What a day.....

Wow, I'm tired!!!! Who knew driving 2.5 hours to Paducah, waiting in the hospital for news, and then driving home 2.5 hours would make you this tired. So now I am being lazy. I'm lying across the bed watching some spring training baseball. Oh how I love my baseball!!!! Anyway, things went well with the surgery. Thanks for your prayers! The doctor said everything went great and it was a textbook surgery. He is resting in recovery now. Visitation starts tonight for my cousins' father. I think we are going tomorrow night and then I will be going to the funeral on Saturday. I know how it is to lose your dad. IT SUCKS!!! So I know my cousins are having a hard time. Just please keep them and my wife's uncle in your prayers still.

My left calf is feeling better, but it is still sore. It feels better with Aleve or Motrin, so I know it is pretty much just soreness and nothing worse. I plan on just resting it the rest of the week. I am going to try and run on it on Saturday. I figure I can make it as long as I keep it slow.

I talked to Rich the other night about making a decision on the full or 1/2 marathon. He feels like I can still make the full marathon. He wants me to concentrate on making my long runs and doing them slow. The shorter runs I am going to start working on speeding up the pace on them. I just basically need to man up and do this!!! I will probably whine and cry the next big long run I do, but I have to put my head down and keep going. He said it is my decision in the end, and as of now, I am still going to do the full marathon. If you seen the ending of The Biggest Loser this week, Dane ran a marathon after being kicked off in 3 hrs and 59 mins. So if he can do it, SO CAN I!!!!!!

Happy running everyone and I will let everyone know Saturday how my run goes.

Need your prayers....

My wife's uncle is having emergency open heart surgery tomorrow morning at 6am in Paducah, KY. We are heading up there to be with her family after we drop the kids off at school. He has been having some health issues lately. He found out today that he has a 100% blockage in one main artery and a 95% blockage in another. One of his kidneys is located inside his chest cavity too (don't ask me how). The doctors told him he has a 90-95% chance of living with the surgery. He as a 100% chance of death if he does not have it. So, of course, he is doing it. He is also a diabetic, so there are complications there too. So please pray for Dale, his daughter and her kids, my father-in-law and the rest of the brothers, and my wife. Just raise them up, and through the power of prayer, his surgery will be a success and his recovery will go smoothly.

My cousins' father also died of a rare blood cancer. He is leaving behind his wife, 5 kids, and a host of grandkids. So please lift them up also.

You know, after all of this, my whining about my calves and my decision to run the marathon or 1/2 marathon is not that important anymore.

Happy running....

A decision to make

Well, as I sit here at my desk at working eatting lunch, I ponder a decision I feel I need to make. Do I push on and try to run the Country Music Marathon? Or do I settle for the half marathon? If you read my last few posts, you have seen I went from my running high to my running low. It has left me in a fog. I have been struggling with my calves being extremely sore after my long runs. This makes me miss a day or cut a day short during the week. I know my body has to get use to running alot, but I am afraid I have jumped into the deep end now. I am not sure I have a good running foundation yet. I started back in April of last year and ran through the month of August. I hurt my knee in mid August and missed about 8 weeks. When I picked back up running, I ran a few miles here and there, but nothing consistant. Now I wonder if I just need spend this year establishing a good running foundation and then attempt a full marathon next year. I am planning on running the Tom King 1/2 already, but then I could do the Music City 1/2 too. In between now and then, I could do some of the local 5k and 10k races.

Vandy-Montana suggested I up my weekly mileage some and decrease my long runs a bit. If I continue on with the marathon training, my weekday mileage will start going up next week. The only thing that concerns me is the fact that I am stuggling now with the soreness. What will happen when I start running more during the week? I know I am a newbie in this game, and I thank Vandy-Montana for his tips and suggestions. I would like to hear more of them from anyone else who wants to give me some advise. Maybe I'm just being a pansy (stole that from Amy) and should just suck it up and run. I don't know though. I am just confused. I hope to talk to Rich tonight about it and see what he has to say. I sure as heck don't want to push myself to hard for the marathon and end up injuried again. THAT SUCKS!!! So just let me know what you are thinking......Thanks in advance.

