Halfway Through Training and Then Some

I just looked at my training calendar schedule and realized that I am halfway done with my training for the Hartford Half Marathon in October. It's really crazy to think that in October I will be running a half marathon where my time will be important. True, I am running a half marathon the month before but I'm running with a few other people whose times are not up to mine so I'll be running at a slower pace, which I feel will be perfect for me. Speaking of training schedule...


As you can see, a Dalek knows how much longer I need to go
It's 11:29pm. I started this post hours ago, way before I decided to go out with some friends. I had a huge post I wanted to do and was really excited about it. Now it just seems to have all faded away. And I really hate that because I really have some awesome things going on in my life right now. My fundraiser tournament is going awesome. I have 6 artists who donated stuff already and have a lot more I have to write back as soon as June comes around. I hope it goes as well as last years did. My fingers are crossed on that one. I have some more people to talk to about things but I really hope it goes well. As long as I get the same amount of people as last year, I think things will go well. I hope. A lot.

I'm also thinking about what I want to do with my life. And the more I keep thinking, the more I want to do something that involves cooking. I really keep feeling like I want to own a bakery but I don't know if that's the direction I want to go in. I have a lot of ideas but starting my own thing scares the living crap out of me. So we'll see. A lot of people think my idea is genius but I have to make it work. I'm sure I'll have more on it later.

Maybe next time I'll talk about something more fun. Off to bed. I got 9 miles to run in the morning and I feel like it's going to be a very rainy 9 miles.

Super Long Weekend

Well it has been quite some time since I have written in here. Other than being sick for a week, things have been super busy. I had to get back into running again and started my 9 mile runs this past Friday. That's where things began. After the run, my toenails began killing me. They have been bruised for a few weeks now and running the 9 miles didn't help it either. I'm going to have to put some ice on them tomorrow after I run. If it's raining, I'll probably be running at the gym. I haven't used the membership in over two months and I really should go back. I just thought I would use it more than I have or brought people with me to it. I haven't done either.

Saturday was the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Pineapple Classic 5K. I walked it with my friends Hannah and Christy, both of who aren't serious runners like me. That's why I walked it so I could hang out with them the whole time. It was actually pretty fun. It was an obstacle course race that had wall climbs, hay bail climbs, and an awesome slip-and-slide at the end that had a fire truck hose connected to a water truck waiting for the people at the end. It was a lot of fun. I'm glad I went because I really want to do the 5K Foam Fest in July and Warrior's Dash in September. The more runs, the better.


Today was the best day, however, since it was the day Crissy finally graduated college! I'm so happy for her. It took six years in the making to happen but she finally did it. She even snuck out of the entire proceedings after she was able to walk. She's such a rebel.

Lastly, I have been doing a lot of thinking and I really want to cook. I want to own my own place where I can cook things for people. I watch Triple D (Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) and other shows on Food Network and see these people that left their old jobs to do stuff like this. I want to bake. I love cooking dinner for people and I really believe that baking is something I could enjoy so much more. Bad Wolf Bakery. It just really seems like an awesome name for a place. I'm not going to say more cause I'm still looking into what I'd have to do first, like farmer's markets or something like that, and I have some places I want to ask some serious questions to but I really think this is my quest in life. So we'll see.

One Very Long Weekend

After I went on my long run this past Friday, I could tell that my allergies were going to be rough. We haven't had much rain in the area for the past couple of weeks before spring really hit and the amount of pollen that was out when I was running was a lot. By the end of the day, I could tell that my allergies were back and that it was going to make for a long day or two. Boy was I wrong on that one. Today was probably the first day that I have been above 50%. I honestly haven't been this way for a while and it really sucks. I had well over 150 emails waiting for me, most of which were junk, but I just really had no ability to even care. Between coughing, being lightheaded and a clogged nose, I didn't want to do anything. I had to take off running for the week, as well, since I didn't want to try and push myself into something and then pass out in the middle of the road and not have anyone find me.

Kinda disappointed that I wasn't able to run. Missing a week hopefully won't be a huge issue. I don't think it will, though. But on the plus side, I am definitely getting better. I'm eager for next week's training, the race that I'm doing next Saturday AND my girlfriend's graduation.

Now to just get rid of this damn cough.

One Whole Year

Today is May 1st. May Day. I was planning on writing this post all day yesterday and I thought maybe I should go and discuss all the important things that happened on this day. But then, in all actuality, I really didn't care that much. It's a very important day throughout history and I really don't know if I want to sit here and talk about...well, actually, nothing. Looking on Wikipedia, May 1st is a really boring day. True, the first cricket match was played in America in 1751 but that's about the extent of exciting historic events. At least the ones that are of interest to me.

But a year ago this month (I don't know the exact day) I started running full time. It was when I started training for my first ever 5K, which was last October. I remember it quite clearly. It was the worse thing I tried doing. I had no ability to run for longer than 10 minutes at a time. A mile was very difficult for me to do when I was first starting out. I would go to this track with my mom that was right down the road from my house. It's a nice dirt track that is a half mile in distance but when I first started, it kicked my ass. Like, I was so out of breath the first time trying it. My calves would kill after each run. My back was in so much pain. I stretched all the time but it still continued day after day. I would take some time off and try again later and it would be fine but then go back to hurting. I eventually changed shoes and all was fine.

The next few months that lead up to the 5K were the hardest months I have ever done. I had the hardest time trying to get to three miles. Other than not having a good way of actually recording my pace and distance, just trying to run farther each week was difficult. I would force myself to go faster and really feel like it wasn't working. The closer to the race, the easier it got to run three miles. I'm sure it's the training that I was doing that helped but it was still very difficult. When it came to the race, I really ran like crazy. I busted my ass to run as fast as I could for three straight miles. When I finished, with a time of 28.02, I felt like a million bucks. All the training that I did and all of the pain and agony that lead up to that moment. I finally finished a race. I did something that I have always wanted to do. And a few days later, I went right back to the pain.

I say all this cause looking back for the last year, I feel like I have come so far. I'm already running eight mile days. I get excited that I'm running nine miles next week. I look at the 28.02 I got in October and then notice the 26.23 I got this past March and see that I have gotten so much better. All this training is really putting me in the right direction. If you asked me a year ago, I would have laughed that I wanted to continue to do this. Ask me two years ago, I would have choked on the food I was shoving into my mouth that I was considering even doing a race. A whole year really makes a difference. I really need to keep those thoughts in my mind, especially when it comes to the rest of my life. One day. I will get there.