I revisited the yellow brick road again today.

I am not sure if when I started to write my blog, I mentioned that one of my mantras to get me going on my long miles and through the marathon experience was to think of The Wizard of Oz and the whole yellow brick road experience. Well as I walked along I would think about the different things that I encountered and I would associate it with different things from the movie. My companions were three friends from church so the logically became the scarecrow, the lion and the tin man. These were Dennis, Barbara and Erick. Well about a year ago today, I went out with the three of them and did an incredible race with lightning before and after and a lot of rain in between.. It was great fun and something I will never forget. Today the race happened again, it is the Haulover 5K. Although I was by myself today, I felt their presence. You know it is funny how lives change and we might walk in different paths but we are still connected somehow.

The race was great, beautiful day this time and a breeze coming off the ocean. I did a PR during the race, so this year again it was a memorable day.


You know I mentioned that I had gone to a Jeff Galloway running school last week. I had done it before but I guess last year I just heard him. This year I not only heard him but I have put some of his suggestions into action. He not only revitalized my training, he has helped me improve my workouts and time.

Things are going well with the weekly training. SM (perfect specimen man) is back to running in the mornings. A funny line from one of the guys we bump into each morning was in reply to asking him how many miles he was doing....he said " 4 or 5 miles depends on how strong I make the coffee in the morning'.

This week I did a total of close to 30 miles and I FINNALY lost a little weight.
Have a great week and enjoy each day of it.

It has been awhile, but all things start anew....

Ok, it has been awhile, and I have missed communicating and telling you about my life , especially as it concerns my training for the races. I think allot of it spills over to my life and changes and affects the path that I am on.

Since it has been a couple of months since my last entry, don't worry I won't bore you with many details of those days. It goes without saying that we have dodge the bullet with about four tropical storms or hurricanes in our area. I have done a couple of small races 5K's specifically and I went to Los Angeles to do the Disneyland Half Marathon. The trip out there was fun, I went with my friend , Barbara. Thank you for showing me the sights out there. The race was spectacular it went through both Disneyland and California Adventure. It was fun , and I not only got the Disneyland," The Happiest Race " castle medal, I also got a medal for doing the full marathon in Disney World and going cross country to do the half marathon in Disneyland. This was the first year that was being done. Although, I enjoyed the trip southern California is not a place I will soon return to.

The weekly training has been going well, although it got disrupted with my trip and then the approaching Ike. I miss going out early in the morning but hopefully the routine will soon be in place again. Nothing really exciting to report on that front, all the players, Nancy, Rita, and all cast of characters,Kevin, 6, clapper guy , etc are all doing well.

Yesterday in our training we did 16 miles. By the time we were heading back I kept thinking I can't do another 10 miles to do a full marathon. Well the heat and humidity must have gotten the best of me , because I know that I can and I will do it. I have done it before. In the afternoon , I was fortunate to be able to attend a running school held by Jeff Galloway. He is my hero and because of him and his books had I attempted to train last year. He was such an inspiration and I learned allot of new information that I could use in my training. I COULD LOSE WEIGHT DURING TRAINING. I WOULD NOT HURT MYSELF IF I INCLUDED SOME RUNNING WITH MY WALKING. And he gave me some insight on how to do prepare for the Goofy Challenge in January.

It was a great time spent with someone I have looked up to for awhile now. The training is going well though. Steady , if not exciting. Now I plan to make it exciting too. I am working on a new training schedule for the coming weeks. I have not lost any weight during this period, and I have walked an average of 20-30 miles per week. The grand total of miles done is 579.34. I hope to be in contact soon again. The picture of the sunrise was take before the Fireman's Challenge 5K in Hollywood last weekend. It reminded me that all things can and sometime do start all over again.

Peace.

A great week has just ended...

I had a great week this past week. My training was on target with 15 miles during the week. Yesterday our weekly long training session was 12 miles. It was a challenge because we were starting a new sign up session for winter and one of our assistant coaches was gone. So we started and went out for 4 miles, came back to the park and picked up the half marathoners and did 8 more miles. To the top of the 17th Street causeway bridge and back. Then we met some of the new guys that were starting their training yesterday. The miles were really without much consequence nor interesting stories to tell, but it was good that we were able to finish with the high temperatures and humidity. Cat walked with us and told us about her joining the 50 state/50 marathon club. One one thing that happened was that Barbara was out doing 6 miles. Her speed is improving and she is excited about getting back into training. Disneyland will be so much fun with her walking the course with me.

As I have mentioned before, I am training amongst other things for the Goofy Challenge in January. A half marathon on Saturday and a full marathon the next day, Sunday. Today I started to train a bit more specific for that. I did 4 miles instead of taking today off, Sunday. I feel good. When I woke up this morning it was raining so I thought good excuse I can skip. But something deep inside said don't skip today or else it will be easy to skip every day. I went to my apartment gym and did 4 miles on the thread mill. Not as good as outside, but I got the miles in.

This week I did over 31 miles in training. I lost a little over 2 pounds. i feel good and I hope to keep the momentum going. I thank you all for your support and I can feel the difference. Have a great week and continue on.

Sometimes you have to challenge yourself......

I know I just wrote yesterday a long blog, but today was a monumental day in training. Because of family commitments this week, I could not train on Tuesday so decided to train this morning. Nancy decided to go out with me and so to challenge ourselves and make thins a little different, I chose a different course then our usual walk from CVS to Yankee Clipper and back. Today we started on the south side in front of Runner's Depot on 17th Street. We started off and what was right in front of us but the 17th St Causeway bridge. It loomed in front, and we started up its side. Team in Training calls it the beast, and I can see why. We went up and down then continued north on A1A to the overpass of Beach Place. Then it was time to head back, we went through Harbor Island and had to face the bridge again , but now slightly more tired. After some huffing and puffing we made it and were back in to our cars.

