Tree Change

Something happened to our peach tree at the end of the season last year and it was looking like it had seen better days. Angela decided that a change was a good idea. So, a couple weeks ago I took the chainsaw to it and made some firewood :-) This past weekend it was time to remove the rest of it, so I spent a little time diggin'er out! We plan to put, more than likely, an apple tree in it's place, so I needed to remove as much as I could. First step was to get access to the roots...


Once the roots were exposed it was time to cut 'em loose...


Once all cut, the remainder of the tree basically removed itself :-)

Training Update

Well, I suppose it's time for a training update... Only 20 days left until the Cowtown 10K, and training is picking back up (cramming I guess). I've been a little lax but have started to kick it into gear here lately. Weight training is going well, but running is hit & miss... mostly miss. I'm still having issues with my knee. Nothing major, but enough to make me find excuses for not running. I'm going to do my longest run to date (10K training-wise) tomorrow night. I'm very curious to see how that will go. Angela now has soccer on Monday nights so we rearranged the schedule so I can run while she's out running on the field.

It's COLD!

It's 10 degrees outside at 7:00am! Angela & I stayed home from work yesterday... most of the roads were frozen over and all the major school districts were closed (even the ones that "never" close). I mananged to take advantage of it by getting our taxes done (yea!) Unfortunately we're not scheduled to get above freezing until Friday... yikes! We have a lemon tree in a really large pot (it's a really small tree). Since it'll be left outside we had to come up with some way to protect it for the next few days. It's not exactly convenient to move so moving it inside wasn't an option. We looked for alternatives... a quick internet search suggested Christmas lights... now duh! Why didn't I think of that! The older style incandescent bulbs do produce a bit of heat. So we wrapped the tree with 2 strands, and then covered it with a couple of sheets to help keep the heat in. Ta-da... Christmas in February... plus the glowing red blanket in the middle of the night looks pretty cool ;-)

Hope it's warmer where you are!!!

10K Training

Well, so far so good... legs are sore! Did my first run last night. Actually felt pretty good for being over 3 weeks since the last time I ran. Knee didn't really give me any issues until afterwards (but in a different spot... go figure!), and I was able to make the full 3 miles with only a short bit of fast walking about 2 mi into it. Oh yeah... my arms and chest are sore!!! First time I'd done any upper body since last summer... yikes, has it been that long!

Angela was trying to get sick again yesterday so she opted out of the run... that's ok... I'm the one who needs the head start ;-)

What's this... Another Running Event???

First of all... Happy New Year!!!

Secondly...

Uh-Oh... Here we go again!!!


Yeah, I know I said running sucks... and I still think that. But at the same time, we didn't want to give up everything we accomplished. So, we came to a compromise. We wanted more weight training but less running. I never had knee issues until I began running for the half marathon so something shorter was definitely necessary. Both Angela & I think the knee issues will be helped by less running and more weight training as well. So we decided on a 10K this time. We could train for that and still weight train at the same time.

So here's our plan... 2 days of running each week, and 3 good weight training days. The other 2 days will just be an ab workout so it should give us enough rest for the week. We'll also be keeping separate logs this time just so we can keep track easier. Wish us luck ;-)

Track Weekend #2 :-)

I knew I'd like going to the track even before I went... Angela did too ;-) So, without jumping off the deep end my plan is, for now, only attend The Drivers Edge events that take place at the local track down in Cresson TX (they go to two others tracks - Houston MotorSport Ranch and Texas World Speedway in College Station). I'd eventually like to try both of those tracks, but right now it's not practical.

So... the weekend of Dec 4th & 5th I went back down to MotorSport Ranch in Cresson to run the 1.7 mile track in the opposite direction from last time.

Even though I'd run the track before, coming at it from the opposite direction makes it a whole new track. The line you take when running the track Counter-Clockwise is definitely not the line you take when running it Clockwise! I also had a different instructor this time, who had a very different approach to things. I liked him just as much as my last instructor. They both offered info that helped me improve! I was a bit more comfortable this time, so I was pushing the car a bit harder, and my tires show it! The good thing was I improved my lap times from the last time by a full 5 seconds! I was very happy with that, plus the kudos I was receiving from the instructor. He, like my instructor last time, was very surprised my car still has it's stock suspension. We were one of the fastest cars on the track. Felt good to pass Corvettes, and stripped down race cars :-) It felt REALLY good when guys I passed on the track would come up to me afterwards, introduce themselves and want to talk.

I took video again of every run. Here's the last few laps of the 1st run on Sunday. These were some of my quickest laps of the weekend, mainly due to the fact my instructor was introducing me to some new techniques during the later runs that day so they weren't as "pretty" (more on that in a moment :-)



During the last run of the day my instructor was trying to get me to downshift during braking instead of after braking while entering the turn. Downshifting during braking (without throttle) is a pre-curser to heel-and-toe. I say he was trying to get me to do it because he was explaining it in pieces, and I didn't know what the end result was that we were shooting for... in other words me no-comprende what he say... So I was trying to figure it out "on the fly" so to speak... while going 100mph :-) Here's when I finally figured it out... well, actually, it was because of this that I finally figured it out ;-)



No harm, no foul... and it actually was kinda fun ;-) No damage done, and the car is fine. And since I learned something from it, it was worth it!!

You know... I gotta mention one thing... notice the instructor's feet during the spin... the guy doesn't flinch! Either he's got nerves of steel, or he has confidence in me... Or I guess he could just simply be crazy... yeah, that's probably it!!!

Half Marathon... CHECK!!!

!!!!Mission Accomplished!!!!

Angela, Keith & I accomplished our goal! All of us finished the Fayetteville Half Marathon! I gotta say, I was a little intimidated... A cold front blew through the night before and winds were about 30mph... not necessarily a big deal... However, the temperature during the race was a BRISK 18 degrees!!! And yes... the winds were still blowing 30mph during the race!!! It was FREAKIN' cold! The Gatorade and water at the aid stations during the race were frozen. I was bundled up like Kenny in South Park, and I ran like that the whole race. I sweat like crazy, but I wasn't cold ;-)

We had a nice treat as well... Angela's parents flew out to cheer us on. We really enjoyed having them there and had a blast the entire time!

Keith paced the field... his goal was to finish in less than 2 and a half hours, which he did. His final time was 2 hours 19 minutes 52 seconds. Angela finished in 2 hours 38 minutes 11 seconds. My goal was simply to finish... with a secondary goal of not finishing last... I accomplished both :-) I finished in 2 hours 40 minutes 21 seconds. The full results can be found here.

The course we ran was 13.1 miles in length. Here's a map:


We started on the University of Arkansas campus (bottom left of the map) then worked our way North through town, back South, then did a loop and repeated part of the course before returning back to the University of Arkansas campus to finish on their outdoor track. The course had some pretty steep hills on it (see the course profile at the bottom of the map) and ranged from some really busy streets to a bicycle path. All in all, it was more fun than I expected, and I had a much better run than I expected! The first 5 miles seemed to fly by, and I was pretty comfortable up until about 11 miles. After that, my right knee really started tightening up. I usually finish pretty strong but it simply wasn't happening this time. If I wanted to finish, I was gonna have to take it easy so I did. The end result... Mission Accomplished!!!

Oh... and to answer the most commonly asked question since the race...

No, I'm not running a marathon next! In fact... I'm going back to weight training.

Running sucks...