16 minutes of fame?

I was going to talk about my run today and I probably will, but I want to diverge a little first. I was listening to an old Steve Runner podcast, where Steve and his friend were looping around Steve's neighborhood and decided to run the Philadelphia marathon. His friend (I forget his name!) mentioned that on google, if you search on 'Steve Runner', you get tons of hits. Steve was a little uncomfortable about that, but that got me thinking -- how many hits are there? I think I mentioned him at one point (since phedipidations got my blogging about my running in the first place). One thing led to another, and I googled 'yagerrunner' -- this blog. Since google owns this blogspace, I figured that they would ensure that their blogs were added to their search engine. What I *didn't* expect was a link from NBC 4 (the local NBC affiliate), who, on their National Marathon page, had my blog on their list. I certainly hope that it's a rolling blog, as I'm sure that there's MUCH more interesting running blogs to read. Oh, to create a circular reference, I'll reference the NBC 4 link here: http://www.nbc4.com/nationalmarathon/index.html.

Anyway, my 15 minutes of fame ended last year when we were featured as a family running group in the Shamrock Marathon guide. This link is minute number 16.

So, if anyone is reading, here's my run info. Since I ran last night, I didn't want to run this morning. I ran this afternoon though. It was very nice outside (50 degrees at start time), so I ran 10 at an 8:33 pace. I ran a little faster going out as someone was running ahead of me and the competitive part of me didn't to lose him. He was faster than me, but he eventually turned off my route before I lost him completely. I did keep my pace up (or down, depending on your point of view) for the first half.

Going back home still felt good, although I wasn't pacing anybody. All in all, I'm very pleased with my run today. I only hope that I can keep it up tomorrow. I hope to run 8 (sorta following the moderate, consistent training plan from the Hanson Project [as mentioned by Steve Runner]).

Finally...

Finally got a run in.... finally got a post in. Noticed that I didn't put my mileage into buckeyeoutdoors.com on Saturday, so I didn't post either (whoops).

Saturday run: was scheduled to do a 8-10 miler. Was spring-like outside (rain, sun, rain, downpour, sun, repeat), was I was sorta looking forward to running in the rain. However, at 1.8 miles out, I *thought* I heard thunder. Since t-storms were forecasted, I didn't really want to be stuck out there when lightening struck, so I turned around and headed back home (so much for my long run). However, to make the most out of the situation, I nearly sprinted up every hill I found. Mile 3 was a 8:06, mile 4 was a 7:50, and the last .3 miles was a 7:26. great last half, but still, only 4.3 miles total. It did get my mileage up past 40, but that also included a 14 miler on Sunday (thank God I did a long run on Sunday!).

Today: mis-set my alarm, so I didn't get up in time to run this morning (also didn't help that daylight savings time made it dark again in the morning). I didn't want two days off, so I ran tonight at 9:00 pm. Thought I had a 6 mile loop planned, but turned out to be a 5.72 mile loop. Didn't feel like extending it the last 1/4 mile or so (it *was* nearly 10:00pm you know), so I left it at that. At least I ran today!

Two Runs

Didn't update my posts yesterday. Just as well. I felt terrible. Is 'sucky' a word? I couldn't find a groove, I couldn't go fast, I couldn't do anything. I originally wanted to go 8-10, but had to turn around at 3 (for 6.01 total). I *did* go back to a morning schedule though. I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Over the past week, I had been running in the afternoon, and with the nice spring-like temps, it was great. I'm trying to get back to morning runs though, as my day-time schedule is surprisingly busy (in a good way). We'll see...

... that is, we'll see today. I ran an easy 4.35 today, at a better pace (8:44). It was a short run, and I was able to increase my speed towards the end, so that was good. Again, I ran in the morning, and for my long run tomorrow, I'll be running early again.

Some good news, my weeking mileage so far this week just passed last week's total mileage. The long run on Sunday (which counts as this week) is pretty much the reason why.

Top Ten!

Better check it quick, 'cause it ain't gonna last long. I noticed that I was in the top ten (number 8) in the total miles run in the past week (2-26 to 3-3) (the caveat being that I'm only showing public logs). There must've been a running holiday that I didn't know about. We'll check after the re-count. By the way, I'm talking about the Leaderboard in BuckeyeOutdoors (www.buckeyoutdoors.com). To keep my ego in check, I'm number 12 for the entire month and number 249 for lifetime. Number 1 lifetime has 26,218 miles. It'll take me awhile to catch up....

