So we went to pick Caden up from his friends house yesterday and as we pulled up we saw him riding a 2 wheel dirt bike without the training wheels on. Apparently he just jumped on and started riding, which is even more amazing to us since Casey just got his training wheels off this spring. We were afraid that when Caden notified his older brother of what he did that Casey would be disappointed that as usual Caden did something sooner than Casey did. But upon hearing the news Casey loudly proclaimed " THAT'S AWESOME CADEN! YOU ARE SUCH A BIG BOY!" Which I was grateful to hear, I feel bad for Casey sometimes because Caden seems to adapt to new things and challenges earlier and sometimes easier than Casey, which is typical of a younger brother. Casey gets frustrated with this at times which is understandable and I remember what that was like with my brother growing up so I can relate. I was really impressed with his excitement for his brothers accomplishment which is a great indicator of his growing maturity, which of course makes me a proud papa!
Until next time...
...do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
QC Marathon Race Report
You can view my official race results here.
Sunday was the QC Marathon, and let me tell you it didn't seem like it could come fast enough, all week I was anxious, nervous and suffering from taper madness but finally the day was here. I woke up early so I could eat breakfast a few hours before leaving for the race, last year I had a horrible experience the last 6 miles with cramping and getting tunnel vision from lack of nutrition before and during the race and this year I was not going to repeat my mistakes. I had a light breakfast of some of my favorite old reliables and load my pockets up with gels, I planned to take 2 right before the start and have 2 in reserve in case I ran into a spot I really needed one and couldn't wait till the next spot on the course that was handing them out. I had all the GU stations mapped out and I planned on taking 2 at each station even if I didn't need them right then and would hold on to them for later if need be.
After getting everyone loaded up (Deanna and the boys were doing the 5k walk with Dee's sister and our nieces) we headed down to the Mark (I refuse to call it by its new name since I work for a competing cellular company, LOL). Normally I like to warm up with a couple of miles before a race, but with a marathon the first few miles serve as my warm up. After hitting the porta-john one last time it was almost time for the gun.
The race started off slowly for me, took nearly 4 minutes to get to the starting line, which was perfectly fine by me. I got to start the race with my family and it forced me to go out much, much slower than my target pace. I have had a habit this year of starting races much to fast, which is not so bad in a 10k but over the course of 4 hours and 26.2 miles it could make for a very painful day. Once we made it over I74 bridge I was able to speed it up a bit and get into a nice groove. The first 4 or 5 miles went by pretty quickly and effortlessly, I love the first part of the course as it goes through my old neighborhood and where I grew up.
Sunday was the QC Marathon, and let me tell you it didn't seem like it could come fast enough, all week I was anxious, nervous and suffering from taper madness but finally the day was here. I woke up early so I could eat breakfast a few hours before leaving for the race, last year I had a horrible experience the last 6 miles with cramping and getting tunnel vision from lack of nutrition before and during the race and this year I was not going to repeat my mistakes. I had a light breakfast of some of my favorite old reliables and load my pockets up with gels, I planned to take 2 right before the start and have 2 in reserve in case I ran into a spot I really needed one and couldn't wait till the next spot on the course that was handing them out. I had all the GU stations mapped out and I planned on taking 2 at each station even if I didn't need them right then and would hold on to them for later if need be.
After getting everyone loaded up (Deanna and the boys were doing the 5k walk with Dee's sister and our nieces) we headed down to the Mark (I refuse to call it by its new name since I work for a competing cellular company, LOL). Normally I like to warm up with a couple of miles before a race, but with a marathon the first few miles serve as my warm up. After hitting the porta-john one last time it was almost time for the gun.
The race started off slowly for me, took nearly 4 minutes to get to the starting line, which was perfectly fine by me. I got to start the race with my family and it forced me to go out much, much slower than my target pace. I have had a habit this year of starting races much to fast, which is not so bad in a 10k but over the course of 4 hours and 26.2 miles it could make for a very painful day. Once we made it over I74 bridge I was able to speed it up a bit and get into a nice groove. The first 4 or 5 miles went by pretty quickly and effortlessly, I love the first part of the course as it goes through my old neighborhood and where I grew up.
