brakes. We have a $250,000+ new engine being built but it will probably be after the first of the year before we get it. So I ended up getting about 2-3 hours sleep before getting up for work.

On the sick note, I went to the doctor today because I have been having stomach pains. More like bloating or air that won't come out. The doc did an xray and blood tests and said everything looked good. Gave me some meds to try and some stuff to clean me out. I hope that works because I have had about all the stomach issues I can stand.

Week in Review

2008-09-14T21:43:00.003-05:00

I have been about half sick all week and if that wasn't the case things were breaking right and left. So here is a summary of my crappy week and I won't even list all the things that are broke.

Running:
Monday night I ran with Annette and Michele in Crooked Creek. I got 4 miles in but it was terrible. My foot started hurting and it was so humid it was just plain hard to run. I almost hate to even put this on here but my average pace for 4 miles was 12:09. That's how bad it sucked. Tuesday I had about came to the conclusion it was time to quit running. Why put up with the pain?

Wednesday night was a little better. Humidity was still pretty high and I just ran in the neighborhood after work. I ran down to the soccer fields and ended up running a few laps around them which was different and kinda neat. Pace was still slow for me. 11:04 for 3.4 miles.

That was the extent of my running for the week. Yes, it sucks.

Biking:
I ran Monday and Wednesday nights, Tuesday was Fire Department night, Thursday I decided to mow before the rains came in for the Hurricane. Friday night and Saturday was FD classes. So that left Sunday. Well, the morning was still very windy from the storms on Saturday and I still was not feeling really great. I did end up riding about 4 miles on the comfort bike to check out some of the storm damage. Worst week biking I have had all year I think.

Firefighting:
Friday night and Saturday was the last class of our Driver/Pump Operator class. We were suppose to have practicals on Sunday but since the weather was turning bad Saturday afternoon the instructor decided he would have us do them Saturday morning which worked out good. We ended up completing the last module on Relay Pumping around 2pm Saturday. This was the final class of the 80 hour course I had to take thank goodness. Next Saturday we take the IFSAC test to become Internationally Certified. I hope I pass!

After class Saturday we prepared for the incoming storms from Hurricane Ike. We knew we would get hit and we knew we would be running half the night so we fueled the trucks and went home to wait it out. I think it was about 4pm when the tornado warnings started up in our area. So I was storm spotting from my back porch. Since I am also a Ham Radio Operator I had communications available with the weather net and National Weather Service. Channel 4 was getting most of their reports direct from the ham operators as one of their guys is one too. Works pretty good for early warning. Wasn't long and the storm was right on top of us but it ended up going about a mile west from out house. Evidently there was some straight line winds that took out a mini-storage building and damaged some roofs on an apartment complex.

Around 7pm it started for the FD. We got paged for a vehicle accident, and dispatch made it sound like it had a possible 10-7(dead) person and several others injured. It was on a curve back behind the Air Base so it was possible. Then we heard that there was a tree on the car with a victim trapped inside. Until one of our guys gets there you just never really know.

Our first engine in immediately called for additional help from Jacksonville. I was rolling with a two man crew from my station. En route the truck I was driving seemed to be having brake problems, not good. They were working but just didn't feel right. I have driven this truck for 15 years so I knew how they were supposed to feel. They were just harder than normal, almost like I had a brake sticking. We made it to the scene ok and the brakes were not smoking. I was more concerned about helping the victims at that point anyway. If I could get the truck stopped we would be fine.

Well, it ended up being only a single care, single victim and they hit a tree. The victim was still alive, but the car was crushed back on the drivers side probably as bad as any vehicle I had seen. And to top it off that's where the tree was. The vehicle was also nosed down off the road. This ended up being one of the top two hardest extrication's we had ever done in my firefighting career. We had every tool that the City of Jacksonville had on their rescue truck along with everything we had on our truck. There was probably 17 men working to free this lady from the wreck. At one point we even hooked a chain to the rescue truck to pull the car away from the tree so more cutting could be done. It was amazing that the lady was still breathing but eventually she gave up the fight. We never gave up and after almost 2 hours got her out. Too late though. And probably if we had gotten her out in 5 minutes the end result would have been the same. The injuries were just to severe to survive. But, it's our job not to give up and we didn't until the Paramedic called it. Below is a photo of the vehicle after everything was done.

We had just gotten back to my station shortly after 10pm when we got a call for a tree down in power lines. I mean we had just started to back into the bay when this one came out. So we headed out to check it out. The winds had downed a very large tree in a persons front yard, took out the power line and pulled the meter clean off the house. There was really nothing we could do since it wasn't blocking a roadway so we advised the homeowner they would have to wait on the power company. We no longer got in the truck and the bottom fell out and it started to rain. And rain it did. This was the hurricane rain. Must have lasted all night and luckily we didn't have another call till about 6am.