Now to rest the legs and hope I can get in 4-5 miles on Thursday. If I decide to put off my plan for the marathon, I might just try and hit the Race Judicata 5k/10k this weekend.

Hope I didn't bring anyone else down with my negativity today.....

Insert your own title here....

OK, so I could not come up with a title today. I have about 100 of them, but could not pick one. Anyway, so much for the running high I was on from Saturday. I came back down to Earth today. It was butt freakin' cold this morning at 5am, so I just decided to skip the morning run and do it this afternoon. My wife just told me to be back in time for her to go to the gym. She as lost almost 30 lbs now since the 1st of the year. I am very proud of her. I looked forward to running all day since I did well Saturday. My soreness was almost gone and I felt good. I got home around 4:45pm and immediately changed into my running gear and started stretching. My wife was already cooking supper and said it would be ready by the time I got home. I told her I had 4 easy miles scheduled today and I should be back in 35-40 minutes. I headed out, turned on my MP3 player, and started down my street. At the end of my road (0.25 miles), I turned and headed back towards the house. My left calf was already throbbing, but I figured it would calm down once I got warmed up. I ran away from the house and through my neighborhood just like normal. I got to about 3/4 of a mile and my calf had not stopped hurting. It was actually hurting enough that I was changing my stride to compensate for the pain. I knew I would never make it 4 miles, so as my Garmin beeped for 1 mile, I shut down and stopped. I tried to stretch out, but I could not get it to relax. I finally decided to walk back home in shame. I felt like the biggest loser on the way back. I know I had set a new personal distance record so far on Saturday, but I figured I could get in an easy 4 miles today. To top everything off, on my walk of shame back home, one of our friends from down the street pulled up next to me. She was checking on me and ribbing me that I was walking instead of running. When I told her about my calf, she understood and said I probably over did it on Saturday. When I go home, my wife thought I had ran 4 mins in like 15 minutes (I wish). She then seen me limping a bit and got worried. I told her I was fine and that I my legs were just shot. I ended up with ice packs on both my calves for about 30-45 minutes while I ate supper and watched the news. I plan on skipping tomorrow's 4 mile run. That sucks too because Rich was running with me in the morning. I hope to get some mileage in on Thursday. I might try to run on Wednesday if I feel like it.

Hope everyone else had a good run today. Some run an extra mile for me tomorrow!!!!

A day of rest....

Well, just what I needed after running 18 miles yesterday. A DAY OF REST!!!! I surprised myself this morning by getting up out of bed without falling over from stiffness. My feet, calves, and knees are alittle sore from yesterday. It is not as bad as I thought it was going to be though. I have spent most of the day stretching whenever I could. I was running the sound board for choir at church this afternoon and stretching the whole time. The people in the choir thought I was crazy. I did get a good 2 hour nap after lunch. I enjoyed that more than anything.

Now I am trying to decide something. I can get up at 5am and run my 4 miles, or wait until the afternoon. I was thinking if I waited until afternoon, I could use the day to recover. I know I have to get out and run the soreness out and "man up." I am just tired all the time. I guess it is from all the running. All I am wanting right now is to sleep. So, I am off of here to finishing up "Heroes" from last Monday and hit the hay.

I hope everyone's week starts out with a good run tomorrow.

The end of Week 7...

Here are a few pics my wife took of me when I got home from the Nashville Strider's 18 mile training run.

Well, Week 7 went way better than Week 6. I ran all of my scheduled days and only had to cut my Tuesday run from 4 to 3 miles due to soreness in my calves and my right arch hurting. I am hoping my body is getting adjusted to running more now. If it has, I can concentrate on running my low mileage days at 8:30-8:45 min/miles. We will just have to see, because in a few weeks, I will be doing 5-7 miles on my low mileage days. So here are the totals for this week.