By the time we made our way into Davenport I was doing pretty good and I had an eye on my desired pace group just off in the distances. My plan was to stay pretty close to the 4:10 group through the first half of the race conserve some energy and then try to gain and hopefully pass the 4:00 group on the second half. At the down and back section just past John O'Donnell I met up with a fellow LU member Aaron Maurer whom I had met the night before at the pasta dinner. We ran together for a good portion of the race, talking and getting to know each other, and it certainly helped pass the time, I was really thankful to have Aaron to run with for a portion of the race especially after we crossed Centennial Bridge. I wasn't hurting or getting tired (yet), but that point in the mileage it can really start to drag and having some one right next to you to carry a conversation with really makes a big impact, I'm sure I wouldn't have had the finish I was looking for with out it.
Once we made our way on to the Arsenal I started to get the sense I was going to lose Aaron soon, my left hamstring was starting to tighten up and even though our pace hadn't quickened any I was struggling to keep up with him. Finally at one water stop after he had pulled ahead of me a ways I decided to stop and stretch it out for a minute and I'm really glad I did. Immediately afterwards my hamstring felt great, no tightness and I was able to get right back into my groove and was even starting to get back under my target pace which was good I had some time to make up now. I could see Aaron off in the distance so I just tried to keep him in sight and reel him in over the next 10 miles or so. The rain started falling soon after my short break, which I wasn't to upset about, it felt good, and I am pretty used to running with soggy shoes so that didn't bother me to much. I had decided to wear a short sleeve compression shirt on underneath my shirt and I'm glad I did, I think it helped keep me warm with out making me hot.
I will say one of the most memorable parts of the race was running by the cemetery on the Arsenal, to look at those head stones and think that those men died to give us the freedom to go out do things like run a marathon in the rain gave me a whole new perspective at a time when I could have been struggling a lot more mentally.
Just before coming up to the bridge to exit the Arsenal, I passed my friend James who was doing the half and it looked like he was struggling bad, I learned latter that his knee was bothering him, I slapped him on the back as I went by and told him to "Just keep moving", which he did and finished his first half marathon. Apparently after finishing he immediately said he was giving up running, I later heard he was planning his next one. Ah Ha another one bitten by the bug!
By the time I made it off of the Arsenal I was starting to feel every step of the 20 miles I had already run, I was starting to hurt and I seriously contemplated making a right turn instead of the left and calling it a day. I was tired, sore and soaking wet but seeing as how I am a gluten for punishment, not to mention I was right on pace for 4 hrs I took the left turn and man was I glad I did. As soon as I came off the bridge I saw Deanna and the boys cheering me on, I wanted to stop and give them all a big hug but if I had I may never had started running again so I ran over and slapped them high 5's and kept on moving. That was just the shot of adrenaline and emotion I needed to get me motivated for the final 6 miles.
I've heard that in a marathon you run the first 20 miles with your legs and the final 6 with your heart (or head) and that is absolutely true. After 20 miles raw emotion can only carry you so far, adrenaline spikes last seconds, not minutes and how good you feel off an emotional high one moment is quickly replaced with a deep valley. That's why having support groups is so valuable, why volunteers are the most amazing people and having someone cheering you on can mean the difference between just missing your goal and beating your expectations. I was lucky enough to have Jeff Paul a local professional triathlete and fellow LU member cheering me and others on at the end. He was riding his bike back and forth on the bike path along River Drive shouting out encouragement, giving me split times to the 4 hour pace group as well as to Aaron who was just ahead of me at this point. I was truly amazed at his enthusiasm and his spirit as he worked his way along the course cheering on dozens of people, not to mention it was a pretty wet, miserable cold day out. I ran my final 10k nearly 3 minutes faster than my first, which in my mind is pretty amazing especially since it felt like somewhere around mile 20 I apparently, unbeknown to me, had done a couple sets of heavy squats or at least that's how my quads felt at the time. Having Jeff shouting out encouragement helped me to keep pushing through the pain, pass the 4 hour pace group and eventually catch up to Aaron. The final icing on the cake was surprisingly seeing my wife and kids again about a half mile before the finish line, that was all I needed at the point. I don't think I even ran the last half mile, more like floated, or at least that's how it felt in my mind, I was riding an emotional high that carried me all the way to finish line...in 3:54:15 I took 30+ minutes off my time from last year and finished well under my goal.