It was a long night, I had actually expected more trees down and more storm damage in our area but it didn't happen.

I'm still fighting this flu bug or whatever it is so hopefully that will be gone come Monday. I have another busy week scheduled at work and I have to find some time to study for my test on Saturday. Doesn't look good for any running or biking this week.

Remember

2008-09-11T07:07:00.004-05:00

Do you remember where you were on 9/11/01?

Do you remember how you felt that day?

NEVER FORGET!

Remember

66.6 Sunday

2008-09-09T10:06:00.006-05:00

Sunday morning I met the group at South Side for a long bike ride. My plan was to get 70-75 miles and the route looked like it would give us close to that. Annette had ran 13 miles and she was going to bike with Brenda and anyone else that wanted fewer miles at a slower pace. The fast group I was in consisted of Mark N., Bobby, Gary, Curtis, Rock and myself. Bailey joined us for a little while also.

The weather was great for our 9am start. I thought this was going to be a much better ride than the last couple 50 milers I had in the heat. We started out from South Side and headed towards Keo on highway 89. I started out at the lead at just a moderate pace of around 17mph. I really didn't want to push it today but that was going to change. It wasn't a mile before one of the guys comes speeding by me to take the lead. I think it was Mark. Then not to be out done here comes Gary. So that's the way it went. A total hammer fest from the start. We did get a good pace line going for a change and were averaging probably 20-21mph all the way to Furlow. I looked back at one point and I didn't see Bailey. "Where's Bailey?" I started asking. Gary said she would catch up in a few. Another mile and still no Bailey in sight. Well, Curtis being the great guy that he is decided that he was riding back to look for her. We rode on, not backing off much at all and stopped at the store at Furlow to wait on them. Curtis called Gary and said he couldn't find Bailey so I called Annette to see if she was with them. She wasn't. We got to figuring maybe she just turned back and went home. After all, she had done a hard 13-14 mile run.

We waited at the store a little bit for Curtis and then took off. Annette called me back when I was on the road and told me that she had talked to Bailey and that she just went home. I felt bad as she was told that we were going to ride easy and then everyone started hammering. She was tired from the run and got dropped so she just turned around and went home. I don't blame her at all.

Everyone gets dropped but when you do it is not a very fun feeling. Sometimes the pace group is just going so fast that if you fall off the wheel in front of you just a little you are done for and there is no catching back up. I have had it happen to me many times.

So we sped on towards Keo on Hwy. 15. We would take turns pulling and most of the time everyone was right together. We really did some good pace work for a change. I figured we would slow down some so Curtis could catch up but Gary wasn't going to have any of that. Taking turns pulling helped a lot keeping everyone fresh. It's amazing how much easier it is to sit in a pace line and pedal at 20mph than doing it on your own.

We stopped again at about 16-17 miles out. Rock wanted to stretch and Gary was riding his new tri-bike and needed to make some adjustments. This also gave Curtis some time to catch back up to us. Everyone refueled and we could see Curtis coming in the back ground. I started easing forward along with Mark and Bobby. Rock and Gary was still waiting. I had thought they were coming so after about a 1/4 mile I turned around. Finally we were all back in a group and Curtis was back with us. On we went. This was the nice part of the route with little traffic. We actually slowed the pace some and carried on conversations. Most of the time Mark and I were pulling. Curtis came up and rode with us for a few miles then we looked back and Gary and Rock were dropped. Curtis again went back to check on those guys to see what was up. We went on, slowed our pace so they could catch up. Not really sure what was going on but I think Gary was having issues with his bike. Mark, Bobby and I made it to the 25 mile turn around at Keo and waited for the others to catch up.

We ate and drank but still didn't see the others. We got to thinking that maybe they turned around or something. Maybe they had a flat. Who knows. We headed back towards Cabot and figured if they were still coming we would see them on the road soon. About a mile down the road we saw them on the side of the road. Gary was having to adjust his bike again. No flats thank goodness. So the group got back together again. We swapped out pulling among us for several miles and really helped our pace. I guess one time when I was pulling I must have pushed the pace too much because when I looked back it was only Mark and Bobby behind me. We had dropped the others. Mark and I started alternating pulls, 30-60 seconds, then back. Before long we had dropped Bobby. We were doing usually 20-21mph, sometimes more. The road here is flat and usually windy. We had a little wind but nothing too bad and nothing to help us for sure.