End of week 7 totals

Scheduled miles - 27 miles Actual miles - 29 miles (dropped one on Tues. but got 3 extra on Sat.)

Now for my best running day (this far anyway), the Nashville Strider's 18 mile training run

This morning is the first time in along time that I got right up when the alarm went off at 5:15 am. I was excited about today and didn't know what it would hold. I was out the door by 5:35am. I drank an Amped and ate 2 Speical K bars on the way to Nashville. I also ate 800mg of Ibephrofen and my allergy medication. I got to LP field at 6:15am. The Strider's president was there organizing water and Gatoride for the water stops. I introduced myself to him and gave him my membership application and $20 to join Nashville Striders. I then got back in the truck to stay warm until I stretched. I stretched out at about 6:45am and everyone started getting ready to run. We left right at 7am to start. There were alot of people there. We made our way into downtown and weaved around until we picked up the marathon course at mile 11. I had set my Garmin to beep at me when I was going faster than 9 min/mile pace. I guess the wind blowing in my face or something because I didn't hear it beeping. I had ran my 1st 2 miles way faster than my planned 9:30-10 min/mile pace. I was too busy looking at all the sites in Nashville. I have not been downtown in probably a year and a half, so I looked like a tourist. When we come to the 1st water stop at Rite-Aid, there were a ton of people getting drinks, so I just went on past. The run to MetroCenter was not bad. I felt really good and finally settled into a pace that was comfortable. Turns out, it was faster than my planned pace too. At 45 mins in, I ate my 1st bag of Jelly Belly's. I was close to 2nd water stop, so I knew I could get water there. When I passed it, I stopped long enough to grab a cup of Gatoride and down it in 2 big gulps. I then climbed the incline and started the part of the course that is on the Greenway. We ran down it for over a mile to a mile and a half and got off down a steep incline. Right after the incline I spoted a row of bushes that would be a good place to use the bathroom if I have to during the marathon. We finished up by passing MetroCenter and started the steady climb out. The hill was not that steep, just long. I did well on it though. I even passed a few people. We left MetroCenter the same way we came into it, so the water stop at Rite-Aid was the 3rd one. I stopped there long enough to grab another cup of Gatoride and down it. Here is when I met Vandy-Montana and Amy. We exchanged hellos, and they were off before me. I had a plan to try and keep them in site. From reading their blogs, I have seen that they like to finish strong. The 3rd water stop was around mile 10 or so. We headed back toward LP Field at this point. I ate some more Jelly Belly's on my way to LP Field because I knew there was a water stop there to wash them down. When we got back to LP Field, I ditched my long sleeve t-shirt I had on at my truck. I came out of it, my gloves, and head cover at about 2.25 miles. It was not that cold anymore anyway. At LP field was the 4th water stop. I grabbed a cup of Gatoride on the way to my truck and downed it. This was at mile 12 or so I believe. When I got back on course, Vandy-Montana and Amy were turning the corner. I was needing to keep an eye on them to make sure I was running the right way too. But I fell in behind a group of ladies and just followed them. We had to stop at an intersection just long enough to let it clear out and we started running again. It was nice though, because there were about 10 to 12 of us running along together. I had my MP3 player going, so I was not talking to anyone, but it was nice to have people there to talk to if I wanted too. Around 13.5 miles into this adventure is when I started to get tired. I had planned on running atleast 15 miles of it without stopping since I was scheduled to run that far today. Earlier on during the day, I thought I would just run all 18 miles. But at this point, I was just glad to still be running. I passed the 5th water stop while in Shelby Bottoms Park. I didn't stop at this one because I had grabbed a bottled water at my truck to carry. We ran through the park and went around the lake. On the back side of the lake, the urge to pee hit me. Ain't it funny how you can sweat your butt off running and still have to pee. So at mile 14.5, I started to walk so I could spot a bathroom or porta potty. I ate another bag of Jelly Belly's and drank some water. I spotted a porta potty fairly quickly and stepped inside to do my business. I started running again and made it out of the park and up the small hill leading out of the park. I decided earlier that I would walk/run the last 2 miles to keep from injuring myself again from overtraining. I walked for about 2 mins, and then run about a 1/2 mile. I walked again from 1 telephone pole, past the next one, to the one after that. Then I picked it up and ran for another 1/2 or so. When I walked this time, I called home real quick to put my wife's mind at ease that I was ok and still running. She was suprised I was at alittle over 17 miles. I started running again and at 17.8 miles, while rounding a turn, my left hamstring locked up on me. I had to stop for a few seconds and message it. I tried to run again but it cramped right back up. So I spent a min or so and rubbed it down. When I picked up running again, it was really tight, but not cramping. I finished in the same parking lot we started in 2 hrs 57 mins and 26 secs. That is a 9:51 min/mile pace. It would have been way lower if I had not decided to walk/run the last 2 miles. I was extremely excited and started to stretch out. I drank some more Gatoride and ate a banana. I called my wife to tell her I was done and I would be leaving soon. I finished stretching out and then headed out. I called my running buddy Rich on the way home, but didn't get an answer. He texted back and I told him I was done and my time. He was proud of me.