All in all it was a great race, even if the weather wasn't perfect it was a perfect day. I'm truly blessed to be where I am at in my life and getting to run a marathon in the rain is just one of the many blessings I have.
Until next time...
...do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Taper Madness
Yes its that time of the year again, no not football season (although I am happy its finally here again), Marathon Taper Madness!!! For those of you who have never experienced the joys of running and thus the agony of tapering for a big race let me explain... A typical marathon training schedule is roughly 18 weeks, in which you continuously build your mileage and number of days running per week. If your like me you also added cycling this summer for cross training to reduce the wear and tear that running can cause, and now its the week before the QC Marathon and its time to ease it back to save my legs, conserve energy and maintain optimal hydration levels. All this is well and good for Sunday but for Monday - Saturday a person who is accustomed to exercising 1-2 hours a day 6 days a week dropping down to 2-3 workouts for 30-45 mins has a lot of unspent energy that in my case comes out as anxiety, edginess, and general grumpy behavior. My last hard work out was yesterday, a 40 mile bike ride, which left we pretty tired and sore this morning, so I ditched my workout this morning and slept in which in the long run is probably the best thing I could have done.
The worst part of tapering is not the increased anxiety from lack of exercise, or the sudden (and necessary) weight gain, but the way I suddenly feel sick, sore and tired all in a matter of a few days. This happened to me last year the week before my marathon, and it also happened the week before my MMA fight the year before last. The weeks and months of endless training, finally catch up to you at the first hint of a slow down, like being sick was just sitting back waiting for its moment when you were most vulnerable and than decided to attack. I suppose it is probably a good thing to feel a little bit under the weather while tapering, it forces you to sleep a little more, eat a little healthier, cut back on training, nothing I do training wise this week is going to aid my performance, but it certainly could hinder if I went to hard or did too much.
So for now, cutting back on training, sleeping a little more, and hopefully relaxing a little bit is what the training schedule calls for this week, hopefully it pays off on Sunday, I'm hoping to go under 4 hours this year, but I'd be happy at 4:05 as well. Last year I set 3 goals for the marathon this year I'll do the same.
1. Finish under 4 hrs.
2. Run the entire race (last year I ran everything except the water stations where I walked 30-45 secs)
3. Have as much fun as last year
Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
The worst part of tapering is not the increased anxiety from lack of exercise, or the sudden (and necessary) weight gain, but the way I suddenly feel sick, sore and tired all in a matter of a few days. This happened to me last year the week before my marathon, and it also happened the week before my MMA fight the year before last. The weeks and months of endless training, finally catch up to you at the first hint of a slow down, like being sick was just sitting back waiting for its moment when you were most vulnerable and than decided to attack. I suppose it is probably a good thing to feel a little bit under the weather while tapering, it forces you to sleep a little more, eat a little healthier, cut back on training, nothing I do training wise this week is going to aid my performance, but it certainly could hinder if I went to hard or did too much.
So for now, cutting back on training, sleeping a little more, and hopefully relaxing a little bit is what the training schedule calls for this week, hopefully it pays off on Sunday, I'm hoping to go under 4 hours this year, but I'd be happy at 4:05 as well. Last year I set 3 goals for the marathon this year I'll do the same.
1. Finish under 4 hrs.
2. Run the entire race (last year I ran everything except the water stations where I walked 30-45 secs)
3. Have as much fun as last year
Do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
Silvis Family Run 10k and Run with Carl race reports
So I never got around to doing a race report for the Silvis Family Run last week since I was in Tulsa all week for work, so I'll just combine the 2.