As we kept going, I looked back and told Mark that they were gaining on us. I kinda laughed and told him that if they were going to catch us, they were going to pay for it. So we worked it even harder. Drafting and working together like a breakaway from the peleton. That's exactly what it was and it was three against two. I guess they passed Bobby and kept working it trying to catch us because at one point Mark just said "this is futile". "We are done. They are going to catch us and there is nothing we can do about it." That's exactly what happened. After a few minutes of trying to kill ourselves they caught us. From there we kept going and when we crossed 70 we stopped to wait on Bobby. Once we had him back we were off again and decided we were going to stop at the store at Furlow to get more water and ice.

After regrouping, Mark and Bobby said they were splitting off at Oliver Lane and the rest of us would be adding on at Mt Tabor and 321 to take on the hills. Fun fun. Well, as soon as we left the store, Gary, Curtis and Rock dropped me like I was sitting still. For some reason this stretch of road always tests me and I always get dropped here. Not that I was riding slow but once they refueled they had a full head of steam and they were gone. I was still averaging 18-19mph and there were some uphills now. I just figured at that point whatever, If they go on I'll just turn on Mt Tabor and do my thing. Well, when I turned on to Mt Tabor I heard someone call my name. They had stopped on the side of the road and I went right by them. So again, we regrouped. This time Gary said that we were going to drop the pace and do like 17-18. Sounded good to me. Curtis led off and was on the low side of 17. Wasn't long and I passed him to pull a little bit.

I guess I had a burst of energy because I ended up dropping everyone. I slowed down but I guess they were slowing too. I ended up stopping at the church on Mt Tabor and waiting a minute for them to catch up. They didn't stop so i just jumped in the pace line and kept going. Curtis said we should up the pace and pull 30-60 seconds at a time then drop back so we did that all the way to Hwy 31. We stopped there for a minute then worked our way back to 321. This started the hills. But Curtis wanted to play. He challenged Gary to sprint to the next mail box so he could show Rock who was the fastest. Of course Curtis won. The point being on sprints its more about the rider than the bike. They did this two or three times and it was kind of funny. At 60 miles into a ride and they were doing sprints. That doesn't count the 14 miles that they ran early that morning! I tell you, those two guys are animals!

The hills on 321 were not that bad to me and I could have done more mileage. They did hurt, and there was not much working a pace lines on these. Gary made the comment that these hills were just like Ironman Louisville the previous weekend. Curtis had to jump in and say no, these were worse than Louisville! In any case I felt good that I could still make it up and down them.

Final tally for the day ended up being 66.6 miles at just over an 18mph average pace. I felt pretty good afterwards and nothing like I did on our last 50 miler. I think the cooler weather made this a much easier ride plus we really worked the pace lines which would give each of us a little rest. I would like to see everyone adopt a "no drop" policy. I feel really bad that Bailey got dropped and she turned around. It doesn't always have to be a hammer fest.

The Big Dam Bridge 100 will be much different though with hills through 90% of the route. I'd be really happy if I could average 17 on that one but we shall see.

Sara Low 5K

2008-09-07T21:09:00.004-05:00

Saturday Annette and I traveled to Batesville for the Sara Low 5K. This was a great race, very challenging course and for a good cause. There was a special ceremony with music and speakers before the start which was very moving. Sara was a flight attendant on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on 9/11 and this was where she ran track when she was in school.

I knew there would be hills but I didn't expect there to be one a 1/4 mile into the race. It was a downhill first then a steep uphill. I ran pretty strong through the race though I never really turned the speed on in fear that it would hurt my foot. So my plan was just to maybe finish under 30:00. Well, that didn't happen but I felt good through the whole race and ran every hill except the last one. Really the only reason I didn't run that one was because sweat had gotten in my eyes and I was having to walk trying to wipe it out with my t-shirt. Sometimes I think my head is a river or something. I have yet to find the perfect solution for sweat. Some races I will use a bondi band and that works probably better than a hat, but just doesn't look as good. Not that I really care about that anyway. I like a hat sometimes to shield the sun.

As far as the run goes it was up one hill and down another pretty much till the finish. First mile was a 10:10 which I was happy with. I felt so good that I skipped the water stop. I figured I needed all the extra time I could get and it helped as my second mile was a 9:22. Probably faster than I should have been running and that was because some of the downhills. Third mile was a killer as there was a long up hill, probably 1/2 a mile at least then the race finished on the track. Third mile was a 10:24. As you finished on the track the announcer would call out your name and they even had you up live on the scoreboard screen. My final time was a 31:02 with a 9:55 average pace. About 4 minutes slower than my 5K PR this year but with the foot injury and only running less than 10 miles a week for 9 weeks I guess it was OK. Bottom line I still ended up with the same Grand Prix points I would have gotten if I would have run a 25:00 5k. My age group is very tough.

