MIA on Blogging!

Sorry folks, I have been a way for a bit.  Seems like every time I built in some time to write, something else gets in the way, like life!  I have been meaning to write for the last five days and I have just not got it done.

My training has slowed down a bit in the biking and swimming areas.   I have kind of done this on purpose as I am trying to train more for the half marathon on May 12.  I am hoping the plan will work with out losing to much on my swim and bike.  My goal is to try and get two of each workouts built in each week along with my running.  So far, I slacked a little on those but, like I said life is a bit busy right now.  With Easter and both of my girls have birthdays coming, oh and work, things are crazy.  Olivia's birthday is on Easter and it is the golden one too!  So much planning is needed!

One of the things that has been on my mind a lot lately is the groups I have been running with.  First, I cant explain to you the value they have in my eyes.  About every other day, I so look forward to running, no matter how bad or good I feel, I always know they are there and will get me through the workout.  This morning was a prime example, I felt tired, my legs felt tired, my allergies were firing on all cylinders and I just did not have it.  Until I started and kept pushing because of the people I run with.  I ended on a 7:10 mile, mile 6.  I believe there were nine of us getting after it.  At one point it was silent, no one talking, which is really rare amongst this group, but you could hear every ones sneakers beating the pavement, working...all before 6 a.m.!  Incredible the amount of effort we put in.

Now, I know, I have talked about the running group before but I can't seem to get over the fact that there are this many GOOD people out there that are willing to get up at about any hour of the morning to run!  To RUN!  They are dedicated, they are athletes, they are moms, they are dads, they are professional, they are the CRAZY!  I will admit runs without them are very hard to deal with, which is something I am working on.  I have also talked about surrounding myself with good people because the results are, well, GOOD!  Some of the people drive a half hour to get to us, some push the limits to get to work on time, some do it because it is the only time they can, some just go because of the camaraderie.    For whatever reason, they get it done, early in the morning.  Good example, last weekend, we gathered at 4:30 a.m. on Saturday morning and more at 6:00 a.m. and even more at 7:30.  I believe we ended with about 14 runners, that early on a Saturday morning!

One reason I wanted to reflect about this was to make sure you all know how important and what GREAT people I am privileged to workout with.  If you are not running with us, you should, YOU CAN!  You are missing out.  Some of these people have come so far in their running, it is amazing to watch.  YOU could be that person too.  Power in numbers!

I am super excited to continue my venture in running this summer.  I am not to worried about PR's, but I know they will come when I workout with this group, they are just that type of group.

For now, 6 B4 6, CRAZIES, thanks for all your push and helpful advice, you are the best.  If you are not part of it yet, come join us, you are missing out.  Till next time, YOU CAN get out there and achieve!

What an Awesome Training Day!

Been a while since I was able to blog two days in a row, but that is what a day off will do for you!  I set out on a long run this morning with Katie G.  We decided to head down to the river and run on the bike path and head over the Arsenal Bridge and Centennial Bridge for total of 12 miles.  This run turned into an unbelievable run.  As we were running, the sun was starting to rise.  We started with the wind in our face a bit, but not to bad.  As we crossed the Arsenal Bridge the sun was starting to peak over the horizon.  What a beautiful way to perk up the run.  A nice dark blue sky with the orangish-red sun starting to peak over the edge of the earth.  Today is one day I wish I would have had my phone with me as the morning provided some beautiful opportunities to take pictures of the most amazing things we have around us everyday, but don't always get to see.

We then trekked our way through downtown Rock Island, weird to see The District, dead!  Back over the Centennial Bridge we went.  Decided to head back to the bike path and into Davenport a little more before turning around.   On the way back, we were cruising along the river and there it was, the most majestic animal in America.  A beautiful Bald Eagle soaring along the river, only about 30 yards from us.  Hunting away with the sun beaming down on us.  It was awesome!   It gave me a shot of adrenaline, I felt I could run forever at that point.

