Farewell To Blogging...

I recently have not had much time to devote to blogging. My updates have gone from one post each day or two to one post every week or two...not enough to really keep things going from a blog perspective.

When I first started the blog in late December 2007, I wasn't sure whether I would be able to keep it going. I had started training for my first marathon and I used the blog to document my progress and to keep me honest (if others were watching/reading, I knew I couldn't skip the workouts).

However the blog became something more than just a means for documenting my training. Through the blog I have made many new friends in the running community and also re-connected with old friends that have found my blog through Google or Facebook. For people that I see on a regular basis, the blog has become a conversation starter - and many times they already know what is happening in my life based on what they have read in the blog.

Coincidentally, I have been blogging for a little bit more than 26 months and 2 weeks (26.2???). It's a rather appropriate place to end a blog named "Mike Fox's Marathon Blog".

Will I be back? Most likely I will. When work calms down a bit and/or when I train for another marathon. I may also post race reports on the blog (and cross post them in FB and RunningAhead).

However, by "shutting down" the blog I will no longer have the stress of "I haven't blogged in over a week..." hanging over me.

Thanks everyone for reading the blog and supporting me over the past 2+ years!!!

Running, Push Ups, Working A LOT, and NOT Blogging

So...once again more than a full week without a blog post. I'm considering retiring the blog, but I kinda feel (or at least hope) that work will let up soon and I'll be able to get back into a nice rhythm again.

Although I haven't been blogging, I have been running. I managed to run four times this week - a Monday morning easy run outside before the sunrise, a Thursday morning tempo run also outside, a Friday morning treadmill run at the gym and then again this morning a 6.2 mile "long" run outside. The temperatures are getting warmer and the snow is finally starting to melt here. Finally.

Overall I ran 18 miles this week. This was pretty normal for me in a not-training-for-anything type of week. However, I have the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in 5 weeks. Time to ramp up!

I still am feeling a bit nasally. I think I'm getting a bit of a relapse since my 4-year old has been sneezing and coughing for the past few days. I need to hit the sack early tonight to fight this off.

I also have been doing my pushups! I completed Week 4 of the Hundred Push Up Challenge. Day 3 of Week 4 I completed 150 pushups over 5 sets. That's an average of 30 pushups each - two weeks ago I managed 31 push ups in my exhaustion test and I thought I was a rock star then! I will be doing another exhaustion test either today or tomorrow. I'm psyched to see how many I can do now.

One other thing - I just got a new cell phone which tend to be a bit more internet/data focused. I may try to blog from the phone - which will hopefully mean more frequent posts, but definitely shorter posts. We'll see how it works out.

Google Search Oddities

One of the running blogs that I read occasionally puts in a "Google Search Oddities" post every so often.

I use SiteMeter to check some stats for my blog (would I still blog if nobody at all read the thing?? I'm not sure...) and it's interesting to see how my blog is reached.

One of the oddest recurring searches is "running with ear pain". This actually brings up a post I wrote in my blog over two years ago - but I guess there are not too many people who write on this subject, so my blog jumps up in the searches.

This week's Google Search Oddity for my blog:

"treadmill 60 minute limit" and "how to go longer than 60 minutes on treadmill"

Snow, Snow - Go Away!

It's been another 10 days since I have blogged. As I remarked during my last post, the busy-ness was not going to let up any time soon. Add about 50" of snow on top of that - and feeling icky on top of all that - there has been very little running and no blogging.

I managed to squeeze in a run on Friday morning. I went to the gym in anticipation of doing a treadmill interval run. I set the treadmill to a jog speed of 5.5 mph and a run speed of 7.5, but when I started that first quarter mile interval I just didn't have it. I felt weak. At first I thought that I was tired since it was early in the morning. However, when interval two - bumped down to 7.2 mph - also felt too much I knew two things - 1) there was no way I could continue this as speedwork...back to an easy run for me, and 2) I was likely coming down with a cold.

By the next morning, I was starting to sniffle and cough a bit. Definitely not a good time for this - as 30 inches of snow fell on my town between Friday night and Saturday night.