My foot was a little sore and stiff after the race. I think the downhills made it hurt more than the uphills. With the 1 mile warm up I ended up with 17.2 miles running for the week and today my foot feels great so I am happy! I'll report on Sunday's 66 mile bike ride later.

Adding up the miles

2008-09-04T09:10:00.005-05:00

Did another 3.1 miles on the treadmill last night. About a 34 minute 5k which outside would probably get me around 29 minutes or better.

I now have 13.1 miles for the week running. The most I have done in 9 weeks.

I can still walk. The PF is still there but I have yet to have to use biofreeze for pain.

Saturday we are running the Sara Low Memorial 5K in Batesville. This is a hilly race with a lot of walkers so I won't be last anyway. I have no goals for this race, just run and have fun.

In case your wondering Sara Elisabeth Low was a flight attendant on American Airlines flight 11, the first plane to crash into the North Tower, World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Sara grew up in Batesville, AR. She ran track and her team won a state title in 1989.
The Sara Low 5K was first run in 2007. 2008 marks the first season that the race was part of the Arkansas Grand Prix Racing Series. Should be a very moving event.

Sunday plans call for a long bike ride 65-75 miles for training for the Big Dam Bridge 100.

Marathon Maniac?

2008-09-02T21:01:00.004-05:00

Maybe.

It's on to training now. Another 5 miles tonight on the dreadmill and .5 walking. I already have 10 miles for the week and can still walk!

I have come to the conclusion that if I can't run fast, I'll just run slow and long and enjoy it. Maybe I'll start using Galloway's run/walk programs.

Memphis will be my projected big marathon on December 6th. I have my schedule made up and I am actually starting right where I started before Nashville. I thought I would be way behind, which I am but I can catch up. Nashville was actually a good marathon for me and I would have finished much better if it hadn't been so hot towards the end. I was injured before that one too.

The Midsouth (Wynne) Marathon is November 1st and that's the same weekend I would have a 20 miler scheduled. Since its a Grand Prix Championship Marathon race, I'm about 95% sure I'm going to run it as a training run. Anything under 6 hours would be fine. Just have fun, and Wynne has water stops every mile on the course. It is a small marathon though so not much crowd support but I am trying to recruit some other crazies now.

Annette wants to do the Surf City Marathon on February 1st in Huntington Beach California. If we somehow were able to do these, we would qualify as Marathon Maniacs. Mmmm.....the schemes begin.

Oh yeah, marathon training has begun. It's on now, bring on the pain!

Last week of August

2008-09-01T18:18:00.003-05:00

The last week of August was busy and I didn't get a chance for many updates so here they are.

Thursday
I'm almost back being a duathlete again. Started the day with an early morning 2.7 mile run in the neighborhood. It was very humid and the run sucked. I found out latter that everyone pretty much had the same thing on their runs. Had an 11:02 average between walk breaks. Probably could have pushed it more but I was babying the foot plus the lungs didn't like it at all.

Thursday night Annette and I met James, Brenda, Heather, Cindy, Phil and Mark for a quick out and back bike ride from South Side at 6:30pm. Well, this turned in to a complete hammer fest. Who was leading and who was killing who. Pretty much how it goes on the bike. One person takes off and the others try to keep up until that person drops and then someone else hammers away to see how long they can hold on or how many people they can lose. Mark took the lead tonight and I figured it was payback from the last time I rode with him when I spanked them at the beginning. Its all fun though. We had a good fast group, Mark, James, Heather, Cindy and me. The others rode fast too but they were not crazy enough to try to hold our pace. SSE to Furlow was fast. We drafted and changed positions a few times and when we hit the store we had held a 20mph average. There was wind too and it wasn't the helping kind. We thought maybe we would have a tail wind going back. Wrong. I missed catching the wheel when the fast group pulled out so I had to pedal it back without the aid of any drafting. The fast group looked like they just kept getting further and further away but in reality they were not that far away, but too far for me to catch them. Again, the wind didn't help us at all. I guess it must have been a cross wind because it was almost harder going back. I know my speed dropped some. Still ended up with 16.3 miles and a 19.2 average mph. I'll take it!

We are thinking about making this a regular ride, or maybe I should say torture to make us faster. Only problem now is that we are starting to run out of daylight sooner.