Not to mention along the way, Katie and I had some great conversation as we always do.  Something about the morning.  I think it is more a longing for warm weather to get here.  The sun was warm on the way back, the Mississippi River was gleaming in the sun.  Everything was brilliant.  Then we were coming around the bend from Lindsay Park in Davenport, a rather shallow part of the river, and their was a log hanging out of the water.  Sitting on top, once again, a huge Bald Eagle, sitting there staring at us.  Almost giving us a nod of approval.  We were enjoying nature and its beauty.  Again this made me feel like I could run forever again.  It is nice to have those natural bursts of energy because of your surroundings.  Katie and I talked that some people may never get to see this, ever!  Not only did we get to see it, we were making ourselves healthier while doing!

The only bad part of the morning was my watch was dead so I am relying on Katie's watch.  We ended with 12 miles in 1:35.  This is by far the best time I have had for a run in a year.  This mild winter has really provided me with the ability to train hard.  I am about 3 months ahead of were I was at last year, if that makes any sense. Made me feel good about what I have been doing, especially with the heavy load I took on yesterday too.  Legs felt great.  I am looking forward to getting some speed work in soon as I think I will see even more change in my fitness when I get those in.

As the week is winding down, I am ending on a very positive note.  I have been able to take the challenge of a family member's death, try  to find peace with it, and ended it with some of the best training I have had in a long time.  Not to mention an very nice dinner with my beautiful wife last night (Kennedy was with us but fell asleep).  I was going to hit the bike tomorrow, but with this experience today, I am going to not push the envelope, give my body a day to rest, and enjoy the rest of the weekend.  I wish all of you a wonderful weekend and challenge you to get out and enjoy!

What a week!

This has been quite a week, to say the least.  There were many emotions that went into this week and many work hours.  Everything from from working out to work to family!  It started out with a very awesome man in my family passing.  Jaybird, he was such a great father and family man.  It was a very hard to watch his family deal with this part of life.  Taken so sudden at the young age of 53.  Sunday and Monday we spent remembering all the great things he stood for.  I think the hardest part was watching his daughter grieve and watching my daughter learn about death and what it is all about.  Tough thing to learn, however, I am not sure we ever learn it.  I have a very tough time at these and tend to be pretty emotional and my daughter has picked this up as well.  This is the way we started and sometimes these events make us realize that life is to fragile and we need to make sure that every minute we are here, on earth, we should make the most of it.  Making every effort to enjoy those around us and enjoying life as we know it.  I am pretty sure the after life will be awesome but I know what I have right now is awesome as well.   I WILL enjoy this and make the most of it!

Then came Valentine's Day!   It is a nice day to remind us of how much we love those that are significant in our lives.  Although, we should really do this everyday, it is nice to have the reminder to take the time to do this.  Especially after the reminder of how precious life is on Monday.  I think the best was my girls giving me a Valentine!  They were so nice and I appreciated them so much.  I love the innocence of their love for their dad!  I thought you might like to see them as well.  Not to mention my amazing wife.  We had a pretty mellow day but our love in unconditional and I will forever cherish that!

Work was another story.  Conferences this week and had some coaching issues to deal with that did not make things very easy.  Plus I am trying to get our FUN (Fitness Uniting w/ Nutrition) week up and rolling.  That was a little stressful but I WILL overcome many of these problems and keep trucking forward!

On to my workouts.  The last few weeks I have spent working on fitting weights into my schedule.  I feel like I did a good job of getting that worked in and building a base on weights.  I know deep down, I cannot leave that behind so I was trying to figure out a way to make sure I keep this in my workout regimen.  I will keep my Tuesday and Thursday tuns with the group of CRAZIES.  I will not give that up, they are to valuable at this point.  My big problem is that I would like to say I will ride my bike at night when I get home from work, but I know I will not on a consistent basis.  So, I have changed my plan.  On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I WILL get up a little earlier and get biking, swimming and weights all in before 6:15 a.m.  On those days I will ride for 45 minutes, then head out to the Y by 5:00 to get  a swim in for 30 minutes and then weights for 30 minutes as well.  I will continue to get my long runs in on the weekend.  My weeks will be heavy on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays but as long as I listen to my body, rehydrate, I BELIEVE I CAN make this work.  I started this Wednesday and continued on to today.  So far, I feel pretty darn good.



Today I started off with a high cadence ride.  My goal was to ride 45 minutes at a high cadence of over 100 rpm.  I was able to accomplish this, with the exception of my first couple of miles because I was warming up.  As you can see below I was pretty consistent and stayed over 100 rpm.