So, my exercise (not of choice, but of necessity) over the weekend was shoveling snow.

And - when I finally got everything shoveled out, we're getting an additional 20 inches of snow from last night through tonight. I woke up this morning and shoveled the back of my house - to my home office and also the driveway. About an hour later you wouldn't even know I shoveled.

All of this, and my head feels heavy and congested. Ick.

The good news - I'm heading to Southern California for work again next week. I'm hoping the weather improves there as it has been raining a bunch this week over there. But I'll definitely take rain over snow right now...

Yes...I'm Still Here!

It has been 10 days since my last blog post. Wow! I don't think I have gone that long without posting to the blog since I started at the end of December 2007.

Things have just been really busy - my current project is based in SoCal so I feel like I'm working both in the Eastern and Pacific time zones, and I'm trying to balance this along with family time, Israeli Dance commitments and prepping our taxes.

I haven't been running as much - this can be attributed as much to the weather as it can to being busy. Since I came back from SoCal last Thursday night, I have run 5 times - 4 of them on the treadmill. And each of those runs have been "squeezed" in.

For example - this morning my younger son woke up at 3:45am (and woke us up too). He fell back asleep shortly afterwards, but I was still tossing and turning. By 5am I still wasn't asleep, so I decided to head to the gym (it was 10 degrees outside with many parts of the sidewalks not shoveled from Saturday's snow...). I'm glad I got a run in at that time as I don't see any other spot in my schedule today where I could run.

But at least I'm running a little. Which is more than I can say about blogging! No posts for 10 days? What gives? Additionally, I just checked my Google Reader of the blogs that I follow - I have 134 unread posts - YIKES! How will I ever catch up???

The worst part (or best part - depending on how you look at it)...I don't see it letting up anytime soon. This project will keep me busy through April at least, and my customer is discussing adding a Phase 2 that will go through July or August. I can't really complain about that - I like my job and it's great to have work - but it's also nice to run, keep this blog updated and read other blogs (and it will return in that order, of course!)

Miscellaneous Musings From A Road Warrior...

It looks like my current project will have me on the road - traveling to Southern California - once a month for the next few months. I have never traveled this often in the 16+ years that I have been working....

When I was in my late 20s, my job at the time had me traveling once every 6-8 weeks or so for 2-3 nights at a time. I was living in Dallas and I had the opportunity to travel to New Jersey a lot for a project with AT&T. I would burn the midnight oil by driving into New York City and hang out with my sister or go Israeli Dancing, staying out until well past midnight, going to work the next day and crashing when I got back home to Dallas. For some reason, I'm following a similar pattern even now. I was in Irvine for four nights - two of those nights I drove up to Los Angeles (about an hour each way) to go Israeli dancing. On Monday night I left LA at 11pm and got to the hotel a little after midnight. Last night I stayed in LA until midnight and arrived at my hotel at about 1:15am. I was still in the office by 8am the next morning. The problem in all of this...my kids are early birds so I will not get to crash and catch up on the sleep that I didn't get this week....

Talking about going back to being in my 20s, one of the nice folks I met at Israeli Dancing last night asked me how long I have been dancing. I stopped to think about this for a few seconds and then said that I guess I have been dancing for close to 20 years. She shook her head in disbelief - she said that I looked way to young...she thought I was in my 20s! Later in our conversation I told her that I don't know too many of the recent dances since I haven't been dancing as much since I had kids. Again a surprised look from her - you're too young to have kids!!! Maybe acting like a 20-something this past week made me look a little younger....

For those of you who don't believe in the power of Social Networking and the internet, this one is for you. My blog is fed over to my Facebook profile, and after I posted about my soaked run on Monday morning a high-school friend of mine wrote me a note that he was also in Irvine, CA for business this week. Whoa! We haven't seen each other in 18 or 19 years. We met for dinner on Tuesday night and it was great to reconnect with him. This reunion never would have happened without social networking apps....