Saturday
First off was the Clear Mountain 5k. I only showed up for this one because it was a championship race and I wanted to make sure the men had a team. I didn't plan to race it, still babying the foot and I knew I could run it slow. So that's what I did. Ran with Tim and Bob most of the time. It was Tim's first 5k and I told him to race it and he did finally run on and leave us. Bob and I stuck together through about 2.5 miles when he finally went on. I just slogged it out. Nothing spectacular. No PR's. No personal worsts either so I guess that was good. I finished with a 31:54 and a 10:17 pace. I really thought my pace was much slower. After not running for 9 weeks it sure felt slow. If not for my injury this could have been my PR race and I would have probably been in the 25 minute range. Good flat course so we had lots of PR's. Maybe next year for me.

After the race we were off to bike around 50 miles. It was Vicki's birthday so this was her annual birthday ride. We were riding from the River Trail to Sonic in Mayflower. We had a large group of bikers, probably close to 15 at least. As usual there are breakaways and hammer fests and today was no different. I just rode. Had a easy ride to Maumelle then one of the guys pulled in to Riders Ready to get a water bottle. I guess when he did one of the lead bikes turned in the next driveway and when he did the bike behind him went down. Not sure if the guy hit his wheel but I think that's what happened. The guy flipped over his bike and landed on the pavement hard. Luckily he was not hurt. He did crack his helmet and had just a little road rash on his elbow. I had more when I did a drop and flop but I'm sure he was sore the next day. It could have been worse.

Then Rock, Bailey and Phil had evidently made a wrong turn on the River Trail so I ended up dropping back and waiting on them some. Annette called a little while later and told me they were on Carnahan Drive and Vicki had a flat. So I waited some more. Finally Rock, Bailey and Phil come riding by. I stopped at the 365 intersection and waited on Annette and it wasn't long and they were there.

Then it was on to Mayflower. Rolling hills all the way. Some nice downhills and a couple good uphills. I think I pulled a lot, finally David came up and said let me pull a while and you can rest. I couldn't believe the difference from pulling to being in the draft. We finally got to Sonic and all had some food. The group sort of split up after that. A few left then another group left. Then it was our little group. I pulled and led almost to Palarm Creek. Rock moved up and pulled some then. We hit one of the big hills going back and Lisa M. and Gary from Searcy passed us like we were sitting still. They kept hammering and we couldn't catch them. The ride back was pretty uneventful. It wasn't easy. It had gotten hot and we were wearing down on the hills. Partly because the run before the bike. Some raced it hard.

By the time we got back I had logged 49 miles, I wasn't worried about adding one more. I still had a bike average of 16.1 mph which I guess is not bad on the trail and on those hills. We really need to work more as a group on our pacelines. We could all be faster then.

Sunday
Had to do something while I was thinking about Gary doing Ironman Louisville. So around 1:30 I took off in the neighborhood for a one hour ride. I figured I would count this one as heat training. It was sunny and windy. Pulled out 17.2 miles in an hour, some of which included stops for traffic. I had a head wind in one direction and a little bit of a tail wind in the other so it evened out.

Labor Day
figured I would go ahead and add this in even though its September now. Annette and I met the group at 7am and I ran 5 miles. It wasn't pretty but it was the longest single run I have had in 9 weeks so I was happy about that. The humidity was terrible. We were all soaking wet when we got done. Average pace wasn't very good, just an 11:17 but hey, that gets me under a 5 hour marathon! I could walk afterwards and my foot was not in severe pain during the run. I iced it afterwards and it is a little sore but that comes with the territory.

Happy Labor Day everyone!!

Gary is an Ironman

2008-09-01T06:06:00.002-05:00

Gary is officially an Ironman.

Final time - 13:59:27

That's a long time to swim/bike/run.

He had a smile on his face when he finished. We sat at the computer all evening watching the live coverage just so we could see him finish. It was a tough race but he did it. Not very many people can claim the tittle of being an Ironman.

Hopefully I'll update my blog more later today. Off to try to run 5 miles. Enjoy the holiday!

Gary's Road to Ironman

2008-08-28T10:22:00.002-05:00

My friend Gary leaves today to compete in Ironman Louisville on Sunday. I made this little video showing some of his training and races this past year. We gave him a surprise dinner last night to see him off. He is so nervous but he is quite the athlete and should have no problems completing the 140.6 miles.

Good luck Gary!

Endurance

2008-08-28T10:14:00.003-05:00

Me and running are not happy together.

This morning I ran 2.7 miles, foot and legs felt great but I could barely run 1/2 a mile without having to walk. I had an 11:02 average pace, almost as slow as when i started running in 2006.