I know now that I can run the full 26.2 miles with the rest of the training I have scheduled. Today helped prove that. I will be signing up for the CMM very soon!!!!!

Here is a look at my times per mile

Mile 1 - 9:21

Mile 2 - 9:06

Mile 3 - 9:21

Mile 4 - 9:05

Mile 5 - 9:04

Mile 6 - 9:43 (Water stop)

Mile 7 - 9:27

Mile 8 - 9:31

Mile 9 - 9:18 (Either 9 or 10 was a water stop)

Mile 10 - 9:34

Mile 11 - 9:29

Mile 12 - 9:48 (Water stop)

Mile 13 - 9:16

Mile 14 - 9:16

Mile 15 - 12:17 (me walking to find a bathroom and my potty break)

Mile 16 - 9:55 (1 short walk break)

Mile 17 - 11:21 (2 short walk breaks)

Mile 18 - 12:26 (stopping to message my left hamstring)

Now to Week 8 and a rest week (24 miles - 12 mile long run)

Happy Running......

My new kicks....

So I just got back from dropping some coin on my new kicks. They are Saucony Progrid Guide 2s. They felt the best on my feet out of the 3 pairs I tried on. I tried on a pair of bronze Brooks that were not bad, but the color was horrible. The blue and white Pearl Izumi pair where superlight weight, but I didn't feel like they would give me enough support. I really picked this pair because they are blue and white...hehehe. Anyway, I was reading the box on the way home and thought the name sounded familiar. Sure enough, when I pulled up Vandy-Montana's blog, he bought the same pair last week. I hope to get mine broke in starting next week when i do my low mileage days. I will pray that my old shoes with the new arch supports will make it through Saturday and not shred my feet.

Big thanks to Bill at ACME Multisports for his help and showing me what I needed.

Oh yeah, I wanted to try out the image posting function too, so I thought I would do this post. If someone gets some shots of the training run on Saturday, and I'm in any, I will post them here.

Man was it cold this morning...

It took me about 2 hours to thaw out after I ran this morning. I got up late and had to hurry and get ready. I walked out of my house ready to make a beeline to Rich's house to meet him. When I rounded the corner of my house, I heard a whistle. There stood Rich all balled up waiting on me. Luckly, he had just got there like 2 minutes before I came out. We took off and headed out of the neighborhood. About 0.5 miles into it, we were hit in the face by the cold morning wind. I thought I was going to freeze!!!!! We had planned on running 4 miles this morning, but both of us doubted that if we didn't warm up. After running and talking, we were warm by 1.5 miles and kept going for the full 4 miles. I bought some gel arch supports yesterday afternoon to see if it would help by feet. I made the whole run without any pain in my right arch. I am heading to ACME Multisports after work to get my new running shoes. I believe now it is shoes that are causing the pain. I just wish I could get them broke in to use Saturday morning. Anyway, we finshed our 4 miles and quickly parted ways to get back inside. We finished in 36:35. It was overall a good run, but I could not seem to get my breathing right today. My legs felt good, not strong, but good. Now to rest up for the big day on Saturday.