Oh, yeah. This is my running blog. Right. While in rain-soaked Southern California this week I got two runs in. One on Monday morning in the dark and in the rain, and one on Tuesday afternoon. After the rain stopped - and tornado warnings lifted - the sun came out. My project schedule for that night's activities had been sent out already, so I slipped out of the office and went for a run on the Mountains to Sea trail - running towards the ocean. This trail is built on the creek bed that is used as a drainage system. Last month when I ran on this path it was totall dry. On Tuesday afternoon it looked like I was running on the bank of the Potomac River near Great Falls! The trail has underpasses under the roads so runners and cyclists don't have to dodge traffic. However, on Tuesday many of these underpasses were flooded so I had to cross the streets. Except for one which I could not cross - Interstate 405. I ended up having to trudge through a wet mud/sand mixture under the I-405 underpass. It wasn't all that bad, though - there was a Great Blue Heron perched on the bank by the underpass and I ran right near him. What an amazing creature....

Before I was a runner, I don't think I ever saw a Great Blue Heron. I now have seen them on many runs - on my community's lake, running along the C&O canal, while I was running in Boynton Beach, FL and now while running in Irvine, CA. I didn't know what I was missing before I started running....

Reflecting On 2009

Most of the blogs I read have already done a "reflecting on the past year" post... 'Tis the season, right?

I took a look back at last year's entry on Dec 31. I had just finished quite an amazing year with many feats in running - both in conquering the marathon distance for the first time along with setting some new PRs. But as amazing as 2008 was, 2009 really blew it out of the water:

• I finally surpassed the 1,000 mile marker for the year. Last year I fell 30 miles short and couldn't make it up during December due to falling ill with bronchitis during the last two weeks.
• Actually, 2009 was quite a healthy year for me. No real injuries (some hamstring pain after the NY Marathon, but I dealt with that much better this year). I had a few colds, but nothing longer than a week.
• I ran my second marathon - the NY Marathon on November 1. I ran this as part of Team Run To Remember, in memory of my Nana. I raised close to $6,000 (there's still time to donate here so you can rack up those charitable donations and reduce your tax burden!!!) and met some really great people in the process.
• For the first time, I started running with other people on a more regular basis. I started by going up to New York for a few of the team runs and then found a few running friends in the area to do some long runs with. Although 80-90% of my runs are still solo, I do enjoy running with others when we can schedule it.
• I ran my first race with my wife Sherry - the Rockville Twilight 8K. Again, going with the running with other people theme, I hope to continue to run a few races with Sherry!
• I set new PRs in the marathon, half marathon and 10K (alright...maybe 6 miles), and during the 10K I also ran a faster 5K and mile splits than my previous PRs in those distances.
• In blogging, I have expanded my audience by linking my blog feed and my RunningAhead log to Facebook. I love having more people reading the blog and following my progress, however, sometimes it's a bit cumbersome to read comments in two places.
• At work, I launched my largest project to date and started another project that will last at least 4 to 5 months. Oh...my company filed for bankruptcy in January, my division was bought out in August and I am now working for a new company.

There may be other accomplishments in 2009 that I may not have mentioned...I guess I have a few more days to remember them and throw them in the blog :-)

I also need to start thinking about goals for 2010. There are two things that I'm pretty sure about: a) NO FULL MARATHON in 2010 and b) I will be running the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler as I received a spot in their lottery.

Birthday Post, Part 2 - And Post #500!!!

First, a blogging note. This is post number 500 for me on this blog. Whoa! I originally started the blog to chronicle events leading up to my first marathon, but I guess blogging became a habit which was hard to shake :-)

I did end up getting my run in during an early lunch break. I did the same 6 mile Yasso 800 interval workout as last week. The one difference is that today I ran it without my heart rate monitor.

You see, I own two heart rate monitors - my old Polar (the watch went kaput last year, but the strap still works - and the treadmills at the gym read the signal from that strap), and the Garmin which I use when I run outside. When I packed my gym bag this morning, I made sure to put my heart rate monitor strap in the bag. However, when I went to put it on at the gym, I found that I packed the fabric connector strap of the Garmin, with the electrodes plastic strap of the Polar. And of course these two are not compatible. So no HRM for me on today's run.

