A Big Thank You!

So we hit a huge milestone today. Thanks to your donations over $2,000 has been raised for the benefit of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society!! That’s huge and I thank you for your contributions. That puts me halfway to my personal goal of $4,000. The support and response I have received has been fantastic and I owe everything to your donations for allowing me to pursue this marathon. I can’t say it enough, but thank you again. And I will close this quick update off with some Runners’ World quotes. GO TEAM!

“You have to wonder at times what you’re doing out there. Over the years, I’ve given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.”
Steve Prefontaine

“I often lose motivation, but it’s something I accept as normal.”
Bill Rodgers, American Marathon Runner

“In a country where only men are encouraged, one must be one’s own inspiration.”
Tegla Loroupe, Kenya, 1994 New York City Marathon Champion

“You don’t need a reason – you need a road. Believe in the run.”
Nike ad

“Tough times don’t last but tough people do.”
A.C. Green, Retired NBA Basketball Player

“Winning has nothing to do with racing. Most days don’t have races anyway. Winning is about struggle and effort and optimism, and never, ever, ever giving up.”
Amby Burfoot, The Runner’s Guide to the Meaning of Life

Spinning My Wheels

So, a week or two ago I went and got a membership at the YMCA so I can have some alternative training methods and have access to better cross training if I decide to do some weight lifting or swimming or something else. Last night, my roommate Lawrence and I decided to go try a spin class at the YMCA. It was a 45 minute group workout on a stationary bike and was really a lot of fun and a great workout. I think this could definitely be a regular class for me to attend. The only problem I had was my feet are too big for the pedals. Pretty pathetic really. I couldn’t get my feet far enough into the toe cages so the pedals would be in the correct position on my feet. This meant I was basically unable to do the standing portions of the workout, I just had to stay sitting on the seat. Still, a very good workout, great cross training and great training for those bike muscles when I get out on the actual road on my bike. And next time I’m going to take my actual bike shoes which have clips that may work on some of the bikes. I’m hoping they do because that would really take the workout to a better level.

As for running, I’m still trying to take it relatively easy right now because my IT Band just isn’t 100% yet. Honestly, it may never be 100% but I don’t want to make it worse right now if I can keep from it so hopefully some of the cross training (cycling) will help keep my fitness and strength up while stretching will help loosen my IT Band and strengthen it so I won’t have any problems as training progresses. This is a problem because I’m not able to log the actual running miles I need to be but I’m doing alternative things to at least keep my fitness up and actually improve my fitness in new and more well-rounded ways. In the end I think it will pay off so that my leg isn’t in horrible pain every time I run, especially on race day. Speaking of race day, it’s in less than 4 months so that’s exciting. GO TEAM!

Running Hills….

So last night a couple of us met up for some hill training. We didn’t run very long but when you run hills you really aren’t supposed to. We only did about 20 minutes of running. That was fine by me though considering it was about 105 degrees at 6:30 last night. After that we did some short exercises for balance and stability. A nice, short workout. Good for my first day back running in almost 2 weeks.

Tonight, after work, I’m going to meet my dad for another bike ride. It’s going to be another ridiculously hot day, but cycling never seems as bad in the heat as running. The wind seems to keep you cooler at least. But even the wind is hot when it’s 105 out. It’s about time to fly north for summer.

That’s all I have for today, I’m trying to get back into more regular updates on the blog. The last couple weeks were tough since I wasn’t running and was just trying to not be injured anymore. I don’t know how healthy the leg is yet, my coach wasn’t real big on my running hills last night since that’s not a good workout for IT Band issues, so I didn’t push it. We will see how it goes as I ease back into the schedule. And on a final note, a QUOTE:

“If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a board and knock me down, because that means I didn’t run hard enough.”
Steve Jones, Welsh athlete and former marathon record holder

A Little Cross-training

Haven’t had an update in awhile so here I am, back with a little info about the training. As you are aware from my last post I’ve been having a nagging IT Band injury that has kept me off running for a little bit now. I’ve been avoiding running because I can’t let this thing get out of control and it still doesn’t feel right. When I stretch I can still feel some strange tension in my left hip in particular. It is getting better though so I’m thinking this week I will get back in some shorter runs to see how it feels. I guess it’s better to have these problems now than right before the marathon. Keep sending these weak legs happy thoughts!