Hope everyone's runs go well for today!!!!

Well, I have a decision to make....

I have spent most of my rest day walking around on bad feet. My left arch has a raw spot on it and my right arch still hurts. The right foot does feel better today though. I have been dealing with blisters on my left foot since I started running, so it is no big deal. Anyway, getting back to my decision....

Should I change from running 4 days a week to 3 days a week. Currently I am running Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. Saturday is my long run days. The rest are anywhere from 4-7 miles. It seems like after running on Saturday, my legs are good for the Monday run, but Tuesday is another story. I had to skip my Thursday run last week and I would this week if I had not already made plans to run with Rich. I am starting to wonder if I am overtraining for my 1st marathon. I was thinking of changing to running on Tuesdays and Thursdays. These runs would be anywhere from 5-8 miles. I would keep my Saturdays as a long run day. This would give me 2 days of rest after my long run, and a day of rest between each day of running. I would make up for the dropped day by picking up a mile or two on each Tuesday and Thursday. Any suggestions?

I know that the training is the hard part, but I don't want to kill myself to get to the marathon. I plan on running another one in late fall/early winter. I want to run as much as possible without breaking down my body.

So, with all that said, I will be up at 5am in the morning to get in 4 more miles in the COLD!!! I hope my arch can handle it and still be able to do the training run on Saturday.

Today totally sucked!!!!

I got up at 530am to run and it was really cold outside, so I thought I would try out my new gym membership. I show up and scan my index finger and type in my code. The clicks and I walk right in feeling like I am special with the fingerprint scanning and all. There are about 15 people in there this morning (its about 545am) and a few are running on treadmills. I get my stuff in a locker and start stretching out. My legs feel ok, but my right arch is hurting with every step I take. I climb aboard a treadmill and start running at a 9:45 min/mile pace. I do about 1/2 mile and speed up to 9:30. I planned on running most of the workout at 8:45-9:00 miles. After about a mile, my calves start feeling tight and my arch is killing me. I get about 1.25 miles and have to stop to stretch out my calves and rest my arch. I pause for about a minute or so and then start back. I get another mile in and have to step off and stretch out again. My legs at this point are tired and my calves feel like the are being riped out of my legs. I can handle this part, but the arch pain is rough. It is bad enough that it is changing my whole stride (like I had a good one to begin with). After another minute or so pause, I climb back aboard the treadmill. I slow to a 10 min mile and hope I can get in the last 1.75 miles. I make it about .75 and decide it is probably best that I just stop and write this training day off as a bad one. I don't know my official time while I was running, but I guess I did 3 miles in 29:15-29:30 range. I ended up not giving myself any time to lift any weights, so I just cooled down and headed to work to shower. Hopefully my rest day will help and I will be ready for 4 miles with Rich on Thursday morning. I am still planning on making the training run on Saturday in Nashville. I just hope my arch don't kill me.

The begining of week 7....and 27 miles

Well, Sunday was a lazy rest day for me. I woke up feeling good except for my arch on my right foot. No real soreness in my calves or thighs. I was stoked about this, because last Sunday I was sore. Monday rolled around and I was off work due to President's Day. I met Rich at 9am to run a easy 4 miles. We both started out with gloves and head covers due to it being about 30 degrees or so. After about 2 miles, we both were pretty warm and started shedding stuff. The run went well for me. My calves didn't hurt at all. My right foot hurt the whole way, but running and talking with Rich kept my mind off it. We finished up in 36:13. Not to bad since I want my marathon pace to be around 9:30. I spent the rest of the day with my mom, sister and her kids, my wife, and my kids. We went to eat and then bowling. It was nice to spend the day all together since we don't get to do that much. I am going to sit by the fire for the rest of the night and snuggle up with my wife. I plan to be out again in the morning for 4 more miles before heading to work.