After the ride I shot off to the Y and had a pretty good swim.  I did a ladder workout to swim.  Didn't start off that well as I forgot my goggle at home.  I had to barrow from the Y, I hope I don't have some funky eye disease come tomorrow!  I started with a 600 yd warm up then did the ladder with 20 sec rest in between all of them.  I went as follows: 25yds, 50 yds, 75 yds, 100 yds, 150 yds, 200 yds, 150 yds, 100 yds, 75 yds, 50 yds, 25 yds  and the a 150 yd cool down for a total of 1750 yds. Felt pretty good all the way through.  However, I did cramp at one point, which only means one thing, hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

I went ahead and got my lifts in as well.  Today was a good day, not to mention I had the day off!  Great way to begin a four day weekend for me.  I then headed off with a great meeting with LIVE UNCOMMON.  I am excited, we are launching the REVOLUTION next week at school.  I hope we can help make some difference in getting kids active and leading a healthy lifestyle!

After the crazy week, don't take everything for grant-it.  Live life everyday and don't let those little things that get in our way of life bother you, figure out how you can get around or over them and continue forging ahead and make every day count!  See how you CAN make a difference, EVERYDAY!

Great Route and a Cup of Joe!

Needed to alter my normal running routine this weekend due to leaving town tomorrow.  Katie G and I decided to get it done early on Saturday morning.  I was not expecting such a cold run.  These mild temps lately have spoiled me.  It was 11 degrees out with a 17mph wind.  Wind in the face proved to be pretty darn cold!  However, both of us dressed for the occasion and made our way out into the cold.  We decided to run a route that we had not run before.  We met at Satrbuck's on Middle Rd and decided to head to Davenport.  Little did we know we would hit two bridges and three cities along this route.  I will probably say this was the coolest running route I have been on in a while, maybe it was because it was out of the ordinary or just because we crossed bridges?  I do know one thing, this will be an awesome summer route. We took off through McClellan Heights on Middle Rd.  down through the East Village of Davenport to hit the bike path on the river.  That took us to the Rock Island Arsenal Bridge. We headed over that and along the bike path in Rock Island along the river and through the RI District over to the Centennial Bridge and back to downtown Davenport.  Running through downtown Davenport was pretty awesome in the early morning hours.  Not to much movement but was nice to actually see how nice this place could be.  We continued on the back to the bike path and back through the East Village and then we met our match...The Middle Rd. Hill, Holy Batman, the sucker is huge!  I am glad we were towards the end because, I am not sure I could have handled much more, it is steep, long and took my heart rate to the max.  It is good to incorporate those type of hills but that might be the biggest beast I have run in a while!  I think it is mental too, about halfway up it turns and you think that is it, but NO WAY!  Again, there will always be always be struggles in whatever you do.  Positive thinking CAN take you a long way. I CAN say that I have conquered that hill and it will get better every time I do!  We ended our run at Starbuck's on purpose so we could get a nice cup of warm coffee.  And it was just that, a nice warm place to sit and enjoy some good conversation and coffee.  This was the quickest pace I have run double digits in a while so it did feel good to push our pace a little this morning.

Along the run we had some good conversation, as always.  One thing stuck out in my head about this conversation we had was about individuals and relationships.  It is funny how we all seem to go through life and we put our lives on pedestals.  No matter if it is work, individual goals, relationships, we seem to think we are standing out there alone.  I am not talking pedestals like we are the best but pedestals that we are the only ones that experience the things we do or situations we encounter.  For example, in a relationship that we are the only ones that have communication problems with our spouses or at work that we are the only ones feeling like we are swamped or while exercising that we are the only ones struggling to accomplish a goal of some sort.  In reality, I think we all experience some sort of set backs when we try and put ourselves out on a limb or pedestal and think we are the only ones going through it. We are all humans and experience different things in life, but when it comes down to it, we all have a lot of similarities too.  Communication is imperative to any situation we may encounter.  I think that is one thing I love about the groups I workout with is because a lot of those frustrations come out and it helps.  It also makes me think about other communications I need to have and how much more important those are and the need for them to take place to make life a better place.  Amazing the thought processes that you encounter at 5 a.m. in the morning and how much they make sense.  Good thoughts to start a weekend!  I CAN make better use of my communication skills and make life and the situations I encounter better.

