I did the coolest race last night.

Let me go back to when I did the Hammonton Duathlon.

I was talking to this guy I met at that race who lives in the same town as me. So he tells me about these “races” that this guy runs in Glassboro NJ (Rowan University). He gave me the website and told me to check them out. So I went on the site and found the dates and made a mental note of them. Well I went back to the website this week and low and behold the first race was this week (Yesterday). They are 5K’s that are run on the Rowan Campus on Thursday evenings in the summer starting at 7pm. So what the hell I took the 10 minute ride to check it out.

I got there early and I saw a few people that looked like they were there for running. So I went and said hello to see if I was in the right location, I was. I paid my $5.00 wrote my name on a piece of paper and I was registered (no pre registration for this race). Apparently it was a big turnout as there were about 30 people (give or take a few) and last year for the first race there were only about 15 I was told. The course was explained to us and off we went.

I did a very fast (fast for me) first mile. And for the first two miles was running with a guy (he knew the course) and a HS girl (that like me did not know the course). He and I broke away, he a little faster than me. Now I am battling the heat and humidity and salt from my sweat in my eyes. About ¼ mile to go I turn it up a little and pass that guy and finish strong. It was a PR by a few seconds but with the heat I was very happy with the time.

So here is the real cool thing. We go into one of the buildings at Rowan and he puts all these things on a table. I see Gatorade, hand weights, a Nike shirt, water bottle, and various other stuff. And he starts calling off the winners. When he calls your name you get to pick something from the table. So I was 3rd in my age group (pretty sure only 3) and I got a box of microwave popcorn. You better believe I popped a bag last night. So I loved it and will be back every week if I can make it.

updated at noon to add.

If you get a chance check out the website that I linked above. This guy that does this has one heck of a resume for running. And he is out there for the love of the sport.

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Chelsea Titus you are an IRONMAN

Or is it an IRONWOMAN?

http://www.chelseatris.blogspot.com/

Today's entry is dedicated to Chelsea who I "know" from another website (www.calorieking.com). Chelsea just completed the Coeur d'Alene Ironman on June 24, 2007 and posted a great race report on her blog. Please check it out and give her a quick congrats.

And yes this was her first Ironman.

Again great job Chelsea I am very proud of you.

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Anyone need a bike?

Yeah me, I should so pull the trigger on this bike. Kim would kill me, or would she? Not sure if I want to find out, we do have our 10 year wedding anniversary coming up (I think).

http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/bik/347249608.html

What do you TRI guy's and girls think of the bike and price?

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Tuesday Night Run

Chart from last nights hot and humid 3.22 mile run.

Not a long run but wanted to get out and do something before dark so I went out around 8:15 pm for a 3 miler. Now yesterday was a hot day and at 8:15 it was still 88 degrees but the humidity did drop to about 60%. I figured if I was going to do 3 miles I wanted to push the pace a little. And for the first mile I did just that coming in at sub 9 minute on the first mile. After the first 1/4 I looked down and was at 2 minutes and I wanted to but knew I would not be able to run a 8 minute mile. Second mile was about 9:30 and third mile was 9:59 (I couldn't write 10:00). So I was happy with the run and will try to go for a longer run tonight. Might have to settle for the treadmill depending on what time Kim gets home tonight.

On a side note wanted to mention that I watched Shaq's show last night and was very happy with it. I thought Shaq showed that he really cares about these kids and I think the way the show was presented was very good. Showing the kids getting stress tests and meeting with the Doctors and a nutritionist was a great thing I thought. Hopefully some PARENTS saw the show and realize that they can make some changes in their kids life to help them many years down the road. I will stay with the show and set the DVR to record every week.

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Monday night bike ride

Just posting the chart now and will report later from work (lunch time of course).

Couple notes on the chart.

#1. Calories burned is very high to me. I would actually guess that the calories burned is about half of what it says - from my expeirence of counting calories.

#2. Where you see the major drops in my speed on the bottom of the chart, I have to cross a busy street. I do bike on a nice bike path but it does cross a few streets along the way. The one stop at 8 miles was a minute stop to drink some cytomax.

Did not get up this morning to run so I will have to do that tonight.

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Half Marathon

Well there it is my longest run of my life. That is in distance and in time. I did 13.13 miles in 2:14:31 on Sunday morning. I didn't get out as early as Saturday but the fact that we had a party the night before and I got out at all is a win. We had a party at our house with Kim's work people that was real fun. Talked to a few people that I hadn't met before and it turns out some are runners and bikers.