After the run, I went to California Tortilla for my free birthday burrito! Then back to work...

Tonight was my fundraiser at The Star Diner. It was hugely successful - I had over 100 people there, and at one point there was over a 30 minute wait for a table (so much for Wednesday nights being slow!) I'll find out tomorrow how much money I made. I should have a few pictures to post as well.

Facebook and Bloggers?

I've been on Facebook for over two years.  I love it!  I have reconnected with lots of old friends and colleagues - some of whom I had lost touch with for over 20 years - and I have learned a lot about many of my friends (i.e. how much time they have on their hands???)

Anyhow, almost all of my "Facebook friends" are people that I personally know (i.e. I have met them in person).  All of that changed about a week ago - one of my "blogging friends" retired her blog and since I'm so swamped, I wasn't able to read the last few posts before she pulled the blog.  I couldn't email her - the only way I had contacted her before was via her blog and that was now gone...but, she's on Facebook.  So I found her and sent her a message to see if she could re-post the blog for another day or so.

Then after one or two messages back-and-forth, I friended her.

The thing is, I'm still not sure if that was a good decision.  On one hand, we both know a lot about each other from our blogs, we have corresponded through the blog-o-sphere and there are a bunch of other running bloggers who I have ended up meeting in person and become friends with (and yes, I have started to friend those folks as well).

On the other hand, can I really call this person a friend?  Do I call this person a "Facebook friend"?  Or is this just part of social networking - and I'm now starting to build a network of running bloggers - or runners (or non-runners) who read my blog?

I guess if it is the last item, then I'll formally invite my readers to come and join my network of blog readers / running bloggers by visiting me on Facebook!

Somethings Gotta Give

I'm about as busy as can be right now at work - not to mention other commitments (kids, Israeli Dancing, running, etc.) - I barely have time to do much else. (as I write this, I have 3 active (work-related) IM windows up and listening in on a conference bridge - and this is some of my "less busy" times where I can throw up a blog post - YIKES!)

As I was discussing all of this with Sherry the other night, she was pretty amazed that I'm able to keep everything going. Her words were "Something's gotta give" - you can't be continuing to do everything.

Yesterday, I got the hard dose of reality what had gone by the wayside. Blogging. Both reading and writing blogs.

I logged into my Google Reader last night and had over 120 unread posts. YIKES!!!

Also, my last post to this blog was on Sunday. And this blog post is not much more than a rant of how busy I am (sorry to my readers...I'll try to get back to more running related posts).

On the running side - I have 10 miles logged this week. Tuesday morning I brought my car to the shop early and ran back home (6.5 miles...my wife thought I was nuts!). Thursday morning I also got out for a 3 miler around the lakes.

I also ran twice with my son - about 2 miles each run. I'm not sure if I should count this in my weekly mileage, as these runs are still run 2 minutes / walk 1 minute - there's something about doing a run/walk at such a pedestrian pace that makes me feel it's not "legit" enough for the running log. I'm going to try to push him up to 3 minutes of running soon. - we'll see how that goes as he's currently starting to whine during his 2 minute runs...but he finishes them all. Either way, it's great exercise for him, it's special one-on-one time for the two of us and he loves it!

Another Busy Week

It's been another busy week at work, along with everything else outside of work, so blogging - and reading blogs - got put aside again.

I looked in my Google Reader subscriptions, and I have over 60 blog posts to read. And it's not like I follow 200+ blogs like Marcy does...

Fortunately, running did not get put aside! I have 12 miles in this week (6 on Monday, 3 on Tuesday and a sneaky 3 lunch-time run yesterday). I'm planning on a 12 mile long run tomorrow, which should give me 24 miles for the week. That's the most I've done so far this year. Yes, I need to ramp up the mileage in the next few weeks as I prepare for the half marathon on April 19.

The other thing I need to prepare for - my yearly check up at the doctor. I've set it on the calendar - March 26 - so I have two weeks to shed a few pounds and eat less fatty foods so my cholesterol readings don't shoot through the roof. Am I the only one who crams for their cholesterol test???

