13 day left

I forgot to charge my Garmin last night.  I really wanted to go on a 4 hour training run today, but those plans are now getting changed.

Now my Garmin is sitting on the charger and I'm going to jump rope for an hour. After that my Garmin should be charged enough to get me through a 13.1 mile training run.

I'm really annoyed with myself right now.  This is my last chance for a long run before AR50 and I totally blew it.

I really want to run a strong race this year since it's more than likely my last year running it.  Right now I'm honestly feeling like my training just isn't there to run a good race.

There's not much I more I can do with the race only being 13 days away.  All I can really do is maintain the fitness level I'm currently at (and not 100% happy with) and try to keep a clean diet.

Oh well, I guess I just need to roll with the punches.

Until next time...

Keep Running!!!!

Race Judicata... My New PR!!

It's been my goal for quite sometime now to run a sub 18 min 5k. I haven't really tried for this goal in about 2 years. It's constantly been put on the back burner. I've decided that 2013 would be the year that I finally make an honest effort and go for sub 18.

 Last weekend was the fist local 5k of the year. I kept trying to get in speed work, but it was hard most of January to just get in a run. My total mileage for January 2013 was somewhere around 60 miles.

With the 5k coming up soon, I knew that there was one thing I needed to work on along with speed work... that one thing was getting my weight down. I was about 190 pounds and I prefer to be more in the 175-180 pound range, especially when I'm trying to run fast.

For 3 weeks before the race I cleaned up my diet. No soda, no fast food, the only meat I ate was fish, and I used portion control for every meal.

 On race day I was back down to 183 pounds. As much as I want to run sub 18, I knew today wasn't going to be that day. My 5k PR was 19:01 going into the race. My last three 5k races where I aimed for sub 18 all ended the same way. I'm on pace up to mile 2.5, then I just fall apart.

I decided today was going to be different. I was going to start this year with a confidence boost and just shoot for a PR.

The race started and I hit the first mile at my planned 6:15 pace. I had that pace dialed in and held it until the 2.5 mile marker. I was feeling really good and I was able to kick out the last .6 miles left.

I came up to the finish line and saw the clock in the distance... 18:45

I ran to the finish line as fast as I could. My goal for a PR was accomplished. I came in at 18:57 and placed 2nd in my age group.

Earlier that day my son ran the kids ¼ mile race and came in 3rd place for his age.

My son loves running and it's awesome to see him constantly improving and running faster.

There's another local 5k in May. My goal is to put in a lot of hard work and run the race finishing somewhere around 18:30, and then at the Susan Komen 5k this October I will shoot for a sub 18 finishing time.


Until next time...

KEEP RUNNING!!!

San Bruno 50 Miler

Watch "San Bruno Mountains 50 Mile 02-24-2013" on YouTube

On February 24, 2013 I ran my first ultra marathon on this year, the San Bruno Mountains 50 Miler. My goal was to use this race as a "training run" of sorts for the American River Run 50 mile race that I will be participating in this April for the 4th year in a row.

The night before the race I only managed to get about 3 hours of sleep. This is normal for me the night before a race. I tend to get really anxious and have a difficult time sleeping.

I got up early the morning of the race and drove from Fresno to San Bruno with my wife Lori, my mom, and my running buddies Rudy and Lupe.

We arrived to the event with about 30 mins before the official race start time. The 50 mile event started at 6:00am, before the sun came up.

The course consisted of five 10 mile loops.

There was one pretty tricky part of the course somewhere between mile 4.5 until mile 6. We went on a fairly steep downhill and then turned around and went right back up.

The first two times I ran this section I didn't realize how difficult this part of the trail was, but when I hit it on the 3rd loop it began to become much more difficult as my legs grew more and more tired.

Mile 8.5 to mile 10 of the loop was very forgiving, and very fast. I was able to run this section pretty well. It contained mostly a rolling downhill section that was very fun to run.

Somewhere around mile 22ish I did something that I haven't done in a few years. I tripped and fell really hard on the trail. Luckily I decided to use a water bottle instead of a hydration pack for this run. When I fell I went down pretty hard and luckily fell with most my weight in my hand that was holding my water bottle.

 Overall I had a good time at the event. The course was pretty tough, but most of it was very runnable. I hope to go back to this event again next year. Having a cool belt buckle as a finishing award is also pretty nice too.

I can honestly say I didn't train very well for this event. My longest training run was only 20 miles, and that was only a week before the race.

I feel like this race really helped me get back on track with my training for AR50. My training right now is very on point. I've been sticking to my schedule of running, weights, Jiu-Jitsu, and eating healthy. I foresee good things happening at AR50. I'm really looking forward to my next race!!


Until next time...

Keep Running!!!!