Hope everyone stays warm in the morning while running....

I finished off week 6 with a bang.....

I DID IT!!!! I ran my scheduled 12 miles this morning all by myself. I was worried how I would do, but I just had to dig deep and keep putting one foot in front of the other. I had planned on last night trying to keep a 9:30 min/mile pace going (or around that). When I started, it was hard to run at that pace. I felt strong and wanted to go faster, but I knew I needed to save some energy. I have found out over the past 2 Saturdays that getting up out of bed and running without eatting sucks. I get about 45 minutes into my run and feel out of gas. I planned for it though and took my trusty Jelly Bellies jelly beans with me. I use the orange ones, but I plan on getting fruit punch next time. I ate them 45 minutes into the run. About 10 minutes after I ate them, I felt them kick in. Now it might all be in my head, but I did seem to be able to hold my pace better. I got about 8.5 miles into it and hit a wall though. I felt spent and I didn't have any more jelly beans to eat. I pushed through it and was approaching town. Who wants to run through town looking like they are about to die? I don't being that I know 1/2 to 3/4 of the people in Portland. Once back in town, I felt pretty good and check my Garmin, only 2 more miles to go. Since I was about 2 1/2 to 3 miles from my house, I knew I could finish it. I was 1/2 mile from the house when my watch beeped for 12 miles. I stopped and began to stretch out some using a neighbor's mailbox. My legs felt good. My knees where alittle sore. But my arches where hurting. I have about 275 miles on a $50 pair of running shoes, so I figure that is why my arches have begun to hurt. I walked the rest of the way home and kinda felt like crying. I was proud of myself even if no one else was. This was my new PR for distance. I had ran alitle over 10 miles in Oct. or Nov, but this was 12 miles. I even did pretty well on target pace of 9:30 min/mile. I finished with a 9:42 min/mile. I came in and showered than ate some breakfast. I am getting ready to go out to dinner with my wife right now and I am feeling pretty good. No soreness (yet atleast) and my knees and arches are feeling good. Let's see what tomorrow morning holds though.



I hope everyone did well at the Frostbite 1/2 marathon. As of right now, I plan on making the Strider's training run next week. Can I tag along with someone if they need a running partner?



End of week 6 totals

Scheduled miles - 24 miles Actual miles - 19 miles (missed Thursday's 5 mile run)

Not bad. But the soreness sucks. I will have to get use to it in week 7.

Nearing the end of Week 6

Well here it is, Friday, the next to last day of week 6. Today is a rest day after a 5 mile run on Thursday. The problem is, I didn't run the scheduled 5 miles yesterday. I didn't feel good when a woke up yesterday morning, so I decided to run at the gym Thursday night. Well, that didn't happen either. After my son's end of the year basketball party, I had ate 5 pieces of pizza and about 8 cookies. I no longer felt like running and just wanted to go home and sleep. I have stayed tired all week long and my calves and thighs have stayed sore. I know it is just from the increase in running, but it still sucks. I decided to miss the 5 mile run yesterday to save what I got left for the 12 mile run on Saturday. I figured the long runs will be alittle better to do than the short ones. I plan on running all my days next week (week 7), but I will have to see how my legs do after the 15 mile run on Saturday. Rich is going to run part of the 12 miles with me, so atleast I will not be alone. I am weighting the idea of running the Nashville Striders training run on Feb. 21st. It is 18 miles and I only have to do 15 miles that day. I figured I can try to do it, but if I get to tired after 15 miles, I will just shut it down and walk. I would love to run miles 11-26 of the marathon prior to the race though. Time will tell.....

Thank God tomorrow is a rest day!!!!!