Week 5 Push Ups Completion and Lunchtime 6 Mile Run

Yesterday evening I did my last day of Week 5 push ups. In the middle of my fourth set, my younger son came into my room to find me doing push ups - and figured I was there to give him a horsey ride. I was not able to finish up that set of 24 push ups with the extra 30 pounds on my back - and I believe the rest of the sets were impacted as well (OK...that's my excuse for losing steam on the last set). All in all it was 163 push ups over 8 sets - not bad, but not as good as a few days ago when I did 175. Here's the stats: 20, 20, 24, 18 (horsey ride), 20, 17, 22, 22.

This morning I was up at 5:25am - not to go out and run (bummer...) but to drive my brother-in-law to the airport. Since there was no morning run - and I was working near BWI Airport anyway, I planned for the best and threw my gym bag in the car. I was starting to work a good hour earlier than normal due to the airport run, so as long as I had some open time in my schedule around lunchtime, I was going to try to take the extra hour there to run.

It ends up that the stars aligned and I got to the gym! (on my way back from Columbia, MD I went to the Fitness First in Olney). They do not have the cool TechnoGym treadmills (BTW...Fitness First North Potomac is featuring my blog on their homepage right now with my review of these new treadmills), however, they do have the LifeFitness 95T treadmills which are pretty cool.

Unfortunately, the heart rate monitor on the treadmill I chose to run on was not working. So, I had to continue to look at my watch during the run instead of at the screen. Also, my iPod didn't work with the iPod connector on this treadmill either - likely due to the iPod being on the older side (I'm still using a black and white screen that doesn't even show album art...I may as well be using a cassette tape player!).

My first minute on this treadmill was quite comical: I had bought a bottle of Gatorade since I did not bring a water bottle with me. I started the treadmill up and was jogging along, and noticed that the Gatorade was filled to the top. "I better take a sip or two now before I start running too fast..." I said to myself. Well, I must had breathed a bit while drinking the first sip because as soon as the Gatorade was in my mouth I started to have the coughing/choking reflex.   I tried to swallow what I had in my mouth before coughing, but couldn't do it. I think you all know what happens next... Luckily (or not?) the treadmills are the first pieces of equipment in front of the mirrors, so I ended up spraying the mirror in front of me instead of some poor soul trying to get their lunchtime workout in. I promptly stopped the treadmill and cleaned up the mirror, and then started over again (I had only run about 1/8 of a mile at that point.

I finally settled in on running - I wanted to do a pace run and since my goal right now is a 2:10 half marathon, that means a slightly faster than 10 minute mile. I started with an 11:00 mile warm up for 1 mile and then 5 miles at 6.1 mph (9:50/mile). My heart rate climbed up to the high 150s / low 160s about 3 miles into the workout, but did not go much higher. Final stats were: 5.97 miles (treadmill cut me off at 60 minutes exactly), 60 minutes, 155 average HR.

Saturday Long Run and Running Solo

Oh it is so nice to be healthy and back on schedule!  For most of 2008, Saturday mornings meant it was time to go on my long run - and this morning was no exception.

The Higdon Marathon Novice 2 plan which I'm kinda following right now calls for an 8 mile run.  I checked my running log to see what 8 mile routes I had...and there were none.  Huh?  I made it through 18 weeks of marathon training without having an 8 mile run (I guess some of them may have been on the track as speedwork or something...).  I had a few in the 7 mile range and a 9 miler - but no 8's.

I looked at the Fallgrove "figure 8" route that I ran about a month ago.  It's 10.5 miles long, but takes a roundabout way to get back into the neighborhood.  I re-did the route taking the shortest path home and it ended up being 8.8 miles.  It's almost a 9 miler, but I decided to go with it for this morning.

It was a nice run - but uneventful.  My HR was a bit elevated - most likely due to the cold temps and me pushing a bit harder at the beginning to warm up.  I ended up at an 11:03/mile pace with an average HR of 158.  1:37:06 of morning bliss!