It was a great walk, a great training and we maintained a relatively fast pace of 4 mile per hour. We did 5.29 miles. Burned over 620 calories. It will be something we do again, not in the near future. But certainly when we want to be challenged again.

Where do I start after such a long hiatus?????

After trying week after week to log on to my blog, it has been impossible until a few minutes ago to do this. So much has happened and so many experiences have occurred since my last blog, that I find it difficult to summarize the adventures in a single blog. For my loyal friends who have missed my communications here, I thank you for your persistence in urging me to get into the site. Thank you, Barbara for the link.

I start off recounting the unfortunate trials of training, those associated with injury. As my friends fell to injuries in these last months , it made me think of the importance of training and not over training to avoid this. At the least amount of discomfort I stop, and wait for it to pass. My friends are healing and God willing will be training and racing with the group in the near future.

My work as an assistant coach at Friends in Training, has been challenging as well as frustrating at times. Sometimes I think that maybe it was just better to pay the membership fee and not have to deal with the bureaucratic stuff that comes with the role. But then when I seem to help someone finish a training session or walk with a person having a hard time, it seems to be worth it.

I still go out and train at least three times a week with Nancy, Rita, now Melanie and Cathy. Each day we do a little over 5 miles and what makes it interesting is not only the company of these wonderful ladies but the people we meet in the early hours of the morning. There is bus guy( who we now know to be called Kevin), we see him every day and say hi. Just before 4th of July we didn't see him and wondered where he was. Well we are headed back and the bus pulls up to us in the middle of A1A, the door opens and Kevin is there to wish us a good holiday ....that made all of our day. There is the kernel and his boot camp rookie, SM ( Nancy's name because the guy has a perfect body), crew cut guy, #8 or USA guy, and the others we see but not on a regular basis. See these people who walk into our lives if just for a moment keep us going each day, and I know that somehow our simple hello touches them too.

The FIT group is growing too. And now as we start the winter season I hope to have more people that will share our time during training. Nancy puts up with my stupid chatter, Marilyn has new running skirts and we got to see Marilyn over the inter coastal last week. I miss Barbara in our sessions and I am glad Dennis is back into training.

I am sorry that I just seem to ramble on but it is over two months of information here. To end I would like to mention that we did the first annual St Gregory's Bible Camp 5K this morning and it was not only fun but a success. Babette, a wonderful women who crossed paths with me from FIT died last month and we will honor her with a 5K next month. During the last two months I have walked over 240 miles, unfortunately I have not lost that much weight, still at about 10 pounds from when I started. I will continue to write, and I will continue to train. Continue to strive for your best and enjoy the journey.

Another week, and all is well...

What a great week it has been. Training i going well. I did 22.12 miles in 5:52 hours. With a total of over 180 miles since I started at the beginning of March. FIT, the training group I belong, had its second recruitment weekend. That went very well. We have Barbara,Dennis, Kathy, and Marta joining us from St Gregory's. All are excited about training and I look forward to sharing my time with them. Went 2 mornings to walk on the beach this past week. It is so great to be finished with training and do over 5 miles by like 6:15 am. I have talked to the friends I gather with, and we have decided to do it 3 times per week for the next few weeks to see how it works out. I worked with the FIT schedule for June, we do longer miles on Saturdays; and they give us a schedule to follow the rest of week. I calculated the miles by dividing the times by a 15 minute/mile pace. I cam up with week1: 10.67 miles, week2: 12 miles, week3: 13.33 miles and week4: 14 miles. If you recall from last week, I had mentioned that I wanted to keep a 20 mile base during this part of my training. So adding another morning to the beach training I cam up with for week1: 22 miles, week2: 23 miles, week3: 13.33 miles, and week4: 14 miles. I still will take Mondays and Fridays off or for some cross training, like bike riding. I am excited about this schedule, and others are too. Nothing is written in stone though, so as changes occur, I will post them here.

This morning, I did the Daniella's Journey by the Sea 5K. She was an inspirational young lady who's family coordinates this race in her honor. It was fun at John Lloyd's. Beautiful morning, about 1000 entries for runners and walkers. I did well kept a 14:19 minute per mile pace. And the picture at the top is what greeted Barbara and I as we prepared for the race.

I wish Barbara a quick recovery and for all of you that are out there training and sweating continue, you are doing great.

Life sometimes gets in the way...

Good day, it has been about 2 weeks since my last entry. Well like I said in my title, life sometimes throws you for a loop and your direction gets off keel for a bit. But I am back. Two weeks to catch up, but no worries I will edit most of it out. In the last 2 weeks I have done a total of 49 miles in a little over 12 hours. in one week I worked out 5 out of 7 days and the next week I worked out 4 of the 7 days. And I have lost a total of 13.6 pounds. Good considering I had a very rough week. Last Sunday a group of friends from Friends in Training went up to Orlando to do the last Minnie Marathon. It is a 15K or 9.3 miles course designed for women. There were 2,800 women doing it and 250some guys. It was a fun time , we went from Animal Kingdom to Wide World of Sports, through the movies studios, the yacht and boardwalk into Epcot and finished right outside of Epcot. We all got the medal and finished way below the 15 minute pace required by the race director. Yesterday we started the new season of FIT, which is the training group I get together with every Saturday. It was great being back. I am now an assistant coach for the walking group, helping them to reach the goal of finishing a marathon this year. So I continue to evolve and grow. I know it will be an exciting year. I added a picture from last week's event, I was clean by then , but I got to meet my favorite gal there at Disney and show her my medal. Have a great week, guys.