This is going to kill me!!!!!! My legs were so fatigued today when I ran. My calves felt like they had exploded 0.2 miles into the 3 miles I ran this morning. My arch of my right foot is very tender too. I think it is due to me just adjusting to running more now, I hope. The good thing out of this morning's run was getting back out there with Rich. We ran the 3 miles today in alittle over 27 mins. So it was not that bad time wise, but it still sucked. We ran into the wind for part of the run. It sucked!!!!! We could not even talk to each other due to the wind noise. But on the bright side, it was easier to breathe....hehehe. I plan on resting up tomorrow to get ready for the 5 miles on Thursday and the 12 miles on Saturday. I might hit the gym for the 1st time tomorrow too.

Running with blocks...

That is what it felt like this afternoon while running my scheduled 4 miles. I ran 10 miles on Saturday and woke up Sunday feeling good, except for my calves. They were very, very sore. After getting up and moving around some, they felt better. But, after sitting alot in church, the stiffness sat in. I awoke this morning with just about all the soreness gone. I decided to run this afternoon instead of this morning just because I was too lazy to get up at 5am. I started this 4 miles alittle fast and ended up running the 1st mile around a 8:30 pace. I slowed some due to my legs feeling alittle heavy. At about 2.25 miles, I felt like someone had put blocks around my ankles. My calves had locked up and felt like lead. I pushed through it and finished my 4 mile run, but I didn't want too. I hope every run after a long one don't suck this bad!!!! I am running 3 miles in the morning with Rich, so I know that will suck too.

Oh yeah, my wife and I signed up at the local gym here in town today. I hope to get in some weight training on my rest days from running. They have cardio kickboxing too. Let's see how this goes, I will keep you updated on this new adventure.

No rest for the weary though.....

Marathon training thus far...

Well, so far so good with the marathon training. Thank goodness I am only running 4 days a week. I have yet to run all 4 days though. Either the weather has been crappy, or I have been too lazy. I am trying to follow Bart Yasso's 16 week marathon training program. I am running the low mileage days on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Saturdays are my long run days.

I plan on running the Country Music Marathon on April 25th in Nashville. This will be my 1st one and I hope to just finish. I want to finish in under 5 hours and think I can do that. I would love to break 4 hours, but I just want to worry about finishing my 1st one. I plan on trying to get 100 people to sponsor me $1 a mile ($26 a person when I finish) for a total of $2,600. I plan on using the money to buy shoes for the kids in Honduras for our 2010 trip. I hated running out of kids shoes this year. There are alot of kids down there running around barefooted due to not having but 1 pair of shoes.

I missed 2 weeks of training while I was in Honduras. But I did hike 5 miles in the rain and mud up and down the mountain side one day. I also walked at fast as I could up a 1.5 mile road to one of the villages. I walked back down it too. The 2nd week I was there, I didn't do to much physical stuff. I did snorkel all day long on our free day.

I plan on trying to blog the rest of my training. This is the end of week 5 of training. I didn't running the 4 miles on Monday or 3 miles on Tuesday due to bone chillin' cold. I did get in my 5 mile run on Thursday on a treadmill. My long run was today. I got in 10 miles in 1 hour and 35 minutes. I did it all by myself too. I plan on hitting the pavement or treadmill on all my running days no matter what the weather. I have to put in the mileage and time if I want to finish.

So here is the rundown of weeks 1 through 5 for this marathon training session.
Pre-week 1 - I got 5.5 miles in on Saturday before week 1 started (just to make sure I could still run)
Week 1 - Scheduled distance-15 miles Actual distance-7 miles
Week 2 - Scheduled distance-17 miles Actual distance-3 miles (1st week in Honduras)
Week 3 - Scheduled distance-19 miles Actual distance-0 miles (2nd week in Honduras)
Week 4 - Scheduled distance-18 miles Actual distance-8 miles (returned on Wed. from Honduras)
Week 5 - Scheduled distance-22 miles Actual distance-15 miles (missed Mon./Tues. due to weather)

Total scheduled distance so far - 91 miles
Actual distance so far - 33 miles (I am behind alot. Can't lay out of running anymore)

Well, on to week 6 now (Scheduled 24 miles-12 miles long run)