Silvis Family Run 10k
The is by far one of my favorite races for a couple of reasons, first and foremost the starting line is less than a mile from my house which is perfect I can get my warm up in while I travel to the race. I really dislike having to drive anywhere to run or bike, one of the main reasons I like running and cycling is the concept of traveling under my own power, but sometimes it can't be avoided, oh well. Another reason this is a favorite race is I run this course every week, and I know it better than any other race, I have "practiced" this race so often that when it comes time to run its almost like I'm on auto pilot and I just let muscle memory take over. Also this is a smaller race, less congestion and its a pretty good post race spread afterwards.
I went in to this race with one goal in mind, to push my self harder than I have ever pushed my self previously. I really wanted to test my limits and see if I could find that breaking point, or what I have referred to as "Blowing Up". I actually went into the race with an expectation that I would possibly fail to finish, and I was honestly ok with that mindset.
Well I did a pretty good job of that right off the start, I made the mistake of lining up behind a friend of Deanna's family Josh Sherrod (overall winner) and for a brief moment I thought I would try to run with him off the gun. HA!!! That lasted for all of 2 seconds until I couldn't see him any longer, so I settled into what I thought was comfortable pace, but was way faster than I should have been going, I was close to 6 min miles. I wasn't going to be able to sustain that pace for 2 miles let alone 6.2 and even though I wanted to push myself to my limits I didn't want to necessarily do it in the first mile.
So after backing off a bit and turning to climb the only hill, I started getting into a comfortable rhythm, I love running up hill for some reason, I am always able to pass people, even if they pass me again once it levels off, its like going up hill equalizes my size and speed disadvantage. I don't slow down as much going up hill as others do and that of course just fuels my competitive drive to pass people.
After reaching the top of the hill the course pretty much levels off and winds its way through my neighborhood, which is the best part, Deanna and the boys came out to see me run and made sure to run by and slap high fives to both boys. They get so excited watching daddy run, and it always gives me a burst of energy to see them cheering me on, I wish I could strategically place them throughout every race, so whenever I needed a pick me up they would be right there.
Nothing spectacular happened for the remainder of the race I passed some more people, ran mostly alone until the course doubles back and reconnects with the 5k run/walkers, which is right before the 5 mile mark. With a mile remaining I turned it up a bit, the other great thing about this race is that it finishes with a nice down hill then a short flat stretch and another short down hill to the finish line which I crossed at 46:06 which is another PR for me at the 10k distance, which is quickly becoming my favorite distance.
Deanna and the boys were waiting for me at the finish line which was awesome, we hung around for a bit at the post race but took off before the awards ceremony, I was pretty sure I didn't place...that was until later that week I received an email notifying me that I had placed high enough in my age division for a trophy. I figured I had snuck into 3rd place, its not a big race, but I'm not that fast either, well I went to pick up my trophy today and to my surprise I placed first in my age division 30-34. SWEET!!! This is the first time I've placed let alone won my age division, I'm pretty excited.
Run with Carl
Silvis Family Run 10k
The is by far one of my favorite races for a couple of reasons, first and foremost the starting line is less than a mile from my house which is perfect I can get my warm up in while I travel to the race. I really dislike having to drive anywhere to run or bike, one of the main reasons I like running and cycling is the concept of traveling under my own power, but sometimes it can't be avoided, oh well. Another reason this is a favorite race is I run this course every week, and I know it better than any other race, I have "practiced" this race so often that when it comes time to run its almost like I'm on auto pilot and I just let muscle memory take over. Also this is a smaller race, less congestion and its a pretty good post race spread afterwards.
I went in to this race with one goal in mind, to push my self harder than I have ever pushed my self previously. I really wanted to test my limits and see if I could find that breaking point, or what I have referred to as "Blowing Up". I actually went into the race with an expectation that I would possibly fail to finish, and I was honestly ok with that mindset.