After 9 weeks of less than 10 miles running per week I feel like I have lost my endurance. I can ride a bike hard for 50-100 miles so how come running is being this difficult?

Trying not to kick her to the curb.

Milestones

2008-08-27T07:13:00.002-05:00

I hit a new milestone over the weekend.

Total bike miles year to date are 1030. Thats the most miles I have ever done in a year so far and its still early.

I went from 8 minute miles running to 11 minute miles. Thats a bad milestone I'd rather not record.

98.1 Part 2

2008-08-25T21:27:00.004-05:00

Sunday:

We met at the school at 9am. There were two groups, Gary, Rock and me then Annette, Brenda, Vicki and Michele. We were doing 50 and the others were going to do maybe 25.

Annette and Michele

The two groups went our separate ways, us heading out highway 89 towards I-40 and on to Keo. We decided right off that Gary wasn't pulling and that Rock and I was going to do all the work. Well, Rock started out and we drafted behind her. Let me tell you, that girl has gotten strong on the bike! She had no problem pulling us around. I would look down and we would be doing 20-24mph. We had wind, and there was a lot of cross wind too. It really didn't feel like a tail wind but we had to be getting some anyway. I pulled a few times but Rock was such a workhorse and I think she liked leading. Most of the time I never even got out of zone 3, sometimes very low zone 4. It was just a little faster than relaxed pace for sure. More like a tempo ride I suppose. Rock and I kept thinking, wow, we are getting stronger being able to do 20+ mph for this long. We hit a 20 average before we passed the store at Furlow and maintained that all the way to Keo. We stopped one time under a tree to eat and rehydrate good. It was getting pretty warm at that point and we were sweating a lot.

Gary and me

When we hit the 25 mile turn around at Keo our world changed. All that time we thought we had a cross wind, in reality it was more of a tail wind. When we turned around we could barely go 15mph. We had one of the worst head winds I have ever encountered. It must have been 25mph wind hitting us dead on. To make matters worse, we were in farm country and there were no trees to block the wind. I saw my heart rate jump up in upper zone 4 just trying to maintain 15 mph. How could it be that different?? Well, the wind is an enemy on the bike and it was going to test us today.

Gary and Rock

Rock is training for her 1st 100 miler, The Big Dam Bridge 100 and I told her things were going to be tough for a while now. This is how it feels the last 25 miles of a 100 miler. We stopped again at the tree to rehydrate and make sure everyone had electrolytes. What was a fun 25 miles going out was going to be a test of mental endurance going back. We would hit some tree lines here and there where our speed would pick up to 16-17 but most of the time we were just stuck around 15 and working hard to do that. I eventually had to go down to my small ring just so I wouldn't have to push a bigger gear. It was tough.

I pulled some and sometimes we would just be fighting it on our own but we always stayed pretty close. When we climbed the hill for the bridge over I40 Rock had to stop. She said she thought she was going to be sick. She hadn't been drinking enough and I think the hill there had just gotten the last ounce of energy she had. After a couple minutes she was feeling better and we decided that we would stop at the store at Furlow to get more and cold water as we were all pretty much out.

A couple miles later we pulled into the store. When we went in to get water they told us they didn't have any power so they couldn't sell us anything. Well, I went back in and asked "how about I give you $10 for 3 bottles of water." "Nope, we have no power we can't sell anything." WTF? Why could they not give us a bottle of water? Well, we came up with our own plan. We found an outside water faucet and filled our bottles. Then we saw the ice machine so we just got a bag of ice and filled our bottles. We figured they could call the police on us if they wanted. We were needing water bad and they didn't even offer the outside faucet.

Well, the break must have got Rock feeling better because she took off with Gary in tow. I struggled all the way back. Not sure why, probably because I had done 45 hard miles on Saturday and my legs were just toast. We did have some downhills going back into town but also several uphills which just killed my quads. Our speed picked up since there was now some trees to help block some of the wind. Still a 16-17mph pace was all I could pull out. I was ready to be done. That relentless wind just wears you down and for 25 miles it sucks!

We finished off with 50 miles, and still even with the wind had just over a 17mph average pace. Not too bad I suppose. I burnt another 3101 calories and had a 158 average heart rate. I did feel good about maintaining a 20mph average for 25 miles. Our splits were awesome, there were several consecutive miles where we were at 22mph. And through all of this Gary never pulled one time. We had to save his legs for Ironman Louisville this weekend. We still had fun even though it was a test of endurance and mental fortitude.

Just me

98.1

2008-08-24T19:49:00.005-05:00

That's how many miles I ran and biked this weekend. Oh yeah, we even added some adventure race training in.