Have a great weekend, what CAN YOU make out of the situations you encounter?

Week in Review...Long!

For whatever reason, this has been a long and trying week for me, probably why there has not been a post all week.  Overall, I would say it is not a bad week, just a tough mentally challenging week.  I had some pretty positive things happen. Pretty successful week as far as working out and making some things happen a little quicker than I thought I could.

First off on Tuesday of this week I had the best run I have had since last year in May.  I set out on my normal run with the CRAZIES at 5 a.m.  Actually a larger group than normal; I was joined by Katie, Jane, Phil, Nick and Aaron.  We got into the run at a pretty normal pace for us and we took a little different route to make it a little longer.  For some reason the last mile and a half, the pace rocketed up.  At first I thought it was the wind and after chatting with Katie about it, nope, it was us.  Finished the last full mile at 7:22 pace then the last .66 at 6:50 pace.  For me that is flying.  For the 6.6 miles, it was an average overall pace of 8:04.  I have not ran like than since last year when I did the half marathon.  As I look back on it, I am running way ahead of schedule and think I may be able to do some amazing things with my half marathon this year.  So I am looking forward to that!
On Thursday we had a nice light run in the morning.  I am glad it was nice and easy because my legs were still a little heavy from  biking and the Tuesday run.  Jane and Katie and I had some really good conversation.  Kind of interesting running with women sometimes to get their thoughts and perspectives on things that men really do not talk about while running.  I have great respect for these two ladies so I do the smart thing and take it all in and agree;)  I was glad for the light run because I also had a soccer game Thursday night and we only had one sub, I ended up playing the entire 40 minute game.  My legs were tired and my hip strained a little so Friday was going to be a rest day!  At least for my legs, I ended up lifting upper body and it was good just to get that in and rest my lower body.

My other training is going well.  I really have liked the weight training I have integrated into the workouts as well.  I am feeling stronger and starting to see results.  My biking is picking up too as my legs are feeling stronger.  I need o get back to the pool but I think I am going to get one more week of good lifting in before I hit the water more.  I think I have plenty of time for that so I am not to worried about that.

This morning I finished up my week of running with a 19 mile run and all done before 7:30 a.m. or at least very close to that.  I felt pretty darn good this morning all things considered.  Again the Leadville group is an amazing group of people to run with.  I honestly believe I would not be running where I am at right now if it was not for their inspiration.  We were able to finish our last mile in under 8 minutes which is a huge progression for me. Last time I was struggling to even make it back to the house, this time I was pushing it back.  This felt really good mentally and physically.  My hamstrings are the only thing feeling the affects right now, otherwise I feel great.

On the run this morning we had some great conversation and even so good we missed our turn and had to run a little further on the first loop, but all is good because this group is AWESOME!  One of the conversations this morning was about who you surround yourself with is what you CAN be.  I feel very fortunate, I have surrounded myself with all sorts of people and I feel pretty blessed to be a part of this group and call them friends.  This morning it was John, Curtis, Rick, Katie and Mike.  Being part of this groups really has opened my eyes to what I CAN accomplish.  John has talked to me lately about completing a marathon.  After today, I believe I CAN complete one now.  I probably have always been able, but now I know I CAN.  I am going to search for one so I can take the drive I have and make it reality.  Through church, the gym, running, work and other things I do, I have put myself in a ring of friends that I believe make me more powerful to myself than I ever thought or believed I could be.  Each week my belief in myself is getting stronger and my belief in the people around me are more powerful.  Surround yourself with good, and good will prevail.  I know I have talked about it before, but each week I train with the guys that are doing Leadville or my morning CRAZIES, I see the work in progress and am amazed at what a difference a few people getting together, to better themselves, can do for one's power to believe in themselves.

Also, thanks to John for giving us a little inspiration.  He gave us all a "Dig Deep" wristband to help motivate in our workouts.  See the picture, it has the Leadville logos on it as well.  This will help in those times of mental weakness to know, I CAN DIG DEEP and persevere!
With that in mind, I need to get a move on to the day.  Today is going to be more powerful than yesterday because I CAN believe in myself in what I CAN accomplish.  Have a GREAT and Positive weekend!