Across the Years - Here I Come....

Well the Across the Years race has officially started, and looking at the leader board for the 24hr race, I am in 35th place and I have not left work yet. The leader board can be seen here. For those of you that want to check on the current standings of the race, you can go here. The race ends January 1, 2009 at 9am (Arizona time). Since the race is a 24, 48, and 72 hour race, they started today with all the 72 hour individuals, about half of the 24 hour runners and about a third of the 48 hour individuals. Tomorrow at 9am the 24 hour individuals that started today will end and the most of the 48 hour individuals and a couple of the 24 hour runners will start. On Wednesday at 9am, is when the rest of the 24 hour individuals (including me) will start out. I choose to run the New Years eve start, because at midnight, there is a great clelbration and fireworks for everyone. Also, if I make it 24 hours, the awards ceremony is shortly after the finish of the race.

Also, you can send messages to any of the runners by going to the Send Greetings page. While you are at the ATY web page, you can read bios on all the runners. I spent some time reading up on who I was going to be running next to. There were too many runners that have done Badwater, and I believe there were about a half dozen runners that have completed the Trans America run (Across the USA). Several current and former world record holders of distance running.

I hope you can check out some of the web site, and cheer me on to my first official Ultra. I guess I should spell out what my goals are:

#1. Have FUN

#2. Run 100K (hopefully by mid-night)

#3. Stay on my feet 24 hours

#4. Commit to doing it again next year.

Will I make it 100 miles, I doubt it, that would be 322 laps, and never being above 50 miles before, I am not betting on it. However they do have that belt buckle for the 100 miles. Maybe next year.

I hope you all have a great New Years, and will give a recap of the race on the other side, and I do not mean one that goes like lap 1, lap 2, lap 3....

Great weekend and wrapping up the year

Earlier last week, I went in for my blood work, and Friday I got the results. Everything was outstanding. My cholesterol was down 100 points this month, and now in the really good range. The meds I have been on for cholesterol are no more, we will retest in a couple of months. The lab work indicated that the meds for weight loss, have not made any adverse effects on my body, except loosing 18 lbs in one month time frame, I weighed in this morning at 174.4 lbs and I feel a lot of that was due to dehydration. We will see what tomorrow holds in store for me.

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to get in my last long run before the ATY race in 9 days. I went out at a normal casual pace of a 11 minute mile pace for the first three miles. I was really feeling good and started to let myself run and mile 4 turned into a 10:17 and mile 5 was 10:05 and mile 6 was 9:22. I got to thinking that this feels great and I might as well do the first 13.1 miles as I feel comfortable doing, since I am now about half way there. Here is how the first thirteen miles turned out:

1. 11:00
2. 11:01
3. 10:56
4. 10:17
5. 10:05
6. 9:22
7. 9:17
8. 9:27
9. 9:20
10. 9:15
11. 9:52
12. 9:38
13. 9:43
    .57 seconds
    The total 1/2 marathon distance came out to 2:10, which is a PR for me. I then walked 1/2 mile and then continued the remainder 3 miles at a 14 minute jog pace.

I only took some water and by the time I was done, I had some stomach pain and it would not settle for a couple of hours. I completely depleted my body of all stored energy and I was truely wishing that I had some of that Gu that was sitting on my dresser. It was far from my intentions to go "All out", but I was feeling really good and enjoying the outside.

I am now in the taper mode for the ATY - 24 hour run.

A great Monday

Yesterday turned out to be a great day.

It started off with going to get my blood drawn for Fridays Dr appt. Then Lori and I took our son to his Dr appt, which was clear across town. His appt went well and his Dr wants him to start running, exercise and build some muscle. When we left the Dr. we got a call from Chad and Julie and they both took the day off work and were running around, so we agreed to meet up for lunch. We drove about 30 miles to meet up with them and had a great lunch and conversations. When we finished lunch, Lori, Nicholas, and I headed to Roadrunner Sports to look at new shoes. Nicholas got a new pair (that is now wrapped for a Christmas present), and I picked out my next pair of Asics which I will buy on Friday (payday) and wrap them up for a Christmas present to myself. When we got done there, I had plans to go to REI sports, since they have rock climbing gear there and my son really loves rock climbing. We went there and I told him to look around and Lori and I would be looking ourselves. We found him in the rock section, trying on new climbing shoes. He also got fitted for a new harness and rigging's. I will have to return and get some more Christmas presents for him. I picked up my copy of Fixing your Feet, and then we went to pick up our other son who was in school.

We got home and I grabbed my bag and headed to the gym for a good interval run.

2 minute at 12 min mile

4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile
4 minute at 8:34 min mile

2 minute at 12 min mile

Headed home and showered and ate dinner with the family.