Well I did a pretty good job of that right off the start, I made the mistake of lining up behind a friend of Deanna's family Josh Sherrod (overall winner) and for a brief moment I thought I would try to run with him off the gun. HA!!! That lasted for all of 2 seconds until I couldn't see him any longer, so I settled into what I thought was comfortable pace, but was way faster than I should have been going, I was close to 6 min miles. I wasn't going to be able to sustain that pace for 2 miles let alone 6.2 and even though I wanted to push myself to my limits I didn't want to necessarily do it in the first mile.
So after backing off a bit and turning to climb the only hill, I started getting into a comfortable rhythm, I love running up hill for some reason, I am always able to pass people, even if they pass me again once it levels off, its like going up hill equalizes my size and speed disadvantage. I don't slow down as much going up hill as others do and that of course just fuels my competitive drive to pass people.
After reaching the top of the hill the course pretty much levels off and winds its way through my neighborhood, which is the best part, Deanna and the boys came out to see me run and made sure to run by and slap high fives to both boys. They get so excited watching daddy run, and it always gives me a burst of energy to see them cheering me on, I wish I could strategically place them throughout every race, so whenever I needed a pick me up they would be right there.
Nothing spectacular happened for the remainder of the race I passed some more people, ran mostly alone until the course doubles back and reconnects with the 5k run/walkers, which is right before the 5 mile mark. With a mile remaining I turned it up a bit, the other great thing about this race is that it finishes with a nice down hill then a short flat stretch and another short down hill to the finish line which I crossed at 46:06 which is another PR for me at the 10k distance, which is quickly becoming my favorite distance.
Deanna and the boys were waiting for me at the finish line which was awesome, we hung around for a bit at the post race but took off before the awards ceremony, I was pretty sure I didn't place...that was until later that week I received an email notifying me that I had placed high enough in my age division for a trophy. I figured I had snuck into 3rd place, its not a big race, but I'm not that fast either, well I went to pick up my trophy today and to my surprise I placed first in my age division 30-34. SWEET!!! This is the first time I've placed let alone won my age division, I'm pretty excited.
Run with Carl
Official race results can be found here.
This was the first time I've run this race, and I was pretty excited to do so, it is a race run in my hometown of Bettendorf and is a memorial run for Carl Schillig who was a local athlete from Pleasant Valley High School. In addition it also funds a 4 year grant for a local student from the Bettendorf/Pleasant Valley school who exemplifies Carl’s spirit through participation in school, sports and community and church activities the link to the website can be found here.
I really meant to just run this race as my weekly speed work and not race hard, especially after running so hard at the Silvis Family Run and just 1 day removed from my last long run of 19 miles on Saturday. But of course my competitive nature took over and I couldn't help myself, I didn't go for broke like Silvis but I did run hard finishing in 37:41 which was good enough for 17th in my age division.
This was a really nice race, that winds it way through Bettendorf along the bike path and behind Palmer hills golf course. Lots of spectators out in the residential areas cheering us on, which is always a plus.
Right after the 4 mile mark and going up the last hill a came up on a kid who couldn't be much older than 12 who was chugging right along, I had the hardest time catching up to him and when I did I noticed his bib # was 1045 which I immediately thought "This kid is probably 10 and he is making me feel like I'm 45 trying to catch him". I was able to finally pass him, hey I'm not exactly proud about it but he was like 20 years younger than me and probably 100 lbs lighter, I'll take my victories where ever I can. The end of the race is on a nice down hill that finishes up in the Bettendorf Life Fitness Center's parking lot. Deanna and the boys were once again at the finish line cheering me on, which put a huge smile on my face.
I ran into a couple of old friends that ran the race, as I waited for some other friends that were running together to finish. Didn't stick around for the post race awards this time, I already knew my placing thanks to Accu-Split and it was cold with the wind blowing.
All in all this was a great race and I will definitely be adding it to my yearly race schedule, maybe next year I can compete for a top placing in the 35-39 age division, my time this year would have been good enough for 4th or 5th so I think its very doable, good goal to shoot for until then...
...do today what others won't, so tomorrow you can do what others can't.
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