Bring on the cold

I did 5 really tough miles today! I couldn't get into a grove in this run until the very end. It sucked. I sucked! After the run, I felt tired and hungry all day long. I couldn't snap out of it... not a good day.

It was extremely humid today too. By the time I got back from the run, I was dripping wet in sweat. Even after my shower I felt like I could not cool down. It looks like we'll have a couple more hot days then this weekend it will go down to the 60's again for highs.

 Hate to admit it, but I'm looking forward to cold days. Hell,... bring on winter. I'm ready.

Ok.... not that ready.... :(

It pays to run ....

I had a rough night sleeping last night. I actually woke up yesterday with a neck crick. You know that pain in the neck you get when you can't look left or right? So all last night I felt that pain and it kept me up. Every time I turned around in bed I felt a sharp pain in my neck and upper back. I don't know what the hell caused it!! So I was up at 5:30 cause I couldn't sleep any more. I started doing neck and back stretches to help loosen up the crick pains. At about 6:30 I was loose enough and awake enough so decided to go for a run.

At about mile 2.5 I saw a light green object in the middle of brown leaves in a parking lot ahead of me. Low and behold, a nice crispy $10 bill!!

I'm rich biatch!!

I don't care how you cut it. Whether it's $5 dollars, a dollar or even a quarter, free money is good money!!! Hell yeah!

I finished the run with a good  5 miles behind me. I could have probably done more, but seeing that it was a really good run and my knee wasn't hurting, I figured I wouldn't push it. This week weather permitting, I plan on running Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. I'm looking at a half marathon mid October. I have not committed to it yet, but if I can get a friend to do it with me, and maybe even carpool to it, I'll do it! I'll keep you posted.

ugh,... Not looking forward to this work week :( ... but at least I'm $10 ahead now :)

Friday ramblings.... and a beer.

No run on Wednesday. I had to travel to Danbury, CT for work. It was a meet and greet with a new office that I will be supporting soon. Yay, more work. I guess I can't complain. Could be worse, I could be on the flip side of the job market.

No run on Thursday. Daughter had her tonsils removed and she is doing well. She is a strong girl! She was up and talking an hour after the procedure. If it were me, I would have been begging for pain killers!! God bless her!
I did get to go out on a 10 mile bike ride in the late afternoon. The weather was perfect. Warm enough for shorts but not crazy hot. Perfect summer type fall weather :)

Today I worked from home so I could stay with my daughter. It was a pretty busy day. My phone was ringing off the hook and emails were pouring in like crazy! I logged into work about 7am.... I was shooting for 6am, but that didn't happen. I logged out at 4PM, but had to sign back in because of an emergency they were having. I was officially done by 5:30.

I did get to go for a run around noon time today. I did a really hard 4 miles today. My feet where just NOT in the game today. No matter what I did, I just could not get into a rhythm. My legs were not cooperating at all! I felt dead by the time I got home. Hopefully tomorrow is a better day. I'm planning a 7+ mile run tomorrow.
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I'm taking a page from Jamoosh's blog for the moment,....

This time of  year, a lot of breweries come out with their "Pumpkin" beers. I'm not too crazy about pumpkin beer. I have tried plenty but never really cared for any one in particular.... That is until I tried Southern Tier's Imperial Pumking Ale.

I was just blown away at how much I liked the taste of this beer. If you have ever tried Dunkin Donuts pumpkin spice coffee, this taste just like it!! A sweet but not too sweet beer with a perfect taste of pumpkin and spice. This is a MUST try for any beer lover!

I'm just upset that I only bought one bottle :(

Breakfast & Good runs

Breakfast for me usually consist of yogurt and fruits. Sometimes I'll mix it up and add some Rice Chex, Corn Flakes or some Cherrios.... yummy! I can't do the greasy breakfast thing. It doesn't agree with me.

This right here hits the spot! Here was today's breakfast:

Kiwi, Bananas & Stawberries

... added Vanilla Yogurt & Rice Chex FTW!

It's light and does the job! At times, I'll have extra fruit and yogurt and I'll make a couple cup fulls and pass them out to a few coworkers. Never had someone turn it down! :)
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I put in a 4 mile run in on Monday at lunch time. It was uneventful and my knee felt good through the run. I ran again today. I unintentionally ran 6 1/2 miles. I didn't want to push my knee, but  at mile 3, where I was planning to turn off to make it another 4 mile run, the was a big truck trying to back up in to a driveway and blocking the whole road. So I said screw it was went straight thinking I would turn at the next street. But I was feeling good and decided to go for the big loop. I did stop once at about mile 5 and walked for about 30sec or so. All in all it was a really good run. I iced my knee after just as a precaution, but it was feeling pretty good.