Started running around 08:30 am and when I didn't get home by 10:30 am Kim was starting to worry. I am not really training for an event so I was not sure how long I would go for but I felt so good that at mile 11 when I got back to my car I decided that I would keep going. And when I say keep going it was not going to be another 1/2 mile I knew at that point I was going to do a half marathon. The last mile or so I hit a wall but I knew I was going to finish this run so I pushed on. It's funny, trust me I don't care what people think of me when they see me running but I do wonder what I must have looked like when I passed a few runners and walkers going the opposite direction on the path at mile 12. They have no idea that this overweight guy is in mile 12 of a run. They might think boy it's nice that this guy is out running a mile to try and get into shape. Yeah I know it is stupid but I have to think of something to pass the time when I am running.

As for the run as you can see with the chart I was pretty consistent with my mile times and my heart rate. It really went pretty smooth up to the end. The weather was great and I listened to two Steve Runner Pod Cast's to pass the time.

Got home and sat around for about an hour and then took my girls out for the day and Liam and Kim went to a Birthday party that Liam was invited to. Me and the girls went and played miniature golf, I crushed those 5 year olds. Then we went and saw some friends on the way home from golf.

Got home played on the slip and slide (well the kids did), and just hung out to bed time. A nice weekend indeed. Oh yeah I also ate a lot and drank a ton of water.

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Saturday - No charts

Yes, I got up early on a Saturday and got out for a bike ride. I got out the door at about 5:45 and it was actually chilly at that time. So far my longest ride has only been 13 miles and I was thinking of going closer to 18 today. But about a half a mile into the ride I realized I had nothing to eat at home and had nothing other than Cytomax in my water bottle. So I was just going to see how far I could go but not push to hard.

Then right about 1 mile into the ride I see my Garmin say low battery, and the next time I look down it was off. Yes it does work great when it is fully charged but won't work at all if not. My fault for not charging. So now I have two strikes against me. One more strike and I am out.

Ride was going great other than not knowing how far or how long I am out there. The real cool thing is that the route I took today actually had me in 3 different towns. I live in Williamstown and I went into Clayton, and then Glassboro. So got home and checked and I was out for just under an hour and checked the route on the computer and did 14.75 miles. So if I had my Garmin I would have gone longer but oh well. The thing to focus on here is that I got up on a Saturday and got out of the house prior to 6am. That is an accomplishment let me tell you.

Have a great day.

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Morning Running

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Yes I am happy to say that I sprung up this morning (after hitting snooze twice) and went for my run at 5:30 am. I so love the feeling when a morning run is over. Makes me feel great the whole day. Makes me not want to eat like crazy the rest of the day also I seem to drink more water through out the day when I run in the AM. But some days I just can't get out of bed. I will have to work on that. So here is the chart (Bigun). I got in 5 miles in just under 50 minutes.

Just wanted to add (no I don't work for Garmin) I looked down at my Garmin at about 2.75 miles and noticed that I slowed to an 11 min mile. Well knowing I was going to do about 5 miles I couldn't accept an 11 min mile so I picked it up. My point is before I had the Garmin I would have just kept going at the pace I was at. What a great training tool it is going to be for me. Have a great day and great weekend.

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My Running to Date for 2007

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If this works there should be a chart of my 2007 running miles from my Running Ahead page. My goal coming into the year was 1000 miles. I am on pace but after my January I though it was going to be easy. Now I am not to sure. But when I set this goal I had no idea I was going to enjoy biking so much either.



I didn't get a workout in today but I WILL get up in the morning and run. Good thing the Yankees are not on tonight (no they already lost today).

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Happy Hump Day

Last night I got to the gym and did 3 miles on the DREADMILL. I don’t mind the treadmill that much in the winter, but come spring and summer I have a real dislike for it. Yes I am the guy that would rather run in 100 degree heat of the afternoon then to run in 15 degree dead of the winter. I did have the new Steve Runner Pod Cast to get me through it. But with the busy schedule we have (due to Karate) I sometimes can’t get out until 9 pm and at that point it is to dark out to run in the streets. I think that is part of me having such a bad week of running miles last week. That plus I am not really training for anything at this point. OK throw in the fact that I didn’t get picked for NYC marathon and that just snow balled into a bad week. But that was last week and that is behind me now. We can’t go back we can only go forward.

