Mile Stone

A day after running a 9 minute mile.... and well on my way of achieving my goal of 8 minute... today I run a 9:30 mile.  Geez... did I screw up my timing/distance today or yesterday? 

New Year's Resolution

About a month and 6 days left till the end of the year.... time to check in on my New Year's resolution.  The one I publicly announced was... "Doing 50 pushups."  How close am I???? Well.... between the 5 and 0, I can do one of those numbers! 

Growing pains

COVID-19 - School Closure - Day 38

Went running again today... but poor NN complained about soreness citing growing pains. But she was a trooper... muscled through it even though there was a lot of mumbling and grumbling.  Will keep doing it until she breaks. Then we’ll do sprints instead.

Training: T-minus 5 days

Holy crud.... at the Missions Conference the other day our speaker preached from Hebrews 10:36, "You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." 

And it made me realized that the half-marathon is this Sunday!! 

That two week layoff wreaked havoc on my training regime.  I forced myself to push 4 miles on Sunday... and then 5 miles yesterday.  And boy am I sore.  How am I possibly going to finish 13.1?????

Will try to push for 10 miles tomorrow.  Will I make it???? Should I even try... or just rest up?? Argggh....

Mood: worried

Training: Back on the proverbial wagon...

Stoopid cold knocked me out for an entire week... so I missed a week's worth of training.  Sunday morning, I forced myself to trudge through a 2 mile run.  Ugh... the 2 miles felt like 20!! 

Tonight... I tried to get back on schedule.  But I got home late.  Made dinner late.  Fed Nui-nui late.  And I had a million and one excuses to "rest" another night.  Boy was the inertia immense!  But thankfully, Nui-nui's roseola is subsiding.  She slept with not fighting and by 9PM, I was out trotting with the wind. 

6 miles later... barely even winded! Easily could've done another 2-3 miles.  But let's take it one step at a time.

Doesn't this sound like your typical spiritual walk (or run?)  You're going steadily for a few weeks or a few months.  Then all of a sudden BOOM!!, you get side tracked.  You get sick... or OT...  or biz-trip... or  you have a kid...or two...  or friends from outta town.  And your rhythm gets out of whack.

Just when you think it's time to "rest" another day.... why you don't you make a commitment to the Lord and say, "Jesus... I want to start running with you again."  It won't be easy but before you know it... you'll be back on that proverbial wagon.

Mood: half-accomplished

Training: At least I finished...

Climbed to the next milestone of 11 miles.  Didn't actually make it to 10 miles last week, but I thought it was a fluke.  So I went to get a fanny pack to hold a bottle of water and I wore my sweat wicking shirt.  Can't fail now...right?

Then around mile 9, I realized I wasn't even running anymore but was walking like a penguin.  Didn't run the entire 11...but at least I finished. 

Gonna start some crosstraining starting this week.  My buddy who's a track coach said try running up some hills.  Hrm...where do I find hills in San Jose?!?! 

Mood: defeated

Training: Plateau'ed

Sigh... was trying to hit the 10 mile mark today, but by the 8th mile, my body told me to shut down.  And, for today at least, my mind succumbed to my body. A little more than a month left... prayerfully I can overcome this plateau!!!

Mood: failure

Training: Chase yourself

"Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air." ~1 Cor 9:25-26

On my 5th or 6th mile today... a lady passes me on my left.  She was petite, in her late 20's perhaps.  All of a sudden, I have this new found energy to follow her and keep pace with her.  Poor her...she probably thought I was stalking her.

But that's kinda the trick sometimes...right?  When training... you find someone / something to chase after.  If you're doing it alone... you have no clue how fast, how slow, how hard, how soft you're training.  She made that mile go by so much faster and easier!!

Folks...that's the same way with our walk in Christ.  Have you found yourself walking aimlessly... not knowing who to follow? Are you having trouble following Jesus cuz he's just a bit too far ahead of you.  That's alright...because you're in a fellowship of believers.  People who are like you...but may have a better perception of Jesus.  Find one of those...follow him or her... get your stamina going and pretty soon, you'll see yourself being followed by a bunch of trainees. 

Mood: philosophical

Training: Mile High, Mile Shy

Went running this morning during my trip to Denver...and I couldn't even make 5 miles. 
Then I realized that with every mile of elevation... subtract a mile from your regular distance.

I have now newfound respect for John Elway.  But still... he's no Montana.

Oh... and my knee hurts!! How about that...?

Mood: exhausted

Training: 7 mile-stone

"...and on the seventh day, he rested."

Training: The 7 mile limit

Woke up early today to try to break the7 mile limit.  Drove around a bit to find the entrance to Los Gatos Creek Trail. 

Wouldn't recommend the trail if it was getting dark or too early.  There are some homeless people that might be a little unstable.  Like that lady that kept yelling at me... "What are you staring at?!?"  And there's the stench of urine under some of the crossovers.

Took me roughly an hour and 10 minutes to finish what I THINK is 7 miles.  I went back to look at the map and I'm questioning my own memory of which street the park dead ends at. 

Mood: accomplished 

Training: Accelerate

Chatted with a buddy who finished the marathon last year.  His goal was to get to 9 miles by the week of the race and he'll be fine.  But he's in much better shape than I am. 

So tonight, I pushed for 9 laps!  Roughly 5.4 miles.  Not bad!  Though I'm still at a 9 minute mile. 

Wore my podometer tonight and each mile equates to about 550 steps.  Another nice number for metrics.

Really need to fix my Playlist.  I waste too much energy click "NEXT" all the time cuz the songs just aren't running songs, y'know?

Mood: exhausted

Training: Regime

Found an online training regime.  They suggest, for a 13 week training regime, start with 1 mile and add one mile every week.  That's 13 weeks or 3 months.  I have roughly 8 weeks.

They suggest to initially try runmomg non-stop for 30 minutes.  I can barely do 20 minutes right now!! How am I gonna catch up? Needa accelerate the training... push for 7 miles by the end of this week!

Mood: overwhelmed 

Training: New highs!

Woohoo!! Pushed 4 laps around the block today.  By the Google Map's guesstimation...each lap is around 0.6 miles.  So I'm around 2 miles at roughly 10 minutes per mile.  Time wise, it's a little embarrassing, but at least I'm building up on endurance and stamina.

Mood: encouraged

Training: Inertia

The worst part about training is the initial step.  Once you've stopped doing something for a while... it's the worst feeling to have to start over.  Cuz in your mind... you still recollect when you were able to run a 5 minute mile... or dunk... or type 70 WPM.

Started, or shall I say, restarted tonight by running 2 laps.  I vaguely remember that being around 1 mile.  I can barely run a mile... how am I gonna make 13.1?

Mood: disappointed

Training: San Jose Marathon

Ok...officially signed up for the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon.

$75 with a coupon!! GEEZ!!! Don't think I'm gonna be doing a lot of these runs at these prices.  No wonder so many ppl jumped the San Francisco Marathon.  Training begins!!

Mood: anticipation