I came out to this site a few weeks and was shocked to see that I hadn't posted anything since 2013. I was talking to a friend when I first tried this Blog thing and he had told me, "Keep them short or you will burn yourself out" and he was right. One of my goals for 2016 is to start this back up and make it a weekly thing. Read if you want, let me know if you enjoy the posts and comment if you don't. I am all for constructive criticism.
*Since this is the first post in a couple years it will be long winded. The next post will be shorter. I promise!
I have to imagine there are plenty of people out there that I am friends with on Facebook and Twitter that are sick of seeing posts about my runs and that's fine. I get it. The reason I post is because I find other people's inspirational, and if a post of mine inspires one person to go out and try something new and get physically active, then that makes me happy.
2015 was an interesting year for me. In January my dad passed away. I feel like he had been struggling with his health forever. From a heart attack in his early 40's to a bypass in his 50's to dialysis and a kidney transplant and his eventual passing in his 60's. I saw my dad go through all of this and at some point I decided that I would not fall into the trap that so many of us 9 to 5(really more like 8 to 5) folks do and sit on my ass all day and then go home from work and sit on my ass some more. It all seems kind of standard for people that work in an office job. After 20 years of sitting at a desk, your body changes shape, you gain weight, some of us become follically challenged. Some things you can control and some you can't. I decided to control what I could. That's a big part of why I run and why I workout.
In March I lost a friend of mine named Norman. Norman was an awesome guy who had a profoundly positive impact on the people he met through his work and his everyday life. I don't think there is a day that goes by that he doesn't pop into my head because we had so many conversations about so many different things. I miss him a ton and it hurt so much to lose him and my dad last year.
In April I ran my first ultra. An ultra is any running race longer than a marathon. The Boss and I ran our first marathon in November of 2014 so I figured I would piggyback the ultra. I ran the TARC Spring 50K(roughly 31 miles). I use the term ran loosely since it took me almost 7 hours to complete. Throughout the race, when I felt tired and sore and wanted to stop, I could almost hear my dad and Norman urging me on, and busting my balls about why someone would ever run for that long. I also had my wife(The Boss), my sister and my buddy BJ at the race to cheer me on which helped keep me going.
After the ultra I kind of lost a little something. I was not sure what it was. A lack of focus, a lack of motivation, maybe an overload of sadness once the training was done? Whatever it was really sucked. The Boss and I ran the Mayflower Brewery 1/2 Marathon in July and that race just sucked the life out of me. I had still been running a lot but I just felt like I had nothing left in the tank and really felt awful after the race. I felt like I needed a change.
So... I hired a coach! I figured why not. I love to run, I wanted to get faster and at the time I was slowing down. I messaged Chris Vargo on FB, exchanged some emails and the next thing you know, he is writing up training plans for me and giving me tips about racing and training. I ran three 1/2 marathons at the end of the year and I had picked up enough speed to set a new PR. I felt like having someone helping me out with training and setting race goals reinvigorated me.
2016 Running Goals
My goal is pretty simple I guess. Set some new PR's.
Here is a list of my current PR's pulled off of www.athlinks.com
I am running the TARC Spring 50K again this April so I am confident I will be able to finish faster than last year. I am also running another marathon in May and I am hoping to knock a good chunk of time off of my first one. The Boss and I are running a 5 miler this Sunday and the course is flat and fast so it will be my first shot at that one. We'll see how that goes. The PR is from 2008 when I was "young" and "fast".
5K
22:14
10K
47:24
5 Mile
37:30
10 Mile
1:31:37
1/2 Mara
1:50:08
Marathon
4:45:13
50K
6:54:08
Thanks for reading! I'll talk to you next week!
*Since this is the first post in a couple years it will be long winded. The next post will be shorter. I promise!
I have to imagine there are plenty of people out there that I am friends with on Facebook and Twitter that are sick of seeing posts about my runs and that's fine. I get it. The reason I post is because I find other people's inspirational, and if a post of mine inspires one person to go out and try something new and get physically active, then that makes me happy.
2015 was an interesting year for me. In January my dad passed away. I feel like he had been struggling with his health forever. From a heart attack in his early 40's to a bypass in his 50's to dialysis and a kidney transplant and his eventual passing in his 60's. I saw my dad go through all of this and at some point I decided that I would not fall into the trap that so many of us 9 to 5(really more like 8 to 5) folks do and sit on my ass all day and then go home from work and sit on my ass some more. It all seems kind of standard for people that work in an office job. After 20 years of sitting at a desk, your body changes shape, you gain weight, some of us become follically challenged. Some things you can control and some you can't. I decided to control what I could. That's a big part of why I run and why I workout.
In March I lost a friend of mine named Norman. Norman was an awesome guy who had a profoundly positive impact on the people he met through his work and his everyday life. I don't think there is a day that goes by that he doesn't pop into my head because we had so many conversations about so many different things. I miss him a ton and it hurt so much to lose him and my dad last year.
In April I ran my first ultra. An ultra is any running race longer than a marathon. The Boss and I ran our first marathon in November of 2014 so I figured I would piggyback the ultra. I ran the TARC Spring 50K(roughly 31 miles). I use the term ran loosely since it took me almost 7 hours to complete. Throughout the race, when I felt tired and sore and wanted to stop, I could almost hear my dad and Norman urging me on, and busting my balls about why someone would ever run for that long. I also had my wife(The Boss), my sister and my buddy BJ at the race to cheer me on which helped keep me going.
After the ultra I kind of lost a little something. I was not sure what it was. A lack of focus, a lack of motivation, maybe an overload of sadness once the training was done? Whatever it was really sucked. The Boss and I ran the Mayflower Brewery 1/2 Marathon in July and that race just sucked the life out of me. I had still been running a lot but I just felt like I had nothing left in the tank and really felt awful after the race. I felt like I needed a change.
So... I hired a coach! I figured why not. I love to run, I wanted to get faster and at the time I was slowing down. I messaged Chris Vargo on FB, exchanged some emails and the next thing you know, he is writing up training plans for me and giving me tips about racing and training. I ran three 1/2 marathons at the end of the year and I had picked up enough speed to set a new PR. I felt like having someone helping me out with training and setting race goals reinvigorated me.
2016 Running Goals
My goal is pretty simple I guess. Set some new PR's.
Here is a list of my current PR's pulled off of www.athlinks.com
I am running the TARC Spring 50K again this April so I am confident I will be able to finish faster than last year. I am also running another marathon in May and I am hoping to knock a good chunk of time off of my first one. The Boss and I are running a 5 miler this Sunday and the course is flat and fast so it will be my first shot at that one. We'll see how that goes. The PR is from 2008 when I was "young" and "fast".
5K
22:14
10K
47:24
5 Mile
37:30
10 Mile
1:31:37
1/2 Mara
1:50:08
Marathon
4:45:13
50K
6:54:08
Thanks for reading! I'll talk to you next week!
Race
PR
Rank
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