Oh, yea while I was out all day, FEDEX came bearing gifts:

I got an email from OutsidePR and Sports Marketing and they came across my blog and was interested in sending me some Gu Roctane to try out, well the sent me two display cases full of the stuff. Just in time for Across The Years and my long run this weekend. I will give some feedback to them and you as to my liking of the product.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

The good news is that I have been on adipex for 31 days and the results show:














I have dropped 20 lbs in 31 days, (and a grand total of 65lbs for the past 21 months) however as you can see from the chart above the weight loss is starting to taper off. I will probably take the medicine for another 10 days, since that is how many pills I still have. My goal is to get to 165lbs and from there start building muscle, get more endurance, and continue to eat healthy. I would really like to not focus this next year on weight loss and on improving on what I got. For the past couple of weeks, Lori, Ben, and I have started lifting weights at the gym after our runs. For me the run is to go 1.5 miles from my house to the gym and then 3.5 on the treadmill. They show up shortly after I do and they run for 25 or so minutes. The weight lifting program has us doing 3 sets of 15 reps each, so the weight is not too high, but by the 15th rep we are suppose to be expended. Last night we did our routine, and we did bench press, incline bench press, cross overs, pull downs, dips, and crunches. They all felt great and we were all able to bump up our weights. The program we are on is a 12 week transformation program, and it seems to be doing well for us.

Now for the bad news, sometime during my workout, I hurt my foot. The pain is on the top of my right foot, around where the tongue of the shoe would be. I am limping and massaging it now, and if it continues to hurt through the weekend, I will schedule an appt to have it looked at. The good part about this, is if I do not move it, it does not hurt.

The ugly part is that that I have 19 days till I race the Across the Years, and I plan on being on that foot for 24 hours.

Objective #1 - Stay away from here.

Beware of the Doghouse- Hilarious! - video

Luckey number 7

Today was the first time I saw a 7 on the scale in the tens column (and Lori was my witness).

Taking the kids today to see santa at Bass Pro Shop, I think I will ask for a 6 for Christmas.

Now off to church to give thanks for that 7.

6 THINGS THAT MAKE ME HAPPY

I was tagged by Amy to list 6 things that make me happy.

1. My kids make me happy, not when they are arguing with each other, but when they are listening and being will behaved.


2. The joy of running, it is hard to believe that 18 months ago I began with a morning 5 minute walk, and now I will go out for a strong 2 hour run through the desert.


3. Having a secure job, there are so many people out there that are stressing over layoffs, etc. I am glad to have been in my job for over 10 years and have a union contract that spells out how layoffs would occur and I am way down the list.


4. My over all health has never been better than it is now. I may have had less body fat on me when I was in the military, but I have never been so fit in my life.


5. Rediscovering God this year.


6. My ever special and carrying wife. I do not know what I would do without her by my side, in good times and bad times. She has been there to hold me up and to support me when I have fallen.

Thanks Amy for the Tag.
I will now Tag Chad, Julie, Java Mom, and Pat

Post Thanksgiving reflection.
Wednesday after work, I drove my son and I up to the in-laws house in Kingman, AZ. Lori and the rest of the family went up on Tuesday, so they got a longer weekend than I did. The ride was pretty un-eventful, dark, long, two lane road.
Thanksgiving day, while the food was cooking, I ended up chopping down a couple of LARGE trees, without falling it on the house or solar panels. Then, I had to cut the branches off and haul them off to the landfill. With the useful wood, I cut and stacked it for next years fires. Turkey dinner was good, a little blan for me, but I was limited to 500 calories for the meal. (One serving of Turkey white meat is about 200 calories).
Friday, I had my father-in-law put me in the bucket on the tractor and picked pecans for most of the morning and then husked them which left my hands black. They still are and now only looks like I changed the motor on an old car. The stains which penetrates several layers of skin takes several weeks to wear off. We also used the tractor to remove the stumps from the trees that I cut down.
Saturday, I ended up climbing up the windmill and oiling the motor, and repairing a couple of the blades. We then finished harvesting the remainder of the pecans and got more stains on my hands.
Sunday, I got up and went for a nice two hour run. There are lots of trails by my in-laws live and since I did not have a water bottle, I limited my self to two hours. I was able to pull 10 miles and 1500 feet elevation change up and down. The trails were some of the most scenic trails that I have ever been on and they are just right there from my in-laws house. Afterwards, we headed to the cabin in the Haulipai mountains to pick up some stuff we left over the summer. As we were pulling out and locking the gate to the cabin, there were about 6 deer, and I rolled down my window and had Kimberly unbuckle and she climbed on my lap. One of the deer came to the window and she handed the deer an apple. After the deer ate the apple, she came back and kissed Kimberly's hand. I tossed a couple of apples to some of the baby deers that were no taller than 2 feet tall. After watching them for some time we drove home.

On the weight loss front,