No runs planned the next 2 days. I'm traveling to our Danbury, CT office tomorrow. That will be an all day event. On Thursday my 17yr daughter is having her tonsils removed, so the wife and I will be taking care of her for the day.

Friday I'm working from home, so I'll get in a run. Hopefully it will be a quiet day so I can make it a semi run long. :)
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What do you think of my breakfast?

Sunday ramblings....

With my knee still achy, I decided this morning that I would go for a nice bike ride instead of running. I had to go to the super market and pick up a few things anyways, so I figured why not make a workout out of it. I took my backpack so I could carry the groceries back home. I rode for a couple miles nothing crazy. It was actually pretty fricken chilly out! My nose was all runny by the time I got to the store! Man, I'm soo not ready for this cold!!
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Today we celebrated my son's 18th birthday! We had  family and friends over, tons of food and a great time. I still can't believe that 18 years have past by us like nothing. Time goes by way to fast! It was just yesterday I was teaching him how to ride his bike... now in a couple of weeks he goes for his driver's licence.

I always pictured me at this point in my life feeling and looking old. But the truth is I have never felt so young in my life! I still get the look of shock from people when I tell them how old my son is. I like it when they tell me that I look too young to have a son that old. :)
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Tomorrow I plan to run during lunch time at work. Depending how my knee feels, it will determine how long of a run it will be. Long run or short run, I will run tomorrow. I'm expecting a busy day tomorrow, so I will need to get out for a while a clear my head..

Hope everyone had a good weekend.... Bring on the work week!!!

Nice cool run

I put in 5 slow miles today. Even stopped and walked for a bit a couple times. My knee still aches a bit so I'm trying to take it easy. I wasn't even going to run today, but it was soo nice and cool out this morning that I couldn't resist. It was in the upper 40's at 7am this morning. I threw on shorts, an undershirt and the technical t-shirt I got from last week's 5k. I felt a bit under dressed as I saw other runners out there with long pants and sweaters. One lady even had gloves on! I'm not ready to put away my shorts yet. I'm not looking forward to those cold winter days :(

Just a short post today. After a long week at work dealing with computers problems.... being at a computer is the last thing I want to do during the weekend!

Good run & knee pain

So on Monday, I had a good 7+ mile run. It was one of those runs that felt good from start to finish.I even stopped at one point to take a couple pictures of some cows hat were grazing on a farm.

I run by the farm almost every time I run during lunch time at work. But the cows are usually way up on the hills. That day I could have pet every single one as they walked near the wired fence. It was cool...

..... Eh,... I thought it was cool anyways....

It's been real busy at work. Hectic kinda busy. If I didn't mention it before, I am my company's Helpdesk person. So I'm the one people call or email when there is a problem. That same day (Monday), there was an "issue" where all the printers on the 2nd floor ran out of paper. There is usually boxes of paper by each printer but for some reason, there weren't any boxes. I'm not responsible for this paper. Facility dept is. Anyways, like I said,  I'm the one they go to when there is a problem. When I get the call about the paper, I call facilities and get no one. After the 3rd call I get, frustrated I decide to go get the paper myself. I go down to the basement, throw one of the 50 pound boxes on my shoulder and head for the stairs.
The very first step I took I felt a sharp pain on my left knee. I knew that couldn't be good.

Sure enough. Here I am Wednesday night still icing my knee. It doesn't really hurt, but I feel a real bad discomfort. I didn't run Tuesday nor Today. And I probably wont run tomorrow or the rest of the week. All I keep thinking is "listen to your body". I keep reading that phrase in almost all the blogs I've come across. So that is what I'm doing. Listening to my body telling not to run. Even though my brain is telling my otherwise O_o .......

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I'll have a giveaway soon. Just have to get off my lazy ass and get it all together and post it. Stay tuned!

Canal Diggers 5K Road Race - 21:04

21:04 .... I still cant believe my time in this race. This a new 5K PR for me. I almost came in under 21 mins!! I could see the time clock as I was approaching the finish line and I really gave it my all to get there before the 21min mark. I was soo close!

It was a good event. Tons of people showed up. There was tons of food, all the beer you could drink, and good music supplied by a local band. The race itself was a scenic race through the streets of Worcester that got started by the sirens of a Fire Truck!

Woot! Woot!

The starting line was mobbed, so moving my way through the crowd was a bit tough. But after the first turn on the race, the street opened up so there was more room to move around in.

Starting line ahead 

view behind me

I started the race in a face pace and I got worried that I would crash and burn towards the end, but I held strong all the way through. There was plenty of crowd support and that always helps. The last 1/2 mile I really kicked it up a notch, especially when I saw the time clock.

Awesome Finisher medal!!