This morning I got in some weight training (in the garage). I only did chest and biceps, I subscribe to the thinking that anything is better than nothing. I will try to do a run, bike, and run tonight at the gym. On Wednesday I go back to work at night for a few hours and then just head to the gym after that. We are having a party on Saturday so Kim may need me to come home after work to hit the food store to get some last minute things. So if any of you are in the South Jersey area on Saturday feel free to stop by.

As for training for something I think I need to sign up for a few 5K’s and the Philly Distance Run in September. The PDR would be my first ½ Mary and would give me a great race to focus my training on. I should also look at a few DU’s as well. That will do it for now, as Wednesday mornings are pretty busy in this house (Wednesday and Friday mornings are crazy).

As far as weight loss is concerned, Wednesday's are my official weigh in and I stayed the same this week. I am at 222.2 (deuces wild). Not bad for the amount I ate from Friday night through Fathers Day.

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If you are bored

I have thousands of pictures of people you have no idea who they are to look at.

My Pictures

I did not get out the door this morning but will try to get out tonight.

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Weekend re-cap

D.N.S – I think most know that this means “Did not Start”. Yes sorry to say that I got my first DNS. Hopefully the last but who knows. The short story of this is lets just say that Kim and I had a disagreement about how much I have been helping with my husbandly duties with regards to a equal disbursement of household chores. Well to be honest I can’t say it was a disagreement in that I really have been slacking in that department and it is uncalled for. I need to help out more around the house with regards to weekly chores. I would say the split has been getting progressively worse and is probably at about 95% Kim and 5% Dan. So even though she did tell me to go to the race I knew the more prudent thing to do would be to not go and get some of my 4 week old “Honey Do” list done. So yes I did miss the race and lost $50.00 in the process but I feel it was a small price to pay for me to get a kick in my butt.

Here is the weekend wrap up other than above mentioned Saturday Morning. Friday we had a great time at our girl’s pre-school graduation. Kelsey and Caitlyn both did a great job and we were so proud of them. I will post pictures either tonight or tomorrow. We went out to dinner after the graduation and had a great time with our kids and my Mother, Kim’s Mom and Dad, and Aunt Jo.

Saturday afternoon the Karate studio where my kids go to was having their annual picnic on a local lake. Capps Picnic Park What a blast the kids had, as well as Kim and I. We did paddle boating, canoeing (first time I did this), and swimming along with a bunch of other cool activities. When we got home from that around 6:30 pm we were all dead to the world and had a nice quiet night.

Sunday being Fathers day we had a nice day playing around the house and the kids got to play in the slip n’ slide for a while. Kim cooked a great early dinner and her parents came over and ate with us. Then I got out for my first work out of the weekend (not including the canoeing and paddling). I got out and rode my normal 13.1 mile route. I think I came in around 52:00 minutes or so. My Ride

And happy to say that I got up this morning at 5:00 am and got a run in of 3.20 miles. My Run Weight was up a little this morning but not too bad considering I ate a lot over the past 72 hours.

This is a test - Mike I think you helped create a monster.

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T.G.I.F.

Where does the time go. It is Friday already. I have the day off today which was nice so I got a chance to stop by some friends jobs and bother them a little. Now me and the girls (2 daughters, and 2 female dogs) are waiting for Liam to come home from school (1/2 day for him). Then later this afternoon is my girls pre-school graduation. I can't believe they will be starting kindergarten next year. Talk about where did the time go!

Yesterday I got in a bike ride and did 12.88 miles in 50:20 minutes for a pace of 3:54. And I went all out on mile 3 to see how fast I could go and got 3:10 for that mile (did I mention I love this Garmin?).

I did register for the DU tomorrow and really look forward to it. I am nervous but I still get nervous doing 5K races so that is normal. I think I will be less nervous when I eventually learn more about biking and bike maintenance for that matter. If I get a flat I am screwed, so yes I really need to find a store that offers a clinic.

Speaking of clinics - I did not get to the Tri 101 meeting that Team Triumph had the other night. Long story but I hope to never have all 3 kids needing a vaccination on the same Dr. visit. That was a nightmare and did not make for a fun evening.

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Triathlon 101

Today’s morning workout was a nice 3.20 mile run in 31:27 for a nice 9:50 pace. Not a bad pace for me for a easy 3 miles.

I will not be able to get out again tonight because I have a Triathlon 101 meeting with Team Triumph tonight. I joined Team Triumph right before my first DU but other than going on their website I have not had a chance to go on any group runs or rides to meet these fine people. But tonight I should get the chance to say hello to a few. I hope to learn a few things about Tri's and maybe even get some ideas of places to swim in the area.