Saturday - 3.1 mile run - 45 mile bike - multiple flights of stairs carrying the bike
Sunday - 50 mile bike

Yes, my legs are trashed, but not that bad. No, I do not want to bike tomorrow!!

Saturday:
Annette and I loaded up the bikes and headed down to the River Trail for some running and biking. There was a large group of cruiser going to be there. My goal was just to run about 3 miles, then bike till 8am, meet the group for breakfast and bike some more. Annette was running like 10 miles then biking after breakfast.

The run started at 6am with a big group and too many people to mention. James (Iron James) and Cindy C. were only going to run short also. We planned on biking before the others got back. Cindy stopped around 2 miles because of her foot. She has PF too but a more severe case. And James ran with me to the 1.5 mile mark where we turned around. Gary and Rock were doing a fast 8-10 miles so we were going to meet them to bike till Gary had to go to work at 9am.

Dennis, Vicki, Kelly, Annette starting the run

The run was ok, I was slow, had a 34:22 time for a 5k slow run but it was probably 90% humidity. Since I had only ran about 3 miles a week for the past few weeks I guess it wasn't bad. Cindy said she felt the humidity too. So we did take a couple walk breaks.

Annette, Bailey, Kelly

After we got back to the parking lots we were dripping with sweat. Got the bikes unloaded and took off towards the bridge. Starting out we just went a fairly easy pace. Around the golf course we ran into Rock and Gary coming back so we turned around to meet them to get their bikes. Well, it didn't take them long to get back as they are fast runners. Gary is doing Ironman Louisville this coming weekend.

After they got to the skate park they unloaded and we admired Gary's new Tri Bike. It is a Gray. Never heard of that brand before so I think it is a custom made ride. Gary got a good deal on it, not sure if it is new or used. Anyway, this was going to be his first ride on it so he knew there would need to be some adjusting as we rode. By the way, he is not taking it to Louisville. He trained on his road bike so that's what he is taking.

Gary and his new Gray Tri Bike with Rock

After starting out we road fairly easy. Had to stop and adjust Gary's seat. Then we started picking up the speed some. Not too bad. we went across the Big Dam Bridge and headed out Rebsamen. We picked the pace up here and we were doing 20 with no problem. It was getting close to 8am so we figured we better call Annette and let them know that we would just meet them at the River Market. When I got her she said they were not even back yet so we figured we would just head back to the skate park since Gary needed to get to work anyway. I made the comment to Gary, "take off and lets see if we can chase you down on that new bike". Wrong thing to say to him. Before I knew it he was gone. Rock was latched on to his draft but James, Cindy and I were like sitting still even though we were moving. James sprinted out to catch them. I tried but it was no contest. I just rode as hard as I could and Cindy did the same. We drafted each other a few times trying to catch them. I looked down at my speedometer and I was going 24mph and they were leaving us like we were sitting still. Man, that tri bike is fast!

Rock and me on the phone calling Annette

James taking a breather from our hammer fest

This went on all the way back to the skate park. Cindy and I never caught them, even though we continued to ride 20mph+ on the trail most of the time. Let me tell you, it was a good workout! When we made it back the others were just unloading their bikes for the ride to the Rivermarket for breakfast. Gary had to get to work and Rock had to get home so James, Cindy and I headed out with the group towards North Little Rock. When we got to the new pedestrian bridge Vicki told us that we would have to carry our bikes up the stairs to the bridge. No problem, about two stories worth of stairs and we were riding across the river. Then we had to go up probably 4 flights of stairs to get to the next level. Ok, this was not fun anymore. Not good for my foot either. When we got to the next level we got to ride a little more then we had to go down about 4 flights of stairs. I kidded everyone asking where we were going to rappel at. This was like doing an adventure race! We did finally get done with the bridge and no one was interested in going back across that way so the plan was to ride to the Big Dam Bridge on the Little Rock side after breakfast.

We were all hungry at this point. I think our group had dwindled down to Vicki, Lisa(Tri Lisa), Bailey, Jackie, Annette, Cindy, James and me. Robert and Kelly drove over to meet us since they didn't have bikes. We had a nice breakfast, then it started raining while we were sitting outside. Finally it was time to ride again. The rain had stopped and Coreen and another man that I don't know his name was going to escort us a back way out of the River Market to the BDB. The route worked great, we rode down by the river, under Main and Broadway street bridges and then turned back onto Markham by the police station. This kept us away from the traffic and trolley tracks. Trolley tracks and bikes do not mix!

