It's Been That Long? Sheesh...

Wow, I didn't realize I hadn't posted here in over a month.  Crazy.  But it's been busy.

So let's recap what's gone on the past few weeks...

Ran a 5K race.

Met a local hero.  Again.

Settled on a training plan for Dopey.

Celebrated my 10th wedding anniversary.

And my 42nd birthday.

Got a couple new Garmin gadgets.

And a bike.

Ran a bunch.

And lastly, got new shoes.

So let's work our way down from the top.  First, the 5K:

This year was the second year of the Saints Back to Football 5K race.  Last year I didn't do the race for some reason I can't remember, which made me want to run this year.  What also made me want to run was a bunch of my college buddies were running and it's been a while since we got to hang out.  I had a 6 mile run scheduled that morning, and a 12 mile the Sunday after.  Instead, I did a 1.5 mile warmup and the 5K on saturday, and did a 13 (point 1) on Sunday.

The race itself was great.  It started at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, went out Poydras St. towards the river, turned onto Decatur into the French Quarter, and then went back to the Dome where we made our way into the Superdome via the back service door to finish on the 50 yard line.  The weather was hot (in August, in New Orleans?  Who'dathunkit?), but the humidity was high enough to make it seem even hotter.

I've never had a 'good' 5K race.  I've been DQ'ed, injured walking to the start, had to push a jogging stroller on a course that turned out to be 2 miles of trail running, etc.  I figured this day would be similar, but it turned out to be my best 5K ever.  I felt strong despite the heat, and finished in 23:20.  That was good enough for 168th overall out of 4100+ runners, and 14th in my AG.  It was nice to run a solid 5K that wasn't preceded by me flopping around in the lake and then riding a bike.

Local Hero:

The beneficiary of the race was TeamGleason, Steve Gleason's foundation to benefit ALS patients.  Steve was a Saints player who executed the greatest regular season play in team history.  Unfortunately, he announced a couple years ago that he had been diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), which is a degenerative neuromuscular disease and has no cure.  But instead of hiding and waiting to die, he's put forth all his efforts to bring about awareness of the disease, find new ways to enrich other ALS patients' (pALS as he calls them) lives, and has built a place where pALS can continue to live as independently as possible.  He's also made a recent trip to Machu Pichu and climbed the mountain with some help from his friends and family.

Quite simply, the dude's an inspiration, and I've been lucky enough to meet him and his family on a couple occasions since his diagnosis.  But more on him later...

Training Plan:

Back at the beginning of this blog, I had mentioned finding a training play for Dopey from a guy from Purdue and I had been following his plan over the summer.  But some time in early August, Hal Higdon had published his plan based on one of his marathon plans.  I used a Higdon plan to run the Rock N Roll Marathon back in February and felt great up to the race.  I ran conservatively and still finished at my goal (4 hours-ish) and aside from soreness, felt great throughout and after the race.  Based on my experience with Hal's Marathon plan, I feel like this plan will get me to the starting line healthy for the 5K, and I'll still be upright and (somewhat) smiling after the Marathon.  I'm supplementing with some swimming and cycling cross-training, but I'm running 4-5 days a week primarily, and starting with a weekly mileage of about 27 and building to over 40.  Also, Hal's Dopey plan started on 9/9, which gave me a weeklong break from Labor Day until the 9th, that I used for...

10th Anniversary:

I pulled off the greatest surprise of my life, almost got sidetracked by an ornery old car, and blew my wife's mind.

Our 10th anniversary was this year.  We got married in The Bahamas by a Bahamian Christian minister in a tropical thunderstorm, and had a blowout of a party the weekend after when we got home.  When my daughter was about 5 months old, we were ready to have her baptized, but our Deacon suggested we get married in the Catholic Church first.  Since it was our 5 year anniversary that year, and it fell on a Saturday, we planned for our second wedding on our anniversary at the church.  Later that night at dinner, my wife and I joked about going to Vegas for 10 years and getting Elvis to remarry us.

So I made it happen.

Not as I had planned of course.  I intended to go down to the bar at the hotel, have Elvis pick us up in a pink Cadillac convertible before dinner, renew our vows at the Vegas sign, and bring us back to the hotel.  But on our layover in Dallas, Elvis called to tell me the car was broken down and won't be back up until after 9 PM.  So I rescheduled some stuff, but the car didn't come back to life that night.

Elvis (Jessie Garon was his name) offered to refund me the money, but asked that I give him until Saturday morning.  I obliged since we were already there, but didn't think it was going to happen, so I told Shellie about the plans and why I made her get so dressed up to go to dinner.

The next day at noon, Elvis called back.  The car was back running, and he could pick us up at 9.  I told him let's do it, and told Shellie we were on.  He picked us up in a pink '54 Cadillac Convertible once owned by Lucille Ball (imagine riding in that with Elvis driving on the Vegas strip on a Saturday night), brought us to the famous "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign, made a giant spectacle of himself (and us), and then gave us a ride down the strip after the ceremony was done.  The whole thing was hilarious and one of the most stupidly fun things I've done in a long time.  And yes those are Elvis glasses with sideburns we're wearing in the pic.