On a side note, I finally got back on my road bike this weekend. My dad and I went out to the Oklahoma river (I think that’s what they call it) and rode our bikes almost 20 miles. It was a really nice change of pace and I hope to start riding more. You can actually see a picture of the bike I ride below. It’s a lot of fun and it’s great cross training for running. And as a side benefit, riding my bike doesn’t seem to bother my IT Band. So if I do have problems with my IT Band I can at least ride my bike to maintain my fitness and stay in shape while it gets better!

Finally, the fundraising response I’ve received has been tremendous. If you check out my donation page through the links on the right side of this page you will see that you all have raised over $1,600 to help fight blood cancers!! And that doesn’t even count the great support from the corporate sponsor and a couple more checks I have sitting at home I recently received!! We are well on our way to the $4,000 I set when this whole thing got kicked off. Thanks again for your support and keep checking back for more updates on my running, cycling and my weak legs! GO TEAM!!

The Ups and Downs of Running

Well, I’m a bit down on my running this week. Last Thursday I went out for a group run and ran 7+ miles but the last half was brutal. I’m now facing a bit of an injury in my left leg. I’m currently being plagued with a fairly common problem known as Iliotibial Band Syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliotibial_band_syndrome). Basically, the last half of my run it felt like someone was stabbing me in the hip with an ice pick and a dull ache along the outside of my knee. The treatment is rest and stretching, which as you can imagine, means no running. So right now I’m taking a bit of a break to let this darn thing heal up and hopefully get back on track asap. Better to have this happen now than right before the marathon. So keep my legs/knees/hips in your thoughts please!

On a more exciting note, fundraising has been spectacular. Thank you so much to everyone who has answered the call and made a donation to help fight blood cancers. With the money I sent off yesterday over $1,500 will have been raised to help the mission of the Leukemia & Lymphoma society. All the support really helps give me motivation to make it through this thing. Despite the injuries and everything, if I have to crawl the entire marathon, you all give me the motivation to see it through. Thanks again.

“Love yourself, for who and what you are; protect your dream and develop your talent to the fullest extent.”
Joan Benoit Samuelson

GO TEAM!!

Want Your Donation Doubled??

I have great news!! Starting today, July 1, until the end of August, if you make a donation to my fundraising campaign for Team In Training I have a corporate sponsor that will match 100% of your donation!! Remember though, I can’t do this without you. I can run the miles, but I need you to help me fight the cancer. This matching offer only lasts a short period of time so please act now and have your donation DOUBLED!!

So right now, CLICK THIS LINK and have your donation DOUBLED!

And to start this donation matching campaign off, I’m going to make a donation. So please, join me. Make a donation and help me through this marathon. Help give me motivation. And most importantly, help me fight blood cancers! GO TEAM!!

Still Rollin

Well, thought I would drop a quick udpated. I ran 4 miles last night and all I can say is it was rough. Just been feeling slow and weak lately on runs. I need to get my mind and body back working for me and not against me. Hopefully I can get some good sleep in the next two days and have a good productive run on Saturday (8 or 10 miles, not sure which we are doing yet). So anyway, keep me in your thoughts and hope I get my stuff together and back on track soon! Here’s a few Runners’ World quotes to think on:

“The long race is there always, as a sort of platform on which to evaluate, and sometimes alter your life.”
Benjamin Cheever, Strides

“You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can’t know what’s coming.”
Anonymous

“A marathon is like life with its ups and downs, but once you’ve done it you feel that you can do anything.”
Anonymous

“You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your own feet and the courage of your lungs.”
Jesse Owens, Winner of 4 Olympic Gold Medals in the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin

“On that day, we seemed to achieve what generations of politicians and philosophers have failed to do. With nothing more than our running shoes, we accomplished what all the wars and weapons have failed to do. We were, for a few hours anyway, a community of people whose sameness was more important than our differences.”
John “The Penguin” Bingham on The New York City Marathon

As always, thanks for reading and GO TEAM!!