I do think I am going to attempt my 2nd DU this weekend (nothing like waiting for the last minute). It is a 2 mile run, 16 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run, so a little further on the bike than my first DU but I think I should be able to handle it.

About the bike I really need to take a class on basic maintenance as I don't even know how to change my tire if I got a flat. I know not to smart when you are entering races with the thing. Well I like to think of it as a learn as you go process.

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Welcome to the year 2007 Dan.

So yes the Garmin 305 was waiting for me when I got home from work yesterday. Unfortunately Monday nights are not the greatest for me getting out in day light.

I usually meet Kim and the kids at Karate and Kim usually has stuff to do while the kids are doing Karate. Yesterday was no different in that Kim was scheduled to test a kid (she is a LDTC – I think only NJ and FL have them). Basically she got a Masters in LDTC and she test kids to see if they are eligible for special services from school districts. She works for a school district but does some consulting work on the side for other districts. Way too much info but I never said I was a great writer. So long story short I would not be getting to use the Garmin last night.

So I took the opportunity to read the manual and do what I could before I was going to use it. And I had it ready for the morning run. Yes morning runs are hard for me (I like my sleep) but I had no problem getting up for one today. I put it on and out I went. Planned on about a 4.5 mile run but as luck would have it I quickly realized that I should have gone potty before I left the house. So I had to head home and when I got home I only completed 2.03 miles. So that was my first workout with the Garmin.

Now Tuesday nights are not much better in that one of my twin girls has to go to speech therapy on Tuesday night but Kim let me sneak out for a quick bike ride with the Garmin when I got home from work. I got home and I did about 9.17 miles in 37:47.

Bottom line I love this thing but I have many questions. So here goes (for the millions of people that read my blog).

1. Can I see splits? Basiclly I would like to see mile splits. Not too worried about the bike but for when I do long runs.
2. I have heard different opinions about what software to download to. What do you use? I have heard of Sport Tracks, Motion Based, and Garmin Trainer. So far I am using all 3. I am only using the free Motion Based and see that there is a pay site as well.
3. Can I share my workouts on my blog (I guess what I mean to say is can I link to these sites that I am logging my workout in?
4. Well I am sure I will think of other questions.

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The lottery results are posted

Not good news for me. My number did not come up this year for the NYC Marathon. So I will take a day or two to decide if I will just try again next year or do a different Marathon this year. I know I said I would only do one in my life but I will do NYC someday but the question will be do I do more than one? Well only I can answer that question, and in a day or two I will.

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Follow up from ING NYC Marathon post

It looks like Tuesday is the day they announce who is in and who is out. According to the website this year there is a record number of applications. I wonder if that is because Lance did the race last year? So it looks like there is a 1 and 6 chance of getting in this year. If it is to be then great if not then I will try again next year.

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Weekend Workouts

Friday night I got out for a 13.1 mile bike ride. Went out at about 7:30 pm so the weather was nice, not too hot out. I did that ride in 54 minutes on my mountain bike.

Saturday morning I decided to do my long run (I usually do it on Sunday). I went for 11 miles in 2:00:15.

Sunday morning I did an easy 4 miles running and as I type this I hope to get out for another 13.1 mile bike ride. I may even try to drag my neighbor out for the ride.

I took his bike to the shop Saturday to get his chain fixed. Now he can't tell me he can't go riding with me anymore.

For the week I got in 30.4 miles of jogging in and about 40 miles of biking. And no swimming what so ever.

The Garmin 305 should be waiting for me tomorrow when I get home from work.

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My week early Fathers Day Gift

Finally I got one… Well should I say had one? Kim came home last night with my Fathers day gift. And once she buys a gift she has to give it to me rather than waiting for the day it is for. So I see the Dicks Sporting Good bag in her hand and I figure it is a Garmin of some sort. And low and behold it was the Garmin 305 that I have been dropping subtle hints about. So here it is the gift I wanted so bad and for so long. But I immediately think how much did you pay for this at a Dicks? Knowing that I can get it online for about $225.00 or so. So I ask and she tells me $350.00. Okay what do I do now? I know that I can pull this out of the box now and use it in no time. Or I can bring it back to the store and order it online and have in a few days. Well $125.00 was just too much for me to not take it back. So we agreed that I would take back and order one from the internet. I did take it back immediately so that I could order one and get as quick as possible.