Garmin Gadgets:

For my birthday, Shellie got me a Garmin Swim and a Garmin Edge 500.  I've used the Swim a few times and today was the first time I rode with the Edge, and I'm pretty impressed with both.  The Swim is great since I suck at counting laps while I swim, and spits out some pretty decent data.  The Edge is comparable in functionality to the cycling function of a Forerunner 310XT, and is simple enough to use.  Once I get some more time with them I'll post some more details about both.  Initially though, I'm quite pleased with both devices.

Bike:

And for my Anniversary gift, Shellie got me a new bike!!  (Yay bikes)  (Poor Shellie dealing with my birthday and our anniversary being 3 days apart.)

It's a Bianchi Via Nirone 7 105.  Aluminum frame, Shimano drivetrain, nice wheels/tires, etc.  I took it out today for a ride and got 35 miles in.  Everything is great except the seat, which sucks.  But I have a new one on order that ought to be here next week.

If anyone is in the market for a bike for a vertically challenged cyclist, let me know.  I've got an old Bianchi Campione that would be a great bike for someone.  Otherwise it'll go on my trainer for indoor cycling over the winter.

Yes, I'm a Bianchi fan.  It goes back to my formative days of going to Gus Betat Bicycles with my Dad and seeing the Celeste Green Bianchis there.  I had always wanted one, and now I'm on my second.  Though this is the first one with the proper colors.

Ran a bunch:

I've been running quite a bit as well.  My longest run over the summer was a 17 mile run.  I did several runs of 13.1 miles or more, and kept about a 30 mile per week average despite the heat.  Even in the heat, I'm doing a half-mary in the 1:54 range.  Not my fastest, but considering the heat and the fact that it's not a race I'm OK with that.  I'm registered for two half-marys in October, the Jazz Half on October 12th and the Gulf Coast Half on October 20th.  Between now and those two races I'll try to squeeze in some speed work.  I already planned to do those two races strictly as training runs, but I know when I'm on the starting line what's gonna happen... "Hey, nice day for a training... wait... THAT GUY PASSED ME!!!!" and then I'm gonna run like an idiot for an hour and forty minutes.  Can't wait.

Finally... New Shoes:

Look up a bit to the first pic I posted.  See the guy in the blue shirt with the GoPro strapped to his head?  That's Joby.  He's one of my best friends and was my roommate in college as well as my big brother in our fraternity.  Joby, his then girlfriend/now wife, and I went to the expo for the Rock N Roll Marathon together back in February.  While we were there we saw Brooks Running had set up a huge display with a couple treadmills and they were doing stride analysis and shoe recommendations.  Joby and I had our strides analyzed and then took our shoe recommendations to the oh so convenient sales booth to try on some shoes.  Joby bought a pair of shoes.

I didn't.

Not because I didn't want to, but because.... (Story of my life) they didn't have anything small enough.

Meh.

A couple months later I found myself in a Nike Outlet in Foley, AL and bought some shoes there that I've put just about 300 miles on since, but I've never "loved".  So I bought the shoes Brooks recommended that day back in February.  Hopefully they'll fit and will be comfortable to run in.  I'll know in a couple days, as I've got a 4 mile run tomorrow and a 14 mile run Sunday.

I think that's everything.  Well, there's one more thing, but I'll post about that in a separate post this weekend.  Other than that, I think I'm caught up with all my goings-on in my training for this race in Walt Disney World.

I've been pretty active on Twitter talking to other runners, including several folks who are also running Dopey.  One thing I've noticed recently, and that I love about running, is no matter how fast you are or how far you can run, there's someone who's also running who can be inspiring.  I have a friend in Ohio who just did a 50 mile trail run in Michigan.  His running stories are what got me interested in trying a race, and I can thank him for introducing me to the sport.  Hopefully one day we'll get to run a race together.  And by together I mean him finishing a marathon about 45 minutes before me, since he's qualified for and run Boston a couple times (including this year with the bombing) and I've got a ways to go before I could BQ.

Another guy I've chatted with on Twitter had lap band surgery, dropped a couple hundred pounds, had a knee replaced surgically, and still ran the Dumbo Double Dare at Disneyland. And despite having something go wrong with the new knee, still continues to run and put forth an incredible positive energy.

I'm gonna wrap this up here.  There's a beer in the fridge with my name on it calling me quite loudly, and I'm a bit tired.  Pay attention because in the next couple days I'm going to post again about something cool.  In the meantime, get out and run!

Oh.. forgot.. My fortune from my post-sushi fortune cookie:  Never Give Up Until You Reach The Finish Line.

Fitting.

Later.
R


Happiness is not something that is ready made.  It comes from your own actions. - Dalai Lama