One thing that I was contemplating on my run was a question from Marcy's Blog - "What 3 bloggers would you most like to run with?".  It's not a very intriguing question, right?  However, it did get me thinking.  You see, I mainly run alone.  In 2008, I was able to think of only three people who I ran with - and each time it was once:  my wife, my sister and my 6 year old son.  I guess there were times during the Frederick Marathon where I talked with other runners for a mile here or half a mile there, but I didn't run the race with anyone in particular.  Out of the 970 miles that I ran in 2008 - around 965 of them were solo.

So of course I was wondering if I should try and run with someone else one of these days - either every once in a while or on a regular basis.  There are a few problems - first of all, I'm a slow runner.  I'd likely have to match up when I'm doing a tempo run when my running partner is doing a long slow run.  Secondly is scheduling - I normally leave about enough time to slip out of the house and go for my run, not scheduling in time to meet up with someone and wait, go for coffee or gatorade afterwards, etc.  Lastly is that I actually like the solitude.  With life being so noisy and hectic - work, two boys under the age of 7, etc. - I love the break and to be able to listen to some tunes without someone interrupting me every two minutes.

However, 965 out of 970 miles alone in 2008 seemed a bit too anti-social.  So, I'll definitely try to work in some "social runs" in 2009.

Push Up Update and Blog "Following"

I did my push up "exhaustion test" on Sunday evening. I did 28 in a row. Not bad, but it puts me back at the Week 3 plan again - this time on column 3. So by the time I'm done with this thing, I'll have done all three columns on Weeks 3 and 4.

Today's sets were 14, 18, 14, 14 and 20. 80 in all. It gets harder pretty quickly, so I hope I can stay with the program!

Also, in an earlier post I mentioned that I added a "Following" gadget to my blog. I started looking into this and found that when you choose to follow a blog, it adds it to a Blogger Dashboard section. I've been using Google Reader to "follow" other's blogs, but I'm not sure what other folks out there are using. I'll keep it up for a week or so and if it looks like people are using the Blogger "follow" function, I'll keep it. Otherwise I'll take it down.

Geez, It's Cold Outside!

Total Calorie Intake: 2,143
(Exercise Calories: 522)
Total Net Calories: 1,621

After yesterday's boring run on the treadmill, I was excited to get outside again! I planned to help my wife out with the kids a bit in the morning and then get out for my run at 7am - when the sun was starting to rise.

I got bundled up in my running tights, long sleeve tech shirt, running jacket, gloves and beanie and out into the cold morning. The NOAA weather site showed it was 30 degrees when I left the house a little before 7am. Surprisingly, it then showed that it was 28 degrees around 8am when I returned. Aren't the temperatures supposed to rise in the morning as the sun comes up????

I put some Gloria Estefan on my iPod this morning. I was thinking that perhaps the Latin rhythms would remind me of being somewhere tropical and I would feel warmer. It worked for about 3 minutes - then my fingers and toes started to freeze up a bit and the warm, tropical feeling was gone.

I always see a few runners when I'm going on my weekday runs in the 6am to 7am timeframe. However, I was surprised to see about twice the number of runners out this morning. To me, running from 7am to 8am is late (I normally like to be at my desk and working by 8:15am or 8:30am) - but I guess it is the normal morning peak running time around here.

I got back inside the house a little after 8am - 5.5 miles in 58:08 (10:34/mile pace). A quick shower, bowl of cereal and cuppa joe and I was at my desk in time for a 9am conference call!
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I've added a new "gadget" on the right column of my Blog - a "Followers" section. I don't think you'll be able to see it from Google reader or an RSS feed, so come on over the the blog page and sign up as a follower to my blog!

Back To Blogging!!!

I'm baaaack!

It's been a crazy few days - starting with having family in town for my little guy's 3rd birthday and then continuing to some very busy days at work and in the evenings after work.  It's given me very little time to blog.

However, I HAVE put aside the time to RUN!  Once again, I must say - I'm baaaack!