Rough Week

Well, quick update from this last week. I was sick most of the week so I didn’t get the chance to run at all. Heck, I even missed 2 days of work from being sick. Also, I didn’t run a lot while on vacation last week so I’ve had too much time off from running. But that didn’t stop me from trying on Saturday! I was supposed to run 10 miles on Saturday, but being sick all week kept my body from letting me. I managed to run a sloooow 6 miles. Even though I felt a lot better from the previous days I was definitely not 100% and my body let me know that. No big deal, these things happen. I’m feeling much better today and I plan on hitting the road hard again this next week. Let’s just hope for good health and good runs for the rest of the season! GO TEAM!

Dallas to Destin

So I missed my group training run on Saturday because I left for vacation. That put me in Dallas on Saturday where I put my 8 miles in at White Rock Lake. I wish I had taken more pictures of the place because it was an interesting run for two reasons. First, it’s a pretty place to run with trails that go all around the lake. Since my run was only 8 miles I didn’t get to run on a lot of the more wooded trails but later in my training I’m going to try and come back to run the whole lake which is about 16-18 miles I think. The second reason it was interesting was the incredible amount of people at the lake. There were hundreds of people out running and biking around the lake. I even ran past some of the Dallas Team In Training people so that’s fun to see a whole different group and give them a GO TEAM! as you run by. The Dallas run went well, I managed my full 8 miles and my dad made it a lot easier because he jumped on his bike and followed me most of the way so I wasn’t running by myself (see picture below of us after the run).

Right now I’m on vacation in Destin, Florida with the family which is just perfect. I may not come home! I’ve done one run while here which was pretty tough. It’s hard to find the motivation to go run on vacation but I’m trying to get a few miles in while I’m here. The heat and humidity make it pretty tough too. I took a couple pictures from our balcony you can see below.

Finally, I get these daily quotes from RunnersWorld.com. They send me these motivational quotes about running so I might start posting them here if I find them interesting just for something else to read. Here are a few I’ve recently received:

“It is important to keep the marathon in perspective. Running does not have to be the controlling element in your life, but if you become a marathon runner it probably will be, for a while.”
Marc Bloom, The Runner’s Bible

“One of the scariest things about running a marathon for the first time isn’t the distance, the muscle pain, the chafing, or the blisters. It’s not knowing what’s going to happen.”
Runner’s World UK

“Marathons are extraordinarily difficult, but if you’ve got the training under your belt, and if you can run smart, the races take care of themselves.”
Deena Kastor, First American woman to run a marathon under 2:20

That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. GO TEAM!!

Pushin It

Quick note on my Wednesday run here. First thing I did when I got home was sit on the couch. Bad move! It was hard to get up but finally I convinced myself to get up, slam a Gu, put my running gear on and hit the road. I decided tonight that I wanted to push myself a little harder the first mile. So here are my results for the 2 miles I just ran:

Mile 1: 8 minutes, 28 seconds
Mile 2: 9 minutes, 30 seconds

I ran the whole thing without stopping to walk or anything. Such a big improvement over my first 2 mile run. I’m pretty sure my first 2 mile run took me 30 minutes or longer, now I am pushing myself to run them in under 20 minutes. And tonight I proved to myself I can run a mile in 8:30 so that feels really great. I can’t wait to keep tracking myself and see how I improve. The thought of running a marathon is still really scary to me but I’m gaining confidence as time goes on.

Thanks again to everyone who keeps track of me by reading my blog. It really means a lot to login and see how many times my blog has been visited. Keep coming back, many more updates on the way over the next few months!!