Well, I ran 8.24 miles today at a pretty good pace. That makes it 25 miles so far this week. Not bad. I'm off to a good start, but we'll see how long it lasts. Dunno when I'm going to run tomorrow (FIOS is coming - yay!). If I could, I'd love to get 10 miles in, but don't know if that's possible. It was even hard getting started today. Running in the afternoon -- it's tough to start, because I'm already moving around. It's one thing to wake up and head out the door; it's quite another to stop what you are doing, change, and get outside. I think my only saving grace is the weather. It was 65 degrees when I ran today (but cloudy and quite windy).

Post Long Run.... Jog

Ran 3.3 miles today. Waited until this afternoon to give my body 24 hours rest. Actually gave it 26 hours.... My legs felt very tired, although I averaged an 8:40 pace. Did the Route 50 loop. Beautiful day outside. It was sunny and 65 degrees. Wore shorts and a t-shirt. The weather felt great! I just hope that it's not a calm before the storm.

I've already made my predictions public, that we have seen the last of the Winter storms. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate. However, now that I've experienced warm weather (today's 60+ not included), I don't want to go back. I've said before that now that I'm getting older, I enjoy summer-time MUCH more than winter-time. I even prefer 90 degree weather with high humidity over winter. Anyway... it's a little too early to talk about summer -- I need to get through spring first!

Haven't signed up for the backyard burn yet, nor the GEER 50K. I did check to see if registration was full yet -- it's not full (yet); however, I should probably sign up soon.

Just noticed...

Just noticed that I didn't post after my run last night. I started out doing something close to Junk miles to get my mileage to 30 for the week. Due to crazy schedules on both Friday and Saturday, I didn't get a run in on Friday, nor could I do a long run on Saturday. Around 8:50 pm Saturday night, I started out with a 6 mile run in mind. Since it was Saturday night, I didn't want to run along the Fairfax County Parkway, nor anywhere where there might be heavy traffic. I had seen that Thompson road had a trail/sidewalk on it, so I ran there. The trail didn't last that long, but turned down another road. Then it ended. Fortunately, the sidewalk continued on a side street, and I was thinking that I would run along all the sidewalks, and then go down another neighborhood to round out my 6. However, the road I was on -- never ended. I ended up going down (and up) and very long road, so I figured it would hit West Ox road and I would finish from there. Unfortunately, it ended in a cul-de-sac (I found out later that it was very close to West Ox, but I needed to take another road to actually hit it). So... I was long in my mileage, and needed to get home before My Lovely Wife started to worry.

Ended up running over 7, getting my mileage to 31 (whew!), ran fast (well, not as fast as I thought -- a 8:54 mile), and got home before 10:00pm. Long story short, I got my miles in.

And I won't call them Junk miles, even though I wanted to round out my 30, as I hadn't run since Thursday and wanted to prep before my long run on Sunday.

Rocky Run Trail

Ran Rocky Run Trail today, from Middle Ridge to Ellanor C Lawrence park. Pretty good, run, but slower than a normal road pace. The trail plus the small but numerous hills at the park, plus all the road crossings slowed me down. Thought I was going to hit 16+ miles due to the wrong turns, etc., going to the park, but ended up running almost exactly 14 miles (14.06). Sore right now (4 hours afterwards).

Since I'm Quartermaster at my Cub Scout pack, and since I had equipment from our Blue and Gold dinner (plus stuff from the Fall Campout (still) in my garage, I went to put it all away after the run. Seven (!) trips from the car to the building, down a very long hallway, plus 2 flights of stairs (21 steps each flight -- I counted) made me a little tired at the end.

One neat thing... I was listening to Phedippidations (www.steverunner.com) today (I've started listening to music on my long runs) and he was reading an email or playing a voicemail (I forget) from a listener who was talking about how his long runs were his way of being closer to God. Now get this... I wasn't on a road, wasn't waiting for traffic... I was running on a beautiful portion of the Ellanor C Lawrence trail and was totally alone. Very nice portion of the run, and it was interesting to hear that part. Huh.

Probably not running far (if at all) tomorrow due to my long run in the afternoon today.