After the race I hung out for a while, ate, had a few beers and chatted with a few of the usual faces I always see at these local races. 

Never say no to free beer ;)

This was the first time I ran a race with shades on. The race when through a tunnel where I had to take them off. I couldn't see a damn thing!!

21:04 ..... still can't believe it! I was 12th in my age group too. I'm getting closer!! 

Watch out world!!

Yay, another race tomorrow!

Ran into this site while I was searching for upcoming races at work today. A 5k race, a tech T-Shirt, food, music and beer, 15mins from my home?...... don't mind if I do!! They had an onsite registration from 5-8 tonight so I swung by there after work and signed up.

I have never worn a race day shirt on the actual race day, but I think tomorrow will be my first. Funny how this is the 5th Annual race and it's the first time I've heard of it....

.... so that's my plan for this weekend.... at least for tomorrow :)

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I ran on Thursday 7 miles during my lunch time. I forgot my head phones to my iPhone so I ran with no music :( ...Last mile back I saw Ernie, a coworker that also runs during lunch, about 1/4 mile in front of me in the straight away. I picked up the pace and headed towards him. The bastard happened to look back and saw me coming and also picked up the pace! HA! I struggled to catch up but couldn't! Came close, about 25ft when he reach the work parking lot.... We had a good laugh when I caught up. Ernie is a good guy. He's about 50yrs old and has been running for about 15yrs. He is a real inspiration to me.

Today I ran shy of 5 miles during lunch. Good easy pace, nothing crazy. Today I didn't forget my headphones... :) I'll give it my all tomorrow during the race!

It's raining, it's pouring....

It's been raining the last 2 days here in my part of the world and we're suppose to get more tomorrow. Though not as bad as the past two days. With no real big race anytime soon, I decided to take the two rainy days off from running. Plus, after the 5 miler on Sunday, my left leg started getting that weird pain again. That's when I know to take it back a notch. But two days is all I can take before I start getting edgy. So rain or no rain, tomorrow I will be out there!

Looks like I'll possibly be having a giveaway soon. I'll know more by next week. So stay tuned! ;)

I need to go catch up on some of the blogs I follow.....

What's going on my fellow runners? What's new in your part of the world?

Weekend recap

First of all.... I am beat! It has been a fun filled weekend and I haven't really rested until tonight.

Saturday was the family baseball game and my 12 mile run. Sunday I did 6 miles, but I swear it was harder to do than the 12 I did the day before. I felt sluggish and the humidity was back in the air.

I went to a labor day party at my sister-in-laws house Sunday night. Ate tons of food and drank way too many beers. At some point during the night I got a Facebook message (on my phone) about the Charlton Old Home Day 5 mile Road Race that was happening today. Now, I wasn't planning on running today, especially after a night of drinking. But I woke up at 7am and the race was the first thing on my mind. I quickly convinced myself that I felt OK and still had time to get there. Soooo, I downed a cup of coffee and took off! On the ride there I almost turned around twice. My stomach was doing some weird stuff I tell ya!! Thank goodness they had porta potties set up at this place.... thats all I'm gonna say!

Race start was 9am, the sun was shining in the upper 70's and a little bit on the humid side. Over 300 participants and a lot of the usual faces were present. I have drove these street many times before, but I never realized how hilly they were. This was by far THE hilliest race I have ever done!! 90% of the race was up hill! ... OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but it really felt like it was. Not being at 100% myself made this race really hard. I came in 57th at 38:10, which is still good, but I felt like could have done better. Felt like I had lead in my sneakers .... Oh well. I knew I wasn't going to set any PRs today :)

Even though I struggled in this race, I'm glad I did it. As my friend Ernie says "You never regret the ones you did, but you always regret the ones you didn't do".

I'm going to sign up for my first Full Marathon

The Date: June 3rd, 2012

The Place: Worcester, MA.

The link: http://www.usrahalf.com/Events/worcester.htm

This past year, I did my first half marathon in Worcester, Ma. with this same organization. Seams only fitting that I do my first marathon with them. Thinking about it makes my stomach turn! I get nervous. To date my longest run has been about 14.5 miles. I can't imagine running 26.2. But I already did 2 half marathons and will probably do a couple more, but I want to shoot for something bigger. Something that will push me to be a better runner.

This is the same group that put together the Springfield half that got cancelled because of the hurricane. They are sending me a 20% off coupon code for my next race in 2012 so I will use it to enter this one. That will bring it down to the same price as the half! Good enough deal for me!!

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This week so far I put in an 8+ on Monday. 6 on Tuesday during lunch and 6.5 today, also during lunch time. There is a 10 miler on Monday (Labor Day) that I'm thinking of doing, but it's still up in the air.

Anyone doing any runs this weekend?