So I took it back to Dicks and came home and ordered from Amazon for I think about $220.??. Plus I figured with the money I was saving I would splurge for next day shipping (I will have it Monday) for $10.99. I know it was the right thing to do and I have waited this long but I had it in my hands last night. Now I can’t wait to get it and look so forward to training with it.

Kim said I made her day with how excited I was with the gift. She said she thinks it is the most excited I have been with a gift from her. She has gotten me some great gifts in the past but I think she is right that I was pretty excited last night.

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ING NYC Marathon

Be careful for what you wish for.

I decided a few months ago (and did not tell too many people) that I was going to apply for the 2007 New York City Marathon. Well I went into the lottery and now will hear if I got in, in about a week or so.

OK I am getting nervous now.

Since I started running about a year ago I have said that I would like to do 1 marathon in my life and being from North / Central Jersey (I now live in South Jersey) that I want it to be The NYC Marathon. Knowing that I would only be able to get in on a lottery and if you miss the lottery 3 years in a row you get guaranteed entry the 4th year (something like that), I figured I should start trying now.

Here are the positives of me getting in this year.
1. Get it over with now.
2. I will have a major race to prepare for so I will be focused on my training for the rest of the year.
3. It falls on my 39th birthday so that would be cool.

And the positives of waiting, (who wants to think about negatives)?
1. I should be better prepared in a year or two.
2. I can procrastinate a little longer. (not really a positive)

Bottom line is I think I really hope I get in this year and I can get this over with. I am sweating just typing this, thinking about it. Well I should know in a week or two if I am in or have to try next year. But if I am out I will re-think the one in my life and maybe train for the Philadelphia Marathon in Nov 2007. I don’t know – decisions, decisions, decisions.

I should also mention that I have picked my mileage up this week anticipating the possibility of getting in this year. The NYC Marathon web site said that last year 50% of the lottery entries were accepted.

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Weekend Recap

Where did the weekend go? Really work should be 4 days and weekends should be 3 days.

Friday night we went out to Dinner when I got home from work and something Kim ate didn't agree with her so when we got home she went straight to bed. So the kids and I played some games until there bed time. Normally I would go to the gym at this point to get a few miles on the treadmill in. But with Kim not feeling good I didn't want to leave her and the kids alone (sounds like a good excuse not to work out to me too).

So then Saturday Liam was having his birthday party at a local amusement park. His birthday was actually March 30th but he wanted the party there and we wanted better weather so a win win I guess. When we got home from that we took a ride to Delaware (about an hour away) because Kim has a interview at Wilmington College this week to start her PHD and wanted to make sure she knew where to go. Found that and went to Pizza Hut in Delaware for Dinner. I guess we ate out a lot this weekend. So Saturday I didn't get to run or ride either.

Sunday Kim's friend was getting married and it was a early ceremony so I got my butt up early and went out for a run. This run ended up being my longest distance and time. I went 11 miles in 2:00:07. I felt great and think if I had more time I could have done a 1/2 Mary today. I listened to 2 episodes of STEVE RUNNER pod cast. We brought the kids to Kim's parents house and went to the wedding. Wedding was great, and what was real cool is that the reception was at the same place as Kim and mine was 10 years earlier. At the reception the plan was that when we got home Kim would go for a run and then I would get to bike after that. Well it was raining softly when Kim left the house and then 10 minute later it was a down pour. Kim got in a few miles and came home. Didn't really let up so no bike for me tonight. Would have been nice to get two good workouts in today but oh well.

I really would love to be able to wake up early during the week and run, but my head just will not come off the pillow. I did run a few times last year during the summer mornings and had great workouts. So I will try again tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes.

I should mention that Kim just finished the couch to 5K program a week ago and went out for 4.25 miles yesterday. Very proud of her (she doesn't read my blog so I am not kissing up to her).

Lets all have a great week.

Dan

My cry for help.....

08:30 PM

I must have changed this blog more times then I have posts in it. I like the colors and template I have now but is it possible for me to make the post section wider? If I could do that I think I would be FINALLY happy with the format of this blog and can concentrate on the contents of it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

09:12 PM

OK I was bored so I played around a little. I think I did what I wanted to but now can I expand the background? You see how the page seems to go through my post?

10:00 pm

I think I like it. But we will see if I keep it. Now all I need to do is learn how to better post pictures like you guys do. Yes I am talking to you.

Dan

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