On Saturday morning, I got a 9 miler in before making it to synagogue.  On Monday morning I got an easy 3 miler, on Wednesday morning a 5 mile tempo run and then this morning another 3 miles.  I'm back to my 20 miles a week schedule - and that will increase to about 25 miles a week just before Thanksgiving.  Just in time for the Turkey Chase 10K (and more eating...)

Oh...I did mention eating.  Through all the festivities - starting with my Birthday in early August, Anniversary two weeks later, all of the Jewish Holidays in September and October and finally with my son's birthday and Halloween - I have put on some pounds.  And there is still tons of candy in my house.  It's ironic - the kids had pretty much forgotten about the candy, yet I was still reaching for it throughout the day.  Tuesday night - while watching election coverage - I declared that I had eaten my last piece of Halloween candy.  So far, so good (OK, I've lasted a full day and a half!).  I hope that this - and getting back to running - will help me melt those pounds off without having to go back to counting calories.

I have also kept to the Push Ups.  I'm in Week 3 now, however, my exhaustion test after Week 2 did not go so well - I was only able to do 16 consecutive push ups.  So I'm doing column 1 for Weeks 3 and 4.  Today I did set #2 - 10, 12, 8, 8 and 14 push ups.  52 push ups all together.

So you see, although I had not been blogging, I still have been running and doing my push ups.

Long Run On A Crisp October Morning

I swear - I thought it was early October this morning.  Or that perhaps I was back in Ann Arbor for the summer.

I stepped out of the door at 7am this morning (yes...later than I wanted to start my run, but I got to bed later than planned due to watching the Olympics Opening Ceremonies), and the air was crisp with very little humidity.  Later on I looked on line to see that the temperature was in the low 60s.  The sun was shining.  There was a slight breeze.  It was a delicious morning.

Is it really still August in the Washington, DC suburbs?

I went out for the same 9 mile run that I did last weekend.  Home to Olde Town Gaithersburg and then home again along a different route.  Today I ran the route a little over 4 minutes faster.  It could have been the weather - no rain today and awesome conditions for a run.  It also could be that the training has made me a stronger, faster runner.  Probably a little of both.

I ran the 9 mile route at a 10:38/mile pace with an average HR of 154.  I believe that if you take the last mile and a half out, my average HR would have been under 150 - there were some hills at the end and I didn't want to slow down my stride in the home stretch.

I ran to music today - I started with an album I just downloaded from iTunes Music Store called Pedalsped.  I heard the track "Stretch" on a YouTube video that was posted over on Pigtails Flying's blog.  I couldn't get the song out of my head for two days, so I had to purchase it.  They sound kind of like a fusion of Coldplay and Guster.  I like it so far.  Take a listen...download "Stretch" - it's a great song!

A Look Back Over The Past Year...

Today is my birthday, so I've taken some time to reflect over the past year.

Wow!

First of all, I don't think I have ever had such an outpouring of people who remembered my birthday.  Thank you Facebook!  (here's my profile...feel free to friend me if you are a frequent blog reader).

It's hard to believe all that I have accomplished over the past 12 months.  There are obvious ones here - running a full marathon and starting a blog and keeping up with it regularly.  Professionally I have made big strides - completing Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification within my company and being assigned to the largest project I have had to date.  I started an Israeli Dance group for families at my synagogue which has a dedicated base of participants such that I will be able to continue the group this next school year.  Another accomplishment I had with my synagogue is that I learned the trope (cantillation for chanting scriptures) that is used for the books of Ruth and Song of Songs and chanted parts of those books during the holidays of Shavuot and Pesach.  I also made new running friends - via the blogosphere and RunningAhead - and reconnected with many other old friends - mostly through Facebook.

All of these were "additions" during the past year.  Many of the other activities that I was doing beforehand (co-leading the Yesodot Israeli Dance Troupe, reading Torah at our synagogue twice a month) I am still doing.