Had a lot of stop and go with red lights and stop signs until we made it back to Riverfront Drive. James said lets play when we get there. We would go out hard again all the way to 430 then turn around. By the time we do that the others should just about be at the bridge. We tried to get some others to join us but only Bailey would take the bait. So the next hammerfest crew consisted of James, Cindy, Bailey, and me. James and Cindy took off, I held their wheels with Bailey in behind me. It was another hard effort. 20-22mph heading to the bridge. I fell back a little and lost James and Cindy. Bailey hung with me to the bridge and then she dropped. I tried to catch James and Cindy but they must have been trying to kill each other! We were having fun though! I finally got back with them at the first turn around heading towards 430. We hammered back to the BDB and again they left me. No big deal, sometimes its the other way around. When we got to the bridge the others had just gotten there. Next thing you know it was on again. Cindy and James chasing each other down. I hung with them up the bridge and then got stuck in some traffic and never caught back up. When I got almost to the golf course here comes Cindy back. She said James was heading home. I kidded her saying "yeah, he couldn't take anymore". I think both of them were pretty tired at that point.

We headed back towards the soccer fields to catch the others and then I saw them turn into them. Vicki had said they were going up the hill at the soccer fields and then across the freeway and back. We hammered trying to catch up and not being sure their exact route were looking for them. The I saw some of them stopped at the top of the hill. "Dang, we have to go up that?" Its a short hill going out of the soccer field into Burns Park but its almost straight up. I had no problem making it up, picked the right gear and went right up. i did have to stand up for this one though. Cindy had a little trouble as she missed a gear or something. Then it was off and around the loop with the group. By this time I was ready to ride easy. I had probably 35 miles but I knew more pain was ahead. We had several hills to climb before making it back to the golf course. I went right up the long hard one, then dumb me, I made a right turn after crossing the interstate. Being ahead of everyone else I thought they were going this way then I heard them yelling at me that it was the wrong way. So, I had to turn around and try to catch back up. I had to expend more effort again catching up. They just came down a downhill and I had to go back up to catch them. Half a mile up the road I did. We stopped to regroup and wait for some of the others who had slowed down. Cindy was taking it easy at this point, chatting with the girls. Annette was doing great on the bike, and I think at times was probably leading the others.

We headed back across the interstate and towards the golf club house. Then there was a big downhill with a big uphill. Bailey was on my wheel and I just let it rip on this one. I hit 37mph going down and kept the momentum going back up the other side. I barely had to pedal up. That was nice! We finished the ride off with a moderate pace, 16-17 mph. I ended up with 45 miles which was pretty much what my long ride was suppose to be for the weekend. Only problem was, I had told Gary that I would ride with him on Sunday and do 50 more!

I'll blog about that maybe tomorrow!

Saturday stats:
3.1 mile run - 415 calories - 170 average HR
45 mile bike - 2882 calories - 152 average HR

I Run

2008-08-22T07:05:00.003-05:00

Sorry for the lack of blogging but not a lot to report. Last week was so busy this week I am just catching my breath again.

I did get my orthotics in Wednesday afternoon. The doctor told me to wear them a couple hours Wednesday, three hours Thursday, add a couple more on Friday, etc until I got used to them. So who's going to listen to that?? I wore them probably five hours Wednesday then 14 yesterday. No problems, no soreness.

So last night I put them to the test. Was going to run a couple miles outside but a storm came up so I tackled the dreadmill. I got a good solid 2 miles running and added .6 walking on to it. Not fast, 10:44 and 10:22 pace but the good thing was, I never wanted to stop. I think I could have ran 5 miles easy. After not getting to run, that 2 miles felt pretty good and it was a relaxed pace. The foot? Well it did pretty good. I could feel a little heel pain but nothing too bad. The orthotics really jack the back of my heel up so that takes a little getting used to. I iced the foot afterwards and this morning I have no pain and can walk so thats a good thing!

The challenge now is to find the best shoe for the orthotics. I am not sure if my Nike Air Structure Triax 10's are the right shoe anymore. I wear Saucony Hurricane 9's most of the time at work and around the house. These feel really comfortable but they seem like they angle my foot a lot to correct for my over-pronation. The orthotics have that built in to them so I may need a more neutral shoe. I still have some Acics GT2120's and they look more neutral so I guess I will just have to experiment. The doctor really didn't have a recommendation other than experiment also.

Tomorrow we have a very large group of Cruisers meeting at the River Trail to run and bike. I plan on running at least 3 miles and then bike up to 50. Have to get some bike miles in for my Big Dam Bridge 100 training. So if your on the River Trail look out, there is a Cruiser Alert being issued.

I am glad to have the orthotics finally. Now I can get back to running, even if it may be slower.
Did I mention I have missed running!