I also had the joy of watching my children grow.  My older son, Doron started and completed his first year of Elementary School at the Charles E Smith Jewish Day School.  He is starting to become computer savvy - he can navigate to Yahoo! Kids, Nickelodeon, PBS Kids and Webkins websites and be entertained (for much too long!).  He also just lost his first tooth today!  In the last twelve months my younger son, Matan, has also developed tons.  He has started to talk in complete sentences.  He is no longer in a crib and no longer in diapers.  Every day he does something - or says something - new that just amazes us.

As I get older, I tend to think that the birthdays are not such big milestones anymore.  So, it's my 37th birthday today - so what???  However, reflecting over the past year I see that it is a big deal and that I continue to make big strides in my life even though it may not seem like it on a day-to-day basis.

OK...enough blogging.  I'm going to get some core exercises in and then get some ICE CREAM to celebrate!!!

My Race In Exactly Six Words

Fellow running blogger Pigtails Flying authored a post entitled "My Race, in Exactly Six Words" (I just realized that the title of the post also has exactly six words...yes, I'm a bit slow on the uptake some days).

In the post, she wrote a six word race report for herself and also wrote some for the elite runners that competed in the US Olympic Trials a few weeks ago. She then called out to fellow bloggers to post their own reports (Amazingly, I was one of the bloggers that she mentioned in her blog!!!).

Here were my contributions:

Riley’s Rumble Half Marathon (7/27/08 )
“Walked hills; 13.1 never felt better”

Frederick (MD) Marathon (5/4/08 - my first 26.2)
“Traffic jam? No problem - chip timed”
“PRed first 13.1; painful second half”
“Frederick - where cows come to cheer!”

Riley’s Rumble Half Marathon (7/29/07)
“I shouldn’t have run those hills”

Thomas Labrecque Classic DC (9/17/06)
“ChampionChip tie-wrap continuously whips leg - Ouch!”

Kentlands 5K (9/3/2005)
“First sub 30 minute 5K - HOORAY!”

Feel free to post some of your race experiences (in exactly six words) here - or on Pigtails' blog. Don't worry...I won't call on anyone specifically :-)

Yoga, Take 2 - And a Beautiful Morning

Last night after the kids were asleep I decided to do Yoga in front of the television.  I have a few episodes of "Inhale" from the Oxygen network on my DVR - mainly in hopes that I will get off my lazy butt and do Yoga when I find the time.  Last night I had no plans and the NBA Finals are over so I decided this was the time.

My first attempt at Yoga was last week on Friday.  So this was attempt number two.  I actually felt that some of the poses were a bit easier to do this time around - however, I still am shaky on some of the balancing poses.  I'm sure that if anyone videotaped me doing these poses, it would be up on YouTube giving tens of thousands of people a good laugh in a matter of minutes!

After I finished the hour of Yoga (I jumped through a few commercial breaks, so it was probably about 40-45 minutes of Yoga in total), I felt really good.  And I slept like a rock last night.  I'm not sure if I slept so well as a result of the Yoga, as a result of trying to catch up on sleep since I had been staying up way too late recently, or as a result of the 800mg of Ibuprofen I'm popping at bedtime.  Either way, I probably could have slept through an earthquake last night (OK, I've never lived anywhere that had earthquakes, so I can't be too sure about that...)

This morning I was out of the house for an easy 4 mile run at 5:45am.  It was a sunny and crisp morning - about 56 degrees...awesome weather for a run!  My hammy did start to get a little uncomfortable around 36 minutes into the run - the good news is that I'm able to run longer without the pain...the bad news is that I'm still experiencing some pain.  However, I believe it is getting better.

I may try to run tomorrow as well, since Saturday we are leaving for Michigan to visit my wife's family.  I'm not sure how much running I'll get in during the trip...I'll bring my running shoes, etc., and I'll try to budget in a run or two.  We'll see.  I'll definitely need the calorie burning as I'm sure I'm going to be eating a ton!  Especially when we head to Ann Arbor on Wednesday (I think it is pretty amazing that I only gained about 10 pounds during my 4 years as a student there)  One other exciting tidbit for the trip - I am hoping to meet up with fellow blogger (my "dot-comrade"?) - and fellow marathoner - Rick on the drive up.